New setup / WSOP

I've been too lazy to post any time this past week, but I have playing a decent amount of poker. $5/10NL shorthanded is running really well for me, this month has been pretty phenomenal results-wise. Also, I've been going deep in almost every MTT I've been playing. Unfortunately there has been no significant cash, but I'm not too pissed about that because my cash game results have been so consistent.

Also, I finally bought a new computer and a second monitor to go with it as well. Before I had always been playing on my laptop and an external monitor. Now that I've got the dual monitor setup running on a desktop computer I can really comfortably fit as many tables as I need (no more than 8). It took a little bit of time to get used to Windows Vista, but I am beginning to like it more and more. I may post a pic of the setup in the next few days.

I'm also actively working on qualifying for a WSOP seat. The other day I finished 14th in a MANSION qualifier where the top 8 got seats. It sucks to come so close but I honestly feel that it won't be a problem for me to qualify somewhere if I put enough effort into it.

What I've been up to

This last week has been pretty crappy. I dropped just over $6k in cash games and can't seem to win a pot no matter what I do. I get very unsatisfied when I sit down at the cash game tables knowing that things just simply aren't working, however, I realize that this is something that will just take a little time to even out. Also, it was more than inevitable after my incredible upswing this month.

I took the time to play some Pokerstars SNGs these past couple days because of their great 10 billionth hand promo that they have running. They are basically giving out double VPP and FPP points which makes climbing the VIP ladder very easy and very fast. The results have been mixed, I think I am up just around $500 or so. I'll probably stop playing there once the promo time is over.

Yesterday 1055 players showed up for the CelebPoker $50k Guaranteed ($50+5 buy-in). I played pretty well and eventually made the final table, which gives me 2 final tables in 2 weeks in larger tournaments. I was around 4th/8 in chips when I ended up shoving AJ in EP only to get two callers. The first player showed TT and the second player had KQs. The flop was a beautiful AK4, turn 3, but river Q and the KQ guy knocked both of us out. I got $1213 for my 8th place finish. Pretty disappointed about that outcome, obviously.

Tonight (21:05) is the Poker-Tester.com private tournament at CelebPoker. They are adding $500 to the prize pool and so I wouldn't be surprised if we had a record turnout.

Everest Poker $100k Guaranteed

I was up around $4.2k in cash games today when I decided to try and fit in some of the Sunday tourneys that I missed out on last week. The first one was the EverestPoker $100k Guaranteed ($100+9) that started at 18:30. 765 players showed up, creating an overlay of $23,500. Right off the bat I was pretty shortstacked, throughout the first 2 hours I never had an above average stack.

Then as we approached the bubble I picked up a few decent pots by stealing and before I knew it I was in the money. My stack dwindled down after that though and once again I found myself extremely shortstacked. Through a series of all-ins that luckily remained uncalled, I was always able to keep my head above water. I ended up pushing a lot of crap because that's the only thing I was being dealt and there was no way I was going to fold away my chance at a big score.

When we eventually hit the final table I was 7th in chips. A few players were eliminated right away and I found myself shortstacked as ever. Once again I resorted to a series of all-ins with poop until AA finally made it's way to my screen. I raised it up, someone repushed with 66 and my hand held, instantly catapulting me to the chiplead. One by one, we eliminated a couple players and by now we were 4 handed.

The payouts were:
1st $22k
2nd $12k
3rd $9k
4th $7k

I then picked up KK in my SB and made a standard 3BB raise into the BB, who responded with an all-in. It didn't take me too long to find the call button and my hand held up against AJo, making me a huge chipleader with 3 left. I then began to push around the other two players, knowing that neither of them wanted to leave. I ended up shoving 43s in my SB into the BB who called with ATo and we were off to the races :) A sweet flop of T33 sent my opponent packing and I was now heads up for the win.

I had a 800k-200k chip advantage from the beginning. I had A9 and shipped it to him from my SB and he instacalled with K9. Everything went down right to plan but he found a miracle King on the river to save himself and give himself the chiplead on top of it all. I grinded back up a little but eventually went all-in with QJ only to be called by KQ. No miracles happened and I was out in 2nd place for $12k.

Any player who has played a final table knows how big of a disappointment it is not to come in 1st place. It doesn't matter what tournament it is, it's always bitter. To have the taste of victory on my tongue but have it ripped away by a suckout is not fun, but life goes on. At the end of the day I can still be really happy about the way the tournament worked out. Thanks to Olli, Curd, Gerli and Sutti for the support at the final table!

Amsterdam

I was in Amsterdam for the past three days and I managed to make it to the casino just one night (Wednesday night). I arrived there at 8pm when the poker room "officially" opened. Little did I know that they only start the daily tournament at 8pm and cash game players need to wait until 9:30-10pm to start playing. Whatever, so I sat around for another two hours doing diddlysquat.

At 10pm I was in the poker room and asked if my cash game table had opened. The poker room manager informed me that yes, my table had been opened and no, I didn't get a seat. I missed them calling my name (they use no microphones or loudspeakers and make no announcements) so because I was out of the pokerroom in those 2 minutes in which they opened the table, I missed my chance to play and had to put my name on the list again.

So now I'm steaming and already on tilt before even sitting down at the table. Finally about 45 mins later they open a new table (€5/5NL with €250 min/€1k max buy-in). I buy-in for €500 and let the games begin. Right away I notice the table is filled with total monkeys. Seat 2 was a Georgian who apparently had a never-ending source of funds in his wallet. He was down over €2k within a couple hours because of his calling tendencies. He didn't fold anything. He couldn't even fold a napkin.

Then there a couple other local donkeys who played anything suited. It really reminded me of CCC one year ago just the players had more money. I sat back and observed things for a while before playing 4 sizeable pots in the matter of an hour.

Hand 1: Hero has JJ in the BB. 6 limpers and hero bumps it up to €40, 4 callers. I had just begun raising a few hands, so my image was not too tight. Flop is beautiful: JKK. Hero bets €120, only the SB (huge tellbox) makes a deep sigh and calls. Turn is an 8. SB checks, hero bets €200, SB sighs again and calls. River is a 2. SB checks, hero goes all-in for ~€120, SB calls. He obviously had a king, hence the sighing, and mucked.

Hand 2: Hero has AK in EP and makes it €35, 5 callers including the Georgian who had recently reloaded to €1k. Flop is A79. Hero bets €150, Georgian calls. Turn is a 6. Hero bets €350, Georgian calls. River is a 2. Hero goes all-in for €400+, Georgian calls and mucks (AJ I assume).

Hand 3: Hero has KJs in the BB. Georgian makes it €35, BB calls as do a few others. Flop is KJ3 all diamonds. Hero checks, crazy local makes it €60, everyone folds and hero bumps it up to €210. Crazy local immediately goes all-in for €1100. Hero thinks and thinks and eventually folds because so far this guy has been crazy, but has never gone all-in with something even moderately weak. Every time it's been something close to the nuts. Hero folds and crazy local shows Q4s for the flopped flush.

Hand 4: Hero has KK in EP. Hero makes it €35, 8 callers! Flop is Jd4s2d. Hero makes it €180, 1 caller. Turn is a 7h, hero makes it €350 and puts villain all-in, he calls. River is a 4d, completing the flush and villain takes it down with AdQd. Shit happens.

At the end of the night I left with €649 profit, so I can't complain. Overall it is a very poorly run poker room that takes too much rake, but the incredible looseness of the game compensates that somewhat, so it's not that bad. I would definitely return for another visit.

May is here

April has come and gone, I didn't put in nearly the amount of hours that I wanted to, but that's because of the whole internet situation in the new apartment. All in all, I came out ahead $5775.85. Hopefully I will be able to keep the good run going through May.

Today I fly to Amsterdam and will be there through Friday. I'm going to try and play at Holland Casino Amsterdam tonight and probably again tomorrow night. I heard that they offer a €5/5NL game at night, so I'm pretty excited to check that out and see how the action is. Expect a full report in the near future.