Runner-Up in Graz

I really made it! Not only into the money, not only at the final table ... I made 2nd place of 183 players at the Pokertour in Graz.

We started the day with 38 players and I was 31st in chips. To make things worse I had to start in the big blind. Somehow I manged to keep my chipcount between a 25k low and a 55k high until we reached the money with 21 players. I never got a big pot but was able to pick up the blinds a good number of times.

As we reached the last two tables things changed and I got some very decent cards. I manged to bring up my stack to 100K and even 150k (average at this time). Now I was able to change gears away from "push and fold" to selective play. Many others couldn't make that change or didn't had the chips for it so we quite fast went down from 20 players to the final table.

I reached the final table as 8th in chips and we lost one more player soon. Now everybody not only was guaranteed €840 but also the ticket for the grand final in December (worth €330). With 8 players left I was still sitting at 150k and got into a big pot with the chipleader. He raised to 75k (blinds 10k/20k with 2k ante). It was folded to me in LP and I found AA. Raised all-in and he called with KK. My Aces held up and I not only became one of the chipleaders with over 300K but got my sweet revenge for bubbling the Pokertour in Wiener Neustadt with KK vs. AA.

Amazingly the former chipleader made his way back to the top in just two hands. First hand all-in and up to 200k again just for picking up blinds and antes. Next hand all-in and this time he got a call. I really felt sorry for him because he ran into AA again (this time with 88). But there was no reason for being sorry ... he flopped a Full House and almost eliminated another big stack (taking him out completely just one hand later).

With seven players left we now had a big stack with 600k. Five others had between 200-300k and one player was sitting at around 150k. Due to the blinds (now 15k/30k ante 3k) we decided for a deal that gave the chipleader second place money (€5,000) and everybody else 3rd place money (€3,600).

This took a lot of pressure out of the game but we all still played for the win. For me it was just a question of honor to make it as far as possible. And for five of the others it was still a run on becoming the official "Champion of the Steiermark".

To make a long story short I was able to bring my stack up to 800k and we were finally down to three (with the other two around 450k each). One took out the other and we were heads-up. Right on the first hand my opponent went all-in (with slightly more chips). I found AJ of diamonds and called. He showed 33. I got no help and it was over.

Did I make a mistake by agreeing to the deal? I don't think so. Everybody still played to win but of course some plays would have been different with the pressure of the money. So you can't really tell if I made 2nd place without the deal. And for me the difference between €1,100 and €3,600 still counts.

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Vienna & Graz ... card room opening and deep stack tournament

On Friday I started my trip to Vienna for the opening of the new Montesino cardroom. Vienna already has two card rooms (the CCC and the PokerWorld) and there's also the Poker Royal in Wiener Neustadt. So does another cardroom make sense? Time will tell. But fact is that the Montesino is something special in many ways.

It's located in the "Gasometer Eventcenter". So there is public transport nearby and every kind of shops somebody may need. For foreign guests a decent priced hotel is just 200m away and parking is €3 for 24-hours. The card room itself is built in an open structure on the top level of the eventcenter. It's built in a circle that leads from the sportsbar to the tournament area, the cash game tables and the restaurant or vice versa. Entering the place on the right hand side you have to register (sportsbook and poker) while entering on the left side you can go directly to the restaurant. The tournament area includes a small stage that allows for performances and other stuff.

With a total of 42 tables it might not be the biggest card room in Vienna but the different concept might help to make it a success. I can't tell about the cashgames but I examined the tournament structures and they are very decent for the buy-ins up to €50+6. A lot of the staff is quite unexperienced at the moment (which is not unusual for a new opening) but a lot of familiar and experienced faces can be found too.

Enjoyed my time at the opening party. It was nice to meet Manfred and his friends again as well as others like Rosi from Pokefirma and Volker from the home game in Munich. At the end of the evening I played a €17+3 SnG and took it down. Weired structure: you get 100 chips and blinds start at 1/2. Takes some time to get used to it.

I must say I like the room and I wish them success. This can easily become my favorite card room in Vienna. I already changed my plans and despite making a stop in Salzburg on my way home I will head back to Vienna on Monday to play the €30+5 tournament there.

Now I am in Graz and the good news is that I survived Day 1 of the Pokertour event in Graz. The bad news is that I don't have enough chips for an easy sail into the money. A total of 183 started at 7pm and 38 had been left at 3am in the morning.

I had a good start and brought my 10K starting stack up to 14K until the first break (two levels, 45 min. each). Then this hand happend: I was dealt 77 in late position. There was a call and a raise in MP to 700 (blinds 100/200) which I had called. Then the small blind went all-in for 2,900. First caller folded and the raiser folded too. Tough decision. There were 4,500 in the pot and I had to pay 2,200 more. I would get the right odds on every coinflip but not on a overpair. I called and was behind against TT. Down to 10K and further down to 7.5K.

With the blinds now at 200/400(25) I was severly shortstacked. To make things worse I was absolutely card dead for the last 90 minutes. The 89 (offsuit of course) I received in the big blind at that time was the best hand I had seen for a long time. The SB just called and I checked. Flop was 5-6-7 with two hearts. Wow! The small blind checked and I decided to bet three quarters of the pot. I expected a fold but surprisingly got a reraise. What could he have? The flushdraw? Time to find out ... went all-in, got a call and he showed A7 for TPTK with no flushdraw (!). Up to 15K again.

Did I say I was carddead before? Then a new word has to be invented for what happend the next hours. I got dealt every possible unplayable hand that can be dealt. I could have been away from the table for three hours to take a nap it wouldn't have made any difference. I played a total of zero hands in that time ... and those who know me should know that my starting hand requirement is looser than that of many others. No wonder that I got nicknamed "Mr. Tight" ;-)

Finally I got dealt QQ, raised ... and guess what happend: Mrs. Tight (who had about 5,000 chips left) went all-in. It was folded around. She hadn't played any more hands then I had in the last hours. But she had shown in the beginning that she almost only plays premium hands. Didn't like to call here but due to my dry run I wasn't willing to pass on that hand here. She showed AK and of course an Ace came on the flop and a King completed the river. Down to 5K.

Made my way up to 9K again. Blinds now 600/1,200(100) with an average stack of 23k (77 players left). How to play AA from early position in that spot? Instead of going all-in I decided on a raise to 3,600. Remember, I was still Mr. Tight! Got a call from the blinds (damm, hoped for a re-raise) and we saw a flop with low cards. My opponent moved me all-in (holding with TPTK), I called and was up to 22K now. Another hour of no playable hands. My stack went down to 17K while the blinds went up to 800/1,600(100).

Then it was my turn to give a bad beat: Went all-in with A8s but got called from a stack who was shorter by only a few chips. She showed AK and I hit my miracle 8 on the river (had some more outs to a straight ... but lucky anyway). Up to 34K.

For the last two hours of the night I got at least some playable hands. Reached my high at 39K but ended the night with 34,600 chips.

There are now 38 players left. Next level is 1,500/3,000(300). 21st will get €300 while 1st will get €9,250. There are two bigstacks with over 100K in the field but most players are found in the 27K - 64K range. So despite being only 31st in chips my stack can still hurt a lot of people. With 17 still to go there is no way to fold into the money. Find a hand and push it hard is the only way here. My table draw for today looks quite good. Biggest stack at my table is 64K, all others are in my range or below. The first important issue of the day will be the position of the button. This will influence all action severly.

Play continues at 6pm and hopefully I will stay in the game long enough to continue with my twitter updates (twitterbox in the sidebar).

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Check Behind with the Nuts

You may have heard of Jan von Halle checking behind with a Royal Flush at this years WSOP ... well, it works with a Straight Flush as well ;-)

Went to the Poker-Club again last Thursday for their €30 Deep-Stack tournament. 37 players showed up and I had a good start bringing my stack from 8,000 to around 14,000. But it could have been much more. With 45s it was just me (BB) and the SB in an unraised pot during the second level of the tournament. Flop came 3 of hearts, 6 of diamonds and 7 of hearts. The SB checked and (even so there were two hearts on the board) I decided to trap with my made straight. The turn was a 2 of diamonds. SB made a bet and I raised him and got a call. River was a 3 of diamonds. Now there was a possible flush on the board and I was happy that the small blind just checked and I checked behind. Most probably I had the same puzzled look like Jan when he opened his cards because I was holding 45 of diamonds for a straight flush. After I had hit my straight on the flop I totally forgot about the color of my cards.

If I hadn't read Jan's story I would have felt really dumb and silly and it most probably would have affected the whole play that evening. But things like that can happen. I laughed about myself and decided that this story has to go into the blog. But I was still focused on my game which was very important.

Shortly after that the first table was broken and a big stack (about 50.000 chips) came to our table. He was sitting to my immediate right (which turned out to be a very important factor). This guy was one of the worst players I've ever seen but totaly bullied the table. He called every single hand (raised some) and quite often went all-in on the flop against smaller stacks. I had to give up some of my chips against him when I was holding AK but didn't hit and he then showed me 47 for a total bluff.

He took out several people (being lucky more than once) but also gave away some chips. While he went to almost 60,000 chips (holding about one third of the chips at this table) I went down to 9,000. Finally I found KK. Mr. Maniac just called from EP and I went all-In. This was a strong overbet at the current blindlevel but I was sure that everyone would fold and Mr. Maniac would call. I had pushed him from a pot earlier (holding TT) so it was time for him to show the table again who's the boss. He called with QJ and I was up to almost 20,000 while he was now at 40,000.

On the last hand hand before our table was broken I received TT again. Being UTG I just called as I don't wanted to create a huge pot preflop with Mr. Maniac sitting in the BB. So it was just me, a MP player and Mr. Maniac in an unraised pot. The flop was an absolute dream: A-T-6 (no flushdraw). Mr. Maniac checked, I checked and the MP player went all-in for 11,000. Mr. Maniac thought for some time and then called(!) this all-in. Of course I went over the top with 20,000 and he had to call this too. MP player had A6 for two pair ... very reasonable all-in against two players who checked the flop to him. Mr. Maniac had A-9 for just a pair. My set won everything and I went to the new table with 55,000 chips while Mr. Maniac went to the other table with just 20,000 chips. He made it to the final table but busted in 8th position (out of the money) never recovering from that lost hand.

It's amazing how easily people are able to blow a good position. Just imagine that I played only a few hands till the final table from there (being quite unlucky in two hands) and went to the final table with 50.000 chips as 2nd or 3rd in chips. And this guy had that amount of chips already in the first third of the tournament.

At the final table it was a smooth sail into the money and down to the final four. Losing the next player took a long time then as every small stack was able to survive his all-in (some times in an amazing way). I got my share of luck in that time too when a miracle Ten on the river created a straight on the board and we had a split pot were I was almost destined to lose most of my stack. I then busted a player and we were down to three. With me and the other guy almost equal in chips (60,000 - 70,000) and the chipleader holding 175.000 chips the tournament went to a crapshot as the blinds already reached 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 ante. Therefore we decided on a deal and I was declared 2nd place finisher after 5 hours of play.

The tournaments at the Poker-Club are still among the better ones to be found but with only 8,000 chips (before 10K) and the introduction of antes they have a quality decrease to a PF=7.85. Still playable but not at the top of the list anymore. The double-deepstacks with 16,000 chips now have a PF=10.93 (also a decrease) but still good value for a €60 buy-in.

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More live poker coming soon

Sorry for not posting for a long time now! I played some online tournaments but no live events due to the fact that I was around for my dancing competitions on most weekends lately. One more to come and then the season is over.

I played some online tourneys in between and had decent results. I love the PokerStars PCA Satellites ($2 Rebuy). They pay a $33 entry into the next satellite which can be converted into W$. Played four of them and cashed in 3 of them. Played around with the new "Double or Nothing" tournaments. They were very profitable in the beginning. But now most of them turned into ultratight play until the push-and-fold phase. Think they are still profitable but you need to find a special style for them. Played on FullTilt again after a while and took down one of the $10 45-man SnG's for $171. Made the money in another one. Nice and soft tournaments. Although they don't offer a doublestack I think I will play them more often in the future.

In two weeks I will make a small weekend trip through Austria. On Oct. 24th I will be at the opening ceremony of the new Montesino pokerroom in Vienna. I'm really looking forward to this because all I heard about it so far indicates that this will be a georgeous place.

From there I drive down to Graz for another event of the Pokertour.at. Back on Monday with a short stop for another tournament at the Poker-Club in Salzburg.

Still trying to satellite into the FTOPS X Event #1 on November 5th. Would love to play this as they again start the series with a 6-max tournament.

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