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

[FoldALot.]

[ QUOTE ]
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.

[tubasteve]

I was really on the fence about this call, but with all the history its probably not bad. Antonius isn't shoving a good hand there because he gets no value when Adam doesn't have anything. I just wonder if Antonius would ever make this play with a pair, which would really [censored] Adam's equity.

[terrellk11]

First let me say that it's not my intent to offend or annoy. The point of posting on here is to discuss hands and try to work together to improve. I make no claim to being an allstar tournament player and I'm doing my best to learn from posts just like this one.

I do have a few comments/questions about your latest post:

[ QUOTE ]

Ask Gobbo, Carl, Ray, David Ross, Matt (mlagoo), Yuv, DeleteYou, or anyone else that spoke with me on break while I was playing with Patrik. I was NOT happy that Patrik was at my table, and was honestly terrified.

[/ QUOTE ]

Then why get into an all or nothing hand with him only 30 minutes away from the end of the day?

[ QUOTE ]
That being said, I'm not going to just concede and let Patrik run the table. You know how I got my stack to 60k?

Playing (and winning) pots against Patrik Antonius.

Read my previous reports. I profited 10k when I coolered a pot committed opponent with QQ vs his AQ on the AQJ, and won AA vs 99 for a profit of 10k.

I played some small ball and we'll say profited another 10k.

So, that's +30k from coolers/small ball + 15k starting stack = 45k. I had 60k...so where did the other 25% of my stack come from?

The good aggressive player to my right.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, letting him run the table would be bad. But you haven't done that. You've hit him time and a again to show you're in control of the table and you've taken a sizeable chunk of his stack in the process. However, from what you've said, you have done so by forcing him to make tough decisions with the threat of elimination.

Your two biggest advantages at this table are (1) that you've the big stack, which gives you the ability to threaten others with elimination; and (2) that you have position on your most dangerous opponent. As you've described it, you've used those two advantages to outplay PA at the table and establish yourself as the table boss. By pushing all in, PA eliminated both of your advantages and put you to the test.

I'm not saying you shouldn't be going to battle against PA when the situation calls for it. But why go to battle without your weapons?

[Ansky]

terrlll... i think you should really have lost all respect in this thread w/ this:

"ven if you could see his cards - he turns them over after making the bet and dares you to call him - you should fold."

honestly just stop trying to critique his play. When someone like AK87 says something it holds weight... when someone who says some inane [censored] like the above quote, no one cares.

[betgo]

[ QUOTE ]
First let me say that it's not my intent to offend or annoy. The point of posting on here is to discuss hands and try to work together to improve. I make no claim to being an allstar tournament player and I'm doing my best to learn from posts just like this one.

I do have a few comments/questions about your latest post:

[ QUOTE ]

Ask Gobbo, Carl, Ray, David Ross, Matt (mlagoo), Yuv, DeleteYou, or anyone else that spoke with me on break while I was playing with Patrik. I was NOT happy that Patrik was at my table, and was honestly terrified.

[/ QUOTE ]

Then why get into an all or nothing hand with him only 30 minutes away from the end of the day?

[ QUOTE ]
That being said, I'm not going to just concede and let Patrik run the table. You know how I got my stack to 60k?

Playing (and winning) pots against Patrik Antonius.

Read my previous reports. I profited 10k when I coolered a pot committed opponent with QQ vs his AQ on the AQJ, and won AA vs 99 for a profit of 10k.

I played some small ball and we'll say profited another 10k.

So, that's +30k from coolers/small ball + 15k starting stack = 45k. I had 60k...so where did the other 25% of my stack come from?

The good aggressive player to my right.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, letting him run the table would be bad. But you haven't done that. You've hit him time and a again to show you're in control of the table and you've taken a sizeable chunk of his stack in the process. However, from what you've said, you have done so by forcing him to make tough decisions with the threat of elimination.

Your two biggest advantages at this table are (1) that you've the big stack, which gives you the ability to threaten others with elimination; and (2) that you have position on your most dangerous opponent. As you've described it, you've used those two advantages to outplay PA at the table and establish yourself as the table boss. By pushing all in, PA eliminated both of your advantages and put you to the test.

I'm not saying you shouldn't be going to battle against PA when the situation calls for it. But why go to battle without your weapons?

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, I agree. Flat calling the initial raise uses your position. 5-betting allin uses your big stack. Flat calling the 4-bet gives PA the initiative to push the flop or make a pot committing pot size bet.

[bigj0e03]

I think all of you are being so ridiculous/obnoxious I just can't help but make a similar ranting post to the one I previously made (search my name and find it, its in the mtt community forum) when this hand was first being commented on.

Lets make a few things clear.
1)There is nothing wrong with being arrogant occasionally. I'm arrogant more often than most and so what, I'm the best at what I do in the world so I can if i want (yea thats right). Adam savagely outplayed the best poker player in the world for 10 hours....on no sleep....yea....I mean look at all the elipses I'm using. That first day was so long, the fact that PA was actually the one who tilted off first is in itself something to commend Adam on.
2) Obviously it was PA who had something to prove not Adam. PA is the one who rereraised out of position late in the day against the only person at the table (and one of the few in the room) who had proven that they were not going to let him run over them. Then he shoves almost 2x pot with any draw on the flop against someone who he's "pretty sure has KK". So in my mind it was PA who finally tilted in this situation, and I don't blame him, it sucks that he got stuck to the immediate right of such an asian lag monkey. (I know how he feels, ask me about PCA).
3) Are you guys seriously implying that it is -EV to make a super bold play against PA in this thing???? If anything there is [censored] OF EV in making a play that could not only bust PA but make him look silly. He called 3 buy ins worth of chips with AJo, and was right....can you say publicity. Making a play like that is worth its weight in gold, and any of you who can't see that are thinking about this the wrong way. AK87 was 2 away from the final table, but I bet Adam got more publicity out of this thing than him. And if Adam would've won the hand and gotten into the money, I mean [censored] he would be a very, very well known name by now. I would expect that he would featured in many magazines/websites because of this hand.
4) Also, remember that there was one level left in the day. The 200/400 w/50 antes level, where the pot is over 1k chips each hand. Do you realize that if he would've busted PA this hand he probly would've won like 3/4 of the hands (if not more) for the last 90 minutes of the day. I'd say that in of itself is worth well over 20k in chips. If he folds, not only is he bending over to PA like a common bitch, throwing away like 20k in pot equity due to pot odds, eliminating all of the publicity EV, but he is also losing massive amounts of EV in the last round of the day. In that last round everybody is so tired and just wants to go to sleep that the good players can easily take over the table. I remember at my table George Danzer or I raised every hand the entire last level and probably increased our stacks by almost 15k each. I can only imagine if I was the only good player at the table, not to mention one who had just called 45k with A high and been right...I mean the equity there is huge. In fact I think it is very reasonable to assume that if Adam wins this race he would not only have been one of the chipleaders going into day 2 but without a doubt the favorite. And if he loses the race? Well he still has 10-15k left, by no means dead, I believe when I sat down at AK's table during the first level of day 2 he had only about 15k. But to be honest I am not unhappy that he lost the race because he offered me a sick deal to back him in this thing and I didn't, and I am really glad I don't have to deal with that type of regret [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Ok, so thats all I have to say. I know several of the people who have posted saying this was a bad play are very good players in their own right. I haven't heard anyone say that AK played the tournament anything but brilliantly, but I think that you guys aren't seeing the big picture.

[ASPoker8]

QED, BigJoe, well said

[augie_]

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Not knocking you here Adam, but did anyone else burst out laughing when Justin says, "you sure are being cocky" and Adam responds "Here's some more compliments I've gotten recently!"

[bigj0e03]

Oh, one more thing. I think shoving over the 9k raise is pretty [censored] exploitable and makes me cringe because PA doesn't give a [censored] about the money and is calling with a range that makes me very nervous.

[sethypooh21]

[ QUOTE ]
QED, BigJoe, well said

[/ QUOTE ]I have nothing to add except for holy god, your avatar scares me...