Tonight we played our regular home game. A total of 12 players showed up including one newbie. To make a long story short, as usual, the newbie won. I don’t know what it is, but it seems that every time a newbie shows up to play (s)he either got the goods, get’s lucky or both and takes it down – fine by me.

We started out with two six handed tables and early on I got some hands (AK, AQ, AJ) and took down some small pots. Then it was time for one of the first bigger pots. I raise it up preflop (4BB) with Ac10d. One player out of position calls. Flop comes down all rags two clubs. Check…I check…turn brings the 10c…so I got top pair, nut flush draw…he checks…I bet…he reluctantly calls. River brings the Js. He checks and I got the feeling that the jack hit him. I check behind and he takes it down with KJo. Hmmm…well…no comment…here’s your lolipop 😉

I chip up again winning some small pots and then the hand comes down. I look down at 66 and pop it preflop…I get one caller…incidently the same player that chased me down in the A10 vs KJ hand…flop comes down QJ6 two spades…gin! He bets…I call…turn brings the Ks…hmm…he checks…I take a stab at the pot and he reluctantly calls, commenting “if you’ve got it, you’ve got it”…river is blank (5c)…he checks…now I’m thinking, hmm….when the flush hit, he made that comment, which leads me to believe that he got something good here, too…so I decide to check it down. I say “trips”, he says “I knew it, you probably have the better hand”…and I’m “uh oh” he shows JJ for the higher set…damn. I lost half my stack…although I guess I lost the bare minimum there, so I can’t fault myself here. I pondered a push on the turn…then again…he would have probably called me down and I would have been busto…so…what can you do.

The blinds are starting to get big, so I have no choice but to push a few hands later. I wanted to do it blind, but I didn’t and I see JJ…push….SB calls…showing presto…flop and turn are blank and the river is….5….presto = gold and I’m busto….so much for the “main event”.

We wait for some other players to bust out to start our sidegame. This sidegame will stand out for a while as one of the craziest hands ever was played in the very first hand. Some players, including myself, limp, LP pops it…everyone folds around to the BB who calls. Flop comes down 7J7. EP leads out…LP pushes…EP insta-calls….what do they hold? LP JJ for top boat…EP 77 for dem quads bitches! Wow! Turn and river are blank and we got our first casualty. As it’s the first hand we allow the unlucky player to rebuy and he’s going to be “Mr. Rebuy” from now on…brutal way to get your nickname 😉

After stealing some pots I’m still getting low on chips so I decide to push with one of the next hands…once I look down at 44 there’s no turning back and I get called by AKo. Flop is ace high…turn brings the king…river is blank and I’m busto…

All in all I can’t fault myself for any of the plays I made…I put the money in with the best, apart from the set over set hand, and hmm…I wasn’t running good…what can you do…nothing much…so…I had fun tonight, but the cards weren’t with me…better luck next time, which will hopefully be soonish…there’s just nothing better than live cardflinging with friends 🙂

Well, well….not much poker today…although in the end it was a good three and a half hours. I started off with some shorthanded and HU action on Pokerstars. I busted out fourth in the shorthanded SnG when a donk called my all-in dominated (AQ vs A8) and rivered the three outer. I won the HU match and it was almost time for Kat‘s friday night blogger donkament.

…and a donkament it was….crazy…crazy action…a record of 170 rebuys!!!

I didn’t take notes, so most hands are a blur. I got some hands, I sucked out a few times and I got sucked out on some times. The biggest accomplishment was playing fearless poker, even when the rebuy period ended, dropping about 10 hammers and some velvet hammers in the process, raising and reraising with them like crazy from any position…all too fitting my exit involved the hammer again….although this time Waffles held it and outflopped my treys…good fun…with his insane stack of over 70k he should be able to take it down tonight…let’s see if that really happens…I’m going to catch some sleep now…5:29am…final table is underway…but I’m too tired to rail and I really need the sleep…the next live (home) game is tomorrow…errm later today…nn and gg…

Edit: Waffles did it, took down first…nice one…

Not much poker going on today…only some minor cashgame donkeritis (finished slightly up) and one shorthanded SnG (W). Poker is always fun when you win…end of story.

Some pimpin: don’t forget about Al‘s Blogger Bracelet race on Full Tilt tomorrow. Unfortunately I won’t be able to play as I’ve got some important meeting on monday morning, so playing a tourney which starts at 1am monday morning (my time zone) isn’t really an option this time…

1. Register for friday blogger donkament rebuy madness (TM), proudly presented by Kat.
2. See that there are two players registered, including yourself, five minutes before the start of the tourney.
3. See that there are three players registered, three minutes before the start of the tourney.
4. See that there are two players registered as the tourney is about to start.
5. Think about why there are only two players. Check out Kat’s blog and realize that she posted the wrong password which will keep all new players from registering.
6. Play headsup in a rebuy tourney. Hi on_thg. GG, sort of 😉
7. Be slightly annoyed after losing the first bs hand (two pair vs flush draw?!….flush on the river).
8. Be slightly pissed off after the second bs hand (AJ vs 97, all in preflop…A-10-8…turn blank…river J…97 rides the magic carpet to a straight on the river).
9. Be elated after winning the next hand for all the marbles (AJ vs A2).
10. Be totally pissed off after losing the next bs bs bs hand (K9 vs A9, flop AK9…lol…yeah right…cold deck mountain…here I come…).
11. Rebuy a final time, down 1:4 in chips…tell your opponent that this is the final rebuy…bust out by running Q5 s00ted into Kings (btw where’s my running flush here?! 😉 ).
12. Sit here, type this post.
13. Curse bad luck in headsup recently.
14. Realize that after the latest software upgrade the hand histories weren’t saved to disk anymore (hence the ?! in 7. as I can’t remember if it was two pair, overpair or top pair I had there).
15. Curse bad luck in headsup recently.
16. Think about how close you came to winning a blogger tourney…lol…
17. Curse bad luck in headsup recently.
18. Smile.
19. Logoff.

As I was too tired to write up a summary of Kat‘s Friday Rebuy Madness (TM) this morning (after I busted out after over two hours of play, past 5am), here it goes, spiced up with some live poker.

I had a terrible session prior to the rebuy madness. I couldn’t win a hand to save my very soul and after the first match I discovered a big, maybe even giant leak in my (HU/SnG) game. What is the leak? Impatience combined with being annoyed of all the luckboxes I’m facing on a daily basis. Now, this maybe doesn’t count as a genuine leak, but really it is. I play a match, play the best I can, put the money in with the (significantly) best of it and I lose. I go off the deep end in the next x minutes playing suboptimal strategy (making bad calls, getting impatient, calling in bad spots, etc). So I really need to work on that. When I’m in the zone (and stuff like this doesn’t happen) I’m waaaaaay ahead and crush the game. But as soon as a session starts off with a real bad beat or a succesion of such hands, I lose it and donk out of the next ones. Not a good thing.

But enough of the session prior to the rebuy madness. The rebuy madness started off with a real bummer. I got the first monsters I held crushered, big time. What did I hold? The hammer and the jackhammer, both crushered by “overcards”. Sick, sick, sick 😉

So I rebought a few times donking around like there’s no tomorrow…and that’s the real beauty of this tourney. There’s just no better way to spend x dollars. You buyin for 2 (1+1; or better 3) dollars and donk around. If you make a mistake or donk move – who cares? 1$ will get you another 1k chips, 2$ will get you another 2k chips. Heeeehaaaw…enjoy. After the early “bad luck” – how dare you crusher my (jack)hammer?! – I picked up some nice hands and even cracked aces with a donkhand. Brilliant. After one hour of donkfoolery, I take the addon and the field looks like this:

Then I got moved to another table as some players pussed out (cough, Wawfuls etc, cough). Who do I find on my left…Mr. TripJax along with three other bigstacks…hmmm….nice…NOT.

A few hands in and it’s obvious that some players are picking on my blinds, so it’s time to make a move. Trip raises from UTG and I look down at KQo in the BB…no way I’m folding here…so I call…hit top pair and it goes to the river…after the hand, it’s revealed that he had the hammer and picked up an OESD which didn’t come through on the river though. So I pick up the pot and enjoy myself. The very next hand I get dealt the hammer myself in the SB.

After I miss the flop completely, I lead out nontheless with a nice sized cbet. Trip raises though and I have to fold the hammer. Back to square one.

The next hour is mostly a blur, win some lose some, but one hand stands out. If I knew that, I would have called the preflop raise. I sit with A9o on the button…one limper as it get’s to me…I limp as well…trip raises…limper calls…I ponder as the raise would be like 20-25% of my stack…so I decide to fold as I’ve got the feeling that I might be dominated here…flop comes down 992….whine…sigh…turn K…river 2…showdown Trip A8o…limper 66…so sick…if I call there…I triple up for sure, why? Because trip leads out for 2.5k on the flop…limper raises to 5k…no way in hell that I’m not either flat-calling or pushing there (7k) and at least the limper would have called the extra 2k for shizzle…oh well…just as the second break is about to kick in, we’re down to the final table…

8th out of 9…hmm…not a pleasent spot to be in…after we lose the first player, I push my stack in with A10o, which is no match to the other player’s JJ…

So, I’m out in 8th…

So…am I disappointed? Not really, I played some donk poker (early on), I played some good poker (middle stage up to the final table) and I played some decent poker at the final table. All in all…10$ spend for 2.x hours of good poker fun with the boys (and gals)! See you all next week…

Fast forward to today, we started the day off by watching the top match of the german footie league (our local VfB Stuttgart whooped Bayern Munich 2-0) and a nice BBQ. After enjoying the goods, we decided to play a little poker, surprise surprise. We started an eight-handed SnG with a payout structure of 50/30/20%. Got off to a slow start, but finally picked up a decent hand once the blinds got bigger. I look down at QQ in the BB…two limpers…so I decided to push…not the best move there, but with all the chasers at our game, I’ll rather win a small pot than seeing my Queens go up in flames on a bad board. One of the limpers has another idea for the hand though. I’m a little worried there as he’s really thinking about calling…could he have Aces? Could he have Kings? Sure, but then again, if he had that, his money would already be in the pot for sure…so I wait for him to make his move and he finally calls with KJo…errrm yeah…probably a good idea, wait, not really. The queens stand up and I double up to around 3k in chips (2k starting stack). Fast forward a few levels and “the hand” comes down. I’m in the SB…we’re five handed…UTG folds…UTG+1 calls…button calls…I look down at 88…I raise…BB flat-calls…shortstack UTG+1 shoves it in (practically “only” doubling my bet)…the button calls…I call…BB calls…no need to get cute here, let’s see what the flop brings…flop comes down 89T rainbow….hmm…bottom set…not bad…check…BB checks…UTG+1 is already all-in so no action…button bets out 1.5k….hmmm…why bet into a dry sidepot here? Hmmm…I’ve got around 3.xk left…so I ponder my options…could it be that he flopped a bigger set here? Absolutely, but if I’m scared of set over set here, why am I playing at all, especially given the fact that the button is one of our resident maniacs. So I ponder a little and put him on either an overpair or top pair (which would both be gold here)…I push over the top and the BB folds…showdown…button A10o for TPTK…shorty KQo…me…88 for a set of eights…the turn is a blank and I got the huge sidepot secured…the only card that can take the main pot from me is a J…that doesn’t hit and I drag the biggest pot I’ve ever seen in our homegame. I’m sitting there with roughly 65-70% of all chips in play and we’re down to four handed (bubble time)…the next orbits are a blur, but I don’t use my bigstack to really bully ppl, but I used it to make the obvious button moves. We lose a player and then another player and I’m headsup with the resident maniac. Not really the player I want to see there, but my 3:1 chiplead gives me some leeway here. I lose the chiplead in one of the typical hands. I hold JXo and I flop two pair. I bet out pot-sized. Call. Turn blank. I lead out half the (now substantial) pot. Call. River Q. Check check, as I know I’m toast….and I am toast…back to even. Sigh…I lose some pots…and after a sick hand, I flop Aces he flops second pair…rivers his kicker…and he’s roughly a 1,8:1 chipleader now…after folds on both sides for some orbits, the money finally goes into the middle and I got the best of it. I’m in command at that point and it’s a matter of a few more hands until the money goes in again…me AJ s00ted vs “The negreanu” (T7o)…flop brings a pair of queens and a king…turn is a 9…river is a T and i take it down with broadway. Wheeee…finally a W again after the long drought. Took second last time, first this time, things are looking up again, ever since I re-evaluated my live game…good stuff there…all in all…a perfect saturday…hope you had a good one, too…good luck at the tables…

Wheeee….so Al is the first one of the broggers trying to send x bloggers to the WSOP 2007…I’m not signed up yet, as I’m waiting for the pw…if you’ve got a pokerblog and want to “donate” too…check out the details below and/or visit Al for more…

What can I say…an interesting session today. Battled with donks back and forth and they got the best of me most of the time. Lost two headsup matches – the usual. No need to play anymore HU for the day as I can’t catch a break to save my very soul. I play a little six handed SnG trying to blow off some steam. That works out pretty nicely, I get down to headsup, but I’m down 1:4 in chips. Thirty hands later I’m the winner. Wheee…a W.

After that, I jumped into a Triple Shootout to the sunday million. The first two tables are mostly a blur.

What stood out on the second table was my headsup opponent. He took out three players (including one that took out the first player), so we went into HU with me being at 1:3 in chips. He started to bleed chips though as I made one “great call” after the other and caught him bluffing and/or overplaying his hand time and time again. After a few short hands I was the chipleader. I had the chance to bust him when I moved in on him with A6 he calls with A4…chop…a few hands later I took him out though to advance to the finals.

Sitting at the final table I promised myself to not get involved unless I had a monster. I kept my promise for quite a long time until one player busted and I finally started to pick up some hands. I was still down to 1k in chips and as it’s a turbo it was make or break time. I moved in with 55 and the BB called me, after some deliberation, with QJo…alrighty…let’s not get unlucky here…5 on the flop…wheeee….so I double through and pick up some pots after that. Soon enough I’m the new chipleader and I try to knock out a shorty. I raise it preflop and instead of pushing, what I hoped he’d do, he calls half his stack…so he’s basically commited…hmm….I hold KsQs…flop comes down KJT rainbow…he pushes…now I’m sitting there with an open-ender and top pair and he could have any two…so I instacall….he shows? Q9o….well played sir, but wait, there are still cards to come. turn Q….river A…chop it…I’ll take that, but how come he flops the joint with a dominated hand there, damn it…that hand comes back to haunt me later on, don’t worry. I fold fold fold and the chopbox is picking up steam, he raises relentlessly and even when he get’s called he shows up with the best hand. Soon enough he’s the chipleader, there’s one shorter player and I’m in third. Then the hand comes up. Boy, I wish I would have just folded it, lol…then again…four-handed? Who am I kidding.

I look down at AKo in the BB and the chopbox comes in for the standard raise on the button. He got me covered by 14 chips…and I honestly think about pushing…but wait…why should I do that when there is one shorter player. Then again, only top two pay (third is bubble winning 2$ lol). Let’s just see a flop and see what happens. Flop comes down K98 with two clubs (I got the Ac). I think about it and there’s no way I think I’m behind here…if he got lucky (like he did on the hand against me and two hands later against another player K9 vs AK)…well..then at least I have a good rant on my hands. So I push and he insta-calls showing? 99…thank you very much…turn club..river blank and I’m out in fourth. So friggin sick. Yes, it’s a coinflip. Yes, I didn’t need to get involved (although with the 5min levels you gotta play some if you got some). So I’m still sitting here, puzzled. He makes a play from the button, so do I worry about a big hand here, not necessarily. I decide to make the call, leaving me slightly over 1.7k (blinds 100/200). I’m hitting the flop TPTK + backdoor flush draw. Should I check there? Now he pushes anyway so no way I’m getting away from that hand in that spot or am I supposed to believe that I’m behind against a button-standard-raise-range here? – I didn’t think so. So, was he lucky? Yes. Was I unlucky? Yes. Oh well…that’s the way it is. Story of my day. Played 204 hands of flawless poker, well, 203 if you discount the last hand and I’m sitting here with a bad taste in my mouth. (And yes, he won the ticket, surprise surprise) So sick, I could almost feel the T$ in my account. Damn! I hate it when stuff like this happens on the bubble…especially after kicking butt for 1.5hours and the chance to makes 215$ out of 2$ so close, so close and in such a tourney it’s not the money that stings (pretty obvious at a buyin of 2$), it’s the fact that you got so far and then crapped out of it. Sickening…feels like craping your pants right in front of the toilet door. I’m off to cry myself to sleep now…j/k…nn 😉

Started the poker day by playing some headsup, only three matches, two Ws. Tonight, I saw that Kat was hosting a nice donkfest, errm rebuy-tourney on FullTilt. The only problem, although it’s just a 1+1$ tourney, I’m busto at FullTilt. At least I was until tonight…redeposited some dough and off to the races.

The first table was the usual crazy ass rebuy style. Push push push. I did just that with any decent hand and it worked out pretty good. Although I had to rebuy after the first hand I played. AK vs small pair…K on the flop…but set for the opposition. After that I didn’t rebuy anymore…didn’t have to. So I didn’t make it quite to the top of the rebuy rank with a measly three rebuys (one to start with the double-stack and one after the AK hand).

The first hour is a blur, although I had some nice hands and got lucky sometimes too (especially in the A9 vs AJ hand…J on the flop…turn and river 9…wheee) – sorry Pokerwolf that you were my personal ATM early on. The sickest hand of the first hour was the following though – boy, never before did I wish to hold the hammer so badly 😉

At the first break I was sitting pretty, third in chips.

The second hour is a blur too, I didn’t take notes or anything, the only thing I remember though is that almost every other flop was a hammer flop (72x, 22x, 77x, 772, 722) – unreal, I’ve never before seen so many hammer flops in my life. I didn’t even need to mention that I didn’t have a hammer in any of those hands. One hand that sticks out was the following, money went in on the flop…so he was drawing slim to a queen or jack for the gutter ball…turn gutter ball:

After that I was able to recover pretty quickly, but just before the second break I managed to lose a coinflip AJ vs 44 to lose around 5k…so at the second break I was sitting in 9th (of 10) on a 7.5k stack…

The next minutes are all about steal, resteal and steal some more and we finally made it to the final table:

Two hands stick out in my mind on the final table…shortstacked mookie pushing in with 88…one raiser between me and him and I’m sitting there with JJ…two for one, cool…other player shows AA…no miracle for me…mookie busts out 9th and I’m down in chips again (although I’m still wondering how I didn’t go broke there).

Some steals and folds later and I look down at A10 on the button…one LP raiser preflop…and I decide to see a flop…it comes down 10 high and when he leads into me I thought: bs…so I push…wait…no, I misclick and only minraise leaving 1k behind…doesn’t matter though as he pushes over the top anyway…with the almighty powerful 96 s00ted for the four-flush…turn blank…river kills me…sigh…I guess I should have popped it preflop…then again…I can’t push all the time, just so that someone won’t get lucky on me 😉

Five final thoughts:

1. Why couldn’t it come heart heart one time if hearts need to come at all…I had the Ah damn it…

2. My read was correct…bs…didn’t hold up…all good and I guess it was payback as Pokerwolf was the one I sucked out on with the A9 vs AJ hand…so in the end it was the 1-1 for a draw..all good there…and at least he used the chips wisely to win the whole thing.

3. I’m really looking forward to see Waffles‘ recap, if he writes one, and what he’s got to say about his exit as bubble boy with yet another “beautiful” cold deck A7 vs AA…

4. Big shoutout to VinNay who single-handedly fueled our first table with a grand total of 18 rebuys. I guess his blog-addy runner-runner-rebuy is all too fitting 😉

5. Thanks again Kat for hosting, this was the best six bucks I’ve ever spent on 2.5h of pure donkerific poker fun 🙂

Today’s session had it all. From the unreal calls to the sickest beats, there was something for everyone. For once, although taking some sick beats, I still had the upper hand. Not bad…4-3 in the HU…sick sick sick exit in a one table SnG after laying down unreal hands…nice to see that there are three pairs 7 handed, especially nice to see that the best one didn’t win…lol…the usual…

After those SnGs, I took a shot at the new 16 player headsup ones. Nice format…basically win the first two and you’re ITM, win another one and you’re in the final…won the first three tables…lost the finals trip aces with a chance to boat up (12 outs) no g00t against third nut flush…oh well…I’m out…

…the ultimate donktastic payback, brought to you by dealers around the net. Coming to a table near you, soon!

*lol* Oh well…what can I say about today’s play, nothing much, same ol’ same ol’…at the usual donkey tables, the usual donkey play and the usual donk luck. Sometimes you sit there and ask yourself: Is this really it? Could this be all you’ll ever see? Then again you tell yourself that it’s part of the game and that longterm it won’t matter. It’s still tough though. The ultimate oxymoron of poker – short-term doesn’t matter. Well, it really doesn’t, but in a way it does.

I mean, it’s the way it is and I’m more and more at the point where I’m accepting it, it still stings though and in a way, without it, there wouldn’t be much to write about either. So, hey, happy go lucky donks, have fun…I’ll write about it and take my money back later…and then some. Thank you.

So…play a little this afternoon, won two headsup matches and got chased out of a shorthanded SnG by a runner runner flush with A4 s00ted despite preflop reraise, bet on the flop and on the turn. Oh well…at least he had 12 outs…and as usual runner runner goodness (TM) was there to save the day. All good, I’m still up a little…

Evening/night rolls around and it’s time to play the WWdN. Starting table is fine although I can’t catch anything. I drop a nice hammer from UTG and take down a nice pot after my flop bet. Then I run presto into AA…oh well presto can’t be gold everytime. I’m down to about 600 15 minutes in and I take a pot here and there, then double up with TPGK. I’m almost back at the starting stack when I catch some “nice hands” (AQ, AK, etc)…despite my standard preflop raises I always get at least one customer and sure as hell I can’t hit a flop. So I fold fold fold…down down down…shorty.

After the break I fold the SB and then push three hands in a row with AQ s00ted, A8o, and A9o…no customers…but at least I take down the blinds. Then I make a nice exit. I look down at Ah9h and decide not to push the one limper of the hand. Flop comes down jack high with two hearts…I check…he bets out, which represents one third of my remaining stack…so I decide to push…maybe he’ll lay it down….no such joy as he flopped TPGK with KJo…turn and river are blank…surprise surprise…and I exit in 30th place.

After that I should have called it a night, but I tried to get some more action. So, headsup it is. Match one…around fifty hands in…flop two pair…push…he got two overs and a runner runner flush draw…(is that even consider a real draw?! – lol, sure it is)…runner runner flush it is…cya.

Hmm…one more won’t hurt…I whip him around like a schoolboy and got him down to half his stack…he pushes preflop…I look down at two nines…call…flop all low…turn A…river unnecessary K…back to square one. I whip him around again and get him down to half the starting stack again…he wins some pots and we’re virtually even (me + 100 chips)…I raise preflop with A10 s00ted…he pushes…I call…he shows 77 for yet another flip….sevens hold up…surprise surprise…my exit comes a few hands later when the mighty A10 s00ted is no match for the even mightier A5 s00ted…how did it happen? You got one guess….awww…you already know the answer….runner runner baby! Nothing better than runner runner in the morning, runner runner in the evening….runner runner all night long…

So…I played some good poker today, made two mistakes (calling the rest of my chips off with KK when the lucksack turned three tens and calling all-in with 55 vs AA in the WWdN) and got unlucky here and there and everywhere…the usual. Stuck in the eternal circle of win some lose some, getting nowhere…I really need to get some more money online to take a shot at some of the bigger MTTs and/or some cashgames again as this whole SnG thing isn’t working for me, at least not atm…