Thursday, July 28, 2005

Not bad, not good

Went to a live tournament (NL Texas Holdem) arranged by the same crowd that has done so before.

Eighteen players, three tables. Unlimited rebuys the first hour followed by a possible addon.

I did really well after I had made a rebuy. Had 45 spades in the big blind and the flop comes 236 and I get an all-in against me. Bingo! A while later I get AA with blinds 100/200, raise it to 500 and another goes allin and I quickly call. He has 99 and my aces hold up. We started with 1000 in chips and I now have 8-9000.

When the rebuy period ended I therefore wouldn't gain much with an addon. Some players made up to eight (!) rebuys. Quite a substantial prize pot, five places (out of eighteen) paid.

The play changed drastically, the boisterous shouts "rebuy!" and "all in!" disappeared. Knocked one guy out with 55 in the big blind, calling his shortstacked allin and flopping trips.

I make it to the final table which will have eight players. Now I'm a shortstacked player with 5200 in chips. They're consumed by blinds and calling unraised that aren't helped by the flop. With 8T in the big blind and the flop 567 this could be it... The turn is an eight (now I have pair of eights) other player goes all in and I call with what little I have left. Nope, he has a nine (a 5-9 straight made for him) so my only hope is a nine on the river giving me a better straight. As one other player commented: "Well, you're not drawing dead". It doesn't come and I'm out at eighth place.

Analysis: I don't think I could've done anything differently during the whole tournament. It was just that little bit of edge and/or luck that wasn't there for me.

Oh well, there'll be more tournaments.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Cursing cursed curses

I must be cursed.

Yesterday was the seventeenth installment of our biweekly little homegame tournament of NL Texas Holdem. I've been at every one of them (since I'm the one who has a chip case and tabletop). I've never won and often finish second.

This time was no exception. Played loose in the beginning when blinds are 25/50 and 50/100 and we start with 3000. Was never below 2000 and steadily built my stack. Later I slowplayed a flopped three of a kind, queens, and managed to knock one player out (but she made a rebuy).

Hoopla, I'm massive chip leader. With some variance, I have 10-15000 out of the approximately 23000 in circulation and lose quite a lot of it when I get pocket rockets, AA, and opponent Mr J follows me all the way to the river where he nails a diamond flush, the board was mostly rags. I shoulda coulda woulda gone all-in after the turn... Later he gets a seven-card straight! I flopped a pair of jacks, final board is K-high straight but he has A8.

Out of five players I yet again came in second and I'll never hear the end of it.

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Super nice

Ah, the biweekly homegame, NL Texas Holdem. The couple at whose home we play have moved, from part of a house to renting a house of their own with a view of a lake and a huuuge garden with many diverse fruits and berries.

Also a humongous sundeck or whatchamacallit, going round the whole front of the house, probably as large in area as their whole previous domicile. That's where we sat and played, the five of us. Super nice, in the sun, with beer.

Nothing special happened in the poker playing, I managed to hit some sets with low pairs and finished second (as usual). Hopefully we'll be a full (8 seats) table the next time, what with people's availability and inviting grillfiends girlfriends. More beer!

I'm on vacation and have vowed to drink at least a liter of beer (about a quart for you Imperial types) daily, preferably lager.

Oh, played some poker when I was down south to visit the family. Five card draw with my mother when we babysat my niece. It was close, I just barely won.