At least a final table

The second chance event started with 38 players ... that meant a prizepool from €380 to €100 for the best four players in addition to the three tickets to the Pokertour finals (worth €330 each).

The tournament ran much better then the day before and I got at least some cards and flops to play with. At the first break (after 4 levels with 25 min. each) we were down to 22 players and I had an average stack.

I made it to the final table without big problems but my still average stack was short compared to the blinds and some of the big stacks. Nevertheless I was able to pick up the blinds and antes a few times as the final table became very tight in the beginning. Big difference to the play before the final table.

Finally I found a real hand with TT in the small blind. It was folded to me and I moved in on a shorty in the BB (about half my stack). He called with 66 and I was in good position (at least I thought so). Had I already written my P5s article about the EPT final table, I would have known that pocket tens lost 4 out of 5 times there. So no big surprise: a six on the flop halfed my stack. With merely 5.000 chips (600/1,200 ante 50) I went all-in with A8 and got two callers. The 9-J-Q flop didn't look very good for me. One of the other two went all-in and forced his opponent to fold. Little did I know that this move saved my tournament live. The bettor showed 99 for a set but a Ten on the turn made me a straight - which would have lost to the AK of the guy who folded his hand on the flop.

Now I was sitting at 15.000 chips. Still short but some space for moves. Reached my high point at 20.000 when this hand happend: I got dealt 79 in the big blind. There was a limp from EP from a guy who had shown some very loose calls during that final table (which cost him his very good chip position already). The SB just called too. If I had only played against the SB I would have raised here. The SB was one of the "any-2-can-do" guys (and had about 15.000 Chips in front). But I wasn't sure if the EP player wouldn't call a good number of hands. I put him on something like KQ or Ax with a middle to low kicker. So I called and we saw a flop of 7-8-2. The SB checked and I bet 3,500 into the 3,900 pot as I expected that the EP limper had missed the flop here. He folded like expected but to my surprise did I get a call from the SB. A six on the turn looked like a good card for me with the outs to an OESD (but became my way to desaster). The SB checked again and I put in a 5,500 bet (pot was 10,900). I knew he was able to put a move on me so I already decided that I wont let this hand go even if I had to call an additional 7,000 if he went all-in. And all-in was exactly what he did. He showed 59. That was not what I expected. I expected him to have one pair or maybe two pair. But not that he already completed his straight and I was basically drawing to a push.

Put in my last 4,800 chips with KQ and got called by AK. Went out in 6th position after 280 minutes of play.

Did I play this hand to aggressively? I don't think so. I was ahead on the flop like expected and the SB payed way to much on his gutshot. Could I have let go that hand? Yes, but only if I had put him on 59. In all other cases I should have had 8-10 outs (about 16-20%). There was even a possibility that I was still ahead on the turn. He one time showed a bluff were he missed with 24 on a dangerous flop in a similar situation. I had the choice between falling back to 11,000 or becoming the chipleader with around 40,000 and eliminating one more player. With the big payout jump between 4th and 3rd place this was a no-brainer. I still had 4.800 chips left after I lost that hand. So it was not even a decision for my tournament live. As both options (4,800 or 11,000 chips) meant a soon all-in with blinds already at 800/1,600 ante 100 now, the possibilty to win 40,000 chips was worth the try.

Now to something completely different! I told you in a former blog entry that we will have a nice promotion with added value at PocketFives.com very soon. O.K., here are some details: We start a $10+1 tournament series at Betsson on Tuesday 23rd of September. This will be a weekly tournament until 16th of December. In every week the winner will get a $150 ticket to the EU Grand Prix with $70,000 guaranteed in addition to the normal payout based on the number of players. The winner of the series will get a $320 ticket to the Big Deal with $150.000 guaranteed. I will put up a post with the details about this till tomorrow in the german PocketFives.com forum. Oh, and you don't have to have your Betsson account created through PocketFives.com (altough we are happy if you do so!). Every P5er from Germany, Austria and Switzerland is welcome to take part in that series!

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No day two at the Pokertour Innsbruck

What an ugly table I got at this Pokertour event in Innsbruck! For the first three levels (45 min. each) I didn't get much playable and missed the flop on all remotly playable hands. To make things worse we had a real aggressive player on the table who pushed many people from many hands and we had a real luckbox who hit almost everything.

At the first break - after three levels - I was down to 4,500 chips (from the 10,000 chips startingstack). After the break I went down to 3,500. Finally I went all-in one time and got the blinds, antes and two limps. Back to 5,000. But still not in good shape.

A8s on the button. It was folded to me and I raised to 900 (150/300 ante 25). Small Blind went all-in for about 2,500 and I had to call (obviously didn't like the call here). Up against KK but an Ace on the turn busted my opponent. Busted another shortstack with JJ vs. QJ and was at 13,000 chips.

Unfortunately the blinds already reached 200/400 and a 25 ante. In the meantime we got another aggro at the table who loved to put in oversized reraises.

Finally I got 66 in late position and raised to 1,200. First Aggro reraised my bet, I called and we saw a flop of 3-4-5. He checked and I decided to go all in for my remaining 9,000 chips (about half of his stack). His preflop reraise could have meant anything (like overcards, any pair or even crap). But this time he had hit something. He called and showed a pair of 4's for the set. To add insult to injury neither a 2, 6 or 7 but a 5 hit on the river to give him the Full House. So I went out in 74th position of 109 players after 3.5 hours.

I know this was a very aggressive move with a pair of sixes and only 10 outs for either the set or a straight. But I think it was the best move against this player. Just unfortunate that he hit his set here.

Of course I could have waited somewhat longer but on this table a just over 10.000 chips stack didn't gave much room for movement. So I was more or less limited to push if I hit something or fold if I didn't. And I could have expected to lay down a good number of improvable hands against the two aggros.

Had I hit here I would have severly crippled an aggressive opponent and would have been a force with over 25,000 chips. Well worth the risk (at least for me in that situation)! So I'm disapointed of course but not unhappy about my play. It just wasn't meant to be.

Tomorrow evening I will play a smaller second chance event (with a PF=8.21 definately no deepstack tournament) and enjoy my time during the day.

The CCC in Innsbruck isn't a real great place. Nothing comparable to the locations in Vienna or Salzburg. It's downstairs in a small cellar with two separate rooms. The tournament area with 8 tables is very cramped (see picture above) and it's hot in there. There are definately nicer places to play poker! The competition was quite weak and it was a real shame that I didn't get some good cards. Had I gotten the same cards as in the last Pokertour tournament I would have cleaned the table for sure.

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This was a good day today

First I used my remaining FPP's for an EPT Step 1 Ticket and made it to Step 2. Played Step 2 and placed 3rd to get my Step 2 ticket back. So I'm still in the hunt.

The Xing tournament was very remarkable tonight. We had 52 players and I was almost out at the first break. But after the break I went on a good run and became chipleader in 13 minutes with about 40 left. Was able to stay in the Top 10 for the remaining of the tournament and went to the final table as chipleader. With 4 players left I received a bad beat by losing with QQ vs AJ. Down to short-stack. Was able to recover but at the end lost in a classic JJ vs. QQ situation and became 3rd ... well, $62 is a nice win in a a $10+1 tournament but of course I was aiming at 1st place and the added Sunday Million ticket.

But in general I feel good about my results today and decided to add to my cashgame bankroll (as I continued being successfull here, too). So I can now play the "huge" $0.02/$0.05 level ;-)

The success in the Xing tournament gave me some well needed confidence for the big Pokertour event in 5 days.

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WCOOP Event #1 - Bad day to play

I shouldn't have played at all. I knew it but I refused to hear to the little voice in my mind. The whole day I was exited to play the event tonight and then shortly before the event started my e-mail server crashed.

There was not much I could have done at that time because there were several files that needed a backup before I could restore the system. But I wasn't focused on my game. I can't say I played bad ... but it wasn't my A-game either.

I got some good cards in the beginning like AKs and AA but couldn't get too much value out of these hands. I got others that never connected to the flop or were only second best. So I went down from 3,000 chips to 570 chips. Then I found TT, went all-in and faced a caller with QQ. Lucky Shadow found a Ten on the Turn and doubled up. Made it back to about 1,600 but couldn't go further. Went down again. Went all-in with AQs at the end, got called by TT and busted out in 5,806th position (of 7,217) directly before the break.

No good hands and no focus is a bad mixture for a poker game. Hopefully it will be better next weekend. A least I finally decided for Innsbruck and the Pokertour!

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WCOOP, Pokertour & FullTilt MEC

So here are my plans for September. Most likely I will play the first PokerStars WCOOP Event on Friday. This is a 6-max game with a guaranteed prizepool of $1,000,000. If I cash there I may play some more events. There are some very interesting events on the list (4-max, heads-up and another 6-max). But so far it will be just Event #1. Maybe I will find the time to Twitter about this event again.

Next weekend is a tough decison. Still not completely sure if I go to the FullTilt Million Euro Challenge or the Pokertour in Innsbruck. But at the moment I tend to prefer going to Innsbruck.

September 28th is an interesting date for all german poker players. It's the day were the first real national poker association should be founded in Munich. All german poker players should read the details here.

That's it basically for my poker plans in September so far.

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