Inside Chilipoker

A.k.A Alfman26

Spank Poker Club have really been a dominating force during some of the minor events here at the WPTMarrakech, “alfman26“ for example was certainly excited when he busted out two pro players to win a bounty during the Pro-AM event, he then continued his run and finished in second place, both an excellent result and a super experience for this upcoming poker player.

I also had a moment in between events to interview Astic Rémy and Secretary of the Spank Poker Club, who has just qualified for the main event via a Super Satellite that was played during the early hours of yesterday morning. Rémy started playing poker back in January of 2008, at the time he was playing two popular trick taking French card games Belote and Tarot. A friend of his from Paris suggested Poker and introduced him to the club. Since then he has been a regular at the club and is now in the the Club Secretary. One of his main roles is to help organize one of the 4 club tournaments that Spank have every year.

I asked him what the club is like, and he said its a really fantastic club because of the social events, everyone is in good spirits and are ready to have fun and enjoy good times. Besides that he said the members of the club are really competitive especially with the rake and raking races that they have going on. ” It’s not about the money , winning is a matter of pride!” Rémy tells me.

I asked him about his strategy during the satellite tournament that won him a ticket to the Main Event.

113 players played, there were 28 re-buys and 10 add-ons. 17 people qualified. He suggested that since it was a full table tournament in the beginning of the tournament he waited for only good cards, while watching the other players. He noted some players making strange moves so he decided to play simple ABC poker. With 38 players left it seemed like everyone was tighter because it was almost bubble time. His stack at this stage was 49,000 and the average was 33,000. With only 23 players left Rémy manged to jump his stack to 60,000 and now it was time to wait. Waiting lasted 2-3 hours until it was down to 18 players and he had won his seat to the main event!!

I also asked him what made the difference and he said he built up a strong image with the following hand, blinds are 200/400 and player raises 1650 in early position, big blind calls, Rémy suggest he either had a big hand or he was making a move. So he just calls with pocket tens 1010. Flop comes down Qs 10s 7c big blind folds and the other player check raises Rémy 3000 bet up to 9000. Rémy looks down at his stack of 11,000 and goes all in. Committed his opponent calls  and shows 8 5 for a pure bluff. From then on people noticed that Rémy was sponsored  by Chilipoker and the other players seemed afraid to play a hand with him.

“What about your strategy for the main event” I asked, he agreed it would be a very difficult field so he would be keeping his expectations in check. Over the past few days he has been watching videos and is taking the time to study his competition. The structure is nice for the Main Event, so the pro players will have an edge over the armatures he says.

We with him and Spank the best of luck!
(especially our friend alfman26 who will attempt to qualify for the main event tonight)

Stay focused, enjoy the game and may all your hands hold up.

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