2007 Life Ball Charity Poker Event in Vienna on May 26th

PokerStars will be one of the main sponsors of the 15th Life Ball - a charity event to fight AIDS. This year a celebrity poker tournament will be held during the event with a grand prize of $100,000 donated to the charity by the eventual winner on behalf of PokerStars.

And "Everyday Joe or Jane" can be part of this as PokerStars offers "AIDS Charity"-Freerolls. Two lucky winners will play the tournament together with some other celebrities. For full information please check here

But the real catch is that PokerStars donates $1 for every person participating in the freerolls. This could raise an additional $25,000 as the freerolls run between April 26th and May 19th with a max. of 1,000 players per day.

Read more...

Danny Ocean will be back to Vegas

"Ocean's 11" was a great remake of the original movie with Frank Sinatra. "Ocean's 12" was boring, but with "Ocean's 13" back to Las Vegas as the main playground I expect a great movie. Of course George Clooney will play again the role of Danny Ocean (most of the other characters are back, too). Added roles are Ellen Barkin and Al Pacino. "Ocean's 13" is scheduled for early June in the US.

And of course all Poker players wait for the start of "Lucky You". In the US it will start shortly before this years World Series of Poker. In Germany we have to wait till July.

Read more...

What an incredible run of cards

After moaning about several bad beats I felt that this run of cards was really remarkable:

I was playing one of my favorite 90-player SnG's at FullTilt. I almost passed on it because I busted out of a PokerStars tourney shortly before in a cruel way (but no more bad beat stories in this post!). As the $20+2's don't run so often I decided to give it a shot. The tournament went smoothly till we were down to about 24 players. My stack of 10,000 chips wasn't too shaby but to make it into the money I definitely needed to improve. Unfortunately it started to go the other way round because my JJ lost to a rivered flush and my stack was down to 5,000. But I told you: "No more bad beat stories" ... so just two hands later I got it all back from the same guy as he missed his flush this time.

Now the fun started ... only a few hands later I received directly after each other: AA,TT,AQ and JJ and boosted my stack from 10K to 35K. The most interesting part was the last of these hands (JJ). I was aware that raising four times in a row may look suspicious. Especially as I continued to bet the flop with big bets for protection reasons and took all the hands down without a showdown. Therefore I wasn't surprised that one guy started to "test" me. The flop was low cards rainbow with one heart. He checked, I bet half the pot. Turn another low heart. He checked, I bet another half pot. River another low heart. Now it got scary as he made a potsize bet. I was almost done with the hand but started to think about his hand. Usually if somebody bets into a flush this way he has it. But the way the flush developed I highly doubted that he hit it here. Of course he could have made a set with one of the flop cards but this was somewhat unlikely too. Instead of folding my hand (calling wasn't an option for me here) I put him all-in and had him covered by about 4,000 chips. No instant call? Phew! No nut-flush for sure. He thought for a long time and finally folded. A 35K pot was shipped to the Shadow. BTW, this was the same guy that crippled me earlier just to pay back shortly after (see above). Don't mess with the Shadow ;-)

It still took another hour till we reached the final table and the money ... but I was in good shape. Made it till 4th place for a nice $198 payday after 220 minutes.

Those are the times I really love poker!

Another thing: If you like to read blogs I can reccommend poker Blogger, a nice ranking list of several other german poker blogs.

Read more...

Getting back some confidence

Although I didn't win much and missed the FTOPS seat last night my confidence started to grow again. It's amazing how a downswing can destroy the confidence in your own ability and game plan. You start to question moves that are good and worked out in the past just because you lost a few of those hands in key situations.

By chance I found an interesting tournament at Pokerstars. The Wednesday 3pm (EST) $50+5 not only has a $25,000 guarantee. It also has 15 min. blindlevels and 3,000 starting chips. That's makes it a deep stack tournament equal to the FullTilt deep stacks. Therefore I allowed myself to play that one and add it to the DS challenge in my stats. The tournament had 869 players creating a prize pool of $43,450 (and a first prize of more than $9,000).

135 players got paid and I was able to limp into the money severly shortstacked. From there I used some well selected all-ins to stay into the game. Most of them weren't called and I survived the others. It's amazing which hands people think are worth to call an all-in from a stack with 10 big blinds left. But finally I ran into AA with an A8 of diamonds. But I made it to a good 43rd place for a $152.08 payday. With a little more luck it could have been even more - but what counts here most is the good result in general and the confidence in my game plan that has come back!

Oh, and in another satellite tournament I had a real curious hand: I was shortstacked and raised all-in with 89s. One caller with JJ. Flop came 567 (exactly in that order). Turn was a five ... and River was ... another five. Ouch!

Read more...

Mixed feelings

Tonight I played two tournaments. One was a life tournament and the other an online satellite at FullTilt. The live one was another tournament of the "Bavarian Playerscup" which offers the winners an entry into a big tournament that will be held in fall this year in Salzburg. You may remember that I was freerolling on that one due to my final table during my first try to qualify for that event. This time they had 120 Players (12 tables) and the location was really nice. The Schrannenhalle (sorry only a german link) is in the center of Munich and was perfect for railbirds to watch.

I was satisfied with my game in general but wasn't able to get much forward. After about 2 hours (30 min. blindlevels) I was just up about 1,000 from the original starting stack of 5,000. As we reached the 400/800 level it was time for a move. I received AK in the big blind. The small blind just called (as two others had been done) and I went all-in. The other two folded but the small blind called me with 77. No further help and out at 57th position. I don't think there was much I could have done different so I went home knowing that I still had an interesting evening in a nice location. Most probably I will try this tournament again when they are back to this location.

Back home I played another qualifier for the FTOPS IV. This time it was for the 6-max event so the $8.80 satellite that had 59 players was 6-max, too. You may already guess it because of the title: I made it to the final table, I made it to the money ... but I missed one of the two seats again. I went out on third with the amazing win of $26 for almost three hours of play.

So that's why I called this post "mixed feelings". I played well. I had fun. I'm sure the FTOPS satellites are beatable. But I didn't achieve goals that are achievable. Time to go to bed!

Read more...

FTOPS will be back at FullTilt in May

In February, Full Tilt held their biggest "Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS)" event ever, with 13,985 players competing for more than $3.4 million in guaranteed prize money. In May, they're upping the ante with the 4th part of the series by guaranteeing at least $4 million in prize money over 10 events and added prizes for the top finishers.

FTOPS IV runs from May 11th to May 20th with events starting at $200+16 up to $1,000+60

After I busted out early from the forum tourneys (sucking at the XING-tournament and getting a suck-out at the poker-tester tournament) I played two of my Deep-Stack SnG's with no success. I almost decided to quit for the night as I saw a $24+2 FTOPS IV satellite that was ready to start. I gave it a shot and the whole tournament went much better then all the others that night. Unfortunately I missed one of the three $200+16 seats by busting out on 4th position. But that's the one thing I like at FullTilt Satellites: They pay a fair share of the prize pool to the runners-up. In that case I got $84 for my 4th place finish. That was a small but nice win after the last days that didn't run so well.

Read more...

My first Sunday Million tournament

Played the Sunday Million at PokerStars for the first time. 7,109 players created a prize-pool of over 1.4 Million Dollars. Got a smooth sail until the 300/600 level and build my stack up to almost 20,000 chips. Then I received QQ on the button. It was folded to me and I raised it to 1,800 chips. The SB folded and the BB re-raised to 5,000. I was sure he just wanted to defend a possible steal and most probably didn't have AA or KK. I expected him having a medium Ax. Calling wasn't an option here as I would have been forced to fold against any Ace or even a King on the board. A proper bet to take the pot right down here would be 15,000. As this would make me pot-commited anyway an all-in was the best option. My opponent had almost the same stack (he had 315 chips more) and I expected him to fold. Especially as I made it a fast re-raise-all-in. Unfortunately he was in a mood for gambling and called instantly with AKo. An Ace on the turn ended my tournament at 4026th position after 94 minutes. Far away from the money (1,080 got paid).

I went back later to see how this guy did and what the stacks are around the bubble. They reached the bubble at about 220 minutes of play. The guy who busted me had about 30,000 chips left. He was severly shortstacked with blinds 1,500/3,000 and a 250 ante. But he made it barely into the money. So I'm sure if I won that key hand I would have been in a good position to make it into the money, too. It was amazing to see how fast they lost players at the bubble. This is quite uncommon compared to other tournaments. Usually I like to take my chances around the bubble but it just looks like sitting-it-out can be a good option in this tournament (if you're not on life-support).

It was nice to see that Evelyn was sitting at that table. For those who don't know: Evelyn ist "Thang Duc Nguyen" a very good and well known player from Schenefeld, Germany. He also was the first german player to win an EPT tournament (in Baden, Austria). And it was Evelyn who busted the bubble-boy. It was a standard situation as the bubble-boy had to act with just 11,000 chips left. He went all-in with AQ and Evelyn called correctly with 77. The guy who busted me earlier then started joking about what a bad and lucky player Evelyn must be that he called this all-in with 77. Well, a little later Evelyn busted this guy from the tournament.

So if anybody who knows Evelyn in person reads these lines ... send him a "Thank you!" from Shadow :-))

Had to go to bed with 560 players left. Evelyn had around 240,000 chips and was close to the top 50 at this time. I'm rooting for him to make it to the final table and take the whole thing down!

Some additional comments made on the day after the tournament:

This post may sound like I'm a little sour about the way I had to exit the tournament. And yes, of course I am. Knowing that this can happen in poker doesn't mean you have to take those beats without any emotion. And yes, it was a 60/40 shot so it wasn't necessarily a cruel bad beat. His re-raise indeed was a very good play from the BB. I'm not sure if I would have re-raised AK here. I most probably would have just called to see the flop due to the fact that the BB is out of position for the rest of the hand. But if he assumed a steal with a medicore hand it was a good idea to "test" my strength and possibly take the pot down pre-flop. But my raise all-in was a strong indication that I had indeed a good hand (and most probably a high pair). Raising all-in and calling all-in are two different things. So if he went all-in right away after my raise I would have had a hard time to call his bet. It would have been heart-breaking to fold the QQ's but with an avererage stack there would have been no need to run into AA or KK. But I was the final aggressor here and with a hand that was most probably behind at that time he just gambled here.

Read more...

Master Days a big disapointment

Pokerwelle is hosting the Master Days this weekend in Salzburg and I decided to take part in todays €200 Deepstack-Freezout. Unfortunately that tournament was a big disapointment for me.

The whole tournament was very badly organized. Wrong starting time (so we had to start an hour late). No working beamer/laptop for the tournament timer and a bad information policy in general. The dealers were medicore and having dark-blue 10 unit and black 100 unit chips wasn't a clever idea at all. But the worst of all (and this makes future Pokerwelle events an absolute no-go for me) was the fact that they reduced the starting chips from 5,000 (as announced before) to 4,000. A 20% decrease! The only really good thing was the fact that this was a non-smoking tournament.

Beside that I was in a good mood during the one hour drive to Salzburg. The weather was nice and warm and I had a small lunch in the beergarden at the Crown Plaza were the tournament took place. During the lunch I had a nice conversation with a guy from Hamburg who turned out to be a good friend of Jan & Katja. We both also played the ICE tournament im Bremen but couldn't remember each other. With 20 tables the tournament-room looked very nice. Unfortunatly only about 72 players took part in that tournament. Surprisingly even some who had already paid didn't show up.

I was still in a good mood as I sat down. But this changed soon as I couldn't get any playable cards. I came here with the plan to play very tight in the beginning as I expected some weired play. But even my most aggressive style wouldn't have resulted in much more play. I completed two or three small blinds and checked two or three big blinds ... but folded all of them to a bet on the flop. Except for that I played exactly two hands in three Levels (30 minutes each). The first hand did cost me a major part of my stack because somebody decided that it could be a good idea to call my button raise with his Q5. Unfortunately I hit top two pair with KJ ... unfortunately, because he made a set. In the third level the blinds had already reached 80/160. With just 1,500 left I decided for a move with T9s shortly before the end of this level. From late position I raised it to 450 and hoped that my ultra-tight image will help me here. But I got an all-in re-raise from the button. It was folded around to me and I had no choice to put in my last 1,000 knowing that I was way behind. The other guy was a good player and most probably would have respected my raise except with one hand: AA. Bad, bad timing! I got some hope as two Tens appeared on the board. But all hope was lost as he found his third Ace for a Full House. Went out on 45th position and had a very dissapointed trip home.

Would 1,000 chips more have changed anything for me? Well I wouldn't have gotten better cards of course. But I'm sure I wouldn't have felt to be forced to make a move with T9s with 2,500 chips left. And even if I had ... with 2,000 chips remaining it would have been an easy fold against AA. So definately yes, it changed a lot.

Read more...

Finally a final table again

I wasn't running good in tournaments in the last time. To be true it was horrible. And I can't blame it to the bad beats. As said I received plenty of them but I felt like my play went from SAG-Style (Selective Aggressive) to LAG (Loose Aggressive). I played too many marginal hands and tried to defend to many marginal pots.

So I took some time today to recap the important things that made my style successfull in the past. And then I went to Salzburg to play the EUR 20,- Rebuy at the Poker-Club. I didn't get many very good cards (in fact TT two times and KK once were by far the best hands) but I still was able to play enough hands with my own personal SAG-style. For the whole evening I had only 3 showdowns but was able to pump up my stack from the inital 1,500 to about 18,000 with no re-buys and just the add-on.

In the beginning (during the rebuy time) I was able to accumulate a stack of 4,500. Then I received ATd in late position. I made a standard raise and got two callers. The flop was low cards with two diamonds. It was checked to me and I raised it to a potsize bet as I wanted to take the pot down right away (my bet put both all-in). Unfortunately both called ... but with 9 outs I had plenty of options. Even better, I was up against 77 and QQ (from a very small stack). So I had 15 outs to win something and most probably was favorite to win the hand. But no diamond on the Turn and the River and I was almost back to were I started.

I was able to take advantage of some bad play (like minimum raises against my small blind or big blind) and recovered somewhat. Then a very strange hand happend: I had AJo in middle position, made a standard raise and got called from the button. Flop was a Jack and two low cards. I was most probably ahead so I bet half the pot and got re-raised to two times my bet. My opponent was a very loose player so I decided it was time to defend the pot here and called. Turn was a blank. Again bet half the pot and got called. River was another blank and I went all-in with my remaining chips. This was a bet of only about 10% of the potsize and I was almost sure to get a call. But he folded his hand here. Either he was on a complete bluff or my stack confused him. It consisted of many medium size chips and looked bigger in value than it was. Anyway, bad play on his part and a big pot for me.

With my second showdown I took revenge for the missed 15-outer. I raised TT from the button just to get an all-in from the SB and the BB. The BB wasn't the problem as he was severly shortstacked. But to call the SB I had to put in two third of my chips. I expected something like Ax or a low pair from my opponenents so I decided for a call. I was delighted to see a JT from the bigger of the two stacks but the QQ from the SB didn't look to good. Still in a good position to win at least something here I spiked my only out. A Ten on the turn made me a set and I took both of them out of the game. Poker can be a cruel game!

With a stack of a around 18,000 (which was average at this time) I made it to the final table. I got TT in late position again. But in front of me there was a raise to 5,000 (blinds 800/1,600) from a loose player who was caught with a bad bluff sometimes earlier. Maybe it was a mistake not to go all-in here. But I just wanted to avoid the risk to run into a real hand. So I just made a re-raise to 10,000. I expected him either to fold or to re-raise me all-in. In that case I would have most probably given him respect for his re-re-raise and fold. But he just called. The flop was horrible for my TT as it was a KJ9 with two spades. He was first to act and I decided if he checks I push all-in and if he makes a significant bet I'm out. Unfortunately he bet 10,000 to put me all-in and I let my hand go. Tough decision. But I still think it was the right play.

With only 8,000 left I was now severly shortstacked. I picked up the blinds once with an all-in raise but finally went totally card dead and had to pay the big blind of 3,200 with a total stack of 8,800. Whatever happned now I had to go all-in anyway. To my surprise I found the best hand of the night ... KK. And to add more suprise the UTG player went all-in for about 20,000. It was folded around, I called and he showed A8s. Another 8 on the Flop gave him some more outs and an Ace on the Turn sent me home in 7th place of 57 players. Just shy of the money (4 got paid). At least I got another tournament ticket (which equals half of todays buy-in).

As you might expect I was very sad as I left the Poker-Club. But my mood got better while driving home. Why? Because this was not only by far my best result since a long time but I was also very satisfied with the way I played tonight. This evening gave me back a lot of my confidence. And like Daniel would say: "You didn't lose $26 today ... you earned almost $30 for 3 hours of good work". Thank you Daniel - thinking about it this way indeed makes me feel much better.

Now I'm looking forward to the Luckbox Open II Wednesday night at 8pm CET.

Read more...

Play Hours Not Results

Not long ago I read an interesting article written by Daniel Negreanu about the fact that poker players should play hours not results. Together with another article from Nolan Dalla and a response from Daniel Negreanu this made me think about my own results.

I'm far away from thinking about going pro. But anyway, I'm always interested in those statistical stuff and looked up my data. Using my expected (not my real) winrate I came up with an average of $9.39 per hour or $16.73 per tournament. Wow! This was less than I expected. If I have more time to break it down between live play (higher buy-in's but add travel costs) and online play (no extra costs but lower buy-in) this may look a little different. But at least I now know for sure that I'm far away from making a living with poker.

But what does this mean to your real results. Well, if you are below your expected winrate you have to ask yourself if you're sure being a winning player. If you are not, you should quit immediately. There's no bankroll-management that can help you to survive. But if you're sure that you are a winning player ... play as many hours as you can. The more you play the more you will win in the long run. Thanks to Daniel for remembering that lesson that I learned already in my Black Jack times.

And what if you're better then expectation? If you just won a tournament around the corner or a major tournament somewere on the circuit? Pocket your money because you will need it. Allow yourself only your hourly winrate. This way you won't live above your expectation. Of course you still may step up in limits if your bankroll is big enough. And of course your hourly winrate goes up in that case. But if you spend more than your hourly expectation you're usually on the road to disaster.

Read more...

"There was absolutely no reason to risk my tournament life on it"

Frequent readers of my blog my remember this sentence from the Schenefeld tournament last december. So true and so hard to folllow.

The last days had been arkward. I played a lot of the 6-max SnG's at PokerStars and another 200 Player DeepStack at FullTilt. I got more than my fair share of bad beats: Like smaller FullHouse against bigger FullHouse, AJ vs. 62, hitting a set with 66 just to see him make a bigger set after the all-in with his KK and so on. Oh, and not to forget All-In QQ vs. KQ were he ended up with a straight! As said in the last post this is part of poker. It hurts if it happens so often in such a short time but this changes to the better sooner or later.

But what really hurts are your own mistakes. I made two of them and they (and not the bad beats) were the reason why my last days resulted in an overall loss.

One was on the bubble (4 players left) in a 2-table 6-max. Two of the others were decent players and one a bad player. I was middle stack when I made a bad call on a board that wasn't that great for my A8s. The problem wasn't calling itself but that I put myself in a position that made me pot-comitted if the other player decided to bet on the turn. He did exactly this and my A8s wasn't good against his pair of nines. There might be situation were my call would have been valuable. But not here, not on the bubble, not against somebody with more chips than me.

Even worse my exit on the DeepStack at FullTilt. With 77 of 200 left I had a little above average chips. With a board that made me a straight but consisted of three scary diamonds I played over aggressively and went out. Not that it was a bad idea in general to challenge him. He just had a 78 of diamonds. The way I was betting he should have been feared the nut flush. But obviously he wasn't very fearful. Of course good players like bad players. But in a tournament situation you have to evaluate the worth of a healthy chip stack and the risk of getting busted. And this time again there was absolutely no reason to risk my tournament life with this hand.

Read more...