The PokerNews cup has been run and won and it was a win for the good guys with Crown local and PokerNetwork regular Con “tsapy” Tsapkounis collecting the silverware. Con is primarily an Omaha cash game player, but rode his luck on the final table to emerge victorious. I was pretty pumped myself about playing a couple of the prelim events, especially the 6-max, but unfortunately we were left short on resources for the live reporting so I had to work rather than play. The only event I got to play was the opening event. I took my seat and found myself seated next to the one and only Clonie Gowen who was in town to play in the series after watching the AFL grand final.

Clonie was pretty friendly and didn’t get involved in too many pots at all. Meanwhile I managed to double up on the very first hand without showdown. It’s the first time in a live tournament I was all in on the very first hand. After a raise and call, I called along with AJs in the big blind. The flop was jack-high and the preflop aggressor fired a continuation bet which was called by the button. I thought about raising but decided to just call. On the turn I checked and the preflop aggressor fired again and again the button call. I knew the preflop aggressor was strong since he’d fired twice into two people, but I thought I had the best hand so I shoved. We didn’t exactly have a lot of chips to play with, but my play was strong enough to get both players to fold. The button flashed KJ while the button said he also had AJ.

From there, I had moments of greatness and moments of pain. I got lucky when I shoved AJ into KK and found an ace, while a few minutes later I had KQ in against a short stack with 99 on a queen-high flop, only to see another nine spike on the river.

The blinds snuck up and I got moved to a new table to find myself in the big blind. The button shoved for 3 big blinds and I called in the dark. He flipped pocket sixes and I revealed 52o. Damn.

That blow left me in some trouble so when it folded to me in the small blind I was shoving any two cards. The big blind insta-called with pocket sevens and I needed some help with my Q2o. A queen and deuce on the flop, followed by another deuce on the turn was all skill to give me a full house and a double up to be back in good shape.

From there I did my best to survive, and I continued to attack the short stacks. I had decided if they shoved, I was going to call and gamble with a semi-decent hand. The reason being that I wouldn’t be putting my tournament and risk, and generally people with short stacks should be desperate and pushing pretty light. Unfortunately live players are pretty dumb and patiently wait and wait until they are blinded down to nothing or pick up a big hand. So yeah, when they shoved they usually had some like AK and my KQ was always pretty crushed. I had one opportunity to race when my AQo was up against pocket sevens but again the board bricked out.

That hand left me in trouble and my bustout hand was probably the only hand I misplayed all tournament. It was a tricky one though. I was in the BB with K2o. Ben Savage limped in, Jim Sachinidis limped his SB and I checked. The flop was K69 and I decided top pair was enough to get my 7BB stack into the middle. My plan was to check-raise Ben, but the action checked through. The turn was an 8 and Sach led out with a healthy bet. I had no fold equity and I should’ve realized that Sach was pretty tight and wouldn’t bet out into two players without a hand better than K2. My mistake was to shove instead of just folding. Ben folded (what he said was KJ) and Sach called with K8. The river was a 5 to make Sach his straight and I was out in 56th place with the top 50 paying.

I was pretty disappointed as I was heading for a cash result and let it slip. I lost a couple of key races against short stacks and then busted pretty tamely so close to the money.

I’ve recently been in Salzburg Austria reporting for the PokerNews Cup Main Event.  The home of Mozart and The Sound of Music, Salzburg is a lovely place, with historic buildings surrounded by snow covered alps, but for the most part we’ve been stuck in the confines of a smoke-filled poker room.

The event itself hasn’t reached any great heights with local Erich Kollman taking down the title.  He deserved the win, having a large stack for a lot of the tournament and clearly one of the better players in the field.

The highlight was the PokerNews girls pretending to provide a massage service for the players…

The only poker I’ve played here was a few S&Gs against some of the other PokerNews guys from the Dutch, Portugal and Slovenian sites.  Hux put 500 Euros on the first event and after getting my money in as a nice underdog with A2 versus AT, I skillfully sucked out on the turn to spike a deuce, only to waste it when a 4th heart hit the river to complete the villian’s but flush.  The second S&G was a 30 Euro buy-in.  Plenty of drinks were being consumed and a rule was introduced that if you didn’t act within 10 seconds then everyone got to vote on what you should do.  What a great rule and one that I exploited beautifully with AA.  I brilliantly limped UTG, the SB completed and Hux masterfully min-raised from the BB.  Amongst our drunken laughter at Hux’s unique play I had taken more than 10 seconds to act!  Oops!  Of course everyone punished my stupidity by making me go all-in.  Damn.  The small blind called with J7, Hux folded his 4 high and I double up!  I lost most of it back with an open-ender vs a flush draw, before a sick one-outer ended my evening.  Once again I got my money in real good with TT against both AK and KK, and I was off my chair in delight at seeing a third ten in the window of the flop, only for it to be followed by the case king.  Game over.  So sick.  Rigged.  Fortunately I had 10% swaps with both winners (Stevedude from Holland who has mastered the play of 82o, and Logan “Sleepy” Leatham, the only American in Austria), and we had plenty of free drinks so it was a fun night all round for the PokerNews team.  Rematch in Vegas.