Freeroll 2 Bankroll

Partypoker now the #2 online site in the world LOL

2011-06-30T03:12:00.000-07:00

Whoops, there goes Full Tilt Poker. I never signed up there... never did like paying rake to the better players than you in the poker economy...

Now will Party get back to Numero Uno anytime soon?

2011 WBCOOP 4

2011-01-27T10:08:00.002-08:00

Onward to today's NLHE prelim event #4. GL to all who's playing.

I missed the first one, I was 97/720 in the second, and tired-tilted off my top 10 stack yesterday in the PLO8 third... neat hand though

PokerStars Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo, 0 Tournament, 60/120 Blinds (9 handed) - PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com UTG (t4568) UTG+1 (t29498) MP1 (t1610) MP2 (t4436) MP3 (t15751) CO (t15076) Hero (Button) (t15877) SB (t1671) BB (t1715)

Hero's M: 88.21

Preflop: Hero is Button with 6, A, 2, 8

5 folds, CO bets t360, Hero calls t360, 2 folds

Flop: (t900) Q, 8, 5 (2 players) CO bets t720, Hero raises to t3060, CO raises to t10080, Hero raises to t15517 (All-In), CO calls t4636 (All-In)

Turn: (t30332) 2 (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t30332) Q (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t30332

Tournament Lessons

2011-01-23T15:49:00.000-08:00

One thing I must remember in tournaments is the HUD info on a player is NOT indicative of what his range may be with an all-in shove for his tournament life.... especially mid tourney the range is usually quite strong.

With a strong stack mid tourny, I keep donating to the random short stack shoves...

2011 WBCOOP is here

2011-01-23T08:48:00.000-08:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: XXXXXX 695592

It's been a while

2011-01-20T01:46:00.000-08:00

SNE lurking has been very eye opening. For the past 3 months watching how the players at their different games (SnG, Limit, SSNL, shortstackers, etc. ) each grind their way to their respective VPP goals is fascinating. Here's last year's epic 2011 Pokerstars SNE pursuit thread at 2+2 (they're epic every year).

I'm contemplating going for the simple 100,000 supernova level but like this blog, my procrastination has been the winner this past couple of years. There's much more about that in my many past 'draft' posts that have never made the light of day here because... hey I procrastinate!!

My goal this year is to get my thoughts in order, push out all my posts from the past and start playing 'for real' again.

GL to you all in your 2011 poker endeavors.

All's Right Again

2010-06-02T16:03:00.000-07:00

I was going strong in my 10K Challenge, and was about to break the $35 bankroll barrier...

Starting with $34.95 in my Stars roll, the poker gods decided to give me a whack for $9 over just 215 hands of 0.05/0.10 and 0.10/0.20 FLH.

[insert every typical series of bad beats know to man here]

I'm back down to just playing 0.05/0.10 FLH until I'm over $30 again.

After a +$2 session, bankroll back to $28.51.

Finally over $30 at Stars

2010-05-13T16:34:00.000-07:00

It took me a while but finally I broke 'well' pass the $30 barrier at Stars and my bankroll now stands at $31.88.

To get there, yesterday I had to luckily misjoined [sic] a couple of 0.10/0.20 FLH tables, got lucky and hit-and-ran for +$2.06 over 13 hands. Sitting at one table with over 10% of my bankroll was not a wise decision.

The biggest mistakes down at these levels? Having the nut flush and not caring that the board has paired.

Now that I'm over $30, I'll most likely play up to 5 tables of 0.05/0.10 FLH until I get to $45+ when I'll start to take shots at the 0.10/0.20 game. At the same time, I need to work out what the correct balance of hand range/aggression to also have a good winrate at the SH limit games.

Back to all time high at PTR

2010-04-20T16:48:00.000-07:00

It's taken a month... not many hands overall but timewise a whole month for my stats at PTR to show my 'career' high is on the last day of stats they have collected.

I'm almost past $25 at Stars when I can table select my way to playing only 4 tables of .05/.10 FLH.

Would you bet the river?

2010-04-17T15:28:00.000-07:00

2010 Challenge Update 4

2010-04-16T18:09:00.000-07:00

After a relatively huge downswing of over $5 given my tiny bankroll at Stars, I took a breather to reset my game. I realized that when I started this challenge, I was playing at 3-6am PDT. I was playing against bad Russian loose weaks who padded the pot so much that 2-8 outs chasing was profitable, consequently my range was super wide.

But I reset my work schedule so I could play 3-7pm PDT. (ie prime east coast North America fishing time) Here the fishies play slightly better (more like aggro drunk bluff catchers) and a tighter range is more appropriate. So third pair with 5 outs semi-bluff does not work since second pair calls to the river thus those types of lines go right out the window.

Good news is with the change in play, my Stars balance is back to $18.13.

Here is an example of chasing with implied odds on the flop and catching with the third nuts. Seeing the villian's cards, on the turn I only had 7 outs, not 12, but I still had the odds to call.

My Recent Lost of Form

2010-03-31T00:51:00.001-07:00

After starting my 1.58 to 10K challenge with a bang, recently the run of cards has been against me. Oh all the usual stuff of draws all missing, all made hands cracked, and some loose play on my part because of my recent run.

Here's a typical hand recently:

Villian's checking his runner runner quads on the river..... priceless!

Lucky for me, this is happening after I'd built up the balance at Stars to over $20 and not at the beginning of the challenge... so goes variance!

Stars balance is at $15.16.

10K Challenge Update 3

2010-03-19T05:58:00.000-07:00

The 1.58 has now become 20.46 so the challenge is going well. Still haven't been really playing very much, just 4 tabling for a couple of orbits at a time. I'm table selecting though even at these micro stakes and the table dynamics change fast since the really bad players lose so quickly.

Overall my winrate is still above 14BB/100 but I've been having heaters on the 0.05/0.10 table that covers any loss on my cooler 0.02/0.04 tables.

I think once I reach $25, I'll play 2 tables of each stake instead of 1 high and 3 low.

Another thought I got recently is I won't take any NL chances until I have 30BI (Buy Ins) for the NL2 game which translates into a bankroll of $60.

I'll also won't plan the year further until I get to a bankroll of around $300+ since when I get there will determine how much and at what stakes I'll need to play to seriously attempt at the 10K.

On Taking Shots and Bankroll Management

2010-03-11T18:28:00.001-08:00

In an earlier post I mentioned that since my bankroll grew past $10, I would be taking shots at the 0.05/0.10 FLH game.

I got two emails asking me what did that mean so here's a post to explain my thinking.

When I started my 2010 1.58 to 10K challenge, I started with only 1.58 so I could only 2-table 0.02/0.04 FLH since a typical 20BB buyin is 0.80. When I reached a bankroll of $12, a 300BB bankroll for playing 0.02/0.04 FLH (which is the generally accepted bankroll size you should have to play limit), I knew I was 'safe' at that level from busting my whole bankroll.

So I was willing to 'take shots' at the next level up which is 0.05/0.10 FLH. Instead of playing 4-tables of the lower stakes, I would play 3 tables of the lower stakes and 1 table of the higher. As long as I'm running good, my bankroll should move up at a faster rate and when I get to $25-$30, I can 4-table fully at 0.05/0.10.

My bankroll now stands at 16.59!

Life's Good

2010-03-02T06:48:00.002-08:00

Challenge Update 2

2010-02-28T05:23:00.002-08:00

I didn't think I would be making this post for another couple of days but my bankroll at Stars broke $10 so here I am. I was planning to post either when I broke $10 or played 1000 hands.

According to PTR, I'm just at 956 hands but the play is so loose weak down here at 0.02/0.04 FLH that it's insanely profitable if you know how to play post flop.

Here's a hand from my last session that illustrates the point:

A top pair and an overpair to the board calls down to lose to my random 5 outs on the flop! I'm OOP so any raise flop or turn kicks me out with so little in the pot. I was expecting the top pair but the pocket QQ was quite a surprise.

Now with over 100bb for the 0.05/0.10 FLH level, I'm gonna start taking shots at this next level. Next milestone to hit is $25.

Challenge Update 1

2010-02-27T02:05:00.000-08:00

Haven't played much but I should have sometime over the next two weeks to get some hands in.

The 1.58 has now become 8.31. And I'm definitely running at over 20bb/100 playing 0.02/0.04 FLH.

Over the next couple of days, I'll work out the bankroll management strategy for moving up in stakes.

Skill level wise, I should be good playing up to 2/4 FLH and I would like to add some SH and NL micro stakes play into the challenge as well.

Doubleuwhy's Mi_Turtle $1.58 to 10K Challenge

2010-02-15T16:09:00.003-08:00

I've been thinking what would be a good challenge this year to restart this blog with a theme consistent with the title of the blog. Namely building a bankroll from nothing by playing freerolls. If you don't know what I did in 2006, check out my summary.

It's been hard for me to stay true to my blog title since once you've built up a stake, it's just not the same playing hours of freerolls for cashes of less than 0.1% of your bankroll!

So I gotta thank Nick 'Mi_Turtle' Rainey and his 1K last longer bet against the field in this year's WBCOOP Main event. He finished 635th and I lasted until 490th, not ITM for a SCOOP ticket but a share of the 1K for $1.58.

It was a freeroll so now I have my first 'cash' from a freeroll in over a year. (I haven't played much)

As I searched the web to see what other bloggers have done with the 1.58, I came upon a typical 2+2 rant thread on Mi_Turtle's last longer bet.

Thus came the inspiration for the title of my 2010 challenge. Let's see what I can do with the 1.58 and show these 2+2 haters what's possible.

With all the sites out there nowadays putting everyone's play in public, I'll be linking to pokertableratings.com, the 'not so legal to Pokerstars' cash game tracking site to compare the stats I have with what the 'public' can see. It should be fun to see the discrepancies.

Here's what PTR have on me so far. As of today, after 285 hands, I'm running at a 35.18 BB/100 hand rate playing .02/.04 FLH!

I'll get into all the bankroll management stuff as I grind up to a workable bankroll.

This should be fun since in 2006, my bankroll building exercise was from freerolls and casino bonuses. This time, I plan to build the bankroll from playing microstakes cash games and tournaments.

WBCOOP 2010

2010-01-26T19:57:00.002-08:00

I missed the first one.

Donked out the second one today around 600ish.

I like the many different games over the week though and the addition of live twitter feeds @PokerStars_com/wbcoop-players gives each tournament a great feel.

I'll definitely play Sunday's main event. Let's see if I have time to catch some of the other weekday ones as well.

Good luck to all!

2010 Pokerstars WBCOOP

2010-01-09T17:07:00.000-08:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! This PokerStars tournament is a No Limit Texas Hold’em event exclusive to Bloggers, you too can take part by registering on WBCOOP

Registration code: 747122

Nice 2009 Chart

2010-01-09T15:56:00.003-08:00

Last year, I taught my girlfriend to play poker. Only LHE (Limit Holdem) so far.

I wanted her to understand what the game was all about and the nuances involved in learning the game.

Here's her graph so far after 13 months of playing.

She started at the lowest stakes of .02/.04 FR LHE.

She is now a net winning player at every level up to the .50-1.00 FR level...

Latest challenge for her is to laydown top pair weak kicker, no draw holdings.

I'm thinking of making a series of posts about each poker fundamental she needed to learn as she moved up through the levels of play. The order of the fundamentals is NOT how the game gets taught in most of the poker books out there.

Welcome to 2010

2009-12-31T16:23:00.002-08:00

Happy New Year everyone!

I've had a great 2009 even though I didn't blog about it.

My simple goal for 2010 is to regularly post again. Tracking all the ups and downs of one's bankroll is one part of my enjoyment in poker. Keeping score especially if your winning is what helps drive you forward.

The whole online gaming and poker scene has changed so much since I started learning about it all in 2006. It'll be interesting to post as I explore all the new resources available for the game.

Hope you all have a great 2010 poker year!

The Black Swans of Poker

2009-12-09T16:14:00.000-08:00

I just finished Malcolm Gladwell's latest book, What the Dog Saw, a collection of 19 articles he has written for the New Yorker.

Among them is this one, all about Nassim Taleb and his investment philosophy. Taleb is the guy who wrote Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan.

Reading the article, it got me thinking about how successful 1/2 NLHE live players play. They seemingly play many 'wrong' hands losing the minimum most hands by seeing cheap flops on passive tables. Then the Black Swan event happens when an AKs opponent min raises preflop. Flops AK2 and decides to trap. Turn is a 4, everything goes in, and the fish gets angry losing to 53o.

E:60 Four Days With Phil Ivey - ESPN Video

2009-11-06T02:07:00.001-08:00

Update .10/.20 LHE

2009-05-03T02:05:00.004-07:00

My girlfriend's .10/.20 LHE FR chart... she's now up to .25/.50.

Online Casino Bluebook

2009-02-03T15:30:00.002-08:00

The following is a paid review for Online Casino Bluebook:

Another year and another online casino guide!

For a casino review site, this is one plain one. For anyone who wants to know how the early days of the Internet looked, Online Casino Bluebook is a good sample - just text, links and gifs.

Looking at the news section, it seems this site was built back in 2005, updated to 2006 then nothing. I guess they need a refresh of their Google page ranking thus this marketing blitz.

One unique feature of the site is that they rank the different online casinos/poker rooms/sportsbook/bingo halls by bonus and slots percentage payout!

I hate websites that do not update their pages correctly and on their poker room listing page, their top 5 sites has become a list of three. I guess the other two do not cater to USA players so off the list they go.

Since my interest is in poker, I clicked on thru to the three links to see what was offered.

Bodog with it's new domain name is the same old site.
Royal Vegas Poker is now Pokertime.
Gaming Club Poker is now Cool Hand Poker!

LOL. Things change quick online.

I also checked out the different casino bonuses on offer at the different casinos. Boy, are things different from two year ago! Most of the first deposit bonuses can only be claimed with slots wagering and their wagering requirements vary from 15x to 60x(!). Wow... no more easy casino bonus whoring.

On every site that I review, I hope to learn something new at the sites that they link to... It took me a while but I found it at the Intercasino site. Check this out. They have a $70 bonus for blackjack play during February 2009... their terms though is here. You get a 10% bonus of $20 for a $200 deposit. The wagering requirements are $1200 (60x20) before you can withdraw any winnings AND initial deposit. If you then LOSE at least $170 ($20 bonus + $150 from your initial deposit) then you can get $50 cash back. Thus $20 initial deposit bonus + $50 cash back = $70 of blackjack bonus... the name of this promotion? FEB LUCKY 21s.

Yup, no more easy casino bonus whoring!

So if you cannot believe or haven't check it out yet, give onlinecasinobluebook.net a click.

2009 Poker Direction

2009-01-27T21:36:00.004-08:00

It's taken me all of 2007 and 2008 to find my direction in poker.

As I reviewed what I've done since I started my poker craze in 2006, I've come to the realization that I had jumped too quickly up to poker bonus chasing levels of NL50 or even 1/2 limit online. This came about from my wildly successful casino bonus chasing which gave me literally a gambling bankroll that I was NOT ready for.

I've had many readers ask for poker advice (!) that as I learned more about the game I KNEW I was not qualified to answer. Thus my blogging silence these past two years.

But I haven't left the game or just grind it out at a stake level that my bankroll may support but exposes my level of poker incompetence.

There's been ALOT of new poker literature and thought published in the past two years and I've been reading and studying diligently.

I spent most of 2007 to simply get my head around the psychology of gambling. The biases and mistakes that we all make when dealing with money, randomness, and uncertainty.

In 2008, I became a poker dealer! With intense live first hand experience over MANY hands, I started to see who are real poker winners and the variety of characteristics that they have.

With my new found knowledge, I went and attacked the.... .02/.04 limit tables!

Donkeyfests right? Definitely. So with advance poker knowledge they should be ultra soft right? Yup... I can with confidence play at this level at over +10bb/100 hands.

Is the critical knowledge at this level knowing hand rankings, position, or hand distributions.... NO.

All that has some importance, but critical is knowledge of limit post flop play, or the University of Chasing. Just knowing this well allows you to play up to .25/.50 limit online.

I've now moved beyond that but with this knowledge, I now know the direction I'll be taking with my online poker blogging as well as my poker play/learning.

I will have two tracks of thought. One track is the original premise for this blog - how to start with nothing down, play in freerolls and get a comfortable sub $1K bankroll.

The second track will be once you get your $50 or $100 bankroll, either through freerolls or an initial deposit, how to WIN at the nano stakes level to move your bankroll up to the +$1K levels to comfortably start playing cash NL or micro limit poker of .50/$1 and higher.

I forsee more tracks for higher bankrolls but that's for later.

I need to sort out how to present all my thoughts coherently but at least I have a clear direction forward finally.

Stay tuned!

Pokerstar's Annual Blogger Freeroll

2008-12-08T03:35:00.002-08:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

The WBCOOP is an online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers.

Registration code: 782554

University of Chasing

2008-11-07T16:09:00.003-08:00

Hold'em on the Come - Roth Slotboom

This is for playing low limit hold'em cash games.

If you've ever played nano stakes limit online (ie .02/.04 up to .50/1) or live limit stakes of 2/4 and even 4/8 kill games where everybody seems to limp in and see the flop, premium or made hands seem to always get cracked, yet everyone is having a great time.... this book is for you.

First book I've found that explains clearly how to chase properly when you have 2 to 10 outs.

This is the book that answers so many of the questions I had about the limit game that I mused on last year.

Freeroll Win #13

2008-09-16T05:09:00.004-07:00

It's been over a year but finally my 13th freeroll win. A totally random result. Blinds in this freeroll went up every minute!!

Extreme Poker

2008-08-19T00:54:00.003-07:00

I was reading an article on Toyota.

And Ed Miller wrote this piece on the macro and micro aspects of poker.

Today is Firefox3 Download Day!

2008-06-17T08:30:00.001-07:00

Learning Poker Step-by-step, inside and out.

2008-03-19T18:38:00.003-07:00

I really enjoyed reading this article by Daniel Negreanu where he compares the similarities between teaching golf and teaching poker.

The sentence that sums up where I am in the game is:

The game is just as much about bankroll management, ego, psychology, and emotional control as it is about learning starting hand requirements and basic probabilities.

Working on the intricacies of the game from the fundamentals up to the advance concepts is relatively easy nowadays, if you diligently work at it, with the ample information available everywhere.

But working on yourself... that's the really hard part.

No Live Poker This Week

2008-03-19T18:11:00.003-07:00

I went to a live casino yesterday and did NOT play any poker.

There were over 20 tables going, most of them 1-2 NL. And with the bad beat at over 50K, there was even 4 tables of 2-4 limit, my live poker training ground by choice.

There were even open seats for the 2-4 game.

But I just didn't feel right for some reason and never sat down. The only 2-4 table I FELT like sitting down at was the only one that was full.

So... I played a bit of blackjack, won a bit, and after intermittently checking out the poker room 4 or 5 times over 3 hours... I left.

This had never happened to me before... not playing after going to a casino and as I was walking out the front door, it finally struck me why I didn't play.

The players at the three tables I had no interest in weren't smiling! And unsmiling 2-4 limit players are tightassed losing grinders and the only winner was going to be the lucky ones and the casino.

So no live poker for me for another week.

Pokerstars Weekly Freerolls

2008-02-14T20:44:00.004-08:00

For all my introspection, I did play some freeroll poker.

Late last year, I got into my head to again play some of Pokerstar's massive freerolls, the same freerolls that got me started into online poker back in 2006.

I played in a bunch of the freeroll qualifiers - they require you to place in the top 99 to get a ticket for the weekend $2000 freeroll MTTs. The requirement is much better than what it was in 2006 when you'd only qualify if you made the top 27!

So I got a ticket playing in a FL qualifier.

And another in a NL Qualifier.

And one more in a Limit Omaha H/L qualifier.

In one of the weekend, for the money, $2K freerolls, I got deep and just missed the cash...

In the other $2K freeroll, at one point I was first in chips...

but I got this as my last hand...

So I finished 8th, and won $30!

If you have the time and don't want to ever make a deposit, it's still good fun to play in these donkfests to start up a bankroll.

Welcome Back Me! (A Late 2007 Review)

2008-02-13T19:19:00.002-08:00

Wow... it's been 4 months since my last post.

I need to take baby steps and get back to regularly blogging my poker thoughts!

Playing wise, I played very little poker in 2007. I have been thinking a lot about the game though.

I've even thought about posting as I work through my thinking but it's hard to write down incomplete and disjointed thoughts.

Compared to 2006 when I just took up poker and went through the early learning curve, 2007 has been a much harder year for me. Learning about myself and my flaws in thought is so much harder than simply learning a game and growing a bankroll.

I've come to realize knowing how to play the game is not the same as knowing how to win. And knowing how to win is not simply mastering all facets of poker but also understanding everything about myself; my emotions, self-control, financial expectations, and thought processes while playing.

My character or 'who-I-am' is fundamental to how I think and play; my style. More importantly, as this style unconsciously projects out. It becomes an instant tell to any observant opponents.

This insight came to me as I observed the game while playing live 4-8 limit. I notice that the regular grinders 'knows' me, my play, hell... my cards, better than I did at times! Well, I want to learn how to do that!

Observing how the regulars play live is so informative on the real psychologies of poker players and gamblers in general. I can pick out some of their flaws as well (otherwise why would they be grinding it out in 4-8 limit!) but I still need to work out their thinking processes. And to do that, I realize that I need to first figure out my own thoughts and my own flaws.

To continue to improve and play better, to improve to at least the level of the regular grinders, I need to understand myself completely thus be able to play against my nature at the times when it is the 'right' move to make at the poker table. Perhaps a better way to rephrase that is I need to change my nature to automatically make the right move - since in poker we are striving to always make the correct decision every time.

Well, that in a nutshell is what I've been doing poker-wise in 2007.

P.S. Reading Sklansky and Malmuth stuff makes SO much more sense to me now!

Pokerstars 2007 WBCOOP

2007-10-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 1251067

Uncertainty Part II

2007-09-20T15:10:00.000-07:00

Another example of playing with uncertainty.

The ultra loose cHp Freerolls qualifiers at hollywoodpoker. Usually about 150 entrants with the top twenty moving on.

I won one!

And at the next step, the quarter roll, I was third with 21 left. The top 20 moves on, so I didn't even need to play on and sat out.

Easy.

Poker Epiphany - Embracing Uncertainty

2007-09-19T20:22:00.000-07:00

I was reading Arnold Snyder's The Poker Tournament Formula last week when I finally figured out a huge part of poker - I now see the game, especially no limit, from a fresh new perspective.

Most poker books teaches us to analyze a given poker situation by learning and gathering all available information about the game and at a given moment; hand strength, position, opponent styles and tells, relative stack sizes, M values, etc, and then play a strategy appropriate for that situation.

But in fast tournaments, tournaments that have short blind levels and/or a low starting stack, unless I get an unnatural number of good hands or profit from some really poor play early in a tournament, I'm usually always short in chips mid to late tourny. If anyone of you play online freerolls or low buyin MTTs, you'll know exactly what I mean.

So how to the 'good' players able to amass large comfortable stacks by mid-tourny most of the time? They couldn't be getting lucky all the time.

Now I know the 'secret'. It's learning to play with uncertainty.

Poker is a game of incomplete information. We are reminded of this all the time. Most instructions on how to play poker is on how to cope, reduce, and/or eliminate uncertainty - the middle of the picture above. But MUCH of the time at the tables, unless you're holding the absolute nuts or near nuts at the end of the betting rounds, there is a lot of unknowns. That's why poker is a game of incomplete information.

Recognizing the amount of uncertainty in a given situation and knowing what you can DO with that understanding gives you another level of competitiveness against your opponents who are not comfortable with it.

Embracing the uncertainty that is inherent in the game as part of your playing strategy along with good tight aggressive play provides a sound additional mean of winning a hand... with any two cards.

Embracing uncertainty is why position play and small ball poker works.

That's it in a nutshell. Does it work? Read on...

Of course your variance goes up since you'll be playing looser than the simple tight aggressive game, and you'll get caught out at times. But in fast tournaments where there is not enough play at the table for you to wait for safer starting hands or to line up who you can attack, this line of play, of taking timely chances in position when uncertainty is still high in the hand, is more optimal than Harrington.

Other than the math whizzes who examine poker with game theory, I haven't found anyone else who has tried to explain poker in terms of uncertainty or explain that one aspect of the value of late position is the amount of uncertainty involved. (dear readers, if there is an article somewhere, please let me know!)

Here's an early attempt at incorporating this insight into my game. The $50 freeroll at poker.com with 1500 entrants. With 7 minute blinds, and just 1000 in starting chips, it is online donkament at it's best. And I though I've gotten deep before, most of the times, I don't get the cards, get short stacked and end up pushing with crap or get knocked out when the big stack draws out on my made hand.

It is SO much more enjoyable playing in a tournament, when you are holding the big stack AND you get to play with the uncertainty of each hand. Just watching what your opponent is trying to put you on is so much fun. Especially when your 63o flops A66 and you knock out the small stack holding big slick.

I ended up 20th WITHOUT getting great cards. Instead of winning 10% of my hands, I was winning 20%. I need to fine tune my MTT strategy by recognizing when I should stick with Harrington, and when I can mix it up and play with uncertainty.

Learning How to Be Lucky

2007-09-05T12:57:00.000-07:00

Thanks Klopzi, for prompting me to post.

I've only played another 30 hours of live 4/8 limit so not enough for my next 50 hour live report.

The reason I've played so few hands live was because I realized I was playing too timid for the game I was in. I wasn't playing right and needed to reset what I was doing.

After analyzing my live play and how I was just breaking even and losing to the most incredible draws, I can now characterize the 4/8 game in online terms... preflop it's exactly like the online micro-limit tables (25c/50c or less)... after the flop the skill level improves for some of the players and is more like the online 1/2-5/10 6-max shorthanded tables.

So almost anything goes preflop, and any draw is usually chased to the river irregardless of the odds, though given the number of players usually seeing the turn, the odds are almost always there to chase - thus the title of my post.

Once I've gotten these thoughts into my head, I've... gone back to the microlimit tables online! So I've been playing at the 25c/50c at poker.com and 15c/30c at hollywoodpoker to reset my game.

With the greater number of hands I can play online, I can now see better the possible patterns of play given the wider distribution of opening hands. And since the post flop play at these micro limits are, as expected, poorer, I'm winning much more than I've ever had at these limits.

Learning to see ALL the possible hands after the flop and quickly recognizing where your hand stands relative to a loose opening distribution of starting hands makes a BIG difference between chasing right or wrong.

Before, I would almost never 'catch' a river card to suckout a win. Those donkey moves only happened to me and my made hands (like what was happening to me live). Now... first, I recognize that I'm chasing, but when I realize I have multiple ways to win over unsuspecting opponents, when I do hit my expected 25-40% of the time hand, I get to squeeze maximize value with check raises on the river that more than covers the easy-to-fold misses.

The best feeling is when your opponent then types 'you lucky &#*%,' goes on a mini-tilt, and pays off your monster hands as well.

First 50 hours of 4/8 FL

2007-08-13T15:08:00.000-07:00

I've now played in just over 50 hours of live 4/8 FL Holdem...

I'm down 8BB. So just $64...

And I realize just HOW MANY MISTAKES I still have in my game!

Which is a GREAT thing. No wonder I was 'break even' in my online ring games as well. Now online, I SEE the post-flop play better.

The great thing about slow live play is that you have the time to reflect on the play of every hand. And the number of leaks that I have is so glaring when I put the time in to review my play.

After one and a half year of play, I think I'm finally beyond my hand + flop possibilities and can start to focus on what distributions I'm against based on my table reads.

My latest leak find is that I hate to have the dominating hand (ie AQs vs ATo) and villain draws out on the river on you... can I STOP paying off the extra bet on the river?

Random Non Poker Post

2007-08-10T20:42:00.000-07:00

Long life awaits me.

How Will I Die Quiz

You will die at the age of 106

You will die of sunburn trying to beat the world record for nude sunbathing

Find out how you will die at Quizopolis.com

Darn, I missed one.

Am-I-Dumb.com - Are you dumb?

Things you can't do online

2007-08-03T13:02:00.000-07:00

I've been playing overly tight live. But if the table still bets into you, it's VERY +EV.

But if EVERYONE sees the flop, you're all of a sudden behind to all the draws out there; so what can you do?

Well, I've found that ANNOUNCING how tight you play helps sometimes! The players in the know understand and get out of your way, and everyone else will still go on chasing their gutshots and two-outers.

me: Wow! Nice catch! (low pocket pair catching trips on the river with a scary coordinated board showing)
octogenerian chaser: Thanks.
me: I wish I could do that, I'm not a good chaser. Only my made hands get caught. I never chase.
octogenerian chaser: Then you'll never catch anything.
me: Yeah, I hate fishing too.

Live Poker

2007-07-30T11:17:00.000-07:00

I've been in North America now for 5 months.

And if you're a gambler, you'd know that there's now ALWAYS a casino just around the corner from you - or within a 3 hour drive at the most.

With my online bankroll behind me, I've now played about 50 hours of live cash game poker. All limit poker - 2/4, 2/5, and now 4/8 limit.

At around 30-40 hands/hour, that's between 1500 to 2000 hands. So still not much to determine any trend, but as I learn the nuances of live play, I'm ahead of the rake so it's nice to know I can hold my own playing 'for real' at these low limits.

The play varies but on the whole, even at 4/8 limit, it is MUCH looser than even 1/2 FL online.

The great thing with playing live is that all the poker 'wisdoms' gets played out on each and every hand and table. I love observing the different 'personalities' that show up.

I find that though I play much less hands live, I've improved my overall decision making faster playing live. It has to do with the time available between hands to reflect on my play (both the good and the bad).

When I find my next reliable free wi-fi connection, we'll see if my latest insights translate online.

Las Vegas Trip Report

2007-07-18T06:30:00.000-07:00

I've made my pilgrimage to Las Vegas to see the WSOP live.

It's my first time to really SEE the gambling in Vegas. I've been here before for the now defunct Comdex. But back then, I never gambled except in work and business <-grin->.

It's the first time I've see deepstack poker being played and I now have a better understand of what all that Harrington poker theory really means.

Watching the randomness that is tournament poker play, I also realize that what I've been doing in my freerolls is actually NOT that different from even the main event! Especially poker play in the second half of ANY tournament. Seeing atrocious reads, committing tournament life with dominated hands, and 1-3 out river cards over and over again even in the main event and even on day 3 really shows the 'gamble' that's in tournament play.

It was a great experience. Highlight for me was watching Scotty Nguyen play on days 2 and 3 with never more than 150,000 chips and surrounded by stacks 3-5x his - all targeting him - and he's the ONLY survivor from all those countless big stacks to make it the the final two tables. What an incredible player.

Independence Day in Anti-Online Poker Land

2007-07-04T19:16:00.000-07:00

July 4th in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.

Watching the 'patriotic' fireworks right now.

I wonder what 'non-patriotic' fireworks looks like.

For the next couple of months, I'm planning to travel throughout the US, the land of anti-online poker.

Neteller has already warned me not to even browse to their site while I'm in the States.

Not too many freerolls for me either, so I'll be at the 2/4FL tables at pokerstars when possible.

Another Second Place

2007-06-27T21:00:00.000-07:00

This was played over a week ago so here the final hour and a bit in minimalistic style. Enjoy.

At the second hour break there were 33 left of 486 entrants.
WOW! Take a look at the first hand after the break.

20 left, I'm in the lead.

Final Table.

I get lucky.

6 left, I'm still very comfortable.

4 left.

3 left.

I take the chip lead with a A6o vs 63o hand.

3rd hour break.

Heads Up.

Catching the idiot end and coming in second.

3rd Cash in a Buy-in Tournament

2007-06-11T16:29:00.000-07:00

If you've been following this blog, you'll know that I rarely play any cash buy-in MTTs. For whatever reason, I just haven't started playing them regularly preferring freerolls.

Looking through my blog, I realize that this is only my third ever cash in a buy-in tourny, previous cashes were last November and February.

The MTT was one of B2B network's regular Wild West tournys. I took a look in the site lobby, saw that there were only 300 or so players...a €2 buy-in and a guaranteed prize pool of €3,000... I was bored and the MTT was starting in 6 minutes.. so I registered.

I've never play in this tournament before so I made notes right from the beginning wanting to track how such a tourny works... here goes the recap!

I missed the first hand of the MTT and when I got the table up, I did a double take... I only had 500 chips! Hummm... with a bit of checking, I realized that I've gotten myself into an UNLIMITED rebuy tournament. Not only that, but it's a turbo, 5 minutes per level, unlimited rebuy for the first hour, tournament. Ho boy.

So no wonder there were players sitting beside me with 2500 chips while I only had 500.

I took a further look at the leaderboard and find that there is TWO leaders who already each have 9500 chips! Which means they have each put in €20 to start this tournment with a sizable stack.

Well, I wasn't going to do a Daniel Negrenu with the rebuys or addons this early in the tourny so my thoughts were to see if I could double up a couple of times and see how long I can last with my 500 chips.

First good hand I get is the rockets, AA. I make a 100 bet MP into the 10/20 blind level and get two callers. The short of it, I double up to just over 1K in chips.

As I waited for my next playable hand, I scrounged around to figure out better what I got myself in. The MTT has 314 entrants, top 45 payout. First place gets well over €7oo and 45th place pays out €16. So you're not gonna make much even ITM if you make more than 7 rebuys.

Next playable hand, KQo MP, I limp preflop... flop is KTx and seeing that the big stack button was playing quite loose, I push. My pair of Ks hold over his Ts and I've double up again to 2170 chips. I'm 101 out of 248 left!

A couple of hands later, I get cowboys, KK UTG and just make a 2xBB bet. I get reraised by another big stack and the small stack SB pushes an inconsequential allin as well. So I push and the big stack still calls. I'm against AQs of hearts and 22. Flop is K2x with 2 hearts! No flush or straight on turn or river and I'm up to 5440 chips and 30th out of 226 left.

Very next hand, in the BB, I have 97s and there's only one limper. I flop a straight flush draw, bet and take the hand. 5640 chips.

Next time I'm UTG, I made my key laydown. I get AKo and raised 4xBB to 800 chips. An EP calls, MP1 goes all-in followed by MP2's all-in!

So I.... fold! EP goes all-in as well... they turn up 88, AA, KK... what a hand. The rockets hold up... I'm still alive but now 65th out of 190 left.

In the hand just before the 1 hr break, I find myself with 99 on the button. CO and CO-1 had both limped. Blinds are at an astronomical 250/500 so with a little over 4K in chips, I pushed. Only the CO calls with K2s. He doesn't improve and I have 8630 chips at the first hour break. 44th out of 150 left.

During the 5 minute break is your final chance at rebuys/addons. I took a look at my situation and decide it wasn't worth it to make any rebuys.

After the break, with no more rebuys, the real poker tournament starts. During the first hand after the break, I check the standings and I'm now 68th out of 145 left. I fell 24 places to players who added on chips. The new 44th place has 12,000 chips so if I had wanted to 'keep my place,' I would have had to invest a further €14 for the 3500 extra chips.

Rechecking the payout schedule, I got a shock. In total, there was a final 2,582 rebuys! Which pushes up the final prize pool to €5,529. First place now gets €1,357 and even 45th gets €30.

You would think the play would settle down, but no, the play is still loose and when the blinds pass thru my unplayable hands, I find myself 73rd out of 112 left.

The one good thing after the first hour is that the blind levels are 10 minutes instead of 5.

With no hands, I fold everything and as the blinds move up to 500/1K, I'm 72nd out of 99.

The blinds are really affecting the >10K stacks (hey our 'M' is less than 6!), and after another blank pair of blind hands, I'm 74th out of 86 left.

The table tightened for one hand and my push with A5s takes the binds which get me back to 7580 chips and 63rd out of 84 left. I'm the short stack at the table.

The 45th placed stack is 14,186.

The blinds whips around the table and still at the 500/1K level, I have to pay the blinds and fold my hands to big stack aggression again. 63/73.

Now I decide I'm gonna attempt my short stack slowplay. I have at most 2-3 orbits left of chips. Let's see how far I can go.

By the time the 750/1.5K blinds reach me, I'm 57th out of 60. After not playing even QT0 in the BB to a raise post flop, I'm at 3830 in chips. No fold equity at all. Two orbits left.

Blinds go up to 1K/2K. I'm still slowplaying, and 4 hands before the blinds reach me we reach the final 6 tables. 54 left... I'm in 53rd place.

One table to go until we're in the money.

All I can hope for is a hand in the next 3 or else I'll need to pay the 3K in blinds and have to sit on 830 in chips for one last orbit.

52 left and I'm in last place.

51 left...
50 left... 45th place has just 7610 chips... Can there be enough people who'll go for the win for me to sneak into the cash?

48 left... 3 to the money. And the blinds finally reach me. I'm still last in chips.

My hand is 54s...

The table FOLDS to me! That deserves a LOL.

As I then fold my 'free' SB hand, I'm 46/47.

Then 45/46. We're on the bubble and play is now hand-to-hand.

The blinds move up to 1.5K/3K, so my 3830 chip stack can only post the BB.

Will someone even risk getting knocked out now?

As we wait for the other tables to complete hands, I find the table the 46th place stack is on... he only has 1640 in chips and... is 4 hands away from the blinds... and I'm... 5 hands away from the blinds! Yeah!

As we wait some more, I start to think, what would I do if I get a hand? I'll most likely fold...

Then boom, someone, not the two small stacks, go out... and just like that we're ITM. €30.

Before the blinds reach me, I get A8o. My best hand for the past 4 orbits... so I push all-in... and...

My wifi connection breaks!

When I reconnect... I have 9160 in chips. No idea what happened. I guess I'd won.

Now that I have enough for at least another orbit, I check the next cash level... 36th place.

When the blinds pass me, I'm 36/38. 4660 in chips.

One hand later, I'm 35/35... moved up another cash level and now at least €38.

In EP2, I get QJs... I push, with 2 callers.... I flop a T98 straight and improve to a flush with runner runners. Now 11,480 in chips. 24/31.

Next cash level is 27th.

In the BB with limpers holding 72o... flop is 765 rainbow, I push, one caller... now 23,980 in chips. 18/31.

Finally, my run ends... I'm 20/27 and again in EP2 I get AJo... UTG had limped so I push to isolate, BB calls with AQo and I'm done.

27th for €53.

Finally a Final Table

2007-06-09T00:56:00.000-07:00

It was just a 441 entrant Omaha Hi/Lo freeroll but at least I made it back to the final table.

Unfortunately, we still had a lucky freeroll expert at the table and I was knocked out by a rivered Hi straight in 7th place.

Still working on my game

2007-06-08T14:15:00.000-07:00

Oh well 20th out of 1472... I played patient and with just 2 key doubling hands against freeroll experts (for those who don't know, they are players who play Ax Kx like they are the nuts), I easily got into the money (top 100).

With 50 left, I got too conservative... with two big stack bettors preflop, I could have played QJs but passed... the xxxQT board against JJ and AT would have given me a final table stack.

Passing on QJ with my medium stack wasn't toooo bad a move. But on my next playable hand, I should have pushed with JTs... I was now one of the short stacks at about 18th of of 25 left... but tripling would still have got me into the top 10...

Well timid me passed again with JTs when two bigger stacks pushed before me... they showed A9 and AQ... flop JTx!

After that, I had no more fold equity and faded to just make the 11th-20th cash level in 20th place.

I gotta get my aggression back up when I have a medium stack in in-the-money play.

Poof! Goodbye UKBetting

2007-06-05T22:34:00.000-07:00

Out of the blue I get two emails on Monday June 4th from UKBetting and RaketheRake...

UKBetting Shuts Down Today.

So the site of my largest freeroll win ever is gone... just like that.

The UKBetting email even had the gall to write "... we previously sent you an email..." which of course I've never received. I'm now slightly excited since after my win back in December, I thought it'll be nice to leave some of my winnings at the site to chase the monthly bonuses and earn the required points to play the monthly rtr freerolls. So I had close to £400 still at UKBetting on Monday... The question was... where's the money?

I left it for a day... but with no further emails and not knowing where some of my virtual money is floating around got me, so I decided to do some more investigating. Back to the two emails...

And I saw that further down the UKBetting email, they write "On 5th June your ukbetting account will change to a SkyBet account, and you should receive an email from them with the relevant details."

I'll report if and when I get that email...

Not knowing what SkyBet is, I go to skybet.com and after fiddling around, I find this page, a nice and informative FAQ on the merger of totalbet/ukbetting with SkyBet. [update: UKBetting.com's homepage now has all the transfer instructions]

After following the instructions to validate my new account, voila... I found my UKB balance. The interesting thing NOW is that skybet does NOT have any neteller facilities! It seems the only way to fund/withdraw from this site is by credit/debit card... and of course I've never EVER made any gaming transactions with my bank accounts/cards before. (for those who don't know, my online bankroll started completely from freerolls and my withdrawals of online winning into real/physical cash had all been from the presently defunct Neteller card)

Stay tuned to further posts as I try to figure out how to get my cash out...

Going Deep in Mega Freerolls

2007-05-30T23:20:00.000-07:00

I lost my screen cap of my 101th place out of 1498 in one of microgaming's mega freerolls. It was a PL 7-Stud freeroll thus the 'small' turnout.

Here's the summary cap of my 126/4965 finish in a $1K HoldEm NL freeroll.

It's all about patience. The play is just as random as 6 months ago.

Online-Casinos.com - A Guide to Online Gambling

2007-05-26T22:09:00.000-07:00

The following is a paid review for Online-Casinos.com:

There's many online gambling review and instruction sites but most of them just give the most basic of information and stock reviews and expect you to trust and use their services.

Well, Online-Casinos.com is NOT one of those sites! Their reviews of real money gambling sites are comprehensive and you can tell they have played on the sites they review. I haven't read every review but when I read the site's review on William Hill's online casino, for the fact that I've been playing at WillHill since last May, even I learned something new! If you've been following my blog, you know I'm a sucker for any chance at free casino money, so I was happy to find out about WillHill's daily free 1 in 1 billion chance at $100,000 in their Break the Bank free game.

The site also has free casino game training programs for blackjack, video poker and roulette.

A feature I really like is the site's visualized casino game rule instructions for different casino games like Texas Hold'Em poker, Omaha Poker, Seven Card Stud Poker, Blackjack, Baccarat, Craps, and Roulette. Check out the Craps instruction flash video; I thought it was especially well done.

Pokerwise, the site has a dedicated channel with reviews of the main online poker rooms and a couple of free poker tools; a poker odds calculator and a tool that teaches Passive/Aggressive playing strategy.

If you play blackjack, and depending on the exact rules that you are playing against, the site has a free blackjack strategy chart calculator so you can get a perfect playing strategy matrix for any rule variations.

All in all, not a run of the mill review and gambling information site; give Online-Casinos.com a try.

Like Riding a Bicycle

2007-05-18T19:55:00.000-07:00

After two months in Toronto, I finally found a stable Wi-fi connection. There is two relatively stable free public wifi networks in town. They are wirelessnomad and wirelesstoronto. But you need to be in the areas where they provide a node.

The solution I found is provided by a pub downtown called Good Tymez at Church and Dundas.

After taking a prolonged break from playing any online poker, and as I got back to playing a couple of freerolls, I realized that I needed to remind myself of some key points to get back into the money. Namely:

You can't win early in a tourny... so patience is key to work thru the maniacs.
Mid tourny, depending on your stack, play potentially dominated hands carefully. So be careful and be ready to fold with AJ, KJ, and any small pocket pairs.
Late tourny it's all about position and stack size. So DON'T get into a pissing contest with the big stack unless you have the nuts.

So after playing around 10 freerolls over the past week to relearn these points, I cashed in a freeroll for the first time since February. 35/1498.

I still need to work on my patience though. Last hand, I had AsTs, flopped JTx with two hearts. I go all in... villian had KQ of hearts... he missed his straight and flush but caught a K on the river and I'm done.

What Got You Here Won't Get You There

2007-04-10T07:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, I've copied the title of my post from this book I saw at a bookstore.

It perfectly summarizes my poker status. I've realize that the person who played freerolls and built a bankroll from zero to over $6K in one year is not the person who can grow a $5K bankroll to say $30K!

Changing one's mindset is not as easy as it seems.

Why playing freerolls in public is bad for your game

2007-04-07T09:37:00.000-07:00

The number of free public wifi spots in Toronto sucks compared to Vancouver; thus my lack of posts and not much poker. And the free wifi spots that are available... whether at a cafe or Toronto hydro's OneZone are undependable.

Even with my connection difficulties, I have played a couple of freerolls in each city. If you just want the results, that's easy, I didn't last to the one hour break in either of them. For my excuses... read on...

In Vancouver, I was at a cafe in Davie Village playing in UKB's March monthly raketherake freeroll. They've changed the prize pool again and it is now £1000.

Shortly after I started, a couple of guys sat down at the table next to me and started to debate the merit of the various private members clubs they belong to. Like any good eavesdropper, I realize that their conversation about the local bear community and fine distinction between the term bears, cubs, and otters were far more interesting than my £1000 freeroll.

Thus my first quick freeroll exit. I ended up 'reading' a newspaper for over 2 hours as I learned all about the intricacies and dangers of finding a proper gay partner in the wilds of Vancouver.

Next in Toronto, I was in one of microgaming's mega freerolls at a sports bar downtown. I had a perfect seat looking out on Yonge Street. And as I was watching the street traffic as I played, I started to notice an unusual phenomena. Since there is no smoking allow inside any public premise, smokers need to step out the front door to puff up. What I noticed was without fail, EVERY single smoker had some pedestrian bumming a cig off them and what was even MORE fascinating was that almost every smoker gave!

The two most memorable cigarette bums(?) that I saw that day was (1) a guy who shouted from across the street for a cigarette and the smoker actually CROSSING the street to give him one and (2) another guy who was walking by with his girlfriend carrying their grocery shopping and bumming a cig AND one for his girlfriend as well!

As you can imagine, all this sociology in action lead to another early poker demise.

Still Here

2007-03-12T11:51:00.000-07:00

Wow. It's been a month since my last post.

I've been traveling and am presently in Toronto, Canada.

On the bankroll front, It's taken a month, but I've managed to get back above the 6K mark after my last blackjack tilt-off.

I'm still on my reading binge as I try to get comfortable playing with a 5K+ bankroll.

It was easy last year when I started with nothing and had no expectations.

Now with a bankroll, the only way to continue to grow it meaningfully is to play higher stakes cash games and more buy-in MTTs.

But it's taking me longer to get comfortable committing $$ into poker than losing it playing blackjack! I'll get there.

Thanks for your continued comments and emails. I am still around, but it's taken longer than expected for me to move onwards in poker.

Darn Second

2007-02-13T08:50:00.000-08:00

I haven't been playing much poker... no bonus chasing ring games, not much freerolls.

And when I played any freerolls, I found myself playing worst than a donkey pushing drawing hands even after I had tripled up or better early in the tourny... and when you do that, you lose chips and your tournament life quick.

So today, I decided to settle back down and consciously play a freeroll tight... get rockets twice that hold up, laid down 99 and AJo out of position and avoided confrontation with the table's big stack (unless he was the table's ATM)...

I found myself one of the short stacks with about 40 left... the bubble was at 18 out of 1061 entrants...

And by playing the ultra tight sneak up the standings poker that is only possible in freerolls, I find myself breeze past the bubble and on the final table, dead last in chips. (for a more detailed look at what I mean by this ultra tight sneak up style around the bubble in a freeroll, check out what I did for my 5th win... it's almost exactly what I did in this tourny)

Donkish freeroll play continues and with a couple of basic TPTK hands, I move up to third with six left...

I knock out the small stack when my cowboys hold up and I found myself the chip leader for the first time with 5 left...

I stay around first or second in chips and the first hand of heads up, I have 3:1 chip advantage and with QQ... I even got an all-in preflop... against A2o and an ace flops...

I scrounge back and at the THREE hour break, we're dead even...

With me down 4:1 in chips, last hand I make a J high straight to lose to villian's Q high straight...

So 2/1061... My first freeroll cash in Feb. Now to win my first one in 2007!

How to tilt away a #@$%-load from your bankroll playing a freeroll

2007-01-30T04:41:00.000-08:00

It's been three days, so I can post this now.

So after spending this whole month thinking about my growing bankroll and reading alot of psycho-babble, this Saturday, all that reading and thinking got to me and... well read on.

By the middle of this month, I was wondering about what happened to raketherake's monthly freeroll at ukbetting, the one where I had won my biggest payout ever last month. I had cleared the required 250MPPs in Dec to be eligible for this month's freeroll. So it was a surprise that I finally get an email from RTR on Jan 24th announcing that they were going to hold the freeroll on Jan 27th instead of the usual middle of the month.

Well late is better than never, so I prepared as I did before and hoped for another good tourny. This month, there were 42 entrants... another good small field, with payout to the top 5.

First big thing I noticed was that they've changed the prize pool! Instead of £2500 like last month, it was only $2500. That's nearly a 50% reduction so that was sticking in the back of my mind.

I got some cards really early and by the ninth hand, I was the chip leader. And I stayed in the top 5 past the first hour break.

Then, FPS hit me. That's fancy playing syndrome for those who don't know. I made a move with nothing from the SB and was caught by a no foldem player. After telling myself and countless others the futility of bluffing in a freeroll, here I was 'making a move.'

Because of that ONE hand where I lost nearly half my comfortable stack, I was forced to play tighter, miss out on some hands that I woulda coulda played and woulda coulda won with flops that woulda hit me hard.

So I ended up 12th out of 42. Just missing the final table and 7 from the money.

All my reading and thinking, and NOT just playing some poker this month got to me.

If that was all, this wouldn't be a landmark post for me.

You see, my 'career winnings' right at that moment on Saturday was $6934.26. I was so close to $7K. With all this reading and thinking this month, I understood the psychology of why we gamble and play poker. I learned so much about cognitive biases and the mistakes people make with their financial decisions......

So a bit dejected, a bit tired, I login to my Littlewoods casino account where I HAD over £640...

And in less than 20 minutes tilted away all of it except for £2.90...

playing -EV blackjack.

Yup... that's over $1,250 gone. Just like that.

It certainly beats my last big tilt off of $713 last June, and again it was about 20% of my net winnings.

It's now three days later and believe it or not, I'm not feeling so bad... at least it's not affecting me as badly as last June's tilt off. It did make me miss the month end 50K freeroll at poker.com but in some ways, it has helped!

I think it's gotten me over the hump of worrying too much about the stakes that I'll risk at the poker tables and buy-in MTTs.

That $1,250 would have bought over 100 $10 MTT buy-ins, or worth 300BBs at the 2/4 tables... and these games should be +EV for me to play... so wasting that equity has actually got me slightly mad at myself... which is a good thing.

So let's see how long it'll take me to make this all back... last time, it took over 3 months before I got my bankroll back over the pre-tilt level.

Handy Firefox Translator Add-On

2007-01-30T04:26:00.000-08:00

Thanks maka for both your link to this blog and your comment explaining what was being discussed in the German poker forum.

Wow, I'm getting Austrian and German readers!

I've now got maka's Tight Is Right blog in my reader. If anyone is using firefox, this translator add-on is perfect for a quick translations of other languages to your own.

Welcome German Readers

2007-01-25T19:28:00.000-08:00

I checked my recent webstats and find that I was mentioned in a German poker forum discussion recently and I've been getting many visits from the link.

With a handy online German-English translator, I gather the jist of the discussion is around the original poster's claim that he grew his bankroll to over $3700 starting only with freeroll winnings, never making a deposit and progressing to SnGs.

One thing I would add to that discussion is the growth rate of one's bankroll is solely due to the speed that one can learn how to play winning poker.

I believe freerolls are the most +EV step for a beginner to learn how to play poker AND start a bankroll with no money down, if you have patience, time and is a do-it-yourselfer.

Why should a beginner have to pay the 'tuition' of poker when all these sites will pay you their marketing dollar in freerolls as you learn?

Only if you are a winning player in poker would starting a bankroll by playing freerolls be -EV.

Not much Freerolls

2007-01-25T17:37:00.000-08:00

Haven't played much but I did cash in Dreampoker's 7K freeroll last week. 67/5042 for $14.

Got up to 5th at one point.

But then fell back by the second hour break and hung around there until the end.

Last hand was neat though. I was 62nd out of 69 left so it was time to make a move.

I got it all in on after the flop with a nut straight and flush draw. Make my flush on the turn just to lose to a one-outer river when villain's flopped set make quads.

Busy reading and thinking, not much blogging and poker

2007-01-24T23:04:00.000-08:00

Hi All! It's been an interesting January for me so far on the poker front. I've NOT played much poker at all! So far only about 200 ring game hands and I haven't even completed my WillHill 5 hour bonus yet.

It all started when I got into a discussion over at wasscasino's poker forums on the bankroll needed to play limit ring game. The discussion got into the typical need of 300BB bankroll and not risking 5% of your roll at any one session or day... yada, yada, yada.

So that got me thinking WHY are those numbers used? So I did some stats from first principles to work it out for myself. (I'll put that in a later post)

That exercise clarified alot about why these general rules of thumb for a bankroll help avoid almost any risk of ruin. Then it got me thinking this deals with avoiding risking too much of one's bankroll. Is there also a risk of risking too little?

In another words, given a certain bankroll size, is there an optimal bet to maximize growth.

That got me reading all about financial money management and portfolio management.

After reading that as long as you have a positive expectation on the investment/bet, there IS an optimal fixed fraction to invest/bet of your total stake. That got me thinking about why do I still play mainly at 1/2 when I have a large enough bankroll for 5/10 or higher?

Well that got me started reading up on behavioural economics and how our money mind-set and existing patterns of thought and habits lead us to get less out of our financial choices than we should (so sub-optimal).

That lead me to think, if all this psychology and statistics is what's going on fundamentally, then is there a simple answer to how do winning gamblers win? Since they aren't the types to anally research this out beforehand, they just go do it!

And what do you know, it leads me back to a twoplustwo page on the concept of non-self-weighting strategies explained by Mason Malmuth in his book 'Gambling Theory and Other Topics.'

I'll quote his enlightening example here:

Suppose you make a trip to Las Vegas, walk up to a craps table, and start betting $1 every time you roll the dice. You do this for 10,000 rolls, and then suddenly on the next roll you pull $1 million out of your pocket and put it all into action. Now how many times have you rolled the dice? Well, there are two answers, both correct. The mathematicians will say 10,001 times, but the statisticians will say one time simply because your results are all clustered around that one big bet. Notice, that during the first 10,000 rolls of the dice, we were looking at a self-weighting gambling experience. But after that $1 million bet came along, we had a very non-self-weighting gambling experience. Incidentally, and this is important, all successful gamblers are statisticians, not mathematicians.

The nugget of all this reading is simple... when you have the best of it (+EV), consistently bet the optimal fraction of your total stakes if you can or as high as you can without overbetting.

If you can consistently do that, your total stakes will grow as optimally as possible. But to consistently make these ever larger +EV bets rationally, we need to acknowledge, understand and overcome the negative human characteristics (guilt, fear, regret, compulsiveness, addiction, bad habits, ego, peer pressure) that affect our money decisions.

Glad I'm Not an American

2007-01-17T22:08:00.000-08:00

It was bound to happen and it has. Neteller has stopped all Americans from transacting with online gambling sites.

For the past year as I started to 'make' money from the ether of the Internet, and have actually converted some of that into physical cash, I've wondered how long the sovereign nations would allow this to continue unchecked.

E-wallets and independent money processors must be a nightmare for all the world's financial cops trying to stop money laundering.

In the past, it use to be just tracking the cash till at the local Italian/Chinese/your favorite minority restaurant/laundramat, or mules making their daily runs to an offshore banking haven. Today, imagine trying to watch every 50/100 NL table online to see if $20K got 'moved' across national borders in under 100 hands!

Too bad it has affected the online poker ecology but when annually $7 billion (from Neteller) is in motion independent of any nation's jurisdiction, first the bad and now the good sides of our world will take notice act accordingly in their best interests.

I guess it's time to really study up on live poker play!

A Typical Freeroll Tournament

2007-01-05T06:53:00.000-08:00

I've only blogged mainly about my freeroll cashes since it'll get old quick if I were to mention all the times I get 1,2,3 or 4 outed from a tourny. So what actually happens in one of my non-cash freerolls?

Well, I decided to track one and see:

Microgaming $200 Freeroll. 7058 entrants

Blinds 10/20 EP I get QQ and 5XBB raise, 3 call, 1 raise to 300, I push and raiser calls. Win against J9o. My stack goes from 1000 to T2670. 7xx/3xxx

77 vs. 22 after a KKJ flop allin. Stack now T5587. 341/2449. 30 mins into the tourny.

Blinds 150/300. I get AKs, AKo, AKo in three consecutive hands. Win the first two getting the stack to 10K+, then lose the last one to TT and fall back to T7674. 350/983.

Binds 500/1K. JJ beats AKo and AQo allin preflop. T17063. 140/570.

1st hr break. 147/464.

UTG folded 55. Would have rivered a 5 to win.

Blinds 1K/2K folded AQo in SB when two big stacks raised and reraised in front. Would have won on a QxxxA board. EP's A9s took it.

4K/8K blinds, T11597 pushed with QJs lose to big stacked BB's 64o that hit a 4flush board.

Finish 109/7058. Only top 30 paid out.

Which Superhero are you?

2007-01-03T11:45:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Waffles, thru Klopzi, I'm glad I'm not Superman.

I can't get the Spiderman jingle out of my head now...

Your results:
You are Spider-Man
You are intelligent, witty,
a bit geeky and have great
power and responsibility.

Spider-Man		85%
Hulk		75%
Superman		65%
Iron Man		55%
Robin		55%
Supergirl		55%
Batman		55%
Green Lantern		50%
The Flash		50%
Catwoman		35%
Wonder Woman		25%

Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...

Your results:
You are Magneto
You fear the persecution of those that are
different or underprivileged so much that
you are willing to fight and hurt others
for your cause.

Magneto		67%
Venom		66%
Catwoman		66%
Dr. Doom		65%
Apocalypse		61%
Mystique		60%
Mr. Freeze		56%
Lex Luthor		55%
Green Goblin		52%
Riddler		47%
The Joker		44%
Kingpin		44%
Poison Ivy		42%
Dark Phoenix		39%
Juggernaut		36%
Two-Face		36%

Click here to take the "Which Super Villain am I?" quiz...

Interpoker Moves Down the Bonus List

2007-01-03T07:16:00.000-08:00

Interpoker just had a reload revolution changing their monthly bonus structure and unless crypto network's 1/2 full-ring tables miraculously start to play looser, it'll really be a grind to get the required MPPs for the new bonus levels.

The old system of counting 500 dealt raked hand on a good loose table would 'cost' just 80-120MPPs. So at the new levels, for the same $100 reload bonus, we're looking at at least playing three times as many hands and on the tight, less than 25% plyr/flop 1/2 tables it'll be even more.

I guess I really have to learn the 6max game quick!

What a First Year of Poker!

2007-01-02T22:45:00.000-08:00

Exactly one year ago today, Jan. 3rd, looking for a bigger challenge than my Sony PSP WSOP game, I signed up to Pokerstars to play in their play money tables and freeroll qualifiers .

A week later, I made my first post and started this blog as my poker journal.

Over 230 posts and $6100 later, all I can say is I don't think anyone could have scripted my first year of poker any better.

This is a rough graph of how my bankroll grew from nothing to $6xxx in 12 months:
Below is the my recap of 2006.

At the beginning, I didn't even know if I could even win a dollar in freerolls, but after donked into my first final table in a mega Stars freeroll qualifier 3 days after started playing and I was hooked.

Just a week later, I cash in my first two tournys for a grand total of $1.72 and my bankroll got started.

With my freeroll winnings, I start to learn the cash games playing ultra micro limits.

My first freeroll win was in mid March, and I made my first withdraw from a poker site (poker.com) and thus first deposit into Neteller early May.

By winning twice more in May, and withdrawals from two more poker sites, I got my Neteller balance to $160 May 23rd.

My first ever deposit from Neteller was $100 into starluck casino on May 27th and my casino whoring days began.

Collecting my early casino bonuses at the end of May allowed me to deposit $80 into WilliamHill on May 31st, and my poker bonus chasing started.

On June 6th, my bankroll broke $1K.

I cashed out for the first time converting $350USD into real cash using my Neteller card mid June.

On June 18th, entering with completely no expectations, I ended up 14th out of 2247 bloggers in PokerStars World Blogger Championship freeroll. I was actually 3rd with 18 left but went through a surreal moment of not wanting to win since the top 10 won seats to the WSOP in Las Vegas. Never again.

Got the bankroll to $2K, June 22nd.

My first massive tilt was on June 29th. I can still feel the $713 of pain.

That stopped my casino whoring to a large extent, and got me to think through psychologically how I'm gonna deal with making money this way and to accept the natural zig-zagging that a bankroll will go through. If (when) I ever go through another 20% drop in my bankroll, I'll see if my acceptance is any better.

I started to learn the 1/2 FL game, and including a one month break as I moved to Australia, it took me three months to get my bankroll back over the pre-tilt $2.4K level.

Moving to Australia allowed me to chase the other lucrative poker and casino bonuses of the Crypto network and with that overlay and the start of rakebacks, my bankroll accelerates.

$3K Bankroll, Nov. 8th.

From mid November into most of December, I start my first 200+BB down swing over 5K hands. (more on this in a later post)

In the midst of which I win my 11th freeroll of the year and my first every big payday, £1250.

That took my bankroll over $6K.

The year had a bit of everything. From starting as a complete poker newbie, I ended up on December 31st, 2006:

Net Winnings for 2006, $6255.59.
Freeroll Wins, 12.

Fixing Freeroll Leaks

2007-01-02T15:10:00.000-08:00

I wasn't gonna post these results but as I've reread my blog, the way I donked out of two relatively good EV freerolls over the holidays needs to be highlighted and somehow drilled into my head.

First the two results:

35/2000 in one of Titan's 1K NewYear Mania freeroll.

343/2062 in Poker.com's 50K Monthly freeroll.

Way back in May, I identified two weak plays I was making late into a tourny that would cost me my tournament life; playing too strongly a strong pocket pair into a stronger one, and over playing big slick, AK. Last Sunday, I got knocked out making these same two mistakes!

When I was making these mistakes in low EV freerolls, it didn't matter much. But now, in freerolls like the poker.com's 50K with first paying $5K and even the bubble starting at $5, I've gotta fix these leaks.

The good thing about freerolls is that knowing the strength of your hands and simply assuming you are playing against weaker players, playing aggressively and overbetting collects alot of the 'dead money' early in a freeroll. In better tournaments, if you play so freely, all that happens is only the better hand plays back at you and you get crippled early.

What happens in freerolls is that the overall quality of your opponents change as the tourny progresses and all that dead money gets knocked out. The trick is to figure out 'how good' is the competition with 20% of the field left.

If you start to play 'good poker' too soon, you'll be giving up chips by showing too much respect AND still get sucked out on by the fish who has no idea he only had 3 outs.

My problem is I don't switch to good poker until it's too late.

In the Titan freeroll, we're already well past the bubble of 100 and against the only stack that could hurt me, I overbet and push with JJ after a rag flop showing a potential flush draw. From a top10 stack, I'm out in 35th to AA.

In the poker.com freeroll, with the bubble well within reach at 300 and 343 left. I overplay AKs and made a stack committed bet again against the only guy who could hurt me on a Axx flop and lost to pocket rockets.

Both plays showed that I didn't respect my opponent enough and that's the bad habit I've picked up from all my freerolling. I think this habit is also the big reason I suck at NL cash.

Degenerate Holiday Fun

2006-12-30T01:12:00.000-08:00

After picking up poker at the beginning of the year, I added blackjack to my gambling repertoire around the end of May as I did my bit of casino bonus whoring. I've also figured out the sportsbook arbitrage bit to benefit when the random free sports bet bonuses shows up.

To round out the year, I've now learned how to play video poker.

For the holidays, Littlewoods Casino sent me a 50% deposit bonus to play their new casino games. So I duly deposited £100 and received the maximum £50 bonus. It's completely risk free so what a great way to enjoy the holidays and learn to play video poker with some free money.

I hopped over to WizardofOdds to read up on Jacks or Better video poker, decided the intermediate strategy was for me, and started on Littlewoods' new 50 handed Bonus Video Poker.

After completing over 70% of the £1500 wagering requirement, my bonus was down to £2.63.

I then finally figured out what the 'double me' button which keeps lighting up meant. After a deal, you can hit 'double me' whereby the dealer draws a card and you have a choice of 4 cards. It's a double or nothing deal on who has the higher card. And you can double again every time you win.

With that info, I realize that I should gamble and take the double or nothing whenever I 'won' less than £1.50 from my minimum £2.50 bets on the 50 hands.

This strategy lowered my losses on poor spins... I also got some luck and started catching some pat 3 of a kinds and once I had a pat full house.

By the end of the WR, I'm up £66.61 including the bonus so my most profitable holiday present yet... and all from my latest gambling game, video poker.

Freeroll Win #12 - My Christmas Day Win

2006-12-25T02:39:00.000-08:00

It's 5am EST but it's already Christmas evening down under. It's a strange feeling to have a rainy Christmas.

Earlier in the day, I'd won $4, finishing 292/4491 in one of Pokerstar's $5K 5th Anniversary Freerolls and I was hoping for more Christmas presents from the poker sites.

BTW, if anyone's reading this during the holidays, if you want to build a small bankroll over on Pokerstars for free, this week is the time to do it.

If you have unused FPPs, they have 1K tournys for 10FPP and 5K tournys for 50FPP. They even have freeroll satellites to the 5K tourny. These are the best EV freeroll tournaments you're gonna get at Pokerstars so join up and collect while you can.

Ok, now back to the story... as I was saying, I was looking for more Christmas presents but given the time, there were not many good freerolls starting up except for a $50 freeroll at Jungle. That was where I hit win #10 just 10 days ago and since I did yet have the minimum $50 at the site to make a withdrawal, I signed up.

First hand I get QQ, I push and get a random caller so I double up just like that. I then don't play another hand for an hour.

Just past the hour break over 5 hands, I get A7s, AJs, JJ, AQs and TT. I play them all strong, they all hold up, I more than quadruple my stack and I go back to hibernation.

Just before the bubble, I had hands to clean up the smaller stacks and I'm either chip lead or close to it. I then donate 2/3 of my 70K+ stack when my K6o BB flop KTx and I pushed into a KT.

I'm now one of the smaller stacks so I tightened up and started to concentrate more.

Pass the bubble, I catch my lucky hand of the tourny. With one of the shorter stacks at the table but a smidgen of fold equity, I push in EP with 88. I get called by two big stacks holding KK and QQ. the flop has an 8 and I quadruple up to top 5.

By the final four, I'm flipping between 2nd and 3rd. The villian who I'd given the chip lead with my K6 push then proceeds to knock out the other two.

He then plays way too passively with his 3:1 chip lead heads up. It took a while for me to get to even in chips. I then take most of it when my J8o holds up against his A2o on a 82x flop.

Last hand, we both made a straight... he had the idiot end. 1/421.

With the $10 for first, I have over $50 and will try to cash out for the first time at this site.

Random First Stab at 6max

2006-12-20T04:16:00.000-08:00

I needed to clear 250MPPs this month at UKBetting to earn both the monthly £25 bonus and to qualify for next month's raketherake.com £2500 freeroll. That's the freeroll I just won last weekend. The play at the 1/2 FL cash tables are now so tight - I've seen tables with 15% players/flop stats - it's torture to grind out .25MPP every other hand.

So my eyes lit up when I saw under the 'FL - medium' tab a single FL full ring table spread at £2/4 with an empty seat. After sitting down, it quickly became clear why the players/flop stat was hovering in the high 30s. With two big whales at the table, each pot was in the £30 range and showdowns were low pair vs. ace high sort of hands.

With anticipation, I get pokertracker up and only played one freeroll MTT on the side. I focused and didn't get into any needless battles with the other 'better' players... just to have a horrible run of the cards. Nothing worth playing and the hands that I played all miss the flop, turn and river. Even if I had played with more random hands preflop, I would have had no suckout winners.

I had two top10 hands. Both lost big once each to each whale! AQs flops Q8xxx, one whale happens to have a hand that time, 88. AA flops KTxQT, the other whale was playing T7o EP and called me to the river.

2 hours and 127 hands later the table breaks, one whale had lost £110 and the other with 4 reloads was down over £220. Because I was the only one who did not win a big hand against the whales, I was also down £26. I got over 100MPPs so I thought it was worth it and with every showdown a surprise, the entertainment value was there.

I go back to play on a 1/2 table, still working on the MPP requirements. After 1 orbit worth only .75MPP, I started trolling all the FLmedium tables... and what do I find? The (£220) whale was sitting at a 6max £2/4FL!

There was a free seat so without a thought I sat down. First hand in the BB I get JJ, turn a J after a AKx flop, and thus began my luckiest session ever at the cash tables.

Other than 2/4cent, I've never sat down at a 6max table before since I didn't want to play with the larger variance.

4th hand, with the whale in the SB, I preflop raised with 88, get reraised by the button and the whale calls. Flop is 987 rainbow and the turn was a horrible 6. So I just check/call to the river and win since fish was only playing KJo.

I hit every 4flush and every 4straight I played. My top pairs were never cracked.

100%Won$AtSD for the session.

30 minutes later we're done. 40 hands... the whale had reloaded once. I netted £93, my biggest single session win ever. Everybody else at the table was down.

And that's what happened in my first 6max ring game.

Bankroll Update - $6K!

2006-12-16T22:18:00.000-08:00

I wasn't quite sure but after totalling up this month's winnings and bonuses earned, as of this moment, I've already doubled up my career winnings this month and it stands at an all time high of $6101.71. Woot!

Let's see if I can nudge it up a bit higher before my first year of online poker is done.

Freeroll Win #11 - The Big One

2006-12-16T13:13:00.000-08:00

Christmas comes early

The focus this weekend was gonna be the BPT Event #7. I got myself all psyched... well rested... when I get an e-mail from raketherake.com. Since I had joined ukbetting last month under RTR, I qualify for their private £2,500 freeroll which starts 1.5hrs before the BPT event. Perfect... a prep freeroll.

There were only 23 entrants, and the top three paid out: £1250, £750, and £500. So this was more like a 3-table SnG and not so much a MTT.

Key Hands

41. With AQo, I donkey call all-in to the big stack's 3xBB raise preflop. He has 88, I flop the Q and double up. Now with T2830, I'm the early chip leader.

72. Win T675 when I reraised a EP 3XBB raise with rockets and take the pot preflop, I showed.

9 hands later, we're at the final table of 10. My nickname at UKB is hupone and I'm sitting pretty comfortable in 4th place.

Seat 1: ukcoco (3890 in chips)
Seat 2: BOOOO (395 in chips)
Seat 3: Insomnia (3350 in chips)
Seat 4: Latios (1805 in chips)
Seat 5: inner (3270 in chips)
Seat 6: MrMagoo (590 in chips)
Seat 7: hupone (3130 in chips)
Seat 8: morejack (2640 in chips)
Seat 9: julia88 (1560 in chips)
Seat 10: GrimTim (2370 in chips)

I don't see a flop for 24 hands... couldn't steal or even defend my blinds. My best play was laying off playing KQo MP when an EP bet 4xBB with 77 to be called all-in by the button's rockets; there was even a K on the flop.

I was then able to hold my own and take 5 sets of blinds over the next 27 hands all with preflop raises. So after hand 123, with the blinds at 150/300, I was barely in third with 5 left:

Seat 1: ukcoco (6850 in chips)
Seat 5: inner (2000 in chips)
Seat 7: hupone (2630 in chips)
Seat 8: morejack (9470 in chips)
Seat 9: julia88 (2050 in chips)

Lucky for us three short stacks, the two big stacks were not aggressive enough. (I guess the huge jump from nothing to £500 for third place kept everyone honest)

126. My second lucky hand of the tourny. The table folds to me in the SB. The chip leader is the BB. So holding Q5o, I push like a donkey. With hindsight, I should remember that I've donked out multiple times doing this move. Consider what a big stack would call me with? Obviously with a made or very strong hand. I do get called by pocket 4s. I catch my 6-outer 5 on the flop and even the Q on the river and I double up to a more solid 3rd place.

By hand 144, eighteen hands later, I was only able to take the blinds twice more. We're now down to 4 but I'm the short stack.

Seat 1: ukcoco (7175 in chips)
Seat 7: hupone (2485 in chips)
Seat 8: morejack (10365 in chips)
Seat 9: julia88 (2975 in chips)

It's also 1.5hrs into the tourny and my computer screens start to fill up. Both the BPT Event#7 and bet365's weekly 5K freerolls start!

152. With the blinds 300/600 ante 75, I'm down to T1460, one orbit's worth of chips. Next lowest stack has T2550 so a whole orbit of safety ahead of me. I'm in the SB with AJs and min raise, keeping T185 in reserve (haha). The big stacked BB easily calls for 600 and the flop is a dangerous JT9. BB calls my TPTK push with 86o... runner 4s don't make his straight and I double up back into 3rd.

153. Very next hand, UTG second stack min raises and I push with ATs. The blinds fold and UTG calls with A6s and I'm way ahead. The flop is T22 and just like that I'm in second place.

Seat 1: ukcoco (3905 in chips)
Seat 7: hupone (7190 in chips)
Seat 8: morejack (10105 in chips)
Seat 9: julia88 (1800 in chips)

On hand 157, the small stack gets knocked out and I've already guaranteed my biggest freeroll payout ever.

162. I'm in the BB with ATo. The biggest stack on the button pushes with JJ. I called and the beautiful flop is AK8. No J appears and I'm now the chip leader after the 3-outer.

Seat 1: ukcoco (4580 in chips)
Seat 7: hupone (12205 in chips)
Seat 8: morejack (6215 in chips)

I had AKs the next hand and won with just a min raise. The former chip leader is on tilt and pushes with Q7o on the following hand and gets crippled by Seat 1's pocket 4s that trip up on the flop.

165. Next hand, I finish him off with KK when he pushes his 1K stack on the button with 99. I just made another £250 and after congratulating each other, villian and I are heads up.

Seat 1: ukcoco (8710 in chips)
Seat 7: hupone (14290 in chips)

Heads up lasted 23 hands. I take the first 8 of 13 hands then this happens:

179. Hold'em NL (400/800) - 2006/12/16 - 20:16:45 (UK)

Table "1" Seat 1 is the button.
Seat 1: ukcoco (5285 in chips)
Seat 7: hupone (17715 in chips)
ukcoco: posts the ante 100
hupone: posts the ante 100
ukcoco: posts small blind 400
hupone: posts big blind 800
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to hupone [Qd Qc]
ukcoco: raises to 1600
hupone: raises to 2400
ukcoco: raises to 5185 and is all-in
hupone: calls 2785
----- FLOP ----- [8d 7c 5c]
----- TURN ----- [8d 7c 5c][9h]
----- RIVER ----- [8d 7c 5c 9h][5d]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
ukcoco: shows [5h As] (Three of a kind, Fives, Ace high)
hupone: shows [Qd Qc] (Two Pairs, Queens and Fives, Nine high)
ukcoco collected 10570 from Main pot

I get 4-outed and fall behind. Villian goes on a mini-tear and takes the next 4 hands as well... So from 3:1 up in chips and one card away from victory, I'm now 2:1 behind in chips.

Seat 1: ukcoco (15770 in chips)
Seat 7: hupone (7230 in chips)

184. In the SB with pocket 2s, I bet and get called. Flop is 642. I bet and villian pushes with J6o. Turn is a 6. He made his set but I have a boat and momentum swings back my way.

187. Penultimate hand, villian raises from the SB and I call with K5o. My dream £500 flop of K58 appears so I show weakness by making a min bet... it gets called.

Turn is the nut K.... I check... 1600 is bet, I call.

River is a safe 2... I bet 2400, raised to 4800, I call.

Villian had... unlucky rockets!

188. Since I only called the river raise in my excitement, my opponent still has T40 left. This final hand just puts an exclamation mark on the rush I was on. His AQ flops KQ9. Lucky for me, I had 99.

Voila. I win £1250. With today's exchange rate, that's US$2440.84, my biggest score to date by far.

Like a multi-table SnG, it took just 1h50mins to play.

So for the win, I risked my tourny life four times in 165 hands, not including heads up play or positional all-in steals/bets. I was behind three of those times and caught two 6-outers and one 3-outer to win and double up each time. The only time I was sucked out on was during heads up and I had over a 3:1 chip advantage.

My medium and small pocket pairs never hit a set until I catch it twice in my last 5 hands.

Final BPT Event of Season 2

2006-12-16T09:24:00.000-08:00

Get Flash

Well, all my Omaha8 prep is for naught for this event since Poker.com is not ready with their software. Instead this will be a deep stacked NL Holdem event so I gotta remember to loosen up and play small pot poker.

I'm presently ranked 88th and only the top 20 make it to the grand final so my chances aren't that good, but it's good fun competition.

Freeroll Win #10

2006-12-13T08:33:00.000-08:00

I've been playing alot of cash games lately, so on Tuesday I decided to brush up on my freeroll MTT play in preparation for this weekend's freeroll action. So to keep busy, I ended up signing up for seven freerolls that all started at around the same time!

In two, I went out mid tourny.

At an Absolute freeroll, I finished 41/2000. Only top 18 paid out.

At a Poker.com freeroll, I finished 33/1500. Only top 10 paid out.

In the freeroll that took the longest time, I finished 6/2672 playing a HORSE freeroll at Pokerstars. (Note: Once you learn basic Omaha8, you notice how poorly most freerollers play it) This was the first time since my first week playing online poker back in January that I've gotten to a Pokerstars freeroll final table and qualify for their weekly round 2.

This was the second time I've ever played in a HORSE event and I gotta say knowing Omaha8 makes all the difference. For some reason, the betting goes haywire in this one game with most players misplaying their hands. Also I found out that I have no idea how to play Stud8 so that's something I'll need to work on in the future.

In the freeroll with the smallest number of entrants, I also finished 6/332.

And in the freeroll that finished the earliest, I came in first out of 421. Just $10 for the win at Jungle but hey, it's #10.

BPT Event #7 Omaha8 Prep

2006-12-10T01:28:00.000-08:00

To prepare for the last qualifying freeroll of the Blogger Poker Tour's season 2, an Omaha8 event, for the first time, I seriously read up on the proper starting hands of Omaha8.

Best Hands: AA2x, AA3x, AA45, A23x, A24x, A256, A345, AKQ2, A35Q(ds)
Against few opp: A2Kx, A35K, A2QQ
High only: KKJT, AKQT, QJT9, KKJT, KQQJ, AKJJ, QQJJ
Best Hands with no Ace: KKQQ, KKJJ, KKTT, KK23, KK24, KK34, 2234, 2235, 2236

With just the above rough guide, I then sign up to one of the PokerStars mega freerolls for practice. 3765 entrants. Top 27 make it to the weekly $1K freeroll.

I won with hands like A34Q, A23Q(ds), AA24, A3QQ.

Also lost big when an A23x hand boards 62T26!

Biggest mistakes were as the field narrowed to below 300, and with a stack that was always just outside the bubble, I did not loosen up. Since the blinds got bigger, missing even half a pot affects your position.

I missed one winning hand when I didnt play 23JT that flopped A45.

And with less than 100 left. The key hand was when I had A237 and the blinds at 6K/12K. Flop came 235. I should have played out the hand for the low but I folded on the turn when 3 big stacks kept betting. Winning low had A8. That half pot would have been enough to make the top 27.

Instead I went out 35/3765. Last hand was A235 and an all high board. Well, got 4 hours of Omaha8 practice in.

Right at the 3 Hour Break

2006-12-01T15:48:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to get use to the PokerStars site again as I psyche myself up to redeposit and play at the cash tables. It's the last day of their Moneymaker $2.5M freeroll qualifiers so I decided to use the free ticket they issued me months ago.

I found my rhythm, stayed calm and tight, stole blinds when I could. The qualifier started with 6750 entrants; top 50 move on to the next round.

1000 left...

500 left...

300 left...

I have about 26K chips with the blinds 1000/2000 with ante. It's the hand just before the three hour break... I have AKo. The big stack UTG min raised and it has folded to me in the CO. I just need one more double up, maybe two and I'm golden....

So I push to isolate...

Yes! big stack calls with A8s...

flop is rainbow rags...

8 on the turn.

Done. 184/6750.

Monthly Review - November 2006

2006-12-01T04:46:00.000-08:00

This month, I consciously focused on playing online cash games. With a multitable rate of just 1.2, I managed to get 6K hands in. My result? Well, I managed to draw a very nice mountain with the stats.

The two big dips in the middle of the month were a combination of bad beats and loose play on my part. What I found interesting was that at the Crypto tables, by the middle of the month, the play tightens up dramatically as the bonus chasers finish off their bonuses. My problem was I loosen up and caught FPS (fancy play syndrome) just when the level of competition improved and tightened.

So my FL 1/2 chart for the month is one big yo-yo. After figuring out what I was doing wrong, I adjusted and managed to crawl back to just shy of even for the month.

So if my FL 1/2 play was so ho-hum, how did I manage to draw such a high peak in my monthly chart you ask? Winning the first 20 sessions out of 24 at FL 2/4 is the answer.

Playing a bit scared but consistently finding the rare FL 2/4 table at Crypto with an identifiable fish or two was what saved me this month.

I only played 200 hands of NL and almost managed to draw a perfect 90 degree angle. Enough said on my NL cash game; further development in the future.

On the live poker front, I only managed to play once this month last Tuesday. Came in 3rd out of 9x players. Won a $5 drinks voucher and more interestingly a ticket to a $5000 weekly shotout next Saturday. So I'll be playing in my first live 'real cash' freeroll tournament next week. Final table pays out with first taking over $2K Aussie. Should be interesting.

In December, I plan further work on my FL cash game. Aim is to draw a positive sloping line instead of a mountain.

Total Rakeback for Nov 2006 : 87.43

Warning - Not A Poker Post

2006-11-29T05:15:00.000-08:00

I caved and decided to join both payperpost and reviewme to see if there's any free money in it. My Neteller account is healthy but I've never really padded my paypal account with any real moola since 2000 - so the experiment begins.

It's interesting how reviewme decides whether your blog is worthy to be a reviewer. I was happy to find out that this blog passed muster and has presently three stars. What did they use as their criteria? It was a combination of Alexa, Technorati rankings and an estimation of RSS subscribers.

Well, I'm not ranked in Alexa and as you can see on the right my feedburner + feedblitz subscriber count is still under 20, so I'm guessing what got me in was my Technorati standing.

This got me to the Technorati site where I finally claimed this blog. Some interesting stats there.

I then paid a visit to Alexa and found this wild post on the VERY long tail of the Internet; which led to this post.

BTW, this post was NOT brought to you by anyone else; just take it as a warning from me that I've gone to the other side and some paid for posts may appear from now on. Like my poker bankroll though, I'll track any earnings here as well.

A Quick HitnRun SnG

2006-11-27T19:09:00.000-08:00

I paid a visit to my Titan account and found just $7.44 left there. Sat down at the .5/.10 table, watched the 68% player/flop luckfest and left before the blinds even get to me.

What can you do with just $7.44? A $2+.40 SnG of course! The $5+.50 was too expensive.

I followed that up with an impatient 11/12 place; enough SnG for now.

Titan balance : $14.64

Final Tables - No Wins

2006-11-26T18:57:00.000-08:00

As I learn how to grind it out in the ring games this month, I've been playing less freeroll MTTs. And since I like the B2B network's variety of freeroll games, I've now final tabled in 7Stud, 5draw, 2-7 Triple Draw, and Soko. Since only the top 4 pay, no cashes except in Soko and 5draw.

I would regularly ITM in the B2B €50 freerolls and with that trickle of earnings, I've been dabbling in the 8max NL(€.20) and NL(€.50) tables. This helped me build up some VIP points to allow me to play in a daily 20VIP.

Only 178 entrants, but a nice pot of €288. Hit the final table in sixth.

Managed to just get into the chip lead with 4 left.

But my flopped set gets runner-runnered and I finish 3rd.

Patience

2006-11-22T21:39:00.000-08:00

I've come to realize that as I start playing more ring games and gotten comfortable playing 1/2 and even some 2/4 FL, I end up not as patient as I once was playing in my freeroll MTTs.

So I found this tight private $100 freeroll. Only 174 entrants, top 20 payout. I will practice my patience.

I don't play the first orbit.

I don't play suited connectors.

I don't play small pairs out of position.

I don't play random Ax.

No good starting hands at all, so I'll stay tight. Be patient.

I don't play even though I have an aggressive luckbox on my right calling every hand who has the big stack after a random 2 outer two orbits ago.

Sixth orbit. Fifty-something hand of the tourny. Table folds to luckbox who raises 400, blinds are just 25/50. I see AJs in the CO. Worth risking to get back to even so I do a semi-maniac all-in; my first hand played.

Luckbox flips up A5o.

River is a 5.

Good night.

Patience....

Moving Up

2006-11-12T20:41:00.000-08:00

With a healthy bankroll, I decided to dabble up to the fix limit 2/4 games on the Crypto network. As Klopzi has reported, there is rarely a full table game above 1/2 after the USA passed the UIGEA. But when there is one, they've been good to me so far.

14 sessions and counting. The play is much looser than at the 1/2 tables. The biggest factor is having a whale playing 60+% VPIP at the table. If you can avoid the whale's random lucky hand, it's all good.

The little drop at the end of the chart was when my pocket 8s on a 4K637 board lost to that table's whale's J5o... I even knew to just call his river bet (I had to look). That's poker!

Making Good Decisions

2006-11-12T03:31:00.000-08:00

After reading at The Full Tilt Poker Blog, SirWALGMan's post on how he'd built up his bankroll to $3K, worked and grinded his way up to the 5/10 game, then over a month or so lost it all, I realize that my casino tilt back in June and my PokerStars moment:

in August happened just when I needed them.

The mental pauses that I needed to take to grasp what had happened each time... what part of my psychological make-up needed work, and what part of my game needed work, has been a great help in moving me onwards in poker.

One benefit I see in how I've approached learning and playing the game is given the nature of playing freerolls to build my bankroll - namely I'll play anywhere there is one - my bankroll is dispersed over many sites which prohibits any attempt on my part to tilt away ALL of it in any one go.

Sir's last paragraph on resetting himself at the lowest limits get's to the crux of how playing poker should be viewed:

...it makes me play poker for the sake of playing poker. The money does not matter. It is all nickle and dimes right now. The things that matter are playing a good game, improving, and staying in my limit.

That's exactly how I see myself improving from freerolls upwards. Poker is a game of making good decisions. Not money. If you can consistently make better decisions than your opponents at the table, money and a growing bankroll will appear automatically as a byproduct. The hard bit is how to learn to get to this zen-like state and to constantly correct yourself when you start to deviate from it.

First 10K hands in 1/2 FL

2006-11-11T19:24:00.000-08:00

I reached this a couple of days ago but here's the PT graphics.

Almost all of my 1/2FL play has been at PokerStars and WilliamHill.

If I was to seperate out my Pokerstar's bonus chasing stats played in July/August...

You can see that on the Crypto network, I'm either really lucky, or my style of play seems to suit the competition on the network. The stats start on June 31st... the first day I started playing 1/2.

There's never enough data to know for certain if this is a true trend or still just random luck, but I'll track how I'm doing every 10K hands or so.

In VPIP/PFR speak, I've evolved from a 17/8.5 to a 19/8.50 player. I'm continuing to tweak this but I find that the two most important factors in having a winning session is table selection, and playing patient.

My biggest losing sessions are when I forget both. Then as I chase, along with some 'bad beats', I'll donate my whole stack to the table.

2nd Cash in a Buy-In Tournament

2006-11-08T21:51:00.000-08:00

I took a look through my posts and I think the ONLY time I've ever cashed in a buy-in MTT tourny was way back in February. With hindsight, and now knowing what I didn't know then, I must been really lucky! So I would call today's result my first 'real' cash in a buy-in since I actually knew where I was positioned throughout the tourny and even had the the chip lead in heads up.

Yup, heads up, after getting through a field of 179 in a €1 freeout... I know enough now to clearly see how I donked away the win.

I started relaxing while also getting impatient right at the start of heads up, and that was a killer. I was just slightly up in chips when, holding just middle connectors and chasing a draw, I push all-in. Get called by his flopped two pairs. And bam, I'm really short stacked.

The blinds were still managable so there was no need for what I did. I started getting frustrated with the lack of good hole cards and decided to manufacture some. Always a no-no.

I think I'll try to play this buy-in regularly.

Bankroll Update - $3000!

2006-11-07T13:38:00.000-08:00

Quick note.

June 6th - $1K
June 22nd - $2K

Then dropped $713 at casinos to fall below $2K.

Broke back above $2K by the end of August.

November 8th - $3K

At the end of October, my total winnings was just above $2.7K. A really good run at Littlewoods Poker along with the WillHill bonuses and I've reached $3K in 'career' winnings.

Freeroll Win #9

2006-11-02T09:54:00.000-08:00

I went out and bought a Philips 19" CRT monitor so I can multitask again. I thought of getting a snazzy LCD monitor, but for 1/4th the price, I get a clearer screen with a higher resolution. And it even has a 3 year warranty!

The monitor is not even 4 hours old and I win freeroll #9. Yeehaw, the €10 first prize covers 1/10 the cost of the monitor.

This was my first stud freeroll win playing PL Soko (or Canadian Stud)! Soko's twist is to add into the hand rankings a 4-flush and 4-straight which would lose to two pairs but beat one pair.

No real idea how to play stud properly but in a freeroll, all you can do is bet with the best hand and hope you don't get 2 or 3 outed. I survived against quite a big field of 1649.

The final table started just before the second hour break and I was 4th stack.

At the start of HU, I was the short stack down 5:1 in chips. The good thing about ante games is that even as the short stack, you can wait for your hands and the amount of bullying the big stack can do is limited.

I think my opponent got impatient and that was golden for me. He started chasing a couple of hands with overcards and the key hand was when I took over the chip lead, he rivered his 4-flush and put me all-in but I had turned two pairs.

Monthly Review - October 2006

2006-11-02T05:02:00.000-08:00

This is more like a quarterly review since I haven't given myself a poker check up since the end of July. My last freeroll win was on the last day of August. Since then I've taken about a month off online poker as I moved to Australia and gotten settled.

All of my September winnings of $157.59 were from playing FL 1/2 and clearing the WillHill double bonus. I did not play one online freeroll during the whole month of September!

One milestone I did achieve in September was to play live for the first time. And yes... it was a freeroll! There is a nationwide bar league called the Australian Poker League where they have weekly NL freeroll tournys. They play 8-handed, starting with 1500 chips and around 90 players on the Tuesday nights that I play. I've played a total of 4 times with a 5th and 11th place finishes. So I get to practice once a week shuffling real cards.

October was my first serious month of bonus whoring with a bit of rakeback and I'm firmly entrenched in FL 1/2. For the month, I played 2997 hands with a winrate of 4.78BB/100. It was my best month at the cash tables.

For the month, my net winnings were $380.38 which brings my lifetime winnings to $2702.08. I've finally recovered back my mega tilt at the end of June and now I'm at my all time high in winnings.

In absolute dollars, I was up nearly $500 for the month but a couple of sites died before I could withdraw my freeroll winnings. No worries though as

Plans for November is to finally hit the $3K mark in winnings and perhaps start to play in 2/4 FL games where I can find them. I also will get back into more freeroll tourny play.

Total Rakeback for Oct : 15.69

Ring Game Update - First 10K hands

2006-10-26T23:45:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've updated my ring game stats. The big reason was because I don't play many ring games except when I'm chasing the WillHill monthly bonus. But now that I'm no longer in Hong Kong, Interpoker's monthly bonus is finally available to me as well!

It took 747 hands of 1/2 FL for me to complete my 500 raked hands requirement. Up $101.75 for a winrate of 6.81BB/100 on top of the bonus! What a great welcome for me at Interpoker.

Looking over my PT stats, my ring game play at Interpoker finally got me over 10K hands at all stakes. I know that players play regularly over 20K hands a month and even guys playing micro-limits play much more, and more regularly than I do. So the stats that I have is not indicative of what my true poker ability is right now. It is just the summary of my ring game play over the last 10 months.

But I made a promise to myself to post up my stats chart once I hit 10K so here it is:

Overall, I'm finally back into positive BB territory; hopefully to stay this time. Lucky for me, most of the early 3.5K hands were in micro-limits so the amount won chart looks alot better:

Finally, here's my FL 1/2 chart. Just 7.5K hands played over the last 4 months. My style of play has been changing over this time so not much can be read from the chart as yet. This month though I've been on a rush playing at a +7BB/100 rate.

The big drop at around the 4K mark was back in August. That $200 drop was the reason I never followed up to my post about my Pokerstars bonus chasing. That was a painful three days when nothing hit, I tilted a bit, and I lost my focus. I was helping the pot along to get more hands raked instead of making the best decision on that hand.

Also at that time, I found the play to be looser at Stars than what I was experiencing at WillHill. And when you cannot chase away multiple chasers, the chances of a river hit against you increases. I didn't understand how to play in those situations and I didn't put enough time in my table selection to avoid those situations and that also contributed to the steep drop.

Multitasking

2006-10-26T23:01:00.000-07:00

Until moving down under, I have forgotten how limiting computing is with just one monitor. Take blogging and online poker; for me they are complimentary endeavors, but you need the screen real estate to do both at the same time!

So that is my excuse for not blogging as much as I did before. I think October's winnings will go towards another monitor. Comparatively, they are so much more expensive here in Australia then in HK.

Prohibition II

2006-10-16T23:44:00.000-07:00

Here's a well written article by George Will on the recently passed US law prohibiting Internet gambling by Americans by enforcing the illegality of online financial transactions with online gambling operations.

The one point that I found interesting is that with the exceptions spelled out in the law, it has actually legalized online betting on horse racing, Internet state lotteries and some fantasy sports! Selectively deciding what part of an activity to criminalize makes the 'law' arbitrary. It great to see political power at work.

With the 'damage' it did to all the overseas operations, it's also great to see geopolitics at work. I wonder if the American international fund managers got out of their positions in time.

In Hong Kong, it also is not 'fair' or democratic for online gambling, but at least they make it clear and not arbitrarily; namely we give the monopoly to the Jockey Club since we can tax them for the good of society.

Oh So Close

2006-10-11T23:07:00.000-07:00

It's been nice being online again. But with Sydney a further two hours ahead of Hong Kong, I haven't figured out a regular schedule of the freerolls that I can regularly play in.

After playing in about 10+ freerolls since I've gotten connected; including one where I was 6th in chips and I forgot myself and went macho against the chip leader to finish just outside the bubble.

I got myself back on a final table of a freeroll with just 300 entrants. I was 8th in chips at the start of the final table. The key hand was when I managed win a huge multipot hand sitting UTG with the blinds 1500/3000, I raised holding AJo. The button, SB and BB called and we see a Jd Tc Qs flop.

SB checks, BB bets, I raise, 2 calls, BB reraises, I cap and everyone calls.

Turn is my nut Ks.

SB now bets, BB folds. I of course raise, 2 calls.

River is a 9c! Perfect, a straight on the board.

SB bets again, I get my final 4K+ in, 2 calls.

My nuts straight wins, the calling to the end button was holding QQ for the board's K high straight.

Boom, I'm the chip leader.

35 hands later, we're down to the final three and I'm the short stack. At one point, I had only 11K against 98K and 150K stacks.

8 hands later, I made it to heads up when my 82o flops Q82. The smaller stack bets, I call.

Turn is another 2. We get all our chips in. He was holding K2!

River was and 8 and with the bigger boat, I entered heads up almost even in chips; 126K to 133K.

Heads up lasted 63 hands! Oh yeah, btw this was a LIMIT freeroll.

I was up 150K to 109K in chips and I was to deliver the knock out with 84o flopping 864 and my opponent slowplaying KK. The unfortunate K shows up on the turn let me double him up and I'm way in the hole 218K to 40K.

I ended up second, which is quite a weird feeling since I cannot remember the last time I came in second!

Anyhoo, I'm back!

Below is just the graphic at the end of the tourny.

Blogger Poker Tour - Season 2

2006-10-07T06:33:00.000-07:00

Get Flash

I missed event #1 of season two of the Poker Blogger Tour over at poker.com but I've gotten connected just in time to play in event #2 hosted by Royal Poker Blog. It's on the 7th of October, 3pm poker.com time.

So if you have the time, see you all at event #2.

I'm back!

2006-10-07T05:52:00.000-07:00

It took me just under a month to get settle down here in Australia and to remember how institutionalized and 'unfree' the free world really is.

After getting jaded with the plethora of 'free' or nearly free unlimited online access and choice in the developing world, figuring out exactly the state of Australian telecommunication scene took me a while. Once I realize that they still price based on scarcity and monopoly instead of abundance and I remember how things were in Hong Kong back in 1999, I reset my thinking and got hooked up in under a week.

The problem? Well, since the house I get to stay in has no existing cable or phone connection, I could not directly order any broadband service. I first needed to order a basic monthly phone service from Telstra (inclusive of connection charges) which I shall never use since it just gives me the privilege to hear the dialtone... every outgoing call including local calls gets additionally charged!

Once wired to the grid, I was then able to order my ADSL broadband which has download limits! For the ADSL2 service I got, there is no unlimited plan, and even if there is one, it would be super expensive. Now once I hit my 30GB download limit, my connection will be 'shaped' to 128K up and down. So I will get to experience what playing poker on dialup is like at the end of every month.

Gotta love institutionalized monopolies in the free world.

Hello from Down Under

2006-09-11T04:06:00.000-07:00

If you guys did not know, I've kept my former home city of Hong Kong quiet all this time since I believe any online gambling is against the monopoly that the Jockey Club has in the territory. Technically, maybe freerolling could sneak through, but definitely not 1/2 FL ring games.

But now, I can tell everyone what I've been up to recently. I've done the LawSchoolDropout thing and moved to Sydney for a year while studying for my MBA! The only thing that sucks is that I won't have broadband for another 2-3 weeks. So no regular updates for you and no regular poker for me until then.

They still sell dialup over here! I can't remember when I last used a modem.... 1996?

Good thing is that WillHill has been good to me this month and getting 2BB/hr at the 1/2 tables is paying for my Internet cafe use.

Anyone know where all the free wifi spots are in western Sydney?

September Bankroll Donation from William Hill

2006-09-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

WillHill doubled their monthly bonus in September for existing players. So we'll be earning $19/hr for our first 5 hours of 1/2 FL work this month.

In my first 1/2 session of the month, I got the hand of my short ring game career so far.

Cryptologic
Limit Holdem Ring game
Limit: $1/$2
9 players
Converter

Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is UTG with Qh Th
Hero calls, 2 folds, MP2 raises, MP3 folds, CO calls, Button folds, SB calls, BB calls, Hero calls.

Flop: Qs 9s Jh (10SB, 5 players)
SB checks, BB bets, Hero raises, MP2 calls, CO calls, SB folds, BB 3-bets, Hero calls, MP2 calls, CO calls.

Turn: 8h (11BB, 4 players)
BB bets, Hero raises, 2 folds, BB calls.

River: 9h (15BB, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets, BB raises, Hero re-raises, BB re-raises, Hero calls.

Results:
Final pot: 23BB

And before anyone comments, YES I screwed up... I was busy surfing online and DIDN'T notice the straight flush, and I can't remember if there is unlimited raises during showdown in WillHill. I suspect we could so I called a hand on the river holding the nuts! Dumb dumb.

When I saw BB's pocket nines, I thought I had lost to the quads until the pot moved in my direction. That's when I realized I got my first EVER straight flush.

By the way, I also found out that the bad beat jackpot at WillHill is only awarded when the losing hand is quad Jacks or better.

Damn Beta.Blogger

2006-08-31T09:15:00.000-07:00

Hello world!

I've had the most trying time getting back into my blogs here at blogger.com. Since I use my gmail email accounts to register, blogger has been redirecting me over to login to the new beta.blogger site which is tied to your Google account.

For some reason, I cannot move my existing blogs over the the new/future integrated account login but since blogger keeps sending me over to the beta site, I'm not able to access my 'old' blogger account; even after deleting all the browser cookies.

I've finally figured out a way to reach and login to the old blogger site; I opened up explorer.

Methinks it's time to backup this blog before I lose access.

Freeroll Win #8

2006-08-30T09:24:00.000-07:00

I was thinking it was gonna be a winless August. I haven't been playing many freerolls and like my last post, in the ones that I have played, I'm not getting deep ITM.

So, with a bit of free time and not much expectation, I entered a €35 added rebuy freeroll. The first hand was my lucky hand of the freeroll. Holding 93d and in the BB, with two all-iner, I called. These better players were holding AKo and Q5h. I flopped the flush and boom I had 3K in chips and got called a few names.

After that opening expert freeroll move, I played my regular freeroll game and managed to avoid any critical suckouts. With 11 left from the starting field of 1303, I find QQ on the button, with the table folding to me.

Blinds are 8K/15K. I have 180K, second largest stack at the table, SB is a short stack with 35K and BB is the large stack with 306K.

I make a 3xBB raise showing steal, and get both blinds to call, so SB is allin. Flop is beautiful T72 rainbow and the large stack BB goes all-in!

I make my easy call and beat KTo and A6o when there's no suckout with a 3 on the turn and 8 on the river. With that hand, I reach the final table with the chip lead:

Final table play took 15 minutes. With 3 left, I survived a race when my 88 held against the short stack's AQo and I entered heads up play two to one up in chips.

Six hands later, my A5o avoided a 6-outer suckout of K3o and I win #8.

And oh yeah, earlier in the week I came in fourth in the bigger €100 freeroll.

[Update] In the last two freerolls before the end of August, I ended up cashing in both as well: 3/797 and 14/916.

A week of Just Cashes

2006-08-19T04:52:00.000-07:00

It takes a combination of skill and luck to make a final table or maybe some bad luck to be the bubble boy. This week, I managed to skillfully just cash in two freerolls.

The first one was a megafreeroll of over 12000 entrants where I slowplayed with about 500 left and no chips to just make my $1.50 finishing 260th.

The second one was a smaller 674 entrant affair where I finished 15th. In this freeroll, I was getting perfect flops and was consistently second or third in chips the whole tourny. Then the boards turned on me with two tables left and even after the bubble had passed, from about 7th in chips, after 3 more orbits, I managed to be the first one bust out ITM.

I haven't been playing many freerolls this week because it's been a full week of 1/2 cash games at WillHill and PokerStars. I think this past week I've played more ring game hands than ever before in my short online poker career of seven plus months.

Once I've finished my Stars' bonuses, I'll make a detailed summary of this first serious foray away from the freeroll tables.