*lol* I still can’t stop laughing about this one fish. Yes, he was my downfall in a six handed PL 5-Card-Draw SnG, but hey, I’m still laughing. The setup was perfect, it’s early on in the SnG and I’m on the button. I look down at two pair, Queens and Deuces…not a monster hand, but good enough for a raise, especially as all players limped in front of me. So I pop it up to 100. SB folds…BB calls…BB+1 calls…BB+2 calls…BB+3 calls. Hmm…exciting. Let’s see how the draw goes. BB draws 3…BB+1 draws 3….BB+2 draws 3…BB+3 draws 3…I draw one…a brick. Nothing new there, but what the hell is going on here. All those guys called a +4x raise preflop OOP and now they’re drawing 3?! What the hell? Ever heard of starting hand requirements? So I’m guessing there are two guys with Aces and god knows what the others have. BB leads out. BB+1…folds…BB+2…folds….BB+3…folds…errm yeah…I raise…BB ponders long and hard, or at least it seems that way, and he raises….hmm…must have caught good my friend…I call…he shows? Fives full of fours. A friggin boat.

Quick rewind: he calls +80 preflop with a pair of fives OOP. He draws three. He draws what? Not only one of the remaining fives in the deck, but also a pair. Three perfect cards! Are you kidding me?

So after that hand I’m off to a real bad start and I lean back, curse my luck, go off a little in the chat and focus on the game again. A few hands later…I hold two pair again…my donkponent get’s involved again…draws three again…I draw one again…a brick…what does he show? Trip sixes…he called again preflop with his huge pair of sixes and drew out on me. Nice. Down but not out. A few hands later…I look down at a pair of Aces on the button…I pop it up AGAIN…my donkponent get’s involved again…I draw three, bricks, he draws three…what does he show? Aces and Kings with a queen kicker…hmm…not bad…yuck.

After those three ridiculous freezers (although the last one isn’t a real freezer, but let’s just say that hand #1 was an ultra-freezer and #2 was a freezer, so the average should be freezer), I’m down to roughly 320 in chips and the next time I start with two pair again…another opponent get’s involved…he draws three…I draw my usual brick and he shows his set…gg me.

Now, why am I laughing so hard about that fish in particular (and this SnG)? Well, tbh, I should be crying, but it doesn’t matter and it won’t change anything, so I might as well laugh it off. I mean come on, someone drawing three perfect cards, then 1 perfect card, then two perfect cards…can’t do much about that, now can you? Not really…so nothing to be mad about, especially considering the two following things:

1. I told the fish that the only way he could win anything would be if he was lucky and as soon as his luck ran out he would be busto in no time. Now remember, he got ultra-lucky against me and held over 4k in chips when I busted in 6th. Sure enough my prediction rang true as he busted in 3rd. *lol* good job there.

2. I look him up on Sharkscope and this is probably the BIGGEST fish I’ve ever seen. Honestly, tell me, how can you drop nearly 5000$ playing 5$ SnGs?! Poor sucker…

But enough about that SnG, I only played one headsup match after that disappointment and who did I play? A player from Stuttgart…well…that’s 20km from here…middle of the night, half-way across the world (pokerstars) and who do you meet at the table…a fellow german…lol…cool stuff. I won the match easily as he managed to bluff off his chips like crazy…and sharkscope says… …hence the title of this post…

In other news, I finally ordered my new laptop today. I was looking around for months now and it seemed that I just couldn’t find “the” perfect model. My requirements were:

1. max 14.1″ screen…15.4″ screens are fine, but having a 15.4″ screen means that the things is at least 16.x” wide (15.4″ + frame)…usually models sporting a 15.4″ screen are heavy (around 3+ kg)…and due to the big screen the battery runtime is usually low(er) too…

2. decent vga…integrated intel and stuff is cool, but not really…especially as I tend to hold on to laptops for quite some time (I bought my current laptop, an IBM Thinkpad, 6 years ago), so it should be at least up to par now so that’ll still be “okay” in a few years…

3. at least 1GB of ram…better 2GB…dual channel…yadda-yadda…

4. don’t care much about hdd size but 80GB would be fine and a DVD burner would be nice too…

5. shipped with Vista

6. not the most expensive one out there

7. service…at least two-year warranty with at pickup service or better…

8. screen resolution of at least 1024×768…but preferred would be some widescreen format (e.g. 1280×800)…

Given those requirements, it was a real hard task to find a compromise between some of them – 14.1″ models are usually far more expensive than 15.4″ models as 15.4″ is the biggest seller these days, so I guess the panel prices are way cheaper. Some models are still only available with Windows XP. Other models have 14″ screens, but only a 1024×768 resolution. Some models are looking good in pictures, but when you touch them in real life, they feel cheap and not really fit for everyday operation. etc etc

To make a long story short, I finally decided to go with the new Samsung R20-Aura line. There are only two models available in that line, so not much to chose from, but they are exactly what I was looking for. The difference between the models (Deva / Declan)? They’re exactly the same…except for the CPU…so chipset, ram, video card, hdd, dvd burner, software, everything is the same…

Deva – Core 2 Duo T7200 (2x2GHz, 4MB Cache)

Declan – Core Duo T2350 (2×1.86GHz, 2MB Cache)

Now, I always want to go with the newest stuff and all and a Core 2 Duo system would be nice, but I decided to go with the Core Duo model. Why? Let me explain…

Yeah, Core Duo isn’t the current line of Intel mobile processors, but it’s a kickass CPU and probably more CPU power than I’ll ever use (as this notebook will be used as a mobile computer, not as a desktop replacement) and you just can’t beat the price difference. I ordered it with 2GB of ram, 120GB HDD, DVD burner, Vista Home Premium, the whole shebang…and what’s the price difference between the two models (which are exactly the same minus the CPU)? 400 Euro (that’s roughly 545$)…you can keep your 2 between the Core and Duo for that fellows 😉

…the best thing is that I ordered it this afternoon and they called me up five minutes after I had placed my order to confirm everything. The said it would be shipped tonight and earlier on I received a mail with the UPS tracking code…wheee…it really left their shop tonight and now, in the middle of the night, I just rolled into the UPS depot for my area…so…I expect to be playing on and with it tomorrow…the excitement 🙂

Specs:

T2350 – 1.86GHz Core Duo

2GB Ram

Ati x1250 video card (max 256MB, which will leave me with 1.79GB of ram)

120GB HDD

DVD-Burner

Vista HomePremium

14.1″ Widescreen WXGA screen (1280×800)

Piano-style finish (shiny black)