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Deutsches Sportfernsehen ("DSF") started airing the Poker Nations Cup yesterday (30.8.). Commenting was done by german top pro Michael Keiner (not by Katja for obvious reasons ;). As I have written before, the production itself is top class. You see some amazing plays by some of the worlds best known players. I still won't spoil the fun here, enough if one of germans most read TV magazines is doing this in their very first announcement of heat #1.
Katja's heat is heat #3, aired on Sunday, September 3., 20:15 german time. Make yourself some free time to watch it but fasten seat belts. I have seen the english commented version of this already as it was aired on UK's channel 4 already, where Barney Boatman and Jesse May did the comments. Both have been *very* excited about Katja's play and in fact I have never heard them talking so well about any player so far - and it is absolutly deserved. Just pay some attention how she either folds second best hands or bluffs world top-class players out of their winning hands. Absolutly amazing skill, timing and fearless play. A pleasure to watch. That's poker.
Look at Katja on this picture here; compare that approachable nice girl-next-door with the fearless player you see in TV there and you get an remote idea about how our private life is :D
I get a lot of feedback about the new german poker magazine and 95% of it is positive. There are even some people saying our column is the highlight of the magazine :) Thank you very much, we'll will keep that column. Also next issue will have a special about Katja as I understand.
In actual playing we practiced some HORSE for the upcoming WCOOP at PokerStars. First trys have been at $2/4 because we have never played any Razz before, much to the amazment of the players there. Some have watched Katja playing $100/200 hours before and now got excited about playing with her in that "little" game. Not to bad in fact as Katja won about $100 there in 4 hours practizing. When I finally took over, now an "experienced predator", I went straight to the highest HORSE table available, $10/20 and of course I lost like $200 in no time (but always on the river, what do you think?? lol). Still, some practice is well deserved.
Tuesday we both busted early in the €200 NLH tournament and went home, playing some more $30/60 but also no good. As Katja was traveling yesterday I went alone to Spielbank Hamburgs weekly €300 NLH event, just 15 players, 3 paid. I got 4th :(. First I went-allin on the button with ATs but got called by AJs in the BB and lost my few remaining chips then with KJ vs AK. Cash game looked juicy but I went home, my computer is not working 100% and I spent the night trying to scare WindowsXP by checkraising with some (pea)nuts.
Katja was playing some $100/200 on PokerStars yesterday. "Some" means about 1600 hands, both 6-max and full ring within a 12 hours session (single tabling only). We did this after a really good run at $30/60 where she made some serious money. We spend the whole time together, talking about hands an decisions. This is a fun and good way to improve your game! We agreed on 95% of all decisions and found out (the hard way as usual) that our turn and river plays for that limit are way to tight (read: weak). We got our money in preflop and on the flop with the best hand about 80% of the time (which is very good I guess) but we somehow failed to give our hands the right protection on the later streets. We definitly don't do enough re-raising there. Our main observation was that almost nobody there gives up any pair. Ever. Pocket 22 on a JQK flop? CALL! (or even raise) - 68 with a 6-7-J board and two bets to call? 100% call. D-o-n-t f-o-l-d a-n-y p-a-i-r. Another note was that we don't get enough action on our big hands. Looks like playing textbook-stlye ABC poker is not enough in those limits, the players are way to good in determining the hand strength based on action patterns. Although there have been defintily enough donkeys playing conclusion is we got to mix it up some more. Looks like this is more difficult than expected when still in this "play solid poker" big-buyin tournament mode after the WSOP. Even I (lol) was clueless and I really know how to play reckless [yes, I am clueless, read below]
There was actually a point early in the goings where we have been up like 7k, holding AA on a 3-8-K-6 rainbow board. Katja has been betting out, getting raised, reraised and he capped so four bets going into the pot on the turn. When the river brought another 8 Katja only check-called to get shown a 78o hand by some donk. From that point on we lost 50 BB in 30 minutes with 4 more major hands lost on the river to 4 or less outers. Yikes. When the table broke we changed to the 6-max table and played there another 5 hours, almost getting even again. Back to full ring. Table breaks (table chat reads like 'this table is way to tight, let's move to 25-50 NL' etc.). Back and forth, up and down. Although they were taking our money overall nobody really seemed to like playing vs. Katja. Guess having a tight image hurts further. Funny sidenote: one guy told the story that he deposited $1000 two days ago, got on winning streak right away and after being up more than $40,000 his account got blocked by PokerStars to run a detailed security check on him. Wow. He was required to send in some ID's and papers and was then allowed to play again. When we last played with him he ran his $4,000 to more then $20,000 in a 3-hour session so he must be up more than 50k by now - in two days that is! Some small portion of this is our money too, lol.
Most amazing is I know Bedros for over 10 years now and played thousands of hours with him in all kinds of cashgames and tournaments. And I still have no idea how he is doing it. No idea. Just look at his winnings - and that's not all, by far. Even when slandering with other about him, nobody has any idea except the usual - fearless player, very experienced, great reads, big laydowns etc. Note all attributes like "patient", "tight" or "consistant" are missing here - for a reason. He is none of those. He is patient only in waiting for the tournament to start, tight only when leaving the casino after blowing some serious money on the slot machines and consitant only in his high placements. Gamewise he should not have any chance at all, still he rulez. Hmmmmm. Now he could be on a ten year long lucky poker tournament streak or doing something out of my reach. Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Let me quickly re-read the above from the $100/200 game. Is there some correlation? Should there be some? Is solid, "responsible" and meaningful poker style, well, out-of-style? As I think about it while I write these lines here there may be some truth to it - did not I myself had my best results years before when money was no concern, I played for fun (and I am not talking about the fun resulting from profits) and earned my nickname, "50outs" because nobody ever had any idea which of those cards had hit me?
I should really give this mode a new chance. Again.
Today the first german poker magazine is for sale on shelves all across German-speaking countries. We had a printed version in our hand already on Monday when we had a meeting with editor in charge, Michael Dombrowsky. He proudly presented us the finished version which is very good. Much better and higher quality than expected. Well done Michael! This one will actually become a hit. So, if you can read any german, go out now and buy your copy!
Guess what? Katja and I contributed a page long column for the magazine and we will keep that as long as they will allow us ;). It is a funny column where we take a point and throw our our opionions on it, from a female and a male side that is. Click image to enlarge:
(c) 2006 Das Casino & Pokermagazin
On other notes Tuesday I won that €200 NLH tournament in Schenefeld (field was small with 25 players only) because almost everybody is in Casino Bregenz for the tournaments there (sold out from what I hear). So some fierce competiors are not in town. Makes any difference, I don't know. I usally bust out against weaker opponents - go figure. Anyway, it was nice to touch some money again, at least for 10 minutes when I sat down in the pot limit holdem game thereafter where I played three big pots, had the best all all three times the money went in but all three. Total loss is quite small (for that game) but still, it did eat most of my winnings. Poor feeling, as usual. That's poker I guess (and greedy Jan who must play a pot limit game although tired from the long day and tournament and taking a seat with the two biggest luckboxes havin position on him. Well done.) On Wednesday I managed to get third in a €300 buyin NLH with 20 players and wisely skipped the pot limit cash thereafter (tired as hell). Katja was first out after 5 minutes when she got all her money in with QQ on a 5-5-8 flop but got called by 44 which made runner-runner flush. Poker is fun. I guess.
PokerStars has finally found the time to update their website. Now Katja got her picture and bio online on the Team PokerStars webpage. There will be special page on the german website very soon also. That was about time as we already received a lot of disbelieving/doubting/questioning mails why she wasn't listed there. Thats a problem when you write an up-to-date blog; you're sometimes so ahead on publishing things that some people won't believe you. Also it was high-time for the whole PokerStars team during the WSOP, like christmas for Santa Clause... how in the world came this comparision into my mind now? LOL. All jokes aside, now that I have an even better inside view on how things are handled inside PokerStars let me state that I am sill impressed by how professional they are and how much focus they put on the customer. JaJa I am now somewhat belonging to them and stuff but still - that is simply the truth.
I got a lot of questions regarding the upcoming tournament in Casino Schenefeld so I simply publish all the details that I know here:
- Tournament will be on September 8th and 9th in Casino Schenefeld.
- Buyin will be €700+50 fee (including a buffet and soft drinks), no rebuys
- Format is Texas Hold'em, No Limit Holdem, freezeout
- Check-in starts at 19:00h, play beginns at 20:30h (18:00h on day 2)
- There will be 7.000 starting chips (!)
- Levels will be 45 minutes (!)
- Reservations needed until September 4th including payment (!)
- There will be 70 seats. Reservation is strongly suggested
- ~15% of the field will be ITM (in-the-money)
- Media attandence: WDR will be filming there
- Here is the timetable:
Level
Time
SB
BB
Ante
1
45
20
20
-
2
45
20
40
-
3
45
40
80
-
4
45
60
120
-
Pause (20 minuten)
5
45
100
200
20
2. Tag, Beginn 18:00h !!!
6
45
140
280
40
7
45
200
400
40
8
45
300
600
60
Pause (45 minuten)
9
45
500
1000
100
10
45
700
1400
100
11
45
1000
2000
200
Pause (10 minuten)
12
30
1500
3000
200
13
30
2000
4000
400
There is a difference in the time table and the letter I received from the Casion. In the letter they wrote blinds will start at 20/40, not 20/20. What's really true? I don't know (yet).
Katja and I will be playing there. Directly after that we will travel to the UK for a meetng and from there to Barcelona's EPT.
Since we came back we started to play local tournaments right away. Arriving saturday morning from a long trip did not keep us from playing saturday night ;) Katja and I played four local tournaments since then, three for €210 in Casino Schenefeld with 30+ people (frequently sold out these day now) and one for €315 with 20 players. Katja won one for a little over 2k payout and busted out of the others early, I got 5th in two getting paid in one. I also went to play a satellite for the German Championships but got 5th out of 12 only. Actually I managed get my "suckout score" to 2:4 (two for me, four for my opponents) which is unheard of. A suckout here is defined as hitting a 2 or 3 outer on the turn or river when your money got in the pot with the worst hand by far. We did break-even in the cash games since then.
This autumn will be big in terms of tournament action in Germany and Europe. This is a list of events we will most likely attend:
December 8-9, Casino Schenefeld
Some winter tournament, usally around €500-800 buyin
Definitly a tight schedule. I will provide my insights and opinions on almost all of those events here as usual and in german on pokerstarblog.de.
Oh and by-the-way: thank you Spielbank Berlin for providing legal advice totally free of charge for all of us with this popup:
If some court should decide on some future day that participating in online gambling poker is not as bad as you guys suggest I will happily sue you for all those missed winnings :)
I get link requests very often. This site has daily visitors in the thousands now (on good days) and everybody wants a piece. As I am a lazy person or was it from what I remember as I have not been real lazy since 20 years now, anyway, I often forget to put up links or make something wrong or simply reject the request by hitting delete to fast (you bad bad Outlook). Not to mention all these sites around that not even bothering to ask anymore about a link here. Also, these links would take up quite some space. So I thought about an easier and more interesting solution for some months now. It was then when I discovered and bought a nice PHP script to run a pixel site (those are normally for earning a lot of easy money which I am up for 100%).
As I am now running a lot of sites (Katja's homepage, the german PokerStars blog and some more) I came up with the idea to use this script to allow anybody non-commercial sites to add their links themselfes! I did set-up a domain for this, www.pokerblox.com. There is a big poker blogs pixel page on the main page, so you might want to go there as well and set up your link - Blocksize is even bigger over there. Take a look.
Noticed the new section on the left in the sidebar? This is where your links will appear. Just hover over the first examples that I did set up there using your mouse. Nice, isn't it? A later version will also contain a bigger picture in the tooltip (CSS positioning problems, arghh). The registration process is open from today. Just click on that Add Pixel Link right below the pixel image and follow the instructions. Every non-commercial user will get up to 4 adjacent blocks for FREE. So if you drive any kind of poker blog, information page or public (free) service feel free to go ahead and add your link. Only condition: put up a backlink to this site. I reserve the right so remove or block any kind of link or picture at my solely discretion.
Now, your commercial? Welcome my friend! That little panel is open for you also (and I would happily extend it to any size on your request :)! You just have to pay a small monthly fee of about $50/month/block to me. This fee is negotiable of course, depends on who you are and how you ask. Please note that I am NOT taking ad's from any online poker or casino provider as I am in good business with the best of all poker sites, the fabulous PokerStars! (Now that may sound ironic but is my real opinion; they have by far the best product in terms of software and support quality, tournaments to choose from and they do alot for their players). So, just contact me and we talk about the options!
In case you have complaints about the setup process or any good idea how this whole thing could get improved or extended drop me a mail, I'll be happy to hear.
You want a panel like this for your own site? (You sure do, don't you?) I would be happy to set one up for you (any size and style possible). If you are a famous blogger, a friend (or well known foe) I will do it for free, it's not really that much work. Otherwise I would expect a small compensation from you which could range from a simple dinner when we meet next time to some online tournament buyin or whatever you might come up with.
As said, I will extend the size of the pixel panel as needed.
We had planned to spend a day in New York on our way home and so we did. We arrived in Newark early Friday morning at about 7 AM and wen't to Manhatten were we arrived at about 8 AM. Still a little exhausted from the flight/short night we picked a sightseeing bus right at Port Authority Bus Terminals. The weather promised to be fine, Ney York was under a heat weave during the last days but we got the perfect weather all day; sunny, some clounds, fresh brezze. It was 85% just perfect and 15% a little to hot. First we took the "Downtown loop" but changed to the "Uptown loop" on first chance at Times Square.
Although both Katja and I have been in NYC numerous times (my sister Jennifer Preuss lived there for some years in her model/acting school years) we had never done such a sightseeing tour before. We got the taste for it on our recent London trip were we took a tour just to kill time and have been impressed by the quality of those tours and good impressions you get to see.
After the Uptown tour was finsihed we took some lunch at a Deli and continued with the Downtown loop. Originally we had planned to do some shopping on the way but we've been to tired to leave the bus (saved some money :)
Afterwards we went back to the airport, grabbed the flight, no problems this trip, flew home and there we are now - trying to relax a little. Let's see how long we can stick without any live poker - tonight is a little tournament...
Except that if Katja or I would have made this play he would have hit a K or a J or a straight or a club flush. This is how things have been running for us - a 59% vs. 41% situation is just not good enough for us, in fact even 80% situations are not enough.
Noticed the new section on the left in the sidebar? This is where your links will appear. Just hover over the first examples that I did set up there using your mouse. Nice, isn't it? A later version will also contain a bigger picture in the tooltip (CSS positioning problems, arghh). The registration process is open from today. Just click on that 
You want a panel like this for your own site? (You sure do, don't you?) I would be happy to set one up for you (any size and style possible). If you are a famous blogger, a friend (or well known foe) I will do it for free, it's not really that much work. Otherwise I would expect a small compensation from you which could range from a simple dinner when we meet next time to some online tournament buyin or whatever you might come up with.
