Cheers Jamie! Yup yup update from today just got into my hotel room...
I made it through the first round which is very pleasing!
My first round opponent (
Raul Paez) was tough. I just looked him up and saw that he came 3rd in a WPT for $300k a couple of years back, went deep in the WSOP main event this year, and apparently is #2 on Spain's all time money list!! (
http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=s&n=3436). Probably best I was unaware of this until now, cos the most I knew was that he was a good player based on the early stages of our match....
I took a small lead in level 1 (100/200...22,000:18,000) just with small pots. But then an ugly phase in level 2 (150/300) where he was picking off c-bets, made a couple of 3 bets preflop when I had TJ and such. I also made a call with ace high thinking he was weak, but he tabled bottom pair. So we're now 12,000:28,000 and getting a bit concerned.
Rallied back though. Started to get paid off with hands on the "He mucked after calling when I bet with bottom pair" and "Every time he bets he seems to have nothing" image. I let him bet into me flop and turn on KQTx with K8 and value bet the river and got paid off. And called a bet on AKTx with J4s after turning the flush draw, and got paid off when I hit the river. So midway through level 3 (200/400) I'm back to a slim lead, about 23,000:17,000.
Can't say my winning hand involved much skill though. He had raised me the last 2 times I'd limped on the button, and had probs done it 1/3 of the time overall. So I decide to limp with
. Of course he checks this time(!). Flop comes
. He checks, I bet 500...he raises me to 1500. I repop it to 4000. He calls. Turn is the jackpot card. The
. He checks, I whack in 4500 and he shoves. I insta call and he shows down a rather sick
. But I'm certainly not complaining about the cold deck in my favour.
So I go on to play
Jon Wong tommorow. He went through his match in all of 10 mins. He was playing a really old guy though, literally 80 years old. Didn't get to hear how he went through.
Dan Carter also took his match down. He made a very nice call down on Q43Q2 for a 25,000 pot or something after calling a raise preflop with AT otb. Dude had 3 barrelled with KJ. Incidentally he plays the brother of the guy he beat today in the 2nd round.
Jeff Kimbler and
Dave Penly both won as well (just did some googling and apparently Dave came 2nd in €1000 FO last night, but it only got 29 runners).
Ironically Dario Minieri, who must have been favourite to win this based on his heads up record on Poker Stars (he's up $500k or something sick, right?) was I believe the first player to bust in today's session.
Both 2nd and 3rd round matches are played tommorow. I'm still not sure what's happening with the prizepool. I believe at least 4 players recieved byes (100% that 2 players did yesterday, I will double check what happened today), and I imagine this will affect the prizepool as I'm not sure there was a guarantee on the tournament.
More Queens full vs nut flushes for me tommorow please!
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