ItalianoGACKT Official blog update. Translation below:
I left the hotel at 9 a.m..
I had to attend the tournament briefing too.
Honestly,
my jet lag isn’t going away but I’m not going to bother about that.
The problem is how long I can maintain my concentration.
Today, I have to keep playing in the competition non-stop,
from 12 noon until 11:30 at night.
It looks like famed, strong players from around the world will be gathered.
I arrived far too early so I had tea at the hotel’s lobby.
The players then started coming in one after another.
According to the rules, the tournament starts with each person holding 30,000 points.
Once you’re out of points, it’s the end for you.
The number of players will steadily decrease.
If you’re unable to accumulate at least 60 to 70 thousand points, Day 2 will be tough.
The briefing began and the players started getting fired up.
All kinds of players are gathered here.
One by one, I was introduced to the famous players and I took photos with quite a lot of people.
Finally,
the opening was to start and everyone gathered in the centre but
they said, “We’ll be introducing you so please come to the middle!”and I was pulled forward by my arm.
No matter how long it’s been, I’m seriously bad at such introductions.
I was introduced in front of everyone and I said a few words.
Then,
it was time for Day 1C to start!
In any case, today will be a long one.
I simply have to push as far as I can push with confidence and without being impatient,
and steadily move forward.
Of course,
unless I mix in a good amount of bluffs, I won’t be able to emerge victorious.
This time, in the WPT’s official rules for the main event, if you get eliminated,
you can only rebuy (re-enter) once.
With this number of re-entries, strategies will change quite a lot too.
In a case where you can re-enter as many times as you like,
players will think 【It’s alright even if I get eliminated】 and
there will be many players who play rather aggressively.
If you aren’t allowed to re-enter, everyone will play cautiously so as to not get eliminated.
Of course,
one may take advantage of this as well but you can’t continue being reckless all the time.
It’ll only work depending on the flow, and also the timing.
Right from the early stages of the game, we started playing while probing each other but
it could be that my advantage is being a little faster than other players
in analysing what type of person someone is by observing them.
Of course,
it can also be examined by the way they play but
you can determine a person’s state of mind
by looking at their posture, expression, and the movements in their eyes, mouth,
throat, shoulders, stomach, legs, and so on.
With accordance to that, when I attack, I don’t really care about what my own cards are.
When I’m shaking my opponent,
my judgement will be based on my opponent’s small reactions like those.
Of course,
there are times when I fail but the probability of it being in my favour is rather high.
When I think that it’s dangerous, I’ll quickly back down.
If you get irritated, pissed off, or desperate,
if you end up falling into your opponent’s pace, the game is over.
One has to be calm at all times.
Poker is a game where your mental state comes out vividly.
In the early stage’s 3 hours, I increased my chips by around 20,000.
It’s a decent start.
From here on, a number of rather proficient players will be joining the table.
However,
the most scary thing isn’t the good players, but it’s when there are a lot of half-hearted players,
Somehow, they joined the game, and somehow they made it to the end.
Players who play without thinking can’t be read at all.
Of course,
there’s a lot of chances to gain chips from these players but
the chance of an accident happening is exceptionally high too.
Under normal circumstances, it’s almost without a doubt that even if you get off at the right timing,
they’ll be playing in a way that cannot be understood until the very end.
In other words, it’s easy to be involved in an accident.
When such players are lucky, it’s really an exceptional nuisance
in the usual 2〜8 combination,
further more, if a suit (mark) isn’t lined up, they’ll probably fall off but,
there are times when, regardless of who in what position calls for any amount of a raise,
they’ll definitely join in the game because they simply believe that they’re lucky
and again, just at that point in time, somehow, with an unreasonable combination of cards,
they somehow win in an unreasonable way.
Most of the time, such players will disappear halfway and
when I meet such players, it’s a huge opportunity but
I have to be careful to not get into the big accidents that occasionally happen.
In the first place, such people simply follow their own feelings even if they’ve got random numbers
so basically, it’s utterly difficult
to read these players’ hands or do anything like that.
Depending on the situation, there may be times when there’s a need to choose to bravely go up against them too.
There are players who say 【I have no luck】 too but
to me, I think things like luck is something that is equally distributed among the players so
it’s simply a matter of when that luck comes to that player,
and I think that it’s just something that isn’t often noticed.
When you’ve got no luck, no matter wonderful your cards in your hand are, you’ll lose when you have to.
In the first place, this is a game where there’s a considerable chance that you’ll lose so
it’s impossible have a winning streak though…
And so, that’s why,
while squeezing your hand, you drastically reduce the number of times you have to fight and
most of the pros have the common understanding that this is very much linked to actually not losing.
The winning player of last year’s main event in WSOP normally plays Baccarat,
and he played by pretty much dominating the gambling elements.
Even at times in the midway point when you’d think that it won’t work,
it happens to blow up at pivotal points when the chance of winning is low,
and even at the final table, instead of actually squeezing hands,
he mainly examines the opponent’s play style
and attacks without mercy if the opponent flinches even a little.
There were numerous competitions that were exciting to watch but
I wonder how many professional players actually expected him to win.
It’s enjoyable to watch but
if I’m playing against him, I think I’ll find him rather detestful.
After roughly 6 hours passed, I raised my points to 80,000.
With the average at 45,000, it’s not bad.
At this rate, it might be possible to simply escape and head to the next day.
From here on , there may even be an opportunity that appears and I may even battle in a big challenge.
From here on, it’s always difficult to tell.
When it was approaching the last 3 hours of Day 1C,
the biggest fight of the day arrived.
The blinds are 250 and 500.
The player at EP2, who has 50,000 points and has a rather tight play style, raises it to 1,200.
From this position, there is a high chance that he has a high kicker with an A
and he won’t take part unless it’s a high pocket.
Next, the player at MP1, who has around 100,000 points in chips, raises it to 3,000.
He’s a rather aggressive player.
He has a habit in the way he throws his chips,
and when his pocket is in, he takes quite awhile before he raises.
When he has an A, he throws his chips leisurely.
At this time, he also threw his chips leisurely.
I think the other players have probably noticed this too.
Then the player at MP2, who has 40,000 points, re-raised it further to 7,000.
He has a remainder of 32,000 points.
I’m in the CO position, and my hand was Q♠︎Q❤︎.
The first person at EP2 either has an A in his hand or high pocket.
If it’s an AA or KK, no matter how much I raise, he’ll probably go all-in anyway.
It’s highly likely that the second person at MP1 has an A in his hand.
That’s probably true…
The 3rd person, MP2, struggled quite a bit but still re-raised in the end.
If he has a high pocket I think he would have made a higher re-raise though…
His play style is half-hearted. Probably something along the lines of AKo, AQs, AQo, AJs…
※o is when both of your cards are of different suits.
s is when both of your cards are in the same suit..
If he has a middle pocket, I think he wouldn’t raise and stop calling.
For me, in CO, I did nothing for a short while, then re-raised to 25,000.
The players at SB and BB were immediately down.
The players at EP2 was down too. It looks like he apparently didn’t have a high pocket.
If he only has one A in his hand, my 25,000 call
would be too much risk.
The problem was with the MP1 player…
He started getting troubled for quite awhile.
At such times, I won’t rush my opponent.
While being able to take his time and think,
it would be good if he recognises that his hand isn’t good enough to win a fight and backs down.
With the other players’ chips, the pot already has 12,000.
It’s enough.
For him, as well, if he only has one A in his hand, taking on a 25,000 fight
is as good as a complete disadvantage for him.
According to my reading, he should go down without a doubt.
He started getting annoyed.
This flow isn’t good.
It’s simply a situation where it’ll be good to think calmly.
I think there are enough conditions present for him to go down.
Just as his cards started facing down and he was about to lean towards that,
some other unrelated player said in a sharp voice.
『Clock!』
In terms of timing, this is the worst.
The annoyed MP1 player put his cards on the table
and leisurely, without counting his roughly 80,000 points of chips, he throw them towards the table.
Then,、
the MP2 player too, sighed and put all his chips in.
『All-in…』
Mm,
if this situation didn’t happen, it would have been the best chance but, I’m getting an unbearably bad feeling.
According to my reading, there was only one A outs.
If it’s an AK, there’s at most 3 K’s.
The 75％ chance of me winning is a good one but I’m getting a bad feeling.
However, there’s no reason to back down.
Without much of a choice, I went all-in too.
MP1’s cards were opened. 【AKo】 appeared from his hands.
Just as I guessed.
What will come from MP2?
Opening the cards, 【AQo】 appeared.
You’re kidding me… He went all in with such a hand?
I can’t help but think that he’s abandoning the game.
When I opened my cards, the MP1 player
angrily hit the table.
『No no, I already made it easy enough to understand with the raise…』
They opened the flop.
5❤︎8♠︎A♣︎ were laid out on the board.
『Are you serious…』
Maybe this is what my bad feeling was about.
Unexpectedly, A was there.
Then, next was J❤︎, and 7♣︎ that appeared.
At this point, the player at EP2 hit the table and said,
『I would’ve had 2 pairs with AJ!』
In other words, he threw away his AJ.
Does that mean that he only had one A in his outs after all.
Nothing can be done about this any more.
Well this is what poker is… I thought, as I stood up from the table.
Exhaustion hit me.
I’m done in…
Despite that all my readings were right, the accident started from the unexpected call.
Of course, since there was a possibility of losing, it can’t be helped.
I kept thinking about whether I had the choice to go down in that situation but
based on my style, there’s no way I would think of going down at that timing.
Instead,
I fought because I read it so it can’t be helped.
Hm, but it’s painful.
After taking a break, I’ll re-enter.
In the end, I was somehow able to raise my points to 50,000 and ended it there.
I’m tired.
Poker is profound after all…
I wonder what I could have done at that time to make him go down…
Source: GACKT Blog
Translation: GACKT ITALIA Team
Translation © GACKT ITALIA