Not much poker today, just the WWdN. Played the hammer beautifully in the second hand: dealt the hammer on the button, one standard-raiser in MP, I reraise to 150…all fold…he calls…flop comes down three rags including a deuce…he checks…I bet 200 and take down the pot. A few hands later I find ducks…raise…one caller…flop three rags…check…I bet pot…call…turn rag…I check I bet half pot…call…river pairs sixes…he leads out with 300…I’m getting 2:1 and it might be a busted flush draw…but I fold…next hand I get AKo…standard raise preflop…one caller…flop comes down Ax2…check…I bet…call…turn 10…check…I bet…call…river Q..check…I bet…he calls…he shows 22…hmm…weird…why not a single reraise here?! Oh well…down to 700 odd chips…take some small pots…up to 1k…moved to another table…tourist in the BB…sox raises from the SB…I call…flop comes down 678 two spades…sox checks…I bet 60…sox calls…mistake nr.2…turn blank…sox checks…I bet 60…sox calls…mistake nr. 3…river 4s…Sox bets 90…i type “why do i think i’m a bluetooth here” and call…mistake nr. 4…sox shows…flush jack high…could I have played this hand any worse? It could have cost me more (if I push on the flop and he decides to call), but the way it went down…I lost minimum I guess…still horrible…

Next hand I fold A4…next hand I push with KJo from the button…BB wakes up with the s00ted tourist…good enough to call my 655 bet…and cya…

Summary: I don’t know what it is, but I played like crap. There I said it. I played like crap and I deserved to get knocked out early. Out in 37th of 47.

At least I got some more reading material now as another book arrived today, the professor, the banker and the suicide king…I guess I’ll read that parallel to the Navarro stuff, which is kind of heavy…this one should keep me entertained…a little more uptodate entertainment should be provided by Card Player (Europe)…I was planning on subscribing to at least one of the major card magazines (Bluff, CardPlayer, ..) for a while now and I finally did it, although their international rates suck…so I settled for Card Player Europe for now…” Combining the best articles from the magazine’s U.S. edition with additional content customized for European readers, Card Player Europe offers local tournament news, European player and venue profiles, and advertising that uniquely addresses the needs and interests of European audiences. ” (Source: CardPlayer Store)…sounds good…sign me up…can’t go wrong with a 1-year subscription for twenty bucks…I’m looking forward to it…let’s see how long delivery of the first issue takes…I’m out…

…at least that’s what I keep telling myself and it worked out pretty good tonight – not that I won anything, close but no cigar, but at least I took the usual beats with a smile. So, basically…I’m still trying to get back to normal, but things aren’t coming together, at least not yet.

Just like I promised myself (and you, my readers), I didn’t play a single hand of poker over the entire weekend and tbh, I didn’t miss it all that much either. I guess that’s easy to say when you’re running as bad as I was/am. But really, it made me think that maybe I should incorporate the “poker-free day(s)”-concept into my playing schedule, after all the consistent grind can wear you out, especially if you take the worst of it on such a cold run. If you’re running bad enough, everything will go wrong…but I’ll come back to that topic later.

Before I get to a closer look of tonight’s session, I’d like to take a moment to talk about some other poker related things.

1. I started to read Navarro’s book on tells (or “non-verbal behaviour”) and so far, I really like it. Some of the things he’s talking about in the first pages of the book make you wonder: How many of these things have I thought about so far? Did I spot something like this before? As I said, I’m just through the first twenty odd pages and after the introduction and everything he’s talking about the most reliable source of tells…the feet…lol…never thought of that before…but if you think about it and watch closely…he may be on to something here…although looking under the table as the flop/turn/river comes down isn’t a real possibility…although he comes up with some hints about how to spot it anyway…I’m really looking forward to the rest of the book and one thing’s for sure: this stuff can and probably will improve my live-game…although it takes work! But I’m up for the challenge…

2. Although I’m currently running bad, I’m still going to do whatever it takes to keep online poker alive, hmm, that sounds a little weird, maybe I should rephrase that to “I’m going to support the people who will do whatever they can/it takes to keep online poker alive”. So I joined the PPA a while ago (see here) and on saturday my “welcome package” arrived. It contained a letter, the membership card, a pin and a nice T-Shirt…maybe I’ll get around to take a pic of the stuff tomorrow…to make a long story short: Because I’m over here in Europe this whole US legislation doesn’t affect me personally (apart from the fact that good games could be hard to come by in the next weeks/months), but I’m not too blind to see that one thing could lead to the next and before you know it, the games dry up for good and other countries could adopt a similar stance on online poker and I don’t want that to happen. Think about it, even if that doesn’t happen, it’s still going to be a loss. Online players turn into “full time live players”, full time live players have no hand histories, no tools to track their play (to the same extent as in online poker) and before you know it, other stuff, like poker blogs, disappear too…and although that might increase workplace productivity, it would be a real shame. So, if you are (remotely) serious about your (online) game, join the PPA!
3. Full Tilt’s downtime on sunday: Bad but good. Why? Just go back and read the second paragraph. As I promised myself not to play any poker this weekend, I would have missed the bloggerpods tourney on Full Tilt, fortunately (for me) they had some server issues, so the tourney had to be postponed. I guess it’ll be played next weekend and I’m looking forward to it. Maybe I’ll get close like last time, maybe I’ll get the junk kick earlier, maybe no junk kick at all and I listen to my favourite jams on an ipod soon…who knows…one way or another, this is a cool tourney, thanks again to PokerOnAMac for hooking us up!

As for tonight’s session…I started with some “new stuff”. A cheap-ass triple shootout to the sunday million. Two bucks, short handed, chance to take down one of two seats. The first table was a real up and down and when all was said and done, I took it down. Almost an hour played, shorthanded, didn’t make any bad decisions (had to push one time with a marginal hand, because I got short, but that worked out okay…and not really a bad decision…or is it if you’re “forced to play”?). The next table was totally different though. Four out of the other five players where really “pushy”. The played almost every hand and the deck wasn’t too kind to me. I started out with the best…didn’t connect…had to let it go, time and time again. Made my exit with a 60/40 kind of hand, so not really a bad beat…it just wasn’t meant to be, but at least I got an hour of play…out in 22nd of 216.

After that I decided to try a three-table SnG and play was worse than I could imagine in my worst nightmare, really, it was THAT bad. I kicked one player out before getting my junk kicked yet again by a lovely two outer. Oh well, what else is new.

After that I went to the HU section and thought I’d give it a whirl. It was a good match, although it was kind of boring, not much between my opponent and me…first in usually takes the pot as we were battling 6-high vs 7-high on a regular basis. He was cool though, we chatted a little and I predicted that soon enough it’ll come down to one hand and to quote Scotty Nguyen “…it’s going to be all over” and I said it’s probably going to be something of the regular HU-nature, two pair vs set or something. Guess what? I was right…lol…although this isn’t too hard to predict either as it’s basically around a 33% shot (either that, T/M/BPxK vs x or monster vs monster are the usual scenarios).

I hold A4o on the button and I fire it up to 3x preflop…he calls…pot is 180 (blinds 15/30). Flop comes down A46 rainbow. Groovy! He leads out with a pot-sized bet (180). I reraise to 480, he insta-calls. Hmm…pot is 1140 (of the 3k in play) and the turn is blank (8)…he checks…I bet 400…he calls…pot is now 1940…so there’s basically no way the money isn’t going all-in…river is Kh…he pushes…now I’m worried about a small range of hands here…either AA (which would be a real cooler with the case Ace on board), AK (which would suck less, but still suck)…or he could have made a really bad call on the flop and turn and hit a set here (KK)…or I totally misjudged the situation and he had a hand similar to mine and his kicker plays as well (A6, A8)…or coolered by a flopped/turned set (44, 66, 88)…man, if you’re running bad…too many (bad) scenarios creep into your mind…maybe he has a hand that would make sense here, which is second best (AQ, AJ, A10, A9, …)…I make the crying call…and he shows?….KK for the set…now, if he any other hand mentioned above…I go straight to my closet, get out a hat and write “payoff wizard” on it…but KK…come on…two outs…again…sigh…now I don’t want to sound like a broken record here and repeat it over and over…but I just can’t help myself…why oh why? Why….oh why?

I guess the (short) weekend break wasn’t enough, as I can’t stand it…at least not any better than last week…I find myself in the same spot, complaining, moaning about the bad luck, feeling empty and annoyed and (maybe) annoying you with it…maybe I’m waaaay to deep into it all atm and I should take a longer break from it all? Maybe I should just learn to deal with it in another way? Maybe I shouldn’t play anymore at all? I really don’t know, one thing I know for sure though is the reason for all of this: I care about winning! I care about making good decisions! I care about “being better”! I care about beating my opponent(s)! I want to win every game I’m playing! I expect to win if I outplayed my opponent(s)! (I despise people “stealing” from me! I despise people making horrible plays and still winning with it! …) …I care about winning!
Maybe a bit too much – at least for a poker player?! Most certainly, as this whole “correct decision, correct play, wrong outcome, no reward”-stuff is still taking too big a toll on me. There’s no such thing as justice in poker – love it or hate it. All poker players do both…you love it when you’re running good and/or if you made a good/great play and it worked out, you hate it when you’re running bad and/or if you made a bad play or a good/great play that isn’t rewarded. The best way to deal with this fundamental “flaw” of poker, would be to be totally indifferent to results.

I’m trying to get there…but hell, it’s not easy, no, it’s HARD…and how could it be any other way?

Today I mixed it up a little, inspired by Smokkee’s SnG run, I switched from HU to single table SnGs. As I haven’t been playing full games in a while, only HU and shorthanded, I thought it would be best to not start too high, so I settled for the 5$ ones and I plan on playing those for a while. I guess I’ll try to hit 100 of them and then see how it goes. The start was brilliant. I two-tabled and soon enough we were ITM in both of them. I just played the cards I was dealt and sometimes the players, but only if they had shown that they could fold a hand. That worked out pretty good. Then it was time for the first major suckout against me…on the turn I hold Aces up…and I move in…I got the other player covered by about 1.5k, so I’m pretty save…he calls All-In with a king high flush draw (two spades on board)…river…ding ding ding….oh well…down to 1.5k…I don’t let it get to me though and I battle my way back. Soon enough I knock out the third player and we’re heads-up, I’m still behind 2:1 in chips though. Some twenty hands later I won though as he payed off two big hands for me. Nice. As heads-up is winding down in tourney one, we’re still three-handed in the other one. Then a major pot develops and I get my money in on a paired rag board…good that I had a free look in the BB…I triple up into the chiplead and never look back. I take out both of the other players within the next 30 hands and another W hit’s my SnG sheet. 2 for 2. Not bad 😉

Then it’s time for the WWdN and things are looking good early on…I even win a nice pot with the hammer from UTG…then I lose a hand with Jacks…I can’t think that they’re good anymore after a K hits the flop against two players. Oh well…as I’m down to around 1k I decide to defend my SB against the BB raise preflop. J10o…flop J98…good enough to double up…I check…BB bets…I push…he calls…shows KQo…no K, Q or T…and I double up. Nice…

As we head into the first break we’re down to 29 players and I’m sitting in 11th with 2530 in chips…

After the break I look down at QQ…the blinds are at 75/150…and MP puts in the standard raise (450) to open the pot…I think I’m ahead here…so I push on the button…all fold to him…he ponders…he calls All-In…shows Ah Jh….s0000ted 😉 … flop AxJ…ty very much…turn K…a little hope…river 5…d’oh. So I’m down to 350…damn…my assessment of the situation:

Scenario 1: I’m ahead and he’ll fold…all good…I’m up to 3.xk

Scenario 2: I’m behind (AA, KK) or slightly ahead (AK)…all good…let’s flip it…

Scenario 3: I’m ahead and he’ll call (probably with Ax)…good…he’s drawing to three outs…if I win I’m up to 4.xk…if he get’s lucky I’m crippled…
Scenario 4: I flat-call on the button to see a flop…as the flop comes down AJx…I he leads at it…I give it up and my stack drops to around 2k…

I thought I had the best hand, I did, he got there, too bad. In retrospect, maybe I should have flat-called to see a flop – what’s he likely to raise with preflop (basically any Ace or pair unless he’s on a total steal) – so…if I just flat-call and the A or K hits…I can get away…what about the scenario where the flop is J high (or lower)? Maybe he spiked a set then…how am I going to get away from it? Tough tough…oh well…I went with my feeling, I was right, it didn’t work out. Next time I move in is with 66…weak calls from the BB…not a bad call…he has the mook…T8…he’s getting 2.x : 1…he’s got a major stack…flop comes down AA8…oh well…gg me…

So…from middle of the pack to out the door with two pocket pairs…too bad I couldn’t spike a single set there…can’t feel too bad though…enjoyed the WWdN, as usual and rocked the SnG tables…I’m off…

Played a nice little session at PokerStars tonight and boy, the cards and chips were in the air and luck was swingy, swingy, swingy. I started the session with some HU play and everything started on a bad luck trip. Lost the first match to an absolute fish who couldn’t even spell poker, lol, good for him that his cards could everytime he needed help, he got it. Not good. The next match was similar, although I can’t blame my opponent for that one, I blame myself and the deck. Some serious set over set on an all-rag flop etc and I was in a deep hole early. Fought my way back, just to run into another cooler. Not good either. The next to matches were better. Won the first one by value-betting my hands to death and the calling station was more than happy to pay off hand after hand. He did get lucky once or twice, but in the end I won it. The fourth one was similar, bet bet bet bet bet…win.

After that I tried out some 6-handed action, after all this whole “strictly HU” isn’t going to cut it in the long run. In the monetary sense it probably could as my winning rate is currently at 55% (it was higher, but due to some bad luck recently, it’s dropped quite a bit) – so after rake I’m still up, but considering the time spent on the tables, it’s not really good…apart from the fact that all those luckboxes sucking out on me is taking it’s toll (for those of you following my adventures, it was kind of the same at bodog, where I played HU matches with a vengeance and totally kicked ass…then the winning rate started to drop into the 5x-60%ish area and all the sucky sucky stuff made me pause my play there). So, I kicked some ass in the short-handed game, too. Down to headsup (ITM) and I’m sitting in the chiplead. It is a real push-fest early on and I fold fold fold. Once I pick up a decent hand I go with it, no chance. Same game again, no chance. Then I go into push modus myself and I can’t catch anything either. So I finish second. Not bad, but not really groovy either considering the 65% / 35% payout structure. Oh well, can only play what the cards give me.

After that I considering calling it quits for the night, but I didn’t. I saw that a 15+1 WSOP turbo DS satellite to sunday’s 650$ qualifier was about to start, so I jumped in. The full hundred players entered, so to advance to the final table you had to get through 9 players. I did well early on, won some small pots and waited for a good chance to double up. I tried to with AQ from the cutoff, no such luck…BB wakes up with Aces…they hold up. So I’m sitting on 250…and as the blinds are already up to 100/200, there’s no point in waiting for the next monster. I get the coveted 74o, 92o etc in the next hands though, so I wait for the next best spot. It comes once I’m UTG…I think that my A7 s00ted should be good enough to win a hand…although there are three callers…not really surprising with the blinds at 100/200 and the winner takes all format. I’m happy to win the main pot once I rivered a third seven. Sucky sucky, outy outy. I likey! *lol* So that’s when my luck started to turn around. I got good hand after good hand and took down pot after pot, knocking out player after player in the process. Once we’re down to three-handed, the other “medium to big”-stack knocks out the third player though, so he enters headsup with a 3-2 chiplead. It all comes down to two hands. He plays his hand perfectly with Kx…he pops it preflop…I call it with my A7o…flop comes down K7x…he bets…I call…turn is another blank…and he pushes…now I’m stuck…either get the money in and hope to be ahead/suck out, or fold and play the next hand blind with the blinds at 400/800 about to go to 600/1200 the chances of “playing” with a 2.xk stack isn’t all that great. So I push in and he flips his Kx…then something out of the ordinary happens….7…ding ding ding, slot-machine 7-7-7, boom headshot! I sucked out big time. Wow. Feels great, now I know why all the others are always that elated when the suck out on me, it feels great. Getting lucky is the new good these days, lol. So I’m up 5-1 in chips and in the next hand it’s all over…I hold an A6…poor opponent pushes in with his 44 and the aces on the flop is all it took. Wow again…I won a coin-flip in a crucial pot and that after sucking out BIG TIME the hand before that. Wow.

I like! So…I wait until the last table finishes and we’re off to the races at the final table. Top 2 will receive their entry (or 650T$)…third and fourth win 72$, 5th 56$…6-10 is out of luck. The table starts off with a bang, the very first and people are shoving like crazy…I’m a little surprised to see 78o win against 910o…well played sirs..*lol*…so we’re down to nine handed and we got an early 2-1 chipleader. I wait and wait and fold and fold and people are playing like crazy…I wonder if I should sit back and let them shoot themselves in the foot…before I can think about it though, it’s all over…A8 vs AK…no miracle for me…and I finish in 8th…the luck-cycle has indeed come full circle in this one…bad luck (AQ vs AA)…good luck (coming back from 250 chips to win the first table)…to bad luck (A8 vs AK)…oh well…what can you do? Now that I’m writing this I’m really a little confused. I guess it all comes down to strategy here. As it’s a turbo, you can’t wait for the nuts till eternity, so you need to get your move on sooner or later, but was A8 s00ted really worth risking all the chips? I guess not really as I watch the table after I bust out, it becomes pretty obvious that at least four of the players have (a little more) shootout experience. Two of those four are firing relentlessly, every second or third hand they’re in there mixing it up. One of them was the early chipleader, so it was pretty easy for him. He picked up small pot after small pot and then some bigger ones when he really had a hand and ppl were tired of being pushed around. I guess he as on the “good side” of luck. The other player firing all the time was similar, he got is money in without looking back and it worked out – and even more important, they were playing for the ticket. The other two sat back and watched the carnage. One of the two was especially clever, he didn’t play a single hand. He just sat there and mucked, mucked mucked. After the bubble burst he laughed about it and said he didn’t have any cards to play, which I doubt. He was just a little more clever than some others, including me. Well, one things for sure, they weren’t really playing for the two tickets, they were more worried about getting the money and then…if it happens…it happens…in this case it didn’t happen as they were not able to come back from such a big chip disadvantage (the two players firing like crazy held a combine 7k of the 9k in play)…but at least they made a profit.

So, am I mad about my play. Hmm…tough question. I would say, yes and no. The spot I picked, was as good as any other. I held a decent hand, folded to me…I pop it, get repopped by a big-stack…which could mean any two cards…I thought I was ahead…I wasn’t…too bad. So, the only thing that I could be mad about is that I got involved in the hand(s) at all. I could have sat back, just like the other one, and watched the carnage for a little longer (with blinds at 25/50 and a 1.4k stack there’s no need to rush it, yet). Then again…tbh I played to win a ticket (read 650T$ to fuel my SnG run), it didn’t work out…so basically it’s the old dilemma…you may want to, but you can’t have your cake and eat it too 😉

In the light of recent “anti whine” / “anti rant” comments/posts (you know who you are ;)), I’m putting up a disclaimer: This following post is a mere attempt to revisit some of the hands that went down during the WWdN. If you consider it to be whining, muttering or whatever, feel free to leave now, without reading the post 😉 *lol*

The WWdN started quite nicely for me, AK in EP in the first hand, standard raise takes down the pot. I’m the first chipleader. Wheee. A few hands in I pick up 73 s00ted in the BB…I call the standard raise by Kat who’s in the SB. Flop comes down 732…now I’m hoping she has the hammer, lol, she leads out with 60, I raise to 180 and take down the pot (up to 1730). Next hand I pick up A9o in the SB…limpy limpy…flop comes down AK4 rainbow…I lead out…two callers…turn 5…putting two spades out there…I lead out two callers…river Jc…I bet out…two callers…my Aces are good enough to take down the pot (up to 2110). A few hands later I pick up Aces in MP…Kat standard-raises preflop…I repop her…she calls…flop comes down Ac9c9s….yatzee! Check check….6s…two flush-draws out there….yes!…check check…river Jc…at least one flush got there…Kat checks…I bet 250…she calls…Aces full takes it down…(Kat mucked 10c10s; up to 3130)….20 folds later I pick up KK…Kat is short by then and pushes in for 540…I raise another 1000 to isolate…it works…KK no chance against AQo though….d’oh! (down to 2590) and it’s all downhill from here…*whine whine mutter mutter* if I win this hand I’m slightly under 4000…now I’m at 2.6k…still in the top 15 though…*whine whine mutter mutter*

A few hands later I lose the minimum (which is slightly under 1k) AQ vs AK…kicker plays…oh well…now I’m slowly but steadily in dangerous territory…it get’s worse once my preflop raise to 300 (blinds 50/100) is not only called but punished by weak_player, he shoves and there’s no way I can call with the velvet hammer (s00ted hammer 7c2c)…he shows 88…oh well…under 1k…fold fold fold…I’m in the BB with A6o…3 limpers…hmm…I check and I’m really pleased with the AA2 flop…four checks later we see the turn 8d…EP checks…I bet 200…MP calls…LP folds…checker calls…river 10h…EP checks…I shove my remaining 5xx chips in the middle MP calls…checker reraises…uh oh…LP calls…double uh-oh….EP checks shows deuces full…gg me….

Yuck! Oh well…what can you do? With the heavy action in the hand…preflop-shove with A6o? Would it have made any difference? Who knows…maybe…maybe not. I thought I’ll have a cheap flop with a mediocre hand, flopped a monster, just couldn’t help that another player flopped it’s big brother. Sucks one way or another…out in 36th place…weird how things can start out more than fine (flopping the joint with Aces and getting payed off etc) and then everything falls apart…just how poker is sometimes…I’m outta here…

*lol* Played some nice matches tonight. Played some of my opponents like a fiddle, got played by the deck in the others. Now I’m not one to argue that yeah, paying off, is kind of an error on my part, then again…if I crap my pants with a “monster” shorthanded or headsup I might as well stop playing…so…conclusion: Sometimes you’re bound to lose (your money) and there’s shit you can do about it…still makes me mad when a douche who can’t even spell poker (*lol*) is hitting like crazy and there’s nothing you can do but either pay it off or fold till eternity…
I leave you with my last hand which is presented by the “classic four-handed wheeee your hand was good enough to make the second best hand Inc.” 😉

Not much going on, besides mr. spambot x and y trying to spam every single post on this blog. Good thing that my antispam-solutions are holding up, I heart WordPress + Plugins 😉

Played a small session at Stars, the usual, some headsup and a double shootout. Won all three headsup matches. The first one was really only one hand, lol. I limp with Ad9d…he checks…flop comes three baby diamonds…I check…he checks…turn is the 10d…he bets out…I reraise him small….he reraises me small….I reraise him small…he reraises me small….I push….he insta-calls…now I’m looking forward to see his Kd…but instead he shows the Jd…lol….well, well, son…I could understand a call with the Kd (sort off), but with the Jd? Are you kiddin me? Nothing better than to flop the joint in the first hand and get all the chips. The second match was more of a grind, although the passive style of my opponent made it easy to see flops and get payed of when he had a piece of the flop or thought he had the goods – example: he min-raises preflop…flop comes down 642 rainbow…he min-bets…I hold J6o…I call…turn is another 6….he bets bigger…I repop him…he repops me…I push….he insta-calls…shows his Aces….turn and river don’t show the two outer and I’m home free. The third one was gold too….79…one of my new favourite, mega-juicy hands…no action preflop…flop comes down 684…he bets small….I call…turn is the beautiful 5…I’ve got the nuts….he bets big, I reraise…he reraises me small…I push…he shows Q7…drawing slim to a chop…river is blank and I win the third match.

After that I invested some of the dough into another try at the Double Shootouts. The games are really juicy as there are donkeys left and right more than willing to get their money in bad. Too bad if you can’t catch a hand to break em. So I sat there again winning some small pots while another player stacked donk after donk. Once it came down to playing a few bigger hands he had the chips to make the calls without much risk and got lucky here and there….I got unlucky against another player…33 vs 66…oh well…that’s that. Coming back to the second part of the title: Two views of the same situation: 1. I need to get lucky here 2. I just need to NOT get unlucky here…

1. was generally true for the other player

2. was generally not true for me

Sucks to be in that spot…oh well…can’t help it…keep choppin away I guess…3 tries down….more to go…but not tonight…

Yawn…pretty early, yet again, so no loooong ass post, but a quick wrap-up. Jumped into Stars and first of all I played a double shootout. Haven’t played these in a while and they seem to be quite juicy, first hurdle is to win the first table…from there on out you’re usually in the money and you’ve got a shot at one the entries to the sunday million, which is worth 215T$. As an SnG junky I would most certainly unregister from the tourney and take the T$, but first of all you need to get your game on and win one of those things. That’s what I tried. The first one wasn’t totally filled up, only 70 players, so there were 10 tables with 7 players each. We jabbed and grabbled for the first twenty minutes and I was able to bust on player. From there on out I went card dead for quite a while. In the meantime a player was running hot. He knocked out player after player with an unreal run of cards. He knocked out two players within two orbits, showing JJ and KK twice each in the process. Nice going sir, yuck. So we’re down to four-handed and I get my money in with AQ…not the greatest hand, but hey, it’s four-handed so I’ll take it. Mr. Cardrack instacalls with Kings…and knocks me out. Nice going sir. No way you can win the first table if you got a player at the table who’s catching like crazy. Oh well, can’t fault him, I’ll take such a run of cards every day, lol.

So I walk away and wait for the next double shootout, this time a turbo one. The thing is almost filled up and so this time we start out with a full table. Most hands are a blur, all I know is that I got my money in with the best and it usually held up. So after a long battle back and fourth we’re finally down to three-handed, then mr. big stack busts out the other player and we begin heads-up.

So we battle back and forth and he’s still out in front, but I see my chance to double-up into the chiplead with 22, the ducks….I limp and we see a flop, which makes me believe he doesn’t have a monster here. Flop comes down 4-6-7 with two clubs. He leads out and I push…he calls…showing Jc8c….hmm…okay…so he got two overs and the flush draw…I hold the 2c…so he got 6 + 8 = 14 outs twice….hold up one time please! 😉

Turn pairs sixes and the river is the Jack of Hearts…and I’ve never seen an uglier Jack at that…lol…oh well…so close and yet so far…better luck next time.

Just as I’m about to logout for the night a little reminder pops up. Aips 2 Event #2 is about to start over at FullTilt. For all of you who are not familiar with AIPS, it’s a series of tourneys initiated by the folks of AnteUp (the podcast…)and it’s stud tonight and only five bucks…so why the heck not…

The tourney starts like any good “chase me down, after all it’s limit, DUDE”-tourney…I start out rolled up and one player says “Heck, it’s so cheap, I’ll call you down no matter what”, well he doesn’t say it out loud, but I think it’s almost certain to assume that he thought along those lines. So I lose a third of my stack in the first hand…nice…NOT. After that I go on a three-to-the-wheel roll, too bad it’s not Stud 8…so I muck muck muck…until I catch some nice hands and I bring my stack up to over 2k. I get bounced around a lot until I finally land at a nice table just before the first break.

The dwarf bringing it in is Chris Cosenza, to my right is Scott Long…so I landed at the table where both Ante Up Hosts held court. Nice. Not so nice that I lost most of my stack in a nasty hand. I finally fold on fifth street as “Vorune” has three hearts showing and is betting like crazy, Chris isn’t far behind though, in terms of betting at least. He finally catches up on the river to suck out an ace high flush against Vorunes (King/Queen?! high) flush (Side note: I’m really looking forward to the next podcast and if Chris will have a comment on his play in this hand, lol)…I’m sitting with less than 1k and it’s not looking all that good. I get the money in a few hands later with a pair of Kings (K8K)…my opponents catches a King on fourth…hehe…too bad he had the Ace in the door as he had a King underneath…brick brick brick…the usual and I’m out…oh well….had fun…and now I can catch some sleep…. night…

Received an email from Mike (from PokerOnAMac.com) today that there’s going to be another bloggerpods event soonish. Three ipods up for grabs…I’m in…what are you waiting for?

Mac Poker

Well, well…played only a small session prior to the WWdN, won 2 out of 3 headsup matches. Then it was time to play the WWdN…and I did good…most hands are a blurr, but I made the right moves at the right time…the crucial hands were against Iak who first doubled me up to over 5k in chips and then doubled me up again with my AK vs his KJ.

So at the second break I was sitting pretty in the chiplead and from there on I rolled all the way till the final hand A9 vs 55, presto prevailed and I busted out 4th…not bad…quick pic dump and then I’m off to bed….