Once in a Blu Moon

Friday, July 22, 2005

New PokerStars Bonus and the WCOOP

In honor of the WCOOP, Pokerstars is offering a 20% reload bonus up to $120. It goes from 07/21/05 to 07/28/05 and the playthrough is 5 FPP's for every dollar released. What is nice about PokerStars' bonuses is that they never expire, can be stacked, and you get FPP's for tournaments and SNG's as well as the regular ring games.

I played in another WCOOP Qual last night. $5+0.50 (rebuys, add-on) NLH MTT. 178 peeps - 12 $215 seats, 3 other cash payouts. I went card dead for the entire rebuy hour and only had T4700 to start the freeze out portion. I survived 3 all-in's with my short stack to get up to T15000 with 30 remaining but the average stack was T29000. I get AKo in 5th position with the blinds 600/1200 and after UTG limps, it gets to me and I pop it to T5000. The SB calls as does the limper. Flop comes 7 7 K - the SB checks, limper bets my exact stack remaining (T10090) which I hate but call hoping he has QQ or JJ. The SB folds and he turns over the monster Q7s - I'm out in 29th wasting almost 3 hours. I should have pushed all-in preflop is my guess when I look back at the hand. I have a problem not being aggressive enough in the later stages sometimes and it drives me nuts!

One thing I noticed last night was the lack of peeps that could play a short stack effectively. Correct me if I am way off here, but I am usually aggressive if I am short, because I believe it gives you the best chance to get back into the tourney. For example, last night I was a short stack with T3775 - blinds 300/600 ante 50 - and in LP I get 33. Average stack around T12000 and I had one limper in front of me and 2 peeps yet to act. I feel if you are down to 6-8 times the BB then you need to find a coinflip situation and go for it so I pushed all-in. Everyone folds back to the limper who calls with A10s - exactly what I wanted to see (vs an overpair). He gets no help and I more than double up to T8900. Still under the average but at least I have 15 BB's now. I can't say how many times I see peeps have 6-8 BB's and limp in preflop. Don't do it. What if someone raises behind you? Can u call? Put the pressure on the rest of the table - make them make the tough decision to call. Go out fighting - as Fossilman told Wil, be happy with your decisions. If you come out on top - cool - if not, it happens - look to the next tourney.

L8r...


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Tuesday, July 19, 2005

WCOOP Qualifiers

I started playing in some WCOOP qualifiers on Stars Sunday night. They haven't come out with alot of free FPP tournies yet, but they are running alot of smaller buy-in rebuy MTT's.

I played in a $10+1 (rebuys, add-on) PL Omaha Sunday - 160? or so peeps, 18 $215 seats - busted 53rd - had 8867 flop 8 3 4 got a guy to call my all-in with AAJ10 and rivers an A.

Played again last night - same format $10+1 (rebuys, add-on) PL Omaha - 103 peeps 13 seats - survived an all-in with 16 left and scratched my way into a seat. So I am technically qualified for event #2, but I unregistered for the $215. I figure I will unregister as I qualify over the next couple weeks to see how much I can accumulate, and then buy-in to the events I can play.

All the weekday events start at 0300p est which makes it hard for us working zombies doing the 9-6 shift but I will make time if I get enough qualifying $$.

See ya on the felt...

Blu


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