Every year the biggest online tournament series of the year, the "World Championship of Online Poker", is eagerly awaited. It consists of 3 weeks in which it’s possible to rake in nearly 6 figures a day. The prize pools of the standard tournaments are 40% Higher . All of this heightens the percentage fish, so this is one of the best 3 weeks of the year to work hard on your tournament game.
Last year I played WCOOP in a house in Los Angeles close to Huntington Beach with a couple of other good poker players like MattiDM, ChrisDM, Padjes, Gotfatti and GotUread. That period of time was very important for my development as a poker player. Everybody has strong and weak points to his game. By being 3 weeks in a house with other good players, where you talk about hands and certain situations, you can only improve your game. I did a 3-day "boot camp" twice this past month in Belgium with poker players who I back. If you have the chance to do the same in someone's home or a house in another country: JUST DO IT!
My WCOOP this year can be called a success. Not because of my performance, but because of the performance of my horses. Especially the incredible performance of Miguel "LOL_U_91" Use. He immediately won $211.000 in his first WCOOP event! He has only played serious poker tournaments for 2 months. I backed and helped him with his game and in those 2 months Miguel booked enormous progress which made this beautiful victory possible. The manner in which he secured the deal heads up against our northern neighbour Fisherman903 was inspiring and a good example of how you should handle such a deal discussion with someone who absolutely wants a deal. Here (http://nl.pokernews.com/nieuws/2011/09/soundbites-kevin-vandersmissen-en-miguel-lol-u-91-use-7614.htm) is an interview with me and LOL_U_91 (in Dutch) for pokernews.nl. You'll certainly hear a lot about him in the future, along with a couple of other young Flemish talents who are on the verge of a breakthrough.
The reason why it wasn't really a success is because I didn't hit big at this WCOOP. I was in a lot of tournaments semi-deep, but at the last 4-5 tables it just didn't go well enough. The only cash worth mentioning was my first place in the 50 rebuy on the 20th September for $17.898. Thanks to that cash + the smaller cash games I was able to break even for the WCOOP. You always hope of course to make a lot of profit during the series, which was the case. But a little personal success can never hurt, can it? ;)
I also want to talk a little about the unique spot I was in during the 1k WCOOP - Event 42. Right before the bubble (5-8 places before the money) I lost a huge 3bet pot (set over set), which left me with 5k under the gun +3 with 800/1600 blinds. It was the first time that I was in such a spot. I'm fairly certain that if the same thing had happened in a very small tournament I wouldn't have given it a second thought and just called any 2 in the big blind because of the "odds". As it was a bubble of 1.7k I luckily did think twice that I could survive 1 extra orbit + the 5 minute time bank, which probably made my payout chances 95% +.
Most players among us would normally think of calling any 2 because of the insane odds you'll get in the BB. But personally I think that the most +EV play in this spot is considering your tournament as a satellite for a moment and going for the min-cash. The chance that you'll bust in the BB is enormous since your range is any 2, and a double up is not really worth much since you'll still be very short after it. So in the long term I think that in this spot it's best to go for the almost guaranteed cash instead of the glory. So I immediately used my entire time bank of 5 minutes before the hand-for-hand play. In the end I was in the money when I came into the CO with less than 1 BB. I doubled the hand immediately after, but regrettably I lost the next hand for a 9BB stack.
I think that this is a very rare/interesting spot and I absolutely wanted to share it with you. I probably would never have done it in a $10 tournament. The reason is not that min-cashes in a $10 are so small compared to other tournaments, but just because I would not have thought about this spot. So it's kind of a blessing in disguise that this happened at a 1k event. But there is no reason at all why you would handle this spot differently during a $10 or a 1k tournament, whether you're a high or low roller. You just need to make the play that gives the most +EV. Of course there are players who don't care about the min-cash and will always choose glory above the + EV, which I totally understand in some cases.
Now that the WCOOP is over, I'll concentrate completely on cash games and live tournaments again.
Here is my live schedule for the remainder of the year:
- 30 Sep – 6 Oct EPT Londen (Wich im playing now and I survived day1A with 93.1k! J. Will talk about that in my next blog.)
- 7 – 19 Oct WSOP Europe (Not sure ill be playing this event it will kinda be a last minute decision.)
- 21-27 Oct EPT San Remo
- 1-6 Nov WPT Amneville
- 5-12 Nov Master Classics Of Poker in Amsterdam
- 15-20 Nov EPT Loutraki
- 24-27 Nov WPT Marrakech
- 1-5 Dec WPT Prague
- 5-10 Dec EPT Pague
- 10-18 Dec Belgien poker seruis gand final
