Event 6: #Uncle Fil
Hashtagnight at Uncle Fil last time, with some good results for Fabster and Quattro Cane-Iz concerning the ranking. But what about my own achievements? Well, I thought my last performances already cut the head, but I added another losing session to my rankings: -29 points. But the ranking is not that important in my opinion, because overall I’m still about 340 up.
With Aces being absent, the starting line-up consisted of Uncle Fil, Gust ‘Crushing Grinder’ 9999, Pseudo-Pro, Fabster (who was just on a lunchbreak from work), Iranian Dutchman and the LP Genesis Live. While they preserved that last one like a bottle of precious wine, it was Mister Gershwin who brought them a first musical hand, with Fabster making the last bet before the song ended, resulting in a successful bluff against Uncle Fil. This was not the last time Fabster would shove a lot of chips in the middle, certainly after he completely confused the Pseudo Pro by stating that ‘hashtag’ is an actual word used by human beings.
Luckily I brought my own hashtags, which immediately helped me to crush the Grinder’s Kings with a set of neuffies. Fabster quickly recognized the danger that had come to the table and left with 45 points, being replaced by Quattro Cane-Iz, who you can always wake up for a decent christmas party in January. But let’s face it: the Magical Flying Fabster was right in his decision to avoid Biscotti. This is something the Pseudo Pro will never learn, as he lost almost his complete stack after I figured I had the best hand. Other players would have folded in that tough spot, but by sending a lot of mental staredowns and subtly interrogating this guy, I made an heroic call.
This was the beginning of an epic period with lots of things being very epic. First I shoved with more chips than I expected against The Grinder, who was also pretty deep due to a lot of gifts by the Iranian Dutchman in the six hands he played. We splitted the pot and so did the Pseudo Pro and Quattro Cane-Iz a couple of times when the latter one catched some miracle christmas cards. This made him the second winner of the evening, only followed by Peter Gabriel and the guy from the nightshop. Maybe Cane-Iz can still be a threat to leader Aces, or wil somebody else stand up in the four remaining events? Let’s see when the club is open.
Leaderboard (total points+latest result):
1. Aces 300
2. Quattro Cane-Iz 109 (+31)
3. Fabster 40 (+45)
4. Iranian Dutchman 26 (-17)
5. Gust9999 1 (-41)
6. Uncle Fil -13 (+9)
7. Pseudo Pro -26 (+3)
8. Biscotti -144 (-29)
9. Miyagi -160
10. Fat Kid -175
Event 4: Swings around the candy basket
What a crazy night at the Fat Kid’s place last time, playing the fourth event of our series. The swings were huge, with Fabster, Cane-Iz, Iranian Dutchman and myself getting knocked around, while Aces increased his lead and the Pseudo Pro made an impressive comeback.
As I had to have fondue with Schatje first, I provided for a live coverage by Quattro Cane-Iz through mobile phone during the first hours. I really hurried for the first train to take off when I heard that the Fat Kid was treating on a self-made candy basket after spiking a full house with his signature hand Q8 against Fabster. Besides, I heard the Pseudo Pro’s chips were up for grabs as he declared that his lungs were in his feet.
When I finally entered the theatre, I was staggered by two astonishing things. First I saw the Fat Kid raking in another great pot, making him an early chipleader once again. But then I saw something even more overwelming: a big, shiny casserole of stewed meat. Arguments between Cane-Iz, myself and the Fat Kid whether we could touch it or not quickly followed, with the Iranian Dutchman meanwhile going broke for like the seventh time, after his two pair were cracked by the Pseudo Pro’s straight.
But I realized after a while that I could not let the meat distract me any longer, after a wake-up call from the Fat Kid (“You aren’t going to gather much information by folding every hand.”). So shortly afterwards I shoved all-in against Aces and won my first pot. Aces had already become big chipleader again by then, but he got company from the Pseudo Pro after The Event Hand. It was a three way all-in between him (flopping top two), Fabster and Quattro Cane-Iz, who forgot he was holding pocket Jacks, which is always a loser. Pseudo Pro really took over when his stack expanded further after knocking out Fabster again and flopping the nut flush against the Iranian Dutchman’s Aces.
Aces and the Pseudo Pro managed to maintain their lead till the end of the evening, while I was sinking further and further. But what can I do when I shove with Kings and Fabster gets a two outer with his eights? I can only hope for more luck during the next events. After all: we’re not even half way in this series. But Aces took a big lead on his closest pursuers, the Iranian Dutchman and the Pseudo Pro. Meanwhile, me and the Fat Kid may be lying on our backs, but it takes more to knock us out once and for all.
Leaderboard (total points+latest result):
1. Aces 147 (+66)
2. Iranian Dutchman 58 (-23)
3. Pseudo Pro 41 (+70)
4. Quattro Cane-Iz 18 (-13)
5. Gust9999 15
6. Miyagi 0
7. Fabster -5 (-2)
8. Uncle Fil -22
9. Biscotti -87 (-51)
10. Fat Kid -100 (-47)
Event 3: Aces owning Grinderfest
By Biscotti’s special representative Pedro Bonito.
Online grinder Gust9999 hosted the third event of the HSOP, an event without Biscotti, as he was attending the annual Record Collector’s Conference. That’s why I was sent over to write this special report. First the starting line-up for this event: apart from Grinder himself, the Fat Kid, the Iranian Dutchman, Aces and Quattro Cane-Iz were there to open the game, together with the freelance players El Frisco aka ‘The Regrinder’ and myself. The Pseudo Pro had to cancel this event last minute due to his growing involvement in the local youth movement. I’ll subdivide this report into four different periods, according to the respective chipleaders.
Part 1: Gust9999
Playing a home match, it was Grinder Gust9999 who took the chiplead during the first part of the evening. Iranian Dutchman had a promising start, but lost the lead early thanks to a cold deck against El Frisco. Holding the neuffies, he saw his opponent showing pocket Kings after all-ins on a 9TK T x board. Gust9999 took maximum advantage of this hit by taking a comfortable chiplead after winning a huge pot against Aces with a set of deuces.
Part 2: Fat Kid
The following couple of hours, the Fat Kid took over. He first handed out a mental hit by answering the Iranian Dutchman’s proposal to invest in a pub of him and the Pseudo Pro with “I don’t think so.”. Then he became chipleader thanks to winning four decent pots in a row, showing us a mixture of marvellous calls and sick bluffs. His victory was completed by a huge pot with a set of sevens against my pocket Kings.
Part 3: The Iranian Dutchman
Meanwhile, Fabster had entered the game, just like Uncle Fil, who debuted in the Series. It was however the Iranian Dutchman who took over control, as he got his chips directly from the Fat Kid. They played a couple of well sized pots, with the Fat Kid experiencing some serious kicker problems. But also Gust9999′s stack began to grow again, first after knocking out Uncle Fil with two pair against an ambitious Jack high bluff. But Grinder wasn’t finished yet: he also knocked out El ‘Regrinder’ Frisco after turning the nuts. Frisco’s hand was best described by Aces as “What do you have left except for the bus home?”.
Part 4: Aces
It happened to be the announcement of what was to come. Aces had already expanded his stack during the last hour, but 10 minutes before the ranking closed, The Event Hand was played. His opponent was Fabster, floating eight miles high above the table at that moment. With the turn being dealt, he shoved with toppair (Jack) and a flushdraw (Diamonds). Aces took his time and called eventually with AdKd, two overs and a better flushdraw. Fabster was decided to run it one time, resulting in a King on the river. This way, he became the big winner of the evening. He’s sharing the lead now with the Iranian Dutchman, with Quattro ‘steady as a rock’ Cane-Iz and Grinder following after a decent gap.
Leaderboard (total points+latest result):
1. Aces 81 (+76)
1. Iranian Dutchman 81 (+23)
3. Quattro Cane-Iz 31 (0)
4. Gust9999 15 (+25)
5. Miyagi 0
6. Fabster -3 (-23)
7. Uncle Fil -22 (-22)
8. Pseudo Pro -29
9. Biscotti -36
10. Fat Kid -53 (-13)
Event 2: Cane-Iz and Fabster closing the gap
The leader in the challenge, the Iranian Dutchman, hosted the second event of our Concept and luckily for all of us, he lost some points during his home match. Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t take advantage of this, losing another 17 points. It were Quattro Cane-Iz and Adam ‘Fabster’ B. who closed the gap a little instead. Maybe I should come on time the next event.
I was late due to some extensive cooking again and this caused me to miss some important information about the hands that were played in the beginning. A small overview of situations that happened before my arrival, with the starting line-up consisting of Quattro Cane-Iz, the Iranian Dutchman, Grinder Gust9999, Pseudo-Pro and the Fat Kid:
- a little agrarian lesson by the Fat Kid: a pig is slaughtered at the weight of 100 kilograms
- a complete and collective degradation of the game of ‘Deuces Wild’
- a battle of words between the Fat Kid and Grinder after the latter forgot to put in his big blind
- Cane-Iz catching quads (Aces) once again, against the Pseudo Pro
Biscotti. Cooking.
Then I and Fabster arrived and I immediately had some swings: I lost a big pot against the Iranian Dutchman after this lucky boy catched running Kings against my flopped Aces and shortly afterwards I beat the Pseudo Pros flusdraw with top two pair. What followed was Mental Hour, with some extreme strong hands being showed. The ‘One Time’ Fat Kid already announced what was about to come with his all-in with Tens up against the Pseudo Pros toppair. But for me it all started when Aces had arrived from a Mexican trip, just in time to hold the Ace high flush against my STRAIGHT FLUSH! Obviously I got this sweet picture for you (thanks to my baby who advised me to wear the diamonds sweater that night). But it didn’t stop here, it really looked like we were playing an online cashgame on Unibet when Fabster also catched quad Aces some minutes later. To catch it is one thing, but he also maximized his profits against the Iranian Dutchman by playing it like an anxious rabbit in a hole surrounded by East-German foxes on steroids.
Next to arriving late I will avoid one other thing during the next events: taking a sanitary break. When I returned, I got the feeling they had just plotted a plan together to distract me for the rest of the evening. Especially Grinder Gust9999 was very clear about his intensions, he just accused me of putting shit on the cards to mark them after returning from the toilet. Then I got a phone call from my baby during which the Fat Kid was continuously making obscene gestures. I was never able to get back into this game, certainly not after Cane-Iz got Aces another time against me, just before the playing time for the ranking was about to end. This way Fabster and Cane-Iz became the big winners of the evening, and are now forming an elite group at the top of the ranking together with the Iranian Dutchman. The Fat Kid, the Pseudo Pro and myself have some serious work to next time!
Leaderboard (total points+latest result):
1. Iranian Dutchman 58 (-27)
2. Quattro Cane-Iz 31 (+30)
3. Fabster 20 (+45)
4. Aces 5 (+5)
5. Miyagi 0
6. Uncle Fil 0
7. Gust9999 -10 (+10)
8. Pseudo Pro -29 (-7)
9. Biscotti -36 (-17)
10. Fat Kid -40 (-40)
Event 1: Steam Engines
What a crazy start of The New Concept this week, at Biscotti’s place. I was the first one to host a legendary homegame, and six contenders for the yellow jersey showed up, heavily poking up eachother to steam like mad horses on Red Bull.
I was totally ready for this evening, bringing in some extra chairs and no drinks. Three contenders showed up for the starting line-up: the Pseudo-Pro, Quattro Cane-Iz and the Iranian Sick Minded Dutchman; the Fat Kid had to cancel because of a bowling night with the Liberal Federation of Rich Capitalists. Before getting to business, we retrieved some memories from the beautiful year 1994 together. But when the Pseudo-Pro suddenly grabbed a strange bottle of booze, I realised this was the perfect moment to get his money. So we set up the game and I chose this soon to be drunk guy to pick on the rest of evening.
The tensions grew after I called him ‘lucky boy’ after one of his suck-outs. But he only started to explode thanks to my casual ‘well played’ after he lost a decent pot. Unlucky for the Iranian Sick Minded Dutchman, who was called by him after a steamy all-in with Ace high. I think he had absolutely no clue what he was doing at that moment. He tilted some more, but suddenly, he had 300 big blinds in front of his nose instead of steaming broke.
Adam ‘Fabster’ B. meanwhile had also joined the game and all the chips of the ISMD were in the middle once again when he had QT on a TTxx board against the JT of the Pseudo-Pro. A Queen on the river launched the steaming moron totally back in the game, making him the new chipleader. After I went broke after a reckless shove with the signature T6, Cane-Iz also shoved with his Jacks against Fabster’s top pair on a 9 high board. His hand held up and while Fabster’s mood could best be described as ‘crying asleep’, Cane-Iz gave him the needle by stating ‘keep calling my all-ins, they always end up sweet against you’.
Pseudo-Pro: I should have raised the flop.
Biscotti: Yes.
With about 2 hours of play left, the game completely changed when online grinder Gust9999 entered the game. After he played a couple of hands, his goals for The Concept were clear: PURE OWNAGE. He ruled the table for about 40 minutes, catched quads and heavily packed out aganst the Pseudo-Pro, stating ‘next time you better just give me your chips’ and even giving him the finger after this guy mistakenly grabbed some chips from him. The best hand I got meanwhile was T6, obviously, and this time my move with it turned out better:
With 30 minutes left and Fabster already gone again, there was only one battle left, the battle for The Concept lead, the battle for the yellow jersey, between The Grinder and the ISMD, with a little advantage for the first one. But he lost a big pot against the Pseudo-Pro 5 minutes later, bringing the Sick Mind in the lead. Then The Event Hand was played: after reraising it up preflop with KcKh the flop comes all hearts. Grinder makes a pot-sized bet, is raised and calls. With a King on the turn he calls all-in to see the Iranian Dutchman have AhTh, a disaster for Gust9999 and a huge chiplead for the Dutchman. This results in the following standings for The Concept:
1. Iranian Dutchman 85
2. Quattro Cane-Iz 1
3. Aces 0
4. Fat Kid 0
5. Miyagi 0
6. Uncle Fil 0
7. Biscotti -19
8. Gust9999 -20
9. Pseudo Pro -22
10. Fabster -25
All-in Night @ Biscotti
Hello friends of poker. This is the report of what was probably the sickest homegame our crew ever had. After the abandonment of Quatro Cane-Iz’ crib I decided to host a game myself. It proved to be a big success, as bluffs, perfect reads, huge pots and Coca-Cola were all over the place.
The beginning of the night was kind of depressing, as everybody was disappointed by the disappearance of The Wall. As you know, the wall is the wall and it’s hard to replace such monuments. I myself was more touched by it then I could have imagined, resulting in the loss of some big pots early on.
Especially the Fat Kid took advantage of this, quickly becoming one happy chipleader in the beginning, as you can see on the picture. His aggression was overwhelming and went beyond the game, as he personally excluded the new player on the table from participating in our new project. Few minutes later my first buy-in was already gone when my AK lost to the J9 of the Pseudo Pro. I tried to soothe the atmosphere by introducing my wife but this was fruitless: the Pseudo Pro took a chunk of my stack by professionally Ivo’ing me and the Fat Kid crushed Cane-Iz’ pair of fours with AK.
Rebuys followed each other quickly and cold decks were rather rule instead of exception. First the Iranian Dutchman doubled thanks to a flush over flush against the new guy and subsequently it was my turn to double with T7 against the Pseudo Pro’s 65 on a T654 board, winning both river runs (pic). I expected everything to run smoothly from this moment on, sitting back for a while with the inspiring sounds of Mister Bob Marley on the background. But then came the turning point of the evening with a fatal cola crash of the new guy. Absolute chipleader Pseudo Pro was so distracted that he started to clean the whole room like a prostyle houseman, losing his complete stack of a gazillion big blinds shortly afterwards by watering the table with chips.
Meanwhile Adam ‘Fabster’ B. entered the game and I placed his shallow stack between Cane-Iz and myself, ready to eat this fresh fish. However, this plan failed completely when he ate my stack by beating my two pair with a dirty set. This was a big mental hit, because I’d just doubled with a tremendous call with JT against the Iranian Dutchman’s QT on a KJxx board. As you see, every player experienced some big up & downs, nobody could escape from it. Even the Fat Kid had a mental breakdown, suddenly confessing he lost the love of his life by playing at our homegame instead of visiting the local pubs in his hometown. One player however was able to turn the tides right on time, Quatro Cane-Iz. After putting on The Very Best of the Hollies, he went like a crazy pokermotherfucker for an hour and collected an enormous stack. I believe he even missed the blitz visit of online grinder Gust9999, who just returned from Spain, spending his online profits.
And Biscotti? In the end I even ran break-even thanks to tripling up with a flusdraw (as you see, my shoves are faster than the speed of light) and some extreme luck in the legendary luckgames. Till next time, when it’ll be serious business with this new concept going on. More about that later. Ciao!
The Queen of Clubs goes to…
So I’m still waiting for Veronika to pick up the Queen of Diamonds Award, but no worries, today it’s time to give away the Queen of Clubs.
Maybe it’s good news for Veronika, because the winner of this Award is also a Scandinavian woman, so they can hitchhike together towards Belgium to pick up their awards. You are both welcome, Veronika and…
… CECILIA NORDENSTAM!
I already mentioned once how big a fan I am of Cecilia but for those people who don’t know this grape I have the following pictures:
Cecilia is from Sweden where 98% of all women is proved to be very attractive. She lives in Gothenburg and is supposed to be the girlfriend of Alexander Stevic. Contrary to Veronika, she already made some cashes in big poker tournaments and now she’s definitely a great poker player with a Biscotti Queen in her pocket.
Btw, I made a STRAIGHT FLUSH the other day while playing some cash games. I made this shot for you (I disguised my nickname because I don’t want to be spammed by fans in the chatbox all the time):
CHEERS!