WCOOP Events 4-6

I played all of today’s WCOOPs but only did anything notable in the $320 6-handed shootout. My starting table feature PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis, thankfully on my right, and four players I didn’t recognize. I’d been playing aggressively against Lex, generally with the best hand, and finally he’d had enough. I picked up QQ in the BB and got him to 4-bet all-in with A7o in the BB. With his chips in my stack it wasn’t too much trouble to get down to the heads up.

My opponent was pretty much an ideal heads up opponent. I felt totally in control of the match the entire time, since by the time two bets had gone into the pot I knew everything I needed to know about what he had and where I stood. I played extreme smallball with him because I was sure my edge was huge. At first he was only continuing past the flop if he had a pair, so I was c-betting everything and calling all of his pre-flop raises. Eventually he started continuation betting, but again I caught on so quickly to what he was doing that I started check-raising him and was back in control in no time. I polished him off and waited a solid hour and a half for the next match to start.

My second table was insanely aggressive. There was tons of 3-betting and even some light 4-betting in the first few levels. We saw it go 5 bets on a QQ7 flop, with the 4-better folding to a shove. I kept my head down and got paid off when I had big hands. With a little luck (to make the big hands), I got to the heads up, albeit with a 3:2 chip disadvantage.

This opponent started off pretty predictable, but he made a few hands and managed to keep his stack up until he eventually started adapting to me. It was almost like I’d “trained” him to play better. The things I’d been doing to take advantage of him stopped working quite as well. I was still finding edges, but they involved high-variance things like inducing light 3- and 4-bets on the flop. This was the first key hand of the match that tipped the chiplead to me:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 50/100 Blinds 10 Ante (2 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) (t12267)
BB (t17733)

Hero’s M: 72.16

Preflop: Hero is SB with 6♦, 7♦
Hero bets t200, BB raises to t625, Hero calls t425

Flop: (t1270) 3♠, 5♣, 8♦ (2 players)
BB bets t665, Hero calls t665

Turn: (t2600) J♣ (2 players)
BB bets t1345, Hero calls t1345

River: (t5290) 9♣ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t3333, BB calls t3333

Total pot: t11956

Results:
Hero had 6♦, 7♦ (straight, nine high).
BB mucked 5♥, 2♥ (one pair, fives).
Outcome: Hero won t11956

His call on the river is pretty insane. I guess 64 and 42 missed, but he even has a blocker to one of those! It’s just extremely unlikely that I show up with a bluff on this particular river card.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 50/100 Blinds 10 Ante (2 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) (t17368)
SB (t12632)

Hero’s M: 102.16

Preflop: Hero is BB with K♠, 7♥
SB bets t200, Hero calls t100

Flop: (t420) K♣, 5♣, 9♣ (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets t200, Hero raises to t666, SB raises to t1455, Hero calls t789

Turn: (t3330) 5♦ (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets t1544, Hero calls t1544

River: (t6418) 8♠ (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets t2898, Hero calls t2898

Total pot: t12214

Results:
SB had A♥, A♣ (two pair, Aces and fives).
Hero mucked K♠, 7♥ (two pair, Kings and fives).
Outcome: SB won t12214

If I made a big mistake in this match, it was this river call, although I really don’t mind it. I’d been check-raising him a ton on the flop, and as I said earlier he’d started re-raising me light. I expected him to be really polarized on the flop, either a hand he was willing to get all-in with or a bluff. I wasn’t sure whether that would include Ac X, but I doubted it. Importantly, I didn’t think he’d make this play with a better one-pair or even two-pair (not sure about a set, but obviously that’s a small part of hsi range regardless).

He had some tells with regard to his river sizing, and this sure looked like it was for thin value. Like I said, though, I didn’t expect many of those hands to be in his flop range. I was pretty confident he didn’t have a flush.

I’d also been folding to a lot of his river bets, which was because I believed he wasn’t bluffing in large pots. Still, at some point you’ve folded enough rivers that you start to wonder if maybe your opponent isn’t picking up on that, and this seemed like a really good spot to look him up. Among other things, my hand looks a good deal like a whiffed flush draw.

His hand made perfect sense when I saw it, and I think he played it perfectly against me. Still, I don’t hate my call, and I doubt it affected the outcome of the match, because most of the chips went in on a cooler:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 80/160 Blinds 20 Ante (2 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) (t16626)
SB (t13374)

Hero’s M: 59.38

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q♦, 10♦
SB bets t320, Hero raises to t1000, SB calls t680

Flop: (t2040) 4♥, 10♥, K♠ (2 players)
Hero bets t1336, SB calls t1336

Turn: (t4712) Q♠ (2 players)
Hero bets t3534, SB raises to t11018 (All-In), Hero calls t7484

River: (t26748) 3♦ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t26748

Results:
SB had K♣, Q♣ (two pair, Kings and Queens).
Hero had Q♦, 10♦ (two pair, Queens and tens).
Outcome: SB won t26748

At this point in the match Villian was calling 3-bets really light, so I was happy enough to hold QTs against him. Honestly I’m not thrilled to get the money in on the turn, but there are enough draws for him to put me on that I think he’s not getting away from one good pair, especially if he’s got a draw to go with it. I’m pretty sure he’s checking back his draws on the turn, so I don’t want to go for a check-raise. I think I just have to bet-get-it-in here, even though I had a feeling he was going to roll KQ. C’est la vie.

I have 20% of a guy who’s still in it with 31 players remaining, so I’ve still got a sweat! Bong bong bong!