Trip Report?

Yes, the Elite Series was indeed an online event, but I played it while traveling through Germany early April, which sort of made it a poker trip. The tournament series concluded Sunday, and that is also when I spent the first night back in my own bed again. The Elite Series was nine days long, and so was my journey. I slept in six different beds, traveled through five different airports, and moved through four different places with cars, trains, taxis, buses, trams, a sightseeing bus, and by foot.

As the main reason for my trip was a family visit, I couldn't spend too much time at the poker tables, but I tried to fit in as much as possible.

Hamburg - Events 6, 11, 14 & 17

After a fun night out with friends in Hamburg's party district, St.Pauli, on Saturday, my dad picked me up from the hotel on Sunday. We went for some traditional German food before heading to his house outside the city. Once my 4-year-old half-brother was in bed, I booted up my computer and the PokerStars client. The first tournament that I had on my schedule to play was "Event 6: 1M, NLHE [Progressive Super-Knockout]." The key hand, at blinds 60/120 with a 15 ante, was when I opened [As][Ad] UTG to 360 and got three callers. The flop came [2s][9c][4s], and I bet 1080. There were two callers. The turn brought the [3d], and I put both opponents all-in. The river brought the [Ah] giving me a set. One of my opponents showed queens, and the other one [2c][5c] for a rivered straight.

Sigh!

I couldn't recover from this, and unfortunately had to take a bow (254th of 368) not even an hour later.

Still at my dad's place on April 12, I jumped into two Women's Events, "Event 11: 100k, NLHE [Progressive Super Knockoout, Women Only]" and "Event 14: 500k, NLHE [Women Only]".

The first one I streamed live on Twitch, but the internet connection was causing a lag, and so I couldn't stream the second tournament.

In both tournaments I busted in 11th place with no cash or bounty prize. And in both tournaments I got completely owned by MezzoDana who I had also Twitter contact with prior to the matches. Well played, lady!

In between Elite Series events I started playing Spin & Gos, and the two I played today I won! At least some success at the tables.

On April 13 I traveled back to the city and spent a night in a hotel near the train station. I settled in with nibbles and apple juice, ready to stream "Event 17: 1M, NL Omaha Hi/Lo [6-Max]," but the hotel internet on the 12th floor was so shakey that I played without "Twitching" it. Omaha8 is my second favorite variant, and I had been looking forward to it. I still didn't score.

My journey continued the next day. I took the train to the Harz mountains in the heart of Germany where my mum lives, and after a few days just chilling I was all hyped up to play a bunch of Hyper Turbo events that were running on Saturday. I played six of these with 60,000 buy-in and had one cash for 145,000.

I also played four more Spin & Gos and won 2 of them.

All in all, the poker gods were not in my favour, but this was definitely a fun event to play, and the play was highly competitive. I am already looking forward to the next play money tourney series.

Hope to see you at the tables!