Was playing yesterday the WPT Opening event with 200k GTD pricepool. Some sick number came together for this tourney. Just yesterday 426 player registered, and on the 2 previsous days 218 and 203 so all together 847 player competed for the 282.000 Euro price pool, huge field for such a side event, but Montesino really made everything to promote it as much as possible, they runned several satellites, made promotions for it, you could even win ticket on tombola - finally something what they organised good 
Pretty much of the well known faces showed up this friday, beside that the Party Poker Premier Leauge still runnes so the celebs are in the room, I spotted some people who are well know in the German poker community, like Jens Knossalla who won some german Pokerstars tv show, or Thomas Kremser who was for long years the EPT tournament director (was sitting just right next to me at the end).
We just took our place at the table and the first hand got dealt, when a tuff looking guy sat down. Suddenly all the photograhers in the room jumped to our table and made pics about him like crazy, wtf we have a celeb here also or what? Everyone was looking dumb ♦ Had no clue who the guy is, when he took down his suit some great muscles flashed up, first I tought maybe some footaball player, but than someone asked him whats the big deal, turnes out his is some kinda popular thai box pro here is in Austria. "Wohoho, maybe we should not tilt him" - tought everyone I guess, but he expressed himself in such a nice friendly manner with soft voice, that it seemd clear, he wont make nothing nasty 
Neither in poker nor in tilting ♦ Will come back to his person later.
I didnt planned so, but I succesfully tilted away 3 people from the table and kicked out 2 more. Since the starting stack was just 10k, there is really only one way to come deep in this: very agressive. So did I. 3rd hand I got dealt pocket 8s and saw a Q66 flop in a 3 way pot. The original raiser in position tried out a contibet what I check raised, the 3rd guy folded, and this other called. Turn brings a King, I check to see if he bets or no, but he checks back, river blanks out and I try a small bet. My opponent open folds Jacks. Why he made I have no idea (I mean the open fold) but my brain clicked and I also showed the 88, normally I dont show a hand, but I saw the future EV of this... if he gets tilted by that he made a bad fold, and he even got outplayed by a girl AND everyone saw it, well, a not so experienced or focused player insta starts to trip on it and levels himself into bad play. And since the stacks are very low, there is no room to make too much move, you have to put it up on one hand if you want to double. Well, he made this a few hands later vs. me, but he got it in with Ace high on the turn very bad, and while his chips were coming to me and he put on his jacket I heard he is cursing me. My plan worked. Well, its poker man..I get outplayed also, but at least I already grew out from thoose times, that I would take it to heart... Mental power and mental games at the table in live are so IMPORTANT! People take almost everything to heart. If they run bad than this, if the other one runnes good than that, if they get bluffed out than that, if someone calls the clock on them than that. Some poeple level themselves so deep into this while sitting at the table, that they really forgot: they payed a huge ammount of money to enter the tourney and their goal is to win, not to behave like a little flower which cant protect himself from the ugly bugs...damn, its poker people, its a war! ♠_evil: Whatever if we are friendly to each other or no, everyone thinkes inside the same: I want your chips!
So this story made it clear to everyone who is the boss at the table. I already covered everyone and played really aggro, when our boxer pro limpes in to a pot with another guy, and I pick up AQs in the blind. My raise gets called by the boxer guy. Till this point I saw him playing some hands, we even clashed already once but it came out split pot, one thing was sure: he is more like the home game type of player, not so experienced, knows which hands to play but limps always and stacks off light. But he seemd to enjoy the game, people talked to him a lot than, some even tried to teach him a bit, he got the action, we know it all how it goes to give action for the right people 
So, I hold my AQs and flop comes AQ6. From this point the whole sceene was like in some James Bond movie the slow motion poker sceene 
I look at my hand, than I look at him, try to seem unsure, like this:
He smiles, and than bets, looks confident:
I make the call:
Turn is a 7. I look at him again innocent while checking, he bets again. I look at my stack, think a bit and shove everything in like if I would bluff, but like a real lame, stack falls down, chips everywhere, like this:
Move made his power, he seemd to belive I just bluff (maybe he also leveld himself a bit that he would show he is not so bad, but this is just my assumption) and called me with a second pair, was drawing dead, so after a friendly handshake we sayed good bye
I was shooting after this up very nice, when the average was 16k I already had 70k stack, got the respect also from the people. After the first break we got some new players on the table, and a not so exprienced dealer also who made some bad moves vs. me also (like: I call an all in from someone on the flop where I have top pair the other gutshot and suckes out on the river, wasnt happy about it, and the dealer says I have to give 7k. I put there the 7k, and he is keep on repeating but like more and more agressive that I have to give 7k. His style made me very pissed than also 2 other people told him that its there already. Than he somehow recognised that he was wrong, and claimed he wanted to say that I have to give 8k actually. Some dealers are pretty arrogant asswholes, and tbh mostly thoose who always making mistakes, and this I cant really stand. Than till he dealt there a half hour I went almost broke. Lost another hand where I got it in good on the flop vs. a shortie, was down to 40k or so. Than Ive got involved with a hand where I made a marginal call on the river with a strong hand for a 60k pot and my opponent made runner runner flush. Seemd so unlikely that he has the flush there how it was played off 
and I could not let my hand go mostly because if I get this pot than basically Im qualified for the second day if nothing unlucky happens. I was swallowing bricks while the huge pot was given to my opponent. I dropped down to 13k when average came up to 33k, could suck out with 55 vs. Kings once so doubled back, but than I wanted to pick my spots carefully, ufortunaetly I just didnt got hands, could not get involved with anything, not even a steal. When the blinds went up to 1k/2k I had 20k, picked up AJ finally and shoved it in, got a call from Jacks and nothing came for me so good bye Gina. The tournament lasted till its played down to 10% (so 45 people in this case), at this point there was 111 people left. Not so far from the end. If I dont loose this one pot, Im easily on second day, which is already in the money.
But poker is like this, what can we do. Tomorrow we attack again, at this time with TwiceT also in the 550 euro side event. ♠_cool:
Btw: Tony G and Mike Sextons seems to play today on an open table in the MuseumsQuartier (its a public park), everyone can join and play with them, curious how it will end up ♦
Maybe, maybe tomorrow or on Eastermonday. 
damnit
