The day after I busted out of EPT Baden, I started off playing 25/50 PLO and NL on Stars and ended up losing about $25,000 to start the day. I went out to a spa to get a massage. If you know me, you know I love me some massages! Lol. Baden is well known as a “Spa Town” so they have very good massages for very competitive rates. Massages usually cost anywhere from $100-150/hour back home, but here it cost me 45 Euros which was only about $65!

Later that night, Ansky, Hevad “Rainkhan” Khan, Anita, and I went out to “El Greco”, a nice Greek restaurant right around the corner from Casino Baden. We did the usual, which was talking about a lot of poker stuff and joking around. After dinner, we decided to go check out the live cash games. I decided to start off playing 20/40 No-Limit Hold ‘em while I was waiting for a seat in a juicier 20/40 Pot-Limit Omaha game. I started off the session stuck in NL, but when a seat opened over in the PLO game, I was able to make a comeback and book a win. The next afternoon, I went down to the casino again and was on the waiting list for hours for the 20/40 PLO and 20/40 NL games. Waiting such a long time for a seat didn’t make me feel quite as good about playing, and I probably should have gone home and taken a nap or just played online. When I don’t feel like playing, even if I get my money in with the nuts, it just doesn’t seem like I do very well, and I‘m not sure why. I’ve been focusing a lot lately in the past month or so on fixing this as much as possible, because I used to put in 12 hour average long sessions day after day after day, every day of the month almost, unless I had something important to do. Thomas Wahlroos was on my left, and the guy I busted out of the EPT with my AK to his JT was sitting across from me and to the right. Thomas Wahlroos was doing a little bit of straddling as well as some other people at the table, making the game play a little extra aggressive, and larger. I had about $8k in front of me; Thomas had the same, and the guy I busted out of the tournament that we’ll call “Euro John Doe” had about $15-20k when the following hand happened:

Two people limped in early position, and I decided to limp in middle position with As6s9c9d. A decent pair with a nut flush and weird straight possibility is a good hand to limp with after a couple of limps. Thomas limped in behind me; another guy limped behind him, Euro John Doe completed in the SB, and the Big Blind checked. Flop was complete gin for me…it almost doesn’t get any better than this flop. The flop was 5s 7s 8c, giving me the nut straight, with a redraw to the nut flush draw. I sensed at least one of the other six people in this pot besides me had to have hit this sort of flop texture. It checks to the guy on my right, who bets 400Euro, I casually throw in a 500Euro bill, as I’m not scared of slow playing this as long as the board doesn’t pair which will be fairly easy to get away from if it does. I want to try and let a worse flush draw peel and let us both hit. I have two nines in my hand, so I have blockers to the bigger straights. I also believe that by me casually smooth calling a flop bet, it will encourage some action from Thomas or the other guy behind him, or even better if one of the guys that already checked, sense weakness and check-raise. In my opinion, I played this hand absolutely perfect and thought it out extremely well and clear. Thomas seemed like he was going to raise, but ended up just calling 400Euro as well. Euro John Doe in the small blind stutters for a few seconds and decides to raise to 2500Euro. At this point, I’m pretty sure he’s not going to fold for another 4000Euro, so I’m glad that I’m probably going to end up raking in a huge pot while extracting max value from everybody. Everybody folds to me and I obviously re-pot it and put all my money in. Thomas is a little visually upset but folds after a few seconds, Euro John Doe takes five seconds and calls. At this point, I’m basically just worried about the board pairing, as I don’t think Euro John Doe has my same straight which is the current nuts, since he took an extra 5 seconds to call, as well that I have two of the four 9’s in the deck, making it less likely he has one of the remaining two. The turn bricks off some low red card like the 3d, and the river comes out the 9h. Euro John Doe says something to the effect “Oh, look, the nuts“, and throws over a red JT88 for top set and a gutshot which spiked on the river. Thomas shares with the table that he had the case-fourth 9 in the deck, as well as middle set of 77. With the hand that Thomas told the table he folded, the percentages of this guy winning the pot from me obviously decreased a substantial amount giving Euro John Doe One 7, One 8, One 9, and Three 5’s left in the deck to catch. Of course he has a redraw to pair the turn card on the river also. Generally, getting a set without even a flush draw all-in on a straight board in an unraised pot with seven players to the flop usually isn’t a good play. With all that said, that’s just PLO for you, flop the nuts, have a nut re-draw, and you can STILL easily get beat, it’s a sick, sick, sick game.

The last full day that we were in Baden, we decided to go to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp near Linz and Gusen, which we had to change trains three times to get there. Although it was a 2 hour trip each way, I felt it was very important to see one of the Concentration Camps that is such a big part of history and especially World War II. I don’t know when I’m going to be in Europe again after this long trip is over, but I felt like I should see one of Nazi camps where many people were murdered and tortured that played such a large role in history. Although it was a large concentration camp, not many people were visiting that day. Standing in the gas chamber and next to the very same ovens which tortured and murdered so many innocent people 65 years ago was definitely an experience. The gas chamber resembled a locker room shower with tile floor and walls. The ovens were long and narrow, and you can see how they were just large enough to slide a person into them while lying down. These rooms were underground and dark, and with only Anita there with me, it was awfully creepy to be there. The U.S. Army ended up liberating the Mauthausen concentration camp a little bit before World War II ended.

I just finished writing the last two blogs as well as this one all in the past two hours. Today, Anita and I are on a train heading to Venice, Italy. We’re going to Venice, Pisa, Florence, and Rome to hang out and do some touristy stuff while vacationing. Everybody that I have talked to who has been to Italy loves it and says I’ll have a wonderful time, and I have no reason not to believe that. So far it’s been a pretty uneventful and long train ride. Let me note that the scenery today has been extraordinarily beautiful passing through the high mountains of Austria with all the trees and plants changing colors since we’re in Fall season now. I can’t wait to get my Italian food grub on!