San Remo Review

Good break away, glad only 4 days as very happy to go home after busting the main event. I didnt play any side events or games at all as i was happy not to. Bit tired as only got back couple hours ago but i will put a few hands below of interest including the worst live beat %wise to date ive had to bust :( Not gonna waffle on generally but gained plenty more experience so i guess ive taken something from it.


25/50 playing starting stack 10k ish i call an UTG raise of 200 with AA. Flop comes K85 and i call 200 bet. Turn is an 8 which i truly believed at the time to be a great card. I call 400 more. River is a harmless looking 6 and i call 2000 pretty quick confident im ahead. Im shown 10,8std and muck and im down to 7000. This turned out to be 1 of 2 bad reads the whole game (other prob below).

Was very nervous first 30mins but i managed to take some pots down with some harder betting and play soon after and from then on i was comfortable the whole tournament. Cant remember all the smallish pots i was taking down but on level 2 this is an example of one of the pots i took down with aggressive betting: 50/100 i call after 2 limpers with 76dd. 2 more limpers behind and 7 of us see a Jc6s2c flop. SB leads for 200 and utg calls, i pop it up to 1600 and all fold after nice dwells of course.

Anyway after 2 levels i was on 8400ish but happy as i was on the up. Got back just in time and half the table didnt so we were 4 or 5 handed for the first 2 hands. 1st hand scandie makes it 5-600 and button calls. scandie only has 2500 total and i know his range is huge given bb sat out as well so i reraise 2500ish with 88. He moves in and button folds. Its only a flip 88 vs J9std but i hold up.

Next hand both blinds r sat out and guy in 2nd position moves in for 1000 total. Cutoff (button last time) almost calls with king high but folds and i instant call with KK and bust his 10,4off.

Next hand im on button and take blinds with A10std. Card rush over im now on over 12,000
and so glad i made it back in time ! Break was only 10mins and a lot of people thought it was 15 as most breaks were that.

Errrrrrrrrrrrrm, i got a lot more involved than before now and confidence was flowing. I seemed to get a lot of respect especially from some turkish guy who immed folded middle pair face up when i raised missed and continue betted. He also limped utg and when i led with A8 from the sb on a 789 flop he proudly announced "J,10 ?" before folding a 9 face up ridiculously quick ! Seriously u had to be there to see some of the shocking stuff.

Generally now my stack went steadily up, most of which came from reraising with a couple of AQs an A10 and an AKstd , nothing going to a flop. Had 16,200 at next break which was dinner and returned happy enough, also knowing table would break within an hour or 2. Again stack climbed steadily without too much risk or big hands or big flops etc. Peaked for the day and tourney at about 23k before losing an AQ vs 77 and moving immediately after to new table.

blinds were now 150/300 25 ante and i got involved in a couple of hands on this table i can remember cos i wasnt at there too long. utg+1 700 im bb and cant resist topping up for 400 more with 10,7off. Flop comes K,10,x and i lead for 1200. I led into a lot of raised pots this tournament which is new for me live and its amazing what info can be obtained doing this. When this guy called i immed put him on AQ or AJ and hated the fact a jack came on the turn. I shut up shop and we ended up checking both streets only for him to show AJ :(

next hand in sb with AQstd and choose to play it aggressively reraising utg+2's raise who had less stack than me. he tanked for ages, folded and heard him murmour AQ to guys next to him who told him they think he was beat.

next bb 1 round later and again its same guy above (10,7 hand) with an even smaller min raise utg+1, button calls and i have to peak my K3off. I lead on a king high flop and show the king when they fold, i want them to think im betting my hands so they respect my bets as im starting to like this table.

then comes next hand in sb which definitely was my other bogey hand. this and the AA were only hands i really think i made any kind of mistake on and compared to the stuff i got right i wasnt too unhappy with that for the whole tournament. folds to me with 10,8off and i top up , bb checks. flop is AK3 with 2 diamonds and i bet 60%ish pot which is called. turn is a 2 and i again bet 60%ish of the pot. river is a 6 and i know i only win by firing. I know he is as likely on the flushdraw and im happy to stab for a similar bet to the turn to make it look like a strong pay me bet. he actually dwells, looks a bit to raise and i, in a last ditch attempt use my only speech play of the whole tournament, ask him if he missed his flushdraw. he calls and showed 2 pair which he had flopped (K3) , my speech play made no diff as he was always calling but obviously i wanted no raise from him if he was on the busted draw !!! I lost about 9000 on that pot :(

Im down to about 12,000 now but i dont go nuts and manage to pick up a few more k from the tight guys blind before moving to my final table for the day. The next table was golden (full of weak players) but obviously i wasnt stacked so i went for small info bets a lot and floated between 11,500 and 17,900 which is the stack i finished the day on. My cards were not great there but small pot poker was fun and i will try and list a few more hands below:

400/800

bb 85dh, utg calls sb tops up. flop is Qs10s4s all check, turn is As sb chk i bet 2200 utg folds and sb dwells b4 folding a baby flush.

folds to sb who tops up, i prob should raised here with K2dd but i check. flop is 986ccc chk and i bet 1200 which sb calls. turn the 10c and i shut up shop although i was itching to fire again i couldnt justify it to myself at the time. river is xx and check check. he shows Q7off for the straight ! :(

i managed to push a mid raiser off 99 when i shoved AQstd on the same level at the same level but b4 the 2 pots above.

i also stole with a couple of junk hands when in cutoff to an italian guy in bb who immed looked at his cards every round and just gazed off from the table when he had junk !!! . This guy though put me to the test with an interesting hand below, my read was kind of right but the table was that weak that i think i was justified in folding what was my toughest decision by a mile in the tournament.

he limped utg+1 and i had seen him do this with Axstd b4, i topped up J4cc and bb checked. flop is Jh5h3x and i lead for about 1800. bb folds and utg+1 moves allin for circa 11,500 more. if i call im left on 1000ish if lose, if i fold im on about 12,500. i tank tank tank watching this guy for anything i think he aint strong but my read isnt great. I realise im either up against a higher jack or a flushdraw with obviously poss overcard. The poor table factor kicked in as i still figured i would get a better spot for almost my tourney life even if my read was correct. Still i aint rushing and clock is called and first time ever in live poker i time out completely still in the hope of a futher read. he shows A7hh but it doesnt bother me as i know where i stand at the table and had thought through this so much for the 3-5mins i took.

when they finally announced final 7 hands i was looking at near 16k if i folded them all as i was bb last hand. i couldnt resist 1 more cheeky steal from mid with 89off and it got through. 17,900 seemed a fair relection maybe of my day. My cards werent great but my luck had probably been average roughly and 1 double up would be required to be on average chips.

On return for day 2 blinds were 500/1000 with 100 ante and i bust on this level. There were 220ish left from the 701 entrants and 72 were being paid. 1st hand i raised with AKstd utg+1 and took it. 2nd hand i raised with AJoff but folded to an sb reraise. 3rd hand sb topped up and i as good as shoved pre with 56off. 4th hand it folded to me and i raised with AQstd but bb instant folded. so after 4hands i prob looked like a nutter which wasnt ideal with my stack and becos of the reraised hand i only had gained 1000 or so chips ! Anyway onto the busto hand below:

we are 7 handed now as 1 guy moved and another bust hand b4 this. i have about 17,000 and button makes it 3200. i have already peaked at my bb hand of KhKd when no one was looking but look again and show weakness basically the whole hand to try and suck this guy in. i am looking for a double and i dont put him on much so just flat call preflop. flop is Jd9x2x i chk lookin to chkraise but he chks, turn is 8d. i now bet a weak 3500 hoping he will shove a number of hands, eg any 10, a flush draw or even some weird slowplayed hand. if he does flat call im happy to play on instinct to any river card to be honest. he tanks for 30-45secs then announces allin. i hav mp3 in and he aint moved chips forward so i take them off to double check he is allin then snap call. he immed says "u got me" and turns over 56off . Bang Kazoom Kaboshhhhhhhh 7d river, my head is low in disgust. I say nothing i dont even look at him and step away from table only returning to quickly chuck my seat card in. Pot give or take was 35,200 and average must have been about 40,000 as i finished between 165-170th/701 i believe.

obviously gutted but wasnt particularly mad or enraged, at end of day i knew how well i played the hand and i guess if it was for 70 or 80k i would have been more miffed. still for sure if that 10/11 or 91% held up i know i was >50% to cash and who knows how deep, thats poker.

i aint checking this back as knackered so bad grammar dnt matta but if ive left a hand out where i should hav said what i had or opponent let me knw and i will change or put in comments.