Posts Tagged ‘ept’

Today is Sunday, but I won’t be playing the Sunday Million, because I’m currently in the United States.

For as long as I’ve had this blog, I’ve started every year with a series of posts about my poker-related goals and resolutions, and I’ve ended every year by assessing the progress I made towards them. I set goals for 2011- my most ambitious ever, actually- but now it seems pointless to even look at them, as Black Fridayrendered them more or less irrelevant.  The best laid plans of mice and men, eh?

A dark omen in Montreal.

I’m not really in a place to start setting poker goals for this year, either, since I have no idea what the year will look like for me, poker-wise or otherwise. Not since my final semester of college have I felt this level of anxiety and uncertainty about my future. Those Big Questions are back: Where will I live? What will I do? Who will the people around me be?

I’ve spent the last week and and a half fending off questions, some idle and some concerned, at various gatherings of friends and family. My recent life as a nomadic poker professional was strange enough to them that they’ve learned to accept without alarm the fact that I don’t know where I’m going to be two weeks from now.  Read the complete post...

Q: If you find time i want your opinion about a hand i played in a EPT side event with a pokerstars pro from Argentina (i don’t remember his name but he won the high roller event last year at EPT London i think)…
With 75/150 blinds and about 9000 effective stack he raised from UTG+1 to 400. Everybody folded to me in button with AJs.
I thought he had a wider than tight players open range so i called.
Flop: 4-T-T rainbow… he bet 650.. I called
Turn: J … he bet 1450 and I called
River: K and he moved all in ( he had more ) and I folded…
The question is are you find my calls to loose?
At flop i thought i call to see his turn reaction… At turn I lost from a Tx, 44, JJ-AA so i call again as i thought he bet with much more hands… But the river? Its obviously great bluffing card but also now i loose from many more hands in his range…  Read the complete post...

After a low-key Friday night, Nico and I resolved to live it up on my last night in Madrid. We started off having dinner and watching the Barcelona-Seville game at a restaurant/bar across the street from his apartment. It was a bit of a dive but had surprisingly good food and there were a wide variety of people just kind of hanging out there, some drinking and watching the game, some just having dinner. Nico said that Spanish people spend a large percentage of their time in places like this, and that his roommate goes to this place every morning for breakfast. So despite the game ending in a draw, a good outcome for all the Madrid fans in the establishment since they won their game, it was a good time and a neat place to hang out.

From there we took a subway to Tribunal for some botellon, the fine Spanish tradition of outdoor, public drinking. I’ve never been a big fan of bars, since I’m mostly going to talk to the people I’m going with and could do that more easily and cheaply with drinks at home, but there is something to be said for the atmosphere and for being among people. Botellon is the perfect combination: you’re outside with plenty of other people milling around, but you’re drinking your own alcohol rather than buying it at inflated prices!  Read the complete post...

Part trip report, part sequel to “Gray Friday“, “Three Days in Madrid” is my latest article for the Two Plus Two Poker Magazine:

My heart beat eagerly as my eyes scanned the waiting crowd at Madrid-Barajas Airport. It’s nice to know that, after nine hours of traveling, there is a friendly face seeking out you amidst the anonymous crowd, but there was more to my anxiousness than that. The face I was looking for wasn’t exactly familiar: I’d seen it only once, in a photograph. But if Nico wasn’t here, I was going to be seriously screwed, with little money, even less knowledge of the local language, and no plan for getting to my hotel.

It tells the story of my first three days (though actually most of the best stories are from the nights) in Madrid, including significant hands that I played on Day 1A of the European Poker Tour Grand Final. Of course, I spent more than three days in Madrid, but the article is long enough as it is. I plan to share a few more stories on this blog in the coming days, so if you enjoy the article, keep any eye on this page for bonus material!

Andrew busted at EPT Madrid shortly after the dinner break Day 1A.

I expect he’ll post a more thorough recounting tomorrow, but he did have a Spanish friend relay the busto hand info for me to share -

It was shortly after dinner break, with blinds at 300/600, Andrew had around 45.000.

Young aggro player with big stack opened to 1400 UTG+1, then UTG+2 called, and MP1 3-bet to 4200.

Andrew 4-bet to 14,000 from the CO with AK suited, and it got folded around to the 3-bettor, who called.Then flop came AQx, the other guy openshoved for around 30,000 (close to the pot size), Andrew called and the guy had QQ for a set of queens.

Thanks Nicolás!

I’ve got myself a nice little room at the Atlantis Resort and Casino. I’m only on the third floor, so the view sucks, but I’ve got a little patio that’s large enough for a table and chairs, whichis kinda cool. The higher rooms just have a very tiny balcony.

I stupidly managed to bring my laptop but forget the power cord, so I’m stuck making this crappy tiny post from the barely functioning WebTB-ish thing they have in the room.

But yeah, I’m here, just got back from a very nice Poker Stars reception where I ran into Shaundeeb, who introduced to a bunch of young internet players I previously knew only by screenname: Adam Junglen, MrBigQueso, FatalError, etc.

I’ll be playing Day 2B (Wednesday), and I’ll do my best to keep you posted. Hopefully I can get this laptop situation straightened out. Technically they have computers here I can use, but like everything here, they are gallingly expensive (the “nominal fee” for the fitness center is $15/day, which is also what I’m paying for this shitty internet.

Although I’m running pretty low on cash on Poker Stars of late, I did have some $W sitting around, and since I don’t actually have a conflict with the European Poker Tour Dortmund event at the end of January, I decided to play a satellite. We started off 250 BB’s deep, and I felt I did a very good job of taking advantage of weaker players with such deep money. I don’t think it will be necessary to offer commentary on each of these hands, but hopefully they are illustrative of some important deep stack concepts like pot control, isolation, and position. I am happy to answer any questions that get posed in the Comments section.

Poker Stars, $760 + $40 NL Hold’em Tournament, 10/20 Blinds, 7 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

BB: 4,540
UTG: 4,630
UTG+1: 5,300
MP: 5,600
Hero (CO): 4,970
BTN: 4,900
SB: 5,060

Pre-Flop: (30) A T dealt to Hero (CO)
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls 20, MP folds, Hero raises to 120, 3 folds, UTG+1 calls 100

Flop: (270) 8 7 6 (2 Players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero checks

Turn: (270) 3 (2 Players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero checks

River: (270) 6 (2 Players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero checks  Read the complete post...