Rebuy my Ass

I hate rebuy tournaments. Actually, to be more specific, I hate the 1st hour of a rebuy tournament where you have unlimited rebuys. Everybody plays loose, going all in on gutshot draws, middle pair, even bottom pair. It's so easy to get sucked in and before you know it you've already rebought 4 times and you're still back to your original stack while cocksucking fishes have already quadrupled up.

But admittedly there's also a good thing to it. For a small amount of buy-in, the pot gets quite big. You just have to know how to conserve your stack and not get suckered by all the action. As a lot of poker players would say, the actual tourney starts only after the rebuy/add-on period ends.

So recently, I've added rebuy tourneys to the usual freeze-out MTTs that I play, but with a slight twist. I only register after 55 minutes of play have already passed by. This means that I bypass all the donkey play and go right into the action after the rebuys are almost done. Obviously, I am low stacked and start with a distinct disadvantage. But its still ok because once I avail of the addon then I would usually start with around 20x the big blind.

I then play short stack poker and hope to double up sometime in the next few rounds to get right back in the fight. Of course, things don't always come out my way. But I've played 3 rebuy tourneys using this strategy and I have ITM'd twice. My cost is fixed at 3x the buyin. (2 rebuys and 1 addon) and I don't end up spending too many rebuys trying to outplay the donkeys in the 1st few rounds. Also, I skip the 1st hour and my total playing time is shorter.

I wouldn't recommend this to everyone but I feel its a valid strategy that can reap dividends if you play it correctly.

SNG Home Game

The other day, my brother invited me to his house for a NLHE home game. Basically a one table SNG with some of his friends for pretty low stakes. 2oo pesos buy in. Katuwaan lang.

After playing online exclusively for quite some time, I was surprised at how slooooow everything felt. From the shuffling to the dealing, to the table banter and the pauses for snack and toilet breaks. Of course there was the element of human tells that you don't get online. But I didn't even need to read the faces or the tics or any of the Caro tells. At that level of friendly play, you just play straightforward poker, read the bets and you'd usually come out on top.

But this post is really not about me winning or losing the home game. I just suddenly realized while playing the home game SNG that it could actually be done thru one of the poker sites and make everything faster. I mean, set up a wireless network, everybody bring a laptop (assuming everyone owns a laptop), register an account, create a private game in one of the sites, assign someone with a big enough bankroll to be the treasurer essentially collecting cash and transferring T$ and then it should be good to go. After the game, the winners can transfer back and collect the dough. Some of the logistics can be done prior to the scheduled start time.

This should make the game much faster. And for the same amount of time that you spend playing the live SNG, you can probably go through 2 or 3 online games especially at a turbo setting. So parang the best of both worlds. You get the speed of online play (i'm sure everybody hates shuffling and dealing cards) while at the same time you still got everybody in one roof and maintain the camarederie, not to mention the drinking and the taunting and trash talking.

The only problem I can see is with regards to the single IP address that will be used by everyone in the game. I don't know if the poker room filters will see this as collusion/multiple accounts and might get you banned. But it is a private game and can be explained as such. You're paying the same rake that the site would normally get for one of their games anyway. Also, I'm not sure how long it takes to set up a private game. Do you need to email site support and is it instantaneous ? Maybe some scheduling needs to be involved.

Has anybody ever tried doing this before ? Kindly comment on what happened as it would be interesting to know the details and how it was done. I think there are also sites like Triplejack where you can set up private poker lounges.

Season's Greetings !!

Here's wishing the readers of my blog and all the Pokermanila members a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!.

Shut Out

I played in 3 tourneys simultaneously this early Monday morning. And I went 0 out of 3. Yep, so now I'm in the office falling half asleep while feeling slightly depressed. Heheh. No excuses really. Yes, the cards were not falling. But I was also playing like crap.

First was the $100+9 buy in 50K Guaranteed Tourney over at Cake Poker. Played ok until after the 2nd break. Had average stack when I get 10 10. Raised it up. Got reraised all in. Called. And opponent shows AA.

Next up was the $50+5 buy in 125K guaranteed at Pokerstars. Also played ok until the 2nd break. Then I limped in KQ in middle position. 2 other limpers. And flop goes Q 10 10. I fired out a bet, one limper folded, the other limper tanked and then finally pushed all in. I got him covered. I knew from the way he played it that he didn't have the 10. So he had the Q. Since I had a K kicker. The only hand that could beat me was AQ. But who in their right mind would limp AQ. My instinct was telling me I was beat but I made the call and villain fucking shows AQ. This crippled my stack and I don't remember how I actually busted out, but I think I pushed with Ax and somebody called with a pocket pair.

Finally, there was the blogger tourney. Don't remember too much details. Also survived until the 2nd break but was low stacked. Was pretty much hovering around average to low stack the whole tourney. Finally pushed with QJ when my M was less than 8. Got called by AJ. And that was it for me.

My bust outs from the 3 tourneys all happened in a 30 minute span. Which kind of suggests that tilt was probably somewhere in the equation. I wanted to play 3 tourneys at the same time so as not to waste the early wake-up call. This is fine I guess as long as I'm doing well. But it also poses a risk of me tilting from one result and then affecting the others.

But if I only play 1 tourney, I play listlessly because I'm sleepy and just want to get it over with. Heheh.... oh well. Can't be too disappointed. Its been a good year poker wise so far. So hopefully we can still end the year with a bang.

Survived

Survival was the operative word as I played the 2nd qualifying round of the World Blogger's Tourney this morning. I deliberately missed the 1st round since it started at 3AM and was Pot Limit Omaha. I just registered and promptly went to sleep. When I woke up in the morning, I saw that I finished 148th place out of 400 something participants. Didn't really expect to qualify. Just wanted to see how one would finish without playing a hand. Heheh...

The 2nd round was NLHE and started at 8AM with about 500+ players. This one I was definitely playing. The problem was I had to go to work at 9AM. So I devised a plan. I'll play the first hour, hope to double up, then take the 30 minute drive to the office, then continue from there.

As we all know, plans don't necessarily work out the way you would want them. Initial stack was 2,500. I got it up to around 3,200 when I got a nut flush. But this was immediately taken back down to 2,500 when I chased a draw which didn't materialize and I had to fold. And then it was time to go to the office. Traffic was the normal christmas rush and when I got to my PC, my stack was blinded down to around 2K. Not too bad.

Well, to make a long story short. I was basically playing short stacked poker the rest of the way. I was card dead and was just relying on some steals and squeezes to keep my head above water. The only decent card I got was KK somewhere in the middle of the tourney which got paid off by somebody with a lower pair. After that, it was downhill and I couldn't get a hand.

Near the bubble and I had around 5 to 6xBB. I just waited for the action to be folded to me and then I went on hail marys with crappy hands. Really no choice. I think I even went all in with 10 7 offsuit which luckily did not get called. Good thing about the blogger tourney was that the tables were pretty tight. Even the monster stacks were folding liberally and was not too aggressive.

Eventually we got down to 73. I got about 5K left and the blinds were if I'm not mistaken 750-1500. 72 was the magic number. Lo and behold. I get pocket rockets. Yep. Fucking AA. Great timing, poker gods. I already used up my time bank and was just delaying. But I was definitely folding them if the action came to me. I kept on pressing the refresh button on my status screen hoping for the bubble to break. And just like that, 2 players got eliminated and I qualified. Woohoo .... I immediately press ALL IN and my aces got called by a monster stack with 10 6 suited. He flopped 789 and that was it for me. Are we appreciating the irony here ? But I'm in the blogger finals and that's all that matters.

This 2nd round tourney was pretty much my best shot and good thing I qualified as I would have probably skipped all the remaining qualifiers except the last one which was on a Saturday. So nice result for me. Good luck to all the other Pinoy bloggers. I'll see you in the finals. =)

Shitty Schedule

I just noticed that all my post titles for December started with the letter 'S'. So I decided to just continue with this set-up for the rest of the month. Let's see if I can at least make the title related to the post.

Before anything else, what pinoy blog would be complete without a brief mention of the Pacquiao annihilation of Dela Hoya. I know its a little late but hey what can you do. Every boxing expert said it was going to be a mismatch and it turns out they were right, only it was the other way around. The main man from the Philippines totally dominated the Golden Boy and in the end, DLH quit and no longer stood up for the 9th round.

No matter how ugly it looked. I can understand the reason why the corner and DLH threw in the towel. Even with the huge humiliation that was about to happen. Boxers are supposed to be these gladiators who fight to the end. DLH had no choice. He was being pounded black and blue and had no chance of winning. He already booked $20M ++ from the fight win or lose. Why would he risk getting damaged permanently or even knocked out on his ass ?

Obviously for Pacquiao, it was the biggest win of his career and opens up lots of opportunities including a mega bucks fight with Floyd Mayweather who appears to have decided to unretire to face the Pacman.

The only negative thing I can see from the result of the fight is that it financially weakens boxing as a sport in general. No matter what we say about Dela Hoya. People from around the world paid good money to see him fight. With the rising popularity of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and its encroachment into boxing's profits , I don't think anybody can match DLH's popularity and charisma. Even if we treat Pacquiao like a god here in the Philippines, the average American may not pay the extra $50 for a PPV fight of Pacquiao. I know its kind demented, but that's how the boxing business goes and some of it is admittedly racial prejudice to the smaller Asian fighters.

In other news, as you can see above, I registered for the Pokerstars Blogger's Tourney which is starting next week. This is the first time I am playing this tournament and hopefully I do well. It seems that every blogger has six chances to make it to the finals as there are six qualifiers in different poker disciplines. I myself am only planning to play the NLHE events. Although I know how to vaguely play Omaha and I would want to take every chance to qualify. The shitty early morning schedule is just a killer. I don't think I can wake up early 6 days in a row to play a qualifying tourney and still go to work. So I have decided to just play NLHE although I do think one has a better chance in Omaha if you are good at it just because less people will be playing and there will be lots of dead money from people who are just trying it because its free.

Anyway, Good luck to everybody who will be playing in the events !!

Smokin

I think I'm officially on fire. Besides the ITM in the Sunday Million, there were these 2 other tournaments that I played sometime in the last few days.

The 2nd place was even a bad beat finish as the last hand had my AK suited going up against an A10 which flopped the 10.

Of course, now that I've written about it, the lucky streak will surely end. Heheh....

A cynic might say, how come I only post the wins and not the losses, which to a certain extent is true. But I think its just human nature to brag somewhat when you achieve something. Also much in the same way that I don't post the losses, I also don't post any of the small ITMs which are not top 3. So fair lang. Also, I am assuming that people can easily check the online result trackers if they want to verify if I am a losing player overall and just got lucky in the tourneys that I post. Besides, who wants to read about bad beats and whine stories about losing ?

Just in case you didn't read my Cake pimping a while back. Check out the last tournament in the picture above where I placed 2nd. It was a $10+1 tourney with $1,500 guaranteed. But there were only 117 players overall. So the overlay was a pretty nice $330. Certainly way better than those overcrowded tourneys in Full Tilt or Pokerstars which take forever to finish and are filled with semi pro wannabees.

Some Thoughts from the last tourney

Its been about a week from the time I played the Pokerstars Sunday Million and I wanted to write down some observations and notables that happened during the tourney

I was the one who busted out Rainkhan somewhere in the middle of the tourney. For those of you who are not familiar. Hevad Khan is a well known online poker pro who was once thought to be a poker bot because of the number of tables he played. He is also part of Team Pokerstars and has won millions of dollars online and in live tourneys.

Nothing to crow about really. I didn't outplay him or anything. I just happened to have the right cards at the right time. Middle position and I get AAs. I raise the standard 3xBB. He was in late position and 3 bets me. I had him covered and pretend to tank for awhile then I push all in. He pauses for about 1o seconds then calls. He shows 88s. No improvement and I bust him out.

The other thing that struck me was how aggressive everybody was especially after the bubble burst. I was low stacked just looking for a good place to push and I couldn't find one. Everytime I had a semi decent hand like Ax. Somebody would put up a raise and somebody would reraise which would force me to fold.

I understand about the value of being the first one in (First-In Vigorish) but everytime action was folded to me, I would have super crappy hands like 4-7 off suit. In the end, I probably moved up a few places higher because I couldn't push properly, but it may have ended up costing me the double-up that I needed to advance much further in the tourney. Oh well, lesson learned for next time.

I also realized that I need to master the skill of 3 betting. There were numerous instances where people raised but seems like 80% of the time, those who raised would always fold to a reraise. Now I am absolutely sure that much of those reraise bets were also crappy hands because it happened almost every other hand and the incidence of getting monsters is way too small for it to justify the number of reraises that were going on. So this is something that I'll have to read up on.

I'm currently trying to win another 200+15 ticket thru the SNG steps as I believe the Christmas holidays would afford me another crack at the Sunday Million. =)

Sunday Million Tournament

I've longed wanted to play the Sunday Million Tourney over at Pokerstars. But my office schedule didn't really afford for any flexibility especially early on Monday mornings. Another factor was the steep buy in of $200+15. Both these things really prevented me from trying this big buy-in tourney.

Well, until today that is. Two things went my way. First, today happened to be a declared holiday which allowed me to play. 2nd, I managed to satellite my way to a ticket thru the SNG Steps qualifiers. I spent around $80 of my bankroll to get the $200+15 ticket.

I checked the time and it started at an ungodly 5:30AM. But it wasn't too bad and I managed around 5 hours sleep before I had to wake up. I checked the number of players and whattafuck, it was a staggering 8001 players.

Anyway, I had already psyched myself into playing it and there was no turning back. So how did I do ? Heheh..... I didn't win it or even made the final table. But I did make it ITM in 117th place which I thought was an achievement in itself. I don't really recall any particular hands but I did suck0ut one or two times to enable me to make it that far.

Oh well, let's see if there's going to be a next time. Screenshot of my final place finish attached.

Who wants Cake?

If anybody is interested in buying a small poker bankroll over at Cake Poker (http://www.cakepoker.com/), then please give me a holler by leaving your email or contact number on the comments of this blog. I have about $500 that I want to exchange.

I'm thinking we can go about this in two ways and I'll offer a good deal.

1. We do some kind of exchange. I will take Pokerstars, Pokerroom, Carbon or FullTilt Dollars in exchange for the Cake Poker Dollars. I will offer you $1 for your 92 cents. That means if you want $100, you give me $92. If you want the whole $500, then you only need to exchange me $460 in PS or FTP$. You just register an account in Cake and I'll transfer the money to you and you transfer to me. Kaliwaan.

2. If you want to buy it using cash, then I'll sell it at 45 is to 1. This means if you want the whole $500, then you just pay me 22,500 pesos.

Good Deal diba? You can buy multiples of $100 up to $500. In case you're worried that I am doing some kind of con. Well, I'm not. Should be easy to meet up somewhere like the Metro with laptops where we can do the exchange. Or you can come to my office which is a public place inside a mall where the people know me and you know I'm not going to suddenly stick a gun at you. Heheh. If you're a regular at pokermanila, then it should be even easier. 11finger can vouch for me as we did some PS to FTP exchange before and I also purchased some books off him. Besides its a small amount and I wouldn't go through all this trouble just to con a poker noobie.

Ok. What are the pros of Cake poker?

First of all, its full of fishes. I am not kidding when I say this. I offer my sharkscope stats below as proof. I have put it side by side with my FTP stats just to show you the difference. I have a decent 13% ROI in FTP, but my stats in Cake are off the charts. 88% ROI, anyone?

Secondly the tournaments have good overlays. You always get value for your buy-in when you play the guaranteed tourneys. So very easy site to make money from. Finally, the site offers one of the highest rakeback deals around at 33%.

So what's the catch? Why am I willing to give you a good deal? I will be forthright and honest about this. I deposited to Cake poker using Moneybookers and you all know what happened with MB. Cake currently does not accept Click2pay but they said that they are already working out a deal with C2P but its not yet formalized. So if you do win, the only way to withdraw right now is thru check.

I don't want to go thru all the hassle of requesting, waiting, depositing the check and waiting again for it to clear, hence the offer. So just leave a note or email me directly at

exaserv@tri-isys.com and we can work out a deal. Thanks.

Learning from the Pros

As part of my continuing evolution as a poker player, I am currently watching SNG (Sit and Go) videos prepared by online pros over at SNGicons. My cousin paid $90 to get a 3 month membership and I am piggybacking/sharing the account.

So how is it ? Did I suddenly become better and won tons of money playing SNGs by just watching these videos ?

Heheh ..... Ok here is my honest review of the videos. If you only have basic or beginner SNG knowledge like my cousin, then the videos would be very helpful in improving your game. They provide insight on the different strategies needed for beginning, middle and endgame SNG play. Depending on the pro who made the video, they will usually explain their thinking behind the moves and it gives extra dimension to reasons behind the normal check or call.

Some advance concepts like ICM shoves may shock the tight beginner player. But if you take time to understand ICM and download some ICM calculators, you will see that they are almost always 100% correct. Just bear in mind that ICM makes assumptions about opponent's ranges, and players in the low levels don't think logically. They will call when they should fold, so some adjustment is necessary as the video examples are normally high buy in SNGs where the opponents are also executing ICM strategy and will generally fold to a good push.

Even without ICM, studying the videos should give the beginner player a generally good idea of which hands are playable at what levels. You might be surprised to see them folding A8 suited at the first few levels without any thought whatsoever. But THAT is the correct play in SNGs.

Since I've been playing SNGs for close to 2 years, the benefit to me personally was less. A lot of the concepts they were explaining I already learned previously. I don't use ICM calculators, since they slow up my play. But I do have a general instinct of which cards to ICM push in the endgame and a review of my stats do show that I am generally correct. But the videos did show that I am still not executing perfect SNG strategy.

For example, I might still fold let's say 86 suited when I am in the small blind with 5 players left and the action is folded to me. For them, its an easy push. Things like taking advantage of the big stack and pushing with marginal hands against the mid stack guys are things that require some more analysis and experience on my part. But I was happy to note that my SNG play was more or less at par with what they were doing.

The main thing that might surprise the average poker player is that the pros rarely bluff in SNGs. Basically for the main reason that they don't need to. Sure, you'll see some weird hands during showdowns that look like stone cold bluffs. But upon further analysis and with their explanations, you will realize that they are actually not bluffs. They are either continuation bets, ICM shoves or calls they had to make because you were giving them the correct odds. We sometimes mistake these online pros for cocky and brash young people who just got lucky and I am also guily of this misconception. But after watching & listening to the videos, you will realize that a lot of math really goes into their every decision and the wins are not flukes.

I'll be watching some MTT videos next and hopefully I pick up some more things. The site is not known for the quality of their MTT videos but the guy who makes a lot of the MTT videos is Jonathan Little and he was the WPT player of the year last year, so it should be good. By the way, he's 23 years old. Heheh

What it takes to win an MTT

I was playing this $25 buy in tourney over at Cake Poker the other night. We were almost to the bubble, 27 players left, 20 got paid, blinds were 400/800 and this was the situation


As you can see from the screenshot, I was in 15th place at that time. But that is actually not the point of this post. If you will take a look at the standings again. You will see 3 players with a comfortable chip lead. Wallst00 was in 1st place with about 33k in chips, Mantech in 2nd with about 25k in chips and grampstol was in 3rd with about 23K.

Just for fun, I decided to sharkscope the 3 chip leaders and these were the results

Wallst00 is a certified fish with an average ROI of -52%, Mantech had lost almost $1400 playing only 320 games and grampstol was also a loser with a -10% ROI and was even on Tilt at that time. And these were the guys with the huge chip lead in this tournament. heheh. As added info, you should know that Sharkscope captures the results of MTTs and SNGs in their Cake stats. So this is pretty much a good profile of these players.

So what does this mean? Is there a conspiracy going on ? Why the heck are certified losers doing well on this MTT? Does this mean I should also play like a fish to win an MTT ?

Not necessarily. But it does point out something important about the dynamics of MTT play. In order to win an MTT, you need to accumulate chips. To accumulate chips, you need to take risks. You cannot expect to win an MTT by playing straight up ABC poker. You may get in the money, but you will be so shortstacked that you would have a slim chance of making the final table where the good money is.

The 3 players happened to be in the chip lead because they are fishes. And fishes love to take risks. They just need a lucky streak or two and they accumulate huge stacks. But 95% of the time, they also bust out early and hence the negative total profits.

I am not saying that you should change your style and suddenly become loose and aggressive. I am just saying thru this example that sometimes to win an MTT, you will need to take certain risks that goes against normal poker logic. It may be something like chasing a flush draw during the early part even if the odds are against you. Or doing a squeeze play in the SB with a small pocket pair. The most common situation is going all-in even though you already know it will be a 50/50 race. It is finding the right balance between your normal tight/correct play and looking for situations where you can take a risk with acceptable odds. That is what it takes to win an MTT.

Just in case you're wondering how I did, I busted out shortly after taking these screenshots when I went all in with 3-3 and got called by Jacks. It may be a dumb move in restrospect but looking at the situation, I was shortstacked with an M less than 10 and was definitely not going to wait until I was blinded out. There are many situations where I would have been called by AK or AQ. And then I would have been slightly ahead. So I was just following my own advice. Heheh.

A Comedy of Errors

Warning : Non poker related post.

If you've been wondering why I haven't updated my blog for a while, well its because I've been out of the country. I was on a one week journey to INDIA. Emphasis on the journey as it was really an eye-opening experience. Imagine 5 hotels in 6 days including 7 hour car rides, crazy Indian drivers and multiple flight transfers. It was like being part of the Amazing Race except that the prize for finishing first was diarrhea and malaria. A quick summary of events below:

It all started when I arrived in the Mumbai airport and was immediately met by a thick white smoke and a burning smell. It seems that one of the airport lights had a malfunction and was actually burning up as we were passing through immigration. It was suffocating and our eyes were stinging from the smoke as the queue slowly inched its way to the front.

We came out of the airport and our pick up service was nowhere in sight. We had to call him up multiple times before we figured out that the driver was waiting in the wrong terminal. Once we were on our way to the hotel, he decides to take a shortcut and we ended up entering a street filled with tons of people, food stalls, cows and not another car in sight. Obviously, this was his cue to get lost and he had to drive around a couple of times before he found the correct hotel.

Once we got there, the receptionist told us that the hotel was fully booked even though we had a guaranteed reservation. They were nice enough to transfer us to a different hotel but that took another car ride by the clueless driver who didn't speak english. All's well that ends well as we finally booked a room and sank to a blissful sleep.

Next day, we had to take a 4 hour car ride to the factory we were visiting. When we were about 15 kms away, this group of truck drivers decided that they were going to hold a protest about the high toll fees and basically just barricaded this major intersection. (see pic) This caused a huge traffic jam and we were pretty much stuck in the middle of nowhere for another 2 hours. The police eventually came and we expected them to finally break up the barricade. But we were wrong, it appears that a politician was already there doing a dialogue so the policeman were just lounging around eating guavas in the shade. Parang pinas ah.


Eventually we gave up and just turned around. We were hot, dirty, tired and there was really no toilet around. During the barricade, we had to go to this huge field filled with crows to pee. You can hear them going SQUARK, SQUARK and looking at you with an evil eye while you had your schlong in your hand and trying to do your business. Mweheheh

Some notes about India

1. Crazy Drivers - seriously, if you thought it was bad in the Philippines. They don't compare to the average Indian Driver. Horns are continually used by everyone. They drive up to 80 to 100 kmh in these really narrow streets, honking their horn for people, bicycles, motorcycles and trucks to get out of their way. They even do double overtakes. This is when the car ahead of us decides to overtake the car in front of him and our driver decides it was the correct time to overtake both of them at the same time. So we were three cars trying to get ahead of each other in a parallel line in a narrow street going 80 km per hour while a huge truck was barreling at us from the other way.

2. Dirty - foreigners are always complaining about the dirty streets of Manila, but the good news is, the streets of India are dirtier. You can see pretty much garbage everywhere you looked. I went to this shopping mall in Chennai which was highly recommended by some of the Indian people I talked to. I was expecting a kind of SM like experience. Well, I was wrong. It was basically a dark building, dirt smudges everywhere, warm and smelly. Granted it had the usual brand names like Guess, Nike, etc. But the rat walking down the aisle sort of gave it a unique flavor.

3. People - Indian people are actually very nice and warm. Everywhere we went, we always found them accomodating and eager to talk to us. They are hospitable similar to Filipinos. The main difference is probably the smell. Heheh .... to put it politely, let's just say that 1 out of 2 people you meet might have a funky smell. But I don't think its really their fault, but more because of the food that they eat. Which brings us to ...

4. Food - the food in India is unique. If you're used to white rice and adobo and is not flexible culinary wise, then I don't think you'll have a good time. Traditional fare is a flat bread called roti or naan. And then you'll have some curry that you can dip it in. Curry could be chicken, mutton or vegetable based. But majority of the people are vegetarians. Hot and Spicy is standard and should be expected for everything that they serve you unless you make a special request. Personally, I found the food quite OK and had a nice time with the different tastes and textures. Obviously, bottled water is a must, anything canned like Coke or Sprite is also OK. No beef in general as cows are considered sacred.

5. Expensive Hotels - I do not exaggerate but the hotels in India are one of the most expensive in Asia and maybe even the world. A four star level hotel would cost you 8,000 pesos per night at the minimum and the quality is not even that good. I wondered about this and my Indian colleague told me that it was a matter of supply and demand. The hotels there are almost always fully booked so the rates were much much higher than everyone else.

Generally, I found INDIA quite a feast for the senses both visually and otherwise. Although I had a hard time adjusting to all the noise, crowds and smells at first, I have to say that it kinda grew on me in the 6 days that I was there. It is not as bad as some people would have you believe, but obviously it will not be a popular tourist attraction anytime soon. You can see obvious signs of economic growth with all the infrastructure construction going on and I hope to see improvements in the years to come.

Usually, when I come home from a trip to let's say Singapore or Hongkong where everything works efficiently, I usually feel a nostalgic sense of regret as to why the Philippines could not be like those places. Well, this time around when I came back and arrived at the NAIA. I actually felt relief and elation that I was back in Manila. Even with all the crazy politics, crime and corruption, we're actually not too bad. If that barricade had happened here lets say at the corner of Edsa and Ortigas, you'll probably see our police hosing down the protestors and dispersing the rally. And all the drivers in the cars going "Yep, hose them all down, they deserve it for making me late for my meeting, throw in a tear gas canister there just to be sure" Heheh ....

Diversify your Bankroll

We always hear people talk about the importance of bankroll management in poker. It is one of the cardinal rules that one must follow in order to be successful in this fickle game.

For newbies out there who are somewhat confused as to what it is, bankroll management is basically playing within what your money allows. You only play at certain limits and you make sure you have a buffer such that a sudden bad run of cards will not eat up all of your bankroll. As sure as the sun rises, there will be times when you lose money not because you are playing like a donkey, but just because of variance (cards not falling your way even though you get your money ahead). You have to make sure that you have enough money to absorb these downswings and live to fight another day.

Even the best players in the world would go bankrupt in an instance if they did not follow good BR management. So its importance has to be emphasized again and again.

There are many rules out there being touted by different pros as to what is the correct level. From 20x your buy in to 100x your buy in. Another advise that we usually hear is to make sure that only 5% of your total bankroll is in play at any one time. If you ask my opinion as to what the correct level is, I would also not be able to give you a definite answer. I think it depends pretty much on your comfort level. I am a somewhat conservative player who only plays SNGs and MTTs. So my current bankroll is usually falling somewhere between 50x to 80x my playing limit. I am not saying it is the correct level. Some would probably say its too conservative, but I have been moderately successful following this personal guideline, so I stick with it.

But enough of bankroll management for the meantime. That is not actually what I wanted to write about. There are many great articles in the net which discusses this topic better, so just browse around and I’m sure you’ll find something that would suit your style.

What I wanted to talk about is DIVERSIFICATION. In finance, diversification is basically a risk management technique where you mix a wide variety of investments within a portfolio. You want to make sure that the fluctuations of any one investment has minimal impact on the overall performance of your finances. So if you have let’s say $1000 to invest. You wouldn’t want to put everything in the stock market even if it offers the highest return . The ideal move is to put some in the stock market, some in bonds and keep a small portion in liquid cash. So if the stock market suddenly crashes overnight, you are still protected.

In simple terms, it’s basically saying “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”.

So what the heck does this have to do with poker ? Well, in much the same way, it is highly risky to have all your bankroll in one poker site. Yes, that poker site has been good to you. Yes, that poker site offers the best rakeback deal. And yes, that poker site gives reload bonuses every 2 weeks.

But you have to also know that there is very limited regulation governing the operation of online poker in general. Poker Site offices are usually located in remote places like Kahnawake which is actually an Indian reserve located somewhere south of Canada. There's a good reason why they're located in such remote places and I don't think they have customer service centers where you can go and personally complain if you suddenly find your account short of one thousand dollars. Also, don’t fool yourself into thinking that there is some almighty Gaming Commision that has regulatory and control powers over these sites. The poker site could just decide to close for any arbitrary reason and your bankroll is pretty much fucked. Just read the horror stories in the different forums. If these guys decide to fuck you over, you pretty much can’t do anything but bend over and take it.

Let’s take the case of the Ultimate Bet Scandal where Superuser accounts have been proven to exist for more than 4 years to cheat players of millions of dollars. You know what the Kahnawake gaming commission decided? It asked Ultimate Bet to refund these monies back into the player accounts that have been affected. But the commission really doesn’t have any idea of the actual amount scammed nor who were the players affected. You were probably born in Mars if you think that Ultimate Bet will reveal the true extent of the cheating.

Then they fine UB $1.5 Million for the violation which UB would probably gleefully withdraw from their secret account where all the cheating money went in the first place. As my daughter would say after acing her tests, CHICKEN!! If the commission was actually regulating, common sense dictates that they should have caught on to the scam years ago.

Just think about it, why would you cut the hand that feeds you? In much the same way that the wall street CEOs got away with murder in the ongoing US financial crisis. UB is basically getting just a slap in the hand. In fact, I have just received an email from UB yesterday with another great reload bonus in celebration of their highly successful asshumping of the ordinary poker player. =)

Another great example is Moneybookers. Did we have any recourse when they suddenly decided to shut us Asians down? Heck, we can whine all we want in our forums but at the end of the day. They said FUCK YOU to us and we said THANK YOU. If you had all your bankroll in a site where they only accept Moneybookers, then its highly irritating to have to figure out a way how to get your own hard earned money back in your grubby hands.

So how do you protect yourself? Well, you can’t really do anything except cry to your mommah if a poker site decides to cheat you or suddenly freezes your bankroll or worse, closes shop. But you can reduce the risk by keeping your bankroll spread in 3 or 4 different sites. This way, even if something happens to one, its basically just 20% to 25% of your total bankroll.

If you’re a beginner, don’t worry too much about diversifying. You probably don’t have enough online money to do this anyway. But I hope you get the point that I’m trying to say. Bankroll management (having enough buy-ins) is key and should be every player’s primary concern. But there is nothing to lose if you also diversify your bankroll. You actually gain many advantages other than reducing your risk. You can avail of continuous bonuses by switching from one site to the other and personally I find it’s a good way to avoid tilt. Going from one site where you are on a losing streak to another site usually makes a big difference on my outlook. Also, you are kept aware of all the promotions and tourneys being offered by the different sites such that you can choose the fishiest tables or the juiciest MTTs to play anytime of the day.

Are you a poker addict?

Did you know that there are now organizations offering assistance to help you get past your poker addiction ? YEP, evidence is the brochure above which somebody emailed to me as a joke but was actually from a real organization in Canada if I'm not mistaken. I certainly wasn't aware that it has now come to a point where online poker is seen as an addiction and people are needing outside help to crack the habit.

Weeeird....

The funny thing is they're saying that Poker is not a sport ........... err ... DUH .... obviously. Whoever claimed it was a sport in the first place must have some loose screws. The only thing we poker players can claim is that its a game that is more skill than luck. And this is obviously evidenced by the number of players who can win consistently at the game.

I am thinking that if you really do have a problem in controlling your finances with regards to your poker playing, then its a compulsive gambling issue rather than a poker issue. It just so happens that poker is the IN thing right now, so your previous gambling habits of betting in the casinos or the NBA are shifted to a different avenue.

So how do we differentiate between a compulsive gambler and your average poker player? Well, if you ask me, if you are playing poker without any intention of learning the math behind it and without any kind of bankroll management plan in place. Then you're pretty much a gambler who relies on luck.

The guy who studies poker theory and has a sound bankroll management plan is also gambling, we obviously cannot deny that. But since he is basing his decisions on mathematical probabilities and is managing his risk correctly. Then he is not much different from the entrepreneur or businessman who gambles by deciding to open a new store. He opens the store because he thinks it will do good and will make him a profit. Although he is not sure of this because of many factors that are beyond his control (economic conditions, competition, etc). But he tries to reduce his risk by coming up with a good business plan and makes sure that he has the capital to make a go of the business. Once he is successful, he then opens other branches.

The poker player is acting in the same rational manner as the businessman. He plays regularly because he is also expecting a profit and he also tries to reduce his risk (bad beats, tilting) by playing according to tried and tested mathematical concepts and via sound bankroll management.

So there should not be any kind of addiction talk involved. It is all about making positive expectation decisions. Simply put, you are playing because it is profitable to play. And it is just human nature to pursue something that is beneficial to you.

The ultimate test I guess is something along the lines of the following situation. Let's say your average ROI is 15% on your poker playing. Suddenly, due to global warming, the poker sites inexplicably experience a fresh wave of greed and decide to increase their rakes to 26% from its current average level of 10%.

If you are still playing poker after this increase, then you my friend are a compulsive gambler.

By the way, one of the primary characteristics of a compulsive gambler is his tendency to actively defend his habit and rationalize it. Which come to think of it is exactly what I am doing right now. Hmmm .........

Official Guide to Donkey Poker (Part 2)

In part 2 of our offical guide to Donkey Poker, we now discuss how you can tell for sure if you are an online donkey player or not. I have devised a very short quiz that will describe some attributes of the online donkey player, give yourself one (1) point everytime you have done anything similar to the things below, you can then check your results afterwards. Please be honest. This quiz is based on psychological mumbo jumbo and is 99.9% accurate.

1. You call pokerstars – jokerstars in chat everytime your pair gets beat by a bigger pair, a flush, a set even quads. Basically any hand that comes from behind to beat your hand sends you on a rant that online poker is rigged.

2. You type “Thanks for the chips, moron” when you go all in with your Ace Three, get called by Ace Queen. And the 3 miraculously appears on the river.

3. You block your sharkscope stats and don’t allow other people to see it.

4. You put anonymous negative comments on blogs where the writer is bragging about a big score.

5. You slowplay AAs. And you can’t believe it and blow your top when the guy in the Big Blind flops 2 pair with his 46 offsuit and serves you a Big Blind special.

6. You spend your savings on a killer computer set-up with the expectation that you will get the money back when you win at online poker even though you currently have a negative ROI.

7. You have lost more than a thousand dollars playing micro stakes and you feel that you are just experiencing variance. And that anytime soon, lady luck will smile on you.

8. You tell people that you are a poker pro. Even though you are playing poker for a living because you are a bum and have not held a proper job since college.

9. Somebody goes all in for his last remaining 170 chips. You are in the BB where the blinds are 75-150. It is folded to you and you auto click fold because you got dealt 8-3.

10. Your nickname in the poker sites are similar to the names of actual poker pros with slight mis-spellings. Example : PhillyHellmuth, Iveythe2nd, DanielNegrenew

Analysis of Results

3 or more points – Congratulations ! You are a true blue authentic donkey player. You deserve to sit with me in a poker table anytime, anyplace. You will be welcomed in many tournaments and players will clamour and fight to play a hand with you.

1 to 2 points – Semi Donkey. You have potential but something seems to be holding you back. You need to throw away your copy of Harrington and Super System and need to read Part 1 of the Official Guide to Donkey poker some more. Practice what is taught religiously. Also, change your nickname to AnniePuke or JamieFold.

0 points – Pathetic! You are a disgrace to the DONKEYASS (Donkey players Association). There is still a slight chance of improvement but you need to immediately change your playing style. Remember the DONKEYASS motto : Never fold a draw, always show a bluff and call everyone a MORON.

Disclaimer : Everything I write is done in good fun. If I inadvertently insult anyone, it is not deliberate. I myself have been guilty of some of these things in the past. So pare-pareho lang tayo. Heheh

Official Guide to Donkey Poker (Part 1)

In my ever continuing and lifelong quest to assist the donkey poker player in their mission to spew money in my direction , I present to you my gift. This is the donkey player’s guide to NL Holdem poker.

I will try to outline some situations that you will often encounter in your quest for poker greatness. These are hard borderline situations and it takes donkey poker players years and years of playing to develop the instinct to know how to deal with these situations. Well it’s your lucky day today as you have chanced upon this great blog. Now I unveil to you the secrets behind their thinking. The reason for their mojo. Its like skipping 2 years ahead in your poker education. If you follow these basic rules, I guarantee you that you’re on your way to getting the much coveted fish icon in Sharkscope.

1. Gut Shot Straight Draw after the flop. What do you do ?

Gut Shot Straight draws are your friend. Try to play this as often as possible. Just imagine, you have 4 outs out of the 40+ cards left in the deck. That’s almost like 10% man. The interest in your savings account only give you 3% at most. So lamang ka. Play this until the river. If you don’t hit anything, bluff big at the river as that’s the only way for you to win the hand.

2. KKs on an Ace High Board. You bet, your opponent raises you all in. What do you do ?

You only get KKs once out of every 221 hands. Imagine that. That’s like 0.4% man. Once in a blue moon kind of thing. Syempre if you get it, you have to make the most out of the opportunity especially since you’ve been getting nothing but junk hands for the past few turns. Fuck the Ace. Your opponent is most probably bluffing with his reraise all in. Payag ka ba nun ? It’s like he’s saying his dick is bigger than yours. Call. Make him learn his lesson.

3. Villain called your preflop raise, called your bet on the flop and raised your bet on the turn. You have middle pair. What do you do ?

Obviously the villain is bluffing. You can’t be cautious now, you already bet the flop and turn. You’ll look like a weakling if you check the river. And you can forget about folding, that’s like for sissies. The best move is to push all in on the river. This way villain is caught red handed with his bluff. Just imagine the feeling of contentment you'll get after you catch him with his weak-ass bluff.

4. You have suited connectors in SB. 4 limpers before you.

FOLD. Suited connectors are one of the most overrated hands in poker. Your opponents probably limped in with high cards, what are the chances of you winning a hand with a measly 78. It doesn’t matter if its suited. It certainly doesn’t matter that you have the correct odds to call. 78 has burned Phil Gordon more times than you can remember. Also, remember in 1978, when your grade school GF dumped you because you were just being honest and told her she was a blimp. Or that time when you went all in with 78 in a 3 suited board of 10, 9 , 8 ,7 and still lost. Certainly a bad luck hand. Obvious FOLD.

5. You have pocket JJs in BB. Villain A in early position raised. Villain B in middle position reraised. The guy in SB goes over the top of everyone and goes All in.

CALL. Villain A probably has A5, Villain B since he reraised probably has A 8 suited while guy in SB probably has AK. Three Aces already. What are the chances of the last remaining Ace coming up. Fucking Right babee. You’re way ahead with your Jacks. CALLLL



To be continued ??

Freerolls are not Free

There is nothing sweeter sounding to the ear of the poker player than hearing the word FREEROLL.

No Buy-in. Nothing to lose. Getting something for nothing. Libre. These are all phrases that we associate with the word FREEROLL.

And one cannot deny the value of the FREEROLL to the newbie poker player. It is a way to build a bankroll from scratch. In a third world country like the Philippines where almost 80% of your income go to basic needs like food and shelter. Filipinos don’t really have much disposable income to spend on leisure and entertainment expenses like poker. So for the poker fanatic, this is where FREEROLLS come in and it is like mana from heaven. Building a bankroll from 0 is probably one of the most satisfying achievements for a poker player.

But as you mature in this game and start winning consistently in whatever limit/game you play. Then freerolls can no longer be considered free. Why is that you may ask?

Freerolls are no longer free because there is now a cost associated with it. Uh-oh, what the heck is nova talking about ? Kaya nga FREE eh... how come you are talking about cost? No buy in nga diba?

The cost I am referring to is the opportunity cost. In economic terms, opportunity cost is defined as the value of a product forgone to obtain another product.

Translated to poker terms. The cost is the time that you spend playing the freeroll. Let’s say on average it is 4 hours. This 4 hours may not have too much value for the beginner as he has nothing better to do. But for the winning poker player, this 4 hours can be spent playing & winning at his usual game and limit whether it be SNGs or cash games.

The winning poker player has an average profit per hour that he is forgoing because he is playing the freeroll. So if a player on average earns $10/hour/table playing whatever his game is. In essence, it is the same as saying he paid $40 ($10 x 4 hours of play) to play that freeroll.

Of couse I am oversimplifying some things, but I am hoping you get my point. This point was reinforced to me last week when I tried to play one of those FPT Phase 1 freerolls. I said to myself. Let’s try it. Nothing to lose, right? But the play was just crazy. Half of the players were going all in on the first hand trying to double up. The other half were sitting out. They were probably thinking there’s another freeroll in 2 hours if I bust out. Some players were raising 8x the BB with junk hands. This is just plain weird as the only players who will call you with that kind of raise are the one who’ve got you beat.

In the end, I was so frustrated that I just went all in with a semi decent hand. Of course, I immediately busted out because I got called by somebody with QQ. Heheh

Let me be clear, I am not sour-graping about the bust-out. But I was disappointed with the play and I found it a waste of time. And it is not really the fault of the players, but more of the way the freerolls were structured. There were just too many phase 1 freerolls on offer such that players were hoping to get lucky on hail marys. The play would have been much better and more skill oriented if there were only a few phase 1 freerolls, because now players had a limited chance of qualifying and would not dare waste the opportunity.

But going back to my topic of opportunity cost and applying it to this situation. The time one could have spent playing a cash game, SNGs or even a low buy in MTT where you had a good chance of ITM was pretty much lost playing a free for all where luck was the only deciding factor. So it should not be considered free.

If we were to get really technical and do a comparison so that you can look at it mathematically.

Let’s assume - Winning player A who is earning an average of $10 an hour plays the freeroll. Freeroll finishes in 4 hours. 200 players played. 10 seats awarded. His chance of winning is 10/200 which is actually accurate with the way the players were playing. So how much should the prize (P) be for it to be worth his time? We can compute this thru a simplified break even analysis

10/200 x (P) = $10 x 4
P = $800

Yep, the value comes out to 800 DOLLARS or 36,000 PESOS. That means the prize had to be more than 36,000 PESOS for it to be worth his time. But wait, the prize for the phase 1 freeroll is only a ticket to a phase 2 freeroll (worth $25 or 1000 pesos) where the player has to again roll the dice of luck to finally win the ticket worth only 10,000 PESOS.

So LUGI siya diba? Another way of looking at it is the player paid $40 to have a 1/20 chance at winning $25.

Comparing this to the freeroll player who is just a beginner. Or the guy who has a negative profit expectation. Their break even equation becomes

10/200 x (P) = $0
P=$0

For him, playing the freeroll is certainly worthwhile. His expected breakeven prize is 0 so anything more than 0 is advantageous to him.

I am not maligning the Pokerstars freeroll system. It is designed to attract as many new players into the game as possible (who might become real money players in the future). In fact I am supportive of the way Pokerstars has opened the game to thousands of players with their generous freerolls.

I am only trying to make a point that once you reach a certain hourly profit level. Freerolls are no longer free. They are still free in the traditional sense that you don't put up any money, but a winning player should now check the prize against his hourly profit level to see if it is worth playing. I may have assumed some of the values, but I think the arguments are logical. What do you think?

Rakeback, 2nd Accounts & 1st Place

There are various reasons why a poker player might want to open a 2nd account in the same site. But the most common ones are:

1. Rakeback

Out of beginner ignorance or you just plain forgot, your first account was registered without any rakeback. So now you're playing your usual volume, but without the benefit of rakeback. This is just plain stupid as rakeback is free money. There is no reason why you shouldn't enjoy this benefit. Whether you are a small time player or a regular grinder, free money is free money. My rakeback is less than $50 per month, but its still significant especially converted to pesos. Where on earth do you get 2000 pesos a month by just doing what you're normally doing anyway.

2. Bonus Whoring

As you may have noticed, initial deposit bonuses are HUGE compared to reload bonuses. Some other sites also offer freerolls and other perks to new players. Case in Point is Full Tilt's 100% up to $600 initial deposit bonus. If you are a regular grinder who can hit the volumes, then its like claiming $600 for free.

3. Cheating in Tournaments

There have been numerous cases in the past where a person registers for a tournament using 2 accounts. Then deliberately loses his chips to his other persona. Double the chips means a better chance of winning the tournament. But Poker sites have wised up to this and have installed safeguards against similar incidents from happening.

There are other possible reasons I can think of why you would want to open a 2nd account. You are already considered a shark in your regular limits and other players avoid you, so you want to squeeze out some easy profit using a different nickname.

Obviously the main concern is the fact that poker sites do not allow multiple accounts from the same person. You might be banned and worse your bankroll could be confiscated. The sites usually check the IP address and if 2 persons play in the same table using the same IP address, then you're in deep shit.

So how does one open a 2nd account safely and legally ?

This method was actually suggested to me by one of the helpdesk staff of a rakeback site. So I am assuming that this is legal. Basically all you need to do is to open the 2nd account using the name of your wife or brother or sister or any relative who lives in the same house with you. I'm guessing it could even be your 4 year old niece who thinks a flush is what you do with the toilet after peeing. =)

So now, you have a valid reason why 2 accounts are coming from the same IP address. Again, this is all fine and the poker sites will have no say in the matter as long as you don't play the 2 accounts together in the same tournaments as you will be in danger of getting accused of collusion/cheating. As long as you make sure that you only play 1 account at a time, then it should be safe.

So how do you fund the 2nd account? Well, if you're just after rakeback. You can just use the transfer feature of the poker site and transfer money from the 1st account to the 2nd account. Obviously if your wife was really playing. Then its legal for you to give her a bankroll.

If you're after the initial bonus, then it needs an initial deposit. It was easier before when moneybookers was still around because moneybookers itself had the transfer money feature internally. You let your wife/sister/niece open a new account in MB. You withdraw some money to MB from your poker bankroll. Transfer it to your relative's account thru MB less some minor fees. Then make a new deposit using the new account. And voila.

Without moneybookers, it gets a bit complicated since you have to fund the new account using a different e-wallet account than the one you currently have. But it should still be OK to open lets say a new click2pay account under your relative's name and have it verified. Its just a longer process but still possible. I would guess depositing thru western union in Pokerstars is safest and fastest since they have no way of checking who made the deposit.

Withdrawal is also simple if you did not open a 2nd e-wallet account. Just transfer any winnings back to the 1st account and withdraw the same way you normally do.

So there you have it. Now you can play with rakeback and avail of another bonus. A word of warning though, you do this at your own risk. I can assure you that it works because I know other people who have done it this way. But as with anything profitable, it comes with its own set of probables. Just don't blame me if your account is suddenly frozen. =D

Of course, if you are opening a new rakeback account. Please do allow other Filipino players (like me) to refer you. Heheh. You get the full percentage rakeback and benefits same as if you just opened it by yourself. But at least, the referring player gets something that would have gone to the rakeback site lang anyway. Sayang din.

Out in the poker front, I finally nailed down 1st place in an online tourney after a long long time. Woohoo. See below



The catch is it was just a $2 MTT. Hyuk hyuk. Why you may ask am I playing a $2 tourney in the first place? Well, as I said in a previous post, I was having a bad September start. So I wanted to gain some confidence back. I'm not that pig headed to want to stick to a certain limit that I already play in. I'll play low buy in MTTs because even though the winnings are low, the players are well to put it mildly, god-awful. It's actually a good strategy. Part bankroll management and part "how to break a losing streak" kind of move.

Btw, my personal thanks to Pepesmith of Pokermanila for including my blog in the Pinoy blogroll. I appreciate the gesture and hope I can give something back to the poker community thru the contents of the blog. Also, if you are a new reader, please feel free to agree or disagree to whatever I write down here. I am no expert and like everyone else, I consider myself an avid student of the game. I certainly welcome any comments that would make our poker-playing a better and more profitable experience.

Double or Nothing

In the Ongame network (Pokerroom, Mansion, Redkings...), there is a Double or Nothing SNG. It is basically what it sounds like. You start with 10 persons and top 5 get double their buy in. So if its a $20 SNG, 1st to 5th get $40 back.

You might say, so what ? It sounds like a low risk, low reward kind of deal.

My thinking is this type of SNG becomes relevant when you are chasing a big bonus and you are purely an SNG/MTT type of player like me. For one, you can probably fold your way to 5th without playing too many hands. I'm sure most of us have experience where we accidentally sit out an SNG and we end up in 4th or 5th place.

Secondly, you can open 10 tables at a time and not pay too much attention and I'm guessing you ITM half of it with not much trouble. Obviously since 50-50 ang chance mo. So break even at worst and if you get lucky you earn some money. The important thing is it ends fast so you have extra time to open more sets. All the while having a great chance of getting ITM and earning points to get your bonus. Logical ba ?

Its different from a Heads-up SNG where you also get double your money if you win. In a headsup situation, you have to be constantly focused and aggressive. But in 10 person SNGs, you can pick your spots and wait for the donkeys to bust out.

I've read somewhere before about certain players who chase SuperNova Elites or monthly bonuses. So they open like 16 traditional SNG tables at a time. But if you sharkscope them, they're losing thousands of dollars in the games that they play. They're expecting the bonus to make up for the losses which is kind of stupid.

So yes, Double or Nothing SNGs are low risk-low reward. But if you factor in the bonus. It becomes a low risk-high reward kind of move. As poker players, aren't those the exact situations we are constantly on the lookout for ? =)

A.S.S.

ASS stands for A Sucky September..

After a very profitable August, September is starting out pretty badly. I know that this is old news and all poker players have been complaining about the same stuff over and over. But I cannot count the times that I've gotten my money way ahead this month and ended up getting sucked out. Get it - sucked out - sucky september. Mwehehe - corny ba.

Seriously, its just overwhelming sometimes. I am experienced enough to know that it is just variance. But getting your set beat by a runner runner straight will really make you explode in anger. I was squeezing the mouse so hard and was really tempted to smash it against the monitor. But I suddenly remembered that the widescreen LCD monitor is brand spanking new. Nyeheheh... courtesy of the very profitable august.

Oh well, its just the beginning of the month. I'm hoping all the bad mojo has been used up and it picks up soon. I'm not really down that much but I think I got spoiled by last month's results. My ITM percentage in the August online tourneys was if I'm not mistaken close t0 40% and I made final table 5 times.

Logically, one should recognize that this is an aberration and cannot be sustained. But being human, hope springs eternal and you always think that the lucky streak will not end. Why do you think so many people go to the casinos or bet the Lotto. Or even say 'No Deal" to Kris Aquino when it's obvious that you should take the money and run.

Its in our nature. We are optimistic to a fault and sometimes that leads to disaster. I was in the gym the other day and was watching this overly excited guy getting offered 300K+ in Deal or No Deal with the 2M still in play and he was looking at his wife for some sign. But you can see in his eyes that he was already counting what he was going to do with the 2 Million. In the end, he pushed his luck too far and I believe he ended up with 5 pesos or something.

It was painful watching him deflate right in front of millions of people when his box was opened and he saw the miniscule amount. Obviously, people in the gym were muttering "Sayang, he should have taken the 300K offer". But if they were there all caught up in the moment, I believe they would have gleefully said no deal also.

And its the same with poker. Sometimes we go on a rush and get monster after monster or hit top pair 3 hands in a row. And we get this adrenaline rush so we continue raising with Ace high hands even though its obvious that the rush has passed. And we end up busting out on an overplayed hand.

Knowing when to fold and knowing when to say 'DEAL". It's all the same. It requires great discipline and wisdom amidst a sea of temptation. Here's hoping that when the time comes, and its our turn in the hot seat, we have learned enough to know that we're beat and willingly lay down those KKs when there is an Ace on the board.

Moneybookers

Moneyfookers, Moneysuckers ...

Well, the hottest news right now is the sudden withdrawal of moneybookers from servicing online gambling transactions of Asian Players. It's a big blow to majority of online Filipino poker players who use MB as their primary deposit and withdrawal option.

Some are even predicting the death of online poker as they know it. But that's quite exaggerated already. The Asian market is the biggest growing market and I think new payment processors will come up and service the gap left by moneybookes. The market is too lucrative to really pass up. So I'm not really panicking.

I am actually more curious to know the reason behind the moneybookers withdrawal. I am sure it is not because the owners suddenly became born again Christians and developed some kind of moralistic outlook in life similar to the Anito chain of motels. They're still willing to service their European customers. Only Asian players got shafted. So they're still be considered accessories to gambling in God's point of view if that is what they're worried about.

So why ? What is it that is unique to us that would merit this sudden change of policy? There wasn't any law that was passed similar to the UIGEA in any Asian country as far as I know. If I had to make a wild guess, I would think that it has something to with UK laws and money laundering (Moneybookers is based in the UK). With the sudden growth of players from Asia who primarily use MB and with the amount of money passing through them. Maybe they think they should err in the side of caution rather than find themselves with their pants down and getting accused of laundering triad money or other similar activities. What do you think ? Heheh ... pretty far fetched ?

As to my personal playing, I'm not really that affected since I am mostly a recreational player and there is still Click2pay for me. The high fees I consider part and parcel of the convenience of withdrawing thru an ATM. I know others are not too lenient and don't like C2P at all. But beggars can't be choosers. I'm just hoping that C2P doesn't fall to the same fate as MB as I'm sure they'll encounter a sudden surge in their members who are looking for ways to deposit to Pokerstars.

But even if C2P encounters the same fate, I still won't think it is the end of the online poker era. No matter what happens, I think check payments will always be there. The poker sites will always give this to you as an option. And checks are basically one of the oldest payment modes there is. Even if it takes a month to clear, it will still clear and the money will still be yours. Depositing might be a problem, but I think Western Union and other money remittance services will still work out. Check payments and money remittance are used for a variety of other purposes other than gambling so it cannot be regulated in such a direct way.

So even without Moneybookers, I will still play in sites where I already have money and where C2P is not yet accepted. I will just let it sort out by itself. I am confident that online poker is a phenomenon that is here to stay and people and financial institutions will always find a way to fund their money-making transactions.

A most painful 3rd

I was going to do a different post today regarding how to open 2nd accounts in poker sites. But this Cake Poker tourney last night just blew my mind away. Results below

Well, 3rd place is not bad, you might say. But it was the way I got 3rd that was the clincher. Allow me to vent a little and see if you agree with me how painful this thing was.

We were down to 3. I was 2nd in stack size. Big Blind and I get Q 10 diamonds. Hugewad (3rd in stack) who is in SB just completes. So I check. Flop is Q, 7, 8 with 2 diamonds. So I have top pair and flush draw. Hugewad bets about 3/4 pot. I raise him all in. He instacalls and shows Q fucking 3. I had him dominated.

Well of course, a 7 and a high card had to show up which made us split the pot. This was a sure 2nd that got clobbered by poker fate.

Immediately on the next hand, I was in SB and I get AK spades. Yep. So I raise 3xBB. Mr Joe who was in BB had me covered by about 10,000 in chips immediately reraises me all in. I tank for a while, but what can you do ? I was going for first, the blinds were high and this was as good a hand as I was going to get.

So I call, and he shows AK diamonds. Heheh ..... So at most, a split pot. But nooo ... the poker gods had to have the last laugh. Diamond on the flop and runner runner diamonds to boot me out in 3rd place. Mweheheheheh ............

A win that became a split pot and a split pot that became a bust out in back to back hands ...Sigh.... no wonder you go crazy playing this game.

Close but not quite .....

I made a post yesterday noting that I had made ITM in the past couple of tournaments that I played. But I couldn't break through to top 3. Last night I was busy doing some research for a presentation that I had to make, so I fired up one of the 180 man $4.40 buy in tourneys over at Pokerstars to play on the side.

Well, you can see the results below:

I made 2nd place which is quite nice considering the $4 investment. But still SO close that I can taste it ... The main difference was that I played a little more tightly than my usual game. This was done as part experiment and partly because I was doing something else.

The end result was actually good - 2nd place. But because I played quite tight. When we went heads up, I only had about 40k in chips and my opponent had more than 200K. When you're in a situation like this, you have to push and push hoping to double up.

Final hand was my AJ suited againts his pocket 5s and as usual no luck for me.

OK so now what ? Well, it looks like I have to find the right balance between the aggressiveness before and the tightness last night to finally win one. But I'll take 2nd anyday in these kinds of small tourneys. =)

ITM is a bitch

During the long weekend, I managed to place ITM in a couple of tournaments that I played. But pretty small scale. $5,000 guaranteed over at Cake netted me $75. Next day, $4000 guaranteed, ITM again but for a measly profit of $60.

Last night, I played the 3K guaranteed at Full Tilt. Finished 7th for $150.

It's like I'm playing well enough to get paid, but I cannot seem to breach Top 3 where the good money is. Its not like I'm playing too passive. I fully understand the top heavy nature of MTTs and I really go aggressive once I hit ITM, but I can't seem to win the 50/50 races.

In fact, my feeling is I'm maybe playing too aggressive. Case in point is last night's FTP tourney, I had about medium stack down to about 12 players. And I was willing to race with A-10 twice against low stack pushers. One showed 8-8 and I lost. The other showed 4-4 and I lost again. This totally devastated my stack and probably cost me top 5.

Of course, rivering a flush and getting beat by a bigger flush was the kicker. But that's poker.

I am thinking whether I should tone down the aggressiveness a bit to place higher. But my mantra is Top 3 or nothing and the only way to do this especially in low buy in donkaments is to be willing to race. Hopefully my luck picks up in the succeeding tourneys and I finally take down one of these suckers. =)

WCOOP satellite win and trading W$

As you probably know, the Pokerstars Word Championship of Online Poker happens this September and satellites are in full swing right now. WCOOP offers humungous guarantees and is one of the biggest events in online poker.

To make the story short, I managed to qualify for Event No. 6 which is a $530 buy-in, $3M guaranteed tournament thru the Steps qualifiers.

If you're not aware, Steps are basically like playing a normal SNG. Placing in the top two usually geta you a ticket for Step 2. Then you play a Step 2 SNG and if you place in that, then you get Step 3 and so on.

For me, its better than playing a large qualifying tournament for 2 reasons. One, I believe I have the necessary expertise in SNGs to at least compete and have a fair chance of winning. Two, it is perfect for the limited time I have. I can just play a step 1 SNG now, then play step 2 tomorrow or even a week from now. I am not forced to sit for 5 hours straight or wake up in an ungodly hour just to play a qualifier.

Anyway, last night I won one of the Step 4 SNGs and in return I get the $530 ticket for Event 6. I was quite happy since my investment was less than $40. Until I checked the schedule and saw that it will start at 3AM and was a 2 day tournament. It also coincided with a trip to India that I had to go to.

I know that $3M is a great guarantee and hope springs eternal blah blah. But I am quite realistic and I know that my chances in a field of 5,000+ players is quite slim.

So it was an easy decision to make. I unregistered for the tournament and I got 530 W$ in return. This is the first time I got W$ in pokerstars and I googled what I could do with it. Well, it seems that I can use this just like real money and spend it on tournament entry fees. But it was only allowed for special event tourneys like the WCOOP and other similar events. I couldn't use it for a normal $12 tournament or even SNGs. It seems that T$ are better since these could be used for almost any tourney.

So I googled some more and found that there are sites that allowed you to sell these W$ for real money less a certain processing fee. So I clicked on the first site which offered me $482 real dollar in exchange for my 530W$. I arranged the transaction over at Pokerstars and that was it. My pokerstars account was richer by $482.

In hindsight, I actually made a mistake. It seems that there are a lot of sites which offer this exchange service and just like banks, they gave different rates. Its a good thing that the first site I clicked actually offered the best rate when I canvassed the other sites. So all's well that ends well.

Right now, I will most probably try the steps again and see if I can get another ticket. Heheh .... Maybe this time I might be tempted to play it.

Like rain on a hot summer day

As I noted in a previous post, I wanted to start playing tourneys again motivated by the recent big wins of local players. But as usual my schedule was not allowing me much of anything. I think I played 2 tourneys from that time and that's pretty much it.

I don't remember too much of the details but I know I quickly busted out in those 2 tourneys. One was a $20+2 buyin, the other a $30+3. Getting back to the tournament groove after playing purely SNGs for a good couple of months was turning out harder than I expected.

Well, that was until Sunday. For the first time in a long long while, I had the Sunday afternoon off. So for kicks, I registered for a $5+0.50 buy in $500 added tourney over at Pokerroom. 630+ players joined so prize pool was around $3,700, top 70 got paid. I usually don't like joining these kinds of tourneys as the number of players was just too much for the free time that I had.

But what the heck, I wasn't doing anything and I needed the practice. I played my usual tight game, looking for spots to steal. Doubled up with 33 against AQ. Then back to tight again.

I then got AA with about half of the field gone. Lots of small stacks. Somebody goes all in, somebody calls. I go over the top and that was enough to coast me to the money.

With about 50 left, I was pretty much low stack but was happy to make it to the money although 41-50 was only around 4x my buy-in. My M was already in the 6 to 8 range when I get A3 suited diamonds in middle position.

Shoot, let's take a chance. I go all in hoping for the steal. And I get two callers. Fuucking Sheeeeit. First Caller shows AK. Second Guy shows 99. Well, I was pretty much drawing dead. But surprise surprise. Flop was K rag rag with 2 diamonds. I was chanting "diamonds, diamonds" as the turn came. Blank. River was the lovely 7 of diamonds. Yahahahah !! Guy with AK was cursing me. Calling me a fish and other nasty poker names. Blamed the poker site for cheating and on and on. I pushed, he called with a better hand. Nobody made a bad decision. It was just the poker gods favoring me that day. And besides, its $5.50 dude.

That triple-up was enough to get me to top 10 playing my usual game. Don't remember much of the final table details. I just played it the way I would play an SNG. I knew that I stole a lot as the table was tight.

When the smoke cleared, I finished 2nd for a cool $550. Nothing big but not too shabby either. First was $900, but the chip leader got 5 times my chips when we went heads up. I doubled up once. Then pushed with K4. He called with KQ and that was it.

Hard to describe the feeling of finishing 2nd out of 600 plus after not playing tourneys for a while. The picture says it better. =)

Playing Break-even Poker

Don't you just hate it when you've played a good number of games, and you check your stats, and realize that you've just been playing break even poker for the past few weeks.

For a grinder who plays a huge number of games, this is acceptable because of rakeback. But for myself and my limited number of games, rakeback is very small and negligible. So playing breakeven feels like a waste of time.

This is exactly the situation I find myself in July. Nothing really special. No big win streaks, no big losses either.

Of course, its better than losing. But at least when you're losing, you're trying to actively find the leak and analyzing your hands. When you're coasting along winning some and then losing it back, its like you're lost in a maze and you don't know where to go.

You don't know if you want to change your current playing strategies as it could just be variance and your playing style is already optimal. Changing something might suddenly cause you to play sub-optimal.

I think this is where playing with a group of poker savvy friends become a benefit. At least you can show them your hands and let them analyze it to see if improvements can be made. Unfortunately, my group of friends are all beginners in this game so I have to wait and let them mature before I can even discuss hands with them.

Oh well, at least I'm not complaining about a really unlucky streak. Let's hope it picks up in the next few days. =)

Back to the Tournament Trail?

I heard from pokermanila that an online Pinoy player just placed 3rd in the Pokerstars Sunday Warm up for a cool $62K and change. That's about 2.8 million pesos. Very nice score, indeed !!!

I've been stuck playing just SNGs this year due to time constraints. But this news has sort of gotten me thinking of trying the tourneys again.

I did fairly well last year (not to the point of reaching 5 figure cashes) when I exerted time and effort to join regular tourneys. My win/cash rate was OK and I had a positive ROI. My main problem was that tourneys just take too damn long and the good ones start after midnight philippine time. I am not exactly young and I need to get at least 6 or 7 hours of sleep to function well the next day.

Also, it was extremely frustrating to play 5 or 6 hours at a time, then just place in the money for 2x or 3x your buy-in. Tourneys are designed be top heavy but it really takes a lot of patience and a good amount of luck to hit top 3.

So hats off to the pinoy player. And this should show people who are still on the fence about online poker its potential. Imagine sitting at home, playing what is essentially a game in your PC and earning 2 million pesos.

Of course I'm oversimplifying things, but you get my point. =)

Multi-tabling SNGs

Let me just quickly write down my thoughts on this issue as this is relevant to my play now. For players just starting to multi-table, this should be an interesting post.

You will always hear from poker players everywhere that playing SNGs is all about the volume. Initially, I was hesitant to agree. I always thought that ROI was a better gauge of success. Profits will eventually follow. But I now realize I am wrong about this and will explain why. This is probably old information for some of you grinders, but should be good for the beginners.

My ave ROI in SNGs as a whole is somewhere in the 15% range. It is a decent ROI but this is achieved usually playing only 1 or 2 tables at a time. Assuming that I play 2 games in a day. This will total 60 games in a month. Assuming I play 11+1 SNGs. Then my total expected monthly profit for SNGs is 60 x 11 x 0.15 = $99

Now, let's see what happens if I multi-table SNGs which I have been doing only recently. For arguments sake, I will assume that I only play 3 tables at one time which is easily achieved. This means that I can play 6 games in one day or a total of 180 games in a month. Obviously my ROI will drop as I now pay less attention to each table. There are many calculations out there about how much your average ROI drops for every table you add. But for simplicity's sake, I will assume it will drop to a low of 6% which is a very conservative estimate for 3 tabling. Then my total monthly profit becomes 180 x 11 x 0.06 = $118.80

Even at this very simple monthly progression of 1 table to 3 tables and assuming a big drop in ROI. Your profit still grew by 20%. This is not even counting any rakeback or bonus or the added player points that you get for playing more games which translates to some value.

So same time spent for poker playing. But you get a higher overall profit at the end of the month. Common sense, right ?

Yes, your ave ROI drops. But at the end of the day, it is the time that you spend playing poker versus the profit that you get which is more relevant. In mathematical terms, it is the profit per hour.

OK, a note of warning. I am not saying that multi-tabling is automatically equivalent to better profits. The premise of this post assumes that you are a somewhat experienced winning player and you know the basics of SNG play, push/fold strategy, ICM, the relevance of Q and M, sklansky's gap concept, etc. Because as you begin to multi-table more and more tables, your decision time has to be quicker. Therefore, you have to be following clear cut rules on what hands to play/push/fold. There is not much time to analyze player tendencies and whether somebody is bluffing or not. It is all about making +EV decisions.

Therefore, the logic I have presented in this post is strictly not for beginners and especially not for negative ROI players. Beginners are better off learning the ropes by playing 1 table at a time. Only if you are already winning consistently in playing 1 table SNGs will you reap the benefits of multi-tabling.

As for myself, I have only started multi-tabling 3 tables consistently the past 2 months. So it is a little early to analyze my results. I have noticed a slight drop in my ROI, but so far so good. I will give further analysis on this maybe by the end of the year when I have accumulated more info.

Thanks for reading. =)

False Guarantees

Example No. 1
Car Battery company offers you 15 months full replacement warranty on their maintenance free whatchamacallit batteries. You happily buy one. Battery will almost all the time fail on the 16th or 17th month.

Obvious ba .... batteries are finite things... they will eventually lose the electrical charge and the plates will wear out. The battery companies have this computed exactly so their warranties will end right before this happens.

So those long warranties are actually marketing gimmicks. Very seldom do you encounter factory defective batteries since they're just plates enclosed in a box.

Example No. 2
Product on the internet ..... guaranteed to remove wrinkles, make your boobs grow bigger, make your dong longer .............100% satisfaction or your money back .

Gullible customer whips out credit card and swipes away .......... product comes to you via mail ... nicely packaged in a bottle with some murky green liquid inside .......... ooooh

Applies it religiously every day ........ waits the requisite 2 weeks stated on the box ............. looks at it ......... and doesn't see any difference .... except for a green fuzz that is growing on the shaft ..........

Livid with anger ... calls up the 1800 hotline which is now non existent ...... CHAching

Example No. 3
Announced Poker Tournament .... 500K Guaranteed ...........Buy in is only 5K........... WOW ..

Smaller print says that tourney will only start if 100 players are present ..........

Are you smarter than a 5th Grader ?
Math Question .... What is 5K multiplied by 100 ?
English Question .... What is the definition of GUARANTEE ?
Ethics Question ...... Are you even for real ?

Should you play poker online?

I usually go to the pokermanila site to browse around and hear about the latest poker gossip and events. It's a cool site and most of the people who post there are certified regulars in the poker scene. So the advice you read have varied degrees of helpfulness but would usually be based on logical grounding. So you do get nuggets of good information here and there.

Lately, I 've been seeing a lot of questions from newbies or not so newbies inquiring about whether they should be playing online or not. This just shows us that poker is slowly expanding its reach here in our country. I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents worth in a post especially since about 50% of my reader base also ask me the same question from time to time. I for one have gone through the same process of asking this question 2 years back. So I think I do have something to contribute.

The answer is an unequivocal YES.

It doesn't matter if you have money to spare or not. That's the beauty of online play. The options are so varied that you can choose to play 10 cent tables if you're just after the experience and just want to enjoy competitive play.

Of course, there's play money. But let's face it, there's not much fun in playing a game where there are zero stakes. Also, the dynamics of free play is totally different. People go all in on a whim and sometimes logic takes a back seat. So trying to develop your poker skills in free play is kind of useless. Its a good way to learn the basic rules but that's basically it. You'd be better off playing a poker video game as your AI opponents there are at least playing logically.

Freerolls which offer tickets or small cashes are slightly better. These are usually filled with 2 kinds of people. Newbies like you who are also learning the game and low stakes grinders who have lost their bankroll and can't afford to deposit anymore. In short, either unexperienced players or dumb players. So the skill you gain from playing with these people is also marginal.

By the way, I do have to make an exception. When I say freerolls, I am talking about those normal $50 freerolls or $100 freerolls that are offered by most sites on a daily basis. The qualifying freerolls for events like the Filipino Poker Tour are totally different. These are usually filled with good players who want to qualify for free.

The only way to improve is to play against someone who's better than you and to play with someone who has something to lose. So if you're a beginner. I would advise real money play even at the start. A small deposit of even just $20 to $50 will already get you tons of games at the lowest levels and the corresponding experience. Mix these with some freeroll tourneys and proper bankroll management and you're set for at least a few months of enjoyable poker.

After you lose your initial deposit, and yes, you will most probably lose it. Take time to reflect and see if you're willing to invest some more money to improve your poker skills.

The relevant question that you can ask at this stage is : Will I make money playing online poker?

If you want my honest opinion, the answer is again YES. Provided that you have developed or are willing to develop 2 things. The first one is discipline. The second is basic statistics knowledge.

Why do I have the confidence to say this ? Because the low stakes tables are filled with people who do not have both. Poker is just simple math. It's knowing what the chances are of certain hands being drawn. As soon as you get a basic grasp of this and apply this to your poker playing, then you will eventually make money. Simple as that. It is just a matter of time.

Yes, luck is in the equation somewhere. But everybody gets the same amount of luck. There is no such thing as someone being luckier than somebody else in the long run. Maybe tomorrow your friend gets lucky and outdraws KKs with a runner runner flush. But it all evens out in the end. You will get your own lucky day. What separates winners from losers is not luck. It is basically just discipline and knowledge.

When I first started out playing poker late 2006. I deposited $50 at Pokerroom and started playing $5 SNGs. I know this is a dumb thing to do as this leaves me with a bankroll of only 10 buy ins. But it was more out of necessity than choice. Pokerroom at that time had no SNG lower than $5 and I had no other account. I then proceeded to lose this money in about 2 months worth of playing. But during this time, I can say that I learned a lot and was also reading a lot of the articles regarding SNG play and understanding odds and outs.

My next deposit was $150. $50 at Pokerroom and $100 at Full Tilt. This was the last time my credit card was charged by Click2Pay. I have not had to make a deposit in any poker site from my own money since. All the money I earn from playing poker and my current bankroll came from this initial $200.

And if you have been following my blog, you will immediately see that I am not a grinder who plays a lot of games or even plays high stakes. I am a good example of a casual player who just enjoys the game. Even now, I still play $5 SNGs. But I have consistently made money from poker.

And I am basically just like you. A working joe who had no knowledge of poker until I first saw the game in TV in one of those WPT specials. Nothing special about me. My IQ is average and my math skills are average. But I earn extra money each month just playing casual ABC poker.

Of course, making money and making obscene amounts of money are 2 different bananas. The first one I can confidently say is yours for the taking. Making obscene amounts of money is something that I am still working on. The wonderful thing about this game is that you never stop learning things from each game you play. So you are sure to improve as you go along. And it's not like basketball where your knees give out after you reach a certain age. In poker, the sky is the limit. Again with the caveat that you are following proper bankroll management. Because variance will rear its ugly head and you just have to be prepared for it. Do not play at stakes you cannot afford and you will make money eventually.

So there, my advice to newbies everywhere. Take it with a grain of salt and analyze for yourself if what I said makes sense or not. Then go out there and beat the game.