Online poker

So I am able to still play from USA on Lock Poker. I think this is because I am British and have an English address but the key thing is Lock do not filter out USA IP addresses so I can play wherever I am in the world.

The software is ok - not as good as Pokerstarts or Full Tilt used to be but still ok. It is not very busy so not a lot of tournament action but there are 2 or 3 cash tables at each level and PLO tables too.

Playing for fun

Its been a while since I've blogged about poker. Probably because I am back working the computers and have been for a while now - Im busy juggling some large projects earning a stable hourly rate. I can consistently earn more money doing computer programming and project management than I can playing poker.

But I still love poker. I've been going to the casino playing live games every week or so. I spend 11 days in Vegas in January. I went for a soccer tournament at the weekend and got so sick I stayed the next week and the following weekend and played a whole bunch of poker. Mostly cash games as I was weak and needing a lot of sleep.

So how do my cash games go. I win some, I lose some. I've been working hard watching other players trying to figure out how they play and especially how they bluff. I've done a lot of work re-visiting basics and thinking through betting patterns, board texture, potential bluffing opportiunites (for me or for the other guy).

The results - I am winning more sessions than I am losing. I still mix in the odd tournament or 2. I have mixed up where I play and now sometimes go to the PALA Indian casino in San Diego area as well as Oceans 11, Pechanga, TheGardens, Bike and Commerce.

Only playing once or twice a week give me a nice life balance so I think I enjoy the game more. Of course once I am playing I never want to leave the table - sometimes I win a bunch and then give it all back by staying way too long. Generally this is something I am working on - it never hurts to walk away a winner!!

Full Tilt down and out

Looks like Full Tilt will never be coming back. Shame as I played a lot on there. This blog explains a fair bit:

http://hammerplayer.blogspot.com/2011/09/full-tilt-fully-sinking-in.html

Just wondering, speaking aloud as I am thinking, if I can join a lawsuit to sue Full Tilt and get all my deposits back over the last few years. Obviously the games were a scam, players I played against were playing with phantom cash deposits and the directors were allegedly skimming money off the top all the while the site (and company) was insolvent and operating a ponzi schema.

Just wondering.... wheres that attorneys number!!

Poker is a game. Life is a game. In the good old USA, suing people is a game!

WSOP staking

I just read that Tony Dunst is now $213k in makeup over the last year. He basically bricked the WSOP and Venetian deep stack series.

Worse still, his backer also plays poker and has bricked the last year.

Now internet poker is not available to US players I wonder how long before some serious depression sinks in.

I like Tony. I've met him a couple of times on the circuit (Aussie millions and WSOP) and chatted with him. I read his blog and he seems an optimistic and smart young man. And Im glad he has a small media job to keep him focussed. But $200k in makeup!! Ouch.

Big prizepool tournies

I played a couple of bigger tournaments recently. I played the Bike $150k guarantee and just failed to make it to day 2 going extremely deep but then losing a cruel pre-flop allin race KQ v K2 v K8 when I spiked a Q on the rainbow flop only to lose to a runner runner flush.

Last week I played at Commerce in their million dollar tournament on the last day 1 flight. The were 796 players so 75 would be paid and 16 would go through the day 2 (which would only have a total of 46 players). This was the largest of the 6 day 1 flights by far and the last chance for people to make it through to play for the big money. I played very well and made the money but hit a couple of coolers chipping up for day 2. I knew I needed about 150k chips for day 2 and I had 84k when I ran AQ into AK on a K hi flop losing half my stack. The rest went in when I was in the blind with 10-9 and was in a pot with 3 other limpers and the flop came 2-9-2. I shoved and was called by J-9 and his kicker held up knocking me out in 34th place. Soooo close. I did win $1000 for my efforts but so close to making day2 and playing for a $250k guaranteed first place (137k second......19k 9th). I so wish I could have made that final table.

Vegas trip - 5/30 to 6/5/2011

Played 4 tournaments
- Caesars $120 turbo MTT - 144 runners - finished 30th QQ- Binions $160 - 144 runners - finished 18th QQ < AA....again!!!
- MGM $80 - 40+ runners - won this one (chop)
- Aria $230 - 40+ runners - finished 1th KK < AA

Fun trip, Played a bunch of cash games also but mostly against soft WSOP wannabe players. The WSOP started on May 31st so all poker rooms were busier than normal and there were plenty of tournaments to choose from.

I had a good time - like always - after all its Vegas!

Won a tournament

I've not been playing too much poker recently but I did go to Oceans 11 on Weds night and play their evening tournament. I've played it a couple of times in the last 6 weeks but this was my time to win.

Reviewing my play I do not think I did anything special or different from normal. I started tight, looked for opportunities to play cheap pots in position and make the odd steal, looked for double up opportunities with strong hands and generally played conservatively until the last 25 players or so, then I upped the aggression and started picking on small and medium size stacks. I called a few all-in 3-bets with the worst hand and won most of the races. I upped my aggression further as we approached the bubble picking on stacks of all sizes but rarely getting into a confrontation with a big stack - if they played back at me I either called or folded and kept it cheap until showdown. I was chip leader going into the final table and tho I agreed to pay the bubble boy I turned down all ideas of a chop until we got to the last 3. Even then we played for 40 mins or so just going round in circles until we agreed an even chops (better than second place money).

Prior weeks I played the same way but just lost races (kk < AQ), (kk < JJ) - seems KK might be my problem :-)

So a nice profit and first tourney I've won in a few months - its a good feeling.

Full Tilt cash games

Played some 6max cash games on Full Tilt. A thrill to take $50 to $400 and back again. Ive done this 3 times but currently on about $200.

Amazing how many times aces have not held up preflop. I think I have had them about 6 times and am 50/50 on wins or losses. I've also cracked them once with JJ. Also seems to be a pattern on low-card boards the 5th card is a broadway 90% of the time. Of course this might be in line with the odds - let me see - 2 opponents = 4 cards, 4 cards on board so 44 cards left in deck and 16 are broadway which means 28 are not. Or a third of the cards are broadway.

Anyhow maybe the way to win is to do some pattern analysis on the Full Tilt algorithyms....

Low cost fun

So I played at Oceans for the first time in a while. Not much to say. I chipped up nicely in the tourney until I shoved KK into JJ and he flopped the set. Sigh!!

Also played for fun on Full Tilt Rush poker. Since Ive stopped playing my time seems too valuable to play the long MTTs, so a quick 30 mins on a cash table suits me fine.

Work - Im back earning hourly money doing the computer programming. Was lucky to pick up a couple of contracts from some old contacts and am able to work from home most of the week. I've had to put in a ton of hours learning new technology and getting up to speed but I am enjoying it again. And my entrepreneurial side is seeing some opportunities to make a pot of gold!!! Harder work than poker, but never a losing day :-)

Its over

A bit dramatic maybe, but I have completed my quest to become a full-time professional poker player and have to say its been an interesting journey. The conclusion, for those of you who do not like the reading, is that I failed.

My mission was to see of I could make more playing poker than being a computer consultant. The top annual for a computer consultant is somewhere around $250k - the average is probably nearer $120k. It depends on how good you are, how connected you are, what you specialize in and how many hours you can work (or if you run a small company) how many billable hours your team can work. I'm above average so probably looking at about $200k.

So what about poker. Well, Daniel Negraneu earns over $1million pretty consistently each year. But he is sponsored so Pokerstars pay all his entry fees. I would love this - if someone else paid my entry fees I could play all the big tournies and just need to win one. I think the sponsorship distorts the game - some players are seen on TV in all the tournaments but hardly ever win anything. So lets forget about the big name personalities for now and look at online players.

One of the best online players on Pokerstars is gboro780 - he won approximately $842k on that site in 2010 - of that $442k was profit. And he might have played on 2 or 3 other sites. But he is one of the best tournament players. I think the average tournament players earn much much less than this. Players who grind SnGs and 12, 16 or 18 table for 8-10 hours a day still do not win anything like what the top players earn. Maybe a good grinder makes 5-10k per month.

What about cash game players. If the 1 - 1.5 BB per hour profit margin is true for an average winning player than he needs to be playing at least $50-$100 to earn $200k per year. And the swings at $50-$100 are huge. You need a large bankroll to play at that level, just to make an average salary.

Of course there are the luckboxes who one-time a huge tournament. If you win $1 million + on a single tournament then that covers a few years. But to play these tournaments you have to put up an entry fee of $10k,, $25k, $50k or $100k+, with a 90% chance of losing your money. Even the good players need a bankroll to cover them for several tournaments so the one cash they do make covers all the losses in the other tournaments where they dont cash.

Arguably staking solves the above problems. Or does it? Stories are now coming out of players who are $250k+ in make-up. Lets face it - they are never going to enjoy playing poker again after losing so much money. Anything they do win going forward goes to the staker. How far in debt are you willing to go (or is the staker willing to let you go)....?

So where does that leave me. I won a bunch of small live tournaments (entry fees $50 - $100) but the winnings were not relevant to my wealth (< $5000 per win). I won a bunch of small SnGs and won/lost playing cash games. I took a couple of shots at bigger tournaments but did not win anything significant. As time went by I played smaller and smaller to preserve my bankroll but I realise this is pointless if you want to make an income. Its fun and as a hobby it is great to enter a small tournament and win it. But I wont make money to live off.

I have decided to get back into the computer work before my skills become obsolete. At least there I can earn a good wage. I will continue to take a few shots at the poker, play some small stakes online, follow the stories but now it is a part time thing. Just for fun!!!

Of course I still love the game.

Who wants to be a Prop player!!

You can earn a decent salary being a prop player on pokerstars. They need to make sure you are reliable and will put in the hours on the table so they wont just hire you - you have to prove yourself first. Here is how:

- play poker on their site with your money and earn 1 million VPPs in a year

- then they will call you a Supernova elite player

- they as you play more with your money they will pay you cash and tournament entries/benefits of $100,000 plus per year as long as you continue racking up 50,000 vpps on their site every month.

So they are basically playing you an hourly to play poker with your money on their site....just like a prop player.

Now my mate (use that word loosely as he does not even know me but I follow his poker playing online through his blog/twitter and 2+2 posts) Nick Rainey (mi_turtle on pokerstars_ is striving to make Supernova elite this year to get all those benefits next year. It will give him some stability on his earnings if he makes it. And good luck to him.

But what happened to the good old standard notion of a poker player making his money purely through playing the game. All the big name guys are sponsored and receive monthly stipends from the online sites so they dont do it. Is there anyone left???? Can we find one poker player who ONLY makes money by playing poker - probably not!!!! Maybe the game just got too tough and the way to make money playing poker is by not playing poker but by being a celebrity. Or failing that, be a prop player for pokerstars.

Or failing that.....give up.

Lots of new games on the online sites

So Full Tilt just brought out a new release with lots of additional games. There are:

Holdem NL, Holdem Limit

Pot Limit Omaha, Limit Omaha

Omaha 8 hi-lo

Stud games

Draw games (5 card, 2-7 triple draw etc.)

Badugi

Then for each of these variants there are different numbers of players:

heads up

short table

6 handed

9 handed

10 handed

For each game and number of players there are multiple buyin levels. And now Full Tilt have brought us the new concepts:

- Rush poker - when you faold your automatically put on another table

- On Demand poker - SnG tournaments where players can late register like a regular mtt

- Turbo - quicker blind level, shallow starting stacks

- Hyper turbo - 6-10BB starting stcks, tiny blind levels

So what to play. Whats the point of all these games. Basically the term "poker" is becoming fudged and is anything the sites can push where they can get paid rake and keep the suckers returning. I would not be surprised if the next software release had GUTS, Iron Cross, Polish poker or anyone of the other "home poker games" that people choose for dealers choice as long as the sites can take a rake.

And like suckers - we keep trying these new games and paying that rake. We justify it by saying we get 30% rakeback - that means THEY GET 70% you fools! I have another post discussing rakeback coming up later.

Like all software the online poker systems will contain bugs especially as they keep getting more complex. Maube thats how we will make money going forward - find and exploit the bugs. For example one player recently complained he was only being dealt one card in a holdem game - if I can play against him all night I might squeak out a decent profit!!!

Not much poker

I've played about 4 live tournaments in the last 3 weeks and did not cash in any of them losing each time getting it all in with the best hand somewhat close to the money. I have lost set over set (when I had the set on the flop v overpair), overpair v underpair (where he spiked a set on the river), same hand v same hand all in preflop (where he made the flush) etc. A tale of woe and bad beat stories. Now 1 theory goes if I had build up a big chip stack earlier in the tourney I could have survived the all-ins - this is not really true as I did build big chip stacks but close to the money you have to gamble when you hit those big hands - just sucks that I lost all the flips.

Now each time I busted a tourney I went on the cash tables. Whereas previously my cash game has been inconsistent sometimes winning large amounts and sometimes losing large amounts the last few weeks have found consistency - I just lose. Again often with big hands - the last flip was all-in preflop 3 way with aces and one of the guys (a gambler) shows J-3 and kills me on a K23T3 board. I tried fighting back - playing tight in early position and looser in late position, trying to play connectors to bust a big pair etc. but was mostly card-dead and/or missing flops.

So I keep asking myself the question - how much is luck a part of this game. I cannot keep going to the casino and losing money. Maybe I'm just now a good enough player. I console myself saying that I got the money in good most times and lost a flip and eventually the percentages will kick in and I will win a bunch of flips when my hand holds up. Of course, maybe thats not true -I might be playing against better players who are always going to win my chips.

Is poker gambling. It sometimes hurts when friends ask how the "gambling is going" and I stress to them I am playing poker - a game of skill. But the last few weeks feel like I am gambling in a game of cards where skill can be easily overcome by luck.

Right now I am considering quitting poker as a full time role as I cannot make enough money playing small tournaments and cash games to make it more lucrative than the computer consulting I used to do. Even though there are people out there making 50k per month playing poker I cannot seem to crack that nut. I have some ideas on why not - I will save them for another post.

Cash games

I really need to start thinking about bet sizing in these cash games. I tend to think if I have a pair and there are 2 flush cards on the board I need to either:

a) bet an amount large enough to discourage chasers on the flop

b) check the flop and bet an amount large enough to discourage chasers on the turn.

Looking at 2+2 some people go the other way, saying you want people to chase the flush draw so you should bet a smaller amount to encourage action. In fact lets say you are in position and facing a raise on the flop. The choices seem to be:

a) flat call the raise allowing the chaser to chase his flush - he might shove the turn even if he misses

b) put a small enough raise in on the flop that he calls, but that it leaves you the correct implied odds on the turn to chase your full house even if he hits his flush

Of course this goes against most advice in the books which is to try to win the pot now but the flip side is you win much smaller pots. If you encourage the chasers you can win much larger pots.

I need to think about this a lot more.

Vegas trip

I posted this trip report on the Las Vegas lifestyle forums of 2+2 and am copying it to my blog.

Trip Report - Oct 5th - Oct 8th 2010

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Vegas trip report - October 5th - October 8th 2010

Cliff notes
========
- played 8 poker rooms over 3 days
- played 4 tournaments, won or chopped 3 of them
- lost money playing cash games and Craps
- strong opinions

Long Version
==========

About me
Im a 40 year old English guy living in Southern California and play poker most days of the week. I made my money in computers so am somewhat semi-retired. I play in SoCal casinos and cardrooms and a little online. Mostly low stakes stuff - I don’t like losing too much!! I visit Vegas about 8-10 times a year and have done since 1996. I’ve stayed in most hotels on the strip and played most poker rooms - both tournaments and low stakes cash games. Ive also travelled the world playing poker tournaments for fun. I sometimes have strong opinions.

Trip
My Dad is visiting from England so I’m taking him to Vegas for 3 days. Normally I stay in Venetian because they comp me a 4 night room either free or $30 a night but right now they do not have any rooms available for me so I had to find somewhere else. If I have to pay I will normally go cheap - stay mid-strip in Imperial Palace or Flamingo/Harrahs or stay on the MGM/NYNY/Trop/Excalibur corner. The Trop used to be cheap but over the last 5 years it has got dirtier and dirtier so using Expedia.com and looking at the email offers I ended up in Excalibur for $30 a night.

The Excalibur hotel - clean and cheap and good location BUT....crappy shower and no WIFI - only wired internet. Fortunately you can get WIFI from a third party which is what I did. The rooms are bearable and the beds ok but nothing like the Venetian (my fav hotel in Vegas by far).

Re poker, I wanted to see how the Excalibur poker room was now the electronic tables were gone. I looked on allvegaspoker and 2+2 for any info but there was not much available. Also Sep/Oct is quiet season for Las Vegas poker so I wanted to get current info on what tournaments were getting decent turnout as I fancied playing some tournaments. Again no info available so I will fill in the gaps for anyone else in this trip report.

Day 1

Right, we left OC at 11.30am and got there at 4pm, I was at the poker room to take a look at 4.30pm. They had 2 games running with 1 table of each - a $1/$2 NL game and a $2-$6 spread limit game. They were also just about the start a tournament at 5pm.

Now most cheap tournies in Vegas are terrible structures - the levels are 15 mins and the blinds effectively double (300-600, 500-1000, 1000-200 etc) so you have to play really fast. These tournies are somewhat luckfests so I prefer slow structured tournies and there are only 5 in town (Sahara and Orleans have cheap slow structured tournies, Venetian, Ceasors and now Aria have more expensive tournies. Cheap is less than $100, more expensive is between $100 and $200). So generally I stay away from the luckfest tournies but I had just arrived, and it was just starting, and anyhow my Dad needed to look around the hotel to get orientated...

So I paid the $60 signed up with 20 other players and we played for 2 hours until we agreed a chop for $205 each after tips. They told me 20ish players is what they get for most tournies.

With $145 profit in my pocket I treated my Dad to the buffet. In fact I wanted to buy him a all day 24 hour pass but MGM have different rules. Whereas a Harrahs pass is 24 hours from the time you first eat (so you can eat 8pm dinner, 9am breakfast, 1pm lunch and 7pm dinner for 1 price) the MGM pass goes from 7am to 10.30pm (hence called all-day). No big deal I guess - just make sure you dont think its a 24 hour pass like I did. Anyhow the Excalibur buffet was $45 and pretty bland food selection but good enough.

Then we went to MGM to see the lions but they had cleared out for the day. So I stayed to play some fun poker while my Dad watched for a bit and then left me to it. I only played 2-4 limit for fun but lost 5 buyins before turning it round and grinding it out over the next 6 hours to an 8 buy-in cashout (in real money I made $120). It was a fun table - everyone is so friendly in a $2-$4 game and no-one loses too much.

I head back to Tropicana with $220 profit in my pocket and decide to play Craps on the way up to the room. Stupid me!! There went $100 so now Im up $120 for the day.

Day 2

In bed at 4.45am and up at 10.45am. Leave the room at midday and head to Aria for their 1pm tournie. Ive seen their poker room on my last trip but have not played there yet so want to play. I arrive at 12.30pm and they have 2 tables of $1-$3 NL and interest lists for 2-5NL and 4-8 limit. They never got a limit game going so it looks like a mostly NL place. Also note $1-$3 plays significantly higher than $1-$2. In Iveys room at the back there was a $200-$400 mixed game going with a $10k buyin. The Survivor guy (JRB) was playing but no other poker names that I recognized. I signed up for the tournament and so did 26 other players. I found out you can sign up any time up to 3.15pm. Nothing exciting happened. The tournament had 30 min levels starting at 25-50 and we had 8000 chips to start. The level increased slowly and antes came in early so I really liked the structure. We played to the final table and chopped 4 way for $650. The tournament started at 1pm and ended at 6..30pm.

I headed back to Excalibur and after a shower took my Dad out to the Round Table steakhouse. After all it had been a good day and they had a $30 deal which of course did not look anything like the photo. But with wine and extras it only cost $120 so I was still $500 in profit.

I walked my Dad through to Luxor to show him the pyramid stuff - or at least I told him to look around while I played poker for a while. They had 1 table of $1-$2 NL so I had to wait a while. I remembered some of the staff from a couple of years back - they seem like quite a tight team with a few in-jokes and banter going on. Anyhow I finally got seated after 30 mins or so and played for 30 mins grinding a small $40 profit before my Dad came back and was ready to go. Luxor run several tournies (10.30am, 12, 2pm, 4pm, 8.30p, 10pm, midnight, 1am), all cost around $60 and most are 1 table or maybe 2 table affairs with terrible structure. Also they have generous hi-hand payouts in the cash games - quad 7s paid $7500!! One bad thing - they moved the room away from the Sports book and parking structure - what a dumb move. I made a ton of money a few years back during the NCAA from college students getting drunk watching their team in the sports book and then sitting down in the adjacent poker room to play some poker.

We walked on to the Mandalay Bay - my Dad looked around a bit but got tired and wanted to leave - hes not really a gambler and was finding the casino stuff boring. So we said goodbye and I went and played in the poker room. They had 4 tables of $1-$2 NL going and I did not have a good night. I was a bit distracted that my Dad was not enjoying himself and also watched a local do a blatant string bet when I was drawing to a flush and have the dealer/floor let her get away with it. She was a pretty girl and the dealer was flirting a bit. She put in $40 then took her hand back to her chips then looking directly at me as I was getting my chips ready to call said “oh I meant to make it $75” - the dealer claimed he heard her say $75 before putting the bet out which was BS but the floor said if the dealer heard it then it was so. Anyhow I tilted a bit and ended up losing $300. Other than the blatant cheating between the dealers and the locals it is a nice room - quite upscale and comfy and with a good drink service.

On the way back to Excalibur I walked through Luxor still upset at the cheating dealer and decided to play Craps again - there went another $100. I got back to Excalibur about 3am and saw 2 cash tables still running in the poker room. I made a good move and decided not to play, instead I went straight to bed. I still banked $65 profit today and was up $180 on the trip.

Day 3 - Thursday

The big plan was to play the noon Venetian and if I busted that to play the 7pm Ceasars - both well structured tournaments and normally with decent turnouts. Unfortunately my wife kept me on the phone too long and the taxi driver was slow and I got there at 1.10pm and was told registration ended at 1pm. They had 135 players. So after a re-shuffle of my plans I decided I had 1.5 hours to walk to Aria and play that tournament again. I got there at 2.40pm and signed up and played to about 5pm when I busted out just outside the money. No problem - I can still play Ceasars at 7pm but what to do for next 2 hours. I decide to head next door to Monte Carlo to get some dinner and play some low-stakes cash to fill in the time.

The Monte Carlo chinese cafe has the best BBQ pork on the strip. I love chinese and have tried them all and it is THE BEST!! Even the poker room dealers agreed with me last time I was there. So I went to the cafe and found it had new management and they no longer served the BBQ pork. Unbelievable. Fortunately they had a decent honey chicken so at least I could eat something. Why do these hotels screw up and change the good stuff. I went to the poker room and signed up for $2-$4 limit poker (fun stakes) and again went on a losing streak for $60. I was about to leave for Ceasars but then Monte Carlo started their tournament and had 30 runners - this is a luckfest badly structured tournament but I was right there, would not have to get a taxi, had a good rapport with the drinks lady and the dealers and decided to invest $60. Besides if I busto early I might still be able to make Ceasars. This did not happen and I ended up chopping the tournament 2 ways for $350 after tips. This was good news as it kept me in the profit column. Now I was up $285 on the trip.

I headed back to Excalibur to the poker room to meet my Dad. I walked there via the NYNY which was full of beautiful women and drunk people. Its a great shame this great hotel does not have a poker room and I would surely spend more time there if it did.

Playing in the Excalibur they had 4 tables going. I turned my $200 buyin in the $1-$2 game to $495 when Dad came over and said hi. I was back to busto about 15 mins later. I lost with QQ v AA all in preflop, then set over set, then 2 overs and a flush draw v a pair of 4s which missed. That is how you lose $495 but fortunately it was my prior winnings so now I only had a little bit of profit on the trip. I walked around the casino with my Dad for a bit before heading to the cafe for their midnight special food deal. Turns out there is no midnight special except for the the fact that the cafe now shuts at midnight. As it was 3 mins to they let me in to order something but gave me plenty of attitude. When it came time to pay all the staff had left and I had to wait 15 mins for the 1 remaining person to surface. Grrrrr!!! I went back to the poker room and played the $2-$6 spread limit game where I managed to turn a $120 profit in a little over 2 hours. Then it was time for bed - driving home tomorrow so need some sleep. In bed about 3am - I called down and asked for a late checkout and they said I could pay $45 to stay to 4pm otherwise it was 11am. I asked for a complimentary extension til 12 and she said no, but then told me they secretly give 1 hours grace anyhow so effectively I have until midday to leave. Fair enough I guess. My trip profit so far is $180.

Day 4
Out of hotel at 12pm I tell my Dad Im going to take him to the best buffet in Vegas on the way home at the M casino. This did not disappoint. The hotel was busy, the buffet was amazingly good - about 100 different dishes all cooked to perfection and also a fantastic dessert section. After eating I needed to let the food settle so Dad would explore the hotel for an hour or so while I played some poker. What a nice poker room. Full of friendly locals. They have about 6 tables going of $1-$2 NL, $2-$4 limit and $$-$8 limit. I managed to win $10 at $2-$4 limit and lose $100 at $4-$8. I played ok but just did not hit the cards to win a big pot.

We left the M at 4.30pm and were home in OC by 8.15pm. My day 3 profit of $180 covered the hotel bill and the buffet with $30 left over but I lost $100 at the M so overall the trip cost me $70. That sucks!! I'm going to have to go back soon to get my money back.

Part 2

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I realize the above report make it sound like my Dads 3 days in Vegas sucked. Truth is I tried to get him to gamble a bit on the slots but he was not really interested. He also did not want to see a show even though I nagged him about it. As far as he was concerned this was one of my poker trips and he just wanted to come with and see a bit of Vegas without getting in the way. He enjoyed watching the people and seeing the hotels but is older and struggled a bit with the walking. He met a nice lady out there so it wasn't all bad. I think his Trip Report would be something like this:

Tues - drove to Vegas. Long drive. Checked into hotel and walked round casino for a hour or two while son played poker. Then had buffet and walked accross to MGM but lions were not there in the evening. Long day and I was tired so went to bed.

Weds - up early while son was sleeping. Went to breakfast and to MGM again to see the lions. Then went to Dicks bar and drank a few beers and chatted to bunch of people. Then sleep off the beers - met son in evening and celebrated his poker win with a steak and bottle of wine at the steakhouse. Walked round Luxor and Mandalay Bay but got tired so went back to hotel to sleep.

Thurs - up early while son was sleeping. Bought all day buffet ticket and had breakfast. Walked up strip all the way to Fashion mall looking at casinos, attractions and people then walked back again to Excalibur. Long walk! Had dinner at buffet using my all day pass. Then had a nap then met son in poker room. Had another go on slot machines but not much fun - dont like to gamble. Free beer was good though. I put in a dollar and played 1 line for 1c at a time and got 3 free beers. Spent some time in evening with son chatting about our day then to bed while he was going to get his midnight dinner.

Fri - up early while son was sleeping. Had breakfast and final look around, then met up to check out and drive to different buffet place for lunch. Nicest buffet yet, then met a lady and chatted with her for a hour or so while son played poker. Then drove home.

The pain of Sundays

Any serious poker player has to play the online tournaments on Sunday. Especially during FTOPS and WCOOP type tournaments. For example today the WCOOP final has a $10 million prize pool and is being played today.

But as hard as I try I just cannot do it. I've played soccer on Sunday mornings for 30 years and currently manage/play on 1 team and play on a 2nd team most weeks. Then we go to the pub for drinks, then home to sleep off the drinks and hang by the pool.

I just don't have the willpower to change this schedule and come home straight after soccer and sit indoors playing poker. Especially when like today its 100 degrees plus in southern California and I can hang by the pool in the afternoon chilling with friends.

Guess I'm just not serious enough about this game....

Monday night gamble

I sometimes join a group of older guys on a Monday night and play a variety of "funky" poker games including:

- Polish poker

- The flop

- 44, with some redraws

- High/Low seven card stud

- Iron cross

- Omaha

- Hi/Lo NL

- Option

- Nickel, Dime, Quarter

- 5 card stud with 1 card draw before showdown

Most of these are high/low games with a limit-type structure where 6-8 players each put in a number of bets to draw to half the pot. The skill involved is trying to bluff your opponents into folding and getting heads up and then guessing which way the other guy is likely to choose (hi or low). Theres also the option to "pig it", or scoop the entire pot if you think you can win both ways. They used to have a wild card too, but recently that abandoned that as it made the game too biased and players were getting upset.

Always a fun game - some of these guys have been playing together for 10 years or more every week and know each others tendencies. Sometimes it looks like cheating when they conveniently go hi and low in a pot you put a lot of money into and they end up sharing. But there is also a huge luck factor in what cards you get.

Some weeks I lose 3 or 4 buyins but today I made 2 buyins so I cant complain.

mini FTOPS

The mini-FTOPS main event is a $70 tournament boasting a million dollar prize pool. Thats what I call value.

I played the event and did absolutely rubbish. I started with 7500 chips and lost some with AJ (twice) where the flop missed and my continuation bet was called and then I was bet into on the turn, then my pocket 9s hit 2 overpairs, then I struggled for a bit with my last 2500 chips before running my 10-10 into A-A.

Now if I had won I would be $160,000 richer. I was planning to buy a new Corvette for me and treat my wife to the car she wanted. Also I was going to upgrade my computer setup and buysome new furniture for the house. Maybe a small extension on the back too - nothing fancy just about $30k worth of building work.

Yes, if I had of won......

Scary stuff

I went to Hawaiin Gardens a couple of weeks back on a Thursday night and played the tourney and then cash games until about 3am, then did the drive back to my home in Orange County.

About 5am that same morning another chap left the same casino for his drive home to Orange County. He was followed home, robbed and murdered.

Scary stuff!!

Heres the proof.....

So I mentioned I have been sick/jetlagged/tired all week and played yesterday and lost. Heres an example of how it affects you.

I have been getting large electricity bills even when I am out of town. The meter is being misread. On August 2nd it was read at 46180 and I received a large bill. I was not even in town for some of the time I was being billed for. I decided this week I would take daily meter readungs to see how my electric usage surged or varied between days depending on what things were being used. So I had:

Mon: 46872

Tue: 46895

Wed: 46925

Thu: 46953

All good so far, until today when I took the reading. It is 45xxx not 46xxx. I checked this 3 times today and it is definately 45xxx. So I have gone out there 4 times this week whilst sick/tired and all 4 times I have read the meter wrong.

Its an easy mistake but the sort of small small mistake a tired person makes and the sort of small small mistake a poker player makes again and again to lose lots of money.

Dont play poker when you are tired or sick!!!!!

Dont break the rules

So I've been sick this week and also jetlagged and somewhat tired. Of course the rule I am referring to is:

Do not play poker when you are super tired OR when you are sick.

I played yesterday and lost 4 buy ins online playing PLO. So I played a couple of 45 man SnGs and lost them too. Unsatisfied I went to the Hawaiin Gardens casino for the first time since I got back and entered their tournament and lost that.

So I played some $40NL and lost a couple of buyins and then tried my hand with $3-$6 omaha 8 and lost another couple of buyins.

All the time I was coughing, croaky and had a headache.

It kind of sucks that when you are sick/tired you cannot even think what went wrong. I got my money in with AK v AJ and lost. QQ v AK on a K-Q-10 board and lost. Top 2 pair vs another guys 6-3 after a large preflop raise and lost when he rivered the straight. All I remember was getting my money in good and losing again and again.

So there you go - dont play when sick people, and dont play when you are tired. And especially dont play when you are SICK and TIRED....

Vegas results

Vegas update:

1. Played overnight $1/$2 NL session - win $475

2. Play early morning limit o8 session - lose $45

3. Play short daytime $1/$2 NL session - lose $200 (see below)

4. Play short evening limit holdem $4/$8 session - win $80

I feel I played ok. I lost the $200 getting it all in with kings preflop against a fish with A-4 but unfortunately the flop had an ace so the fish got lucky.

The wife took $240 of my winnings for slot machine madness and I dropped another $300 showing my friends how to play craps, blackjack and roullete but that was the cost of entertainment. I won $150 on a slot machine waiting for friends/wife to return from the pool and another $200 playing blackjack just before we left so the end result is about break even.

Now Im itching to plan my next all poker vegas trip.....

Vegas baby

Im still in love with Vegas. Somehow I need to fit in some poker play but

a) my wife is with me and does not like poker too much

b) we only have 2 nights

c) friends are meeting us the 2nd day for drinking/gambling probably non-poker!!

Heres how I have done so far:

- we left UK at 2pm and arrived in Vegas at 6pm after a 10 hour flight. I tried to sleep as much as possible knowing my wife does not like sleeping in planes so she has arrived shattered.

- check in to hotel and relax with wife for a bit - she IS shattered so I sleep for a couple of hours with her.

- with her approval (shes half asleep) I leave the room about 10pm for an overnight poker session. I have had lots of sleep today so feel great.

- play in Venetian until 8am, then sneak upstairs to greet her just as shes getting up.

- she wants to play slots so I gave her $100 of my winnings and shes gone down to the casino for a couple of hours so I quickly nap to grab more sleep.

- late morning I get up, we meet up - she tells me shes has booked into the spa for 3-4 hours

So what shall I do now........heading to the poker room...cya. I have about an hour or two before our friends arrive so a quick cash session should be fun. So far I've win $475 in last nights session but donated $100 to wifes slot gambling!! Hopefully I can win that back now.

UK trip number 2

So I went on another UK trip but this time it was with my wife and all about visiting family and friends and not so much playing poker. Having said that I did fit in a bunch of poker.

I played a few pub games where I enjoyed a couple of pints, a couple of smallish tournaments but mostly playing cash PLO games which I feel is my most improved game this year. I am winning fairly consistently online playing PLO and also had a number of good live sessions.

Its strange that for all the poker in California and Las Vegas there are very very few PLO games. There are lots of Omaha 8 limit hi-low games but almost zero pot limit or just Omaha hi.

This made my adventures in the UK more enjoyable. They have a strange dealers choice setup where the dealer asks if you want 2 cards (holdem), 3 cards (Irish) or 4 cards (PLO). Lucky for me most players choose PLO.

Anyhow the UK trip ended and I have flowb back to Las Vegas for 2 nights with my wife before going home to California.

WSOP update

So mi_turtle finished 106th which was good for over $100k.

Then there was a 4 week wierdo period where:

a) everyone on 2+2 seemed to pick a fight with him

b) one of his students claimed he ripped off a charity donation

c) he deleted his twitter account and disappeared

Anyhow the furore eventually disappeared and he did a video interview on pokerstatic.com to explain everything.

Whatever anyone says about mi_turtle (and he has plenty of critics) theres not denying hes a good poker player.

WSOP - watching mi_turtle

Its funny how the poker media works - they go crazy over the existing superstar names and completely miss out who the new guys are.

In my poker education I am always trying to find the guys who are CURRENTLY beating the games and trying to learn how they play and what they do differently. I have the opinion that the books explain to the masses how to play poker properly but most of the masses are losing players - so how do the few winning players do things differently than what the book says. I am also a kind of contrarian - I like to find the best books that promote nitty play and compare them to the best books that promote LAGGY play. I like to compare shallow stack tournament play with deep stack tournament play etc. and compare all tournament play with cash game players. Especially profitable players.

So I follow players like JohnnyBax, sheets, westmenlo, bond18, JovialGent, Stinko_Mikko, mi_turtle, jorj95 etc - these are online guys crushing different aspects of poker - the first few crush mtts, whereas stinko and mi_turtle (same guy) crush sit n gos and jorj95 crushes super turbos and high-limit satellites/sngs. When I follow these guys I watch them play online, I study any training videos they release, I read any books/interviews they are in and I follow them in live tournaments they might enter. In fact I almost feel like a wierdo stalker sometimes.

Hence last year when JovialGent - real name Yevgeni Timoshenko - played the WPT Bellagio and won it - I was following the poker media and they hardly mentioned him - they had no clue who he was and kept giving updates on everyone else and ignoring him as he slowly tore through the field. Then the same thing happened in the SCOOP event. Finally this year he gets a mention in the poker press.

And this year the same thing is happening with stinko_mikko aka mi_turtle aka Nick Rainey. Nick is a grinder and has had a bunch of publicity on the forums and on sites like poker_static this year but unless you know who he is and actively look for him, you would probably not have a clue. And this is where the poker media is - clueless. I look at the blogs - pokerati and Tao of Poker, I look at pokernews and cardplayer and even the offical WSOP site. They dont even mention him but he is one of the best players on Full Tilt (last year) and Pokerstars (this year) constantly near the top of the leaderboards and grinding out win after win.

Now you have to be really lucky to win the main event and he prob wont make it that far but he was 8th in chips after day 1, top 20 after day 20, top 100 after day 3 and easily made the money on day 4. He is tweeting his progress which is great for people like me who are "virtual-railing" him and slowly progressing through the field while all the big-name players the media is focused on are getting knocked out one by one. It is impressive to watch and I hope as he goes deeper and deeper all his online experience comes to the fore and he makes it all the way.

So join me and keep an eye on mi_turtle (thats his twitter name and pokerstars name), or Nick Rainey (his real name on WSOP up-dates/chip counts) and see and hear the guy directly at pokerstatic.com.

GLGL Nick!!

PS - also glgl bond18 - Tony Dunst - currently the chip leader.

Slow going

Still not playing so much poker. Things on my mind:

- The World Cup is still on and I'm watching the soccer - this has somewhat interrupted my poker schedule so I am not playing regular hours. For example I cannot make the noon Bike tournament if a World Cup game is on at 11am.

- The WSOP is on, along with several other tournaments in Las Vegas and I have been dying to get out there but there is always one reason or another stopping me. My heart is there though - I am following the tournaments very closely. Its really soul-destroying for me not to be there this year to at least soak up the atmosphere if not play some of the tournaments.

- I've hardly played any live poker in the last month - probably 4 or 5 tournaments at most - and got nowhere in any of them.

- I've been trying to grind up my online balances. Im playing unusual schedules because of the World Cup and other things I have to do, so I am playing a lot of small SnGs. So far this seems to be working and my balances are slowly increasing.

- Im still entering a few online MTTs and going deep - just yesterday I finished 20th in one tournament. The problem is these deep runs are still min-cashes unless you make the final table so they do not add much to your balance. On the other hand the more times I put myself in a position to win the tournament, the more likely it is I will get one of those wins at some point soon.

One final note - in the WSOP one of the guys I watch frequently online is doing very well and finished his second day in 8th position in chips. It will be interesting to rail him via Twitter updates over the next couple of days and see how far into the money he can go.

Online - going deep

So I am going deep in online tournaments again but not having the luck to make the3 final table. I spent 2 hours lasr night examining how I am playing the end part of the tournament and noticed several leaks where I did not press or bet enough.

So I am finishing 90th out of 2000, or 55th out of 1300, or even 8th out of 90. I know my early play is ok and I am surviving nicely to give me a chance of a big win. I just need to work on my end game somewhat to maximize how I gain chips.

Funny enough, when I do get busted I am almost always ahead. I was always uite proud of this but now I am thinking it means I am playing too tight at the end. I should be calling down with 2 picture cards and playing aggressively with A-rag....even if it seems wrong. I am putting too much emphasis on survival at the end instead of chipping up.

Also I noticed in the endgame I am still betting 2.1x or 2.5x the BB whereas the guys who are winning the smaller tournaments (aka low-cost) are betting 3x or 3.5x so I may try this to see how it affects my results.

First poker mtt back in CA

Finally yesterday (Tues) I got back into the groove and travelled to the Hawaiian Gardens casino to play the evening tournament.

Played well but did not really get any cards. Nursed a short stack for a long while but finally got knocked out in 14th where 9 were paid. I have no real complains - it was good to play again over here and get in the groove.

I also played some NL40 but dropped a few buy-ins so gave up. I dont think I did anything too wrong but kept losing races - 3 times I had the flush draw with 2 overs on the flop and got it all in against 1 pair and lost all 3. Then I lost with AK twice and could not get any customers when I did get aces one time. I was not getting any suited connectors or similar hands that can flop big and also seemed to be not cvonnecting with many flops. In other words, it was not my day!!

World Cup

Strange as it may seem for an Englishman I wanted to be back in the USA for the World Cup Football/Soccer tournament so I could watch the games with my friends. We had a big party setup for the England v USA game.

Well I made it back just in time, flying in Thursday night and being at the first World Cup game round my South African friends house at 7am on the Friday. Then the big game on Saturday.

So how does this affect the poker. Im a big football fan and have to juggle my schedule to watch as many games as possible.

Then again, the WSOP is also on and I want to go to Vegas for some of this. I guess this will be a delicate balancing act!!

UK trip wrapup

I was hoping to pay for my UK trip with poker winnings but that just did not happen. I played a lot of poker with my brothers though and got to hang out with some cool people. The financial results are as follows:

Poker bankroll (live):

-05/11/2010 - BigSlick #10 rebuy - (#10)

-05/12/2010 - cash game LPPL - (#2)

-05/13/2010 - Duffs cash plo - (#70)--->(#82) cum

-05/14/2010 - Duffs #5 rebuy - #86-----> # 4 cum

-05/16/2010 - Duffs 15,15,15 - (#15)--->(#11)

-05/17/2010 - BigSlick 40+40 - (#80)--->(#91)

-05/18/2010 - BigSlick #10 RB - (#30)-->(#121)

-05/19/2010 - Grovesnor #20 x3 - #200--> #79

-05/23/2010 - Duffs freeroll - #105----> #184

-05/24/2010 - BigSlick 40+40 - #15-----> #199

-05/24/2010 - BigSlick cash - #70------> #269

-05/25/2010 - BigSlick cash - #70------> #339

-05/26/2010 - Duffs cash - #110--------> #449

-05/27/2010 - Duffs 25x2 - #150--------> #599

-05/27/2010 - Duffs cash - (#10)-------> #589

-05/28/2010 - Duffs $5 rebuy - (#10)---> #579

-05/28/2010 - Duffs cash - (#40)-------> #529

-05/29/2010 - BigSlick - (#200)-------> #329

-05/29/2010 - BigSlick cash - #140-----> #469

-05/30/2010 - Duffs 15,15,15 - (#15)---> #454

-05/30/2010 - Duffs cash - (#86)-------> #368

-06/01/2010 - BigSlick cash - (#100)---> #268

-06/03/2010 - Duffs 25x2 - #212--------> #480

-06/05/2010 - Duffs #5 rebuy - (#15)---> #465

-06/06/2010 - Duffs 15,15,15 - (#15)---> #450

-06/06/2010 - Duffs cash - #75---------> #525

This includes most games I can remember though I lost some on my final night there in a cash game at the casino. Still a reasonable profit considering the UK tournaments all have such a tiny field size and hence small prize pools.

mini-FTOPS and SCOOP main event

I had some time to play the mini-FTOPS main event and the SCOOP main event on Sunday evening (uk time). I played from 5pm to 4.30am so a late night....

I completely bricked the SCOOP main event losing most of my stack on an ill-timed bluff. In fact I played really badly.

Generally speaking I do not do well in the large events - maybe the players are better or I get impatient or just dont have enough luck to last out. But for the SCOOP it was most certainly me playing badly.

The mini-FTOPS main event was more of the latter - running out of luck. We started with 13000+ players and they paid just under 2000. I was chipped up nicely and playing well as we approached 2000 players remaining. I was probably about 300th position chipwise when I got it all-in against a slightly smaller stack with KK v AA - of course his aces held up. I then shoved my remaining 8000 chips with 8-8 and lost that race too. So I went out in 2018th place.

Another $500,000 in 1st place prize money (SCOOP and mini-FTOPS) that I did not win.

UK trip week 1

UK Trip Poker Diary

-Mon - arrived

-Tues - play 10pound rebuy at Big Slick poker room. Come 7th for a min-cash.

- Weds - play LPPL league game - came 4th

- Fri - play 5pound rebuy at Duffs Card Room - came 3rd for reasonable cash

- Sat - go to the FA Cup Final........

- Sun - play 15 pound freezeout at Duffs - come 10th (bubble) with 9 paid. I thought only 5 were paid so I tried to chip up with AK v another big stack. He called with A4o and spiked the 4. Of course if I had known 9 were paid I would have just waited to race after we entered the money.

May UK Trip

My team has reached the final of the FA Cup so I am going to England to watch the game at Wembley. I will be combining poker over there with visiting friends and family.

Weekly update - April 9th

Lets see - I used the $1330 from last Thursdays win to take a shot at a bigger tournament at the weekend - the 200k prizepool $75k first place guarantee Hustler main event. I played on Day 1c and Day 1d without any success.

It was frustrating to say the least because on Day 1c in particular I chipped up nicely and played great for 5 hours or so, then went card-dead for about 2.5 more hours. Finally I got KJ and a flop giving me straight and flush draws and a short stack pushed all in so I gambled and lost. Now I was short but the very next hand I got AA and pushed all in. I was called by Q9 suited who rivered a flush.....nice one!! Game over!!

I played a mid-day tournament at The Bike on Tuesday and finished 19th out of 100 (they pay 18 but had also decided to pay the bubble boy). When the agreement was made I had plenty of chips but playing aggressively was my downfall as I finally went out with pocket 3s.

I also played Oceans11 tournament (morning and evening) on Weds but had no luck and was busto in them both.

Finally this week I played a whole bunch of cash at Hustler, Hawaiian Gardens, The Bike and Oceans 11 with mixed results. Sessions were:

Hustler 8/16 - win $400

Hustler nl50 - win $135

Hustler nr50 - win $23

Hustler 3/6 - lose $20

Hustler 8/16 - lose $320

HG nl40 - win $120

TheBike nl40 - lose $40

Oceans nl40 - lose $200

Oceans 3/6 - win $60

Oceans 4/8 - lose $200

Yes it was a brutal session at Oceans on Weds - I lost the morning tournament, played NL and lost a bunch of cash, played the evening tournament and lost again, and played some limit and apart from a small win on 3/6, lost a bunch more when that table closed and I was moved to 4/8.

So I pretty much spent all my winnings from last week but am not too disappointed as I got to take a shot at a much bigger tournament than I normally play.

Not too much else happening - I played a little online yesterday alternating between Rush Poker PLO and Limit NL for very small stakes. I win a bit, lose a bit, win a bit, lose a bit.

Name dropping

So I don't normally name drop but reading through my last post, I mentioned TIMEX and then I realised - maybe someone reading my blog has no clue who he is. So here's the names of some players I have some attachment to:

1. Timex - aka Mike McDonald - here's a young guy (prob 21 now) who I first saw play in the Aussie Millions a couple of years back. He came 2nd in a side event I came 33rd in. He looked about 14 years old and had braces. I was railing atimos (see below) who was the young guy who knocked me out of the tourney - another guy railing was called bond18 (see below) and he gave me some history on this young poker wonderkid. Supposedly this 18yr old (timex) had won a bundle in online poker and was a real star - he was now staking a bunch of other young pros. I watched him come 2nd in this event, then enter the 100k high-roller event and lose, then ON THE SAME DAY enter another event and win it banking 67k (but still a net loser on the day!!). Since then I have loosely followed timex online - he seems to do pretty good. Certainly the online community seem to love him and he staked bond18 for a while.

2. Atimos (or atimAs??) - aka Yevgeniy Timoshenko - another wonder guy. I playing on the same table as him for about 8 hours in the Aussie Millions and chatted for a while. He seemed like a nice enough guy but I had no clue who he was. I was winning a bunch of chips off him tho....until we had 51 players left and 50 got paid. Yev then went all-in about 9 of the next 14 hands and amassed loads of chips as everyone folded. He had no fear whatsoever. Eventually I took him on from the button with A-10s - he was in the BB with KK...oops! I was out in 33rd. Later I railed him on the final table - he eventually went out in 6th place but was still playing super-aggressive. I was talking to a guy called bond18 on the rail and he told me all about Yev. He told me he thought he was the best player there (even better than timex) - told me he was Atimos on pocket 5;s and a bit of an online legend already (he was only about 20 yrs old!!). Anyways I have followed his career ever since and he won over $4m in 2009....so I guess yeah...hes pretty damn good!

3. bond18 - aka Tony Dunst - I also met Tony at the Aussie millions and chatted to him on the rail of the final table. I had noticed him earlier int he day chatting to Atimos and other young players and Tony was also reasonably deep in the tourney. He stood out because he was dressed in a suit and looked quite slick - and everyone was calling him Bond so I assume he was modelling himself on James Bond. When I chatted to him he was really nice and seemed to know everyone. He told me a little about Timex and Atimos who were playing the final table. As he knew everyone and was a nice guy and also published a blug I have followed his career. It seems he was staked for a while by Timex and heavily in makeup but finally won a decent sized event to pay it back. His blog talks about dating, women, poker players and his exploits travelling the world and is both entertaining and somewhat educational (poker-wise). I've met Tony a couple of times at events around the world and he always says hi but does not really remember who I am. Of course, I know him a little better because of his blog.

4. SNG-Nick aka Rainman aka Nick Rainey - so I've never met this guy and some people on the forums think he is an egotistical a-hole. I don't agree. I've followed him online where he is VERY successful at Sit NGo tournaments and has proved beyond doubt this is no fluke. He has also published a few videos and for a while was a coach at pokerVT.com. He used to play as Stinko_Mikko on Full Tilt and currently plays as MI_Turtle on pokerstars. His website details his current results and also his training of a bunch of online players who want to be as successful as he is. His training method is pretty smart - he stakes each player for $200 and helps them grow it, then takes 50% of any profits for a period of time. I think this shows he is a smart business person as hos downside is $200 and his upside is massive. Some of his students have made $10k in 3 months..!!!!

There are more players which I will talk about in a later post.

Re other resources, I like to read certain blogs including Luke Kim, poker Dave, BonusGrinder, Hammer Players poker and also the exploits of certain pro players including Daniel Negraneus blog and Phil Helmuths Twitter videos.

Theres plenty more blogs I follow - Pokernews, Cardplayer, Bluff, Tao of Poker, Pokerati etc. I could write about these all night so I will save them for another post. I will also save the poker podcasts I listen to for another post.

Emotional control

So I just read Timex's blog where he is thinking about quitting poker. Its interesting because:

1. poker is emotional game - when you are winning you are invincible, when you are losing you feel terrible and doubt how good you are and sometimes if you should be even playing at the level you are playing.

2. the online poker grind is hard work - people who travel to work, work 8 hours then come home in crap traffic must laugh at this concept that its hard to stay home and work on the PC for 11-12 hours multi-tabling 8-12 tables of online poker, but it IS mentally exhausting. And you have to put in the volume to overcome the variance in the game.

3. the live poker grind is also hard work - if you travel for business you know its initially fun but gets old very quickly. Imagine you are doing the poker tournament circuit (WSOP, WPT, EPT etc.) travelling 9 or 10 months of the year constantly upping and moving to new hotels, living out the suitcase, arranging all your own flights and hotel bookings, dealing with large money transfers in different countries/currencies to buy in to events, not knowing if you will last 1 day or 7 days etc. Initially this is fun, but very quickly it becomes hard work....

4. poker is a loners game - especially if you are at home grinding online for 10-12 hours each day. When do you see people and chit-chat like you would in a normal job? Although you may have online friends and instant message/texting conversations most of the time you are working at home alone. Or travelling alone. Maybe you can travel with some poker friends some of the time but often you are alone in your hotel room or at home playing online. If you are not comfortable with your own company you will struggle playing poker.

5. poker is socially isolating. Although you can mix with other poker players 90% of people do not understand the game and probably see you as a degenerate gambler. They cannot really discuss it at a level where it makes sense to them. Often weekend events with friends can clash with the Sunday grind for the big online poker tournaments. Also your weekend talk becomes quite boring - "Whats new with you? Errr, just playing poker, same as last week, at home on my computer, same as last week, grinding, same as last week...." Quite boring!!

I think Timex is somewhat sensible to recognize he needs other choices in his life outside of poker. Even though you can earn crazy amounts of money playing poker, money is not everything. An old saying comes to minds - do everything in moderation. I think a lot of poker players play way too much and do not have time for other things.

My final point is poker is a hard game to play and stay in a relationship. I am lucky to have a very understanding wife but I think a LOT of poker players are single or in very flexible relationships (as in I might make the date or I might not depending on how I do in the tournament). An example - I was out last night playing a tournament and did not get home to early hours of the morning. If I did this 3 or 4 nights a week...I think the wife would get rid of me. While I was at the casino a chap was playing cash games. His girlfriend was sitting behind him - suggesting quite strongly that it was time to leave...he wanted to play just a few more hands....I see this again and again - how many of those girlfriends are going to stick around?

Weekly Updates - April 2nd, 2010

No blog update last week so I guess I will cover 2 weeks here. I did not play a huge amount of live poker but what I did play is shown below.

Weds 24th - normally I play at Oceans11 but I decided to watch soccer instead - possibly the only thing that stops me playing poker is watching my home team or country playing soccer on the TV.

Thurs 25th - played Hawaiian Gardens evening bounty tournament. Had a bad night - lost the tournament, lost a shootout 3 table sng type tournament right after, then played most of the night and lost $100 despite being up $350 at one point.

Weds 30th - again I did not play at Oceans11. Getting lazy....

Thurs 1st - played Hawaiian Gardens evening bounty tournament. Finally cracked it and won the tournament (actually 5 way chop based on chip count and I had the most chips (183k). Second place had just over 100k chips so I won $1330 for my $75 investment).

Thats it. I will try to play a bit more over the next week.

Vegas weekend trip - March 2010

So I went on a really short Vegas trip this weekend for a friends wedding but managed 2 short sessions of poker at The Orleans poker room, mainly because this is the hotel where we stayed.

I like the Orleans poker room. It is big and on Saturday had plenty of tables running although they only have a few games - $2/4 limit, $4/8 limit, $1/2 NL and $4/8 Omaha 8. They run tournaments with a good turnout twice per day but my schedule did not let me play them.

On Saturday I played $4/8 limit for about 3 hours. I bought in with $100 and worked it up to about $260 and then down to about $40 and then back up to $170. I had to stop playing at 5pm because the wedding was at 6.30pm but that was a shame because later that night the Bad Beat jackpot of $77,000 was won and everyone in the room gets a share!! Anyhow I banked my $70 profit.

On Sunday they only had a seat open at $2/4 limit and had a lot less tables running. There was one table of Omaha8, one table of $1/2 NL, one table of $2/4 limit and about two tables of $4/8 limit. So I played the $2/4 buying in for $40 and cashing out for $150 about 50 minutes later when a $4/8 seat became available. Unfortunately in the $4/8 I rarely got ahead and ended up a couple of hours later giving it all back for a $40 loss. The last $60 was pretty much a gift as the wife put me under some time pressure to leave so I tried to force some action - not a very good thing to do in this game. I got all my money in with 5-3 suited on a board containing 2 3's only to lose to a guy with A-3 suited. Serves me right for playing that junk in the first place!!!

Overall I played about 6 hours and turned a $30 profit. Not great but better than a loss.

I find limit a strange game. I seem to chip up early almost every session and end up giving some back. I am going to really focus on why this happens - I must have a big leak. You would think it is obvious I play much looser after winning a stack but I consciously try not to do this. Maybe I tighten up too much. Or maybe the other players just get a read on me and I don't mix it up enough.

This was still an enjoyable trip, albeit far too short in duration.

Maybe its bad luck, but....

So heres a typical beat for me right now:




Another day, another tournament.....

Weekly updates

So last week (up to Friday) I played live poker 3 times (twice at Hawaiian Gardens and once at Oceans 11) and had 2 cashes. Unfortunately they were mini-cashes which meant it was a losing week as I spent $290 on tournament entries and only won $200. Add to that a poor week in cash games albeit somewhat unlucky I lost another $100 there, and finally due to entering some bigger tournaments online and more cash losses I lost another $100 there, so all in all I lost about $290.

That sucks!!

This week I entered the Oceans 11 tournament on Weds and did not cash. I then proceeded to lose $120 on the cash tables after being up close to $400 at one point. I played again on Weds and did the same thing - turning an $80 profit into a $60 loss. Its fair to say poker is an emotional game and I also was having no luck online basically losing about 10 small mtts in a row (no cashes) and losing in the cash games often with good hands that just did not hold up. I was pretty depressed on Thursday wondering if the downswing would ever end. I went to Hawaiian Gardens Thursday night and played really badly in the tournament losing a buyin and a re-entrant fee. More on the tournament below. I moved to the cash tables and over a few hours managed to win $200 - a good time to quit especially after the losses over the last 14 days.

So now its Friday and I'm thinking about how I played. Was I playing bad or just running very unlucky.

For example, in the tournament I only played 5 hands - I lost with AK and JJ for the first buyin, and AK, AQ and 99 for the second buyin. I was very patient but could not hit anything and was facing aggressive opponents who showed a better hand than me every time. The starting stack is only 5000 chips which means you have to play fast and get lucky early on to double up, otherwise lose one pot and you are short stack very quickly. I raised AK and missed, then had to fold my cbet to an all in behind me. With JJ I raised big trying to take it down preflop and cbet when there was one overcard. This committed me to the pot and when he raised allin I had to call. In hindsight maybe I could have called preflop and folded on the flop if I did not make a set - JJ is always a tough hand to play especially in a shallow stack tournament.

I am hoping the next week goes better - I need a few profitable sessions just to cheer me up.

Ongoing training and reading.

Training - I have been listening to podcasts from PokerRoad.com and trying to study my hand histories. Im also still trying to recruit some poker buddies who are as interested in beating this game as I am. Im still a member of pokerxfactor but not using it so much so may try some different training sites to get some different opinions.

Reading - "Secrets of short-handed no-limit holdem em" by Danny Ashman.

Reading - Fooled by randomness. This book was recommended by SNGNick in an interview called "Fooled by Randomness" which is not really about poker so much as our mental ability to understand and process random results or events. Its a tough read but is interesting and certainly applies to poker players. One really interesting point is how the book explains the difference between the probability of an event happening and expected value. it might be 90% likely but the expected value is negative, or it may it 1% likely but the expected value is huge.

Table Ninja and AHK scripts

Ive never really used Table Ninja or AHK scripts but I can only play 4 or 6 tables comfortably on my 24" monitor if I tile the tables and want to play more.

Why - because I understand the secret to making poker online is probably based on the volume of games you play. The best players (or highest earners) like MI_TURTLE, KENNL, SHARK365 etc all multi-table at least 10 tables at the same time.

So I downloaded table ninja and tried it. I also downloaded some AHK scripts and tried using them. I tried using table ninja and the AHK scripts at the same time - this seems to work ok. I practiced initially using $1 Sngs and stacking 10-12 tables then slowly moving up in stakes. I liked the AHK scripts that allowed me to move tables out the stack if there was interesting action but leave them in the stack when I folded.

Next I tried a few days of multi-tabling a large number of 90 man SnGs on Full Tilt just to see how much profit I could turn. Based on a really small sample I found this would be profitable for me but not by much. I need to do this with bigger stakes.

So I changed strategy and played a few days of multi-tabling large low-cost MTTs using the tools. I did have a few deep finishes, including a couple of final tables.

The net result - these tools are useful. I struggled with Table Ninja auto-bet sizes because they were hard to figure out. Other than that I liked the easy one key folds, calls etc and ability to move the tables around.

I think I will continue to use these tools when I want to grind a lot of tournaments.

Recent poker games at Hawaiian Gardens

So I had only played at Hawaiian Gardens once last year in a rebuy tournament - it was ok but I did not like the commute. Last week I decided to give it another go, as follows:

1. I played Hawaiian Gardens Casino Thurs evening Bounty tournament - paid $75 for 5000 chips and win $10 bounty back for everyone you knock out plus prize pool for last 18 players. I ended up 12th with 5 bounties. There were about 85 players with 125 total entries (players were allowed to re-enter during the first 3 levels of the tournament).

2. I played Hawaiian Gardens Casino Tues evening tournament - $75 for 5000 chips but no bounty. This only had about 65 entries and once again I finished 12th, just sneaking into the money. Of course this is not quite as bad as it looks - while we had 12 left (2 tables of 6) I was an average stack and moved all in with K-10 in the cutoff and was called by a short stack with AJ on the button - he won. Then 2 hands later I pushed my now short-stack with K-10 suited and lost again. The problem was the blinds were going up to 4000 and my stack was only 24k, so I wanted to steal a couple of blinds on the final table bubble. But it backfired....

3. I played Hawaiin Gardens cash tables - I played NL20 to fill in a little time just for fun and found the tables incredibly soft. In no time at all I changed my $20 into $100. The players seemed much worse in this card-room than Oceans 11.

I actually enjoyed playing all the above. And the commute is only 45 mins from home and if I avoid rush hour the traffic is not so bad. So..... I will be back for more for sure.

Live card room problem - when to leave

Studying leaks in my game is always very difficult. I think I probably do more things wrong than right on some days, but other days I am extremely positive and think I played great. But I still have the problem with cash games as shown in the example below:

I bought in to a low-stakes NL game for 50BB and played for about 4 hours when I was sitting on 130BBs.I thought about leaving but decided to carry on until eventually I lost it all. Of course the last hand was a cooler where I flopped the nuts and a maniac called off his whole stack chasing 3 outs and hit one of them on the river. But thats a massive swing (-130BBs) and I got up and left for my "drive of misery" home.

Why can't I leave with a win. This seems to be a recurring theme., I chip up nicely and maybe I start playing bad, or maybe the other players figure me out but more often I seem to lose my whole stack when I get AA or KK and get it all in pre-flop against some lower pair who gets a set or flush or straight on the river. I have tried to keep the pot small when I am deep stacked but the other guy always wants to push all-in with his QQ or JJ so I have to call with AA or KK. Sometimes I flop the nuts and then get my stack in just to get drawn out on. Most of the times when I lose my whole stack I have got all the chips in when I am ahead.

Maybe I should be glad these idiots are drawing so thin and I should stay longer and buy back in knowing I can win it back again if I play longer. But I do not do this. Losing my big stack seems to happen to me after I have already considered leaving so its easier for me to get up and leave right away. ie. at 5pm I think I am winning $250 so I should leave but I will just play for a little bit longer. At 5.50pm I lose my whole stack and think damn, Im going home. I was going to leave anyhow so why put more money in - just play again another day.

So why can't I leave when Im ahead. Is it an ego thing - I am winning and can win more so I will play just a little bit longer. Is it "addiction"?

I think I have to set some limits and see if it helps. Maybe have a set time to stop playing whether I am winning or losing. Or maybe quit if I lose 50% of my stack or as soon as I double up. Or maybe I should hit and run. I know Daniel Negraneu says the latter 2 options are one of the biggest mistakes players make - leaving a winning table when the hit a target amount or playing a hit and run. He says if you are winning and running over the table you must stay until thats not the case. But maybe I cannot see when it changes.

So figuring out when to leave a table and leaving with some profit is definitely something I need to work on.

Big Sunday but no luck

This Sunday was the FTOPS main event worth $2.5million AND the pokerstars 40Billion hand special Sunday million event worth $4million. I entered both tournaments (via satellites) but had no luck. I also played a slew of other tournaments with mixed results. Mainly losses :-)

Heres how the 2 big events went:

- Pokerstars $4million - I wanted to play smallball poker at the start but this failed miserably when I got KK and was raised by an idiot with A-10 offsuit. I called and the flop came 9-9-8. I bet and he raised so I called. I was worried about the pair of 9s so wanted to keep it cheap. The turn was a J and I checked, he bet and I called. The river was the Q and goodbye to 70% of my chips. A short while later after chipping back up a little bit I got them all in pre-flop with AA and lost to JJ that flopped a set.

- FTOPS main event - this went a lot better and I played small ball and contantly chipped up getting to about 30bbs (18,000 chips) when the blinds were 300/600. When we got to 400/800 I played a couple of marginal hands where I open raised in late position was 3bet all in so I had to fold. Then I played a pot where I lost the hand on the river (surpise!). I was down to 11,000 chips when the blinds were 500/1000 and picled up KQ in late position. Now I was the short stack at the table and looking to make a move. A played in mid position who had been quite aggressive open raised the pot and I decided to 3bet all-in with the KQ. I was hoping for the fold but praying if he called it would be a marginal hand and I could double up so I had some chips to play with again. He called with AK and that was the end of that!!

In hindsight I should have waited for a hand where I opened the betting - I could have waited for a pair or AK/AQs as I still had over 11bbs. The table was very LAG with most pots open raised and 3bets so it was not really easy to pick a good spot. But I could have waited.......

Of course the flip side is what if I had won that flip. Then I would have 22,000 chips and been able to make some plays. I had basically chipped down from 20bbs (16,000 chips) to 11bbs (11,000 chips) waiting for a hand that I could re-raise all in or that I could open with and not fold to a 3bet. But I was very card-dead and probably getting frustrated. So when I saw the KQ and I was in late position I just went for it. No regrets......except I did regret it when I lost :-)

Thats my Big Sunday story........