Online challenge - update 6 and some live play

Not too much to report from the last days. Most important thing (at least for me) is the fact that I extended the online challenge. It seems FullTilt is now influenced from the UIGEA and the Neteller situation as well. While it wasn't a problem to get at least one of the $20 "90-player-SnG's" running each evening it's much harder now. Maybe they go now later at night but with durations of up to 4 hours I don't like them starting after 10pm.

So I added regular DS tournaments as well. In the first one ($30 with 276 players) I made a 5th place, cashing $369. After that I played only a few more with no further cashes. So my ROI for the challenge is still in good shape (+284,09%).

My stats are now down to
$23.09 per hour (from $27.19).
ITM 34.48% (from 47.37%)
FT 27.59% (from 36.84%)
WIN 6.90% (from 10.53%)

Tonight I caught the last seat in the Poker-Club $25-rebuy-tournament in Salzburg. Unfortunately nothing went right and I went out 26th of 43 players after 90 minutes. A typical example was a hand simmilar to that one of Farha/Curtis at the WSOP 2005: I raised in late position with 33. Early position re-raised to 3 times my raise. Fold? No way! This re-raise was a clear tell that I was up against AA,KK or QQ. So If I hit the flop well I will get paid off big. Otherwise I'm out. Flop came 973. Bingo! I went all-in and got a call (like expected). He showed QQ ... great! The turn was a Q. Whaaaat! No further help. Seems you have to be Sammy Farha to make plans like this work correctly (he busted Anthony Curtis' Aces with his 44 and a 4 on the flop from the main-event).

Back home sitting at a short-handed Pot-Limit Deep-Stack tournament. Let's see what will happen here...

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Munich Poker Fair

"Poker Events" and 888.com hosted the "1st Munich Poker Fair" at this weekend. They had a previous event in Nuernberg with big success but a way too small location. Here in Munich it was held in an event area called "Kultfabrik" in a huge hall. So it wasn't a surprise that the fair attracted a crowd of mainly young people between 20-30. As I heard about the big crowd that went to Nuernberg I tried to be early at opening time but there was a line already. The inside looked great with those 20+ pokertables in the middle and the exhibitors around on the sides.

They called it a "fair" that offered some tournaments in addition. I would call it a tournament with some exhibitors. Unfortunately not many exhibitors found their way to the fair. Of course Poker Events and their subsidiaries (Al Capone and Poker Travels) as well as 888.com The only other pokerroom with a booth was Intertops. Other exhibitors: ISA, AniMazing, PokerSpecs, Nuernberger Spielkartenvertrieb, Poker Magazin and Poker Olymp. Poker Olymp (with Tony Vardjavand) had a special guest: Marcel Luske made a quick visit on his way to the airport. Too bad he couldn't stay longer as he seems to be a very friendly and entertaining person. At the 888.com booth Michael Koerner from the DSF was there. Michael Keiner was scheduled for tomorrow.

Of course I met Razerlog from Salzblogger and we chatted a little before he had to work (as he was there for business). Another nice guy I was happy to meet in person after knowing him only via the internet for some time.

Of course most interest was in the tournament that awarded a WSOP seat as first prize. It cost €20 to take part. They have 20 tables (10 players each) and do 10 heats. First qualifies (second gets a second chance ticket). So 200 players advance to the final on sunday which is most probably again 20 winners advancing for a 2 table freezout. I leave it to you to do the math and decide if it is worth to take part in that tournament. I decided for myself that I take part once as I was there already. The structure is not crappy but below decent. You get 4,000 chips, blinds are 12 min. and escalate 50/100, 100/200, 150/300 and so on. I went out on 4th position (during a double all-in that eliminated 3rd position too). At this time we played about 90 minutes reaching blinds of 1,000/2,000 ... so at least you get some entertainment for your money ;-))

This event/fair will see most probably well over 500 vistors per day. Poker is "hip" especially with the young people. So what about gambling addiction? Honestly, the vast majority of people was here for having fun. In this generation alcohol and smoking will be much more dangerous than poker! Alcohol and smoking are more dangerous for peoples health but unfortunately both have a much bigger lobby...!

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Poker Friday with no cashes

First I went to Salzburg to take a shot at the €100 Freezout at the Poker-Club. This is a real deep-stack tournament with 10,000 start chips and blinds starting at 15/30 (20 min levels, later down to 12 min).

Waiting for the start of the tournament I heard somebody saying to me "I recognize this face" Uh? "...from openBC (Xing)" Ah! Indeed it was a guy I know from the poker group at Xing. I was somewhat surprised because I thought for some reason that he was from Vienna. But he told me that he lives in Salzburg and comes to the Poker-Club from time to time. Unfortunately we had been seated at different tables so I couldn't see him play.

I was able to pick up two small pots early and then everything went wrong. I got good and decent starting hands but they never connected to the flop. I had to fold to bets or raises and even continuation bets didn't get much respect here. This is one of the seldom times were proper raises will hurt you more than dumb calls. Therefore my stack was slowly shrinking and shrinking. With about 6,000 chips left and the blinds at 200/400 it was time to think about a good all-in bet. Unfortunately at this time I didn't get any more good or decent hands. A2 and A6 (in early position) was the best I got ... and I wasn't desperate enough to play those at this time. Finally I was able to play KQ in late and 88 in middle position to pick up the blinds. At the 300/600 level it was now time for "Any Ace". I was in the small blind, one caller, went all-in with 6,300 chips (A8 of spades). Big-blind went all-in for 300 more. I was happy about that as she later showed A7 of diamonds. Unfortunately the caller in late position decided to call both of our bets with AKo. Of course no spade and no 8 but a King hit the board. Out on 22nd position. The mosty funny part of the evening was the TV-Kid next to me. After looking at his cards he arranged them side-by-side like on TV (putting them on an imaginary glass for the cam). And before folding he again looked at his cards like on TV (each card on his own) and then moved them into the muck the TV way.

Back home I prepared myself for the first FTOPS III game at FullTilt. The $200,000 guarantee was topped by almost another $200,000 as 1,922 players paid the $200+16 buy-in. First prize was about $70,000. Several FullTilt Pro's like Erik Seidel, Mike Matusow and others joined the crowd. Bracelet winner Rafe Furst was the unfortunate FullTilt Pro who busted quite early as the first of the Pro's. My game went similar to the game at the Poker-Club ... folding good and decent hands because of bad or scary flops. The toughest fold was JJ. There was a raiser in MP. I re-raised to three bet from the small-blind and he called. Flop was QT7. I bet half the pot and he re-raised three times my bet. He never showed his hand but despite this was a stone cold bluff it could only be AA, KK, QQ, TT ... whatever my JJ's weren't good with that flop facing this bet. With blinds of 50/100 and 1,600 left I raised 99 on the button and was re-raised again. I think I played well for the whole night so far (just the cards didn't fell right) but here I made a crucial mistake. I was somewhat tired about being pushed off good hands and decided to take a stand here. Went all-in ... and he showed Aces! The flop was great for me: 678. I got 10 outs, a 40% chance of winning against pocket aces. But a 4 on the turn and a King on the river destroyed all my hopes. Went out on 1701st position just around the same time as Barny Boatman.

So I added another $20+2 SnG for my online challenge. This one went much better in the beginning. I was able to catch some nice trips with A3 and 22 in two rounds in a row due to weak pre-flop betting of my opponents. These are the hands that pay-off big because they are unexpected. Unfortunately later I caught those kinds of hands that get expensive if they don't connect with the flop: I got AK of spades two times in a row (first from EP then from the BB) and no other spade, no Ace and no King hit the board. This put a big dent in my stack. My last hand was a perfect ending for a cruel day: raised with KJ one off the button. The button calls. Flop comes 996. I bet half the pot and he calls again. Turn is a Jack. Being sure that he doesn't have trip nines it was time for action ... went all-in with what was left from my once decent stack, he called and showed JJ. Out on 66th position ... and good night folks.

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Super Bowl Sunday is here (obviously no poker content)

As some of you may know, I love American Football. And I was betting on the games in the past. Unfortunately my time doesn't allow me to handicap the games anymore and I'm not able to get "arena" (the only station broadcasting some games here in Germany). Good thing that one of the major free networks broadcasts the Superbowl (they also broadcasted the half final).

The two teams in this years Super Bowl haven't be in the final for a long, long time. The Bears are back in the Super Bowl for first time since winning Super Bowl XX in January of 1986, while the Colts will make a Super Bowl appearance for the first time since the franchise, then located in Baltimore, beat Dallas in Super Bowl V. Bears coach Lovie Smith and Colts coach Tony Dungy are the first African-American head coaches to reach the Super Bowl.

Billy Joel will sing the national anthem during the Super Bowl XLI pregame show at Dolphin Stadium in South Florida (becoming the first performer to sing the national anthem twice in the Super Bowl). Cirque du Soleil and Miami-based artist Romero Britto will perform during the pregame show while Prince is set to perform in the in the halftime show.

The weather in Miami will not be what most people might expect from South Florida: brisk winds of 10 mph to 20 mph and temperatures in the mid- to upper-60s are forecast for the game along with scattered showers throughout the day.

The Super Bowl is annually the U.S. highest-rated TV program. More than 141 million viewers watched last year's game in the U.S. Super Bowl XLI will be broadcast to a potential worldwide audience of 1 billion in more than 230 countries and territories.

And if you want to know who I am rooting for this year:

Sorry Carmen for stealing this from your blog!

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Online challenge - update 5 and live game plans

Now this starts to get scary. I hadn't played another of my 90-player-sng's since last week due to time restrictions and some illnes early this week. So I was happy to be able to play another $20+2 last night.

I got decent cards but unfortunately I couldn't find anything on the flops and my stack was reduced to half quite early. At the 40/80 level I was shortstacked with less than 1,500 chips and went all-in with JTs on the button. The SB with about 3,000 chips total was my only caller with A5s. Down to a race wich was decided by a Jack on the flop. After that I got a nice speech from him about being a moron, donk and whatever for going all-in with that hand. The other players discussed with him the reason why his call was horrible but he didn't get it. I decided to stay away from that discussion. About 10 minutes later he had to leave us due to a lack of remaining chips.

At this time there had been about 80 players left. Down to 18 players left I didn't get much playable and started to be on life support for most of the time. I went all-in for about 10 times with those marginal to good playable hands and never ever got a caller. The players at the FullTilt SnG's use Sharkscope quite often and its very interesting how the information there changes the behavior of some opponents. The little shark next to my name and the skyrising graph look very nice. ;-)

Unfortunately picking up the blinds helped to survive but still left me on life support. Good thing I got two callers later down to 12 players and tripled up. Still not in comfort-zone my stack shrinked again as we had a very long fight around the bubble. Finally went all-in with AK if I remember it correctly and got called by a shortstack with QJ ... and the final table (and the money) was there.

During the final table my stack was at least big enough to wisely decide which hands to play or fold. Some shortstacks got busted, I took down some pots with decent cards and aggresive raises and we were down to three player. Here it went back and forth for a long time. Everybody was shortstacked and chipleader at least once in that time. I survived this hand: I had QK, raised and got called by the chipleader. Flop was QKJ. I went all-in and got called immediately by AT. Damn, he got his straight. Turn was blank and the river a Q! A lucky full house for lucky Shadow! This player got later busted in third position. I went all-in against the chipleader with AQs. He had KJ, called and a King decided the game.

This was my toughest SnG so far. It took 4 hours an 13 minutes and due to the bad condition my chip-stack had through almost all of the middle period of the tournament making a 2nd place (for a 2nd time in a row on this tournament type) this is a extremly good result. Of course as always there's some luck involved (e.g. my full house vs. a made straight) but making the final table and even making it down to the last five players was mainly a result of good strategic decisions on my side (or bad ones on the opponents side). So yes, I am in general satisfied with the way I played this particular tournament.

My stats are now up to
$27.19 per hour (from $20.15).
ITM 47.37%
FT 36.84%
WIN 10.53%

My live game planes have to be changed somewhat. As far as I know the €800 Freezout in Bregenz on March 2nd is sold out. That's bad news as I would have loved to play in Bregenz again. So my next possible option seems to be the €500 Deep-Stack in Vienna (CCC). 5 hour trip to Vienna instead of 90 minutes to Bregenz, phew! The tournament sounds very interesting but I don't know yet for sure if I can make it.

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Two final tables, but no money

On my trip to Austria I managed to play at the "Poker Club" in Salzburg two times. Thanks to the guys from Salzblogger to mention the club in their blog! It's a small club with only three tables (one of them is a converted BJ table) but very friendly staff and nice people. They have tournaments each day (mostly rebuy tournaments, limited to three rebuys) with a decent structure. First time visitors are invited (they don't pay the initial buy-in) and making the final table gets you another free ticket for the next buy-in.

My first visit was for the €20 rebuy tournament. They had 33 players (4 got paid). Unfortunately I didn't feel very good as I started to get a headache and still suffered from being ill two days ago. But it was an interesting experience to see how my playing quality and ability is influenced by they way how I feel. I made some major mistakes that cost me a huge part of my stack. Being absolutely card dead didn't help either. The rest of my stack went in on the following action: A raise in MP, I re-raise with QQ in LP everybody folds and the raiser goes all-in. In a freezout format my cards would have gone into the muck in that situation (as he put me all-in with that move) being sure that I was up against AA or KK. But shortstacked in a rebuy tournament this is an automatic call-all-in for me. And of course my opponent showed KK. No help for my ladies ... Floorman! Rebuy!

I started to get into the game somewhat but still didn't found much to play. So it came down to strategic decisions shortly before the end of the rebuy period. It was the next to last hand and I got J4o with around 400 chips left (of the inital 1,500). Folding would allow me to rebuy once and take the add-on for a total of 4,900 chips. Going all-in and losing would allow a double rebuy and the add-on for 6,000 chips. With blind levels after the rebuy-time at 75/150 the second option sounded more interesting. You shouldn't play rebuy tournaments if you aren't willing to rebuy and if you rebuy do it strategicly correct.

Well, there was another option: I found two callers ... one with 88 and the other with K9. Guess what? A Jack on the turn made me the winner of this hand. Sometimes you just have to be lucky. And I got the absolute lucky end of this move as I ended with 1,475 chips (which allowed an additional rebuy just because of 25 chips under). So I got the best possible result going into freezeout time with 5,975 chips and investing €20 less then planned.

I decided that I had used enough of my luck tonight and stayed away from fancy moves. This was quite difficult because I still didn't get much playable cards. Being shortstacked for the most time and decisions reduced to push or fold it was easier to concentrate even in my bad condition. And surprisingly I made it to the final table and even made it down to 7th place. My race ended with 77 vs. AT that improved to a straight.

The next day I used my free tournament ticket and played the €25 rebuy tournament (32 players). I felt much better, had a worse seat (11-seat) and got more playable cards. As always in the rebuy time I took more risks and got rewarded (e.g. improving the nut-flush draw on an all-in). That way I improved my stack to over 3,000 during the second of three rebuy levels. Unfortunately I donked of half of it with a really bad call (trying to bluff somebody from a hand). More worse, I ruined my table image that way and didn't get much respect for my raises during the next time. So I had to take advantage of the full three rebuys and the add-on still starting the freezout play with only 4,300 chips. Won some smaller pots and obviously got more respect again for my play (e.g. getting an AK to fold while only holding A-low). But the blinds took their toll and I was heavily short-stacked again as we reached the final table.

With 5,000 chips left and blinds now at 1,500/3,000 I was doomed to go all-in with any Ace, any two pictures or any two suited cards. The first ones that met this criteria had been J9 of clubs. Went all-in from early position. Everybody folded to the big-blind who correctly called the additional 2,000 with JT offsuit. Damn! That was indeed the worst possible combination. A ten on the flop and another ten on the turn ended my play and I was first to leave the final table.

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