Only managed to squeeze in a little poker yesterday (1 SnG – 3rd place finish) and today (3 SnGs – 1 bubble, 2 earlier exits). Sometimes you’re in the junk-kicking-zone (yesterday) and sometimes you’re in the getting-a-junk-kicking-zone (today). Played the first two table SnG and really played well. When we were down to 5 handed (4 ITM), I just couldn’t catch a break and had to take a shot, missed, no biggie. Then I watch some movies and relax a little, come back, fire up PokerStars and play two SnGs at the same time. Everything looking good until I catch three hands in a row:

1. KK in LP…one early raiser, one caller behind him…then folded around to me…Push…orginal raiser calls…shows AJ….flop AJx and IGHN
2. Parallel to the first hand I catch 77, medium sized stack on the button raises…folded around to me…I ponder and decide to give it a go…push…he calls…shows Q10o (?!)…flop J78…turn the case 9, river 5…
   
3. In the very next hand I look down at As6s…I’m now short stacked and decide to push on the button as there was only one limper so far…he calls…shows KcKh..yuck…flop Ac Jd Jc 🙂 …turn Qc…oh oh….river 6c…and IGHN…
   

Enough Stars for today…let’s see if I can get some revenge on the other rooms…

There’s nothing like playing poker in a live environment. It would rock more though if you would get the hands to go along with that feeling. The only playable hands that I got prior to the final table were rare (QQ…which I layed down after a possible/obvious flush board presented itself, an AQ which I layed down to yet another possible/obvious flush board and AA – just when I needed it). So I made the final table again, but I was unable to take control of the table as I was on the shortstack and so the possibilities to push one of the pot were rare given the huge blinds. So my end came in 6th place when my KdQd received no help vs 1010…too bad…at least I made the final table again….

Sidenote:

1. Being on the shortstack – sucks
2. Sitting in the BB at the same time – sucks
3. Having three limpers in front of yourself – sucks
4. Looking down at AA and more than doubling up against the other shortstack to reach the final table – priceless 😉

Woohoo! Earlier than expected we meet again today to play our regular home game. I’m really excited to get back at the tables after last time’s quick and unsatisfying exit. Let’s see if the cards fall my way today 😉

After the recent grinding at the usual poker rooms (Stars, FT, UB) I thought it was time to test some new waters, so I signed up at PartyPoker and yes, I used the good old bonus code Iggy 🙂

As I haven’t played at Party for a while (I started playing online poker at the Party play money tables ages ago), so I started to play at the “beginner” tables (micro limit). Some beginners there, but it seemed that the shark/fish ratio at the tables I played was like 30/70 maybe 40/60, so not all that much awful play and I cleared my bonus within an hour (I only deposited my standard 50 bucks, so I only needed to play 50 raked hands). After that I jumped into one of the new depositors “lucky dollar” tourneys and boy did those new depositors stink out the joint – nontheless it was once again enough to “stink me out” of the joint AK vs K9 s00ted…ugly river flush and I’m out…hehe…same ol’ same ol’…

Long story short: prepare to hear some new Party Poker stories in the days to come 🙂

Side note: This is the first account that I had to validate via phone, fair enough, they play it safe with their customers. On another note: You never know how rusty your conversation skills are, when you haven’t spoken a language in a while, hehe….I write english stuff each and every day, either here, on my other (english) sites or at sites I’m involved with (i.e. SitePoint.com/forums), but writing is totally different to speaking – after all english is only my second language, or third if you count swabian (my native german dialect) 😉

No luckboxing for me though…early on I took down a nice pot when my pocket queens hit trips on the flop. Shortly thereafter I standard raise from EP with AQo…smokkee in LP pushes…now I’m faced with a decision – either fold…or give it my best shot, I put him on something like Ax/A10/AJ or a small to middle pair…so I call and he shows 1010…fair enough…Q on the flop…but there’s a 9 too…J on the turn….hmm…what might the river bring? Yup, a King giving him the nut straight…dang…and I’m down to 720 in chips…

A few hands later I pick up AKo in EP…I push….smokkee is nice enough to call me with AJo…K on the flop…a little scary that he’s holding the Ac…but this time there are “only” three clubs on the board and I’m back in the game. Then I’m literally card dead…and when I’m down to around 800 chips again I reraise All-In after a standard raise of the current chipleader (dsheep)…he calls…my QhJh vs his K10o…King on the flop and I’m out in 38 of 66 🙁
Ah well…had my fun, had the chance to chat with the guys again, so I’m not too frustrated…

Sidenotes:

1. Aces seen at my table – 3 times
2. Aces cracked by smaller pocket pair – 2 times
3. Aces holding up vs KK – 1 time; in this very hand I should have played my 35o, lol, flop A35…turn blank…river 3…man, that would have been the bad beat of the year 😉
4. Times Wil busted with KK – in this tourney: once; recently: 3 times if I’m not mistaken…ouch….

The offline frustration today is totally unrelated to poker: my footie team had the chance to win the championship this year, but we were at the mercy of our opponents as we didn’t have a match today, but they did (we had already played our final match last thursday)…the scenario was clear: the lose, we’re the champions, the draw or win and they’re the champions…what happened? They played 3-3 and are the champions…which leaves a bitter taste in our mouths…

1. Our Opponent – Games played: 24, 17W, 5D, 2L, 74:21 goals – 56 Points
2. We – Games played: 24, 17W, 5D, 2L, 74:24 goals – 56 Points

🙁

So they go up to the next higher league and we have to play two matches, which we need to win to go up, too. First an eliminator against another league on the same level (Kreisliga B), then against the team from the higher league (Kreisliga A) which is next to last in that league. Matches scheduled for tuesday and saturday…wish us luck…

After that frustration I fired up PokerStars and entered the 3$ rebuy to the $1.000.000…no joy, so I close Stars and head over to FullTilt. First SnG, first win. Second SnG, 3rd place. Third SnG 6th place – end of the ITM series. So I step up a level and try my luck…and I win! The decisive hand was a min raise of my opponent heads up…I look down at A2 and I’ll take a flop with that…flop comes A22…hehe…he doubles me up with his AK and I’m in control. The end comes in the next hand…nice! I’m starting to get tired, so I head down a level again to play a final SnG…we’re down to 4 handed and I’m a slight chipleader (44xx to 43xx to 2.x k to 2.x k) one of the smaller stacks raises to 4xBB…the other “big stack” calls…I push to 2k…he ponders and ponders….calls…flop comes 7-3-9 rainbow…he checks…I push….he goes into the tank for a little eternity and calls…he shows Kc7c…it holds up and I’m crippled…I congratulate him on his nice play…after all they were s00ted…so why complain…before I go into the chat and blog rant mode I log off and remind myself of one thing: if you play at the donkey levels it’s inevitable…there will be donkeys making bad decisions and hitting, so move along… 😉

Played some SnGs today, as I’m still in the “pad your roll”-mode. Same game (NL Hold’em), similar format (two table SnG at Stars, one table SnG at Full Tilt), totally different results:

PokerStars SnGs: 2 early exits, junk kicking included 🙁
FullTilt: 2x 1st, 2x 3rd, no major junk kicking included 🙂

Tonight I set a new record for eliminating opponents in a SnG:

I personally eliminated 7 (of the 17) opponents, four of them at the final table (including a nice hammer vs A4 win, when the flop came down 7-4-3, he didn’t improve on the turn and river either). Good news: I’m the monster chipleader when I eliminate the player in 4th place. Bad news: I catch some decent cards, but I can’t win one friggin hand against the luckbox on my left, so I double him up three times and I’m out in 3rd…yikes…

So, we found our way to the next home game tonight…bbq followed by a nice poker session. We played our regular NL HE tournament and with 12 players showing up, we split up to two tables of 6 players. Shorthanded play, not bad. I played three hands in the whole tourney…I was ahead in all three hands and suffered one junk kicking after the next. Not a single win and I’m ahead at all times until the turn/river….bad luck describes it best, I guess…

Hand 1:

A8 MP, raise preflop…one caller…flop 8-10-Q rainbow…I lead out and bet half the pot…call..turn is blank…I lead out and bet half the pot…call…river 9…I lead out and bet half the pot…call…opponent shows: 67o…straight….nice…NOT

Hand 2:

910s…I bet preflop…one caller…flop comes down A910…I lead out again…call…turn A…now I’m worried…but I can’t lay this down, I need to bet to find out if he’s got the Ace…call…river is blank…now I check and he bets about 1/8th of the pot…easy call…sure enough he shows A3o…nice…NOT

Now I’m shortstacked (around 1/3 of my starting stack) and I’m steaming…next hand I’m in the BB…

Hand 3:

I look down at my cards and find KK…nice 🙂 …I wait to see what happens and the Button calls, the SB calls…it’s on me and I raise All-In…Button ponders and ponders and calls…SB folds…he shows: A8o….now if an Ace comes down I won’t be disappointed, after all this is poker…it can happen…but that’s not the way it or me is going down:

Flop: 6-7-10…turn 10…river: 9…two pair kings and tens loses to straight…and I’m out of the tourney….

Wow, how unlucky can you be? Damn! Ah well…at least I finished 2nd in the side game which was played parallel to the final table of the main tourney, so I’m only slightly down for the night (and still way ahead overall), but it still hurts to go out early without doing anything wrong (?!)…ahead till the turn/river and then no joy – side note: I lost the final hand of the sidegame QJ vs 10-8, flop and turn are blank…river 8 and IGHN…I guess it just wasn’t my night… 😉

On the bright side there’s always another time to play and so I won’t lose any sleep about my early exit tonight…