Well after not posting in awhile I feel that I should update everyone on my goings on in the poker world.
OK, so I emptied my Stars account except for $250 which I was going to use for sats, maybe a deepstack tourney or two, and maybe a few others. Well two weekends ago, the fiancee's little brother who is eleven hopped on my computer to play using play money 'just like he does at home'. That night I logged on and saw my balance as $3.50. I had no idea what happened, so I had my hand history emailed to me. Turns out the little brother hopped on a $2-$4 table and went through $240 in eleven hands. At one point he called a $67 bet on the river with A4 on a 678QK board, when the guy had 9T, (otherwise known as the nuts). What could I do or say? Nada. Told the fiancee who gave him a good talking to, and to be fair he is a really nice kid and genuinely thought he was playing for fun. So that wasnt cool.
When I last posted I had opened an account on William Hill. Well being an idiot I signed up using the fiancees name as I was a bit scared rakeback would not be possible due to the fact this would have been my second account. I then deposited money using MY CREDIT CARD. See the problem? They shut down my account after an hour (albeit a very productive hour). I called them and this is what they needed to change the name of the account. Photocopies of: my passport, her passport, front and back of my credit card, a letter showing my credit card belongs to my address, and a handwritten letter signed by us both. ANNOYING! But with that much money in the account, there was no way I wasnt doing it.
I have been playing on Full Tilt recently and the site is not bad. Once you get rid of the avatars and weird background stuff, it is ok. A major breakthrough though occured last week when I found out Full Tilt acquired re-sizeable tables. Great News! So I have decided to do the following. From now on William Hill will be my cash site. Full Tilt will be my SnG site. I enjoy cash and SnG's and I believe that playing each solely at one site, I will get better accustomed to the players there. I am hoping for atleast forty SnG's a week on Full Tilt, but I have not decided on hands on William Hill. I am getting rakeback on both with a small bonus for cash tables on Will Hill so it makes sense.
However I am going to use proper bankroll management on both. I had a bit of a revelation last week whilst thinking about a hand I had played. When playing cash, winning pots is not important, making good decisions is. If I suck out on a player, yes the short term benefits are great, but the long term benefits are not because to have to rely on luck to win...not a good trait for a poker player to have.
I have $315 on Full Tilt and I am playing only the $6.50 turbos. A benefit FT has over Stars though is the next jump in turbos on FT is $11.50, whereas on Stars it was $16. So with 50 buyins needed to make the jump (I am saying 50 now but I will think about it some more and possibly wait till I have more just to get used to the site) meaning I need atleast $575 before I can think about leaving the $6.50 turbos.
As for cash I need more than 50 buyins, possibly more than 100 buyins. (I am going to ask around to some cash players who are smart with their roll to know exactly how many) On William Hill I have $520 or so, meaning I dont have close to 50 buyins for their smallest tables. I will be patrolling those waters for some time. However, with rakeback and some monthly bonuses I am hoping it wont be too long. But to get to the tables I really want to play .50-1, I think that 5K-6K is needed. Yes, I have a lot of work ahead of me. Good thing I love the game.
With my online poker future now set, I promise to update more.
Heres to hoping
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Friday, February 16, 2007
No Posts for Awhile - Lotsa News!
Where do I begin? Well I suppose from where I left off would make sense.
So last week I started playing a little Full Tilt and Ultimate Bet. They were not bad, and I liked the variety. It refreshed my poker eagerness. Then came Sunday. Let me explain.
This past weekend I had Monday and Tuesday off. Some weird holiday for schools in the UK. That's cool, I'll take it! So Sunday night a bunch of teacher friends of the fiancee and me are at their house getting ready to go to a bar. (I dont like bars or clubs very much, but once in awhile I can stand) So one of the girls has a boyfriend and he has told me on numerous occasions his flatmates are big poker players online. The first time I heard this I really wanted to meet them. As we are sitting there, he says they are all currently next door (he lives directly next to his girlfriend) and would I like to go meet them? Hell yes. We walk over and what I see is beautiful. Picture this. Very small living room with three guys who all have laptops in front of them. One is in pajamas, the other two in jeans and t-shirts. Two are three tabling one is playing only one table. There is a 40' tv as well with a dvd on. There are poker magazines on the floor and they are talking about hands they are playing. I am home. Turns out, one of the guys I have played live with before at the Cincinatti Club, once when we were heads up. Really nice guy, and a very good player. I sit down and watch them play. Turns out one of the guys came like 103rd at the 2006 WSOP main event when his AA all in on the flop lost to Jeff Lisandro's straight flush draw. Sick eh? He even has a picture of Lisandro jumping up and down with the flatmate standing behind him in the crowd looking disappointed. Very cool picture, but a painful one for him I can imagine. So we start talking poker sites, hands, tournies etc. Basically then and there I realised how silly playing online poker without rakeback really is. These guys play high stakes 2/4 and beyond. And they make a lot in rakeback. I wouldnt make close to them, but money is money. I always knew rakeback was good, just not that good. The guy who came 103rd in the WSOP, worked out what my rakeback could be, and it was staggering how much money I was losing playing cash on Stars. He then shopped around for me and told me what site I should play. His answer? William Hill. I get 30% rakeback plus I get £5 per hour I play cash up to £25 per month. Very good deal. I had to go with the fiancee but I hope to go back and play with them as I could learn A LOT from those guys. Very nice guys, and very solid players.
So I went back and played Stars for a little while, with the intention of starting up on a new site. So last night I did. I cashed out $800 on Stars leaving myself $300 to play tournies or sats with. I then put $400 on William Hill and started playing. Oh My God. What was I doing on Stars? I played for one hour last night. ONE HOUR, and made $120 playing cash. I started at a .15 - .15 cent table, the lowest they have, with ten dollars. I ran it up to $30 in fifteen minutes. So I took the $20 profit and put it on a .25 - .50 table. I walked away with $120 forty five minutes later. It wasnt the players being terrible, but I was just used to Stars and very solid players and I just outplayed them. It was a lot of fun. Plus, I am getting rakeback at some point each month. I am really excited about it to say the least!
I hope to play a little more this weekend (the future inlaws are visiting for the weekend, so not too much poker will be played)
So last week I started playing a little Full Tilt and Ultimate Bet. They were not bad, and I liked the variety. It refreshed my poker eagerness. Then came Sunday. Let me explain.
This past weekend I had Monday and Tuesday off. Some weird holiday for schools in the UK. That's cool, I'll take it! So Sunday night a bunch of teacher friends of the fiancee and me are at their house getting ready to go to a bar. (I dont like bars or clubs very much, but once in awhile I can stand) So one of the girls has a boyfriend and he has told me on numerous occasions his flatmates are big poker players online. The first time I heard this I really wanted to meet them. As we are sitting there, he says they are all currently next door (he lives directly next to his girlfriend) and would I like to go meet them? Hell yes. We walk over and what I see is beautiful. Picture this. Very small living room with three guys who all have laptops in front of them. One is in pajamas, the other two in jeans and t-shirts. Two are three tabling one is playing only one table. There is a 40' tv as well with a dvd on. There are poker magazines on the floor and they are talking about hands they are playing. I am home. Turns out, one of the guys I have played live with before at the Cincinatti Club, once when we were heads up. Really nice guy, and a very good player. I sit down and watch them play. Turns out one of the guys came like 103rd at the 2006 WSOP main event when his AA all in on the flop lost to Jeff Lisandro's straight flush draw. Sick eh? He even has a picture of Lisandro jumping up and down with the flatmate standing behind him in the crowd looking disappointed. Very cool picture, but a painful one for him I can imagine. So we start talking poker sites, hands, tournies etc. Basically then and there I realised how silly playing online poker without rakeback really is. These guys play high stakes 2/4 and beyond. And they make a lot in rakeback. I wouldnt make close to them, but money is money. I always knew rakeback was good, just not that good. The guy who came 103rd in the WSOP, worked out what my rakeback could be, and it was staggering how much money I was losing playing cash on Stars. He then shopped around for me and told me what site I should play. His answer? William Hill. I get 30% rakeback plus I get £5 per hour I play cash up to £25 per month. Very good deal. I had to go with the fiancee but I hope to go back and play with them as I could learn A LOT from those guys. Very nice guys, and very solid players.
So I went back and played Stars for a little while, with the intention of starting up on a new site. So last night I did. I cashed out $800 on Stars leaving myself $300 to play tournies or sats with. I then put $400 on William Hill and started playing. Oh My God. What was I doing on Stars? I played for one hour last night. ONE HOUR, and made $120 playing cash. I started at a .15 - .15 cent table, the lowest they have, with ten dollars. I ran it up to $30 in fifteen minutes. So I took the $20 profit and put it on a .25 - .50 table. I walked away with $120 forty five minutes later. It wasnt the players being terrible, but I was just used to Stars and very solid players and I just outplayed them. It was a lot of fun. Plus, I am getting rakeback at some point each month. I am really excited about it to say the least!
I hope to play a little more this weekend (the future inlaws are visiting for the weekend, so not too much poker will be played)
Friday, February 09, 2007
Full Tilt and Ultimate Bet
Downloaded Full Tilt and Ultimate Bet last night. I already had $41 on UB and a ton of bonus points from freerolls, but I had to deposit onto Full Tilt. I put on $220 which I think is enough to handle swings
, play without fear etc. As for UB I will be playing the $1 SnG's until I get to $100. Last night playing these two sites I got really excited to play again. The fear of going bust on UB is very real and it was fun. Plus, Full Tilt is Mac friendly which is great as the fiancee can use her machine and I can play poker. I played a few different games on FT but I am going to stick with $5 heads up games until I reach $350. I think that is a good number and will take me a little bit of time. I have only played two so far and won both, but the opposition was weak. Really looking forward to these sites! Oh, and one cool tourney I saw on UB is a $1 rebuy. Great idea! Cheap and fun with $1000 guarunteed! That seems like great value.
Heres to hoping
, play without fear etc. As for UB I will be playing the $1 SnG's until I get to $100. Last night playing these two sites I got really excited to play again. The fear of going bust on UB is very real and it was fun. Plus, Full Tilt is Mac friendly which is great as the fiancee can use her machine and I can play poker. I played a few different games on FT but I am going to stick with $5 heads up games until I reach $350. I think that is a good number and will take me a little bit of time. I have only played two so far and won both, but the opposition was weak. Really looking forward to these sites! Oh, and one cool tourney I saw on UB is a $1 rebuy. Great idea! Cheap and fun with $1000 guarunteed! That seems like great value.Heres to hoping
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Up Up and Away
Last night I played:
two $15 turbos
one $11 heads up
one $8.80 MTT
And I won each one! I am so happy right now, I made so much money!
Oh wait, that didnt happen, I lost everyone of them and am back down in poker limbo. Yeah, that sounds more right.
I feel like a yoyo going up and down. I currently have $950 on PokerStars and I feel so....urgggggh. I obviously love the game, but at the end of the day, you have to make money to keep playing. I want to someday make my living from this game, if I continue to play like I have been recently, it will not happen. Therefore I am going to come up with some rules of discipline to follow. Goals I want to achieve, and immediate goals which will fuel my poker desire. I think a big one will be to take atleast one day away from playing. Read, watch, listen, think about, but not play. I need to step back. I may take a day or two to come up with some, but I will.
I think I am going to also start playing at more sites than just Stars. I have like $40 on UltimateBet and I am going to start on Full Tilt as well as Crypto. Maybe a change of scenery will spur me on.
Heres to hoping.
two $15 turbos
one $11 heads up
one $8.80 MTT
And I won each one! I am so happy right now, I made so much money!
Oh wait, that didnt happen, I lost everyone of them and am back down in poker limbo. Yeah, that sounds more right.
I feel like a yoyo going up and down. I currently have $950 on PokerStars and I feel so....urgggggh. I obviously love the game, but at the end of the day, you have to make money to keep playing. I want to someday make my living from this game, if I continue to play like I have been recently, it will not happen. Therefore I am going to come up with some rules of discipline to follow. Goals I want to achieve, and immediate goals which will fuel my poker desire. I think a big one will be to take atleast one day away from playing. Read, watch, listen, think about, but not play. I need to step back. I may take a day or two to come up with some, but I will.
I think I am going to also start playing at more sites than just Stars. I have like $40 on UltimateBet and I am going to start on Full Tilt as well as Crypto. Maybe a change of scenery will spur me on.
Heres to hoping.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Right...WTF?!?!
Right....WTF?!?!
That is what I have been saying a lot recently in the chat box of stars. Let me elaborate.
I have 78 of spades 1 off the button and raise 3x the BB. The BB calls. The flop comes A56. He checks, I bet out 3/4 of the pot, he calls. The turn is a Q. He checks, I bet the pot, he calls. The river is a deuce he checks, I check. He flips over 89...for ace high with a better kicker. He called a pot sized bet (which represented half his stack) on the turn with a gutshot. Right...WTF?!?!
I have AA on the button. I raise, the BB re-raises me, I re-re-raise him, he calls. Flop is a low rainbow 9 high. He bets the pot. I now put him on TT, JJ, or QQ as with KK he would put me allin preflop. I can stack him with a blank turn. Turn is a K. He goes all in for 2x the pot. I call. River is a T, he flips over TT for the set. Right...WTF?!?!
I have AA in mid position and with 2 limpers, raise 5x the BB. The second limper calls me. The flop comes A95 with two hearts. He goes all in for $21 into a $3 pot. I insta call. Turn is a blank, river is a J of hearts, he flips over 23 hearts. Right...WTF?!?!
I have AK diamonds in the cutoff. I raise 3x the BB. The button re-raises me to 8x the BB, the BB then goes all in. I fold, the button insta calls. The board ends up giving me the nuts with 3 diamonds, but the button flips over AA, while the BB flips over 44 for a set and takes the pot. Right...WTF?!?!
Needless to say I have been frustrated. I won a little on Saturday night on the 10-25 tables, but gave it all back and then some on Sunday. Very frustrating.
I also played some SnG's and just couldnt put it together. I was near breaking point, when I thought some heads-up games would give me some clarity. I played 3 $33 matches, 4 $11 matches, and 1 $6 match. I won them all but 1 $33 match and the $6 match in which he outdrew me horrendously. I really enjoyed the games and because I was playing the turbos, they didnt last too long.
I am going to keep playing the $11 games as the standard was quite low thus giving the full table turbos a miss for a few days.
I have learned that my game needs variety, because as soon as my game shows progress in one type of game, I level off. For now I am going to keep playing the heads up games and at the first sign of my performance going down, switch games.
Heres to hoping.
That is what I have been saying a lot recently in the chat box of stars. Let me elaborate.
I have 78 of spades 1 off the button and raise 3x the BB. The BB calls. The flop comes A56. He checks, I bet out 3/4 of the pot, he calls. The turn is a Q. He checks, I bet the pot, he calls. The river is a deuce he checks, I check. He flips over 89...for ace high with a better kicker. He called a pot sized bet (which represented half his stack) on the turn with a gutshot. Right...WTF?!?!
I have AA on the button. I raise, the BB re-raises me, I re-re-raise him, he calls. Flop is a low rainbow 9 high. He bets the pot. I now put him on TT, JJ, or QQ as with KK he would put me allin preflop. I can stack him with a blank turn. Turn is a K. He goes all in for 2x the pot. I call. River is a T, he flips over TT for the set. Right...WTF?!?!
I have AA in mid position and with 2 limpers, raise 5x the BB. The second limper calls me. The flop comes A95 with two hearts. He goes all in for $21 into a $3 pot. I insta call. Turn is a blank, river is a J of hearts, he flips over 23 hearts. Right...WTF?!?!
I have AK diamonds in the cutoff. I raise 3x the BB. The button re-raises me to 8x the BB, the BB then goes all in. I fold, the button insta calls. The board ends up giving me the nuts with 3 diamonds, but the button flips over AA, while the BB flips over 44 for a set and takes the pot. Right...WTF?!?!
Needless to say I have been frustrated. I won a little on Saturday night on the 10-25 tables, but gave it all back and then some on Sunday. Very frustrating.
I also played some SnG's and just couldnt put it together. I was near breaking point, when I thought some heads-up games would give me some clarity. I played 3 $33 matches, 4 $11 matches, and 1 $6 match. I won them all but 1 $33 match and the $6 match in which he outdrew me horrendously. I really enjoyed the games and because I was playing the turbos, they didnt last too long.
I am going to keep playing the $11 games as the standard was quite low thus giving the full table turbos a miss for a few days.
I have learned that my game needs variety, because as soon as my game shows progress in one type of game, I level off. For now I am going to keep playing the heads up games and at the first sign of my performance going down, switch games.
Heres to hoping.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Cash is The Devil
Cash Games are the devil.
There, I said it.
Last night I had my second highest cash ever, $540 and I am only up about $100 for the week. That is sickening and disgusting. I was playing above my head and was suffering many bad beats. I was playing 50-1 and 1-2 and I was holding my own up and little here and there, but a few hands brought me down. Therefore, I have decided that the next 2000 cash hands I play will be at the .10-.25 level.
I played this morning for 63 hands and some of the play is laughable. After playing the 1-2 games for about a month some of these players are downright terrible. Some players were making good moves, but there were a few guys who are keeping the poker industry afloat. Really that bad. Calling down with Q high, calling pot sized bets on the turn with straight draws out of position, and checking if they missed, calling with 4th pair. Unreal.
So, I will be playing only the .10-.25 cash tables, some low level SnG's (definitely some of the 45 player turbos, I like those) and some low level MTT's. I really like the 180 man SnG's as they offer a good prize pool but only take about 3.5-4 hours.
Heres to hoping.
There, I said it.
Last night I had my second highest cash ever, $540 and I am only up about $100 for the week. That is sickening and disgusting. I was playing above my head and was suffering many bad beats. I was playing 50-1 and 1-2 and I was holding my own up and little here and there, but a few hands brought me down. Therefore, I have decided that the next 2000 cash hands I play will be at the .10-.25 level.
I played this morning for 63 hands and some of the play is laughable. After playing the 1-2 games for about a month some of these players are downright terrible. Some players were making good moves, but there were a few guys who are keeping the poker industry afloat. Really that bad. Calling down with Q high, calling pot sized bets on the turn with straight draws out of position, and checking if they missed, calling with 4th pair. Unreal.
So, I will be playing only the .10-.25 cash tables, some low level SnG's (definitely some of the 45 player turbos, I like those) and some low level MTT's. I really like the 180 man SnG's as they offer a good prize pool but only take about 3.5-4 hours.
Heres to hoping.
Damn Skippy
PokerStars Tournament #42057930, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00
180 players
Total Prize Pool: $1800.00
Tournament started - 2007/02/02 - 16:22:57 (ET)
BAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMM BABY
Dear Knightsridge,
You finished the tournament in 1st place.
A $540.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.
You earned 269.77 tournament leader points in this tournament.
For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at
http://www.pokerstars.com/tlb_tournament_rankings.html
Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.
And the final hand? Why I had quads of course!
Heads up I was leading for a long time but tried a semi bluff and got caught. I was down to 24,000 chips with blinds at 4000 and 8000 and he was 230,000 or so, but I fought back.
My first MTT win (I won a FPP tourney once but it wasnt for money, for fpp's so not including that)
Feels great!
Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00
180 players
Total Prize Pool: $1800.00
Tournament started - 2007/02/02 - 16:22:57 (ET)
BAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMM BABY
Dear Knightsridge,
You finished the tournament in 1st place.
A $540.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.
You earned 269.77 tournament leader points in this tournament.
For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at
http://www.pokerstars.com/tlb_tournament_rankings.html
Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.
And the final hand? Why I had quads of course!
Heads up I was leading for a long time but tried a semi bluff and got caught. I was down to 24,000 chips with blinds at 4000 and 8000 and he was 230,000 or so, but I fought back.
My first MTT win (I won a FPP tourney once but it wasnt for money, for fpp's so not including that)
Feels great!
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