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September 20, 2006
WCOOP $215 HU
Today's WCOOP was pretty humorous. I spent more time trying to get into the tournament than I did playing in it. One has to appreciate the irony there.
I went to bed the night before without having registered and when I woke up it was full. I thought I'd wait to see if anybody unregistered. With 2,048 players I assumed a good number of people would change their minds. That's pretty much what happened, and the little black "Register" button would pop up on the lobby periodically.
When it first popped up I clicked it. When that happens you get a little pop-up window and you have to fill in a radio button to tell it to buy you in with W$ and then click OK. I did that but by the time I had completed someone else had already taken the seat. I waited and did that again, trying to do it faster, but the same thing happened. And then a third time. Apparently there were a lot of people doing the same thing I was, and probably many of them had no W$ in their account and therefore had one fewer mouse click to make.
Then I remembered to work smarter, not harder, and thought "What if I make that box pop up and fill it in but don't register? Will it stay there even after the spot gets filled? And if so can I just wait until there is a seat and then click OK in that box?" It turns out the answer to the last two questions was yes, and I got in.
Unfortunately I must have burned up all of my brain power on entering the tournament. My match started off with a guy who seemed like he was going to let me bully him. I did so for the first six or seven hands, taking them all down preflop except one, which I took on the flop. Then a hand came up where I had middle pair he started getting aggressive. When he raised me on the flop I thought "maybe he's just pissed because I'm steamrolling him and he's running one at me" so I called and then check-raised all-in on the turn when a blank came. He had top set, to which I was drawing dead, and I was down to very little in chips.
I should have just given the guy the hand when he bet a few hundred on the turn. The stacks were just right for a shove (all-in was almost exactly a pot sized raise, and he had only bet about 1/4th of his stack so he wasn't committed) but he seemed like the kind of guy who I probably could have walked through without much trouble. And those guys are the most likely to actually have a hand there. I wasn't too sure of any of that, because we hadn't been playing long, but most people in Stars heads up tournaments play that way. I should have just folded the turn and gone back to stealing his stack. Oh well.
No more WCOOP events for me for a couple days I guess. Tomorrow is something boring. Thursday I have to sit out because I have something in the evening I have to do. And then Friday is the $530 limit hold'em event.
Posted by themaroon at September 20, 2006 2:03 AM
Comments
I feel your pain, Matt. I was stealing blinds like it was my job in a SNG yesterday and then the guy woke up with a hand on me. Problem is, I was good enough to call if he was tilted and making a stand, and instead I came out of the hand crippled.
Good luck as you continue in WCOOP events.
Posted by: Chad at September 20, 2006 3:16 PM
I played a terrible HU match against a friend the other night. I was waiting for a larger tourney to start, so was already in an impatient mood. We very quickly got into a raising battle, and I couldn't improve. But I couldn't lay it down.. a combination of not believing him, knowing I was the better player, and impatience got the better of me. I got him in the next game though - losing really focuses the mind doesn't it? :)
Posted by: PokerBarney at September 21, 2006 9:04 AM
Heres a real basic question for ya, now that you've had some big swings what do you consider a good professional bankroll for limits 20/40+?
Love the blog, keep em coming.
Posted by: Bryan at September 21, 2006 6:56 PM
lol dude I told u the night before that it would fill and you should register. But I guess this makes a better blog entry.
Also, Friday's limit event is a $200 buyin.
Posted by: shaniac at September 21, 2006 9:28 PM