I arrived in Prague yesterday after a lovely week at my girlfriends. Sometimes I play Sunday, or fit another session in but she had problems with work meaning Monday could be taken off and Tuesday couldn't. We did go for Tapas though, and its a really nice place to go and we always enjoy it there. I had to get up at 4.30 yesterday to get the train and then flight to Prague. This seemed really short, so I think I need to do some work on my European geography.
After I got here I tried to check in before jumping straight into the 2k and fairly swiftly being eliminated. I don't think I won any pots of note and on my last hand I get it in with tens for 16bb, over a utg open and utg+1 3bet from a very active guy. I wasn't super happy, but the 3 bettor has enough scrap here with his style, although it probably isn't loads. He'd 3 bet the guy several times, despite him being fairly tight. I think he thought he was too fit or fold, and he proved that point by having kings here. The aaa flop put a swift end to that dream.
I then went straight back to the cash desk to join the sextuplet Omaha. A round of 4/5/6 Omaha and o8, probably my dream tournament. At 550 buy-in just was expecting 40 runners, but I was number r80 and it eventually hit 91. They tournament played out 6 handed and everyone was pretty relaxed. My first table was quite quiet, see guy did google my name he'd spied from the receipt and told me he knew I was Demonic. Not quite sure why you'd work so hard for that info and then tell me that means something to you before refusing to divulge your name, I'd be keeping stum in that spot if I cared enough to really do that.
On my second table the action was much more wild and the guy on my left seemed insane. He asked where I was from and I said England, a guy from my first table had been moved to, and he called me 'adam' and my new neighbour popped up to say he was 'Trelskig' a regular opponent and friend of mine. It's been 3 years of sporadic friendship on Skype but he was a really nice guy and so much fun to play with. The whole tournament had a relaxed atmosphere and I bought a few beers and tried to crack a few jokes along the way. I span from starting stack which was 20k to 60 winning a 3 way all in with aces vs aces vs kkq76t of trelskig, who instantly cold called my pot. After this slice of luck I steadily chipped up to 135k or so before the table broke and we were down to 18 with 13 paid.
I played a conservative e style with some limping and lots of stabbing in the 5/6 card games. I did peel a 3bet with aces in 5card Omaha early on as I was sure my opponent had aces as well and I felt like I could do better than getting it in with aajj3ss. He potted kt7 hh despite me having the ace of hearts and I fold. He showed aakq5 one suit too, so I was fairly happy with my play. The other interesting hand I played was opening 998754 treble suit and flopping t98ss. I had the sfd, but check back the flop and fold a queen of diamonds turn. It felt nasty but I think it's pretty good/std.
We 18 left I got the best table and managed to win a few pots. I lost a silly silly hand with 15 left. I have about 170k @t2.4k and utg limps 5 handed and I find aaq93x ds and Make it 5k more. He calls. T83hh, and he has about 80k back. Honestly I think checking pre has some merit, he seemed reasonable, definitely the second best player at the table, but the allure got to me. I tried to check pot which may not be great either and he checked back.
on the turn and I check again and call a 15k bet. I don't think I can fold here although it might be close due to my lack of visibility.
on the river and somehow I call a 21k bet. I think I felt like he knows I have a flush so he might bluff some hands but honestly in 6 card Omaha it's pretty much nonsense and he has to have j9 with no flush that wants to bluff. This hand makes some sense from the flop action but not enough to call despite the price. Luckily the dinner break came after this hand (my opponent called the clock anyway after one min) so I shot off to my room and had a bath to loosen up and forget about poker for a while. I think this worked well and I felt really good going back.
Early on post dinner with 15 or 16 left and 13 paid two people limp in
Omaha and I find aa7tk4 ds with nut clubs and pot to 16.5 off about 100k. The first fishy guy who limps most of the
hands folds and the second guy who seemed reasonable calls. 762ccs and he leads for 20k. I shove fairly quickly for 90, and this is pretty much his stack too. He tanks for 2mins and folds, whilst telling everyone he has a monster the whole time, much to the amusement of the table as everyone believed him the first time. Obviously I was chuffed to get this through and he showed kk85cc for maybe one of the only hands I want him to go with. Probably not with his price though.
The bubble burst 7 hands later and I won 4 of them and so we moved onto the main stage with 12 left. This table was fairly tough and I didn't get too much going. I did suck out on a youngish guy on 66257 with 89 in 6o. I was bombing every blank so his angry show of 43 made me chuckle. He got ran over by another guy in
h/l to create a big stack on our table, which meant I was a bit more handicapped then I'd have liked. With ten left I save a guys tournament, getting him a quarter when the dealer was about to ship the other guy the pot. He span this into an actual stack (insert foreshadowing) and eventually we make the ft of 7.
I was in third with 270k with two guys having about 450 and 550 between them. There was only 1.82m in play so you can see how short the other 4 were. The ft was really tight and I just had to play quite snug with the icm. I dribbled down to 230 or so over 3 fairly uneventful levels, but was still in a closeish third. I won a small pot to be back to where I started before losing with double suited aces twice in
. I think aa526k hhss vs kjt754 dd hhhh vs a regular who I lost a prop bet with in Barcelona, which he was happy to remind me about lol. It came q 93hhd
I think. Literally the next hand I get aa2q7x double and get it in again, this time potting and calling off vs 5th place who had kkj26x treble. We find a kt4j4 run out here, when winning would put me back to third.
This left me 5bb or so, similar to 7th but I used my ninja skills to chip up (saying pot and people folding in
h/l) to chip up without showdown, with 7th place doubling in between. Eventually in
Omaha it folds to me with t7642 double vs 6th place, the man I saved. He's stacking off absurdly tight here with 7th having 3bb so I was really happy. I'd gotten back to 120k (bb gone from 12 to 16k during the
rounds) but he found aces and we can't even find a sweat. I had 1bb left but couldn't spin. Pretty gutted to go out from this position, I'd definitely had a few thoughts about the trophy and it sucked not to ladder at least once. 7th guy just outright doubles 3 times on the ft!! Got 2.1k and I had an absolute blast. The format was so much fun and everyone seemed to have a great time. The guy I saved offered me a beer and 3 people on the ft said it was fun playing with me so I went to bed happy. Everyone was looking at me after losing the two aces hands and I think they were surprised to see me relatively cheerful still. I was talking with one of the dealers afterwards and he agreed with my sentiments about the field and format. It was a different world to the silence of my 2k table.
Maybe some day ill win something more prestigious than the big 22. I want something for the mantelpiece! No real comps I fancy today, maybe some turbo stuff. Just going to read for a while and then head down for some cash and maybe a couple of beers before the main tomorrow. Peace.