WCOOP 2006 Event #5 Limit Omaha H/L

The World Championship Of Online Poker began (for me) today. I was hoping to break a tremendously bad streak I have been on lately. That didn't happen. The first event I played in was the Limit Omaha H/L event. My experience in that event was garbage, but I'll write about a few hands below the schedule. All events I plan to play in are listed in Bold below.

WCOOP 2006 Schedule

DAY.. DATE.........EVENT...............BUY-IN..GUARANTEE
Sat..September 16..Razz................$215....$100,000
Sun..September 17..NLHE................$530....$1,500,000
Mon..September 18..PL Omaha w/rebuys...$320....$400,000
Tue..September 19..NLHE Match Play.....$215....$300,000
Wed..September 20..Limit Omaha High/Lo.$530....$300,000
Thu..September 21..NLHE (rebuys).......$215....$1,000,000
Fri..September 22..LHE.................$215....$200,000
Sat..September 23..HORSE...............$215....$100,000
Sat..September 23..PLHE................$530....$400,000
Sun..September 24..NLHE................$1,050..$1,000,000
Mon..September 25..Seven Card Stud.....$320....$100,000
Tue..September 26..PL Omaha8...........$320....$200,000
Wed..September 27..PLHE................$320....$400,000
Thu..September 28..7Card Stud High/Low.$530....$200,000
Fri..September 29..PL Omaha............$530....$300,000
Sat..September 30..HORSE...............$5,200..$100,000
Sat..September 30..LHE.................$1,050..$400,000
Sun..October 1.....NLHE................$2,600..$3,000,000


I was looking forward to this event because unlike many hold-em players, I like Omaha H/L. I don't think I'm the best Omaha H/L player out there, but I know a good deal more than many people who just play hold-em. I also have quite a few cashes and final tables in Omaha H/L tournaments (granted they are usually smaller buy-ins and have fewer players than no limit hold-em tournaments). And today's tournament was full of players that were from average to terrible. 953 players signed up to try their luck. Not bad for a tournament with a $530 entry fee.

Tournament started off great, with me winning my hand. But it was a bit strange. Here it is:

Everyone begins with 2500

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Me [Jd 8s As Qc]

rockets23: raises 20 to 40
UofA Thinker: calls 30
Me: calls 20
*** FLOP *** [4c Th Js]
UofA Thinker: checks
Me: checks
rockets23: bets 20
UofA Thinker: folds
Me: calls 20
*** TURN *** [4c Th Js] [5s]
Me: checks
rockets23: bets 40
Me: calls 40
*** RIVER *** [4c Th Js 5s] [4s]
Me: checks
rockets23: bets 40
Me: calls 40
*** SHOW DOWN ***
rockets23: shows [Ah 7d Ac 8c] (HI: two pair, Aces and Fours)
Me: shows [Jd 8s As Qc] (HI: a flush, Ace high)
I collected 320 from pot
No low hand qualified

Why did I play my hand that way??? Because I thought it was Pot Limit Omaha H/L. It is my experience that people make those small bets in pot or no-limit games with either weak hands like 2nd pair or monster hands, therefore when presented with the small bet on the river I figured any reasonable raise would just open myself up for a large reraise by a full house and would probably get a fold from a weak hand. So I didn't raise my flush. Had I realized it was limit I probably would have raised the river.

I had wanted to post more hands from this tournament but I can't find a good Pokerstars hand history converter for Omaha H/L tournaments. So I'll have to give you the summary with a few more poorly converted hands at the end. Basically from there it all went south. I won 1 more small hand within the next orbit to get up to about 2700 or so. Then I stayed pretty quiet. I tried to play a few hands against bad players in position but had to abandon ship to action on bad flops. It's extremely hard to play deepstacked limit omaha h/l bluffing. You have to have cards. And I didn't, for about 2.5 hours.

Now during these 2 hours I made a few questionable plays. Mostly seeing flops when I shouldn't and failing to raise one of the few good hands I got preflop (though this actually made me a little money, but it was still wrong). I also let the frustration of constantly being raised off my AKxx postflop on AKQ flop get to me (yes, this flop with these starting cards happened to me 4 times in 200 hands, I was shown the JT 2x that i folded) and finally paid off one of the JTxx players that hit. I didn't really lose many showdowns other than that, I never made it there. I kept folding on the flop and turn (and on a few bad rivers). Every time I wanted low cards the flop came JJT and every time I wanted a Q or low cards with an A with a hand like QQ23ds in late position the flop came K82r. Basically this whole report is one big bitch session.

Eventually not hitting flops (or turns or rivers) took its toll on me as the blinds increased. My starting stack of
2500 had been hovering between 1600 and 1100 for about 30 mins. I hadn't played a hand at all in a while and the blinds were to go up to 75/150. I decided to try to steal the blinds and/or hit a flop/represent hitting a flop with a weird hand. Its not done in omaha too much for good reason. Its hard to misrepresent your hand too much because its impossible to definitively put a pplayer on NOT having a hand. Everyone has 4 cards, and many raise any A2 so they can have any cards at all for the other 2. So I'm pretty sure that this move was really dumb and just me trying to make something happen because nothing was happening with me sitting and waiting. That normally causes silliness like the below hand to happen

Seat 1: Chubagabra (4414 in chips)
Seat 2: route66 (2527 in chips)
Seat 3: Katja Thater (1753 in chips)
Seat 4: Me (1162 in chips)
Seat 5: briaann1 (5946 in chips)
Seat 6: MysticMisty (5655 in chips)
Seat 7: BJCAS (2084 in chips)
Seat 8: jethro (2105 in chips)
Seat 9: octane190 (2569 in chips)
BJCAS: posts small blind 50
jethro: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Me [Jh Kd 7h Qs]
octane190: folds
Chubagabra: calls 100
route66: folds
Katja Thater: folds
Me: raises 100 to 200
briaann1: folds
MysticMisty: folds
BJCAS: calls 150
jethro: folds
Chubagabra: calls 100
*** FLOP *** [2s Ts 4c]
BJCAS: checks
Chubagabra: checks
Me: bets 100
BJCAS: calls 100
Chubagabra: folds
*** TURN *** [2s Ts 4c] [Ac]
BJCAS: checks
Me: checks
*** RIVER *** [2s Ts 4c Ac] [9c]
BJCAS: checks
Me: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BJCAS: shows [As 4h 6h 3h] (HI: two pair, Aces and Fours; LO: 6,4,3,2,A)

Basically I was hoping to buy the button and isolate against a weak preflop limper. The SB calling complicated matters a bit and flop is really not very good for me but I thought I still may be able to get 2 folds after the flop and if i turn a draw i may get to see a free river. Once my flop bet is called and the A comes out I wisely figure it is time to shut it down. This leaves me with 862 chips as the blinds hit 75/150.

The next hand I'm posting would have veen great had I actually played it. In the BB with 712 chips behind this happens

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Me [3c Ks 5h Qd]
briaann1: folds
MysticMisty: folds
BJCAS: folds
jethro: folds
octane190: folds
Chubagabra: folds
route66: raises 150 to 300
Katja Thater: raises 150 to 450
Me: folds
route66: calls 150
*** FLOP *** [Qc Kd Kc]

I would have called the first raise and seen if the flop hit me at all (and it woulda hit me hard). But I didn't feel like totally committing myself to the pot with a raise and immediate reraise with such a marginal hand. Of course once I saw the flop I crapped my pants. The turn was another K to give me woulda-been quads. Both players had A2xx and AA3x and I would have tripled up to over my 2500 starting stack.

I'm able to survive another orbit by taking the blinds with A23x once before my bustout hand occurs and I go out ~675th.

Me: posts small blind 75
briaann1: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Me [Ah Qs Ac 8d]
MysticMisty: folds
BJCAS: folds
jethro: folds
octane190: folds
Chubagabra: folds
route66: folds
wytails: folds
Me: raises 150 to 300
briaann1: raises 150 to 450
Me: raises 150 to 600
Betting is capped
briaann1: calls 150
*** FLOP *** [Th Js 4d]
Me: bets 112 and is all-in
briaann1: calls 112
*** TURN *** [Th Js 4d] [Ts]
*** RIVER *** [Th Js 4d Ts] [5c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Me: shows [Ah Qs Ac 8d] (HI: two pair, Aces and Tens)
briaann1: shows [Kd Qc Tc Qd] (HI: three of a kind, Tens)

All the relevant action occurs preflop. At that point I have 71% equity and a slightly better 77% chance of at least getting some piece of the pot and a cool 65% chance at scooping the whole thing. Even the board isn't scary (He needs JJ, 44, 55 or a T to beat me) Except he does have a Ten.

Bottom line: I have no luck. I haven't been on a bad streak like this before, but I know that the bad luck eventually turns, and when you are running good its the best feeling in the world. I hope that happens soon. Another 6 months like this last one and I'll need to borrow some money.

Damnit I missed the 2nd chance event typing this. I'll have to wait until Saturday to enter more. My next entry in this blog will be Saturday. In it, I will be making some $$$$$$, getting drunk and talking smack.

Finally an Update

That's a picture of the back of my head to the left of that guy standing up. Picture courtesy of my sister, but I think Henry or someone has better ones.
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Day 2 started today but I am not playing. Because I busted.

Here's all the events of Day 1A for me:

I wake up at 7am because i am still on eastern time and once my eyes open i feel a little excited for the day to begin. I decide to go running to try to get rid of some of my excess energy. Vegas is hot at 7am. Real hot. I have to cut it short due to sweat pouring off me at an alarming rate. I go to pick up my goodie bag from my website's suite. It's filled with ridiculous jerseys and tshirts that have the sites name all over it. They are nice i guess, but i can't think of when i'd seriously wear any of them.

The website guy says I had better hurry over to the rio because the lines are huge. So hurry to shower and then shuttle bus it over. I get to the tiny line and have my seat card within seconds. So I go to the breakfast buffet they set up. Lots of people who look like what you think internet poker players look like. A guy sits at my table and we talk and I hope there are a million more guys like him today. Nice enough, and knows some poker but seems a bit timid and just wants to stay alive today. I call henry and wake him up and see if wants to head over and hang out for a couple hours before i play. my sister and her friends also head over.

The area around the wsop is kind of a poker circus with booths and promotions and stripper-looking chicks wearing next to nothing. Pretty weird in general. Later henry and rob would head over to all the booths and collect tons of free crap/pillow fight with strippers while i was playing.

15 mins before the event started i head over to my table. i was wearing my websites tshirt with a long sleeve shirt on unerneath because i heard the kept it real cold in there. The people in charge start telling everyone to turn our gear inside out or tape over the ".com" part of our gear due to some legal shit. I just take off my tshirt and play in the long sleeve.

My first table was great. There was one aggressive player 2 to my left but he seemed indiscriminantly aggressive and very trappable. 2 to his left was a guy who played any ace and seemed pretty clueless in general. The guy on my right was nice, but he was old and played an extremely tight/predicatable game. He says he monied in a limit hold-em event in the early 90s and played in last year's main event as well as some in the 90s and I have no reason not to believe him, but the way he is playing he is not much of a threat to me and I would be able able to fold to him if he ever tried to raise me. Gus Hansen played a few tables next to me. It was pretty funny when he came in late to take his seat, the guy on his right sees someone pulling out the chair next to him, looks up and does a ridiculous wide-eyed double take before he composes himself quickly to act act like he didn't. I guess he just realized he was going to have an aggressive,tricky player acting behind him for the rest of the table.

I didn't get anything to great but was able to take down a few pots and bring myself up to 12k before the first break and 15k right before break 2 when i got involved in a hand i played badly. i called a raise from a lady who wasn't too great for about 150 with 65 of clubs and the aggressive player also called to see a flop flop was K56, no clubs but 2 spades, and the lady checked. i checked hoping to checkraise but it checked around. Turn came a non-spade ten and this time the lady bet 300 and both i and the aggressive guy called. River was and Ace of spades. lady bets 1k i call and aggressive guy reraises to 4k. the lady folded and i thought for a long time about all the draws that may have got there and folded. But I played the hand terribly.

Got moved to another table a bit after the 2nd break. This one was harder, people were more aggressive and no one seemed like a sucker. You know what they say about not being able to spot the sucker at your table. The guy 2 to my left kept snapping off my bets with big raises on the turn. He had shown down good cards too and built up a good size stack so I wasn't sure what was going on, good/aggro player or just catching great cards.

I was back up to 14k when this hand i played really poorly happened soon before the dinner break. With the blinds 200/100 he raised to 700 under the gun (1st to act preflop) and it folds to me in the sb, where i look at 2 black jacks. I'm not sure why I wanted to play this, the best hand i had been dealt all day, out of position postflop but i just called and the BB folded. Flop is AT6 with 2 spades. Not a good one. I check the flop and he checked behind (as was his custom before he raised my turn bets). The turn is a low spade, I bet 600 and he quickly reraises to 1800. I have no idea where I am at (Actually I think he has a big Ace, which means anything but folding is dumb), I am out of position and I am an idiot, but for some reason I call the bet because 1: I hate that he keeps raising me (very bad reason to call) and 2. I now have a flush draw. The river comes a beautiful Jack. Realizing I was being an idiot earlier by calling I am happy to see my miracle card and fire out a bet of 1700. He thinks a while and raises me 5500 more. I should fold. I know it. I try to think what he could have. KQ could have got there, a flush is reasonable. Even AA is not out of the question. But I can't figure out why he is raising so much when I had folded to smaller raises earlier unless he doesn't want to be called. Somehow I convince myself that he has AK with the ace of spades and is trying to push me out. Why i did this I will never know. I make the dumb call after thinking for 2 minutes and trying to coax a read out of him (i don't get a read that he is weak by the way, one more reason i should fold). He flips over AK of spades and I muck. Everyone asks if i mucked AJ. I feel like saying "Do you think I would call with just 2 pair there?" but I realize that I did something 20000x worse.

I think my horrible play in that hand is a result of 1. live play getting to me a bit and 2. being pushed off my hands earlier and not dealing with it well. i hate (and everyone hates) being bullied and i picked a very wrong time to fight back. Not an unlucky time, just a wrong and dumb time. I am steaming a bit at myself for losing over 9k on 1 dumb hand and decide to take it easy until the dinner break unless my cards are fabulous. They aren't and I go into the dinner break at 5.5k.

At dinner I have a couple of beers with henry and rob and loosen up quite a bit so I am feeling good instead of steaming. After dinner I start getting awesome cards. I take down a few pots uncontested with pocket pairs. Then I get called by the BB when I raise with AQo and the flop is all crap, but I go all-in anyway I pick up a pot. I pull the same trick when I have TT and the flop is something like A98. I again go all-in and get the needed fold. A few more pots and I am back up to 12k before the next break and feeling great.

Next level is bad. I keep getting reraised out of pots. I can't hit a flop to save my life and pots keep getting raised too big before it gets to me when i have speculative hands. I call a short stacks all-in with AQ and he has AK. Halfway through I am back down below 4k. Then I get dealt JJ in late position, raise it, get reraised by the SB, shove all-in, get scared when he quickly calls, but love seeing him turn over 99 and I am back up to almost 9k right before the last break.

It is now 1 am and I have a little strategy session with henry and rob. I remind myself that there is no prize for making it to day 2 and i need to look for opportunities and make things happen if i want to make it deep in the tourney. If nothing presents itself i will wait but blinds are moving to 200-400 with a 50 ante. that means i will lose 1100 chips each time around the table if i fold each hand. Even that wouldn't get me to day 2 and it definitely won't get me the chips i need to contend. I post my blinds early and am down to 7900 when I am under the gun with KQ of hearts. I limp in, the aggressive guy 2 to my left also limps and a guy 2 to his left raises to 1800. He had not been too active but was not terribly tight either and had quite a few chips, he had also raised me out of a couple of pots. I felt he had a pretty strong hand, but that's it. The button calls his raise. The button had just gotten a huge rush of cards (AK beats A8 on an AK8 flop, AA beats QQ etc) and has lots of chips. He had reraised earlier with his aces so I felt he was just trying to catch a flop and could have a lot of hands. It folded to me. There was now 5500 in the pot and I had 7500 left. I felt I could probably get in a squeeze here.

My plan was to raise all-in and have the original raiser be afraid of my limp/reraise (a popular play with aces under the gun I was hoping to represent) and also afraid of a big stack calling with whatever he had. I was pretty sure the big stack was just hoping to hit a flop and would fold. That way I take it down and get up to 13k without even a showdown. Maybe he even calls me with JJ or TT or possibly some other lower pair and I get a coinflip to get a chance at getting up over 20k for a good price. The only things I am in very bad shape against that definitely call me are AK, AA and KK and I have 1 K making AK and especially KK less likely. When I hear him reraise me all-in himself I am briefly a bit happy because I thought he would have just called with AA or KK. so I am only worried about AK and AQ before the button folds and he quickly flips up AA. At least he doesn't have the ace of hearts.

Flop is JJ8 (1 heart) I need a T,9 or a non Ace heart to stay alive (preferably a T or 9 of hearts)

Turn is an 8 of hearts and I need one of 8 non-ace hearts out of 44 cards to stay alive.

I don't remember what the river was, but it wasn't a heart.

I was not real happy but I was OK with going out trying to make a move and running into aces rather than getting bad beat or making a dumb call. So I got drunk.

Some celebrities I saw were Norm McDonald a couple tables away, the afro-haired kid from that 70s show wandering the area and james garner because they made a big deal about him playing. poker celebreties were gus hansen a couple of tables away, dan harrington who walked past me (i outlasted him, most other years that would mean i made the final table har har) and Richard "Quiet Lion" Brodie at the table next to me (Henry showed me his blog right before I left for Vegas but i didn't realize who he was until i looked him up today). Some other pro was at Gus's table that a guy at our table was making a big deal about, but I had no idea who he was. Norman Chad was also walking around.

Since lots of poeple asked about TV i would say I have next to no chance at being on the broadcasts unless possibly a large background shot or maybe behind the table of Richard Brodie as they filmed him quite a bit. The TV cameras stayed mostly at tables with known pros and celebs. They wandered to my second table and filmed about half a hand before they realized we were boring as hell and walked off to film the that 70s show dude or something.

Hope to be back next year. Thanks for reading.