WCOOB 2025

Unlike last year, I didn't have any grand plans for this year's World Championship Of Online Poker Badugi (WCOOB). I've had a series of health issues this year, which ultimately don't appear to be too serious but, perhaps then more so mentality than physically, I've just been trying to survive 2025.

With that said, this year's WCOOB boasts double the days of badugi, with three buyin levels of limit badugi events on the 9th and pot limit events on the 30th.

Sky's The Limit

The limit event buyins were $22, $109 and $1050, and I should have played the $22 but as ever my ambition exceeds my bankroll so I signed up for a satellite to the $109. 

Just the TWO WCOOP champions and one SCOOP winner to contend with.

Despite the COOP badge ridden tables, I fared well. I played and I ran well, all the way to the final table. The bubble was a bit cagey, as you'd expect but I emerged victorious!

The momentum did not carry through to the $109 event itself though. It sucked. I had a bunch of middling hands at times but missed every draw. I think I won one small pot, once. It was a miserable affair, I felt like I was getting a virtual beating. Needless to say, I bust with nothing to show for it.

Pot Luck

The pot limit events came with $5.50, $55, $530 buyins. While I'd be more than happy with the five dollar tournament any normal day of the week, on this special World Championship Of Online Badugi day, I had to play bigger, I decided to splash out and buy directly into the $55 event. 

Starting table had just the THREE WCOOP champions

I spent most of the tournament glowering at my screen in frustration. I was watching, tagging players, making notes and after a while was more than certain I could have given a Bleznik-esque critique of every hand as they played out, every showdown proved myself right and yet in spite of that or rather because of that I found myself handcuffed. My reads were spot on, so when the tight player raised my mediocre hands, I had to let it go but when one of the maniacs started inflating pots I found myself lacking those very mediocre hands which would now be gold. I persevered, chipping up with selective bluffs against the tight players showing weakness, and because of my tighter play I was also able to take down the blinds uncontested semi-regularly.

I floated around average or just below for most of the tournament. I was middle of the pack as we made the money, with the top 29 getting paid, but I was just never able to build a big stack. I continued to survive rather than thrive. I think if I was going to come up with a new screen name based on my badugi playing, I'd go with something like "la cucaracha". Despite never being in a commanding chip position, I was rarely at risk, picking up small pots, staying out of danger.

However, as we got down to the final two tables, even I, the humble cockroach, couldn't help but look towards the potential glory of a WCOOP WCOOB win. I climbed the pay ladders but that was no longer important, what was important was one of those little red badges, the win, the title, that's what I wanted now. 

Alas, my chipstack never shared that ambition. I longed for the opportunity but lacking, my stack dwindled. Eventually, I made my move and was stamped out. Banez86 opened from the button and, with 5 big blinds remaining, I shoved with a jack high badugi from the small blind. I figured I was probably ahead right now, Banez is a good badugi player, so while I don't expect them to be getting out of line, there's a whole range of hands they would be opening on the button. But I immediately found myself in trouble when Banez stood pat right after me. I had a 389J badugi, and 2 more draws. At the time, I thought I had a better chance of Banez having a worse badugi than I had of drawing to a better one myself, but looking back, I don't think that's true. If Banez had a king/queen high badugi, I think they would have drawn after seeing me stand pat, so they can only really have a better badugi than mine. Turns out Banez was dealt a 5678 badugi and for the second year in a row Banez86 was instrumental in ending my WCOOB. 

A friend was congratulating me afterwards on my deep run but I, like most poker players, was moaning about how bad I had run, he just laughed. Yeah, ok, I suppose it doesn't look like I ran that bad but I really do believe I had less than my fair share of good card distribution, but I suppose I should be grateful and happy with the run, there's always the next one!

Results Summary 

After the WCOOP concluded, Pokerstars sent an email summarising my performance in the most underwhelming fashion:

8

Just... "8"?

That's my all time greatest WCOOP/SCOOP run and there's not so much as an exclamation mark. Come on Pokerstars, I know I didn't win it but we need a bit more pizazz here. Do event champions get the same email just with:

1

That's the worst winner... notification.