So…it’s past midnight over here, so it’s Tuesday, April 17th 2007…it’s my birthday…

That being said, don’t expect to see me at the WWdN or any other poker table for that matter…I’ll be off having a drink or two…

My birthday present to myself, pure hammer goodness…

Wheeee….so Al is the first one of the broggers trying to send x bloggers to the WSOP 2007…I’m not signed up yet, as I’m waiting for the pw…if you’ve got a pokerblog and want to “donate” too…check out the details below and/or visit Al for more…

Watching poker on german television today (Poker Superstars III) one hand headsup was Cindy Violette holding the hammer…nothing unusual there…although I almost fell out of my chair as the german commentator said (roughly translated) “Well, she’s almost commited here, but her hand, 72o, also known as the hammer, well…she probably better fold it”…rofl…the hammer is spreading, world wide 🙂

Priceless #2 + #3: Mad Genius Mike Caro vs Doyle Brunson headsup videos…

see here and here…I loved the way Dolly was a total card-rack in the first one and I like the way the mad genius was soooo exited about his 6h4h in the second one promptly sucking out on Dolly’s Ak…lol…genius!

Priceless #4: Poker Bears…lol…

…via bandit

What can I say…an interesting session today. Battled with donks back and forth and they got the best of me most of the time. Lost two headsup matches – the usual. No need to play anymore HU for the day as I can’t catch a break to save my very soul. I play a little six handed SnG trying to blow off some steam. That works out pretty nicely, I get down to headsup, but I’m down 1:4 in chips. Thirty hands later I’m the winner. Wheee…a W.

After that, I jumped into a Triple Shootout to the sunday million. The first two tables are mostly a blur.

What stood out on the second table was my headsup opponent. He took out three players (including one that took out the first player), so we went into HU with me being at 1:3 in chips. He started to bleed chips though as I made one “great call” after the other and caught him bluffing and/or overplaying his hand time and time again. After a few short hands I was the chipleader. I had the chance to bust him when I moved in on him with A6 he calls with A4…chop…a few hands later I took him out though to advance to the finals.

Sitting at the final table I promised myself to not get involved unless I had a monster. I kept my promise for quite a long time until one player busted and I finally started to pick up some hands. I was still down to 1k in chips and as it’s a turbo it was make or break time. I moved in with 55 and the BB called me, after some deliberation, with QJo…alrighty…let’s not get unlucky here…5 on the flop…wheeee….so I double through and pick up some pots after that. Soon enough I’m the new chipleader and I try to knock out a shorty. I raise it preflop and instead of pushing, what I hoped he’d do, he calls half his stack…so he’s basically commited…hmm….I hold KsQs…flop comes down KJT rainbow…he pushes…now I’m sitting there with an open-ender and top pair and he could have any two…so I instacall….he shows? Q9o….well played sir, but wait, there are still cards to come. turn Q….river A…chop it…I’ll take that, but how come he flops the joint with a dominated hand there, damn it…that hand comes back to haunt me later on, don’t worry. I fold fold fold and the chopbox is picking up steam, he raises relentlessly and even when he get’s called he shows up with the best hand. Soon enough he’s the chipleader, there’s one shorter player and I’m in third. Then the hand comes up. Boy, I wish I would have just folded it, lol…then again…four-handed? Who am I kidding.

I look down at AKo in the BB and the chopbox comes in for the standard raise on the button. He got me covered by 14 chips…and I honestly think about pushing…but wait…why should I do that when there is one shorter player. Then again, only top two pay (third is bubble winning 2$ lol). Let’s just see a flop and see what happens. Flop comes down K98 with two clubs (I got the Ac). I think about it and there’s no way I think I’m behind here…if he got lucky (like he did on the hand against me and two hands later against another player K9 vs AK)…well..then at least I have a good rant on my hands. So I push and he insta-calls showing? 99…thank you very much…turn club..river blank and I’m out in fourth. So friggin sick. Yes, it’s a coinflip. Yes, I didn’t need to get involved (although with the 5min levels you gotta play some if you got some). So I’m still sitting here, puzzled. He makes a play from the button, so do I worry about a big hand here, not necessarily. I decide to make the call, leaving me slightly over 1.7k (blinds 100/200). I’m hitting the flop TPTK + backdoor flush draw. Should I check there? Now he pushes anyway so no way I’m getting away from that hand in that spot or am I supposed to believe that I’m behind against a button-standard-raise-range here? – I didn’t think so. So, was he lucky? Yes. Was I unlucky? Yes. Oh well…that’s the way it is. Story of my day. Played 204 hands of flawless poker, well, 203 if you discount the last hand and I’m sitting here with a bad taste in my mouth. (And yes, he won the ticket, surprise surprise) So sick, I could almost feel the T$ in my account. Damn! I hate it when stuff like this happens on the bubble…especially after kicking butt for 1.5hours and the chance to makes 215$ out of 2$ so close, so close and in such a tourney it’s not the money that stings (pretty obvious at a buyin of 2$), it’s the fact that you got so far and then crapped out of it. Sickening…feels like craping your pants right in front of the toilet door. I’m off to cry myself to sleep now…j/k…nn 😉

Started the poker day by playing some headsup, only three matches, two Ws. Tonight, I saw that Kat was hosting a nice donkfest, errm rebuy-tourney on FullTilt. The only problem, although it’s just a 1+1$ tourney, I’m busto at FullTilt. At least I was until tonight…redeposited some dough and off to the races.

The first table was the usual crazy ass rebuy style. Push push push. I did just that with any decent hand and it worked out pretty good. Although I had to rebuy after the first hand I played. AK vs small pair…K on the flop…but set for the opposition. After that I didn’t rebuy anymore…didn’t have to. So I didn’t make it quite to the top of the rebuy rank with a measly three rebuys (one to start with the double-stack and one after the AK hand).

The first hour is a blur, although I had some nice hands and got lucky sometimes too (especially in the A9 vs AJ hand…J on the flop…turn and river 9…wheee) – sorry Pokerwolf that you were my personal ATM early on. The sickest hand of the first hour was the following though – boy, never before did I wish to hold the hammer so badly 😉

At the first break I was sitting pretty, third in chips.

The second hour is a blur too, I didn’t take notes or anything, the only thing I remember though is that almost every other flop was a hammer flop (72x, 22x, 77x, 772, 722) – unreal, I’ve never before seen so many hammer flops in my life. I didn’t even need to mention that I didn’t have a hammer in any of those hands. One hand that sticks out was the following, money went in on the flop…so he was drawing slim to a queen or jack for the gutter ball…turn gutter ball:

After that I was able to recover pretty quickly, but just before the second break I managed to lose a coinflip AJ vs 44 to lose around 5k…so at the second break I was sitting in 9th (of 10) on a 7.5k stack…

The next minutes are all about steal, resteal and steal some more and we finally made it to the final table:

Two hands stick out in my mind on the final table…shortstacked mookie pushing in with 88…one raiser between me and him and I’m sitting there with JJ…two for one, cool…other player shows AA…no miracle for me…mookie busts out 9th and I’m down in chips again (although I’m still wondering how I didn’t go broke there).

Some steals and folds later and I look down at A10 on the button…one LP raiser preflop…and I decide to see a flop…it comes down 10 high and when he leads into me I thought: bs…so I push…wait…no, I misclick and only minraise leaving 1k behind…doesn’t matter though as he pushes over the top anyway…with the almighty powerful 96 s00ted for the four-flush…turn blank…river kills me…sigh…I guess I should have popped it preflop…then again…I can’t push all the time, just so that someone won’t get lucky on me 😉

Five final thoughts:

1. Why couldn’t it come heart heart one time if hearts need to come at all…I had the Ah damn it…

2. My read was correct…bs…didn’t hold up…all good and I guess it was payback as Pokerwolf was the one I sucked out on with the A9 vs AJ hand…so in the end it was the 1-1 for a draw..all good there…and at least he used the chips wisely to win the whole thing.

3. I’m really looking forward to see Waffles‘ recap, if he writes one, and what he’s got to say about his exit as bubble boy with yet another “beautiful” cold deck A7 vs AA…

4. Big shoutout to VinNay who single-handedly fueled our first table with a grand total of 18 rebuys. I guess his blog-addy runner-runner-rebuy is all too fitting 😉

5. Thanks again Kat for hosting, this was the best six bucks I’ve ever spent on 2.5h of pure donkerific poker fun 🙂

Today’s session had it all. From the unreal calls to the sickest beats, there was something for everyone. For once, although taking some sick beats, I still had the upper hand. Not bad…4-3 in the HU…sick sick sick exit in a one table SnG after laying down unreal hands…nice to see that there are three pairs 7 handed, especially nice to see that the best one didn’t win…lol…the usual…

After those SnGs, I took a shot at the new 16 player headsup ones. Nice format…basically win the first two and you’re ITM, win another one and you’re in the final…won the first three tables…lost the finals trip aces with a chance to boat up (12 outs) no g00t against third nut flush…oh well…I’m out…

Totally unrelated to poker…I hope that noone’s comment got stuck in moderation recently and/or didn’t show up so far…

The problem is that poker-tastic.com is currently hammered with spam and although the watergate is keeping the flood out, it still stores them in moderation and it’s getting too much to look through every few hours (something along the lines of 1-3k/day). So, just a quick note to my readers/commenters, don’t be surprised if you find a third layer of antispam (I’m thinking some sort of captcha image or something) in the next few days…I know that it’s a PITA, but probably a necessary evil that keeps comments from being (accidently) deleted and me from going insane 😉

Edit: scratch the “in a few days”-part…up and running… bye bye link-spam-bots…or so I hope 😉

Had another lackluster session today, well, two to be precise. One this afternoon, two quick headsup matches…won both. Tonight it was a little different. Match numero uno, ouch, my junk hurts. 2-1. Match numero due, ouch, I can’t belive I made that call…stupid me. 2-2. Match numero tre, wheeeee….3-2.

After that I needed a change of scenery, nine handed SnG will do. Some orbits in the classic overpair vs underpair…JJ vs 33…what’s that third three doing on the board there? Gigli… 3-3.
After that I decided to do something that I rarely do, play PLO. Not PLO8, one of my all-time favourite (and most torturing) games, but PLO and why not headsup?! Now I know that Omaha, independent of the variant you’re playing, is a game of the nuts. But seriously, if there are two hands in play, how great are the chances that you end up second nuts vs nuts? Not all that high I guess…happened all the time though…the nuts switched sides every now and then so it was all good though…still makes you smile when you can look at the board and say: There’s exactly one hand that can beat me here…and your opponent promptly shows it to you. In the end, I had him down to under 300 chips and got the chips in with the best…runner runner boat…wheee….not enough to put me into panic mode though…a few hands later it’s all over when I turn the joint and get the money in the middle…. 4-3. I’ll leave it at that before I get myself stuck again… 🙂

…the ultimate donktastic payback, brought to you by dealers around the net. Coming to a table near you, soon!

*lol* Oh well…what can I say about today’s play, nothing much, same ol’ same ol’…at the usual donkey tables, the usual donkey play and the usual donk luck. Sometimes you sit there and ask yourself: Is this really it? Could this be all you’ll ever see? Then again you tell yourself that it’s part of the game and that longterm it won’t matter. It’s still tough though. The ultimate oxymoron of poker – short-term doesn’t matter. Well, it really doesn’t, but in a way it does.

I mean, it’s the way it is and I’m more and more at the point where I’m accepting it, it still stings though and in a way, without it, there wouldn’t be much to write about either. So, hey, happy go lucky donks, have fun…I’ll write about it and take my money back later…and then some. Thank you.

So…play a little this afternoon, won two headsup matches and got chased out of a shorthanded SnG by a runner runner flush with A4 s00ted despite preflop reraise, bet on the flop and on the turn. Oh well…at least he had 12 outs…and as usual runner runner goodness (TM) was there to save the day. All good, I’m still up a little…

Evening/night rolls around and it’s time to play the WWdN. Starting table is fine although I can’t catch anything. I drop a nice hammer from UTG and take down a nice pot after my flop bet. Then I run presto into AA…oh well presto can’t be gold everytime. I’m down to about 600 15 minutes in and I take a pot here and there, then double up with TPGK. I’m almost back at the starting stack when I catch some “nice hands” (AQ, AK, etc)…despite my standard preflop raises I always get at least one customer and sure as hell I can’t hit a flop. So I fold fold fold…down down down…shorty.

After the break I fold the SB and then push three hands in a row with AQ s00ted, A8o, and A9o…no customers…but at least I take down the blinds. Then I make a nice exit. I look down at Ah9h and decide not to push the one limper of the hand. Flop comes down jack high with two hearts…I check…he bets out, which represents one third of my remaining stack…so I decide to push…maybe he’ll lay it down….no such joy as he flopped TPGK with KJo…turn and river are blank…surprise surprise…and I exit in 30th place.

After that I should have called it a night, but I tried to get some more action. So, headsup it is. Match one…around fifty hands in…flop two pair…push…he got two overs and a runner runner flush draw…(is that even consider a real draw?! – lol, sure it is)…runner runner flush it is…cya.

Hmm…one more won’t hurt…I whip him around like a schoolboy and got him down to half his stack…he pushes preflop…I look down at two nines…call…flop all low…turn A…river unnecessary K…back to square one. I whip him around again and get him down to half the starting stack again…he wins some pots and we’re virtually even (me + 100 chips)…I raise preflop with A10 s00ted…he pushes…I call…he shows 77 for yet another flip….sevens hold up…surprise surprise…my exit comes a few hands later when the mighty A10 s00ted is no match for the even mightier A5 s00ted…how did it happen? You got one guess….awww…you already know the answer….runner runner baby! Nothing better than runner runner in the morning, runner runner in the evening….runner runner all night long…

So…I played some good poker today, made two mistakes (calling the rest of my chips off with KK when the lucksack turned three tens and calling all-in with 55 vs AA in the WWdN) and got unlucky here and there and everywhere…the usual. Stuck in the eternal circle of win some lose some, getting nowhere…I really need to get some more money online to take a shot at some of the bigger MTTs and/or some cashgames again as this whole SnG thing isn’t working for me, at least not atm…

How refreshing some days away from (online) poker can be 🙂

It didn’t intend to play at all today, but then I thought a little poker action would be a good way to end the night. In retrospect it was. I was totally relaxed and didn’t let the (donkey) play of some of my (donkey) opponents get to me at all. I played two six-handed SnGs and that was that.

The first one started off slowly and I finally got hold of some chips eliminating player no. 5 in the process. So I’m sitting pretty even with the others and I look down at AQo on the button. It’s folded to me and I push…hmm…maybe I should have put in the standard raise, but then again…the way the hand went down it wouldn’t have mattered…SB calls with JJ….flop JQx…turn Q…river x…way to win a coinflip. I exit in fourth only running into quads once in the process, lol.

The second one is picking up quicker and I get a hold of some major chips early when one player almost always pushes on the flop. I watched this pattern time and time again and it was obvious that he couldn’t fold, what he thought was, the best hand preflop. So I called one of his preflop raises in position with 94o putting him on an ace-x…flop comes down nine high…he pushes…I’m more than happy to call…he got me covered…but his hand (AKo) doesn’t improve. The same thing happens again a little later on. He raises again…I call again in position with J3o…flop comes down jack high…he pushes…I got him covered by a mile and put him on ace-x again….this time it isn’t even that strong…he shows Kx…wheee….there’s the door. We lose another player and being down to four-handed I decided to play a little faster with any good hand. I look down at 77 on the button…pop it…BB repops it…I push…he calls with A10o…hmm…basically a flip, but I don’t know if I like his call all-in with A10o here, he could easily be dominated or drawing slim…flop and turn are blank…Barry Greenstein pops in an announces “ace on the river”, well he didn’t really pop in, but that’s exactly what happened. So instead of sitting with 4.x k I’m sitting with roughly 2k. Oh well, it happens. I don’t let it get to me and continue my quest…then “the hand” happens. The other three get it in with 77 vs JJ vs AQo…queen does the job and we’re headsup and ITM…nice…I’m down 1-3 in chips though.

Headsup play is a blurr, I just know that I stole quite some chips, especially preflop when I had a feeling he was weak and/or making a move. About 10-15 hands in we’re even in chips and it takes another 5-10 hands before I take the lead…then we get it all in on a flop of Q95…classic headsup situation…I hold Q3o…he holds 95…please…one time…turn 6…river 6…lol…yatzee…he’s crippled and I crusher him in the next hand with the powerful acey-deucey…nice. W…end the night up a little…groovy…