Q9 is the new nuts

It's 2010 and in some ways it feels still like 2009 ... and that isn't good.

For my first online tournaments I ran a set into a straight and was dominated by 4's (holding A9 and A7 but losing them both times vs. A4).

Last night was my first live tournament in 2010 at the CCC in Innsbruck. The first hand was quite good as a loose guy paid me off with my straight. Up 1k from 12k startingstack in the first hand. Nice! Then again card dead for about 3 levels. Down to 10k and back up to 15k.

Then I got Aces. I had raised them preflop and had bet every street with at least three quarters of the pot on a 9-7-4-Q-2 board (no flushdraw). No, my Aces weren't good here. He had called my initial raise and the flop bet with Q9 off-suit. Even if he had a read on me for a high pair (which I doubt) he only had 20% odds to improve to two pair after the flop. What are those people thinking? I assume if I ever figure it out and understand it I will be either a non-beatable poker player or my brain explodes ;-)

Still 5k left (with blinds shortly going up to 200/400 Ante 50) I got 99 in the very next hand. Just raised, got a re-raise to 1.5k and of course pushed all-in. The same guy woke up with AK and hit his Ace on the Flop and a King on the River. Still nothing done wrong and a nice tournament anyway (just would have preferred to play longer).

Since two of our group still played (and it looked as they wouldn't bust soon) I decided to play the €1/2 game. That was a crazy table. The usual pre-flop raise was something between €12-24 and in most cases there even was a re-raise to at least €40. Was able to get my money in on two great spots: First one was a flopped Full House with A4. That was an easy bet ... still wondering that I got paid off from A9.

The second was tougher but quite typical for the way the game was running: I had AK and raised to €16. I don't usually raise to €16 in a €1/2 game but you have to adapt to the "standard" bet on some times ;-) Of course I got a re-raise to 40. Being known as a tight player who often folds to big bets this was either a bluff or a coinflip. But there was no way I fold to that pot here. Went in with my remaining €90 and got called by QQ. One time! And yes, this time I was betting on the right side of the flip with an AKx board. Cashed out a nice €139 win after 90 minutes.

Back home I was curious the find out if Daniel Felten the winner of our Xing-Tournament series had made it Into-The-Money at the PCA Bahamas. And yes, he did. Barely for the first price level ($15k) but still a great success. Congrats! Then I read that sad story about Nasr who busted with AA in a very similar way then I did (he was "dominated" from K9). Remember the WSOP 2009? Poor guy. It seems that it's always AA that keeps him away from making the big shot. If somebody is "due" to make it someday soon he's definately on top of the list.

Tonight I will enjoy the live stream from the PCA TV-Table (http://tinopolis-pokerstarlive-ger-500k.wm.llnwd.net/tinopolis_PokerStarLive_Ger_500k) and hopefully will make it to Kufstein at least once next week.

Dublin is booked. Unfortunately I won't make it to the main-event due my time schedule but I will play the first side event which is still a great structure with 20k chips and 40 min. levels (2 day event). Just a week later the Poker Royale in Kufstein offers another deepstack event. This time the buy-in is only €100+15 and they have two starting days. The websites says that they will use the structure from the Poker-Kings Weekend (which would make it again a great event). Really looking forward to that one too.