One often hears players around a poker tournament discussing hands. Actually, you hear them all the time: hotel breakfast buffets, on breaks, at the urinals and anywhere where there’s a spare few minutes to be had. To some it’s tiresome, to others it’s a vital way of getting feedback while the hand is still fresh in the memory.
A player will, more often than not, try to discuss a hand with some intricacies where there could be one, or a number, of key decisions to make. If two big hands matched up then what’s the point in discussing it? The hand plays itself, right? Correct, but what about the mental approach to the period after a big hand goes down? Be it on the winning side or the losing side, how does one approach the aftermath?
Just before the dinner break, Team PokerStars Pro Mattias De Meulder also put his tournament life on the line with pocket kings. He got his 13,300 in the middle and, after a preflop raising war, found a customer in Cameron Couch who held the dominated pocket queens. The board ran out 8♣ 6♥ 5â™ 3♣ 8♥ to hand the Belgian a full double up. He was bouncing in his chair and had a big smile upon his face. The poker gods had looked kindly upon him but it didn’t take much skill compared the most of the decisions he has to make daily.
Do we allow ourselves to have irrational emotions in rational situations when it’s to our advantage? Now flip that on it’s head. Can we stop those irrational emotions if we come out on the wrong side of the same situation? Controlling tilt and winners tilt (as they are sometime known) can be one of the hardest things to add to one’s game .
Main Event News
The IPT Main Event is winding down to the end of the day and around 65 players remain. The 45-minute Day 1 levels, which the majority of players are in favour of for the smaller buy in Main Events, means that the tournament has gotten further along in the structure.
The thinking is that players prefer to know earlier in these tournaments whether or not a deep run is likely. If it is then great, if not, then better to know earlier and to be able to hop in another of the numerous tournaments on offer that day before registration closes.
Those who busted in the last couple of hours include: Kenny Haelert, Balasz Botond, Joao Riberiro, Morten Mortensen, Jason Wheeler, Benny Glaser, Kitty Kuo and Griffin Benger.
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Updates provided by Marc Convey, with photos coming from René Velli and
Tomáš Stacha.