Barcelona Recap

My time in Barcelona is now over and I was welcomed back to Berlin by a rainshower at the airport. It's a pretty drastic change to go from perfect temperatures and warm sunshine to cold temperatures and wetness, but I guess that's the price you have to pay for living in Berlin.

All in all the trip was an awesome experience. It was not only profitable for me (thanks to me sneaking in the money + a small share of Nikolaus "Kaibuxxe" Jedlicka) but also very eye-opening for me to see how important it is to remain concentrated at all times. Also, it once again reenforced the fact that hard work and dedication can and will result in amazing achievements in poker. The German "young guns" are not successful because they are the luckiest kids ever, it's because they've put in the hours to work on their games and be one step ahead of their opponents.

Anyway, as always there was a ton of gambling going. Wii Tennis was the most popular game, but I stayed away from it because I suck so bad. I played two Chinese Poker sessions, netting me +43 points total. I also won €500 in a little NL home game we played, but I lost that back to Sebastian at the FC Barcelona - Atletico Bilbao game. We had a 4-way bet for €500 each (Seb, Nico, Alex and myself) on which minute a goal would be scored in. I came super close twice, but Seb that Luckbox won the bet with a really cheap goal in the 71st minute. The atmosphere in the stadium was not what I expected, but I still enjoyed the game a lot.

Other than that I spent my days relaxing at the pool or on the beach, I miss it already. Unfortunately my camera went busto the second I tried to take my first picture in Barcelona, so I have no pictures from the trip :(

*Edit: Oh yeah I forgot to mention that I played the €1k Freezeout in Barcelona. I somehow wasn't really in the zone and I eventually busted after about 6 hours of play when my 66 couldn't hold up against A5s. It was kinda strange but I was relieved to be done with the tournament and leave the casino. I'm sure I'll find my motivation again in time for the Bremen TnT Freezeout on the 14th-15th of September.

EPT Barcelona Day 3

I messed it up pretty bad. The very first hand of the day I made a resteal all-in with AQo which catapulted me to over 50k after the raiser folded. After letting the blinds go through me, I was on the button with A8o and slightly under 50k. The action was folded to me and I openshoved (16 BBs) only to discover that the BB woke up with AA. That's about the worst possible scenario for me and my hand found no help on a J4242 board. I don't know why I openshoved, I just got caught up in the moment instead of sitting back for a second and analyzing my options.

I came in 52nd place for €10,500, which is disappointing because it's the absolute minimum that was possible after making it to Day 3. I was pretty upset about my play yesterday, even though several people said my shove was OK (probably just to give my mind peace).

I'll consider this amateur mistake a big lesson learned.

EPT Barcelona Day 2

I started the day with Annette_15 and Paul Wasicka at my table, both having position on me. Luckily I was moved to a new table relatively quickly. Luckily at least I thought. I was moved directly to a table with Patrik Antonius, Martin Wendt and Adam Junglen, all 3 once again with position on me. These guys are all super aggressive, the first 3 times I opened a pot with a raise I was 3bet instantly and forced to lay my hand down.

Finally I got QQ and raised it again, once again I was 3bet by an unknown local. I shoved him for 23k and he called with AQ. He hit an Ace on the river :( I was crippled to 25k but Patrik Antonius doubled me up when my AT held against his AJ on a T high flop (he tried a weird move).

Eventually I was moved again to a table with Katja Thater and Phillip Yeh. My stack fluctuated between 40-70k, at the end of the day I had 43k when we made the money. There are 56 players remaining and I'll be pretty shortstacked going into tomorrow, but all in all I still have a good feeling. We'll just have to wait and see...

EPT Barcelona Day 1A

The trip went smooth, the hotel is very nice, the weather is perfect and the atmosphere is absolutely fantastic here in Barcelona.

The tournament started today at 5pm and within an hour I had doubled my chips from the initial 10k starting stack to just over 19k after flopping a set and getting it all in against top pair. I lucksacked a huge pot an hour or so later when my QQ ran into AA but I spiked a Q on the river in a 24k pot. From then on I never really looked back and eventually I ended the day with 59,500 chips which is in the top 3 of the 100 players that survived Day 1A.

Tomorrow is an off-day for me, which means beach, pool and relaxing. We'll probably do some kind of sightseeing tour as well and most likely a little shopping.

Sorry I can't write more, I'm too tired to dig up all the important hand histories from my shortterm memory :) Time for bed now, good night!

Ship...the...Barcelona seat

Finally, after countless attempts at winning seats for previous EPT events, I finally took down a qualifier ($13k package) and now have a seat for the EPT Barcelona tournament at the end of the month. Ship it!