Still doing my thing, still grinding NL20 over at Cake, still loving it. That pretty much sums it up. I feel good, play good and might I say I still run good. I know that sooner or later reality will set in again, but honestly I don’t see myself running that much over ev, although PT3 is indicating otherwise (and honestly, 12.33BB/100 over the last 2.1k hands is pretty massive).

Why do I say that I don’t feel it? Because I can’t believe how often I will sit with the nuts (or close to it) and my opponent will either donkshove into the shiznuts, or pays off with less than stellar holdings (to say the least).

Anyway…I’m happy grinding out a profit again tonight…enjoy the pic dump and I’m outta here…

…I’ve been here for years, etc etc 😉

After poker has been kicking me in the junk over at both PokerStars and FullTilt – the latter kicking me in the junk rush style, quick and all the more painful – i had decided that I needed a break from poker.

Indeed I did take a break (June – August), time to reflect, figure out if I really wanted to continue this “hobby” at all. Sure enough, as you can see in this post, I came to the conclusion that, indeed, I wanted to continue, despite all the (small) highs and (big) lows.

This time I decided to go another route though. Bye bye Full Tilt, bye bye Stars, let’s see what else is out there. In the end I came across an interesting offer over at pokersavvy. A rakeback deal for cake poker, handing me back 33% of the rake. Cake, a site where traffic is not all that high (I’ve yet to see more than 5k ppl at any given time I played), but also a site without the PT3-HUD, etc.

All in all, I’m please with the results so far. Results? Why should they even matter? Well, because even if you don’t play “results oriented”, you gotta have some results or you’ll be busto. So far, I’ve managed to find my rhythm again, posting more winning than losing sessions, running “good” for once, etc. So I’m currently in my zone (NL20, 10$ SnGs, etc), where I enjoy the game and play every now and then – no pressure.

That’s all for now, now to the major pic dump. Part #1 is the “worst of” since my last post and (for now) the final chapter in FTP/Stars rants. Part #2 is for the new chapter “cake” so far (end of August until now). Enjoy…

Part #1:

Part #2:

Hehe, indeed I’m still around, but as you’ve probably already noticed via the post title or the lack of updates, I’m not really playing poker…or at least not much.

After my pretty sick run at FTP, falling victim to the crack errm rush poker, I took a beating a stars as well. So I did the sensible thing and stepped away for a bit. After a while I had to get back into action though, and as the pitty of a bankroll dictated it, I made my way down to the depths of donkeyland. To make a long story short, they had a field-day squashing the remainder of my roll and I’m officially busto at stars as well.

I will spare you all the details, but let me say this much: play wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t logical and it sure as hell wasn’t correct strategically or mathematically, but it was “right” in the sense that they got the best of me. Who cares if they’re just 5-20% to win in 95% of the cases? Usually that would be me, at least if I would win 95% of those cases or even anywhere close to that, hell I’ll take 50%…but as you already know that wasn’t the case…the curse of the real bad run, when you know you’re fucked even though you push it in leaving your opponent 4 outs or less…

In related news there was a home-game a few weeks back and with my abstinence from online donkin, I was more than happy to play some live poker. The end result was close to the online results, hell, it was the same shit tbh. I could get some hands together, playing my heart out, but once the big pots came around, I couldn’t catch a break. I can honestly say that I didn’t have one hand hold up in a crucial pot.

Let me give you a few examples: I started the evening coming out of the gates firing. Raise, raise, raise, raise. I win a few small pots in a row. My reasoning is simple: I’ve got a crowd of gamblers at the table and they don’t mind making incorrect plays (e.g. calling big raises preflop, chasing with incorrect odds, etc), there’s only one player that plays really sound strategy and I’ve got position on him. My strategy works out beautifully as I look down at QQ after raising and winning the last 5 pots. I raise again big preflop in LP and get one caller. Once the flop comes down ten high, I push all-in as my opponent only has got 1.5x the pot left. I get instacalled by jackAce off. Before I can say shit the Aceball hits the turn and I take a hit. On the next hand I raise big again, holding AQs. I get the same caller again. The flop comes Axx and after it’s checked to me I push all-in again. I get snap-called by KK. Turn blank…river king. Fuck me. I bow out once my next AQs can’t connect against JJ and I’m busto. Fucking A++.

So, to make a long story short, I guess you won’t be hearing any online poker news from me in the upcoming weeks as I’m taking a real break this time…I wish you better luck than me…good luck at the tables and peace out…

…and what is that? Yes, my money. I can’t believe how easily fooled I am. They come knocking with a 100$ bonus and I fall into the trap. I reload and before I get to 20% of the bonus I’m busto for roughly 1.5 times the whole bonus.

That’s how you do promos folks, reel in the sucker with a promise of “free” money, then skin him alive and laugh at him. Well played folks.

I’m pretty much fed up with all the bs, so I won’t even bother to complain about the “sick” hand here, and “sicker” hand there…I’ll just do one final pic dump and I’m off…never to touch ftp again…the following pics depict my play on ftp from march 6th to march 14th…

1. Oooh, Aces vs Queens and they actually hold up…too bad shorty got it in, winning me a grand total of under 2 bucks…

2. Ace King? Nooo goot, obv 67s00ted is the nuts…standard 3.5bet before the flop, shove on the flop…insta-called…

3. I won a flip? Rigged…exactly! That’s why I lose the next 100 in a row…

4. I fold Kings preflop after a 3bet and 4bet reshove…of course the fonkeys have an ace each…two outs would have been good nontheless…good fold me…

5. Three jacks no g00t…how I managed to lose the minimum is still a mystery…

6. 4:1 favourite? In FTP math that’s like 3% to win…

7. Dominated? You’re going to lose, period.

8. Flopping to set? Not enough against jackAce s000000000ted…obviously!

9. Who needs twenty outs? Noone, three are always enough against me…end of story…

10. If you still didn’t get the memo…I said three outs are enough…

11. Hello, keep up…three outs are still enough…don’t you listen?

12. 3 best is the nuts…I can live with losing with second best…

13. Flopping dem quads is a nice feeling…getting junk kicked afterwards and bubbling…not so much…

14. Best in worst out…always a kick…especially against two undercards…lol…

15. Playing the pros…two thirds and two junk-kicks…just the right ratio to go insane slowly…

16. First hand, always the right moment to run into the BB special…

17. Waw? You still didn’t get the 3out-memo? Wtf…try to keep up…!

18. which leads us to this beauty…

The end…

Hehe…bored, so what do you do? Right, reload at FTP to hook yourself up to the Rush-Crack-Machine…who could pass a 100$ bonus offer? Hehe…

Dumped a few bucks making stupid moves, the biggest money drains were the usual hands though:

1. Pop it from the hijack with AsKs…get repopped, shove..instacall by Ah Kh…the rest is the usual

2. Call a raise in the BB with 77, shorty comes along in MP. Flop 8T6 all spades. Check, check, small bet. Call by me, shorty calls all-in short. Turn 9c. Straight baby. Check, small bet, min-raise, call. River 9s. Yikes. Check, ultra-small bet, donk call. Of course he rivered a boat.

3. Pop it from the hijack with AJs000000ted. Flat call from the button – hmm. Flop AJ6 all hearts though. Don’t care, bet pot, repop, shove, instacall by AcKc. Noice. Turn 6…river K…fuck me…

4. Pop it from UTG with QQ, small repop BB, call. Flop 688 bet, shove…ponder ponder…if you got me you got me – of course he got me, what was I thinking? lol

The new found ev tells me that I deserved to lose a little, but it also shows that I’ve been running nicely under ev…surprised? Not really. Anyway..not really pissed off, just tired and outta here…

I think I need a real break from the grind.

Reason 1: I can’t get any traction what so ever, well, if you don’t count accelerating faster and faster downwards into a bottom-less pit.

Reason 2: Poker used to be fun, win or lose, didn’t bother me all that much either way (obv not at all while winning)…nowadays I’m frustrated either way as it’s either a “break even” or slim result (thanks rake) or a devastating loss.

Reason 3: I’m fed up posting bs hand after bs hand, no matter if I put it in 4:1, 3:1, 2:1, 1:1, preflop, postflop, on the turn, on the river…doesn’t matter…if it’s a small or totally irrelevant pot, sure I win here and there, but come crunch time I get my nuts crunched like they’re walnuts.

Reason 4: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh! Nuff said…

So, I’m outta here, once again telling myself that I should take a break, let’s see if I can stick to it this time…we’ll see…

…nothing major anyway. Pretty tired these days, so not much action going on. Played four 6max SnGs and one HU. Won the HU, took 2nd twice in the 6max ones…blaaaaa!

…you can play practically every hand perfectly…and you still get kicked in the junk, the joy of poker and the source of the constant influx of fish…the chance that you’ll get lucky.

Tonight was pretty brutal, so I quit after 8 6max-SnGs. I ran into some coolers, lost all flips for all the marbles (2, KQs vs 22 and KTs vs 55) and I got kicked badly in some others. In the end I managed to win 1…that’s it. Pretty fugly.

Tonight, I’ve got four screenshots for you:
#1: We’re on the bubble and I openshove with QQ, get called by A7 s00000000000ted….of course 3 outs are 100% to win

#2: Cutoff limps in, button folds, small blind fills up, I knuckle the virtual felt with 44. Flop comes down 6T4…SB checks, I check, cutoff bets half the pot, SB folds, I call. Turn is a King. I’m hoping that my opponent got AK. I knuckle the virtual felt again, this time my opponent bets pot. I paused for 2ms telling myself that if he indeed has KK (or 66 or TT for that matter) then he got my money. Instead he shows AA…river A.

#3: Folded around to the button…he openshoves for 3.5BB (or whatever)…I insta-reshove AT…of couse he flops the world+1 and I’m left with 8BB…

#4: We’re once again on the bubble, button raises to 3x…SB folds, I instashove with AJ, button instacalls with A3 s00000000000ted….of course the 3 outs are golden and I’m busto…

Love it, just love it…enjoy the pics to said hands and the fugly pt graph to top thing off….I’m outta here…

After playing some live cards (not poker) tonight, I decided to play a little on Stars…a win here and there, but mostly 2nd or 3rd place finishes…enough to still keep me loser…oh well…satisfied with my play, in “must win” situation, especially three handed I ran into some bad luck I would say, if I have ATs on the button and the BB wakes up with AKo the hand plays itself automatically…oh well…enjoy the short pic dump…

Oh, before I forget it: for all the rush players who happen to be PT3 users as well, check out the newest beta which was just released, it supports rush now…the end of “no data” rush as we knew it…enjoy…

After yesterday’s rants and playing well after I should have stopped – yes I even played again after the rant post – I was back calm and collected at the tables at Stars. Pretty uneventful, although I gotta say it’s a good feeling when you can finally have a hand hold up in crucial pots (and or win a flip in that spot) when playing turbo SnGs. Played four of them (6max, turbo, $12+1), won 2 and finished 2nd in another. Nice. Apart from that I played one turbo DS to the sunday million, no dice again.

Not much more I gotta tell you atm, except that it’s a good feeling to finally note down a winning session, albeit a short one, but who cares…enjoy the random pic dump and I’m outta here (the first 9 snaps are from yesterday, the rest from today, pt graph only showing the 4 SnGs, not the DS…time I figured out how to filter properly in PT3 I guess…hints on how to filter something like “last x tournaments” would be appreciated)…