Royal flush!
Date: Thu, Jul 3, 2008
I don't remember getting a royal flush before, but tonight I got one. Not that it's a very interesting piece of news, but these are slow times. I started with a horrible run after coming home from Vegas, but I am back to green now, although not by much. My plans for the coming week includes some spear fishing and poker playing, and then I go on vacation with the wife on Thursday.
I have been coaching a friend of mine a little bit lately, and I have found that very enjoyable. I show up live at his place, and we discuss the game as he is playing, and I pin point whatever general weaknesses I see. I could definitely see myself doing that some more. If you live around Copenhagen and feel like getting some new input, let me know. I don't come cheap though. I think $200/hr is about right for what I can offer, considering that I make more than that playing poker myself. It has to be live though. I think a verbal discussion gets the points across much quicker than emails, and besides I sit in front of my computer enough as it is. When I get back from vacation, I will write down something properly about how I can help people improve their game.
Congratulations are in order for Spain with a spectacular Euro Cup win. I don't remember such a huge skill difference between two teams in one of the big finals. Spain was just completely outplaying Germany 75 out of 90 minutes.
Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $5/$10
6 players
Converter
Stack sizes:
Hero: $1000
UTG+1: $1121.30
CO: $1419.14
Button: $1223
SB: $1129
BB: $1137.24
Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is UTG with :jc :tc
Hero raises to $40, UTG+1 folds, CO calls, Button calls, SB folds, BB calls.
Flop: :kc :qc :kd ($165, 4 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $100, CO calls, 2 folds.
Turn: :6h ($365, 2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $200, Hero calls.
River: :ac ($765, 2 players)
Hero raises all-in $660, CO folds.
Uncalled bets: $660 returned to Hero.
Results:
Final pot: $765
Snap back to reality.
Date: Thu, Jun 26, 2008
This post just to let you know I haven't fallen off the earth and that my brain is not completely melted from my stay in the Nevada desert sun. I am slowly getting used to a world where things make a little sense. No pink stretched hummers and the inside temperature correlates roughly with the outside temperature. Looks like I am getting rid of that cold I picked up out in the desert. I have had some annoying hardware problems, so I have only just today gotten back to the grind of online poker. It is almost a relief to get back where bet sizes are sensible.
Otherwise the last couple of nights have been spent with the Euro Cup of Football. It has been a couple of decent semi finals, although the Russian performance tonight was dissapointing. Hard to understand what happened to the team that destroyed the dutch. I guess a final of Germany vs Spain is pretty good, considering that it could have been Turkey vs Russia. That would have been a bit of an anti climax. Anyway, I am just happy that Italy is out. Their match against Spain is one of the most disgraceful I've seen, bad even for Italy. It is just a shame that Donadoni orders 11 guys, many of whom can do great things with a football, to just stand and defend for 120 minutes.
It is nice to be home, even though I miss my Porsche. That is one nice ride, and a cabriolet is made for the Vegas heat. When you accelerate quickly from 50 to 90 mph past a roaring truck on the freeway, you know you are alive. It cost me $500 for a day, it was worth every cent and it is not close. A+.
Short stories from Vegas.
Date: Fri, Jun 20, 2008
I played in a tournament at Bellagio early in the trip. An old rock to my right started out loudly declaring how he would never raise an ace and a face card, "never!". Another player questioned his truthfullness, and he repeated "NEVER!", clearly agitated. First hand I remember him playing he was betting flop and turn of a semi large pot on a QJxx board with two spades. When the river came a non spade king, instead of considering his action he just started mumbling "You motherfucking...", and checked it down. He showed an ace high flush draw, and the other guy took it down with KT for a rivered one pair. Clearly the old guy thought the world was against him. 20 minutes later we had the most brutal of suckouts on the table as some guy was sent out of the tournament with 33 against AJ on a JT3 board. Turn, T, River: J. Just a sick beat that pretty much left the table shell shocked. The old guy commented "well, what about me with that king on the river, talk about being unlucky". Half an hour later, he flopped a flush from the big blind against another guys set. A set against a flush is not in horrible shape with 7 outs on the turn and 10 on the river, and he hit one of those. That was too much for old guy who stood up and yelled "Did you ever see shit like that in your life?!?!?". My answer would be, well, yeah, once or twice. He also got in a few choice words about the WSOP management who wouldn't let him play in an event when he was only half an hour late. Some people just have no luck at all.
In the $5k event, I played at a table with both TJ Cloutier and Allen Cunningham. The only table chatter I overheard there was TJ telling how he had once seen Doyle get away from quad tens "years and years ago". As he himself has documented in his book 'Championship NL Hold'em', TJ is the very definition of a solid rock, who has made his living at the poker tables folding a lot, and then soul reading people in big pots. He displayed both in a hand where he 3-bet from the button. The first raiser then said "why so little?", and then 4 bet it. That sent TJ into the tank. After a while he said "Another raise...". Then "...with a speech...", and then he folded queens.
Most places in the world, driving a Hummer will be a powerful statement in itself. But in Vegas, some people can't handle the thought of someone not noticing how much money they have. So they stretch the Hummer. A lot. And then they paint it pink...
Thomas from the office had Gus Hansen at his table in Mondays event. Obviously, the first time Thomas raised his blind, Gus instantly moves all in for a full stack early in the tournament. Thomas folds and Gus says to him: "I only do that when I think I have the best hand". And then smiling: "...but I always think I have the best hand."
Same Thomas busted Phil Helmuth in an earlier event with aces against Helmuth kings. Helmuth took it gracefully, shaking his hand saying "That's the only way they beat me".
Event #31.
Date: Mon, Jun 16, 2008
Event 31, $2500 short handed was a bust. Everything is back to normal, as I lost with a set against a flush draw all in on the flop. Biggest dissapointment was not busting Jamie Gold as he was all in preflop against me earlier in the day. I had 88 against his 22, but he spiked the deuce. His words were: "Everybody tells me I am the luckiest man in the world, I might as well run with it". He busted later though, so I guess he wasn't that lucky.
No. 30 out of 2706.
Date: Mon, Jun 16, 2008
Not a bad result when you look at it that way, but of course it would have been a bit nicer to see the final table. For 30th place I took down $13,666, enough to keep my tournament gaming in Vegas close to break even.
There have been a lot of big hands today, and I don't really have the energy to recount them all. At one point I had 270k chips, which is 90 times starting stack. Things went downhill from there though, and the last hour I was severely short stacked most of the time after losing a 170k pot with AK vs 99 preflop. I survived one all-in with JTs against A3o, but I finally busted with T7o called by AQo. I shoved 75k from CO, 6k/12k blinds, and 1k antes. Good shove IMO, considering each orbit cost 26k.
Early in the day, I would have been in the top 10, if my pocket aces had held up against queens. Overall though, there is no question I was lucky to go so far. But of course, I wish my luck could have held a few hours longer. Such is the life of a tournament player.
WSOP cash.
Date: Sun, Jun 15, 2008
I played my fourth event of the series yesterday, or I should say, I am still playing it! I have made it to day two of event 27 ($1500 NL) with a little over average chips, and we are in the money.
It was a great day 1, in which everything suddenly worked out, in sharp contrast to earlier events this year, when nothing worked out. I played two different tables, both of which was among the best I have ever played. On the first table, two thirds of all hands went unraised preflop, and on both tables the level of passivity was at times almost mind numbing. It was very cozy though, with an 80 year old geezer to my left who couldn't really see the board, and a middle aged woman across taking the 'friendly game' prize. They went very deep with the method of call preflop, call flop, call or check turn, call or check river and show down a set, trips or a straight for the winning hand. They combined for a total of 2 preflop raises in five hours, and on one of those the lady put in 2200 chips from the button when the blinds were 600/1200. I will never know if it was actually meant to be a call as well. On the other raise, the lady knocked out the short stacked geezer with kings against queens. She is still in it with a decent stack.
There are just 224 players left, and first prize is $628k and of course a bracelet, so that is where I am going.
I gotta run, I am playing in an hour and a half. Wish me luck.
Vegas update
Date: Fri, Jun 13, 2008
As I am sporting the mother of all hang overs, this will just be a brief report of our doings in Vegas. Pretty much every one of us is losing at the tables, so there is not much profit yet.
I played event 21 yesterday, a regular $5k NL tournament. I doubled up early with aces against eights all-in preflop, but went totally card dead after that. I also made a semi bad bluff that cost me a chunk. I finally bust with 30 BBs about 5 hours in with a flush draw and over cards against aces.
It turned out to be a good day anyway, as I saw the cirque de soleis show 'Ka', which is an awesome production. Other prime activities include a long drive in the desert. We started out by Hoover Dam, drove by Lake Mead to the Valley of Fire, and then home. Day before that we visited the gun range, where I shot Saddam Hussein in both eyes with a Desert eagle in two shots total. I also tried an AK-47, an M16 and a .45 hand gun. Much fun. Our internet is basically not functioning, so sadly I can't spoil you with updates as much as I would like.
Now, sleep.
Party Poker Bonus
$150/30% for PokerTexas Holdem Forums
Forum for texas holdem poker playersParty Poker Bonus Review