Last week I was at the prestige Big Game cash game in London, which was recorded for television. Such an event attracts many top pros, as they like to use the TV time to represent their sponsorship and/or themselves. I was lucky to be able to play this year again at the event and I was looking forward to repeating my performance of 2008.

That’s life, you can’t have everything

The farewell from home was hard as my grandma will turn 90 soon and I do not know yet when I will be in Germany again. It is also a pity that I couldn’t have a party in my new apartment, but instead I took some photos which I will put online soon. But that’s life, you can’t have everything!

Always when I see the PartyPoker guys I am happy because it is so funny with them! They are hilarious, like to treat me and I would say it just matches. That’s why I am looking forward to the next days. I am sure I will not get bored.

No guys, not what you are thinking

Carrie is responsible for me and she looks well after me… no, no, no guys, not what you are thinking. After my arrival at the airport I received a text message straight away that the appointment will be rescheduled. Apparently her favourite soccer team just had lost the semi-final in the FA-Cup.

But I was happy with that, as my flight had a delay of 40 minutes and I had to wait for my luggage for a long time. At 8 pm I arrived at the hotel and at 8.30 pm the meeting was already (first we had arranged 7 pm – How naive I was LOL).

Well, 1-2 coffees and up you get

After we had visited the casino and we had eaten something I went quite early to bed, as I was scheduled to play between 8am and 6pm on the next day. As 8am was very unlikely I tried to keep myself awake to be able to sleep longer. Well done Bodo, at 6am my mobile phone rang and I was asked to play at 6.45 am. Well, 1-2 coffees and up you get!

After the interviews the marching-in began inclusive my chosen music for it (Sir mix a lot – Baby got back) and then finally I got my first cards dealt out.

Blinds were 25/50, minimum 5.000 British Pound per player at the table, but many played with 10k or 20k. The blinds were also raised to 25/50/100 for action matters, which promised a special structure with a lot of action.

My first table was tougher than I thought it would be! Justin „zeejustin“ Bonomo, Isaac „luvthewnba“ Haxton, David „Viffer“ Peat, Phil „unabomber“ Laak, Neil Channing, Luke „Fullflush“ Schwarz were the nominated opponents next to me.

A few of them I did not know from seeing them or even their last names I had never seen before. If somebody introduces themselves as “Justin” then you don’t think about the calamity – After all he is not considered as opponent that you desire, if you want to really earn money!

TeamParty pro Bodo Sbrzesny looks back at his Australian experience – the Aussie Millions and the Australian Open in tennis.

It was a bad day for me when I busted in the main event of the Aussie Millions after a good 1st day. I begun with 57k chips at 48k average. But I was card dead like I never saw it before!

If the “72o-game” was running I could make a lot of money, but in a tournament I shouldn’t play that much with 72o.

After I blinded out pretty much what I really do NOT like, I had to push AK with 13 big blinds and got a call from 33. That’s all beside a few smaller things which doesn’t count that much. But I’m still happy with my game and looking forward for my upcoming challenges.

Ticket for the Australian Open semi final mens

I wrote with my poker students and analyzed some poker hands, updated my website, watched a boring women’s tennis semi final match and asked Naomi from the “Party Poker Events Support” for a ticket for the Australian Open semi final mens.

I was invited for a good dinner at 9pm and was really happy about that! At 3pm I went to the city, walked around and enjoyed the time there. I withdrew some money for the cash game later.

Then I told Naomi I go to sleep before the dinner and I don’t read emails anymore and she should call me if anything is urgent. On 6.58pm I got the message she got GOOD tickets for the 7.30pm match and I went there instantly with Henrik (Australian PartyPoker guy). It was really nice to watch, crazy points, good atmosphere, good weather and really good seats! Thank you PartyPoker for this nice evening!

Play some cash game and enjoy my vodka-lemonade

Now I will play some cash game and enjoy my vodka-lemonade on the table. Hopefully I don’t lose that much more than last year as I missed 20k after the session I remember. At the beginning I had bad luck for about 12k, and the end I lost 8k cause of drunk. But I still had fun and sometimes you need stuff like that… but please not too often.

For the upcoming days here I will play 1 side event and with about 12-15 other players I will go to a sports centre where you can play volleyball, tennis, soccer etc and we will run some small challenges there. If you win or not, it will be FUN, that’s for sure!

Talking of funky buddhas, ‘Mad Monk’ Andy Black is also at the final table – joining Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilly, Austrian online qualifier Jan Veit and Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz.

Organisers are hoping for no trouble when Schwartz turns up after he found himself barred from the casino when he arrived for his heat on Sunday.

It’s a great mix of personalities on the final table pitting very different styles against each other in the fight for the $250,000 top prize.  One thing to llok out for in particular isto see how Tilly and Laak approach the game.  Will they play as normal ignoring the fact that they are a couple or will they shy away from betting against each other in the early stages.

Obviously, we’re not suggesting there will be any collusion but it will create an interesting and highly unusual dynamic at the final table.  The other competitors will also be weighing up how to take advantage of the situation, can they distract the duo with their comments at the table or engender hands that force the two to play off against each other.

whatever happens we are in for a treat tonight, this is one of the most star studded final tables we have ever had at a PartyPoker tournament, and with the new triple stack format we’re guaranteed some great poker.

You can follow the final table action as it happens over at our live PartyPoker Twitter feed.

PartyPoker.com World Open V – The Final Table

Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz

Jan Veit

Andy Black

Phil Laak

Jennifer Tilly

Mike Sexton

Bodo Sbrzesny

PartyPoker pro Bodo Sbrzesny was the only man who really managed to move the famously phlegmatic Black out of his comfort zone drawing him into losing calls on a few occassions.  But those losses were soon recouped by Black against the weaker opponents on the table.

The triple stacked format seems to be favouring the professionals as it allows them to play a more creative style of poker rather than having their hand forced by speedily increasing blinds.

We are seeing the pros bluff a lot more this time around testing the more inexperienced players mettle.  Not surprisingly, it was Black who adapted the best to the new conditions, always asking searching questions with his raises and all to often he hit his hand or his opponents meekly folded.

In previous heats we have all the players survive through the first couple of blind levels but to everyone’s surprise Irish pro Liam Flood exited the stage early in the piece at the hands of young upstart Andrew Feldman.  Vladimir Geshkenbein soon followed Flood and then Feldman was the next to depart as he went all in with top pair only to be called by PartyPoker pro Bodo’s trip fives.

As the heat moved into the following day it became the Bodo and Black show sharing the spoils of glory as player after player exited.  By the time we were heads up Black had built a commanding lead leaving Bodo little option to go all-in once he found a decent hand.  And so it was, Bodo pushed with A6 and Black called with Q9, hitting the Queen on the flop to send Bodo packing.

A special mention must go out to online qualifier Paulo Melo, considering this was his first live tournament and he qualified through three satellite tourneys starting with a $3 stake to make it into the top four was a great achievement.

Heat 6 followed soon after featuring a pair of PartyPoker pros Mike Sexton and Felipe Ramos and reigning champion Marty Smyth.  We’ll have a report on heat 6 tomorrow in the meantime catch up with action as it happens over at our twitter feed @partypokernews.