Weird to write about yet another home game…after a few months of not playing live at all it was the second time in two weeks that we met to play a home game. This time only five players showed up though…and not in time either…gotta love it when you’re the only one on time…*lol*…insta-tilt…it didn’t get much better after that…bad beat city followed by cooler city. It was the first time that we played a single rebuy format. I dusted of my original stack when my Queens got cracked, then my TP was no good, then my AQ lost to K5, etc etc…gotta love it when ppl call of 33% of their stack (it was a shorty) preflop with K5…but wait…it was s000000000ted….oh well….so I rebuy and chip up quite nicely. Then, just when I was about to get even (original stack + rebuy stack) I run into the noice cooler…too bad I was on the wrong side of it…I’m on the button with Th8h….s00ted one gapper, I like…cutoff bumps it preflop…I call…we see the flop of QT8 rainbow headsup. Cutoff leads out pot…I shove…he thinks for a while then calls…flips over QT….nice…NOT….oh well…

After that the game went on for a few more minutes before the lucksack of the day won it. After that most of the players left and it was still early. What to do with only two players? Yeah, cue the NBC NHUC music….”heeeeeads up”…so we play a little headsup match and after a long match I win it. It was pretty unreal and honestly I should have lost the match straight up. Every time I had second pair, my opponent had top pair. Every time there was an ace on the flop, he had one…etc etc…it was pretty fugly. BUT I was able to suckout in three crucial pots to seal the deal. The scary part was that the hands went down exactly the same way twice and almost the same the third time.

The hands were Kx vs Ax on a AKx flop…turn blank…river K. Ka-ching. The next one was J9 vs KQ on a QJx flop….turn J…river blank. The last one was J9 again vs AQ this time…QJx flop…turn J…river blank. Scary…but I’ll take…I’m off…gl at the tables everyone…

Do you know the feeling when you’ve played a lot of poker and then you suddenly take a break and you don’t have the urge to come back? I feel like that these days and while recent results both online (WCOOP satellite) and live (home game tourney win) have been good, I still find myself not playing. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve played a little a headsup match here and there, won the last x ones without a single loss btw, but I still don’t feel like playing more….I guess I need a new goal in poker as the same old “boring” grind isn’t cutting it anymore, at least not these days. Maybe I should check back to see what my goals were at the start of the year, it seems that it’s been ages since then and I didn’t have a second look. Or maybe I should just set a new goal without going back…hmmm….meditate on this I will…until then gl at the tables everyone…

It’s been ages since we had our last home game and it was about time that we got together again to sling some cards. It didn’t feel like the old home game though as some of the long-standing members lost their drive and didn’t show up for tonight’s game (or the last few home games for that matter). We were still able to get 7 players and so we started off our regular tourney format, but only with a single table. Oh well, could be worse. In the beginning a mate of mine ran like the poker god himself. Every other hand he had a monster (either preflop or on the flop) and found someone who had a decent second best hand. So he took the chiplead early while I looked down at abysmal hand after abysmal hand. Oh well, sit tight until the blinds go up and then start some action. So that I did and I slowly chipped away at the others winning small to medium pots in the process.

Before long I was the chipleader having the early chipleader (aka mr. running like the poker god himself) covered by a lot. Then the clinching hand went down. We’re four handed, 3 in the money (don’t ask), and I look down at AhTh. The estimated chip counts are me 45% of the chips in play, early chipleader 25% of the chips in play and the rest divided between the shorter stacks. Early chipleader is in the small blind. UTG folds and I pop it on the button with my AT s00000ted. Early chipleader in the SB calls, BB folds. Flop comes down A89 rainbow. Early chipleader pushes. I instacall…putting him on a pair, def not a set – he would try to milk it – def not a straight draw – he would lowball that as well (good to have reads on your opponents, lol). So we flip up our cards and he shows pocket tens. Nice…he’s drawing to one out or runner runner straight for a chop. I like my chances here. Turn bring a 7. Ooooh the tension. River is the often called for deuce and I’m the monster chipleader with 70% of the chips in play and we’re in the money. From there it doesn’t take long for one of the shorties to bust the other and we’re headsup. As my opponent is a rather inexperienced player I decide to go with a small-pot-strategy. It works out to perfection as I win small pot after small pot. I won some medium pots too as I connected to the flop sometimes, sometimes even really hard: I’ve got 96 s000ted on the button and I raised to 4BB. I get a call and we see a flop of 9d6h9h. Yatzee! She checks, I check. Turn bring another diamond and I’m thinking, please have a flush-draw and let the flush get there one time. River is a total blank and I try to milk it a little, but don’t get a call. Boooo! But oh well….soon enough I’m up 12:1 in chips and the end comes as I push in on a flop of 234. I hold 25o against A8. Turn is a blank and river is another deuce and I take it down. Nice!

After that another player arrived and we started our “second chance” tourney (with half the buyin of the main game). I didn’t catch any cards and the action was crazy. So I decided to go with my first real hand I would get. That happened in the third blinds level. I look down at JJ on the button. Jacks are okay, right? Nah…but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. So…and MP player limps, LP player limps, I pop it, all but the two limpers fold and we see a flop of T88 with two clubs. Checked to me. Hmm…I bet two thirds of the pot. MP player calls. LP player pushes. Bummer. So I got the nagging feeling that I gotta be beat here. Someone’s gotta have the eight or a bigger overpair. Hmm..I look down at my chipstack, then at the chipstack of the LP pusher, then at the chipstack of the MP caller that is yet to act. Oh brother, I should have checked my stack and the others earlier.

I’ve got the pusher covered by a longshot, but the MP player yet to act has me covered. Caught in the middle. What if the MP player has got a ten here…then I can bust him and lose the smaller pot to the pusher if he’s got an eight. What if it’s the other way around. Honestly, I didn’t even think that hard and long…after all the pot was that big and one way or the other I felt like I had commited myself (mathematically I had done it by my cbet after the flop checked to me) – but honestly, even if you’re commited mathematically, is it right to throw in your last chips with a feeling that you’re almost dead? Not really, but I did it anyway…it’s the home game second chance tourney after all and hey, maybe they’re out of line anyway. So I push and get instacalled by the MP player. So we turn up our hands and they’re: MP – AA….yikes….LP – 82o….lol…nice call preflop :p …me JJ…turn brings a deuce to give mr 82o a boat…still need a J…river is a blank and I’m busto. Oh well….can’t win ’em all 😉

So…I’m outta here…maybe I’ll be back with some online poker stuff next week as I doubt that I’ll get in some hands during the remainder of the weekend…so, until then…gl at the tables everyone…

After winning a satellite to the 2008 WCOOP, deciding not to play in a two day 530$ tourney after all and selling the W$ at a good price, I thought I’d do something that I hadn’t done in a long time – withdraw some dough. So I jump into PokerStars cashier and try to request a withdrawal…all good there…what isn’t good though is that the withdrawal option is somewhat limited: as I did some of my deposits via Neteller back in the day and getting money out to MasterCard isn’t an option the cashier window tells me that amount x will automatically go to my Neteller account and that I can redistribute the rest of the withdrawal to other options.

Not so good, after all I stopped using Neteller a while ago. But wait, the cashier window also tells me that I should get in touch with support if any of the withdrawal options was outdated (e.g. due to closing an account, e.g. Neteller). Okay, sounds good…so I contact support, they get back to me asking for confirmation that they should mark my Neteller account as outdated (and hence unusable in the future)…I tell them to do just that and I’m free to request a withdrawal to whichever other option they offer. So, I settle for the very convenient offer to transfer the dough via Direct Bank Transfer….and bingo four days later my bank account does the little ka-ching sound and the money is there. Now that’s what I call customer service. Now, I think it should be normal for the (paying) customer to have his/her money whenever, whereever he/she pleases, but we all know that’s not the norm – at least not with all the sites, not even the “major players”. So I can only applaud PokerStars for doing it’s name proud…praise where praise is due…

I’m out of here…no real new poker content here…had no time to play a single hand in the last few days and honestly didn’t feel the urge to play either…maybe I’ll get some playing time in during the week and/or this upcoming weekend…we’ll see….until then, gl at the tables everyone…

I’m really exhausted after some of the best poker in my life…so just a quick pic dump…W$ anyone? I’ve never sold those before (I sold T$ before on pokernews)…Edit: I did the trade using psswap.com this time, they offered the best rate at 92% and the transaction was painless…fill in form…request trade via pokerstars…wait…two minutes later…boom….done…. 😀

I’m outta here tired but smiling…