LarsLuzak's blog

I went to Tallinn for the EPT, not much to tell from there - couldn't win any hands really and busted soon after the dinner break. I played a few FTOPS events, only cash was a minicash in the main. There were 2k 6handed Omaha and 2k NL tournaments in Helsinki which I played. I was 12th in Omaha, sounds good but it's not. There were 58 players (if I remember correctly), and money only for the final 6. There weren't many more players in the NL either. Don't know where all the players are, small tournaments but I don't think that's the problem - more likely people are too broke than too rich. Anyways I busted early with open ended flush against a higher flush draw (actually that was the side pot, the main pot winner wanted to put the money in with middle pair in 5 handed flop and managed to dodge the 16 outs we had combined).

I've been to Helsinki a few weeks now, it's been nice but looks like the summer is over soon. I'm going to Monaco on Thursday, and to Cannes on Friday to play the 8,5k PPT Main. It's def one of the best tournaments there is and I'm really looking forwards to it. I was 19th last year, got my hopes up but you never know - at least it's worth a shot. I guess London is next after Cannes, but I haven't decided on that yet. A lot to play there but I'm not gonna go unless I feel like it.

The Vegas trip was longer than I planned - again. But that's allright, it was a good month. Not so much game-wise, but a lot of good times at the clubs etc. I started playing live cash games too late, there was not so much action left. I was surprised there was nothing higher than 25/50 running. Not even that all the time. So I played a few sessions in a 25/50 NL and once in 25/50 PLO.

The good thing is that live games play really high because there is no maximum buy-in. There was always at least one 60K or 80K stack. But it's not like that much is ever gonna go in in hold'em. Would've been nice to play some more omaha, but the game was running only one time when I was there. Bobby's room was empty the whole time I was there (during the last 10 days of the trip or so). The games were running in Bellagio high limit room and sometimes at the Wynn.

I heard there was some games at Ivey's room (in Aria) but I didn't see any. 5/10 was the highest game in Aria, but one time there was some drunk guy asking for a 100/200 game. At the time I got there, he had left to play black jack. I went thru all the table games looking for him with no luck. It was like 5am  so he prolly went to bed or something.

I played the main event on 1d. I was a few hours late, but still had over 27k when I took the seat. I ran really bad, didn't make any hands and the few times I had something I didn't get any action. My table wasn't very good, altho there weren't any really good players either. There was one pretty loose guy who pulled some sick bluffs.

A hand against him: UTG limps, I have AKs UTG+1, I make it 1k, one caller, this guy on the button raised to like 4500, I move in for 16-17k, others fold and he thinks for awhile and open folds AJo. Kind of weird play by him I think. I had another AK against him later, I raised and he is the only caller from BB. Flop comes like A83 rainbow. I c-bet 1200 he check-raises to 3000. I think for awhile and decide just to call even tho I only have 10k more. The turn is another 8, he bets 5k, I move in (min raise) and he folds. And this guy had prolly like 80k when I joined the table. He had prolly like 60k left at this point. How he got all these is a mystery to me.

A little after this I found QQ, opened to 900, this same guy raises to 3k on the button. I had about 22k and my next move was a big decision. I don't think he has much of a hand here most of the time, but if I just call there is often either an ace or a king on the flop and I'm still unable to fold against this guy. And he can check the flop behind which is not good. So I decided to 4-bet just a little and the guy moved in. I called and he had pocket aces. He flopped quads and I was out. I was card dead the whole day, and when I finally got a hand I was beat. There was nothing I could do about it considering the history.

I've been to Vegas for a week now. I'm staying at the new Aria Hotel, which is pretty cool. Seems like almost everybody is playing a lot of events and making all kinds of sick prop bets. It feels like such a waste of time to sit all day at the Rio. I dunno... at least I feel like there must be better things to do in Vegas.

I was thinking of playing the 25k 6-handed NL today, but since it started an hour ago and I just woke up (and haven't bought in) it looks like I skipped it. It would've been a nice one, altho the field is probably really tough and it's easier to find value in the other events. I looked at the schedule before and decided to play this one, but I forgot which day was it. I checked it last nite, and since I played online until 5am I just didn't feel like going there. But that's more than fine with me.

The 10k PLO is tomorrow, but I don't think I'll play that one either. Looks like it's gonna be just the Main Event for me this year. I guess Vegas is more like a vacation for me, at least this year. Nice dinners every night, going out every now and then, maybe working out a little bit, some golf perhaps, shopping, hanging out by the pool. Sounds much better than grinding at the Rio all day long.

Midnight Sun main event (3k, in Helsinki) was quick and painless. I was the third player to bust, I ran into a fullhouse with AK on KKT2 board. I think it's the best way to bust, early and into a setup. Don't have any expectations yet and didn't do anything stupid.

Haven't booked anything for Vegas yet, but I think I'll be going there within two weeks. Just gonna take it easy until that, play some online - still grinding the eurosites, longest break from FTP in ages and it feels pretty good actually.

Back to grinding 4 days ago, had like 10 days before that when I didn't play almost at all. There was the Formula 1 weekend in Monaco which was a lot of fun. Had a lot of good friends over and I was really looking forward to it because I missed it last year. It was totally worth the wait. It's not that you see a lot of the cars when they pass the visible 100 meters so fast no matter which part of the track you are, but the atmosphere, the parties, the good company... Actually another cool thing was that they drive the same roads I drive every day.

I haven't played at fulltilt now, trying to find some softer games from european sites now (betfair, ladbrokes etc.), but I'll be back at fulltilt soon I think. I have been doing really good the 4 days now, it's mostly 25/50 and 50/100 but I think that's the maximum value level - a good player can win almost every day and the losses are usually small compared to winnings. And much less stressful. No need to play higher really. But I think I still want some highstakes fulltilt action soon...

So I didn't quite make the final table in Monte-Carlo. I busted 12th a few hours ago. So close... I mean 12th is good out of 800+ players, but the prize money goes up so much when you make the top 5 or top 3. Cool 1.7 million euros for the winner, I only got 80k euros. Better than nothing huh. I'm not too disappointed, I'm happy with the way I played and my time will come some other day.

I didn't have more than 45k after the first day, didn't have much more at any point actually, the first day was just one big grind to even make it thru. The second day was something else. I ran amazing the whole day, reached 200k very fast and ended the day with 552k and was fifth in chips at that point. Yesterday I had a rough start, I was at 240k at lowest after I 3-bet McCorkell with AJ suited and folded to his push. I hate to valuebet for value and then fold (my reraise was 96k leaving 288k behind)but I made the right decision, today he told me he had AK suited. I managed to double up JJ v. ATs and grinded the stack up to 1,094,000 by the end of the day.

I had a good start today, grinded myself to over 2 million without being even close to an all-in once. I made some pretty thin value bets and they paid off.  One interesting hand was when I opened to 70k with T8 suited, got one caller with a huge stack and one guy moved in for 400k+, I didn't think he had much of a hand, he was moving in earlier with like A3 suited and stuff so I reraised to 800k to get heads up with him because there was so much money in the pot so it was a good spot to gamble. The caller folded (AJ open) and the all-in guy had pocket 5's. I flopped a flush draw, but I missed the 15 outer. I would've had almost 3.5 million if I had won that one.

I just finished a horrible session on FTP against Odonkor1. I just absolutely couldn't win a hand and dropped about 8 buy-ins at 100/200 NL. I was playing a lot less for a while around Easter and now I've been more active for about a week. It's been really swingy. There hasn't been any Omaha games really, so I've played mostly NL HU. I've been getting action every day which is nice, altho the 100/200 regulars are all pretty good.

I busted from EPT San Remo yesterday (day2). I had a good start, I was 3.5 hours late, but like 2 hours after that I was already up to 80-90k. I ended the first day with 86k. The second day wasn't long, I played maybe one round. I opened 3300 with QQ and got 4 callers. Flop came 59T with flush draw. That looks like an expensive flop with that many callers. I c-bet 10k and the next guy moves in for 90k, everybody else folds. I had 1k more than him, and I knew I should fold. I think about 75% of the time he has a flush draw with some help, AJ, JQ or AT. Maybe one out of ten he has AT or JJ, and a little more often a set, 9T or KK/AA. All this in mind I should definitely fold because I'm almost never in a good shape and there is no sense in flipping in a tournament where people play bad on average. But I decided to take a chance, I wanted to have 200k which would've been a really big stack, or out at this point when there were still half of the entrants in. I made the call and he had a slowplayed AA. I was OK with that, I decided to take the chance and I was happy with anything he is showing. Didn't hit the 2-outer and I was out in the next hand. I  didn't mind really, I'm not such a big fan of San Remo and was happy to get back to Monaco. And even happier that I wasn't suppose to fly anywhere.

Looks like I was wrong about the action slowing down, it's not going anywhere. A few days ago there was the biggest action day this year, at one point there was 6x 300/600 PLO tables running with millions on the table. That was my best day so far this year (+520k), even tho I won most of it from NL heads up against Isildur1 and jungleman12. The biggest omaha games haven't been running since that day, but still there has been good enough action at 100/200 and 200/400 CAP PLO. I played Isildur1 300/600 NL after that day, and of course it was my worst day of the year (over -300k). This was a short session, but there were some really ugly setups that I couldn't dodge. That always has to happen the first time you play higher than you have been playing. But I'm not gonna cry too much about that, this year still going good and I think my game is in good shape.

I had two sessions against UrNotInDanger2, first I ran really bad and lost 130k, and the second time I won 48k. He is a good player, but I think we'll have another match soon. I played a short session against luvtheWNBA last night, I won a little bit from that. He likes to play against me, and I think we'll continue playing tonite.

It's nice to get action in NL again, I can think two reasons for that: I had such a shitty year last year and by that time some upcoming players have built up their bankroll and skills and are up against anyone. Either way the edge is very small, but it's nice to get action because it's so hard to find good games anymore. Well, good or bad, any high stakes NL game is hard to find.

I've had a few nasty losing days at FullTilt now, but overall this year is still looking good enough so no worries. I've been playing 100/200 NL HU with jungleman12, 500/1000k cap NL HU with durrrr and isildur1, some 200/400 CAP PLO ring games and so on. Looks like 200/400 CAP is slowly dying, it was running daily for some time but much less already. These games come and go, maybe people move to deep with antes again next, hard to say. Or maybe there will be no high stakes games for a few months (except maybe Isildur1 vs. someone HU).

Would be nice if people started playing HA ring games again, but I guess that's a long shot. I can play 25/50, I don't mind at all, but that is almost just CAP now and that feels kind of small.

I've been looking at the statistics, and looks like even in 200/400 CAP almost everyone is close to even, and all the bigger swings come from running really good or bad. There are no bad players, and very few are playing exceptionally good. I like CAP NL more, but only HU - I have no idea what to do in 6-handed.

I've never had this low motivation for live tournaments (and it's always low), I didn't even consider going to Berlin (altho would've liked to see the robbery!) and I'm skipping the Snowfest as well. San Remo and Monte Carlo are cool, it's in my neighborhood so I have no problem at all playing there. I'll try to find some motivation before that. After all, last year in San Remo was my best tournament so far so I gotta try to do well there again.