HUC3 – Round 1 imminent
Wednesday March 22nd 2006, 5:41 pm
Filed under: Full Tilt Poker,Heads Up,No-Limit Hold'em,Tournaments

So, Round 1 has been announced and I gotta say, I’m excited! Despite some minor hiccup, namely PokerStars’ inability to provide us with private 4 person HeadsUp matches, everything seems to work out just fine. We changed sites and the matches will now take place at FullTiltPoker (two thumbs up yet again for their supreme customer service)!

I’m part of the first match, tomorrow 4pm ET:

Table: HUC#3-Maniacs
Time: 4 p.m.

Surflexus
Ingoal
Boobie Lover
PokerSweetHome

Should be interested, let’s see what the first matchup will be, a part of me wants to see Ingoal vs Boobie Lover in the first matchup (after all Wes was responsible for kicking me out in the first round of the DADI HU event), the other part is rooting for a matchup against one of the others…I guess we’ll have to see what happens…this should be good fun one way or another….

The winner of the our table (“Maniacs”) will face off against the winner of the “donkeys” table, which includes Juliette, PresidentDaveLee (who won yesterday’s WWdN), 23Skidoo and SteelerJosh.
All the tables are looking great as far as I can tell and I’m really looking forward not only to play my own table, but to railbird some if not all other tables (damn, there are nice matchups all over the place!). Exciting!

For more infos about the matches, locations/times and the participants along with the results of the tables as they happen, check out the HUC3-Blog! See you all at the tables!
Last but not least I would like to give a big shoutout to the Commish, Veneno, who made this all a reality, w00t!

Edit: I forgot to quote some interesting infos for all participants and railbirds (Source: Veneno’s blog):

“In addition to the Heads Up Matches, the following “Lounges” have been set-up as a place for railbirds, losers, and quickie winners to hang out and have some more fun! Please feel free to join in these events, even if you are not a participant in the HUC3.

Name/Title: HUC3 – Lounge
Buyin: $5 + $.25
Game: Hold’em
Limit: NL
Password: poisonrules
Date: Thursday 3/23/06
Time: 9:30 p.m. EST
Min players: 9

Name/Title: HUC3 – Lounge2
Buyin: $5 + $.25
Game: Hold’em
Limit: NL
Password: HUGoddess
Date: Thursday 3/23/06
Time: 10:30 p.m. EST
Min players: 9 ”

So, if you want to join the fun…join one of the Lounge tourneys tomorrow!

new banner



180SnG – the cheap version
Tuesday March 21st 2006, 5:41 pm
Filed under: MTT,No-Limit Hold'em,PokerStars,Tournaments

After I heard about the new “cheap version” of Stars’ 180SnG (4$ + 0.40$) I thought I’d give it a shot. Nothing spectacular to report…half-way through the first hour I flop TPTK, turn is blank and my opponent fires…I ponder and think that there are basically four possibilities:

  1. He’s trying to buy the pot
  2. He’s holding two pairs
  3. He’s holding a small set and is afraid of being outdrawn on the river
  4. He’s trying to make me think that 1. is true

2. Is possible, but I don’t think so…3. Doesn’t make much sense either, why would you overbet the pot so much? …so I think it’s 1. and I call his push (he has me covered)….as he flips his pocket sixes to match the flopped 6 I see that it’s a mixture of 3. and 4. – nicely play, dastard! 😉 Out in 111th…



No online poker today
Saturday March 18th 2006, 6:48 pm
Filed under: Live Play,No-Limit Hold'em,Tournaments

I’m about to head out to the home game in a bit, should be fun like always, so no online poker for me today. Let’s see how many people will come out tonight, I guess it’ll be anywhere between 8 and 18. Wish me luck…

Edit: Nice turnout tonight, 13 players entered the main game (tournament style)…was able to hold my own as usual and in a critical situation I was able to bust some balls. As there were 13 players we split the game to two tables. I was sitting at the table with 7 players and we were down to 5 handed (we decided that 3 players from each table would be at the final table): the blinds are pretty massive at the time and one shortstack calls the BB, I push over the top all in (“only” around 4xBB) with 3 players yet to act…two more callers….shortstack calls too…so we’re in a four-way pot with three players all-in (including me)…we show: AJo (me) vs 44 (shortstack in LP) vs JJ (bigstack in EP) vs K7s (shorstack #2 in EP)…flop comes down 88x, turn is a beautiful ace and I almost quadruple up, busting two players in the process – so the final table can start.

In the beginning we all counted our chips and I’m in 2nd chip position…that changes rather quickly as I lose a big pot with top pair to a low two pair hand. Then I look down at Qh10h in LP…two limpers, so I decide to push (4x BB)…one caller who shows A5o….sure enough there’s an Ace on the flop and IGHN. So, once again at the final table, but not ITM (top 4 ITM)…nontheless a great evening of good poker!

Sidenote: Best hand shown tonight: four of a kind 4s…”best hand” of the evening has got to goto the final hand of the sidegame (heads up) though – I didn’t play as the sidegame was paralllel to the final table – player in the SB pushes All In, BB ponders and calls…SB shows AdKd, BB shows Jd7d…wow…flop comes down Jh-8d-5d, turn: Jc, river: 7h…wow…what a hand…



HORSE, NL HE and HUC3
Saturday March 18th 2006, 3:22 am
Filed under: Full Tilt Poker,HORSE,MTT,No-Limit Hold'em,PokerStars,Tournaments

Played only a little poker today – man am I going to be relieved when the exam is done on tuesday, my head is full.

After hitting the books again I jumped into a 5$ HORSE tourney on Full Tilt which was about to start, I just can’t leave my hands of these HORSE tourneys, despite doing not all that good in them. This time it was not really different: played 2x HORSE and busted out in the 3rd Razz round…38th of 87…

After footie training I logged on to PokerStars to transfer the 15$ to the commish for the HUC3, and there was the 20k guaranteed 3$ rebuy tourney about to start, so why not?! Because I should have known better…either you’re willing to throw money at these things or you catch some cards early on getting all those lovely chips from donkeys or you go home pretty early. I did the latter as I couldn’t get anything going…when I hit trips, my opponent hit’s his boat, etc etc that combined with the fact that the chipleader is already sitting on a 60k stack after roughly 45 mins didn’t make me feel like hitting the rebuy button…Note to self: leave your hands of these rebuys…they’re not good for your wallet or your sanity.

HUC3 Pimpage:

If you want to have a look at who’s playing, when the thing is going down and more info head over to the HeadsUpChallenge-Blog! All the critical infos can be found in the banner below, too.
HUC3



So close and yet so far
Friday March 17th 2006, 5:41 am
Filed under: MTT,No-Limit Hold'em,PokerStars,Tournaments

Made my way through a load of donkeys, couldn’t get to the final table though…so close and yet so far…24th out of 2178, not too bad 😉

PokerStars Tournament #21184731, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $3.00/$0.30
2178 players
Total Prize Pool: $6534.00
Tournament started - 2006/03/16 - 19:05:00 (ET)

Dear Ingoal,

You finished the tournament in 24th place.
A $16.34 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 144.03 tournament leader points in this tournament.
For information about our tournament leader board,
see our web site at
http://www.pokerstars.com/tlb_tournament_rankings.html

Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.


Tired
Thursday March 16th 2006, 2:14 am
Filed under: Full Tilt Poker,No-Limit Hold'em,S&G

Tired from learning / revising all day and tired of getting sucked out on in critical hands. Played a Token satellite again, nothing much to report until we’re down to 6 handed, I need some chips and push from the button with Ad8d…SB folds…BB thinks it’s a good idea to call the additional 1k chips with 4d5d…sure enough two diamonds on the flop…blank turn…and 4 on the river…and I’m out in 6th place…no token, no joy, just the urging feeling to hit something. 🙁

Maybe I shouldn’t play when I’m so tired at all…but you know how it is, a little game won’t hurt…although in this case it did…once again. A well, you can’t win ’em all…and being tired didn’t hurt my game in DADI IV or WWdN 18 the last two days, so I guess I’m just in “just been sucked out on”-mode… 😉
Addendum: Forgot to mention my little ring game before the WWdN…nothing too spectacular, played a half dozen orbits to warm up for the WWdN, went out ahead 1 buyin… 🙂



WWdN 18
Wednesday March 15th 2006, 4:44 am
Filed under: MTT,No-Limit Hold'em,PokerStars,Tournaments

Already early again…so recap has wait until later…busted out 15th of 77 players when my 55 lost to AJ (both A and J on the flop)…

Edit: Alrighty, here it goes. Played a little bit more aggressive early on, I think as a side-effect of DADI IV Shorthanded, which was really a good thing. I was able to build my stack above average early on and hovered around average as we headed into the 1st break. Right after the first break, first hand: I look down at TT in late position, EP raised to 4xBB…I smooth-call, maybe an error, but I thought I faced and weak/medium/strong ace so let’s see a flop…flop comes down all low cards 3-8-9…EP leads out for 300…now I think my 10-10 is still good here, so I call again…turn is another blank…EP bets again…I call again…river is a J…EP bets again…I call again…to my surprise I misplaced my opponent who shows 3-3 (flopped set)…yikes…down to under 1k. So much for my hovering around average. After that I bounced around the tables like a rubber ball as I was moved time and time again…just as I was facing elimination (around 300 in chips) I quadrupled up with my AQ (vs A9 vs KK) when I spiked a Queen on the river. Nothing newsworthy after that…until my final hand came down: I’m desperate again with around 1k chips and the blinds and antes eating me alive, I find presto! (5-5) and decide to push…this time my opponent really shows an Ace…AJ to be precise…and guess what hit the flop…see for yourself:

my final hand in the wwdn 18, 55 vs AJ

So I’m out in 15th, another good showing IMO with just 6 from the money…hopefully I can get down to the final 9 again sometime soonish…

Final results wwdn 18, 15th place finish

Side note: As Wil missed the tourney altogether I’m curious what the name of the next invitational will be…



DADI IV results
Tuesday March 14th 2006, 5:26 am
Filed under: MTT,No-Limit Hold'em,PokerStars,Tournaments

It’s early so recap has to wait until later…time to catch some sleep (short summary: after 2h 25min of good poker I busted out in 5th of 57…final table ITM…so cha-ching 😉 )

Edit: Started the tourney on an event more shorthanded table than expected, Table 5 featured…

Seat 1: empty, Seat 2: Slimeface, Seat 3: Me, Myself and I, Seat 4: Gracie, Seat 5: hoyazo, Seat 6: presdlee. We were joined by some other players including one of the hosts (Tripjax), surflexus and others (sorry, didn’t really take notes).

My first table

After quite some back and forth at the table and my chip count bouncing anywhere from 2.xxx to 1.500 I was moved to table 6 just prior to the first break. I was hovering in the top 20 for most of the time with the peak at around 7th place until the 2nd break when we were approaching bubble time. One thing’s for sure: it’s weird to play hand for hand when there are 4 players at one table and 3 at the other (after all the final table can only have 6 participants), especially when you’re in the bubble spot! After some orbits the bubble finally broke as lifesagrind busted out Blinders when he won the coinflip (AK vs 44).

W00t, final table of a blogger tourney, again (that’s one WWdN and one DADI final table appearance now).

Final table DADI IV

As you can see in the pic above I was pretty shortstacked compared to almost all players at the table, especially to lifesagrind. Nontheless I was able to double up early when my pocket 7s held up, so I could sneak up one place, before busting out in 5th place (me: K8 vs dnasty13: 77…no help for me). I’m really satisfied with my performance though. Right after busting out I said my goodbyes and went off to bed, after all it was past 5am, yikes.

I hope that someone will shed some light on the story behind lifesagrind’s demise (from over 40k chips to out in 3rd place)! Congrats to bdidde who crowned himself the DADI IV Champion! Here are the final standings:

Final standings DADI IV

Final words and thoughts:

  1. I didn’t hold AA or KK in the whole tourney
  2. I did hold QQ four times, won 3 of ’em
  3. Won two coinflips when I needed them (AdKd vs 44 and 77 vs A10), didn’t play any other coinflips, at least not for a substantial amount of chips
  4. Rediscovered the love for shorthanded play. It just rocks and the whole concept of playing a little bit more loose than normal works for me, as I’m usually a little bit too tight…
  5. I had fun for almost 2.5h! That’s the most important fact…
  6. Once again: thanks to TripJax and Jordan for hosting yet another great tourney! I’m looking to see what you can come up with for DADI V (hint: maybe Stud, Stud H/L or Razz?! 😉 )…One thing’s for sure: I’ll be there!


First WPBT event is history, DADI tonight
Monday March 13th 2006, 12:21 pm
Filed under: Omaha,PokerStars,Pot Limit,Tournaments

So, the first WPBT event of the year was played yesterday on PokerStars. I missed it due to the late starting time, but there was a nice turnout nontheless. StB took down first, congrats! For a more detailed recap and the current WPBT POY Race check out Biggestrom‘s blog!

Reminder: Tonight, it’s DADI IV…be there or be square!

DADI IV Shorthanded



Slow weekend
Monday March 13th 2006, 2:11 am
Filed under: Absolute Poker,Casual Play,MTT,No-Limit Hold'em,Tournaments

As I’m in the midst of what I like to call “extreme exam preparation” (the last 1-2weeks leading up to a major uni exam) there’s not much going on at the poker front as I’m just too knackered to really focus on the game, which isn’t a good thing if you’re trying your “luck” at a new (higher) level. So no poker played on saturday and little today (sunday).

After sticking my nose into uni stuff (mostly web-based integration and architecture of application systems) all day I didn’t feel the urge to really play, but playing a little poker won’t hurt to get your thoughts of the stuff, so what the hell. Donked around at AbsolutePoker for a little, playing a low limit NL HE MTT…which was a quick one despite holding AA early on (which held up on a scary board) and KK which was busted by pocket sixes to cripple me…the end was rather entertaining too…AQo vs KQs vs KQo…sure enough the two outer King hit…after that I donked off some dough at the cash tables when my pocket kings were crushed again, the hiltons held up though so only down a half buyin for the night…at least something.

In other news: I’m going to play in the HeadsUp Challenge 3 (aka HUC3)…should be fun…if you’re interested in participating and/or in reading the latest news, head over to the HeadsUpChallenge Blog