Not much going on, besides mr. spambot x and y trying to spam every single post on this blog. Good thing that my antispam-solutions are holding up, I heart WordPress + Plugins 😉

Played a small session at Stars, the usual, some headsup and a double shootout. Won all three headsup matches. The first one was really only one hand, lol. I limp with Ad9d…he checks…flop comes three baby diamonds…I check…he checks…turn is the 10d…he bets out…I reraise him small….he reraises me small….I reraise him small…he reraises me small….I push….he insta-calls…now I’m looking forward to see his Kd…but instead he shows the Jd…lol….well, well, son…I could understand a call with the Kd (sort off), but with the Jd? Are you kiddin me? Nothing better than to flop the joint in the first hand and get all the chips. The second match was more of a grind, although the passive style of my opponent made it easy to see flops and get payed of when he had a piece of the flop or thought he had the goods – example: he min-raises preflop…flop comes down 642 rainbow…he min-bets…I hold J6o…I call…turn is another 6….he bets bigger…I repop him…he repops me…I push….he insta-calls…shows his Aces….turn and river don’t show the two outer and I’m home free. The third one was gold too….79…one of my new favourite, mega-juicy hands…no action preflop…flop comes down 684…he bets small….I call…turn is the beautiful 5…I’ve got the nuts….he bets big, I reraise…he reraises me small…I push…he shows Q7…drawing slim to a chop…river is blank and I win the third match.

After that I invested some of the dough into another try at the Double Shootouts. The games are really juicy as there are donkeys left and right more than willing to get their money in bad. Too bad if you can’t catch a hand to break em. So I sat there again winning some small pots while another player stacked donk after donk. Once it came down to playing a few bigger hands he had the chips to make the calls without much risk and got lucky here and there….I got unlucky against another player…33 vs 66…oh well…that’s that. Coming back to the second part of the title: Two views of the same situation: 1. I need to get lucky here 2. I just need to NOT get unlucky here…

1. was generally true for the other player

2. was generally not true for me

Sucks to be in that spot…oh well…can’t help it…keep choppin away I guess…3 tries down….more to go…but not tonight…

Yawn…pretty early, yet again, so no loooong ass post, but a quick wrap-up. Jumped into Stars and first of all I played a double shootout. Haven’t played these in a while and they seem to be quite juicy, first hurdle is to win the first table…from there on out you’re usually in the money and you’ve got a shot at one the entries to the sunday million, which is worth 215T$. As an SnG junky I would most certainly unregister from the tourney and take the T$, but first of all you need to get your game on and win one of those things. That’s what I tried. The first one wasn’t totally filled up, only 70 players, so there were 10 tables with 7 players each. We jabbed and grabbled for the first twenty minutes and I was able to bust on player. From there on out I went card dead for quite a while. In the meantime a player was running hot. He knocked out player after player with an unreal run of cards. He knocked out two players within two orbits, showing JJ and KK twice each in the process. Nice going sir, yuck. So we’re down to four-handed and I get my money in with AQ…not the greatest hand, but hey, it’s four-handed so I’ll take it. Mr. Cardrack instacalls with Kings…and knocks me out. Nice going sir. No way you can win the first table if you got a player at the table who’s catching like crazy. Oh well, can’t fault him, I’ll take such a run of cards every day, lol.

So I walk away and wait for the next double shootout, this time a turbo one. The thing is almost filled up and so this time we start out with a full table. Most hands are a blur, all I know is that I got my money in with the best and it usually held up. So after a long battle back and fourth we’re finally down to three-handed, then mr. big stack busts out the other player and we begin heads-up.

So we battle back and forth and he’s still out in front, but I see my chance to double-up into the chiplead with 22, the ducks….I limp and we see a flop, which makes me believe he doesn’t have a monster here. Flop comes down 4-6-7 with two clubs. He leads out and I push…he calls…showing Jc8c….hmm…okay…so he got two overs and the flush draw…I hold the 2c…so he got 6 + 8 = 14 outs twice….hold up one time please! 😉

Turn pairs sixes and the river is the Jack of Hearts…and I’ve never seen an uglier Jack at that…lol…oh well…so close and yet so far…better luck next time.

Just as I’m about to logout for the night a little reminder pops up. Aips 2 Event #2 is about to start over at FullTilt. For all of you who are not familiar with AIPS, it’s a series of tourneys initiated by the folks of AnteUp (the podcast…)and it’s stud tonight and only five bucks…so why the heck not…

The tourney starts like any good “chase me down, after all it’s limit, DUDE”-tourney…I start out rolled up and one player says “Heck, it’s so cheap, I’ll call you down no matter what”, well he doesn’t say it out loud, but I think it’s almost certain to assume that he thought along those lines. So I lose a third of my stack in the first hand…nice…NOT. After that I go on a three-to-the-wheel roll, too bad it’s not Stud 8…so I muck muck muck…until I catch some nice hands and I bring my stack up to over 2k. I get bounced around a lot until I finally land at a nice table just before the first break.

The dwarf bringing it in is Chris Cosenza, to my right is Scott Long…so I landed at the table where both Ante Up Hosts held court. Nice. Not so nice that I lost most of my stack in a nasty hand. I finally fold on fifth street as “Vorune” has three hearts showing and is betting like crazy, Chris isn’t far behind though, in terms of betting at least. He finally catches up on the river to suck out an ace high flush against Vorunes (King/Queen?! high) flush (Side note: I’m really looking forward to the next podcast and if Chris will have a comment on his play in this hand, lol)…I’m sitting with less than 1k and it’s not looking all that good. I get the money in a few hands later with a pair of Kings (K8K)…my opponents catches a King on fourth…hehe…too bad he had the Ace in the door as he had a King underneath…brick brick brick…the usual and I’m out…oh well….had fun…and now I can catch some sleep…. night…

Received an email from Mike (from PokerOnAMac.com) today that there’s going to be another bloggerpods event soonish. Three ipods up for grabs…I’m in…what are you waiting for?

Mac Poker

Well, well…played only a small session prior to the WWdN, won 2 out of 3 headsup matches. Then it was time to play the WWdN…and I did good…most hands are a blurr, but I made the right moves at the right time…the crucial hands were against Iak who first doubled me up to over 5k in chips and then doubled me up again with my AK vs his KJ.

So at the second break I was sitting pretty in the chiplead and from there on I rolled all the way till the final hand A9 vs 55, presto prevailed and I busted out 4th…not bad…quick pic dump and then I’m off to bed….

Wow. Tonight we played our usual home game. It’s been almost 2 months since we last played, so I was pretty excited to see all the fellas. We had 12 runners tonight, so the price pool was nice. As usual the final 6 would compile the final table and I sure hoped to be one of them. One thing was different tonight though: I was there to play cards, have a drink or two or three and to enjoy the game, period. No intention to win it, play my best game or whatever. Just sit there, chat with the guys and play the cards I’m dealt – if I win, dandy, if not…no hard feelings.

I started out at table nr. 2 with two loose players and three other conservative players. The first bustout came pretty quickly (OESD vs trip Kings) and so we were down to five handed. I played tight, really tight. One of the loose players pushes all in and it’s “only” 20% of my stack to call him…so I call with QJo as I read him for being in the desperate mode. He confirmed my read as he showed J7 s00ted. D00minated he was…didn’t matter though…board: 892…turn blank…river 10…thank you very much (Edit: Errm, yup…found the error yet? I sure did, just after writing this post…I don’t even know why I didn’t see it at the table, or any of the other 5 players for that matter…7-8-9-10-J…sure…a straight…but doesn’t the 8-9-10-2-x board give me a straight also and a higher straight at that?! 😉 Well, well…8-9-10-J-Q…hmm…Queen High Straight beats Jack High Straight…or not?! Homer Simpsons says: D’oh!!! Oh well…I still can’t figure out why I didn’t see it, I guess it was due to the fact that someone “sucked out on me” yet again, which is basically a normal occurance at our game and so my brain crapped out for a few seconds or something…too bad I didn’t realize it at the table. For one, I would have been in much better shape with only two eliminations to go till the final table. Secondly, we wouldn’t have seen the first royal flush ever (see below)…so I guess this mistake was for a good cause :)). Some hands later, with the blinds increasing I push my measly stack in the middle and get three callers. Wow. I think I’m pretty much done with my pocket treys as overcard after overcard keeps hitting the board, but to my surprise I win the pot, eliminating one player in the process and I’m back. A few hands later I pickup A7 s00ted and as it’s four-handed, I’m pretty sure I can raise here in the SB…BB calls…hmm…flop is 10-high…I check…he pushes…well…I muck and he shows pocket Kings…nice shuffle. Some hands later I’m desperate again, but my AJo is not match to the powerful 94o (or something) and I exit in 7th place (6 at the final table)….oh well…got in with the best of it most of the time, couldn’t do much about the hands…and…I enjoyed the game…

As the final 6 are heading for the final table we start our sidegame and after 5 minutes all hell breaks loose on the other table (the final table of the main tourney). The first ever royal flush has just been dealt. A10o vs Qsxc…board read As-10s-x…turn Ks…river Js…wow! That was one to remember. We’re playing our home game pretty regularly and for over a year now the “best hand record” was sitting at the flopped straight flush my mate flopped against me….now we got a new record…Spade Royal Flush…wow!

But back to our sidegame…it was pretty wild….once we were down to three-handed (ITM) it was pretty much push or be pushed…and push I did on some hands…in the end I took it down after my Qc10s sucked out a four flush over my mates A7 s00ted (lucky for me, no spade)….so I ended the night with some money in my pocket…nice!

Alrighty…that’s the quick recap of the night….I’m outta here…

Well, I hope you enjoyed your hammer day so far. I didn’t, at least not really. Grinded a little at Stars and the fish were turning into sharks once they had their helmet and face mask on. As expected the deck hit them smack in the face time and time again. Two outer boat, my QJ vs KQ on a QJKxQ board, my 36 vs 45 on a 5-4-7-6-5 board etc etc…it was nasty, still managed to grind out 3 wins in five matches though, so at least not a losing session.

Then it was time for the hammer event at Full Tilt and boy did everyone come out for this one! 158 players in total, it was like the blogger all-star parade, too many to name them all, but from Dr.Pauly to Daddy…everyone was playing. Had a nice starting table with JoeSpeaker and BloodyP. Won some nice pots early on, then donked off half my stack with pocket nines on a 8 high board…99 was no match for 10-10. Then I got some chips back by winning a coin-flip…then I lost my stack by losing a coin-flip…presto vs AQ…no g00t! Still enjoyed playing though…so ‘s all good.

Hammer stats of the day:

1. Hammers played: Stars/FullTilt – 4/1, Hammers won: 0

2. S00ted hammers (aka the velvet hammer) played: Stars/FullTilt – 1/0, Velvet Hammers won: 1

3. Euro hammers (82o/82s) played: Stars/FullTilt: 0/1, Euro Hammers won: 1

So…all in all…2 for 6…not all that bad…I guess the hammer didn’t like the fact that I didn’t reraise preflop…my mistake 😉

Almost forgot to pimp this, as it’s 4am over here, it’s already hammer day…07.02.2007…or 2/7/2007 for the americans…so…what’s up on hammer day?

Yes, a special hammer day event…come and play…all infos in the pimp pic below…thanks to Al and Mookie for the added  100$, get 7.20$ out of your wallet and play…thank you!

Played in the WWdN as usual and it didn’t go all that well. Started of with AA in the third hand, won a small one. Had to laydown AK on an all-under, straight heavy board, which was cheap though. Then I ran AJ into 77 on a A-7-9-6-10 board. That cost me half my stack. Not much action after that and when the blinds just move up to 50/100 I think A6o in LP is good enough to try to steal…only 700 chips left…so…I hoy and get one caller…well…essentially not a caller as he re-raises all in to isolate me from the button….he shows JJ…blank flop, blank turn…meaningless 6 on the river…gg me and I’m out 31/45…not even made it to the first break. Oh well, quite a change from the last three WWdNs…6th, 6th, 5th, 31st…d’oh!

I’m outta here…oh almost forgot: Next live game is scheduled for friday! Has been almost 8 weeks since I traded the virtual cards for the real deal, really looking forward to it. Let’s see how it goes (recently it has been a nightmare as everyone was catching against me and I, wrongly, tried to force the action, which lead to an even bigger disaster)…

Well, played some headsup at FullTilt to start off the evening, but I lost interest quite quickly. I did win 2 out of 3, but the opponents were such jerks that I didn’t have any fun. Well, that’s not entirely true, I had some fun making fun of them…yes it’s always a good idea to (over)push after the river…hmm…no I don’t believe you had the nuts every time…so…it’s a donkplay and a nice “heeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaw what a donkey play, you only get called if I have you” is in order. If you can’t take that, play a better game donk. After that I jumped over to Stars and found that a lot was going on, but nothing that sounded really interesting…apart from one MTT…the lovely PL 5 Card Draw MTT that was 1 minute away from starting. I jumped in and play my usual game, start out with a decent hand and hope not to get unlucky. The next well over 2 hours are a blur, but I’m getting ahead of myself…quick pic dump…

105 players remaining at the first break and yes, you guessed it, the chipleader was just moved to my table, lol. I’m wondering if it’s only me, but I can’t remember a MTT (with a shitload of tables left) where the chipleader wasn’t moved to my table. It’s been ages since that didn’t happen, but hey, what can you do. He tried to run over the table and he was out in less than 20 minutes after the break. Way to go dude donking off all those chips. No, a reraise for all their chips doesn’t mean they’re holding a good hand. Wait…it does. Surprise surprise. Continued to play my game and watch as donks busted themselves left and right.

Final four tables and I’m sitting not all that pretty in 19th, time to catch some hands. I do and this time I don’t care for the money – yes we’re already ITM, but the “real” money starts at the final table as usual – so I wait for a decent spot and go with my hand. I start out with two pair and I don’t boat up. My opponent draws one too and I’m more than happy to see that he didn’t make his gutshot straight. Nice. Double me up. The way to the final table is a blur, I did play some nice hands though, so this time I don’t come in as the shortstack.

I wait two orbits before I play my first hand and when I do I win it. Small pot, but fine with me. Then I go on a roll. I get dealt a made flush and a made straight back-to-back. No customers though. The next hand I get dealt two pair, queens up. I three-bet it as usual and the other player within the mid 40k repopps me. Now I’m faced with a tough decision. Does he have a real hand or is it that he doesn’t believe my “rush”? And even more important: do I want to commit to this hand? I ponder my options and decide to go for it. I repopp him to put him all-in and he calls. I draw one…brick…he draws two…uh-oh…that’s most certainly trips and yes, he shows trip eights. Now I’m crippled with 10k. I don’t feel bad though. I made my play and if I won the hand (by boating up), I would have been slightly under 100k and second in chips with a real chance to cruise into the top 3 spots paying in xxx figures. Oh well, can’t be too mad. Made my play, didn’t work out. Apropos out, I wasn’t out yet. Next hand…I start with slighlty over 10k and get dealt two pair again. I push and the huge chipleader insta-calls. I draw one, he draws one. I brick he bricks…he has trips though. Now I’m still not mad. What can you do? Back-to-back two pair, five handed, ran into trips back-to-back. It just wasn’t in the cards for me to claim the W or the 2 or 3 spot and who knows, if I sit around and wait for the next “big hand”, I might be blinded out in 5th quicker than you think with blinds at 2k/4k…so all in all…a nice showing…gg me… 🙂

What a day. Got my ass handed to my at all different sites, unlucky in cards no kidding. Still didn’t hold me back from playing the WWdN, aka the place where people can fold a hand. Starting table included the host, Wil, once again, but he made a quick exit when he ran AQ into AA in the third hand…the rest is kind of a blur….had KK three times, brokeback held up…played a good game…three final tables in a row….and even avoided finishing 6th for the third time in a row, finished 5th and ITM this time (a few weeks back 6th was well ITM (final table was all ITM), 6th last time was the bubble, 6th this time would have been the bubble too)….presto didn’t stand a chance against KQ s000ted…oh well…it was time to make a move and double-up or die…die I did…but still happy….as it’s early, after 5am…just a quick picture dump and I’m off…

Final table, 8-handed as Kat busted out in the last hand just at we were down to nine…