EPT WARSAW - REPORT (Part 1)

Arrived in Warsaw on the Wednesday night before day 1 of the main event a little nervous ahead of my first big tournament. Was determined to put in a good show, but didn’t really know what standard to expect. Would it be out of my league? Hard to tell, but I’d played with Ben Roberts before and held my own so this gave me a certain amount of confidence.

Anyhow drew a seat at table 3 out at the back of the Hyatt casino so I went to take my seat. I was first to my table so waited patiently for the other players to arrive. By the time my table had filled, I had Dave “El Blondie” Colclough opposite me, a french cash player to my right who seemed to be known to Colclough and Tony Chessa a couple of seats further along. These 3 shared banter throughout the tournament, but overall it was a very serious atmosphere.

The table was very tight for long periods, so I didn’t get involved too much before dinner (1st 4 hours) as I received few hands and when anyone raised they had an absolute monster.

It was consequently hard to get action when you did get a nice hand. For example I get KK in the small blind, make up the small blind (everyone folded ahead of me). Big Blind checks. Flop 10, 7 , 3 rainbow. I check. Big blind stabs for 150. I minimum raise. Big blind folds. All that risk for just 250 chips - It was that kind of table.

The only hand I enjoyed went as follows. I get A4 Spades and limp. Two other callers and big blind (the french cash player) checks. Flop 9, J, 2 with two spades. Frenchman bets, I re-raise to try and get a free card on the turn and steal if I miss later on. Other players fold, Frenchman calls. Flop is a rag. Check, Check (my plan worked). River is a red 2 so I have nothing. I put in a pot sized bet and Frenchman folds, showing his 2 pair. I much without showing and take the pot.

Tony Chessa doubled up when he hit straight over straight on a local polish player. Dave Colclough was very quiet, and I think was frustrated by the tight table. The tables to either side of us seemed pretty wild.

Players came and went and just before dinner Mikael Westerlund arrived at my table sitting over to my right. He was later to be my assassin as far as the tournament was concerned.

At about 8pm we broke for dinner. At this stage I was on about 7,000 chips (from 10,000) and was way behind average. The antes were also starting to kick in and I knew I’d need to make a move soon.