Well, i\’m back from Las Vegas and it was great!

I will ofcourse make some entries about it (it was a rollercoaster out there!), but this entry will be about a tournament i played with a friend of mine (we call him BlackJack) at HC Rotterdam.

First little background:

Last weekend i went with a friend (Fast Eddie) to HC Scheveningen and played a short cash session (had somewhere to go, but simply had to play a short session). At the table someone mentioned they had finished to remoduling of HC Rotterdam two weeks ago and it sounded interesting. Had been there a while back, but at that time they hadn\’t finished the pokerroom yet.

Anyway, yesterday i went with BlackJack to HC Rotterdam to see what they did with the place. First thing we noticed is that HC Rotterdam has become quite Slot Machine horny. Alot of blackjack table have been replaced with these machines and the \”bar\” downstairs takes up alot of space, with little to no additional use (in Vegas, at the bar, you can play machines AT the bar).

Owell, enjoy the machines we are here for the new pokerroom!

It\’s easy to find. It\’s like a circle, with, ofcourse, machines surrounding it where you can play the automated Roulette on, so while you playing at a cashtable you would expect to hear about every 3 minutes \”No more bets please\”. Sounds absolute horrible, but it\’s not that bad, at the table you won\’t actually notice it. What IS horrible, is that you STILL wont have decent view of the tables for the spectators (go to HC scheveningen, it\’s great), so again, the spectators will be almost unable to \”enjoy the show\” AND they WILL hear \”No more bets please\” every 3 minutes. In the circle about 6 tables fit, so i\’m guessing not alot of big tournaments will be played here. GG HC Rotterdam, you had a great chance and you screwed it up. Again. Owell.

Before we went there i had read on the HC Rotterdam website that there was going to be a 50€ (+ 10€ fee) tournament.

BlackJack and i hadn\’t played a no-limit tournament in The Netherlands ever before, but because of the online freerolls, we had a little experience with it (and when i say a little, i really mean a little). So what better for us to properly enjoy the new pokerroom by joining the tournament.

Right before the beginning i got a little nervous (i really, really suck at tournaments), but BlackJack took my favorites cards (and his) and threw them in the bucket from which the players would be chosen. There were 35 cards and there would be 30 players, so i prayed i would be 1 of the 5 who couldn\’t play (poor me, boohoo, i\’ll be at the bar having a beer). First BlackJack was chosen on table 1 (good luck sir!) and on table 2 it was my turn (gimme my luck back, i need it more). So, 30 players, starting stack 1000 and the games start.

It was fun. It was thrilling. I saw suckouts, made suckouts and was suckout on.

By pure luck i became second for a payout of about 450€. YeY!

Two times i almost had nothing left (only could afford the small blind and maybe three antes!) and tripled up, giving me some more rope to hang myself on. It felt really brutal, but i simply can\’t push with Q2o,104o,72o,93o and more of that garbage. So i waited for decent hands, actually got them when needed and they survived!

Fun hand on FT:

I\’m BB, only have about 2300 left (BB is 2000) and SB had about 4500. Still about 9 people left and i even started at the FT as short stack. I get Q10o and i think \”Owell, it was fun while it lasted\”. He simply calls, we laugh and i check. We all know what will happen on the flop, no matter whats coming, but still it felt fun. Flop: 9,J,K. He says \”Sorry, but i have to put you all-in\” and sets enough chips to put me all-in.

I look at him and say \”Are you sure?\”, he says \”I got a hit, have to\” so i say \”Well, i flopped the current nuts, so i have to call\” and show the straight (he had 97o, btw) Needless to say the table went \”WTF?!?\”, we laughed a bit more and i tripled up again.

BlackJack finished 12th and wasn\’t quite happy with his own play, but we both agreed it was a great way to celebrate the new pokerroom at HC Rotterdam