Hello to everyone!
Well I got back from Germany late last night and have only just got back from work. A 6 mile run at the crack of dawn with the British Army is always a good thing to bring u crashing back to reality!!!
Well here goes my attempt at a journal!!!
07 MarFamily get to Luton airport with no dramas and the flight straight into Dortmund is fantastic. Good old Easyjet! The transfer through the airport and the taxi are smooth; we are in our hotel room by 1030 hrs. German efficiency at its best.
We spend the day chilling and the kids do their best at destroying the lobby of a nice German hotel. Kids go bed, wife chills out, I got to Pokerstars party.
I feel like a spare pr*ck at a wedding. Surrounded by Scandies and Germans that have qualified online, I am looking around for Brits to drink with. Find a chap called Chris that delivers all the Pokerstars kit and start getting (not to) drunk with him. At some point I notice a bloke I think is a journo. Approach with the words somewhere along the lines of 'Are you that Barry Carter from WSOP mag??' He replies 'Yeah' I reply 'Yer look alot fatter in the magazine!'
'Funny your not the first bloke to have said that this week!'
Connection made. Stand and chat with Barry and Nicky O'Donnelly (I think thats his name) for the rest of the night. They seem like a good pair of blokes and I proceed to drain as much of their insight of the EPT as I possibly can from them. At some point I stumble of back to my room leaving them looking drained, probably wishing they had ignored me!!!
Buy hey, its a steep learnign curve and you have to get as many different perspectives as you possibly can.
To that end I find myself speaking to a bloke Gerard on the bus and get his views. Turns out he's the TD. Looks like I'm getting a good cross section of the Poker worlds view...
08 MarchLucy is really good and takes the boys away at 1100 hrs, leaving me plenty of time to chill out and get into the right mindset. I chill out massively to the point I pass on the free coach and take a 20 quid taxi to the casino an hour later. All is not well though. It is only at the end of the day that I realise I had my first piece of bad luck. An omen. I only ever listen to my MP3 during breaks, so that I can reset the brain. I drop it down the hotel toilet before setting off. >:? I dry it out with a heater, but have to settle for what sounds like Oasis playing underwater. DOH!
Check in goes well and I'm ultra chilled, the personification of calm. I run into Barry again and he tells me I'm mascot for pokernews.com. I wince and pray they haven't jinxed me!
Ready to go for 1500 hrs. 1530 still nothing. Getting a little irate. Oasis underwater doesn't calm the nerves like dryland Oasis does. So much for German efficiency! Finally we get underway at about 1545 hrs.
The TournamentNicky O'Donnelly approaches and tells me that I have little to fear on my table. No known players. Its as follows:
1. Wim something or other (Italian?
). Turns out to be ultra tight.
2. Some Italian bloke. Again ultra tight.
3. Bradley Fogotten his name (Brit) Online qualifier from Ladbrokes. Loose player.
4. Henning Gransted. I soon learn about this guy!
5. Mark Baldog French/German/American. Very loose.
6. Danish bloke. The donk.
7. Danish girl. Ultra tight.
8. Me.
9. German bloke. Ultra tight.
10. Turkish/Scandie type. Loose
I do apologise I was going to take all the names but figured they'd crop up on the web. They haven't...
I find myself in the big blind first hand. I raise it up and take it down. 200 chips profit. Makes me feel a little more at ease.
I sit back and watch the table play. At some point the British lad notices how tight I am and points it out to the rest of the table. Rather foolishly I rise to the bait a little and think I'll do something at some point.
I constantly get raised on my BB, but cannot defend. The main culprit is Mark Bartlog. Its pretty plain he's 'at it'. His card is marked.
At some point I decide to try a bluff of my own whilst the blinds are still cheap. On my BB I call Marks raise. I sit back and see the flop. Its of absolutely no use to me and my cr*ppy hand. I check he bets, I make to check raise. I had this in mind and preflop and decided that no matter what I would fire in the bet rapidly - before he could finsih saying check. Unfortunately I have stacked my chips back to front from my usual pattern. He check, auto pilot I grab chips and fire in 700. 'Er no thats 2500' says Mark. 'Oh sh*t I meant...' 'All in' says Mark. I fold.
3 schoolboy errors in one hand. I sit back cursing myself. I'm down to about 6000. I cannot play for a good 20 minutes. If I do, I feel I could tilt. Thankfully I see Barry and then Homer (Blonde). I get it off my chest speaking to them. I sit back down seething still, but determine I WILL comeback...
To be continued...
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