Petrovice Part 3

Day 3
Promptly at 11:45 the alarm goes off. The tournament final is scheduled to begin at 13:00. We make it right on time and I pull my card: Table 3 Seat 6. Exactly 27 players fill a total of 3 tables. 5000 starting chips, blinds 50/100. I make a speculative call with A8s in my BB, after it is min-raised in MP by a potentially weak player. We see a flop of 874, giving me TPTK. I bet out 400 to see where I stand, he tells me where I stand when he raises me to 1k. I fold easily.

A few rounds later, the blinds were at 100/200 and it was folded to me in LP. I looked down at 66 and decided to raise it to 600. Only the BB called. The flop came AK8. He grabs his chips but then checks it to me. I figured that I represented something like AK preflop, so I was certainly going to bet out at this flop. I tossed in 700, he raised it to 1500 before I could say lickity-split. I did a little Hollywood thinking for a few seconds and folded. I was now at 3500 chips.

The blinds were doubled to 200/400 and I was down to 2500 chips when I was dealt AQo in MP. It was folded to me, I shoved all-in, everyone folded. A few hands later I had JJ in my BB. 4 people limped for 400 each and when it came to me I shoved again. I expected everyone to fold, which they all did. I now had around 5k again, which was my original starting stack.

The blinds hit 300/600 and I wasn't presented with any profitable opportunities. I thought the next level was 400/800, but as it turns out, they decided to skip that level and go straight to 500/1k. I was dealt Q8o UTG and I had pushed all-in for 3800. I could have waited, but the blinds would have munched my stack down to just 2k after I paid them both. I was not going to let that happen. Anyway, I got called by AJo and lost, which is just fine. I came in 15th place (top 10 got paid). I'm not upset because I feel that I played well. The structure does not allow for much flexibility, but that's just the way it is.

Olli finished 17th, Rainer finished 12th, and it was time to head back to Germany. We drive up to the checkpoint, hand them some false documents, I cross my fingers, and it all works out fine. I am currently sitting in the back of the car on the way back to Berlin. All is well. I can't really recommend Petrovice to everybody, because other than some OK poker, there's not too much going on in that town. My next poker trip is Vienna in a few weeks, and believe me, I can't wait!

Petrovice Part 2

Day 2
For some sick reason Rainer thought it would be a good idea to wake us up at 11:00 in the morning! We went out for some breakfast, where I had a decent Beefsteak with some wartered-down Sprite. After that, it was time for a quick nap to make up the missed sleep caused by the early wakening. At around 17:00 we headed over to the casino and tried to get a €1/2 NL game going. It took an hour and a half, but finally at 18:30 the game started. We would end up playing until 03:00.

During those 8 and a half hours, it would be safe to say that I was absolutely card dead. I did have KK once, and I took down the blinds of €3! I tried to loosen up my table image by raising some junk hands, but junk hands only take you so far. Still, I was able to make good use of my marginal holdings and at the end of the night I was up €50. The hand of the night was certainly Rainer's A8s vs Olli's QQ, but I'm sure you can read Olli's blog for a more detailed description of how that hand went down :)

Petrovice Part 1

Day 1
13:00 - 1 hour to departure. Pack all the last minute things.
Toothbrush; check,
Clothes; check,
Laptop; check,
Money; check,
Passport; still gotta pack that. Walk down to the cabinet where I keep it. Open it up. No passport. OK. Check the desk. No passport. Head upstairs and take a look around. No passport. "You gotta be fucking kidding me." Search the whole apartment. Still no passport. Please someone, say this is a joke! It's already 14:00 and I'm supposed to head out the door! What am I supposed to do now? My body is now drenched in sweat. "This can't be happening," I think to myself. Cancelling the trip is not an option. Sutti offers me his passport. We do not look alike at all, but it's my only choice right now. I go pick up Olli and Rainer and off we go. This better work. We contemplate putting me in the trunk and trying to drive through, but decide that the risk/reward ratio is simply not good enough, because if I get caught back there, we'll all get busted for smuggling.

Fast forward to 18:30, Germany - Czech Republic border control. I'm sitting in the back, pretending to sleep, with my head turned down and a baseball cap covering a good portion of my head. Olli hands them our three passports. They glance over them and wave us through! What a relief! My first bluff of the day is successful! We had originally booked a hotel in Germany, but crossing the border every day is not an option for me. I'm in Czech Republic and I'm staying until Sunday for sure. Luckily someone found us a pretty nice little house just two minutes away from the casino, it's pretty sweet! We met Sunshine and selecti, two very nice people and quite talented poker players!

19:30 - They begin the qualification tournaments for the final on Sunday. The qualifications have a buy-in of €50, with rebuys and an addon as well. There are 9 players per table and the top 3 qualify for the final. I definitely like that, because it basically turns it into a SNG, which I consider to be one of my strengths. The other players at the table were not particularly strong, and after a few hands I had a pretty good idea of where I stood. I quickly doubled my 1500 starting stack, when I turned my flush against mid-pair and an open ended straight draw. Then I acquired another 2k+ when my AA ran into Olli's 66. I was in really good shape when it came time to addon. I purchased the addon for €50 and had a stack of around 8k.

When action resumed, they started dropping like flies. We were down to 4 in no time and the bubble play began. 3 spots were being contended for by 4 players: Olli, myself, Mr. Know-it-all, and Old Chiller guy. The action got really tense and it really became a battle. After well over 30 minutes of play, the blinds were out of control at 800/1600. I only had around 6k, Olli had 4k+, Old Chiller had 4k, and Mr. Know-it-all had 10k+. Then it finally happened. Old Chiller shoved all in UTG with KQo and Olli called in the SB with AJo. An ace flopped, the hand held up and it was over! Olli and I both qualified in our very first try, it couldn't have gone much better. Sunshine and Rainer also qualified on other tables (selecti unfortunately bubbled).

23:00 - A €1/2 PL Hold'em table fills up. I buy-in for the max (€200) and am ready to see some action. I ended up playing until 03:30. In those 4 and a half hours, I was pretty card dead. Not one time did I have AA, KK, QQ, JJ, or TT. My best hand was 99, with which I took down a small pot. I took down a pretty decent pot with AQ as well, but that was it as far as decent cards go. I tried a few limps and raises with marginal cards like one-gap suited connectors, but I didn't get too much going with those. The good news is, I wasn't bleeding chips either. I was not playing any two suited cards (the same can not be said for the other players though) just out of boredom, so I was able to hang on to my winnings. At the end of the night I cashed out €299, I can live with that.

Off to Petrovice

Thursday: -$392
That was my last day of online poker for July, and it was oh-so stereotypical for the month. 4 tournaments, 4 misses. And so July has now come to an end, and believe me, this is a good thing. July is my first losing month in well over a year (I made my last deposit in February '05), and I just want to get it behind me and move on.

July totals:
Profit: -$1821.39
Hours played: 120.1
Hourly Rate: -$15.17

I am setting myself no goals for August, but I obviously have some hopes which you can imagine. No pressure, though. The bridge from July to August is a poker weekend in Petrovice (Czech Republic). I'm driving down there tomorrow (28th) and will stay until late Sunday night (30th). Olli and Rainer are coming as well, it should be a great (and perhaps profitable?) time!

I will try and post some updates while we are down there, but I can't guarantee it because I am not sure what the internet situation will look like. I'll bring my laptop just in case...

Stuck

Don't feel like writing a blog entry, it's just the same old boring, frustrating thing happening day in and day out.

July: -$1,385.29

Total suckage

Monday: -$216
Not much to say for today, I played like 8 hours and you see the result. Totally insane. If this keeps going I may need to shift my focus to a new game like "War". I've always been great at that game.

July: -$1318.22

Tiiiiiiiired

Sunday: -$689
I actually lost around $900 today, but since I decided to treat satellites differently in my bookkeeping, the official number for the day is -$689.

From the moment I started playing, I was super tired, which led to some horrible play on my part. I wasn't very concentrated and was generally playing sloppy, so I decided to unregister for the MTTs I had planned and take a nap. The Barcelona Weekly was still running, though, so I was half-sleeping half-folding. When I finally donked off all my chips I got some rest.

I woke up from my hibernation at around 10:30pm, just in time for the Pokerstars Million Guaranteed Tournament. I got involved in a lot of pots early and took down many small pots, quickly adding 1k to my 2500 starting stack.

A little over an hour into the tournament, I was still sitting around 3500 chips when it was folded around to me on the button. I had Q9s and raised it up to 450 (blinds 75/150). The SB called and we saw a rainblow flop of QJ9. Anyone with a poker radar can sense the trouble approaching. He bets out 600, I think for about 30 seconds before pushing all in, which he couldn't wait to call with KQ. Turn A. River T. GG me.

Conclusion: Don't play when you are tired. You would think I would have learned that by now.

July: -$1102.72

*Off topic (sort of): I don't play online casino games. I have played a few times in the past, but it was more for fun or small bonus clearing. Those of you who do play these casinos may want to read this. An American man by the name of Carl Hutton worked for an online casino in Costa Rica back in 2005. He quit his job and decided to write about some of the experiences he had while working for the internet casino. It is an interesting read to say the least! So without further do:
Sex, Lies, and Video Poker: Working in an Offshore Internet Casino

Back from break

I enjoyed my two-day poker break. It was quite refreshing to not play any online poker, although I must admit, it did not hold me back from reading about poker. I finished Ace on the River by Barry Greenstein, which was overall a great book. I recommend it to anyone who wants to get a good idea of how to think about poker professionally. I just started Harrington on Hold'em III and although I have not read much, I have found it to be helpful already. My book order from Pokerstars also arrived, so I have another five books to read when I am done.

Pokerwise I had a good day, I guess CelebPoker decided to reward me for coming back :) I started off by winning a $50+5 SNG, followed by a couple third place finishes, followed by a 2nd place finish in a $200+15 SNG, which was all topped off by a final table appearance in the 10pm $109 MTT! Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while will know that I seem to be cursed in that tournament and have not cashed in it in ages! Well, that horrible run was finally ended tonight when I managed a 4th place finish for $500+change. Definitely a great feeling, it feels like weight has been lifted off my shoulders. A few more final tables and I might even see a total net profit in that tournament! Saturday results: +$1110.50

July: -$413.72

- Break -

Didn't play a single hand of poker today and it kinda feels good?

I will continue my break tomorrow and most likely get back into the swing of things on Saturday.

Death

Tuesday + Wednesday: -$1100.50
You know things aren't running well when players are constantly apologizing to you as you are knocked out of tournaments.

"ouch"
"sry"
"das war hart"

LOL as I am writing this, it happens again. This time the letters of choice were "sorry"

These are the words that clutter my screen as I try to close the window as fast as humanly possible. Believe me on this though, I will not be feeling sorry when I have all your money later on.

Really this all means nothing, though. My good friend's mom passed away tonight due to brain cancer, now that is something that matters. It is bigger than any tourney win, than any bankroll, and than any suckout. I knew her quite well, this hurts quite a bit as you can imagine. This is tough stuff, and it will most likely result in a few day's break.

July: -$1524.22

Red Carpet Hole Cards

Monday: +$1716.08
I'm not gonna lie. It's not hard to play good cards. The hard part is getting the good cards. For some reason unknown to me at this time, the poker gods decided to spoil me with premiums today. Maybe they heard me threatening with an extended break (which I am still seriously considering btw).

First I hit up a shorthanded 3/6 TRY (Turkish) table at CelebPoker. I have found that these tables are often filled with less than average players. Shorthanded tables bring out the gamblers, and the TRY tables bring out the fish. Combine those and you have a +$776 session for me.

Then I go over to Pokerstars to play some $105+9 Turbos. I play exactly 7 of them; two 1st place, two 2nd place, one 3rd place, and 2 out of the money. Ship it!

9pm rolled around and it was time for the poker-tester.com monthly forum tournament. A total of 32 players showed up and as always, it was a good time. I finished a disappointing 12th, but that's alright. Congrats to voodoo for taking it down!

I finished up the night with a 2nd place finish in the CelebPoker League tournament, after only 10 people decided to play the event. I made no genius plays, I just simply got good cards!

Oh poker gods, oh poker gods, how I adore thee!*
*Don't screw me over tomorrow.

Freefall

Saturday + Sunday: -$1355
I'm falling at a pretty disgusting rate. I played the $450+25 Qualifier to EPT Barcelona on Saturday and was quite happy to see 30 minute blind levels and 2500 starting stacks. I lost half my stack early (AK vs 66) but managed to come back and maintain an average chip stack throughout the 1st and 2nd hours. When the blinds hit 100/200 I had around 4500 chips when I was dealt Ac Kc UTG. I raised it up to 600 and got one caller. The flop comes Ks Td 2d. I led out for 1k, he mini-raised, I shoved all-in and he called, showing Ad Qd. I was about 55% favorite to win the hand but a Jc on the turn quickly ended my hopes of Barcelona.

The $100+9 MTT at CelebPoker ended virtually the same both nights for me (Saturday and Sunday). Saturday night I believe I was 12th, and Sunday night I managed 13th place. Both times, top 10 got paid. Is it a curse?

I've got absolutely nothing going for me. My motivation is nearing an all time low, I just kind of laugh and shrug my head as I am losing hundreds of dollars for hours on end. It's been 6 weeks now and I am not making any steps in the right direction. I mean, isn't this supposed to come to an end? I am thinking about taking a week or two off from poker and focus on totally different things. That might work out quite well because the new poker-tester.com is almost complete and it will take a bit of work to launch all the new content we have planned. I'll decide on the break situation on Monday or Tuesday. Too bad it has to come to this...

July: -$2139.80

Bigger than poker

Friday: -$456
I was at a wedding all day and got back around 1am. I played only four $105+9 Turbo SNGs at Pokerstars and lost every one of them. Lee Jones is trying to break me, but he is gonna need to try harder than that!

I most likely won't be playing much tomorrow. A good friend of mine got some pretty shocking family news so I am going to spend some time with him tomorrow. These situations really put things into perspective. Poker is so unimportant and it's not even close.

July: -$784.80

One step back

Thursday: -$385
I spent a few hours helping out a fellow poker player today, followed by soccer training, which left me a few hours late at night to play.

I used those hours to play my regular Sit 'n Gos at CelebPoker, with not so great results. Highlight of the night was certainly my AA going up in flames to KK at the bubble of a $215 SNG. The flop came out just fine with two jacks but the king on the turn immediately sent me sailing. However, as I said in the past, I am no longer complaining about bad beats. They are part of the game and I just need to accept them. After all, I have dealt out plenty of bad beats myself :)

My plans for tomorrow include going on an incredible hot streak and winning thousands of dollars. Oh wait. First I have a wedding to go to. I'll need to delay my hot streak plan until mid/late evening. Whatever works.

On a Mission

Pokerstars has begun to run qualifiers for EPT Barcelona now. As time progresses, they will begin running qualifiers for the rest of the EPT events as well. Since none of my other goals are going even remotely well (more on that below) I am going to put some effort into qualifying for at least one EPT event. Since Barcelona is the first tournament this season, it is getting my immediate attention.

EPT Barcelona:
I have played three qualifiers now, two $35+3 qualifiers and one $13 rebuy qualifier. In my most recent $35+3 tournament I was able to get a ticket to the $475 direct qualifier on Saturday (thanks again to Miamivice for taking care of the dirty work at the final table). In this next qualifier, 1 in 18 get a seat for Barcelona, and Pokerstars is guaranteeing at least one of them. Does it have my name on it? I will be able to tell you on Saturday night.

I was at the innagural EPT Barcelona event back in 2004, which was the first ever EPT event played. I was there mainly for vacation, though, and so I only played one tournament, which was a €500 NL freezeout. I only lasted a few hours into the tournament. I have to admit, I wasn't very good back then, so I contributed €500 of dead money into the prize pool. I'm sure whoever won the tournament appreciated it.

Because I enjoyed Barcelona so much, I think that even if I do not qualify for the Main Event, I will still fly down to Spain for the week of the tournaments anyways, in hopes to play some side cash games and some smaller tournaments. We'll see.

Total investment Barcelona thus far: $101

Other EPT Events:
Looking through the schedule, other events that catch my eye are certainly London (September 21-24), Baden (October 7-10), Copenhagen (January 17-20 2007) and of course the Grand Finale of Monte Carlo (March 28 - April 1 2007). As soon as qualifiers begin, count me in.

July summary:
July total profits: +$56.20
I really don't know what the problem is. I just can't seem to win any money. The same decisions that made me thousands just a couple months ago are now basically just wasting my time. I have played precisely 62.3 hours of poker this month, for an hourly rate of $0.90. That's 90 cents! I could go collect soda pop cans and make 10 times more than 90 cents an hour! I am really just puzzled. It feels like I am just treading water and have been doing so since June! What's my problem?

My car broke down and I lost money tonight. Hooray!

Too tired to think of a blog title

Monday: +$573.50
I am back in the plus for July, which is definitely a step in the right direction. The problem is, it is now July 11th and I am nowhere near $6k.

July: +$267.20

Book Worm

I am currently still reading Ace on the River, and after that come Harrington on Hold'em III. However, in planning for the future I thought I would order a few books to keep my supply healthy.

I ordered these five from the Pokerstars FPP Store:
1. No Limit Hold'em by Sklanksy and Miller
2. The Book of Bluffs by Matt Lessinger
3. Kill Phil by Blair Rodman and Lee Nelson
4. The Making of a Poker Player by Matt Matros
5. The Psychology of Poker by Alan Schoonmaker

All day session

Sunday: +$776.70
I took Barry Greenstein's words to heart today and focused on playing CelebPoker all day (with the exception of the Bodog 100k). I played a lot of $55 SNGs mixed in with a few $109 and $215 SNGs. Things ran generally well and I was able to make consistent profit throughout the day. It really brought back memories of February/March/April when I would be playing those exact same tournaments and making a considerable amount of money. That got me to thinking; Is this perhaps my element?

Maybe those tournaments are the exact winning formula for me. The next few weeks will tell all...

Too familiar

Saturday: -$1062.80
This is getting quite frustrating. Ever since the beginning of June, I have been in a drought. There is absolutely no consistency in my results. Do I need an extended break? Should I take a week off?

Barry Greenstein writes that a significant portion of a player's edge comes from playing with players who are worse than you. When I enter a $109 SNG at CelebPoker, I usually am surrounded with people who make very poor decisions. Why am I not capitalizing on these?

Tomorrow I am going to play some of the Sunday tournaments and we'll see on Monday if a break is necessary.

July: -$1082.80

No comment

Friday: -$523.50

July: -$20

Substitution

Thursday: -$161.50
I am pondering taking the Pokerstars $100+9 SNGs out of my daily routine and adding the CelebPoker $50+5 SNGs back in. The reason for this would be to increase my hourly rate by
a) playing against much weaker players and
b) getting rakeback rather than FPPs

I have grinded out a decent hourly rate in the past with the $50+5s at Celeb, but I thought that I would put them behind me in hopes for bigger and better things. Now that I have added the Stars SNGs in there, my variance has become much higher and my net profits has become much lower.

This is turning into me thinking out loud (if that is even possible online).

Conclusion: No more Stars $100+9s, time to bring back the CelebPoker $50+5s. I will continue playing the Stars $105+9 Turbos, because I am quite happy with my hourly rate so far.

Hump day results

Wednesday: -$347
We drove back to Berlin through the night, after watching Germany lose to Italy in Dortmund the night before. I then proceeded to sleep until 4pm, before waking up and starting the day :)

I had some moderate success in the $100 SNGs, but a few $215 losses really kept me back for the day. Nothing to worry about, though. I'll have fresh energy to make plenty of money tomorrow.

I'll keep an update on my current status for the month at the bottom of each post, just so you can follow me more easily in my quest for $6k.

July: +$673

finito con la lega

Sunday: -$280
I started the day up $500, then proceeded to lose $1000, but then made up a few bucks before calling it a night.

I am now officially no longer playing the CelebPoker League. The current standings can be seen here. I am just too sick and tired of planning out 3 nights a week just for that league, only to get shot down by some weirdo beat. In order to win the league, I would need to go on an unhuman tear, and frankly, I do not want to invest the time nor the energy into something like that. I will still play the league sporadically just to maintain at least 5th place, that way I will at least win a chip set *Yay*

Maybe if they do another league (which I highly doubt) I will go for it again, but this one just isn't worth it anymore. I am very disappointed that I did not make it, but at the same time, I know I played my best and managed to get in with the best hand when it mattered. I will be sure to send in my comments/complaints/suggestions to CelebPoker in hopes to make a better 2nd league.

Tonight I am driving to Paderborn where I will spend the night before advancing to Dortmund early Tuesday morning. We will be setting up the Fan-Choreo during the day and then watch Germany trample all over Italy at night! Should be a great time...

July 1st

Saturday: +$993
This is exactly how I was hoping July would begin. 4 hours of online play and nearly a thousand dollars up, if only every day would be this easy.

I also played some live poker at Rainer's tonight. Sutti, Olli, myself, Rainer, and Voodoo from the Poker-Tester Forum all showed up to play some €.50/1 NL. I lost a total of €120, but I did have a pretty good time playing live again. We are hoping to make this a Saturday ritual, if not every Saturday, then at least every other Saturday. Anyone in Berlin who is interested in getting in the game, just let me know.

Downswing and June Recap

Thursday & Friday: -$1203.00
Lifewise I had a great day! I was in the stadium for the Germany vs. Argentina match, and I must say, words can not describe the feelings that were felt in that stadium today. Down 1-0, then the amazing equalizer by Klose, then penalty kicks. Wow! When Lehmann held the final one, the crowd went nuts! It was truly amazing!


I could think of better ways I would have liked to end the month pokerwise, but I'm just going to have to live with the downswing. It fits right into the picture of my June results actually. June is a month I definitely want to have behind me, so here's my final analysis before heading into July:

June Goals:
1. Make $6k total profit - FAILED (Total June Profits: $1663.57)
2. Win the 10pm $100 MTT twice - FAILED (I didn't even it win it once, nor did I come even remotely close. The good news is that I sent a request to the folks at Bossmedia and they took my request seriously. They are going to increase the starting stack for this tournament from 1500 to 2000 starting July 1st.)

July Goals:
1. $6k total profits (not kidding this time).
I'm going to give it my all and grind those $6k out. It's not even a question, it's a fact. I will make over $6k in July.
2. Win the 10pm $100 MTT twice.
I'll let this goal carry over into June. I think with the new starting stacks, skill will play a bigger role in this tourney, and I'm hoping to use that to my advantage.
3. Have a successful Petrovice trip.
By successful I mean come back with more money than I left with.

I am approaching July with new energy and new motivation, anything can happen this month.