Headed Back to Vegas
I’d say the most annoying thing about busting out is that the reporters covering the event ended with a perfect record: they got 100% of my hands WRONG in the coverage! They have me check raising IN position, playing against the wrong guy, etc., lol. I swear I think I should come back as a tournament reporter in another life so that I can show them how to do it properly.
My last hand actually went like this: I had just raised two hands out of the last three and won both with no contest. Based on that, I limped in under the gun at an 8-handed table with A-Q, also because I knew the big blind call my 2.5 times the blind raise. The button made it 2500 and it felt to me that it was simply a position raise. THE SMALL BLIND CALLED and I called.
The flop was Qd 6s 2s. The small blind fired out 5000 and I called- the button folded. The turn card was the 10s and once again the small blind fired out 5000. I was pretty sure he didn’t have a flush so I figured I had him outkicked unless he had Q-10. I went all in for 11,100 more. He thought for about, oh, I’d say three and a half hours before finally calling with….. Ks Kd! LOL. The river was a Q….. of spades 🙁
The guy slowplayed KK there in a dangerous spot, and knowing absolutely nothing about him other than he looked a little “tight/bad” I didn’t think I had any choice at all.
The EPT structure is a good one as far as how the blinds escalate, but the WPT structures are actually much slower (leading up to the final table) since they usually offer 75-90 minute levels. The EPT uses 60 minute levels which catches up with you quickly and forces the play to get really shallow a little earlier than I’m used to. Obviously way more play than a typical WSOP event (outside the main event) but not quite on the level of the WPT.
It’s going to be a little tougher than I thought to win an EPT because I’ll have to depend on lady luck a little more than I’d like. Luckily for me, I’m a lucky guy and am still confident about my play in the tournaments.
EPT Structure (60 minute levels 10,000 in chips)
25-50
50-100
75-150
100-200
150-300
150-300 (25)
200-400 (50)
300-600 (75)
400-800 (100)
500-1000 (100)
600-1200 (200)
800-1600 (200)
1000-2000 (300)
1200-2400 (400)
1500-3000 (500)
2000-4000 (500)
2500-5000 (???)
As you can see it’s pretty close to a perfect structure, but by going from 90 minute levels to 60 minute levels the higher limits kick in much faster than the WPT’s structures.
Not complaining really, just an observation. Obviously I’m a fan of slow structures but fully understand the reasoning behind these structures for European events. Many of the venues don’t open until the afternoon and also have regulations that force them to close at a certain time each night (this was true for the WSOP Europe as well).
I imagine the WPT event in Barcelona will also be effected unless they decide to make it a 6 or 7 day event which seems unlikely (haven’t looked).
So I’m on the next flight back home until the next EPT event in Baden. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to playing in the WCOOP on PokerStars.
I’m also going to try and get a round of golf in (brought my clubs to London but couldn’t play) and have more work to do on the PokerVT project.
I’ll be home for a week and then back on the road to Baden. Oh, also, for those higher limit online players, PokerStars has listened to your input and has added 25-50 NL 6-Max tables. All three of the tables will have a $2000 minimum buy in to prevent short stackers from ruining the games. ]]>