The Definition of Disappointment

I'll quickly start by updating the last No Limit Qualifier. Basically, I ran into a crazy Russian and a guy who knew he had him beat but totally forgot about me. I raised to 90 with aces, the crazy Russian (who had been raising and re-raising every pot) shoved all-in, a guy behind him shipped all-in, and I snapped call. The board runs out JT987. Crazy Russian has K5o, guy behind has AQ, and my aces are left in dust. Isn't poker fun?

The WBCOOP was really disappointing. I finished 254 out of 369 which is terrible. I basically played about as well as I could in the first hour and a half and then ran into a guy trying to give away his chips with the best hand (I'll explain in a bit). I eventually bluffed of my chips in my bustout hand and it was goodbye, see you next year for me! I'll give you guys and interesting hand, the idiot hand, and my idiot hand and then that will be the official closing of WBCOOP 2008 for me.

Blinds: 15/30 Stacks: Me- 5445 Villain- 4030
My Hand: AhKc
Villain raises to 90 and I just flat call. I do this for a few reasons. I don't really want to play a huge pot this deep and this early in the tournament. Also, I can either outplay my opponent or dump the hand if I miss.
Flop: 8s 3h 2h
Villain bets 150 and I float and call. I know the villain doesn't have the nut flush draw and I have backdoor hearts and most likely the best hand.
Turn: Kd Board: 8s 3h 2h Kd
Villain bets 420 and I call again. I'm pretty sure I have the best hand, but I don't want to raise and then get shoved on since I can only bet bluffs in that spot or maybe if he goes crazy with Kx but that isn't likely.
River: Js Board: 8s 3h 2h Kd Js
Villain checks and I bet 655. Villain folds! This is a pretty easy value bet. If villain has a set, KJ, and most likely any other 2 pair he is going to be betting this river, so it's an easy value bet here.

This next hand was where it started to head downhill. It's so sick that he just tried to give away his chips to me and actually thought he was drawing dead when he called.
Blinds: 50/100 ante 10 Stacks: Me- 5880 Villain- 2370
My hand: AsQh
Villain min raises to 200 and I just call. I probably should have 3-bet/called, but this should have worked out better. It didn't!
Flop: Tc 5h 4h
Villain bets 300 and I float just because I thought he had nothing.
Turn: Td Board: Tc 5h 4h Td
Villain bets 500 with 1400 behind. I was almost sure he had a big air ball and I raise to put him in. He does the whole gg shit and calls with Ace-King high. Yes, that's right Ace-King high. The river bricks and I lose a big portion of my chips. After the hand:
AlexFSK said, "indeed, i had too"
AlexFSK said, "lol i rly had him on a set haha"
Is he really that big of an idiot to call off all his chips thinking he was drawing dead? Can I really be mad if I make him think I have trip tens and then he calls off his chips like that? That is really frustrating. It was all downhill from there.

No fancy hand display for this one. Basically, I raised with KQs from utg with like 28 big blinds and got 2 calls. The flop came low cards and I c-bet and got one caller. I really thought he had like ace high and a gut shot and would flop if I check-raised him. I checked and he really under bet the pot which is really strong or really weak. In this case, it turned out to be really strong as he flipped over a set and had me drawing dead. Good game me!

I thought overall I played really well in the WBCOOP series. It's really frustrating to have the series end the way it did especially since I almost never put my tournament life on the line drawing dead. I know I'll bounce back from this defeat and make a big leap into 2009. The positive from WBCOOP is that I won two Step 3 tickets which I'm hopefully going to turn into two Step 4 tickets. If I win a step 4 ticket, that ticket is most likely going towards the Sunday Million or possibly a SCOOP event. Overall WBCOOP Grade: B-.

The whole next week I'm basically going to be taking it easy. That means no poker until next weekend. The Holiday tournaments on Full Tilt and Guinness World Records event on Poker Stars will bring me back to the felt. Hopefully, I can do well in those. I might try my Step 3's as the Sunday Million is a 2.5 Million Guarantee tournament. I'm still undecided on that decision. Anyways, I want to wish you and yours a very Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year. Peace!