Disappointment

Oh well what can I say. Busto. 124 players turned up and it looked to become an exciting tournament with a confirmed 1st price of 22.500 Euros. I stayed tight and patient for the first few levels and kept myself between 10 - 11k not really getting any hands except aces once. Until the fourth level I had not played a turn card yet.

It then went all pretty quickly first opening JJ in late MP getting 5 callers and a KQ9 board. Lots of action and I fold. I then lose 55 against AT on J7J, 3, A board when I called the c-bet of the guy and we checked the rest down.

Then comes the key hand. I complete the sb with KQcc with 2 limpers in the pot. On a JcTx8c flop I check raise all in to an overbet of one of the limpers. He doesn't think very long and pretty much snaps me with J7 without clubs. I got almost 70% against his hand but I manage to miss my gazillion outs and am pretty crippled from here on. Last chips go in in a BvB when I flop second pair + OESD and BD Flush draw, get snapped by TPNK again and miss again.

It was a good experience anyway and the tourney is very good value and seems to be full of beginners overplaying their hands. Hilarious stuff could be seen. A lady to my left limped UTG then called a button raise of a friend of mine. On a 855 board she check-calls a potsize bet. On the 9 turn she check calls the all-in of my colleague. She shows AT with no draws and the 77 of her opponent hold also on the river. That was a bit of a wow moment for me.

Even better than the tourney, the cash game seemed to be. I had some time watching the NL1k Euro game and it was truly outrageous. Average age at the table was definitely something between 50 - 60 years. There was a lady that would make up for a good betting game "Which parts of her body are still original". Most funny were her lips that just looked like car tyres and screamed "too much botox". Needless to say that she was wearing lots of expensive looking bling bling.

Other funny thing were 3 men that looked exactly the same, probably the perfect example for the Marbella mid-life-crisis rich boy. All 3 with grey, longish hair that was geled to the back with a cute little quiff at the end. All 3 wore pink shirts, with the sleeves pulled back a bit and wearing a huge watch on the arm. For me that was pure comedy. Only shame about the cash games there seems to be that rarely anybody buys in deep. 3 tables of NL1k and 1 table NL500 was running.

I took some 200 euros and short stacked the NL500 euro game for a while but was card dead and only shoved a random ace once, so basically blinded away some euros. The game was definitely softer than the typical game in Gibraltar.

So all in all I am disappointed with the results of this Friday as I was determined to achieve a good result. On the other side I have confirmation that the games here probably belong to the softest games you currently maybe able to find in Europe. So I'll definitely be back in September for the next Marbella Classic.

I think that was my last bit of Poker until the end of August but I will come back strong and fresh in September and will start grinding it out again.

Truthans

Getting ready + Hartmut

I am getting picked up for the 700 Euro tourney in Marbella in one hour and am pretty excited. I guess this eagerness for an upcoming tourney will often result in even bigger disappointment but I just hope that my run good batteries are fully loaded. I just need to remind myself of a few things:

- don't get fancy play syndrome
- 95% of players in the field do not have the capability to do sophisticated bluffs
- When the fish overbets/shoves it's never a bluff
- Limp calling AJ+ is a standard play in a casino
- Some ranges can be wider than you think
- Stop fucking spewing
- No point in hero-calling retards
- Be aware of my opponents stack size

Ok, let's see how the supposed to be full-of-maniacs-tourney goes. One time!


Other than that I was on the Feria (fun fair) in Spain yesterday with a group of friends which was a very good laugh. Some of the games actually seemed to be +EV. ;-) I really liked the rifle shooting for shots. Whenever you hit the aim you got a shot and we had a very good sniperish guy in our group who actually managed to hit something around the 95% of all shots.

But the coolest thing was that I won a goldfish. Today the girlfriend bought one of those bowls and stones and a plant and now our new pet is making us feel like parents.

May I introduce you to our new family member, Hartmut:

A different rythm

So I haven't played Poker for a while now and instead I found the motivation to do some sports again. So I joined the gym around the corner and started to work out. Currently I seem to be going to the gym 5 times a week and am finally motivated enough again to watch my eating habits a bit more.

So I guess there is a fair chance that with an ongoing strong will I should be able to lose weight again before I get married.

Other than that I feel more awake currently since not playing Poker currently which is quite logical as I am not playing to 4 am three times a week when I got work the next day. I am currently thinking that I may return to regular playing on the felt after my wedding in August.

Until then I will only try to play some special events if they occur, like this weekend in Marbella. I have been lucky enough to find two backers that are willing to stake me for the 700 Euro tourney and I hope I can pay back the trust with a good result.

Other than that Gibraltar had a somewhat funny incident that happened two day ago. Some idiot thought it was a good idea to walk unmasked into a Swarovski store on the main street with a handgun and ask for money. He actually took three hostages as well. You can image how big of a event that actually was in a small place like Gib.

What did the guy think? That he then would just cross the boarder with his bag full of not too valuable glass crystals and maybe 2k in cash? Trying such a robbery on the main street at lunch time in a tourist place like Gib? Unmasked? I thought seriously wtf?

But this morning the Gibraltar chronicle told us the story behind this mastermind of armed robbery. Here a little excerpt:

The gunman who tried to rob a Main Street jeweller's on Tuesday made a shocking statement in court yesterday: he claimed spies had implanted a microchip inside his head.

Speaking through an interpreter, Alejandro Rodrigo Parres Navarro told the judge that he was in the seventh year of a program run by an unnamed "intelligence service" and that staging the robbery was his only way out.

"My only solution was to provoke an incident, or suicide," he told the court, having first requested permission to speak. "I'm going through a very bad time."

Parres was arrested after a major armed police operation on Tuesday, during which Casemates and the northern end of Main Street were sealed off.

Beautiful, isn't it? That, of course, explains everything.

Staking?

A bit gay to do another staking request here but rumor has it that there is a pretty cool event coming around.

Click

I am talking about 350 + 350 Euro event on 23/24 July (next weekend) in the Casino Marbella. The reason for this tournament being more juicy then others is obv. the time of the year. Marbella is a Holiday place and known to be the place for the wealthy people at the Costa del Sol. I have talked to some Marbella regulars and they said it is going to be pretty good value. First prize is expected to be between the 12.000 - 20.000 Euro mark.

I am obviously not rolled for the event and am checking my options for staking again. Even if I bust the tourney there is probably one of the juiciest 2/5 games going you could possibly find.

As this is only a two day event and no long-term staking I would offer to give 70% of all profits back + of course the original staking amount in case of a cash.

I could actually imagine that it might make sense to combine it with a short term cash game staking in case I bust the event. So I guess there are several deals possible:

- 700 Euro staking for just the tournament (30% of profits less buy ins for me, rest for you)
- 1500 Euro for Tournament + Cash game 2/5 (70% you, 30% for me)

- 2500 Euro for Tournament + Cash game 5/10 (70% you, 30% for me)

I guess James Keys, who staked me before is happy to vouch for my integrity.

If you can afford it, it's pretty good value imo. Let me know in the comments if you are interested or drop me an e-mail: hefeklosag(at)yahoo.de
I am flexible on the deal making btw, so whatever your idea is, just get in touch.

Day of payback would be 26.07.2010

Truthans

The way forward

First of all I am sorry about the embarrassing drunk post from a few nights ago. A lot of emotional shit in there that surely does not belong in this normally up-beat blog. On the other hand I didn't feel like deleting it either when I read it again the next day. Hopefully a lesson not to post whiny bullshit when coming home drunk at 4 am.

Secondly, thanks for your comments guys. I appreciate your empathy.

But in the end it's not all that bad. I had a bit of a psychological problem. A couple of weeks ago my net winnings reached the $10.000 mark for the first time. Furthermore together with the staking money I suddenly had about $10.000 lying at my place too.

I started feeling a bit invincible and the bad things got worse and chain of unlucky occurrences hit me. I wasn't really prepared for it and couldn't cope with it. My offline bankroll is below the $1000 mark now, so I guess seeing more than $9000 disappear was quite painful. But I need to realise that I am not a professional. I don't rely on this money and to be honest I didn't even invest my own to get this money. Means there is no reason to be dragged down but some standard shit.

True is that Poker was not much fun for me lately and I actually forced myself to go and play as if I would need to in order to survive. This is of course bullshit.

I am going to take a break for a few weeks from Poker. It may most likely be 2 or 3 weeks but maybe it's going to be more. we'll see. I just want to refresh my batteries. Just as you said Marc, it's definitely going to help me.

I guess my girlfriend is going to like the next few weeks. Tonight, instead of going to the Casino I'll go down to the pool with her and drink a few beers. I may play the odd tournament once a week or so but I am not sure.

Anyway, what I wanted to say is, that all is good and I am feeling great. I come back to Poker in a few weeks.

I guess I will still be blogging regularly even without the Poker but probably about different life things.

Enjoy your summer folks, it's freaking beautiful outside I just realised.

Truthans

2 Folds

So many years have gone by, so many I have spent loving what I am doing. Poker used to be a minor part in my life. I never played big stakes, big names or big locations. I ground my way up from the smallest games on Stars to the NL200 within about 200.000 hands. I always was a live player. I always was a person that found fold equity in good spots and had enough balls to use and the either way around I always made people think they had fold equity when they didn't.

A high variance game was always how I approached every hand. I always thought about "how can I win this pot". I was shown full houses when I called with A-high in polarized situations and showed bottom pairs ftw in spots when my opponent missed. I earned "wow"s for sick winning calls and "donkey" for sick losing calls.

I always loved this game. I always played it fearless. My nickname became "4-bet-light" locally.

I always loved this game.

I ran into a series of bad play, incidents and run-bad, but dominantly bad play. I have lost the spirit for the game that I had a 3 months ago.

When I was staked I had the aim to make my profit for me and the staker. I knew what I was doing at the table. Since paying off my staking deal, I wasn't working towards anything anymore.

Since that I am forgetting to look at my opponents stack sizes, giving myself fold equity where I have basically non and am unable to set myself a stop loss limit.

Currently I am one of the biggest fish in the game because I am doing almost everything wrong. I am moving in against pot committed people, Fold against the "any2"s, etc. Looking at my results since the staking and now after the staking makes me sad. As long as I was not playing my money and was willing to proof that I am a good investment, I was playing some incredibly great poker. Playing with my own money I am a spew-monkey-level-donk-idiot-gay-fuckhole-tart.

I have no idea how to turn things around. I have no idea which rules I can set myself?

There's a weird character in me. Way too much emotionality mixed with some skills that are essential for that game.

Why am I writing this whiny bullshit? You guessed it. I again almost broke. What's even worse: I managed to outplay a table full of regs tonight. Getting folds PF from QQ. Making a straight fold, etc.. All of this to lose my 600 GBP profit against the same player who I know that he always owns me and always makes me what he wants me to do.

I think I have to change something. I don't know what. I used to be the biggest winner in my regular game by far. By miles. Now, I am just donating.

What do I want to do with Poker? I breath this game. I spend about 80 hours a week with the game. I just don't want to be miserable anymore! I am not at all depending on the money.

You guessed it, I am almost broke again. Approx. 500 left (from 7.6k atone point). I paid back my staking deal and I am proud of that.

I can only wish you some proper good luck/lick. I may be off this surface. There is a fair chance that this may be my last blog post.

I love my girlfriend. To the end. It was a good trip going with you guys.

Live is fun and...fun is not Poker.


Hannes "4-bet-light" Hanusch

Joke

I read the following on facebook and had to laugh pretty hard:

Breaking News in the hunt for gunman Raoul Moat in the North East: After 6 days of a stop and search police in the Newcastle area targetting those of a solid build, with many tattoos and missing teeth, the police have admitted it has been failure and will in future narrow it down to just men.

Had a monkey-tilt poker session in the Casino on the night when Germany lost. Needless to say I lost 430 GBP that night. I stormed out of the Casino when I got it in on a 775 Board with J7 vs. 97 and the river is a bloody nine 9 for a 300 GBP pot. Well actually it was the hand after when I stormed out the casino when in a BvB I limp raise QJs all-in with my last 50 bbs and flip against 99. I could not hit anything after a ATx flop.

I have serious tilt problems currently. To help coping with that I started playing Stud-Hi online. No idea if that helps but the spew doesn't tilt me as hard.

A very good friend and colleague is leaving Gibraltar next Wednesday and we are having a private cash table in the casino tomorrow with no rake taken. He pays 150 for the rent of the table and we get a dealer. This is going to be 10 regs that are battling it out. I am expecting some serious deepness and some sick pots. No shorties at the table.

Little side info, for those of you that haven't seen it yet, PokerStrategy.com is now on 2+2.

I made a video blog last friday when I was drunk. Unfortunately it's 300 mb and I failed to get it up here as there is a 100 mb restriction.

Going for a meal with the missus now and for a little party later. Have a long, long workshop to go to tomorrow and also some work on Sunday.

Have a great Weekend

Truthans

Recovery

I guess it's time to update a bit about my poker exploits. Since almost going broke I managed to dodge the worst and had a slight recovery. I booked some good winning sessions and on Tuesday I won the Casino's 20 GBP + 5 GBP Bounty Freezeout with 40 runners for a nice 340 + 40 in bounties.

The investigation on the money that disappeared from my flat is still running. I do not expect any results.

I had a losing session in the cash games yesterday but still feel confident over all that I manage a full recovery. I have also a couple of bets on the quarter finals going and hope they are coming in.

Before we are getting smashed by Argentina tomorrow I would like to rub it in one more time (I am the guy with the Germany hat):



Have a good weekend