yurizinlindo
Rising Star
Bronze Level
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2026
- Total posts
- 4
- Poker Chips
- 42
- Casino Coins
- 0
- #1
What's up guys, Yuri here again.
Yesterday I made a post about the beginning of my poker journey. Today I started my grind at 4:00 PM (Brazil time, where I live).
On my first post I got some really nice advice. One of them came from @miric007, who told me to sign up on WPT Global and GG Poker because they also have a lot of freerolls where I can practice.
So today I gave them a shot. I only played the 4 PM freeroll on WPT, but no luck there lol. I didn't end up playing on GG either because I kept focusing on 888poker, since that's where I usually play. They have a ton of freerolls throughout the day.
(Not sponsored by the way... although I wish I was 😂).
As expected, most freerolls were absolute chaos. People shoving all-in with literally anything. The hardest part was surviving the first freeroll, which awarded 7 tickets to a $0.50 sub-satellite.
Once I got into that sub-sat, I immediately noticed a difference. Most of the "all-in with any two cards" players disappeared. There were still plenty of people who clearly had no idea what they were doing, but overall it felt much more playable.
I managed to grab one of the 5 tickets to the main satellite, which was a $5.50 satellite for the $55 PKO Turbo Late $1,000 GTD.
Now that was where things got serious.
I could really feel that I actually had to play proper poker if I wanted one of the two seats. The fact that only two tickets were available didn't scare me though... I only needed one anyway 😂.
I was playing pretty well and eventually reached the final table as the chip leader.
Then I got a little sneaky.
I stole a ton of blinds and pressured everyone until they started eliminating each other. By the time we got to 3-handed, I just let the other two battle it out while I sat back as the chip leader 😂.
And just like that, I won my seat into the $55 tournament without spending a single dollar.
It definitely wasn't as easy as it sounds while I'm writing this. When you're actually playing, every decision feels huge because one mistake can cost everything.
Luckily I don't really play well under pressure, so I try not to let it get to me.
I follow a Brazilian pro called 22ehnutzz, who streams regularly. One thing he always says is that if your head is full of pressure and expectations, you'll end up playing worse and lose focus on what actually matters.
So that's exactly what I tried to do.
Off I went, representing every single freeroll maniac who happily rips it in with 7♦️2♣️ 😂.
The first few hands were pretty standard.
I played solid ABC poker, didn't try anything fancy. My A-game isn't exactly world-class yet 😂.
Within the first ten hands though, I tagged a few players that seemed... strange. They weren't playing the way I expected people to play in such an expensive tournament.
I didn't underestimate anyone, though.
Eventually I picked up K♠️K♥️ on the button.
I min-raised and the small blind 3-bet me.
The flop came:
A♣️ 2♦️ 8♠️ (rainbow)
He bet half pot.
I spent a while trying to convince myself that maybe he actually had an Ace, but eventually I decided to call.
Turn:
8♥️
He instantly shoved.
Now I had one of the toughest decisions I'd made all day.
I really wanted to believe he had an Ace, but his line just didn't make much sense to me.
If he actually had an Ace, why would he play it like this?
I used almost my entire time bank thinking it through before finally making the call.
He turns over...
6♠️6♣️.
River:
9♦️
My kings hold!
Huge pot, first $25 bounty, and I doubled my starting stack.
After that I really took the handbrake off.
I started opening a lot more hands, always in position and mostly against players I'd already seen making questionable plays.
Looking back, what felt aggressive to me is probably just standard stuff for players who regularly play tournaments with that ABI.
For a long time I stayed chip leader.
I didn't win many huge pots until after the first break.
After the break I picked up another $25 bounty, but I forgot to write the hand down, so I honestly don't even remember what happened 😂.
Then came the next break... and unfortunately I remember this hand very well.
We were already at the final table.
Somehow I was still chip leader with a healthy stack.
I got involved in a hand against the second biggest stack.
The difference between us was only about ten big blinds.
I opened A♠️K♠️ in position.
He 3-bet.
Since I had position, I decided to just call instead of blowing up the pot.
Flop:
K♦️ T♥️ 3♥️
Top pair, top kicker.
He bet one-third pot.
I didn't want to let him see the turn too cheaply, so I raised.
He called.
Turn:
9♣️
The flush draw missed.
He checked.
That felt a little weird, but not suspicious enough.
I bet one-third pot.
He thought for a while before calling.
River:
J♥️
The heart flush completed.
He checked again.
That honestly looked really strange to me.
I wasn't losing to that many hands, at least in my mind.
Sure, A-Q now made a straight, but I couldn't picture someone checking both the turn and river with that hand after calling my raise.
So I decided to go for thin value with my top pair.
I bet one-third pot again.
He called...
...and showed a flush 😂😂😂.
Man...
I was actually kind of mad.
He played the hand in such a weird way.
But at the same time...
he played it perfectly because he made me believe I was ahead the whole time.
That somehow made me even more annoyed because then I started thinking:
"Wait... maybe this guy is actually really good." 😂
That was probably the toughest hand I faced all tournament.
I don't own any solvers or anything like that, but that hand definitely earned my respect.
He got inside my head.
I lost a decent chunk of chips there and dropped out of the top spots.
The tournament paid bounties plus prizes for first and second place.
Even after losing that pot I still had around 40 big blinds, so I was in good shape.
As the tournament went on, I realized that guy was just different.
He pressured the whole table, and every showdown seemed to end with him having the better hand.
He knocked out two more players.
As the blinds went up, my stack slowly got shorter until I was sitting 4th out of 4.
The chip leader was opening almost every hand, so I decided to see if he was really that fearless.
I shoved my 17 BB with K♠️Q♠️.
He snap-called with 7♥️7♣️.
Guess what happened...
Quad sevens on the flop 😂😂😂.
At that point I just laughed.
I honestly thought today was going to be my day, but I guess this guy had luck on his side too.
Even so, I was really happy with my performance and with the path that got me into the main event.
I learned a lot from this tournament.
It showed me that the biggest buy-ins don't always have the best players.
Poker is much more about your mind than your bankroll.
Moment of the Day
While playing the tournament, I noticed a nickname that sounded really familiar:
@Abarone68
I clicked on it, saw the Canadian flag and thought:
"Where the hell do I know this guy from?" 😂
I sent a screenshot to one of my friends.
A few seconds later he starts yelling at me on Discord:
Not gonna lie...
I froze for a second.
But hey... at least I'd already shown Aaron I came to play after winning a bounty right in front of him 😂.
Thanks to everyone who made it this far!
Good luck at the tables, and I'll keep posting updates about this journey.
If you have any tips or advice, feel free to leave a comment. I'll reply as soon as I can.
See you at the tables!
Discord: hamham_22
