The rest of the adventure

Poker365 tournament, day 3:

Since I've been lazy, I decided to finish the trip with this post.

On day 3, we've been having quite a lot of a hangover. The night before was so sick and we had to calm down. The tournament should have started at 4 PM so it did, but before tournament I had played some of cash game 1/2. It was time-sparing play, so I lost about 100e. Not a big deal if we look nights before and my cash outs :). My friend from Paracin who recently moved to Malta to work called me, so I went out for a drink with him. We had a nice chat, and at the end, he gave me an amulet which I'll be for sure wearing with me ever since.

The tournament has started and I did re-entry. Unlike the day 1a, now I had pretty tough table with some serious faces on it. I was happy to play on the table with the guy I've been seeing online named Dillan from Netherlands, and another one who I've met in the tournament - Jack Salter. I was next to Jack on the table, and during the talk I felt like he's been playing a lot of big tournament and he has a lot more experience than I do. So I checked on the google and I was right. He has around 100.000$ earning on live tournaments which is good. The day was passing by and I've been just talking with him, no big hands, no nothing, plus I think I had really bad position on the table. Day 1b finished at around 01:00 AM and my stack was around 20k out from 30k starting stack. Average was 60k.

I forgot to say that some Italian Poker TV took an interview with me on the pause, but I can't find a link for it, I am really sorry about it :(

While I was playing day 1b, my friends were playing side event. Actually, top 3 places on side event were all Serbian: 1. Nikola Toncic, 2. Nenad Stamenkovic, 3. Marko Luksa

Happy friends after winning top3 places

I guess it was a good reason to get wasted in Pacheville again. So we did it. This time we went to hotel a little bit earlier because we were all playing day 2. Nap time.

Day 4 (tournament day 2)

Waking up at 12:30 where the tournament starts at 13:00 wasn't really a good idea. I got up, took a shower, went for a breakfast to the caffe near hotel/casino and it was already 13:15. My friends were calling. I was in a rush but managed to miss only few hands :)

Late on day 2 with only few chips left

Anyway, I managed to double up early with no showdown with some semi-bluffs, and later went back to 15 BBs again. So, the guy opened and I pushed all in with JTs. The Villain was tanking for about 4 minutes then he calls with A4s. I wasn't happy about seeing him calling, especially because I was underdog in the same suit as him. Luckily, the T appeared on the turn and I doubled up. I had around 60k there. Later on, like 30 minutes, I managed to double up again with no showdown. Until the hand I got myself dealt pocket queens. The action was versus the same villain I doubled up on: 

He raised, I 3-bet, he calls. 

Flop comes:
KT6, two spades and I had no spade

he checks, I bet, he raised, I called.

Turn: 2 of hearts, safe card for me and we went for a check/check

River: K, and I thought I had him.

He bet out of position for like 4/6 of the pot and I called.

I was pretty surprised to see him holding pocket Kings, but on the other side, I was happy because if I was playing versus some more aggressive player I could have been knocked out already. The tournament continued and I wasn't even a short stack. Actually I think I was above average. Until the last hand where our table broke. Again the same guy, and I had around 100k in chips where avg was 80k.

He opened, I raised from SB with KQ of hearts.

Flop comes: 9T4, 2 hearts

I bet, he calls. I wanted him out of the hand so I bet really strong.

Turn comes: 9 of spades. I know my chances are smaller now but I bet again because I think he wouldn't just call that flop with a real hand. I got reraised. I was tanking around 2 mins, maybe less, and went all-in. The guy was tanking now for more than 5 mins and right on the time I was about to call "time", he called. I was like super-duper confused after seeing his pocket fours. I knew I had around 50% now to win a hand.

River card: Queen. I was so happy, and the table broke. I was up to around 200k and moved to the table next to Igor Loncar, the friend I came with to Malta.

Igor Loncar and myself 

We played friendly poker altho I knew I mustn't play soft versus anyone. Younger brother of Jack Slater, the guy I met the day before was on that table. I knocked him out when he 4-bet shoved with A9off versus my pocket jacks. After that, we had a bubble phase. I was sad to lose a flip versus some Italian guy, I don't know his name, it was AK suited versus pocket tens, and tens survived. The tournament was still going and we were waiting for bubble. Like 5 all-ins on 5 different tables happened, and every time the short stack survived. Until the hand on our table. Some old gentleman pushed all-in and I called with pocket fours, just to get reraised by the former day 2 chip leader. It was quite a stupid move by him to get me out of the hand, but after I've seen his pocket kings, I gave him some credit. No ace on the board, and we were IN THE MONEY!!! 

bubble hand

I was so furious about my first cash in the live tournaments! I continued to play well and managed to get to the 11th position where I was short stacked and moved all in with pocket 66s, just to get called by the chip leader on the big blind with pocket Kings. I knew I was drawing slim chances, so I was knocked out.

I was happy to have finished 11th on a 270-player field on Malta. The prize was 2.270e. I took the prize and sit down at the cash game (lol). Played some, was losing like 200e and got bored. So I get up from the table and started to drink some long islands at the casino bar. After I drank some long islands, I took another 200e and put it on a roulette (again lol, I'm not really a roulette fan), on black, and I got doubled up. So I was again happy to have my money lost on cash game back :). We were drinking a lot and then went back to the hotel.

Day 5 (final table for the tournament)

I wasn't the most successful Serb in the tournament. A friend of mine, Bojan Luksa managed to reach the final table. So, some of our friends went to the tournament room to watch the final table. We were drinking some cocktails from the morning, but I got angry when tournament director told us not to get too close to the players, and we weren't even too close! I stayed for another 15-20 mins and went down for a cash game. I think I've been winning 200e when Bojan came down to tell me that he busted at 7th place. I was sad to hear that because I thought he could really win that tournament. 

Anyway, we had to continue, and it was the day Malta and Italia were playing a football game against each other. We've got ourselves VIP tickets and went to the stadium in Valletta at 19:00. 

I was excited to see all the players of Italian squad, but I was even more excited to see Maltese supporters making really good atmosphere on the stadium. We even did that Mexican waves :). It was so nice to experience. 

At the stadium

On the half time, I got bored and went back to the casino. Played some 1/2 game, and after I was loosing 600e, I was about to stop, but a friend of mine, former WPT Champion, Vladimir Bozinovic asked me to play 2/5 game and since I was too lazy to go to the hotel to get the money, I took a 500e from him and started to play. I was drinking really a lot of those long islands. I was drunk as f*ck, but still managed to make 4000e out of those 500. I was thinking to myself "too bad I'm 50/50 now" but still, I'm grateful to him, and we split those 4000e. 

I went to the hotel sad, knowing that tomorrow is the day we're leaving :(. 

Day 6 - the day of return

We woke up early in the morning and got ready for a flight. I bought some souvenirs (which are still at my friend's house, lol) and went to the airport. The flight was really cool and I could see that sadness in my friends' faces. Neither of us wanted to go back. Our car was parked in Treviso, so we got in, and went for a shopping nearby. On the return, we came by to Ljubljana for a dinner which was pretty awesome and finally, we arrived back to Serbia at around 03:00 and everyone was so tired so everyone of us went for a sleep.

In the next few posts, you can expect my Poker CV and after-Malta progress online.