Poker :: Blogs going down

FU to national gambling authorities who banned Tamsusis blog. Its so silly since that blog was so "virgin" in comparison to other sites / blogs, yet it kinda was becoming small gathering place for LTU poker players. Now I wont have anything to read about while at work (we have pretty bad software which blocks the better side of internet - so no gaming / gambling / webmail /webcommunities / webstorage sites are accessible).
On poker side I got into pretty bad downswing, and got dangerously close to the mark where playing NL600 6 tables was not safe anymore. So I took my last two sessions easy, tight agressive, with no spewy moves or bluffs, and built my bankroll back to the mark "CASHOUTZONE" :) Haven't generated graph for October, but it should be pretty scary... Stopped playing PCA steps - mixing those with cash tables isn't good for the results. Its much better to build some roll on cash, and then take pure SnG session. Thats what I'm planning to do in November. So far I invested just $330 and ~4 hours with no results (the closest I got was only playing step 4, where I disconnected with 6 players left and 1.5k stack, and never got back :)
$8 live rebuy tonight to relax a little.
And USD currency trends suck - my poker bankroll is getting eaten by that horrible yankie economy performance:)

Poker :: OlympicFestival ME Step by step

It was 30 players - 3 tables 10 each. Much fewer that was expected. 10,000 starting chips.
First 5 levels duration 45min, from 6th level on duration only 30min.
1st level - 25/50
* opened pot by raising AQo from MP to 150, got 4 callers, flop brought nothing, so checkfolded.
* limped 44 utg, 5 players in the pot, no set on the flop, checkfolded.
* called raise from the button with AQo, lots of action on completely missed flop, folded.
* saw flop for free with 9To from BB, nothing materialized, folded.
* raised limper on my right with AsKh, two to the flop, flop QhJh6h, limper bet 500, called, checked down to the river, lost to JcTc.
In total played 5 pots, won none, down to 8,500 chips.
2nd level - 50/100
* raised the same limper on my right with AcKc. Flop K89 rainbow. Limper led for 500, called. Turn T. Limper check, I raised 1k, limper called. River 7. Checked down, limper showed ATo.
* checked couple of flops from SB/BB with offsuit connectors, nothing materialized.
Played very few hands, 9975 chips at the end of the level.
28 players left (5 paid places)
3rd level - 75/100
* limped 55 utg+1 after utg limper, 4 players to the flop A73, turn 3, river 2, checked down, utg limper showed 88.
* completed from SB with 78o after two limpers, BB raised, limpers folded I called, flop 528 two spades. I checkcalled flop bet, and checkfolded turn 3 of spades. Very bad and weak play by me.
Continuing to be card dead, no more hands played, 8800 at the end of the level.
4th level - 100/200
* raised same old limper with 68s, got one caller from later pos, limper folded. Flop A67 all spades, made cont bet, got reraised, and folded showing my hand. Reraiser showed pocket 6s.
Down to 7400 chips.
* JQo in the BB, 4 players to the pot, flop 9T5 two spades, checked down. Turn K. I checked hoping for a bet from other 3 players, no action. River a brick, I led out smallish, all folded. Small pot for me.
At the end of level down to 7k. 23 players left.
5th level - 150/300
* loose player raised to 1.2k LP opening the pot, I reshoved KQo my last 6.5k from the SB allin. BB took ages to fold, initial raiser also showed an ace and folded. Both BB and raiser told they had suited aces.
* called miniraise from the button with 8d9d (3 players in the pot), flop TsJd3d. Led out for 1.2k, no action.
* stole blinds raising AQo MP few hands before the break.
8.5k chips at the end of level, dinner break, 19 players left.
6th level - 200/400 (30min levels from now on)
* had AJo UTG, limp folded after raise and reraise.
* took down a pot with K9o from the BB seeing flop for free, 783, turn K, river J, I bet 400 and got one caller who mucked. Small pot for me.
No playable hands at all (but got 72o about 5 times, and 23o twice in the BB)
Down to two tables, ~8000 chips, average ~16k.
7th level - 300/600
* folded 6s4s in the BB for 3x raise (1/6th of the stack) and one caller. Flop 25Q one spade, turn 3s and some action... too bad :)
* next BB got 7c8c, completed same 3x raise by shortstack and one caller bigstack. So 3 to the flop, flop Tc2c5d. Instead of shoving all in, I decided just to go fishing for last club, and intended to checkraise. Initial raiser bet 2.1k (leaving himself with 4k), button called 2.1k, I shoved my last 6.5k. Initial raiser folded, button called 4k (to the 16k pot) with... Ah3h... So I had 15 outs twice - any club or any 7 or 8. Turn T, river 5, no clubs, and I'm out in 17th place. A little frustrating since that pot would put me above average, and I also had good table position (with that loose big stack player on my right, who busted soon enough though:)
Summary - I played couple of hands quite passive / bad donking quite a few chips (78o hand 3rd level and AJo UTG comes in mind), but on the other hand, it was one of the most card dead tourneys ever for me - had no pocket pair in range 88-AA, had AKs once, AKo once, and AQo twice, all of it in early levels. So had to struggle with what I have, and knowing the way I went out of the tourney, it was all good - lost key coinflip that would gave me good chance for fighting. Never got it going, and 100% of the tourney time was struggling with under 10k chips.

Poker :: OlympicFestival'07 Main Event

4hours till the beginning. Too bad I haven't got any smart phone with which I could post live updates. So I'll settle for the traditional pen&paper for taking down notes during the tourney, and will post them up here maybe tomorrow morning. Also, am wondering, what are my chances of making it to the day 2 ? :) Very slim most likely.

Had horrible cash session two days ago - down almost 3 buyins. It all started when my 64o lost vs AKs in SB vs BB confrontation with all the money going in on 346 two diamond flop. I knew he's a knit and I'm vs AA/KK/AKs. Too bad the knit got lucky. Then donked off 3 more buyins with AK... I told myself 100 times not to overplay it... But all the cases were in LP vs BB battle, so you cant put villain on AA / set straight away. And flopped two pair aint that bad, is it? :) Battled some back, but that was it. Will take it easy and play some NL4 for a while. Now I'm dead even for October.

Anyway, enough rant, hope beginners luck will follow me in this first big (600EUR) bad (~50 local pros) live tourney for me :)

Sports :: End of season 2007

Out of my sports masterplan I kinda fullfilled only the last important step - taking part in the Lithuanian Cup 2007, 2day event, which drew ~800 competitors from smth 5 countries this year. I started in men elite category, and before the start aimed for top25 (42 entrants). But in fact I felt very slow and exhausted already after first 20min of competition. Even the two sips of 40% "energy" drink before the start didn't help... (weather was freezing;) Took 28th (12.4km course) and 38th place (5.8km course) on day 1 and day 2 respectively. In the final standings (cummulative) I was 30th which aint too bad. Good party on Friday evening and tough sauna with jumping into freezing lake on Saturday evening didn't add much to the results either. Some photos coming soon :)

In the current national rankings for 2007 I'm in 40th place with the best improvement compared to the last year (+67 positions:) If I keep average training up whole winter, top25 for the next year would be a tought but still achieveable goal.

Returned home Sunday evening ~6pm, and went straight to bed. This blogger championship was a bit of a nonsense - got up and checked it at 9pm (1hour before the start) and it was 1000 players already registered. And there was only one really good prize - for the first ($12k package for the PCA). Other final table prizes were somewhat adequate, but anything less than top10 was plain dissapointing for the whole night without sleep. It is a good freeroll for average American, whose Sunday poker session goes from 3pm to midnight anyway, but for average European it was suicidical. So without hesitation I just gave up the idea of trying and took my chance to rest :) In the morning checked the results out of curiosity - and found out that the tourney finished at 6:15am - so it was 8h+ long marathon for those who final tabled...

Hopefully this week will be more poker oriented and I will manage to squeeze in couple of sessions during the week and also that big bad live tourney on the weekend. Also will try to get used to post some interesting hands from regular cash sessions in the comments.

Poker :: Beckoning Bahamas

PokerStars launched Step SnG satellites to the PCA tourney which is great news, since they are running all around the clock, whereas the "regular" satellites are scheduled for pretty retarded times... The only one worth playing from "regulars" is kinda $175 double shootout at 6:55 in the morning...
The PCA Step SnG sattelites are 6-step series, with final - 6th step - awarding 3 seats to the PCA (6th step is a $2100 buyin 18man SnG). Its a bit expensive so while doing my second cash session in October, I pulled only 3 cash tables up, and one SnG sat starting at Step3 ($82 buyin). Session went great - was more than 2 buyins up in cash, and also took down the Step3 SnG so now I have a ticket to the step 4 ($215) Three more lil steps... Hope I dont get excited and take one small step at the time :P Total investment to the PCA sats so far $123 :)

By the way, as Pokerstars launched these step satellites quite recently, there were no players signed up for 6th step. But there was some activity already in Step5, so in few weeks there should be (hopefully) a blowup in these SnGs :)

Poker :: World blogger championship on PokerStars

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 7998090

This message screwed all the sidebar, so I'm putting this on the top of all the posts.

On a side note, kinda already satelited to the 600EUR freezout on Olympic (that will take place two weeks from now) playing cash on PStars. Despite big beats AA vs AKo allin pre, set on flop vs naked flush draw for whole buyin allin flop and AK vs JJ on AJ5 flop for nearly half a buyin, still did manage to make enough profit to buy in directly for this :)

Now it all depends if I will be physically able to attend the venue and if my wummun doesn't object :)

Poker :: Short term roadmap

OK, with one milestone achieved - getting to the top of mid stakes cash games, now its time to reevaluate poker goals for the next couple of months. So, here's a quick rundown:

1. Keep GoldVIP on PokerStars playing exclusively cash.

2. Satelite to October 19-21 600EUR freezout in Reval Olympic (satelite via pokerstars cash games and not via local 30EUR rebuy tournaments;)

3. And main goal - satelite to PCA :) Satelite tourneys starting soon on PStars, might even get 1-2 weeks of holiday to rest from the job a little and be able to play the best sats around.

4. Take part in few more sicko $8R to try out different strategies.