The work ride continues ... some things never change

At first I thought my early x-mas prezzie with 18 days of live tournament coverage in a row early December would also mean a few weeks rest afterwards, but I should have known better :P Two days ago I had an email in my inbox, asking if I would be available for another coverage in January ... never say yes without knowing all details.

Unfortunately it is not the Bahamas for the PCA, but I guess Dublin in Ireland will do for now and I already booked my flights and hotel for the WPT Ireland from January 5th - 8th. But that is not all for the first month of 2012, Vienna is next on the list for the first stop of the Mega Poker Series, powered by Poker770. Thus, from January 18th to 22nd I can enjoy the Austrian food (especially Wiener Schnitzel) before heading to London a few days later for the London Affiliate Conference.

Right now I also have to finish up some articles for the Poker Shark Magazine and prepare the upcoming month for Pokerspace as well. But who needs sleep anyways, it is so overrated ... I am also looking forward to my new camera, finally decided to go one step further and ordered the Canon EOS 1100D and with some luck I should have it by Saturday, fingers crossed!

I haven't played much poker as of lately and if so, it was just for fun. Lost a few bucks here, won some there ... overall it's about break even and the new short handed Speed Poker is quite fun and fits to my lack of time.

Ah well, guess I better get back to work now and finish some tournament requests and the Calendar upload. Good game.

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Luvin Poker Team Play and Special Events

Luvin Poker has been hosting team play events for over 6 years now and early September 2011 will see yet another competition with up to 6 players per team and one team captain. All details are posted on the Luvin Poker Team Play page and you can also check out the following thread to connect with other players that might be interested:

Luvin Poker Teamplay returns in September 2011

August 27th will also have two special events on the calendar where the Gorgeous Ladies Of Poker (GLOP) and the King Of Kings (KOK) will determine their champion for 2011.

Annual Kings and Queens Events 

Both tournaments can be found on the Luvin Poker Calendar as well, if you want to participate in these events though you will have to pay the entry fee towards the prizepool of $5.00 until Sunday August 21st!

4th Annual Luvin Poker Gorgeous Ladies Of Poker:

4th Annual Luvin Poker King of Kings:

In October 2011, Luvin Poker will also host a Battle Of Sexes (BoS) and this special gender competition should make for lots of fun, banter and bragging rights, full details will be published soon.

If you sign up to Luvin Poker through Pokerspace, you can either get PS Points as you play or 35% Rakeback. Your first deposit will get you access to 4x$500 Depositors Freerolls within the next 2 months and the next one will take place August 31st: $500 First Depositors Freeroll

You can also check out the Luvin Poker community for more info regarding the teamplay and special events: http://luvinpokerplayers.com/ On the Luvin Poker Calendar you will notice a ton of private events and most don't require a password, please check out the LPP forums for more info regarding each event if you have any questions.

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Approaching August 2011 on Pokerspace

Hello all,

the Calendar has already been uploaded and you can go ahead and register for the tournaments of your choice. The Indy Leagues are pretty much the same with one small change, but this will be explained below.

Please take some time and check out the following article: August Brings Four Pokerspace Cash Races
This means, we will have 4 rake races on 4 different networks for the first time since have started this extra incentive for our active real money players.

FeltStars $250 Cash Race - this race will continue with top 15 places paid and the current race enters the last 2 days of competition, the race in the top 5 is still wide open


Power Poker $200 Cash Race - back after a little break and slightly different because only the top 5 spots will be paid out


We also have two new races:

EuroPoker $500 Cash Race - top 15 places paid and part of the Ongame Network, thus the only race that is not open to the US for August 2011


Doyles $250 Cash Race - finally good to go since the reporting issue has been resolved. Top 10 places paid and on top of that, Doyles Room is also hosting a monthly $25.000 Race as well with the top 200 places paid!


As previously mentioned, there is one change regarding the Indy Leagues and the Power Poker $50 Freeroll League will see the prizepool for each individual games halved, the other money is used for the Power Poker $200 Cash Race and the BuyIn for each tournament is also lowered to 10+10 instead of 25+25. You can still compete for the Indy League ranking though and the PS Points payout for the top 5 doesn't change.


All other Indy Leagues pretty much stay the same and you can find a full overview here: Pokerspace Indy Leagues - all Leagues for July will be paid out until the middle of next week as well.


The final room stats update for July 2011 will take place between August 1st and 3rd and hopefully we can also announce another update regarding the blog post Just to let you know ... in the next few days as well.

We have added a new free poker money deal on myBet (iPoker network) and another one for William Hill will be active in the next few days as well. Besides that, just take a look around and maybe also check out LuvinPoker - you can either sign up for 35% Rakeback or PS Points as you play.

With all the money up for grabs in the races, we are looking forward to lots of action and hopefully this will also help us to maintain these promotions as well. Please support these games and races as good as possible and best of luck at the tables.

If you have any questions, feel free to comment on the blog or send me a PM. For any account specific questions though, please use the support tab. Thanks for your attention.

The Pokerspace Team

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OFC, Depositors Freerolls and more

Hello all,

I am still waiting to hear back from 1-2 poker sites but the main schedule for next month looks good to go, the new Calendar for August 2011 will be uploaded middle of next week.

In the meanwhile I would like to draw your attention to some interesting non Pokerspace games.
This upcoming weekend, we have the OFC $500 Freeroll and the OFC 5.50 BuyIn 2k added on CarbonPoker and if you pre registered for these events, you should now be able to sign up in the poker client as the coupons have been issued.

On Sunday July 24th there is also a $500 First Depositors Freeroll on PokerPlayerCafe and if you already made your first deposit, you can still get a coupon for this tournament if you make a re-deposit.

The weekly Facebook and Pokerspace Gold Chip tournaments will be continued in August as well and if you have funds on PokerPlayerCafe, please sign up for our PPC $2 Buy-in + $20 Added - it starts one hour after the Gold Chip Freeroll and requires 3 players to start.

July 30th and 31st will see the next OFC event series, this time on EuroPoker and you can read more about it in the following article: Upcoming EuroPoker OFC Event - both tournaments are also listed on the calendar as well:

OFC $500 FREEROLL

OFC Automatic Win $2K Cash Added

As of August 1st 2011, Pokerspace will have a $500 Race on EuroPoker as well! They are part of the Ongame Network and thus not open to the US, but with the OFC tournaments and the race for all players that open the account through Pokerspace, it is a great opportunity to benefit from their VIP program to boost your bankroll.

July 31st also offers two further depositors Freerolls on LuvinPoker and Intertops:

$500 First Depositors Freeroll
You must make the first deposit on LuvinPoker within 2 months of the freeroll start date in order to be eligible to participate and can play in up to 4x$500 First Depositors Freerolls!

Intertops $1000 Depositors Freeroll
How to Qualify: Make a deposit (minimum of $20) and earn 10 FPP between July 1st and 27th on any real money cash game or tournament at Intertops Poker. Intertops will issue tickets to the players that have qualified to the $1,000 Depositor Freeroll on July 29th.

Pokerspace will also continue the Intertops $3 Buy-in + $25 Added Indy League in August as well. If you have funds on these sites, please sign up for the games and support Pokerspace and the hosting poker sites to help as continue these tournaments.

Next week there will also be a follow up blog for Just to let you know ... as well.

Thanks for your attention.

The Pokerspace Team

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#Pokerspace earns another #OFC Bonus Freeroll

Event Results $500 Freeroll

6th: sg1fan84 = 25 Points

9th: Sheepodogx= 22 Points

12th: DunjunMaster = 19 Points

22nd: mainervill = 9 Points

25th: IllbdIll= 6 Points

30th: Breezy222 = 1 Point

Place	Forum	Prize	Points
1	PokerSpace	$125 Private Tournament on Carbon Poker	82
2	Holdem Poker Chat	$75 Private Tournament on Carbon Poker	57
3	Poker101a	$50 Private Tournament on Carbon Poker	40

Please keep one thing in mind though:

The OFC is no CrewCup, no softplay or teamplay is allowed. If there is evidence of either of them, the results may be void and this also happened in the past.

Of course you don't wanna donk out someone who is representing the same forum, but just play your damn game. Am I supposed to fold Aces and Jacks with 10-15xBB? Hell no ffs.

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Viva Las Workas

I haven't been online much on Pokerspace lately due to personal reasons and was also busy with two part time things that involve translations for a lawyer and live event coverage for the iPoker skin Poker770. As a result of this, I will also be at Las Vegas during the time when the Live OFC will be held, but I am not sure how much time I will be able to spend at Downtown.

I have already received the confirmation that my full media credentials for the WSOP have been approved and my flight and hotel is also booked. I will be at Vegas late June 21st - July 5th and as far as it looks my first work day will be June 22nd already when our first players participate at the WSOP. I will stay at the Bally's because they also have a shuttle bus to the Rio's, I could care less about the hotel though since I am there to work.

The schedule looks pretty tough and we have quite a few online qualifiers in Event 45, thus I might only have a less busy day on June 28th and maybe July 2nd - 3rd. There is still a lot of planning to be done in advance to get a proper schedule, but I also want to meet up with a few close friends (you know who you are) and work contacts around the WSOP as well.

If you don't get to see me much at Vegas, you now know why. I really like that part of my work and look forward to the opportunity, I was already working at the EPT and WPT before, but this is the first time I got official media credentials for the WSOP (I did some work there for 888 back in 2007).

Thank you for your attention and understanding.

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It has been a while ...

I took a break from poker and at one point didn't even play for 3 weeks straight at all. It was not necessarily a question of motivation, but I wanted to focus more on work and also picked up a part time job as well. When I started playing poker, I used to play HeadsUp SNG and MTT's, but more or less switched back to HeadsUp SNG and Omaha cashgame.

- I finally played an "MTT" again
- I was able to hit a 2 outer for and not against me
- I got into the HeadsUp
- I hit a Royal Flush

Today I played in a Depositors Freeroll and managed to run with 2nd nutflush into the nutflush, not really any news for that part of my timing. I am also used to a very aggressive style on the bubble and in HeadsUp and pretty much dominated the final battle in the Pokerspace OFC Bonus Freeroll on Carbon as well, slowly going from even stacked to a 3-1 lead. After one flip we were back to even stacks and I took the lead again with aggressive play, after the last flip I took my chance again and well, there is not really a better way to finish a hand than hitting a "Royal Flush". Now you might say "pics or it never happened", you can verify it for yourself:

The amount doesn't really matter, but it is a nice confirmation that I still kinda know what I am doing at the tables. It's also a nice confidence boost and I will try to play more often after work and hit the Omaha tables again :)

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Finally some good news in 2011

Well it might sound a bit odd since we just have January 4th, but the start into 2011 could have been better and was slightly different than expected. But what doesn't kill us just makes us stronger I guess and it's part of the learning process, it has shown me more than just one valuable lesson and that is never a bad thing.

Playing poker doesn't really play an important role right now and I am falling back into the old workaholic habit, it might not be the best thing to do but sometimes it is necessary to bring back some order and establish a certain routine.The first official day at work in 2011 offered a lovely 14 hours, but I got almost all done what would have had at least 3 days of preparation. I didn't mind though because it kept me busy ;)

Now for the more pleasant part, I already saw a few members on Pokerspace cashing nicely in the new year and it looks quite promising. I also had an interesting email in my inbox and received the confirmation that one of my articles that I submitted to the GX Mag has been accepted and will be published in the January edition. I am currently working on two more articles for February and am pretty sure I can get them done in time before the end of my 2 week deadline.

They already published one of my articles in the December issue of the US edition on page 46/47 and you can take a look on their website: GX Poker Magazine

You need to create an account there to see the online content from the magazine but it's completely for free :) I am trying to find out if I can place a link with a GX banner on this blog and maybe also publish the articles here, but as you might understand that is definitely a question of copyright and needs to get sorted out first.

I will update this blog entry when the January edition has been published online and when I know where the article has been placed.

Edit: Both my articles are published and the USA January edition is now online at the GX Poker Magazine - you can find them on page 46 and 48 :)

Cheers,

zedmaster84

P.S. Happy Birthday mum even though I highly doubt that you will see this blog :P

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2011 - A new year and the start of a new decade

Well, as it is officially 2011 here now and I can celebrate the start of a new year and a new decade at the same time as well, it is also necessary to look back at what happened and adjust if needed. Life as well as the poker business is an ongoing challenge that never stops and if you stand still, you have already lost your edge and need to invest a lot of time and effort to catch up.

I have no problem admitting that I am a smartass and am also by far more critical on myself because I am well aware that I tend to be a perfectionist. It can be an advantage and a disadvantage at the same time and always depends on the situation, but I am also just human and can’t always ignore my emotions. 

My workload has increased quite a bit over the last 12 months and I am handling most of the day to day work on Pokerspace. A lot of things you will barely notice but it can be quite frustrating when people say nothing when all goes well but when just the slightest thing goes wrong, the hell breaks out. Nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes, but how we handle them and master the consequences defines our character and personality.

That being said I have to set priorities in my daily work and also analyzed how much time and effort my current work requires to deal with it in a more constructive and efficient way. I will still be using my moderator account frequently and answer all questions on the forums and blogs, but I will most likely not participate in any social or poker discussion anymore.

My work and the responsibility have a higher priority and I hope that you can understand and accept that. I did enjoy all this stuff but I am passionate and could not comment randomly without putting full effort into it, which is simply against my nature and understanding.

At the same time I also want to pursue my writing more consequently and do more freelancing what I used to do before I started working for Pokerspace. I have already published an article in a magazine and see this as a step forward, but I am not sure if I will also publish them on Pokerspace as blog as well because they usually have a word requirement between 1200 and 2000 words.

It is the human nature that we can just focus on specific things for a certain time and the past has shown that longer blog posts don’t get the same attention and thus I reserve the right to publish my stuff either on my own blogspot account or on other sites and magazines.

Thanks a lot for your patience and understanding as well as your continued support and participation on Pokerspace.

Best regards,

Christian / zedmaster84

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What happened to the principle of give and take

"And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

There is a lot of wisdom in those words and I am pretty sure a lot of people will remember who actually said that ... for all others, it was John F. Kennedy. Obviously there is by far more within this statement and it reveals one of the most critical developments in our current society ... and it has not gotten better since those words have been said many years ago, it has become a lot worse. The vast majority takes everything for granted and doesn't care how much work and effort is behind all the things in our life that we get provided by someone else.

I am not sure if it's part of the human nature, it for sure isn't for me (at least as far as I am aware) and I usually try to look behind everything that is offered to me, I don't just expect it as granted because I stumbled over it. The problem in our current society is that most people do and think they are entitled to get everything just because they exist.

It is one of the biggest issues in the current world of online poker forums and pretty much every forum has the same problem (there are just a handful of exceptions): People try to get everything for free or without having to put much effort into it. If there is free money up for grabs, be it in a sponsorship, Freerolls or added cash ... they want it and they expect to get it because they are a member of the forum that is putting up those offers. They don't care how much work behind is necessary in order to offer all that, they just want it and get mad when that is not the case ... the circumstances why it isn't available for them don't really matter. People just love to complain and they enjoy it.

Let's look at some examples here on Pokerspace and I will leave the Free Money Deals out here because that's a story for itself ;) I have seen a few complaints about the Indy League prizes and games not being hosted anymore - well, nothing in life is for free and even the death will cost your life.Did you ever ask yourself why the prizes and the hosted games change once in a while? Or do you just think they have to be there because they always been? Surprise ... that's not the case!

How do you think all those offers actually work? We send an email to the poker site and ask them for free stuff and they are more than happy to provide all we want without expecting anything in return? Online poker is a business and despite the general economical crisis still one of the most successful branches ... yet there is a decrease in the overall traffic and the big boom from a few years ago does not exist anymore. It is much harder to still offer the same promotions and this obviously also has an effect on all the forums out there in the cyber world.

The poker site put the free money and all the promotions up for the forums and offer them to the players because they expect more real money activity and traffic in return ... but there is a certain point where they check if the overall stats have increased and if that is not the case, how can you expect them to still sponsor the same prizes. That doesn't really make much sense right? Yet, the vast majority takes all that for granted and wants more ... if possible for free or without having to put any effort into it like playing for real money and meeting certain requirements.

You know what? Sorry but it doesn't work like that ... most of the time you have to earn it in order to receive something and it is the same thing in almost all areas of your real life as well. So why do you actually take all this for granted at online poker? Or do you expect to get paid for your job when you sit at the office and don't do anything? If that is the case, wake up ... it's a daydream.

DoylesRoom for example hosted the Freerolls for quite a while, but there was barely any real money activity because the members that cashed were either not tracked (well can't blame anyone when the account existed before, sh1t happens) or didn't use the winnings at the real money tables.

The participants in the added cash BuyIn tournaments are pretty much the same and we barely ever get more than 40 players in a regular weekly cash BuyIn. Most of the time it's the same members that cash and they don't play after that either, in fact most withdraw it. Just imagine how much more you could get out of that free money though when you put it to use on a tracked account ... you could get Rakeback or PS Points as you play. You could even earn the VIP status for the next month or purchase it with the winnings ... and it doesn't take much to do so.

Normally I am no cashgame player, I grew up as MTT and SNG player ... in July I just tried "for fun" and played some cash on 3 tracked accounts (Rio, PowerPoker, UltimateBet) to see how hard it is to meet the requirements for the VIP in the following month. I didn't play higher than NL25 and not more than 4 tables ... and within 7 days in total and 2-3 hours per session I actually made it. I didn't grind like crazy, it was some part time fun after work and I was surprised how easy it actually was.

I realize though that many either don't have the funds or it's complicated for them to deposit with the current situation in the United States ... but that is by far no excuse for the constant b1tching and complaints when they don't get something for free. And the worst part is ... it's not getting better, it's getting worse and that is disgusting. If you want something, be prepared that you will have to do something in return to earn it. 

Many people all over the world can't afford the luxury to waste their time and moan about this stuff, because they have more important issues in their life that deserve by far more attention. And we all are adults as well, just because we are not face to face on the internet and can hide behind a username and a funny avatar does not give us the right to forget our manners and the values that our parents taught us.

A lot of people appreciate this place here and are glad they have found it ... but it takes a lot to maintain the site and we have to provide a certain real money activity / traffic to continue getting the chance to offer all those games in return. It doesn't work because people say they love Pokerspace ... the poker sites don't care about the forum posts or the social blogs and how the people interact with each other. It is also a poker forum and a business ... so I gonna end this "constructive rant" with the slightly adjusted statement from John F. Kennedy.

"And so, my fellow Pokerspacers, ask not what your forum can do for you; ask what you can do for your forum."

Thanks for your attention.

zedmaster84
moderator and co admin aka busy bee and "can fix all problems" guy

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Breaking out of the comfort zone

The title might seem a bit strange for some of you, but it actually does not just apply for the real life, it also happens at poker as well in various ways. There have been several reasons to write this blog though, to mention a few:

- it has been a while since I posted my last serious poker related blog
- I think the topic suits to my current situation
- I would like to add more poker related content to Pokerspace and give some members food for thought ... it is up to the reader though what conclusions they make for themselves
- writing does help to analyze your own situation and find possible solutions through the own mind or the input from others

You might want to ask what a comfort zone is, well it exists in real life and also in the poker world and it is the point that people reach when they are satisfied with the current conditions and don't strive to get better to even improve. The problem is ... there is always room for improvement and if you want to be successful, you have to work on it all the time. Life and also poker is the everlasting fight against the own laziness and to stay up to date. Every human does have a certain level of satisfaction where he / she feels comfortable at and does not want to improve unless there are more benefits in sight. 

Many think when they reached a certain level of satisfaction and success that they don't have to do anything to maintain the status. They are happy with their current progress and profit and don't think outside the box. Everything is just straight forward and they fail to realize that the game and life is changing so fast, you just don't notice that instantly and wonder afterwards what happened and why it changed so fast. In fact, the process was not fast at all ... you just didn't notice anything because you didn't pay attention.

In life, this might hurt when it does get back to you and hits you in a moment where you have been feeling completely safe ... and it can cause serious damage. In poker, you almost always have the chance to come back because it is fairly easy to win back the money if you have reached a certain skill. But if you stay too long on lower levels and don't increase your horizon by investing time and money to learn more about the game, than you will be stuck and miss out on potential value in the long run.

Nobody ever said it was easy though, it is easy to learn the basics but takes a lifetime to master ... and you will have to be willing to continuously invest time and money into your education, either on the tables or coaching sites. But one thing is for sure ... the more you know about the game and the better you are prepared the higher the odds that you will actually make more profit. It is the same in real life as well ... if you work harder, someone will notice it. If you put more effort into a project and show more enthusiasm, the better your odds are that you will succeed. There are so many things in real life that you can convert and apply for poker as well, but you have to think outside the box and try to find the extraordinary. ABC Poker might be good for a steady and reasonable profit, but you will have to take some risk to move on and climb up another step on the ladder that seems to reach the sky when you look up. 

Nothing is impossible though at poker, all get 2 cards (well at least at the most popular version, NLHE) and after that a combination of luck, skill, anticipation and gut feeling. But the percentage of luck involved is influenced by your own education, knowledge and experience. It is the same at your job as well ... if you have just started working at this job, it is impossible that you will have the same knowledge and can do the work as effective as long time co-workers. It is up to you though to increase your knowledge and get better, it doesn't just fly around the corner and you have to open the gift bag. You need to be willing to risk something in order to improve or you will always be unable to increase your own level of satisfaction.

Sometimes it might hurt, but in the long run it is the right step ... you might not notice that because the pain is still for real, but when you look back after several years you will see the difference it has made and the influence it did have on you (and your game). But this also depends on your own willingness and target that you want to reach by playing - if it is just for fun, you will have by far less incentive to improve your game because you don't take the competition seriously. I hope though that does not apply for other parts of your real life as well. The ultimate goal for each person should always be to reach the highest possible personal level of satisfaction. How do you realize where this level is? Well, you will have to expand your horizon and try to accomplish something impossible or cross the personal limits ... otherwise, life would be pretty boring and I know for my part that this would definitely not satisfy me. 

I love to play poker, I love to write about poker and share my experience ... but I also talk a lot about poker with buddies or read online and in books to expand my knowledge. So far it treated me well, I know I am still far off from my ultimate goal but hey ... I am working on it and it will get better in the long run. Nobody can take the knowledge from you and you are responsible for it ... if you are just lazy, don't expect that you can win easily and beat others ... because they might be ahead of you and know more about the game. We will never be able to know everything, because there is just so much that you can learn - but if you keep trying, you will feel by far more comfortable at the tables as well.

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My Vegas OFC Live Trip at a glance

Alright, since every other Pokerspacer that attended the OFC Live a few days ago already put up a personal blog already, I guess it is my turn to do so as well. Please keep in mind though that "at a glance" in zed-ish means less than 5.000 words ... lol!

The trip itself started pretty creepy with my flight being cancelled and losing a whole day at the airport at Frankfurt, I finally arrived at Vegas one day later than planned and Steve, Chris and Lesley already been waiting for me with a bottle of Scotch lol ... Steve was supposed to play in a WSOP tourney though the next day! We might have been a bit tipsy and went for a drink on the Freemont Street ... well we tried but every bar was already closed at Downtown Vegas around 3am lol. So when we tried to get in the room, we didn't succeed (and yes, all 3 tried lmao) and decided to go to the Venetian and just fall to sleep there. Lesley didn't even manage to get off the couch and was just fallen asleep right next to me ... Chris was still pretty sleepy and after 4 hours Lesley and I decided to go for breakfast and it was just really smooth to talk to her in real life for 2 hours rather than typing through yahoo. We than went for some shopping while Chris was still sleeping (lazy bastard!) and I returned to the Golden Nugget and obviously managed to get in the room straight.

I pretty much completed all my shopping in the first two days after arriving at Vegas and also met up with the lovely Vger, first thing we have done was getting lost in Margaritaville hehe. On the Sunday before the meet and greet I was a bit late from shopping and on the way back to the elevators, I met John and we knew each other from the first second, even though it was the first time we met in real life. It was nice to see all Pokerspacers and we also managed to take a small group photo as well:



I guess everybody has already seen the pictures on various other blogs about the wild party at the Gold Diggers, I won't mention any details though but it was definitely a blast ... that's all I can say :P Again, Steve was doing the same preparation for his WSOP tourney the other day hehehe. On the Sunday morning I met up with John and his awesome family for breakfast, it turned out that we were a bit late and headed to the lunch ... if you really want to see a great buffet, just go to the Main Street Station hotel at downtown ... it was like 8 bucks and they had such a great variety of food.

Before the warm up we decided to bring Steve over to the RIO's for his WSOP tourney so he doesn't fall asleep and when we just been heading out, I heard someone yelling at me from the check in waiting line ... you should have seen the smile on my face though, because Tracy finally arrived ;) She also had some heavy issues with her flight and lost a whole day, but finally made it to Sin City. We stayed at the Rio's for just about 45 minutes and also seen Daniel Negreanu taking out Dan Harrington with pocket rockets, Steve was doing ok in his tourney and he also cashed later on but unfortunately didn't go deep.

You can pretty much sum up my 2 tourneys at the OFC Live with one word: gawd. I was pretty much carddead and tried to pick some spots on the table against weaker opponents, but never been able to build up my stack and various suckouts kept my stack pretty much on where we started. The blinds moved up and I was getting desperate in the warm up, made one tricky resteal against a limper with pocket Kings and wanted to get him in ... by leaving 100 chips behind on the reraise. Unfortunately he folded and I just picked up the blinds and ante + his limp. I got moved to another table just when the blinds moved up and from being on the button as smallstack, I went straight into the BigBlind and was obviously pissed off. I was waiting a few more hands and finally got a playable hand with pocket tens and ran straight into Kings ... thanks lol. If I remember correctly, we had 5 Pokerspacers busting with 10s that day and in the most spectacular hand of the day, 10s also been involved in a 4way all in with TT vs TT vs AK vs AK:



Poolshooter and SuperrSam bubbled straight before the money and Cory was hanging in as one of the shortstacks, he made a helluva a game and a comeback on the Final Table, just to miss out on the added WSOP seat by one place and getting second.

The next day, Tracy and I went for breakfast / lunch / brunch ... I don't remember lol - the OFC Main Event was not more fortunate and it was pretty much a déjà vu. An isolation on blinds 50-100 for example against a weaker player on the table who raised in EP to 300 shrunk my stack, I raised to 900 out of the Button with JJ to get rid of the blinds and get called, flop is KQ low and she instant shoves ... I open muck my Jacks and get proudly shown KJ, well played. Same again, I never got to build up my stack and on blinds 200-400 I look down on AJ from the button, the SB is pretty passive and the BB is almost even stacked. I raise and almost commit myself, BB shoves and I take the flip vs TT (what else lol) - flop T 4 4 and headshot, thanks a bunch sigh. I mean I am not unhappy about my play, it was maybe a bit passive but I never had a spot to float against a raise in front of me and highly doubt I would been successful at this table.

We did have a few Pokerspacers in the top 30, but just BartyUK got to the final table and came in 5^th, overall we took 3^rd place though and gonna have a private Freeroll at FeltStars. Tracy had to leave at 5 in the morning the next day and I met up with Lee and Amanda for lunch, it is quite interesting at times though how long women need to dress up hehe. In the following 2 pics you can see the difference between typical American / British lunch (Lee) and my healthy asian food:




We went for the Strip because they both wanted to see the water show at the Bellagio later that day and also go for a bit of shopping, we been walking around in the heat and after 2 hours or so I went for the MnM shop to find a lil prezzie for Tino. Would you believe that they have thousands of toys and w/e but all just in the friggin 4 main stream colors and not purple? Grrrrrrr - ah well, at least I got something and will ship it to the Toon early next week ;)




The time just went by too fast and I tried not to get drunk on the pub crawl on Wednesday, because I still had some work ahead and also the 24h trip back to Germany on early Thursday as well. I pretty much pulled an all nighter, was fallen asleep once but the wake up call saved me and I met up with Vger before I left to the airport. The trip back home almost turned into a nightmare again, because the flight to Philly was slightly delayed and the flight to Frankfurt was overbooked, I got my seat as second last of the standby list yuck. But than, all went smooth and we even managed to get to Germany 50 minutes faster than expected and I caught an earlier train - the whole trip was pretty short though, I didn't even lose a whole day on the way back home ... just 23 hours lmfao!

I would just like to thank the OFC, Ace Jones begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting, Feltstars and of course also Vger for putting up such an event and organizing all at Vegas, it was the perfect opportunity to meet all the Pokerspacers and even though I wasn't successful at the tables, it still was a blast. I also have to thank Steve for sorting out my trip and let me go there for a week, he knew exactly how much it meant to me to be there.

I got to meet my favourite online divas Vger, Tracy, Sadie and nutbreaker and also brought over some german wine and chocolate along with some pet toys ... you just gotta know how to treat the ladies ;)
It was great to see John and his family, you were actually exactly what I expected and just let me know the next time and I will of course take care of your daughter hehe.


My british gang, Lee, Amanda, Spiersey and Barty ... gawd I just love the English accent and it was just nice to meet up, I knew Spiersey and Barty before from some live events at the UK.

Amanda is just a cracker, just don't let her have a lot of drinks or she may go nuts hehe:


Chris and Lesley ... oh my gosh what a fun couple and I am pretty sure to know where the online nicknames come from haha. FlyingKOP and your family ... oh lord, what a cutie your daughter is and she will surely be a heartbreaker in the future and I just hope Lesley didn't teach her too well at Vegas ;)


Chad ... well what shall I say - we all know your online personality but you screwed that up with being a really nice guy at Vegas that everybody can get along with ... let's see if you can actually establish the bad boy image again after all said that you are a good guy. Mainervill ... Rick, you are just a lovely big and friendly teddy bear and it was a pleasure to meet ya

Cory ... it was a pity that we could not talk more, but from what I have seen at the tables is that you made a helluva showing and got what it takes to be really successful ... looking forward to the next time and we will surely catch up online as well via skype or IM

I know I have been missing out on a lot of people and just wish the whole trip would have been much longer, but after waiting for so long for this to happen, it just wasn't enough time at Vegas and I hope that the next one will even be more fabulous.

I will also upload the best pictures and create a slideshow and post the link here on the blog, I may also create an album at the Pokerspace Facebook page and if you are not a member there yet, hurry up and get there!

Link to the picture slideshow on Photobucket: Vegas OFC Live

So now, I need to finish up in style and there is no better way than to post my fav picture of the trip:

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Trade, Fight, Build, Think !

Well I bet you are wondering about the title of this blog entry on a poker related blog and it is also not based on a certain poker theory. I am playing a sci fi strategy game for years now and the latest version called "X3 Terran Conflict" got published about half a month ago. Now you wonder what this has got to do with poker and I will tell you about it. As the title of this slogan says, its all related to those 4 keywords and basic concepts of the "X-Series". It is a sci fi strategy game and shooter where you have to build up your own economy and also fight against pirates, alien invasions and complete different plots of the storyline and other missions.

If you want to read more about the relations of this game to poker and what meaning the keywords have, check out my blog on pokerspace or wait for the next episode on this blog

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The Pokerspace CrewCup for November 2008

Pokerspace is hosting a new short 1 month CrewCup on Carbonpoker with improvements and ideas to make the game more attractive and its a good opportunity to test your team abilities

The details:

New Crew Cup: Starts Nov 5th and ends Nov 30th, Prizes include:

1st: Carbon VIP Package: Up to $600 in sponsorships and six 50K tournament coupon entries
2nd: Pokerspace Bundle: Duffle Bags, t-shirts, patches and playing cards
3rd: 8000 PS points (split among members) and PS T-shirts
4th: 6000 PS points (split among members)
5th: 5000 PS points (split among members)

Every week there will be 3 crew cup tournaments on Carbon Poker where you can win Crew Cup Points:

-Wednesday $3 buy-in starting at 6pm EST (2000 chips, 15 min blind
-Saturday Freeroll - with only Crew Cup Pts starting at 1 pm EST (1500 chips, 15 min blind levels)
Sunday $250 Freeroll starting at 1pm EST (1500 chips, 15 min blind levels)

Note: Times are 1 hour behind in the Carbon Poker Lobby. All tournaments will be posted on Pokerspace by Oct 31st.

There are new rules and regulations for this CrewCup:

Joining an Event:
- In any crew competition tournament, only players that are members of crews that have at least 3 members will be able to join and receive passwords for crew cup tournaments. A crew consists of a maximum of 6 players.


Crew Cup Points and Prizes:
- If you're a member of a crew with at least 3 members but have less than 3 participating in a crew cup tournament you will still be eligible for any prize pool that is offered (except for in the Finals) however your Crew will not earn any Crew Cup Pts.

- NOTE: If your crew has less than 3 members participating in a Crew Cup Final your crew will not be eligible for any points and/or prizes.

Submitting incorrect details:
- If you play in a Crew Cup tournament and submit the wrong poker alias on PS for that particular your placement will not count towards your crew score.

- ***We will not go back and change it for that event***

- If you need your alias changed before a particular event please email support at least 24hrs prior to the start of the tournament.

Password Leak:
*** Only Crews with at least 3 members can receive passwords so please do not give these out!!***

- Any PS member caught sharing our Passwords with non-members or non eligible members will be either banned or suspended from Pokerspace and potentially banned from that particular poker site.

- If non PS -members enters a crew cup tournament they will not be eligible for any points/prizes and we reserve the right to have that user banned from that particular poker site and from Pokerspace.

- If players from a crew with less than 3 members manage to enter a crew cup tournament they will not receive any points/prizes. We reserve the right to have this crew disqualified or suspended from the crew cup as well as suspending or banning the particular users from Pokerspace.

If non-eligible players place in a Crew Cup Tournament:
- If a player that is not on a crew with at least 3 members (manages to get in a crew tournament) and finishes in the money, he/she will be disqualified and not receive their cash payout. However, their position will not be removed from the final tournament standings with respect to the crew competition (ie. If a non-crew member finishes 1st and a qualifying players finishes 2nd, the qualifying player will STILL receive 2 points on their final crew score). If you are not on a crew with at least 3 members please sit out and allow your stack to be blinded off.

Crew teamwork
- In any team competition it is in the best interest of the team that its members play together and crew competitions are no different. Although poker rooms have rules against this behavior in regular tournaments, teamwork is completely acceptable in any crew competition tournament.

- Crewmates are allowed to play against each other however they choose, which includes any type of "chip dumping". Here are a few things to consider with respect to "chip dumping":

* In tournaments with > 50-100 players the opportunity to dump chips doesn't happen very often
* At times it is impossible to distinguish between a "chip dump", a bad poker play, and a misclick. For this reason it is nearly impossible to police chip dumping even if we thought it was best for the game.
* Chip dumping or similar play can backfire! In fact, many crews employ and discuss strategies of how to counter it.

Coss-crew teamwork
- While teamwork within a crew is acceptable, teamwork among multiple crews is strictly prohibited. This includes chip dumping and sharing hands.
- If there is any proof that this has occurred, forward all information possible (including hand histories) to support@pokerspace.com. If Pokerspace decides the proof is significant enough, the players will be disqualified and scores will not be counted.

- If this happens more than once Pokerspace reserves the right to disqualify, suspend or ban a crew from any or all future crew competitions.

Position of poker rooms "rules"
- As long as we run separate tourneys for crew events
Crew competition rules ONLY pertain to official crew events.

- All other events are subject to the regular poker room rules and may result in suspension by the host poker room or Pokerspace. If you suspect players are demonstrating chip Dumping and/or collusion in any games outside of the Crew Competition events, it is your duty to submit this information to the support team of the host Poker Room (and not poker space) as they have a qualified Fraud & Security team to review these instances.

Comments or Suggestions:
- Give us your feedback and we will take all constructive suggestions into consideration for future Crew Cup tournaments. Please email support@pokerspace.com.

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Pokerspace

pokerspace is an international poker teaching site with pokerschool, daily tournaments on different platforms and sponsorships

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