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Busted EPT London…
I entered Day 3 very short on chips. I had 36k with the blinds being 1200/2400/300a. My table had a lot of good players including Jason Mercier and Steve O’Dwyer. With ~140 players remaining and 104 making the money, the cutoff opened to 5200 and I moved all in for 35k with A9o on the button. He thought for a few seconds and called with 88. I didn’t win the race and was eliminated from the tournament.
Overall I’m very happy with how I played. To make it until Day 3 without ever picking up steam is an accomplishment. The only hand I was all in on was the final hand. Hopefully I can continue to play well and maybe I will have a few deep runs when I head to the WSOPE in a few days. Until then, I am planning on seeing more of London and taking a day trip to Amsterdam with a few friends. I have a few other things I’d like to talk about so I will probably write another blog before I start playing in France. It feels good to be writing again.
Day 2 EPT London…
I lasted another day in the EPT London Main Event. I entered day two with 57k. Early on I ran my stack to 80k at the 400/800 level. From that point on I was super card dead and out of position against aggressive players. I did the best with what I was given and ended with 36k going into the 1200/2400/300a level. The tournament started with 691 players, there are 180 remaining, and 104 make the money. Hopefully my rush comes tomorrow and I can make something happen with this short stack. As long as I’m still in I always feel like I have a chance. Check my twitter for updates. Goodnight.
Day 1 EPT London…
I survived Day 1B of the EPT London Main Event. I had a rocky start to the day. I only won one pot (for 400 chips in the first level) during the first 5 hours of the tournament. It was pretty brutal. Luckily I rebounded and was able to make some hands and accumulate a few chips. I ended the day with 57.2k; the average being a little under 50k. We didn’t lose a single player from the table. I am excited to have almost doubled my starting stack of 30k.
On one of the breaks Matt from PokerListings sat down with me to ask a few questions about traveling to play poker after Black Friday. You can read the article here. I wish the US government never shut down online poker (don’t we all.) Now that it is illegal to play online poker in America us players must find other ways to make money through poker. Fortunately for me I am able to travel and play some of these great events. That is basically what the article touches on.
I am running on only three hours of sleep. My sleeping pattern has been off since I arrived in London. I fell asleep around 4am last night only to wake up at 7:15am and not be able to fall back asleep. At 9am I decided to workout. I put myself through one hell of a workout which probably wasn’t the best idea. Deprivation of sleep is something you can not do while playing poker for hours on end. If I want to win this tournament I have to get rest. My plan for tomorrow is the same as it was today. Wake up, workout, eat breakfast, head over to the EPT tournament and try to survive another day. Hopefully it all goes according to plan.
I’m still learning a lot about the city of London and all the different cultures here. I walked around the Hilton Metropole area (where the EPT is held) after I finished playing today. There is a lot of diversity in the region and I’ve been trying to soak it all in. I’ll take some pictures of interesting findings and upload them within the next few days. Gotta get some sleep, goodnight.
London Living…
I’m sitting in a condo in London, it overlooks the Thames river. I arrived here yesterday morning with my friend Sam. The main reason for me being here is the European Poker Tour (EPT) main event. It’s my first time to Europe so naturally I am excited and ready to see a different part of the world I have never witnessed.
After London I am planning on going to Amsterdam and maybe a few day trips to other countries. That is dependent on how well the EPT main event goes and if I decide to play any other side events. Once I’m done with London I’m going to head over to Cannes, France for the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE.) I don’t know where I will head to after that. Maybe I will go home, but there are a few other destinations I have in mind that I might check out. A couple of my friends play basketball in Japan, that would be an entertaining trip. I’m very fortunate to be in this situation and am trying to take in the whole experience. Can’t take anything for granted.
Other than for this trip I haven’t played much poker lately (what’s new lol.) I’ve been doing my fair share of poker coaching, but haven’t been on the tables. I spent about a month looking to get a new car, researching, shopping around and figuring out what I wanted. I finally got that out of the way. I’m looking forward to getting back in the game and having success over the next few weeks. Even if I don’t, I’m in Europe! I’ll experience new places, culture, people, and have a great time. If anyone has any suggestions (on what to do/where to go) or comments please don’t hesitate to let me know.
I will do my best to take a lot of pictures and post some interesting things on the blog. I realize I mostly talk about poker and I feel like that has limited my posts and saturated my blog. I think I am going to start opening up and talking about a variety of other topics rather than poker all day haha. After all, I’m just talking to myself anyways. I might as well share some of my other thoughts to whoever visits the site and reads the blog. Stay tuned.
Start of a Snowball…
Hello again. It’s been about a month since I last blogged. After “Black Friday” took place I have not been attached to my computer like I once was. I do have a lot to talk about though.
The last post I wrote explained that I was still in the $10k WSOP NLH 6-max tournament. Let me continue from there… I entered the day 19/22 in chips. I grinded the short stack for a while and eventually doubled AQ vs AT. I chipped up a little and got revenge on William Thorson, who knocked me out deep in the WSOP Main Event last year. I raised with AQ, he moved all in with KJ and my hand held. The field in this tournament was very tough. I knew all of the remaining players fighting for the bracelet. When you are playing with smart, thinking, capable players you have to be able to compete in more ways than just playing the cards. The game gets deeper.
With 8 people left I got in a big pot against Joe Ebanks (Ender55.) I hope the details aren’t off by much. The button (Ben86/bttech) limped for 24k, Joe contemplated raising, then called from the small blind. I looked down at AKo in the big blind and raised 100k more. Ben folded and Joe made the call. The flop came 923r. Joe checked to me, I bet 138k, he min raised me, and I moved all in for about 600k more. He wasn’t happy about having to call my shove, shook his head a little, and threw in the call. He had me in awful shape with A9o. I rivered the king of spades to stay alive and double up.
Once I won that pot I finally had enough chips to compete with some of the other chip leaders. I was able to win a few more pots before we eventually made the final table of 7. We needed to lose one player to be the “official final table” though. Ben was the first player to bust, losing AK vs JJ all in preflop. The remaining players were: Mike Sowers (SowersUNCC), Bertrand Grospellier (Elky), Joe Ebanks (ender55), Chris Moorman (moorman1), Talyor Paur (taypaur), and myself. I have played a lot of online poker against all of these guys except for Elky. The final table was definitely one of the most competitive final tables in WSOP history. I knew I would have to have a few things go my way to win the tournament.
There was plenty of room for play at the beginning of the final table. I played a few interesting pots, one against Moorman when I min raised the button and he called from the small blind. The board came KQ4hh. He check raised my flop bet, I didn’t think he had a wide value range here, so I decided to reraise him back. He reraised me back and I folded. He showed the 8c (which was good haha.) I imagine he was just plain bluffing here, but he might of had a hand like K8cc and had been going with it, I doubt that though. We both had the same idea, but he ended up having the last laugh and won the pot. I seemed active after this pot, but I picked up a few hands and never got much action. We lost Mike then Taylor and were playing 4 handed.
I didn’t pick up many hands at all 4 handed. The blinds got bigger and I was sandwiched in between other big stacks. I stayed patient and told myself to survive to the 40k/80k level. If I could wait for the blinds to go up there would be about 300k in the pot preflop if a player opened. With 5 minutes left in the level, I picked up A9o in the small blind with 22 big blinds. Moorman was in the big blind. I raised to 155k (at 30k/60k) and he reraised me 180k more I believe. Without giving too much away of my thinking process, Moorman is definitely capable of reraising me without a hand here. He knows I have to either go all in or fold for the most part. I thought about the spot for a little bit and decided to move all in. He called my all in with AJo and knocked me out.
I finished 4th in the toughest live tournament I ever played. Although I wanted to do better, I am very happy with how I played and my finish in the event. Like I wrote in an earlier blog, I was put in that tournament by a backer that would like to remain nameless. The backer gave me an unbelievable percentage in my favor to play the tournament. It was almost too good for me to accept, but we agreed that I would give him $10k worth of coaching in exchange for the buyin of the event. Considering I wasn’t even going to play the tournament, I think everyone is pretty happy haha.
After the 10k 6max I took a few days off from poker. I only played one tournament before the WSOP Main Event, but I was ready. I didn’t recognize a single person at my first table. They were all men, older than me, and nobody was too active. I chipped up a little before I was moved to a much better table. When I say better, I mean there was more action, and it would be easier to win chips at this table. After an hour at the new 2nd table, I played my first big pot of the main event.
A young kid from Europe opened in middle position to 525 at 100/200 no ante. I was two to his left and reraised to 1425 with QQ. When action got back to him, he reraised to 3400, I made it ~6400 and he snap moved all in for 18.4k, which I snap called. He turned over 99 and was in bad shape against my QQ. The board ran out xxx9x and he won a monster pot. I didn’t make many other hands at this table and eventually it broke. I was then moved to my third table of the main event.
This table was much better for me overall. I was able to make a few hands early and chip up nicely. I had the respect of the table and was starting to take control of it. After being pretty active, I won a pot where I 4bet preflop and took it down. The very next hand I was in the big blind. There was an open at 200/400/50a to 1125 from the hijack, the small blind called, and I made it 3650 from the big blind with JJ. The hijack called and the small blind folded. The flop came J9Tcc I bet 3500, the guy made it 8k, and I moved all in for about 32k. He called with KQo and I was in trouble. I needed the board to pair to beat his straight. I didn’t make a full house and I was eliminated from the Main Event.
Although I was knocked out of the best poker tournament in the world, I was happy and content. I have played the Main Event 6 times and I honestly don’t think there is a hand that I regret or would have changed how I played this time around. Granted, I only survived until late in Day 1, but it still means something to me. I normally would be upset about busting the Main Event, but I couldn’t be. I played my best. I’d really like to thank my buddy Tim0thee for helping me improve my mentality when it comes to poker. I’ve always been a positive person but he has helped me realize there is only so much you can control. I also know I have matured over the years and picked up a lot of experience as well. I have to keep working at becoming a better poker player and more importantly, a better person.
Congratulations to Ben Lamb and Phil Collins who both made the November 9. Ben Lamb is having one of the most incredible WSOP in the history of the game. It is definitely the sickest short term heater I have ever witnessed. Both these guys are great players and I expect them to do well at the final table. I’m not sure who I’ll be rooting for. The final table has a lot of good players at it. Good luck to them come November.
DeepStacks had an event at the Palms the day after I busted the Main. We did a short notice poker camp with Epic Poker League. We had about 40 students come to the camp. We recorded some footage with our DeepStacks 360 camera, taught a little poker strategy, had an appearance from Annie Duke who taught a little bit, and then played an Epic Poker League satellite. It was a good day and a good camp. With such short notice I think everyone did a great job. The Palms staff was great. I’m sure they will have a lot of success in the future with what they are doing involving poker and the Epic Poker League.
Somehow I managed to stay in Vegas a few days after my WSOP was done. I took the red eye home on Friday night and was back in Florida early Saturday morning. It was nice to be home and see some of my family and friends. I was looking forward for things slow down a little. I have played a little poker since being home. I actually had a good finish the other day in one of the Florida State Poker Championship events. I played a $1600 bounty tournament, which didn’t go my way, then I played their $2200 NLH 6max tournament. It started with 80 players. I managed to get 4 handed with 3 guys who were all friends and had a vested interest in each other. They were also good players. We all were about even in chips and decided to chop, getting about 2nd place money. I wanted to outright win the tournament, but it was smarter to chop. I wasn’t guaranteed second place or better, so I went against my urge to want to play it out. My friends Hans, Stu, and Tim actually finished 8th, 7th, and 6th in the tournament. Pretty crazy that two groups of friends made it that deep lol.
Currently I’m about 30,000 feet in the air. I’m on my way to Reno, NV to teach a DeepStacks camp tomorrow and play in a $1100 DeepStacks Poker Tour event on Saturday. Last time I was at Grand Sierra Resort I had a good time (it also didn’t hurt that I won the main event there lol.) I like the casino and maybe I will explore a little more of Reno while I’m there this time.
I have a few other things I want to talk about but I’m going to wait until the next blog post. I’ve rambled enough. I’ve had some time to reflect on the past few months and it still hasn’t fully hit me yet. I had an great summer at the WSOP. Making two final tables is quite an accomplishment, but there is always room for improvement. I am not complaining though. I will continue to play my best. If I can do that I think more good results will follow. Hopefully it’s the start of a snowball…
19 of 22 in $10k 6max…
I made Day 3 of the $10k 6max NLH WSOP Event. It’s a huge prize pool and first place is over 1.1 million dollars. I’m currently 19 of 22 players and have about 22 big blinds. For updates follow me on twitter @TristanCre8ive or my facebook page Facebook.com/TristanCre8ive. Let’s go!!!!
10k 6 Max Day 2…
I am heading into Day 2 of the 10k 6max tournament with 115.3k. Average stack is 82k. Blinds are going to be 600/1200/100a. There are 162 players left with 48 making the money. I believe it started with 474 players with the first place finisher winning 1.15 million dollars. This would be a good one to win. For updates follow me on twitter @TristanCre8ive or my facebook page Facebook.com/TristanCre8ive. Hopefully I have a good update after today.
Quick Detour…
Things have been pretty busy since my 7th place finish in event #18 at the World Series of Poker. I took a couple days off between then and now and only played three or four other WSOP events. I am currently back in Florida for a few days. One of my best friends is getting married. I had to miss a few great events, but it’s okay. The next tournament I am going to play is the 10k 6max NLH on Monday. I have a crazy story about this…
The 10k 6max tournament is going to be one of the toughest tournaments at the WSOP. I was not planning on playing it. I wanted to play it, but I knew it was going to be a very strong field/huge buyin. Fortunately for me, I was approached by someone who offered me an incredible freeroll. Typically when someone backs a player into a tournament on a one time deal, that player is only receiving 20% of their winnings (30% being very generous.) I was offered something much more lucrative and benevolent. I don’t want to give exact numbers but it is better than your standard backing deal percentages.
I don’t know why or how I am the beneficiary of such a gift, but I am very appreciative. The person who is doing this for me does not want to be known. They have their reasons and I respect that. I don’t want it to be known either. If they want their secrecy they should have it. This is such an incredible story that I figured I would share with everyone. Occurrences like this rarely happen in the poker world. It would make for a great story if I do make a deep run in the event. So far I have bubbled both 6 max tournaments I’ve played at the WSOP. I wanted to write more about the freeroll situation but I don’t think there is much more to say.
I have to run and get ready for this wedding. Congratulations to Josh and Anique on their marriage. Also congrats to Hans Winzeler and Jason Mercier. They were heads up in the 5k PLO 6max tournament at the WSOP. Jason ended up getting the best of Hans but they both played great. More updates to come.
7th Place…
I finished 7th place in the $1500 WSOP NLH Event. It was my first WSOP final table (finally) and my biggest score to date. It was actually the biggest $1500 event the WSOP ever had, with 3157 players that entered.
On day 1 I was able to build my chip count up nicely. I had a couple fortunate spots where people put their money in bad. I ended the day with a great stack. On day 2 I had one of the toughest tables in the room. Most of the table were tournament grinders/regulars or high stakes cash players. The two guys that weren’t were both competent poker players. I made an early push, won some pots, then got unlucky losing AA vs 77, two coinflips, and AKs vs AQo. I was left with about 5 big blinds and doubled up J9o vs A2 and TT vs AJ. Later on in the day I knocked a player out AQ vs JJ.
I played a pretty insane pot late in day 2. It was against a guy from Italy who was an inexperienced player. I raised A2o on the button to 16k at 4k/8k and he called in the small blind. The flop came 445r and he check called 18k. The turn came a 2 (still rainbow board) and he moved all in for 226k. There was between 70k-80k in the pot. I had about 260k in chips and thought about the decision for 5 or more minutes. I was pretty sure he had a hand like Ax and just decided to jam the turn. I wasn’t sure if he would shove 33 or 66 though. It was a spot where I could be a big favorite for a huge pot. I had to put some real thought into the hand. I came to the conclusion that I probably have the best hand but decided to pass on a marginal situation, so I folded. He showed A6dd. He had a few more outs than I expected but it made sense. I finished day 2 6th in chips with 34 remaining players.
Going into day 3 I had Jymaster (good Internet player) directly to my left. He was moved to another table early though and we didn’t really tangle. I knocked out a player with AA vs QQ and was chipping up to contest for the chip lead. I knocked out the 19th place finisher with 99 vs AQ. We redrawed for the final two tables and I was directly to Jymasters left now. Before I knew it we were playing shorthanded poker. I got a player to put it all in on a 952hh board in a 3bet pot with 66 vs my KK. The other table knocked a guy out in 11th place and I entered the final table as one of the chip leaders.
The first player we lost was the Italian gentleman who showed me A6s. We were now “officially” at the final table. There were only 9 players left including Jymaster two to my left. We didn’t lose a player for around 4 hours after this. I lost AK vs a shortstack’s AA and also lost KK vs a 18bb stack’s 66. It was gross. I waited patiently and coolered Jymaster AA vs AKhh but had a sick sweat on a QT9h7h5d board. He was down to 55k in chips at 25k/50k/5k ante and ended up winning K7o vs AK vs AA, K4 vs ATo, and beat my AK with A9o (when another player folded a 9.) I also tried to bust him with 33 vs his 99 in a spot where I 3bet semi bluff and planned to call Jymasters shove (he wasn’t the opener) getting almost 4-1. He miraculously got back up to 1.5m but ended up finishing 9th place after he lost a few pots and had to move all in with a short stack. There were 12 allins before he was knocked out in 9th place. That is ridiculous that we didn’t lose a player for that long.
Here is actually an interview I did with PokerNews after one of the breaks at the final table. We had been playing 9 handed for a few hours at this point.
In a blind vs blind altercation another player busted in 8th place 99 vs JJ. I grinded a short stack and eventually doubled up AT vs K7o when it ran out Q527A. The guy that was against was in seat 1, directly to my right. He was a younger player but was drinking heavily at the final table. He got pretty drunk. He was ranting saying he didn’t even care to be there, he had a flight in 4 hours, blah blah… It was annoying but I was glad to have a belligerent player to my right lol.
I got lucky at the final table when I moved all in for 16bbs 7 handed with AJo and ran into AKo. The board came AQxJx and I doubled up to one of the leaders. I played a few other pots and eventually got into a hand where the drunk player moved all in from the small blind for 13bbs and I called with KTo. He held J9o and won that hand against me when it came 7859x I believe. The blinds and antes were huge and we were losing a lot of chips an orbit. I shoved about 14bbs with A9o on the cutoff and ran into the small blinds AA (same guy who beat my KK vs 66 and won a lot of other allins.)
Here’s a blurb from Bluff Magazine about the final table up until my bustout.
“It was only a matter of minutes after returning from their dinner break for the final eleven players in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event to become ten. It didn’t take but twenty more minutes to trim the field from ten to nine.
That is when things started getting crazy. Once the nine-handed final table was set, it would take three hours and fifty minutes to lose a player, as twelve times players were all-in for their tournament life only to survive and double up. Jordan Young lost all but one big blind when he ran Big Slick into Tristan Wade’s pocket aces, but he managed to double up on four separate occasions to go from 55,000 to more than 1.5 million. Despite all the effort to build up his stack, Young couldn’t escape a ninth place finish.
Philippe Vert exited in eighth place a short while later, then another long stretch without an elimination ensued, as seven more times a short stack player was all-in and managed to survive. During this barrage of 19 separate double ups, no player seemed to run worse than Tristan Wade, who got it in ahead on several occasions only to repeatedly be two and three outed. The bad beats took their toll and he finished in seventh place.”
I was very happy with how I played. Obviously to get that far in the tournament I know I was lucky, but to win a tournament you still have to be lucky in the end, which I wasn’t. I want to thank everyone on twitter/online who showed support and all the people who stopped by or watched the final table. It was really nice to see everyone rooting for me. A lot of people said some really nice things to me even after the final table and I appreciate that. I’m hoping this final table is the start to a WSOP heater and maybe another crack at trying to win a bracelet. Hopefully I can continue to play well and make good decisions at the tables. I still have a lot to improve on.
I’ll leave you guys with a nice article Arthur from PokerListings wrote. He’s also the same guy who wrote the article I posted a few weeks ago about me being one of the Top 5 Breakout players at the WSOP this year. Tristan Wade Breaks Out with First WSOP Final Table. I wouldn’t say I necessarily broke out, but it’s nice to be on the board with a final table. Maybe Arthur knows what he’s talking about lol. I still need to win one of these majors though. Goodnight.