So yeah, played WPT UK this week. Last time I was here I came 2nd in the high roller to Bryn and 5th in the main event for $150kish or something total. So was really looking forward to coming back.
In the main I made day 2 with around 60k. Was a little bit tilted though, I started the day really well and after 2 levels had 125k which was 4x average and went to dinner pretty happy. The next couple of hours didn't go so well and I ended with half my stack, its pretty hard to not be sad when that happens, but whatever.
Had one hand I think opponent played incorrectly.
Open, I call, and another good player calls.
763ssc, bet, I call, good player overcalls (his range here is v strong imo)
763Asscc, bet big, I call, he calls
763A5ssccx bet big, i fold, he folds, shows aces.
I think betting the river is a big mistake on the river, think about what calls the river vs 3 barrels here, the reg squeezes jj+ pre so can't bluff catch a big pair and has very few Ax that call the flop after I call. Both of our ranges are super strong hands, straights/sets and then lots of bluffs with no showdown value. When you bet the river, straights/sets will likely just call and bluffs will fold, when you bet the river yourself you allow them to bluff their draws, and you get to get a c/r in vs their value range thus winning a big pot. One of the most important things in these live tournaments is winning huge pots with your huge hands, if you slightly misplay a street you can finish the day with 70k instead of 150k or whatever. Anyway, I had t9ss and was for sure bluffing
Day 2 I had pretty weak table, I was able to win lot of pots. I became friendly with opponent in hand from above who played really good and solid overall. On the turn I bet 2.5x pot on the last hand before dinner with 76s on A92Jhhxx where I was expecting the way their range was formed to fold around 90%, anyway, I said I show if you fold then like 20 people came and started to watch the hand, I hated that I had to show because I looked like cocky bastard trying to make them fold and showing everybody, looks bad, but was meant in good intention.
Anyway, the day went great, I chipped up a lot, almost uncontested to a big stack. I asked a reg on my table where he was from and he said Poland, I asked my polish horses who he was and before I could check he opened and I looked down at two big red aces, I 3bet him and he said "you just asked who i am, is that why you're 3betting me?" he flats
flop QT2r, he checks, I bet biggish, he calls
turn QT24, he checks, I bet biggish, he calls
river QT242, he checks, I jam and he has QQ.
Felt kind of bad about this because with my image here people hate folding these run outs. Was extremely large pot as we both had 1.5x+ average at the start of the hand. Anyway after this I went on a huge heater, winning I think 3 all ins to get back up to a nice stack.
Very last hand of the day my horse opens UTG, I defend 65o in the bb.
flop 234fd (lol) check, bet, call
turn 234A dfd, check, check
river 234AJ, dfd brick, I bet over pot and he calls quickly with 55.
Felt so bad for him that I had coolered him and even worse for me that I didn't check/shove
Anyway, back for day 3. Had an amazing table.
Around 3 hands in, aggro reg opens co, I flat sb with TT and 80ish bbs, bb jams 23?bbs, I call and he has A4o and we get the xxxxA board. Obviously poor jam and was a little tilted.
Over next few orbits had AA/KK/JJ/QQ/88/88/KK and somehow managed to get through the bubble with 10 or so bbs.
Got a lucky treble up JJ>AQ>QQ and then won a few big pots and got up to around 60 or so bbs (prob 5/20) then played very big hand.
Aggro reg opens co, i defend btn, reg defends bb.
Flop A37cc, checks to me, I bet, bb calls
Turn A372cc, checks to me, I stare at him for a minute, he's giving off a lot of tells, I bet, he gives off a lot more tells and jams huge, this is prob chip lead or very big pot, he jammed around 300k+ on the turn and average was prob 500k at the time. I couldn't not go with my reads and made pretty thin call with ATo and he had q4cc, he hit a straight on the 2 river and it hurt haha. I was still in decent shape with around 20bbs.
V aggro reg opens utg, usually I would always always flat AA here but got v strong reads he was strong, I decide to jam AA and he calls AK and we lose on the K32K5 board.
I came around 25th for £7000, was a super fun week, was so happy that my reads were correct in almost all spots throughout the week and gives me a lot more confidence for live poker after successful previous trips in Vegas, Barca especially and more recently Malta.
Caribbean next week which will be absolutely awesome, so many people I know going, literally 1000+ people going. Going to be wild. After that will go to NYC for 8 days and then to Prague for EPT.
Life feels pretty good right now, very content and in a happy place.. today a horse asked the community about whether he should stick with uni or concentrate more on poker. Going to write an article about this this week and post it here, I have very different opinions to 99% of people on this idea I'm sure. Will be interested on feedback.