Julian Thew Blog - Copenhagen EPT, Broadway & GUKPT  -  By Poker Boss

Copenhagen was hard work. I was on a table full of Scandinavian players for the majority of the day & in hindsight I played way too passive. After grinding for eight hours with a sub average 5k I eventually ran pocket tens into pocket kings and that was the end of that. Despite that disappointment I do feel that I spotted one or two small leaks in my game & hopefully I'll be able to iron them out over the coming few weeks.

Funnily enough after Copenhagen I was telling the wife that I felt I was no longer capable of going out of a main event in Level 1; by that I meant that my main focus of late has been to survive the day & whilst that has served me well recently, it has in some instances, restricted my usual open & flowing game.

With that in mind I made a last minute decision to hit the Broadway's main event in Birmingham. I got involved in a 3 way pot with 9-10s, flopped a flush draw & when I turned a straight draw, the chips went in. I missed all draws on that occasion, but could at least comfort myself with the knowledge that, I am, once again, very capable of going busto in Level 1.

Down to the Vic then & I had a good run in the 150 runner 500NL side event finishing 4th for six grand. It was a great final table; Neil Channing was very good at relentlessly bullying the table, but it was Dave 'riverdave' Penley who took the honours & the top spot.

The main event was maxed out with just over 400 runners & it looked like an early train home for me as I found myself down to 3000 by the end of Level 4. One of the most underrated assets in poker is patience & some first class grinding then ensued & hey presto I'd managed to get myself back into the match. I reached a high of 40k but got moved to a very chip heavy table for the last level of the day & it pained me to dribble back to 23k. Below average, but still a shot & with just a hundred left.

Alas, Day 2 started off where Day 1 had finished. I blinded down to 12k, doubled up, hitting a high of 32k, dribbled back down again & then ran 8-8 into AA. A good experience then & as always, very nice to make a Day 2.
March & April are possibly the busiest two months in the calendar; I've just arrived in Warsaw for the next EPT, then it's Dublin over Easter for the Irish Open, followed by the San Remo & Monte Carlo EPT's & then finally the big WPT Championship at the Bellagio.

I'd settle for just one final table out of that lot.....