Published October 12, 2011Wow, that was a thrilling last event in the Super League, making it to the final table for a second time and with that result jumping over the number two on the leaderboard. This all contributed to a $640 award, my biggest cash-out as an amateur poker player so far.
About the double chance event on Sunday: that wasn’t a success. There was barely room for some advanced plays and it turned into a turbo because the game was slowed down a lot in this full ring game. No pleasant experience at all and an early knock-out, not even reaching top 200. But I was already looking forward to the final event, the second real deep stack tournament of the league. This was a great tournament, because it was also a six-seater.
Everything went perfect for me this night, just like during the PLO event. My first goal was to defend my third place on the leaderboard by running as deep as possible. This wasn’t very easy, because three players who were just behind me also made a deep run. But they were eliminated one by one in the ultimate final phase and suddenly I noticed the number two of the leaderboard also being knocked out. I had to finish 8th or better to catch up with him, so when I was 11/11 I switched gears and gambled for more chips, resulting in a 6th place in the end, another final table. First place was never within reach, as the leader played another outstanding tournament, finishing in 5th place. No doubt he deserved the win.
I selected two hands from this tournament, first of course my knock-out hand, my last hand of the league:
Ante=1200
Seat 1: liosi – 176,921
Seat 2: lordflasheart13 – 53,081
Seat 3: LaudVetinari – 314,944 (BUTTON)
Seat 4: douglas1066 – 354,486 (SMALL BLIND, 6000)
Seat 5: albosan – 155,338 (BIG BLIND, 12000)
Seat 6: KiwiBugs – 295,230
Dealing 
to lordflasheart13
KiwiBugs folds – liosi folds
lordflasheart13 raises to 51,881 (all-in)
LaudVetinari folds
douglas1066 calls 51,881
albosan folds
Pot sizes: 122,962
douglas1066 shows 
Dealing Flop 
Dealing Turn 
Dealing River 
lordflasheart13 has High Card: Ace
douglas1066 has One Pair: 6s
douglas1066 wins 122,962 with: One Pair: 6s
Obviously, this hand plays itself in this case. Note however that ‘albosan’ (topping the leaderboard), also sitting on the final table like I told you, was also at my table during the first couple of hours of the tournament. I really saw some awesome plays from this guy, being very focused while playing for the big win. I think this is perfectly showed in the other hand I saved, when I collided with albosan for the first time. This was after SEVEN minutes of play and the hand really gave me the creeps, although I had Aces:
Seat 1: 3DJohnny – 4,990
Seat 2: mucker007 – 4,940 (BUTTON)
Seat 3: ProfULLRICH – 5,070 (SMALL BLIND 10)
Seat 4: lordflasheart13 – 4,970 (BIG BLIND 20)
Seat 5: mjhellraizer – 5,000
Seat 6: albosan – 5,030
Dealing 
to lordflasheart13
mjhellraizer folds
albosan raises to 100
3DJohnny folds – mucker007 folds – ProfULLRICH folds
lordflasheart13 raises to 385
albosan raises to 740
lordflasheart13 calls 740
Pot sizes: 1,490
Dealing Flop 
lordflasheart13 checks
albosan bets 745
lordflasheart13 calls 745
Pot sizes: 2,980
Dealing Turn 
lordflasheart13 checks
albosan bets 1,490
lordflasheart13 raises to 3,485 (all-in)
albosan folds
lordflasheart13 wins 5,960
He reraises me preflop and I decide to ‘slowplay’ my Aces, if he has Kings, I want him to think I have QQ, JJ or TT. But the King flops and that scares the hell out of me: playing a deepstack, only 7 minutes in the tourney and Kings is one of the hands I definitely put him on. Of course it’s possible he wanted to make a statement with any kind of hand OR he had QQ or JJ himself, but I decide to just call and see if he slows down on the turn. Turn is an ACE and now I want him to have Kings. He commits 60% of his stack and I go all-in. He takes all his time and just because he’s such a great player I really think he could have folded KK here (he played directly against me for the overall win). Anyway, albosan has 2k left after the hand but he immedately recovered and by making some superb calls he was among the chipleaders again some hours later. Congratulations to albosan and the rest of the top ten (see below), till next year for a new Super League!
Published October 8, 2011Well, after my WIN last Thursday it doesn’t make sense anymore to hide my real player’s name. With still two events to go lorflasheart13 suddenly is in THIRD place on the leaderboard now after winning the PLO event. But I’m going for the absolute win, especially with a deepstack tournament still scheduled for Tuesday.
So first things first: event 7 (Deep and Steep) was a big disappointment. I misunderstood the concept, as I thought this was going to be a super deepstack one. But the word ‘steep’ was pointing to the ‘turbo’ blind levels^^. Some kind of strange formula, I don’t think I’m gonna be a big fan of it. In the end I went out by shoving with 68 (after mostly being blinded away) and ran into Aces. But then: Thursday.
I missed the first PLO event because of a concert and I almost missed the second one also. Five minutes before the tournament started I realized had to play, I went for my laptop and 8 seconds before the tourney started I at last succeeded to register. Four hours later, I won the thing. Of course, I was lucky, as every tournament winner is. Although I was NEVER behind on a showdown during the WHOLE tournament; I just needed the luck to not be unlucky, the luck for my premium hands to hold up.
I certainly couldn’t complain about the hands I was dealt: most of the times it was rags I could easily fold and the other ones were premiums I doubled up with each time. As you can see at my chip evolution, I was short stacked till the end, even during my first 30 minutes on the final table, where I constantly was in last place till there were only 6 players left:
The only reason I was at the final table (besides patience, obv) was because I got AAxx three times on very decisive moments. Here’s the first time:
Seat 1: kevsherri – 750
Seat 2: Galwaysontilt22 – 2,735 (BUTTON)
Seat 4: ChrisWrok – 48,793 (SMALL BLIND 800)
Seat 5: Purplerose82 – 3,160 (BIG BLIND 1600)
Seat 7: miragedrum – 12,672
Seat 8: lordflasheart13 – 5,082
Seat 9: TangentTed – 8,580
Seat 10: sonofgimli – 34,974
Dealing 
to lordflasheart13
miragedrum folds
lordflasheart13 raises to 4,800
TangentTed folds – sonofgimli folds
kevsherri calls 750 (all-in)
Galwaysontilt22 folds
ChrisWrok raises to 8,000
Purplerose82 folds
lordflasheart13 calls 5,082 (all-in)
Returning 2,918 to ChrisWrok uncalled
Pot sizes: 3,000
Pot sizes: 9,514
kevsherri shows 
ChrisWrok shows 
Dealing Flop 
Dealing Turn
Dealing River 
ChrisWrok has One Pair: Kings
lordflasheart13 has Three of a Kind: Aces
lordflasheart13 wins 9,514 from side pot #1 with: Three of a Kind: Aces
lordflasheart13 wins 3,000 with: Three of a Kind: Aces
According to my personal PLO advisor Adam Breit, this is the perfect PLO hand so I was never scared of being sucked out here. The second time I got AAxx was when I had 1,5 BB left and I was on the BB with 11(!) players left. I doubled and went to the final table, where I was about to be elmininated in 7th place when I got AAxx on the big blind 
. From then on I began to eliminate players myself till only Hellboy101 was left, the one I predicted to be the last man standing and one of the two players ahead of me on the current leaderboard. Here’s our final hand:
Seat 2: Hellboy101 – 291,640 (BIG BLIND, 20,000)
Seat 8: lordflasheart13 – 509,360 (BUTTON, SMALL BLIND 10,000)
Dealing 
to lordflasheart13
lordflasheart13 raises to 60,000
Hellboy101 calls 60,000
Pot sizes: 120,000
Dealing Flop 
Hellboy101 checks
lordflasheart13 bets 120,000
Hellboy101 raises to 231,640 (all-in)
lordflasheart13 calls 231,640
Pot sizes: 583,280
Hellboy101 shows 
Dealing Turn 
Dealing River 
Hellboy101 has Two Pairs: Jacks, 4s
lordflasheart13 has Flush, Queen high
lordflasheart13 wins 583,280 with: Flush, Queen high
Of course the excitement was great after this grand win, especially because of PKR’s graphics 
See what I can do on Sunday: Double Chance!
Published October 25, 2010After my glorious fourth place last time I was able to cash again in my seventeenth tournament, a $2 buy-in tournament. Not such a big cash out as last time, but reaching the final table and finishing in ninth place assured me of $5,4.
In the beginning of the tournament I tried to play as many hands as possible, as I always try. I reraised an early minraise with AT and flopped Aces up, which was a good start. Then came my first crucial hand with AQ:
I bet my flopped toppair topkicker till the river after which my opponent folds. Notice that I bet again on fifth street after the King rivers: it’s not likely my opponent holds a K (only when he has KQ, in that case I would have just been unlucky), more likely a medium pocket pair.
After I was able to build up some kinda decent stack, I decided to take some risks, trying to win this tournament instead of finishing in the money. This had a positive effect: my stack growed some more but I stayed around the bubble all the time. Then came my deciding double-up:
Now I don’t like to call an all-in with AJ in general, but this guy was going all-in all the time so I decided to go for it. Of course this time he holds AK… but me making a flush was some kind of justice after all. This meant I could reach the money and the final table. I was the (very) shortstack on this table, so there was no doubt about what to do with the AQ again:
The river obviously killed me there, who knows what would have happened otherwise. That’s poker. Next time I’ll play my last tournament of this challenge, an $8 tourney, very deepstack. After that, I can analyze whether this challenge was profitable or not. Till next time!
Published August 26, 2010The warming-up was already good last time during the $2 tourney, but the real match round, the $5 tournament was a big succes: I finished in fourth place, cashing $42.75. With this cash out, I can at least run break even in my series of sixteen tournaments on Poker Stars. My excellent result was mainly due to my super tight aggressive play.
I was happy to double up already very early in the tournament, after just a few hands:
I think I play this hand by the book. I flop top two and it’s immediately clear to me that my opponent also has a good hand, top pair, two pair or the nut flush draw and I extract the maximum value. Then I was carddead for a while and I observed a lot of retarded moves at the table (call an all-in preflop with Q8 off, pay somebody till the river with toppair on a board full of draws,…). Then it was my moment to receive my portion of donkament chips:
This guy doesn’t give me credit for a hand, during a period I hardly played a hand. I don’t get it anyway why people can call an all-in with KQ: what can you beat, really? Then I was carddead for a very long period and I was able to steal a few pots because of my tight image. However I was a few places below the bubble all the time. But then I received another donkament and was able to reach the money and even the final table. I didn’t receive a lot of quality hands, but there was a lot of action on the table, with people quickly disappearing. With six people left I won an important pot, knocking out an opponent:
I was a little scared when he picked up a flush draw on the turn, but everything turned out as it should be. Another one went home and then (when i was third in chips) I reraised someone all-in with KdQd but the other guy happened to have Aces which I couldn’t beat. Anyway, this cash out gave me confidence again.
Published July 10, 2009Well, the most important thing is that I finally reached the money again, in a $2+.2 tournament. I even sat down on the final table. For like five seconds. However, I made the magnificent $5,4 in ninth place.
I started the tournament with a long period of being carddead. Luckily, this isn’t lethal (at all) in the beginning of a (deepstack) tournament. I took a small pot with AJ, but THEN began my good run. First, I was sponsored by a delicious donkament:
Now as I wrote earlier , getting minraised on the flop is always suspicious and could be a sign of somebody having flopped a set. But this time I just felt my opponent didn’t and it wasn’t likely he would have flopped two pair on this board so I just shoved. One minute later:
Now I think I play this hand perfectly by the book. My small raise gets reraised with a small amount and most of the times this is a move made by AK: just create an heads-up situation (in position). That’s why I shove immediately with my kings: he will probably call here but he won’t if he doesn’t catch anything on the flop. So I deserve that great pot .
In the period towards the bubble I took some important pots with QQ (raised it preflop, represented a big hand on a AKx flop) and I finally reached the money again. We were down to ten players when I got the QQ again:
Of course I get called by a reasonably good ace in this phase. But while our showdown was proceeding, the table filled up with four other players: I had just reached the final table…
Published May 14, 2009I played my first $2+,2 multi-table sng with 90 players and I was able to finish in sixth place, which was rewarded with $9,45, so I’m happy with this start . I’m especially happy with the way the tournament was played: there is more room for plays than in regular sng’s.
What helped me a lot was an early double-up during the first blind level: as a result I was really deepstack now and was able to play some quality poker. This is how I doubled:
It’s always nice to receive such presents in a tournament . After that hand I took a small pot with AJ suited on the flop (raised it preflop, flopped nut flushdraw) and got a little frustrated because I would have flopped a set like four or five times with my folded rags… My stack expanded another time when I noticed a familiar online phenomenon: the player on the big blind was on sit-out and somebody was trying to steal his (precious) blind for like the third time. I reraised him with 78 offsuit and was not happy with his call but the board brought me a full house^^.
In the period towards the bubble I was carddead for a long time but I was able to reach the money and the final table. I was shortstack but survived a couple of other players before I moved with 74:
So by winning that pot I stayed a little bit longer but I was eliminated a few minutes later when I moved with A6 and was called by AK. However, I’m happy with my cash-out!
Poll
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