Although I didn’t play any poker on Thursday either, Saturday actually felt more like a proper birthday celebration. I’ve got this friend Luis who lives in Montreal, with whom I’ve always met up once or twice whenever I was in … Read more…
My birthday always falls during WCOOP, so it’s been a long time since I took it as a vacation day. But this year’s events felt more skippable than usual (the only thing I was really tempted to play was the … Read more…
I know it’s been a while, but I’m so close to finishing this review I figure I might as well go the distance. The only WCOOP event I played on this particular Wednesday was the $500 6-Max Progressive Knock-Out. I … Read more…
There was a $2100 Super Tuesday WCOOP, but I ended up not playing because I began my session at 7AM with the $215 6-Max Rebuy, and because other things were going well, I’d been playing straight through from then until … Read more…
Monday was going to be a day off, but since I was going to be playing Day 2 of the $109 anyway, I decided to reg a few other tournaments, including the $530 NLHE WCOOP. That one got off to … Read more…
I planned my schedule around the $2K (naturally), so I registered the warm-up quite late. That gave me time to go for a bike ride and a pastry in town before starting work for the day. I got off to … Read more…
I slept poorly on Thursday night, probably a combination of adrenaline from making a significant final table with drinking caffeine later than usual (because of the final table) and replaying (ok, beating myself up over) some key hands in my … Read more…
I was excited for the $215 6-max that started at 10AM. Most of the short-handed events so far in the series had been higher buy-ins, and I was looking forward to the opportunity to play short with some weaker players. … Read more…
I took Tuesday as a proper vacation day. Emily and I drove to Mont Tremblant, a ski resort about 45 minutes north of where we’re staying, to hike and get dinner. It was a nice drive deeper into the mountains, … Read more…
I’d considered taking Monday off, but I was in the mood to play and I planned to take Tuesday off, so I went ahead and played. Nothing too eventful – this was probably the most interesting pot. Don’t think I … Read more…
Friday the 8th was an off day for me. I ran some errands and also went for another ride on the P’tit Train du Nord bike path. The weather was gray and intermittently rainy, as it had been since our … Read more…
Yes, I’m behind. And there’s no Day 4 because I took Wednesday off. So here we are. The day off (it wasn’t a proper day off, as I did do some studying, but no playing) was nice. Emily and I … Read more…
The $215 rebuy started with a bang, as I got all in on the flop on the very first hand holding KJ vs QJ on JJT, only to get rivered for a stack. Not really a big deal, it was … Read more…
Emily and I did some extensive grocery shopping in the morning, returning in just enough time for me to squeeze in a quick workout before the start of the $1050 Progressive Knock-Out. I late registered the $215 PLO around the … Read more…
I’m once again in Quebec for the World Championship of Online Poker. This year, though, Emily is with me, and instead of Montreal, we’re in the Mont-Tremblant region, which is a sort of resort area in the mountains west of … Read more…
Sorry but we don’t have a new podcast episode this week. That’s mostly due to my being busy with WCOOP stuff, so we should be able to get a show ready for next week. I wanted to share a hand … Read more…
I was hoping to post more hands during WCOOP, but detailed write-ups just aren’t what I’m in the mood for after a long day of playing. So, I’m going to start posting some hands without a lot of commentary. I … Read more…
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 … Read more…
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 … Read more…
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 … Read more…
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 … Read more…
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, … Read more…
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 … Read more…
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 … Read more…
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 … Read more…
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 … Read more…
Notice that I begin this hand with about 21 BBs. I’d often 3-bet larger than this from out of position, but here I’m not that worried about pricing something in. There aren’t many hands that can take advantage of those … Read more…
Thanks to everyone who commented on my first WCOOP review hand. Among other things, it helps me realize how the hand looks to people who don’t already know the results (though some of you probably assumed them from the way, … Read more…
I’m reviewing my play in the WCOOP and figured I’d bring you all into the conversation for a few of these spots. This one was from a $200 6-max, I’d been at the table less than an orbit so no … Read more…
In my essay Gray Friday, I talked about how online poker has contributed to my increasingly heavy reliance on the internet: “The more time I spend on the internet, the more disdainful I become of the physical world. I work … Read more…
If you’ve been following my WCOOP posts, then you know that there were definitely times when I got impatient and tried to force things: questionable bluffs, ambitious value bets, spazzy shoves, excessively heroic calls, I made every mistake in the … Read more…
The last Friday of WCOOP was also my birthday. For the second year in a row, I spend it in a foreign country playing a card game online. Specifically, this was my 30th birthday, and while I don’t generally put … Read more…
The $300 NLHE started at 6AM, so I let myself wake up whenever I woke up and then late registered it. I mentioned having a bit of a revelation on Sunday that I wasn’t adapting well to the amount of … Read more…
After bubbling the final table of the $300 2x Chance, I took the rest of Tuesday off, choosing Boardwalk Empire and the last of my Quebecois microbrews over the $1K NLHE. So, I woke up refreshed and ready for a … Read more…
This was actually the third Sunday of the WCOOP, but since I didn’t get to Montreal until Tuesday of the first week, it was my second. It was also my thirteenth day without a break, which would have been a … Read more…
Round 1 vs. Liv Boeree I wish I had a specific example of this to give – perhaps the hand below will serve – but I got the distinct impression during our match that Liv was capable of playing extremely … Read more…
Unfortunately there’s been a delay with the next episode of the Thinking Poker Podcast, which was scheduled to be the subject of today’s blog post. I’m not sure when that will be available, so until it is, I’ll continue my … Read more…
I’ve gotten pretty far behind on my daily WCOOP/Montreal reports, but now that the series is over, I’ve got more time (and not so much else to blog about!), so let’s pick up where we left off. My last of … Read more…
I began Day 2 of the $300 2x Chance WCOOP as 3/22 and was pretty pumped about the idea of making the second WCOOP final table of my career (the first was a 4th 3rd place finish in the 2010 $500 1R1A event). … Read more…
Wednesday started with the $200 Ante Up. My first cooler was similar to the A2 hand I posted yesterday, in that it may actually have been possible to get away more cheaply if I’d hero-folded to an awfully suspicious check-raise: … Read more…
With no poker to play until the 5PM $1000 NLHE WCOOP, I made a second trip to the Jean-Talon Market. Perhaps I burned up all of my run-good, because I found a bike at the second Bixi station on my … Read more…
Saturday’s storm brought on a precipitous drop in temperature that was immediately noticeable on Sunday morning. I like mornings, especially Sunday mornings, and I like Autumn, especially when the air is crisp and just a little chilly. I made coffee … Read more…
My first few days in Montreal felt like summer. They were hot, sunny, and sticky. Autumn came suddenly over the weekend, though, and it feels like it is here to stay. I woke to grey skies on Saturday morning. With … Read more…
This hand is from Sunday’s $530 WCOOP Second Chance tournament. We’re not particularly close to the money. Table isn’t great but the structure is and there is one big soft spot to Hero’s immediate left. Villain is 17/15 with 10% … Read more…
Friday was to be not quite a day off from poker but a light day. I planned to play only one WCOOP event, the $320 NLHE with 10-minute levels that started at 5 in the afternoon Montreal time. On a … Read more…
The PLO8 WCOOP event began at 6AM my time on Thursday. I tend to wake early anyway, so I didn’t set an alarm but expected to be up in time to late register it. By 7:30 I was at my … Read more…
With my first tournament, the $320 Ante Up, not starting until 11, I had a leisurely Wednesday morning. It was a beautiful day, bright and crisp, and The Plateau, the neighborhood where my Montreal apartment is located, looked lovely as … Read more…
I arrived in Montreal just before 1PM yesterday, eager, despite last year’s frustrations, to get started on my WCOOP grind. This was my first time flying into Canada, having previously driven across the border. No exaggeration, there were easily 2000 … Read more…
I suppose my main event was a fitting end to the series and a paradigmatic WCOOP experience. In the early stages I plundered the satellite qualifiers, going on an early rush that made me chipleader with 1400 players remaining. Over … Read more…
This was one of the more frustrating events I played, probably because it came on the tail end of so many other frustrations. I played for nearly 7.5 hours and finished in something like 140th place with 108 paying. This … Read more…
Sorry for the lack of posts on here. It’s just that I’ve been playing so much poker that when I’m finished I don’t feel like spending another half-hour at the computer putting together a blog post. Also I haven’t done … Read more…
Round 1 My first opponent was a guy I didn’t recognize from China. Before cards were even dealt, he typed “lololol pro so cool”. Based on that alone, I predicted that he was going to give me no credit and … Read more…
The biggest news is that fellow PokerStars Team Online member and old-school MTT forum member Shane “Shaniac” Schleger won the 2-7 Triple Draw WCOOP yesterday! My excitement for him was tempered only slightly when I double-checked the terms of our … Read more…
I don’t have much of interest to report from the other WCOOPs I’ve played recently, which were the $1K NLHE and the $500 NLHE Triple Shootout. I registered 2.5 hours late for the 8-Game but ended up running up a … Read more…
I’m really upset at myself for spewing off my stack in the 4-max. It’s such a fun tournament, especially in the early stages when everyone is really deep and trying to play loose aggressive. Many otherwise good tournament players are … Read more…
I was really kicking ass in this thing, had twice-average stack of 150 BBs approaching the bubble, and then it all went to shit in about 25 hands. This was the first one that took a big chunk out of … Read more…
I didn’t last too long in this one but ran one kind of interesting bluff that I ended up bailing on (which I think is the most interesting part): PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 109 Tournament, 30/60 Blinds (9 handed) – PokerStars … Read more…
I played so badly in the $265 that there weren’t even hands worth posting. Here are some interesting ones from the Second Chance, though. The Villains in Hand 1 both have nitty pre-flop stats, so I think 7’s are extremely … Read more…
I’m not a great Razz player, but you really don’t need to be to do well in a large-field Razz tournament. I like to break the players down into two categories: those who understand the basic strategy of the game … Read more…
I love this game. For those who don’t, the blinds are always 5 and 5, but the antes get progressively larger every level. So what you end up with is a large pre-flop pot but no one player any more … Read more…
Edit: Oh snap! I just saw that Villain in this hand went on to win the tournament! And it was his second WCOOP bracelet. Congratulations 2FLY2TILT! I skipped the PL Draw event because I don’t know how to play that … Read more…
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, … Read more…
It’s a clear and lovely evening here in Canmore, great for unwinding after a long day of poker. I played both of the $200 WCOOP events today but didn’t last long in either. Honestly I consider that a fine result. … Read more…
It was a good table draw but a bad tournament for me. The only player I recognized from the start was Jason Strasser, who is of course very very good but was thankfully seated two to my right. Everyone else … Read more…
Believe it or not there weren’t too many interesting hands from yesterday’s WCOOP. I was always at really aggressive tables, so generally the best strategy for me was to hunker down and play good cards. Here was one sort of … Read more…
After 14.5 hours, I managed to take 3rd out of 1066 runners in the $500 1 Rebuy 1 Add-on. It was a very very tough tournament from start to finish. I at least felt like I had a much more … Read more…