Two days ago it came to an end; the tournament series at one of the most beautiful places in Austria – the Casinos Austria Poker Tour in Velden on lake Wörthersee. The unique mix between being able to play, lounge around, party or just lie on the wonderful, warm lake and take a break from everyday life makes this tournament something very special every year.
But Velden doesn’t just win out thanks to its relaxation factor, but also through the quality of the tournament that takes place there, which, like every year, is led by Gerald Golker and Didi Printschler. And just as unique as the tournament is the view from the tournament room, whose front side is completely made out of glass and reaches down to the lakefront. For some, that makes the game much easier, although unfortunately, this year was not crowned with success for me.
The main event started on Saturday with a buy-in of 2,000 euros, with the same structure that’s also used at EPT events. My starting table was very tight and there actually weren’t any players that put on much pressure. Then in the second level I lost a pot that cost me a large portion of my stack and this is how that happened: I limped in mid position with Q♥-T♥ and played against the two blinds. The flop brought A♠-K♣-J♣, the small blind checked and the big blind played 300. I decided to raise that to 900, the small blind passed, the big blind called. The turn came with a Jx, the big blind played 400 and after some time considering, I decided to only call it. Then the 2x came at the river, my opponent made a bet of 1,000, I raised him to 2,500, to which my opponent placed an all-in. I didn’t hesitate for a second and passed my hand. And what a good decision that was, since then my opponent showed me K-J, so a full house. Then a bit later I lost another 1,800 with a top pair and with that my stack shrank to 4,000. I then invested this 4,000 with 5-6 and was called during a squeeze play by As-Qs. The ace came at the flop and with that, this tournament was over for me. So it was time to say goodbye to one of the most pleasant poker rooms in the world.
The good thing is just that being eliminated in Velden is not so bad, since you can spend your time with so many other nice things and so I laid on the beach for awhile, lounged around and went for a boat ride.
Now I’d like to thank the team of the Casino Austria Velden again for their kind support. I’m already looking forward to next year.
Bye for now
Markus Golser
