Well, well…after footie training I played an extended HU session of 10 matches and boy did it suck. I won the first two matches, then lost 4 in a row, won one, lost one, won three in a row. So after ten matches I’m 5 and 5 and all that’s left is to throw a fiver to pokerstars for the rake. Sigh.

Ups: Keeping my shit together even after some of the nastier ugly beats. Making sound decisions and only a few errors (curious river calls – I should start to trust my gut feeling which tells me “yuck that card hit him”, although it’s hard to do if the history of the hand up to that point is telling you something different…oh well…I guess that’s part of the donkey deception or could you put someone on Q6o if he called a 4BB raise preflop…he reraises you on the ace high flop and calls the re-reraise…he calls the huge turn bet…then he leads out again (1/3 of the pot) when the fugly queen hits to match his flop 6…well…I couldn’t as I would think that any sane person could laydown third pair no draw there against my ace…)…

I’m outta here and leave you with a beautiful fugly river card…lol…lead up to the hand….he rivers me twice for smaller pots…then this hand comes down and he can’t laydown second pair on the turn….

Yesterday, TripJax tagged me with the 7 Things Meme, but I was too tilted to even think about what I could write about…one good night’s sleep later and here it goes: A few days ago TripJax tagged me with the 7 Things… Meme…as I was a little tilted that night and went off to Cologne the following day, I didn’t have the time to do it…but now it’s done…so without further ado…7 (random) things…

1. Once upon a time, more than ten years ago, I was really into martial arts, Karate to be precise. I was pretty good too and I had some even better training partners – one of them has won numerous german and international titles by now. I had training instruction by the then reigning european champion. My specialty were Katas and although I liked Kumite it was the reason I finally quit, after breaking my wrist and almost missing some important stuff at school. I quit with the blue belt (5th Kyu). Karate taught me a lot about patience and self-control.

2. I’m always interested in learning new things. Because of that I’m considered “an expert” (aka the dude who knows something about that) in many areas, particularly in “the geek zone” (everything computer and gadget). That can be a blessing and a curse…if I had a dollar (euro) for every time someone starts a sentence with “Du wie ist denn das mit…” (Hey, do you know how …) I would be mighty rich…

3. Although my written english is considered fair to good by most people, my conversation skills aren’t up to par. The explanation is simple: written – plenty of practice via blogging and working as a mod (sitepoint.com, etc), spoken – no practice. The only time I had to speak english in the last few years was when I had to confirm my address and stuff with Neteller, lol. Oh well, I guess I’ll have the chance to do some brushing up once I finally hit Vegas in the future (after finishing my uni degree, see 6.), hopefully during a WPBT classic and/or the WSOP…

4. I’m a sucker for tv shows and original movies (not translated into german). My favourite tv shows (past and present) include amongst others: Charmed, Buffy, Angel, Dark Angel, er, Las Vegas, Heroes, High Stakes Poker, Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, Cops, Pimp My Ride, “reality shows” (Hogan Knows Best, Osbournes, Runs House)…movies are too many to mention. Why do I like to watch the original version of shows/movies? Because most nuances and (inside) jokes are not translatable and so they’re usually translated with the german (language area) equivalent and tbh that takes away from the movies, a lot, at least if you are able to watch and understand the original (e.g. Die Hard “Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker.” – Stirb langsam “Yippee-ka-jee, Schweinebacke” = “Yippee-ki-yay, pig’s cheeck”…errm doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, now does it. There are many more examples, especially when there are references to current or recent events or persons and they’re totally replace with a german/european equivilant….not good…). …and by just looking at the number of shows I used to watch or watch now, it’s obvious I spend quite some time on the lazy boy, lol…

5. After quitting Karate (and table tennis before that), I picked up football (that’s soccer for the americans). It’s a pretty good way to clear your head after spending most of the day infront of some sort of screen and it’s a really good excercise (as you try to build enough stamina to play 90 minutes). While I’m only involved as a reserve these days (which means pretty rare appearances on sunday’s squad), I still train twice a week (Wed, Fri) and score my goals in training. Football is where my screen name came from, too. It consist of my real life first name (Ingo) and the word goal (Ingo(+)goal ), that’s why I don’t like it when people write about InGoal (as in goal keeper) as that’s not my position, I’m a forward/striker, damn it 😉
As for my team, I’m part of the second team of a club called FC Marbach and after dropping down to the lowest german league a few years ago, we managed to built our team back up. We finished third in the first year. Then second in the second year after the rebuild – we won the relegation match against the higher leagued team and moved up to the next higher league. Then we finished second again last year (we had the same amount of points, but score three goals less, so we didn’t win the championship) and lost the relegation match so we remained in the same league. This year, we’re fighting for the championship again (which would bring us close to our first team, which currently plays two leagues above us). There are two matches left and we’re one point clear in first position. Two Ws will secure us the championship, I just hope that we can pull it of this year as last year was such a disappointment (on top all year, than blowing it in the last three matches). Boy that would/will be a party…

6. Just like many other (poker) bloggers, I’m a software guy. I’m about to finish my university degree (my diploma thesis is about to start and after that I’ll have my degree) at the university of Stuttgart – yes, education at a german university is really lengthy thorough and rarely does anyone do it in less than 5-5 1/2 years. That being said, I really don’t like “coding” all that much, I know how to do it and I can do it, I just don’t like it. I rather do the whole conceptual (architectural) parts and client interaction and let some code monkey do his thing afterwards. Oh well, I’ve spent numerous stints in interesting companies during and prior to studying at university (DaimlerBenz, DaimlerChrysler, Bosch, etc) and started my own little computer (service) business seven years ago…combine that with my grades (which are in the 1.x level (1.0 = best) so far with only the diploma thesis to go) and I should have all the opportunities in the world…at least I hope so…

7. I drive a 1993 VW Golf III, 1.8GL (90hp) and while I like my car and it get’s me from A to B, I’ll probably get a new one once I’m (finally) done with uni. I’m thinking something with a Daimler-star on it (aka Mercedes)…oh well, maybe not, we’ll see…after all gas is getting more and more expensive over here (1l super (95 octane) = 1,4 Euro; 1 gallon = 3.785 liters; 1 gallon = 5,29 Euro ~ 7.12$) and public transportation is a good way to beat traffic and horrendous gas bills, at least during the day…then again, an old car with a bad exhaust gas rating is getting more and more expensive too (yes apart from car insurance and horrendous amounts of gas tax, you also pay horrendous amounts of taxes based on environmental impact your car has and you won’t be able to drive into most inner cities with a bad exhaust gas rating starting next year…), so I’ll need a new(er) car sometime in the near future anyway…

So, there you have it. I guess I should tag some other bloggers, but after looking through most of my blogroll, I couldn’t find anyone not tagged already…so I’m ending the tag-chain here, shame on me…if you’re reading this and you haven’t been tagged with this meme, consider yourself tagged and tell us your 7 Things (we might not know about you)…thank you 🙂

So…the footie team excursion to Cologne aka two and a half day drinking binge came to a close yesterday evening. As I was still on the “staying up late” rhythm, I played a few SnGs before hitting the mattress, 2W 1L in three HU SnGs.

Today, after the first good night’s sleep since thursday, I played a little longer session. To get things started I hit the 6$ turbo HU SnGs – although I don’t like turbos, they’re a better choice IMHO, as honestly, it doesn’t make that much of a difference anyway in HU; basically it all comes down to 1 to x crucial hands and that’s that. I won the first two and then lost the next 7. Yes, I lost seven in a row. Did I play worse than in the first two matches? Not really. I made some questionable plays when I assumed my opponent could laydown third pair with no kick (crazy me!?!), but apart from that my honest answer is “Not really. Errrm…NO!”. I just ran into some ugly hands, the best one was the following beauty of a hand…what’s the probability of you flopping a flush again? What are the odds of you flopping the third nut flush and your opponent flopping either the second or nut flush? Hmm…I think, not all that high…

While this was the best one, there were numerous other (less coolery) hands that just had me on the “second best” side at all times (A10 vs AJ, AQ vs AK, A4 vs A7 – lovely to have all those hands with the same theme: Ace hitting the flop and either both kickers hitting or the other dudes kicker playing, so fugly; straights vs flushes with the river card; counterfeited two pair, etc etc). I decided to play one more to round out the 10 matches and I won that one when I finally hit my first cooler of the session. I rivered the flush which gave my opponent the nut straight. Teehee.

After that one I decided to jump into some shorthanded SnG action and took down second. We started HU with me being down about 3:2 and my opponent did a great job leaning on me at all times. I couldn’t do much about it with my monster 9-, 8- or 7-highs…and when I finally had a face card (K9 s00ted) he had an Ace and it stood up…ce la vie.

Before quitting for the night, I jump up a level and hit the 11$ turbo HU SnGs. I won the first one. Lost the second one. Won the third, fourth and fifth one. So beautiful. No doubt that I hit some hands there, but it was a real pleasure to witness a few things I’ve been missing at the 6$ ones:

1. At least some opponents can laydown second or third pair.

2. At least some opponents can even laydown TPxK on a scary board.

So…even after losing 7 straight matches, I kept my shit together for the most part and came back to not only erase the deficit, but finish the session up a little…how sweet it is…let’s see if I can sustain the positive attitude and kick some ass at the 11$ level…

…or tomorrow, or the day after that.

Reason for tonight’s abstinence:

Reason for extended abstinence (Sa-Mo): Drinking and partying heavily in Cologne, Germany. Trip with my footie team…drink drink drink…fun times…cya on tuesday…

Well, well…I know that TripJax tagged me and rest assured, the post “7 Things…” is in the making, just didn’t have the time to finish it today, it’s coming soonish though.

Today was similar to yesterday’s play, I just couldn’t get anything going and my opponents caught like it was nothing. The only mistake I made was being a POW, yes a payoff wizard. I KNEW they caught and I still called. Not good. At least I made a little comeback at the end so the night wasn’t a total disaster…random fugly pic dump…

…of being shit out of luck, then puzzled, then tilted, then mega-tilted:

1. Being coolered the good old fashioned way: nut flush vs straight flush, boat vs boat, boat vs quads, flush vs higher flush, overpair vs higher overpair
2. Getting chased down the old fashioned way: runner runner straight, runner runner flush

3. Winning 1 of 5 coinflips

4. Losing to a guy that couldn’t even spell poker, but had the luck to turn me (catching the perfect card on the turn) 5 times in a single match before rivering me to put me out for good.

5. Not winning a single hand when AK-AT vs Ax…always a nice little chop or suckout coming (A10 vs A2…ace on the flop, 2 on the turn; AK vs A2…double paired board; AK vs AQ…chop…; AQ vs AJ…chop…;)…at least I won 0 with Ax vs A-biggerX to really make my day…
6. Winning exactly 0 hands with higher pair vs pair…the best one was on the bubble in a six handed SnG…he pushes with sixes vs my eights…I got him covered…spikes the two outer right on the flop…next hand I push in with A7 from the button…he holds A8…ty…

7. Be so tilted after yet another bs hand that you push your remaining stack in with K7 s00ted on the button just to see your opponent wake up with the real BB special (AA)…busto…

So…after that last bs six handed SnG, I finally quit, before I start to shit on the keyboard, I mean seriously, I thought I’ve seen it all and indeed I have, but seeing it all again in such a compressed format isn’t any less painful than it was the first time, or the second time, or the x-th time…good god…

Here’s a random pic dump of some lovely hands…

Better luck tomorrow…or whatever 😉

…so here’s a random pic dump of some of the nicer hands of tonight’s session…lol…cold deck after cold deck, sick beat after sick beat, especially on the bubble…all the good stuff…even had quads one time…opponent down to 6xx chips…still came back to runner runner me like it was nothing…making good decisions is an unthankful thing sometimes…

Never seen so many case cards either…lovely to see two Kings show up when you’re holding Kx…well, not really if your opponent is slow playing his AK from start to finish…sick sick bs…oh well…surprisingly enough I still managed to squeeze out some wins at HU (3) and one at a six-handed SnG…so despite the six junk-kickings I still finish the night up…wheeeeeee….

…I was on, early on in tonight’s session. Two pair vs set, two pair vs flopped straight, TP vs set, etc etc and sure enough not a single out came through on each of these hands. Shrug. Whatever. So I bubble in a six-handed SnG, then finished fourth, then lost a HU match, before going on a nice little comeback run with 3 HU wins. I’ll leave it at that, slightly down for the night…

Well, well…no poker content this time, just some random -ev gambling.

After a rather quick 120km drive to Baden-Baden, we, that’s a group of friends and yours truely, arrived right at the casino. Instead of going in right away, we first had a nice dinner in the inner city. After that it was time to gamb00l in the Casino Baden-Baden. Although they got some poker tables, I wasn’t really interested in playing, so it was all about the -ev gambling. Because most tables were really crowded placing your bets wasn’t all that much fun and playing BlackJack was next to impossible. So, in the end I settled on playing roulette for most of the night, only interrupted by some beer drinking at the bar, lol.

Really sick how much money is thrown on the table in general, but even sicker how much money some experts errm system players errrm degenerates place at any given time, sick sick sick. Oh well…I guess they know what they’re doing, or maybe not. In the end, some of my mates scored some nice bets (hitting single numbers like it was nothing), no such luck for me, but hey, I knew that playing total -ev roulette wasn’t a good idea anyway, so I already had the amount I played for in the losing column of my virtual sheet tracking my results…in the end I lost a measly 70 Euro…add to that a nice dinner and some money for gas and you’ve got a nice evening with friends for 100 Euro….not a bad investment at all… 🙂

That being said, I’m more than happy to jump back into poker where the minus in front of the ev isn’t set in stone 😉

Boooooring. Nothing much going on poker wise, played a small session yesterday (3/3 HU Ws) and another session today. Got my ass handed to me for the most part, not much I could do, just the nasty little thing called short term variance in headsup play. What can you do when your kings get cracked by the mighty 52o, nines by the mighty 105o, jacks by 67o…etc etc…?! Nothing much, curse the bad run of cards and that’s that.

So…tonight I scored two NL Hold’em headsup victories, one second in a six handed SnG and one W in a PLO8 HU SnG. All in all, down something along the lines of 20 bucks…oh well…

In (not really poker related) news, I’ll be heading to Casino Baden Baden on saturday. Woohoo…casino…the excitement. Why? Because it’s going to be the first time I’m going to a real b&m casino. Surprised? You shouldn’t be…as casinos over here are nothing like Vegas or AC, it’s all about the -ev games (slots, BJ, roulette, etc). They do have a few poker tables, but I’m not really sure about the limits they’re playing and if there’s a game going on, so I’ll probably abstain from batting heads with the regulars (and why should I, when I’ve got all the games I want at my disposal – online poker + regular home game) and donk around in the -ev games a little. I guess I better check the closet tomorrow to see if my suit still fits, lol, haven’t worn one in ages and in Baden Baden it’s all James Bond style, no suit/tux with shirt and TIE, no gamb00l…