My last workday before Tunica is halfway through now. In only 7 hours I'll be heading to Frankfurt, meeting Katja and tomorrow morning we are taking off to Memphis. Up to one hour before I was stone cold and it was just annother appointment. Now I begin to get exicited. I got news from Katja that she already changed money, I just went to Pokerpages to see whats up there and - wow!! Over 1,100 players in the first 500$ limit tourney and 628 players with over 800 rebuys in the NLHE. Somehow over the last few weeks I got the feeling that we'll be alone there in Tunica for the prelimery events, as I got email from several people stating they won't go because the rake is "skinning", it is "to far away" or "have you ever seen Memphis?". Many are going to the WSOP event in Atlantic City and some are going to CA. I knewed that there will be a lot of players but I felt like going to some foreign out-of-style tournament. I could not be more wrong. The number of players and the statement from Nollan Dalla on PokerUpdates confirmed me that the decision to go there was the right one: many players, huge fields and pricepools, PL and NL sideaction (we -especially Katja- are only interested in PL and higher limit side games).

Katja has set our goal for the trip: two final tables each. Hell, is that motivated?

Browsing the events and players I stumbled upon one of the few players I absolutly not like: David Mehrmand from Germany. I fell out of my chair when I saw him leading the european ranking list in late september and was only a little relieved when finally Willy Tann, a very nice guy from London passed him to capture and hold the lead for 2004. I can't tell you how annoying this guy is. I know him for many years as he was a broken railbird and talking everybody right into the ground. Well, he is still talking but is no longer broken or so it looks. I remember at the Bellagio when we played in the 5,000$ no-limit and Men The Master passed by saying hello to me (we had a very long talk when he was in Baden two years ago). The Mehrmand-guy jumped up, talked to Men like his brother in a neverending stream of words and did not stop. I mean, literally did not stop. Men gave him that "who are you punk?" look but he talked and talked and even followed him around for like 15 minutes - all while we were playing. I was pissed from only seeing this. Later in the WSOP he made some money at a limit final table and I played some supers with him for the big one. Don't get me wrong, he is not playing bad or something, in fact he must do several things very well to get these results but I just plain don't like him.

I got a kick out of the writing about him in the the WSOP report where he was identified as "exotic looking". I got even more kicked about the latest report from Tunica event #4 (NLHE):

Exotic-looking and more exotic-acting Davood Mehrmand must look like a brother from another planet in Mississippi. He acts especially upset by blind steals and pledges to fight them. He just couldn't with the cards he had. [...] and Mehrmand is talking to himself in 4th [place].

My emotions aside I think I got to deal with him in the upcoming tournaments. I should be very carefull not to let these feelings affect my play, lol. If in doubt I will simply come over the top regardless of what I have (doesn't that sound good, David?).

What is this crazy thing about the human mind? I mean I have a very responsible job here, with hundreds of project members and a 50,000 people client base that is administered by the software we are developing and maintaining here that calculates and pays a very big part of their income (EU money given as subventions to agriculturists) and all I could think about in important meetings is: "I get AQ suited in middle position, what shall I do?". I already bought "Virus of the mind" from blogger/player/writer/ex-ms Richard Brodie but had no time to read it yet. But poker must be some kind of virus at least to my mind as I can not let it go. Not one single day in the last 10 years or something where I did not thought about the game or something related to it. I bet that applies to many many people. What does that say about our minds, our goals and our life in general? Are we that near to the "Hitchiker through the galaxy" ???

I have no clue if my wireless board is working in Tunica so I don't know if I could give you any updates over the next days. If possible and the-most-loved-of-all Lady Horror does not forget the 110/220 AC adaptor for my mobile and my laptop I will be posting about our achivements regulary.

Tunica, here we come!