Just a few quick thoughts before I sleep.

Long pause followed by a raise (very strong)
Instant automatic raise (usually very strong)
Instant automatic check (weak or folding hand)
Odd number bet such as betting $9.95 instead of $10 (neutral hand)
Opponent quickly calls your bet (moderate to semi-weak hand)
Very small bets (weak hand, sometimes monster)
Massive all-in bets vs size of pot (monster or bluff)

I could write a pretty much endless Honeybadger type post on this
my strength tells wise is live and that just gives you a constant and endless stream
of data. Just saying even in the most standard of hand there is a tonne of information we
just have to train ourselves to be in observation mode while in a pot.

Large river bets are rarely bluffs so the likelihood here is you are somehow beat. With the way the hands
played out it does seem a little odd reading through at a glance. Probably going to be a good fold a high percentage of the time.

Shipitgood makes a really valid call on looking for or having more reads. Guilty of this myself in game but think you can
make more of an effort to gain some actual reads. Where is he from? Timing tells? OPR him, is he multi tabling, his buyin
indicates he is possibly a better player (sat deep) the list goes on. Like I say it's not my strong point either and almost certainly a weakness
online.

Great post/hand btw hope this doesn't seem negative it's certainly not meant to be in anyway. I always beat the drum for more reads on here
excellent post though. Will have another look when I wake it has been a long day.

With the volume I play, and the field sizes, when I hit a final I really need to top 5 minimum. You don't get that many chances. It so happens this is literally the lowest gtee comp I play (run better) but the spot just seemed yuky. 30-40 out I think I stick it in but on FT I felt it was a fold but wasn't sure.

My general wish is to get my chips in first. As it's harder to call correct than it is to jam correct for most low stakes players. Until the short stacks are gone I like to stay alive. Then from 6th onwards we get it in as big stacks are crying out to give cheap doubles.

I folded in game. They get it all in on KQ7 flop with A7 and QQ. So turns out UTG was a rofler

Can be almost head scratching trying to put small buyin players on a hand both live and online at times.
Guess the worst thing we can do from a thinking players point of view is try and use our logic for them, which on most
occasions is far off the mark.

As poker players we are all thinking on different levels and you want your thinking to be ahead of your opponents.
It can be hard to level ourselves down and get into the heads of the recreational players.

And you are correct in a sense to want to have the first in vigorish. Personally don't mind ramping the aggression back
slightly here as people do tend to go nuts when the final table does open so I see now harm in giving the shortstacks
chance to get all in, here its two decent size stacks though.

Adopted a more aggressive approach towards the end of the year maybe it just didn't suit my style of play but I found myself
losing a decent amount (all) of these huge pots late on in MTT's. No harm in taking the cautious route if you are on a limited bankroll
and don't have a full grasp of shove/fold ICM etc.

http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/tournaments/ept/2014/ept11-prague-goulders-golden-run-152797.shtml

Rally good read. Cheers Tighty.

Good luck out there Andrew.

Will you be selling action? I'll take a lil slice if you are.

Absolute box of tells live though!

I love Jen Shahade. Great as a commentator on chess24, and she seems a real class act. Wish I was as clever as her.

Only female coach on Runitonce. Guess what format she does vids on? OFC of course.

Usually call unless everyone else at the table has about 22k or less in which case I just jam.

If UTG sticks it in for 25k or less I'm not folding.

Seems reasonable.

Thanks very much everyone. Feeling on cloud nine this morning

A quick report on how it played out!

I ran so hot from 19 until the final 8, think I busted 5 of those 11 people and had a big chip lead going into the final 8 with 2.5m out of 7.5m in play.

Once the final started I had so much momentum and thought with my chip lead I could put so much pressure on but it didn't work out that way at all. I tried to force things too much and everyone was still pretty deep which makes it actually tougher to put pressure on. I lost my head a bit and played two or three hands really poorly.

The dinner break came at the perfect time. I was tilted at myself and ruing my mistakes. I needed to snap out of it and have a completely different approach. A halftime team talk with Deadman really helped from a strategy point of view, and a FaceTime with Victoria really helped from a morale point of view.

After dinner I had a totally different approach, the strategy being to just sit back and let people bust themselves, then apply pressure once short handed. And that's exactly how it worked out. A real key pot was busting Zohair to go 4 handed. Even though the pot wasn't that big, it was still crucial because he was the best player left in and had direct position on me, and it gave me a decent chip lead again and I could put real pressure on 4 handed.

This was when I really feel happy with how I played, I relaxed more and started enjoying myself for the first time on the final. I pressed pretty hard and again although I didn't win any big pot, the luck was the others knocking each other out and I didn't take any hits, went into heads up 4.8m to 2.7m and feeling great.

I turned down a deal so we played on for 32k difference. I really enjoy heads up and felt I played my absolute best during this match.

I got him allin with my AQ vs 88 and I thought this must be fate. 2014 started off with me losing AQ vs 88 for chunks in EPT Deauville to come 11th. So I thought it would a fitting end of the year to win the tournament with the same flip.

Alas, that didn't happen, but I grinded him back to even again, then took a slight lead when the sick one took place...

We got it all in with my vs his on a Q229r board. I was 95% to win the lot there and then. But alas, the brutal queen on the river crippled me. That was a pretty brutal beat to take for such a huge amount of money. But I actually felt fine, I really was determined to not let it bother me and to play on unfazed.

I had 800k at 50/100k and got some shoves through, then won 66 vs QJ to double to around 2.5m. At this point it seemed like a deal would be a good idea now that we were much shallower. So we deal a chip count deal and played for the trophy. Whether it would've played out the same I don't know, he says he would have done some things different but as you know I take my trophies very seriously! I ended up winning A6 vs KJ for a huge double to have him 5.5:2m and then the last one A8>KT to finish it.

It was immensely satisfying. To have that mental setback early on in the final and then have the support of my friends and girlfriend to help me snap out of it. And then to recover from that sick hand to get it all back and win. I feel like it was my proudest accomplishment in poker.

I couldn't bare Victoria being in Barcelona on her own, so flown her out today and gonna skip the Eureka to spend time with her in this amazing city. Open Face Chinese World Championship tomorrow, absolutely buzzing for this. Gonna do a charity auction for 10% of my action where I'll match whatever the winning bid is. See the staking boards shortly!

Picture otherwise it did not happen 

Sure stars didnt rake it? Silly question would have been more ;-)

Initial thoughts were to call this jam with 77+,AQ+,AJs+

Just had a really good laugh at how tight that is but absolute nits are going to nit.

Initial thoughts were to call this jam with 77+,AQ+,AJs+

Calling tighter than so far suggested. Granted people will jam a little wider now they have landed at the FT.
We are 4th in chips so really see no need to call wide.

This varies so massively depending on opponent, that it is hard to give an answer.

You got any reads?

This. Could opr him and get more reads than you give. So hard to answer with basically no information. And i will be calling this pretty tight still as we have just landed on the final have always found that even though stacks are short we don't need to push the action. Just get into a good position to get a top 3 finish first off.

You make the hand very difficult for yourself when you bump the straddle, especially by the amount that you that you did. To my mind there's no real merit in raising pre at all....if you were to do so the sticking twenty on top isn't really going to chase out the "crumb bums and shoe clerks" in this situation. All that ends up happening is you bloat the pot oop with a hand that it's tough to flop really well with.

As played pre... I would continue the flop, but a little smaller than you did, say £55. The outcome will be the same, but the pot size a little more manageable.

We then go to the turn with £269 in there and about £620 back against the big stack. The shorter of the two players now has about £160 back.

Turn I think warrants another barrel. £105 plenty. Pray you don't get raised.

River, empty the clip with 40% pot. If you've found someone who will bluff jam at £1/2 then God bless him, otherwise if he raises he just has it.



Comfortably the best though is to not raise pre and manage the size of the pot.

Post reads as though he had similar?

Solid post Ed thought it was good on my initial read through. Post more please. And my first thought was £24 pre really does not help our case. Although amazingly we pick up two folds.

Bump.