08 Oct 08

BlackMember Party 5 - Pics Or...

Finally, they are here, the pictures of the fifth edition of the BlackMember event, during which the Blacks, the Diamonds and the PartyPoker team celebrated far after sunrise in the capital of Germany for two days.

New: Twice Parties with Blacks & PartyPoker

After Hamburg and Munich, the BlackMembers made their first trip to Berlin. And no, it did not kick off on Saturday as usual, but started already on Friday afternoon, the 30+ PokerStrategists with over 500,000 StrategyPoints arrived in the Steigenberger Hotel (near the Ku'damm). Present from the start, was also the eight-person team of PartyPoker (incl. CEO, Managing Director, Software Engineer and VIP hosts) this time.


Friday afternoon: Before and after the official welcoming at 5:30 PM by Pius, our event organiser, and John O'Malia, PartyGaming's Managing Director, the first Blacks had already been enjoying the offerings at the 5-star hotel.

6:30 PM: A bit later, the Blacks moved to Restaurant 44 (in the Swissôtel) for their first dinner, while the female guests, lead by Katja, our graphics designer, were taking their seats at the Italian restaurant.

Midnight: Sufficiently invigorated, the combined troop arrived in the Berlin Club Maxxim around midnight, where, in its VIP area, there was a warm-up party of sorts for the following Saturday. However, patience is obviously not every poker player's virtue, and so the Blacks were already celebrating - with the energetic support of the PartyPoker staff members - until the wee hours of Saturday morning, despite our planned schedule.

"Saturday, 10:30 AM - PartyPoker Workshop": At least that's how it was scheduled. However, due to a severe lack of sleep, only four BlackMembers (greetings to Boomslang, ArzrA, glaubens and pokersellers) managed to show up for this early appointment. Luckily, a second one with the same topic was already scheduled for their early afternoon. The workshops mainly dealt with giving PartyPoker feedback about the software and to discuss desired feature for releases in the upcoming months. The results of these extensive discussions - from a SnG Opener feature to another SB/BB HU structure - will hopefully be seen in PartyPoker's software soon.

Saturday afternoon: The remainder of Saturday was at the Blacks' free disposal. The majority used the time before the second dinner - which was an 8-course dinner in the Vox Restaurant - for a short shopping trip or simply to relax and recover.

8:00 PM: And while the Blacks went to dinner in the evening, almost 200 Diamonds with guests showed up in the Spindler&Klatt, the party location for Saturday.

Until 0:30 AM the motto there was: Eat, drink for free, and, thanks to the name tags, get to know the people you only knew before by their nicks. Around this time, the public party for non-PokerStrategists began, and the rested BlackMembers appeared in the Club as well, bit by bit. A huge VIP area was waiting for them, which was about 3m above the dance floor and furnished with many "chill sofas". From then on, the party was fully under way. At least the Diamonds celebrated extensively (also thanks to the countless additional drink coupons), while many Blacks were visibly struggling with the exertions of the weekend. However, according to some rumors, the last VIP's were also asked to leave the Club around 6:30 AM.


PokerStrategy's team hopes that the Blacks and Diamonds had a lot of fun, and that they will honor us again at the next party.

Feedback about the BlackMember Party

You can give us your feedback about the big event in Berlin in the internal Diamond forum. From the organization to the food, we're interested in your opinion so that we can better adjust to your wishes:

Official feedback thread about the 5th BlackMember party in Berlin

Pics or... - Click to increase
Room B, let's see...
 Ah, here we are.

John O'Malia, Korn & weyoun
 After the welcoming...

we quickly moved for dinner in the Swissôtel.
 Joker, steven, tmy, Schnib & Co.

Party CEO & PokerStrategy legend
 Party- and PS VIP Ladies united

Finally, vodka for Fenris
 tmy & Dami


Kobecarter (on the left...)
 Yes, videos will follow!

Good Blackie,
 bad Blackie.

XeroX, Davin, steven-dev,
 Grey Goose, Red Bull & Moet.


PartyPoker Workshop

Interview #1: The CEO
 Interview #2: The Managing Director

The ladies play golf...
 or rather learn how to.


Interview #3: pokersellers
 Benjo at the tailor

Interview #4: George meets Kobe
 Dinner #2

Apparently there was too much fish?!?
 For the Diamonds "only" chicken...





Benjo & greenster
 Yes, glaubens is a Blackie!


weyoun & John
 Déjà-vu?