And another Bubble-Time

I had a very good start into Day 2. Not only had I been seated at a table with many small-stacks (I was second in chips here) but also the button started left of me. Very good circumstances that allowed me to increase my stack from 51.300 to almost 75.000 by finally busting 19th place. Unfortunately this broke our table and the new one was very different.

I faced several big and huge stacks here so I changed gears with just 3 more people to go till the money. With 16 left I refused playing AK from MP as I would have played against an equal stack in the SB and a really huge stack in the BB. Beside that I didn't get any hand at all that was even remotly close to consider a play. With 56.000 left I wasn't too unhappy about that (even with blinds of 2.000/4.000 - 400).

But then I received KK in the small blind. A big stack in MP raised to 12.000. Of course I could have folded this hand too. But with KK I'm an 80% favorite against two random cards. There was a wide range of hands this guy could have been played. Calling was no option of course. Re-raising would have made me pot-committed anyway so the only alternative was all-in then. If he tried to steal or played a medium to low pair or maybe AK, AQ he may fold and I could add 25.000 to my stack (as he still had to risk almost half his stack with a call). If he played JJ's or QQ's he may call and I may be up to 130.000 soon. There's only one single hand that beats me ... guess what he had?

Isn't that unbelievable? Playing for a total of 11 hours on two days without big mistakes. Playing some of the best poker in my entire life and then I run into AA with my pocket Kings and bust as the bubble-boy in 16th position out of 121 players.

And no, folding the Kings wasn't an option at all! If I fold KK just because it's the bubble then I could go directly to the bar take a drink and either wait till somebody busts or I am blinded to death (which wouldn't take long with 9.200 chips per orbit). You don't play a tournament just to fold yourself into the money. That's crazy. If you have an 80%-hand you have to take the risk no matter what!

So I went to the big party for the Soccer Euro at the city hall just to receive the next bad beat by seeing Germany losing against Spain. But to be fair - Spain played a good game and they really earned to win. It was a big party and I think this was the best place in Vienna (except for the stadium of course) to see the game.

I'm somewhat very sad about those 2 bubbles and the one near bubble in the last time. If some things went a little different I could have added decent to big money to my bankroll. But on the other hand I still see a significant increase in the quality of my game - especially in those bigger events. If I just manage to stay on the right side of variance at least once...

Remark: If you read my last blog post there was a crucial hand were I folded to an all-in with a straight draw, not knowing if I had enough outs to make the call. The guy told me today that he had exactly the same hand (KT) that I had. And I tend to belive him. Still the right decision as there is a huge difference to bet with a draw or to call with a draw. I love good played hands (and this was one).

"If you don't get bluffed from time to time you're playing way to loose"

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Made it to Day 2, but still not ITM yet!

The "Niederösterreichische Landesmeisterschaft" started at 7pm with 121 players. Good structure with 10.000 Startchips and slow 45min Blindlevels. I had a very good table that allowed a lot of play and moves. I didn't get great cards but decent enough to see a lot of flops. Fortunately I was able to connect several times with the flop in the beginning. That not only increased my stack but also allowed for a lot of play in later stages.

My stack was at 18.000 at the first break and up to 37.000 (3 times the average) somewhat later. I can only imagine how much the people at my table must have hated me ;-) The funny thing is that we lost only one player during the first 5 levels (and it wasn't me who busted him). So most of my stack increase came from small to medium pots and it took a long time before I became involved in some real huge pots.

Unfortunatly we later got a new player. He had about the same chipstack then me and it was very clear that we now had a new table terrorist. So I took a "break" from ruling the table and narrowed my raising and calling range. Good thing, also he was a bad player he crippled some of the others severely with his very aggressive style. Finally he overdid it and donked off his stack with some of the worst calls I've ever seen.

Good thing he was away, bad thing most of his chips went to a guy to my immediate left. But this guy was at least much easier to play.

A little later I lost a huge chunk of my stack with KT on a AQT pot when I faced an all-in from a guy who had about 20.000 chips. I was sure he was ahead. I was sure a straight would kill him but I wasn't sure if I had some more outs (set, two pair). So I folded and fell down to 30.000 (still double the average). But I also went right into a cold streak for more than one level and further down to 25.000 chips.

I finally picked up AQ during the 600/1200 (50) level and raised it to 4.000. One caller. Flop comes Qxx, he goes all-in and I instacall. He shows KQ and I am back to 50.000. I reached my highpoint at about 60.000 and went back to 50.000 with 3 tables left. Then this hand happend with 25 players and 15 minutes left to play on Day 1:

I get dealt AK on the button and raise to 6.000 with blinds 1.000/2.000 (200) ... a move I had done from various positions before without showing my hands. The big blind went all-in for little over 50.000 (having me slightly covered). Wow! O.K. - It was clear he assumed a move but how strong was his hand really? A-low? Most probably not. Medium to high pocket pair? Maybe. Kings or Aces? Still a very aggressive move, but possible. So it looked like the only beatable hand (if he wasn't totally nuts) was AQ. All others would have been coin flips or I was way behind. Being about average and 11th in chips with 15 people getting paid I wasn't in the mood for taking a coinflip. On the other hand I wanted something for my 6.000 chip fee ;-) so I open folded my AK getting a huge reaction from the whole table. Very interesting that most peoples reaction was "I never would have folded AK here". Well, I wouldn't have either if I had known his exact hand ... he showed indeed AQs. But anyway, tough fold but I am still thinking that it was the right decision.

Did I gain from showing my hand? Yes and now! I showed that I am able to lay down a big hand, I showed I'm not playing around if I raise, I forced the BB to show his hand (a HUGE mistake on his side in my opinion) ... but I also showed I may be bluffable. But in general I think this time showing the hand had way more upsides than downsides.

At the end of the day (3:30am) 23 players were left and come back today at 3pm. Eight more to go till the money. I am still average in chips with 51.300 (11th position) but the new level will have 1.5000/3.000 (300) blinds.

Chipleaders are: Peter Hajszan (164.600) and Heinrich Steindl (150.600). Big gap to Simon Angerer on 3rd position with 75.800 chips. The low stacks are 12.000 to 21.000 followed by some players in the 30.000 chips range.

So everything is still possible but folding my way into the money definately won't work.

For Updates, pictures and informations about this event check http://www.pokertour08.at. If you like good poker tournaments you should consider coming to one of their future events. Great structure for a decent buy-in!

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Poker and the Soccer Euro 2008

At the time I made my plans to go to Vienna (Wiener Neustadt exactly) for the Pokertour-Event at the Poker Royale I wasn't thinking about the Soccer Euro. And to be honest, I'm only a soccer fan during European- or Worldchampionships. So I didn't realize until Wednesday (the day Germany won their half-final vs. Turkey) that I will be in Vienna during the final on Sunday.

So now I have two options: make it to day two of the event (which most probably will mean that I am ITM) and see the final on the screens at the Poker Royale or if I don't survive day one go to the public viewing at the city hall in Vienna.

Either way ... Sunday will be fun :-))

Tried to win a ticket for todays event yesterday in a €20+5 MTT satellite. Had a good start in the first two levels but then I didn't get much to play. Had to fold my raised hands two times to an all-in that was just too big to call. That two hands alone did cost me 20% of my stack during a critical phase of the tournament. At the end I ran into KK and JJ trying to make a move with medicore hands (the best I got in that time, except for AA ... which just got me the blinds and antes). Out on 39th position of 123. Only 12 paid places (10 tickets and two with small money).

Today I just went through Vienna enjoying the good weather. There's already a good number of german and spanish soccer fans around and it#s a nice party atmoshphere everywere. That's what I like most. It doesn't matter which team you support ... everybody just seems to be there to have a good time.

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Back at home

After it seemed that Vegas wanted to get rid of me it looked like Vegas had changed his mind the next morning. Our flight to Frankfurt was delayed for almost three hours. Good thing that McCarren airport has free W-LAN. Unfortunately reception is very bad in the international terminal and - even worse - there are almost no power outlets.

Finally the flight started and it got very bumpy for about an hour due to bad weather in the midwest. Weather like this is the reason I like to sit in the front quarter of an airplane!

Of course I missed my connecting flight in Frankfurt but was lucky to get a flight about two hours later. Boarding was on time but then we had to sit in the plane for another 90 minutes because of bad weather in Munich. So I finally arrived very tired and 4 hours late in Munich.

Now I'm somewhat recovered and have started my work for PocketFives.com. We still have a lot of things to do before we can go online.

I plan to play the $25+2.50 MSOP 6-max event at FullTilt on Monday evening and hopefully will make it to the Pokertour event on June 28th at the PokerRoyale in Wiener Neustadt (which has a DeepStack structure).

The trip to Vegas and the WSOP was quite expensive as I had almost no cash so I have to rebuild my bankroll somewhat. Therefore I have not many fixed plans about bigger tournaments so far but might go to the Poker-Club or CCC in Salzburg on occasion.

Although I had both of Harrington's cashgame books with me on my trip to Vegas I didn't found any time to continue reading. This is definately a task to complete in the near future as I want to make a new attempt for playing cashgames quite soon.

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Seems that Vegas want me to leave the city

This last day was the worst of my whole trip. It had ups and downs but the downs were horrible. It started with the 10am tournament at Planet Hollywood. Somebody loved to call my raise because she had a good feeling with here 57o. Flop came 5-7-x all spades, she bet and I went all-in with my spade nut-flush. She called and got rewarded with another 5 for a Full House.

Took a break and visited the Red Rock Casino in Summerlin. Real nice place. Reminds me somewhat of the Green Valley Ranch ... just a little more modern. Ran $80 into $180 at the BJ table and were happy not to go to the ATM again to buy-in for the 7pm tournament at Caesars. Unfortunately this wasn't meant to be either and I went out quite early there.

As I headed to the exit they announced a $65 Sit-and-Go. Unfortunately I had only 50 left in my pocket. So I went to the next BJ table and decided to either lose $40 or run them into $65. It worked and when I came back there was still a seat available. Made 2nd place there for $160 ... so I got my $40 back and had exactly $120 for the 11pm tournament.

That one lasted only one hand(!). Flopped two pair with KQ on a dangerous flop of K-Q-T with two hearts. Bet three quarter of the pot and got re-raised to double my bet. With three way action I had at least to see the turn here. Turn was a perfect Queen of hearts for a Full House Queens over Kings. Turn was checked around. River was meaningless. Went all-in and hoped that somebody had hit either his straight or flush. One caller ... who showed KK for a Full House Kings over Queens.

15 more hours till my flight back. Seems that Vegas want's to make sure that I don't miss that flight!

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KK, AA and Quads

Had a nice and relaxing day. Went shopping and enjoyed myself. Little did I know that tonights tournament would be really short.

I had a good start taking down some pots and getting my stack up to 6,000 (from 5K starting stack). Shortly before the end of level one I got dealt KK in EP. Raised it, a caller and a re-raise. As the re-raise came from late position it could be aces or any high pocket pair (even AK). So I called and the third player called too. That way we created a huge pot of almost 3,500.

Flop came 7-7-9, not to bad for a pair of Kings. Unfortunately I was first to act. Checking? In that case I could have thrown my Kings right away as somebody would bet and I wouldn't know how good my hand is. So I raised to 2,100 to shut out possible flush- or straightdraws. I expected the MP player to fold so I could focus on the re-raiser. But instead of folding this guy went all-in. Huh? Even worse, the re-raiser decided for a call. I knew I was beat. At least somebody had Aces here.

But, if I call the all-in (and risk my tournament life) there is 15k in the pot and it costs me only about 2,000 to call. With blinds increasing to 50/100 in just minutes a slim chance to win 15k was the nicer alternative to sitting on a 2k shortstack. So I decided for a call. Of course the re-raiser had Aces. But we both were almost drawing dead as the MP player had flopped quad sevens ... wow! No help, two out and a massive chipleader at that table. Hate to go out that way but this was a well played hand from the winner. These are the hands that make you win tournaments if you hit them.

As the night was quite young I went up the stratosphere tower enjoyed the view and shot some great pictures. Last day tomorrow. Maybe I add a morning or noon tournament at either MGM or Planet Hollywood to my list. But at least it will be a last 7pm at Caesars.

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One more try - one more fail

But this time it took 11.5 hours to bust the Shadow from the tournament. Another big field with 497 players at the Caesars Mega-Stack Series and I had a great start. During the first level I busted one player and crippled another. Therefore I was able to pump up my stack from the 12,5000 start to over 24,000. In the second level I continued my run to reach my peek at 49,000. With blinds of 50/100 I was in great condition to put pressure on the other players but finally got a severe bad beat when a calling-station who was chasing his flush with A2s hit his set of 2's on the river to kill my two pair AK hand. Went down to 30,000 (still double the average) right into a dry run of cards for hours.

As we reached the dinner break my stack was back to 30,000 from the worst low of 14,000. At this time the blinds had been already 800/1,600 with a 200 ante. I got dealt AK, raised, got called ... and as always in the last hours I didn't hit any piece of the flop. The caller made it 6,000 to go (half the pot) and I went all-in immediately for my remaining 26,000. I then went to the longest and worst 2 minutes of my entire life until the guy decided to fold his hand. Back to 45,000 were I already had been once 5 hours ago.

After the dinner break my dry run continued and I had only rare occasions for blind steals. Never had a hand I really hoped to get called on my all-in.

Finally my stack was down to 20,000 and the blinds up to 3,000/6,000 and a 500 ante. Found K8s (the best hand for hours) went all-in and got called by ATo. At least I had two live cards but got no help. Went out on 54th position just 9 places short of the money.

Feel mentally exhausted and will not play tomorrows noon event but the 7pm tournament. That will give me some time to recover and that tournament usually lasts "only" about 5-6 hours.

"Bad Beat of the Day": I'm really happy this didn't happen to me! AA vs. QQ ... all the money is in preflop. Flop brings an Ace, Turn is a Queen, River another Queen for quads.

"Good Beat of the Day": Well, at least from my perspective ;-)) On my lowest low of 14k all the money goes in with AQ. Of course the BB finds AK. Flop is K-Q-2 ... doesn't it get worse? No, it gets only better as the turn is another Queen to save the Shadow for another 3 hours.

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Bubble Boy at Planet Hollywood

After getting busted from the Caesars Mega-Stacks with AK vs AQ (one pair vs. two pair) I went shopping and got myself a new iPod touch 32GB. No, that wasn't a buy out of frustration. I already had planned to buy one while here.

Later I played the 7pm tournament at the Planet Hollywood. Although it's still one of the better low-buyin tournaments it turns into a crapshot quite fast. But I managed to make it down to the final 9 of 67 (eight getting paid). Had about 26K at this time (little below average) but blinds at 2,000/4,000 (!). Had raised to 12K with pocket aces just a few rounds before and got no action. Showed the aces to make clear that I raise if I have a hand. Shortly after I got dealt JJ just about two rounds before the blinds increase to 3,000/6,000 and would reach me in the big blind. So I raise to 12K again and get an all-in from a guy who had about 40K or so. I had already decided before that I will only throw away my hand if I get called and an A or K will show up on the flop. An all-in was an insta-call for me here.

The guy showed KTo and I was in good shape until a King fell on the turn. Good hand sir! Out on the bubble.

Went home to explore my new iPod and to lose my frustration. It worked. Feel better now and the iPod touch is a real great device.

Up now for the Caesars again. This might as well be my last one of the Mega-Stacks. If I don't cash today I'm not sure I will play tomorrows Mega-Stack but will instead stick to the lower priced 7pm nightly at Caesars (which still have a very good structure).

On a funny side note: I got dealt pocket fives in the Planet Hollywood tournament about seven times or so ;-))

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Started working for PocketFives.com

Now that the big day is over it's time to concentrate on the rest of my tournaments. Today and Sunday will be Caesars Mega-Stacks events again. I'm biased about Saturday between Ceasars and the Venetian so far (Venetian upgraded their structure).

But it's also time to give you more details about the new job I mentioned directly before my trip started. I'm very happy that I can tell you that I'm working for PocketFives.com as their German Content Manager since June 1st.

This will be a very exciting project as you may know there is no german content at PocketFives.com so far. So yes, we are starting a brand new thing here basically offering all the good stuff not only in german language but also with localized content. We will be starting soon but an official date can't be posted yet. Stay tuned and check either PocketFives.com or my blog for updates on this project.

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WSOP Event #9 (six-handed) ... got busted after 80 minutes

Although I enjoyed every minute it lasted this wasn't like it was planned. The tournament was filled to capacity of 1,236 players and I didn't know any of the other players at my table.

Quite early I got a split pot hitting a 6 with A6 but shortly after a huge pot happend: I was dealt AK, one limper in front. I raised and he called. Flop comes AKJ and he bets half the pot. I re-raise 3x his bet and he goes into the tank. That was quite interesting. Would he have called or pushed immediately I would have been faced with a tough decision (straight or set). But due to the long time he took for his decision I was sure being ahead (he didn't look like a good Hollywood actor).

He finally pushed all-in. Although I hated to call (as I would have been one of the very first out) there was no way I lay this down. Another split pot as he had pushed with AK.

From there I maintained my stack during the first level but had to lay down TT twice versus bad flops.

As the second level started with 50/100 I had about 2,700 chips. Got some playable hands but not much to continue on the flop. Then I got re-raised from the guy to my left 2x in the row. First time I layed down QJ second time I called KQ but had to lay it down on the flop again.

A little later I got dealt 44 in LP (now with 1,500 chips left). Raiser before me (this guy had re-raised with K9o before). I called and the guy to my left re-raised to 1,200 again. The original raiser folded and I decided for a call. This smelled so much like a move or at least a coinflip (which I would take anyway in that short-stack situation).

Unfortunately he had a Hand with KK. Flop comes 3-4-5 for a set. Turn is a 2 for a possible splitpot and the River is one of the two remaining Kings. So I'm out in 1,056th position of 1,236 players after 80 min.

I doesn't help much to ease the pain but I lasted at least longer than: Antonio Esfandiari, Hoyt Corkins, Sorel Mizzi, Andy Black, Jeff Lisandro, Erick Lindgren, Joe Sebok, Arnold Spee and others.

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WSOP Event #9 (six-handed) Live Blog

Just got up at 9am in the morning preparing for the big day. This post with the twitter box below will be for the live updates. I will later write them together for those who prefer the summary.

Don't expect too many updates as we are not allowed to send text messages while at the table. Therefore I will be mostly limited to the breaks (every two hours if I recall it correctly). The official live updates will be found at Pokernews but I doubt I will appear there. A better place to check for some updates about "ShadowBJ21" might be PocketFives Live if I last long enough.

On Saturday night the last player standing will have won one of those bracelets shown in the picture above. Last years winner was Jason Warner who took down the bracelet and $481,698 from a field of 1,427 players.

Follow ShadowBJ21

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2nd Tournament - Caesars Mega-Stack Series

Closer ...but not close enough! The $340 event had 498 players and paid 45 places. I had a very good start and increased the initial 12,500 stack to 22,000 during the irst two levels. Unfortunately my good run stopped and I went down to 19K, 17K ... all the way down to 10,000 chips during the levels 7 and 8. With blinds of 600/1,200 and ante 200 I managed to keep my stack at around 10,000 - 12,000 chips. But with the blinds up to 1,000/2,000 after the dinnerbreak there was not much room to move. I finally went all-in with 78s from the button and got called. I was way behind against AA. Flop came 8-8-5 and I was up to 28,000.

From there I left the push-and-fold mode and increased my stack to 50,000. But the blinds killed more and more people including me as I went down to 35,000 and even as low as 30,000 in the 10th level (Blinds 1,500/3,000).

Then an interesting situation appeared: With only a single BB I was dealt J8s on the button. It was folded to me and I raised it up to 9,000. The BB thought for some time and finally called. Flop came T-J-4. No flusdraw. He checked, I bet all-in and he called. Unfortunately I was abolutely dominated against AJ and went out on 92nd place after almost 10 hours.

Went over to the Rio to have a look at the Amazon-Room and watched a little bit of the $1,500 NL finaltable with Chris Ferguson. On Wednesday I play only a small tournament as I want to be fresh and awake for my big day on Thursday.

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No play at the PH but fun at Binions

I told you in my videoblog that I planned to play the 7pm tournament at the Planet Hollywood. But when I arrived there I saw that they increased the buy-in to $80 (before it was $60) but didn't improve the structures in any way. So I decided to skip this one and did some sightseeing. For those who haven't seen it before those two videos of the Bellagio Fountains and the Freemont Street Experience shown below may be fun to watch. Beside that I took a whole bunch of photos got an Iced Caffee Mocca at Starbucks (that's were the Freemont Video is made from - obviously) and played some Black Jack at Binions. Bought in for the $60 that I had reserved for the tournament and cashed out $135 20 minutes later.





And I did another important thing: I'm now officially registered for WSOP Event #9.



In a full-ring tournament I would hate to get the no. one seat but in a short-handed tournament this seat isn't much worse than any other seat at the table. Tommorrow I will play another tournament from the Caesars Mega-Stack Series and hopefully do last longer than today.

And here's a nice shot from the Rio that I took today from the top of the Caesars parking garage:

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1st Tournament - Caesars Mega-Stack Series

Had a goood night. Really love hotels were you can open the windows at least somewhat to sleep with fresh air instead of the aircondition.

Here's some update how my tournament went:

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Finally arrived in Vegas

Just a short update as I am very tired and need to go to bed. Long weekend. Drove to Winterthur, Switzerland on Saturday for our dance competition and drove back the same night directly to the airport were my friends dropped me off at 3am in the morning. My flight was sheduled at 6am but when the counter opened at 4am no check-in was possible. Not for me and nobody else. The Lufthansa check-in system was crashed worldwide after a software update. Finally they started to write the baggage slips and boarding cards manually. So I managed to get my flight and arrived in Frankfurt. Had a long wait there to get my boarding pass from Condor. The flight was uneventful, long and boring. But luckily my checked luggage arrived with the same flight. If I hadn't asked at the check-in gate in Frankfurt it would have been left there as they didn't check the manual processed baggage through automatically. Wonder how many people will be without their luggage tonight...

I have a nice rental car - a Doge Cruiser PT. For those who don't know: this is the one that looks like a 50's style retro-car. Always wanted to drive this one. The Hotel room at the Grandview is georgeous (especially as it is cheaper than most standard hotel rooms at the strip). And a 15 min ride by car through the Rio or the strip isn't that long. Here's a little video of my room:



Tonight I went to the Rio for Dinner with a friend and then we watched a little of the action at the Amazon-Room. The second Day 1 of Event #2 was coming to an end. They fell a little short of 4,000 players but still made a new record for the biggest event beside the main-event. We also saw a part of the final table of the $10,000 Pot-Limit World-Championship Event. I really feel sorry for Andy Bloch. After coming second behind Chip Reese in the 50K H.O.R.S.E two years ago he was again runner-up and missed the bracelet.

My first tournament starts at noon (9pm CET) at the Caesars. Will try to update via twitter if possible.

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