Guess who's back

8 weeks in the States sounds like a long time but it went by in lightning speed. Still, it feels great to get back to Berlin and sleep in my own comfortable bed again. Most likely I'll be spending all of August at home before my next poker trip to Barcelona in early September for the EPT. I haven't put much thought into my EPT plans for this year but I think I'll usually just decide spontaneously if I feel like traveling and donating another buy-in shortly before each tournament starts.

The nice thing about being away so long is that I always come back extremely motivated to put in a lot of online hours. The weather has been crappy these past few days (I even picked up a cold) so I'm hoping to really get in a ton of hands over the next month. The action on Boss seems kinda slow so I'll probably need to spread out to a couple new sites in order to get enough action.

In other news, I just finished watching the Sopranos and I'm pretty bummed that there are no more episodes for me to watch. When I get some time I'll write up some reviews of the TV series that I have watched so far (I have wayyyyy too much free time). Most of the great series that I have seen have been recommendations from friends so maybe I can pass on some good TV advice.

In closing, here's a pic from my recent skydiving adventure in Las Vegas. Notice the view of Lake Mead!

Vegas/LA

The summer of Las Vegas 2009 is now officially over. Almost all the guys are back in Germany. One guy spent his first night back straight from the airport to jail (lol Baueraments). Most returned home safely and can look back on a pretty epic summer. Time seems to fly by in Vegas, the actual 7 weeks I spent there certainly did not feel like anything more than 2 weeks.

During one of our last evenings together we all went to Hofbrähaus Las Vegas for a big German meal that got pretty funny. Once everyone had a few beers (and Jäger shots) in them we all got pretty loud and began singing along to the songs that the live band was playing. "Lebt denn der alte Holzmichl noch?" was definitely the highlight of the evening and an experience I won't be forgetting anytime soon. The food was borderline but the entertainment was awesome.

No one wanted to waste the buzz from the restaurant so we decided to go out to Stoney's, a local country bar that is pretty close to the houses we rented. Florian had been begging us to go even last year but nobody ever wanted to, this year the tides have changed. The country atmosphere in the bar reminds me a lot of the kinds of bars in Kansas so I welcomed it as a nice change to the typical Vegas club scene. Unfortunately I drank a little too much so I don't remember all the details but I took some pictures as evidence of the evening.

here is Flo doing the group line dancing, the lessons really paid off

Benny, Nik and Nico

None of us rode the bull or at least I wasn't around for it but next year count me in!

He says he's gonna marry her. riiiiiiight

So then most guys went home on the 12th and Marco "Expekter" Mattes decided to run really deep in the Main Event. I spent Days 7 & 8 at the Rio railing him and eventually he made it all the way to 23rd place for $350k. Not bad at all. He spent quite some time at the featured table so I'm sure he'll get plenty of ESPN coverage when they start showing the Main Event.

During our last day in Vegas we did a helicoptor tour through the Grand Canyon that was literally breathtaking. I don't have the pictures yet but I will post some when I get the chance. If you are ever in Vegas and haven't done it, you HAVE to HAVE to HAVE to take the helitour! Once I get some pictures online you will see why I am so ecstatic about it.

Now Sutti and I are in LA/Hollywood for a couple days visiting some old friends and doing other tourist stuff. Yesterday we hit up Venice Beach, today we're off the Malibu Beach, then tomorrow we head to San Diego for a couple days before driving back to Vegas for a night and then flying home on the 22nd. It's been a big trip thusfar but I don't regret a single minute of it!

Carpe Diem!

Busto in Main Event

I did all I could in preparation for Day 3 but it just wasn't meant to be. The day started well for me, within the first two hours I had built up to 130k, but things went downhill from there. Key hand of the day was when I check/raised the river on a 3-flush board in a spot where I am almost never bluffing but got called anyway and just so happened to be bluffing.

After that I was really short and eventually got it in with A9s against AK from the button vs the big blind. As a whole I'm not terribly unhappy with my play but I wouldn't call it my A-game either. If my river check/raise hand would have worked out things certainly would have been different and I would probably be saying I had my A-game on but I guess that's just the way results oriented poker works.

Anyway, I now have a few more days left in Vegas and then I'll be touring California for a few days before I finally leave to go back home on the 22nd. I'll post a Vegas review and some more pictures in the near future!

Short and sweet

Don't have too much time right now but just wanted to post a quick update saying I ended Day 2 with 90,500 chips. I got lucky with my table draw again though it did get noticeably tougher as the day progressed. I think I have around an average stack (though people put WAY too much emphasis on having an average stack) which is around 75bb so all is good for now.

In other news, I went skydiving for the first time in my life this morning. 7am(!) was an early wake up call was rough but it was totally worth it! I should be getting a video of my jump in the mail within two weeks so I'll see if I can upload some footage. Thanks again Heiko! If anyone remembers, he owed me a free skydive from the challenge we did almost two years ago. The only crappy thing was that I got a traffic ticket from some bum cop who was camping out in front of a useless stop sign waiting for people to roll through, which I did. $187 for a stop sign violation, achsooo!!!

4th of July & Main Event

I chose Day 1c as my starting day for a few reasons, mainly due to the fact that it was most likely going to be the juiciest of all the starting days. I was not disappointed at all as my starting table was the softest WSOP table I have ever played. There was no huge spot at the table but most of the players were mediocre at best with just one exception directly to my left. I don't think a single one of them could beat an online game these days so I was especially thrilled to hear that we would be playing 5 levels (2 hrs each) instead of the usual 4 on Day 1.

I built up my starting stack from 30k to around 35k, then dropped down to 22k, then back up to 45k. Usually a standard preflop raise and then one or two barrels on the flop and turn were enough to take down the pot so I continued to chip up steadily. In the last level of the day I then kicked out an 11k stack with AA vs 88 on a 457K board and then made another 6.5k with A9 vs J5s all-in preflop. I ended the day with 63,700 chips which is above average as far as I know. Today I'll do some research on my Day 2 table draw but after the first glance the table looks to be not too bad.

One downside of playing Day 1c is that it was the day after the 4th of July, meaning I couldn't party too hard! We hosted a party/barbeque/fireworks show at our house which involved plenty of drinking throughout the day. I stopped drinking promptly at 8pm in order to be fit for the tournament the next day so I didn't follow the guys to the club afterwards but there's always next year. Here are some pics from the party, adios!

Grillmaster Benny putting on a show for the camera

Sebastian Bauer got thrown into the pool but knew he had to save what's most important

standard Guitar Hero or Nik looking for an excuse to take his shirt off

Nitty, Sutti and yours truly

it's a UFO!

actually it was our fireworks show