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50k guaranteed, Kings Casino Rozvadov, Czech Republic

Friday, January 30, 2009

Superbowl betting

Superbowl XLIII is just 2 days 20 hours and 16 minutes away! I put down two small bets on the Cardinals betting the spread +7 and winning +180. If the Cardinals lose by more than 7 I will lose money of course. If they lose below 7 I will almost break even and if they win the superbowl I almost double my money.

I'm betting way less then I did during my sportsbetting years. At this time it's just some fun-betting to increase the tension of the game. Maybe I find some interesting prop bets in addition before the game but I doubt it.

Why do I think the Cardinals will win? Well, usually the right side at the conference championships and the superbowl is the better defense (which would be Pittsburgh). But the Cardinals showed that they can deal with good defenses. They remind me somewhat of the Patriots and Tom Brady in the 2002 Patriots vs. Rams game. The Patriots had been the absolute underdog (I think they got a +14 spread in 2002) but proofed everybody wrong.

Guess who was the Quarterback of the losing Rams team? Kurt Warner! History repeating? Kurt Warner winning the Superbowl now ... being the underdog with the Cardinals? Doesn't this sound like the perfect fairy tale story?

There are times for fairy tales to come true ... Sunday could be the right day for it. At least I haven't lost my believe in fairy tales ;-))

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Tuesday, January 27, 2009

ChipMeUp - first impressions

Recently I told you about ChipMeUp - a new site for staking and becoming staked. Yesterday and today I played my first two events with backers from this site and it was great fun.

My usual MTT-Online-Tournaments are in the $24 range. But thanks to CmU I was able to play the $55 "Daily Eighty Grand" at PokerStars and the $69+6 (6-max) at FullTilt. I got backers for the full 50% I offered in each event and was able to cash in one of the two. My overall ROI at CmU is now 30.77%. Payment and payout are done fast and easily via PokerStars or FullTilt.

So my first impression is very good and I am sure I will try this site more often in future events.

As said before I already have some more events scheduled (including two live events). Still shares available here ;-)

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Sunday, January 25, 2009

My next tournaments

Not much has happened since my last tournament in Ceska Kubice. But a lot has happend regarding the success of german poker players. Moritz Kranich, a nice guy I met first about three years ago at the PokerOlymp Open in Schenefeld, has won the EPT in Deauville. Congratulations to this great success!

After some kind of a small poker break I will contuinue with some online play during the coming week. On Monday I will play the $55 "Daily Eighty Grand" at PokerStars and on Tuesday it's the $69+6 (6-max) at FullTilt.

Next Sunday will be mainly watching the Superbowl. Not sure if I will get a few bets down. But if I have some bets they will be on Arizona without doubt.

The week after the Superbowl will be all Poker then: On Tuesday I will be at a small workshop with Vanessa Rousso in Regensburg (organised by Stephan Kalhamer). Should be very interesting and great fun.

On Thursday I start my trip to the "European Deepstack Championships" which will last till Monday.

I'm biased if I will play the FTOPS event #20 on Friday 13th or go to Vienna for the DeepStack tournament at the Montesino on Feb 14th. Or maybe I do both ;-)

So lots of poker coming up ... stay tuned for more blog entries in the near future.

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Monday, January 12, 2009

No cash in Ceska Kubice

Went to the €200+20 Winter Challenge at the Casino Savoy in Ceska Kubice (Czech Republic). Nice but small casino with five poker tables. The structure was not too bad (PF=20) and a total of 43 players showed up on day 1b. At the first day they had 36 players.

It was nice to meet Thomas and Silke again and we all had fun during the first levels. I was quite card dead but was able to get a good number of played hands anyway ... without losing too much of my 12,000 starting stack (8K was my lowest point). After the first break I was able to put some heat on several of the players and get to 15,000 with blinds at 150/300.

Unfortunately I had to give up JJ on a A-x-x flop (with some bettting before) and slipped down to around 10,000. Somewhat later I went out when I ran into a guy who wasn't able to let Pocket Aces go on a dangerous board. I wasn't in a bad position here as I had outs for a a flush and a full house but unfortunately missed both.

Anyway, I get more and more comfortable with the selective aggression of my new style. While my old way to play wasn't bad in general it was a little boring and lacked some kind of ingenuity. With the new style I enjoy the game much more and my play is less straight and more diversified.

My next big event will be the European Deepstack Poker Championships in Dublin. And I am offering some shares for this. There's a nice site called "ChipMeUp" were you can buy or sell stakes. I wasn't very excited about those staking sites in the past. But this one not only looks very professionell, they also got bought by PokerNews not long ago!



So if you like, get a piece of me. As always I can't guarantee for a win but will try my best!

On a side note: Congratulations to Nidal Echaust for making the money at the PCA, Bahamas. Nidal (a nice guy from our Munich home game) won our Xing Series in 2008. That win got him a PCA Bahamas package from PokerStars and finally he made 144th place of over 1,300 players. If you want to do the same please check "Immerwiedermontags" (german only) at Xing and join us for the 2009 series.

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Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Good play and bad play at the "Oceans Masters"

Went to the Oceans Pokerclub near Passau to take part in two of the "Oceans Masters" events. Two tournaments that couldn't have been more different.

Both were called "Deepstacks" but to be honest they were decent structured (PF > 10) but not what I would call "Deepstack". But beside the fact that there was a huge jump from Level 3 (100/200) to Level 4 (200/400 + 25 ante) this was a playable structure with 10,000 startchips and 30 min. levels. The second tournament even offered 15,000 chips.

During the first tournament that had 50 players I never really made it above my starting stack until we were down to two tables. No big win, no big losses ... I just wasn't able to come ahead. The most remarkable hand was a Queen-high straight flush that got me at least some chips. My third if I recall it correctly.

With 18 players left at the 800/1,600(200) level I was close to death with just 9,000 chips being in the big blind. I was absolute card dead since a long time and now got KJo in the BB. Then the button made me a real present: He raised it to 5,000, the SB folded and I decided to go all-in. I expected him to have a hand but with only 7,400 left I didn't had much choice and hoped for a coinflip. Of course he called and to my delight showed 72o! Double-Up!

This was a weired move. He wanted to steal but it was bad timing. He only had a stack of 18K himself and he should have seen that I am very low in chips (=desperate). If I decide to play my hand he is commited to call for half of his chips. A well, I don't have to understand everything.

From there I could only pick up some blinds and antes but even with 18,000 and now 1,000/2,000(200) blinds there wasn't much room to move. I found 55 in early position. As our table was now short-handed with 6 players this was a decent hand and I went all-in. Unfortunately a big stack found JJ and I was out on 12th with 7 spots paid.

It was a nice tournament and I enjoyed meeting some people I knew for a long time but never met in person so far. Therefore I was in good mood for next days tournament.

But this went into desaster as I only lasted about 20 minutes. Again we had 50 players and early on I lost a decent pot while having the donkey end of a straight with 9 to K. As the board was T,J,Q,K I had to give my opponent the possibilty for an Ace and folded to his river bet. He showed QQ for trips. That was a tough one. I think I made the right decision (by conserving chips) but this hand still flew through my head when I got AK a little later.

I raised and got two callers. Flop comes 2-6-A. TPTK with a low board, cool! Not cool because I absolutely overplayed may hand and ran into a set of sixes. Bad play on my part. My first priority is to conserve chips in the early stages due to my style of play. After my opponent showed resitence to my bets I should have been carefully. I saw a lot of very bad play that weekend but this was the first hand this guy played as he arrived late. Of course in that tournament there were a lot of people that would reraise me holding AQ, AJ or even worse. But when in doubt ...!

So the only one I can blame here for being out in 49th of 50 is myself.

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