Hello strangers

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ryan and I am a Canadian poker professional, with a career of approximately 5 years on the grind.

In a few days I will be off to Barcelona for my 3rd appearance at the upcoming EPT shenanigans, also known as 'EPT Barcelona'. Being primarily a cash game player, I had only considered playing in the Main event having won my entry via online satellites which I would play here and there alongside other games. Now times have changed, and I'm revving things up a bit. No longer is Barcelona just a vacation destination where I take a shot at winning $1 million euros and then spend the rest of my time relaxing. This time, I will be playing a handful of tournaments. Although I am certain to have a day off to relax on the beach and enjoy a beer or two in the sun, my primary focus is to play my best poker and keep my schedule full of action.

Two events I am 100% playing are:

Aug 20th: 1100 Estrellas main
Aug 25th: 5300 EPT main

The following are tournaments I plan on playing, under the condition I do not advance to later days in either one of the mains and face scheduling conflict:

Aug 23: 2200 Estrellas HR
Aug 24: 1075 Super sat to EPT main
Aug 24: 550 1r1a Super sat to EPT main
Aug 25: 2150 Turbo
Aug 26: 2200 NL
Aug 27: 1100 NL

That should keep me busy, but if not there's always the cash game room.


So far 2015 has been a fun learning experience. I have been lucky enough to pay visits to both Malta and Monaco for EPT events. Running deep in the EPT Grand final, I played my best poker ever - unfortunately my good run came to a screeching halt when I lost 3/4 of my stack in a preflop all in with JJ vs AJ, and afterwards failed to win a flip for 7 big blinds. The 27th place finish is nothing to complain about though.

There will be more live action later this year - Visits to Malta, Prague and Macao await (more on these later). But for now, its time to gear up for Barcelona.

Seeing as this the poker goals and challenges section of the forum, I better post mine already. My ultimate goal is simply play the best poker I can and to be alive in the present moment during each decision I face. I have zero expectations of results and see no value in aiming for x$ to be won. I will be posting a bit about how I play and where I'm at in terms of A/B/C game.

That's all for now. I'll check in sometime after my flight lands.

GLGL

Thanks Astrix. Going to need it to run deep in these things.

Now in BCN and up bright and early. Off to breakfast here shortly. Studying some cash hands to fire the brain up is in order, with the assistance of a nice hot coffee.

Wrap things up by 9 then head to the beach for an hour is the plan. Then its off to casino for Day 1B of the Estrellas Main event. If I bust this early enough I'll play the 1075 super sat to the main at 18:00.

Tommrow I'm off so I'll head to the market on Las Ramblas and stock up on some food. The hustle and bustle of that street is pretty insane. There's lots of shops along the narrow connecting roads as well. Something for everyone really - I really like architecture and art so long walks consisting of observing structures and browsing art galleries keep me entertained. But if crowds aren't your thing then there's the option of walking up one of the big hills that surround the city. If I make my way up this year I'll post a couple pics. The view from above is spectacular.

Will check in if I make the hike up to the top, otherwise will hold off till figuring out schedule for post Estrellas Main.

Hello,
GL GL GL
Isn't in too expensive to travel From Canada to europe for these events?

TY TY TY

Apologies in advance for such a lengthy post but I haven't disclosed some things here so bear with me.

Based on a rough estimate I made the trip could be somewhere between the realm of winning a little, break-evenish, or slightly losing overall when considering travel expenses (I do my best to be pretty cheap: staying in a hotel that is 100 euro/night including all you can eat breakfast, tend to stock up on healthy/healthyish snack foods for room so I cut down on the amount of food I eat out, buy water in bulk instead of by small bottles. Also tend to go for the places around town that you can eat for 8-15 euro. The markups charged for what I've sold for the EPT Main and Estrellas HR, although small, do chip a little.

Now you do bring up a good point. For me it's not something I've actually considered too much because the life EV for me is much higher than whatever the spread between my profit and expenses are. There are a few other factors which pushed me to make the decision to travel for poker. One is to gain live MTT experience (though there are some WPTs I should probably consider). Another is simply for the fun of visiting other countries. I should mention my girlfriend will be joining me on my long trip -Malta/Macau/Prague. We are going to stay in Europe for the duration of that time. This will likely be our first and last trip of such length. After that probably going to settle a bit and travel more local.

...

Then there's the part where I get a LOT of study in on days off and after busting tournaments. This should add to future EV of both live and online games. I have a couple days where I will be pretty much jailed in my room with my laptop and a list of things to do and I will not stop until they are finished or I fall asleep (orrrrr procrastinate on 2+2). I grind a ton of different games, and I also have a horse I coach regularly so between that, spending time with GF/family/friends/non poker stuff it can be difficult for me to get entire days of study in. This trip presents me with that opportunity among others by uprooting me from my all too familiar environment

At some point, possibly in Malta, but more likely Prague I plan on playing the 10k events. This will help make it more worthwhile although two things need to happen first 1) MTT game needs to be taken to the highest level, which I fully believe I can do in the next few months given how much time I will study in between grind days : hint: this is my current project for my time in barcelona when not playing 2) Able to sell enough action. So far I have about 5k euro covered. Will need to sell rest if I decide to play.

Anyway good question, again sorry for such long post but I tend to just go off in tangents and end up killing 6 birds with one stone



Finally today's update: busted Estrellas main before dinner break, which then allowed my schedule to fill in the blanks with the 1.1k hyper turbo, which I then busted around midnight. Really happy to get 2 tournaments in on my first day playing. Tomorrow is ultra study day then we'll see what the night brings.

Managed to squeeze in a 1k hyper, 2k hyper, the 2k estrellas and a 1k super sat in addition to the 1k estrellas. So far played in 5 tournaments (bricked all) and sitting in the main today going on day 2. For the first time after years of history playing online I managed to draw a seat right behind Marc-Andre Ladouceur (FrenchDawg) and finally meet the face of the name I see regularly on Stars. We joked a bit about how I used to be a huge degen and gave everyone HU action at 25/50 in 2011ish (true story). Times sure have changed

As for my plan to go up the hill, ended up meeting w/ some friends that are also here for poker and the beach for the afternoon + did a market trip. Later on went clubbing at Razzmatazz in evening. For those who are Canadian and familiar with the once standing 'guvernemnt' in Toronto, Razzzmatazz is basically a clone of guv yet at a much larger scale. It is quite easy to get lost in this massive club. About 80% of the night was spent in 'The Loft' which is one of 5 rooms to choose from. Music was very deep, sort of progressive tech house w/ a bit of darkness thrown in the mix. Overall really great spot and worth checking out if you are into that.

I'll try and remember to post some pics later from inside but heading to Casino shortly so won't have time just now.

As for poker update if I bust the main I'll continue loading up tournaments to fill that schedule. Looks like I may have enough action sold to play the 10k's in Malta and Prague as well so future plans for the year are falling into place.

Now its time to run good in this main. More to come later.