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I might be wrong
Published 26 december 2011 14:34Is the title of Radiohead’s song on #140 of my top 200 best songs of all time list. But I was certainly not wrong when playing some poker online this week. I’ll show you some remarkable hands from cashgames as well as tournaments again and then the next 50 songs on the list.
The first hand was played in a multi-table tournament, the one with 180 players and a $4,40 buy-in which run all day on Pokerstars. I showed my opponent why minraising with Aces is seldomly a good plan:
To minraise is this players’ first mistake but he makes a second one postflop. He commits his complete stack with only one pair on a board that isn’t dry at all against a hand which only had to call a minraise. I say thank you very much. The next hand, played in a micro stakes cash game, is a hand which I just played good by myself:
A standard play by me with a raise in late position holding an Ace. The button calls but then I make an important play which makes me some more chips. I check my Ace so my opponent won’t believe that I’m holding toppair and he will commit more chips than he’d normally have done. It works out perfectly: he pays a good price thinking his King is good.
In the list of best songs of all time there are new songs from Songs:Ohia (Captain Badass), George Harrison (Apple Scruffs) and Tindersticks (Rented Rooms), three artists we’ll see again among the top ranked songs. This second part of the list is topped by Schism from Tool, which has another song in the top ten. See you next time for more poker and music!
Patience is the key to success
Published 6 oktober 2011 14:02So you’re at a birthday party and you hear somebody telling his stories about buying that new flatscreen TV with his online poker earnings. The other day you’re at work and a colleague tells you that he’s taking his wife on a trip to Paris with the money he won at the online poker tables the past 3 months. Personally, I’m hearing more and more of such stories. I always have some double feelings at those moments. I know out of experience that these stories don’t have to be fairy tales, it’s certainly possible to become a winning player. But it isn’t that easy as some people like to picture it. That’s why I want to make a small nuancing here.
Basically, the concept is indeed quiete simple: you pick an online casino, where you can register and start playing immediately, alltogether not costing you more than about three minutes of your time. Thousands of players gather over there to play their favorite cardgame: poker. And indeed, my personal experience tells me that about 70% of all the players isn’t really skilled in the game, but is playing just for the thrill of the game. The other 30% has learned the game by experience, has maybe read some books and above all knows how to play this marvellous game. Those people can afford themselves some sweet presents with their profits now and then. Also true: everybody can become one of those.
So maybe you ended up on this site because you want to learn how to play this game. Well, I can’t blame you, reading all the poker literature out there, including amateurs’ blogs, will certainly improve your game. Just like watching the other pros play their game on TV. But in the end, the most important way to become a decent poker player is to play the game, against real opponents. There’s no better way to learn something than by observing what you’re doing right and especially, what you’re doing wrong.
However, always keep one thing in mind: be patient. Nobody becomes a skilled player and wins a gazillion dollar in one month. It takes months, sometimes even years, to become really good in this game and as a consequence a long term structural winner. Another aspect that correlates with patience is not playing beyond your bankroll. Make a small deposit and start at marginal micro stakes and move up to another level when you’re totally ruling those tables. Experience tells me that only the ones with true patience will survive, and they will profit from their patience for the rest of their lifes. Maybe we’ll see you on TV in a few years on a famous poker show, maybe not, it’s up to you.
Quads and the Jack of Hearts
Published 19 augustus 2011 17:47I’m playing all sorts of poker at the moment at Pokerstars. The enormous traffic in that room still is a great advantage compared to smaller poker rooms. I’m playing some micro stakes cashgames and small (multi-table) sit ‘n gos. And meanwhile I’m updating my top 200 list of best songs of all time.
In my cashgame as well as in a tournament I catched quads the past few days. Let’s watch the first one, the one from the cashgame:
I’m playing the .10/.25 game, with a maximum buy-in of 50 big blinds. This is actually the second hand I play at the table, after getting a walk on my first big blind. I call the button raise with T9 suited and flop the absolute nuts. My shortstacked opponent decides to make a continuation bet and I just call: I know all his money goes in when I slowplay this hand the right way. I fill up to quads on the river and win my first pot at this table. Then I played this single table sit ‘n go (9 players) and we were down to four of us:
Of course I’m lucky here: I’m down to ten big blinds and I’m obliged to push with T4 here. Bummer my opponent has a premium hand, but hey, I can beat that with quads 
.
Like I said, I made another update (the second one) to my top 200 songs. Which song will be the best song of all time? Previous number ones were Neil Young’s ‘Like A Hurricane’ and ‘God Only Knows’ from the Beach Boys. Today I show you #200-151, which you can of course find here . New songs from among others the Beatles (One after 909 from the album Let it Be) and the Velvet Underground (Venus in Furs), a warning for what’s about to come later. There’s Dylans song about poker at #181 and Nirvana tops the first part of the list with Dumb (1993).
Punishing the floaters
Published 9 juni 2011 17:32Another series of tournaments on Stars, another couple of interesting hands to show. They are from the same tournament this time, a sit ‘n go with 90 players in which I succeeded to cash in 11th place. Pity though I missed the final table.
The first hand of intrest is a hand where my opponent, who was playing very loose passive and was calling a lot of hands down to the river, decided to float again on the flop:
I see him calling again in early position and with this kinda hand (JQ suited) I decide to put in a little raise, knowing I can at least against this guy build a big pot if I hit the right flop. Flop is huge, as I flop a flushdraw with two overcards. He calls my continuation bet, he could hold everything. I don’t worry about that fact anymore after I turn the flush and I check behind. Of course there’s the risk of him holding a higher diamond and getting there with a four card flush on the board, or the risk of pairing the board, but I take this risk to let him catch up with something that doesn’t beat my hand and getting paid maximally. That’s exactly what happens and I get the maximum value out of it.
One blind level later, I win another important pot:
A standard raise and call in front of me and I decide I don’t want to play this hand out of position on the flop. I maybe expected one caller with a hand like AQ but both players call. I have to dodge a lot of cards after the flop, but luckily my hand holds up. Again I get the maximum value out of it: AQ would never have called another bet on the flop. I’m planning to play some more tournaments on Stars the next few days (the traffic is so awesome!), see you next time!
Slowplay of the century
Published 20 april 2011 16:55Poor ‘hikog’ on Pokerstars the other day. This guy was unlucky to face the slowplay of the century by yours truly when playing a tournament. Imagine this: on the river there’s a pot of 75 chips in the middle and after the action I end up winning a 2 505 chips pot. I’ll show you how this happened and another tounament phenomenon: getting a ‘shortie’ off a hand.
So first things first. I’m playing all kind of tournaments the past few days and for some reason I tend to be lucky with T9, so why not play it another time in early position and with the blinds still being low?
Oh yeah, I flop top two AGAIN with my new favorite hand. Problem is: my opponent doesn’t show much interest in this hand at the first sight. I check behind two times till he hits the straight and THEN: chips explosion! If I would have betted the flop and/or turn he would prolly have folded with the paired board but he obviously gave me no credit for a full house.
The second hand then: a typical thing in tournament poker is bullying the shortstacks. That’s exactly what my opponent tries to do in the next hand:
This is of course a reasonable play: he just wants to rob my blind and knows he’s not dead with J3 if I call. I know he’s doing this, so I call with my Ace and luckily for me the Ace comes on the river. So remember: being a short stack is certainly not always a disadvantage in tournament poker, it gives you a lot of opportunities to double up when other players try to bully you. Till next time!
SMiLE when you get A4
Published 6 oktober 2010 11:56Last time I showed you the concept of pot control when I played A4 in late position during a tournament in the online casino of Pokerstars (casino.org for more information on internet casinos). I played another such tournament the other day and as a matter of coïncedence I won another nice pot… with A4. However, this time it was suited and I had to play it in early position. So instead of pot control, it’s all about ‘raising on a draw’ today. In the end, I’ll show you what are the best albums of all time in my humble opinion.
Now what happened at the online tables? It was again during those early blind levels and like I said, I get A4 suited under the gun (UTG). A standard move is to limp there, but if you feel you’re on fire, you can as well raise there. I limp and flop a very cheap nut flushdraw. Let’s watch the rest:
The BB leads out with a minimum bet. I raise of course, not only because this bet was a sign of weakness, but also because I hope this guy will slow down on the turn if I don’t catch my diamond. So as a matter of fact, I try again to get the pot control in this hand. Everybody calls, so I know it’s gonna be sweetness when I catch my card. The BB leads out again with a slightly bigger bet and on that moment I hope this guy was also on a diamond draw so I just call so this guy would bet on the river again. As a matter of fact, he made two pair on the turn, but I think I made more chips this way instead of raising him immediately on the turn. You can read more tips on this matter at www.casino.org .
I completed my list of 50 greatest albums of all time meanwhile, and you can check out the list here . As you can see, George Harrison is in there four times, three times with the Fab Four and with the solo album. Animal Collective and Tool are responsible for the albums from the past 10 years and at the top you can find the legendary epic Tull album, right behind ‘DSOTM’ and Brian Wilson’s masterpiece ‘SMiLE’. Discover and enjoy!
Back to Hold’em: pot control
Published 17 september 2010 14:08I hope you enjoyed all the Pot Limit Omaha tips I gave you the past few months. But recently I returned to the mother of all pokergames: No Limit Hold’em. I started to play some tournaments on Pokerstars, just for fun. Great thing is I have the opportunity to listen to all the great music out there meanwhile and that’s why I was also able to update my top 50 of greatest albums of all time.
So I’m completely in tournament mode again and I always love the first blind levels in these tournaments. You can play a lot of hands, trying to get a lot of chips in the beginning of the tournament. Certainly when you’re in late position, your range of hands that can be played is enormous and what’s important in these cases is the fact you’ll have ‘pot control’ after the flop is dealt. I picked out an example for you from the tournament I played yesterday:
So with only one middle postion limper in front of me and me sitting in late position, I like to raise in that spot with an Ace. I get called by the BB and the limper and the flop is perfect for me, as it’s paired. However, the BB calls my continuation bet and another small card comes on the turn. Now, most of the times when you’re called in those spots (with a paired board) it’s likely that your opponent holds a (small or medium) pocket pair and is not very likely to fold. But I have complete control on this pot which makes that he checks the turn towards me, which gives me a free card. I make a wheel with that river and notice the fact you can still extract a nice amount of chips against such hands with a good value bet.
The 50 greatest albums of all time then. I published number 50-25 today and as always you can find them right here . There’s some beautiful psychedelic sixties music of course with Big Brother and the Holding Company and 13th Floor Elevators, two progressive Yes albums from the seventies, the beautiful sitar of Ananda Shankar and on top the amazing White Light/White Heat from the Velvet Underground. Enjoy!
The perfect Omaha call
Published 2 augustus 2010 14:39Hi 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.
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
Some sick Queen-hands!
Published 18 juli 2010 17:18I’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!
The Low Stakes Queen!
Published 19 mei 2010 21:07I’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!