Well, yesterday saw me get one year older…one more year before the big 3 0. Had a great time with family and friends, no big party or anything – that’ll be next year. Today it was back to the grind and it didn’t work out all that great.

Started out with some six handed SnGs. The first one was nice, I busted player after player as the couldn’t fold their “gold” (TPMK, SPNK, etc). So I get headsup with a guy and I’m 3:1 in chips. One suckout later and we’re even. One cooler later and he’s got me out in 2nd. Oh well…ITM is ITM, but I would have loved to start the session with a W. The next one was coolered ultra-deluxe. After the following hand I was pretty much gone, well, not really as I made a nice comeback to 1.7k before running my KQ s00ted into AK.

After that a little headsup SnG. W. After that, my mind is wondering if I should play a little “non-hold’em” again. I settle for a PLO SnG and I put myself on tilt. Not by bad play, but by chosing PLO playing against an absolute card-rack that doesn’t raise, ever. I bet and bet and bet into oblivion and the miracle card always comes on the end and/or my outs never hit. Now this is a little exaggerated, but it felt like it.

After that I should have cooled off a little, but I didn’t and promptly lost two headsup matches. The third one after that, I lost too. I couldn’t do anything about it either. I grind it out till I’m up 2200-800. I pop it preflop with nines, he raises, I reraise, he pushes…hmm…call…AJ s00ted…flop and turn are blank…J on the river. Back to square one. A few hands later he calls my all-in on an all-rags flop with KQ (I hold A5)…hmm…turn blank…queen on the river and busto. Nicely done sir.

Yuck. Poker is so cruel sometimes, oh well…one more can’t hurt. W…and I’m down and out for the night…better luck tomorrow…hopefully…

What can I say…an interesting session today. Battled with donks back and forth and they got the best of me most of the time. Lost two headsup matches – the usual. No need to play anymore HU for the day as I can’t catch a break to save my very soul. I play a little six handed SnG trying to blow off some steam. That works out pretty nicely, I get down to headsup, but I’m down 1:4 in chips. Thirty hands later I’m the winner. Wheee…a W.

After that, I jumped into a Triple Shootout to the sunday million. The first two tables are mostly a blur.

What stood out on the second table was my headsup opponent. He took out three players (including one that took out the first player), so we went into HU with me being at 1:3 in chips. He started to bleed chips though as I made one “great call” after the other and caught him bluffing and/or overplaying his hand time and time again. After a few short hands I was the chipleader. I had the chance to bust him when I moved in on him with A6 he calls with A4…chop…a few hands later I took him out though to advance to the finals.

Sitting at the final table I promised myself to not get involved unless I had a monster. I kept my promise for quite a long time until one player busted and I finally started to pick up some hands. I was still down to 1k in chips and as it’s a turbo it was make or break time. I moved in with 55 and the BB called me, after some deliberation, with QJo…alrighty…let’s not get unlucky here…5 on the flop…wheeee….so I double through and pick up some pots after that. Soon enough I’m the new chipleader and I try to knock out a shorty. I raise it preflop and instead of pushing, what I hoped he’d do, he calls half his stack…so he’s basically commited…hmm….I hold KsQs…flop comes down KJT rainbow…he pushes…now I’m sitting there with an open-ender and top pair and he could have any two…so I instacall….he shows? Q9o….well played sir, but wait, there are still cards to come. turn Q….river A…chop it…I’ll take that, but how come he flops the joint with a dominated hand there, damn it…that hand comes back to haunt me later on, don’t worry. I fold fold fold and the chopbox is picking up steam, he raises relentlessly and even when he get’s called he shows up with the best hand. Soon enough he’s the chipleader, there’s one shorter player and I’m in third. Then the hand comes up. Boy, I wish I would have just folded it, lol…then again…four-handed? Who am I kidding.

I look down at AKo in the BB and the chopbox comes in for the standard raise on the button. He got me covered by 14 chips…and I honestly think about pushing…but wait…why should I do that when there is one shorter player. Then again, only top two pay (third is bubble winning 2$ lol). Let’s just see a flop and see what happens. Flop comes down K98 with two clubs (I got the Ac). I think about it and there’s no way I think I’m behind here…if he got lucky (like he did on the hand against me and two hands later against another player K9 vs AK)…well..then at least I have a good rant on my hands. So I push and he insta-calls showing? 99…thank you very much…turn club..river blank and I’m out in fourth. So friggin sick. Yes, it’s a coinflip. Yes, I didn’t need to get involved (although with the 5min levels you gotta play some if you got some). So I’m still sitting here, puzzled. He makes a play from the button, so do I worry about a big hand here, not necessarily. I decide to make the call, leaving me slightly over 1.7k (blinds 100/200). I’m hitting the flop TPTK + backdoor flush draw. Should I check there? Now he pushes anyway so no way I’m getting away from that hand in that spot or am I supposed to believe that I’m behind against a button-standard-raise-range here? – I didn’t think so. So, was he lucky? Yes. Was I unlucky? Yes. Oh well…that’s the way it is. Story of my day. Played 204 hands of flawless poker, well, 203 if you discount the last hand and I’m sitting here with a bad taste in my mouth. (And yes, he won the ticket, surprise surprise) So sick, I could almost feel the T$ in my account. Damn! I hate it when stuff like this happens on the bubble…especially after kicking butt for 1.5hours and the chance to makes 215$ out of 2$ so close, so close and in such a tourney it’s not the money that stings (pretty obvious at a buyin of 2$), it’s the fact that you got so far and then crapped out of it. Sickening…feels like craping your pants right in front of the toilet door. I’m off to cry myself to sleep now…j/k…nn 😉

Started the poker day by playing some headsup, only three matches, two Ws. Tonight, I saw that Kat was hosting a nice donkfest, errm rebuy-tourney on FullTilt. The only problem, although it’s just a 1+1$ tourney, I’m busto at FullTilt. At least I was until tonight…redeposited some dough and off to the races.

The first table was the usual crazy ass rebuy style. Push push push. I did just that with any decent hand and it worked out pretty good. Although I had to rebuy after the first hand I played. AK vs small pair…K on the flop…but set for the opposition. After that I didn’t rebuy anymore…didn’t have to. So I didn’t make it quite to the top of the rebuy rank with a measly three rebuys (one to start with the double-stack and one after the AK hand).

The first hour is a blur, although I had some nice hands and got lucky sometimes too (especially in the A9 vs AJ hand…J on the flop…turn and river 9…wheee) – sorry Pokerwolf that you were my personal ATM early on. The sickest hand of the first hour was the following though – boy, never before did I wish to hold the hammer so badly 😉

At the first break I was sitting pretty, third in chips.

The second hour is a blur too, I didn’t take notes or anything, the only thing I remember though is that almost every other flop was a hammer flop (72x, 22x, 77x, 772, 722) – unreal, I’ve never before seen so many hammer flops in my life. I didn’t even need to mention that I didn’t have a hammer in any of those hands. One hand that sticks out was the following, money went in on the flop…so he was drawing slim to a queen or jack for the gutter ball…turn gutter ball:

After that I was able to recover pretty quickly, but just before the second break I managed to lose a coinflip AJ vs 44 to lose around 5k…so at the second break I was sitting in 9th (of 10) on a 7.5k stack…

The next minutes are all about steal, resteal and steal some more and we finally made it to the final table:

Two hands stick out in my mind on the final table…shortstacked mookie pushing in with 88…one raiser between me and him and I’m sitting there with JJ…two for one, cool…other player shows AA…no miracle for me…mookie busts out 9th and I’m down in chips again (although I’m still wondering how I didn’t go broke there).

Some steals and folds later and I look down at A10 on the button…one LP raiser preflop…and I decide to see a flop…it comes down 10 high and when he leads into me I thought: bs…so I push…wait…no, I misclick and only minraise leaving 1k behind…doesn’t matter though as he pushes over the top anyway…with the almighty powerful 96 s00ted for the four-flush…turn blank…river kills me…sigh…I guess I should have popped it preflop…then again…I can’t push all the time, just so that someone won’t get lucky on me 😉

Five final thoughts:

1. Why couldn’t it come heart heart one time if hearts need to come at all…I had the Ah damn it…

2. My read was correct…bs…didn’t hold up…all good and I guess it was payback as Pokerwolf was the one I sucked out on with the A9 vs AJ hand…so in the end it was the 1-1 for a draw..all good there…and at least he used the chips wisely to win the whole thing.

3. I’m really looking forward to see Waffles‘ recap, if he writes one, and what he’s got to say about his exit as bubble boy with yet another “beautiful” cold deck A7 vs AA…

4. Big shoutout to VinNay who single-handedly fueled our first table with a grand total of 18 rebuys. I guess his blog-addy runner-runner-rebuy is all too fitting 😉

5. Thanks again Kat for hosting, this was the best six bucks I’ve ever spent on 2.5h of pure donkerific poker fun 🙂

Today’s session had it all. From the unreal calls to the sickest beats, there was something for everyone. For once, although taking some sick beats, I still had the upper hand. Not bad…4-3 in the HU…sick sick sick exit in a one table SnG after laying down unreal hands…nice to see that there are three pairs 7 handed, especially nice to see that the best one didn’t win…lol…the usual…

After those SnGs, I took a shot at the new 16 player headsup ones. Nice format…basically win the first two and you’re ITM, win another one and you’re in the final…won the first three tables…lost the finals trip aces with a chance to boat up (12 outs) no g00t against third nut flush…oh well…I’m out…

Had another lackluster session today, well, two to be precise. One this afternoon, two quick headsup matches…won both. Tonight it was a little different. Match numero uno, ouch, my junk hurts. 2-1. Match numero due, ouch, I can’t belive I made that call…stupid me. 2-2. Match numero tre, wheeeee….3-2.

After that I needed a change of scenery, nine handed SnG will do. Some orbits in the classic overpair vs underpair…JJ vs 33…what’s that third three doing on the board there? Gigli… 3-3.
After that I decided to do something that I rarely do, play PLO. Not PLO8, one of my all-time favourite (and most torturing) games, but PLO and why not headsup?! Now I know that Omaha, independent of the variant you’re playing, is a game of the nuts. But seriously, if there are two hands in play, how great are the chances that you end up second nuts vs nuts? Not all that high I guess…happened all the time though…the nuts switched sides every now and then so it was all good though…still makes you smile when you can look at the board and say: There’s exactly one hand that can beat me here…and your opponent promptly shows it to you. In the end, I had him down to under 300 chips and got the chips in with the best…runner runner boat…wheee….not enough to put me into panic mode though…a few hands later it’s all over when I turn the joint and get the money in the middle…. 4-3. I’ll leave it at that before I get myself stuck again… 🙂

…the ultimate donktastic payback, brought to you by dealers around the net. Coming to a table near you, soon!

*lol* Oh well…what can I say about today’s play, nothing much, same ol’ same ol’…at the usual donkey tables, the usual donkey play and the usual donk luck. Sometimes you sit there and ask yourself: Is this really it? Could this be all you’ll ever see? Then again you tell yourself that it’s part of the game and that longterm it won’t matter. It’s still tough though. The ultimate oxymoron of poker – short-term doesn’t matter. Well, it really doesn’t, but in a way it does.

I mean, it’s the way it is and I’m more and more at the point where I’m accepting it, it still stings though and in a way, without it, there wouldn’t be much to write about either. So, hey, happy go lucky donks, have fun…I’ll write about it and take my money back later…and then some. Thank you.

So…play a little this afternoon, won two headsup matches and got chased out of a shorthanded SnG by a runner runner flush with A4 s00ted despite preflop reraise, bet on the flop and on the turn. Oh well…at least he had 12 outs…and as usual runner runner goodness (TM) was there to save the day. All good, I’m still up a little…

Evening/night rolls around and it’s time to play the WWdN. Starting table is fine although I can’t catch anything. I drop a nice hammer from UTG and take down a nice pot after my flop bet. Then I run presto into AA…oh well presto can’t be gold everytime. I’m down to about 600 15 minutes in and I take a pot here and there, then double up with TPGK. I’m almost back at the starting stack when I catch some “nice hands” (AQ, AK, etc)…despite my standard preflop raises I always get at least one customer and sure as hell I can’t hit a flop. So I fold fold fold…down down down…shorty.

After the break I fold the SB and then push three hands in a row with AQ s00ted, A8o, and A9o…no customers…but at least I take down the blinds. Then I make a nice exit. I look down at Ah9h and decide not to push the one limper of the hand. Flop comes down jack high with two hearts…I check…he bets out, which represents one third of my remaining stack…so I decide to push…maybe he’ll lay it down….no such joy as he flopped TPGK with KJo…turn and river are blank…surprise surprise…and I exit in 30th place.

After that I should have called it a night, but I tried to get some more action. So, headsup it is. Match one…around fifty hands in…flop two pair…push…he got two overs and a runner runner flush draw…(is that even consider a real draw?! – lol, sure it is)…runner runner flush it is…cya.

Hmm…one more won’t hurt…I whip him around like a schoolboy and got him down to half his stack…he pushes preflop…I look down at two nines…call…flop all low…turn A…river unnecessary K…back to square one. I whip him around again and get him down to half the starting stack again…he wins some pots and we’re virtually even (me + 100 chips)…I raise preflop with A10 s00ted…he pushes…I call…he shows 77 for yet another flip….sevens hold up…surprise surprise…my exit comes a few hands later when the mighty A10 s00ted is no match for the even mightier A5 s00ted…how did it happen? You got one guess….awww…you already know the answer….runner runner baby! Nothing better than runner runner in the morning, runner runner in the evening….runner runner all night long…

So…I played some good poker today, made two mistakes (calling the rest of my chips off with KK when the lucksack turned three tens and calling all-in with 55 vs AA in the WWdN) and got unlucky here and there and everywhere…the usual. Stuck in the eternal circle of win some lose some, getting nowhere…I really need to get some more money online to take a shot at some of the bigger MTTs and/or some cashgames again as this whole SnG thing isn’t working for me, at least not atm…

How refreshing some days away from (online) poker can be 🙂

It didn’t intend to play at all today, but then I thought a little poker action would be a good way to end the night. In retrospect it was. I was totally relaxed and didn’t let the (donkey) play of some of my (donkey) opponents get to me at all. I played two six-handed SnGs and that was that.

The first one started off slowly and I finally got hold of some chips eliminating player no. 5 in the process. So I’m sitting pretty even with the others and I look down at AQo on the button. It’s folded to me and I push…hmm…maybe I should have put in the standard raise, but then again…the way the hand went down it wouldn’t have mattered…SB calls with JJ….flop JQx…turn Q…river x…way to win a coinflip. I exit in fourth only running into quads once in the process, lol.

The second one is picking up quicker and I get a hold of some major chips early when one player almost always pushes on the flop. I watched this pattern time and time again and it was obvious that he couldn’t fold, what he thought was, the best hand preflop. So I called one of his preflop raises in position with 94o putting him on an ace-x…flop comes down nine high…he pushes…I’m more than happy to call…he got me covered…but his hand (AKo) doesn’t improve. The same thing happens again a little later on. He raises again…I call again in position with J3o…flop comes down jack high…he pushes…I got him covered by a mile and put him on ace-x again….this time it isn’t even that strong…he shows Kx…wheee….there’s the door. We lose another player and being down to four-handed I decided to play a little faster with any good hand. I look down at 77 on the button…pop it…BB repops it…I push…he calls with A10o…hmm…basically a flip, but I don’t know if I like his call all-in with A10o here, he could easily be dominated or drawing slim…flop and turn are blank…Barry Greenstein pops in an announces “ace on the river”, well he didn’t really pop in, but that’s exactly what happened. So instead of sitting with 4.x k I’m sitting with roughly 2k. Oh well, it happens. I don’t let it get to me and continue my quest…then “the hand” happens. The other three get it in with 77 vs JJ vs AQo…queen does the job and we’re headsup and ITM…nice…I’m down 1-3 in chips though.

Headsup play is a blurr, I just know that I stole quite some chips, especially preflop when I had a feeling he was weak and/or making a move. About 10-15 hands in we’re even in chips and it takes another 5-10 hands before I take the lead…then we get it all in on a flop of Q95…classic headsup situation…I hold Q3o…he holds 95…please…one time…turn 6…river 6…lol…yatzee…he’s crippled and I crusher him in the next hand with the powerful acey-deucey…nice. W…end the night up a little…groovy…

If so, please tell me. I’ll smile right smack into the middle of the camera, laugh and wave and we can get this over with as it’s getting too ridiculous. Thank you.

I start off with some shorthanded NL (SnG)…nothing much going on…can’t catch anything. All good…I exit in fourth with the second best hand. No problem.

I jump into headsup mode and meet a fellow german. He’s pretty aggressive and has lots of bullets in the chamber, so I’m waiting for him to make a mistake. He complies as I make, well…a good call, at least I think so. Situation…he raises preflop, like 80-90% of the hands, and I call with A4o. Flop comes down J48…I lead out and he insta-pushes. My head screams call call call….but I restrain myself from insta-calling and try to think it through. I got bottom pair with the Ace kicker. He raised preflop, which I can discount as he raised with pretty much ATC. I think he has two big cards here…and I’m hoping that the J isn’t one of them. Then again…why would he push here with a Jack? Doesn’t make sense. So I make the call for all the marbles…he shows K10o…ooooh wheee…me initial thought was correct, he made a bs move with two overs…so…six outs to dodge, 3:1 favourite. Turn Q…Some more outs for him, but still 2,5:1…river…9…runner runner goodness. Thank you.

On to the next match…he’s a little more passive and does all the lovely donkey plays. Preflop push with any low pair, min raise with monster pair and two big cards, etc. We play a little and he minraises. Wheeee…got a big pair or at least two big cards mr. donk, huh? Well…let’s see if we can hit the jackpot with J6o. Flop comes down 6J9….wheeee…jackpot…let’s see how he plays it…check…small cbet…call….turn 8….check…push. Hmm…what do we have here? The turn brought a possible straight, which doesn’t fit into the scheme of his play here (10-7 or Q10 are unlikely here)…he over-pushes big time…which fits right into my read…big pair…AA/KK/QQ…I call…what does he show…Queens….wheeee….you got two queens, three nines, three eights and four tens sir…you’re a 73/27 dog…hmm…river? Queen…thank you very much.

No need to play anymore HU or hold’em for that matter when you’re running like this. Even the best read and best hand in the world can’t save me here. This is getting spooky. So I jump into some PL5CD action and as we’re down to four handed the usual happens…someone draws out on me for all the money…why oh why do you need to catch trips against my two pair…even more important…why did you call my predraw raise with a pair of Jacks in the first place? Oh well…results are with you sir, you made a profound play here sir, very nice.

So, coming back to my original train of thought: If you’re the producer of the hidden camera show and it’s true that you’re pulling one on me…please, show yourself, I’ll cut a nice promo for you. I’m out and I’ll probably take a break for a few days as I just can’t stand it anymore…the pain is getting to me and I don’t want to throw good money after bad and spiral into ultra-cooler land again. Cya in a few days…

Well, well, I didn’t feel like posting yesterday, so a big roundup today. Yesterday I got kicked in the junk, the usual, only won 1 out of 4 HU matches. These days I’m wondering: can I really win against donks without getting lucky? Or is it just the other way around: Can I really only win against donks without getting unlucky?

Who knows. As I said in one of my earlier posts this week, or was it at the end of last week, I wanted to go back and have a look at some of the matches to analyze my play. I didn’t dig too deep as it was pretty apparent that apart from the occasional slow play gone bad, which is sometimes necessary to get any chips in the middle, it’s not really “my fault”. I just got unlucky over and over again.

So, today I went at it again and the results were disheartening at least after the first two matches. The first two matches worked in my favour like a charm. I put the money in with the best and it held up. I took a break to get some fresh air nontheless and when I came back, shit hit the fan. First match after the break…I bet and bet and bet and he catches his two outer on the river. By that time it’s an insta-call for me as there’s too much money in the pot (and there’s not much point in folding down to less 200 chips). So the first L it is, surprise surprise. In the next match, my opponent doesn’t catch his two-outer on the river…no…he catches it on the turn after all the money went in. Nicely played sir. So I’m suddenly 2-2 and cursing my bad luck again. In the next match, it get’s even better. True, I broke one of the oldest “laws” (don’t go broke in an unraised pot), but should I really fear a monster here? No action preflop, I complete from the button with 75o…he checks. Flop comes down 3-K-5, he checks, I check…turn 5…now he wakes up and bets out small…I reraise him….he reraises me…now I’m trying to figure out what he could have…Kings? not really…3s…that could be a possibility..but I don’t think so…Kx…likely…5x…hmm…not all that likely…that would be another lovely case card on the turn there then. I push…he insta-calls with? 35…river 6 misses me oooooh so close….oh well…cold deck mountain…2-3.

After that I feel sick. Going 2-0 in the first run and now I’m stuck at 2-3. I feel like the Mavs in the 06 finals. Ouch. Next match…next bs…I value-bet my arse off and he calls like a champ, catching quads to beat my flush…trips to beat my two pair…and finally a flush to beat my set….nicely done, god damn it. 2-4.

After that, I felt even sicker. I decided to play two more and took them both down. Wheeeeeeeee. 4-4. I’ll leave it at that. Enough HU for the day, sick hands, sick results, treading water…paying rake like a champ. So, I fire up a Triple Shootout and the first table is a madhouse. One player shows bluff after bluff, but I don’t get involved with my monsters (62o, 38o, etc etc). Then my time comes and I connect with the board hard…and I get payed off. I’m the chipleader. Wheee….not for long. One player makes an, hmm how can I put it, interesting preflop call with 96 s000ted…one of his suit on the all overcard board is good enough to call my big bet….another one of his suit on the turn is good enough to call off the rest of his stack…well…another one of his suit on the river is enough to get the chips. VERY WELL played sir. Hat tip to the dealer. After that I’ve still got chips but run my AJ into AQ and that’s that.

Sick as I am, I play a little HORSE tourney. I don’t live to see the first HORSE though as people are running me down like crazy. Razz nearly broke me when a chasing donk caught three perfect cards on 5th-7th street…calling like a champ once again. I rebuild my stack in Stud, just to go busto in Stud8…well…four flush + 7 low draw on 5th street no g00t. Nice one dealer. Thanks for giving me a break, wait, not really. lol

So…finally…some fun times in the WWdN. I managed to make the best out of the few cards I was dealt. Played both the hammer and the velvet hammer (s00ted hammer) to perfection. Won two nice sized pots when my opponents laid it down on the river on scary looking boards. It really pays off to play the hammer like Aces or AK s00ted, depending on the situation 😉

Apart from those two hands, only four other stand out in the first hour. Kings…preflop raise…take down the blinds. JJ vs TT…reraise preflop takes it down…and AJ s00ted vs AQ s00ted…loses as expected. I’m stuck with just over 1200 chips there…one tricky play, which could have gone wrong – no doubt, works out beautifully and I’m heading into the break with slightly under 1.9k. What happened? I find AcKc in the SB and opt to limp along with the other two limpers. BB checks and we see a flop of AsXcXc…checks all around…turn is 10s…check..check…Kat bets out (Ace rag?!)…fold…I call…BB folds…river is a Xs…hmm…not quite what I wanted to see…oh well…I check…with every intention to check call…but Kat checks behind with Ace rag and I take it down…

After the break…I’m trying to see some flops cheaply, but I just can’t catch anything…not only do I fold fold fold, there’s not much of a decision to make either as I look at rag rag time and time again. Finally…really short…I look down at AQ…the first real hand since the break…one caller…shows A6 s00ted…board double pairs and I chop the pot. Wheeeee….damn it. Two or three hands later I’m forced to push in the BB with 35o (not much point in folding, which would put me down to 300 chips with the SB 100 in the next hand)….opponent shows Ace rag which is good enough to take it down…I exit in 21st place.

Oh well, nothing much I can do there, apart from sticking it in earlier…but tbh…even if I had done it, the result would have been the same (e.g. I hold A9 on the button, but a shorter player pushes…she’s been sitting there folding folding folding, so I’ve got a feeling that I’m dominated here and the caller infront of me doesn’t make me feel any better…I curse my decision once the board reads xx99…but I relax as the river brings the fourth heart to go with the shorties A10)…at least I had fun in the first hour with the hammer dropping and lively table chat…so I can’t fell bad about the WWdN. As for the day in total, just another day in low-limit junk-kick hell… 🙁

Sing to the tune of “Gotham City” by R.Kelly…lol… 😉 🙁
I’m looking over the skyline of the city.
How loud quiet nights in the mist of crime.
How next door to happiness lives sorrow,
and signals of solution in the sky.

(chorus)
a city of injustice,
a city of hate,
a city of junk-kickings for everyone of us.
We don’t need it, can live without it
Bad Beat City (oh no!!!)
…

Oh man. I’m sounding like an old card-flinger in a saloon, who’s telling everyone bad beat story after bad beat story, even though noone wants to hear ’em. This is really sad, it’s not even funny anymore. Every god damn time I’m on a “good” run – which equals (slowly) recovering from a monster bad run these days – I’m getting pwned, big time, over and over, without any mercy. Now I can live with some beats here, some beats there. My goal in HU matches is to win 60-x% of the time. Everything below that is bad news, especially due to rake concerns, so that’s what I’m aiming and I don’t think it’s unrealistic, or is it?

True, deep inside, I want to win 100% of the matches when I’m playing better than my opponent, but we all know that’s not the reality. But losing close to 100% on a bad run, can’t be the reality either. Sometimes it is though where you get hit smack in the face/junk while your opponent laughs his behind off, because he’s hitting like a madman, mostly cold-decks too. After all just winning a hand when your opponent doesn’t have anything won’t get you to the W, you’ll need some hands where your opponent makes a strong, but second best, hand too.

…and that’s exactly what’s happening. You hold Q6o…no raises preflop…flop comes down QQ5…you bet…he smooth-calls…you’re screaming on the inside, please please please have Aces or Kings here….turn comes a 4…you bet out…he smooth-calls again…you’re screaming even louder…river is a 3…you bet out again…he min-raises you…you laugh…and push the remaining measly few chips in…if he got you here, well…you have me…what does he show? Q7o to scoop the pot…well…it happens…lol…I wonder when I had the best of such a hand for the last time…seems like ages ago…

So you lost the first match…off to the next…after a few orbits, you’re slightly down in chips, but look down at AK…now, I normally wouldn’t overplay this hand, but I had a feeling that his insta-push after my raise was a bs move. I insta-call his push…he shows? 87o…errrm yeah, very well played sir…flop 7810…have a nice day.

The third match features a W by me…he thought second pair was good, I didn’t think so, he didn’t suckout. Thank you. One time.

The fourth match…some close hands…no joy in hitting ANY of my 14+ outs twice hands. Not good…so the scoreboard is 1-3…one more, if I win that one I’m quitting slightly down, if I lose it, I’m quitting a little more down.

After just a few short hands I’ve got my opponent right where I want him, pushing his 10-10 into my AA after I put in the third raise preflop…the rest goes without words…

Next hand finishes me off…I push with Qc6c…he calls with Jd6d..flop 3 diamonds..thank you…

After that, I closed the PS client in disgust and watched the EPT live coverage. This is the only upside of today’s poker play…I got to see some nice action.

After the broadcast ended quicker than expected I logged back on to play some “relax poker”, PL 5-Card-Draw…took second…far from being unstuck, but at least the PS dealer waited till we were in the money before he cold decked me in three straight hands (set over set, he starts with the lower set but boats up; two pair over two pair, he boats up; and aces vs a lower pair, he catches two pair)…((poker + bad end of variance) = the ultimate pain)…that is all…I’m off…