LAPT DAY 1

I had a great day 1. Not only did I make it to day 2, such a rare thing for me in live tournaments, but I had one of the funnest days I ever had playing live poker in my life.
I realized today that when it comes to playing live poker a major difference to my online game is that when it comes to the outcome of the tournament, I actually care about winning in live poker.
I hear you saying to yourselves:
 'Well doesn't he always?'
The answer would actually be:
'No, not always. '
I obviously do want to have winning sessions with every one I play, that is the aim of the game. Make the most ev+ plays to make the most profit. I just have been grinding online for so long now and have been a successful online player from the beginning really. (minus the teething sessions I had at my local poker club....... BIG UP MY 'WESTERN' PEOPLE)

Whenever I play a session online, I tend to 'expect' to have a winning day. I tend to put in long sessions when I play online so it is not uncommon for me to have winning days, and even the ones that are not, they have a similar effect to me where I just call it a day in the office and go to sleep like a normal job.

I have got to the stage that I feel I need some new challenges and playing live just really hits that spot for me. I have this separate passion for MTTs, both online and live, although I will keep it as a hobby and not as a grind. I still get the pre game excitement, I still get the adrenaline when I am bluffing someone for the first time, my heart pumps and I breathe a sigh of relief when they fold. It just really gives me a different type of satisfaction than what my HU grind gives me.

 I really like having it as a hobby but a hobby I also make money in but due to the high variance and the time consumption of it, I still have my 'hu grind' to give me my bread and butter money.
One of The main aspects I like about live MTTs is seeing my opponents face to face and really feeling them out. It helps my online game loads as when I play I can visualize the weak players I face in the live events because in reality these are the people at the other end of the screen. I didn't have too many big hands, I literally have just been playing abcdefg poker, haven't had to bring in the hijklmnop poker yet. I had a couple of spots where I felt I read my opponents bad, however luckily they were for smallish pots, and as ever whenever I make a mistake I always smile because it means I taught myself something, because I always learn from any mistake I make.

Hand of the day:
Effective stack =50k, blinds 600/1200
UTG + 2 on new table raises to 3,700.
**Reads on UTG +2: had played 3/8 hands I had on him. One being UTG + 1 where he got 3bet and snap folded, he talked a lot in hands, seemed like he was super recreational but enjoys raising when he plays, but not enough of an ego to care when someone plays back, also doesn't seem like 4bet bluff would ever be an option for him to an unknown player.
This opponent done the exact same 3,700 he just made UTG +2 as he did UTG + 1.
It folds around and gets flatted by the button.
**Reads on button: Looked very bullish in his persona, had the biggest stack at the table and just seemed very chilled out, did not seem to mind throwing chips around.  (These were very generalized reads based on initial feel for the player)
SB folds and I wake up in the BB with the monster K9o.
My perceived reads on myself: New to the table, first hand I woke up with AQ and got shoved on by a short stack, I commented on how I had been waiting for ages for a hand (it was the first hand playing with these guys, *had to Hollywood I was tight*) seemed to have a presence just because of my accent at the table and because I was friendly to the dealer when I arrived at the table, he had dealt to me earlier (they don't know this is how I know him,) and feel people were 'weary' of me.
I decide this is a good spot to put in an aggressive 3bet to 8,500 knowing that it can change the dynamic of the entire game and either way I would be at the center of the dynamic change and will exploit my opponents perceptions of me if the squeeze goes wrong. This meaning that I will adjust better than them to the dramatic change from there perception of me to how I am actually playing.
The UT2 + 2 folds, button throws the chips in as if they were nothing to him pretty much telling me he has a mediocre hand, range I put him on: Some suited connectors even down to 56s, some off suit connectors down to 910o, Ace x 'x' being smaller than J, KQ, KJ, Q10, QJ, Q9s, J9s etc and all PPs up to 88, so a pretty wide range for a 3bet pot. I feel he would fold unconnected hands and bad kicker hands, so there is still only around 25ish% of hands in this range but my hand being k9 actually is ahead a lot of his as the 25% lacks the top value hands IMO and has a much better long term expectancy than his range does being I am the aggressor even after he flats.

The flop comes k 7 4 rainbow. I obviously go from having a total bluff to having the absolute nuts in my eyes.
Now I have the nuts, I am trying to think of how I can get his chips in the middle. I decided to bet 8.5k being around 2/5 of the pot. (too tired to do the maths lol)
He takes very little time to make it 20k, as if he didn't want to show any signs of weakness, like a bully would normally do with air. I was VERY confident I had the best hand and with only 10k behind I was left with the decision do I want to flat and keep his range as wide as possible which is highly ev+ (short term) or do I want to shove which would mean him folding all his trash.
I decided to go for option two and opponent snap folded.
The reason I went for option number two was really because I felt it was more +ev (long run) to take the pot there and try make sure my hand does not go to show down. It is a stage of the tournament where I really do not want hands to go to show down and spesh if my preflop range is wide, I want my perceived range to always be narrower than it is when I am playing loose and wider than it is when I am playing tight. I also felt my opponent would just give up on the bluff giving he has no fold equity any more so I wasn't guaranteed the rest of the chips and might sacrifice getting sucked out on when I am perfectly happy with the size of the pot as it is. Also the odd time he has a7s 45s 67 78 some pps 108s and is forced to call the last 10k but will check down if I just call. My decision here was based on putting all of those factors into consideration, but mainly due to the importance of my entire table image. I liked the fact that I was new to the table and was already standing up to 'the bully.' It's like standing up to the bully in school on the first day, the others will gain some more respect for you, but may loose respect for future raises if I show such a weak pre flop hand. This is definately not a time I want them to see I am raising light, avoiding non show downs at all costs unless makes my image look good.

Chip stack at the end of the Day 1: 86,500 Blinds 800/1600

On a last note, unlucky to my boy Serkules who came with me to play the tournament. He had a very aggressive hand where he 3bet 33 pre and got flatted by 2 opponents, one of his opponents (super lag) lead a flop of A 2 4. Serkules re raised folding out the other opponent. He got flatted by the initial flop better. The turn came 5 (Bink), the player check raised Serkules leaving Serkules with 5k behind in an already 55k pot, Serkules just flatted to make sure his opponent put in the remainder of his chips. River 2 and the 5k goes in. His Lag opponent managed to have 63o. Lol. Unlucky bro but I have to laugh a little bit at how much of a ridiculous way this is to go out. Very unlucky but obviously the poker gods are saving the run good for the high roller event. Hehehe. Good game bro.

Oh yeah and thanks for the $1,000 last longer bet!!!

Finally, a cool blog post which was done today on me on the Pokerstars Blog page due to the fact that I used 'FPPs' to buy into the event. The blogger, Alex, only spoke to me for a few minutes to gather this information but was happy that he done the post about me, was really nice to see myself on the Pokerstars website.
View his blog here.