OK. Let's announce November 2016 Goals:

[ ] Show a monthly net profit of €1.000 from online tournaments
[ ] Play at a live tournament
[ ] Watch poker tells series by Joe Navarro and take notes
[ ] Play 5 tournaments calculating exact odds each hand you play
[ ] Watch and take notes from the first 3 chapters of the WSOP Academy Videos
[ ] Exercise -any kind- 3 days a week
[ ] Lose 7 kilograms
[ ] Don't start smoking

Let's roll!

Well if you think you are having a bad day EV wise, just look at the 3 hands below that took place at the same tourney, against the same opponent...
I played the way I played due to the fishy history of the opp.

WTF!









Seriously WTF!
Oh well, **** happens

So, I got this bar that shows how much I have accomplished toward my yearly profit goal.
Will update monthly:

+++++++-----------------------------------------> €1,716 / €12,000

Not too shabby


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Thanx, I got a head start but not doing well so far this month. Though just missed 3 tourney cashouts when I was around the bubble after getting tired & distracted.

I've started to take pilates lessons with the Mrs twice a week. Currently that's how I think I look like



Or more like:

Hehe where do you live


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I will be playing SHR Rock and Roll in couple weeks. 3 bullets for $360/1Mil GTD and one bullet for $3,500/2Mil GTD


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Good luck with that

I live in Istanbul and I've also found my tournament.

Next weekend I'm going to Paris for the WSOP International Circuit tournament.
It's a 2 day side event with €300 entry, €100.000 guaranteed hold'em tournement, which will be my first in this scale.

I'm so excited, hope I won't get busted in the first hour

Binked €231, which helped me feel a little better in my downswing.
I was the last guy in the chip list, and went all in with 77 in MP.
BB called with KJo, and eliminated me with a Jack on the river...

I'm thinking that this was a bad beat with about 55% to win if I calculated it correctly.

On the other hand, I was the last guy to be eliminated before the amount of money to be earned would go up (about €100 more).
My M was 3.
And I am not sure if I should have just folded the sevens and waited (hoped) for other guys to be eliminated.
How do I know when to push or fold? Which push/fold charts would you recommend?
Thanx!

Early Stage, Pocket 9s on the SB vs 2 raisers?

Well, I folded...
Am I a coward or someone with good survival instincts?
Thanks for your comments

OK off to Paris in 15 hours!
I'm going to the WSOP Circuit Starter Event Flight 1B.
I'll post my trip report when I come back.

This'll be my first real live tournament in this scale, any tips or quick 2 cent ideas are welcome!

Allrighty! I'm back from Paris, France and here is the first part of my trip report:

Prologue (Late October 2016):
Poker is illegal in Turkey, so there are no live events here. I was casually surfing the web for tournaments in EU, and noticed a real WSOP International Circuit Event. I know I'm not good enough to play at main events -yet- so I decided to join the WSOP Circuit Starter Event, with a buy-in of €300.

After getting the necessary permisson from the Mrs -in return for a LongChamps bag- I registered for the tourney, booked my flight and had my hotel reservation ready in the blink of an eye.

12th November:
I woke at 5am to catch my flight and headed to the Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul.
Due to my corporate job which demands some frequent traveling, I have a Star Alliance Gold card, which allows me to enter airport lounges all around the world. Yes, corporate life has its perks...

So I entered the Turkish Airlines CIP Lounge (Lounge Istanbul) and had some quick breakfast. I think we have one of the largest and probably the best airport lounge in this part of the world.
Below is a photo, showing about 1/15th of the whole lounge which is actually 2 floors in size and bigger than some airport terminals in the world.


You see a guy there playing golf in the simulator. There are billards tables, live olive trees, ps4 consoles, a mini car racing pit, piano, sleeping rooms, etc etc. With 24 hour open buffet, and deserts from the Demel Patisserie from Vienna, Austria.


And yes this is one of the toilets in the lounge

After about an hour later, I was at the gate to board my plane. When it was my turn to board, the device reading my boarding pass flashed red with a noisy alert denying my boarding! Same error with the second try...
Being a seasoned traveller I knew what was coming, free business class upgrade! Boom!

Since the flight was almost full, they upgraded passengers with frequent flyer cards -ofcourse starting with the highest level- so that they can sell the newly opened seats in the economy class to last minute travelers for huge profits. So it's a win-win-win situation for all.

Turkish Airlines (THY) flies to Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport with the Airbus A330 family, which have a nice business class area with seats that turn into beds, infront of your personal 26" in flight TV. I took this business upgrade as a good luck token and was happy to be able to catch up some lost sleep due to my early start to the day.
I slept for the first 2 hours of the flight, and when I woke up, my omelette du frommage with a selection of other breakfast food was waiting for me before the plane touched down in Paris


Honestly I felt like I was one of those international poker pros flying to a tournament in my private jet. Man, it felt good, real good

This was my 10th+ time visiting paris, both due to business and romantic trips. With my priority pass, I was out of customs check in no time and headed for Terminal 3 from Terminal 1 through the CDGVAL airport train system. Btw, the CDG terminal 1 has an interesting architecture which reminds me of ant farms:


From Terminal 3, I jumped on a train heading to Paris (all trains from Terminal 3 station head to Paris) and hopped off at Gare du Nord (The North Train Station). Then with a brisk 20 minute walk, I was at my Hotel in Place de Clichy. This northern part of Paris, is kind of socioeconomically lower compared to the more central places. Although the famous Sacre Cour church is also situated around here. As well as the infamous Moulin Rouge (the Red Windmill), which seems to attract sex shops to the area.

The WSOP event would take place at the only poker club left open in Paris, the Clichy Montmartre. The other clubs were closed one by one as the authorities did not renew their licenses (the Wagram Club first, others followed by The Aviation Club latest as far as I know). The Club opens at 13:30 every day and closes at 06:00am. It was around 12 o'clock when I got there so the doors were not yet open but there was already a small crowd gathering at the front.


I had time, so I went for a quick bite and a beer at a Parisian style cafè nearby.



Well, this concludes the first part of my trip report to Paris for the WSOP Circuit Starter Tournament.
In the next part I'll cover the actual event and on the third part I'll give some tips as to where to eat what in Paris.

Hope you liked it and I hope someone else reads this besides me

Boy you had fun


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Definitely reading, enjoying as well!

Reading and enjoying.

Good write up so far


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Tx for the report. Nice pics.

Thnx for the replies guys, I'm glad you liked it so far.
Gonna make an update asap, stay tuned!

As I took the last sip from my beer, the clock was 13:40, so I headed to the poker club. Well, the small line in front of the club got bigger, way bigger!



Holly funk! There was no way to get in the club before the tournament started at 14:30. Thankfully the people -like me- who had registered and paid for the tourney online were allowed to get inside through a smaller queue.

Apparently, to get into the poker club is not that easy in this part of Europe. You need a members' card, and the only way to get that is to pay the yearly membership fee, which is €50! So, I paid for it and got my membership card with a WSOP logo on it. Probably the most expensive souvenir I got so far in my life.

The atmosphere of the venue was really cool with a main hall and 2 VIP rooms. Apparently there used to be billards in the joint but now all was about poker -and a roulette like game. I was designated to sit at a table in the back VIP room. At the start of the tourney, we had 21k chips + 4k which you could -and I did- buy for a €10 tip to the dealer.



At about 14:45, the tourney boss announced the start of the tournament -or that's what I think he said because all of his speech was in French. This was the second flight of the event, and there were about 200 people registered for this day.

The first break came in 2 hours and I was up about 10% compared to the average stack, while the current player count had reached to 280. It was a little frustrating for me since the number of players kept increasing, still I had reached the first 3 goals I had set for this tourney:
1. Do not get eliminated as the first guy.
2. Do not get eliminated in the first 10 people.
3. Do not get eliminated until the first break.

Following a 20 minute break, we were back in the game with over 300 registrants. 2 hours of play later, there was another break, which I got out to get some fresh air with an almost average stack and with over 300 players still in the game. When we got back though, thankfully the re-entry and late registration periods were over, so the number of survivors started to decrease.

After about 30 minutes, tables in other rooms began to break and new players got seated on our table instead of the ones who were eliminated. At that point my KTs two pair, got killed by KJo two pair, which cost me more than half of my stack, leaving me with 12bb. I survived stealing blinds and eating frog legs here and there and still had 12bb after an hour.



I was observing the players from the beginning and caught a tell from a guy across me. When his hand was strong, he would put a chip on top of his cards to protect them, and when it was marginal at best, there would be no chips on top of them.And that guy with about 8bb declared "all-in" UTG without a chip on his cards. At that point I was checking my pocket fives and considering the tell, I knew he didn't have a pair, maybe an unsuited broadway at the most, which would still give me higher than 50% chance to win.

So I went all-in with 12bb in LP to make sure nobody else was going in that hand...
I was wrong.
The big blind instantly called, with
The guy who I had a tell on showed
On the turn, I somehow had an open-ended straight draw but it didn't come on the river, so the guy and I were both eliminated.
Ofcourse I didn't tell him about his tell

I was busted out at about 180th out of 362 registered that day with 34 re-entries.

After about 6 hours of play, I felt a little tired, yet happy somehow. Because I did enjoy myself and apparently played good most of the time. Strangely, that 6 hours felt like 1 hour only. Compared to the online tournaments I play, which I usually get distracted in the second hour, playing 6 straight hours of live tournamanet was not bad at all.

Check out my boldness -or sillyness, I had bought the plane tickets and reserved the hotel for 2 days not in-case, but because I would play the final table So I had 2 more days in Paris. I looked at some of the live cash tables forming as the tournament players got busted out. Then decided that poker was done for tonight, got out and headed straight to the Leon Restaurant a couple of doors away! And got myself the following for dinner as a "well done, at least you participated" award



But I knew, it was not over yet. My exploits in Paris would continue and my revenge on the poker table should come -or would it? We'll see in the next and final part of this trip report...

Is that mussels and crawfish

Edit: I meant to say crawfish not crab legs

Those are definitely shrimp

They are -were- mussles and jumbo shrimp.
This is from a famous restaurant chain "Lèon de Bruxelles" which specializes on mussels:
https://www.leon-de-bruxelles.fr/en/

Day 2:

It was pretty hot inside when I woke up in a small hotel room (almost all hotel rooms in Paris is small) early in the morning. The hotel's heating system was running pretty good but it wasn't good for me, since I like to sleep with my window/balcony doors open even if it's snowing outside. However, I decided to close the windows before I went to bed, because Paris is also famous for its sewer rats (see Ratatuille), which can climb amazing heights.

I had a shower and was sitting at a nearby Starbucks, sipping my Americano with a cinnamon roll in about half and hour. Gotta love capitalism, instead of going to a traditional Parisian Cafè, even locals prefer Starbucks now...



After a brief look at the map, I began pounding the streets to reach the famous Arc de Triomphe (the triumph arc) which sits at the center of the Place Charles de Gaulle at the beginning (or western end) of Avenue de Champs-Élysées, which in turn is famous for its many fancy shops and restaurants. I never use transportation in Paris, unless I'm in a hurry or traveling to/from the airport. IMH, one can more easily enjoy a foreign city by walking the streets and blending in with the locals.

There are several avenues parallel to Champs, which end up at the Arc. Wagram Avenue is one of them, which was also the host for the Wagram Poker Club for a long while. At the top of the Wagram Avenue just a few meters before reaching the Arc, on the left handside there is the L' Etoile 1903 Cafè & Restaurant, whose "Soupè l'Oignon (onion soup) is one of my favorites in all of Paris (maybe some place at Le Halle might do it better). But, since I had something else in mind to eat for lunch, I had to skip it this time.



The Champs-Élysées was filled with French National Flags, probably because it was the first anniversary of the Bataclan Club attack by the terrorists. Below is an image taken from the Champs, looking at the arc at the end of the road. You can find some car showrooms here displaying their top cars and prototypes for Mercedes Benz, Peugeot and Renault. As well as luxury shops such as Louis Vuitton.

One stop you should make -or avoid making if you don't want to gain weight- is the very famous patisserie Laduree. It is always packed with customers either sitting at the tables or buying their most famous desert, the Macaròn! Two important tips for you here:
1. They have a seperate restaurant just next door in the small street adjacent to it, which serves and sells their deserts, so you don't always have to be in the queue.
2. They have a shop at the Charles De Gaulle Airport Terminal 1 (and maybe in Terminal 2 too), which also sell their famous macarons. So if you are on a tight schedule, you don't have to lose time waiting in queue here.



Just a couple of blocks down Laduree, there is the Pino Pizza on the right hand side of the street. And through the adjacent street there, you see the L'Entrecote de Paris! It is a very good place the famous Cafè de Paris sauced antricote and French fries, with a walnut ceasar salad costing a total of €22. I prefer my meat well done, but you can have it done rarer and have it slowly cook with small candles on your table. They also have a nice variety of desserts and they open at 12:30 every day.



At the end of the Champs, I was greeted by a Christmas Market, complete with local delies, souvenir shops, games and even hot spiced wine (Glühwein in German). It's currently a good time to be in Europe as you will see an outdoor Christmas Market in most of the big cities.



The Champs ends at the Place de la Concorde. From there I had a relaxing walk next to the river Sainne. I didn't have the intention to go to the Eiffel Tower, which I have seen many times and don't really find it attractive like most Parisians also don't. It was a cloudy day and the tower was also hidden under some clouds as you can see below. Walking down the road, I passed the famous Louvre Museum hosting many art pieces as well as the "La Joconde" or it's more widely known name, the "Mona Lisa". I was heading to the Notre Damme Cathedral, when I decided that I had enough of a walk and had still pretty much to cover to reach back to Montmartre. I also had to conserve some energy for the live cash tables so I headed up to Clichy direction.





Well, this took longer than I thought. I will make one final entry for the cash game results and my trip back to Turkey in an upcoming post.

Cheers!

Going downhill this month, spewing my profits from last month...
But I had a chance to catch my breath a little today.

Last night I was in #1 spot in 2 tourneys and got busted out in just a few hands, calling all ins vs AA and KK with AKs and AKo in succession.

Today when I looked at my hand history and normally I wouldn't call with AK in at least one of those situations. I might go all in but not call one.

The reason of my distraction is probably because of the late hours I was playing. I have to thank our "lovely" politicians for that who decided not to observe the summer time (or actually moving back to winter time with the rest of the civilized world). Thus playing tired is probably one of the main reasons of my current downswings. And I have to deal with it somehow...

However, the good news is being in this downswing doesn't really demotivate me, instead it pushes me to study and play harder. So I'm either becoming a gambler, or on the correct path to become a better poker player.

We'll see...

Well, had run well during the tournament in #1 spot and had another bad beat followed by a loss of concentration and 4,5 hours of work just ended up min-cashing...

MTT play doesn't forgive mistakes made in late stages...