Tyron Krost: Not the air I was hoping for

The first day of the WPT London seemed to go really well. I got paid off on a few hands and didn’t really seem to lose many pots overall. I finished the day with just over double the starting stack which put me in good position going into day 2.

That was a really good result. but considering how tired I was for the last couple hours, I was pretty ecstatic about it.

I only flew in the day before the tournament began and with such a long flight from Melbourne even though I slept pretty well the jetlag still lingers. I think in the future, a full day’s adjustment before a tournament begins will be the minimum time I’ll test myself on.

Day 2 didn’t go quite so well right from the outset

Day 2 didn’t go quite so well right from the outset. In one of the first hands at a tough table (1k/2k/100ante; effective stacks 80k), Erik Seidel opened to 2.5k and fellow team PartyPoker’er Giovanni Safina called from the cutoff and I called with [Jx][Jx] from the small blind.

The flop came a decent looking [4x][5x][7x] with 2 hearts. I checked, Seidel bet 5.5k and Safina made it 30k. This puts me in quite an annoying spot, but given how little I invested I have in the pot and how clueless I am on where I stand I think it’s a pretty easy fold. Seidel also folded and Safina took it down.

Towards the end of the level Luke Schwartz opened from middle position with his standard min-raise, which he’d been making about half the time in pots that folded to him. Safina called and I looked at [Tx][Tx] in the small blind (Schwartz 40k, Safina 170k, me 70k).

Not air I was hoping for

I felt it was quite close between calling and raising, but given how wide their ranges were I felt like a raise to 7k would be good to take the pot down and maybe get Schwartz to 4bet a worse hand. Schwartz moved all in, Safina folded and I called. Unfortunately he had [Qx][Qx] and not the [8x][8x], [9x][9x] or air I was hoping for. No help and I was down to about 30k.

After the break Phil Ivey got moved to the table, I didn’t last long with him there though. The under the gun player opened and I looked at AsKs, so I shipped it in. Everyone folded, but the opener had [Ax][Ax]. No help and that was the end.