The Frog and the Willow

Heya Harrier,

Good luck on 888, I am often in the goldfish and a few others so I might see you there sometime. The sunday mega micro can also be alright to play, the field seems to be a fairly fishy limp happy place in early stages. I usually just do a few games in the evenings on 888 so maybe I will see you about.♠_thumbsup:

Good Luck on the tables

Thanks for the support, Jakkosh. I ended up only playing a few of these tourneys, though, before I realized that I just don't seem to enjoy the game of Texas Hold'em for its own sake anymore, if that makes sense. It does still have its appeal to me, but I'm probably more interested in the part about wagering and potentially winning money by now, while the game itself has almost become a chore to play. This was possibly also the reason why I was more into staking other people recently rather than playing myself.

This blog surely has been quiet in the last few weeks, but that is because, as I pointed out above, there was just nothing poker related to talk about. However, I may now be in the process of finally making a return. Last Sunday, I had the honor to yet again participate in Pokerstrategy's very own Freelancer Freeroll and luckily managed to pick up 30 bucks in it to save my Pokerstars bankroll - I was virtually broke at that point. So I was taking a look around the lobby for some 'mixed games' (i.e. not Hold'em) that I may want to play, and decided that it's probably best if I return to the good old Five Card Draw cash games I used to play last year.

And so far, I'm quite happy with the results (made about $10 playing FL $0.10/0.20 in the last few days), and more importantly, I'm actually having fun with the game again. This will very likely be my game of choice for the time being.

I'm also messing around with some PLO8 tournaments, but I'm not sure yet if I'll be there to stay. My last two tourneys ended with me finishing just a few places short of the money, after putting my stack in as a favorite, which are actually satisfactory results for me at the moment. I'm not sure about my play in the earlier phases, though. So far, I made it through it all right, but I had to rely on quite a bit of luck each time to get there.

We'll see how this goes. For now, I'm just happy to be back at the tables.

Best of luck to you all!

Can you believe it? I can't...

Feral Cow Poker Hand Converter
PokerStars Limit 5 Card Draw $0.10/$0.20 - 5 players

Button: $4.21
SB: $3.90
BB: $3.49
UTG: $2.46
CO: $3.70 (Hero)

Dealing Hands: ($0.15) (5 players)
UTG raises to $0.20, Hero raises to $0.30, Button folds, SB raises to $0.40, BB folds, UTG calls $0.20, Hero calls $0.10

First Draw: ($1.30) (3 players)
SB stands, UTG discards 1, Hero discards 1,
||
SB bets $0.20, UTG calls $0.20, Hero raises to $0.40, SB raises to $0.60, UTG folds, Hero calls $0.20

SB showed , a straight flush, Deuce to Six
Hero showed , a full house, Kings full of Fives
SB won $2.60
(Rake: $0.10)

The Five Card Draw cash games continue to go quite well at the moment. There are the usual swings, of course, but the general direction is still up.

I'm not so sure about the 5CD SNGs I've been playing on the side. Right now, the results just aren't there, but as we all know, results aren't everything. Maybe I should at least get a bigger bankroll to play them, though.

I was about to give up on the PLO8 MTTs that I have been occasionally trying, but tonight's tournament actually went quite well overall, with a final table bubble for $7.75 (finished 7th out of 337). Again, one good result doesn't mean anything, but the extra money should at least allow me to keep going for a while.

What a pot!

This converter is going to be a cash cow...
PokerStars Limit 5 Card Draw $0.10/$0.20 - 5 players

UTG: $1.90
CO: $6.59
Button: $2.12
SB: $4.88 (Hero)
BB: $1.21

Dealing Hands: ($0.15) (5 players)
UTG raises to $0.20, CO folds, Button calls $0.20, Hero raises to $0.30, BB folds, UTG calls $0.10, Button calls $0.10

First Draw: ($1.00) (3 players)
Hero discards 1, UTG discards 3, Button discards 3,
||
Hero bets $0.20, UTG raises to $0.40, Button raises to $0.60, Hero raises to $0.80, UTG calls $0.40, Button calls $0.20

UTG mucked
Button mucked
Hero showed , a full house, Kings full of Queens
Hero won $3.30
(Rake: $0.10)

(UTG and BTN had JJJ and AAA, respectively.)

I'm quite happy with the way the 5CD cash games have been going so far. I made around $30-35 this months and managed to achieve ChromeStar by playing almost nothing else. (When did Pokerstars introduce those table popups when you achieve a higher status? A bit of a jump scare if you don't expect it...)

After having to start with only around $2.70 at the beginning of the month, my bankroll is now at a healthy $70 again. It's good to be back. Just in time as well, because there some big plans for the coming weekends. Hope to see some of you guys around!

A bit quiet around here, isn't it?

Well, I had some stuff to do in the past couple of weeks, and it seems that I kind of "lost the flow" when it comes to poker. I didn't really feel like playing that much at all, and when I did, the games didn't go all that well, which certainly didn't help.

Don't worry, guys, nothing is lost yet. I will be back... eventually...

In the meantime, here's a quick recap on how the non-poker stuff is going at the moment:

It has been a few weeks since my last decent cash in a Mahjong tournament, but mild successes in freerolls and cash games keep me in break-even territory. There is another tournament scheduled for tomorrow, maybe I can manage to turn things around this time.

I kept practicing Backgammon, and I'm almost at the point where I feel comfortable playing against other people, even though I'm not sure if I'd be willing to invest any real money yet. I still make mistakes, including some costly ones, but I believe that I can handle most of the more 'standard' situations reasonably well by now. I'm also not very good at handling the doubling cube yet, mostly because I neglect to double in situations where it would have been the right move.

Also, remember those Japanese Hanafuda cards that served as the inspiration for this blog's name? I've been trying to find a place to play these kinds of games online for years, without any success. Then, just the other day, I found a version of Koi-Koi (the most common two player game) for sale on Steam, which includes a multiplayer mode! Obviously it's not played for money, and I doubt that I will find a real-money version of it any time soon, but I'm still very glad that I'm now finally able to play this game with other people in some form.

Now about the non-gambling stuff. I have been making some attempts to return to the world of Rugby lately, trying to help out a struggling local club whenever my schedule allowed it (it is amazing how you can be unemployed and still have tons of stuff to do all the time...). I gladly noticed that my skills didn't go rusty over the years, but I was shocked to realize how terrible my overall stamina has become. For example, in the exhibition match where I helped out, I barely lasted 15 minutes before I had to request a substitution because I was just about ready to puke (the noxious breath of my props in the scrum didn't help matters). I managed to return for another 30 mins in the second half, but still, this is quite shocking.

So I believe it is definitely time to get a bit more serious with my workout routine. I know that there are plenty of other players around here who have some fitness-related goals as well, so maybe this will be something to talk about while I dust the cobwebs off the virtual poker felt.

Take care, everyone!

You guys feel like taking a challenge?

Well, obviously there are The PokerStrategy.com Summer Challenges with vonki, but as you know, poker is on the back burner for me right now, so I actually meant something else.

What I'm talking about is a basic little training program called the One Hundred Pushups challenge. It contains some guidelines for people of just about any fitness level to gradually increase their daily workout until they can manage 100 pushups in one go. Sounds simple enough, right?

I once tried this one out a couple of years ago when it was recommended by one of my rugby coaches to keep us fit during the winter break, but I only managed to follow it a couple of weeks until my busy schedule (university and stuff...) caught up with me. Maybe I can stay at it this time and follow it all the way through.
There are plenty of other training programs out there (feel free to share if you know a good one!), but this one seems just about right for my current "not completely hopeless but not that great either" fitness level.

Seriously though, don't forget about The Summer Challenges! Even if you don't feel like grinding yourself, you guys are still more than welcome to join our next Twitch stream featuring our micro stakes coach vonki this Friday at 20:00 CET for a nice little chat and some useful poker advice.

Just shipped a $2.20 Badugi MTT!

1st prize was $29.67, plus about $21 in bounties.

Originally posted by Harrier88
Just shipped a $2.20 Badugi MTT!

1st prize was $29.67, plus about $21 in bounties.

Actually, I forgot to account for my own bounty as well, so add another $21 or so to the payouts.

In the end, my bankroll was more than doubled up through this tournament. Now I finally have something to work with.

Good luck with your blog i will follow and enjoy reading it.

Originally posted by Harrier88
Just shipped a $2.20 Badugi MTT!

1st prize was $29.67, plus about $21 in bounties.

Congrats Sir nice to see you back in it :f_wink::f_drink:

Originally posted by rompas

Originally posted by Harrier88
Just shipped a $2.20 Badugi MTT!

1st prize was $29.67, plus about $21 in bounties.

Congrats Sir nice to see you back in it :f_wink::f_drink:

+1 Hopefully you will win another MTT soon

Thanks for the support, everyone!

Yeah, I'll stick around in these tournaments, my bankroll can certainly take a few bricked tourneys after that win. Also, I believe I actually had some good results in those Badugi MTTs in the past, now that I think about it. These games can be tilting, but maybe I can make a decent profit in the long run.

It seems like an all right schedule to me - a Mahjong session in the afternoon and a Badugi tournament at night. This should give me plenty of time for other, more important stuff, while still allowing me to make some progress - well, hopefully...

Apart from that, I'll go with the usual 5CD cash games whenever I feel like playing a quick game. I will also continue to give the odd 6-max SNGs a try, usually sticking to 5CD and 8-game, maybe with the occasional Hold'em SNG thrown in.

So I decided to give a $2.20 8-game MTT a try tonight.

Luck was on my side in some crucial spots, so I eventually managed to move on to the semi final table, and ended up playing Razz on the final table bubble with two other (big stacked) players on my table. There was a shorter stack on the other table, so I was playing tight, waiting for some nice low cards before I made any moves.

Things didn't quite work out, so I eventually dropped down to last place with hardly any chips left. My hand was 4♥:8♣:5♦:, while villain was showing a 2♦:. I decided that I couldn't wait any longer and put my chips in.

Turns out that villain had A♣:3♣:2♦: all along. Ouch! There was still hope, though, I just needed some really lucky draws.

4th Street
Hero: 4♥:8♣:5♦:T♠:
Villain: A♣:3♣:2♦:5♠:

Terrible cards. Looks like this is the end of the tournament for me.

5th Street
Hero: 4♥:8♣:5♦:T♠:8♦:
Villain: A♣:3♣:2♦:5♠:7♥:

Yeah, that's game over all right.

6th Street
Hero: 4♥:8♣:5♦:T♠:8♦:T♥:
Villain: A♣:3♣:2♦:5♠:7♥:3♠:

To add insult to injury, I end up pairing my hand at this point.

7th Street
Hero: 4♥:8♣:5♦:T♠:8♦:T♥:5♣:
Villain: A♣:3♣:2♦:5♠:7♥:3♠:Q♦:

And another one. As if things weren't settled yet.

I already moved my mouse over the little 'x' to close the window, then I thought that I should at least take another look at the lobby to see how much money I have won.

Picked up a mincash and two $0.50 bounties at Badugi today.

On the whole, these tournaments are going decently right now, I tend to land in good spots in most games I played. Unfortunately, there are always a couple of hands that turn the entire game around, which is sometimes of course just bad luck, but I often wonder if I could have done anything to prevent it.

Here's one from tonight's tournament:

That small bet by such a big stack after 2nd draw made me a bit leery... I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, so part of me just wanted to fold it before I end up in a nasty situation, but then again, I thought that I had the potential to hit a quite good hand, so I ended up calling.

Turns out that I did hit a good one on the last draw, and even though it would have been a nice and safe move to just call in order to avoid playing into a monster hand, I thought that I could be reasonably sure to be ahead. That re-raise didn't make me feel good, but my opponent might very well do this with a worse hand, so I went for the call again.

The fact that the second kicker had to decide who is the winner shows how close this spot was at this point, but I can't help but think that I made a mistake there. Maybe bet/call would have been a better line...

Any comments on this hand?

Got another 2nd place at Badugi yesterday, total prize money including bounties should have been around $30.

I'm quite pleased with the way these games are going. My game is far from perfect, but I seem to have a decent edge. Still can't really tell if my biggest leak is being too aggressive or being too passive, though...

I will probably cut the 8-game MTTs from my schedule, unless I can't resist the temptation of a super late registration at one point.

Bankroll is now slightly above $170, let's see how far I can go playing almost nothing but Badugi.

One problem of only playing one tournament on most days is that the temptation to play a quick side game can be tough to resist. This is especially the case during tournament series like the MicroMillions.

This demonstrates a clear lack of discipline on my part and it is hurting my bankroll. From now on, I will try to make sure that I won't even open the Pokerstars client until around 21:30, when my daily Badugi tournament begins. No more SNGs, no more 5CD cash (if I do make exceptions there, I'll make sure that it will only be $0.10/0.20, the lowest stakes available). And certainly no more of those quick MTTs that have a few minutes of late reg left when I spot them.

There will be no other MicroMillions events either, except, obviously, for the Badugi event next Friday, and also the 5CD on Saturday.

Congrats on your 2nd place finnish

Thanks, FrozenElf!

Poker real money come now