Well, well…did a little PLO8 HU SnG session today and while I finished ahead, it was still a little sick in the middle. In the end I had won 5 out of 9 matches, but I felt like it could have/should have been more like 6 or 7 wins…but I can’t help it if none of my monster-draws come through in such crucial hands. The other two matches I lost were fair and square, although mildly sick as well. AKQ2 double suited vs AKKQ…pretty sick…flop K99…cya…lol…

Then it was time for some donkalicious poker in Kat’s friday night rebuy madness and boy oh boy, it was madness. I’ve never been so card-dead ever. In a rebuy event, this doesn’t really matter early on, but it kind of sucks if you don’t get a hand in ages and you push and push and push and the best hand (your opponent’s hand) holds up every friggin time, how sick is that?!

Played 169 hands and had exactly four pocket pairs: 88 flopped a set against Ace rag and doubled up. 22 on the button had to fold to heavy action before it came around to me. 77 pushed, no caller….and my final hand presto != gold if you’re up against K6 s00ted…gg me…apart from that I had AJ once and AK once (both right after the first break). Besides that, nothing…and even if I had something (like the second nut flush) someone would have the better hand (e.g. nut flush) and don’t even get me started on draws…straight and flush draw with a pair…no g00t…flush draw…obv no g00t…etc etc…all in all a really shitty night (card wise), at least I had a good time at the tables with Acorn, Mookie and the others…cya all next week…when I’ll try to redeem myself and take less than 16 rebuys… 😉

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

Tonight marked my “comeback” after a few days off and it was an interesting session. I played against two damn good players, more about that later, and against one fishcake. Guess which matches I won?

I started the session with the usual NL HE headsup and I played against a total fishcake. How do you manage to drop 4.9k playing 5-10$ SnGs? Well, I guess it happens if you play regularly and suck (and don’t suckout enough). At least he managed to hit the deck against me. It was an up and down battle, but in the end, it was a losing one for me as he got clobbered by the deck…he showed down TT, JJ, QQ, KK twice, AA, etc etc and in the end, I couldn’t hold the shit together against all those hands. The last hands was 73 against TT…I flop top pair and a gutterball and he comes over the top…oh well…I thought it’s next to impossible that he’s got yet another overpair (after showing two within the last 5 hands), I was wrong…busto.

After that I switched to PLO8…I don’t know why I didn’t play regularly in such a long time, after all it used to be my favourite game. I guess the whole “action jackson”- and “no hand is a substantial favourite (preflop)”-thing kept me away for a while and reading the FTP Strategy guide’s section about PLO8 made me remember how many fishcakes and bad (hold’em) players play this game. So I sit down in the first HU match and lo and behold, there’s no fish sitting there, but one of the better PLO8 players (top 15 on the 6-15$ HU leaderboard). I smoke him. I sit down in the next one. The same player comes along. I smoke him again. Nice. No doubt that I hit some pretty nice boards along the way -  having the luck that he hit the second/third nuts in the process – but still, I managed to dodge some uglier hands (no curious calls on the river), so I’m satisfied with my play.

After that I played one more and lo and behold, yet another good player comes along (top20 on the 6-15$ HU leaderboard). I smoke him too when he let’s me see the river for cheap and I hit the bigger boat. Wheeee.

So, to sum up the session: Played against one fishcake in NL HE and lost. Played three matches against top 20 leaderboard players in PLO8 and won all three. Hmm…maybe I should really think about playing some more PLO8 on a regular basis…probably a good idea, even if there’s going to be session where you will get punished badly (as it’s custom in PLO8)…

Today was the single most sick SnG session in a loooong time. Didn’t win a single match, not one. Bubble at a six-handed one to start of the session with this peach of a hand…

My reasoning for my call of the SB’s push: he was pushing a lot once we were down to three handed with all sorts of hands, so, even if I was behind (which I didn’t believe, but I was), I could still catch the diamond to win it. Once the chipleader button insta-called I knew I was toast…diamond on the turn just to rub it in.

What a wonderful start to the session, I guess I should have quit right there, but guess what, I didn’t…and so the carnage began. I was slaughtered in every game imaginable. NL Hold’em 0/2. PLO8…three outered for the deciding pot…Razz…up to 2600/400…he catches the 6 outer to double up and shit hits the fan a few hands later…guess what…calling down double-paired works these days as he only had to catch a 6/7/8 (me showing an 7 and an 8 )…so he had all the 7 outs…boom headshot…and I’m in dire straits and busto soon enough.

Oh well, let’s play another Hold’em HU SnG to close out the session, no matter if I’m winning or not, I’m quitting after that. And lose I did, made a bad call in the middle and once the blinds got big I was really short. No surprise that my opponent spikes his bs straight on the river to end my misery…gg me.

I can honestly say that I made something like 3 bad decisions all night…mostly losing the minimum (putting opponents on wrong hands)…but those ones weren’t the crucial hands…it was the auto-payoff hands (counterfeited two pair on the river, gutterball on the river) and some nice coooooooooool coolers…oh well…I guess I really should take another break as I’m getting crushed these days.

Sidenote: I admit that I’ve been up against some good players recently and I lost some matches fair and square, but in the grand picture of recent results, that’s not the deciding factor. It’s the bs hands that keep hitting me in the junk like a wrecking-ball. Every small edge (51-69%) seems like a 4:1 underdog these days…and don’t even get me started about some of the more ugly hands (4:1 favourite, boom headshot) and the card-deadness. My best hand in over a week was ONE pair of Kings which I had to muck once my rocky opponent came over the top of a A-high flop. Apart from that I’ve had plenty on 22-66…hitting exactly 0 sets. So sick…end rant.

…in a while. Really sick that I can’t get a streak going whatsoever. No chance in hell. I start with a six-handed SnG and I d00minate the table. Once we’re down to three-handed I hold the monster chiplead. At this point I’ve shown nothing but the nuts. I push all-in against shorty number one with QQ. He instacalls with K3o…brilliant play…after all I’m totally out of line all the time, wait not really. Sure enough he spikes the three-outer on the river. Good. A few hands later I push shorty number two all-in with JJ…he instacalls with 78 s00ted…flops middle pair and four flush…sure enough both turn and river are diamonds too…sure enough none of my Jacks is a diamond to beat him. A few hands later shorty number one kills shorty number two…that said, they’re not all that short after all after the good old double-up courtesy of me.

So I enter HU with a small deficit and sure enough he hits against me again…busto in second. Tbh I can’t even recall the exact hand, but it was the usual 60/40 shot for me and his 40 = 99,99999% these days. So sick. Then I fire up some HU SnGs and drop the first one, then I win the next two and I’m happy to quit with a little bit of dough in my pocket. Looking at my play it’s really so sick, I make good decision after good decision and I get kicked in the balls time and time again. I’m sooo curious to see when my ultimate-karma-balancing-unstoppable-winning-streak is going to come through as I’m due…at least I think so 😉

…are even worse than SnG fish, if you lose to them, you usually lose more than you normally would in a SnG. Well, I played a little .5/1 Razz tonight and it was brutal. People were trying so hard to give away their money (capping it on 5th street two cards behind (double paired)) and catching every god friggin time while I bricked up. So sick. After I dropped my buyin, I was so mad that I really thought hard about quitting for the night.

In the end, I didn’t. I fired up some SnGs (ranging anywhere from 5 to 20$) in both NL and PLO and I did pretty good (won 4 out of 5), although some of the fish got so lucky that I was almost incomprehensible (AQ vs A3…board 3xAx3, etc etc). I didn’t let it get to me though and crushed all but one of them in the long run. So…after three hours of poker I finish the session down 0.05$, lol, not all that bad after dropping almost 30$ in Razz and SnG-juice…

Well, well…today was the official donkmaha errm Omaha day. Played some headsup matches in PLO both on Stars and Tilt and despite hitting some quads and what not (not getting payed off because the deck is crippled), my opponents managed to felt me each and every time. 4 matches, 4 big Ls. Beautiful. Money goes in on the flop or turn every time and they’re in “very good” shape every single time: 2outs, 4outs, 6outs, 4outs….against my made hands (two pair or better, usually with at least 6 redraw outs)…but oh well…I guess they were praying in front of the donk mahal or something…

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….