down to 10 in Cyprus

I must be honest. I am fairly against writing blogs in my situation right now, as I almost view it as a form of premature celebration, which is the only thing I am supersticious about. It just so happens that it is only 8pm here in Cyprus and I dont need to sleep until around 11pm, so I have to do something with me time, so...I will give a little trip report, which cant be seen as celebration, can it?

The tournament has been fairly good to me so far. I basically 2.5xed my stack every day so far, going from 40 to 80, 80 to 180, 180 to 400 then 400 to 900. I should admit that on day 3, I got smashed in the face by the deck. I dont really remember how, but I won basically 2/3 of Nenad Medics chips off him in the first hour of play before our table broke. It is nice when that happens. We are currently down to 10 players. I am 2nd in chips, although everyone is fairly close. First place is around $600,000, which would put me up for the year. I am really not too concerned with any other place, as the added benefit of being only the 2nd person to win 3 WPTs is huge. I have time, so I might as well recount some of the hands that I remember. I should preface this by saying my memory is awful...



On day 2, I was seated with Patrik Antonious at my table. We avioded each other for the most part but eventually, someone raised utg, Patrik called, the sb called and I called from the bb with 75dd. The flop came 864 with 2 hearts. The sb and I checked, the pre flop raiser bet 10000, Patrik called, the sb folded and I made it 32000 out of my 80000 stack. The raiser folded and Patrik called. The turn was a King. I bet 28000 and Patrik called. This rarely happens, but I was really excited in this hand, probably because I was playing with one of the best in the world. I actually intended to bet 33000 but I grabbed one too few 5000 chip, which would barely price him out if he had a flush draw. Instead, I barely priced him in. The river was a 4, which was a bad card. Obviously the right play here is to check call, but I wasnt thinking. I pushed for 18000 or something and he folded. Looking back, I really really really hate a push. In fact, it just might be the worst play I have made in a long time. See what happens when you get excited? Now you all know why I stay so emotionless. I get dumb when emotions come into play. Anyways, he folded and I won a big pot.

The only other big hand I remember happened today. I was at around 450,000 and had been fairly tight all day. I raised to 35000 from early position at a 6 handed table and Layne Flack, who had been calling or reraising quite a bit made it 100000. I basaically snappushed with my AQs and he snap called with JJ. I think we both platyed the hand fine. The flop came KJx. I said "nice hand" fully expecting to bust and go back to my hotel room. The turn was the beautiful T. He instantly said nice hand, trying to throw the old reverse reverse on me. Luckily, it didnt work and the river was a brick to double me up to 900,000. From there, I grinded up another 70,000 before the day ended, only 3 hours into the day.

Its kinda cool, but in the car ride from the airport, it was me, Layne, Rep Porter (the current chip leader) and Craig Hartman (the older one, not the 2+2 one.) We all somehow made it to the top 20% and me, Rep and Layne are in the top 3 positions. The only other notables left are Steven Fung, who I thiiiink is a commerce pro, Huck Seed and Nenad Medic. All in all, I think I have played a good tournament so far. I have been a bit more loose than I have been lately and I think it is paying off. For those that wernt paying attention, I have no cashed in a live tournament in 6 months, which I am sure is my longest drought yet. I never really thought I lost my edge or anything. I just thought I was running bad. I also bubbled my last 2 WPTs, so it is good to get that off my back. As I mentioned earlier, this is my best shot to become the 2nd 3 time WPT champion. Hopefully I can run super hot for 2 more days.

 I had the pleasure of playing with a poker strategy member from the Russian community. I thougth he played really well and got pretty unlucky when he ran his AA into a random guys J9 when he made trips. I think the member was fairly card dead all day but created a super loose image and would have doubled for sure except for the fact that he got bad beated. We were eating at the buffet tonight at the same time so we had dinner together. We got to talk a little about poker and life. It was a good time. If anyone else is here, feel free to say Hi.