I arrived on the Thursday and had a few beers with the EMS boys, before getting ready to play day 1b. Online hadn't been going great and i hadn't sold any of my action for this event, so i naturally was hoping for epic binkage and had a feeling i was guna ship big. It kicked off at 2pm, and i would like to sit here and type that i made it to the 1st break (2 hours) but that would be a lie.
I guess i was on the feature table and i didnt recognise any of the players. As it turned out it was probably the softest table of around 175 runners on day 1b. Nonetheless im terrible enough to only last 90mins. The hand which was to be my downfall was the following:
2nd orbit level 1, old geezer limps MP, i iso 3.5k with AQss, bb flats and we go 3way to a flop. flop is 3 4 10 (2 spade flop) bb leads for 3/4 pot or so, original limper folds and i opt to just flat IP (1st Mistake- Since i had seen this guy check back the nuts JK on a 9 10 Q action flop before to get value on last two streets so hes obviously terrible) At this point i figure he has a mid pp/gutterball/medium FD hand doing that "live" trick where they find out where they stand.
Turn brings something of a blank (think it was an 8) and he checks so i fire planning to bomb nearly every river. He tanks and makes the call. At this point im thinking "wtf are you doing u massive mouth drooler". River i fade again and its a huge brick pairing the board (3 i think). He then proceeds to lead the river for a little over 1/2 pot. I tank for ages thinking how terrible this guy is and contemplating the fact he may have a worse draw which is feasible (like a 56ss or 67ss) before calling and been told " Your good". I turn over AQ rather proudly only for the huge ape to go "oooooo i got the Q10". GG wp nh sir. Now die in a waterfall.
I struggled from here on in and was getting owned it seems in every pot (almost definitely just the top of there range etc etc) where id fire 2 barrels with TP and get raised on the turn to be shown the epic combination of gutterball peeling and binkage.
I was down to around 40bb's when i opened JJ utg, old geezer 3bet the btn and i kinda sigh-caked. I tank for a while for the 2nd time of the day. I had seen him tarp KK with a call previously so i was maybe wishfully thinking he had AK. Also my image was rediculously loose as i had played and lost a number of pots.I looked at the clock and saw the blinds were goin up in 20 mins and i would be nursing a <<20bb stack if i folded. So i got it in and he has the bottom of his 3betting range (AA). First card i see is a J ( Boom i think!) before the Ace peels as the 2nd card.
gg life.
Had a really fun weekend nonetheless. Dropped £200 in an EMS cash game, where we included the 72 game. Bas managed to bink a 300bb pot 72o>>AA AIPF vs Palmer haha.
Managed to make about tree-fiddy (£300 really but tree fiddy sounds cooler) in a £1/2 casino cash game, to restore a tiny shread of confidence to my fragile game. Also congrats to Steve Talbot for his 5th place finish. By all accounts he played brillant and im sure this score will help him progress to levels more suiting his skill level.
Since ive got back things are still going pretty badly. Ive played 12k hands in 4 days or so for a little over $1k. My redline is plummeting which is very worrying as ive always been a winning redline player. Its possible im just fading every draw and making huge laydowns when villans get there on the river, but with how things have been goin for around 6 weeks its very likely im playing weak tight.
It really is the time to take a pro-longed break but, im really close to clearing a $4k bonus and am only 49k vpps from the 400k vpp milestone which i have a $500 propbet on to reach. So i kinda feel obliged to play to make this $9k even though i really dont think im in a great frame of mind to grind. If things don't pick up profit wise, i am giving serious consideration to shortstacking for the last 2 weeks of December to reach 400k vpps. I figure i should be able to 16 table short-staking and it will be easier to reach than 8 tabling full stacked and playin the streets. Obviously this would be bad form on my behalf but its only for 2 weeks and i see no other option at present other than gaining my confidence back.
I'll update at the end of the month for results of November
Gl at the tables all
JP
