WBCOOP Midway Update

The blogger competition at Pokerstars has been quite fun thus far. It has generated a ton of freindly socializing at the tables and in the forums/blogs, especially amongst all the PokerSchoolOnline members. It has also generated a bit of confusion. Let’s look at that first.

Last year, we voted on the best blog via PokerNews. A winner was then chosen by Pokerstars from among the top ten. This was fun, but being popular does not necessarily corralate with being the best – or does it? This year, we haven’t seen anything at PokerNews. Being curious, I mailed Pokerstars support. 15 minutes later I had an answer from Ginou on the Support Team.

”This year, players are not required to vote on the blogs. The winner will be decided internally by a judging panel.”

Great service as usual – thanks Ginou!

There was another issue as well. Participants were supposed to get 10 tickets to be used in any of the 30 WBCOOP events. Many got 20 or 30 tickets. I got 20, but they were adjusted to 10 the following day. Yesterday, However, I noticed that all my remaining tickets had been removed!? I fired off another mail to Support. Once agian, it didn’t take long for them to reply with an explanation of what had happened. Apparently, my blog was accidentally submitted twice. I don’t know if this was something I did, or a technical glitch. Either way, while correcting the number of enties and tickets issued, they removed more than they should have. They reinstated my remaining six tickets immediately. So, no harm, no foul. This turned out to be lucky for me. Had it taken longer to fix my tickets, I wouldn’t have been able to play in last night’s Event 18.

Thus far I have played in five events netting me 50 leaderboard points, 3 SCOOP tickets and a WBCOOP Main Event ticket.

Event 2 PLO 6-Max (102nd for a $5 ticket)

Event 7 NLHE 6-Max

Event 8 NLHE

Event 12 Stud H/L (74th for a $5 ticket)

Event 18 PLO Turbo (8th for a $33 ticket)

Playing scheduled tourneys makes me appreciate how great Zoom and SnGs are. They always fit my schedule no matter when when I want to play. With the WBCOOP, I have had to make my schedule fit the game times which is not always easy. The four o’clock games are while I’m preparing dinner for the family. I’m usually picking up one of the kids from practice when the  eight o’clock games are starting, and the midnight games make for a very late night. Playing is well worth the effort though.

Due to the times and the fact that the tickets were free, I have played in several events where I really don’t know what I’m doing. This has been fun and a great way to gain some experience playing something other than No-limit Holdem.

In Event 2 PLO 6-Max, I won a few big pots early then time banked my into the money. This ensured my spot in the Main Event. By the time we neared the  bubble, my stack was so short that I had no fold equity and time banking was my best option.

Events 7 and 8 were supposed to be my strong runs, but neither went too well. KK

Event 12 was Stud H/L. This was my first time to play any form of stud poker online. I didn’t have high expectations. My approach was similar to PLO8 though. I only played hands that had potential for scooping the pot. This worked surprizingly well. The few hands I played got great flops and big pots giving me a nice stack after the first hour. This tourney was going to be an all nighter and I doubted I had much of a chance at winning it. So, at one in the morning, I sat out confident that my stack would carry me into the money.

Event 18 PLO Turbo. I love anything turbo, but haven’t played much PLO. I like hi/lo better. This turned out to be a very fun tourney. I landed on a table with several PSOers. ggervacio was there (congrats on cashing in the Sunday Million!!!!)  TrustySam was there (and cashed too!!!). As usual, she made sure everyone was happy with her positive, friendly comments. A bit later one of PSOs big guns, ahar010, got seated with us. He caught a bad case of ”right move, wrong result”, but it was fun playing against him while it lasted. We had a PSO party going on for a while, but finally I got moved to a new table.

Similar to event 12, I played a pretty tight range of starting hands. I know enough to judge my own hands, but didn’t even try to put others on a range. It was fit or fold post flop for me all night. Thankfully, I either flopped well or got lucky in most of the hands I played. I was chipleader early on and remained among the top spots all tourney. I went to the final table with the 3rd largest stack. With eight players remaining I was UTG and  the chipleader was in the big blind. I look down at AA66.

There were several short stacks on the verge of getting blinded out and I would have preferred not to tangle with the chipleader, but AA66 seemed too good to pass up. I made a 3x raise for about 20% of my stack. I was afraid that a smaller raise would get a string of callers. By making a solid raise, I hoped that I would isolate the chipleader since nobody would want to tangle with a utg raise looking strong and a deep stacked chipleader. This worked. It folded around to the big blind who 3-bet me for most of my stack. He hadn’t been getting out of line, so I gave him credit for having a real hand.

This was where my lack of knowledge became an issue. AA66 looks strong, but I had four different colors AND no connectedness. I had no idea of hand equities in PLO. How does my hand compare to something like KQsJ10s? Nevertheless, I got the situation I wanted and 4-bet all in. The chipleader had AsQdQhJh and made a straight on the river knocking me out in 8th. I still don’t know if I made a good play or bad play. I’ll have to get the hand analyzed by someone who knows PLO.

This was a great evening. Running deep in a game that I’m not that familiar with makes for a fun, low-stress tourney. All the socializing at the tables, especially with the PSOers, made for a huge added value!

That’s more than enough from me already LOL! Good luck to all bloggers with the remaining tourneys. Sandtrap777, we are all rooting for you! He is currently high up on the leaderboard. And good luck to all bloggers in the ”Best Blogger” competition as well. I think Raiser has a real shot at a repeat with all his good deeds.

Roland GTX