EPTs from Ansky. 13 April 2008, 1:01.

Sorry for the long stretch with no updates. A long downswing has left me somewhat burnt out and lacking energy, but right now I am flying high and ready to slap EPT monte carlo in the face. I got to Europe about 2 weeks ago, played EPT San Remo, and travelled Italy in the time in between San Remo and Monte Carlo. I plan on writin a full trip report when I get home, but for now I'll give a bit of a preview.

San Remo

at 50-100 blinds, I have about 13,000 in my stack (10k starting). An older player who I had been reraising frequently opened to 300 in MP, and I bump it to 1k w/ AA in the hijack. A clearly amateur and very inexperienced European player calls behind me in the CO, pfr calls. Flop comes 882 rainbow, MP checks, I bet 2500, CO calls, MP folds. Turn is an offsuit Ace. sweet. I check and he checks. River is a 4x. I put him all in for about 6000, and he thinks for about 15 seconds and says "call... nice hand." This is usually what people say when they making a crying call. But no, I turn over my hand and he slams 88 on the table. Thanks for the slowroll jerkoff. I kind of went off on the guy for the slowroll, but he didn't really speak english, so my curses were in vain.

I sort of float around 5k for the rest of the tournament until the dinner break. First hand of 150/300 (no ante), Puffinmyperp (an online tournament player) opens to 800 in late position, the sb calls, and I shove for 5575 with QQ. He thinks for a while and reshoves, sb folds. He has A8o. Ace in the door and im gone.

After the tournament was over, I travelled around Italy for a while with some friends. We went to Milan, Florence, and Vernazza. It was a great time, and the fact that I didn't play a hand of poker made it even better. I did however lose like 200 euros playing Chinese poker on the trains, mostly to Carl Olson (Colson10).

I got a lot of good pictures and I look forward to being able to share some of them. For now though I am getting ready to play the biggest tournament of my life. Last year in EPT Monte Carlo, I was backed. This year though I had the roll to straight buy in, so this is by far my biggest tournament I have straight bought in to (10k euro). The Bellagio 25k is next week, but I am going to sit it out. I am going back to Montreal, and it will be basically my last week to hang out with my college friends before they all graduate and depart for good, so I will have to miss the WPT Championship.

Last year in Monte Carlo, I lasted less than a full level. I got it in in a 30k pot at 25/50 with 88 vs AA on 875r, (600 went in pre, 14400 postflop). River was an ace so I lasted less than the full 90 minutes for level 1. I am really praying I can run real hot for this one though, seeing as how 1st place will likely be >2.5m USD.

Wish me luck today and good luck in your own games,

Dani