That's it for 2009 ... waiting for 2010

Back from the Poker-King Weekend at the PokerRoyale in Kufstein. Unfortunately no big paycheck but still successfull in some way.

Most important: It was a wonderful tournament. That was exactly the kind of structure I like. I was able to get my stack up to 24k from the 20k start but also went down all the way to 8k. Some really heartbraking hands - like having to fold a pair of Aces on a very dangerous flop. But still I managed to get my way back to 17k at one point again. That's real Poker! No need to get desperate after you lost just one important hand. A two hour dry streak? Can be survived. But at some point you have to make your stand even in a great structure like that. With about 40 left I brought my hand to war against Kurt Haindl (one of the two PokerRoyale managers). While I had hit my King with KT on a K67 board he had found two great draws with 89s. Unfortunately it wasn't just us two. While I would have won my hand against him (despite his huge number of outs) we both had been taken out by another guy with AK instead.

The 94 participants played down till 3:30am to the final table and returned today. With an avarage stack that represented an M of just little less then 20 and stacks between 60k and 300,000k there was much play left at the Final Table.

I can't say it often enough: Thanks to Daniel Dawid the tournament director who was brave enough to offer this kind of event in the small city of Kufstein. I'm really happy that this was obviously a great success and hope they will bring back this event in 2010 again.

Beside the tournament there was of course a lot of cashgame action going. After I busted I decided to play some cash too. Didn't know at this time that I was starting an over nine hour cashgame session that ended at 8am in the morning. This was a tough one: long dry streaks, some great hits and a lot of funny happenings. My stack bounced from the original €50 up to €70 and all the way down to €18. Almost dead I recovered and ended the session with a cute €135 win. Not a huge amount of money but a decent result for €0.50/0.50 No-Limit.

So my year 2009 ended somewhat friendly and I am looking forward to 2010. Next goal: getting together the bankroll to play the European Deepstacks Pokerchampionships in February in Dublin, Ireland.

Wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Hope you still enjoy reading my blog and follow my here and/or on Twitter in 2010 again.

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2009 is coming to an end ... but there's still something left

My poker year 2009 is almost over ... just the big finale that weekend is still around the corner. Good time for a short look back to the last 12 months.

This is by the way my 400th blog post. This year wasn't my heaviest year in blogging. In fact it was my lowest with only 65 entries. My top year was 2007 with 102 blog posts. Maybe I blogged less because I was less successfull...?

Pokerwise this was a horrible year so far. In 2008 I had a huge race in the last quarter with three big finishes. But I wasn't able to keep the pace in 2009. With some small and only two big cashes (St. Poelten and Rozvadov) this was a very dissapointing year. Especially my trip to the WSOP and play at the Venetian had much space for improvement. Unfortunately in most cases there wasn't much I could have done different ... I just was running super dry on cards for a very very long time this year.

There's only one outcome in 2009 tournament that I really regret and that still creeps through my head from time to time. That's the "just-shy-of-the-money" finish in February at the Deepstack Event in Dublin. In three crucial decisions I made one (laying down AK vs. an all-in) which I still would play the same way in a similar situation followed by two more hands which I had played absolutely horrible. Those two finally resultet in my too early exit. After coming back from a short-stack early on Day 2 I had blown a huge opportunity just a few hours later.

I had started again with cash games on a very low level during the WSOP 2009 and was running quite good in the beginning. Unfortunately my dry ran swept over to the cashgames too - resulting in some heartbreaking losses recently.

But there's always hope. And although I didn't cash in my last tournaments either - they ran so much better than all the tournaments before in the last 6 months. Hope for the coming weekend. I'm really looking forward to that: The Poker-King Weekend with a slow 40 min. structure and 20k startingstack. So far 85 are registered but they will without doubt sell out at 100 players plus waitlist. A 20k prizepool for the best 12% sound very good just before christmas.

For 2010 there's so much more poker to play. Not sure about my whole schedule but there are two trips that I want to do if possible in any way. The first is another trip to the Deepstacks Championships to Dublin (February). Not only because this is an event with an extraordinay great structure but also because it's time to end my nightmare from 2009. The other trip is of course a vacation with much poker in Las Vegas during the WSOP. Not necessarily for a WSOP event but for the atmosphere and more Venetian Deepstacks. If I had to choose ... those would be the two I would take over anything else. And if I would have to miss one of those two I would be very sad.

There are other options that might show up which I can't talk about right now. But as soon I can tell someting about that you will read it here first.

Mike Matusow writes in his book "Check-Raising the Devil" that real poker players don't make "New Years Resolutions" ... they make "End of World Series Resolutions". I really like that idea. But still this is the time to reflect the year and it's time to make peace with the year. So my resolution is not to look back in anger at 2009. I stil had a lot of fun and learned a lot things. It wasn't a winning year but it wasn't a lost year either.

What ever happens this coming weekend I will enjoy my last big tournament of 2009 as long as it lasts. Hope you join me on that last trip too.

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Back from a weird weekend in Vienna

That weekend went a little unexpected but it's one I will remember for a long time. After busting out from the Staatsmeisterschaft I was of course dissapointed. But there's not much I could have done different so no regrets.

It still amazes me how often people like to take coinflips very easily. I know myself that AK is a tough hand to fold. Especially from the blind. But it still isn't a made hand and most times it's a coinflip at best. So in a deepstack tournament (fast structures are a different animal) what sense does it make to commit 5,400 chips more (to the 600 from the BB) in exchange for a coinflip and giving up the right to act depending on the texture of the board? To be honest I was delighted to see that I had live cards, a flush draw and wasn't running into a made hand. Losing that hand sucked but that was the best possible spot for me to come back.

The next morning I looked out of the window and it was a grey, foggy and cold day in Vienna.  But I wasn't really unhappy  that this wasn't a day for sightseeing because I had an appointment with a book. A book I had started on my train ride to Vienna and that caught my attention so much that I was kind of happy to have the time to continue. So I went to Starbucks and continued reading Mike Matusows "Check-Raising The Devil". If you haven't read it until now I suggest you do. It's not the usual poker book and if you are an emotional person it will go deep under your skin. Of course it teaches you that you should avoid drugs (and it does it the hard way) but between the lines there's are so many lessons about poker and live it's unbelievable. But you have to be open minded to find that little gems between all the darkness in Mike's soul.

It may sound very strange but as depressing the book is in general it is indeed a great motivator too. I went to the Montesino for the 7pm tournament (which was played in the not so cosy 3rd level room due to the Poker Grand Slam running upstairs) and was really pumped to play. I was already well motivated before the Staatsmeisterschaft but I was even more that evening. And amazingly I had a great run until the first break. Unfortunately that run ended after the break and I wasn't able to keep up with the fast structure. At the end my timing was way off when I went in with AQ and was called from AK and QQ. I had even outs for a lucky straight before the River but a third King sealed my fate.

61st out of 158 wasn't a great result but there was more for me about that tournament. The great feeling about a rush at the table was back. The enjoyment when you are able to push people around. Of course good cards and good hits help a lot. But even more does help the right attitude and the passion of trying to take another one down. It didn't work out that weekend but it's just a matter of time until the next big hit. I had a horrible year so far but that doesn't matter anymore as I am now looking just forward again.

The next morning I almost missed my plane as I got a wrong schedule about the first subway leaving at my hotel for some reason. But again things turned out the right way as I reached the nightbus stop right on time to make my flight back to Munich.

I didn't cash that weekend but I won back a lot of confidence. And confidence can be worth a lot. So I don't count this as a losing weekend ... in some way ;-)

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No luck again at the Staatsmeisterschaft

Upon my arrival I met Jessy, a good friend from the dance competition scene. We had some nice talk about our last dance competitions and of course poker too. At the end she and her dad were so kind to give me a ride to my hotel. Unfortunately the hotel was a real dissapointment. I know you can't expect much if you look for a cheap place to stay but that one is very basic. At least it includes free internet access.

I was really motivated for the event but again I couldn't make it to Day 2 of the Staatsmeisterschaft. A total of 211 players were registered (194 showed up) to create a prizepool of €42.200. Among those trying to survive until the last 21 will make the money were some friends that I met at the IPO (Reinhard Schneiber from Austria and Thomas S. from Munich) as well as Peter Haszjan from the PokerRoyale.

I started at the same table with Reinhard and Peter and it was a decent start. The 45 min. levels and the 10k startstack were tailored for quality poker play. Although I didn't get too many playable hands I was able to pumped up my stack to almost 13k in the first two levels. Despite the fact that the CCC Prater is very smokey, the aircondition is very bad and I had a light headache this seemed to become a good tournament day. Until ...

... the "call of doom" from tournament director Jonathan Luetkenhorst that forced me to change tables. The new table was a tough one as they already lost four players. I was seated left of the chipleader with almost 40k in chips. But to make things worse I went on a dry run of cards. It doesn't get worse? It does! On the seldom occasions were I found a hand I wasn't able to connect to the flop at all. My once decent stack went down to 8k until the first break.

After the break things didn't ran better and I reached my low at 5k. With blinds already 150/300 (25) I went into push and fold mode and was able to get my stack back to 10k. Unfortunately this was only a short intermezzo. The dry run went on and with blinds 300/600 (75) I was down to 6k again. Finally I took a shot from the button with two suited live cards and ran into AKo from the big blind. With a flop containing two hearts I was in a decent position to more then double up but turn and river bricked and I went out in 127th.

That's poker. I didn't make any stupid mistakes during my play. I never missed a golden opportunity and at the end I was just on the wrong end of a coinflip. I definately had worse tournaments. Still dissapointing that I couldn't make a decent result for such a long time now.

But there's still another big one around the corner for this year with the Poker King main-event in Kufstein on Dec. 19th & 20th. It's not over till it's over... ;-)

Tomorrow evening I will play the €20+5 1RB at the Montesino to end my short Vienna weekend.

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Staatsmeisterschaft at the CCC in Vienna tomorrow

This will be a very short trip to Vienna but I'm still looking forward to it because I'm quite proud of making it to the finals two years in a row.

This year was even harder as I had only two shots. I really love the Pokertour.at series as they still offer great structures for a decent price. So I originally aimed to play as much of the events as possible. Unfortunately it turned out that most of the events happend the same time I had a dance competition. Therefore I skipped every event except of two (St. Poelten and Lake Woerth).

The good thing was that I made the final table already on the first one in St. Poelten and received the ticket for the final. Even better: the buy-in was a birthday present from my girlfriend. It was a really nice present as she isn't into poker at all.

Unfortunately this present turned out to force a tough decision from both of us. Later the year the date for the german boogie-woogie championship in Augsburg was announced and it fell right on the same day as the pokertour grand finale. Usually we have an agreement that dancing competitions have priority (that's why I missed the 2008 IPO) but this time it was different as I had won that ticket already. It was still a heartbreaking decision for both of us but we finally decided that I will play the Staatsmeisterschaft in Vienna.

Unfortunately my schedule doesn't allow for an extended trip to Vienna. So I will take the train tomorrow morning. Thanks to a "Bahncard" I received from my company I can travel 1st class for the same price as 2nd class :-) So expect me to arrive at the tables well rested and refreshed! Of course I hope to play on Day2, too ... but if not I might play a smaller event at the Montesino on Sunday evening. I will be back early Monday morning. Got a cheap flight with AirBerlin that allows me to be in Munich on time for my computer training at 10am.

I don't know if I can provide live twitter updates this time. They moved the event to the Concord Card Casino Prater and I don't know yet if they have W-LAN there too. But anyway I will find a way to keep you updated about my Vienna weekend.

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New Blog Design is up

No, don't go away ;-) This is still Shadow's Poker Blog!

Just thought that it might be time for some change. So I gave the blog a much more modern look. In addition I changed the layout to give all the widget a better position on the page. Of course I hope you will enjoy the new design. But anyway let me know if you like it or not. There's still some fine tuning left but in general this is what it will be from now on.

The next post will be again poker related because next weekend the great Pokertour.at finale happens at the CCC Vienna Prater. So stay tuned for more poker stories.

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You have to see this hand ... unbelievable!

I am not very often posting hand histories in that blog and I don't like to moan about a bad beat but this one is really sick:

And right in the next hand against the same opponent:

I'm still speechless...! Well, not really. I am well aware that I am currently in a real "bad streak". I don't get any hands either live or online and if I get one it doesn't connect in any way. Oh, and in case it connects I am rivered for sure.

I know this can happen and I know this can last longer than one might think. I had this during my Black Jack times too (and not only once). It seems that the bad luck follows you everywere. Change the Casino - doesn't matter. Change the city - doesn't matter. Change the country - doesn't help either. These are the worst times a Poker or Black Jack player can have. But standing on the very dark side of variance doesn't last forever. It's just hard to stand up long enough to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

This tournament (only a $3 rebuy on Stars with a 90K prizepool) seemed like that light. In fact I got not many but some very interesting hands and options to make it to a quite decent chip position (around 779th of 2,936 left from the 8,873 total). Still a long way to go but this finally felt like a tournament were you can achieve something ... until those two hands. That's what hurts most: show you the light and then brutally switch it off. Seems I have to wander a little longer in the darkness of negative variance.

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Freerolling into December

A lot has happened in the last few days in poker so it's definately time for a new blog entry. Let's start with my personal things:

Went back to Kufstein again and went card dead in the tournament again. There was only one remarkable hand: A pair of 3's that improved to quads right on the flop. I didn't get a big payoff in the tournament but one beside the table! The Poker Royale in Kufstein is having a big €200+20 Deepstack Event on Dec. 19th/20th and currently quads or better get you a draw on the lucky wheel. You can win satellite entries und up to an entry to the event itself. Guess what ... I hit the main prize. So on two weekends in December I will play two deepstack tournaments for free: First the Pokertour.at finale in Vienna (at the CCC Prater) on Dec. 5th and then the Poker-Kings Mainevent in Kufstein two weeks later.

On the other hand cashgame is still running rough for me. After losing a big pot last week with a set vs. a guy who couldn't be departed from two pair (that improved to a full house on the river) I had two similar occurences this time: KQ hit a set of Queens on the flop and my opponent pays all streets down two the river just to hit another eight to his two pockets and make the full house. A little later A9 hit a set of 9's and it was paid all the way down until he hit his gutshot straight on the river. Of course all those hands involved big pots. Hard to be ahead if you lose those hands.

Anyway it's part of the game of poker and after reviewing the ESPN broadcast of the final table I again realized how lucky (or unlucky) some players had been there. Just two decisions (Ivey's JJ vs. Saout's 77 and one hand were Begleiter mucked the winner after a river bet) could have had changed the whole outcome of the final table. But again poker is so much easier with visible hole-cards ;-)

BTW, I really like how Ivey looks back at his infamous mucking of the winning flush on Day 8. Of course it was a mistake but he's still not regreting anything after he made it to the final table. He just says that "all things would have changed and nobody can tell if for better or worse". I love this attitude! You don't know what he's talking about? Then you should definately google the phrase "butterfly effect".

The WSOP is just over and there is already big news again: Jeffrey Pollack is leaving his position as the WSOP commissioner. That's really sad to hear. In his 4.5 years on board he truly became the public face of the WSOP and turned many things to the better. The WSOP wouldn't be so strong and popular as it is today without him. It will be hard to fill his shoes here. Especially as he always was a great middleman between the players and the "greedy" corporation. Rumors are that Mitch Garber will take this position in the future and I really doubt that he is that player friendly. But it's to early to say anyway.

Below there are Parts I-III of Jeffrey's exit interview he had with WickedChopsPoker. At the beginning he doesn't deny a rumor that the huge Pavillion (were the interview is held) maybe the new main space for the WSOP. That would mean on the other hand that at least for 2010 the WSOP wouldn't move to the Caesars as expected. As always the WSOP is over but the tension for the next WSOP is already rising.

Part I

Part II

Part III

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Some thoughts about the 2009 WSOP Final Table

Spoiler Alert! - Don't read if you are waiting for the ESPN broadcast!

Again I spent the whole night to follow the Final Table audio broadcast and I don't regret any minute. Not as exciting as the 2005 Final Table with Hachem, Black, Matusow but still very interesting.

I feel very sorry for Phil Ivey and his bad beat. It would have been much fun to see him playing a big stack at the Final Table. This year obviously was the year of the bad beats. One of the toughest was the exit of my personal favorite Kevin Schaffel on 8th place (AA vs. KK with Kings improving to Quads). After seeing his exit interview I am even more sorry that he had to go so fast ... this guy would have been a great ambassodor for poker because he has just the right perspective about the game! Still happy that he was my number one pick.

From what I saw during the Final Table Steven Begleiter had improved his game a lot. Another guy I would have loved to see ending in a better position. Jeff Shulmann played a good game too but although he somewhat apologized for his bad comments I am relieved that he didn't win the bracelet.

So it's now Cada vs. Moon and you get the impression that the luckiest players made it into the heads-up. Both obviously didn't show the best poker play in the universe but nobody should call them donks. Nobody who survived over 6,500 opponents should be called a donk. But I have to retract my previous support for Moon. After getting to know more about him I think he wouldn't be great for poker. Not only will he most probably never be back on the big poker stages but he although showed some very bad moves. As said before Cada was very lucky too but I would say he's definately the more skilled player and can be marketed much better.

I will be routing for Cada on Monday and hoping for a long and exiting heads-up (but honestly I doubt it will take very long).

Can't wait to see the ESPN broadcast. Even after knowing the results this will be fun to watch.

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Back home in Munich

Sorry for not posting directly after my return but there was a lot to do in the last days.

Unfortunately my last two small tournaments in Dublin hadn't been a success either. I booked a small win during a cashgame session at the Sporting Emporium ... but of course not enough to break even for the trip.

But nevertheless this was a wonderful weekend. I really enjoyed meeting Silke and Thomas as well as Benny and his brothers again. We had a good time at and away from the tables. Congrats again to Cat O'Neill for her 4th place finish at the IPO. I had played at the same table with here for some time during the Deepstack Championships in February and she well deserved that final table appeareance!

Not sure about my next plans. Of course I will play the Pokertour.at final on Dec. 5th at the CCC in Vienna. I would love to play the Poker Royal Masters Main-Event in Wiener Neustadt end of November but decided that I need either have a good run in smaller events until then and/or get a good number of shares sold at ChipMeUp for that one.

Currently I try to be at the Poker Royale Kufstein once a week. Starting with the tournament of the day and continue with some cash game if I bust early. Last Thursday I had a good run early on but then ran a good portion of my stack into a flopped straight. Never really recovered from that. The following cashgame session was fun but ended only with a tiny win.

In addition I will again hit the online tables trying for some good step-results on pokerstars. I have accumulated some FPP's and now use them to get as many step-tickets as possible. As soon as all FPP's are used I will start trying to "step-up".

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Sightseeing & Poker at the Sporting Emporium

My sightseeing trip through Dublin led me this time to the area between the Dublin castle and the Guinness brewery. Lot's of old buildings and churches around. Just have a look at the pictures at the end of this entry.

The tournament at the Sporting Emporium had a great structure. They start with a 9k stack and 10 min. levels. Doesn't sound great? Well, the catch is that they add another 2.5 minutes to each new level. With the structure running 25/50, 50/100, 75/150, 150/300, 200/400, 300/600 and so on they reached 40 min. blinds al level 12. With 25 players that night it took almost 7 hours until the last five decided for a deal. In my opinion this is the perfect structure for a tournament with a decent starting stack that still allows a lot of play in the later stages.

I had a good start an brought my stack up to 16k. Unfortunately from there I went again totally card dead and at the 500/1,000 level I had to push with AT and 5,900 chips left. Got called by 77 and went out in 14th position.

Another try tomorrow at the IPO side event #3.

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IPO Day 2 ... some photo impressions

Day two has started about an hour ago and I took some photo impressions from the start.

We have at least two poker couples in todays field:

Silke & Thomas from Munich, Germany

Cat O'Neil & Rob Taylor from Ireland

Other known players in todays field include:

Maria Demetriou from Nottingham, England (left)
Andy Black from Ireland (right)

Noel Furlong, Ireland, WSOP Main Event Champion 1999 (left)
Jesse May, The Poker Show (right)

I am now on my way into the city of Dublin for some sightseeing and on to the tournament at the Sporting Emporium at 8:30pm. Hopefully I haven't used up all my luck today as I just escaped a heavy traffic accident on a crossroad that I passed just seconds before while being on my way back to the hotel!

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Day 1 ... and final day of the IPO (at least for me)

That wasn't like expected although the day started very well. I was well rested and in a good mood when I arrived at the Regency. I was able to take a short peek into the main room while it was still empty and then waited with the others outside until the doors opened at around 12:45pm.

Stephen and his team did a great job. That place looks really great. Feels like you're playing in a much more expensive torunament. Today's poker celebs included Padraig Parkinson and Surinder Sundar. Those two and several others had a bounty on their head (that's why the were wearing those football T-Shirts).

Didn't know anybody at my table. From the beginning I got a lot of good starting hands but couldn't catch any decent flop. Then I got bluffed off a turned straight on a JJT-A-J board. Awful Jack at the end. My opponent bet out and all I could beat was a bluff. And exactly that's what he showed me after I folded.

My stack went all the way down to 6k from 10k start when I finally caught a break with KK. Back to 10k and from there even up tp 15k. Now the world looked so much better until I ran my TPTK (AK) in a shortstack's set of fives. Down to 10k again. And back to being flop-dead. The blinds had already reached 150/300 (25) and my stack was down to around 7k.

Close to the end of that level I got AK and a guy in front of me who raised to 1,200. I weighed my options (all-in or call as raise or fold weren't possible options here) and decided for a call. With a call I could see if I get a piece of the flop ... or still opt out with enough left for an all-in on another hand. I missed totally in regards of Aces and Kings but the low flop was all diamonds and I was holding the Ace of diamonds. My opponent bet 1,500 and in this situation there was no way I would have folded that hand now. I didn't give him either the made flush or a set. So I figured that I was maybe even holding two overs to my nut-flushdraw. I went all in for 5,000 more to his bet and he called with QQ. Unfortunately 60:40 wasn't enough here and I was out at around 540's of 720 after four hours of play.

There wasn't much I could have done different so no hard feelings. Just sadness that it was over so fast. Went into the city for someting to eat and stumbled across the red carpet premiere of "Couples Retreat" at the Savoy cinema on O'Connell Street. Right in time to see Vince Vaughn (the main actor of the movie) hitting the red carpet. At least that was a nice distraction.

Will take some more photos tomorrow on Day 2 and playing a smaller event at the Sporting Emporium by night. Hopfully I can report better results then.

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The day before the IPO

This will be just a short update as I am very tired and need some sleep.

The trip to Dublin was uneventful except for the fact that I arrived with 12kg in handluggage. Ryanair only allows 10kg and in Memmingen they forced every piece to be put on the scale. So I started to pack the most heavy pieces into my pockets ... just to put everything back into my handluggage once I had passed that control point. So ridiculous! On the plane I fell asleep immediately and even overslept the landing. I told you ... I am tired ;-)

The Skylon Hotel is a nice place. Rooms are small but clean in general. And if everything works out correctly I won't be in the room for long anyway. They have free W-LAN in the lobby but unfortunately not in the rooms.

Before I went to the get-together at Cassidy's I took a short look at the Regency. The Regency is just a seven minute walk away from the Skylon and fortunately the weather is much nicer and warmer than in Germany. Stephen and his team were already working hard to get the room(s) setup for tomorrow. In the meantime they also published the seat drawing and I will be sitting on table 30 seat 6. Don't recognize any of my tablemates.

Wish you all a good night!

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Next stop Dublin

Just a few more hours till the next highlight of the 2009 poker year. The IPO is around the corner and tomorrow I am on my way to Dublin.

First of all I have to thank all my backers at ChipMeUp! Both events - the main event as well as my side event at the Sporting Emporium - are completely sold out. That is terrific and I will try my absolute best to make this a winning trip for all of us.

Although the main event is sold out registration will officially close tomorrow at noon. But so far it seems that we have 1,419 players that will create a prizepool well above $300,000. There are several pros in the field including names like Andy Black, Surinder Sunar, Padraig Parkinson, Fintan Gavin, Noel Furlong, Jesse May, Maria Demetriou and many others.

I got confirmation from the organiser that there should be WLAN access in the tournament area or at least close to it. So look out for some heavy twittering the next days ;-) In addition Irishpokerrankings.com has promised to put me on their homepage (together with other twittering participants). They will also broadcast live radio reports onsite. If you are interested in more then just my updates this page might be the best source for information around.

Almost everything is set so far (I only have to pack my suitcase) and at 10am I'm on the way to Memmingen Allgäu Airport for my Ryanair flight to Dublin.

As said, there will be lots of twittering and blogging in the next 5 days ... so enjoy :-))

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My first ever Royal Flush

It took me almost five years and three straight flushes until the first one ... but now I got it: my first ever Royal Flush. It was only a small tournament and it was created with just one hole card. But nevertheless it was this one and only absolute unbeatable hand. And I even got a decent payout for it.



The whole tournament went very good for me until I ran my JJ into AK of a very aggressive big stack to my left. All the money went in preflop, he spiked an Ace immediately on the flop and I was crippled never recovering. Of course at the end my AJs ran into the same guys pair of sixes. Guess what? A six on the turn and a meaningless Jack on the river sealed my fate.

Just two more days until Dublin. This will be a great weekend. Hopefully I can make a lot of people very happy as I sold most of my shares for the events I play in Dublin. So far there are only four shares left for the main-event at ChipMeUp.

Wasn't able to go to Kufstein for some time due to time restrictions but hope to do so next week as they are still running hot.

The un-official german players get-together in Dublin will happen on Thursday at 6:30pm at Cassidys Bar, 27 Westmoreland Street, Dublin 2, Ireland. I reserved some extra seats so just come over if you like to meet us.

Today I got the printed Pokerfirma Magazine that they created due to their one year annniversary. They produced a real nice piece here. I've contributed a long article about Twitter and the WSOP and it's much fun to see my first ever printed article in a magazine.

So this day gave me two nice "first ones". I take this as a good sign for the upcoming trip ;-) Will try to twitter from that trip as much as possible but can't guarantee if the local condition will allow this or not. We will see!

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Looking back to the beginning

For those who can read german you may probably have already read my article about the new Poker Royale Cardroom in Kufstein, Austria at Pokerfirma.de.

For those who haven't: A new and wonderful pokerroomm has opened in Kufstein (less then 100 km away from Munich). In addition Kufstein is the place were I started my live game experiences five years ago. Funnily the guy running the cardroom in that time is now part of the team running the new pokerroom.

The room is great: 10 tables with a wide selection of tournaments all week round and cashgames down to €0,50/0,50. This is definately my new homeplace for poker. I can't think of a room closer to Munich as long as the german laws won't change.

My first visit was a great success already as I made a third place for €220 in the €10 rebuy-tournament. My second visit wasn't as successfull. I was really carddead in the beginning and finally ran my top-pair top-kicker (AT) into a pair of 8's that hit his set on the river.

The following eight hours of cash game had been great fun but ended break even straight on the Euro. Really looking forward to come back to this place!

Writing that article for Pokerfirma and remembering the "old times" made me re-reading some of my old blog entries again. Amazing how much I have changed and how much my thinking has changed. Today it's too easy to laugh about those who think they are sooo good but are just "fish" (of course calling all others "fish"). Imagine, five years ago I wasn't any better. Anybody who didn't play by the book was a moron for me. Today I seldom play by the book because that doesn't win you enough. You have to be creative ... and obviously I wasn't able to make differences between the real morons and those who just showed a creative game (which I didn't understand at this time).

Just one quote from that old times:
"Got some nice hands (and a big stake) to the break after the first hour. Decided to cool down after the break and play only premium hands. Guess - I got QQ a little later. Raised it - everyone folded and the button went all-in. As I had covered her but had to invest a decent amount of my stake (about 2/3) I thought about it but finally decided that you have to call this with 3rd best hand pre-flop. Unfortunatly I ran into the best hand - AA that improved to a set on the turn."

In that time I was sure that this was the absolute right play ... today I would say this was a horrible, horrible mistake! BTW, there is of course no "absolute right play" ;-)

Oh, and I mostly like that quote from December 2005: "I'm not made for the crazy style of a Daniel Negreanu". Guess which kind of style I am playing now!

Just barely a year after I started with poker I played a WSOP Cicuit event in Tunica. Looking back this was a big mistake. Of course I enjoyed my trip ... but I was less able to enjoy the tournament as I would do today. Just think about that one: "I love this 'who can I recognize'-game [after seeing Andy Black at a table] but I pray that I won't recognize anybody at my table in a few hours!". Today I would love to have those guys and girls at my table as it would be much fun to watch them playing.

On February 16th 2006 I made my first live final table with a decent cash at the CCC in Vienna ... but still lacking much of todays experience at that time. Ah, time to stop now with those memories!

All that reminds me so much about my second passion: dancing! It's so easy to laugh about the clumpsy movements of those who are still learning but it's so hard to remember that not long ago you most probably looked the same. Having a blog like this helps a lot to take a look back from time-to-time ... realizing how far I came already but how far I still have to go to become really good!

Nowadays, if I see unusual plays I don't put them away as a donk play immediately. I always give them a second look to be sure there isn't a "wolf in a sheepskin".

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IPO Dublin - unofficial "come together" on Oct. 15th

As Benny is already advertising our "come together" for german speaking players in Dublin:

If you play the IPO - International Poker Open and like to attend our "come together" please contact me at shadowbj21@googlemail.com so I can calculate how many seats we have to reserve at the pub on Thursday evening (Oct. 15th). I will then tell you the exact time and location.

This is a special un-official "come together" of all german speaking players attending the IPO!

In case you plan to play the IPO but haven't registered so far I reccommend you do so as soon as possible. Day 1B is already sold out and Day 1A has only a few seats left. There will be absolute no possibilty to buy-in on-site! Also there's only a few days left (till end of the month) to earn 1,000 extra chips by playing at Boyle and accumulating 250 player points.

If you didn't know already: I offer some shares for the IPO at ChipMeUp. So feel free to lower your variance ;-)

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Trip to the APAT Amateur Worldchampionships - Day 3&4

Unfortunately there's not so much to talk about on my last two days. The saturday tournament saw me absolut card dead from the start. I never caught a break and finally ran my short stack with AJs into AK ... resulting in a very early exit.

The Sunday tournament was somewhat better. Didn't get many decent cards there too in the beginning but due to the better structure (5k startingchips and 30 min. levels) I was able to hang in longer to finally take down a decent pot with a set of aces. In addition I won a weired hand with KQ (hitting my Q) that got more expensive then I wanted. When my opponent called my last bet I was sure that I was beat but the guy folded after I revealed my hand and I took down a rather big pot.

Too bad this was the last good hand for me in that tournament. I got 9's once but had to let them go against a Lady's all-in. She was short since I came to the table and folded her way through the game. Quite sure my hand wasn't good against here at that time. So with just 11k left in chips (my highpoint was at 15k) and blinds at 300/600 (50) I got JJ in first position. I shortly considered going all-in directly but decided then to just bet 1,500. We had a lot of medium- to short-stacks at our table and I hoped for one of them trying to go all-in and getting me off the hand. I got my all-in from a stack just a little bigger then mine, I called and it was again a race vs. AK. So going all-in directly most probably wouldn't have made a difference here anyway. I think you already know what happend then? After losing an importent race with AK at the main-event I now lost it against AK. Seems I just was mostly on the wrong side of the coinflips that weekend.

So I went out in 23rd of 65 players (7 got paid) but wasn't unhappy with my play in general that weekend. I'm still ahead at the Dusk Till Dawn due to my third place finish last December but of course I would have loved to cash this time again. I was close two times and was also close to make Day 2 in the main-event.

I played a few hands with Maria Demetriou on my first tournament (even got her off a nice pot). Unfortunately I played with her only for a short time as our table was broken early but she seems to be a very nice person. In my last tournament I missed to play with 2007 EPT Baden winner Julian Thew as he busted right before I was moved to his table.

Now I'm heading back to Munich playing our Xing tournament tonight. Doesn't look if I will make it to win the Bahamas trip (too much points needed) but it's still fun to play with those people.

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Trip to the APAT Amateur Worldchampionships - Day 2

Warning: This is a very long entry. If you are just interested in the poker content you can stop after the first half. If you like to know more about Nottingham then you should read the second part too!

The day of the main-event turned into real desaster for me. I had a decent start when I trapped a flush with J's that improved to a full house. But from there I went really card dead for a long time. I even went below my 10K starting stack down to 8.5K for some time. Finally I got a break as I won a classic AA vs. KK all-in situation. Now at sitting 16K our table was broken and at the new table already the first hand defined my game. With TT I made a standard raise to 1,500 at the 300/600 (50) level and got a re-raise to 3k. I decided to make a stand at least pre-flop and called. The flop was a horrible K-K-x but it obviously wasn't better for my opponent as we checked it down to the river. He showed 66 and I scooped the pot.

From there I got respect for my raises except for one guy who decided to re-raise me everytime he was in a hand with me. Fortunately I had someting everytime that justified to call the re-raise and even better I always hit or was able to represent a hit. I finally made my way up to 24k as the following hand (the last before the break) happened: I raised with KQs and my nemesis re-raised again. I called and the flop was K-9-x. He bet again and I called. I noticed that he didn't seem too happy about the call but for some reason didn't think about it any more at this time. The Turn was a Ten and I expected him to slow down now as this was a table chipleaders fight at this time. But he bet again and now it got very expensive for me if I decided to call again. So calling didn't make sense at all. It was either fold or re-raise. As he had folded to my bets so often I really was in doubt that my kicker was good in that hand. He had played the hand from the big blind so he had a wide range of possible hands. Beside AA, KK or AK even KT or K9 was a possibilty. I finally folded, showing my King to induce a reaction. He did indeed react by showing me Q8 for just a gutshot straightdraw. This was the first borderline decision that went wrong and lead into the final desaster.

I had missed on a huge hand against him with JT before that would have probably killed him as I would have hit my two pair and the only card that would have made his straight would have made me the house. Unfortunately there was a re-raise from another guy pre-flop in front of me so I (correctly) discarded that hand.

After that loss to the bluff of my nemesis I was down to 20k but still 25th in the chipcount with around 100 of 157 players left on Day 1. After the break it took me less then a full level of 45 minutes to run that decent stack into nothing and bust out in 96th position. How did that happen? Well, I first had to fold to two raises (1,500 each) vs. all-in plays. While the first one was easy, the second one was tough. After my raise I had about 15k left and the all-in demanded to put in another 5,000. With AJs I wasn't happy at all to put in a third of my stack into what would be a coinflip at best but easily could be a doomed hand too. This was one of the longest times I ever took for a decision and it was the first time somebody called the clock on me (which was o.k. as I took my time here). I finally folded but looking back I think (even so it was borderline again) I should have called here. He didn't show so nobody will ever know if it was correct or not.

Of course at my next raise another player tried to get me off the hand with a 6k all-in. But with AKo there was no way anybody would have gotten me away from that hand (in that particular situation). It was a race against 66 ... and I lost the race. Too bad as winning this hand would have put me well back into the competition. No regrets, right decision but wrong outcome ;-) Being card dead again I ran my last 6k into the K's of the guy who just a few hands before won the race and my KTs was doomed...

What a desaster! There wasn't too much I could have done different. Two hands were borderline but in both cases it was a 50/50 decision to be on the right or the wrong site. Unfortunate but not a real mistake. But I was still devasteted. Running so good and giving it all away so fast hurts very much. So I went to a bar around the corner of my hotel and had some beer. Unfortunately (or luckily) all bars close at 2am. Not enough time for me to really get drunk ;-)

The next morning it didn't hurt so much anymore. Even better my head didn't hurt (so I would say it was indeed lucky that the bars closed early) and I went on to some sightseeing today. Most people connect Nottingham immediately with Robin Hood. Nothing wrong with that ... but there's much more to know about that area. Unfortunately Sherwood-Forrest itself is about 20 miles north so this wasn't an option for me without a car. But Nottingham castle was close. I could even see it from my hotel window.

Nowadays it isn't a real castle anymore. The structure that was there during the days of Robin Hood was replaced by a mansion in the 16th century as the original castle was more or less destroyed during the civil war. But there is a nice museum in teh mansion that gives you an insight of what it has looked that days. And with a little imagination you can still "see" the original castle structure. The following pictures show: The gate of the former outer walls, the bridge (former drawbridge) of the inner wall, the mansion (were once the main part of the castle was located) and some parts of the original outer wall.









As said beside Robin Hood, Nottingham was an important city in ancient times as it was the place to be for many Kings and the area of fights that decided about the history of England. Of course Nottingham fell to the "black death" as well as many other english cities but managed to stay alive and become a nice market city in the 17th and 18th century. Unfortunately the 19th century should mark the "destruction" of the once flourishing city. The beginning industrialisation increased the citizenship by five times from 10,000 to over 50,000 in less then a century. But the company owners didn't allow to build homes on the outer fields so Nottingham became one of the worst slums in England. Unfortunately the city never really recovered from that decsion. Although there are nice buildings everywere in the city (see below) many parts still look really cramped and not very inviting.







But even without a bright skyline Nottingham is an intersting place to visit. And there are obviously a lot of great places outside of the city in Notthingamshire county. But Nottingham wouldn't be Nottingham if it still wouldn't be on top of something. The city is a very young city (citizenwise) because of the great number of students. And were students come together there are clubs and bars not far. But Nottingham put it to the extreme with the most bars per squaremile in whole Europe ... definately a good place to recover from a bad beat in poker ;-)

Hope you enjoyed that little walk through Nottingham history. I'm now off to more poker at the Dusk Till Dawn.

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