PokerStars just announced this year’s World Championship of Online Poker…

Sep.14 (15:00) NL Hold’em [6-max] $215 $400,000
Sep.14 (16:30) PL 5-Card Draw $215 $100,000   ***
Sep.15 (15:00) PL Omaha [6-max] $215 $200,000
Sep.15 (16:30) 2-7 Triple Draw $215 $100,000
Sep.16 (16:30) NL Hold’em $530 $2,000,000
Sep.17 (15:00) PL Omaha w/Rebuys $320 $400,000
Sep.18 (15:00) Limit Hold’em $215 $100,000
Sep.19 (15:00) Limit Omaha H/L $530 $300,000
Sep.20 (15:00) NL Hold’em w/Rebuys $215 $1,000,000
Sep.21 (15:00) NL Hold’em Match Play $320 $500,000
Sep.21 (16:30) Razz $215 $100,000   ***
Sep.22 (15:00) HORSE $215 $200,000   ***
Sep.22 (16:30) PL Hold’em $530 $400,000
Sep.23 (16:30) NL Hold’em $1,050 $2,000,000
Sep.24 (15:00) 7 Card Stud $320 $100,000
Sep.25 (15:00) PL Omaha H/L $320 $200,000
Sep.26 (15:00) NL Hold’em [6-max] $320 $400,000   ***
Sep.27 (15:00) 7 Card Stud H/L $530 $200,000
Sep.28 (15:00) PL Omaha $530 $300,000
Sep.28 (16:30) NL Hold’em Triple Shootout $530 $200,000
Sep.29 (15:00) HORSE $5,200 $500,000
Sep.29 (16:30) Limit Hold’em $1,050 $200,000
Sep.30 (16:30) NL Hold’em Main Event $2,600 $5,000,000

*** I think I’m going to try to satellite into these ones…let’s see how it goes, still plenty of time to do it…and wouldn’t it be sweet to win a bracelet while sitting at home at the compi…beautiful…. 😉

It’s not a big score money-wise, but it sure as hell feels good to finally take down a blogger event. Big shoutouts to Kat for hosting and BuddyDank for the music and commentary, very much appreciated. As it’s after 5:30am, no time to write a long review of tonight’s play, just a random pic dump of the more interesting hands of the night…

…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…

…it’ll get you. After tonight’s session I could be really pissed, but I’m not, at least not really. It was just one of these lovely days when you can do everything right and you still get kicked in the balls, repeatedly. I’m really tired, after 5am over here, so just a quick wrap-up and a random pic dump…

Stats, PokerStars: Headsup – 12 matches, 6W 6L; Six handed – 2 matches, 1x 2nd, 1x 3rd (bubble)

FullTilt, Friday night Donkarama: 1x Buyin, 4 rebuys, 1 addon, kicked in the balls every time I was about to get my hands on a big stack…final touch KK vs K3 s00ted…totally flushed out in 7th…so fugly…I’m out…nn…
Random Pic dump:

So…play in donkster land began at the HU tables, but I was really fed up after the first match. It was over in less than a dozen hands as I couldn’t shake the sbhs (second best hand syndrom)…Qx vs Qx…queen + both kickers hit the flop etc etc. So I hopped into a double shootout to the sunday million. I like it when the first table isn’t full (just like my main man, smokkee, a field of seventy or slightly under that is groovy), so the 63 players suited me just fine. My first table consisted of 6 players and I played it close to the vest. Don’t fool around, especially not in the first few orbits – get settled in and watch the first few donks make their mistakes and if you’re lucky enough to hold a monster, reap the benefits.

Soon enough we lost our first player and once we lost another one, I got some hands and busted the next two players. As headsup started we were about even in chips. A few hands later I was ahead 2:1. A few hands later he had a slight chiplead as we headed into the first break. Some small pots and a big one was all it took (I caught him bluffing) and I won the table.

After that all the others and me waited for another half an hour before the final table was finally set. With 10 players at the final table I once again told myself to play it close to the vest and so I did. Two orbits of folding and the first player is already out. So we’re down to nine handed and I look down at TT in the cutoff. Two limpers and I pop it to 4BB…EP calls…MP min-raises…uh-oh. We both call and see a flop of JT2…yatzee…EP checks…MP leads out 1/4 of the pot…I repop him…EP (who’s short) pushes over the top (just another 2xx more) and MP calls…hmm…decision time…let’s assess the situation…EP called preflop…EP check-pushed, being short…hmm…flush draw? straight draw? TP?…who knows…but he’s not the one I’m worrying about…MP…repop it preflop and lead out…hmm…the only hands I’m really worried about are JJ, KdQd, KQo, Qd9d, Q9o or AK…given the repop preflop I put him on a higher pair (hoping that it wasn’t jacks), so I pushed over the top and he reluctantly called after some deliberation.

EP shows 8c9d, idiot end OESD + backdoor flush-draw, MP shows QQ…let’s not get unlucky here…turn 6…river 8…EP is eliminated and MP crippled…down to eight handed and I’m sitting there with 4k (15k in play, blinds 10/20). Wheeeeeeeee….from the on out it was almost comical. I folded practically every hand, as did most of the others. One player tried to steamroll the table and it worked out for a while. He crippled and/or eliminated some players and was sitting pretty third in chips (3 get a ticket)…that didn’t change a thing though…we’re down to five handed and it’s one big stack (4.5k), then the steamroller (3.9k) then me (3.8k)…the steamroller raises every pot, every single pot. The big stack finally calls one of his raises and they see a flop which is queen high with two diamonds. The steamroller fires a cbet…bigstack smooth-calls on the button. Turn brings a third diamond. Steamroller bets BIG. Bigstack on the button pushes…steamroller calls…showing 2d3d…bigstack on the button shows? KdJd…cya mr. steamroll….

Mr. Bigstack just turned into Mr. Hugestack (8.2k) and we’re down to four-handed, ITM (fourth get’s 29.x$, top three get the ticket). I’m sitting in second…still pretty with 3.7k…the other two are virtually even with 1.5 and 1.6k. I’m still in LDP mode and I see a lovely trend…the player on my left folds practically every hand. About twenty minutes later he’s finally blinded down to 3BB…he pushes…Mr. Hugestack calls…shorty doubles up to 900…still only 6BB with the blinds at 75/150. The very next hand he pushes again…Mr. Hugestack calls again…shorty shows 99…hugestack AcQc…ace on the flop and shorty is busto….wheeeeeeeee….ticket time 🙂

Needless to say that I’m not going to play in the “big dance”…but doesn’t it look good?!…

…yeah, sure. But this does look even better 😉

I’m off…nn…

Tonight we played our regular home game. A total of 12 players showed up including one newbie. To make a long story short, as usual, the newbie won. I don’t know what it is, but it seems that every time a newbie shows up to play (s)he either got the goods, get’s lucky or both and takes it down – fine by me.

We started out with two six handed tables and early on I got some hands (AK, AQ, AJ) and took down some small pots. Then it was time for one of the first bigger pots. I raise it up preflop (4BB) with Ac10d. One player out of position calls. Flop comes down all rags two clubs. Check…I check…turn brings the 10c…so I got top pair, nut flush draw…he checks…I bet…he reluctantly calls. River brings the Js. He checks and I got the feeling that the jack hit him. I check behind and he takes it down with KJo. Hmmm…well…no comment…here’s your lolipop 😉

I chip up again winning some small pots and then the hand comes down. I look down at 66 and pop it preflop…I get one caller…incidently the same player that chased me down in the A10 vs KJ hand…flop comes down QJ6 two spades…gin! He bets…I call…turn brings the Ks…hmm…he checks…I take a stab at the pot and he reluctantly calls, commenting “if you’ve got it, you’ve got it”…river is blank (5c)…he checks…now I’m thinking, hmm….when the flush hit, he made that comment, which leads me to believe that he got something good here, too…so I decide to check it down. I say “trips”, he says “I knew it, you probably have the better hand”…and I’m “uh oh” he shows JJ for the higher set…damn. I lost half my stack…although I guess I lost the bare minimum there, so I can’t fault myself here. I pondered a push on the turn…then again…he would have probably called me down and I would have been busto…so…what can you do.

The blinds are starting to get big, so I have no choice but to push a few hands later. I wanted to do it blind, but I didn’t and I see JJ…push….SB calls…showing presto…flop and turn are blank and the river is….5….presto = gold and I’m busto….so much for the “main event”.

We wait for some other players to bust out to start our sidegame. This sidegame will stand out for a while as one of the craziest hands ever was played in the very first hand. Some players, including myself, limp, LP pops it…everyone folds around to the BB who calls. Flop comes down 7J7. EP leads out…LP pushes…EP insta-calls….what do they hold? LP JJ for top boat…EP 77 for dem quads bitches! Wow! Turn and river are blank and we got our first casualty. As it’s the first hand we allow the unlucky player to rebuy and he’s going to be “Mr. Rebuy” from now on…brutal way to get your nickname 😉

After stealing some pots I’m still getting low on chips so I decide to push with one of the next hands…once I look down at 44 there’s no turning back and I get called by AKo. Flop is ace high…turn brings the king…river is blank and I’m busto…

All in all I can’t fault myself for any of the plays I made…I put the money in with the best, apart from the set over set hand, and hmm…I wasn’t running good…what can you do…nothing much…so…I had fun tonight, but the cards weren’t with me…better luck next time, which will hopefully be soonish…there’s just nothing better than live cardflinging with friends 🙂

Not much poker going on today…only some minor cashgame donkeritis (finished slightly up) and one shorthanded SnG (W). Poker is always fun when you win…end of story.

Some pimpin: don’t forget about Al‘s Blogger Bracelet race on Full Tilt tomorrow. Unfortunately I won’t be able to play as I’ve got some important meeting on monday morning, so playing a tourney which starts at 1am monday morning (my time zone) isn’t really an option this time…

1. Register for friday blogger donkament rebuy madness (TM), proudly presented by Kat.
2. See that there are two players registered, including yourself, five minutes before the start of the tourney.
3. See that there are three players registered, three minutes before the start of the tourney.
4. See that there are two players registered as the tourney is about to start.
5. Think about why there are only two players. Check out Kat’s blog and realize that she posted the wrong password which will keep all new players from registering.
6. Play headsup in a rebuy tourney. Hi on_thg. GG, sort of 😉
7. Be slightly annoyed after losing the first bs hand (two pair vs flush draw?!….flush on the river).
8. Be slightly pissed off after the second bs hand (AJ vs 97, all in preflop…A-10-8…turn blank…river J…97 rides the magic carpet to a straight on the river).
9. Be elated after winning the next hand for all the marbles (AJ vs A2).
10. Be totally pissed off after losing the next bs bs bs hand (K9 vs A9, flop AK9…lol…yeah right…cold deck mountain…here I come…).
11. Rebuy a final time, down 1:4 in chips…tell your opponent that this is the final rebuy…bust out by running Q5 s00ted into Kings (btw where’s my running flush here?! 😉 ).
12. Sit here, type this post.
13. Curse bad luck in headsup recently.
14. Realize that after the latest software upgrade the hand histories weren’t saved to disk anymore (hence the ?! in 7. as I can’t remember if it was two pair, overpair or top pair I had there).
15. Curse bad luck in headsup recently.
16. Think about how close you came to winning a blogger tourney…lol…
17. Curse bad luck in headsup recently.
18. Smile.
19. Logoff.

…it makes me want to puke, heya, makes me want to puke.

Oh brother, I thought I was over the whining, but after such a brutal session, it’s not easy, nowhere near easy to be honest. Started off by playing a peep at Full Tilt…donkaround big time…bust out in 8th. Oh well…turbo…what can I do, no hand in sight…need to make a move…didn’t work out.

So I jump over to PokerStars and play a 5$ headsup. I make a donkplay – calling an all-in with AKo preflop. Not a classic donk move, but why flip a coin against a donkbag. His fours stand up and I’m crippled and bust out a few hands later. So I decide to kick it up a level and resist the urge to click click click. Instead I do the whole think……click thing and it works out just fine. Until he sucks out on me like the best vacuum money can buy. So there’s goes 10$. After that I really thought long and hard about quitting, but nope, let’s play a “non-donk-level” one at 20$ a pop.

The match starts out pretty standard, raise and take it few times. Fold to a raise some times. About a dozen hands in my opponent is up 200 chips and we see a flop. I hold K7o. Flop comes down K75. He bets out small…I flat call. Turn K…bingo…check…check…river 8. He bets out pot…I raise…he reraises…I push…he instacalls…he show 46o for the straight…I’m up 2800-200. He pushes every hand after that and when I finally look down at the s00ted tourist (Ad7d) I call….he shows AsJs and it holds up. He’s up to nearly 500. “Normal play” resumes and he’s slowly but steadily chopping at my big stack. Soon enough he’s up to over a thousand again. I spare you the details, but let’s just say that he runner runnered and rivered my ass pretty good three times and after that I’m the one with slightly over 600 in chips. So sick. A few hands later I double up as he donkpushes into my turned straight. Back to square one. Win some lose some, get rivered some, get runner runnered some. Then take some pots again. I’m up around 1800-1200 again. I look down at 44…raise..he calls…flop comes down 468…he leads out, I raise…he calls…turn is a J…he pushes…hmm…do I fold bottom set here? Not really…with the preflop call…hmm…66…possible, but not likely…88…not really…JJ…hmm…not really…I can’t really put him on a hand, but I think I’m ahead here…oh well…what does he show…57o…errm yeah…nice call preflop…payed off big time too…so practically a “superstar move”, if you neglect the fact that this is  about the only flop that will win that huge pot for you (well…3-4-6 would be the other one)….crippled again…a few hands later we see an unraised flop of AAJ…me holding the J10…money goes in…he shows Ace rag and wins the match…there goes another 20$.

After that, I’m sitting here sick and thinking…what in the world is going on here? How come that a guy down to 200 in chips can come back to win it. How come that I flop a set he flops a straight? How come I’m ahead all the way betting and he sucks out a flush? How come that I get runner runnered? How come? This is just unreal. I get one cold deck early on (boat vs straight) and he get’s all the rest (I counted four major ones). What in the world is going on here? Am I the second Mike Matusow or was today just a bad spot to be me? I don’t know, but really, I’m feeling sick now and I curse my bad luck. Comeback from 200…get out of here…this is ridiculous…chip and chair, yeah…probably should have called every friggin all-in after he was down to 200…most likely would have won one of the next 3?! Who knows…I just thought that calling with 9, 10 and Q high wouldn’t be the best idea…work out perfectly, didn’t it…not really….so sick…so sick…

As I was too tired to write up a summary of Kat‘s Friday Rebuy Madness (TM) this morning (after I busted out after over two hours of play, past 5am), here it goes, spiced up with some live poker.

I had a terrible session prior to the rebuy madness. I couldn’t win a hand to save my very soul and after the first match I discovered a big, maybe even giant leak in my (HU/SnG) game. What is the leak? Impatience combined with being annoyed of all the luckboxes I’m facing on a daily basis. Now, this maybe doesn’t count as a genuine leak, but really it is. I play a match, play the best I can, put the money in with the (significantly) best of it and I lose. I go off the deep end in the next x minutes playing suboptimal strategy (making bad calls, getting impatient, calling in bad spots, etc). So I really need to work on that. When I’m in the zone (and stuff like this doesn’t happen) I’m waaaaaay ahead and crush the game. But as soon as a session starts off with a real bad beat or a succesion of such hands, I lose it and donk out of the next ones. Not a good thing.

But enough of the session prior to the rebuy madness. The rebuy madness started off with a real bummer. I got the first monsters I held crushered, big time. What did I hold? The hammer and the jackhammer, both crushered by “overcards”. Sick, sick, sick 😉

So I rebought a few times donking around like there’s no tomorrow…and that’s the real beauty of this tourney. There’s just no better way to spend x dollars. You buyin for 2 (1+1; or better 3) dollars and donk around. If you make a mistake or donk move – who cares? 1$ will get you another 1k chips, 2$ will get you another 2k chips. Heeeehaaaw…enjoy. After the early “bad luck” – how dare you crusher my (jack)hammer?! – I picked up some nice hands and even cracked aces with a donkhand. Brilliant. After one hour of donkfoolery, I take the addon and the field looks like this:

Then I got moved to another table as some players pussed out (cough, Wawfuls etc, cough). Who do I find on my left…Mr. TripJax along with three other bigstacks…hmmm….nice…NOT.

A few hands in and it’s obvious that some players are picking on my blinds, so it’s time to make a move. Trip raises from UTG and I look down at KQo in the BB…no way I’m folding here…so I call…hit top pair and it goes to the river…after the hand, it’s revealed that he had the hammer and picked up an OESD which didn’t come through on the river though. So I pick up the pot and enjoy myself. The very next hand I get dealt the hammer myself in the SB.

After I miss the flop completely, I lead out nontheless with a nice sized cbet. Trip raises though and I have to fold the hammer. Back to square one.

The next hour is mostly a blur, win some lose some, but one hand stands out. If I knew that, I would have called the preflop raise. I sit with A9o on the button…one limper as it get’s to me…I limp as well…trip raises…limper calls…I ponder as the raise would be like 20-25% of my stack…so I decide to fold as I’ve got the feeling that I might be dominated here…flop comes down 992….whine…sigh…turn K…river 2…showdown Trip A8o…limper 66…so sick…if I call there…I triple up for sure, why? Because trip leads out for 2.5k on the flop…limper raises to 5k…no way in hell that I’m not either flat-calling or pushing there (7k) and at least the limper would have called the extra 2k for shizzle…oh well…just as the second break is about to kick in, we’re down to the final table…

8th out of 9…hmm…not a pleasent spot to be in…after we lose the first player, I push my stack in with A10o, which is no match to the other player’s JJ…

So, I’m out in 8th…

So…am I disappointed? Not really, I played some donk poker (early on), I played some good poker (middle stage up to the final table) and I played some decent poker at the final table. All in all…10$ spend for 2.x hours of good poker fun with the boys (and gals)! See you all next week…

Fast forward to today, we started the day off by watching the top match of the german footie league (our local VfB Stuttgart whooped Bayern Munich 2-0) and a nice BBQ. After enjoying the goods, we decided to play a little poker, surprise surprise. We started an eight-handed SnG with a payout structure of 50/30/20%. Got off to a slow start, but finally picked up a decent hand once the blinds got bigger. I look down at QQ in the BB…two limpers…so I decided to push…not the best move there, but with all the chasers at our game, I’ll rather win a small pot than seeing my Queens go up in flames on a bad board. One of the limpers has another idea for the hand though. I’m a little worried there as he’s really thinking about calling…could he have Aces? Could he have Kings? Sure, but then again, if he had that, his money would already be in the pot for sure…so I wait for him to make his move and he finally calls with KJo…errrm yeah…probably a good idea, wait, not really. The queens stand up and I double up to around 3k in chips (2k starting stack). Fast forward a few levels and “the hand” comes down. I’m in the SB…we’re five handed…UTG folds…UTG+1 calls…button calls…I look down at 88…I raise…BB flat-calls…shortstack UTG+1 shoves it in (practically “only” doubling my bet)…the button calls…I call…BB calls…no need to get cute here, let’s see what the flop brings…flop comes down 89T rainbow….hmm…bottom set…not bad…check…BB checks…UTG+1 is already all-in so no action…button bets out 1.5k….hmmm…why bet into a dry sidepot here? Hmmm…I’ve got around 3.xk left…so I ponder my options…could it be that he flopped a bigger set here? Absolutely, but if I’m scared of set over set here, why am I playing at all, especially given the fact that the button is one of our resident maniacs. So I ponder a little and put him on either an overpair or top pair (which would both be gold here)…I push over the top and the BB folds…showdown…button A10o for TPTK…shorty KQo…me…88 for a set of eights…the turn is a blank and I got the huge sidepot secured…the only card that can take the main pot from me is a J…that doesn’t hit and I drag the biggest pot I’ve ever seen in our homegame. I’m sitting there with roughly 65-70% of all chips in play and we’re down to four handed (bubble time)…the next orbits are a blur, but I don’t use my bigstack to really bully ppl, but I used it to make the obvious button moves. We lose a player and then another player and I’m headsup with the resident maniac. Not really the player I want to see there, but my 3:1 chiplead gives me some leeway here. I lose the chiplead in one of the typical hands. I hold JXo and I flop two pair. I bet out pot-sized. Call. Turn blank. I lead out half the (now substantial) pot. Call. River Q. Check check, as I know I’m toast….and I am toast…back to even. Sigh…I lose some pots…and after a sick hand, I flop Aces he flops second pair…rivers his kicker…and he’s roughly a 1,8:1 chipleader now…after folds on both sides for some orbits, the money finally goes into the middle and I got the best of it. I’m in command at that point and it’s a matter of a few more hands until the money goes in again…me AJ s00ted vs “The negreanu” (T7o)…flop brings a pair of queens and a king…turn is a 9…river is a T and i take it down with broadway. Wheeee…finally a W again after the long drought. Took second last time, first this time, things are looking up again, ever since I re-evaluated my live game…good stuff there…all in all…a perfect saturday…hope you had a good one, too…good luck at the tables…