…at least some of the time – mostly when it counted. Started the session by going totally retro, 5 Card Draw Pot Limit SnG. Wonderful, reminds me of years back, before the NL Hold’em boom…it was our game of choice back then and I still like it, apart from the fact that I ran into some “cold decks” (QQQ vs KKK etc). Still was able to grind back from a 1-6 chip deficit to take it down. Score: Ingoal 1-0 others

After that it was time to come back a little…more new school if you wish…so I played some poor chap in a Limit Razz HU SnG and I kid you not, he was catching like crazy. I on the other hand was in the middle of brick-city, but at least I chat-crapped him good for the next 20 minutes. My favourite set of hands: he caught a 3 and I caught a King of fourth street for five consecutive hands…unreal…oh well…as I had told him it would all come down to one big hand and it did, my 7-5 held up and I was in cruise mode. Doubled him up again, but then busted him for good once he visited me in brick city catching 2A2 to his A275…lol…poker can be cruel sometimes, good to see that it’s not just cruel to me 😉

Score: Ingoal 2-0 others

After that I went straight to the new school for some 4-player HU action, winner takes all. The first table was a true battle and I finally prevailed after a good 60 hands. The second table wasn’t all that hard. He pushes in the first hand. I fold. In the sixth hand I flop top and bottom pair on a two-club board, I overbet, he instapushes…he shows J-high flush draw….turn 10h…river xs…and cya…nice to see that nice outs isn’t always enough against me…thank you.

So…I’m three for three for the night, nice to see those three mails from PokerStars sitting in my inbox…the good ol’ times…even better to see that making correct decisions does pay off, not always or even often…but at least sometimes 😉

So…I’m outta here for tonight…hope you all have a good time at the tables…maybe I’ll try to sneak into the WWdN tomorrow, depends on my sleep schedule…but the chance to make back-to-back final tables is appealing…oh well, we’ll see…

So…I started the heads-up series against Veneno today. We decided to stick to my original “challenge” schedule of the following matches:

1. NL HE (L)
2. Pot Limit Omaha 8b (L)
3. Razz (W)
4. 7 Stud
5. PL HE
6. Pot Limit Omaha
7. HORSE

So…we started with the NL Hold’em and I sucked, sort off. Couldn’t get past the poison as she was hammering away on me, figuratively and literally, for the whole game. She took an early lead and I just couldn’t put her on a real hand, just on the “I know what you got? – Oh really? – Yes, you got what we call the best hand”-type of hand. So I was down, but not out, quite quickly before fighting back to take the interim chiplead. After that another downward spiral hit and I was soon very low on chips. The final hand was true poison style…I look down at AQ…ooh wee…but I have only around 2xx chips left, so no doubt she’ll call (almost with any 2)…she shows A3…the rest is history…

So..down 0-1…and off to the second match. Pot Limit Omaha High/Low split. Hmm tasty, directly from the torture chamber of hell…lol…after all we know that there can be some wild shit flying around your ears in this game, which makes it both fun and excruciatingly painful sometimes…the match is a blur as I can’t remember many hands…early on I took the chiplead with a scoop…took down another few smaller pots before giving back most of it and then some…the last hand was 10-8-6-2…board comes 10-8-6…I overplay my three-pair and we get the money in…V shows 7-9-9-K for the straight…I don’t improve and busto….0-2, yikes.

After that we head over to the Razz-table and I think ran away with the match. The cards fell my way and I was even able to bluff a little here and there. In the last hand I held a chiplead of 2600 to 400 and sucked out on 6th and 7th street…ooooh the sweet taste of triple atomic antidote…lol…should have used that in the first two matches too 😉

So…I’m down 1-2 after 3 matches and it’s crunch time! Really looking forward to the next matches! You better be ready V, I sure will be 🙂

The grind continues and I’m making good progress so far at Pacific. Up a little and 85 Comp Points done 165 left to go.

After the slow and somewhat uneventful grind at Pacific I thought I’d put the latest token to good use in Full Tilt’s 2k Razz guaranteed and boy oh boy, can play get any worse than this? I repeat: Can play get ANY worse than this? Un-be-lievable what an amount of donkeys play this game at Full Tilt. I had three donks at my starting table and they played like ultra-maniacs, capping almost every hand with “starting monsters” like AAK and similar.

Now I’m usually really mild-mannered when it comes to Razz donkeys, as I’m pretty confident that their chips will come my way eventually. But this time it was a little different. I play one hand in the first four orbits and take it down. I’m up well above average and fold, fold, fold and fold while the donks are taking down pots with monster-hands, well…a K10 or J8 low is a monster, right…NOT!, I’m sitting there repeating my old razz mantra “three eight or lower, three eight or lower, three eight or lower” as I fold hand after hand. Oh well…so I wait and play a patient game, pushing donks off hands by (correct) reraising on the earlier streets is pretty much out of the picture, so I’m at the mercy of the cards…and to make a long story short…they betray me time and time again…I start out with the best hand every single time and in most hands I’m ahead until 6th/7th street…where the donk(s) hit the perfect cards while I put on my helmet to shield me from all the bricks falling down on me.

The exit in 60th place comes right at the first break where I start out with the best again…hit a brick on fourth street…good one on 5th street before walking the lovely brick-brick-sidewalk again…oh well…what can you do?

So…I’m out of tokens for now…so next stop at Full Tilt is to get some more…then it’s time for Razz again…until then…may the river be kind(er) to you, don’t drink and drive on new year’s eve, drink a lot though if possible and have fun…cya in 2007 🙂

Well not much time to play or post, so just a quickie:

1. Busted some donkeys at bodog’s HU tables, 3 out of 4 not too bad.

2. Got my ass handed to me once again at FTP…unbelievable how some nice brick-sessions at Razz and kind rivers for my opponents can ruin everything…oh well…”the only thing that matters is making correct decisions”…yeah right, but losing still sucks 😉

I’m outta here…

Hehe. Today I hit the Razz tables again…and my junk is still hurting from all the kicks…but hey…I only dropped twenty before being fed up, so not too worried.

After that I ran back…well…to the Hold’em tables ;)  Not too much going my way there either, but at least I finished up a little…

Well…Hold’em is totally annoying me atm. I can do what I want, good decisions, decent decisions, mediocre decisions, bad decisions…they all end in the same result – someone backing up a few steps and then kicking me in the junk with full force 🙁

So after the most recent ball-busting junk kickings (yesterday afternoon) I decided that I’m going to walk away for a few days…maybe even a little longer. No, I’m not quiting poker or anything, I’m just putting hold’em on hold…for now.

My equalizer for now is going to be limit razz. Yes, I usually hate limit games as your space to (out)maneuver your opponent is, well, limited. In Razz it’s a little different though. True, just like in any other poker game you can still be kicked in the balls (which formed my new mantra “brick brick brick, really makes me sick” ;)), but it doesn’t hurt all that much. Why?

Because if you just stick to some BASIC game strategy (start with a decent hand, depending on the table 86low or better), you should come out on top most of the time. On another note: yes, Razz is more of an automatic game due to the limit structure and board information – on the other hand it’s a fun and challenging game as you gotta switch on your brain again (remember board information, discarded cards, etc)…so it’s quite a change and so far I’m enjoying it…

…needless to say that I had my fair share of unbelievable beats already (board lock, sixth and seventh street go brick brick (me) perfect perfect (opponent) etc), but I’m proud to say that despite all that, I didn’t have a single losing session (yet) as I was pretty far ahead already when such wicked beats occured…

…so for now…expect me to write about the all new Razztastic adventures happening in a country far far away from one-outer hold’em hell…. 😉

Bodog: Well, my hot-streak is definitely over. I mean, I’m not losing big or anything, but I’m losing (money). Played 9 HU SnGs after work, won 5 of them. Cool, so far…although I’m still thinking about the four matches I lost…1 was a wrong move by me…that’s cool…but the other three…well, they just sucked. Pushed with the best hand (postflop)..lost to a runner runner straight…pushed with the best hand after the turn…lost to a rivered flush…pushed with the best hand (postflop)…lost to a runner runner flush…and the last one was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen: I totally outplay my oponent and I’m up 1850/150…I look down at AK…I push…he calls…shows 77…the lucky sevens hold up. Now we’re at 1700/300…next hand I push him in again with Ax vs Kx…King hits on the turn…now we’re at 1400/600….next hand I push him in after the turn…he got the nut flush draw with one card to come…it comes….now we’re at 800/1200…next hand we get the money in again after the flop…my 99 is best…until he pulls the runner runner flush out of his ass on the turn and river…nice play, luckbox!

After footie training I fire up bodog again and as I lose 3 matches in short series I quit…best one was me holding A2…flop comes down A27 rainbow…I bet…he raises…I reraise…he pushes…hmm…I call…he holds? Yup, 22…nice that the case 2 on the flop could make it…

FullTilt: After the bad hold’em run it’s time for a change of scenery…so I fire up the donkey razz tables…weeeee….and boy can the donkeys get pissed off as soon as someone is really playing the game as it should be played (raising at every spot that justifies it)…took down some dough…nothing major…but at least I enjoyed it…

Fresh of yesterday’s win at Red Rock, Phil Gordon was playing this afternoon…at a .05/.10 NL Hold’em table…nice to see Phil donking it up with the guys and gals at this level!

And last but not least, german comedian Stefan Raab is setting up his second celebrity poker night, which will feature german celebrities and one online qualifier. In contrast to the first one this time he’s got PokerStars to join in this time. Freerolls are starting immediately, only available for german players though…hmm…maybe I’ll give it a shot if I find the time this weekend…(100.000$ prize pool doesn’t sound all that bad, although the chances are slim – first you gotta make through the online qualifiers 1:x, then you gotta beat the five other “donkeys” at the tv table…tough….)

Bodog: W, ooh you got Aces…nice – L, oooh you chased with 68o…nice – L, ooh the river brought you there…nice – L
FullTilt: Razz…groovy…start at the low levels, see how it goes. Bad…dropped some dough due to chasing donks…and who can blame ’em when a complete bet is so low.

Jump up two levels to 1/2…nice…jab jab…grabble…(A3)5…6….K…9….(A)…opponent (55)7…6…J…A…(3)…there’s goes the twenty…really nice to see that my luck today can be described with a single character: 0 🙁
That’s it for today…better luck to all of you…

Edit: …and as you might have guessed, my “losing tolerance” is really low these days 😉

…so hard, that it’s hard to focus on the game that is in progress. I fired up bodog yesterday eve and hit the HU tables once again. One match stood out and it was not due to the game itself, or the result (I won, duh!), but my opponent or his trash talk to be precise.

I sat down at the table and my opponent was already waiting. The first thing he types into the chatbox is “You can only win if you suckout”. *lol*. Now I’m usually not even starting to chat during the matches, I’m focussing on my game and that’s that. If my opponent starts a quick friendly chat (the “gl”…”how you doing” type of chat), I’m cool with that and I wish my opponent good luck before getting down to business. In this particular case I had to get involved though. I went ahead and told him that it’s probably the other way around and that I wished him good luck trying to beat me. He went into insta-trash-talk-mode and tried to get under my skin with a variation of (what he thought) cool ways to get your opponent on tilt.

He started of by telling me that he was Johnny Chan to me. My comeback line was that he should stop sniffing his insecticide infested orange. *lol*…that shut him up for about half a minute before he went on about telling stuff about my mom. Now I’m all for good fun, but that’s borderline, then again, he was probably a little immature boy trying to be cool. So I schooled him a little about mommies and how I’m going to tell his mom that there should be no more WSOP for him on tv. etc etc…so it was all funny as hell, at least to me. I finally busted him after around 30 hands and he told me about how I sucked and all…I just typed a quick reply telling him that I hope that the 5$ he just lost wasn’t his whole month’s allowance…*lol*…

Another cool match was against a familiar player. I had played with him before and he’s ultra-passive. So I opened the cage and let the aggression monkey out, raising EVERY pot, c-betting every flop and generally putting constant pressure on him. In the final hands he got lucky on me twice – the last hand was A9 vs A8…he hit his 8 on the turn and I couldn’t improve on the river. To my surprise he instantly started to talk shit in the chatbox about how he finally caught me (errm yeah, getting in behind and catching a lucky card is totally catching me, d’oh) and I thought “WTF?!” so I told him what I thought about that line and he went on to tell me how I was playing to aggressive and blablabla…I justed laughed and told him that his style sucks (sir fold-a-lot) and that he’s the one that needs to be lucky to win, not me and that I’m not too aggressive, after all I “only” had a look at 72% of all flops in that particular session (~ 400 hands) 😉

All in all a nice session yet again, won 15 out of 20 matches, should have been 17, but hey…can’t count on your opponent not hitting his (few) outs all the time, so ‘s all good…

After that bodog session I remembered that I still have some bonus clearing on FullTilt to do, so I fired up some CAP NL games for a quick hit and run session – which was successfull. Then I played some Stud and Razz to close out the night. I gotta say I’m now starting to grasp why many people like Razz so much (e.g. Jordan‘s “high-roller” razz experience), it’s basically one of the easiest games around. Hell, I like 7Stud, I like 7Stud H/L even more, so Razz is basically the logical next step…just low, no straights or flushes to look out for…sweet. I guess I’ll have a go on the lower limit tables in the near future, hoping not to go brick-brick-brick all the time 😉

Well, it was a bank holiday in germany today, so I had a little time for some poker. First of all I watched some of the WSOP 2006 coverage. Good stuff there, especially Dimitri telling CJ about how he would tighten up and all after spewing chips.

Then it was time for some poker of my own. Quick summary:

1. Nine: I’ll be damned, but once again, “cold-deck” after “cold-deck”…down a nice junk and still not in reach to clear the bonus. Sigh…

2. FullTilt: Busted some fish at the CAP SH tables…then thought it was a good idea to play some Razz and PLO8 SnGs…no g00t….still up for the night though…

3. Bodog: If you’re running not all that good and want to finish the night on a high note…fire up bodog…play some HU…won the first two…lost the third…

Time to catch some sleep now as I’ve got a grueling headache and I need to get up for work in 6 hours…so…night and night…and have fun at the Mook!