That about sums up what’s been going on yesterday and today so far. Played headsup non-stop and got kicked in the junk non-stop. Everything started yesterday evening when I won my first match easily. Then things started to fall apart, fast. I lost the next three matches in rapid succession and I logged off. It’s just no fun when you get some premium hands and see them go down in flames. You raise preflop with QQ. Opponent calls. Flop comes down 7J7…you pray that your opponent has the jack…you bet big…he shoves…hmm…you call…he’s got the hammer and busts you. Good calling preflop. That’s about the only flop you could win money with. Other brutal hands included QQ vs KJ…sure enough K…JJ vs Q9…Q…etc etc etc. So I logged off and called it a night.

I thought I’d squeeze in a little afternoon session today, I shouldn’t have. I played fish after fish after fish. In a total of six matches I faced exactly one winning player (according to Sharkscope). How many matches did I win? 0. Honestly, I’m so tilted right now, I’ll log off right after this post and I’m not sure if I’ll return tonight or not. It was so bad. The chased me and chased me and sure enough they connected on the river. Brutal. The one guy called my down with any Ace high and any pair (even lowest pair on board with 4 overcards) and to add insult to injury he sucked out on the river in four big pots. Yeah, decision wise there’s nothing to complain about, he commited all his money with crap and got lucky. But results wise it sucks big time. In the last 10 matches I’ve gone WLLLLLLLLL, so 1-9. Not that unusual if you figure in the brutal beats I took, still has me on the edge of full blown tilt. So sick how some lucksacks can keep hitting on you with no end. Sick. Oh well, I’m out for now…better luck soon, hopefully, it can’t continue this way, no can it? Here’s to having a hand hold up in a big pot….and good luck at the tables everyone…

Today I tried to get in touch with Microsoft again…ended up in a russian call center…all they were able to do is to tell me that I needed to get in touch with the retailer that sold me my copy of windows vista…errrm yeah…that would be Microsoft itself…*lol*…so it seems that I need to reinstall my system yet again (although it’s a fresh install)…unless the MS Technet forum guys come up with a solution (which I highly doubt)…oh well…just another bad beat right there.

I didn’t let it get to me though and played a little poker today. Just the lucky 7 HU SnGs…won 4…in the three losses there was one critical error, one that didn’t happen in a loooong time. I lost the match due to a misclick. The flop is all clubs and I got the Jack of Clubs and an open-ender to boot. He fires huge…and I misread his bet for 150 (an overbet to the 120 pot)…and insta-called…too bad the bet wasn’t 150 but 1050…lol…turn is a blank and we’re both commited, so I have to call and the river bricks me out of there. Pretty strange. The other two losses where okay, although the last one sucked. I’ve got my opponent down to under 400 with 25/50 blinds. I pop it preflop with JackAce and he shoves. Insta-call…he shows A3…3 hits and he doubles up. Next hand I look down a 88 and shove…he calls with KQ….both hit…he doubles up. Now I’m short as the blinds jump to 50/100. Two hands later I shove with some crap and he calls me with crap…which is worse than my crap. His crap hits the deck and mine the crapper…and I’m busto…oh well…I’ll take the small profit and the added FPPs (due to the 2x Promotion)…and I’m outta here…gl at the tables everyone….

…is sometimes grueling, sometimes boring, sometimes fun…and sometimes all of it combined. I don’t know if it has got something to do with the Pokerstars 2x-promotion or if it’s the norm these days, but most people suck at headsup. Good for me and any other player that doesn’t think and pair is the nuts and top pair is gold. Today my run was a little bit different than the last few days. Started off with a loss, then crushed 5 in a row, then lost two and quit. So 5 out of 8 and I was still feeling good. Why did I quit then? Because I felt a shake in the luck-matrix. The second to last match: the match lasted for 36 hands. Within those 36 hands my opponent had AA four times…two times I had nothing and folded. The other two times I had TP and a draw or better. Lost the minimum the first one…gone busto on the second one where I have K9 for TP + gutterball-straight-draw + flushdraw…none hits and I’m busto. Next match I get runner-runnered for a flush over my straight. Then I flop top set and get runner-runner-flushed again (money went in preflop)…that was enough. I got the message and logged off.

On another note: If you didn’t see the new Poker After Dark – Cash game yet, make sure you head on over to their site (you can watch it online)…it’s not quite High Stakes Poker (because it’s 6 handed and less money on the table)…but the first two episodes have been A+++….always makes for good television if Phil Hellmuth is involved and get’s beaten one way or another…

So, enough babbling…I’m outta here for the night, off to watch a movie or something…good luck at the tables everyone…

…the Points I get for playing headsup matches and I’m even more happy. I really like the Pokerstars 2x promotion…this time it’s headsup and you get 1.5x the points you would normally get. So after a short break from poker, due to a busy weekend, I returned to the virtual felt after having a good day. Today my new HDTV arrived…not a monster by any means, but it made my day…so…I just played three quick headsup matches and I won all three of them. Either I’m on the ultimate heater or the players on my “old level” (11$) are just what I needed. I think it’s the latter as they’re able to fold a hand, so bluffs, especially multi-street-bluffs that make sense, are back in the picture. This really helps my game as I’m not at the mercy of the cards that much as in the lower level (6$) where the regular donkey will call you down with SPNK without hesitation. Normally that would be a good thing, but as I had a rather dry spell when it comes to premium hands or premium hands connecting with the board to be precise, it wasn’t a good thing. Some I’m happy where I’m at now…and I guess I’ll keep hitting those suckers until I feel like doing something else…nn…and gl at the tables everyone….

I don’t know what it is, but I had to very different experiences in headsup play tonight and I’m not talking about matches here, I’m talking about levels. What’s working on one level (11$) isn’t worth a dime in the other one (6$). I got totally annihilated tonight in the 6$ ones. My donk opponents couldn’t fold second pair, no way to fold TPNK either…and don’t even get me started on overcards…hey I got two face cards call AWWWWWWWWW-in…totally ridonkulous. Now I would normally try to exploit that with value-bet after value-bet throwing in the occasional overbet and everything. It’s tough to do though if you don’t have a single premium hand in around 200 hands. Even harder if you can’t flop a pair, and if you do so it’s second best.

Oh well, the way it goes sometimes…finished an impressive 0-7 in 6$ headsup matches. So I decided to do the obvious…leak-time…lol….move up a level (the level I’m used to playing btw, so no big “ooooh” jump)…so I fire up some 11$ ones and yeah you guessed it, I annihilated the competition. My opponents (some of them real sharkscope-certified fish) were more than willing to pay off just about everything and once I pulled a string of hands together there was no stopping. So I took four donk-heads and logged off…4-0. So I’m slightly down for the night, thanks rake, under -2$ though…so I couldn’t be happier considering the bad run I had at the lower donk level. So, I’m outta here and I’ll probably won’t be back until sunday….tomorrow is a beer-football-tournament (that’s soccer for the americans). It’s called KoelschCup after the famous brew from cologne “Kölsch”. It’s a fun little private annual thing were new and old friends meet once a year to play a little footie and drink. The tourney is played two-on-two on a small field with small goals. It’s basically mandatory to get wasted….flat-rate time…the only thing that worries me a little is that

a) I’ve got to get up in less than 6 hours
b) The weather report predicted crappy, rainy weather for today

But oh well…it should be fun nontheless. After that I’m heading to a birthday party of a mate of mine…30 years…a big celebration…time to get even more wasted (if that’s even possible after the KoelschCup)…we’ll see….so I’ll probably have a little catching up on sleep on sunday…so probably nothing new to report on the pokerfront…maybe a little donkerama on sunday afternoon/evening…but not sure…anyway…enough babbling….time to catch a few hours of sleep….wish me luck and good luck at the tables everyone.

Oh…I almost forgot: A big shoutout to Iggy aka the blogfather aka the brogger midget…gg man, congrats on moneying the biggest donkament in the universe…the WSOP 2008 ME….well done!

If my poker play had an actual gearbox, it would be smoking right now. I’ve never switch gears that fast and often in my life. Why did I do it? Because I played strictly headsup tonight and what throws the donks off more than switching gears, especially early? Nothing. Once the blinds get higher they’re so confused that they will make more questionable calls than ever and that strategy payed off tonight. Still didn’t finish with a perfect record, but honestly, even playing perfect doesn’t give you a 100%-win-rate, so I’ll take the 5 out of 7 every day and twice on sundays. Probably no poker for the next two days as I’m pretty busy offline…so don’t expect news from the donkfront until sunday…gl at the tables everyone…I’m outta here…

Played another DS to the sunday million tonight…patience at the first table is key, the donks are more than willing to hand you their chips, just gotta have the patience to wait for the right spot and you’ve got a good shot. I took out 4 out of 5 at the first table, even after being down to 500 chips early (losing a coinflip against a pushmonkey). The final table was brutal then. I was playing tight tight tight…just like everyone else, I for one didn’t do it on purpose though. Usually I would try to run over such a tight table in that spot, but it’s hard to do if you’re looking at 53o etc all the time. So I sat back and relaxed a little…once the blinds got bigger I finally had to resort to some all-in steals etc. The worked…but I couldn’t get anything going, not a single decent hand…once we were down to three I pushed…ran into a crap-flip 40/60 shot and lost…out in third…oh well…can’t complain here.

After that I donked around a little in the HU SnGs…and the game was brutal…I won my first match within 5 hands when my KJ on a KJx board was more than enough against my opponent calling a re-reraise-shove on that flop with K4o…well played sir….TPNK totally gold there…lol. In the next three matches it was cooler time. Flush into bigger flush…boat into bigger boat…nut flush into small boat…two pair into bigger two pair…you name it, I ran into it. Oh well, that’s how it goes sometimes…so I finish the session down, but down less than the rake…so I can live with that…

On another note: I finished reading Johnny Hughes’ book “Texas Poker Wisdom” yesterday…I gotta say a really good read, it made me smile a lot of times along the way with all the gamblers’ / poker players’ references by Old Cardslinger Matt…I can really recommend it…and I wonder if there’s going to be a sequel…

I have to check my shelf now as the poker reading material is starting to get slim…after all I have read a lot of stuff so far…I guess my next must read will be Doyle’s new book (autobiography?!)…if it is only nearly as entertaining as Amarillo Slim’s I will be a happy customer…alrighty…enough babbling…I’m outta here…gl at the tables everyone…

I really do like the double-shootouts these days. Played one tonight and what can I say….I win…another T$215 on a 8,8$ investment. I like! That’s 2 wins and 1 ITM out of the last 5 tries…heater? Could be…playing good…could be as well. No doubt about the fact that I was on a heater on the first table, which always helps…after all if you win the first table you can usually sit back and chill at the final table until the first player is knocked out and you’re ITM. So how was the heater at the first table? Pretty hot. Within the first 40 hands I had AA twice, KK twice, JJ twice, AK once and they all stood up. The only big pot was early on when my AK busted a player holding KTo on a K-high flop. With all the other hands I won small to moderate pots, still enough to keep me in the lead until it was three-handed. Then I went card-dead, surprise surprise, still managed to see some pots in position and finally bust my way to the W.

The final table is mostly a blurr. It took 97 hands (in contrast to the 69 of the first table) before I finally won it. The setup: I go into headsup down 2:1. I chip away and win a nice pot when my opponent obv missed his flush-draw. I win a few more small pots and suddenly I’m up 2:1. A few hands later we flip it QJo vs 77. Flop comes down KT2…I like that…any Q, J, A, 9…turn K…even more outs…any 9, T, J, Q, A…river 9 and I’m golden…T$ 215…ship it…boy I love it…so I’m outta here with a big fat grin on my face…gl at the tables everyone…

Put my tourney dollar to use today, tried to satellite into the Sunday Million again…had nothing going the first two tries (DS), almost lost it in the third one two. We’re down to three and I’m coolered, JJ vs 99 all-in preflop. I got him covered by a long shot…he manages to pull a two outer out of his head. I bust him not long after that nontheless. On the second table I’m sitting back until I find some hands. I knock out a few and sit pretty. Once we’re down to four shit hits the fan and I lose it all in two hands. The first one was pretty straight-forward, I look down at A7o in the cutoff. I raise it, BB pushes for about 1200 (I had raise the standard 600 at 100/200)…so I instacall…he shows presto and wins the hand. Presto obv g00t. Next hand I look down at A5o on the button. UTG fold, I push…SB instacalls…BB folds…he, who just doubled through me shows QQ…lemon. So I’m busto in fourth, good for 20, but still sucks. I watch how he goes on a tear and finishes the other two poor souls within 10 hands. Sometimes you’re just destined to win it…he was this time.

After that I logged off and watched some movies, nothing awesome to report there, I guess it’s going to be a while till the next real kickass movies come out (e.g. The Mummy 3)…so I switch back to some poker…and I get my ass handed to me for the most part. I still manage to win a 6-max, finish 2nd in a 6-max and win a 9handed turbo SnG…good enough to be slightly up for the night…and I’m out of here…gl at the virutal and real table, especially to the broggers still in the hunt for the donkus maximus (aka the WSOP Main Event)…

It’s been a while since I’ve been happy with the results of a poker-session. Tonight the long wait is finally over, finally won something again. Played a double-shootout to the Sunday Million (8,8$, 6max, 36 players; 1st = ticket). I think I was “destined” to win it. Why? Because I won the first table after 61 hands on a coin-flip (33 vs KQ), now don’t get me wrong, even if I lose that pot we’re back to even, so no worries about taking the flip…although I rarely won one when it matters recently…

The second table was starting out pretty rocky. Not surprising as 6th is bubble. So once we lost the first player play opened up a little. I sat back and waited for my chance, picking up some smaller pots along the way, c-betting after a preflop raise. Then I found pocket tens in LP and popped it. Setup: 3 players are about even (around 2.2k) including me, 2 are rather short (one less than 1k, one slightly above 1k). BB, one of the other big stacks, calls. Flops comes down ten-high with two diamonds. He checks. I lead at it with pot. He calls. Turn is an off-suit queen. He checks again. I bet pot again, commiting myself and putting him to a decision. He pushes over the top with around 250. I instacall. He shows Ad5d. Please no diamond! No diamond on the river and he’s crippled. I bust two players in the next two orbits and we’re down to three with one shorty. My opponent busts the shorty and we’re headsup.

Stab stab, jab jab. I think it was the fourth or fifth hand of hands up when I find KcQc on the button. I pop it, he calls. Flop comes down K-high with two spades. He checks, I bet, he calls. Turn offsuit 9. He checks, I bet, he pushes. Hmmm….I’m pretty much committed at that point and I think I have the best of it, call. He shows K9…f00k me, but at least I got outs with the board being KT89 – so any queen and jack…not much…but please baby, let me resuck one time. River Jack! Boooom! It seems sometimes there is justice in poker….so I’m up T$ 215 for that baby and out of here with a grin…