LarsLuzak's blog

I was in Vegas for four weeks and now back to Finland a few days ago. The trip was good, had success in the games and good times outside the tables. I was supposed to play 4 events but ended up playing just two. I started with the 10k PLO championship which went really well, I finished 2nd, Ben Lamb getting the bracelet. He is having an amazing world series and nothing seems to be stopping him. Sick results and now even the Main Event final. I think he is a good player and I wish him best of luck in the November nine.

I was supposed to blog about the SCOOP win earlier, but I was busy and tired a few days after  and then things started to go bad in the cash games. I was 205k under EV at the worst after the tournament win. But I wanted to make this a happy blog (partly because the million-making-robot Jens Kyllönen told me not to moan about been unlucky anymore) so I had to wait for the downswing to end.

Yesterday was a very good day at the tables and I ran really good. I won 88k at Stars (mostly 25/50 PLO) and did nicely on other sites as well (maybe 60k over EV altogether). Today I played a little session and won some more. Which is nice.

Definitely can't complain the run in the SCOOP main event. Obviously you do need to win most of the big flips/pots in order to go really deep in any tournament. I think I was all in like 6-8 times throughout the tournament, at least half of them being flips. The only bad suckout was in the final table when I 3-bet with 9Ts and a semi-short-stack moved in behind me. I think I had about 135k more to call when there was 300k in the pot. It's a very close decision, not sure if it was correct to call but I did it. I was up against QQ and made a sick runner runner straight to bust him out. But I would've been close to the average even if I lost it, which still would leave with me a chance to win the tournament. I was hoping to see AK or AQ type of hand or pockets up to 99, but I guess he has high pockets there a lot of the time.

My trip is over, I came back to Finland yesterday. 6 tournaments, 0 cashes. Not what I was hoping for, but since just over 10% of the players cashes it's nothing shocking. Variance is insanly high in tournaments, and I guess my style of play aims more to the higher positions than just a minicash. I was all in just 7 times in the 6 tourmaments. The only one I won was in Monte Carlo highroller when I moved all-in from the small blind again the big blind for 11bb with QTo and was called by A4o.

From the MC main event I busted in the end of day 1 with bottom two pair against top set. From the MC highroller I busted with AKo against AQo, a preflop all-in when there was 6 players left (17 total, 4 to the money). The flop was nice K52, but AQ backdoored a flush.

From the San Remo main event I busted with QQ against AT with flush draw when we put it in on 367 flop. This was the end of day 1 and I was pretty shortstacked (I explained in the last blog how I lost most of my chips).

I didn't have much of a stack at any point in the San Remo highroller and I busted with AJo early on day 2 when I 3-bet cut off opener from the button leaving just about the pot behind. He called and lead all in on 245 flop with flush draw, I called.  He had KQ with the flush draw. The flush came on the turn, but I had a redraw for ace high flush... missed.

I haven’t been playing much tournaments at all the last six months or so, but now I’m on halfway on my 5 or 6 tournament trip. I started out with the Everest 5k and 10k in Monte-Carlo. The 5k main event was first, I busted in the end of day one. I had about average and then there was a hand where I called a small raise from BB (raiser was on the button) with 43s and flopped two pair on 346 and we got the money in and the guy had 66 so there was not much to draw there. Pretty sad to get it in with a good hand like that, and I think I folded every hand for two hours before that.

Then there was the 10k highroller. I had a pretty good start on that one, at least half of the first day I was 1st or 2nd in chips, but then I lost most of my stack in the end of the day with some questionable plays against a fish and didn’t have much more than the starting stack to go with to day 2. I thought the second day starts at 2pm but it started at 1pm (they prolly announced it properly, but I just left pretty fast when the day was over and missed that) so I missed a little bit of the beginning and there was only 6 player left anymore (day 2 started with just 7 players and they lost the worst player of the table who had a big stack before I arrived) of the original 17 players. First 4 players to the money and I was one of the 3 short stacks. Then I was dealt AKs on UTG, I open, SB 3 bets, I 4-bet it in and get called by his AQo. The flop is K53, but he backdoors a flush. Would’ve had a decent stack after this and there was two really small stacks so would’ve been close to the money if I’ve won that one.

I came to Copenhagen yesterday to play the EPT (Day 1B, which was today). I had some break from the tournaments (and haven’t been playing that much online this year either) and I was excited and full of patience but then I remembered what it is…

You would think that you run good when you win 3 out of 3 preflop all-ins, and actually twice I had the worst hand (AQ v QQ and AQ v AK, the third one was AK v KT) and you would expect to have a good stack after winning all the “flips”. But other than these I ran horrible. I think I won one or two showdowns (very small pots) besides these preflop all ins the whole day. I bluffed big twice, the spots seemed nice (and I still think they were good) but not even close they went through. I had QQ twice, the other one I folded to a 997 flop (5 handed) when my continuation bet was raised by an opponent holding 9x (or 77) 100% of the time. The other one was on the big blind and it was one of the only two walks the whole day. I had J9 on J92 and I was check-raised on the flop. I just called because the opponent wouldn’t put the money in (it was on level 2) with worse than a set. Turn 8, river 6, no flush. Two more bets and I called down to see a straight (QT). I was getting very bad hands overall, hitting almost no flops at all, but still being very patient just to bust out with JJ on KJ22T board against 2222. Bet, bet, bet (my river bet was 12k+ and left a few thousand behind which I called when my opponent raised) and boom: quads. Standard.

Wow it’s been awhile. It’s just that there hasn’t been much of anything interesting going on in my poker games. Well, there was the EPT in Barcelona. I lost most of my chips in the main event in a hand where I opened 67s from middle position and a young guy to my left was the only caller. The flop was 478 with a flush draw (not my suit), I C-bet and he called. The turn was a 4. I check-called his big bet. The river was a 2, the flush didn’t fill up. I checked and he went all-in for 2.5 times the pot. I took at least 5 minutes to think about it. The bet was so big he is representing pretty much a full house. Or maybe a straight but I think it’s very unlikely, especially when I have a 6. The most likely full house in my opinion would be 88, but I don’t think he would just flat the flop and bet huge on the turn when I probably have none/almost no outs. I guess he could have quads but that’s always unlikely, and seems pretty unlikely also for the same reason as 88. I have a blocker for 77 too. Obviously there is tons of bluffs out there. 96, 9T, 9J, JT, A5, A6, any flush draw, any overs/one over with a gut shot. Still it feels like he has to have a hand here every time.

Shouldn’t have said anything about running good, it turned around soon after my last blog. About 15 days downhill now, don’t even understand what’s happening. I’m playing pretty much the same stakes and games as before. I don’t think I’m playing any worse, just running like shit. Well, that’s poker. And I’m losing pretty much the same what I won during my hot week before last blog entry, so, it’s not that bad really. But losing sucks of course.

At least I did good in something, I was 2nd in a 5k PLO tournament in Helsinki a couple of days ago. There were only 19 players, but anyways… actually it would be amazing if there were more players than that. There was the 7k NL Fennia Grand Slam tournament on Sunday, and they decided to arrange this PLO side event only then. So people didn’t even know about it in advance. And there were just 19 players in the 7k event as well. I was 9th in the NL. 4 players to the money in both tournaments, I got 25k+ EUR for my 2nd place in Omaha.

Now I can honestly say I’ve been running good lately. Except at PokerStars. I had a really bad session there right after my last update. I had about $100k at tops there (started with about 25k I think), but it didn’t last long in the 50/100 NL. I ran bad, and the game wasn’t even good. I guess I have to ask someone to transfer me some money there, the deposit limits are small… 10k a week (which I already lost this week). But the games are not usually that amazing, regulars are good – same as at FTP. I guess there are some fishes every now and then, really don’t know much about Stars players yet. No rush to get back in there… there has been some good action at ongame, entraction and I started playing at Party some time ago too. And I’ve been running really hot for about a week now, so the small losses at Stars don’t bother me at all.

Riga was fun. It was my shortest tournament ever tho. I had QQ in the second hand, one guy opens from the middle and I raise from the button. He 4-bets, I don’t want to go too crazy with my queens this early and I just call. The flop is 864 with flush draw. He leads big, I call. Turn is 3, no flush. He instantly moves in for about 1.5 times the pot. I don’t take much time before calling, it didn’t look AA or KK to me. He had AK with flush draw which comes on the river. He hit the table and shouted ”player out, bye bye!”. Now that’s bad behaviour especially when you get lucky on the river. Well I don’t mind. I was a just a little upset because I was looking forward to getting a massage at the table, but now it didn’t last more than a minute. I think I’m not going to play any other live events this year except EPT Barcelona.

There has been some good action lately, and I'm still doing good. I started playing at PokerStars like a week ago. There has been some 50/100 6max NL running daily, but all the players are regulars and pretty good. Nonetheless I'm running good so far. The action at Ongame has been slowing down, but there has been some good games every now and then.

I'm not sure if I've ever seen such sick hands as in the last few days. First of all there was the most brutal 50/100 NL HU session at Ongame the other night. I think I lost every single all-in where the money went in before the river. In the beginning I lost AA v AKs preflop all in, 20k pot. Some time after the stacks were deeper and we got it in with 200bb per player (40k pot), I have AA again and the opponent has AKo. Flop KKx and I lose again. How sick is this? There was one all-in AK v A2 preflop, 2 pair on the board and we split... Another one Q92 with flush draw, all-in from the flop, I have top set against K8 flush draw... I lose. I think this was the sickest session of my life. I didn't even lose more than 10-20k in this session, I won a lot of nonshowdown hands and some river all-ins. After all this BS, I ended up having a winning day of like 20k (I won some at Stars).

Cannes PPT was like all my tournaments lately. Ran really bad, just couldn't win any hands. I'm not even gonna try to remember any hand histories, it doesn't matter really. I decided not to go to London, just don't feel like it at all so why would I... There will be tons of other events and it's much nicer to play if you actually want to.

I've been playing a lot on Ongame lately, not really much else. It's going really well, I've been running really hot now - I think I've won the last 20 sessions or something like that. It's almost scary already, just waiting for it to come crashing down. No, to be honest I don't think it will. The downswings there are not so bad, the games are not so big and they are much softer than lets say on FTP.

FTP is now blocked from France (and Monaco). They have a new .fr skin and I figured I'll see if they have any nice games. I downloaded the new software, it suggested to create an account so I did. It was possible with the old login details. There were no games really, the highest table is 25/50€ but there weren't any players nowhere near that high. And it looks like people don't play Omaha there really. So I went back to good old FTP client and was thinking of making a comeback there maybe, but now I'm unable to login there because "I'm based in France". Looks like I won't be playing there for awhile... I don't mind really, it might be a good thing. Since I'm doing good, no reason to rush to change things now. I might try to find some games on PokerStars. At least I'll play the WCOOP main event.