Made it to Day 2, but still not ITM yet!

The "Niederösterreichische Landesmeisterschaft" started at 7pm with 121 players. Good structure with 10.000 Startchips and slow 45min Blindlevels. I had a very good table that allowed a lot of play and moves. I didn't get great cards but decent enough to see a lot of flops. Fortunately I was able to connect several times with the flop in the beginning. That not only increased my stack but also allowed for a lot of play in later stages.

My stack was at 18.000 at the first break and up to 37.000 (3 times the average) somewhat later. I can only imagine how much the people at my table must have hated me ;-) The funny thing is that we lost only one player during the first 5 levels (and it wasn't me who busted him). So most of my stack increase came from small to medium pots and it took a long time before I became involved in some real huge pots.

Unfortunatly we later got a new player. He had about the same chipstack then me and it was very clear that we now had a new table terrorist. So I took a "break" from ruling the table and narrowed my raising and calling range. Good thing, also he was a bad player he crippled some of the others severely with his very aggressive style. Finally he overdid it and donked off his stack with some of the worst calls I've ever seen.

Good thing he was away, bad thing most of his chips went to a guy to my immediate left. But this guy was at least much easier to play.

A little later I lost a huge chunk of my stack with KT on a AQT pot when I faced an all-in from a guy who had about 20.000 chips. I was sure he was ahead. I was sure a straight would kill him but I wasn't sure if I had some more outs (set, two pair). So I folded and fell down to 30.000 (still double the average). But I also went right into a cold streak for more than one level and further down to 25.000 chips.

I finally picked up AQ during the 600/1200 (50) level and raised it to 4.000. One caller. Flop comes Qxx, he goes all-in and I instacall. He shows KQ and I am back to 50.000. I reached my highpoint at about 60.000 and went back to 50.000 with 3 tables left. Then this hand happend with 25 players and 15 minutes left to play on Day 1:

I get dealt AK on the button and raise to 6.000 with blinds 1.000/2.000 (200) ... a move I had done from various positions before without showing my hands. The big blind went all-in for little over 50.000 (having me slightly covered). Wow! O.K. - It was clear he assumed a move but how strong was his hand really? A-low? Most probably not. Medium to high pocket pair? Maybe. Kings or Aces? Still a very aggressive move, but possible. So it looked like the only beatable hand (if he wasn't totally nuts) was AQ. All others would have been coin flips or I was way behind. Being about average and 11th in chips with 15 people getting paid I wasn't in the mood for taking a coinflip. On the other hand I wanted something for my 6.000 chip fee ;-) so I open folded my AK getting a huge reaction from the whole table. Very interesting that most peoples reaction was "I never would have folded AK here". Well, I wouldn't have either if I had known his exact hand ... he showed indeed AQs. But anyway, tough fold but I am still thinking that it was the right decision.

Did I gain from showing my hand? Yes and now! I showed that I am able to lay down a big hand, I showed I'm not playing around if I raise, I forced the BB to show his hand (a HUGE mistake on his side in my opinion) ... but I also showed I may be bluffable. But in general I think this time showing the hand had way more upsides than downsides.

At the end of the day (3:30am) 23 players were left and come back today at 3pm. Eight more to go till the money. I am still average in chips with 51.300 (11th position) but the new level will have 1.5000/3.000 (300) blinds.

Chipleaders are: Peter Hajszan (164.600) and Heinrich Steindl (150.600). Big gap to Simon Angerer on 3rd position with 75.800 chips. The low stacks are 12.000 to 21.000 followed by some players in the 30.000 chips range.

So everything is still possible but folding my way into the money definately won't work.

For Updates, pictures and informations about this event check http://www.pokertour08.at. If you like good poker tournaments you should consider coming to one of their future events. Great structure for a decent buy-in!