CCC again

"Hundertwasser Haus"

Played the CCC again - this time the € 10+3 pot-limit hold'em.
Well it is more a € 15+3 as they add € 5 for the bountys (rb's are €10).

Went up and down during the rebuy time. Lost some good pots agains a newbe who was lucky (and couldn't let any hand go). He was broke before me but cost me the ability to start after the rebuy time with a healthy stack.

There was another interesting hand: Raised 55 with 6 callers before me and everybody called it. Flop was no help but not scary. Checked to me, bet again (about half the pot) and still 4 callers.
Turn no help but not too scary. Flush draw possibility for some still possible. With blinds of 50/100 we had now over 6000 in the pot. The river could have completed somebodys flush. No straights possible and no big overcards. First player checked, second bet about 2000 and third called. I was sure I was beaten but there was now way I would go away from this pot! Well at least I was second. JJ won and the other two had nothing - didn't complete their draws but still had some kind of hope wit Ace-high and King-high. And I was crippled heavily... went all-in a little later and made a double rebuy.
After the rebuy time I didn't get cards for about 40 minutes. We were now down from 49 to 28 players (10 will be paid). Gott TT in the small blind and raised the pot (which set me almost all-in). Flop was blank and I bet my last 100. Ran into QQ and was out on 28th place :-((

They offered a $20 voucher for a 1-2 limit cash game to the first 20 players out of the tournament. I used this and we had a fun session for about 4 hours. Limit isn't my game anymore and 1-2 is like pushing peanuts around. So I played it over agressively to create at least some nice pots (and put some of the players on tilt with that, sorry guys). Lots of callers around that made it an interesting session. Big swings and at the end I was up € 10. Could have been more but a great hand were I flopped a set of 5's with a King kicker went down on the river as the other guy completed his full house with J5. The interesting part was that we kept betting and raising and produced a pot with about 25 BB's. I feard I was up against A5 as my K5 was indeed a weak hand to play (I never would have played that in a 4/8 game). But I didn't expect a J5 from the other player.

To add more fun bla and his friend mr. j who played the tournament too but didn't made it into the money joined the game. So this was a nice way to complete the Vienna trip. It was a winning trip (even after expenses) so I am more than satisfied.

"Schloss Schönbrunn"

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Desaster at PokerWorld

What a difference between CCC and PW. Not only the location itself which lacks of style at all. Nothing compared to the friendly welcome from yesterday. The people there are more like those that you meet in the CCC in Linz. As I entered the CCC yesterday it was like "what a nice place, I really like to play here". Today it was more like "what an awful place - do I really want to play there?" It would have been better if I left immediatly....

I had some dinner before the tournament which was o.k but not as good as the day before. The tournament had 45 players and I didn't like the structure at all. The lowest denomination is 50 / 250 / 1000. They start with 4000 chips. Blinds 100/100. And the Add-on gets you 10.000. Weird!

It started like yesterday with no cards but went better. Some nice hands and finally AA :-))
Played it aggressive pre-flop and on the flop which came 7-10-10. One caller that paid some more on the turn and the river with A7. Two hands later I got ... AA again!
Aggressive play again pre-flop: UTG made it 4 bets and I reraised to 8 bets and he called. Flop came 7-10-10 (!) Dejavu? He bet and I raised all-in as I was sure that he didn't have a 10 or pocket 7's. He called and showed pocket 9's. Turn was blank and river was a 9 :-((( That shrinked my healthy stack to shortstack again. About Dejavu - this hand happend again two hands before the end of the rebuy period. But this time I wasn't unhappy about the hand. I played it correctly - that's all that counts.

After the rebuy period I won some & lost some. High point was 22.000 with 500/1.000 blinds and 50 ante. Went down to 16.000 and got K9 in the big blind. One bet 1.000, another called and I checked. Flop was 9QQ. The original bettor bet 4.ooo. Second folded. I was sure that was a weak raise. I was sure he had no Q and no pocket pair. So it must have been the 9. Kicker? Maybe an Ace but I expected something lower. So I went all-in for 15.000 to give him a tough decision even with A9. He called immediatly (had me covered) and showed 9,10 offsuited. Whaaat? That guy called an all-in with two Q's on the flop? Well it paid off (for him). Turn was blank and the river a 10 ... out on 28th place. Did I tell you about Dejavu?
To bad - had one of those two bad beats worked my way I would have been on a healthy stack. With both working the right way I could have taken a break until the final table (well, almost).

One lesson learned: Don't play in an evironment that you don't like. I didn't like the place, I didn't like structure and I didn't like the people I played with. If you plan to play several hours you better play under circumstances you like. I played good poker with no crucial mistakes but I just didn't feel as comfortable than yesterday at the CCC.

So I will definitely play at the CCC on Saturday.

City of Vienna (near "Stephansdom")

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Shadow in Vienna ... cont.

Uuups ... that post got long. Too long! So I had to split it into two parts. Here's the final table:

Unfortunatly 10.800 chips isn't much with 800/1600 blinds and 400 antes. I had no room for a move ... but I had still the time to decide for action or not. Patience paid off as one after another of stacks bigger than mine went all-in and lost. Again there are lots of people that lack in knowledge of proper final table play (which is different due to the fact that every eliminated players means a bigger payday for the remaining players). I was able to choose good spots for my actions and was able to get several blinds/antes and survive three all-ins. Again: Why the hell do you call a shortstack-all-in from a guy that made a very tight impression at the final table? But finally I went from the "red-zone" (lower than 10 BB+antes) to the "dead zone" (barely above one BB) and this time I had to make my move. I was delighted to see a KQs. I was called (no surprise as it was a cheap call) and ran into AJ (or something like that). No help and out on 4th place (which paid € 342).

Overall it was a great night with 6.5 hours of exciting poker that made a nice payday. Tonight I will check out PokerWorld. Friday is reserved for my girlfriend and Saturday will be most probably CCC again.

PS: Thanks to bla for giving me a ride back to the hotel. It was a pleasure to meet you :-))

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Shadow in Vienna

As my girlfriend had to travel to Vienna for a business trip we decided to make it a long weekend with some poker for the Shadow.
First I checked out the Concord Card Casino (CCC). It's a nice place. Much nicer than the CCC in Linz. It's about 3 times as big and has quite normal customers. The customer base in Linz is a little weird.
They are very friendly. First time customers receive a voucher for a free tournament entry, a free meal and €10 slotmachine play. They show you were everything is located and give you all the informations you need. My overall impression is that the place is well run.

I met here with bla from the POKER-TESTER.com forum. It's always nice to meet somebody in person after you discussed topics in the forum or played online with them. We had some nice conversation and played the $20+4 rebuy tournament. They had 64 players and my table was obviously the rebuy king ;-)). Blindlevels 30 minutes starting at 25/25 make it a decent structure during the rebuy phase. After that the blinds and antes climb very fast. But it's understandable ... even with 64 players it took from 7pm to 2am to get a winner!
I didn't get anything really playable during the rebuy time. I was able to get a little above average stack due to to hands that worked well. It was that kind of hands you can play only in a rebuy tournament (e.g. playing a J that paired on the flop very agressive ... got two callers, one had nothing the other a J with the lower kicker). So I hoped that I wouldn't need a rebuy on that tournament. Then the next to last hand of the rebuy phase arrived. I got a AQs in late position an made it 4 bets. The big blind called and everybody else folded. Flop came 10-Q-x. BB checked and I bet half the pot. He called. Turn was a K, he checked again I bet half the pot and he raised. Damm! I was sure he made the straight on the turn but the pot was so big now and I was pot commited anyway. So I went all-in with my straight draw (for a tie) & a flush draw but got no help.
Took a double rebuy and the add-on (so my total buy-in for that tournament was € 60). This was the typical "You-Can-Play-It-But-You-Don't-Have-To" hand that I really hate!
I can't imagine a tournament were I saw so many low cards like 63, 47, 48, 27 ... Sometimes a Q4, K4, A2 :-(( More worse: the seldom times I got something that could be played I got raises before me: Got 99 in third position. UTG made it 5 bets, UTG+1 raised to 10 bets ... and away with the 9's.
After the break the blinds continued with 100/200. With 3500 chips left I was forced again to change my game changed into "all-in or fold". Well it basically changed into fold...fold...fold...fold...fold...fold as I got the same kind of cards as before. Finally I was able to go all-in for three times and doubled up by being lucky, being lucky and being very lucky ;-)) (just to get blinded away between the all-ins again). It was amazing how often people called my all-in. I can't understand it. Sure they often had the better cards. But they risked a big or major portion of their stake on things that would be coinflips. Looks like they neither understand the gap-concept and the problem of +EV situations generating -EV due to the fact that they may lose chips they may need in more lucrative opportunities.

Seat open, Seat open ... the number of players decreased and we went down to two tables (final table is 10 with all 10 being paid). At that time bla and I were sitting on the same table :-) He had a similar stack than I after the rebuy phase but had improved much more. Unfortunatly he got some kind of a bad beat on a good hand that cost him the major portion of his stack. Somewhat later he moved all-in and went out on 12th position. We discussed the hand later and agreed that it wasn't a good idea to play that hand. Not because it lost ... just because it had no value here. But I can understand him - he tried to make a move on a guy who could have been on a steel attempt but he ran into a decent hand. If it worked out he would have gone to the final table with a healthy stack!

I was supershortstacked again and we were down to 11 players and they announced hand-to-hand play. I knew that I most probably had to go all-in the next hands and either win or be out on the bubble as I realized that they had an all-in situation on the other table. The big stack won with JJ and the final table was there.

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News about the WSOP 2006

Here's are two interesting articles about the coming WSOP:

http://pokernews.com/news/2006/2/wsop-new-tournament-director.htm

http://www.cardplayer.com/poker_news/detail.php?p_id=806&PHPSESSID=933a4298e3b0805b9032724434670822

Seems that Harrahs took notice of last years complaints and changed several things!

I'm a little dissapointed to hear that Johnny Grooms & Jack Effel quit there jobs at the circuit. I had the opportunity to meet them in Tunica and they had been very competent and knew how to run tournaments of that size. But as far as I know they don't leave Harrahs and may still be available for the WSOP. But it's very understandable that Effel likes to take the position at the Horseshoe "...Traveling the circuit three weeks a month was not conducive to raising a family with two small children"

I won't make it to the main event this year. I planned to try for a qualification via online-satellites. Unfortunatly my father has his (round) birthday during the main event. And there's no way I will miss his party for whatever reason. But most probably I will be in Vegas end of July to the first days of August and I will try to qualify for a seat in a $1000- or $1500-buy-in event

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Back to normal is quite difficult

That was really a great time in Tunica.
I find it quite difficult to go back to "normal". I'm sitting in the office and it's some kind of an odd feeling ... like I'm not really arrived at home.

It will take some time before the next big tournaments and that's really sad. Hopefully my plan for February will work and I can spent some days in Vienna in the mid of the month (playing tournaments at CCC and PokerWorld).

Played a $20+2 SnG at Party yesterday and cashed $40 with a 3rd place. It was fun and I will play more the next days ... but it's nothing compared to live tournaments!

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