I have played poker for many years and in all that time I have only managed to win one live tournament. Shockingly in the second half of 2018, despite having recently 'retired' from poker - I managed to take down two events.
Warning - post contains a lot of poker.
Warning - post contains a lot of poker.
Summer Cup
I went back to day two of the Berlin Summer Cup (€220 buy in, 250 runners) with just 22 big blinds, lying around 50/62, with 27 players paid. I commented to my friend that at least it would get me out of the flat for the afternoon, but I expected to be available to watch the Uruguay v Portugal match later that evening. About 15 people bought in for 8bbs at the beginning of day two to swell the prizepool and we were off. Early on average stacks were very shallow, due in part to the number of day two re-entries, so there were a lot of all ins. I didn't do very much and dwindled down to 10bbs where I had my first (and I think only) suckout, doubling with A8 vs AQ. Shortly afterwards I went on a tear, busting three players in an orbit and vaulting into one of the top positions.
On the bubble I was able to steal a lot of pots but lost most of my chips in a flip for the chiplead just after the bubble broke. I managed to hang around, grind my shortstack and steal pots here and there to go into the final table ninth out of ten. Already there were murmurs of a deal but we started to play and two players busted relatively quickly. A young Austrian guy that I'll call Falco Jnr in a full Austrian National Team tracksuit with a bumfluff moustache and slicked back hair and big shades was a monster chipleader with almost half the chips in play. I'd played with him the previous day where he coolered five or six different people to finish as Day One chip leader. I had a feeling that he could punt his stack off at any moment and was very happy with my seat on his direct left. He was very friendly and fun and later introduced himself as Crazy Boris.
Deal or no deal?
The deal was discussed and I acquiesced to looking at ICM numbers out of politeness. Fortunately Crazy Boris asked for a ridiculous amount of extra money so he was the one to nix the deal and we played on. A little while later, now 7-handed, the Austrian had spewed off a few chips and was now in the market to deal and I had to be the one to put the kibosh on it, drawing the ire of the rest of the table. I was the shortstack with 10bbs (therefore no ICM pressure) and to the direct left of the spewy chipleader. Plus of course I've played hundreds of final tables and felt totally comfortable and was having lots of fun.
The table seemed to believe that as the shortstack I should be most incentivised to deal and didn't understand my rejection. Of course, the most keen on a deal should have been the guy second in chips who was to the right of the chipleader and thus totally handcuffed and in a very tricky situation. At this point one of the casino regulars who I had played with before told me that he knew I played online for 'Millions' and it was not a big deal for me and how could they play in this turbo structure? I replied in my bad German that I was here to gamble, I was a kid with a dream and chopping wasn't for real men - slamming my fist down on the table for extra emphasis.
No deal!
We talked for about fifteen minutes and then the first hand after the failed deal discussions I doubled up via a flip for ultimate DEAL REJECTION JUSTICE. I managed to bob and weave until we got five handed, rejecting several more deal offers along the way. I made a crucial double up with AQ vs the A8 and shortly afterwards I picked up kings in a fortuitous spot to cripple one of the two good players. Soon we were four handed with three evenish stacks and a shorty.
The crucial hand was a ridiculous one. The good young quiet player limped off 25bb from the cut off (which is an interesting adjustment off that stack depth), the spewy Austrian completed in the sb and I checked in the BB with 28o. The flop was T82 with two spades and Falco Jnr open shipped for around 6x pot. He'd shown a propensity for random spews, so I looked down at my cards, shrugged and called. I managed to hold vs his KT and was monster chipleader. I was now in a great position and shoved almost any two cards several hands in a row with second in chips totally in an ICM coffin, enjoying his wry looks in my direction each time.
In the break I indicated to the competent young player in second place that I'd be open to chopping with him heads up but he seemed noncommittal. I resisted making my usual comment in such circumstances - something along the lines of - 'Why? Do you think you are better at poker than me?' - it later emerged that he knew my screen name and we'd played a bunch of mixed games together previously on Stars - but he wouldn't tell me his screen name even after the tournament so I guess we aren't going to be friends.
Man gewinnt ein Pokertournier
Anyhow, I managed to finish things off quickly by busting the shorty in a flip and then grinding it out heads up in front of my one man rail of Sergei. With lots of flops favouring my ranges, I was able to barrel a lot of flops and turns. Finishing it off with 88 holding vs K7 for a my second ever live tournament win. I felt great and thought I'd played excellently, trying to avoid marginal +ev spots and high variance situations to preserve my stack and of course running very well.
It was all very low key. I asked the staff where the glorious Summer Cup trophy was and the reply was a shrug. So there was no trophy and the results won't even be officially recorded due to new EU data regulations. Did it indeed actually happen?
Playing 'Irish' in Ireland
The Unibet Open in Dublin was my first ever time on this tour. For some reason I seem to be always busy when they have a stop or it is somewhere I don't want to go (London - used to live there, expensive. Copenhagen - good players, expensive. Malta - been there too much). I wasn't too excited about Dublin too, but after grinding the satellites I had a package that I needed to use, so a second trip to Ireland in two months it was.
I enjoyed the festival. They tried really hard to create a good vibe and I had a positive experience overall. Numbers were not massive, but plenty fine. I have to say that Ireland is probably the nut best place to play poker in Europe. Extreme friendliness, a willingness of players to chat about anything and a steady supply of alcohol make for a great combination.
There were a nice selection of side events, but I didn't do any damage in these until we got to the 'Irish' tournament. Irish is a four card poker game where you discard two after the betting on the flop and then it plays like Holdem. I racked my brains and I do not think I ever played this game before although my friend Paul claims we played together around twelve years ago. Strangely no Irish players knew what the hell it was.
On the day I tried to come up with some guerrilla strategy. Obviously, similar to Pot Limt Omaha the standard of a good hand goes up. Top pair is no longer that great, especially in a multiway pot. Unlike PLO though, rundown hands are not that desirable at all, because you don't get to keep all your cards until the end and you are also blocking your own outs and you will have to pick and discard a portion of your straight draw unless you flop it directly. Double paired hands seemed like they would be very good to me (I actually managed to flop two sets at the same time in one hand with a pocket double pair!). Of course big pairs and suited aces are excellent - the same as in PLO.
Sixty-eight players entered and despite being short on the bubble I managed to squeak into the money and make the final. Then I went on a sick run of cards and totally crushed the table. I also played super aggressive because as I had suspected, the level of play was overall too passive as many people were unsure about preflop hand ranges, preferring to see a flop and make decisions about their hand then. There were a couple of spots where I had top pair on the flop and a biggish draw, therefore in a tough spot as what to throw away, but both times I got extreme tells from my opponents in the manner in which they discarded their own cards (my experience playing draw poker in America helped here) and I was able to make the right decision both times - once keeping the pair and fading the draw and once taking the draw as correctly deduced that I was against and overpair and managing to get there.
I got heads up with a player who seemed to know what he was doing and after a long grindy battle railed by some random French people- I won all the chips for my second live tourney this year and my first actual trophy. Unfortunately the trophy is ugly as hell (airport security mistook it for an external hard drive) - but they do put your actual cards you won with inside the trophy which is a cool touch. Even though I had Ace King which is pretty boring.
Re-retiring?
2018 again ended with me considering retiring from poker. Although I didn't technically un-retire in the first place, so I guess the first retirement is still binding. Though in the first three months of 2019 I already have plans to play poker in Germany, Morocco, Estonia, Czech Republic, Ireland and Walsall.
I went back to day two of the Berlin Summer Cup (€220 buy in, 250 runners) with just 22 big blinds, lying around 50/62, with 27 players paid. I commented to my friend that at least it would get me out of the flat for the afternoon, but I expected to be available to watch the Uruguay v Portugal match later that evening. About 15 people bought in for 8bbs at the beginning of day two to swell the prizepool and we were off. Early on average stacks were very shallow, due in part to the number of day two re-entries, so there were a lot of all ins. I didn't do very much and dwindled down to 10bbs where I had my first (and I think only) suckout, doubling with A8 vs AQ. Shortly afterwards I went on a tear, busting three players in an orbit and vaulting into one of the top positions.
On the bubble I was able to steal a lot of pots but lost most of my chips in a flip for the chiplead just after the bubble broke. I managed to hang around, grind my shortstack and steal pots here and there to go into the final table ninth out of ten. Already there were murmurs of a deal but we started to play and two players busted relatively quickly. A young Austrian guy that I'll call Falco Jnr in a full Austrian National Team tracksuit with a bumfluff moustache and slicked back hair and big shades was a monster chipleader with almost half the chips in play. I'd played with him the previous day where he coolered five or six different people to finish as Day One chip leader. I had a feeling that he could punt his stack off at any moment and was very happy with my seat on his direct left. He was very friendly and fun and later introduced himself as Crazy Boris.Deal or no deal?
The deal was discussed and I acquiesced to looking at ICM numbers out of politeness. Fortunately Crazy Boris asked for a ridiculous amount of extra money so he was the one to nix the deal and we played on. A little while later, now 7-handed, the Austrian had spewed off a few chips and was now in the market to deal and I had to be the one to put the kibosh on it, drawing the ire of the rest of the table. I was the shortstack with 10bbs (therefore no ICM pressure) and to the direct left of the spewy chipleader. Plus of course I've played hundreds of final tables and felt totally comfortable and was having lots of fun.
No deal!
We talked for about fifteen minutes and then the first hand after the failed deal discussions I doubled up via a flip for ultimate DEAL REJECTION JUSTICE. I managed to bob and weave until we got five handed, rejecting several more deal offers along the way. I made a crucial double up with AQ vs the A8 and shortly afterwards I picked up kings in a fortuitous spot to cripple one of the two good players. Soon we were four handed with three evenish stacks and a shorty.
 |
| Falco is not impressed with my 28 offsuit |
In the break I indicated to the competent young player in second place that I'd be open to chopping with him heads up but he seemed noncommittal. I resisted making my usual comment in such circumstances - something along the lines of - 'Why? Do you think you are better at poker than me?' - it later emerged that he knew my screen name and we'd played a bunch of mixed games together previously on Stars - but he wouldn't tell me his screen name even after the tournament so I guess we aren't going to be friends.
Man gewinnt ein Pokertournier
 |
| My trophy cabinet. |
It was all very low key. I asked the staff where the glorious Summer Cup trophy was and the reply was a shrug. So there was no trophy and the results won't even be officially recorded due to new EU data regulations. Did it indeed actually happen?
Playing 'Irish' in Ireland
The Unibet Open in Dublin was my first ever time on this tour. For some reason I seem to be always busy when they have a stop or it is somewhere I don't want to go (London - used to live there, expensive. Copenhagen - good players, expensive. Malta - been there too much). I wasn't too excited about Dublin too, but after grinding the satellites I had a package that I needed to use, so a second trip to Ireland in two months it was.
 |
| An actual trophy! |
There were a nice selection of side events, but I didn't do any damage in these until we got to the 'Irish' tournament. Irish is a four card poker game where you discard two after the betting on the flop and then it plays like Holdem. I racked my brains and I do not think I ever played this game before although my friend Paul claims we played together around twelve years ago. Strangely no Irish players knew what the hell it was.
On the day I tried to come up with some guerrilla strategy. Obviously, similar to Pot Limt Omaha the standard of a good hand goes up. Top pair is no longer that great, especially in a multiway pot. Unlike PLO though, rundown hands are not that desirable at all, because you don't get to keep all your cards until the end and you are also blocking your own outs and you will have to pick and discard a portion of your straight draw unless you flop it directly. Double paired hands seemed like they would be very good to me (I actually managed to flop two sets at the same time in one hand with a pocket double pair!). Of course big pairs and suited aces are excellent - the same as in PLO.
Sixty-eight players entered and despite being short on the bubble I managed to squeak into the money and make the final. Then I went on a sick run of cards and totally crushed the table. I also played super aggressive because as I had suspected, the level of play was overall too passive as many people were unsure about preflop hand ranges, preferring to see a flop and make decisions about their hand then. There were a couple of spots where I had top pair on the flop and a biggish draw, therefore in a tough spot as what to throw away, but both times I got extreme tells from my opponents in the manner in which they discarded their own cards (my experience playing draw poker in America helped here) and I was able to make the right decision both times - once keeping the pair and fading the draw and once taking the draw as correctly deduced that I was against and overpair and managing to get there.
I got heads up with a player who seemed to know what he was doing and after a long grindy battle railed by some random French people- I won all the chips for my second live tourney this year and my first actual trophy. Unfortunately the trophy is ugly as hell (airport security mistook it for an external hard drive) - but they do put your actual cards you won with inside the trophy which is a cool touch. Even though I had Ace King which is pretty boring.
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| Walsall - where dreams are made |
2018 again ended with me considering retiring from poker. Although I didn't technically un-retire in the first place, so I guess the first retirement is still binding. Though in the first three months of 2019 I already have plans to play poker in Germany, Morocco, Estonia, Czech Republic, Ireland and Walsall.
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