German and Austrian News

Poker is fast; poker is unpredictable and can change the complete life of someone within weeks. Today I'll tell you the true story of a young Austrian, Niki, who had this experience, starting to play poker at the beginning of this year. The first time I saw him playing live was in a major Vienna cardroom, where he tried to improve his skills in a €2-€4 limit hold'em game. One day the cardroom manager introduced him to the pot-limit Omaha game with only one blind of €2, and the guy loved it from the very first hand. I don't know when he started playing online, but somehow he managed to win one of these million-dollar-guaranteed Sunday tournaments in the spring, and his bankroll went straight up to $250,000. Staked with that kind of money and a lot of self-confidence, he switched to another online provider in order to search the highest pot-limit Omaha games available on the Net. I don't know how he made it, but only a few weeks later, his bankroll was settled well above the $1 million line. Of course, he was aiming to play in the 2006 World Series of Poker, but being only 19 years old, there was no chance to get into any of those events.



So, he cashed out about €200,000 from his Internet bankroll and travelled to Velden/Austria, to play the Woerthersee Trophy. No question, he won one event, dominating his tables during the whole tournament. When the final table started, he owned about 80 percent of all the chips in play.



But much more impressive was that he was winning about €80,000 in the side games of the festival. Even for a €20-€40 pot-limit Omaha game with €3,000 minimum buy-in, this huge amount of winnings is a bit unusual. No wonder I was eager to play with him, just to get a personal impression of his style.



My chance came in Bregenz during the Bodensee Championship, and I played with Niki three days in a €20-€40pot-limit Omaha game, totally about 25 hours. To call his style fearless would be the understatement of the year. He was involved in 85 percent of all hands preflop, and six out of 10 hands he was raising pot size. I never saw him under any circumstances lay down a hand to a preflop reraise. He started the game with a table stake of €50,000, and once he dropped down below €20,000, another €30,000 was immediately put on the table. Honestly, I really don't know if he was overall winning or losing during those days, but swings of plus or minus €20,000 during one hour were absolutely normal.



On the flop, he usually was leading the action, and I never saw him checking a hand twice. Finishing the action with his typical pot-sized bet on the river, it was a real challenge to call him down with a hand far less than the nuts. So, what are the secrets of his strategy? First of all, he has absolutely no respect for money, which is a clear advantage in this kind of game. He told me very straight that he came from nowhere, and if he lost his entire bankroll, he would just go back to where he started some months ago, so who cared? Second, he's got an incredible talent for reading his opponents, always searching for the smallest sign of a tell, taking advantage of any kind of weakness. Last, but most important, he has the ability to take dominating control of any game during the first few minutes, pressing the other players into the passive, reacting role. His catalyst function for the game was tremendous; due to the long waiting list for the game, the casino was forced to open a second €20-€40 pot-limit Omaha game as a must-move, but no one could find his way into the main game, as nobody there was willing to give up his seat and leave. Honestly, I don't know if you will find Niki within three months back in a €2-€4 limit game, or searching for a €50-€100 pot-limit Omaha game somewhere in this crazy world because the €20-€40 game isn't big enough for him anymore. But there's one thing I can assure you: The guy enjoyed every single minute of terrorizing the whole armada of well-established pros.



Michael Keiner is an independent German poker pro on the international tournament circuit, and he maintains his own website, http://www.michaelkeiner.de/.