I think the worst thing that happened to me was cashing in the first event. It got my tongue a little wet with what a modicum of WCOOP success tastes like and so I wanted to play as much as reasonably possible thereafter. I was 0/14 in the subsequent events.

I wish I was of strong enough mind to say that it doesn’t bother me to go 1/15 while watching guys like ElkY and djk123 win multiple events, but it does. Not that I think I’m anywhere near on the same level as those guys, but I certainly expect and hope to have at least a couple of deep runs.

In the Main Event yesterday, I got former tennis star Boris Becker all-in with pocket Queens against his pocket Tens. He hit a Ten on the flop. My would-be chip count had he not hit that card was more than I ever wound up accumulating despite remaining in the tournament for another six hours. The structure of the WCOOP Main Event is so ridiculous that a cash actually started to seem possible for a while. After nine hours of play, I had just the starting stack which was still enough chips not to feel too desperate. How many online tournaments allow you to do that?

I re-raised all-in for 17 big blinds with pocket Jacks and was looked up by Ace-King to bust out somewhere around 570th (306 paid).

My gloomy mood was exasperated when I woke up this morning to see that TheMasterJ33 is the chipleader. Here is a hand involving him and Bryan Devonshire from my starting table:

PokerStars Game #33081236533: Tournament #200909045, $5000+$200 USD Hold’em No Limit – Level I (25/50) – 2009/09/20 16:26:53 CT [2009/09/20 17:26:53 ET]
Table ‘200909045 164′ 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: D.K.5 (18150 in chips)
Seat 2: KidPokerJD (22375 in chips)
Seat 3: TheMasterJ33 (19075 in chips)
Seat 4: Taknapotin (20825 in chips)
Seat 5: badbeatninja (19450 in chips)
Seat 6: jcada99 (20500 in chips)
Seat 7: Ozone23 (22300 in chips)
Seat 8: Boris Becker (10500 in chips)
Seat 9: GeoffRas22 (26825 in chips)
jcada99: posts small blind 25
Ozone23: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Ozone23 [4h 6c]
Boris Becker: calls 50
GeoffRas22: folds
D.K.5: folds
KidPokerJD: folds
TheMasterJ33: calls 50
Taknapotin: folds
badbeatninja: raises 200 to 250
jcada99: folds
Ozone23: folds
Boris Becker: calls 200
TheMasterJ33: calls 200
*** FLOP *** [7d 8h 4d]
Boris Becker: checks
TheMasterJ33: checks
badbeatninja: bets 500
Boris Becker: calls 500
TheMasterJ33: raises 1450 to 1950
badbeatninja: raises 3470 to 5420
Boris Becker: folds
TheMasterJ33: raises 13405 to 18825 and is all-in
badbeatninja: calls 13405
*** TURN *** [7d 8h 4d] [6d]
*** RIVER *** [7d 8h 4d 6d] [Ac]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
TheMasterJ33: shows [Kd 3d] (a flush, King high)
badbeatninja: shows [8d 8s] (three of a kind, Eights)
badbeatninja said, “sigh”
TheMasterJ33 collected 38975 from pot

When you see a guy get 400 big blinds in the middle with a non-nut flush draw and no pair and go on to be the overnight chipleader… it… well… I don’t really know how to finish that sentence… so I guess I’ll just say it leaves you speechless.

I hadn’t planned on playing quite as many events, but I ran well in the big Sunday $10 rebuy a few days ago and took 5th for close to $5,000. I love the ante structure in that tournament. The antes are like 1/3rd the size of the small blind, so it makes raising with a high frequency more sensible than it usually is. I got really lucky at the final table though. With nine players left, doubledave22 raised UTG while I was holding Ace-Queen in the big blind. As soon as he raised, I told myself “ugh, I really should probably fold here,” but for some stupid reason as soon as the action got to me I shoved all-in and he snap-called with Ace-King. I hit a Queen on the flop and another one on the turn to make the King on the river harmless. The difference between 9th and 5th was like $3,800 which is basically all of my WCOOP buy-ins. Gotta love tournament poker!

I’ve got a prop bet with Leif Force today that there will be under 6,417 players in WCOOP #1. The tournament starts in an hour and there’s 3,800 players registered. So far I think our line looks pretty close, but when we made the bet I actually thought it was just a $1 million guarantee (turns out it’s $1.25 million), so I think I like his side a little better.