Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Cashing in on Bodog
I finished a solid third last night in one of the $10,000 guaranteed tournaments on Bodog Poker. These events still have a large overlay --- last night was around $4,000. Combine this with a 200% rakeback (via bonus) on tournaments and you've found some serious +EV.
This finish helps make up a little bit for the serious Full Tilt beatings as of late! Damn you 10,000 Full Tilt points!
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Regardless of your political beliefs every poker blogger needs to checkout:
hammerthehammer.com
This finish helps make up a little bit for the serious Full Tilt beatings as of late! Damn you 10,000 Full Tilt points!
------------
Regardless of your political beliefs every poker blogger needs to checkout:
hammerthehammer.com
Monday, April 25, 2005
WSOP Event #2 Blogger Qualifier
First, thanks to Iggy and Otis for setting this event up. As usual it was a blast!
I finished a medicore 21st of 78 and I don't really feel good or bad about my play. I played pretty tight and made a few moves. My lowest point came at the hands of Joe who moved all-in preflop for about 60% of my stack. My AA was looking pretty good against his 55 until he spiked a 5 on the flop. Managing to claw my way back and with 3 tables left I knew I still had a shot. Being near the overall short stack I moved in with A3 and Badblood called with AK dashing my WSOP hopes.
I think the most exciting part of the night was watching Hank catch quads twice within four hands. WoW!
I finished a medicore 21st of 78 and I don't really feel good or bad about my play. I played pretty tight and made a few moves. My lowest point came at the hands of Joe who moved all-in preflop for about 60% of my stack. My AA was looking pretty good against his 55 until he spiked a 5 on the flop. Managing to claw my way back and with 3 tables left I knew I still had a shot. Being near the overall short stack I moved in with A3 and Badblood called with AK dashing my WSOP hopes.
I think the most exciting part of the night was watching Hank catch quads twice within four hands. WoW!
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Reload Mania
Three new reloads just hit and the bonus whores are already salivating!
Site: PokerRoom
Bonus: 15% Reload up to $150
Code: CELL
Deadline: Now - April 25th
Requirement: 10x raked hands
Expiration: 60 days from deposit
Site: True Poker
Bonus: 40% Reload up to $150
Deadline: Now - April 26th
Requirement: 10x raked hands
Expiration: 30 days from deposit
Site: Party Poker
Bonus: 20% Reload up to $100
Code: BONUSAPR
Deadline: April 22nd - April 27th
Requirement: 7x raked hands
Expiration: 7 days from deposit
Looks like my PokerStars bonuses might have to take the back seat again.
Site: PokerRoom
Bonus: 15% Reload up to $150
Code: CELL
Deadline: Now - April 25th
Requirement: 10x raked hands
Expiration: 60 days from deposit
Site: True Poker
Bonus: 40% Reload up to $150
Deadline: Now - April 26th
Requirement: 10x raked hands
Expiration: 30 days from deposit
Site: Party Poker
Bonus: 20% Reload up to $100
Code: BONUSAPR
Deadline: April 22nd - April 27th
Requirement: 7x raked hands
Expiration: 7 days from deposit
Looks like my PokerStars bonuses might have to take the back seat again.
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
The Busy Season
The weather has finally turned nice here in Michigan and like the subzero temps I see my free time slipping away. Summer brings softball and many other outdoor activities that pretty much don't involve poker. It's likely something will have to give and that will be the extra time at the virtual tables. Now I just need to get those 10,000 points on Full Tilt early by June so I qualify for their 10 seat WSOP freeroll!
-----
Did anyone else see this 7-card stud article by Ashley Adams on Poker Player Online? I met Ashley last year in Vegas and he seemed like a good guy. What's up with 65% SnG win rate? Huh? Maybe he means 65% money? Maybe he has a really small data set? Either way it's holy ROI Batman! I'm not sure why Ashley is wasting anytime writing if he can win 65% of his SnGs.
-----
I somehow managed a 2nd place finish if 18 players in week 8 of my local league. One good suckout (3-outer on the river) kept me from getting sixth. One bad read almost got me 18th. Somewhere in between I had the following monster hands:
55 (folded)
AJ
AJ
KQ
That's it in 3 hours of play. Yes, one pocket pair and no ace bigger than a J. I was fortunante to make a few moves when I had chips and position. When I was all-in and favored my hands held up. Basically I got damn lucky...
-----
Wino, a friend of mine finally started up a blog. Checkout Biking Wino when you get a chance. Now we just need to get him playing poker!
-----
Did anyone else see this 7-card stud article by Ashley Adams on Poker Player Online? I met Ashley last year in Vegas and he seemed like a good guy. What's up with 65% SnG win rate? Huh? Maybe he means 65% money? Maybe he has a really small data set? Either way it's holy ROI Batman! I'm not sure why Ashley is wasting anytime writing if he can win 65% of his SnGs.
-----
I somehow managed a 2nd place finish if 18 players in week 8 of my local league. One good suckout (3-outer on the river) kept me from getting sixth. One bad read almost got me 18th. Somewhere in between I had the following monster hands:
55 (folded)
AJ
AJ
KQ
That's it in 3 hours of play. Yes, one pocket pair and no ace bigger than a J. I was fortunante to make a few moves when I had chips and position. When I was all-in and favored my hands held up. Basically I got damn lucky...
-----
Wino, a friend of mine finally started up a blog. Checkout Biking Wino when you get a chance. Now we just need to get him playing poker!
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Vegas is Booked
The tickets have been purchased and the rooms reserved! Dozer, A.I., Chips McGee, Lil' Feller, and I will be flying in late Thursday June 2nd. Best of all Mrs. Royal convinced her parents, with the help of a free ticket, to fly to our house and watch little Royal. She'll be flying in on Friday to join the rest of us.
A free night and casino rate for the rest was enough to convince us to stay at The Orleans. I know Pauly mentioned something about drunken bowling before his last trip, but I didn't see anything about it in the trip report. Lots and lots of strippers...no bowling. Maybe this trip will be different! I'm sure we'll be at The Plaza plenty since it is blogger central and has the best blackjack rules in town.
-----
I finished 3rd of 18 last night in my weekly league. This is week 7 of 16 and I should still be in first place overall once A.I. gets the official standings out.
-----
There is an interesting thread on 2+2 right now about someone getting a "you're running a bot note" from Empire. The consensus was their 24/7 data mining was likely the trigger for the note.
What I found interesting was how the thread split into a discussion on data mining and the improvement of poker program intelligence. Several 2+2ers expressed similar opinions to my last post.
-----
Cardplayer has a good article from Mike Sexton discussing tournament payout structures. I've always felt that pro tournaments were too top heavy and would be much better off resembling golf tournament payouts. On the casual side it also makes sense to me for the payouts to be more flat. We run our monthly tournaments with ~top 25% making the money. We've even gone to a small bounty on each person, taken from the prize pool, in addition to the flat payout structure. The response to bounties was overwhelmingly positive. Everyone has a better time if they win something.
-----
In online news I'm mostly sitting 2/4 or 3/6 along with PLO. With the Empire bonus cleared it I've finally found some time to work on my $390 of stacked pokerstars bonuses and chip away at Full Tilt.
Speaking of Full Tilt; why would you bother qualifying for the WSOP anywhere else? This $10,000,000 promotion is f-in brilliant. Maybe it was Hank's idea?
A free night and casino rate for the rest was enough to convince us to stay at The Orleans. I know Pauly mentioned something about drunken bowling before his last trip, but I didn't see anything about it in the trip report. Lots and lots of strippers...no bowling. Maybe this trip will be different! I'm sure we'll be at The Plaza plenty since it is blogger central and has the best blackjack rules in town.
-----
I finished 3rd of 18 last night in my weekly league. This is week 7 of 16 and I should still be in first place overall once A.I. gets the official standings out.
-----
There is an interesting thread on 2+2 right now about someone getting a "you're running a bot note" from Empire. The consensus was their 24/7 data mining was likely the trigger for the note.
What I found interesting was how the thread split into a discussion on data mining and the improvement of poker program intelligence. Several 2+2ers expressed similar opinions to my last post.
-----
Cardplayer has a good article from Mike Sexton discussing tournament payout structures. I've always felt that pro tournaments were too top heavy and would be much better off resembling golf tournament payouts. On the casual side it also makes sense to me for the payouts to be more flat. We run our monthly tournaments with ~top 25% making the money. We've even gone to a small bounty on each person, taken from the prize pool, in addition to the flat payout structure. The response to bounties was overwhelmingly positive. Everyone has a better time if they win something.
-----
In online news I'm mostly sitting 2/4 or 3/6 along with PLO. With the Empire bonus cleared it I've finally found some time to work on my $390 of stacked pokerstars bonuses and chip away at Full Tilt.
Speaking of Full Tilt; why would you bother qualifying for the WSOP anywhere else? This $10,000,000 promotion is f-in brilliant. Maybe it was Hank's idea?
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Official Empire Re-load Bonus
Starting tomorrow Empire Poker will be offering another re-load bonus. Here is the skinny:
-25% bonus up to $150
-7x raked hands
-7 days to clear
-You have from April 6th - April 10th to deposit
http://www.empirepoker.com/offer/epmania_april.html
After taking a month off in March it's good to see Empire offering another true re-load bonus. You'll notice they followed Party Poker's lead and dropped the bonus clearing time to 7 days. No big deal to me as long as they don't move to the 20x raked hands that Multipoker is curretly running!
The life of online poker
A week or so ago Iggy posted a quick blurb about how long the poker boom, specifically online poker, will run. I think this is a great topic and here is my take on it.
I think the online scene can continue to flourish as long as poker bots are kept off the system.
Who cares about crappy bots you might ask? Your average new internet player cares. He or she will be less interested in making the jump to online poker just to play a computer. How about your average blogger (internet grinder)? They've got no problem with playing against bots if they are beatable. They are...for now.
Do you ever sit at your PC grinding away at four tables just to clear the latest Party bonus? Ever wish you had some way to automate this menial task? I sure do! Don't kid yourself that winning at low limit HE requires much skill. It requires much more patience then anything else. Specifically there is no reason why a respectable low limit HE playing bot doesn't exist now. In fact they do exist.
We are only a few years away from connecting the automating playing software with the statistical software (pokertracker database) and that will result in a step change in bot playing ability.
Maybe the poker sites can continue to keep bots off their system? This to seems doubtful to me. The poker programs simply take a mouse or keyboard input and respond to it. There's no really good way to know whether that input is coming from a human, dog, cat or poker pot.
I guess I see things changing drastically in the next five years. Hopefully some of those changes will result in a better experience. I tend to think we're in the golden age and should enjoy it while it lasts!
Starting tomorrow Empire Poker will be offering another re-load bonus. Here is the skinny:
-25% bonus up to $150
-7x raked hands
-7 days to clear
-You have from April 6th - April 10th to deposit
http://www.empirepoker.com/offer/epmania_april.html
After taking a month off in March it's good to see Empire offering another true re-load bonus. You'll notice they followed Party Poker's lead and dropped the bonus clearing time to 7 days. No big deal to me as long as they don't move to the 20x raked hands that Multipoker is curretly running!
The life of online poker
A week or so ago Iggy posted a quick blurb about how long the poker boom, specifically online poker, will run. I think this is a great topic and here is my take on it.
I think the online scene can continue to flourish as long as poker bots are kept off the system.
Who cares about crappy bots you might ask? Your average new internet player cares. He or she will be less interested in making the jump to online poker just to play a computer. How about your average blogger (internet grinder)? They've got no problem with playing against bots if they are beatable. They are...for now.
Do you ever sit at your PC grinding away at four tables just to clear the latest Party bonus? Ever wish you had some way to automate this menial task? I sure do! Don't kid yourself that winning at low limit HE requires much skill. It requires much more patience then anything else. Specifically there is no reason why a respectable low limit HE playing bot doesn't exist now. In fact they do exist.
We are only a few years away from connecting the automating playing software with the statistical software (pokertracker database) and that will result in a step change in bot playing ability.
Maybe the poker sites can continue to keep bots off their system? This to seems doubtful to me. The poker programs simply take a mouse or keyboard input and respond to it. There's no really good way to know whether that input is coming from a human, dog, cat or poker pot.
I guess I see things changing drastically in the next five years. Hopefully some of those changes will result in a better experience. I tend to think we're in the golden age and should enjoy it while it lasts!
Monday, April 04, 2005
Empire Poker GET15 Bonus
If you haven't played on Empire Poker in awhile - say since the February Bonus - go log in and check for a pop up window offering a 15% bonus up to $100. If you don't get the pop up then you are not eligible yet. This bonus only requires 5x raked hands and you have 30 days to clear it!
-----
Spending the Bankroll
I finally made a purchase with funds from my poker bankroll. I've tracked my wins and losses the past three years and my bankroll has fluctuated accordingly. Up until yesterday the only things that altered my bankroll were poker, bonuses and affiliate income. Sometime between Wednesday and Friday Royal will have himself a new 20.4" Dell LCD monitor.
I currently run a dual monitor setup on my main PC, but I only have a 19" and a 17" in this configuration. It will work with eight tables though layering is required. I'm like a kid in a candy store and can't wait to trade my 17" for the new 20.4" !
-----
Weekly Poker League
Tomorrow is week six of sixteen in our weekly poker league. So far I'm in first place with finishes of first, ninth, eighth, first, and sixth out of a usual twenty players. It's a great time with fun people and there is not much poker I enjoy better than the Tuesday night league.
-----
Mrs. Royal in Vegas?
Though a few details remain it looks like Mrs. Royal, along with several other friends, will be making the June Vegas trip. Somehow I'm 2nd on the waiting list for the Blogger Tournament. Damn not reading blogs at work! Oh well, I'm sure things will work out and I'll get a spot.
-----
Poker Music
Right now I'm still on a 2004 kick...
The Firey Furnaces: Blueberry Boat
The Arcade Fire: Funeral
Green Day: American Idiot
And a few old faithfuls...
Guided by Voices: Alien Lanes
My Bloody Valentine: Loveless
Modest Mouse: The Lonesome Crowded West
If you haven't played on Empire Poker in awhile - say since the February Bonus - go log in and check for a pop up window offering a 15% bonus up to $100. If you don't get the pop up then you are not eligible yet. This bonus only requires 5x raked hands and you have 30 days to clear it!
-----
Spending the Bankroll
I finally made a purchase with funds from my poker bankroll. I've tracked my wins and losses the past three years and my bankroll has fluctuated accordingly. Up until yesterday the only things that altered my bankroll were poker, bonuses and affiliate income. Sometime between Wednesday and Friday Royal will have himself a new 20.4" Dell LCD monitor.
I currently run a dual monitor setup on my main PC, but I only have a 19" and a 17" in this configuration. It will work with eight tables though layering is required. I'm like a kid in a candy store and can't wait to trade my 17" for the new 20.4" !
-----
Weekly Poker League
Tomorrow is week six of sixteen in our weekly poker league. So far I'm in first place with finishes of first, ninth, eighth, first, and sixth out of a usual twenty players. It's a great time with fun people and there is not much poker I enjoy better than the Tuesday night league.
-----
Mrs. Royal in Vegas?
Though a few details remain it looks like Mrs. Royal, along with several other friends, will be making the June Vegas trip. Somehow I'm 2nd on the waiting list for the Blogger Tournament. Damn not reading blogs at work! Oh well, I'm sure things will work out and I'll get a spot.
-----
Poker Music
Right now I'm still on a 2004 kick...
The Firey Furnaces: Blueberry Boat
The Arcade Fire: Funeral
Green Day: American Idiot
And a few old faithfuls...
Guided by Voices: Alien Lanes
My Bloody Valentine: Loveless
Modest Mouse: The Lonesome Crowded West
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