The 2006 Austrian Classics Part 3 of 3

Monday: Because I did not need to play the supersatellite to the Main Event, I decided to once again on cash games. For some reason, though, I just couldn't motivate myself to play my A game. I started donking around hardcore at the €1/2 NL table and was soon down €500. Sayoboy was also at the table and was an eyewitness to my stupidity. We then got a €2/4 NL game going on, where I donked off another €300.

Maybe it was because I was beginning to catch a cold, but it was certainly pissing me off that I was unable to bring my concentration level up to par with the game. It certainly didn't help that the shitty hands I was playing were most definitely not connecting with the boards. At shortly after midnight (waaaayyyyyy earlier than any other night) I opted to go back to the hotel to get well-rested for the Main Event the next day.

Tuesday: The day had finally arrived for the Austrian Classics Main Event. Celebpoker.com was kind enough to sponsor me to play the tournament, and it was quite an experience. We began with 8k in chips, and right away I was getting some nice cards. During the first 2 hours, I had KK 3 times, QQ once, and TT once. Unfortunately, the kings and queens brought me usually just the blinds and the TT cost me a few chips when I had to give it up on an overcard-filled board. Perhaps you can say I was inefficient, as I went into the dinner break with only 5.5k in chips.

Sutti in the Main Event, he came in 53rd place after his "KK ran into QQ."

When I came back, the players began to drop off like flies. I doubled up when my AA went up against someone's KK. We were all-in on the flop, he spiked a King on the turn and I re-spiked my Ace on the river! Before I knew it, we were down to just 27 players, with the top 18 getting paid. I was pretty low on chips, but knew something good was going to happen because I was assigned to a new table where my favorite dealer Rhys was dealing.

Gerhard's poker face in the Main Event. His final hand was an AK vs 66 coinflip.

Something big indeed did happen when I shoved all in with A6o in MP after it was folded to me. My stack was in a big danger zone so I am thoroughly convinced it was the right decision. Unfortunately for me, the button woke up with KK! Unfortunately for him, Rhys dealt the most beautiful ace you can ever imagine on the flop! All of a sudden I was back to an average stack! A few hands later a shortstacked lady shoved all-in from LP and I called with AKs. She had QTs and my hand held up, bringing my chipstack up to 40k!

I paid a few more blinds and antes and lost one steal attempt, so I was around 30k when the following hand came up. Blinds 1k/2k/200 and it was folded to Richard Toth in MP, who raised it to 6k even. I was on the button and looked down at AKo. I thought for a few moments and went all-in for just under 30k. He called instantaneously and showed KK. This time the kings held up against me and I left the tournament in 20th place, just 2 places shy of the money...

This all happened shortly after midnight, which happened to be my 21st birthday! I was pretty upset but internally satisfied with the way I played, so I was able to get it out of my mind pretty quickly. The Poker Channel did a short television interview with me, we'll see if any sound bytes are aired in November on Eurosport. Overall it was a great tournament with a not-so-great result. Shit happens.

(left to right) Sutti, Gerhard, Mishkin, and Sayoboy letting off some steam at the 888 online casino.

At around 3am a couple of us started a €500 SNG played with cash-game chips. 6 of us ponied up the buy-in to have a fun little tournament: Ben Kang, Sebastian (Miamivice), Stefan, Thorsten, some guy from Luxembourg, and myself. I was the first one out, when I went all-in with JJ against Sebastian's KK. Shit happens again.

An hour later a few of us decided to get a little side action on another game the casino offered: Concord Aces. The game is identical to blackjack, just instead of playing to 21, you play to 22. Basically it gives the house a humungous edge (rumored to be between 5 and 6 percent). The CCC allows you to "buy the bank" for a minimum of €3.000. This means that if you pay the €3.000, the casino takes that tray and you become the house, meaning that you essentially are playing against the players.

Concord Aces

You pay €45 per 6 decks that are used, and you need to pay out any potential winnings the players make but also get to keep any money that they lose, which made it a very interesting experience. Sebastian and I each donated €1.000 while Sutti and Gehard each paid in €500, which gave us our €3k to buy the bank.

We got off to a horrible start, at one point we had just over €1.000 left in our tray. Luckily for us (if you can call it lucky that statistics balanced out), we hit a very nice run (also helped by players still taking cards at 17!) and after 1.5 hours our tray had over €4.1k in it, meaning we were up over €1.100! We divided it up amongst us and swore to ourselves to do it again the next night if the action looked juicy.

Wednesday: I was not really in the mood for poker, but still opted to play at the €1/2 NL game that just started. The only reason I joined was because Sutti, Oli (bla), Rich, Stoffi, and Stoffi's friend (sorry I can't remember the name) were also playing. Once again, I couldn't control myself from being a total idiot and got involved in a few situations that never should have happened. Once I gave Stoffi a pretty sick beat when I went all-in preflop with ATo vs his QQ. I turned an ace and I wasn't very happy about it, nor as he.

After that we ate a little birthday cake (thanks again, Rich and others) and wasted a little time playing some online poker. As the early morning approached, Benjamin Kang won the €750 Freezeout for just over €12k, after making a 5-way deal when he had the chiplead. Congrats to him for an amazing Classics week, he really showed everyone what he's got as far as tournament poker goes. He bought a couple bottles of champagne and while we were celebrating, we decided to buy the Concord Aces bank again.

This time 7 guys got in on the action, and so we decided that everyone would pay €500 and we would begin the bank with €3.500. Similar to the night before, we got off to a shitty start but then rallied up during the next 2 hours to end the night with €5.300 in the tray, up €1.800! Some other people were telling us about the negative experiences they have had with buying the bank, but everything went more than well for us! Each "investor" got back around €290 in addition to his €500 stake.

Sebastian and Sutti then thought they could own in paper-rock-scissors, but as the results indicate, I am still sitting at the top of my Roshambo thrown today. We played a couple of €10, €20, and even €50 heads up Roshambo matches. The €50 match wasn't even close, I won it 3-0 :)

Me and Sebastian roshambo-ing. This picture is obviously posed in order to make him feel like he had a chance ;)

Thursday: Our flight was scheduled to leave at 21:00, so we spent most of the day once again hanging around CCC playing some low-limit cash games. I was still not able to get in the zone, and ended the day just around +-0. It could have gone much better on the last day, but at the same time I'm happy it didn't go any worse. We said our good-byes and then flew back to Berlin with some nice memories. It was nice to meet several new Poker-Tester members as well as see all of the old ones again. This was by the far the best Vienna trip yet, and believe me, it will certainly not be the last.