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.