Woohoo! Earlier than expected we meet again today to play our regular home game. I’m really excited to get back at the tables after last time’s quick and unsatisfying exit. Let’s see if the cards fall my way today 😉

So, we found our way to the next home game tonight…bbq followed by a nice poker session. We played our regular NL HE tournament and with 12 players showing up, we split up to two tables of 6 players. Shorthanded play, not bad. I played three hands in the whole tourney…I was ahead in all three hands and suffered one junk kicking after the next. Not a single win and I’m ahead at all times until the turn/river….bad luck describes it best, I guess…

Hand 1:

A8 MP, raise preflop…one caller…flop 8-10-Q rainbow…I lead out and bet half the pot…call..turn is blank…I lead out and bet half the pot…call…river 9…I lead out and bet half the pot…call…opponent shows: 67o…straight….nice…NOT

Hand 2:

910s…I bet preflop…one caller…flop comes down A910…I lead out again…call…turn A…now I’m worried…but I can’t lay this down, I need to bet to find out if he’s got the Ace…call…river is blank…now I check and he bets about 1/8th of the pot…easy call…sure enough he shows A3o…nice…NOT

Now I’m shortstacked (around 1/3 of my starting stack) and I’m steaming…next hand I’m in the BB…

Hand 3:

I look down at my cards and find KK…nice 🙂 …I wait to see what happens and the Button calls, the SB calls…it’s on me and I raise All-In…Button ponders and ponders and calls…SB folds…he shows: A8o….now if an Ace comes down I won’t be disappointed, after all this is poker…it can happen…but that’s not the way it or me is going down:

Flop: 6-7-10…turn 10…river: 9…two pair kings and tens loses to straight…and I’m out of the tourney….

Wow, how unlucky can you be? Damn! Ah well…at least I finished 2nd in the side game which was played parallel to the final table of the main tourney, so I’m only slightly down for the night (and still way ahead overall), but it still hurts to go out early without doing anything wrong (?!)…ahead till the turn/river and then no joy – side note: I lost the final hand of the sidegame QJ vs 10-8, flop and turn are blank…river 8 and IGHN…I guess it just wasn’t my night… 😉

On the bright side there’s always another time to play and so I won’t lose any sleep about my early exit tonight…

So, we found our way to Stuttgart again to play our regular home game. Ten players showed up, so we decided to play our regular No Limit Hold ’em tournament – 5 players at each table, top 3 to the final table. I managed to get to the final table, yet again, 4th in chips overall…after some battles back and forth we finally were down to 2 players, a mate of mine (Armin) and myself…we did our best to battle back and forth too and with the increasing blinds we were forced to force the action rather sooner than later. In the end my 2d-4d took down the final pot as I flopped a pair of deuces to beat Armin’s Q6o.

Newsworthy hands of the evening that I witnessed (and/or play in myself):

• Last hand before the final table: Q6o vs Q9o…three nines on the board along with two tens…quads over full house…
• QQ (me) vs A6o (Bianca) vs KJo (Dino) – flopped trips…dodge the flush bullet on the river to take down a nice pot…
• 99 (me) vs 1010 (Armin) – tens stood tall
• 4c5c vs J6o – turned trips for me
• 2d4d vs Q6o – final hand

Overall yet another nice evening with some good poker! Winning the whole thing didn’t hurt either 😉

Forgot to mention that one of the gifts I received was a gift certificate for my own “poker survival kit” consisting of a four colour deck of 100% plastic copag cards, a bottle of Jaegermeister and a Cohiba cigar…oooh…can’t wait to get that stuff…one for me (cigar) two for all of us (Jaegermeister + 4 colour deck)…nice one…here’s an edited scan of the certificate:

Hopefully the stuff will arrive till saturday – the date of our next live tourney 🙂

I’m about to head out to the home game in a bit, should be fun like always, so no online poker for me today. Let’s see how many people will come out tonight, I guess it’ll be anywhere between 8 and 18. Wish me luck…

Edit: Nice turnout tonight, 13 players entered the main game (tournament style)…was able to hold my own as usual and in a critical situation I was able to bust some balls. As there were 13 players we split the game to two tables. I was sitting at the table with 7 players and we were down to 5 handed (we decided that 3 players from each table would be at the final table): the blinds are pretty massive at the time and one shortstack calls the BB, I push over the top all in (“only” around 4xBB) with 3 players yet to act…two more callers….shortstack calls too…so we’re in a four-way pot with three players all-in (including me)…we show: AJo (me) vs 44 (shortstack in LP) vs JJ (bigstack in EP) vs K7s (shorstack #2 in EP)…flop comes down 88x, turn is a beautiful ace and I almost quadruple up, busting two players in the process – so the final table can start.

In the beginning we all counted our chips and I’m in 2nd chip position…that changes rather quickly as I lose a big pot with top pair to a low two pair hand. Then I look down at Qh10h in LP…two limpers, so I decide to push (4x BB)…one caller who shows A5o….sure enough there’s an Ace on the flop and IGHN. So, once again at the final table, but not ITM (top 4 ITM)…nontheless a great evening of good poker!

Sidenote: Best hand shown tonight: four of a kind 4s…”best hand” of the evening has got to goto the final hand of the sidegame (heads up) though – I didn’t play as the sidegame was paralllel to the final table – player in the SB pushes All In, BB ponders and calls…SB shows AdKd, BB shows Jd7d…wow…flop comes down Jh-8d-5d, turn: Jc, river: 7h…wow…what a hand…

The first home game of the new year was played in Stuttgart tonight. 10 Players entered, all bought in for the same amount (no rebuys or add-ons allowed), two tables were formed in a random seat draw and it was decided that the final three of each table would merge to form the final table. Payouts would be: 1st = 60%, 2nd = 30%, 3rd = 10%. I managed to sneak into the final table without playing any real major hands (although I won a nice pot early on when my K-K won against Q-Q on a 9 high board with a pair and a flush draw). I was pretty shortstacked (with < 10% of the chips)...the first hand I looked down at was A-Jo and I pushed...one caller...who showed a pair of 9s. The Ace on the flop doubled me up. From there on it's quite a blur, but soon enough we were down to 3 and I was able to steal some blinds before that to put me in a better position. Not as good as my two opponents though as they held a combined (estimated) 80% of the chips. I won a pot or two and finally the two big stacks clashed, busting one out...so I was still the short stack, but 30% won already. Nice...then it was a long heads up battle, which I finally won when my suited Ace found help on the board vs a small pair. So I won, w00t! 60% of the price pool...cha-ching. Although it was really early already (2:30am) we decided to play a smaller second round with the buy-in cut in half...five players wanted a shot and we decided to pay out: 1st - 80%, 2nd - 20%...we were down to there pretty quickly (1.5 orbits) and I look down at As-Ks in the BB...I push folded around to the SB who ponders and calls...he shows 9-9...I don't improve and I'm out in 3rd place. Not a biggie though as I already took down the W of the first tourney, so I'm happy as the two remaining players battle back and forth...after some 1h of play (?!) it's finally over and we can make our way home...just walked through the door...5:30am now...need to catch some sleep now....Night night...

So we meet up for a private home game today and decided to play No Limit Hold’em. We were 9 players and I was literally card dead most of the whole thing, so all I could do was make a move every now and then and wait for some better cards – and that never happened (I held one ace throughout the whole game (A-7) which didn’t connect on the board 🙁 ), so I went out early, which really was the first time in ages that I dropped out early. The play dragged on and I waited for the second game to start, but the current round just wouldn’t finish…until finally the bubble broke (top 3 payed) and the play was a little bit more aggressive, going back and forth.

After the round was finished I was eager to play the second round in which all but one player entered, so we were down to 8. I was able to pick up some blinds every now and then and got some good hands, too (10-10, J-J, K-Q (which held up!), …). When it was time for the bubble (top two payed this time) the player UTG just called the BB, the SB went all-in…I’m in the BB and look down at 6-6…and I ponder if it’s worth to gamble at this momemt (I was the slight chipleader), I opted to fold…the player UTG call and we had our showdown…Qc-7c (SB) vs. K-x (UTG) the rag card connected and we were down to heads up.

A little back and forth…I was up maybe 60/40 in chips and pickup Qd-3d, I raise 4xBB…the BB calls. The board is a beautiful Q-3-5 rainbow and I check, trying to sandbag my opponent, after all I’ve got top pair + bottom pair. My opponent checks right behind me, so I thought that he was probably holding a King and something, I move all in after the turn comes down 7, he ponders and calls – yes! He shows the anticipated K-5. So it’s my two pairs (Queens and threes) vs. his pair of fives…the only card that can help him is another King on the river…but that never happens as the river comes down Jh. Yes! Finally a real life victory again after a long drought (I was one of the last 3 players and mostly even heads up for the last 7 out of 10 times, including today, but my last victory was some months ago)…

Sidenote#1: Although I still consider myself one of the best players, if not even the best, at our homegames, but ever since we started to play No Limit the balance of power has slightly shifted – after all an All-In bet is really a great equalizer, especially if you can’t put your opponent on something at any time…

Sidenote#2: I’m now up 7+ Buy-Ins at our homegames which is nice! 🙂

Played a little home game following the Fifa World Cup Final Draw…5 Euro buy-in…4 players…winner awarded 15 Euro, 2nd place awarded 5 Euro. Busted out in 3rd place…couldn’t catch a hand and just when I caught a hand my flop All-In was called…

My hand: A-A 🙂
Thomas’ hand: 10-J
Flop: 7-8-9
Turn+River: blank 🙁

Alrighty! The next poker session is set and I’m going to be a part of it. Despite a lot of pre-christmas action we’ve finally set a date for the next Poker event and I’m sure it’ll rock!

I guess the main action will be a Limit Hold’em session although I want to try to push other games (especially Stud and maybe even Omaha (no Hi/Lo though))…watch out for my next post after the session…

Here’s the invitation to the event(!), it’s getting more and more professional around here 🙂 :