Poker cruise through Austria

Well at least a mini-trip!

Due to the weather conditions and the location of the two events I took the train for this trip. Good choice as I felt very comfortable and relaxed during my play.
First stop was the Poker Club in Kufstein again. Unfortunatly I didn't get any good cards that evening and lost two or three cruical pots. For that reason it became a short evening and I got enough sleep for ther next day.

After a three hour train ride I arrived in Bregenz for the €100 Hold'em Christmas Tournament. I played my first live tournaments in that place and as always the tournament was well organised. Arriving by train is a cool thing as the train station is next to the casino and the hotel. Hotel and casino are in the same spot and they provide good rates for the players. The tournament was designed for 90 players but they got such a great response that they added some tables and made it a 150 people tournament. After re-buys and add-ons the total prize pool was around €45.000 with a first prize of €12.000 and 18 players paid. I met several people I knew from other locations as well as some of the regular guys that play these tournaments.
At my starting table I met two guys that I knew from a GPPA tournament in Munich. At that tournament they were quite novice but they improved their game very well. The whole table was a little tight and calling was more common than raising. That allowed some nice moves and after the re-buy phase I was chipleader at that table (without doing a single rebuy). For the whole field I was somewere in the first third. I played my best game so far but was a little lucky as I won two cruical pots (and another one was split) due to luck and/or bad play from the opponent. I misssed out on a big opportunity as I folded 99 pre-flop to a huge raise and would have flopped a Full House :-((

Being the aggressor instead of being the smallstack is much more nerve wrecking. If you're the small stack you just try to get a good hand and survive the next rounds, With a big stack it's always "I have to be aggressiv ... but I won't risk too much of that great stack". Well I lost about a third in a hand that was played o.k. - unfortunately my opponet had the better kicker.
It was nice to play that long with the same guys before the table got broke.
At the new table I met the nice poker player that I met in Vegas this spring. Hopefully he is still in the tournament as I write this. I will check later.
I didn't get any great cards and despite from a raised AKs that got no callers I wasn't able to increase my stack. The blinds of 1.200/2.400 started to hurt with a 20.000 stack. Finally I received QTo in the big blind. It was folded to the chipleader in middle position who wanted to raise but missed the increased blinds and just threw in 3.600. His bet was graded as a call and the small blind called too.
Flop comes 7 10 x. Not to scary! I bet 5.000 and was called by the chipleader. Smallblind folds. As he didn't raise here I had the impression that he was on AK or something. I didn't think that he would have a pair. So my overpair with overcard should be o.k. The turn was a blank and I checked as I wanted to see him doing the betting. He bet 10.000 I went into the tank an decided to call. The river was was a J and I decided that it was time to go all-in with my last 5.000.
Imagine - that guy had called all those bets with 89o - ouch! My pair of tens dwarfed by a straight. Well, I shouldn't complain. I made the same kind of bad call early in the game with AKs just to get my all-in rewarded with a flush (otherwise I would have had just an Ace High). But it still hurts to lose against some crap. That's the advantage of the big chipleader - he can do moves that others can't afford.
Out on 54th place...