INTERLUDE

I absolutely intend to continue the soon-to-be “series” of blog posts about What I Do Well and What I Don’t Do Well, but right now I was in a writing mood and just wanted to get something out there. So let me back-track a little bit and give anyone who might be interested a bit of background…

I’m from Denmark originally, but have lived in several different places all over the world and – as anyone who follows this blog just some of the time will know – now currently reside in Sydney, Australia. My girlfriend and I didn’t come here with aspirations of me becoming a professional poker-player/obnoxious blogger, but things have just kind of worked out that way. I’ve been severely struggling to get a job in my field of expertise – which, supposedly, is shipping/logistics – although I’m starting to doubt a little bit exactly how much of an expert I should be considering myself, seeing that no one is looking to hire me!

Side note: Currently, I AM turning a profit from poker and it IS my only source of income, so technically the above reference to ‘professional’ is correct, but let’s not kid ourselves – I’m not exactly raking it in at the moment.

Anyway, we left Copenhagen and came here because of my girlfriend’s desire to undertake a Master’s Class that was being offered by the Sydney Opera House. She’s a professional violinist (but no – does not lull me to sleep with Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star each night – unfortunately) who wanted to work behind the stage, instead of on it. We sold our apartment in Denmark and were EXTREMELY lucky to walk away with a six-figure profit, which has helped sustain us so far. It is also the source of my poker bankroll, which I have surprisingly, not yet squandered.

…and why do I tell you all this? Again, just felt like getting something out there. I feel like I’m on my way towards making a big 4-figure score in the not too distant future and WHEN (not ‘if’, very important to word-select properly to BIG-UP the motivation) I do hit it, this blog might actually receive some attention and I’ll be forced to write ONLY poker-related stuff. So – last chance to get this out there.

Speaking of poker, I’ll leave you with a little hand from one of my tournaments today and another lesson of what not to do. I should’ve trusted my read, but couldn’t find the fold button, even though I knew he was value-town’ing me in a big way.

It’s a $10 rebuy and we’re very close to the money-bubble. 30 get paid and I believe we were down to 38 at this point. I’m a semi-big stack and have a very solid TAG image. At a 9-handed table I find 7h7d in early position (UTG+3, stack 24560) with blinds at 400/800/a100.

It folds to me and I make it 2100. Two folds and the CO min-raises to 3400, which is such a donkish play (and yet, as this tale shall tell – maybe not) and somebody oughta shake this guy up real good to prevent him from doing so again. The rest fold. I know what he has. I estimate there’s about a 75% chance of him having AA, a 24.5% chance of it being KK and 0.5% chance of him having some random two-card-combo, because of a misclick or something equally insane. I call because I can never fold to a min-bet, but I am effectively set-mining. I even tell myself that, before the flop hits – simple reiteration of the fact that I am dominated and need to bail out if I don’t see a seven out there.

…but then disaster strikes.

(Pot 8900) FLOP: 8d 5s 6c

“Oh come on…” Are you shittin’ me? I can’t fold now, with that stupid-looking flop out there. All of a sudden, I’ve improved to 40% against AA. Anyway, he has position and I check to him. He checks back. (?)

(Pot 8900) TURN: 3s

On the flop I was dead-certain he had AA. I would’ve sold my grandmother (my grandma is definitely +EV if anyone’s interested?) to the devil, just to prove how bombin’ ass right I was. Then he checks. All of a sudden that little turn-around voice, which has gotten me in trouble SO many times before, creeps up out of nowhere and starts whispering something about AK. “Oooohhh… (the voice has ghostly tendencies, go figure) – he proooobably has Ace…KING!!!”

I check. He bets 4000. I call.

(Pot 16900) RIVER: 2h

In a matter of seconds I’ve sold my grandmother, and done a one-eighty on the AA. I’ve managed to donk myself into thinking that AK is a real possibility. He bets 9600 and I pay him off.

I busted a few spots later, just shy of the money.

Lesson learned

… again.


Days left until Aussie Millions 2010: 213