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50k guaranteed, Kings Casino Rozvadov, Czech Republic

Monday, August 31, 2009

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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Saturday, August 29, 2009

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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Friday, August 28, 2009

Trip to the APAT Amateur Worldchampionships - Day 1

Finally the weekend I was looking forward for such a long time arrived. Back to Nottingham and one of the nicest Pokerclubs in Europe - the Dusk Till Dawn. But due to my incompetent travel agency I almost had to miss out on that trip. When I tried to check-in online I found out that my original flights had been cancelled and I was re-booked. Unfortunately nobody cared to tell me! Even worse: I wasn't booked on the new flights, it was just a suggestion that I had to confirm. So I was lucky that there still were free seats available. The good side was that I had to rise later in the morning, the bad side was a three hour stay in Frankfurt which made it a fairly long trip at all.

While enjoying breakfast at Starbucks at the airport in Frankfurt a guy on the other table asked me about poker (I was wearing a WSOP T-Shirt). It was kind of interesting as he was one of those people who watches poker on TV but beyond that has no clue at all. His favorite story was when he saw to guys clash in an all-in with QQ vs. JJ. Then another Queen appeared on the flop ... and two Jacks on Turn and River. He then said to me: "Can you believe that? I almost fell out of my chair as I saw that!". And my answer to that was a simple "Yeah, seen that before, shit happens" ;-) But talking to him and explaining the simplest things (from a poker players standpoint) raised the question for me how hard it really is to convince non-poker players (e.g. politicians) that poker isn't a game of chance. Too often we take things as they are without accepting that others without our background (and bad-beat experience) might look at it from a very different perspective.

I arrived in Nottingham on late afternoon and went to the Dusk Till Dawn for the regular GBP 50 tournament (24 min. blinds & 4,000 startchips). Before I was able to find Des Duffy from the APAT and say hello. Without him I wouldn't have been able to register for the main-event (due to technical difficulties) and wouldn't be here for that weekend at all.

The tournament had 100 runners creating a nice prizepool that paid ten spots and over GBP 1,700 for the winner. My start was quite rusty. With KQ I hit two Kings on the board but was faced with a very aggresive opponent who finally went all-in when the second King appeared on the board. Hard to say if I had a kicker problem, if he just overplayed his hand or just didn't believe me that I had the King. Not enough information at this stage of the tournament. So I decided to stay on the save side and folded. But my stack was now cut into half.

Just a few hands later I was back to my original stack when my suited one gapper turned to a straight and I was able to outplay a guy with QQ. Somewhat later another suited one-gapper turned into a monster when I flopped a straight flush! I got a full payout as this guy kept betting (I just reluctantly called each street) with a flopped Q-high flush. Hi finally went all-in and then went out of the game ;-)

We already reached the end of the 200/400 level and I was sitting on 10,000 chips now when my raise to 1,000 (with AKs) faced an all-in of 7,000. Wow, that was a tough decision but I descided that in a tournament with this structure I couldn't back off here. Fortunately it was a race against TT ... which I (even more fortunately) won with the classic "Ace on the River".

Now at 17k and up to my highest point of 20K as the blinds went to 600/1,200 (100) a few levels later. But from there nothing should went right anymore. First my button raise faced two all-ins from the big-blind and small-blind. I folded and KK battled against AT. A little later my one-off-the-button raise to 3,000 was faced with a sneaky raise to 7,000 from the guy who had the KK before. I decided to fold here as my hand wasn't strong enough for a call and an all-in seemed to dangerous. But with that two hands and some blinds and antes my stack was now down to 10k and I was in push-or-fold mode. I got no customers with my first all-in, just got the antes and the small-blind while holding TT in the big blind and finally ran my 55 into TT. Out in 21st position after 4 hours.

Of course it would have been great to immediately cash on arrival but again I was very happy with my overall play. No significant mistakes, care were care was needed and aggressiveness were aggressiveness was demanded.

Todays Day 1A of the APAT Amateur World Championships is my starting day. The tournament will begin at 4:30pm UK time. We will play 45 min. levels with 10,000 startingchips and 100 runners per day (Day 2B is tomorrow and the final is on Sunday).

While it is raining heavily at the moment the weather forecast for tomorrow is quite good. So I might be able to do some sightseeing on my free day. Stay tuned for more poker stories and some pictures from Nottingham.

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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Summerfeeling and Poker at Lake Woerth

My trip to Lake Woerth, Austria started with a real good beat. Although I had reserved the smallest rental car category I got a brand new BMW 120d with a mileage count of just 100 miles. So I had a nice, relaxing and enjoyable three hour trip across Austria.

My hotel was located directly at the highway rest stop "Lake Woerth". A hotel in that location doesn't sound too inviting but don't get fooled. For a decent price they offer small but nice and clean rooms. And all of them are lakeview rooms! The Marché restaurant next door offered good food and an outside terrace with a magnificant view over the lake. So I was well rested, well prepared and in a good mood at the start of the tournament.

158 players created a nice pricepool with 18 paid spots and a first prize of almost €8,000. Our table was quite friendly and mostly filled with educated amateurs. Most of them seemed to have played in the team event the day before.

Very often it appears in a tournament that the same opponents get heads-up again and again. In my case it was the young girl on seat 8. I lost our first confrontation but got enough information to value her as decent but tight. Shortly after I got most of what I lost to her back again. And then during level 3 we got into a real big hand. She made a huge raise from MP that cried for AA or KK. Everybody folded to me on the button. I decided that the blinds were still low enough and the stacks deep enough for a call with JT here. In addition this was the first time I got the opportunity to have position on her on the remaining streets.

The flop came 789 rainbow. What a monster. She made a decent bet, I shortly hesitated and then called. Turn was a 3 but now put two hearts on the board. She checked and I made a half pot size bet. She called immediately. The river was a meaningless 6 of clubs and I was still holding the nuts. She did bet again and of course I re-raised her. She open folded AA with a big sigh and I showed her my hand. Why did I do that? First because I wanted her to know that I had a real hand here and second playing the hand the way I played it gained me a lot of respect from the other players after they realized what I had behind. From now they were more carefully when I checked to them ;-) I tried a simmilar stunt against another player who appeared to have AA (and later showed them to me) but missed that time and was able to let my hand go with not much invested in the pot. Small-Ball at it's finest.

Jonathan Luetkenhorst the tournament director then added even more to that respect I already got. As always he does some interviews for the promotional video they create for every event. This time he decided to interview me again and he started with "2 final tables last year, another one this year ... it seems you are our inofficial highest ranked pokertour player". While this of course is a nice accomplishment (although I think Jan Schwarz from the PokerBlatt is equal successfull) I expected my image being totally ruined now. But the opposite was the case. From there I got a whole lot of respect from the table and I was able to take down a good number of blinds and antes without much resistance. This raises a good question: Is it better to appear as a fish or a professional? As always the answer is: It depends. In that case with "educated amateurs" getting respected was the much more valuable option.

Until level 4 (45 min. each) I was able to run my stack up to almost 15k and felt very good. Bustouts came fast and at that time we dropped below 100 remaining players. With table balance needed everywere I was forced to change tables and I was jinxed. In a big hand my TT ran into AA. That hand could have been even more expensive but I was able to resist trying to bluff here on the river. A little later my raise with AJ was faced with an all-in from a short stack. I was more or less commited to call here but doubled my opponent who was holding KK.

We already had reached level 5 with 300/600 (50) blinds now. So losing those two hands became expensive even in a deepstack event that had started with 10k chips ... and I was officially shortstacked now.

I waited for my spot and it came with JJ. The chipleader on my right had raised to 1,500. I went all-in for about 6k and then the second chipleader on my left made one of the dumbest possible moves. He went all-in for about 40k chips. Why was it a dumb move? Because he was holding just AQ! Calling my all-in was o.k. even though he still had to invest more than 10% of his stack ... but raising all-in after the chipleader had raised in front didn't make much sense with that hand.

But he got rewarded twice: First the chipleader folded and then he hit his Queen on the flop. I was out in 92nd position but not unhappy about my play. No big mistakes, no plays to regret, taking calculated risks. Just a bit unlucky at the end.

With no day two for me I decided that I still wanted to enjoy my Sunday here. Especially as the weather was georgeous. So I took an extended breakfast at the hotel terrace and then started for some sightseeing. Drove around Lake Worthersee, enjoyed the scenic view over the lake from the "Pyramidkogel" and relaxed lakeside before I started to drive home.

So I am feeling very good for the upcoming APAT Amateur World Championship in Nottingham - which has a similar deepstack structure. On a funny side note I just saw the odds on the players in the APAT event and my odds are among the top 20 players. Best ten odds are 66/1 and I am ranked 80/1 with another nine players. All others are ranked 100/1 to 200/1. Getting ranked that high really surprised me. Hopefully the results will reflect that ranking ;-)

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Monday, August 10, 2009

Next stop Pokertour.at at Lake Woerth (Austria)

Just came back from a great but mentaly exhausting non-poker weekend. We had a very motivating training with the national Boogie-Woogie team and are now even more hyped to dance the World Championships in two weeks in Stuttgart (which are part of the GOC - German Open Championships).

But before that I will come back to my most successfull tournament series so far - the Pokertour.at. This time the event will take place near the scenic Lake Woerth in Kärnten, Austria. Good to be back as I missed some of the other events this year due to conflicting appointments. I'm already qualified for the finals in December (which unfortunately forces me to miss a very important dance competition) but those events are still valuable in structure and prize money.

But that's not all for August. In three weeks I will be back to Nottingham for the APAT - WCOAP World Amateur Poker Championship at the Dusk Till Dawn. I'm really looking forward to this too. Not only is it again a great structured event but the DTD is a great place that saw one of my best performances at the end of last year.

Much more events to come in the next months but I will keep that for later posts.

Just to remember that if you want to play the IPO - International Poker Open in Dublin you should act soon. Although this one happens in October seats sell fast. For Day 1B (Saturday) there are now only 32 seats left. For Day 1A (Friday) there are 338 left. Expect it to sell out completely in the next 2-3 weeks. Another 300 seats are currently reserved for satellite winners and most probably won't be publicly available at any time. And don't forget that the german speaking players want to meet Thursday evening at a pub in Dublin. So if you go to the IPO let me know!

Just a short look back: Last weekend I made a visit to the CCC in Salzburg which had a Deepstack tournament. They got 146 players and paid 15 spots with first getting about €8.000.

I had a good start there busting an overly aggressive player with my JJ who decided that he had to bring his almost equal stack to war with AK. The action was three limpers in front, I then flat called my JJ and he raised it to 10x big blind (3k at this time). Everybody folded to me. He had made this over-raising move several times before and I assumed that this was again just a steal attempt.

Usually I would have re-raised him to 9k here but with a 20k stack that didn't make sense. So I moved all-in on him directly (putting his tournament life on risk ... as well as mine). And he immediately called. Ouch! That wasn't the reaction I had expected. But to my delight he showed a much overplayed AK. Don't get me wrong: His raise was a decent move with that hand (he was indeed much stronger then I had expected) but calling my all-in with just AK was a horrible move with his stack at 150/300 blinds and 45 min. levels. The board was meaningless for both of us and I was up to 38k.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to make much out of this stack. Another guy busted two players in one hand shortly after and now had almost the same stack size. He was picking on me as I had forced him earlier to fold the low full house on an 8866x board. Everytime I raised he was in the hand ... and everytime I missed the board completely. After a time this got very expensive and my stack finally went down to 15k (while the average was up to 25k).

Then I found a spot were I was able to fight back because I had a strong draw. Unfortunately this spot was badly chosen as he had a monster this time and I was drawing dead when the money went in. Went out in 67th place satisfied with my game in general but unhappy about the way I played my exit hand. This exit was avoidable!

Went on the the cash game and doubled my stack after about three hours. Still not enough to make up for the investment but at least a positive ending of the weekend.

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