Day 1, EPT MainWent to bed at around 7 because of the late Sunday grind. I woke up at 11.45 and hadn't ate, I went to get there at 12.30. I got there, like literally in the casino, picking my ticket up but then told myself this wasn't how a champion athlete would relatively prepare. I thought about this a lot recently, I played with so many footballers growing up. One of them was Jordan Henderson who's now going to be captain at Liverpool when Gerrard retires. In the North East he was always at Sunderland but he was by no means the best player in the region, there were so many more with way more talent. He was just always professional in what he did and this carries true today too.
The hypnotherapy I've been doing is basically guided meditation that helps you see back to somewhere in your life that you struggled with and then you relate it to poker, or you just simply view weak parts of your poker career and try never to repeat them. I remember in previous EPT's getting there for the first card dealt and being super hungry later and not being able to last mentally for the whole day. I went to lie in the sun on my balcony and had a big lunch and went back at around 2.
The table was pretty good, had only one good reg on the table who was Firaldo. I think he's probably underrated in poker, he plays really well, thinks really good about the game and can change gears very well. Maybe I'm wrong and everybody thinks this already though, but yeah he's definitely somebody you want on your table for all the right reasons (he is a super nice guy) but want him to be elsewhere for all the wrong reasons (plays great)
Ludovic joined the table later, he is obviously hyper aggressive and puts people in very tough spots.
Hand 1Since Ludo moved to the table I've been super tight. He's 4bet 3 times pre flop, 3bet 2 flops, lead some stuff, triple barrelled T2 on j84a9 and just been super aggressive.
I open UTG at 100/200/25 to 600. He makes it 1500 from MP and it folds back to me. I have
btw.
Pretty interesting spot. He has around 20k. I think this should probably be one of my 4bet bluffs. I don't think he's necessarily coming after me, but possibly. If it was say hijac vs button I think this would be a pretty easy call as he's way more likely to just be 3betting k2dd, but in these exact positions I don't think he's going to be super light to warrant me flatting such a RELATIVELY weak hands out of position.
I tank and make it 4700. I makes it a larger sizing where I'm hoping not to get peeled, he calls relatively quickly.
Things to note here are that he had lost KK v AK and had KK v AQ xxxxa and a couple of spots where he had ran into very cold decks. It seemed at the time to me like he was thinking "wow is this another set up" kind of thing. Obviously I can't say this for certainty, but it felt like it at least.
The flop was a27r. Pretty good flop for me if he has any kind of ambitious peels like suited broadways. If he has 99-KK I don't think he will fold flop, if he has Ax he definitely won't fold flop. It's pretty interesting my sizing here, I can choose to bet flop, jam turn. Or bet smaller on the flop and then barrel turn to leave a river shove. Because of my sizing pre flop things are a little awkward. I decided to go for the tiny flop size, barrel turn. But lets say the flop was j45ddx then I'd bet enough so I could jam the turn as will have more fold equity and will turn more equity, with KQo on A52r early in an EPT, I don't really want my 2 options on the turn to be jam/c.f so think smaller gives me way more maneuverability. So I bet 2.5k into around 10k. He calls.
The turn is A72J, I decide to barrel 4.8k. I think my line looks super strong, when I spoke previously about jamming the turn, this is essentially the same thing but just cheaper. I'm risking 4.8k instead of 13k like he has. But for him to continue now he has to risk 13k. He isn't going to call and then fold, this is the time he makes his decision. Thats a pretty sweet thing, I can put him under immense pressure betting 5k into 15k and he has to make a huge decision whilst I get a super great price on my bluff. I block AQ/AK and I think that he will only really be continuing here with AK, its the first hand I've played, I've raised 3x UTG, 4bet an MP open and double barreled a sizing that looks like my opponent would fold. He takes a long time and folds AQ, which is pretty interesting spot for him, fold seems probably right though imo.
I play pretty tight, I'm just folding and don't want to battle with Firaldo or Ludo. I find some good spots pre flop for squeezes to just quickly add to my stack. I know I've said it previously, but on tough 9 handed tables, spot-picking is really important. Like raises just don't get through and people don't fold post flop and its really, really fucking hard to make a hand sometimes. So again,
open tight 3 bet light! Next hand that was noteworthy..
Hand 2I raise the button to Estonian tight reg SB and fish Italian BB. to 800 at 150/300/25, bb calls. I have Js7s
Flop T86fd, check, I bet 1025, he calls.
Turn T869, check, I bet 2050, he makes it 5k with 12k behind. Prettttttty interesting spot. I thought about jamming just assuming he won't fold a 7. But thought maybe he's bluffing with something and want to let him put chips in the pot if he is bluffing and if he has a 7, I don't lose too much value, so I called pretty quick.
The river was T8696 and he INSTANTLY went all in for 12.5k into 12k. I think I may have slowrolled him here, I took around 2 minutes to call. I just didn't think he would snap jam 7x here as wtf if he going to get called about. I called eventually and I think he seemed surprised that he didn't get any chips passed back to him, this put me on around 50-60k.
I continues playing pretty tight aggro, finding some decent spots to barrel pre and post flop, I could post 5/6 hands but they wouldn't be super interesting. I get to 100k with 5 hands left before the break.
Hand 3Unknown Italian moves to our table. I don't know him at all, he seems probably decent. I raise hijac to 1000 and he calls sb, bb calls. I have
.
Flop J95hhc, checks to me and I check really quickly. I didn't really want to be c/r and there's not really any bad turn cards. I'd check this flop a lot with give ups/ax/pairs etc.
Turn is J959hhcc, checks to bet and I bet 1400 after tanking a little bit. Italian pretttty quickly makes it 5.1k. Very weird spot, I think my range looks really weak here, IDK, don't think I can fold ever, he could be like raising 44 here for protection or something, theres also a fuck tonne of draws.
River is J959hhcc2x. he bets 9100. I mean not too easy for him to have 9x, I assume a lot of his 9x folds pre, he'd been pretty tight pre flop. Could he be betting a worse jack for value? Betting tens for value? IDK, there's just so many draws there and I played the hand so passively, I don't think I should fold. He has a9, anybody find a fold? Feels like I'm top of my range, I would never use that as a sole excuse, but theres a lot of others things here too.
Anyway, went to the break with around 90k, so was feeling great.
Came back after the break and felt pretty good, I wanted to get through with around 100k, but was looking for a spot to play a big pot and chip up more too.
Hand 4Brazilian guy who was actually pretty tight but wasn't very good. He was around 45, wearing Aria Las Vegas jumper. He was obviously a rec, but wasn't going to put chips in without a very good hand. He folded KQ when I 3bet him a few hours ago for example.
He opens to 1200 from MP1, I'm in the hijac and make it 3400 with
. I wanted to isolate and play a pot with him vs a guy who would basically never ever 4bet bluff me here and would play weak vs me post flop.
Flop is A65hhx. He checks and I bet 4100. I usually would bet 3200 or something small here, but I felt he may hand on once with a hand like 88 here but would fold frequently to a larger sizing. IDK, maybe he does peels those once on the flop too, he calls.
Turn is A654. I pick up a gut shot. He checks and has 45k. I have around 70k. There is around 17k in the pot. I bet 10.5k which felt like a big bet at the time. He called.
The river was A6546. He checked and I put him all in for 37.5k. This may look a bit spewy, but I actually really like it. After the hand I know it was a bad bluff because of what he said, but because of what he said makes the idea good
He called quickly with AK. He said he would have instantly folded AQ/AJ on the turn though. This is pretty interesting 1) it makes my turn bet unintentionally good
but also it means he was really calling tight and folding those non AK ax hands somewhere. I play pretty tight and try and pick good spots, usually I would beat myself up and really be too self critical in a spot like this, but it felt totally fine and I was happy with my play completely, rather than the 44 from the 2k where I just had no idea if it was good or terrible.
So I'm down to 30k from 100k and this is the real test. Again, I was somewhat happy it happened, these stumbling blocks are good for my mental game. It's almost like homework you know? Stacks in poker go up and down every hand, the best players in the world are not the players who can play 100bb, or the players who can play 10bb or the players who can play 30bb, its the players who can play 100bb, 30bb and 10bb just as well. Not many people can and most have a huge leak somewhere, so the fact my stack goes up and down in a beautiful thing and something that is a huge advantage to me against weaker players.
For the last 90 minutes of the day I chip up quite a lot, I win with ATss on KQ97ssxs where my opponent made a pretty bad get in with KQ on the turn when I bet the flop 4 way and potted the turn (was the Italian with a9 previously on J959X GOTTTTTTTTTTTEM BACK)
I win some more from value betting and bluffing in spots I can't really remember and end the day with 102k. Pretty happy with that and really looking forward to today. I woke up early, going to get a breakfast now and then go to the spa again. I love this routine of being up early, having breakfast, being productive and then playing my A game from the start. At home I'm the opposite, I wake up at 4pm, I don't prepare and often I don't bring my A game. This week shows me that I definitely should be doing more of it.
Hopefully a long report tomorrow...