Tourney Talk

Have played in a number of tournaments of late -- five in the last week, in fact. Would have to check my records to confirm, but that’s more than I had probably played during the previous couple of months.

I’ve written here several times about my preference for cash games over tourneys, the primary reason for which is my general lack of freedom time-wise when it comes to playing. As a recreational player, I rarely have more than a couple of hours at a time to commit, and so as a result do not find myself signing up for the large field, multi-table tournaments that often.

I’ve also noted here more than once how I ain’t so crazy about the way tourneys require one to get accustomed to losing, with even the best players generally only cashing some of the time and winning very rarely. For example, a few weeks back in “Stopped Short of the Goal Line” I described playing in that $1 Twitter tourney on PokerStars and making it all of the way to the top 20 (out of 1,200-plus) only to suffer a few unfortunate beats and hit the rail shy of any decent cabbage.

I fared reasonably well in my five tourneys this last week -- “cashing” (so to speak) in three. Something occurred to me, though, while playing yesterday regarding the attraction of tournaments. Anyone who has made a final table or won one of these suckers knows about the significant high that results from that obvious success. But there’s another pleasure, I think, associated with tourney play that also keeps folks coming back.

Three of my five tournaments were part of that World Blogger Championship of Online Poker promotion that PokerStars put on last week. I wasn’t able to play but a couple of the prelims, as the scheduling didn’t work well for me.

One of those was the no-limit hold’em event on Thursday. I got off to a good start and had an above-average stack when I picked up pocket queens in the small blind. It folded to the button who raised, I three-bet, the big blind folded, then the button shoved all in over the top. I had him covered (though not by a lot), but if I had thought more than a few seconds I might’ve realized the guy had barely played a hand in the last 50. Don’t know if that realization would’ve helped me find a fold, but in any event I called, he showed K-K, and shortly thereafter I was out of the tourney, shy of winning an entry into the Main Event on Sunday.

Things went better for me on Friday during the 8-game mix event (a.k.a., S.P.L.E.N.D.O.R.), despite one miserable blunder along the way in which I played a stud hand as if it were razz, thereby donating about a third of my stack at the time. Recovered enough to sneak into the “money” and land that ME ticket. Yesterday I also played in Kevmath’s home game tourney (busting early), as well that Twitter event again in which I finished 70th (again of about 1,200 or so) for a teeny cash.

I played okay in yesterday’s WBCOOP Main Event, landing a $22 SCOOP ticket for finishing just outside the top 100. It was after the bubble burst and players began hitting the rail at a rapid pace that I realized another kind of enjoyment to be associated with tourney play.

Once in the money -- especially in a large-field event in which players are being eliminated every hand as the tourney progresses -- there’s something gratifying in being able to sit there and know that the longer one survives with chips, the more one (theoretically) is earning. You can fold hand after hand, if you wish, but as long as you are still in your seat while others are being eliminated, your status relative to the payouts is necessarily improving.

One doesn’t really get that feeling in the cash games. I suppose you could argue that by accumulating FPPs or whatever other benefits a site or poker room offers players for putting in time, one is “benefiting” in small increments just for being there. But those rewards are not terribly significant, and usually more than countered by the rake or other costs for playing.

But in tourneys, once the money bubble has burst, that feeling that one is getting ahead even when just breaking even is quite palpable. And it increases, too -- the pleasure, or gratification, or whatever you want to call it -- the further along one gets.

The best tourney players manage this emotional response in such a way that they are able to prevent it from affecting their games. Still, I think even the most seasoned players probably continue to derive enjoyment from this aspect of tournaments, no matter how many times they’ve experienced it.

PokerStars WBCOOP Event No. 1 (No-Limit Hold’em): Live Blog

So here’s the skinny. I’m signed up to play in this here initial event of the 2009 World Blogger Championship of Online Poker thingy over on PokerStars this afternoon, for which I’m gonna try to live blog while I play. Hell, I got two hands.

Am askin’ for trouble, I’m sure, given the limited capacities of my jingle brain, not to mention the fact that it has been a couple of months since I last played no-limit hold’em (or a tourney, for that matter).

All of which is to say, don’t be comin’ around expecting pokery greatness from yr humble gumshoe.

Looks like with a little over a half-hour until the first hands are dealt there are already over 1,500 scribblers registered for the sucker. Top 153 finishers win tickets of varying amounts into the upcoming Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), with a total prize pool of $5,096.50 having been set aside for today’s event.

Click here for more info on the WBCOOP series. I’ll be back here shortly after five o’clock ET with the first report. (And hopefully not the last!)

5:01 p.m. ET
Tourney is underway. 1,690 runners all told at the moment, but late registration is still open. Looks like at least two-thirds of my starting table is sitting out.

5:06 p.m. ET
Okay, there are five of us playing, with four sitting out. The sitters are all to my left, and the players to my right. At least one of the four other players is raising preflop each hand before it gets to me, so I have yet to be able to take the sitters’ blinds uncontested. Biding my time for now, but will probably have to start reraising to get involved.

5:08 p.m. ET
Just took my first hand, a standard PF raise with one caller, followed by c-bet on ace-high flop. (No, I didn’t have an ace.) Shortly after, I see an all-in confrontation between 8-7 offsuit and A-10 offsuit. It’s a freeroll, all right.

5:11 p.m. ET
I am seeing on Twitter my buddy the Poker Grump is already out. Must have picked up deuce-four and went with it, I am assuming.

5:15 p.m. ET
Just lost few chips getting a little reckless with the bloggers’ favorite, the hammer, but got it back very next next hand. Back to starting stack of 2,000.

5:21 p.m. ET
Pocket kings in early position. Both blinds call my standard raise. A king flops, both check, I make a smallish c-bet, and both go away. Might’ve milked it for more, I guess, but I’ll take it. Little over 2,400 now.

5:26 p.m. ET
First elimination at my table, about 25 minutes into the proceedings. Looks like 1,730 runners or so at the moment.

5:30 p.m. ET
Okay, just won first big pot of the tourney. Player raises to 120 (3x) in front of me from early position, I reraise to 420 with pocket kings, it folds around and my opponent calls. Flop comes Q-J-T. He checks, I shove (about 1,800), and he instacalls with A-J. Turn and river both nines, giving me straight and 4,670-chip pot (my new stack).

5:37 p.m. ET
EP preflop raiser gets one caller to his left, then I call, too, from cutoff with K-Q. Flop comes Q-4-2 with two hearts, and both check to me. I bet three-quarter pot (475), preflop raiser thinks, then raises to 1,400. I immediately shove (what do I know?), raiser goes into time bank for 30 seconds, then folds. At 6,170 now.

5:42 p.m. ET
Sheesh we are already at Level 5 (ten-minute levels). I don’t need to consult Arnold Snyder to conclude this here is a fast-structured tourney.

5:47 p.m. ET
Pick up another pot (1,135) with pocket queens. (Yes, I am getting some decent starting hands so far, no doubt.) Both an ace and king come by the river, but my opponent had neither (was chasing draws). At 6,965 now.

5:54 p.m. ET
I see registration is finally closed, with a total of 1,740 entrants. Looks like around seven hundred have already hit the rail. First break comin’ up.

6:01 p.m. ET
At first break I have 6,805 chips. That puts me 103rd out of 1,026 remaining players. Leader has 22,301 at the moment. We’re getting ready to start Level 7, where the blinds are 40/80 with an ante of 10.

6:06 p.m. ET
Just played Hand No. 100. I’m listening to Tortoise’s 2009 album Beacons of Ancestorship, probably my favorite disc from last year. Certainly the one I’ve listened to the most. Very cool ensemble, with lots of great instrumental grooves. I have it on repeat, and so we’re on the second go-round now.


6:11 p.m. ET
Oof, just tripped up and lost half my stack. A little more than half. A short-stacked player with about 1,900 to start the hand raised from early position to 300 (3x). I had and only the blinds really to worry about, and so shoved to isolate. Small blind -- whom I had covered -- pushed all in, too, and the shorty skedaddled. My opponent has me dominated with A-K. Board ran out eight-high, and I’m now down to 2,705. Still 27 big blinds, though, so no worries quite yet.

6:21 p.m. ET
Just had a goofy hand. UTG limps in, and the table folds around to me in the big blind with 6-4 offsuit. I check, and flop comes 6-6-7. I check, and so does my opponent. Turn another seven. I check again, but he doesn’t bite. Then the river is yet another seven, meaning I’m now playing the board. I make a cheeky minimum bet of 120, and he pushes all in. Argh. I call, he shows K-3, and we split. I probably mangled that one.

6:25 p.m. ET
Just lost a big coin flip. I had built back to about 3,100, and was all in before the flop with A-K versus pocket queens. Board came 7-4-3-8-2, and now I’m down to 585.

6:36 p.m. ET
I doubled up once, then with the blinds 75/150 I open-shoved my last 1,190 chips with . Folded around to the big blind who thought a long while, then called with . The flop was a nice one: . I liked the turn, too -- . But you know what's coming... the on the river. Rude! And I’m outta there in six-hundred-and-somethingth, just as the last song of Beacons of Ancestorship was finishing for the second time this afternoon.

Thanks for reading, peoples... and good luck to all who remain in the first event of the WBCOOP. I do plan to try again tomorrow in the PLO event. Not sure if I’ll live blog again tomorrow (a bit of effort, that), but we’ll see. Have a good evening, all.

PokerStars WBCOOP Starts Next Week

During the last week of January, PokerStars will be running its annual World Blogger Championship of Online Poker (WBCOOP). Well, sort of annual. The last WBCOOP was in December 2008, and the schedule has slid back a month or so, meaning there wasn’t technically a “2009 WBCOOP.”

The WBCOOP is open to all poker bloggers, with the minimal requirement that the blog has been up and running for at least two months (and has been regularly updated) prior to registering. Like other tourney series -- and just about everything else at PokerStars -- the WBCOOP has gotten bigger and bigger with each passing year.

In 2005, the WBCOOP was a single no-limit hold’em tournament, a freeroll offering a total of $25,000 worth of prizes to the top finishers. In 2006, it was again a single tourney, this time with $37,000 worth of prizes, with the winner getting an entry into the following summer’s World Series of Poker Main Event. In 2007, $40,000 worth of prizes were awarded, with the winner this time getting a package to go play in the PokerStars Carribean Adventure in early 2008. There were 1,337 entrants in that 2007 tourney.

Then, in December 2008, the event was made into a series of tournaments, with six different preliminary events in pot-limit Omaha, no-limit hold’em, Omaha hi/lo, and the 8-game mix (a.k.a., S.P.L.E.N.D.O.R.). Top finishers in those preliminary events won various prizes while also qualifying to play in the Main Event, with a total of 369 entrants making it through. In all, over $100,000 worth of prizes were given away.

This year is following a similar format with a series of six preliminary events followed by a Main Event, only it appears this time everyone can go ahead and enter the Main Event as well as all of the prelims (i.e., one doesn’t have to qualify for the ME). All of the prizes this year will be in the form of “SCOOP” tickets of varying values. That’s the Spring Championship of Online Poker, which I assume will be coming around again in April.

Each preliminary event will be awarding $6,038 worth of SCOOP tickets to the top 136 finishers, ranging from a $1,050 ticket to the winner and $215 tickets to the other final tablists, down to $11 tickets to those finishing 46th-136th. The prizes are greater for the Main Event, with the winner getting a $3,150 ticket, the final tablists $2,100 tickets, on down to the 46th-136th place finishers each winning themselves a $22 ticket.

Additionally, PokerStars is going to be handing out more prizes to those chronicling the action on their blogs and via Twitter. Those prizes include one for “Best Live Event Blogging” ($425 worth of SCOOP tickets), one for “Best Tweeter” (also $425), three “Highly Commended Blogger” awards (each getting $33 worth of SCOOP tickets), and three “Highly Commended Tweeter” awards (also $33 each).

Here’s the full schedule of events for this year’s WBCOOP series:

Monday, Jan. 25, 17:00 ET -- No-Limit Hold’em

Tuesday, Jan. 26, 17:00 ET -- Pot-Limit Omaha

Wednesday, Jan. 27, 18:00 ET -- No-Limit Hold’em

Thursday, Jan. 28, 18:00 ET -- No-Limit Hold’em

Friday, Jan. 29, 19:00 ET -- 8-Game Mix

Saturday, Jan. 30, 15:00 ET -- No-Limit Hold’em

Sunday, Jan. 31, 15:00 ET -- Main Event, No-Limit Hold’em

I’ve participated in this sucker ever since I was first eligible to do so, and plan to be there again next week for at least some of the fun. I know I’ll aim to play the PLO event, and probably will try to sit down at some of the others, too.

If you’ve had a poker blog for a couple of months and haven’t registered yet, there’s still time to do so. Click here for info on how to sign up.

Ultimate Coincidence

I know I said I didn’t want to write about UltimateBet for a while. But, really. This is too much.

First, though, I want to report I had a fun time yesterday helping out with the live blog for the Main Event of the World Blogger Championship of Online Poker.

Kind of a manic little tourney they had there, with 369 players getting whittled down to one in about six hours or so. The levels were just 10 minutes each, so it didn’t take too long -- about two-and-a-half hours -- to get down to 100 players and the “money” (i.e., the various Step tickets & tourney entries most of the winners received). Just a half-hour later they were down to 50. Then about an hour or so after that they were down to the final table. The FT went relatively quickly, too, except for heads up which ended up stretching over 100 hands.

I didn’t know any of the players who made it to the endgame, but I did know several others who qualified for yesterday’s Main Event. It was fun following my buds, for sure, including (but not limited to) Easycure, gadzooks64, Haley, heffmike, Luckbox, OhCaptain, the Poker Grump, the Poker Shrink, and the Spaceman. There were others whom I know who I’m pretty sure were in there somewhere (F-Train?), though I don’t know their screen names. And a couple more buds I know were playing but I’m not sure want to be identified as having played.

The live blog is fun to do. I think that overall we did a good job with it, and I know the players involved get a kick out of it, too. Kind of an added bonus from PokerStars for playing in the suckers.

Of course, when the tourney is that fast-paced it gets a little crazy trying to report everything accurately and in a timely fashion. The fact that it is an online tourney -- meaning every detail of every hand is usually fairly easy to recover -- kind of cuts both ways. One wants to be complete and precise, but there simply isn’t time to report everything. Thus will the occasional glitch occur, but I guess that isn’t any different from what happens at a live event, too.

Speaking of the occasional glitch, speculation continues regarding that weird limit hold’em hand that happened on UltimateBet-slash-Cereus early Saturday morning in which Phil Hellmuth was awarded a pot in which he had the worst hand. If you haven’t heard about that, see my post from Saturday, “Honey, I Was Supposed to Lose That Hand!”

And yeah, there is an actual cologne out there called Cereus. (Not affiliated with the funny-smelling online poker network.)

Apparently Cereus cologne (also released earlier this year, coincidentally) is being marketed toward “affluent men aged 35 and older.” I am not making this up.

In that suspicious LHE hand from Saturday morning, Hellmuth made it to the river with ten-deuce (sooted) on a board of J-K-K-2-9 versus a player named DOUBLEBALLER who held K-Q. However, despite the fact that DOUBLEBALLER had the better hand at showdown, the $5,599 pot somehow got shipped to the Poker Brat.

Greylocks points out that what happened very likely was not, technically speaking, a “glitch,” since that term implies the event was an aberration that won’t be repeated. Indeed, in his UB blog post, UltimateBet COO Paul Leggett described what happened as a “software malfunction,” not a “glitch.” He also says this is the “first incident of this kind we have encountered.”

Greylocks suggests what we have here is more likely a “bug” (my word) or problem that may well occur again (if it hasn’t already). Some of the posters over on the still-growing thread on Two Plus Two are also making similar arguments, amid all of the less persuasive conspiracies being put forth.

I’m no techie, but it does seem like there has to have been some sort of connection between the software incorrectly awarding Hellmuth the pot and the weird pop-up message DOUBLEBALLER saw that said he’d been disconnected and missed three blinds, even though (as far as he knew) he had remained connected the entire time. It sounds like the program indeed got its signals crossed in there somewhere, thus causing the mistake.

Of course, the fact that this “first incident of this kind we have encountered” happened during a hand involving Hellmuth makes all of this especially intriguing. One hell of a coincidence, there, wouldn’t you say?

We’d like to assume that when Hellmuth plays on UB the software is exactly the same as when anyone else logs on, but here we have an incident occurring that at the very least makes us wonder whether that is the case. And -- it goes without saying -- such an incident inevitably brings to mind those special (or “super-user”) accounts that facilitated the cheating on Absolute Poker and UltimateBet in the past.

Not necessarily looking to fuel the conspiracy fires here. (It really does appear to be a software mistake that could have occurred no matter who was playing.)

But, really. This is too much!

World Blogger Championship of Online Poker Today!

The finale of this year’s World Blogger Championship of Online Poker kicks off this afternoon at 3:00 p.m. Eastern time. Gonna be watching this one closely.

I say “watching” rather than “playing,” ’cos while yr humble gumshoe tried his best to qualify -- entering three of the six preliminary events -- he ultimately failed to land a spot. The first two I entered were hold’em events, and in both cases I gathered a modest-sized chip stacks early, then made questionable plays to go out right around the middle of the pack (i.e., around 280th out of 560 entrants or so for both).

Then came the 8-game mix event on Friday, the one I like to call S.P.L.E.N.D.O.R. I struggled through the first six levels (2-7 limit triple draw, limit hold’em, Omaha/8, razz, stud, and stud/8), and was sitting with 1,800 chips or so (down from our starting stacks of 2,500) when we began playing no-limit hold’em.

About four or five hands into the NLHE round, I was dealt pocket deuces in the big blind. The player in the cutoff raised to 90 (three times the BB) and it folded back to me. I called. The flop came . I checked, my opponent bet 150, I check-raised to 550, and he called. The turn was the , and I went ahead and shipped my last 1,200 or so. My opponent quickly called, showing . The came on the river, and just like that I hit the rail, one of the first twenty or so players to be bounced from the tournament. Didn’t even make it to the PLO round!

Oh, well. At least I didn’t have the winning hand, then watch the pot get shipped to my opponent. Like happens to some people.

As yet another (not insignificant) consolation prize, I am now free to help out with the live blogging of today’s event over on the PokerStars blog. Scanning the list of the 369 players who made it to the final, I’m seeing a number of familiar names. I’ll be following all of youse. And you may achieve even more fame to go along with your fortune, as we’ll be posting regularly all day about the happenings at today’s event.

Some sweet prizes are there for the taking, starting with the 46th-100th place finishers (who each get a Step 3 ticket), moving through the many tourney buy-ins (from $109 on up to $1,050) for those finishing 7th through 45th, and culminating with some even bigger entries into the Spring Championship of Online Poker (the SCOOP), some European Poker Tour trips for the second and third place finishers, and the top prize of a trip to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

Best of luck to all my blogger buds! Make me proud.

Or, at the very least, give me (and the rest of us) some good blogworthy material!

On Bloggers, Catheters, & Eleven Secret Herbs and Spices

Played in that PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker this evening, one of the three no-limit hold’em preliminary events scheduled this week.

Had a decent first hour (was something like 90th of the 300 left at that point), but made a dumb, impatient move with pocket jacks halfway through Hour 2 that sent me to the rail around 280th (of the 559 who came out). In other words, well shy of the top 72, all of whom qualified for Sunday’s final. ’Twas a fun (if brief) ride, though.

At one point early on I made a quick scan of the list of entrants to see how many I could recognize. Saw a number of familiar folks, including the esteemed authors of A Moment with Easycure, Dead Money = SirAlCantHang, Irongirl, JasonKirk.net, Life’s a JOPKE el-o-el..., Lair of Lucypher, OMGWTF: It’s a Blog!?, Poker Grump, Poker Wannabe, Pot Committed, Red Bull & Poker, Table Tango, Tao of Poker, The Goat Speaks, and TripJax.

I’m certain there were many others there whom I regularly read, but I either didn't know or didn't spot their screen names.

On my initial table, we were having fun joking around in the chatbox after I’d managed to double up early with pocket kings versus a player with pocket treys. Someone commented on the hand, speculating about how it might be subsequently described in folks’ blogs.

Then another player piped up to say all he wrote about on his blog was going to Kentucky Fried Chicken. That prompted a humorous stretch of poker-slash-KFC commentary, with people suggesting PokerStars should give away KFC vouchers for FPPs, arguing for the merits of “KFC turbos,” and discussing a number of other important, finger lickin’ matters.

I then was moved to a table where my buds the Poker Grump and Spaceman were seated. Not much of note happened there (other than some more fun banter). Wasn’t too long after I was moved to my next table that I was bounced.

I logged off, then hopped back on later to follow the tourney a bit more. Found the Poker Grump and Gadzooks at the same table, and so watched them for a while. At one point, Poker Grump suggested to the table a new invention for online poker players, the Poker Catheter. I chimed in from the rail that PokerStars could offer them for Fpeepees.

Soon after that, the field had finally shrunk down under 72. Another quick check of the leaderboard revealed the Poker Grump, Gadzooks, and Easycure all made it! Way to go, peoples! And good luck on Sunday in the big finale, where you will join Haley, who qualified in Monday’s PLO event.

Chances are good that I’ll be keeping an eye on all of youse on Sunday as I’m currently slated to do a little live blogging of the finale for PokerStars. Who else out there do I know who has made it?

Gonna sign off now. Suddenly have a hankerin’ for some extra crispy.

Priorities

Will not be able to be there this afternoon for the initial event of the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker. Thing starts at 2:00 p.m. Eastern, and I have business to take care of until a little while after that today. You know how it is. Priorities.

I would have registered early and taken my seat sometime after the tourney had begun, but one is not allowed to register until noon. And I can’t do that. A minor bummer, as today’s event is the pot-limit Omaha one. But I should be able to play some of the other ones this week, I believe.

Then again, it might not be such a bad thing I won’t be making the PLO event, as the game has been beating me down big time over the last week or so. Last week I mentioned an especially bad hand in which I’d lost a monstrous pot when the river card that gave me aces full also gave my opponent a straight flush. We were both super deep-stacked, and I lost a bundle on the hand.

Looking back, I can see pretty clearly how that one hand precipitated what has since become a lengthy sequence of bad sessions that have been kind of a greatest hits of bad habits for me -- playing too long, too loose, too passive, too emotionally, too stubbornly, and, of course, chasing losses.

All of which means, I think it is time for me to step back a bit. Gonna try to limit the playing over the next few weeks, and perhaps instead devote the time to other ventures.

Am going to start working out more regularly. There was a time when I’d go to the gym several times a week, but lately I’ve been lucky to get there once in two weeks. I need to get some exercise, if only to help keep the noggin’ clear.

Am going to do a big grocery run this afternoon and get the fixins to make several real meals. Have a great penne pasta recipe I like. Gonna get a bushel of veggies, too. Gotta start eating better, no question.

Am going to start reading again -- non-poker books, that is. Has been a while since I’ve read any fiction for fun, and I like fun.

Am going to try to reignite my interest in music, too -- playing, that is. Used to do a lot of four-track recording, creating lots of little instrumentals (for guitar and bass, as well as synth stuff). (Almost all of the incidental music on the Hard-Boiled Poker Radio Show comes from those tapes, actually.) At some point the four-track wore out and I never got around to replacing it. I think getting back into playing and recording would be fun, too.

Am also going to start writing -- again, non-pokery stuff. I used to write a lot of fiction, and even managed to complete a novel (hard-boiled, natch) some time ago. For a long time I continued to ponder story and novel ideas pretty much on a regular basis, jotting notes and outlines and occasionally writing out character sketches and scenes. But that, too, has basically stopped over the last couple of years.

Truth be told, between the blog and writing for other poker outlets, I’ve probably written more words during 2008 than in any previous year of my entire life. And while I still want to write the blog (and the other pokery stuff), I’m feeling a strong urge to get back to the other varieties of creative writing that used to mean so much to me. That used to help me figure out who I am.

So I believe I’ll stay away from the tables for a while, maybe just playing short (less than one hour) sessions now and then. I will take my shot at the WBCOOP later in the week, but that’ll be it for now, I think.

Wish me luck. At all of it.