Happy New Year to all my readers

Time for a little recap of my poker success in 2008 ... and it was indeed my most successful year so far.

Although I didn't make money on my first big trip in February I had a decent tournament. I am talking about Drogheda, Ireland and the European Deepstack Poker Championships. I lasted long but not long enough ... I am sure with my current style of play I would have made it into the money here. Nevertheless it was one of the first signs that success is around the corner. And I will be back at the EDPC in 2009 (see below).

Only a few days later I bubbled at the "Oceans Masters" at the Oceans Poker Club near Passau. Another location that gets a return visit in early 2009.

March got me back to Vienna and a result just two places shy of the money at the Spring Poker Festival (CCC). The APAT at the Poker Royale was some kind of a setback (63rd of 188) but it was interesting to play with the later bracelet winner Martin Klaeser.

My trip to the WSOP wasn't a success moneywise but again a great experience. I played my first real WSOP-Event and came close to the money at the Caesars Mega-Stacks.

End of June also saw me bubbling at the Pokertour.at (Landesmeisterschaft Niederoesterreich at the Poker Royale). I was very dissapointed about that result and little did I know that I will make a lot of money at the Pokertour.at quite soon.

July was the start of my work for PocketFives but unfortunately this job didn't last very long. Pocket Fives is a great community but the way they tried to reach the german market wasn't the best one. If they had been willing to invest some money they could have been very successful ... unfortunately they decided to take the cheap road and stopped after only 4 months.

In August I finally made it into the money at the PokerStars Sunday Million for the first time. Not too bad given the fact that it was only my 6th Sunday Million so far.

But the biggest success came in the last three months of the year. I cashed in several smaller live and online events as well as in some big ones. Back to back final tables at the Pokertour.at in Graz and Linz got me two more entries into the HendonMob Database.

And another entry followed shortly after with my personal highlight if the year: My trip to the Dusk Till Dawn poker club in Nottingham was a special experience ... crowned with another great final table finish.

Didn't made it ITM at the Pokertour.at final in Vienna but added some more promising results at other tournaments on that trip (e.g. bubbled at the Montesino).

The year 2008 was a success regarding my tournament play and gave me a lot of confidence for the coming year. Did I play better, was I more lucky this year? I think both. I gained experience, changed my style of play somewhat and now definately have my own player personality. Lucky? Well, at least not unlucky in some situations - but that's part of the game.

Unfortunately it seems that I won't have the freedom to play every event I would like to play in 2009. After I lost my job at PocketFives I tried to find something new in the poker industry. There was a very interesting opportunity but unfortunately these folks seem to be very lazy about the handling of important stuff. Well, while they didn't came through I got another opportunity in the IT-industry and finally decided to accept that position. We will see how this works out...

For that reason I didn't have too many fix plans in early 2009. I will go back to the Oceans Poker Club for the "Oceans Masters" at Jan. 3rd/4th. Not really deepstacks but with a PF=10 and 14 at least playable.

The first highlight of the year will happen again in Dublin. In early February I will be at the European Deepstack Poker Championships again. I plan to play the two side events and maybe try to satellite into the €1,500 Main-Event (not sure yet). As Dublin offers a lot of poker tournament options there's most probably some other tournament available in case I don't make it deep here.

No further plans so far ... but of course I will try to make it to the WSOP again in 2009. Other possible events: Casino Austria Poker Tour (CAPT), Pokertour.at, CCC Springpokerfestival, Norwegian Poker Championship at the Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham.

Hope you enjoyed this years blog entries and will follow me through the year 2009 again. I wish you all a great and successful new year!

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Pokertour.at final at the CCC

A total of 157 (of a max. possible 200) took part in the Pokertour.at final at the CCC. That made a first prize of little of €13,000 and payed 18 spots.

I got a seat at a table on the outer-end so it was clear that this one will be broken soon. Too bad because I got some nice hands and was able to trap some times with good pay-offs. But got also trapped one time were I shouldn't have paid the river bet!

The next table was amazing. You wouldn't believe that at the final of the Pokertour still so many calling-stations are present. Every raise got at least 2-3 callers. On time I got paid-off big on a obvious flush (were I hit the nut flush). The other time I got a pay-off with flopped two pair were the other guy easily would have gotten me off the hand if he played it aggressively enough. One guy thought he was the master bluffer himself and gave his 50K chips (average was between 12K and 20K at that time) to everybody else in just two levels. Too bad I only got 9K from him.

Unfortunately I got some good starting hands but didn't connect to the flop often enough to really take advantage of that situation. Another table change and at the end I was left with about 10K chips at the start of the 800/1,600 level and moved all-in with suited connectors (my best hand for a long time). Small-Blind found KK and that's it ... out on 57th of 157.

After watching Klitschko winning his boxing fight I was unsure what to do. There weren't SnG's going at the CCC but I was sure they were at the Montesino (which isn't too far away). After some time a new €1/2 NL cash game table became available and I decided to stay at the CCC and take a shot at this game with a €100 buy-in.

Had a good run and made it to €200 very soon ... although I made a horrible mistake in between. With A3s there were two callers in front and I wanted to call too. So I picked up two chips threw them in and the moment they hit the felt I realized that I threw in ... two €10 chips. Fast fold from the next players but of course everybody could see from my face that I made a mistake. One of the callers called my bet. The board wasn't too bad as I got a nice draw but missed and had to let my hand go. Very expensive mistake.

Little later I made some plays that I will avoid in the future ;-) and went down to break even. Then this situation occured: I was in MP and got dealt AKo. A call and a raise to €10 in front. I reraised to 30 (which most times got the pot in that situation) ... and then hell broke loose. The guy to my left (who just bought-in again for €100 after he lost a big pot) threw his chips in the middle announcing all-in. For some reason he was really pissed about all the raising and re-raising. Obviously he had a hand like a medium pair. The asian guy next to him (who was a some-kind-of-a-gambler) called his bet. The other two folded. Wow! Now I had to invest just around 70 for a pot that already was €240 big. I was sure one had a middle-pair and the other could have had anything. So I called the 70 (which was an all-in for me too) and the board had an ace but also a low straigt-draw. I showed my ace and the other two mucked their hands. A pot of over €300 was shipped to the Shadow. I ended the game shortly after with a total of €342. Not close to the €570 that 18th place would have gotten at the tournament but still a nice end for the day.

Some remarks: Although the result wasn't an ITM finish I really like my tournament play at this time. I still have to work of some post-flop things but in general I am on the right track. And most important: I am feeling comfortable and confident with my own style of play. For tournaments I can play live and online although I still prefer live a lot. For cash game it's definately only live. Regarding my style of play there's so much missing (that is important to me) at an online cash game. €1/2 is o.k. on occasion but at this time I would prefer €0.50/1 (which is unfortunately hard to find in a live game). And my cash game style still needs some work until I feel as comfortable as in a tournament.

Tonight I most probably play the €20+4 Freezeout at the CCC. Bad structure but seems to be the only available tournament in town. The Montesino has a big rebuy-tournament (€50+6). But this is beyond my comfort-zone (at least for rebuys) although it would have been interesting to meet Meike Busch (the former GIGA Pokernight moderator) in person who is their special guest tonight.

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And on my last hand ...

...I ran into Aces again!

Had a very good start in the €50+6 at the Montesino. We started with 6.000 chips and during the first 25 min. in level one (25/25) I made it to 9,000 and in the next level to almost 12,000.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to keep my pace. First I got good hands that didn't connect anymore and then I went into a dry run of cards. I was blinded down and severly short-stacked. After a table change I got KK twice in a short period of time. First hand I only got the blinds and antes, second hand was paid-off with a nice bet from a guy who I busted shortly after with AK vs. 44. Seemed he was somewhat on tilt after I went all-in on his bet the second time.

Up to 30,000 but the blinds had now reached 1,000/2,000(200). To make things worse we played 7-handed and 6-handed for some time before another table was broken.

No more playable hands and my stack went all the way down to 9,200. Finally I went all-in with QJo just to run into AA again. To add insult to injury I was up against KK too. No magic board and my tournament ended in 35th position out of 231 (just 9 off the money).

Taking into account how far I made it with no cards I can only imagine what the result would have been with just a few decent cards. But at the end only the actual results count. And yes, I know I was very lucky several times in the last tournaments so I can stand those "mini-beats".

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No money but another decent finish

Arrived in Vienna around noon and fortunately was able to check into my hotel room early. Nothing special ... small but clean.

At 7pm I played the €30+5 NL Freezeout at the Montesino. They got 141 players and I am happy to see thet they now pay 10% of the field (which they didn't do during the first week after the opening). Unfortunately the structure with 20 min. blinds and 4,500 chips turns into a crapshot half way to the bubble. Tomorrows tournament has 6,000 chips and 25 min. levels (€50+6) wich still is not great but at least better.

I busted out of this tournament in 17th position (one off the bubble) but I really don't mind. Making €60 in a €30+5 tournament (for 15 to 13th place) isn't what I am aiming for. Of course I could have played the last hand different:

With blinds at 2,000/4,000(400) I had 48,000 chips. Which was above average but still way below the comfort-zone. I found AK in early position and was faced with a tough decision. Of course I could unpack the "hammer" again and move all-in. But due to the fact that the average stack at the table was around 35,000 this felt like a huge overbet. So I made it 10,000 again (which had worked out before). In that situation I prefer to see a flop with AK instead flipping a coin. It was folded around to the Big Blind who decided to call. The flop came K-Q-J. He checked, I bet out 15,000 and he called again. With another Q on the flop he went all in for about 25,000. I was almost sure he had the Queen but at this time the pot was way too big to pass here. I figured that I still had outs for the Straight (4) and the Full House (2) if he indeed had the Queen. Unfortunately it was way worse as he had called my pre-flop bet with QJo and had hit a prefect flop and turn.

Did he made a mistake by calling my bet with QJ? Tough to say. He was in the Big Blind so he only had to add 6,000 to the 4,000 already in the pot. Although he must assume that I have a big hand (I mixed up big pushes and 2,5 big blind bets for some time) he still could afford to have a look at the board with that hand. On the other hand with a K-J-x, K-Q-x or a totally unstructured board he would have gotten a hard time and wasted at least one round of blinds. Would there be a difference if I made it 12,000 instead. I doubt it ... if somebody pays 6K in that situation he pays 8K too. Of course if I went all-in there was no way he could have called (except if he was very dumb) and I would have been able to add 7,600 chips to my stack. I tend to say that making an overpush here was the better of two difficult possibilities ... although I still won't count my action here as a complete mistake.

So I went out of the tournament but still didn't feel too bad. I had a shot on becoming a huge stack and making it very deep into the money and I missed this time. But again I was able to make it very deep in a tournament. Looking back there was only one lucky coinflip. Interestingly this coinflip was some kind of a mirror of my last hand. At that time I was the one holding QJ and went-all in with a short-stack just to be called by AK. Flop gave me a Queen and doubled me up. But beside that I never was behind when the money went in.

Of course I know there will be more then enough tournaments in the future were I won't be able to make it very deep. But nevertheless this just added more confidence in the way I play my game.

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Day two: £200 + £20 No Limit Freezeout @ DTD, Nottingham

The rollercoaster ride from the first day continued in a remarkable fashion. Also being 4th in chips at the start of the day I never got anything playable and was blinded down heavily. With people busting out slowly I at least maintained my low stack. But on the bubble I was in severe danger to become the bubble boy again. Fortunately another short stack took this burden as his AQ lost vs. A2.

Still short at the final table I waited for the right spot. In the meantime one guy busted and I was at least 8th. My time came when I finally got a strong hand (KK) that got action and held up. It's always interesting to see how many people at final tables don't know how to handle either a big stack or a short stack correctly. So more people busted out and we were down to 6. At this time we made a deal that secured 6th place £1,500 (instead of £845). A deal I happily accepted as I still was one of the shortest stacks. But with blinds of 4,000/8,000(600) nobody (expect the chipleader) was in a save area.

Still not getting good cards it was time for a big move. With 36,000 left I went all-in UTG with 62o to maintain at least some fold equity. I hoped that it was folded around as people had seen me only play big hands at the final table so far. The plan worked out until the Big Blind (Mr. "Any-Two" from yesterday) found AA. Why me, why aces again? Maybe that's what he was thinking after I busted his aces with a 7-high straight. The guy went ballistic but I must admit that didn't fell too sorry for him as he pulled an even worse stunt yesterday by calling(!) an all-in form aces with J4s and making two pair.

Now I had at least good fold equity but was forced to play only very strong hands due to my ruined image. Sometimes later Mr. "Any-Two" went in for 74,000. As he still was steaming I decided to go all-in for 85,000 with AJo. Then Billy to my right made a big sigh and took several minutes to decide what to do. I knew I was in big trouble if he called as he was definately one of the best players at the table (beside of the later winner Allen). He finally called saying "I am here for the win, so I have to call". At least he had the best hand wit QQ. Mr. "Any-Two" was in deep trouble as he only had A2. But also Billy got punished here when an Ace hit the board, crippled him and trippled me up.

Unbelievable ... I was happy to already having survived the bubble but now with 5 left I was the chipleader holding about a third of the remaing chips. Billy busted out in 5th little later. With 3 left our stacks were almost equal and I suggested another deal. We then split the remaining money equally (each of us got £3,150) and just played for the win and the trophy.

I finally busted in 3rd with an open-ended-straightdraw vs. a pair of tens. More than happy and lucky about my result.

Now sitting at Birmingham airport waiting for my flight back to Germany. The trip to DuskTillDawn was a great experience and if the have a simillar event again I will try to come back. Definately the nicest and best run poker-room I ever played in!

Next stop: Big final of the Pokertour.at at the CCC in Vienna (next weekend)

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£200 + £20 No Limit Freezeout 7,500 chips, 45 minute clock (2 day event) @ DTD, Nottingham

Now that was one of my worst roller-coaster rides ever. In the beginning nothing seemed to work out right and my stack of 7,500 chips dwindled down to as low as 3,000 as we reached the 100/200 level. In the first three levels (of 45 min. each) I wasn't able to win a single pot (but never lost a really big one too). For some time it looked like I might be the first one out of the 84 playing this tournament.

But finally things turned around and I even made it little over the average of 12,000. Funnily all those who had terrorized the table in the beginning and had gotten a lot of chips in that time now had been eliminated or were on life support. As we reached the 6th level the type of my table had changed completely. Still tough to play but now because of some decent big stacks. In general the mood at the table was much friendlier and more relaxed. Unfortunately my roller-coaster dipped down again and I was severly shortstacked again.

Then I more or less ejected the last of the table terrorists. With K7 of spades in the small-blind there were just two callers in front so I decided to call this one too. Mr. "Tableterrorist" checked in the Big Blind. Flop comes K-Q-4 (two hearts). Mr. T. led out with a bet of 2,000 and the other two folded. I took my time and went all in for my remaining 7,000. He had just a few chips more then I had. I know this was a dangerous play but his bet smelled fishy and I wasn't in the poition to wait much longer. He thought for a long time, then told me: "I think you are on a (flush) draw". Then he called, showing a Q for the lower pair. I was back in the game and he busted for his remaining chips one round later.

All the things that went wrong in the beginning now started to get the right way. Don't get me wrong! I didn't receive really bad beats in the beginning. I just was somewhat behind in some key situations (and luckily managed not to invest too much). Now it was me how got the righ feeling for when being ahead in tricky situations. Little later I busted another guy for his 7,000 chips were I had hit but again was faced with a tricky board.

The key hand of the tournament came when I got TT in the Big Blind. I was now at 25,000 chips (little below average). First position (a very aggressive and decent player) just called. Huh!? Second Position (decent but had taken a big hit not long ago) called too. One more caller in the middle. I checked. Flop comes 2-2-8. Not a bad flop for a pair of tens but I had to define my own hand and the others players hands somewhat. So I led out with a 3,000 bet (about three quarters of the pot). First position folded. Well, that worked :-) Second position ... raised to 13K. Ouch, that wasn't what I had expected. Middle position folded. As said before, the raiser was decent player, had taken a big hit before, had about my stack size and had shown that he was able to do big (but sophisticated) bluffs. Usually I don't do this for variuos reasons, but this time I asked him if he would show if I fold. He told me: "Usually I never show but as you asked me very friendly I will show you this single time". That defined his hand ... he had the 2 for a set!

How did I know? This was the most honest speech I ever gof from a poker player. Basically he told me that "he is ahead but would prefer to take the pot right now because he knows that I have an overpair and doesn't want to run into a lucky punch". I totally agreed with him here and open folded my TT ... he showed a 2 as ecpected. Interestingly that hand and how it was played got me a lot of respect from the table and also I lost some important chips in that hand I gained for the future actions at that table.

When we went down to three tables our table was broken. At the new table the first hand I witnessed was a very sick hand. It was raised and re-raised between two players and finally one of them went all-In. If he got called that would have been a massive 60K pot. The other guy thought for a long time and then called with 66(!) and was faced T8s (!!!). The pocket pair held up and we had a new chipleader at the table while Mr. "Every-Hand-Can-Win" was down to 8K. He went all-in two times with no further action. The third time I took a stand on him with AQs but ran into JJ. Still a coinflip but I lost and was down to 10K.

Three hands later Mr. "I call with 66" raised on my immediate right. I went all-in with JJ and he called with T4s. In this case his move was not so bad. He took a stab at me in the big blind by raising and then didn't had to much to invest to call. Good for me ... Jacks held up and I was back to 20K.

From there it only went up. Took down a decent pot wit AA, busted the QQ's of a shorty with AKs and took down several pots uncontested. At the end of level nine the dust cleared and with 17 players left I ended day one with 55,600 chips (being 4th in chips).

There are several shortys with about 20K or less in the field. Average is 37K and the biggest stack is 80K. With blinds starting at 800/1,600(200) none of us is secured for one of the 9 paid seats at the final table. Unfortnately I am sandwiched between two stacks equal my size (2nd and 5th place in chips) with Mr. "Every-Hand-Can-Win" directly behind (35K). 1st and 3rd in chips are on the other table. Seats 1-4 are shortys. This will become a tough and interesting game today.

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£300 + £30 No Limit Freezeout 10,000 chips, 45 minute clock (2 day event) @ DTD, Nottingham

37th out of 131 after 7 hours of play isn't really satisfying. But honestly, it was the best result that was possible today. The tournament started already in a weired way. In the first hand of the tournament there was some raise and re-raise preflop. More raise and re-raise on the flop and finally an all-in and call. Didn't they know we start with 10K Chips and have 45 min. levels?

As you might have expected it was AA vs. KK. The Aces held up and we had a chipleader with 20K chips. I got some playable hands but never connected strong enough to the flop to make some powerplays. Nevertheless I managed to keep my stack as high as 8,500 or more at all times.

Somehow I had already made it to 12,000 when this hand arrived: There was a raise in front of me and I called with JJ. Flop came 55J ... bingo! He checked and I checked. Turn is a King. He checked again, as do I. River is a 2 and he bet 1,500. I raised to 4,000 he went all-in for just 2,600 more and I called. My Full House Jacks lost against Full House Kings :-(

That was a real turning point in my tournament. Had I won that hand I would have had a comfortable stack of more than 25K (and would have been able to play hands that I wasn't even able to consider as short-stack). Of course I could have bet on the flop here ... but I dought that he would have folded his Kings. And by the way, an opponent with a strong starting hand is what we all wish for in that situation. A guy who thinks he has a good hand but is in fact a 92% underdog on the flop. Playing carefull just because he might hit his two-outer? Not my style!

Down to 6K I went all-in a few hands later with 66 and was up against AK. Hit my set on the Flop and made quads on the River. Back to 12k but almost shortstack. Later succeded with a nice squeeze play and went heads-up against a shortstack. Unfortunately my AK didn't improve and his 44 held up. Somewhat down again. Same Squeeze play with the exact same people again somewhat later. Again I got AK but this time I was up against ... AK. We split the pot and another opportunity was missed.

That was the biggest issue of todays tournament: I didn't had too many good opportunities but besides the quad sixes I wasn't able to take advantage of these rare opportunities at all. For the last hours I was aboslutely card dead. What can you do when your fold equity goes south but your best hands are 63, 47, and of course K-low, Q-low etc. in several variations.

At the end (5 minutes before day 1 ended) I got my opportunity: I had King-Spades, Two of hearts in the Big Blind. There was a call, and another call and I checked. Flop came two spades with 9-5-4. All checked. Turn is a 2 of spades. Hell, what do I wait for I had hit a pair and had a flush-draw. Went all in with 6,700 chips. First guy folded, second one called me with 8-9. River was the 8 of hearts and I had missed another good opportunity ... and was out of the tournament.

With K2s being my best hand for a long time you may imagine who painfull the last two levels had been. But as said before: There wasn't much I could have done better and I stayed as long as possible. It just wasn't meant to be that night.

Today is the £200+20 event which has the same structure as today but you get "only" 7,500 chips. So it's designed as a two-day event too.

Some words about the DuskTillDawn club at the end. It's a very nice poker club! 45 tables on 3 different levels make a great impression. The tables are big enough for 9 people and most dealers are very professionell. But some things are very unusual: Beverage service takes your money when you order your drink, not when it is delivered. They have about 20 public computer terminals there that can be used for surfing or playing online poker. But the best thing: They publish the tournament results on their website while the tournament is still running. During every break the dealers count all chips and they update the chipcount. They know exactly who's located were ... so they can build a complete list of every placement (with the correct names). Truly amazing.

While our tournament was started the £1,000 4-Day-Main-Event was still running. Christiano Blanco and Maria Demetriou were some of the best known players in the field. That event used the exact identical structure of the WSOP main-event and drew 186 participants. Great tournament but unfortunately way above my bankroll!

So hopefully it will run better today ... of course I will update you again on a regular basis (at least during the breaks).

This morning I just strolled around in the city (enjoying the sunny day). The picture on the right is just a random street in the city to give you an impression how Nottingham looks like. Nice city but nothing special (as is my hotel).

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PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker

While checking my email at Starbucks in Nottingham and preparing for tonights tournament I stumbled upon the "PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker" which will take part in December.

Of course if my time allows I will play there, too!

Ich habe mich für die Teilnahme an der PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker angemeldet!

Die WBCOOP ist ein Online-Pokerturnier das allen Bloggern offen steht.

Anmelde-Code: 028097

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Preparing for Nottingham

Tomorrow I am starting my trip to Nottingham. I am flying on a cheap budget (€30 return flight with Ryanair) but unfortunately have to travel to Frankfurt-Hahn.

So I am visiting my parents who live half way between Munich and Frankfurt and continue to the airport on Friday. Still a long trip. I have to start at 5:45am and will reach my hotel at 2pm (UK time). Fortunately the tournament at DuskTillDawn starts not before 8pm so I have some time to relax and refresh.

In the last week I worked on adjustments on my game and the results were promising. I hope those adjustements will help me at my upcoming events.

I have also booked my trip to Vienna (for the Staatsmeisterschaft) next week. Found a decent priced flight with Air Berlin and will play two smaller tournaments on Thursday and Friday at the Montesino before the Staatsmeisterschaft starts at the CCC on Saturday.

Hopefully I can twitter from those events to keep you updated. Just check back at twitter on Dec 5th. from 9pm CET to find out.

So far this will more or less complete my live tournaments for this year. There are interesting events coming up in 2009 but much depends on my results in the next events and the question which job I will have in 2009.

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Winter Wonderland in Seefeld

This weekend the "Beat'em All" event took place at Casino Austria. With three places almost in the same distance (Salzburg, Innsbruck and Seefeld) I decided for Seefeld for various reasons: Well run poker room, nice casino and the option to have an extended weekend with my girlfriend to relax. Therefore I choose a slightly better hotel with a decent wellness area. Little did we know at the time we made our arrangements that it would become a real special weekend due to the fact that we should get the first snow of the season.

I picked up my girlfriend at the airport (she just came back from a business trip) and we drove to Seefeld on Friday afternoon. We managed to arrive before the big snow but up in Seefeld it was white already.

On Saturday we had a nice walk through Seefeld while it was snowing heavily (the picture left was taken at noon!) and went swimming before my tournament started.

Unfortunately I lasted only four levels. While the structure was o.k. (5K chips and 30 min. levels) it definately wasn't deep-stack. Therefore not to get any playable hands for more then two levels is really tough. I never managed to get beyond my initial stack. Finally I went all-in from the button with QJs just to get called by the Big Blind who woke up with JJ :-(

It's a real shame. The quality of play was so poor and I wasn't able to take advantage of it. My favorite line: "Do you have the Queen for the straight? I pay because I want to see it" ... Well, no I didn't had the straight that time but my hand was ahead anyways ;-)

Busting in 77th of 100 that played here in Seefeld wasn't what I had expected from the event.

Fortunately we enjoyed our wellness-weekend nevertheless. Had some nice dinner with the girlfriend at the casino restaurant after the tournament. Not cheap but really good ... definately a reccomendation if you are in Seefeld!

The next day the sun was shining down from the blue sky and we had a nice walk throug the snow followed by more swimming, sauna and massage. We completed the weekend with another nice dinner and went back monday morning.

Now looking forward to real deepstack play at the DuskTillDawn in Nottingham in two weeks...

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Streaks exist!

There is a lot of discussion about streaks and if they exist or not. I had these discussions im my Black Jack times and I still have them with poker players.

Of course they exist. It's a natural thing. We all now that that there is a certain probability for some things to happen (or not to happen). And the distribution of these events is not linear. Therefore it's no wonder that there are clumps of similar events that always seem to proof probability wrong.

While my event in Graz had a more or less equal distribution of good and bad events, Linz was different. I was extremly lucky two times there. Both times I was down to about 5% to win my hands and managed to escape. Seeing the the Hand were Scott Montgomery busted Craig Marquis at the WSOP final table was a real Dejavu. And in addition I won a good amount of coinflips in important situations.

But after Linz everything seemed to go vice versa. I went to the CCC in Salzburg for the €10+4 Rebuy tournament and went in everytime with the best hand but got hit every single time. This continued with my online play in the last days. Even being 70% ahead isn't enough at this time.

So streaks exist ... unfortunately they can only be seen from the past. There's no way to avoid them. And if we are in them nobody can tell how long they will last. You have to play through them no matter what. You can't change your play because the streak may have just ended and changing your game is just the wrong thing to do at this moment. I can only hope the bad streak was just a short intermission as I have several interesting events coming up till the end of the year.

Next weekend I will be in Seefeld for Casino Austria's "Beat'Em All". It will be a nice weekend as I travel with my girlfriend and we arrive on Friday and stay till Monday ... having a good time together beside playing poker.

A new addition to my schedule is a trip to the DuskTillDawn Pokerroom in Nottingham from Dec. 5th to 8th. Originally I had planned to play an event of the Christmas Poker Championships in Bregenz but then this opportunity came up. The DTD celebrates their first anniversary with a little festival. While the 4-day main-event has a superb structure, the £1,000+60 Buy-In is beyond my bankroll. But they have two side events with £300+30 and £200+20 that still have a very good deep-stack structure. The PF of these events is over 26 so they compare with the Caesars Mega-Stacks I played in Vegas this summer. I was lucky to get a flight with Ryanair for a total of €30. So even adding the trainride to Frankfurt-Hahn this is still bargain!

The weekend after, there is the Pokertour.at final in Vienna. Most probably I will add some smaller events at the local places in Vienna but haven't made my exact plans yet.

There are several interesting tournaments in January and February (mostly beyond). So keep your fingers crossed for me that I make some money in December to keep the pace here.

My next bigger online event will be the FTOPS X, Event #24 on Sunday. Beside that I will go small ball in online tournaments in the next time as I keep a good portion of my bankroll for the upcoming live events.

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Back-to-Back final tables

To be honest ... being 4th in chips after day one and not to make the final table would have been a big dissapointment. But the day started as bad as it could be.

I was located next to a very small stack and on the first hand of the day he was in the big blind while I was the small blind. Everybody folded to us and setting him all-in was mandatory in that situation. Unfortunately with 36 I was holding the worst possible hand for that play. He thought for a long time and finally called with Q9. I would have hoped for a fold (what would have been a huge mistake on his side). He doubled up and my advantage to the other players had been shortened somewhat.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to make many plays in the next time and my once great stack dwindeled down to average due to the blinds. I finally became a shortstack with 21 players left and it was again me and the (former) shorty in the SB and BB. I tried to steal his blind with J2s and wasn't delighted to hear a call on my all-in. I was even less delighted as I saw that he woke up with pocket aces in the BB. What now came was the worst bad beat anybody with aces can get: The flop was J-2-x. He had slightly less chips then I and was out of the tournament. Although happy to be a survivor (with a now close to average stack again) I felt very sorry for this guy. Nobody deserves to leave a tournament in that way after more then 10 hours of play!

With 18 players I got a tough decision: I had raised with JJ from early position and got an all-in from a much bigger stack in middle position. Usually a fold. But this guy had seen me playing the J2 hand on the other table ... so maybe JJ was still good here. While thinking about what to do there was a seat open call on the other table. Only two more to go for the money. I'm not sure if I had folded anyway but in this case it was an important factor to decide that I have still enough chips for a better situation. I open folded my JJ and he mucked without showing.

My turn came only a few hands later. A short stack went all-in for about five big-blinds. A player in middle position with a decent stack just called. I found QQ and moved all-in. Now the open fold of the J's turned out to be a good move. He thought for a long time and finally mucked as he gave me credit for a good hand. Not exactly sure but I assume it was a very good (but drawing hand). The all-in player had KQ and I added some more to my stack.

Down to 11 and back form average to shorty again. This was the flow of the day. I never really improved but was able to hang in. But now I was in real danger as I was extremly short as well as two others on our table. All the players on the other table had stacks big enough to easily await that one of us three will bust.

The final table came faster then expected because a big stack wiped out the other two shorties in just one hand at once. With 9 players everybody was granted at least €620. With only 65,000 chips I was on life support. The next lowest stack had about 150,000. Went all-in with JT and got a coinflip against AK. Doubled up, picked up the blinds and antes three hands in a row and was now back in the game with 184,000 chips early after the start of the final table.

From there I was able to survive three more players and keep my stack at this level for some time (average now little over 200K). But with six players left we played a long time with no action for me and my stack went again down to less then 100K. With the blinds now at 15,000/30,000 (3,000) I decided that A8s was a reasonable hand to play. Unfortunately I ran into AA and left on 6th place with €1,355.

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Pokertour in Linz - 4th in Chips after Day 1

How great is that ... I just checked the redraw for day 2 and I am 4th in chips with 77.300! We started yesterday with 139 players in the PlusCity in Linz and are now down to 37.

Usually the Pokertour events happen in a CCC location. But the CCC in Linz is too small for such an event therefore they moved the event into a shopping mall. It's been a long time since I played under these circumstances. The location was a bit noisy until the shops in the mall closed at 9pm and the beverage service of the nearby bar had some problems due to the high amount of players but in general it was an interesting location. Reminded me of the times when we played in public at the Schrannenhalle in Munich.

My starting table had some decent players and some who didn't have a clue and were real calling stations. I was able to take advantage of this somewhat and brought my 10K startingstack up to 15k quite soon. From there not much happend for a long time.

With about 90 players left our table was broken and the new table turned out to be very good for me. Due to some good moves I earned some respect from my opponenents which helped me a lot during the last hours of the play. One amazing play (which I unfortunately can't explain in detail) brought my stack up to 40K. Some more blinds and antes (already 800/1,600 - 200) pumped it up to 52k.

With just half an hour before the day ended I got my share of "luck of the day". With AQ I raised it to 5,000 and got an all-in from a short-stack with 17,000. From the way he had played before I was sure he had a Pocket Pair but decided to take the opportunity this time (he had made this move several times before). I was delighted to see that it was a small pair (33). The Flop brought him a set but also KT. The turn was blank. And the River a Jack! I felt sorry for him as he was one of the very decent players remaining but I was happy to go into day 2 with a big stack instead of a small stack.

My new table for today looks very good. I am chipleader there and my closest opponent has 41K in chips. Blinds start at 1,000/2,000 (300) today and average is around 30K.

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P5s in german discontinued

Sad news for me ... on Thursday it was decided that the german speaking offerings of PocketFives will be stopped immediately.

I am very dissapointed about that decision. I know that the pages weren't as successfull as expected but we had to work on a zero budget. There was a discussion about either spending some money or stopping right now and unfortunately it was decided to stop.

I'm sure with some kind of a budget we could have made this a succesfull offering in the german speaking countries. Of course I am not happy with the way they handled it ... but I think this is still an interesting site worth to visit.

So what are my next plans? The trip to Linz for the next Pokertour event (coming weekend) is already booked and I am looking forward to this. The day before I will play the starting event of the FTOPS X. Not only a 6-max event but also one with an increased starting stack (5.000 chips instead of 3.000). On November 22nd I will play the Beat'em All event at the Casino in Seefeld.

And of course I am trying to find a new job. Hopefully I will be able to work in the poker industry again. If not I have to go back to the computer business. Time will tell.

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Runner-Up in Graz

I really made it! Not only into the money, not only at the final table ... I made 2nd place of 183 players at the Pokertour in Graz.

We started the day with 38 players and I was 31st in chips. To make things worse I had to start in the big blind. Somehow I manged to keep my chipcount between a 25k low and a 55k high until we reached the money with 21 players. I never got a big pot but was able to pick up the blinds a good number of times.

As we reached the last two tables things changed and I got some very decent cards. I manged to bring up my stack to 100K and even 150k (average at this time). Now I was able to change gears away from "push and fold" to selective play. Many others couldn't make that change or didn't had the chips for it so we quite fast went down from 20 players to the final table.

I reached the final table as 8th in chips and we lost one more player soon. Now everybody not only was guaranteed €840 but also the ticket for the grand final in December (worth €330). With 8 players left I was still sitting at 150k and got into a big pot with the chipleader. He raised to 75k (blinds 10k/20k with 2k ante). It was folded to me in LP and I found AA. Raised all-in and he called with KK. My Aces held up and I not only became one of the chipleaders with over 300K but got my sweet revenge for bubbling the Pokertour in Wiener Neustadt with KK vs. AA.

Amazingly the former chipleader made his way back to the top in just two hands. First hand all-in and up to 200k again just for picking up blinds and antes. Next hand all-in and this time he got a call. I really felt sorry for him because he ran into AA again (this time with 88). But there was no reason for being sorry ... he flopped a Full House and almost eliminated another big stack (taking him out completely just one hand later).

With seven players left we now had a big stack with 600k. Five others had between 200-300k and one player was sitting at around 150k. Due to the blinds (now 15k/30k ante 3k) we decided for a deal that gave the chipleader second place money (€5,000) and everybody else 3rd place money (€3,600).

This took a lot of pressure out of the game but we all still played for the win. For me it was just a question of honor to make it as far as possible. And for five of the others it was still a run on becoming the official "Champion of the Steiermark".

To make a long story short I was able to bring my stack up to 800k and we were finally down to three (with the other two around 450k each). One took out the other and we were heads-up. Right on the first hand my opponent went all-in (with slightly more chips). I found AJ of diamonds and called. He showed 33. I got no help and it was over.

Did I make a mistake by agreeing to the deal? I don't think so. Everybody still played to win but of course some plays would have been different with the pressure of the money. So you can't really tell if I made 2nd place without the deal. And for me the difference between €1,100 and €3,600 still counts.

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Vienna & Graz ... card room opening and deep stack tournament

On Friday I started my trip to Vienna for the opening of the new Montesino cardroom. Vienna already has two card rooms (the CCC and the PokerWorld) and there's also the Poker Royal in Wiener Neustadt. So does another cardroom make sense? Time will tell. But fact is that the Montesino is something special in many ways.

It's located in the "Gasometer Eventcenter". So there is public transport nearby and every kind of shops somebody may need. For foreign guests a decent priced hotel is just 200m away and parking is €3 for 24-hours. The card room itself is built in an open structure on the top level of the eventcenter. It's built in a circle that leads from the sportsbar to the tournament area, the cash game tables and the restaurant or vice versa. Entering the place on the right hand side you have to register (sportsbook and poker) while entering on the left side you can go directly to the restaurant. The tournament area includes a small stage that allows for performances and other stuff.

With a total of 42 tables it might not be the biggest card room in Vienna but the different concept might help to make it a success. I can't tell about the cashgames but I examined the tournament structures and they are very decent for the buy-ins up to €50+6. A lot of the staff is quite unexperienced at the moment (which is not unusual for a new opening) but a lot of familiar and experienced faces can be found too.

Enjoyed my time at the opening party. It was nice to meet Manfred and his friends again as well as others like Rosi from Pokefirma and Volker from the home game in Munich. At the end of the evening I played a €17+3 SnG and took it down. Weired structure: you get 100 chips and blinds start at 1/2. Takes some time to get used to it.

I must say I like the room and I wish them success. This can easily become my favorite card room in Vienna. I already changed my plans and despite making a stop in Salzburg on my way home I will head back to Vienna on Monday to play the €30+5 tournament there.

Now I am in Graz and the good news is that I survived Day 1 of the Pokertour event in Graz. The bad news is that I don't have enough chips for an easy sail into the money. A total of 183 started at 7pm and 38 had been left at 3am in the morning.

I had a good start and brought my 10K starting stack up to 14K until the first break (two levels, 45 min. each). Then this hand happend: I was dealt 77 in late position. There was a call and a raise in MP to 700 (blinds 100/200) which I had called. Then the small blind went all-in for 2,900. First caller folded and the raiser folded too. Tough decision. There were 4,500 in the pot and I had to pay 2,200 more. I would get the right odds on every coinflip but not on a overpair. I called and was behind against TT. Down to 10K and further down to 7.5K.

With the blinds now at 200/400(25) I was severly shortstacked. To make things worse I was absolutely card dead for the last 90 minutes. The 89 (offsuit of course) I received in the big blind at that time was the best hand I had seen for a long time. The SB just called and I checked. Flop was 5-6-7 with two hearts. Wow! The small blind checked and I decided to bet three quarters of the pot. I expected a fold but surprisingly got a reraise. What could he have? The flushdraw? Time to find out ... went all-in, got a call and he showed A7 for TPTK with no flushdraw (!). Up to 15K again.

Did I say I was carddead before? Then a new word has to be invented for what happend the next hours. I got dealt every possible unplayable hand that can be dealt. I could have been away from the table for three hours to take a nap it wouldn't have made any difference. I played a total of zero hands in that time ... and those who know me should know that my starting hand requirement is looser than that of many others. No wonder that I got nicknamed "Mr. Tight" ;-)

Finally I got dealt QQ, raised ... and guess what happend: Mrs. Tight (who had about 5,000 chips left) went all-in. It was folded around. She hadn't played any more hands then I had in the last hours. But she had shown in the beginning that she almost only plays premium hands. Didn't like to call here but due to my dry run I wasn't willing to pass on that hand here. She showed AK and of course an Ace came on the flop and a King completed the river. Down to 5K.

Made my way up to 9K again. Blinds now 600/1,200(100) with an average stack of 23k (77 players left). How to play AA from early position in that spot? Instead of going all-in I decided on a raise to 3,600. Remember, I was still Mr. Tight! Got a call from the blinds (damm, hoped for a re-raise) and we saw a flop with low cards. My opponent moved me all-in (holding with TPTK), I called and was up to 22K now. Another hour of no playable hands. My stack went down to 17K while the blinds went up to 800/1,600(100).

Then it was my turn to give a bad beat: Went all-in with A8s but got called from a stack who was shorter by only a few chips. She showed AK and I hit my miracle 8 on the river (had some more outs to a straight ... but lucky anyway). Up to 34K.

For the last two hours of the night I got at least some playable hands. Reached my high at 39K but ended the night with 34,600 chips.

There are now 38 players left. Next level is 1,500/3,000(300). 21st will get €300 while 1st will get €9,250. There are two bigstacks with over 100K in the field but most players are found in the 27K - 64K range. So despite being only 31st in chips my stack can still hurt a lot of people. With 17 still to go there is no way to fold into the money. Find a hand and push it hard is the only way here. My table draw for today looks quite good. Biggest stack at my table is 64K, all others are in my range or below. The first important issue of the day will be the position of the button. This will influence all action severly.

Play continues at 6pm and hopefully I will stay in the game long enough to continue with my twitter updates (twitterbox in the sidebar).

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Check Behind with the Nuts

You may have heard of Jan von Halle checking behind with a Royal Flush at this years WSOP ... well, it works with a Straight Flush as well ;-)

Went to the Poker-Club again last Thursday for their €30 Deep-Stack tournament. 37 players showed up and I had a good start bringing my stack from 8,000 to around 14,000. But it could have been much more. With 45s it was just me (BB) and the SB in an unraised pot during the second level of the tournament. Flop came 3 of hearts, 6 of diamonds and 7 of hearts. The SB checked and (even so there were two hearts on the board) I decided to trap with my made straight. The turn was a 2 of diamonds. SB made a bet and I raised him and got a call. River was a 3 of diamonds. Now there was a possible flush on the board and I was happy that the small blind just checked and I checked behind. Most probably I had the same puzzled look like Jan when he opened his cards because I was holding 45 of diamonds for a straight flush. After I had hit my straight on the flop I totally forgot about the color of my cards.

If I hadn't read Jan's story I would have felt really dumb and silly and it most probably would have affected the whole play that evening. But things like that can happen. I laughed about myself and decided that this story has to go into the blog. But I was still focused on my game which was very important.

Shortly after that the first table was broken and a big stack (about 50.000 chips) came to our table. He was sitting to my immediate right (which turned out to be a very important factor). This guy was one of the worst players I've ever seen but totaly bullied the table. He called every single hand (raised some) and quite often went all-in on the flop against smaller stacks. I had to give up some of my chips against him when I was holding AK but didn't hit and he then showed me 47 for a total bluff.

He took out several people (being lucky more than once) but also gave away some chips. While he went to almost 60,000 chips (holding about one third of the chips at this table) I went down to 9,000. Finally I found KK. Mr. Maniac just called from EP and I went all-In. This was a strong overbet at the current blindlevel but I was sure that everyone would fold and Mr. Maniac would call. I had pushed him from a pot earlier (holding TT) so it was time for him to show the table again who's the boss. He called with QJ and I was up to almost 20,000 while he was now at 40,000.

On the last hand hand before our table was broken I received TT again. Being UTG I just called as I don't wanted to create a huge pot preflop with Mr. Maniac sitting in the BB. So it was just me, a MP player and Mr. Maniac in an unraised pot. The flop was an absolute dream: A-T-6 (no flushdraw). Mr. Maniac checked, I checked and the MP player went all-in for 11,000. Mr. Maniac thought for some time and then called(!) this all-in. Of course I went over the top with 20,000 and he had to call this too. MP player had A6 for two pair ... very reasonable all-in against two players who checked the flop to him. Mr. Maniac had A-9 for just a pair. My set won everything and I went to the new table with 55,000 chips while Mr. Maniac went to the other table with just 20,000 chips. He made it to the final table but busted in 8th position (out of the money) never recovering from that lost hand.

It's amazing how easily people are able to blow a good position. Just imagine that I played only a few hands till the final table from there (being quite unlucky in two hands) and went to the final table with 50.000 chips as 2nd or 3rd in chips. And this guy had that amount of chips already in the first third of the tournament.

At the final table it was a smooth sail into the money and down to the final four. Losing the next player took a long time then as every small stack was able to survive his all-in (some times in an amazing way). I got my share of luck in that time too when a miracle Ten on the river created a straight on the board and we had a split pot were I was almost destined to lose most of my stack. I then busted a player and we were down to three. With me and the other guy almost equal in chips (60,000 - 70,000) and the chipleader holding 175.000 chips the tournament went to a crapshot as the blinds already reached 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 ante. Therefore we decided on a deal and I was declared 2nd place finisher after 5 hours of play.

The tournaments at the Poker-Club are still among the better ones to be found but with only 8,000 chips (before 10K) and the introduction of antes they have a quality decrease to a PF=7.85. Still playable but not at the top of the list anymore. The double-deepstacks with 16,000 chips now have a PF=10.93 (also a decrease) but still good value for a €60 buy-in.

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More live poker coming soon

Sorry for not posting for a long time now! I played some online tournaments but no live events due to the fact that I was around for my dancing competitions on most weekends lately. One more to come and then the season is over.

I played some online tourneys in between and had decent results. I love the PokerStars PCA Satellites ($2 Rebuy). They pay a $33 entry into the next satellite which can be converted into W$. Played four of them and cashed in 3 of them. Played around with the new "Double or Nothing" tournaments. They were very profitable in the beginning. But now most of them turned into ultratight play until the push-and-fold phase. Think they are still profitable but you need to find a special style for them. Played on FullTilt again after a while and took down one of the $10 45-man SnG's for $171. Made the money in another one. Nice and soft tournaments. Although they don't offer a doublestack I think I will play them more often in the future.

In two weeks I will make a small weekend trip through Austria. On Oct. 24th I will be at the opening ceremony of the new Montesino pokerroom in Vienna. I'm really looking forward to this because all I heard about it so far indicates that this will be a georgeous place.

From there I drive down to Graz for another event of the Pokertour.at. Back on Monday with a short stop for another tournament at the Poker-Club in Salzburg.

Still trying to satellite into the FTOPS X Event #1 on November 5th. Would love to play this as they again start the series with a 6-max tournament.

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At least a final table

The second chance event started with 38 players ... that meant a prizepool from €380 to €100 for the best four players in addition to the three tickets to the Pokertour finals (worth €330 each).

The tournament ran much better then the day before and I got at least some cards and flops to play with. At the first break (after 4 levels with 25 min. each) we were down to 22 players and I had an average stack.

I made it to the final table without big problems but my still average stack was short compared to the blinds and some of the big stacks. Nevertheless I was able to pick up the blinds and antes a few times as the final table became very tight in the beginning. Big difference to the play before the final table.

Finally I found a real hand with TT in the small blind. It was folded to me and I moved in on a shorty in the BB (about half my stack). He called with 66 and I was in good position (at least I thought so). Had I already written my P5s article about the EPT final table, I would have known that pocket tens lost 4 out of 5 times there. So no big surprise: a six on the flop halfed my stack. With merely 5.000 chips (600/1,200 ante 50) I went all-in with A8 and got two callers. The 9-J-Q flop didn't look very good for me. One of the other two went all-in and forced his opponent to fold. Little did I know that this move saved my tournament live. The bettor showed 99 for a set but a Ten on the turn made me a straight - which would have lost to the AK of the guy who folded his hand on the flop.

Now I was sitting at 15.000 chips. Still short but some space for moves. Reached my high point at 20.000 when this hand happend: I got dealt 79 in the big blind. There was a limp from EP from a guy who had shown some very loose calls during that final table (which cost him his very good chip position already). The SB just called too. If I had only played against the SB I would have raised here. The SB was one of the "any-2-can-do" guys (and had about 15.000 Chips in front). But I wasn't sure if the EP player wouldn't call a good number of hands. I put him on something like KQ or Ax with a middle to low kicker. So I called and we saw a flop of 7-8-2. The SB checked and I bet 3,500 into the 3,900 pot as I expected that the EP limper had missed the flop here. He folded like expected but to my surprise did I get a call from the SB. A six on the turn looked like a good card for me with the outs to an OESD (but became my way to desaster). The SB checked again and I put in a 5,500 bet (pot was 10,900). I knew he was able to put a move on me so I already decided that I wont let this hand go even if I had to call an additional 7,000 if he went all-in. And all-in was exactly what he did. He showed 59. That was not what I expected. I expected him to have one pair or maybe two pair. But not that he already completed his straight and I was basically drawing to a push.

Put in my last 4,800 chips with KQ and got called by AK. Went out in 6th position after 280 minutes of play.

Did I play this hand to aggressively? I don't think so. I was ahead on the flop like expected and the SB payed way to much on his gutshot. Could I have let go that hand? Yes, but only if I had put him on 59. In all other cases I should have had 8-10 outs (about 16-20%). There was even a possibility that I was still ahead on the turn. He one time showed a bluff were he missed with 24 on a dangerous flop in a similar situation. I had the choice between falling back to 11,000 or becoming the chipleader with around 40,000 and eliminating one more player. With the big payout jump between 4th and 3rd place this was a no-brainer. I still had 4.800 chips left after I lost that hand. So it was not even a decision for my tournament live. As both options (4,800 or 11,000 chips) meant a soon all-in with blinds already at 800/1,600 ante 100 now, the possibilty to win 40,000 chips was worth the try.

Now to something completely different! I told you in a former blog entry that we will have a nice promotion with added value at PocketFives.com very soon. O.K., here are some details: We start a $10+1 tournament series at Betsson on Tuesday 23rd of September. This will be a weekly tournament until 16th of December. In every week the winner will get a $150 ticket to the EU Grand Prix with $70,000 guaranteed in addition to the normal payout based on the number of players. The winner of the series will get a $320 ticket to the Big Deal with $150.000 guaranteed. I will put up a post with the details about this till tomorrow in the german PocketFives.com forum. Oh, and you don't have to have your Betsson account created through PocketFives.com (altough we are happy if you do so!). Every P5er from Germany, Austria and Switzerland is welcome to take part in that series!

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No day two at the Pokertour Innsbruck

What an ugly table I got at this Pokertour event in Innsbruck! For the first three levels (45 min. each) I didn't get much playable and missed the flop on all remotly playable hands. To make things worse we had a real aggressive player on the table who pushed many people from many hands and we had a real luckbox who hit almost everything.

At the first break - after three levels - I was down to 4,500 chips (from the 10,000 chips startingstack). After the break I went down to 3,500. Finally I went all-in one time and got the blinds, antes and two limps. Back to 5,000. But still not in good shape.

A8s on the button. It was folded to me and I raised to 900 (150/300 ante 25). Small Blind went all-in for about 2,500 and I had to call (obviously didn't like the call here). Up against KK but an Ace on the turn busted my opponent. Busted another shortstack with JJ vs. QJ and was at 13,000 chips.

Unfortunately the blinds already reached 200/400 and a 25 ante. In the meantime we got another aggro at the table who loved to put in oversized reraises.

Finally I got 66 in late position and raised to 1,200. First Aggro reraised my bet, I called and we saw a flop of 3-4-5. He checked and I decided to go all in for my remaining 9,000 chips (about half of his stack). His preflop reraise could have meant anything (like overcards, any pair or even crap). But this time he had hit something. He called and showed a pair of 4's for the set. To add insult to injury neither a 2, 6 or 7 but a 5 hit on the river to give him the Full House. So I went out in 74th position of 109 players after 3.5 hours.

I know this was a very aggressive move with a pair of sixes and only 10 outs for either the set or a straight. But I think it was the best move against this player. Just unfortunate that he hit his set here.

Of course I could have waited somewhat longer but on this table a just over 10.000 chips stack didn't gave much room for movement. So I was more or less limited to push if I hit something or fold if I didn't. And I could have expected to lay down a good number of improvable hands against the two aggros.

Had I hit here I would have severly crippled an aggressive opponent and would have been a force with over 25,000 chips. Well worth the risk (at least for me in that situation)! So I'm disapointed of course but not unhappy about my play. It just wasn't meant to be.

Tomorrow evening I will play a smaller second chance event (with a PF=8.21 definately no deepstack tournament) and enjoy my time during the day.

The CCC in Innsbruck isn't a real great place. Nothing comparable to the locations in Vienna or Salzburg. It's downstairs in a small cellar with two separate rooms. The tournament area with 8 tables is very cramped (see picture above) and it's hot in there. There are definately nicer places to play poker! The competition was quite weak and it was a real shame that I didn't get some good cards. Had I gotten the same cards as in the last Pokertour tournament I would have cleaned the table for sure.

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This was a good day today

First I used my remaining FPP's for an EPT Step 1 Ticket and made it to Step 2. Played Step 2 and placed 3rd to get my Step 2 ticket back. So I'm still in the hunt.

The Xing tournament was very remarkable tonight. We had 52 players and I was almost out at the first break. But after the break I went on a good run and became chipleader in 13 minutes with about 40 left. Was able to stay in the Top 10 for the remaining of the tournament and went to the final table as chipleader. With 4 players left I received a bad beat by losing with QQ vs AJ. Down to short-stack. Was able to recover but at the end lost in a classic JJ vs. QQ situation and became 3rd ... well, $62 is a nice win in a a $10+1 tournament but of course I was aiming at 1st place and the added Sunday Million ticket.

But in general I feel good about my results today and decided to add to my cashgame bankroll (as I continued being successfull here, too). So I can now play the "huge" $0.02/$0.05 level ;-)

The success in the Xing tournament gave me some well needed confidence for the big Pokertour event in 5 days.

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WCOOP Event #1 - Bad day to play

I shouldn't have played at all. I knew it but I refused to hear to the little voice in my mind. The whole day I was exited to play the event tonight and then shortly before the event started my e-mail server crashed.

There was not much I could have done at that time because there were several files that needed a backup before I could restore the system. But I wasn't focused on my game. I can't say I played bad ... but it wasn't my A-game either.

I got some good cards in the beginning like AKs and AA but couldn't get too much value out of these hands. I got others that never connected to the flop or were only second best. So I went down from 3,000 chips to 570 chips. Then I found TT, went all-in and faced a caller with QQ. Lucky Shadow found a Ten on the Turn and doubled up. Made it back to about 1,600 but couldn't go further. Went down again. Went all-in with AQs at the end, got called by TT and busted out in 5,806th position (of 7,217) directly before the break.

No good hands and no focus is a bad mixture for a poker game. Hopefully it will be better next weekend. A least I finally decided for Innsbruck and the Pokertour!

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WCOOP, Pokertour & FullTilt MEC

So here are my plans for September. Most likely I will play the first PokerStars WCOOP Event on Friday. This is a 6-max game with a guaranteed prizepool of $1,000,000. If I cash there I may play some more events. There are some very interesting events on the list (4-max, heads-up and another 6-max). But so far it will be just Event #1. Maybe I will find the time to Twitter about this event again.

Next weekend is a tough decison. Still not completely sure if I go to the FullTilt Million Euro Challenge or the Pokertour in Innsbruck. But at the moment I tend to prefer going to Innsbruck.

September 28th is an interesting date for all german poker players. It's the day were the first real national poker association should be founded in Munich. All german poker players should read the details here.

That's it basically for my poker plans in September so far.

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New Cashgame Challenge

Haven't played much tournaments lately but have started a new cash game challenge. If you read my blog from the beginning you may know that I suck at cash games and define myself as a tournament player.

Unfourtunately I know about the big variance of tournament poker and the high value in cash games. So I bought "Harrington on Cashgame" some time ago and now found the time to read it. You have to be open minded as there are some things in the book that might break with your usual play-by-the-book imagination. But I like what he writes and I think it will allow me to develop a successful style for cash game poker.

So I started a new challenge and I started down at the $0.01/$0.02 level. I abandoned my short-stack style of play and turned to a deep-stack style (buying in for $5 per game). My BR for this experiment started at $100 and after 17,5 hours and 15 sessions (which obviously not much statistical significance) I am up almost $4 for an hourly rate of $0.22.

Doesn't sound like much success? ... well, not really. Just imagine you had played $1/$2 with the same success. This would then convert to a $400 win with an hourly rate of $22. Not too shady.

Even those 15 sessions had some interesting observations so far:
- I was down in 6 of them (2 times total loss of buy-in)
- Biggest session was trippling the Buy-In
- I went from a -$7.19 low point to a $5.29 high-point

Especially the last point is interesting. Again converting to $1/$2 that would have been a swing from a $719 loss at the lowest point to $529 win at the highpoint in just that short time. And I think swings can be even worse over longer times!

That's exactly why I start that low. I could have easily put up some money for playing let's say $0.25/$0.50. But I would care a little less about the money for the start. On the other hand I really want to experience the swings that can happen to be prepared if I invest bigger money.

I will "cheat" anyway. With proper bankroll managment I would need a $230 Bankroll to step up to $0.02/$0.05. With the time I can spend for playing (1-tabling) it would take me more than half a year at the current win rate. I know I can't stand that at this level. So after getting comfortable with the level I will probably add some money to the bankroll to boost my way up in the levels.

Will you find me at live cash game tables anytime soon? I doubt it. With my requirement of at least 200 BB's buy-in even a game as low as the $1/$1 game at the Royale in Wiener Neustadt would require $200 for a single buy-in. I'm not prepared for that stuff right now. But if my online experiment suceeds I may be in the near future.

Beside that we now started a nice homegame in Munich with some people I only knew from playing online with them so far. We play SnG's with a good structure and I placed 2nd in one of the four games we played so far - making me almost break even. But beside the money it's just a nice group and a lot of fun to play with them.

I'm not sure were to go mid September. I have won my ticket for the FullTilt Million Euro Challenge long ago and it will be a fun event for sure (although the freeroll tournament has a crappy structure). But at the same weekend the pokertour08.at will stop at the CCC in Innsbruck. Great structured event and the one I bubbled in Wiener Neustadt not long ago. Will decide shortly before the events.

At german PocketFives.com we may have an interesting offer for all our members soon. Can't tell details yet but we are working on it and I will tell you soon ;-) In case you don't know yet: Chrisrokx has moved his famous german written blog to PocketFives.com and we are happy to have him here. Have fun reading his stuff, too.

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ITM in the Sunday Million

After I won a satellite for the Sunday Two Hundred Grand at PokerStars earlier this week I decided to play this Sunday. Unfortunately I wasn't very successfull and received two cruel bad beats ... the second one big enough to bust me from the tournament.

At that time it was 20 minutes to go until the Sunday Million would start and I gave it a shot. Good idea! I had a very good start and made it up to 40,000 chips in the first few levels. That put me into the Top 100 of the 8,236 starters for quite a time.

Little later I lost a big pot with 55 vs. AK. No bad beat here. He was a short-stack and I got the right odds for what I figured was a 50:50 situation. Still had 24,000 Chips at that time (double the average). Made it up to 60.000 later in the game and then back to 40,000 again ... but now this was more or less average.

With around 200 to go till the money I was in a tough situation. The table I was moved to had several big stacks (above 180,000). So my fold equity was very low. On the other hand 40,000 could be enough to sneak into the money as the average should be around 60,000 as soon as we make the money.

Under this circumstances I decided to tighten up and only push the best possible hands or try to fold my way into the money. I know that I have to pay a price for this (usually busting shortly after the bubble bursts) but it looked like the best option here. Fortunately I never had to make a big decision as all I got was absolutely unplayable in that situation.

I made it into the money and down to the last 1,260 players with 36,000 left. Pushed shortly after with the best hand I got for a long time: QJs. Guess who called: KQs! But the pokergoods like me this time and I hit a J on the river.

Wow, 72,000 Chips! I was now back to average and making it deeper into the tournament was a possible option. I reached my highest point a 111,000 chips and kept staying around average for a while. The big stacks had around 500,000 at this time.

But with the blinds at 3,000/6,000 and a 600 ante even an average stack isn't that big. No hands and it went down to 80,000. After I hadn't played a hand for some time I tried a move with an A-x hand with a high kicker and raised to 18,000. Button called. Flop came K-7-2 and I now had the option to check and muck my hand as my opponent would bet for sure or keep the aggression and represent AK or something like that. I bet 25,000 and he immediately raised to 50,000. Hated to let this go but I was sure he had me beaten here. Down to 45,000 I took the next playable hand to push. Unfortunately my A7s ran into AJ. No help and out on 482nd place earning $494.16 for 4.5 hours of play.

I'm not unhappy with the result. O.K. just 80 places more till the next step in prizemoney. But to be fair I could have been out closely after the money without that magic hit on the river. Which was by the way the first all-in situation I had during the tournament! Sure, I was disapointed as soon as it was over ... but you always will be disapointed after you are busted. But a night of sleep and now I can enjoy my first cash in what was the 6th Sunday Million I had played in my pokerlife.

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