PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker - WBCOOP 2011 [Editorial... I mean, blog]
Monday, 24 January 2011
If my life were Rounders, albiet a much more uninteresting version without the sleazy friend, the gambling debts and the Russian mobster after me; a more mundane rendition of student loans, spewing money with big bluffs at microstakes and tha bank's overdraft-chasing team after me, then this would be my big chance.
This is my showdown with John Malkovich, except it's in the shape of a week-long tournament series. In fact, it's a $60,000+ freeroll for all of the handsome bastards and gorgeous ladies that write regularly about the beautiful game. It's just occurred to me that PokerStars Pro and EPT champion Vicky Coren is eligible to play due to her Guardian column. Not that I'm saying she's gorgeous. I mean, not that she isn't because she is but I wasn't, like, you know... I plead the fifth. Moving on...
Starting tonight, the World Blogger Championship Of Online Poker features six preliminary events taking place over the next six days which award seats to the Main Event as well as tens of thousands of dollars worth of Spring Championship Of Online Poker tickets. I'm planning on playing in four of them - three NL tournaments and the first, the kick-off this evening, a Pot-Limit Omaha event. I'm not massively experienced in PLO but I plan to ride the variance train all the way to the final table.
On top of the events I'm playing are Friday's 8-Game Mix tournament (out for a friend's birthday; everyone wish Shane "Egg" Frost a happy 22nd) and Wednesday's Omaha Hi/Lo event (it's at 3am... I guess I might play it). The events, as you might gather, are on an irregular time schedule all around the clock to accommodate all of the bloggers around the world.
Each of the preliminary events pays 200 spots with each cashing player guaranteed a ticket to the WBCOOP Main Event and the added prizes increasing in value to a pair of $215 SCOOP tickets for the final table and two Sunday Million tickets on top for the winner.
The real money is in the Main Event on January 30, though. Using the same 10,000 chip; 25/50 start blind structure as the $1.5m Sunday Million weekly major, the granddaddy of the WBCOOP series pays out 250 players at least a $7.50 Steps satellite ticket with prizes increasing. The top 36 players recieve a $215 SCOOP ticket with the final table credited $1,580 in SCOOP tickets and two Sunday Million entries.
In 2006, now PokerStars Online Pro "daleroxxxu" won the WBCOOP Main Event and recieved a Main Event seat at the record-breaking World Series of Poker that awarded Jamie Gold $12m. To be honest, I prefer what I'm going to win when I take this event down: a $2,100; $1,050; $530; $320 series of SCOOP tickets and four entries to the Sunday Million. That's eight tournaments out of my bankroll that can earn me a five-, six- or seven-figure score instead of just the one - and I don't have to put up with the Vegas climate. I hate British summers at 23C, let alone a searing expanse of beautiful desert.
My PokerStars WBCOOP 2011 schedule
Pot Limit Omaha - January 24 19:00 GMT
No Limit Hold’em - January 25 00:00 GMT
No Limit Hold’em - January 27 19:00 GMT
No Limit Hold’em - January 29 20:00 GMT
(fingers crossed) No Limit Hold 'em WBCOOP Main Event - January 30 20:00 GMT
So, by the time you next read one of my editorials here I should be topping the WBCOOP leaderboard (I'm thinking 3rd in the PLO, a mincash in one of the NL events, a win in the next NL and 5th in the third) and be well in contention for the $5,000 in live event seats for the winner of the WBCOOP series points race. That works out to about £3,120 so I reckon some UKIPT seats are in order. Essentially, my plan is to make approximately £7,300 out of the WBCOOP and I think it's pretty much fated to happen.
This time next week I won't be writing an editorial, having stayed up all night to win the Main Event and $4,100 in SCOOP tickets and four Sunday Million shots. I don't know if I'll final table a Sunday Million in the next month, that strikes me as greedy. I'll have to win a UKIPT though. I'm feeling Nottingham.
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