€3300 WPT MAIN EVENT DAY 1A

I changed my original plan and decided to play day 1a yesterday. I had found out you could buy-in again on Day 1b if you got knocked out on Day 1a. Furthermore playing Tuesday would give me a day of rest before playing Day 2 on Thursday. The tournament started around 4 pm. I came 15 minutes into the tournament and found my seat between an older German guy and young Austrian online tournament pro. We started with 30,000 chips and blinds were 50/100. I was highly motivated after having a very good live cash game session Sunday here in Malta.

ATTENTION! In the next paragraph I will describe all the players at my table. If you find that boring please skip it and scroll down to the last part of my blog where I tell about two of my hands and how it went.

THE PLAYERS

Seat 1 was an older German guy who only played and won one hand in 7 hours. He limped folded 3 times and folded all other hands. Booooooriiiiiiiing! I think his stack was 23,000 or something at the end of the day and amazingly he got paid off the only time he actually played a hand. I thought to myself he must have had 5 of a kind or better to bet on flop, turn and river...

Seat 2 was me. I was a very tired guy who actually fell asleep at the table. Suddenly I was on a rollercoaster driving a BMW while traffic was passing by while I had a duck on my head. It only took me two seconds to realize I was sleeping so when a guy said “Big blind please” I decided to wake up.

Seat 3 was a young Austrian online tournament poker pro who played very well and actually only lost two hands the entire day. He was only in 3 show downs as I recall and got away with everything. The only player who actually got some of his chips was me. I will explain later. This guy could be a potential winner of WPT for sure.

Seat 4 was an semi-old Italian gentleman wearing a donkey-shirt as I call it. A donkey-shirt is a free shirt an online poker room provide you with and that you wear for free because you think it makes you look like a pro. The truth is it makes you look like a fish. Knowing this you can use this image against your opponents and trick them into believing you are a fish.

Very early in the day I was heads up against the guy. He had 3-bet me pre-flop 85-offsuit. When I saw that I thought he must be one of those lovely Italian donks I was hoping to get seated next to. Later I realized he was a tight player and actually played decent poker. He did some rather tricky chip shuffles so must have played live a lot. He tricked me! Ha ha. Having said that he was not really a problem as he was not playing back at me often.

Seat 5 was a young Italian kid who definitely had some experience playing live poker. He did not really impress me but I was told he won a live tournament here in Malta a month ago. I guess he was just running bad and paid off opponents too often on river.

Seat 6 was a nice French guy who lives in Malta. He qualified via a live tournament for only €180. He played solid poker but at times checked behind where better players would bet for value. He is still going strong with a good stack and I wish him best of luck.

Seat 7 was a young Italian player who played quite unorthodox. He was opening a lot of hands and seemed rather aggressive and constantly making moves. I think he respected my game as he was hardly ever challenging me for real.

We played most the day 7-handed and I am not going to describe players who arrived later on.

CRIPPLED AFTER 30 MINUTES 

We had only played for like 30 minutes or so when I got in trouble.  A guy in mid-position had opened with a raise from 100 to 300. I made it 850 with AQ-spades on the button. The young Austrian guy who I had noticed was quite aggressive re-raised to 1850. The rest folded. I thought about just calling for pot-control but I felt my hand was strong enough to re-raise it again since he could easily be making a squeeze play.

He called and the flop came 6h-5h-4d. He checked and I bet 4500. He thought for a while and moved all-in for 30,000 more or less. He had me covered and I naturally folded. From this moment and for the next 6 hours I was crippled sitting with a short stack. At worst I was down to having 5000 in front of me during a hand. The lowest stack I had before being dealt a hand was 11,000.

I think most players would have busted in the 6 hours I was playing with a short stack but I did not tilt or lose my patience. I took a nap instead ha ha. I did not give up and I did not get too scared to play mediocre hands and continue to try and outplay my opponents. I carefully chose my spots, kept my stack intact but never got involved with big hands that could get me back on my feet.

I LOVE HAVING TWO LADIES IN MY HANDS

I the middle of level 6 I was dealt QQ in the cut-off seat. My stack was about 16,000. The guy in seat 7 raised to 900 with blinds 200/400 with 50 ante. The older German dude who had only played one single hand the entire day called the bet. I re-raised comfortably to 1850. The Austrian guy behind me re-raised me to 4850 from the button. The rest folded quickly and I shoved all-in instantly.

The kid was thinking for a long time and was counting the chips numerous times. This left me to believe I was far ahead as AA, KK or AK would have snap-called my additional 13,000 raise since he had 90,000+ and I was down to my last chips. He ended up calling with 77 and I doubled up. For the first time since I started I was above 30,000.

Later I got a text from my friend Jesper Krogsgaard who said him and Stian Flage was at the bar downstairs. I told him to come upstairs to say hello. Erik was not happy when he saw Jesper with only one beer in his hand. “Where is my beer?” I annoyingly asked. With 40 minutes to go Jesper ran downstairs and got me a big pint of Carlsberg. It was the royal beer I needed.

ROYAL BEER TO THE RESCUE

Over the speaker the tournament director announced that all spectators had to leave the area. With 20 minutes left I was enjoying my recent comeback with a cold beer but it did not stop there. The minute I got the beer I started breaking the table in pieces and ran my stack up to 64,225 chips in less than 20 minutes. The most memorable hand was when I was dealt AA with 5 hands left to play that evening. A Danish pro Morten Erlandsen had joined our table and with the blinds being 250/500 with 50ante he opened to 1250 from early position. I just smooth called since I wanted to trick my opponents. My plan worked! The Austrian kid who had re-raised me many times during the day intended to make trouble again.

As expected he re-raised from the button. He had position, running smoking hot and with the button he was in a perfect spot to make a big raise and take down a decent pot.  Only seconds later I was pleased to see a new-comer at the table going all-in with 7800+. Morten Erlandsen folded and I went all-in for 42,000! BOOM!

The entire table was like “WOW!” They certainly did not see that coming but I could tell it pleased them to see that someone finally challenged the wonder kid for real. They naturally did not think I had aces so they must have suspected that I had giant balls to go up against the chip-leader in an extremely risky unorthodox way. The kid folded after thinking for a while but I could tell he was never going to call. I won the all-in against 77. It meant that in the last 20 minutes I won roughly 30,000 chips and was suddenly among the strongest players in the field. I said to myself “They woke the beast”. I was sleeping earlier and now I was crushing souls. It felt good and after we were done I went out partying till six in the morning.

See you Thursday for some more interesting poker.

Please visit my friends websites: Visit GEC.com for selected stories about my tournament. Thanks to Anna Colley for letting me steal her picture.

I am off to bed now. Good night Malta!