German Tennis Coach Wins His Way to Austria

An online poker player known as "AleGaston" won a recent EPC Velden Online Satellite Tournament series at Intertops Poker.  The tennis coach from  Altötting, Germany will play in the €700,000 European Poker Championship in Velden, Austria this summer.

He said he mostly plays online but has played a few live tournaments -- smaller tourneys, not big buy-ins. So with its €700,000 prize pool and €2700 buy-in, EPC Velden will be a big event for him!

The German poker player recalled the moment at the Final Table when victory was in sight.

“When I doubled through the chip leader, I started to realize that I might just win the tournament.  At that point I had a decent stack to play with so I knew I had a good shot to take it down.”

“My strategy for online tournaments is to stay cool in early stages, try to find good spots to make Chips with the best Hand. In later stages I get more and more aggressive. The best is winning the pots without showdown, especially in the late stage.”

Another series of EPC online satellites concluded May 14th. We'll be announcing the winner of that event shortly.

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Players Look Back at European Poker Championship 2016

Online poker players that won their way to Velden, Austria last summer 

recall their experience at the big European tournament.

Players Look Back at European Poker Championship 2016

A group of online poker players that won satellite tournaments at Intertops Poker and Juicy Stakes Poker got a once-in-a-lifetime chance to play in a massive European poker tournament last summer. They talk about their experience in these videos from Velden, Austria.

 
Tim O’Keefe from Texas, USA finished in the money, 22nd for a €6,490 pay day. Here he talks about the first of two key hands in the tournament.



Tim talks about free schnitzel and other Austrianisms he enjoyed in Velden.


Mark Dufner from Minnesota talks about his first experience at a big European poker tournament.



Tim recalls a key hand during the 3-day poker tournament.

Seefeld Winter Poker Championship: Great Location, Awesome Poker Action

Another great trip with Intertops has come and gone! The Winter Poker Open in Seefeld Austria!! It’s a small ski village that’s filled with spectacular sites, all the winter activities you can think of and plenty of poker action!  Great locations, great fun and poker action is what Intertops is all about and this was no exception! This trip had it all!  Amazing views, wild aggressive players, TheTrooper97 ski crashes and, of course, schnitzel! It was yet another experience of lifetime!

An 18 hour trip from Ft Worth to London to Dusseldorf to Salzburg then drive 21/2 hours to Seefeld! Its a test to even experienced travelers, but well worth the journey once you see those snow capped mountains. I can’t believe I got to travel back to where it all began! When I was here year last, I was beyond thrilled to experience what I thought was a one in a lifetime trip! I never expected that I would be able to return, never mind have it be my third time to Austria now! Beyond fortunate! For the people who haven’t been following from the beginning of this journey, I won a satellite on Intertops to play in this tourney last year! After quitting my job in November of 2015 to take a shot at playing professionally, I managed to win an event on the site that started this whole amazing adventure. Flying overseas for the first time, meeting the Intertops crew, playing my first $2k+ tourney, and eating A LOT of schnitzel! Here’s the start of it all if you want to catch up to speed! Last year is also when I met fellow satty winner and Intertops player Chris Perkins. He and I were amazed and overwhelmed by the whole experience. We didn’t do as well as we had hoped in the tourney, but it was hard to be upset for too long in such a great place.

One of the reasons we didn’t do as well as we wanted last year (Living the Dream at CAPT Seefeld 2016) was due to the surprisingly aggressive play of the Europeans players! I mean, I had never seen so much 4 betting EVER! lol It was a little bit confusing to us because this was also one of the best structures we had ever played, with 50k starting stacks and 1 hour levels! I had thought it would be an easy waiting game for good hands and good spots, I mean 50k starting, c’mon there’s so much play there! WRONG! lol What we didn’t take account for was the fact that these players are used to this structure and know how to take advantage of all the players with my same strategy. So many players pour on the aggression, knowing they can keep hammering tighter players and force folds. It’s a good plan, until you realize many of these guys also have that same idea AND play against each other fairly often. It makes for a crazy dynamic that I still have yet to see anywhere else! The closet thing might have been some of the WSOP Vegas events, but still not quite as aggressive. It proves to be a difficult adjustment to make and requires another level to your poker game! So this year, armed with that knowledge and more experience of playing against such aggro players, I was prepared to have some revenge. lol Unfortunately though, the European players had other ideas!! It was a tough table draw again for me this year, but at least I had position on the most aggressive players! Still even with the 3 most aggro players on my right, I was often hand-cuffed by the 3 and 4 betting before I even got to act! It was an interesting dynamic as I had a few calling stations on my left. I had thought I would be able to take advantage of them but that backfired as well, because strangely enough, every time I put in a raise or re-raise to combat the aggros on my right, the donkeys on my left would cold call!? lol Ever have one of those tourneys were you feel like everyone’s out to get you!? Well this for sure felt like one of those for me!  I lost almost 15k in the first 30 minutes of the tournament! I had AA, KK x 2, AKo and AJo all lose on the river. With the majority of the chips going in the hand where I had KK for the second time in 20 minutes and had to fold the river to an all in shove after the 3rd flush card hit!  It was brutal, as obliviously had that sick run of starting hands all had gone in my favor, I would have enough chips to coast to bagging up for day 2. Not only that but given how early it was, a good chance to bag up a significant stack for a real shot at going deep on day 2.

It wasn’t in the cards for me again this year at Seefeld and history repeated itself when I played all of day one, just to bust out on the VERY LAST hand of the night!! Watching my KQs lose to AQ suited on a queen high flop! BOoooo! Oh well, what can you do right? I will put up some hand histories in the next post and maybe we can figure it out together! And of course winning would have been nice, but poker is always just PART of these trips with Intertops! There are worst places to bust tourneys for sure! Being out of the event meant I was able to head up to the top of the mountains the next day and enjoy everything else Seefeld had to offer!  Not to mention we still had a day back in Salzburg waiting for us! Seeing Salzburg again is always a treat. The history of Old Salzburg is so impressive. Seeing a castle at the top of a small mountain from literally right outside your hotel window is pretty bad-ass. Not something you see everyday huh? lol The birth place of Mozart and apparently Red Bull lol, you see those two things everywhere you go. Along with buildings built right into(or from?) the mountain, with dates on them showing just how old they are, it’s like stepping back in time. The oldest one I remember seeing was a church with the date 1409 on it?! How cool is that?! Being surrounded by all that really is quite the site to see and a pretty great way to put things in perspective(especially after busting a poker tourney lol)

There’s plenty more to write about from this one, between hand histories, views from the top, weird Euro poker chips and TheTrooper97s brutal ski crash! So I’ll get to another blog to fill you all in, Don’t forget to watch us on Twitch for give-aways and upcoming promotions from Intertops. Maybe you can win yourself a seat and come along for the next adventure!

Til next time

Run Good

Tim

2Fit2Fold Blog

“This post was shared on the Alec Torelli’s Best of Poker Series“.

Online Players off to Europe for Winter Poker Championship in Seefeld, Austria this Week

Our friend Tim O'Keefe is on his way back to Austria this week for the Winter Poker Championship in Seefeld. Tim was with us when we were there last February and he'll be posting pics vids and stories here on Living the Dream blog again later this week.

Tim and Douglas Klein -- a recent online satellite tournament winner -- will be in Seefeld for the Main Event. Vegas vlogger TheTrooper79 will be with them.

On his 2Fit2Fold blog this weekend, Tim talked about how he's been "fine tuning" for this week's big event, re-living hands he's played at WSOPc events in LA and Choctaw over the last few weeks.

"Hopefully I can learn from these tough lessons, redeem myself from last year's performance and take it to those uber aggressive Europeans!" he said from his home in Texas before setting off for Europe.

The Winter Poker Championship (formerly CAPT Seefeld) Main Event takes place at Casinos Austria, Seefeld February 24th to 26th.

New tournaments added to the weekly schedule at

INTERTOPS POKER or JUICY STAKES POKER

A new $1500 GTD tournament has been added to the schedule every weeknight as the sun goes down and new Sunday evening tournaments guarantee a total of $1950.

LA Financial Analyst is On His Way to Austria

Intertops Poker is sending another online satellite winner to a big poker tournament in Europe next month!

Douglas Klein, a Financial Analyst from LA, won an online satellite tournament last weekend where he was awarded a $4000 prize package to travel to Austria and compete in the prestigious Winter Poker Championship (formerly CAPT Seefeld). Douglas is a regular in his local casinos but this will be his first overseas tournament.

The Winter Poker Championship takes place at Casinos Austria, Seefeld February 24th to 26th.

Video: Online Satellite Tournament Player Wins Trip to Austria

Intertops Poker and Juicy Stakes Poker currently hosting satellites for TKPT St Maarten.

Tim O’Keefe, who won his way to the Austrian ski resort the same way last year, will be with Douglas. Since meeting Tim in Seefeld last winter we've also followed him to St Maarten where he'd won his way to the TKPT Caribbean tournament.

Sunday’s Final, the last tournament in a three tier tournament series, was a nail-biter for Klein.

“With three players remaining, I flopped a set of 9s against AA and won a huge pot,” recalled the champion.  “I had the chip lead going into heads up so I felt like I would win.  I lost one big pot but then crippled my opponent shortly after.  I ended up by putting my opponent all-in with 88.  He had A7.  That was it.  The most exciting moment I've had playing poker – and now I’m going to Europe!”

Klein won a $4,000 prize package that includes €2160 buy-in to the Winter Poker Championship Main Event (February 24th to 26th), premium accommodation in the Tyrolean ski resort, and travel expenses. The online satellite tournaments were co-hosted by Intertops Poker and Juicy Stakes Poker.

The winner has a strategy for winning online tournaments that certainly worked for him this time.

“I try to play pretty tight for the first few levels while maintaining at least an average stack,” he explained.  “As the blinds increase, I play more aggressively, opening with a wider range and bluffing more.  In the middle levels, I feel like you have to take chances to get chips. If I have 15-20 BB and it’s close to the final table, I lower the amount of my opening raises and play aggressively in position.  This strategy seems to work well.  I have a decent win rate.”

New tournaments added to the weekly schedule at

INTERTOPS POKER or JUICY STAKES POKER

A new $1500 GTD tournament has been added to the schedule 
every weeknight as the sun goes down and new Sunday 
evening tournaments guarantee a total of $1950.

“I’ve never played in an event as big as the Winter Poker Championship in Seefeld,” he said.  “The biggest tournament I ever played in was a $500 buy-in with about 100 players.  I finished on the bubble.  Aside from that, I've played in several small tournaments in Las Vegas, Palm Springs and Commerce Casino in Los Angeles.”

Douglas will have his wife with him for moral support, and O’Keefe will be there to help him get the lay of the land.

“My first time over there I couldn’t believe how differently they play in Europe!” said O’Keefe.  “Maybe all that schnitzel makes them so aggressive? I don’t know, but I’m more ready for them this year, that’s for sure!”

Douglas is Intertops' latest satellite tournament winner travelling to a big live tournament -- but not the last! A new online satellite tournament series that will send the winner to the $75K TKPT Caribbean tournament in St Maarten begins next week at Intertops Poker and Juicy Stakes Poker.

We've Been to Tropical Islands 3 Times but Just Once to an Austrian Ski Resort!

Over the last year or so we've been to the Caribbean 3 times with online satellite winners. Tropical islands are great -- but one of our best trips was to poker tournament at a ski resort in Austria last winter! Seefeld is where we first got to know Tim O'Keefe and Chris Perkins. Daniel Montagnolli, who we'd met in St Maarten, lives in nearby Innsbruck and was with us again too.

This video episode was shot in the car as we drove through the mountains on the way back to Salzburg.



Larry aka TheGamblogger

New tournaments added to the weekly schedule at

INTERTOPS POKER or JUICY STAKES POKER

A new $1500 GTD tournament has been added to the schedule 
every weeknight as the sun goes down and new Sunday 
evening tournaments guarantee a total of $1950.

 

My First is Still a Favorite

Since starting this blog I've been to four major poker tournaments and produced 20 or so videos featuring players that have won their way to poker tournaments in exotic locations by winning online satellite tournaments.

This episode from my first Living the Dream video series and is still one of my personal favorites:



It was fun travelling to the Caribbean Poker Tour with Daniel Montagnolli, Derek Scallon, Neil Slade, Steven Loney & Phil Cardella.

Until our next poker adventure...

Larry