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.