EPT San Remo and Monte Carlo

News / John Tabatabai / 07 May 2009 / Leave a Comment

Since the Irish Poker Open I have had the pleasure of playing some relatively local EPTs set in idyllic locations. Firstly, the EPT in San Remo which had an amazing 1156 entrants this year, each paying 5,000 Euros to enter and secondly the Grand Final in Monte Carlo.

It had a whooping 10,000 Euros entry fee and somehow during this alleged credit crunch there were just under 1,000 people willing to pay the money to play!

San Remo is a beautiful, almost unspoilt Italian village, then out of nowhere 1200 or so poker players are thrown into it, the whole place changes. Complete mix of cultures, education and social etiquette skews what should be a quiet and beautiful retreat into a crazy poor version of Vegas. The actual event was a no go for me. I had a reasonable starting table, apart from Zigmund and a crazy Russian, and I got caught up in the middle of that pair a few times which didn't help. I lost the majority of my stack to Zigmund when I flopped top pair and a flush draw, he flopped a set. gg me.

Monte Carlo EPT was set at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel, overlooking the Mediterranean. Amazing. Apart from the main event they also had a bunch of side events, STTs and battleship HU tournaments. Another truly spectacular event and at least this time I made day two but only with 9,800 chips. The blinds started the following day at 500-1000 with a 100 ante and I still managed to dig deep before eventually running KK into AA and finishing 160th or so.

On the plus side, Annette once again had an incredibly deep run but sadly finished 13th. Still, very impressive to come 20th in the Aussie Millions Main Event and 13th in the EPT Final Main Event. At the same time it looks amazing but on the other hand if you look at the distance you need to go to come 13th and what you get for it compared to 1st, its worlds apart. 77,000 Euros or 2,300,000 Euros. Truly is unbelievable the difference and yet it's only another 12 players to go when you have just overcome 950 or so.

I have a break now until WSOP in Vegas where I will be making my first WSOP final table. Before then the only other tournament left for practice is the £1k invitational, part of the London Poker Circuit at Kingsway Hotel in Covent Garden sposored by 888.com. Hopefully see some of you guys there.

Shouldn't really be laughing at this link but I think most poker pros would answer 'yes' to at least seven of these questions - http://www.gamblersanonymous.org/20questions.html

Best of luck

Kunku

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