EPT Barcelona Day 2
I woke up at 4:00pm today and the tournament started in an hour. Not a good start. I quickly washed my hair, tossed on a shirt and headed to the casino (it’s a 3min walk).
Before I went back to play Day 2 I checked out my table draw…..Yea, guess who was at my table…Antonius lol. He’s been at EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY EPT TABLE’S.
At any rate I’m VERY satisfied with how I’m playing. Antonius and I did get into a few small pots, but I ended up winning a fairly large one off of him – it was reported on pokernews:
“Junglen Takes One from Antonius
Adam Junglen (USA) is playing without any fear and just took a pot from Patrik Antonius (Finland). From the cut-off, Junglen raised 2,400. Martin Wendt (Denmark) called from the small blind and Patrik Antonius called from the big blind. The flop was J99. Wendt and Antonius checked. Junglen fired out 4,500. Wendt folded and Antonius called. The turn was a 9. Antonius checked and Junglen methodically counted out some blue chips before he turned to the dealer and announced, “All in.”
A crowd of media began to gather around the table. A few flashes from cameras illuminated the area. Antonius asked the dealer to count out Junglen’s chips. He had 28,000. Antonius stared him down for another minute as more media gathered. A few players such as Fabrice Soulier got up from their tables to watch the drama unfold. Just when it looked like Antonius was going to call, he tossed his cards into the muck and smiled.
Junglen dragged the pot and increased his stack to almost 40,000.
This was not the first time the two players battled. Flashback to a few months earlier at the EPT Grand Finale in Monte Carlo, where the two found themselves in a big pot. Junglen held A-J and Antonius moved all in on a flop of Q-4-2 (with two clubs). Junglen felt he was ahead and called. A stunned Antonius flipped over 5-3 and couldn’t believe that Junglen picked off his semi-bluff. Unfortunately, the river was an Ace and Antonius won that pot.
Yesterday, Junglen had a tough draw with both Greg Raymer and Antonius at his table. And today, he drew him again. However, this instance, Junglen got the best of him. Stay tuned for more on this interesting battle between these two players.”
Anyways, for the first 4-5 hours I just hovered around 30-60k, never getting into any sketchy situations – just playing solid poker and being selectively aggressive in good situations. Patrik busted fairly early after accumulating 70k. He really just wasn’t on his A-game, and you really need to be firing on all cylinders mentally to endure these poker tournaments.
With about 4 hours of play in the day I was moved to a table near the back of the poker room. For those following updates that’s one of the main reasons why my chip stack wasn’t updated for awhile. The other reason is simply because I only played one big all-in preflop pot (I wasn’t the one risking elimination though).
I chipped up to 60k at my new table, and then finally caught a break.
Blinds were 1k/2k/200 ante, UTG limped, MP limped, SB limped and I opted to check 88 in the BB. With roughly 10.4k in the pot we saw the flop 4 handed of 9-5-4. The SB hesitated for about 25 seconds and it was quite obvious he flopped top pair, but was concerned with the early position callers. We all ended up checking the flop.
The turn was a beautiful 8 – I’d been waiting 2 days to make a set in a multi-way pot and I finally nailed it.
The small blind, whom I was very confident held top pair leads for 8k. I raise to 22k. The early position limpers folded, and the SB moved in for about 55k total. I quickly called the extra 33k and he showed A9 and was drawing stone dead.
That pot got me up to around 110k, when I ran my first big multiple street buff….in fact I triple barrel bluffed my opponent.
Same blinds and antes, I open raised to 5200 with AJo from CO+2 or so. The button, who also had around 90-100k flat called. The blinds folded and we saw the flop heads up of:
T-8-6 with 2 diamonds
I made a standard continuation bet of 7,500 into the pot of 15k (playing live you can get away with c-betting less. My standard continuation bets are closer to 57-65% of the pot). My opponent made the call.
Turn was a black 5, making the board T-8-6-5 with a singe flush draw
With 30k in the middle I bet 18,000. At this point I’m putting my opponent on a hand such as AT, JJ or a flush draw. We were deep enough were he wouldn’t raise with those hands, and my image was fairly solid. The only hand I’d shown down at the table was the set of eight’s.
He ended up calling my turn bet, and at this point thoughts such as “Wow, I can’t believe there’s 66k in the middle and I’m out of position with ace high vs an opponent who’s called me on two streets.”
However, at the same time I was well aware the money bubble was approaching. Roughly 12 players had to be eliminated before players were guaranteed a payday, and this specific opponent seemed like he really wanted to make the money. Not only that, but I felt that if a blank fell on the river he wouldn’t call a large bet for the 3rd time with a one pair hand (as I said before, something like JJ or AT).
The river came a black deuce, a complete blank. The final board was T8652.
I didn’t hesitate too long, maybe 15 seconds. I counted out 50k and pushed it in the middle. It was slightly more than half his stack, and even if he did make a hero call with AT I would’ve still had around 35k.
After about 60 seconds he mucked his cards….oh baby what a satisfying feeling. I contemplated showing, but opted not to, which was by far a smart move. The bubble was approaching and I didn’t want my opponents playing back at my steals.
Now to the biggest pot I played of the tournament. At this point I had around 135k and my opponent in the small blind had about 63k. Blinds were at 1,200/2,400/300, and it folded to him in the small blind. My read on him was that he was a very aggressive player. He had 4-bet shoved AIPF and raised my blind on previous occasions. Moving on, action folded to him and he raised to 7,200. I looked down at A7 and re-raised to 23k. SB took a few seconds and then moved all-in for 63k total.
Now, based on pot odds alone this is a standard call (getting over 2:1), but I really felt his range was wide here and wasn’t surprised to see him show KQ once I made the call. This was an enormous pot (126k or so), but even if I lost it I was still in decent shape with 70k.
Flop came down:
A72.
The turn was a 5, and he was drawing dead.
After that hand only 5-6 players needed to be eliminated until the day ended (and the remaining players made the money). With just under 200k I ended up chipping up to around 230k during the last 30 minutes of play.
This entire tournament has gone very well for me. I really feel like I’m “in the zone.” I haven’t been at risk for elimination a single time, and have had less than 20 hands goto showdown the entire tournament. Pokernews informed me that they intend to interview me sometime tomorrow, so you should be able to view it on their website. If I also just happen to be at the feature table you can watch it live online. There’s a link at www.pokerstarsblog.com for it – but I think it’s eptlive.com
Anyways, I really need to goto sleep, wish me luck on day 3. We play to the final table tomorrow.
