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50k guaranteed, Kings Casino Rozvadov, Czech Republic

Monday, July 28, 2008

Card Dead at the Turbo Takedown

It continued at the Turbo Takedown as it ended on Friday at the Poker-Club. I was absolutely card dead. It's a real shame. With 4,000 of the 11,962 getting paid it usually should be enough to double up once to 6,000 chips to make it into the money. The bubble bursted less than two hours into the game.

I reached my highest point at about 4,500 chips shortly before the first break. At this time Jamie TheCronic420 Rosen was seated at my table. He already had 10,000 chips and went up to 12,000 quite soon. Would have loved to see more from this player who is ranked 27th in the P5s leaderboard. Unfortunately I was moved just a few hands later.

Still not much hands to play and my stack went down to a M of less then 10. Got some hands that would have been good for pushing (like AJs, 77 etc.) but always had somebody pushing in front of me. Finally my fold equity was gone and I was limited to finding a spot and praying. I had three opportunities. Two winners and one loser ... guess which I choose?

Went out in 4,229th position just 229 places away from the money - big dissapointment!

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Sunday, July 27, 2008

Deep-Stack Tournament in Salzburg (PF=12.04)

This Friday I made a trip to Salzburg to play at the Poker-Club again. Their new tournament schedule looks very attractive. They already had some of the best regular tournaments available in whole Austria and Germany in the past but the new deepstacks are absolut georgeous. The blind levels are still 20 minutes but with 20.000 startchips and the moderate blindlevels their Friday €70 Buy-In tournament offers a PF=12.04.

Unfortunately they still face heavy competition from the much bigger CCC (with much worse tournament structures) so the tournament attracted only 30 players. Play begann very moderate. Some action but not much overplaying of hands. Unfortunately I didn't get any playable hand for the first one and a half levels. Then I found Aces in LP with 25/50 blinds. In EP there was a raise to 200, two callers and a re-raise to 750. There are times I love this game! I went over the top with 2,500 expecting fast folding around. But the original raiser thought for a long time and then decided to go all-in for 16,000. What? He only had invested 200 so far and then goes all-in on a re-raise and a re-re-raise? It was folded around to me and I called immediately. To be honest, I don't like to commit so many chips pre-flop early but having the best hand and being a 85% favorite on average their is no way he get's me out here. If I get a bad beat then it wasn't meant to be. He showed KK and I was up to 38,000 chips.

It then took two more levels before the next player went out of the game. In that time my stack went down to 30,000 as I got several playable starting hands but couldn't connect with the flop a single time. Worst was getting JJ two times in a row facing flops with an Ace and a flushdraw on the first occasion and an Ace and a straightdraw on the second occasion. Still way above the average. But it got worse because now I only seemed to get unsuited and unpaired cards lower 7 for ages.

With 17 players left and 4 hours into the game my stack was back to 45,000 but now I was only little above average and the blinds already reached 700/1,500 (200). Then I made a huge mistake. I got AJs on the button, raised it to 5,000 and got a re-raise to 15,000 from the BB. Looked like a steal so I decided to call. Flop came K-Q-x. My opponent bet 10,000. I folded and he showed AA. That brought me down to 30,000. Was AJ really worth to call the raise here? Maybe I should have saved my chips for a better occasions.

My stack went further down to 19,000 due to the blinds and antes and I finally went in with 52o when it was folded around to me on the button during the 2,000/4,000 (500) level. Small Blind found AK ... no help ... out on 14th position.

Far away from the money (5 places paid) this time but I still had fun. This is a great tournament which is really worth to be played if you like to play real poker.

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Monday, July 21, 2008

Got a seat in the $1 Million PokerStars Turbo Takedown

Was thinking about what to do with my FPPs at PokerStars and decided to try a shot on the $1 Million PokerStars Turbo Takedown. Long story short: I needed two satellites to qualify for the event on next sunday ... and both satellites couldn't be more different.

First try was the 8 FPP Rebuy. About 430 players created around 20.000 FPPs for 4 seats. Averaging almost 6 rebuys per player made it a real all-in party. I went out somewere shortly after the end of the rebuy period. Total investment: 56 FPPs

My second try was the 250 FPP Rebuy. Wow, what a difference. I was amazed that many of the only 63 players even refused to start with a double stack. We got enough FPPs for a total of 7 seats ... averaging only 2(!) rebuys per player. Playing quality was so much better. I only took the double stack plus the add-on. So if you want to play real poker while investing FPPs this is one of the tourneys to try.

Only 806 FPPs for a tournament that costs 5,000 FPPs buy-in isn't that bad. It will be my first $1 Million PokerStars Turbo Takedown so I have to see how the tournament plays out. With one out of three getting paid I expect tighter than usual play. But we will see...

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Friday, July 18, 2008

Cool new feature at PocketFives

I told you that I will keep you updated about changes and new things on the german PocketFives.com pages. This time it's about the P5's blogs (which can be created by everyone who has a P5's account).

We have added a new box in the right column of the forum that shows the top voted blogs. In addition you can reach all blogs very easily from there.

So how do you make your blog appear there? Of course write an interesting text first and then get votes from the other members. Every entry can be rated from 1-5 with the stars next to the blogtitle.

So come over to http://de.pocketfives.com get a blog and let all the other P5ers know about your poker adventures!

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Sunday, July 13, 2008

Two Pair counterfeit at the Sunday Million

Played the Sunday Million tonight which was "The largest Sunday Million in PokerStars history" with a prizepool of $2,836,200 and 14,181 players.

Had a decent start but during the 100/200 level I got A3o in the big blind and decided to call a standard raise to 600 in front of me. Flop comes A-5-3 with two spades. As the pot already had a size of 2,000 I bet 1,500 to shut out potential flush draws. One caller. Turn was the Ten of hearts. I bet 2,500 and my opponent put me all in for 5,000 more. I was quite sure that he didn't hit two pair here and called.

He showed AQ for a pair of Aces but another Ten on the River conterfeit my two pair and he won with his Queen kicker. Very unfortunate way to bust out in 12,696th position. These are the hands that make or break your tournament life ... unfortunately this time it broke mine

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Saturday, July 12, 2008

German PocketFives is here - check it out!

It's a few days later than planned but here we are - the german pages of PocketFives.com can be accessed via http://de.pocketfives.com.

You will find the page translated into german, a german forum and already a lot of translated articles. Read the brand new recap of the last WSOP days (including the results of some german P5ers).

For those who prefer to read my blog rather in german then in english I have another surprise: You can find now a german version of my blog (in addition to this one) at http://de.pocketfives.com/shadowbj21. And if you are interested in creating your own blog ... one more reason to come over to PocketFives.com! Everybody who is registered there can create his very own Poker-Blog.

See you there!

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