The Whopper

This post could get pretty long, since it's been two weeks since I've written an update. The reason for this is that I didn't have much time to be online during my trip and when I did have time, either the hotel's internet was down or the hotel had no internet at all. Sooooo where do I start? My last update was from San Remo, so here's what's happened since:

Most people had no plans what to do between EPT San Remo and EPT Monte Carlo and since we had planned a trip to Milan for three days, several people decided to tag along. When all was said and done our group was 16 people, yet we still all managed to get rooms in the same hotel. The hotel itself was nice, 4 stars in Italy do not equal 4 stars in western Europe but this hotel actually did deserve its 4 stars. The only downside that it was right at the edge of the city, so taxi rides into the city center took about 20mins.

Sam practicing his Italian skills

Konstantin and Nasr with their new (€5) glasses

The first night we all went out to Corso Como (bar/club/restaurant area) and remarkably found a nice Mexican restaurant that could spontaneously seat 16 people. From there we all went to the Hollywood nightclub, mainly because it was in the area but also because we had heard good reviews. The bottle service in the club was terrible, not sure if it's because we were foreigners, but the night was fun anyway. In front of the club there was a huge group of people so that naturally attracted a ton of street vendors. Roses, flashing glasses, polaroid pictures, stuffed animals, these guys had everything to sell.

bon apetit

Inevitably someone was offered money to eat a rose and the first taker was a Swedish tourist. Once the street vendors saw what went down they also started begging to be paid to eat their roses. Though we said no, they started eating them anyway (wtf?). We finally got out of there and went back to the hotel for a good nights sleep.

we played a pickup game of soccer at a park near the hotel against some random people we met there. here you can see Benny far left, Sam in the middle, Nasr (while he still had his breath), Nico dashing across the grass and half of Flo who was standing in goal

The next day a couple of the Canadians with us wanted to go do some sightseeing in Milan so six of us went out to the city. We went and saw the Milan Cathedral (Duomo di Milano) which was probably the first time in my life that I visited a cathedral without being forced to go by my Mom :) The rest of the day/evening was spent playing hearts, a game that seems to be the new Chinese poker, though who knows how long it will last.

not your standard group of tourists

Seb gathering good karma. we both lit a candle and dropped money in the donation box. then we both cashed in Monte Carlo. hmmm

AC Milan had a home game the following day against US Palermo. Our taxi driver took the long route to the stadium and the Italians could not organize a ticket booth for the life of them so we ended up getting in the stadium in the 20th minute, just after the 2:0 had fallen. That obv sucked, plus it was raining, but the seats were pretty close to the field and right next to the AC Milan supporters section so that made up for it a little. AC played pretty well and won 3:0 rather easily. It amazes me how old their team is, though. Beckham, Seedorf, Maldini, Schevchenko, Inzaghi, Nesta. It pretty much goes against the trend these days of setting up a young team for the future.

our seats were pretty close to the action

After standing in the rain for 45mins after the game waiting for a taxi, we finally made it back to the hotel in time to get changed and head over to Nobu, where we had a reservation. I'm not sure if it's because I took the chef's choice meal (8 courses that the chef chooses) but I wasn't as ecstatic about the food as I was in Melbourne. It was good and all but I didn't get that mindblowing sensation that I expected. I think in Vegas at Nobu I'll go back to ordering the dishes that I want. At least I didn't get stuck with the bill that came out to 1600 euros. Thanks again, Flo ;)

Flo and Nico at the AC Milan game

The next morning we all took the train over to Monte Carlo. Ramin and I had booked a double room at Port Palace Hotel and because they didn't have a room for us the first night, we lucked out and got put in a deluxe room where we got to stay for the remainder of the trip. I played Day 1a of the EPT and though I didn't start off very strong, I ended the day with 71k chips after a late comeback. 71k sounds like a lot for an EPT tourney but thanks to the new structure (30k chips, 75min blind levels) it's really just a little more than double starting stack. The new structure is going to take a lot of luck out of the EPT and add a lot more playing room for the skilled players.

Day 2 went decently well for me, my stack bounced inbetween 60k and 170k, but I ended the day pretty short with just around 120k chips. My Day 3 table didn't look all that promising at all with Sandra Naujoks in seat 1, Seb Ruthenberg in seat 2, Carl Olson in seat 3, myself in 5 and Marcel Luske with direct position on me in seat 6. I waited and waited and waited for a resteal spot to shove on but the opportunity never came up so I ended up shoving 75k at blinds 3k/6k from the CO with K9o. Marcel Luske pushed over the top from the button and I knew I was drawing to 3 outs as he showed AK. When the flop came down K9x the world seemed fair again :)

I was getting shortstacked again when I doubled with 88 vs A6s, catapulting my stack to just over 200k. One orbit later I was in the BB with AK and it folded to Sandra Naubox in the CO who made it 27k. I pushed my 180k and she snapped me off with KK. The board ran T855K (flush draw for me on turn) and I was busto in the 73rd place for 22k euros. I'm happy with the result, though running deeper would have obviously been nice.

the view from our hotel room, some sick sick yachts. wonder how much one of these costs

Now I'm finally back home in Berlin and will stay here until May 27th, at which point I leave for Las Vegas. This month is going to be a long grind for me, as I'd like to squeeze in as many hours as possible because I can afford an online burnout before Vegas anyway. I doubt I'll be doing a lot of playing in Vegas, I'd much rather spend my time enjoying all Vegas has to offer :)