European Tour - Monte Carlo EPT grand final 2008

I've been learning and playing poker for just over 6 months and although I think I have got better each month I still cannot justify entering the main event of the EPT costing nearly 20,000 dollars.

But I can justify spending some of my bankroll flying my brother and myself to Monte Carlo for 2-3 days to watch the main event closing stages and enter the 500 euro event on the last day of the tournament. This would allow us to hang out in the players lounge and meet some pros, drink some beers, enjoy the sunny South of France (compared to rainy England) and still be able to wear the EPT hat with some authenticity - we WERE there after all.

So off we went. When we arrived in the Bay Hotel and resort casino on Weds April 16th at about 2pm, the main event was down to 5 tables. We watched the main table for a while just in time to see Joe Hachem, Freddy Deeb and others talking some poker talk and generally having fun. We watched for a while and got the layout of the poker room down ready for our event the next day. I found out one of the guys I have been railing regularly online trying to learn from was there in person and still in - westmenlo77 (Isaac Barron). Immediately I decided he was favourite to win in my mind and I watched him play for a bit including taking a big pot from Joe Hachem. I spoke to some of Isaacs friends who told me he had come 11th in San Remo a week or so earlier. There were a bunch of French guys noisily backing their runner so I setup a last longer bet for 500 euros between the French guys and Isaacs mates - I knew this was easy money for his mates!!

Am I the only guy who is slightly embarrassed when meeting players you have been railing and trying to learn off for several months. I feel like a closeted stalker and think introducing myself would be weird!! However during one break I did at least manage to wish Isaac good luck and he said thanks - made me think he was just a regular nice guy (like me) who is bloody good at poker (unlike me....yet).

We left for the day and when we came back the next day they were down to 10 players and Isaac was still there - great job!! My brother and I registered for our tourney and it was down to business. I got up to 7000 chips about 45 mins into the tournament when my AK became 3 aces. Then I slowly donkeyed off most of my chips on several hands where I hesitated and a really aggressive player kept putting me under pressure. One hand I had 99 and the flop was 10-10-2. I bet 60% of pot to find out where I was and he called. On the turn (an 8) I checked and he checked - here I was thinking I could just check it down and win or lose a smallish pot. The river was a K and he bet into me - I folded. I had a couple of similar hands and all of a sudden I only had 3000 left and the blinds were getting up there. I got A-10 suited and a flop of A-9-9 giving me top pair and 3 cards of a flush. I raised and got called. The turn came and was a low card giving me 4 cards to the flush. With my top pair and overcard and flush draw I pushed in my remaining 2200 chips and lost to pocket aces that were slow-played.

A-10 suited is my bogey hand!! It is the same hand I went out of Aussie millions with.I was about 90th out of 204 players. My brother did better and came about 40th going out with pocket 9s (we had lengthy discussions about if he should have picked that spot as he was getting close to the money but also only had an M of 3-4). In the players lounge I watched the final table and Isaac was getting closer and closer. I saw Chris Moneymaker come in and play table football (foos-ball) and Greg Rahmer but still feeling like a stalker I did not say hi. My brother has no such concerns and had a great chat with Vanessa Rousso who was on the final table of the 2000 euro side event - she actually offered him and me some free personal coaching as we turned up for her players tactics talk and were the only people there but she had to cancel. She is not only a very good poker player but from the few mins we chatted seems like a lovely person.

After I got knocked out of the tourney I used most of the rest of my euros to enter a 200 stt (sng). It paid 1st and 2nd and as I have been winning or getting in the money in most of the single table SNGs I have entered recently I figured I would win the 1400 main prize, enter a 1000 stt, win the 7000 main prize and still go home profitable. In fact I thought, why did I not just bring money to enter the stt's - I could make more money quickly at these with a higher probability of winning. Also in Monte Carlo I assumed there would be some soft players (amongst all the pros). So I played well until the last 3 (the money bubble). Player 1 (SB) had 8k, Player 2 (BB) had 2.1k and I have 4.0k. I get A-7offsuit and raise all-in. The SB folds and the BB tanks for a while before calling and turning over 5-3 unsuited. No cards hit until the river which was a 3. I shipped my chips. I keep thinking I should have folded this hand and let the big stack in the SB take the short stack out......but I didn't and its too late now. The next hand I (now the short stack) go all in with K-J suited and the big stack calls with A-K - I lose, come third and miss the money. And I do not have enough Euros on me to enter another stt. And as silly as it seems, there is no ATM in the poker casino!!

I watch the other SNGs for a bit and the remaining players in the 500 euro tourney. I think I see Annete_15 go out of the 500 tourney and then I see TIMEX (Mike McDonald) playing a 2000 euro tourney with a bunch of foreigners who clearly have no idea who he is. I am thinking he must be making loads of money in the stts but did not stay around long enough to see him win. I saw TIMEX play in Australia where he cashed in 3 of the events and he is another very good player (esp as hes only about 19 yrs old!!).

After my brother got knocked out of the 500 and we both had one last look at the final table of the main event (Isaac is looking good - I still think he will win) we left hoping to catch the last bus in Monaco back to the train station (which we missed) and the last train back to Nice where we are staying (which we just made after a long walk through the grand prix streets of Monte Carlo).

So thats it. I lost 500+50 euros in the side event, the 500+50 euros I staked my brother and 200+20 euros in the stt. But I never really expected to win - not yet. This trip to the south of France and Monte Carlo was an experience that I was happy to pay for. But in the back of my mind (and prob. my brothers who has never played in a big event like this) I am thinking 'but what if I am good enough to win, what if I did make the money like I did in Aussie, how far away am I from being able to enter a main event, what if I had won that stt and got enough prize money to cover our costs, what if.........