Happy New Year to all my readers

Time for a little recap of my poker success in 2008 ... and it was indeed my most successful year so far.

Although I didn't make money on my first big trip in February I had a decent tournament. I am talking about Drogheda, Ireland and the European Deepstack Poker Championships. I lasted long but not long enough ... I am sure with my current style of play I would have made it into the money here. Nevertheless it was one of the first signs that success is around the corner. And I will be back at the EDPC in 2009 (see below).

Only a few days later I bubbled at the "Oceans Masters" at the Oceans Poker Club near Passau. Another location that gets a return visit in early 2009.

March got me back to Vienna and a result just two places shy of the money at the Spring Poker Festival (CCC). The APAT at the Poker Royale was some kind of a setback (63rd of 188) but it was interesting to play with the later bracelet winner Martin Klaeser.

My trip to the WSOP wasn't a success moneywise but again a great experience. I played my first real WSOP-Event and came close to the money at the Caesars Mega-Stacks.

End of June also saw me bubbling at the Pokertour.at (Landesmeisterschaft Niederoesterreich at the Poker Royale). I was very dissapointed about that result and little did I know that I will make a lot of money at the Pokertour.at quite soon.

July was the start of my work for PocketFives but unfortunately this job didn't last very long. Pocket Fives is a great community but the way they tried to reach the german market wasn't the best one. If they had been willing to invest some money they could have been very successful ... unfortunately they decided to take the cheap road and stopped after only 4 months.

In August I finally made it into the money at the PokerStars Sunday Million for the first time. Not too bad given the fact that it was only my 6th Sunday Million so far.

But the biggest success came in the last three months of the year. I cashed in several smaller live and online events as well as in some big ones. Back to back final tables at the Pokertour.at in Graz and Linz got me two more entries into the HendonMob Database.

And another entry followed shortly after with my personal highlight if the year: My trip to the Dusk Till Dawn poker club in Nottingham was a special experience ... crowned with another great final table finish.

Didn't made it ITM at the Pokertour.at final in Vienna but added some more promising results at other tournaments on that trip (e.g. bubbled at the Montesino).

The year 2008 was a success regarding my tournament play and gave me a lot of confidence for the coming year. Did I play better, was I more lucky this year? I think both. I gained experience, changed my style of play somewhat and now definately have my own player personality. Lucky? Well, at least not unlucky in some situations - but that's part of the game.

Unfortunately it seems that I won't have the freedom to play every event I would like to play in 2009. After I lost my job at PocketFives I tried to find something new in the poker industry. There was a very interesting opportunity but unfortunately these folks seem to be very lazy about the handling of important stuff. Well, while they didn't came through I got another opportunity in the IT-industry and finally decided to accept that position. We will see how this works out...

For that reason I didn't have too many fix plans in early 2009. I will go back to the Oceans Poker Club for the "Oceans Masters" at Jan. 3rd/4th. Not really deepstacks but with a PF=10 and 14 at least playable.

The first highlight of the year will happen again in Dublin. In early February I will be at the European Deepstack Poker Championships again. I plan to play the two side events and maybe try to satellite into the €1,500 Main-Event (not sure yet). As Dublin offers a lot of poker tournament options there's most probably some other tournament available in case I don't make it deep here.

No further plans so far ... but of course I will try to make it to the WSOP again in 2009. Other possible events: Casino Austria Poker Tour (CAPT), Pokertour.at, CCC Springpokerfestival, Norwegian Poker Championship at the Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham.

Hope you enjoyed this years blog entries and will follow me through the year 2009 again. I wish you all a great and successful new year!

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Pokertour.at final at the CCC

A total of 157 (of a max. possible 200) took part in the Pokertour.at final at the CCC. That made a first prize of little of €13,000 and payed 18 spots.

I got a seat at a table on the outer-end so it was clear that this one will be broken soon. Too bad because I got some nice hands and was able to trap some times with good pay-offs. But got also trapped one time were I shouldn't have paid the river bet!

The next table was amazing. You wouldn't believe that at the final of the Pokertour still so many calling-stations are present. Every raise got at least 2-3 callers. On time I got paid-off big on a obvious flush (were I hit the nut flush). The other time I got a pay-off with flopped two pair were the other guy easily would have gotten me off the hand if he played it aggressively enough. One guy thought he was the master bluffer himself and gave his 50K chips (average was between 12K and 20K at that time) to everybody else in just two levels. Too bad I only got 9K from him.

Unfortunately I got some good starting hands but didn't connect to the flop often enough to really take advantage of that situation. Another table change and at the end I was left with about 10K chips at the start of the 800/1,600 level and moved all-in with suited connectors (my best hand for a long time). Small-Blind found KK and that's it ... out on 57th of 157.

After watching Klitschko winning his boxing fight I was unsure what to do. There weren't SnG's going at the CCC but I was sure they were at the Montesino (which isn't too far away). After some time a new €1/2 NL cash game table became available and I decided to stay at the CCC and take a shot at this game with a €100 buy-in.

Had a good run and made it to €200 very soon ... although I made a horrible mistake in between. With A3s there were two callers in front and I wanted to call too. So I picked up two chips threw them in and the moment they hit the felt I realized that I threw in ... two €10 chips. Fast fold from the next players but of course everybody could see from my face that I made a mistake. One of the callers called my bet. The board wasn't too bad as I got a nice draw but missed and had to let my hand go. Very expensive mistake.

Little later I made some plays that I will avoid in the future ;-) and went down to break even. Then this situation occured: I was in MP and got dealt AKo. A call and a raise to €10 in front. I reraised to 30 (which most times got the pot in that situation) ... and then hell broke loose. The guy to my left (who just bought-in again for €100 after he lost a big pot) threw his chips in the middle announcing all-in. For some reason he was really pissed about all the raising and re-raising. Obviously he had a hand like a medium pair. The asian guy next to him (who was a some-kind-of-a-gambler) called his bet. The other two folded. Wow! Now I had to invest just around 70 for a pot that already was €240 big. I was sure one had a middle-pair and the other could have had anything. So I called the 70 (which was an all-in for me too) and the board had an ace but also a low straigt-draw. I showed my ace and the other two mucked their hands. A pot of over €300 was shipped to the Shadow. I ended the game shortly after with a total of €342. Not close to the €570 that 18th place would have gotten at the tournament but still a nice end for the day.

Some remarks: Although the result wasn't an ITM finish I really like my tournament play at this time. I still have to work of some post-flop things but in general I am on the right track. And most important: I am feeling comfortable and confident with my own style of play. For tournaments I can play live and online although I still prefer live a lot. For cash game it's definately only live. Regarding my style of play there's so much missing (that is important to me) at an online cash game. €1/2 is o.k. on occasion but at this time I would prefer €0.50/1 (which is unfortunately hard to find in a live game). And my cash game style still needs some work until I feel as comfortable as in a tournament.

Tonight I most probably play the €20+4 Freezeout at the CCC. Bad structure but seems to be the only available tournament in town. The Montesino has a big rebuy-tournament (€50+6). But this is beyond my comfort-zone (at least for rebuys) although it would have been interesting to meet Meike Busch (the former GIGA Pokernight moderator) in person who is their special guest tonight.

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And on my last hand ...

...I ran into Aces again!

Had a very good start in the €50+6 at the Montesino. We started with 6.000 chips and during the first 25 min. in level one (25/25) I made it to 9,000 and in the next level to almost 12,000.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to keep my pace. First I got good hands that didn't connect anymore and then I went into a dry run of cards. I was blinded down and severly short-stacked. After a table change I got KK twice in a short period of time. First hand I only got the blinds and antes, second hand was paid-off with a nice bet from a guy who I busted shortly after with AK vs. 44. Seemed he was somewhat on tilt after I went all-in on his bet the second time.

Up to 30,000 but the blinds had now reached 1,000/2,000(200). To make things worse we played 7-handed and 6-handed for some time before another table was broken.

No more playable hands and my stack went all the way down to 9,200. Finally I went all-in with QJo just to run into AA again. To add insult to injury I was up against KK too. No magic board and my tournament ended in 35th position out of 231 (just 9 off the money).

Taking into account how far I made it with no cards I can only imagine what the result would have been with just a few decent cards. But at the end only the actual results count. And yes, I know I was very lucky several times in the last tournaments so I can stand those "mini-beats".

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No money but another decent finish

Arrived in Vienna around noon and fortunately was able to check into my hotel room early. Nothing special ... small but clean.

At 7pm I played the €30+5 NL Freezeout at the Montesino. They got 141 players and I am happy to see thet they now pay 10% of the field (which they didn't do during the first week after the opening). Unfortunately the structure with 20 min. blinds and 4,500 chips turns into a crapshot half way to the bubble. Tomorrows tournament has 6,000 chips and 25 min. levels (€50+6) wich still is not great but at least better.

I busted out of this tournament in 17th position (one off the bubble) but I really don't mind. Making €60 in a €30+5 tournament (for 15 to 13th place) isn't what I am aiming for. Of course I could have played the last hand different:

With blinds at 2,000/4,000(400) I had 48,000 chips. Which was above average but still way below the comfort-zone. I found AK in early position and was faced with a tough decision. Of course I could unpack the "hammer" again and move all-in. But due to the fact that the average stack at the table was around 35,000 this felt like a huge overbet. So I made it 10,000 again (which had worked out before). In that situation I prefer to see a flop with AK instead flipping a coin. It was folded around to the Big Blind who decided to call. The flop came K-Q-J. He checked, I bet out 15,000 and he called again. With another Q on the flop he went all in for about 25,000. I was almost sure he had the Queen but at this time the pot was way too big to pass here. I figured that I still had outs for the Straight (4) and the Full House (2) if he indeed had the Queen. Unfortunately it was way worse as he had called my pre-flop bet with QJo and had hit a prefect flop and turn.

Did he made a mistake by calling my bet with QJ? Tough to say. He was in the Big Blind so he only had to add 6,000 to the 4,000 already in the pot. Although he must assume that I have a big hand (I mixed up big pushes and 2,5 big blind bets for some time) he still could afford to have a look at the board with that hand. On the other hand with a K-J-x, K-Q-x or a totally unstructured board he would have gotten a hard time and wasted at least one round of blinds. Would there be a difference if I made it 12,000 instead. I doubt it ... if somebody pays 6K in that situation he pays 8K too. Of course if I went all-in there was no way he could have called (except if he was very dumb) and I would have been able to add 7,600 chips to my stack. I tend to say that making an overpush here was the better of two difficult possibilities ... although I still won't count my action here as a complete mistake.

So I went out of the tournament but still didn't feel too bad. I had a shot on becoming a huge stack and making it very deep into the money and I missed this time. But again I was able to make it very deep in a tournament. Looking back there was only one lucky coinflip. Interestingly this coinflip was some kind of a mirror of my last hand. At that time I was the one holding QJ and went-all in with a short-stack just to be called by AK. Flop gave me a Queen and doubled me up. But beside that I never was behind when the money went in.

Of course I know there will be more then enough tournaments in the future were I won't be able to make it very deep. But nevertheless this just added more confidence in the way I play my game.

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Day two: £200 + £20 No Limit Freezeout @ DTD, Nottingham

The rollercoaster ride from the first day continued in a remarkable fashion. Also being 4th in chips at the start of the day I never got anything playable and was blinded down heavily. With people busting out slowly I at least maintained my low stack. But on the bubble I was in severe danger to become the bubble boy again. Fortunately another short stack took this burden as his AQ lost vs. A2.

Still short at the final table I waited for the right spot. In the meantime one guy busted and I was at least 8th. My time came when I finally got a strong hand (KK) that got action and held up. It's always interesting to see how many people at final tables don't know how to handle either a big stack or a short stack correctly. So more people busted out and we were down to 6. At this time we made a deal that secured 6th place £1,500 (instead of £845). A deal I happily accepted as I still was one of the shortest stacks. But with blinds of 4,000/8,000(600) nobody (expect the chipleader) was in a save area.

Still not getting good cards it was time for a big move. With 36,000 left I went all-in UTG with 62o to maintain at least some fold equity. I hoped that it was folded around as people had seen me only play big hands at the final table so far. The plan worked out until the Big Blind (Mr. "Any-Two" from yesterday) found AA. Why me, why aces again? Maybe that's what he was thinking after I busted his aces with a 7-high straight. The guy went ballistic but I must admit that didn't fell too sorry for him as he pulled an even worse stunt yesterday by calling(!) an all-in form aces with J4s and making two pair.

Now I had at least good fold equity but was forced to play only very strong hands due to my ruined image. Sometimes later Mr. "Any-Two" went in for 74,000. As he still was steaming I decided to go all-in for 85,000 with AJo. Then Billy to my right made a big sigh and took several minutes to decide what to do. I knew I was in big trouble if he called as he was definately one of the best players at the table (beside of the later winner Allen). He finally called saying "I am here for the win, so I have to call". At least he had the best hand wit QQ. Mr. "Any-Two" was in deep trouble as he only had A2. But also Billy got punished here when an Ace hit the board, crippled him and trippled me up.

Unbelievable ... I was happy to already having survived the bubble but now with 5 left I was the chipleader holding about a third of the remaing chips. Billy busted out in 5th little later. With 3 left our stacks were almost equal and I suggested another deal. We then split the remaining money equally (each of us got £3,150) and just played for the win and the trophy.

I finally busted in 3rd with an open-ended-straightdraw vs. a pair of tens. More than happy and lucky about my result.

Now sitting at Birmingham airport waiting for my flight back to Germany. The trip to DuskTillDawn was a great experience and if the have a simillar event again I will try to come back. Definately the nicest and best run poker-room I ever played in!

Next stop: Big final of the Pokertour.at at the CCC in Vienna (next weekend)

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£200 + £20 No Limit Freezeout 7,500 chips, 45 minute clock (2 day event) @ DTD, Nottingham

Now that was one of my worst roller-coaster rides ever. In the beginning nothing seemed to work out right and my stack of 7,500 chips dwindled down to as low as 3,000 as we reached the 100/200 level. In the first three levels (of 45 min. each) I wasn't able to win a single pot (but never lost a really big one too). For some time it looked like I might be the first one out of the 84 playing this tournament.

But finally things turned around and I even made it little over the average of 12,000. Funnily all those who had terrorized the table in the beginning and had gotten a lot of chips in that time now had been eliminated or were on life support. As we reached the 6th level the type of my table had changed completely. Still tough to play but now because of some decent big stacks. In general the mood at the table was much friendlier and more relaxed. Unfortunately my roller-coaster dipped down again and I was severly shortstacked again.

Then I more or less ejected the last of the table terrorists. With K7 of spades in the small-blind there were just two callers in front so I decided to call this one too. Mr. "Tableterrorist" checked in the Big Blind. Flop comes K-Q-4 (two hearts). Mr. T. led out with a bet of 2,000 and the other two folded. I took my time and went all in for my remaining 7,000. He had just a few chips more then I had. I know this was a dangerous play but his bet smelled fishy and I wasn't in the poition to wait much longer. He thought for a long time, then told me: "I think you are on a (flush) draw". Then he called, showing a Q for the lower pair. I was back in the game and he busted for his remaining chips one round later.

All the things that went wrong in the beginning now started to get the right way. Don't get me wrong! I didn't receive really bad beats in the beginning. I just was somewhat behind in some key situations (and luckily managed not to invest too much). Now it was me how got the righ feeling for when being ahead in tricky situations. Little later I busted another guy for his 7,000 chips were I had hit but again was faced with a tricky board.

The key hand of the tournament came when I got TT in the Big Blind. I was now at 25,000 chips (little below average). First position (a very aggressive and decent player) just called. Huh!? Second Position (decent but had taken a big hit not long ago) called too. One more caller in the middle. I checked. Flop comes 2-2-8. Not a bad flop for a pair of tens but I had to define my own hand and the others players hands somewhat. So I led out with a 3,000 bet (about three quarters of the pot). First position folded. Well, that worked :-) Second position ... raised to 13K. Ouch, that wasn't what I had expected. Middle position folded. As said before, the raiser was decent player, had taken a big hit before, had about my stack size and had shown that he was able to do big (but sophisticated) bluffs. Usually I don't do this for variuos reasons, but this time I asked him if he would show if I fold. He told me: "Usually I never show but as you asked me very friendly I will show you this single time". That defined his hand ... he had the 2 for a set!

How did I know? This was the most honest speech I ever gof from a poker player. Basically he told me that "he is ahead but would prefer to take the pot right now because he knows that I have an overpair and doesn't want to run into a lucky punch". I totally agreed with him here and open folded my TT ... he showed a 2 as ecpected. Interestingly that hand and how it was played got me a lot of respect from the table and also I lost some important chips in that hand I gained for the future actions at that table.

When we went down to three tables our table was broken. At the new table the first hand I witnessed was a very sick hand. It was raised and re-raised between two players and finally one of them went all-In. If he got called that would have been a massive 60K pot. The other guy thought for a long time and then called with 66(!) and was faced T8s (!!!). The pocket pair held up and we had a new chipleader at the table while Mr. "Every-Hand-Can-Win" was down to 8K. He went all-in two times with no further action. The third time I took a stand on him with AQs but ran into JJ. Still a coinflip but I lost and was down to 10K.

Three hands later Mr. "I call with 66" raised on my immediate right. I went all-in with JJ and he called with T4s. In this case his move was not so bad. He took a stab at me in the big blind by raising and then didn't had to much to invest to call. Good for me ... Jacks held up and I was back to 20K.

From there it only went up. Took down a decent pot wit AA, busted the QQ's of a shorty with AKs and took down several pots uncontested. At the end of level nine the dust cleared and with 17 players left I ended day one with 55,600 chips (being 4th in chips).

There are several shortys with about 20K or less in the field. Average is 37K and the biggest stack is 80K. With blinds starting at 800/1,600(200) none of us is secured for one of the 9 paid seats at the final table. Unfortnately I am sandwiched between two stacks equal my size (2nd and 5th place in chips) with Mr. "Every-Hand-Can-Win" directly behind (35K). 1st and 3rd in chips are on the other table. Seats 1-4 are shortys. This will become a tough and interesting game today.

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£300 + £30 No Limit Freezeout 10,000 chips, 45 minute clock (2 day event) @ DTD, Nottingham

37th out of 131 after 7 hours of play isn't really satisfying. But honestly, it was the best result that was possible today. The tournament started already in a weired way. In the first hand of the tournament there was some raise and re-raise preflop. More raise and re-raise on the flop and finally an all-in and call. Didn't they know we start with 10K Chips and have 45 min. levels?

As you might have expected it was AA vs. KK. The Aces held up and we had a chipleader with 20K chips. I got some playable hands but never connected strong enough to the flop to make some powerplays. Nevertheless I managed to keep my stack as high as 8,500 or more at all times.

Somehow I had already made it to 12,000 when this hand arrived: There was a raise in front of me and I called with JJ. Flop came 55J ... bingo! He checked and I checked. Turn is a King. He checked again, as do I. River is a 2 and he bet 1,500. I raised to 4,000 he went all-in for just 2,600 more and I called. My Full House Jacks lost against Full House Kings :-(

That was a real turning point in my tournament. Had I won that hand I would have had a comfortable stack of more than 25K (and would have been able to play hands that I wasn't even able to consider as short-stack). Of course I could have bet on the flop here ... but I dought that he would have folded his Kings. And by the way, an opponent with a strong starting hand is what we all wish for in that situation. A guy who thinks he has a good hand but is in fact a 92% underdog on the flop. Playing carefull just because he might hit his two-outer? Not my style!

Down to 6K I went all-in a few hands later with 66 and was up against AK. Hit my set on the Flop and made quads on the River. Back to 12k but almost shortstack. Later succeded with a nice squeeze play and went heads-up against a shortstack. Unfortunately my AK didn't improve and his 44 held up. Somewhat down again. Same Squeeze play with the exact same people again somewhat later. Again I got AK but this time I was up against ... AK. We split the pot and another opportunity was missed.

That was the biggest issue of todays tournament: I didn't had too many good opportunities but besides the quad sixes I wasn't able to take advantage of these rare opportunities at all. For the last hours I was aboslutely card dead. What can you do when your fold equity goes south but your best hands are 63, 47, and of course K-low, Q-low etc. in several variations.

At the end (5 minutes before day 1 ended) I got my opportunity: I had King-Spades, Two of hearts in the Big Blind. There was a call, and another call and I checked. Flop came two spades with 9-5-4. All checked. Turn is a 2 of spades. Hell, what do I wait for I had hit a pair and had a flush-draw. Went all in with 6,700 chips. First guy folded, second one called me with 8-9. River was the 8 of hearts and I had missed another good opportunity ... and was out of the tournament.

With K2s being my best hand for a long time you may imagine who painfull the last two levels had been. But as said before: There wasn't much I could have done better and I stayed as long as possible. It just wasn't meant to be that night.

Today is the £200+20 event which has the same structure as today but you get "only" 7,500 chips. So it's designed as a two-day event too.

Some words about the DuskTillDawn club at the end. It's a very nice poker club! 45 tables on 3 different levels make a great impression. The tables are big enough for 9 people and most dealers are very professionell. But some things are very unusual: Beverage service takes your money when you order your drink, not when it is delivered. They have about 20 public computer terminals there that can be used for surfing or playing online poker. But the best thing: They publish the tournament results on their website while the tournament is still running. During every break the dealers count all chips and they update the chipcount. They know exactly who's located were ... so they can build a complete list of every placement (with the correct names). Truly amazing.

While our tournament was started the £1,000 4-Day-Main-Event was still running. Christiano Blanco and Maria Demetriou were some of the best known players in the field. That event used the exact identical structure of the WSOP main-event and drew 186 participants. Great tournament but unfortunately way above my bankroll!

So hopefully it will run better today ... of course I will update you again on a regular basis (at least during the breaks).

This morning I just strolled around in the city (enjoying the sunny day). The picture on the right is just a random street in the city to give you an impression how Nottingham looks like. Nice city but nothing special (as is my hotel).

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PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker

While checking my email at Starbucks in Nottingham and preparing for tonights tournament I stumbled upon the "PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker" which will take part in December.

Of course if my time allows I will play there, too!

Ich habe mich für die Teilnahme an der PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker angemeldet!

Die WBCOOP ist ein Online-Pokerturnier das allen Bloggern offen steht.

Anmelde-Code: 028097

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Preparing for Nottingham

Tomorrow I am starting my trip to Nottingham. I am flying on a cheap budget (€30 return flight with Ryanair) but unfortunately have to travel to Frankfurt-Hahn.

So I am visiting my parents who live half way between Munich and Frankfurt and continue to the airport on Friday. Still a long trip. I have to start at 5:45am and will reach my hotel at 2pm (UK time). Fortunately the tournament at DuskTillDawn starts not before 8pm so I have some time to relax and refresh.

In the last week I worked on adjustments on my game and the results were promising. I hope those adjustements will help me at my upcoming events.

I have also booked my trip to Vienna (for the Staatsmeisterschaft) next week. Found a decent priced flight with Air Berlin and will play two smaller tournaments on Thursday and Friday at the Montesino before the Staatsmeisterschaft starts at the CCC on Saturday.

Hopefully I can twitter from those events to keep you updated. Just check back at twitter on Dec 5th. from 9pm CET to find out.

So far this will more or less complete my live tournaments for this year. There are interesting events coming up in 2009 but much depends on my results in the next events and the question which job I will have in 2009.

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