Just 28 hours till WSOP 2007

The first event of the WSOP 2007 will start in 28 hours but it will be little more than 25 days till I arrive in Las Vegas. I will travel together with my girlfriend and we start our voyage five days earlier with a dance camp in Boston (Beantown).

My girlfriend will enjoy the warm weather in Vegas and the pool at the Rio during our stay (June 25th to July 3rd). I hope to meet some people there. I know Bandit, Jan and some more from the IntelliPoker team will be there. Cort and Sutti will arrive on my last weekend. Of course I will play several poker tournaments. So far I plan to play at MGM, Planet Hollywood, Caesars, Venetian, Binion's and of course at the WSOP.

I will try to qualify for an event and in addition I set up a staking offer for Event #49. Staking starts at €55,- if you are interested.

After the week in Vegas we will continue with another 10 days of vacation in the Chicago/Toronto area.

So I'm counting the days till I will be back to Las Vegas.

Read more...

A night to forget

I played no poker during the whitsun weekend as this is the time for our traditional dance camp in Landsberg, Lech and I'm part of the organising team for a few years now. It was the 20th anniversary and the camp was a big success. We had great teachers, much fun and of course some disasters (like delayed and canceled flights due to technical difficulties or the SAS strike). At the end we became a victim of the heavy rain that flooded some space (including our organizational office). But we managed to save most of the technical stuff and the participants could end their weekend without much interference. Overall it was one of the greatest dance camps we ever had ... like it should be for an anniversary. I took a day off from work on Tuesday as I had to recover from the weekend first.

So on Wednesday I went back to work and also decided to play poker again at the poker-club in Salzburg. Bad idea! On the way to Salzburg I got stopped by the police for no reason (just a random search by the highway police). Everything was o.k. and arrived in Salzburg later than expected but still on time. Todays tournament was the EUR 50 with one rebuy or add-on. Managed to survive the rebuy period with an average stack and took the add-on. After the rebuy period I was card dead for one level and played no hand at all.

Finally I got KK in MP and made a standard raise. The big blind called my raise and the flop came 457 rainbow. I bet half the pot and he raised. Uh? Two pair? Don't think so. A set? Maybe, but why raise it then? A pocket pair? Most probably. So I put him on something like 99 to QQ. I excluded AA as he didn't re-raise me pre-flop. As any face card on the turn or the river would give me a hard time to decide if he hit his set I decided to take the pot down right here and put him all-in. He called instantly and showed 68 (of course suited) for a flopped straight. Another 7 on the turn gave me some hope for a miracle full-house but the river was blank.

Left with just 10 big blinds I received QQ in the very next hand, went all-in and got called by AQ. He hit his Ace on the flop and I was out on 28th position (of 32) after just 90 minutes of play. On my way home I got almost hit by a truck who was approaching a roundabout way to fast. Really a night to forget...

But not everything was bad as this night was also the official start of IntelliPoker. They are still working on it and not everything is ready and perfect now. But you get a first look of what will coming soon. I will be part of the news team and I'm sure IntelliPoker will become a great site for poker players.

Read more...

Missed the biggest ever online tournament just by seconds

Over 10,000 players with a $2.4 Million prizepool and I missed this weeks "Sunday Million" just by seconds. Came back from my trip to Poland and decided to give it a shot. I just saw the tournament dissapear from the list in the moment I wanted to register. Damn, I would have loved to play it. Due to the extended payout structure (and the added money) everybody left was in the money after just three hours.

I tried two satellites for the FTOPS main-event but busted early in both. It looks like I continue were I stopped before the weekend. I miss draws with huge outs but my opponents hit their 1-3 outers.

Played two more 90-player DeepStacks with the same bad results.

I was surprised to see that my blog got about 10 times the readers this weekend then usual. I'm not exactly sure what happend ... but it seems that I was top listed in some google searches (but also other search engines) related "Sunday Million". So I don't expect that the numbers will stay that high in the future. But maybe I found some new readers. In that case: "Welcome to Shadow's Poker Blog. Have fun and enjoy my stories!"

Read more...

Sometimes it's just unbelievable

Since my early exit from the FTOPS event last night I can't win anything. I busted in 6 tournaments in a row.

First Hand in one of these my set of 7's ist busted by a set of K's. Or even better my set doesn't improve to a Full House (like my opponent last night) but of course my opponent here makes his flush (calling my all in vs. all pot-odds).

And the worst of it: Playing a satellite for the FTOPS Main-Event. Close to the money and the seats I raise QJ on the button. BB calls. Flop comes J28. My opponent bets and I call (all-in). He shows QK and I'm ahead. Turn is a Q and I'm still ahead. River is a K ... I'm out.

Seems as if this is a good time for a short break. I will be in Poland during the weekend for a dance competition (Boogie Woogie). The competition will be in Chelm close to the borders of Ukraine and Belarus. After visiting my (personal) southern most point last year (Key West) I will now reach my estern most point. Until yet this had been the Åland-Islands (between Sweden and Finland). Well, they are still my northern most point for now. And for all who read this far ... the western most point was San Francisco.

Read more...

Fast end in FTOPS IV (Event #6)

Originally I had planned to do some live blogging tonight but unfortunately the fun was over after 42 minutes. We had a total of 2,555 players creating a prizepool of $511,000. 306 places will be paid and first prize will be just over $100,000.

I took a big hit on a missed nut-flush draw (A2 of diamonds) vs. a calling station with 52 of clubs quite early. I raised it to 120 (20/40 blinds) and he called my bet from the BB. Board was J5K-J-6 with two diamonds on the flop. I bet 190 on the flop and 465 on the turn and got called. Maybe I shouldn't have checked the river ... but I doubt he would have folded here as he already called my raise pre-flop as well as my bets on the flop and the turn. A few hands later I survived an early all-in with QQ and was back to average.

About 5 minutes later I limp with T9s (hearts) in early position. UTG+1 raises to 100 (Blinds 25/50). Two more callers, I call too. Flop comes JQQ (two clubs). I bet about 2/3rd of the pot, two fold and the last one (not the original raiser) re-raises me to 2 times my bet. He has either a Q or a J ... no way he has QJ here. Turn is an 8 to make me my straight. Bet again and got re-raised. Went all-in with my remaing 700 chips. He shows Q9s. Another 8 on the river kicks me out after just 42 minutes on 2,114th position.

I know this was a dangerous play but still a valuable one. As I was able to define his hand I was sure to have at least 8 outs here. Way enough to call his re-raise on the flop. After the turn my opponent had 7 outs left. Not enough to call my bet or even re-raise. But it's hard to put an opponent on T9s in that situation. Usually you like disguised made hands. This time it would have been better for me if he realized my straight and folded to it.

Some more results: Annette_15 made it just a litle further at place 2,042 and Allan Cunningham was the best FullTilt pro at position 101. Huck Seed finished out of the money but still must have had an amazing comeback. He was down to about 500 chips the time I busted but still made it till place 1,224. Oh, and I almost missed the 10th place of "fidallio". You don't know who "fidallio" is? You better should ... as it is Joe Sebok, the son of Barry Greenstein.

Read more...

Won my seat for Event #6 at FTOPS IV

I finally caught a seat for the FTOPS IV and will play Event #6 (the NL Hold'em 6-max). The $24+2 satellite I played was weired. 51 players showed up for 5 seats and 2 small cash wins. In the beginning those people played like if it was a turbo and I was able to triple up because of the worst play I've ever seen.

But the action slowed down as did my good run of cards. At the end I bounced between almost dead and the chiplead. The whole tournament lasted about 2 hours and 15 minutes and more than half an hour of this was the bubble play. But finally five of us made it and we will play tomorrow night at 9pm EST (3am CET) for a prizepool of at least $400,000. But I'm sure this will be topped again (as in all the other events before).

Some notable players in that Event: The WSOP 2006 "Wunderkind" Jeff Madsen (Host of the Event), Andy Bloch, Mike (The Mouth) Matusow, Huck Seed, Annette_15 and many more.

Oh, and the hand that almost killed my hopes for the $216-seat: JJ on a 66xxJ board. Lost with my rivered Full House against flopped Quads. Well played pocket 6's by my opponent that paid him off big (unfortunately)!

Read more...

Good tournament results in May

May is a good month for me so far. After winning the torurnament at the Poker-Club I cashed a few days later online. Made a 4th place (out of 254) in one of the FullTilt $24+2 Deep-Stacks for a nice $518 payday (boosting my ROI for the challenge to 70%). Most remarkable that I had a huge comback at the end. Already ITM (but just for $57) I was forced to push all-in with K9 (otherwise I would have been blinded away the next hand). My hand survived against AK and I got some room to move again. This was my last "lucky" hand in this tournament because from there (with about 21 players left) I went on a huge run of decent to good cards that made me third in chips. Finally my run was stopped as my JJ ran into AK. No reason to complain about the result. Although winning that particular hand would have allowed me to rally for first place (but hell, you can't be lucky everytime).

Last night I played the $100-Freezout at the Poker-Club in Salzburg again. 35 players tried to make it to the last five and into the money. This tournament was somewhat strange for me as I played just two hands in the early beginning and after that I was totally card dead for almost 2 hours (and till we were down to around 18 players). Luckily I increased my stack from the initial 10,000 to 18,000 with these two hands.

In the first of these two hands I hit a Q on the board with AQ. A calling station paid me off as he thought his QJ could be good too. The second was AA on a semi-scary board. The board contained no flush- or straight-draws and only one facecard (a Queen). But the way people played there was still a possibility I ran into two pairs of another callingstation. Even my strong bets couldn't push him from the hand. A second 9 paired the board. Usually I get very nervous because of possible Full-Houses in that situation. But unless he was holding Q9 I assumed that instead his two pairs now got counterfeit and my AA would be good anyway. Therefore I pushed all-in with my remaining 7,000 (into an 11,000 pot). He thought for a long time (o.k., no Full House) and finally folded. I decided not to show my hand and mucked my Aces after receiving the pot.

As said before from there I was card dead for a long time. Finally I went lucky again as I raised to 3,000 (500/1,000 blinds) from MP with A8s. A player in LP made it 5,000 to go and was all-in. EP limper called the bet. I was sure being behind but I only had to pay another 2,000 in a big pot and hoped that we would check it down. That's what happend and I got the best of it. The Ace on the flop was enough to be ahead of the EP player. But the all-in player later showed AK. So I was happy that an 8 on the river busted him and gave me a big pot. Now I had plenty of chips to make some moves. In one of them I was able to push a player from his hand with 88 at a scary board. He flashed TT before he mucked his hand.

As the final table was there I got into one of the worst seats: UTG. To pay the blinds just one round later with an average stack of 35,000 (2,000/4,000 blinds) wasn't very exciting. But exciting was the hand I received in that first round: AA! I bet 12,000 and I collected the blinds. Should I have slow-played them? I don't think so. Due to the chip distribution we could lose easily 2-3 players before the blinds came around again. And that was exactly what happend. Quite fast we were down to the bubble with 6 players. Unfortunately I had not played a single hand and was down to 20,000 chips as this situation happend: I was on the button. The player to my left had only about 5,000 chips left (4,000/8,000 blinds) and would have been forced to be all-in when the blinds are back to him. In this spot I received AJs. Everybody folded to me. Tough decision ... waiting if he would be blinded away or pusing all-in? I figured that 20,000 still could be a big enough bet to make the blinds fold (SB was short too and BB had about 50,000). SB folded and BB called (ouch!). But he showed T5 and I doubled up. Now it was an easy wait. With 5th place money secured I pushed all-in from the button again with my last 16,000 chips. The BB called (and this time he got the right odds for a call). My QJ was up against J5 of spades. I definately didn't like to see two spades on the flop. Turn was blank. But the River completed his flush. Still a nice $258 payday for 5th place.

Read more...

Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide - Tournament Edition

The long awaited Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition will be available in early June. Now we will see if "Harrington on Hold'em" will finally get some serious competition as some of the most well known pro's have contributed chapters for this book. Among them are Andy Bloch, Chris Ferguson, Phil Gordon, Howard Lederer, Mike Matusow, Huck Seed and others.

For those who want to get it as fast as possible the book can already be pre-ordered at Amazon.

Read more...

Two monster flops, two final tables but no cashes

Made two live final tables in two days but couldn't cash in either of them. The first one was the € 20.00 rebuy at the Poker-Club Salzburg. I was already short-stacked as we started the final table. But I got the worst of it as I had to post the big blind on the first hand. I was more or less forced to go all-in with T7 but ran into AK. I found another 7 but my opponent found an Ace. Out on 10th place of 36 players (5 got paid).

Today I tried another shot on the "Bavarian Players Club" qualification. After a slow start I got two monster flops: Limped with A4 of hearts from MP. Flop came all hearts. No full house or quads possible. I checked every street, my opponent bet every street and I called it. At the river I even check-raised him all-in and he paid with QQ. Double up to 10,000 chips. Somewhat later I limped again from EP (with 44). The SB made a standard raise and I called it. This was of course a hit-the-flop or fold hand. But I didn't expect to see two beautifull 4's. I flopped quads and they paid off again for another double up.

With 20,000 chips and an average of 6,000 I now was in very good shape. Unfortunately the poker gods decided that this was enough for one night. I had to fold some very good hands due to missed flops or heavy re-raises and shortly after went absolutely card dead. I played almost no hand till the final table. It was jinxed!

More worse I missed two opportunities to double up. The first was JT of hearts from early position. And the second T6 from the button. Both not really hands to bring to war with an all-in. If I only had known before that in both cases two Tens would show up on the flop...

So I went all-in and all-out on 8th position of 60 players after 3.5 hours (only first 3 got qualified).

Read more...

A Perfect Evening

The Poker-Club in Salzburg recently changed his tournament schedule and I decided to take a shot on the new EUR 50.00 tournament (with either one rebuy or one add-on). They start with 4,000 chips and the rebuy gets you another 4,000 while waiting for the add-on gets you 2,000 more.

Didn't matter as I needed neither of them. I had a good start and never looked back. After the first 3 levels I had around 12,000 chips. So I was in good shape for at least 3 more levels. The add-on would have added only one more level of "good shape" ... and I decided that if I won't be able to increase my stack in the next three levels there was no reason I would do one level later.

And yes, it looked like I made the right choice as I pumped up my stack to 24,000. Went back to 18,000 (that was the time I wasn't sure anymore about my decline of the add-on). But shortly after I went to 30,000 and everything was fine.

I got decent cards and decent flops this evening. Two of the most remarkable incidents: Limping with A9 from late position (as the table paid most raises anyway I decided to make this a cheap hand). Flop comes a 973 (2 diamonds). I bet about 2/3 of the pot. All fold except for one caller. Turn is another 9 (no diamond). I check (being sure he can't resist) ... he goes all in ... of course I call in a second. His K7 is no good and I bust one player. The other one was AA. I raise and get two all-ins from short stacks. I'm up against AT and AK ... ship it!

With about 14 players of 35 left I told myself to stick to my good play and avoid FPS (Fancy Play Syndrome) like hell. It would have been a big dissapointment if I miss the money this time. I had some tough laydowns but made it to the final table 3rd in chips. The table draw was perfect as I had the other two chipleaders to my right. First hand at the final table I got AA. Another instant call and we were down to 9 players. Very soon it became clear that I was the one with the most experience in the "Endgame" and I took advantage of it. The chipleader showed that he lacks this knowledge as he made a horrible call with AJ against the all-in of the co-chipleader. I never ever would have called an all-in here with any hand except AA. He got punished as he lost his hand versus QQ and went out just two hands later on 7th position (and out of the money).

We made it to the money and somebody suggested a deal: Everybody gets EUR 300.00 and the remaining EUR 1,000.00 will be distributed 50%/30%/20%. I misunderstood that only the top three in chips will play for the EUR 1,000.00 (and I was 4th in chips at this time) so I declined. I later found out that we all would have played for the money but only top three would have been paid. Oh, well ... I busted the 5th place finisher and we made a new deal that secured each EUR 500.00. The chipleader busted the player on 4th place while I busted the player on 3rd place.

To be honest I would have loved to continue to play for the win. But as I already mixed up one deal I accepted his offer to split the remaining amount. With 130,000 chips each and blinds 4,000/8,000 this was o.k. (although I think I was the better player here). A nice EUR 602.00 payday (after tip) for a well played tournament.

Regarding deals: It's hard to decline a deal if you are the only one to do so. But if you don't like a deal - don't take it. It's a free choice. There was one railbird who started picking on me (even after I apologized to the players for the misunderstanding) for declining the deal. But the players showed good style and accepted my decision.

Read more...