Italian Vegas

Trying to make this as short as possible for reasons in last post. This time last years quote “Next year i will treat poker as a job more than ever.  YIP Would be an easy cop out but to beat 2010 is 1st target YIP. Ideally above £50,000 is 2nd and main target NOPE. Expect a vegas trip in June and a return to St Maaten early December  YIP. Would be nice to win a package for something but i

Just when i thought i was getting over that cold the damn thing moved into my sinuses and ive had as smacking a headache as ive had for years thats lasted 3 days on and off    Basically havent been able to play since Wednesday which has been mega frustrating and ultra boring .    I really hope im over the worse of it now but it seems to come back late in the night every night so guess ill find

As so many people around the world are celebrating the last few moments of 2011, I’m getting ready to do what I do at The Bicycle Free Online Casino for the WSOP Circuit Tour tournament series starting on the 1st of January. I’ll be making the hotel across from The Bike my home for the first few weeks of the year and, although it’s unlikely that I’ll have time to play any events, I’m packing a few “The…

The clock is ticking. Just a few hours left in 2011. Just enough time to wrap up the wrapping up and resolve to start resolving.

September

September began with still “More Full Tilt Poker Chatter.” About three weeks later came the DOJ’s amendment of the civil complaint, a moment almost as withering and disappointing as was Black Friday. Ended up writing a short sequence of posts then in response: “Full Tilt Poker a ‘Ponzi Scheme’ Says DOJ,” “What Does ‘Poker’ Mean Today?,” “Talk About Red Pros (More on the DOJ vs. Full Tilt Poker),” and “The Culture of Poker.”

A few September posts were inspired by visits to other’s blogs. I wrote “Talking Black Friday & Blame” after reading an interesting post on Bill Rini’s blog. Along similar lines, I responded to a post by Jesse May later in the month concerning Full Tilt mess and the sorry state of online poker, generally speaking, titling mine “What May Said.”

A Subject:Poker report about another possible DOJ action prompted “Another Online Poker e-MERGE-ncy.” And a tip by Brad “Otis” Willis sent me to Derrick Goold’s blog and a post about computer-generated content, after which I wrote “On ‘Roboreporting.’”

Weighed in on yet another online poker-related brouhaha in “Stop Counting Me! Bodog vs. Pokerscout.” The month then concluded with the Alderney Gambling Control Commission revoking FTP’s license, talked about in a post half-jokingly titled “Full Tilt Poker: Chapter the Last?” A day later came the possible buyout by Groupe Bernard Tapie surfaced, noted in “It’s Alive.”

October

There’d be more FTP talk in October, of course. Kind of filled the space left by the lack of online poker and the waiting around for the November Nine.

In “The Perils of Learning As You Go,” I thought a little about the situation at FTP in which a number of folks kind of stumbled into running a multi-million dollar company. Badly. Some of those who’d been jettisoned from the Full Tilt family since Black Friday started piping up, and in “From the Department of Redundancy Department: Full Tilt Poker’s Ex-Employees Speaking Out” I chronicled some of that talk before a lot of it got deleted from the forums.

A long-awaited feature about online poker in the U.S. finally appeared in The New York Times that unfortunately fuzzed over or got wrong a number of aspects of the situation and story. Tried to explain why I thought so in “NY Times Online Poker Piece Misplays Hand” and “More On Skill-Vs.-Luck.”

October marked “Five Years of the UIGEA,” that ill-conceived law that has successfully twisted the poker world into the most tangled knot imaginable. Has certainly affected just about everything to do with my experiences writing about poker, something I reflected on some more in a post “On the ‘Industry.’”

Speaking of legal machinations, there was some talk on the Hill not long after that UIGEA anniversary passed, summarized in part in “House Hearing on ‘Internet Gaming’ Shows U.S. Online Poker a Complicated Game.” As we know, nothing would ultimately happen on a federal level in 2011, although the chatter today suggests we might be seeing some so-called “intrastate” online poker happening sooner than later.

November

That said, I began November “In a Subjunctive Mood,” kind of a cynical response to all of the not-a-matter-of-if-but-when talk floating around with regard to the future of online poker.

Perhaps thankfully, the November Nine finally arrived, allowing us to focus on actual poker for a change. Leading up to the finale, I wrote about the “almost live” presentation of the final table. I also participated in the ESPN conference call a couple of days before. Then I did my own “almost live” blog of the play on November 6, added a few further “Impressions” of what happened as they played from nine to three, then added another “almost live” blog of the final day (November when Pius Heinz won it all as the first German ever to take down the WSOP Main Event. Added one further post speculating about how the comprehensive coverage might have played to broader audience, titled “Making Stories That Make Sense.”

Looking back through the rest of the month’s posts, I’m seeing a wide variety of topics popping up, as reflected by post titles like “On Subscription Sites; or, A Penny for Your Thoughts,” “Strip Poker, Art, and Cultural Commentary,” and “The Rebranding of Poker.”

I lamented the passing of a great poker writer and good guy in “Barry Tanenbaum (1945-2011).” I won some small change in a couple of freerolls on Carbon Poker and looked upon the prospect of building my roll with an ironic reference to “The Chris Ferguson Challenge” (remember that?). And I wrote yet another post about poker’s embattled image in the broader culture in “Poker’s Stick-to-it-iveness.”

December

Another month, and more scandal and controversy, variously discussed in “Talkin’ Bitar, Facebook, and Bodog,” “UB Data Leak,” and “A Man-Made Monster Is On the Loose! (Black Friday).”

Bodog kind of stepped forward to try and usurp Full Tilt Poker’s rightful place as online poker’s most bewildering site in December. For more on that development, see “Bodogoholics Anonymous” and “The Bravado of Bovada.”

In “Please Be Patient” I meditated a bit about the “wait and see” attitude I realized was starting to creep into a lot of my posts — my non-conclusive way of concluding discussions about various topics with loose ends that couldn’t be tied. And speaking of patience, a late, late night following a tourney on PokerStars and hand-for-hand reports from the latest Epic Poker League main event inspired post titled “Unlimited Hold’em” — again kind of wondering aloud how much the detailed, comprehensive coverage of poker tourneys can possibly appeal to all but hardcore enthusiasts.

The big news from the final week of the year concerned this apparent reversal of position by the Department of Justice regarding the Wire Act, a shift which many are thinking might well herald a return of online poker in the U.S. I commented on the development in “Talkin’ the DOJ Letter and Nevada (The State of Online Poker)” and “Reports and Opinions (The DOJ Letter).”

Always a lot of interesting off-the-felt stuff to discuss in poker. Such is the virtual game’s nature, producing a multitude of interesting characters and plots that often extend well beyond hands played and into other areas where we find ourselves interacting with one another.

Still, seemed like 2011 saw us all thinking and writing more about such extracurricular activities than in past years. Here’s hoping we all get back to the tables in 2012 and have the chance to remember why it was we all got into poker in the first place.

Thanks again to everyone for coming back here time and again to read my musings about it all. See you on the other side.

As much as I try and focus on volume and not short-term results I do still check the Cashier on a regular basis during my sessions and last night when I logged on I did seem to have a slightly higher balance than I remembered.Now considering I was remembering the balance I’d last viewed at 3am after many many smokes,I didn’t think much of it.

I’ve just checked my emails and found one from Stars support letting me know I’ve been refunded $67 as I played against other players who were breaking Stars terms and conditions.The nature of the rule breaking is confidential ( I’d love to know!) but well done to Stars for picking up on it and issuing refunds.

Now all they need to do is create a $15 6 max hyper turbo level as the jump from $7 to $30 is too much.

Stats for Dec 1st-31st: Pokerstars $4736 ( + $749) Party $604 ( =)
Volume = 1127 virtual online gamess.( mostly 6 max hyper turbos) Total Profit $749
Total Bankroll $5340.

Managed to come close to my record last night,playing 106 sngs over the course of the evening.It gets a bit fast and furious but I can now 8 table the 6 max hyper free online games ( in one stack) and if I can 8 table those online games I reckon I could probably play 10-12 full ring turbo’s/Mtts.

I’m only 246 vpps from Goldstar status this month and with an exciting Hogmanay at the tables planned I may just achieve that by midnight.

Thanks to everyone who has read my witterings over the last 12 months and especially to those who take the time to comment.This blog may not be read by millions but with an aging population and the number one spot on google for the phrase “senile old bassa” the only way is up.

Enjoy your Hogmanay and may you have a healthy and happy 2012 with plenty of run good at the tables.Back soon….

Over Christmas I was thinking about if I should make some goals for my poker for 2012.
The main problem I have is my day job means that scheduling things is hard as I never know where I will have to go from one day to the next.

However that being said I intend to try to make silver as many months as I can. Currently I intend to play 18man SNG’s but as I am really only starting I will still be playing the micro stakes $1.50 & $3.50

I currently have a little over $700 in my PokerStars account so I do have a little over 200buyins for the $3.50 virtual online gamess, and with bonus’s and a little run good (Hopefully) I can grow it, and hopefully maybe move up to the $7 virtual online gamess later in the year. This would mean it would be easier to make Silver monthly and then I could look at getting Gold with the $7 online games.

So back to making Silver, I intend to try and play at least 30free online games every other day 15 $1.50 and 15 $3.50 10 tabling and building it to 16 if I am happy with my play. This also means that I will need to play about 18 days of the month, which is one thing I may struggle with but am going to give it a try.

Going to go over some Hand Histories this afternoon and try and get my head into it.
Also not to drink too much tonight, with the New Year’s celebrations. Good luck me.

2011 REVIEW (possibly tl;mrib (might read if bored))

By admin on Saturday, December 31, 2011

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Hmmm how long could this post be? I really don’t know as I begin. I might end up rambling on and on but then I think I’m going to stop myself, because tbh I could reveal a few tips n tricks for SnG’s which I’d rather keep to myself in all honesty (unlike bigbluff who wants to educate the planet!) Hi bbz

The year started out fucking terribly for me. Actually I’m quite paranoid about the start of 2012 in light of that. I know the RNG is gonig to switch massively for everyone and as I’ve had a very decent final quarter, it feels fitting that my doomswitch is going to be activated bang on midnight on Jan 1st!!!

Well I say it started out bad, initially the first couple weeks was good. Anyone on my fb might remember this picture after 2 weeks LOL!!!!

I was going for top STTer on FTP as I was now getting 27% rb in the form of their new cashback scheme for non rb qualifiers. Here’s those first 2 weeks.

12% across the board which broken down saw a nice start to the $24′s with 10% over a few hundred with EV bang on course. Seemed about right to me.

But then disaster struck!

ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY!!! fucking buy-ins down ( EV line didn’t even look all that great but I guarantee that was down to the ridiculous amount of coolers I was being served up. Can’t stress how many shoves were met with top ends of ranges on a permanent basis. I do feel confident today though that playing the way I do now would have seen a slight decrease in that bad swing, but probably not a whole lot.

Thankfully the losses were relieved by the RNG being a tad kinder in 45′s and 90′s.

It’s all mostly a bit LOL-SAMPLE but regardless of that, 170bis in STT’s over 1500 fre online games is pretty darn brutal and affected me in a huge way mentally.

Over the same period leading up to BF I did ok on Stars. Again all mostly no voluming at all though.

In June I decided to dump the 9 mans for a bit as all the latest American communist developments meant that volume dropped in them hugely, so I noticed 6-mans were loading up real fast and gave them a go. This was where my decision to meta it up big time came about. Player stats in 6m were always bound to be alot laggier and indeed it proved to make for some pretty spewy stuff! But I like to think it paid off. Over 800 virtual games in June I ran at 13%, although red line was 7% :-/

In July I hit a bad patch in them and decided to give up and move onto 18-mans. Now I already had 18m experience up until then in the shape of 1300 free online games at 16% ROI. They were virtual online gamess I would play randomly on and off. I remember always enjoying them more than any other format but never had really made them my main free online game through basically the fear of so many regs. But this was to prove to be a very misguided fear! Firstly, they really weren’t as reg infested as the forums always liked to make out. Sure you saw more regs in one virtual game than you did in a 9m but there was double the opponents! $15-9′s got to the stage where at least 6-7 regs of varying skills were guaranteed. Well that’s 60-80% of the field. 18′s might have had 9 or 10 regs in but that was only 50% of the field and most of the time it was more like 6-8 regs anyway!! Gigantic difference.

So anyway from this point on things looked up. I studied ICM spots 3-5 handed alot more closely and realised some things that I hadn’t really realised even whilst achieving 16% of 1.3k sample! Did this mean I was going to get even better in them???

Apparently so. My $15 ROI definitely upped, but unfortunately due to a small bad patch from the end of Septmeber until the last week in October (albeit only a 550 sample) the ROI was brought to an average of 13%. Which is still almost top of the league BUT…exclude that little bad patch and I was 15% in the 1.2k virtual games up to it, and have been 19% in the 1.5k fre online games after it. Again not big samples but enough to give you an idea on things.

As for the $30′s, well…. 23% ROI over 550 so a nice start to them.

Overall I made enough to live over the year on average, but once again volume was very poor. What I am very proud of is the year’s graph ending in a peak! Not sure how many grinders can say that right now!

2012 HAS to be the one! There’s no excuses to be made. I feel this year is pretty much online poker’s last year in business before everyone is royally screwed over with so many player pools being segregated in disgusting communist fashion, with no fucker being able to do anything about it. I mean how there can’t be multiple people in power that don’t have some understanding and passion towards the free online game and realisation that it’s affecting people’s livelihoods is totally beyond me!!

So 2012 is probably my last chance to make a go at $100k year and then hopefully have a roll that enables me to switch to what is likely going to have to be much higher stakes (and probably cash fre online games) due to volume being unattainable and if not that then possibly becoming a live pro! Which I’m far too lazy for!!

GL FOR 2012 GUUIIIIIIIIIZE!!!!

Quick Review of 2011

By admin on Saturday, December 31, 2011

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It was always going to be a better year than 2010 – simply because my dear Father passed away that year.

2011 was a great year all in all. It was still tremendously tough getting used to life without Dad, but some great stuff happened. Most notably releasing The Mental Game of Poker.

Talk about running bad, we released it on April 15 – what became better known as Black Friday, the darkest day in the history of online poker and without doubt the worst day in history to release a poker book.

As a result, we set our original lofty sales goal much lower for the year. I am pleased to say, all things considered, sales have been good. We beat our 18 month target in 7 months, and had our biggest selling month this month (Christmas, plus an unexpected surge on Xmas day from everyone who got a kindle as their big pressie).

More importantly, the reviews have been amazing. To hear that it has been a life changer for some is certainly more rewarding than anything else I have felt in my career and I would like to sincerely thank everyone who bought it, and in particular those guys who chose to discuss it on poker forums, twitter, and the like.

There was a ton of material Jared & I did not use, because the book was getting too big, so we will be working on turning that into something significant in 2012.

2011 also saw me move from PokerNews.com to PokerStrategy.com. I loved it at PokerNews, so it wasn’t an easy move, but PokerStrategy are a big exciting company and it has been a great experience so far, and I look forward to helping them become the number 1 news source in poker in 2012 (I already think we are, but I would).

On paper 2012 is going to be awesome. The missus and I are off to Paris next month, we are getting married in New York in May, and going to the Olympics in June. Jared & I are working on ‘Mental Game of Poker Project 2′ and if that doesn’t become a book (It might be a website for example) I want to have my second book finished in 2012 (Working on a couple of ideas at the moment but nothing concrete).

I don’t set resolutions as such, but I do have a ‘weight loss bet’ starting tomorrow. I know 100% that these things are destined to fail, but in my case it is purely a short term thing, as I want to look good in my wedding photos. I am very content with the idea of putting the weight back on immediately after I get married (And America is a great place to do that) – more details on that tomorrow.

Will I blog more in 2012? Not sure, I am always hot and cold with blogging, and ironically blog less when the interesting stuff is happening, but I will try.

Happy new year all.

300,000 VPPs

By admin on Saturday, December 31, 2011

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A tough grind in December comes to an end..!!

2011:

I Am Nightingale

By admin on Saturday, December 31, 2011

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Yes…I’m playing Skyrim! And after having finished both the Dark Brotherhood (Listener Rank Assassin) and College of Winterhold (Arch-Mage) quest lines, I am about to begin the ceremony to become an Agent of Nocturnal. Not long now before I am the new Guild Master of Thieves! Ahhhhh, it seems like it was just yesterday that I was running around Cyrodiil as the Grey Fox…those were the days….