They are starting in few mins, have fun enjoying the show!

Due to my exams I’m at a grinding break at the moment and coach a bit less, but will be back soon.
Stay tuned!

In the chat I quoted in the last post, Martin told me he probably ripped his ligament again during that night. Yesterday he confirmed it is ripped again as it was some months ago already. Speaking about the recent players parties he atteded it’s definetely a lot of minus happyness EV to have so many drinks as he had…

• EPT London: 800£ and a night in prison
• PCA Bahamas: ah, I’m getting tired of quoting myself

The most interesting site is the very recent blog by Frank Op de Woerd, “webjoker”, for PokerNews.nl (original Dutch link), who witnessed what happened that night from the view of Johnathan Duhamel. Every other site just tried to get the best out of what was published in text and photos already.

At two sites the roughly translated chat between Martin and me got even quoted as if Martin would have messaged me in English. Have you ever heard him speaking English?! No? Guess why… here’s the interview after he won EPT Prague…

QuadJacks had an interview with Johnathan Duhamel last night about his stay – and of course the incidents with Martin Finger as well -> check it out at QuadJacks.com – Duhamel’s very short statement starting at min 24!

Here are those bigger sites reporting about the story I saw so far:

• PokerNewsBoy, Poker-red.com, hochgepokert.com, pokerisivut.com, pokeraction.ch, PokernNewz.dk, marca.com, pokerlistings.com, rakerace.com, bankrollmob.com, poker-institut.org, Pokeris.lt, poker-community.at, QuadJacks.com, PokerNews.nl

• 2+2 “News, Views and Gossip” thread

I’ll keep this post updated if more rumors coming up, but it’s about time to get back to business… Ah, btw, does anyone need a VIP Pro Gambler deal at Skrill…?!

Cheers
Chris

Martin Finger, “0Piggybank“, who won EPT Prague and became top4 at the PCA 5k HU Event just told me the most recent story of his funny and weird party-life… After he had gone to prison at EPT London’s players party he got into trouble again:

Last night at PCA Bahamas he got kicked out of the players party after Duhamel has been asking for trouble. Duhamel was totally wasted and spoiling for a fight, Finger told me. Finger wanted to pass by when Duhamel instantly started bitching to Finger without any reason, he said. It was still Finger who got kicked out by the securities, not Duhamel. In front of the club Finger, who normally hates to fight with anybody, took his chance and beat Duhamel in his face before the security avoided a real fight between both of them. A lot of other players were there as well when it happened, so let’s see if we’ll find more details reported by them soon.

Duhamel got robbed and beaten in December already. It’s not just bad variance anymore..?!

Martin in front of London's police station (I took the photo after Martin went to prison at EPT London, October 2011)		Duhamel beaten (the photo was taken after Duhamel got robbed and beaten by home invaders in Dec 2011)

If you were there or heard any rumors please let me know, so I can add them…

Skaiwalkurrr: i had to leave before the punch
Skaiwalkurrr: but i did hear piggy swear he was gonna get duhamel

rubenrtv: It was pretty funny when they ran into each other in the customs line at the airport afterwards

Donnie Peters, friend of Jonathan Duhamel twittered: “Even tho you didn’t win, you won the contest for ‘most drunk person in the club’.“

Jonathan Duhamel twittered:
“Just landed in Montreal, head still hurting after an amazing nigh out yeaterday! Really happy to be home for a few days and see my people“
“thanks for everything my boys… Indeed sick night yesterday“

“hahaha sick, I was aiming for the tittle since I was so pissed at myself about losing the HU“

Frank Op de Woerd, “webjoker”, who was with Johnathan Duhamel by coincidence when he got attacked just blogged about it very detailed as well (link to original dutch site).

Here’s a part of the chat between us about last nights incidents roughly translated into English:

Piggybank: wus up
Piggybank: wanna hear a sick story
PlauZee: sure
Piggybank: players party
Piggybank: i’m drunken
Piggybank: duhamel is drunken
Piggybank: he started talking trash
Piggybank: i was thrown out of the club
Piggybank: even i ddin’t do anything
Piggybank: i waited for him in front of the club
Piggybank: he comes out
Piggybank: i hit him in his puss
Piggybank: nice line
Piggybank: imao
PlauZee: was it a hit-and-run?!
Piggybank: kind of^^
Piggybank: i think i ripped my ligament again (what he indeed did!)
Piggybank: but i’m still too drunken, to be sure
PlauZee: omg. can i blog that?!
Piggybank: sure^^
PlauZee: give me some cliffs [...]
Piggybank: he was soooooo drunken
Piggybank: pissing me off, even i just wanted to walk by
Piggybank: really getting on my nerves
Piggybank: i just chill
Piggybank: he was kinda aggro
Piggybank: security
Piggybank: busting me
Piggybank: i’m out
Piggybank: waiting the whole time
Piggybank: with isildur
Piggybank: then duhamel showes up
Piggybank: i walk towards him an hit him directly in his face. security intervene
PlauZee: how sick is that?!
Piggybank: believe me
Piggybank: i’m peaceful
Piggybank: but that had to be

..and the original German chat:

Piggybank: was geht
Piggybank: willst du sicke story hören
PlauZee: na aber immer doch!
Piggybank: players party
Piggybank: ich drunken
Piggybank: duhamel drunken
Piggybank: er macht mich blöd an
Piggybank: ich buste ausn club
Piggybank: obwohl ich nix gemacht habe
Piggybank: warten auf ihn vor dem club
Piggybank: er kommt raus
Piggybank: und hau ihn auf die fresse^^
Piggybank: nice line
Piggybank: imao
PlauZee: war’s wenigstens nen richtiger hit n run?!
Piggybank: so halb^^
Piggybank: hab mein kreuzband frisch gerissen dabei glaub ich
Piggybank: noch zu drunken um das atm einzuschätzen
PlauZee: omg. darf ich’s bloggen?!
Piggybank: gern^^
PlauZee: gib mal noch nen paar facts
PlauZee: wer war noch dabei, was hat er im club gemacht etc
Piggybank: er war megaaa drunken
Piggybank: macht mich an obwohl ich nur vorbei wollte
Piggybank: geht mich richtig behindert an
Piggybank: ich chill
Piggybank: er macht streß
Piggybank: security
Piggybank: busted mich
Piggybank: ich bin draußen
Piggybank: ganze zeit
Piggybank: mit isildur
Piggybank: dann kam duhamel raus
Piggybank: ich geh hin und hau ihn direkt in die fresse und security geht direkt danach dazwischen
PlauZee: wie sick ist das bitte?!
Piggybank: glaub mir
Piggybank: ich bin friedlich
Piggybank: aber musste sein

(Piggy allowed me to blog the story, but I’ll maybe edit or delete some details later)

Leon “Fishenzon”

But he wasn’t able to dodge some outs and finished as 13th place for 65k. Still a very nice result for my Canadian friend who was one of the biggest HU SNG winners of 2011 – sure, grats for that buddy, but it sux not to have you at the pca live table while preparing for tonights Saturday party night…

I still don’t have any actual news for the PCA 5k HU Event and therefor have to post the field of players before today’s 2nd day wih a lot of free tickets in round one. As usual, it’s one of the toughest you can find what enhances prestige even more:

Updated with results of the 5k HU Event:

5k HU Event PCA 2012

I haven’t played any games last week and only a short but very profitable session today. I do a lot of coachings recently and have to get some stuff done for university, but I’ll post some stats and updates soon again. Talking about results, I had some bigger swings recently, but I’m pretty satisfied with EV so far, just hoping to get back to 7%+ ROI very soon again…

Cheers!
Chris

Thanks to the new hyperturbo HUSNGs at PokerStars there was way much more money to be won in our business what makes it impossible to compare those figures to the winnings treezer made the year before. He didn’t play many HUSNGs in 2011 anymore, but focussed at MTTs where he also did pretty damn well this year.

treezer

People who wanted to gamble didn’t sit highstakes cashgames that often anymore, but chose to play those hyperturbo games which are very fast and full of variance. It’s kind of a psychological phenomena that people who want to gamble will play the same game over and over again the faster it is and the more variance it is. Most fishies playing those hypers are pretty sure that they only have a chance to win in about of 47%. But it’s the same at BlackJack or wherever people gamble. They are looking for a fast double up and love the thrill when cards are being dealt.

Serkules stats at PokerStars

Serkules

The more often they are lucky enough to catch an upswing after some games the more often they will come back. That’s probably the reason why fishies prefer playing hypers that much more than turbo HUSNG where the edge against them is much higher. The number one winner of 2011 is not a turbo HUSNG player anymore, but a German guy named Serkules who plays hyperturbos only. Before Black Friday he played at FullTilt only and didn’t even have an account at PokerStars. Since then he started crushing hypers more than everyone else at Stars. In 2011 he made $576,000 on both sites with hyperturbo HUSNGs only. In fact, he played only 4(!) turbo HUSNGs this year. If you don’t think there is any edge in those games or any money to be won at hypers just have a look at those crazy guys like him and SkaiWalkurrr, who’s up more than $400,000 this year.

FisFarFar

FisFarFar, a crazy guy from Sweden who still regrets his screenname… , is the actual number one of SharkScope’s HUSNG yearly leaderboard. He won most with one account only and made more than $540,000 in 2011 before rakeback, about the half at hypers and the other part at turbo HU SNGs (-> stats of FisFarFar).

Fishenzon

The Canadian HUSNG pro Fishenzon is right behind him with stats which are very similar to those of FisFarFar. Fishenzon made $550,000 in 2011 overall, $215,000 with turbos and rest with hyperturbo HU SNGs (-> stats of Fishenzon).

adonis112

Olivier Busquet, adonis112 on PokerStars and livb112 at FullTilt, was able to finish another very sick and decent year. With winnings of more than $505,000 in 2011 he proved once again he’s still one of the best.
He played a lot against one of the most popular newcomer at HUSNGs in 2011 as well, German Björn Schäfer, bjoerni89, who was able to get a sponsorship with PokerStars and became TeamPro Online recently. His stats are hidden at SharkScope, but pokeroptimizer shows his HeadsUp stats of 2011.

bjoerni89 HUSNG stats of 2011

bjoerni89 had a very sick run at the first half of 2011 when he climbed up from $100s to the $5k HUSNGs within no time after he was able to win big at a Sunday Warmup, but had to take huge constantly losses in the 2nd half in which he tried to play $2ks+ only. After he was up about 300k at the first half of the year he lost even more and ended at -200k before rakeback. The try to play $2ks+ only didn’t turn out to be profitable, but brought him the title of the new VPP record holder which he earned last night and therefor the Team Pro Online sponsorship. He made more than 3,050,000 VPP in 2011 and payed more than $550k rake to PokerStars to also collect more than $300k of rakeback. So at the buttomline he might be about $100k up with HUSNGs in 2011. Not that much, but paying most rake is obviously enough reason to get a PokerStars sponsorship.

Last, but not least, another German HUSNG reg not to forget, Martin Finger, “0Piggybank”, who was able to take down the EPT Prague!

2011 was full of interesting changes, runs, reg-battles or even -wars which seemed to become more and more in the last half year. Let’s see how 2012 will change the poker community and what impact the changes of the rakeback system of cashgames to the HUSNG community will have.

I wish you all the very best for Christmas and hope you can enjoy the time with your family – without poker or the need to grind the missing VPPs for Supernova Elite

Cheers!
Chris

For everyone who hates reading long blog posts, but need some facts – here we go with the most important reasons not to go to PCA Bahamas 2012:

1. Off season weather: We went to the PCA Bahamas in 2011 and were very lucky to have great weather, at least compared to the years before what I heard from others players. In January, it’s pretty often cloudy there, you should expect to have at least one or two raining days during your stay and temperatures are around 21° C (70° F). But, if you are lucky to have good weather and bust early out of the Main Event, you will love the area at the Paradise Island. (-> more information about the weather)
2. Travel time: Europeans need very long to get there.
3. Party: There are some clubs where you can have a lot of fun, at the hotel area and at the main island. But during that time there aren’t many other people around who aren’t poker-players. Means: It’s great to meet other HU SNG geeks, but if you want to go clubbing don’t expect to see many girls around. If you are looking for great party nights you should save your money and spend it somewhere else.
4. Prices: There aren’t many situations you’ll leave the area of the hotel for, the Paradise Island. You can find, buy and eat everything there and it takes quite a while to get into the city. The prices at the hotel area are pretty high ($10 for a 1l bottle water), but I expected them to be even higher.
5. Dark poker room: If you play the event, you can simply feel how special it is. Nevertheless, you are sitting inside of a room without windows. It’s strange to play all day without having any time to enjoy the great island and possibly longer than 12 hours per day and until midnight.

Reasons why you shouldn’t miss the PCA Bahamas 2012:

1. Paradise Island: The hotel is just fkn awesome! There is simply none of my photos on which you can see how great the island is and the suites are.
   
2. Meeting Poker Pro’s: The PCA Bahamas is the one and only event which almost every poker pro participate and is not pissed to get questioned by a random fan. They see it as you should see it as well: It’s holidays.
3. Playing the Main Event: The Main Event of PCA Bahamas became to one of the most famous poker events world-wide. Most pro’s play it and there is huge media who are following the event.

It’s not that I didn’t like my trip to the PCA Bahamas 2011, don’t get me wrong there. But for the money and time you have to spent as European to get there I would prefer making awesome holidays anywhere else and not during off-season. I loved it and it was kind of dream to play the PCA main event, but without that tournament package with all included I wouldn’t have gone there.

No matter if you’re planning to go or not to go, there is just one and only NO GO at the PCA Bahamas in case you have great weather: DON’T GRIND ALL DAY! I saw so many geeks playing poker all day who couldn’t quit and enjoy the place, it really made me sad.

The trip to the PCA Bahamas is everything, but a normal poker trip. It’s holidays and that’s how you should think about it. It’s just not comparable to any other EPT. Check my PCA Bahamas 2011 page if you want to know more about my trip.

I won’t be there this time and I’ll envy everyone who will.
Enjoy your time!
Chris

Thx a lot to Mersenneary and Ryan for their efforts! This book might make HUSNGs way more established and attractive to new players. Let’s hope Olivier Busquet, adonis112 / livb112, wasn’t that much right with his very emotional freak out at the 2+2 thread when he heard about the book (3rd post at this and following pages).

-> Table of content and ebook presentation by HUSNG.com
-> Direct link to the download

Screenshot of the free HUSNG Ebook

Harthor		SkaiWalkurrr

Here’s a short chat after Harthor gave up right after half of the challenge. Grats to Skai who proved once again how sick he is…

[15.12.11 00:46:13] SkaiWalkurrr: i won
[15.12.11 00:46:29] SkaiWalkurrr: 274-231 he gave up
[15.12.11 00:46:38] Fishenzon:
[15.12.11 00:46:43] Leon Vichman: nice
[15.12.11 00:46:48] SkaiWalkurrr: (happy)
[15.12.11 00:47:29] jackstack99: lol
[15.12.11 00:47:29] jackstack99: skai
[15.12.11 00:47:33] jackstack99: you took 10k from the kid
[15.12.11 00:47:37] jackstack99: how do you feel about urself
[15.12.11 00:47:41] SkaiWalkurrr: i ran too hot
[15.12.11 00:47:52] jackstack99: did you really
[15.12.11 00:47:56] SkaiWalkurrr: obv
[15.12.11 00:47:59] jackstack99: do you feel you have big edge
[15.12.11 00:48:00] jackstack99: on him tho
[15.12.11 00:48:04] jackstack99: or small edge
[15.12.11 00:48:05] jackstack99: or what
[15.12.11 00:48:11] SkaiWalkurrr: smaller than on most regs
[15.12.11 00:48:21] jackstack99: so hes good in ur opinion
[15.12.11 00:48:27] SkaiWalkurrr: well yeah

Stats of the challenge

mersenneary wrote about the ego of HU players

Well, back to the topic… Reviewing the last 30 days I think I did pretty well, not only talking about stats and winnings, but about my mindset as well. It’s weird, but after playing so many games at mostly $60 and $100 buyins, it feels like “taking a shot” when I play one of those rare $200 HU SNGs. Now, I’m just where I was hoping to be again: A successful $60-$100 HU SNG reg playing A-Game most of the time, taking the sweet buyins as serious as I took those at $1k+ and most important: I don’t have any problems to stick to my “new” buyins or feel the need I would have to climb up the buyins again. Sure, I don’t make that much money as I did in the past, but my hourly is still pretty decent since I two- or even three-table most of the time.

Holdem Manager 2 still can’t handle 4mans and I guess that’s the reason why the stats are that much off from the actual stats shown by Sharkscope. In the beginning I ran hotter than the sun, way above my personal EV (not just allin-EV) and even won almost every flip when chopping with others regs. The downswing I had was kind of big, but after winning every chop I lost almost every chop at 4mans falsifying the stats of Sharkscope a bit. But, no matter how big the up- and downswings were the overall stats are pretty nice and I hope I can reach on overall ROI of 7%+ while two- and three-tabling those turbo games.
As a sidenote: even months after release an official re-presenter of Holdem Manager just advised HUSNG players still to stay with Holdem Manager version 1 instead of buying version 2…
As following my actual Sharkscope stats which should tracked correctly filtered for turbo games and the some-how-what-ever-HM2-tries-to-calculate-overall-stats, both since Nov, 10th:

Sharkscope stats	Holdem Manager 2 stats