Auf Wiedersehen Seefeld

Video: Living the Dream: CAPT Seefeld, Episode 4 -- Auf Wiedersehen Seefeld

An Irish player won the CAPT Seefeld Main Event that our team played. He won 78,000 Euros but no way did he have as much fun as we did!

The Living the Dream team – all online satellite tournament winners from Intertops Poker and Juicy Stakes Poker, had a great week in Austria but, all too soon, it’s time to say “auf wiedersehen Seefeld” and head home (with visions of schnitzel burgers dancing in their heads).

Peter Horscht from Ireland won the CAPT Seefeld Main Event taking home 78,000 euros after agreeing to a deal that quickly wrapped up the three day tournament.  Two German players took second and third place. (Complete results and photos of the winners are in today's video.)

Chris Perkins, one of the team in Austria, has already won his way to our next poker adventure, TKPT St Maarten, so we’ll be seeing him again soon.  Tim "Schnitzel Burger" O'Keefe will be playing in the TKPT online satellite tournament final at Intertops Poker this Sunday so with any luck he’ll be back in our next series of videos as well.  Unless you want to take him down and come with us yourself?!

Three Strikes and We're Out

There ain’t no joy in Seefeld tonight, the mighty Living the Dream team has struck out. Sadly, all three of the players from Intertops and Juicy Stakes bust during Day 1. Daniel Montagnolli, who was playing pretty aggressively for the early hours of Day 1 was the first to go. He bust at the first level. Chris Perkins was playing pretty tight but was prepared to get aggressive if and when the situation was right. At level 5, just before the dinner break, he went all in when he later realized he should have folded. And he was out. That left Tim O'Keefe as the only member of our team still at the table after the dinner break. Then, 11 hours after they first sat down, he was out too. Watch today’s video for all the gory details.

Video: Living the Dream: CAPT Seefeld, Episode 3

All three Intertops and Juicy Stakes players at CAPT Seefeld are out after Day 1.

A Little Shaken by Yesterday's Performance, the Team is Optimistic about the Main Event Today

The Living the Dream team was a little shaken after busting out pretty early in the 550 Euro tournament they played yesterday. But after a good night’s rest – and a better understanding of how their competition plays -- they’re optimistic about their prospects in the 2000 Euro CAPT Seefeld Main Event that started this afternoon.

Video: Living the Dream: CAPT Seefeld, Episode 2 -- What are Ya Gonna Do?!

Daily video reports from CAPT Seefeld will continue through this weekend

Living the Dream: CAPT Seefeld, Day 1

Living the Dream team members have been playing smaller tournaments to check out the competition prior to the Main Event which begins tomorrow.

Video: Living the Dream: CAPT Seefeld, Episode 1 -- Checking Out the Competition

The players agree on two things: the field is nice and soft but the pace of today's turbo sucks.

Almost Forgot I'm Here to Play Poker!

"Living the Dream" -- there's no better way to describe this trip! I've only been in Austria two days and would already say this is a experience of a lifetime. The amazing architecture, history and beautiful scenery has keep me so busy and excited, that I almost forgot we are here to play poker!!

Haha It might be too amazing here to play as both Daniel and I have come up short, getting pretty unlucky in a couple of the smaller buy in events so far. No worries though, I'm convinced we are just saving all the main event! The people at Intertops have done an incredible job here and have gone above and beyond for us players.

I cannot thank Hjalmer and Larry enough! Chris just arrived today and the three of us are playing a 550 euro tourney with a 200 euro bounty! Unfortunately Chris got sat directly across from me! Lol Should be a lot of fun and get us a little more warmed up for the main!

I'm gonna try and post some more specific poker related material soon. Maybe some fun hand reviews, as Chris and I have already both doubled up before the second level! I've been tryin to keep chip counts and other updates on my Twitter as well, @TimOK311

Back soon!

Tim

Daily Video Reports from CAPT Seefeld, Austria Begin Thursday

Video: Satellite tournament winners will compete at CAPT Seefeld in Austria

Daily video reports following 4 players at their first live tournament in Europe begin February 25th at Live-Dream-Poker.com

The Anticipation Is Killing Me!

Everyday for the past week has felt like Christmas Eve. On Tuesday I'll be taking my poker journey overseas to Seefled, Austria. I don't think I could be more excited for the tournament. Prior to leaving on Tuesday, I will be playing a bunch of small local live tournaments as a preparation.

My Mental State
I can't stop thinking about the tournament in Austria. For the past few days I have been feeling like I am going to do really well. The structure of this event is by far the best live tournament structure I have played with 50,000 starting stack and 60 minute blind levels. This structure favors my style so much. I really think this is going to be the tournament that is going to allow me more freedom with poker. I don't know why I am getting that feeling, but this just seems like my time.

The Doubt Creeps In
Although I feel like I am going to do really well, I have also been experiencing a lot of moments of doubts:
What if I punt off all my chips?
What if I get a bad table draw?
What if I run into a big cooler early?
What if the field is not as soft as I expect it to be?
What if I'm too jet lagged to play well?
What if I don't meet the expectations of my friends, family, and fellow poker players?
What if I brick all the local tournaments prior to leaving for Europe and am doubting my game?

All of these things have been running through my mind but I am trying to block them out. I don't know how to get rid of these fears, but I am going to have another coaching session tomorrow with CardRunners Pro John Gonzalez to hopefully help me overcome these negative thoughts and help me feel more prepared for the CAPT Main Event. I know most people would say "just enjoy the trip and don't think about the tournament" and I want to do that, but my overall goal for this trip is to win the main event and anything less will be a failure to me.

I look forward to sharing this adventure with anyone who cares about this trip and how I do. I'll be posting pictures, videos, and chip updates of the entire experience here and would love to have all your support.

Coaching
I recently had my first coaching session which was incredibly helpful in finding some of my leaks. I want to make coaching a regular thing, if for nothing else to stay mentally focused during the downswings.

Online Results:
5th - BIG10 - $15,000 GTD for $1,398
3rd - BIG10 - $10,000 GTD for $1,398
3rd - BIG10 - $25,000 GTD for $2,518

In addition to these scores, I also won a package to the TKPT Main Event in St. Maarten on Intertops Poker. The event is $1,100 buyin with a 100K GTD. They're still running online satellites for this so you can still win your way to the Caribbean and join us in St Maarten!

Prize Pool.

Live Results:
I played the $225 Deepstack at Rivers Casino but I busted in level 5 in a spot where I should have pot controlled and not had all my chips in the middle.

Although poker has been good to me lately, I still feel like I am making really crucial mistakes. I have been unable to close out a tournament and have felt very spewy in spots.

My live schedule over the next few days leading up to Austria looks like this:

2/19 $100+$15+$5
2/20 $200+$20+$5 Rivers Casino Deepstack
2/21 $80+$20 Three Rivers Poker Classic EVENT#1
2/21 $80+$20 Three Rivers Poker Classic EVENT#2
2/22 $170+$30 Three Rivers Poker Classic EVENT#3
2/22 $125+$25 Three Rivers Poker Classic EVENT#4

If you'll be playing any of these events, come say hi. I am hoping to gain some confidence playing these small tournaments before I leave.

Thank you for the support and stay positive.

Chris Perkins
chrisp200 

CAPT Seefeld will be First Trip to Europe for Player Recently Turned Pro

Tim O'Keefe recently won a satellite tournament and will be joining the Living the Dream team at the CAPT Seefeld tournament in Austria later this month. He’ll join two earlier winners, Robert and Chris, and Daniel Montagnolli who was also with us in Punta Cana last fall. A recreational player who recently quit his day job as a physio therapist to go pro, Tim recalls the tournament where he won his first trip to Europe and explains his strategy for live tournaments:

“Poker tourneys are so brutal lol, anything can happen. Knowing how tough it is to win something like this, I tried not to put a lot of pressure on myself. Just play my best and hope things go my way when I need them too. That being said, I think when we got to 4-5 handed I realized I had about twice as many chips as the next biggest stack and the others were all pretty short. I figured if I can just maintain my stack and get heads up with the guy second in chips, I would have a good shot at taking it down. I didn’t think he was a bad player, just thought i had good read on his game. As it turned out, that’s exactly what happened and we battled heads up for a long time, swinging chips back and forth for almost an hour, before I finally got the win.”

“My strategy for online tourneys, just like live tourneys, is "it depends" lol. You always have to adjust to the table you're playing. Usually tight aggressive is the way to go with online though. Online you get to see so many more hands you can afford to wait it out for premium hands a lot longer than live. Plus most people either aren’t paying close enough attention or play at a level where you need to be making sick moves against to beat. There are times to adjust for sure, maybe against a player i have played against a lot in the past, or when I’m playing at higher stakes, but generally just playing a solid tight aggressive abc game, especially at the lower limits”

“I have played a decent amount of live tourneys lol. I have been playing poker for about ten years, just as a hobby but have gotten more and more serious about the game in the past few years. After some real success this past year, I actually quit my job recently to pursue poker professionally. This past year I made it a goal to play more live games, and it paid off pretty well. I final tabled 3 events last year in about 6 months: a WPT 200k GTD for 7th, the River series 400k, GTD for 4th and a Foxwoods mega stack 300k GTD for 8th. I bricked everything I played at the WSOP choctaw circuit event, but my past final tables were all about 2 months apart, so I’m hoping CAPT Seefeld will keep that streak going for me! lol

“There’s so much poker Information out there, it’s hard to keep up lol So instead i chose cut through all the garbage out there and became a part of Team Gripsed. Problem solved, only the best and current stuff. Evan Jarvis puts out TONS of amazing poker info for free on youtube and his site. His knowledge, delivery and passion to help people improve at poker are second to none! Can't recommend him enough. Also I follow almost everything Jonathan little does for poker. Great poker coach, always puts out great material and genuinely wants people to succeed.”

“Unfortunately, due to the last minute nature of the trip, I will be traveling alone to Austria. But I am very excited to meet everyone involved in the adventure!”

Check Living the Dream at the end of this month when we’ll have daily video reports following Tim, Robert, Chris and Daniel living the dream at CAPT Seefeld.