BBC Panorama

Here is an interesting video from BBC's show "Panorama" about Online Gambling.

Watch video here.

Click the "Watch now" button to pop up the media player. Unfortunately the quality of the video is not very high.

Black Sunday

Dropped around $1500 at the tables today, mainly in $100 SNGs and a couple tournaments like the PartyPoker $200k. I don't think I was playing my best and the cards were certainly not cooperating. I'm hoping just to forget about this day ASAP.

Casino Royale

Last night we went and saw Casino Royale, and I must say, I enjoyed it. It's a lot different than the most recent Bond movies, but with a change of Bond actors, it was only natural that the film would come out with a slight change of style. The poker scenes were pretty unrealtistic, but I certainly understand that no one could get too excited over seeing something like an overpair lose to two pair in the key hand of the game.

Other than that, poker has been running quite well for me. I have been playing the $109 shorthanded SNGs at CelebPoker as well as the $114 Turbo SNGs at Pokerstars and I have been having some consistent success. I really just wish I had more time on my hands to just play poker. It really feels like I get caught up in other things and rather than ride the wave when poker is running well, I am putting off playing until it's time for a downswing again...

I know it's really easy to this when one is running well, but I really do feel that I am at the top of my SNG game and that, for the most part, I have my opponents outmatched in these shorthanded SNGs at CelebPoker. I never really got into playing these tournaments until recently, but now that I'm playing them I only wonder why I didn't start earlier. The fact is that most mistakes in SNGs are made at the bubble. With only 5 players at the table and a relatively fast structure, I am put in that bubble situation very quickly very often. Then it really just gets down to mathematics and who can make the fewest mistakes. I have discovered that most players in those SNGs have suboptimal bubble strategies and so far I have been using it to my advantage.

In one week for now I'm driving to Schenefeld for the deepstack tournament, I really hope that I can keep my game in shape until then.

Deutsche Pokermeisterschaften "Das Finale"

I started Day 2 with 25,300 chips and blinds of only 100/200. The blind levels were now 30 minutes long, but were still missing some critical blind intervals that most other (especially internationally recognized) tournaments have.

The first hand I remember playing was QQ. A loose guy UTG limped, I raised it up to 800 (4xBB) in MP and everyone folded it back to him. He called and we both saw a flop of AJ3 with two spades. He checked it to me and I fired a bet of 1200 in the 1900 pot, which he called. The turn came 7, no spade. At this point I was really unsure what he had. I did not think the 7 could have helped him very much, but I did need to be concerned about the ace obviously. I thought it was most likely for him to have something like KJ or even perhaps a spade draw. He checked and I checked behind. The river came down another 7, no spade. Almost immediately he fired out a bet of 4000. I went into the tank to see if I could justify a call. The problem was that his play did not really fit to an ace, unless it was a really weak ace like AT, A9 etc. The other problem was that he made it really expensive for me to find out if I'm good or not. After a couple minutes of deliberation, I made the hero call only to see him flip over A7o for a full house.

With blinds of 200/400, a very weak player raised it to 1200 from MP, leaving himself just over 10k behind. Everyone folded to me in the BB, when I looked down at AQs. I opted to call and see a flop, taking into consideration that I did not really want to be playing this out of position. The flop came down AT7, I checked. He immediately went all-in for over 10k. It's like a 2500 pot, so it's an extreme overbet. It could be a disguised AK, but I thought it was much more likely that he had some kind of underpair (maybe even KK) and was frustrated with an ace coming. Rather than playing the pot in steps, he went for the now-or-never approach I see so often online. I called, he had AJ and my hand held.

Me nursing my stack

Another QQ a few rounds later brought me an additional few thousand to my stack and I hit my peak at around 38k. A lot of time passed with me being carddead and eventually the blinds were at 1k/2k. I still had around 30k. Florian Langmann had the biggest stack by far at my table, he had well over 100k at this point. He raised it up to 6k from EP and I looked down at JJ. With just under 30k in my stack, I did not want to give him a chance to get a free overcard on the flop, so I went directly all-in. He thought for a few moments and folded. There were approximately 20 people left in the tournament, the top 10 got money.

I now had 37k. One round later he did the same 6k raise from EP and I looked down at AK. Little Miss Kournikova, how are you going to do it to me now? I rushed my decision and went all-in again for 37k. You have no idea how fast his call came. After all, making the call with AA is not a very difficult thing to do. His hand held up and I was eliminated from the tournament in 20th place. Obviously I was pretty disappointed in myself, because this was a good chance to make something big happen. Unfortunately I blew it.

After discussing the final hand through from A to Z with players like Benjamin Kang and Tim Gillig, we came to the conclusion that the better play would have been to just call his 6k raise, which would leave me a good 31k to play the flop and/or escape from my hand. With so many weak players still left in the tournament, there was really no reason for me to risk my tournament life against the chipleader after I may have even provoked him the last time I reraised him all-in. I guess you could say lesson learned, but this one was a tough chew.

Afterwards, hochgepokert.de had a VIP corner in the Felix am Hotel Adlon. Obviously we didn't want to miss out on the party, especially when they were kind enough to invite us. We were told to order anything we want and it would be taken care of. That's quite an offer when you take the prices of that club into consideration. All in all we ended up staying until 6am and had a great time! Here are some pictures from the party:

The hosts of the party: Benjamin Kang &Tim Gillig

Sweaty, but comfortable on the couch.

Sutti and Fabs

The Gogo girl was quite a beauty

Daniel Kang and the hochgepokert ladies

Tim with Florian Langmann, the new German champion of poker

No longer alive and well

To make a long story short, I came in 20th place. I'm extremely disappointed in myself. Expect a full report tomorrow evening.

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!

Alive and well

I made it to Day 2 of the German Championships. I have 25,300 chips going into Saturday's Day 2 play. Full report to follow...

Preparing for the Meisterschaft

My starting day is this upcoming Thursday and I will be preparing for the event by playing in some online Turbo Multi Table Tournaments with low starting chips and rapidly-increasing blinds. No joke, this is seriously the way to do it. Or perhaps I could be like this guy or this guy who are skipping the madness and selling their seats on ebay. This would be a sure way of getting "in the money."

Vent post

You ever get that really warm feeling after losing? Your body gets warm, you start to sweat a little, your face perhaps begins to blush? Well I have had that feeling these past couple days after taking one bad beat after the other. Because I know everyone (including myself) hates bad beats posts, the rest of this text is going to be white, so that I can let it out of me and you don't need to read it.

First off I'd like to vent out the €700 I lost due to some amazing plays by my opponents with QTo and Q4o, respectively. Obviously JJ and AA are no good to play anyways, especially at a live game in Berlin against people who have no respect to raises and reraises.

Then there's last night, where the damn second nuts cost me a good €400 at an underground game in Berlin. After I built back up I was shot down 3 times in a row by the same crazy guy who sucked out 3 fucking times with miracle cards. He goes all in with QJ, I call with JJ, Q on the flop. He goes all in with AQ, I call with AK, Q on the flop. And finally, the final pot of the night, he holds T4s, I hold QJo, the flop is Q64 and we are all-in. The turn is a J and he needs a 4 and a 4 only to win. If you don't know what fell on the river, you should maybe read between the lines more. This beat got me particularly warm.

You would think that online would be going better, but no, 14 out of the last 15 $114 SNGs I have played have been good for nothing. Make that -$1400.

And finally, I flop a full house only to be get rivered by a higher full house in a $2200+ pot. Screenshot here, we were all in on the turn. Imagine how warm I was after this one. This bullshit has been going on for too long now and it's time for it to stop. Seriously.

Poker is for monkies.

Schedule

As far as online poker goes, I have been 8-tabling the $114 turbos at Pokerstars lately with some success. Also, I came in 168th place in the Sunday Pokerstars Million which was good for $1453. Other than that, I have been keeping on the down-low and planning out some other poker trips over the next few months.

It starts off right here in Berlin, where the Deutsche Meisterschaften are being played from the 16th - 18th of November. I have the first starting day, meaning Thursday the 16th. If I do not make it to Day 2, then Sutti and I will be flying on the very next (17th) day to Ireland for the Dublin All-Star Challenge. If I do make it to Day 2, then we will be flying two days later (on the 19th).

I don't think I will be playing the Main Event in Ireland, but I do plan on playing some cash games while we are there. The main reason for the trip is to meet someone who we have been trying to meet for quite some time but our paths never had crossed. We will fly back on the 19th or 20th.

On December 2nd and 3rd, Casino Schenefeld is hosting another "Deep Stack" tournament (they are calling it a "Santa Claus" tournament), which I knew I couldn't miss. The buy-in this time is €500+40 with 5k in starting chips, allowing for much play throughout the tournament. I came really close to the money last time and would like nothing more than to get my revenge this time around. I already called to reserve my spot and will be sending them the money right away. Because it is limited to just 70 players, I would recommend that anyone who wants to play hurry up with the registration as well.

On December 17th, I'll be flying back to Kansas City to be with my family for Christmas. Shortly after Xmas we'll be flying over to Utah for a few days to do some skiing. In the very beginning of January we will also travel over to California to be with more of my family (most of my family originates from California).

Then comes the big one. The 12th of January. The day that begins our 19-day adventure in Las Vegas! We will be staying in the Excalibur Hotel getting their "poker room discount", meaning we will need to accumulate 5 hours of total play a day there. That certainly won't be a problem. For the first week, Olli will be there with us. Several people have expressed interest in coming with us as well, but so far no one has confirmed. All I know is that I'm going to have the time of my life and hopefully not get burned out mentally of poker or, even worse, financially because of poker.

That pretty much wraps up the next few months for me. There are gonna be some exciting times and I hope to keep the blog updated with stories and pictures as I go. Stay tuned!

The (mis)organization of a tournament, written by Spielbank Berlin

Organizing a massive tournament such as the German Championships is no easy task, however, it should be a manageable one. Unfortunately, this task has gone far and beyond what the Spielbank Berlin is capable of handling. Let's begin with the facts:

• The tournament originally was planned for 100 players (10 players at 10 tables). Because of the incredible demand for the tournament, this number was doubled to 200 players with two starting days, the 16th & 17th of November.
• The tournament has buy-in of €440 (approx. $560). There is one rebuy as well as one add-on that each player can make, each costing an additional €220.
• The top 20 players from each starting day advance to the second and final day, where the tournament will be played to completion.

OK, they have displayed some flexibility in doubling the amount of starting players, that's a good start. Now let's take a look at a breakdown of the seats:

• Of the 200 allowed players, 140(!) of them qualified via single-table satellites over the last several months That's 70% of the field!
• That leaves room for 60 "average Joes" like you and me. But wait, first let's service the casino "regulars" who have been playing in the Spielbank over the last years. Let's give each of them a "Wild Card", meaning first dibs at reserving a seat for the tournament. Strike another 30 players off the list.
• That leaves us with just 30 free seats. Registration for the tournament began promptly at 15:00 on November 1st. At 15:10 (no joke), the tournament was sold-out. I was there personally to witness it. 10 players who were at the casino got in and 18 registrations were taken by phone. Anyone else was kindly told that they could have their names put on the waiting list if they pleased.

I really don't have a right to complain, because I got a seat. Several players I know, however, did not get a seat nor does it look like they ever will. How can this be a National Championship? Why can they not add another 10 tables to each starting day and have 400 players? He said he could have EASILY sold over 500 seats. If it's so damn easy, then do it. You want your name put on the poker map, or do you want to always be known as the poker room that never was?

Ask and you will get the same two answers: "We don't have enough personnel to make it happen." "There's just not enough space to fit all the tables." Bullshit and bullshit. This tournament was organized in cooperation with three other casinos nationwide. They all have very competent personnel who you could easily bring in for the tournament. Furthermore, wipe the dust off of some of the roulette tables, clear out some of the unnecessary bar tables, and what do you have??? ROOM FOR EXTRA TABLES! Is it magic? No, it's logical thinking.

Speaking of logical thinking, get this. Several players registered for both days, meaning that if they don't make it on the first day, they get another crack at it on the second day! How sick is that? Imagine they pulled something like that at the WSOP, which had something like 5 starting days I believe. A player could keep trying his luck until he finally makes it to Day 2. What a joke! These people are clogging the list with two registrations instead of regular guys who would settle for the one shot everyone should get.

The tournament itself is going to be a total donkfest. 1200 starting stacks with 20/20 blinds and 20 minute blind levels! A rebuy will bring you an additional 1200 chips and for some reason an add-on gets you 2400 chips. Your stack will be shrinking faster than a you-know-what in the cold if you don't start going after pots in the beginning. The top 10 finalists come in the money. That's a whopping 5% of the field. If you are the lucky winner of the tournament, get excited already over a massive 25% of the prize pool that will be handed to you. I'm just really disappointed that an opportunity like this is being mishandled in such an obvious manner.

But in all honestly, what can you expect? After all, this tournament is being brought to you by the same casino who, in February of this year, offered a €400 tournament with unlimited rebuys of €100 each. Notice that the word unlimited is bold. When I say unlimited, I mean unlimited. Players could purchase as many chips as they wanted to, regardless of stack size. You could literally buy €5.000 worth of tournament chips if you wanted to! That is a cash game, not a tournament! The same geniuses are bringing you this tournament as well, so if you are one of the players coming to Berlin for this thing, please don't have high expectations.