Starting the new year sees me doing a lot of things different than before. First, my usual sports and dieting program got active, actually I started running again even early in december avoiding the total weight crash I have over xmas all other years. Although I have no weightbet opponent this year I am fully motivated and expect to lose about 10kg until April and annother 6-7 until late summer. This is usually when my motivation gets down to 0% and I quit any sport activities. Then I decided to take on Partypoker once more. 2005 saw me playing 70% of all tournaments and 95% cashgames at pokerstars but the cash game selection there is not broad enough right now so I packed my things and moved over to party, let's see how the year will be going.

Most important I decided to take on live games again. After staying home and sending Katja out to play nearly all 2005 I found that one important virtue got lost for me: patience. This was already the case while being at the WSOP 2005 and got worse thereafter. It was just difficult for me to sit say in a $150 satellite and stay focused. My eyes were everywhere but on the table, my thoughts wandered around and my results suffered (reference: nearly all my 2005 posts here). The action frequency playing multiple 30/60+ tables online is just so high compared to the slow live action for me... but, I am fully motivated for an extended trip to Vegas for the WSOP (3 month does not look out of range) that I need to practice playing live again. And that is what I started. I will force myself into going at least once a week to some live game and may it be a small limit game or even a home game.

So last weekend was the first time. I called around and got informed where the "big game" will be that weekend - 'big' is €500 buyin pot-limit holdem or holdem/7stud mixed which can get quite a game late at night. So I went there, Katja coming with me. The night itself was quite boring to me, I played only about 5-6 hands and lost almost all of them so I got stuck as deep as 2,500€ before finally winning one. I finished the night a 1,500€ loser. The next day we went again, having a 20 player tournament before. Katja and I got busted in the middle, I never had a hand and had to lay down A9 wit an A in flop and QQ with an ace in flop before moving in with 66 and running into KK.

After enough players got busted/appeared we started yet annother potlimit game and this time I had better cards and control over the table. I lost only two hands the night, first when I limped with 89s of hearts and the flop was 889. I managed to get most money into the pot on the flop but lost anyway when an Ace showed up on the turn and the other guy showed me his AA. Next was a bit more ugly, I had J9o in the SB, limped and saw a flop of J93. I made a pot-sized bet, got a min-raise and reraised again. Headsup now. Turn is an A, we both check. River is a T, we both check. I show but he sticks JT into my face :(. It could be argued that I gave him a free card on the turn but if you know your player like I do here my play was correct.

In annother hand I had some more luck but I believe I also played it well. I limped on the button holding the ATo, 4 players see the flop. Flop comes AA4, no suits. First player bets 100, next (Frank K., loose wild player) calls and a player I never have played cash game before with raised the pot (that was the guy cracking my QQ-Q in new years tournament with J6 but he is excused as I had no chips to raise his BB). His bet was about 600 and he had 500 more. I had each player covered. Now, holding AT I went into the tank. Am I beat here? I replayed the hand - he limped only before the flop, quite uninterested. From the few hands he played at that table I knew that he has an understanding of poker but was also very nervous, being unused to the high stakes. I figured he would have raised with AK and AQ in middle position preflop to not "play around here". I eliminated those hands. AJ? What about AJ? Uhoh, *very* likly. I serious considered folding when I picked up a small tell on him that lead me to think he was not that strong. What about the blinds? One had made a bet and one had called - could somebody there hold 44? Frank? He is definitly tricky enough for that play. I looked at his stack, only 2-300 left. Ok, no problem. First player was the kind of guy checking his ace here. So I figured my hand to be good and therefore re-raised. First players folded both quickly and the other guy called all-in very fast also. Maybe I was wrong and he limped with AQo or the like? I feared the worst already when the turn came out - 4! Actually I was relieved because now I was almost guaranteed a split pot unless he had 44 or hit the river. Now the river showed me a sweet T! The guy opened A2s and I won a decent sized pot. In review he played his hand awfull bad and deserved to win a small pot or lose a big one! I feel good about this hand not only because I had a nice win with it but it showed me again that in live games theres just more to the game that in limit online poker - and I missed that!