ECPokerTour Malta 2009 Blog

November 2009

On Thursday November 12, 2009, Massimiliano set off to the great tournament in Malta in search of a wonderful experience as a new member of the Titan Poker Team.

Thursday 12th November

Malta welcomed me with a good time, the sun warming the island, the right atmosphere and the anticipation for the main event that would begin on Friday, November 13th 2009. After arriving in Malta, I went to the Grand Hotel Excelsior, had a shower and then I went to the casino in the afternoon, where there was a Titan Poker party organized in an exemplary manner. The entertainment included some very good dancers.

My thanks to Titan Poker for a dinner buffet and drinks, which was followed by a couple of photos. I saw the poker room at the casino very well organized with about thirty tables set for the Main Event. After dinner I went to the hotel and I rested prior to the Main Event on Friday.

Friday 13th November

We are on Friday ... I am excited for the main event which starts at 4PM with a 10,000 chip stack. We met and mingled with professional players like Sorel Mizzi, Andrew Pantling (Andrew and I played together at the televised table of the Irish Open) and some Italian players.

After 2 levels of play I was up to 16,525 chips. I was playing a lot of techniques by studying the method of my opponents’ play and I was winning pots uncontested. I made a nice pot with a pair of 5 on a rainbow flop A9Q after betting 3 times the initial bet. In fact the opponent was a complete bluffer.

I changed table and after 3 hands I had KK on the big blind. After most folded a player raised from the cutoff 2 and a half times the big blind. The blinds were 150/300 and he made a raise of 825 chips. The button folded and the small blind folded. I think a lot about how to play in games, and I play KK in slow play waiting to see the flop and then I decide what do. If an ace falls with a hand of A9 or A10 I would decide to raise and see where my hand takes me and then decide to triple the bet with a raise and a reraise to 2825 chips. The adversary has some 10,000 chips and in my opinion has some fold equity, but he made a reraise of 5875 chips at this point I will do an analysis of the hand:

1. The initial raise was too weak and insecure to have AA

2. With my reraise I had a feeling of his insecurity and therefore he has no AA.

3. The individual as in the classic player who sees as an ace gives up the pot.

4. I have him now with his reraise - his hand is a stronger one AK, AQ, QQ or JJ.

So I decide to go all in.

He very hesitantly called AQ (I think to myself) but is this the way to play in a tournament after a reraise with AQ off the pre-flop? The flop was 952 rainbow turn A river 5 (bad luck). After this hand I had 6,000 chips in the tournament. I was very nervous but I think I played in an exemplary manner.

I changed tables and after about 6 hands I found myself on the button with JJ and with a raise of 1,000 chips with blinds of 150/300 and only the big blind still in the game. The flop was Q79 and he checked. I bet 1,025 chips and I reraised him all in (ah ah ah ah). The instant I saw Q9 on the turn and river, I was turned off (sigh).

I tred to get a pot, and after half an hour of play I carried over from around 4,100 chips when the blinds UTG +1 (Under the Gun) I spiked AK with blinds of 200/400. I made a raise to 1,250 and the chip leader of the table gave me a reraise to 4,000 chips at around my stack size. At that point I decide to go all in and play the tournament and then I saw QQ and with the coin flip there was a Q on the flop which sent me on my way out.

Despite everything I think I played flawless poker. I was very unlucky in the decisive blows, but that's poker.

Leggi il Blog di Massimiliano dell'EPT di Praga nel dicembre 2009

Leggi il Blog di Massimiliano dell'IPT di Nova Gorica nel febbraio 2010