CARDRUNNERS

 I ran sick good yesterday and my timing was impeccable(in both the things I can control but more notably the things I can't). The highlight was when a guy who hadn't done anything decided to click it back 3bet, then check jam 8-9 times the size of my bet with A5o on a 653 board when I had 66. I also picked up Kings in 2 ridiculously good spots, one which resulted in to my knowledge the biggest pot I've ever played in a live tournament for the stage of the tournament.

26 players remaining, average is a little under 900k, blinds 10k/20k, I raise the HJ 1.6m deep with KcKs, Shaniac shoves the CO for 350k or so and Peter Eastgate calls about 1.5m chips deep. I consider like clicking it back(probably would have if we were like 1.8m effective since that way it looks like I could really be doing it light, and with a hand like AQ it likely would be the right play, so with KK it could fuck with him), and elect to jam. Those first 2 seconds were about the stressful I've had since his range is not wide, after 2-3 seconds he kind of shrug calls and I'm pretty sure he has the same hand as be, but who knows hes Scandi and has lots of money so it could be like QQ or AK. He ended up having KK and Shaniac had A8o. Peter flopped the backdoor flush draw but bricked the turn and Shaniac didn't hit the ace. That would have been for solidly over the final table average if we had different hands or one of us hit the flush. 

Anyways, I have 1,895,000 and am 3rd/24 left with an average of 960,000. I've been running so absurdly good the last several months(or years I suppose) and winning this would be a pretty cool addition. No one has ever won 2 EPTs... I've had a couple sweats (5th in Dortmund last year, 11th or 12 in Barcelona this year), gonna try capitalizing this time. You can find updates on pokernews.com or watch the online stream(in the event I'm at the feature table) at eptlive.com

 Hey, I had a hectic day of travel getting to France. I would have guessed it would take about 3-3.5 hours from the time I got out of the plane until the time I step into my hotel room(knew there was a 2h train ride). All told, it took about 7hours because of multiple subways, and multiple trains with a huge connection in between and then difficulty finding the hotel once we got to Dortmund. At this point it was like 4pm, I had been up almost 24 hours and had to play the next day at noon and wanted to try staying up until like 9pm so I could like wake up at 6am and have a reasonable sleep schedule. 

There was a 250euro rebuy satellite to the main event starting at 5pm, so we decided that would be a good thing to play to force us to stay up a few hours and even if we win it would be done by 11pm. We get down and the registration process was horrible. We were there at about 4:50 and about 25th-30th in line. We ended up getting to the front of the line at 5:45 or so and they announced that they would be delaying the tournament until 6. The process was so inefficient. After that they announced we would be alternates(250 players, about 50 were alternates) and that was super slow as well. Once I got seated, it was about 6:35. I was having trouble staying awake at the table and just kind of hovered around starting stack(after addon) for a while. Then one or two people spazzed to me and I was about 1.5x average after 2 hours. They announced there would be a 1h dinner break at 9:00 or so. This was pretty upsetting considering the whole tournament should last like 6 hours, its pretty late for dinner and there definitely aren't enough restaurant seats at the casino. I guess this is a lot of complaining, I should have warned you guys in advance.

We didn't end up getting dinner, but after dinner break I came back and hovered around the same for quite some time. Soon it was midnight and there were still plenty players left(maybe 60 with 30 paying). I eventually kind of "woke up" and stopped dozing off for 5-15seconds at a time and wasn't really tired any more. People played the tournament surprisingly well for a live satellite(ie. with 45 left, I jammed 7BB in the CO which was like 60% of average and the SB who had about average folded TT) which worked out decently well for me since I am extremely risk averse in satellites and really don't like the idea of having to try getting it in good... at one point I raise folded KQo getting almost 2.5-1 with about 85 left in a spot where I think almost everyone would underestimate the ICM considerations.

Anyways, soon it was like 1am and there were 40 left, now play really slowed down. Blinds were about 4k/8k, with average ITM stack of about 74k and I had about 40k. It was slightly frustrating since there was quite a bit of minor-collusion going on(one of the few times someone spoke English at the table they were explaining to me how if we all fold around, we'll all get seats) and the lack of understanding of satellite concepts really slowed things downs(so many times someone would walk a guy who was probably folding aces to his shove)

Anyways, at 2am, blinds were 8k/16k avg of 72k or so(31 left), median of like 60k and they just announced that everyone should throw in 175 euros and we'll each get a seat. Everyone agreed(I had like 37k or something, if I had over about 65 I'd have been fairly pissed, but was pretty happy to accept this in my shoes). It took about 30 minutes to sort out giving everyone seats and then me and one other guy had to stick around since we had also won seats online and they had to explain that these are:
-non transferable
-can't be exchanged for cash
-can't be used in cash game play
-cannot be used at other EPT events
-can only be used at Deauville casino events(there is a decent postlim schedule, but if I make it past day 1 of the main and don't play the highroller is almost impossible to play 5300 euros worth of events).

I eventually talked to John Duthie and he managed to sort things out so I can get cash so that relieves some stress.

Anyways, after being awake like 35 hours, I got some sleep then played day 1a and ran pretty good. It was one of those days where given their hands I did the wrong thing in like 4 of my 5 biggest pots but ended the day with 66k(the biggest pot I played, I got it in QJss against K3ss on a T62ss board and won a nearly 60k pot at 300/600). I played one hand pretty awfully during the day, but most of my guessing wrong was just a form of runbad.

Today I grinded online and lost like 2k despite playing a light schedule and final tabling the 109r on Stars, tomorrow should be pretty fun, this tournament is ridiculously soft, gonna go grab some food if I can find anything.

 And a deep run or two I got.

I'm gonna keep this post pretty short since I'm playing the Fallsview Poker Classic main event in 90 minutes and still need to buyin, but I ended up busting near the end of day 2 in the PCA, ran AQ into KK and then shoved 22 into a bigger pair to bust something like 400th when 224 paid.

The next day I bought into the 1k which started at noon and as of 3am when they shut down play I was still in with I believe an above average stack with 24 left(390 played, 1st got 100k). Early in the day I called a HJ raise from a very agro player with 55 from the BB and checkraise-called it off on a 332hh flop against his TT to bust 19th for 3,050 but was able to latereg for the 1.5k as the 2nd last player to get in.

Again, at 3am I was still in, this time with a little under average with 27 left(450 played, 1st got 168k). The day started pretty well and I worked my 160k up to like 350k. I was told by a player at the other table that the guy who got moved to my left did a decent amount of 3betting in position, so when he 3bet my HJ-1 raise 22BB deep and I had AJs, I ended up jamming into his aces and was down to 49k at 5k/10k. I then shoved UTG, got a walk, shove the SB, and then shoved JJ in the CO and doubled through A8o to get up to like 200k. I then lots K8o to a short stack's Q5o but was able to keep picking up lots of blinds(which were now getting quite high). I enterred the final table with about 700k when average was 550k, but the table was looking fairly tough. There were 5 young online guys and 3 older guys, a bunch of short stacks and a few huge stacks(I was in like 3rd or 4th despite being well above avg).

One player busted early at the final table and then commandorcool shoved UTG at 10k/20k for 120k and I had  K5o in the BB. I called and lost to K9o to double him up which later prooved to be annoying since he did about as much 3betting as the rest of the table combined(although given the timing of some of them I'm pretty sure a good amount of it was having pretty solid card). Commandorcool eliminated 2 short stacks and we were 5 handed and I was the short stack with about 550k and everyone else had about 1m.
On the last hand of 12k/24k, I shoved the button for 520k or so with 44 and doubled through AJo(flop QJT, turn 4) to get up to like 1.1m and be right around the chip lead.
After that we played another whole level 5 handed with average under 30BB without anyone busting before getting to 20k/40k.
Fairly early in the level, I raised SB to 90k with A7s, commandorcool shoved 880k and I called. He had done a lot of 3betting small with a fairly short stack and given I 4bet his last bvb 3bet, I thought it was pretty likely he was value 3betting small with almost all of his good hands(maybe jamming like AT-A8 and 77 though, maybe 1-2 more hands, but also plenty of more marginal hands that I'm in good shape again. If this were the main event I'd have pretty much snap folded given the payouts in that,(actually I'd have just open jammed in the first place) but this one was pretty top heavy(something like 168,95,65,43,33 or something). Anyways, I called and held against QJo to have about 2m when average was 1.1m

A few hands later the SB who I've also played a lot online with shoved 560k with A6o and I called with AKs and held that as well to get to like 2.7m, and the other 2 stacks each had like 800k.
JP4est won some chips off of the other remaining player(who said hes the original the maven... a name he used as his horse racing handle in the 90s and had the phone number like 1900themaven where people would ask for tips or something along those lines) and I won one pot off of JP who misclick 3bet(meant to squeeze 85k's to 250k but made it 300k and I jammed and he folded) and then I got allin A9 against 66 against the maven who only had like 11BB.
Flop: 976
Turn: 9
River: 7
I have a pretty good life and now have a 3.5m-1m chiplead going into HU.

Jeff played really well and mentioned chopping earlier and I knew I'd be super pissed if I lost the HU match after having this huge of a chip lead(which isn't all that unlikely) so we agreed to play it out for 10k and chip chop the rest which gave me like 147 and him like 104, and then early in the match I lost A5o to K9o, then AJo to KK, then blinds went up again and I shoved my 13BB stack with K7s into KK and he held that one too... glad I chopped. It was a pretty fun final table, we knew a lot of the same old school MTTC guys who came out and railed... overall a really fun experience.
Now I'm about to go try to register for the 5k and hopefully keep up the 2010 rungood.

 I arrived in the Bahamas 2 days ago; a 3hour flight is soooo much nicer than the typical 7-12h of travel to get to an EPT. I'm staying in the coral tower with Stevejpa and I was kind of relieved(at first) that it wasn't too warm out since I wore jeans/a hoodie on the plane. Now I wish it were warmed(Bahamas is close to Florida, and we were watching Florida weather reports, and today will be a 50 or 100 year low temperature in some cities).

Anyways, we dropped by the Stars party and I was able to change my starting date from 1b to 1a which I prefer quite a bit. I got to bed at a reasonable hour and slept ok before the tournament. My starting table was definitely well above average but not spectacular(I doubt there were many spectacular tables... the field seems relatively tough). A few people showed up late so we were 5 or 6 handed a lot of the day. Average age was probably about 22 and almost everyone at the table probably makes money at poker. A couple hands in, DPeters who was the only person I recognized 3bet AA, and called a checkraise and called down on a Q4226 board with aces to lose 2/3 of his stack and then ran AK into KK to bust in like 15 minutes which was definitely good for me since he was on my left. I didn't really have any interesting hands until like 45 minutes in when this Canadian limit holdem player opened UTG 6 handed, I called JJ in the SB, BB called as well. 

Flop: 442r, check, check, he bets 750 at 900, I make it 2150 with the intention of checking most turns and value betting most rivers if called. He called pretty quick which from a LHE guy really made me think he had something fairly marginal more often than not, like a middle pair , maybe occasionally a float with like 65, or A5 or something. And obviously occasionally a bigger pair or like 22, A4s etc
Turn: 6, check, he bet 3100 at 5200, I called planning to fold most rivers since I figured after calling my hand looks pretty solid and I don't think many people will try turning like 77 into a bluff or something.
River: J, check, he bets 11k at 11.4k, I jam about 13k more and double to 59k after he calls with 64s

After that I don't really have many big hands for the rest of the day, I had 2 interesting river decisions but other than that it was a lot of winning small pots to get up to about 95k, before losing a few hands at the end of the day to have 79k to finish

Anyways, the 2 river decisions
I raise HJ with AQss to 800 at 150/300 Jeff Madsen calls in the BB kind of weirdly(I think he was considering a reraise or a fold, more likely a fold I think)
Flop: A94cc, he check calls my bet of like 1050 fairly quickly(and he had done a decent amount of checkraising postflop so I think he has a FD less than most people)
Turn: 3c, check, I check behind
River: 2, he bets 3100 and 3900, I have no idea what he has exactly but opt to fold just since I doubt he'd try bluffing me off an Ace, and if he did think he could bluff me off like JJ or something I think he'd almost always just bet less.

The next one was against the same guy who I doubled through earlier with JJ, and I raised the CO to 800 with A9o, he called the BB.
Flop: Ac7s5s, he double checks his cards and leads 1175
Now when he double checks, he almost always probably has an offsuit hand almost always where he's wondering whether he has a spade. Obviously some people will do this as a trick with like a set or a flush draw or something but I felt this opponent had the mentality that a lot of  pretty good tourney players do  where they don't want to get too FPSy with the levelling especially early in a tournament. I hadn't really thought about this much at the time, but if he has a spade I can probably slightly discount the As since he can see the Ac on board.
I elected to call with the intention of calling down a fair bit
Turn: 9s, he bets 2375 at about 4300 and I elected to call. I feel like even though I've discounted sets and flushes a fair bit, theres not much reason to call since I doubt he's calling me light very often at al
River: 8c, and he bets 5200 at 9100
This got kind of lame... I think a lot of the worse hands he could value bet would all slow down, I don't think he'd turn all that many hands into bluffs but on the other hand he just seemed like the type of guy who wouldn't do a ton of bluffing. I thought it was pretty likely he had like 6s6 or JsT Ah6s or something and had backed into a straight but felt that even though he could easily have any of these hands, theres still plenty opportunity for him to continue all his bluffs after the 4 straight hit, so figured I'd have to call pretty much anything I get to the river with that beats his bluffs. I called and he had QhJs.

After that as mentioned I didn't do much the last 3 hours of the day. I was hungry at the last break and got a slice of pizza which ended up giving me food poisoning or something similar. I'm so glad this happened when I have a 1 day break since if I had to play again today I'd be so miserable. I woke up almost once and hour last night to go clear my system and today I feel super weak and tired and really wouldn't want to have to play poker for 9 hours.

Average stack is probably like 50k so I'm in pretty good shape, it looks like this will be a pretty huge tournament so I'm gonna try focussing my rungood.