Deutsche Pokermeisterschaften Day 1

I've never seen the Spielbank Berlin as packed as it was yesterday. The tournament started at 20:30 with 100 players. The tournament would be played down the final 20, who then advance to the final on Saturday. One problem that they ran into was that they did not have enough poker tables, so they used blackjack tables as well. You can imagine how much space there is when you fit 10 players at a blackjack table.

I was quite happy to spot several "loose" players at my starting table. There was one oriental player who was 100% in it to gamble. I'll spare you the hand details from hands I was not involved in, but believe me, some of these guys had a bad case of donkitis.

The first hand I remember getting involved in was with ATs. There was an EP limper and then the oriental guy raised it to 200 (blinds 20/40). I wanted to single him out and play it heads up so I went all-in with the assumption that I was more than likely a favorite and if not I could take my rebuy. Unfortunately, the EP limper called my all-in instantaneously and I felt trouble coming. That feeling of trouble quickly changed to a feeling of joy when he flipped over A9o. Certainly an interesting call. The flop came down T87, giving me top pair and him an OESD. He completed his straight on the turn with a 6. I reached into my pocket for a rebuy until I saw the river: 9. Split pot.

A few rounds later I looked down at TT after the oriental limped again from MP. The blinds were 60/120 and I raised it up to 600, trying to isolate him again. The SB called the 600, leaving himself only 180 chips (?) behind. The oriental also called, leaving himself just over 700 left. The flop came down A24 and they both checked it to me. I figured that the maximum I could still lose was 700, and that the odds were in my favor of them not having an ace, so I bet 700. The SB folded (hehe) and the oriental called, showing 23o. Two-three offsuit. He needed to catch a 2 for trips, a 3 for two pair, or a 5 for a straight. Luckily, none of them came and I took his stack, forcing him to rebuy.

Me and my oriental friend

When I saw that a few of the loose players were starting to get chips, I decided to go ahead and rebuy anyway. After all, when the time was right, I wanted to get the maximum value out of the situation. Shortly afterwards I took my add-on as well, making my chipstack accumulate to ca. 6500 chips. With blinds of 100/200, I raised it up to 600 with AKo. The same two guys called me again (oriental and SB), and the flop came 363. My continuation bet of 800 took down the pot.

The tournament started to get pretty turboish afterwards, with blinds going from 100/200 to 200/400 to 300/600 to 500/1k to 1k/2k. After watching my stack dwindle down to under 8k, I knew it was time to act sooner than later. Right after the short break, I had 12k (blinds 1k/2k) and I was on the button. It was a special situation because the BB was still on break meaning that his hand was dead. Everyone folded to me and the only person I had to get through was the SB. I went all-in with 94o and he went into the tank. Finally, he showed me TT and folded! Then the BB (who had since returned from break) said "Show one, show all." This is where it gets shitty. The dealer grabs MY cards and shows everyone at the table my 94o. I was furious. She just totally ruined my gameplan and now I had no more chance to steal.

Stefan "Voodoo" from Bad Beat Berlin

With just under 30 players left, my table was consolidated and I was moved to a new one with faces such as Sigi Stockinger. Knowing that the final 20 would advance to the final on Saturday, everyone was playing extremely tight. The blinds had reached 1.5k/3k and I was certainly not going to settle with my 13k stack. I knew I had to take advantage of the situation and so I ended up going all-in three or four times. There were now just 21 players in the tournament, meaning that we had hit the bubble. Whoever made it to the final would get to keep all their chips and start over with blinds of 100/200! Right now we were playing 5k/10k! Unfortunately for him, Tarek, who is a friend of mine, lost on the bubble after getting rivered. Everyone else was very happy about advancing to the final.

Tarek, the unfortunate bubble boy

I have 25,300 chips, which is good enough for 8th place right now (chip counts here). Today I'll go to the Spielbank to give support to several friends who are playing today. I'll also go watch the lucky guys who lost yesterday but bought into the tournament twice (such as Jan "50 Outs" or everyone's favorite Horst Koch) Expect a full report from Saturday's final as soon as I get the time!

*Special thanks to Sutti, Stefan, Rainer and Fabian for the support throughout the night!