Austrian Classics - the €100 NL Rebuy Event

"Spanische Hofreitschule" in Vienna

The second day of the Austrian Classics wasn't a good one for me either. Quite early I received QQ made a standard raise and a short stack went all-in. I called the rest and my Q's lost against AK as a K appeared on the flop. Now I was the short stack, didn't get much playable and had to rebuy for the first time during level two. Went all-in later again in level three (stack was shortend due to some folds against post-flop bets) with ATs and lost against AK as we both didn't get any help. 2nd rebuy. I was able to maintain my stack during the rest of the rebuy time and could even add a little as I flopped the nut straight with KQ once.

I took the add-on after the rebuy period and went into the post-rebuy time with a decent stack. Had a good start as I limped with a medium pair and decided for calling a raise as I was offered good pot-odds due to several callers in front of me. Even better: I flopped a set, was first to bet and everybody except one folded. The turn wasn't good for me as a third spade appeared. Many people may check here but I preferred to make a stand with a bet of half the pot-size. If he just called I would have seen the river (knowing to check and fold if I miss to improve) or I would have folded against any raise immediately. He was thinking and talking for a long time giving away so much information that I was sure he hadn't a flush and wasn't on a flush draw. So I changed my mind and would have taken him all-in if he decided to raise me here. He folded showing AT (no spades) for a pair of tens. Still a nice pot. After that I got some decent but dangerous cards (if contested) and was able to force the table to fold for several rounds in a row. Unfortunately this was only a small highlight and soon I went back to fold 62, 74 and more of my typical cards of the last two days.

The giraffe is protecting a small stack (Source: Concord Card Casino)

To make it worse I had to change the table and went from being upper level at the old table to lower level on the new one (comparing chips sizes). Nothing to report here for a long time. I went from decent to short stack quite soon as the blinds went up and the antes kicked in. Caught some blinds and antes going all-in with Ax suited or QQ (my best card all day). After recovering somewhat due to this I got JJ in middle position. Raised it and got two callers. Unfortunately I ran into an AKQ flop. The BB raised me almost all-in and I decided (after thinking for a while) to fold JJ again (you remember Schenefeld?). I know I was on a draw but the way he played it (and played before) I was sure that he either already completed the straight or had at least a set or two pair (giving him a lot of outs to improve either). He didn't show but said "good fold" (which seemed to be an honest comment). I saved a lot of my stack but still lost a lot due to my raise. The blinds and antes increased even more and I became super-short-stacked. KQ was the best I got but I wasn't able to go all-in due to an all-in raise in front of me. With 3,900 chips left (200/400, 50 ante) I finally went all-in on the button with J7. Got called by a big stack with KT and another middle stack with JT. What the hell are those people thinking? Everybody has his one style but commiting 25% or a third of their chips to an all-in raise in front of them isn't what I would call a good strategy (maybe I'm wrong). Well I should be happy that people are willing to triple me up ;-)) Unfortunately it shouldn't be this time. The flop was K7x. I had beaten the JT but was behind the KT. No further help and the old lady took out two at once and improved to a real big stack. Out on 71st of about 145 players.

Cort was still in the tournament at this time with a stack of 15,000 and miamivice was sitting on 17,000. Andreas Krause was still in but I didn't check his stack. So I hope they survive at least until the last two tables two make it ITM. BTW, Cort made the final table yesterday (10th place). Congratulations! Another player entering the Hendon Mob database as I expect the Austrian Classics to be listed there!

It was fun two play this tournaments (despite the results) and I wished I could have stayed longer. Unfortunately we had to leave as we are invited to the 40st birthday of a very good friend.

REMARK: Cort send me a message that he made third place! Congratulations again. I suggest to check out his blog for the full story: Cort's Blog

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Austrian Classics - the €200 Pot-Limit Event

The good part was to meet Bla, Cort, Sutti again and Gerli, SickAndRich, Mishkin for the first time. It's always funny to meet "virtual" people in real life.

Shadow on the right (Source: Concord Card Casino)




"The giraffe" - my card protector (Source: Concord Card Casino)

Unfortunately there isn't much to report about the tournament itself. I played about 5 to 6 hands in around 4 hours. In the early beginning I had to fold raised JJ and TT on the flop due to huge overcards. After that I got no more hands. Heavily short stacked I went all-in and could recover a little as my AQ held against AJ in a big pot that almost tripled me up. We both made a 4-flush on the board with the Q being the better kicker.
Somewhat later I made a pot-size raise with AKs but got no callers and collected the blinds. My last hand was ATs beaten by AJ. Out on 81st position from 169 players.

The tournament itself was good organised by the CCC. The structure was o.k. with 3,500 starting chips. They offered a free dinner break with a nice buffet in a tent outside on the parking lot.

The dinner tent (Source: Concord Card Casino)

Tomorrow will be the €100 RB NL. With 1,500 starting chips but 3,000 chips AO this should be a decent structure too (as long as you are willing to take at least the AO).

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It's a small world

Today's poker-tester tournament wasn't a big success. I came 10 min late, got some small pots and lost half of my stack with K's against all-in J's. Next round I got the J's and lost the rest of my stack on a semi-bluff. So I left after 10 more minutes 51st of 57 players (a new record number of participants!).

Having some free time I decided to play a 180 player ($20+2) SnG at PokerStars. I had a good start but went card dead during the middle of the tournament. Finally went all-in (eight BB's left) with TT. Got called by the table-chipleader with AK ... a King hit on the flop and I was out at 56th place. Chipleader or not ... calling an all-in that may cost you about half of your stack with AK is a very "optimistic" play.

But there was something that made this tournament remarkable: While waiting for the tournament to start I saw a familiar city displayed in the players list. There was indeed a player from my own city (which is a quite small city near Munich). We had some nice talk during the tournament. He had a good start too but was hit heavily with a flush against a full house and went out sometimes before me. I tried to direct him to the poker-tester forum (avoiding any violation of the PokerStars rules). Hope he got the hint correctly as it would be fun to talk to him a little more.

And regarding my last "Winds of change" post:
It's now official that I quit my current job. We still have to discuss the final date but quite soon I will start with a new position. The new one will lead me to southern Bavaria, Switzerland and Austria. It will be a sales position for computer software. I'm really happy about the new position as I will work for a good and successfull company with great products. It's a nice area to work (I love Switzerland and Austria) and it will be great to be on the road again after three years in the office.

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Winds of change

There will be some changes in my life (non poker related) in the near future.

I can't tell much about it right now but it will be a positive change without doubt. And as an added benefit it may allow me to play some more poker at some interesting places (e.g. Vienna) more often.

So I'm really looking forward to those changes in my life...

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Blog without words ... to remember 9/11

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What a difference a day can make - 2nd day of the "Schenefeld Deep Stack Tournament"

The day started so great and so relaxed. Everything went fine up to the moment the tournament started. I never had any chance to get into my aggressive rhythm. There was something wrong with my "music" and I never could really figure it out. It was just one of these nights were you can try as hard as you want but nothing works right.

Our table was broken very soon and I got a seat at Cort's table. There's not too much about my hands that I can tell except that my stack mostly went down and very seldom went up. I was able to pick up some blinds and limper bets with good raises/all-ins but those decent hands or usefull position opportunities had been too rare to make any positive impact on my stack. I tried one steal attempt with a very questionable hand (not really my style but it was a good position play at that time). Unfortunatly I ran into a strong hand of Cort and had to fold pre-flop.

The whole night had basically three key hands for me:

No. 1: Raising with JJ in early position just to find an all-in from a late position raiser. He could have had a hand or not (he had played a lot of crap too). But I decided that with 12,000 chips (average was 15,000) and an opponent who had me slightly covered this wasn't the time to risk my whole tournament life. Not yet, not now!
I almost never show my cards but decided that if I had to fold those JJ they should at least be of any use. As this was shortly after the above mentioned raises/all-ins that had been all uncontested I thought it was time to show that I have a hand when I raise it. Just folding would have made me vulnerable to steal raises from several opponents. The comments I earned showed me that a lot of people don't understand the difference between an all-in raise and an all-in call.

No. 2: Last hand before the dinner break. I'm in the BB and the next level SB is lurking after the dinner break. I have around 5,800 chips (average was 17,000) and find KT. Bigstack in MP raises to 2,000. It's folded around, people get up to go to dinner... and Shadow raises all-in! Uuups ;-)) I was sure he hadn't anything big. I expected something like JT. At least I was sure he was on a steal. He thought for a short moment, called (that's the crux if you're super-short-stacked) and showed 55. Yes, he was on a dinner break steal but with a better hand than expected. But I stil had two overcards. The flop brought me an open-ended straight draw and I had about 10-14 outs at this time. Turn was blank and the river paired my Ten. The guy wen't almost nuts. "How could you call this but fold JJ"? Different circumstances require different game plans!
This cost him an important part of his big stack and he went out not long after the dinner break.

No. 3: Again no cards for a long time and my 12,000 stack melted down to 7,000 (average was now about 23,000). The next blinds came closer and closer being 500/1,000 with a 100 ante. It was folded to the guy next to me who raised to 2,500. That was a weired raise for him. Looked like he wanted to get the pot now but at the same time trying to minimize his risk. I had originally planned to go all-in with my KQ but re-thought it after the raise. Anyway, KQ was my best hand for ages. The blinds were lurking. There wasn't much I could do so I raised all-in. He thought for a long time but finally called and flipped over 22. The flop paired my Q, the turn was blank and the river was a 2 ... oh, hell! Out on 23rd position. This guy played amazingly bad the whole night but had all the luck in the world. He busted Bedros' AA with Q9 making runner-runner Q's. He busted another AA with 66 getting a 6 on the river (and that's only a small selection of his weired pre-flop all-ins) ... and now me!

Too bad but not dissapointing (well, a little). Making 23rd place in this field and that tournament (it was the first time I played that kind of a tournament) is a decent result but doesn't pay any money :-((
Michael Keiner went out shortly before the dinner break and day 1 chipleader Andreas Krause somehow managed to lose a big chunk of his chips during the evening and went out somewere between 14th to 20th position. Same happend to miamivice.

And what's about Cort? I think you will find the details in his blog but he went out on 13th place with the same hand (but other opponent) that busted me: KQ
He was super-short-stacked and had to make a move but AJ busted him. To sad because 10th place was the first ITM for about €1,200.

We left after Corts departure so I can't tell you who made it to the final table. Katja and Jan had been still in (but with below average stacks if I counted them correctly) sitting next to each other on seat 1 and 2. Andreas Krause was seat 10 on the same table before he was busted. Poor guys on the right of them ;-))
I think you will find the results on Jan's page or the german PokerStars blog very soon.

Great tournament with an ending that could have been better ... next station: Austrian Classics.

REMARK:
Jan has released the results in the German PokerStars Blog. Winner was Benjamin Kung from Berlin, Runner-Up was Dr. Schwarzer and 3rd place went to Jan himself. Unfortunately Katja went out one place after Cort also short before the money.
I had the opportunity to play with Benjamin at the same table for some time and I'm happy for him to win this tournament. He is not only a good player but also a very nice person to play with. Congratulations!

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First day of the "Schenefeld Deep Stack Tournament"

This tournament is absolutely great. The best I've played ever. Congratulations to the casino Schenefeld and Marcus Jost as well as Katja and Jan who supported them regarding the setup!

This was a long day for me that started with the last quarter of the PIT/MIA game in the morning. I then had to work and went to the airport early afternoon. The plane was 30 minutes late due to a flat wheel but I got my rental car fast so I manged it to be there on time. Currently they celebrate 750 years of Schenefeld so the whole area around the casino is a zoo.

Katja was already there as the "Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)" filmed some scenes for a report they will send later. She is obviously doing a great job in promoting poker.
I met Cort and Sutti from the poker-tester forum and we had some nice talks before the tournament started. Unfortunately I couldn't watch him during the tournament as he was on a different table. We met Sebastian (miamivice) as well as Michael Keiner. So we expected a very tough field and not many bustouts during the first day (5 levels 45 min. each) due to the 7,000 starting chips and the moderate blind structure. So wrong!

The tournament started somewhat late but we had a great time anyway. I got seat 5 on my table which was a good position. I had Michael Keiner on my table but unfortunatly he didn't play many hands (for whatever reason). The first levels started well and after some after-flop folds I got into the right gear and could play the aggressive way I prefer to play. My stack was always at or slightly above average.
Cort was sandwiched between "miamivice" and Andreas Krause which wasn't a comfortable position at all.

Unfortunately our table was broken shortly before the end of level three. I didn't know any of the players on the new table (except for one guy from the former table) and I got the ugly 10-seat. This table had a fast pace but I was able to pick up some pots and maintain my stack.

The first player went out of the tournament during level one and Andreas Krause busted two on his table. But my new table had some really hot seats. We lost 6 players at our table in just one and a half level. Due to table balance we got some new players including Katja and Andreas who had over 30,000 chips at that time.
In total we lost more than 20 players (out of 67) which shows that a lot of people don't know how to play a deep stack tournament. One of the most arkward hands happend on my first table: During level 2 it was raised heavily before the flop and more after a ragged 932 flop. My estimation was high pocket pairs against each other (like KK and QQ maybe AA). The turn was another blank and the betting between the two players continued resulting in an all-in that was called. AA vs. QQ with one card to come. The river was a Q for a 2-outer and we lost one player. The Q's were very lucky here. I know it is tough to let the ladies go but if I would have holding those Q's in that situation I'm sure I would have folded them.

With the last level of the day the antes kicked in. Unfortunately I went card dead most time of that level (getting 72 two times in a row and other crap). Fortunately I got some cards again before the level was over and was able to recover my stack. At the end of the night we were down to 43 players and I had an average stack of 10,900. Katja has exactly the same chipcount, I think Jan has about 7,000 and Cort something above 6,000. Miamivice is in good shape with more than 16,000 and Andreas is day 1 chipleader with 37,000 chips.

Play will resume on Saturday 6pm and luckily our table will be the next to break. There's no official payout schedule right now but we can expect 9-10 player being ITM with 1st place maybe around 30% of the total prizepool of € 46,900.
The German PokerStars blog (written by Jan) has some additional informations and pictures of other known players in the tournament.

My day tomorrow will be easy going. Don't get up to early. Enjoy the great breakfast wich is available till 11am. After that I will make some sightseeing and/or shopping in Hamburg. Hopefully the hotels massage therapist is working tomorrow. I have some back-pain from some aerials we did during our last dance trainings and sitting the whole night wasn't really helpful.

I said it in the beginning but it can't be said enough: this is the best tournament structure ever offered in Germany and I'm happy being part of it. I really hope they do it again. And if they do I will be back!

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The Mansion promotion and "The Art of Poker"

First about the Mansion promotion: It was a huge success for everyone. The Pittsburgh win made 5,000 people happy and somewhat richer. Thanks to Miami for the missed challenge call. This TD was the key IMHO - after that the Dolphins handed the game over to Pittsburgh.

(Source: NFL.com)

I had decided to hedge the game and I'm still happy with the decision. It was much better for my health and I enjoyed the game much more. I can imagine the pain of all who had PIT -4.5 without a hedge. The interception TD must have been a great relief for them. Even with the hedge I was more on the PIT side as I hedged it to win $551 with PIT but only $408 with MIA. So I'm more than happy with the result.

We will never know if everything would have gone o.k. with the refund but anyway - I cashed out after the game and I received the money about three hours later. I could imagine they had a lot of withdrawls to handle so they showed real class here. Mansion went from "not-so-important-to-look-at" on the top of my list (right after FullTilt and PokerStars). I'm not doing much sportsbetting anymore but having somebody in the portfolio like Mansion who offers poker and sportsbetting is a real good thing.

And now something about poker: In a few hours I will be on my way to Schenefeld for a great two day tournament with very player friendly conditions. I will meet some people again and some I just know from the internet so this will be a great weekend regardless of the result.
But being out for dancing last night some thoughts came to my mind. You may know that dancing is my second (or better first) passion. And I consider dancing a form of art. For me it's not just movement to the music its the way to interpret what happens in the music. Pick up the flow and go with it. As I said in a post before you have to learn the basics first but as you improve you can put them aside and concentrate on the connection between the music and your feelings. And if you get to this stage you will experience how the music together with your movements can create something special and unique.
I encountered that this is similar in poker. You have to master the basics first. But beyond that point you have to pick up the rhythm and the flow of the game. You can't control the flow of the cards and you can't tell if you're on a cold or a hot streak before the streak is over. But you can evaluate your circumstances: the other players, the room were you are, the stage of the tournament, the overall atmosphere etc. All those things together with the (good or bad) cards you receive are your "music". Pick up this "music" and find your own way to move to it. If you get the right connection to your "music" then you will be able to get good results (regardless of your cards). This is what I call "the art of poker"

Hopfully I will be able to feel comfortable with the "music" played today and tomorrow... ;-))

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Thoughts about online poker

It seems it's no fun for me anymore to play online. After I came back from the last Vegas trip (and lot's of live play) I hadn't much time to play online (at least I thought that was the reason). Then I played a great live tournament in Bregenz and more is coming up: I signed for the €700+50 in Schenefeld and I will play the €200+20 PL at the Austrian Classics (and most probably the €100+20RB NL the next day).

The last days I started to play some online tournaments again and the results were bad and I didn't have much fun. Don't get me wrong: It wasn't much fun because of losing it was vice versa. I lost because I played badly due to the fact that it isn't much fun for me to play online.

It seems I'm really infected by the live game virus and with several opportunities coming up around Germany I will try to keep my money and invest it in some more trips and opportunities for playing live. As said in the Bregenz post I was mentally dead after all those hours of playing the tournament there but it felt so much better than a single hour online.
I will continue with some classic tournaments like the poker-tester or the openBC tournaments (because it's fun to play with those people). But despite that I will limit my online play to some satellites trying to sneak cheaply into some bigger tournaments.

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