I should have called the floor, but I didn’t. As the lady was quite loose with her calls and I thought she didn’t want to raise (I was probably wrong), I thought I could make her fold by re-raising. I was wrong, she had a monster and pushed all-in at which point I was getting 3:1 odds on my call, so as long as her range is not only QQ-AA (which it is not), I can’t fold. My Q7o didn’t draw out on her KK.

So this was disappointing but I think I finished a good season. (I think a tournament season should be from August to July, until the end of the WSOP) This was my first season when I played a lot of big tournaments thanks to my Everest Poker sponsorship and satellite tournaments before that.

I made 4 final tables (WPT, NAPT side event, Unibet Open and Budapest Poker Open Ladies Event) and won the NAPT side event. I hope some truly big results will follow next season which is very well possible if I keep playing so consistently and improve my game as much as I can. I also think the WSOP 13th place was a great success, I qualified for the $1500 event on Everest Poker from $100.

Now I will have close to two months for online poker and then no poker for quite some time. I started to work on my 7 card stud game again, I played an hour or two yesterday for small stakes ($0.50/$1) and made $30. I felt pretty good about my game so I will try $1/$2 for next. I have played on $2/$4 before, just a couple of times but I haven’t played in a while and I am just starting to learn this game so I wanted to take it easy.

I would like to be able to play the small 8-game tournaments on the WSOP by 2012. I think in 2011 I will play the 2-7 triple draw and 7 card stud, and possibly some more stud games like Razz or 8 or better. I hope it will be a big surprise when I show up in 2011 as a very mature 2-7 player who they have never seen before By that time I will have been playing for 2 years and hopefully get to some decent stakes online. I wouldn’t mind playing as high as $500/$1000 later if I can beat the game (and not necessarily by that time).  Same for stud and other games, perhaps the 8-mix too.

So from July, no poker for months and months… only baby I am very excited about it, I can’t wait. I will be back in December playing some tournaments and then I guess the continuation depends on Everest Poker for the most part.

I am flying back to Toronto tomorrow.

I just don’t think it is normal… 6 hours of play… No pairs, no AK-AQ-AT or anything remotely playable. I got my chips from a hobby player who pushed all-in against me with bottom pair and I had a relatively easy call with top pair.

The hand went like this: I had 20bb, found A5o on the small blind. I am not willing to raise-call with this, but I am absolutely happy to limp-reraise all-in with it. So I just call, the big blind checks. Flop comes AT7, all clubs. I don’t want to build a big pot, especially he is never folding a reasonable club here and I am pretty certain I have the best hand right now. I am willing to call 3 streets of betting.

The blind was 600, he bets 1k, I quickly call. Turn is the 2 of diamonds, check-check. River is the 4 of spades. I bet 1k just to get some value for my ace. I suppose I could have bet 2k and still get called by any pair. However he raised me all-in.

I had been playing with this guy for 4 hours by this time and my first reaction is to insta-call. However, I was really happy with my play that first I thought it through. Is there anything he could have hit with the 4? (Not really.) From what I saw from him, would he be trying to get value and raise smaller if he hit two pair? (Yes.) Does he think that big bets are the way to bluff? (Definitely.) So I call .

He shows K4 for bottom pair – funny play. Anyway, I was happy with the way I played, it is just not possible to make in such a fast structure if you never have a hand. Finally I pushed KTo from the cut-off for 12 BB and the dealer found QQ (same guy). He had several (3 or so) AAs during the tournament and tons of other good hands

Whyyyyyyyy….. I hate to feel unlucky.

What is more surprising is that some big online and live tourney pros are also staying here Young guys like EPT Dortmund champion and EPT Deauville runner-up,  Mike “Timex” McDonald; EPT Berlin chamion Kevin MacPhee; Turbo Takedown winner Matt “Ch0ppy” Kay and some of their friends (also very good players).

I like to hang out with them, because I can pick up useful information about tournament situations and sometimes they also discuss hands which is useful to listen to. I can even get some useful advice, like not to play the €5k event in Monte Carlo but to play the €2k instead – I will take the advice and drop the €5k from my schedule I think

Joe (3rd in WPT Bucharest) and Kevin also confirmed that there is no way I should have folded the AK in Bucharest on the final table. I still think that it was a good call and it was nice to hear that these guys would have done the same.

I will play the Monte Carlo Main Event satellite tonight, wish me good luck

I still can’t complain about my luck. On the second day I had the AK and beat KK pre-flop all-in as I wrote in my previous post. Then on the 3rd day I was completely card dead and had no opportunity to push my short stack, so when I finally had a chance to push K6o from the cut-off with 8BB left, I got called by the big blind’s AT and spiked the K. Then I doubled up again with my AQ vs AT.

It just feels really bad that exactly when I could have got back in the game and have a shot for the real money. I also feel I played really well for the last two days, but I had no cards ever. I had two KKs and both times the A flopped I haven’t seen any other pairs higher than 88 for the last two days, except one JJ on the button when they folded to my raise. I had two AAs the first day in 9 hours of play, but also nothing else for the whole day.

Anyway, I am not unhappy. This was my first EPT cash and I don’t think it would have been possible to get any further the way I was running – you just can’t win a tournament without cards or at least hitting some flops (without somebody hitting it harder). I was on the top of my game for most of the tournament (except the first couple of hours) and that is what matters for now. I am sure my day will come when it is all combined with being on the good side of confrontations.

I am not sure if I want to play the €1k event tomorrow, probably not. I will definitely play 2 live satellites for the Monte Carlo Main Event.

I am still in, but short stacked. The day was like a rollercoster. First I went up to 145k. I never ever had a hand, I only played stacks, people and situations but I never got caught. My image was very good at the table. Any pot I entered for the first 3-4 levels, I won. All of them without a showdown (I had nothing to show down anyway ).

Then the most important hand of the day came up. I raised from UTG with 77, got 2 callers and the flop was a brilliant AA7. I bet and got called only by Nick Schulman (WSOP bracelet, WPT bracelets). The turn was a Q which didn’t make me very happy since AQ is exactly one of the hands he plays this way. However there is no way I am folding a full house so I bet out and got raised. Not very happy. I still put my stack in which luckily was more than his. Of course he showed AQ and I lost the 230k pot.

I was left there with appr. 36-40k with the blinds being 1200/2400. I found AQ in the cutoff and decided to raise-call since the small blind previously pushed several times his re-steal stack on top of other people’s raises. As expected, the small blind re-raised all-in, but unexpectedly the big blind also went all-in. Now I was stuck with my great plan. I ended up folding which I think is the right play at this point despite the original plan. The small blind showed AQ and the big blind had JJ which held up.

So I was left with 11-12 big blinds when I found AK UTG and pushed all-in. I hoped for a call from a weaker ace but I ended being called by KK. I was not happy until the flop where I got lucky and scored my ace for a double-up.

Now I had 60k and felt that I could get back in the game soon. At this point I got my one and only big (99+) pair of the day. UTG raised a small amount and I just called from UTG+1 with KK hoping that someone will try to steal the pot with a re-raise. There were several agressive guys around the table and a re-steal stack on the big blind as well who previously showed willingness to put his stack in when the right situation came up.

Unfortunately nobody re-raised and the flop came with an A. Check-check. Turn is a 4. UTG bets very small, I just called. River is a 4. UTG bets what screems of a value bet amount. I put him on AJ-AT. It really hurt to fold but I was obviously beaten. He showed 44 for quads.

Now I was down to 35k again thanks to my greed (I hoped to double my 60k with my KK). I managed to double up when Nick Shulman re-raised a middle position raise from late position and I shoved with my AJ. Many times he didn’t check the stacks behind him and still 3bet very light. I knew I was way ahead of his range and took my chance. He had AT and my hand held up.

Then our table break and I basically only managed to keep myself alive with sometimes stealing the blinds and sometimes re-stealing with a push. I didn’t have any reasonable hands again. I finished the day with 88k which is going to be 17 big blinds tomorrow. Not very good, but chip and chair…

I think I will be happy if I just make the money tomorrow, I haven’t had any EPT cashes before. Of course I am not going to fold in situations where I should obviously call just because of the bubble, but I will try not to make silly moves on the bubble either.

Then, anything can happen I can double up once or twice and be back in the game.

Then we drove to San Remo for the EPT. I played day 1A and went through with 79,400 chips. The starting stack was 30,000. I don’t think I played well, but I didn’t play badly either. However I could do much better and hopefully will show that in the upcoming days.

First I dropped down to 9,000 thanks to a player who called even on the turn with AK, no pair and hit her K on the river, plus another guy who limped with K2 from EP, called my raise, hit his K and never released the hand, even when I raised his river blocking bet. For the first 6 hours I also never saw a pair better than 88. Anyway, 9k was still 30 big blinds and then I managed to double up when I finally hit a set with my 22. Soon after I saw the flop come T7T for my 77 which meant another 10k or so for my stack (could have been more, I left the opponent 6k which he would have been willing to put in with his T).

Not long after that I doubled up again when a guy with QQ ran into my slowplayed AA. So I was sitting there with over 60k at this point, above average stack. And I finally had a stack big enough to make some moves My image was also great, I only showed down really strong hands. So after they announced the end of the day in a couple of hands I made a move that turned out to be the wrong move at the right time. An Italian player, who raised each and every hand from MP and later if nobody else entered, raised again, so I decided to re-raise with Q7o. I was not happy when he called and the flop came J66 so we both checked. The turn brought the a very nice Q so I even got paid in this appr. 40k pot.

Tomorrow, on the second day, the structure is going to be even slower so there is no need to do anything silly, I will just try to play my A-game and slowly increase my stack. Probably day 3 and the bubble are going to be one of the most important points in the tournament, so first I just need to make sure I make it there to be able to use it to my advantage.

I think I played the best game on the EPT €2000 side-event where I made the first light 6-bet of my life )) Although it sounds risky and very wild on the 2nd level of a tournament, I actually played with that opponent 8 hours the previous day so I knew his game and I knew what I was doing. He was the kind of guy who just keeps 3-betting very light, in and out of position all the time. It was obvious that when somebody first played back at him with a 4-bet, he has to defend his 3-bet by 5-betting light. So I thought one level further and 6-bet him with my pocket 3s and he folded As it turns out I still had the best hand (from what he said afterward and I believe him) which I had thought I probably did.

Anyway, I lost a 150BB pot not long after this against the same guy when he went all-in with his flush draw against my QT on the QJ9 flop and he hit his flush.

KK vs AA pre-flop confrontations also keep hunting me. After I had KK vs AA 3 times on the EPT in Deauville I was very unhappy that on the Main Event here it happened again. That crippled me enough to get knocked out not long after.

I met some good players though and some famous ones as well . On my €1000 side-event, I was sat right next to Boris Becker after a table change. I arrived to the table, said hello, Boris greeted me and as I sat down he said “Hello, I’m Boris!” “Hello, I’m Viktoria, nice to meet you” Then I told him that when he was a big tennis  player, I was a sports reporter in Hungary and commentated the Olympics and stuff. He said that was his previous life, so I told him so was mine! We had fun, he is a nice guy, and he sat behind me – you always want to make friends with the guy sitting behind you but not in front of you

Next is WPT Bucharest, I am flying tomorrow, I  hope I can finally show some nice results!