Exit Gulf Coast, enter WCOOP for Brown

You might have seen a little less of Chad Brown at the WCOOP tables in recent days. That's because he was busy padding his bankroll by several hundred thousand dollars in live events. Now that he's done with that, he's ready to move on to WCOOP, where he's suggesting you better watch out for him.

Here's what he had to say upon his return from the American Gulf Coast.

by Chad Brown

Taking a short break from WCOOP, Vanessa and I were the hosts of the Gulf Coast Poker Championship. Vanessa was also teaching a poker boot camp the day before the main event. So I decided to play in the PLO rebuy tourney.

I arrived in Gulfport at 4:45pm. I called my friend Mark Davis and asked how much time I had left to enter the tourney. He told me only 10 minutes. I asked him to buy me in and that I should be there in 30 minutes. He did and I arrived and started to build my stack back up.

At the end of the rebuy period, I had not rebought, but decided to do a double add-on. It was a good decision as I coasted to the final table as the chip leader and was never challenged. I won the event and received $32,000, a white gold bracelet, and a Beau Rivage trophy. It was my 2nd straight final table in Mississippi. The month before I made the final table in the World Poker Open in Tunica, with fellow PokeStars Pro teammate Chris Moneymaker. I finished fourth place in that and Chris came in third.

Feeling great about my chances going into the main event, I had a goal of doing something I had never done in my poker career: win back to back events. I had made three final tables in a row before. In 2006 when I won Bluff Magazines' Player of the Year, I made the final table in the EPT London, won the 5k WCOOP HORSE event on PokerStars and then final tabled the 5k no-limit hold'em at the Bellagio.

The day didn't start out well as I took beat after beat and lost numerous pots on the river. But with good pot management and a great structure I was able to survive. A key to this tournament was when I had about 13 big blinds left and I had raised under the gun with A-J suited.

An older man who was at my table and not doing anything crazy, min-raised me from early position. Everyone folded to me. Now normally I would just go all-in in this spot, but felt I was behind and decided to call. I missed the flop and the old man pushed all in. I mucked, thinking I could find a better spot.

I got moved to another table and was down to 2,500 in chips with the average at about 38,000. I got lucky and doubled up a couple of times. With me now holding 20,000 in chips, a wild player limped in under the gun and the next player min-raised. It was folded to me on the button and I woke up with pocket kings.

I decided to slow play, knowing there was a chance the under the gun player could come back over the top. He just called and we saw the flop. It was 5-5-2 rainbow and was checked to me. I bet half the pot, and the wild player shoved 45,000 all-in. The other player mucked and I called to see my opponent's A-2 offsuit. My kings held up and I was on my way to my third final table in a month.

A very talented young player named Tyler Smith became the monster chip leader at the table. After he busted most of the players there, we were heads up and I was playing for a chance at my first back-to-back victories. He held a 2.5 to 1 chip lead on me.

The key hand of the match was a hand that went like this:

He raised on the button and I called with K-9 off. The flop came 9 high and we both checked. The turn was a [Qs] putting up 2 spades. I checked and he bet. I raised him and he re-raised. I called.

The river was an ugly [As]. I checked and he bet around the amount of the pot 400,000. If I called and lost, the match would be essentially over. He would have had a 2.4 million to 400,000 lead.

I studied the situation for about three minutes and decided to go with my instinct that he was on a move.

I was right.

He had T-2 offsuit and now I had the chip lead.

After I chipped up to a dominating chip lead, the last hand went like this: Tyler limped on the button and I checked. The flop came 3-5-6 rainbow. I checked and he bet. I min-raised ( something I did often in this match) and he went all-in. I called...because I had the nuts: 4-7.

Tyler turned over 9-4 clubs. There was a club on board, but the turn and the river blanked out. I won the Gulf Coast Poker Championship and achieved my goal of back-to-back victories. Tyler played well and I believe we will hear a lot more from him.

Now, with another several days of WCOOP left, I plan on doing some serious damage.

Chad Brown is a member of Team PokerStars Pro