Well, it took 30hrs to get door to door, Sydney to Warsaw, and I lasted a whopping 4 hrs 10 mins in the tournament. Such a long journey is not ideal preparation for a big live tournament but that was out of my control, so had to deal with it.
I was playing lots of small-medium pots in the first 2 levels, dropping a little bit then getting back to starting stack, very uneventful. The first indication that this wasn't to be my day was at the end of the 75/150 level when i picked up KTs on the button. This was the last level where I felt i had the stack to see a flop for cheap and try to flop big. A player opens in Mid position who seemed fairly loose, calling a RR with 85s in a previous pot OOP. I call on the button and the BB comes along as well. I see a near perfect flop containing the QJ spades and 1 small card giving me a proper up n down straight flush draw. The BB and the original raiser both check to me and I bet just under the pot size, maybe about 900 into 1100, the BB folds and the original raiser calls. I have no idea what this means as I'm very new to the table and have no image myself or any real information on my opponent. The check call by him led me to believe he had a hand like AJ, KJ, or maybe slow playing QQ or JJ. The turn is a low blank and he checks again, I thought about betting but didn't want to get blown off my hand if he was slow playing a big pair. Also by checking it shows weakness and looks like i was just having a stab on the flop in position. Unfortunately I miss my millions of outs on the river and he makes a pot bet into me and I give it up.
After that the blinds start creeping up but my stack is stagnant. A guy on my table plays out a pot where he is bluffing with T high and has to show it down on the river and doesn't seem happy at all, since it was one of those instances where the winning player requested his opponents hand be turned over after a river bet n call. The very next hand I raise 89 hearts UTG and the T high man from before is my only caller. Raising this hand with my stack was very marginal but my image was tight. The flop comes T 8 2 with 1 heart and I check, he instantly bets close to the pot size. I have enough to raise his bet 3x if i shove all in which is what I decided to do since i felt there was a good chance he was steaming from the previous pot and I have a couple of back door draws as well. So I shove and he instantly beats me in the pot with AA, good read me, I pick up a heart draw on the turn but miss on the river and depart. My play on the final hand is a little risky but i feel with my image and my perception of my opponent i get enough folds on the flop to make it profitable, but meh.
As I said it wasn't the best preparation for a big live tournament but since I won the seat online my hands were tied. This is likely to be my last live tournament before the WSOP although I am considering going to Costa Rica for the LAPT event a few days before the WSOP starts, but not sure. The Hyatt hotel in Warsaw was very nice but i didn't manage to venture out into Warsaw itself, simply due to the fact I was lazy. I arrived in Poland wearing jeans and a T-shirt, got into a taxi and the driver asked me If i flown in from Barbados, lol. 2 coats and a hat seemed to the standard attire for the weather.
As far as online poker goes, I had an issues with my copy of windows since when i first purchased vista I bought an upgrade version instead of the full one, but it gave me a 30 day period before ceasing to work. So I only had my mac OS for about 2 weeks which restricted me to playing on stars and f.tilt, whereas I wanted to play cash on ipoker. I hardly played cash at all during this period but did play a full session of Sunday tournaments which went dreadfully, the less said about it the better. I did make a pledge on the blonde Sunday thread to donate $200 (avg buy in) to charity everytime i play a full compliment of Sunday tournaments so i feel like I've done something worthwhile for the day.
With my windows been out of commission and with me traveling to the EPT etc.. I have only managed 7500 hands this month, but managed a $24k profit, the majority on ipoker 10/20nl. I will be trying to get more money onto stars and full tilt to play 10/20 on there if there is no action on ipoker or if Dave (geenetic) is playing on ipoker as we are living in the same flat.
That's about all for now, will be trying to play mostly cash with a few of the bigger buy in tournaments online starting with the stars million (quarterly $1k buy in) this weekend.
Pab
After that the blinds start creeping up but my stack is stagnant. A guy on my table plays out a pot where he is bluffing with T high and has to show it down on the river and doesn't seem happy at all, since it was one of those instances where the winning player requested his opponents hand be turned over after a river bet n call. The very next hand I raise 89 hearts UTG and the T high man from before is my only caller. Raising this hand with my stack was very marginal but my image was tight. The flop comes T 8 2 with 1 heart and I check, he instantly bets close to the pot size. I have enough to raise his bet 3x if i shove all in which is what I decided to do since i felt there was a good chance he was steaming from the previous pot and I have a couple of back door draws as well. So I shove and he instantly beats me in the pot with AA, good read me, I pick up a heart draw on the turn but miss on the river and depart. My play on the final hand is a little risky but i feel with my image and my perception of my opponent i get enough folds on the flop to make it profitable, but meh.
As I said it wasn't the best preparation for a big live tournament but since I won the seat online my hands were tied. This is likely to be my last live tournament before the WSOP although I am considering going to Costa Rica for the LAPT event a few days before the WSOP starts, but not sure. The Hyatt hotel in Warsaw was very nice but i didn't manage to venture out into Warsaw itself, simply due to the fact I was lazy. I arrived in Poland wearing jeans and a T-shirt, got into a taxi and the driver asked me If i flown in from Barbados, lol. 2 coats and a hat seemed to the standard attire for the weather.
As far as online poker goes, I had an issues with my copy of windows since when i first purchased vista I bought an upgrade version instead of the full one, but it gave me a 30 day period before ceasing to work. So I only had my mac OS for about 2 weeks which restricted me to playing on stars and f.tilt, whereas I wanted to play cash on ipoker. I hardly played cash at all during this period but did play a full session of Sunday tournaments which went dreadfully, the less said about it the better. I did make a pledge on the blonde Sunday thread to donate $200 (avg buy in) to charity everytime i play a full compliment of Sunday tournaments so i feel like I've done something worthwhile for the day.
With my windows been out of commission and with me traveling to the EPT etc.. I have only managed 7500 hands this month, but managed a $24k profit, the majority on ipoker 10/20nl. I will be trying to get more money onto stars and full tilt to play 10/20 on there if there is no action on ipoker or if Dave (geenetic) is playing on ipoker as we are living in the same flat.
That's about all for now, will be trying to play mostly cash with a few of the bigger buy in tournaments online starting with the stars million (quarterly $1k buy in) this weekend.
Pab
