"Why did we get on the first train we saw. We should get off and at least check if it's the right one."
"But then we won't have sweat for the train ride."
-Matt "Ch0ppy" Kay and Simon Charette
It's very important for poker players traveling together to have some gambling sweat in one form or another. Anything can be bet on. Throughout the course of an entire day money can trade hands on the most absurd of bets. It's pretty well known that all poker players gamble for who pays their meals (Different versions of Credit Card Roulette). However, in search of action, much more unusual wagers can be made.
In a town near La Spezia, Italy, me and 5 other Canadians went hiking. On our return to the town we saw 2 young kids playing heads-up soccer in a fenced off area with 2 nets. Without hesitation, Mike "Timex" Mcdonald and Andrew "AChen" Chen made a wager on which kid would score first. Only 30 seconds or so after making this wager, we all realized they weren't playing 1 on 1 soccer. One kid was just playing net and the other trying to score on him! Timex had far the worst of it here.
It actually gave us a lot of sweat because on shot rebounds, the ball would almost roll to the other side of the mini-field and the shooter wasn't trying to stop it from going in. We were going nuts on the rail! Dozens of Italian on-lookers could not understand why we were so excitied. AChen shipped the bet eventually. There is a 1-minute video recording someone took of this that I will post on the blog when I get my hands on it. I continued to bet with Timex after lunch on an actual game of 1 on 1 soccer that was going on in the same area. The Italian guy who I was betting on gave me a high five when he realized how nuts I was going for every goal he scored.
I played very well in EPT San Remo and went out on a race I felt was +ev to take. Felt good about my play. I'm feeling physically sick 2 days before the Monte Carlo Grand Final so I'm gonna take it easy and hopefully feel up to playing when the time comes. This will be the biggest buy-in tournament I've ever played and most likely ever play. I have to play my very best or I'm going to be upset with myself. Getting mad at yourself for mistakes comes naturally to great poker players and generally anyone in life who is a workaholic.
Being a workaholic has hurt me a in lot of aspects in my life but has brought me a ton of success in poker. I'm still trying to grasp an understanding of how I should be balancing my work and social activities. My father is an obessive workaholic and defintely put that on me at a very young age. "No matter how good you're doing. You can always do better." was one of his staple quotes. It taught me to be hard on myself, far too hard. Defintely left me with a lot of self-esteem issues I'm still trying to break free of. I guess this is a long-winded way of saying that I don't think there is anyone in the poker world that gets mad at themselves for making bad plays more than me. At the end of this trip I hope to say I'm proud of how I played. That is my goal.
I'm goin' back to bed. Waking up for an amazing pasta dinner.
Peace,
Simon Charette
Friday, April 23, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
San Remo Day 1
EPT San Remo Day 1
"I'm the worst...oh I guess not" (Me checking down every street with QQ on ace high board to see Italian guy turn up AK on river)
"Naw, you're still the worst."
-Simon Charette and Ben "NeverScaredB" Wilinofsky
Somehow only winning a total of around 15-20 pots for the entire day I managed to end the day with 94k in chips (Starting stack 30k). I had aces twice and kings once and got all the money in all 3 times. The biggest pot being about 110k where a crazy Italian player who stacked off on a 7-5-2-3 board with 88 on the turn against my aces. I wasn't dealt many playable hands throughout the whole day and am really happy on the timing of those pots. I never stopped getting 3 and 4 bet. The whole table was laughing as I opened only 3 pots in the last 3 levels and was 3 bet everytime. It became to be a running joke. But hey, I got 94k and am ectastic to be going into 600/1200 tommorow.
As I type this Mike "Timex" Mcdonald is passed out with his face on the toilet seat sitting crossed legged on the floor. Puke in the garbage can and toilet. I hear a gurgle every now and then. I took some pictures but I'll probably keep them to myself. I'm also rooming with Ch0ppy and are waiting for the breakfast place to open in our hotel as they have the best juice ever. I tried to make a smoking bet against myself with them yesterday and cracked in a mere 8 hours or so after I realized I wouldn't be able to sleep. Sick thing is, I haven't slept anyway and will probably play day 2 with no sleep. Not a big deal as I don't sleep much anyway, I didn't even shut my eyes the night before the Fallsview Classic final table. I actually went drinking the night before with Gavin Smith and Chris Bell too and things worked out. I want an EPT title bad enough where nothing is going to matter. I plan on winning.
Check my twitter page at www.twitter.com/SimonCharette as I'll be doing live chip count updates on the breaks. I expect to roll right into day 3 and eventually to the FT. *loud Snore* I should really move Mike from the toilet.
I like Italy. Biggest difference I've noticed since being here is the girls always smile at me when we catch eyes. It's just a friendly thing but I feel like in North American culture girls often look away as a standard nervous twitch or something. It's a really small thing but the little differences in culture are the most facinating part about traveling I think. One thing I don't like about Italy is that Italian men feel the need to slam the table with their fist when they win a big pot. So unclassy but I guess they just can't help it.
I can't help but be excitied. Lookin' good.
Peace,
Simon Charette
"I'm the worst...oh I guess not" (Me checking down every street with QQ on ace high board to see Italian guy turn up AK on river)
"Naw, you're still the worst."
-Simon Charette and Ben "NeverScaredB" Wilinofsky
Somehow only winning a total of around 15-20 pots for the entire day I managed to end the day with 94k in chips (Starting stack 30k). I had aces twice and kings once and got all the money in all 3 times. The biggest pot being about 110k where a crazy Italian player who stacked off on a 7-5-2-3 board with 88 on the turn against my aces. I wasn't dealt many playable hands throughout the whole day and am really happy on the timing of those pots. I never stopped getting 3 and 4 bet. The whole table was laughing as I opened only 3 pots in the last 3 levels and was 3 bet everytime. It became to be a running joke. But hey, I got 94k and am ectastic to be going into 600/1200 tommorow.
As I type this Mike "Timex" Mcdonald is passed out with his face on the toilet seat sitting crossed legged on the floor. Puke in the garbage can and toilet. I hear a gurgle every now and then. I took some pictures but I'll probably keep them to myself. I'm also rooming with Ch0ppy and are waiting for the breakfast place to open in our hotel as they have the best juice ever. I tried to make a smoking bet against myself with them yesterday and cracked in a mere 8 hours or so after I realized I wouldn't be able to sleep. Sick thing is, I haven't slept anyway and will probably play day 2 with no sleep. Not a big deal as I don't sleep much anyway, I didn't even shut my eyes the night before the Fallsview Classic final table. I actually went drinking the night before with Gavin Smith and Chris Bell too and things worked out. I want an EPT title bad enough where nothing is going to matter. I plan on winning.
Check my twitter page at www.twitter.com/SimonCharette as I'll be doing live chip count updates on the breaks. I expect to roll right into day 3 and eventually to the FT. *loud Snore* I should really move Mike from the toilet.
I like Italy. Biggest difference I've noticed since being here is the girls always smile at me when we catch eyes. It's just a friendly thing but I feel like in North American culture girls often look away as a standard nervous twitch or something. It's a really small thing but the little differences in culture are the most facinating part about traveling I think. One thing I don't like about Italy is that Italian men feel the need to slam the table with their fist when they win a big pot. So unclassy but I guess they just can't help it.
I can't help but be excitied. Lookin' good.
Peace,
Simon Charette
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
NAPT Main Event Busto
"You played really well man"
-Tim West (after knocking me out of NAPT Main event 3 hours in)
I'm sitting in my hotel room at the Mohegan Sun wondering if there was anything I could do to avoid busting out in a mere 3 hours of the main event. I was dealt kings when an aggresive player squeezed. I flat called the raise to 1750 with 30k to start (along with 2 other players behind me, 4-way to flop) and the board ran out 10-7-3 with 2 spades. The squeezer 2nd to act bets 2400 into a pot of about 7k. I raise to 6200 and the other 2 players fold. The sqeezer re-raises it back to 16k. I tank forever as the clock is called on me and I fold. The raiser told me he had aces.
My actual bustout hand i limped behind on the button in a 6 way pot (14k left in stack) with k7 of spades and the board runs outs q-j-4 with 2 spades. Someone leads out 700, Tim West calls in mid-position, and I call on the button. Turn is the 6 of spades. Original better leads again for 1200 weakly, T-May makes it 5100. With my stack I don't think there is anything I can do but move in and im drawn dead to the a8 of spades. I knew there was a decent chance Tim would have the nuts here, but with my stack I dont know if I can fold 2nd nuts when Tim can have a bunch of smaller flushes.
Even though i busted out quickly, I was very happy with my play and specifically my ability for reading players and situations in the live setting. Another live tournament with multiple cooler scenarios that I thought I handled really well. If the cards fall may way even slightly I know I can make a deep run in the upcoming EPT San Remo or Monte Carlo events.
Either way I'm dying to eat some real Italian food and plan on having a good time no matter what happens. Most of my poker friends will be there and I know it will be good times.
Peace,
Simon Charette (pokerbrat13/tedlogan19)
-Tim West (after knocking me out of NAPT Main event 3 hours in)
I'm sitting in my hotel room at the Mohegan Sun wondering if there was anything I could do to avoid busting out in a mere 3 hours of the main event. I was dealt kings when an aggresive player squeezed. I flat called the raise to 1750 with 30k to start (along with 2 other players behind me, 4-way to flop) and the board ran out 10-7-3 with 2 spades. The squeezer 2nd to act bets 2400 into a pot of about 7k. I raise to 6200 and the other 2 players fold. The sqeezer re-raises it back to 16k. I tank forever as the clock is called on me and I fold. The raiser told me he had aces.
My actual bustout hand i limped behind on the button in a 6 way pot (14k left in stack) with k7 of spades and the board runs outs q-j-4 with 2 spades. Someone leads out 700, Tim West calls in mid-position, and I call on the button. Turn is the 6 of spades. Original better leads again for 1200 weakly, T-May makes it 5100. With my stack I don't think there is anything I can do but move in and im drawn dead to the a8 of spades. I knew there was a decent chance Tim would have the nuts here, but with my stack I dont know if I can fold 2nd nuts when Tim can have a bunch of smaller flushes.
Even though i busted out quickly, I was very happy with my play and specifically my ability for reading players and situations in the live setting. Another live tournament with multiple cooler scenarios that I thought I handled really well. If the cards fall may way even slightly I know I can make a deep run in the upcoming EPT San Remo or Monte Carlo events.
Either way I'm dying to eat some real Italian food and plan on having a good time no matter what happens. Most of my poker friends will be there and I know it will be good times.
Peace,
Simon Charette (pokerbrat13/tedlogan19)
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