The 2006 Austrian Classics Part 2 of 3

Friday: The €100 + rebuys tournament began slow for me. We began with 1500 chips and right away I rebought to build myself a chip advantage over the other players. I played a couple pots early and chipped up to just under 4k, where I remained until the add-on, when I added another 3k to my stack.

From then on out I began stealing a lot more pots preflop as I gradually built up to over 15k. I was then able to eliminate someone with AK vs his AQ and found myself with a serious stack. Unfortunately, people began picking off my steal attempts, which made it much more difficult for me to build or even maintain my current stack. Like the tournament on Thursday, the top 18 players would be getting paid with almost €13.000 for the winner.

With blinds at the 800/1600 level, I made the play that really got the whole table talking: I had slightly over 30k in chips and raised it to 4200 from MP with K9s. Everyone folded to the BB, who called after slight hesitation. The flop came down 862 with none of my suit. He checked it and my inner gut told me to check behind. The turn came down a 4 and he led out for 7k. I can’t really explain it, but I just knew it was time for me to do my duty, and after a little consideration, I shoved all-in for 28k. He thought for a good two minutes before showing me an 8 (top pair) and mucking his hand. I showed him my hand and from then on I knew I was a targeted man.

We were soon down to the final three tables and I had an OK stack of 40k. I then lost a great portion of my stack by calling someone’s All-in with JJ. He had AA and it held up easily. My only chance being so shortstacked was to shove my chips in if any opportunity presented itself. Luckily for me, I never ran into a monster and so I was able to build up to an average stack again as we made it ITM and eventually the final table.

Me all in, one of many times.

I had 54k going into the final table, and again I was forced to shove in several times. I never got a call, though, and so I continued to build my stack. Miamivice was also at the final table and eventually busted out in 5^th place. Before I even realized it, we were down to 3 players: me at 190k, seat 6 at 180k, and seat 4 at 200k+. With blinds of 10k/20k/3k I shoved all in with 78o in the SB. The BB called and showed 66. The flop came down Q98 and I was a huge favourite. Unfortunately, he made a runner-runner flush and eliminated me in 3^rd place. It did hurt, but he got his money in with the best hand anyways. I got €4680 for my efforts. The results for the tournament can be found here.

Saturday: I accidentally overslept the €540 NL Freezeout tournament, which really pissed me off. Because I was at such a juicy cash game table the night before, I ended up playing until 11am. The tournament was to begin at 3pm, so that left me little to no time for sleep. I tried to make it anyway, but when the alarm went off, I knew it wasn't gonna happen. I ended up using the time wisely to get some serious rest.

While all the others were enjoying the great tournament (congrats goes out to Stefan Jedlicka for eventually splitting the tournament for €9.000) I spent my time in an uneventful €1/2 cash game. I ended up the night around +-0 when I finished around 6am, but Sutti got rivered pretty painfully by a local grinder named Gregorio. Sutti had AA and Gregorio had K8s. The flop was K high and they eventually got all-in on the turn for a €1300 pot. An 8 fell on the river, and believe me, Sutti was not too thrilled about it.

Sutti in front of the CCC right after the Gregorio hand.

Sunday: The €540 + rebuy PL tournament did not interest me much, so I waited around for a €2/4 NL game to finally fill up. Prior to this table, they were only offering either €1/2 NL or €5/10 NL. Obviously that is a pretty big gap, and although my bankroll could handle €5/10 NL, I chose to not sit at the Hungarian-filled table if I had a choice. The €2/4 game was fun, we even ended up playing a couple hands blind, which was pretty interesting to say the least.

Later on in the evening, a fellow Berliner Benjamin Kang joined us in the game after coming in 2nd place in the €540 PL tournament for just under €9k. He brought a bottle of champagne and bought the table a round of drinks to celebrate his success. He loosened up the table even more, and got us so far in that eventually we changed the game to Dealers Choice with two choices: PL Omaha or NL Hold'em. Everyone agreed and we began the Omaha madness.

I am not a good omaha player at all, I barely can tell what is a good starting hand and what isn't. Ben's tip to me was to see as many flops as possible and go from there. From the 8 guys at the table, I was the only one choosing NL Hold'em when I had the button :) I managed to stay out of trouble's way and although I misplayed a couple hands, I ended the night an €800 winner.