With poker buddies and friends Miha Remic and Alen Keser we were attending a one week trip to Tanger where there was a poker festival in their local casino from 1.11. to 4.11. We wanted to experience both - also a festival cash game and also a game with locals after festival. We stayed in nice Movenpick hotel and we had a nice deal arranged with our poker organizer Igor Lončar who set as free hotel with foods included as long we play like 5h a day at 5 5 blinds.
We had a flight from Milano with Ryanair so the tickets were cheap, but we need to come there with car which takes us like 5.5h from my place. Tanger is a very nice city with almost 1M people living there and everything is so nice and clean i couldnt belive it. Also they had a very nice park just across the road from our hotel and since i cant sleep long even after poker nights i was chilling there while my buddies were still sleeping.
Weather was nice, but i expected a bit higher temperatures which were at range of 20 deg C. In a resort of hotel it was a nice outside swimming pool with nice cold water like 15deg C which i like very much as a beliver of Wim Hof Iceman. I used the pool every night before the game to clear my mind and prepare for tough battles at the green felt.
Nature is gorgeous and Mediterranian sea meets Atlantic Ocean there.
Also we saw a beautifull Hercules cave.
Now to poker. At time of festival there were like 3-4 tables of 5 5 NLH and game started at 21:00 and running untill morning. Games were nice and soft, rake was 5% with 25 cap and games were quite beatable. After the festival it was just one table 5 5 and game started at 22:00. There was one guy loaded with money and ego and his goal was to outplay us, with bluffs usually.
Alen plays really strong poker, I admire his mental strenght to evaluate every situation, cools him down with that hand:
Alen opens wtih KK to 20, aggro guy makes it 60 another guy calls, Alen to 210 and both call. Flop was Q92r and all check. Turn pairs 9 and puts flush draw so Alen bets 300 and ego driven young guy after a 30 sec puts him like 1200 AI. Alen thinks for a minute an calmly calls him down. River is blank he shows 47 with fl draw and Alen takes 3k pot down.
Aggro guy on position 1.
I had also one big hand with him. There was a stradlle, 2 callers aggro guy on button to 60 and i find QQ in sb so i make it to 200 and he calls as he never folded to 3 bet. Flop was J79ss i bet 250 he calls. Turn is nice blank 2 and i put him ai like 700 and he snap calls. River is the ugliest card in the deck 8s which completes everything. As i was mentaly preparing for losing i flash over my queens and he mucks.
Miha was not so fortunate with him. He had AA and flop was KK2. Miha bets and he raises. Turn is 3, Miha check calls again. River is blank 5 as we tought and aggro bets and he calls. Winner hand was a4off. Sick.
But there was also some lottery in the casino and Miha was winner so he needs to turn a wheel of fortune with a lot of prices with the biggest of 1000€. Of cours he nails it! Winner winner chicken dinner!
Averall my results: I played on average 6h per day and also had 2 very rough days with 20k dirhams down (10 dirham = 1 $) but in the end was 33000 up which is like 3k€. 300€ goes to charity as i promised and with other expenses i came out like 2400€ good which is like 78€/h. I learned something new again and i was surrounded with 2 great guys and we had a lot of fun and laughter.
In february 2019 we plan a 1 month poker trip to Kolumbia with 4 different places to play. Until then!