Well, depending on your style of playing, especially in a pressure situation like in HU, the FullTilt HU SnGs might be just right – for me they’re not. Why? Because they’re friggin boooooring and long-ass. Let me go into detail:

1. They start with 1500 chips

2. They start at blinds of 10/20

3. They got 6 minute levels

So…in contrast to that the bodog HU SnGs have got a far better structure (at least for my style):

1. They start with 1000 chips

2. The blinds start at 5/10

3. The blinds levels are 10 hands

So…10 hands < 6 minutes for sure, so a regular tourney takes 5-x minutes (sometimes even quicker, sometimes a bit longer, but I guess 6-8 minutes is the average). In contrast to that the FTP HU SnGs take ages. I just played one and at about level three I was so bored as nothing was happening. I got Aces three times and won the regular xx chips twice as my opponent had nothing, then he cracked my third Aces with the good old "but they were s0000ted hand". Nothing wrong there, it can happen. But after that it was jab-jab-duck-dover-jab-jab for another 20 minutes before he finally won with presto against my AQ. So, I won't be playing any HU SnGs on FTP in the future, I'll stick to CAP ring games... 🙂

…is the number of HU SnGs I played over the last few days, lol. It sounds a lot, but it really isn’t all that much if you think about the fact that, depending on the opponent and the cards, a match can last anywhere from 1-15 minutes. I guess the average was around 6-8 minutes/match.

Today’s session close the deal on 100 SnGs and I’m not satisfied with today’s result, but totally satisfied with the overall result.

Today: HU SnGs played: 16, HU SnGs won: 8

Total: HU SnGs played: 100, HU SnGs won: 66

So, I won 66% of the matches. Not bad I guess, although the number could have been even higher without some major suckouts…then again I had my share of suckouts in return, so I guess it all evens itself out. And why should I complain? 66% won matches is actually quite good, I guess?!

Some more stats:

Money wagered: 100 x 5$

Juice payed: 100 x .25 = 25$, wow…quite a bit, but I consider this a “tip” to bodog for handing me all the fish 🙂

Money won|net won: 66 x 10 = 660$  | 660-525 = 135$ 🙂
I think I’ll take a break from bodog and HU matches for now…after all I still got the FullTilt Reload-bonus to clear and I’m still planning on grinding out the last few points at nine to clear my PokerSavvy bonus there….so expect to hear about some more ring games and “normal” SnGs in the near future…

Got back from work late, so I didn’t have much spare time before footie training…only 3 HU SnGs…won all three…now that I’m back from training I fired up bodog again and hit the HU SnGs…won the first four (so the first 7 in a row in total today)…lost the next one…won the next two. That’s enough poker for me today as I’m pretty tired and I don’t like to give back money to the donkeys because I’m not really focussed….so…

Today: HU SnGs played: 10, HU SnGs won: 9

Total: HU SnGs played: 84, HU SnGs won: 58  🙂

After hitting the headsup tables once again tonight, I started wondering: Can this really last? Can I keep beating the competition in 60-66% of all matches? Well, the answer isn’t a clear “yes” or “no”…depending on my focus, the run of cards and many other factors, everything is possible, but sometimes even the biggest suckouts against me can’t stop me from winning. There, I said it. Oooooh, let’s hope that the poker gods don’t put the curse on me, lol…but back on topic…it’s really amazing how some of the concepts I recently read/seen/thought about are coming to life in some of the matches. Being really aggressive and unpredictable early on. Never showing anything unless it’s called down. Always raising, always playing, almost never folding. “Any two cards will do”, especially if my opponents are so intimidated (?!) that they let me see flops for free all the time…disaster my friends…like in the one match which lasted exactly one hand. Opponent on the button min raises to twenty (blinds start at 5/10), I reraise to fourty with J6o…he calls…flop comes 66Q…I lead out the pot…he ponders and calls…turn is blank…I bet the pot…he calls…river blank….I push….he calls…shows AA and is out. Hard for him to get away from the hand as he most def put me on a weak queen…but still not totally impossible to laydown the hand. On another note: most suckouts against me are just at that point in the match when I finally hold a “quality” or even premium starting hand…the most money (stack time) is when I play my “high stakes poker”-style game…57o…gold! 46o gold! 53o platinum! lol…unreal how many players really think their TPSK/TPTK is good…

Anyway..enough babbling…cold hard facts: Won 9 out of 15 bringing the total to 49 out of 74 and a nice profit. I just requested another payout…lovely to see your “freeroll” money grow and grow (I had withdrawn my original deposit along with some profit after completing the PSO bonus) 🙂

Edit: And just as I post this, the money is already sitting in my Neteller account again. Wow…withdrawal request till processing/money in Neteller: 18 minutes! 🙂

Played some HU SnGs again…this time I didn’t make it to twenty as I got to run in a few minutes. Nontheless I managed to play 17 🙂

Got off to a really really rough start winning only one out of the first five. Probably should have won at least 3, but you know that both variance and the poker gods can be cruel some time. Move my money in with AQ vs A9…river…9…moved my money in with QQ vs K10…flop K10x…apart from that the usual same ol’ same ol’ which sometimes makes you chuckle…even though it’s disastrous for the match you’re in…like these two lovely hands: I hold AJ…raise…reraise..call…Axx on the flop…bet…raise…reraise…push…he shows AK…or the other lovely hand…I hold AK…raise…reraise…Ace on the flop…bet…raise…push…he shows AA…nice shuffle! 😉

Anyway…got the aggression monkey out again and was able to win 10 out of the next 12…bringing my total for the day to 11 out of 17 (40 out of 61 Edit: 59 (20+20+17+2 != 61 ;)) total)…not bad..nah..that’s not the right wording…it’s great! Three days of HU SnGs and I double my roll at bodog 🙂 🙂 🙂

…another twenty HU SnGs, lol 🙂

Well, what can I tell you, I’m hooked! The purest of poker, heads up, mano-a-mano, whatever you would like to call it. I love the fact that it’s both a battle of cards, but also a battle of wits – and the fact that it’s a rather action heavy form of competition along with a shorter duration (than normal SnGs) makes it even more appealing.

So…I jumped in and won the first four in a row. Should have won the fifth one too, but the cards had another idea – AJ vs A10…he runner runners a four flush…ugh…Won two out of the next five, just had the second best hand every time there was a big pot…weird how often you see similar hands 47 vs 48…case two fours on the board, etc…Then I went on a bad streak of three lost in a row…too bad if you push in with AK vs AA headsup…even worse if you push in with KK vs 99 and lose to the lovely two outer. The third one wasn’t too cool either…I got my opponent slightly covered…I look down at 44 on the button…I raise…he reraises…now this tells me Ace…hopefully not Aces…I call and we see a flop of A45 rainbow…now I’m pretty sure I’m ahead and I overbet the pot…he raises…I push…he insta-calls with A6o…lol…nice…turn 3…river 7… 🙁

After that I considered logging off for the night, but I decided to continue playing and play I did. After some other random junk kickings (which I survived, sometimes down to less than 200 in chips) I went on a total rush winning the final seven in a row.

So the total for tonight is a little worse than yesterday, but still good…13/20…this brings my bodog HU SnG record to 29/44 Edit: 42 (20+20+2 != 44 ;))….not too bad 🙂

Alrighty…it’s late again…so I’m off…gl everyone…

…at least for now. After coming home from a Basketball Bundesliga match (Ludwigsburg won against Trier) I fired up bodog and hit the HU tables. Hard! Won nine out of my first ten matches and was smiling like crazy 😉

Then I won three out of the next five. Then I won only one out of the last four, bringing my total to 14 out of 20. Not too bad 🙂

Ups:

1. Totally dominating some of the players

2. Winning one match on the very first hand: I hold QJ s00ted…he holds 97o…I min-raise preflop. He calls. Flop comes 8910 rainbow…OMG…he bets 50 into the 40 pot…I fake the donkey insta-push…and to my surprise he insta-calls…lol…nice.

3. Playing 420 hands within two hours.

4. Totally crushing a donk within one orbit, just to be challenged to a 100$ HU match…lol…yeah right…as if I play a 100$ HU SnG against you lucky tard…

5. Going all out, all the time without fear of the outcome. To quote one of the greatest tag-teams in history (lol)…the Legion of Doom (Road Warriors): Ooooooooooooh….what a ruuuuuuuuuuush! 🙂

Downs:

1. Losing one of the first ten matches to an ultra-donk within the first ten hands. I won the first three or four pots. Then I have him dominated and he pulls out the three outer. Now he has me well covered and lucks his way to the win in the very next hand. I flop two pair…push and he insta-calls with two over…turn pairs the board (not my cards)…river brings one of his overs for the better two pair. If he didn’t get lucky the first ten matches would have been a perfect ten 🙁
2. Running into turned quads with a flopped full house.

3. Not hitting anything in the last three matches…besides the point: sure enough the donkeys were unable to laydown even third pair to my bets…ah well…

Alrighty…I’m out of here…weekend is over again…so I’m back at work, probably not able to play all that much during the upcoming week…we’ll see…maybe I’ll squeeze in some matches…

…ooh..and before I forget it: Some pimpin still left to do…tonight is the “blogger big game”…I won’t play due to the starting time…good luck to all anyway…have fun…and write about it so that I’ll have something to read about tomorrow night 🙂

…so I was hitting the tables tonight. I started the session with some donk-a-licious CAP NL25 and I was all over the place. Then the shit turned sour and I should have left, but I didn’t. So, I gave back all my winnings and then some. How often can you run pocket tens into pocket aces? Twice. Nice. Not!

Then I thought it would be a good idea to get my hands on a token…not such a good idea either. I had totally forgotten how long ass and boring these regular things (6+.6) are..should have played a turbo I guess. Didn’t do all that bad until the blinds went up and it was bubble time…card dead describes it best so I was literally left with two options: a) push with one of the next hands which would preferably be something at least resembling a good starting hand or b) get blinded out in a hurry. So I push within the next few hands and I even held the best hand…until the river…so I bubbled. Not good.

Off to bodog and I’m hitting like crazy…first two SnGs bring a win and a third place finish. I guess I should have left with a smile, but didn’t and promptly crapped my way out of the next two. That’s enough for the night…at least I’m still up a little.

Some interesting “facts/stats” of the night:

Times I ran pocket tens into pocket aces: 2

Times I sucked out with the pocket tens: 0

Times I folded quads preflop: 1

Times I ran my boat into quads: 1

Edit: Just went back to bodog, just didn’t feel like sleeping yet, so I fired up some Heads-Up matches…2 played…2 won…thank you very much. I guess this could be a new source of income…after all a HU is basically 50/50…although I see myself having an edge on most of the donkeys there, so it’s basically better than even money and the thing is much less time consuming than the regular SnGs…hmm…we’ll see…

After yesterday’s bad run in the live game I wasn’t even going to play today, to hell with it, just a quick game 😉

I almost regretted it immediately as I took charge of the SnG table on WPX, just to have my straight cracked by a boat on the river, followed by my boat getting cracked by quads on the river in the very next hand. Nice…damn it!

So I left WPX and took a seat at a HU SnG on bodog. 14 minutes and I walk away victorious. Nice…although I almost lost it during the match…times I had Aces and AK sooted: once each, back to back…won a whoopin SB and a BB (which were rather small at that point)…times I ran my top pair into Aces: once…it cost me the chiplead and I had to fight back…which I did…so the 0 for 1 in coinflips (77 vs AQ) didn’t matter in the end…at least I can end the night on a high note…let’s see what the poker gods have in store for me tomorrow….

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…