Tao of Poker

2009 WCOOP Begins Today

By Pauly
Los Angeles, CA

PokerStars will be the hip poker hotspot over the next 20 days because the WCOOP kicks off today with two events including Event #1 $215 NL 6-Max @ 14:30 ET and Event #2 $215 Razz @ 16:30 ET. I won't be playing either event today, but I have a horse or two that I'll be keeping tabs on.

TEven if you don't have the bankroll to buy into some of these events, PokerStars is running satellites as we speak for other events including the Main Event.

PokerStars was kind enough to give away 27 tickets to WCOOP events in a Media Freeroll yesterday afternoon that was open to media types like myself. There were 135 total runners which meant that I had to fade 80% of the field to win a WCOOP ticket... final table people won $320 seats, places 10-18 won $219 seats and places 19-27 won $109 seats. Sounded like a great deal, so I put my work on hold for a bit and fired up PokerStars to play.

A couple of familiar faces were at my table at the onset.

Starting Table:
Seat 1: MoBerthe
Seat 2: Matt Parvis
Seat 3: Court Harrington
Seat 4: Drizz
Seat 5: Poker News Sweden
Seat 6: I M IN TZONE
Seat 7: samrosthein
Seat 8: Ssird
Seat 9: Your Hero

Yes, it was me, Drizz, Court, and Parvis all at the same table.

I thought there were like three total French poker journalists (Benjo, Manu, and Fabrice's girlfreind Clare), yet there were like 40 players from Paris in the field. Where did all these Frenchies come from? Media types are usually bad poker players and European media types are the prototypical Eurodonk. We were surrounded.

On the fourth hand of the tournament, one of the Eurodonks from Paris snapped off my Jacks with A-7. At least it was A-7 sooted. Luckily, I only lost 25% of my stack. However, a couple of hands later, I flopped a set of jacks in a multi-way pot and got back to an even stack

Then, I flopped top two against Parvis with Qd-9d but he turned a bigger two pair with Q-10. I lost the pot and I was back down to 1K. My downswing continued afyer I doubled up supershort Court. My A-J sooted lost to his Q-9. I flopped a flush draw but he turned trips.

At the first break, I was one of the short stacks and in 107th place out of 1116 with 845 total in chips. Some Scandi with and O with two dots over it was the chipleader. I needed some help if I wanted to make it to the next break.

I did not last too much longer once play resumed. When blinds reached 50/100, I shoved from the button with a super shortstack and Ks-6s. The small blind woke up to Kh-10h and called. I couldn't come from behind and was out in 111th place.

That was it. My dreams of winning a WCOOP ticket were squashed. If I want to play in any events, I'll have to buy in directly unless I can win a satellite in between now and the PLO event that I might play.

Congrats to Parvis for winning a ticket and thanks again to PokerStars for inviting me to not one, but two freerolls. Too bad I was unable to do anything with either.

Click here for a full schedule of events for the WCOOP.


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