First shot on the FullTilt 300k guaranteed

Usually I can't play on sunday nights but this time I could so I tried the 300k guaranteed at FullTilt (which has a DS structure comparable to those tournaments I usually play there). This night they had 2,115 players (including Andy Bloch, Toto Leonidas and others from the FT team) for a total prizepool of $423,000.

I had a good start and played a good game. Unfortunately I got a bad beat calling an all-in with QQ vs. AK ... a King on the flop saved my opponent. Instead of being in good shape I now was almost shortstacked. Got some decent hands and crawled back from the hole. After the table change I made a very bad call in the 100/200 blind level. I had AQ in the BB. MP raised to 600 (with 600 left). Decided to take him all-in with my hand but LP raised to 1,200 before me. I should have folded ... but for whatever reason decided to call. Flop wasn't any help. I checked and LP raised another 1,200. I folded and he won the pot with KK. I easily could have saved that 1,000 chips. Recovered again a little but with 3,600 chips and blinds 140/280, 25 ante it was time for a move. AT was my best shot here. Everybody folded to the BB who had me covered and called my all-in with QQ. Damn, bad timing again! Got some additional outs with a Ten on the turn but no more help on the river. Out on 738th position (306 got paid).

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Ice-Age in Bremen

This weekend the Casino in Bremen hosted the "Ice Poker Tournament" - a deep-stack tournament with 5,000 chips and 30 minute blinds. Right for this weekend the winter arrived all over Germany and streets in Bremen had been very icy by night.

They held some single-table satellites the day before and as I was only 2 hours away from Bremen I gave it a shot. I wasn't too lucky in the satellites but it still was a good warm-up. I knew that several people from Hamburg (like Sebastian "Luckbox" Ruthenberg, Katja Thater and Jan) planned to attend but despite that the competition looked weak. Not that it was mainly bad players. They may be good cash game players ... but lot's of them had a lack in understanding of tournament play especially the dynamics of a deep-stack tournament. So I wasn't surprised that we lost 30 of the 74 players during the 20/40 to 100/200 levels (about 2 hours of play).

In Bremen everything seems to be a little smaller than anywhere else. Small streets, small parking garages and of course a small casino. They have a total of 8 poker tables. 4 of them in the main casino under very cramped conditions (two of them are converted BJ tables) and 4 more in a nice separate tournament area. Although the tournament was nice, there was a huge deficit in the organisation. More worse: the dealers made several mistakes and had troubles with some basic things like calculating sidepots and stuff like that. On the positive side they were all very friendly. But I know that they just started half a year ago with serious poker so I am sure they will improve soon!

Fortunately I wasn't sitting at one of the BJ tables but unfortunately outside of the tournament room. A friend from Hamburg who I met during the last two deep-stacks in Schenefeld was on my table, too. I didn't know that he was following my blog and I was surprised as he told me "... yes, I read about that in your blog". It's always nice to meet my readers ;-) Due to the outside location we were sure that the table would break sooner or later. Which was bad because it was a nice crowd at this table (I knew some of the players from the day before). Very chatty, lots of fun but still serious poker. That's how I like it!

Being card dead isn't such a big problem in these kind of tournaments but this time it was extreme: I played my first two remarkable hands after more than one hour in the 80/160 level. Still only marginal playable, but my raise pre-flop and my bet on the turn (I hit at least something valuable in both cases) got respect due to my tight image. Somewhat later I found JJ. A raiser in middle position and I re-raised to 3 times his bet. Everybody else folded and he went all in for just a little more and I called of course. I was delighted to see that I was up against AK and not a premium pocket pair. My Jacks held and we lost one player. JJ was my best hand for the whole tournament and the 12,000 chips I had at this time represented my tournament high.I had to pass on several opportunities due to raises/bets in front of me. The toughest was a missed full house: I held 56s in the small blind and decided to complete the blind. BB and one other caller. Flop came AT6. BB bet and I was forced to fold. Turn: 5, River: 6. I know that it was the correct move to fold against a high raise but it still hurts (especially as they produced a huge pot just with highpair / toppair). A 99 went uncontested and that was all I got before the table broke.

On the new table I arrived in a position to put up the blinds again (I just had done this before on the old table). Blinds had been now 400/800 and my stack went down to 10,000. Shortly after that this table broke too and I came to Sebastian's table. And yes, again I was just two seats away from the blinds! The blind structure in total wasn't bad but the levels 100/200, 200/400, 400/800 and 500/1000 are somewhat arkward. It would have been better to replace the 400/800 with a 300/600 level. Additionally the lack of antes was a bit strange for a NL deep-stack tournament.

On that table I got the same cards I got the whole evening: crap! - like 72, 63, K2, J4 and so on. I went all-in (down to 8,800 chips during the 400/800 level) with ATs and got no callers (not that I'm complaining here!). Back to fold-mode and I was down to 8,800 again shortly after. With the blinds (now 50/1000) just two seats away I went all-in with A9 in middle position (trying to represent a pocket pair). It was folded to Sebastian who called all-in for a total of 6,200. He asked if I have a pocket pair and showed AK. No help. We both rivered a straight but Sebastian was holding the higher end. Bad timing - I'm sure he would have had a hard time to call with AQ, AJ or less. Down to just 2,700 chips I went all-in immediately with A3 (I would have been BB in the next round) and was called of course. Bad timing again as I was up against AQ. No help, out on 27th in about 3.5 hours.

At the time I left, Katja and Sebastian were still in the tournament and Jan was already hitting the cash game tables. My friend from Hamburg was busted just one place after me and we had a nice chat while waiting for the midnight snack. I later found out that Katja went out shortly after on 21st position and I lost against the later winner: Sebastian Ruthenberg won the tournament and €11,100! Congratulations, Sebastian ... but next time think twice before you call my all-in ;-))

Talking about the so called catering: During the dinner break they offered some finger-food. It was nice but way to less to feed hungry poker players. As they got some complaints about that they obviously changed the midnight snack and offered Burgers from the nearby McDonalds. Sounds ridicoulous for a casino poker tournament? Well, the whole catering stuff wasn't planned very well and charging €15 for non-playing guests (free drinks and food) was somewhat hefty. But it seems they realized the problem and tried to find a fast solution. For that reason I think the Hamburgers had been a very good idea!

Overall I would rate this a decent tournament with room for improvements... If they do it again I most probably will try to play it again.

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There's always a "Second Life" (no poker content)

Have you ever heard of Second Life? Second Life is a virtual world that allows to built what it is called ... a second (virtual) life. As far as I know Linden Lab created SL originally as a game. But since then it became a kind of community were people meet.

They have a currency called "Linden Dollar" that can be converted into real money. You can spend and earn L$ in this virtual world and lots of companies can be found there. And IBM is one of them. They have a huge area with different places an buildings that can be explored.

As some of you may know I'm usually in Orlando at this time of the year to attend a big conference from IBM called "Lotusphere". Due to my new started job I couldn't go this time. I'm somewhat sad about it because it's always a great experience. For example the opening session has a lot of "brand new announcements" and a special guest. They had New York's former mayor Rudi Giuliani a few years ago who was very impressive and two years ago it was John Cleese who was hillarious. Last years guest Jason Alexander (Friends) was nice but nothing special. But missing this years guest was awful because it was: Neil Armstrong!!!

So what has this to do with my writing about "Second Life"? Well, IBM built a little "Lotusphere" in SL and tomorrow they will host today's opening session there. Of course the place isn't a true copy of Disney's Swan & Dolphin in Orlando but everyone who had been to Lotusphere before will find some little gems that remember him of this place. So I'm really looking forward to get to the virtual Lotusphere... :-)

Oh, and if you stroll around in SL and meet a guy named Shadow Vandyke ... say hello to me ;-))

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Online challenge - update 4

Another three DS tournaments with a third place in the $10+1 and a second place in the $20+2 category boosted my hourly winrate to $20.15 (before $13.94).

The competition in the $20+2 DS's wasn't much harder. But with only 9 places paid you have to adjust somewhat. I went into heads-up as a huge chipleader. Had a very decent opponent and got two bad beats. A difference of almost $200 between first and second hurts for sure. But making second on my first $20+2 DS is a big success. My bankroll for the challenge is now even big enough to play the $30+3 category.

These are by far the most successfull weeks I had in online play so far.

I'm now sitting in my hotel room, enjoying my success and wait for the New England - Indianapolis game to start. I was biased between the New Orleans - Chicago game (but I'm happy for Chicago to make it to the Superbowl). In this game I'm absolutely rooting for New England. I would love to see them in the Superbowl again!

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I owe an apologie to Harrah's

As posted before, I now know the dates for my WSOP 2007 adventure. So I decided to look around for some good early bird rates. Most rates I found (at least at places I like to stay) had been about $70 - $80 per night. Just for reference I checked the Rio via the Harrah's website and was surprised to find a rate little above $70 / night. Why not stay at the Rio for that prize? But unfortunately the online-booking system refused to accept my reservation every time. I was so upset that I send a harsh email to Harrah's demanding to give me the rate posted on the internet.

I didn't expect anything more than the usual "...we are sorry ... but there's nothing we can do for you". But I was wrong this time, absolutely wrong.

About 24 hours later (which is super fast for Harrah's) I received an email telling me "...we are sorry" huh? "...and of course we can give you the posted rate but for your inconvenience we also comp you half of your stay." WOW!

Now I got 10 nights at the Rio for an average $37 / night during the WSOP!

I never, ever expected this from Harrah's and I happily accepted their offer and apologised for any harsh words I used in my email. What a start into the 2007 WSOP season :-)) This is exactly the kind of marketing that most companies don't understand: lose some money on the hotel room but have a customer that is more than happy and tells this to everyone else. Of course they corrected their error and the rate posted on the website is now between $200 and $290 per night.

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"Black Tuesday" for poker players

The term "Black Tuesday" is related to the wall street crash in 1929 but today may be remembered by poker players as the "Black Tuesday of Poker".

The day the UIGEA passed the congress wasn't a good day but it didn't hurt the poker industry as much as many people thought. Partygaming, 888com and others left the US market but PokerStars, FullTilt and others stayed and there was mainly a shift in the total customer base and a lot of discussion. The US elections created some hope by showing the "power of the poker community". Even Harrah's seemed not to expect a big impact of the UIGEA and is planning the 2007 WSOP main event for about 9,000 people.

But today two seperate news will put internet poker on the test again:

1. The arrest of two former NETELLER managers. Full story here. Hopefully NETELLER has the guts to stick to the market. If they decide to leave (at least the U.S. market) or disallow the use of deposited money for online gaming activities, the poker market will be hurt heavily. The WSOP will be hurt heavily and the boomimg poker market will be in trouble.

2. A court in Great Britain decided in the "Gutshot case" that, while there may be skill involved, there is still the element of luck too. Therefore Poker is a game of chance and not a game of (pure) skill under british law. Another court ruling that doesn't make sense in my opinion. They say it can't be a game of skill because it isn't pure skill but they say it is a game of chance even so it isn't a game of pure chance. This isn't logical at all and is just driven by political reasons.

So whats's the future of poker? Is it over now?

Hell, NO!!!

But it got more difficult and those lobbying for poker have to act fast and with one voice. And companies like Harrah's have to realize that they can't stay away. What's happening here will hurt them as well as the online poker industry.

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Two tournaments simultaniously

Unfortunately tonight the Xing tournament and the poker-tester tournament happend at the same day and the same time at PokerStars.

Both had record numbers of participants (43 for Xing and 60 for poker-tester). I played both very aggressive as I wanted to either increase my stack fast or bust out in one to concentrate on the other one. I know that I can't really focus on two tournaments at the same time so this seemed to be the best decision. Well, second best ... best would have been to choose one and skip the other. But both are so much fun to play...

I busted in the poker-tester tournament 40th place and was able to build my stack in the Xing tournament. As always, it helps to be lucky. I was very lucky two times. Especially that hand were I won a huge pot with KK (all-in) vs. AA and AQ on a board that made me a full house (with a Q and a K).

Unfortunately I couldn't catch much hands later and got busted on 7th place with Q9 vs. A9. Two hours of play for nothing as only 5 places got paid.

But it was fun again and I'm happy to see that the poker-tester tournament is still attractive for so many people and that the Xing tournament starts to rock (we averaged 14 people last year).

And not making it into the money was o.k. because I never really got into my game in both tournaments.

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Online challenge - update 3

Here are some numbers of my online challenge:

15 tournaments (90-player-SnG at Full Tilt / $10+1)
since December 20th
for a total of 28.78 hours
amount won $401.10
for $13.94/hour or $26.74/tournament
6 times ITM
(with 2 wins, 2 final tables and 2 times bubbled the final table)

I know that the sample size is much too small for any prediction but there are some observations: From the 9 times out-of-the-money I sucked 6 times ... and if I say "suck" I mean it. I just played bad and didn't pay attention. I deserved to lose. From the other 3 times I was close of being the bubble boy 2 times.

So it looks like almost all times I was focused on my game and payed attention I was either making it ITM or at least very close.

The $10 and below DS's pay 18 places instead of the usual 9 places. The $20 and higher have a standard payout. So I wanted to know if this structure favored me or not. Well, I would have been out-of-the-money two more times. But the higher payouts (especially for first place) would have given me an extra $50 overall (+12%).

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WSOP 2007 schedule is online

The WSOP 2007 schedule can be found here and everybody who knows anything about the WSOP will agree that this is the best schedule ever. Harrah's and the "Players Advisory Board" have done a great job. More events than ever, better selection of events and more tables. And if that is not enough they increased the value of 12 events. If there is more than one event in a single disziplin (e.g. Hold'em, HORSE, Omaha etc.) the event with the highest buy-in will be the "World Championship Event". So in 13 events (including the main event) the winner will not only receive a bracelet but can call himself a true and unique "World Champion"!

So I looked at the WSOP schedule and tried to sync it with my private responsibilities and it looks like I will try to play event #49 ($1,500 NL Hold'em) on June 30th. But there's still no way I will buy-in directly. So I plan to be there for a full week. The first three days will be "satellite days". The next days will be either the WSOP event of my choice (as long as it lasts) or some tournament play at the Venetian or the Caesars. The WSOP second-chance torurnaments don't look very appealing as it seems that they start only at $550. With no more $225 events the Venetian and the Caesars should be the better choice.

I hope FullTilt is again offering satellites for the bracelet events. If they do I will try secure my qualification in advance.

It's amazing ... the WSOP is still 141 days away but I can't wait to be there. It's still just a poker tournament but in some way "it's magic".

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About 2007

The new year has started as well as my new job. Currently I'm only at home on weekends as I have to travel to our main-office for my starting time. Good thing is that I have free internet access in my hotel so I played some more of the 90-player DS tourneys ($10+1) at FullTilt. Made it close to the money on three and won the forth. So my stack is still growing. Hope I can continue the pace and play about 4-5 of those a week.

Started to read the "Mathematics of Poker" by Chen/Ankenman. It's a tremendous book with lots of hidden gems for those who have the ability to find them. I have written a review (german only) at the Poker Academy Forum.

Haven't played live tournaments so far but as said before there are some on my agenda in the near future. As many others I'm waiting for the final schedule of events for the 2007 WSOP. Harrah's will most probably announce them mid to late January. Currently I plan to be in Vegas for the WSOP for at least one week. I won't buy-in for a tournament directly but try to qualify via satellites (on-site or online in advance). Other than that I will play the nightly 2nd-Chance-Tournaments again. And I will definately play at least one tournament at the Caesars and the Venetian (those tournaments get good reviews all the time).

I planned to attend some of the events in Vienna at the CCC. Good poker there and allways a good time to meet some friends like Cort, Sutti, Bla and others. Unfortunately the Spring Festival schedule doesn't look too appealing (at least for me) and I may get a problem due to my attendance of the CeBIT in Hannover.
But I will definately play the CCC Classics in fall due to the fact that I will be in Vienna for a dance competition during that time.

As you may heard: the EPT added a stop in Dortmund (Hohensyburg) in March. A €5,000 buy-in is well beyond my bankroll. I will try some of the FPP sattelites at PokerStars but there are also some smaller buy-in events before and after the EPT that sound quite interesting.

So there are a lot of plans ... let's start to realize them. Even with the UIGEA still around I think 2007 can become a huge year for poker players everywere.

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