Monday, December 18, 2006
Wiesbaden
Wow.
Is the casino in wiesbaden ever nice. MartenJ and I went down for three days of tournament action (and to explore germany's other casinos), and being used to the casinos up north were stunned by how nice this place is. The casino is in an ancient 'Kurhaus', complete with really high ceilings, chandeliers, and a suit-and-tie requirement ! This meant I had to relearn how to actually tie a tie, thank god for the internet :)
The casino restaurant also bears mention as it was far and away the best food i've ever had in a casino, but was generally one of the better places I've eaten in germany. Not insane or anything, but still really good. Insane, btw, if anyone ever makes it to Wiesbaden, is this place. And for those in the know - I consider restaurant selection my number one area of expertise :)
On to the poker stuff : Fridays tournament was €300 NLHE with 70 participants. Early on I managed to double up busting Michael Keiner, an apparently well known german tournament pro (wish I knew more about poker players heh. I do know he's a nice guy though.) with my Kings against his Tens when I actually pulled a little act which might have contributed to his call. From then on I was on cruise control until the bubble, raising my way to a big stack, winning and losing some all-in situations, when eventually the following funny hand came up : With twelve players left (6 on my table) and 1500/3000 blinds, I raised AKo to 8000. I had a stack of 24k before the raise (below average by this time), the small blind folded what I now know where tens, and the big blind open folded Kings !!! Talk about lucky ! I would have had to call him, of course, and although he only had about 15k it would have crippled me. So anyway, at the final table I never really had a 'big' stack to work with, got into three all-in situations against smaller stacks, and lost all of them. Sigh. I finished in 6th for €1280. Not bad I guess.
On saturday in the €600 Main Event, I busted early - in level 6 after 3 hours with literally no hand and few stealing opportunities and several steals that got picked off. MartenJ however made the final table and finished 9th. Neither of us played in the sunday tournament, but I did manage to win about €3k in the 10/10 PLO game there, which seemed like a very interesting game to play.
Anyway, good times were had and I'm sure I'll be back.
Is the casino in wiesbaden ever nice. MartenJ and I went down for three days of tournament action (and to explore germany's other casinos), and being used to the casinos up north were stunned by how nice this place is. The casino is in an ancient 'Kurhaus', complete with really high ceilings, chandeliers, and a suit-and-tie requirement ! This meant I had to relearn how to actually tie a tie, thank god for the internet :)
The casino restaurant also bears mention as it was far and away the best food i've ever had in a casino, but was generally one of the better places I've eaten in germany. Not insane or anything, but still really good. Insane, btw, if anyone ever makes it to Wiesbaden, is this place. And for those in the know - I consider restaurant selection my number one area of expertise :)
On to the poker stuff : Fridays tournament was €300 NLHE with 70 participants. Early on I managed to double up busting Michael Keiner, an apparently well known german tournament pro (wish I knew more about poker players heh. I do know he's a nice guy though.) with my Kings against his Tens when I actually pulled a little act which might have contributed to his call. From then on I was on cruise control until the bubble, raising my way to a big stack, winning and losing some all-in situations, when eventually the following funny hand came up : With twelve players left (6 on my table) and 1500/3000 blinds, I raised AKo to 8000. I had a stack of 24k before the raise (below average by this time), the small blind folded what I now know where tens, and the big blind open folded Kings !!! Talk about lucky ! I would have had to call him, of course, and although he only had about 15k it would have crippled me. So anyway, at the final table I never really had a 'big' stack to work with, got into three all-in situations against smaller stacks, and lost all of them. Sigh. I finished in 6th for €1280. Not bad I guess.
On saturday in the €600 Main Event, I busted early - in level 6 after 3 hours with literally no hand and few stealing opportunities and several steals that got picked off. MartenJ however made the final table and finished 9th. Neither of us played in the sunday tournament, but I did manage to win about €3k in the 10/10 PLO game there, which seemed like a very interesting game to play.
Anyway, good times were had and I'm sure I'll be back.
# posted by dirkb : Monday, December 18, 2006
