…it seems that staying away from the game for a little while didn’t change my “luck”…at all. Too bad, but oh well, I guess I’ll still play some on the weekend…enjoy the latest and greatest hand, which made me log off immediately again…it was the first and last match of the day….enjoy…and yes, I owe you at least half a dollar for the pic…

Well, played a little poker today. Totally a mixed bag. Busted some fools early, then lost to some ridonkulously bad calling stations who couldn’t fold a hand and caught and caught and caught. Oh well. Then I jumped into the SwDP and had a good run right up until the first break, coincidentally it was the final table bubble as well. I sit second in chips about 2k above average and I get tangled up in a hand with the biggest stack (having me covered by about 3k). I flop three pair and most of the money goes in. The turn gives me a flush draw, but it also gives my opponent a better two pair and the nut flush draw. I’m busto on the final table bubble. Sigh. At least it was my own stubbornness that cost me the tourney and not a sick cooler and/or bad beat like the ones that cost TheRooster and Al the tourney. I crippled TheRooster when I turn a boat again his flopped boat on a 499 flop (me 9xxx, he 44xx)…too bad I couldn’t use the tasty rooster chips to bring it home…oh well…gg and cya soon…

A few pictures say more than x * 1000 words. Enjoy…

….start with the worst hand and go all-in. 😆

I’m back biotches, even if it’s just for a quick rant. Played the first poker in a week and started off nicely. Won my first two HU SnGs and then it went south….waaaaay south…like below the equator south. I mean, it was just brutal and after a few crushing defeats I was not 100% on my game anymore. I guess I payed off a little too much, but honestly, how can it be that my opponent has got the me crushed post-flop all the time while he’s waaaay behind preflop (examples: would be T8o against my QQ (the first and only time I got action on any big hand) sure enough the flop is ten high, sure enough we get it in…sure enough he has trips when all is said and done, or the good ole turned gutshot straight calling the preflop raise and the big flop bet with the gutterball only, etc etc). In the end I couldn’t take it anymore so I logged off with a bad taste in my mouth.

I guess real poker content, filled with screenshots, will have to wait a few days…I’m off to cologne and then munich on business trips…so it could be a while…until then gl at the tables and remember: the worst-tilter isn’t the cold-deck, it’s your reaction to it…

As you may have noticed my poker adventures were kept to a minimum in recent weeks. Today I climbed back into the saddle and hit the tables hard. The only bad thing was that they hit me back even harder. I’m not going to start an excessive rant here, I’ll just say that I lost every single key hand going in anywhere from 70% to 90% favourite. It was FUGLY and in the end it was only fitting that my opponent hit his three outer, again for all the marbles. So I logged off to write this little mini-post to tell you that I’m still alive and playing poker, although not that regularly anymore, especially not late-night as my new job requires me to get up in the morning 😉

So I’m outta here to watch the Klitschko fight…gl at the tables everyone….

Do you know the feeling when you’ve played a lot of poker and then you suddenly take a break and you don’t have the urge to come back? I feel like that these days and while recent results both online (WCOOP satellite) and live (home game tourney win) have been good, I still find myself not playing. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve played a little a headsup match here and there, won the last x ones without a single loss btw, but I still don’t feel like playing more….I guess I need a new goal in poker as the same old “boring” grind isn’t cutting it anymore, at least not these days. Maybe I should check back to see what my goals were at the start of the year, it seems that it’s been ages since then and I didn’t have a second look. Or maybe I should just set a new goal without going back…hmmm….meditate on this I will…until then gl at the tables everyone…

After winning a satellite to the 2008 WCOOP, deciding not to play in a two day 530$ tourney after all and selling the W$ at a good price, I thought I’d do something that I hadn’t done in a long time – withdraw some dough. So I jump into PokerStars cashier and try to request a withdrawal…all good there…what isn’t good though is that the withdrawal option is somewhat limited: as I did some of my deposits via Neteller back in the day and getting money out to MasterCard isn’t an option the cashier window tells me that amount x will automatically go to my Neteller account and that I can redistribute the rest of the withdrawal to other options.

Not so good, after all I stopped using Neteller a while ago. But wait, the cashier window also tells me that I should get in touch with support if any of the withdrawal options was outdated (e.g. due to closing an account, e.g. Neteller). Okay, sounds good…so I contact support, they get back to me asking for confirmation that they should mark my Neteller account as outdated (and hence unusable in the future)…I tell them to do just that and I’m free to request a withdrawal to whichever other option they offer. So, I settle for the very convenient offer to transfer the dough via Direct Bank Transfer….and bingo four days later my bank account does the little ka-ching sound and the money is there. Now that’s what I call customer service. Now, I think it should be normal for the (paying) customer to have his/her money whenever, whereever he/she pleases, but we all know that’s not the norm – at least not with all the sites, not even the “major players”. So I can only applaud PokerStars for doing it’s name proud…praise where praise is due…

I’m out of here…no real new poker content here…had no time to play a single hand in the last few days and honestly didn’t feel the urge to play either…maybe I’ll get some playing time in during the week and/or this upcoming weekend…we’ll see….until then, gl at the tables everyone…

I’m really exhausted after some of the best poker in my life…so just a quick pic dump…W$ anyone? I’ve never sold those before (I sold T$ before on pokernews)…Edit: I did the trade using psswap.com this time, they offered the best rate at 92% and the transaction was painless…fill in form…request trade via pokerstars…wait…two minutes later…boom….done…. 😀

I’m outta here tired but smiling…

…especially if you’re in the middle of the worst session in ages: priceless. I’m still too irritated to even grasp what just happened to me and I won’t even dive into telling bad beat story after bad beat story as I don’t want to pay all my readers extra dollars adding insult to injury. All in all I stop playing at least four SnGs too late…still should have won some of those, but it was not to be…these days no pair no draw and being dominated is virtual gold…so I’m off to clean out my mouth as I puked in it just now…and I can guarantee you that I won’t be back for a few days…it’s reached the point again where I just can’t take it anymore…it’s one thing that the donks get insanely lucky in consecutive matches against me, but then starting to talk trash? Not my cup of tea…especially not if I’m in the middle of bad beat city where even a 90+% advantage is enough to win a decisive hand….I’m outta here…best of luck to the rest of you…and you’ll see me when I’m back (don’t know when that’ll be…but don’t expect me back this week)…

Sometimes, it’s really weird how things turn out in those (sort of massive) online donkaments aka guaranteed mtts. I decided to switch it up a little today and abstained from playing SnGs tonight, instead I jumped into the 10k guaranteed on Stars. With a pretty low buyin of 15 + 1.5, it’s a real minefield, but hey….it got a pretty nice payout if you’re able to dodge bullets. I was able to do just that and I handed out my share of bad beats during the first hours (read: 2). One was me cracking KK with ATo on a ten high flop…rivered a ten, I had him covered…the other one was even nastier, I repopped a EP limper with Ac9c….all fold around to him…he insta-calls…oh well…what can he have…yeah….aces….I flopped two clubs and rivered the nuts….not bad. Heading into the first break I was down to 5k with a 7.xk average, not all that pretty, so I decided to come out aggressive after the break. So I open-shoved the first hand after the break and collected the blinds and antes. A few hands later I’m thinking that a shorty is stalling as we’re approaching the bubble. He takes forever…then I realize that it’s not him stalling after all as the “connecting” screen pops up….I rise and have a look at my router…the internet led is blank. Great, just the best time to have that happen…after all the blinds are high and I want action. No such luck for the next 10-15 minutes. So sick. Once I’m finally able to reconnect (after a few router-resets), I’m down to 4.xk with the blinds at 1 and 2k….great…I’m able to double up twice and then the deciding hand comes down. Setup: I’m in the BB with KK….guess what’s happening….

Shorty in MP pushes. Hmm…I’m not folding. Shorty+1 (big stack) pushes over the top. Folded around to me. Hmmm….I’m thinking “Well, there’s a good chance he’s only got Ax…am I willing to try to dodge the fourty aces in the deck?”….I think a little more, and I’m thinking “Well, if you fold Kings here, what happens if the shorty has the Ax and the big stack has a small pair or a rag ace too? No equity here…AWWWWWWWWWIN”. So I push all-in and see them flip up 33 (shorty) and AK (big stack)…my dreams of chipping up to 71+k is crushered as the flop comes down TA6…turn gives me a short glimpse of hope: Q…I’m yelling for a J or a K….but no such luck and I’m busto in 99th out of 1593….three outs got me…then again I cracked Kings and Aces early on…so I’m still up 2:1 in good:sick beats….

Summary: Played really well, had some luck – good and bad – had the worst luck – the almost 15 minute disconnect – had only 4 premium hands the whole way AA (no action), KK twice (no action; busto) and JJ…apart from that some small pair (e.g. 88 thrice doubling up early and twice before going busto)…even won a flip or two along the way…so not all that bad…I’m outta here…enjoy the pic dump (in chronological order) and gl at the tables…