WPT MALTA €3300 ME DAY 2

The closets I have been to true love the past 15 years is the love I feel for my favourite TV show “The Sopranos”. Corrado “Junior” Soprano described my Day 2 best “I was waiting like patience on a monument”. I find it annoying when people complain about being card-dead for the simple fact that boring stories are boring to listen to. I will make it short ladies and gentlemen.

Special thanks to GlobalEventCoverage.com for giving me the photos for this blog and supporting me during the tournament.

Normally when I play poker online I play 4-6 tables at the same time. The games are fast and I play so many hands that after a session when people ask me which hands I won I have no idea. I play a hand and forget about it the next second unless I played it wrong then it stays with me for days.

A7s, AK, AQ, JTs, A9s, A4, 22 & 99. These were the only 8 hands I played in the 6,5 hours I was alive on day 2. Please notice I did not fold any better hands pre-flop since I didn’t have any better hands to fold with.

On Day 2 the blind levels had increased from 1 hour to 1,5 hour per level. This was to my advantage since I was extremely card-dead. I am quite proud of my self-control and level of patience during this difficult day. I did not tilt or get angry about the situation. I was all-in 4 times on Day 2. I got called 3 times and didn’t win any of those. First time I didn't get called with two pairs and second time was a split AK vs AK against as short stack.

THE HANDS

My stack went from around 55k to 22k when I held A9spades with a board 3x, 5s, 8s. Turn 4x. I was up against a Dutch kid with T8 and I check-raised all-in on turn. I could improve with 9 spades, 3 deuces, 3 nines and 3 aces leaving me a total of 18 outs.

Later on the same Dutch guy knocked me out with the first middle pair I had all day! Bummer! I opened from early position to 3200 pre-flop with 99 being the best hand I had all day. Blinds were 600/1200 with 200 ante. The Dutch guy pushed all-in with KJo from his big blind and I snap-called him. Flop came J, T, 9 so he had to hit a queen to get a straight. He did on Turn and I didn't improve on river. Bye bye WPT dreams. Hello Paceville!

LIVING THE DREAM?

The highlight of the day was when the poker pro next to me Marvin Rettenmaier looked at the same guy and asked “How many of you guys are still living the dream?” The Dutch guy in an "Everest Poker Living the dream 2010 hoodie"¹ replied: “Not so many..." 

I couldn’t help myself and started laughing. It was funny that Marvin called this guy out and emphasized the fact that A) his shirt was old. B) Either he was no longer a pro or Everest can’t afford new merchandise. C) His response sounded so depressing which helped me out of my misery.

Why? Because I was running bad in the tournament but I am not living in the past nor pretending to be a sponsored pro. I do not find it cool to wear "sponsored" gear to pretend I am cool poker star when its not the case.  And more importantly I do not push randomly all-in with KJo against a player who have only played 7 hands in 7 hours!

So thank you Marvin! Ha ha you gave me something positive to blog about from a miserable Day 2 were I didn’t really make any mistakes so overall I am happy about my performance. I actually floated the chip-leader one time with Jack-ten on a QQ5 flop. When he checked on turn I bet it and on river he took a long time to fold to my continuation bluff bet.

Overall I had a wonderful trip to Malta. Malta is like my 2nd home however I enjoy not living there because too many things in Malta tilts me but it’s the perfect destination for a relaxing holiday mixed with work & poker. I am definitely coming back maybe at the EPT next year. Special thanks to Jacob & Ina for having me staying in their crib.

WHAT IS NEXT?

On Friday I am going to Las Vegas with my good buddy Benjamin Nørregaard who lived in Malta for 5 years. The plan is simple: Drink ice cold beers by the pool, eat excellent food, gamble a little and go to awesome shows. They have some amazing shows in Las Vegas and I have not seen half of them despite I have been there 10 times or so. The trip to Vegas also gives me a chance to visit some of my favorite Vegas friends Dan Fleyshman, Keith Gipson, Antonio Esfandiari and Andrew Robl if they haven’t all left for WSOPE which begins around the time I am in town.

Thanks for all the "FB-Likes" on my blogs people. It helps me a lot!

Cheers, Erik

1. Everest Poker had a promotions where players could win a year of entries to live poker tournaments. They called it "Living the Dream". Everest Poker Network is in a lot of trouble and almost all games at stakes above $1-2 is dead. They mainly generate money from the French network EverestPoker.fr