In yesterday's (tuesday) 200€+10 NLHE with 28 players we reached the best possible result, getting 2nd (Katja) and 1st (Jan). Nice! This confirms the already nice run we have - last Saturday with 31 players Jan got 6th (bubble boy, no money) and Katja 4th (when she lost AA vs. KK). About the endless other in-the-money finishes in this bi-weeklyevent we posted already here regulary.

Now, what is that meaning? Are we the best players in the world (lol) ? Surly not. In analysis I figure the resons for this steady success in the last month are a) we have a nice rush of races that we win, b) the competition is relativly weak (many newcomers, many tournament unexpierenced), c) we play a perfect strategy for this type of events given the structure of 15min levels with doubling blinds and 1500 startchips and d) success builds it's own territory - many bluffs get away uncalled, many correct moves get called by the weakest holdings - and finally e) the other strong players are very well known and can be avoided. As an example yesterday I was able to get away from KK on the flop when I got check-raised to survive (and later win). This was a "player only" decision, against most of the other players I would have went all-in (and broke). I would coin the strategy as "patient in the first rounds, picking spots in the middle tier, playing super-aggressive around the bubble and getting lucky once in the money".

Over the days we also played a lot of live cashgame which went as it should (Ok) with one remarkable exception: Katja made a nice 100BB+ score in a session.

Look at Katja in the following picture, does she look like she can rip your flesh? Surly not :) but she will, eventually!

Katja and Jan enjoying family dinner

Today is higher-limit holdem time - I heard all kinds of rumors about the limit that will be played, 40/80, 50/100 and even 100/200. It will be 40/80 boys - I spoke to over half the players that will be coming and everybody wants to play 40/80 (including me) so I am pretty sure this will be the limit played, no matter if there is a single well-stacked well-playing guy that likes to raise the stakes ;)

On other news RTL is planning a poker-feature and has asked Katja - she was hestitating a little (they want to do with home shots etc) and there are some sponsor-related issues that need to be solved before she will do the shot - it's all businessthese days.

By the way, did you notice the single most active tv-ad model these days, Jennifer Preuss? She is in the most played spots these days, "Du darfst", "Activia", "Alpecin" and "Hella". That girl is my sister! Although we are in some kind of family argument these days and don't speak much (two bullheads crashing) she surly is very successfull and I am very proud on her achievments!

Phil "The Brat" Hellmuth is famous for being the big mouth and the biggest whiner in the poker world. His outbursts are famous as is his saying "I guess if there were no luck, I’d win every one [poker tournament]". Now, the marketing people from UltimateBet found a new gig: Bill vs. Phil. For years the Bill Filmaff short selfmade videos were classics in the online world - just gotta love them. Now they bring on that Bill vs. Phil match and this will be gonna be lots of fun. I played with Phil about 15 hours in some high buyin tournaments over the last couple of years and besides all his doings tgo keep the media attention focused on him I think he really is a great tournament player - I was very impressed by his play.

Well, Phil Hellmuth is famous for annother thing also: losing his tournament winnings in big cash games. This now is where our pathes cross, at least over the last few days. Katja is back from her vacation and we went straight to business:

Unfortunatly, all three days we lost overall in the 20/40 and 30/60 cash games after those tournaments! Oh wow. The only day we managed to win (both) was monday, when no tournament was held and a rocking 20/40 game was played. So, we're still up after four days/~32h of poker but only marginal. That does not feel to good, really. Katja is already ready for new vacations so we take two days of from live poker now.

Over that easter weekend something must have gone on in the online world as 7 of my buddies lost big over those days, up to 25% of their bankrolls in unbelievable downswings. Some of them recovered already but some are still in shock... Good luck boys!

Remember, April 26. we are going to play 40/80 or 50/100 in Casino Schenefeld. Reserve your seat, the list is already half-way full!

Katja got a nice interview published in "Sonntag aktuell" published (german).

I watched the 3rd heat of the 888 poker nations cup on DVD now. Katja was playing very very good there and really got unlucky heads-up in the end two times. First she bets a made straight only to have her female online qualifer opponent call and catch a gutshot on the turn and then her last money went in with K9 vs. K8, river 8. Ugly. But Katja really played well there, I hope the production comes to german TV soon. Contact me for a copy of the video.

Katja making a move on Thomas Keller.

Yesterday was the first of hopefully many middle+ limit-holdem meetings. We played 40/80, got a full table together and the game was good. I was lucky to pick a seat behind Korn and Miami so I had a estimated small positional advantage over them which turned out to be a big moneysaver as those two kept on crashing togehter. Korn played well but and got incredibly lucky in some hands. In my count he was domitated preflop about 8-10 times but kept on hitting his boards (like A8 vs. KK, AJ vs. AQ, A2 vs. AT etc. etc.). Sebastian played well also and made a lot of "a-game" quality folds. As the stakes were higher as most of us are used to play live regulary we decided to play no sidebets this time. On the shark-o-meter Korn was the big winner with about 40 BB and Sebastian won about 20 BB. Yours truly? Lost 3 BB. World order is restored ;)

Next gathering is in Wednesday in two weeks.

Future world-champion Timmy ("I dream of playing with Phil Hellmuth and telling him on every hand what he has, destroying him") played Ok but to passive (just my 2cent, we all know you know better :). Anyway, Timmy is only 18 years old and really has a lot of experience already. If he would put his money where his mouth is he would be broke in 5 minutes but he manages to trash-talk everybody and still keep his game together. Well done, Timmy!

Today I will pick up Katja from the airport when she returns from her vacations, finally! Also today the DVD's with the poker nations cup arrived so I will hopefully post some pictures/clips soon!

First things first: Katja got "woman of the week" for WomanWeb magazine.

While Katja is still on her "girls only" vacation and I am still "home alone" time continues to be lots of fun. Winning 125 BB in the local 20/40 game in about 10 hours playing time did not hurt the good feelings either :)

Thursday was a "real live" meeting of some pokerstrategy guys and some from cardcore.net. I got asked to join and after a relaxing day I joined them late in the night in local club chinalounge.

(Are these really the guys that take your our money online?)

I can't resist to post this picture of poker-pro Korn. He plays the 100-200 games for about $1000/hr and is the high-limit coach of pokerstrategy. I have read thru many forum posts from him (also on 2+2) and from some talking and live expierience I know hat guy can play limit holdem very well. Now, I guess during that party night even picking his cards up could be considered lucky ;)

Next wedneyday we plan to play some 40/80 limit holdem in Casino Schenefeld. If you like to join just come by or contact me.

Next sunday there is a 300+15€ NLHE tournament in SPielbank Hamburg (3 tables max.). Katja will be back and we will be there!

Article in newspaper "Die Welt" from April, 1st 2006 about Katja going to the lady's event in London here.

Katja directed the final poker tournament for the expekt poker lan tour friday in Düsseldorf which went very well; from there she flew directly into her well deserved vacations to the canarian islands (a 'girls only' tour). I won't go to Stuttgart the next weeks so here I am - home alone! That is fantastic, I spend dream days here. Surly I miss her already and will be even more on every day passing but right now I am enjoying myself very much here, sleeping/playing/running/reading/chiling on a total free schedule, fantastic!

It would have been even more fun would not have lost my AQs on AQ2 flop lost to 22 in the million guaranteed and AK vs. KK in the 650$ WSOP qualifier...

I am even to lazy to write long post here, excuse me on this :)