Ever since participating in the CPC in 2004 I have been looking forward to this year’s event, and I certainly was not disappointed when I arrived here. Actually, the Marriott St. Kitts Resort is a class better than last year’s hotel!

The BF Poker management once again took great care of their players, which culminated in the promotion that every BF player cashing in the Main Event would get a seat for the EPT tournament in Deauville in February. A promotion that left players from other crypto logic skins shaking their heads in disbelief.

The Main Event consisted of 250 runners and was split into day 1A and day 1B, the latter of which I drew. We started with 6,000 chips and the blind structure was fast enough, but definitely playable. I had a lot of tight, weak players on my table and was able to take advantage of that building a stack of 15,000 before my KK ran into a flopped set of Olga Varkony, but I was still in good shape. I busted the short stack to my left and Phil “Unabomber” Laak filled the empty seat. Well, Phil certainly did not fit the tight, weak player profile that I had hoped for ☺ I won a big pot versus Luca Pagano when I called a pre-flop raise with AJ from the BB and check/called him all the way on a board that showed AQ662. I later heard he had KK, though I’m not sure if that is true. About half an hour later, Luca had busted, meanwhile, Phil Laak took out his earplugs and asked me,

“What was the pre-flop action in the pot you won with AJ against the other guy?” I replied that I had flat called a raise of 525 at blinds of 75/150 and asked him why he wanted to know that. He said,

“I’m still trying to get a grip on your game.” Well I will certainly take that as a compliment :-)

I really had good cards but got little action as the table was extremely tight. Even Phil Laak played a firm, patient game, probably due to lacking ammunition holding less than the starting stack for most of the way. At 150/300, I bet 1,025 from UTG+1 with KK and all folded. I was dealt KK again the very next hand and bet 1,025 again, praying for someone to doubt me and move in on me. Phil Laak did just that, announcing all-in for roughly 5,000 chips. To my surprise, another player in MP announced all-in for a similar amount as well. I am not known for laying down KK pre-flop and duly called. The MP guy turned over the good old aces, while Phil Laak turned over 4,9 diamonds. For a change I got lucky flopping a set of kings and won a nice pot that propelled me close to the chip leaders. Upon leaving his seat, Phil said

“Wow, I read you for zero”. Sorry mate, that was a bit of a misread!

Phil`s seat quickly was filled by a drunken Swedish online player, who kept ordering beer, two of them at a time. Unfortunately I doubled him up from 2,000 to 4,000 chips with QJ vs KK having to call a re-raise with great odds.

At 200/400 I bet 1,400 with JJ from EP and the same guy again raised me all-in. At that time I was playing 25,000 chips while he was playing 7,000. I’d got a lot of stick for losing a bit pot with JJ vs KK in the Amsterdam Main Event, but there are so many “moves” out there nowadays, that I would usually pass JJ if Gary Bush re-raised me but not if a drunken Swedish online player does just that! (No offence to the Swedish, I like the guys and as many of you know, I’m half-Swedish myself, but some of them play so aggressively as if they’re out of their minds). So I called and he turned over the good old A,2 of diamonds and mumbled “I am in bad shape” - then changed his mind and shouted “I have got the steel wheel draw!” Well, his steel wheel draw (A2345 for those who have not seen the movie Rounders) never materialised but a 2 and an ace hit the board so that was that. He jumped out of his seat high-fiving his mate and loudly celebrating his “steel wheel draw”, so much for classy table behaviour. Despite the smoke from my ears I refused to tilt and basically sat out the rest of the level.

So I started day 2 in solid shape (approx. 25,000 chips) but could never get going. I ran into a re-raise then doubled up a short-stack with AQ vs AA and got transferred to a new table that featured top pro Kathy Liebert in the seat to my left. Unlike day 1 I didn’t find any hands, but somehow managed to hang in there, mainly by stealing blinds. I slowly but surely recovered, doubled up with AQs vs AT and finally had a playable stack again. Later on I raised A9 from the cut-off, Kathy dwelled for a while then folded, the BB calls but I took the pot down on a ragged flop.

Next hand it was again passed to me, I found AQ and again made it 3,025 to play, this time Kathy Liebert made it 9,000 to go and the rest folded. She was playing on approximately 80,000 while I had just 28,000. I really felt that she was making a move on me as it was “bubble time”, maybe with a J9 or something. Apart from the question if my read was correct the other question was if I was big enough to make her pass. She dwelled for an awfully long time then passed, later telling me she had two rags.

As the bubble edged really close, a WH qualifier made it 5,000 at blinds of 800/1,600 +ante. Basically I don’t appreciate my BB being raised so I re-raised to 15,500. He thought for a very long time then folded as expected. Of course, I couldn’t resist showing him the “Phil Laak hand” 4,9d. He mumbled something about me being lucky that he didn’t put me all-in, I replied

“Leave my blind alone baby, juuuuust leeeeeave my blind alone”. And guess what, the poor fellow didn’t even dare to peek over at any of my SBs or BBs for the rest of the session!

With 36 spots to be paid and 37 players left, the usual bubble drama came with plenty of miracle comebacks. I got a shortstack all-in with AJc vs his KJd. All eyes on our table. Flop: xxx, Turn: KING, cue big screaming all around, river: ACE… WOW! and the crowd goes ballistic. I think I have never made 35 new friends in a shorter time :-). Personally I stayed calm, it was only a smallish pot and I could feel for the “bubble boy” as the river card probably cost him $9,000.

After this came a re-draw and the structure changed to 6 tables of 6 players each. I drew a “Betfair table” as 5 of the 6 guys were wearing BF shirts. I think it was the very first hand of the new format as I found 44 on the button and made it 7,000 at 1,000/2,000+ante. The big stack flat called me from the BB and we saw a flop of 997 rainbow. Now this flop is unlikely to have helped either of us, he checked, I bet 14,000 to see where I stood and he check-raised to 28,000. I took my time, but decided that I didn’t think he had a (strong) pair as he would have re-raised me pre-flop and was most likely to hold 2 overcards and making a move on me or maybe a weak pair.

So I decided to take a stand and move all-in. The problem is, all-in means only 22,000 more for him to call so I wasn’t sure if I could make him fold. Fortunately he folded quickly and I showed him the 4 of hearts. His face turned dark-red, and he later told me he had 55. He said he just couldn’t believe anyone would be cheeky enough to re-re-raise without holding more than his pocket fives!

Soon after, I had to take out my good mate and fellow Betfair player “Shaaboom”. He was getting a bit short and was making an understandable all-in-move from the SB holding JT which I called with AK, which held up.

Now I was playing a massive stack of over 100K, but not for long as I lost half of it to Bennyboi with QK+K vs 88+8. Ben Grundy certainly plays a good, solid, tidy game by the way.

Due to the format, players were going out left, right and centre and I was still in good enough shape when we reached the last 16 stage. My “55 friend” made it 7,000, I made it 27,000 with 99 and he moved all-in for a total of 35,000 chips. Of course I had to call and to my big surprise he turned over the good old A,7d. WOW, what a questionable play. But hey, they were suited I guess. Unfortunately the first card out was an ace and I lost this key 74,000 pot. Holding less than 10,000 chips now there was no way back and I soon bust with 33 vs 55 collecting a solid $21.750 for my efforts. Of course 16th is a respectable performance, but it still feels a bit like a “wasted” chance, but as Arnold Schwarzenegger would say “I’ll be back”.

European Poker Camp:

2006 is now here and it’s the perfect time to start making plans for the (poker) year. If you want to take your game to the next level then you might want to think about visiting the European Poker Camp in Baden/Austria from May 11-14. Howard Lederer and Annie Duke have held three of these camps in the USA, all of them with tremendous success. Now they will hold one for the first time in Europe. The camp will also feature seminars from Marcel Luske and myself, with my seminar focusing on online play in general and STTs in particular.

You can find details about the camp here: http://www.allincamp.com

Happy new (poker) year to you and your families,

Buzzer