That about sums up my sessions today. Played one in the early afternoon and finished up the other one just now. Disgusting. Aces cracked after flopping top set…the almighty 56 s00ted catches his miracle straight card…nut flush draw + two overs with two cards to come…no g00t…straight under straight…set under set…running into aces three-handed…the whole shebang…I’ve seen it all today…

Summary: 5 shorthanded SnGs – third, third, fifth, sixth, fourth; two headsup matches – first, second…all in all I dropped nearly 70$ today…really fugly, especially considering that I didn’t tilt off any money, it was just cooler here (on the bubble), cooler there (on the bubble), bad luck here…nice catch nice catch…no catch for me, (nut-) flushes caught with two cards to come 1/8, my favourite hand of the night: I’m in the BB with Aces…two limpers, so I decide to not fool around…I pop it to 5BB…I get one caller in the cutoff….flop comes down A79 with two hearts…once again I decide to not fool around and I bet 3/4 of the pot…insta-call…which leads me to believe that he’s on a flush-draw…turn is the 8s…I bet 3/4 of the pot again…he min-raises…hmm…somehow this doesn’t make sense…I call anyway….river 3c…I make a small defensive bet (360 into a 2.x k pot) and he min-raises again…oh what the heck…I call…he flips over…5d6d…caught the gutterball on the turn…sooooooo fugly….at least they were s00ted…I’m out…(btw I got auto-muck on, so I painted the AA into the pic)…

After sunday’s footie (soccer) victory and claiming the league championship (see pennant below), it was time to make my “comeback” today.

I only played two six handed SnGs. Busted out in 4th in the first one and won the second one. Nice session, although something weird happened:

I didn’t lose a single race (yes, I won ’em all, the whole two of ’em). I didn’t catch a straight and/or flush draw (no, not a single one, not even a OESFD with two cards to come). Hmm…weird…

So…this is post 500 on this little corner of the interweb and I thought long and hard about something (special) to write about for this “anniversary post”, then again why should this post be any different than the other posts and more importantly, what would be the special thing to write about? The WSOP? I don’t think so, there’s people out there that do that much better than I could…cough…Dr. Pauly and Dr. Pauly at Pokernews. Some strategy? Nah.

So…after some deliberation I decided that post 500 would be just like any other post, a post about my daily adventures in the (live and online) poker world.

Since my last post I switch to six handed SnGs almost exclusively. They’re a little less swingy than the HU matches and although I took some sick beats, some in rapid succession, I’m still doing okay. That being said, the results could be better. But honestly, how many wins or what win percentage is (good) enough? Coming back to one of the points I already made in numerous posts: Fact #1 – I want to win every match I play. Fact #2 – That’s impossible. So for the time being, I’ll settle for more wins (or cashes) than losses and that’s exactly what happened over the last few days. Win one, bubble, bust out early, second place, bubble, win, bust out early, bubble, etc…

But enough of online play. Tonight we had a nice little bbq and afterwards we talked poker for nearly two hours. Inspired by all the strategy talk (mixed with some bad beat and crazy hand stories), we decided to play a little SnG. Things looked grim early as I got ugly cards and even uglier flops when I had the chance to look at one. Soon enough my stack was dwindling and I had to make a move – good thing that my AQ held up against AJ and I could double up. After that I made some pressure plays in position and soon enough I had a nice chip cushion. As the blinds escalated, luck seemed to be still on my side, but that changed quickly. Four handed, cutoff folds, button raises 3BB (which are substantial at that point), SB folds, I look down at 88 in the BB and decide to call. Flop comes down 965 with two spades. I check…button pushes…decision time. A call would cost me roughly 40% of my stack and I start to figure out what he could have. Raise on the button could lead to a discount of his hand, but I’m not too sure. After some deliberation I put him on the following range: A9o, AK to AJ (maybe two spades), AA to TT and A5/A6 with the Ace of spades…against that range my pure outs would be two eights and three sevens (and I’m probably dead if another spade falls). So…I think a little more and I decide to let it go, we talk and we both show our hands…he had 66 and got lucky on my ass.

Fast forward a few orbits and “lovely” 62o, 74o, etc etc later and I’m the shortest stack three handed. I look down at presto on the button and push…SB thinks and thinks and finally calls…BB folds. SB 77…flop J57 two hearts, yuck, turn heart….river heart…bad news…neither of us has a heart…so I bubble in third. Oh well…firstly I was short, secondly even if we see a flop the money will go in…thirdly…better luck next time…I’m out…time to catch some sleep before we, hopefully, claim the football championship tomorrow…booze galore…cya on the other side (probably later monday or tuesday ;-))

…or your words will come back to haunt you. Do you remember how I talked about running good at the end of yesterday’s post? Well, that was a short-lived good run for sure. I started of by playing the usual turbo HU matches and I ran awful. QQ vs A10 again…this time no four-flush but a fugly A on the river, Barry would be proud. I win the next one (against the #10 ranked player in the sharkscope less than 20$ leaderboard) and then lose 4 in a row. The usual ugly hands (overpair vs overpair, two pair vs set, etc) and some fugly four-flush and/or runner runner hands totally kicked me in the junk.

After that I switched to six handed SnGs and won the first one. Nice. In the second one I bubbled as the shortest stack. All good there, had to push…didn’t connect…

After that 1 for 2, I switched to headsup again. I played against a semi-pro in PLO8 and while he didn’t totally own me, I just couldn’t fend him off. I hit the third nut flush, he got the nut flush. I got the set, he got the straight. All the while he’s holding the better low, too. Oh well…so I switched to PLO and I won the match easily. One more NL HE HU W and I’m out of here…a little bit stuck, but at least not steamin 😉

*lol*

After the recent bad run, I decided to take a day off and so I did yesterday. Today I returned to my usual (new) feeding grounds, the 11$ Turbo HU matches on Stars. The first match started off with the usual bs and thoughts of logging off right after that match crept in immediately.

Instead of a W I’m sitting there with 840 in chips. Yuck. Oh well, no need to panic, just focus and continue to get your money in good. Some favourable flops, turns and rivers later and I’m in the chiplead again. The next time we get it in, I’m holding the better hand once again (A9o vs Q6o all-in push by him preflop). Flop A9x turn A…cya. W. Nice. I play three more matches and while I don’t hit the boards all that hard, at least my hands hold up when I put it in with the best. Add to that some favourable turn and/or river cards and my opponents let me see my draws cheap…and the draws hit. What a beautiful feeling to see a 14+ outs twice draw hit. Flopping a set against two pair was somewhere in there too. So…all in all…dare I say it, I ran good. Wheeeee. 4 matches 4 Ws and I’m outta here for tonight…

After the beautiful start of tonight’s session I should have cut my losses and logoff immediately. Did I do it? Ha ha…not really. I decided to test HU some more.

1. One 11$ turbo…runner runner my ass…then lose the classic flip AK vs QQ…cya.

2. One 22$ turbo later and this is how it all ended…god I love it when the dealer peels off the perfect turn card for the sucker…and if that isn’t enough…peel off the even better river card just to rub it in…

3. Logoff, down sixty bucks, stuck and steaming at it’s best…god I hate poker these days… 🙁

1. Jump into two six handed SnGs at 13$ a pop.

2. Play a solid, tight agressive game.

3. Build your stack to first or second chip position.

4. Get yourself involved in a monster pot with the best hand. I put him on AK/AQ there and one way or another I had him on the flop for sure – that’s all I knew. The rest is the usual goodness.

PokerStars Game #10237427319: Tournament #51882423, $12+$1 Hold’em
No Limit – Level IV (50/100) – 2007/06/02 – 18:21:17 (ET)
Table ‘51882423 1’ 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Donk1 (2310 in chips)
Seat 3: Donk2 (1430 in chips)
Seat 4: Ingoal (1880 in chips)
Seat 5: Donk3 (2185 in chips)
Seat 6: Donk4 (1195 in chips)
Donk2: posts small blind 50
Ingoal: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Ingoal [Ah 7s]
Ingoal said, “pp”
Donk3: folds
Donk4: folds
Donk1: folds
Donk2: raises 200 to 300
Ingoal: calls 200
*** FLOP *** [As 6d 7d]
Donk2: bets 400
Ingoal: raises 1180 to 1580 and is all-in
Donk2: calls 730 and is all-in
Ingoal said, “cooler” < - announced before it even happened, lol, jinxed?! *** TURN *** [As 6d 7d] [6h] *** RIVER *** [As 6d 7d 6h] [8h] *** SHOW DOWN *** Donk2: shows [Ad 8d] (two pair, Aces and Eights) Ingoal: shows [Ah 7s] (two pair, Aces and Sevens) Donk2 collected 2860 from pot Ingoal said, "so sick" Ingoal said, "nh" 5. Look down at your crippled stack of 350. Steamin...still not pushing all in on the next three hands. Look down at KK in the next one and push. Button wakes up with something. Ooooh KK too....

8. Think about last three minutes of play: Coolered, lol, coolered. Poker is so beautiful sometimes, wait, not really.

9. Sit here and type this post shouting “Fuck you PokerStars, F U C K Y O U!”

That’s all for now…thanks for your attention.

Started the session with a donktastic 8.8$ Turbo DS to the sunday million. After nearly 30 minutes I took down the first table and what a brutal suckout it was. We’re down to headsup and I’m down about 3:2 in chips. I win some small pots and I’m slightly ahead when the hand comes down. I look down at Ad7d in the BB….my opponent open-pushes…what do I do here? I opted to call and he shows A8o. So fugly I yelled…until the board produced a 7 and no 8. Ouch. My opponent was mighty pissed – understandable, but hey…about time I filled up the suckout column.

After that it was waiting time…although the other five tables finished up quite quickly thanks to the crapshoot blind increases. So after a combined 40 minutes we sat down at the final table. I win the first two hands (AQ brings broadway vs Q7o; and AJ c-bet on the flop takes it down). Within the first orbit we lose our first player (bubble boy) with a nice fugly cooler. He got AsKs, his opponent 89o. They see a flop with two spades and a 9. Turn is the 9s giving the AKs guy the nutflush and his opponent trips. Push comes to shove. River Q pairs the board and the poor guy with the nutflush is down to 40 chips. So fugly. I sit back and relax and wait for my next decent hand. I find TT on the button, shorty UTG has raised…I decide that I probably got the best hand here and I put him to the test reraising to 640 (his stack). He instacalls with KK…fugly.

So I’m back down to 1810 in chips and I wait for my next hand and wait and wait. As the blinds are increasing and increasing I’m force to play a hand sooner or later. T7o in the BB is good enough as we see an unraised flop. I flop TPNK + OESD. I lead out and he pushes. Hmmm…I’ll take my chances as he could be on a diamond-draw here, maybe a diamond-draw with a pair. He flips T9o. So fugly…this guy was really my personal cooler. Won the broadway hand against his monster Q7o…then he coolered me with Kings vs Tens and now this and I’m busto in fifth…FUGLY.

After that one I played some more 11$ Turbo HU matches and it started out mighty fine. First match W. Second match…one hand…W. Then it started to get ugly again. Third match and I can’t get rid of this donkbox. I take the lead, he comes back. I take the lead, he comes back. I take the lead, he sucks out. He sucks out and I’m behind. Then the usual shit comes down…

Fourth match L. Fifth match L. Sixth match finally a W again against a superfish who can’t fold any pair he hits on the flop or has in his hand, not even third pair or a pocket pair with five overcards on board. Still took me nearly sixty hands to finish him off, just tells you how hot I’m running, errrm, well, not really….anyway…after that match and being 3 and 3 I decided to quit before I get myself stuck again…

Another beautiful fugly session today. Headsup poker is the devil in disguise that’s for sure, even the stupidest donkey on the planet can win by getting lucky. All in all I played 11 matches today at 11$ a pop…LWLLWLWLWWW…so 6-5 in total.

A realistic look at the losses tells me that I dropped 3 making curious river calls with the second best hand…the other two can be summed up by the following screenshots.

Match 1: Back to back goodness…instead of a W…everything turns into apeshit and a big L.

Match 2: Back to back goodness again…robbed a pot from him in the hand before the first one below. He then min-raises (oooh aces?) let’s call…I flop two pair and when the money goes in he’s drawing mighty slim…runner runner goodness saves him though. Two hands later I’m finally done…

Well, well…after footie training I played an extended HU session of 10 matches and boy did it suck. I won the first two matches, then lost 4 in a row, won one, lost one, won three in a row. So after ten matches I’m 5 and 5 and all that’s left is to throw a fiver to pokerstars for the rake. Sigh.

Ups: Keeping my shit together even after some of the nastier ugly beats. Making sound decisions and only a few errors (curious river calls – I should start to trust my gut feeling which tells me “yuck that card hit him”, although it’s hard to do if the history of the hand up to that point is telling you something different…oh well…I guess that’s part of the donkey deception or could you put someone on Q6o if he called a 4BB raise preflop…he reraises you on the ace high flop and calls the re-reraise…he calls the huge turn bet…then he leads out again (1/3 of the pot) when the fugly queen hits to match his flop 6…well…I couldn’t as I would think that any sane person could laydown third pair no draw there against my ace…)…

I’m outta here and leave you with a beautiful fugly river card…lol…lead up to the hand….he rivers me twice for smaller pots…then this hand comes down and he can’t laydown second pair on the turn….