Already early again…so recap has wait until later…busted out 15th of 77 players when my 55 lost to AJ (both A and J on the flop)…

Edit: Alrighty, here it goes. Played a little bit more aggressive early on, I think as a side-effect of DADI IV Shorthanded, which was really a good thing. I was able to build my stack above average early on and hovered around average as we headed into the 1st break. Right after the first break, first hand: I look down at TT in late position, EP raised to 4xBB…I smooth-call, maybe an error, but I thought I faced and weak/medium/strong ace so let’s see a flop…flop comes down all low cards 3-8-9…EP leads out for 300…now I think my 10-10 is still good here, so I call again…turn is another blank…EP bets again…I call again…river is a J…EP bets again…I call again…to my surprise I misplaced my opponent who shows 3-3 (flopped set)…yikes…down to under 1k. So much for my hovering around average. After that I bounced around the tables like a rubber ball as I was moved time and time again…just as I was facing elimination (around 300 in chips) I quadrupled up with my AQ (vs A9 vs KK) when I spiked a Queen on the river. Nothing newsworthy after that…until my final hand came down: I’m desperate again with around 1k chips and the blinds and antes eating me alive, I find presto! (5-5) and decide to push…this time my opponent really shows an Ace…AJ to be precise…and guess what hit the flop…see for yourself:

So I’m out in 15th, another good showing IMO with just 6 from the money…hopefully I can get down to the final 9 again sometime soonish…

Side note: As Wil missed the tourney altogether I’m curious what the name of the next invitational will be…

It’s early so recap has to wait until later…time to catch some sleep (short summary: after 2h 25min of good poker I busted out in 5th of 57…final table ITM…so cha-ching 😉 )

Edit: Started the tourney on an event more shorthanded table than expected, Table 5 featured…

Seat 1: empty, Seat 2: Slimeface, Seat 3: Me, Myself and I, Seat 4: Gracie, Seat 5: hoyazo, Seat 6: presdlee. We were joined by some other players including one of the hosts (Tripjax), surflexus and others (sorry, didn’t really take notes).

After quite some back and forth at the table and my chip count bouncing anywhere from 2.xxx to 1.500 I was moved to table 6 just prior to the first break. I was hovering in the top 20 for most of the time with the peak at around 7th place until the 2nd break when we were approaching bubble time. One thing’s for sure: it’s weird to play hand for hand when there are 4 players at one table and 3 at the other (after all the final table can only have 6 participants), especially when you’re in the bubble spot! After some orbits the bubble finally broke as lifesagrind busted out Blinders when he won the coinflip (AK vs 44).

W00t, final table of a blogger tourney, again (that’s one WWdN and one DADI final table appearance now).

As you can see in the pic above I was pretty shortstacked compared to almost all players at the table, especially to lifesagrind. Nontheless I was able to double up early when my pocket 7s held up, so I could sneak up one place, before busting out in 5th place (me: K8 vs dnasty13: 77…no help for me). I’m really satisfied with my performance though. Right after busting out I said my goodbyes and went off to bed, after all it was past 5am, yikes.

I hope that someone will shed some light on the story behind lifesagrind’s demise (from over 40k chips to out in 3rd place)! Congrats to bdidde who crowned himself the DADI IV Champion! Here are the final standings:

Final words and thoughts:

1. I didn’t hold AA or KK in the whole tourney
2. I did hold QQ four times, won 3 of ’em
3. Won two coinflips when I needed them (AdKd vs 44 and 77 vs A10), didn’t play any other coinflips, at least not for a substantial amount of chips
4. Rediscovered the love for shorthanded play. It just rocks and the whole concept of playing a little bit more loose than normal works for me, as I’m usually a little bit too tight…
5. I had fun for almost 2.5h! That’s the most important fact…
6. Once again: thanks to TripJax and Jordan for hosting yet another great tourney! I’m looking to see what you can come up with for DADI V (hint: maybe Stud, Stud H/L or Razz?! 😉 )…One thing’s for sure: I’ll be there!

So, the first WPBT event of the year was played yesterday on PokerStars. I missed it due to the late starting time, but there was a nice turnout nontheless. StB took down first, congrats! For a more detailed recap and the current WPBT POY Race check out Biggestrom‘s blog!

Reminder: Tonight, it’s DADI IV…be there or be square!

As I’m in the midst of what I like to call “extreme exam preparation” (the last 1-2weeks leading up to a major uni exam) there’s not much going on at the poker front as I’m just too knackered to really focus on the game, which isn’t a good thing if you’re trying your “luck” at a new (higher) level. So no poker played on saturday and little today (sunday).

After sticking my nose into uni stuff (mostly web-based integration and architecture of application systems) all day I didn’t feel the urge to really play, but playing a little poker won’t hurt to get your thoughts of the stuff, so what the hell. Donked around at AbsolutePoker for a little, playing a low limit NL HE MTT…which was a quick one despite holding AA early on (which held up on a scary board) and KK which was busted by pocket sixes to cripple me…the end was rather entertaining too…AQo vs KQs vs KQo…sure enough the two outer King hit…after that I donked off some dough at the cash tables when my pocket kings were crushed again, the hiltons held up though so only down a half buyin for the night…at least something.

In other news: I’m going to play in the HeadsUp Challenge 3 (aka HUC3)…should be fun…if you’re interested in participating and/or in reading the latest news, head over to the HeadsUpChallenge Blog

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.

I guess there are days when you should leave the different PokerSites rest for a day, especially when you’ve been fixing a server melt-down most of the day.

A lesson learned…played one SnG at Full Tilt…running good….sucked out on…then didn’t get it yet, so played another one at PokerStars…we’re down to four-handed…I battled myself to the chiplead…and I’m looking to win this thing (top 3 payed)…A10o on the button…enough to bully around a shortstack in the BB…sure enough he pushes…I call…he shows AA…what else is new? Two hands later I look down at a suited King and push again…huge stack calls…shows his Ace…ding Ace + OESD for me on the flop…no joy though…out in fourth…off to catch some sleep now…good luck to all of you in the WWdN and good fight, good night to Kat and Veneno (2nd match is tonight)…hopefully Waffles will post a recap 😉

Never before has the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words” been more true than with the DADI IV Shorthanded tourney banner:

Hat tip to Trip and Jordan. Cya at the felt.

Due to the massive network outage of FullTiltPoker Waffles’ birthday bash has been moved and rescheduled. New venue is PokerStars, it starts in less than an hour (9pm ET) check the private tab…password is: wafflesrocks

Side note: So I bit the bullet and reloaded on PokerStars…and I’m in…16 20 22 26 players so far…should be fun…

Side note #2: Couldn’t think of a cool bounty, so I’m not putting one up for this one…sorry 🙁

Edit: Nothing much going my way…card dead…then I look down at 99…push…two callers (TraumaPoker 10h-10 and STeelerJosh K-10)…four heats on the board and IGHN…17th place of 26. So my PokerStars “hotstreak” continues…back to grinding it out I guess….nontheless a fun game…and HAPPY BIRTHDAY WAFFLES!

After spending the whole day revising for my first uni exam of the semester (in a series of 4 exams which are my last ones at uni, yeah!) I thought to test the waters of the two table token SnGs again (6$+0.60$, top 4 get a token, 5th gets 4 bucks back). After logging into FTP I check the HE tables first and saw that Mike Matusow was really 4 tabling – 2 full tables, 2 short handed all $10/$20 NL…he was joined by other pros (David Singer and John Juanda)…cool stuff…above my current limit though:

After watching for a while I jumped into a token satellite and I don’t know what it is, but I’m running good atm. Not so much when it comes to card luck, at least not more than usual, but in the way I play. Maybe it’s my reassessment of some aspects of my game and my better understanding of some (crucial) aspects of the game in different settings (including but not limited to: 1. Trust instincts, period. 2. Loosen up just enough to not blind myself down all the time in MTTs/SnGs 3. Switch gears, especially in faster games (SnGs)…etc etc). Whatever it is, it works. No boring hand histories or bad beat stories this time, just some facts and one interesting hand. Most interesting hand of the night: I look down at QQ in the SB…BB+2 pops it up to 2xBB…button calls…I cold call as BB+2 is a maniac and button is a total rock (so that might be KK/AA there)…BB folds…so we’re three handed and looking at a AA7 flop…check all around…turn is another 7…I check…maniac checks…rock on the button bets 800…now I trust my instincts here and lay it down…maniac cold calls…hmm…this is interesting…we’ll see why…river is a J…maniac checks…rock on the button bets another 1k…maniac cold calls (probably feared an Ace too)…showdown…see below…interesting to see three big pocket pairs (JJ+QQ+KK) + AA on the flop in a single hand…crazy…

Second interesting hand (without a screenshot), we’re still sitting 6 handed, I’m 4th in chips and look down at 99 in the SB…folded around to me…I pop it up to 900 (3x BB), BB calls…flop comes down 9-J-x, I check…BB checks…hmm…turn comes another blank I check…BB pushes All-In…I had a feeling that my trips was good there…call for all my chips (he has me covered by over 2k)…he shows A-x…river brings his Ace, but no help and I double up…I’m in the chiplead and cruise into the money (or the tokens ;-))…cool. So I’m 1/2 since winning my last token. Nice!

Now to the latest pimpage: like you might have already read on veneno’s blog or on waffles’ blog itself…Waffles birthday is approaching, so there will be a tourney at Full Tilt Poker in his honor. See the following banner for all the infos…

Apart from the usual NL HE fun with all your favourite bloggers there will be added excitement as there will be bounties and all – I already told Waffles that I’m going to offer a bounty on my head, too. Just need to think of something…so…be there or be square!!!

Iggy pimped it, Gracie pimped it, Dr. Pauly pimped it, Waffles pimped it…so here I go:

Tomorrow is another charity tournament – if you need more information about it go read one of the other bloggers’ posts (links above)! Here are the short facts:

Site: Noble Poker
Date: Thursday March 2nd, 2006
Buy-in: $10 + 1
Time: 7:30pm ET
Password: charity