You don’t think you speak German, but actually you do. You just didn’t know it. I’ll tell you how.
If, like many in the poker community, you follow a host of the top poker players on Twitter, you’ll probably discover that every now and again you find them tweeting in their native language and you can’t understand a word. I mean, I’d dearly love to get to know Team Online’s Naoya “nkeyno” Kihara @key_poker a whole lot better, but I’m really struggling when he comes up with things like this:
相手をドミネイトしているハンドで負けることなんて日常茶飯事過ぎてもう何とも思わないけど、スーパーKOトーナメントで連続で引かれるとマジでだるい
— 木原 ‘nkeyno’ 直哉 (@key_poker) April 20, 2013
However, when Team Pro’s Jan Heitmann starts tweeting in his native German (@janheitmann), it is a much more satisfying experience for the monoglot to examine his words. You may not think you speak German, but actually you do.
Take a look at the following, as Heitmann described his progress through Day 1A at EPT Berlin yesterday. He did almost all of it in German, and yet we barely missed a word — at least once you know that “spiel” means “play” and “Tisch” is “table”. The rest seems to follow right along.
It all started pretty well, with Heitmann welcoming the Brazilian Felipe Ramos to his table, and wondering if he should brush up on his Portuguese:
Tag 1A der #EPTBerlin hat angefangen. Ich spiele. Kenne bisher nur Felipe aus Brasilien am Tisch. Kann ichmein Portugiesisch üben.
— Jan Heitmann (@JanHeitmann) April 21, 2013
And then he welcomed Scott Seiver. (This one is easy).
Auch am Tisch: @scott_seiver . Cool. Never played with him before…
— Jan Heitmann (@JanHeitmann) April 21, 2013
It wasn’t long, however, before Heitmann was confessing to some sub-optimal play, yet hoping to avoid panic setting in. (Big words, huh? Easy to follow though.)
Eine Hand suboptimal gespielt, runter auf 26k. Panik ist aber noch nicht angesagt. Nur jetzt halt optimales Spiel. #EPTBerlin
— Jan Heitmann (@JanHeitmann) April 21, 2013
Round about the dinner break, Heitmann unveiled a new plan…
Ein paar blöde Situationen. Runter auf 20k. Abwärtstrend stoppen, umdrehen, Chipleader ist der Plan. #rushplease
— Jan Heitmann (@JanHeitmann) April 21, 2013
…but instead of hitting that chip lead, actually ran into a nit-roll holding a full house, and finally had more than the starting stack:
Nachdem ich einen älteren Herrn mit Full house aber den 16. Nuts nitrolle, bin ich endlich wieder über Startstack, 36k. #noonefoldsafull
— Jan Heitmann (@JanHeitmann) April 21, 2013
But after losing a couple of pots, the dinner break couldn’t come quickly enough. When you’re “gewinning keine Pots”, you need a break.
Gewinne keinen Pot, dafür verliere ich einige. Runter auf 17k, noch 10 min bis Dinner, danach 250-500. Los jetzt!
— Jan Heitmann (@JanHeitmann) April 21, 2013
Etc., etc., etc. Heitmann finished yesterday with 21,900 chips and will return for more of the same on Day 2. “Gute Nacht! Danke fürs Railen” he said. The pleasure was all ours.
*****
Entirely coincidentally, Kristy Arnett of PokerStars.tv also attempted to learn some German at the PokerStars party on Saturday night. She was about as successful as us:
Don’t forget the way to follow our main event coverage. There’s hand-by-hand stuff, including chip counts, in the panel at the top of the main EPT Berlin page. There will be feature pieces below that panel, including updates from the side events. EPT Live will begin at around 4pm local time. And everything to do with the European Poker Tour is on the European Poker Tour site.
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