Some news only remotely connected to poker…I thought it was time to get me some more screen real estate, not only for multi-tabling, but for more space for work in general. So I ordered myself a nice 22″ Widescreen TFT a few days ago…and today it was delivered…nice! 🙂

As I’m too lazy to get my cam and take a pic of my setup atm, a promotion pic + a screengrab will have to do for now…

That should be enough screen space to do some multi-tabling 😉

On another note: always good to “reward” yourself from time to time…after all, all grind and no play makes Ingoal go insane 😉

Almost forgot to pimp this, as it’s 4am over here, it’s already hammer day…07.02.2007…or 2/7/2007 for the americans…so…what’s up on hammer day?

Yes, a special hammer day event…come and play…all infos in the pimp pic below…thanks to Al and Mookie for the added  100$, get 7.20$ out of your wallet and play…thank you!

After my prior review of the site itself, I’ve been asked to review the poker tables section of Cardroom Supply this time.

At first glance, you’ll notice that there are lots of tables to choose from. Around three dozen different tables and folding table tops are available and no matter if you are looking to setup your weekly home game with a cheap low-end table or if you’re looking to build you very own home casino with an original casino style table, at Cardroom Supply you’ll find it. Best of all: There’s no additional cost for shipping and handling on all orders over 100$, so the listed price will be your final price. Even if you’re not looking for the classic poker table, there might be something for you – just have a look at wooden dining tables which can be transformed into nice and comfortable poker tables on your poker night.

My personal favourite is the Weber deluxe table with it’s classic look and comfortable arm rests. Now if I could only find the room to put this thing in my home, it would surely bring a true card room feel into the home game, especially with the matching Kestell chairs.
Anyway you look at it, if you don’t find what you’re looking for here, it doesn’t exist. So, get your home game to the next level and check out the table selection at Cardroom Supply!

Well, well…wanted to play some poker as usual tonight, but no joy. For the first time in more than 6 years I’m having internet connection problems. I’m able to connect, barely, but with such a painfully slow transfer rate that playing is unthinkable (I’m on a 6MBit connection and my current downstream is 6kb/s). Hopefully my provider will have this sorted out by tomorrow or else I’ll have to kick some butt… Edit: …and just as I’m posting this my connection is back to normal (down > 600kb/s)…oh well…4:30am…no way I’m playing now….time to catch some sleep End Edit
No poker for me today, but still some poker “news”. I’ve been working on a little project, namely translating (half) of the PokerSavvy (aff) site into german. It’s been a long process and it was finally done some weeks ago…the graphics guru still didn’t get around to redo all the graphics (so they’re still in english), but at least the pure content is in german now.

Hopefully it’ll bring in a lot of hungry bonus hunters from the ever growing poker community over here in germany…if you want to practice your german, head on over to the german version and check it out…

So, I finally visited the PPA-site again and yes, they finally fixed their signup site, despite never getting back to me about my email complaining about it not working for people outside of the US. So, I finally had the chance to signup – bucks well spent I think! If you didn’t join already, do so, just click the banner below (no affiliate banner!)…

After getting that out of the way I started a new bonus hunt: Poker.com it is, for the chance to get my hands on another 1000 SavvyPoints. Started the bonus hunt right on the wrong foot, forgot to enter the correct signup-bonus code to get the initial deposit bonus, great! After that I multi-tabled some low-limit HE and did fairly well…running into the eventual cold-deck, but all in all it was alright. After that I threw away some money at BJ, old habits die hard. After that I fired up some SnGs in order to build the roll. Bad idea. I’ve honestly not seen that many cold decks within such a short-amount of time, seriously.

I dominated a match, I get KK vs AA lose…get JJ vs AA some hands later…I crack the Aces, nontheless I lose the match. Next match HU…66-88…okay I had a substantial chiplead, back to even, all good. A few hands later AA vs KJ…flop KKK…thank you very much. Next match second nut-flush vs nut-flush…etc etc…hell of a start, this is going to be a short ugly ride if my luck continues that way…

On another note: the bonus requirements seem to be unreal 15.000 Comp Points, then again take a second look and see that each hand in which you’re dealt in is worth 3 Comp Points, even at NL10 which equals 5000 hands. Shouldn’t be that hard after all, I guess I’ll abstain from running in too many SnGs the next few days though and instead I’ll multi some cash games, hopefully (re)building the roll…

…or how should I say it? I log onto Stars to play a little, find a 5-Card-Draw PL MTT that is just about to start and jump right in. I play my solid game and build the stack. I play a lot of small pots, some bigger ones when I’m comfortable and feel that I have the best of it. Then it happens.

!!!WARNING: EXPLICIT RANTING AHEAD!!!

We’re 1h 45min in and I’m 10 out of 81 (56 ITM; 437 original entrances). Who get’s moved to my table? Yes, you guessed it, the chipleader (I have a 12k stack, he has a 26k stack after coming to the table with a 23k stack and bullying around, raising every hand – big stack poker). I look down at JJ224 in the SB…he pops it 1860 to 2460. Now this could be any kind of hand, I’ve got a powerful hand and still a redraw to a boat. Let’s see what he’s going to draw. I draw one, miss. Hmm…he draws 3. Okay, so he got a pair, most certainly Aces. Feeler underbet. He insta-pops it 7k. Now this would cripple me and I ask myself:

1. Why did I even get involved in this hand? – Correct answer: because I likely held the best hand preflop. His play could be any 5 cards as he’s in steal position.

2. Assessment after the draw: He’s drawn 3, three friggin cards after popping it +3 times the BB…Hmm…so what are his chances…he held a pair of Aces for sure…donk!…trips – 2 outs…drawing a pair in 3 cards – tough one…no real data on this case…

3. So…does this overbet mean that he caught his third Ace? A second pair? Nothing?

So…what did I do? I call as the only way I’m going to lose this hand is if he got incredibly lucky and I got unlucky in the process. – STOP! HAMMER TIME!* – So I call…and he shows AA77T….very well played donkfish mofo…god damn it…I was really undecided whether to puke up my keyboard or go on a tuff_fish-style-rant (TM)…I decided to go with the latter and cursed him out quite nicely in the chat…what a fucking tool. Raising in position with this crap…then I draw crap but I’m like 80/20 sure that I got the best hand** and he get’s TOTALLY lucky on my ass….very well done.

So…I look down at a 2k stack with slightly over 70 players to go and what the hell…the next decent hand I push and another donk shows a better hand (which had happened to me for the really huge number of 2 times before this evening – once against the superdonk chipleader in the hand I just described)…unreal…I still can’t believe it… out in 77th when I should be sitting tight with a 24/25k stack waiting for the bubble to burst…I mean, in the grand scheme of things, this means nothing. So, he got lucky…I crapped on the table (not literally) yet again…oh well…there’s always next time.***

Well….fuck it! Next time…next time…why oh why do the donkeys ALWAYS**** get lucky on me, not in a non-crucial-pot, but in the damn deciding hand. Can you answer me that question? …and it’s not like this has been the first time, or the second or the thirtieth…I can’t fucking get a break in the important hands…just can’t…

Now that this is out of my system, one final thought on MTTs: Yes, “you need to get lucky to win one of those” – me, I would settle for just “not getting unlucky” “one time”…

* I commited only 1/6 of my stack here…and I could let it go. Then again, I feel I have the best of it so I go with my old “trust your first instincts”-plan…it didn’t work out…again….

** I guess another player, not in the hand could have a totally different view on this:

1. You had the best hand. You made the correct assumption that his drawing 3 couldn’t lead him to a better hand in most cases, it could though in some cases. You made your decision, it was wrong.

2. Why didn’t you reraise pre-draw? Why didn’t you bet out more after the draw?

What’s your opinion here?

*** Consolation price: yes, the superdonk chipleader plays like this for a little longer, getting his ass handed to him, busting out in 25th for a hefty 8$ profit on a 5$ investment, very well done sir, hope you never get lucky again in your lifetime. Thank you. *lol*

**** ALWAYS = perception of recent events, surely the numbers are more like “near” the “normal” percentages of outcomes, but still you can’t help but wonder if you can’t win the obvious ones, then catch no break in close ones and get burned regularly in underdog situations…is this really normal? I don’t think so…

PokerStars Game #7888139718: Tournament #39824804, $5.00+$0.50 5 Card Draw Pot Limit
– Level IX (300/600) – 2007/01/11 – 21:17:37 (ET)
Table ‘39824804 56’ 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: superdonk chipleader (26120 in chips)
Seat 2: Ingoal (12255 in chips)
Seat 3: xxx (3545 in chips)
Seat 4: xxx (12020 in chips)
Seat 5: xxx (6445 in chips)
Seat 6: xxx (1310 in chips)
superdonk chipleader: posts the ante 60
Ingoal: posts the ante 60
xxx: posts the ante 60
xxx: posts the ante 60
xxx: posts the ante 60
xxx: posts the ante 60
Ingoal: posts small blind 300
xxx: posts big blind 600
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to Ingoal [2d Jh 2c 4d Jc]
xxx: folds
xxx: folds
xxx: folds
superdonk chipleader: raises 1860 to 2460
Ingoal: calls 2160
xxx: folds
Ingoal: discards 1 card [4d]
Dealt to Ingoal [2d Jh 2c Jc] [5c]
superdonk chipleader: discards 3 cards
Ingoal: bets 600
superdonk chipleader: raises 7080 to 7680
Ingoal: calls 7080
*** SHOW DOWN ***
superdonk chipleader: shows [7h Ad Th Ac 7s] (two pair, Aces and Sevens)
Ingoal: shows [2d Jh 2c 5c Jc] (two pair, Jacks and Deuces)
Ingoal said, “luckbox”
F0LD–IT collected 21240 from pot
Ingoal said, “unbelievable”
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 21240 | Rake 0
Seat 1: superdonk chipleader (button) showed [7h Ad Th Ac 7s] and won (21240) with two pair, Aces and Sevens
Seat 2: Ingoal (small blind) showed [2d Jh 2c 5c Jc] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Deuces

…goes into round 3 next monday. High Stakes Poker Season 3. Nice! I thought it was starting this week, but nope, next week it is…so I head over to the HSP3 section on GSN to find out if any new players will be joining the game…and wow…there will be quite some new players:

1. Jesus

2. Phil Ivey

3. Bill Chen

and many others including some of the most recent “big tourney” high finishers like Jamie “Luckbox” Gold (WSOP 2006 winner), Paul Wasicka (WSOP 2006 runner up) and David Williams (WSOP 2004 runner up), …

Really looking forward to see if “tourney players” and/or “flukes” like Gold get their ass handed to ’em in this cash game 🙂

…well, not quite yet, still another week of work before I’m free to celebrate christmas, the new year and get myself in the hunt for my diploma thesis. So, the “good to be back” refers to my game 😉

I started the evening with a token satellite on Full Tilt. Well, let’s just say that the first hand was the last one too. I just couldn’t get away from the hand, although all the signs were there – min raise preflop, reraise on the flop…I guess I was a little too excited about flopping two pair…oh well…

After that disappointment I took a seat at some crazy HA tables. It’s really surprising how many players are playing these without having the first clue about Omaha, lol. Still couldn’t start a bigger running and dropped a buyin. Not all that good.

So I fired up bodog and played some HU SnGs. Won the first two, then lost the next two. That really sucked, so I decided to quit HU for the night and as I checked the MTT tab I saw that the 2.5k guaranteed was about to start. The low buyin of 7$ + 0,50$ made the decision even easier.

Hours played: roughly 3.5

Times I was all-in and at risk: twice, early with a flip AK vs JJ…and then in the last hand..but more about that one below.

So I bumped and grinded and sometimes I really got a rush of cards (I must have held AA about four times, QQ about five times and some other lower pairs, but apart from that, well…not much). I had one goal for this tourney:

[Guess 1] Make money – nope

[Guess 2] Get down to last x players – nope

[Guess 3] Not get sucked out on – nope

The correct answer is: make correct decisions – and it worked out pretty good. It’s weird how sometimes a little pointer “back to basics” can really help you find your game again. After plowing through Super System II (highly recommended, but it’s sooo full of concepts and numerous games that you will have to read, re-read and re-re-read it on a regular basis), I started to read my next poker book entitled Pauly’s blog errm “The Tao of Poker”. It’s a set of 285 rules to “transform your game”. Well, I don’t know about the transformation part, but they certainly help. I only read the first 25 or something so far, as I said, I started to read it last night and I gotta get some sleep sometime, so can’t be reading all night. The first ones were really basic, but although you know all the concepts/ideas/rules (know when you’re beat; poker is a grind; ..) are clear and you probably have them all inside your head, but re-reading them really helps as they can’t get lost and/or blocked by other thoughts like “yeeehaaaw…donkey’s catch all the time, let me try this”…

But back to the tourney. There were 319 entrants, so the final four tables are ITM. As I already said, I went on a little rush early, before hovering around average most of the time. There are really only two hands I regret: one was when I bluffed off half my stack when we were about to get down to the last 3 tables. The last one was the last hand…at the final table 🙂 🙁

Yes, the final table…

…about time I saw one of these again. It’s been a while. (Side note: Don’t be fooled by the hand stats, this is for the whole session, so roughly the first 100 hands of that were HU with my usual 80+% flops seen)

Within the first orbit I busted though. After the first player was knocked out in the second hand of the final table, I was eager to play my AQo from LP…and why do I regret this hand?

[1] Remember the old “don’t go broke with a Queen in your hand”-mantra? It’s what crossed my mind before I raised preflop.

[2] I still had a chance to get away from the hand after the flop. Although the roughly 17k with 1k/2k blinds and 200$ antes would have forced me to make a move soon after that anyway (I started the hand with just under 23k, standard 3xBB preflop raise).

As you can see in the following screenshot, the flop came down Kc, 4d, Qc and my opponent insta-over-pushes. Well, what could he be pushing with? What was he calling with preflop? Basically it could have been any two cards preflop (BB, big stack), but after the push I should have believed the hand he claimed (Kx, maybe even with a flush draw) and waited for a better spot (within the next 8-10 hands). But oh well…I called and he showed KJ…turn K…river…K…them quads beetches! At least I lost to a really good hand…

Out in 8th of 319. I’m cool with that. Needless to say that I would have loved to move up some spots as the payout were starting to be really cool in the higher final table spots (1st – 625$, 2nd – 400$, 3rd – 277,50$, ..)…but hey…as I said earlier on, this one wasn’t for the money, it was for my mental game health – if there’s such a thing 😉

Last monday, November 13th 2006, marked the one year anniversary of poker-tastic.com and basically the end of my first year in online poker…and what a wild ride it has been.

I started out on fire, had the usual swings every now and then and I can’t even count the number of hands I’ve played, the hours I’ve spent playing the game, thinking about it, talking about and writing about it. Well, so far so good, it’s been worth every cent invested and every hour spent!

Ups:

1. “Meeting” all the (poker) broggers who enjoy the game as much as I do.

2. Playing with all the broggers in numerous events (WWdN, DADI, Mook, etc)

3. Learning a lot

Downs:

1. Playing against donkeys day in day out.

2. Treading water

I’d like to take a minute and have a closer look at my results for the first year:

Counting all money deposited vs all money withdrawn (yup, I actually withdraw money from time to time) I’m a losing player for the first year. How much did I lose? The grand total of 29 dollars. *lol* So nothing to worry about. Most of this can be credited to a handful of “facts”:

1. It’s tough to stay ahead of the rake at the levels I started out (and still play for the most part, 5-10$ SnGs, 25NL, …). If you add the call-happy donks and variance, it’s really tough.

(2. I “donated” quite a bit of money to brogger community by playing in a lot of brogger tourneys. To be honest I had no business in some of them – early on when my “roll” consisted of 50 bucks at Stars (buyins usually at 10+1) and I had little to none experience in NL Hold’em. But ‘s all good, I marked that down as an investment/amusement charge and in retrospect it was well worth it!)
But I’m not here to make excuses, especially as the combined grandtotal makes me a winner for the first year. Combined grandtotal? Yup, add everything that was earned with online-poker and substract everything that was bought for poker (books, buyins, etc). As I did some bonus whoring (PokerSavvy, PokerSourceOnline) along the way and due to the fact that I earn some bucks with (text/review) ads on here, I’m up…and I hope that’ll stay that way in the future.As for the future: One thing’s for sure…I’m really looking forward to the next year in online poker 🙂

If I’ll step up (money wise) or not, is yet to be decided as I don’t see online-poker as my “second income” (yet). So, I guess you can look forward to yet another year of low-limit-donkery, enjoy! 🙂

The name doesn’t mislead you, Cardroom Supply, Inc. could be your supplier of cardroom  related items. Their offerings range from my favourite playing cards (copaq plastic), over different chipsets and low-end folding table-tops to high-class poker-tables made of beautiful wood.

First impressions are important, so I was pleased to see a familiar icon during my first visit to the site. The Yahoo icon instantly hit’s the eye – or maybe it’s just my geek eye, who knows. That’s not a bug in your favourite browser, but due to the fact that Cardroom Supply is using the complete Yahoo shopping solution. The banner in the left hand column shows the whole five stars for top service, but as I’m not familiar with the Yahoo shopping solutions, I can’t tell you if that’s the rating of the shop itself, or a bold claim by Yahoo – one way or another, I tend to trust solutions using big players a lot more than home-coded shopping carts though. What adds additional trust is that by using the Yahoo shopping solution the shopping cart’s encryption is up to par (256bit AES) and hence your data, especially of your credit cards, is secure and the fact that there’s both an Info and about page telling the visitor and potential customers a little about the company’s background and showing all contact details including mail address, email address, fax number and even a toll-free number.

After checking out the background infos and the shopping cart itself, it was time to take a deeper look at the shop and it’s products and let me tell you: I’m impressed, especially by their wide range of different poker tables. I didn’t even know that they made such beautiful (and sadly rather expensive) poker tables out of wood. Even if you’re not a fan of such elegant tables, there’s a good chance you’ll find what you’re looking for, as the casino (style) tables are up for grabs too, as are the low-end (home-game) tables.

And what could be even more important than a nice table? Yup, the chairs you sit in. I almost immediatly fell in love with this chair, too bad that flying such chairs across the great pond doesn’t seem to be a +ev proposition 😉

Add a nice chipset (or order some real clay-chips), a tournament timer and some playing cards and you’re all set for your next home-tourney, although there’s one setback – they won’t deliver the beer and snacks with your poker stuff.

Almost forgot to tell you: You’ll be please to hear that there’s free shipping on all orders above 100$ and there are regular specials – and who doesn’t love special deals. What I can’t tell you though is if the prices of the items are a steal or not, I’m not familiar with the domestic US gaming supply landscape, I leave that up to you to decide once you visit the shop yourself…