RedBarracuda - it's a fish

petak, 30.03.2007.

Haven't played in a live game for a while...

Yesterday I played in my first casino live game since I was in Vienna with John two months ago. Only other poker that I have played was in some shorthanded small home games and online. I borrowed 100€ from Martin and he agreed that I give it back to him in a month so I went in on the 1/2 PL Holdem game that plays every Tuesday and Thursday in Grand Casino in Hotel Sheraton in Zagreb. I decided to enter really shortstacked with only 50€ and to get a feel for the flow of the game since I didn't play live for some time now and was tiny bit intimidated by 2-3 of the players (Full ring) when I sat down since I know that they are good tricky players (these include Mitar, Fifa and Denis - them I know for sure). So I started the game with €50 and in 7 hands got a nice in MP2 and limped but the button (Mitar) raised pot and there was 3 callers besides me. Flop was a complete blank and Mitar fired another bullet so we all folded and he showed us and took the pot. At this moment I was already on almost half of my buy-in so I cashed in another 50€ to have something more to play with. Another few more hands and I got in MP and after I limped there was a raise and a re-raise with the flop of and some more betting and calling with the turn coming . I would have picked up a pot of course but it was completely legitimate pre-flop fold because I know I wouldn't be in action on flop anyways with all those cards staring at me and my only hope a small straight or a 2 outer.. Two hands later, I got on the big blind. There was a call and a raise and in the end there was like 6-7 pre-flop callers and there was a pot of 70€ just from that. I chipped in from the big blind and flopped two pairs in . Without much thinking I pushed all-in for 55€ and everyone folded but the button who called with for an open ended straight draw. Luckily for me there was another and the button was drawing dead so I picked up a nice pot here. There was just one more hand that I played a hand. This time I decided to raise with from UTG+1 after UTG limped and I got 2 callers, both blinds. Flop came and it was checked to me and I bet 2/3 of the pot get a call from Fifa (Filip) at the small blind and BB folds. Turn opens and now Fifa immediately leads for 2/3 of the pot. I think for a second or two and fold thinking that he got his straight right there. Later, when we were exiting casino he told me that he really did had a straight with flush/straight flush draw and that he was hoping that I have a King or three of a kind... All in all, it was an interesting yet short game and my only real conclusion was that I won't sit down to play again until I will have at least 5 normal buy ins on the game which is around 1000€. The rest of the evening was also interesting since I got to hear Martin talk some theory and practice of poker specifying that people don't understand the value of the dead money in the pot and how someone's money actually offers you the odds to call something where you actually don't have an odd to call by itself. You don't..... but you do... Oh yea, I immediately gave Martin his money back and got to keep a profit of 50€. Thinking of putting it somewhere safe until I get another chance to save... then I go back in assault, lol..
***
Day before yesterday John, Vanja and me were at some party in downtown Zagreb (lol) and after the party we went to Vanja's to play some poker and to generally chill. We started playing NL50 Kuna and then switched to NL100 Kn (100 USD=575 Kn) which was cheap but it was for fun. Then I switched to internet poker from John's account on Party Poker to play a S'n'G $11 and S'n'G $6 while John and Vanja played a Heads Up tournament for 100€. I donked the SnG's and started playing NL10 table while Vanja lost to John in first HU and they started playing another. Meanwhile at NL10 I grinded a for a while to $15 by taking small pots and keeping out of the "bigger ones". Then the 2nd HU finished with Vanja loosing again and the boys came to see me play. I had in LP and I pushed for $15 pre-flop thinking it's just fun. Got an immediate call by the button with and only $5. Kings lasted and he got my $5 there. 2 hands later I have and I push again for $10. Same guy immediately calls with and another calls with and his own $10. Yessssss.. they have their own outs lol... Flop came and I didn't care about the rest of the cards as we were laughing so hard at that moment looking at the pot of $28 sliding our way (ohhh, the rake) .... That's basically it for the few last days. I know I missed some things but there will be another chance to write about them... Just a quick update on my online NL10 grind... I lost almost $50 in the last 2 days (I guess the variance kicked in at high speed) but regained $15 today and getting a grip on it again.....

30.03.2007. u 14:35 • 1 CommentsPrint#

utorak, 27.03.2007.

Hand replay - KQ (+$17.30)

I guess I have found my favorite starting hand. It's . It doesn't have to be suited, it just has to be KQ. Why? Well, it seems to me that I have some kind of a special relationship with this hand. As Anglo-Irish writer, Elizabeth Bowen said: When you love someone, all your saved-up wishes start coming out. I guess it is because I have won AND lost so much with this hand that I think that I have an special affection to it, or at least, I have found new attraction to this card due to the ups and downs I went through with it. So, yes, I guess I had special saved-up wishes regarding this hand, and my sub-consciousness worked for me towards those wishes. At least this time...
***
NL10, FR
I was OTB with and with $9.50 this time. The reason for not being short stacked was that I lost some money in the morning playing shortstacked and decided to go in on 4 tables with full buy-in. I finished the day not only getting the loss back, but on the above average daily winning and the biggest reason for that was that I entered with full buy in and had money to invest and extract more from players when I had strong hands. Back to the hand... UTG limps, MP1 raises to $.50 and everyone folds to me. I cold call in position. SB folds and BB also calls with UTG folding. Pot was $1.65 and flop was immediately completing my straight. I felt wonderfully. I had and extreme monster hand here AND I had position. Simply beautiful. BB decided to checks and MP1 bets a pot sized $1.70. I thinked fast and calculated that it would be better to raise right away and isolate the MP1 because I knew he is what Poker Tracker autorate rules call a "showdown monkey" meaning that even if he is an ok or relatively good player, likes to go to showdowns and keeps loosing at showdowns- thus Showdown Monkey. I raised to $4 knowing that MP1 has either AK, AQ or AJ and with no draws on the board I believed that BB will be out of play here. Imagine my surprise when BB calls my $4 raise. Showdown monkey also calls, of course. Turn card was giving me an even completer straight and a possibility that I get straight flush if the board pairs the with , just in case if someone already has a set. In the first moment I was confused with BB's call but I realized that this player tried to slowplay what he thought was the best hand. I had to take advantage of that, and besides, I only had $5 more left. Pot was $13.65 by now so putting it all in here was only thing that I could really do. So I did put those $5 inside after they both checked to me. Guess what... I got both of them calling with showdown monkey being all in with $4.95. River card was . I never had a more complete straight than this one. Honestly... Anyway, BB opened for a set of Tens. Showdown donkey opened for his initial top pair "top kicker", and what now was a low straight from 8 to Queen. This time I had two observers looking at the $26.80 pot sliding my way...
p.s. rake can really hurt people at low limit games... in this hand it was $1.40 which is huge compared to the limits and the pots on average... cheers!

27.03.2007. u 20:17 • 0 CommentsPrint#

nedjelja, 25.03.2007.

Hand replay - KQ (+$7.73) .. something about MB

Another hand replay, this time with no particular educational value but the importance of Poker Tracker and observance in (online) poker. Before the actual replay, I would like to point out that I feel a completely new man since I registered with MoneyBookers because now I can finally move my money around the internet and various poker sites with only a click of the mouse. Honestly, if you play online poker and don't have MoneyBookers account, I don't know what you're waiting for. The reason why I am so excited about it is that no one in my family (including me) has any kind of credit or debit cards. We just never felt we needed them and actually refused to use them, so I never had normal mean of depositing money for poker. I was always giving my friend John the cash in order for him to use the inter-account transfer and send me the money to play. Not anymore! True, I had to give money to a friend's friend in order for him to transfer me the money on MoneyBookers but this was an easy thing to do since the transfers are easy and fast. Finally I can choose my own site that supports MoneyBookers and thank God there are a lot of them and finally I have a place to withdraw my money to. Also, having your money on MoneyBookers makes it easier for you to buy and sell over internet which is really a plus. Ok, finally sharing this with everyone is a relief. If you are interested in registering with MoneyBookers go to www.MoneyBookers.com and you will be done in 5 minutes and less. I sincerely recommend it. Right.... back to the hand replay..
***
NL10 ($.5/$.10) Full ring
I had $9.51 !! lol. The reason for me not being shortstacked here is that I have already played a few hands and won some pots. I started the game with $5 but made my way to this $9.51 and was in the hiJack with . UTG+1 raised to $.20 and it was folded to me when I re-raised to mere $.60 which is practically disregarding UTG+1's raise and is pretty standard if not a tiny bit too strong on NL10. CO and Button folded and SB re-re-raised to $1. I felt that it was a weak weak re-raise because it was raised already twice before the action came to SB and his re-raise wasn't really saying "get out or give me your money" so I didn't put him on any overpair but on an ace, probably suited. BB folded and UTG+1 folded. I called another $.40 in order to see the flop and besides, there was $.30 in dead money so I really feel and felt that this SB re-re-raise was awful. I checked out the statistical information that I had on the SB player from my Poker Tracker and GT+ and realized that he is an extra loose player (VP$P more than 60%) with hight pre-flop raise and hand range that includes so I wasn't really bothered. In fact, I was glad that I have such an out of position player in the pot against me. I was 95% sure that he doesn't have an overpair and that was enough for me in this case. So, to cut the long story short, flop was hitting my queen. There was $2.30 in the pot at the moment. Now the scared out of position player bets a stupid $1.30 and I decide to just call here and see if the 5% of the overpair possibility is in play. Turn comes another and SB now bets even more stupid $1.20 which was even less than the flop bet and even more proving that my 95% against the overpair is on target. Of course, I was trying to get him for most of his money so I let him bet into me on flop without my immediate raise, but here on turn I was sure that I am in front. I saw that this guy is Major Donk so I went for him and I pushed for $7.21. He insta-called me with his all in of additional $4.73 and the river card was . Major opened and saw the pot of $17.24 slide my way....

25.03.2007. u 21:48 • 0 CommentsPrint#

petak, 23.03.2007.

Hand replay - 65 (-$5)

I had an opportunity to talk to Martin yesterday where he was doing most of the talking (cause I was stoned but concentrated) sharing his idea of play for low limit NL games (NL25) that has to be tested further but might have a strong impact if implemented correctly. I won't be writing about this idea and "form" of play due to the fact that it has to be extensively tested so no more will be said about it until I get more info about it. For now, I can only say that it looks as it is maniacally aggressive type of play. I mentioned yesterday (when speaking with Martin) that I will try it out on the game I am playing now which is NL10. So, I tried it and within 30 minutes I was five stacks down on one table and two stacks up on another. This is not very important at this point, cause it was only a test, but I must say that there definitely is something to it because players lose control when playing against this style and they become sheep who are easier to manipulate. Of course, my one hour trial period didn't really reflect that, and I am by no means proficient at this type of play, but I can clearly see that there really is something to it.. So, here is a hand that I played yesterday while trying out this form, and where I think I got a bit unlucky because people didn't trust me any more and were willing to pay anything I bet. Of course, I don't have to mention that I was shortstacked again... here goes...
***
NL10 ($.5/$.10) Full ring game
I was on the SB with $4.95 and got . UTG+1 raised to $.20, MP1 re-raised to $.30, MP2 called, CO called, Button folded, I called, BB called and UTG+1 called. Now, I know I spoke of maniacally aggressive game few sentences before but here I decided against the re-raise from SB with all these callers. This might have been a mistake but I was thinking about trying to dominate post-flop, even with so many callers. Now the pot was $1.80 with 6 (!?!) players and the flop was giving me a flopped nut straight. I instantly fired $2.21 into $1.80 pot and guess what happened with all the players that saw my play before... I got 4, yes, 4 callers with one of them all in for $1.55. Here comes one of the main short stack strategy problems. Turn was an and I had only $2.49 left which was pretty bad for this situation since drawing hands here have to pay if I go all in, and with 3 more players behind me (one was all in), there was something fishy about the whole situation. So, I closed my eyes and fired my all in of $2.49 into $12.19 pot with my still nut straight. This time I got 2 callers, one was the Villain on BB and the other was a MP2 donkey. Pot was now $19.66 and it was all meant for me, but then the river card came and it was an ugly ugly looking and now BB Villain fires his all in of $7.70 fkr the MP2 donkey to call and make the pot hefty $33.31. The UTG+1 guy opens . I open up my flopped straight.. Villain opens giving him a nut straight over mine and MP2 opens donkeylicious ..... So the BB takes the huge pot (it still is NL10 game) because I didn't have enough money on the table to try and discourage the moron to call. Although, looking at it now I was mighty happy that they all called by big overbet on flop becuase they didn't trust me one tiny bit because of my previous plays. If I had more money on the turn I think I would fire either all in or an overbet again for these guys to donate.. In the end, I thought that Villain is lucky because even though he had an open ended straight draw on flop, my overbet with 3 more people behind him should have discouraged him of calling; at least I see it that way. Them calling behind him was more question of their distrust for me than him thinking of the increasing odds with every new caller... So, to recap, even though I lost here I believe that hands like this are the ones that make the Loose Aggressive maniacs the big earners in the end. Of course, it takes a lot of practice and situational picking but even if very dangerous, it is more rewarding for an experienced player... cheers!

23.03.2007. u 20:20 • 0 CommentsPrint#

četvrtak, 22.03.2007.

Hand replay - JT (+$34.11)

I haven't posted hand replays in a while so decided to post one that I played just recently. I decided to try and play NL shortstacked for a while just to get the feel and see how it goes for me. I wanted to experiment with the possibilities from different positions and this hand is just one of those that I played and came out on top...
***
Game was NL50 ($0.25/$0.50) Full Ring at Golden Riviera (I can refer a friend if someone is interested naughty )..
I was in hiJack seat with $32.11 at the time and my hole cards were . Guy in MP2, me, CO and Button all limped in with blinds confirming. This made for a pot of $3 with 6 players which is not something I was used to at Party Poker. Flop opened . At first I had to double check if I was seing correctly because I was a bit shaken to see that I have just flopped a nut straight with 5 more players beside me to play. Only drawback was the flush draw always trying to pinch, but I was confident enough because of my , although not overconfident. So, SB checks, BB fires a pot bet of $3 with 4 more players behind him.. nice... MP2 flat calls and now came my dilemma... I was thinking of calling for a second, but decided against it with 3 players behind me and that "I want to pinch" flush draw. Calling here would just give these people way too many odds to call I think. I raised to $15. Everyone including BB folded but MP2 re-raised to $51 stomping on my short stack strategy and making me curse that I didn't have more to play with. So, I called another $16.61 which was my all-in.. What do you think the turn was? came on the turn making me shake my little space boots but still believing that it can't be right that the guy pushed me with flush draw.. River card was making me curse everything for a second thinking that this guy pushed me with set and now he has either four of a kind or a boat.. I was really relieved when my cards opened and my fierce opponent mucked his cards never revealing what he really had.. To be honest, I didn't care what he had because I was too happy seeing that it's neither a flush nor a boat, and especially not four of a kind... So, I collected nice pot here..$69.22 ... cheers!

22.03.2007. u 15:21 • 0 CommentsPrint#

ponedjeljak, 19.03.2007.

Thoughts after the seminar...

I couldn't write anything yesterday because I was too tired coming from the seminar. That's right, as I said in the previous post I was attending First Croatian Poker seminar and as mentioned I was one of the dealers at the post seminar tournament so that basically meant that I had to be there for around 12 hours. I don't have anything against being there for long time, I am just mentioning it in the context of not writing this post earlier. So, to recap what went on there in short...
***
Seminar started around 01pm with short speech by organizer about the motives and the idea behind the First Croatian Poker Club and this poker seminar. He then proceeded to introduce Tonchi Restovic, third placed on the biggest Croatian tournament in Novigrad that was held last year, who tried to give an unencumbered first person perspective on three things that he considers most important when playing tournaments. Chip stacks, position and player image. He went on to talk about "player table image" and explain his views and ideas on how to use "what your opponents think about you" against them. It was a good ice breaker and it was interesting to listen to. After Tonchi finished his part Borko Brunovic (brother of Branimir who I mentioned earlier) presented his impressions (backed up by pictures) from the Vienna Spring Poker Fest, and went on to explain how difficult and tiresome it really was for his brother to sit in a chair for 4-5 days trying to play his best poker against some of the best European players while there are 15 cameras cruising around you and spot lights aim directly into your eyes at the same time as make up is being put on your face and comments on your play are being exchanged amongst the railbirding watching crowd. All in all, not the most pleasant poker atmosphere but the one that comes with the big money tournaments and that has to be accepted that way. After Borko finished his short but interesting and lively presentation for which credit must be given since they all arrived from Vienna late in the night, Matej from Osijek took the stage in order to try and explain some of the pitfalls and opportunities of the cash poker game. Matej had some significant cash game success so he was probably the best person at the moment to talk about that part of the game and his own experiences going through the stages of winning, but also sometimes losing. He also touched and explained some important but often overlooked differences between online and live poker. With the end of his presentation the main part of the seminar was finished and the long anticipated tournament was about to begin. Now, this is the part of the organization that I am not particularly happy with, not because of myself, but because of the other participants. First of all, it was supposed to be a Freezout tournament based on the initial Poker Club buy in and registration and the members and participants would play for three prizes of which the first would be a Toshiba laptop, and second and third place would be 350 and 250 Euros respectively. It ended up being a 1 re-buy and 1 add-on tournament with crappy chip/blinds structure that increased every 15 minutes with inexperienced and not yet fast enough dealers (me included by all means) for that kind of a shot. First of all, people didn't expect it to be a re-buy tourney and didn't bring additional money with them, and more importantly, the re-buy's and add-on's didn't really ended up building up the promised prizes. I understand that it's hard to organize something for the first time, but I also understand that if you are trying to be an icebreaker with a good idea that is sure to grow in the future you have to be prepared to endure some losses in the beginning in order to potentially make more profit in the future, especially if the loss we are talking about here is more then bearable...final table Back to the story..To the left you can see the picture of this tournaments final table (click to see large). I actually don't know who really won the tournament and who was second or third since I didn't deal at the final table and was far too tired to stay and see who it was. Interestingly enough, simultaneously with the tournament, as players dropped out of the tournament and some of the other players that joined in the event later and didn't get to participate in the tourney decided to enjoy themselves in side games that were spontaneously created at the empty tables. side game PL Omaha 1/1 So, some of the players decided to play Heads-up NL Holdem with symbolic buy-ins and some players decided to play short handed 1/1 PL Omaha Hi. This game actually also started as a Heads-up contest between "Just" and Djonjara and "Just" and "Miljac" before that, but as they played more players joined in the 50€ buy-in game. In the end there were 5 players playing this Omaha game (namely Vanja, John, Matej, Sasha and Frane) and even though I didn't stay till the end, word is that someone got his ass kicked a bit (lol, sorry), side game PL Omaha but more importantly it was apparently a lot of fun. You can see the side game pictures to the right. I apologize for the quality of the pictures but they were taken by mobile phone and since there was a lot of action it was hard to make the players make slow moves or no moves at all just to have a more quality picture...
***
There is one more thing that I noticed yesterday that I wanted to share. It is the fact that the idea of the Poker Club, seminars and a tournament is actually a great idea that definitely should have a future in Zagreb and Croatia one way or the other. There are definitely many improvements that can be made, and I am sure that by next time everything will be arranged as initially promised. One reason for the support of the seminar and the club from my viewpoint is that when there is such an event, players tend to be more relaxed then when they come to an actual tournament event or cash game and there is much much more opportunities to discuss everything that is even remotely interesting and concerns the game of poker. Everyone at the seminar were friendly, and even more so even though there were people that were introduced to each other for the first time. I guess that it is because poker, as some kind of a sub-culture brings similarly thinking or oriented people closer and therefore there is an increased sense of community and acceptance between the people. This, for me is the best possible environment where one can freely mingle, talk and learn from others as well as share their own experience.... Even if there were initial drawbacks to the seminar and the tournament organization, I truly am looking forward to the next one....
***
p.s. as a first time ever dealer at a poker table I managed to deal pocket aces 4 times in first 7 hands, and two times pocket kings in the next 5 hands as well as some "minor" (lol) pairs like QQ, JJ, TT and similar in the next 10-15 hands... I guess it was some kind of first time luck, only I didn't get any real profit from it... At least the players at my table had something to play with, and I truly hope that I was doing my job good for the first timer ever.. If I didn't satisfy someones standards, I am sorry but at least know that I did my best.... cheers!

19.03.2007. u 16:33 • 1 CommentsPrint#

subota, 17.03.2007.

1st Croatian Poker Seminar Tomorrow.. short dealer course today

As some of the Croatian readers probably know, tomorrow starts the "First Croatian Poker Seminar" and will be held in Zagreb, hotel Central. I think it is a good effort by some of the poker enthusiasts to try and help Croats to get to know the game and hear a few lectures on few poker topics from some of the more established players in Croatia. Hopefully, there will be a special guest in form of this years (finished yesterday) Vienna Spring Poker Festival main event winner Branimir Brunovic (also known as Bicko) who most of the players in Zagreb and Croatia already know for some time and it was in fact just a matter of time when he would surface as an emerging top player not only in Croatia. I guess that this first place in Vienna clears the doubts, if there were ever any. If he arives to the seminar he will probably give a first hand report from Vienna Fest and his experience in playing and winning a 4-5 day event. Some of the other lecturers (as far as I know) should be other players that had some results either in Croatia or abroad. The seminar should end with a tournament for the participants and there will be a prize for first three places (laptop for 1st and money for 2nd and 3rd place) so I believe it will be an interesting event.
As for me, I am going to the short "turbo" dealer course to Grand Casino in order to learn how to shuffle cards correctly (as the dealers in poker rooms do) in order to be able to deal for tomorrows tournament. Yes, I will probably be one of the dealers and hopefully I will do good with very little or no mistakes. I guess that will hinder my chance of participating in the tournament and geting my hands on a new laptop, but on the other hand, if I don't find the dealer job too tiring or too hard I might actually look for a regular dealer workshop or training and if I pass it successfully maybe I will try and get myself a job in "the industry" naughty . If I for some reason don't succeed as a pro dealer then I'll at least know how to deal correctly for all the home games that are played around. Anyway, I am looking forward both to the short training today and the seminar tomorrow... It's a good idea to try and involve more people in poker in Croatia, to try and boost the scene growth. Maybe eventually there will be a decent card casino in Zagreb with some interesting events and offered games.... maybe...
So, while waiting for the time to go to the training, I will try and learn something... how? Well, by reading Harrington and Robertie "On Holdem - Vol.1".... Cheers!

17.03.2007. u 18:12 • 0 CommentsPrint#

petak, 16.03.2007.

Ok.. this is NUTS..

A friend of mine sent this link to me and I just have to post it here.... This guy is incredible.. It is not poker related, but I am sure everyone will enjoy this little clip...


16.03.2007. u 02:19 • 0 CommentsPrint#

četvrtak, 15.03.2007.

What I think about "Ace on the river" ..

This is supposed to be a short comment on the book by Barry Greenstein "Ace on the river". First of all, this is a good book, but don't expect too much. That being said I think that Razboynik said it well when he wrote that it is a "poker entertainment" book. Why is this so? Well, in reality, it is so because Ace on the river doesn't really make you a better poker player after you read it, but it might make you a better person at the tables while you play. There isn't almost any theory covered in the book, and the part that has some only gives us direct perspective from the writer and his thoughts on what would be the best play for particular hands he already played in some tournaments. For me, reading this book wasn't about learning more about poker theory and different plays; it was about getting as close as possible to a pro players mind and thoughts about life, people to people relationships and overall gambling world. When I was reading this book, it felt that I really learned some things that I already knew somewhere inside, but I never really gave them any thought and didn't realize that some of those concepts (mostly behavioral) are of utmost importance in a poker room (be it online or brick and mortar casino) and without them an ordinary player will soon enough become a "bad player" in more than one meaning. I won't elaborate more on that because this was only my own experience of the book and people who decide to read it eventually might not agree/see/understand with me on the book in the manner that I did. Perhaps I might even overvalue the book, but in the end it's a personal call and I urge everyone to decide for themselves if this book is something they found useful or not. For me, it definitely was useful on different levels and that being said, I recommend this book to every poker player who has some free time for reading on his hands... Cheers!

15.03.2007. u 15:13 • 0 CommentsPrint#

ponedjeljak, 12.03.2007.

I really wanted to check this out..

edited
I was browsing some poker forums and came upon a post saying something about no deposit bonus so I got a bit interested in that. What I found out was that this site (Wingows Poker) gives you $5 for free within 24 hrs if after you register your account with them your E-Mail checks out. So, I decided to give it a try day before yesterday. I registered an account with them and validated my email. I checked yesterday evening and there was no $5 on my account so I decided to write a short email to their support team asking why I wasn't credited with the money thinking that me being Croatian has something to do with that. I got response from them in less than 10 minutes and I must say that I was truly amazed by that. I never received response from any support team so quickly. They basically told me to validate my email once again by the link they sent me in this email and that my account will be credited with the promised $5 within 2 hours. I validated my email through the link they gave me and less than one hour later there was $5 sitting in my account. I must say that I was happy that this really works so I decided to put the $5 to the test at their tables. Ohhhh, the amount of bad players they have makes this place a paradise for now although there are no more than 1700 players online (at least that is how much players I saw), and you know what the good thing is.... most of the players there are from United States as far as I could see and I repeat, there are plenty of bad players to prey upon.... I know that the site also gives some kind of a nice deposit bonus but I didn't deposit anything yet because I am making nice progress with the $5 they gave me.. Anyway, if you want to get those $5 for absolutely free and try to make more out of it you can download Wingows Poker and start playing... It's a nice chance, especially for someone who usually plays freerolls to get some money in their account.. Think about it, here you get those $5 for free, and you don't even have to through a tournament of 7000+ people... Cheers!

13.03.2007 ADDED: I just got an idea regarding this free $5 bonus. Why not make it a contest? I challenge everyone who comes to this blog and plays poker to go to Wingows Poker, get the free $5 and try and make it into more money by playing poker there. Only those $5, without any deposits for the time being... You get the free $5, you play with them, and you tell us here what you accomplished with those $5.... We shall see who made the most out of the free $5....

12.03.2007. u 21:54 • 5 CommentsPrint#

nedjelja, 11.03.2007.

Hand replay - 99 (+$7.50)

I have posted a hand where I lost due to the guy chasing flush with 85 and where he got me for about $10. I found this hand in Poker Tracker today, and I realised that it was played against the same guy. This time, the outcome was different for him. I took a look at the $$ that I lost to this guy and $$ that I won from him. Actually, the hand with 85 where he got the flush was the only hand that I lost to him, but in the meantime this guy lost 10 hands against me although, I must admit, in the end I am profiting for around $1.50 of him which is a profit either way. Anyway, look at this..
***
NL25, 9 players
I had $11.65 and was in MP. I was dealt and I limped after the guy before me also limped. It was folded to the Villain who was OTB and he also called with both blinds also in the game. Flop came giving me a set. This was potentially dangerous flop for me because there were both flush, straight and straight flush draws possible so my set could have been endangered in more than on place. Blinds checked and the guy before me bets $0.25 into $1.25 pot. I raise him to $2 again hoping that draws will be discouraged and that I will in the end make the most of the calls if there will be any. Villain called $2 and both the blinds and the flop bettor folded. I was instantly putting Villain on one of the above mentioned draws since I knew from before that he is willing to chase flushes and straights to the river. Turn was a somewhat scary card for me, giving a possibility for even more hand combinations in this case. Since I had some experience (small but enough in this case) with the Villain I was figuring that he likes suited cards more than he does the connectors so I decided to fire another $5 into the $5.50 pot. Villain called me again. River card was assuring me that he didn't pick up his flush so I bet my all in of $4.40 into $15.50 pot, and Villain instantly folded. I might have made a mistake of not betting more on the turn or on the flop but I figured that my raises were high enough to get a caller (which I did on flop) who is willing to chase a draw, and on turn I didn't go higher than $5 even though i was left with $4.40 after the bet because I was affraid that he might not call that overbet and even though it would be fine to take that pot right there, it would be better to make him pay for his draw. That in the end meant that if he missed his flush he will not pay me my additional $4.40 which I bet on the river, but regardless of that I at least got the $2 on flop and $5 on turn. What would be a good idea to make this play more profitable in the future against someone who is willing to chase?
***
I went on a picnic early in the morning today with some of my friends. We took our bikes and went driving up the Medvjednica mountain (mountain hovering over my city, Zagreb) which took almost two and a half hours to get on. It was my first time going up this (or any for that matter) mountain with a bike and I must say that it is HARD. We didn't take the woods route but the "easier", road route. By the time we got to the top we were so tired and powerless that all we could do was sit in a restaurant and eat and drink and think of sleep for some time... After that, it was all over again, just in the opposite direction and not by road. We took more demanding route down and to cut the long story short, when we came to the road again I realised that my rear tire was flat and that there is no way I can fix that right there so I had to push the bike to the nearest gas station, then pump the tire and drive for another 200 meters before pushing again because it was leaking so fast. Being so tired and beaten up, this happened at the worst possible moment, especially since I use my bike a lot to travel accross the city. Anyway, it was a great day and even though I had some negative experience at the end of the trip, I feel fulfiled and very tired still, but happily so. Perhaps, I will go and do this all over again next saturday.... cheers!

11.03.2007. u 01:30 • 1 CommentsPrint#

četvrtak, 08.03.2007.

WSOP Giveaway at Full Tilt Poker

My ranking I stumbled upon this tournament today when I was looking at current offerings of interesting events at FTP and decided to join it since it was a complete freeroll that can take you to the WSOP through 3 steps. What I participated in today was kind of a qualifier where only first placed gets to go to the next round and there I think there are 2 players that go further. Anyway, There was 630 people in this NL Holdem Turbo freeroll and I in the end finished 10th (click the picture on the left). My final hand was a pre-flop push OTB with after there was 2 limpers. I had about 35.000 chips and at that moment there was about 16.000 chips in pot due to high blind level and ante of 1.000. I figured that it is much better to push here than to raise to 16.000 and then push on flop. None the less, I got two callers. One of them had 10-15.000 more than me, and the other had about the double my amount. One had and the wiser one had flopping a flush and kicking me and the other guy out. I was left staring in the monitor thinking why do people so easily call with that crap for their whole stacks or their significant part. Never mind, thought I as I closed FTP in order to write this. If someone is interested in trying this out, they should, since there are soooooo much donkeys that there actually is a chance for a decent player to do something here. I think I might give this WSOP giveaway another try soon... I mean, it's WSOP we're talking about....

08.03.2007. u 04:54 • 3 CommentsPrint#

srijeda, 07.03.2007.

Hand replay - KQ (-$9.70)

This is a hand that I played today. As you can see it's KQ again. This time I might have made a mistake along the way, but somehow I am not convinced yet.
***
NL25 ($0.10/$0.25), FR
I was at the hijack seat with and short stacked with only $9.70. First Middle Position (MP1) limped, MP3 limped and I limped with everyone else folding and the Villain at BB checking. Flop was and BB Villain bets $0.25 into $1.10 pot. MP1 folds, MP3 calls and I raise to $2 trying to discourage any draws here. Villain flat calls and MP3 folds. Turn comes the and Villain checks and I fire $5 into $5.35 pot thinking that I will either take the pot here or will make the Villain pay for his foolish draw. This bet left me with only $2.55 and I didn't want to push on turn because I figured that I am not giving the Villain odds to call anyway and there is no need for me to push then. Villain flat calls $5. River comes and now Villain bets my all in of $2.55 and I now think that I am committed to call because the pot is $15.35 anyway. So I call and the Villain shows me taking the pot with a flush. Huh? Where did I go wrong exactly?

07.03.2007. u 17:28 • 4 CommentsPrint#

utorak, 06.03.2007.

Hand replay - A8 (+$7.30)

As far as I know, this is called a dead man's hand, and luckily enough, it wasn't so for me. Btw. If you want, you can try and find somewhere a song called "Dead Man's Hand" by Frankie Lane. It's a good song.
***
$25 NL ($0.10/$0.25), 9 players
In this case I was in early position and I limped with . The guy at the HiJack seat called and Cutoff raised to mere $.50. Big blind chipped in, I chipped in and so did Hijack seat. Flop was . BB checked and I checked thinking that my is too weak for these rocks and aggressors since I knew them to be such players. Hijack checked and so did the original PF raiser. Now, a stupid looking card hit the turn. It was and BB checked into me again. This time I fired $2 in the $2.10 pot thinking that no one here has an ace, or if someone by any chance does it is even weaker than mine. Both Hijack and Cutoff folded but the BB rock called. Now a hits the river giving me three of a kind and assuring me that I will take this pot down no matter what, but the best would be if I could take some more money from the BB. I remember thinking shortly and firing $5 into the $6.10 pot. BB rock flat called my $5 probably thinking it will be a split because he showed me . In the end it seems that the $5 bet was ideal since I got called and I had better hand, but surprisingly enough the call came from the rock player and he was willing to pay whole $7 for his pair of . I must admit that this surprises me even now..

06.03.2007. u 12:05 • 0 CommentsPrint#

ponedjeljak, 05.03.2007.

Hand replay - 66 (+19.50)

Here is a hand that I am really interested hearing about since it went to showdown and I almost got busted in it.
***
$25 NL ($0.10/$0.25), 9 players.
I was in middle position with $21.30 and got . It was folded to me and I decided to limp. Again, players folded and player on the button (LenDebt) weakly raised to $0.50. Both blinds folded and I re-raised to $1.50. Button called. With $3.35 in the pot, flop came giving me a flopped set. Now, perhaps I made a mistake here because I didn't bet right away. Instead I checked hoping that the button will bet since I knew him to be very aggressive so I hoped he will give me an opportunity to check-raise him. I guess I was a bit lucky to be right at that moment since after my check, LenDebt decided to bet $1.75 which was about half a pot. Here was my chance to fulfill what I originally wanted to do so I raised him only double that amount to $3.50 and now, instead of calling, LenDebt being aggressive as he was re-raised me back to mere $5.25. Having flopped a set and being happy that he actually presented a strong ace to me I re-raised him back to $15.00 now and he decided to go all-in which was additional $4.75 to $19.75 and I of course called (leaving me with $0.05 at that moment smokin ). So, now that we were both all-in with pot being $42.85 the turn came and the river came . In the mean time I was starting to feel itchy to see what this guy held in his hand and after the river card he showed me , enlightening me that he actually had the top pair but also, for me very dangerous nuts flush draw. Of course, I also had outs to beat his flush if it happened because the board could pair itself and then I would have full house but still, it was kind of strange for me to look at this hand of his and thinking that I barely got out of there with anything, let alone the whole pot. I realize that we were actually 50%-50% before flop and that I was 70%-30% favorite to win the hand when the flop came, but still, seeing that hand in the end kind of gave me a strange feeling. Although I think I played this hand pretty good, I know I saw a lot of times that the hand like LenDebt held won. I know that I was a clear favorite here and that I shouldn't bother too much about it, but I guess that what I was scared the most in the end was: is it now that he will get that 1 in a 3 shot? Cheers...

05.03.2007. u 00:40 • 2 CommentsPrint#

nedjelja, 04.03.2007.

Comments on this blog..

***
This is supposed to be a short guide for all non-Croatian speaking readers of this blog that would like to post a comment here, but get stuck along the way because the Comments page is whole in Croatian.
Here is what you do if you don't have an account at www.blog.hr, which you most certainly don't.
Click "comments"... When the page opens, write whatever you feel like writing in the big white section. After you finish, take a look at the two fields you can Tick near "Želim komentirati kao:" The first one is "bloger" and is for the use of registered blog.hr users, and the next one is "anonimac" which is for everyone else and means "Anonymous". So, put a tick near "anonimac", write your nickname in "Vaš nadimak" and click "Pošalji". Your comment has just been posted.
***
It shouldn't be complicated at all... Hope to see more of your comments now that you know how to post them. p.s. If I figure out a way to change the comments page to other (English) language, I will... cheers!

04.03.2007. u 01:32 • 0 CommentsPrint#

subota, 03.03.2007.

Hand replay - 55 (+$7.85)

One hand that I find interesting..
***
$25 NL ($0.10/$0.25), 9 players.
I limped UTG with . Middle position Ultra Aggressive guy (Hazzl87) raised to $1.50 and everybody folded to BB who called (Chiming). I was faced with decision. Should I just call or re-raise? I decided to re-raise to $5 because I knew that Hazzl87 was loose and aggressive enough to raise with almost anything, and Chiming was Tight Neutral which means he can go either way, can be hard to read and is normally an Ok player. This is why I decided to re-raise to see where I am standing in regard to these two guys, and being UTG, making a limp/re-raise could put me on or in the eyes of these guys so I believed I had an edge now. Hazzl87 who was the original raiser folded, but surprisingly Chiming called and now I had position on him as well as a threat that I have potential monster hand. The pot was $11.60 and the flop came and I knew it is good news for me, especially after Chiming tried to bet into me with $2. I raised him my all-in which was $11.95 and he immediately folded so I took the pot and was happy about it. Now, I don't know if this was the best play even though it won me the pot right there on the flop but there is probably a better way to get more money from these guys. I would appreciate the comments on what could/should be done differently (if anything) in this particular hand...Cheers!

03.03.2007. u 20:54 • 0 CommentsPrint#

petak, 02.03.2007.

Must Read section...

This post should contain interesting reading material about Poker that I found over the course of time all over Internet. It will be updated as new things pop-up...
***
I have recently found a blog entry by hdouble that describes The Development of a Poker Player. I believe it is a must read for all new players because it will quickly show them what is the development path of a new poker player, and it will enable them to anticipate and adapt their actions depending on the stage of their development.
***
Not so recently, I read another blog entry called Turning pro. This one might also reveal to wannabe players what it might be like in life if they choose the path of a pro. Courtesy of F-Train. At the end of the article there are three links to columns by Roy West at Cardplayer Magazine that cover the same topic and makes a good additional reading.
***
There has been a lot of talk about how internet poker is rigged and how poker sites just use us to make even more money by "dealing" the cards to the worse players in order to keep the wheel turning. Well, I disagree and as a reference to my disagreement I indulge you to read a few posts answering this question: Is online poker rigged?. There are more links within the archive to valuable posts on this matter.
***
Razboynik wrote an interesting poker theory article that is somewhat (boldly) improving on "Sklansky Dollars" and can be found here. Definitely a must read and re-read material..

02.03.2007. u 15:48 • 0 CommentsPrint#

četvrtak, 01.03.2007.

Talking about Bad Beats...


Updated on 03/03/2007...

***
Here is something I have heard about earlier, but decided to watch it just few days ago... It's a live cash game with Barry Greenstein, Doyle Brunson and Daniel Negreanu to name a few.. This little 7 minute videos are something every wannabe poker player should take a look at because: 1.) it shows that horrible Bad Beat happen to everyone and it is not only internet poker that produces them, 2.) money involved is something to think about if you ever really decide to go "pro", and 3) you might actually learn something from this particular hands...
***
Gus Hansen - Daniel Negreanu



***
Daniel Negreanu - Eric Lindgren

01.03.2007. u 13:54 • 1 CommentsPrint#

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