ItalianoGACKT Official blog update. Translation below:
It’s Day 2 of the WPT’s main event.
With the usual jet lag, I had a terrible morning and headed to the venue without having gotten much sleep.
I wonder what the other players do to counter jet lag.
I arrived at the venue and had a look around.
I could see that the famous players were seated at their own tables.
Yesterday, there was a famous player from England who I became friends with.
He was a player who became rather famous in 2016’s WSOP,
and would talk while playing.
He called me a rock star, while others called him a talk star.
As an opponent, he stirs things up quite a bit, to the extent of getting penalties numerous times during the game.
That’s also one strategy to use, and it does get criticised but
those who are watching the game will find it interesting.
The final match in last year’s WSOP main event, when he got kicked out,
was really very interesting.
He had KK in his hand.
Among the other players who were raising bets, there was a player who he wanted to mess with.
I guess he wanted that opponent to go all in.
As usual, he denounced his opponent without mercy,
and in the end, he had it with him and the opponent indeed went all in though.
Upon opening the cards, the opponent had AA, and William’s face was taut.
Anyway, he’s an interesting player.
There are many players who loathe him, but on the other hand, there are also a lot of players who adore him.
Yesterday, at the table in the second half, we happened to end up at the same table
and actually, I didn’t get a bad impression of him at all, instead I had the impression that
he was funny and spoke well, and that he was a good player.
More than anything else, he is exceptionally skilled creating an atmosphere,
to the extent that a wonderful phenomenon occurred,
where his table was the only one where everyone spoke rather loudly.
When I spoke to him, I found out that his mother was actually Japanese,
and, although only a little, he pronounces Japanese words beautifully.
Furthermore, those words were funny, like
『You bad child! (もう悪い子！)』
『No, you can’t do that (ダメよ、そんなことしちゃ)』
『That’s really amazing (ホントに凄いわ)』
and he kept using words that women would use, so I thought that he was influenced by anime but
I suppose he must have picked up these words directly from what his mother said.
Anyway,
he’s a friendly, and really interesting player.
And,
on this day, the player to my right was Sam Panzica.
Having won WPT tournaments numerous times, he’s quite the player.
In fact, in the middle of playing the game, I took note of his play style but
not only is it difficult to catch his habits, his play style is tight too.
Once he joins the game, he firmly claims the table as his
until the end, and in any case, he’s good.
However, there was an opponent who he couldn’t read either.
Not only is that person’s play style seemingly purely aggressive, it’s also all over the place and it’s difficult to read his hand.
Sam raised in after not making a single raise at all.
Then his opponent suddenly went all in without missing a beat.
Sam took quite some time to think about it too but decided to call.
Sam has around 140,000 points while this opponent has around 130,000 points.
The opponent opened his hand and revealed KK.
I was completely unable to read this too.
Honestly, I don’t think that players
who like to limp in (call the BB) are strong players,
they are, in other words, the bothersome type of players who will suddenly go all in.
Such players are really troublesome.
In the end, Sam lost most of his chips.
The points that he held dipped below 10000 and he’s almost eliminated but
he looked at the timing, went all in, accumulated double-ups,
and in the period that I was watching him for, he was successful with all ins thrice in a row and got back to 80,000 points in 3 hours.
In reality, he was probably really lucky.
He went all in with AT, and his opponent had AJ but he picked up a T and was successful in doubling up too.
But for something like this, it would be more correct to say that he grasped the flow, than that it was luck.
And after approximately 4 hours passed,
I came up against this bothersome player too.
I had around 90,000 points. My position was BB.. And my hand was A♠︎Q♠︎.
The blinds are 1200-2400, and both the EP2 and EP3 players called.
To the player who limped in at MP2 position,
the raise that was more than three times of the current amounts made the other players go down,
and after that, only he called normally.
I can’t read his cards.
The situation is where the flop has Q❤︎８♠︎6♠︎.
I first put in 15,000.
He called to that too.
At the turn, J♣︎ appeared.
I checked. Then he checked immediately too.
Even at this point in time, I couldn’t read his hand at all.
Normally, I would be able to tell if it was AKo or a middle pocket.
Then 4❤︎ appeared at the river.
I can’t get a flush but I had Q’s top hit, and kicker A.
Here, I bet 35,000.
Following that, he immediately bet 90,000.
I can’t read his hand at all.
I think that there’s no way he has a Q.
Is it an 8 set… Mm, I don’t know.
I can’t read it at all.
Whatever it is, I called. The opponent I’m up against is too unreadable.
Such opponents are seriously troublesome.
I tried thinking about it for awhile but I couldn’t read him at all,
and at this point in time, it’s already very risky for me to compete.
As I unwillingly went down, he was full of confidence as he showed me his KK.
It wasn’t something that was built up.
It’s just far too unreadable.
Fighting with these types will really get me into accidents.
From then on, he went up against the other players in the same way,
with cards like AA, or QQ, or KK appearing when the cards are opened at the end,
his unusual hands quickly accumulated chips for him.
3 people have already been eliminated.
Not only is it unusual for one person to have all the chips,
he uses limp ins to go for all of it.
And in the end, I went up against with him at the end and got sent flying.
I’m beat.
One can’t go up against stupidly lucky opponents after all…
If you make a stupidly lucky player your opponent, whether they’re good or bad at playing,
you’ll get into a huge accident.
Day 2 has ended but
I was able to pick up lots of skills from other wonderful players.
I still don’t have enough training.
As I rode the limousine back,
I could see a number of reflection points when I thought back on my hands.
Mm,
I’ve a long way to go.
At night, I went to eat with Dai, a drift driver.
We went to try an Asian Fusion restaurant called Tao, where his friend worked at.
The restaurant was impressively done up.
Honestly, there aren’t any Chinese cuisine places in Japan that are this flashy.
If it’s done up like this in Japan, it can only be a club..
However, with regards to the taste, I could only say, “Ummm…”.
Despite the location, despite the furnishings, I’m sorry but this taste at this price…
I simply couldn’t help but think that way.
This is the price for the location… I thought, but it’s just not good value for money.
Actually, I wonder how long this place will last with this flavour quality.
If this was in Tokyo, it’s without a doubt that it will not last a year.
When it initially opens, I suppose those who like flashy things will visit initially but
it will be difficult for people who’s been there once to want to be repeat customers.
I wonder how it is in America.
While eating, Dai said this to me.
『No matter which it is, all of their flavours are too strong aren’t they… I’m sorry』
No no, it’s not Dai’s fault or anything.
Things like these are experiences too.
I think it’s definitely because this is America,
and because flashy places like these tend to have things like these happen often.
Rather,
I think that even if really delicious places are located a little further out,
regardless of what the exterior and interior looks like, if the flavours are good, the world will spread
and repeat customers will continue to keep it alive.
For this place called Tao, if you’re just here to drink,
it’s fancy and it’ll be interesting to bring someone here once.
In the past, in France, there was a similar establishment and a huge Buddha was displayed in the shop and
the impression that this place left on me is rather similar to that.
It feels like you can enjoy visiting it once.
Anyway,
I don’t think I can sleep today.
I’m too frustrated.
It feels like I’m going to let out sighs but
I have to take a proper look at myself, given that I’m still growing and still not good enough,
and study again.
Even so, it’s too frustrating…
Source: GACKT Blog
Translation: GACKT ITALIA Team
Translation © GACKT ITALIA