I finally got my new external hard-drive delivered today, so I could get things going with the reinstall. It actually took longer than expected to get everything up and running again, so no extended poker playing today. Still managed to get a small session in and boy, it was exciting. Played headsup against a really colourful mix of players. On one hand there were the real fish (sharkscope certified) on the other hand the real skilled ones (not sharks by sharkscope’s standard, but certainly good, winning players).

The funny thing was that it didn’t matter at all who I was facing, the matches were mostly decided by setup hands. I mean, yeah, it’s not mandatory to put your money in with TP and a flush-draw…but it’s pretty standard I would say. If your opponent flops bottom two in said hand, the hand basically plays automatically. I lost that hand. Similar occurrences in the other matches. So it was no surprise that I lost half my matches and won the other half. So down the rake, but still smiling as I’ve never seen so many setup hands in such a short amount of time in my life…oh well…glitch in the poker matrix or a statistical abnormity…who cares, it was sick and funny at the same time. I’m outta here…gl at the tables everyone…

Played some more headsup today. I guess I will take a break from it again once the Pokerstars 2x promotion runs out on headsup matches (sunday) as I’ve had enough of headsup for a while. It’s not the results or the “pressure” of constantly fighting over pots, it’s more or less the sick beats I took during play…it’s really sick and the number of beats you take in a small amount of time can be too much. I mean, yeah, if he’s x% to win the pot, he’s x% to win it. But how come that sometimes x < 10% = 99,9999999%? This is just stupid. Overall I had another winning session today, so I shouldn't even be complaining, but I still do. Made some questionable plays that cost me two matches, all good there, the rest was shoving in with the nuts (or close to it) and then getting sucked out on. I mean alrighty, you weren't stone dead when you put in your money, but why does the longshot redraw always have to hit? Sick....and don't get me starting on flips...had to take six of them today (either because my opponents were short, I was short or it was a no brainer hand, e.g. AQs both ~ 10BB (blinds 75/150 with 1500 starting chips), I'm not folding there anyway)...won exactly 0 of them. At least I won around 50% of the 60/40 situations, suboptimal, but better 50% than even less...alrighty...enough rambling....I'm outta here...good night and good luck at the tables everyone...

Dr. Pauly’s poker blog, the famous Tao of Poker turns 5 in August! Woohoo! To celebrate the fact, the good doctor pulled something out of his head: A special celebration tourney running at PokerStars on August 5th 9pm ET…all readers of Tao of Poker welcome. Read all about: here.

Congrats to the good doctor for kicking butt for 5 years!!! All the best…rock on man!

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Not as good as I wanted it to be, but very good in contrast to yesterday’s and this morning’s session. In the end I went 9 for 15. Not all that bad, although I still feel like I could have done better. In the end it was a matter of me pushing draws and missing, over and over again. I mean it’s pretty sick if you’ve got an open-ender and a flush draw, or two overs + a straight + flush draw….that’s basically half the deck right there, still managed to miss. I guess it was one of those days. Coinflips were pretty even, at least on good thing. So…I’m outta here, not feeling elated, but not feeling as down as this morning…which is a good thing…back to the grind again tomorrow….gl at the tables everyone…

That about sums up what’s been going on yesterday and today so far. Played headsup non-stop and got kicked in the junk non-stop. Everything started yesterday evening when I won my first match easily. Then things started to fall apart, fast. I lost the next three matches in rapid succession and I logged off. It’s just no fun when you get some premium hands and see them go down in flames. You raise preflop with QQ. Opponent calls. Flop comes down 7J7…you pray that your opponent has the jack…you bet big…he shoves…hmm…you call…he’s got the hammer and busts you. Good calling preflop. That’s about the only flop you could win money with. Other brutal hands included QQ vs KJ…sure enough K…JJ vs Q9…Q…etc etc etc. So I logged off and called it a night.

I thought I’d squeeze in a little afternoon session today, I shouldn’t have. I played fish after fish after fish. In a total of six matches I faced exactly one winning player (according to Sharkscope). How many matches did I win? 0. Honestly, I’m so tilted right now, I’ll log off right after this post and I’m not sure if I’ll return tonight or not. It was so bad. The chased me and chased me and sure enough they connected on the river. Brutal. The one guy called my down with any Ace high and any pair (even lowest pair on board with 4 overcards) and to add insult to injury he sucked out on the river in four big pots. Yeah, decision wise there’s nothing to complain about, he commited all his money with crap and got lucky. But results wise it sucks big time. In the last 10 matches I’ve gone WLLLLLLLLL, so 1-9. Not that unusual if you figure in the brutal beats I took, still has me on the edge of full blown tilt. So sick how some lucksacks can keep hitting on you with no end. Sick. Oh well, I’m out for now…better luck soon, hopefully, it can’t continue this way, no can it? Here’s to having a hand hold up in a big pot….and good luck at the tables everyone…

Today I tried to get in touch with Microsoft again…ended up in a russian call center…all they were able to do is to tell me that I needed to get in touch with the retailer that sold me my copy of windows vista…errrm yeah…that would be Microsoft itself…*lol*…so it seems that I need to reinstall my system yet again (although it’s a fresh install)…unless the MS Technet forum guys come up with a solution (which I highly doubt)…oh well…just another bad beat right there.

I didn’t let it get to me though and played a little poker today. Just the lucky 7 HU SnGs…won 4…in the three losses there was one critical error, one that didn’t happen in a loooong time. I lost the match due to a misclick. The flop is all clubs and I got the Jack of Clubs and an open-ender to boot. He fires huge…and I misread his bet for 150 (an overbet to the 120 pot)…and insta-called…too bad the bet wasn’t 150 but 1050…lol…turn is a blank and we’re both commited, so I have to call and the river bricks me out of there. Pretty strange. The other two losses where okay, although the last one sucked. I’ve got my opponent down to under 400 with 25/50 blinds. I pop it preflop with JackAce and he shoves. Insta-call…he shows A3…3 hits and he doubles up. Next hand I look down a 88 and shove…he calls with KQ….both hit…he doubles up. Now I’m short as the blinds jump to 50/100. Two hands later I shove with some crap and he calls me with crap…which is worse than my crap. His crap hits the deck and mine the crapper…and I’m busto…oh well…I’ll take the small profit and the added FPPs (due to the 2x Promotion)…and I’m outta here…gl at the tables everyone….

Due to a major computer blowup, which is still not 100% solved…I wasn’t able to play a single hand of poker. The good news is that I could save basically all my poker related data…although I’m not totally sure how I will get all the tourneys into tourneymanager again. Hmm…I’m sure I’ll find a way…until then, it’s no poker playing…just poker watching. I can only repeat my recommendation: If you have missed this week’s poker after dark so far…go to nbcsports and watch it online…it’s an instant-classic! Alrighty…I’m outta here…gl at the tables everyone…

So…after a long wait, it’s finally here….PokerTechReviews launched today. The official press release can be found here. Check it out.

Side note: Poker-Tastic.com’s feed is one of the feeds featured on the main-page…so if you’re one of the users coming in from PokerTechReviews - welcome to my humble place on the interweb!

…is sometimes grueling, sometimes boring, sometimes fun…and sometimes all of it combined. I don’t know if it has got something to do with the Pokerstars 2x-promotion or if it’s the norm these days, but most people suck at headsup. Good for me and any other player that doesn’t think and pair is the nuts and top pair is gold. Today my run was a little bit different than the last few days. Started off with a loss, then crushed 5 in a row, then lost two and quit. So 5 out of 8 and I was still feeling good. Why did I quit then? Because I felt a shake in the luck-matrix. The second to last match: the match lasted for 36 hands. Within those 36 hands my opponent had AA four times…two times I had nothing and folded. The other two times I had TP and a draw or better. Lost the minimum the first one…gone busto on the second one where I have K9 for TP + gutterball-straight-draw + flushdraw…none hits and I’m busto. Next match I get runner-runnered for a flush over my straight. Then I flop top set and get runner-runner-flushed again (money went in preflop)…that was enough. I got the message and logged off.

On another note: If you didn’t see the new Poker After Dark - Cash game yet, make sure you head on over to their site (you can watch it online)…it’s not quite High Stakes Poker (because it’s 6 handed and less money on the table)…but the first two episodes have been A+++….always makes for good television if Phil Hellmuth is involved and get’s beaten one way or another…

So, enough babbling…I’m outta here for the night, off to watch a movie or something…good luck at the tables everyone…