European Poker Tour, London Leg - Post Match Analysis Pays Dividends

Author: Simon Dexter

Barcelona is one of Europe’s most dynamic and exciting cities, a classy place with magnificent architecture and one of Europe’s finest football stadiums.

It is also where I kicked off the new EPT season with 542 others last month as we assembled for Spain’s largest-ever poker tournament and where ultimately, I learnt a valuable poker lesson which is one that every online poker player should bear in mind the next time they play Texas Holdem online.

There were plenty of online poker qualifiers rubbing shoulders with some big name players, including Daniel Negreanu, Isabelle Mercier, Johnny Chan and 2004 world champion, Greg Raymer – none of whom, like me, finished in the money – but frankly, I was disappointed with the way I played.

I travelled to Barcelona with a very specific game plan which, with hindsight, was a big mistake. My pre-tournament planning (and decision to stick with it) meant I was too rigid and regularly failed to adapt and play as instinctively as the best players frequently do. In other words, my game plan backfired, a situation which wasn’t exactly helped as I moved table four times in three hours, although I do not offer that as an excuse. It was, as they say, a bad day at the office.

Matters improved when I went to dinner with the hugely likeable Greg Raymer, a man who enjoys his food as much as his poker.

This guy has achieved just about everything he set out to do in poker and how did he do that? Certainly not by playing rigidly. “Tony,” he said, “no-one can hope to continue playing poker one-dimensionally and win. Everyone needs to adapt to the situations in which they find themselves. Good poker players are versatile guys who sometimes just need to take their time and see what’s going on around them before they make their move.”

It was sound advice and, as we wandered back to our hotel in the night warmth which is one of the Western Mediterranean’s most attractive features, I realised that before the next EPT event in London, I needed to become a more dexterous, versatile poker player.

Although the sun made several valiant efforts to break through, London in late September is an altogether different city from Barcelona, yet weather aside, as I approached the Grosvenor Victoria Casino for the EPT’s second leg, I knew my strategy had to be more flexible if I was to a) play well and b) enjoy it. I was confident it would be for I had spent a number of hours examining where things had gone wrong in Spain.

In effect, I went back to basics and decided from the outset to take Greg Raymer’s advice. This proved to be an excellent strategy and for long periods, I sat on the fence and watched an incredible amount of loose and unnecessarily aggressive play cause the premature downfall of my opponents. By contrast, I opted to dispense with almost all of my ace-rag hands and was only prepared to call when in position; unlike Barcelona, I began playing instinctively and almost certainly benefited from keeping a closer eye on my opponents.

How did this approach benefit me? Let me give you one good example: I found myself on the same table as Ben Grundy, the guy also known as the Milky Bar Kid (look at his blog and you’ll see why) when young Ben did something I’ve never seen in a televised tournament before. He knew most of the players present, so before the cards were dealt, he took out a bundle of written notes. I asked what they were, to which he replied, “they’re notes on each of you guys.” I was amused at the extent of Ben’s pre-tournament revision (after all, he looks young enough to be sitting his A-levels), but I immediately thought ‘well, if he’s read about my style of play online, then I’ll behave and play a little differently to normal’.

In other words, Ben virtually forced flexibility upon me, something for which I was grateful. It was a spur-of-the-moment reaction, but I felt good knowing my poker was competent enough to modify my approach after an opponent had effectively revealed his own playing strategy.

Ultimately, I was a little disappointed with how the London tournament played out because I genuinely felt I had a chance of making the final table, but from a positive perspective, my play was so much better than a month previous that I cannot really complain. In the end, I finished in fourteenth place, picking up twenty-two grand, although aside from the winnings, it was pleasing to know I’d played well.

Anyone can be a genius with hindsight, but analysing my game following a disappointing performance in Barcelona definitely paid dividends. The great thing is that it was the first leg of the new EPT season and at least I’ve managed to perform well in the second leg. My ambition for the season remains to try and secure a place at a final table in an EPT event, so now it’s on to Dublin where, armed with my new sense of flexibility, who knows what could happen?

Tags: EPT, european poker tour, Poker Tournaments, WPT

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 14th, 2007 at 1:49 pm and is filed under News & Promotions Blog, Poker Tournaments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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