EPT Berlin Main Event

So after eventually changing up some seemingly worthless Australian currency for euros I sit down in the $5300e buyin Main Event.

Second hand of the day I open the QTcc, get called by the guy on my left and we see the flop of KK7r. I bet 55% pot or so, he calls fairly quickly. Turn is the T, I check it over and call his half pot bet. River is a 6 and I check once more and reluctantly fold to his 80% pot river bet. How wrong I turned out to be... This guy went on to provied one of the great displays of runing a stack down ever seen.

Nonetheless I play a few hands well after losing a sizable pot with AK on A9566 to a guy who had played a bunch of hands and found A9 when I had something worth playing; and go to the first break with pretty much starting stack.

Return to find TT 3rd to speak and open to 475, aforementioned guy from hand 1 makes it 1275 next to act out of say 18k effective. I call and see the T74ddd flop. I figure a small CR should make him spazz out often enough so when he bets 1425 I make it 3400 and pray that he takes some initiative. No dice though as he lets it go.

Next hand I have JJ utg+1 and flat the UTG raise from a kid who had been opening a reasonable amount. We see the 977hh flop heads up where I call his cbet of 675 if I recall. The turn brings an 8 and a bet from him of 1200, which I also call. The river was the very welcome Jh, and it brought the even more welcome bet of 2800 from my youthful opponent. I paused for some time before sliding 8700 into the middle. A few seconds later I noted that his entire stack of 30k had been moved into the middle, mine quickly followed, and I shrugged at the sight of his 77 for quads. Steve made it through day one with a little under average stack; no real surprises there.

I walked around for a while thinking I might do some shopping, went into a few department type stores to perhaps buy an overcoat but to no avail. It is frustrating weather here; too cold for one layer, not cold enough for two unless you're outside in the wind. Real annoying constantly taking off/putting on jumpers/jackets...

It is now Thursday and Steve has gone off for day 2 which leaves me with the whole day to go and find somewhere to shop/eat/drink and mutter things in English that no one will understand, much to my amusement.

VIVA EUROLAND...

The blog lives...

So I get to the airport to board Emirates flight to Dubai, and am dismayed to find that a red-eye flight on a monday night appears to be full... worse still, it is late (thanks a lot auckland), so I lose some cash to Steve playing gin while the rain pours down outside so much that it leaves me questioning how an A380 will leave the ground...

Regardless the plane does its job, and the 13hrs 40min doesnt seem a shade over 13hrs 20min and we arrive in Dubai, I guess I slept around 4 hours.

Dubai airport is a monstrous place, dwarfing Hong Kong airport considerably. We go thru security who, interestingly, didnt appear to even check our passports/tickets or look at the xray screen while our stuff went thru the scanner; perhaps more interested in the conversation they were having at high volume - no doubt discussing international economics or fine arts.

We have around an hour to kill and play some more gin where I claw back some of my earlier losses and we board the flight to Munich. We get on a bus from the gate and it takes a good 20 minutes to reach our plane, and the entire journey all I could see were jets out both windows (and lots of arabs).

Flight went quickly and we got thru to Munich customs. Two young ladies at the desk, one seemed very pleasant, the other the sort of kindergarten teacher that would scar one for life. Obv I get the latter and she demands information of me which I hurriedly provide. After grilling me for 2 minutes she plays the cruel joke of smiling and telling me to enjoy my stay; before telling me I'm welcome despite me not recalling thanking her.

First beer in Europe was a Hofbrauhaus Original while waiting for the 1hr flight to Berlin.

Our lodgings are actually quite acceptable given that it seems the suburb we are in, Kreuzberg, is akin to Kings Cross, though perhaps without as much overt deviancy...

One wouldnt think that $AUD would be a difficult currency to exchange; alas, no one seems to want it over here... I mean, having arguably the strongest currency and 5th-8th largest id guess on your hands is financial suicide apparently... Couple this with the fact that the casino the tourneys are on at didnt accept wire transfers of any nature meant we had to cop an 8% vig or so at some exchange joint in the city...