WBCOOP Event #3

Well, I just busted from WBCOOP Event #3, event #1 for me, in 116th/1826 (as it turns out, I won't get this posted until sometime around the beginning of Event #4). I'm the proud owner of a bright & shiny $11 buyin to the SCOOP, which I'm plenty pleased with, as it will be the first time I'll ever take the opportunity to play in any sort of online tournament series.

Not a whole lot to my finish. I made some hay early when we were playing 3-5 handed w/4-6 sit-outs, playing some pretty good shorthanded poker and taking advantage of some spewy LAGs. That got me through the bustouts of all the sit-outs, and through the middle stages to the bubble I just kinda maintained w/some stealing. The key hand of the tournament came on the bubble, w/literally like 4 to the money, I was on the button w/A10s, and a bigger stack two to my right who was raising my button almost every time made his standard 2x raise, to which I responded by jamming, hoping to scoop or be ahead. In a past life I'd fold to the money here, but I'm trying to get away from that practice. At any rate, ahead I was not, but I managed to beat his pocket aces w/one flush card on the flop, and two subsequent on the turn & river. Whew...one time for this guy! So that doubled my stack to just short of 20 BBs, and all the sudden I was in business w/the bubble bursting @ 153. With a little more scooping & a decent non-showdown pot w/KK on the button, I managed to build my stack to just short of the average, but alas, almost as quick as I was in business, I was out of business.

With blinds at 1400/700/175, I was dealt AQo in the SB and faced a raise from CO-1 to 4200. He had a decent stack, and with no profound read on him, it just felt like a steal, and not really wanting to call or fold, I felt my best move was to go ahead and overjam my 23450, really OK with a call, but expecting a fold. To throw a wrench into the whole scenario, the BB calls for less, and then with >2:1 on his money, the original raiser also calls. I thought for sure one of them would have me dominated w/AK or at least flipping coins, but was pleased to see I was 2:1 against each of them, or 50% to win against BBs KQo & LPs A10s. Just had to sweat 10s, Ks, & straights. Board J10xx9, BB doubles, LP takes the rest, and I'm sent to the rail disappointed, but if it weren't for my A10>AA, I wouldn't have been there to start with, so I *guess* I don't have a lot to complain about. But a 60+k stack and swiftly dwindling tourney field would've been nice. I tried to find these guys' blogs to link to to give them credit for their profound sucking out skills, but couldn't. ;-)

I liked the structure. Its a little quick, but I also think its flatter than Stars' everyday tournies. Its interesting how you have to approach it strategy-wise, with all the sit-outs at the beginning and how the average is deceiving. Not to mention if you're playing short-handed how much dead money is in each pot when the antes start and how there's some incentive to go after it. But once you get to just past the end of the first hour and the sit-outs are busting out and the average skyrockets, you'd better hope you got in on some of that dead money or you're in for a rude awakening. I'm eager to play in tonight's Event #4, then both events this weekend. Tomorrow night I'll be playing in a homegame w/my wife & a couple other couples. So I may hop in @ 5 & donate my stack quick before heading out to have some fun playing live.

The tournament did provide for a new experience for me, however, in that I played with my first sponsored pro. I'm sure I've played with dozens of grinder pros, and I've played with some Supernovas, etc, but my final table saw me 3 seats to the right of Marcin "Goral" Horecki, a Team PokerStars Pro from Poland, with $734k in winnings. So that was pretty neat, but I managed to play myself out of the tournament before I got to see him work...or before I got to bust him.

Anyway, Event #4 is officially underway @ this point, and 20 minutes in I'm stacked @ 5500, so hopefully I'll have a similar report to this one (or better?) come later tonight or tomorrow. Good luck everyone!

EDIT: Not so much. After making it through the sit-outs w/a slightly less than average stack, a hand folds around to me and I make a standard 3x steal raise raise w/58c on the button. SB & BB both call, flop comes 959, SB checks, BB bets, I figure if he's got a pocket pair bigger than 5s, so be it, I jam, he instacalls, & busts me w/97o. Uhhhhh...good call? I guess I shoulda raised 4x or more... Anyway, spend my chips well, RUPoker.