EPT Prague - Day 1

After much thought, I decided to come to Prague instead of Vegas. Despite how much I love Vegas, the EPT is what made me. It's also nice to see other parts of the world, and dozens of people have told me that I shouldn't miss out on Prague. Anyways, I'm in Vegas for over 2 months total a year.

We arrived in Prague on Sunday morning, and the tournament was starting on Monday at noon. Soon after we arrived, I went downstairs to register for the tournament. I was told that they weren't accepting registration until 6:00 PM. Fine, so we went back up to our room. We headed back down the tournament area at 6:00, and I waited in a huge line for almost 45 minutes. By the time I got to the front of the line, they say registration is only for the super satellite, main event registration will start at 8:00 PM. Ugh. So we head over to the nearby restaurant and have some dinner while we wait. Finally, 8:00 rolls around and we head downstairs yet again. I can see there's only about 10 people in line, which is some good news. I get to the desk and tell them I want to register for the main event. Now they say they aren't taking any registrations today, because they aren't sure how many online qualifiers there were and they need to get that all sorted out, so I will have to come back tomorrow to register at 10:00 AM.

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My first bad beat of the tournament, and it hasn't even started yet! There was originally a 500 player limit, but because of the mix-up, they promised that nobody would be should out of the tournament. Despite all of that, the EPT is still my favourite circuit to play on. The atmosphere is unmatched, and I don't know what it is, but man these Europeans take their poker seriously. Poker is also 100x more mainstream in Europe than it is in Canada.

I got to my table on Day 1a, and I only recognized one player at my table, a very successful online player named Shaun Deeb. I don't mind having one or two strong players at the table, since we usually stay away from each other and just pick on the weaker players early on. The good thing was that he wasn't directly on my left, he was 4 seats over.

We started with $10,000 and $25/$50 blinds. I got involved in the first 2 hands at the table. The first hand, I was dealt KJs in the SB. It folds to the button, who makes it $150 to go. I call, and the BB folds. Flop comes Q99, giving me a gutshot. I check, he bets $200, I make it $600, he folds. Very next hand, I'm dealt JTs on the button. It folds to me, I make it $150, BB calls. I flop the nuts, KQ9. The BB leads out for $200, and I decide to play a big pot or nothing right away. I make it $800. She quickly calls. Turn is an off suit Ace. Once again she leads out, $500 this time. I quickly raise to $2500, and she calls just as fast. River is a Jack, making the board KQ9AJ. I was originally planning on pushing all in, but this was a very bad river for me. She checks, I look over at her stack, and she has around $6000 left. I decide to bet $4000, so that she could call without being knocked out of the tournament. She calls, I show my straight, and she mucks her hand. Just like that I am up to $18,000.

I grinded my way up to around $22,000 when an interesting hand came up. Blinds $50/$100, cut-off raises to $350. I call on the button with KT, one other caller. Flop comes T93, with 2 clubs. I'm holding the Kc. The original raiser bets $800, I call, other player folds. Turn is the 5c, giving me the K high flush draw to go with my top pair. Now my opponent leads out for $1500. I now had him on QQ or JJ, probably with a club. That gives me 13 or 14 outs, I call. River is an offsuit Ace. I can tell he hates the card, and he leads out for $1500 again. I look at his stack, he has around $4500 more behind. I could easily have been calling with the Ac also, and I move in. He tanks forever, and ends up calling me. I say, "Nice call, Queens?". He replies, "Jacks", and flips them over. I say "It's good", and I toss my cards into the muck. Then the dealer takes my cards out of the muck, and says "You have to show your cards." I'm obviously not in the greatest mood having just lost the big pot, I say "Excuse me? I mucked my hand". He says, "No, when there's an all in, you have to show your cards." I say, "There's no action left, he showed the winning hand and I mucked my cards. No other players asked to see my hand, so muck my cards." He repeats the same thing again, and I ask him to call the floor over. The floor repeats the same thing, that if players are all in, the hands must be shown. I ask him to explain the reasoning behind it, and he says it's a universal rule around the world. LOL. Trust me, I've been all in before in tournaments and mucked my hands, many times. :P One of the players chimes in, "They have to do that to prevent collusion, you could be dumping chips." Common sense, people! I say, "Then why don't you have to show your cards after every bet and call on every river, since the caller could be dumping chips and mucking?" He scratches his head and murmurs something I couldn't make out. Maybe I should let things like that go, but I just don't think a dealer should be getting involved after the hand is clearly over.

Now I was down to around $14,000. I don't think I played that hand badly, but my opponent made a great call. I did play 2 hands badly though. Well, one was a bad play, and one was a live "misclick". With the blinds at $150/$300, it folds to me in late position and I make it $800 with T9s. Shaun Deeb is the only caller, from the BB. Flop is great, 987r. Shaun checks, and I bet $1000. Shaun calls. Turn is a T, giving me two pair, but putting a 4 card straight on the board. Shaun checks, and I check behind. River is a 3. Shaun checks again, and here is where I should have probably checked behind. Against any other player at the table, I would have checked. Then I got to thinking, if Shaun called me on the flop he might have a 9 or 10, and why would he check a straight twice in a row? Also, Shaun is smart enough to call me with one pair here, because if I bet I probably have a straight or nothing. I bet $1000, and after a pause, Shaun makes it $4000. ughhh. I start scolding myself aloud, I just can't see him checking the straight twice, and I call. He says "Nuts", and shows QJ for the turned gutshot straight. He played it really well, but I shouldn't have bet there.

I grind back up to around $13,000. With the blinds at $200/$400, Shaun opens for $1100 in mid position. It folds to me in the BB, and I look down at AK. I re-raise to $3800, and Shaun moves all in. He barely has me covered, maybe $2000 more than me. I call, and he shows 87 of clubs. I was happy to see that, but I would have rather seen AQ or AJ of course. Flop comes AK4, but with 2 clubs, giving him a flush draw. Turn is an offsuit 6, also giving him a gutshot straight draw. River is an offsuit 3, and I double up to around $26,000.

Very next hand, I'm dealt AJs in the SB. It folds to a fairly aggressive young guy on the button, and he makes it $1000. Now, I'm still stacking my chips up, and I make it $3000 to go. He calls after a short while. Flop comes K42. I look over at his stack, and it looks like he has around $7000 left. I figure he would have moved all in preflop with AK, and it looks like I might have AK. So I just say "I'm all in". He insta calls me with AA. And that's not the bad part. He pushes his chips in, and pulls forth a little stack of $1000 chips that were behind his stack of $100 chips. So now he has $15,000 instead of $7000. Damn! If I knew that, I could have bet out $4000-$5000, and then obviously folded to any action, and saved $10,000! Also, it looked clear how many chips he had, and I didn't want to ask for a count, because I feel it gives away some weakness.

And just like that, I'm back down to $10,000. That's the first time I ever misread somebody's chip count, but I'll always pay more attention to that from now on. I don't play any hands for a couple of orbits, giving myself some time to cool off. With the blinds still at $200/$400, I get A9 in my BB. It folds around to the cut-off, who makes it $1500 to go. I flat call. Flop is A93 with 2 hearts. I go for the check-raise, but he checks behind. Turn is the 6h, putting 3 hearts on board. I lead out for $2500, and he pushes all-in for $6000 total. I call, and he shows me AA, which leaves me drawing dead. That leaves me with $2500, on life support.

I fold a couple of hands, and then I find 66 in mid position. I push all in and I get one caller with AT. The board comes KK9K3 to double me up to almost $6000. I proceeded to go all-in for what seemed like 5 or 6 hands in a row (probably folded 1 or 2 hands in between), but nobody called me and I was up to $15,000. I then made a couple of well-timed re-raises in the next orbit, and also picked up the blinds a few more times, and just like I was up to $27,000 from $6000 without seeing a flop! A few hands later I pick up AKs in mid-position, and I just have a good feeling because I know nobody is going to believe me this time. Blinds are $300/$600 and I make it $2000 to go. The button moves all in for around $10,000 total, blinds fold, and I quickly call. He shows KQ. The board bricks out for both of us and I take down the pot to bring my stack up to around $38,000. We only play 5 more hands before the end of the night, and I lost some blinds and antes to end the day at $36,700 in chips, good enough for 21st place going into Day 2.

What a roller-coaster of a day! I should go get some sleep now. Ship the Guinness World Record for longest blog post ever.