I’m skipping past some of the other WCOOP events I played because I’ve fallen behind on them and don’t remember much of what happened, which is because there really wasn’t much of interest anyway. The $500 rebuy 6-max did produce some neat hands, though. My table wasn’t soft, but that’s to be expected in a big event like this. There were a few good tournament players, most notably Timex, who weren’t making huge mistakes but weren’t necessarily going to play great deep stack 6-max poker either.
The X-factor was Poker Stars pro William Thorson, who’s been a long-time cash player on that site. I’ve never seen him sitting in the bigger NLHE games, so I wasn’t sure what to make of or expect from him. He was definitely too loose and aggressive at times, but overall he was pretty decent, especially when we were deep. In particular, he was doing a good job of betting big, as is often called for in deep stack poker. He won a huge pot againt the table fish because he overbet the pot all the way with a flopped set.
But he was only and always betting big when he had big hands, which made him a little too easy to read sometimes. For example, he once made a small 3-bet out of the SB against my CO raise. Even though we weren’t all that deep, he had priced me in to call with 98o, since I was pretty sure he didn’t have a big pair. Then he bet out small on a QJx flop, and I decided to float him. Sure enough, he check-folded to a small turn bet.
My next float didn’t work out so well. We were down to the last 25% or so of the field, and I was rolling along in pretty good shape. There was another of those tournament specialists on my right, and he was opening a lot of pots. Effective stacks were good for me to 3-bet him occasionally, which I’d been doing. So at 200/400, he opened to 1100, and I made it 3000 with A9s on the button. He called for something like 8% of the effective stacks. Giving him too much credit, I assumed he would pretty much only do this with a decent pair: maybe a slow-played AA/KK, or maybe something lik 88, but I didn’t think he’d call out of positon with a suited connector or Ax.
The flop came QQ5, and we both checked. Remember, I was putting him on a pair, which I didn’t think he would fold. The turn was a King and put a diamond draw on the board. He bet out something weird like a third of the pot. I called, putting him squarely on a pair lower than Kings that he would have to check-fold on the river. The river was a third diamond, and he requested time before finally betting one-half the pot, or about 25% of the remaining stacks. Still stuck in this mindset of moving him off a pair, I shoved all in, and he called pretty quickly with Ad 4d for the nut flush.
I’m not a fan of his pre-flop call, but I really hate myself for shoving that river. I didn’t do enough to re-evaluate his range when he bet out there. I seriously doubt he’s doing that with something like 88, and he’s probably calling pretty much always. Thankfully I was having a pretty huge cash session, so I was still well up on the day, despite another failed bluff shove that occurred almost simultaneously at a Stars 5/10 full-ring table:
UTG+1 raised to $40, and I called in early middle position with Ac Kc. The flop came 844 with two clubs, and I called his bet. He bet again on a 5 turn, and I shoved in my stack drawing dead to his 88. I actually like this shove though, because usually he has a pair when he bets again here and even with AA he can’t be thrilled when I shove into him, and of course if he does decide to call with a smaller pair I’ll have 15 outs. So I don’t hate this shove, even though it didn’t work out here.