It's not over before it's really over - a last tale from Vienna

While I am finally back home, there is a little piece from my trip that I still want to share with you. You followed me through the not so good times that weekend ... so you deserve the good times too. Even so it's just a small success.

As I told you in my last blog I went to a last tournament on Sunday evening to the CCC. It was only a €20 Buy-In and the 124 players barely covered the €2,000 guarantee. But it was a good one for me!

Of course I got a major hit quite early with AA busted but was able to recover and not only make it into the money but to the final table too. With 5 players left I then ran into the chipleader's KK. My AKs got no help but I got my first and only cash of that trip. Of course the €129 just covered the flight to Vienna but there's so much more about this as it just feels good to have some success again.

This result together with reaching Day 2 in the DSO and just being a bit unlucky after playing a almost perfect 13 hour Day 1b gives back some confidence. Especially the DSO was a good experience even without the cash. For 13 hours I followed my game plan to control the pots I played and only to allow big pots when I felt very confident with my hand.Only one single time I broke my own rules here and it cost me more then a third of my stack ... while having reached 100k shortly before. It was that dreaded hand were I was holding A8s and my opponent shoved on me on a 8-4-6-K board. It doesn't matter that I folded to his bluff (he showed AJ). What matters is the fact that I had allowed a pot to grow big when I should have tried to keep it low or pass after I realised that I can't keep it low.

This is the point when chess can be a real good example for how to play poker. It's often said that chess has one thing that poker doesn't have: The fact that you have to think ahead for the next moves. Of course you can't really think ahead of the next hand being dealt. But you can think ahead of the hand itself! And that's exactly were I made my mistake. Playing that hand like a chess player would do I would have looked at the several options how this hand may play out (especially after the flop was dealt). And if I had done so I would have realized that most of those options are beyond my comfort level at this point. Knowing that early enough I would have left this hand with at least a 90k stack instead of just a 70k stack. At this time of the game having 20k more or less was a very valuable cushion especially with the way I played that tournament.

So I blew a part of my cushion with a bad move and therefore blew the chance to end that day with 100k+ instead of 76k. No big deal with blinds starting 1,500/3,000 (400) the next day?

Then look again how my aces hand played out on Day 2: with 70k left I made it 7,500 and was called. On the all spade flop I got my 10k bet check raised to 20k. At this point I had about 53k left. So it was very hard to let the Aces go with "just" 10k to bet. On the other hand had I started my day with 100k I still would have had almost 80k. I am sure it would have been much easier for me to let the hand go at that point - also I still would have hated that option. With 80k left (or even with 70k if I had played the hand the same way) I would have had much more time to wait for a decent hand. I would have not being forced to take my chances on 79 and losing there to AK.

I don't think anybody plays without mistakes in a tournament that long. And I wouldn't say it was a big mistake in itself. I had made worse moves in other tournaments before. But looking back it turned out to be a very costly mistake and I am now sure it had cost me a very good shot on an "In-The-Money" result. And it was an avoidable mistake! Hopefully next time I start to get too much drawn into the action of a hand I start to remember the chess comparison and think ahead early enough!

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Chilipoker Deepstack Open, Vienna - Short Day 2

Unfortunately my Day 2 was much shorter then expected. I was placed on the exact same table as the day before (Table 32) but now in seat 9. On my former seat 1 there was now Ivo Donev who was quite short with about 49k. Too sad that I wasn't able to play a hand with him due to my short day. Didn't know the other players ... but not surprisingly some of them had a lot more chips then I  had ;-)

My turn came about 30 minutes into the level when I received AA in first position. Raised it to 7,500 at 1,500/3,000 (400) blinds hoping somebody tries a move on me. The usual raise at this table was 12-16k at this time!

Unfortunately all folded to the big blind who just called my bet. The flop was a disastrous all spades. My opponent checked, I bet 10k and he then re-raised me to 20k. I decided to see on the turn if he was making a move on me or not and just called. The dealer turned a red Queen and my opponent immediatly went all-in with about the same chips I had. Time to say goodbye to my rockets.

Now with just 37k my action was limited to push or fold. Actually I was limited to just fold as I didn't get anything even remotely playable for one and a half orbits. With just two more two the blinds I decided that 79 is my all-in. Everybody folded to the small-blind who went all-in instantly. I was up against AK. Could have been worse. Flop was great: 6-8-4 ... but no further help and I was out in 167th of 505.

Decided to play the East Masters at the CCC that night. It's a nice structured 10k chips, 25 min. levels tournament. Yesterday it looked a little like the DSO losers lounge ;-) And losing was ecaxtly what I did in the first three levels. I can't remember a tournament were I received more bad beats per minute then in this one! It was a wonder that I survived that long anyway.

So for tonight I will most probably play another small tournament at the CCC and that will conclude a weekend that started in a great way but didn't get the expected results.

Not sure about my next plans. Of course the DSO Marrakesh (which is directly before the WPT Marrakesh) sounds very interesting ... but I think I need a good win before or satellite my way into it to make this happen. Most probably will skip DSO Paris.

Looks like there are not many other bigger events left until the end of the year. Of course you can find me in Kufstein at some of their regular or sepcial events. The next event I am definately aiming for is of course the DSO Dublin in early February 2011!

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Chilipoker Deepstack Open, Vienna - Survived Day 1b

After a very long time of failed attemps I made it again into a Day2 of a bigger event.  Actually the DSO Sideevent in Dublin in 2009 was my last Day 2 if I remember correctly!

And it was a good day in general. It started with a little mess as I lost a pot that should have been a split ... but the dealer had announced it as a flush for my opponent. Not a big thing because it wasn't a big pot. And it was my mistake not to check accurately enough.

But from there things went very well. It was a good table with a nice mix of decent and not so decent players and the action was hard but it was always possible to control the potsizes. Therefore I never became involved in pots that grew bigger then I wanted them to be and was able to play may way up to 88k in a slow and steady way.

We had a total of 292 player on Day 1b and the number of participant of both days combined was a good 505 total.

Unfortunately 88k was my high point for most of the eveneing hours as I first missed to participate in an important pot and then lost a good bunch in one of the not so many hands that went the wrong way.

In the first occurance (which happend a little bit before the high with about 70k), a small stack went all-in for 12k when I woke up with JJ in the BB. I was eager to call this all-in but another stack with 35k moved in too. After tanking some time I discarded my Jacks as being against two opponents didn't look right here. I was wrong as the smallstack showed KJ and the other guy showed 99. No help for either of them and what could have been my pot went to somebody else :-(

The next all-in was easier to call. Patrick Hirtzer went all-in on an 7xx A board with about 12k. I called with AK and he showed me 77. Ouch, well trapped!

I now was down to 60k and to add insult to injury I was card dead for the next few hours. But then came the time of the 9's. With just 30k left I moved all-in with 9's and my opponent called with AQ. The coin fell on my side and I was back in the game. I then had to discard 9's against the same opponent somewhat later when he went all-in on me but got a third try (this time against another opponent). He was holding AK got no help (while my 9's improved to a set on the turn). I busted him and finally broke the 100k mark for the first time.

While I was very satisfied with my game in general I then played one hand very badly. Not only because I got bluffed from the hand. That's something that will happen to anybody from time to time, but because I allowed the pot to grow bigger then I wanted it to be. That brought me back down to 70k and from there even further down to 50k.

At the end I was able to revover a bit and packed 76,000 chips at the end of level 12. Still an o.k. result but I know it could have been more. Average should be around 130k in the combined field of 192 players. I am curently on 139th position in the chipcount and the blinds will be 1,500/3,000 (400). I expect 50-52 places to be paid.

Now sitting here at the Montesino, enjoying breakfast and writing this blog. Beeing in the hotel next door has advantages and disadvantages: It gives you a lot of flexibility but you start to realize that you don't get to see many different things. Same places, same people , same routine all the time. And your outside time is limited too. But for now I very much enjoy the flexibility ;-)

Start of Day 2 is at 1pm this afternoon. Live reports for Day 2 and the combined chipcount can be found here: Pokerfirma Live Reporting

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Chilipoker Deepstack Open - the day before

I finally arrived in Vienna for the DSO. Day 1a is already running. They had 213 players and most probably will be down to around 100 by the end of the day. Day 1b, which will be my starting day, will most probably have more players. They expect around 350+ ... looks like a decent prizepool.

Today I went to the Concord Card Casino for a "Deep and Turbo" tournament but only lasted about 2 hours when my A's got busted by a flopped set of 4's. Went over to the Montesino to watch some of the Day 1a action and talk to some friends.

Already got my seat assignment and I will be on table 32 seat 1. Of course I will try to Twitter as much as possible - but if you want to follow the whole action I suggest you look at the Pokerfirma.de Live Updates which are really good and acurate.

Lots of well known names in the field tomorrow (including Andreas Krause and Liz Lieu). So time to go to bed to be fresh for a 12 level, 60 minute / level day that starts at 1pm.

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Time for a small update

Unfortunately there wasn't much poker for me in the last days and weeks since I was busy with a lot of other things. So here's a small update for those who are interested.

After being back home from the UK the only bigger event I had played in so far was the grand opening of the new tournament area at the Poker Royale in Kufstein. It was a great success and both of their celebration tournaments had been a sell out. The room is wonderful and I enjoyed to see so many familiar faces (several of them being there for the first time).

I had a decent run in the first tournament but was stopped by some bad beats somewere with a third of the field left. In the second torunament I didn't ever made it above my starting stack and went out after a few hours.

For a full gallery of pictures from the Poker Royale grand opening stage 2 check at the end of this blog entry.

Since then I was very busy with training for our dance competitions. We already had the "Southern German Championship" (were we placed 5th) and our own club competition (were we became club champion the third time in a row) but there are more competitions to come. Fall is always a busy time here. Next are the German Championship in Rosenheim and the World Championship in Schaffhausen. For those who are interested I added a video form our last competition. Enjoy!

In addition to this already time consuming action the American Football season is in full swing too. Of course I am not playing myself ;-)) but do some betting analysis for Wettfirma.com and posting my picks there (german text only). I love to be back into sportsbetting but even with my improved charts it still takes a lot of time to prepare my picks every week.

This week was mainly devoted to some computer stuff as I went on a Linux course for system administrators. I was always interested in Linux but after that five days I really fell in love with Linux. Honestly considering moving to Linux compeletely and dumping that crappy windows entirely (although Windows 7 is much more decent then Vista). Only thing I have to figure out is what to do with iTunes :-(

So this was a lot of non poker stuff but no fear ... there will be more poker soon. My next big event will be the Chilipoker Deepstack Open Championship in Vienna (October 14th - 17th). Really looking forward to this: A great tournament in a wonderful card casino which is located in a very nice city ... life can be sooo good :-)

Poker Royale Card Casino, Kufstein - Grand Openeing Stage 2

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