Day two of the tournament is over and unfortunatly we did not make any money. Katja held herself for a long time on day two (about ~20 players remaining) but then picked a bad spot to make her move holding AJs. I had just arrived to the tournament at about midnight and maybe she got a little over-excited to see me ;), anyway it was the best hand she got for hours but she ran into Frank's aces which held up. After the normal 10 minutes of desperation and frustration she got back to her usual kind behaviour and relaxed, sweating me in the pot-limit cash game (all pictures provided by Klaus from pokeracademy.de).

Fortunatly my friend Sebastian ("Miami" from cardcore.net) got third in the event and as we swapped 10% I got a €500 payout :) Congratulations again, Sebastian, you proved your talent and won a nice dinner from me for our last-longer sidebet! In the current month Sebastian made his best score ever (ripping the sng's on party) and live he is a good winner also :). My other buddy Achmed made the second place, well done also (but you cut my profit, buddy!)

Jan, Phil, Sebastian and "Korn" on day 1

The PLHE game went not so smooth as I lost big pots with QQ and KK (to spade flushes both times). So I guess it is only fair when I took an all-in pot myself with a spade flush (vs. QQ) to cut my loses short.

Katja moved some more pictures into our online album.

Yesterday was "day 1" of the Hamburger Meisterschaften hosted by Spielbank Hamburg. This was is a NLHE event with a buyin of €500+25, two rebuys each €100 and one addon for €200. You get 1,500 start chips, for each rebuy again 1,500 chips and then depending on the level between 3,000 and 6,000 in chips for the addon. The "preparation" was good, the day before Katja and I played a small €300+15 tournament, cashed, played small 5/10 PLHE, won both, slept well and long and had a good day. Right before the tournament we went to dinner with Klaus "Bandit" and Roy von der Locht which was nice and chatfull. When we arrived there we got into some strategy discussion right away with Korn, Timmy, Phil and Sebastian. We all agreed that being an better-than-average player it makes a lot of sense to take both rebuys right away to punish the worse players. Oh well, destiny sealed for me. All said and done, the tournament started with ~60 players!

Now, those are the stone cold facts:

I took both rebuys right away as 6 others on my table also did
I lost 20% of my stack in the very first hand
I lost all of my stack in about the 10th hand
I took the addon as the very first player of the tournament
I managed to survive "level 1" (10/20 blinds), being the first one busted level 2
I was almost never the favorite when my money went into the pot

After busting out I went home, being in a really bad mood, realizing I made crucial mistakes. I left Katja in good shape (tournament- and life-wise). Later she called me and said she has an above average stack going into day 2 and then she continued playing potlimit cashgame until early morning.

I think I totally misplayed all of the few hands I had. My table #3 was not an easy one with two danish semi-pros, Korn, Timmy, Phil, two loose unpredicatables and some rocks. Let me share some of the embarrassing details:

Hand #1
Q9o in BB, two callers, no raise. Flop comes Q9x with two diamonds. I bet out 100 into an 70 pot and get one caller (Nadja, I thought I have a very good read/feel on her lol). Turn is diamond, I check, she bets 200, I call, River brings a offsuit ten which makes an gutshot straight possible if the holds an 8. I check, she bets 500 and I think dream she is on KQ with one diamond. I call and she shows me 86d for the straight and the flush... oh yes, mr. good-read again! (The night before I tried a big bluff holding A6 on a KJ6 board - the other had KK). So I lost 820 in the very first hand.

Hand #2
KK in EP, I raise to 60, it gets re-raised to 300, Phil calls. I think about the possible hands - I was sure Phil has no aces there but had no information on the other guy, a lebanon-danish player who had taken both rebuys also. I decided to move all-in which I did. Folding kings early in a tournament is not (yet?) in my book and call would have totally wrong (or so I think). The split second calling of the danish player made my heart sink, Phil folded. Surly he had aces, no miracle on board, I was out of chips. Addon time! Phil said he had 99 and would have trippled up with an 9 in the flop.

Hand #3
Right before he break I get QQ, raise and bet the flop and get a small pot uncontested.

Hand #4
Timmy raised in EP to 120, one caller, I call with 66 and one more caller. Flop comes AA6, all check. Turn J and I bet, all fold. Wow!

Hand #5
Ready to outplay anybody (lol) I limped with A9o and saw a flop 479 with two diamonds. Nadja again with position on me in the hand. I made a big bet to prevent her from drawing to a flush again but she called. I wished for a black 2 and got a black 3, wow no flush, my hand must be good, right? I made a large bet of 1200 and Nadja moved all-in on me! I called without even re-thinking the hand (very bad!) feeling pot-commited or just plain good old TILT. I even asked her if she was holding trips before she showed me 56o and left me drawing dead. I had 200 chips left. I think there no way to play a hand worse than I did here and I am really embarrassed to write about :(

Hand #6
I throwed my remaing chips in with A5o in EP and get called by Phil with AK who flopped a straight. End of tournament story for me.

As I went home I jumped into a 4 handed 30/60 limit game on stars with Erik123. I must have been doing something better there as I made a nice score.

I hope Katja can accomplish something today and get me out of the dirt, as usual.

Play the   PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!   No-Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.   Registration code: 7330476

Pokerstars is hosting it's second annual World Blogger Championship. This reminds me that they still owe me some books and clothes from last years event. Pokerstars, send the stuff finally over!

I took this image from blogfather Iggy's recent post. Would this graffity have been on my regular way to work in Stuttgart it would have depressed me close to suicide every week again - now I am laughing at it and think about printing Retired on my new business cards... as long as there is any money left your bankroll being a poker player rules!

Yesterday Katja broke her (short) dry spell and finished 3rd in the €200+10 NLHE event and it took A2o in the BB to finish her: she had KK (nice job Thang!). Afterwards I played about two hours 20/40 and after being down in the beginning I finished up about 40 BB. The "4" proved to be my keycard as I was losing one big pot with a 4 on the river (AJs vs T4o in the BB on a board of AT7-5-4). I then won three BIG pots with a 4 on the river - guess what junk I was playing wild as hell again!

No words for what losing makes possible: I finally found the dolphins!

Since a few days the weather here got bad again - not only is it raining and cold outside, we lost four straight times in the pot-limit holdem game for amounts between 300€ and 5,000€ each! The amount of rain is low compared to the tears we cry (only kidding). Still I managed to make something in the tournaments, 3rd in Schenefeld's €200+10 for almost €1,000 and 3rd in Spielbank Hamburgs now weekly €300+15 tournament for almost €1,000 again. Katja got bad beats you don't want to hear about and busted before reaching the money now in 4 tournaments straight.

Poker was in TV again, watch it here. You just have to take that Horst Koch appears there ;). Katja's Woman Poker Open appearance will be aired Saturday, June 3rd, 20:15h on DSF. The much more interesting heat from the "888's Poker Nations Cup in Cardiff" will be aired also but I still have no date. In GX magazine coming out late May will be a big special about that event featuring a long interview with Katja.

I got notice from some friends that there are threads here and here in some roulette-forum (german) about the black-jack tournament two weeks ago and overthere they doubt our abilities to be serious black-jack players... LOL. I also got a hate mail from one of them complaing about my black-jack tournament post last year. Instead of dizzing those lame clueless suckers experts let me state that being a "serious (=regular, +EV, know-it-all) black-jack player" is impossible in my book - count out a) a few international top-pros who manage to overcome all obstacles and b) all kinds of cheating (but not counting). In germany there are ZERO casinos spreading good enough rules to be a +EV player even if you are able to count all the stars in heaven and keep a sidecount on all the stones in a river being bound to a hostel-like torture chair. Given that, everybody placing a bet on a blackjack table (in germany and 95% other places) is bound to lose, counting or not. Now let me admit that I tried. Really. Hard. I have read numerous black-jack books, spend countless hours training obscure Zen-Counts, Omega-Counts, simple- and not-so-simple counts, studied the rules and edges, bought expensive training-software (that was when Don Smolen's Chinese Poker software was considered modern) and did everything possible to master the game. That was before poker got so big and -releative- easy money back in 1996-1999. I think I know the game, the concepts and the possible strategies to beat play it. I was either simply not good enough or made crucial mistakes in my bankroll management - most likely both.

Now, playing a 100% payout black-jack tournament with free dinner and added pricemoney on a poker-free evening is a total different thing. This time I don't think all ~70 player are clueless - there was a minimum of 10% players that actually knew what they are doing, both in terms of basic strategy and tournament strategy. I am happily counting both Katja and me into those remaining 90% as we've been there for fun and entertainment (which does not say we are not trying to win money). Having Katja hitting that lucky 7-7-7 jackpot (which is paid without any extra bet) while waiting for my semi-final to end is nice - and if criticizing her playing minimum wager blackjack dealt out of a machine instead of a shoe (not that there was any choice...) to kill some time makes anybody feel good, may it be so. One guy said "that may give [her] the money to see others down but final score is keept in the end" - I can't even count how many misconceptions about life, gambling, being a gambler, chance-games and skill games are visible in that one sentence but it's a lot. But I may give already to much attention to something posted in a roulette forum (!) about black-jack...

Next weekend is the "Hamburger Meisterschaft in Texas Hold'em" at Spielbank Hamburg. It will be a rebuy event with a buyin of €500+25, two possible rebuys each €100 and one addon €100. When I reserved our seats they told me "almost sold out" (~60 reservations) but could not tell me exactly how many will be able to play - most of their tables are small 7stud tables which can only hardly host 10 players. Anyway, it is a two day event starting Friday, May 26 at 20:00h and will have a nice pricepool. We will be there and try to win our share :)

People, surf over to Luck-for-sale and spend you money there! It really helps! I can't even describe how much our live has changed to the better since I decided to end the bad run and just buy my fair share of luck overthere!

I reported about the transaction already in this post: Mastering the luck.

As if not living the heaven-like retired life with katja on my side would be already proof enough on sunday night while enjoying the fantastic well organized and run black jack tournament by Casino Schenefeld Katja managed to get three seven's of spades, winning the "Lucky winner jackpot", worth a payout of 5,000.00 Euros!!!

Wow what a break! The nice thing about this jackpot is that you get it without any extra bet. You just play your spot and if you hit it, you get the money. While for other sidebets (like Gold Jack, Silver Jack etc.) you have to place a (-EV) bet here you get the money extra (you should win your box also with 21...). Sure enough Katja had only the minimum bet on the box, 5€, just killing time while I was playing my intermediate step in the black jack tournament when she hit that miracle.

Now, missing the final table (and the money) in the tournament was not half that bad :-). My final table decision came in the very last hand of the intermediate round when I was the slight chip leader. Two people did bet the maximum, were able to split/double their bet and the dealer busted! So was I. Only the table winner advanced to the final table. Anyway, I gotta pimp the Casino Schenefeld for running the event in the way they did. The house fee was only 5€ which a buyin of 50€. Despite a very done organization of the 70+ players the decorated the room, put many small sweets all around (my dreamland!), had non-alcoholic drinks for free and a good buffet in a nearby restaurant. All this with a 100% payout, added prices (Ladyprice, Luckylooser etc.) made the event very special. Seldom you find a casino hosting -EV events like to this just to keep up with their customers and increase their loyalty.

Poker-wise we had a break even saturday, playing the 200€ tourney (22 players only) but busting both before the final table (booh-wooh). In the 500€ pot limit holdem game that was spread thereafter first Katja was losing like 2k when I was up like 2k then things turned and I was stuck 1k when she was up like 1.5k. There is more to this "swing" but it hurts me to only think about, enough said that poker's most aggressive and lucky Hassan decided to take care of me... Anyway, the final result of the night was winning the tournament's buyin's back and 10€ extras :)

Right now we are thinking about going to Barcelona for the World heads-up championships and the side events there. It is not 100% yet but we both like to go.

I am not sure if we will have a 40/80 game going tomorrow but on thursday is the 300€+15 MTT in Spielbank Hamburg, which we plan to attend.

I get to nothing! Now that I don't have a day job anymore it seems that I can't keep up with all my to-do item's. Between sports, afternoon slepping, playing live and online and working on some website stuff I really find no time for anything. I am stuck on HighStakes episode #8 (of 13!), have not seen any Las Vegas Series 03 episode yet and finsihed just one book! My weekly magazines are laying here, unread and it took me 3 weeks to find the time for new haircut! Amazing, but FUUUUUUUN !

Last weekend we both played some 20/40 on friday (won both). Saturday we went to Frank's birthdays party instead of playing the 200€ live tournament. We got to the casino later the night and as no 20/40 was played we both played 10/20. I was bored so I decided to raise the action and promised to raise EVERY hand preflop for the ext two hours blind which I did. I even cold-betted/raised some flops in -the-dark or at least half-in-the-dark (watching only one card when being raised). In the first 10 hands I got cracked AA and a set but was able to crack AA two times myself. The game was on! No wonder playing like this I got quickly stuck about 800€. When I changed tables I kept on playing like this (they would boo-whooed me if not lol) but won the first three hands straight and got out of the dirt. Sure enough I got tired and went to normal-boring limit holdem playmode where I got stuck again! Finally we both lost a little and left.

Sunday Katja's father got 70 andf there was a big family party outside of our town so we spend the night there. It was all nice with lots of talk and good food in a nice hotel.

On Thuesday I was able to win the 26 player 200€ tournament just one more time :). Katja had bad luck when she lost the best hand 4 times in a row and got eleminated 11th. In the wild 20/40 game we both good so it was a very good and enteraining night for us.

Wednesday was 40/80 time again, this time it started late. We played shorthanded with 6 players but it was a good game. Both Katja and I were pretty well ahead before things turned around and we got stuck. In the end we lost the now quasi-standard 3 BB (240€, togehter). Three times playing, three times stuck 3 BB. Is that my rate? EV=-0.50 BB/h? Could very well be! On the other side this are only about 20 hours playtime and around ~1000 hands so it says nothing so far I guess. I like the game I play there, a good mix between solid but unpredictable play, while I am certainly to loose in the smaller limits.

Now we take a day of from poker and resume playing tomorrow night.

Sunday is 50€+5 blackjack tournament in Casino Schenefeld with a 50€ rebuy available. They offer added prices, free food and poker cash game afterwards so I already bought us in! This will be fun, at least!