I moved my blog to a new home. Your browser should automatically take you there in 5 seconds. If it doesn't please go to http://www.fifthstreet.biz/ Fifthstreet Blog: May 2008

50k guaranteed, Kings Casino Rozvadov, Czech Republic

Friday, May 30, 2008

Just 67 hours till Las Vegas

The WSOP will kick off in less than a day and I'm counting the hours till my arrival in Vegas.

Important decisions have been made this week and I hope I can tell you more about this soon. Right now I can just say that I'm looking forward to the coming months because interesting things will happen.

I already was in a very good mood due to my upcoming trip but this week really added some more postive energy. Therefore I feel more than well prepared for my 10 day trip.

Of course I take my laptop with me and try to update my blog as often as possible. But for added convienience I will always add my twitter-box to my newest posting so that I can keep you updated in between too.


Have fun and enjoy ... I will for sure! :-))

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Sunday, May 18, 2008

My WSOP / Las Vegas Schedule

Haven't played much poker lately as I was focused on our dance competitions that we had in Helsinki, Barcelona and Zurich. We had quite decent results so I'm in a good mood in general. We will have another competition in Winterthur the day before my flight to Las Vegas. So this will be a tough weekend as we have to drive down to Switzerland on Saturday morning, dance our competition and drive back around midnight to catch my flight that will depart 6am on Sunday June 1st in Munich. Nevertheless I'm looking forward to those 10 days in Las Vegas and have fixed my tournament schedule now:

My arrival day on Sunday will be a relaxing day were I just meet some people and look around at the Amazon Room to catch the right spirit.

On Monday I will start my tournament week with the Caesars Mega-Stack Series at noon [PF=23.46] followed by another Mega-Stack tournament on Tuesday [PF=30.56]. Of course this will be skipped if I reach day two of the Monday tournament as all of the Caesars Mega-Stacks are two day events. Wednesday will be relaxing again with a small 7pm tournament at Planet Hollywood [PF=5.75] because I want to start refreshed into the big day on Thursday which will be the start of the WSOP 6-max event #9 [PF=14.93]. In case I don't make it to day two or day three of this event I have the option for two more Mega-Stacks at Caesars [PF=30.56] on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday I add another highlight with my biggest Caesars Mega-Stack event [PF=33.94]. Unfortunately my last day (Monday) will only allow for a smaller Caesars 7pm event [PF=8.52] due to my flight schedule on Tuesday.

As you can see I will skip the Venetian Deep-Stack Series completely. Although I love the Venetian pokerroom the Mega-Stack structures are superior and the buy-in is a little lower. I skip the Binions series because the structure is less competitive (although the buy-ins are lower) as well as the Golden Nugget series which isn't appealing to me at all. And of course I skip the Bellagio series because I can't afford to play there ;-)

On those days were I bust out early from the noon tournaments I might or might not play a smaller event (like the 7pm Planet Hollywood tournament) depending on my mood.

I know that this is a very tough schedule and I hope that I can't play all of the events due to the fact that I make it to day two in at least some events (or three at the WSOP). But I want to devote as much of my time as possible for playing tournaments.

I still have some shares left for those who like to invest in my adventure: http://shadowbj21.blogspot.com/2008/04/staking-for-wsop-2008.html. I will accept buyers till next Sunday (May 25th) latest.

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Thursday, May 08, 2008

FTOPS VIII - Event #1 (6-max)

With my WSOP trip just about 3 weeks away I decided that the 6-max event at FullTilt's FTOPS would be a nice tournament to practice my 6-max play. Unfortunately I lasted only one hour and busted as 3151st out of 4158. I didn't get many cards in the beginning but managed to keep my 3,000 starting stack together by taking down and/or stealing some small pots. Then this hand happend: With blinds 30/60 a big stack on my right (about 10K) raised to 180. I found QQ and re-raised to 560. He called and the flop came 7-8-9 with two hearts. He immediately bet 1,100. He most probably was on a flush draw so I went all-in over the top for my remaing 2,500. He called showing K9 of hearts. No heart but a 9 on the river sealed my fate.

While 6-max is a very aggressive game I think calling a re-raises with K9s and another re-raise with a pair of 9's and a flush draw (which even wasn't the nut draw) is ... well ... somewhat optimistic. Too bad he wasn't punished for that play here. A stack of 6,000 would have been very healthy in this phase of the tournament. Instead of going into the break I'm going to bed now.

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Thursday, May 01, 2008

How to destroy the WSOP

Harrahs and ESPN have been accused quite often in the past for destroying the WSOP (in the sense it was originally created by Binions Horseshoe). Well, some changes were good, some were bad. And of course the WSOP today is different from the WSOP in the past.

Change isn't bad in itself. Well, "Change" can even be a good slogan to run in the presidential race ... but there is also "don't fix something that isn't broken".

But today the WSOP and ESPN (which is of course the driving force here) made exactly that and announced a change that is the most horrible change in WSOP history I ever heard of: The final table of the main event 2008 will be delayed to November.

The reasoning behind that decision is to create more tension and bigger interest in the ESPN broadcasting. Unfortunately players like Daniel Negreanu and the Players Advisory Council are happy about this decision and approved it. Others like Doyle Brunson are skeptical.

Harrahs says that this is simmilar to the Superbowl which is delayed two weeks. But this comparison falls short as this is a single event while this decision will cut a single event into pieces. Imagine playing the Superbowl for the first three quarters and then delay the last quarter for two weeks and stop again to play the two minute warning another day later. Yes, exactly! They stop the final table at heads-up and play the heads-up one day later. Imagine what happens if this lasts only one or two hands...

But the worst of it is that it totally changes the dynamics of this event. You can can't change the cards but your personal confidence is a big part. And going into the biggest game of your lifetime the next day or over 100 days later is a huge difference.

Unfortunately we have to live with this decision ... but we don't have to like it.

What some Pro's say:

Vicky Coren: "I think it's an annoying and stupid change, breaking the essential nature of what a poker tournament IS."

Max Pescatori: "Is today April's Fool? I thought it's 1st of May."

Roland de Wolfe: "Is this really going ahead? It takes away so much from the integrity of the event."

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