My trip to Baden (25,000 souls), sounded full of unknown!

For starters it was my first time in this little Austrian town, and I didn’t quite now what to expect. Furthermore I was going there on my own. Not always reassuring to go and “fight” on your own. Luckily I know a lot of people on the circuit and I had arranged to meet up with three friends once there.

The situation didn’t sound better when one of them called me three days beforehand to ask me if I had booked in my hotel. Three days in advance? Whatever! Well Apparently this wasn’t the right answer as all the hotels in the city where fully booked from day 3! Yes you read well, and after a brief phone call to the local agency it turns out it wasn’t a joke either. Baden 1 – Nicolas 0

Well I’m not easily scared, and there was a tournament to win! So three days later I embarked in a plane to Austria. The circuit is very friendly. We would sell our mothers at the poker table but away from it there is a mutual respect amongst pros. After all we meet up all over the world, living the same passion. We are all chasing the same Eldorado!

Once there, I could only admire the beautiful casino. My hotel was a bit old looking but very clean and literally in front of the poker room. Things were looking good again. On the next day serious thing started, and apparently cards forgot to come at seat 3 table 11... Only trash hands for the first four hours. My stack slowly decreases to 5,000 half the starting stack. Luckily seat 2 seemed to be on a mission to give me his chips – unintentionally of course! I think we played in five pots and he always did what was expected of him: call when I have it, fold when I don’t, check when I want a cheap showdown. A real nice guy :-)

He was going to help me a little bit more when I finally got a hand

I picked up KK first to speak and usually I wouldn’t expect much action after folding for so long. No choice though I have to raise, I make it 800 to go (level 6 – 150/300). No one doubts me and they all fold rapidly until seat 2 in the big blind. He must have thought it was my birthday or something, and calls.

The flop is a totally raggedy 754 offsuit.

He checks, and I bet out 1200. At this point he starts the motion of a fold and I decide to use the Force! Star Wars fans anywhere? I started looking away and act nervous. It’s useful to know that in the past I had stared at him fiercely with the winning hand. The trick works! He brings his cards back close to him and announces all in! I call of course and he sadly flops JTo for no pair no draw! No miracle for him and I get back to 10,000 the starting stack! Yum

From this point. Knowing my table well, and with my tight image, I started to play very loose, and put pressure on people. I stole a few hands per orbit and quickly got to 15,000, just above average. Things can change so quickly in poker.

Unfortunatly it wasn’t going to be my tournament

Five minutes before the end of day 1, I got dealt KK again – the hand of the day – and observe with pleasure an opponent with a stack similar to mine raising to 1100. I reraised him to 4000, and after a brief pause, he decided to make it 8000. Scary I know. But I have already bet 30% of my chips and I am holding KK! I think folding here would be bad given my recent activity at the table. It is totally possible that the guy is annoyed with me and is overplaying TT JJ QQ or AK. Two times a guy on the WPT folded KK preflop on TV and both time it was wrong!

Alas I called, the guy showed me AA, and the day was over 5 minutes before everyone else. Baden 2 – Nicolas 0.

I have no regrets. I was at 100% pretty much all day, changed gears according to my stack and my image, had good reads at the table. I bust on a cooler and even though every elimination in a tournament is painful, I don’t overstress about this.  I just have to play my best and that’s all. After that, cards can do their things. I’d rather bust on a bad beat than a bad play that I live to regret!

Congratulations for Julian Thew and his victory that I had the pleasure to comment on the EPTLive France. Amusing details: I shared the taxi with him from the airport to the Casino. I am not superstitious but I wondered what would have happened had I sat on the other backseat! Ho well another lost coinflip.

Finally on the way back my plane was cancelled. Too much fog in England. It took me 10 hours more to get home via Paris. Baden 3 – Nicolas 0!!!

Next step is the Dublin EPT. This is one of my favourite destionations to play poker as the players are fearless borderline crazy! Sounds like fun...

Nicolas.