Poker in Barcelona - REVIEW

Think of Barcelona and you'll think of Sagrada Familia

I got to Barcelona at around 6am local time, I booked my visit to Sagrada Familia at 9:15am. I finally killed 3 hours of my time, queued and went through security and finally is my turn to see this place and turns out my ticket was for the wrong day. So I did not see the insides of Sagrada familia. :(

Barcelona is a beautiful city. I highly recommend joining a hop-on hop-off bus tour. You will see so many sights in a rich city. I went my Camp Nou although it didn't bring fond memories as I remember my favourite team got crushed here many times. If you love architecture and history, Barcelona has so much to offer. Although it can get pretty cold in winter. The food is great as well. 

Back to the main topic. The poker room I went to was at Casino Barcelona. A two-floor casino by the beach. It is a nice location. It is also on the route of the hop-on hop-off bus. Register yourself for a member card and get to the kiosk, swipe your card and click on the tables you want a seat on. I didn't see too much action as I was in a rush to get to my bus but there were about 7 tables running when I was there, 1/2, 2/5 and 5/10 Euros. Sorry I can't provide more details here but I do recommend stopping by if you want some poker action.

What are you thinking?

What makes poker different from most other games? Cause it is a thinking game. I know players who play it without thinking much, sometimes even high or drunk. That's their loss, our gain. But those who play it well are thinking all the time. So what are you thinking? What to eat after the game? What to do with your winnings?

My chip and card protector collection

What should you be thinking?

When you are betting, this is my thought process.

1. What hands can call your bet that you are AHEAD of
2. What hands won't call that you are AHEAD of
3. What hands won't fold that you are BEHIND to
4. What hands can fold that you are BEHIND to

For example, you opened preflop with AK, flop is AA2 and you're thinking to bet or not to bet.

1. What hands can call your bet that you are AHEAD of

Any ace except A2, pocket pair maybe

2. What hands won't call that you are AHEAD of

Pocket pair, some players might fold a weak ace too

3. What hands won't fold that you are BEHIND to

22, A2

4. What hands can fold that you are BEHIND to

None

Based on this analysis, slow playing with your hand is best. (btw, I am just putting my thought process into laymen terms. I am by no means saying this is the best play or GTO, don't complain to me about balancing ranges and cbet % blah blah, turning your KQ into a bluff on this flop etc.)

Let's take a less obvious hand, let's say you opened UTG+1 with 88, and 2 callers complete the hand. Flop comes AK2 rainbow.

1. What hands can call your bet that you are AHEAD of

Gut shot hands like QJ, QT, JT, any 2 and pocket 3-7 might float

2. What hands won't call that you are AHEAD of

Same as above, and unpaired overcards to your 8s like T9

3. What hands won't fold that you are BEHIND to

Set, two pairs, strong ace, maybe even strong K

4. What hands can fold that you are BEHIND to

QQ, JJ, TT, 99, weak K, maybe even weak A

Okay so what does this analysis achieve? I believe in VBB. Every bet is either for VALUE, BLUFF or BLOCK. After you've done this analysis you can decide if you want to VBBC (Value, bluff, block or check)

So what do you think about when you are facing a bet? Reverse it! Which of VBB is this guy doing?

1. What hands can value that I am BEHIND of
2. What hands might value that I am AHEAD of
3. What hands might bluff
4. What hands might block bet

For example, let say same situation, you open with 88, flop comes AK2 rainbow, you bet, villain check calls. Turn comes an 8, you bet and villain check calls. River is an Ace, villain leads out with a half pot bet.  (board AK28A)

1. What hands can value that I am BEHIND of

AK, A2, KK, A8, AA (although all unlikely as played)

2. What hands can value that I am AHEAD of

22, maybe some fish might value AQ, AJ but unlikely

3. What hands can bluff

QJ, JT, 35, 45, any K, pocket pair

4. What hands will block bet

Weak Ace, strong K

Come join me on the Asian Poker Union @ PPPoker ~ contact me on happyriverpoker@gmail.com if you are interested!

Poker in Madrid - REVIEW

Plaza Major in Madrid

Madrid is a beautiful city with quaint alleyways, that lead into large squares and plazas, nice architecture and great food. I highly recommend visiting although I did not enjoy a great result here. I stayed at the Room007 Sol hotel which was pretty affordable but quite nice. The location is great and walking distance to nice sights and restaurants, and 900 meters from Casino GranVia.

Games available are €1/1, 1/2, 2/5 and 5/5. One night we bumped it up to 5/10 cause an Asian fish was in town (me). First things first, the game is played ANTICLOCKWISE, unlike most places in the world. You can Mississippi straddle, and you can play with your eyes closed, because the dealers will announce everything. Even the flop cards, the number and suits. As long as you understand Spanish. But I must say the dealers in Europe are friendly, professional and quick. Unlike those in Macau who are sulky, slow, rude and prone to mistakes.

Players are generally tighter compared to Amsterdam, normal open is 3-5 bb, they seem to want to crack me every single hand. One hand I had aces, someone opened to 20 (4bb), 3 callers, I 3b to 145 (29 bb) there were 2 callers. Flop QTx two spades. I bet, someone min-raised. Turn he donk shove 700 into 300 pot. He turned over QT off. I don't get the play but anyway he got paid. There were a couple of grinders there, 3 bet squeeze light, over bet bluffs, etc. But most players are pretty soft.

Beautiful alleyways

Water and simple drinks are free (Coke, coffee, tea), once in a while the waiter will come by with some snacks. Like proper hors d'oeuvre style finger food. There is a platter of potato chips self service and nuts and candy. Free WiFi is available as well. Highly recommend a visit. The casino feels more like a rich man's mansion than a casino.

Highly recommend to try this - churros with thick hot chocolate

There were other casinos as well but it seemed that they were either members' only or no poker. GranVia is next to the subway station and walking distance from many major hotels. Do pay a visit. 

Poker in Amsterdam REVIEW

I had a good run of results end of 2017 and decided to treat myself to a trip to Europe. But since then my results have not been so great so it was important I needed to win on this trip to cover the costs. I will share with you my whole trip including reviews of the city, where to stay etc, but mainly thinking of the trip as a poker player.

First stop AMSTERDAM.

Amsterdam Leidseplein is beautiful

Amsterdam is known to be a city that tolerates. Some people think weed and prostitution is legal there, it actually isn't, it is tolerated. That means the authorities do not take any action, but they could legally do so if they wanted to. 

Sex and drugs available although I did not partake

Tap Sum Bong?

You'll most likely arrive at the Schipol Airport, outside the airport is a bus station, find the station that has bus 397, take it until the Leidseplein stop, which will take you the main hub of Amsterdam and where you'll find the famous red light district and also home of the Holland Casino. 

There's about 8 tables at the Holland Casino. You HAVE TO check in your jackets and pay a 5 euro fee for your membership card. I think the reason is they must have had a lot of backpackers drop off their bag and then went out sightseeing. But if you leave your jacket you'll freeze. LOL. The 5 euro I don't get it. There's no free stuff inside, but anyway. 

Forgot to bring Mr. Samurai with me

Games are 1/2, 2/5 and 5/5 euro. I played the 2/5 and on average everyone has like 300 - 500. Action is fast and fierce. Standard open is 4-6 bb and sometimes there will be 3-4 callers on a 15bb 3 bet. Players are quite loose. I've seen a few call with Q3o, Q8o, J9o on a 6 bb open. Players are mostly recreational. I did see a couple that seemed to know what they were doing, but the others are quite easy to read. 

No free drinks apart from water etc. You can use your card for points I think and get free drinks from time to time. Once you get there, go to the poker room, there's a kiosk where you swipe your card and pick which table you want to queue for. 

I recommend staying in the Leidseplein area as it is probably the most beautiful and where most of the sights are. It is easy to access from the airport as well. Must check out the Pancake Bakery if you're there.

What is Pppoker?

Pokerstars, Full Tilt, Partypoker, we all know them well. But recently you must have heard about PPPOKER. What the hell is PPPOKER? How is it different?

Well, let's compare it with something like Pokerstars.

Pokerstars is owned by Amaya Inc. They have staff running the site opened to anyone who can deposit. PPPOKER is an app, created for anyone to host their games online. Pokerstars earns money from the rake. PPPOKER makes money from hosts and players who buy "diamonds" in game for VIP stats, excel reports etc.

Let's get to the main point. Why is PPPOKER better?

1. PPPOKER is accessible to players where Pokerstars is banned or illegal. Meaning these are countries where players are newer to the game, fishier in general

2. PPPOKER clubs are run by hosts who invite their known friends to play, unlike Pokerstars is opened to the world and professional grinders play to make a living.

3. PPPOKER you can only play 1 table at time, which means pros hate that. So most players who play there are playing for fun.

So how can you get involved?

(contact me at happyriverpoker@gmail.com if you are interested to join as a player or agent)

Asian Poker Union is one of the biggest Union Clubs on PPPOKER with over 5000 players. That is bigger than many poker sites nowadays. We have 30-40 tables running 24/7 with players from mainly Asian countries with fat bankrolls. Games available are NLH, PLO and OFC with daily MTTs. Stakes start from USD 0.35/0.7 to USD 1.75/3 (so pretty small)

If you are interested to play, or even become an agent, please email me at happyriverpoker@gmail.com

Second tourney, second cash

Just on my way back from the Vietnam APT, I think you might be here because of my click bait folding Kings preflop. So let's not waste time and jump into it.

We are about 50 spots away from the money on day 3, with 664 runners in the whole tournament. I have not had one big pair in 3 days. Finally I look down on KK under the gun. Blinds were 3000/6000/200. Standard open was 15000 so I did that (125k effective). UTG +2 had 220k and asked me for a count.

If anything, the food in Ho Chi Minh is so good

A bit of background about this guy. He seemed to be a relatively new player. Knew his poker terms, Vietnamese local (pretty gambl-y overall), young hot headed guy, would tank fold KQo to a firm 3 bet preflop. Anyway after asking for a count he announced all in almost immediately. Everyone folded until BB who tanked for a while and folded. This was the moment I was waiting for, to double up with a premium hand and sail comfortably into the money. But I sense super strength. Sure he might do that with AK, KK, QQ, but based on his previous play, and physical tells I can sense that he is super strong.

To cut the story short, I folded face up. He then showed me an ace. He didn't tell me what other card he had, and others commented he might have AK AQ to tilt me. But I was happy with my fold. If he had AK or AQ, why wouldn't he show me the other card? That would put me on super tilt and make him look so good, making Kings fold. I concluded that he had Aces. What do you think? Later when we were ITM, everyone was super happy and celebrating, I asked him and he said he had aces.

The tournament turn out far exceeded expectations, which caused some chaos with chips, tables, events etc but overall I would say the APT team did a pretty decent job in spite of the challenges. It was a fun tournament and comparatively soft field. Unfortunately I only managed a small cash and after deducting my donation amount I still made a loss. But I had a lot of fun and the money went to a good cause. Nevertheless it was my 2nd main event cash of the year so I am 2 for 2 so far. Pretty happy with that. I also made the final day of the high rollers but fell 11 spots shy of the money running AQ into KK.

Next stop Baby Dragon and Red Dragon!

First post, first tourney, first cash of 2018

Last year I set a number of goals for 2018, I wanted to play more tournaments, get at least 10 cashes for the year and this week it was off to a good start.

I played at the Pokerstars ACOP Platinum Series Main Event in Macau, a field of 312 with many familiar faces like Sparrow Cheung, Danny Tang, Derx Lai, Hazel Chui, Kevin KT, Kevin Choi, Jack Wu and many other pros. Sorry if I missed your name but these were the pros I saw and those I know the names of.

It was a pretty smooth tournament for me other than one hand hero calling 70% of my stack and lost, otherwise I was above chip average throughout Day One. Middle of Day Two I had to pull some big moves to keep myself within pace and after losing a pre-flop all in 99 vs T7 (flop T7) I had to grind my way from 24th spot in. Hovering at between 10-18 bb all the way until it was 10 handed. Again I had 99, against AQ, this time AQ on the flop.

Pretty happy with my result. I was 6th in chips going into the final day, but 2 hands before the end of day I had AK under the gun. I opened, tight Japanese player limps in the cutoff. Small blind jams for about 18 bigs. I tanked for a while but decided to fold due to several reasons but mainly was what could the Japanese player cold call with. (he didn't play a hand for like 3 orbits) Eventually SB shows AQ and Japanese guy had KK and was trapping. By the way he had about 80% of my stack, I would have been crippled.

Great start to the year, despite bubbling the FT, 9 more cashes to go to my target, so far so good.