Caliche
or The Trials of a WSOP Wannabe  

Ok. Last year around May, we found the Team Canada freerolls, which created the Canadian PokerStars team to be sent to Vegas for the 37th WSOP. While I did try those freerolls, I didn't fare that well, mostly unaccustomed to the turbo blind structure.

Well, this year, Stars is again offering sweet sweet WSOP packages, and I figured I'd give it at least a decent shot. Having some relative problems with my cash game and my roll, I decided for trading my hard earned FPPs to give 3 tries to the WSOP Step 1 Sit'nGo (Donkago... actually, Turbo Donkago :P)... Quick wrapup of the first 2 tries: played uber aggressive, with the moto 'build a momentum and a stack'; shoved with A8s vs a shortstacker with a presto and lost the coin flip, which left me pretty much crippled. Ended up shoving with some bordeline painted hand that I don't remember... Aaaah yes, an offsuit big slick... Which didn't hit squat, busting me in 8th place :S. Second one, same strategy, same hand gets me busto, but it was my first shove so if it would have hit, I might have gotten through. That was in 5th place by the way, which is kinda the bubble (4th place pays a whooping 1,50$, 3rd gets a new buy-in to Step 1 and 1 and 2 move on to Step 2). That kinda pissed me off and got me on tilt AND on an open Vendetta against Donkaments all together :P... But, while talking about it with Nic, I reviewed my strategy and buckled myself in my 3rd try with the survivor mantra : "I got my fist, I got my plan, I got survivalism" [lol! NIN, Survivalism, Year Zero (2007)]. And then this happened:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (4 handed) Poker Stars Converter Tool from http://www.flopturnriver.comFlopTurnRiver.com (Format: Plain Text)

Hero (t1270)
Button (t6600)
SB (t1890)
BB (t3740)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with 8h, 8d.
Hero raises to t1270, Button calls t1270, SB raises to t1890, 1 fold, Button calls t620.

Flop: (t5250) Tc, 6s, 9s (3 players)

Turn: (t5250) 3s (3 players)

River: (t5250) 4s (3 players)

Final Pot: t5250

Results below:
SB has Ad Kh (high card, ace).
Hero has 8h 8d (one pair, eights).
Button has Jh As (flush, ace high).
Outcome: Button wins t5250.

Busted in 4th, just out of the loop. Now, I don't really want to whine and bitch about the fact that I was the favorite, but since it might actually be my last 'WSOP-related' moment of 2008, I will simply paste the equity calculations I got from my Poker Stove :P.

Before the flop:

	equity	win	tie	pots won	pots tied
Hand 0:	46.016%	45.89%	00.12%	+600k	1669	8d8h
Hand 1:	20.157%	19.29%	00.87%	+260k	11898	AsJh
Hand 2:	33.827%	32.96%	00.87%	+45k	11898	AdKh

After the flop (that one hurts):

	equity	win	tie	pots won	pots tied
Hand 0:	65.227%	65.23%	00.00%	589	0.00	8d8h
Hand 1:	16.888%	16.39%	00.50%	148	4.50	AsJh
Hand 2:	17.885%	17.39%	00.50%	157	4.50	AdKh

And finally, just before the suckout :P:

	equity	win	tie	pots won	pots tied
Hand 0:	64.286%	64.29%	00.00%	27	0.00	8d8h
Hand 1:	26.190%	26.19%	00.00%	11	0.00	AsJh
Hand 2:	09.524%	09.52%	00.00%	4	0.00	AdKh

Yeah, there is some luck involved in poker... I must not kid myself...