Hi all, playing some omaha hi again the past couple of days. And did I show you a hand with kings in the hole on the blind last time, this time I will do exactly the same. What’s different this time that’s worth showing you all? This time, I didn’t have the best hand all the time and the ultimate nuts in the end, but I had to make a very good call to win the pot.

Here’s the hand I’m talking about:

I’m just calling the preflop raise again and when the preflop raiser checks and the other guy leads out with a retarded minimum bet, I put this one on exactly the hand he has: a flushdraw. This is typical move by amateur players: minbetting their draw. They must have misread a chapter about block betting somewhere. As I know he’ll draw to his flush which will be crushed by my Ace I decide to make a big pot, besides my hand is backed with my Kings. My opponent calls and when the turn gives me two pair, I try to induce a bet so I can check-raise but he doens’t bet. I don’t really like the river, as the other player could have had a 5 with his draw. But when he bets half size of the pot, I know I’m good and call with Kings. Note there’s no value in raising here: he won’t call with exactly the hand he has, but only with a hand that beats me. You’ll have to master those skills when trying to be a winning player in online poker games.

And now, as I announced last time, the ten best live music gigs I’ve ever witnessed. If you’ve seen my other all time lists, it won’t be a big surprise that Tool is at the top of this list. It was a close call however with Animal Collective, which was the last show I saw from the ten below and which made an amazing impression on me.

1. Tool - Lowlands Festival (August 19th, 2007)

2. Animal Collective - Dour Festival (July 17th, 2009)

3. Pearl Jam - Rock Werchter (June 29th, 2007)

4. Radiohead - Rock Werchter (July 5th, 2008)

5. Sigur Rós - Melkweg (October 9th, 2002)

6. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Rock Werchter (July 4th, 2009)

7. Fleet Foxes - Ancien Belgique (November 20th, 2008)

8. The Prodigy - Lowlands Festival (August 19th, 2005)

9. Interpol - 013 (November 20th, 2007)

10. Bon Iver - Lowlands Festival (August 21st, 2009)

(parts of)both last songs of the two best gigs ever seen: Vicarious & Brother Sport 

I’m playing all kind of games at the same time at the moment: Hold’em, Omaha, cash game, tournaments,… call it and I’ll play it. So i experienced a lot of hands when playing Poker Online and I have a few examples of sick hands for you down here, one from a PLO cash game and one from a NLHE tourney.

Here we go:

I fancy this starting hand of course, with the Kings having two connectors here. However, I’m out of position so there’s no need to raise here. I flop the full boat and can only hope my opponent has something like AhAc9h8c or something like that . Turn comes a third club and if I want to make ány money in this hand I’ll have to bet my hand here. The Ace high flush (which I’ve already crushed) calls and I improve to a STRAIGHT FLUSH! On that point it’s in my disadvantage that the board had already paired on the flop, but I’m able to extract the maximum value out of this hand. Next one:

Jacks in late position and I make a rather small raise. I call the reraise to see what comes on the flop and get my free set on the turn The guy who flopped top two thinks this is the moment to get all his chips in and I even improve to quads^^. Stay in touch because next time I’ll show the best live music performances I’ve ever seen!

I’m still not able to convert some PLO hands from Cake Poker, but this had one big advantage this week: I decided to play some cheap multi table tournaments and the result was more than excellent: from a total buy-in of $2,60$ I was able to made $82,30!! I made this beautiful picture for you (click to enlarge!):

It all started when I noticed that I still had a ticket for a New Depositer Freeroll since I created an account at Cake. I was playing for a while and, used as I am to the amount of action when playing at multiple (cash) tables, I was getting easily bored. I saw a Rebuy+Add-on tournament with a $.25 buy-in and rebuys for $.15 and gave it a try. I was doubling up early a few times because everybody played quite loose (because of the cheap rebuy option), but two full ring tables still wasn’t enough. What’s better for some action than heads-up play? So I also registered for a $2+.2 hu shootout with 96 players.

I was on a great roll and when the breaks started I was among the best twenty players in both MTT’s, and I bought an add-on in the ministakes tourney. This was also the tournament where I was knocked out first, finishing 14th out of 212 players, cashing $5,24. I was on fire in the hu shootout and was able to reach the final hu-table. Pity I didn’t win but finishing 2nd out of 96 is not bad. I was already at the final table in the freeroll at that moment and finished  4/140 over there. A very successful evening

Now it’s time for the final fifty songs in my top 200 list. First of all, as you can see, there’s a new number one: God Only Knows from The Beach Boys is the best song of all-time at this moment imho. Once more becomes clear that Brian Wilson is the greatest genius ever in pop music, with other songs at places 4,12 and 19. And the new Brian Wilson is already there, with Panda Bear at 7. And we have a new best Beatles song: the brilliant In My Life from Rubber Soul. Enjoy all the magnificent music!

I already mentioned it last time: I have some troubles converting the PLO hands from Cake Poker. Last time, the only problem were the hand histories themselves, who weren’t really compatible with the converter. But as it seems now, the converter doesn’t convert any PLO hands at all anymore… This sucks of course, but the Queen of Diamonds will never disappoint you: I played a 5$ NLHE hu sng especially for you, so I got at least something to show you . And I discovered these heads-up games are also on Cake very entertaining. I mean look at this delicious donkament:

Don’t ask me for a special explanation or something, I don’t know what the hell is going on here^^. Ok, it could have been a misclick on the turn, but why is he calling on the flop in that case? Anyway I hope the bug in the converter will be fixed soon and the advantage for now is that I can talk some more about the next 50 songs in my music list . As you can see, there are two new songs from Tool in it, both from their last album 10 000 Days, which I’m starting to appreciate more and more as the best Tool album. That’s also the case with Metallica’s Ride the Lightning, with the magnificent For Whom the Bell Tolls at spot 95. And at 54 you’ll notice Animal Collective’s Brother Sport , the closing track of the last album from one of the best live bands I ever saw. I can already mention they’ll be back once more in the last 50 songs .

I don’t have a lot of time anymore lately, but when I have some I play some multi-table tournaments on Pokerstars. Like I wrote a couple of weeks ago, I’m really starting to like the minimum raise preflop. It serves several ends: you can represent a very strong hand, you can add extra value to the pot and you can filter the number of players who’ll enter the pot (especially after the pot is opened with another minraise).

I have a couple of examples for you from some tournaments I played this week. In the first one there is a minraise in early position and a caller to my right:

Now AJ off suit is not my most favorite hand and I decide to minraise to both represent a strong(er) hand and to prevent that the button and the blinds can enter the pot cheaply. The players in front of me show a lot of weakness again on the flop and I know I can just take the pot by making a good raise there. In the second example I was a little unlucky:

The player in the cut-off obviously just want to rob the blinds so I minraise to play heads-up for a quality pot. On the flop he leads out with a rather weak bet and I make a mistake there by not making a big raise. If I did so, I would have taken the pot even if he had hit a Ten. Then I decide to pull the trigger on the turn, just when he made his crappy pair of Jacks…

One thing being so great about this game is the fact I can combine it so easily with my other passion, music. Sometimes poker can be a great way to meet other people who happen to have the same taste as you, even during an online game.

That’s exactly what happened to me a couple of days ago, when I was playing a multi-table sit and go on Pokerstars. As you maybe know meanwhile (due to my alltime music lists) I’m kind of a big fan of the band Tool. So I sit down on a table, and the great feature of Pokerstars is of course the personal avatars, and I notice this guy from Spring Hill, Florida with the Tool-avatar:

Now he takes down a nice pot down here while we are talking about the next Tool-album to be released . He also told me he had the honour to sit down on a bar one time and drink some beers with Justin Chancellor, the band’s bass player. Now I finished just outside the money in this tourney, but I got a nice hand to show you which demonstrates a move I like lately:

As you see, it’s the minimum reraise preflop. This kind of raises look very suspicious and as you can see: you can represent a very strong hand on the flop thanks to your earlier move. See you at the tables, till next time!

Hi, I played another few sessions of hu-confrontations for cash as well as tokens. And I was able to get such a token once again, although I needed two shoot-out tournaments this time. However, that’s still an investment of $13.80 with a return of $26 . The most important hand from the shoot-out I won:

My opponent makes a decent raise of four big blinds and maybe I should have instant raised hu with my Tens, but I prefer to just call here. Flop is a dream scenario: I flop top set. I check for obvious reasons and my opponent makes a pot sized bet. I really put him on a (better) overpair here also, so I just call again. Turn gives me a boat but it’s checked back behind me this time…checking an overpair here wouldn’t make much sense so perhaps he has two high diamonds. That’s why the river was so beautiful and I was able to extract maximum value from it.

I decided to use the token to register for the 34k Gtd. Now the nice thing about all those gtd. tournaments is not so much the fact that there’s a guaranteed prize pool (it’s almost always exceeded by the amount of players) but the fact that you really play tournament poker here. Unlike the regular sng’s, you start with a double stack here (3000 chips) and the blind levels have a duration of 10 instead of 6 minutes. So you get a lot more time to build up a stack. However, sometimes you don’t need that much time:

So I already double up during the first blind level, that’s very nice . What happens? I limp with TT and there’s some strange minimimal raise in middle position and a suspicious small reraise from the SB. Now I don’t want to overplay my TT in this early stage of the tournament with all the cards yet to come. So it’s a very nice pot on the flop and the flop itself is very good for me, all unders (rainbow). I make a big bet and the reraiser preflop just calls. Now it makes no sense he has a bigger overpair here (would have betted or at least reraised the flop) or a flopped set (reraise preflop in early position with a small pair??) so I fire again on the turn. Again just a call and then he moves all-in on the river when the sevens pair; I figured this is just an amateur who can’t give up AK and tries to win it with a bluff but it was even worse: AJ. After that double-up I was very deepstack and was able to play a nice tournament and finish in the money (49th, $71,75)!

I took a little break from playing hu and big MTT’s and played some regular tournaments again this week. First I played a little bit on Pokerstars (regular $5 tournaments), later on I returned to FTP. During a game on Stars I saw a phenomenon I discussed earlier when I was talking about online tells:

Some player makes a standard raise in early position and I call because the blinds are still low and I have position on my opponent with my A5 suited. The flop comes all hearts, and the other player bets the same amount as preflop. Now this usually is a sign of weakness, certainly on a dangerous board like this. So I raise and he flatcalls, so I figured he didn’t hit hard but has a strong heart he can draw with. After his call on the turn my thoughts are confirmed. Now, on the river I still only have a pair of fives, but this is important in poker: stick with your read! Your opponent won’t most likely call an extra bet with Ah8 for example, but will win the hand if you don’t fire again.

After making some small profit after two sessions (about $40) I decided to play some shorthanded tourneys on FTP. I saw a very spicy hand over there:

So this player lets everybody limp in with his pocket Queens and only bets half the pot on the flop… simultaneously another player flops the nuts and improves towards the second nuts with a straight flush . I didn’t cash in this tournament and will return to playing heads-up for some tokens so I can play another big multi-table tournament .

Finally we arrived at the BEST TEN ALBUMS OF ALL TIME (imho^^). If you don’t have one of those, withdraw from your bankroll and buy them :

10 Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti (1975)
9 Beach Boys - Pet Sounds (1966)
8 Zombies - Odessey & Oracle (1968)
7 Jethro Tull -Thick As A Brick (1972)
6 Radiohead - Amnesiac (2001)
5 Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
4 Tool -Aenima (1996)
3 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo’s Factory (1970)
2 Brian Wilson - SMiLE (2004)
1 Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

So it has the best of classic (hard)rock (Led Zep & CCR), progrock (Thick As A Brick), psychedelic rock (Beatles’ MMT), psychedelic pop (Zombies), progmetal (Aenima), art rock (Amnesiac) + perhaps the most brilliant person in pop music éver (Wilson with SMiLE as well as Pet Sounds) and the best concept album ever: ‘DSOTM’ still is the best album ever made in my opinion.

Travelin’ Band (Cosmo’s Factory) and Brain Damage/Eclipse (Dark Side of the Moon)

Hi, I continued playing according to my new concept the past few days at FTP: play some shoot-out tournaments for cash and combine this with shoot-outs for satellite tokens. Subsequently, try to make it in the big tournaments with these tokens.

I have to say I succeeded very well in my mission. I made some profit at the cash tournaments, among others thanks to catching a straight flush :

As you can see, I really had squadoosh on the flop and didn’t improve that much on the turn. The river really was a miracle card, but the pot only consisted of 2 BB’s (100) at that moment. As you can see below on the picture I managed to disguise my bet on the river as a bluff by overbetting the pot (betting twice the size of the pot), which made my opponent call the bet with his marginal flush.

With the $26 token I won I participated in the 21k gtd. KO tournament. From this buy-in, $20 goes into the prize pool and the other $4 is a bounty you can win by eliminating another player. I didn’t succeed to finish in the money, partially thanks to one particular hand relatively early in the tourney. However, I’m able to control my damage by sensing my opponent was strong and not overplaying my own hand:

So a standard raise in early position with AQ, three callers and I flop toppair. My continuation bet is only flatcalled by one player. The turn gives me top set but I check. Then my opponent bets about the same amount as I betted on the flop which makes me very suspicious. However, a lot of online players play AJ or AT exactly the same way so I can hardly fold. He fires again on the river, but I’m happy he makes a bad value bet with his full house, he should know I must have three aces in that spot. However, maybe more succes next time!

We’re coming closer to number 1 in my album list and what follows are the numbers 20 till 11. You’ll notice the first two of three Beatles albums in the top twenty of the list. Fans of so-called stoner rock will like Powertrip, which really has become a standard album in that scene.

20 Beatles - The Beatles (’White Album’) (1968)
19 Radiohead - In Rainbows (2007)
18 Monster Magnet - Powertrip (1998)
17 Tool - 10 000 Days (2006)
16 Simon&Garfunkel - Bridge over Troubled Waters (1970)
15 Metallica - Master of Puppets (1986)
14 White Stripes - Elephant (2003)
13 Pixies - Doolittle (1989)
12 Pearl Jam - Ten (1991)
11 Beatles - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

Vicarious (10 000 Days) and Keep the Customer Satisfied (Bridge over Troubled Waters)

I’m really into tournament poker the last couple of weeks and besides regular sng’s and heads-up confrontations I want to give the so-called ‘multi-table tournaments’ (MTT’s) a try. However, those tournaments ask a lot of time which I don’t always have at my disposal so I’ll still keep playing heads-up .

Now I don’t play the regular hu’s anymore (winner wins opponent’s buy-in) but prefer the shoot-out tournaments (turbo, 6$ at FTP) with 4 players where you play two ‘match rounds’ and win the entire prize pool if you win both. I compared my profits from this tourneys with my runs on regular hu’s and I happen to win reasonably more playing shoot-outs. Playing against those people helps:

I make a standard hu-raise with KJ and flop toppair. What happens subsequently appears to be an online phenomenon: some people like to lead out with the minimum bet on the flop after calling a pre-flop raise… I raise of course and get reraised. Now in these situations it’s very easy for me: just move all-in right there against those players who obviously don’t have a clue about the game. He calls and shows me the magnificent bottom pair with the powerful 5 kicker. Thank you very much. Now you also have the possibilty to play these tournaments for $6.5 instead of $6 and in this case the winner gets a $26 satellite token instead of $24 cash. With this token you can play several MTT’s with a lot of prize money and that’s my plan for the coming weeks .

In ‘preparation’ of playing these tournaments I played a $2 sng with 180 players. And guess what? I finished 4th right away, good for $36. This was prolly the most important pot in an early phase of the tournament:

I’m in the BB and am allowed to see a flop with A2 as two players in late position just limp. Again, I flop toppair and AGAIN, somebody leads out with the minimum bet. Everybody flatcalls and I raise to know where I’m up to. The minbetter runs away and SB calls. He almost certainly got to have a flushdraw so I fire again on the turn and my opponent calls again. No spade on the river so I make a last bet and my opponent appeared to have middle pair with his missed flushdraw. I was deepstack from that moment on and was able to play my best game till the final table .

Finally, here are another ten albums you should buy before you go broke so you can still listen to them while playing poker. On 28 is the first album from the heroes from Tool, who also have three of their legendary albums in this list and on 23 is Nick Cave, who I am looking forward to see live this summer .

30 Jethro Tull - Stand Up (1969)
29 Crosby Stills Nash & Young - Déjà Vu (1970)
28 Tool - Lateralus (2001)
27 Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin I (1969)
26 Doors - Strange Days (1967)
25 Wolfmother - Wolfmother (2006)
24 Guns ‘n Roses - Use Your Illusion II (1991)
23 Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Abattoir Blues (2004)
22 Neil Young - Harvest (1972)
21 Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland (1968)

Reasons for Waiting (Stand Up) and There She Goes My Beautiful World (Abattoir Blues)