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… 🙁