Tonight brought the opportunity to put my hard earned 26$ token to use. I entered the Double Stack 6k guarantee tourney at 14ET. I didn’t take proper notes, so no real play for play, but let’s just say that the double stack start with a normal blind structure really helps my tight game. So I was able to pick my spots and hovered in the top 50 for most of the time. One particular hand was news-worthy though, I cracked Aces with pocket 6s, all the money went in after the flop, initiated by the guy holding pocket 4s (poor guy) reraised by me and called by Mr. Aces (even poorer guy):

In the second hour I was joined by “Scary Lady“.

Nice. At the second break we were still at the same table and doing fine. I don’t remember exactly when Joanne went out, but she was rather card dead and becoming shortstacked quickly…so she busted out in 43rd – 16 from the money. Shoot, I would have loved to play with her at the Final Table. Moving on…in the third hour I made an almost critical error which caused me half my stack: I chased…in my defense: after the flop I had outs and his min-raises didn’t suggest he had the flush or an Ace for that matter…I should have known better, but what can you do when the “he doesn’t have the ace”-bug bites you?

So I was facing elimination with the bubble approaching, lucky enough I caught some decent cards to make the money. Up and down afterwards, but never able to get ahead of the massive blinds and antes (1500/3000, 400 ante)…so I went out in 13th place.

Just one spot from the next payment level, so I won a whooping $66,96. I gotta say I love this tournament structure and all, but roughly 67$ for a finish 4 from the final table (playing roughly 3.5h)? You gotta be kidding me. I mean the final table combined pays 85.6% of the price pool (279 players entered, so the price pool is 6.696$) – nice if you’re sitting there, but not if you bust shortly before it starts (especially if you’re considering the 26$ buyin).

But hey…I played my A-game and the final table was in reach, so no need to bitch and moan 😉 Next step: get my hands on some more tokens! 🙂

Not much time to play today as I’ve got a uni exam coming up on friday – so I better get my lazy behind into gear and away from the poker tables. After spending the day with the books it was time for a little poker tonight though….so I fired up FTP and play some NL HE ring game, got my hands on some bucks and went on to try to get my hands on another token. No joy there though as I busted out in 11th place. That officially makes me 1/6 now…I guess it’s time to reassess my SnG play, especially when it comes down to short handed play (either final table or final two tables).

After the disappointment I thought I’d give HORSE another try, but no joy there either. H: uneventful, O: nice, but only 1 pot and even lost a pot with AA double suited when my 78 was the idiot end of the straight on board, R: yuck…no..a King on 5th street doesn’t help me, S: good, but no big pots, E: IGHN…out 8th of 8. Hmm….
So I’m down some bucks again and it’s time to get some of that back, so NL HE ring games it is, again. Not much to report, got back to almost even for the day. Listened to the last Lord Admiral Card Club Podcast in the process – Dr. Pauly interviews Wil, Columbo’s one minute mystery and discussion about Zee Justin’s cheating…a nice episode! Go get it: Episode 64

Nothing much to report today – with the dentist appointment today (he repaired three teeth in one session, yummy) and exams approaching I only play one MTT. Despite finishing as bubble boy + one I had fun playing for over 2 hours and broke the suckout-cycle.

After getting sucked out on time and time again I thought it was time to turn this thing around. Early in the tournament I felt that KdQd was good enough to push on a 10 high flop with 2 diamonds…two callers….no diamond on the turn…no diamond on the river…still I won…I was up against 88 and AQo and I spike the King on the river to push me up to 5.6k (average at that point was 1.8k)! Now I know how all the donks, who usually suck out on me, feel 😉

Played my usual tight game after that and ran into the same problem as usual: getting short stacked when it comes to the bubble. There’s some things to be learned here though – I just noticed tonight. I have to loosen up at or prior to the bubble and not just a little, but a lot. I just play to tight and if I don’t catch a decent starting hand (didn’t hold any pair higher than 5 tonight, AQ once and AJ once) I’m in a tight spot. The blinds are usually so high at that point that my All-In push with two decent cards are no scare to anyone anymore…hence it’s inevitable that I get called at least by one player who usually has me dominated.

So, note to self: even if it’s boring, review hand histories of recent MTT and analyze which hand selection should be the “bread and butter” during that phase of the tourney.

I played my usual NL HE today and was able to finish ahead more than 5 buyins. Nice. Because of that I played another 2 table 6$+0.60$ token satellite (top 4 get a 26$ token, 5th gets 4$). One player at the table had the deck hit him in the face most of the first half dozen orbits and so he busted out 6 players in no time to chip up to 9k (1.5k starting chip count). Wow, haven’t seen that before – although I imagine that this has got to be a cool way to play such a SnG (get cards at the right time or maybe even cards at all time, then just sit around and watch the others bust out as the token is a lock unless you do something stupid). No such joy for me, but I hang in there until we were down to 5 players…at least I was down 2.6$ at most…unfortunately I was a big dog with 1.3k chips to over 4k (places 3 and 4), so I had to get something going with blinds at 100/200. I’m in the BB and look down at AKo…All-In…UTG who tried to limp in calls…the rest folds…he shows Ad5d…5 on the flop…no help for me…so that makes me 0/3 in those 2 table satellites for a 26$ token. Hmm…can it be so hard to get one of those? Not really as I’ve seen bad players hit it big more than once now…I guess it’s just a matter of time until I can catch a break on one of those buggers. Until then I’m going to win the buyin on the cash-tables first and then try again 🙂

Played the usual 17ET tourney, passed the top 50% mark before busting out. So no joy there. More joy at the cash and SnG tables though. I think i’m getting used to the 0.05/0.10 NL HE tables…busted some balls…had my balls busted some times…came out ahead some bucks and cleared the first 10% of my signup bonus! Cool. Finished 2nd in a 5$ SnG (6 Max) for another 5 bucks…not bad…

Now I’m going to log off and relax a little before the NBA All-Star Saturday begins: Go Dirk! Get the 3 Point trophy 🙂

1. Call down bets to the river like a donkey early on
2. Chase
3. Don’t hit the flop and believe all raises

That’s the quick wrap-up of my quick first round exit vs Wes (aka Boobie Lover). He busted me up real good (out in 51st of 62), so no round 2 of the DADIII for me. 🙁

Played two Horses today. The first one was heads up and I couldn’t hit a flop to save my life, so nothing to win there (-5.25$). Then I thought that it would be a good idea to test the donkeys at the 5+0.50 HORSE SnG with 8 players. Same shit different tourney. It’s funny sometimes when you can’t catch a hand and if you get one there’s sure as hell (at least) another player holding a better hand (i.e. J-J vs. K-K vs A-A)…I don’t know what it is, but this really makes me think that I’ve run out of luck somehow…(-5.50$).

After the double horse manure I went back to the normal game (NL HE)…first playing the 1$ tourney at 17ET…nothing spectacular to report, busted out in 127th (of 440), but play a good game. So the last resort were the ring games, so I busted some balls at the 0.05/0.10 NL tables (+10$) to come up almost even for the day…cool.

Now I’m going to relax a little before the DADIII starts…where my last funds at PokerStars will be on the line – don’t expect me to be scared money though 😉

In case you missed or forgot it already: DADIII is tonight…so get your lazy behind in gear and sign up!

Password: BlogsAreGay

*Caution: Rant ahead*

Hehe…sometimes it’s just not meant to be and you should walk away while you’re not too deep in doo-doo…I decided to do just the opposite.

Start things off with a heads up HORSE match for a fiver. “Donk” off 2/3 of your stack in the H as your opponent hits EVERY single flop while you hit every third-fourth one with middle pair. Great start. Battle your way half-way back in O8b and Razz then let your opponent outdraw you in every hand. Whoop-di-doo…now HORSE but a busted HORS…argh!

Then I thought I should play some of the soft 6$+0.60$ token satellites and to be honest they’re really soft with donks calling all-ins with middle pair etc…unbelievable. Even more unbelievable is the fact that you can’t seem to catch a hand and if you do you get a royal nut-kicking…I’m so mad atm that I could really smash the screen with my keyboard, but I won’t do it…I will log off now in an effort to calm down and get ready for some more action tonight…hopefully with some cards falling my way…(Result of the token SnGs: two 10th place finishes)…

Example hand to show you just how lucky I am today (all money went in pre-flop):

*End rant*

After busting out of the HORSE tourney, I decided to play the WWdN…

Was nice starting with Wil again, unfortunately he didn’t really last long as his pair of queens (KQ) ran into a set of 9s. So he was out first. My next table featured CJ and Sires.

My end came when my pocket nines ran into AK…sure enough the flop featured a lovely Ace and a King…so I’m crippled and All-In in the next hand…where I turn a pair, just to be rivered by a King…out in 21st of 54…