Online Home Games

Date: Sat, Jan 15, 2011

PokerStars has a new "Home Game" feature that might be pretty cool. It looks like you basically set up your own private poker league on their site. It supports Real and Play money games.

This might be just what my poker group needs since we've only had two of our supposedly monthly poker games in the last two years. If we don't have to leave the house or really plan anything then maybe we can get more than seven people to show up.

They also have some sort of promotion where leagues, or league founders can win a prize to play with Danial Negreanu and other Poker Stars pros in Macau, Buenos Aires, Vancouver or EPT Snowfest at the Alpine Palace in Austria.

More details can be found here: Poker Stars Home Game.

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Majority Eats!

Date: Mon, Dec 13, 2010

A few years ago some coworkers and I started a website. Since then as many as nine different people spent as much as three hours a day, one day a week, two sometimes even three weeks a month to bring you Majority Eats.

What is Majority Eats you ask? Well, if you’re anything like me, you work in some sort of office type setting where on any given day a group of you will go out to lunch together. If your office mates are anything like mine, the first five to ten minutes of said lunch break are spent debating about where to go. Well argue no longer. Majority Eats solves that problem. It also solves the problem of where to go to watch the game, what bars to hit on Friday night, and where to go for girl’s night out, or anything else that involves deciding on where to eat.

To use the site, all you have to do is register, create a group (and you can create multiple groups for different groups of friends) and invite your group members. Then you can use the google maps search we have built in to find your restaurants and start voting. By default a daily Lunch event will automatically be created for you, but you can also add future events and set a time when the polls close. You can also opt to get notifications when a new event is scheduled for a vote, or when the voting period is almost over.

Let democracy prevail and end your lunchtime arguments once and for all.
We are now live, so sign up, invite your coworkers, try it out and let us know what you think. Also keep your fingers crossed that our potentially tens of new visitors don’t crash the server. Yes tens. I’m pretty sure that’s all we can handle.

Even if you don’t use the site, you would help us out if you at least visited and clicked the Like button for it.
http://www.majorityeats.com

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Sen Reid to Introduce Online Poker Legalization Bill?

Date: Fri, Dec 3, 2010

There's a story on the Wall Street Journal about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) potentially introducing a bill that would legalize online poker. Read the story for more details.


Some notes and thoughts:

I don't foresee this passing anytime soon. They are currently in a lame duck session of congress, with republicans to control the house shortly and republicans in the senate digging in their heels in regards to passing any legislation, let alone something that they've been against for so long.

Its interesting that the Nevada casinos seem to be behind this. I was under the impression that they were against online gambling and felt it might dilute their brand. Why fly all the way to Vegas when you can gamble from the comfort of your living room? (Because Vegas is awesome, that's why.)

The article mentions that there may be a rider that only established casinos (B & M I assume) to operate online for the first two years. The cynic in me says this is because those casinos helped him survive a close election a month ago and this is payback. Although since these casinos don't already have poker software I would think they might struggle to compete with existing sites like FullTilt and PokerStars.

I wonder if Harrahs or some other casino would buy or partner with an existing site to get their player base? FullTilt poker brought to you by Harrahs, or MGM Online Poker powered by PokerStars? I wonder how much money it would take for the existing sites to make that deal. If the commissions I earn on the few referrals I've made are any indication, those site's aren't exactly in need of a lot of cash. Speaking of which, have you tried FullTilt or PokerStars recently? You should. You should also use bonus code POKERWORDS or click on the links above.

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Vegas Baby

Date: Tue, Sep 21, 2010

So, I got back from Las Vegas a few days ago. Just it time for my semi-annual blog post.

First off, let me say that Sports Betting sucks. It makes games that I would normally enjoy stressful because not only does my team need to win, they have to do it by +X points. I put a few wagers down on college games. I not big into college football, but I was leaving Sunday before the NFL games finish so it would have to do.

I $100 on my Illini -7 vs Northern Ill. Northern Ill is decent for a directional school, the Illini are usually in the bottom of the Big 10, but this was a game they should have easily won by more than 7. They won by 6 after giving up a field goal in the last minute of the game. So rather than being happy because Illinois gets a rare win, I'm pissed because I'm out $100.

I then put $40 on Michigan State -3.5 over Notre Dame because fuck Notre Dame. Of coarse MSU only wins by 3, so again I'm happy they lost, but pissed because I'm out more cash. Finally sticking with my Big 10, I took Iowa over Arizona in a pickem. I thought Iowa was supposed to be in the national championship conversation so they should at least be able to beat Arizona, even on the road. Yeah, Not so much. I also tried a three team parlay with Illinois, Nebraska and Iowa. Nebraska is the only team that held up its end of the bargain. I knew I should have bet on them too.

Ok enough bitching. On to the good stuff. Poker.


I actually played some poker for the first time in months. Friday afternoon I tried out Caesar's $70 NL Holdem tournament. About 50-60 people played, I don't remember exactly. I ended up busting out around 25-30, but I had blast. I didn't realize how much I miss playing cards.

The people in the tournament were not good. It was frustrating that I didn't do very well. I started off the tournament being loose and aggressive and stealing a lot of pots that no seemed all that interested in. There weren't any players at my table that I was scared of, just a lot of loose passive calling stations.

I got into trouble with a K7 or K something and a weak kicker. I paired the king on the flop, but there were two hearts on the board. A little worried about the flush draw I tried to chase people out, but got one caller. A third heart came on the turn and again he called my bet. We checked down the river and he had a king with a better kicker.

Shortly after that, I had pocket 7s and one caller. The turn paired the board with a king. The river paired the board with a 9 and counterfeited my hand, forcing me to fold to his weak bet.

Shortly thereafter I was in all-in or nothing mode. I hung on for a while, picking up a blind here and there, but ultimately got caught and that was that. Like I said I had blast playing, but I was still pretty frustrated with the result. I felt like if I had played a little tighter and smarter I could have easily won that thing. So I decided to try again Saturday.

The Saturday noon tourney cost a little more at $85, but you got $T7500 chips to start instead of $3500 as the day before.

I was intentionally going to play this tourney a lot tighter than the day before, figuring that with the extra chips I could afford to wait for a big hand to take advantage of. No need to put my self at risk unnecessarily. The cards and the people at my table helped out with this strategy quite a bit.

For almost the entire tournament, no matter which table I was moved to there was a loose aggressive player or sometimes two with a big chip stack immediately to my left. For most of the tournament I was somewhat afraid to raise pre-flop because I expected a call and didn't want to have to play for a big pot without a premium hand. Also most of the players in this tournament seemed to be better than those who played the previous day.

Did I also mention that my cards were terrible? The ante's kicked after the first break at level 4. Normally I would have loved that because I think I'm usually better than the average player at stealing pots pre-flop. Most players don't take the ante's into account so stealing a pot becomes much more profitable.

I couldn't get a hand. I would decide that I need to steal a pot pre-flop and then not be able to pull the trigger because I would have a terrible hand, or someone else would put in a big bet.

I spent most of the tourney more or less within a big blind of whatever the average chip count was at the time. There was a big tourney board that listed the blinds, and players remaining, and average chip stack and I was always right there in the middle. I would fold for a few orbits, then steal some blinds, then fold for an orbit, then win a pot with a continuation bet on the flop. I won just enough to keep me in the game, but nothing more.

When we got down to three tables, I think my luck started to change. I got a pair of aces and had a short stack go all-in ahead of me. That gave me enough chips to move into more of a bully role, and I was finally able to start playing more aggressively and push people off hands.


The problem with a noon tournament is that I didn't really eat before hand. I had a chocolate chip muffin and a coffee for breakfast, but that was it. I don't think the Red Bulls and Vodkas I was drinking were very nutritious. There was a nearby restaurant that catered to the poker room, but I didn't really want to be eating while playing. During the third break I went to looking for one of the convenience store like shops to grab a candy bar or something, but I got a little lost in the casino and by the time I found the place the break was almost up. So I had to wait until the next break. By the end of the tournament, in addition to my small breakfast I had only eaten a nutra grain bar and a snickers bar and about 10 Red Bull and Vodkas. The diet of true athlete.

When we combined down to two tables, I again got moved immediately in front of the two biggest stacks at the table. The guy to my left seemed like a pretty solid player from the few hands I had played against him at an earlier table. The girl to his left was the chip leader.


I got a second pair of aces, and again had someone go all-in ahead of me, moving me into second place at the table, with most people being pretty short stacked. I got a little reckless and called an all in with KT or something weak like that. I had tried to steal a medium/small stack's blind and when he pushed back I assumed it was only out of desperation. He had AT, and knocked me back to the pack. I was again at the point where one wrong move would knock me out of the tournament, and after almost four hours of play, having nothing to show would have sucked. That thought was certainly in the back of my mind.

I was almost upset when I got AQ on the button. I was missing the crappy hands I got in the beginning of the tourney that were easy folds. I needed some other people to go out to get my confidence back up a bit. I was not to thrilled when the guy to my right called, and especially worried when I completely missed the flop. Alls well that ends well though as I made a large continuation bet and after thinking for way too long he folds.

I'm back into a comfortable chip count.

A few hands later I get wired eights and make a standard raise. The guy to my right calls, saying it was the last time I would he was going to do that, or something to that effect. The flop is glorious. K84. I make a small bet and he pushes all in. I insta-call and suddenly I'm the chip leader at the table.

Things were pretty undramatic from my point of view from that point on. We condensed down to the final table and two people went out rather quickly to the tournament chip leader. When I got to the table he probably had double my chips. after knocking out two people I think he had more chips than the rest of us combined. He was also looking and acting very stressed and brain fried.

The tourney paid seven, so when we got down to 8 someone suggested that we all chip in $5 for the bubble so they don't leave completely empty handed. It ended up being the girl who was two to my left from the previous table. Her formerly mosterous chips stack had slowly dwindled down to nothing. I don't know how she got that many chips to start with, but she played too tight and folded to easily to stick around at those blind/ante levels.

So I made the money, and was in pretty good shape to finish near the top.

And then over the coarse of like seven hands, the chip leader eliminated four more players. And just like that we were down to three. I didn't need to worry about the short stacks sticking around and doubling each other up. They kept pushing in and he kept getting cards.

He says the third place guy and I should chop and just let him win. Its not fair how good cards have been. I think was being honest, not trying to be a d-bag. I told him I'd just let him eliminate the other guy and then take my chances heads up.

One or two hands into three way action I get QQ and the short stack pushes all in with a AJ or AT, a high ace. Fortunately the big stack folds, and the other guy doesn't hit his ace, so were heads up.

I jokingly ask if he wants a 50/50 chop. He has more physical chips than I do, and his are the orange $T10,000 chips while mine are mostly the blue $T5000 or white $T1000. For some reason, he agrees, as long as he gets an extra $50. 2nd paid a little less than $800 and first a little more that $1300. a 50/50 split came down to $1080 each, so we just rounded down so I got $1000 and he got the rest. It was about $50 less than we had agreed to, but it made the math easy and I still felt like I was getting a steal. I'd like to think that I could have taken him heads up, but for an extra $250 or so, why take the risk. Plus its nice to say I won a grand playing poker.

I think I actually left Vegas with more cash than I started with, even taking into account all of the fancy restaurants that we went to, and the Cirque-du-Solei show we say. All in all. Good trip.

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WSOP Fantasy Poker

Date: Tue, May 11, 2010

The World Series of Poker is just around the corner and FullTilt is doing their Fantasy Poker League again. I think I've missed it for the past year or two, but once upon a time when I did participate I remember it being fun. I also won a free Hat and entry into some free rolls.

The way it works is you pick five A, B and C players. You get points equal to the dollars won by your players. Actually you get 3x for A players 2x for B and 3x for C. Whoever wins the most fantasy points for an event wins prizes and/or free roll entries. Plus there is usually a bigger prize for people who accumulate the most points for the entire WSOP season.

Its free so what do you have to lose?

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Full Tilt Bonus

Date: Sun, Feb 28, 2010

At the risk of turning this blog into a permanent FullTilt ad, I just wanted to let you know that if you have a FullTilt account there should be a $50 bonus ready for you to claim. Just log on and go to the requests menu to claim your bonus. I think you have until March 15th to claim it and then a month after you claim it to earn it. It gets released in $5 increments. You relace $.06 per Full Tilt Point earned. It took me about 350 hands at $.25/.50 to work off $5, but those of you that play at higher stakes, or during happy hour should have no problem.

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Biggest Pot Ever

Date: Sat, Feb 6, 2010

I won my biggest pot ever this morning. Keep in mind, that's not really saying much since I almost never play ring games, especially no limit, and when I do, I play at about as low stakes as I can find. Still, its nice to hit something big every once in a while.

I'm still loving Rush Poker. Either I'm getting extremely lucky, or its easy money, or some combination of those two. I moved up from my $.5/.10 all the way to $.25/.50, where the big money is.

The caliber of play wasn't noticeably different. I did find that I was recognizing a few of the players this time around, those with odd names, or huge chip stakes, so I guess you could theoretically try to build an image, but it seems like it wouldn't be worth the effort.

I did notice couple of potential leaks in my game. I checked the best hand on the river on multiple occasions. It makes me nervous when my pre-flop raise gets called, and I get check called to the river. Especially when I only have a mediocre hand. I'm content to check it down at that point instead of risking a check-raise that I would potentially struggle to call. On the flip side, there were a number of hands where my opponent raised me ridiculous amounts when I had pretty good hands, but not good enough to risk calling that type of raise. I don't know what I can do to prevent that situation, other than firing back every once in a while. The problem is, firing back doesn't help because next hand no one will know me, and they may actually have the hand they are representing.

So I know hand replays are probably getting old, but like I said at the top, this was my biggest pot ever so I'm going to go back through it. Feel free to skip ahead.

In the small blind I get dealt Aces, and better yet the player under the gun raises to 3.5BB That means I can just call and disguise my hand a bit. Then the guy one from the button calls. I'm tempted to slow play here, but decide to bump it up to $4.00 hoping one of them will fold. Slow playing aces with multiple players is a great way to get them cracked. In retrospect, I probably should have gone higher if I wanted them to fold, but $4.00 seems like a lot preflop in a 50 cent game. At the very least they should be on the defensive. Both call.

The flop is Qs 2s 8c. Not bad. I could do without the flush draw, but I'm almost certainly ahead at this point. A set of queens is a concern, but I don't think I have to worry about it. I be $8, 2/3 of the pot and both call. Curious. That $8 is more than most hands have in a pot at showdown.

The turn is 7s. Potentially a very bad card. If one of them just hit a flush I'm in trouble. I know if I check here I'm going to have to fold to any bet so I bet $15, less than half the pot, but I large amount for these stakes. UTG calls, and the guy to my right puts his last $6 in. There's now about $72 in the pot. I'm worried about the flush, but I'm still on a nut flush draw and I don't buy that either of them have it. knowing neither of them have the ace makes it hard for me to believe that they've been chasing a flush.

The river is a glorious 6s giving me the nut flush. I bet $25 which puts UTG all in. He calls and the $115.95 pot gets pushed my way. UTG has AQo, no spades so he chased that hand the whole way with top pair top kicker against two players, one of whom was betting fairly aggressively. The guy to my right had KJs, so I ended up getting lucky on the river. I wonder if he had more chips if he would have raised me on the turn. I also wonder what it would have taken to get him out of the hand on the flop.

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Rush Poker Part 3

Date: Mon, Jan 25, 2010

Yes three posts in a row about the same thing. But I probably didn't even have three posts all of last year, so you should take what you can get.

I'm really enjoying rush poker. I hope whoever came up with this at FullTilt got a promotion because its genius and they stand to make a ton of money on it.

I played 150 hands at the micro limits in about half an hour and doubled my buy in. Some more notes:

• Stealing blinds is easy. People seem much less willing to defend their blinds when a better hand is milliseconds away. (small sample size, super low stakes, yadda yadda)
• I always make sure that my preflop raise is the same amount, whether I have aces, or 9Ts, or I'm on a bluff so as not to give any indication of what I have. There's not really a point in doing that in Rush because no one will remember what your normal raise is. Maybe try to squeeze in a bigger raise with your super premium hands.
• One of my weaknesses as a player is that I don't pay attention to my opponents as much as I should. I'll notice certain players, but in general I get distracted by other things than hands I'm not in. The Rush poker format neutralizes that by randomizing your opponent, and I think my skills against a random opponent are better than average.
  
• I'm playing poker somewhat regularly again. Woot. Although Mass Effect 2 comes out tomorrow so this might be a short lived journey back into the poker world.
  

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Rush Poker Part 2

Date: Sat, Jan 23, 2010

Hey wow two posts in one day! See the post below for an explanation of rush poker.


So I tried a little rush poker. I played less than half an hour at the $0.05/$0.10 table. Big money I know. In that time I played 110 hands playing a single table. Its intense. You fold and split seconds later the action is back on you. Here's some observations from my first exposure.

• Its fast. The average hands per hour at a rush table was around 275 compared to 80 at a normal table.
  
• I couldn't figure out how to leave a table because it won't let you stand up while you're in a hand, and as soon as you fold you're in another hand. (check the sit out next hand box, then stand up)
  
• You can't build an image. There's not really a point in trying to build an image, or play sneaky or opposite what you were playing because you're not going to be at the table with these people next hand.
• Play is tighter. I'm used to micro limit tables having more people see the flop than not. If you can exchange your rags, or even your somewhat playable cards for a new hand immediately why waste time with garbage?
• Its fast.
  
• Sometimes I miss watching a hand to completion. You know those hands where you kind of want to stay in, but know you shouldn't? And you fold, but want to stick around to see what the other players have? You can't. As soon as you fold you're off to a new hand and you don't get to see what happened in the one you just left. I think you can go back and look at the hand history, but by the time you do three or four more hands have completed and you don't remember what you were looking for anyway.
• Its fast. Did I mention its fast? There were some pros playing at the $0.50/$1 tables four tabling. I have no idea how they can do that.
  
• If I remember correctly, they have an iron man promotion that rewards you for getting X number of FullTilt points each day in a month. It wouldn't take long to get there playing Rush style.
• I actually made a profit. I more than doubled my $10 investment. That in itself is a miracle as I am not a good cash game player. I think the tighter play, both for me and my opponents contributed to that. Plus the small sample size and quitting while I'm ahead thing.
  

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Rush Poker

Date: Sat, Jan 23, 2010

FullTilt poker has invented a new poker format. They're calling it Rush Poker.

The concept is this: Everyone joins into a big rush poker game. This is a multi-table ring game. As soon as you fold a hand you are taken to a brand new table and dealt a new hand. So if you know you are going to fold pre-flop you don't have to wait until the showdown to play another hand. Its the ADD player's dream come true.

In case you are wondering, they've put safeguards in so that even though you are at a new table because you hit the fold checkbox, no one at your original table knows it until the action reaches you. They also made it so you can't show up at a new table with any of the same players that are still in the hand of your old table, and if you are multi-tabling, you can't end up at a table with yourself. You can see all of the details on the FAQ page.

This sounds like a great idea from FullTilt's perspective. I would guess that players participating in this type of poker are going to play 5 times as many hands in the same amount of time, resulting in that much more rake for the site.

Its also good for the short attention span players that get bored waiting for hands that they aren't in to finish. The only problem I see is that it will almost be impossible to get a read on any of the players since you only see them for a hand, and often times wont' see the completion of that hand. Honestly, that probably won't matter much for me, because I tend to get bored and do other things like surf the interwebs instead of watching the hand and trying to evaluate my opponents. That being said, there are some players whose style I will make note of and adjust my play accordingly.

The other thing that might be nice is that it should cut down on the trash talking at the table. The asshole who has to insult everyone at the table for their inferior play isn't going to have an audience for more that a minute.

All in all, its an interesting concept. I don't really play much online anymore especially cash games, but if I happen to play in the near future, I think I'll check this out.

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PokerStars Blogger Tournament

Date: Thu, Jan 14, 2010

These are always fun. I wasn't able to make any of the tourney's last year, but a year or two ago I came in 11th place and won an xbox. I think I prefer winning shwag instead of tourney entries for these types of things but, whatever. I'm not going to complain about a freeroll entry.

If any PokerStars rep is looking for some free advertising, I'd be more than happy to wear a pokerstars shirt that they send me to my next home game. Or PokerStars chips, or a Plasma Pokerstars TV. Free stuff for me, cheap advertising for them. Sounds like a win-win. I'm just sayin'.

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Kyl Still Wants the UIGEA enforced

Date: Tue, Jan 12, 2010

There's an article over at salon.com about AZ senator Jon Kyl who is holding up confirmation of some treasury depart nominees because he's made the enforcement of the UIGEA has been delayed six months. According to the article that six month delay is intended to give Barney Frank time to come up with a bill legalizing online gambling.

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New Year's Poker

Date: Mon, Jan 4, 2010

The new year began with an almost unheard of event. After almost a year off, our regular “monthly” poker group actually got together and played some poker. To make things a little more special ,we even upped the buy-in from our usual $25/game to $100. We also increased our starting chip stack from $T700ish to $T1500.

We had 13 entrants, and I came in fifth, or maybe fourth. We both busted out on the same hand and I think the other guy had a few more chips than me.

Looking back at my play, I think I played fairly well that evening, with a few exceptions that I’ll get to later. I think luck just wasn’t on my side this evening. With getting into too many bad beat details I’ll just say that I had people dominated and all in on numerous occasions and they would hit their three outer to stay alive and seriously damage my chip stack. I lost an AJ vs KQ preflop all-in when my opponent flopped a straight. I lost AQ vs A9 all-in pre-flop when my opponent rivered a straight, plus a few other smaller hands that I don’t remember the exact details. I say this not to bitch about losing but as evidence that I think I was playing fairly well.


A big moment for me came relatively early on in the tourney. I had recently lost a fairly large pot and was failrly short-stacked. I had A9 under the gun and put in my standard 3xBB raise. Everyone folded except the BB who called. BB is a very loose aggressive player, and not someone who I would have wanted to call me. My plan is to go all in no matter what is on the flop. Its really my only choice at the time. Flop is rags, 236 or something similar. BB goes all in. Crap. He stole my move. He knew that was going to be my move so he had to beat me to the punch. I think normally I lay this down. I don’t think he has anything, but I can see him playing any hand in this scenario, especially from the big blind. He could K6, or A2 or a low pocket pair, and just gotten lucky. Or he too could have missed the flop completely. He could even think he’s bluffing yet still be ahead of me. Ultimately I figured I had to be better than him. If he has something he would have almost certainly checked, assuming that since I raised pre-flop I would bet here. If he has something he risks scaring me away with is all-in bet. So I do make the call, he does have nothing and I go on to win a big pot and coast into the final table.

There was a flaw in our tourney structure. We started with 13 players at two tables, and combined when we got down to 9. I don’t know if people were playing tighter than normal due to the increased buy in amount, or if the larger chip stacks played a roll, but no one went out until the fifth or sixth blind level. By that point the blinds were starting to become painful for everyone.

Once we combined the blinds were so high that any hand you played would almost certainly put you all in. That combined with the fact that the new bigger table meant you could see more hands for free, made everyone tighten up. No one hardly played more than a hand or two each orbit. No one saw a flop. It was real slow, and real boring. I don’t know if it was a fluke or if we just picked a bad chip amount/blind schedule but there was no action on the final table.

This is where I didn’t play so well. I had a lot of decent, but not great hands which I would continually fold. I was afraid that by raising I would run into a bigger hand and be pot committed into losing all my chips. Better to wait for a premium hand while the blinds squeezed out the lower players. The problem was the players with low stacks kept doubling up when they were forced all in, and eventually I was near the short stack list. Instead of taking advantage of the tight play I fell into the same trap as everyone else. When I finally did push, I ran into two hands both better than mine and it was over. The worst part is that had I folded that hand, then blinds would have forced out one of the other remaining players and I would have come in at least third and won some money.

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Largest Online Tournament Ever

Date: Tue, Jul 21, 2009

As part of their five year anniversary Fulltilt was trying to set the Guinness World Record for biggest online poker tournament. The tournament was Sunday the 19th. I got the email announcing it today, on Tuesday the 21st. I'm going to go ahead and guess they didn't break the record, which is too bad, because I probably would have tried to play if it was next week, or say in a month or so, and I actually had time to plan for it. I wouldn't mind participating in a record setting event. Its not like they didn't know they were going to do this months ago. How hard would it have been to send an email blast a week or two ahead of time?

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