Bassy Saffari

Bassy's Caribbean Saffari

Since EPT Budapest about fourteen months ago, I have played just one live event; a£500 freeze out at the Vic which ended in a friendly 5-way chop. I've been trying to explain to myself, and others, why I don't play more live poker, at least in London, where a lot of the games are much softer then they are online.

Is it because I'm lazy and that I can't be bothered to leave my house to go play more poker? Or that I find it difficult to avoid the blackjack tables and other pit games when I visit the cashier? I think over the last year my whole style of poker has been tuned towards playing on the net and so I, like others, miscalculate the importance of factors that are unique to playing live poker and am therefore less confident about it.

The thing I find most annoying about live games is that you can't multi table, which makes busting hurt so much more than it does online and you then mull over all those hours/days you spent playing which weren't even good enough for a minimum cash. I had planned to play every EPT last year when the STEPS satellites were juicy and qualifying was a lot easier, but now you need to negotiate tough fields of HSMTT regulars and so the incentive to put a lot of time and money into winning seats has diminished.

Having said this, I was putting in a special effort to get a PCA package having heard so many good things about this stop, and also the 30 turbo re-buy satellites are pretty good fun so are an easy grind. It wasn't too long before I ran like God in one of these things and I was chuffed to be on course for the Bahamas, not just because of the 10k event, but because I could partially trade the confines of my house for the tropical Caribbean beaches.

Miami Calling

Due to my old habit of leaving everything to the last minute, I was unable to book myself a direct flight to the Bahamas, with return tickets starting from £1200. As a result I planned to break the trip up with two 3-night-stops in Miami either side of the ten nights in Nassau. With the first visit to Miami starting on New Year's Eve, this had all the promise of being a great couple of weeks.

Now to find a friend who doesn't have work and has a fondness for EPT breakfasts and miscellaneous freebies. Of course, my good friend Eddy, who's been to a couple of stops with me, who can be expensive, but is good company nonetheless; definitely worth the money.

We left London at 9am on December 31^st. I hate flying so proceeded to drink a litre and a half of red wine, which being a short, skinny guy went far in curing my anxiety - and over to the point where I was attacking Eddy with my headphone cords in his sleep. Four episodes of the Sopranos, Bear Grylls, Battles BC, Eminem, and one hour's sleep later, we were in Miami.

The hotel was nicely situated in Miami Beach. I would have preferred to be staying in South Beach but we were talking $500 for NYE - if any were available - and I found this an unnecessary expense for a night that we'd probably be out for most of. We were meant to have booked tickets for the night but felt a bit mugged off that we hadn't got tickets for the Gansvoort Hotel party - this was at the hotel's rooftop pool club and had gone from $200 each to $400 in a few days; and that was with an early finish and no table service.

On our earlier walk down the beach we had come across another amazing party being set up at W hotel and we asked the doormen on the beach about it. Tony, who I can only describe as the nightlife's answer to David Brent, told us that although it was sold out at $500 a piece, he'd sort us out for $300 total and sneak us in the back - 'cheers Tony'. After sleeping a bit and getting out late for 11pm, we hit the town sober. Tony, of course, turned out to be anything but the 'in guy' he'd portrayed, and having been stuck on the door at some room inside the hotel for the night, he proved helpless to get us in and so we had to think of something else.

The Clock Strikes Twelve

This part of Miami is really incredible on New Year's. Very smart bars and hotel parties, amazing cars pulling up everywhere and just tons of rich men and ridiculously hot girls. Boxers, NBA pros - I was happy just walking around looking at it all. I even bumped into bloody AJ Soprano, who had featured quite heavily in the episodes I had watched earlier on the plane; weird. We ended up hitting a glitzy bar/restaurant to reign in the New Year. Instead of having a group of girls to celebrate with at midnight, we, of course, had made only one addition to our party: a wasted, gay New Yorker who probably thought he'd dropped the jacky with us two Brits and proceeded to cock-block all our advances towards the opposite sex. So eventually we paid the bar tab, told him we were going for a cigarette and ran away.

By now the party in W was in full flow and some people were spilling onto the beach. I gave one of the guys on the door $250 and he let us in - Kid Cudi was just starting his set so it was pretty good timing. There's generally a good crowd of people out in America; they're all pretty friendly plus the girls really dig the English accent - to the point where they just make you say words like you're some kind of dancing monkey - fine by me. "Oh my God, are you like, British or something"? 'Yes I bloody well am."

Surprisingly we managed to man up and get ourselves out every night we were in Miami, which is something I haven't done since I was 19. The weather had turned a little sour (which sucked), but the club nights were awesome so I didn't mind that much. Although it was now time to leave for Nassau and I wasn't feeling that pumped, I was having too good a time in Miami and pondered that if I could bink something in the Bahamas then I would definitely look to moving somewhere like this in America.

Next Stop Nassau

After a 35-minute plane ride we arrived in Nassau. The weather wasn't much better than Miami; we later learned that this was the worst they'd had in years, just my luck. After an equally long taxi ride we got to Paradise Island, which is separated from the rest of Nassau by a bridge. It did seem that the better hotels were in this part, but on arrival it was clear that the resort was very American and felt more like Vegas than the Caribbean. Although this could have had something to do with the Casino they'd built in the middle of the place, which you were forced to walk through every time you needed to go somewhere. This in turn made walking anywhere pretty damn expensive!

The hotel rooms were okay, definitely not by the standard of European hotels charging $400+ a night though, but whatever, good balcony. Ed was ill, so me and my other room mate Will (who had met us earlier) went to eat at Nobu, which was apparently the best restaurant they had in the resort. It was Teppan Yaki, which I'm pretty fond of, and generally I was impressed by the meal, even though I do feel they use too much salt in the cooking on that side of the Atlantic.

The next day I went to rail my pal Martin (M.nosbocaj) who I hadn't seen since we were in Budapest a year ago. Me and the boys hung out with Martin and his girlfriend throughout the trip which was good fun, even if mine and Martin's team blackjack/craps efforts went almost as badly as our poker efforts, seeing us both stuck an annoying 4k apiece.

I did manage to take down the 120KO on Full Tilt for 11k on the second night though, although it's surprising that anyone could win a dime in that place online with the net being as awful as it was, cutting out once an hour for as long as ten minutes sometimes. I felt this was ridiculous for a hotel that was charging $400 for its most basic room and still had the audacity to charge every poker player $80 extra for the privilege of a shitty connection. It's enough to tilt even the steadiest of poker players. I hope they use the 100k they made off us guys to sort that out for next year.

The Main Event

Day 1B was my starting day, which I guess meant there were going to be the majority of direct buy-ins on, so I was imagining plenty of open-limping and 4 x ing going on but I was wrong. I guess I was grateful for at least being on the immediate left of Issac Haxton and Harrison Gimbel rather than their right, but in general it was going to prove to be a tough and frustrating day. 30k starting stack meant the whole thing was super deep and I was going to have to do more than coin-flip my way to the final table - damn!

My first big pot was when I opened Aw, Kw under the gun and I was 3-bet by a young unknown guy (who I felt may have been getting out of line here), but nevertheless I didn't feel like there was any value in 4-betting since I could never be comfortable playing for stacks if I did make top pair; the two of us were still over 100bb's deep. The flop came down A-Q-3 with two spades, which I felt was a fairly good flop for me even though this was always going to be an ugly spot given that I was out of position. I check-called his continuation bet and the turn came 7q putting a 3-flush up there; an awkward card that I was hoping would slow down the action, but he bet again.

I guess this was a spot where I could have found a fold but there shouldn't have been too many flushes in his range, with A-Q often checking back too. It seemed like he may just be double-barrelling me given that I had been quite tight / straightforward so far and I might give up a hand as strong as top pair here, and he'd still have an option to fire a 3^rd bullet on the river. I called and chose to revaluate on the river, still feeling I needed to be calling a 3^rd bet given my read on the situation. The river came Qr which was a really awful card for my hand. Thankfully we both checked and he showed 8q 6q so was probably more relieved then I was. I don't really see how I could have played the hand much differently apart from possibly making a lay down on the turn.

The rest of the day was one of the worst I've ever had. My attempts to get something going were hindered by opponents always waking up with hands or just owning me with aggressive play pre-flop. I was mainly upset about the rags I had to put up with for eight hours. I hate sounding like a whining donk but after getting AA and 99 earlier that were good enough for the blinds, I failed to pick up anything I could begin to make a defence with. In hindsight I wish I had anticipated this sort of trash and tried to be more creative earlier or towards the end.

The thing about these deep stack events is that you can take the starting stack quite happily into Day 2 so there's no need to go crazy, especially since there's a load of equity in cashing to most people who enter a 10k. There were thirteen minutes left in the day and I was feeling more comfortable as a short-stack with 22bb's as I knew I'd start cramming any two cards against all Gimbel's raises. He had just been destroying what I knew was a tough table, full of good NL cash players, and if it wasn't for some Brazilian Team PokerStars Pro and a random 80-year-old, I would have really felt like the fish at that table. I did read Gimble's post on FCP later that day and he said he'd had AA twice in five hands with loads of action, so I could probably attribute a good part of his day to run-good. He also made a nice set to bust the donk that had replaced Haxton so I suppose he was loving life. Either way I'm not surprised that he went on to win because he really played great with the stack he built and was relentless in his aggression.

I did feel schooled when I flatted his early position raise with A-Q which he totally shutdown on a 2-8-Q flop, and then turn, once I'd decided to slow play one street to try and induce some action. He just soul-read me, probably because I was smiling so hard at the fact I'd found top-pair, top-kicker!

My penultimate hand came when I opened Kw, Jw under the gun with 22 bb's. I knew this spot kind of sucked because I should always be folding to a 3-bet and no one should really be calling given my stack size unless they have KK or better, but I just decided to do it anyway. I had forgotten that the old guy, who was acting out of turn most hands, was in the big blind and he quite happily saw a flop, not caring if I had 200bb's or five. I decided not to c-bet a 6-6-9 two-diamond flop against this calling station, so when the Je hit the turn I felt like I just couldn't fold, despite the lunatic betting 10k into 6k.

I got the rest of it in knowing I was dead when I heard him say "yeah I'll call that," and tabled 6r, 7r. I always say good game and good luck but on this day I just left in a rage like a stroppy teenager. I went and told the lads who were disappointed for me, especially poor Eddy who realised he may actually have to get a job now after I apparently agreed to give him a 1.25% stake when I was drunk.

Poker Party Poker

With shitty weather but pretty good nightlife, we went about getting smashed for the next seven days with the likes of Scotty Ngyuen and the two younger Mizarachi boys, who were all top guys. I was concerned that Scotty was still in our hotel room partying six hours before Day 3 started, but hey, what do I know about playing drunk and sleepless. The guy has had ridiculous success so maybe I may turn up to the next 10k event pissed out my skull, at least then I may not be such a rock at the table!

I didn't go to the PokerStars party because I needed a night off. They changed the venue from an awesome place to an awful place and the till-late just meant 12pm so I really didn't think I missed out on much. Even with Kelly Rowland and David Guetta headlining the event and the likes of Nelly and Vinny Chase also in attendance, people still turned up in their white PCA hoodies: I found this funny because me and Martin were going to have a bet on this beforehand. Eddy managed to have a good time though, going out with nothing and still managing to be in and around the VIP tables and partying back at people's suites while me and Will were watching I Love you Man back at our room.

The next day was Sunday so I was nice and fresh to grind online and Martin and I went and met some of the other Swede's at the Hilton downtown where they had booked a conference room to deal with the useless connection back at Atlantis. It was quite a chilled environment to play and was nice to grind with guys like Eisenhower1, Mendieta19, G8vemylifeaway and Antesvante. The rule was biggest winner paid for everything so I was in no danger, even though I was ecstatic to break even on a Sunday. Antesvante took a cheeky 90k for his first in the Sunday 500 on Stars, probably one of the top five toughest tourneys of the week; a nice end to his trip.

So PCA 2010 had ended, even though Eddy and I still had to do three more nights in Miami. Will went straight back to the UK and Martin prepared for a 29-hour-flight to Australia. Even though I was disappointed with my performance in the Main Event, I was still nicely up from online. Being an online player in the UK, it's really hard to go out a lot on weekends with the schedule being the way it is, and despite only two good beach days in fifteen, it was definitely refreshing to get away from the office for that amount of time.

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