Austrian Poker Championships

The "Austrian Poker Championships" is the official name of the tournament. I found that out yesterday when I went to the casino to play in the $100 (I will use the $ instead of EURO to make things easier, but keep in mind that everything over here is in euros) re-buy super satellite to the main event. I won't tell you about the satellite except for the fact that I got into it for $500 after three rebuys and an add-on and then DONKED out hardcore on a move that I can barely believe I even made. So, I started the live poker on this trip unfavorably. However, it worked out because after busting out around 8:00 I still had time to go to the Kaiko Club and meet up with Shannon and Jon for the PartyPoker welcome reception. Let me just say this, PartyPoker really out did themselves this time. This reception was one of the nicest things I have ever been to. PartyPoker rented out the whole VIP section of this really awesome club and each booth had 4-5 bottles of various liquors and about 10 different mixers. If you didn't want mixed drinks you could walk over towards the bar and grab a bottle of champagne or, of course, a German 'bier'. The whole atmosphere was amazing as everyone was there having a great time and enjoying the excellent hospitality. I swear there was probably two waiters for every person in the VIP section just waiting for you to ask for something. Eventually we wandered down to the main dance floor and mingled with the locals while listening to some euro-remix of "my humps" over and over again. All in all I give PartyPoker two thumbs way up on the welcome reception, which almost makes up for the terrible job they did on booking our hotel. We are literally 45 minutes and three different forms of public transportation away from the casino. It feels like we have to leave Vienna and loop around Bratislavia before finally getting there. Enough ranting though, you are probably all tired of reading already.

Today is day 1 and the field is looking like it will probably only be around 300 people, give or take a few. I'm really ready to get started, I still have this weird feeling of confidence and just really believe that I am going to do very well. I will update again after the tournament gets done for the night, probably around 5:00 p.m. central time in the U.S., and let you know my chip count or how I busted out. Let's hope it's not the latter...