4 bucks might be dumb, but $2.50 for crappy coffee is dumber-er

McDonalds had the nads to erect this sign within sight of the Starbucks headquarters. Nice. It makes me chuckle, but let's look at the facts.

I'm not a coffee snob. I drink coffee out of a plain ol' drip coffee maker most mornings with powdered creamer and sugar.

It was early a.m. a day or two back and I needed some coffee to keep me alert while doing the email inbox grind. I wanted something with a bit more flavor, and Starbucks closes at 10 p.m., so I hit McDonalds for some of their gourmet coffee. I ordered caramel flavored cappuccino. Simple right? Expresso, steamed milk, cream on top, and some caramel drizzle in there for flavor, all neatly placed in a coffee cup with a sippy lid.

What did I get? Coffee in a coffee cup, a frappuchino lid (the ones with domed tops and large hole for a straw) with whipped cream piled up to the top of the cone so high it was peeping out the straw hole. Errr - have you ever drank hot coffee through a regular straw? They'll be treating you for 3rd degree burns on your tonsils. We all know the stories of how hot McDonalds coffee is after all.

When she handed me the drink, she kinda shook it and said "hmm...that just don't feel right. Don't feel like theys 'nuff coffee in thar fo' a large"... I should've been tipped off then that she left the steamed milk out.

I got home and dumped it into a large coffee mug, took a sip and about choked on the sickly sweet caramel flavoring. With no milk to mellow it down, it was just a bitter black coffee flavor with caramel drizzle.

I drank it all. I needs mah caffeine.

Moral? If you want gourmet coffee, go to Starbucks. Go to McDonalds if you want a farkin' hamburger.

(Since this is a poker blog, let me toss in a bankroll update. Well over my $2000 goal, and still have a couple of weeks to pad it (or lose it!) before 2008 is finished. I'm happy. Small stakes hobby that entertains and gives me a year end cash balance. Sure beats stamp collecting.)

'Tis the season of giving...

This wouldn't fit under the tree, but it's my gift!



2008 Honday Pilot SE 4wd

Our Blazer has ~180k miles on it, and it was becoming increasingly unreliable. After spending another $1500 this month to keep it on the road, we figured enough was enough.

FYI - if you're watching the news about steep cuts in car prices, they're not joking. We got between $7000 and $8000 off MSRP. Granted, we told them our next stop was Carmax for a 2006 Pilot if we couldn't get a great deal on a new one.

It was the perfect time to buy a 2008 Pilot for sure. Besides the troubles the car industry is facing, this is the time of year they're trying to clear the 2008 models off the lot to make more room for their 2009's.

I've never bought a new vehicle, since you lose a ton of the value as soon as you drive it off the lot. This deal was just too hard to turn down though, and it was kinda nice seeing "40" on the odometer.

Lest this post seem "selfish" rest assured that I don't normally ask for much or get much on Christmas. I really get a kick out of giving. We're making 3 Angel Tree kids very happy this year, and even bailed my mother in law out a bankruptcy fix. Maybe I'll post about that later...

November has come and gone...

....without a single blog post. I kept meaning to swing over, but just never did find the time.

CEREUS rocks. CEREUS network was formed at the end of November, joining the player bases of Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. They also added heads up 7 card stud tables, which is wonderful.

On the webmaster end of things though, it was a huge headache. For over a week our rakeback stats were not able to be updated, while all the nickname changes, retracking of players, so on and so forth was muddled through.

With rakeback earnings from November, and barring a crappy run in the next few days, I'll have hit my $2000 goal for the year. It ain't much boys, but I don't play much either.

When I first went full time in poker marketing with our poker strategy site, I was able to play hours of poker each day "working from home". That's no longer the case. I barely have time to blog about, much less play poker. This is a good thing though. I'll have plenty of time to play after I retire. :)

I'm a 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. FISH!!

I was playing around with my poker tracker stud stats, and pulled up my big bet per hour earnings based on days of the week and time of day. Turns out I'm horrible in early morning hours.

Between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., I'm a 2.7 BB/hour loser.

Between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m., I'm an astounding 13.57 BB/hour loser. EEK!

This tells me two things. First, I suck horribly when I'm tired. Second, if I'm playing in the early a.m. hours, it's probably because I'm down, pissed off and tilting away more money trying to "get back to even".

I'll bet if I dug deeper I'd find that most of the $$ I've lost on downswings have come during those hours. I know for a fact that the only reason I'm up playing poker at those hours is when I've had a bad night and I'm just locked in, staring at the screen incredulously, waiting on another bad beat. Don't snicker... you've all been there.

I wonder if I could self exclude between the hours of 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.? I know some sites like Full Tilt and Stars allow you to self exclude and lock you out of the site for a set time period that you request.... hmm.

This is just another example of how Poker Tracker is worth a lot more than the sticker price. Sadly, I think most players just use it to track their bankroll, or to see which "symbol" they are. (I'm the taz devil, Loose Aggressive/Aggressive btw, mainly due to playing a lot of heads up).

Quicky plug: If you want, I can get you Poker Tracker 3 Free. Click that link and read the blurb, then contact me. At the very least I can pass along my discount and get it for $72 for you instead of the $90 sticker price.

HR 6870-Payments System Protection Act of 2008

Barney Frank guided HR 6870-Payments System Protection Act of 2008 through its first step on the way to eventually (hopefully) becoming law with a 30-19 victory in the House Financial Services Committee.

Short summary - if this amendment is enacted into law, it will mean that the UIGEA only covers sports betting. Online poker and casino games will NOT be covered unless an Administrative Law Judge rules otherwise.

This is great news for the online poker community. Why? For those of you who don't know anything about the UIGEA, it is the piece of legislation that ran Party Poker, iPoker, Pacific Poker and host of other online poker rooms from the USA market. If this gets through to become law, I could see two very quick benefits:

1. Sites that moved out of the USA market in 2006 can come back. Welcome back Party, Titan, Pacific and a host of other fishy rooms. Welcome back the Party Poker jingle as one of the most popular ads on GSN and WSOP t.v. spots.

2. A poker/casino ewallet would be able to open and run without fear of prosecution. Tired of waiting 3 weeks on your Full Tilt Poker check? Epassporte could come back? Neteller maybe?

If you want to read it, here is a cut/paste of the legal jargon. My analysis is not expert analysis, but gleaned from some very knowledgeable posters on 2 plus 2 forums.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Payments System Pro-
tection Act of 2008’’.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION.

The Secretary of the Treasury and the Board of Gov-
ernors of the Federal Reserve System, whether acting
jointly or separately, may not propose, prescribe, or imple-
ment any regulation under subchapter IV of chapter 53
of title 31, United States Code, or otherwise give effect
to such subchapter or any such regulation, including the
proposed regulations published in the Federal Register on
October 4, 2007, except to the extent as any such regula-
tion pertains to wagering of the type that is prohibited
(as of the date of the enactment of this Act) under chapter
178 of title 28, United States Code (relating to profes-
sional and amateur sports protection) or except as pro-
vided in section 3.

SEC. 3. RULEMAKING TO IMPLEMENT SUBCHAPTER ON
PROHIBITION ON FUNDING OF UNLAWFUL
INTERNET GAMBLING AND DEFINE UNLAW-
FUL INTERNET GAMBLING.

(a) INGENERAL.—Notwithstanding section 2, the
Secretary of the Treasury and the Board of Governors of
the Federal Reserve System, in consultation with the At-
torney General, shall jointly develop and implement regu-
lations (which the Secretary and the Board jointly deter-
mine to be appropriate), on the record after opportunity
for agency hearing involving an administrative law judge
or similar official, under subchapter IV of chapter 53 of
title 31, United States Code, that shall include a definition
of the term ‘‘unlawful Internet gambling’’ for purposes of
such subchapter and such regulations, after conducting a
full economic impact study of the proposed regulations
under chapter 6 of title 5, United States Code (commonly
referred to as the ‘‘Regulatory Flexibility Act’’).

(b) COORDINATIONWITHPROHIBITION.—Upon the
effective date of final regulations under subsection (a),
section 2 shall cease to apply.

Politics and Poker

If you don't want to read my opinions on politics, this video sums my feelings up quite nicely.

It's Time for Campaign'in

Despite the title, this post has very little to do with poker. My livelihood has been under heavy attack by my party of choice since at least 2006 (longer, in truth, since it took years for anti gambling legislation to pass). So as a poker player, I am a bit stuck when it comes to my feelings on the political races in 2008.

My political leanings come across as odd to some. My guess is that I'd be hated by both sides. In a nutshell, I'm a pro-life, pro-gambling, pro-capital punishment, anti-nanny state, fiscal conservative. I'm also a devout Baptist.

I just typed and then deleted about 4 paragraphs explaining why my belief system is not contradictory. Then I realized that I have nothing to defend, so what's the point? Everyone has their right to their own opinions and beliefs. Some people's are just wrong, that's all. :)

I think the candidate who would have most fit my beliefs would have been Ron Paul. I can't bring myself to vote for Obama, but I feel like going out and pushing all the Republican buttons in the poll booth will just be rubber stamping the nanny state decisions and stinking pile of crap that was the Republican controlled congress until 2006.

I think I'll vote for Ron if he's on the ballot. Both the Dems and Reps have got to come to the realization that they are losing the middle as they get more and more extreme. Maybe then we'll see some real change in government.

Voting for someone who has no real shot is not wasting your vote. The reason we have such crappy choices these days is because the sheep keep falling for that 'lesser of two evils' line. If enough votes start being cast for 3rd party candidates, the two main parties will realize they need to field candidates that appeal to these 3rd party voters. Think about it. Elections are decided by tiny percentages. If all of a sudden 5% of votes were being cast for a 3rd party, the two main parties would be falling all over themselves to try to pick up that 5%.

That's my .02 political thoughts.

1-outters don't tilt me!

Losing back to back with AA dealt vs 2 small pair will tilt me. But losing to a 1 outter? One almost feels privileged to have witnessed the rare event. I received this blessing both on Saturday and Sunday (and yes, I went to church two services that day!)...

Two 1 outters in one weekend. I need to grab some lottery tickets while I'm out tonight.

A one outter is like catching a glimpse of a shooting star. Even in 7cs where you see more cards, it's still going to be something like 2.5% chance to hit. For you geeks out there, it's rolling a 1 on a 40 sided die, cleaving the ogre standing in front of you from head to crotch with a well crafted, but non-magical short sword, killing him instantly.

+150 XP.

Yeah. It's that rare.

Bankroll Update: After blowing $200 at the Fair and a crappy week at everything but NLHE cash games, ~1200. Blah.

Approaching 2k! Time to rob it!

Bankroll at $1788.83 counting bonus earned. Wilson County Fair is this week though, and sounds like a nice family out'ing. Time to strike a match to a couple hundred.

When my 2 year old is downing cotton candy as fast as he can while we're watching the fireworks, I'll pause for a brief moment to think about those folks who have made this possible... Vladdy, ICOMINATCHA, DKNY333, etc.



Peekaboo!





TY!

Nice PPA YouTube Video

I got a kick out of this, because I believe it captures perfectly, how absurd it is for the DOJ to be focusing on online poker. Congress: if the DOJ has enough budget to go after all the true issues + online poker, then they are overfunded. Please stop wasting tax payer dollars on goof ball stuff!



In other news, our bottomless bonus deal with Next Poker is getting pretty popular among non-USA players. It equates to 45% rakeback in ring games and 62.5% tourney fee rakeback. If you were ever searching for any of the following:

OnGame Rakeback
PokerRoom.com rakeback
bwin rakeback

Then please look over our Next Poker deal. It's hard to beat.

Bankroll at 1500+

After tonights action, I'm at $1500+. A month ago after a withdrawal and a few crappy sessions, it was ~600, so that's solid growth. If I can keep it a secret, it might stay in the bankroll a while longer. ;]

The nice jump has been due to a couple of good HU sessions. The aforementioned Vlad match, and then tonight DKNY333 dropped about $160 before leaving. Funny.. usually when peole have their nickname as "donkey" or "fish" they're actually quite solid. Not the case for this guy. He's one of the most aptly named players I've seen.

Oh, and also a good run over at Stars. I started with a 0 bankroll there. We keep $$ on several sites to pay rakeback advances when they're requested, so I just have to keep careful records of plus/minus. I wanted to take a shot at a satellite to this years WCOOP 100k 7cs event. One of the regular satellites is a 3000 FPP buyin. I had a whopping 2400. Shows you how much I play there eh?

Anywhoo, figured I might as well earn 600 more FPP's and see if I could turn a profit at the tables and buyin for free to the satellite. Mission accomplished. +329 in ring game play there, and I've got just a tad over 3k FPP's.

The 5/10 game there looks soft. They and FTP are pretty much the only 2 rooms with populations large enough for soft 5/10 games in stud. If Stars had some sort of rakeback besides the VIP program, I'd jump on it. No way I'm going to play 99999999999999999999999 required to make the top level and earn 27% rakeback though.

Now to just find a few hours to play one of the FPP satellites to WCOOP 7cs event, and we'll be all set.

PSORG vs. VLADDYMOGUL

Rarely do I make brag posts, but with blowhards like this I'll make an exception. Besides, ol' Vlad is the vain type, so I'm sure he googles his own nickname daily. Vladdy, if you're readying this... tx for the chips!

Vladdymogul - Absolute Poker, is the epitome of those wanna be players who are just good enough to ruin a good table. He's LAG, which makes him dangerous heads up. With a good run of cards, he can put a serious hurt on your roll. However, he has two glaring weaknesses which I won't mention here, in case he is reading. I like taking his chips.

For anyone who has played him, they know that he's has a penchant for calling anyone who beats him in a pot a "dumb lucky fish" for starters and then progressively worse from there. I got him so tilted yesterday that he was even calling our avatar pics names. Stuff like "your baby is so ugly, I'd wipe my a$$ with his face." Now, that really doesn't bother me. My babies are both Gerber baby quality. (Love is blind. If you have kids, you really do think you're babies are the cutest ever born). Another player sat, nick KOPE, who is a very nice social player, and one of my biggest donators. Unfortunately his avatar is his (or her) baby's pic as well. After about 3 hands of listening to Vlad's BS about 'ugly baby', Kope leaves. There goes my ATM. Back to me and Blowhard Vlad.

I went about +100 on him pretty quick, and then he got hot and won most of it back. The typical lines: "where did your luck go fish?! I own you!"... the usual. All caps tossed in to let me know he was shouting at me.

After his cards cooled off, I went back to taking his chips. I'm in the middle of reading Your Best Poker Friend by Alan Schoonmaker. He includes a great discussion on putting your opponent on tilt. So I broke one of my cardinal rules of not responding to jackasses, and started needling Vladdy. No cussing, no ALL CAPS, just little zingers. I even sang to him a bit:

It's just a matter of time...
You'll lose your chips...
And whiiinnnneeee....

(Sung to the tune of that old country song - Two Sparrows in a Hurricane).

It had the desired effect. For the longest space ever, Vladdy didn't say a word. I finally asked him if his chat had been banned and got the "lets move up a level! I'll pwn you!" response.

Anyway, final session stats:

87 minutes. 257 hands. PSORG +138.50 (23.88 BB/hour. Average players 2.5, so yeah, it was almost exclusively a heads up match).

Vladdymogul -209.75

He paid me, he paid all the rake, and he paid a few other players who sat for a few hands here and there.

Vladdy, if you're reading this, I'd be happy to teach you 7 card stud. I'd even give you a discount. $80 bucks an hour. That's currently cheaper than the rate you paid yesterday. (23.88 BB/hour multiplied by the 2/4 limit = $95.52/hour)

Like two aces get'n cracked by fives...
all you ever do is cry...
With a head full of dreams but no skills, you'll lose everythiinnggg

Man, I gotta get this up on YouTube!

90% rakeback at Absolute Poker?

Wow. I just did some quick math. My rakeback stats show I'm generating about 11 cents per raked hand. If I'm playing 2/4, I get 1 FAME point and 4 credits for every raked hand. 60 credits clears $1 in bonus. Got a headache yet?

The skinny is, if I'm clearing reloads (which I am perpetually doing at AP!) I earn $1 bonus for every $1.60 paid in rake. That's 60% rakeback. Tack on the 30% I'm earning from our standard Absolute Rakeback deal, and I'm earning ~90% rakeback if my math is anywhere close to being correct.

At $1/$2, I only earn one FAME point every 2 raked hands, so that math would fall apart there. Roughly $3.30 rake paid for every $1 bonus earned. That's still what.. around 33% rakeback. Add on my 30% rakeback deal, and it's still a nice 66% rakeback at AP.

I haven't even started calculating the fact that I can spend those earned credits for merchandise or points for cash trades. I need to sleep.... I'll run those numbers later.

Here's hoping AP doesn't catch on anytime soon and change the way we earn FAME points at 7 card stud tables. Antes > Blinds in the FAME program.

Poker Pet Peeves

I have two on my mind. If I wasn't so lazy, I'd make a top 10 list. I'll make them brief so I don't get bored typing them, and you don't get bored reading them.

1. "Gawd I hate playing with all these idiots. I'd rather play a small game with good players than a big game with a bunch of fish!"

Wow. That's a paraphrase of a post on our no deposit bonus forum. Some goober who think's he's solid got bad beat out of a tourney (if you're decent, that will usually be how you get KO'd! That or a coin flip loss.) He wanted to let everyone know that he quit the forum because of it. His post was titled "what a joke".

This goes beyond the "table coach" peeve (which would be on my top 10). From what I understand, this guy is decent at cards. He's just an idiot when it comes to the fundamentals of winning at cards. Little does he know that "joke" he's talking about is on him.

2. All the people still screaming rigged and posting 4 month old 'news' posts regarding the super user scandals at Absolute and Ultimate Bet. Let it die already. The players who lost money to the insider cheats were all paid back, and paid back with interest at Absolute Poker! Ultimate Bet, the new ownership repaid the players who were affected, even though the scandal happened under the old owners. That's pretty classy in my book.

High dollar players have a right to be upset and untrusting of AP and UB. Everyone has a right to be upset that Absolute tried to keep things under wraps instead of dealing with the situation in an open manner. The entire poker industry has the right to be ticked at the bad press this generated and the potential fishy's who got spooked away.

My peeve is the lifetime losers who keep pounding away at this on forums and in their own heads justifying their losses with the "AP is rigged" mantra. Please, try a new mantra. Slowly, thinking deeply upon these words: I suck. I suck. I suck...ooohhmmmm. I suck. I suck...

I gave a very polite rebuttal to one of these type posters and his reply was just to tell me I was "trying to cover up for AP". Ok. Better than trying to cover up my -10 BB/100 hands with a couple of "we wuz cheatered!" posts each day, eh?

Diamonds? Nice FAME change. AP/UB Merge soon?

Kudo's to Absolute Poker for already making a change to the tiers of their loyalty program, FAME. When they first launched, the tables that I generally play (1/2 through 3/6 stud), you earned 1 FAME for every 2 raked hands. It wasn't until 5/10 level that you earned 1 FAME point per raked hand. They've moved that down so that now you earn 1 FAME point per raked hand starting at 2/4 on up.

I got to "platinum" status in July, but it took around 100 hours which is double what I normally put in during a month. I figured ahh, no way I'll do that on a regular basis. However, with this new change, and the fact that 2/4 tables aren't totally uncommon at Absolute, makes me think that earning the monthly 2500 points required won't be too difficult. Tack on the fact that Absolute and Ultimate Bet are merging into the Cereus network this month, and I see plenty of 2/4 and 3/6 action in my future at Absolute.

Who knows? Maybe I'll hit diamond status one month. You keep that status for 3 months once you've made it, whereas the plantinum status has to be earned monthly.

Rounders

I recently rented and rewatched the movie Rounders. For those of you who don't know, Rounders is a great poker movie, maybe even one of the best made on the game. It features Matt Damon as a good card player with the ability to read what his opponents are holding. This got me thinking of some Daniel Negreanu videos I've seen on YouTube.

Daniel Negreanu, like Matt Damon's character in the movie, has the uncanny ability to predict his opponents pocket cards in Texas Hold'em. A tell when picked up will often give clues to the strength of an opponents hand. However, to be able to accurately foretell the exact hole cards as these two do is something else entirely. So how do they do it? Is it some kind of 6th sense as the commentators seem to claim, or is it through absolute observation and a knowledge of the game.

It certainly would be an excellent skill to have and would allow you to win many poker tournaments. However online poker is quite different from live poker games, as the person is not there to observe and pick tells from. Tells are only in the form of betting strategies, and time taken to bet. In addition to knowledge of their game play.

Check the Vids Below:­

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv2C_m0D-gY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO8k47_lP0M

That first one is my favorite poker clip of all time. They're playing 7cs, which is my game. Damon does a great job of deducing the hands and it is very realistic if you know how to play stud and understand the thinking that goes into reading hands. What is also cool is the fact that he makes his bets with 0 regard to what he holds himself. He's making the betting decision based on what the other players hold.

Now... this wouldn't work in the low limits vs. imbeciles. The guy with 2 pair would never fold! Ahh well... 10/20, this could happen though. Of course, at 10/20, you'll rarely have that many people seeing the river!

FYI - the big difference in these two videos is the game being played. Negreanu's ability to read people in holdem is much more amazing, IMO. But then again.. I'm a stud player, so reading stud hands is something that comes a lot easier to me now. I'm still a holdem noob.

Lightning Fast Update

I need to sleep. This'll be short and sweet.

1. I'm trying to get to the platinum level in the Absolute Poker FAME program this month. It requires 2500 fame points. I'm at 2475, so should close that out during my next session. I generally only play about 40 hours a month, but this month it'll be well over 100 hours.

2. You'd think with all the extra hours I'm putting in, it would mean a big boost to the roll. Wrong. After bumping up to about $1100 and then dropping a bit, I've been treading water at about $800. I'm probably playing a bit fatigued with a newborn and doubling the amount I usually play. But I really feel it's just variance. Looking at my PT stats from today's session where I dropped about $100, I lost with AA, KK, QQ about 75% of the time. That's not normal. The problem was not catching that 2nd pair. I lost count of the times my split aces would go down to 88 66 or some such garbage. Frustrating.

3. After I get to the 2500 points, I may take a week off. I just wanted to do it to see how much of a pain it would be. Proves quite the pain at 1/2 and 2/4 stud. If there was a regular 5/10 game, it would be a cinch. The 5/10 7cs level would be perfect for FAME points. Rarely do you see a "good" 5/10 game going though. 2/4 does decent, but the games grow/die/grow/die all day. 1/2 is really the only constant.

4. Surprisingly, I've been able to work and play, even with the newborn. He's not got any of the issues that Dylan had that kept us both up practically every night 2 years ago. Muchas gracias Dios!

So that's about it. As testament to a warped month, my PT stats show me earning a big 1.27 BB's per 100 hands. Meanwhile, I'm minus $6 bucks for the month. Funky eh? Really crappy albeit short 5/10 session a couple nights ago is the main reason for that. My earnings this month have been bonus and rakeback. Blah. Here's hoping for a stellar final week of July (if I play much at all at the end of the month!)

New Arrival!

Zachary was born at around noon today (7/7/08). 6 lbs 14 oz. Perfectly healthy, 10 fingers, 10 toes, etc. Mom is healthy too, so we're counting our blessings today. :)

Speaking of blessings, I'm coming home in the late evenings to get Dylan to sleep (he's our 2 yr old). He's watching Zoboomafoo, and I just finished a very good session of 1/2 and 2/4 stud. Over $200 profit. Played 3 tables and saw profit at all three. That's nice!

Bankroll counting bonus is back to over $1000 after tonight. I haven't got my June rakeback in yet either, so that'll bump it a bit more.

Sooooo...anyone up for a friendly wager on how long before another "gotta have it" expense pops up?

Man, Dylan is on a good poker schedule. Goes to sleep around 3 a.m., sleeps till noon. He gets his 9-10 hours of sleep daily, so I don't suppose it's a problem. It'll be interesting working in a 2nd little munchkin. He's laying his head down and reaching for my ear now though. For whatever reason, he loves to rub an ear lobe while going to sleep. We have some 3d ultrasound pics of him in the womb, and he always had both hands up on his ears, so it makes me think it's a comfort habit of sorts that started before he was even born.

Linus has his blanket. Dylan has daddy's ear lobe. We need to switch things around here.

Time for bed. Thank God for modern medicine, baby boys, and poker donks. They've made 7/7/08 quite a nice day.

WSOP 2008 - Pro's Revenge? + Bankroll Update.

Bankroll is ~850 again, after withdrawing it down to under $400. Another good start to a new month. I'm liking the new FAME program at Absolute Poker. At the 7cs tables, I get points very frequently, so credits pile up quick. Still clearing bonus about the same rate, but the overall credits are good, and if I play as much as I think I can I'll probably be able to score a $100 gas card every month courtesy of AP's loyalty store.

Regarding World Series of Poker '08, I read that up to the main event, 7 out of 10 events were won by pro players. Wow. Big change from the past few years. Population at the WSOP is still very strong, but with a lot more entries from Europe I think.

I think it'll make for better TV. I had really lost interest in watching WSOP over the past couple of years, in favor of shows like Poker After Dark and High Stakes on GSN. One of the biggest draws to televised poker, IMO is the player personalities. It's like reality TV. You get hooked watching a 'character' either because you like them or hate them. Watching a bunch of no names at the poker table is interesting for some of us, but for most, watching card playing for card playing's sake is rather boring. Gotta have that storyline.

Kudos to the pros for lighting up the tables this year, and here's to some interesting WSOP on ESPN this year. Oh, and while I understand all the collusion concerns and stuff with the delayed final table, I do think it will be great for the entertainment aspect. It'll turn it more into a superbowl of poker. I think by the time the main event coverage rolled around in the past couple of years, everyone was about sick of watching from all the other events.

New Rakeback Deals

Busy as bees at Poker-strategy.org . We have added several new rakeback deals that are worth mentioning here. I'll just give a quick list and benefits. If you are playing poker without rakeback, and you play any volume at all, you'd be surprised what you are missing out on. Good luck to folks who give these rakeback offers a shot!

Poker4Ever Rakeback is one of the best we've gotten a long time. Rakeback payments are weekly, paid every Monday. The rakeback rate is an above average 35%. Bonuses are not deducted from gross rake totals. Stats are available for P4E rakeback players right there in the poker room's software.

Habana Poker Rakeback is a new addition as well. Habana is one of our BOSS Rakeback deals (being on the Boss network). The most famous room on this network is Paradise Poker, so if you have a Paradise account without rakeback, you can sign up at Habana and play the same tables, and get 30% rakeback. Habana pays the rakeback totals directly to your player account on the 2nd of each month. Definitely another solid deal for rakeback hunters.

Poker4Ever is open to USA players!
Habana Poker is not open to USA players.

7cs heads up - Importance of Patterns

There is no playbook for heads up poker, no matter what game. I've written some basic strategy on 7 card stud heads up poker, but there is so much more to it than that article, even though it is a long one and IMO has some good info for low limit heads up play.

Tonight I ran across a situation that I wanted to share because I think it really delves into how a heads up player needs to think, in order to see success.

I was playing greenmeans at the 1/2 7cs HU tables. He really didn't show a lot of weaknesses. He completed my bringin with Ace and King doorcards (in truth, he probably completed with any ace or king, even hidden). He bet his scary boards. He didn't get way out of line with weak hands. He didn't fold to a single bet on the river when the pot was large (not really much point in trying to bluff a missed draw against him). Blah blah blah... you get the picture.

After ~250 hands, I was +26.05 in less than an hour against him. That's a 5.2 BB/100 hands clip. I know, short term luck, yada yada, but I really think I would have cleaned him out had we played longer. The reason is that I picked up on a couple of exploitable patterns.

His first pattern was varying his forced bringin based on his hand strength. I'm not going to get into why this is generally a bad idea heads up. Just trust me... it is.

The most interesting pattern I found is a little deeper. As I noted earlier, he always completed with an ace or king doorcard. Obviously, he doesn't always have aces or kings. Early on, when I was dealt a small pair and he completed my bringin with an ace or king, I would limp raise him. If he just had the ace or king high, he would call. Then he'd call my bet on 4th and fold on 5th.

Ok....pretty boring right? But look how it can be exploited!!! Once I had established this as a pattern I could rely on, I could win 3 small bets almost EVERY time he was dealt an ace or king doorcard. It didn't matter if I had 444 or 462 rainbow. My 3 cards didn't matter. Here were the possibilities:

I bringin the half bet, he completes with an ace or king doorcard, I raise:

1. If he has nothing, he calls the raise (2 bets on 3rd). He calls 4th hoping to get some kind of value by 5th (another small bet). He folds on 5th with ace or king high. I win 3 small bets, regardless of my own holding.

2. He really has aces or kings and 3 bets. I fold. I lose 2 bets.

3. He calls my raise with ace or king high, then calls on 4th and 5th (meaning he's either picked up a draw, another pair, etc.) and I slow down and he wins showdown.

4. He calls my raise with ace or king high, then calls on 4th and 5th (again, meaning he has something, but not quite aces or kings), but I draw well myself and I win at showdown.

For simplicity sake, let's just say #3 and #4 will be roughly equal, that leaves us with figuring out the value of my losing 2 bets when he has the aces or kings he is representing vs. my winning 3 bets when he does not.

The odds against being dealt exactly AA or exactly KK are roughly 76:1 (according to my crappy math skills). That means if I did this EVERY time and he followed the same pattern every time, then I would win 76 x 3 bets that he had nothing for every 1 x 2 bets that I lost when he 3bet with real aces or kings.

You don't have to be a math geek to see the value there.

Gold mine right? Well...not really. This gent, as I noted was pretty decent. If a player is solid and you have to dig this deep to find exploitable patterns, you might be better off waiting on someone who will make more mistakes. I suspect that it wouldn't take many of these scenarios to occur before he would change up how he was playing to compensate. (What if he notices that I fold immediately when he 3 bets with his aces or kings? Now he can 3 bet even if all he has is ace or king high, I fold and now he's taking advantage of my pattern!)

What's my point? The key to heads up poker is identifying your opponents patterns. IMO, this goes for every poker game, not just 7c stud. Once you have established a pattern, it's just a matter of exploiting it and rake in the chips.

How about your own patterns? Pay attention to your own play, and try to avoid pattern ruts that you fall into. Better yet, establish an obvious pattern, when he picks up on it, exploit that. Here's an example. I complete with a lot of hands heads up. If I have nothing and he calls my completed bet on 3rd, I'll check and fold 4th. The next time I'm actually dealt my pair, say, JxJ, I'll complete his bringin, check 4th and then check raise him when he bets. Or maybe I'll wait 'till 5th for the check raise. Either way, it wins me some extra bets and confuses him as he can no longer count on the pattern he thought he'd picked up.

See how it works? Play fast and aggressive. Pick up their patterns. Setup false patterns/traps. Get 'em confused, and then tilted. Once they're tilted, they might as well mail you a check for their remaining balance.

CD Poker & TonyG

Just a heads up. We've added a couple of new sites to our bonus code list recently. I like to mention these when we get a great deal. These are bonus codes that carry extra value, well over the default bonus deals you get if you just go to the poker site.

The first is our Tony G Poker Coupon Bonus Code. The bonus code is TONYCASH and it gives you a 150% up to $400 bonus. That's more bonus dollars than you'll get if you go straight to TonyG. On top of that, you will also get a $50 instant bonus. So if you deposited $300, you'd get the max $400 pending bonus plus another $50 in your account that you can play with immediately. Instant + Pending bonus deals are... very rare.

The 2nd bonus we've added is our CD Poker Coupon Code Bonus. The bonus code for this one is TOPBONUS. You get 150% up to $600 matching deposit bonus, which is the highest bonus on the iPoker network to my knowledge. You will also get free entry into the monthly $10,000 VIP freeroll. Very good value on this bonus code as well.

Both of these sites are on the iPoker network. There are no rules against clearing them both. If you're bonus hunting, you can hit them both. Rooms on the iPoker network do not accept USA players unfortunately.

Once our legal situation is clarified over here, I'll have a lot of bonus clearing to do myself!

Mikey and Sheikhan exchange some words...

I know these guys crack on each other a lot on High Stakes Poker (GSN) and Poker After Dark, and sometimes it seems like good natured ribbing. I think this video shows their relationship is probably any thing but good natured.

For your viewing pleasure:

The Lord giveth. The wife taketh away.

That's a bit unfair for the title. We've got baby boy #2 due July 7th, and we're working furiously to get everything ready and it's costing us some extra $$. We're going to be able to save about $4k if we pay up front (we're self pay), so it's a worthy cause.

Bottom line is, I pulled $1025 from the roll. Total after AP rakebacks hit is around $470. *sigh*.

Ahh well... let's start building again. It makes the 2k by the end of the year more of a challenge. Maybe I should just say "2k profit" and count what I bring home rather than have a set goal to reach.

Annoys me a bit to keep robbing the bankroll. I'd really like to get over to FTP 3/6 stud since the game is pretty loose there. Ideally I'd like to take at least $1000 over there to play it comfortably, and at the same time leave $600 or so at Absolute since the 1/2 game is the only regular game with 2/4 in the mix every now and then and a rare 3/6.

Better hush and start playing. Diapers to buy, bankroll to build.

MSOP Event #14 - Out in 122nd place.

*pukes*

Perpetual short stack. Dealt good cards, ran into better (KK vs. AA hidden, JJ vs. AA, etc). Still had close to 3k chips at the 250/500 level, which ain't much, but FTP's tourney structure sucks compared to Star's WCOOP. Everyone was short stacked at that level. The top stack at our table had 12k. That's like taking $24 bucks to a .50/$1 table...

At any rate, last hand I had 3k chips w/ 99 and a AQxx 4 flush on 5th, and got all the chips in vs a no pair, king high heart flush. He flushed, I didn't.

The buyin was $109, and I was playing a ring game at Absolute and finished +114 there, so I suppose you could say I'm break even for the 2 hours play.

Looking forward to WCOOP! I thought the FTP tourney would be interesting since it's a super stack (5k chips to start), but the ante's are always 20%+ of the small bet and a tiny forced bring in bet. It's like FTP's low limit games (1/2 and 2/4). The high ante, low bringin rewards folks who play any 3 because the initial pot is huge compared to the bringin you have to call. Routinely 4 and 5 guys to 4th street. That's wonderful if your big pairs hold up and your draws hit. Unfortunately that didn't happen for me.

I'm not saying I wouldn't play the 7cs events at Full Tilt again. I feel like I've got a better than average shot at cashing in them. But the tourney setup certainly makes them more of a crapshoot than say, the WCOOP which features double stack (3k chips) and very slowly increasing limits/antes.

Suggestion to any tourney directors who are reading (estimating zero) - bigger stacks, slower limits, 10% ante compared to the small bet. It'll make for a little bit longer of an event, but your skilled players (the ones who are most likely to drop $100+ on a buyin)will enjoy themselves much more, since it will truly be a skill based event and increase the likelihood that they play future 7cs events.

I don't mean this to be a cry post. Heck, I feel fine, even going out 122/159. I didn't make any serious mistakes when I look at the few hands that I took to showdown. I played as well as I could.

Maybe I shoulda just called for a new dealer?

Time for some pizza. :)

Nice 3/6 session...

Bankroll at $1450+ after a good couple of days, topped off by a great 2/4 session where ATL404 donated a good $140 or so to Dylan's college fund. (+200 for the session)

My BB/100 over 3.0 - Obviously on a good run. :)

+543 in May, in ring game play alone (not counting rakeback or bonus).
+459 in June, and we're not even through the first week. Here again, not counting rakeback or bonus.

If I keep getting to play 40 hours a month or so, the 2k should be a breeze, with proper bankroll management, etc etc... I doubt seriously I'll go above 3/6. The 3/6 game at Full Tilt is a pretty good one with a normal ante. The 5/10 at Stars can be juicy too, but with no rakeback, I'm probably going to just stick with FTP / AP.

Still no word back from AP/UB on propping. :( - I've been out of bonus for 2 weeks, and 100% rakeback or so woulda been nice as many 1/2, 2/4 and 3/6 tables as I've started.

Time for a milkshake, some PAD and bedtime.

Bankroll Update

$1040 after tonight. Had it to $1080 last night after a great shorthanded session against my favorite HU 7 card stud opponent on Absolute Poker - Rolled. Poor guy... sometimes I just want to say "mistake #1 - always slow playing aces. Mistake #2 - ..." so on and so forth.

In all fairness, he's not that bad. Though the guy has a fish symbol on my PokerTracker, he's only slightly too loose and he's only slightly too passive. His two main mistakes are "can't let go of a pair" and tilt. Once he's tilted, just sit and wait for him to drop his bankroll in your lap.

Seriously, if he'd be a little more aggressive on 3rd (stop slow playing big pairs!), dump hands that he knows he's going steep uphill on, and step away from the table when he's been sucked out on a time or two, he'd be a solid player.

My luck, he'll google his AP nickname or TIGGERTHECAT and find this advice and spank me next session. :)

Do you ever find it hard to not help someone out who you are just beating into the ground or you can tell they're frustrated? I guess it's just the history teacher in me. It goes against common poker sense for sure.

So, halfway to the $2000 I was hoping to finish the year with so I could crank up Dylan's college fund. I'm happy. 7cs games at AP have been sparse this year with the main staple being 1/2, with a game at 2/4 and 3/6 every now and then.

I lost my hand histories when I reformatted my PC a couple months ago. My current poker tracker stats show +2.5 big bets per 100 hands, after ~10,000 hands (I know..small sample size, but bear with me). This is at 1/2 through 3/6. When I set it to just heads up, I'm roughly +6 big bets per 100 hands. I'm +5 BB/100 when I combine HU with 3 handed stats.

I need to start propping. :) I've emailed AP about it since my own account doesn't even get rakeback. We'll see what kind of reply we get.

TiggertheCat at Absolute Poker AP

Just googled for this account and it didn't pull up anywhere. It's my wife's account at Absolute Poker. She smacks some folks down heads up in 7 card stud.

I'm proud to have a poker playing wife, that not only enjoys the game but wins at it!

If she's taken your money, feel free to raise H E double toothpicks in our poker strategy forum.

Current bankroll from 7cs at Absolute = $900+

Rounders Buzz

I recently came across a new site that is interesting both for poker bloggers and interested readers, RoundersBuzz.com. It is a social voting website just for poker content. If you run a poker portal and are looking to drive traffic to your site, you can submit poker articles, stories or news at RoundersBuzz. If you are a poker player looking to improve your game, you can quickly sift through the best poker content voted up to the main page by the community at Rounders Buzz.

Besides the main page, there are five Category pages for specific stories. The most popular categories are the two strategy categories; Tournament Strategy and Ring Game Strategy. They also have categories on General Poker, Online Poker Tools and Poker News.

Happy reading!

Internet Isolation - Proven!

Lot of studies have been done on how the evil internet tubes isolate and insulate us from the 'real world' and after a conversation with one of our mods at Poker-Strategy.Org, I am a believah!

The conversation in mIRC chat was about my sending TrulyRand0m some shirts and hats from our PSORG gear stash. I asked him for his address, and his response?

<TR-ChuddsCheerleader> well i'm sending you an email in about 30 seconds once i find my address on facebook...

I alternated between chuckles and outright belly jiggling for the next 20 minutes. It was late...odd things are funny when it's late.

In TR's defense, he just moved recently. Heh...let me check my facebook for my real life address. Long ago, people would have to dig through their wallet or purse to give you their email address. How quickly things change!

Oh, and poker - my Absolute bankroll is at ~600. It was down to ~150 there for a bit, so I'm pretty happy to have not busted, playing 1/2 through 3/6 with just $150 bucks.

Ahh! SNG Nirvana = FTP

I switched over to Full Tilt to play some SNG's. It's a big difference compared to the rock garden at AP. I've only got a 2 SNG test here, so it's obviously not conclusive, but I've played two 9-seat SNG's at the $10 + $1 level, and they do remind me a lot of the juicy SNG's that I used to see at Party and Royal Vegas.

I've played two, and finished #2 out of 9 both times. (I need to work on my heads up play!). It's not my results that are really making me think FTP is a better place for SNG's but rather how many players are gone after the first few levels. At AP, it wasn't uncommon for there to still be 4 or 5 players left when the blinds got up to 'crap shoot' level. The last SNG I played at FTP, the blinds hadn't even hit 100/200 yet and it was heads up between me and the eventual winner.

NLHE SNG's aren't exactly my forte, but I do expect to see positive return on investment. So far I am, but it seems like it'd be much easier and more profitable at Full Tilt.

More players = more fish? I think that is generally true.

Being a USA citizen is costing me money!

Being a poker player, I don't usually pay much attention to casino games or casino bonuses. However, I couldn't help but notice the value of an article that one of our PSORG mods wrote for another of our sites.

The article details how to take an initial deposit of $100 and take it to $1500+ in your bankroll by playing perfect blackjack that reduces the house edge to near 0, while clearing generous deposit bonuses.

Here's a link to the article if you are interested: Casino Bonus Guide

Again, it will only work for non-USA citizens. This is a great guide for anyone. Poker players looking to build a bankroll or just take a month or so to pad your existing bankroll. Casino bonus whores will jump on this as well. ;]

Bankroll Update (April)

Looks like Dylan better get to crackin' on scholarship applications! Bankroll at ~400. No losses, just withdrawals. Every time I get it to $1k, there's always something to buy that we don't want to dip into our regular budget for.

Ah well. At least I've got 16 years before he graduations high school!

Absolute's 7cs population hasn't been wonderful lately. Generally just a 1/2 game going. Still easy enough to beat.

AP's NLHE sit n go's are pretty tight. Even the tiny $5 buyins seem to have some decent players. I miss Party Poker SNG's where 3 people were gone before the button made one lap around the table. :(

Poker Resolutions Update

Can't believe it's been almost 2 months since my last post. Busy as a bee and sick with the flu when I'm not busy.

We got cable (have I already mentioned that?)... so wonderful!

I've made good progress on my resolutions so far I think. The cash games resolutions I've still yet to really get started on. Harrington on Cash Games came out very recently, so I'll be getting it from Amazon here shortly and that should kick start things a bit.

I have had no problems with tilt so far this year, mainly because I've been in a good run when I've had time to play. Even with some withdrawals, the bankroll is well over $1000. Getting 2k for a "Dylan college fund" looks like it'll be easily reachable provided I have more time to play and I don't hit a big skid.

I'm playing at AP and Full Tilt. I've been having really good success at the 3/6 and 2/4 tables at Tilt. Massive loose there compared to AP. AP's games have been a bit slow this year with not a lot of 2/4 or 3/6 tables when I was on. The 1/2 tables are good, but I'd much prefer to stay in the 2/4 - 3/6 range. I just don't get in enough hours to really make a 1/2 table pay much.

Freakin' SOCOM online is cutting into my poker time too. I'm not really addicted to it, but when I do sit down for a session of run and gun, snipe and move on Devils Road, I find that 4 or 5 hours is gone in what feels like seconds. Poker is better on our marriage too, since it's a money earning hobby and no doubt Leslie already has devious plans for the 'college fund'...

We'll see!

Poker Resolutions - 2008

I don't really have many 'real life' resolutions for the new year, except the usual be a better husband, father, etc. We've got #2 on the way, as Leslie is 13 weeks pregnant. So here's a few poker resolutions.

1. Learn small stakes NLHE cash games. I feel confident in 7cs ring and 7cs tourneys, and even NLHE SNG's and MTT's though I haven't played either of the last two in a long time. Cash games are very popular now with shows like High Stakes Poker still getting great ratings, and it seems to be where the fish are heading, so I figure it wouldn't hurt to become adequate at it.

I've already picked up a book on it, and have read it. I'll start applying that to the tables soon. NLHE cash games shouldn't be difficult, since I'm already a tight wad, and without increasing blinds pressure, you really just have to bait your hook, toss your line in and wait for the bite.

My only concern is I really don't have much of a roll. I didn't play much in 2007, and we nearly drained my roll for a vacation in May, and then again in November/December for Christmas spending. I don't depend on poker for a living, but I don't like the idea busting or depositing. In fact, I guess you could say I'm still playing on the $10 no deposit bonus from Royal Vegas, from way back in 2003. NLHE cash variance can be big, especially those crazy low blind games.

2. Do a better job against the tilt monster. I don't tilt often, but when I do, I tend to go LAG and donk off a couple of hundred before I've fed him enough.

3. Start Dylan a college fund or some type of savings account with poker earnings. Since I'll be spending some to learn NLHE cash, I don't plan on a fat amount for this. Besides, I play probably 10 hours a week at best. I think a $2000 goal would be noble. Besides, he's not even 19 months old yet, so I'm getting a good head start. ;]

Someone call Goodlatte and tell him to legalize online poker. I'm playing it for the good of the children!