Here’s the SCOOP

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/05/2011 (5285 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s been about a month since the Americans were kicked off all the major online sites, but that hasn’t slowed down the Spring Championship of Online Poker (Scoop).

The Scoop is in full swing and with tournaments ranging from all different buy-ins, low, medium and high, there is definitely something for every bankroll. I haven’t played many events yet but I did make a deep run in the two events I did play.

The first event was a $100 rebuy tourney. I didn’t get off to a great start but when it started to matter I began to accumulate some chips. With around 1,700 entries and a first-place prize over $91K I had put myself in a position to win.

With around 80 players left and a stack that was a good bit above the average, I had QQ and 3 bet another big stack all-in. The funny thing was he also had QQ, so obviously we were going to chop the pot. Hold on one second! The flop was 3 spades and I had the Q of spades! This pot was for 700K and the chip lead of the tourney, could I actually, really bad-beat this guy and become the chip leader? Nope, I failed to hit my flush, so yes, we chopped the pot.

A few hands later with 60 players left, it was folded to the small blind and he moved all-in. I had A6 in the big blind and this is a pretty standard play on my part, by calling his all-in seeing as how his range is so wide. Well I did call and he tabled K10 of hearts and after he flopped a flush draw and nailed it on the turn, I was out the door and left with a $1,400 score for my effort.

A few days later I decided to play another tourney, this time a $162 2x chance. That means that if you go broke in the first hour you can buy back in, but only once.

There were around 2,000 players and first was almost $68K. I got off to a slow start and was forced to rebuy, but that seemed to get me rolling, and before long I was 10th in chips with 70 players remaining. One of my buddies was still in also, and he was 14th in chips and he asked me if I wanted to swap 10 per cent with him. I agreed and now had a horsey to cheer for too!

Both of us kept rolling until there were about 30 players left. My buddy was all-in and was unable to win his race 99 to AQ. Frustrating. Well, no problem, I got this! A few hands later and with 19 players left I really needed to make a move as I was getting low in chips. It folded to me in the cutoff and I saw Q8hh and decided to move all-in and hopefully steal the blinds.

The button folded but the small blind moved all-in and the big blind moved all-in over the top. Oops! The small blind had 1010 and the big blind AQ! I needed some serious help. Well, I wasn’t able to win this hand, nor should I have won with the garbage I had.

So out I was in 19th place, winning $1,570 and wondering just when my big tournament win is going to come. I guess I’ll just have to keep taking shots at them.