Greetings to All

I would like to start my first blog under smartgambler.com with introducing myself. I'm a player from Turkey, I'm in last semestr of my university education. I also work in corporate finance department of  a well known investment bank which is one of the top teams in Turkey. So balancing work and poker is a hard task. I play variety of games, obviously Hold’em :) and Razz for cash games, I play big tourneys in Hold’em, Omaha and Horse. In my first blog I will recap my FTOPS VII campaign, write about games I usually play and share my general opinions about the game.

I could only play 10 or so events in FTOPS VII because of the time differences between Europe and USA. Unfortunately I missed Horse and Razz events which entertains me most. I cashed in 4 events one in Omaha and three in Hold’em. First cash was in Event #6 PL Omaha 500+35 event. I had an interesting opening table including David Benyamine and made a good stack from the start. Near half people gone I was the chip leader. After the hand that made me the leader, I was card death for 2 hours, I had worse goings than that but it was definitely in the top 5, 44th place finish was good under the circumstances.

Second cash was in #7 100+9 Hold’em Rebuy event. It was another strong finish in the top 50 at 42th. I was feeling strong about my game and looking forward to big Event #9 with 1M guarentee. Big crowd 5600+ turned on Sunday night 1 am local time and it was already late in Europe. I had work at 9 am but I couldnt miss such a big event. This is one dilemma of a poker player. Corporate finance business is demanding and takes full attention. Normally I dont play tournaments that late. But I decided to play this one and Main Event. And what a decision it was. I played at top of my game all tournament. I never had a big stack early on, but once entered in money I started to pick up some card and get strong. My table was very aggresive and people can raise under the gun with weak aces. In last 200 hundred players with a healthy stack I woke up with KK. One of the larger stakes raises more than 3 times the big blind in early position. Slow playing is normally my number one option but I know he was a little bit loose and can call an all in with a hand like AJ, AQ, AK. Everything was according the plan and he called me with AK. I was already thinking about I would breake in to top 15-20 after I got the hand. But the flop had an ace. It was very dissapointing when you fell you have a chance of winning and get eliminated with a hand you suppose to have. But thats poker hey :)

In my opinion one of most important thing for a poker player is to avoid anger and tilt. During a tourney sometimes folding a hand where you dont know where you are, can save your tournament; not to forget there is always another hand. In this years FTOPS, in all tournaments I cashed, once I was a short stack and remained solid to get healthy again. We all seen in the past some great players can lose all of their chips in such a short time. It was very dissapointing to see “The Prince” Nguyen to get eliminated in WSOP 2007 with that 2 hands so close to final table. I’m sure he wouldn’t have made those mistakes  if he didnt get intimitated by Hilm; and by his words didnt get “too cocky”. Controlling aggression is the key.

Last cash was on #15 6 Max Hold’em which I love most. Since early days I like shorthanded games. Unfortunately last two days was not so good. I got eliminated in Main Event close to money short stacked with 66 againts A9 with flop showing an ugly 9 :)

I would like to discuss more about cash games&tourneys I regularly play and other general opinions about the game; but it has been already too long. I will try to blog regularly if I can find time from games and work.

See you guys all...