Living life in seconds

Bye bye Vegas, I barely knew you

After my shortest Vegas visit ever (just over 72 hours which I will be blogging about soon), I find myself on a plane from Vegas to London to play the latest Party UK tour stop in Stratford. I got lucky even before I landed: the two seats either side of me were unoccupied, allowing me to lie down if not exactly stretch out, which meant I got some much needed sleep given I’d only slept about 16 of my 72 hours in Vegas. 

Lappin had booked a “cosy” airbnb near the venue on the basis that he’d be occupying it alone if I was still involved in the WSOP main event. After dropping my stuff and showering, I headed straight in to late reg the main. I ended up busting second last hand of the night. 

Fading spades

The following day I headed in to play the Faded Spade side event. I ended up on the final table that included the rest of the Chip Race (David Lappin and Barry Carter). At one stage it was looking good for Barry and I to get headsup, but I ruined that when I called his shove and my ace king held against king eight. The headsup battle swung back and forth before I finally got it in flipping (88 v AJ) for pretty much all the chips and manage to hold til the river when I got Barry Greensteined. Congratulations to the winner: when we got three way I thought it was only fair to alert him to the fact that myself and Barry have written several books together, to which he quipped "So I'm the third wheel". He turned out to be the big wheel.

Deja vu in the High Roller

I was back the following day for the High Roller. I have a good record in this event on the tour, with a 4th and 5th place finish from three previous events. This time I got all the way to headsup with Matt Harniman, after being three handed with my long time Danish friend Niels who is always great fun at the table). 

Matt started with a considerable chip lead but I got it back to almost level winning most of the small pots. The headsup was a clash of styles, with my small ball going up against Matt's big pot poker. After I won the first big pot (my jacks holding versus Matt's Ace Ten), Matt was down to a few big blinds and I had over 90% of the chips. At this stage I was optimistic I was going to avoid the dreaded second place that has been my fate so often live (ironically, given that the Irish word for second is Dara), but Matt flipped his way back into it (T2 > 96, K2 > 89) and the stacks were almost level when the big hand happened.

I raised J4o on the button, and he called. 

Flop was J32 and he check raised my cbet. After some thought I decided to shove, and after a very long tank he called with 54o for an open ender. He got instant service with an Ace on the turn, and there was no miracle 5 for the chop for me on the river. That left me fuming with fumes, which went in next hand. I was dominating Matt's hand but couldn't hold.

I'm not going to lie, this one hurt a lot more than the previous night, not because it was a bigger tournament, but more because I felt I had a decent edge headsup (which wasn't true the previous night). That's poker though as they say, and Matt was gracious in victory, saying it meant a lot to slay his idol whose books had played such a big part in his development, and whose training site SimplifyPoker he'd joined. Matt explained his decision to call off with the open ender with less than 32% equity in a spot where the pot odds required 39% on the basis that while he knew he wasn't getting the the price, he felt it was his best shot to win rather than get outplayed headsup (a reasoning reminiscent to Chris Ferguson's call off with A9o headsup in the WSOP main event versus TJ Cloutier), which is fair enough. After my 12 minute cool off period after a bust, we had a drink in the bar together. For those who don't know who he is, Matt is the most successful Power Path player ever.

Next...

Although disappointed not to have closed out at least one of the tournaments in London, I was still happy to be straight back on the horse so soon after Vegas (and to make an immediate dent on my losses in Sin City). I think I'm near the top of my game as far as live goes right now, so I'm hoping the big one is coming soon. Next live poker for me is the Irish Poker Tour Summer in Dublin next week, Party's Glasgow stop, and then EPT Barcelona. Before then, my focus is on getting back in shape and eating clean, coaching, writing (the next book is nearing completion), whatever online poker I can fit in, and a webinar (on the final table coaching I offer students when they make a big final table) and more content for SimplifyPoker.

Final shoutout to Raj and the whole Party team who really do put on amazing events, and to the winner of the main event in London Daniel Smith (and Ireland's Barry Donovan who was third: Barry is a very consistent performer).

Posted in: