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Well I've certainly had worse weekends, ended up finishing in third place at the Euro City Poker Tour Barcelona for a tasty 65k.
It was a little disappointing not to finish a bit higher as these chances don't come along that often; but I played my heart out and don't think I could have done anything different really - just went against me at the end.
A quick warning that this blog will probably contain more talk about poker than usual, feel free to stop reading at any time, I probably would.
Well the weekend started as it continued, with me running good. Myself and Adam Fallon flew in late on Thursday night and went to check in to the 4 star Hotel Arts. They started shuffling around on the computer and then eventually said we're going to have to change your booking, ugh - was obviously the first thought. That feeling quickly changed when they said that we're going to have to upgrade you to the 2k euro a night apartments... 'eehh ok'.
Was a good lol with me an Fally still hung over from Paddy's day, in our trackies and looking generally like orphans getting escorted up the three elevators including a private one to get to the nut room.
The apt was so sick, just had the two floors, three bathrooms, three TVs, kitchen, dining table, poker table and a telescope for some reason, maybe more useful in the summer with the view of the beach below....
They didn't start the tournament until 4pm (everyday) which sorta set the tone for the whole weekend. There were some strange decisions made throughout the weekend by the organisers, which I'll get into later.
The first thing I thought of was when I sat down was 'Shuffle up and lol", as there was some seriously funny carry on at my first table. I had two team pros at the table but thankfully, they were French Poker770 team pros, so they were obviously in bits.
Another lunatic at my first table actually made the final table, he certainly didn't bring a fold button to the tournament anyway. Overall the tourney was a soft field, although I did seem to get good table draws through out.
Day 1 was fairly uneventful, finished the day on average stack with 
39k from 15k starting. Came back day 2 and Boom, went from 40 down to thirty and up to 150k in the first level.
They did'nt do a table redraw after day 1 which was very strange but I wasn't too annoyed as my table was soft bar a very good player on my direct left. I decided I wasn't gonna be pushed over and four bet shoved on him the first time he three bet me with 
off.
Couple of rounds later and I was up to 60k ish and he 3-bet me to 5,700, I 4-bet the always a bluff amount of 12,700 and he duely 5-bet shoved the 60k with 
off into my pointy aces.
Not a huge amount happened then for a while, went up to 220k then back to 150k. Then we got down to about 45 left with 27 paid. Which brings me to the next strange thing about the tournament - the pay out structure. It was a €2,500 buy in and the first pay out was €11,000. The next pay jump was insignificant too, with 12th only getting €12,300.
So basically it was a huuuge bubble. I made a conscious gamble at this stage when I 3-bet called off with . I didn't think he was really strong and thankfully he had 10s, so this brought me up to 250k at the perfect stage of the tournament to have chips. I opened blind then for the next few hours and finished on 390k (which was chip leader) when the bubble burst.
I came back for the final day with a good stack, there were so many short stacks after the bubble I just sat back and played tight. There wasn't anything too exciting until the final table, won a few flips/holds and got there with 490k. It was a soft enough final table as final tables go, I wasn't too worried about anyone other than John 'the machine' Eames, who played and incredibly solid game, and was unlucky to go out 4th.
Took a pretty sick beat early on at the final table, it was by the Swedish lunatic from my first table. He was firing away with 
and I was in call down mode with on a 
board. A Jack then fell on the river and it went check check. This set me back to 300k which was pretty ill because I would have been up over 700 if I held. Happy how I responded though, it didn't effect my play at all and I just gathered myself and continued to play my game.
Ran my stack up to over a million with 5 left, with the help of some re-steals and 
holding vs and holding against . At this stage John Eames was over 1.4 million and he looked at me and mouthed '1st and 2nd '. It must have have been a serious odd on for one of us to win it at this stage.
The French man in seat 8 had other things to say, well more so the dealer. He went on a sick rush of cards and had a fairly obvious bet sizing tell which he confirmed by showing his hand most times someone folded.
It got to three handed when the French guy knocked out John in 4th place. My mates Adam, Maccer and Nick (who played a great game for an 11k cash) were on the rail getting very boozed at this stage. So there was some good shouts, generally anti French as the other two left were French.
Nothing too insulting. A lot about the pronunciation of chowder actually. A few of the English lads jumped on the Irish bandwagon when John busted. A crackin shout of "Irish till I die, I'm Irish till I die" and my favourite when I won a pot was "That one's for Thiery, that one's for Thieeerry."
Ended up taking the biggest cash beat of my life then in a pot I wasn't even involved in. The short stack was all in with against , she flopped a straight draw and the cruellest 
I've ever seen on the river fell to stop me going HU with a min of 110k for second. Shortly after I reshipped 
into and bricked out to finish 3rd .
Was fairly deflated after it, but about 20 vodkas sorted that out. We ended up back in our quality apartment with the grey goose on ice. Playing some nice blind 8 card omaha, John Eames showed that he has an edge in absolutely every game and scooped most of the loots. Obv missed the flight back home in the morning, I vaguely remember Fallon saying at about 8am we'd have to leave now if we were to catch it. Another beer and bed was the clear winner on that decision.
Comments (5)
Delighted for you Chubb. Great result.