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I went to Berlin. It rained. I wet to Vietnam. It rained. I went to Monte Carlo. Yes, you’re ahead of me. It’s raining. And, as in Berlin and Vietnam, this isn’t your ordinary London shower. It was raining when I arrived and its still raining, harder than ever. And the forecast isn’t that great, although at least we are looking at cloud rather than persistent rain.
All of which is a bit of a pain in the arse, as this hotel (Meridien Beach Plaza) has a great outside with its own beach and two pools, one of them sea water. The Monte Carlo has an absolutely ACE indoor pool behind the hotel, en route to the conference hall where the tournament is being held.
I was determined today not to play my normal trick and collapse into a cab. So I went to the information desk, found out where I could buy a ticket for the RCA #110 (kind of the equivalent to the Heathrow Express), went and bought my ticket and ventured through the rain to where the bus was scheduled to arrive 10 minutes later at 3.05pm.
My adventuredom was rewarded by meeting a couple of journalists from Germany/Austria and another online qualifier from Belgium who is in his final year in London. Fun stuff, winning a seat at the EPT three weeks before your finals.
And we waited for the bus, and waited, and waited. When it finally arrived, half an hour late, the bus driver informed us that there was no room for the luggage in the storage compartment. We rebelled and eight of us returned to the ticket office for refunds, getting two cabs between us.
Well, I tried.
Tom from London and Ryan from the US shared the cab with me and the Belgian student. Tom casually mentioned that he bought in directly and that he had a place in Vegas, but that he kept a low profile. Not bad for someone in his mid-20s. There’s clearly a lot of money being made out there that is nothing to do with the names and faces. Tom’s mainly a cash player and, when I asked what he played, he just replied “wherever the money is”. That’s always worrying.
Monte Carlo would be (perhaps will be) a fun place to explore when we don’t have the late April equivalent of a monsoon. As it is, our two hotels are perched where there is a fantastic view, but we are some way from the centre. This makes us something of a captive audience and this evening I have not only cracked and munched some sweeties from the mini-bar, but also bought a cheeseburger and fries from the Palmier Bar in the tournament centre. That (with a coke and tip), came to 44 euros. Fuck me. Monaco is not a cheap place to be.
The internet access rocks in at 50 cents a minute up to a maximum per day of, wait for it, 23 euros. I know places where you get a whole room for that. Still, I suppose that if the room is gong for 3000 euros a week, they imagine that 300 on top for little sundries is neither here nor there. However, for the naturally thrifty such as myself, it gripes a bit.
Faces spotted so far, Teddy Sheringham at the same table as Joe Hachem and Greg Raymer. Sheringham’s stomach is performing better than Hachem’s, Raymer’s or, indeed, mine. In his mid-forties and it’s as flat as a pancake. Bastard.
Simon from Pokerstars was typing away the media desk but there was no sign of Stephen Bartley. And, ridiculously, that’s about it. Although I know quite a few faces, there’s no-one I know well enough to impinge on their company. I’m not going to mope in a bar paying a fiver a bottle for diet coke, so I came back to my room. All a bit depressing, really. But, well, that’s me.
The room has a balcony, but it’s only overlooking the front entrance and the wall on the other side of the road (Avenue Princess Grace is at the bottom of a steep hill, so the wall opposite supports the railway, followed by many more residences going up the side of the mountain).
Pokerstars couldn’t find my seat ticket when I went to register, even though my name was on the list. After about half an hour my name was found in the “money directly wired” pile. Clearly I wasn’t on the main registration and the extra entry fee had to be wired at the last minute. On the plus side, even though I’ve got all the pokerstars apparel (and, to be honest, it’s quite nice) I haven’t yet signed an agreement to wear it. AND I’VE GOT MY TICKET. I might have ticked a box when registering online, but I’m going to run a flyer and try to play day 1b without the sponsored stuff on. I’ll keep it in a bag so that I can change into it if necessary.
When I went to look at the convention centre, I realized why the number of registrations on the web site was meaningless. There must have been 50 tables of 500 euro sit’n’goes in process. If that carries on tomorrow as well, plus the direct buy-ins, it will be well over 1,000 players. This is good for me, because it means that you can get to the money without playing short-handed AT ALL.
I worked out that it would be possible to play all of day 1, fold every hand, and still have 40% of your chips. That wouldn’t be my game plan, but it indicates how phenomenally deep-stacked this tournament is, with blinds that do not rise steeply.
This is interesting territory, and I’ll wait to see how the table is reacting to it. Put simply, position becomes more important in the early levels than it would be in a standard tournament. Squeeze plays from the blind are less likely to be plus EV until well into day 2. Other standard deep stack rules apply, with dodgy hands (say 53s) being playable to a modest raise if you have position, because your implied odds are more likely to kick in if you hit. “Good” hands (even AA) lose value, particularly in early position. There’s a strong argument for a “wait to see flop” style, I think, which isn’t my natural style, so I won’t follow it. But, like I say, much depends on the style of the table.
Hope it’s dry tomorrow.
( some pix )
All of which is a bit of a pain in the arse, as this hotel (Meridien Beach Plaza) has a great outside with its own beach and two pools, one of them sea water. The Monte Carlo has an absolutely ACE indoor pool behind the hotel, en route to the conference hall where the tournament is being held.
I was determined today not to play my normal trick and collapse into a cab. So I went to the information desk, found out where I could buy a ticket for the RCA #110 (kind of the equivalent to the Heathrow Express), went and bought my ticket and ventured through the rain to where the bus was scheduled to arrive 10 minutes later at 3.05pm.
My adventuredom was rewarded by meeting a couple of journalists from Germany/Austria and another online qualifier from Belgium who is in his final year in London. Fun stuff, winning a seat at the EPT three weeks before your finals.
And we waited for the bus, and waited, and waited. When it finally arrived, half an hour late, the bus driver informed us that there was no room for the luggage in the storage compartment. We rebelled and eight of us returned to the ticket office for refunds, getting two cabs between us.
Well, I tried.
Tom from London and Ryan from the US shared the cab with me and the Belgian student. Tom casually mentioned that he bought in directly and that he had a place in Vegas, but that he kept a low profile. Not bad for someone in his mid-20s. There’s clearly a lot of money being made out there that is nothing to do with the names and faces. Tom’s mainly a cash player and, when I asked what he played, he just replied “wherever the money is”. That’s always worrying.
Monte Carlo would be (perhaps will be) a fun place to explore when we don’t have the late April equivalent of a monsoon. As it is, our two hotels are perched where there is a fantastic view, but we are some way from the centre. This makes us something of a captive audience and this evening I have not only cracked and munched some sweeties from the mini-bar, but also bought a cheeseburger and fries from the Palmier Bar in the tournament centre. That (with a coke and tip), came to 44 euros. Fuck me. Monaco is not a cheap place to be.
The internet access rocks in at 50 cents a minute up to a maximum per day of, wait for it, 23 euros. I know places where you get a whole room for that. Still, I suppose that if the room is gong for 3000 euros a week, they imagine that 300 on top for little sundries is neither here nor there. However, for the naturally thrifty such as myself, it gripes a bit.
Faces spotted so far, Teddy Sheringham at the same table as Joe Hachem and Greg Raymer. Sheringham’s stomach is performing better than Hachem’s, Raymer’s or, indeed, mine. In his mid-forties and it’s as flat as a pancake. Bastard.
Simon from Pokerstars was typing away the media desk but there was no sign of Stephen Bartley. And, ridiculously, that’s about it. Although I know quite a few faces, there’s no-one I know well enough to impinge on their company. I’m not going to mope in a bar paying a fiver a bottle for diet coke, so I came back to my room. All a bit depressing, really. But, well, that’s me.
The room has a balcony, but it’s only overlooking the front entrance and the wall on the other side of the road (Avenue Princess Grace is at the bottom of a steep hill, so the wall opposite supports the railway, followed by many more residences going up the side of the mountain).
Pokerstars couldn’t find my seat ticket when I went to register, even though my name was on the list. After about half an hour my name was found in the “money directly wired” pile. Clearly I wasn’t on the main registration and the extra entry fee had to be wired at the last minute. On the plus side, even though I’ve got all the pokerstars apparel (and, to be honest, it’s quite nice) I haven’t yet signed an agreement to wear it. AND I’VE GOT MY TICKET. I might have ticked a box when registering online, but I’m going to run a flyer and try to play day 1b without the sponsored stuff on. I’ll keep it in a bag so that I can change into it if necessary.
When I went to look at the convention centre, I realized why the number of registrations on the web site was meaningless. There must have been 50 tables of 500 euro sit’n’goes in process. If that carries on tomorrow as well, plus the direct buy-ins, it will be well over 1,000 players. This is good for me, because it means that you can get to the money without playing short-handed AT ALL.
I worked out that it would be possible to play all of day 1, fold every hand, and still have 40% of your chips. That wouldn’t be my game plan, but it indicates how phenomenally deep-stacked this tournament is, with blinds that do not rise steeply.
This is interesting territory, and I’ll wait to see how the table is reacting to it. Put simply, position becomes more important in the early levels than it would be in a standard tournament. Squeeze plays from the blind are less likely to be plus EV until well into day 2. Other standard deep stack rules apply, with dodgy hands (say 53s) being playable to a modest raise if you have position, because your implied odds are more likely to kick in if you hit. “Good” hands (even AA) lose value, particularly in early position. There’s a strong argument for a “wait to see flop” style, I think, which isn’t my natural style, so I won’t follow it. But, like I say, much depends on the style of the table.
Hope it’s dry tomorrow.
( some pix )
