Sometimes you can see it coming
Thursday May 18th 2006, 2:25 am
Filed under: No-Limit Hold'em,PokerStars,S&G

Started my session with a turbo two table SnG tonight…we’re down to the final 5 and I’m on the button…I throw in my remaining chips with KK. Two callers. Nothing better than to look at a set of Kings on the flop and the prospect of a quick triple-up…then nothing more horrible than to look at runner runner goodness….at least it was only on the bubble….I saw it coming too, after the 6 hit on the turn I was hoping not to see a 9…but sure enough…the moment that 9 came down I knew I was dead meat…damn! And that’s the immediate end of my session tonight, can’t stand another junk kicking…my titanium cup is in repair so it would just hurt too much 😉 …thank you sir…very well played…NOT.
suckout goodness



How to miss your own invitational
Wednesday May 17th 2006, 3:48 am
Filed under: 7 Stud,Limit,MTT,PokerStars,Tournaments
  1. Enter a limit Stud MTT 2.5h prior to the WWdN Ingoal Invitational
  2. Hang in there for slightly over 3 hours
  3. Run your hole Aces into rolled up Kings
  4. Bust out in the process
  5. Finish 20th of 296 for a huge ( 😉 ) profit of 1.26$ 🙂

20th Limit Stud MTT result



Old, but still new
Tuesday May 16th 2006, 4:03 am
Filed under: Full Tilt Poker,No-Limit Hold'em,S&G

If you’ve read yesterday’s post about being stuck in low limit nirvana, you know how I’m currently feeling when it comes to my game online. With the exception of some good games, mostly the DADI and WWdN tourneys when I find the time to play in them, the games are getting old. It’s the same thing over and over again – play good poker, wait for “monsters” or potential monsters, get paid of sometimes, get kicked in the junk big time the other times (I realize that this is just the way it is, the life of a grinder…and if you can’t deal with it, you shouldn’t be playing (so much), but it still makes you wonder sometimes…).

So I guess some change is in order…one way or another…or poker won’t be fun anymore…hmm sounds strange, after all I’m in it for the money…and not mainly for the fun…but still…the game itself used to be reward enough, nowadays it isn’t anymore…game + winning = money in the (virtual) pocket + satisfaction is what it comes down to. So, I’ll have to do something:

“Revised master-plan” (old saying or better put the loose translation of it, as I’m not sure if there’s a similar saying in the english speaking world: “If you’ve got no goals, you can’t reach any!” So a plan I shall have!):

1. Pad roll to accomodate going up to the .50/1 level asap — Best chances to achieve this goal is to combine some juicy SnGs with fishy ring games! Go find ’em, when you play!

2. Keep book! Scouting before playing at a new level isn’t a bad thing! These notes will help you in the long run!

3. Avoid sharks, find the fish…pound on them!

4. Hit and run if necessary!

5. If the run at the .50/1 level is successfull, remain calm and pad the roll…you can always move up in due time. If the run isn’t going well, don’t be ashamed to step down a level again!

That about sums it up…let’s see if I can make it happen…

Sidenote: There’s finally going to be the next home game…wednesday next week is the time, NL HE tourney is the game…and I’m already excited…finally a chance to sling real chips again…and we’ll play with a copag four coulour deck for the first time, too…exciting!



I’m in
Monday May 15th 2006, 12:19 pm
Filed under: Tournaments

Bloggers Championship I am registered to play in the Online Poker Blogger Freeroll Win your share of $25,000 and a set of Nevada Jacks poker chips. Hosted By: Absolute Poker Sponsored By: Poker Source Online Registration Code: 69584265


Caught in low limit nirvana

Today I realized that I’m caught in low limit nirvana, the wasteland, nowhere, whatever you would like to call it. At the limits I’m currently playing (not higher than .25/.50) there are some good players (and I would consider myself one of those), but mostly mediocre to bad players.

Good stuff if and only if you can take full advantage of it and recently I can’t – don’t get me wrong: if you substract variance I’m a winning player and you shouldn’t count short term results anyway, so it’s all good – but still: playing at those levels keeps me in a endless loop of winning and losing (mostly on bad beats or at least getting drawn out with incorrect odds) and there’s not much I can do.

How should I put it?! Playing at those levels takes away some of your best options. You can wait and wait for monster hands and then bet the living jebus out of them, just to see them win in some cases or get a horrible beat. Nothing much in between. Example: one of the precious “tools” of poker is the bluff, right? The catch: at the levels I’m playing there’s a deadly mix of players involved in almost every hand I play – the majority will call you no matter what, even with fourth pair on a straight-, flush- or any scary-board in general…the good ol’ “I don’t believe you”, “I’ll be the sheriff this round, I can’t let anyone bluff me!”, “I wanna see that” attitude…so the bluff is mostly out of the picture (unless I’m heads up with a player which has proven his/her ability to laydown a hand – after all that’s one of the reasons why you keep book, right?). So what to do, what to do?

Two possibilities:

  1. Move up in limits. That’s no guarantee for a donkey free zone though and with my current bankroll constraints it’s basically out of the picture – no point in trying to survive on a short short roll, it would be the recipe for destruction.
  2. Stay at the same level and deal with the daily hurting involved in grinding it out.

So, I’m basically stuck…damn! I guess I’ll schedule poker free days from now on to alleviate the pain…I guess a titanium cup won’t hurt either, so I’m ordering one tomorrow 😉

Today’s results: Some success at FullTilt: PLO8b HU – won, SnG – ITM, some success at PokerStars: cash games, slightly up…



New forms of tilt
Saturday May 13th 2006, 3:54 am
Filed under: No-Limit Hold'em,Omaha H/L,PokerStars,Pot Limit,S&G

Tonight I discovered some new forms of tilt. I don’t know if they’re totally new, but at least they were new to me – until now.

After watching hours of high stakes poker (the GSN show and laughing my ass off at some trash talk at the table) I thought it was time for some low limit SnGs…so I jump on PokerStars and find myself the next best NL Hold’em SnG. Right in/after the first hand I discovered the first new form of tilt:

“I should have played that last hand”-tilt: First hand I’m looking down at 44 in EP. I decide to limp, as do some players after me. LP raises to 160 (10/20 blinds). SB folds, BB pushes All-In. Now the logical move is to fold and so I do. Sure enough LP calls. Showdown: LP = AKs, BB=1010…Flop: A43, turn: x, river: 10. Well…trip 10s win and I’m sitting at my desk and tell myself: you did the right thing…nontheless I would have eliminated two players and tripled up in the very first hand. Still the correct move – no point in risking your whole stack in the first hand with a measly pair of 4s.
All good there, although my head is telling me that I should call down half my stack in the very next hand with second pair. Hmm…I would consider this the new form of tilt – the “I should have played that last hand (although I know that I did nothing wrong it sort of tilts me now although I don’t want it to)” tilt. Sure enough I catch rockets in the next hand and my opponent outdraws me with AK (nice to see a flop with two kings in his spot)…

After this 3 hand experience I should have know better than to play any longer, but still I did. This time for a little higher stakes, a single table PLO8b SnG. After scooping some pots early on I find A2Q10 double suited and “gamble” a little…sure enough I’ve got the nut low draw and hit two pair, just to be outdrawn by a flush on the river…no low, too and there goes a good part of my stack, yikes. Next hand…similar hand, same result…outdrawn on the river, no low. Yikes^2. That’s when I discovered the next new form of tilt:

“Let’s gamb00l as you’re going to outdraw me anyway”-tilt: Next hand I pop it up preflop with 4 low connectors…opponent bets the pot, one caller, folded to me…I push my remaining stack in there…both call…flop: OESD, turn: blank, river: bingo…bad news for me…my bingo card puts three hearts out there…and sure enough my straight is no good. Sigh…the bad thing wasn’t to get outdrawn in that particular hand (after all Omaha, especially H/L split is all about drawing), but that by getting outdrawn in the prior hands I convinced myself that it was bound to happen again anyway, so why care…bad bad!

Note to self: You’re not as tilt-proof as usal when jumping into a game “just for fun”. Your mental preparation before playing in a “normal” setup is invaluable! Stick to it!
This post is brought to you by the letter T for tilt. Time to catch some sleep now…night all…



Tips from the Pros
Friday May 12th 2006, 2:12 am
Filed under: Humor,Poker Stuff

Not in the poker playing mood today, watching some poker can’t hurt though. The Poker Channel is showing the British Poker Open tonight and there’s a segment called “Tips from the Pros” they’re showing during the breaks. Some good stuff there and then they show one by Donnacha O’Dea (Irish Poker Pro), his tip:

“When playing poker, try to minimize your losses and maximize your profits” 😆 😆
Now that’s a tip right there, why didn’t I think of that before myself?! 😆 😆



Roundup
Wednesday May 10th 2006, 4:03 am
Filed under: MTT,No-Limit Hold'em,Poker Stuff,PokerStars,S&G,Tournaments

Didn’t get around to posting anything the last two days, well, there wasn’t much going on anyway…some SnGs…so nothing big missed there.

Today I decided to play some late night poker, yet again. I started the session with a turbo SnG and won, w00t. Just as it was about to finish I noticed that the WWdN was about to start, so I jumped in.

My starting table featured the host himself:

starting table wwdn rmgustaf invitational

Groovy stuff. Played tight, didn’t take any chances and was able to hover in the top 20-25 for most of the time. No suckouts or anything until the dreaded hand came up (I can’t even remember the exact hand, but I think it was my AQo vs QJ, AQx on the flop, 10 on the turn, K on the river…runner runner goodness…yuck!) – it didn’t cripple me, but it put me right back into the average field, so it sucked, but hey…it’s poker… Then I had the “honor” of busting out Wil. My J10 flopped a pair of Jacks, KJx all diamonds though, check check, turn 10, I bet 300…now Wil only has 505 left, so he goes into the tank…at that time I put him on a flush draw, which was true, he pushed with As7d, I called and dodged another diamond on the river…w00t…presenting the Ingoal invitational (although Wil wrote it “InGoal”…):

WWdN Ingoal invitational

W00t! After Wil busted I kept playing my tight game and it really worked well…until the blinds kept increasing and I just couldn’t get anything going against all the big stacks – and if I had a decent to good hand I didn’t get any customers…ah well…too bad. Out bubble+1 = 11th…not too shabby 😉

During current Hold’em session you were dealt 181 hands and saw flop:
– 9 out of 24 times while in big blind (37%)
– 2 out of 24 times while in small blind (8%)
– 6 out of 133 times in other positions (4%)
– a total of 17 out of 181 (9%)
Pots won at showdown – 6 of 10 (60%)
Pots won without showdown – 18

I’m really satisfied with my performance, but the same thing that got me that far broke my back in the end: playing (too) tight…I guess I should have been a little more lose come bubble time… alrighty…off to watch the other guys battle it out….6 left….and then it’s off to bed…already past 5am…yikes!



Sngs are weird sometimes
Sunday May 07th 2006, 2:52 am
Filed under: No-Limit Hold'em,PokerStars,S&G

The title says it all: SnGs are weird sometimes, sometimes even positively weird. I just finished playing a SnG at PokerStars and what can I say, I did my part at the first table (it was a two table SnG) to make it to the final table in a healthy position, then all hell broke loose – positive?! (Yup, hell broke loose on the other players).

First I doubled up with AKs vs AQo…then the chipleader took over and knocked out player after player until we were down to three handed, without me playing a single hand in the mean time. I’m on the button and look down at 4 high…fold…SB (around 6k) pops it up, the chipleader/BB pops it right back…the SB isn’t really commited yet, but he pushes…the BB ponders and calls…SB = 23o, BB = K10o…lol!!! And we’re down to heads up and the monster chip leader by now has knocked out all the other players at the final table…I can’t expect to do any damage with 1.7k vs 25k+ (difference between 2nd and 1st was only 2.x$ anyway)…so we do a quick all-in and I finish in second.

Nice….this is the first time that another player did all the work and I’m finishing that highÂÂ 🙂



180 – final table
Friday May 05th 2006, 2:29 am
Filed under: No-Limit Hold'em,PokerStars,S&G,Tournaments

After a lovely playing time of 3h 5m minutes I sit down at the first final table in ages…w00t.

final table

On another note: sure enough I’m out in the 2nd hand :-(ÂÂ Too bad my AKo couldn’t win against the Chipleaders’ Q10o. Ah well…at least I’ve seen some final table action again…still sucks…moan 😉
Out in the 2nd hand