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Tournament Report: Latvia and Portugal (Part 1)

I am now back in Sweden after two live tours in Europe that I feel have helped me take my live poker play to the next level even if it did not finish in any money positions. Playing against good opponents is the best way to become a better player, even if it is not the best way to earn money in the short term.

In Riga I expected the opponents to be really good and the value less good. It was a $1000 NLHE tournament with a rather steep blinds structure and 120 participants. Even if we started way too deep for a player like me (400bb) this soon changed and average was after a few hours around 20bb which really benefits a sit n go and tournament player like me, while it often is a disadvantage to cash game players that are used to play more deep-stack. I knew that several of the best sit n go grinders in the world participated in this tournament but as I did not know who they were I did not know I busted one of them until afterwards.

Many players had huge hangovers and very little sleep before the tournament (I think I had among the most hours with 6,5) and the game was not very good. I ended up at a tight/weak table and the only real danger was a loose/aggressive guy on the other side of the table from me. We more or less dominated the table and built up a nice stack both of us. I had players that looked inexperienced in Live Poker and therefore played rather scared and weak to my left and that gave me several blinds for free. Everything felt perfect until I managed to reraise a guy all-in with KK and he shows 99 that hits its 9.

Even if the dinner break stopped me from tilting too bad this beat really disturbed me for the rest of the day forcing me to fight for my survival in a totally different way and when I, 4 hours later, find myself splitting AQ to AJ I am really in trouble and lose a few hands later to the same guy with AQ to his AK for a 47th place.

Riga as a town was kind of scary in the areas we were. I knew the country was poor, but the only thing I saw were people with Ferrari’s with registration plate “RICH”. At the casino the waitresses were half naked and there were porno pictures on the way to the bathrooms, as well as inside the bathroom doors. There are mirrors everywhere (even in the cardroom) and the service was rather poor. But they had good coffee latte.

To be continued next week…

Per “Illvillja” Wolf

PokerWorld Pro

 

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