WCOOP event 18 - 100k guaranteed 8-game

I would love to have played more WCOOP events, but the problem is that most start earlier in the day, so responsible amateurs with families, like yours truly, can't play in them. I can only play in the events starting after the kids are asleep so that's limiting me to anything after 8PM.

I found event 18, the 8-game event, was interesting. I do well in the HORSE games, and I've played PLO and NLHE, so the only game of the 8 that I have not really played is the 2-7 triple draw.

In that vain, I decided to play a few satellites to try and win my way in, but also to practice 2-7. I'm glad I did, because I don't play it very well. Being used to razz and stud8/b, where straights and flushes don't count against you and A is low, it took a lot of concentration to force those thoughts out of my head. I lost most of my chips in that level during the satellites. After I failed to satellite my way in, I re-read the 2-7 chapter in SuperSystem. Even though it's focused on NL single draw, the chapter points out the greatest and simplest leaks to plug. For example, it listed that drawing to hands without already holding a 2 is a very risky play. So, even though I saw that opponents were drawing 2 or 3 on the first draw often, it's not the right thing to do.

With that in mind, I tried to play that level tight, and then play my regular strategy for the rest of the other games. It didn't start out as well as I'd hoped...

You began the tourney with 3k in chips. There were 5 minute game levels, though the blinds only increase every other level (10 minutes). The order of the games was: 2-7, LHE, LO8, Razz, Stud, Stud8, NLHE, PLO.

In just the first few hands, I had already gone down to 2500 and then back up to 2900 playing 2-7. Not the way I wanted to start. I got out of 2-7 with just over 3k, so thankfully I righted the ship, and re-focused on playing the way I should.

Unfortunately, PT3 doesn't track the 8-game tourney hands, so I didn't save critical hands. Mostly, I had a slow steady rise in my chips the first pass through the games. I was around 4.5k at the first break. About 1/2 way between the first and second break, I got in a big hand playing PLO. I was on the button with Ad4dTcJd. It folded to me and I raised pot. The SB re-raised pot and I called. The flop came 8hKsQd giving me a hell of a draw, with each card giving me the nuts. The SB bet 1/2 the pot, and I thought for a while and finally pushed all-in believing that if he had only AA, then I'll have plenty of outs if he calls, but some fold equity as well. He snap calls, making me think I ran into a set. In the end, it was nearly as bad as he turned over Kc Jc Qh Ts for top-2 with open-ended straight draw. Turn is a 9 giving us both our straight. Now we are both chasing 4 outs for the scoop (me 2xJ, 2xT, him 2xK 2xQ). I bink my J on the river and scoop the pot. My opponent states "well played", to which I reply "sarcasm deserved". So I got lucky. I'm grateful, and now I have 9k in chips. At the second break, I'm just around 11k in chips.

Now, this may seem great, but the fact of the matter is, it isn't. PS typically pays about 1/8 to 1/9 of the players, therefore, to really guarantee me a cash, I need to get closer to 8x (24k) or 9x (27k) of my starting stack, but now, the blind levels are getting so high that the 1k and 2k stacks are playing any hands for their entire stacks and 2k is still 20% of my stack, so I can't just attack indiscriminately. I work my 11k stack to about 16k in the middle of the 3rd hour, but after that I just go card dead. I folded almost every hand, except the bring in, through the 3 levels of razz, stud and stud8. I play a couple of NLHE and PLO hands, and drop to 11k. Then, comes 2-7, and I'm bouncing around from 11k to 6k then back up to 10k. We're at about 350 players, and I get crippled in PLO8, to 4k in chips. So that's when I started to do what I hate the most: stalling. I resigned myself to the fact that I was card dead and that if I wanted to cash, I needed to use my time judiciously. Therefore, every decision of mine took all of my allotted time, plus 5 seconds from my TIME bank, which is an amount of time I can use at my discretion, but usually reserved for critical decisions.

There were 1671 starting players, and they were paying 216, so I had to get through 150 eliminations, though at the blinds this high, my 4k of chips could probably make it happen. And that's what happened. I burned off 2k in chips, until the bubble burst. Then, waiting another couple more hands, I was able to move up 2 more pay spots (groups of 12 players) before playing my last hand, which ironically was 2-7. I ended up with a 9 high, and my 2 opponents both made 8 highs, and took my chips.

So 187th out of 1671 is not bad at all for my first 8-game tourney, in a WCOOP event no less, so I'm proud. I made a few mistakes throughout the tourney. Mostly, PS players are more loose than UB players, so the Razz and Stud8 hands which I got UB players to fold with my aggression in the UBOC event were not being folded by the PS players in the WCOOP event, so I lost a few bets in those games. Total profit, taking away the money lost in the satellites was $68.48. Not spectacular, but a profit nonetheless.

Next up will likely be the NLO8 tournament on the 24th, assuming I don't have a baseball game that night (playoffs).