Coming back to Ireland

The IPO in Fall 2007 made me travel to Ireland for the first time in my life and I really fell in love with that country. Unfortunately I didn't have much time that weekend (beside playing Poker) and decided that I have to come back soon.

Well, I will be back - for the Deepstack Championships in Drogheda this weekend. My trip starts in three hours and I will have two days in Dublin before I travel up to Drogheda. The plan is to play two smaller tournaments in Dublin tonight and tomorrow.

The €500+50 Short-Handed Deepstack in Drogheda starts on Saturday at 6pm. For that event I will try something new. In the right column (below the map) you can find "Live Tournament Blogging via Twitter". I will try to keep you updated via Twitter by sending updates via SMS. The last 5 updates can be found here. Or you follow the link to my Twitter page and read all the updates there (just hit refresh). Hope you have fun with that new feature ... but don't expect much here before Saturday 6pm. I will use this feature only for my bigger events.

Of course I have my laptop with me so you may check for some more blog entries this weekend.

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Boring tournament but a good lesson

My last tournament of the Winter Challenge in Seefeld was my most boring tournament ever. Quite early I missed an open-ended straigt-flush draw. Although I made my straigth and the flush it wasn't enough to beat the ace-high flush from my opponent.

From there all I got was crap. It's unbelievable how many combinations of crap you can get. But I was able to stick in for 7 levels (30 min. each!). In that time I played exactly 5 hands. I picked up the blinds 3 times and doubled up luckily two times. First with AQ vs. AK when a Queen hit the board and second with K8 (ultra-shortstacked) against AJ when an 8 hit the board.

Finally I got my best hand of the day: AQs, went all-in and got called by 44. No help and out on 21st of 64.

As said before it was my most boring tournament ever but it was a fascinating lesson to see how long you can stick in a tournament when you remain patient and choose your spots wisely.

Tonight I played the Sunday Million at PokerStars. Early in the game my raise to 300 (blinds 50/100) with JJ was faced with an 3,000 all-in from a shortstack. Tough decision but I assumed that I was ahead here and decided for a call with my stack of 9,000 chips. My opponent had AQ, got no help and I was up to 12,000 chips.

Somewhat later I missed my second straight-flush draw in two days in a row. Hitting a straight or a flush (like yestarday) would have won the pot. But I missed this one completely. Down to 9,000 but recoverd soon and was up to 15,000 at the 200/400 level.

Raised AK ... just to be faced with an all-in from a 9,000 stack. With 300/600 blinds around the corner and average stack at 17,000 I decided for a call. Up against pocket 10's. Flop shows a King, but turn is a 10 and the Ace on the river doesn't help. Got JJ a few hands later and went all-in for my remaining chips. Same guy calls with A6o and hits his Ace. Out on 4,313 of 7,520 ... far away from the money.

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AA cracked by 99

Todays tournament in Seefeld lasted only 3 levels. My only playable hand so far was TT (which I had to fold to an Ace on the Flop). Beside that I was absolutely card dead for almost three levels (30 minutes each). Not a big problem in the beginning with an 8,000 starting stack. But with 6,300 chips left (blinds 100/200) and the 150/300 level just around the corner something had to happen sooner or later.

And something happend: I got dealt AA in the big blind. Four limpers forced me to make an isolation move and I raised it to 1,000. It was folded around to the button. The button went all-in immediately with about 7,000 chips. There was no other option for me than to call this one. Flop came 789 all spades.

What a board! The 99 player had hit his set, I was drawing to the nut-flush as I was holding the Ace of Spades. And one of the other callers who folded to my 1K bet cried-out loud because he would have flopped a straight flush.

No further help for me. No spade, no Ace and I was out at 72nd position (from 78 players) after close to 90 minutes. To add insult to injury this guy made it to the final table and made a 3rd place for more than € 9,000. From all the bad-beats that happend to me this was one of the toughest.

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A Sunday Million Ticket

I was in the mood for making use of my FPP points and decided for a 4-player "winner-takes-it-all" headsup game. The prize: a $215 Sunday-Million Ticket.

The first round was quite easy and took about 15 minutes. I never was in any danger here from the start. To give my opponent some credit I hit my hands very well (e.g. flopped two full houses in a row).

The second round was much tougher and I was down to 700 from my original 1,500 stack before I started to recover. One key hand was 46s on a 3-5-A flop. The 7 on the turn completed my straight and made it a difficult hand for my opponent (holding an Ace). From there I was up to 2,000 and never really looked back.

A $215 ticket for 3,375 FPP's is a nice value :-))

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Good tournament but still a dissapointment [PF=11.27]

The first event of the Poker Winter Challenge in Seefeld, Austria was a really good tournament for me. So many things went the right way (not the lucky way!) but at the end I shouldn't make it into the money (that's the dissapointing part).

Quite early I took a huge pot from Jan-Peter Jachtmann. This was a strange hand. I had JJ and had already raised preflop. Jan-Peter was the only caller. Being first to act I bet agressively into the 7-2-2 board and Jan-Peter just called. Turn was a 3. I bet and he calls again. River another 3 and I'm not willing to hand over the action to him so I bet again. He calls and now I'm sure that I'm behind. I show my Jacks and he mucks his hand. I know that Jan-Peter is a very good player so I would love to know what he was holding ... I can't come up with anything that makes sense here (especially with his call on the river).

Somewhat later I had my next key-hand with QQ. Again I raised pre-flop and got a caller. Another low flop and I bet little over three quarters of the pot just to be faced with an all-in. I was quite close to throw my ladies away but counted my remaining stack again. The pot was huge at this time and I came to the conclusion that the cards didn't matter anymore. The pot was just too big to fold here. Good choice ... as I was up against pocket Jacks. No help for him and I was chipleader at our table. In the next hand I was dealt pocket Jacks, called an all-in from a small stack and lost against his AT due to an Ace on the Flop. Still chipleader.

I was able to maintain my stack a long time but then (with 3 tables left) the dynamics changed. New players with simmilar or even bigger stacks came to our table and I wasn't able to keep up the pressure. Finally I was faced with a tough decision. My stack was at 21,300 with blinds 1,200/2,400 and Ante 300. Sitting on the button I found QQ but there was an early position raiser with an oversized raise of 10,000. I was sure he didn't have Aces. I put him on something like pocket 9's to K's or maybe AK. From all those hands only KK should scare me. So I finally decided that it was time for action with 17 of 110 left (10 getting into the money). I went all-in, he called (which was no surprise) to make it a monster-pot of 50,000 and I was up against my scarecards - the pocket Kings. No help and out on 17th after almost 6 hours. To bad ... this pot would have taken me to the final table for sure. Well, it now brought him to the final table and into second place at the end :-(

Next try on Wednesday...

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My final day in Vienna

My last day in Vienna brought me back to the Poker Royale and the €30+5 Double Chance tournament.

My first chance was over when my all-in with pocket Aces got called. My opponent had JJ but found four hearts to a flush on the board. Some time before my Aces got me only the blinds. My second chance stack developed better and I brought it up to 17,000. One more time with Aces (paid off great this time) and pocket Kings. The Kings paid off very well against the chipleader - who donated all of his stack quite fast to the whole table.

Unfortunately I was card dead during the critical 500/1,000 and 750/1,500 levels. I picked up some blinds and antes with well placed raises but finally an all-in with A8s (13,000 chips) got called by two players. First player showed 55 (what the hell was he doing in that pot?) and second one AKo (well, I can understand that call). Imagine, the player with 55 won everything. No surprise, it was the same guy that busted my Aces with his Jacks. Out on 19th of 65 after 3.5 hours.

I wasn't in the mood for cashgame at that time and took the last available seat in a 10-person sit&go. If there wasn't the obscene rake in that €11+4 tournament it would be a very juicy game. Lot's of people that don't know about the right way to play sit&go's. First place after 80 minutes for a €55 payout.

After a late night dinner break I went on to end my trip with another €1/1 NL cashgame. First Hand QQ, I raise to 5 get callers, bet the flop and the turn, still one caller. River is an Ace and I have to fold. Winner flashed an Ace. Down to €25 from my €50 buy-in. No cards for a while and then I get on a good run to increase my inital buy-in to €190. The guy that busted my Queens gave me all back (and a little more). Another great payout was A2 of diamonds. Many limpers as usually. Flop is all diamonds. I'm first to act and check. Check, check, bet €3. Oh, thanks :-) Turn is whatever ... I check. Check, bet €3. Thank you again :-) River is whatever. I bet €10 and expect two folds, but get two more calls. Well thanks folks, maximum payout with that kind of a hand!

Overall my trip was a slight winner. I lost in the tournaments (even with the 4th place payout) due to my disapointing results in the Deep-Stack. But I made a good win at an hourly rate of almost €29 in the cashgames.

Next Station: The Winter Challenge in Seefeld on Sunday.

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Long Cashgame Session

I was biased if I should play the Freezeout at the Royale or the CCC when Manfred (another one from the people I met in Ireland) told me that he will be in the CCC tonight. So I went to the CCC for the $20+4 tournmant. The tournament was quite uneventful and I busted close to the end of the third level and never got anything playable. Even so the Royale has a strange level change from 50/100 to 100/250 and 250/500 (due to their chip denominations) their smaller buy-in tournaments are far superior to the CCC. So I will prefer the Royale tournaments in the future, but I will be back for the DeepStack in the CCC and their tournament series - which are always great.

Sat down at a €1/2 NL cashgame and that was a crazy table. At least 3 players played a game of "I-can-play-any-two-cards-and-raise-to-whatever". So I waited for the right opportunity which came with two aces quite soon. MP raised to €12 and I reraised to €36. Two other limpers folded and MP called. Flop was K-x-x. MP checked and I went all-in for my remaining €60. MP called again and showed KQo. Turn was blank, River a Queen ... rebuy please.

My second stack developed better and I was back to €240 (+€40). I even took a huge pot from one of the crazy guys when I trapped him with a set of 2's. The crazy players went away after some time and the table got much more quiet. Unfortunately the table broke a litte later and I changed to another table while Manfred decided to call it a night. At this time we had played about 3 hours.

Little did I know that this session should last another 7 more hours. It went up and down for a while but finally down. Later the table became shorthanded but we decided to play on even with 4 people. I was down to €30 and had decided to leave as soon as I lose this too but then our table went alive again with a total of 8 players. So I changed my mind and bought in for another €70. Best decision of the night. From there it went up to a total of €400 and to my highpoint of the night (+ €130).

The most remarkable hand was this one: As Usually there was a lot of limping pre-flop when I found JJ and made it €12 to go. Found three callers. Flop came Q-6-2 with two diamonds. That's not the flop you like to see with two Jacks. With a pot of €54 I raised to €54 to get out flushdraws and a weak Queen. Checking wasn't an option here as I knew there was at least one player from switzerland (who was a fairly good player) who would bet the flop if I checked.

One of the three others folded immediately out-of-turn and the swiss guy took a long time to decide if he should call or not. He even started to think "loudly" as he oversaw that there was another player behind him to act. "You did buy the pot with that bet, right? Mmmh, I have hit my top pair already. Do you have a set"? You can imagine how I felt when he told me that he was way in front at this time. Then he asked me if I would show him my cards if he folded. Usually I wouldn't ... especially when I know that I have to show a huge bluff. But I knew that allowing him to see the cards would take a lot pressure from his decision (and therefore add some fold equity). So I said yes and he finally folded putting his cards to the side. The last player folded too and the swiss guy showed me AQ of diamonds. Wow! He folded TPTK with the nut-flushdraw because he put me on a set. It turned out that the right table image and the perfect bet size took down an important pot here. I am sure even €10 less would have forced him to call my bet.

A €130 net-win isn't a great hourly rate for 10 hours of play. But as I still work on my cash game skills I am quite satisfied with the results. In general I played an o.k. game but still do plays that I better avoid in the future. This evening also showed me again why I never ever can become a good online cash game player. There is so much "information" around at a live table that is vitaly important for my style of play that isn't available online.

Back in the hotel I looked up the NFL results and was quite dissapointed. That the Bucs lost was very sad as I would have loved to see them in the next round. But losing my +10 Tennesse bet by just one simple point was awful. So I went 2-2, down to $181.67 from $200 for a small loss on the weekend.

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Betting the NFL (Wildcard Weekend)

Some of you may know that I was a heavy sports-bettor during the time I played Black Jack. I handicapped NFL games for about three years. Unfortunately to do it correctly you have to devot a lot of time for this and I wasn't able to do that anymore. But I still love the NFL and follow the games as good as I can. But with the start of the post-season I usually try to place at least some bets.

For this weeks wildcard weekend I had a bet on each of the games and I'm running good so far.

Although Seattle allowed Washington a huge comback the (480) Seattle Seahawks -3 (-125) wasn't in big danger anytime. [SEA 35 - WAS 14]

On the other hand (482) Pittsburgh Steelers +3 (-120) looked like a steal before the game but Jacksonville was surprisingly good and it was a very ecxiting game and a win (for me, unfortunately not for Pittsburgh) as close as it could be. [JAC 31 - PIT 29]

For tomorrow I have two more picks:
(487) Tennessee Titans +10 (-105) vs. San Diego Chargers
(486) Tampa Bay Buccaneers -3 (+105) vs. New York Giants
Disclaimer: There's no guarantee that these will win too!

Picks are based on numbers and not on the team I like or dislike. But for me there is one exception: I never ever bet against Tampa Bay. In that case I prefer not to bet the game at all. I'm definately a fan of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, especially the head-coach Jon Gruden and the defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin have my greatest respect. And I am more than happy that one of my favorite Quarterbacks (Jeff Garcia) found a new home in Tampa Bay.

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The Deepstack Desaster at the CCC and a Final Table at the Royale

[2:50pm] Just arrived at the Concord and got my seat: table 6 seat 4. Tournament starts in a few minutes. Will try to post updates here on occasion. Total of 127 players.

[4:15pm] Unfortunately there is only one update: I am out! Lost some chips with several big draws that didn't hit. Down to 6,500 but still no reason to worry when I got AK. That AK looked good on a K26 board and even better with another K on the turn. Unfortunately my opponent had pocket 2's.

Went all-in a little after with 44 and 1,300 chips left (Blinds 50/100) - ran into pocket Jacks and out on 120th position.

I analysed the key hand later and decided that it indeed was quite difficult to fold by the way it was played from my opponent and by the (horrible) plays I saw in the first hour. To make it worse I folded several of my missed draws to raises before. So there was quite a chance that my opponent was trying to push me of the hand. But ... these are the hands you have to "read" correctly or you can ran into desaster quite fast.

As it was still early enough for the evening tournament at the Poker Royale I drove back to Wiener Neustadt and played the €20+5, one rebuy and one add-on tournament. I only needed the add-on and made it into the post-rebuy levels with a little above average stack. I was lucky to get a table that wasn't broken until the final table. The whole tournament was a roller-coaster-ride. With 18 of 77 players left I was one of the chipleaders at our table with 41,000 chips just to fall down to 20,000 with one play. Further down to 16,000 and up again to 43,000. From there I was able to put a lot of pressure on the others and made it to 60,000 when we reached the final table. The final ten but only 8 got paid (€98 for 8th place). But we decided to give 10th place €40 and 9th place €60. This is always a good decision as it usually increases the play at the final table. I was able to win two important hands during that final table and was up to 70,000 (from a 28,000 low). The blinds had reached an obscene 6,000/12,000 with a 1,000 ante.

With 45,000 left I got AJ of clubs at the Button and went all-in. Big Blind called with KTo but found a King on the board. Although I found two clubs on the board neither of my 12 outs materialized on the turn or the river and I was out on 4th place for €326. To bad I lost that hand because just two rounds later the third place busted and the final two made a deal.

But nevertheless, this is not only a great result moneywise. It was such an important result regarding my confidence which was so brutally damaged just a few hours before.

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Warm-Up in Vienna

As a warm-up for Saturday I played the €30+5 freezeout at the Poker Royale. I met Benny here, one of the austrian guys from the Ireland trip. And can you imagine? ... With a total of 159 players the random draw seated both of us on the same table (left and right of the dealer). Although I don't like seat 1 too much it was nice to chat a little with Benny between the hands.

The table had a rather strange style (very passive with some huge calling stations but turned into overagression on raises from time to time). I didn't get much cards in the beginning and those I had (some smaller pairs ans suited connectors) didn't connect (at least not good enough) with the board.

So in the third level (100/250) my initial stack of 8,000 was down to about 6,000 when this hand happend: I found TT in a medium to late position with three limpers in front. Usually I would raise only to 750 here but with the limpers I decided to make it 1,250. To my surprise the player behind me called my bet and the big blind raised all-in for about 5,000. All of the initial limpers folded and now it was one me. Let's see: If I call I have to put another 4,000 (most of my remaining stack) into a pot that is now around 9,000. I am holding a upper-medium pocket pair and a caller that showed he has a hand good enough to call an oversized raise has to act behind me. I figured that I was up against two live cards at best (making it a coinflip) or a bigger pair (leaving me with only two outs). Even worse, not knowing if the guy behind me folds or not I could face two opponents here. For me folding here was a no-brainer. Not for the guy behind me. He was very surprised about my fold and called - telling me that the pot is too big to fold here.

But can you imagine my surprise when I saw my opponents cards? The all-in player showed Q2o and the caller had 78o. Wow! An eight decided the hand. And instead of having around 15,000 (if I had called) I now had only 4,000 left. But still, folding was the right decision here!

A little later I went all-in from LP with AT of clubs. As usually I ran into somebody who woke up with a hand in the blinds and called with AKo. But this time I got the better end. A ten on the flop gave me the lead, on the river I even completed my flush and had now recovered to about 8,000. With blinds already at 250/500 I made some moves that didn't work out as supposed and was down to 6,000 again. Went all-in with A3d from the button in a pot with one limper but the SB (the guy who played the 78 hand before) woke up with AA. The initial limper called too (with KJo!). The aces held up and I was out at around 120th position of 159 after almost two hours.

Went to the cash games, bought in for €50 at the No-Limit €1/1 game and increased my stack to €164 in about two hours. So in general, I am satisfied with today and I'm looking forward to Saturday.

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Two Deepstack tournaments in the next 4 weeks [PF= 34.89 / 77.49]

First I have to say thank you to the folks at pokerweblogs.com. They arwarded me the "Blog of the month title" for January. What a great start into the new poker year!

I finally decided to play at least the short-handed event at the "European Deepstack Championships" in Drogheda, Irleand in early February. The structure is just too great to miss it.

If you look at the Deep Stack I play at the CCC in Vienna on Saturday that one has a great structure. Similar to the EPT with 10,000 Chips, 45 min. levels and very slow steps. With a PF=34.89 this is a very good value for your money. Being held once a month this is one of the best (if not "the best") regular tournament available in Europe.

But there's always somebody how can top this. O.K. we're not talking about a regular event here but what GreenJokerPoker in Drogheda, Irland offers is incredible! Their short-handed event has the same blind structure as the CCC DeepStack but offers double the chips (20,000) and 15 min more per blindlevel (60 min.). Taking this into account they have a whooping PF=77.49. The main-event (which is a little too expensive for me) offers even more chips (50,000) and almost hits a PF of 200.

So my fixed plans so far are the Concord Deepstack on Saturday/Sunday and some smaller events in Vienna on Friday and Monday. On Jan 13th you can find me in Seefeld for the first freezeout of their series. Haven't decided about the freezeout events on the 16th and 19th yet. But my flight to Dublin as well as the hotel in Drogheda is booked (just short of €100 with Aer Lingus) for the short-handed event on Feb 2nd.

The coming four weeks are filled with good poker opportunities ... now it's on me to cash in some of them!

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