The big one, the London EPT

I travelled down to London today, really excited for the start of the tournament that in a way is the big one for me, the leg of the EPT which is on home soil.

I’m therefore really disappointed to report that I went out in the 4th level on a real sick cooler, with a set of fives against a set of eights on a K85 board. It knocked my 13,000 stack to just 1,625, which went in a few hands later and lost a race.

One of the key rules I like to stick to as a poker player is to never complain about my luck. So, I’m going to break it only for a minute! The hand was a real gut wrencher, as it’s acutally the 4th time recently I’ve been the victim of set under set. One of the occasions was the Copenhagen EPT last year, and the worst one was this year’s WSOP Main Event.

Well, that’s the complaining done, so what do you do in poker when you’re struggling against that feeling of being really gutted to go out of the big tournament. Well,the last thing you should do is the thing I’ve just done, and that is to bemoan your luck! IT’s always worth thinking back through the key situation (and any others) to see whether there was anything you could have done. Even if the answer is no, try to spend your poker energies in thinking all about the game- all its wonderful ins and outs and pieces of strategy- rather than counting our your luck.

I took a bit of time to write a new strategy article, about what I think is the biggest misconception in poker, and you can find it on the “Poker Strategy” part of the site.

Good luck at the tables!