Played another DS to the sunday million tonight…patience at the first table is key, the donks are more than willing to hand you their chips, just gotta have the patience to wait for the right spot and you’ve got a good shot. I took out 4 out of 5 at the first table, even after being down to 500 chips early (losing a coinflip against a pushmonkey). The final table was brutal then. I was playing tight tight tight…just like everyone else, I for one didn’t do it on purpose though. Usually I would try to run over such a tight table in that spot, but it’s hard to do if you’re looking at 53o etc all the time. So I sat back and relaxed a little…once the blinds got bigger I finally had to resort to some all-in steals etc. The worked…but I couldn’t get anything going, not a single decent hand…once we were down to three I pushed…ran into a crap-flip 40/60 shot and lost…out in third…oh well…can’t complain here.

After that I donked around a little in the HU SnGs…and the game was brutal…I won my first match within 5 hands when my KJ on a KJx board was more than enough against my opponent calling a re-reraise-shove on that flop with K4o…well played sir….TPNK totally gold there…lol. In the next three matches it was cooler time. Flush into bigger flush…boat into bigger boat…nut flush into small boat…two pair into bigger two pair…you name it, I ran into it. Oh well, that’s how it goes sometimes…so I finish the session down, but down less than the rake…so I can live with that…

On another note: I finished reading Johnny Hughes’ book “Texas Poker Wisdom” yesterday…I gotta say a really good read, it made me smile a lot of times along the way with all the gamblers’ / poker players’ references by Old Cardslinger Matt…I can really recommend it…and I wonder if there’s going to be a sequel…

I have to check my shelf now as the poker reading material is starting to get slim…after all I have read a lot of stuff so far…I guess my next must read will be Doyle’s new book (autobiography?!)…if it is only nearly as entertaining as Amarillo Slim’s I will be a happy customer…alrighty…enough babbling…I’m outta here…gl at the tables everyone…

I really do like the double-shootouts these days. Played one tonight and what can I say….I win…another T$215 on a 8,8$ investment. I like! That’s 2 wins and 1 ITM out of the last 5 tries…heater? Could be…playing good…could be as well. No doubt about the fact that I was on a heater on the first table, which always helps…after all if you win the first table you can usually sit back and chill at the final table until the first player is knocked out and you’re ITM. So how was the heater at the first table? Pretty hot. Within the first 40 hands I had AA twice, KK twice, JJ twice, AK once and they all stood up. The only big pot was early on when my AK busted a player holding KTo on a K-high flop. With all the other hands I won small to moderate pots, still enough to keep me in the lead until it was three-handed. Then I went card-dead, surprise surprise, still managed to see some pots in position and finally bust my way to the W.

The final table is mostly a blurr. It took 97 hands (in contrast to the 69 of the first table) before I finally won it. The setup: I go into headsup down 2:1. I chip away and win a nice pot when my opponent obv missed his flush-draw. I win a few more small pots and suddenly I’m up 2:1. A few hands later we flip it QJo vs 77. Flop comes down KT2…I like that…any Q, J, A, 9…turn K…even more outs…any 9, T, J, Q, A…river 9 and I’m golden…T$ 215…ship it…boy I love it…so I’m outta here with a big fat grin on my face…gl at the tables everyone…

Put my tourney dollar to use today, tried to satellite into the Sunday Million again…had nothing going the first two tries (DS), almost lost it in the third one two. We’re down to three and I’m coolered, JJ vs 99 all-in preflop. I got him covered by a long shot…he manages to pull a two outer out of his head. I bust him not long after that nontheless. On the second table I’m sitting back until I find some hands. I knock out a few and sit pretty. Once we’re down to four shit hits the fan and I lose it all in two hands. The first one was pretty straight-forward, I look down at A7o in the cutoff. I raise it, BB pushes for about 1200 (I had raise the standard 600 at 100/200)…so I instacall…he shows presto and wins the hand. Presto obv g00t. Next hand I look down at A5o on the button. UTG fold, I push…SB instacalls…BB folds…he, who just doubled through me shows QQ…lemon. So I’m busto in fourth, good for 20, but still sucks. I watch how he goes on a tear and finishes the other two poor souls within 10 hands. Sometimes you’re just destined to win it…he was this time.

After that I logged off and watched some movies, nothing awesome to report there, I guess it’s going to be a while till the next real kickass movies come out (e.g. The Mummy 3)…so I switch back to some poker…and I get my ass handed to me for the most part. I still manage to win a 6-max, finish 2nd in a 6-max and win a 9handed turbo SnG…good enough to be slightly up for the night…and I’m out of here…gl at the virutal and real table, especially to the broggers still in the hunt for the donkus maximus (aka the WSOP Main Event)…

It’s been a while since I’ve been happy with the results of a poker-session. Tonight the long wait is finally over, finally won something again. Played a double-shootout to the Sunday Million (8,8$, 6max, 36 players; 1st = ticket). I think I was “destined” to win it. Why? Because I won the first table after 61 hands on a coin-flip (33 vs KQ), now don’t get me wrong, even if I lose that pot we’re back to even, so no worries about taking the flip…although I rarely won one when it matters recently…

The second table was starting out pretty rocky. Not surprising as 6th is bubble. So once we lost the first player play opened up a little. I sat back and waited for my chance, picking up some smaller pots along the way, c-betting after a preflop raise. Then I found pocket tens in LP and popped it. Setup: 3 players are about even (around 2.2k) including me, 2 are rather short (one less than 1k, one slightly above 1k). BB, one of the other big stacks, calls. Flops comes down ten-high with two diamonds. He checks. I lead at it with pot. He calls. Turn is an off-suit queen. He checks again. I bet pot again, commiting myself and putting him to a decision. He pushes over the top with around 250. I instacall. He shows Ad5d. Please no diamond! No diamond on the river and he’s crippled. I bust two players in the next two orbits and we’re down to three with one shorty. My opponent busts the shorty and we’re headsup.

Stab stab, jab jab. I think it was the fourth or fifth hand of hands up when I find KcQc on the button. I pop it, he calls. Flop comes down K-high with two spades. He checks, I bet, he calls. Turn offsuit 9. He checks, I bet, he pushes. Hmmm….I’m pretty much committed at that point and I think I have the best of it, call. He shows K9…f00k me, but at least I got outs with the board being KT89 – so any queen and jack…not much…but please baby, let me resuck one time. River Jack! Boooom! It seems sometimes there is justice in poker….so I’m up T$ 215 for that baby and out of here with a grin…

That pretty much sums it up. It was pretty unreal what kind of hands came down tonight and I’m not talking about “some coolers”, it was like it was anarctica day – going both ways. It started on bodog where I donked around a little on the HU-SnG-killing-fields. I toasted a donk twice, he literally had no chance, I mean it was pretty sick how he payed me off even with his worst hands. It took quite a while to bust him though as he kept hitting two and three outers on my ass, but oh well, a W is a W and such a W is even sweeter because I didn’t let it get to me during play (not calling shoves etc, but continuing to play small-ball until I busted him). Then I jumped to Stars where I started with A HU SnG as well, busted the guy pretty quickly.

In the end I finished the session with a Double-Shootout to the Sunday Million on Stars…and it was an interesting match. I got coolered in the mid stages of the first table, then coolered the player right back in the next hand (QQ vs AA…Q on the flop…boom)…in the end I won the table.

Then came the second table and while the table was tighter than a virgin’s punani to begin with, it tightened up even more once we were on the money bubble (8 left, 7 payed). That’s when this hand came down. In retrospect I guess I could have folded after the big-stack cold-called my raise and the following shove by the shorty, then again, if they are both drawing to a flush or hold TPTK or something I’m golden and the only way I’m out of the money is if the shorty wins the hand and the big stack has my hand beat and on the upside, if I win the hand I’m the chipleader by a long-shot and can start to bully ppl around bringing me closer to the 215T$. So I went with it. Made my boat on the turn, but too bad that the big stack indeed held a set…making him a bigger boat…oh well…

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: kent2ben ($1573)
Seat 3: bertbarndoor ($1692)
Seat 5: mistery31000 ($900)
Seat 6: dedor ($2495) –
Seat 7: zwerg12 ($2010) –
Seat 8: Ingoal ($1795) –
Seat 9: AnotherTran ($1210)
Seat 10: eltigre666 ($3325)

PRE-FLOP:

zwerg12 posts small blind $25
Ingoal posts BIG blind $50
Dealt To: Ingoal

RAISE AnotherTran ($100)
CALL eltigre666 ($100)
FOLD kent2ben
FOLD bertbarndoor
FOLD mistery31000
FOLD dedor
FOLD zwerg12
CALL Ingoal ($50)

FLOP:

Pot: $325
   

CHECK Ingoal
CHECK AnotherTran
BET eltigre666 ($300)
RAISE Ingoal ($600)
RAISE AnotherTran ($1110)
CALL eltigre666 ($810)
RAISE Ingoal ($1695)
CALL eltigre666 ($585)

TURN:

Pot: $5425
     

RIVER:

Pot: $5425
      

SHOWDOWN:
Ingoal:

eltigre666:

AnotherTran:

eltigre666 collected $1170 from side pot 1eltigre666 collected $3655 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $4825Main pot: $3655
Side pot: $1170
Rake: $0

Final Board:
     

Seat 1: kent2ben folded before Flop didnt bet – Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 3: bertbarndoor folded before Flop didnt bet – Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 5: mistery31000 folded before Flop didnt bet – Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 6: dedor button folded before Flop didnt bet – Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 7: zwerg12 small blind folded before Flop – Net Gain/Loss: ($-25)
Seat 8: Ingoal big blind showed [7d 4d] and lost with a full house, Fours full of Sevens – Net Gain/Loss: ($-1285)
Seat 9: AnotherTran showed [Ks As] and lost with two pair, Aces and Fours – Net Gain/Loss: ($-1160)
  
Seat 10: eltigre666 showed [5h 5s] and won 4825 with a full house, Fives full of Fours – Net Gain/Loss: ($3030)
  

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

So I’m logging off up a little…and I’m happy with that…gl at the tables….

That basically describes my Stud8-experience tonight. After busting out of a NL game early (again) I decided to switch gears. A Stud8-MTT seems to be the perfect fix and as one was starting right away, here I go. The first hour was nice, going in with the best coming out with the best…in between I was the chipleader and never lower than 5th in chips. Noice. Then the first break came…

After the break I had the worst 50 minutes of Stud8 IN MY LIFE. Sick, sicker, the sickest. Then back to sick again. Unbelievable. I mean it was ppl trying to give their chips away (chasing the second best hand one way…fighting to maybe win half the pot if they got lucky)…and lucky they got rivering me thrice on seventh with 5 outs or less…pretty sick. But oh well, that’s how it goes…as we all know donkeys always draw…especially in limit. So I’m out in 42nd and still pretty sick about it. Nothing you can do though, so I’m off for the night and steaming…hope you have better luck at the tables…

…complaining about coolers…but then again, I just can’t stand it when I play for almost 1.5 hours…flawless poker…then I run into a cooler on the bubble. The first hand I played at the final table too…I raise it up UTG…get called in one spot…sure enough he fires after I check it to him….I shove…insta-call…and cya…sigh…

Well, well…just a little poker session again…two PLO8 matches, 1W 1L. After that I was pretty bored and saw that there were DS satellites for tomorrow’s WCOOP event #1. 8,8$ a pop with 36 players, first get’s the ticket, 2nd to 4th get 20$, 5th 13$…good deal, let’s get it on.

The first table was easy…always nice to hold a cooler early on and have someone push into the nuts. I held AA on the button…LP pops it…I repop him, he pushes…I call…he shows KK…rockets hold up. Nice. A few orbits later a really loose push-happy donks raises 5BB preflop…I look down at the s00ted K8 in the bb and decide to call…if I flop gin I have all his chips, if not I fold and lost 150 chips. Flop comes down three diamonds…gin…I lead out and he does as expected…push…insta-call…he’s drawing dead…cya….I bust another player and then my headsup opponent when my JJ holds up…

I waited for the final table to start and once it did I made sure I chilled out until the first one busted. I still picked up a nice pot early on with a little flush over flush hand…and once the first player busted I sat pretty, second in chips. Once we were down to three-handed I made my first mistake pushing TP into an overpair (KK)…I sucked out on the river…new chipleader: me. I busted the third player and we were headsup. My opponent wins a few hands and he’s the chipleader. Grrrr….I make the next mistake by pushing K3 into K9…d00minated…3 on the flop and I’m monster-chipleader again. Ouch….that was the same player with the Kings cracked on the river. I double him up again. I’m still in the lead and when I look down at presto…I decide to pop it and call his push…presto gold and I’m the winner…

As I can’t play in the event tomorrow I unregistered…

Uuuuuuuh W$…not good…I could use them to buyin into one of the WCOOP events I intended to play (e.g. Razz), but then again…who knows if I’ll be able to play…so no use having them sit around in my account (too bad it wasn’t T$ then I would have used them to play SnGs again)…so I look around for a place to sell the W$ and the best spot I found was the pokernews exchange…and all I can say is: praise, the transaction took under 5 minutes and I’ve got the money (89% = 191,35$) in my account.

So…all in all a wonderful session for me and a nightmare for my headsup opponent…no chance in hell is what he had…and I know that it wasn’t because of my flawless play, but because I got lucky in two big hands (76o vs KK, K3 vs K9), which means he got unlucky as hell…oh well…I’ll take it (and whine like crazy the next time shit like this happens to me) 😉

…in other news: spent another 500FPP for a black PokerStars shirt…now I can switch between my PPA, FullTilt and PokerStars shirts for my live appearances…wheeeeeee….

…are even worse than SnG fish, if you lose to them, you usually lose more than you normally would in a SnG. Well, I played a little .5/1 Razz tonight and it was brutal. People were trying so hard to give away their money (capping it on 5th street two cards behind (double paired)) and catching every god friggin time while I bricked up. So sick. After I dropped my buyin, I was so mad that I really thought hard about quitting for the night.

In the end, I didn’t. I fired up some SnGs (ranging anywhere from 5 to 20$) in both NL and PLO and I did pretty good (won 4 out of 5), although some of the fish got so lucky that I was almost incomprehensible (AQ vs A3…board 3xAx3, etc etc). I didn’t let it get to me though and crushed all but one of them in the long run. So…after three hours of poker I finish the session down 0.05$, lol, not all that bad after dropping almost 30$ in Razz and SnG-juice…

…or aren’t they? Well, tbh, I finished the session a bit down, but at least I didn’t get too many unreal suckouts, more “normal” suckouts, which feels like things are looking up.

I started the session of with the usual headsup matches and I couldn’t catch anything, my steals worked not nearly as much as they would need to carry me through my card-deadness, so there’s not much I could do. Just brutal to see a donk misplay hand after hand after hand and there’s nothing you can do about it. Why? Because he’s hitting TPNK eight times in a row and won’t fold, not ever. Just brutal.

So after that I decided to switch it up a little and played a double-shootout to the sunday million. We started the table with 6 players, which I really liked. As it was no turbo, I didn’t play many hands early, unlike some of the other guys. They kept firing like crazy which I just can’t understand. With 15 minute levels there is so much play left, especially early, so why risk unreal amounts of chips stealing the blinds (30 chips)? Oh well…they payed a dear price for that and so soon enough we were four handed and I didn’t play a single hand yet.

Once I get some hands going I chip up quite a bit and once the fourth player is knocked out I got my hands full. Three handed, time to get something going. Didn’t work out that well. JJ vs A5 s00ted…nut-flush on the turn…I managed to lose the minimum there. Some orbits of up and down and I finally ran my middle- and bottom-pair into top- and bottom-pair. Oh well.

After that, I played some more headsup and managed to win four out of five. Honestly, it should have been five out of five, but I let this donk get to me. I really handed his ass to him and was up 2.2k/800 after the first twenty something hands. Then he started to push, a lot. Normally I would applaude him for doing that, but not this time. I made a little fun of him as I waited for a monster to bust him. Bad thing the monster never showed up and soon enough we were back to even. He still over-raised a lot and it’s just tough to play back with 49, 37 and 28o…my usual holding in those spots. Once I decided to push back with QT s00ted, he didn’t even blink before instacalling with A6o…I can understand him, A6o is the nuts after all….lol….

So…a little down for the night, but at least I saw a little progress in coming back around to the “normal luck level”…that’s fine with me…I’m out…