Hey! Well sorry for the few weeks between an update but things have been very busy. I recently flew out to Malta to play in the EC Poker Tour (I think the buy in was about $2500) and thought I would write a quick trip report about that. THIS IS A LONG POST SORRY!!!!

Opening Party: 

Firstly the hotel they put us up in was fantastic, it was called the Grand Excelsior Hotel,  and was definitely worth the five star rating it has! I traveled with a friend of mine (Shaun) who took no time and great delight in realising we had free slippers and bathrobes, (simple things please simple minds :D ). To top it off I think it was under an hour before I had to call reception to fix our wifi in our room... and also unlock the safe which Shaun had managed to lock without remembering which combination he entered... sigh.

After that was sorted it was off to the welcome party!!! The trip between the hotel and the casino Venezia was about 15-20 minutes and thankfully the organizers were supplying a free shuttle service every hour. Occasionally I got a taxi as the times were very sporadic or there was no room, but it only cost about 20euros and often could share with 4 people. Before we could enter the casino they organizers handed out champagne outside and we watch a nice display of fire breathers and exotic dancers. It was actually very nice touch although I did think throughout the week that they had gone slightly over board for such a small buy in tournament that ended up only having 140 runners! Obviously the Maltese are proud of this casinos/poker and wanted to prove that they could put on a good tournament to no doubt tempt us all back next year.

Once in the casino we were greeted my models with yet more drink and free gifts. The event was sponsored by Titan Poker (ipoker) and Moneybookers. Despite trying to return them as they had nothing but XL sizes I still ended up with far too much promo clothing and other such random accessories. (The best being a cigar + moneyclip from Moneybookers w00p lol). Anyways it was a largely uneventful night after this, except there was an open bar and buffet.. so.. well.. let's just say that it was a good thing that the tournament started at 4pm the next day! 

 Day 1:

Well the tournament started at 4pm so I think I woke up at around 2pm and then hit the gym that was downstairs. Surprisingly all the gym/pools/sauna/steam room was free so that was a nice bonus. Makes a change.. I hope your listening Bellagio. So yeh an hour or so working out there and my mind was clear and ready to own some souls at the table. One quick complaint was that they did not allocate seats randomly by computer and put them up on a screen. Instead you walked up to the cashier with your players band (that you had received the previous night) and they presented you with a card with a seat/table number. Then you would go to the tournament director and he would write this on a piece of paper... was all very long winded and pointless when we live in a digital age.

So yeh I get to my table and look around to see a collect of 4-5 young players mainly from Germany/Sweden, and the rest are mainly oldish guys. There was a nice Australian on my table that was traveling the world and just happened to qualify for this online, and a couple of other British players that acted as though they were very scared. To be honest there is always that slight nervousness/ apprehension before any live tournament you take seriously but best to just throw the headphones in and act as confident as possible. Early on it was quite clear that we had got quite a tough table for the tournament. I actually loved it, and thrived on the table playing what I thought (and others mentioned later) exceptional poker. Just by glancing around though on the other tables you could tell that there was so much dead money via online qualifiers and our table was lacking this. As a side note some people did buy in directly, and they were given a separate wrist band, which actually came in handy in the later stages as honestly their average skill level was 5x what the average online qualifier was. Many people I spoke to whilst registering informed me it was their first live tournament etc. and didn't know what to expect etc.

Anyways.... enough rambling... early on we are taking it turns between about 3 young players (including myself) to open the pots and appear to be the only ones giving any action too. The starting stacks were 10k and blinds at 25/50. I must commend them for their structure as I felt the mixture of 1 hour and 1.5 hour blind levels worked very well. Within the first few hands I pick up pocket 9's in the sb and sadly facing a raise and a reraise from the button had to ditch them. I was one of the most active players at our table along with one very good guy from Finland, (we spoke many times away from the tables during the weekend and both commended each other and had a few jokes etc). I raise it up with AKhh and the flop comes Ac Kc 2c. I bet he smooth calls. The turn brings 5c. I'm actually not sure if this is a good or bad card for me really, he is more than capable of representing a flush and I thought most of the time he is betting this turn in pos with a worse hand so decided to be about half pot, which was about 600 chips. He smooth calls again. The river blanks out (no club no ace or king) and I check. He fires pot and I fold. My 10k starting stack is now more like 8k.. only a flesh wound :)

A couple of hours go past with not alot happening other than the strong player from Finland winning a flip vs another good young player. This had it benefits, he was replaced with a hopeless English man. However an excellent player now had alot of chips and was opening alot of pots now. I pick up AK again on the button and infront of me is a raise from the hijack (a young player who was a very weak standard) and a flat from the cutoff, (a young man from Norway who had commented many times how much he hate his seat.. having me to his left and then Mr. Agro from Finland a couple of seats before him). I elected to 3 bet to about 1900 @ 75/150. It was a pot size raise and to be honest woulda been happy to just take it down there and be back at just above average stack. The hijack flats and the cutt off folds... excellent I'm heads up vs a very weak player with position. His flat did scare me but to be honest I've seen him flat so many raises his range is anything from 77 - AJ. The flop comes Ah Kd 7c.. bink. He checks and I opt to bet 2100. This was about 1/3 of the pot or just over and gave him the chance to push with a decent raise given his 8.5k starting stack. Nearly instantly he announces he is all in.. no time to really hollywood or think if he had 77, I'm not folding. I call and he shows AQo and I hold.. I was later told by a fellow player at the table that it was an early present from Santa but yeh, not entirely sure what he was hoping for there. His flat pre really got him in a lot of trouble there and if I do give him action to his shove he is in a world of hurt obv.

 So the start had gone very well, I had just under double average and that continued the same way really till the end of the day. 140 people started the day and only about 50 finished it. Average chips was 24k and I finished the day on about 23k with blinds at 300/600/75. Tomorrow I had some work to do, and figured given the quick pace of the structure over the next 3 levels before it slowed down again there were going to be quite a few casualties early. It's about 2am and time to bag + tag the chips ready for tomorrow. We are informed that we won't be on the same tables tomorrow (which is a shame as I've been on the same table nearly the whole tournament and it was a drooler).

 Day 2:

So day two starts just as crazy as day one begun. Everybody lining up to see what table they have been allocated to. First hand I return to 400/800/100 and figured on the button I can prolly steal the first hand with any 2 so K8o seems good and I make it 2100. The small blind (who I believe was clockwyze online a sicko cap player who has won mirrions) 3 bets me.. the big blind then 4 bets... bearing in mind both had about 30-35k to start the day and average was 24k. The small blind tanks for a long time and over shoves, not quite covering the bb.. the young foreign man in the big blind now looks like he is going to puke. He looks disgusted that this could be happening to him on the first hand. Reluctantly he calls and shows pocket Jacks. The small blind ("clockwyze'') turns over tens and the big blind seems relieved that somehow his hand is good.... well it was good till the flop came out A 10 x x x and he was left with 1/2 a big blind. Poker is fun. For everyone. A few hands and blind steals later I'm in the big blind with 69s and the sb kindly just limps in. Given this happened precisly 0 times yesterday I'm in a slight state of shock that nobody has attacked my big blind. So i elect the check and see a rather pleasing 9 8 2 flop. The sb is fairly short and leads for 2300, he only has about 4500 behind and I put him in. He turns over a worryingly strong J10, although I managed to hold and now up to about 32k.  With his elimination our table breaks and I get put onto the most drooler table in the room. The average age is about 45 and within 2 orbits I've seen people give others walks in the big blind numerous times. There isn't a soul with an aggressive bone in his body on this table and my seat is perfect. Poker heaven.

One hand does come to mind that I thought was well played out. An old English man with a sizable stack comparable to mine opens it up for about 2.5bb at 500/1000/100. An awful French player has decided to flat on the button and use the new found chips he has acquired in the past 5 hands to good use.. (he had 4bb's and won 2 flips then picked up AA to have about 30k). Already I sense weakness in the old man who has opened utg mainly because of his reactions to being called and double checking his cards. The French player could have any 2 under the sun so I decide that I'm 3 betting from the big blind no matter what 2 I have. I look down and there it is.. the 6h with the 2c. It's a beauty and its time to look like I'm in a world of hurt with pocket tens. I take 10 seconds to ask the dealer what the action is to me and then proceed to make it 9200. The initial raiser is horrified and actually appears to be dwelling. I can usually spot a hollywood and this wasn't it. Maybe this was one 3 bet too far? After a good minute he lays it down as does the over caller. Before I could muck the old English man asks me if I could beat his AQ and I proceed to tell him ''your behind'' and show the 2c. This does not go down well and I think in hindsight it didn't help my blind stealing image.

On a valid point here throughout 2 days of playing up until this point (we are about half way through day 2 with 34 players remaining) I haven't had a pocket pair bigger than 9's which I saw early on, not made a set, not made a flush, or a straight. So I'm in card dead city and thankfully there is no such thing as a 'live heads up display' because my stats would probably be 20/19 with a 3 bet of 10-20%. It was the only way I was surviving and although not risking alot of chips each time I was very surprised at the lack of resistance shown. I believe that if I was in a 10k or just a better field not consisting of scared money online qualifiers then I would be in a lot of pain short stacked with frustration.

Anyways lets cut to the chase. I had chipped up to nearly 70k @ 600/1200/200 and the average was about 35k so I was very happy with how I was doing at this stage, and still on the same table line up. We had been joined by a solid French player who had some serious tilt issues and turned out was actually v balla. Cashing 7 times in the last wsop. I also had a slight ''s***' moment when Sorel Mizzi (Imper1um online and sponsored by betfair) was walking to our table but thankfully he was on the other table behind.

For the 3rd hand in a row I raise it up from UTG+1 with a genuine hand, AQhh. The bald French player who earlier had flatted a raise decided to flat my raise playing about 30k from the sb. The bb decides its not worth the extra and we see a mouthwatering Jc 10h 6h flop. Bearing in mind I havn't made a flush/straight/set all tournament I feel like I've already got the nuts. My opponent leads for 6000 into a 7000 pot. I mull for about 3 seconds before raising to 19k. He tanks for milliseconds and decides he has the best hand and pushes for an extra 5-6k. I call and turn over my hand pretty happy not matter what I'm against.... he has KJo. This isn't bad, any heart,queen,ace,king twice. I'm actually a favorite w00pw00p. Turn is the 7c river is the 7d. Good game all. I guess this is the joy of no limit.. meh I have still about 28k at 600/1200/200 after losing that 70k pot.

An orbit later and I've unsuccessfully tried to steal once or twice and down to 20k. It folds to the sb who is an aging man from York I believe and appears to have queens or aces one an orbit. He's doubled last hand with queens so hes good for another orbit I think. He raises my bb a little too much. He makes it 3600 after trying to string raise twice lol. I look down at Q9o and decide that I'm in position and frankly a better player so likely to win this pot. I can see the door card is a queen and somehow there is also a 10 and a J too. So Q J 10 with 2 clubs. He bets 5000 and I count my chips. I have another 12k on top which is a decent size raise. I study him for 20 seconds or so and elect that there is no way I'm ever folding so push my last 17k into the pot which he can cover by a couple of hundred. He lets out a sigh. He's hurting. He's landed himself in this one... ''one time call me with 109 I'm hoping''. He calls reluctantly and shows K10o. This is the first time I've been all in all tournament and a good 2-1 favorite (again). Then turn is a 9 giving him a straight and me two pair. He slams the table and announces to the table what a good call he has made. ''Well done'' I'm saying in my head.. just one time house up and give me some justice. River ace of spades. Tap tap. Good Game. Nice hand. Well played. Unlucky. I'm out.

I gather my things so good luck to the table and mull over what might have been. I feel I played exceptional given the cards I had and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Two people I had all in made the final table and one even came 2nd. The guy who took me out came 8th I think and Sorel Mizzi also made a good final table appearance with finishing 7th. Overall I believe I finished 32nd with top 17 paying. Full credit to the guy that won, he was a machine and played amazing. As I was leaving I saw him make a truly sick call with pocket 8's for a 100k+ pot on the river on a K Q J 7 x board. The other guy had 75o.

I will update during the week about online play, things have been going ok I guess and trying to play 3000 hands a day and oddly succeeding!!!!

 (if you read all the above thanks.. hope you enjoyed it!)