Well, tonight was our next (live) home game and this time, I hosted it. The only downside of this were the missing poker tables (which are at my mate’s place who normally hosts our home games) and copaq cards (which are also at my mate’s place). Apart from that, it was the usual card flinging group of friends and we had a good old time.

In contrast to the last few home games, I decided to go with my “feel” this time and push hands more than I normally would. Why should I let the other guys put the decision on me all the time? Let’s turn the tables and let them make their decisions for all the marbles.

This “strategy” worked out nicely. We started of 10 handed and I look down at AJ early on. I raise preflop in LP and get one caller. Flop is A9x. I lead out again and he calls. Turn pairs nines. I’m pretty sure I’m good here, although he could have me outkicked – then again, why wouldn’t he reraise preflop or on the flop with AK/AQ?! So I put him all in and he calls…showing A7…my AJ stands up and I eliminate the first player. A few hands later I hit the jackpot. I got A5o in the BB and I call a small raise from one of our loose cannons. Flop comes down 234…yatzee! I bet small…he calls…turn 6…yatzee^2…I check, trying to induce a “bluff” here…he complies and fires a nice sized bet at it…now I’m pretty sure he started off with a big pair here…and I push…he calls pretty quickly with pocket kings, dead to three fives for a chop. The five doesn’t come and I take out the second player and a nice sized pot. I’m sitting pretty with 1/3 of the chips in play, nice. From there on, I’m chasing a few pots to many and bluff into the nuts once.

But with the monster stack, that’s no big deal. Until I go on a complete card dead bender for three to four orbits. I can’t catch anything and my stack is dwindeling. Once we’re down to four handed (three ITM) I catch a small good run and eliminate the bubble boy. Nice. Three handed I take down another nice pot to knock out the third guy…but I’m trailing roughly 1:3 in chips. I decided to not bother “playing tricky” here and I push two of the next three hands.

The second time I push with J10o I get called with an Ace high…the flop gives me a four-flush…turn…flush…yatzee! Boom we’re even in chips. After that hand I forgot to switch back to normal mode though and I make a bad call all-in with TP+flush draw, he slowplayed and overpair and got the flush draw as well, but higher…I don’t improve and I’m out in second. No W, but at least I got down to headsup again and made some money.

After that we played a SH sidegame…busted out in 4th when someone caught a boat on the turn to eliminate both me and a shortstack…so no money there (top two ITM), but hey…I had fun..made some money…what more can I ask for?

If so, please tell me. I’ll smile right smack into the middle of the camera, laugh and wave and we can get this over with as it’s getting too ridiculous. Thank you.

I start off with some shorthanded NL (SnG)…nothing much going on…can’t catch anything. All good…I exit in fourth with the second best hand. No problem.

I jump into headsup mode and meet a fellow german. He’s pretty aggressive and has lots of bullets in the chamber, so I’m waiting for him to make a mistake. He complies as I make, well…a good call, at least I think so. Situation…he raises preflop, like 80-90% of the hands, and I call with A4o. Flop comes down J48…I lead out and he insta-pushes. My head screams call call call….but I restrain myself from insta-calling and try to think it through. I got bottom pair with the Ace kicker. He raised preflop, which I can discount as he raised with pretty much ATC. I think he has two big cards here…and I’m hoping that the J isn’t one of them. Then again…why would he push here with a Jack? Doesn’t make sense. So I make the call for all the marbles…he shows K10o…ooooh wheee…me initial thought was correct, he made a bs move with two overs…so…six outs to dodge, 3:1 favourite. Turn Q…Some more outs for him, but still 2,5:1…river…9…runner runner goodness. Thank you.

On to the next match…he’s a little more passive and does all the lovely donkey plays. Preflop push with any low pair, min raise with monster pair and two big cards, etc. We play a little and he minraises. Wheeee…got a big pair or at least two big cards mr. donk, huh? Well…let’s see if we can hit the jackpot with J6o. Flop comes down 6J9….wheeee…jackpot…let’s see how he plays it…check…small cbet…call….turn 8….check…push. Hmm…what do we have here? The turn brought a possible straight, which doesn’t fit into the scheme of his play here (10-7 or Q10 are unlikely here)…he over-pushes big time…which fits right into my read…big pair…AA/KK/QQ…I call…what does he show…Queens….wheeee….you got two queens, three nines, three eights and four tens sir…you’re a 73/27 dog…hmm…river? Queen…thank you very much.

No need to play anymore HU or hold’em for that matter when you’re running like this. Even the best read and best hand in the world can’t save me here. This is getting spooky. So I jump into some PL5CD action and as we’re down to four handed the usual happens…someone draws out on me for all the money…why oh why do you need to catch trips against my two pair…even more important…why did you call my predraw raise with a pair of Jacks in the first place? Oh well…results are with you sir, you made a profound play here sir, very nice.

So, coming back to my original train of thought: If you’re the producer of the hidden camera show and it’s true that you’re pulling one on me…please, show yourself, I’ll cut a nice promo for you. I’m out and I’ll probably take a break for a few days as I just can’t stand it anymore…the pain is getting to me and I don’t want to throw good money after bad and spiral into ultra-cooler land again. Cya in a few days…

Well, well, I didn’t feel like posting yesterday, so a big roundup today. Yesterday I got kicked in the junk, the usual, only won 1 out of 4 HU matches. These days I’m wondering: can I really win against donks without getting lucky? Or is it just the other way around: Can I really only win against donks without getting unlucky?

Who knows. As I said in one of my earlier posts this week, or was it at the end of last week, I wanted to go back and have a look at some of the matches to analyze my play. I didn’t dig too deep as it was pretty apparent that apart from the occasional slow play gone bad, which is sometimes necessary to get any chips in the middle, it’s not really “my fault”. I just got unlucky over and over again.

So, today I went at it again and the results were disheartening at least after the first two matches. The first two matches worked in my favour like a charm. I put the money in with the best and it held up. I took a break to get some fresh air nontheless and when I came back, shit hit the fan. First match after the break…I bet and bet and bet and he catches his two outer on the river. By that time it’s an insta-call for me as there’s too much money in the pot (and there’s not much point in folding down to less 200 chips). So the first L it is, surprise surprise. In the next match, my opponent doesn’t catch his two-outer on the river…no…he catches it on the turn after all the money went in. Nicely played sir. So I’m suddenly 2-2 and cursing my bad luck again. In the next match, it get’s even better. True, I broke one of the oldest “laws” (don’t go broke in an unraised pot), but should I really fear a monster here? No action preflop, I complete from the button with 75o…he checks. Flop comes down 3-K-5, he checks, I check…turn 5…now he wakes up and bets out small…I reraise him….he reraises me…now I’m trying to figure out what he could have…Kings? not really…3s…that could be a possibility..but I don’t think so…Kx…likely…5x…hmm…not all that likely…that would be another lovely case card on the turn there then. I push…he insta-calls with? 35…river 6 misses me oooooh so close….oh well…cold deck mountain…2-3.

After that I feel sick. Going 2-0 in the first run and now I’m stuck at 2-3. I feel like the Mavs in the 06 finals. Ouch. Next match…next bs…I value-bet my arse off and he calls like a champ, catching quads to beat my flush…trips to beat my two pair…and finally a flush to beat my set….nicely done, god damn it. 2-4.

After that, I felt even sicker. I decided to play two more and took them both down. Wheeeeeeeee. 4-4. I’ll leave it at that. Enough HU for the day, sick hands, sick results, treading water…paying rake like a champ. So, I fire up a Triple Shootout and the first table is a madhouse. One player shows bluff after bluff, but I don’t get involved with my monsters (62o, 38o, etc etc). Then my time comes and I connect with the board hard…and I get payed off. I’m the chipleader. Wheee….not for long. One player makes an, hmm how can I put it, interesting preflop call with 96 s000ted…one of his suit on the all overcard board is good enough to call my big bet….another one of his suit on the turn is good enough to call off the rest of his stack…well…another one of his suit on the river is enough to get the chips. VERY WELL played sir. Hat tip to the dealer. After that I’ve still got chips but run my AJ into AQ and that’s that.

Sick as I am, I play a little HORSE tourney. I don’t live to see the first HORSE though as people are running me down like crazy. Razz nearly broke me when a chasing donk caught three perfect cards on 5th-7th street…calling like a champ once again. I rebuild my stack in Stud, just to go busto in Stud8…well…four flush + 7 low draw on 5th street no g00t. Nice one dealer. Thanks for giving me a break, wait, not really. lol

So…finally…some fun times in the WWdN. I managed to make the best out of the few cards I was dealt. Played both the hammer and the velvet hammer (s00ted hammer) to perfection. Won two nice sized pots when my opponents laid it down on the river on scary looking boards. It really pays off to play the hammer like Aces or AK s00ted, depending on the situation 😉

Apart from those two hands, only four other stand out in the first hour. Kings…preflop raise…take down the blinds. JJ vs TT…reraise preflop takes it down…and AJ s00ted vs AQ s00ted…loses as expected. I’m stuck with just over 1200 chips there…one tricky play, which could have gone wrong – no doubt, works out beautifully and I’m heading into the break with slightly under 1.9k. What happened? I find AcKc in the SB and opt to limp along with the other two limpers. BB checks and we see a flop of AsXcXc…checks all around…turn is 10s…check..check…Kat bets out (Ace rag?!)…fold…I call…BB folds…river is a Xs…hmm…not quite what I wanted to see…oh well…I check…with every intention to check call…but Kat checks behind with Ace rag and I take it down…

After the break…I’m trying to see some flops cheaply, but I just can’t catch anything…not only do I fold fold fold, there’s not much of a decision to make either as I look at rag rag time and time again. Finally…really short…I look down at AQ…the first real hand since the break…one caller…shows A6 s00ted…board double pairs and I chop the pot. Wheeeee….damn it. Two or three hands later I’m forced to push in the BB with 35o (not much point in folding, which would put me down to 300 chips with the SB 100 in the next hand)….opponent shows Ace rag which is good enough to take it down…I exit in 21st place.

Oh well, nothing much I can do there, apart from sticking it in earlier…but tbh…even if I had done it, the result would have been the same (e.g. I hold A9 on the button, but a shorter player pushes…she’s been sitting there folding folding folding, so I’ve got a feeling that I’m dominated here and the caller infront of me doesn’t make me feel any better…I curse my decision once the board reads xx99…but I relax as the river brings the fourth heart to go with the shorties A10)…at least I had fun in the first hour with the hammer dropping and lively table chat…so I can’t fell bad about the WWdN. As for the day in total, just another day in low-limit junk-kick hell… 🙁