Matt Glantz’s Blog

I have been here 6 days now and have only played in two poker tournaments and have played no cash games.  London is way more interesting to me than I would have expected.   I must have walked a total of 25 miles around the city since I have been here.  This is quite askew from all the previous poker trips I have ventured on.

The first tournament was the WSOP Europe Main Event.  The short of it:  I was chipleader at the end of the first level after flopping two sets and I was bust before dinner break.  So I didn’t waste too much energy at the Casino of the Empire in Leicester Square.  (evidently pronounced “Lester Square”)

So after 3 days of walking around London, I am more than ready to play poker but the only thing that is of interest is the European Poker Tour (EPT) High Rollers Event.  The entry fee is 20k pounds, or about 34k dollars.  So the field will be small and the competition will be the toughest.  I had no intention of playing this when I was planning my trip but as a poker player I do feel the urge to play.  No way I am putting up 34k though for a spot where my I think my expectation is somewhere between break even and slightly positive.  So I send out a text to the guys from the Borgata mixed game to ask if anyone wants a piece.  I figure if they have faith, I will play.  Well, I get 6 responses with minutes.  I am offered a total of 130% in pieces.  They want anywhere for 10% to 50% each and a couple of them just say I will take “whatever”.   This was the push I was looking for, so playing the tournament seemed like an easy decision now.  I have to cut everyone back but they all got pieces now.  And to my one friend Bruce who texted me back his response 6 hours later, “I will talk to David and let you know what piece we want”.  Sorry Bruce, I am oversold and its a little too late.  His text back to me, “Don’t ever offer me a piece again then!”   Sick guy.

So Day One starts with 50k in chips.  I manage to end the first level with 18k.  Yes, that is hard to do at 50-100 blinds.  Early on I raise it up with AQ, get called by a few players, flop AJ7.  And I am up against 77 so lose about 6k.  Then I raise with the KQ, get flatted by the non English speaking Japanese kid to my left.  Flop QT4 with two hearts.  I have no hearts.  I bet, he raises small.  I call.  Turn is a black 6.  I check, he bets 3/4 pot, I call.  River pairs the 4.  I check again, he bets 15k which is about the size of the pot and I obviously hate my hand.  But here is the problem.  I have never seen this guy before.  He looks like his name is something like Yokashana Tikohaka and he looks like he just drove here all the way from Japan in one of those geared up Toyotas from the set of ‘The Fast and the Furious”.   And as I am watching him for any tells I can pick up, I just keep having this image of him wearing a leather racing jacket doing drift turns in this Toyota with neon lights on the underside of the car.  So I convince myself that with this drawy of a board he has to have flopped a set or missed a draw.  All or nothing kind of thing.  And with his appearance and nothing else to go on I find a call.  He proudly shows AQ and yep I feel like a donk.  To make it worse over the next two levels of play it is quite obvious he is the tightest player at the table.  So down to 18k by the end of level one is somewhat less than what I was hopeful for, but things did turn around after that.

I think by level 3 I was up to 100k with avg stack around 55k.  And I finished the day with 185k with avg around 117k.  There were 31 players remaining from a start of 75 High Rollers.

Day 2 started very similar to the first day.  I have my table covered, the second biggest stack is 90k.  Dario Mineri raises from the 3 hole and I call from the bb with JT hearts.  Flop AK9 with two hearts.  I try to bet size so that I can 3 bet shove and get him to fold a weak ace.  I mess up the sizing and he gets to shove but it doesnt really matter as he turns over the K2 of hearts.  So pretty much the only hand I am drawing so slim against.  Such a cold deck to have the K2 find the only guy in the tournament who would not instamuck that hand from the 3 hole.  And then to have that flop.  Gross.  So he double through me and I am under 100k.  I lose some more and get down to 70k with avg up to 135k.

The hardest thing for me in tournaments has always been to just stay focused and not get disinterested in the face of adversity.  I give myself a pep talk and hunker down.  I find it easier in these big buyin events knowing there are only 27 players left to go through vs 500-1000 players at this point is some of the other tournaments.  So that gives me some solace.

I manage to go from 70k to 200k without playing a big pot and overcome avg stack.  Confidence is back.   I continue to run and over the next 4 hours make it to 500k with avg around 300k.  11 players left.  I pick up KK on the button, get reraised by Dennis Phillips from the sb, I shove and he reluctantly calls with the QQ.   Pot has about 455k in it.   Queen on the flop and boom they smack me right back down to 260k.    Here we go again.  I am now fighting the usual demons.  ‘why do I always lose these in big situations, why does this have to happen again, why cant i have the QQ beat the KK one time, dadadadada’.  So now with slightly less than avg stack and only the top 8 players getting paid with 11 left, this was crunch time.  $70k bubble.  At this time I need to decide do I want to be a professional or do I want to dwell on how unlucky I am.  The choice seems obvious but trust me when you are in these situations emotions are hard to overcome and many times get the best of great players.

With my wife sitting 5 feet behind me I look at her and know what I have to do.  260k stack.  avg is 320k.  11 left.   6 handed table at this point.  Boom, raise it up, take the blinds. 275k.  Boom, call from the bb with AJ vs Dennis and on the KJ5 board keep the pot small but get value.  315k.  Boom, pick up the AK and 3 bet take it down.  350k.  Take the blinds. Take the blinds.  Take the blinds.  Smoothly up to 400k.  Boom, short stack all in utg for 100k.  I call with AT, he turns over 66.  Ten on the turn.  Back in business!

We move to the final table with 9 players.  9th place gets a whopping 0 pounds, which interestingly enough converts to zero dollars.  8th place is $70k.  The pace slows down to a crawl and we go about 3 hours before we lose a player but in that time I was able to chip up with no showdowns to about 647k.  Avg is 413k.  Final table set for tomorrow.

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