EPT Deauville Report: Day 1

[Schaefer]

OK, writing this was pretty difficult. I tried to get as many details as accurate as possible but this feels like it happened years ago. Anyway, enjoy!

DAY 2:

I came into Day 2 brimming with confidence. I was the chip leader at my table, with a little over 33,000 chips, and couldn’t wait to flex my muscle. We re-drew and I was in seat 7 at my new table. There was a young Scandanavian in seat 2 with around 30K and I made it a point to keep my eye on him.

The second hand of the day I’m dealt 77 and raise to 2000 (400/800 100a). A young guy in seat 9 pushes for 6K total and I make the easy call. He has AdJd and turns the nut flush. Oh well.

I steal for a round and the table stays out of my way. Next orbit I pick up AcKc in MP and raise to 2000 again. The same kid in the 9 seat pushes again, but for 16,000 this time. The Scandanavian kid in seat 2 is upset with all my raising, looks at me from the BB and says call, throwing out 2,000 in chips. He missed the 9-seat moving all in and accidentally called a huge bet. The dealer makes him put out 16,000 which he reluctantly throws out and now I have to move in. He’s shaking as he folds. The 9 seat has AsKs and we happily split the 16K.

Now I’m at about 35K in chips. However, people are starting to play back at me and I’m not really stealing at will anymore. The table has gotten much more aggressive and I don’t like it at all. On my BB, the Scandanavian kid open-limps in middle position, setting off warning bells in my head. I can’t decide if he’s weak or really strong. I should have raised here to find out but I just checked it through. The flop comes out 632, rainbow. I bet 1000 into the 3000 pot and he calls fairly quickly. OK, he has something. I’m done with the hand when a Q pops off on the turn. He has about 9K left and the pot is 5K. I think for a while and bet 3500. He almost instantly min-raises. I should have folded here but I convinced myself that he might have a hand like 77-99 and thought I had a small pair. I put him all in, he shows 33 and I’m drawing dead. Boooooooo. How bad did I play that hand?

So now I’m down to 25K in chips. Things haven’t been going very well this first day and without the lucky 8K I’d be hurting. I steal 3 times then next orbit to make myself feel better when this hand came up:

400/800 100a. I open UTG for 2000 with KcQc. It folds to the BB who instantly grabs his stack and slams it in the middle, crossing his arms and glaring at me. We count it and it’s about 13K total. I’m positive that he doesn’t have much. He’s just reacting to my constant raising. But I have K-high! He may be putting his foot down with A2 and have me beat. The more I think about it, the more I convince myself that this really was an “any 2” move. And KQs is better than “any 2” right? I decide that I’m going to make a big call and hopefully it will work out. He looks crestfallen when I turn over KQ and he shows Q2o. Unreal. I swallow his stack and send a clear message to the table: don’t play back at me unless you’re willing to go broke. I look back at this hand as the turning point for my tournament. I post my big blind, still shaking my head over calling off half my stack with KQ, when the dealer, a cool guy named Jesse, says, “don’t forget your ante, maniac”. One of the biggest compliments of my life.

The table is mine now. I am stealing at will and life is good. A few orbits later, the Q2o seat is taken by David “Devilfish” Ulliott. He’s directly on my right and I couldn’t ask for a better scenario. I get to stay out of his way and he never interferes with my running over the table. My stack is growing and Devilfish is cracking jokes. I’m in heaven.

His phone rings and he does a quick James Bond impression for whoever is on the other end. Hanging up, he tells me that it’s his 22 year-old girlfriend. “Oh yeah, that’s my girlfriend. All the blokes fancy her. I guess she’s alright.” I listen speculatively but 5 minutes later this smoking hot chick walks into the room and comes to the table. “Hey baby, how about a kiss,” says Devilfish. She leans down and whispers something and he says, “Haha, I’ll give you a spank for that one,” as he smacks her ass. Unbelievable. Finally she leaves and he says, “you know, I have a wife too,” at which point I lose it. Great times. Worth the price of admission.

Blinds 800/1600 150s, I open for 3K in MP with KTo. My stack is now about 65K. The BB, Scandanavian kid from earlier defends and we see the flop heads up. His stack is now around 50K. AQJ, with 2 diamonds. Flopping the nuts is fun! He checks and I bet 3K. All of a sudden he re-raises to 7K. Hmmmmm…I think he may be bluffing and I don’t want to run him out of the pot just yet. I just call and we see an offsuit 3 on the turn. Now he checks again and I change my read to a flush draw. The pot is about 22K so I bet 15K and he quickly calls, leaving himself with about 25K behind. The river pairs the 3 and he quickly counts out 15K in chips and fires them into the pot. I’d like to raise his remaining 10K but I think he’s bluffing and won’t call any more money. Also, the thought of A3 creeps into my head and I just call. He insta-mucks and MHIG. Devilfish says he like just calling on the end but I can’t tell if he’s being sarcastic or not but I’ll take it. I’m over 100K.

Devilfish busts with AK vs QQ. He bitches about losing every coin flip for the past year as he leaves. I’m sad to see him go. He had me extremely relaxed and focused.

Keith “The Camel” Hawkins, one of Europe’s top tournament players sits down in seat 3. He has a monster stack and asserts himself as the table captain. I try to play back a bit but he comes over the top of me a few times and I’m relegated to table scraps. Suddenly he loses a 150,000 pot to a huge suckout. He has JT on flop of JTx, his opponent has QJ. Turn 8, river 9. All of a sudden he goes into a bit of a shell, really tightening up. I seize my opportunity and open back up, stealing at will a re-building my stack up to about 100K when the following hand happens:

Blinds 2000/4000 400a, I open to 10K with A3o in the CO-1. The button, a French guy in the 2 seat, calls my raise, looking at me inquisitively He has about 65K left after calling the raise. I have a feeling that he wants to take a flop and outplay me. The flop is 974 with 2 clubs. I bet 10K and he just calls. Again, I think he wants to take the hand away from me if I show weakness. I plan on betting any card again on the turn but then the Ac hits. I decide to check and let him come to me. He instantly fires out 20K and does the same arm-crossing, staring thing that the Q2o guy did. I’m fairly certain that he’s bluffing now but I’m have to think for a while. Am I really ready to go all the way with A3? I decide to trust myself and go all the way so I call his bet. The river is a red 3 and I check-call his 35K all-in. He tables KJo and leaves in a rush. He was our 32nd place finisher, 5 from the money. Crazy place to blow off a big stack, huh? Note to all aspiring tournament players: don’t bluff calling stations.

Now I have almost 180K. Play is fairly tight as the bubble nears and I build up to almost 200K when the bubble breaks. We re-draw and I’m luck to have ZeeJustin 3 to my right again. We steal and re-steal for a while but I really can’t remember a single hand on the way from 27 down to 18. Once we got to 18, it was announced that this was our final hand. It’s my BB and I’m pissed since we’re re-drawing to 18 anyway. It folds to Justin and obviously he raises to 20K, leaving himself around 90K behind. I decide that I moving in with any playable cards. I look down and find Ad9d, more than enough and move in. He goes into the tank and eventually folds. We break for the night and I have just over 200K. Another successful day and I’m 4th out of 18 going into day 3.

Day 3 is going to be pretty boring. It was a lot of raise and take it. But I'll get one fired out eventually.

Schaefer

[Schaefer]

[ QUOTE ]
How about more details and more hands?

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think anyone wants to read, "I raise to 2,000 with 75o UTG and take down the blinds and antes". I'd have to paste that sentence like 50 times a day too. The reports cover ALL the hands that I remember having any postflop play to them. Chill out ya nit.

Schaefer

[Schaefer]

[ QUOTE ]
Any plans to hit the tournament circuit or are you going to keep it real?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, I'll always keep it real. Someday I'd like to be affluent enough to hit the circuit but I'm definitely not even close. This is a nice sum of money but it's not really a life-changing amount. We'll see after I win Monte Carlo but for now it's still 5/10 6-max. I may force myself back into the 10/20 but it's been ugly in the past.

Schaefer

[Schaefer]

[ QUOTE ]
Will you go to Vienna before MC?

[/ QUOTE ]

If I qualify this weekend, I'll go. If not, I won't. I still can't justify buying directly into a 2,000 Euro event.

Schaefer

[MLG]

great report man. jeez and I thought I was a LAG.

[Howard Treesong]

>came over the top of a very attractive, weak-tight French chick

Well, THAT certainly leads to some interesting imagery with respect to the phrase "weak-tight." Nice TR, sir. Keep up the good work.

[HiatusOver]

Great report man, it doesnt get much better than this...My only request is if you could explain a little more your thought process on blind stealing throughout the tournament because it seems that it was a huge factor in your stack building...Any insights would be great. How many times a round did you open-raise? Were there times when your cards didnt matter? Did you come over the top of a bunch of standard open raises on day 1 and 2?

[Howard Treesong]

Ulliott is quite amusing: he always has something to say, usually about the ladies. Great personality. At last year's WSOP, he told a joke about the Paki merchant in London who hit the lottery big and tried to keep it a secret, but the whole town knew right away when he closed up shop five minutes early and bought a pair of socks on the way home.

Repeating it now, it's not all that funny. It's a testament to Ulliott's personality that he could and did have the entire table laughing by telling that joke.

[J_V]

Great report - excellent writing. Keep the reports coming. Sounds like you played great. Let's say you decide to open 4 orbits a round because you have a huge stack. Are you picking your spots based on who is in the blind or are you just picking the top x% of your hands?

Obviously it's some combination, but I wondering which of the two is more dominant. I'm very interested in Hiatus' question as well.

[DemonDeac]

great report, maniac [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

and for the record, that girl in ur avatar is hot!