WCOOP Lessons

I look forward to the month of September every year – it’s like the perfect storm of poker. Outside of the World Series of Poker, these six weeks in London have no rival. We start off with the WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker) on PokerStars, continue with the Million Dollar Cash Game, slide smoothly into the WSOP Europe, then wrap it up with the EPT London. All this poker can mean only one thing – more hands to analyse. This time both hands come from the WCOOP series.

Hand One

Taking control of a hand
This was a hand from the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, where we were heads-up between ‘djk123’ with 533,087 chips and ‘ozenc’ with 496,913. This hand occurred in the stud round where the limits were 6k/12k. Ozenc brought in for 1,800 with 2-3-3, djk123 completed to 6k with 6-6-A and ozenc called.

Here djk123 doesn’t need a pair in the hole to raise. The Ace would be enough. Ozenc is always going to call this and some players might even raise, but I’m not a fan of that because his pair is split and his kicker is a deuce.

Fourth street

djk123: 6-6-A-4

ozenc: 2-3-3-K

Here djk123 is first to act because he’s got the higher hand showing (A-4) and bets 6k, which ozenc calls. Once again, this is nothing out of the ordinary.

Fifth street

ozenc: 2-3-3-K-A

djk123: 6-6-A-4-7

Here ozenc is now first to act and bets 12k, djk123 raises to 24k and ozenc calls. This is the reason I bring up this hand. Ozenc catches an Ace and leads into djk123. He rightly thinks it’s less likely for his opponent to have a pair of Aces and figures he may be in the lead.

I love djk123’s raise here. Heads-up, djk123 decides instantly to show down with this hand. By raising, he is giving himself the opportunity to win a bigger pot. It is likely that ozenc will have to act first for the remainder of the hand because he has A-K showing. The only way for djk123 to lose position is if he pairs on sixth street and in that case he’ll be happy he raised.

By raising djk123 takes control of the hand and gets to act last. He also knows it will cost him 36k to show this hand down. He puts 24k in on fifth street, 12k in on sixth street and if he doesn’t improve on seventh street he can check it down. So if he doesn’t improve it still costs him 36k, but if he does improve he can bet seventh street and get an extra bet out of his opponent.

Sixth street

ozenc: 2-3-3-K-A-7

djk123: 6-6-A-4-7-2

Ozenc checks, djk123 bets 12k and ozenc calls. Now djk123’s play is working to perfection. He gets to act last after seventh street and he can either bet or check.

Seventh street

ozenc: 2-3-3-K-A-7-7

djk123: 6-6-A-4-7-2-6

Ozenc checks, djk123 bets 12k, ozenc raises to 24k and djk123 re-raises to 36k, getting a call from ozenc. This worked well for djk123 as he improves on seventh street and gets his opponent to check-raise. These players have some history and while ozenc is obviously a solid player, I’m not a fan of his river check-raise. I think he is risking two big bets to win one and because of the size of the pot he can’t fold to a re-raise. So 170,000 chips go to djk123 who takes a 3/2 chip lead en route to his second bracelet of the 2009 WCOOP.

Hand Two

Why you need a plan
This is a hand from the $5,200 WCOOP main event featuring eventual winner Yevgeniy ‘Jovial Gent’ Timoshenko. To understand this hand, it’s imperative to know how many chips each player has:

djk123 – 12.18 million
Jovial Gent – 10.57 million
Udon Wannit – 4.48 million
reddeevil – 4.18 million
PeachyMer – 3.84 million
chong94 – 3.78 million
Xaston – 2.11 million
Supa4real – 966K
Mudvaynes – 760K

It’s also imperative to know what the payout structure was for the final table:

1st 1.7m
2nd 1.3m
3rd 933K
4th 643K
5th 482K
6th 375K
7th 268K
8th 182K
9th 96K

In this hand the blinds were 40k/80k with a 10k ante. Jovial Gent opens with Q-9 in the cut-off with a raise to 192k. ‘Chong94’ is in the big blind and calls with A-J. They go heads-up to the flop and the pot is 514k. Jovial Gent has a lot of chips and has raised in the cut-off – nothing out of the ordinary there. Chong94 has all three options at his disposal but it’s important that he has a plan after the flop falls.

Flop: J-7-5 (two clubs)

Chong94 checks
Jovial Gent bets 272K

Chong94 calls (Pot: 1.058m)

Jovial Gent makes the continuation bet and his opponent just calls. It’s a bit passive, but let’s see what he does on the turn. Maybe he figures if he raises, he’s risking his entire stack, but why get involved at all if you aren’t prepared to put some chips at risk?

Turn: 8 (offsuit)

Chong94 checks
Jovial Gent bets 572K

Chong94 calls (Pot: 2.202m)

At this point, Jovial Gent has picked up a double-gutter and decides to put the heat on. A lot of players would take the free card, but Jovial Gent uses his big stack to intimidate his opponent and tries the semi-bluff. The check and call by Chong94 is a bit dangerous. The 8 on the turn made for a scary board and there aren’t many cards on the river that Chong94 is going to like. Remember there are two clubs out there and many cards will make the board look very straight-ish. At this point, I would have preferred almost anything over this play.

River: K (offsuit)

Chong94 checks
Jovial Gent bets 3 million
Chong94 folds

I spoke to Jovial Gent about this hand and he told me why he thought the three-barrel play would work. He thought there were a lot of scary rivers he could use to take the pot away and the King was one of them. He also knew his opponent wouldn’t want to risk his entire stack with one pair. He was pretty sure Chong94 had one pair after he called his turn bet, but didn’t think he could call unless he had K-J.

Jovial Gent’s bluff worked for a couple of reasons. Look at how many chips each player has and at the payouts. Ninth place only paid $96k while sixth place paid $375k. That’s a huge jump and Jovial Gent knew Chong94 would be conscious of this. Now if he was the short-stack and nobody was close to getting knocked out, Jovial Gent’s play probably would not have worked, but since there were a few short-stacks Chong94 had to think about surviving.

As for Chong94, I can’t blame him for folding. Having said that, I think he needed a better plan going into the hand. If you’re going to play scared against one of the chip leaders then why get involved at all? It would have been easy for him to fold and move on. If this hand illustrates anything, it is to be acutely aware of everything that is going on at your table. That way, you can use the information to your advantage and avoid spots you’re uncomfortable with.