Cashing in my ticket

Earlier this year, I posted my confirmation that yes, I am a blogger and I wanted to register for the WBCOOP. The series came and went, and I earned myself a $16.50 ticket into a SCOOP event.

Both Rakewell and F-Train have raised concerns about the available tournaments at the lower buy in points. I was in the same situation as Rakewell, having a $16.50 ticket and very few options. The one variation in my situation is that I wasn't going to be available for any of the hold'em tournaments.

Rather than considing the route that others took in requesting that their tickets be split up for multiple tournaments, I chose to enter myself in the Badugi tournament on Monday. That would be the same Badugi that I had played once before, and that was in a play money session. Not exactly the most +EV choice I have made.

As it turns out, I ended up placing approximentally 2,200 out of 2,400 entries. I played poorly at times, while at other times I played fine, and ended up getting drawn out on (my dealt Badugis getting beat by players who drew cards in each of the three rounds of draws.) I'm not leased with how it ended up, but I wasn't upset with my play at all.

I did learn a couple of things from this experience:

1) No matter how crazy it seems, Badugi is not that difficult of a game to pick up. It's triple draw, with different way to determine best hands. As I played, I was able to determine some basic strategy as to how to draw, when to draw and when to bluff. While I still wouldn't feel comfortable playing for any significant amount of cash, I am confident enough that I am not going to be lost should I find myself in afriendly game.

2) Sometimes it's good to switch what game you are playing. Its absolutely true that if I was required to put out any of y own money, Iwould not have entered that tournament. My ticket let me play something that I hadn't tried before, and I took advantage. With that said, I am glad that I did it. My hold'em play had fallen into a rut. As mentioned on Monday, I have been hit by the variance stick, and that was also affecting my play by making me a bit more gun shy, waiting for the inevitable 2 outer to hit. This tournament reminded me that poker at it's core is supposed to be a game. You are supposed to enjoy playing it. And the tournament helped me to rediscover that joy, and my game. My limited results have been better since he tournament (cashing in every sit'n'go I have played) while my play was solid and lot closer to where I wanted it to be. Sometimes, you need to switch things up to remind youself about the nature of poker. That is what the tournament did for me on Monday.