My read at the time was strungout was part of the cal/fu15/brianm group that play super aggro/clicky. I guess the kind of style that would 3bet those kind of hands rather than peeling initially. Also another thing to consider is that I was on the button and really playing hyper aggro at the time and was using huge sizings all the time basically not allowing anybody to peel so maybe he would be put off peeling stuff because of how I was playing. Unsure though.

I've played about with flopZilla and spent 3 hours on the hand. The answer predictably is IT DEPENDS. Completely depends on how we range him. Some people thjnk he would play Tt the same way. Some people think he'd flat lre with tens. Some people thjnk he'd jam pre with tens some people think he would calm flop with tens some people thjnk he would click flop with tens. At the time I had a very clear way of how I was ranging him and was thinking logically in the hand. I may not be able to predict his range super perfectly but it would be hard for it to be super far off. I either made a small mistake or a good call. It's really close. If I could go back now I would still be unsure what to do after studying the hand for hours with some really great players. I've probably psebt 5+ hours thinking about the hand and I'm sure I'll spend way more in the future going back over this.

One option that is super interesting is betting 2-5k on the flop. This may stop him from having a jamming range and we get to react and make more decisions later on the streets as we can determine how the board chanes for bother of our ranges. Maybe the gto line would be that we should bet 5.9k. Now that would be interesting

Thanks for the reply, and obv you know best how the reg would play so no one could range him better than yourself. Minbetting flop is a really cool idea, it’s really close to checking behind but with the big advantage that we don’t cap our perceived range – it might even have the opposite effect.

I wouldn’t worry too much about the recognition stuff; being ‘undercover’ has its advantages and you could just use those little annoyances as an extra motivation to keep putting yourself out there and putting up the results that you are currently, to make sure that soon there simply won’t be a way around you anymore.

Gl in the 10k!

pretty sure cleaners stole 200e from my room yesterday when i was out. not exactly what i need before the 10k, but if i took few days to report it its probably gg.

Even if you won't get it back report it anyway at the reception at least. Disgraceful that you can't trust cleaners in a 5 star hotel.


Also didn't you mention recently that you don't want to care about GPI, P5 rankings and all the glory stuff anymore? Some random ceremony seems even more unnecessary to care about.

gl in the 10k

This is the best thread on 2p2. So much to learn from. Thank you for the incredible content and consistency. Gl at the tables.

So much to catch up on. I wrote a huge post but it deleted, super in depth hand analysis too

Anyway, lets start with

EPT Highroller $10k day 1

Startted off good in this tournament, got up to 55k from 50k starting, which sounds stupid, but its good just to win the first sizeable pot and kick on. I moved tables and had Philbort on my tabe and Jan Heitman? Philbort was flatting me and winning pots post flop vs me, I mean I was just c/f ak on j92 or whatever but it felt like he wanted to play pots with me, but wasn't sure.

Hand 1

I raise to 600 UTG with AQo, Jan Heitman makes it 1300 on the button. If he made it like 1700 or something I was going to fold, but with this price I just can't fold. Also if he has AK he's likely to go slightly/alot larger.

Flop KKJddx I check and he bets 1100, I mean folding is probably an option, but just felt like a good price and wasn't sure what he was upto. Turn was KKJ4 and he checked back relatively quickly.

River (5k) KKJ45 I start tanking, I'm unsure what exactly he has, TT/QQ/AQ the most likely hands, I'm riffling my chips and he says something like about me checking or something, at the time if he had a really good bluffcatcher I'm pretty sure he would just stay quiet as I was really close to betting and I think he was trying to talk me out of it. I realised it meant he had good but not great showdown value and I bet 10k. He folded AQdd face up.


I basically didn't look back from here. I was playing very good I thought, I had a new table that I was very comfortable with and in general the field was amazing.

Hand 2

A Russian recreational player makes it 1100 at 500bb from 22k stack, I flat Ah 4h in position, both blinds (both recs) call. Flop 653ssh the original raiser bets 2500 into 5kish and I decide to raise to 9800. He had cbet ak on j98 4 way previously so I knew he had a super high cbet stat, so even if i end up getting it in vs say KK I have 11 outs + bdfd so I think its a pretty good play. I also force the blinds to lose their equity. He snap jammed and had a9ss which was sad.

This put me down to 50k. I grinded very hard after this winning a lot of showdown/non showdown pots and played pretty good I think. Ludovic then moves to the table..

He is playing really aggressive, rfi is around 50% and just plays a lot of pots. I have 2 aggro guys on my left too so I decide I'll use a limping strategy as with stack sizes it would work pretty well.

Hand 3

I limp UTG at 1200bb, btn, sb both limp and Ludo makes it 5500 from 120k. I have 120k too, I decide to make it 19400. This puts him in a tough spot, can't really flat and need an incredibly strong hand to jam with for 100bbs vs a utg limp/reraise in a 10k. Folds back to him. He jams and shows 8c. No idea which 8c he can have 9c 8c just checks pre, 8c 8d 100% checks pre, Ac 8c plays really well in limped pot. Had no idea..

THE VERY NEXT HAND, utg Jessie Slyvia opens to 3k, Vandi4rek (probably the most aggressive Russian reg) makes it 8500 on the button. Ludo makes it 17500 in the sb. I look down and see an Ace, I beg for another one and instead I get a king, which is still very, very good. Theres alot of dead money there and both vanda/ludo are going to 1)both we incredibly light, incredibly often and 2)have to fold a lot of hands that have good equity vs me tt-qq

I think about what sizing to make and the dealer just mucks my cards. I go crazy. I don't take my eyes off the cards as they are in a retreivable position. The floor comes over, I explain everything and she lets me get the cards back. I tell her which suits etc away from the table and I get my cards back. I take 15 seconds and go all in. I can't really make it 40k out of 98k total here with any hand. I'm happy to win the money in there. Folds back to Ludo and he starts tanking "this is sick" I think he probably has AK too and might fold. Eventually he tanks and calls with JJ. Not going to berate the call or anything, hes a very, very, very nice guy and wish him the very best today but he has around 32% equity vs my range and I play all my range exactly the same. I think if I didn't have all the commotion with the mucked cards then he would have folded, maybe not though.

This was for 220k when the average was 65k. 1 day later on the bubble there was 4 guys who all had less than this. Pretty gross feeling playing such a ridiculous sized pot when I was trying all day to just small ball and chipped up all the time from winning lots of small pots. Door card was Jx and I felt sick.

Was a really gutting feeling. Hard to explain really. This trip has been similar throughout. I've built a stack in every single tournament so far but it just has went badly at a crucial time either from getting unlucky or perhaps making a bad call. I will look back at these tournaments with some regret, or maybe what could have been kind of thing.

I re-enter and move to probably the toughest table in the room. Not too many hands of note.

Hand 4

Connor Drinan opens utg to 2800 UTG whilst being drunk from 35k. Ringelsdorf then makes it 8900 in the small blind. We have so much history both live and online and we probably both think eachother is super spewy. I look down at QQ and have a tough spot. I can either make it 15kish from my 50k stack, potentially induce, potentially he flats. Or I can just jam. I think because of how we plays inducing is probably best. I made it 15300 and he tanked and folded.

I made day 2 with around 65k..


On day 2 not much happened, I played 1 pretty interesting pot that basically ****ed me though.


Hand 5

I have 55k at 2k bb.

Naza opens to 4.5k off around 150k. I defend bb with Ad 2d, I don't think I can ever jam here really.

Flop is K98ddx I check and he bets 5.5k. Very interesting spot. If I call he can barrel me on the turn and its going to be very close. If we get to the river then often he will put me on a missed draw as diamonds, jt, qt, qj 67 all look like they are in my range here and I won't have too many valuebets on the river.

I decide to make it 15.5k, I basically just want him to fold his aj/qj/ak or any random hands he cbet the flop with. If he does jam the flop then he can still jam worse draws. I would also jam basically any turn card except a few and take my flush draw as it is.

He takes a pretty long time and calls.

The turn is K98K and this is a pretty dreadful card. I think I don't have much fold equity vs hands that beat me at all, he's just going to b/f hands like AJ/AQ on the flop. So when he gets here he has like AK/KQ/KJ/KT/QT/QJ (bdfd) some flush draws maybe some 9x/qq/jj? I'm not exactly sure of course. There is 45k ish in the pot and I have 40k behind. I would have jammed on pretty much any other card.

I decided to bet 6.3k here which I think is really interesting. He won't have a raising range on this turn here, but if I check flop then maybe he just jams and then I can't call. When I bet 6k into the 40k I get to see a river card 100% which I think is pretty great. I bet 6.3k and he eventually calls.

River K98K7. Pretty interesting again. Now even some of the draws I was beating get there. I think I should just do a disciplined check/fold here. I check and when he checks back I'm really unhappy as it means I probably have fold equity. He shows 98 for a slowplayed 2 pair and is tilted he didn't stack me on the flop. Maybe he folds this on the river, maybe not, I'm unsure. This left me pretty short and although won and lost a few pots eventually busted.

Very underwhelmed by the results in these highrollers and main events. I was pretty happy with how I played and I really do look forward to playing as many of these as possible. I've probably thought longer about this Ludo hand with AK than any other hand ever. I just can't get it out of my mind. There's nothing else I can do but it just keeps playing on the back on my mind almost haunting me. Like I keep trying to just imagine in my head that an ace came or something. Weird I guess?

Next up live in Monte Carlo, not sure how big I'll be going there, but really looking forward to it. Flying back today and looking forward to a ****ing huge Sunday tomorrow. Really excited.

SKO/6max High Stakes Cash Games

I busted the 10k and immediately registered the 1650 6max. It was pretty great tournament, fast but nice structure. Not too much happenned. I had really fun and interesting tables and really enjoyed playing. Didn't make too many mistakes until my exit hand. Vamplew moved to the table and first hand raised to 2.5k with lots behind. I know he has a high rfi and he raised the cut off so jammed a4 from the sb for 16bbs and lost to his AQ. I'm pretty sure he's r/f alot into the stacks behind, but still probably a little too light jam.

Went to eat then came back to the SKO.

Started 4 handed, but the bb was sat out. A Russian guy was angry the dealer was so slow and in the first hand I look down at TT and raise to 500 (30k stacks) the Russian goes all in (I think blind?) daring me I can't call but I do and shower his a7o So that was nice, finally my first return on investment in Malta! I had a swap with Fedor who looked like he was going to win the main event, but eventually came 9th, so gross for him ;(

Anyway the tournament went ok, I won some flips, lost some flips, made like 4k in bounties but didn't cash.


I went downstairs to the cash game room and found a 25/50/100 game that was running with one German reg and 2 Romanians who I didn't know much about but expected they were not so great and then one absolutely huge punter.


I really enjoyed playing 4 handed and lots of the time we played 3 handed. When its 4 handed its just so much more skill involved than 9 handed, anybody can wait for AA 9 handed in live cash, but 4 handed you have to go to the streets almost every hand, defending your bb is so important. I can't think of too many hands here, it was more just winning like 500-2k at a time in smallish pots.

Hand 1

I have 10kish, bb has 20kish, btn has 15kish.

Btn is opening wide, I'd say around 80%, sb is playing a 3bet only strategy which is reasonable, I've played relatively snug so far.

Btn 125 (straddle isn't on because we're 3 handed and its unfair to straddle button) SB makes it 425 and I have KJo in the BB. I think 4betting all combos of QJ+ KJ+ AT+ with my perceived image and the image of the other 2 guys and how they were playing is pretty good. There isn't a huge amountof room for a 5 bet here, although of course he could still do it, but even with hands like QQ he can't just get it in for 200bbs at 25/50. He calls.

Flop 949ssd and he checks. I bet 1250 and he calls. I have the Js.

The turn is Kd and he checks. This is pretty close, he knows I will be barreling this turn card so if I bet maybe he jams some combos draws. I really wasn't sure if I could get 3 streets here and he can have KQss, AKss and maybe he just folds QQ on the turn even though he knows I will barrel this a lot. I decided to check back but interested if others would bet? I was thinking of checking back and then going huge on river if he checks.

River is 944K9 and he checks. Pretty gross spot, I considered everything, but decided to just make a tight check back. I don't think its overly terrible and he mucked when I won and had JJ.


A few orbits later he seemed pretty angry I raise button to 125 (small blind was playing 3b or fold strategy so I wanted to make it smaller so that I could call more 3bets cheaper whilst we are so deep. If I make it 150 he may make it 600 etc rather than 125-450 which was his standard) off around 13k sb folds and then the Romanian makes it 475 in the big blind. I'm not sure if 4betting here is good and expecting him to spite peel a lot. I didn't think he was overly wide pre here though so just decided to flat. Flop j66ddx and he bets 450. Close spot for me, but I think I'm a little too high to fold and he's also going to be betitng when A/K comes.

Turn J66K and he bets 1200 and I call after 40 seconds or so.

River J66K9 and he takes a long time and bets 2500. Its a really close spot between jam/call. I was pretty certain with his sizing he wasn't super nutted. I just had a feeling he had AK at best. I kind of bottled it but really wish I had jammed to make him fold the chop. But perhaps its a little needless.

Not too many other big pots. I ended up pretty well and really enjoyed playing. It made me miss cash games, they are so fun but I also love tournaments too. Poker is really the best game in the world I really, really love it.

Thanks everybody for sweating with me over the week. Sad I couldn't get a big win for the rail, but I tried my best.

What you got on the 2nd hand? AK?

On the first one IMHO you have to either bet turn or river, must be at least 2 streets of value.

Nice read Gl over the next weeks, cya in Vegas

Mother****ing love reading this thread.

good update man, would have been sweet had you won that flip vs ludo, but **** happens

Man I think he's more likely to fold with all the stuff that went on? Unless u pull off the moves

Great hands and blog, thanks for posting!

+1 , GL

Speech sent out to horses for tomorrow. Every Sunday I send a war message out..

I don't know what to say really, 12 hours till the biggest battle of our professional lives, all comes down to today., an enormous Sunday that can make or break us. A Sunday where we will inevitably run beyond awful. We either heel as a team together or we will die as individuals. Hand by hand, tourney by tourney until we're finished. We're in hell right now - gentleman - believe me. And we can stay here, run bad, spew off or we can fight our way back into the light, we can climb out of hell - one hand at a time.

Now I can't do it for you.. I'm too old. I look around and I see these young faces.. I mean.. I made every wrong choice a middle age man can make. I pissed away all my money playing high rollers against Germans who can't lose 40-60s. I chased off anybody who ever wanted to back me and lately I can't stand watching my screen name making the plays I watch in PT4.

You know when you get old in life things get taken from you, thats, well thats part of life. BUT you only learn that when you start losing stuff.. you find out life is a game of inches.. So is poker. Because in either game, life or poker the margin of error is so small. I mean one unnecessary bluff and we don't make it, one bad river call when we know we're beat you don't quite do it. The inches we need are everywhere around us, they are in every phase of the tournament, every bluff, every call. On this team we fight for that inch, on this team we tear ourselves and everybody around us for that inch. We 3bet relentlessly for that inch because we know when we add up all those inches, thats going to make the ****ing difference between winning and losing.. between living and dying!

I tell you this, in any fight its the guy who's willing to die who is going to find that inch and I know if I'm going to have any life anymore its because I'm still willing to fight and die for that inch. Because thats what living is, the 6 inches in front of your face. Now I can't make you do it. You've got to look at the guy next to you in this chat and I think you're going to see a guy who will go that inch with you. You're going to see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team because he knows when it comes down to it, you're going to do the same for him. Now either we heel now as a team, or we will die as individuals. That's poker guys, thats all it is.

Now what are you going to do?

I totally read that in Pacino's voice

wow, that speech is awful. lol

lol the only thing my backer says on sunday is 3k sent gl

Lmao not bad enjoyed the read

lol @ JJ. I would honestly just leave crying inside.

Also, your KJ hand should get a turn bet and a river bet on a lot of rivers I think.

maybe not 9x because it's prolly the worst K in your range but the 9 is pretty blankish actually. He's quite likely to have 0 combos in his range imo, and can never really have more than 8 i don't think [(8,T,J,A)s]. You're also gonig to barrel that card a lot so I think youre going to be really unbalanced on a brick if you don't barrel turn and river with all Kx (unless you want to give up at a reasonable frequency on the K which is a fine strat too).

Anyway, good post as always, gl on sunday.

Ok

Lmao

Ya, lol.
Nice, nice.

skype?