First session: this morning, some NL cash and 8 NL HE SnGs…mostly good…3x1st 2x2nd in the SnGs….slightly up in the cash game.

Second session: this evening, 8 NL HE SnGs…1x 2nd…that’s it…the other time I totally lost it. I basically ran into more coolers than I’ve ever seen. Sure, there was the one or other bad play in between, but every time a big pot came down, it was pretty much a hand that automatically plays itself. QQ vs KK…JJ vs AA…along with some coinflips of which I won the grand sum of 0.00000000000. Pretty sick. Especially sick was one game where a donk ran so hard over the table that it was a done deal within 15 hands. He sucked out on two fellas in the first hand. Down to for. I was next along with another player…I had the best hand going in…He busted us both….headsup took two hands before he sucked out and won. I’ve never ever seen such a SnG before where a player ships it into the middle behind on every god damn hand and wins em all…he made CJ look like the unluckiest player alive…

Random bubble hand (the usual in the second session):

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 3: 11p0wner ($1965) –
Seat 5: xamou ($3615) –
Seat 6: Ingoal ($3420) –

PRE-FLOP:

xamou posts small blind $50
Ingoal posts BIG blind $100
Dealt To: Ingoal

FOLD 11p0wner
CALL xamou ($50)
CHECK Ingoal

FLOP:

Pot: $200
   

CHECK xamou
CHECK Ingoal

TURN:

Pot: $200
     

BET xamou ($100)
RAISE Ingoal ($200)
RAISE xamou ($300)
RAISE Ingoal ($400)
RAISE xamou ($3515)
CALL Ingoal ($2920)

RIVER:

Pot: $7635
      

SHOWDOWN:
xamou:

Ingoal:

xamou collected $6840 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $6840 Rake: $0

Final Board:
     

Seat 3: 11p0wner button folded before Flop didnt bet – Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 5: xamou small blind showed [Ac Kd] and won 6840 with three of a kind, Aces – Net Gain/Loss: ($3520)
  
Seat 6: Ingoal big blind showed [As 5s] and lost with three of a kind, Aces – Net Gain/Loss: ($-3420)

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

…as I’m still on the mini-hiatus, calming down a little, regrouping…don’t worry though, I’ll be back soon enough, once I get “the itch” again.

Not playing doesn’t mean I’m not thinking about the game or in this case reading about the game. I just finished Tom Schneider’s book “Oops I won too much money…”. I gotta say it’s one of the few books that I read cover to cover in less than two days. I did that not because it doesn’t contain much – well it’s not strategy book like the book I read before this one (NL Hold’em Theory & Practice) – it does contain a lot, but not strictly poker strategy…the book is made up of 60+ little chapters covering various aspects of poker/business/life…and every chapter has a lesson….really entertaining, at times funny, too and overall a really enjoyable book. I can recommend it…

Next up on my reading list is Johnny Hughes’ “Texas Poker Wisdom – A novel”…you see, my poker library is growing and growing…that’s all for today, I’m off to sweat the (german) Luckbox at the Stud8 WC final table…Poker-News.com-coverage making that possible….double thumbs up…gl at the tables and stand by for “real poker content” – it shouldn’t be long 🙄 😉

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This whole SnG grinding thing is really starting to get me. It’s not so much the hours, the dedication or the frustration, it’s the realisation that you can only be profitable if you get a few less junk-kicks than you’re willing to hand out, that and the fact that the rake (“tourney fee”) keeps eating you up when you try to grind it out in the low-end of the pond.

I know that everyone is about to be fed up with the constant whining and complaining – after all all sorts of beats are part of the game – yeah, well, easy to acknowledge and to deal with it if you’re sitting on a good roll. I’m not, so it’s tougher, maybe even tougher than you are realizing. It really eats me up that I can win and win and then lose and lose and win and win and that it’s a slow but steady downwards spiral, because I can’t win enough to constantly beat the rake. There I said it, I just can’t.

Why? Because no matter how good I run, someone else seems to be running better and guess what, the house doesn’t care, all it’s digital representation says is “kaaaaaaaa-chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing, ty for your money, come again”. For those who still care, the rake at the current donk-level I’m playing is 8,3%.

In a good night I can easily crush that mark and then some. In an average night (like tonight) I might win (in a general game-related sense) but still break even or finish a small loser (due to the rake)…and don’t even get me started on a bad night. So I’m starting to think about my “strategy” in general and the future I have in online poker (if any). Maybe I should sit down and have a look at my extensive stats (both automatically logged via TourneyManager and manually kept in form of my own “results sheets”) and take it from there, as what I’m currently doing is obviously not working (side note: maybe it’s really the biggest losing streak I’ve had so far and it’s a mixture of down-swing, bad luck and bad decisions; maybe it’s just that I can’t beat the game; maybe it’s ???; to give you an idea about my downswing I can tell you this much: within the last 9 months I slowly lost 77% of my roll)…

To quote the great old green fella: “Meditate on this I will”…until then enjoy the (not so random pic dump), enjoy the kickass WSOP coverage of DrPauly and PokerNews and enjoy life…I sure will…away from online poker…cya on the other side…nn and gl at the tables…

Of course…

• …there’s no way to beat the game with such a huge short-term downswing.
• …there’s no way to ride out a cold-streak if ever god damn micro sng represents 10% of your roll.
• …it’s normal that you can lose every coin-flip short-term.
• …it’s normal that your opponent calls all-in with one card to come with any draw (ranging from 2 to 8 outs).
• …it’s normal that they hit each and everyone of these draws on the river.

That being said, of course I’m never ever ever coming back to “Full-Tilt-rape-my-asshole-all-day-every-day”-Poker unless one of two things happen:

1. I get a start-roll that is big enough that a donkey-SnG represents less than 5% of my roll at any given time.
2. A miracle happens.

Until then it’s bye bye and never see you again….FullTilt fuckers…and this time I mean it, mark my words!

So, tonight is the Bodog ToC…the good news: 1 WSOP Main-event package up for grabs along with other T$ cash prices….the bad news: I won’t be playing as I failed to score the big points. That won’t keep me from railing though (at least if I’m still awake that early)…

Find all the details and smokkee’s odds here.

My odds would be:

• NewinNov 4:1
• $mokkee 4:1
• MiamiDon 4:1
• Drizztdj 5:1
• GoldenHammer 5:1
• Vin_nay 6:1
• Columbo777 6:1
• Emptyman 7:1
• ICrushBloggers 7:1
• Donkette 7:1
• ScottMc 8:1
• InstantTragedy 9:1
• JD Schellnutt 9:1
• Cbags 10:1
• WhatsTheNuts 10:1
• JL514 10:1
• Yestbay1 10:1
• BuddyDank 10:1

What are yours?

Especially if the dealer keeps rubbing it in…presto no good…obv…now, I made a bad move on the flop…and I was a 4:1 dog preflop…so all good…but why give me the damn 5 on the river ffs, are you out to get me on tilt? Obv..yeah…

*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $22.95 | Rake $1.10
Board [3s 9d Js 9c 5d]
Seat 1: Ingoal showed [5s 5c] and lost with a full house, Fives full of Nines
Seat 2: cafecanuck folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: doccincy (button) showed [Jh Jc] and won ($21.85) with a full house, Jacks full of Nines

Back to bread and butter, I get slaughtered at the SnGs for the most part…so I’m off, down and out for the night. Really need to think about this online poker journey. It’s leading up and down and up and down and up and down down down…pretty sick and discouraging.

…followed this year’s “unrestricted”, no-holds-barred, kick-ass WSOP-reporting from the Good Doctor…Dr. Pauly over at Tao of Poker…

Well, well, it’s the last bodonkey of the season…so while some donks will try to get some more points to squeeze into the ToC, other donks will do everything they can (aka “folding to the points” and whatnot) to cling to there seats and the rest, playing in ToC-nirvana will have one thing on their mind: KILL SMOKKEE (not literally 🙄 ). Why? Because the fine folks of bodog put a T$270 bounty on his head. Wheeeee….that, along with the usual added T$ should be more than enough motivation to make tonight’s bodonkey the biggest one yet…

Read more about it here and here….cya tonight (if I don’t fall asleep), when it’ll be BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM Headshot Time 😆 !

Because Pauly and Shamus said so…so here it goes…

If you play online poker (especially if you are one of the blind fools still playing on UB), it’s in everyone’s best interest to spread the word on this important thread…

Superusers and Silence: How UltimateBet let players get cheated for millions by Steven Ware & Cornell Fiji (2+2)

Here’s a sample:

“I believe that it is important for online poker players to know about the unethical business practices of UltimateBet and Absolute Poker. It is also imperative to understand that these unscrupulous activities are not an indictment on the entire online poker industry. As you read this thread please keep in mind that UltimateBet and Absolute Poker are owned by the same company. They are also regulated by the same puppet regulatory commission. Most poker sites are run with the utmost integrity and security. UltimateBet and Absolute Poker are the exception and not the rule.

I urge the concerned reader to pass word of this summary on to other interested parties. The spread of this information will ultimately protect poker players from unknowingly exposing themselves to the corruption detailed below…

The players on UltimateBet were victims of a serious crime: grand larceny facilitated by a company that operates virtually outside the law. I hope that the efforts spent investigating and publicizing this story will help the victims of these crimes find restitution. I hope that this story will also highlight the need for independent regulation in the online poker industry.

Please use this thread to discuss the the best way to convince UltimateBet to come clean about their involvement in this theft and to provide restitution for these crimes. Please also use this thread to discuss the best ways to ensure that a scandal such as this one does not taint the game of poker occur ever again…. More“