Some things never change: new year, new madness

So January is done and dusted, the first month of the year and the work schedule has not changed much besides putting one part time job on hold. Well done ... guess it could have been worse. The first two tournament coverages are completed with the WPT Dublin (yay, Ireland done on the list of countries I always wanted to visit) and our own deepstack event at the Montesino Vienna saw a total of 390 players and a prize pool of 273,000 €. Not bad for the first try and the next one is already around the corner.

Along with the day to day work, I also got my schedule until the end of April and I guess, the airlines and the German rail will be happy to have a frequent traveler:

1) European Deepstack Poker Championship 2012

February 7th - 12th 2012 / Dublin, Ireland

2) EPT Copenhagen

February 20th - 25th 2012 / Denmark

3) EPT Madrid

March 12th - 17th 2012 / Spain

4) Mega Poker Series Nottingham

March 27th - April 1st 2012 / United Kingdom

5) Irish Open

April 6th - 9th 2012 / Dublin, Ireland

6) WPT Vienna 

April 10th - 15th 2012 / Montesino, Austria

7) EPT Berlin

April 16th - 21st 2012 / Germany

Besides that I am currently preparing the tournament schedule for Nottingham and take care of the website content, at each of the tournaments I will do the blog coverage as well as take a lot of pictures ... which kinda unveils my newest addiction to the Canon 1100D. Without multi tasking, it would become increasingly difficult to get all those events and the regular work done but sleep is overrated anyways and I am looking forward to see the players, colleagues and friends again when the cards are back in the air.

Last but not least we have the "poker event task force", guess you have to be somewhat crazy to get the job done so might as well reveal the little helpers that will hopefully bring a smile on a few faces:

"Shuffle up and deal!" - Or should I rather say "Travel up and blog"? Game on ...
_____

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On the road again ... what else?!

The last few weeks have been quite stressful even though I enjoyed the events but lets take a closer look at the agenda:

Done:

1) MCOP Amsterdam: November 5th - 12th 2011

travel back home November 13th and flight to Greece on the 14th

2) EPT Greece: November 15th - 20th 2011

flight back home November 16th

3) WPT Marrakech: November 24th - 27th 2011

(coverage from home, no travel phew)

So far so good, I survived all three of them and can prepare all month end work and stuff for December at my day to day job + I also completed some writing for the November Issue of the Poker Shark Magazine. The following schedule is still ahead of me:

4) WPT Prague: December 1st - 5th 2011

train early on the 1st, glad it is not far away

5) EPT Prague: December 5th - 10th 2011 

BPS already starts on the 10th but a Belgian colleague will cover the first starting day

6) BPS Final Namur: December 10th - 18th 2011

I also gonna fit in some writing there for PSM as well as some content writing, probably no online poker at all though ... think I just gonna cancel Christmas and sleep instead for a few days when I am back home on December 19th. Fingers crossed that I don't catch travelitis or the blogger flu ... .

Looking forward to the events though, the working hours may be long but can also be fun + it is nice to see the other bloggers and our players again. If you want to follow the action, just check out the Team770 Blog - it is available in English, German, Dutch and French.

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Let the grind begin

Usually this time of the year has most people busy with the preparations for Christmas and my schedule is slightly different, besides that I don't really care much about Christmas and when I want something, I simply buy it. But in the next 6 weeks I am looking forward to 5 tournament coverages for Poker770 and the first one will kick off at Amsterdam this weekend with the Master Classics of Poker.

The 1.500€ Side Event starts on Saturday and we will have 5 players from the NL-BE Team of 770 in, besides that all familiar names of the Belgian and Dutch Poker circuit will be at the tables and this should make for an interesting challenge.

After Amsterdam, the EPT Greece will take place from November 15th - 20th at Loutraki and there is barely time to breathe, since WPT Marrakech is less than a week later on November 24th. I haven't decided yet if I will fly over or do the coverage from home, since my French colleague Matthieu will be there at the casino.

December starts with a bang and from the 1st to the 10th, we have the EPT and the WPT at Prague and it is the event on the schedule with the best atmosphere, so I am really looking forward to it. Last but not least we also have the final of the Belgian Poker Series at Namur on December 11th and I am not sure yet if I will be there. In between there is also my writing and the day-to-day work, but sleep is overrated anyways and you kinda have to multitask to get all work done.

Let the grind begin ... . As usual, you can follow all updates on the Team770 page.

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770 Pro Koen De Visscher takes 2nd place in iPoker 200k Guaranteed

Poker770 Pro Koen De Visscher has already shown outstanding results earlier this year when he finished 3rd at EPT Snowfest and is considered as one of the best Belgian players on the poker circuit right now. He also added a victory at the previous WCOOP to his list of cashes and went deep at EPT Barcelona a few weeks ago, just missing out on the last 3 tables of the tournament.

You can find him as JeankeNissan on Pocket Fives and PokerStars (jeankenissan), on Poker770 he is playing under the alias Lalapaloolalala and just finished 2nd in the weekly 200k Guaranteed on iPoker, outlasting a very tough field only to lose with Pocket 8s against Ace-Two in Heads-Up play.

Down to the last 100 players, he won two important hands with A-6 suited against Pocket 9s and A-9 spades vs 8-8 on a 5-4-3 Flop with 2 Spades to become Chipleader with about 70 players left, he never looked back and always stayed in the top 3 until the Final Table from there on. For his efforts he earned a nice payday of $23,780 and has shown consistently strong performances at the tables in the last few weeks.

The Belgian Team Pro is also part of the Bounty Pro tournament series on Poker770 as well, where you can play against a different Pro each day and score a sweet $100 for knocking them out. The Buy-In is only €5.50 and if you happen to knock out more Pros in the same week, you can even increase your bounty prize up to $2,000 or an incredible one year sponsorship in the Pro Team!

Koen De Visscher will also be participating in the Free Poker Festival on this upcoming weekend (September 17th and 18th) at Spa / Belgium and all Team Pros will have a special bounty on their head. You can follow the tournament coverage for this exclusive 770 tournament on the Team770 page, there are more than €13,000 up for grabs.

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EPT Barcelona, Spa and more to come

After working for the past 12 days, I pretty much have to enjoy the upcoming weekend with month end work all done already ... at least that's the plan and I might even squeeze in some poker. The EPT Barcelona coverage is completed and once again it was "so close but yet so far" with two players for Team770 on the last 5 tables from 811 players total. It was just the online coverage this time and hopefully I will be visiting the next event "live".

That being said I will have a lovely travel by train through Germany to blog at the 770 tournament at Spa, Belgium on September 17th and 18th. The Team Pros will also be there, the work hours will probably be long but it's another country that you can confirm on the list of countries visited.

Since WPT Malta will start soon after that from September 20th - 24th, I am considering flying over on the 19th on the way back home if I get a somewhat reasonable flight connection. Malta would be the next country I haven't visited before so far and I could meet some old friends and affiliate contacts. Sounds like a plan ... right?

But the next month end work is also around the corner and the WSOPE tournaments start early October ... I don't have to do any coverage at Cannes but actually consider applying for it. Sleep is overrated anyways ;) That's all for now ... .

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Fabrice "fabsoul" Soulier wins first Bracelet at #WSOP

It was short and painful, even though not totally unexpected considering the fact that Shawn Buchanan was really short stacked in HeadsUp play with 910.000. The tournament was paused last night according to the ten level stop rule and both contenders came back today at 3pm local time and took their seats at the Amazon Room to finish the $10.000 H.O.R.S.E. Events #37.

Fabrice “fabsoul” Soulier was the dominating Chipleader and should also take down every 4 hands that were dealt, in fact the pictures and interviews after the victory took longer than the play itself. Add enthusiastic French players and friends on the rail and you get a really nice atmosphere and raised eyebrows of the Americans that didn’t understand what they have been singing on the rail.



The tournament continued with Pot Limit Omaha Hi Lo and should end after only 4 hands being dealt today, when we already had some preflop action and on the Flop  10♣ 4♥ 8♦ all chips went into the middle. Soulier was not ahead, but still had enough outs to take down the hand and win the golden Bracelet and you could not ask for a more deserving player to finally earn the merits of his performance over the last few years.

Soulier: Q♦ J♠ 6♥ 8♥
Buchanan: 10♠ J♦ J♣ 7♥

Turn: A♦
River: 6♠

There was some confusion at first but Soulier did indeed hit two pair on the River and won his first Bracelet and the 3rd Bracelet for France this year at the WSOP 2011. On top of the 1st Gold Bracelet, he also gets $609.130 as well for defeating this 239 player field at the $10.000 H.O.R.S.E. Events #37. Runner up Shawn Buchanan takes home yet another 2nd place finish after coming Second in the 25k 6max tourney last year – the $376.458 will surely help to ease the pain though.



Tomorrow we will be back at the Rio’s around noon when Team770 will be participating in Event #43, a $1500 NLHE Event and hopefully they will be able to repeat the result of Paco Torres, who finished in the top 100 of Event #38 yesterday.

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It is that time of the year again #WSOP

The WSOP is already running for more than two weeks and two dozen Bracelets found their new owner. I managed to fly over to Vegas 3 times in the last 4 years and this time will be the first with full media credentials, thus I will be joining the army of zombies and insomniacs late next Tuesday / early next Wednesday. If you wonder who that is … I actually mean the bloggers and media staff who make all that happen and bring you the latest news.

This year I will be writing updates for the Poker770 Pro Team and you can find the updates on the team page or on the Team770 Blog. The live coverage will start next Wednesday and is available in various languages; I will be taking care of the German and English part. The work days might be long, but at least we now have the 10 level stop rule in place and this should hopefully keep all sane.

I am looking forward to the work and even though it might not be as much fun as playing there myself, it is still an interesting task and someone has to do it, right? Besides that I know almost everything around Vegas from my previous trips anyways so there is not really much to discover and the shopping at the Outlet Store doesn’t take more than one day either.

All paperwork is done and the packing has already started, most of the preparation for my day to day work has also been taken care of and I will spend the Monday afternoon and almost all Tuesday with travelling. It kinda sucks when you live in the middle of nowhere and it takes 5h by train to get to the airport first, but the trip itself will pay off for the long travel back and forth. 

Besides that I will get to see dear and close friends at Vegas again and it is always a pleasure, especially when you only have that opportunity maybe twice per year due to the huge distance. And well, Las Vegas is always an interesting change of air and you can break out of the daily routine. Now if they would only have Tim Horton’s there as well and not just Starbucks … ah well, guess you can’t have it all.

Bring on Sin City!

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WSOP 2011 is around the corner

It will be an interesting tournament series at Las Vegas this year after April 15th and the so called Black Friday, especially because Americans can't play for real money anymore on the 3 biggest US friendly (at least until mid April) poker sites and networks. With PokerStars, FullTilt and AP/UB jumping out of the US market after the indictments of the Department of Justice and reaching an agreement with the US to refund the American players, one thing might not get as much attention.

These 3 poker sites / networks also ran most of the WSOP qualifiers and quite a few of them won't take place anymore due to the reduced traffic. Many American online players can't make it to the WSOP 2011 anymore since they cannot play in the main qualifiers, will this actually see more Europeans finding their way over the pond to play in Sin City? And how will the overall number of participants per event develop? Surely we still gonna see all the familiar faces and big names in the tournaments, but quite a few grinders and online pro's have just lost their source of income and might not be able to afford anymore to buy into the WSOP tournaments.

Fortunately I will be able to draw my own conclusions and follow the action live at the Rio's, since I just got my full media credentials granted for the WSOP 2011 and will be doing the online coverage for the Pro Team of Poker770 towards the end of June 2011. It might not be the most relaxing job, but I am already looking forward to it and the interaction with all the other bloggers and news media. Guess it is about time to get the flight and hotel booked now and start working on the schedule for the coverage :)

Most are quite happy to fly to Vegas and participate in the tournaments ... I am happy to do the coverage for it - well, we bloggers might be a bit strange but someone has to do that job as well, right? And I will probably also have the opportunity to meet up with some affiliate and business contacts as well :)

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EPT Berlin coverage ... and Liv Boeree :)

Well at first I wanted to use "You gotta be kidding me", but that was not due to the fact that I seen her but rather the funny circumstances. We were close to the money in the EPT Berlin Main Event and the 2k side event already started, I sat in the blogger lounge and just had a coffee ... and who comes in? Yes, of course the PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree :)

The bottle of water usually costs 5€ for the players and she wanted to pick one out of the fridge, we bloggers usually get them for free in the lounge and he looked at her and asked if she was a blogger (lol). I was a few meters away and almost laughed my ass off when he wanted to charge her the 5 bucks and didn't know who she was, so I walked over and picked one bottle. The waiter still wanted to charge her but we kinda managed to get away with it, since I actually had my press pass ... a little smalltalk about the following picture on Facebook and "best of luck" for the side event.

 

This picture was a snapshot from our french photographer Hugues Fournaise (copyright @ RiverTells) at the EPT Snowfest a few days ago and I uploaded it on Facebook, since it was a really nice picture. I tagged her and didn't really expect anything, but a few days later I got the notification that she used it as her profile picture :)

One of the reasons why I like my job hehe - and best of luck to Liv Boeree at the 2k side event @ EPT Berlin right now :)

Koen De Visscher and Paco Torres from Team770 also survived Day 2 with 119 left and are both in the money, they will return tomorrow at 12.00 local time when we once again hear "Shuffle up and deal". Today was not as long as Day 1a and Day 1b, time to get some other remaining work done and prepare for Day 3 of the Main Event.

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From Vienna to Berlin

Okay, the music title doesn't exactly correspond with the title of the blog and doesn't apply for my trips either, but it actually does for my colleague Manu early next week hehe. A few hours ago I got the confirmation that the media credentials for the EPT Berlin have been approved and that I will have a seat in the press room.

Besides that I also just received my new camera that I ordered last week via ebay - quite funny when you consider where it has been sent from ... yes, you might guess it ... Paris ... lol. So I will be working at the EPT Berlin from April 5th - 11th and am already really looking forward to it and hope that the Team770 will be able to repeat their performance from the last 2 events at the EPT Snowfest and the WPT Vienna.

If you want to read more about the Team770, you can also check out the live event coverage here: Team770 Blog - it is also available in different languages as well. Time to get excited and finish the travel planning ... and organize a schedule for my regular day to day work ... lol.

Cheers.

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Vienna is calling ...

 The picture above is one of the reasons why I have not been as active as I used to and also won’t be as active in the near future either. I already mentioned earlier that I picked up a part time job and got offered the opportunity to do some live event coverage for Poker770 (an iPoker skin) as well. In the past few days and also today and tomorrow, I am posting online updates from the EPT Snowfest at Saalbach / Hinterglemm since it was too short of a notice to travel to Austria.

Instead, I will be travelling to Austria early on Saturday to cover the WPT Vienna and Team770, I got full media credentials and gonna report directly from the Montesino casino – it is a 4 day event and the final table will be played on March 29^th, thus I will travel back home on Wednesday March 30^th. It is actually the first time that I will cover such a live event (private games don’t count, after all this is a WPT event) and I am really looking forward to it. 

I will have the opportunity to meet up with some friends at Vienna and will also see those familiar faces that you usually just see on TV and take photos … can’t wait to see Liv Boeree in action hehe. Two of the Team770 members also cashed at the EPT Snowfest and Cynthia Foresti finished 64^th, whilst Koen De Visscher will be fighting today on Day 4 to earn his seat at the final table tomorrow. He currently starts into the last 24 as 8^th in chip count.

 Cynthia Foresti, Team770 Pro (SUI)

Koen De Visscher, Team770 Pro (BEL)

If you want to see the updates and pictures, you can head over to the Team770 Blog and check the pictures, it is also available in different languages as well and a colleague from Belgium is covering the English part. In fact it means that I am working 12-14h per day (especially towards month end on Pokerspace as well), this might seem like a torture for some but I appreciate the opportunity and enjoy my work. 

The next stop will be the EPT Berlin early in April 2011 and from there we’ll see, I am also still writing one article for the GX Poker Magazine  and check an existing translation for a poker website as well. It can be a bit frustrating that I barely got time to play poker anymore and I just play some Omaha (Hi and Hi Lo) or Seven Card Stud or HU SNG, but it was way too tempting to pass on this opportunity.

Copyright for all pictures in this blog post:

River Tells / Hugues Fournaise

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