…:

1. Every hand you make is only second best…
2. Noone is giving you credit for your good hands, ultimately drawing out time and time again with incorrect odds
3. Examples for 1.: 79 in the BB flop 6-8-10 rainbow, turn x, river 10…opponent’s hand? 10-8o; K9 in the BB…flop 10-J-Q rainbow, turn and river x…opponent’s hand? AKo
4. Examples for 2.: 1010 EP, 5BB raise…one caller…flop 910x all spades, huge bet, call, turn x, huge bet, call, river x of spades…All-In…call…sure enough the dude is holding As9c – didn’t my huge bets make it clear that I had a hand…were the odds correct to draw to a runner flush? Probably not…; 88 in LP, 4BB raise, flop 8xx…you know the drill…turn: x…you know the drill…river Q…you know the drill….opponent’s hand? QQ…sigh…

But what can you do and now that this is off my chest I can breathe again. Why did I continue to play all that time? Because I was hoping to get lucky in the 5 billionth hand stuff on Stars…didn’t work out…no joy in getting dough off the table, no joy getting dough in the 5 billionth hand giveaway…ah well…at least I finally had a dqb-moment again..first in a very long time

…and I closed out the session with a SnG win at UltimateBet…so there’s that silver lining on the horizon again 🙂

…on a day with sunshine and success at the tables. Due to the nice weather and preparations for tomorrow’s party (open air, party into May 1st) not much poker today…just some ring games on FullTilt (won around 5 Buyins) and two turbo SnGs at PokerStars (one early exit and one second place)…on another note: first time ever I got dealt pocket Aces in consecutive hands…all four Aces in two hands (first AdAs, then AcAh)…and they held up both times, too. 🙂

Damn, today was like THE day for suckout artists. It seemed that every tourney table I sat at there was one player spinning gold, hitting every flop BIG time and/or sucking out at the end of the hand (turn or river). Too bad for me that this player wasn’t me until the last donkey SnG at the end of the session….so I’m still slightly down for the day, but at least some more cleared bonus money and the 1st place in the last SnG slowed down my fall a little…

Played a crazy mix of games today including crazy pineapple on UB (damn that game can be fun) , Stud and different cash and SnGs/MTTs of NL HE. Got the first nut kicking by getting outdrawn time and time in the Stud MTT on Stars, not to worry though, it was a donkey 1$ tourney, so you can’t expect much. No cashes in all the other SnGs on both FullTilt and Stars with the best finish being 4th (bubble boy) on Stars.

Then I decided that it was time to finally play a WWdN again….so I logged back on just in time and registered. My starting table included PokerChamp (aka TouristHater 😉 ), Chris (drewspop), Dan (denials – live blogging the event once again) and others…

I didn’t think that this starting table would be the last one for me, but unfortunately it was. Dumped some chips in the first orbit with KJ sooted, standard raise preflop, one caller…I hit the king…on the rainbow flop and fire out another 100….call…turn is a queen…I fire out another 100…call…River is another Queen… now I check and get popped 200…sure enough I call…can’t put my opponent on AQ there…thanks dealer for a runner runner set for my opponent. Down to just above 1000 within the first orbit, damn. Next hand I decide to play is Jh10h…I flop an OESD + Flush draw + gutshot straight flush draw (as far as I remember the flop came down 9h-Kh-8c)…opponent fires 80 on every round and I call it down not hitting anything, no straight, no flush and damn sure no straight flush…and I’m down to around 900 chips. Next orbit I’m sitting in the BB with 88…drewspop pops it up to 80 (blinds still 10/20)…I ponder and call…flop is all rags 7-5-2 or something…I fire out 100 to see where I’m at…he reraises to 300…so now I’m faced with the tough choice (call – doesn’t make too much sense as I would be commited anyway, fold – not really, push – ding ding)…I push and he shows AA….noooooooooooooo! So I’m out in 95th of 98. Why do I have to run into those damn bullets…I guess I should call Phil Hellmuth, maybe he can teach me how to dodge bullets 😉

Nothing working late in the 180s. Played one yesterday, made some moves busted out 96th. Today I played another one and built up my stack to well above average. Then I hold my precious AA again…pop it up preflop…two callers…flop comes down all spades…you guessed it, I don’t hold the As…checked to me…I fire another shell…one caller…turn is blank…checked to me…I check…river is blank…now he fires out 800…now I suspect I’m beat – bs I know I’m beat, but I’m on “I hold bullets and it can’t be true that they get cracked yet again, so I’m the sheriff for this hand”-tilt…sure enough he holds As5s…well…too bad he couldn’t lay it down preflop to a 4xBB raise…next hand is bs and I fold preflop…next hand I hold 66…all try to limp in, so I pop it up…3 callers…this table is full of calling stations, damn. flop comes down A-3-3…I fire a shell…short-stack pushes All-In (another 350 to call)…all others fold…I call and show my 66…he holds AA…[thanks poker gods for mocking me time and time again both with and against AA, thanks!]. So I’m down to 350 chips now and can’t believe what just happened….so I built my stack back up and I’m up to 5000k in three orbits…we’re down to the final 36 now, but no joy when my flopped Jack is dusted by a Queen on the turn…out in 29th.

Lesson learned: AA is from now on my personal nemesis. I’m fed up with this bs hand! 😉

Let’s see if I’m still awake at 2:30am, maybe I’ll join the WWdN again then…it’s been a while since a played the last one…

A day out of the “I shouldn’t have opened FullTilt today”-series…the complete opposite of yesterday, which equals losing all I won yesterday times 2. Nice, not. Damn! Losing boat over boat isn’t fun, seeing a guy getting his Aces cracked twice within one orbit (in a donk-masters turbo token satellite: once vs J10o, once vs KK; personally I busted out 10th…no token baby) was fun though, no replacement for my xxx lost BBs though…god bless that I’m playing strictly micro/low limits these days…side note: bankroll at FullTilt nontheless is down to an all-time low 🙁

Played some more shorthanded low limit ring games and what can I say: I had fun! All the cards that I haven’t seen in ages kept hitting me in the face (AA twice within 1 orbit, KK, QQ, 10-10) and they all held up…this is the side of variance that makes it enjoyable to play – at least while it lasts.

After winning an insane amount of BBs I broke two promises:

1. That I’m never ever going to play a 1$ SnG on Full Tilt again
2. That I’m not going to play a SnG/MTT until my exams are over

It didn’t hurt though and I can really recommend the 1$ SnG as the ultimate tilt-test – why? Because the play is so friggin awful that it’s almost not even funny anymore…if your mission is to not get on insta-tilt though, it’s both a really hard test and fun at the same time (watching all the donks playing Ace-rag like it’s gold at all times, calling All-Ins for a pot of 60 chips, etc)…I held off the tilt until we were down to three-handed – the implied tilt odds were just too damn high to no do it (I’m in the SB, the BB lost two hands to crap hands in a row)…didn’t work out, but I’m smiling nontheless as I write this…time to catch some sleep now…night night.

After the disappointing results of the last few days I decided that a change was in order:

1. Focus on low limit ring games, like I said yesterday
2. Focus on playing the game
3. Play a good game with good decisions without trying too hard
4. …try to have fun in the process

So I sat down at numerous shorthanded low limit tables at FullTilt tonight and I did well. I avoided the old “second best is da nuts” style of play and was able to double and triple up numerous times – sidenote: hitting some nice flops helped too, no doubt 😉

The last hand was a total twist of my luck, but it didn’t put me on tilt or anything, I just said to myself: enough for the day and that’s that. Scenario: I hold A7o in the cutoff, BB+1 raises to 3xBB, I cold call…the others fold…flop: 2h-7c-Ac…BB+1 leads out with 9xBB…now I think she’s probably holding a strong Ace and isn’t chasing the flush…re-raise All-In…sure enough she shows AK which is far behind atm…turn floats my boat as the Ah hits…now enter the twist: river is the Kc…giving her Aces full of Kings over my Aces full of sevens….wow…rivered by a 3 outer…oh well…you can’t win ’em all 🙂

…making bad decisions because of it or along with it (- as in “trying too hard”) is a whole other matter. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I’m running bad or if it’s just that my game is off atm, but I caught myself doing some pretty stupid things tonight: I have to get up early tomorrow, so only a short session (1 Shorthanded SnG at FullTilt, 1 180SnG at Stars and some ring games)…and I caught myself “taking shots” more often than I needed to – we all know that you will have to win some coin-flips (and/or touch hands) in order to reach the top of a poker tourney, but only if the situation is in your favour (or if you’re desperate or if you truely feel that you’re ahead…): so I catch myself calling a hand down with nothing but TP and sure enough the paired board made trips for someone…now this isn’t bad luck, this is stupidity! In another hand I call off my stack with AQ high…running into a small pair in the process…
I think I should get my game straightened out again and focus on playing better…it’s hard these days with my last exams at uni coming up (next wednesday and friday) and the corresponding stress-level rising…so the question is if I should be playing atm at all…I guess not really, but a little game here or there won’t hurt so I’ll focus on playing some micro ring games and no tourneys/SnGs until the exams are over 😉

…so this post is all about moaning – if you’re running good don’t read any further or my “bad luck” might rub off on you 😉
No matter what I touch these days, it all turns into crap. Played a Stars 180, flop my broadway, get crushered by a runner flush – out 148th. Nice way to start off a session. Change of scenery and game: FullTilt PLO8 ring game, I’m prepared to shout “Scoooop”, but either my hand get’s counterfeited or I even lose the whole hand (4 to the wheel on the flop, …no low)…sweet, bye bye 3 Buyins…

Back to Stars, another SnG, single table as the cheapo 180s aren’t running…J-9…flop 8-9-9…sure enough some CB holds A9…Ace on the turn (not that he needed it – just for good measure..) …damn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [And yes I know that calling his big bet at the river is/was questionable…he might as well have had a crap flush already made on the turn which would have had me beat…but I did put him on Ax…which was true, didn’t think it was A9 though…]

Alrighty…enough moaning for today…off to watch the latest episode of Las Vegas… 🙂