A weekend to forget

Friday:
I lose precisely $1885.24 in around 4 hours of play online, although I must admit that the last $300 or so was just pure monkey tilt. Almost all of the losses were from the $109 shorthanded SNGs at CelebPoker (yes, the same ones I was bragging about a couple posts back).

Saturday:
I make the drive over to Schenefeld alone and make it in time to have a quick few words with Shadow, Moritz and Miamivice before starting the tournament. The tournament itself was a €540 deepstack tournament, which I began at Table 2, seat 5. My table was undoubtedly the toughest table of the tournament. I had Doc Thang Nguyen (the recent EPT Baden winner), Dr. Jalali (former German champion and recent Amsterdam Classics winner), a couple internet pros such as Patrick "Patricksjold", all of which certainly did not make my table too juicy. I started off by getting a couple premiums like QQ and AA. Unfortunately though, I was unable to accumulate too many chips with them and after a few failed blind steals as well as paid blinds, I end Day 1 with 4,600 chips (from a 5,000 starting stack).

After the tournament ended at around midnight, the casino offered various cash games. They had €10/20 Limit Hold'em, €10/20 PL Hold'em and €5/10 NL Hold'em. I opted for the NL Hold'em game and bought in for €500, which was enough to cover anyone at the table. Right away I was amazed at the quality (or lack thereof) of play at the table. I have honestly seen tougher $0.10/0.25 NL games online than this game. I was up €300 right off the bat after I got my AK paid off by a couple players. I then donked off a good €400 in various hands before reloading another €300 to my stack to take full advantage of any profitable situation that may arise.

Shortly before 4am, my chance arrived. I had AA UTG and because I had been playing so tight, I opted for a limp with plans to re-raise shall the pot be raised after me. Indeed, several players limped and the button min-raised to €20. Both the SB and BB called so I re-popped it to €100. I got 3 callers; the button, SB and BB. The flop came down KQ9 and it was checked to me. I fired in €200, the button folded, the SB min-raised to €400 and the BB went all-in for around €200. Now, I only had about €250 left and there was no way I was pitching my hand with so much money in the pot. I reluctantly threw in my €250 and told the dealer I was gonna need some help.

The turn came down 5 and the river was a 4. Now, it was time for a showdown. Any guesses to what the SB was so hot about min-raising the flop with? Queen-five. As it turns out, he was the one needing help, not me. The BB only showed a queen, I assume he had AQ. So, I stood up from the table as I watched the €1500 pot be pushed over to the next WSOP Main Event champion (I'm predicting it now and willing to accept wagers). I drove back to the hotel to get some sleep for Day 2 of the tournament.

Sunday:
With blinds of 200/400 and a stack of just 4600 chips, I needed to make some moves early if I wanted to truly contend for a win. I was all-in three times of the first 9 hands when it was folded to me with QJs, KQo and ATs in late position. Then I went super card-dead and was down to 4100 chips with blinds of 300/600, when I was dealt AJo in MP and Doc Thang limped in EP. He had done this a few hands before with T8s, so I decided to squeeeeeeze my last bit of fold equity out against him. Unfortunately, the player directly behind couldn't wait to get his chips in the middle, either. Thang folded and I quickly saw that it was my AJ against my opponent's QQ. The board came KxxJQ and I was eliminated in 29th place (out of 63).

Plans:
1. Forget about this weekend.
2. Read some poker literature to get my mind fresh.
3. Play as many of the Mansion Poker Added tournaments as possible during December, winning at least one of them. It's soooooo happening.