Spencer Lawrence

45k, just chipping up in small pots with no major confrontation. Saw a really spazzy XR bluff into a nut flush on the river from someone who flopped top two. The kid was aggressive and seemed to know what he was doing and I get what he was trying to do, but it was obvious his opponent had a decent sized flush and equally obvious the kid didn’t have the nizzles. Trying to get a decent flush to lay down is dubious at the best of times in a live tourney, in a really well structured one when your line makes no sense? yikes.

That said the only double up for me I can see coming from my mostly young table is encouraging a similar spazz-off. My frequent “min-raise +25″ opens seem to be irritating people and getting attacked pretty hard so there is definite potential for something awesome to happen.

Antes kick in when I return from break.

31600, hovering between starting stack of 30k and 35k. Just chopping away at small pots and starting to get an active image so I get played with when I do have a real hand. Seen a couple of LOL busts, I may recall later. QQ 200bb deep is not a stack off hand in most live tourneys.

Finally registered less than an hour before the event, taking advantage of the quiet time at the end of the free breakfast rush. Tried a couple of times last night but it was a clusterfuck with players from the bar streaming across the multiple different queues which were already absurdly long. Sign posting was inadequate and I didn’t expect help to be attainable.

(Aside for brief story from EPT Dortmund a couple of years ago. At the time I spoke passable German. Tho I hadn’t reached fluent neither was it halting or broken. The dealer at my first table started talking to me and as I replied in German he caught my accent, immediately cut me off and turned around to talk to someone else. Classy. I let my german lapse into complete disuse after that because, seriously? what would be the point?)

Dortmund had many other issues that made it a venue I would never return to, from a hotel that was a 2 mile walk to the city, to the casino that was a long bus ride from *anywhere*. This same casino charged us in advance an exoribitant fee for free food/drink every day of the tournament but for the vast majority eliminated on Day 1 this money was wasted as returning all the way out there to recover 40 euros or so cost would have been ludicrous.

Berlin has immediate advantages over Dortmund and we’ve only taken a brief stroll around the platz so far, but Germany is not endearing itself to me. Part of this is not it’s fault, but simply a result of the homogenisation of the world’s cities which always leaves me slightly irritated at visiting a “new” place and finding it’s exactly like everywhere else. The largest part of it tho is the general stand-offish, excessively formal and ingrained rudeness of the people in the service industry that we’ve encountered so far.

Worse when I finally got my seat draw it was Table 45, Seat 10. Seats 1 and 10 have significant equity loss over the middle seats. I start in a few minutes, I’ve heard the structure is good and will check it now so I don’t make a strategic error as I did with a big stack pre-ante in Manchester. I’ll probably just grind out small pots, wait for my table to break and get a better seat position. That said if seats 7-9 are god-awful I’ll have to get involved straight away.

(Why, with Snowfest and San Remo just around the corner, am I attending EPT Berlin? I’m doing something very very wrong.)

PokerStars Game #32659184952: Tournament #200909018, $300+$20 USD 8-Game (Hold’em No Limit) – Level XXXI (400/800) – 2009/09/09 22:30:19 ET
Table ‘200909018 95′ 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: spence79 (48819 in chips)
Seat 2: villepn (58394 in chips)
Seat 3: Gnd007 (22476 in chips)
Seat 4: abc.Ms (17612 in chips)
Seat 5: raydavis77 (70013 in chips)
Seat 6: schmejkal (49932 in chips)
schmejkal: posts the ante 100
spence79: posts the ante 100
villepn: posts the ante 100
Gnd007: posts the ante 100
abc.Ms: posts the ante 100
raydavis77: posts the ante 100
schmejkal: posts small blind 400
spence79: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to spence79 [8h Ah]
villepn: folds
Gnd007: raises 1200 to 2000
abc.Ms: folds
raydavis77: folds
schmejkal: folds
spence79: calls 1200
*** FLOP *** [Kh Th 2h]
spence79: checks
Gnd007: bets 3500
spence79: raises 4000 to 7500
Gnd007: raises 12876 to 20376 and is all-in
spence79: calls 12876
*** TURN *** [Kh Th 2h] [9h]
*** RIVER *** [Kh Th 2h 9h] [Kc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
spence79: shows [8h Ah] (a flush, Ace high)
Gnd007: shows [Kd Tc] (a full house, Kings full of Tens)
Gnd007 collected 45752 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 45752 | Rake 0
Board [Kh Th 2h 9h Kc]
Seat 1: spence79 (big blind) showed [8h Ah] and lost with a flush, Ace high
Seat 2: villepn folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: Gnd007 showed [Kd Tc] and won (45752) with a full house, Kings full of Tens
Seat 4: abc.Ms folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: raydavis77 (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: schmejkal (small blind) folded before Flop

Just hit cash 35/144 left. 48k stack. 35k average

busted 99 vs QJ 4b AI btn vs SB.

$1275 cash.

Just passed the bubble in the $530 2 day NL event. 48k stack 69k average 525/900 left. Been playing 9 hours, 4 ish hours left today then resume at 1700 est tomorrow.

Here’s a big fold from earlier in tourney.

PokerStars Game #32536758404: Tournament #200909011, $500+$30 USD Hold’em No Limit – Level VII (100/200) – 2009/09/06 21:05:19 ET
Table ‘200909011 434′ 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: GreatRomelus (6364 in chips)
Seat 2: stockcar99 (8435 in chips)
Seat 3: asbo22 (12212 in chips)
Seat 4: sheckwave (15022 in chips)
Seat 5: stackinkids (7391 in chips)
Seat 6: spence79 (16796 in chips)
Seat 7: raging water (29986 in chips)
Seat 8: wiklund (20516 in chips)
Seat 9: !AAelTigre (15200 in chips)
GreatRomelus: posts the ante 25
stockcar99: posts the ante 25
asbo22: posts the ante 25
sheckwave: posts the ante 25
stackinkids: posts the ante 25
spence79: posts the ante 25
raging water: posts the ante 25
wiklund: posts the ante 25
!AAelTigre: posts the ante 25
stackinkids: posts small blind 100
spence79: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to spence79 [Qh Qc]
raging water: raises 300 to 500
wiklund: folds
!AAelTigre: folds
GreatRomelus: folds
stockcar99: folds
asbo22: folds
sheckwave: calls 500
stackinkids: folds
spence79: calls 300
*** FLOP *** [Tc 9d 5s]
spence79: checks
raging water: bets 1200
sheckwave: folds
spence79: calls 1200
*** TURN *** [Tc 9d 5s] [4s]
spence79: checks
raging water: bets 3000
spence79: folds
Uncalled bet (3000) returned to raging water
raging water collected 4225 from pot
raging water: doesn’t show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4225 | Rake 0
Board [Tc 9d 5s 4s]
Seat 1: GreatRomelus folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 2: stockcar99 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: asbo22 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 4: sheckwave (button) folded on the Flop
Seat 5: stackinkids (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: spence79 (big blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 7: raging water collected (4225)
Seat 8: wiklund folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 9: !AAelTigre folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

only 1800 people in a 400k guarantee meant 10% overlay. Hawt.

PokerStars Game #32494402839: Tournament #200909008, $200+$15 USD Hold’em Limit – Level X (400/800) – 2009/09/05 20:13:13 ET
Table ‘200909008 190′ 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: MiguelPiper (20600 in chips)
Seat 2: spence79 (2505 in chips)
Seat 3: frankie0967 (15210 in chips)
Seat 4: Feb19 (15330 in chips)
Seat 5: Oddla (16145 in chips)
Seat 6: PFabe (9130 in chips)
Seat 7: velimirovic (5610 in chips)
Seat 8: Robaen (11058 in chips)
Seat 9: smoothustler (6211 in chips)
smoothustler: posts small blind 200
MiguelPiper: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to spence79 [Ks Qs]
spence79: raises 400 to 800
frankie0967: folds
Feb19: folds
Oddla: folds
PFabe: folds
velimirovic: folds
Robaen: calls 800
smoothustler: folds
MiguelPiper: calls 400
*** FLOP *** [Td 2h Ac]
MiguelPiper: checks
spence79: bets 400
Robaen: calls 400
MiguelPiper: folds
*** TURN *** [Td 2h Ac] [Qh]
spence79: bets 800
Robaen: raises 800 to 1600
spence79: calls 505 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (295) returned to Robaen
*** RIVER *** [Td 2h Ac Qh] [Kd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
spence79: shows [Ks Qs] (two pair, Kings and Queens)
Robaen: shows [Jh Th] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
Robaen collected 6010 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 6010 | Rake 0
Board [Td 2h Ac Qh Kd]
Seat 1: MiguelPiper (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 2: spence79 showed [Ks Qs] and lost with two pair, Kings and Queens
Seat 3: frankie0967 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 4: Feb19 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: Oddla folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: PFabe folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 7: velimirovic folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 8: Robaen (button) showed [Jh Th] and won (6010) with a straight, Ten to Ace
Seat 9: smoothustler (small blind) folded before Flop

to bust after losing AK

Not so hawt.

Playing wcoop makes me feel like a battered wife returning to her abusive husband over and over in the hope that this time it will be different.

$215 NL and $530 NL (2-day) tomorrow. Will prob take the early afternoon off and just play the $530 at 1630 est

I put turbo in brackets as the mornings NL event definitely was one – it just wasn’t advertised as such. I ran Queens into Aces near the bubble after only 2 hrs of play. This is about twice as quickly as you would expect to hit the bubble in a normal tournament let alone a wcoop. Not that I’m complaining – I like turbos.

Was chipleader in the 8game second chance last night from 60 people down to 18 then finished 12th for a small cash.

So far so normal as far as wcoop goes. Torrid start. I’m in PA tho with sun, swimming facilities and nature (lots of that fo sho) so I’m more hopeful of breaking out my wcoop hell than in past years.

Tonight’s $215 LHE event is structured near perfectly – seeing that cheered me up as these festivals tend to screw up limit formats with uncanny regularity. My LHE game isn’t as strong as last year when I entered the $10k LHE world championship (i broke it in Jan like I broke my PLO game the Jan before – sensing another reason to spend jan and feb by a pool in the caribbean) but i’m still heavily +ev in this sort of field.