Notes from Vienna

Hi Folks,

Just a few short ditties from the 500 No Limit Hold'em Game at the Concord Card Casino in Vienna on Saturday.

The immaculately presented Concord CC is a most welcoming casino indeed and a big favourite of the card players, thanks to a complete lack of roulette wheels and blackjack tables, and no ker-chunk, ker-chunk of slot machines.

The amazingly tall Thomas Kremser (Tournament Director) and Thomas Lamatsch (Casino Manager) are most welcoming hosts and were rewarded with a turnout of 120 or so players with very much an international flavour. Austria and many of its neighbouring countries were very well represented, plus a healthy scattering of our Russian cousins, friends from the good ole US of A, and the early arrivals from the UK including Simon "Aces" Trumper and DC himself.

Action got under way at 4pm and with a 5,000 chip start, there were predictably very few early casualties in this Freezeout event. In fact, at least 100 players made it to the break after 1 and 3/4 hours when we were all treated to some Austrian hospitality and a traditional dinner dish which I can only describe as yummy!

From my protracted viewpoint, I could see that The Blonde One was seated next to Marcel Luske, who I lovingly call the Amsterdam Annoyance (I know he won't take offence as we are part of the same stable). I never saw Marcels lips stop moving once!

Shortly after the break, DC's table was broken up and a short stacked Marcel was moved to the seat right next to mine. It must have looked peculiar with 2 Intertopspoker cap wearers in adjacent seats, but it wasn't to last for long. Mr Luske doubled through with a couple of well-timed all ins and I busted out with an ambitious pop at an A J while I held A T. Ouch!

Retiring to the bar, I met up with a couple who many of you may know, Will and Alice from the Gutshot Club in Clerkenwell. It was Will's 28th birthday and that was all the excuse I needed to have a few drinks, plus they are now engaged and Alice has a ring with 3 huge rocks in it that sparkle like her poker playing!

DC left for the comfort of his hotel room just after midnight and I think he must be in need of the sleep having zoomed from his success at Walsall, to California, then back to Europe in the space of 5 or 6 days. Dave, I don't know how you do it.

Back to the Tourney and by 3am, I felt fairly tired but I couldn't let the side down, so I positioned myself on the rail and became the Richard Gryko cheerleader. When he became heads-up in the final (with an opponent who I sadly didn't recognise) Richard cheekily asked Herr Kremser if anyone had ever won at back-to-back Vienna Spring Festivals. Richard won the Omaha Tourney in 2004. The Tall One shrugged his shoulders and it didn't matter anyway, because after a tussle that lasted what seemed like hours, Gryko succumbed and had to settle for a sizable runners-up cheque.

Sorry, I cannot be more explicit with some of the details but it was very late (about 4.30am) and Austrian beer is fairly strong stuff!

Regards,
Mike