So far, this week’s been pretty bad poker wise. I’ve played a few tournaments but nothing’s really gone my way. I’ve mincashed several times, bubbled a few satellites which is always frustrating but mostly just played badly and lost a fair bit of money, having played a bit over my bankroll. I have to admit, I’ve been spewing quite a lot as well, making tons of re-buys in tournaments I’m not even properly rolled for and generally being a moron.

However, whining is for fags and I won’t even get into any of it. Just some minor mindset issues that I’m confident I’ll be able to overcome and standard variance – we’re talking about Multi Table Tournaments after all.

Now to the good stuff. I’ll be playing the ‘WSOP: $370 M.E. Qualifier [200 pkgs guaranteed!]‘, starting in about 10 hours time along with several other tournaments in the $55-215 range. For some reason, I’m pretty pumped and feeling exceptionally good about it which is never a bad thing. Obviously, the field is going to be huge and there’s a lot of variance involved. Despite that, I really feel I’ve got a big edge and will potentially do very well.
Hopefully I’ll have a few deep runs and some interesting spots to write about in my next blog entry.

Besides the above mentioned PokerStars WSOP Qualifier, I will be playing many more over the next two weeks, most probably including the ‘150 Packages Guaranteed’ on Full Tilt Poker. I will also be playing as many ANZPT-Queensland qualifiers as I possibly can, which brings me to the next topic.

As you’ve probably realised by now, I’m aiming to hit a live tournament package. However, I’m only turning 21 later this year, which rules out WSOP for this year. Well, I’m in an extremely exciting position in life at the moment.

After a drunk spontaneous idea in June 2008, I got a 1-year visa and a one-way ticket to Australia. Now, if you’re any good at maths, you’ll realise that my visa is about to expire. Just a couple of days ago, all I knew was that I definitely needed to stay where I am at the moment at least until the end of July – I’m doing a little thing with the local theatre. Thus, I’d be getting a Holiday Visa for another three months. What was going to happen after that, I had no idea. I could literally pick a completely random spot on the Globe and travel and live wherever I wanted to.

Just a few days ago, I noticed that another event of Australia New Zealand Poker Tour had been announced: ANZPT-Queensland. This led me to a decision. I haven’t been to the east coast of Australia at all and to be honest – had almost planned to leave without seeing anything else than West Australia. However, I’ve now done a whole lot of research and come up with some travel plans for August and I’m extremely thankful to ANZPT, which is what helped me make this decision – I’m going to have an absolute blast!

I’ll dedicate a post for this and what’s going to happen before and after ANZPT-Queensland in the near future. What’s for sure at this point is that I need to score a Tournament package (sell the WSOP package for $W) or just a decent cash in a MTT and I’m off to the Gold Coast pretty soon and to be honest, I don’t even doubt I will. Wish me luck!

I’m seriously kicking myself for being such a lazy cunt. Although I’ve only really had two poker sessions since my last blog entry, both would’ve definitely been worthy of a post. However, by letting the initial burst of emotion fade away, I’m afraid I’ve missed out on an brilliant piece of writing or two. However, I’ll still give it a try and will hopefully learn from this mistake.

As you can probably remember from my previous entry, I recently had a few fairly deep runs in some MTT-s. In relation to that, I was anxiously looking forward to the upcoming Sunday (31th May) to have another big night of tourneys.

Unlike pretty much ever before, I actually had a bit of a bankroll now and was determined to keep it that way. Thus, in order to play in any of the major tournaments, I needed to qualify through a satellite. I started out with the $1 Million Turbo Takedown, registered for some satellites and the awaited poker session had begun. For some reason, however, I wasn’t feeling any passion for the game and was completely unable to focus. It didn’t take me long to qualify for the Sunday Million but other than that, everything was heading in the wrong direction.

It was one of the days again – I had this blank stare in my eyes and just kept registering for pretty much anything that was coming up on PokerStars, playing like a complete moron. Long story short, after several hours of play, I was down roughly $1500, having spewed off my chips at the Sunday Million, Sunday 500, some $109s and $55s … well, you get the point.

I had just registered for a $109 2R1A and made a double-rebuy when something suddenly struck me – “WHAT AM I DOING!?!”. It felt as if I’d just waken up from a trance. There I was with a bunch of my bankroll already flushed down the toilet and this random tournament that I’d just spent $309 on in front of me. I checked my PokerStars account balance and thought to myself: “fuck my life“. I stood up, went outside, took a nice deep breath and figured it’s about time to go and play some serious poker.

Several hours later I was sitting in the final table with a decent chiplead, as calm and confident as I could possibly be. However, that’s not always enough to win a poker tournament. I managed to maintain my lead throughout most of the finaltable until when in a span of 8-9 hands I lost JJ vs Q9s, ATs vs KQo and QQ vs AJo in pre-flop all-in pots and finished 3rd, scooping about 8,500 USD. A bit disappointing at first but pretty standard really.

Since then, I’ve played a few fairly small tournaments, made some terrible moves in bubble situations and missed out on some semi-decent scores. Oh, and just the other day I felt generous (read: needed to let some steam out) and spent about $400 on a $3+R tournament on PokerStars – preflop shove with any two cards, Double Auto-Rebuy during the 90-minute period and didn’t miss one single hand. Ahh, the suckouts I made on some poor microstakes grinders and the ‘love’ I was given in the chatbox made every cent worth it.

* BING BLANG BLAOW

On Sunday afternoon, I was in the middle of writing a post about my future bankroll management, goals and plans for getting there. As you might have realized after reading my previous post on the blog, I was busto.

From what I had already written, it clearly stood out that after I reach a certain level at Heads Up cashgames which would be my primary game, I would start setting aside a separate bankroll for the MTT-s. Furthermore, I would need to have at least 100 buy-ins for the tournaments I wanted to play and that I would NOT play the high stakes+variance tournaments way over my bankroll ever again.

By the way, this is exactly what busted my roll last time – playing a couple of FTOPS events followed by every other high stakes Sunday event … and not cashing in any.

There I was, huge goals and ambitions running through my head and writing up my post. At the same time, I was also reading an article, browsing a few forums and thinking of watching the American Idol Season 8 Finale, which had aired earlier that week. I was having mixed feelings of sorrow and rage about the latter, though. The Season Finale that I’d so patiently been waiting for and some f—ing ad to a stupid idiot gossip webpage managed to spoil the whole show to me, revealing the winner.

It was then that I saw a post on the forums about some people playing the Sunday Million that night. I figured – what the hell, I’d been paid a few days earlier so I’ll just deposit $100 and try to hit a few satellites. Long story short, I obviously ended up depositing $600 total (which is the max on Stars within 24h) and playing quite a few tournaments.

First, I had a fairly deep run in the Sunday Warm-up until this hand occurred. I managed to run the remaining 2BB up to 16-17 BB again. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long until the final hand which ended my journey. I clearly should have just 3-bet shoved there. I finished 143/3780, scooping a disappointing $794.

Now, having drunk four Red Bulls, calling it a day and going to bed was not an option. Furthermore, after a fairly deep run and nice moral support from all the Estonian railbirds, I was as pumped up as ever. Thus, it was time to look for something else to play. Sunday Second Chance was coming up shortly, where I had an impressive 1205/1206 finish. However, it was the $109 NL Hold’em [$100,000 guaranteed] that soon brought the railbirds out again. This time, it was already down to two tables and I was doing just fine. Sadly, when it was down to 13 players, this hand occurred and I had to settle with $871, finishing 13/1089. Would anyone have played it any different?

Although I had a few other minor cashes on smaller tournaments and was generally quite pleased with my play, the “close but no cigar” feeling after playing all through the night until 12:30 PM the next day was a bit annoying. I decided to stay up to get my sleep pattern right, watched the American Idol Season Finale (which was not as good as last year’s but still damn awesome) and just pretty much chilled until I finally passed out, thinking that I might be playing the Nightly Hundred Grand next morning.

I woke up early next morning with the laptop on my side and the first thing in my mind was: “I’m going to make it happen today”. I started out with a $109 ($50,000 guaranteed) as a warm-up. Didn’t quite make it.

The Nightly Hundred Grand started out slow. I had managed to build an above average stack half way in the tournament. However, after my KK was beat by a JJ in a pre-flop all-in, I was down to 1/2 average. At around 140 players left (99 places paid), I had the smallest stack. Having played quite a lot of satellites in the past, I really think I had a slight edge at that stage of the tournament, though. After some push and fold play, I had secured a place in the money and was sailing towards the final table.

I’d really like to thank the PokkeriProd.com community who started railing me when there was 2-3 tables left. I really feel this helped me maintain my A-game, which I’ve  had serious issues with in the past.

In the Final Table bubble, I was clearly one of the underdogs with my 10BB stack. However, I suppose I had a pretty good run of cards when I needed it most and before I knew it, I was back in business. I was acutally third out of six with a couple of very short stacks in the play when this happened, finishing me off 6th for $5450.63. As you can see from the stack sizes, I could’ve quite possibly folded into at least 4th place, securing an extra $4k. However, I had made the decision of going for the first for $24k.

The SB in the hand had a big chiplead and was 3-betting very light. When I raised my TT from the button, I had no doubt he would re-raise. Thus, I’d decided to call and get the chips in the middle in case of a small flop. The hand went down exactly as planned, except for what the opponent was holding. I’d very much appreciate some feedback on this hand in the comments section.

I haven’t really made the decision yet but I’m pretty sure most of the winnings of the last two days will probably become my MTT bankroll. This is because I won’t be needing much money for my HU cash project as I’ll be starting from the lowest possible stakes and moving up or down (hopefully not) according to the winnings.

As for the HU project and everything else, I will soon  elaborate on and definitely keep you updated. All the best and stay tuned!

It seemed so familiar, the feeling. Yes – I’d definitely been there before. And the worst thing is, every time this has happened, a part of me feels kind of relieved – in a “mission accomplished” way. I think I’ve got a bit of a problem.

After desperately trying to run up my last couple of hundred dollars and donating it all to a lucky regular at a HU PLO400 table within a minute and 16 seconds (oh and before you even start – the last time I busted my roll, I already learned that you get dealt four cards and all that.. so I clearly knew what I was doing!!1), I calmly placed the laptop on my side and stared at the wall with a blank look on my face.

How many times have I been in this exact situation? No one could tell. Oh, the memories that started running through my head. It felt like one of the many good old degenerate days in 2007/2008 back home in Estonia. For example, how could I forget the day when I was just sitting in my apartment in the Old Town (which I was renting because I was 18 years old, “baller” and generally frickin’ awesome) on a Saturday afternoon, counting the empty beer bottles from the previous night (93), trying to remember if the chick I’d just sent away had been any good in bed and most importantly thinking: “brilliant – it’s the time of the month again.. so where the hell am I going to find the rent money this time”.

A few hundred EEK (Estonian currency – around 20 USD) in my pocket, I was still sitting there on my couch. I’ve got this weird thing with American Idol and other similar shows involving music. I just love them to the point where you could call it obsessive and secretly wish I was on there. So I opened one of my favourite episodes of AI but nothing. Still hung-over and still at least 600-700 USD short of rent. Next, I tried my luck with some porn. Nope – nice try, though.

“Maybe I’ve got a few FPPs on PokerStars that I can run up”, I thought. “YES!!!!”, I yelled about 11 seconds later while jumping up from my couch. You’re right, my dear readers – I had a whopping $2.66 on my account. All I had to do next was steal a few blinds at a NL5 table, buy into the $3+R MTT, drink 7 cups of coffee and there I was the next morning – dead tired but about 1700 USD richer. Time to go to bed.

“What?” I mumbled, picking up the phone while still half asleep

“Where are you?” my best friend asked

F*CK!!! It was Sunday and it was on. I had already missed the first couple of minutes. Now, let me get this straight. I was damn baller, I was the real deal. So it’s obviously not that I couldn’t afford a TV or anything. I just didn’t need one. TVs are for fags. Yeah, that’s what it is!! Right..?

Anyway, I quickly threw on a pair of shorts and my coat, jumped into my boots (yes, it was winter and it was snowing.. but it was an emergency and who needs a shirt anyway!) and 4 minutes later I was there, sitting on the couch at my best friend’s place and watching “Kaks takti ette” (an Estonian singing competition) with a smile on my face. Life was treating me well. However, there was no way I could resist installing PokerStars on his laptop. Just in case there’s some fish sitting in a table or a huge overlay on a tourney – “the usual”, you know. And what a brilliant coincidence: just when I figured I’d been officially crowned as the king of MTTs and that I was way over-rolled for pretty much anything really, Sunday Million was coming up shortly!

5 Red Bulls, few hours of Sunday Million, another 3-4 hours of $230 Turbo HU SNGs and I sadly had to admit – I wasn’t quite over-rolled for these games after all. I only wished I’d left a few dollars for the $3+R…

I still had a few notes of cash in my pocket, so I threw on my coat again in addition to the awkward enough combo of  shorts and a button-up shirt I borrowed, drove to this little 24h pizza place and bought…

…

…

…

A pack of Marlboro Lights – and I don’t even smoke! As a matter of fact, I sincerely hate smoking and I always have.

I drove back to my friend’s place, smoked 1/3 of the pack of cigarettes in a turbo-mode, feeling horribly sick. After that, I lay down on the couch and fell asleep. Somehow, it all just felt right.