Hands and pictures

I must have been the only poker player without Pokertracker...until yesterday. For the longest time it was not compatible with Bossmedia, but now things seem to be working fully. The only problem is that the program does not recognize the difference between the multiple gaming currencies, so the total winnings/losses stats are slightly off.

I really like playing the Euro and GBP tables though because I think people underestimate the value of the money, meaning they are a lot more likely to stack off lightly and make looser calls at GBP600 rather than at USD1000, even though the USD1000 is significantly less money.

Luckily all the important stats at Pokertracker like VPIP, PFR, AF, etc. are still accurate and my first 60k hands give me a good idea where I and where my opponents stand for now. One additional benefit is that the hand histories are saved and easy to locate, which is something I always had problems with in the past. Here are some big HHs from the last few days:

NL5k stack says adieu: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1825560

Literally 5 minutes later, another one bites the dust. Sick setup here against one of the biggest winners at Boss: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1825563

My aces hold on a pretty sketchy flop: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1830868

We're pretty deep and I 4bet preflop and then checked behind on the flop to rep AK, though it would not have made much difference: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1830875

I am pretty embarassed to post this hand, this is bad on so many levels. This move is incredibly -EV, please do not try this at home: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1830857

I like this move against these two particular opponents on this board. The river is awesome for me and my half-pot fake value bet takes it down: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1830883

I flop a monster draw and get it in, hit the river obv: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1830885

Of all the hands in his range (which is very isolated btw), I was certainly not expecting to see this one at showdown: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1830895

All in all things have not been running too smoothly lately, but I'm sure it'll turn around pretty quick, I'm very happy with my game right now, so it's just a matter of time.

Oh yeah, one anonymous comment poster requested some pictures from Prague, so here you go:

Group photo at the Coyote Bar (Czech version of Coyote Ugly)
from l.t.r Chris, Seb, Morris, Flo, Flo's friend, me, Tobi...not pictured: the Zink brothers, Freddy

Someone thought it would be a good idea to order champagne. Gives me a reason to post a pic of our waitress.

Tobi and Seb armwrestling for money. Tobi won with ease and both lost the beer chugging competition to Flo, haha.

Random gambling in the hotel room. Me most likely losing. Pretty boring.

EPT Prague

It took me a while to post it, but EPT Prague didn't go all that well for me. I busted about 5 hours into Day 1. I lost most of my stack with AK vs AQ all-in preflop and then eventually busted with A4 against T8 on a A87T board. That's 3 EPTs in a row with me making an early exit, a habit that I can hopefully soon break :)

The rest of my Prague trip was really fun, though. There were definitely some interesting nights to say the least, though I can't post all the details here. As always there was a ton of gambling; mainly highcarding, lowcarding, flop guessing, 9-card omaha, Cort/Seb/Chris/Seri Poker, hearts, etc. I just about broke even in the end, so it's all good.

I tried another $500 Aussie Millions qualifier at FTP today but failed to get my package. An opportunity has been presented to me to purchase a package through another site for just over €6k, so I may do that instead. I'm probably going to be in Australia from January 10th-24th, one thing I'm not looking forward to is the over 24hr travel time just to get there...

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.