Yes you may remember that Mr. White wrote a post during the challenge about the so-called ‘Phil-theory’. I think I understand what he was saying and I made use of it myself, Mr. Blue, when playing a tournament on Pokerstars yesterday.

The profit I made during the challenge resulted in a nice bankroll for me so I’m playing some good tournaments atm and made a cash out of $224 yesterday. When I got eliminated I remembered a situation very early in the tournament when I had KK in the hole but an Ace came on the flop and I was really convinced my opponent flopped toppair. So that’s what is meant by ‘there are better spots’.

Because later on, when I had acquired a loose-aggressive image (YES, Mr. Brown), I was able to make a comeback with the next premium hand:

So this guy just thinks I’m fooling around and pays me off maximally. From that moment on I was on fire! Thanks for the pokerlesson Phil and Mr. White

So this graph makes at least one thing very clear: Mr. Brown is eliminated in the battle and will have to pay $200 to the winner, which is most likely going to be me . He and Ms. Pink played their ‘now or never-tournament’ and Mr. Brown was eliminated in 5th place. So from that moment on Ms. Pink knew she’s wasn’t going to end up last if she would reach the money, which she accomplished with a second place, worth $105. She’s now at $153. Brown only had $25 left and lost his last money on the heads-up tables.

Meanwhile I’m preparing myself for receiving an extra $400 besides my soon to be $950 of poker profits, after taking back the lead with an $868 bankroll. I played some big multi-table tournament for a change and was able to make a nice cash-out of $145. This hand was very important in the ‘final’ phase of the tourney:

So I make a standard raise with pocket Queens and the chipleader shoves all-in with his enormous stack. Now with QQ you only fear two hands: KK and AA. Now it makes no sense to just shove with those 2 hands so I had to call. It sucks to play a coinflip situation for your entire stack but luckily it held up. This means it’s $868 vs $802 (Mr. Blue) now, so the battle can be over any moment now…

Submitted by Mr. White

Btw: Mr. Brown is playing on Party Poker now, he said it’s interesting when you use the Party Poker Bonus Code.

The battle is off for a few days now because Mr. White ia abroad at the moment so he can’t play. The battle will resume the 7th of March. However, this doesn’t mean we can’t talk about poker meanwhile. About Gus Hansen for example.

Yes we better call this hero Guts Hansen after the 2008 WSOP. I was watching some episodes yesterday after Mr. White said it was a very good edition (of course he had to reveal already that Phil Hellmuth does ‘very well’ in this Main Event). But I saw he was not the only one, because the Crazy Dane also had a good run.

Now look at the following hand (starts after 4′40″):

Now we all remember Hansen’s insane call against the Magician with Ten high in the WPT. Here he makes a call for 500k more chips with an OESD . Of course he makes a brilliant read: Jeremy Joseph is just on an A high bluff, so his 7 and Q are also still alive. This separates Hansen from nits like Hellmuth and Lederer, who would never have made this call.

Submitted by Mr. Brown

Wow, I’m very happy with what happened yesterday: I finished third in a big $5 MTT in a field of 243 players! And more important: I cashed $151!! And most important: I’m leading the challenge at the moment!!!

That cash out really came right on time, cause like Mr. White mentioned last time, I was behind quiete a bit. I think he’ll perceive me as a serious contender again now. So what happened? Well I played a very solid game, and mostly let the other players eliminate each other. As a matter of fact the most important hand was the first one:

I was really surprised when the other two players showed their hand, but I didn’t really mind . I was able to play my best poker with this big stack, which I could maintain till the final table, making some easy calls with premium hands against some shortstacked ace-rags.

Mr. White is still following close behind me ($223) and it looks like he’s playing a very solid game in the past weeks. He stated that he keeps playing sng’s with less than 180 players, because otherwise “you face too much idiots who are lucky and finish like third or something”. Mr. Brown ($173) played some 6 handed sng’s without too much succes, he said he will soon return to hu-games. I think it’s the first time since the beginning that Ms. Pink is in last place ($171). However she didn’t have many or big downswings till today so I think she will be contending for victory again very soon .

Submitted by Mr. Blue

Because of the bizzy period some os us are having at the university at the moment, the challenge is put to a stop for a week and will be resumed in three days . However, a contribution today from yours truly.

To win a big tournament, you need some luck in a few showdowns. Or formulated better: if you play good poker, you need your opponent not to get lucky. This is exactly what irritates great players like Phil Hellmuth in tournaments. This phenomenon went through my head when I was watching some episodes of the 2008 WSOP and I saw the following hand (starts around 4′30″):

So besides Phil there’s the American pro Jean-Robert Bellande and the Russian Sarkis Akopyan on the table. Akopyan has a lot of chips and decides to play the T9 offsuit aggressively. Bellande moves all-in and you can see the consternation on his face when the Russian flips over his hand. Instead of being happy being a favorite in the hand, he fears the two live cards he’s against, because it’s such a typical tournament-situation to get knocked out in this way. What happens on the board is really infernal…

Submitted by Mr. White

For the first time since the start of the challenge, all the four of us made profit in the period between two updates. However, the figures behind our names demonstrate how difficult it remains to build up a decent bankroll if you have to keep playing on lower stakes for a certain period.

You got to have a lot of patience and face a certain number of bad beats on these tables, where some people shove in their chips with any two cards. Of course, in the long (,loooooooooong) run, this is at your advantage, as Mr. White told me again this week. His bankroll increased towards $173, and he still leads the challenge. He even made a straight flush when he called an all-in from a short stack (click to enlarge):

 My own bankroll rised towards $134. I stopped playing heads-up games for a while and played some multitable sng’s and MTT’s. It’s sometimes amazing to see how easy you can pick up a lot of chips on final tables because people play a lot tighter to get in the money. I also cashed in a $2 + rebuy MTT, finishing in eight place ($19,26, 189 participants). It’s really astonishing to watch chips flying in these tournaments, just because people can rebuy after going broke. Look at the following hand for example:

Well, there’s loose-aggressive play and there’s this . Ms. Pink keeps building up her bankroll incrementally: $129. No big cashes tillt his moment, but no significant downswings neither. Mr. Blue seems to be recovered once and for all from his bad start: $121 after some solid play on sng’s ($5) with 9 and 18 players. See you next time!

Submitted by Mr. Brown