Well, tonight was our next (live) home game and this time, I hosted it. The only downside of this were the missing poker tables (which are at my mate’s place who normally hosts our home games) and copaq cards (which are also at my mate’s place). Apart from that, it was the usual card flinging group of friends and we had a good old time.

In contrast to the last few home games, I decided to go with my “feel” this time and push hands more than I normally would. Why should I let the other guys put the decision on me all the time? Let’s turn the tables and let them make their decisions for all the marbles.

This “strategy” worked out nicely. We started of 10 handed and I look down at AJ early on. I raise preflop in LP and get one caller. Flop is A9x. I lead out again and he calls. Turn pairs nines. I’m pretty sure I’m good here, although he could have me outkicked – then again, why wouldn’t he reraise preflop or on the flop with AK/AQ?! So I put him all in and he calls…showing A7…my AJ stands up and I eliminate the first player. A few hands later I hit the jackpot. I got A5o in the BB and I call a small raise from one of our loose cannons. Flop comes down 234…yatzee! I bet small…he calls…turn 6…yatzee^2…I check, trying to induce a “bluff” here…he complies and fires a nice sized bet at it…now I’m pretty sure he started off with a big pair here…and I push…he calls pretty quickly with pocket kings, dead to three fives for a chop. The five doesn’t come and I take out the second player and a nice sized pot. I’m sitting pretty with 1/3 of the chips in play, nice. From there on, I’m chasing a few pots to many and bluff into the nuts once.

But with the monster stack, that’s no big deal. Until I go on a complete card dead bender for three to four orbits. I can’t catch anything and my stack is dwindeling. Once we’re down to four handed (three ITM) I catch a small good run and eliminate the bubble boy. Nice. Three handed I take down another nice pot to knock out the third guy…but I’m trailing roughly 1:3 in chips. I decided to not bother “playing tricky” here and I push two of the next three hands.

The second time I push with J10o I get called with an Ace high…the flop gives me a four-flush…turn…flush…yatzee! Boom we’re even in chips. After that hand I forgot to switch back to normal mode though and I make a bad call all-in with TP+flush draw, he slowplayed and overpair and got the flush draw as well, but higher…I don’t improve and I’m out in second. No W, but at least I got down to headsup again and made some money.

After that we played a SH sidegame…busted out in 4th when someone caught a boat on the turn to eliminate both me and a shortstack…so no money there (top two ITM), but hey…I had fun..made some money…what more can I ask for?

Well, well, I didn’t feel like posting yesterday, so a big roundup today. Yesterday I got kicked in the junk, the usual, only won 1 out of 4 HU matches. These days I’m wondering: can I really win against donks without getting lucky? Or is it just the other way around: Can I really only win against donks without getting unlucky?

Who knows. As I said in one of my earlier posts this week, or was it at the end of last week, I wanted to go back and have a look at some of the matches to analyze my play. I didn’t dig too deep as it was pretty apparent that apart from the occasional slow play gone bad, which is sometimes necessary to get any chips in the middle, it’s not really “my fault”. I just got unlucky over and over again.

So, today I went at it again and the results were disheartening at least after the first two matches. The first two matches worked in my favour like a charm. I put the money in with the best and it held up. I took a break to get some fresh air nontheless and when I came back, shit hit the fan. First match after the break…I bet and bet and bet and he catches his two outer on the river. By that time it’s an insta-call for me as there’s too much money in the pot (and there’s not much point in folding down to less 200 chips). So the first L it is, surprise surprise. In the next match, my opponent doesn’t catch his two-outer on the river…no…he catches it on the turn after all the money went in. Nicely played sir. So I’m suddenly 2-2 and cursing my bad luck again. In the next match, it get’s even better. True, I broke one of the oldest “laws” (don’t go broke in an unraised pot), but should I really fear a monster here? No action preflop, I complete from the button with 75o…he checks. Flop comes down 3-K-5, he checks, I check…turn 5…now he wakes up and bets out small…I reraise him….he reraises me…now I’m trying to figure out what he could have…Kings? not really…3s…that could be a possibility..but I don’t think so…Kx…likely…5x…hmm…not all that likely…that would be another lovely case card on the turn there then. I push…he insta-calls with? 35…river 6 misses me oooooh so close….oh well…cold deck mountain…2-3.

After that I feel sick. Going 2-0 in the first run and now I’m stuck at 2-3. I feel like the Mavs in the 06 finals. Ouch. Next match…next bs…I value-bet my arse off and he calls like a champ, catching quads to beat my flush…trips to beat my two pair…and finally a flush to beat my set….nicely done, god damn it. 2-4.

After that, I felt even sicker. I decided to play two more and took them both down. Wheeeeeeeee. 4-4. I’ll leave it at that. Enough HU for the day, sick hands, sick results, treading water…paying rake like a champ. So, I fire up a Triple Shootout and the first table is a madhouse. One player shows bluff after bluff, but I don’t get involved with my monsters (62o, 38o, etc etc). Then my time comes and I connect with the board hard…and I get payed off. I’m the chipleader. Wheee….not for long. One player makes an, hmm how can I put it, interesting preflop call with 96 s000ted…one of his suit on the all overcard board is good enough to call my big bet….another one of his suit on the turn is good enough to call off the rest of his stack…well…another one of his suit on the river is enough to get the chips. VERY WELL played sir. Hat tip to the dealer. After that I’ve still got chips but run my AJ into AQ and that’s that.

Sick as I am, I play a little HORSE tourney. I don’t live to see the first HORSE though as people are running me down like crazy. Razz nearly broke me when a chasing donk caught three perfect cards on 5th-7th street…calling like a champ once again. I rebuild my stack in Stud, just to go busto in Stud8…well…four flush + 7 low draw on 5th street no g00t. Nice one dealer. Thanks for giving me a break, wait, not really. lol

So…finally…some fun times in the WWdN. I managed to make the best out of the few cards I was dealt. Played both the hammer and the velvet hammer (s00ted hammer) to perfection. Won two nice sized pots when my opponents laid it down on the river on scary looking boards. It really pays off to play the hammer like Aces or AK s00ted, depending on the situation 😉

Apart from those two hands, only four other stand out in the first hour. Kings…preflop raise…take down the blinds. JJ vs TT…reraise preflop takes it down…and AJ s00ted vs AQ s00ted…loses as expected. I’m stuck with just over 1200 chips there…one tricky play, which could have gone wrong – no doubt, works out beautifully and I’m heading into the break with slightly under 1.9k. What happened? I find AcKc in the SB and opt to limp along with the other two limpers. BB checks and we see a flop of AsXcXc…checks all around…turn is 10s…check..check…Kat bets out (Ace rag?!)…fold…I call…BB folds…river is a Xs…hmm…not quite what I wanted to see…oh well…I check…with every intention to check call…but Kat checks behind with Ace rag and I take it down…

After the break…I’m trying to see some flops cheaply, but I just can’t catch anything…not only do I fold fold fold, there’s not much of a decision to make either as I look at rag rag time and time again. Finally…really short…I look down at AQ…the first real hand since the break…one caller…shows A6 s00ted…board double pairs and I chop the pot. Wheeeee….damn it. Two or three hands later I’m forced to push in the BB with 35o (not much point in folding, which would put me down to 300 chips with the SB 100 in the next hand)….opponent shows Ace rag which is good enough to take it down…I exit in 21st place.

Oh well, nothing much I can do there, apart from sticking it in earlier…but tbh…even if I had done it, the result would have been the same (e.g. I hold A9 on the button, but a shorter player pushes…she’s been sitting there folding folding folding, so I’ve got a feeling that I’m dominated here and the caller infront of me doesn’t make me feel any better…I curse my decision once the board reads xx99…but I relax as the river brings the fourth heart to go with the shorties A10)…at least I had fun in the first hour with the hammer dropping and lively table chat…so I can’t fell bad about the WWdN. As for the day in total, just another day in low-limit junk-kick hell… 🙁

Well, played only two HU matches today and I’m starting to like it at the “new level” (I switched to the 10$ ones for now, until I get some under my belt and have a look closer look at those numbers, then it’s probably up one more level). Won both of those matches easily.

Tonight, it was time for the WWdN…due to whatever reason, it’s not the xyz invitational anymore, so I had to do with a description that I busted Wil last week. Fine with me, although I’m not InGoal, but Ingoal, ty 😉

The first table featured the blogfather himself and I had a hard time finding any playable hands. I folded into eternity for the first 30 minutes and when I tried to play a hand, well, in the words of tuff_fish “…ppl called me like crazy”.

So…besides folding, I played three noteworthy hands in the first hour. The first one was 99 vs 55 all-in preflop….someone raised preflop…I hoyed him back…he thought long and hard, stating that he thought his 55 was good, then pushed…my nines held up and I was up and running. Two hands later I find AQo…raise preflop…one caller…flop comes down ace high…I bet again…he folds…the third one was me holding AA in EP…I make it 4x…Iggy shoves…I call….he shows AJ…the rockets hold up. Nice…

So, after the first hour of played, things were looking up, but no all that long. Second hand after the break I find 88 in LP…button reraises me…I think hard…and I put him on A10-AJ here…so I push…insta-call…he shows AA…d’oh. A few hands later I find AQo…I pop it preflop, the same player that busted me last week (and who’s pretty short at that momemt) shoves…I call..he shows A10…nice…I see the ten in the window…then I realize that the JK is actually giving me the nuts…the turn J makes me sweat a little..but the river is kind…a nice little 3…so I’m back…fast forward a few orbits and I look down at 33 in the BB to a min-raise…hmm…could be AK…could be AA…let’s see a flop and try to hit the set…expensive at 400BB…but I’m half-way in…so let’s see it….flop 789…not what I wanted to see…check fold…I then donk off another portion of my stack…I look down at 66 UTG…normally I would pop it here…but I try to limp…flop comes down 3Q10 two hearts…he checks…I check…turn is 9h…he bets…I call…hmm….what was I thinking?…river…another low heart….he bets out small again…I make a crying call to see his 5h…he had Ks5h…damn…could I have played this hand any worse? Not really…first, pop it preflop and he most certainly goes away. Secondly fire on the flop…he most certainly goes away…thirdly…reraise on the turn…he most certainly goes away…that’s all.

So I’m getting desperately low in chips and just as the second break is about to roll around I’m dead last in chips…down to slightly below 400….damn. I look down at Ac3c UTG….I push…four callers….flopd Q3x…one guy bets out big…the others fold…he shows AQ…turn 3…boom headshot…I type in sorry and head into the second break…

As the blinds increase to 300/600 ante 50 after the break I’m not in that great a shape even after totally lucking out there. I fold Q8 in the BB and 35o in the SB…and i’m back to square one…with 1k…I wait until the blinds are about to hit me again to push in with the hammer…and looking at the screenshot now, still makes me laugh…what better way to exit than with the hammer rivering three deuces…but falling victim to flush over flush…lol…out in 16th….

Hehe…despite writing earlier on that I wasn’t going to play the WWdN, I did. I was still awake and felt like it, so why not?The tourney basically had everything. Joy and pain – the ultimate pain I might add, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I started the tourney out on a good note. The first big hand I played for all the marbles was 66 vs AK against Hoy…my sixes held up and I was up and running. The next big one was with 1010 against AQ…my opponent raised preflop…I reraised in position…he call…flop came 8-high with a pair, so I was positive I was ahead…he called nontheless, but luckily my hand held up. So I was sitting pretty and the rest of the first hour is a blurr…although there were two memorable occurances…I busted Wil…he was crippled by Mungo in a prior hand (see below…coolered KK vs AA) and he had to push with 250…someone behind him reraised…I put in the third race and we saw the flop headsup…my AK against his K2…my hand held up. The second memorable moment was a royal flush…

Within the next hour I witnessed all the joy and pain again…I folded hand after hand, picked up some pots with garbage…but mostly watched as cooler after cooler happened…KK vs AA again…QQ vs JJ…etc…it was carnage…then bubble time approached prior to the second break and I didn’t catch a hand…not a single one…I folded and folded and folded…we head into the second break and we’re still on the bubble…

The tourney continues after the break and the blinds are at 300/600 now…not a good thing if you’re looking at the stacks. I decide to make a move with the next good hand, if any. I get dealt AQ in the second hand after the break and make it 1800…one caller…hmm…not what I wanted…flop 776…hmmm…not really good…I put him on a pair here…I check…he pushes…oh well…there goes 1800….he shows 88…good fold. I’m down to slightly under 3k now and the blinds are about to hit me….74o in the BB…nice…fold…63o in the SB…hmm…nice…fold…

Oh well…so I’m sitting there with 14xx and I’m cursing my bad luck…then I look down at A10o…good enough to push…BB decides that 8xx more isn’t worth laying down A2o…oh well…2 on the flop…no ten for me on the turn…as it’s an Ace…river the case Ace…nice…so I’m the bubble boy with three aces…the same player that won the 88 vs AQ hand a few hands back raped me with Ace deucey…god damn it!!!

So…am I mad? Yes and no. I’m mad that I got unlucky on the bubble. Lost a flip and then got kicked in the junk by a dominated trash-hand …oh well…that’s the way it goes. The reason I said “..and no” is that I’m satisfied with my play, I made sound decisions, went in with the best and got unlucky…there are worse things than that…it still stinks though. At least the player that busted me, a fellow german whom I’ve never seen in the WWdN before, went on to finish 5th, so my chips were put to good use…I still would have enjoy it more to use them myself though…damn, poker stinks sometimes… 😉

Summary: Ultimate joy – winning some flips early on, playing good poker, earning name rights to the next WWdN (see above), seeing a royal flush again,…

Ultimate pain – getting sucked out on, on the bubble…

…hehe…after the last post I thought I was going into the right direction again, but oh well, not really. What can I say, had an awful session today and losing all those T$ doesn’t hurt any less than losing “real” dollars, the only win I could score today was in a turbo HU match. All others, I either donked out off (A9 vs AJ) or got pretty much cold-decked. It all started out in the PL 5-Card-Draw SnG. I totally annihilate the table, no I’m not exaggerating. I play aggressively when I had the goods…and after I showed down best hand after best hand and got payed off, the others were pretty careful about messing with me – and rightly so 😉

So..I bust the first one, I bust the second one and we’re down to three-handed with me holding roughly 55-60% of all chips in play. Then within 6 hands I’m gone, bubble boy. How did it happen? Set over set (he draws out with a boat), two pair over two pair (he draws out a boat) and two pair vs flush draw (he draws the flush). Oh well…had the luck of the draw earlier, now I got unlucky three times in a row…nothing new…nothing old, just the way it is sometimes.

So I jump into a double-shootout…and the donkey-department had a field-trip on my ass…so I’m thinking, slow down man, this is no good here…so I play a triple shootout…the play is fast and loose as expected and when I look down at 10-10 to a raise and call…I decide to repop it…one player between me and the original raiser calls, original raiser pushes, I push over the top…caller in between us calls…showdown me, 10-10, original raiser 8-8, caller AdQd….well…a coinflip…all three of us are looking to triple up…all good…flop is all rags with one diamond, why do I mention this? Well, if you haven’t guessed it by now…turn diamond…river diamond for the beautiful runner runner nut flush…here we go again. Now, as I said, it’s a coinflip when the money goes in, so all good, but the tease…I’m trying to sweat a Q, 8, or Ace and instead it comes runner runnering my ass again…not a thing I wanted to see…

So I’m 0-3 and I’m seriously thinking about closing the PS client…but I don’t…hehe…hmm…so I play a turbo HU match and I win it pretty easily. Wheeee…hope. I play a normal HU match and after a long-fought battle I lose. Damn! I try another triple shootout and it’s all the same mess again…once we’re down to three-handed I can’t get the job done. My exit comes at the hands of the beautiful ace rag, which proves to be gold again, at least on the river.

After that, I’m looking at my stats for the night and it’s not a pretty sight. 1-5. I decide that it’s time to play a little higher, which leads me to the conclusion that play should be a little “better” there…now…the 15-30$ region isn’t all that high and so it’s no real surprise that the play is even worse than I expected. A six-handed game should usually be somewhat aggressive, right?! Instead player after player is doing what donkeys do best – calling. Whether the have a monster, a draw, a small pair, big pair, middle pair, over pair, nothing…they call…bet after bet, street after street…as I witness that, I decide to sit back and relax, waiting for some big hand to take advantage of that. Haha. Oh well…let’s just say that I won a few, lost a few and then some really nice hands came down. The highlight was three-handed (bubble time)…I’m in the BB with 7s4s and I’m the shortest player of the remaining three…as I don’t like the 74 s00ted all that much, I’m delighted to see that the button and SB only call…I knock on the virtual felt and we see a flop of As2s2c…SB checks…I check…BB checks…turn is a beautiful Ks…SB fires…I think and call (maybe I should push here to keep him from hitting the boat if he’s on that draw, then again, he’s in the SB and could have any hand, I don’t put him on Ax or 2x here…so instead of pushing, I’m trying to get the button to call as well)…the button obliges and calls as well…river is blank…SB fires again…I push…and the button folds…SB shows? Qs3s…oh well…flush over flush…three-handed…nice. Cya…

So…I’m finishing the night on a low-note with a 1-6… 🙁

Edit: One last HU match…W…2-6…still not good…but feels better to go out on a W 😉

…aka how to get back from the road to insanity and turn 2$ into 215 (T)$ 🙂

Wow, after the last few weeks of ultimate bad luck, today was the quickest turnaround (money-wise) I’ve ever encountered. Oooooh what a rush. I’m still a little in shock. I started off by playing some PL 5-Card-Draw this morning. Back to basics, take a break from hold’em, plus it’s 6 handed (SnG), so it fits my style of tight-aggressiveness (basically start out with two pair/trips or better or a decent draw (OESD, OESD+Flushdraw, Flushdraw if it’s cheap early, etc), control the pot-size and fold when you think you’re beat). It worked out pretty nicely and I scored second. It should have been a W, but who cares? Should have, would have, could have is all hypothetical (when HU began I was 3:1 in chips, but I couldn’t finish him off after that, I had the chance once or twice, but he smelled that he was beat and got out with a few chips left; then he went on a total tear and I couldn’t do much about it…set over set…two pair over two pair etc and I had the worst of it).

Tonight, I started off with the same thing. PL 5-Card-Draw SnG. I did fairly well, despite not getting payed off with my monsters (pat nut flush etc). I had the best of it when a big pot came around and well…in the end it was a tough fight, but I had the best again (two pair over two pair). So a W it was and I was both relieved and energized, so I jumped into a triple shootout to the sunday million. It didn’t go all that well. No major suckouts or anything, it was just not going my way (draws not coming through etc). I thought about it and I decided to try another one…it was very slow to fill up, so I started to listen to the newest episode of Ante Up. Once the tourney began I paused and focused on playing the best I could. On table one, I was all-in one time with the best hand (coinflip 55 vs A6 and presto held up, what?! Yes, I won a coinflip right off the bat!)…so I was off to a good start. The rest of the first table is a blurr, I took it down.

After that I played the waiting game as there were still some tables going. After a while they were finally done and the second table was under way. I won some smaller pots early on, than lost some, than won some again. I just played a patient game and it was rewarded, boy was it rewarded. All the cards that I had been missing over the last few weeks came in, in a hurry. We are down to four handed and I went on a total tear. I had a hand-counted number of 4x AA and they all held up (I either won a small pot or busted someone)…and soon enough it was all said and done and I had won the second table, fittingly with the fourth pocket Aces of the night.

Then it was time for the waiting game again…two tables were still battling it out and I waited…after another 10 minutes the final table started and I was a little nervous. You know how all those thoughts come creepin into your mind once it’s crunch time? I shook it off though and started to fold, fold, fold, fold. After a few hands and the x-th button steal(-attempt) I finally called…a pretty loose call with Ks5s, but hey, he can’t have the nuts every hand. Flop comes down with two spades and he fires a continuation bet in. I call, hoping to see a third spade on the turn. Dealer turns…and it’s the most beautiful Ace of spades I’ve ever seen giving me the nut flush. He pays my bets off and I’m sitting pretty with over 3k. Nice! From the on I went into rock-solid mode again. KK UTG, raise…all-fold…yay…another big pair and it held up…the next few orbits are a blurr and once we’re down to three-handed (bubble-time) the action is fast and loose and I look down at one 63o, 48o, 93o after the other. So I fold fold fold, at least I’m not getting into trouble, except for the fact that I’m slowly getting short…then “THE” hand occurs…I have slightly under 2k…the other two splitting the remaining 7k among themselves get into a raise-war preflop…after the second reraise they’re all-in! I jump up from my seat and can’t believe my luck…there are three scenarios here:

1. Player 1 wins…and it’s over with

2. Player 2 wins…and Player 1 is crippled (400 chips)

3. Split pot and we’re back to square one…

I like my chances as they show 77 and TT…the tens hold up…scenario 1 it is…and it’s all over!!!!!!!!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! How much one win can mean, especially considering the circumstances. Man, I’m so relieved now and this is the first time in weeks that the “destined to be”-part wasn’t me “getting busted”, but me “taking it down” 🙂

So…I jumped into the sunday million tourney tab to have a look…

Good to see my name there up on the “big one” list, but I’m not all too crazy about playing it. First of all, the win (215(T)$) will be a nice compensation for the recent bad run and secondly, I don’t want to push the envelope here. Playing such a tourney with such an unreal amount of players isn’t for me, at least not now. How’s the old saying? “It takes more than one swallow to make a summer” – and I think that’s exactly what it is…one swallow along a big group of big Ls or the first step on the road to redemption. So…I unregistered pretty quickly and I’m looking forward to use the tourney dollars to fuel my “comeback run” at the SnG tables…wish me luck 🙂

Well, same ole same ole on the poker front. Nothing, I repeat nothing, going my way. Logged on to Stars and stumbled upon the WWdN. I didn’t expect to see it happening so “early” (1:30am), I had missed that DST had kicked in so ET isn’t +6 atm but +5. So…the WWdN had already begun (1min), so I jumped right in. In retrospect I wish I had missed it all together.

Played almost no hands until it was time for some coin-flipping. Someone raises in MP, I reraise in LP…he pushes…I’m stuck here with JJ and I think I have the best hand, although it’s probably a coin-flip. I got the pusher covered by slightly under 500…and I decide to go with it. Sure enough he shows AK. Flop…contains…a King….wheeeeeee….what a surprise. Turn and river are blank and I’m sitting there with one third of my original stack. Was I forced to play that coin-flip? No. Did I believe I had the best hand? Yes. Did I have the best hand? Yes. Did I win the coin-flip? Hell no. I don’t keep that statistic, but it feels like I haven’t won a coin-flip in a SnG or MTT for ages. I don’t know what it is, but I just can’t win one these days and it doesn’t even matter if I got the overs or the pocket pair. One way or another I’ll lose the hand, whether it’s my opponent hitting the overcard, the runner runner flush/straight, or me not hitting my overs. It’s sad, really and if I wasn’t running so bad anyway, I probably wouldn’t even mention this hand, but as it is, it’s just another chapter in the “can’t I win a god damn hand”-book. So I’m basically crippled (or close to it) and I decide to go with the next semi-playable hand. I wait and wait…then I get Jacks again in the BB…and I get a walk…nice…at least I didn’t lose the coinflip (which would have evolved most certainly there if someone decided to play with me in that hand)…so I wait and wait again until I finally hold A5o on the button, which was basically a monster at that point. I pop it to 120 (blins 15/30). I got slightly under 300 left behind, so this is clear indication that I’m going to go with it. Nontheless the BB calls. Hmm…maybe I should have open-pushed here? I don’t know. Flop comes down 9c4s5c…he checks…I push…he insta-calls…he shows 10c7c…hmm…flush draw…alrighty…turn 6h…river 7d…that’ll do it. So…I’m out after slightly over 30 minutes of play and I’m frustrated…two hands…one coinflip lost and one lemur-donk-call preflop with the monster T7 s0000000000000000ted and I’m gone…the joy…

So, I was about to log off, but then I remembered that Al wrote about a HORSE freeroll tonight and as it turns out (thanks to the DST) it’s about to start…wheee…limit…HORSE…nothing better than playing against a bunch of chasing donks who don’t have a clue how limit is supposed to play – if you got a good hand, isolate preflop, if someone is raising and you got a strong hand reraise ffs, get the lemurs out or at least make them pay dearly for their donk-calling. As you can imagine, no such joy though for the most part, so I was pretty tilted after the first round of HORSE and I lost it in the second Omaha round. I decided to donkey-raise every friggin street no matter what. Result: I sucked out a flush on the river against Bobby Bracelet and took down a nice pot. What does this tell us? You should realize that that’s one of the, if not the, reason why donkeys play the way they do, because getting lucky isn’t so far fetched, especially in games like Omaha…anyway…to make a long-story short I tried to play solidly again after that tilt-episode and it just wasn’t happening. I began to sing my “brick brick brick really makes me sick”-song after the next round of Razz where I clearly started out with the best hand numerous times and caught lovely bricks either on 4th, 5th and/or 6th or 5th, 6th and/or 7th street. Just lovely…I survived the second horse though and my run finally ended in the third Omaha round. Thanks again to Al for hosting, it was fun, at least some of the time…here’s a random pic dump from the first break and my final result…

Edit: I just had another look at some stats/graphs…so for all of those who don’t believe or doubt that I’m on a cold streak…just have a look at the following graph…wow…can you say free-fall-tower…(or maybe it’s just the yang to the yin (heater) I was on some weeks ago?!)

I made a quick exit in the BloggerPods, I’m not big on excuses, but I’m just saying that I was a little bit busy watching the EPT Germany Final table…so I didn’t mind busting early…

Thanks going out to Mike from PokerOnAMac.com for hosting the tourney, appreciated…back to EPTLive.com to watch the final four, our own Sebastian “MiamiVice” Ruthenberg from Luckbox.de is the current chipleader after winning a monster-pot with trip eights…

Edit: Ouch…Miami self-imploded down to three-handed…A5 vs KK…he had outs…but why mess with the other big stack and not sitout and wait for the shorty to bust…damn…that was one costly hand (at least 160k Euro (difference between 2nd and 3rd))… 🙁

Well, the main event was a little bit different today. For the first time in ages we had a turnout smaller than 10 players, so we settled on a single table with 9 players. Usually we have at least two tables of 6 going and shorthanded play allows you to be a bit more aggressive and “creative” with your hands. With the full ring, not so much, tonight. Cards were so and so…my best hands were AhKh which split the pot with AsKs, AQ which I had to laydown preflop to three raises, a Kx which boated up to split yet another pot and some mini-pairs (2x deuces)…so sooner or later I had to make yet another move. Good thing I didn’t make that move in the hand I had deuces for the second time. Mini-raise preflop…hmm…maybe Aces? Maybe AK/AQ/AJ? I call with the ducks…flop comes down Q86…preflop raiser bets out half the pot…hmm…I honestly thought about pushing there for a while – my reasoning being that if he indeed had AK/AJ/A10/Ax…I might as well be ahead here…then again…if he’s on AQ or better…I’m toast…so I decide to lay it down…my instincts were right…he shows AA…

Soon enough I found myself in a desperate position, yet again, and I was forced to move…no joy and I exited in 7th place. The side game was a whole different game. We played 5 handed after the next two players had busted out of the main event…and after the first few hands I pick up the first superb hand of the night…KK in the BB…two limpers…I pop it preflop…one caller…flop comes down Kxx with two spades…I bet about half the pot…call…turn pairs the board no spade though…I bet out again…call…I hope that the river brings the third spade, but it doesn’t…I lead out again and start to talk…I talk my opponent into calling and I showdown my Kings full…he mucks…nice!

A few hands later I look down at AcAd…nice! I pop it preflop and get one caller…flop comes down KcJc10c…I check…errm not really a good move….he checks behind…turn pairs Kings…I check….errm not really a good move…he checks behind…river 6s…I bet out…he reraises…hmm…couldn’t have played that hand much worse…I make a crying call..he shows 78o for the straight…man did I blow that hand. I raised preflop, I have the goods…if I check the flop…that’s okay (although leading out would be much better)…but as the turn pairs the board I need to fire at it…I would have won a small pot…instead I lost a medium pot…oh well…my bad. After some more jabbing and grabling I was able to knockout two players and my opponent knocked out the third one, so we started headsup. I was ahead…but he fired at me relentlessly…in the end 35o was good enough to win though…..unraised pot, flop comes down 367…so bottom pair + gutshot for me…I bet he pushes I call..he got two overs…I win. Nice. Then I sat down in the next sidegame which was under way…I sat down as the blinds were 30/60 (1500 starting chips, I had 1300 remaining as they had started with me still being headsup in the other sidegame)…I take down some nice pots and find myself sitting comfortable at 2500+ chips. Then everything starts to unravel. I look down at AK in the BB…we’re four handed and the other three limp…no limping under my watch here…blinds are at 50/100…so 400 in the pot…I pop it to 700…one caller…hmm…flop comes down three rags…I fire the second bullet and he calls…we check both the turn and river…and he shows A8 for the pair of eights. Option 1: I fire another shell on the turn and/or river, he calls/folds…I guess he would have called after my hesitation…Option 2: He lays down the friggin hand for 600 preflop…as if 😉

Some hands later I make my exit…I got roughly 1.1k left and I limp in the SB with Q8o…we see a flop of Q92 rainbow three-handed…I check…BB bets…MP calls…I push…BB ponders…calls…MP folds…I show my Q8…BB shows Q10…MP had folded AK…turn 9…river hmm….7…oh well…cya…

So…all in all I’m satisfied with my performance tonight…played the cards that were dealt to me, tried to play my opponent here and there, but it’s hard to win a pot if your opponent will call you down no matter what (especially if he/they keep hitting flops against you)…the only hand that I foobared was the Aces hand…but that one didn’t cost me much…so it’s all good…broke even for the night…not really good, but better than finishing the night down 😉 …I’m out…

Well, the first ever EPT Germany started yesterday and Jan over at PokerStarsblog.de is doing the coverage (in german). For all fans around the world PokerStars is doing a little something that is even better than liveblogging though…can you say live webcast!!!

Webcasts will be running both saturday and sunday and will be available with german and english commentary…check EPTLIVE.com !!!