Didn’t get around to posting anything the last two days, well, there wasn’t much going on anyway…some SnGs…so nothing big missed there.

Today I decided to play some late night poker, yet again. I started the session with a turbo SnG and won, w00t. Just as it was about to finish I noticed that the WWdN was about to start, so I jumped in.

My starting table featured the host himself:

Groovy stuff. Played tight, didn’t take any chances and was able to hover in the top 20-25 for most of the time. No suckouts or anything until the dreaded hand came up (I can’t even remember the exact hand, but I think it was my AQo vs QJ, AQx on the flop, 10 on the turn, K on the river…runner runner goodness…yuck!) – it didn’t cripple me, but it put me right back into the average field, so it sucked, but hey…it’s poker… Then I had the “honor” of busting out Wil. My J10 flopped a pair of Jacks, KJx all diamonds though, check check, turn 10, I bet 300…now Wil only has 505 left, so he goes into the tank…at that time I put him on a flush draw, which was true, he pushed with As7d, I called and dodged another diamond on the river…w00t…presenting the Ingoal invitational (although Wil wrote it “InGoal”…):

W00t! After Wil busted I kept playing my tight game and it really worked well…until the blinds kept increasing and I just couldn’t get anything going against all the big stacks – and if I had a decent to good hand I didn’t get any customers…ah well…too bad. Out bubble+1 = 11th…not too shabby 😉

During current Hold’em session you were dealt 181 hands and saw flop:
– 9 out of 24 times while in big blind (37%)
– 2 out of 24 times while in small blind (8%)
– 6 out of 133 times in other positions (4%)
– a total of 17 out of 181 (9%)
Pots won at showdown – 6 of 10 (60%)
Pots won without showdown – 18

I’m really satisfied with my performance, but the same thing that got me that far broke my back in the end: playing (too) tight…I guess I should have been a little more lose come bubble time… alrighty…off to watch the other guys battle it out….6 left….and then it’s off to bed…already past 5am…yikes!

After a lovely playing time of 3h 5m minutes I sit down at the first final table in ages…w00t.

On another note: sure enough I’m out in the 2nd hand :-( Too bad my AKo couldn’t win against the Chipleaders’ Q10o. Ah well…at least I’ve seen some final table action again…still sucks…moan 😉

…nothing to show for it… 🙁

Played numerous SnGs and MTTs at both FullTilt and PokerStars…and after hours of good play I’m down…sometimes I hate the whole MTT and SnG thing…ah well…better luck tomorrow, hopefully 😉

Forgot to mention that one of the gifts I received was a gift certificate for my own “poker survival kit” consisting of a four colour deck of 100% plastic copag cards, a bottle of Jaegermeister and a Cohiba cigar…oooh…can’t wait to get that stuff…one for me (cigar) two for all of us (Jaegermeister + 4 colour deck)…nice one…here’s an edited scan of the certificate:

Hopefully the stuff will arrive till saturday – the date of our next live tourney 🙂

Logged on after an evening of board games to find some card action, nothing much going on so I jump right into a donk-tastic SnG…first hand I’m dealt ducks (22) some limpers, one min-raise…I call…flop comes down 8-2-9 rainbow…I bet the pot…the original raiser pops another min-raise…I push…he calls with 77….nice, so he either needs a 7 or two running cards to make his straight…turn 6…river 10….bam! Although I love poker I could call it quits sometimes, am I too emotional about it? Probably, but I can’t help it…I guess I should order a titanium cup, at least the junk kickings won’t hurt as much then…

After that junk kicking in the first hand I looked around the tourney section and saw that there was one of the new WSOP Bracelet Races about to start. I checked my account and yup, one token left, so why not? 228 players entered, so the first two finishers are awarded a 2k WSOP package (1.500$ buyin to a WSOP tourney of choice + 500$ spending money) and the remaining final table players are ITM. I decided to play pretty tight, not taking any shots and so I played…grinded my way up to 2.2k in chips over the first few orbits, then looked down at AK…pop it up before the flop, one caller…flop and turn all low with a straight and flush chance…so I got the hell out of there…nothing much afterwards until I look down at AK again in the next orbit. I pop it up to 4xBB…one caller in LP…flop comes down K-10-9 two spades…now I hold the lovely TPTK once again, so I fire the pot…he reraises the pot…I go into the tank and think about what sort of hands would he call the preflop raise…not much info on the player, so I put him on a hand like K-x (if that x is a 9 or 10 I’m probably screwed) or two spades for a flush draw…so I raise the remaining 120 of my stack and I’m all in. He shows 9c-10c, so he was playing suited connectors, wanting to see a flop at all cost and connected perfectly…no help on the turn or river…and I’m out in 141st (of 228) after just 35 minutes of play. I guess I should have sticked with my original plan to abstain from playing until sunday (World Cup of Poker – Team Germany Qualifier), but the WSOP is starting to call my name…and I had to answer the call 😉

Tonight at 9pm ET the final of the HUC3 will take place on PokerStars. While I won’t be able to watch it, I still want to wish good luck to both WillWonka and FishyMcDonk! May the best man win!

Read more about the whole event on the official Heads Up Challenge (3) blog…

Damn! Damn! Damn! That pretty much sums it up. My fastest exit from the WWdN ever (20 minutes). My starting table featured doubleas, Hammer player and CJ just to name a few.

The tourney starts out with a dropped hammer (on me) by hammer player aka Hoyazo in the first hand, which should pretty much set the tone for the night. I don’t play many hands, win a small pot, then I invest a third of my stack on a 9977 board, can’t get Hoyazo to lay down his hand though…so I think he held either a 9 (questionable), a 7 (questionable) or an Ace. So I’m down to under 1000 chips…in the next orbit I find JJ in midposition – I pop it up to 120 (4xBB) all fold, but not Hoyazo. Great, flop comes down A-x-x, two hearts…I fire another shell (120)…he reraises to 350…now I’m wondering if he’s really holding the Ace…(in retrospect I should have known that he did. What kind of hands would make you call 4xBB?) Nontheless I push…he ponders and calls…and to my dismay he’s holding AKo…no help on turn and river…so I’m out in 59th (of 65)… 🙁

Note to self:

1. Stop playing at 2:30am – damn it – or at least only play if you’ve got quiet surroundings and if you’re focussed.
2. Back to the training room: Relearn to think, before acting…[why risk all your remaining chips on such a hand when you’re almost certainly behind…a moment of thinking “what happened in this hand so far” would have been enough to come to the right conclusion: fold]
3. Stop moaning and overanalyzing everything…stop bitching…the deck has no memory…

On another note: Hoyazo, well played…I would have called the weak bet over the top, too if I was holding AK – especially if the over the top bet was only and additional 400 (like it was in this case)…hope you put the chips to good use 🙂

Update: Yup he did, making the final table and finishing 8th, congrats. Seems like 23skidoo was unstoppable and took down the win, congrats to you too!

• Hours of poker watched: 7h
• Hours of donkey poker witnessed: 6.75h
• Learning experience? Yup, just because it’s a 1 Million $ tourney doesn’t make the players any better (in all fairness there are some good players in the field, but most players are really playing heehaw-get lucky-or not-poker and to navigate through a field of 5k+ players you will need some kind boards along the way)…basically a real crapshoot for the most part…so this is def one I’m not going to try out for…
• Player that impressed me most: Per-18, knocking out almost everyone from his table to reach the final table with nearly 3Million in chips

Now it’s past 6 am and I need some sleep…the final table is still at 9 players, so I guess I’ll read about the result on the pokerstars blog later today… 🙂

…as I’ve got my second to last exam at uni tomorrow. Only poker I played today was a relaxing 180SnG at Stars…played tight…when we were down to around 50 players I look down at AcKc…loose cannon infront of me pushes All-In (he would push with any Ace)…I shove…to my surprise one caller behind me…loose cannon shows As9s (lol)…caller behind me shows KK…K on the flop and IGHN…overall I’m still happy with the play though, I would have busted the loose cannon and with a little bit of luck (namely an Ace and no King) I would have tripled up – which would have been at top 5 position at that time…

Alrighty…I’m outta here…gotta get up rather early tomorrow and write the exam…wish me luck 🙂

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