….start with the worst hand and go all-in. 😆

I’m back biotches, even if it’s just for a quick rant. Played the first poker in a week and started off nicely. Won my first two HU SnGs and then it went south….waaaaay south…like below the equator south. I mean, it was just brutal and after a few crushing defeats I was not 100% on my game anymore. I guess I payed off a little too much, but honestly, how can it be that my opponent has got the me crushed post-flop all the time while he’s waaaay behind preflop (examples: would be T8o against my QQ (the first and only time I got action on any big hand) sure enough the flop is ten high, sure enough we get it in…sure enough he has trips when all is said and done, or the good ole turned gutshot straight calling the preflop raise and the big flop bet with the gutterball only, etc etc). In the end I couldn’t take it anymore so I logged off with a bad taste in my mouth.

I guess real poker content, filled with screenshots, will have to wait a few days…I’m off to cologne and then munich on business trips…so it could be a while…until then gl at the tables and remember: the worst-tilter isn’t the cold-deck, it’s your reaction to it…

As you may have noticed my poker adventures were kept to a minimum in recent weeks. Today I climbed back into the saddle and hit the tables hard. The only bad thing was that they hit me back even harder. I’m not going to start an excessive rant here, I’ll just say that I lost every single key hand going in anywhere from 70% to 90% favourite. It was FUGLY and in the end it was only fitting that my opponent hit his three outer, again for all the marbles. So I logged off to write this little mini-post to tell you that I’m still alive and playing poker, although not that regularly anymore, especially not late-night as my new job requires me to get up in the morning 😉

So I’m outta here to watch the Klitschko fight…gl at the tables everyone….

Weird to write about yet another home game…after a few months of not playing live at all it was the second time in two weeks that we met to play a home game. This time only five players showed up though…and not in time either…gotta love it when you’re the only one on time…*lol*…insta-tilt…it didn’t get much better after that…bad beat city followed by cooler city. It was the first time that we played a single rebuy format. I dusted of my original stack when my Queens got cracked, then my TP was no good, then my AQ lost to K5, etc etc…gotta love it when ppl call of 33% of their stack (it was a shorty) preflop with K5…but wait…it was s000000000ted….oh well….so I rebuy and chip up quite nicely. Then, just when I was about to get even (original stack + rebuy stack) I run into the noice cooler…too bad I was on the wrong side of it…I’m on the button with Th8h….s00ted one gapper, I like…cutoff bumps it preflop…I call…we see the flop of QT8 rainbow headsup. Cutoff leads out pot…I shove…he thinks for a while then calls…flips over QT….nice…NOT….oh well…

After that the game went on for a few more minutes before the lucksack of the day won it. After that most of the players left and it was still early. What to do with only two players? Yeah, cue the NBC NHUC music….”heeeeeads up”…so we play a little headsup match and after a long match I win it. It was pretty unreal and honestly I should have lost the match straight up. Every time I had second pair, my opponent had top pair. Every time there was an ace on the flop, he had one…etc etc…it was pretty fugly. BUT I was able to suckout in three crucial pots to seal the deal. The scary part was that the hands went down exactly the same way twice and almost the same the third time.

The hands were Kx vs Ax on a AKx flop…turn blank…river K. Ka-ching. The next one was J9 vs KQ on a QJx flop….turn J…river blank. The last one was J9 again vs AQ this time…QJx flop…turn J…river blank. Scary…but I’ll take…I’m off…gl at the tables everyone…

Do you know the feeling when you’ve played a lot of poker and then you suddenly take a break and you don’t have the urge to come back? I feel like that these days and while recent results both online (WCOOP satellite) and live (home game tourney win) have been good, I still find myself not playing. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve played a little a headsup match here and there, won the last x ones without a single loss btw, but I still don’t feel like playing more….I guess I need a new goal in poker as the same old “boring” grind isn’t cutting it anymore, at least not these days. Maybe I should check back to see what my goals were at the start of the year, it seems that it’s been ages since then and I didn’t have a second look. Or maybe I should just set a new goal without going back…hmmm….meditate on this I will…until then gl at the tables everyone…

It’s been ages since we had our last home game and it was about time that we got together again to sling some cards. It didn’t feel like the old home game though as some of the long-standing members lost their drive and didn’t show up for tonight’s game (or the last few home games for that matter). We were still able to get 7 players and so we started off our regular tourney format, but only with a single table. Oh well, could be worse. In the beginning a mate of mine ran like the poker god himself. Every other hand he had a monster (either preflop or on the flop) and found someone who had a decent second best hand. So he took the chiplead early while I looked down at abysmal hand after abysmal hand. Oh well, sit tight until the blinds go up and then start some action. So that I did and I slowly chipped away at the others winning small to medium pots in the process.

Before long I was the chipleader having the early chipleader (aka mr. running like the poker god himself) covered by a lot. Then the clinching hand went down. We’re four handed, 3 in the money (don’t ask), and I look down at AhTh. The estimated chip counts are me 45% of the chips in play, early chipleader 25% of the chips in play and the rest divided between the shorter stacks. Early chipleader is in the small blind. UTG folds and I pop it on the button with my AT s00000ted. Early chipleader in the SB calls, BB folds. Flop comes down A89 rainbow. Early chipleader pushes. I instacall…putting him on a pair, def not a set – he would try to milk it – def not a straight draw – he would lowball that as well (good to have reads on your opponents, lol). So we flip up our cards and he shows pocket tens. Nice…he’s drawing to one out or runner runner straight for a chop. I like my chances here. Turn bring a 7. Ooooh the tension. River is the often called for deuce and I’m the monster chipleader with 70% of the chips in play and we’re in the money. From there it doesn’t take long for one of the shorties to bust the other and we’re headsup. As my opponent is a rather inexperienced player I decide to go with a small-pot-strategy. It works out to perfection as I win small pot after small pot. I won some medium pots too as I connected to the flop sometimes, sometimes even really hard: I’ve got 96 s000ted on the button and I raised to 4BB. I get a call and we see a flop of 9d6h9h. Yatzee! She checks, I check. Turn bring another diamond and I’m thinking, please have a flush-draw and let the flush get there one time. River is a total blank and I try to milk it a little, but don’t get a call. Boooo! But oh well….soon enough I’m up 12:1 in chips and the end comes as I push in on a flop of 234. I hold 25o against A8. Turn is a blank and river is another deuce and I take it down. Nice!

After that another player arrived and we started our “second chance” tourney (with half the buyin of the main game). I didn’t catch any cards and the action was crazy. So I decided to go with my first real hand I would get. That happened in the third blinds level. I look down at JJ on the button. Jacks are okay, right? Nah…but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. So…and MP player limps, LP player limps, I pop it, all but the two limpers fold and we see a flop of T88 with two clubs. Checked to me. Hmm…I bet two thirds of the pot. MP player calls. LP player pushes. Bummer. So I got the nagging feeling that I gotta be beat here. Someone’s gotta have the eight or a bigger overpair. Hmm..I look down at my chipstack, then at the chipstack of the LP pusher, then at the chipstack of the MP caller that is yet to act. Oh brother, I should have checked my stack and the others earlier.

I’ve got the pusher covered by a longshot, but the MP player yet to act has me covered. Caught in the middle. What if the MP player has got a ten here…then I can bust him and lose the smaller pot to the pusher if he’s got an eight. What if it’s the other way around. Honestly, I didn’t even think that hard and long…after all the pot was that big and one way or the other I felt like I had commited myself (mathematically I had done it by my cbet after the flop checked to me) – but honestly, even if you’re commited mathematically, is it right to throw in your last chips with a feeling that you’re almost dead? Not really, but I did it anyway…it’s the home game second chance tourney after all and hey, maybe they’re out of line anyway. So I push and get instacalled by the MP player. So we turn up our hands and they’re: MP – AA….yikes….LP – 82o….lol…nice call preflop :p …me JJ…turn brings a deuce to give mr 82o a boat…still need a J…river is a blank and I’m busto. Oh well….can’t win ’em all 😉

So…I’m outta here…maybe I’ll be back with some online poker stuff next week as I doubt that I’ll get in some hands during the remainder of the weekend…so, until then…gl at the tables everyone…

After winning a satellite to the 2008 WCOOP, deciding not to play in a two day 530$ tourney after all and selling the W$ at a good price, I thought I’d do something that I hadn’t done in a long time – withdraw some dough. So I jump into PokerStars cashier and try to request a withdrawal…all good there…what isn’t good though is that the withdrawal option is somewhat limited: as I did some of my deposits via Neteller back in the day and getting money out to MasterCard isn’t an option the cashier window tells me that amount x will automatically go to my Neteller account and that I can redistribute the rest of the withdrawal to other options.

Not so good, after all I stopped using Neteller a while ago. But wait, the cashier window also tells me that I should get in touch with support if any of the withdrawal options was outdated (e.g. due to closing an account, e.g. Neteller). Okay, sounds good…so I contact support, they get back to me asking for confirmation that they should mark my Neteller account as outdated (and hence unusable in the future)…I tell them to do just that and I’m free to request a withdrawal to whichever other option they offer. So, I settle for the very convenient offer to transfer the dough via Direct Bank Transfer….and bingo four days later my bank account does the little ka-ching sound and the money is there. Now that’s what I call customer service. Now, I think it should be normal for the (paying) customer to have his/her money whenever, whereever he/she pleases, but we all know that’s not the norm – at least not with all the sites, not even the “major players”. So I can only applaud PokerStars for doing it’s name proud…praise where praise is due…

I’m out of here…no real new poker content here…had no time to play a single hand in the last few days and honestly didn’t feel the urge to play either…maybe I’ll get some playing time in during the week and/or this upcoming weekend…we’ll see….until then, gl at the tables everyone…

I’m really exhausted after some of the best poker in my life…so just a quick pic dump…W$ anyone? I’ve never sold those before (I sold T$ before on pokernews)…Edit: I did the trade using psswap.com this time, they offered the best rate at 92% and the transaction was painless…fill in form…request trade via pokerstars…wait…two minutes later…boom….done…. 😀

I’m outta here tired but smiling…

…especially if you’re in the middle of the worst session in ages: priceless. I’m still too irritated to even grasp what just happened to me and I won’t even dive into telling bad beat story after bad beat story as I don’t want to pay all my readers extra dollars adding insult to injury. All in all I stop playing at least four SnGs too late…still should have won some of those, but it was not to be…these days no pair no draw and being dominated is virtual gold…so I’m off to clean out my mouth as I puked in it just now…and I can guarantee you that I won’t be back for a few days…it’s reached the point again where I just can’t take it anymore…it’s one thing that the donks get insanely lucky in consecutive matches against me, but then starting to talk trash? Not my cup of tea…especially not if I’m in the middle of bad beat city where even a 90+% advantage is enough to win a decisive hand….I’m outta here…best of luck to the rest of you…and you’ll see me when I’m back (don’t know when that’ll be…but don’t expect me back this week)…

Sometimes, it’s really weird how things turn out in those (sort of massive) online donkaments aka guaranteed mtts. I decided to switch it up a little today and abstained from playing SnGs tonight, instead I jumped into the 10k guaranteed on Stars. With a pretty low buyin of 15 + 1.5, it’s a real minefield, but hey….it got a pretty nice payout if you’re able to dodge bullets. I was able to do just that and I handed out my share of bad beats during the first hours (read: 2). One was me cracking KK with ATo on a ten high flop…rivered a ten, I had him covered…the other one was even nastier, I repopped a EP limper with Ac9c….all fold around to him…he insta-calls…oh well…what can he have…yeah….aces….I flopped two clubs and rivered the nuts….not bad. Heading into the first break I was down to 5k with a 7.xk average, not all that pretty, so I decided to come out aggressive after the break. So I open-shoved the first hand after the break and collected the blinds and antes. A few hands later I’m thinking that a shorty is stalling as we’re approaching the bubble. He takes forever…then I realize that it’s not him stalling after all as the “connecting” screen pops up….I rise and have a look at my router…the internet led is blank. Great, just the best time to have that happen…after all the blinds are high and I want action. No such luck for the next 10-15 minutes. So sick. Once I’m finally able to reconnect (after a few router-resets), I’m down to 4.xk with the blinds at 1 and 2k….great…I’m able to double up twice and then the deciding hand comes down. Setup: I’m in the BB with KK….guess what’s happening….

Shorty in MP pushes. Hmm…I’m not folding. Shorty+1 (big stack) pushes over the top. Folded around to me. Hmmm….I’m thinking “Well, there’s a good chance he’s only got Ax…am I willing to try to dodge the fourty aces in the deck?”….I think a little more, and I’m thinking “Well, if you fold Kings here, what happens if the shorty has the Ax and the big stack has a small pair or a rag ace too? No equity here…AWWWWWWWWWIN”. So I push all-in and see them flip up 33 (shorty) and AK (big stack)…my dreams of chipping up to 71+k is crushered as the flop comes down TA6…turn gives me a short glimpse of hope: Q…I’m yelling for a J or a K….but no such luck and I’m busto in 99th out of 1593….three outs got me…then again I cracked Kings and Aces early on…so I’m still up 2:1 in good:sick beats….

Summary: Played really well, had some luck – good and bad – had the worst luck – the almost 15 minute disconnect – had only 4 premium hands the whole way AA (no action), KK twice (no action; busto) and JJ…apart from that some small pair (e.g. 88 thrice doubling up early and twice before going busto)…even won a flip or two along the way…so not all that bad…I’m outta here…enjoy the pic dump (in chronological order) and gl at the tables…

Just a quick session today as there was a lot of football going on tonight, first a friendly game played at our field (won 2-1), then a friendly game of our national team against belgium (won 2-0). I decided to get a little HORSEy tonight…and I was able to bust one, lose one. Then I jump into a DS to the sunday million and I get kicked in the junk. First this sucker rivers a flush with his KQs against my AKs…then he busts me with QQ. How did that hand go down? He raises preflop. I call with Kx. Why do I call there, because I know that if I hit the flop he will pay me off, easy as that. Flop comes down KJx. Not the joint, but hey. I check. He bets pot….I repop him all-in (he got me covered by a few chips). Instacall. What does he have? QQ. Nicely played sir, thank you for stacking off. Turn Q. Nevermind….I’m outta here…gl at the tables everyone….