I am in London for this event and the EPT on Friday. Many big names are here for the event like Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen, Jennifer Harman, Tony Bloom, El Blodnie and many others.
The structure is great and amazing enough we get many more hands then in other events. There are two dealers at the table one gets the cards ready for the next deal, you get 15 seconds to act once its your turn.
In my heat the big name was Tony Bloom (UK) and the runner up to me in the European Poker Championships last month Sverre Sundbø (Norway). Early on Sverre took charge he can play, I would say that he will be a very good poker player. I had a really slow start and all trouble hands to get out of, I went down to about 80k started with 100, this is level 3 3000-6000 and I pick up AJ suited and raise Tony Bloom wakes up on the big blind and re-raises me another 17k I raised 12k. I think about it and call a time out( 2 time outs are allowed and this gives you another 30 seconds, I was the only player to use both time outs in this heat) So I think and make an unusual lay down, Tony Bloom shows me KK. So now I am down to 68k and in deep waters.
Nothing much happens I pick up a hand here and there and manage to steal a few pots in the mean time Sverre is up to about 250k absolutely dominating and playing great poker. John Duthie who runs the EPT is the first out on a bad river. Next goes the big danger to me Tony Bloom. Now 4 handed I am much more comfortable and I start to get on top of the table, as Sverre just eased up a little on his hyper aggressive game. So without any big pot I get up to around 120k and now I am in the game. Next to go is the other Norwegian who I knock out on I held A-8 vs A-10 got lucky the hand before I had the dominating hand and he got lucky and won it. But when my A-8 gave him a beat I was on 250k and in firm control. Sverre was next to go as I managed to beat his 9-9 with A-5 as the river wild produced an A.
So now I get it heads up vs a Taiwanese player who lives in the great USA. HE has 80k I have 520k he has been playing poker for 2 months. So we start the heads up and I pick up AQ vs his A5 but the 5 hits ont he turn and he doubles up next hand again I double him up AK vs 10-9 and now we are even on chips. Break comes and we go outside, he says he was playing an on-line satellite for this event and was trying to get 3rd place so that he would not have to come here, since he felt he had no hope 3rd place was paying 3.5k cash. So now I know I am in trouble, we go back and I start playing pretty decent mainly bluffing but I wore him down without a hand to 80k again and this time I pick up A-4 Spades vs his K-4 diamonds 3 spades ont he flop and I am inn to the next round.
Don not forget to register for the big TitanPoker freerol where I will play on October 1st, my nick there will be: RealTonyG with a massive bounty on my head. Just follow this link http://www.pokernews.com/freeroll-tournaments/ to register you will need to deposit $20 to play in it, no buy inn a max of 200 players will play and $5000 is up for grabs
