*lol*

Had a pretty bad run today, just couldn’t catch a break. Made wrong decision after wrong decision running into hands like it was the norm (JJ vs QQ, AJ vs AQ, 77 vs 88, etc etc). So, it sucked pretty badly today, but hey, there’s always tomorrow and that’s why I decided to quit for the day rather quickly.

I just came across Daniel Negreanu’s latest video blog – the mullet chop, funny stuff! Enjoy…

So…I fired up PokerStars today and played in a double shootout to sunday’s million. Now I’m not a big fan of shootouts as there’s usually one dude at the table sucking out like the best vacuum cleaner you can buy, but hell…why not.

So we started off eight handed and I played pretty tight. The donks fooled around a little and traded chips back and forth. So after roughly half an hour we’re down to 6 players and I’m the short-stack. I play some decent hands though and chip up pretty quickly. Once we’re three-handed I’m the chipleader at the table, 2nd in chips is roughly 1k behind and the short-stack sits at just above 1k. The 2nd in chips takes out the short-stack and is slightly ahead once we enter heads-up. We trade chips back and forth for a while and then he slowly grinds away at me. I make a decent comeback and have a 2:1 chiplead. We play back and forth and he sucks out a flush on the river to get back to even. Two hands later it’s all over. I have A10 on the button and three-bet it. He calls. Flop comes down JJ10 two diamonds. He leads out, I call. turn is the 4d…he bets out small again. Now I’m a little concerned with the flush, but then again it’s two-handed…so maybe he’s got the jack? Hmm…river is an unsuspecting 3c…he pushes….

Now I’m stuck in decision land: basically two hands have me beat – three jacks or a flush…didn’t put him on Jacks earlier or I would have folded…so…is he really on the flush or on the stone cold bluff? Decision, decision. I call…and sure enough he shows KdQd…s00000ted!

So I’m out in 2nd at my table (10th overall – 8 at the final table)…damn! I need to go over my play again before making any bold claims, but basically I think the following statement is valid: I won too little with monsters (Qx – board QQx, J9o – board JJx; although the deck is pretty crippled here, but can’t he have the x and don’t believe me one time?) and lost to two suckouts…not bad-beats…suckouts…the first one was the diamond flush on the river (cough) to bring him back to even and the second one was the last hand (diamond flush on the turn, cough, should that have been a sign?)…oh well…DAMN!

Hehe…that’s the question I’m asking myself after playing the PokerStars Rebuy Madness (TM) (lol) tourney…man is this some crazy stuff or what? Nearly 3.5k players playing with their starting chips + 9066 rebuys + 2135 add-ons…and you’ve got a 20k guaranteed with a price-pool of 44.025$, unreal.

Played for well over an hour before busting out AA vs JJ…yes, I had AA – for the first time in over 600 hands I might add and sure enough they get cracked by a 4:1 dog…only thing that is weird is that I could see it coming…I three-bet it preflop and he goes into the tank…after a long pause he pushes…I insta-call and see his JJ…before the flop is dealt I can literally see the Jack falling…and it promptly does…the only consolation is that if there’s such a thing like karmic payback that was the proof…I had cracked this guys Kings earlier on with KQ s000ted…oh well…I had my fun and with the top 30 all well over 30k the possibility to really go deep were limited anyway…I’m out of here…

…and right away the first cash. Wheeeee! Way to start the new year, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I signed up for the WWdN cdog007 invitational after playing some serious hours of BJ over at Pacific (bonus grind). 69 players found their way to the tables and my starting table didn’t feature all that many people I recognized. That should change after a few minutes when the blogfather himself was moved to our table. I immediately welcomed him and won a pot against him when my KK held up. Combined with the chips of the first hand (where I had turn a flush with Kd10d) I was off to a good start. After that everything is a little blurry as I tried to focus fully on the game and not take any notes – then again, who needs notes when the video-feed is up and running…

Here are two screenshots – final table and final result:

Back to the video: I had to cut some of the stuff as, although I forgot to turn it on for the first x minutes, it’s still over 2h of video…so I cut it down to some key hands (which you can see in the following video) – so without further ado…inspired by Tuff_Fish and Waffles-Rant-Cast (TM)…the inaugural Ingoal-Cast (without audio commentary), but with music…so please turn on audio (as it becomes critical at one point…you’ll see/hear ;)) and enjoy…Click here (opens in new tab/window – attention: requires Windows Media Player 9 or above, size of the video 66MB, so please be patient)

1. Played fairly well

2. Didn’t self-explode like others (*cough* Sox just before the final table)

3. Got unlucky sometimes to bring me back into a desperate chip position which lead to…

4. Got lucky when I needed to…

5. Thanks Wil for hosting!

6. It was fun…cya all soonish…

Oh god damn it! Oh god damn it! Damn it! Damn it!

Hehe…now that I’ve got that out of the way I can write a little write up about my latest adventure in 180SnG-land. Started out making some tough laydowns. Hovered around average for a while before making a great read…put him on AK (on an all under board) and was right…my 88 was good…so I’m double the average…cool…from there on I nurse my stack and play less pots, but if I’m in it…I’m letting it be know…

After the break I get moved to a quite bizarre table…the chipleader is there (suprise surprise, I was playing with the guy third in chips until this point)…then another player is moved to the table…yes…he’s 2nd in chips…so we got two dudes with over 18k at the table…then this hand happens…

I raise it preflop…he pushes back…what I’m I supposed to do here? Fold? Not really…too bad I ran into this again. Down but not out I get moved back to my old table right after the hand – this is out of the “are you kidding me”-category, isn’t it? Get moved to the monster stack table…run into this shit and get moved right back…

Oh well…the end comes a few hands later when I semi-steal with A9o from the cutoff…the button ponders and ponders and finally calls with AQ s00000ted….now I’m asking myself: you get 1.2:1 for your money and you’re anywhere from dominated (AK), in bad shape (pair) to dead (AA)…or slightly ahead (AJ down to Ax)…do you call 40% of your stack there? Well, he did…blank board…turn Q…river 9 thanks riverstars…the other 9 was supposed to be on the flop

So I’m out in 47th and a little puzzled…play a game game for well over an hour…run into bigger pair…missed steal…and gone with the wind. This is frustration at it’s finest…why oh why can’t the fool have Jacks there?

So…new year new luck…lol…or not. Anyway, redeposited at Stars tonight as I had planned to do so for a while, but I wanted to wait until they had another reload bonus…now the 25% bonus was up…

To celebrate my return to Stars I decided to play a good ol’ 180SnG…and with over 100k players online, sure enough most of the players were donkeys as expected. Fought back and forth for over an hour before busting out in 54th.

Key hands:

1. Early on AA in the cutoff…four bet it…one caller….flop is Q high two spades (I hold no spade), I fire a pot-size bet…he calls…turn is 8 of spades…pot size bet…call…now I’m wondering if he’s letting me hang myself with a made flush…oh well..let’s see what the river brings…9 spades…hmm…check…he fires a quarter-sized bet out there…I think about reraising, but then again…why should I? Call…he show 89o no spades…nice calling preflop, on the flop and on the turn donk…god damn it.

2. Down to just under 60 players after the first break…Ah10h in MP, EP with a huge stack min-raises…I decide to call, flop comes down KhKs10h…hmm…not bad…huge stack fires 1k at the pot…I ponder and call…(3.5k behind)…turn 2c…he fires 1k again…I reluctantly call (2.5k behind)…river 5d…he checks…now I’m wondering if he wants to let me bluff at the pot or what? Sure enough my outs no good…I check behind…he shows AJo….damn it.

3. Very next hand I look down at the suited Ace again (this time A5d)…I push…the same monster-stack insta-calls on the button…all others fold…he shows AA…have a nice day…

So, all in all not a good start…surprise surprise…as if I ever had a good start at PokerStars…lol…oh well…should have played 2. differently (either push on the flop…no way he can call there?!) or lay it down right there…then I’m not in a desperate state and don’t push into Aces..better luck/play next time…

The grind continues and I’m making good progress so far at Pacific. Up a little and 85 Comp Points done 165 left to go.

After the slow and somewhat uneventful grind at Pacific I thought I’d put the latest token to good use in Full Tilt’s 2k Razz guaranteed and boy oh boy, can play get any worse than this? I repeat: Can play get ANY worse than this? Un-be-lievable what an amount of donkeys play this game at Full Tilt. I had three donks at my starting table and they played like ultra-maniacs, capping almost every hand with “starting monsters” like AAK and similar.

Now I’m usually really mild-mannered when it comes to Razz donkeys, as I’m pretty confident that their chips will come my way eventually. But this time it was a little different. I play one hand in the first four orbits and take it down. I’m up well above average and fold, fold, fold and fold while the donks are taking down pots with monster-hands, well…a K10 or J8 low is a monster, right…NOT!, I’m sitting there repeating my old razz mantra “three eight or lower, three eight or lower, three eight or lower” as I fold hand after hand. Oh well…so I wait and play a patient game, pushing donks off hands by (correct) reraising on the earlier streets is pretty much out of the picture, so I’m at the mercy of the cards…and to make a long story short…they betray me time and time again…I start out with the best hand every single time and in most hands I’m ahead until 6th/7th street…where the donk(s) hit the perfect cards while I put on my helmet to shield me from all the bricks falling down on me.

The exit in 60th place comes right at the first break where I start out with the best again…hit a brick on fourth street…good one on 5th street before walking the lovely brick-brick-sidewalk again…oh well…what can you do?

So…I’m out of tokens for now…so next stop at Full Tilt is to get some more…then it’s time for Razz again…until then…may the river be kind(er) to you, don’t drink and drive on new year’s eve, drink a lot though if possible and have fun…cya in 2007

…or something…

After the bodog disaster I head over to PokerStars for one of the anniversary “freerolls” (why is everyone stating tourneys which costs something (in this case FPPs) to be freerolls these days?!)…it’s a donkfest and “Lady Maverick” Vanessa Russo is a no-show…I sit at a decent stack (twice the average) with 1k players to go and all falls apart…best hand in with a nice raise, second/third/… after the flop…fold…I finally bust out in the 900s after the fourth unsuccessfull preflop raise followed by a flop that has nothing in it for me…oh well…free…eerrm 10 FPP…always happy to donate to the donkey nation.

After that I head over to Full Tilt to win me a token…ha! Not really…first attempt is a turbo two-table S&G….no joy….coinflip hell and overcards are gold…too bad I went in with a pp two times…ah well…second attempt is a one table S&G…after some donking around we’re heads-up and about even in chips…long story short: everytime I have a hand, my opponent has the better one (not necessarily preflop, but sure as hell post-flop)…so I go out in second place…10 bucks…no token…no joy…

A Poker Room is such a lousy place to be in sometimes…better luck tomorrow…

…well, not quite yet, still another week of work before I’m free to celebrate christmas, the new year and get myself in the hunt for my diploma thesis. So, the “good to be back” refers to my game

I started the evening with a token satellite on Full Tilt. Well, let’s just say that the first hand was the last one too. I just couldn’t get away from the hand, although all the signs were there – min raise preflop, reraise on the flop…I guess I was a little too excited about flopping two pair…oh well…

After that disappointment I took a seat at some crazy HA tables. It’s really surprising how many players are playing these without having the first clue about Omaha, lol. Still couldn’t start a bigger running and dropped a buyin. Not all that good.

So I fired up bodog and played some HU SnGs. Won the first two, then lost the next two. That really sucked, so I decided to quit HU for the night and as I checked the MTT tab I saw that the 2.5k guaranteed was about to start. The low buyin of 7$ + 0,50$ made the decision even easier.

Hours played: roughly 3.5

Times I was all-in and at risk: twice, early with a flip AK vs JJ…and then in the last hand..but more about that one below.

So I bumped and grinded and sometimes I really got a rush of cards (I must have held AA about four times, QQ about five times and some other lower pairs, but apart from that, well…not much). I had one goal for this tourney:

[Guess 1] Make money – nope

[Guess 2] Get down to last x players – nope

[Guess 3] Not get sucked out on – nope

The correct answer is: make correct decisions – and it worked out pretty good. It’s weird how sometimes a little pointer “back to basics” can really help you find your game again. After plowing through Super System II (highly recommended, but it’s sooo full of concepts and numerous games that you will have to read, re-read and re-re-read it on a regular basis), I started to read my next poker book entitled Pauly’s blog errm “The Tao of Poker”. It’s a set of 285 rules to “transform your game”. Well, I don’t know about the transformation part, but they certainly help. I only read the first 25 or something so far, as I said, I started to read it last night and I gotta get some sleep sometime, so can’t be reading all night. The first ones were really basic, but although you know all the concepts/ideas/rules (know when you’re beat; poker is a grind; ..) are clear and you probably have them all inside your head, but re-reading them really helps as they can’t get lost and/or blocked by other thoughts like “yeeehaaaw…donkey’s catch all the time, let me try this”…

But back to the tourney. There were 319 entrants, so the final four tables are ITM. As I already said, I went on a little rush early, before hovering around average most of the time. There are really only two hands I regret: one was when I bluffed off half my stack when we were about to get down to the last 3 tables. The last one was the last hand…at the final table

Yes, the final table…

…about time I saw one of these again. It’s been a while. (Side note: Don’t be fooled by the hand stats, this is for the whole session, so roughly the first 100 hands of that were HU with my usual 80+% flops seen)

Within the first orbit I busted though. After the first player was knocked out in the second hand of the final table, I was eager to play my AQo from LP…and why do I regret this hand?

[1] Remember the old “don’t go broke with a Queen in your hand”-mantra? It’s what crossed my mind before I raised preflop.

[2] I still had a chance to get away from the hand after the flop. Although the roughly 17k with 1k/2k blinds and 200$ antes would have forced me to make a move soon after that anyway (I started the hand with just under 23k, standard 3xBB preflop raise).

As you can see in the following screenshot, the flop came down Kc, 4d, Qc and my opponent insta-over-pushes. Well, what could he be pushing with? What was he calling with preflop? Basically it could have been any two cards preflop (BB, big stack), but after the push I should have believed the hand he claimed (Kx, maybe even with a flush draw) and waited for a better spot (within the next 8-10 hands). But oh well…I called and he showed KJ…turn K…river…K…them quads beetches! At least I lost to a really good hand…

Out in 8th of 319. I’m cool with that. Needless to say that I would have loved to move up some spots as the payout were starting to be really cool in the higher final table spots (1st – 625$, 2nd – 400$, 3rd – 277,50$, ..)…but hey…as I said earlier on, this one wasn’t for the money, it was for my mental game health – if there’s such a thing

Wow, when I went to sleep last night they were playing….now I get up and they’re still playing. Almost 12hours in and then final table is underway…nice.

Let’s see if they strike a deal or if someone really walks away with 1.15 million…

Update: Almost 13hours in and the remaining six players are talking about a chip-chop…

Lee Jones [PokerRoom Manager]: area23: $620,194
Lee Jones [PokerRoom Manager]: godfather: $540,793
Lee Jones [PokerRoom Manager]: Numie: $600,042
Lee Jones [PokerRoom Manager]: DEEZZ: $353,164
Lee Jones [PokerRoom Manager]: hannibal: $400,581
Lee Jones [PokerRoom Manager]: Lefort: $417,734
…and it’s finally a done deal…50k + the bracelet still up for grabs…