Tuesday 12 March 2013

WBCOOP Wrap Up

Hi everyone!

I couldn't say goodbye to the WBCOOP series without making a wrap up post about it and letting you know what I thought of it. This was my first year participating. I remember seeing it last year, but then I decided to not participate because I was just getting back to playing poker and my blog had been inactive for more than half a year.


This year, I decided I'd give it a try. I thought it would be fun and didn't think it would be a big deal if next to my grinding tables I had one MTT going. I'd make a small blog post here and there and that would be it. Boy, was I wrong!

Early in the WBCOOP week my grinding was thrown out of the window. I guess it depends on how much each one of us decides to get involved, but I found this series to be quite addictive. I'd play the tournaments and since they were MTTs they took a significant amount of time. Then, I had to write my blog posts which included reviewing hands and sometimes that took me more time than what I spent playing the tournament. When I was not playing or writing, I was checking other people's blogs. When I was running out of new posts to read, I'd check what were the latest tweets. And in between all that, I'd drop by the leaderboard and check what was going on there and who was ahead. In a few words, I was hooked

Results

I think it's in order for my last WBCOOP post to have a summary of all of my finishes. My profit was $9 and $49,5 worth of tickets. Not bad for an MTT newbie! Here's the list:

Event 08: 297 out of 570
Event 13: 95 out of 497 - $5,50 ticket
Event 15: 227 out of 401
Event 19: 33 out of 292 - $16,50 ticket
Event 20: 281 out of 374
Event 21: 19 out of 340 - $11 ticket
Event 23: 161 out of 509
Event 27: 338 out of 422
Event 29: 231 out of 619
Event 30: 22 out of 516 - $16,50 ticket
Main Event: 120 out of 1009 - $9

Organisation

Okay, probably not everything went 100% as it was supposed to. There were a few technical problems with tickets arriving late, or some people getting more than 10 tickets or tickets disappearing from accounts. These things unfortunately do happen, but it was eventually sorted out since only the first 10 tournaments of each participant would count towards the leaderboard and those who "lost" tickets got them back. 

Another issue came up with those who participated. The rules clearly stated that participants should make a 500 word blog post or a short video about their best Pokerstars moment. They also stated that the blog should be at least one month old and regularly updated. I'm copy pasting from the WBCOOP terms and conditions "We may seek and/or request evidence of this requirement to ensure compliance with these Rules." What I understand from this sentence (I may be wrong) is that Pokerstars did not hand pick who was fit to participate and who was not. They must have had well over one thousand entries, I can't imagine them checking (and reading) every single blog before they sent the tickets. The bottom line is, we're supposed to be adults. If you're a blogger, this event is for you. If you're not, then you should not take part in it. It's as simple as that. Pokerstars is not the school principal that will have us grounded when we misbehave. Each one of us should be responsible for their own acts. Which brings me to my next subject.

Behavior

Unfortunately there was some bad behavior, both on and off the tables. It made me sad to see once again people blaming the site, the other players, the cards, the VIP status, the weather, basically anything apart from bad luck or their poor play. I understand the feeling of frustration, but there's a limit to everything. Insulting others won't get you anywhere and it certainly won't get your chips back. At forums and blogs, I saw people complaining about having an old blog and not participating in the WBCOOP while others that created a new one did. You guys did the right thing by not participating cause your blog was not in compliance with the rules. Be proud of it instead of feeling bad cause others broke the rules. Also, if you think something about the event is not right try to say so in a constructive way, so as to help make it better. At least there were a few people who even though they had a negative opinion, they expressed it tactfully. This paragraph only concerns a small percentage, I think that most bloggers can actually speak properly instead of just insult, but still I had to put it out there.

Twitter

Apart from all the money to be earned at the tables and the leaderboard, the WBCOOP advertised two ways of winning: blogging and tweeting. I decided right away that twitter was not for me. I had an account but to be honest, I hardly knew how it worked. If you asked me 10 days ago what a hashtag is, I wouldn't have an answer. Yet when I logged in to see what was going on, I didn't want to leave. The community that I discovered at #WBCOOP is simply amazing. People from all over the word came together to share a common interest: playing poker. It's hard to stay back watching and not participate. Before I knew it, I was part of tweeterland! A big thank you to everyone for a super twitter-week. You guys are awesome! Oh, and good luck to Liam (@Rubikscube91) for the best tweeter award. If it was up to me, I'd give it to him here and now. Live coverage, stats, graphs, cheering up and always positive attitude, he is twitter-crazy! :)

Conclusion

The WBCOOP was for sure a lot more than I had expected. I discovered new poker blogs, found new interesting people, heard a lot of stories about good moments playing this game, wrote a lot of blog posts, tried out new poker formats,  had lots of fun... Oh, and I got some money in the process. Thanx Pokerstars for this great event! WBCOOP 2014? Can't wait! :)

12 comments:

  1. Hi Kat,

    thanks a lot for your review. Thanks again for commenting my blog entry related to the registry process. This way, I found your blog.

    Like you I prefer not to insult anyone but to point with style on things which went wrong in my opinion. So, pre-WBCOOP I published a post saying what the WBCOOP might be. And - after recognizing several things going into the opposite direction - what it shouldn't. I have chosen a parable to visualize my disappointment - and no harsh comments or blunt insults. No, dudesssss, that's not our territory, is it? :)

    I enjoyed reading your blog and will put it into my blog roll. This way, a darkened post got a shiny part, too.

    Besides: PokerStars didn't answer my mails yet. As written, I won't spend more energy on finding the reason. I'll put my efforts on my dancing - blogging.

    Beste Gröten, Nico

    P.S. Probably it's you getting the best blogger award? It would suit you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Nico,

      Thank you for your comment and for visiting my blog! I'm glad you enjoyed reading it. I've added your blog to my blogroll too, you should make more posts in english! I hope you're right about the best blogger award, hehe! We'll just have to wait and see!

      Delete
    2. Yvw. Yeah, blogging in English makes fun. But my main audience speaks German. Still wondering what might happen if I change my main blog language into English. I hope you enjoyed your visits.

      Cheers & rock on, dudesssss! Nico

      Delete
  2. Hey Katerina,

    Congrats on the win! Great blog!

    Raiser

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dudess, all the best for winning the lady title. I have to admit I don't like this crown. There shouldn't be a separation between the price money the best male and female blogger gets. In my opinion you'd deserve the best blogger title, too, followed by an ammount with an additional Zero.

    Rock on, Mylady.

    /nic

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Nico,

      From what I was informed by Pokerstars, my blog was actually one of those considered for overall best blogger so I guess they don't separate male from female bloggers. A female blogger could potentially win the big award, just didn't happen this time.

      Thank you a lot for your support though, I really appreciate it! :D

      Delete
  4. Hi Katerina,

    Just wondering how many tables do you play at a time when you do a 6max hyper satellite session?

    Thanks,
    Dan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Dan, I play up to 12 tables.

      Delete
    2. Thats cool, i am looking to start playing them again. I had a bad time playing the $3.75 1s loosing quite alot when playing more tables which stressed me out.
      So need to up my game and learn a bit more about them.

      What sort of bankroll would you need to play the $9 and the $18.75 ones?

      Thx

      Delete
    3. Hey Dan,

      I would go with around 100 buy-ins of the stakes you are playing, although that's kind of aggressive and some people would disagree and go for 200 or more. You can read more about my bankroll management when I was starting in this post http://fromzerotopoker.blogspot.pt/2012/08/and-beat-goes-on.html

      Good luck!

      Delete
  5. Ok thanks for the help, hopefully get better at 12 tabling for a start then build up the roll and maybe see you at the tables

    ReplyDelete

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