Another wednesday...

...another wasted opportunity. Sigh... I just came back from Grand Casino where I participated to Texas No Limit Holdem Freezeout 51€ tournament just like last week. This time there was 73 participants and I managed to somehow limb my way out to about 35th position without winning one single showdown. I did manage to steal blinds couple of times with half decent hands but that was it. The best hand I had was KQ and I raised to 80 from small blind (blinds 20/40) and got the big blind to fold. Not a single pair or even A10 or higher. I had A9 once but when it was my turn there was 2 guys all in and I figured that they had me beat. I was right. Not that it really matters anyway.

My last hand today... I had A4 and I was on the button. I didn't have more than 125 chips left and the blinds were already 50/100. The small blind called and the big blind pushed all 225 chips she had left to the middle. The small blind called and turned around offsuit 78 and the big blind showed A6. Damn! Anyway. The flop was x 8 6 and turn was A so I was doomed no matter what. The river was 4. Buu-huu. Player out!

Next time I'm playing live will be on the PartyPoker.com European Open III in Maidstone Studios, Kent, UK. The buy-in (provided by PartyPoker) is 5000$ and there will be 72 participants. I can't wait to get to the table. I hope I'll get better cards there though ;)

So... I guess there will be more interesting reading after the 6th of December (my qualifying heat starts at 10:30 am) so see you after that. If I get to semi-finals then I go back to Maidstone for couple of days to see if I can get the 125000$ first price. Cool!

51€ No-Limit Freezeout at the Grand Casino Helsinki

How should I start... Well. During the time I stayed in the tournament I managed to have AKs, AK, AQ, AJc, 88, 66 and some other fairly ok hands that you really would like to see the flop with. And how many pots did I end up winning? ...2 ...Yes 2. The first pot I got by just calling couple of small raises when the board was 7 7 5 5 10. I figured that the pot odds where good enough for a call but I didn't really have stack to start bullying around so I just played weakly and hoped for the best. I won. So far so good.

Oh yeah... Forgot to mention. I managed to loose almost half of my 300 chip stack on the third hand of the tournament when I was in Big Blind with KQ and when then flop was K J 3 and the turn was A. I was quite sure that the opponent had AK or AQ since he raised to 30 before the flop (blinds were 5/10) and he called my bet of 30 after the flop. He bet 30 or 40 after the turn and I called just to see if I make the straight or a trips draw. I didn't, so I had to fold when he bet 100 after the river. Damn...

Just couple of hands after that I had AK and I re-raised to 75 after player on my right had raised to 30 from UTG position. He called my raise and we went to see the flop. It had the K so bet 30 after he checked and he didn't want to see more.

After that I had about the same amount of chips as in the start of the tournament (300) so I was doing ok and wasn't really even worried. Then I got quite a few nice starting hands as I mentioned but didn't really catch anything from the board and even though I made good folds I did loose the bets and calls I had to pay to see the flops.

And what finally broke the camels back? Well... A bit stupid play this early on in the tournament but I did what I did for a reason. I had 225 of chips left and I was on the small blind with pair of 9's (the blinds were 20/40). A guy I know to be very loose and aggressive player raised to 160 early on and everybody else folded. I figured that it will be a coin toss at worse case and decided to go all-in. I was right. He had off-suit KJ but he flopped K Q x and the turn was J so I needed a 9 or 10 in the river. It didn't come :( Player OUT! Good night. Better luck next week :)

Aussie Millions Satellite

I finally have the energy to do an update about last sundays Aussie Millions Satellite at PartyPoker. What can I say... Everything I tried went wrong and finally I had to throw all-in with pair of sixes. And I guess I don't even need to say that some dude called me with something like Q7 and took away the pot. The reason why I ended up in a such a bad situation was a little preflop battle that I had with my AK against AA. Needles to say how that ended... If I hadn't won the 215$ seat to the tournament from the 3$ qualifier I'd say that it was money down the drain but now I can just take it as it is. A tournament just like any other ;) Sometimes you win some and sometimes you lose some. The trick is to win more times than to lose...

Trying to connect...

Whole week my internet connection has played tricks on me and I haven't been able to play because the connection has been up and down all the time. Today I finally had the energy to check the adsl and wlan boxes and changed them to another location. And... Now everything works fine.

Since the connection was up running smoothly I decided to enter PartyPoker's Aussie Million Qualifier. The buy-in was 3$ but it was a rebuy tourney so as usual some players where doing rebuys like crazy. I decided to lay low during the rebuy period and after it was over I made an add-on for 2.40$ and started playing. And what do you know after a while I was the chip leader. Nice. After some more time I was a MASSIVE chip leader and had more than 3 times the amount of chips than the 'next' one on the list.

Of course I started slipping after a while because I was playing too aggressive with my big stack but I managed to stay in the lead for a quite a while. After there was something like 25 players left I had dropped little bit above the average stack and wasn't really catching any cards. Anyway. To cut the long story short I managed to play myself to the Aussie Million Satellite worth 215$ so I guess I did ok ;) There was 70 participants and 2 got the ticket to the Satellite so I can be pretty happy to myself.

And what was the most rewarding? Yes... You guessed right. The most rewarding thing whole evening was to drop few of those rebuy automats from the tourney after the rebuy period was over :) Ohh, how I enjoy doing that :) ...Don't get me wrong. I do appreciate the money they donate to the pot ;)

Poker Analyst

I finally managed to add all of my game statistics to Card Player's Poker Analyst. I didn't really add everything I had but at least more or less all games that I've spend some money on. Here's where we are at right now:

"Welcome, M_ace_T. During your last cash game at PartyPoker you won $23. You are showing a net profit of $9,412 year to date and a lifetime winnings of $9,412. "

Not bad considering that I haven't added the 7500$ to the stats yet and that I haven't changed euros to dollars when adding the stats from Finnish/European sites.

The Poker Analyst is a free service worth checking out: http://www.cardplayer.com/poker_analyst

What a week...

I was on a business trip on UK this week and really didn't have a chance to play that much. I have to start prioritizing my life better ;) Anyway. I came back from London on a saturday night at 2 am and decided to play some sit&go tables before going to bed. I played 3 sit&go's and managed to get 2 second place finishes and 1 fourth place. Not that bad for a drunken business traveller :)

Of course I managed to play a couple tournaments during the weekend but didn't really get anywhere in them.

Monster Off-Line Tourney Refund

I finally got some news from PartyPoker about refunding the Monster Off-Line tournament seat. First they offered a seat to a Backgammon tournament held in Bahamas next January but I asked if they have some poker tournaments coming up since I have never played Backgammon before. Now they offered a seat to the European Open that will be held in London at the start of December. The package is worth 7500$ from which 5000$ goes to buy-in and rest is for travelling and hotel. Sweet!

I guess I need to start practising once again...

Ooh... The agony...

I guess there is something wrong with the universe this weekend. What ever I've played I've managed to loose with fairly proper hands. Just ten minutes ago some german fellow managed to trick me with pocket rockets to go all in when I flopped a pair of aces and a flush draw with my AQ of clubs... sigh... He played well and I was trapped big time. Well... It's a good thing it was only 10$ table so I didn't suffer too much. I'll get him next time then.

THE LokaPokah (2/2)

Finally... The main event! So here comes...

LokaPokah 1000 + 50€ No Limit Freezeout 21.10.2006

If I thought that there were some poker sharks in the Super Satellite then this was looking like a meeting of Jaws headliners. Ok. Now this is starting to get interesting. There are 70 players starting the tournament and everybody had 10 000 chips to start with. Blinds starts from 25/50 and they rise every 40 minutes.

First of all... Let me get one thing straight. I hate it when I get good cards right at the start of the tournament. This time I got AQ of spades and I had only one guy left on the table to act after me. All the others had folded. I decided that I just call so that if I get some nice play I will milk some chips out of him. The flop was x Q 5 and I was doing a little high five inside when the opponent raised to 100. I called and decided to wait until next round to push him a little bit. The turn card was some crappy card that really was something I was hoping for no draws to anything possible. I raised 200 after he checked and he silently called my raise. The turn card was 5 and I had a feeling I was trouble. He raised to 300 and I was about to re-raise but decided just to call since I had a bad feeling. Thank God I didn't start to attack since after I just called the 300 he turned over Q5. Huh. Lost less than one thousand so no real harm done.

I was sitting in a table with quite a few young players and as usual all of them seemed to play quite aggressively. I didn't really get any good cards and if I tried to limb in to see the flop it was almost sure that someone raised over the top after that. One drunken guy particularly seemed to mess up the whole tables game by raising almost every hand picking up some blinds and few lucky showdowns. I lost a couple of thousand after some unlucky flops but nothing out of the ordinary. After first break (2 hours) I managed to get on decend hand (KK) and decided to bet a bit. I think I raised to 1000 (blinds were 100/200) and two guys called. The flop had some crap together with K so I decided to slow a little bit. Another one of the guys in the pot raised 2500 and I stalled for a while and called reluctantly. The other guy folded. Turn was another crappy card but the problem was that it enabled a flush and a straight draw. At that point I felt I had to act and pushed all-in (maybe about 3,5k - 4k) and after a long thought he folded. A good fold. I know the player since he seems to live in the Casino and I know that he had a good hand because he wouldn't have raised that much with crap.

After 3 hours of playing I seemed to be more or less at the starting point (about 10k of chips) and so far I really had not been able to play that many hands because I was getting hand full of crap all the time and I was not able to play mediocre hands because our tables own drunk made it too expensive all the time. Luckily since there was only 50 players left in the tournament our table was broken and I moved to another table.

Changing the table really didn't help since it seemed that I was not getting anything better and I was starting to wait for the lunch break already. It seemed that the blinds (500/1000) were starting to do their job since players started to drop out like flies. Soon there was less than 40 players and I finally got something worth playing. I had AK and raised to 3000 from UTG (Under The Gun). All others faded away but the short stacked BB went all in with about 3000 or so. Anyway. He had 10 9 offsuit and the flop was something like J x K and the turn was 7. There was a gut shot straight draw for him which he didn't even notice. He got up and was ready to leave the table and started to shake my hand when I said that 'please sit down - you won'. Needles to say that the river was 8 (of course) and he shook my hand and said 'sorry' and sat down. Well... That's poker. I've been on the other end of the stick more than once.

Now I was in deep sh**. I had only 3600 left and I had to pay BB (1000) . I decided that if I get anything half decend I'll go all-in. I didn't check my cards and all others but the small blind folded. I checked first card... 4 ...crap... another... J. I just checked. The flop was 9 5 2 and we both checked. Turn was A and I though that if the river is 4 or J I'll go all-in. The river was 4 and my opponent raised to 1000. I pushed all my chips to the center without thinking that there was a straight draw with 3 and guess what he had? Yes... You guessed right he had offsuit 7 3. I was out! Damn! If that is not a Tilt then I'd like to know what is. Stupid way to end the day.

At least I got a little bit of joy to see that the drunk who was messing our game at the start of the tournament was just all-in and went out at same time with me :) And the "Omaha Kid" Ilari Sahamies dropped out just a little bit earlier. Sweet!

Anyway. I dropped out at about 35th position or so just before the lunch break... At least now I had plenty of time to go to lunch :) And even though I didn't get to go further it was still a kick ass experience and I know I will kick their ass sometime in the future.

THE LokaPokah (1/2)

Finally I have some time to write about the LokaPokah Super Satellite and of course, the main event itself.

LokaPokah Super Satellite 18.10.2006

I have to say that from the start I feld a little bit out-of-place since it seemed to me that all of the other players knew each other and the dealers. But the atmosphere was nice and relax so what can I say... It was cool. Anyway let's get to the actual game itself. The tournament was a rebuy tournament and there was 50 participants. Everybody started with a stack of 300 chips and the blinds started from 5/10 and were rising every half hour. After a couple of hands I once again got the feeling that maybe I'm in over my head in this game since couple of these older poker sharks managed to play their chips out and were forced to do a rebuy. That itself was good news that they were obviuosly playing quite loose but at the same time I saw how much money they were actually carrying with them. They seemed to have pocket full of 100€ and 200€ bills and all I had with me was 100€ in my wallet. I had decided earlier that at maximum I will do one rebuy (á 50€ -> 300 chips) if needed and then an add-on (á 50€ -> 600 chips) after the rebuy period.

Back to the game... After a few hands I was dealt pocket rockets (AA) and was starting to figure out that how should I play them when a fellow on my right raised to 40 (blinds were still 5/10) and couple of guys had called before him. I decided just to double the bet to 80 expecting everyone else to fold and hoping he would go all-in. Well... That was exactly what happened and we were of to showdown. He had KK so I was in quite nice position. I grapped my wallet to my hand just in case and listened to my heart beat. After the board was dealt I was the one stacking up chips and he was making a rebuy. WHoaa! Nice start!

After a while when I was on BB (blinds 10/20) I had K8 on my hand and I was lucky enough that 4 guys only called. After the flop hit quite nicely (understatement of the year) 8 K 8 I had a hard time not to laugh. Anyway. One guy raised something like 80 which I just called and the others folded. The next card was K making my hand even stronger. I just checked and he raised again but this time just a little bit more. I didn't have that much chips left anymore but I just called again. The river was J and figured out that if he has the KJ then I deserve to make the rebuy for not hitting him harder earlier and went all-in. Unfortunately he folded so I didn't get the maximum out of him but still... I was more than happy.

After the rebuy period ended I bought addon and had quite a nice stack of about 2000 or so. Then I didn't really get any decent cards for a long time and almost managed to drop out after AK didn't hit the flop. I made a good fold on my opinion even though I was bearly hanging on in the game. After a while I had just 450 left and the blinds were already 100/200. I got dealt with 22 and went all-in hoping that no-one calls but unfortunately one tight player called with 77. I was already packing my things but I managed to get a flush from the river so I survived... Wow. That really got my blood rushing for a while.

The very next hand I go A10s and pushed all-in again and doubled up again with pair of aces. Yes! I was back in the game!

After a while I almost got nailed when I went all-in with a pair of 7's against A10. He flopped a 10 and had to get lucky on the turn or the river and this time the turn card was my friend (7). A bit lucky I admit :)

After I made to the 9 seated final table the game slowed up quite a bit. There was 6 tickets available to the main event and 800€ left to 7th. I manage to steal blinds (500/1000) a couple of times with AA and AK (I would've like to play them though) and I decided to show the cards so that they'd know that I wasn't bullshitting them.

Soon. One guy who had played very solid and good game f..ked up by playing something he shouldn't have. Don't really remember what but anyway. He made mistake and was out! He must've been pissed.

Next one out of the game was a quite tight player called 'Antti' who did an unfortunate move of going all-in with 77 against massive chip leader who called the 2600 raise with 89 offsuite. Needles to say that he got a straight and 'Antti' was out.

After that the chip leader announced that he would like to take the 800€ rather than the ticket to the LokaPokah main event (worth 1050€) and no one didn't have anything against that (obviously) so the satellite was over and I got a ticket to the main event on next saturday.

Next up the main event!