After yesterday’s marathon live game I wasn’t too keen on playing poker at all today, but I decided that I should at last play one or two tourneys while watching Waffles, Wes and Iggy at the 750k tourney on Stars. So I decided to play the $1 MTT again and a freeroll to the Jersey Days Finals (where you can win your own personalized Full Tilt Hockey Shirt).

The $1 tourney was quite nice and I was able to hold my own. No special hands come to mind, except one: the finest way to crack Kings…

It seems that this hand came back to haunt me though as I looked down at KK just before the bubble…and promptly lost to A-3o on a runner runner flush…argh! I was able to dodge ITM though, so it’s all good…although the profit was marginal (to say the least…buy-in $1, amount won: $1.64, 😉 ).

Not a bad showing though, I can live with a 67th place finish out of 729 players.

Jersey Tourney: 1000 players entered and I was able to play on and on, before I busted out in 36th place. Not a bad showing either – and I knew from the beginning that getting the ticket to the main event was slim (3 out of 1000 to be precise). At least I played another solid tourney and had my fun…so ‘s all good….

The first home game of the new year was played in Stuttgart tonight. 10 Players entered, all bought in for the same amount (no rebuys or add-ons allowed), two tables were formed in a random seat draw and it was decided that the final three of each table would merge to form the final table. Payouts would be: 1st = 60%, 2nd = 30%, 3rd = 10%. I managed to sneak into the final table without playing any real major hands (although I won a nice pot early on when my K-K won against Q-Q on a 9 high board with a pair and a flush draw). I was pretty shortstacked (with < 10% of the chips)...the first hand I looked down at was A-Jo and I pushed...one caller...who showed a pair of 9s. The Ace on the flop doubled me up. From there on it's quite a blur, but soon enough we were down to 3 and I was able to steal some blinds before that to put me in a better position. Not as good as my two opponents though as they held a combined (estimated) 80% of the chips. I won a pot or two and finally the two big stacks clashed, busting one out...so I was still the short stack, but 30% won already. Nice...then it was a long heads up battle, which I finally won when my suited Ace found help on the board vs a small pair. So I won, w00t! 60% of the price pool...cha-ching. Although it was really early already (2:30am) we decided to play a smaller second round with the buy-in cut in half...five players wanted a shot and we decided to pay out: 1st - 80%, 2nd - 20%...we were down to there pretty quickly (1.5 orbits) and I look down at As-Ks in the BB...I push folded around to the SB who ponders and calls...he shows 9-9...I don't improve and I'm out in 3rd place. Not a biggie though as I already took down the W of the first tourney, so I'm happy as the two remaining players battle back and forth...after some 1h of play (?!) it's finally over and we can make our way home...just walked through the door...5:30am now...need to catch some sleep now....Night night...

After busting out in 11th in the WWdN Euro Edition and busting out of two MTTs early on I was something like 20$ down at PokerStars and decided to call it a day at Stars. As it was fairly early though I decided to finally get some cash into FullTilt. Some minutes after I bought in a 1$+0$ fee MTT started and I thought what the heck, let’s give it a shot.

I was playing my usual hold’em fold’em game for the 1st hour and was fairly short-stacked. In the following two hours I was able to really get into the zone though…it was like I had a read on the guys and gals, especially when I smelled weakness. One critical hand came when I looked down at KK (for about the 6th time (including the WWdN where I held it 3 times)) and see what happened:

They held up and I was in good shape. The following 1.5hours of play are a blur, but sure enough I wound up at the final table, w00t!

After another break we were down to three and I busted out the last shorter stack to play heads up for the win.

Then I became literally card dead, or at least so dead that I missed every flop. So I was a large dog soon and I couldn’t do much as I was down in chip 1:5…so I shoved it in and lost…but hey, I’m not sad at all. Invested 1$ and won 74.24$ more than doubling my buy-in (deposit of 50$) in the first MTT…what a way to end the day!

On another note: I declare February 10th the KK-day (hand counted 10times today, no bullets, but KK plenty)! Now it’s time to catch some sleep as I’ve got a nice live home game tomorrow…wish me luck…!

Tonight’s the night of the first WWdN European Friendly version…starting time is 13:30 ET = 19:30 GMT+1 (18:30 UK). So if you’re looking for a good time, get into gear and sign up!

You can find the tourney via the PokerStars Lounge -> Tourney -> Private

The tourney number is 19345283, password is the usual (monkey)…cya at the tables. For more infos check Wil’s post about the tourney.

Update: So, I played the first ever WWdN euro friendly tourney. 27 players entered, some known faces (CJ, Sires, obviously Wil, …) and some “newcomers”. As there were only 27 participants only the top 3 payed and as it was time to approach the final table (after the 1st break), I got a little impatient and pushed with K-10o which lost to an Ace high (a lovely A-7o). Only thing really newsworthy: I had KK three times within the first three orbits – good thing one might think, it might have been if I didn’t chicken out of the first one post-flop (in my defense: Q high with straight and flush draw)…didn’t get anything else than the blinds with the other two so I couldn’t really take advantage…ooh well.

At the final table the weirdest thing ever happen, change100 sucked out on CJ to bust him out in 4th place ( = bubble-boy)…then we all witnessed a damn fine HU game between change100 and Zen Taff…back and forth the action went and in the end Zen Taff came out on top to “defend europes honor” (lol)…he’s from Wales and the winner of the first ever WWdN Euro friendly, cool!

Started the day with some nice going PLO8 SnG action – went into heads up down roughly 1:2 in chips and won the whole thing in two hands. Awesome way to start a session, but it wouldn’t last all that long as I kept running into nuts hands (when I thought my hand was the nuts). Example? I hold A-3-8-8, flop comes down 8-5-5…so I’m in good shape with a flopped boat and the second nut draw…turn and river are blank and sure enough I’m out in 10th of 10. How come? Another player flopped quads (5-5-x-x) and another one was holding A-2…too bad…

Things didn’t improve in the following 2 SnGs so I switched to the NL HE ones…took down 3rd and busted out in 10th of 10 again as my flopped trip 10s were rivered by trip queens:

Nothing exciting in MTT play either…Limit just isn’t my game (anymore). At least I finished the session on a high note…in preparation for DADIII – The HU Championship – I played a HU match on Absolute Poker and totally owned my opponent. I’m so looking forward to play DADIII!

Two totally different sessions today – day session: w00t, night session: argh!

I guess I shouldn’t have played the night session, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I started the day with some SnG action. One NL HE which was totally -ev and two PLO8 ones which were totally cha-ching! Finished 8/10 in the NL HE one, 1st (woot) and 2nd in the PLO8 ones. The 2nd place finish was sort of unlucky two. We’re about even in chips and I hold A-Q-J-10, not a particular groovy Omaha H/L hand as there’s no chance to get the low pot, but after all you need to qualify first for it, so let’s see a flop which comes down K-8-10 rainbow…hmm…nothing much so far but a pair of tens, but it seems that there’s going to be no low…so let’s start the action, I fire out the pot-sized bet and he reraises All-In…hmm…whatever…call…(I’ve got him covered by the huge amount of 48T$)…he shows K-8-A-x…fair enough…he’s in the lead, but I’ve got outs (four nines, three tens, two aces…etc)…sure enough turn and river are blank. Too bad, but I can’t complain….one 1st, one 2nd out of 3 SnGs. I leave to go to footie training and once I return I want to continue the run. No joy though as I bust out early in 3 PLO8s…

Evaluation: It helps if you stick to playing solid hands (any combination of a 3 wheel card hand (best including A-2, but sometimes A-3-4 etc will do), but there’s still some situation where you can’t limit your play to that (apart from the fact that you’re in no man’s land when three faces show up). So I’ve seen the joy of losing set over set etc more than once….but hey…it happens.

Note to self: There’s been a quite drastic difference between the day session’s players and the night session’s players (day: loose, night: tight)…a coincidence? Maybe, but I’m sure as hell trying to get back some dough tomorrow morning 😉

I won’t be playing the WWdN (which starts in around 30mins) tonight as I’m just too tired and don’t feel like playing. I did my share of playing for the day already, too…with not much success either (4 SnGs: 1x3rd), busted out rather early out of the Stud and NL HE MTT…so I guess there’s no point in donking off another 11$ 😉

Have fun all and I’m looking forward to read some transcripts/recaps tomorrow…cheers 🙂

Update: Wow, it seems I’ve missed a quite nice showing by Waffles who took down 1st place, w00t!

I don’t know if you’ve heard about it yet, but Phil Hellmuth has started a blog. It seems to be hip these days for the pros to start a blog – which is cool when it’s really a blog.

So I had a look at the “blog” and let me tell you: it’s a good idea, although I don’t consider that to be a blog! You want to know why? Let me give you two simple pointers: A blog should…

1. …have syndication, whether it’s RSS or Atom doesn’t matter, but give the (potential) readers to get notified when there’s new content…chances are slim that they will visit regularly to check if there’s an update or not, especially when there hasn’t been an update in a while (this is what I told Phil (or who ever gets the mails from the “Ask Phil” section first) right away as this is really important).
2. …offer a possibility for readers to comment. Alright, by giving the user/reader the chance to comment you add the high risk of spammers starting to hammer your blog with spam messages, but there are effective countermeasures these days (Bad Behaviour, …) and you don’t want to shut out your reader, or do you? If there’s no interaction between writer and reader then what’s the point, you don’t need to label it blog then…it’s just another content site (or in this case another section of your content site).

…or the case of the accidental hammer clash (more about that later).

After running bad the last few days it was time to get back into shape or back in the saddle of the donkey, so that’s what I did. Played some SnGs (NL HE 3$+0.40$) and was ITM in 3 of 4. The total is: 1x1st, 2x2nd, 1x8th (donkey chasing and connecting) – on a side note: I was down roughly 1:3 in all of the heads up finishes. Was able to turn it around once, although I did well in the other heads ups too…I came back to around even and even took the lead for a while, but just couldn’t finish my opponent…

Apart from the SnG action I played some MTTs, too. Nothing spectacular to report from the PL Hold’em tourney, busted out pretty early. Then I played a Fixed Limit one and the funniest thing ever happened. This poker episode is entitled “The accidental hammer clash”: I’m UTG+3 and look down at the hammer (7c-2d), folded to me and I decide to limp in, flop comes down 7d-Jd-7h…BB leads out, I raise, he reraises, I cap…turn is the 10c…back and forth again…river is the Js…full house baby…back and forth again…showdown (see pic below):

The funniest thing: I correctly shout “hammer time, nh!” in the table chat and I can feel that most of the table is thinking “WTF?!”. The BB asks me: “Why did you call with 72o?” I answer “It’s the hammer, you gotta trust it! … (poker blogger insider)”…he smiles…nothing funny after that and I bust out rather quickly again as I just can’t catch anything.

Then I decided to complete the evening with a NL HE MTT (3$+0.30$). I play some good poker and after roughly two hours of play (already ITM) I bust out in 288th place with Ac-Qc vs As-9c when Mr. BigStack calls my All-In and catches his nine…. not a perfect way to end the evening, but at least I had a good rush today!

Sidenotes:

1. I never had so many AA and KKs in a single day…which is nice, as most of them held up too.
2. The whole single table SnG thing with lots of heads up action today was good training…or at least it should be…I better get in shape for DADIII (see below)

Pimpage:

Be there or be square!

Hmm…last week’s poll didn’t really get a lot of votes (a grand total of only 4)…the result (PokerStars 2, FullTilt 1, PartyPoker 1) along with the new Poll of the week (What’s your best game?) can be found here.

I voted Stud 8b…it’s not that I’m bad at Omaha 8b or NL/PL/Limit Hold’em, but the analytical part of Stud 8b (or H/L) just makes me think that it’s my best game. What’s your’s? Feel free to elaborate in the comments…