EPT Monte Carlo Trip Report (3rd and Final Part)

[gunnershere]

Adam plays amazing like PA says. If PA says it how dare you bastards go against that?!?!? for real though its a good call for all the reasons those ppl have argued. the guy who said he would fold if the hands were turned up should prob be banned but id rather keep him around for how hilarious he is. btw ive never met AJ only seen him around tstone, and from someone who doesnt know him he doesnt sound arrognt at all in these posts. im a writing major and i wish i wrote this well. lol. well done mate, glad you posted these

[registrar]

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The past 2 weeks I've heard the nicest things anyone's ever said to me. I think most people my age, in my spot would've handled this (oh yea, and the outdraw) much worse.



[/ QUOTE ]

This is unquestionably true. I think it's great. These things, the things that we do and the memories we create, have a huge life value. Added to which, it's a substantially +EV call, if hero's read is substantially correct. If his reads aren't this reliable, he has no place at a table with villain or at least half the people at final table. Standard range/ev calcs aren't a whole lot of use against very non-standard players.

[MattSuspect]

Adam,

Great trip report. As a relative novice of MTT play and nowhere near a multilevel thinker such as yourself, I find a lot of great information in this post. Good to hear your confidence isn't lacking, as well it shouldn't. Good read, good post. And Jesus, you are sick. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

-Matt

[betgo]

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I just made the greatest call of my life, in the biggest tournament of my life, vs. the greatest player in the world and got unlucky.

I felt fantastic

My reads were dead-on. I had been outplaying Patrik all day, and this hand put it over the top. I made the right decisions and didn’t care about the results, because I had no control over them. There’s no reason to get upset over something you don’t have control over.

I said “nice hand sir,” clearly, to a very bashful Patrik Antonius.

He responded:

“That hand….was one of the sickest hands I’ve ever seen.”

“You….you play amazing….”

Patrik’s voice was very shaken. After Patrik said “you play amazing” he sort of hesitated and stopped. It sounded as if he’d never said anything like that to anybody in his life.

I never wanted to leave the table. We were on break, but I sat there the entire time it took Patrik to stack my chips. Eventually I got up, and walked across the stage area, where there weren’t too many people. I relaxed on the stairs and some friends approached me. Some had heard about the hand, and some hadn’t. I retold, what I would eventually retell seemingly thousands of times.

When I arrived back to the table from break, the reporters were still going crazy. They looked at me as if I were allowed to do anything. When a player takes a bad beat you usually give them space and don’t bother them.

I’m different.

Etc. etc.

[/ QUOTE ]
I assume you came in your pants multiple times during all of this.

Even if this is the greatest call in the history of poker, your self-congratulary telling of the story is way over the top and makes me want to puke.

No offense.

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This is all a little over the top. I don't want to burst OP's bubble, but this was an incredibly good situation. You have a table full of weak/tight donks and a LAG trying to run over the table directly to your right. Plus the donk were intimidated by being at the table with one of the best players in the world and were playing even more weak/tight like rarely raising and making it 7-10xBB when they did. This sounds like a great situation.

It sounds like OP played well and handled the situation well. I sure he is an excellent player. It is good not to be intimidated by a player like Antonius. Obviously OP was in a great position to take advantage of Antonius' LAG play. However, it would not be correct to think that OP has the level of skill that Antonius has.

[gobbomom]

Jimmy caught alot of mostly well-deserved crap, too when he called all the Aussie players fish and yelled out ship it to Shane. I think adrenaline plays no small part in reactions to playing some of the biggest live poker tournaments in a young player's experience. It seems it's just one more thing to learn: how to find a good balance of necessary confidence and cockiness coupled with proper humility, style and class. I think everybody deserves some slack while they figure out the image they want to project in their poker careers.


edited to add: Phil Helmuth would be only too lucky to have his friends offer their constructive criticisms.

[sethypooh21]

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However, it would not be correct to think that OP has the level of skill that Antonius has.

[/ QUOTE ]John Starks occasionally outplayed MJ. That Jordan is the GOAT doesn't mean that Starks shouldn't still feel awesome about this. But as Denny Green might say, let's not crown his ass.

[LearnedfromTV]

I enjoyed the report, and am impressed by the call. It seems like it was probably correct, especially if AK (cc or no) is really the only hand that does this and has you crushed. Pocket pairs and stuff like 45 being in the range is ok, you have 6 outs. Lower flush draws than AK obviously good. Altogether you probably have 39%.

I had been outplaying Patrik all day

I don't see any reason to ever say this, whether it's true and whether you're including it for effect in a story or not. Partly as an ego issue; I agree with Justin that this and a few other statements in the post are egotistical. I guess that's fine, though; people can have egos and some personalities are more vocal about their confidence (never met Adam, but I guess from his posts that he isn't usually a big egotist but I can understand this situation changing that some). But also because I don't think that's the right way to think about poker. This is a semantic difference, I suppose, but an important one: you win by making good decisions, +EV decisions, which includes exploiting whatever exploitable tendencies you observe in your opponents; calling it outplaying rather than decision-making, setting out to outplay rather than make decisions puts the focus in the wrong place. Outplaying results from good decision-making, not the reverse, and it's a bad idea to set outplaying an individual as a goal, or to act like outplaying an individual is an accomplishment. Don't forget that a main reason Adam got some/a lot of Patrik's chips is he was in position for the whole war.

A lot of the people in awe of this call are putting the cart before the horse and imo Adam and everyone else would be better off imagining how he would feel and contrasting the reaction other people have had if Patrik had, say AKo (reducing the chance you had AA-KK, with the Q on the flop making it harder for you to have QQ or to call with the rest of your range). I guess you could think about him having a pocket pair or xy clubs were x was the non-club on the flop (and then you sucking out on the river), but specifically AKo, because the entire reaction would have been different, the whole story would've been how owned you got by Patrik. The Junglen blowup. Even if it was a good call against his range.

Honestly I think him having AK, and you walking away quietly knowing you made the right call while the masses who were amazed this time laughed about it would be a much stronger and more important display of poker confidence. All of which is another way of saying "don't forget, as you get asked that hand for the next two years, that poker fame is results oriented."

[LearnedfromTV]

I don't think Adam saying he outplayed Patrik meant that he thinks he is better than him (it can sound that way though). He was pretty clear in one of these reports that he thought his edge came from being unknown to Patrik while Patrik was known to him.

None of us are in a position to evaluate how much edge Patrick would have if they each knew each other, or whether Adam being unknown and having position is enough to overcome this edge. I doubt Adam can know either.

[Jurollo]

Very well put LFTV... I do, find it rather interesting that a general line between those who may be in the older portion of posters here (I will include myself as an "old 23") and those of the younger audience are clearly lining up on their respective sides of the arrogance issue. A not-so-shocking sociological happening indeed.
~J

[Jurollo]

Also...
I have wanted to ask this... give me a range for PA, someone, anyone. A reasonable range for PA.
~J