On days like these I really gotta wonder why ppl keep coming back to the whore who’s name is poker. Good god. I feel like an elephant violated my rear end. It was that bad. I will spare you the details and screenshots as I don’t want to be responsible for you puking all over your keyboard. Let’s just sum it up by saying that I lost 9 out of 15 matches. If you go by the odds of the deciding hands I should have won 8 out of those 9. But odds don’t play and 1-4 outers were just as common as ppl putting in their money drawing almost dead (runner runner draw)…and yeah, they hit 90% of the time…pretty hawesome. I’m outta here…better luck than me at the tables everyone….

That was the way the session went. Started of 1 of 5 in the first five headsup matches. It was pretty brutal as I played against a few real donkey-maniacs. One of them set a new record he played exactly 100% of the hands. He never folded no matter what he had. Now, this is usually easy to exploit…value bet him to death right? Well, hard to do if you don’t flop a pair in what seems like an eternity…and he’s hitting his cards left and right. His comment about playing 100% of the hands aka not folding a single hand “No need”…yeah, if you’re running that good there seems to be no need to fold…just shove it in with trash and see your opponent get mad like hell for losing every single hand.

Alrighty…after that I thought I’d take a break from headsup and so I jumped into a turbo DS to the sunday million. Not my speciality, the 6 max, but the full ring one. It was fugly. Got nothing going early…then when the blinds got big I had to make a move…sure enough I lost a 70/30 shot with AJs vs KTo…KTo = insta-call….obv.

After that I moved back to headsup and crushed em. I won four straight and then it was time to log off. I guess I could have continued for a little while longer, but I just felt like ending the session on a high note, even if that meant that I had to quit the session a little bit down. In the end I don’t let that get in my way anymore though, after all it’s one looooooong ass poker session…and so what does it matter that I’m down 5 bucks or whatever? Exactly…nothing. So I’m outta here…gl at the tables everyone…

Not in the mood for an extended session today. Lack of sleep, hurting limbs…not the best precondition for a solid poker session. Couldn’t help myself though, so I played a mini-session. Three quick headsup matches to earn some more extra FPP on the last day of the 2x HU promotion. In the end I won 2 out of 3, really should have been 3 for 3, but oh well. The one match I lost was pretty brutal. My opponent was a solid losing player. Rated no yet a fish, but clearly on his way there. The only thing that kept me from winning this match was his luck, no joke. He managed to river me four times within the first ten hands for smaller pots. Finally we get it in on the flop for all the marbles. I flopped two pair…he an airball…pretty nice…until he runner-runners me. Oh well…I guess it’s a good thing for him that he wins the occasional match here and there, good? Yeah, because that way he keeps donating. Always look on the bright side…alrighty I’m out of here to catch some much needed sleep…gl at the tables everyone….

Played a little four-card bingo aka the Saturdays with Dr. Pauly tourney. The usual madness ensues early. I catch some good hands (preflop) and sometimes even connect lightly to the flop…still no dice (e.g. AsAcJc5s…flop with two spades…turn and river blank)…finally I manage to run Queens into Kings…money goes in post-flop with an all-under board…obv he’s got two small connectors to go with the kings and flopped a straight with ’em…me drawing dead…wheee…out in 25th of 30. Sucky suck…PLO just isn’t my game…I love PLO8, but really hate PLO…why? Because I can’t have a hand hold up and when a big pot comes down and I have 3/4 the deck to catch…well….the other 1/4 hits…all the time….

After that usual disappointment – why do I even play this tourney, it doesn’t make sense – I switched to headsup and crushed some donkeys. They were out in full force tonight and I managed to bust all but one going 4-1. Gem of the evening: Player raising to 140 in the first hand (10/20 blinds). I fold. Player raising to 140 in the second hand. I fold. Player raising to 140 in the third hand…I look down at A5s and shove. He thinks for 10 seconds then calls…he shows 35o…errm yeah…good move…lol…I’m outta here…gl at the tables everyone…

I finally got my new external hard-drive delivered today, so I could get things going with the reinstall. It actually took longer than expected to get everything up and running again, so no extended poker playing today. Still managed to get a small session in and boy, it was exciting. Played headsup against a really colourful mix of players. On one hand there were the real fish (sharkscope certified) on the other hand the real skilled ones (not sharks by sharkscope’s standard, but certainly good, winning players).

The funny thing was that it didn’t matter at all who I was facing, the matches were mostly decided by setup hands. I mean, yeah, it’s not mandatory to put your money in with TP and a flush-draw…but it’s pretty standard I would say. If your opponent flops bottom two in said hand, the hand basically plays automatically. I lost that hand. Similar occurrences in the other matches. So it was no surprise that I lost half my matches and won the other half. So down the rake, but still smiling as I’ve never seen so many setup hands in such a short amount of time in my life…oh well…glitch in the poker matrix or a statistical abnormity…who cares, it was sick and funny at the same time. I’m outta here…gl at the tables everyone…

Played some more headsup today. I guess I will take a break from it again once the Pokerstars 2x promotion runs out on headsup matches (sunday) as I’ve had enough of headsup for a while. It’s not the results or the “pressure” of constantly fighting over pots, it’s more or less the sick beats I took during play…it’s really sick and the number of beats you take in a small amount of time can be too much. I mean, yeah, if he’s x% to win the pot, he’s x% to win it. But how come that sometimes x < 10% = 99,9999999%? This is just stupid. Overall I had another winning session today, so I shouldn't even be complaining, but I still do. Made some questionable plays that cost me two matches, all good there, the rest was shoving in with the nuts (or close to it) and then getting sucked out on. I mean alrighty, you weren't stone dead when you put in your money, but why does the longshot redraw always have to hit? Sick....and don't get me starting on flips...had to take six of them today (either because my opponents were short, I was short or it was a no brainer hand, e.g. AQs both ~ 10BB (blinds 75/150 with 1500 starting chips), I'm not folding there anyway)...won exactly 0 of them. At least I won around 50% of the 60/40 situations, suboptimal, but better 50% than even less...alrighty...enough rambling....I'm outta here...good night and good luck at the tables everyone...

Dr. Pauly’s poker blog, the famous Tao of Poker turns 5 in August! Woohoo! To celebrate the fact, the good doctor pulled something out of his head: A special celebration tourney running at PokerStars on August 5th 9pm ET…all readers of Tao of Poker welcome. Read all about: here.

Congrats to the good doctor for kicking butt for 5 years!!! All the best…rock on man!

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Not as good as I wanted it to be, but very good in contrast to yesterday’s and this morning’s session. In the end I went 9 for 15. Not all that bad, although I still feel like I could have done better. In the end it was a matter of me pushing draws and missing, over and over again. I mean it’s pretty sick if you’ve got an open-ender and a flush draw, or two overs + a straight + flush draw….that’s basically half the deck right there, still managed to miss. I guess it was one of those days. Coinflips were pretty even, at least on good thing. So…I’m outta here, not feeling elated, but not feeling as down as this morning…which is a good thing…back to the grind again tomorrow….gl at the tables everyone…

That about sums up what’s been going on yesterday and today so far. Played headsup non-stop and got kicked in the junk non-stop. Everything started yesterday evening when I won my first match easily. Then things started to fall apart, fast. I lost the next three matches in rapid succession and I logged off. It’s just no fun when you get some premium hands and see them go down in flames. You raise preflop with QQ. Opponent calls. Flop comes down 7J7…you pray that your opponent has the jack…you bet big…he shoves…hmm…you call…he’s got the hammer and busts you. Good calling preflop. That’s about the only flop you could win money with. Other brutal hands included QQ vs KJ…sure enough K…JJ vs Q9…Q…etc etc etc. So I logged off and called it a night.

I thought I’d squeeze in a little afternoon session today, I shouldn’t have. I played fish after fish after fish. In a total of six matches I faced exactly one winning player (according to Sharkscope). How many matches did I win? 0. Honestly, I’m so tilted right now, I’ll log off right after this post and I’m not sure if I’ll return tonight or not. It was so bad. The chased me and chased me and sure enough they connected on the river. Brutal. The one guy called my down with any Ace high and any pair (even lowest pair on board with 4 overcards) and to add insult to injury he sucked out on the river in four big pots. Yeah, decision wise there’s nothing to complain about, he commited all his money with crap and got lucky. But results wise it sucks big time. In the last 10 matches I’ve gone WLLLLLLLLL, so 1-9. Not that unusual if you figure in the brutal beats I took, still has me on the edge of full blown tilt. So sick how some lucksacks can keep hitting on you with no end. Sick. Oh well, I’m out for now…better luck soon, hopefully, it can’t continue this way, no can it? Here’s to having a hand hold up in a big pot….and good luck at the tables everyone…