…and finally, finally I made the final table at a blogger tourney! Yes!!!

PokerStars Tournament #18186252, No Limit Hold’em
Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00
67 players
Total Prize Pool: $670.00
Tournament started – 2006/01/17 – 20:30:00 (ET)
Dear Ingoal,
You finished the tournament in 5th place.
A $53.60 award has been credited to your Real Money account.
Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

After a little back and forth and a nice comeback by barclay1701, Bad Blood finished him off and took down 1st place. Congrats! Here’s the final result:

On another note:

1. 3rd place is marked in the pic above as I was aiming for that a the beginning of the tournament and forgot to change it to fifth once I busted out.
2. Thanks to Sires for railbirding in the ft chat and reminding me that the tourney would even take place. Thanks to Waffles for railbirding on yahoo chat (it was reciprocal railbirding as he was encouraging me during my tourney (WWdN 10) while I cheered him on in his tourney (O8 tourney at FTP)).

Update: Wil has a nice write-up about the tourney over at cardsquad*, I didn’t know that he was live-blogging the event, cool! Check 8:18pm (river suckout time) and “8:34 PM – Ingoal pushed with AT, OzCDN called with QJc, and paired his queen on the flop. Ingoal paired his T on the river, but it wasn’t enough, and he goes out in 5th. Great game, Ingoal!”* – Thanks Wil, I enjoyed to play once again. See you at the tables next week!

As it was my dad’s birthday today I didn’t play much (just two orbits just yet) and I just couldn’t play any longer after dropping the hammer to crush aces (unfortunately I was too slow to take a screenshot as it was a turbo table, so hand history will have to do)

PokerStars Game #3627828185: Hold’em Limit ($0.02/$0.04) – 2006/01/13 – 21:32:46 (ET)
Table ‘Janus III’ Seat #10 is the button
Seat 3: Ingoal ($0.44 in chips)
Seat 5: sarasfw ($1.16 in chips)
Seat 7: Am_I_Spam ($0.20 in chips)
Seat 8: pawliwalnuts ($0.27 in chips)
Seat 9: jean1977 ($0.36 in chips)
Seat 10: i love eggs ($0.31 in chips)
Ingoal: posts small blind $0.01
sarasfw: posts big blind $0.02
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Ingoal [7c 2h]
Am_I_Spam: folds
pawliwalnuts: folds
jean1977: folds
i love eggs: folds
Ingoal: calls $0.01
sarasfw: raises $0.02 to $0.04
Ingoal: calls $0.02
*** FLOP *** [Js 7h Jd]
Ingoal: bets $0.02
sarasfw: raises $0.02 to $0.04
Ingoal: raises $0.02 to $0.06
sarasfw: raises $0.02 to $0.08
Betting is capped
Ingoal: calls $0.02
*** TURN *** [Js 7h Jd] [Qc]
Ingoal: bets $0.04
sarasfw: raises $0.04 to $0.08
Ingoal: calls $0.04
*** RIVER *** [Js 7h Jd Qc] [7s]
Ingoal: bets $0.04
sarasfw: raises $0.04 to $0.08
Ingoal: raises $0.04 to $0.12
sarasfw: raises $0.04 to $0.16
Betting is capped
Ingoal: calls $0.04
*** SHOW DOWN ***
sarasfw: shows [Ac Ad] (two pair, Aces and Jacks)
Ingoal: shows [7c 2h] (a full house, Sevens full of Jacks)
Ingoal collected $0.72 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $0.72 | Rake $0
Board [Js 7h Jd Qc 7s]
Seat 3: Ingoal (small blind) showed [7c 2h] and won ($0.72) with a full house, Sevens full of Jacks
Seat 5: sarasfw (big blind) showed [Ac Ad] and lost with two pair, Aces and Jacks
Seat 7: Am_I_Spam folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 8: pawliwalnuts folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 9: jean1977 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 10: i love eggs (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

Hammertime:ÂÂ

So, it was gamb00ling time this morning as the DADI Special Omalympics tournament was held over at PokerStars. The “fear” of Jordan and others that there would be significantly less players than in the inaugural DADI event (NL HE) was totally unnecessary as 47 players tried their luck with Omaha 8b PL and I think, at least, most of ’em – including me – had fun.

First newsworthy thing: It took over 20 minutes before the first player busted out. I think that’s a new record for any blogger tournament (?!), although it’s pretty normal in split games (with a High and (possible) low pot).

As for myself, it took a little over 2h for me to bust out, just prior to the second break for my highest finish in blogger tournaments so far: 14th place, just 5 shy of the final table and the money (previous high finish was 17th in a WWdN thursday tourney). I was kind of short-stacked (a little over 2k chips) and looked down at A-A-K-7…here’s what went down:

Table ‘17497958 7’ Seat #3 is the button

Seat 1: yosoyveneno (8282 in chips)

Seat 2: ZeemJr (3582 in chips)

Seat 3: mowenumdown (5881 in chips)

Seat 5: Jestocost (8669 in chips)

Seat 6: Ingoal (2412 in chips)

Seat 7: dbirider16 (12187 in chips)

Seat 9: SirFWALGMan (3861 in chips)

Jestocost: posts small blind 200

Ingoal: posts big blind 400

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to Ingoal [7c Kc As Ac]

dbirider16: folds

SirFWALGMan: folds

yosoyveneno: raises 400 to 800

ZeemJr: folds

mowenumdown: folds

Jestocost: folds

Ingoal said, “hmm…i got the antidote!”

Ingoal: raises 1612 to 2412 and is all-in

yosoyveneno: calls 1612

Jestocost said, “That no chat during an all-in feature is about the most annoying thing”

*** FLOP *** [5d Qs 8d]

*** TURN *** [5d Qs 8d] [4c]

*** RIVER *** [5d Qs 8d 4c] [9d]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

Ingoal: shows [7c Kc As Ac] (HI: a pair of Aces; LO: 8,7,5,4,A)

yosoyveneno: shows [7h Ah Kh 6s] (HI: a straight, Five to Nine; LO: 8,6,5,4,A)

yosoyveneno collected 2512 from pot

So I was basically dead at the turn and double dead on the river as veneno’s OESD hit on both ends. Not really a bad beat, after all Omaha 8b is all about draw/re-draw/re-redraw, so I wasn’t too frustrated. If my hand would have held up (for the high) it would have been a split pot nontheless, so I would have been stuck in the same situation again.

My summary:
Ups:

1. Playing with some really great people (including but not limited to: Daddy, Iggy, SirFWALGMan, veneno, Garthmeister, BoobieLover, …)
2. Playing solid poker all night (playing the (possible) nuts extremely aggressive, not taking any chances with possible second best hands etc – see stats below)
3. Chatting with some of the guys and gals on yahoo during the tournament!
4. Having a good time!

Downs:

1. Not reaching the final table, yet again…
2. Staying awake till after 5am can really screw up the following day 😉

Stats:

You finished in 14th place (eliminated at hand #3608628522).

166 hands played and saw flop:

– 7 times out of 21 while in small blind (33%)

– 11 times out of 22 while in big blind (50%)

– 15 times out of 123 in other positions (12%)

– a total of 33 times out of 166 (19%)

Pots won at showdown – 6 out of 9 (66%)

Pots won without showdown – 16

See you all at the tables next time…maybe even very soon (April’s HORSE tourney at FTP – I would need to learn RAZZ first though…hmm…we’ll see…)

Do pot-sized bets threaten someone these days? It seems not! I just played a little Omaha H/L over at PokerStars and after donking off my first buy-in I was able to get it back within two hands. So good so far, but then donkey-mania struck again. I raise preflop three-callers…board is 10d-Jc-Kc – I hold the broadway with my Ah-Qh-7h-Ks, I lead out and bet the pot – one caller. Turn is 7d. I don’t think about it all that long and make another pot-sized bet – he calls. I keep wondering if he’s really after a flush draw or a straight draw. The river is the 3d and I don’t think about it all too long either as I think: If he was on a flush draw that should be a clubs-flush-draw?! Pot-sized bet…call…showdown: I show my broadway and sure enough the caller shows his diamond flush-draw….

Are you kidding? If he would have hit his clubs-flush draw I would have said: okies! But a diamond runner runner flush draw? He held 3 diamonds, 1 on the flop…so I can see that with 9 outs he calls…turn is a diamond…so 8 outs for the river, but what are the chances of consecutive diamonds?!?

I guess sometimes people will take chances and hit…that’s poker, but it’s annoying nontheless if someone calls you down to the river with only one chance – to hit runner runner cards of the same suit. Argh! That’s it for tonight…enough ranting…time to catch some sleep… 😉

So, it has been confirmed. The second DADI event is set to go and his time it’s not going to be a Hold’em event, but Omaha 8b PL! Woohoo! The tournament is already available for early registration and can be found via: PokerStars -> Tourney -> Private (#17497958). So spread the word and see you at the tables…(Side note: don’t wonder, I might be talking about “good morning”, “coffee anyone” or similiar topics as the start time of 9pm ET is 3am on thursday morning in my time zone 😉 ).

All additional infos in the pic below. Hat tip to Jordan and TripJax

So, I decided that I would end the night with some penny PL Omaha H/L over at PokerStars. Sometimes it’s just that you can’t get some people out of hands, even it Pot Limit. I can’t figure it out how you can call post-flop pot sized bets with nothing (besides a slim to none possibility that you catch your runner runner draw). Sigh. At least I know that it wasn’t my fault as I was entering the pots with the best hand (at least 2 out of 3 times)…donkey nation 1-0 Ingoal…So I donated one Buy-In to the world wide donkey movement, I wonder if I can deduct taxes on such a donation 😉

A little pic to illustrate my point: Never mess with the energizer donkey as he calls and calls and calls and calls….

Credit where credit is due: Image found at Bill’s Poker Blog, concept courtesy of fhwrdh.

…or the best way to start of the new year with a round of poker. So it’s rather late around here again, but I decided to at least play a short round of poker over at Stars. I sat down at one of the penny pot limit tables and played some Omaha H/L. What can I say…I could do no wrong and took down a low pot, a total scoop (Ace to Five straight for both high and low) and one high pot – dem quads beetches. Nothing better than flopping a boat and rivering it to quads…oooooh how sweet it is…

I’m about to play the thurdays blogger tourney of Wil Wheaton. This is going to be the last one this year and my third poker blogger tourney in total so far (1x DrPauly (finished 42nd), 1x DADI (finished 35th), 1x WWdN) – and they have been totally -ev so far, but hey at least it’s a guaranteed good time 🙂 . I guess I better get myself a cup of coffee as it’s almost 4am already over here 😉

Update: I keep improving, not in the money though…finished 17th when my desperate All-In with pocket sixes was called by A-Q…the J-4-A-A-9 didn’t help me either 😉

Update #2: At least I lasted a little longer than some of my favourite bloggers (AlCantHang, DrPauly, CJ (Up4Poker), Iggy, etc), but I still made some crucial errors which basically setup my downfall:

1. I played waaaaay too tight. I layed down some decent drawing hands (K-10, Q-J) as I didn’t want to commit myself too much to a pot – which is quite hard when there’s only about 1 out of 20 where you’ll get a free flop (just BB to call)…to prove that point I just need to look at the statistics (39 hands played and saw flop: a total of 15 times out of 139 (10%))…so I basically just played 10% of all hands I was dealt…that’s way too tight to succeed.
2. I didn’t have much help on the board when I was in a pot…when you’re looking down at suited big slick (Ah-Kh) or suited As-Qs and the flop is J high or even lower on the second one, and no rainbow either and your opponent leads out with around half your stack, what are you supposed to do? Pray that (s)he’s got nothing on his/her hands, hope for the Ace to drop? It’s tough especially in a MTT…
3. I didn’t play aggressive enough…Just have a look at 2., specifically in those two hands it probably wouldn’t even have come this far if I made a decent preflop raise, but no, I need to limp in…which comes back and bites me

All in all my best performance so far in any of the blogger tournaments I played in – ranking wise with 17th place. I’ve played better poker in prior blogger tournaments though and I’ve been a little bit luckier when it comes to starting hands, too (once again I held some pairs, J-J twice, 7-7, 4-4, but no Q-Q, K-K or A-A). So I guess I’ll be trying to apply some changes next time I play in a WWdN event or in the Omahatards event (whatever happens earlier) and we’ll see if I can make the final jump (reaching the final table).

Side note: I was really happy to find the host himself, Wil Wheaton, at my starting table. Now I can finally brag to my friends how I played with/against a Team PokerStars member, who’s also a famous actor (who doesn’t remember Wil as Gordie in “Stand by me” or even better as Wesley Crusher in my 2nd favourite Star Trek series TNG (sorry, but my favourite series is DS9))…wooohooo! 🙂

Sometimes you can do no wrong, other times you can do nothing but wrong. The latter happened to my in the last MTT over at PokerStars. The setup was similiar to my last Omaha H/L tourney at Stars: Buy-In 3$+0.30$ fee, 495 players entered, blind levels 15 minutes, this time top 45 in the money.

I took down some pots early on and kicked back into easy mode, before making some donkey moves within 3 hands – in the first hand I folded on the button after a raise and reraise in early position, I didn’t think my hand of 10-10-Q-2 would be any good as you are looking for possible high and low hands, what can I say…flop is 10-10-x…so I folded quads…great. In the following two hands I donked off a huge chunk of my stack when I bet into A-3 with my A-4…not a good idea. So I was in desperate position right before the first break (down to 800 chips with 100/200 limits, 50/100 blinds)…I took down a lovely pot when I rivered a set and was up to just under 2000 again as we headed into the first break.

Players remaining: 300, max: 10071, avg: 2475, me: 1928 (172/300). Right after the break I donked off some chips again and was soon stuck in desperate position again, but this time with 200/400 limits, 100/200 blinds. The end came slowly, in two hands, I look down at Ah-Qs-5s-2h and pushed UTG, some callers, flop is K-K-9…great…now I’m stuck in the BB with 200 odd chips left…All-In…and sure enough I hold the nuts flush on the turn, just to be sucked out by a river boat…argh!

Out in 203rd position… 🙁

So, as mentioned earlier on I played the Donkeys Always Draw Invitational over at PokerStars. What can I say, it’s really different to play NL with all the bloggers than playing at a regular table! There’s almost no limping or just calling the BB, but always a slight to huge raise out of various positions. I didn’t catch many cards so I folded most of the time and when I looked down at the first decent cards all night (A-Ko) on the button with 970chips left I decided that it was time…I pushed All-In as all folded to me, SB folds, BB (Pastmancer) calls and shows As-Js, no worries as the flop is: 4-9-7, turn brings a lovely 6, then the river bites me in the backside…yup the river was a J…and I’m out in 35th place 🙁

Now I could start to rant about outs and what not or call PokerStars Riverstars, but hey…it’s Poker, it can happen…although doubling up just prior to the first break would have been way nicer than to bust out after 53 minutes of play.

Side notes:

1. never underestimate the power of the hammer (7-2o)…WillWonka kicked a fellow player in the nuts when he rivered the boat vs. pocket Queens
2. Them Quads beetches! (penner42 – Alan screengrabbed it…I’ll post a link when I find it)
3. Beware of the river suckout at any times, ask Garthmeister, he was kicked in the junk two times on the river…
4. change100 won in the end…
5. Read more over at TripJax, HighonPoker