Sticking to things that you’re accustomed to isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes it can be a real PITA. My day in poker is told fairly quickly today. Started off with a token satellite. Bad idea, once again my strong Ace ran into Aces within the first orbit – I should start to keep track of such things, what are the odds of your opponent holding pocket Aces when you’re holding one? Whatever the odds are, it seems that it’s happening more often than you think, especially when I’m holding a big ace.

After that quick bustout I decided to cool things down with the 17ET 1$ tourney, always nice to try some new things for a buck. A standard play broke my back though. I find pocket Aces in EP within the first orbit and pop it up to 3xBB, 2 callers, this could be fun! Flop comes down 9-7-3 rainbow. Checked to me, I bet the pot, one fold, one reraise to 2x pot…I think about it and if he flopped a set, so be it…I push…he calls…sure enough my gut feeling was right and he doesn’t hold a set…he’s holding TPSK (yup, that’s top pair shit kicker) – 96s in this case. To make a long story short: 6 on the turn and IGHN. Way to go, cracked Aces with 96…argh!

After that I was a little frustrated – to say the least. I wanted to spend some time (and little money) playing a decent amount of poker. As this plan didn’t work out I decided to play some ring games. Everything fine at the .05/.10 NL HE front and I quintuple up in no time. Which makes me think: Maybe it’s time to move up in limits again. This time with a better bankroll behind me (after all I more than tripled up my deposit since starting to play at Full Tilt less than a month ago). So I head to the .10/.25 NL HE games and play around a dozen orbits. I leave down a little, but not much. To change things up a little bit more I play some limit Hold’em (.25/.50) too, with not much success as the draw donkeys just keep outdrawing me.

So, why the post title “change of plan”? Because I decided that I’ll quit playing SnGs and MTTs for a while. I mean it’s all good and I did fairly well in MTTs and some SnGs, but overall I just can’t get through. So the new plan is to spend the extra poker time grinding it out at the cash tables – at the new limit of .10/.25 – until my bankroll is a little bit bigger. Then I’ll try to hit some of the bigger buyin MTTs and/or SnGs (10$+) and maybe I’ll even try to win my way into the WSOP then – the whole 100 WSOP seat tourney (July 16th) is just too tempting, especially if you could achieve satelliting into the thing.

I guess there are days when you should leave the different PokerSites rest for a day, especially when you’ve been fixing a server melt-down most of the day.

A lesson learned…played one SnG at Full Tilt…running good….sucked out on…then didn’t get it yet, so played another one at PokerStars…we’re down to four-handed…I battled myself to the chiplead…and I’m looking to win this thing (top 3 payed)…A10o on the button…enough to bully around a shortstack in the BB…sure enough he pushes…I call…he shows AA…what else is new? Two hands later I look down at a suited King and push again…huge stack calls…shows his Ace…ding Ace + OESD for me on the flop…no joy though…out in fourth…off to catch some sleep now…good luck to all of you in the WWdN and good fight, good night to Kat and Veneno (2nd match is tonight)…hopefully Waffles will post a recap 😉

…playing at PokerStars. After busting out of my first deposit a while ago, I reloaded to play in Waffles’ tourney last night. I donated the first 11$ to a worthy cause, so I’m in need of some grinding to get myself into better shape again. So, I played a little low limit NL HE this afternoon (winning 5 buyins) and one session this evening (losing 1 buyin). I guess I’ll try to get some more afternoon sessions in at PokerStars and check if the results are really that much better compared to the evening/night sessions or maybe the results will tell me that today was just a glitch in the matrix 😉

Nothing spectacular at FullTilt either, grinded some bucks out of some poor souls’ back…would have been even more if my AQo wouldn’t have lost to AsKs on the river (Q on the flop, another Q on the turn, but unfortunately already two spades, river is another spade)…but overall a good day.

Due to the massive network outage of FullTiltPoker Waffles’ birthday bash has been moved and rescheduled. New venue is PokerStars, it starts in less than an hour (9pm ET) check the private tab…password is: wafflesrocks

Side note: So I bit the bullet and reloaded on PokerStars…and I’m in…16 20 22 26 players so far…should be fun…

Side note #2: Couldn’t think of a cool bounty, so I’m not putting one up for this one…sorry 🙁

Edit: Nothing much going my way…card dead…then I look down at 99…push…two callers (TraumaPoker 10h-10 and STeelerJosh K-10)…four heats on the board and IGHN…17th place of 26. So my PokerStars “hotstreak” continues…back to grinding it out I guess….nontheless a fun game…and HAPPY BIRTHDAY WAFFLES!

Forgot to post earlier on. Just a single token SnG today, finished 6th out of 18…so no token and no joy…got short-stacked….busted out in 6th…rivered by a 7…need I say more?

Hopefully more joy tomorrow in Waffles’ birthday bash tourney aka SirOldMan’s Tiltfest…cya there…

Side note: Just came back from a mate’s 30th birthday party…nice to wait for a cab for like 1.5h just to catch a bus, sit down, see the taxi arrive just as the bus is taking off…then get off the bus at the nearest location to home and walk through freezing cold weather in ankle-high snow…hmm…joy…NOT… 😉

No poker yesterday due to exam preparation (exam was this morning, went well). Little poker today. I was grinding out some dough on the low limit NL HE tables. Not much profit, but at least I cleared another few bucks of the signup bonus – 40% cleared now.

Bounty Hunting: This sunday it’s Waffles’ birthday tourney and fellow bloggers/players are starting to offer bounties (see Waffles’ post about it)…I’m still trying to figure out what I will offer…maybe I’ll come up with a good idea tomorrow…enough brain-work for the day already…so this will have to wait until tomorrow.

Quick brainstorm left me with the following so far (not sure if it’s going to be something out of this list yet):

1. A poker book (i.e. Tales from the Tiltboys, Little Green Book, …)
2. A poker DVD (i.e. Rounders)
3. Something online related (then again Kat is already offering a custom banner/sidebar graphic)
4. Something personal (i.e. a special T-Shirt or something, I’ll have to come up with a practical solution though as shipping from Germany to the US (etc) would cost too much…maybe CafePress or similar will do..)
5. Something not related to poker at all

After spending the whole day revising for my first uni exam of the semester (in a series of 4 exams which are my last ones at uni, yeah!) I thought to test the waters of the two table token SnGs again (6$+0.60$, top 4 get a token, 5th gets 4 bucks back). After logging into FTP I check the HE tables first and saw that Mike Matusow was really 4 tabling – 2 full tables, 2 short handed all $10/$20 NL…he was joined by other pros (David Singer and John Juanda)…cool stuff…above my current limit though:

After watching for a while I jumped into a token satellite and I don’t know what it is, but I’m running good atm. Not so much when it comes to card luck, at least not more than usual, but in the way I play. Maybe it’s my reassessment of some aspects of my game and my better understanding of some (crucial) aspects of the game in different settings (including but not limited to: 1. Trust instincts, period. 2. Loosen up just enough to not blind myself down all the time in MTTs/SnGs 3. Switch gears, especially in faster games (SnGs)…etc etc). Whatever it is, it works. No boring hand histories or bad beat stories this time, just some facts and one interesting hand. Most interesting hand of the night: I look down at QQ in the SB…BB+2 pops it up to 2xBB…button calls…I cold call as BB+2 is a maniac and button is a total rock (so that might be KK/AA there)…BB folds…so we’re three handed and looking at a AA7 flop…check all around…turn is another 7…I check…maniac checks…rock on the button bets 800…now I trust my instincts here and lay it down…maniac cold calls…hmm…this is interesting…we’ll see why…river is a J…maniac checks…rock on the button bets another 1k…maniac cold calls (probably feared an Ace too)…showdown…see below…interesting to see three big pocket pairs (JJ+QQ+KK) + AA on the flop in a single hand…crazy…

Second interesting hand (without a screenshot), we’re still sitting 6 handed, I’m 4th in chips and look down at 99 in the SB…folded around to me…I pop it up to 900 (3x BB), BB calls…flop comes down 9-J-x, I check…BB checks…hmm…turn comes another blank I check…BB pushes All-In…I had a feeling that my trips was good there…call for all my chips (he has me covered by over 2k)…he shows A-x…river brings his Ace, but no help and I double up…I’m in the chiplead and cruise into the money (or the tokens ;-))…cool. So I’m 1/2 since winning my last token. Nice!

Now to the latest pimpage: like you might have already read on veneno’s blog or on waffles’ blog itself…Waffles birthday is approaching, so there will be a tourney at Full Tilt Poker in his honor. See the following banner for all the infos…

Apart from the usual NL HE fun with all your favourite bloggers there will be added excitement as there will be bounties and all – I already told Waffles that I’m going to offer a bounty on my head, too. Just need to think of something…so…be there or be square!!!

Tonight brought the opportunity to put my hard earned 26$ token to use. I entered the Double Stack 6k guarantee tourney at 14ET. I didn’t take proper notes, so no real play for play, but let’s just say that the double stack start with a normal blind structure really helps my tight game. So I was able to pick my spots and hovered in the top 50 for most of the time. One particular hand was news-worthy though, I cracked Aces with pocket 6s, all the money went in after the flop, initiated by the guy holding pocket 4s (poor guy) reraised by me and called by Mr. Aces (even poorer guy):

In the second hour I was joined by “Scary Lady“.

Nice. At the second break we were still at the same table and doing fine. I don’t remember exactly when Joanne went out, but she was rather card dead and becoming shortstacked quickly…so she busted out in 43rd – 16 from the money. Shoot, I would have loved to play with her at the Final Table. Moving on…in the third hour I made an almost critical error which caused me half my stack: I chased…in my defense: after the flop I had outs and his min-raises didn’t suggest he had the flush or an Ace for that matter…I should have known better, but what can you do when the “he doesn’t have the ace”-bug bites you?

So I was facing elimination with the bubble approaching, lucky enough I caught some decent cards to make the money. Up and down afterwards, but never able to get ahead of the massive blinds and antes (1500/3000, 400 ante)…so I went out in 13th place.

Just one spot from the next payment level, so I won a whooping $66,96. I gotta say I love this tournament structure and all, but roughly 67$ for a finish 4 from the final table (playing roughly 3.5h)? You gotta be kidding me. I mean the final table combined pays 85.6% of the price pool (279 players entered, so the price pool is 6.696$) – nice if you’re sitting there, but not if you bust shortly before it starts (especially if you’re considering the 26$ buyin).

But hey…I played my A-game and the final table was in reach, so no need to bitch and moan 😉 Next step: get my hands on some more tokens! 🙂

Not much time to play today as I’ve got a uni exam coming up on friday – so I better get my lazy behind into gear and away from the poker tables. After spending the day with the books it was time for a little poker tonight though….so I fired up FTP and play some NL HE ring game, got my hands on some bucks and went on to try to get my hands on another token. No joy there though as I busted out in 11th place. That officially makes me 1/6 now…I guess it’s time to reassess my SnG play, especially when it comes down to short handed play (either final table or final two tables).

After the disappointment I thought I’d give HORSE another try, but no joy there either. H: uneventful, O: nice, but only 1 pot and even lost a pot with AA double suited when my 78 was the idiot end of the straight on board, R: yuck…no..a King on 5th street doesn’t help me, S: good, but no big pots, E: IGHN…out 8th of 8. Hmm….
So I’m down some bucks again and it’s time to get some of that back, so NL HE ring games it is, again. Not much to report, got back to almost even for the day. Listened to the last Lord Admiral Card Club Podcast in the process – Dr. Pauly interviews Wil, Columbo’s one minute mystery and discussion about Zee Justin’s cheating…a nice episode! Go get it: Episode 64

…mostly watching it though.

Just played some ring games and one SnG today (finished even in the ring games, bubbled in the SnG, so slightly down for the day). Apart from that I watched poker:

1. The first match for the title of “HU Goddess” between Yosoyveneno aka Poison and Katitude which ended abruptly with Veno turning quad 4s to crack Katitude’s boat. Wow! So it’s Veneno 1-0 Katitude with two matches to go! Read more about it: Veneno’s post and Sir “Don King of Poker” Waffles’ post
2. Tonight I watched the tourney entitled “Suckout on Leukemia” on FTP (initiated by the guys/gals over at fulltiltforum.com)…152 players entered the 10$+16$ tourney including pros Jen Harman, Andy Bloch, John D’Agostino, Rafe Furst and Erik Seidel…a lot of bloggers showed up too, including but not limited to: Garthmeister (who finished 8th while busting out one of the initiators to claim a nice FTP jacket), Boobie Lover, MrsCantHang, Joanne, SirFWalGman, Spaceman, change100, Daddy and many more! Nice to see what some people can put together for a good cause! I would have loved to play too, but I missed it by some minutes…I’ll probably try to get some contact info to contribute something in another way….