Thursday, October 1st, 2009: The Full Tilt Espana Series - Barcelona Event, Day 1 (Afternoon)
I arrived to the Gran Casino Barcelona at 2pm on Thursday, an hour early for the start of Day 1A. I was well rested, having gotten an early night and I was pumped for what I hoped would be 9 hours of poker. Having run poorly online for the past 2 months, I'd be lying if I said the money didn't matter. I really, really wanted to cash. The tournament had an awesome structure - 1 hour levels and the same incremental jumps as Full Tilt's online structures - so there should be lots of room for poker all the way through. As dangerous as it is to set targets in poker, I still hoped to turn my 20K starting stack into 50K by the end of the day.

Play commenced punctually at 3pm and OMG was it a grind. This was my first proper live poker experience (I played the Million Pound Challenge thingy in London last year but that was a turbo structured freeroll) and I must admit, I was totally unprepared for the change in pace. My plan was to be pretty active as we began 400 big blinds deep but that said, 'active' meant playing 3-4 hands of the 15 hands per hour which is still a wee bit fewer than the 1000+ hands per hour I play online. I was involved in lots of small pots early on but the first hand of note came just after the dinner break.

Hand 1 - Day 1, Blinds 150/300, 23K
I raised to 800 with A4 of clubs in the Hijack. The BB called - an English guy who had persistently defended his Blinds and made some aggressive plays out of position with mixed results. The flop came 2-5-9 rainbow and he donklead for 1000 into the 1750 pot. I called and the turn came a King. He bet 2000 and hoping to take it down with a semi-bluff, I raised to 5500. He called. The river came a 3, making me the nuts and he leads for 8000 into the almost 15K pot, leaving himself just 6K behind. I took a minute before shoving and he angrily threw his pocket 8s across the table at me. Weeeeee, up to 38K!
Picture
 


Comments

Rob
10/14/2009 12:28

Well Done Irish guy. Nice payday! You're a v good LAG player.
You didnt quite get the A4s hand right. You were 3 to my left, I was SB and you were utg+1. You'd shown down hands like T8s which you'd raised with so I was happy to play hands against you. The strong guy two to your left was doing it too. You o/p range was over 20% from any pos. Actually after the brk I had a string of good hands, usually oop. I had 77 not 88. I flatted pre. The flop was 552 (you asked me if I had the boat). I led out 2/3 pot with my overpair. You reraised as usual, I flatted. The turn was a K. I led out for 5.5K. You thought for ages and flatted. I put you on 88-QQ. I was repping the K. The river was a 3. I couldnt put you on a 3 as you wouldnt have flatted 1/4 of you stack on the turn with 7 outs. You'd have reraised turn with AK. I had to fire the river bet to rep the K. You didnt shove!! You called and we showed down. I gently flicked out my 77! You justified the spewy donk turn call saying to the table that you had other ways to win the hand - which of course you are right. I had 11K after the hand. Before that hand I'd been chipping up nicely to about 26k.
Anyway well done again. My opr on Full tilt is 99.69% and 182% roi this year so I know how to play.

Reply



Leave a Reply