So I'm going to play a 10k in Kings Casino Rozadov Czech Republic, the WSOPE main event. It was my first ever 10k buy-in. I never thought much, if any, about playing the WSOPE main event but always imagined I would at some stage . It was always a dream to play the WSOP main event which I still haven't managed to do (next year hopefully), I got to play my first Ept in December 2016 in Prague (which didn't go so well, the Euerka did though as I've mentioned in my last blog) and is also my last as Pokerstars have done away with the EPT tour, or just re branded it. At least I'm doing it in the order you would expect, EPT, WSOPE and WSOP.
We were staying in the Park hotel in Pilsen, which was a 45min drive from Kings Casino and it was a pretty nice hotel. Even though the bar in the hotel only opened during the week, what the fck that was all about is beyond me.
A friend of mine travelled with me and I had also got in touch with Dara O Kearney as I knew he was going as well, along with Mrs Doke (Dara's wife). We were flying into Prague and then had about a 1hr 30min drive, so we decided to hire a car, all in, this cost about €200 for the five days between four of us, which was pretty good. Flights cost me €160 return, pretty cheap trip (once I could avoid the drunken cash games).
We arrived on the Saturday and headed straight to Kings as we had to check into Kings for our hotel, we didn't hang around for too long as we had a 45min drive to our hotel and had a 12pm start the following day.
There was a really thick fog the whole way to the hotel, even though it was motorway the whole way it was still difficult to see. We get to Kings the following day and after playing one level where there was a 20min break , It was then I learnt of the tragedy involving Emma Fryer, albeit none of us were aware of the exact circumstances. It wasn't until later in the day we were informed of the true tragedy where Emma was pronounced dead at the scene of a car accident she was involved in.
Emma was staying in the same hotel as us and somewhere along the same route the accident had occurred .
Emma was staying in the same hotel as us and somewhere along the same route the accident had occurred .
Emma was also sponsored by BRS , I didn't know Emma that well as I only met her for the first time at the DTD 1k in Nottingham. Emma had final tabled this 500k Gtd event and I can remember having a chat with her before the FT as a few of us railed her. My heart goes out to Emma's family at this horrific time.
This is a pic from when Emma FT'd the DTD 1K
RIP Emma Fryer
RIP Emma Fryer
Day 1 of the main event was going pretty well, I had a really soft first table with some crazy plays going on, with a 10k buy-in I was shocked at some of the plays. One hand that sticks out, we are 7 handed, this girl opens utg from 25bb and the bb defends, the board is reading 668x8 and the bb jams the river, he has her well covered , she calls with A2o and he has 92o. Crazy stuff, to open A2o in the first place is just ridiculous.
We are playing the last level of the night and I am after loosing several pots which saw my stack drop down to about 60k, but I am still okay, then to my distraught our table breaks and I get moved to a really tuff table with my fellow Irish man Marc McDonald two to my right and another very good reg to my immediate left (not sure of his name) and to his left is Dominik Panka but I am only on this table for about twenty minutes as day one is wrapping up, thank fuck!
Day two I start back with 60k and get drawn to seat eight and immediately I notice two high rollers from the €111,111 one drop, (this should be easy).
Not long have we started and a certain high roller sits down to seat one, he is an absolute nightmare on the table and also plays all the high rollers, he is forever in the tank, all on purpose. So, he plays his first hand and after about one minute been in the tank one of the other high rollers calls clock on him and he starts going nuts, floor is called and the TD comes over and says,
"for fck sake, your at it again"
After some arguing between him and the TD, the TD says,
"Your only in here because of me, Leon (the casino owner) had you barred from here and I convinced him to let you back in, and this is how you repay me, cop yourself on for fck sake, from now on, you will get ten seconds when clock is called, now grow up"
After all of this we eventually get settled in and my first real interesting hand is where some Spanish dude opens the button to 2k, blinds are 400/800, I 3bet from the sb to 7.2k with Ac6h and he calls, flop is 644ss, I cbet to 6.6k and he flats, turn is 8x, I ck call 12k, river is the 3d and I ck and he snap jams 70k into about 50k. I have about 45k behind, In play this made no real sense to me as I felt he would put some thought into his sizing with his value hands so I have ruled out AA/KK, 44 for quads and 88 for a house so after about a five minute tank I make the call for my tournament life and he turns over KQo to my delight, whoop whoop.
A few hands later I 3bet from the sb again vs my Spanish buddy on the button with QQ only for our tanking buddy to 4bet shove about 30bb with JQo from the bb, we do hold.
Unfortunately it was all down hill from here, I lost several pots to Dan Shak who won the 25k super high roller non bracelet event, lost a big chunk to him with AK on A23dd, K, 4d. where I had to fold on the river.
My exit hand was when I opened from utg with AJss from 25bb vs our Spanish buddy in the bb on Q86ss, 3d, Kc, I triple barrel and he calls off with Q9.
Later on that night I head back to one of the other hotels with some of my poker buddies, okay, not exactly a hotel, but more like a retreat which was on the German side of the border.
We stopped off at a petrol station on the way to grab some beer and apparently we were going to sit around a fire and talk lots of shite, I was expecting some sort of camp fire, but no, we sat down in the main lobby in front of a big open fire,
This place was classic and no bother from the owners or other lodgers, it was surrounded by a big wooded area and was only twenty minutes from Kings.
Chilling in front of the fire
"Drunken cash" not really, paced myself.
Jumped into play some 2/5 cash after a few beverages the following night, I'm in for €700 and spin it up to 2k, then this drunken American asks to join.
"How much do I have to sit in for"
I reply "3k should do it"
"Okay my Scottish friend"
So he counts out 1.8k with a fist full more behind, he starts announcing his intentions, announcing how much he is going to bet before it's his turn to act, he lives up to this.
I get dealt my cards and before I even look,
"I'm going to bet 225 my Scottish friend"
To my delight, yes that's right, I look down at two black aces, so I make it 30 and he obliges to 225, before I am able to act,
He shouts "I'm calling a shove", what the fuck do I do I'm thinking to myself, do I go with it and hope he sticks to his word, after some dwell, I do shove and he snaps me off, proudly showing two 8's and we hold, he does buy back in and shares that amongst the table and then leaves with his case of cigars.
"The power of alcohol"
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