I took a little break from my usual headsup routine yesterday. I decided to hit up some of favourite tilting games, namely Razz and PLO8. I pretty much annihilated my opponents in Razz and got some favourable hands and flops in PLO8. One guy killed me in Razz though, it was unreal. I won 80% of the pots, but every time a really big pot came down he got lucky on me. Sometimes you tend to exaggerate in such situation, but no, he won every single big pot starting with a worst hand catching at least peferct-perfect (once even perfect-perfect-perfect) to beat my made hands. Really frustrating, but that’s part of the game and at least I could yell my good ol’ Razz/Stud mantra in the chat: Brick brick brick really makes me sick.

Today I mixed play up a little. I played four headsup matches, won two of em. Then I played a six-handed SnG and finished in second. The crucial hand came down still four handed: I was the big stack and there were three smaller stacks (one under 1k, one with 1.4k and one with 2.2k). I get T8 in the SB and complete as it’s folded to me. BB (2.2k) checks. Flop comes down 2-8-8 with two hearts. I check…he bets. Hmm…flush draw? Hmm…I call. Turn brings the Ks. I check again…error #1…I should lead out here…but he doesn’t take the free card, so it didn’t cost me for the moment. I raise him. He calls. Now I’m a little bit confused although I think he has a king for sure, probably the Kh. River…Ah….so fugly…if my initial feeling was right he’s got there. I lead out with a defensive bet…he raises all-in, which is only 400 more to me… into a 4k pot…well…I’ll have to pay you off sir…and indeed he has Kh9h…fugly but I don’t see how the money isn’t going in…although he might have folded on the flop if I push…but where’s the value in that…my foe in that hand busts the other two players within the next ten hands and we’re headsup…1.7k to 7.3k…not much I can do with blinds of 200/400 ante 50…so I push with the second hand and don’t catch…I’m busto…
After that I decided that I had enough of NL Hold’em for the night and had a look at the upcoming MTTs. It’s been a while since I played one (non blogger events) and there was a 360max PLO8 tourney about to start…let’s get ready to rumble. I catch some good hands early on and more than double up…then I go on a dry spell. Still above average I get quartered in a pretty fugly hand (river counterfeits my nut-low) and I’m below average for the first ime. About twenty hands later I commit to a hand that I shouldn’t have…AA48 double s00ted…a lot of limpers in the pot…I’m in the SB and raise the pot…one caller in LP…he got me covered and calls my flop pot-bet…the flop is pretty harmless looking…but what do you know…J94…turn brings a small rag…I go all-in…he insta-calls with the monster AJ4x….river J and I’m bustom 137th if 262. Oh well…I’m outta here…

PokerStars just announced this year’s World Championship of Online Poker…

Sep.14 (15:00) NL Hold’em [6-max] $215 $400,000
Sep.14 (16:30) PL 5-Card Draw $215 $100,000   ***
Sep.15 (15:00) PL Omaha [6-max] $215 $200,000
Sep.15 (16:30) 2-7 Triple Draw $215 $100,000
Sep.16 (16:30) NL Hold’em $530 $2,000,000
Sep.17 (15:00) PL Omaha w/Rebuys $320 $400,000
Sep.18 (15:00) Limit Hold’em $215 $100,000
Sep.19 (15:00) Limit Omaha H/L $530 $300,000
Sep.20 (15:00) NL Hold’em w/Rebuys $215 $1,000,000
Sep.21 (15:00) NL Hold’em Match Play $320 $500,000
Sep.21 (16:30) Razz $215 $100,000   ***
Sep.22 (15:00) HORSE $215 $200,000   ***
Sep.22 (16:30) PL Hold’em $530 $400,000
Sep.23 (16:30) NL Hold’em $1,050 $2,000,000
Sep.24 (15:00) 7 Card Stud $320 $100,000
Sep.25 (15:00) PL Omaha H/L $320 $200,000
Sep.26 (15:00) NL Hold’em [6-max] $320 $400,000   ***
Sep.27 (15:00) 7 Card Stud H/L $530 $200,000
Sep.28 (15:00) PL Omaha $530 $300,000
Sep.28 (16:30) NL Hold’em Triple Shootout $530 $200,000
Sep.29 (15:00) HORSE $5,200 $500,000
Sep.29 (16:30) Limit Hold’em $1,050 $200,000
Sep.30 (16:30) NL Hold’em Main Event $2,600 $5,000,000

*** I think I’m going to try to satellite into these ones…let’s see how it goes, still plenty of time to do it…and wouldn’t it be sweet to win a bracelet while sitting at home at the compi…beautiful…. 😉

No real fun because of the cards, but because of the company. Play my usual shorthanded SnG and got sucked out on within the first orbit, cya. Won a headsup match and then I decended to the depths of donkey-heaven/hell.

I played a few 1$ SnGs with two friends and boy was it fun. The play ranged from “good” to absolute donkdome (all-in every hand). It was quite funny, although my mates were on my left in all games. Oh well…did fairly well dodgin numerous bullets and donkey-kicks and finish ITM two out of three. The finishes were bubble (4th), 3rd and 2nd for a hefty profit of 0.9$, lol.

After that I played a last HU SnG, my good ol’ favourite PLO8 and wouldn’t you know, I ran into one of the leaderboard’s finest (5$ ones, 3rd place). Played for almost an hour before he finally finished me off. Oh well, it was fun. I’m off now, Full Tilt Strategy Guide Tournament Edition arrived today to keep me company…

That sounds about right. Today’s play was both awful and awfully painful. I’ve seen it all today, from the lovely case-card (one outer), to the usual two, three and four outer to the usual cold-deck bs.

Sooooo fugly. I start HU and win the first three matches easily. No flips, no all-ins preflop, I get my opponents to put in their money drawing very slim and they don’t catch. Nice. Next thing you know I’ve dropped 6 matches in a row and a nice string of bs hand…from the usual 88 vs KK…to the AT vs Q6 (guess the river card)…to the case card, everything in there brother.

I’ll spare you the other screenshots as they make me wanna puke even while uploading them. So I’m three out of 10 and I seriously consider quitting as it’s obvious that I won’t make any dough today. Instead I decide to fill the dozen. So I win the 11th match and then in the 12th match the same bs again and I decide to quit NL for the night (5/12).

So I fire up a PLO8 game and the same bs over and over again. I start with the best hand and guess what, I can’t make a hand, not even if my life depended on it. Then it’s finally time to have the best hand, my opponent catches perfect to quarter me on the river. After that I was basically tilted and ready to close friggin PS, but I finished the match. The next hand seals the deal…very nice to see yet another case card…wheeeeeeee….gives me enough to finally hang myself….

In remotely Tilt related news, Amazon managed to ship out my newest order yesterday, so the Full Tilt Strategy Guide Tournament Edition should arrive tomorrow or something….nice…finally a new read…

That’s how my competition should feel tonight. Even though there were some nice coolers and stuff, I managed to whip most of my opponents as the coolers happened once I had grinded them down quite a bit.

So the stats for tonight: HU NL HE 2W 1L, 4ppl HU: 1W, PLO8 HU 1W…so 4 out of 5 wins…wheeeeee…I’m off…

My favourite hand of the night: The hand before that I got coolered, yet again, Q8 vs QT…sure enough the other two queens show up and sure enough the money goes in…good thing that I’m still the chipleader after that pot as he had already dumped half his stack to me. Than this hand comes up…

…is fun, especially if you’re dealing with total morons. Then again, does it lead anywhere? Not really, but it’s fun, although not that much fun if you’re dealing with lucky ignorant self-righteous asswhipes who think they invented poker, lol.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. After two days of poker playing abstinence I jumped back into the donkpool that’s known as PokerStars to mankind. It didn’t take long before the first bs hand went down. A few weeks back it would have probably catapulted me straight into tilt-land, but hey, I’m over that, at least for the most part.

The usual, hey I’ve got an Ace, that’s gotten be golden, even if the dude raising all-in hasn’t play a hand in two orbits and has shown nothing but the nuts, wait, how do I even know that, I couldn’t care less, I’m worried about my own cards here.

After that I jumped into headsup mode and the same bs went down…

The hammer flop should have given it away, but hey. I didn’t tilt either and took him out a few hands later. Then in the next one, just when you think you’ve seen it all, the biggest cooler comes down. I mean, you get the money in better than anything (4:1) and then the flop comes down. I titled this one the “jackpot cooler”, lol.

Oh well…always nice to flop top boat against quads. *lol*. I took him out a few hands later. Then I donked around a little in the PLO8 headsup matches, won one lost one. Then I tried another six handed SnG…guy cold-calls the flop…the turn brings the nutflush and he leads out…I reraise…the dude behind me cold calls…button dude calls…river double pairs the board…oh shit…I lead out he pushes…now I’m stuck…I guess I should have layed it down, but hey…no error-free session…guy behind me reluctantly folds…button calls….shows his monster Q2 s00000ted….nice hand sir, at least on the flop…

Oh well…I jump back into HU mode and drop one. Win the next one. Then the next bs hand comes down in the third one and I’m sick and tired of it. I congratulate him on his nice catch.

He then goes of and tells me about how this is no bad beat as it’s only a bad beat when you get the money in good. Errrm yeah Einstein, as if there’s any chance to not go broke in that hand. He then tells me my next fault was that I didn’t raise on the flop. Errrm yeah Einstein, the concept is to lead at it hard there with three Kings, way to make money in headsup. He then tells me that after the flop he was on a freeroll anyway. Errm yeah Einstein…shut the hell up donkey boy. You got lucky on my ass catching your moronic three outs and I got unlucky, not only because you caught your friggin three outs, but because I didn’t catch mine on the turn or river and the board sure as hell didn’t pair either, surprise surprise. You gotta love it. But enough ranting, my finishing line was the usual. Nicely done sir, enjoy. I guess he won’t looking at his stats.  Apropos stats, I won the whole 0% coinflips, 0% going in 60/40 (two live vs two live with one over). Mix in the whole “cracking your hands” thing and it’s been one hell of a ride…right into the shitcan. Fucking poker 😉

Playing with a slight fever can be quite entertaining. Started the session with a six-handed SnG and crushered the competition to win it in less than half an hour. Then I busted out early in the next two, one time slightly behind, outflopping my opponent, then he resucks, in the next one I went in with the best and the only suck was on me.

After that I went back to headsup and it was fugly. Won the first one. Lost the second one. Played PLO8, won the first one, lost the second one. Then I played some more NL and lost three in a row with some of the most beautiful hands I’ve ever seen. Nothing better than a 66xxx board…you hold J6…your opponent holds J6…another hand against the same opponent JK55A…you hold 45…your opponent holds 56…chop chop…then the clouded judgement really caught up with me…I knew I was beat and still I called…I guess I should have quit two matches earlier…but oh well…

…or your words will come back to haunt you. Do you remember how I talked about running good at the end of yesterday’s post? Well, that was a short-lived good run for sure. I started of by playing the usual turbo HU matches and I ran awful. QQ vs A10 again…this time no four-flush but a fugly A on the river, Barry would be proud. I win the next one (against the #10 ranked player in the sharkscope less than 20$ leaderboard) and then lose 4 in a row. The usual ugly hands (overpair vs overpair, two pair vs set, etc) and some fugly four-flush and/or runner runner hands totally kicked me in the junk.

After that I switched to six handed SnGs and won the first one. Nice. In the second one I bubbled as the shortest stack. All good there, had to push…didn’t connect…

After that 1 for 2, I switched to headsup again. I played against a semi-pro in PLO8 and while he didn’t totally own me, I just couldn’t fend him off. I hit the third nut flush, he got the nut flush. I got the set, he got the straight. All the while he’s holding the better low, too. Oh well…so I switched to PLO and I won the match easily. One more NL HE HU W and I’m out of here…a little bit stuck, but at least not steamin 😉

…so here’s a random pic dump of some of the nicer hands of tonight’s session…lol…cold deck after cold deck, sick beat after sick beat, especially on the bubble…all the good stuff…even had quads one time…opponent down to 6xx chips…still came back to runner runner me like it was nothing…making good decisions is an unthankful thing sometimes…

Never seen so many case cards either…lovely to see two Kings show up when you’re holding Kx…well, not really if your opponent is slow playing his AK from start to finish…sick sick bs…oh well…surprisingly enough I still managed to squeeze out some wins at HU (3) and one at a six-handed SnG…so despite the six junk-kickings I still finish the night up…wheeeeeee….

Well, well…Mr. UPS man brought my new laptop today and boy, it’s not only pretty, it’s light and it’s a real monster – performance wise. Wow. Delivered in less than 24h, installed/configured in less than an hour and I was off and rolling…now I can finally play wherever I want in the house…alright…it’s nice to play on a 22″ screen, but I’ll take some single or two table action on this one any day when I can lay my lazy behind down on the couch 😉

So…I played a little and won my first two headsup matches easily. Lost the third one. Then I switch to some PLO8 and I just couldn’t get a break. I was almost down and out…grind my way back…almost down and out…grind my way back…but every time I was back to even, or close to it, a ridiculous hand came down…just like the last one…KK23 double suited for me….AA34 double suited for my opponent…and yes, he has the same suits as me…go figure…nut flush vs second nut flush and I’m busto…wack!

After that I played some more HU and I dropped two matches…after that I really didn’t feel like playing anymore. It’s just that I’m stuck. Recently, I’ve had a few “good runs” and a lot of “bad runs”, but basically some of the bad runs were self-induced by either a) not quitting after getting (slightly) tilted or b) getting impatient against moronic players – what’s the point in playing flips against a donk who can’t win straight up? Well, the point is that if you get impatient and tell yourself that you’re “due” to win a coinflip, it isn’t the best decision you can make…

So…I guess I’ll either rest a little for the next few days or switch to some MTTs again as this SnG stuff is really wearing me down. I would really love to step up another level, but it wouldn’t be a wise decision as the roll is just not big enough for it…or would you start playing with a roll smaller than 20-25 buyins? I don’t think it’s a REAL bad idea, but then again, once you get into a little stretch where you drop three, four or five in a row, it’ll certainly have an effect on my play (“scared money isn’t smart money”), so I think I’ll have to stick to the currently level for a little longer…although it’s hard…playing against Donky McFish and Fishy McFish-Fish day in day out…