…so this post is all about moaning – if you’re running good don’t read any further or my “bad luck” might rub off on you 😉
No matter what I touch these days, it all turns into crap. Played a Stars 180, flop my broadway, get crushered by a runner flush – out 148th. Nice way to start off a session. Change of scenery and game: FullTilt PLO8 ring game, I’m prepared to shout “Scoooop”, but either my hand get’s counterfeited or I even lose the whole hand (4 to the wheel on the flop, …no low)…sweet, bye bye 3 Buyins…

Back to Stars, another SnG, single table as the cheapo 180s aren’t running…J-9…flop 8-9-9…sure enough some CB holds A9…Ace on the turn (not that he needed it – just for good measure..) …damn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [And yes I know that calling his big bet at the river is/was questionable…he might as well have had a crap flush already made on the turn which would have had me beat…but I did put him on Ax…which was true, didn’t think it was A9 though…]

Alrighty…enough moaning for today…off to watch the latest episode of Las Vegas… 🙂

Before I start to rant, I’ll just have a little comment: The one day break didn’t help. Turbo Token Satellite on FullTilt – 2nd hand and I’m crippled…how? Nut flush rivered by a full house…nice…pot sized bets (on the turn) don’t matter anymore these days…at least he had ten outs (3 sixes, 3 sevens, 3 kings, 1 ten) and sure as hell one of those hit…*insert sad smiley of choice here*

Hmm…getting closer, but still not far enough. Finished 13th of 180 in my third try. In the money, so nothing much to complain about, but it could have been a better tourney.

Short summary: Got off to a good start and was the table captain for most of the first hour, building a nice stack in the process (peak: 2nd in chips). After the first break I was literally card dead for almost exactly 55min (7 high, 6 high, 4 high, 5 high, for a straight 55min)…so I almost didn’t make the money at all. The last hand before the 2nd break doubled me up though…and I was back in the game, but when it mattered most I couldn’t catch anything (AJ vs KQ – King on the turn and IGHN)…so close to the final table, yet again… 😉

Tried a three-table 5$ SnG to finish of the day of playing poker and it all came down to my beloved and hate hand of Pocket Rocket, Bullets, AA, whatever you would like to call it. I play really tight for a few orbits not seeing a flop for the first ten hands. Some other ten hands in I hold AA in the BB, cheers Stars. EP min-raises, LP raises to 10xBB…as he’s a relative maniac I don’t even think about it and push (remember my announcement that I’m so All-In preflop with the next rockets I hold?). Sure enough he calls and shows A10…the rest can go with the old saying: a picture is worth a thousand words…

Crippled and on mega-tilt I didn’t even survive the next hand…I guess I gotta readjust my tactics when holding bullets: If there’s any raise before the flop, ponder about calling if it doesn’t mean I’m commited, then on the flop if there’s any possible draw – fold.

j/k 😉

So, I gave the 4$ 180SnG on Stars another whirl and I cashed. 17th / 180….so nothing major (just under doubled the buyin), not really +ev for 2.5h of poker, but at least I play some good poker again. Early on people (aka Donkeys) bet every flop and sometimes you just got to trust your gut feeling (e.g. the first time I was All-In was holding AhJh on a flop with all cards lower than ten…some donkey pushed and I was sure that I was ahead…call…he shows KJo (aka “the donkey”) – wtf?). Picked my spots after that and was hovering around twice the average at all times (peak: 4th avg: 6th-12th). Then just at the bubble I sealed my finish.

Situation: BIG stack raises every hand and is successful with it as all the other players are shorstacks and I don’t get any cards higher than 8 for 1.5 orbits, this time I reraise to 6xBB with AQo though, all fold…he calls…board is all undercards…check…bet…call…turn is another undercard…so the board is all rags…he pushes…now at this point I’ve commited around half my stack…up: I think he might be holding overcards too; down: he might as well hold Ax, Kx, Qx…so chances are high that his kicker is playing….I fold…now I’m stuck in the nirvana of mediocrity with just under 7k in chips (top 10 all > 20k)…so I decide to fold into the money and take it from there…success and I’m at the final two tables…third hand: I hold 8d5d in the BB three limpers, I check…flop comes down 6d-6c-5h rainbow…I bet 1200…call call….turn is Kd…I bet 1200 again….push fold…action on me…now I’m sure that he holds Kx, but I’m desperate and 11 outs (9 diamonds and two fives) justify the call…if it hits I’m back in the race, if not I’m out….K on the river seals my fate…

I guess I’m going to play those cheapos a little bit over the next few weeks…a final table cash (especially top 3) would really help my bruised bankroll at Stars…

…sometimes isn’t such a good idea after all. I played a NL HE Heads Up match at Absolute Poker in preparation for tomorrow’s HUC3 match and I didn’t do all that good. Note to self: try to take your time and don’t let yourself be bullied around tomorrow. Trust your gut.

After that disappointment I went back to common grounds – to the low limit NL HE ring games at Full Tilt. I grinded out some bucks and cleared another bit of the bonus, so what do you do with the free money? Yup, play a SnG! Shorthanded NL HE sounded right so I gave it a shot. Bouncing up and down like a rubber ball for 45 minutes before Mr. Luckbox outflops me…out in 4th. Damn! Ah well, time to get some rest…I hope to see you all around at the HUC3 – Round 1 tomorrow…

Tired from learning / revising all day and tired of getting sucked out on in critical hands. Played a Token satellite again, nothing much to report until we’re down to 6 handed, I need some chips and push from the button with Ad8d…SB folds…BB thinks it’s a good idea to call the additional 1k chips with 4d5d…sure enough two diamonds on the flop…blank turn…and 4 on the river…and I’m out in 6th place…no token, no joy, just the urging feeling to hit something. 🙁

Maybe I shouldn’t play when I’m so tired at all…but you know how it is, a little game won’t hurt…although in this case it did…once again. A well, you can’t win ’em all…and being tired didn’t hurt my game in DADI IV or WWdN 18 the last two days, so I guess I’m just in “just been sucked out on”-mode… 😉
Addendum: Forgot to mention my little ring game before the WWdN…nothing too spectacular, played a half dozen orbits to warm up for the WWdN, went out ahead 1 buyin… 🙂

After footie training I fired up PokerStars to pick up where I left yesterday evening – at the micro SnGs. Two junk kickings later and I’m frustrated (8th place finish in NL HE, which was okay, my play sucked as did my cards – I pot it up with 99, my first decent hand of the night, one guy reraises me to All-In, I ponder and suspect that he got me beat, but the “maybe not, just suckout”-monkey on my shoulder tells me to call…so I do and he shows his black Aces…IGHN; bring in the PLO8 and everything is looking better, until we’re down to 6 handed, this is where the story of the super-charge-luckbox-deluxe begins. This one player keeps raising every pot, which is legitimate if there are three shortstacks and you’re holding a decent amount of chips, but you’re not entitled to win every friggin pot, especially not in PLO8 and even more so if you’re pushing all the time with crap like 67KQ. As soon as we’re down to 5 handed I think “okay, time to get something going”, so I’m waiting for a decent hand and then it’s time to counterpunch…he pushes again, one of the remaining shortstacks calls and is All-In and I hold AK23, so I push, he calls…sure enough there’s no low in sight and he wins with his crap hand (I can’t even remember the exact hand, but it was something like KJ57 and he hit his 7 to J straight…way to go fool)…so we’re both out and the others are in the money. I wish the other two good luck and watch as they bust within 4 hands to the super-uber-charge-magic-deluxe-luckbox…unbelievable! I’ve never seen such a rush before…)

That’s enough PS for the night and I head over to FullTilt and play over an hour at the .10/.25 NL tables…win some, lose some…big hands don’t pay off…weak hands don’t cost me much and I call it a night slightly up…so, all in all a truly uneventful evening at the tables…

I played some more, this time a little SnG of PLO8…first of all I witnessed a Royal Flush…

PokerStars Game #4231941580: Tournament #21037996, Omaha Hi/Lo Pot Limit – Level III (25/50) – 2006/03/09 – 19:39:28 (ET)
*** SHOW DOWN ***
candid123: shows [Ks Js 4d Qc] (HI: a Royal Flush)
gh234: mucks hand
candid123 collected 625 from pot
No low hand qualified
Ingoal said, “wow”
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 625 | Rake 0
Board [5c Ts As 7h Qs]
Seat 1: D0MINATED (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: candid123 (big blind) showed [Ks Js 4d Qc] and won (625) with HI: a Royal Flush
Seat 4: plumberran folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: dawn1 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 7: kendozzz folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 8: Ingoal folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 9: gh234 mucked [Qd 2c 7d 5s]
Seat 10: the_snake11 (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

Even better that I took down first…woohoo me… 😉

Sticking to things that you’re accustomed to isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes it can be a real PITA. My day in poker is told fairly quickly today. Started off with a token satellite. Bad idea, once again my strong Ace ran into Aces within the first orbit – I should start to keep track of such things, what are the odds of your opponent holding pocket Aces when you’re holding one? Whatever the odds are, it seems that it’s happening more often than you think, especially when I’m holding a big ace.

After that quick bustout I decided to cool things down with the 17ET 1$ tourney, always nice to try some new things for a buck. A standard play broke my back though. I find pocket Aces in EP within the first orbit and pop it up to 3xBB, 2 callers, this could be fun! Flop comes down 9-7-3 rainbow. Checked to me, I bet the pot, one fold, one reraise to 2x pot…I think about it and if he flopped a set, so be it…I push…he calls…sure enough my gut feeling was right and he doesn’t hold a set…he’s holding TPSK (yup, that’s top pair shit kicker) – 96s in this case. To make a long story short: 6 on the turn and IGHN. Way to go, cracked Aces with 96…argh!

After that I was a little frustrated – to say the least. I wanted to spend some time (and little money) playing a decent amount of poker. As this plan didn’t work out I decided to play some ring games. Everything fine at the .05/.10 NL HE front and I quintuple up in no time. Which makes me think: Maybe it’s time to move up in limits again. This time with a better bankroll behind me (after all I more than tripled up my deposit since starting to play at Full Tilt less than a month ago). So I head to the .10/.25 NL HE games and play around a dozen orbits. I leave down a little, but not much. To change things up a little bit more I play some limit Hold’em (.25/.50) too, with not much success as the draw donkeys just keep outdrawing me.

So, why the post title “change of plan”? Because I decided that I’ll quit playing SnGs and MTTs for a while. I mean it’s all good and I did fairly well in MTTs and some SnGs, but overall I just can’t get through. So the new plan is to spend the extra poker time grinding it out at the cash tables – at the new limit of .10/.25 – until my bankroll is a little bit bigger. Then I’ll try to hit some of the bigger buyin MTTs and/or SnGs (10$+) and maybe I’ll even try to win my way into the WSOP then – the whole 100 WSOP seat tourney (July 16th) is just too tempting, especially if you could achieve satelliting into the thing.