So, the other week I was in Loutraki Greece playing live tournament poker for some series under the EPT Banner. I guess I will start from the beginning.
I was rooming with Rupert Elder for this one. We caught the same flight and then drove over from Athens. It's about a 150 euro cab ride either direction and we were all up for saving money so I rented a car for a whole week, 2 named drivers, for only £71!! Grinders.
When we got to Athens Airport it was only to meet some crazy lady holding up a sign with my name on, which all the poker reporters on the same flight had already seen and were laughing at. They jelly. We went to get our car and it is definitely one of the smallest 5 door cars on the market. It also had a pretty dodgy tire.
Regardless it was a fun mini road trip through some country neither of us had ever been to before. At the gas station I asked a lady how to say "thank you" in Greek, and having heard the answer knew that speaking Greek was over.
Anyway we got to the Casino pretty easily and got settled for the poker the next day. Day 1A did not go great, I played ok for the most part, maybe 3 hands early I wasn't pleased with but in the end it was just some idiot who thought he made a "perfect read" that really cost me a lot of how my tournament could have been.
(note: tune out for a few paragraphs if you don't understand poker talk)
At 200/400/50 some stupid aussie guy opens utg+1 to... idk 900 and 2 people flat. He has 12k total and I flat the button with AQo. Kinda weird spot, I just don't think I should be stacking so if I squeezed it would only really be to fold to more action. Both blinds call and we see a T94r flop. Everyone checks. Turn is a Q, checks to the aussie and he shoves??!
In context there was a previous hand where he'd limped UTG, I'd isolated button with AT with a tight image and he peeled. On a K9x89 board I checked back twice and folded when he shoved river for 4x pot and showed 98 after I asked him what he had.
Anyway back to the hand, the first flatter calls off maybe 40k stack and everyone else folds. The aussie has QJ and the caller has KQ. So fml the only exact hands I can beat, they have. I was pretty sure I was calling off the aussie, given that he would have bet an overpair on the flop and it did seem like he almost definitely had a Q. The KQ guy though has to realise that the only Q combo he can beat is QJ though. If the aussie was opening Q5s or something there's no chance I would have missed it, and really QJ was too wide as it is anyway. If he hadn't shoved and bet smaller, or checked I would have ended up winning that pot. Or the KQ guy actually playing correct when he beats exactly one combo of hands for a almost a 2x pot shove and then has 4 players still behind, any of whome could have some kind of nuts.
Talking to him after the tournament, he said he'd talked to his friends and they all concluded it was a perfect read. I'm just like wow your friends are just as dumb as you. Dude came 5th obv and I busted early day 2 after taking ~22k stack into day 2 from 30k starting.
So yah I built a little early on an absolutely great day 2 table, but flipped AKs into QQ vs Roberto Romanello btn vs sb. Pretty much the most standard spot in the world, if he hadn't deicded to 4-bet click it back, and then put not enough money in the middle. lol
He's a good guy actually. I saw him at the airport with his friend Ranni, and hung out with Roberto a little on this trip.
We actually happened to play a few tables together this trip too. We both ended up final tabling a 300e turbo, where I came 5th for 1.3k euros. Was kinda meh since one dude folded JJ pre in a stupid spot and cashed for more, and on the FT I lost AJ to 34s, AK to JTs and then watched someone else punt off then win. Just got raped on the ICM, still happy to put up a greek flag on hendon mob though.
After busting the main event, I hemed and hawed before entering the 2200 euro side event. It was soft so was ok, but I'd just bust the main that day then played till just past midnight and busted 2nd last level of the day flipping 55 into AK for 25bbs each. Good times. not. Missed most of the stars party and then they ran out of beer.
I actually played pretty well and just bricked everything else, including bubbling a 500+500+100 euro bounty turbo, where I had zero bounties. Yep that's how it was going. Even lost 1200 euros at 2/5 cash, where I lost a ~1500euro pot with TT ai vs AK pre, when AK overflatted btn pre, sb 3-bets redic small everyone calls and I fistpumped it in like I had the nuts :(
In other news Rupert went deep in the main event, but busted 13th, to the eventual winner Zimmy! Zimmy was a university friend of Rups at Imperial and I'd met him a few months earlier in the first San Remo of 2011. Nice guy and very happy to see him win.
On the way back our front left tire was flat. Like totally flat. But we only had 90mins and 118km to get to the airport. there was no other option. We loaded all our stuff, packed David Vamplew in too, and pumped the tire up at a gas station and just crossed our fingers. At the first toll I even sent Rup out of the car just to give it a once over! The lady in the toll booth just looked at us like we we're morons. Too right imo!
So since then I've finished unpacking most of my stuff, and built a desk! I finally have a proper grind station again and look forward to some internet poker in the short future.
I've totally given up on going to Prague this year. It seems like a great festival of poker with WPT, EPT and GSOP (plus ipops!) all working together to put a nice little trip together. However recent trips have taken a lot out of me, and I don't really think I'll always be very happy whilst in Prague. It's cold, it's problem. So I'm staying at home (where I guess it's also just as cold), playing the £2500+125 GUKPT Grand Final this Friday and just having a relaxing winter break overall.
I will also be skipping PCA, and a trip to Australia. Last year was super fun, but I would dread the long plane trip and expenses were super high. A ticket would be at least £1200 return, and Australia is a suprisingly expensive country. The trip for me was only really salvalged because James Keys 1, decided to bink, and 2, decided to let me have 5% one lazy afternoon whilst we were just sitting on the couches shooting the shit.
I will enjoy counting the money I will save. WPT Ireland is early January, and I will give it a blast, although it seems like it's just one quickie weekend and no side events :(. At least it will probably just be me Jake Cody and a bunch of Irish people! Always sounds good to me.
I'm unsure on EPT Deuville in late January. I went 2 years ago and really liked it, but only because Timex was there, I met the beautifull Melanie Weisner for the first time, and I ran deep in the Main Event. hence my mind is biased.
Mickey went last year and rated it as worst trip of all time. He might be right because it's in essentially a French town the other side of the Channel from Brighton, and is just a miserably cold little seaside town that I remember being shut down for the winter.
I can't wait till the Spring already. In the meantime I will probably go ahead and try to play all the UKIPTs coming up because the buyins have gone up, they've added a "High Roller" event and also I want to be on Channel 4. Gotta prove to my mum I can get on TV too!
I was rooming with Rupert Elder for this one. We caught the same flight and then drove over from Athens. It's about a 150 euro cab ride either direction and we were all up for saving money so I rented a car for a whole week, 2 named drivers, for only £71!! Grinders.
 |
| food in Loutraki!! |
When we got to Athens Airport it was only to meet some crazy lady holding up a sign with my name on, which all the poker reporters on the same flight had already seen and were laughing at. They jelly. We went to get our car and it is definitely one of the smallest 5 door cars on the market. It also had a pretty dodgy tire.
Regardless it was a fun mini road trip through some country neither of us had ever been to before. At the gas station I asked a lady how to say "thank you" in Greek, and having heard the answer knew that speaking Greek was over.
Anyway we got to the Casino pretty easily and got settled for the poker the next day. Day 1A did not go great, I played ok for the most part, maybe 3 hands early I wasn't pleased with but in the end it was just some idiot who thought he made a "perfect read" that really cost me a lot of how my tournament could have been.
(note: tune out for a few paragraphs if you don't understand poker talk)
At 200/400/50 some stupid aussie guy opens utg+1 to... idk 900 and 2 people flat. He has 12k total and I flat the button with AQo. Kinda weird spot, I just don't think I should be stacking so if I squeezed it would only really be to fold to more action. Both blinds call and we see a T94r flop. Everyone checks. Turn is a Q, checks to the aussie and he shoves??!
In context there was a previous hand where he'd limped UTG, I'd isolated button with AT with a tight image and he peeled. On a K9x89 board I checked back twice and folded when he shoved river for 4x pot and showed 98 after I asked him what he had.
Anyway back to the hand, the first flatter calls off maybe 40k stack and everyone else folds. The aussie has QJ and the caller has KQ. So fml the only exact hands I can beat, they have. I was pretty sure I was calling off the aussie, given that he would have bet an overpair on the flop and it did seem like he almost definitely had a Q. The KQ guy though has to realise that the only Q combo he can beat is QJ though. If the aussie was opening Q5s or something there's no chance I would have missed it, and really QJ was too wide as it is anyway. If he hadn't shoved and bet smaller, or checked I would have ended up winning that pot. Or the KQ guy actually playing correct when he beats exactly one combo of hands for a almost a 2x pot shove and then has 4 players still behind, any of whome could have some kind of nuts.
Talking to him after the tournament, he said he'd talked to his friends and they all concluded it was a perfect read. I'm just like wow your friends are just as dumb as you. Dude came 5th obv and I busted early day 2 after taking ~22k stack into day 2 from 30k starting.
So yah I built a little early on an absolutely great day 2 table, but flipped AKs into QQ vs Roberto Romanello btn vs sb. Pretty much the most standard spot in the world, if he hadn't deicded to 4-bet click it back, and then put not enough money in the middle. lol
He's a good guy actually. I saw him at the airport with his friend Ranni, and hung out with Roberto a little on this trip.
We actually happened to play a few tables together this trip too. We both ended up final tabling a 300e turbo, where I came 5th for 1.3k euros. Was kinda meh since one dude folded JJ pre in a stupid spot and cashed for more, and on the FT I lost AJ to 34s, AK to JTs and then watched someone else punt off then win. Just got raped on the ICM, still happy to put up a greek flag on hendon mob though.
After busting the main event, I hemed and hawed before entering the 2200 euro side event. It was soft so was ok, but I'd just bust the main that day then played till just past midnight and busted 2nd last level of the day flipping 55 into AK for 25bbs each. Good times. not. Missed most of the stars party and then they ran out of beer.
I actually played pretty well and just bricked everything else, including bubbling a 500+500+100 euro bounty turbo, where I had zero bounties. Yep that's how it was going. Even lost 1200 euros at 2/5 cash, where I lost a ~1500euro pot with TT ai vs AK pre, when AK overflatted btn pre, sb 3-bets redic small everyone calls and I fistpumped it in like I had the nuts :(
In other news Rupert went deep in the main event, but busted 13th, to the eventual winner Zimmy! Zimmy was a university friend of Rups at Imperial and I'd met him a few months earlier in the first San Remo of 2011. Nice guy and very happy to see him win.
 |
| mr nico, zippy zimmy, tricky ricky, rup the greek , me, big bjorn. bunch of fucking heroes. |
On the way back our front left tire was flat. Like totally flat. But we only had 90mins and 118km to get to the airport. there was no other option. We loaded all our stuff, packed David Vamplew in too, and pumped the tire up at a gas station and just crossed our fingers. At the first toll I even sent Rup out of the car just to give it a once over! The lady in the toll booth just looked at us like we we're morons. Too right imo!
So since then I've finished unpacking most of my stuff, and built a desk! I finally have a proper grind station again and look forward to some internet poker in the short future.
 |
| wut up grindstation! |
I've totally given up on going to Prague this year. It seems like a great festival of poker with WPT, EPT and GSOP (plus ipops!) all working together to put a nice little trip together. However recent trips have taken a lot out of me, and I don't really think I'll always be very happy whilst in Prague. It's cold, it's problem. So I'm staying at home (where I guess it's also just as cold), playing the £2500+125 GUKPT Grand Final this Friday and just having a relaxing winter break overall.
I will also be skipping PCA, and a trip to Australia. Last year was super fun, but I would dread the long plane trip and expenses were super high. A ticket would be at least £1200 return, and Australia is a suprisingly expensive country. The trip for me was only really salvalged because James Keys 1, decided to bink, and 2, decided to let me have 5% one lazy afternoon whilst we were just sitting on the couches shooting the shit.
 |
| yes my first trip down under ends up being saved by the idiot on the right |
I will enjoy counting the money I will save. WPT Ireland is early January, and I will give it a blast, although it seems like it's just one quickie weekend and no side events :(. At least it will probably just be me Jake Cody and a bunch of Irish people! Always sounds good to me.
I'm unsure on EPT Deuville in late January. I went 2 years ago and really liked it, but only because Timex was there, I met the beautifull Melanie Weisner for the first time, and I ran deep in the Main Event. hence my mind is biased.
 |
| <3 you MEL!! The only American Jewish Princess for me! |
I can't wait till the Spring already. In the meantime I will probably go ahead and try to play all the UKIPTs coming up because the buyins have gone up, they've added a "High Roller" event and also I want to be on Channel 4. Gotta prove to my mum I can get on TV too!
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