Ten on the River - EPT Baden Trip Report (long)

[madmat3001]

I love reading trip reports and I thought there may be one or two people who also want to read mine. So here it is.

Disclaimer: This is written mostly from memory. There are no guarantees on accuracy and completeness. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Day 1 (No Poker Content)

On Friday at around 09:30AM I call it quits at work and join my father, who is waiting in the car outside. We hit the "Autobahn" to Baden at around 10:30AM. Traffic is light and the weather good, so we make it to Baden by 06:30PM. My goal of being able to join the other Everest qualifiers at 08:00PM has easily been accomplished and we are even able to check into our hotel room first.

I had booked a cheap two-bed-no-TV- room through the casino's travel agent and am pleasantly surprised when the room we get has a large double bed and a single one, two bathrooms (one with a tub / one with a shower) and a TV.

Around 07:30PM we are back in Baden at the casino and I am thoroughly impressed by the huge, elegant multi story building, that is surrounded by a nice park complete with fountains and even palm trees! Compared to the "Casino Royal" in Berlin this is like the Bellagio.

There is a huge EPT / PokerStars truck parked in front of the main entrance and a bunch of people were just finishing up some stuff inside the check-in area in the lobby. (Check ended half an hour ago for today) All this is quite allright, but there is no sign of EverestPoker.

I must admit, that I had overestimated the number of Everest qualifiers ant therefore was expecting something like an Everest booth or at least somebody holding an Everest sign. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] Instead at around 08:00PM a single nothing-special-about-him guy (sorry Ken *g*) shows up with some nondescript bags. Well a few minutes later he starts chatting with another guy and hands him one of the bags, which I find out now, aren't quite as nondescript as I assumed, but have the EverestPoker-Logo all over them. I go to the two of them and introduce myself, receiving my own bag of goodies in the process.

When all 7 of the Everest qualifiers have finally arrived, the group of twelve (including 2 Staff and 3 people accompanying some of the qualifiers, my father being one of those) head towards the casino's own restaurant. The food is superb (and quite expensive) and the bill ends up pretty long. Thanks EverestPoker. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

During dinner a group of English poker pros also arrives to have dinner there, two tables from ours. Some of them being quite famous, like Ram Vaswani and Dave Coulclough.

Afterwards most of us decide to get used to those Austrian chips *g*, but sadly all the tables are full and the waiting lists are longer than the bill for our dinner. Some of stay to check out the other casino games, but me and my father decide to head back, even though I don't have to play till Sunday. At the hotel I dig into my bag of goodies and find two polo shirts, two t-shirts a base cap and a chip-stack-lighter, all of them of course with the EvrestPoker logo. Pretty nice!

Day 2 (Some Poker, not me though)

I check in at 10:45AM and have my VIP card, that grants me all-inclusive drinks and food for the next four days. (Considering the quality and usual prices at the casino, the €380 for that are actually a real bargain.)

Shortly after that the rest of Everest group starts to arrive. Of the four people that have to play today - "Balloo", "felixoscar" (Both German), "trsst" (from Austria) and "Ahman" (a Dutch) - the first two didn't get any sleep because they were so nervous and "Ahman" had stayed up and played at the casino till the early morning last night...

The tournament starts almost 30 minutes late at around 12:30PM. After looking around some we start spotting a bunch of internationally known pros. There are Coulclough and Vaswani again. "felixoscar" has to act right after Mark Goodwin and "Ballou" sits to the left of Rob Hollink.

About 15 minutes after the tournament started I walk by Coulclough's table on my way to the toilet. Just then a huge pot is being pushed to the player on his right and he is left with only ~600 in chips... The starting Stack was 10K!

A little later I see him again at Vaswani's table where he catches AA twice and doubles up with KJ against QQ and triples with 77 against KK and QQ to be at over 20K after a few hours of play... He and Vaswani still don't survive day one.

After the 45 minute break between levels 6 and 7 the players are informed that the blind structure has been modified and there will be 10 levels on day one instead of the planned 8. But the structure has also been flattened slightly. This in general is a rather good thing.

At the end of Day 1A the only surviving Everest player was "Balloo", who had been nursing his small stack for quite a while. He had reached his goal of surviving Day 1 even if many poker theoreticians would not approve of his methods (playing super tight with an M well below 10).

Day 3 (My first day at the tables)

The day starts on a bad note, when our car refuses to start in the morning. Luckily we were way early and the Austrian AAA was pretty quick. It also was just a case of old battery meeting cold night, so a jump start from the AAA guy was all we needed for now. My father spends a good part of the day, though, worrying about the battery and leaving the casino to let the car run and charge the battery some.

At 12:05PM I draw for my seat (table 3 seat 3) and realize that "pascha777" from Everest sits directly to my right. The good thing about the table seems to be, that I don't recognize any pros, and it is a table with a low number. So the table won't be broken, since they break the largest numbered tables first. I like that, since a lot of my play is based on my tight image. I realize later that two players of the starting nine cause me a lot of trouble with their very aggressive and loose play, one of them (he looks like the Dutch (?) actor, comedian Hape Kerkeling) is in the Big Blind every time that I am on the button, so stealing becomes a real gamble. Benny, a player I have played with in Berlin before sit in seat 6, he thinks I'm about the tightest player there is. (He may be right, too *g*)

At 12:20 it was time: "Dealers... Shuffle up and deal the first hand!"

Starting tight as usual my first interesting hand happened about 20 minutes into level 2 (blinds 50-100). My Stack was down to 8K already because of some preflop raises being called or raised by the two LAGs and me being weak folding right there or on the flop... [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]
sLAG in seat 8 raises from EP to 300, Hero reraises in MP with KdQd to 1000, sLAG calls
Flop: 3 rags but 2 diamonds
sLAG checks, Hero bets 1000, sLAG calls
Turn: Q
sLAG checks, Hero bets 2000, sLAG folds
Hero's stack: 10225
Benny helps my image by commenting: "I guess a Q is no good here?" I smile and respond: "You know me...!"

Not much to report till level 5 (blinds 150-300). Some successful taking of the blinds with legit hands some small pots I win, but also some of me being very weak tight and giving chips to the LAGs.
Pascha777 limps in cutoff, Hero limps on button with AJo, blinds come along, 4 to the flop
Flop: AJQr
2 checks, Pascha777 bets 500, hero raises to 2500, 2 folds, pascha777 calls
Turn: 5
Pascha777 checks, Hero pushes for ~6K, Pascha777 folds.
Hero’s stack: ~13,5K


Some more of my weak tight self playing relatively good starting hands pretty bad until this hand happens at level 6 (blinds 200-400) against Thomas Fougeron aka. Fougan (French pro from poker770.com)
Fougan raises Hero’s BB from MP to 1600 (?), Hero calls with Ah2h
Flop: 35K, one heart
I have 7K behind, Fougan has about 13K. There are more than 3K in the pot and I decide to make a move.
I bet 3K and Fougan goes into the tank for quite a while. Then he asks me where I am from and I truthfully respond: "Germany" He quickly folds, commenting: "Ok, then I fold."

Shortly after this we have a 45 minute break and Pascal Perrault (aka. PP the Bandit) comes over and asks me what I held in that hand against Fougan. I again answer truthfully and he goes back to Fougan, who seems to be quite angered... I go over and ask what he had. He says pocket tens. He also mentions that he had contemplated reacting with "There are no kings in Germany" and calling/raising my bet on the flop, but that my bet was just the right size to be believable.
The next day he comes over to me again and we talk some more. He assures me, that my bet was the perfect size, so I'm pretty proud of myself. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] We also talk about some other stuff, his lately bad streak, how he started his poker career and the typical bad beat talk among poker players. He is a very nice and interesting person and a very good poker player.

Finally, at level 7, I could rake in a considerably large pot.
Hero raises from MP with AQo, LAG on button calls.
Flop: all rags
Hero c-bets ~2K, LAG calls
Turn: a beautiful Q
Hero bets 3,5K, LAG puts me All-In for about 8K total, I call
He shows TT, I hold up
Hero’s stack: ~25K

I manage to move my stack up to 30K before dwindling down to 23800 at the start of level 9. The average at that point is 25K so I'm doing ok. I don't get any hands till the end of day 1 and just use my image to steal some blinds and maintain my stack size till the end of the day. I now have to make some moves or get lucky early the next day, since the blinds will be 800-1600 with 200 ante...

Day 4 (3 hands of poker that include me)

We decide to take the taxi to the casino, so that my father can take full advantage of the "all-you-can-drink" deal. *g* I forget my base cap, so we end up hurrying the taxi driver back to the hotel and then to the casino again. We arrive back there in time and I take my seat at 12:05PM at the same table as Balloo. I like the set up of the table, as only two people have considerably bigger stacks than I. One with 40K sitting two to my left and the big stack (Thang Duc Nguyen, who ended up winning the tournament) two to my right with 76K. There are only 8 players / table on day 2.

The very first hand of the day at level 11 (blinds 800-1600, ante 200):
Unknown on Seat 5 raises my BB (Seat 2) to 3900, Hero calls with JQo.
Flop 4Q4
Hero checks, Seat 5 bets 3700, Hero raises to 10000, Seat 5 folds
Hero's stack: >30K

The very next hand:
Small Stack (Seat 1) moves all-in from the button to successfully steal my small blind and the big blind.

The third hand of the day and my final hand of the tournament:
Folds to Seat 1 in cutoff who moves all-in for ~16K, Hero finds JJ on the Button and pushes ~32K to isolate, BB beats me into the pot with AA, he has me well covered.
Flop: QJK (Yay!)
Turn: 5 (Yay!)
River: T (Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!)
Short Stack shows A5 for the split-pot. I’m out. Good Luck, “Balloo”.

Obviously I'm quite depressed right after that but still find my way to the toilette to remove my contact lenses. Right next to me there is a guy brushing his teeth, who suddenly starts swearing just when I'm on my way out. Turns out he accidentally bought detention cream instead of toothpaste... So I was laughing not even 10 minutes after being out of the tournament.

At the end of level 19 the tournament reached the hand-by-hand bubble with 37 players left and places 27 to 36 being equally paid 6289 Euros. Since the Tv table and two other tables are on a different floor the coordination of the hand-by-hand play is done be telephone.

The bubble stretches for about one and a half hours until it finally bursts when a middle stack at "my old table" moves all-in with AQ and is called by Nguyen with AK and the board bricks all the way. Funny thing about this: Right after this Nguyen turns to Balloo who had been nursing his small stack all the way into the money and says: "I did this just for you!" Cool guy!
Shortly after Balloo is moved to the TV table, where he busts out after very few hands calling an in with A7s.

Day 5 (No poker content)

The last 12 players start on day 5 to duke it out to the end. Not much to report though, since we only have a final all-you-can-eat lunch at the buffet and then head back towards Berlin.

[Soulman]

Nice report. You might be calling a little light when you're BB is raised though (particularly the A2 hand).

[0evg0]

nice report, but no matter what that guy said, the A2 hand is misplayed both preflop and most definitely postflop.

[madmat3001]

You think so?

I think the call before the flop is probably pretty light, but I was just sick of my big blind being picked on, and he had done that pretty often. (Yes, he was in MP, but he was the last one of the loose aggressive players to act, after that there were only rather tight ones and I had the feeling he was taking advantage of my weak play.)

I still think he'll only call the post flop bet if he beats a pair of kings, given my image. Because I usually folded my big blind and he had to assume my range to be including AK and KQ.

[Stoneii]

What was the motive in revealing the truth when asked then?

If I wanted folk to be more wary of stealing my BB then I show the bet to the table, if I want to maintain a tight image to allow steals then I tell him I had the K [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img].

stoneii

[madmat3001]

No motive, I'm just to darn honest to be a very good poker player I guess. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[0evg0]

are you playing AK/KQ the way you played A2?

No, you're not.

This is demonstrated by the line you took with QJ in the EXACT same situation.

I'm pushing with TT all [censored] day.

[madmat3001]

Well maybe you are right... I'm still pretty new to all this...

Still feels good that it worked. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]