Played Day 1b of EPT Villamoura yesterday. Villamoura is a spectacular place, but I don't have that much time so this will blog will be mainly poker content, not how awesome Villamoura is content.


The day started off basically as badly as possible.

Starting stacks 30k at 50/100, my table has two good young players, one ok but spazzy Portugese stars pro, and a bunch of older portugese men and women who did not know how to play poker. I will do my best with reads but the fact is bad portugese player is the description for 80% of my table. I suppose I could say Old portugese man with the green shirt, but that wouldn't be that helpful to anyone either.

I lose 6k of my stack early in two seperate hands when I raise pf and bet twice with AK on an Ace high board with two spades. The turn brought a third spade I bet and get called, the river is the Js I check and lose to AhTs.

The next hand I raise AA utg and get called by one player in EP and both blinds. I cbet AJThhh and get c/r by the BB, I''m fairly certain he has a flush but I call hoping the board pairs because he's obviously never folding a flush. The turn is an offsuit K he bets 6k which is about pot and I fold. I'm fairly certain he had me beat.

After this I made probably the worst fold I have ever made in my life, I really have no idea what I was thinking and in general I call too much. A clowny european limps utg I iso JTdd Co flats he thinks for a bit looks like he's considering folding and calls.

Flop is JJ2(bink).

Checked to me, my first thought is well nobody will put me on a jack awesome. I bet 850 into 1350 UTG c/r small(note he considered folding pf so he never has a two face cards or a pair). I call. Turn is a 3 he bets 3k I call. River is a 7 He bets 6500 and for some crazy reason I decided to fold. I honestly have no idea why I thought river was a fold its horrificly bad Its closer to a raise than a fold. Anyways I fold and get shown ace high obviously.

I normally don't tilt too badly but I was clearly on tilt at this point so I left for about 10 minutes to recollect my thoughts. I reminded myself "past decisions don't matter focus on the present" but I honestly could not, I could not stop thinking about making this awful fold for a 20k pot.

I came back didn't play many hands and went on break. After break I felt a lot better and was ready to play some poker, I reminded myself I still had 90bbs had a very soft table and that I was still in the tournament.

My next big hand I open 97s the position before the HJ. The button who is an older portugese man calls.
Flop is As8h5h.
I continuation bet and he calls instantly. He did this earlier with a draw, he could certainly have a weak top pair but he clearly, wanted to see turn/river for cheap. The turn wa the Ks so I bet 2700 into a little over 3k he mulled it over for a good minute and called. The river was the 5c, one of the worst cards in the deck for me. That said he has a lot of draws in his range so I bet 1/2 pot because I have 9 high and I'm certain he folds without an ace. Unfortunately he had A2hh and called so I was down to 8k.

Nothing intersting for a while. My stack fluctuates between 6500 and 10k when the blinds are 100/200/25. An old portugese women opens in middle position for 600, I have 7k and look down at two jacks in the BB, I decide if I 3bet less than all in she will certainly flat a bunch of hands that are worse than two jacks so I make it 2500 planning on shipping any flop. The flop is AQQ, this unfortunately is one of the worst flops I could hit. I consider tilt shoving but remind myself that c/f is clearly a better play so I do. I go on break very annoyed with 4.5k.

At this point I remind myself poker is a game of decisions so just make good ones and make some hands and it will work out.

First hand of of 150/300/25 aggressive portugese stars pro opens I reshove AQs for about 4700 he folds. A few hands later loose old portugese players opens in early position and gets flatted by this portugese women who can literally have ATC. I reshove 7k with AJo from the small blind. The big blind instantly grabs 2 5k chips, I'm certain I'm cooked but somehow everyone folds pulling me up to 9k.

A few hands later CO opens and I look down at AA in the BB. She is an middle aged portugese women who is awful at poker so I 3bet really small. She made it 800 and I make it 2400 total, unforutantely she decides to fold.

Still 150/300/25 my stack is at about 11k I open with J6dd in the HJ because everyone behind is fairly tight and bad. The button calls as does the BB. The flop is 922r I opt to cbet because the BB is peeling very wide and the button is tight and will fold a lot of reasonably strong hands on the flop, certainly ace high maybe low pairs. The button folds but unfortunately the BB calls. The turn is the beautiful Qd. BB checks I think for about 20 seconds and say all in, because I'm pretty sure she folds a 9 or ace high or whatever else she peeled. Fortunately she does fold. Putting me up to 15k with the blinds at 200/400/50

A few hands later JustLuck(young aggro mtt player who has been opening very wide) raises in the HJ the clowny euro who bluffed me early and is visibly tilted after losing a pot makes it 3k OTB. I look down at ATss think about 10 seconds and ship it. Its simply a great spot for me both pplayers have very wide ranges my hand looks strong and stacks are perfect There is 5100 dead and I''m only shoving 14k total. As well I have enough that the button needs to fold all his air and might even fold if he 3bet 55 or something. They both fold and I scoop up that pot. After I win a few more I'm at about 22.5k and feeling pretty good.

Next orbit the clowny euro opens the CO with about 10k raise to 1k. His opens have been getting shit on but I can't imagine him open folding A2 or 78s so I make it 3500 with A9o he flats. The flop is 932dd I shove for pot and get snap called. I'm fairly unhappy when he rolls over KTdd but I somehow dodge 15 outs twice and get up to 40k.

The very next hand I''m stacking my chips and decide this would be a great spot to open or 3bet because it looks super strong. Since I'm theoritcally focused on stacking my chips and not on playing poker I would need a very strong hand. UTG limps and I look down at K8dd OTB I decide to just limp and play well in position. SB limps BB checks. Flops 457hh its checked to me and I bet 1500 into 2k. SB calls fairly fast BB tanks for a while and finally calls, utg snap folds. The turn is an offsuit Q. I'm certain the SB would peel any piece on the flop and I'm also certain that the BB would raise any strong hand on the flop so I bet 5500 on the turn and they both fold.

I played a bunch of small pots but nothing particularly intersting. I did 3bet an UTG with K3s because he was opening about 30% utg and I figured it would look absurdly strong. But that's about I finished the day with 37k and tommorow starts at 500/1k/100 so gl me. Tourney starts in 2 hours so hopefully I won't be blogging for at least anouter 11 hours.