Well, my first tournament series as a self-proclaimed professional poker player has come and gone. All in all, I proved myself in a variety of ways, and demonstrated that I can achieve results when I put in the effort.

As you may recall from my previous blog post, I saddled up for the WCOOP, starting with qualifiers into the actual main events. I have screwed around in tournaments in the past, probably dropping 20-40k (the bulk of which came from random 5k FTOPS events) over my incredibly short career, and realizing that whenever I made something resembling a deep run it always was because my J8ss beat out JJ AIPF.

If I had to rate how I played over this tournament series I would give myself a B-. My effort was pretty pitiful during some days, and I inevitably didn't cash when I didn't play well. If I was going to play this tournament series again starting tomorrow, I would not play as many days. It is pretty much critical to prepare mentally for a tournament starting the night before, when you get a good nights rest, and eat healthy, and keep things low key. Then, the day of, you maintain focus throughout the entire event, focusing on playing your tournament tables, not mixing in cash on the side. Honestly, these tournaments should all be hugely lower than my hourly rate playing, but I still wanted to give it my all. With that said, come relive my journey with me:

Part One: Step tournaments. I started out buying in directly to step 3 and 4 tournaments, so I could learn the pace of tournaments better. I know more ICM than most cash players do (and got especially good towards the end of the series), but one of the most difficult things for me was deciphering the structure of the tournaments themselves. When could I resteal? When did I have to be more patient? I played around 35 of these steps tournaments during August.

Part Two: Satellite MTTs. In an attempt to get some MTT practice, and in some cases in an attempt to decrease the cost of my WCOOP (if you recall, I was planning on spending ~$30k in entries), I entered satellite tournaments for every buyin that was $1k or more. All in all, I spent $6,879 in satellite entries, and won buyins worth $12,400. So, that made the WCOOP $5,521 less expensive for me.

Part Three: The main events. I played a total of 12 days (for probably 100 hours total), and 20* (of 45) events. I am happy with my volume; some days I didn't play because I was doing other things, and some days I didn't play because I was run down, although I think that only happened once or twice. Out of the tournaments I played, I thought I played well in 13 tournaments. So, almost a third of the time I wasn't playing well, and it was my fault. At the time, I wasn't bothered by the fact that I had random videos playing, or surfing online, or playing a bunch of other tables. However, looking back I am mad at myself because I *should* not have been doing that stuff. I would bet money that I am -EV in tournaments when I am not playing my best. Period, end of story.

I cashed in three events:

Event 14 -- $320 Mixed Holdem 6max -- 44/1563
Event 31 -- $320+R PLO 6max -- 19/799
Event 45 -- $5200 Main Event 9m NLHE -- 148/2144 (Didn't have to look that one up ).

I am very proud of these scores and feel that I will be successful from here on out in tournaments because I understand them well, have a good knowledge of ICM, and know how to play them better.

The final talley:
Steps -- +$215
Sats -- Invested: $6,879, Results: $12,400, Difference: +$5,521
Events -- Invested: $29,515 Results: $19,169.47 Difference: -$10,345.53

I also entered a sat to EPT London during one of these days, which I would not have otherwise done. It was an $800 sat, and I won a $12,350 package.

Total Tournament Grind: $6,940.47, not including the London EPT Freeroll.

Those numbers make me feel like the last month of my life was a success! (Well, that and the fact that I made thirty-something grand from PLO, but that isn't the point of this post!)

I'm really looking forward to London. As Craig mentioned in his blog, we are going to an Arsenal game. Then, we will be going to Stockholm and Copenhagen for a week after the event (the event ends the 7th of October) to check out the scandi scene. Does anyone live around those areas? It would be fun to meet up and go to the ice bar!

Greg

* Aha! You have found the asterisk. The reason I starred me playing in 20 of 45 tournaments was because I didn't actually play in one of them. Incidentally, a lot of people noticed. Well, according to the PokerStars T&C what happened was legal, but this blog is incredibly long already, so.... it'll be the subject of the next one. I promise it's a good one though!