WCOOP NLO8

It's one of my favorite tournaments of the year. WCOOP NLO8 (and 2nd chance).

Two hours before the tournament I'll be up and ready playing satellites. This month I've been playing super turbo six-person tournaments with fair results. I expect to play dozens of satellites leading up to the main event.

After this I have a couple of projects to finish, and in the last quarter I'll coast to Supernova status and prepare the bankroll for next year.

It's Been a While

Hello, readers!

A flurry of other activities caused me to neglect updating this site for three months. That's way too long, and I hope to make up for it.

So here I am putting in writing that I will write at least three entries every month for the rest of the year. If I fail that, then...I will do something else.

Anyway, in time I have to catch up with:

• The continuation of my SCOOP story
• The next part of my background bio before the first one reaches one year old
• Filling in the absent months
• Some thoughts on the future
• Side topics and tangents that interest me

Winning SCOOP

About four weeks ago, I won the largest tournament prize I've ever earned in the highest buy-in tournament I've ever played.

The tournament was SCOOP (Spring Championship Of Online Poker) Event #38-H, $2,100 No-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Split Eight-or-Better.

From the PokerStars blog: 

Twelve and a half hours is typically enough time to plow through a field of thousands, but in this case, it took over half a day to get from 118 to 1. When the final table did finally materialize, it was loaded with familiar faces. AceQuad made his sixth SCOOP final table of the week, Event #26-H runner-up vandir4rek got a second chance to close out a win and Calvin "cal42688" Anderson was eight eliminations away from a record-tying fifth SCOOP bracelet. However, gumasta hit a rush with five players remaining and rode it all the way to the finish, capturing his first SCOOP title and $59,000.

Qualifying for the tournament took several attempts to win a seat in satellites. Because the buy-in of 2,100 dollars was too much for me to risk, I tried to get in cheaper by playing multiple rounds of $153 satellites into a $700 satellite. I got into the $700 tournament on my last try, then lost my chance there when my aces failed to win with blinds very high.

Poker Stars, $665 Buy-in (150/300 blinds, 25 ante) No Limit Omaha H/L Tournament, 6 Players

Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite. 

MP: 2,367 (7.9 bb)

CO: 5,592 (18.6 bb)

BTN: 3,400 (11.3 bb)

SB: 2,350 (7.8 bb)

Hero (BB): 1,515 (5.1 bb)

UTG: 5,924 (19.7 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Qs Ad As 8s

UTG folds, MP raises to 2,342 and is all-in, 3 folds, Hero calls 1,190 and is all-in

Flop: (3,280) Ac 2d 3d (2 players, 2 are all-in)

Turn: (3,280) Tc (2 players, 2 are all-in)

River: (3,280) 6c (2 players, 2 are all-in)

Results: 3,280 pot

Final Board: Ac 2d 3d Tc 6c 

MP showed 4h 5h 2h 3h and won 3,280 (1,765 net)

Hero showed Qs Ad As 8s and lost (-1,515 net)

Not willing to give up on the big event, I late registered for two rebuy satellites, $11+ and $22+, and spent arond $200 in those tournaments with rebuys and add-ons, eventually finishing with nothing in the $22+ and getting heads up for a single seat in the $11+. There was a cash prize for second in the satellite, which wasn't enough to cover the entry fees I had already paid in all of the satellites.

PokerStars Hand #99061268408: Tournament #737172455, $10+$1 USD Omaha Hi/Lo No Limit - Level XXII (15000/30000) - 2013/05/24 18:34:33 ET

Table '737172455 3' 9-max Seat #8 is the button

Seat 5: gumasta (730800 in chips) 

Seat 8: alfatenn (538200 in chips) 

gumasta: posts the ante 3000

alfatenn: posts the ante 3000

alfatenn: posts small blind 15000

gumasta: posts big blind 30000

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to gumasta [Ad 3s Td 6h]

alfatenn: calls 15000

gumasta: raises 660000 to 690000

alfatenn: calls 505200 and is all-in

Uncalled bet (154800) returned to gumasta

*** FLOP *** [3d 7c 9s]

*** TURN *** [3d 7c 9s] [9d]

*** RIVER *** [3d 7c 9s 9d] [2c]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

gumasta: shows [Ad 3s Td 6h] (HI: two pair, Nines and Threes; LO: 7,6,3,2,A)

alfatenn: shows [2d 4d Qc 8c] (HI: two pair, Nines and Deuces; LO: 8,7,4,3,2)

gumasta collected 538200 from pot

gumasta collected 538200 from pot

alfatenn finished the tournament in 2nd place and received $510.00.

gumasta wins the tournament - congratulations!

gumasta wins an entry to tournament #2013050383

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 1076400 | Rake 0 

Board [3d 7c 9s 9d 2c]

Seat 5: gumasta (big blind) showed [Ad 3s Td 6h] and won (1076400) with HI: two pair, Nines and Threes; LO: 7,6,3,2,A

Seat 8: alfatenn (button) (small blind) showed [2d 4d Qc 8c] and lost with HI: two pair, Nines and Deuces; LO: 8,7,4,3,2

I won and had my seat.

The tournament was a long and arduous exercise in patience for me, with some small early losses resulting in a below-average amount of chips for several hours into the event. After several long levels I won a coin flip to double up to over twice the starting (5,000) chips for the first time in the tournament.

PokerStars Hand #99067729802: Tournament #2013050383, $2000+$100 USD Omaha Hi/Lo No Limit - Level IX (75/150) - 2013/05/24 21:54:10 ET

Table '2013050383 4' 9-max Seat #6 is the button

Seat 1: gumasta (6613 in chips) 

Seat 2: ttouch77 (9048 in chips) 

Seat 3: paulgees81 (6907 in chips) 

Seat 4: caecilius (10162 in chips) 

Seat 5: cal42688 (31693 in chips) 

Seat 6: Borys313 (10183 in chips) 

Seat 8: shinbunshi (4344 in chips) 

Seat 9: vandir4rek (6634 in chips) 

gumasta: posts the ante 20

ttouch77: posts the ante 20

paulgees81: posts the ante 20

caecilius: posts the ante 20

cal42688: posts the ante 20

Borys313: posts the ante 20

shinbunshi: posts the ante 20

vandir4rek: posts the ante 20

shinbunshi: posts small blind 75

vandir4rek: posts big blind 150

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to gumasta [As 4d 8h Ah]

gumasta: raises 150 to 300

ttouch77: folds 

paulgees81: folds 

caecilius: folds 

cal42688: calls 300

Borys313: folds 

gumasta said, ":)"

shinbunshi: folds 

vandir4rek: calls 150

*** FLOP *** [9s 3h 2d]

vandir4rek: checks 

gumasta: bets 750

cal42688: raises 18600 to 19350

vandir4rek: folds 

gumasta: calls 5543 and is all-in

Uncalled bet (13057) returned to cal42688

*** TURN *** [9s 3h 2d] [Jh]

*** RIVER *** [9s 3h 2d Jh] [Jc]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

gumasta: shows [As 4d 8h Ah] (HI: two pair, Aces and Jacks)

cal42688: shows [5d Ac 9h 3c] (HI: two pair, Jacks and Nines)

gumasta collected 13721 from pot

No low hand qualified

gumasta said, "yesss"

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 13721 | Rake 0 

Board [9s 3h 2d Jh Jc]

Seat 1: gumasta showed [As 4d 8h Ah] and won (13721) with HI: two pair, Aces and Jacks

Seat 2: ttouch77 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 3: paulgees81 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 4: caecilius folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 5: cal42688 showed [5d Ac 9h 3c] and lost with HI: two pair, Jacks and Nines

Seat 6: Borys313 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 8: shinbunshi (small blind) folded before Flop

Seat 9: vandir4rek (big blind) folded on the Flop

From there I built up to a tournament average stack, and maintained a position in the middle of the field until the bubble came near, with several short stacks struggling to edge into the money.

This hand gave me a healthier chip position:

PokerStars Hand #99070597911: Tournament #2013050383, $2000+$100 USD Omaha Hi/Lo No Limit - Level XIV (250/500) - 2013/05/25 0:22:37 ET

Table '2013050383 9' 9-max Seat #1 is the button

Seat 1: gumasta (23702 in chips) 

Seat 2: jpa_25 (10177 in chips) 

Seat 3: cal42688 (39787 in chips) 

Seat 4: Mafews (10391 in chips) 

Seat 5: jpro89 (34151 in chips) 

Seat 6: calvin7v (93968 in chips) 

Seat 7: PlayWMyNuts (29849 in chips) 

Seat 8: kirbynator (12510 in chips) 

Seat 9: karolinaD (35138 in chips) 

gumasta: posts the ante 60

jpa_25: posts the ante 60

cal42688: posts the ante 60

Mafews: posts the ante 60

jpro89: posts the ante 60

calvin7v: posts the ante 60

PlayWMyNuts: posts the ante 60

kirbynator: posts the ante 60

karolinaD: posts the ante 60

jpa_25: posts small blind 250

cal42688: posts big blind 500

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to gumasta [Ad 7d Kd 2s]

Mafews: folds 

jpro89: folds 

calvin7v: folds 

PlayWMyNuts: folds 

kirbynator: folds 

karolinaD: folds 

gumasta: raises 622 to 1122

jpa_25: raises 8995 to 10117 and is all-in

cal42688: folds 

gumasta: calls 8995

*** FLOP *** [Kc Tc 5s]

*** TURN *** [Kc Tc 5s] [9d]

*** RIVER *** [Kc Tc 5s 9d] [7h]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

jpa_25: shows [Ah Qc 2c 6c] (HI: high card Ace)

gumasta: shows [Ad 7d Kd 2s] (HI: two pair, Kings and Sevens)

gumasta collected 21274 from pot

No low hand qualified

jpa_25 finished the tournament in 18th place

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 21274 | Rake 0 

Board [Kc Tc 5s 9d 7h]

Seat 1: gumasta (button) showed [Ad 7d Kd 2s] and won (21274) with HI: two pair, Kings and Sevens

Seat 2: jpa_25 (small blind) showed [Ah Qc 2c 6c] and lost with HI: high card Ace

Seat 3: cal42688 (big blind) folded before Flop

Seat 4: Mafews folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 5: jpro89 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 6: calvin7v folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 7: PlayWMyNuts folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 8: kirbynator folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 9: karolinaD folded before Flop (didn't bet)

After the bubble, I used reads on my table mates to win some confrontations and, with some luck, kept my hopes alive for the title.

Next part: Final table.

Not a "Well" Thread

There's a thread about me: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/44/omaha-8/know-your-gumaaa-1331335/

Of course I wrote it.

I've been living in the Philippines for many years. A lot of years.

How old am I? I've played games on Commodore 64, Famicom (NES), Super Famicom (Super NES), and high-end computers that had 640 KB of RAM.

In high school I played Magic: the Gathering. I went to college and spent more time playing cards than studying. In 2004 I went to San Francisco with my Magic national team and won enough money to pay for the trip (there was no free travel for going to Worlds then).

I missed the whole 'poker boom' thing even though we were watching the WSOP with David Williams and Greg Raymer at that time, and I knew a little bit about poker already. I didn't have any way to put any money online.

While working at an office job in 2008, I got a tiny amount online from freerolls on PokerStars. Add a couple of free bankrolls, then I was grinding. A lot of Hold'em at first (NL/PL/FL), and some HORSE, and eventually a lot of O8.

By the end of 2009 I quit the boring office job and took my shot online with a small amount of savings in the bank and just enough online to play .10/.25.

That somehow got me to a decent bankroll in 2011, ready to shift to .50/1 PL. But I had a lot on FTP and not enough to go on without it. So I got on the market for a stake, found a backer, and moved to PS. Ended stake with profit after three months. Got Supernova after six months.

Earlier this year I was playing on a different stake, and I got a lot more out of it than my backer did. That's over now.

So here I am in a transition, just in time to play SCOOP without selling a single share. Go big or go broke!

Go ahead, ask me stuff. I might even answer poker stuff, but if it gets too strategy-heavy, I'm putting that in a different thread.

Some stuff:

• I used to be less boring, but I left behind a lot of my other interests when I had to start earning a living.
• My education and interests included some science, some literature, and a little bit of many different subjects.
• My non-poker work was dull stuff, including a call center and doing subtitle transcription or editing for movies and TV shows.
• I live in Metro Manila. I've traveled to some places in the Philippines and a few times to other countries, but I'm not an adventurer and I haven't been to many of the tourist places.
• I wish my life were more interesting. If I can win enough in SCOOP to double my bankroll, I'll take a shot at doing things that were outside my budget before.

APT Event 11

http://www.theasianpokertour.com/apt-events/asian-poker-tour-philippines-2013/results

Event 11: Usd 170 Pot Limit Omaha Turbo (42 Entries)

3

Mark Gerard Rivera

Philippines

1,060.00

FTOPS PLO8 next week

This is one of the rare few times in a year I'll sell pieces of my action in online tournaments.

Thread is posted here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/163/staking-selling-shares-online/ftops-march-18-19-plo8-satellites-1310572/

Even if you're not interested in buying, you can see some of my graphs and results posted in the thread.

Asian Poker Tour Philippines 2013

APT schedule

The Asian Poker Tour Philippines 2013 will be held from April 17th to April 24th at Resorts World Manila in Pasay City Philippines.

Saturday, April 20th
3:00 PM	Pot Limit Omaha Hi (Event 7)	US$ 320	US$ 30

Monday, April 22nd
6:00 PM	Pot Limit Omaha Turbo (Event 11)	US$150	US$ 20

There are two PLO events on the schedule, and I'm hoping to play in them. During the month before the tournament series, I'll try to play a few live cash games because I'm not yet used to physically handling four cards at a poker table. It would be nice if they used a four-color deck.

I'll also play some online PLO and O8 tournaments. FTOPS and Micro Millions this March. Then there's MiniFTOPS and SCOOP in the next couple of months.

If any readers are going to the live tournament, or if you want to play live cash games, leave a comment here and I might see you in person.

Answering some questions about O8

A member of a forum asked me:

Happy to see someone who loves Hi/Lo game here.

What is your basic approach for the game? It might be flawed, but I have been using "holding nut low to draw for a good high" is a good strategy. For starting hands, I discount all the hands without the A, 4 baby cards being the exception. Suited A is a huge plus. I was using this basic approach to play limit Omaha 8 and had good results. For PLO8 or even NLO8 I am not sure. For big bet poker, we will need to put opponents on ranges a lot more. What are your tips for putting people of ranges in Hi/Lo games?

"Play two-way hands" is the basic rule for beginners especially in big bet O8, even more in NLO8 than PLO8. A premium hand has features that give it potential to win both halves of a split pot, and high value is especially needed because many boards do not enable a low on the river, or your low draw might be counterfeited.

Low- or high-oriented hands can be played but are best when there are many other players (4+) OR if the preflop bets are small and stacks remaining are still deep enough, and best when in late postion: for example calling in position for 3.5 bb with effective stacks of 80 bb, then you may call with hands like 2345/2346/234X and weaker unsuited A34X, A35X for the low end, and KQJT/KKJT/AQQJ/AKQJ/KKXX if going for high.

It's important to have good hand selection even if you intend to play loose and bluff a lot of pots, because it can be difficult to steal pots from some types of players. The best bluff plays use blockers in your hand, cards that you hold that remove combinations from your opponents' hands.

Almost all premium hands have a suited ace. Propokertools has a ranking of hands in O8 as simulated for different table sizes. You can use it as a rough guide for putting people on ranges in reference to their percentage numbers. Observing your opponents will give you better reads on how they tend to play different types of hands.

Let me try adding a few high only hands when I am in position. If there is a low possible already on the flop, what are the usual consideration to proceed with a high-only hand?
Say with QJT9ds hero calls in position. On a 873 two tone board (assuming we have the flush draw too), would it be wise to call a cbet in position when there are two opponents in the pot? With this hand, hero has only 6 clean outs to the nut high. When flush comes in we have reverse implied odds, and the likely A2 is claiming half the pot already. Is this a call or fold (or unlikely I guess, raise)? What are the main considerations for whether to value bet when the flush comes in (say K and flush comes in)? Is hero only betting for half the pot? Is A4 likely to fold for the 2nd nut low?
Not experienced at all playing high only hand. What are the main clues to look for not value owning ourselves?

On a low-card board, your pot odds are divided by two with a non-low hand. On a two-low board, you still discount your pot odds especially if your outs are non-pairing low cards, which would cut the odds in half if they hit.

Besides discounting pot odds, you have to consider reverse implied odds because you could make your hand and still face a freeroll if they can draw to a better high hand. You can't add implied odds at all; if you have no low hand then you are playing for half the pot always and it has to be big and multi-way to get any value.

On the 873 board there's no reason to call with a straight draw unless you're getting amazing pot odds and there are bad players who will put in money with very weak hands. If you do make your draw, your best play is to be passive and let others build the pot until the river, then try to get as many callers as possible at the end. Of course you could also tie with the nut straight, so you can't be too aggressive with it.

As a general rule, with very rare exceptions, when you have a high hand with no low and a low is possible, you should try to create a multi-way pot that gets to the river and then extract as much as possible from more than one opponent. If you can't get to the river with those conditions, then fold your hand or just check and call. With the right opponents, you can make low hands fold on the river or earlier if you have good reads.

Most of the money made with high hands in split pots comes from two or more people who have low, so you get half of a big pot. Even then, with equal stacks, you can only increase your stack by about 50% (half of a three-handed pot) or if you're very lucky get double your stack (half of a four-handed pot). This is much less than what you get for scooping high with no low or both high and low.

How About a Graph

After a bad run in the last quarter of 2012, this year is off to a good start at least on PokerStars.

In my free time I'm doing a mini bankroll challenge on PartyPoker, playing PLO (high) and O8. I ended up depositing a total of $75 (because I took a bad beat for most of my $25 deposit) and doubled it playing plus a little more from bonuses.

Coming soon: hands and video (replays) from my micro-stakes adventures.

New Year

Happy New Year!

It's been a while, and it's been busy. I'll post more updates soon.

Only one goal for this year: to not go broke.