My last hand finally went as follows: I had raised both hands during the last three fathoms and I won both without opposition. Given this context, I have limped UTG on a table for eight players with AQ. The button has restarted at 2500 and I thought that it was just a reminder given its correct position. The SB called upgrading and me also.
The flop was Qd 6 s 2 s. SB has immediately bet 5,000 and I called the last, and button was lying. The turn was a 10s and once again the SB has staked 5,000. I was rather sure he did not flush, although I thought at that time I was surely forward with a better kicker than his own, unless he has Q - 10. I raised all in for 11 100 more. He thought about, oh, I would say about 3:30 before finally called setting with... KsKd. Laughing out loud. The river gave a Q of spades. :-(
The player has slowplaye KK on a dangerous situation, and knowing absolutely nothing about him, put aside what it seemed "tight/bad", I didn't have other choices than to play the hand as well.
The structure of the EFA is a good if we rely on the way up the blinds, but the structure of the WPT is slower (up to the final table) saw their levels of 75-90 minutes. The EPT uses 60 minute levels, which made sure the blinds you are quickly catching up and force the game a little more than what I'm used to. Obviously, there is much more typical games of a tournament of the WSOP (excluding major event), but not the level of the WPT.
It will be a little more difficult than I thought of winning an EPT, because I will have to depend more on lady luck that I wanted. Fortunately for me, I'm a lucky guy and I'm still confident of my tournament play.
Structure of the EFA (levels of 60 minutes 10,000 tokens)
25-50
50-100
75-150
100-200
150-300
150-300 (25)
200-400 (50)
300-600 (75)
400-800 (100)
500-1000 (100)
600-1200 (200)
800-1600 (200)
1000-2000 (300)
1200-2400 (400)
1500-3000 (500)
2000-4000 (500)
2500-5000 (?)
As you can see, we are not far from a perfect structure, but going from 90 to 60 minutes per level, the blinds become highest much faster than to the structure of the WPT.
I'm not really trying to complain, it is simply an observation. Obviously, I am a lover of slow structures, but I understand the reasoning behind the structures used for European tournaments. Most places do not open before noon and are also subject to restrictions requiring them to shut down at a certain time the night (this was true for the European WSOP).
I imagine that it will be the same for the WPT in Barcelona, that they decide to make a tournament on 6 or 7 days, which seems unlikely unless (I have not watched).
In short, I'm on the next flight on the way to the House, until the next EPT which will link in Baden. In the meantime, I fully intend to play WCOOP on PokerStars.
I'll also try to play a round of golf (I brought my clubs in London, but I was unable to play) and I also work that awaits me for my project of PokerVT.
I'll be home for a week and then I take the road to Baden. Oh, also, for high limit players, PokerStars has listened to you and added 25-50 NL 6 - max tables. All three tables will require a minimum of $2,000 at table to prevent the "destruction" of the game by shortstackers.
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