I'm back!

I arrived back in Berlin 2 days ago and I must say it feels good to be home! Being gone for 3 weeks is a really long time, even though I really enjoyed my visit in the States. The plan for now is to try and get in 3-5 hours a day of play until Dec. 9th, when I'll fly down to Prague for the EPT Prague tournament. The buy-in is €5k and I'm going to buy in directly because I didn't really have time to qualify.

The tournament itself should be somewhat fishier than the average EPT tourney for a couple of reasons:
1. The tournament is not televised, keeping some of the big-name pros away.
2. The buy-in is bargain priced at "just" €5k as opposed to the normal €8k buy-in that the EPT has standardized this year, which should attract more fish like myself to take a shot.

I was considering then flying directly to Hamburg to attend the Pokerolymp Open II but opted not to after reminding myself how much I hate live poker. I really don't understand why I keep booking these trips to play live tournaments. On one hand, playing live is a real challenge and can be really fun at times. On the other hand, you have to deal with all the stress of travelling, then sit around a table for days on end seeing 20 hands/hour and being bored beyond belief. Online players are very spoiled imo.

Ugh

I've played 6 sessions since being the in the States and only the first one was profitable. Since then I have not been able to book a single win which is somewhat frustrating. Maybe I just need the good karma of sitting in my chair at my desk in Berlin, who knows.

Here are some hands from the last couple sessions, comments/critique are welcome.

Here I squeeze (NL2K) a couple of fish wtih 99 and get an all undercard flop. A case can certainly be made for check/folding the turn as his range pretty much dominates me, but I went for it anyway.

I get my stack in pretty light (NL2K) here in a blind vs blind battle. My instincts told me his minraise was full of it and I wasn't going to let the flush draw hit cheaply. When he instacalled I knew I was toast but to my surprise he mucked.

3bet pot against an aggressive opponent (NL2K) and I flop a pretty big draw. I would be very rich if I could do this every time.

There was a big fish who got lucky and built up a 200bb+ stack. I had taken a couple pots from him and was 175bb deep myself when this hand (NL2K) occured. The flop is loaded with draws and I really can't take his minraising serious. Minraises can be tricky, though. Good players use them as bluffs more often that not whereas when a fish minraises it signalizes a monster 90% of the time.

This hand is pretty sick imo (NL2K). When he donked the turn, 22 was the last hand I expected to see. I didn't even have it in his range of possible holdings.

This one is also pretty disgusting (NL2K). We were playing a really aggressive 3-handed game. and I 3bet preflop and flop TPTK. I really had a hard time picking my play on the turn, but I elected for a checkraise all-in. In retrospect, firing directly would have been a much better option. It didn't help that my opponent is a real ass and a pretty terrible sportsman.

Literally a couple hands later, same opponent (NL2K). I'd never seen him donk a flop before and when he 3bet all-in I was praying for a flush draw. This is probably the closest I have come to actual tilt in several months.

My opponent flipped out after this hand (NL1K). He called me Mr. Luckybox. I would expect him to 4bet his little aces next time against me.

Standard and symbolic (NL2K) of how I've been running lately.

Luckily the total damage is just over 12 stacks in that game so I'm okay for now!

Hey!!! Heeeere comes Woody!

My last day at Foxwoods was this past Monday and because there was no $10/25NL game running during the game, I figured I would take a shot at the $25/50NL game that was 7-handed at the time. I bought in for $10k and was covered by everyone at the table, which was interesting to play so deep. The table was not very juicy at all, it was basically only pros, most notably Steve "MrSmokey1" Billirakis, a very feared online player who has had tons of success in live tournaments. I didn't play for very long and lost a little chunk of money but was never involved in all too big of pots, so it wasn't all that big of a deal.

My flight to Kansas went just fine and I'm now settled at my home away from home. Last night I went to the Woodlands to go watch some greyhound dog racing with my mom and stepdad. I nailed my first bet, predicting the winner right away but then failed to keep my good luck running and eventually began losing race after race :( Luckily I was betting pretty small amounts so the financial loss is not significant at all.

I'm probably going to be putting in some online hours this next week, my session today ended down a stack after just an hour of play so there's certainly room for improvement. I may post some HHs if they're interesting enough.

More at the Woods

So yesterday's session wasn't too exciting and I ended up getting so frustrated with live poker that I just called it quits, came back to the hotel room and fell asleep early. I wasn't going to give up completely, though, so I headed back again today to get in some $10/25nl action.

We started a game 3-handed and eventually it became 5-handed, which is what I love and happens to be my bread-and-butter game online. There was one pretty big fish there who I played the following hand with:

$6k effective stacks, he raises to $75 from the CO and I call on the button with AdTd, the BB calls as well. The flop is Th5h4d. It is checked to me and I bet $200, BB calls, original raiser (old man) minraises to $400. I thought lololol to myself as I called, so did the BB. The turn is the 3d and the old man makes it $1k even. I flatcall and the BB folds. The river is a beautiful Qd and he fires another $1k. I shove, having him easily covered and he calls, quickly mucking his hand when I showed him the nuts. ~$12k pot for me

That game broke and I was moved to another table, which turned out to have some sick action. It effectively becomes a $25/50 game due to the straddles and raise sizes, most flops costing $200-400 just to see. I was fortunate enough to get paid off once again when I flopped big with 77 on a 766 flop. My opponent had A6s and it didn't matter what line I took, the money was going in regardless.

All in all I played around 11 hours and made just over $12k, which is nice because it's actual cash and not virtual money :) Tomorrow is our last day here so we'll probably sneak in a short session before heading back to Massachusetts in the evening, then my next stop is Kansas on Wednesday.

Foxwoods

I had a pretty good time hanging out with Olli in Massachusetts the past few days, but I was even happier to finally make the trip up to Foxwoods yesterday. The trip started out kinda crappy, I got pulled over in the rental car driving 85mph in a 55mph zone. I worked my charm on the police officer and she reduced the ticket to a 65mph in a 55mph, so I guess that was my first suckout of the day :)

Foxwoods has a really impressive poker room. There are probably over 100 tables and nearly all of them are being played, with games ranging from 1-5 Stud to 100-200NLHE. I signed up for $10/25NL and bought in with $5k.

The table was pretty decent. I had a solid image after folding a few orbits, so I decided I to make a little move. One limper and I bump it up to $150 in MP with 67o. The SB calls, as does the limper. The flop comes down Ah8h3d. It is checked to me and I fire $400. The SB thinks for a couple moments and calls, the limper folds. The turn is the 3 of spades. He checks and I fire $900. He stares me down for a while and eventually folds. I didn't show, though I really regretted it because it would have aided my image, but oh well.

I was forced to move tables and one of my first hands was JJ in my BB. 2 limpers and I make it $175. The first limper calls. The flop is 995 and I continue with a bet of $325. The turn is another 5. I think that most small PPs are in his range here, so I check, giving him a chance to try and take it down or make my river bet a little less credible. He bets $400 and I call. The river is another 5, making the board 99555. I check, he bets $800 and I make the call, only to be shown 54o for quads.

I was down around $4k at this point but the table was so good (a couple drunks) so I had to stay. Then the following hand went down: EP limp, MP raise to $75, I call in MP with KdQd, drunk button squeezes to $275, 3 callers and I call as well. The flop comes down a miraculous JdTd8s, giving me a royal flush draw. The original raiser donks $1k and I shove $5200. He thinks for quite some time before eventually mucking Ad9d, or at least so he claims. Pretty sick setup if he did, but he could be lying about his hand. I climbed my way back to even and finished the night up $1k, which I was pretty happy about considering how the night was looking at one point.

Today was similar, just instead of being down $4k I was up $4k and still ended the night up just $1k. I flopped a few miracles in the first couple hours of play:
3c4c and the flop is Ac5c8c, $1300 payoff
JJ and the flop is J92, got paid off $1k
AsJs flopped flush, got paid off $500
KsQs on a flop of Kd4s2s, turn Qd, river 3c, $1k payoff

Then came a pretty big hand. 2 limpers and I overlimp with 8h5h (patented as the live poker boredom limp), 7 people see a flop of Th9h7s. The BB bets $150, I raise to $475, he makes it $1200, I shove for his $3500 total. He called with 99 and I was drawing to 15 outs. The turn and river bricked and I lost the $7k pot :(

OK that's enough hand details, I'm getting bored reading what I'm writing! I had a great massage at the resort today, I'll probably go back again tomorrow. Sometimes I really like my lifestyle...

Challenge, The Review

I played my final session for the challenge yesterday:

Played hours: 2.2
Stacks: +1.24 (€1111.63)
Total stacks for the challenge: +25.34 (€22807.58)

Now it's official. I won the challenge and made a decent amount of money while doing so. I'm pretty happy with the results, I was aiming at 15-20 stacks before the challenge started. It was a great motivation to sit down and play every day, even though it became very apparent that I was going to win a couple days into the challenge.

As for the reward, I probably am going to choose skydiving. It's something I've always wanted to do and probably would never do alone so I'll take this opportunity to do it. We'll wait until Spring '08 when the weather is a little warmer, if anyone else wants to jump with us just let us know.

Before the challenge started, I said that anyone could drop me a comment and predict the winner of the contest, then I'd choose one winner at random who would get the choice between Super System II, The Theory of Poker and the FTP Strategy Guide. Well, rather than just picking one, I think I'll give a book to everyone who voted for me. So if you are one of these people, please send me an email to cortkm at berlin.de saying your comments name, your real name and address and which book you would like:

dublette
magru
voodoo
nonameff
gerlihard
Danny OC
ilyas
crazyhorse
arthur
metmaster2
maumaus
mayor84
olli
koort
bustedufish
figool
sutti
werhamster

I guess you can also call that a list of smart people as well :)

By the way, as some of you may have noticed, I took some shots today at the higher games at CelebPoker. I was splitting the action with a good friend of mine, and I won my biggest pot ever to this date. This was €50/100NL

Alright, time to pack my bags, my flight leaves in 8 hours and I have achieved nothing so far! Once again, thanks for the support during the challenge and we'll see if we can work out another one next year some time. My updates during the next 3 weeks will be sporadic because I'm not sure how much internet access I'll have during my stay in the States.

Challenge, Day 9

I broke my day into two sessions, one in the evening and one late at night:

Played hours: 3.5
Stacks: +2.12 (€1908.48)
Total stacks for the challenge: +24.07 (€21695.95)

I made over €5k in the first session, but as my results indicate, I gave back just over €3k in the late-night session. I'm happy with my play, though, most of the hands were just coolers that I wouldn't get out of if I were given the same situations again. I'll probably take Saturday as my final day off and then close out the challenge on Sunday. I fly to America on Monday, which means that it's more than likely that I won't play any online poker for 3 weeks :(

I'll be going to Foxwoods in Connecticut with Olli next weekend (the same day that the WPT World Poker Finals tournament begins), so hopefully I will be able to get in some time playing $10/25NL, even though I am beginning to dislike live poker the more and more I play it. Slow dealers, slow players, full ring, always being on the lookout for tells and being sure to try and hide your tells. Ugh. The negatives clearly outweigh the positives if you ask me.

Song of the day: The Four Tops - Loco in Acapulco

Challenge, Day 8

Heiko claims that he has given up the challenge in his most recent blog post. I think it's a real shame that things did not run well for him, I said from the beginning that I hoped we would both come out as winners (with me winning slightly more obv). Hopefully he can get back in his groove soon and finish the challenge with an upswing, although he has stopped counting his stacks.

As for me, I had a nice day once again:

Played hours: 2.5
Stacks: +5.53 (€4975.86)
Total stacks for the challenge: +21.95 (€19751.47)

That made up for yesterday's losses and then some. The key hands (no HHs) were a couple overpair vs overpair setups and one flopped set that dodged a flopped flush draw. It always feels good to get right back on your feet after a tough day. Also, I received my October rakeback payment which came out to be just over €2k. I still plan on playing days 9 & 10 out, even though the challenge is basically over.

Thanks again to everyone who voted for me to win, stay tuned as I'll post some news regarding the book giveaway in a couple days when the challenge is officially over.

Song of the day: Temptations - My Girl (reason being that I'm going to their concert in Berlin tonight)

Challenge, Day 7

Had a pretty nasty day at the tables today, here are my results:

Played hours: 2.35
Stacks: -4.42 (€3979.52)
Total stacks for the challenge: +16.42 (€14775.61)

I ran pretty bad today and was only disappointed with my play in one hand where I made a bad valuebet on the river against a big fish. Other than that, the losses today come from standard setups and several 2-outers. I just have to accept the losses and move on to a fresh day tomorrow. I may take the day off because I won't be able to play in the evening, we'll see...

Song of the day: Chicago - You're the Inspiration