Pi**ed

I finished in the money in a tournament, and I'm pissed about it.

I've been debating all week whether to try to satellite into the WCOOP Horse event today at 3 PM. I've been doing well in HORSE and deep-stack tournaments lately, and thought I might be able to do well in it, so I was considering a satellite attempt.

Horse is Hold Em, Omaha H/L, Razz, 7-Stud, and 7-Stud H/L in a rotation. The tournament has a $215 buy-in, which I would not and could not front, but would have a first prize of at least $47K. Stacks started at 3,000 and had 30-minute levels, compared to the ten or even 5-minute levels in normal tourneys.

Poker Stars was running several satellites, and I entered into the last one where an entry was given for every 11 entries. 104 players meant that 9 would get entries, with 10 through 16 getting buy-ins returned.

Early on, I was crippled, and then went on a monstrous tear to get up to 7th out of 16 remaining. However, with the turbo format I was still in danger on any hand of not getting the entry, though I was guaranteed of recouping the buyin.

Well, that's exactly what happened - with blinds of 750/1500, and sitting on a stack of 3600, I pushed in when everyone folded to me in the SB, as I would be anted off within the next few hands anyway - if I folded, I would have 1800 remaining, and be done in 5 hands when the BB hit me again.

I had 10-7 suited, got called by 9-4 unsuited from another small stack (WTF????) and saw a 9 on the flop. So, I finished 11th out of 104. In a cash tourney, I'd get a good amount back. In this, though, I just got back the buy-in.

I wasn't quite sure if I'd be able to play the event, but just having the tourney dollars to do other satellites if I didn't play would be nice. As is, I neither gained nor lost anything.

The HORSE event ended with 1639 players, and a total prize pool of 327,800.00, with first place taking 72K home. As of now, 4.5 hours into the tourney, half the players remain, and another 500 need to drop before reaching the money.

So, I cashed, but I'm ticked. Doesn't make much sense, I guess.

At least there are still 11 other events to try for. Not sure which I might try, though, because the remaining options aren't great in time or in buyin amount.

Ugh.