Today is last day in january and therefore time for the first reflection in this year. First and most important their is our poker bankroll. While getting a nice blast in late december and early january we are suffering since we went to tunica. We played tournaments for about 27k (including satelittes) and lost it all as we had no cashout (see previous posts). The live game in tunica added another -12k to this and online this month is also down about 7k. Altogether we are down about 35k USD for the month which is not nice :-(. Online poker is tournament play alone as there was no time to play cash game (maybe for 4-5 hours) most important all these PPM IV qualifiers.

Then there is the pending weightbet. While the actual amount of my weightloss can not be disclosed here (the hand is not over yet :) I can report that I had 17 training session during january and have been running 122.5km (about 90 miles) in these session with an average heart rate of 143 beats. This number is still to high, I know, I hope to recude it down to about 135 in the next few months. The diet is running pretty well, there was not one real "fallback" and I am feeling pretty well. The "belt hole" indicator shows us an improvement of 2 "points" (holes) so I am doing good.

We still not made it to the PPM IV (the boat). Our last try's are running the next weekend when the last set of semi-finals is held. This time it will even become more difficult as thru the lack of cash game hours we have just minimal starting chips in most of these. Still, we are hoping to make it in this final attempt.

This blog is active now for a little over 3 month and got off pretty well. I was unsure if there would be enough to tell about and if there would be any reader at first but both concerns turned out to be not neccessary. Our local poker community took it well and we found much more regular international readers than we thought possible. In fact we consider us the *new kids on the blog* and found us to be very good accepted by the established ones.

**************************

The last weekend found me playing online one full night straight. Friday was full of tournaments. I played multiple 100$ multis, got 7th in one (470 starters) and small money in another (360 players). Then I played several partypoker-points freerolls, also 2 for a seat in the PPM IV but got nothing out. In a PPM 18$ qualifier with about 700 players I got 5th for a free entry into one semi-final. I played a world open (London) satellite for 300$, only 34 players but a full seat guaranteed (17k value), very good deal but I made a mistake and got busted in 4th place when I overplayed ATo by limping and re-raising all-in against AQs and got no wonder (maybe you already noticed that we are not used to wonders but I must say that thru the last 6 month our usual pattern "wonders yes, but only for the other players" became to a "wonders for us also sometimes, but only when it is not really important"). Then there was the friday night 200$ special and the regular 215$ PPM IV qualifier. So friday was really busy but in the end the roll was nearly 2k lighter than before... I am still in this "play maximum time, get nothing" mode. Hopefully this will break soon at least one time (maybe the million guaranteed?? lol)

I just checked Pokerpages for the latest about the WPT Tunica main event and was shocked to see that Danial Negreanu is again on the final table with the second-most chips. This is scary. My thoughts are going to a scene in Rounders where Mike McDermott explains poker in the street to his girlfriend Jo. It go's something like this:

"Why do you think every year are sitting the same guys at the final table of the world series of poker? What are they? The luckiest guys in the world?"

********************

I got some emails about David "Davood" Mehrmand. One guy was actual defending him (without knowing him) and one of the commentators here also wrote "[he is] men not mouse" and that I will actually find respect for him and his game. I believe I always stated here that his game must be very good and that he must be doing something very right. While I personally find it hard to believe that somebody could be personally so off and play so well on the other side he seems to manage that. He is on a pretty nice run also. I witnessed three hands personally that demonstrate my point: 1) he called a big raise all-in from the button with AKo, button had TT and A turned. Everything ok. He called an all-in raise from the SB with JJ against AKs and no A or K came. Everything ok. He called a very big all-in raise before the flop with 55 against TT flopping a 5. While I am perfectly ok with all his plays he is winning more than his fair share of coin-flips. I heard about this from other players also. I guess you need a run like this to actually get far in tournaments (old saying: you have to win with AK and against AK to make money in tournaments). About his behavior: there is none. He is just acting bad and crazy. Not with some charme like Scotty Nyguen or Amir Vahedi, more like Tony G. if you saw this WPT Paris final table (season 1?). While I do not have to defend my opinion coz I build it from first-hand experience in many years (I know him for several years now) I think one could better follow my thoughts when actually reading from other (more respected) writers about his behavior. Read what Joe from the Hendon Mob wrote:

I also saw Thomas make a ruling that I have never seen outside of the States before. Davood Mehrmand, who is currently top of the European rankings, was being his usual annoying self and managing to upset just about every poker player in the room. I’m not sure exactly what he was saying (my German’s not too good) but certain expletives sound the same in many languages. Thomas was calm and gave Davood several warnings before he finally gave him a 10 minute penalty. A penalty in a poker tournament means that you are dealt in, your blinds are posted and your cards are passed. Davood was low stacked and only half a dozen places before the money. He went mad (well I think he was already). The ten minute penalty became twenty minutes and eventually Scouse doorman Jimmy, a great bloke by the way, was called upstairs and Davood was removed from the room to a lot of cheering from the locals. It wasn’t fair that one player could shout and swear so much as twenty something players played their hearts out trying to make a TV final table. Eventually Davood was all in on the big blind and there were a few groans as his K,J doubled him up even though he wasn’t even in the room. He was out soon after his return though and Thomas should be applauded for the way he handled the situation.

If you are ever curious about whom the greatest player in the world is, ask Davood Mehrmand. He'll be happy to tell you for as long as you'll listen. As Gavin Griffin is forced to leave in 7th, Davood is gracious enough to tell Gavin that only a great player like himself could make the K J of Spades flop and river a King. While Griffin's lowly A J offsuit had no chance. This guy is bizarre. He's coming to a town near you. Watching Davood is worth the price of admission. It's an understatement to say Mehrmand is confident. Four hands later the trash collector, as Tony Cousineau lists his occupation in his bio, collects an untrash-like $34,225 for 6th. Tony C. was all-in for his trash-like stack of 12k with A 7 offsuit. Mehrmand gave Tony protection by raising with the 10 7 of Hearts. Everyone who wanted to knuckle the dangerous Cousineau had to fold. Heads up against Davood, Tony was dominant preflop, but a 10 windowed to end Tony's day. No one said poker is fair. Five hands later Bob Hume did everything right and was punished for it, of course. Only a great player can take pocket 5's against pocket 10's and win. Ask Davood Mehrmand. Like a few days ago, presto beat double presto to make Bob Hume disappear in 5th. Four handed the beginning chip leader, Tony Seunsom maintained a slight chip lead over Davood Mehrmand. But the Houston native was going to take two bad beats in a row to finish 4th. You have fairness issues, we have fragrant tissues? [...] At one point after the money deal, John Hoang had so few chips they were difficult to see let alone count. He went all-in for 9,500. Davood Mehrmand had over 550,000 and called. What's that? Over 50 times the chips of John Hoang? Since there was no money involved, only the bracelet and the seat, you may not be surprising that John Hoang won this event. Well, it surprised the life out of me. With a giant chip lead on the two other players, the greatest player in the world finished 3rd. Unbelievable.

********************

Congratulations to my compatriot Eduard Scharf. His great success was getting to me only slowly. He came to Tunica, played 3 events and ended 3 times in the money with a fantastic final table at his last appearance. He must have won over 200k in these 3 events (great money deal for him at that final table). For those of you that don't know him: he has 2 WSOP-bracelets and was in the last 18 players in the main event 2004! Eddy, do you give any lessons?

********************

Me? I played four 200$ SNG's at party this morning and won two of them. Nothing special except in one I sucked out two times (winning 44 against QQ and 99 against QQ and AA by hitting a strait lol). Normally I am on the other side of these hands...

My sleep last night was not to good at all. While I felt asleep after my head hit the cushion (around 6:45pm when I was up, traveling/working 36 hours) after some hours I woke up and could not sleep again for some hours as all the happenings over the last days went thru my head. I guess that is just the normal process used by the human brain to work thru information and emotional overload. As I re-thought my tournaments I had the idea to set up a list of all the hands that I had and calculate the percentages. In the dark of the night I had the feeling I would have been a about 70% favorite in these hands, lets see is this is going to hold up. Ok here's the list, I took the percentages from cardplayer's analyser:

I ommited the PLO event with rebuys here, my chances on the flopped nut straight against trip aces are 71.22% and with the flopped top set against the wrap straight draw 57.80%.

We see here that my "70%" feeling was pretty off, in fact it turns out that overall my chances (preflop) were slightly above 60% and when the money went in only 42% overall!!! (cumulated percentages ./. 6 events). So the lesson to be learned here is that my starting hand hand selection is prety good but I failed in 2-3 cases to release my hand when I had the worst of it (on the other side, when you release your hand to everything that looks possible you hardly ever see a showdown).

**********************

By the way, cardplayer. While I already get the regular cardplayer magazine to my home I had also ordered the "cardplayer europe" in september but never got an issue. I remembered about that when I had Barry Shulman, cardplayer CEO, to me left for some hours (must have been in the 1500 limit event). I talked to him and told him about it. I must say first that I have mixed feelings about the guy. I always think that I never like to have a boss or a client like him, brutal open and direct with a fast tongue. Then I played last april in the 5,000$ NLHE with him where he acted like drunk and took a very hard beat (not a bad beat) on me when his AKo rivered a king against my QQ with only 20 (!) players left (next hand I got busted with KK against david phams AKo). But when I told about him about the missing issues and nobody anserwed my email about it he promised to check it up personally and this is what he have done. Without any further talking about he not only checked it all out and fixed it in his office he also got me called out to deliver the last 3 issues personally to me. That was great, thanks.

**********************

Starting from Stuttgart I came to Frankfurt an hour early as I catched a better train connection. Katja was already waiting form me in the hotel lobby of the Sheraton at the airport. Bad news: no room free! I was a little surprised as they have over a 1,000 rooms there and nothing very special was happening in Germany as far as I knewed. Anyway, Katja did worked out a solution with the frontdesk, all they could get free was a „tower suite“, regular price about 1,000eur a night. She managed to get this rate downsized to about 500eur, still much money. So, we got a room finally. It was promised that „everything is included, including nice food in the business lobby". Maybe that was not an exactly scam but it was a disaster, anyway. We ended up eating in the (expensive) restaurant. I was very tired so we went to bed where I slept within minutes. Katja told me the next morning that she nearly got no sleep at all, she couldn’t get "her head shut off".

The next morning everything went fine, we catched our flight to Detroit without any problem and come there after 10 hours. We had seats at the emergency exists so we had a lot of space for our legs and were more or less the first out of the plane, which turned to be bad for us as we got a heavy and detailed inquiry from a highly-motivated immigration officer. We still came first to customs which picked us out for baggage search. Very well, as we had only specified „less than 10,000$“ each while holding more to speed up just this immigration process. Luckily we were able to correct that and after some nice poker talk with the customs officer and a money count we were released, unfortunately very late for our connection flight. We hurried thru Detroit airport and had even a little argument as I were a little hungry (weightbet!) and Katja was in urgent need for some fresh air and one of her little cigars (however that fits together). We made it to the connection flight to Memphis, which in turn got an hour late. When we arrived in Memphis our Limo pickup was waiting, but our luckage not! Despite the delay they could not bring it in time to the conection flight. If not half of our bankroll where hidden in one of my training shoes in that bag we would have been totally cool but so we were a little concerned. We were promised hotel delivery from northwest airlines so we jumped into the limo and were brought to Tunica Horseshoe Casino.

Arriving there we checked out the location which turned out to be a 3 mile walk until we figured it all out. The WPO event is actually in the GoldStrike Casino not in the Horseshoe. I read in a trip report on rpg that the GoldStrike has rooms nice like the Mirage but I must say that the room we got in the Horseshoe is very nice. It is a deluxe room with a kingsize bed for only 38$ a night, we were very happy when we saw that room, we were expecting rooms like the horseshoe in downtown Las Vegas…

Katja wanted to wait until our bag arrived so we sticked around. I said that I can only be somewhat longer awake when I can get some cards so I tried to get a seat in a cash game but no avail. After an hour I confirmed Katja that I can not hold myself awake any longer so we bought into the event for the next day and went to bed. Unfortunately, I forgot to switch my mobile phone off and how murphys law says, it got to be ringing several times that night. The frontdesk calling at 3am in the morning to tell us that the bag finally arrived did not help to make the sleep any better…

After a long night we felt good anyway. I went to the spa and made a 5 mile run before taking a small breakfast. We spend the remaining time until noon with something private and then talking about the game and our strategy for the day’s event, 1000+60$ NoLimit Holdem.

Day 2

The event started good for me, in the second hand I got pocket nines, made the standard raise in middle position but got reraised. I called, the flop came nine high, I checked, he played strongly and I thought about the danger of an overpair that he could hit when I only call, so I check-raised him all-in. After only a short thought he folded and I was up almost a thousand. Little did I know that I have seen my second-highest pair for the day…

When you play an event like this with over 750 players, in which 5% you like to end? Naturally, the last 5% making the money but despite this? The first 5% in which the players drop out very early? Or the second-last 5% where the players fight for about 10 hours and get out – nothing? Well, Katja and I tested both realms. Katja went out after about 30 minutes, naturally for her holding the best hand. She had AA in the SB, all folded, she raised, the BB called, flop came T high, Katja betted strong (700) and the BB went all-in, she called. BB was holding KT so AA was way good, but he made one of his 5 outs for a third ten on the river. Katja then went to the cash game cashier to get listed for the 10-25 pot-limit holdem game. My story is way longer but very uneventful as I got no cards. In nearly 10 hours I got AK twice, TT once and QQ once, that was it, all the rest just trash mixed with some small pairs. I played perfect poker (from my point of view) the whole time, got never lucky or unlucky (ok, I was all-in with 77 against AKo one time and won, you could consider this getting lucky) and managed to get to the last 8 tables (from about 77) when all went wrong and I busted out. Holding exactly average chips I raised in middle position holding AQs, only the BB called my raise. Flop came KQ7 rainbow and the BB checked. I thought about him holding a K but came to the (wrong) conclusion that he must hold some suited ace so I went all-in. They guy called me, showing K7o. I felt out of my chair, got no help on turn or river and was out. Very frustrating. I managed to stay away from the cash game in the mood I was in and went to bed, leaving Katja in the PLHE game. Later the night she came and reported a small win which I barly recognized but it made me sleep better anyway.

Next morning same thing, after 12 hours of deep sleep a 5 mile run on the treadmill, a stop at the breakfast buffet and now – off to event #10, 1000+60$ limit holdem!

Katja decided not to play as she don’t like limit. She joined the cash game 5-10 PLHE at noon when I entered the tournament. More on that later. I started good and did spend the first 4 hours above average, holding two or even three times the average chip count. When the bigger blinds came and I got a rush of the worst card possible for about 1,5 hours my chip advantage vanished. I spend another 3 hours nursing my small stack, getting some hope when AA held up at 400-800 but got cracked AQs by QTo shortly after so when we were down to 5 tables (with 3 tables in the money) I had nearly nothing left. I went all-in with A6s, only the BB called with K7, my new most feared hand. Flop came with a 6, but don’t you worry, a K rivered to get my out after nearly 8 hours of play.

I went to Katja, she changed in the meantime to 10-25 PLHE and was holding herself there. A seat was open and I sat down, knowing that might not be the best idea right after you bust out of a tournament, but I felt good and not so demoralized as the day before (I assume NL is way more force intensive than limit). After about 5 minutes this hand came down: a fish player, that just won the hand before with 63o opended the pot and made it 100 to go. Katja raised it to 400. I held KJs but decided to let it go to step out of Katja’s way and give nobody pot odds to call that raise. One player was thinking and calling about stack sizes and finally called. The original raiser reraised all-in, about 1,100 more. The pot contained already about 1,300$ and Katja got him covered so she called. Surprise, surprise the third player called also having about one thousand. Everybody except Katja all-in, the two other players opened their hand like they were in a tournament. AA (upps) for the original raiser, 88 for the fish in last position. Katja showed nothing so far. Flop came down QJ7, turn was a T and river a blank. I was sure Katja made either a set or a strait and so it was as the showed down AKs to win a nice 4,000$ pot. The next half our hour happened nothing special, I worked my stack up to 1,600 when this hand came up: I held T4s of hearts in the BB, it was raised to 75$, one caller and it was on me. I gave loose action and called the bet. Flop came JT7 with two hearts. The initial raiser betted out 150$, the player between us folded and it was on me. I’am surly going to call here but what about a raise? Now things get a little ironic as I misread something here: his stack size. He had some notes and some regular chips and I counted this to about only 400 more. There was one odd looking chip that I thought I had seen before, a quarter from another casino. So I thought reraising him all-in would be my best move as there was slight chance that he would let the hand go holding AQ or even AK for example. I announced that I was going to put him all-in and putted about 500 out there. He shoved and it was counted and I got confused when I was told to put 500 more into that pot. That chip was a 500$ chip! Oh well, another lesson learned. I called, got lucky and fetched my heart for the flush, he throwed AA face up into the muck and left. Uppppps.

About ten minutes later Katja made one of her famous laydowns. She was opening the pot for 125$, two callers, flop came 67J rainbow, she betted the pot about 400$ and got raised by somebody Colin holding about the same stack as she (around 5k) for 1,000$ more. One player folded, she thought about it for a while, opened her hand, AA, and mucked. The other player (Colin) went white (I was reminded of a scene in rounders where TeddyKGB was holding the nuts but made nothing because of a tell). He left 5 minutes later and we also called it a day then. We won more than our buy-in for the next day, the 1500+70$ NLHE and were quite happy.

We got sleep and everything, went to the gym were I ran 5 miles again, got a massage each and went of to breakfast and our next event.

Day 3,4+5

From there on everything is in a blur. The tournament turned out to be a quick exit for me, I got KK cracked by 88 after about only 30 minutes. I went to the cash game counter and after a short while I got a seat in the 100-200 limit holdem game which looked pretty good to me. Katja played and played in the tournament and got very far – in fact the got busted with a medium stack in 36th spot, out of 350 starters, holding AQs in the BB and all the money went in before the flop against 33. No improvement for her so she got nothing out after 10 hours of play (27 paid). I came back to AQ later here.

I was playing all the time in the 100-200 game and was all the time about even. Right after Katja busted out I got a horrible rush of good cards that got all cracked and I lost 5,000$ in like 20 minutes. Katja joined me and watched the game but there was no recovery this night, we quited the (wild) game at 2am in the morning, both a little frustrated.

The next morning (day 4, Monday) I woke up pretty early, went over to the tournament area and after a good breakfast I rejoined the 100-200 game, planning to play only one hour to make my buy-in for the daily event, the 1,000$ PLO. This worked out exactly as I had planned and I bought in to the event at 11:59am. Katja got there in the meantime but she did not like to play this tournament. It was a rebuy tournament and somebody informed me that each rebuy is going to cost 100$. Oh well, that was way wrong as each rebuy was 1,000$. I learned that the hard way when I needed to make one: holding a pretty strong starting hand with 4 face cards double suited I flopped the nut strait and betted the pot. One caller. Turn is blank, I bet the pot, one caller. I was all-in after this bet. Hands were opened, he had AA for a set. Very bad call I think as the straight was out-of-question. Don’t worry, the river paired the board and I needed the rebuy. When I learned it is a 1,000$ I hesitated to not take it. The new chips did not make it for long as this time I flopped a set, betted strong and got busted by a rivered straight… ohhhhh well. That was enough PLO tournament, I stood up after 60 minutes.

I rejoined the 100-200 game, Katja was still waiting for a pot-limit holdem game. I got a good rush of nice cards and was ahead about 5,000$ after 2 hours. From there on nothing went ok in the game as I got everything cracked for the next 7 hours, making me loose this 5k and another 7k. The game was so crazy that partypoker 30-60 games are solid games in comparision. There was a guy which insisted to put like 5 bets (raising!) in before the flop with hands like 83, 74 and so on. I remember two big pots: I was holding AK, 9 players calling/raising 5 bets before flop, the flop makes two players drop out (me one of them) as it came 367 with two hearts and the betting got capped again. Turn is a K everybody betting and raising (capped again) and the river is a offsuit 9. 58o wins the gigantic pot (he was the one who capped the preflop betting). Ok… Shorly after –already serious behind- I find 66 in the hole and desperate call all the betting preflop (capped). Flop comes 236 rainbow, betting and raising, capped again, turn brings us the A, capped again (by me) and river is a 5, I just call the re-raise already feeling defeated and I was not even surprised to loose against 47o.

Wow. It looks like I am not ready for these California style action games.

Katja played pot-limit holdem and was scaring everybody off like usual. In one situation the made a texas-style guy lay down the best hand with rubbish, even one of the dealers came across later and congratulated here for her gorgeous play.

We made something back later the night when we played PLO 5-10-25 (missisippi live straddle) and the best hand held up a few times. We went to sleep about 2am.

Next day we slept long and I got no sport for the second day in a row which is bad for my weightbet but I am loosing weight as my diet is running well here. I went over a little ahead of Katja and tried a satellite but got out early.

At noon our daily event, the 1,000$ pot-limit holdem, started. Katja got out after only 45 minutes, flopping the nut flush but someone flopped a set and setted her all-in, naturally buying a pair on the turn. My story is way longer, I played nearly 10 hours I got busted in spot 28th with 18 paid, guess against who?? Sure enough, David Mehrmand. I had AQs in the SB, it was folded to me, I raised, he re-raised, I called all-in. JJ for him, no improvement for me. Worst case scenario.

Katja was playing in a NLHE cash game the afternoon after loosing some buyins in a PLO game. The game looked pretty dead to me but she wasn’t in a mood to discuss that with me. I went to the room to get over that beat (I don’t even know what’s more frustrating: busting out or busting out against HIM) where Katja re-joined me just now. The actual mood here is not to good as we are not getting anywhere in the tournaments (far from 4 final tables…) and are loosing in the cash games the last 48 hours. Let’s see how this will turn out. Trouble ahead.

Day 6

We avoided all personal trouble and relaxed a little at a blackjack table where we won about 2,000$. That I played well and lasted long in most events was not unnoticed and Willi Than took 10% of my action for the 1500$ limit holdem event. After a great morning with another 5 mile run and a nice breakfast I entered the tournament (Katja preferred not to play like always with limit events) and after about 2 hours I started to get some cards! For the first time in the whole trip I was catching cards – AA, KK QQ, all kinds of pairs and A with face cards. While I got unbelievable snapp-off’s also I bad beated some guys also like when I was holding A9s, flop comes three spades with A9 and I call the flop and the turn after initial betting. River comes an ace and I raised him – he flopped the nut flush with KJs of spades and got rivered by me with 4outer. Wow. Annother remarkable hand was when I held JJ and raised, got raised, popped it back and the flop came all rags 9 high. I had position on the guy and after his bet I raised him, he called. Turn is a K, he check-raised me and I nearly folded but the guy was good enough to make a play at me so I called. The river brought me another J and I raised his bet which he desperately called with AKo. So I had a lot of chips when the field was down to about 80 players of the starting 176. This was the first time I had some chips in the middle stages.

My rush ended soon enough and missed some big draws and got big pairs beaten twice so when it came down to 45 players I had just over the average chips. On my new table I won a hand but lost another big one when AQ and AK meet on a A high flop. I let my hand go after the 4th raise on the flop and my opponent showed AKo.

I still had about average when the following happened. Our table was about to break (36 left, 18 paid) and the floorman had already assigned the new seats when Ivo Donev insisted that the deck was already shuffeled and the hand should be dealt. The floorman agreed and we got another hand. I had the SB and found QQ when UTG raised seeing that everybody was already on the move. I reraised and the BB went out of the way, the initial raiser calling. Flop came 567o and I betted. He called. Upps. I re-thought the hand but came to the inclusion that I will put on the pressure until an ace or king comes. Turn was offsuit T and he still called my bet. On the river an innocent 3 came off and he had not even a full bet there so I putted him all-in. He called and showed A4o for the rivered straight. This pot left me severe injured and I came to the new table with less than half the average. To make a hour long story short here I raised with A7s but had to let it go after a reraise and finally went all-in holding 55 against another german player Eduard “Eddi” Schaf (two time Omaha WSOP bracelet holder) when he called me with QTo and flopped a T my tournament was over in place 26th, 18 paid. Again a 9 hour long experience without any money.

Katja played satellites in the meantime, the first she lost QQ in the first hand, the second she won and in a third she came far but no money. Later we played some blackjack again, lost what we made the day before and finally went to the steak-house where we had a nice talk with Amir Vahedi and Kathy Liebert. Afterwards we made something back at blackjack when I finally got a seat in a 10-25 PLO game where I lost big. I played only 3 hands but all got the wrong way for me. In the first I hold double suited aces (AA96) and raised pre-flop with 6 callers. The flop came T72 with two of my suits. The player in the big blind bets the pot and it was folded to me. I feared the set of tens but still decided to reraise as I had two aces, 9 suits and 4 eights for 15 outs and he still had to call there. I reraised him big time and he called. Flop and turn brought rags and my first big pot was lost. I should have runned it twice but that never came to discussion as the dealer was to quick to deal out the trun and river. Next hand I hold the KQ44 on the BB and there was no raise preflop. Flop comes QQK! I flopped the full house! Wow. Some bets and raises and it was heads up. Turn brought the 4 so I had a set of fours also (Q and 4 as my superouts for quads). It went check-check. On a rag river I check-raised my opponent all-in for over 2,000$. I was shocked when he called and showed KK. I felt like the biggest fish on earth. Shortly after I flopped the nut flush, betted strong, got a caller, turn is rag, I bet the pot and he called again. I had position on him but that did not help me when the river paired the board and the guy immediately betted out all what I had. I folded. He proudly showed me his hand and he had no more than the high pair and rivered just a second pair. Oh well. That was enough and I left the table and we went to bed for the night.

Day 7

The next day find me again using the treadmill and preparing mentally for the days 2,000$ NLHE event which both Katja and I played. There was a long waiting line for the first time as they got around 350 players, very nice turnout. Beside all the mental preparation my tournament was over after 3 hands when I lost with JJ on a 89T board against very wired played aces. I was ok with as I played it right and I am very comfortable with busting out early. Katja played for 7 hours, got unlucky by being moved 7 or 8 times within 45 minutes and always directly into the blinds. Earlier she won a big pot against devilfish with AA against his QQ which left him wounded and his tournament was over soon after. Anyway, when there were only about 60 players left she was less-than-average stacked when she found 99 in middle position and reraised all-in. She got a cold-caller and everybody else went out of the way. She was happy to see him calling with A6 offsuit!!! This story would be longer would not one of these aces came directly on the flop, outch. Well, this call of about 7,000 chips while he himself was only holding about 9,000 must one of the worst in history, what does he thought? That his kicker might be good? Oh well. Katja was depressed for some minutes.

On the bright side of things our friend Casey Castle arrived and we were very happy to see us again.

We finished the night by going into the local steakhouse and then “relaxing for 5 minutes” which found us sleeping on the bed fully dressed with shoes and caps and everything until 4am in the morning when we dropped our clothes and slept 6 hours more. Katja got a little flue like seemingly everybody here (air condition?) and was sleeping 15 hours this way. I had enough after about 12 hours and went to the gym where I took a nice 7 mile run and talked with Ivo Donev about poker in general. John “Miami” Cerruto was also with us, lifting some weights there.

Day 8

It was “river holdem” time again, the days event is limit holdem 2,000$ buyin. I had formely decided that this would be my last event in Tunica. I was very well and mentally strong and felt good about my game. After a slow start I builded some chips and when we got down to 40 players out of 176 I had about double the average chips and felt very well about my chances to reach a money spot (18 paid). I had played over 6 hours already and players were dropping out slowly now. Then the following 4 hands happened to me which send me to the rail:

1. I hold 66 and call a raise in late position, willing to give it up if I hit nothing on the flop (3 players see the flop). Flop comes 567, I made a set! Was there a straight out already? I doubted. A very solid player opened with what I believed to be an overpair or top pair with good kicker. I raised. They guy behind me called, the original raiser re-popping which even confirmed me more that he is not holding a straight. I made it 4 bets and the dumb behind still calls, the raiser also. Very nice pot already. Turn is 2 and it went check-bet-call-call. River is the 8 and it went check-bet-raise-call-call, a very *big* pot. First position showed AA, I showed my set and the dumb behind me showed Q9o for the rivered gutshout straight. Outch.

I was sad to say at least. It took me 30 minutes to recover from this streak and I went to dinner with Katja. There we decided to play some satellites for tomorrows event, the 3,000$ NLHE. We agreed that we are going to play it only if we made enough in these satellites with her first up if we make only enough for one. So we each played two 340$ satellites where she made nothing and I won both but made a nearly 50/50 deal in both. Result were 3000 in buy-in chips and 150 in notes, right enough to cover fees and a massage. So tomorrow I will be the railbird.

Day 9

I am writing these lines here about 30 minutes after noon, Katja went over an hour ago, ready-to-kill. I will not play anymore so I stayed in the room, tomorrow we will leave (except Katja will make it to the final table in which case only I will leave). Time for some first conclusions.

My game: I feel *very* confident about my game although I found some leaks and some strategy flaws. While I truly believe that I got unlucky in the very late stages of all these tournaments where I went that far I came there in the position to be a target for being unlucky. Had I’ve been holding more chips I would have rather not been in these situations or have mostly survived them. So I have to overwork my middle-stages strategy. My cash game is fine but I have to avoid these high-limit limit holdem games as long as out bankroll is much bigger, the swings are awfull. My pot limit game is very good.

Katja’s game: very sharp and ready to break through. I had several conversations with different players about her play all are attesting her a very strong and aggressive style which everybody has to fear. I seems to me that some finer points needs to be improved but I did not saw or heard about one single hand that she misplayed. Some decisions are subjected to discussions but where discussed they where all at minimum “ok”.

Tournament chances: they are there and wait for us!

Bankroll: way to short.

Poker lifestyle: I could live it 100% while Katja needs as 50/50 style. 50% poker and tournaments and 50% home, sports, fresh air and regular timescales. I hope that we can get to 50/50 within the next year (I will fill some of my 50% home with online action anyway).

Tunica: you are in the middle of nowhere here, much more than in Vegas. Here are these 3 casino resorts and that’s it. There are not even cabs outside! When we come next year we will stay at the GoldStrike which looks nicer than the Horseshoe. Seeing all the stuff and guest here you could really a rassist: a human rassist. The amount of “trash people”, both black and white, is to awfull high here that you just can’t believe it. I have never meet “trailer park” people before but I think they are what we found here.

David Mehrmand: he throwed me out of one tournament on a coin flip situation and is exactly that awfull guy like I had him in memory. His acting is way more than “exotic” it is plain bad behaviour. Anyway, he got to two final tables finishing 3rd and 4th and was in the money 2 or even 3 times so he is definitely playing good and getting lucky also. My hat of for that.

Weightbet: very well. My belt is already two holes more narrow and more important I don’t feel that fat any more. Although still way to heavy I am on a good way here. My running capacity has much increased thanks to careful heart rate based training. I just updated my training diary and this week alone I had was running over 20 miles.

Update from Katja: the 3,000$+100 event is full running, 378 players, all the superstars are there (although Phil Ivey and Doyle prefer to play there ultra-high-stakes cash game) but except Daniel Negranau everybody seems to be in Tunica. On one table I saw Devilfish in seat 1, John Juanda in seat 2 and Phil Hellmuth in seat 3… a nice table that is. Katja is doing pretty well so far holding about 13,000 in chips so far with 260 players left (3000 starting chips). She took revenge and throwed out the guy holding 33 against her AQs in an earlier tournament (she flopped a set of tens against his KK). She got moved to a table where two players are holding even more chips than she so it is no safe sailing there. She is terrible ill now and can hardly speak. She joked that saying “all-in” should be enough for the day.

I returned to my room and watched "Rocky IV". When it was over I steped over again to see how she's doing. She looked terrible ill and a little unconcentrated but had her chips. I wandererd around and watched here and talked there a little. When I did stand behind her for a few minutes she played two hands very badly and I talked to her about that. It helped as she played the very next hand agressive (her usual style and not weak-passive) and busted a player.

As I watched the final table of the 2,000 limit event (where I should have been!) I saw that "the asian guy" made good use of my money and reached not only the final table but the last two players. I witnessed a hand where he raised and re-reraised the chipleader preflop with K7s and went all in on a rag flop. The chiplader showed KK but "the asian guy" turned a rivered a flush. Outch, I felt for the other guy and remembered about the two hands the day before that were in fact costing me the tournament. I sat next to Men "The Master" and asked him if this guys is one of his peers. He told me, yes, that guy is his student, Minh Nyguen. Oh wow. That guy must have more tournament wins under his belt as I have registered in so far and does he not holding one or two WSOP-bracelets? I must re-think what I saw and check it out under more different viewpoints. I have a feeling I can learn something here.

Anyway, back to Katja. I had a arranged reservation in the local (and good) steakhouse made for 6:30 so when the time was up I went to her and told I will get there for about an hour and I want her to stay in good (chip position) shape for the next 60 minutes until I return to take the break with her and try what I can to advice her. So I went down and got a seat directly opposite to the doors. After 30 minutes Devilfish and his girlfriend/wife came in and sat right next to me. We exchanged only a few words then as I was not in a talking mood. I told him about Katja still in the tournament and that I am hoping that she will not come in while we are there. He smiled. After about an hour I saw Katja stepping into the restaurant and a quick look at my watch convinced me that the break was still 25 minutes away so she was out which I could also see on her face. It was tougher for me to see her busting out than doing it it myself. When she told about her hand and that she bluffed away all her chips against a big hand that helped not to really. She told me that she was bothered my the player to her right who always attacked and stole her blinds and when she found the biggest hand for over an hour she re-raised him all-in with KTs when he again attacked her blind. Wrong moment as he held KK and won the hand. After a few moments Devilfish and his wife stepped over to our table, offered us some wine and started to tell great and funny stories (he is just great in that) and after a few minutes we were laughing our asses of. Finally he showed me a little porn video with a very special final twist (don't even ask!) on his mobile phone and that broke the ice for the evening. When they left we had already recovered from the bad modd and went upstairs again for a last round in the poker area and some bye-bye's.

We went to bed then and departed the next morning. After a long but excellent travel Katja arrived in Hamburg and I was back at my desk in Stuttgart. Like Tunica had never happened. It is already in a daze.

***************

I got information from Frank that the PLHE game has against my expectations not dried out yet, it is running at full pace every day. We got to get there as soon as I am back in Hamburg and Katja recovered.

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!

PPM IV 4th qualifier updates:
-Katja starts with 1,000, I start with 3,000
-Very first hand: 99, it raised and reraised, I call 300, flop comes KKx, I fold to a 500 bet. On the river comes an ace, AQ wins, lol
-Second hand: KJs, no showdown, back to 3,000
-Out after 20 minutes: holding TT I reraise to 300, flop comes T high, two players, he checks, I check, turn is Q, he checks, I bet, he raises, I movein, he calls gladly with QQ. Board pairs but not ten.
-Katja also out, after 40 minutes, holding AJ (I know no details)

Better this way, quick and early in the tournament than plaing 9 hours and still not getting there... no more comments right now.

After that failure on friday morning (well, mid-day here) I unfortunatly got no sleep. I went to lunch with my son and did some work afterwards. At 8pm we left for our live PLHE game, having already registered for the second qualifier. There all went well (me loosing 2k but Katja won over 4k) and when we drove home we decided to quit playing live now and concentrate on tournament play for Tunica now. We won a decent sized bankroll in the last 14 days that allows both Katja and me to play each and every event in Tunica from the moment we arrive (13th) untill the big one without having to worry about any satelites or sidegames (okok, I will not resist these famous cash games anyway). I guess this all you can ask for and we are both very happy about our little rush here. I already see this as a sign for a good and sucessfull 2005.

Coming back home I was tired as hell but played the 2. PPM IV qualifier anyway (and as I was there the 200 friday night tourney also). Being awake 40 hours and playing 32 hours of poker in this time is not a bad thing by itself but dont expect to be fresh and concentrated for the task ahead. I failed in both tournaments and was HAPPY TO BUST OUT so I could finally get some sleep. I bet I could have donated these 430$ also to something more useful... I wont go into any details about these 2 hours, it's just to embarresing.

*****************

Matt, better known as Partypoker killer IBustChumps (go read his excellent blog), was at my table when I made the 26th place in the 1st qualifier. He made it. Congratulations Matt, I am rooting for you. He inquired about some hands I had while we were here (any intentions to find out something for the future my friend?) and I told him what I had in the most critical hand there - critical as it costed me most of my chips and the tourney and for him as it was so close - had he not gotten AA the very next hand he would have been history also. Let me share with you what I wrote to him:

"Matt,

in the first hand I did have a pair of eights. I was moved from the other table directly into the BB and was still in that other table mode where I got a lot of respect. And trying to insolate was exactly what I did - on the flop I had a straight draw along with my overpair (567 with two spades?) and I still figured my hand might be good. I only called your bet - when I now (much less rushed) think over it I could have played the hand waaaay better (especially I should have raised your flop bet) but I did not know anything about the table, had no clue what you might have held and what your "style" at that table was. On the 3s turn I just could put nobody on the flush draw and actually remember to have thought: "Matt might have top pair here or trips but not that flush, I'am gonna call".That reraise from NYFred on the turn made is almost clear to me that I was beaten then I made the most critical mistake: call that raise. When I look at that hand history now I could beat myself for by finding all these (wrong) arguments to further call there - this is classic fish play :-( My only possible reason is that I was worn out already (I played over 7 hours in a live wild action deep-money PLHE game before I entered the satellite).
What I only saw in that hand history is that the inital raiser made the straight around his 4.
On the next hand I had presto. I was totally out of control of the game at that point and already felt pushed-around from you and NYFred and was scared about my precious chips, lol. I just followed that old rule "no set, no bet" there and your re-raise before the flop screamed strength. If with you alone I would have called anyway but without position and then trapped between your all-in bet and a possible raise from fred I did let the hand go (which I should not have based on the outcome, it would have made my tournament. In the moment my decision was correct I believe even now).
Congratulations to you for making it, I watched the action until it was clear that you make it. Maybe I can get Katja and me onto that boat also, then we take one or more drinks together.
Thanks for sweating me, I appreciate it.
Jan "50outs"

"88 makes a lot of sense, I thought it might be that or 99. I did laugh when I found the other guy had K 4. I had been watching you at your other table a little bit and didn't think you could have anything bad there but that you were capable of isolating with a number of hands. That guy cold calling 3 bets with AJs was pretty bad, but I guess you expect that from him. I figured you laid down the next hand because of Fred. I probably would have folded presto there too, figuring you likely are beat or will be by the river since I am all in and you know Fred isnt folding anything. I usually just fold those early, but I know what you mean about feeling out of control. At the point where I came back to 100k I studied the field for a bit and talked to a friend and we both thought I could blind in, so I started folding everything. I would have played AA, just because I wasn't 100% sure I could blind all the way, but that would have been about it, and even then only if I could get the pot down to one or two opponents. I think it was a good call. Looked scary for a while because so many of the baby stacks started doubling and tripling, but still I had two people who had to play all-in before I would have to when we were one spot away, and even if they both won I could have won either blind myself and then numerous people would have had to all-in before me. I folded so many beautiful hands, even a QQ that would have flopped a set and won a big pot and an AJ that would have flopped quads, but my plan worked. Still it was very hard to fold that stuff. Thanks for telling me what you had. I agree with you about raising the flop with that 88, though in the end it would have only hurt both of us because Fred would never fold that flush draw. Actually it would have busted both of us in hindsight because I am sure I would have come back over, but still it would have been the play. Good luck in the later ones though, hope you and Katja make the boat."

*****************

PPM IV 3rd qualifier updates

We will try again - tomorrow.

As I am writing here we have started to play the first qualifier for the PPM IV just 5 minutes ago and I am waiting for the "Super Thursday" as my sidegame. My first hand was 77 and when flopping a 7 I won the first pot. Good sign!

We just came back from the casino where we played our now daily PLHE game for about 7 hours, Katja is already well exhausted and tired. We again managed to win a decent amount and I can report the breaktrough of 25,000 (euro) in winnings over the last 14 days. Today was not Katja's day as she lost small but I managed to crack aces once and get the best hand to be layed down twice for decent sized pots to book a nice win. We are going to play one or two days more in that game and then start to rest for Tunica preparation. Ok, my part of this rest is to destroy workplace productivity for three days before taking off with reading poker blogs :-) as I start working Monday morning like every week but leave to Memphis in Wendsday evening (meeting Katja in Frankfurt).

*****************

PPM IV updates:
-After 55 minutes I am the cheap leader with 5275 in chips! Wow!
-Katja needs serious help with only 250 left at the first break.
-Katja went from 250 to 2,250 in about 30 minutes and is back in the game
-In all the action I missed the start of the NL super tuesday 150$ and came in 36 minutes late
-I managed to bust out of the tuesday without winning one hand, going all in with AQ on the 77A flop, getting called by A8 only to see a turned 8 and I am going home.
-Katja got a series of beats to bust out of the boat qualifier after two hours. Now it's on me.
-Break 2, I got twice the average but I am far from any chip lead...
-With 600 players left I dropped below average for the first time as I got AK twice and AQ cracked within 4 hands :-(
-Remark: very hard to resist chocolate and sweets here, but weightbet is weightbet
-Running better, back to double-average
-With 400 player remaining I improved to triple-average :-)
-300 left, I got triple chips again
-200 players left, I have 47,500 with an average of 17,600
-4 hours running now, 173 left, I got 49,800 chips with an average of nearly 20k.
-Oh a cooler, I lost jacks against kings!
-Won a pot with 44, calling all the way, puhhh
-With 104 players left I got below average again, not getting anything
-92 players, one out of four gets on the boat now (23 seats)
-Queens holding up, giving me some air to breathe, above average
-Below average, lost KT against KJ
-Won a big pot with AJ when AJ7 flopped, check-raised and got called all the way
-Lost BIG with QQ against AQ when A rivered and he betted like crazy the whole way
-70 players, won a small pot with 22, flopped a 2 but got no caller, still way below average
-Back to about average thanks to fearless play
-Lost 99 full played against JJ on rag board
-Lost K9 against A9 on nine high board, one third of the average, IN TROUBLE
-Nearly dead, 77 in late position, running against slow-played AA
-The blinds are coming!
-Went on all-in before the flop on the BB with KJh and rivered a J against two callers, survived!!! yes!!!
-Getting no cards, playtime so far >6hours
-Won a BIG pot that got me ABOVE average with TT when crazy guy decided to check-raise me with 55 and I called all-in... yes!!!!
-Won and lost a big pot to the same guy in two hands in a row
-46 players, every second one get on the boat, I am shivering
-On Break. I got 57,000 and the average is 75,100. 46 players remaining. Just before the break I lost a pot with AQs against KQo when the other guy rivered an ace for the streight. The pot was over 50k. I would be smoother sailing if I had won that one... wish me luck, now comes the most important part, getting rid of another 23 players and NOT ME
-WON A 100,000 POT !!!!!!! YES!!!!! Details to follow, I am to excited right now
-QQ in the BB, lost a medium sized pot to K5 (SB) which made a straight on the river with a gutshot 4
-40 players left, I am exactly on average
- 25k above average, 38 left, 15 left to bust
- ok, stalling has begun, I got time to tell about my turnaround hand: I had 96h in the BB, a player in middle position called and the SB made it 8,000. I called. The SB was raising there all day (see above for his K5 play) so I figured him on not that much. Flop was A94 with two hearts. SB bets, I call, other player calls. Turn is a 6 giving me two pair, SB bets, I raise, middle position player calls and SB folds. River is a J but I bet anyway, got called and two pair WAS GOOD! He had AT.
-36 left, game is hand for hand now -Made a stupid call in the BB holding 89 against QQ and lost how I should (9 in the flop). I hope that will not cost me the tournament in the end
-33, blinds are starting to bite into my stack, I have the feeling that I could NOT smooth sail, instead I got to play a hand or two. I am scared, but there are 10 players that have less chips than me
-Two of the small stack players at my table won their all-in games, making me the second-low in chips now
-Third one won also, I am officially the short stack at my table
-My SB enemy went all-in and got three kings against the other players two pairs
-I raise with KT, flop is T high, I bet, one crazy player folds
-I raise the very next hand with AT, same player calls, flop comes J high, I bet, he folds after A LONG THOUGHT. I lost a kilo sweating in the meantime, good for my weightbet. 87,000 chips at 4000/8000
-How bad could players be? I was in the SB, holding JTo. All folded, I raise, BB calls. Flop all rags, I bet, he calls. I give up and check, he checks also. River is T, I bet, he calls with 66, I win
-29 players, I am moved, 88 in the BB, accident, I have only 31,000 left now!!!
-Survived all-in with J5 on the BB against AA when flopping and rivering a 5
-I am the low stack of the tournament now
-In the money now
-AT in the BB, all-in, same hand as the raiser, split pot
-Out and over. 26. for 798$. I played 8h:30min and went out in the BB with K7 (all-in) against AK. No seven came to save me this time so it is all over now. 23 are on the boat and I was 26th.

I try again tomorrow.