Brags. Beats. Battlestar Galactica.

First 200/400 HU session

Schweig — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:14:05 +0000

Went pretty well.

Crushing (sick graph)

Schweig — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 04:40:56 +0000

I've been playing a lot of TD this month, taking on the regs and basically anyone who will play me, and it's pretty much felt like printing money. I've had only 2 or 3 losing sessions out of about 30 and they've been under 20BBs, while most of my winning sessions have been like 50BB+.

It's hard to know if this is a heater or that I have that much of an edge on the regs I'm playing. They just do completely wtf things a lot of the time, get frustrated and make tilt mistakes much more than me that I'm pretty confident I'm a winner, but this may just be a lot of run good too. Anyway here's the graph since around mid-October when I returned from my break: http://i.imgur.com/ULSBK.png

As you can see, it's pretty much been a variance free ride. I look around and see other poker players talking about their swings, posting about how they're struggling, and it is clear to me there are very few poker players who are in as fortunate a position as I am.

It almost feels like cheating when instead of getting used to having constant frequent swings, I pretty much just stopped having them. That's really how TD has been: except for the times I was outmatched by an opponent, I've had quite an easy ride upwards throughout the last year. My friend and I used to comment about how this must have been what the Partypoker days were like for NL way before we started playing.

Unfortunately, I can't advise you to drop everything and pick up TD, unless you also acquire a time machine and travel to around October last year when games were amazing (when FTP introduced TD). The games just aren't good enough at the moment to warrant it (sidenote: here's a post I wrote about the current state of TD games at mid-high stakes). There are just so few fish and a lot of ok regs that if you come into the game learning it you'll probably get beaten up a bit. What will be interesting though is what happens when FTP returns, though it could easily be dead due to all the shit that happened last few months.

My plan is basically to keep doing this and see if it continues, while dabbling a bit in other games to keep it interesting. I'm working towards finally moving out and buying a house. Even though I could have easily afforded to move out a year ago, my friends couldn't and I didn't want to live on my own or with strangers, and it got to the point where I just said, "fuck it, I'm just going to wait until I can buy a house outright."

Running like God

Schweig — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 05:02:39 +0000

This hand just exemplifies how well I've been running last couple weeks:

Poker Stars $5/$10 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 2 players - View hand 1513826
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN/SB: $1627.90
Hero (BB): $1673.50

Pre Flop: ($15.00) Hero is BB with 3 6 6 3
BTN/SB raises to $20, Hero calls $10

Flop: ($40.00) 5 7 5(2 players)
Hero bets $39.50, BTN/SB calls $39.50

Turn: ($119.00) 5(2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB bets $78.20, Hero calls $78.20

River: ($275.40) 4(2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB bets $250, Hero raises to $1024.90, BTN/SB calls $774.90

Final Pot: $2325.20
BTN/SB mucks 2 A 6 5
Hero shows 3 6 6 3 (a straight flush, Three to Seven)
Hero wins $2324.70
(Rake: $0.50)

I don't love the flop donk in hindsight due to my image so far this match, had shown bluffs a lot and if I get messed around with at all I don't like many turns besides 4c or 2 6s, maybe 3s and regular 4s, and a lot of cards lead to me taking a passive call-down guessing game line, like any flush card. Also, I don't really feel it's a great spot to barrel down when you get called on the flop because you may be barrelling into a 5 which is never folding, overpairs which are never folding for one bet and other shit. But whatever, I just decided to do it to mix it up.

Turn puts the 5 down making it a classic trips board WA/WB situation, so no real point in betting. Once I check it's a bit annoying but I feel c/c and then c/f river is probably the best line because I'm repping a range of fullhouses and I pretty much the bottom of it, and I think a lot of weak hands will stab the turn once and give up river.

Once I bink the miracle c/r-ing is clearly best (given I have the more bluffcatchery range and he has the "nuts or air" range). For bet sizing I just decided to jam pot hoping that my image so far would mean he feel he can't fold a huge hand - I mean I think he probably calls pot almost the same as 800, and seeing as this would be a really huge bluff (in terms of targeting hands which are really strong), pot size seems more appropriate.

In reality I'm probably not gonna bluff this spot like ever because his range is like Quads/77/AA and I don't expect people to fold fullhouses when I'm repping exactly an SF. It's a tough spot with quads for him, especially when me deciding to spaz a small % of the time will be large relative to actually having an SF because it's so unlikely (I have to peel the turn with precisely a hand like I have that has a fullhouse plus the SF draw), and he doesn't really know exactly how I'm thinking and only knows that I'm overall aggro. I can't really blame him for calling - if he had called 77 or AA I'd probably say that is bad because I can easily have a 5 myself when he has those.

Anyway, still running pretty hot, haven't had a losing day so far this month and already on my biggest ever month, $75k or so. Basically everything is working out for me when I need it to and I'm just not making many mistakes or tilting much.

Boomswitched (graph)

Schweig — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 06:59:42 +0000

My TD results since FTP went down. (And I thought it was all over.)

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/9885/tripledrawsincejuly.png

September + October

Schweig — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 07:34:43 +0000

The rest of September didn't go well. I went from 30k up at one point to 20k down in the space of few sessions.

In terms of PLO, I hit a few pretty bad sessions and totally lost confidence in the game as a whole, which is such an important factor to both playing and playing well.

I tested my mettle at Triple Draw vs one of the best players at the game and lost a bunch there too in only a couple matches. Although I spotted a lot of leaks in his game it was still incredibly tough to play, but I think that might have been me just running way below average in terms of making hands, but again, confidence takes a hit when you lose that much.

After my downswing I had something like $28k in my account, maybe $26k after a few more sessions where I lost a bit quickly and just gave up. Even though I have money behind (and money that's locked up in Full Tilt), I still felt low and found it tough to get motivated.

Several weeks went past without me playing at all; I've probably said this before but it's astounding how different you feel about poker depending on whether you're running good or not, even when you try not to/know you shouldn't. One day, in the middle of October, I felt compelled to make an effort and try to get some kind of game going, so loaded up a couple TD tables hoping to find some stray fish even though chances were unlikely. Unexpectedly, one of the tough regs decided to sit with me at 100/200 (not the same one from before, but again, one of the toughest TD players in the world) and we started playing.

Firstly, it's important to note that with about 130 big bets in my account, entering an aggressive match vs a tough player who had previously owned me in the past was a very bad idea, just because of crushing it would be to lose that entire amount. And I almost did. I went down straight away, and was within $1k of busting my PS account, but somehow I mounted a ridiculous comeback and got back to +4k. This felt pretty good, but was short-lived because I pretty quickly got to $20k down again, before again getting back to even. It was already 4 or 5 hours into the match that I went down $15-20k a third time, but then in the last few hours of the match I managed to gain momentum and end $16k up. By that point we had played something like 9 hours and it was 11am here, and it felt like a huge win to just end that ridiculous match up.

Again though, it was a stupid idea because I can imagine the flip side, where I did in fact bust my account and it could have easily sent me on life tilt several weeks, or even months, after. I got lucky I guess.

I didn't play much for the next week after that. The games were still deprived of fish, and even though I had regained some confidence, I still didn't really have enough in my account to take on a tough reg again (bad regs won't play me) and I saw a darker side to myself when my account was whittling down, a desperate side. Yesterday though, I decided to sit down for a while and see what happened and out of nowhere, a guy who had final tabled a WCOOP for $150k sat down vs me and proceeded to dump 2 $4k buyins in the space of 10 minutes. This almost never happens anymore. It used to happen all the time a few months ago and it really did feel like free money whenever it did, whenever someone with super weak fundamentals at TD plays me at HU.

Anyway, I thought the night was over with, but then a semi-reg sat with at my table and wanted to play me, despite previously saying he would never play me. I'm not really sure why he wanted to play me, but I agreed and again launched into a late-night 6 hour HU match. He went up $16k at first, like before, but then I went on one of the biggest heaters ever and managed to end the session $33k up or something, resulting in my biggest winning day to date.

So despite only playing a handful of days, I'm up over $60k in October. A few weeks ago I didn't think this could happen again, not with the state of the games and certainly not with my mindset, but that's just how poker is. The swings are crazy, monetarily and mentally. When you're losing, you imagine the worst and when you're winning, you think you're the best.

I was willing to settle though; I was willing to accept not playing again for several months, to book a decent win for the year, to be content with what I had accomplished, but that's not the right attitude.

I believe we are all capable of things we never imagined. I never thought I could make it this far, to play these stakes, to make the amount that I do, but I worked at it, and I got here. Don't ever settle for mediocrity, don't ever be content being less than your full potential. If you're trying to make it in the poker world, constantly strive for something greater than you have, constantly strive to be the best poker player you can be.

I see graphs of rakeback pros and low stakes grinders, playing millions of hands with low winrates, devoting thousands of hours just for a slightly better than average wage; they make a living but they've stagnated as poker players. I don't believe that these players have hit the ceiling - I think they've given up growing.

See, this is the kind of shit you come up with only when you're running well. Seriously though, if you're a poker player who's stuck in his development, grinding away without ever breaking through, do not fret. Simply ask yourself what is holding you back, whether it is a technical understanding or a mental game problem - I often see things that will have you believe that one or the other is the main factor in poker, but clearly both are very important and you should pinpoint in which parts you're strong at and in which parts you're weak at before you can start working on them.

Here's hoping that you all have a good last 2 months of 2011. Oh yeah, apologies for being less active on this blog, forums etc. but I assure you Poker Mode is back on.

TD infested by regs, time to PLO

Schweig — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 05:11:32 +0000

I posted a couple weeks ago about how TD was picking up more action and how it would be a sign of good times to come, but things haven't exactly turned out like that. I think either the action brought them here or they've just relocated to Canada, but a lot of regs have sprung up on the TD tables and it's killing the action a bit, especially in terms of HU. A few of the old good regs are back too, and often times there are 2, 3 or even 4 sitting at different tables across from 30/60 to 100/200 waiting for action, which makes it very hard for any games to really get started.

I've used this opportunity to shift focus back to PLO and I'm now playing 2/4 6max, attempting to move my way up the stakes the good old fashioned way (see previous posts my latest revelations about the game). Although I could try and make something happen at TD, by which I mean take on the better regs HU and create action that way, I feel the lower variance option is to just slum it out on the PLO tables while keeping an eye on TD. Plus, 6 max PLO has other benefits:

1) No waiting around for games. There's always enough volume there to just jump in if I have to, play a few hours and quit. I can get no action for several hours waiting at TD, and it varies between HU and short-handed, which I kinda hate now.

2) It's a game I haven't been developing enough this past year and it's good to be able to devote proper time to it. I feel if you play it occasionally/on the side of another game that is your main focus, it's really hard to establish that confidence that's really important in PLO, as well as get a good idea of the variance. Until now, I've been using "free money" at TD as a crutch and been lazy whenever I play PLO; I used to sloppily lose buyins spewing when I sat down because it was so easy to make all of it back plus a lot more in less than an hour at 100/200 TD. Now, I can be really motivated and take PLO more seriously.

3) It's a challenge. As a poker player I think it's really important to constantly test yourself in order to improve, and there is nothing harder than PLO in my mind - both in terms of the complexity of the game but also the variance that comes with it: PLO is basically the final level in poker, and the end boss is the biggest downswing you'll ever face.

So my game plan is to get in some volume in at 2/4 and then see about moving up. Something that I've noticed that is really important is table selection (and seat selection). I think when people go on big downswings they are often playing in a table that is actually really tough and it's not producing many situations where opponents make huge mistakes. A lot of people just see things in black/white and usually think "I'm a winner overall at this stake" means "I'm a winner in this current game right now" when it's far from the case, and I think they really underestimate how much difference it makes to have a couple fish who give you their stack (and about half of it in equity) once in a while in a spot regs won't. You really need those injections to have confidence otherwise it's super easy to get frustrated, start whining about never making a hand or when you do everyone folds (it's probably because you're in a game where you need to cooler someone to make money off them) and then start making huge mistakes yourself - then you're definitely not a winner.

So yeah, even though it's easier said than done (I know too well), really learn to quit, or at least move seats if there's a guy on your left who keeps owning you. I know it's really easy to think "I just want to beat him even though I'm out of position vs him and stuck several BI" and then stick it out to try and finally get revenge on him, but just realise that it's almost definitely not profitable to stay in that situation and even if it is, there are plenty of other more profitable situations in poker.

A new passive approach

Schweig — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 04:49:00 +0000

A few months ago I wrote a post about PLO being a game of pure aggression, thin value betting and getting people to fold their equity a lot of their time. Even though I somewhat still believe this to be true, I've very much started to rethink this stance with regards to 6-max; in fact, I've very much started playing the opposite way and have become way more passive. I think this is mostly reflected in flatting a lot more pre and hardly any 3-betting, as well c-betting less and not bloating big pots with average hands. Here is a breakdown of some reasons why I've started taking this approach:

1) There is little inherent value in 3-betting if opponents are somewhat tight, generally aggressive and showdown bound like they are at 2/4 PLO 6max. Sure, it works well vs tight-passive players at lower stakes, but the strategy of 3-betting and c-betting and having them c/f a lot of the time is much less ineffective if they are capable of c/raise shoving light with top pairs and stuff. Meanwhile, it's hard to actually make hands that have a huge amount of value vs these plays so they are somewhat correct to do so if you are 3-betting and c-betting too much, which ties into my next point:

2) Many opponents don't make that many big mistakes in low SPR pots, while a lot of them still make big mistakes in single-raised pots. The latter part is key and you get a much larger post-flop edge if there aren't a lot of automatic get it ins where there usually are when you bloat the pot.

3) Your flatting range includes a lot of stronger hands that you wouldn't have if you were an aggressive 3-bettor; because there are a ton of hands I want to flat to play in position, that I don't think have value in 3-betting, I need to have a lot of strong hands here.

4) The chance to backraise AA** when you flat is not that far off the chance that your opponent 4-bets and gets it in vs you, so you don't really lose that much in terms stacking AA pre (it may even be greater). It does really punish your opponents for squeezing you too light whenever you flat.

5) It's not like having AA** in a 3-bet pot is that great of a situation. Your 3-bet range crushes Axx boards, broadway boards and paired boards too much in terms of equity that them folding it a lot on them isn't exactly that good, and I think it gets pretty easy to define someone's favourite board textures when they 3-bet even if you do add in some low wraps. Meanwhile there are a ton of boards that your 3-bet range is mostly slightly ahead, slightly behind or way behind and as the aggressor you are forced to commit a lot more than you would like to just to find out, and then you're committed anyway because the stacks are shallow. Of course there are exceptions, where you've 3-bet a deceptive hand, or you flop the NFD as well, and your opponent "puts you on dry AA" and gets it in crushed, but I feel like these coolers don't happen enough in 3-bet pots.

6) A lot of my previous ideas about playing really aggressive were a result of a lot of HU PLO, but things are just completely different 6max. For once, people make ok-decent hands way more often that you have to be worried about them actually having it when you ship way more. People also do way less wild bluffs, and usually have some sort of equity, and it's easy to flop quite strong draws and getting it in with one pair a lot vs those draws isn't really the answer. In HU people are playing 50-100% ranges pre and that just doesn't make anywhere near as much stuff.

7) Most players aren't that used to playing against a somewhat passive opponent that can also hand-read well. They are used to either fish who play passive and bad, or regs who are mostly pretty aggro. I feel at the moment this leads to opponents misjudging my range a lot, value cutting themselves, not giving me respect for the nuts in certain spots where I have more than they think etc.

8) Linked to 1), but bet-folding is just not an option when people aren't check-raising only the nuts like they often do at 50 and 100 PLO. e.g. I've got dry aces but my opponent only check raises with top set, top two, massive draws which have me in bad shape, but at the same time it represents a tiny portion of his range so I can happily bet for value/information/protection and then easily fold the rare times he check-raises. Just doesn't work when they can do it with weaker draws, weaker made hands. At the same time, I don't want to bet/get-it-in with AA every time I get check-raised, not do I want to bet/call and create a massive pot with problaby a bit over a pot bet left, so it becomes ok to check it back on certain boards. Anyone reading this blog and still playing small stakes, I would still recommend bet/folding as your default play, but if you come up with a slightly unpredictable opponent, then start considering hands to not bloat the pot with.

9) Lower variance, which leads to a hell of a lot more confidence in your game which I feel is pretty key to this game.

10) Kinda related, but I think it's easier to play this way. Playing a very aggressive style is hard to get right, and do it too much you're soon in spew territory, and it's pretty easy to go over that edge in this game.

Anyway, I don't yet have a meaningful sample size since I started playing this way, but it does feel instinctively more comfortable. This could mean that this style is better, or that I'm fooled into thinking it's better because I am risk-averse and due to results from small sample sizes. Time will tell.

Where's the TD action coming from?

Schweig — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 23:06:44 +0000

There's been a lot more TD action going, especially at 50/100+, with a lot of new names and faces showing up. There were at least 10 different players wanting to play TD at those stakes earlier today, which is pretty great as for the last couple months or so there have been only a couple, and at one point a 5-handed game going at 200/400.

My heater is back on. I got back from Edinburgh a couple days ago and since then I won $40k, mostly at 100/200. I think before I left I lost about $25k within a few days playing various tough players and not running that great. It's incredible how different you feel when you're not running well, and it's something that I'm becoming better at handling since I read The Mental Game of Poker.

It's really easy to get caught up expecting a certain result, whether it's expecting to win after a heater or expecting to lose after a downswing, but obviously that's counter-productive. Easier said than done, but you pretty much have to go into every game with a blank slate in terms of expectations, or at least realise your results can often exceed them or completely disappoint. I constantly say that the human brain is wired so badly for poker in many ways and this is just one of them.

As a sidenote, I really have fallen out of love with HU PLO atm. I haven't played it for a while, as there's been sufficient action at TD and I just enjoy it/am confident at it way more. I really wanted to move on up through the PLO stakes but I'm not sure how much PLO volume I'll be able to get in if TD action keeps up.

Here's a funny (pointless) hand from the other day: http://www.handconverter.com/hands/1415880

July, Good lookin' TD graphs

Schweig — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 00:24:41 +0000

I was up $68k overall this month, which is my record month by quite a way. In the latter half, my HU PLO results stopped being amazing but I started getting some TD action again and ran super hot there. I did a Pokerhands import for the first time in several months and here's what my lifetime graphs look like now

Stars: http://i.imgur.com/7mn0B.png

FTP: http://i.imgur.com/sGoHD.png

In terms of PLO, I've been playing ok but it's definitely a lot lot harder than TD to play super well all the time. There are just so many different situations, so many variables, wildly different opponents, that you encounter a lot of spots you've never seen before and it's easy to make mistakes. I think the most important thing for HU PLO right now is working on my mental game; thanks to Tendler's book, I'm already starting to give more credit to the mental game in and out of sessions. I'm often asking myself "did I get frustrated there and if so, why did I get frustrated? How do I prevent myself from getting frustrated the next time?"

I'm going to Edinburgh in a week for two weeks so I won't be able to play much, but when I get back I'm going to be really driven and focused. As long as TD action doesn't dry up I'll do alright, but I really want to sharpen my HU PLO game so that I can move up through the ranks without trouble.

The Mental Game of Poker

Schweig — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 02:27:25 +0000

Just got Jared Tendler's book and it is incredible so far. He describes everything in such a concise way and it really makes me want to improve my mental game a lot more, not just in poker but everything.

It's crazy how important it is in poker - it could make a difference of thousands of dollars per year, or even more for some. I still think my mental game is probably better than most, though it's definitely helped a lot by the fact that in the past, I played TD which I rarely lose at so I haven't had to actually deal with tilt that much. So I've been lazy with it all recently; I've let a lot of mental game fish thought processes seep through, and my subconscious mind probably doesn't see a big incentive to correct itself. However, after playing some 400 and 600 HU PLO, leaks in my mental game began to become more obvious, as the swings are bigger and the players are better, and it has become clear to me that it really isn't good enough letting these leaks linger, especially if I want to move up through the ranks at PLO (a game that is much tougher than TD).

At the same time, I think about other poker players and I'm proud of the fact that I never tilt as hard as some. It is crazy (great?) how a lot of these players can keep playing with such huge tilt issues, and they never take the time to sort it out, but that's the nature of poker players in general. That's why PLO is always going to be amazing: the pure potential for massive tilt, because tilt comes from two main areas: lack of competency and frequent, large monetary swings. PLO happens to be the epitome of these two things.

So don't be like your average poker player. Be better than that, and do that by not only making your technical game as good as it can be but your mental game too.

Burnout, some HU TD action

Schweig — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:39:01 +0000

I got a bit burned out on poker, especially after playing 11 hours in one day, and also a bit because I had a few slightly losing/break-even days, so that feeling of invincibility wasn't a strong. It's shocking how important your mood is when it comes to poker, something a lot of players probably underestimate. If I'm in the wrong mood I end up not caring enough about playing really good poker and end up making far more mistakes than usual.
So I took a few days off. I think a lot of players, even great ones, don't take enough time off when they're running bad/playing bad. All they want to do is keep playing and force a win, and although they might get there, it's just better to recooperate and come back stronger.

In the last few days though there's been some TD action at 30/60 and 50/100, which is great these days as its quite rare, and also because I can always play TD no matter what mood I'm in, as long as it's not versus someone good. Sometimes HU TD really does feel like printing money; bad players just get crushed so badly in this game. A couple nights ago I was up till 9am (started at 4am because that's when action seems to come) playing a bad reg at 50/100, and took 11k off him, and I don't think he had an upswing bigger than 2k at any point in the match. Of course, he was super tilted and just spewing loads of big bets with 0% equity vs even my range, but you just don't really get that in other games. Unfortunately, he said he won't play me again.

Unless I get some good TD action again I'll be back to the HU PLO again. Now PLO is just so different to TD in terms of how I feel while playing; there are just so many different board textures, hands, opponents etc. that there are still a lot of opportunities for me to make mistakes, sometimes quite big ones, so this is a game where mood definitely factors in. When I run well it's all fine, and like TD, it feels like free money, but when running not so well the game becomes tough - it becomes a test of strength, of patience, and it's about losing minimum, not letting your run bad turn into play bad. It's really fun and interesting but there's still the chance of losing a ton.

I've been watching Isildur play anybody and everybody at PLO a bit. Here's a guy who doesn't care about all this shit, doesn't care about mood, or taking time off. He just plays and plays and plays, all the time, like a complete degen. He will win sometimes, but it's going to be swingy as hell and he'll lose just as often. I do sorta want to make enough to play him at 50/100 - it would be cool and everything and he does really stupid things - but I'm not sure I'm degen enough to take those kind of swings. My game is all about control: control of my emotions, control of how much I lose and control of my game. I need to be in control all the time to make the money I do, and when you put someone like me into a game like that I could easily lose it.

Charity Day Report

Schweig — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 02:55:03 +0000

So I did my charity poker day today. I played 11 hours total, mostly 400 HUPLO and it was pretty swingy. For the first few hours I hovered around break even but then within an hour I was down a bit over $5k (while running $5k below all-in EV). Fortunately, that was my low point and I ended the session +1400, took a break and played again for another 3 hours.

Again, I started off losing a couple thousand pretty quickly, but managed to turn things around and won most of it back, when suddenly the play stopped and the client told me I was dealt into a Milestone Hand! My opponent didn't know what was going on and clearly didn't understand the winner of the hand got double the milestone prize and he folded on the flop to a cbet, and I got credited $3274 for taking part - probably can't complain about being below EV after this. I played some more and ended up $6500 for the day, which felt a lot better than being stuck $5k.

It was an interesting experiment overall. I think that while I was running bad it made me play worse, because there was a lot of pressure in booking a winning day to not disappoint people. However, this could just have been a result of me being down $5k really quickly which I haven't experienced for a while. I also don't think the whole "play as much as I can in a single day" works for me, because I can get impatient and tired deep into a session, and I much prefer stopping and starting as I please.

Ultimately, despite being for a good cause, I'd say the idea was flawed. It puts too much emphasis on a single day's earnings, a mindset that all poker players strive to avoid. I only really thought about the chance of me running really well and didn't really anticipate the consequences of running badly.

Anyway, done with all that now. Here's the page again if you want to contribute:

http://www.justgiving.com/kenpoker

Donating half of a day's winnings to charity

Schweig — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 16:46:47 +0000

A couple of days ago I randomly cooked up this idea to set aside a day of poker where I donate half of my profits to charity, which I will be doing tomorrow. I did this for a few reasons, but mainly to see how it would affect me having a different motivation to play other than running up numbers in my excel spreadsheets. I also feel I have had so much rungood that it wouldn't at all hurt for me to give away 50% of my winnings for only one day.

http://www.justgiving.com/kenpoker

Here's the site that explains the thing in more detail, where you can contribute if you wish. Or better yet, take part yourself, and donate half your winnings for the day. You won't know what it can do for your game until you try it.

I'm pretty geared up for tomorrow. Since I came up with the idea, I actually felt a lot more motivated playing (and playing well) and I've probably made myself more money by coming up with this idea - up $40k in 11 days now - than I will give away, so it's win/win really (except for the people who lost money to me). So far this month I've only lost one day, for a total of $400, so here's hoping it won't be a huge disappointment and I continue my heater.

Deep hand from HU today

Schweig — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 01:42:08 +0000

Here's a nice deep hand from a match I played earlier.

Poker Stars $1/$2 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 2 players - View hand 1371722

DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN/SB): $1220.40
BB: $884.40

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BTN/SB with Q K 5 5
Hero raises to $6, BB raises to $18, Hero calls $12

Flop: ($36.00) 2 5 6(2 players)
BB bets $35.50, Hero calls $35.50

Turn: ($107.00) 2(2 players)
BB bets $98, Hero calls $98

River: ($303.00) 9(2 players)
BB bets $302.50, Hero raises to $1068.90 all in, BB calls $430.40 all in

Final Pot: $1768.80
Hero shows Q K 5 5 (a full house, Fives full of Deuces)
BB shows T 8 7 J (a straight, Five to Nine)
Hero wins $1768.30
(Rake: $0.50)

So the match was pretty interesting. He started off ok but as he lost stacks he got worse and worse and pretty much gave up trying to play well at some point. He was already down about $2k before this happened.

I'd say deep HU matches come down to getting your opponent to tilt and make a huge mistake with his deep stack, and not doing the same yourself. The first is easy when you win a lot of all-ins versus him, but the second can be tricky if you are the one who is losing.

The hand was quite a standard way of playing vs someone who was playing like a complete maniac. Keep the pot small on the flop because I don't think I can get all 450bbs in that great shape, as well as there being messy turn cards like a 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, diamond, which I don't want to see in a pot with such low SPR after I raise and get flatted. It wouldn't be a terrible spot to raise overall because he generally doesn't have that many 34xx or 66 hands that my hand is still probably a favourite if I get it in, but he's been double barrelling pot close to 100% so far, so I decided to keep his range wide and see what happens.

Turn is the best card in the deck. A lot of his semibluff hands are drawing dead, and he could have caught a 2 which will lead to at least 2 big bets. It is also a card that he will likely barrel on turn and river thinking that I have some marginal hand like TT-KK (I've taken the call/call/fold line a bit vs him so far, as well as there being situations where he gave up bluffing and I won with quite a weak hand at showdown). Again, the plan is to keep his bluffs in which makes up the majority of his range.

River, he pots it which could mean anything at this point in the match. There are enough thin value bets here from straights, AA**, 2*** to make it a clear ship. I don't expect to get called that often but I also expect to be beat even less.

He ended up snap calling with 87 which shows he just didn't really care anymore about losing another 400 and just wanted a way to win the pot. Earlier in the match he would often tank/fold in a spot like this, knowing that my range is only really for value, but at this point he just wants a way to get unstuck.

More run good, thoughts on deep HU

Schweig — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 04:45:10 +0000

Now up $25k in 8 days.

Started playing some 400PLO and running insane in all-in EV there; it's kinda ridiculous. I didn't actually play very well today but was up $6k just because I was saved by the deck a lot. I feel I got a little complacent and wasn't concentrating that hard, kinda auto-piloting for a lot of it.

I'm glad you guys appreciated my last post, and I'm going to follow that up by saying if you try to apply the strategy of never folding top pair when you get deeper, it starts costing you money. Plain and simple, you will get more money in bad trying to pick up the same amount of dead money.

It's crazy how different the game becomes as soon even 150bb deep, let alone 200+. I think in general optimum strategy will tend towards the guy OOP being more passive with his ranges: mainly, he can't 3-bet as much and he can't c/r the flop in a single raised pot as much. No longer can you 3-bet and then comfortably pot flop, pot turn and get your money in with top pair, or you start giving your opponent very good implied odds to make any sort of decent hand.

Right now, I'd say my deep game is considerably weaker. I tend to start doing spewy bluffs which cost a lot, as well as overplaying hands that would be perfectly acceptable shallower, and I probably give up in the wrong spots and don't give up when they have it. There's definitely a ton more skill involved in terms of hand reading, levelling, knowing your opponent tendecies etc., while playing 100bb deep I'd say is quite a mechanical game when you can get the money in by the turn quite easily.

Anyway, I'm still riding the upswing and I'll be back to the tables tomorrow; I just hope I play well.

HU PLO heater commencing, epiphany moments

Schweig — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 05:57:29 +0000

So since I've returned to poker, I've run up $13k in 5 days, about half of which was at HU PLO in the last few days:

Graph

I'm really proud by the way I've been playing. I feel like since the last time I had a go at HU PLO I was spewing a lot and doing some random (bad) things, and I was overall not really sure about the game. I kinda had a couple huge epiphany moments about the game recently though and almost completely overhauled my strategy, which is mostly noticeable in the shape of my new red line.

So the first epiphany moment was that I don't have to try to play everyone, regardless of what their graph looks like. I'm over that. I'll still play good players sometimes but overall I'm just going to go after bad players. The result of this is huge. I realised that the invincible feeling I got when I first crushed HU PLO was purely because I was playing terrible players with 30-70% 3-bet stats and playing all their hands OOP. Then, I lost that feeling because I got overconfident and started going up against guys who were really aggro and 3-betting a reasonable amount, against whom the strategies I had developed didn't really work. Sufficed to say, having played really huge fish again, that invincible feeling is back and I can easily see why I wasn't winning as much anymore.

The second epiphany moment is regards to HU PLO as a whole and how overall strategy should look like. It can be pretty much summed up with this mantra: don't fold top pair on the flop, and don't flat it either. Obviously, mantras are bad and shouldn't be taken seriously in poker, and this sweeping statement is clearly not true, but in general it forms an underlying mindset that top pair is actually very strong, but it's also hugely vulnerable even vs hands which are classed as air. This has created a strategy which involves playing top pair hands with not much else very aggressively on flops and turns in order to protect/get value/semi-bluff all at the same time, and it works really well because people have really poor hand selection in both their calls and bluffs.

I went through a phase where I thought HU PLO wasn't about getting stacks in and gambling a lot, and that it was more about being passive until there are clear equity edges, but I was wrong. HU PLO is about two things: a hell of a lot of aggression and very well-crafted hand selection to support that.

I think there are a lot of players out there who are good at doing the former but terrible at the latter, and use the wrong hands to be aggressive with and it leads to them getting crushed a lot in terms of domination and equity match-ups. Meanwhile, my epiphany moment has lead to a new result about preflop hands:

In a HU pot, the most overriding factor to hand strength is the rank of the cards.

Forget wraps, forget double suited, this game (at 100bbs) is going to mostly be about making a good top pair and getting most of your stack in by the turn, while also having the opportunity to make something extra like a flush draw, straight draw, or two pair. This forms the basis to how I evaluate any preflop hand. e.g. Hands like Q765ds aren't really that good even HU, due to the fact that they make too many bottom pairs and low two pairs, while the upper end of flops includes a lot of low flush draws which are still kinda weak semi-bluffing hands anyway. Playing too many hands like that (which everyone usually does to make up their aggressive ranges) are just going to get you destroyed by a guy who is playing a lot of good high cards and refuses to fold top pair ever.

Having utilized this sort of strategy I find myself really easily countering people who think there is room in this game to make a lot of check raises and c-bets with very weak hands, specifically mid pair type hands or weak draws. There have been a countless amount of times where someone check-raises to counter my aggression but do it with a super polarised range that I just pot top pair some kickers and they are forced to fold. Picking up pots like that I feel is infinitely superior than allowing them to see turns, pick up equity or the best hand and barrel a lot while my hand is hard to play. The thing is my opponents have usually built up their ranges so badly that it allows me to do that and be unexploitable.

It definitely defies the hold'em mindset of doing things, because they'll say something like "you only get called by better and fold out worse" but that kind of logic only applies because of how far ahead hands are of each other in NL on the flop; it doesn't really apply in PLO because of how close equities run: this play actually has a ton of FE because of how often opponents have to fold 30-40% equity. It's more akin to Hold'em preflop play where you shove in spots where it's unlikely you'll get called by worse, but it's ok because worse hands have so much flopping capability and plus you'll be in a tough spot when you whiff the flop with ace high if you flat. The way people are playing right now on flops in PLO is similar to semi-bluffing too many suited connector type hands in NL, but they can't call a shove so they end up folding a ton of equity.

The advantage to playing this way is it actually feels really hard to play against. I've seen a lot of opponents go into almost a loose passive mode, not wanting to mess with someone who is going to just shove a lot, but also not wanting to fold against someone so aggressive, and these guys get owned pretty quickly because I never get put into a tough spot, get charged for seeing the river and have complete control of how big the pot's going to be. I've also seen people adjust the other way by trying to combat it with a lot of spew and I just make sure to have stronger ranges than them and dominate them in showdowns. Either way, I've never seen an opponent making the right adjustments by changing their hand selection, which is almost always the core problem. It's just how they've learnt the game and something unmalleable to them, while I'm consistently thinking about it and adjusting.

Picking up the pace

Schweig — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 01:26:42 +0000

Played a couple hours for the last 3 days and up about $7k; the game really does feel great when you're running well like this. There's no 50/100 action still but I got a few players HU at 30/60 who I busted pretty quick. It's become more and more obvious how quickly fish get destroyed in TD; no wonder they are so infrequent.

I also played some 20/40 HU 8-game which is pretty fun, but pretty mental considering that the big bet games are 5/10 - so huge. The match is a few hundred dollar pots for all the limit rounds and then suddenly there are 6 hands of PLO where you can easily get into a 2k pot flipping. Then it's back to limit. I'm also not that experience at most of the non-TD variants HU so a lot of spots still feel weird, but he was a lot worse.

Regarding playing people HU, some graphs someone in my Skype group posted really put things into perspective. I mean graphs like this. The main thing to get from these incredibly smooth, massive winning graphs is that bumhunting is definitely the best way to make money. Say what you will about bumhunters, but they get to have almost variance free, headache free, tilt free income where you don't need a particularly advanced game to win.

Having played a lot of HU PLO and HU TD in the past, I pretty much didn't shy anyway from playing anyone. Even though this may sound like a positive quality, it's also lead to some of the biggest losing sessions ever, and it's certainly nothing more than the product of having a large ego. I do think there is room for this willingness to play the game to compete, to be the best, but there is certainly a lot of merit to the strategy of never playing anyone losing less than 5BB/100.

Been doing sweet f all

Schweig — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 02:51:36 +0000

Last month was a really low volume month. I played about 3 hours, though I also managed to win about $12k in those hours so it wasn't too bad (a couple really good sessions vs fish at TD).

I just didn't really have the motivation to play at all most of the time, mostly due to the lack of action at TD tables. I get impatient waiting for action if its longer than 10 minutes and I want to do something else to pass the time; when I do that I get involved in that thing and don't want to play anymore. The whole FTP debacle couldn't have helped either. I'm not really bothered about the money I have online because I think it's pretty likely I'll get it back, but it just meant I will get even less action now and became another excuse to not play.

I really could see myself not playing at all for the rest of the year, but I don't want to do that. I really want to get back into things properly, but I have the tendency to put off playing "until tomorrow" and eventually that becomes what June was. I played today for an hour and made $3k, which is a pretty incredible session and should by all rights get me back into the swing of things, but honestly by tomorrow I could have changed my mind completely.

You might think that it's a simple case of me not trying hard enough - I could easily sit down longer, make more effort, play some PLO, play some tourneys etc. This is true, but I realized that there is a deeper subconscious feeling that is at the root of all this: "I already have enough money." This is clearly not true as I can't buy a house, but it's somewhat true in that I can pretty much buy anything that I want except a house. I just can't see the immediate benefit of trying to make more and it just becomes super easy to decide to do something else. Plus, there is still a lingering effect from my big $28k losing day that makes me not want to lose any of it (it would be a different story if I still felt invincible like I did before that, when I considered poker variance free money.)

Clearly all of this is irrational, and now that I've realized this I can overcome it, right? Unfortunately I actually realized this several weeks ago and it still didn't really make me play more. So I feel a bit stuck at the moment unless TD action really picks up. That said, I really want to get my shit together and get back into poker in the near future.

As an aside, check out my latest installment in the Mark Liu saga (and share if you like it): http://youtu.be/_6aNzEr7UqY

Some more 1/200

Schweig — Tue, 24 May 2011 05:09:07 +0000

So I decided to play some more 1/200 vs a red pro you'll often see sitting there at FTP, mostly because I hadn't played him before and there was no action lower, so I thought I'd try it out and quit if it got to hairy.

First session, dropped $4k before he had to go, but he was overall quite loose passive and straightforward that I felt like I still had an edge on him. Second session, ended up $6.5k. Today, played him again for a third session, was down about $9k at two points but ended up $5k. Pretty damn swingy overall but fortunately I ended up. And I definitely feel like I've got an edge on him, even when he's winning.

Even though I'm getting more comfortable with those types of swings, 1/200 still carries a lot more pressure than 50/100 atm. I probably won't play it much more unless it's someone I've played a lot before and I feel I can beat comfortably.

It's a bit annoying that there's not that much action going at 50/100. There's the odd fish from time to time but it's hard to predict when they show up, while bad or ok regs have mostly started denying me action, while some will only play higher when I don't want to. It's also really hard to get action when there's 3 regs on separate tables at 50/100 that I don't even feel like bothering to sit.

With that in mind, I think my main goal is to really keep on developing my game so I can have more confidence in taking on anyone and everyone. I will keep on taking shots at 1/200, while trying to be really disciplined and not repeat a 27k losing session.

$27k losing session

Schweig — Thu, 12 May 2011 18:40:21 +0000

So my Minor League vid on TD is out, so check that out if you haven't already. Also realised I've been added to the Pro Blog Roll so thought it would be a good time to blog about my big losing session.

Over a week ago I took a shot at 100/200 and ended up losing $27k, mostly from 2-tabling a reg HU. Although this about 3x more than I've ever lost in a day, it didn't actually seem to affect me that much. I did regret taking the shot a bit but I was somewhat prepared for this possibility, and I think overall I handled it way better than any big loss I've had previously.

The match was pretty interesting. I've played the opponent before at 50/100 and he was a lot spewier there, but he played a lot better in the match. I don't know if this was because it was higher stakes (he admits he spews more lower down) or that you generally play very well when you are running good and tilt hardly ever. I probably made a few mistakes but most of the time I was making a decent but losing made hand and had to pay off. It was quite brutal to lose that many big pots in a row, but I guess it just happens, and I actually managed to quit which I usually don't do.

I guess the toughest part about having any losing session is the next time you play. It's really important to not let that feeling carry over into your following sessions, whether it's the feeling that you need to win it back or a general lack of confidence in your play; both are destructive to your game. I think I felt a bit of an post-loss frustration when I played some 200PLO after a couple days when I just felt it would be a hard downswing to recover from. However, I'm just really confident in my TD game and when I played 50/100 again things managed to work out - I made about 14k in a week.

Overall I generally think shots can be a good idea but you need some limitations. They are good for testing yourself, and to make your way up. However, there's a lot to be said for keeping all forms of variance low and consistent and moving up and down constantly not only changes the variance, it really screws with your perception of the stakes you usually play, and the swings you get into. I think to take shots, you need to be really disciplined in stop losses and in being able to move back down, otherwise it may open up a whole new can of worms. I don't think my discipline is that strong in those areas, which is why I don't generally move up that much, and there's definitely nothing wrong with maintaining a certain stake level until you're really comfortable and confident.

Oxford Cup (live pokers)

Schweig — Mon, 09 May 2011 11:36:46 +0000

So decided to play in the Oxford Cup, a £20 rebuy event with 200 runners, along with three others from Cambridge poker.

The tourney was pretty well run considering the size and that it was half run by students, and it's a shame that we'd never get anything of that size in Cambridge.

It was a pretty standard awful structure live tourney though, with fast increasing blinds and little play, which is a shame considering that the player standard was really soft. People would call off 1200 from a 4k starting stack pre insisting "well I can't fold this, I can't fold this" and then flop trips on a 998 board.

Also this bad loose guy owned me pretty hard by calling my iso from the SB for a third of his stack and then donk shoved a 874r board 4-way for half pot. I call with KJ and he shows A2 and he's like "why did you call?" so I'm like "It was only 950, why did you bet?" and he goes "I was repping."

Was in for £120 after a few rebuys and add-on, got back after the rebuy hour and busted very first hand back with Q8 vs AQ on a QJ8 board.

Pretty much had nothing to do for a few hours until a cash game started, playing 20p/40p NL, where I had this huge douchebag on my right who I wanted to bust (and did, won a £200 pot vs him with AT on T9x board vs 87.) Unfortunately live poker is so slow that it takes way too long to get profitable situations versus even the worst player in the world, which this guy probably was.

Anyway, he proceeded to slowroll me later. He opened and I called with KT with clubs. Flop comes 763 two clubs, and he checks, I bet, he minraises, I call. I hit a T on the turn and he checks, so I bet, then he minraises me again. Like whatever, I think he has like close to the nuts here and I call to hit a club. River comes a blank Q and he checks, I check back.

He turns over a 6 and points at it. I show my KT, then he rolls over another 6 like a champion. I ask him what he's doing and he says "I'm slowrolling you. I wanted to make you think you had me beat. There's no nice in poker." At this point I decided that this game isn't actually fun anymore, and even though I would like to bust this guy, there's ultimately no point to sticking around waiting hours for the right hand, especially as the money doesn't mean anything to me and it would be all about ego at this point.

I did play the £1/£1 PLO game for a while and boy is live PLO really boring when you're a nit like me. People were really bad though, somehow dry aces got it in on a 34Q5ccdd board and was ahead in a ~£500 pot. Though instead of busting one of these guys, I ended up taking George's money (one of the Cupoks guys). He 3-bet from the CO and I cold 4-bet from the SB with AAT6ds, he called with KTT9ss and got it in on a J73r board. I think his pre call is slightly losing, and his 3-bet is probably bad considering there were guys coldcalling 3 bets really wide, but yeah, whatever.

Probably ended up £90 in cash, so was down overall from the trip but it was a fun overall, and good mixing it up. I kinda like the social aspect of live, although the downside is there are a lot of really tilting people.

My biggest regret was not asking Gus Hansen to play triple draw (he was there as a special guest, not sure why) and I imagine there was some likelihood of his eyes immediately lighting up when hearing those words and I could have an actual interesting story to tell from this trip, but I pussied out.

April 2011, FTOPS

Schweig — Sun, 01 May 2011 05:01:21 +0000

April was another stellar month. I ended up $44k which puts me close to the $100k mark for the year so far, which is pretty exciting for me as it's triple what I made last year. All of it was from 30/60 and 50/100 TD (in fact, I was down on HEM this month, see the post where I talk about not being able to play well at PLO.)

I also played a lot of tourneys since Black Friday, figuring that they are softer with a lot of American regs gone, and this held mostly true. Besides a few small cashes, I didn't really have much success but it was good to mix things up and do something different. I ended up playing a lot of FTOPS events that I wasn't really rolled for in the past, which was pretty interesting, although I only cashed in one, the $535 2-7SD and it was a mincash. That was quite a fun experience because I've probably played a few hundred hands of 2-7SD in my life and it was interesting thinking about the game as I played - also, everyone happened to be much worse than me.

I did the same today with the $216 Badugi. Again, I don't have hardly any Badugi experience but I have a lot of TD experience and it's interesting comparing the two games, thinking about which concepts carry over into both games and which don't. I was also watching Soep and DD's video at the same time and although it had some helpful concepts, I didn't quite get my head around the idea of binking an 8 or better badugi every hand you draw 2, which could have helped.

Although I found playing Badugi interesting from a novelty standpoint, I'm really not a big fan of the game as an idea. It's a game that would be ultimately quite simple to play if attacked from a mathematical approach because the static hands lend towards strategies with fewer interesting decisions and less aggression, which makes later street play somewhat easier to model. Still, I guess even though the maths behind it is technically simple, it's not that simple intuitively which means people are still bad at it, and almost any game becomes fun if opponents are bad (except razz, that's never fun.)

Opening 100% BTNs in TD

Schweig — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 17:46:16 +0000

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/21/draw-other-poker/27td-hu-opening-range-1026938/

Here's an interesting thread where I discuss raising 100% of buttons in HU TD (I'm Stryd0r.)Â Gist is I don't think it's profitable at all.Â As well as being generally wrong though, it is simply tough to play. It has the problem of creating millions of spots where you have a tough decision, or you have unhappy decisions, because your hands are really weak and middle-heavy; you will often be the one with a marginal hand that is almost a bluffcatcher, and your decisions will often be between call and fold where you will rarely get the chance to value bet/raise yourself, simply because you don't make that many 8s or better, and as a result you will rarely be able to bluff, which makes it pretty easy for your opponent to play because he will just thin vbet you all day long without getting much pressure.Â

Giving your opponent the momentum in a HU match like this and making it really comfortable for him most of the time is going to make it even worse for you. It's going to make it hard for him to tilt and make bad decisions, while you will be constantly making them. That time I lost ~$9k at 20/40 HU was mostly because I was raising too many buttons and thinking it was profitable, and just getting gradually crushed by someone who was solid aggressive 3-betting me/barrelling me to death with a strong merged range.

A lot of the times someone who opens every button becomes easy to play against, though there are still some who are tougher than others. It requires being able to make razor thin calls as well as hero folds based on very perceptive reads on opponent tendencies, ability to follow game-flow, and general understanding of the game. Those who are poor post-draw get absolutely destroyed playing this strategy in my experience, but those who are decent post-draw won't get destroyed but I still think it's a losing strategy vs anyone good. I've played both types and it certainly makes an interesting match because of the amount of big pots there are. It's possible that opening 100% of buttons vs certain bad players is profitable though, but they have to be really weak both pre and post, giving you a lot free cards when they are ahead and generally not putting you in tough spots. I don't know what Tapirboy plays but I imagine if a low stakes game broke down from 6-max to HU the players will be soÂ inexperienced and passive that you will show a decent profit by opening every button. These types don't really exist higher up though.

However, the assertion that you can do this and a good player can't counter you without turning it into a levelling war by snowing/resnowing is ultimately wrong. When I first started playing HU I thought the game was about a ton of snowing but it's not. It's hard to snow that much when someone can just call down getting good odds and they'll be massively profiting given how many value hands you actually have. The game I found out is much more about thin vbetting and very precise range manipulation i.e which cards to keep and when, which 2cds and 1cds to play and how, how we choose our ranges to maximise value, showdown equity and fold equity. When someone chooses to play 100 VPIP it massively strengthens the value and equity of a lot of marginal hands and the simple counter is to adjust all your ranges/drawing decisions and you really end up running over someone playing such weak ranges.

TD = hot, PLO = not

Schweig — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 06:48:44 +0000

I think so far this month I haven't lost a single TD session for a big amount and certainly had several big ones. I finally decided to import over a month's worth of hands to Pokerhands (software is awful, and kept crashing from some corrupt HHs) and have a couple cool-looking brag graphs.

Lifetime FTP

Lifetime Stars

Even though there isn't that much traffic at TD post-Black Friday, there is still decent action from a handful of players if I sit at 30/60 or 50/100 which is all I need really. I feel I have a big edge short-handed vs most players so it's actually pretty good for me that a lot of the time it's 2 or 3-handed.

The last couple sessions of PLO however haven't gone great for me. I've been spewing a bit and generally not making that many favorable situations, as well as losing all-ins. It's sometimes hard for me to care about PLO when I've had a huge upswing at TD the night before, as the conversion rate is 1BI=2 or 3BB. This definitely lead to me playing bad in a couple big sessions and not really caring that much while I was doing it. It's definitely not the regular sort of tilt but it's still a form of tilt.

PLO in April

Hopefully I'll care more the next time I do play and I remember that my main objectives is to play well all the time, rather than to simply play, something that I lost sight of recently.

Indictment

Schweig — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 04:42:35 +0000

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2011/04/online-poker-big-three-indicted-10218.htm

So, the US government have decided to come after Pokerstars, Full Tilt Poker and Ultimate Bet, by cracking down on their websites and barring them from US players entirely.

Many astute members of the poker community have warned about this day in the past, particularly at the end of last year when people discussed the possibility of a blackout in the US. I read some good posts about how the status quo wasn't as good as everyone made out to be and it being only a matter of time before the Department of Justice gather enough evidence to come after these sites for allowing US players to deposit.

However, I think it's fair to say that most people, even myself, didn't really see this coming. I mean, I'm sure people knew it was a possibility in the back of their minds, but hadn't really expected or planned for this.

So what now? At the moment, it seems like non-US players can carry on as normal, while anyone in the US has been completely shut off. This is subject to change though, but I am optimistic that the money I have online will be safe and it won't really prevent me from making money in the future (though it could decrease my potential earnings - I will talk about this and other wider consequences in more detail later.)

There isn't much to do but wait and see what happens. I was a bit worried earlier and even considered cashing a lot out, but I don't think there's that much reason to panic yet. We'll see what develops.