At first I wish you all the best for 2012, with a lot of joy, happiness, love and a healthy life. And of course I may hope that all your poker dreams may come true this year, that you win a lot of money with some unbelievable rivers and some breathtaking bluffs while you were playing the perfect smallball-poker strategy. At least I’m trying to find that perfect strategy back as I had a very difficult end of 2011 with a serious downhill, as you could read before. So I decided to return to the basic of this famous and undoubtful strategy and I started to play really tight, but very agressive with a lot of check-raising moves. I’ve also made it very important to use my position at the table and I rearranged my starting hands. Well I may say that it created some positive results in the first month of the year as I started to crawl back and saw my bankroll moving up in the right direction. Maybe I’ve played some bad poker also during the last months of 2011, but hey when it’s all going against you, you’re starting to doubt  every move and than you make very stupid mistakes, which cost you a lot of money. But I’m trying to think and see positive now, so I’ll show you some well-played and lucky hands from January 2012, with the hope to gain full confidence again!

I’m the chip leader on the table in a big online tournament after some early double-ups by playing some great poker with a lot of confidence. This hand I woke up with pocket sixes in the big blind in a massive limpfest…

So I flopped middle set, which is a very good start and as there were a lot of small stacks I decided to check which turned out very well. Four players went All-in on that flop where I was in very good shape with 65% winning chance and I made it after the Jack on the turn gave me a full boat. So I busted three players in one hand, very exceptional and pleasant at the same time! I also cashed a good amount in the end of this tournament. The next hand started with a raise under the gun…

So I had the Snowmen and I decided to flat call  the small over the top all-in from the player between me and the under the gun raise, and so did he. I almost fell of my chair when I saw that I flopped the absolute nuts, namely Quad Eights ! Of course I just called all his bets on flop and turn with his pocket Tens and took a very nice and big pot, busting two players at the same time. I really hope that 2012 is going to be my year and I’m already off to a very good start.

And now is the moment you were all waiting for, the final conclusion of my excellent list: The Best 21st century songs top-50 until now. It took a while but I’m very glad to present you the final five masterpieces, where you all just need to listen to. Yeah, right now ! Find them on Youtube!

5/ Editors – Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors (2007, An End has a Start)

4/ Muse – Time is Running Out (2003, Absolution)

3/ Sigur Ros – Hoppipolla (2005, Takk)

2/ Radiohead – Reckoner (2007, In Rainbows)

1/ Arcade Fire – No Cars Go (2007, Neon Bible)

I really hope you enjoyed my music list because there will be many more in the future. But I promised you some hot chicks in my last post so I really need to follow that promise. But as professionals do, I’ll not give you the whole package yet, just a little clue in my new poll on the left side of my pokerblog. Please let me know your votes and wishes because it could change my next list !

Cheers,

J.M.

I’m extremely FRUSTRATED right now… It’s really unbelievebale how badly I ran during the past two months. I’ve lost almost 30% of my bankroll and to be very honest, it wasn’t my fault at all. Just everything went wrong, it’s so irritating when you play good with some well-timed bluffs and right agressive moves during your smallball poker tactics. I’m really desperated at the moment and I really want to quit the online poker scene for a while, certainly at PokerStars because they have really sick dealers. I’ve saved some statistics to prove my frustration and anger. I’ve lost almost 85% of the coin-flips when we were all-in before the flop. I got 56% bad rivers when I was ahead against my 18% luck factor. And I’ve lost an impressive 67% when I had a reassuring lead of 70-30, e.g. when I had a bigger Ace or when I had a bigger pair and they got very lucky with some two or three outer.  I’m hoping for a better 2012 because I really don’t think that December will change all my luck. Or I’m just way too unlucky in life to be a successful poker player. Yeah Mike Matusow, I hear you ! I will show you now some special hands during these months, but as you might already know, it’s not me who won the hand…

The first hand is really crazy and probably typical  for PokerStars these days… What’s the chance for that board when you see their holdings. Well at least I could say is that the dealer saved the best for last…

So, the bast hand did won in the end. That’s a miracle for PokerStars, so I really had to post this one. The following hand is chosen by his exceptional flop, all the stacks were always going in on that board (at least my hand for sure!). And of course the player with the biggest gambling wish won the main pot…

Yeah, I flopped a Royal Flush draw ! I was even exciting as you guys. I could never fold that, maybe if I knew that mister small stack was holding my two biggest outs and a higher flush draw. In the end i got the flush and was beating the two pair of the third player, but I’ve lost the big main pot anyway.

I was only successful in a new poker format on PokerStars, namely the Time Tournaments! If you never heart or played them, you really should ! It’s a normal tournament with high blinds, switching really fast because there’s a time limit on the tourney. It could be 15, 30, 60 or 120 minutes and after the time is up, everybody who’s still in wins a share of the total prize pot. This share depends on your final stack compared with the other stacks. So for example you play a time tournament with an entree fee of $ 5 and a starting stack of 2500 chips. You end the tournament with a decent stack of 7875 (three times your starting stack) , so your share will be around three times the entree fee, in this example about $ 16.

I will end this post with the next five songs out of my Best 21st century Songs top-50 hit list. Next time you’ll know the conclusion with of course my ultimate number one, the best song of the century until now and there will also be some pretty hot chicks !

10/ Tool – Schism (2001, Lateralus)

09/ Kasabian – Fire (2009, New Musical Express)

08/ Coldplay – Viva La Vida (2008, Viva la Vida or Death and all His Friends)

07/ Fleet Foxes – Mykonos (2008, Fleet Foxes)

06/ The Temper Trap – Sweet Disposition (2009, Conditions)

Cheers,

J.M.

Such a shame that it’s been a while since I’ve posted something. But I’ve been very busy with different occupations : sports, football season started again, work, music, searching my own place and of course, with poker, my everlasting love ! I’ve also visited a casino for the first time ever in my life and I can tell you, it was a very pleasant experience The original plan there was to play in a 100 Euro tournament freeze-out structure with 50 entrants. But there were too many players than the casino expected and because we didn’t have a early registration number we were forced to sit out and wait. Since the cash games were too high for us, we decided to play some roulette in stead and come back another time when we have a certain registration. The roulette was amazing by the way, I made a big profit there Can’t wait to go back and test my poker skills … and to play some roulette afterwards !

Today I’m going to tell you something about Action Dan ! I hope you’ve already heard of him. Anyway, you should have because it’s referring to the magical poker legend Dan Harrington. He’s one of the best tournament players ever with especially amazing results at the World Series of Poker Main Event. His back to back Main Event final tables in 2003 (3rd place) and 2004 (4th place) has been regarded as the greatest accomplishment in the WSOP history. He’s also very famous for his excellent poker training books, probably the best in the world and a recommendation for everybody who wants to learn this beautiful game. And of course I know he’s a true fan of the smallball-poker strategy so only for that I can say that he’s a hero. But in our home game Action Dan is referring to a magnificent starting hand in NL Hold’em, namely the 10-3 off suit! There is some big money to win with that hand, as I’ll show you now as the blinds were pretty high…

So I had Action Dan in the small blind and there were some limpers before me. Of course I decided to join the party because I know the power of 10-3 off suit. I flopped two pair against some agressive players so I checked to trap, and it turned out beautifully as I almost tripled up my stack. Action Dan ftw !

The next hand I’ll show you is something special and extraordinary because it was the first time ever that I personally experienced something like that. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that.  I’ll let you see for yourself because you’ll recognize my excitement if you had the same micro chance once…

I woke up in the big blind with a pair of threes, some of what late in the tournament where I had a average stack. It was a typical battle of the blinds as all the rest folded their starting hands preflop. The small blind raised my blind and I decided to just call as I noticed him as a pretty good and solid player. The flop was unbelievable as I flopped Quads. That’s a micro chance of 0.24 % to flop a four of a kind with a pair in your hand and it just happened to me. I loved his continuation bet where I just called after some pause and hoping that he had something good, or decent at least. But after two following checks from him and no more high cards on the board, he probably not even had Ace High. What a pitty!

Anyway, here are the next ten (in stead of the usual five because you certaintly missed this list) songs out of my brilliant Best 21st century top-50.So than I’ll dive into the top-10 the next time. I hope that you take some time to listen to all of them. You really should !

20/ Vampire Weekend – A-Punk (2008, Vampire Weekend)

19/ Florence & The Machine – Rabbit Heart (Raise It up) (2009, Lungs)

18/ Mogwai – We’re No Here (2006, Mr Beast)

17/ Radiohead – Jigsaw Falling into Place (2007, In Rainbows)

16/ The XX – Islands (2009, xx)

15/ Kings of Leon – Closer (2008, Only by the Night)

14/ Sigur Ros – Saeglopur (2005, Takk)

13/ Interpol – Evil (2004, Antics)

12/ Muse – Plug In Baby (2001, Origin of Symmetry)

11/ The National – Terrible Love (2010, High Violet)

Cheers,

J.M.

You probably all know the famous poker show from PokerStars, called ‘The Big Game’ ?  Well if you don’t, here is a quick explanation about how the show works and operates. You should definately look it up and watch it some time. They are already at the second season so you’ll have a lot of catching up to do. But believe me, if you’re a true poker mind, it’s worthwile. Please note that this Big Game isn’t the more famous one that was played in Bobby’s (Baldwin) room at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, which is probably the biggest high-stakes poker ring game out there.

The PokerStars Big Game, aired on Fox Network,  is kind of different from the normal cash games on television. The format is pretty simple, but well-thought of and I really like it. There is one amateur, named as the Loose Cannon, who made it through different free qualifying rounds on PokerStars.net. He or she is stacked with a starting stack of $ 100,000 and they keep all winnings in excess of this initial amount. The Loose Cannon plays against 5 other players, mostly a mix of famous poker professionals, young guns and wealthy businessmen who of course all play with their own money (between $100,000 and $ 500,000) , contrary to the Loose Cannon. The game is played in 150 hands of no limit Texas Hold’em with blinds of $200 /$400 and an ante of $100 (payed by the player on the button), dealt in 5 episodes each week. One big difference with any other usual poker cash game is the fact that the betting before the flop is Pot Limit and turns into No Limit after the flop. This is to prevent the Loose Cannon from going all in immediately with a strong hand. It’s also a perfect rule to play the smallball poker strategy, you can see a lot of flops for lesser chips than otherwise and it creates more action. The Loose Cannon with the biggest profit at the end of the season wins an additional prize, a North American Poker Tour passport valued at $50,000, consisting of entry fees and expenses for various NAPT tournaments.

The most famous poker pros on the show are sponsored by PokerStars, like Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, David Williams or Joe Hachem, but not all of them (Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Laak, …). Some young guns who have been playing at the Big Game are Jason Mercier, Joe Cada, Eugene Katchalov, Lex Veldhuis or Scott Seiver. Among the rich businessmen were Cirque Du Soleil boss Guy Laliberte and filmmaker Nick Cassavetes.

Now I’ll show you a hand that I’ve played with would have created big action at the Big Game, if it was dealt there. Even preflop because there were a lot of big pocket pairs in the hole as you could see…

Okay, I would never fold QQ there in that spot, with only 5 BB. I’m just pretty unlucky that I ran into the Kings of the button. First time ever that I saw four big pocket pairs at the same time in the hole. Oh well, more luck next time ! I still have the music for now and the next 5 songs out of my Best 21st century Songs top-50…

25/ Queens of the Stone Age – No One Knows (2002, Songs for the Deaf)

24/ Mumford & Sons – The Cave (2010, Sigh No More)

23/ Foo Fighters – Rope (2011, Wasting Light)

22/ Bloc Party – Banquet (2005, Silent Alarm)

21/ Arcade Fire – Ready to Start (2010, The Suburbs)

Cheers,

J.M.

Last week I’ve played the Sunday Millions on PokerStars for the first time. It was by far my biggest buy-in tournament, with a fee of $215, until now at least. I won a ticket for such a tournament after I won a poker league in January. But I wasn’t that successful in the Sunday Millions. I made a nice start with some early pots using the excellent tournament smallball poker strategy but I was pretty card dead after the first hour so I was very disappointed with my early exit and my missed chance on the first step to a professional poker career. But I keep winning on smaller levels so I hope that I’ll have another shot of glory in a short time. Fingers crossed !

For now I’ll show you some strange and funny hands involving the second best starting hand in NL Hold’em, namely King Kong / The Cowboys / pocket Kings / KK . Afterwards you could enjoy the next five songs as usual. The first hand involves myself, raising big with KK in early position and getting rewarded with 2 callers before the flop hits…

So the flop came J J 9 with 2 spades which is a dangerous textured board for my Kings but I still decide to make a C-bet to see where I’m in the hand. I’m a bit surprised to see that they both just flat call  my bet. I love the King of Spades on the turn which gives me the best hand for sure.  Because I’m so strong I decide to play it very tricky and check, so they think that I’m weak and giving up the pot. Player 1 makes a half pot bet and after the other player folds, I decide to ship it as she was pretty pot commited there. I had her big time with my full boat against her straight. The next hand started when I woke up with KK on the button and decided to make a suspicious looking bet to induce some action, because all the other players before me already folded.

I was so happy to see the reraise and I immediately ship it in and I was surprised that he called because we both had pretty big stacks. It was pretty funny to see that he had the exact same hand as me. That was the first time ever something like that happened to me with such a big pair. Of course we splitted the pot, at least that what  the small blind lefted. The next is the perfect example of how you shouldn’t play King Kong. Of course, it wasn’t me that did it…

So I limped on the button with a suited Ace. I could raise but it was very early in the tournament and I just wanted to see a cheap flop. I loved the flop as it gave me the absolute NUTS so I just flatted his small bet. The turn wasn’t that special and I loved his big oversized donk bet so I pushed my small stack in and saw that he was drawing dead with his Kings. What a moron

I hope that you enjoyed my hands and talks, and even more the next five songs out of my Best 21st century songs top-50 list. I leave you for now but don’t forget poker people : Keep Gambling !

30/ Massive Attack – What Your Soul Sings (2003, 100th Window)

29/ Mercury Rev – The Dark is Rising (2001, All Is Dream)

28/ Editors – No Sound But The Wind (2010, /)

27/ Beirut – Nantes (2007, The Flying Club Cup)

26/ Phoenix – Lisztomania (2009, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix)

Cheers,

J.M.

I hope you all know The Blessed Trinity ? Well, I found it in poker too during an online session at PokerStars where I was just enjoying another session of frustrations when suddenly I saw the Holy Light. I had never seen it before, the three best starting hands in NL Texas Hold’em were dealt at the same time !! I don’t really know if it’s that common, but it was the first time that I saw that in my 4 years of playing poker. And I was even a part of it. Here’s how it went…

So I raised pretty standardly with my Cowboys and the Cut-off decided to smooth call with her Queens, she played pretty tight the hole time, before the small blind jammed his last few chips in the pot. I decided to flat call, maybe I should have raised there, and trap the other player. The flop looked pretty good to me so I just put her all-in. Great, she had the Nuts. The good news was the small blind had Aces , how sick was that. And of course, usual at PokerStars, he hit his 2-outer on the turn but they forget to deal my Jack on the river to crack two sets.

But it wasn’t over yet as I saw another piece of the Holy Light in the next hand. Unfortunately I just lost a big pot when my giant draw was again left for dead. So I started this special hand a little smaller than I hoped. No worries about the Smallball poker strategy though, just shove it in ! And so I did …

The player in second position made a pretty big opening raise, what nowadays usually means a lot of strength, but I shoved anyway with my Kings . Good the big blind called also, certainly when I hit Top Set on the flop, however the texture of the board was not safely. I became a little afraid when there was a lot of action on that flop and they both shoved. They both showed a very big hand, middle set against pocket Queens + gutshot  and against my Top Set. But I was a hugh favourite to make a very needed triple up. It became pretty funny and holy though when the Queen came on the river and we all had a Set I took the pot as the seven of hearts on the river was a blank. It was a very weird online poker week with those hands, but I’m not a saint yet so I’m certainly not hoping for more weeks like that !

As a conclusion, here are the next five songs out of my superb list, the Best 21st century Songs top-50 :

35/ Air Traffic – Time Goes By (2007, Fractured Life)

34/ dEUS – Favourite Game (2008, Vantage Point)

33/ White Lies – Death (2009, To Lose My Life)

32/ Arsenal – Lotuk (2008, Lotuk)

31/ Eels – That Look you Give That Guy (2009, Hombre Lobo)

Cheers,

J.M.

I finally find the courage to present you the next post on my smallball poker blog. You probably wonder why though. Well It’s really simple. I just had the most frustrating poker month in my career because I was constantly sitting on a rollercoaster, going down much more than going up though. I never had a good run in the past month, always busted out just before the prizes in a Sit and Go, winning only 20% of my coinflips and losing all the important hands in the big tournaments at the key moments. That’s why I really couldn’t build some momentum, which was really frustrating. But I must say that I’ve learnt to keep my cool and so I’ve managed to control my losses. That’s the experience I guess, because we all have had some month like that I suppose. So I ‘ll now show you some winning hands from me, probably the only ones from the past month,  for building up some confidence for the following weeks and months in my online poker career

The First hand is  really interesting and pleasant to watch. It all started with a limpfest before the flop…

So I limped in a really early position with pocket Nines and flopped the absolute nuts. The first limper bet really small on the flop so I had a decision there, just calling and hope to see someone else coming over the top or shipping it now. I decided to flatcall as there were really a lot hands after me that could have hit the flop, straight or flush possibilities. But I really didn’t expect that another 4 players would call his bet, but  I was very pleased with the Deuce of Clubs on the turn and the shove of two players before me. I had no other choice and I really wasn’t assured ater the other three players called also. I hated the Six of Diamonds on the river at that moment but  my hand held up surprisingly. I wasn’t the only trapper as it seems when there were Tens and Aces in play That was the first time ever that I won such a contestant hand, 6 players until the river !!

Now I’ll show you how you really must play pocket Tens as I had them twice in one turbo tournament against the same player who held the same hand twice ! Here’s the first one where I made a normal raise in first position, 4 times the Bg Blind …

So the button pushed his all stack in the pot and as it was a turbo and he was entering every pot, I decided to call and see an underpair or win a coinflip once. It looked like one of those hands but I was shocked to see his Kings crush my hand. Lucky for me that  I flopped a set of Tens and took a healthy pot.  The second time against my friend I limped in first postion with my Tens and see what happens.

My friend raised big and I decided to call and we saw a flop of 3 – A – 5 with two spades and we both checked. The turn was very hot, namely the Ten of Clubs which gave me the best hand for sure so I bet small to induce a bluf. He called and so he did with my riverbet, that should be a little bit more than I did but he was definately afraid of the Ace with his Kings so he wouldn’t have called an All-in I guess.

Hopefully I can show you more of those hands in my following post as I now going to leave you for my homegame ! But not before I present you the next five songs out of my beautiful Best 21st Century Songs top-50 :

40/ Snow Patrol – Chasing Cars (2006, Eyes Open)

39/ De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig – Hollereer (2008, De Machine)

38/ Kings of Leon – Fans (2007, Because of the Times)

37/ Moke – Last Chance (2007, Shorland)

36/ Explosions in the Sky – Your Hand in Mine (2003, The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place)

Cheers,

J.M.

Did you ever think that poker could be a teamsport ? Well, I didn’t. But to be honest, it really works as we saw the introduction of the Doubles Poker Championship last week. I really loved it and so did the poker professionals as eg. Phil Ivey claimed that he’s already looking forward to the second season! I hope that you’ve already seen all the episodes of the first season because I’m now going to reveal you how the first season ended. So as I told before there were two semi-final tables with 4 teams, so 16 players were qualified from the regular season. They matched up in the following semi-finals :

Semi-final 1: Lederer / Gordon ( stack 550k) vs. Mueller/ Rajkumar (510k) vs. Schulman / Lichtenberger (460k) vs. Seed / Cunningham (395k)

Semi-final 2 : Lindgren / Chan (630k) vs. Obrestad / Galfond (530k) vs. Tony G / Benyamine (410k) vs. Ivey / Ferguson (350k)

There were a lot differences with the regular season. They played big-stack poker at the semi-final tables as the blinds began at 3.000 / 6.000 and the starting stacks were high as the players were divided 5.000 for every point they earned in the regular season matches. So it became much more fun as there was more room to play and bluf, which is very pleasant to watch because of the teams. Each team also got two time-outs in stead of one. Semi-final 1 was very successful for the short stack, Seed / Cunningham who played very good together and were well aware of each other styles. They overcome Lederer / Gordon heads-up after some crazy moves and calls from Phil Gordon, whose style was miles away from Lederer’s. But in the end both teams qualified for the final. Also semi-final 2 was dominated by the short stacks as the big stacks made some wrong moves at the wrong time and as well Tony G / Benyamine as Ivey / Ferguson qualified for the final. Tony G and David were the winners after they hit their Ace from Space on the turn to clinch it.

The starting stack at the final table was pre-determined with 600.000 for the semi-final winners and 400.000 for the other two teams. So there was even more room to play as the blinds started again at  3.000 / 6.000. The final was really exciting to watch and the players played much better than before. There was a lot of action, with each team playing a different style. Ivey/ Ferguson and Seed/Cunningham were definately waiting for the right hands, before playing some aggressive smallball poker against some more crazy moves form Tony G or Phil Gordon. So we saw some unbelievable turn-overs with some very lucky turns and rivers, eg. Gordon’s pocket tens turned a set against the Aces from Benyamine. So Tony G / Benyamine were down at one point with only %1 of the chips in play, but they came back strongly before busting out at 4th place with $ 100.000 in their pockets. Then Ivey and Jesus went out in 3rd place after they weren’t dealt any hands for a long time and they had to move. They were rewarded with $200,000. The heads-up battle was very exciting with some clearly different approaches and thoughts. Seed and Cunningham were tight and trapping a lot, especially against the uber agressive Gordon who won a lot of small pots. But in the end Huck Seed and Allen Cunningham were the clear and deserved winners, after they played best together while Howard Lederer and Phil Gordon had too many differences in their game. The winners got $ 1,000,000 and the runner-ups were rewarded the half, $500,000. I’m already looking forward to the second season with hopefully many more big names such as Negreanu, Antonius and Elezra.

Here are the next five excellent songs out of my Best 21st century Songs top-50 list :

45/ Absynthe Minded – Envoi (2009, Absynthe Minded)

44/ Silversun Pickups – Lazy Eye (2007, Carnavas)

43/ Coldplay – Fix You (2005, X & Y)

42/ Triggerfinger – All This Dancin’ Around (2010, All This Dancin’ Around)

41/ Placebo – Special Needs (2003, Sleeping With Ghosts)

Enjoy them ! Cheers

J.M.

This is the moment you were all waiting for, namely the start of my new list : The Best 21st century Songs top-50 !! But before I will present you my fisrt five songs, starting at the button with number 50 of course, I will start first with an explanation of a recent phenomenon in the poker world, which is a very popular format among players, experts and viewers. It’s called DOUBLES POKER CHAMPIONSHIP and it’s televised by GSN with commentators David Tuckman (famous voice from other poker related shows) and Brandon Adams (famous poker pro and math wizard). They get support from the beautiful Lacey Jones who’s in for the presentation, so the show can’t be bad after all don’t you think . First I’m going to explain you the rules of Doubles Poker :

* $ 50,000 Buy-in per player and regular NL Hold’em will be played.

* Two-person teams randomly assigned

* Teamplayers will alternate playing each street, so player A will play preflop and on the turn, player B will play the flop and the river. This will switch the following hand of course but player A will always be playing against the same player of the other teams, only at different streets each hand.

* Teams get one 30-second time out for strategy, no strategy discussion is possible during play.

Doubles Poker Championship is created in a tournament format, which I will explain now. It’s really simple and well-created at the same time.

* 32 players each play 4 regular season matches with 4 two-person teams per match.

* Individual players earn points in each match. 20 points (and $5,000) for a 1st place, 11 points for second, 4 points for third and 0 points for last place.

* Top-16 players after regular season move on and partners team up for the entire playoffs ( number 1 + number 2 of the standings, nr. 3+ nr.4, nr. 5+nr.6, …)

* Playoffs are two semi-final tables where top 2 teams from each semi advance.

* Final table starting chips determined by semi-final performance and the winning team splits $ 1,000,000

There were a lot of top pros between those 32 entrants, such as Chan, Lederer, Ferguson, Hellmuth, Esfandiari and Ivey. But there were also some young online stars such as Galfond, Obrestad, Schulman and Dwan. And also some relative unknown players such as Vivek Rajkumar, Andrew Lichtenberger (big talent !), Toto Leonidas and David Chiu.I only missed Negreanu, Antonius, Elezra, Doyle and maybe Viffer.

So, I hope you understand this new concept better now because you must see it. I’m already a big fan of it because it just has so many fun factors in it. First it’s really funny to see how the different teams work out, because they really have to get along if they want some good results. The Matusow- Laak team was extremely funny or Obrestad who yells at teammates Galfond and Seed. A second fun factor is the alternate playing street rule where you always have to consider the fact that your teammate will play the next street but also looking at the next opponent for your teammate. So do you make a continuation bet if your mate raised preflop ? Could you slowplay or bluf ?  That kind of decisions were funny to see. The last fun factor is the importance of the points, more than the chips, because everyone wants to advance to the semi-final and every poker player hates to lose. It became really funny and interesting during the final regular matches where every point made the difference between in or out the semi-final. There was a really weird hand where Gus Hansen (who was already eliminated) raised every hand because the other players needed the points and were scared, like Carlos Mortensen who folded pocket Jacks in the big blind, even after a time out with his team mate Erik Seidel, after Gus raised in the small blind with Q5 off suit. There were some surprising eliminations before the semi-finals after losing Seidel, Hellmuth, Dwan, Matusow, Hansen, Laak and Esfandiari. I can’t wait for the semi-finals !

But for now, here are the first 5 songs of my new list, the Best 21st century Songs Top-50 !!!

50/ The Killers – Read My Mind (2007, Sam’s Town)

49/ Death Cab For Cutie – I Will Follow you into the Dark (2006, Plans)

48/ Feeder – Feeling a Moment (2005, Pushing The Senses)

47/ Trentemoller – Moan (2007, The Chronicles)

46/ The Wombats – Let’s Dance to Joy Division (2007, A guide to love, loss and desperation)

I strongly advise you to listen to all of the songs out of my list if you want to became a successful poker player No seriously, I hope you like the songs and I would like to hear your opinion. Hopefully you like the following songs even more because it will only getting better !

Cheers,

J.M.

It has been a very long time, due to some different problems and some busy, annoying circumstances, but smallball-poker.com is back in the online house, larger and better than ever !! We stopped last time back in November with the review of my Most Famous Poker Player top- list and a prediction about the WSOP Main Event 2010 final table. I was very close as my favourite John RACENER became second after losing heads-up to Jonathan DUHAMEL. Congratz to him ! I know that I made the promise to present you my new list, namely the top-50 best songs of the 21th century according to me. But I had to postpone the final fifty as my list isn’t finished yet due to some late newcomers. However I’ll start with the first five (nrs 50-45) in the following post next week… .

This week I’ll show you some crazy and special hands that I’ve played this month, yes poker never dies ! , mainly in the Belgian Golden Division Poker League @ PokerStars. That’s a competition with a daily tournament with around 200 entrants where you can deserve points for the monthly leaderboard. The higher you finish each day, the more points you get for that month. Well I’m proud to say that I was the winner for January !! Good for a extra prize of $100, 10.000 FPP and a heads-up ticket againt a Belgium Pro (hmm who ? ) to win a  215$ ticket for the Sunday Million @ PokerStars. So I made a great start  and I believe that I’m going to win a big fish this year. There are also cash prizes for the best 5 players at the end of 2011, with a cool $2000 for number one. For now I’m going to show you three hands from last month’s action that were kind of odd and weird.

In the first hand I have AQ off in the small blind with only 10 big blinds left and a steaming mood after some earlier bad beats. So I put it all in the middle after donkey number one raised and number two shipped it . They were playing like idiots that day so I was hoping to be against a middle pair and a weaker ace, or get lucky otherwise. Here’s what happened…

So it wasn’t a very good move after all  with only 5% chance of winning , but you know everything’s possible in poker. That was probably my most beautiful suckout ever until now. I even had only 2% on the flop, I laughed so hard afterwards with my running straight.  I can be lucky too.  The next hand is probably my best call of the past month. Not that it was so special but it just signed that I’ve improved my game because I never would have called that a year ago. I know not a great call before the flop with my deuces, but I had position and a good read on the raiser.

So after we checked the flop, a beautiful deuce appears on the turn and suddenly the small blind bets and the initial raiser calls. I decided to call too and just see the river cheaply, not knowing exactly where I was. After the ten of diamonds on the river, the small blind immediately shipped his stack in and I was glad the raiser folded. So now I had a decision. I only could think of a flopped flush as better hand, or maybe pocket fives, but I decided I could beat more in his range so I made a nice call. The last hand is certainly my best check of the last month when I woke up with pocket Nines on the button. I decided to join the limpfest in stead of pushing it all because I had position and my stack wasn’t that small enough. Here’s what happened after we all checked the flop (Yes, I should have bet there) …

That sexy Nine of diamonds on the turn gave me definitely the nuts at that point and when they again all checked to me I decided to make a suspicious half-pot-stealing bet and I got one caller. I know at that point that he’s drawing for sure so I hated the Eight of hearts on the river. He checked to me and so I did, after a pose. I was glad to see my feeling was good when he turned over his straight.

I’m hoping that this month will bring me the same luck and results as last month, I have to defend my first place after all ! I’ll see you next time for some more poker and some great music.

Cheers,

J.M.