Back to winning at poker ... and it feels good!

Maybe it's just an interruption of my dry run or I finally can be successfull at tournament poker again ... no matter what - it feels good! Try to imagine that: I had three almost back-to-back final tables in 2008. Two times at the Pokertour.at and one time at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham. I then missed the money at the EDPCII in Dublin (by my own mistake mostly) in early 2009 and cashed a third time at the Pokertour.at.

From there until now I virtually achieved nothing ... 15 month of pure frustration. There was a very small win (3rd place) in a €10 tournament upon my first visit at the Poker Royale Kufstein and a final table (without cashing) somewhat later. Every other tournament was just a big fail.

Most of it can be blamed on a very dry run and being a sure loser on any 90%+ situation but it wouldn't be fair to blame only (bad) luck. Of course it's hard to win a tournament if you don't get anything. Of course you are out if your best hand gets rivered on an all-in. But there are options to avoid getting in that situation at all.

Last week and this week I final tabled two in a row by making 3rd and 2nd in the Poker Royale Survival Tournament. This isn't a big win ... it's only a 30 people €50+7 tournament. But what counts most is the confidence boost that you get from this. You now know again how it has to feel if it's "just right". I didn't play bad in the last 15 months but looking back and comparing it to the last two tournaments - I didn't play great either. And "just not playing bad" isn't good enough at poker. "Making a move" or "living the move" are two completely different things. "Trying to trap with a good hand" or "designing a trap with a good hand" falls into the same category.

I think you got the picture. Of course I was again lucky some times (as are others) but in general I felt like being "in the zone" all the time in that two tournaments. Funny part is that both ran absolutely different. Last week a busted bluff (due to a borderline hero call from my opponent) saw me struggling early and fighting my way back until the final table were I still was the shortstack. Yesterday I was chipleader for about the first third of the tournament. My stack never took a deep dive until the final table and I arrived there with an average stack.

Two different runs but both can end successful - that's what poker is about. Can you imagine how good I feel now? Of course nobody can tell if my run continues. But I know that I still can do it. All the negative feelings are blown away. What better timing could this be with the coming events:

My little Dinosaur from Nottingham

• EDPC Namur (seeking consolation for my missed final table in Dublin 2009)
• Pokertour.at at Lake Woerth (my most successful series so far)
• APAT World Championship at Dusk Till Dawn ... back to Nottingham the place were I had one of my best results. Oh, and btw. the Dinosaur is coming home to his birthplace again ;-)

Whatever happens in the next six weeks ... cashing or not, final tabling or not ... I will enjoy what I do and I will do my very best to make it happen again ... "because it feels so good!!!!"

Oh, and if you think my run will continue ... there is an option to jump on that train while it's still gaining speed: ChipMeUp - Namur Event ;-)

But Poker is not all what's happening. Some of my german readers may have already seen my article at wettfirma.com. So I am back into sportsbetting and trying to give you some interesting views into the world of betting the NFL.

Tweet no. 1,000

Last week I also had my 1,000th tweet at Twitter. When I started with Twitter about  two years ago (ironically it was a tweet about the APAT) I wasn't really sure about that twitter thing. But now I really love it. Not only for tweeting myself but also for reading tweets from a lot of interesting people (not only poker related). Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare ... three tools have that I with me all the time. So if you are still interested in my adventures ... you know were to find me!