Volcanic luck in San Remo for Juha

Here you can read Juha’s account of the recent events that took place after being stuck in San Remo due to effects of the the volcanic ash cloud:

"I went to San Remo to play the EPT San Remo Main Event. I made it to Day 2 with a short stack and busted out in the very first hand. Not much I can do, I had 88 in a late position and my stack was up to about 17 big blinds. All-in and I got called by JJ in the small blind. Directly after busting out I took a taxi to Monte Carlo. There was Rolex Masters tennis tournament semifinals on the same day and a few of my Finnish friends were watching the matches there. I just made it to see the first match Nadal-Ferrer which was a good game. Second semifinal Djokovic-Verdasco was up next. My friends saw Djokovic play the day before and they said that he played great and made something like only 2 unforced errors in the whole match. So we all bet on Djokovic and pretty big too.

I actually bet on sports quite a bit nowadays. This tennis bet was probably the worst bet of my life. Djokovic made an unforced error in almost every second point (honestly) and he lost 6-2 6-2 although he was 2:1 favourite to win it before the game. We then went to a sports bar in Monaco to watch some Premier League soccer before travelling back to San Remo to buy-in to 2k side event. Of course when I got back to San Remo they had just stopped selling tickets. They said that more tickets will be sold in the morning, but when I went there the next day the line was so long that I gave up on the idea of playing in that tournament. It was sold out anyway and players were buying in as alternates. I didn`t mind that. I had a flight home the next day anyway, but because of the volcanic ash it might not be able leave. That would be a bad beat.

During that day I got a confirmation that my flight was cancelled. No ideas when the next flight to Finland would take off either. I decided to stay a few days more and play the two 1k side events that they had. I busted out from the first one pretty quickly. I was totally card dead in the second one for a long time and was really struggling to stay in the tournament. My table was pretty tough too, all players were pretty good. I think many other pros got stuck in San Remo too so that’s why the field was so tough. At one point there were 6 good Russians and a PokerStars Pro at my 8 handed table, in a tournament played in Italy! Somehow I managed to stay in and started getting some hands too. I went to day 2 with above average in chips and managed to win the tournament! I got €84,000 for beating a field of 290 players. Not a huge score but a tasty bonus for a missed flight!’ "

Best regards,

Juha Helppi