Tonight was a real rollercoaster in the rebuy donkfest and at the headsup tables, well not that much at the headsup tables, it was more or less crash and burn.

Rebuy: Start out with 1k…push in first five to six hands…up to 8k…a little while later…0…a little while later…10k….a little while later 3k….and then it’s crash and burn in seventh. Oh well…didn’t have any “premium cards”, dropped two hammers, biggest pair 55, lost 16k pot with KQ to QJ….lost the final hand with QJ vs KQ…fitting…random pic dump, this time no hand dumps, just a random pic dump…

Curious sidenotes:

• Only 10 runners
• Final table within the first 30 minutes
• Some players just don’t get the rebuy donkarama blogger donkfest’s first hour, 5% flops seen, are you kidding me?

Headsup play: Only played two, the first one was HORSE and my opponent was really lucky early on in Hold’em. I survive with 600 chips. Come Omaha8 I’m grinding my way back. Come the first Razz hands and I’m ahead. Then he starts to chase like there is no tomorrow capping the pot being at least one card behind and/or board-locked…sure enough he runner-runners my ass to beat me. The second match was PLO8 and although I took down some nice pots I only won one of the three big pots…busto…nice to see that your opponent has got the nut-low every time you have the second nut-low and the best draw…sure enough he scoops…oh well…I’m out of here…

Presented by (pot)limit games united, the word of the week:

Ridonkulous – to start out with a clearly inferior starting hand, preferrably board-locked when playing any form of stud, and hitting perfect cards to pull out an unlikely win.

That’s what happened for the most part today, people so eager to chase as if there was no tomorrow. Oh well…didn’t bug me too much though as I knew I would eventually catch them…and that’s exactly what happened in 3 out of five matches. Too bad donks, luck can only get you soooo far.

Headsup stats of the day:

NL: 0/1

PLO8: 1/2

PLO: 1/1

Razz 1/1

Decided to stick to my plan today and play only a little at FullTilt. As Hold’em, especially headsup, is treating me so bad these days, I decided to start out with some “old school” stuff, PLO8. That is one of my favourite games and after reading about it in FullTilt’s Strategy Guide again, I felt the urge to play a little. Headsup PLO8 can be brutal, but on the other hand really rewarding, especially if your opponent doesn’t understand the basic concepts (e.g. lock on low with counterfeit protection and a high draw….bet the living jeebus out of the pot; don’t chase, unless you got a lot of outs to make THE NUTS; etc). Won two out of two. Then I jumped over to a little razz and really enjoyed it, until the blinds got huge. Lovely if you start with three to a wheel, got four to the wheel by fourth street and brick up on fifth, sixth and seventh street. Lovely! Oh well…

After that one I jumped over to some NL Hold’em action and it was the usual stuff. Won two, lost two. Can’t get a winning streak going these days, but hey, maybe that’ll change soon again…

As for the WSOP ME: Nice to see such a humble guy win, at least that’s how he came across in the PokerNews interview…I’m really looking forward to see the coverage…so far the preliminary event coverage was good, HD, I like! Can’t wait to see the HORSE championship, too…I’m out….

Shit out of luck, that’s how I feel on Stars these days. No matter how good, mediocre or bad I play a hand, I’m going to lose it if it’s a big pot. Now, it’s a given fact that you’re going to lose some matches due to errors, but it seems that I tend to lose the matches in the following order:

1. Getting unlucky.

2. Cooler.

3. Error.

It’s really frustrating to say the least. Today’s session had it all again, from the usual coolers (JJ vs KK, 77 vs QQ, AT vs AQ, etc) to the outright bs hands (QQ vs 62o overpair vs bottom pair…bottom pair obv good by the river when he hits his bs “kicker”, 56 vs 45 two pair vs straight draw…..gutter ball obv good). So sick I could puke. Unreal how bad I’ve been running the last few days, it’s not even funny. I had a look at some of the more “entertaining” hands and there’s a small error percentage on my part as far as I can tell – e.g. “slow playing” in some spots (e.g. not betting the pot, but half of it if I put the opponent on less than 6 outs) isn’t really an error in headsup, unless your opponent hangs around to catch the gutterball (or some other low percentage draw)…then he looks like a (idiot errrm) genius. The prime example was the QQ vs 62o hand. I raise it to 3BB preflop. He calls. 6BB in the pot. Flop comes  Tx2. I fire out half the pot. He calls. Turn 6. I lead out and he raises. I think a while and can’t put him on a hand that makes sense. How could the 6 help you here? So I push and he obv insta-calls. River brick. Well…how can I dodge that bullet? I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense. How can you call preflop with 62o? Well, easy, if you hit two pair or better you can bust a big pair, all good. But after you hit your duck with no kicker, how can you call on the flop? It’s a mistery to me, but oh well…

So…I’m going to take a break at PokerStars for a few days as it’s obvious that I can’t win anything on there atm. I mean, I’m not ready to get out the tinfoil-hat just yet, but it’s starting to get mad annoying. Everytime I’m about to bust a move again (e.g. hitting bankroll x) I run into such a bullshit run on Stars…amazing. Oh well…WSOP is about over…I’m annoyed with PS…so I’m going to take a break and focus on some FullTilt action for now.

…that’s exactly what I did after the shitty run on Stars. The result, one bubble and two wins. Amazing…I’m out….

I took a little break from my usual headsup routine yesterday. I decided to hit up some of favourite tilting games, namely Razz and PLO8. I pretty much annihilated my opponents in Razz and got some favourable hands and flops in PLO8. One guy killed me in Razz though, it was unreal. I won 80% of the pots, but every time a really big pot came down he got lucky on me. Sometimes you tend to exaggerate in such situation, but no, he won every single big pot starting with a worst hand catching at least peferct-perfect (once even perfect-perfect-perfect) to beat my made hands. Really frustrating, but that’s part of the game and at least I could yell my good ol’ Razz/Stud mantra in the chat: Brick brick brick really makes me sick.

Today I mixed play up a little. I played four headsup matches, won two of em. Then I played a six-handed SnG and finished in second. The crucial hand came down still four handed: I was the big stack and there were three smaller stacks (one under 1k, one with 1.4k and one with 2.2k). I get T8 in the SB and complete as it’s folded to me. BB (2.2k) checks. Flop comes down 2-8-8 with two hearts. I check…he bets. Hmm…flush draw? Hmm…I call. Turn brings the Ks. I check again…error #1…I should lead out here…but he doesn’t take the free card, so it didn’t cost me for the moment. I raise him. He calls. Now I’m a little bit confused although I think he has a king for sure, probably the Kh. River…Ah….so fugly…if my initial feeling was right he’s got there. I lead out with a defensive bet…he raises all-in, which is only 400 more to me… into a 4k pot…well…I’ll have to pay you off sir…and indeed he has Kh9h…fugly but I don’t see how the money isn’t going in…although he might have folded on the flop if I push…but where’s the value in that…my foe in that hand busts the other two players within the next ten hands and we’re headsup…1.7k to 7.3k…not much I can do with blinds of 200/400 ante 50…so I push with the second hand and don’t catch…I’m busto…
After that I decided that I had enough of NL Hold’em for the night and had a look at the upcoming MTTs. It’s been a while since I played one (non blogger events) and there was a 360max PLO8 tourney about to start…let’s get ready to rumble. I catch some good hands early on and more than double up…then I go on a dry spell. Still above average I get quartered in a pretty fugly hand (river counterfeits my nut-low) and I’m below average for the first ime. About twenty hands later I commit to a hand that I shouldn’t have…AA48 double s00ted…a lot of limpers in the pot…I’m in the SB and raise the pot…one caller in LP…he got me covered and calls my flop pot-bet…the flop is pretty harmless looking…but what do you know…J94…turn brings a small rag…I go all-in…he insta-calls with the monster AJ4x….river J and I’m bustom 137th if 262. Oh well…I’m outta here…

No real fun because of the cards, but because of the company. Play my usual shorthanded SnG and got sucked out on within the first orbit, cya. Won a headsup match and then I decended to the depths of donkey-heaven/hell.

I played a few 1$ SnGs with two friends and boy was it fun. The play ranged from “good” to absolute donkdome (all-in every hand). It was quite funny, although my mates were on my left in all games. Oh well…did fairly well dodgin numerous bullets and donkey-kicks and finish ITM two out of three. The finishes were bubble (4th), 3rd and 2nd for a hefty profit of 0.9$, lol.

After that I played a last HU SnG, my good ol’ favourite PLO8 and wouldn’t you know, I ran into one of the leaderboard’s finest (5$ ones, 3rd place). Played for almost an hour before he finally finished me off. Oh well, it was fun. I’m off now, Full Tilt Strategy Guide Tournament Edition arrived today to keep me company…

That sounds about right. Today’s play was both awful and awfully painful. I’ve seen it all today, from the lovely case-card (one outer), to the usual two, three and four outer to the usual cold-deck bs.

Sooooo fugly. I start HU and win the first three matches easily. No flips, no all-ins preflop, I get my opponents to put in their money drawing very slim and they don’t catch. Nice. Next thing you know I’ve dropped 6 matches in a row and a nice string of bs hand…from the usual 88 vs KK…to the AT vs Q6 (guess the river card)…to the case card, everything in there brother.

I’ll spare you the other screenshots as they make me wanna puke even while uploading them. So I’m three out of 10 and I seriously consider quitting as it’s obvious that I won’t make any dough today. Instead I decide to fill the dozen. So I win the 11th match and then in the 12th match the same bs again and I decide to quit NL for the night (5/12).

So I fire up a PLO8 game and the same bs over and over again. I start with the best hand and guess what, I can’t make a hand, not even if my life depended on it. Then it’s finally time to have the best hand, my opponent catches perfect to quarter me on the river. After that I was basically tilted and ready to close friggin PS, but I finished the match. The next hand seals the deal…very nice to see yet another case card…wheeeeeeee….gives me enough to finally hang myself….

In remotely Tilt related news, Amazon managed to ship out my newest order yesterday, so the Full Tilt Strategy Guide Tournament Edition should arrive tomorrow or something….nice…finally a new read…

That’s how my competition should feel tonight. Even though there were some nice coolers and stuff, I managed to whip most of my opponents as the coolers happened once I had grinded them down quite a bit.

So the stats for tonight: HU NL HE 2W 1L, 4ppl HU: 1W, PLO8 HU 1W…so 4 out of 5 wins…wheeeeee…I’m off…

My favourite hand of the night: The hand before that I got coolered, yet again, Q8 vs QT…sure enough the other two queens show up and sure enough the money goes in…good thing that I’m still the chipleader after that pot as he had already dumped half his stack to me. Than this hand comes up…

…is fun, especially if you’re dealing with total morons. Then again, does it lead anywhere? Not really, but it’s fun, although not that much fun if you’re dealing with lucky ignorant self-righteous asswhipes who think they invented poker, lol.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. After two days of poker playing abstinence I jumped back into the donkpool that’s known as PokerStars to mankind. It didn’t take long before the first bs hand went down. A few weeks back it would have probably catapulted me straight into tilt-land, but hey, I’m over that, at least for the most part.

The usual, hey I’ve got an Ace, that’s gotten be golden, even if the dude raising all-in hasn’t play a hand in two orbits and has shown nothing but the nuts, wait, how do I even know that, I couldn’t care less, I’m worried about my own cards here.

After that I jumped into headsup mode and the same bs went down…

The hammer flop should have given it away, but hey. I didn’t tilt either and took him out a few hands later. Then in the next one, just when you think you’ve seen it all, the biggest cooler comes down. I mean, you get the money in better than anything (4:1) and then the flop comes down. I titled this one the “jackpot cooler”, lol.

Oh well…always nice to flop top boat against quads. *lol*. I took him out a few hands later. Then I donked around a little in the PLO8 headsup matches, won one lost one. Then I tried another six handed SnG…guy cold-calls the flop…the turn brings the nutflush and he leads out…I reraise…the dude behind me cold calls…button dude calls…river double pairs the board…oh shit…I lead out he pushes…now I’m stuck…I guess I should have layed it down, but hey…no error-free session…guy behind me reluctantly folds…button calls….shows his monster Q2 s00000ted….nice hand sir, at least on the flop…

Oh well…I jump back into HU mode and drop one. Win the next one. Then the next bs hand comes down in the third one and I’m sick and tired of it. I congratulate him on his nice catch.

He then goes of and tells me about how this is no bad beat as it’s only a bad beat when you get the money in good. Errrm yeah Einstein, as if there’s any chance to not go broke in that hand. He then tells me my next fault was that I didn’t raise on the flop. Errrm yeah Einstein, the concept is to lead at it hard there with three Kings, way to make money in headsup. He then tells me that after the flop he was on a freeroll anyway. Errm yeah Einstein…shut the hell up donkey boy. You got lucky on my ass catching your moronic three outs and I got unlucky, not only because you caught your friggin three outs, but because I didn’t catch mine on the turn or river and the board sure as hell didn’t pair either, surprise surprise. You gotta love it. But enough ranting, my finishing line was the usual. Nicely done sir, enjoy. I guess he won’t looking at his stats.  Apropos stats, I won the whole 0% coinflips, 0% going in 60/40 (two live vs two live with one over). Mix in the whole “cracking your hands” thing and it’s been one hell of a ride…right into the shitcan. Fucking poker 😉

Playing with a slight fever can be quite entertaining. Started the session with a six-handed SnG and crushered the competition to win it in less than half an hour. Then I busted out early in the next two, one time slightly behind, outflopping my opponent, then he resucks, in the next one I went in with the best and the only suck was on me.

After that I went back to headsup and it was fugly. Won the first one. Lost the second one. Played PLO8, won the first one, lost the second one. Then I played some more NL and lost three in a row with some of the most beautiful hands I’ve ever seen. Nothing better than a 66xxx board…you hold J6…your opponent holds J6…another hand against the same opponent JK55A…you hold 45…your opponent holds 56…chop chop…then the clouded judgement really caught up with me…I knew I was beat and still I called…I guess I should have quit two matches earlier…but oh well…