WBCOOP Main Event

Hi everyone!

The WBCOOP is officially over. Since I did one post for each one of the tournaments I participated in, I couldn't leave out the biggest one: the main event!

The main event gathered 1009 players, being by far the biggest of the series. I played during over six hours so there were a loooot of interesting hands and spots. Since I can't review them all here, I chose those that in my opinion are the best 4.

The badbeat

So, action is folded to me. I'm on the cut-off with K8o and 57BBs. The player on the BB has about 3BBs left behind. The player on the SB is also kind of short with 14BBs. With all the antes and the blinds in the middle both of them should be more eager to gamble than the average so I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I had it coming. I raised 2,5x and got called by the SB. The flop came 6c-9h-Kc, a pretty favorable board for me. The SB checked and I bet 1,6k into a pot of 2,8k chips. The SB shoved over the top. I had to put 3320 chips to call and claim a 9,3k pot. Plus, I was holding top pair. And when the SB shoved, there was almost as much as his stack in the pot so I figured he shouldn't be in a tight range. He showed QJ of clubs... He was going either for a gutshot straight or for a flush. The very next card that hit was a ten and I lost. What can I say, I don't think I should have been in the hand in the first place so I got what I deserved... :P

The missplay

So there I am, with the chipleader of the tournament sitting at the other side of my table. I have 38BBs and get dealt a pair of pocket 77s in middle position. As expected, I min-raise against the chipleader's blind. Everyone folds and now it's up to him to talk. He re-raises me. I think about it a bit, the pot is 7700 and it's 3200 to call. I go with it. The board is 8-5-Q rainbow. He checks and I bet half the pot. That may sound weird, but that guy had been bluffing a lot and doing some strange plays. I thought my persistence would scare him away. The downside is, I've already invested 1/3 of my stack in this hand and I'm not even sure I'm ahead. He calls. Ooops! Okay, I'm probably behind here. The turn is a two and we both check. The pot is slightly bigger than my stack. The river is another five and this time he bets 8k. I know I'm most likely beat, but I have to give it a shot, I feel too committed. Guess what? He was holding pocket tens. No further comment, I misplayed this hand as much as humanly possible!

The suck-out

Okay, this is another epic one. I have ten big blinds and I catch ATo on UTG+1. The antes are huge, so there's a nice pot in the middle. Can't let go of this one. We're close to the bubble but we're not there yet. I really have to double up to make it into the money, and even then it's not guaranteed. But if I lose now, I walk away with nothing after so many hours of play... Finally, I shove... Nah, I'll spoil the surprise if I say more. Just watch the replay!

The exit

I'm on the big blind with 18BBs. We're already in the money and the chipleader of the table (same player I mentioned as chipleader before only now he's not 1rst of the tournament) raises 3x from the cut-off. I have A3o. Normally I would fold, but I've seen this guy min-raising 87o from UTG and bullying people around with his big stack and trash hands. An ace should be good against his range, so I shove over the top. Oooops, he called! It turns out, this particular time he wasn't bluffing or trying to steal anything. He was holding pocket Kings and raising for value! Unfortunately I never found my Ace (or the fifth card needed for a flush) so that was my last hand of the WBCOOP.

I placed 120th and got $9. I'm happy I got so deep in the tournament and even though what I won is far from the top prizes, it's still free money!

After I got eliminated I was feeling tired. I had been playing since I woke up and during those 6+ hours I forgot to have lunch. Thinking that it was probably better to go away from the computer a bit, I went to watch some TV and ordered a pizza. A couple of hours later, I went back to check what was going on in the main event and found twitter messages and the #WBCOOP hashtag bombarded with updates. The tournament had reached the final table and one of my twitter acquaintances, Tiger Cente, was actually in it! 

There were already a bunch of people railing for him and I joined the crowd. It was really fun to watch and cheer for him. Unfortunately I couldn't watch the whole thing until the end, I had to leave due to other obligations. When I got back, I was happy to find out that he took it down! Also, I had left the replayer open so even though it wasn't live, I saw how it all played out (only missed 22 hands). Here's a printscreen of the very last hand:

You can find Martin's blog here. Whenever they ask him what was his best Pokerstars moment from now on, I bet he'll have a new story to tell. There's nothing left to say except... Congratulations to Tiger Cente from India, WBCOOP 2013 Main Event Champion!!!