Posts Tagged ‘ept’

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...

A lot of you may have read this already, but for anyone who hasn’t, I encourage you to visit Adam Junglen’s blog and read his report from European Poker Tour Monte Carlo. I don’t want to ruin any of the suspense by saying more than this, but he is a great writer and poker player. The report is in three parts:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Gavin Griffin wins EPT Barcelona, good for 1,850,000 euros, or nearly $2.5 million. Wowowowowow.

No Vendar Flores

I didn’t get to bed until 4AM last night, but I suck at sleeping in and wake around 9. For once there is no rain, and I am really not bummed about busting on day 1 of the tournament, since I now have two more days to tour Barcelona. I haven’t yet been to La Sagrada Familia (The Holy Family), a 19th-century cathedral designed by Barcelona’s homegrown architect Gaudi and probably the city’s number one tourist destination, so that’s where I’m heading today. I eat breakfast and make for the train station, about four blocks from the hotel.

Cultural Fact 7: In the US, one often sees signs prohibiting certain activities in public places, with two of the more common ones being “No panhandling” and “Do not step on grass.” The Barcelonan equivalents seem to be “No vendar flores” and “No futbol”.

On my way to subway, an old woman approaches me with a fistful of flowers. I try to shake my head and wave my hand at her to indicate a lack of interest, but she is shaking her head right back, as though there is something I don’t understand. “No, no, es Fiesta.”

“Um,” I stare blankly as she forces a stem into my palm. I know this isn’t free.  Read the complete post...

I show up early at the casino to make sure I have time to register, and who should be next to me in line but Yurian? We’ve got time to kill, so we get lunch along the waterfront. I let him choose the place, and he selects what is essentially an overpriced fast food pasta place. So much for Europeans having good taste in food. At least he speaks some Spanish and is willing to be pushy about getting the check.

Level 1: Blinds 25/50

The 1 seat is late to arrive, and loses a big pot almost immediately after sitting down. He raises in late position and calls a re-raise from Gustav in the BB. The flop comes down Ace-high, Gustav bets 2000, the guy raises to 5000, Gustav shoves, and the guy angrily mucks, claiming he had KK. Well played, sir. Gustav shows an A.

The next big pot, Terrance raises to 150 from the CO, and Ann re-raises to 300 from the BB. The flop is K85, Ann checks and calls a bet. The turn is an 8, Ann checks, Terrance bets 1500, Ann raises to 3000, Terrance calls. The river checks through, Ann shows AJ, and Terrance’s KQ is good.

Ann picks up a few small pots with no showdown, but in every instance she has made small bets or raises relative to the pot.  Read the complete post...

Once again I awake to pouring rain, but yesterday the precipitation tapered off by mid-afternoon, so I don’t stress about it and just go downstairs to see what our free breakfast buffet looks like. My understanding was that the continental breakfast you get at an American hotel (coffee, juice, pre-packaged pastry) was so named because of breakfasts provided at hotels on the European continent, so I don’t have my hopes up, but whoooooooooowheeeee are my expectations ever exceeded. The Hilton spreads a top-of-the-line meal with delicious fresh-squeezed juice, all kinds of meat and smoked fish, fresh fruits, several kinds of yogurt, varied croissants and other pastries, and even American cereals. And it is all free, all-you-can-eat.

Very little makes me happier than a huge, delicious breakfast, so I am already in a good mood when I take a seat across from a Norwegian guy who looked to be in his late 20’s or early 30’s. We exchange pleasantries, which includes sharing Stars screen names, and when I tell him mine, he starts to laugh. “You were at my table, in the satellite I won,” he says. “I kept stealing your blinds.”

Son of a bitch! This is the guy I described in my first e-mail, who had me and another big stack to his left and kept raising the button with impunity. I smile. “If you ever had raised me, I would immediately. Anything,” he tells me.  Read the complete post...

The Rain in Spain

When I wake up, it is morning, and we are about to land in Barcelona. I meet up with 10K-in-Clay, whose real name is Dan, and his girlfriend, Danielle (Dan and Danielle… cute, but maybe a little too cute). Dan is a 19-year old Canadian about to play his first live event. This is only my second one, but I try to share a few things I learned from my first one. Danielle is his age, friendly but quiet. They knew each other from high school but now go to different colleges. I’m quite sure that no teenage daughter of mine would be jetting off to Spain with her poker-playing boyfriend, but I hear Canada is a pretty liberal country, so more power to them.

After collecting our bags, we pass through customs without so much as turning a head and go to find the cab stand. I had heard that precipitation on the Iberian peninsula is localized primarily in the flatlands, but no sooner have we gotten in the cab than the sky opens up and pours down rain drops the size of golf balls onto our little vehicle. The driver, who seems not to speak English, is on his cell phone and has his window cracked. Since his cab is moving forward, the rain is coming in at an angle, landing not on him, but on the seat behind him, where yours truly happens to be sitting. I have no idea how to communicate this to him, and don’t want to distract him further from the road, which already seems not to be his top priority, so I just sit there and get wet.  Read the complete post...