Now I’m really annoyed with TitanPoker!!!

Support got back to me and told me that there were technical difficulties yesterday, so they offered to enter the players of yesterday’s cancelled tournament to the regular 16ET qualifier and the replacement qualifier at 17ET, sounds fine to me…but then the whole thing was messed up again.

The tournament at 16ET starts and I look down at K-K, All-In from MP, one caller…he shows 8-9h, board is blank…I double up in the first hand (3020), second hand is crap, third hand is A-A, I raise to 300..all fold…argh…up to 3040. The following hands are all crap so I fold. 15th hand of the night is A-Qh so I push reraised All-In, call, he shows 10-10, board is once again blank…down to 1772 chips. 23rd hand A-Jd, All-In one caller, he shows K-Qo, my ace holds up, up to 3384 in chips. No the tournament is frozen…but the time is running and the blinds rise and rise…support message pops up: they’re on it…oh well…how long can it take…a long time…about 30min later play resumes with a jump from level 3 (30/60) to level 6 (100/200)…a short-stack pushes from MP, I look down at A-5 not a major hand but I test him…all-in…he calls…9-9 which holds up…down to 800…great…ooh we’re on break for 5 minutes…a total of 31 hands played…great…I donkey off my last chips after the break to focus on the other tournament (which has already begun and I’m not really good at playing two tourneys at the same time)…so I make an early exit…great… 🙁 🙁 🙁

Stats of the night:

• Players entered in 16ET: 324; Ingoal’s finish: 221
• Players entered in 17ET: 420; Ingoal’s finish: 322

Two thumbs down for this whole thing…Titan is starting to annoy me beyond believe…I’m really thinking about cashing out…

Update:
Now the status for both those tournaments is interrupted/cancelled…maybe they’ll restart it or better reschedule it…I’ll wait for a support message I guess…

After qualifying through playing raked hands (> 50 is minimum, I played > 100) yesterday I was really looking forward to play in the event today (16 ET). So I fired up Titan and registered, just to find the thing cancelled when it was time to start. I really can’t say why it was cancelled yet as there were enough players around (> 300 with a 30 minimum) – I wrote a mail to support, maybe they can enlighten me…

Side note: I had such a lovely post written up just to see Firefox crash on me…note to self: save as draft next time…

Today was the Absolute Poker New Depositors Main Event for which I qualified earlier this week (see this post). The tournament started out on a bad note as I was seated at a rather dead table. So it was nearly impossible to get chips early on. It took the Absolute Poker system a while to kick in, but then all players not present were automatically busted (they were set to autofold prior to that). That left me at a table with 2 other active players and hence not a chance to get many chips either – this was kind of unfair as there was a good portion of small tables (2-3 ppl just like my table) and a good portion of full tables. It took the system another few minutes to finally balance the field again.

I found myself at a good table with really cool players. Three were especially nice and made the tournament fun to play in! Ashlips22, DrSkillz and JJSproull (aka the man that was immortal surviving short-stacked all-ins time and time again). We had a really nice and fun time and cheered each other on when it came to the bubble. Unfortunately I was short-stacked so I had to make a move sooner or later (with blinds hitting 500 and my chip count stuck at around 1400), I had two to three decent hands in a row (A-Q, J-J, Q-Q) and was able to get some blinds back, but it didn’t get me far…so I had to make a decision: go all-in with J-J or wait for a better hand (in the next 6-7 hands) – I went All-In, but was a little bit unlucky as my pocket Jacks were crushed by an A-5 when another A hit the flop…too bad…out in 91st place 🙁

Nontheless it was really fun to play this tournament as I got to know new players (as mentioned above) and had a really good time…at least they all finished in the money and it didn’t cost me a dime to play, so who am I to complain…I’m really looking forward to play with these guys again…

Stats:

• Players entered: 1248
• Starting chip count: 1500
• Top 63 payed – 3000$
• 1-11: 75$
• 12-28: 60$
• 29-35: 45$
• 36-63: 30$
• Ingoal’s finish: 91st
• Ashlips22: 19th – 60$
• DrSkillz: 40th – 30$
• JJSproull: 53rd – 30$

It has been a while since I played at Titan and it was a good decision to play a little bit tonight. I went out of my way and didn’t play a S&G or regular tournament, but just good old money play. Play at a 0.10$/0.20$ first and went up around 4$ in no time, couldn’t catch anything for a while so moved on to another table – in this case a 0.05$/0.10$ table as no other 0.10$/0.20$ table was running. Caught some hands early on and was able to stay ahead (+1.20$) until I decided to call it quits for tonight (or this morning as it’s already nearly 4am over here)…nice 🙂

Today’s final private poker event of the year was cancelled last minute 🙁

Played a little home game following the Fifa World Cup Final Draw…5 Euro buy-in…4 players…winner awarded 15 Euro, 2nd place awarded 5 Euro. Busted out in 3rd place…couldn’t catch a hand and just when I caught a hand my flop All-In was called…

My hand: A-A 🙂
Thomas’ hand: 10-J
Flop: 7-8-9
Turn+River: blank 🙁

Just won my seat for the sunday main event, nice, 3k up for grabs 🙂

(Click pic above for bigger screenshot)

Another day, another 9 handed S&G for 0.50$…and once again I bust out in 4th place (top 3 in the money), but I’m getting ahead of myself.

I sit back and relax and watch people bust out right and left – in the mean time I don’t catch any real hands, at least some live cards, but I don’t catch anything and fold a lot. We’re down to four handed action and I catch a nice run of cards…or at least some playable cards and I move All-In with 9-9, donkey shows A-Jo, my pair holds up as the board is: K-5-4-3-3. Alrighty, double me up (2400 chips now). Next hand and I look down at Ah-Jh…All-In again…everybody folds, nice. Then on the next hand I’m on a diamond flush draw, I put my opponent on a straight draw (flop: 6-7-8 and he’s betting out)…so I call, turn is blank but I call his continuation bet…river hits and I’ve got my king high flush…he bets out…I wonder if he’s holding the Ace…hmm…what to do what to do…I call and sure enough the donkey is showing his diamond Ace…down to 1200 in chips. The very next hand brings another smile on my face…As-Qh…not bad…All-In please…one caller…who shows….A-Q…two hearts in the flop…maybe I’m getting lucky…turn is another heart…but no joy on the river and we split the pot. The very next, and sadly last, hand brings an even bigger smile to my face: Cowboys…All-In yet again one caller (sure enough the same donkey again)…he shows A-Q again…and sure enough the flop hits him…4-5-A…turn (10) and river (3) don’t help either side and I’m out in 4th place…argh!

After the quick exit in the little S&G I was browsing through the tournament listings and found a freeroll, which I entered. There were 1909 players in total and I managed to hold on for over 3 hours!
Unfortunately my K-J All-In bet (14k chips) was called down and crushed by A-A. So I went out in 33rd place. Not bad at all as it was a good experience to finally last really long in a tournament again, while playing some of my best poker (looking up (semi) bluffs, pushing ppl around, etc)! The only thing that didn’t rock is that, as it was a freeroll, only the first 18 places were payed (10$,8$,6$,4$,3$,3$,3$,2$,2$, 10-18: 1$)…nontheless I had a great time and was able to build up some confidence again. Poker world here I come, again 😉

Tried to continue the good roll today, but couldn’t come through right away…finished 5th of 9 in another 0.50$ S&G…so no cash this time…