A tough second day with Markus Golser (Austria) sitting right behind me. He is a very good player and is extremly solid. I think he is the best Austrian poker player. I did live in Vienna for about 18 months and made my living playing poker there. Markus has been a prolific winner in Europe over the last 10 years.
Since we are decent friends, we swapped 5%. I started out with 26k and quicly dropped to 16k. The table I was at today was not a table where I could raise every pot and get away with easy pots, as after the flop players were good. Isabel Mercier was also on this table, and I believe she is the best woman poker player in Europe by a mile…perhaps even the world. She has some game.
I started to get desperate, and started to be very aggresive. I got back up to 20k then 29.5k and felt that I was back in the game.
Then the table was broken, and I was moved to Gus Hansen’s and Martin DeKnijff’s table and this was tough. I played real well here, and got my stack to 40k blinds with the blinds at 600-1200 with a 100 ante. I found A8 of spades in late position…keep in mind this event is all 8 handed. I raise, and the button calls. Flop is K 10 8 two spades, I bet 4k and he raises me another 9k. I figure I can dump it or gamble, and hope he drops it. I moved in. He had flopped a set of 10s. The river was a spade, but also paired the board, and I was gone.
