Tao of Poker

WCOOP Event #5

The World Championships of Online Poker have been going on all week on Poker Stars. Both Wil Wheaton and the Poker Nerd have been live blogging it. I also know that Chris from 21 Outs and Jan from 50 Outs have been playing. Otis has been regularly updating Poker Stars Blog with all the WCOOP action.

Thursday's event was a $200 NL rebuy tournament. I was offered a free roll thanks to Nolan Dalla who handed a few passes out to media types. A bunch of other bloggers played like CJ, G Rob, Iggy, Poker Nerd, and Wil. Some bought in and others also got the free roll. 2146 players entered WCOOP event #5. There were 1825 rebuys and 1235 add-ons in the prize pool. 225 places paid with over $218K going to the eventual winner. Some notable pros were playing such as Scott Fischman, Fossilman, Dustin "Neverwin" Wolf, Marcel Luske, and Noah "Exclusive" Boeken.

So how did I do? I got knocked out early. Hey, at least it wasn't my money, right?

Here's my notes from the WCOOP:

3:05pm... I was refreshing Card Squad to watch Wil do some live blogging. I saw that Jan from 50 Outs was one of the first players eliminated.

3:06pm... Iggy flopped a set and lost half his stack when some guy turned a straight.

3:11pm... I folded AKs on the button when the gal UTG raised and she was reraised in MP. Tight fold, eh? I made the mistake and should have pushed because I decided not to rebuy for this event. I would try to amass chips early to have a decent chance against anyone who took advantage of the add-on. I forgot my gameplan and folded. From that point on, I looked for any coinflip opportunities, something I never do so early in a tournament. Again it was different circumstances. Chip accumulation was my goal.

3:18pm... I won a small pot with 10-10.

3:29pm... I was about 1217th place with 2042 remaining.

3:49pm... With 7-7, I flopped a set and won a small pot.

3:53pm... I reraised a guy all-in with J-J. He called with AKs and flopped a friggin' flush. I needed a runner-runner straight flush to win and it didn't happen. I was eliminated in 1914th place. Not impressive at all.

4:15pm... Wil was eliminated when he made a move with QJ. He finished in 1848th place.

At that point I logged off and wrote. Here's how everyone else did:

Pauly 1914
Wil 1848
Poker Nerd 1561
G-Rob 940
CJ 799
Iggy 684
Marcel Luske 124
Exclusive 74
Fossilman 32

****** ******

Around Midnight, Daddy called me drunk from a bar in Indiana. He took me there in May and I played poker against a guy with no teeth. Anyway, he called to say how he enjoyed what a wrote about him. He's still a pussy ass pansy for walking away from his blog and needs to come to his senses.

I told him I knew how he felt about ending his blog. I've often contemplated pulling the plug on this poker blog and all of the other ones I write. Several times in the past few months I've had that internal discussion. In the end, I write about poker not because I love poker. I write about poker because I love to write. Poker happens to be one of my many interests. And when you stop by the Tao of Poker, you experience the full meaning of this site. Tao means "the way" or "the road." This blog is a means for me to share my experiences with poker in my daily life, or how poker follows me through my life's journey. There will come a time when that long strange trip ends.

All journeys end at some point.

But even if you quit a blog, unless you erase it, it will always exist. In many ways, this is how you achieve immortality. If the internet is around for the next century and the words you write are still stored for free on Blogger's server... then you will be heard in future generations.

And maybe one hundred years from now, someone will stumble upon this blog and discover that I know a guy who has fucked a donkey.