Ok, so right now, Images are down on Blogspot for some reason. But the above pic is me winning a satellite into WCOOP Event #5. ($200+$15 NL Holdem, $700,000 guaranteed, with rebuys.) I'm pretty excited, because just 2 posts ago I was saying that it looked unlikely that I would get a chance to play this year. And even better, I still have quite a bit of money to try more satellites. :: For a recap of the tournament, here's how it went. I decided I was gonna play boring by the book poker and just look for good spots to get all my money in. This whole plan was disturbed on the very first hand!...when UTG raised it from 20 to 420, and I found pocket jacks. I knew he was full of shit but I didn't want to coinflip with something lame like KQ, plus there were still people to act behind me. So I chuck the JJ, grudgingly. And behind me someone else moves in. Wow, maybe folding those jacks was for the best. And indeed it was, he turns over AA. The idiot UTG had AQo. And the aces held up, but I was pissed when I saw a J hit the board. I would tripled up on the very first hand. That's ok though, I tripled up on the 2nd hand! I found KK on the 2nd hand and called a small raise from mid position, I was hoping someone would do something stupid behind me, cause people seemed to want to gamble. Sure enough someone goes all in behind me and the original raiser calls too. Well I'm not letting go of kings, if someone has AA, good for them. But instead they turn over J's and T's, and my K's hold...filling up on the river with a K. Good start. I then fold about 30 hands in a row and people are getting knocked out left and right. Before I even know it, we are down to 4 players, and we all have pretty much equal stacks. The guy on my left was a nut, and I was just waiting to double up through him, but he busted before I could play against him. When it got down to 3, I started using my ubertight image to steal blinds. Occasionally when the 2 bigger stacks would limp, I'd just move in my chips and stay alive that way. The key hand of the tournament for me (aside from the original triple up) went as follows:I was on the button with KJs. I raised 3x, standard, and the small blind called. He knew I was tight, so I was sure he had a hand. Flop came down AKx. I knew my K's were no good, so I checked behind the SB who also checked. Turn, K. Beautiful. This time the SB bets out about 3/4's of the pot and I just move in my chips there and then. He calls with AJ and I double through and am the chip leader. He then proceeds to hand the rest of his chips over to the other guy, and we're heads up. Now I wasn't at all happy that when I found myself heads up, I was playing defensively and stumbling around a bit. I need more heads up practice, that is for sure! But I got a few lucky flops and didn't waste anytime in moving all my chips in to take the pots down before he could outdraw me. The final hand I had QJ and the flop came QJx. I got it all in again and he luckily had Q9. It wasn't exactly QJx. It was more precisely QJ7 with 1 club, and tort2001 had 2 clubs. Uh Oh. Turn card? Tc! FUCK! That makes a QJT7 board with 2 clubs. My opponent now has an up and down straight draw, a flush draw, and could hit another 9 to beat me. Heart attack... maybe if I was older, but my ticker was pounding like crazy. I was sure that last card was gonna be a club or some other crazy shit. But instead it came the most beautiful card I've ever seen, the harmless Ace of diamonds. =) Now I know this isn't a HUGE deal, but I'm happy that I get to atleast take part in the extravaganza. And who knows, I could always get lucky and make a final table. For now, I'm gonna finish up the bonus and play in a few more satellites. I'm up over $300 from the ring games thus far, so I have plenty of money to try and make it into another event.

Source: Dragonystic's Poker Blog