European Poker Tour Madrid Q&A -- Melanie WeisnerAmerican Melanie Weisner Talks Big Hands, European Fields, And Day 3 Tactics |
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Melanie Weisner is sitting comfortably in fifth place on the leader board going into day 3 of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Grand Final main event. The Full Tilt Red pro has 543,500 in chips and there are 104 players remaining.
Having popped the money bubble late on day 2, today will see 80 players hit the rail with something to show for their efforts. Check out the live blog feed and end of day recaps to see if Weisner can continue her killing spree and remain among chip leaders going into the penultimate day. Until then, the American had something to say about poker in Europe, and of course how she built her chip stack.
Rebecca McAdam: You’re now among chip leaders, tell me about your day…
Melanie Weisner: I started the day with 170,000, got up to 230,000, went back down to 160,000, and then it was just all up-hill from there. I played really aggressive, I played in a lot of pots, which is really fun to do when you have a lot of chips obviously, so I was getting very involved. I had a pretty good feeling about the way I played today, because I was so aggressive earlier it allowed me to get paid off in spots later where I may not have otherwise.
RM: Were you bluffing much then?
MW: A little bit [laughs]. It got to the point where literally no-one on the table would fold to me, but that turned out pretty good for me because I three-bet to 12,800 and someone just ripped in 140k with eights. So yeah it turned out pretty good for me.
RM: Tell me about some of the big hands you were involved in.
MW: One of the biggest hands I was in was with this Spanish guy on my second table who had been opening a lot of hands that went to showdown that were pretty weak, and he was defending all three-bets. So I decided to three-bet the button with K-7 suited, he called and we got a K-7-6 flop, and I near-potted it on each street. He ended up check-calling me to the river, and obviously that was a huge pot. It almost doubled my stack.
RM: Did he show or say what he had?
MW: He said he had K-Q, I’m not sure if it was that good, but yeah, that was pretty fortunate. After that I had another hand where I three-bet this guy who had flatted a three-bet with queens and then tanked forever when the original guy jammed for a total of like 40 or 50 big blinds, so I figured he would be willing to make decent lay-downs.
So, he opened and I decided to three-bet from the cut-off with 8
6 and I triple-barelled a 5-6-7-K-A board. I thought I would never be good at showdown, although it was a great flop for me, and he tanked the river for a long time and then folded. So I was pretty pleased with that, I think that the only reason that worked was because he hadn’t been on the table previously. So I was pretty happy with that hand because it didn’t go to showdown.
I made a few mistakes throughout the day but overall I’m really happy with how I played. I’m definitely looking forward to day 3, it’s really nice to play majors when you have a ton of chips.
RM: How are you finding the field?
MW: It’s tougher than Monte Carlo was last year but it’s still not too bad, the EPT fields are generally really good because poker in Europe is sort of where American poker was a couple of years back.
RM: There’s a great mix of players, both from new countries to the game (relatively speaking), and for instance, Scandinavians who are generally ultra-aggressive.
MW: Yeah, exactly, it’s a great variety of different players, which keeps things fun because you have to adjust accordingly to each player and each nationality, and kind of know what they’re thinking, so that’s really fun. Poker is just really booming over in Europe now so there is a lot of interest in the game and a lot of people wanting to try their hand, so to say, at poker.
RM: You’re doing pretty good in Europe, aren’t you?
MW: Yeah, I do a lot better in Europe than in the States. In the World Series last year I played like 35 events and cashed in two of them, and everything that I’ve won has been in Europe. I mean, to be fair, that’s where I’ve gotten most of my experience, so I’m most comfortable playing here.
RM: Do you have any plans for day 3 or are you just going to keep doing what you’re doing?
MW: It depends on my table draw. If I have a decent amount of players who have been on the table with me from today [day 2] then I’m going to probably have to play a little tighter because I’m going to get less respect. If it’s with newer players that haven’t really seen what I’ve been doing before then maybe I’ll be able to open my game up more. Either way, I’m pretty confident that with my stack and with the way I’ve been playing, I’ll be able to do whatever is necessary.
RM: Are you enjoying yourself?
MW: Oh, absolutely, yeah!
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