POTD #186 Monte Carlo Monday: Heads up vs Sam Grafton

With €35,000, two bounties and a trophy on the (Photo: Eloy Cabacas)

The first tournament of any stop is an exciting one; everyone is happy to be there and see old friends and familiar faces. It’s often been weeks or months since I’ve played a hand of live poker, and I miss the tactile pleasures of shuffling chips and peeling cards and the adrenaline rush of playing live poker. An exception to this is the first tournament I play when travelling to Europe-- the reason I am not excited is because I am too tired to be excited. My normal European travel schedule involves taking a red-eye, trying and failing to sleep mid-air, checking into my hotel, taking a short nap¹, groggily eating some food and caffeinating, and finally registering the first tournament. Recently at EPTs, that tournament has been a €5,000+€5,000 Mystery Bounty. For whatever reason, when this tournament was a vanilla tournament, I had very little success in it, but since it has become a Mystery Bounty, I have finished 6th (while collecting the biggest bounty), 4th (while collecting a fair share of bounties), and 2nd in EPT Monaco 2023.

When I came second in 2023, this tournament had 74 entries. I do not remember too many hands from day 1, but I do remember being very tired. I do not remember too many hands from day 2 either, but in hindsight it felt like I cruised to the final table. I was three-handed with a very short-stacked Conor Beresford and chip leader Sam Grafton, who punted to me in an attempt to collect Conor’s bounty, and all of a sudden I was heads up vs. Mr. Grafton with a 14:1 chip lead. We were playing for €34,700 and two bounties that I believe had an average value of around… let’s say it was €12,650, so I can say we were playing for an even €60,000. Who cares about such details when you have a 14:1 chip lead. What’s going to happen? Are you going to lose four straight all-ins and relinquish your chip lead and be a 4:1 underdog? That seems impossible.

And yet, it happened to me. It felt like the Pokerstars Spadie had already cleared customs and was on my mantle back home in Toronto, when suddenly I was not only an underdog to win the match, but on tilt and needed to focus so I could play a technical and tricky form of poker: short-stacked heads-up no limit with one BB ante. Would I keep my head on straight, battle back and defeat Sam Grafton, or would my downward spiral continue?

Pokernews Update

2023 PokerStars EPT Monte Carlo €10,200 Mystery Bounty
(60k/120k/120k) (SB/BB/BBA) We are heads up

Sam Grafton (5.785M) limps the button, I (1.615M) check T♣️2♣️ in the BB.
Flop (360k) A♣️7♦️4♦️: I check, Sam— Sam G— Sam Grafton, bets 150k, I call.
Turn (660k) 3♣️: I check, he bets 350k, I call.
River (1.36m) T♦️: I check, he puts me all-in for my final 875k, I call and lose to 5♦️2♠️.