Andreas Hoivold says...

Nightmare on Friday 13th

Wednesday 18 Mar 2009

A few words after EPT German Open in Dortmund.

There were a record 667 runners in this year’s EPT in Dortmund. A huge number of runners for an EPT, but I always like it when there are so many runners. It is easier to get to the prize money and the first prize is of course much bigger.

The first day began very slowly. For the first two hours I was bleeding chips, but then things changed. I was moved from a very aggressive table to a much quieter one. On my new table there was what I considered a bad player. He was a calling station and I wanted to play as many pots as I could against him. It paid off nicely. I won a lot of small pots, and my stack was growing steadily.

On level 4 (100/200) I made my first risky play. I called after the calling station had called in front of me with QsJc. A young man from Belgium raised from the button to 925. The calling station called (of course). Normally Q-J off is a bad hand in this situation and I would very often fold it. But against these two players I wanted to call. The flop was A-10-9, all spades. The calling station checked, and so did I. The Belgian bet out 1.600 and guess what the calling station did? Correct. He called. I had an open-ended straight draw and second nut flush draw. Many players would call in this spot. Not me! On this board a lot of hands have to fold. And if I get a call, I usually have a lot of outs. I only had 9900 chips behind, and raising to 5.500, which would be a normal raise here, was too much of my stack. Therefore I moved all-in. The button folded as soon as he could. The calling station folded showing A-10. Scary! If he called I could still be a small favorite to win the pot. But I don’t want coin flips and I was very happy with him folding.

Soon after, Joao Barbosa from Portugal sat down at my table. Joao was unknown one year ago. In Dortmund he set a new record by cashing in 6 EPT’s in one season. He even won one tournament (EPT Warsaw). He is of course a very good player, and I didn’t want to play too many pots with him. But after a while I couldn’t help myself. He is a very frequent raiser. His raise button is a well used one, and his call button has not been in use pre-flop for a long time. We played 150/300 and Joao raised to 700. I had 6-5 of spades on the button. Normally a hand to fold in this spot, but I wanted to play it. Calling in this spot was an option, but I used the other option: Raise. I raised to 2.200. Joao called after a few seconds. I didn’t like that. He normally folds quite easily to a re-raise. The flop was A-A-3 with two clubs. Not the flop I wanted! But I could not give up the pot when Joao checked to me. My bet was 2.400. Joao called after a few seconds. Ouch! The turn was a red lady. At this point I was probably drawing dead in the hand. Joao checked again. He had a little less than 10.000 in his stack. I could, and maybe I should, give up the pot. But I felt some weakness. I couldn’t help myself betting out 4.800 in the pot. Joao didn’t use to much time folding. Phew! Someone on the rail said: “Show the ace”. Another one said: “Show the bluff”. I did the latter.

After this pot I played more quietly. I won many small pots, which is the most imported ones in most tournaments. I played my A-game and my stack increased hour after hour. I ended day one with 44.100, well over the average of about 25.000.

Day two began similar to day one. The first two hours were bad for me and I lost about ten percent of my stack. Others were in more trouble. We started with 252 players on day 2. Only 149 of us were remaining in the tournament.

But after a short break my luck changed. I picked up A-A when it was a raise and an all-in in front of me. Many players would flat call here. But flat calling with more than half your stack is something that you only do with monster hands. Therefore I went all-in and hoped to get a call from a hand like A-K. But the original raise folded and the all-in man had 8-8. He didn’t get any help, and things looked good.

I had 70.000 in my stack when I picked up A-J off in early position. The blinds were 600/1.200 with a ante of 100. I raised to 2.800. A very aggressive young German raised to 7.100. The small blind called. Now I got amazing odds for the 4.300 I had to put in the pot. So I ended up calling. The flop came K-10-7 with two diamonds. Everyone checked. The turn was a black 8. Again I checked. The aggressive German bet out 12.500 and the small blind folded. I felt weakness. And when I feel weakness I try to follow my feelings. I had a double belly buster if my feeling should be wrong. I moved all-in with 65.000, almost the same as the German had behind. He looked very surprised. After four minutes he folded. Poker was fun! I continued to play good poker, and I won a lot of small and medium pots. At the end of the day I had 233.000 chips.

Only 34 players started day 3. The average was about 195.000. I felt I had a really good chance with my 233.000 stack. And I felt really focused.

But it started badly. The first hand I played was with A-Q. The blinds were 3.000/6.000 (ante 500). I raised to 14.000. The big blind moved all-in for 87.000. I called and he showed A-3 of diamonds. The flop was K-10-6 with two diamonds. The jack of diamonds came on the turn and I was drawing dead. This was not the start I wanted!

The next big hand I played was with Q-Q. I raised to 14.000 again. The big blind added another 41.000 to the pot when he moved all-in. It was an easy call for me. He showed J-7. Phew. This was an all-in even I could win! Or at least it was one I thought I could win. The flop 7-6-2 was a bit scary. Another 7 on the turn was painful! No queen on the river, and I was in trouble.

After this pot I was able to win a few minor pots. And I kept myself alive for quite some time. But I didn’t have a chance to double up and I didn’t have good cards at all.

When we were down to the last 13 players and the blinds were 8.000/16.000 (2.000). It was a raise to 39.0000 from early position. Johan Storakers from Sweden called the bet. I looked down at A-K and I pushed all-in for 178.000. After quite some time Johan called my bet. He had 9-9. No help for me and I was out of the tournament. I had lost 4 of 4 all-ins on Friday 13th. What a nightmare!

The good thing is that my poker now is really good. If I continue to play like this I hopefully will win one soon. The bad thing is that 12th and 13th places are really boring. You have done 95 percent of the job, but cannot finish it. And that is frustrating!