Evening ladies and gentlemen! Team PokerRoom.com signing in for the next installment of Race Trophy madness.... German Style!

We touched down in Berlin this morning and took a drive on the Autobahn to Magdeburg, where we will be setting up base for the next few days. The WTCC race track is in the small town of Oschersleben, but Magdeburg has a few more facilities so we will be staying here and making the short trip out to the race track for all the action on Saturday and Sunday.

We can't wait to get this thing started and the players will be flying in from their corners of the world tomorrow, here is the starting line up..

gbpoker - Canada

XX-e46-XX - Germany

paskaapina - Finland

IntraVnus - UK

99kingworld - Hungary

0flushgordon - Germany

MR_DONPOKER - Spain

VikboBosse - Sweden.

Once the players get checked into their digs we will be hitting the town for some sight seeing, followed by a nice big dinner, and then finishing off the night of with a good ol' fashion 'team bonding' session at the best nightspot Magdeburg has to offer.

Stay tuned tomorrow for all the action and plenty of photos of the players kickin' it Magdeburg style ... See you then!

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Well well well! how did we get here so quickly? With four very very ‘entertaining’ stops on our fantastic WTCC Race Trophy already in the can, it's now time for Team PokerRoom to take Germany by storm as we turn our attention to Race 5 in the wonderful city of Oschersleben.

With 8 eager Pokerroom.com players packing their bags as we speak and getting ready to fight it out for the 5th seat at the $500,000 final in Vienna… it should be a cracker!

So stay tuned to PokerRoom.com over this entire weekend, that’s right cancel everything!!! Don’t leave the house and don’t turn off your computer. Just sit tight and keep pushing that all important F5 button for the coolest in cool and the freshest in fresh that our blogmasters have to offer. Keep an eye on how the 5th semi-final goes down and of course, the all important partying…..Team PokerRoom style….Oh yeah it’s time to party, party like a Rockstar baby!

Don’t forget qualifiers have now started for the Italian leg of the Race Trophy in October. For more information on the Race Trophy, and how to qualify visit the Race Trophy Promo Page Now!

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As the various members of Team PokerRoom head home to all corners of the globe, we're left to reflect on yet another fantastic Race Trophy weekend. It's hard to pick a highlight, although the night out in the Hummer and the hilarious interviews with the players on the PR golf buggy (coming soon!) are definitely up there. We'd like to thank all the players for making it such an enjoyable weekend - you were all brilliant company and it was great to see the cameraderie between everyone. As a few people commented, it seemed like everyone was old friends, rather than people from all over the world thrown together for a weekend. Great friendships have been formed and I'm sure we'll all meet again. Here's a photo recap of the weekend:

So, as you can see, a great weekend all round. Congratulations again of course to Marky_Crash. Don't forget that there are still 2 seats up for grabs for the 6-handed $500k final in Vienna in November. So if you fancy a shot at the big money, as well as experiencing the legendary PokerRoom live event hospitality, then find out how to qualify now! See you in Germany....

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Here at PokerRoom we do generally like to do things in style. So, for our welcome party on Friday night we decided to surprise the players and hire a Hummer for the evening!

The limo then took us to Rochester, a historic town half an hours drive from the hotel, where the players were treated to a magnificent meal at Elizabeth's restaurant. The slightly more adventurous of us (i.e. funkfish and your trusty blogger) went for frogs legs, and after a bit of persuasion we even got Marky_Crash to try them too. Probably not used to them not deep fried eh Mark?

The party continued well into the night, although we wisely chose not to document it with photographic evidence!

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As he is the winner!!! yes yes yes…… Marky_Crash!!! Congratulations mate!!! Nobody could argue that you didn’t deserve to win it. You were really unlucky at the last two semi-finals and it’s fantastic to see you finally make it. Look forward to seeing you in Vienna! Commiserations to Balthazar73 who also played a fantastic game. It was almost inevitable that a coin flip would decide it and that’s exactly what happened. Marky_Crash pushed all-in with ATo and after a long think, Balthazar73 called with KJo. Neither player hit on the flop, nor the turn, and it came down to the river. That was also a blank and saw Marky_Crash crowned as the semi-final champion. Once again, WELL DONE MARKY!

Marky_Crash

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And the second Brazilian takes the bronze medal. .Nvalerio’s AdJh ran into Balthazar73’s AhKh. Nobody hit on the flop and the turn and river were no help for .Nvalerio, who finishes 3rd having played some superb poker. His lack of English didn’t stop him sharing a few jokes with the other players either! Great stuff .Nvalerio, we’ve really enjoyed having you here this weekend.

So now we’re heads up. Marky_Crash has already gone one better than last time, but can he make it third time lucky and seal his seat at the $500k final? We should find out soon….

Blinds are 700/1400 and both players are neck and neck!Balthazar73 has 20100 and Marky_Crash is sitting on 19900.

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Mario1955 is the next to bite the dust. He was extremely short stacked after losing a monster pot to Balthazar73 and moved all-in for 1800 with A 7. Marky_Crash made the call of course and flipped over 79o, leaving him someway behind. The flop seemed to favour Mario1955 with J (and not a K as previously reported sorry...) 7 2, but a T on the turn followed by an 8 on the river gave Marky_Crash an improbable straight and sent Mario1955 to the rail. Unlucky Mario, you played a really good game and I know you’ll be back at another of the semi-finals. Great hat as well!

The final 3 chipstacks:

Marky_Crash 17100 / Balthazar73 11400 / .Nvalerio 11500 with the blinds now up to 700/1400, apologies for the lack of chip counts but we can only get them when there's a break.

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We have another faller. After another lengthy period of play with no casualties, our Frenchman gregxxxxl has bowed out in 5th. Here’s how the hand went down: gregxxxxl was dealt A9 and moved straight all-in. Marky_Crash insta-called with AJ and everyone else folded. The flop was T 2 Q and the turn and river were no help with to gregxxxxl - 3 and then Q. He’d battled back really well from having as little as 700 chips at one point, but in the end it wasn’t quite enough. C’est la vie! Good game monsieur.

The latest chipstacks for anyone who's interested ;) are :

Mario1955 8000 / Marky_Crash 7900 / Balthazar73 10200 / .Nvalerio 13900

and P.S. blinds are 500/1000, anything else?

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The latest chipstacks:

gregxxxxl 1325 / Mario1955 7750 / Marky_Crash 12200 / Balthazar73 7875 / .Nvalerio 10775

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funkfish is next to crash out. His pocket 8’s came up against .Nvalerio with pocket 3’s. Pre-flop, funkfish re-raised .Nvalerio’s initial bet of 825 up to 1500, which was called.The flop then came 7h3c9h giving .Nvalerio the set and putting funkfish in big trouble. The fishmeister pushed all-in straight away and .Nvalerio insta-called... and you can imagine the look on funkfish’s face as the Brazilian showed his 3’s. The turn and river were no help to funkfish, who ends the tournament in 5th place. It’s still a great achievement for him to get here, especially as he qualified for free! He’s vowed to be back again for another crack at getting to the final in Vienna. Well played mate.

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