News / Imper1um / 28 February 2008 / 5 Comments

I've been meaning to start writing a blog for quite some time but haven't really had the time or motivation to kick it off. One of Betfair's requirements is that I keep an updated blog, so that's more than enough motivation for me!

I think my blog is going to be a mixture of poker related content and what's going on in my day to day. Having a blog that I update regularly is going to help me accomplish goals I have in both my personal and professional life. I'm the type of person that excels under pressure, and when people who read my blog are aware of my goals and the timeline of those goals, it's going to force me to do my best to accomplish them so that I don't "let anyone down." It's funny how sometimes I need to psychologically trick myself in order to get things done lol. As a full time poker player admittedly I have developed a few bad habits over the years, the worst being unhealthy eating habits and less communication with family and friends. At the peak of my online poker career I'd sometimes spend 15-18 hours a day playing online so you can imagine how much of a strain that was on my social life. For the last couple of months I've been working on living a more balanced lifestyle and so far it's going well.

Live poker hasn't really been treating me well lately :( ... Sometimes when I don't do well in poker for a month or two I get paranoid that I'm not playing my "A game", but after looking back at the key hands from the big events I've played, most of the time I've just been getting really unlucky. Copenhagen was ridiculous... On the day of the tournament I woke up at 8AM (approx. 6 hours earlier than normal) and went to the gym for a nice long intense workout. I use to workout a lot back in high school but have been so "career oriented" lately that I havn't touched a weight or stepped on a treadmill for two years until recently. Anyway, I'm starting to get back into it and loving it! I feel so good after a workout. It helps me get that ZING (or zang?) back, really clears my mind and gets rid of any anxiety or stress I'm dealing with at the time. Overall just makes me play and feel much better. So I finish working out at around 9:30 and obviously I'm feeling great, on top of the world, nothing or no one could stop me from getting deep in this tournament. Plus on a sidenote when I got off the plane arriving in copenhagen, my suitcase was one of the first off the rotating belt thingy, and that has a history of being a good omen for me (Irish Open, etc :)). Anyways, after working out I have breakfast with a few friends, relax a little bit, charge my ipod, I'm ready to take these eurodonks on! (JK, u guys are great =)). I get to my table and I only recognize two people which is REALLY good. Christian Harder (charder30 online), a friend of mine who's a great online tournament player and Jonas Molander, a swedish player, who although I havn't played with a whole lot I've heard from several of my friends is quite the sicko.

My first hand is 45dd, another good omen that this is going to be an great day. I raise from late position and get no action :(. Very next hand I have 34dd, although normally I wouldn't dream of open folding this hand preflop, I decide that I don't want to have a crazy aggressive image in the early stages (has gotten me in trouble several times in the past) of the tournament, so I muck pre with a smile on my face proud of the discipline i've demonstrated.

Half an hour later I open raise 175 w/ 33 UTG +1 and get called by Christian in the big blind. Ts 3d 6s board, BINK! I bet 250 on the flop he calls 650 on the turn he folds. This hand isn't really significant, the reason I mention it is because of the dealer's actions after the hand. After Christian folds, the dealer turns my hand face up, I ask him what he's doing and he sits their trying to convince me that I have to show my hand in order to win the pot regardless of whether or not the hand goes to showdown. LOL!!!. At first I argue with him and tell him he's made a mistake but he's so sure of himself and so confident that he's right so I almost believe that this is some weird scandanavian rule. At this point I'm thinking it's a 70/30, 70% of the time he's some casino dealer who hasn't been trained properly, 30% = weird scandavian rule. I know it seems absurd that I would ever think 30% but it was scary how confident/sure he was. Anyway after a minute of pointless arguing we call over the floor who tells him that he made a mistake... SHIP IT... Sorel 1, Dealer 0... anyway VERY next hand I get dealt pocket aces, yummy... dealer obv sorry for mistake so wants to make it up to me with AA, nice! I'm UTG I pop it up to 175 older american guy who doesn't seem very good or experienced makes it 600 from the button... Sometimes I'd just flat call here to disguise my hand, but I don't think this guy has a clue, so I instantly splash 2200 chips in and he makes the call pretty quickly. At this point, I'm pretty sure everyone sitting at the table but him knows I have aces or kings. In fact, I think even the waitress walking by knew I had aces or kings. Flop comes J72 I bet out 2800 he takes about 2 seconds and shoves. I'm just praying he doesn't have Jacks, that would be sick, I call praying he has KK one time, he flips over Queens. Blank turn, BOOOOM Queen river. Sorel 1 Dealer 1, well played sir, well played.

I'm really looking forward to start playing high stake cash games on Betfair. They seem to have big games running constantly. Everytime I look at the lobby at night there seems to be 100/200 NL + games going on where often players sitting are 1000 BB's deep! One of my goals is to get really good at NL 6 handed cash games online and continue to improve my heads up game.

I'll try to update my blog as much as possible and use the blog as a journal where I can write about everything on my mind. I will also include trip reports with pic's and talk about my adventures in Europe and all around the world. For my next entry I've decided to talk about the Full Tilt Poker issue and perhaps finally shed some light on how I really feel about it.

Thanks for reading!

Sorel "Imper1um" Mizzi