Pragueeeeeeeee
Prague has been pretty fun so far.
Flew on this private on the way there which was pretty cool. Best thing about it is its around 50% quicker, and can just turn up 5 minutes before flight and when you check back out its 5 minutes, so journey is 1hr 4 instead of like 5+.
I got here and usually I never ever leave the hotel. I always tell people Prague is ****, but I went around the city and really loved it. Really great city in lots of ways, so that was refreshing.
First tournament was $50k stars, I had been kind of tipped off that most of the recreationals wouldn't be playing and would be reg-fest, decided to skip it. Went to cinema and grinded online a little bit.
Today was the Party 25k, had been tipped off this field would be pretty special.
Hand 1
3 hands in, 100k deep, I raise 1k, to my left reg made it 3k, I called with QTdd.
Flop 862ddx went check check
Turn 862Addss, villain bet 3k and I'm getting OK pot odds to call, but feel like this deep I want to have some raises and big river bets vs perceived range (don't expect A8/A6 to make 3bet range pre flop and this particular guy to have a2 at high frequency at all) pondered a little bit and decided to go for 20% raise (if tourney clock is 0-10) and just call the rest of the time. Rolled an unfortunate raise and was committed to big turn raise, he called fairly quickly.
Plan was to give up spades, bet diamonds ofc, c/decide Q/T, bluff 7/9 and give up the rest.
River was 862A9, I would have raise and called all t7s combos pre flop and raised both of them ott swell as 97s as some frequency, so fely compelled to go with this one too. I don't expect him to really check AQdd or ATdd that often otf so I didn't think my blockers were that relevant. Pot was 46k, I had 77k behind, I contemplated shoving, but felt a little strange, so just went for slightly overbet of 50K, villain called relatively quickly with AQhh, which seemed reasonable from him.
I grinded it pretty hard on new table, had very interesting hand vs Andreas Elier (sicko!)
Hand 2
250/500 I have 15k, I limp bvb w/K3dd, he checks
K82fd, I min bet, he calls
K823fd, I pot, he calls
K8232, I check, he bets 2/3, I call.
Kind of interesting spot, I think most would bet and it was my 2nd instinct, but I felt all Kx would value bet, and I get value from the fds with no showdown value that would call me. I could raise river, but he never has KJ+ pre flop and the K7/6 etc probably just bet/fold even for this little more and he will have every 2x pre. I call and beat k9.
Hand 3
I have decent stack back now, blinds go up a little bit, The Wolf raises, Christoph Calls, I have 2 jacks, I jam 22bbs, utg calls, Christoph tank calls...
KK2fd, check, bet 7bbs or something, fold. I have JJ vs Cristophs 99 and he backdoors a flush.
REBUYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
I buy back in as field is incredibly good.
Hand 4
I raise Q5hh on button into fish sb + dpeters bb. DP calls.
KT8hh, check, I check back. Decent board to check, won't bet range here, want some hands to call turns, raise turns etc, I can make ace high fold later etc.
KT89hhxx, check, I bet he calls.
KT899, check, I pot. I think my value bet range now will be Kx+ I don't have many natural bluffs here at all really, Qx/Jxhh that checks back the flop and is less than 7, some A7o/A7s kind of hands, so I feel really nice about bluffing this combo. He calls with K3o, which seems reasonable for sure (no heart ofc)
Hand 5
I have 50k, bb1600
Dietrich opens Hijac with 4 strong players behind him, I have 77 in big blind. I was actually pretty sure he was weak from something he responded to somebody, was contemplating jamming even though it would be huge, but wte, call.
K85xdd (i have 77dx, check check)
K854xddx check check
K856Qxddxd check, overbet, I jam.
I was trying to work out in game which hands I wanted to jam here, I know he will bet thinly for value, like QT+ or something like that, so should have decent amount of f/e, I block one of the more likely AXdd combos he will check back twice with. I didn't think he'd have many "good" bluff catchers' hands like QJxd will likely start betting the flop, hands like 98dx he won't raise pre/bet the flop with, he won't ever overbet a hand like 99, he won't raise K9xd, so he will basically only call river when he has Axdd or AdX. For the latter the only one thats possible is AQ, which he might bet flop with? But sure if he has this he will call, he shouldnt have many good bluff catchers here at all though, so think it is good to raise this one.
I worked out I needed to raise, but with his sizing being around 12k and me having 47k, it would be a little too awkward making it 30-38k or something, and I'm pretty sure I would have instinctively been greedy with my value hands too and went all in. I jammed and he talked himself into call with K9xd, which of course is a call after everything we spoke about here, but I just didn't put this into pre flop range facing 4 good regs and also would expect bets on flop/turn at decent frequency too.
Oh well, rebuyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
Bullet 3, I have another new table, it was OK. I build up to around 135-145ish mostly from pre flop pots sb vs btn, mp vs ep and no real showdowns. I then 3bet firaldo who was chip leader and was really happy when Ole 4bet jammed vs me, I had AK, but lost to TT. Was short now and decided wouldn't go for the -100k day if this one didn't go well. Firaldo and Mustafa played awesome pre flop pot where Firaldo 5bet huge and showed AJo <3 he said he can't bluff ever again, he opens and as he's finishing his sentence I see AQo and have around 25ishbbs on the button, very very standard 3bet call vs 3bet jam when he's opening a lot and can still leverage here especially with most recent dynamic. He has AK though and its
R
I
P
Kind of weird afterwards, had a moany KFC. I am just so tied between what I want to do in 2018. I'm not sure what I really enjoy the most, online mtts or live mtts. I really hate tanking, hate how slow a lot of the tournaments are (including this party 25k, don't worry not being biased against stars) the thought of a 5 day main event seems like such torture, especially if I played day 1a tomorrow, I have to wait day1b, then all the days are super slow etc. Its so difficult to eat healthy on these stops I don;'t care what anybody says
Sleeping patterns get ****ed, everything just is not GTO.
I know the plans for HR's next year and they are crazy exciting, there will be some amazing tournaments, but I just think I'll stick to the very best ones and not "grind the tour". I really just love being in my office, grinding online tournaments. Since being heavy on PIO in the last few weeks I've even been on the cash games on partypoker, come get me sharks! When you win a live tournament it very rarely feels amazing, you're usually absolutely ****ed, mentally drained and just want to go and sleep. Will reconsider plans/goals/expectations for next year so its really good I came here anyway.
For the rest of the trip, I have no idea really. There is the ept main tomorrow, party 5k a little later in the week and a few side events here and there. I'm just not enthused for them to be honest.
I really really loved HR series week last week tbh. I went into it a little bit bitter and against stars etc, but the fact is high stakes online tournaments are just so ****ing good. Playing live tournament where you just get dealt **** for hours and hours and thats what is supposed to happen vs playing 9 super amazing tournaments, really quick, lots of decisions, lots of mentally stimulating hurdles along the way, way more dynamics, stats, bet sizes etc, all day just is super fun. Powerfest/WCOOP/SCOOP kind of times are just so fun and when poker is gone, they are what I'll miss, not some live stops.
It shows me what I really enjoy and what I love about poker though, so for 2018 I think it makes sense to build my year around them.