…well, well…took some days off…and came back fresh and relaxed. Everything felt right at the tables today, just the results didn’t match that…at least not totally.

Just played four 6max SnGs…and I finished 2nd, 3rd, 1st, 3rd…so ITM twice and bubbled twice…with the best hand no less…but that’s besides the point…I put my money in really good (they had 3 outs on me)…so I’m really happy with the way I played today…

Not much poker today…just a little razz cashgame action…up one buyin in the first session, exactly even for the second one. Finished 16th in the four-card-bingo session by the name of Saturdays with Dr.Pauly…not a bad day…

…what a BRUTAL session today. Played a little more than usual…just felt like it and it was about the worst session I’ve played in weeks, if not months. It’s not so much the coolers (e.g. KK vs AA vs 22, obv the ducks win), or that I made mistakes in my decisions, it’s the overall unrealness on the bubble or slightly before it.

I can’t even believe how often I finished third today. So sick. The sickest part were the hands though. It was basically the same every friggin time. It is a tough bubble…ppl play tight tight tight…you look down at AQ/AK on the button…everybody is basically short at that point…you’re one of the two players with slightly more chips. You raise/push and you get called by the other “big stack” in the SB or BB every single time. Always the same…99, JJ, JJ, QQ, 88…number of flips won there: 0. Thank you very much…

On a bright note, I won’t continue to whine anymore…I’ll let you on your way with a quick thought: As tough as running bad in flips or how bad some beats are, it could always be worse… 😈

Played some SnGs last night, nothing spectacular. Some shorthanded ones, some WSOP steps. Not much joy in any of them. Busted out fairly quickly in the first four six-max and the WSOP step 2 and 1.

Then my “luck” turned around a bit and I was able to score two Ws in the last four six-max SnGs finishing the night 2 of 8 (2 of 10 total including the WSOP)…so slightly down, but not disappointed…good luck at the tables….

…no, no, not back to the marathon-headsup-sessions. Something else. What has been missing around here for a while? Yes, the random pic dumps highlighting some of the hands that came down while I played. Today I had my snapshot-finger ready again and took some pics. Nothing spectacular really. Played 8 6-max SnGs this afternoon, finished ITM 4 out of 8 with 2Ws and 2 second place finishes. Went out fourth thrice and fifth another time when my AA ran into the monster KK preflop….King…boom headshot. Oh well, not much to complain about today. I guess I’ll be back later to play in the four card bingo lottery by the name of Saturdays with Dr. Pauly.

Now to the random pic dump and I’m outta here…

…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…

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…

…god, now I know why I hate PLO so much. Played in Saturdays with Dr. Pauly and managed to run better hand into bs hand again and again, had my aces cracked twice, the second time finally crippled me…the KKxx monster was just too much for AAxx…oh well…cya next week or something…fucking PLO!

…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…