Nick Rainey, WBCOOP and VIP update

It was a quiet morning at work so I decided to play in event #3 of the WBCOOP on PokerStars.

In event #1 there was around 1600 players with 153 receiving tickets to the SCOOP. As I do, I finished about 180th, just short of winning a ticket. I played well despite taking a rotten beat early. I raised with queens, flop came 8 high and despite me showing strength someone couldn't fold ace 8 and rivered an 8. That crippled me early but I fought back strong, got back in the game but fell just short. The final hand was folded to the button who raised, I had ace king suited in the small blind and re-raised all-in. After a bit of thought he called turning over 6's and held knocking me out.

Today was a similar story. My first table had someone just shoving every single hand for the first 5 minutes or so. He sucked out on a few people but of course lost it not long after. From there, it was just stupid aggression from a number of players because we had a number of stacks that were sitting out. I was patient and picked my spots, re-raising when I normally wouldn't but my reads/ranges were right and I got paid off. I was shortish approaching the bubble and called from the small blind with 9 10 off vs 1 limper and the big blind who checked. Flop came 9 high so I pushed all-in, small blind folded but the donk who limped called turning over bottom pair ace kicker and of course the river was the ace and I was gone about 10 short of the money/ticket. SOOO frustrating.

There's a really good article about insane MTT grinder Nick Rainey (aka MI_turtle). I think it appeared in a British poker magazine and its well worth a read.

Also, my quest for Silver VIP status on PokerStars is going to be a battle. After playing the last few nights I'm just short of 550, still 200 short of the target. I'll play as much as I can tomorrow but I'm playing in the APL State Finals on Saturday and have an engagement party after that ... so that day is out. Sunday will have to be a mad day-long grind.

Quick bankroll update. I couldn't get any wins tonight and with a number of bubbles and min-cashes thrown in I'm currently around $550. I really want to get back over $600 which I was briefly earlier in the week.