The Best In The Business

[mulhuzz]

I prefer McEwans Scotch, no ice of course.

Man of exquisite tastes yee like buzz

[pleno1]

EPT Vienna Eureka High Roller

Before this tournament I looked into the lobby and saw good reg after good reg. I looked at 2p2 and people were selling at 1.2, i nearly went into their threads to say this tournament looked poor value, but decided against it.

The actual field was really really great. It was the main weekend tournament so all the local fish played and was just great.

After busting the previous tournament on the second hand of the day I felt pretty determined to be in there for the long haul.

My table was pretty good, some average ABC regs and a couple of predictable fish. i played a pretty cool hand vs ringelsdorf who was playing extremely aggresive.

Its his 2nd 3bet vs me when I open UTG and he 3bets MP.

I decided to flat 88, not really loving life as he will make life hard, but im deep enough to set mine and pretty confident playing post flop against him here.

Flop is kt5 and he checks behind, he almost always has tx or better when he checks here so im very happy just c/f as hes definitely not going to fold once he checks back.

The turn is 8 which i fall in love with immediately. I think c/r turn is a viable option although he can fold the tx and weak bluffcatchers that he has so I decide to bet turn and contemplate c/r a bunch of rivers, especially tens.

The river is a 5 giving me a full house and i decide to check. When i bet here im never bluffing, well i may be, but my perceived range is definitely inclined to check/fold here imo. I think he will bet/call kx quite a lot though so i assumed that check/raising > betting.

i check and he bets 2500, i think a long time about sizing and just the way I percieved him I expected him to think he couldnt bet/fold Kx to a huge sizing as he is potentially capped etc etc etc and make it 13,400 out of around 21k.

He tanks for a long time and then asks me how much i have behind, lol. Im like well either youre going to make the most ambitious shove of all time, or im going to be fkn coolered and stand here and shout at you for 10 minutes for slowrolling the river when i check/raised 5x and then you tank 4 minutes and put me in for 5k more.

He ends up calling and we continue to chip up.

He continues to play extremely aggressive, 3betting and 4betting, imo potentially too much, but he played fine i guess. i open, reg hes chatting with 3bets, hes sitting next to him and cold , I 5b click back qq and he sigh folds. He 3bet folds a couple more times and slams his cards into the muck and is visibly iritated.

He then opens mp2 with 10k at 200/400, i have KQ and 45k or something, I think its super close but i just imagine him ripping in on me joke wide with hands that i dominate and hands that dont have significantly huge equity vs me. He slams in a6 or a8, i dont remember and we hit a queen and think wow live poker is easy when you run good.

Sotirios Koutoupas the winner of Deauville EPT then moves to our table with a brown leather jacket that was definitely bought with the winnings. He squeezes very early and then I check call 3 streets with a4 on axxxx and he says nice hand sir.

We then continue to grind and then 3b induce at vs Sotirios Koutoupas and he slams in a9. Guy next to me says i folded a 9. The guy on the other side of me says "me too, 9ts, i wanted to play it" the dealer then says hey wait a minute I have two here and im drawing dead by the 9937 board (((((((

This was a huge momentum shifter, i would have had 4-5x average and was loving life but morale was hit a little bit.

I then get moved onto table elky who was looking very shiny and whilst bieng mesmorised a little by his cute French accent the rest of the table looked pretty good.

We then manage to get in TT in a very standard spot vs Elky after short stack shove and a bunch of dead money etc and he has AQ. The flop comes down j283 im just starting to believe in poker again and then kaboom ace from space and were sent to the showers having to wish French's finest the best of luck for the rest of the tournament.

We were back the next day for the EPT main event, the pain couldnt continue, could it?

[TL900]

EPT Vienna Eureka High Roller

Before this tournament I looked into the lobby and saw good reg after good reg. I looked at 2p2 and people were selling at 1.2, i nearly went into their threads to say this tournament looked poor value, but decided against it.

The actual field was really really great. It was the main weekend tournament so all the local fish played and was just great.

After busting the previous tournament on the second hand of the day I felt pretty determined to be in there for the long haul.

My table was pretty good, some average ABC regs and a couple of predictable fish. i played a pretty cool hand vs ringelsdorf who was playing extremely aggresive.

Its his 2nd 3bet vs me when I open UTG and he 3bets MP.

I decided to flat 88, not really loving life as he will make life hard, but im deep enough to set mine and pretty confident playing post flop against him here.

Flop is kt5 and he checks behind, he almost always has tx or better when he checks here so im very happy just c/f as hes definitely not going to fold once he checks back.

The turn is 8 which i fall in love with immediately. I think c/r turn is a viable option although he can fold the tx and weak bluffcatchers that he has so I decide to bet turn and contemplate c/r a bunch of rivers, especially tens.

The river is a 5 giving me a full house and i decide to check. When i bet here im never bluffing, well i may be, but my perceived range is definitely inclined to check/fold here imo. I think he will bet/call kx quite a lot though so i assumed that check/raising > betting.

i check and he bets 2500, i think a long time about sizing and just the way I percieved him I expected him to think he couldnt bet/fold Kx to a huge sizing as he is potentially capped etc etc etc and make it 13,400 out of around 21k.

He tanks for a long time and then asks me how much i have behind, lol. Im like well either youre going to make the most ambitious shove of all time, or im going to be fkn coolered and stand here and shout at you for 10 minutes for slowrolling the river when i check/raised 5x and then you tank 4 minutes and put me in for 5k more.

He ends up calling and we continue to chip up.

He continues to play extremely aggressive, 3betting and 4betting, imo potentially too much, but he played fine i guess. i open, reg hes chatting with 3bets, hes sitting next to him and cold , I 5b click back qq and he sigh folds. He 3bet folds a couple more times and slams his cards into the muck and is visibly iritated.

He then opens mp2 with 10k at 200/400, i have KQ and 45k or something, I think its super close but i just imagine him ripping in on me joke wide with hands that i dominate and hands that dont have significantly huge equity vs me. He slams in a6 or a8, i dont remember and we hit a queen and think wow live poker is easy when you run good.

Sotirios Koutoupas the winner of Deauville EPT then moves to our table with a brown leather jacket that was definitely bought with the winnings. He squeezes very early and then I check call 3 streets with a4 on axxxx and he says nice hand sir.

We then continue to grind and then 3b induce at vs Sotirios Koutoupas and he slams in a9. Guy next to me says i folded a 9. The guy on the other side of me says "me too, 9ts, i wanted to play it" the dealer then says hey wait a minute I have two here and im drawing dead by the 9937 board (((((((

This was a huge momentum shifter, i would have had 4-5x average and was loving life but morale was hit a little bit.

I then get moved onto table elky who was looking very shiny and whilst bieng mesmorised a little by his cute French accent the rest of the table looked pretty good.

We then manage to get in TT in a very standard spot vs Elky after short stack shove and a bunch of dead money etc and he has AQ. The flop comes down j283 im just starting to believe in poker again and then kaboom ace from space and were sent to the showers having to wish French's finest the best of luck for the rest of the tournament.

We were back the next day for the EPT main event, the pain couldnt continue, could it?

really tho?

glgl rest of the trip.

[mulhuzz]

really tho?

glgl rest of the trip.

he's right mind paddy. must be super difficult/painful spending time in Europe's best city

[Woodsey]

A week is a long time in poker lol, Pleno's expectations are now raised to shipping 100k every other week, and I can't blame him really  

[pleno1]

Zzzzzzzzzz it's a part of a trip report, nevermind.

EPT Main

74<66 on 653
Tt<99
Aa<jt

Gg!

[Woodsey]

Just jesting with ya in case it wasn't obvious 

[tikay]

Zzzzzzzzzz it's a part of a trip report, nevermind.

EPT Main

74<66 on 653
Tt<99
Aa<jt

Gg!

Ignore, it was a really nicely composed piece, I thought.

[TL900]

Ye was obv said tongue in cheek.

[pleno1]

Yeah I was kidding, np

[pleno1]

EPT Main Event

I was feeling pretty good about this event, most online grinders were going to play Monday so they could grind online so I was optimistic about the field. My last 2 pets I've played I've lost QQ on q45 in Barcelona and AjvATvA9 on the bubble of Prague (a9 folded pre flop after accidentally calling my cold 4b jam so it was a big pot!

I get there and I'm 4 handed with 2 confirmed fish. One is one of the biggest online losers of all time and the other is a guy who limps his bad/ok hands and 4xs his good hands. The other guy was a older German guy that was playing very abc.


I chipped up early to 35k and was feeling pretty good. The limp/folds guy was starting to tilt and had good reads on the other two.

5 handed now the limpy guy Limps, I go to fold 74cc then ask myself to man the fuck up and  4x his limp. The older Italian guy calls and oddly the other guy folds.

The flop is a pretty beautiful 653ccx lol

I bet, Italian raises, I make a huge reraise and then he calls.

The turn is a 3, I bet big again and he instantly instantly jams (((( its such a gross spot but this early in an ept with an overpaid he would think for a while and he was the kind of guy who was 100% 3betting 88 pre flop so unfortunately I had to fold (( I was now down to under 12k but the main reason I folded was because my table was amazing and 12k was perfectly fine.

Orbit later I raise the cut off, the Italian 3bets the button, I call. The flop is 8s7x2x

I check and he checks back, I'm going to bet 2 streets for value now and smile abit inside as the comes on the turn. I bet big and he calls quickly.

The river is the brutal completing the 8s7x2xTs6s board I check and he puts me all in. This is a gross spot as its extremely hard to have a 9 here after 3betting me. He can have a stubborn ak/aq call ott that found the dream turn card and vs a lot of people I'd call here. He's 60 and Italian though and just reluctantly fold and leave myself with 6k.

I do a stack the donk line 3 hands later with cbet flop c/jam turn and fish who called me with 97 pre doubles me up on 923

Less than an orbit later I induce aq pre and beat at and have 24k.

I'm stacking my chips when it goes raise, call, call and I have athh. The flop is qj8hxx the turn is I lead the Italian raises I call. The river is the beautiful I check jam and he calls me instantly with j2 and I'm absolutely fist lumping to the poker gods telling them that I now believe in them.

The table has now filled up with some of the younger pros who are too big time to play the first 3 levels. 2 of them double up with aa v xx vs the fish and I raise/fold flop vs both of them twice on atj and 876

One of them opens, he's playing good and aggro when I was short I 4bet Jammed utg after he squeezed the big blind.

He opens to 800 at 400bb. I have 65dd otb and over 200bb deep I think 3bet online is definitely best but these guys just love clicking live so I decide to call. The third guy in the party makes it 2100 in the big bind, opener calls and I have no real option but to call.

I look at the dealer and inside I think come on buddy, one time.

Flop

... Yeahhhhh.....
... Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
...  Woooooohoooooo

Squeezed Chet's 3200, calling calls and I think and make it 8800 trying to rep that I'm ripping . The first guy folds and then the second guy reminds me that poker can be cruel and shows me the snowmen (88) I soon wish my table the best of luck and retire to the apartment. My friend Konrad offered me his "live poker is rigged" cap before I came here and I laughed it off but if we go to San remo next month we may need to see if its available for rent.

Oh but we did have a very good value 2200 even the next day to help us get out of this "temporary" live hole.

[pleno1]

So unbelievably pumped for online poker right now. This break has made me hungrier than ever. There's a few small tweaks I've made to my approach to the game both in cash games and in MTTs and I can't wait for a huge grind over the next month or so.

[pleno1]

EPT 2200 side event

I'm a big advocates of turning up on time to MTTs so I was a little b it embarrassed when I turned up 15minutes late for the 2200 event, I had a late registration table that is usually pretty tough but this one was a bit different.

We started 3 handed with a heads up friend of mine and the biggest lebanhanese whale of all time. He was perhaps fine at poker normally, without his flask. But every 3 hands the flask would come out of his bag and he would down a double whiskey.

We played our first interesting hand where he raises my button and bets bets on a35ss2s I call with a4 and then go to lead the river. He forgets about the positional rule in poker and acts out of turn I thi k about raising but decide to call and he shows KK. #razorthin

He chips down repeatedly but plays extremely passively. A Brazilian opens to 250 utg, the passive fish 3bets to 2000 out of a 4500 stack I look down at AA and say to myself that this is a pretty fortunate spot.

I make it 2000 straight with 2 1k chips and then the Brazilian instantly 4bets to 4100, the fish goes all in and I start to and. I tell myself that if I was the Brazilian I would fold KK if I then went all in too (I'd been playing very tight) but then I thought lol Brazilians lolpoker and lollive and just three my chips in too he fistpumped KK and I repute adept the above sentence once more in my head. I somehow how and we have a very good stack.

A hand happens where I bet flop, guy raises and then I pull out my chips to 3bet then put them back in and fold, this s very hard to do in poker as usually you're pretty committed mentally. Anyway everybody laughs abit and I'm like "gg image"

Very next hand skandi raises and I peel 54dd in the small blind. The flop is I'm like hmmmm this feels like yesterday lol.

I think raising just looks so strong so I decide to check call and check shove river to rep a missed draw and whilst balance isn't important it does help significantly strengthen my range.

The board runs out Q on the turn which is fantastic for me as he will triple barrel bluff a lot of hands so instantly gain a lot of equity from his bluffs.

The river unfortunately is the so I can't check shove but he may triple this card often so I'm not too displease, I do that annoying thing that live people do and call turning my hand over without putting any chips in the pot and the guy has 77 and I remind myself to find the nearest bridge after the tournament.

I continue to chip up and then play a super Onteresting pot.

I have decent image on new table, I open JJ utg. Luke Reeves (I think it's him) 3bets utg2 and were pretty deep so I decide to call.

The flop is j92r and I check call a size able bet

The turn is 8 completing the badugi and I decide to check call again. The river is the horrible, disgusting ten and I check, he fires pretty big and I go into the tank.

My perceived image may appear to have a lot of Qx but unreality when I thought about it I actually don't

Kq-> folds or raises turn
Aq-> folds flop
Qj-> folds pre
Qt-> folds pre
QQ -> potentially 4bets potentially c/r but definitely can have these combos.

I eventually call and he tables 75 which I'm very happy about really as it means he's barreling a lot of random hands and 3betting super wide pre which was what my read was. Nice bet by him anyway I guess but I think it makes my call good too as he's assuming I don't have many qx hands in my range if he's attempting to value bet the under straight.


I try to preserve my stack but as the comp misses a couple of levels blind down, 3b/fold, fold some rivers and then rip in 22 over a raise from a huge stack who I assumed was opening a lot and a flat on the button by Dubai who I assumed was flagging as wide as 87o to play a big pot with an inferior player in position as the two biggest stacks.

Opening had JJ and sent me to the showers.

I was pretty happy with the tournament in general, on another day I double up with the straight vs the set and usually I will get paid off with my top set that eventually loses.

Morale was strangely high as I got back in time for the Super Tuesday to eventually lose aj v j9s co vs Btn and get an early night in preparation for the mix max event. I only had to beat one guy to get to the last 32 it couldn't be that hard could it?!

[pleno1]

Mix max 1100

This was a tournament everybody was looking forward to. Everybody finds the structure cool and I'm glad tis well supported.

The heads up round was going to be one match if best of 3. I play quite a lot of heads up and a lot of 3/4 handed so I was pretty confident. I drew griffin benger in the first round. A guy that has ran unreal vs me online over a small sample but somebody who is ranked top 10 in the world. I was looking forward to the challenge.

In our first game I won almost all the pots I got him pretty short and limped my button for the first time he raises, I jammed and he called a7 I had a5 and blinked a 5 to stop him from getting over starting stack.

He commented that he thought I was pretty good t this and he suggested to himself he lets the blinds go up so we have 25bbs and my edge less. I appreciated this and gave me a little bit of confidence. I knew he wouldn't want to lose 2-0 so erly in the second match I decided to c/r a8cc on 567cxx he almost min clicked it back so I decided to call but I assumed he had 2pair/set a lot but there's a lot of run outs he'd have to slow down on.

The turn was a 8 and he checked behind I was almost sure he had 2 pair/set now so on the 2 river I put him all in I didn't think he'd want to call off on this board for the entire match so used my pressure abit and he tanked for a long time and called with 43, meh.

In the third match I had 82-85 10 hands out of about 40 it was pretty weird. He chipped me down to 2100 by me just folding to his opening. C/f flops I made a pretty big hero fold with k8 on kt9t6 and he showed me a 6 so I was pretty happy I folded!

His friends started to watch and they were talking about going to dinner, I 4bet and he folded and then I 3bet and he folded he was winning the smaller pots but I got up to just under 4k and we get in JJ v a9 he said unlucky you don't have a blocker. The board ran out xxxxa and again I was sent to the showers. Father the match he tweeted a pretty nice pot thT gave me some form of consolation

Won my heads up match 2-1 in the #EPTVienna €1k reverse mix-max against really good British guy. Final 27 4 handed tables in 1 hr. #pumped
4:38pm - 26 Mar 14

Oh well next day was the last tournament of the trip, the 10k high roller, a min cash gets me even for the trip. Very good structure, I feel like I'm playing very good and the shamballa called be really good #optimistic #timetorungood

[pleno1]

10,300 high roller

I was so pumped for this event. I went to bed early, woke up just at the right time and felt very excited for this. I was/am feeling e trembly confident about my game right now. I'm folding in the right spots value betting in the right spots and generally I think playing pretty good.

My starting table was good. I had Rhys jones and Adrian mateos who were very good. Vamplew playing tight/card dead then two Russians to my right playing pretty poorly. I get 2 streets vs one of them on txxxx with JJ and felt confident. A aggro German was moved to our table. He was trying a little too hard I felt so when I 3bet Rhys utg open with kq and he cold 4bet the so I felt like I had to 5bet for the following reasons

1) shows that's I'm 3betting light vs Rhys and initially lose respect from him and he may start playing back when he probably views me as tight/good
2) it's a pretty good spot for Him to 4bet
3) it stops people,just randomly being aggressive vs me later
4) it's a good hand to bluff with

He folds and I go up to over 55k.

I play a pot against Rhys where I defend 74dd and flop 65Tdd he bets I call. Turn is Q he checks back. I felt he had good showdown value here as I have no qx except qxdd in my perceived range and he's very likely going to b,if this turn card with a lot of his owning range (Kj/aj/ak etc) so when I ping the off suit 3 otr I think it's a fantastic spot to check raise similar to the ringelsdorf hand that I played in the eureka high roller unfortunately he checks what what I'm assuming is a 5/6 but it helps my river Image a little.

The German is continuing to go pretty crazy he 3bets and barrels a uk cash reg on kxxxx and gets called down by QQ which I thought was thin as he is blocking his bluffing range which should consist of gutshots and draws and also blocks kq for the semi thin value range.

Shortly after amadi opens, Russian peels and I peel 65hh on the button I think about squeezing but it would be my frat squeeze and amadi was playing super super aggressive so I decide to just flat as I don't want to have to call a 4bet with 65 ( I obv can't 3bet fold this deep) I take a long time to make my mind up so I probably look like I have a decent hand.

The flop is q88 we all check

Turn 5 we all check

River 5 Russian bets, I raise biggish and he seems tired as he folds.

Orbit later it folds to his sb he limps, it's the first occasion we've had bvb so I decide to raise biggish with AA but he folds ad seems annoyed.

Shortly after he makes 2 v thin c/r for value/protection/see where he is with ATdd on a35xx and aj on a67 both of them were multiway. The German is playing a lot of pots against him trying to stack him but playing a little bit too aggressively. He's taking literally every spot. He ends up,winning a6 v the Russians ak when there's lots of bets and the board runs out xxxx6 and the Russian starts swearing in Russian (I don't speakmrussian but he didn't seem happy)

He 3bets him twice and then over bets river vs the German and the German continues to battle.

The German opens utg, the Russian 3bets the cut off and I have 44  on the button. I think about my options, folding seems ok but im in position deep and against 2 guys who are willing to put a lot of money in the to. 4bettingmis out of the question and folding seems ok because my range looks strong but not nutty and the German wants to battle with the Russian whilst still being utg and will get a lot,of respect. He takes a decent amount of time to call.

We end up flopping q42t I have been a huge advocater of hero folding. The hand plays out strongly by the Russian but I just don't think I can fold.

It goes 3k into 8k I call the German now raises and the Russian quickly 3bets the flop to 20k. There is now 40k in the pot I have 45k and I felt the Russian would probably slow play QQ more here and not force us both out of the pot if the German has a set he stacks him whatever anyway and he can let him spew. I figured the German was just taking the spot too much and I had to get it in.  I can fold and have 45k and be totally fine. If I go all in maybe the Russian will fold AA who knows but he's put in more than 50% of my effective stack so it's either fold or go all in now. Like I said deviously I've made some huge folds this trip. Straights, sets, overpairs and two,pairs. Online it's obviously just a get in but in love tournaments you can make huge huge folds. I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of these spots and I feel like my get in is reluctant yet fine. He obviously had QQ and we can't hit quads and decide to call it a day and come home.

The trip has been tremendously frustrating.

Quick cliffs tournament by tournament

Eureka main -> 3 way 4bet pot tt v aqcc v AA on jt8ccc (AA folds)
Ept main -> 65 v 88 I'm squeezed pot on 855ss
2200 -> JJ v 75 in 3bet pot on j92..8..T
1100 mix max -> JJ v a9 for 85%'of chips in final,match xxxxa
High roller -> QQ v 44 on q42 in 3bet pot

Obviously I'm so so frustrated as when you're playing you're best you feel you deserve more but hey this is MTTs and this is romance I've ran great this year and complaining wouldnt be right. I just have to get back to online and out in good volume over the next month. I'm ridiculously motivated. Flops/wcoop seres/winamax series/scoop.fr

It's weird that I feel more confident now about poker than I did at the start of this trips I lived with Rocco (bracelet winner/wpt winner) and Tudor (huge online mtt beast) and Ryan hall (old school long time crusher) and I've picked up little things to continue devloping my mtt game. Online has gone pretty ok,since I've been here too.

Apologies for anybody who had a piece ill refund the 2 tournaments I didn't play but I can assure you we played good ad it was a +ev investment.

I'm unsure about San remo or Vegas right now. I may just go away with my gf on a more relaxing holiday instead.




Edit: just before the 44 hand I had a hand which may have looked like I was tilted and spazzing/overplaying qx or something..


 I think the 33 hand is really interesting and I may write a little more about that as I just think is an interesting way to play the hand 4 way.

Basically amadi_17 or whatever his name is. V v good yet super aggro reg was over betting the river a lot. He opened I peeled 33, cash reg peels so and bb (aggro German peels)  flop is q73ssx and it checks to me and I check for the following reasons

1) if amadi checked qx then he's likely to overbet river vs my turn calling range and he could also overbet river with bluffs too
2) I think showing down 33 in this spot can stop people running huge buffs on yu and generally not want to play pots with you
3) depending on the run out I can raise river/overbet river and represent a lot of missed draws and thus don't lose value from checking flop
4) I think everything but qx was folding flop 4 way and my instinct was nobody had anything

Turn is  brining the 3 flush they all check to me I check my cards (I have ) and I bet and the uk guy calls. I think he has qx, jx and some draws with a spade. He previously called a 3bet vs the German and called down on big bets on ktxxx with QQ

The river is a 9x

I check my cards again trying to make it look like I'm checking if I have a blocker etc and bet river big. He calls kto which I think is a little optimistic ott but anyway I went to 50k in that hand instead of 70k.