As I don’t feel like playing long sessions these days, I only played to quick ones yesterday and today. Four nine handed turbo SnGs each. Finished first twice yesterday, one third and one first today. Two winning session, although small, in a row. Not bad considering the way I was approaching the game recently…and they way I ran…the way I played due to that…etc…

On the Poker Wear front I was pleased to see the mailman drop off a packet by PokerStars this morning. Finally, after a two month wait he delivered my PokerStars Sports Jacket…wheeee….

On the spam front I’m finally fed up with all the donkbags spamming me like crazy with ridonkulous trackback-spam…so I had to add two more measures to my already overkill antispam-arsenal. From now on track- and pingbacks are disallowed on all posts and comments are closed on posts older than 30 days. I hope that finally cuts out the crap as I’m fed up looking at the spam count (see footer) and seeing the number of blocked spams reaching ridonkulous heights (100+k are you kidding me?)…

Alrighty…I’m outta here…enjoy the random pic dump…and gl at the tables…

Inspired by ShoeMoney‘s Free Shirt Friday I would like to introduce the Poker-Tastic.com Free Stuff Day. How I envision this thing to take off is:

1. You’ve got a site you want to promote?
2. You’ve got some swag* promoting your site?
3. Send it to us and we will post a pic of the swag and provide at least one link back to your site.
4. Both sides win 😉

If you’re interested in sending us your swag, feel free to send it to:
Ingo Hildebrandt
ATTN: Poker-tastic Free Stuff Day
Neckargasse 7
71726 Benningen
Germany

If you’ve got questions and suggestions feel free to contact us at swag@poker-tastic.com! Oh, and if it’s a T-Shirt you’re sending, please make it XL and include a note with the address of the site/blog on it (only necessary if it’s not on the T-Shirt). Thank you.

* Promotional merchandise for a band, record label, or other entity in the music business, usually distributed at concerts.

May include t-shirts, stickers, promo CDs, posters, etc. Often free, but not necessarily; a t-shirt or record purchased at a concert might still be considered swag, especially if it is a design or release that is not readily available in the mass market.

Many independent record labels throw in a handful of free swag when they ship out mail-order packages (stickers, sampler CDs, etc).

The chief difference between swag and regular merchandise is that its purpose is not to make a profit, but to promote the band/label, and reward its supporters by giving them something cool and unique.
Source: Urban Dictionary

Today was one of these days where you can just feel that something isn’t right. It all started out pretty good with two easy HU wins against opponents playing too tight…and once they couldn’t take it anymore I had a monster. Then it all fell apart. It was a mixture of 60/40 shots not going my way, with the occasional cooler and there were some errors on my part, too. I dropped the ball in two consecutive SnGs after being three-outered for a big pot. Oh well, the way it goes sometimes. At least I got my shit together in time to cash in the last one I played. Third…still pretty sick as I got three-outered again…so instead of headsup 5:1 in chips I’m crippled with 3BB…oh well…

So I logged off and went to a little barbecue/party. The crowd was a mix of the usual home game faces and some others. Once the majority of the “others” left, it was inevitable…pokah! It was wild and slow and fun, mostly. I can honestly say that this table was a new experience. Fourteen (!) players. As some teamed up those 14 became 11 (as five players built a three and two player-combo). I joked that I would push all-in on the first hand…and once I looked down at TT in LP…I chuckled…then pushed all-in. *lol* I won the blinds and limps. The rest is mostly a blurr…one player, who was so drunk that he left the table on a few occasions (to puke all over the host’s bathroom, yikes), basically steamrolled the table winning pot after pot and eliminating player after player: “What you got a set? Oh well…I got King high….I call the all-in”…*lol*…sure enough he runner-runners the straight, etc etc.

So sick. But anyway…back to my play. It came down to three crucial hands. I pushed in with KJo in the BB after the button and SB limped..button calls with QT…flop comes down KJx…turn? A….wheeeee…NOT…river is a blank and I’m crippled. Next hand I push in blind in the SB…cutoff calls…I river a straight with my J7o…next hand I push in blind on the button…get called in two spots…I river a Jack with my J3o….one opponent shows J4o…split pot as the lowest card on the board, a 5, plays…*lol*…two hands later UTG pushes for 1.5BB (!)…UTG+1 min-raises….folded to me…I look down at 66 and I push over the top…UTG+1 calls…showdown: UTG – KJo…UTG+1 – KQo…looking good…flop is all low…no 6 though…turn J…river blank….and I’m busto…and now I’m typing this…enjoy the following (not so) random pic dump and I’m outta here….

Played the Saturdays with Dr. Pauly four-card bingo tourney tonight, finished in a disappointing 21st out of 29…didn’t even make the first break. I guess I should abstain from playing PLO tourneys, even if they’re blogger tourneys. Why? Because

1. Although I love PLO8, I hate PLO.
2. I can’t catch a break in PLO.
3. I’m usually (slightly) tilted after playing a PLO tourney…if not I’m at least a little ticked off.

So after busting out early I hit the NL SnGs…and it wasn’t pretty. When I didn’t make a mistake it was either a cooler or a flip and I couldn’t win either one of them. Especially disturbing: I had some tighty Mc tight tables tonight and every time we got to the bubble or near it, I tried to put the pressure on…didn’t work out all that well. I guess I’ll be back on thursday…until then gl at the tables and enjoy the random pic dump…

…not much poker today either…just some quick HU action where I crushered my opposition. I’m off to catch some sleep now…after all it’s my birthday today…so I should be well rested for the afternoon/evening action (not poker action)…

Happy birthday me…30…I feel old 🙄

You all heard me complaining, whining and moaning for the last few weeks….well, ever since I came back…it’s a mix of “bad luck”, emotionality and selective memory I guess…and I’m trying hard to change my attitude atm. Thinking positive is my new (and old) mantra…and while it’s tough to stay positive when you’re running into coolers left and right and can’t have a hand hold up (when it counts), I’m trying…hard.

Today I made a switch that I didn’t plan on doing…it was some sort of spur-of-the-moment thing…although the (little) reasoning behind it is quite straight forward:

Fact 1: I’ve been running bad the last few weeks – at least in my own biased opinion.
Fact 2: Ever since I upgraded to a 24″ screen I never play less than four tables/SnGs at once.
Fact 3: I love to play shorthanded…more action…you don’t need a monster every hand…
Fact 4: I like to play turbos…not because they give me a decisive edge…nope…because they got the perfect time-frame for me to stay really focussed (max. 45min)…

Combine those facts and you’ve got: pressure. Pressure because it’s six handed. Pressure bcause only the top two pay. Pressure because of the turbo format. Pressure because of the multi-tabling. Pressure because of the rake*…Pressure…

So I thought…are all those facts benefiting your game, which is a rather patient/passive game with select aggression. The answer is a big fat no…and while I’m not willing and able to switch to an optimal game right away (which would probably be a game which is not a turbo, involves more skilled players who can actually fold second pair no kicker, etc), I did make a switch to a “better game” for the moment. To make a long story short, I switched to full table SnGs…still playing four at once…still playing the turbo format…but still I’ve seen an improvement in my results. Now I won’t be fooled into believing that one session (10SnGs) is anywhere near a representative sample, as we all know that’s not the case and short-term luck can bias those results in a huge way…but I’ve seen a change in attitude right away. Now don’t get me wrong…I’ve run into the same cooler and bs hands on and off the bubble in those SnGs – the big difference was the effect those hands had on me.

It would be a lie to tell you that they didn’t have any effect on me. They sure did and I made some nice screengrabs (which I will omit here)…the point is that I didn’t feel the urge to break something…or chase or do something stupid in the other SnGs or the following SnGs, which is huge for me. What adds to that positive feeling is that the payout structure of those 9-handed SnGs fits me well. If I win just one out of 4, I turn a (small) profit – which isn’t a big break in a monetary sense, but it’s huge mentally at least for me. That’s the first difference to the 6-handed SnGs where winning one isn’t enough to turn a profit. Now it’s a given that winning a 9-handed SnG should be harder than winning a 6-handed SnG (1/9 to 1/6)…but in reality it isn’t as the three added wildcards are likely to bust themselves and/or others in the process.

So…to make a long story short, I’ll try to play those from now on and we’ll see what happens…just watch this space, hopefully with more of the “hey look here what I did today/this week, happy”-posts and less of the “oooh, whine, bad beat, unhappy”-posts…oh…and btw…today was my first winning session in quite a while…wheee….played 10 in total…3W, 1x 2nd…which is enough for me to be up 4.9 buyins…not bad 😉

* it’s hard to believe how much rake you’re really paying…all those 50 cent here, 1 dollar here really adds up over time…I know that the higher limit players will probably laugh at those numbers, but for a (really) small time grinder like me they’re mind-boggling…especially if you didn’t even keep track…ever since I got Tourneymanager those are directly on my screen though…and they tell me that I payed 640$ in SnG-fees in the last 12months…now that’s quite a number to overcome if your bankroll is around xxx$ to low xxxx$ 😯

Today was really a session to forget…so I’m trying to do that and I’ll log off after this post. First of, I’d like to say that it wasn’t bad luck all the time today, but it was kind of weird. First I start with some Razz ($1/$2). I get kicked in the junk in 3 major pots. What’s even more interesting is that I was the bring-in in 1/4th of the hands at a full 8 handed table. Maybe that should have told me something to begin with. The bad part is that I tilted off some money in the end though (around 20$). This was totally unnecessary as the ppl had seen me lose big hand after big hand, I was raising like a madman…but don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t playing weak starting hands…yes I losened my starting hand requirements from three to a seven to three to an eight…but is that really enough to chase me down with a rough ten? I guess not…but oh well…I should have known better, but I didn’t…so I’ll have to live with that.

After that Razz disaster I fired up some 6max SnGs and it wasn’t pretty. Got coolered on the bubble with Kings again…monster QT was enough to bust me…QTxTQ board…rofl…so sick. Then I bubbled again when I pushed QJ into QK on a Qxx board…then an unspectacular fourthed and finally a sixth place finish…and I’m off…down and out for tonight….

I don’t know if I’ll play online tomorrow since the home game is set for 8pm…let’s see if my unlucky streak continues there too…I’ll try to go in relaxed and take my chances…

…complaining about coolers…but then again, I just can’t stand it when I play for almost 1.5 hours…flawless poker…then I run into a cooler on the bubble. The first hand I played at the final table too…I raise it up UTG…get called in one spot…sure enough he fires after I check it to him….I shove…insta-call…and cya…sigh…

…that’s what I heard myself say over and over again today. It was nothing spectacularly brutal or anything, just the usual beats and bad beats along with the tease every now and then. I mean, it’s pretty standard to get your AA crack by AJo, or KK by A3, A8 and A4, but the stuff like AJo vs AJs (flushing) and the fact that you can’t win a 60% shot on the bubble in four consecutive matches is just brutal. Mix in the fact that you’re the one pushing in all four spots, get called by the usual KQo, KJo, K7o, etc and leading until the river everytime…then see the 6 outer hit on the river boom, boom, boom, boom is just sickening. Oh well…like I said to a fish berating anther fish: “What do you want man? You got all his money in drawing dead to 3 outs…what else do you want? Don’t tap the tank…ty”…*lol*

Stats: Played 18 six-max SnGs, finished 2nd six times and won one. Should have been at least 2 more ITM finishes (see the 4 60% shots above) and at least one W more…but hey, what can I do…cards speak…I’m out…

…because nothing else can explain why I still bother to play in my home game. Well, maybe that’s a little harsh, I keep going back because of the social aspect as well, but there’s no doubt about one thing: I like money, too – who doesn’t? – and it’s really disappointing to get coolered or extremely unlucky all the time. All the time? Maybe you think that that’s an exaggeration, but it really isn’t.

Everytime I play in the homegame, it’s like I’ve got the plague or something. Either I run into a cooler or I get a junk-kick – one of the two is usually my exit or cripples me. Sure enough it was no different tonight. What adds to the “unlucky-ness” is the fact that we’re playing tournament/sng-style in the homegame, so no cash-game – instead everyone buys in with a set amount and we play a freeze-out, usually paying the top 3 spots (or the top 2 if less than 7-8 players are playing). With all the chatter and stuff it’s a slow game, so if you’re card-dead you’re pretty much at the mercy of the cards and let me tell you, they’ve got NO MERCY at all for me. This has been going on for months now and I’m really puzzled. Is there anything I can do different? I doubt it as I’ve tried to change up, switch gears, play tight, play loose, always looking out for the current status of the table and the involved players….to no avail. Usually I set it up beautifully by making some bluffs, sometimes getting caught, sometimes not, sometimes showing it…all to generate action later on when I’ve got a monster. At least that’s the plan. The problem is that the plan does work out for the first part, getting the money in extremely good that is, but the second part, the holding up and raking in the pot part, isn’t working out at all.

We played shorthanded (6) tonight and the first hand that pretty much crippled me came up pretty early. There’s two limps, I’m on the button with Kd4d…I call…SB and BB stick around and we see a flop with two diamonds. Checked around. I check behind. Turn brings the third diamond. Yatzee! Cutoff check, I bet…SB calls…BB folds…cutoff calls. River is a blank. SB checks. Cutoff bets big. I’m puzzled…sure there’s a straight out there and the flush, but I’ve got the second nut flush here. So I call…the SB thinks for ages and then calls, too. Showdown: SB – straight…cutoff AdJd for the nut-flush, me Kd4d for the second nut-flush. Nice. Yuck. So I’m crippled and pretty soon I’m busto.

So I stick around for the second game, which we play turbo-style (6min blinds)…after all it’s the beginning of the week and ppl have to get their lazy behinds out of bed in the morning. Nothing much to report from this one…I push in with the worst hand twice and suckout the first time when a seven spikes on the turn (A7 vs AJ)…the second time I’m busto, all good there.

So the other players battle it out and they’re still anxious to play another turbo. I’m in and things are looking good. I pick up a few pots early on. Then the following hand comes down. I’m in the BB with QQ. Nice. Action folds around to the button. He calls. SB moves all-in (I’ve got him covered by a longshot). I hesitate for 3 seconds before pushing in myself. The button thinks and thinks, and yes, I’ve got him covered by 1/3 too. So he pushes in. Now I’m thinking to myself: uh-oh, you’re probably dead…I put the button on AK and the SB on AT-AK…to my surprise the flip over K7 (button) and KT (SB). What the heck? I’m happy though…one overcard…two outs for them. Flop? K7x…turn bring the T for the SB resuck…river is a blank and I’m down to 1/3 of my original stack. So sick. Even borderline crazy I would say.

So I moan a little…but after all everybody in the homegame knows how bad I’m running…and that’s why they’re after me. They know that they’re usually a MASSIVE underdog, but they don’t care. The old saying goes “After all it’s Ingoal, I’ll suckout on him. I call.”…and call they do and tbh I LOVE IT. What else could you ask for? One or more player(s) willing to throw their money out the windows virtually drawing dead almost every single time? So the setup is perfect, the only problem, as already mentioned, is the fugly sickness that comes after those calls.

So as I’m short on chips I’m contemplating making a move, but I don’t until I’m UTG. I look down at QTo and I push. The BB ponders a call after everyone folded, after all it’s me, so why not? But he lays it down and shows 96o…I ask the dealer to rabbit-hunt the board and he does. I would have lost to a 6 on the turn. *lol*…the usual. So I’m in the BB and I’ve gotta fold the next hand. Then I’m in the SB and I look down at KK. After the button calls I move in over the top and the BB ponders a call. As I’m short it’s not all that much to call and after all he’s s00ted with 6s8s. He makes the calls. Right in the windows is a 6. The other two flop cards are two low spades, giving him not only a flush draw, but a gutterball as well. The turn is the third spade and I’m drawing dead. Just for good measure the river completes the gutterball straight as well, just to make sure that my kings get cracked for sure…*lol*…so I get up and out of there in a hurry…

Now I’m back home and still a little steamed up about this whole thing. Could it be that I’m unluckier than Mike Matusow? Looking at the results of the last months of the home game I would say: abso-fucking-lutely…and that’s scary…I’m outta here to get some de-tilt sleep…