EPT San Remo - end of day 1a

After the nice start, Jochen continued to chip up after the first break. At 150/300, with an average chipstack of 13k, he has an impressive stack of 35k. In the key hand to get all this chips, he eliminated Australian pro Mel Judah:
Judah raises to 600 from the button, Jochen reraises to 1600 from the small blind. Flop comes Ac8h4h and they get it all-in, Jochen's 88 ahead of Judah's AKhh. The turn bricks and the river brings the case 8, giving Jochen quads and a very nice pot.

After that, he works his stack up to 42k without any real key hands. That stack however dwindled down to 20k when QJ rivered a flush against his AJ when they get it in on a J high flop.
After that, things got better again, and at the end of day 1a he's sitting at 49400 chips, being the 19th stack of the 95 survivors of day 1a.

Looking very good at the moment, let's hope he can keep this up!

pablito_21

first EPT update

Hello all,

this is pablito_21. Because Jochen didn't take his laptop, I'll try to update his blog every once in awhile. His girlfriend and he have had a pretty good time in San Remo so far, staying in a very nice hotel with some of poker's biggest superstars. Patrik Antonius seemed to be quite some player at the welcome party (which Jochen's girlfriend Nele didn't mind too much ;) ). And this afternoon, they had the pleasure of watching Tony G at the swimming pool of the hotel.

About the tournament itself: Jochen is seated at a table with Magnus Petersson (winner of last year's EPT Copenhagen). At the first break his stack is at 14k chips (starting at 10k). He even outplayed Petersson with JT on a J high flop versus Petersson's AJ. So the start looks promising ...

More to come,

grtz,
Pablito_21

Drawings for San Remo

Here are the drawings of the first day of EPT San Remo.

I was hoping someone could help me of filling in the real names of the players named here and if possible some extra information about style,...

Also some extra information about the welcoming party :)

Monday 31st March - 7.45 til late. PokerStars invite you and a guest to the PokerStars Welcome Party at Victory Morgana Bay, Lungomare Trento e Trieste 16 18038 Sanremo (IM) Italy. The party will be held at this spectacular bar on the eve of EPT San Remo. There will be free drinks, buffet, DJ and circus acts.

EPT4 San Remo Schedule
Tuesday 1st April at 3pm - Day 1A No Limit Hold'Em, Freezeout
Wednesday 2nd April at 3pm - Day 1B No Limit Hold'Em, Freezeout
Thursday 3rd April at 3pm - Day 2 No Limit Hold'Em, Freezeout
Friday 4th April at 3pm - Day 3 No Limit Hold'Em, Freezeout
Saturday 5th April at 3pm - Final Table No Limit Hold'Em, Freezeout

Step 6, are we going to San Remo?

I never made such an impulsive decision as when I was gonna play my step 6. My strategy was gonnna be the same as step 5 and I decided not to worry about the big names that played in the step 6.

Stevie444 obviously started as a favorite, since steps are his home.
I made a pretty good run. 2 players of the 9 were allowed a ticket to San Remo + a reservation at the finest hotel of San Remo.
I will be adding a video of the keyhands of step 6.

Here are the final results of the step. Video is yet to be updated.

PokerStars Tournament #76288423, No Limit Hold'em

Super Satellite

Buy-In: $2000.00/$100.0010 players

$250.00 added to the prize pool by PokerStars.com

Total Prize Pool: $20250.00

Target Tournament #75294807 Buy-In: $9125.00

2 tickets to the target tournamentTournament started - 2008/02/04 - 16:12:10 (ET)

Tournament finished - 2008/02/04 - 17:33:39 (ET)

1: stevie444 (Deal), $1000.00 (qualified for the target tournament)

2: MasterJNeel (Overmere), $1000.00 (qualified for the target tournament)

3: TheMiltMan (La Junta),

4: WalterSob (Groningen),

5: elvis-senior (brighton UK),

6: BrynKenney (Long Beach),

7: delegator (Bergen),

8: geirto (Bergen),

9: Maddog0987 (Las Vegas),

10: magicdave2 (Hornchurch),

You finished in 2nd place (eliminated at hand #15060306878).

120 hands played and saw flop:

- 2 times out of 25 while in small blind (8%)

- 8 times out of 23 while in big blind (35%)

- 5 times out of 72 in other positions (7%)

- a total of 15 times out of 120 (13%)

Pots won at showdown - 8 out of 9 (89%)

Pots won without showdown - 20

The plan of not going out didn't turn out that way. We celebrated for the entire night, at my cost obviously! Thanks to Pablito and Dobbe for there mental support! And boozing up my entire wallet...

Step 5, going onto San Remo

I decided to play my step 5. As I am a smallballer, this was quite an event for me.

My strategy: playing tight, not getting to involved early. Early in sit and go’s I call nothing, I only raise with hands starting from AT+.. I play a little more aggressive beginning on blinds 25/50 and ‘normal’ TAG play at 50/100. So after 15 min I still haven’t played a pot. I won 1 pot with a 3-bet from the BB with K9o to a buttonraise.

Keyhand1:
[b][39/118][/b]
##########################################
Poker Star Game 15051215497 / Tournament
Table 76278443 1 - 2008/02/04 - 09:55:48 (ET)
Blinds : [b]25/50[/b]
##########################################

7 players
[b][SB] [/b][b]MasterJNeel (1390) [/b]
[b][BB] [/b]Boyer2022 (2730)
[1] Mighty_L (1510)
[2] SpecialOL1 (3460)
[3] latishok (1655)
[4] IronVaks (1355)
[b][B] [/b]edoiler (1400)

[b]MasterJNeel [/b]:4c :6c [b]Initial Pot: 75
[/b]
[i]Mighty_L folds[/i]
[i]SpecialOL1 folds[/i]
[i]latishok folds[/i]
[i]IronVaks folds[/i]
[i]edoiler folds[/i]
[b]MasterJNeel [/b]raises to 150
Boyer2022 raises to 300
[b]MasterJNeel [/b]calls 150
### FLOP ### :Qd :7s :4d [b]Pot: 600[/b]
[b]MasterJNeel [/b]checks
Boyer2022 bets 250
[b]MasterJNeel [/b]is All in
[i]Boyer2022 folds[/i]
[b]MasterJNeel [/b]hide cards
[b]MasterJNeel[/b] wins 1940 from the main pot

Keyhand 2:
[b][56/118][/b]
##########################################
Poker Star Game 15051343756 / Tournament
Table 76278443 1 - 2008/02/04 - 10:05:31 (ET)
Blinds : [b]50/100[/b]
##########################################

7 players
[b][SB] [/b]Mighty_L (1560)
[b][BB] [/b]SpecialOL1 (3385)
[1] latishok (1730)
[2] IronVaks (1705)
[3] edoiler (800)
[4] [b]MasterJNeel (2240) [/b]
[b][B] [/b]Boyer2022 (2080)

[b]MasterJNeel [/b]:As :Th [b]Initial Pot: 150
[/b]
latishok calls 100
[i]IronVaks folds[/i]
[i]edoiler folds[/i]
[b]MasterJNeel [/b]raises to 300
[i]Boyer2022 folds[/i]
[i]Mighty_L folds[/i]
[i]SpecialOL1 folds[/i]
latishok calls 200
### FLOP ### :9d :Ad :5c [b]Pot: 750[/b]
latishok checks
[b]MasterJNeel [/b]checks
### TURN ### :9c [b]Pot: 750[/b]
latishok is All in
[b]MasterJNeel [/b]calls 1430
### RIVER ### :3c [b]Pot: 3610[/b]
latishok shows :7h :7s
[b]MasterJNeel [/b]shows :As :Th
IronVaks says : nice call
[b]MasterJNeel [/b]says : wp mate
[b]MasterJNeel[/b] wins 3610 from the main pot with Two pairs, aces and nines


Keyhand 3:
[b][72/118][/b]
##########################################
Poker Star Game 15051476449 / Tournament
Table 76278443 1 - 2008/02/04 - 10:15:24 (ET)
Blinds : [b]75/150[/b]
##########################################

5 players
[b][SB] [/b]Mighty_L (1510)
[b][BB] [/b]SpecialOL1 (3710)
[1] IronVaks (2005)
[2] [b]MasterJNeel (4345) [/b]
[b][B] [/b]Boyer2022 (1930)

[b]MasterJNeel [/b]:5c :Ac [b]Initial Pot: 225
[/b]
[i]IronVaks folds[/i]
[b]MasterJNeel [/b]raises to 450
Boyer2022 calls 450
[i]Mighty_L folds[/i]
[i]SpecialOL1 folds[/i]
### FLOP ### :8s :4d :Ad [b]Pot: 1125[/b]
[b]MasterJNeel [/b]checks
Boyer2022 bets 600
[b]MasterJNeel [/b]raises to 1800
[i]Boyer2022 folds[/i]
[b]MasterJNeel [/b]hide cards
[b]MasterJNeel[/b] wins 3525 from the main pot

Keyhand 4:
[b][95/118][/b]
##########################################
Poker Star Game 15051600533 / Tournament
Table 76278443 1 - 2008/02/04 - 10:24:31 (ET)
Blinds : [b]100/200[/b]
##########################################

4 players
[b][SB] [/b][b]MasterJNeel (5175) [/b]
[b][BB] [/b]Mighty_L (4180)
[1] SpecialOL1 (2390)
[b][B] [/b]IronVaks (1755)

[b]MasterJNeel [/b]:Ad :Ts [b]Initial Pot: 300
[/b]
[i]SpecialOL1 folds[/i]
IronVaks is All in
[b]MasterJNeel [/b]is All in
[i]Mighty_L folds[/i]
### FLOP ### :8h :3h :Ks [b]Pot: 7130[/b]
### TURN ### :6h [b]Pot: 7130[/b]
### RIVER ### :Qc [b]Pot: 7130[/b]
[b]MasterJNeel [/b]shows :Ad :Ts
IronVaks shows :7d :7s
[b]IronVaks[/b] wins 3710 from the main pot with A Pair of sevens
[b]MasterJNeel[/b] wins 3420 from side pot n°1 with High Card ace

Final Hand:
[b][118/118][/b]
##########################################
Poker Star Game 15051702725 / Tournament
Table 76278443 1 - 2008/02/04 - 10:32:01 (ET)
Blinds : [b]150/300[/b] - Ante [b]25.0[/b]
##########################################

3 players
[b][SB] [/b]Mighty_L (6770)
[b][BB] [/b]IronVaks (3260)
[b][B] [/b][b]MasterJNeel (3470) [/b]

[b]MasterJNeel [/b]:8s :Th [b]Initial Pot: 525
[/b]
[i][b]MasterJNeel [/b]folds[/i]
Mighty_L is All in
IronVaks is All in
### FLOP ### :Tc :4d :Ts [b]Pot: 10055[/b]
### TURN ### :9d [b]Pot: 10055[/b]
### RIVER ### :7d [b]Pot: 10055[/b]
Mighty_L shows :7c :Td
IronVaks shows :Ad :5c
[b]Mighty_L[/b] wins 3510 from side pot n°1 with A Full House, tens full of sevens
[b]Mighty_L[/b] wins 6545 from the main pot with A Full House, tens full of sevens

So I got my step 6 ticket!!! That night I had to play minifootball. I came with my mate Pablito at home at about midnight. We were wondering what to do. As normal Pablito turned on his computer and started up PokerStars.
Pablito: “ I don’t feel like going out, what are we gonna do?”
Me: “ Pff, play some poker?”
Pablito: “Step 6, lol”
Me: “ Why not, check it out.”
Pablito: “8 of 9 players registered, now or never!”
Me: “ Ah, why not, Let’s get it on!”.

That’s how my Step 6 story began…

How I got into the Step satellites to the EPT-event of San Remo

How I got there?

Well, my friend Pablito_2121 suggested me a couple of month ago:
Pablito:"Hey, I want to play in an EPT-event someday, what you say we attempt to qualify for one.”
Me: “What the hell? Why not, chances of getting there are zero, so let’s have some fun and just play some steps!”

So this is where it begun. We both started to play steps, starting from step 2. I wasn’t planning in investing much, but I was a bit bored of playing sit and go’s and cashgames without a challenge.

I consider myself not as a very good poker player. I look up to people like Lilholdem, WestMenlo,… Online ultrasharks who have won like millions.
From my side, I’ve won the Sunday Warm-up, which was a total surprise.
I am still convinced that I belong to 95% of online poker players. So I don’t really play high stakes, I’m not planning on going professional, It isn’t about the absolute moneymaking. I’m just enjoying playing poker and I’m aware of the fact that there are much better players and I still need a lot to learn.

So I played like 10 times step 2 to build up some tickets to higher steps. I didn’t really had a strategical plan. If I won a ticket for step 3, I played a step 3, And so on…
To my big surprise I had quickly a step 5 ticket. I still had some step 2 tickets and one step 3 ticket. At that time my man Pablito_2121 didn’t get much further then step 3.

Online Play: Multi tabletournamants (MTT)

Here will be a weekly update of the MTT’s I played that week.

With comments and hand analysis. Occasionally you’ll also find a video of an online table.

Any comments always welcome.