Professor Jalfont @ EPT PCA 2009 (Bahamas)

Just heard from Loose Cannon regular Geoffroy Buffetrille (aka Professor Jalfont) who was in the Bahamas playing the $10k PCA 2009 EPT event. He busted the last level of the first day - here is his report and hand analysis:

“I played from 12:00 until 1:00 PM (so 13 hours of poker and never managed to make my stack up to more than 32 K and down to 12 K twice time!).

See below fews hands I have played, I passed on the blinds battle and the multiway pot where I played with suited connectors without much success…But that was part of the strategy we discussed so no regret.

My table presentation :

I am on seat 1, so not the best position to look at the table.
Freddie Deeb is on my immediat left (sigh! a top player which got position on me) and we had a couple of blind battle (where I managed to at least make my P&L flat against him).
The rest of the table is made of young pro internet player and 3 on line qualified players.
They were all playing a solid TAG style (trapping a lot) and going to Showdown very frequently.
A scandinavian gentleman (looking like Roger Moore, lets call him James Bondikonen) was at the table and played a pretty successful LAG - trapping style (he has hit an incredible number of drawing hand but no doubt he played really well)

I follow the strategy we have discussed, TAG and enter multiway pot with connectors + blinds defense (as american make it 2.5 time the blind so the call is pretty attractive in term of odds because of the antes).

Here are the most important hand I played.

Hand 1 : Donkey Jalfont or good instinct ?

Blind (100-200) no antes (level 2)

Players commited :

Bondikonen (UTG+1 / stack 35K) style : LAG
American youngter (Cut-off / Stack 13K) style : TAG trapper (slow play some monster hands many time before).
Jalfont (Button / stack 18.5K) my hand : JJ

Bondikonen raises to 600 / AY min raises to 1.2K.

I call - Bondikonen calls.

Flop : 4s-3d-4d

Bondikonen checks - AY grabbed for chips and then Check.
I bet 3K (generally enough to take it down on a dry board).
Bondikonen folds - AY min reraises to 6K (letting him with 4.5K remaining - no way he folds if i shoved).

Damn! this is probably the only hand I completly misplayed by not reraising pre-flop. But I had the strong feeling he had AA or KK and decided to follow my instinct and finally folded.
I saw the AY whispered when I mucked…acting or frustration? Who knows but 2 min raises looked like and invitation from this trapper and i didn t like this.

Hand 2 : Deeb steeze…Jalfont get lucky

Blind (200-400) antes 25 (level 4)

Deeb (SB / stack 32K)
Bondikonen (UTG+1 / stack 35K)
Jalfont (Button) my hand : AKd

Bondikonen raises to 1.2K / I call.
Deeb raised to 3.5K - Bondikonen folds.
I shoved.
Deeb took one minute before to call and showed 9-9

Flop : Ace…no 9

Deeb said Good hand as a gentleman.

Deeb knews that Bondikonen may have raised any 2 cards and, my TAG image may let him think that I was calling with a good rainbow (drawing hand) in position or I could slow play a big pair.
So deduced he could have raise with A-K - A-Q even A-J or any pair over 55. He shoud be able to fold lots of this hands and eventually if he calls it should be a coin-flip most part of the time, so take the dead money and to put mister in front of the decision lokoked like a good strategy.

Hand 3 : Italian rock defense

Blind (200-400) antes 75 (level 5)

Jalfont (Hi-Jack / 25K) my hand : A-Jo
Italian rock (Button / 28K)

I raised to 1.6K - he calls.

Flop : Q - 6 - 5 rainbow
A dry board , I missed and checked (he generally checked behind when he missed, so I plan to bluf if he checks).
In my opinion there is no need to make systematically a continuation bets against a rock I prefer to see what he does first.

He bets 2K.I fold , he shows a Q…

Hand 4 : Bondikonen 360 Hi-Kick. Think I lost a teeth here !

Blind (200-400) antes 75 (level 5)

Jalfont (Cut-off / 24.5 K) my hand : JJ
Bondikonen (Button / 35K)

Bondikonen raises to 1.2K
I make it 3.2K - folded around ( I should have raised more but for many reasons - pot control - my oponent would have called a bigger raise as well…and first of all I want Bondikonen as customer, it is a good one ) so not really a mistake I think.
He calls.

Flop : 9s-Kc-8c (not the flop of my dream, so many draw…)

He checks (but I have a bad feeling here, I checked for pot control and let see the Turn)

Turn : 10 s

He checks again!
So many draws here, I want to test the water and eventually to protect my hand. I bet 4 K - he quickly calls. hmmmm…

River : 6h (Cool a blank!)

He checks and I don’t see any value in betting here.
I showed my JJ, he flipped over K-Qs…tricky James! nh I said

Hand 6 : the Belgian trick

Blind (200-400) antes 75 (level 5)

An online qualifier from Belgium. He played a solid style and had a mega stack after hitting the flop and getting paid with A-K at least 5 times! I m not kidding the guy was on complete rush, clearly belgian people loves chips :)

Belgian star (SB / 45K)
Jalfont (Hi-Jack / 17K) my hand K-10h

I raised to 1.2K - he calls

Flop : K-6-8 rainbow (dry board)

I decided to lead here by betting 2K , he reraised to 4.5K.
I called.

Turn : Q

I check he bets 4K . damn he really loves this flop. And given his track record of AK that pushed me to fold here. During the break we had a conversation in french and he confessed he had 2 pairs on the flop (so either K-6 or K-8).

Hand 7 : Phil Helmuth time!

Blind (200-400) antes 75 (level 5)

Italian rock (40K UTG)
Belgian hunter (50K UTG +1)
Young US pro (10K UTG +4)
Jalfont (12K - button ) my hand 9-9

Italian rock limp - belgian limp - US Pro shoved - I shoved
Italian and belgian folded.

I am against J-10d

Flop : 9…back in the game

Freddie Debb busted with K-Qc, he was short stack (down to 10K) and lost a race versus 55 (belgian guy on a complete rush).
He left the table saying : Good game guys that was a tough table ! Good Luck. Definitely a gentleman. Respect Mister Deeb.

I have been transferred to another table and I have now 22K (so short-stack, I need to double-up quickly).The chip leader his seated on my left with 87K, damn again a bad position!
This table raise and reraise preflop as the antes are now 100! and Blind are 300-600.
Needless to say that I needed to get busy soon.

Hand 7: Maniac do you want to dance?

The guys on my immediate raised on average 1.5 time per round of table (so I kept an eye on him).

Blind 300-600 antes 100

American maniac (35K Hi-Jack)

Jalfont (22K Cut-off)

AM raised to 1.8K - I call (my plan was to put pressure on by going all-in later on, I had the feeling that he was weak and a free card is good for my hand…)

Flop : 7-4-2 rainbow

He checks, so I checks because I can still draw and I want to get more chips as I expect him to bet any card on the turn.

Turn : 8

He bets 3K and I instant shoved.
You have a pair he asked ? and he folds.
I show my A-K he said that was good enough.

Generally I don’t show my bluff but I really need to get paid on my next move so my plan was to pick up a hand a shoved if the flop is good for me. I need a caller now…

Unfortunately I was card dead during an, my best hand was K-Js UTG!…I don t want to bust on that hand givenmy position.
So down to 16.5K and everybody fold until my SB so battle of the blind with Mister chips. I expected the chip leader to put me all-in with any 2 cards. I had A-6o , I raised he shoved I obviously called.

A-6o vs Q-Jc, but my old friend the black Jack of spade was invited to the flop party and I m toasted.

Bad points :

I only regret this famous hand number 1 which I didn’t played very well pre-flop with JJ, but I still think that I was right post-flop…Maybe I m a donkey But I remembered that John Phan said, don’t go all-in with JJ in the early stage. He added that was the hand which costed him the bigger number of tournament.

Good points :

I have been lucky to survive to 2 coin-flips (so I can’t complain) and made a few good reads post flop and managed to control the pot.

Bad points :

I have been outdrawn on the flop quite frequently as well.
So overall a correct play, but I need to be more creative the size of the stake (and Freddie Debb on my left) was a fear factor which slow me down a bit during the first 3 hours.

I will play the side event on Friday, 1K buy-in.”