It all started with a WCOOP ticket... (tl;dr included)

Hi all!

I am (or perhaps was) a casual, micro 90/180 SnG player. I've been playing a while, transitioning through various game types, and I eventually decided that 90s/180s/MTTs were the games I was best at. So, with my $150 BR, I was playing $1 90s and working up a steady profit, despite my terrible volume, and trying to keep a blog about it

During August, I managed to snatch two VIP Giveaway Tickets via the trivia freerolls, so I entered one cash and one WCOOP giveaway. I bricked the cash one, and the ratio of entries to prizes for the ticket giveaway was huge (roughly 4% of the field 'paid'), so I didn't even realise I'd won a $109 ticket until two days later! I had the option between Events 1 and 19, and I was intending to play Event 1, but I ended up not doing so in order to go out with my family. What a twist of fate that turned out to be...

So, I fired up Stars yesterday to play Event 19, with the intention of just playing my best and hopefully scoring a nice mincash for a ticket that cost me nothing I made a good start, stacking two people in the early stages, both times when they stacked off with TPTK vs my overpairs. However, my early momentum faded and I ended up losing chips to blinds and a couple of frustrating river cards, until finally, still 1000 runners from the money, I got it in with the worst of it: 88 vs QQ. I thought my shot at a one time was over, but I binked an 8 on the flop for the suckout.

I was extremely lucky to survive, and I wanted to make sure that I made the most out of this good fortune. Happily for me, this is exactly what happened, as I managed to substantially chip up without being all in again until there were around 500 runners left (1260 paid). Then I had one of those critical flips when you're fairly far ITM with an average stack - win it and you're set up to make a deep run, lose it and you'll have to be satisfied with your 2-3 buyins:

Things kept falling into place for me from there on: won a flip for 2/5 of my stack AK vs 66, stacked a guy for 32bb after flopping bottom set vs TPWK. Four hands after I scooped that pot, this happened:

I tanked the river for a solid 40 seconds. The guy had a 3bet of ~10% so he didn't really seem out of line. He'll bet the flop with lower PPs and AK/AQ that miss, and when he checked back the turn my intention was to x/c his half pot or similar river value bet, see AK/TT and smile, but then he jammed and it was pretty gross since he could potentinally check back the turn with QQ+ since the turn card basically gives him the nuts, and he still has potsize behind to jam the river. In the end I think it was the turn check back that made me call because it makes more sense to bet the turn with monsters since it gives your opponent more compelling odds to hero call the river. To some this might be a trivial snap call, I'm really not sure, maybe I was feeling more pressure due to being way out of my stakes Either way, took it down, and suddenly I was 8/260.

I was shaking by this point: I'd entered this thing with the intention of maybe making a small $200ish score, now I was one of the big stacks with $400 already locked up, now looking at a potential four-figure score, maybe even more. I'm not loaded by any means, so even $1000 is a nice amount of money for me. I started chipping down a little bit, then I picked up AA and got max value as my opponent called down three streets including my river shove with 44 on QQ523. The very next hand, I proceeded to let a habitual bluffer at the table know I meant business:

325k to just shy of 1 million chips in two hands; the nervousness was setting in again! There were less than 150 left now and I had one of the top 10 stacks. At this moment I seriously contemplated the fact that I could manage to make the final table. I've never had a feeling like it in poker before.

It took another two and a half hours for me to be in an all-in confrontation again, my stack had been maintained at around the 1 mil mark, and a guy with ~350k (~10bb) jammed and I called, my JJ vs 77 held up. By this point I was no longer nervous, I'd been playing for nearly 12 hours and exhaustion was inhibiting my ability to be nervous, the stakes didn't register with me anymore.

I kept on nursing my stack, but couldn't chip up at the same rate people were being knocked out and with 20 left in I was one of the short stacks. Things looked up when I got it in with KsKh vs AdJc, AJ7sss flop for the super sweat, and I scooped it when 2s hit on the turn and he bricked the river. My stack was up to average again.

Down to the last 18 and my stack was around 2 mil and I needed a double up if I wanted to make the FT, but with blinds rising and no premiums thrown my way I had to keep myself afloat with steals and resteals, biding time for the opportunity to present itself. It was only a matter of time before I got caught. I shipped 17bb with KQ BvB, ran into aces, and couldn't catch another miracle.

So now here I am: $3800 (~£2500) richer and fairly sleep deprived, with no idea what I'm going to do with it My first thought is to withdraw half and spend it on stuff I/my girlfriend want, maybe a holiday, maybe stuff for the house, I'm not really sure at this point, and the other half I'll leave on PS so I have a roll to play small to mid stakes MTTs with This plan is liable to change, but they're my initial thoughts.

Thanks for reading Good luck at the tables.

tl;dr:

$1/$2 MTT/MTT SnG player
Luckboxed a $109 WCOOP ticket
Twist of fate led me to play this event instead of an earlier one
Ran deep along with a cool guy I know irl, judgedredd13, who finished 5th
Finished 15th myself for ~3.8k
Interesting hands ITT