Mike, Brian and D4Events are back to Vienna with their Monster Deepstack Tournament! After I had a good run in Dublin (but no cash) I am really looking forward to this one. While my first deepstack in Namur last year was a big dissapointment both the Vienna event and the Dublin event in February saw me making a Day 2. So it looks like I am starting to feel comfortable with the structures. And the structures are absolutely amazing: 50,000 startchips and 60 min levels. I don’t know any tournament so far (especially in that pricerange) that offers similar structures.

I arrived early in Vienna yesterday due to the fact that this was the only cheap flight available so I had some free time (I had decided fo a Day 1B start on Friday). Therefore I was delighted to see that my Fitness-Club chain has some locations in Vienna too. A nice two hour workout was a good preparation for the coming days that should be very long … hopefully ;-)

So beside checking the atmosphere and taking some photos at the Montesino it was a very easy going day for me. At the evening I went to the Concord Card Casino to play their €25 “Deep&Fast” as a warm-up. I was running o.k. but without many really good cards. With about 90 of 204 left I started to fell slowly behind the average. At this time a hand came up that most probably would have been my entry ticket to the money spots. At this time I had around 50k chips and a guy in middle position made it 12k (with blinds 1,000/2,000 [300]). A very interesting overraise and I decided to call from the button for a “stop-or-go” play with 44. The small blind called too and the big blind went all-in for 9k more. The original raiser called and it was up to me now.

To be honest 21k (almost half of my stack) wasn’t what I wanted to invest in a hand like 44. But with a pot of almost 70k already it was hard to lay down the hand here. I could have pushed but doubted that I could make anybody fold here. So me and the small blind just called. The flop was a desaster: 6-8-K. The small blind checked and now the original raiser went all-in for little more than my own stack.

Tough decision. But with a texture like this you have to give him some credit for a hit. And if he had hit I was down two just 2 outs. To make it worse, the small blind was still in the hand too. Although he had checked, there was no guarantee that he didn’t had hit any part of the flop. On the other hand the pot was now close to 100k. Whoever takes this pot has a very good position in the game.

I finally decided that I had enough chips left to come back to almost average with just one double-up and I opted out of the pot (so did the small blind). Can you imagine our shock as we had to see that neither of the other two had hit anything so far? It was AQ (all-in player) vs. QJ! The board blanked for them and the all-in player doubled up. The board wouldn’t have blanked for those who opted out of the pot. The small blind would have hit a 10 for a pair on the river and I would have hit a set with another 4 on the turn. Ouch!

I re-played this hand several times in my head but at the end decided that I should have slapped myself into the face if I stayed in the hand to win the pot! I would have been lucky but it wouldn’t have been the right decision. Calling the overaise for a “stop-or-go” play was o.k. in that phase of the tournament with my stack, calling the additional 9k was definately borderline (but still an option in a fast 15 min. level tournament). But sticking to the hand and risking my tournament life wouldn’t haven been right in regards of the texture of the flop and the flow of the action in that hand.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to double up anymore and went out in 69th position (with 21 paid) and called it a night.

Now enjoying breakfast at the Montesino (very good and much cheaper as in my hotel next door), writing this blog and preparing for the start of the “Austrian Deepstack Poker Championships” 2011.