…that’s what I heard myself say over and over again today. It was nothing spectacularly brutal or anything, just the usual beats and bad beats along with the tease every now and then. I mean, it’s pretty standard to get your AA crack by AJo, or KK by A3, A8 and A4, but the stuff like AJo vs AJs (flushing) and the fact that you can’t win a 60% shot on the bubble in four consecutive matches is just brutal. Mix in the fact that you’re the one pushing in all four spots, get called by the usual KQo, KJo, K7o, etc and leading until the river everytime…then see the 6 outer hit on the river boom, boom, boom, boom is just sickening. Oh well…like I said to a fish berating anther fish: “What do you want man? You got all his money in drawing dead to 3 outs…what else do you want? Don’t tap the tank…ty”…*lol*

Stats: Played 18 six-max SnGs, finished 2nd six times and won one. Should have been at least 2 more ITM finishes (see the 4 60% shots above) and at least one W more…but hey, what can I do…cards speak…I’m out…

…because nothing else can explain why I still bother to play in my home game. Well, maybe that’s a little harsh, I keep going back because of the social aspect as well, but there’s no doubt about one thing: I like money, too – who doesn’t? – and it’s really disappointing to get coolered or extremely unlucky all the time. All the time? Maybe you think that that’s an exaggeration, but it really isn’t.

Everytime I play in the homegame, it’s like I’ve got the plague or something. Either I run into a cooler or I get a junk-kick – one of the two is usually my exit or cripples me. Sure enough it was no different tonight. What adds to the “unlucky-ness” is the fact that we’re playing tournament/sng-style in the homegame, so no cash-game – instead everyone buys in with a set amount and we play a freeze-out, usually paying the top 3 spots (or the top 2 if less than 7-8 players are playing). With all the chatter and stuff it’s a slow game, so if you’re card-dead you’re pretty much at the mercy of the cards and let me tell you, they’ve got NO MERCY at all for me. This has been going on for months now and I’m really puzzled. Is there anything I can do different? I doubt it as I’ve tried to change up, switch gears, play tight, play loose, always looking out for the current status of the table and the involved players….to no avail. Usually I set it up beautifully by making some bluffs, sometimes getting caught, sometimes not, sometimes showing it…all to generate action later on when I’ve got a monster. At least that’s the plan. The problem is that the plan does work out for the first part, getting the money in extremely good that is, but the second part, the holding up and raking in the pot part, isn’t working out at all.

We played shorthanded (6) tonight and the first hand that pretty much crippled me came up pretty early. There’s two limps, I’m on the button with Kd4d…I call…SB and BB stick around and we see a flop with two diamonds. Checked around. I check behind. Turn brings the third diamond. Yatzee! Cutoff check, I bet…SB calls…BB folds…cutoff calls. River is a blank. SB checks. Cutoff bets big. I’m puzzled…sure there’s a straight out there and the flush, but I’ve got the second nut flush here. So I call…the SB thinks for ages and then calls, too. Showdown: SB – straight…cutoff AdJd for the nut-flush, me Kd4d for the second nut-flush. Nice. Yuck. So I’m crippled and pretty soon I’m busto.

So I stick around for the second game, which we play turbo-style (6min blinds)…after all it’s the beginning of the week and ppl have to get their lazy behinds out of bed in the morning. Nothing much to report from this one…I push in with the worst hand twice and suckout the first time when a seven spikes on the turn (A7 vs AJ)…the second time I’m busto, all good there.

So the other players battle it out and they’re still anxious to play another turbo. I’m in and things are looking good. I pick up a few pots early on. Then the following hand comes down. I’m in the BB with QQ. Nice. Action folds around to the button. He calls. SB moves all-in (I’ve got him covered by a longshot). I hesitate for 3 seconds before pushing in myself. The button thinks and thinks, and yes, I’ve got him covered by 1/3 too. So he pushes in. Now I’m thinking to myself: uh-oh, you’re probably dead…I put the button on AK and the SB on AT-AK…to my surprise the flip over K7 (button) and KT (SB). What the heck? I’m happy though…one overcard…two outs for them. Flop? K7x…turn bring the T for the SB resuck…river is a blank and I’m down to 1/3 of my original stack. So sick. Even borderline crazy I would say.

So I moan a little…but after all everybody in the homegame knows how bad I’m running…and that’s why they’re after me. They know that they’re usually a MASSIVE underdog, but they don’t care. The old saying goes “After all it’s Ingoal, I’ll suckout on him. I call.”…and call they do and tbh I LOVE IT. What else could you ask for? One or more player(s) willing to throw their money out the windows virtually drawing dead almost every single time? So the setup is perfect, the only problem, as already mentioned, is the fugly sickness that comes after those calls.

So as I’m short on chips I’m contemplating making a move, but I don’t until I’m UTG. I look down at QTo and I push. The BB ponders a call after everyone folded, after all it’s me, so why not? But he lays it down and shows 96o…I ask the dealer to rabbit-hunt the board and he does. I would have lost to a 6 on the turn. *lol*…the usual. So I’m in the BB and I’ve gotta fold the next hand. Then I’m in the SB and I look down at KK. After the button calls I move in over the top and the BB ponders a call. As I’m short it’s not all that much to call and after all he’s s00ted with 6s8s. He makes the calls. Right in the windows is a 6. The other two flop cards are two low spades, giving him not only a flush draw, but a gutterball as well. The turn is the third spade and I’m drawing dead. Just for good measure the river completes the gutterball straight as well, just to make sure that my kings get cracked for sure…*lol*…so I get up and out of there in a hurry…

Now I’m back home and still a little steamed up about this whole thing. Could it be that I’m unluckier than Mike Matusow? Looking at the results of the last months of the home game I would say: abso-fucking-lutely…and that’s scary…I’m outta here to get some de-tilt sleep…

Played two session apart from the SWDP tourney. One before it and one after it. Four 6max SnGs each…total score was almost exactly the same for both sessions (1st 3rd 2nd 1st and 1st 1st 4th 2nd)…so ITM 6/8 with four wins. Overall this seems to be working out like a charm. I fire up four of those bad boys and play them parallel, which not only keeps me busy, but is no problem with my new panel. I guess I’ll keep hitting those bad boys for a while now…let’s see how it develops.

As for the other part of the title: really insane how a poker blog attracts spam, especially trackback spam. It started a few days ago and I was really getting frustrated as trackback spam circumvents part of the antispam solutions I’ve got in place on here (namely the antispam pic). So I decided to finally activate the antispam atomic bomb, which comes with WordPress. It’s name is Akismet and all you need is an API-Key to activate it, which is available for free on wordpress.com (if you earn less than 500$/month with your blog – no worries there…lol). I activated it three days ago and it has done a great job so far. It blocked and/or caught well over 15.000 spams and counting in three days (for the exact number see the footer). Friggin spammers!

I’m out…

…I’ve kept myself to feeding on the 6max donks tonight…my new display comes in handy too…now it’s no problem to play four full sized tables (or even more tables resized a little)…1920×1200 is a nice resolution 😉

So…I played four of the 6max SnGs at once and I won three of them. Then I played two Step 1 WSOP satellites and won one of them (earning a Step 2 ticket (worth 27$)). Overall a nice session.

After that I decided that it was time to buy my first poker software ever…I’ve used some testversions of different poker softwares before (including PokerIndicator and TourneyManager), but I couldn’t convince myself that I should buy any of it, until tonight. I just ordered a license for TourneyManager. I hope that it’ll help me analyze my game a little more, especially when it comes to results. We’ll see. On another note, I’ll also buy PokerTracker soonish, but I’m waiting for Version 3.0 to appear, which should be in the near future.

Speaking of spending dough…I also ordered some new books to keep me company…I bought two of Schoonmaker’s books…”Your worst poker enemy: master the mental game” and “Your best poker friend: increase your mental edge”…and I even ordered some stuff which didn’t cost me anything (apart from FPPs)…a nice little sports jacket from the PokerStars store…nice.

Back to the new panel…here’s a pic of it…hmmmm….tasty…

I’m out…

…couldn’t get a foot on the ground today. Some of the usual coolers and once I pushed it in with the best of it, shit hit the fan…so it was about time to take a break. I guess I’ll stick to my second favourite occupation. shorthanded SnGs. Took first in three out of four, which was nice. But even more important than the result: I made good decisions, mostly, and in the instances I made a bad decision (headsup with a monster chiplead, twice), it didn’t matter…in one it was over in the next hand and in one I even sucked out, yes, I GOT LUCKY with J8o on an 8 high rainbow board…sure enough my opponent has KK…turn J…right in the heart…god I know how that stings…the difference…I apologized, even if that’s no consolation…

…played a dozen sngs tonight. Won exactly 6 of 12. So I’m stuck the rake. Nice. Honestly, I didn’t play perfect…so I’m not even trying to claim that I got totally unlucky all the time. But really, I should have won at least three or four more. But no. Pushing over the top with KK on a Jack high board…get called by KJo…river J…pushing with 93o on a 83×3 board…not enough against A8o…river 8…pushing with JJ against two undercards…instacall….flop two pair…etc.

Running that “good” is really fun…NOT. Oh well, at least it didn’t send me into tilt- or reckless mode, still stinks…oh well…I’m outta here…

…still fighting with the flu, so no extensive sessions or anything. I managed to sneak in two brogger tourneys though. Saturdays with Dr. Pauly (PLO) and the bodonkey tonight.

SwDP is mostly a blurr, but it’s really been fun. I made the final table. Finished ITM. Not bad. Tonight in the bondonkey I was on a good run too. Didn’t pick up many hands, some small pps early on. Still managed to run my stack up to 5k with some good calls. In the end, the usual crap happened. Just before the second break we’re down to 20. I sit on 4.6k in chips (plus minus a few). I look down a KK in the BB. The first big pair all night. Sure enough and LP player (cutoff or button, I can’t remember) pops it to 900 (150/300 blinds)…nothing much to do here. Either call and push if no ace hits or push right away. I opted for the latter option. Result: get instacalled by AKo, see one of the fifteen aces in the deck hit the flop and cya. I guess the first option would have been better in this spot, but honestly, that’s only looking at the way the board came down…no way I’m not pushing here…so, for the second time in as many tries I exited from the bodonkey with waaaay the best hand….really disappointing, especially given the crazy starting time….but oh well…I guess I’ll have to live with that…. 😥 ….still stings like a mother though 👿

…still running into shit hand after shit hand. I really need to take some time and analyze some of those hands as I’m slowly but steadily shaken to the core. How can I lose all those hands. Am I crazy? Did I make (a) mistake(s)?

I’m really not talking about the usual coolers here, yes, I’ve run kings into aces, queens into aces, jacks into aces and fives into aces all in one session, headsup, case cards were the norm (A9 vs Q9 on a 99xx board…sure enough we get it in and he rivers a Q, etc)…nice. I’m talking about hands like this one: you look down at QQ preflop headsup. You’re slightly ahead in chips and you pop it on the button, your opponent repops you pretty quickly, you repop him….he calls….as I don’t have any history on this player I can only assume what he’s got here. AA? No, he would have repopped me or shoved after my re-reraise…KK? See above…QQ…nope…so JJ down to 22? AK? AQ? Something along those lines is what I went with…the flop comes ten high rainbow with two threes…he checks….hmmm….I lead out pot….he shoves….what to do? I can’t put him on a three here and if he’s got the tens in his pocket I’m willing to stack off…he shows? K3o…sure enough no two outer for me and I’m all but busted….To quote myself: so sick!

Oh well…I guess it’s either that I’m on a really sick cooler-period again or something is really wrong with my game these days…one way or another I’ll have to turn this around as I’m really going crazy here…looking back at the last 3-6 months I can assess the following: Online, I dropped almost 2/3 of my PS bankroll, busted on FullTilt and gave back my winnings (not including the T$)…offline, I didn’t win a single tourney…yes, I finished ITM every now and then…but the norm is that I get busted being a 70+% favourite…

To quote yoda: Meditate on this, I will! 🙄

…and right back on tilt…

It’s just hawesome how you can totally pwn the competition and still get kicked in the nuts again and again…I didn’t even bother to do screenshots tonight…I was too steamed up…still kept my shit together and tried everything I possibly could to bust my opponents….no joy though…one of the typical hands, which is my final hand of the night as I can’t be bothered to play a single god damn hand more…

PokerStars Game #15552948619: Tournament #78722082, $22+$1 Omaha Hi/Lo Pot Limit – Match Round I, Level III (15/30) – 2008/02/25 – 20:23:22 (ET)
Table ‘78722082 1’ 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: talisain51 (1860 in chips)
Seat 2: Ingoal (1140 in chips)
talisain51: posts small blind 15
Ingoal: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Ingoal [Js Tc 4d Ah]
talisain51: calls 15
Ingoal: raises 30 to 60
talisain51: calls 30
*** FLOP *** [Jd 8d Jh]
Ingoal: bets 60
talisain51: calls 60
*** TURN *** [Jd 8d Jh] [5c]
Ingoal: bets 150
talisain51: raises 540 to 690
Ingoal: raises 330 to 1020 and is all-in
talisain51: calls 330 –mmmmm yummy you got 9 outs, I totally got you both ways…
*** RIVER *** [Jd 8d Jh 5c] [Ks] — boom headshot, thanks stars for yet another evening from hell
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Ingoal: shows [Js Tc 4d Ah] (HI: three of a kind, Jacks)
talisain51: shows [Ts Kd 2d Jc] (HI: a full house, Jacks full of Kings)
Ingoal said, “come on”
talisain51 collected 2280 from pot
No low hand qualified
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2280 | Rake 0
Board [Jd 8d Jh 5c Ks]
Seat 1: talisain51 (button) (small blind) showed [Ts Kd 2d Jc] and won (2280) with HI: a full house, Jacks full of Kings
Seat 2: Ingoal (big blind) showed [Js Tc 4d Ah] and lost with HI: three of a kind, Jacks

I’m off…pictures from my vacation coming soonish….

…the place where 93o is good enough to call a 4BB UTG raise…
…the place where flopping the second nut flush is good enough to get beat by the nut flush when the fourth club hits the board…
…the place where…my luck is shittier than a shitpile….

Just rambling so nevermind…. 🙄
At least I “got lucky” enough to win 2nd place in the side-tourney…so not a total failure poker-wise…at least I had some fun chatting and drinkin…