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!