Feelin' Sexy in Vienna

Being chip leader is just sexy. It's been a while since I had some luck late in tourneys and I've been deep quite a bit. Well, I was certainly lucky in the late stages of EPT Vienna. I started the day with under the average, 54,200, but by the end of the day I was sitting on 893,000 and the average is about 200,000 with 80 players left, all of which are in the money.

My EPT history hasn't been good. I finally got my first ever EPT cash in London, and this one is my second in a row, but I'm looking for a win here considering my chip position.

My rush happened all in the same level really:

UTG makes it 4700 UTG +2 calls, next guy makes it 13k, the button makes it 32k. I'm in the small blind, sitting on about 175k in chips with the average being about 115k, and I see red aces! I make it 60k, the first two fold, and the next player, with a big stack, moves all in. I call, fully expecting to chop the pot, but he shows KK. Not trying to be mean to the guy, but I think if you are ever going to fold KK pre-flop this was the most obvious of spots to do it. My range in this case is precisely AA or KK. He can never be ahead.

15 minutes later I raise UTG to 5200 with red aces again and get one called. Flop is 7-4-4 I bet 75000 he makes it 20,000 I call. Turn a 2, I check, he goes all in for about 35k with JJ and I call and win.

20 minutes later I raise UTG to 5200 with... yup, you guessed it, red aces! The button 3 bet me to like 13k, I made it about 28k, he tanked, and moved all in... with KK! Winner.

This next hand I got lucky but feel like I played the hand 100% correctly based on my read. Old guy I played with the day before makes it 7500 with blinds now at 1500-3000 and I call from the sb with 10-10. The big blind is short stacked with just 50,000 total and moves all in. The old guy calls and has about 150,000 left.
Based on my read from the previous day, this guy could never have JJ QQ KK AA or AK even. He was a weak player, and overbet ALL of his big hands the previous day. For example, someone would make it 1200 and he'd make it 12,000 and show KK. With Jacks, he came in for like 5.5x. I was certain he was weak.... then he snap called! He showed KK?? I was very surprised, oh well.

Flop Q-Q-8, turn J with three hearts on the board now and I had the 10h, unfortunately he had the Kh. The other player had 44. The river... bink! 10! That got me over 800k.

So while I'd like to claim that I skilled my way to the chip lead I'd be lying. Three coolers and a suckout, but hey, I'm not complaining and I'll take it anyway I can.

I'm off to the casino now to play day 3. I think we play down to 24 players today and the blinds should be 2500-5000 I think with a 500 ante to start out.

Daniel Negreanu is the 2004 CardPlayer Magazine and World Poker Tour Player of the Year. He presents his poker strategies in one-on-one virtual training at pokervt.com and writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column.
Read all of Daniel Negreanu's poker blog and poker articles at Full Contact Poker.