Royal Poker Blog

It's been a busy last few days so no poker. I did host a HORSE tournament on Friday night followed by a dealers choice ring game. I was a poor host and won the tournament. Karma got me back on the last hand of the ring game where the Dozer drew out on 7th street in PL Razz for a ~$85 pot. That might not seem like much, but this was $0.20 ante, $0.40 bring-in and only 3-handed!

Today is Little Royal's 3rd birthday. She had a party at day care, at a restaurant and at home. She was so excited and beaming all day. Seeing your children happy has to be one of the best feelings in the world. There's another big birthday approaching, but more on that in a few days.

Tonight was also the first basketball game of the season. As anticipated our team is much improved. We played solid paint defense and lead the whole game. We have potential to be very good this year!

Good luck and have fun to everyone heading out to Vegas next week. I am very jealous.

Like many other bloggers I’ve jumped on the ReviewMe bandwagon. The payments are really a pittance, but I figure it’s a decent way to find out about products that might interest me. It also somewhat forces me to work on my review writing and hopefully improve.

Following is my paid review for cardschat’s Poker Forum & Card Games.

cardschat calls itself A Worldwide Poker Community and after reading a few posts in their different message boards it was pretty apparent that this is not your standard US poker community. I personally would describe it as having a mostly European flavor.

Getting Started

I had not heard of the Poker Forum & Card Games site before this review. I jumped over to their page and started reading message board posts. I also created a user account and that process was painless. The forum interface is standard (i.e. not 2+2) and customizable. Searching and navigating seem to work adequate. From a visual standpoint there is nothing to really make this forum standout. I’m okay with that since what most readers care about is the content. As long as the visuals don’t make you want to puke, and these don’t, then you’ll be judged by your content.

So about that Content

I read several poker forums (communities) a day and I have several more I check every week or so. Each forum has their own flavor and hence appeals to a certain group of people. The Poker Forum & Card Games site is going to appeal to newer online poker players, lower limit players and those who enjoy a mostly troll-free community. As great as PocketFives, 2+2 and RGP are there are times when childish behavior takes over and makes them almost unreadable. I’m sure this site isn’t completely free of this behavior, but I saw very little of it. A couple of newer posts specially caught my eye.

My poker stars story. PLEASE READ!!!

Your standard bad beat whine about a guy who puts his entire bankroll up in a $500 hands-up game. There’s a happy ending as he actually gets lucky and wins everything back in spite of Stars software screwing him.

Any idea how this would be responded to on 2+2, RGP, PocketFives or NWP? Yeah, the guy would be flamed to death. So far there have been 17 responses and not one flame! There have been several comments about bankroll management and someone even linked up the site bankroll guide. This is a refreshing change from the forums I normally read.

Small downswing, huge lack of confidence.

Here a poster talks about SnGs messing up his normal high M play. Once again no trolls responded. There was just a ton of positive advice and encouragement.

Should you be reading this forum?

That really depends on what you need in a poker forum. If you’re looking for a friendly community that offers positive advice for the lower limit player then the Poker Forum & Card Games site is for you. I’ve added the site to my bookmarks in the Check about Once a Week folder.

Summary

Pros:

• Very friendly and positive community.
• Over 10,000 threads and 100,000 posts.
• Weekly freerolls (on Titan though) and other forum special events.

Cons:

• Since this is a worldwide community many of the promotions and discussions involve sites banning US players.
• The discussions are mainly around low limit games. There’s not a high limit section.

Good luck to gang over at Poker Forum & Card Games. Hopefully you can continue to build a strong community.

Wednesday evening was another seven tournament night..

• $24+$2 $25K Guaranteed on Full Tilt. Early aggression = bust. I’m okay with that since it allows me to start new / focus on other events.

• $5.5 R+A Turbo Sat to a $175 PCA Double Shootout on Stars. Have I mentioned how good I run in these Turbos? I won a seat for $15.5 and cashed it in for the 175 W$.

• $30+$3 $10K Guaranteed on UB. Chips early, but they soon left me.

• $11 (10 min blinds) NLHE on Stars. I never got much going here and finally busted near the second break.

• $13 Double Shootout to Sunday Million on Stars. I don’t run nearly as well in the non-Turbos.

• $30+$3 PLO on Stars. My notes are limited on this tournament and I don’t feel like pulling the hand history now. I remember not being close to the bubble.

• $30+$3 R+A on Absolute. I think this was a guaranteed event..maybe $11K? Being on ABS the field wasn’t nearly as large as I’m used to. I did very well before the rebuy period ended and was top 10 in chips all the way past the 2^nd break. Nearing the bubble I took a 30% hit when my button A4 push was called by KQ and he hit. I think the KQ call was interesting, but I guess he figured my raise for any 2 (since I was a big stack) and decided KQ was good enough for a stand. After that I ran card dry and had very few spots to steal. With ~24 left and top 18 getting in the money I played back at a min-raising button from the BB on a Axx flop. He actually had an Ace and I was busto. A few more chips and I could have done some damage in this event. I’ll probably check this tournament out again.

So far I've played no poker this week. I was busy at home Monday night and Tuesday we had our third basketball scrimmage of the season. Several new (young) players have help reinvigorate the team and we look to be much improved this year.

Tonight I'm playing a few tournaments and ring games. Tomorrow we feast and watch football! Friday I'm hosting a HORSE tournament at my place. That should be a blast!

Look for a tournament(s) recap tomorrow. I still have that Vegas trip report to post sometime too.

It would be incorrect to say that the weekend improved after my nice cash on Friday. I did however continue to build on Friday’s success all weekend long.

I played seven tournaments total on Friday evening.

• $24+$2 $15K Guaranteed war zone on Full Tilt. On the bubble my huge re-re-raise all-in with QQ was called by AK and he hit. To give you an idea how deep we were, after that hand he was in 3^rd place overall and I still had a few chips left. Yes sir, your AK might be good against the other huge stack at the table making an all-in re-re-raise. Sigh

• $3.3 R+A $20K Guaranteed on Stars. Not much to say here. I built up a big stack a pissed it away right before the bubble.

• $3.3 R+A on UB. Much smaller and not nearly as loose as the Stars rebuy events. I did nothing but rebuy and bust in this tournament.

Full Tilt, when o when are you going to have rebuy events?

• $33 WSOP Seat on UB. Ultimate Bet is giving out 30 WSOP seats. There’s a $33 event each evening for the next 30 days with a seat guaranteed each time. I decided to play as there were only 250 entrants or so. I made a decent run and eventually got short and busted around 40^th.

• $2.2 R+A WPT-PCA Turbo Super-Sat on Stars. Nada

• $20+$2 R+A WPT-PCA Turbo Super-Sat on Stars. Cracked AA with KK, but it did not help.

• $20+$2 R+A PLO on Stars. This was one of those tournaments where I just hung around near the middle / bottom of the chip counts and all of a sudden we were down to 18 and in the money. At this point I’m feeling pretty good about making back a decent portion of the night’s tournament expenses. I am far from a PLO expert and there were several notable online pros left. I win a few pots and a few people bust and bam we’re at the final table and I’m 6/9. I win a few more pots and all of a sudden I’m 5/7, 4/5 and then 3/3.

My flopped straight holds up against a flopped set and I’m the chip leader. When we get to heads up I have about a 2-1 chip lead. We swing back and forth for 5-10 minutes with both of us having a 2-1 lead several times. Finally we get to almost dead even and RiverLoser, a very successful Stars player, offers a chop. We were basically rolling dice at that point so ~$2800 seemed like a decent pay day.

On Saturday I played event #5 of the Blogger Poker Tour and also made it to our local monthly game.

Event #5 of the Blogger Poker Tour was 6-handed NLHE. I generally love the 6-handed format, but in this case it worked out very poorly. In any given Blogger event you have 20-30 people who sign-up for the points and just blind off. I’ve been guilty of this to some extent in most events. This generally isn’t an issue in a full ring format, but once you go to six-handed it creates a horrible imbalance between the tables. I arrived a few minutes late and when I got to my table there were only two active players and they were chopping the dead blinds. I have no problem with players taking advantage of the situation. It’s just unfair to the table that had one or zero dead stacks.

I pretty much ran over my table and was one of the chip leaders following the first break. I then made a horrible re-raise with AQ and was busted in the mid 30s. It was a stupid play and one where I knew I was behind and just refused to fold. It’s not like AQ is a good hand when you’re both deep. It looks like I dropped to 8^th and should still be on track to make top 20.

In the evening I played in a local monthly game and actually finished 1^st of 17 for another decent score. We played some PL/NL dealer’s choice afterwards and I took down a $70 pot in PLO with $0.10 / $0.20 blinds. That wasn’t even the biggest pot of the night at those micro limits!

Today I played in three tubo events.

• $4 Super Sat to the FTOPS Main Event on Full Tilt.

• $14 Super Sat to the FTOPS Main Event on Full Tilt.

I did nothing in those tournaments. Full Tilt, when o when are you going to have rebuy events?

• $8.80 R + A Turbo Sunday Millions Sat on Stars. I run good in these and got another seat. The best part was it only cost me the realistic minimum of $24.80. I cashed out the 215 T$.

I should have lots of time off next week thanks to the holiday. We’ll likely have a home game one evening and I’ll be trying to continue my online success as well.

We ended up chopping the top two.

The Blogger Poker Tour Event #5 takes place this Saturday at 3:30 PM EST. It’s being hosted by The House of Poker Blues. A poor performance last month dropped me to 5^th in the standings. It’s really all about making the top 20 though. Last season I needed a win in the Last Chance tournament to qualify for the championship. This season I’m in much better shape and barring some unexpected dynamics the top 20 is pretty much a given.

The Bluff Poker Forum has a cash added event November 15^th at 9:00 PM EST on VIP.com.

Mansion Poker is offering a whole series of cash added events starting Dec. 4^th. All the events are NLHE and here’s the schedule.

Here’s a funny story from this weekend.

One evening Little Royal, who’s now almost 3, convinces me that going in the hot tub would be an acceptable replacement for her nightly bath. Yeah I know this is a poor substitute. Hitting the hut tub is a special treat for Little Royal and she’d been good all day so why not? She’s having a typical blast when all of a sudden she says “Daddy, I have to go potty.” She knows that leaving the hot tub to use the bathroom will likely mean the end of the fun. So she says “You stay here. I’ll be right back. Don’t get out Daddy.” I agree and remind her to be careful not to slip because to get from the hot tub to the nearest bathroom you need to cross the kitchen floor which is tiled. She heads over to the bathroom and I hear boom as she slips and hits the floor. I slowly start to get out of the hot tub to inspect the damage when I hear. “I’m okay daddy. Don’t get out. Whaaaaaaaaa. I’m okay.” She apparently picks herself up and gets to the bathroom. “I’m okay daddy. I’m just going potty.” A few minutes later she’s back in the hot tub. She’s not even 3 and already understands how to suck it up for a few extra minutes of fun.

Friday night I played a few tournaments and a little bit of 50Max PLO8 Ring. The tournaments included a $26 event on Full Tilt where my AKs nut flush lost to a flopped JQo boat. As Joe Speaker has mentioned several times before the competition is horrendous in these nightly $26 tournaments. Since most players are extremely loose I’ve typically played tight the first hour and adjusted from there. The problem with that strategy is after the first break you’re likely a few hundred chips either way of the starting 1500. You then pickup QQ, KK, or AK and get all your chips in as a 66% favorite and lose. Recently I’ve changed my thinking to play very loose before the first break. Either I get a bunch of chips and can survive those later bad beats or I bust early and move on to other tournaments. This is a tournament where seeing 88 vs. TT all-in preflop is non uncommon in level 1. Going for maximum value with TT+ and AJ+ seems to be mostly correct early as you’re heading of the range of the average player. Is this new strategy working? It’s too early to tell and playing looser will certainly increase the variance.

Saturday night I played in another $26 event on Full Tilt and an $11 R+A turbo Sunday Millions Satellite on Stars. On FT I got knocked out just past the first break. I picked up AQ in the BB with a M of ~7 and 5 limpers. My push made the UTG limper with KK look brilliant.

Mrs. Royal watched me make a nice comeback in the Stars satellite to win a seat. I really need to consider playing these Turbos more because my record is exceptional in them. I’ve won seats in over 60% of them this year. I’m just not sure there’s that much value in the smaller buy-in events. I didn’t play the Sunday Millions and instead cashed out the 215 T$.

I’ve missed the last 3 months of our local tournament series and I’m not sure if I’ll make it this weekend either. I’m currently working Midnight shift and that might continue through the weekend. Apparently we’ve had some disappointing turnouts and I know the format will be reevaluated for next season. I personally would like to see us playing some non-holdem events. In the past those suggestions have fallen on deaf ears. I’ve also kicked around the idea of having a bi-weekly / monthly ring game at my house. The problem is our area still seems too poker saturated with both a weekly and monthly tournament series ongoing.

Do you know where you're going? Do you know where you've been?
-Bob Mould, The Slim

Okay, there really hasn't been any poker progress. I'm still not playing very frequently, but I did actually get in a few tournaments this week.

Tournament #1: The Blogger Poker Tour Event #3 took place last Saturday. I was busy doing other things and blinded off for the first hour. I then hit a few hands and actually built up a decent stack. I lost a key race and eventually settled for 21st place. Thanks to the Event #2 hosting bonus I'm currently in 2nd place overall.

Tournament #2: The PoketFives Open on Stars. Wednesday was the latest PocketFives.com open and it had 1054 entrants. I finished a respectable 36th in the money, but out of the good stuff.

PocketFives.com has also released a new MTT ranking system. They're working directly with several poker sites and thepokerdb.com to collect tournament results. It's a very impressive poker tournament database.

Tournament #3: $11 - 10 minute blinds event on Stars. I built up a monster stack and was 4th overall nearing the second break. I then went into turbo donk mode and busted out of the money. I played horrible and plan to review this tournament and maybe learn a few things.

Mrs. Royal is going out tonight so depending on how the kids get to bed I'm might get in a few satellites tonight.

Blogger Tour Event #4 is tomorrow.