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Friday, November 10, 2006

UIGEA, Elections, and my $1000 goal.

First the good news. I blew past my $1000 goal last month, though I had to finish it off at Absolute Poker as opposed to Titan. The brain trust at iPoker have determined that it's best for business to drop US players. Oh well... good to know Absolute is still accepting my rake dollars.

That brings us to the UIGEA, or for folks who like to talk in mouthfuls, Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. What can I say that has not already been said? Bill Frist loopholed and gamed our government system to ram through a bill that negatively impacts millions of people around the world. The bill was against the opinions of a majority of Americans, and did not have enough support to pass on it's own merits, so he attached it to the Port Security Bill in the dead of night on the last day before Congress broke for the elections. Slimey.

Ahh, but sweet revenge on November 7th. With close elections all over the country, there is no doubt in my mind that ticked off poker players helped toss the bums out. As one poster put it over on the TwoPlusTwo legislation forums, "tell me what to do with my mouse, lose your seat in the House."

Where does poker go from here? Well, there is the simple law of supply and demand that trumps any law Congress has ever passed. As long as there are poker players in the States who want to play online, and as long as there are poker sites willing to accept them, we will most assuredly be able to play this game to our hearts content.

I look forward to the day that online poker is legal and regulated here in the USA, and we see Harrah's, MGM and others battling Party Poker for our business. Until then, I'll be playing for fishies chips and rakeback on any site that will take me!

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Lawd have Mercy...

Nothing hurts worse than sitting at a wonderful table watching everyone else clean up on the 2 or 3 suckers, and either you're getting no cards or when you do get 'em they're drowning in the river to 4's full of deuces.

I've hit a brick wall on my quest to go from $100 to $1000 at Titan for kicks and giggles. Stuck hard between $700 and $800. That while there has been a dreamy $2/$4 table going for a couple of nights this week.

On the bright side, I'm generating lots of rake for Titan, and moved up to "Silver" status this month and am just a couple thousand from Gold. What does that mean? Pretty much nothing... except my bonus only takes 500 hands for $10 instead of 1000 on average. Whoever is running the titan bonus promo is brain dead. I know lots... I mean lots, of low and middle limit players who would play there if the bonus was just a tad bit easier to clear, and having looked at many an affiliate report and statistics, I know that they could be a bit gentler on the bonus release and still make money.

If the suckers stay though, I suppose I'll stay. Nothing like playing against folks who raise you on the river with their straight when you've got 4 suited cards on your porch and have been betting since 4th street. ;]

Saturday, August 26, 2006

PSOCoach, aka. House Shill

Ran up over $800 at Titan last night, and got called a "house shill" in the process. Basically the guy was accusing me of working for Titan to create games and they repay me by juicing my cards because according to him I always get "so $%^& lucky"....

Chuckle, Chuckle, Chortle, Chortle.

Also got called a "true studder" and not by my wife. Another 7cs player at Titan issued that decree. Both were compliments and I've certainly been called worse... well, the "house shill" wasn't meant to be a compliment, but I'll take it.

Another "goofy mistake" to add to the list that I see so often here at Titan is "coming to the table with 5 big bets." Amazing how many peeps show up with $10 at a $1/$2 limit game, then proceed to play with a shortstack mentality... you know, where rather than play good aggressive poker with good cards, they just wait on any 3 suited, or connected or maybe just 3 big cards and shove all their chips in the middle and hope for the best? Works great for me though, especially if it's heads up and they keep rebuying. :)

Don't get me wrong. Not everyone at Titan stinks. There are some fair to good players there, but most fall under the "loose aggressive" or "loose passive" columns. This is usually the case at "new" poker rooms, I think, and especially at Titan where they just very recently added 7 card stud, so you've got a lot of holdem junkies who try their hand at it, get AK3 and are like "wow, AK!" bet/raise!

I digress. Here's hoping the good run continues a bit longer.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Truly Horrible 7cs Players at Titan Part II

Happy to report that my first judgement was 100% dead on. These guys (for the most part) suck harder than Dylan on his pacifier.

After starting to play there just a few weeks ago, I've run the bankroll from just under $100 to over $750 (if I sit out of my game right now). This is almost exclusively at $1/$2, and I'm not playing tons of hours. The opponents are just...that...bad.

Some mistakes that I see very often:
Players betting their porches on the river.
Players calling with small pair, small kicker looking at a higher pair.
Getting married to draws w/few outs left...even inside str8 draws.

I even saw one guy call looking at AAA on another gents porch. When they flipped the cards over at showdown, the caller had jacks up. Beaten badly in sight, hoping that he would catch one of his 4 outs while AAA missed one of his 9? Wow. I mean, I know it's low limit poker, but my goodness. A buck still buys a coke at your friendly neighborhood walmart right?

Ahh well. I hope they don't read this blog and learn better. I'd much prefer they continue to donate to our diaper fund. ;]

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Truly horrible 7 Card Stud players

The headline says it all. Too bad the only active tables are up to $1/$2 limit! 60-70% "see 4th street percentages" and pot sizes averaging close to $20 (that's 10 big bets folks).

For all you high rollers, I know it's not much, but I've been playing for just a couple hours the last couple nights and scoring about $25-$30 per evening. Variance will be high with these loosey goosey rooms, but it's a nice change from some of the 7 card stud rock gardens out there.

I was able to play my 500 titan points quickly enough, and am now registered for the $2000 PSORG Vacation Cruise Freeroll. Sunny Caribbean here we come!

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Titan Jackpot SNG's

Got in a tournament tonight, really by accident. I was doing a transfer on Titan to friend, and noticed I had a free token to the Rio Jackpot sit n go's, worth around $20. The last day to play it was the 23rd (today!) so I went ahead and hopped in.

Ended up winning the thing, and felt very good about how it went. I didn't get the best cards in the world...never a hand better than JJ, but I did double up with the JJ giving me a good stack of chips. I was able to hit a few good flops and steal some chips along the way.

Word is, if you win 6 of these in a row, it's worth $25,000. Another guy in the same SNG who finished third, noted he had won 4 in a row. I actually hoped he would win, because I was in essence freerolling, and heck, it's always nice to see someone cash in on a big promotion. Well, obviously he didn't win... finished third.

Makes me wonder if one of the reasons I played pretty well was because I wasn't under any pressure? Actually pulling for another player? Odd.... --- Maybe shooting for second is the key to winning sit n go's? ;]

Disclaimer. Please don't take what I just said as legit strategy and lose your tail off, playing for 2nd play money. This is just a small ramble from an largely incoherent mind, after pulling an all nighter.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

New Arrival

At long last, we finally have a little boy out breathing oxygen. Dylan was born June 15th and this fact pretty well explains the month between posts here on the blog.

Amazing little creature, I must say and looks a lot like me when I was a month old. Almost spitting image in fact.

Needless to say, work and poker took a backseat for a few weeks. I'm really just now recovering to the point that I can keep up with the daily workload and get in a few hands of poker. Why didn't someone warn me that I would get zero sleep for the first several weeks? Or did someone warn me and I just wasn't listening?

Props to Middle Tenn. Medical Center. It's the best place in the world to have a baby!

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Roots and other updates...

Haven't had a lot of time to play recently, but the ol' Royal Vegas bankroll has climbed to $167, so that's +20 since my last posting.

Why don't I have much time to play? Leslie hit 38 weeks pregnant on Friday, June 2nd. We've been massively busy getting the finishing touches put on the nursery, and when we're not doing that, we're taking laps around the MTSU campus trying to help labor along!

I know you're probably not interested in reading baby stuff on a poker blog, but... it's real life, after all. ;]

Wish me luck at the tables. I suspect diapers are going to become a major expense soon!

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Roots Update....

Having withdrawn all by about $70 from my Royal Vegas account for baby expenses, I've doubled it again, in just 3 sessions to $147.

Why did I ever quit playing poker at Royal Vegas? (Oh yea...it was the constant reload bonuses and rakeback at Absolute Poker).

I'm seriously considering just dropping my bankroll here or another prima poker room with rakeback. One thing that I've always been proud of though, when looking back on the freebie $10 to $1000 bankroll that I built at Royal three years ago. It was completely devoid of rakeback or bonuses. I even screwed up my first time deposit, only depositing $20 for an $8 bonus when I could have deposited $100 for a $40 bonus. Doh!

Point is, a lot of "winning" players are only winners because of bonuses and comps. To grow a bankroll on strictly poker table earnings actually takes some work and study.

....that or someone at Royal likes me and is rigging the deck in my favor?

See you at the tables!

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

No Time for Poker...

I tell ya, when I got into building poker tip sites, it was something I did while not playing poker. Now it seems I don't have any time to play poker! Not that I'm complaining. Working with poker portals is a lot less stressful.

Leslie (my wife) is 35 weeks and 5 days pregnant as of this posting, so looks like the prospects for extra time are on the decrease.

Ahh well.... a little time away makes the heart grow fonder no?

I certainly enjoy and value my poker time more, now that there is a serious lack of it. Oh 12 hour sessions, how I miss thee!

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

The Sunny Caribbean...

Sounds like a nice place to be this Fall, doesn't it?

After giving away thousands of dollars in rakeback, running a World Series of Poker freeroll, and lots of other interesting events, we decided to look for something unrelated to poker.

Viola! Everyone likes vacations right? We've launched a Freeroll your way to a Cruise Vacation package this summer. Pretty simple rules and eligibility requirements too.

Play poker, win a cruise. Better yet, take that cruise when everyone else is firing up the gas heaters and winterizing their RV's.

Finally, a poker promotion that even our wive's can support!

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Back to my roots...

Having withdrawn the majority of our bankrolls to buy baby stuff, I'm back to nickel and diming it with about a $500 roll. While tooling around my old stomping grounds (Royal Vegas) I happened upon an active .50/$1 room. That's correct...quarters. Back when I first started playing 7 Card Stud online for real money, this room was no ante, but it's a dime ante now. It makes me wonder if I would have been able to turn the $10 no deposit bonus into $1000 a couple years ago, if they'd had that ante...

Interesting, the little twists of fate. It was after turning the $10 into $1000 that I got together with Bryan and really decided upon launching a poker tips website.

I digress. At any rate, I sat down with a gent heads up and had a very nice session. Cleaned him out twice, and finished the one hour session +25 big bets... (that looks better than + $25!) ... I think I'll play a little more at Royal. I've always had good success there and never had bonus or rakeback to inflate my earnings.

With a wife at 34 weeks and 6 days pregnant as of this posting, I'm playing for diapers!

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Wanna play a quick game of HORSE?

Leave it to the competitive poker world to turn one of the most popular backyard games into a poker tournament acronym.

We're not talking basketball here! The poker world spells H.O.R.S.E like this:
H= Holdem
O= Omaha
R= Razz
S= Seven card Stud
E= Seven card Stud Eight or better.

In essence, it is a single tournament but at different intervals, a different variation of poker is played. The World Series of Poker has added a $50,000 buy in event World Series of Poker 2006....(that's right, $50 grand to play).

If you plan to play a HORSE Poker Tournament, then make a point to bone up on the rules and basic strategy before plunking down fifty dimes!

Oh, and a good place...check that, the only place to practice HORSE Poker online? Full Tilt Poker my friends.

I hope more sites add it after WSOP 2006!

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Sports betting...

Ok, so I was off on my Super Bowl pick. Granted I still think I picked the right team, but that's the thing about sports betting, it's almost always a coin flip situation.

I've never laid a sports bet in my life. It's just so much easier to make money at poker (knock on wood! A horrible run of late!)...

Still, an intelligent sports better can eek out a long run profit, unlike blackjack (Just ask Bryan, co-founder of www.poker-strategy.org!)

Off-poker-topic of the day. Leslie is 25 weeks still pregnant. Maybe we'll have a kid after all! How will I ever be able to shield him from this dangerous online gambling, when it's my job?!? Bah...maybe he'll be the next Phil Hellmuth minus the man-boobs and attitude.

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Super Bowl - A small wager...

Pull your sorry butts away from the poker tables for just a few moments and consider another great American pastime -- Football. The one that uses the egg shaped ball? Seattle and Pittsburgh line up for the biggest game of the year... the Super Bowl.

From what I understand, the Super Bowl garnishes the most sports bets of the year. It's no surprise given the weeks of hype leading up to the big event. They've got bets on everything from point spread to who will win the coin toss. What's the over/under on how many lunatics will go streaking across the field? Or does that just happen in Baseball?

At any rate, here is my take. The line last I checked was Steelers -4, and the over/under was 47 points. For the folks in need of a quick sports betting guide, that simply means that according to the Vegas bookies, the Steelers are favored to win by 4 points or more, and the total points scored in the game should be 47.

If you chose to bet on Seattle, as long as they do not lose by more than a field goal, you win your bet. If you take Pittsburgh, not only do they have to win, but they have to win by 5 points or more. If they win by exactly 4, it's a "push" and noone wins anything. (Expect that line to move to 3 and 1/2 or something similar, before game time! This ensures that a push is impossible, since there is no way you can score a half a point!) If you wanted to make a bet on points scored, you just choose whether you believe they'll score more or less points than 47.

My take? I'd take Seattle and the points. Why? I believe they have a better running game, and that has been both teams strength most of the season. Both teams have excellent defense, which will minimize that run strength to some extent. I feel it'll then come down to two important factors. Whose quarterback preforms well and coaching. I've gotta give the nod to Seattle on both of those counts. Their QB is much more experienced and their coach has much more Super Bowl experience. Between that and a 3 points cushion, my bet would go for Seattle.

The over/under is a pretty easy choice for me. The teams averaged a combined 52 points a game during the season, while holding opponents to an average 33 points per game. That would logically lead us to believe that the point range would be 33-55. Given that both defenses are solid, I've gotta think that they'll score on the lower end of that range.

Finally, I believe sports betting should be done for pure entertainment. It takes alot...alot....of work to actually educate oneself on enough angles to beat the bookmaker on a regular basis and show a profit at sports betting. Trust me, I'm not willing to do that. Beating online poker is sooo much easier!

Best of luck with your wagers! Now back to the poker tables wid' ye!

Friday, January 20, 2006

And now it is 2006!

Well, if I can get a post a month I'll be doing better than last year. So how about some updates on what's going on in poker, at our poker forum and in real life:

At our poker forum, the first public rakeback advocate, we gave out over a quarter of a million dollars in rake rebate in 2005! Holy cow! My goal was a tenth of that. Congrats to those big chip earners on all those extra chips. I hope you put them to good use. ;]

We have increased our private tournaments, and now have a monthly league tourney for members at Absolute Poker and Titan Poker and are even sponsoring a private freeroll to the World Series of Poker 2006.

Some major happenings going on! Just the way I like it...keeps life interesting does it not?

I'm currently spending my time at several poker rooms and am trying to find a happy medium between Dan Harrington and Eric Lindgren's tournament strategy. Amazing the difference, yet both have found major success. I finished final table 5 times in multi-table tournaments and won two. All online and all low buy in unfortunately, I don't have millions to show for it. I guess we have to start somewhere though, eh?

Finally, in me olde boring life, Leslie is over 19 weeks pregnant. That's 12 weeks longer than we've ever made it before. The last time we had an ultrasound (17 weeks) there appeared to be a "wee wee" growing on the little booger, so we may have a boy on the way. We'll know a little more definitely here in a few days. If it comes out healthy...even semi-healthy, I'm a happy camper.

On a side note, I now know about as much about bicornate uteruses and baby cribs as I do about poker. Time for another website and forum idea? Hmm...

Good luck in poker and most importantly, good luck in life!