WCOOP Main Event

After a great series, the Main Event was a real disappointment. I cashed in 14 of the 40 preliminary WCOOP events that I played, and although I didn’t have any especially deep runs, I felt good about putting myself in position to go deep so many times.

The Main got … Read full post

Stealing Dynamics in Razz

Disclaimer: Just a reminder that I am a decidedly non-expert Razz player, so take this post as my attempting to muddle through a somewhat unfamiliar game with my general poker knowledge rather than a confident statement of sound Razz strategy.

Villain is a well-known Australian pro, a very successful tournament … Read full post

Bummer

I made Day 2 of the $200 Sunday Warm-Up WCOOP, which, with only 109 of 8000+ entrants making it even that far, was an achievement in its own right. My hopes weren’t especially up, as I was one of the shorter stacks with about 16 big blinds to start the … Read full post

Taking the Initiative

I’m often asked about donk betting or when to take the initiative away from an opponent who’s been betting or raising. My usual answer is that you should bet when you have reason to think your opponent is unlikely to bet the next street and you don’t want to give … Read full post

Bottom of My Range + Blockers = Bomb It

This was from the $215 rebuy WCOOP. Villain is a Zoom regular, we’ve played a few hundred hands together there and I think he’s pretty good. I imagine he has some respect for me as well.

PokerStars – $200+$15|60/120 Ante 15 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by … Read full post

Finding New Ways to Run Bad

I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve called with a bluff-catcher and lost to a hand my opponent thought he was bluffing with. I’ve been on the good end of such situations a bit more often, including at the final table of the FTOPS that I … Read full post

Poking the Bear

This is from the $215 4-max WCOOP event. Villain is Chris Moorman. In my experience, this sort of “blatant” continuation betting tends to provoke LAGs, because they want to be the ones picking up all of the pots where no one has anything, and of course that’s going to happen … Read full post

Episode 95: Ryan Laplante

Andrew gives us an update from Montreal, where he is grinding theWorld Championship of Online Poker on PokerStars. He is then joined by Nate and guest Ryan Laplante to talk about backing, turbo variance, grinding at a high volume, and more.

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I’ve Made a Huge Mistake

This is probably the dumbest thing I’ve done all WCOOP. Villain is Pascal Lefrancois. I don’t know much about him except that he’s very good. This is just a classic example of what not to do when you have a big stack in a very soft tournament. Just flatting his … Read full post

PLO8 WCOOP Bustout Hand

I’m too tired to try to pick out the most interesting hand of the tournament, so here’s the one I busted on. I’d be curious to hear from those who know more about this game whether I might be better off just calling flop. FWIW Villain is Caio Pimento, who’s … Read full post

An Interesting Stud/8 Hand

The Stud/8 situations I find most interesting are often those where you have what looks like a low hand but is actually a high hand or vice versa. I’ll post the hand first then say a few things about it:

Poker Stars $300+$20 Limit Stud Hi/Lo Tournament – t100/t200 Limit … Read full post

Checking the Nut Flush Draw

This is something I do sometimes. There are often exploitive reasons for it, but I do also think it’s good to be capable of making a flush on the turn when you check back the flop. This hand from the $300 Ante Up WCOOP illustrates why:

PokerStars – $300+$20|5/5 Ante … Read full post

Crucial WCOOP Double-Up

This was from the first table of the $300 6-handed NLHE shoot-out. Villain is a very successful tournament player but in my opinion not fundamentally solid. Basically he’s learned how to take advantage of a lot of common weaknesses found in MTT players but is slow to adapt and back … Read full post

Heroic WCOOP Fold

I got the WCOOP off to a decent start today, ultimately busting Event 1 ($109 full ring NLHE) and Event 3 ($215 Sunday Million replacement) on coin flips and min-cashing Event 2 ($215 6-handed). Early in Event 2 I made a pretty nitty river fold that I think is interesting … Read full post