So I’d just played 2,5 hours in a tourney, I was close to the money and subsequently eliminated when my QQ was cracked by AK. I was really mad, because I had been playing a good tournament. So I just opened a random 9 handed $5 sit and go to lose some temper. When I see a raise, a reraise and an all-in in front of me, I decide it’s time to shove with my 63.

I tried to convert the hand into the player, but apparently it couldn’t handle this chips explosion^^. So here’s the report:

Dealt to Hero

Preflop (Pot:45)

whitebeauty

FOLD

samson1965

RAISE

$120

hukau vitali

FOLD

phil-andijvie63

RAISE

$405

mixfood

ALL-IN

$1,500

ac10dc

FOLD

pejerrey32

FOLD

Hero

ALL-IN

$1,485

krupniok

ALL-IN

$1,470

samson1965

ALL-IN

$1,380

phil-andijvie63

ALL-IN

$1,095

Flop (Pot: $7,500)

Turn (Pot: $7,500)

River (Pot: $7,500)

Showdown:

mixfood  SHOWS

Hero SHOWS

krupniok  SHOWS

samson1965  SHOWS

phil-andijvie63  SHOWS

Hero	wins the pot: $7,500

So I beat Aces, Kings, Sevens and Ace Queen ROFL. I won the tourney. Obviously.

However, this doesn’t mean I believe all the point of views that are presented in this documentary by Peter Joseph. I also acknowledge that there are probably some inaccurate facts presented in this movie. But the good thing about this kind of things is that they make you think about all kinds of stuff, they remember you to stay critical at all times. So if you want to check it out, go ahead, cause you can see it at youtube as well as google video, just search for ‘zeitgeist’.

The documentary basically contains of three parts. The first part is a scientific approach of religions and all links between them. The second part is an alternative look at the events of 9/11, with of course an important role for the US Government itself. The last part treats the world of banking and how the big players in this field are trying to create one world government.

Just to make you curious: here’s a video of A Perfect Circle covering the great John Lennon song ‘Imagine’, which was used as an introduction to the movie.

Three was the magic number in this hand, because it was quad threes I made right on the flop, playing in a big field tournament (+600 players). Look at my gem of the month:

“You gave the guy with QQ a bad beat”, I hear you say? Not exactly, when you make a minraise under the gun with this kind of hands you deserve a punishment. On the flop he makes a pot sized bet but his story’s already over right there: I of course just call his bets, I want this other fella to donate me some chips too. I think I make a perfect value bet on the river to extract some more chips and I am completely happy after this hand: hitting quads is one, making as much profits out of it as possible is two.  1+1=5 590 chips.

Of course, AA vs KK or KK vs QQ: obvious cold decks. AA vs AK? Not really. But how can I escape from my hand after this flop??

Probably the sickest thing of all is the fact my opponent plays this so good, after he hits Aces full on the flop. Especially his all-in on the turn is awesome, he must have supposed I hit that flop too. But I grabbed my courage back together and played another tournament, but the dealer slapped me in the face once again:

I respect this raise in early position so I just call to see what the flop brings, basically because my hand is suited. I flop top two and of course the money goes in. River is not nice. Those hands just show that to play online poker, is to accept the chance of being outdrawn.

I was convinced of the fact that luck was definitely on my side this time when I received the pocket cowboys in the following hand:

I was of course very happy to see the raise in early position. It was a decent raise (four times the big blind), so I put him on a very good hand. This is perfect for me, unless he has AA. But he only calls my reraise, so I know he doesn’t have the rockets. BUT: the guy on the button also calls my strong reraise, so he must also have a good hand. So I definitely don’t like the Queen on the flop, as QQ is within range of both players now.

The button calls my continuation bet and maybe I must have figured QQ is prolly the only hand he can hold on this dry board (AQ would have been a loose call preflop). So maybe I make a mistake by throwing it all-in on the turn. Maybe the Queen just didn’t have to flop…

Let’s conclude with another great movie I saw this week: Beautiful People. This movie was released in 1999 and is all about one of the most cruel wars we have witnessed in the past 50 years: the Balkan wars. Brilliant thing of this movie that it actually doesn’t show much of the war itself, but the story is brought from the point of view of all kind of different people living in Great-Britain. Go watch it!

But somebody was annoying me at the table for quite a long time already. He was raising my big blind all the time from the cut-off and I didn’t really find a hand to make a stand with. So when I got the AJ on the big blind, I was waiting for my friend to raise:

I got him exactly where I wanted him to be: as a 27% dog with all my chips in the middle. Then the guy hits the three outer and I don’t fill up to a flush. Some cruelty…

I saw another good historical movie btw the other day: Thirteen Days. The movie is all about the Cuban missile crisis and although it’s featuring Kevin Costner, probably the worst actor I ever saw, it draws a very good image of what cruel things could have happened to our planet without some reasonable guys like Robert McNamara. If you’re interested in the Cold War era, this is definitely a movie for you. Especially the issue with the two letters Chroestjev sent to Kennedy is very well portraited in this movie.

So it’s the Dutch player Noah Boeken from Amsterdam who wakes up with pocket cowboys, Marek Kolk from Estonia ALSO has pocket Kings and then… Jethro (LOVE that name btw) Horowitz from Australia got the pocket Aces. Now that’s exactly why it’s called a ‘cold deck’: somebody almost HAD to set this up to happen. Now, like the commentator already indicates, Jethro makes one little mistake here by immediately calling the reraise with his Aces. If there’s a really good player behind him, that player must be able to lay his Kings down there. However, still very cruel for Noah and Marek…

In fact I liked it very much and it got me starting to think about the way the American people tried to deal with the Vietnam trauma. I already saw movies like ‘Full Metal Jacket’ (duh^^) and ‘Apocalypse Now’ of course, and this one fits perfectly in that company. Hollywood seemed to play a very important role in processing the things that happened in that terrible war. They have all one thing in common: they represent the American soldiers as naïve, young guys who were fighting a war without knowing where’s it was all about. Besides: the ennemy is portraited as very cruel and being everywhere. In this way, Hollywood tried to clarify why soldiers went mad and commited the cruelties they did.

Of course Full Metal Jacket is the best example here, as it literally shows that it’s possible to create ruthless killers out of innocent young boys. But you can also take it too far: Rambo. Those movies are just trying to recover the wounded feeling of national pride by actually declaring that the US had in fact WON the war…

Look:

Some guy makes a very standard three times the big blind raise in late position. I exactly put him on a hand like this: pretty good, but mainly trying to rob this pot with a continuation bet on the flop. So I shove and actually hope he calls with the hand he has. That happens but the flop is killing me, luckily I have a redraw with my flush. It doesn’t turn or river. However, my opponent is just trying to cumulate chips when he calls my all-in, thinking he has two lives against my Ace something. Bad beat? Sad beat.

Look what happened:

So there’s already a raise in front of me. Well, what I’m gonna do? I’m never gonna fold this hand, I’m sure of it. I push my chips in the middle and I get reraised for a lot more. I know what’s happening from that moment on: I’m against AA or KK and I played the complete evening to end up like this. That’s exactly what happens, my opponent even makes a set and on the turn I have three outs left for a split pot. That was it…