My EPT Grand Final just came to an end after a frustrating day.
I had gone several hours, through six levels, with nothing but horrible cards. In fact, I had played so few hands that I had gained an ultra-tight image, which allowed me to pick off occasional steals with 63 or 32 pre-flop. In one hand, I made a move with J4 in the cutoff position to try to steal the blinds, but one of them called and I planned on putting on the brakes — until the flop came J84, giving me top and bottom pair, and allowing me to rake in about 20,000 chips. Out of 959 players, I made it to the top 150 with 165,000 or so in my stack (about average in the field). With 12 minutes left to play in the day and the blinds at 2,000-4,000, I raised in late position to 11,000 with QJ. My only caller was the big blind as the flop came Q75. When he checked, I made a near-pot-size bet of 21k, and he smooth called. The turn was a 6, and he shoved all-in. I had him covered, and I was sure I was ahead. There were two hearts on the board, so I figured him for a flush draw, but when I called and turned over my top pair, he showed a pair of eights. That made me a 4-1 favorite against his pair and open-ended straight draw. He looked upset and started to stand up to leave until the river card came — an eight, giving him a set and crippling me. It was extra-disappointing because I was really happy with the way I’d played today, keeping my stack healthy despite being card dead, and waiting for an opportunity just like this one. If I’d won that pot of close to 235,000, I would have moved into the top 30 in chips, a good place to be going into Day 3. Instead, I was severely crippled and left with only 10 big blinds. A few hands later, I shoved with 99, but ran into JJ, and my day was done.
I’m going to get a good night’s sleep before jumping into some cash games tomorrow, and then another tournament here on Saturday. I’ll spend some more time hanging out with Nelly, who played in the Ante Up For Africa charity event earlier in the week here in Monte Carlo. We’ve played together often in the poker rooms back home in St. Louis, and I hope to do more charity work with him when we return to the US.