I was lazy posting updates here the last days, mainly because poker is not running good in November and I would have had only the usual stuff of unbelievable bad beats, major suckouts, bad plays by me and some frustration to report. I won't get into the ugly details, enough to say that I was to feared to play anthing over 30/60 this month because I am running playing so bad.
Katja in the meantime managed to get us into the upcoming german championships very cheap through satelites. The german championship will be in no-limit holdem for the first time (it was all 7stud so far) and will be held in Casino Schenefeld in northern germany. The format will be like this: €400 buyin, one €200 rebuy and a €200 addon along with €40 fee for a total of €840 investment (~$1,000. There will be two qualification rounds, the first on December 2nd and the second on December 3rd. In case you don't make it on day one you could still try again on day two (buying in for €840 again) but the event looks like sold out already (70 players possible), this is at least what I heard from an casino employee. This means there will be about 140 players trying on two days to make it to the "super final" late December 3rd. I figure there will be some chance to still get in on day 2 but the event will definitly be a big success.
The tournament itself is a big crapshot, made for all the wannabees, black-jack and fun-players (I admit I qualify for all three categories lol) which isn't bad but just not good for the serious player. The timetable is a pure joke, the levels are 20 minutes only and the limits go lightning fast from 10-20 blinds to 200-400 blinds within 120 minutes, almost doubling every 20 minutes. Chips made in the qualifiers will be caried over to the super final which has the same short levels and fast blind doubling rate. The concept of the "ante" in no-limit holdem tournaments is still unknown to casino management and they obvious try to clean the tables to make space for the cash games (which will be about the best games you can imagine; live straddles followed by blind pot sized bets in early position in 10-20 €500 buyin pot-limit games and stuff like this, 7 players seeing the flop for a raise and a re-raise in the same game).
Although I really don't like the structure of the tournament I am really looking forward to the event - meeting frieds, having fun and playing wild and loose and try to acumulate a lot of chips fast will be fun as hell. And what the heck, Katja got us in already in for the hole €840 by winning two single-table satelites so are freerolling now. They had satelites for three weekends in a row and as far I know Katja is the only one able to win two of them. We even took a deal when someone was in financial trouble and needed to sell his ticket for 60% of the value so in fact we got 3 tickets now, allowing us one more try on saturday if we can't make it both to the super final on the first day. Well done Katja!
If you like to know how Katja deals with me looking over my shoulder seeing me play my usual "textbook like" poker style online, this picture says more than 1000 words:
(Picture taken from Iggy's blog)
2.1 million USD first price !
The WPT event in foxwood got won by 21-year old Nick Schulmann aka "TheTakeOver" from Pokerstars. I personally dont know him nor have I ever chatted with him or something but I played several times with, sorry, against him. Wow that guy is though. Winning 2.1 million USD as first price money is a "nice" payout. My guess is that Nick will be the single best player for any sponsoring now - his fresh, cool and sharp look along with his age and experience (he is one of the best online players since years) will put him in the main league in just weeks from now, passing many others. I think we european players have no clue about how popular poker in the US really is and how many kids are waiting for their chance to show up - how can't they, seeing that kind of success?? I am impressed and envious.
