Bleeding chips in the big one but taking down the side event

Last weekend I checked out the Kings Pokerroom in Rozvadov, CZ (close to Waidhaus). They have started a series with a €250+25 buy-in on Saturdays during July/August. The tournament sounded very promissing as they offered 10,000 startchips and 45 min. levels (Level 1-3 were 30 min.). In addition they have a guaranteed prizepool of €50,000 ... a huge overlay as they got between 100 - 150 players during the first tournaments. This weekend they had 112 players. A decent tournout as there was another big tournament in Cheb (which is not far away) running at the same time. They gave a €275-Buy-In-Ticket to players placing 16th - 30th. This ticket is non-transferable and has to be used in about 4 weeks. In addition every of the 15 paid spots gets the ticket too as part of their payout.

Unfortunately my tournament day was over after just four levels and I was really bleeding chips this time. I never lost a huge pot or made a major mistake. I even had a monster laydown with AK were I had hit TPTK and was up agains a rivered straight. But I should have known that I was doomed when I realized that I forgot my lucky dinosaur (my card protector) in the hotel room. And I was indeed jinxed. When I was holding red cards the board came all black. When I played unpaired facecards the board was all small cards. I had pairs ... there were at least two overs on the board. And of course with suited connectors the board was all face cards.

No wonder I went out in 92nd position of 112. But the same continued then in the cashgame too. It just wasn't meant to be and I went back in my hotel at 4 in the morning really unsure what to do. The options were: driving home after breakfast, playing some more cash on sunday afternoon or playing the One Rebuy + Add-On tournament at 6pm. Still unsure I arrived at the Kings around noon hoping to find Thomas & Silke who had made it into day 2. We talked for some time and then I railed them as no cash game went through this afternoon.

Silke busted before the paid spots (but got a ticket again). Thomas eventually won the tournament (at the end they split the prize money 4-way). At this time I was already sitting in the rebuy-event which had a decent structure for a €60 buy-in. The levels lasted 20 minutes with a moderate increase (no antes). With 3,000 chips + 3,000 rebuy and 6,000 add-on you got plenty of play. I was running much better here then the day before but during the middle stages my stack shrinked from 19,000 to 9,000 very fast as the blinds now started to get expensive and I had to give up some good opportunities.

I managed to reach the final table but did it as the absolute shortstack. There I got my daily lucky hand as I was all-in with A5 vs A6 hitting my 5. Still short with 18,000 chips I was now at least in the position to put selective pressure on several people and raised my stack to 38.000 with 7 players left. Now came the hand that turned everything around: I was holding AK when a decent player went all-in for almost 50,000 and I was sure that he didn't have AA or KK as he seemed to be very unhappy as soon as I asked for a count. So I expected that the worse I could get was a coinflip. With just four spots paid and the fact that everybody was shortstacked already this was a decent opportunity to call. You may imagine how delighted I was to see that I was up against AQ.

With now around 80,000 chips I was chipleader and everything had changed. Somewhat later I got a real present from the second in chips. At this time we were already down to six players. I had AJs and called a raise from this guy. Flop was 2-K-7. I checked and he checked too. Turn was a Jack. I checked again and he bet. For some reason I was sure he didn't have the King. So I re-raised him all-in and he called with A9s. Wow! The river blanked and he was out (of the money) while I was now sitting on 140,000 chips. Remember: about an hour and five eliminations before I had barely 9,000 chips!

But there was another guy who had a great run at the final table. The one who ran his AQ into my AK. He was down to 8,000 chips after that hand but managed to accumulate chips and finally we both went into heads-up almost equal in chips. It was a great heads-up as nobody of us was short at this time and we both liked to play post-flop poker. Eventually I managed to win the tournament for €1,355.

This put a great ending to a rather tough weekend. But despite my bad run on Saturday this place is a real reccomendation! It's a nice and clean place that offers very good tournaments and a wild but profitable cash game (at least in the €1/3 level that I played). On Saturday they had also games at €2/5, €5/10 and even on game at €20/40 running.

Almost all kind of drinks are free and there is a very tasty buffet almost all-day around. The service personal is among the friendliest I've ever experienced (even compared to very good american standards). The only real downside are some of the german guests that still seem to think they are superior and treat the czech people in a way that isn't appropriate in my opinion. Although you may still feel like being in Germany in that place you are not! We should always remember that we are just guests and should behave that way. I am happy to be a guest in a country so close to Germany that allows me to play my favorite game legally.

In general the tournaments are run in a decent way but the floor has to get a little bit more experienced. Especially the rebuy-event went a little hectic at one point. But I have no doubt they will get this sorted out very soon. This is really a place and tournament I can reccommend for everybody who loves to play good poker and wants to enjoy their time in addition. If my schedule would allow it I would be back in the next weeks for sure.

Their series ends with a €750 main event on August 22nd/23rd (if I remember the date correctly) ... I really hope they add a little for the higher buy-in by making the main event 60 min. levels and offering maybe 12K or 15k starting chips. But so far no details are published about the main event yet as far as I know.

I really wish them success with their series and I would be happy if they decide to either extend it or run it again in fall. In that case I would quote Arnold "Terminator" Schwarzenegger: "I'll be back!" :-)