…must come down. Played four SnGs on bodog tonight and I’m pretty much speechless. Variance showed up and totally kicked my butt. Managed to finish ITM in one SnG, bubbled in two and busted out early in one. The weirdest part about both the bubbles and ITM finish: I think I should have one them all, but it just didn’t happen. All I can say is this: I played 162 hands…had Aces three times…won one small pot preflop and two huge pots as I flopped top set both times…in return I got sucked out on by dominated hands time and time again…so there was nothing much I could do…got the money in with the best of it (not in the hands after I was crippled respectively) and just got unlucky.

Whatever ;)  I’ll be back tomorrow (bank holiday over here, so probably my last chance to get some hands in before the weekend)…

…although not as nice as yesterday’s run. Played six SnGs tonight, finished ITM four times, not a single win though, bubbled twice. Weird how it goes sometimes, you totally dominate the table and hold a commanding chip lead just to go up in flames once you’re down to three-handed play. The worst loss tonight was back-to-back from chiplead to out of here: Hand 1 I hold AKs and lose a race to JJ, not a biggie…I got the opponent covered by almost 100%…so after the hand he’s got me covered by less than 50 chips….the very next hand I look down at AKo…we get the money in preflop again and he shows A10s…nice…give me back my chips…flop AxK…nice…turn Q…river…yes…J…ding…oh well, it’s the way it goes 😉

So I’m finishing the day slightly down…but no biggie I’ll be back tomorrow (as there’s a bank holiday over here on tuesday, I took monday off to have a super extended weekend)…

Bonus hunt update: I still didn’t go back to nine, I’m still too pissed off about all the suckouts I suffered on there. Good news though, I used the first part of my points I got for finishing the bodog promotion on pokersourceonline to get a 50$ amazon gift certificate…I ordered the WPT Season 2 Box Set a few weeks ago and it arrived this week…8 DVDs of Poker Goodness…I’m already through with watching the first 4 DVDs and I gotta say: I love it…although it’s not the newest stuff – in contrast, it’s rather old school, seeing some of the now well established players hitting their first final tables and all, but that’s the thing that makes it cool, especially as I hadn’t seen the second season yet.

Here’s the link to amazon as I’m too lazy to take a picture of the box myself 😉

So…I’m finally back at the tables, still need to adjust my playing to the new work schedule, so I guess my playing time will be limited to the weekends for now. Tonight I first sat down at the tables at FullTilt to try out the new CAP games – the concept behind that is that you’re playing a capped NL format…the cap being 30xBB. So the most money you can win (from any single player) and lose is limited…sounds strange and might not be appealing to some of you, but I gotta say that it really suits me.

I don’t know what it is, but moving up in limits is always hard on me – not so much because of the “big leap” in skills of the opponents, but due to the fact that I tend to play like “scared money” for a while, which ultimately lead to some pretty ugly loses in earlier attempts and resulted in me moving down again. With the CAP in place it’s a whole different matter though. I sat down and I wasn’t playing scared a bit. I brought my A-game and left the table with slightly over a standard/suggested buyin – which is “only” 15 bucks at the .10/.25 CAP game not bad considering the fact that I’m on a mini-bankroll now as I had withdrawn most of my dough from FullTilt in order to pad my “bonus-hunt-bankroll”.

After that success I thought it was time to have a good time at fish city aka Bodog. Some three quick SnGs and I’m logging off with a big smile on my face. Why?

1. Because I won two and finished 2nd in the third one (sidenote: I should have won that too, but I’m not too worried about the extra 5% I could have won) 🙂

2. Because I withdrew 80 bucks before starting to play (I deposited 50$ when I started the bonus hunt on bodog) and I still have over 50$ sitting in bodog…add the 9000 points on pokersourceonline I got for completing the bonus and all I can say is w00t! 😉

3. Because bodog support/processing get’s an A+ for quickness…about a minute after I requested the withdrawal I got an automated mail telling me that it was being processed in the next 24h, just to find another mail telling me that the money was waiting for me in my neteller account just over 2h later. Nice one, thumbs up bodog!
4. Because I brought my A++ game and the cards went along just fine too. I had AA three times, won one small pot preflop and two big pots as the rockets held up. Had JJ hold up twice and made some pretty good plays including a tough laydown (QQ) when I correctly assumed I was beat (turned small set). Hand of the night (which didn’t pay out much and wasn’t all that crucial, but nice as I haven’t seen a straight flush in ages)…

Well, what can I say, I’m not doing good in the nine promotion so far. I’m not even half way through the points and all the suckouts and the bad run in the other side games (especially guts) is really taking it’s toll – half the bankroll gone and half my nerves with it. It’s just making me sick how unlucky I get in some of those pots, especially in guts again…I’m holding the nut straight in a monster pot, someone has three of a kind…I’m holding the nut straight again in a monster pot, someone has a straight flush…this is so sick – even winning one of these pots would have brought me right back to life, but no such joy. Then I get stacked in the ring games by a chaser with one card to come and I call it a day over at nine. Maybe tomorrow will bring me some better luck.

Off to WPX I go to play some SnGs. Same game, same shit, same results. Chasing M*****fuckers catching every time. So I call it quits there too and head over to Full Tilt.

At least some went my way there as I was able to stack some people who just couldn’t let go of their TPTK/TPSK. A HORSE SnG to finish the session and I hit brick city in Razz, then Stud H/L and finally in Omaha to seal the deal.

So I’m done for the day, at least I had some fun watching the latest tuff_fish (party poker) monster “shows”…man, tony just keeps crackin me up – even when I’m running bad 🙂

…why? Because ” Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” (Murphy’s Law). Today was such a day, let me give a quick example:

Everytime I hold a flush in guts, someone will have a straight. Everytime I have a straight, someone will have three of a kind or even a straight flush. Everytime I’m involved in a huge pot, I will have no hand. That pretty much sums up the day at the guts tables on nine. What stood out even more was that four players were either a) the ultimate luckboxes or b) I don’t want to get out my tinfoil hat so I’m not going to say it, but it still makes you curious as to why these players hold the winning hand EVERY SINGLE TIME a big pot is decided (guts is a progressive game, for all those who aren’t familiar with it, here’s a quick wrapup: all players ante up, this seeds the initial pot, then every player is dealt 3 cards, you check the ranking of your hand (High Card, One Pair, Flush, Straight, Trips, Straight flush), then you decide if you’re in or if you’re out (fold). If you’re in and noone else is in, you win. If you’re in and you showdown the best hand you win. If you’re in and you don’t show the winning hand you must ante up the pot in the next hand (example: 10 players at the table, everybody antes .10, so the initial pot is $1, three players are in, one wins the $1, in the next hand the two losing players ante up ($1-rake), the others ante up .10, so the pot is something like just under $3, three players are in again, two lose one wins, two players ante up ($3-rake) the rest antes up .10, etc). So there can be some huge pots, even in the smallest limit (which is .10) and every friggin time a big pot came up (the biggest being well over $20) the same friggin players hold the winning hand, unreal. I forgot to ask them where the got the horseshoe and the matching buttplug to keep it in 😉

After that shit run on the guts tables I fired up the usual NL game and got my ass handed to me. AQ vs A4 no good, AK vs K2 no good, etc etc. So I said to myself: do you really want to keep burning money around here? Walk away! …and so I did.

I thought it would be a good way to get some steam off by playing a low limit SnG on bodog. In the beginning a calling station cost me half of my stack as he refused to laydown third pair and my draws didn’t get there. Then the two orbits of mayhem occured. I look down at 44 on the button. Two limpers. I decide to limp in too, if I flop something good, if not, I’m not commited. Flop comes down 44x…wheeeeeeee…I let one player hang himself and push in after the river, he was commited and his Aces up were no good. The very next hand I find myself one off the button with KK. The player who just lost to my Quads is now short and in the BB, so I pop it up and he reraises. Nice, I call and he shows AA. Hmm, damn it! Flop comes down Kxx…wheeee…turn and river are blank and I sit on a nice stack. We’re on the bubble now and I fold till I’m in the BB again, looking down at QQ…hmm…someone popped it up from the cutoff, so I want to see where I’m at and reraise, he instapushes…now I’m wondering if he’s really got a bigger pair or if he’s just trying to push me off an Ace. I call all-in and he shows 66…wheeeeee….wait, there’s a 6 on the flop…and I’m out on the bubble. Karma’s a bitch!!!!!!!!!

…played a shit load of SnGs today, 10 in total which is quite a lot as those aren’t turbos. Even better: finished ITM in 9 out of 10 🙂

So my hunt for the 9000 PSO points is nearly completed, I guess after another time played bonus tomorrow I should be under 5 SnGs to get there. Nice, just over a week of low limit grinding and I almost tripled up my deposit 🙂

I guess I’ll get some Amazon gift cards once I get the points and I’m positive that I’ll keep playing at bodog for a while, after all there are that many donkeys around, why not take their money?

Ups: 2 wins and 7 other ITM finishes for a total of 9 out of 10

Downs: Folding the nuts some of the time – no those were all correct plays, it’s just that the board would have rewarded me (55 folded to a raise and all-in reraise, opponent showed AQ and QQ…flop 55x; 67o folded to a raise and big reraise, opponent showed KK and QQ, board:  A7AJ7; etc)

Hehe! Well, poker can really be fun sometime even if both the play at the tables and the result are bad. I’m near clearing the bodog points to finish the PSO promotion which is a good thing as I’m about to lose it with bodog. No, not my money, I’m way up, but my sanity! The play of some, if not most, players is so awful that it hurts to watch them even if you’re not in the hand and sometimes even more when you’re in a hand.

That’s when I said to myself: Why keep it in? Why not have some fun at the table, especially due to the fact that there was one particularly chatty player at the table anyway. So I went ahead and did a little Public Service Announcement…lol…

Ingoal: if play get’s a tiny bit worse than this bodog is required to hand out mandatory barf bags…
Ingoal: …so please get your act together or the rake will go up
Kevin_thekid_A: LOL
Ingoal: cheers the management
Ingoal: lol

Man, I’m still laughing at this one, and you know why? Because it’s indeed the awful truth. So, my plan is to grind away at the points to finish the promotion asap and then I’ll probably take a few days off before returning to bodog to skin more fish.

I leave you with some stats and one of two lovely hands which included the same shit, AQ vs QQ…no Ace to be found, but the case queen…

…the other similar hand was even better, A10 vs 1010, flop comes Ace high…turn blank…river case 10…yeeeehaaaw! I was so shocked that I didn’t make a screenshot.

Stats: Coins won 2, Coins lost: 3

…nothing spectacular to report, just the same ol’ same ol’ bullshit at the SnG tables. Sometimes it’s just to hard to take, sometimes it just makes you laugh your ass off. The latter applied to a hand that played itself out nicely: AJ in LP, I limp (I know I know, but I don’t want to commit too much at this particular table as “people are calling like crazy anyway” (c) tuff_fish ), flop comes down AAQ, checked to me, I check, turn is the case Ace…hehe, check check, river K, player in EP pushes….lol! So you’re holding a King after all, I instacall and show my quad aces 🙂

Apart from that nothing, and I mean nothing literally, going my way especially down the stretch…can’t win a coinflip once again…and people are sucking out like Dyson’s top model, unreal…and before I puke because my junk is hurting so badly I’ll quit with a slight loss tonight…

Coinflips: 5, won:1, lost:4

Sucky sucky: errm…dominated hands? What does the deck care…lost all 4 of ’em…

Play is still aweful, although there are some regulars, like myself, who try to both get their hands on the fish and keep the level of play a little bit above “stinkin aweful”.

Good news: made money like always despite numerous suckouts against me plus the fact that I couldn’t win a single coinflip for a while (including yesterday’s coinflips starting with the mook I went a whoopin 0 for 5 before I finally won one again – now we all know that coinflips don’t work in the win one lose one way, but it still sucks if you’ve got such a consecutive streak of losses). Just slightly over 50 points to go to clear the PSO bonus, too. Should be done soon enough (I’m guessing early to mid next week). Cool stuff as I doubled my deposit too…so I’m going to keep playing there for a while even after finishing the bonus 🙂
Bad news: I’m starting to wear out and it’s hard to stay focused, although my hand reading ability has benefited from the grind – it’s almost scary how accurate I can put my opponents on hands most of the time…okay, it’s not all that hard with most opponents either as they don’t know what the heck they’re doing. One question I asked in the table chat tonight was: “Does anybody around here have a post-flop game?” – and it’s a valid one as most people know only two ways to play (especially preflop): push or fold. Now there are some people, including myself, who try to exploit it…but for the most part a push means either nuts or something else (d’oh), namely small pair or weak Ace…lovely to see this, especially if the player is in EP and you’re looking down at a monster.

Coinflips played: 5, lost: 3, won:2

“Coolers” and suckouts: 55 vs AA lost, QQ vs KK vs AA lost but not broke as the spidey sense kicked in just in time to only lose me 200 odd chips, AQ vs AK lost, AJ vs AQ lost, AJ vs AK (all those lovely AJ vs hands were three- to four-handed, nice shuffle there), times I sucked out: 0, times I got sucked out on: 4

Nothing too spectacular to report today, played SnG after SnG to bring my total of SnGs played on bodog since sunday to 35. Today, I cashed in 7 out of 10, so not too bad, once again only one win though, which sucks, but what can you do more than stick your money in with the best hand and hope for the best? Exactly, nothing more and hopefully nothing less. The cards just can’t fall your way any time.

Coinflips played: 3, Won: 2, Lost: 1

Real coolers: 3, 99 vs KK, 78 vs 89 on a 884 board and 55 vs AA, lost both

Coolers the other way round: AA vs KK, Aces held up

Times sucked out/sucked out on: 4 and 4, so even…not taking into consideration that most of the sucked out on hands happened really deep in the money (usually headsup), so even is just a real number comparison, I’m way down when you look at the “money factor”…and I’m not counting the one where a player sucked out a chop my QQ vs Q7…board AJ10xK…
I would like to end this summary with a nice message that kept popping up earlier in the day before bodog threw out a software update this afternoon…

Errrrm, yup…thanks for the message 🙂