14,832 Players

I qualified for a $50,000 freeroll at Full Tilt due to a recent Sit and Go Madness promotion. But there were also 14,831 other players who qualified. What the Fuck ?

Tournament starts in those wee early morning hours, 3,600 players get paid. First place is $4,750. Quite a good chunk of moolah. But still, slogging your way through 14k players is kind of numbing to think about. 1801 to 3600 gets a measly $3.

I am seriously thinking of just skipping the whole deal. If only poker sites allowed you to transfer freeroll tickets to other players. =)

Newbie Blues

I have been encouraging some of my friends to try online poker. I really believe in the fact that if you follow certain basic concepts and practice good bankroll management, it is actually an enjoyable way to earn some extra money. I have given them some basic guidelines to follow, asked them to read some books and basically given them a sort of starting map.

For some of them, it has been like a thrilling roller coaster ride. They would sometimes text me with stories of how they spiked the Ace in the river to beat out a donkey. Or tell me bad beat stories of 2 outers. But generally, they feel that it is something that they want to continue because they do see some positive results.

For some, it has been a frustrating experience. Even following sound poker techniques, they seem to be losing more than winning. When I ask them about certain hands, they seemed to have made their decisions based on correct math. But I look at their ROIs and it is in the negative.

I don't really have the time to give them actual coaching. What with my full time job, my family and my own playing. I have no spare time as it is. I definitely do not see any free time to squeeze in some coaching lessons.

I was kind of pondering this playing correctly but still losing phenomenon. And then I went back and looked at some of my graphs when I first started playing online poker and realized that I was actually also a losing player in the beginning.

I decided to attach these initial graphs in this blog just to assuage newbies that in some cases, you just need more experience. Knowing the correct move is easy when you're reading a book. But in actual play, there are so many scenarios that happen, that it actually takes real hand experience to know how to react and play appropriately.

The 2 graphs shown above are from playing SNGs. So it is games played against total profit earned. I have circled in yellow the relevant part. These are basically graphs from the first poker sites that I played in when I was a fishy beginner. You can see in the first graph that it took me almost 500 games before I started earning something. In the second graph, even though I was winning at first, I eventually lost everything and it took 200 games for the graph to trend continously upwards.

When I started playing online poker, I also read a lot of books. And I followed some of the advice given religiously and played correct poker. But I still lost. It took a certain amount of experience (in this case around 700 SNG games in total) before I could play well enough to make consistent money.

I'm not saying that the books are wrong. Because they are obviously giving correct advice. Proof of this is that even though I was losing, I wasn't losing much. You can see from the above graphs that my losses never exceeded 100 dollars. Parang slightly negative but still kind of breaking even.

So the point I am trying to make is that Nothing Beats Experience. After I gained enough online experience, there was no looking back. All my remaining graphs trended upwards immediately. Again, I would like to point out that I am not a pro or any kind of expert player. I am just like you. I work a full time job and play a couple of hours at night and some on weekends. That's it. No special coaching or lessons. Just reading some and playing some.

So my advice to newbies who seem to be having a hard time getting over the hump. Don't get discouraged. If you are playing correctly and following good BR management, it just takes time but eventually good things will happen. As Kevin Costner put it in Field of Dreams "If you build it, they will come". Heheh

Up

Up as in the Disney movie "UP". And not up as in "I'm up in poker".

I watched UP with my 7 year old daughter yesterday at Galleria. Wasn't really expecting much. More of the same Pixar grand adventure happy ending kind of movie with lots of special cartoon effects thrown in. Was pretty much contented to just spend a lazy Sunday afternoon relaxing with my kid.

But I have to say I was quite surprised at how good the movie was. Yes, it was the same feel good formula that Disney uses all the time. But there was something about Mr. Fredricksen and Russel that really pulled your strings. It was hilarious one second, then suddenly became touching and deeply affecting at times. At the danger of being called a wimp, I laughed out loud numerous times during the film. And during the sad moments, I really had to try very hard to keep a poker face. . Lest my daughter see me burst into tears and ruin my tough daddy reputation. =)

In short, it is one of the best movies I've ever had the pleasure of watching. A lot of people may disregard the movie since its an animated film designed for kids. But its an awesome piece of cinematic magic. And heartily recommended to kids and adults of all ages.

Wanna Bet ?

Last week, my account in JBET Poker had a few cents in it. I decided to transfer $40 from my other accounts with the express intention of just playing the $10+1 APT Macau Qualifier. The first night, I did pretty well. I think I was in the last 20 until this hand came up. Someone with around 8xBB went all in. I sensed weakness and looked down at AQ. I had about 12 BBs left, so I went all in to isolate. Guy shows A9. I believe the river was a 9. Next hand I had 33, go all in. Got called by KJ. A jack flops and that was it.

The 2nd night was a fiasco. There was this Korean guy who kept going all in almost every hand. I believe he rebought more than 20x in that first hour span. Actually that was fine with everyone in the table as everybody just waited for premium hands and doubled up. Unfortunately it allowed this Japanese guy to accumulate a ton of chips. I don't remember the actual hand but he killed with me one suck out. I rebought and after a few hands got KK. Went all in, got somebody to call with Ax and the Ace flopped. And I was out.

This left me with around $10 in my JBET account. I was tilting from the KK suckout so I just opened up the JBET Blackjack window with the express intention of just betting it all and clearing out the account.

After a few minutes of winning and losing, I had it up to $50. Hey, not so bad, I got back all the money I lost in poker and then some. I was pretty much just using basic Blackjack strategy. My logical mind was telling me to stop. But the gambler in me wasn't in the mood for any sissy moves that night. So I played some more, then suddenly it was up to $100.

Now I was torn. $100 is quite good. I could just withdraw it and spend it buying a new shoe or something. Imagine the regret you'll feel if you end up losing everything back and looking at your shoeless foot.

OK. My mind was saying. One last bet. See if the luck holds. $100 is not bad, but $150 is certainly better. Even if you lose $50, you'll still have $50 left which was the original amount you wanted to stop with in the first place.

And so I bravely or stupidly (depends on how you look at it) bet $50 on the next hand of blackjack. I got 19 if I remember it correctly. I was jumping with joy because dealer was showing a 5 (one of the worst possible hands in Blackjack) until he flops 20 with 2 more cards.

AAARGGHH! Fucking cheating Lameass computer program!! In a mindless red haze, I immediately bet the remaining $50. Just wanting to get back at the smirking blackjack program.

OK, we all know where this is going. I certainly deserve to lose the remaining $50 with my greediness. But lo and behold. I flop 20 the next hand and dealer gets 17. The balance was now back to $100. I bet another $50 and look down at 5 and 6 with dealer showing a 4. I press double. And a 3 comes out giving me a measly 14. But dealer luckily busts out with a 24.

The balance is now at $200. And here finally, my logical self prevails and I stop, giggling at the sheer absurdness of it. From $10 to $200. I immediately withdraw $100 out of the account just to lock it in and make sure that the new Nike Free trainers will be paid for by stupid gambling money.

The balance I keep in the account for a future night of blackjack craziness and who knows if I get lucky again. Har Har Har.

Please do not try to replicate this. I was extremely lucky this one time. Blackjack is negative EV and as poker players, we should know better than to engage in these kinds of games. You will lose more than you win in any casino game where the house always has an advantage. I wrote this only to share the fun, but know that I have in the past lost quite a bit in Blackjack. And that was certainly not fun. Some of the hands above may not be accurate as I am blogging from memory, but the sequence and the final result is all true. =)