Long time no see

I haven't updated this blog in quite a while, mostly because of Twitter. Since I have instant access to say whatever I feel like saying I usually end up not having the time to write longer posts here.

In any case for those of you out there I still play poker for a living, mostly Turbo and Hyper SNGs in PS. The competition is really intense but I'm happy how my game is developing and at the times I like to play (morning and afternoon) Stars has the best volume by far.

In live poker news this year I have been playing quite a few EPTs since I won't be able to go to play a full schedule at te WSOP as I'm expecting to be a dad just arount that time :-)! I'm so happy and really looking forward to it!

I had a huge chance to take down the Madrid leg, but I lost a crucial coin flip when 50 players left that would have put me with 1,15M when 2nd place had 500k. I was still left with an average stack, but ended up losing it to Timex in another coinflip to finish 31st.

I know I have the game in me to take one of the big ones down, and I'll be trying again in Berlin in a couple weeks time.

As always when writing in the blog I hope I can actually update it a bit more often from now on...

SNE 2011

I have finished SNE this year! Yesterday I became the 6th player in the world to do this feat, beating the previous spanish record by over 3 months!

I grinded like a mad man so that I could go to WSOP stress free and with the work finished, and I hope it pays out in the following weeks! My next post will relate to the events I'm planning to play...

As for how I've done this year I have some mixed feelings? I'm really happy the way I have handled myself and although I have played long hours I think I maintained a high level of play, but the last couple of months I endured a severe downswing in the biggest form of variance you can find, the high stakes hypers! I probably will need to modify a couple of things for my come back, but seeing how most regs are the same in the 181s and 357s I'm not too worried because in the same sample I was winning quite a bit in the lower ones! This and that the EV says it owes me quite a chunk!!

In the turbos, which I feel are my best game I've had a very productive year and I'm quite proud of that especially since I gave action to everyone and hardly ever table selected (only for some 1ks), something that I obviously don't recommend but I had no option if I wanted to reach SNE by this time of the year!

Just to finish many thanks to all those who have congratulated me in twitter or facebook, and many mora thanks to those who have endured my run!

EPT Final - Madrid

Well, one of my most awaited for moments of the year has arrived: the EPT Final played at home, in Madrid.

I have a seat in Europe's most important tournament along with WSOPE main event thanks to last year's efforts becoming SNE, and I really want to make the most of it.

I have never cashed in an EPT main event, and it's about time I have a deep run in one of these! I have very high hopes going in as always when entering a big tournament and hopefully I can run well and put myself in a position to contend for the title.

For those that don't know I want the 1st event to be played in the new poker room, so it's definitely a place I know well and that always treats me well!

My SNE quest is going along nicely, but I'm grinding like mad. I have almost 700k vpps as of now, and I'm 10th in the list for people that have accrued the most. Some of the guys ahead are american, so I will also be passing them, so I may try to be the 5th or so in reaching SNE status this year.

For that I will need the High Stakes Hypers to pick up a bit during SCOOP, because since Black Friday traffic for these has died quite a bit: never thought I'd miss out on Jorj95 and company ;-)!

Also going with this theme, I don't understand how they place the EPT Final and the SCOOP at the same time! I'm planning on going really deep and that would kill like 4 or 5 days of really good action!

I will keep you posted through twitter (in Spanish though) of everything that goes on during the tournament!

Take care!

Black Friday

My view on the subject is conditioned by the fact that we all knew this could totally happen. PS and FT were breaking the law by doing financial transactions with US players and at some point the Government was going to punish them.

In any case, it still amazes me how in a country that is supposed to be the land of the free, the government doesn't allow their citizens to play poker or bet online.

The more practical effects I see:

I believe PS will still be leading the market for the moment, but in the mid-term they face some difficulties because most countries are starting to regulate (Spain is next- the law should be out around june), and when they apply for a license I don't know how the governments will react regarding their status.

FT looks grimmer since most of their player pool was American.

I had more or less decided to try and finish the SNE quest before WSOP this year, and now I think I will double my efforts in order to make it.

A lot of people have panicked about their online rolls, and as far as I know, PS keeps segregated accounts as per Isle of Man laws, so in theory there should be no problem with that. With the other sites I really don't know how they work and would be a little more worried.

Why is it too much to ask to have some intelligent people making a fair regulation of online poker in order to let us all the poker players in the planet play against each other??? (In twitter terms I would add here #utopia)

ESPT Malaga

I finished 14th out 375 runners, losing in the last level of day 2 after two grueling days.

I'm very happy with how I played but at the end it all came down to a bad read. I mistakingly thought a player was weak on an AJJdd5 board and believed my A9 was good, but he had the jack and the miracle ace didn't come.

I started day 2 very short stacked but a 20 minute rush saw me go from 20k to 180k in 3 hands when I doubled up with AQ vs QJ, doubled up again with a set vs Top pair and then I eliminated another player with KK vs AQ.

I was short stacked because late in day 1 I lost a huge pot with AK vs QQ and 44 that would have put me in the top 10 for day 2.

All in all it was a good tournament, but as always going deep and not coming out with at least a final table is quite dissapointing.

Finishing March

I'm up to 435k vpps which means I accrued 186k in March. I wanted to be at 200k for the month but tomorrow I won't be able to play, so I won't be able to reach my goal.

Still I'm very happy with how things are going at the moment as I'm getting really good results in the Sit & Go's I 'm playing!

On Friday I'll be going south to Malaga to play in the 2nd leg of this year's Estrellas Poker Tour, where I will hopefully last a bit more than last time when I was sent packing on the 3rd level!

This means 3 fewer days of grinding, coupled with Easter Holidays (off to Valencia to watch the Cup final between Real Madrid and archrivals Barcelona) I think it will be a short month in terms of days played. A realistic goal would be to try for 200k vpps again and see if I can get there, but I also want to put myself a more difficult one: 225k!

I'll keep you posted!

Battle of the Planets

I never said anything about the FTS tournament, but I basically never had anything going and although I doubled up on the 1st hand of the 2nd day, I busted 3 hands lateer when I ran AJ into QQ in a blinds battle.

What I can tell you though is that I won the Jupiter division of the weekly Battle of the Planets promotion! It's the highest leaderboard for Sit & Gos in PS and I actually crushed it!

My vpps count has grown up to 365k, so at the moment it's just good news...hope I can keep them coming!