Thursday, August 31, 2006

Ridiculous

Wednesday: -$423
I think Pokerstars was playing some kind of sick joke on me today. I stopped complaining about bad beats a while ago, but today's experience really wants me to get back into it. I realize I need to stay strong, though. I am going to give Pokerstars another shot tomorrow and I'm giving myself good odds to have a successful day, because I planned ahead. I slipped the floorman a special present, if you know what I mean.

From : PokerStars Cashier (cashier1@pokerstars.com)
Subject : Money Transfer
Hello thecortster,

We have transferred $0.02 from your account to 'Lee Jones'
as per your request.

Good luck to you both.

Regards,

PokerStars Cashier

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Black Tuesday

Tuesday: -$841.75
Things were looking to be a boring +-0 day until I had a terrible run at the cash game tables. I was getting semi-decent hands like tons of pocket pairs, but nothing connected on the flop. When you are playing one $2/4NL and one $3/6NL table, those missed flops add up pretty fast. Throw in a couple bad beats and you have yourself a pretty shitty session. No need to get out of my groove, though, because tomorrow is a new day.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

SNG Fun

Monday: +$556
I only played just three SNGs tonight, with buy-ins of $109, $215, and $320. I built up a nice stack in the $109 SNG but then lost 2/3 of my stack when my JJ met 33 all in preflop. Needless to say, he rivered his 3 and I was crippled. I was a gentleman, though, and congratulated him to his nice hand. The only reason I am even mentioning it is to give me an excuse to post this image.

I made it ITM in the $320 SNG but was pretty shortstacked and went out in 3rd place. Considering the cards I was getting I am quite pleased with this result. In the $215 SNG I made it all the way to heads up, where the chips were divided 50/50. The match lasted a long time with no one really taking a lead. After I built a 12.5k to 7.5k chiplead, I doubled my opponent up with A8o vs KK. Totally retarded play by me and I lost the match shortly afterwards. I can't really be satisfied with 2nd place, but I suppose anything is better than that damned 4th place.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Someone is going to Barcelona...

...and it's not me.

My day was based around one single tournament today: the $450+25 EPT Barcelona direct qualifier at Pokerstars. 201 players created a prize pool of $90,450 meaning that the top 10 players would get their seats to the EPT Barcelona event.

To wrap it up in a few sentences, things began very well for me. I quadrupled my 2500 starting stack in no time. Then I hit a very cold run of cards and dropped down to 7k. I built back up to 15k, then back down to 6k, then back up to 20k when there were just 18 players remaining. This is where the story ends, however. I lost a coinflip which pretty much would have given me a great chance at winning my seat to Barcelona. Unfortunately though, my AK didn't make it there against JJ and so I finished in 17th place, just outside of the money. I spent 5 hours and 18 minutes giving this tournament my undivided attention, you can imagine how I feel right now.

MTT Success

Friday: +$1876.95
I played some cash games in the afternoon with some not-so-great results. When evening came around I decided to switch my attention to some MTTs.

The first MTT I played at 21:00 was the $8k at CelebPoker. Many many months ago, I won this tournament back when it wasn't even $8 guaranteed. Since then, I have not played it very much, but did manage a 2nd place finish some time back. Anyway, I tripled up shortly after the tournament began when I flopped a set of 4s against AK and A6 respectively.

From then on it was the typical rollercoaster that all MTT players experience and eventually I made it to the final table with a decent stack. 5 players were eliminated within no time and then it was my time go. I shoved with AJo and was called by KQo. A queen fell on the turn and my fate was sealed: 5th place for $520. I can live with that.

At 22:00 the $109 MTT started. This is the tournament which has frustrated me in the past, because I've never been able to win the stupid thing. Well, tonight that finally changed. It was a very small field of 43 players but it still feels very good.

When we were 3-handed, I gave Benno a horrible suckout when my JJ rivered a third J against his KK. It would have meant my elimination, but instead it catapulted to a nice stack. I immediately apologized, which is a standard procedure for me if I suck out against a friend. I eventually went on to play Benno heads up, and then caught a few hands to win the tournament.

This was definitely a great confidence booster going into the €750 Freezeout in Schenefeld. I called to reserve my spot today and am now officially registered, provided I transfer the funds by early next week. I am really looking forward to the tournament to say the least!

Friday, August 25, 2006

Poker trips in September

Thursday: -$1335.20
This blog entry revolves around my September travelling plans, but I can't ignore the fact that today sucked balls. Most of the loss came from one hand at a $5/10 NL table. I flopped the nut straight and battled it out against the flopped top set. He filled his boat on the turn and I had 0% chance of winning the hand. My only mistake was still giving him the rest of my chips when the board was already paired. Amateur mistakes...

September 8th - 9th
I am going to get a chance to display my amateur mistakes in a few different cities in September. First up is a €750 Freezeout with 7k starting chips and 45 minute blind levels at Casino Schenefeld near Hamburg. No tournament like this has ever been played in Germany and I am very happy that I will get to be a part of it! It is a two-day event and from the looks of the time table (PDF file), it should be a fantastic player-friendly tournament.



September 27th - October 5th
The second poker trip in September is going to send me back to Vienna for the Austrian Classics being held in the Concord Card Casino. I just got back from Vienna and already my next trip there is planned out. There are a couple tournaments I have my eye on:

28.09. Pot Limit Hold'em €200 Freezeout
29.09. No Limit Hold'em €100 + Rebuys + Addon
30.09. No Limit Hold'em €500 Freezeout
02.10. €100 + Rebuys Supersatellite for the Austrian Classic ME

I'm not sure if I will get to play all of those, but it sure would be nice. I will also try and qualify for the ME online at CelebPoker in mid-September. I am guilty for not taking enough pictures of our last Vienna trip. This time (both for Schenefeld and Vienna) I will be sure to take plenty of pictures and hopefully post a few in the blog as well.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Back to Online Poker

Tuesday & Wednesday: -$65.80
I began right where I left off online, namely with a -$800 session. In particular, my run at the Pokerstars $114 Turbo SNGs continued to tear me down. Until this afternoon, I had played a total of 15 of them without one ITM finish! That's -$1710 without one penny in return! For those of you that believe you need less than 20 buy-ins for SNGs, think again! Luckily I play very conservatively with my bankroll in order to digest runs like this. My streak ended this afternoon, when I managed to come ITM for a whopping 3rd place. Not very heroic, but I can live with it.

Luckily I won a $200 SNG at Celeb which brought me back towards +-0. It's just a matter of time before I get out of this funk for good and hop right into my upswing, right? Positive thinking.

By the way, here's the latest plusev comic strip:

Vienna Day 5 (Monday)

I slept from 8am-11am and then it was time to check out of the hotel and head back to the casino. Our flight to Berlin was scheduled to leave at 21:30 so we had the whole day to get in a nice long session. To my surprise, my table from the night before was still being played, and even two of the players were still playing from the night before! I sat down at the table, as did Rich and Sutti. Shortly into the session I was dealt AA and raised it up to €15, which the Asian in the BB called. The flop came 234, he check/raised me all in which I called, because I knew he plays some marginal hands.

Unfortunately for me, this time he had 33 and had sucked out on the flop against me. Unfortunately for him, the dealer dealt an ace on the turn and the €300 was shipped my way. That ace did not just come for no reason, though. Karma sent it. That Asian was very arrogant with saying "Danke" to other players after winning pots against him. I saved myself the thank you and just smiled :)

Several hours later I got another crack at him, once again with AA. I bet €15 preflop again and he called, meanwhile telling the whole table how hard it is to beat me. The flop came down K64 all clubs. I had the ace of clubs. I bet out €30 and he called. An 8 of clubs fell on the turn, giving me the nuts. I bet out €50 and he raised me after a couple minutes to €110. I did my best at some Hollywood before going all-in, which he called. When I showed him the nuts, he was absolutely disgusted. He got up immediately and left, and I just smiled :)

Rich had to go meet someone, so Gerli took his place at the table. The table was so juicy it was unbelievable. To get people to even CONSIDER folding preflop, you needed to raise at least €15-20. Otherwise, they were going to see a flop, because after all, how do you know if you have a good hand before you have five cards? I used my fair share of good cards to make these people pay for their mistakes, and pay they did! By the time 19:30 rolled around, I cashed out over €1200 in chips, making it two +€1k sessions within 24 hours!

If I factor in hotel/food/other expenses, I came out up €1600 for the trip. Understandably I already miss Vienna now. I recommend it to anyone who is looking to have a good time, play some poker and make some (relatively) easy money. I am going to to do my best to qualify for the Austrian Classics in September, because I would like nothing more than to do get back to Vienna ASAP! Thanks to all you Wieners (you know who you are) for your hospitality!

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Vienna Day 4 (Sunday)

The Poker-Tester Forum tournament was scheduled for 14:00, so Sutti and I were at the casino at 12:00, where we had breakfast with bbberni. We also met Rene (susch), who was playing in the €3/6 Limit game. When 14:00 arrived, there were 12 of us from the forum and two non-forum members playing the tournament. At my table were Susch, Enchant, Mishkin, Mishkin's Phil Hellmuth Look-a-like friend, Raderix, and Raderix's woman. I began playing pretty loose and built up my stack with several small pots early on. I rivered Rene for a good portion of his stack when my 89 found two pair on the river against his AK. Later on I gave him another bad beat when I runner-runnered a flush as he was all in. I felt kinda bad because he drove so far just to play the tournament.

At the final table, I continued to build my chips up. I doubled a few people up, then doubled myself up with AA vs KK. I was chipleader with 5 players remaining, but then I kind of lost control and eventually blew off my entire stack. Oops. It was definitely a great time, though. There are some pretty neat people in the forum. Props to Berni for lasting longer than any other member (and taking home the CelebPoker Deluxe Chipset as a special prize. Also, props to gigx (now a Poker-Tester member) for taking the tournament down.

Afterwards, Gerli and I continued our heads up battles. I got nothing going for me in the first match and he won it with relative ease. The second match ran somewhat better for me, I was able to build up some chips and eventually win. The third and final match was decided by a coinflip, namely my A5s against Gerli's KJo. The flop came down AJ7 and things were looking good. Somehow a magical J appeared on the turn and his suckout was complete. Overall we have played 9 heads up matches, and I am still up 5-4 :)

The cash game afterwards sucked really bad for me. I must have missed the newsflash, but apparently 94s is a new premium. Just ask Mr. Chinaboy at my table who cracked the shit out of my aces with it. Within no time, I was down €400 for the day and in need of a breather. I was also in need of a little money, which worked out quite well. The walk to the bank was extremely refreshing, and I came back with 4 fresh €100 bills. I would only end up needing two of them.

After waiting over an hour to get my seat back, Gerli decided to quit for the night and offered me his seat. Thanks, buddy! Right away I went on a small tear and almost doubled my stack to €400. The table was one of the juiciest tables I played on over the whole weekend. Particularly one player (seat 6) needed to see any flop to see if his cards could connect, cost the flop what it will!!! Some other players had similar strategies. I continued to be dealt some monster hands, and even my speculative hands like QTo flopped me things like KJ9. By this time it was around 1am and I said to myself that I was going to stay at the table as long as the player in seat 6 was still there. Sitting next to me was a player who I knew from playing SNGs with at CelebPoker, he goes by the screen name MI0108. A really nice guy, we talked the whole night through about all kinds of interesting things. He eliminated Dan Harrington from this year's WSOP ME, but admitted, he learned the most from the Harrington books.

There was one hand that felt especially fun. I was sitting on a €600 stack and was dealt 77. I limped after a few other limpers, then the tightest old man ever raised it to €10. This guy was so tight, you probably couldn't fit a peanut through his buttcrack. Supertight in case you didn't get the picture. I think 6 players called his raise and the flop came Q73 with two hearts. I checked, he bet 30, one call, and I raise it to €120. He goes all in for €270, the other player folds, and I call immediately. Thankfully no ace came on the turn on the river, because he indeed had AA. Man that one felt good.

I continued to win some small and medium sized pots throughout the morning. I drank plenty of Red Bull and coffee and I'm sure that the 24-hour session from a couple weeks ago helped as well! At 6:30, my favorite player in seat 6 left the game. I played until 7am before calling it quits. When I cashed out my chips I had €1329 in my stack. It was very satisfying to put that money in my wallet.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Vienna Day 3 (Saturday)

The €30+5 Freezeout NL Hold'em tournament began at 19:00. I had a pretty weak beginning table, which I expected, considering it was a €30 Freezeout. I played a few pots early on and built up to around 5k in chips (starting stack was 3k). Gerli was also at my table, and he was involved in a hand where an attempted squeeze play of mine went pretty sour. I got my chips back shortly afterwards though when I eliminated a player with my AA.

After a couple hours my table broke and I was sent to a new table with players I did not know. I grinded away at several small pots early on while I tried to get some information on how my opponents played. Meanwhile there were around 40 players left in the tournament with the top 18 getting paid. After an hour of being card dead I found myself rather shortstacked as there were around 30 players left. One player lost a huge pot and was obviously steaming about it. The very next hand he shoved all in UTG for 4k. I only had around 3k in front of me and called him on the button with A9s. It turned out he had A2o and my hand held.

A few rounds later I doubled again when my AKo held up against AJs. I was now sitting on a 30k+ stack with around 20+ players left. The blinds were already at 1k/2k. I can't remember the exact hand, but I know I doubled someone else up and left myself on 18k. The blinds rose to 1.5/3k with a 300 ante and I knew I was shoving the first hand I got where the action was folded to me. There were 6 players at the table and I was UTG+1. UTG folded and I glanced down at J7o before shoving all in. I got a call from the button with 88 and his hand held up. Out in 20th place and mad at myself for wasting 5 hours of my life.

The cash game afterwards was not very exciting. I played until 5am and won something like €100.

Vienna Day 2 (Friday)

In the afternoon, I donked off €100 in a €3/6 Limit HE game and swore to myself never to play limit hold'em again. Limit hold'em in general is just so unsatisfying. It's like trying to sprint with weights chained to your ankles. You really want to get going and take off, but those damn chains are limiting you to one step at a time. I hate that damn game with such a passion, but it was the only game being offered in the afternoon hours at CCC. Gerlihard and I both decided that we would rather play some NL heads up instead!

We played two €50 HU tournament matches (dealt ourselves) each starting with 100 chips and blinds at 1/2. The first match went relatively fast. I can't remember any specific hands, I just know that I won the match.

We decided to do a revenge tourney, and then things got interesting. If you ask Gerli, I'm sure he'll tell you I'm the luckiest person in the world. The second match lasted over an hour! He built a decent chiplead early on and then things got interesting. The first big pot was a preflop all in with my AQ vs Gerli's 77. I spiked an ace on the flop to double up and take a commanding chiplead. The next all in came when I had Kd5d on a 7d8d9d flop. I check/raised him all-in and he called it with Q9o. I was a 97% favorite to win. However, Gerli made runner-runner queens for a full house! 97% to 3% and he still has the balls to call me Glückskind. Unbelievable! I grinded out a few smaller pots and took the chiplead again, and I eventually won with K7s against his 33 (I flopped my flush draw and rivered my 7).

Because there was no decent tournament going on during the evening, Rich's girlfriend, Rich, Gerli, Sutti and I went out for dinner and drinks at Bermuda Bräu. After eating a nice baby cow schnitzel and having a few alcoholic beverages, I was ready to get back into the action at CCC. Luckily a NL €1/2 had started up again. I played until 4am and came out with a measily plus of €75. I was up well over €250 for a while, but I was bleeding chips like crazy in the end, so it was best to just call it a night.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Vienna Day 1 (Thursday)


SickandRich was kind enough to pick us up from the airport at 7am, and since we couldn't check into the hotel right away, we went out for a traditional Vienna-style breakfast. After we had killed a couple hours, we dropped off our bags in the hotel and headed straight to CCC. Surprisingly, there was a €1/2 NL game going on at 10:00am. At the table were two Russians (speaking Russian to each other all the time), 3 older guys, and then Sutti and myself. I played for 90 minutes before the game broke up and I ended the session up €120. Not a bad start.

After a quick powernap in the hotel, we headed back to CCC for the €50+5 Freezeout. I think there were around 80 players in the tournament, and to make a long story short, I came in 8th place for €135. Subtract €5 as a tip for the dealers, and the tournament was a +€75 experience for me. There were lots of crazy players and tons of insane plays, but I'll spare you all the details. In a nutshell, my favorite hands held up each time I was in a pot, and I made it all the way to the final table without sucking out once! Unfortunately the blinds were so high that I was forced to shove A3s all in, and I got a call by a player with JJ. I hit my A and my 3, but he also hit his J, so it didn't matter much anyways.

By this time it was around 1am and I decided to join Oli (bla) and Sutti at another €1/2 NL table. I bought in for the max €200 and right away I was playing pretty loose and pretty aggressive. It got me into trouble in the beginning, but after around an hour I was pretty much near even again. I was raising a lot preflop, and getting played back at quite a few times. With a stack of around €250, I was dealt AhTh UTG and decided to limp in. One player (who is absolutely terrible, no kidding) raised it up to €8, which was called by two other players and myself. We saw a flop of Td8h4d. I checked, with the intention of check-raising. Mr. Terrible bet out €20, an older Asian man called the €20, and I decided to raise it up to €60. Both players called without hesitation. The turn came down 2s. I still have TPTK. With the flush draw out there, I really need to make the river card expensive for these guys. I opt to bet out €100 even. Mr. Terrible folds, and Mr. Asian just calls. As he called, I bet out the rest of my stack blind before seeing the river card (no idea why I did that). The river came down 7d. There's that damn flush. What does he have? No flush. Matter of fact, he flips over Js9s for the nut straight. Nice play, Sir. Enjoy my chips. Rather than tilting off another buy-in I just called it quits right then.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Off to Vienna!

Wednesday: -$736.35
Leaving on a bad note, but oh well. I need to wake up in 3 hours, the flight leaves in 5 hours and I'll be in Vienna in 6 hours! Bring it on!

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Link List

Just a quick note to say that I have added a list of English and German blogs on the right sidebar. That list is just what came to my head is not necessarily complete. If your blog is listed there, I would appreciate a link back to my blog as well. For those of you who have a blog and are not on the list, send me an email or drop a comment!

End the trend

Sunday: -$194.36
I had a lot on my plate for Sunday, most notably the Weekly Qualifiers at CelebPoker. I played the Weekly Qualifiers for Barcelona, Austrian Classics, Poker Cruise, and World Speed Championships. I managed to qualify for one final, namely the Barcelona final ($400+40) to be played on August 27th.

The Pokerstars Million Guaranteed lasted about an hour for me, before my AA ran into 22. My opponent decided that his 22 was good enough to call my preflop raise and my postflop pot bet, maybe he knew that his 2 was going to fall on the turn?

Cash games were at least running very well for me. I got some good cards combined with bad opponents who let me take their money without much fight. To close out the night I decided to play a set of 4 $105+9 Turbo SNGs at Pokerstars. I lost all 4 of them. Ship the negative Sunday results.

Monday: +$524.45
In the Poker-Tester.com forum tournament I came in 4th place out of the 34 players registered. It was good for a couple bucks and a good time as always.

I had another decent day at the cash game tables, playing two $5/10 NL tables and grinding out several small pots. They add up very quickly, and I found myself up nearly $1k for the day. To close out the night I decided to play a set of 4 $105+9 Turbo SNGs at Pokerstars. I lost all 4 of them. What a shitty pattern.

Two more days of online poker and then it's time to fly to Vienna! I am pretty excited already. I'll try and update the blog a couple times when we are down there ... that is ... if I take a break from the tables!

By the way, here is Part II of the plusev comic strip (click the image to see the full size):

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Hold!

Source: http://www.plusev.net/

I thought this comic was absolutely hilarious. This is the first of a hopefully long series. The author promises many more to come!

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Baby Steps

Friday: +$182.40
Again, not much poker today, just a couple tournaments and about an hour of cash games. I am dog tired, so it's time to hit the sack. G'night!

Friday, August 11, 2006

Thursday

Thursday: +$125.50
I played a little $5/10 NL at night, but not much was happening. I also played a few uneventful $114 turbos at Pokerstars. Pretty boring.

I have a funeral to attend tomorrow morning, so it's time for me to get some rest.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Poker, literally for one day straight

24 Hour Session: +$624.09

At 5pm on Tuesday we began our 24 hour quest. I did it because I really wanted to put my mind and my body to the test, and see if I can still play successfully under such circumstances.

I had three tables open to start:
Table 1 = $1/2 NL Longhanded
Table 2 = $2/4 NL Longhanded
Table 3 = GBP 2/4 Shorthanded

Right off the bat, I made the mistake of playing a huge pot with just KK on table 2. I raised it to 14 preflop (my standard raise) and he reraised it to 40. I called, the flop came all low rainbow cards. I check/raised him, he came over the top of me, I made the horrible call and obviously lost the pot to AA. It was bad play by me, because there is no reason to built such huge pots with just one pair in such a deepstack situation.

I added a 4th table to the mix a little while later, because I discovered that my favorite fish was playing EUR 3/6 Shorthanded. Those of you who look at the screenshot will see his name, but keep your hands off of him, he's my fish :) I got my seat right next to him and a few hands in, the following hand happened. I had QTo in my BB and it was limped by all 4 players to me. I checked, and saw a pretty nice flop of T9T. I bet at it aggressively, got one call. I bet the turn and got raised by player sybs. I called his raise and saw a 7 land on the river. I tried to get cute and bet just 6 on the turn (you'd be surprised how often this works). He raised me to 96 and I made the crying call, only to see he rivered the shit out of me. Again though, I was the one making the final call, as is the case in most lost pots.

A short while later, I lost my whole buy-in at Table 1. You can find the screenshot here. We were all in on the turn, of course.

Meanwhile, the only thing that was stopping this from becoming a diasaster was Table 3. I had built myself a decent stack, but that quickly changed after this hand. I had 33 and could have potentially lost my whole buy-in if I didn't play it safe in the end.

At this point of the session, we were about 7 hours in and I was down well over $1k. Olli and Sutti were also down, and we began to look at each other like maybe this wasn't such a great idea. Sutti quit shortly afterwards, leaving Olli and myself as the lone survivors. No way in hell we were going to give up.

Over the next 4 hours, I was able to win back some of my money through small and medium-sized pots. At halftime, which was 5am, I was down just over $600. By the time 10am rolled around, I was just about even. At 1pm I was up a couple hundred. Just 4 hours to go and things were looking nice.

With around an hour to go, Gerlihard joined me at the $1/2 table. I came over the top of two of his preflop raises, both times with very strong holdings. He played back at me in a later pot where be bluffed me out of the pot and then showed 74o. Then, the following hand came down (edited to just show the both of us):

thecortstr is at seat 3 with 834.74
gerlihard2 is at seat 9 with 206.15

thecortstr: As, Kc
gerlihard2: --, --

Pre-flop:
gerlihard2: Raise 6.00
thecortstr: Raise 36.00
gerlihard2: All in
thecortstr: Call 206.15

Board (Board: Qd, 4c, 2h, 7d, Ac):

Showdown:
thecortstr shows: As, Kc (a pair of Aces)
gerlihard2 shows: Ks, Kd (a pair of Kings)

Mainpot:
thecortstr wins the pot of 411.30 with a pair of Aces

I decided to make the incredibly loose call preflop based only on our previous play. Obviously I am not making this call against an unknown opponent. I thought there was a good chance he was making another play on me, but he really deserved to win this pot. I got incredibly lucky, oops!

At 5pm, the task was over. Olli and I had each played for 24 hours straight. I did not take a single break longer than 5 mins, and the same goes for Olli. Hopefully my body will forgive me for feeding him just döner, pizza, sushi, and 2.5 liters of energy drinks while pretty much sitting for 24 hours straight.

Going into the session, I thought that I would barely be able to open my eyes by the end. Surprisingly enough, I was very awake and very concentrated for most of this session. I became very tired only a couple times for about 30 minutes each, but then I would snap out of it and play fully concentrated. Even at the end, I was very aware of every move that I made. I only made one misclick throughout the session, and most of my bad plays came in the beginning anyways. Kind of interesing...

I am proud of myself that I stayed focused even when being down so much in the beginning. For those of you who are considering doing something like this yourself, I say go for it! It helped to have Olli here as well, because it gave me somewhere to talk to and share my highs and lows with. Playing 24 hours alone would get pretty lonely I think. I'm very glad that I did it, and I would consider doing it again sometime.

*I was not involved in the hand myself, but this hand is pretty sickening as far as 99.9% favorites go.

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Tuesday, August 08, 2006

1 dollar for every day of the year

Monday: +$365
I had forgotten how the $55 SNGs at CelebPoker are really a gold mine. If only they would fill up faster, I think that an average player could make a living playing them. No joke.

Since I don't have work tomorrow, we are planning a 24 hour session. The plan is to begin around 15:00 and play for 24 hours straight. I will play 3 cash game tables at CelebPoker, and then see how much I can make!

Being successful is going to require:
  • patience - There's no need to force the results, I can take my time and plan my actions.
  • concentration - This is going to be difficult to maintain for 24 hours, but I will give it my all, with the help of
  • energy drinks - Take Off, a Red Bull spinoff, best drink ever
Feel free to stop by CelebPoker and chat with me at the tables, I can certainly use some company to stay awake! I am planning on playing one $1/2 NL Longhanded, one $2/4 NL Longhanded, and one $2/4 Shorthanded table. I may change my mind depending on what games are being played when I begin. I am not going to set any monetary goals, but coming out on top would be the least I am hoping for!

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Monday, August 07, 2006

It happens

Sunday -$225.83
I didn't get to play any of the Sunday tournaments today, because I was busy playing live poker with a few other forum members for play money of course ;) I had a pretty good time, although I lost a little (play) money in the (play) money cash game. Luckily we played a 7-man SNG right afterwards, and with a great constellation of cards I was able to take it down.

Online I felt like today could be a big winning day, but I took a few bad breaks and ended up down a couple hundred bucks. That puts me back into the negative for August, but it's ok. I was watching a segment on Erik Seidel the other day, where he was talking about having a bad year (back in 2004). I'm pretty sure anyone who has been playing the game for a while (when I say a while, I mean a few years+) would laugh in my face if I told them I'm having a not-so-great couple of months! Put it all in perspective.

I am currently planning out a 24 hour online poker session for sometime this week. More details soon...

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Accused of LIVE Collusion

Background: The Deutsche Pokermeisterschaften take place in November. The tournament costs €800. Tonight, the Spielbank Berlin offered single table satellites into the main event. Each satellite cost €100 per person. 10 people per table make a €1000 prize pool. The winner gets the seat and 2nd place gets the remaining €200.

First qualifier: I met Rainer at the casino at 19:00. Shortly afterwards we were joined by a journalist who is doing a story on Rainer, as well as Rainer's good friend Dieter. A few minutes later, Bada (from the Poker-Tester forum) also stopped by with his girlfriend. We just had some friendly chit chat and talked about poker in general.

At 20:00 the first satellite started. Each player began with 1500 chips and blinds at 10/20. That sounds nice, and it is nice, until the blinds are raised to 20/40, 40/80, 100/200, 200/400, 400/800, and 800/1600 every 15 minutes. Obviously, that is a killer structure, so obviously playing too tight does not come into question. I lost 300 chips early on when my TT was no good against two players each holding AK. Shortly afterwards, I flopped a set with 99 and won around 1k chips back.

The players started dropping like flies and it wasn't long before we found ourselves 4-handed. The blinds were already 200/400 and I had just over 2k in chips. I had to get moving quick. I began a series of All-ins each time the action was folded to me. Some of the hands were A5o, KJ, AA, and QQ. Every time, I won the blinds. I opted to show the QQ in order to at least have some respect for future all-ins, which were basically forced upon me by the now 400/800 blind level. I had over 4k and looked down at 88. I pushed again, only to be called by the SB with A6s. Someone ordered an ace on the flop and it arrived immediately. I was left with less than 2 BBs, which I lost the very next hand to KK.

Second qualifier: Meanwhile, Olli had also arrived and decided to play the second qualifier with us. Also at the table with us was an older fellow whom I have played with a couple times in the €5/10 PL Hold'em game. We'll call this fellow Harry (I don't know his real name). Harry lost midway in the tournament when his K2o was no good against KJs.

I was dealt almost exclusively garbage and was shortstacked most of the way, but we were shorthanded after around an hour of play. This is where things get interesting:

Blinds 400/800. 4 players left at the table: myself (1800 in chips), Rainer (a lot of chips), Olli (also a lot of chips), and Tommy Hilfiger (2k). Tommy Hilfiger (I only call him that because that was the shirt he was wearing) moves all-in UTG for his 2k. I fold my rags, so does Rainer, and action is on Olli. He needs to pay 1200 more to call. By this time, Harry had consumed a few glasses of red wine. He had no chips, but was still sitting in his tournament chair.

Back to the story: Olli thinks for a couple minutes and all of a sudden Harry blurts out some jibberish to me. I asked him to repeat what he said, and then he claimed that he saw me and Olli signalling to each other. I asked him what the hell he thinks he saw, and he just responds, "Ich sehe alles (I see everything)." So he calls over the floorman and claims that he knows exactly what's going on, that we're playing dirty, etc. etc. etc. By this time I was getting really pissed, the same goes for Olli and Rainer. Rainer requested that this drunken bastard be taken away from the table, but since he is a casino regular, they treat him with special rules.

He continued to ramble on, and by this time, we were all going off on him. He said that I should come there on Sunday and "Dann gibts auf die Fresse! (Get it in the face)" Little did he know, if he didn't shut up quickly, he would be getting some fists in his face at that tournament table. Finally he left, and if I ever see the drunken bastard at the table again, I'll be sure to gun for him. Being drunk is no excuse for acting like a complete ass, especially accusing us of cheating in public like that. Good thing the floorman was watching the game and clearly saw we were playing straight-up. I have said it in the past and I'll say it again: I do not cheat. I have no need to cheat. I never will cheat. If you're jealous, or pissed, or mad that you shove all in with K2o and lose, don't take it out on me! Moving on...

Olli eventually called and lost the pot to Mr. Hilfiger. A few hands later, blinds 800/1600, I have 4k and Tommy Hilfiger has 3600. I am in BB (which takes a good portion of my stack), he is in SB and shoves all-in on me. I need to call 2k more to win 7200, and I look down at K6s. Easy call. He has T5o, and obviously makes his T on the turn, basically knocking me out of the tournament. Bummer!

The next qualifiers are on September 1st and 2nd, I definitely plan on playing them!

Friday, August 04, 2006

The poker gods love me again!

Thursday: +$1790.10
This is a big relief! I lost a little over $300 yesterday (Wednesday) after only one hour of play. I realized that it was not going to be a good day no matter how hard I tried, so I just minimized my losses by quitting early. Today looked to be the turnaround day when I found two ultra-fish playing $2/4 NL shorthanded and $3/6 NL shorthanded respectively. I grabbed a seat on each table and after 3 hours it was looking pretty good. Then my KK ran into TT on a T-high flop and I was quickly relieved of my whole table stack at $3/6. Ouch.

A quick 2-hour break and I decided that the bullshit has got to stop. I logged back on, found one of the two fish still playing, and took a seat at the table. This particular fish had over $3k in his stack, which is 5x the max buy-in at $3/6NL! Believe me, though, he did not amass that stack with good play. Don't mistake good cards for good play.

He donated a few hundred to me before leaving the table. However, I was not satisfied. Thank God for the player search feature, because I found him playing $4/8 NL shorthanded within seconds. I had to wait a while to get my seat, but when I finally sat down, I knew it was time to make some serious cash. I finally got my chance against him, when he thought his AK was good enough to beat my AA. Ship the $1500 pot to my stack, please. He quit the game after several reloads and I left that table with over $1000 more than what I started with.

Same routine again: Player Search -> Waiting List -> Seat Open. This time his game of choice was $2/4 NL shorthanded. I was unable to capitalize on his play before he quit for the night, but it didn't matter much to me, because I was also busing taking down a $215 SNG.

These are the days that I miss oh so dearly. I feel like so much weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I am once again free to have fun and enjoy the game we all love so much!

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Picking up where I left off

Tuesday: -$927.10
After losing over $500 in SNGs, I decided to play a couple $2/4 NL shorthanded tables. I had a rough start but then built both stacks to over $1000. Each table had a particular fish who I was gunning for, and after several ups and downs, I got my ultimate shot at a humungous pot. Here's the hand broken down:

Hand #384644715 at table: Table TH 628
Started: Tue Aug 01 23:20:44 2006

kalidonios is at seat 1 with 1291.42 -> Villain. Has been playing back at me all night and calls most all of my preflop raises. He built his stack by a few rivered flushes against other opponents. Picked off a couple of my bluffs but also has paid me off a couple times. Has been playing very weak starting hands.
manu888 is at seat 3 with 680.11
Hialdo is at seat 4 with 509.10
thecortstr is at seat 5 with 892.60 -> Hero. I am in the game for over $800 after a rough start and a few reloads. I eventually built my stack up to over $1000, then dropped down to $892 prior to this hand.

thecortstr posts the large blind 4.00
Hialdo posts the small blind 2.00

Hialdo: --, --
thecortstr: As, Ad -> That is a very nice hand to have in your BB. Time to extract max value.
kalidonios: --, --
manu888: --, --

Pre-flop:

kalidonios: Raise 12.00 -> His typical 3x BB raise, there's no way I am going to slowplay against this crazy guy.
manu888: Fold
Hialdo: Fold
thecortstr: Raise 76.00 -> I decide to raise him over 6x the size of his raise. I don't want to give anything to him for a cheap price. If he wants to play, he is going to pay.
kalidonios: Call 76.00 -> I was expecting a fold, but a call is OK. Let's evaluate the flop.

Flop (Board: Kd, 7c, 8d): -> Not a horrible flop. There is a diamond flush draw out there now. Based on his play, I can imagine him having AK, in which case this is an optimal flop. The pot size is currently $154.

thecortstr: Bet 188.00 -> I overbet the flop, almost signalling him the strength of my hand. If he pushes, I will have a big decision to make.
kalidonios: Call 188.00 -> He just flat calls. I do now have the feeling he has something like AK.

Turn (Board: Kd, 7c, 8d, Qs): -> The Q of spades, potentially a dangerous card if he is playing KQ or QQ.

thecortstr: Bet 108.00 -> My connection timer only lets me get to $108 before I need to release the trigger, otherwise I would have timed out!
kalidonios: Raise 300.00 -> He raises after thinking for a few seconds. I just can't let go of my hand, although by now my gut feeling is not very great.
thecortstr: Call 300.00 -> I make the call after thinking a while. At this point I think it's a 50/50 of whether or not I am ahead.

River (Board: Kd, 7c, 8d, Qs, 8s): -> That is a fantastic card because there are NO straight possibilities and NO flush posssibilities. Furthermore, if he was playing KQo, I have now re-sucked out and taken the lead again.

thecortstr: All in -> I am pushing all in for $332 as a value bet.
kalidonios: Call 332.60 -> He calls without contemplating very long.

Showdown (Please don't read this if you have not gone through my thought process already. The results are in white font, highlight below to see the cards):

thecortstr shows: As, Ad (two pair, Aces and Eights)
kalidonios shows: 8h, 7d (full house)

Mainpot:
kalidonios wins the pot of $1792.20 with full house

(3.00 rake were taken for this hand)

I do my realize that having one pair, which is really all that I had throughout the hand, is not a very good hand to commit so many chips with. However, the other contributing factors in this situation really led me to believe I was ahead. This is not a bad beat post, but rather I am interested to see what you all would have done if you were in my shoes during this hand. Please help me out and leave a comment, thanks!

Bring on August

Monday was the final day of July, so rather than digging myself even further in the hole, I decided to try some cheap satellites at Pokerstars. I mentioned a couple weeks past that I definitely want to qualify for at least one EPT event this year.

I played a total of 4 satellites:
EPT Barcelona $5 + Rebuys - I built up an awesome stack then donked it all off on a horrible call. I deserved to lose this one.
EPT Dublin $5 + Rebuys - Never really got anything going for me. Had a mediocre stack for the most part then took a nasty beat to get eliminated.
Stars Million Guaranteed $11 Double Shootout - Amazing how many weak players there were. I won my first table rather easily then played for over 90 minutes at the final table. I lost AA to QQ (Q on river of course) to have only 375 chips at the 100/200 level, but did manage a comeback and finally won my seat to the Stars Million.
EPT London $38 - During the first hour I barely played any pots and found myself quite shortstacked. I stepped it up a level in the 2nd hour and made the FT with an average stack. I then took over the FT and got myself one of the two seats in the prize pool. I will play the $475 direct qualifier in a couple days.

Quick side note - Congrats to selecti for winning the final in Petrovice! It's very nice to see a Poker-Tester member have such success! Nice work!