Imagine the following setup: You’re playing a five handed SnG. Top two ITM. Payout is 70/30.

You’re playing in that SnG and it’s obvious that second place isn’t really what you’re gunning for, first is what it’s all about. The first player is eliminated so you’re down to four handed. Then you look down at Aces. You raise, get reraise and reraised. You sit there with a big grin. You push and both players call. They show KK and 88…and your rockets hold up. You’re ITM with a 3:1 chiplead. What better spot to be in…and now, the jokester across from you is starting his trash talk how he’s going to take you down, yadda yadda. You sit there and laugh…you tell him that the only way he can win is if he get’s lucky, so let the cards speak and speak they do. Jab and grabble a little and soon enough he pushes preflop on the button…hehe…I got queens baby. Instacall…what does he show? 62o…alrighty…flop 6xx turn x river 6. Thank you very much. Yuck. A few hands later he does the same shit again. This time you don’t have such a monster, but you think he’s on a bullshit move, so you call with K9 s00ted. He shows Q2o. Errm yeah part #2…flop? QQJ…errm yeah turn no ten…river…no ten…and you’re out in second. Unbelievable.
After that I logged out of WPX immediately, because I didn’t want to throw away money as I was slightly annoyed, to say the least. I jumped over to PokerStars and played some headsup. Two easy Ws. Gotta love people who are transparent as glass. Raise: never, unless monster preflop. Bet: at least TP. Rest: check. That play is going to get you far boys, well, not really.

After those Ws, I jumped into a six handed SnG and it was a true drag. Doubled up early on, card dead after that. When I finally decide to take a stand preflop four handed (KQo UTG) the BB wakes up with AK…no help for me…and I’m out in 4th after 50 minutes of play. Now that’s double double -ev…I’m outta here…

Today I decided to redeposit with WorldPokerExchange. To my surprise the traffic level is still low and I really can’t figure it out. What would keep players from playing at a rakefree poker room? I really don’t know, maybe it’s the endless cycle of players signing up, then realizing that traffic is low, then leaving again…rinse repeat. I’m going to hang around for a while, like I did last year, as you just can’t beat rakefree, especially if you play a shitload of SnGs. Just think about it…if I play 10 HU SnGs per day, it’s 2,5$/5$/10$ juice (5$/10$/20$ SnGs)…per day. That is pretty hard to overcome, especially if you suffer from suckoutitis or riveritis 😉

After moneying two out of four SnGs, I decided to give PokerStars another spin, can’t be that unlucky all the time and indeed I hit it pretty good early on in my first HU match. Then I get rivered a few times again, or this match would have been over already, but still, I’ve got my opponent down to 640 and after (s)he minraises preflop we see a flop of AJ4 with two spades…bet raise raise raise raise call…and I’m way ahead against QJo no spade just like me…then the usual happens…

And we’re almost back to square one. Some chasing later I’ve got him/her down to about 500 again. This time we get it in again with TP vs SP…and lo and behold…my TP stands up and I score the W. Did it feel good, yeah, but I still don’t feel like playing another match tonight…not in the mood to get unlucky and logoff with a bad feeling…so I’ll leave it at that for tonight…

…as for headsup…that’s the only thing that annoys me a little when it comes to WPX…they don’t have HU tables…oh well…at least they’ve got five handed SnG…talk about playing short handed, good stuff…top two ITM…I guess those will be my feeding grounds for the next couple of weeks…

…it makes me want to puke, heya, makes me want to puke.

Oh brother, I thought I was over the whining, but after such a brutal session, it’s not easy, nowhere near easy to be honest. Started off by playing a peep at Full Tilt…donkaround big time…bust out in 8th. Oh well…turbo…what can I do, no hand in sight…need to make a move…didn’t work out.

So I jump over to PokerStars and play a 5$ headsup. I make a donkplay – calling an all-in with AKo preflop. Not a classic donk move, but why flip a coin against a donkbag. His fours stand up and I’m crippled and bust out a few hands later. So I decide to kick it up a level and resist the urge to click click click. Instead I do the whole think……click thing and it works out just fine. Until he sucks out on me like the best vacuum money can buy. So there’s goes 10$. After that I really thought long and hard about quitting, but nope, let’s play a “non-donk-level” one at 20$ a pop.

The match starts out pretty standard, raise and take it few times. Fold to a raise some times. About a dozen hands in my opponent is up 200 chips and we see a flop. I hold K7o. Flop comes down K75. He bets out small…I flat call. Turn K…bingo…check…check…river 8. He bets out pot…I raise…he reraises…I push…he instacalls…he show 46o for the straight…I’m up 2800-200. He pushes every hand after that and when I finally look down at the s00ted tourist (Ad7d) I call….he shows AsJs and it holds up. He’s up to nearly 500. “Normal play” resumes and he’s slowly but steadily chopping at my big stack. Soon enough he’s up to over a thousand again. I spare you the details, but let’s just say that he runner runnered and rivered my ass pretty good three times and after that I’m the one with slightly over 600 in chips. So sick. A few hands later I double up as he donkpushes into my turned straight. Back to square one. Win some lose some, get rivered some, get runner runnered some. Then take some pots again. I’m up around 1800-1200 again. I look down at 44…raise..he calls…flop comes down 468…he leads out, I raise…he calls…turn is a J…he pushes…hmm…do I fold bottom set here? Not really…with the preflop call…hmm…66…possible, but not likely…88…not really…JJ…hmm…not really…I can’t really put him on a hand, but I think I’m ahead here…oh well…what does he show…57o…errm yeah…nice call preflop…payed off big time too…so practically a “superstar move”, if you neglect the fact that this is  about the only flop that will win that huge pot for you (well…3-4-6 would be the other one)….crippled again…a few hands later we see an unraised flop of AAJ…me holding the J10…money goes in…he shows Ace rag and wins the match…there goes another 20$.

After that, I’m sitting here sick and thinking…what in the world is going on here? How come that a guy down to 200 in chips can come back to win it. How come that I flop a set he flops a straight? How come I’m ahead all the way betting and he sucks out a flush? How come that I get runner runnered? How come? This is just unreal. I get one cold deck early on (boat vs straight) and he get’s all the rest (I counted four major ones). What in the world is going on here? Am I the second Mike Matusow or was today just a bad spot to be me? I don’t know, but really, I’m feeling sick now and I curse my bad luck. Comeback from 200…get out of here…this is ridiculous…chip and chair, yeah…probably should have called every friggin all-in after he was down to 200…most likely would have won one of the next 3?! Who knows…I just thought that calling with 9, 10 and Q high wouldn’t be the best idea…work out perfectly, didn’t it…not really….so sick…so sick…

As I was too tired to write up a summary of Kat‘s Friday Rebuy Madness (TM) this morning (after I busted out after over two hours of play, past 5am), here it goes, spiced up with some live poker.

I had a terrible session prior to the rebuy madness. I couldn’t win a hand to save my very soul and after the first match I discovered a big, maybe even giant leak in my (HU/SnG) game. What is the leak? Impatience combined with being annoyed of all the luckboxes I’m facing on a daily basis. Now, this maybe doesn’t count as a genuine leak, but really it is. I play a match, play the best I can, put the money in with the (significantly) best of it and I lose. I go off the deep end in the next x minutes playing suboptimal strategy (making bad calls, getting impatient, calling in bad spots, etc). So I really need to work on that. When I’m in the zone (and stuff like this doesn’t happen) I’m waaaaaay ahead and crush the game. But as soon as a session starts off with a real bad beat or a succesion of such hands, I lose it and donk out of the next ones. Not a good thing.

But enough of the session prior to the rebuy madness. The rebuy madness started off with a real bummer. I got the first monsters I held crushered, big time. What did I hold? The hammer and the jackhammer, both crushered by “overcards”. Sick, sick, sick 😉

So I rebought a few times donking around like there’s no tomorrow…and that’s the real beauty of this tourney. There’s just no better way to spend x dollars. You buyin for 2 (1+1; or better 3) dollars and donk around. If you make a mistake or donk move – who cares? 1$ will get you another 1k chips, 2$ will get you another 2k chips. Heeeehaaaw…enjoy. After the early “bad luck” – how dare you crusher my (jack)hammer?! – I picked up some nice hands and even cracked aces with a donkhand. Brilliant. After one hour of donkfoolery, I take the addon and the field looks like this:

Then I got moved to another table as some players pussed out (cough, Wawfuls etc, cough). Who do I find on my left…Mr. TripJax along with three other bigstacks…hmmm….nice…NOT.

A few hands in and it’s obvious that some players are picking on my blinds, so it’s time to make a move. Trip raises from UTG and I look down at KQo in the BB…no way I’m folding here…so I call…hit top pair and it goes to the river…after the hand, it’s revealed that he had the hammer and picked up an OESD which didn’t come through on the river though. So I pick up the pot and enjoy myself. The very next hand I get dealt the hammer myself in the SB.

After I miss the flop completely, I lead out nontheless with a nice sized cbet. Trip raises though and I have to fold the hammer. Back to square one.

The next hour is mostly a blur, win some lose some, but one hand stands out. If I knew that, I would have called the preflop raise. I sit with A9o on the button…one limper as it get’s to me…I limp as well…trip raises…limper calls…I ponder as the raise would be like 20-25% of my stack…so I decide to fold as I’ve got the feeling that I might be dominated here…flop comes down 992….whine…sigh…turn K…river 2…showdown Trip A8o…limper 66…so sick…if I call there…I triple up for sure, why? Because trip leads out for 2.5k on the flop…limper raises to 5k…no way in hell that I’m not either flat-calling or pushing there (7k) and at least the limper would have called the extra 2k for shizzle…oh well…just as the second break is about to kick in, we’re down to the final table…

8th out of 9…hmm…not a pleasent spot to be in…after we lose the first player, I push my stack in with A10o, which is no match to the other player’s JJ…

So, I’m out in 8th…

So…am I disappointed? Not really, I played some donk poker (early on), I played some good poker (middle stage up to the final table) and I played some decent poker at the final table. All in all…10$ spend for 2.x hours of good poker fun with the boys (and gals)! See you all next week…

Fast forward to today, we started the day off by watching the top match of the german footie league (our local VfB Stuttgart whooped Bayern Munich 2-0) and a nice BBQ. After enjoying the goods, we decided to play a little poker, surprise surprise. We started an eight-handed SnG with a payout structure of 50/30/20%. Got off to a slow start, but finally picked up a decent hand once the blinds got bigger. I look down at QQ in the BB…two limpers…so I decided to push…not the best move there, but with all the chasers at our game, I’ll rather win a small pot than seeing my Queens go up in flames on a bad board. One of the limpers has another idea for the hand though. I’m a little worried there as he’s really thinking about calling…could he have Aces? Could he have Kings? Sure, but then again, if he had that, his money would already be in the pot for sure…so I wait for him to make his move and he finally calls with KJo…errrm yeah…probably a good idea, wait, not really. The queens stand up and I double up to around 3k in chips (2k starting stack). Fast forward a few levels and “the hand” comes down. I’m in the SB…we’re five handed…UTG folds…UTG+1 calls…button calls…I look down at 88…I raise…BB flat-calls…shortstack UTG+1 shoves it in (practically “only” doubling my bet)…the button calls…I call…BB calls…no need to get cute here, let’s see what the flop brings…flop comes down 89T rainbow….hmm…bottom set…not bad…check…BB checks…UTG+1 is already all-in so no action…button bets out 1.5k….hmmm…why bet into a dry sidepot here? Hmmm…I’ve got around 3.xk left…so I ponder my options…could it be that he flopped a bigger set here? Absolutely, but if I’m scared of set over set here, why am I playing at all, especially given the fact that the button is one of our resident maniacs. So I ponder a little and put him on either an overpair or top pair (which would both be gold here)…I push over the top and the BB folds…showdown…button A10o for TPTK…shorty KQo…me…88 for a set of eights…the turn is a blank and I got the huge sidepot secured…the only card that can take the main pot from me is a J…that doesn’t hit and I drag the biggest pot I’ve ever seen in our homegame. I’m sitting there with roughly 65-70% of all chips in play and we’re down to four handed (bubble time)…the next orbits are a blur, but I don’t use my bigstack to really bully ppl, but I used it to make the obvious button moves. We lose a player and then another player and I’m headsup with the resident maniac. Not really the player I want to see there, but my 3:1 chiplead gives me some leeway here. I lose the chiplead in one of the typical hands. I hold JXo and I flop two pair. I bet out pot-sized. Call. Turn blank. I lead out half the (now substantial) pot. Call. River Q. Check check, as I know I’m toast….and I am toast…back to even. Sigh…I lose some pots…and after a sick hand, I flop Aces he flops second pair…rivers his kicker…and he’s roughly a 1,8:1 chipleader now…after folds on both sides for some orbits, the money finally goes into the middle and I got the best of it. I’m in command at that point and it’s a matter of a few more hands until the money goes in again…me AJ s00ted vs “The negreanu” (T7o)…flop brings a pair of queens and a king…turn is a 9…river is a T and i take it down with broadway. Wheeee…finally a W again after the long drought. Took second last time, first this time, things are looking up again, ever since I re-evaluated my live game…good stuff there…all in all…a perfect saturday…hope you had a good one, too…good luck at the tables…

Today, I’m really sitting here and ask myself: Why do I even bother? Why? Why? Play donk number one, he chases like a champ, get’s lucky and goes ahead and tells me off about how he did nothing wrong etc. Well, boy, yes I played 93o to a raise. Yes, I knew you had big cards. Yes, the flop came down 9 high. Yes I knew I was ahead and bet it hard. No, you didn’t make a great play. No, it wasn’t skillful to call off your stack until you got lucky on the river. Yes, it really shows your class how you handle sucking out on someone. Wait, not really, so shut the fuck up donk!

Well, what can I say, I let it get to me, yet again. I really don’t know why I even bother getting involved in the chat with such morons. I know that they ain’t worth shit. If they get lucky, hell, they’ll win a match here and there, but overall they’re donating their money to the community. So, just switch off the chat and let them talk their trash bs. Let the cards speak.

So…well…I didn’t do that and I got kicked in the junk so hard that I can’t even sit anymore, gotta go lay on the couch as soon as this post is finished. One measly win out of 3 HU and 1 SH SnGs…pathetic…time to regroup and try something different again. Probably either move up (as even at the 10$ SnGs the play consists of 95% donks playing like shit, talking trash like they knew the first thing about poker) or play some cash again…

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… 🙂