WCOAP 2013 TR
Please be aware this will be proberly a TL;DR post for most of you!
Thursday:After an early morning wake up call i say my goodbyes to the better half, dog etc and jump in the car to avoid traffic and tbh i felt like a kid at xmas. After a torrid year i was looking forward to the festival a lot more than i usually would so couldnt wait to get on the road.
Arriving in Gotham (yes, what a cool village name) i am greeted by Dave Howard and Chris Webber in our little house that we have rented for the week. Firstly i must say thanks to DH for arranging this, as i must say it was such a great idea to actually not have to be stuck between the cardroom and a hotel room all day every day.
It didnt take long for the degen in us to come out and, whilst awaiting the arrival of our 4th member (Dave Pilkington aka Funtime Kev) we decided to hit the shop and stock up on supplies. Kev arrives and myself and Chris decided to play Whist and 8 Card for 10p a point. Now i had learnt the games upon arrival but was more than happy to start splashing the cash and managed to crush Chris by 50 points (god knows how) and book my 1st win of the series.
The whole house were regged for the Stud event, and Chris" 30 min read of Stud Super System seemed crucial as he cruised to the FT finishing 6th. Pretty impressive performance for his 2nd ever game of stud. This also put the pressure on the house as he runs into the lead in our "POTS" Bet (although only myself and DH have money on this side bet).
I, however, had to watch all these people making monsters whilst i made a pair twice in a silly amount of hours!
I also get a stint with Tighty commentating on the Team Omaha SNG, which was great fun but less than exciting for the viewer as most players had been told to nit it up (quite rightly so) by their captains and the graphics kept playing up. Still think i managed to trundle through that unscatched!
We return to the house, and find ourselves playing 4 handed cash games till the very early hours. The games of choice being OXO and Irish Poker.
For those that havent heard of these before i will give a brief run down.........
OXO - a 5 card omaha game in which the final board mimics a Noughts and Crosses board. The flop are the 4 corner cards, the turn are the four cards that fills the gaps and the river the centre card. This means that there are 8 boards you can play to win.
Irish - Same as Holdem but you start with 3 cards and discard 1 on the flop.
Stakes are 5p/10p and the games are pot limit, however that doesnt stop numerous straddles and a silly amount of the money being flung around the table.
After back to back quad
in OXO i manage to book a 450bb win, as well as "Kev" winning 1 decent pot (50bb) and then nitting it up to lock his profit (earning the "Funtime" element of his new name!)
Friday:Wake up with the worst migrane i have ever experienced, sigh, but the house in high spirits and eager to crack the 6 max. All 4 housemates regged and ready, i find my table and cant say im overly chuffed with it as find Dean Pearson, Adam Sharples and 2 others that i dont know names of, but know there quality. Normally i would revel in a tough table, but with a bad head i woulda rathered a table full of soft players so i have no decisions to make.
I kinda get my wish as i manage to chip up ok early on and then become card dead for what felt like an eternity. Playing 16bbs it folds to Adams btn and he raises again, i see
and it looks like Aces....i reship the SB as feel he knows i havent played a hand in a while. Sadly i am against the top of his range
but get there on the river to bust him (UL Pal)
As the bubble approaches i have double average (100k) and get moved to a solid table, luckily i am on the right of Polly Timson? (Best player i played against all festival) and some guy whose name escapes me (Dan something). I decide to get tricky in a couple of spots and chip up more.
Hand 1:
Dan raises the C/O to 4100 (blinds 1/2) and i elect to smooth the btn with
. We are both 50bb + deep and there has been a dynamic for last 30 mins or so. He has cbet 80% of pots he has opened, and does so on a
flop (4800) so i click it back to 10k and he mucks.
I think this hand is interesting as i usually 3bet the btn, but as we were so deep i wanted to keep control of the hand as best i could. Early in the comp im 3betting 100% of the time as i want to build the pot with strong hands when blinds are low. If the villian is playing 20bb or less, i 3 bet as i wanna get it in pre and this allows me to do so. I just see no value in 3betting here bloating the pot, and defining my hand. If i do so i can be in a sick spot if i raise the TT4 flop and he calls/jams/etc and he is more likely to do so if perceptive enough to read the situation.
Hand 2:
Same villian raises the C/O to 4100 again and i smooth
on btn. The short stack is in the bb with 13bb, so i am hoping he squeezes pre (otherwise i would just 3bet to iso the raiser in position) however the shorty peels (??)
Flop is
(weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee)
BB checks, OR cbets 7k and i smooth again. Im figuring the Bb is gonna fold his 10bb stack and that the OR prob has a peice of the board here, raising isnt great for me as i fold out the bottom of his range.
With my smooth the BB shoves his bowl in and the OR dwell folds (sigh) I call and he shows
. Turn is the case T and i win with Quads.
The
on turn is a gin card for me if the OR is still in the hand (not because i have the nuts) but it improves his hand significantly if he has the middle/bottom of his range. ie A9 now becomes 2 pair top kicker etc.
Anyhow, after these 2 hands i quickly become card dead and find the first unopened spot to shove blind for 14bbs.
The CL (and eventual winner) calls from the SB and flicks over
, i have
and although picking up lots of outs on turn, miss them all and finish 16/211 for £183 (mincashaments!)
I go home to bed as still feeling poo, but remind Dave that i am now leading in our POTS Prop bet!!! Weeeeeeeeeeee
Not thinking about poker, just all the Bilbo Baggins/Tim Canterbury references on the threads and the fact that i got crushed in the pool earlier in the morning by Darren!
SaturdayTime for the HORSE!!!! Weeeeeeeeeeee. The rest of the house were playing the Main, so a great chance for me to grab some more POTS points, and maybe a bracelet?! I am also excited to meet the enigma that is Perry, DH and CW"s friend who is now coming up this afternoon, awesome! One more degen in the house!
My pre game tactic for the Horse was to avoid the Omaha portion as i feel my edge in it is definatly the smallest and concentrate on the Razz and Stud elements which proved to work early on. Sadly i kept picking up hands in omaha only to be bested on the river and bust fairly early. Sadly for the house both Dave and Chris bust the main too so its looking a grim day for "Team Gotham" altho Kev is still grinding the main.
Chris and I decide to play the Cash Championship and Dave decides to pick up Perry from the station.
The cash championship went well for us both, despite my grim table draw. I have Liam Batey to my left and Chinese Frankie on the table too, plus a few solid players i recognise - sigh. Things start to look up for me as Liam loses a few pots but then spins ~£50 into £500 pretty quick and with him to my right thats never good.
I manage to spin £100 into £237 but place 9th in the standings so am the FT bubble
although more POTS points for the prop bet locked. The only downside to this was that i hadnt taken my reload where as some of the FT"s had bust in the 1st 3 hrs, rebought and just pipped me. Would like to see, going forward, that rule chaged as my ROI is higher and if allowed to add the £100 at the end of the 3hrs i lock a place up ahead of others that were in for £100 more than myself.
Last 20 mins were crazy for me, as i had done a quick count and figured i was in 9th so needed to win some pots. I preceeded to pick up AA,AA,QQ back to back to back and not see a flop and also flopped 4 sets and perfect boards - eg
on
and get no action.
I then call the preflop raise of £4 for the last 10 hands and wiff each flop, thinking i needed one more decent pot but sadly 4 of my table had the FT locked up so werent parting with their money.
Ian Gascoigne winning that 3 way all in means he pips me by £11 and i go to the commantary both with Dave, Perry and Kinboshi to commentate on the best FT i have ever had the chance to watch.
Chris is 2nd in chips when it starts and is disgustingly carddead throughout however with some Cold 5 betting of
and the lucky "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle" pyjamas of mine he is fashioning (propbets the ftw) manages to get into 1st place with 30 mins left on the clock.
Sadly for Chris, Steve and Yannis get into a £1k plus pot when Steve turns his
into a bluff on the river only to be called by worse, and scoops. Seriously, if you get chance watch the stream and look at that hand. It is amazing, i think we amounted hours of discussion within our house about it, and it so good by both players on so many levels!!
Congrats to Steve on his 2nd Bracelet! and Chris on his 2nd FT and Silver Medal (+ his £££ win!)
SundayMain Event for me and Perry, Omaha Dave and Kev whilst Razz for Chris as he decides to reg to lock up POTS.
Daves torrid festival continues as he busts the Omaha pretty quickly as does Perry in the Main Event. To ensure its not a wasted trip, Perry late regs the Omaha and begins to crush. Funtime Kev is one of the early ChipLeaders in the Omaha but busts pretty deep in the field.
The Main for me seemed pretty ABC for the most part, as i wasnt picking up premiums thus avoiding any big decisions for the most part.
I chipped up pretty effortlessly and managed to get the better of Kerian Plater (Stud Bracelet Winner) in back to back pots to put myself up to the 100k mark.
I then move tables and dont really get involved until i pick up AKcc and get it in vs a Ladies QQ for 200k pot in the last level of the day but (as per usual!!!) i lose the flip and am left with 40k for my sins. As day 1b approaches its close i manage to win a flip with
vs
when the board runs out
and end the day on 103.5k which is average.
In this time Chris has FT bubbled the Razz (1st time ever playing the game i believe) and Perry has bested the 100+ runner field to take the Omaha bracelet and the £1.6k 1st prize.
That evening we play more rediculous cash at the house including "Super XL OXO Uppy Downy" which is a varient of the traditional OXO that we just invented. Basically the deck is shuffled with half the cards face up and half face down, so that dependent on what you are dealt some or all of your hand could be visable to the table. However in XL OXO the flop is the whole 9 card board we see in traditional OXO, the turn is an extra 7 cards making the board 4 x 4 and the river an extra 9 cards making the board 5 x 5. Stupid eh? Well the other thing to remember is that the board is from the same deck so some of it is face up, some face down.
We see Funtime Kev hit a Runner Runner Runner on the river to best Dave"s Full House, to add to Mr Howards Painful weekend.
At this point it is now suggested that due to our dominance of the weekend, and the location that we are staying at, that we shall now be known as Team Gotham.
Dave Howard is Batman
Chris Webber is Robin
Dann Williams is The Joker
Michael Perry is The Riddler
Funtime Kev (aka David Pilkington) is Penguin
MondayArrive at DTD to find out that all 64 remaining runners in the Main Event have now cashed, locking up my 3rd cash of the series and pretty much crushing my sidebet with Dave for our POTS Race. We rush to get Chris into the Headsup as he must be top of the POTS with his 2 FTs and i sit down for the Main Event Day 2.
Nothing happens for the first few orbits and i chip down to 95k ish as the other shorties get involved. I have to be careful as a few shorties to my left, and dont want too be put into any marginal decisions if i can help it.
I then open
UTG to 9k (2k/4k) and a short stack of 10bbs shoves the btn.....the BB then reships playing ~60k and im left with a decision.
If i call and lose i am left with 7bbs but if i call and win i am up to 200k and a stack i can really do some damage with.
I dont know anything of the 2 players bar the 1 hand i have seen the BB play, but try to assign ranges on both players.
The 10bb stacks range is fairly wide and includes all pairs 55+, A9 suited +, ATo + and suited Broadways etc
The 15bb stacks range is somewhat tighter but includes AJo+, 99+ and AT suited +.
As i have the blockers to them having AA/KK i kinda feel that they also have each others blockers alot of the time, for example the BTN has AT and the BB TT, and other times i am crushing both of their "perceived" ranges (eg btn has AT and bb has AQ) so i call it off.......
Sadly for me, they both have the absolute top of their ranges as the BTN shows
and the BB shows
and i am the worst shape possible.....i flop/turn a Flush Draw ( i cant quite rememeber) but fade the river and am left crippled.
My exit is soon after with
vs
and i get no sweat with an
on flop.
Really gutted to lose 2 big flips almost back to back (end of day 1 and beginning of day 2) but my Hendon Mob will show you that i keep going deep but cant seem to flip well when it matters as stacks are shallower....However one cant be dissappointed with 3 cashes in the series. It is just a shame that i walked into the top of their ranges in that spot, some may say fold but that is definatly -Chip Ev in the long run.
I decide to jump into the Heads Up and preceed to bust in Rd 1 as the rest of Team Gotham make it through. I have 10% of Perry who busts in the 3rd round and Chris locks up another cash losing in the Round of 8 in a pretty sick spot.
vs
on
with stacks of 11bbs each.
Still, an awesome weekend in which i met some new faces and felt i played pretty solid throughout. Gutted not to bring home a bracelet but happy with Team Gothams results.
Between us we played 8 of the 10 events (Not the Team and High Roller) and had 7 cashes in total including 3 FTs, 1 Bracelet, 2 medals and 2 FT bubbles (Chris in the Razz and Myself in the Cash).
Look forward to the next one!!!
