San Reno EPT

This was the last EPT with a 10k starting stack as next weeks Monte Carlo Grand Final & all of Season 6 will see players get 30k starting stacks. Given how fast the game plays these days this is a welcome revision.

San Remo, along with Deauville is rightly considered to be one of the weaker legs of the tour & my starting table didn’t disappoint; myself, Luca Pagano along with eight of his countrymen. Clearly Luca is a talented pro & amongst the other eight there were some competent players but on the whole I was very happy with my seat draw.

Perhaps I should start hankering after some tougher, all-star line ups as once again I just couldn’t get going, always finding myself up against the near-nuts. I re-raised my last 4k in, in Level 4 with 9-9 & walked into J-J & K-K behind me. Very disappointing.

I faired better in the next days Charity Event for the Italian Earthquake Fund; it was a 1200 buy-in, with 200 to the charity & Pokerstars added 300 for every player. We got 10k stacks on a 45 minute clock with 40k to shoot for in the top spot. I had a bad start but this time my patience & grinding ability were rewarded & I was able to come good as the night wore on, bagging up 160k with nineteen left, a double average stack.

The days major mis-step was when I was up to 70k & picked up two black kings. I got two callers including the BB & I led for 8k on the 10,10s,5s flop. Worryingly both players called & when a third spade arrived on the turn the BB pushed for 18k. With 53k in there I guess I was just too greedy, called & the other player called all-in for 15k. I couldn’t have been in much worse shape as the short stack flipped up A-10 & the BB rolled over the nut flush.  Back to the grind.

Day 2 didn’t go to plan though & by the time we were down to twelve I was back in the pack with an average stack. Then I found queens, got min-raised, called to see a low flop, prayers answered, in it went & he flipped over two aces. Disappointing & just my second cash of the year, but a small step in the right direction.

At least I busted in time to enter the afternoons 2k event. This structure mirrored the main event but we got double the chips, 20k stacks. I played pretty bad, getting 400xBB in pre with Q-Q into A-A again….a better outcome this time, I made quads. Nearing the end of the night I was going well with 80k when I locked horns with other big stack & somehow managed to get my whole stack in drawing dead with 9 high on an A,A,5,10 board, caught representing what my opponent actually had, A-K.

It’s been a while since I’ve made a play like that, risking a very healthy stack against an even healthier one. A week later & still feel pretty sick just remembering it, I guess that’s how it’s supposed to be.
Monte Carlo is the next stop, if you’re gonna run good anywhere, that’s where you want it.