What many fellow bloggers and players in general already told over and over again is really true: (some/most/a lot of) players at PartyPoker are weak. So I hit the SnGs the last few days, although I mostly dislike the costs. What am I talking about? I mean at the limits I play (usually 5$ SnGs) Party is by far the greediest poker room I’ve seen in my life – 5$ for the SnG, 1$ fee (all other rooms I play charge .50$). So that sucks, but it’s not all that bad if you’re running good. I played 4 SnGs (3 shorthanded, 1 full) and cashed in 3 (would have been 4, but we’ll leave the bubble suckout of J7o vs my QQ out of here)…so I’m up with one win and two second place finishes. All good.

Tonight I decided to get some cash into Stars again and play the WWdN. 52 players showed up and I busted out in 44th. Really ugly if all you see is 23o, 24o, etc all the time. Then you see some semi-decent hands and bust out quickly. I hold AcJc and get the blinds, in the very next hand I hold AsJs and get reraised…what to do…roughly 900chips, blinds will reach 50/100 when they hit me…so nothing much left to do, although I could have let that one go, but no…I decide that this is a good time to call the push…sure enough opponent shows AKo…K hits the flop, not that she needed it…but better out quickly than to run low on chips again after x hours of poker. So I’m not all that bitter. Off to catch some sleep now…cya all at the WWdN next week…

Playing while drunk can really be fun, although it still hurts if you lose with Ax vs Kx three times in a row, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Friday started out with some SnGs at FullTilt and trying to catch up with all the revealing trip reports of all those in attendance of the WPBT Summer Classic. Man, I really really wanted to be there, but it wasn’t to be. Maybe next year when I’m finally done with my degree at university.

So we headed to a mate’s birthday (the host of our regular home game) and we basically had no intention to play any poker 😉 but in the end it was the good ol’ drunk early morning game. I was able to finish ITM in the first one, then quickly donked out of the second one. In the third one I was the monster chip leader at one point – 3000 chips were in play and I held around 2200 of them. Then the already mentioned three in a row Ax vs Kx hands happened: I called a double-All-In with my Ace rag and one of the other players almost tripled up. Then we were All-In again, same result. Then again and it was over with. Let’s just say that neither luck nor concentration was on my side – we were approaching 8am (!) and were slightly buzzed up to say the least. Come next friday we’ll play our regular home game again, which brings me to the next topic…

…we talked about finally getting a (semi-) decent poker table for our game as we were playing on a regular table with some felt thrown over it, which is kind of ugly. So I ordered one tonight, a foldable one, a true bargain considering the regular listings around here. I’m really looking forward to play at a real table.
On saturday, after the ultra-relaxing (note: lie) 2 hours of sleep on the couch I already needed to get up again as I was picked up at 10:30am to play a private footie (that’s soccer for the americans) tourney which involves drinking, too. Well, it basically revolves around drinking…nothing like getting your buzz on again easily with a nice cool beer. Play and drank the day away and when I finally made it home at 9pm I was so knackered that I almost fell asleep on the spot. Then I remembered that I should take a shower and treat my sunburn from drinking and playing footie in the sun all day. Almost needless to say that I was well awake again after the shower, so I watch a movie and at midnight I was finally going to bed…just to get up again at 9am today (sunday) to help clean up the location of our tourney.

So some live poker friday, no poker on saturday and only one SnGs on Party – a one shorthanded table donkfest which I won after I successfully trapped two donks in a row (nice to flop or turn the boat, seeing your opponent chasing the useless flush and pushing when it hits: priceless). Apart from that I was looking around at FullTilt and PokerStars and unbelievable how many players turned out to play the monster seat tourneys (FTP: 100 seats, Stars: 150 guaranteed) tonight. Good thing that you don’t need to win those things to earn a seat, but by looking at the numbers I would say that the guy/gal who wins the one on Stars should save some himself some time and stay at home – after beating a field of 7737 (s)he should have used his/her luck for the whole year, so no point in showing up in the main event 😉

Alrighty…enough babbling for tonight…I should catch some sleep anyway after this quite exhausting weekend, especially considering that I’ve got a dentist appointment tomorrow…

So I log into FullTilt and browse the SnG section, which I haven’t done in a while. I find a new (to me at least) token satellite – shorthanded, 1 table, 6$, first gets the token, second gets 10 bucks. Not bad I think as I jump right into one. I sit back and relax and just play solid poker, pick up some pots and observe the competition. I’m seeing that one player is basically weak tight, one is agressive and the rest is trying to play tight. After some sucks and resucks we’re finally three-handed, so it’s bubble time and I find myself in the mix with the aggressive and the weak tight player. Cool…until I cannot get the weak tight fellow to put down his hand preflop…yes, you guess it, his cards were s0000ted (J9), so who can blame him calling my push preflop 😉

At least I’ve got him covered and I hope for better luck next time we run into each other. Not to forget about mr. aggressive, I let him steal some of my blinds as I’ve got no intention to call with 7 high out of position, even though some of my crap cards are s0000ted 😉

Then the hand of the night goes down: he’s on the button again and raises 3BB…I’m smiling as I look down at KK in the BB…and I’m not only smiling because of the cowboys, but the fact that I’ve got him outchipped maybe 3:1, so even if I lose that pot to some runner runner bs, I’ll still be more than healthy. So I call and he shows 1010…to my surprise my Kings are good for once and we’re headsup for the token and I’ve got the chiplead (roughly 2:1). After a lost race (my AKo vs 77), I start to put the pressure on, after all he’s mr. weak tight, so what the heck. He folds and folds and folds and when he finally calls a hand, he’s behind in it (my A4o vs his K3o). Neither one of us hits anything and I take down the last pot with Ace high. Gimme the token, thank you.

Sidenote: I enjoy playing shorthanded quite a lot and this one table format is really cool as it should be done in less than 1h (or even 45minutes) in most cases. I’ll give those a few more test runs and as soon as I’ve got  some tokens I’ll try to play some of the guarantees again or maybe even the satellites to the WSOP 100 Seat tourney. We’ll see…

So I decided to try the latest PokerSavvy (aff) promotion and signed up for Mansion Poker. Deposited some dough and jumped right into the first SnG (what else is new?). The play dragged on and once again people were calling stuff down like crazy, so I decided to pop it up preflop whenever I held something decent and pound those suckers at every chance after the flop. It worked quite well and I was in a comfortable chiplead, then I was gone in fourth place after getting kicked in the junk three friggin times within two orbits…

1. KK vs J2o, backdoor four flush board goodness

2. KK vs J10s, turned flush goodness

3. A10o vs Q9s, I raised to 6xBB preflop…flop comes down 95A…I push…he calls…just to turn a 9 against me…

Well done there once again. So I played one friggin SnG and I could already rip some of their players’ throat out for playing like friggin retarded half-monkeydonks and having the guts to trash talk after their crappy play…side note: and yes, one single player, probably both the dumbest donkey and the luckiest git I’ve ever seen, sucked out on me in all three hands… (his screen-name is millar33 so beware of him, he must have interbreed CJ’s luckbox with the “Back from the future” home fusion generator…)

I’m going to cool down now and come back with a vengeance later 😉

Edit: To hell with cooling down, I hit the cash tables and what would you think who sat down a few minutes in? Yes, Mr. Suckout himself. I don’t want to get to deep into it, but let’s just say his suckout are limited to SnGs and/or very short-term as I stacked him three times within 20 minutes 🙂

…I really need a SnG-break or maybe I should even consider giving them up for good. It’s just too much hassle and annoyance to play against such friggin donkeys and yet they win and win and win. It’s unbelievable. What can you say when your KK lost again in a 45player SnG, level1, against a player calling a re-reraised pot preflop and and All-In on a QQx board with A4o and wins the friggin hand [one other player said he folded his AK post-flop, so the lovely turn ace was once again a friggin two outer]? I’m feeling free to quote Waffles here, as he already said it best in his recent post: “Have fun you 2 out chasing motherfuckers.”

…and I’m out (of another buyin at Stars and some prior winnings at FullTilt and) of here…

As I was waiting for the PokerSavvy Freeroll on Poker.com (for 1000$) to start I played some SnGs on FullTilt, no joy. Then I play the freeroll and after catching some cards early on I basically go on a card diet for a long time, then I try to make a stand with A10 but that was no match for KQ…down but not out…that would be the case in the next hand 99 no good. Oh well…18th out of 36…boooo! Nontheless thanks to Matt from PokerSavvy (aff) for hooking us up with a 1k freeroll!
On another note: only the top 5 payed (400/250/150/120/80) which was a cooler anyway after two players already sitting on 6k stacks (1k starting stack) after under 40 minutes…3 of the known faces in the top six Mookie bubbled, FishyMcDonk went out in 4th and Wes came back to take the win and 400$, nice one….

Well, well…I didn’t drop from the face of the earth, I just wasn’t in the mood to write something about my play the last few days. Yesterday and today I dropped back into the good old WSODP, no that’s not the currently running WSOP, it’s the World Series of Donkey Poker (aka Low Limit NL Hold’em Online) 😉

A couple of SnGs here, a couple more SnGs there…mostly with mixed success – more ITMs than busts, but nothing newsworthy, apart from the fact that I’m really enjoying the time at the tables again. How come? The simple fact that I’m playing straight up poker most of the time, but I allow myself to use some reverse donkey logic every now and then. What is that? Well, basically entering pots with very marginal hands when I’ve got a feel for the players entering the pot (mostly coming in with a medium raise, probably with an Ax) and huge implied (tilt) odds. Nothing better than to “crack” someones Ace rag with a bs two pair – especially knowing that they can’t laydown a hand if there life depended on it and hence scoring huge. Even when not scoring huge, it adds more excitement if you can drop the hammer on someone and put them on uber-tilt…

Apart from that I’m still enjoying the World Cup over here, although there were some crap games and decisions – can you believe that the Socceroos really lost on a penalty 7 seconds before the end of regulation…and a more than questionable penalty at that! You won’t even believe how I screamed at the telly and how I cursed every Italian that drove around after the game celebrating their victory. True, such a thing is just another form of variance and over time it’ll smooth itself out (after all Italy basically got screwed in the last WC vs South Korea, this time they screwed the Aussies), but ask any player of the Aussie team and I’m laying 100:1 odds on the “I don’t give a shit, we were screwed” answer…and another 4 years (or maybe even more) are a long time to get even (if it ever happens)….I would have loved to see the Aussies head into overtime and get the win 🙁 then seeing them again in the semis on our way to the finals 😉

Sidenote on tonight’s WWdN: I missed the start and just as I went looking for late registration I found that a player was already out. So I went ahead and watched a little and what can I say: I’ve never ever seen the luckbox get sucked out on so hard – I was too slow to take a screenshot, but let’s just say that CJ‘s AA was no match to the 99…can you say Dem Quads Beetches! Wow!!!

Well, I don’t know if you can call it a comeback, but I think it was a good performance – and that’s kind of a comeback from my bad run lately. Before I get into the narrative mode, be warned that this might be a loooong ass post, not an uber post like by the Iggster himself, but longer than recent posts.

I played my (currently) favourite SnG, NL HE 6 (5$, 6 players, top 2 ITM). Sure enough getting some good cards and/or hitting some nice boards early on is a good start, which makes navigating towards the top 2 all that easier, but I still needed the patience and had to make some big decisions.

Early on I caught As4s in the BB, limped around to me, I check…flop is three spades, no straight flush possibility. SB checks it, I check it, UTG min bets…all call…I min raise…3 call. Turn is blank, I check again, UTG min bets again…all call…I min raise…only UTG calls. River is blank. Now I don’t want him to check it down, but as he was leading out all the way I’m hoping that he’s putting me on a busted flush draw (as if I would draw to a four flush, lol). I check and sure enough he leads out with half the pot…I min raise him to extract a little more value and he calls. I show my nut flush and take down a nice pot. He mucked two pair, poor fellow. A little later I had an insane rush of cards, which put me in an even better position – I had KK three times and QQ twice. The second time I held QQ I was in the SB, folded to me, I bet 6BB into the short BB (who lost his chips to me in the early flush hand)…he ponders and pushes…it’s not much more to me and I’m hoping to not see and Ace or King in his hand…my prayers are heard…he shows QJo…nice.

From there on I got some decent hands in steal positions (AQo twice, AJ and AK once) and was able to stay ahead of the blinds. Then I went card dead for quite some time. So I slowly bounced from first to last (3 handed by then), after paying off some weak Aces twice. Then it was bubble time as the other two players battled it out – one fell short and we were ITM. Chip stacks were me 3.5k him 5.5k. We traded blinds and didn’t see that many flops and when we did he took the lead most of the time as I couldn’t hit anything and I dislike 1k bets when holding 8 high on a AKxx board…then my patience payed off. I hold QJ he min raises and I call (pot now 2k), flop is the ever so beautiful QJJ. I check, he checks. Turn is blank. I bet 500. He calls. River is blank. I bet 500, he calls. Pot 4k is shoved to me. Now that I’m sitting on slightly over 7k chips I’m in full control and end the match in the next hand…I push with Ax he calls with Qx and I’m the winner.

Wheee…I thought I couldn’t win anymore, groovy to see that I can. As I said above, it sure helps to get good starting hands, but we all know that’s just part of the game. My assessment prior to playing today was that I had some flaws in my recent play (which were no doubt impaired by a bad run of cards/suckouts) – cards speak, but some consideration can sometimes replace a good cup:

1. Don’t underestimate the other players – true I’m playing at low levels, but they’re not all donkeys.
2. Don’t let the frustration of prior hands/sessions get the best of you – you might know that feeling that you have to “push the envelope” when you’re running bad, which more often than not will hurt you instead of the donks.
3. Patience is key, don’t let card-deadness or dry flops get the best of you – unless the odds + your feeling for the hand/opponent (along with possible user notes 😉 ) imply a call/raise, don’t waste your chips. This is war, one battle lost isn’t the end.
4. Bubble time is crucial, but don’t get too pushy or too tight – recently I was letting the aggression monkey out of it’s cage right at bubble time, which didn’t work out so well. Pushing preflop, even with a decent hand, is not the only option.
5. Don’t let the fear of getting sucked out on interfere with your sound play* (find the * further below for extended thoughts on this one)
6. etc etc

Now I don’t claim to have found a cure for my recent bad run, I’m just thinking that by not looking at my game over the last few days (week) I put myself into some spots that I didn’t need to be in. (There’s a huge difference whether someone has to call your all-in bet when it’s 30BB instead of 15BB – true, some ppl will call you one way or another, but sometimes you gotta think that even the biggest donkey will at least think a little before calling a huge all-in (no question that sometimes they won’t and so this example really is situational and I didn’t put myself in a weak stack position by playing badly that often [sometimes I did by “taking shots”, sometimes it was just a series of suckouts])).

One way or another, cards speak, so if you get sucked out on for the umpteenth time, then so be it…if your decisions prior to the hand and in the hand were sound, there’s nothing to get angry about – it’s part of the game, although we all dislike it very much (especially if the suckout was really by some donk drawing with TOTALLY incorrect odds).

*On June 4th I said that I was working on a post resolving around the question “How does ‘questionable’ play influence your own game?â€?, I didn’t continue to write on the post as I was going crazy over it. Let me quote the things I wrote about that question and then have another look at it:

—Quote: Original post draft——————–

After yesterday’s live game I had a long discussion on the way home. The main topic was the question “How does ‘questionable’ (aka “bad play”) influence your own game?” To put this question into context I would like to start things of with a description of some typical scenarios (1.-3. taken from yesterday’s home game, 4. from the tourney two weeks ago – tournament, NL HE, two tables):

1. I’m holding QhQd in the BB. The table is seven handed and you watch how the action makes it’s way around the table. Fold. Call. Fold. Call. Fold. Call. Action is on me. Blinds are at Level one (.10/.20) so I decide to punish the limpers and/or end the hand right there. Fold, Call, Call from the SB. Flop comes down Jack high with two clubs and one spade. SB checks. What do you do?
2. I’m holding AcQh and pump it up to 2 (blinds at .20/.40). Two callers. Flop comes down Ah-Xd-Xs. I bet half the pot, one player folds, the other on the button calls. Turn is Xs. I check…Button checks. River is Xs…I check…Button bets 1.5x the pot. What do you do?
3. I’m holding A9o…two callers…flop comes down A-Xs-Xs…I bet to see where I’m at…one player folds…one player calls…turn is another blank…I bet again…other player calls. River is another 9s…I check…other player goes into the tank and bets around the pot. What do you do?
4. Player 1 is holding JJ in LP, Player 2 is holding KQo in MP…player 2 raises preflop to 4xBB…player 1 calls. Flop comes down AKQ rainbow…player 2 bets the pot…player 1 calls….turn is blank…player 2 bets the pot…player 1 calls…river is a J…player 2 bets the pot…player 1 calls…What do you make of this hand?

To add some more context to the scenarios a little analysis of the player’s styles is in order: There are some more conservative players [playing “good” starting hands, mixing things up sometimes with not-premium hands, only playing to the river if odds are correct, using and caring about position, etc], some swing players [mostly playing good starting hands, but a greater range of hands, sometimes mixing it up with minimal chances, but mostly playing straight up poker], some risky players [playing a large range of hands, mostly calling station type poker, no reraise until the river, etc] and some maniacs [basically playing almost all two cards as long as they look pretty (to those players), couldn’t care less about pot odds, outs, etc; unable and/or unwillingly to let a hand go if there’s the slightest chance to make the hand (even if there’s only one card to come)].

Now that all this info has been provided I would like to start to answer the original question for myself: “How does questionable play influence your own game?” – Tough one, but after the recent live games I would have to answer it in two words: a lot! Depending on who’s in the hand it’s really tough to play text-book poker. If I raise preflop to 5xBB or 10x BB or even more, what sort of hands does your opponent(s) call with? Where are you at if you’re holding something like AQo on a King high board and your bet is just called? There’s no such thing as “justice” in poker, but sometimes you wish that there was. How can the deck reward a maniac calling HUGE bets with A2? Maybe the phrase “but they were s00ted” sounds too good to the poker gods, so they keep giving those players runner runner flushs? So, I basically tried two different strategies in the last two tourneys:

1. Make it known that you’re in the hand. Play your preflop “monsters” like there’s no tomorrow. Bet the living jebus out of them if you connect on the flop. – What was the result? I get sucked out on 3 occasions by players who had no odds and hence no right to even think about staying in the hands till the end and I’m out quickly (see here).
2. Play cautiously and use the concept of the preemptive laydown/slowplay**. – Where did it lead me to? To the final table, but not in healthy chip position.

**Def. Preemptive slowplay/ preemptive laydown: “You’re in a hand with at least one maniac. You know that he won’t laydown his hand no matter how large you bet. You hold the current nuts, but the board is scary (i.e. two cards of the same suit; gapped cards making a straight possible, especially with two cards to come; a lot of overcards; etc). Instead of trying to protect your hand by betting large amount of chips, you’re checking it down, calling it down till the end if the bets aren’t huge or you’re laying it down right there, because you suspect that your maniac opponent is drawing to the nuts. You make a preemptive slowplay / preemptive laydown.”

Now, most people would call me crazy to even think about such a concept. After all if you’re anywhere from 5x% – 100% it’s an incorrect play, depending on the situation (i.e. while it seems to be an incorrect play if you’re let’s say 80/20 to win, but if you’re only 50/50 aka coinflip it might not be incorrect to throw it away and wait for a better spot). The recent experience contradicts that assumption. [Quick thought: Surely over the long run it will hurt me and reward the maniac at the same time, if I continue to not push the edges…but for the time being it seems to work, not optimal, but junk kick free]. Let’s go back to the scenarios I presented above:

1. We’re three handed with two solid players and one maniac. Both decide to call my preflop raise, so it’s safe to assume that the solid player has got at least a twenty and the maniac at least an Ace rag. The flop comes down Jack high with two clubs. Normally I would bet out at least half the pot to see where I’m at, but given the read I’ve got I decide that I don’t want to put more money in the pot. Solid player checks, maniac checks. Now I’m really sure that at least one of my opponents is on a flush draw and the other one is probably still playing his Ace rag. Turn is a blank spade, which puts two spades and two clubs on the board, still Jack high. I check again and the others check right behind me. River is another blank spade, now there are two clubs and three spades on board. I check…solid player bets…maniac reraises…I curse my “slowplay” or otherwise put my unwillingness to put more money in the pot and fold. The solid player re-reraises. Maniac is worried, but calls…Solid player shows: Q high flush, maniac shows K high flush… – in this case I played the hand pretty badly…I should have put in a huge bet after the flop, but I didn’t…and so I got sucked out on. Not really a classic preemptive laydown, but a hand that was playing with my mind. I was so worried about getting sucked out on at the turn and/or river, that I fucked it up pretty good…even the maniac wouldn’t have called an All-In on the flop…then again: if he didn’t have the spades, but the clubs, he would have called…and a single ace would have killed me, too.
2. Once again, scared play postflop, because of the fear of getting sucked out on. At the end this was a classic preemptive laydown hand. He was indeed drawing to the nuts and connecting yet again. He wouldn’t have layed it down no matter what. Classic preemptive slowplay and laydown in the end. I mucked the hand face up as I knew that he had the flush, yet again.
3. Basically the same as 2.
4. In this hand I wasn’t involved, it was the opposite of scared play and nowhere near an preemtive laydown. The player holding KQ raised preflop, flopped two pair, bet the living jebus out of it and got sucked out on in the end. What odds and outs did the player holding JJ have? Outs:two Js, four tens. Odds: After the flop roughly 22/78, after the turn roughly 14/86…so he had no business in the pot given the three overcards and the huge bets, nontheless this play was yet again rewarded by the deck.

————————————————-

Wow, now that I’m looking at that post (which wasn’t edited since original writing and no I’m not embarrassed to put it out there, otherwise I wouldn’t do it ;)), I can understand my reasoning back then [after getting sucked out on not only in the online games, but in my own home game, which I usually had at my finger tips].

But let’s be real – the concept of the preemptive laydown/slowplay to minimize losses is soooo way over the top, that’s it’s fucking up your own mind pretty good along with the harmful side effects of minimising your chances to win huge pots along but at the same time encouraging the maniacs/donks to keep drawing out on you on now “improved”, but probably still incorrect, odds [although it might still be valid over a very small statistical smaple!]. So scratch that, time to get back to the good old poker philosophy – stick with your instincts/feels, play correctly but mix it up sometimes and take some shots, anything else will be to your disadvantage in the long run.
Now that I got that devil of my shoulder I can officially announce that I’m back and what can I say to the home game crew: better watch out…I’m back to reclaim my overall net throne…so watch out! [I’m still the player with the most money won overall due to my participation in more events, but I lost the net won throne to a mate of mine (hi Armin :))]

…by not telling some random “bad beat” stories 🙂

All I’m going to say about today’s sessions at PokerStars, Full Tilt and Party is: …at least they were s00ted…nice call sirs… 😉

I didn’t have any urge to play poker yesterday, as I spent my day on the couch watching the footie world cup and then NBA Finals at night. Goooo Dirk.

Basically much of the same today, minus the NBA Finals, after all they don’t resume play until tomorrow night. So I fired up FullTilt for some relaxing SnG action, although the relaxing part almost turned into the tilty part pretty quickly. Kings cracked by sixes, hmm…thanks, which basically let me tilt of the next SnG. Then in the third one I thought it was all over again, after I pushed my AKs into AA. Always lovely to see two category A hands in a 3 handed game. I thought my way back though. I’m in the BB and Mr. Pushmonkey on the button, he min-raises which more often than not spells Aces or rag Ace, depending on the situation. The SB folds and I read it to be a rag ace and called. Let’s say I was giving it a shot, as calling the min-raise put around 25% of my stack into the middle. Flop comes 4-4-A. Perfect, I check…he bets double the pot. I push…he calls…he shows A5…turn and river are blank…and all the chips come my way. What did I hold? Snowman’s sailboat…yup, that’s 84o…lol…from that point on I just kept bullying the weak tight player until he busted and when I was headsup with Mr. Aggression-Monkey it was over pretty soon, couldn’t catch anything and he ran away with it. I still feel good about my play, although I’m officially folding Kings preflop next time…or maybe not… 😉