Poking Fun at Poker

What's in a number ?

2011-10-05T15:59:00.005+08:00

Iphone 4S instead of the much hyped Iphone 5.

Faster processor, 8 MP camera, HD video capabilities and what else ?

Hmm ... I think that's it. Still no flash support, no 4G.

IOS5, Siri, Icloud .... nope. Doesn't count. Those are software upgrades and everybody can get those. Software upgrades are a dime a dozen.

So basically, Apple fans waited in bated breath and giddy anticipation for a whole fucking year for the announcement of something revolutionary and they get SQUAT. Heheheh ..... They get a slightly (emphasis on slightly) updated phone wrapped in Apple goobledygook.

Of course, Apple fanatics will defend their beloved phone and gush about the camera and the faster speeds. But c'mon, who are they kidding ? Android users have had those since last year. Deep inside, we can all stop pretending that nobody is disappointed.

The truth is Apple users and potential upgraders are hugely disappointed. Apple was the victim of their own hype. People overexpected and the product underwhelmed. The worst possible combination. Of course, it will still sell tons of units as it is still a good product. Just not the great product that everyone was expecting. This will obviously lessen the gap between Apple and its competitors. Stock prices of Samsung, LG, HTC went up while Apple stocks went down and rightfully so. Apple really dropped the ball on this one.

By the way, I am not an iphone hater. Although I use an android phone, I do own an IPAD 2. So I'm actually open minded about the whole thing and enjoy new gadgets with no bias. I was actually seriously considering the Iphone 5 as a possible replacement to my HTC phone if it did came out. But I am obviously not dropping serious moolah on the Iphone 4S as there is nothing I want from its feature set that I am not getting from my current Android phone.

So disappointing. =)

NBA Madness

2011-07-21T21:43:00.004+08:00

I am sure most of us have heard that the NBA Stars are coming to the Philippines this Saturday and Sunday to play in exhibition games against a PBA selection and the Smart Gilas Team . For an NBA fan like me, this is like one of those WTF ... HOLY COW,,, ARE YOU KIDDING ME moments.

And we're not talking about those over the hill players that usually come here in the past for charity and goodwill missions. We're talking about full pledged all stars from the current era. Kobe, Durant, Rose, Chris Paul, Tyreke Evans. Heck, I'm even excited to see Javale Mcgee and old man Fisher.

It's a once in a lifetime chance to see these guys up close and personal. Unless I hope to travel to the USA one of these days and get lucky enough to watch an All Star game, this is basically as close as it gets. The current NBA Lockout has given a unique opportunity for the organizers to get this done. Normally, these guys would be hard in training for the upcoming NBA season and would not even contemplate coming to the Philippines.

Since last Saturday, there has been a mad rush for tickets and now everything is sold out. Scalpers are making a killing as tickets are now being sold at 4 to 5x their face value and people are still buying. That's how crazy Filipinos are for basketball. And I cannot blame them. Looking at it a certain way, the original ticket prices are actually a bargain. Imagine getting to watch an NBA game live right in our own backyard.

As for me, I basically had to use up all of my known connections and begged and cajoled certain people. But it was worth it as I have in my grubby little hands lower box tickets to the game for my brothers and me. Woohoo. Fucking A.

My connection told me that it was next to impossible to get good tickets at face value as every politician and his mother wanted one. There were even foreigner VIPs calling up wanting to come over and watch. That's how great the demand was for tickets.

So for everyone who's gonna enjoy this live or in TV, let's take a brief moment to thank David Stern, the NBA owners and Billy Hunter. Your greed and pigheadedness may cause an NBA lockout this coming year. But who cares, thanks to you guys, the NBA stars are coming !!!!!

Check from Full Tilt

2011-05-07T17:43:00.005+08:00

As indicated in a previous post, I withdrew majority of my bankroll from Full Tilt due to the Black Friday brouhaha. I requested for a check and the first one arrived yesterday.

To my surprise, the check was from a Philippine bank and it was already in pesos. I have already done previous withdrawals from FTP and it was always a foreign check that arrived. But this time for some reason that could be related to Black Friday, it was already a local check.

Conversion was not too bad. Our current exchange rate is hovering at around 43 and I got around 40 : 1 for the dollars that I withdrew. This is certainly better than the rates being offered in Pokermanila forums if you're selling FTP $.

So for anyone reading this post. Withdrawal by check from FTP is actually now a valid alternative. It took about 2 week for the check to arrive in the mail from the time I made the transaction. So the wait was not too bad.

In another bit of poker news, Pokerstars recently changed their rake and blinds structure. This has caused an uproar especially among SNG and MTT grinders. It seems that the rake for the lower buy ins have increased and this has led to a lot of complaints. Marginally profitable players are thinking that the increased rake will totally wipe out their profits.

In my personal opinion, the rake is actually not too bad unless you play the micros which had a really big increase. But if you analyze it, it takes the same amount of server resources to process a micro tournament and a mid level tournament and obviously Pokerstars gets a lot more rake from the higher buyin tourneys. So raking micros higher makes sense from a strictly financial point of view.

For the 5 to 20 dollar tourneys that I sometimes join, the effect is not that big. There was one big change though The 15+1 9man turbos are gone. This is actually one of the most cost efficient SNGs that you can play in the online poker scene. The rake for this tourney is only 6.6% considering that the Industry average is about 10%. So obviously, Pokerstars had to get rid of this one to fuck over all of its loyal SNG grinders.

Anyway, for casual players, the increase in rake is not that noticeable. For grinders, it depends on what games you play. But at the end of the day, its all about making profit and due to Black Friday and the withdrawal of US players. Pokerstars' profits were significantly reduced and all the talk about being customer centric flies out the window if you're not making money.

When there's smoke....

2011-05-04T10:02:00.002+08:00

there's fire.

This is an often used quote to describe a situation where if a person sees signs of something unusual, then there is something bad going on and one must be alert and suspicious.

Right now, this is happening for Cake Poker. It appears like the site is having financial difficulties based on the length of withdrawal time and the flimsy excuses thrown at you by their customer support. Before, a withdrawal usually takes a few days. Now, I have a withdrawal pending for a month and its still sitting there.

Their customer support is claiming technical issues but that is a load of crap as my previous withdrawal took 3 weeks and they used the same excuse. How can you have a technical problem with your software for more than 3 months and you still haven't fixed it.

With black friday, one would think that Cake would experience some relief as US players would probably flock to their site as they are one of the few remaining still accepting US players. But I don't know, 1 month is a long time to process a small amount of money.

It was the same thing that happened to Banco Filipino which closed down recently. A few weeks before the actual close. I heard some rumblings about their financial state. It piqued my interest because my wife had some of our funds invested in their time accounts. So I did some research and discovered that they were actually not doing so well for quite some time now. So I asked my wife how much we had invested there and what was the interest rate. My suspicion became full blown paranoia when she told me that they were offering almost double what the other banks were giving out and this has been going on for the past year or so.

HUH? I may not be the brightest guy in this world. But I know one thing from player poker for this long. Nothing in this world is free and of course, when there's smoke, there must be fire. Why would a bank offer you a much much higher rate than the 2 biggest banks ? Did they have some genius fund manager who knew something most of us didn't ?

This led me to the decision to pull out all of our funds there. My wife was a little skeptical since she knew the manager and she reassured her that nothing was going on. She also felt that the interest was "sayang". But I was adamant and she finally agreed. She also told one of her aunts who had money there. The aunt withdrew most of her funds but left some money behind as she was also thinking of the wasted interest.

Exactly one week after our withdrawal, the bank closed. It was open Monday and then suddenly with no warning. It did not open anymore. A lot of my wife's friends and acquaintances got stuck with significant money in the bank. Yes, there is PDIC, but that's only for 500k. The rest is pretty much up to the whims of bankruptcy procedures.

My wife now thinks I have some kind of ESP or something. But it wasn't that or anything supernatural at all. Sometimes we are blinded when there is a chance to earn good money. We do not read the signs for what they are. Greed acts like a blinder. But if you just step back a little. You will see the real picture and you should act accordingly.

This is my last withdrawal from Cake as I have been slowly pulling out my funds and the amount I have left is insignificant. Sharkscope tells me that I am actually a shark in that site with an average ROI of more than 100%. But who cares about ROI and the fishes there if your funds get stuck. If a bank that is tightly regulated can close, what more a poker site with dubious regulations.

Repeat after me. Where there's smoke .................

Back to the Grind

2011-04-27T17:29:00.005+08:00

Wow ! Last post was September 2010. That was about 7 months ago. Just to quickly update, I did not really stop playing poker. I was just too busy to update my blog as I can no longer access blog sites thru our office internet. And when I come home, I only have so much time to do all the family stuff plus play my usual hours. So this blog was the least of my priorities.

In any case, the biggest news in the pokerworld is Black Friday where it seems that the DOJ equivalent in the USA has filed fraud and laundering charges against the 2 biggest poker sites: Pokerstars and Full Tilt. This has led to the complete banning of US players from their sites and the freezing of their accounts. For the past week, US players have been in limbo and I would guess that hundreds of online pros who rely on poker for their living expenses are banging their heads on their monitors and shouting WTF.

Based on latest news that I heard, Pokerstars has already begun the process of allowing players to withdraw their money. But nothing definite yet from Full Tilt.

Although the 2 poker sites have repeatedly reassured their non US players that its business as usual. One cannot help feel a bit of apprehension about the continued viability of their business models. Logically, they should still survive and thrive well enough as other countries have no restrictions in place and international players are still populating the tables.

But to be safe, I withdrew 80% of my bankroll from Full Tilt and almost 90% from Cake. Both have been approved and I am just waiting for the checks to arrive. Hopefully, there will be no issues and I can deposit them in local banks with no problems. Since I only had less than a thousand dollars in Pokerstars. I decided to just leave that behind for playing.

Although everything seems ok for international players and my withdrawals quickly approved, I actually want to kick myself for being lazy and keeping a huge chunk of my bankroll in the sites themselves especially FTP. I was confident that Pokerstars and FTP were too big to fall. But the events that have happened has shaken this confidence and although I will continue playing. I will make sure that I only have about 50 buyins in each site that I play in. Everything else will be withdrawn promptly and kept locally.

OK. That's about it for now. Hopefully I can update this blog more often. I don't even know if I have any readers left. Heheh.

3rd Time's a Charm

2010-09-03T01:27:00.005+08:00

Last night was another tourney night for me. Played in 3 low buy in tourneys simultaneously. The $1K Guaranteed at Cake, the $2.5k Rebuy, and the $7.5k Guarantee at Full Tilt. All these tourneys start at around 7-8PM which was my preferred schedule.

Well, confidence seems to breed luck or maybe luck breeds confidence. In any case, I've been doing good in tourneys the past few days and this enabled me to play relaxed and loose which is the best mindset to be in when you play tournaments.

1. I finished 8th in the $1k guaranteed for practically peanuts. Just around 4x my buyin. But this was ok. I was low stacked from the middle of the tourney and I was glad just to reach the final table. So I pushed with the first decent hand I got (K9s) wherein I was first to act and was called quickly by BB who had Ace rag. Ace flops and that was it for me.

2. In the 2.5k Rebuy, I was slightly below average around middle of the tourney when the defining hand came up. Some random guy in early position raises. I see AQ suited and push all in. No Pause or thinking whatsoever. Nemo just insta-calls and show J9 off. Flop comes ragged at 4 5 7. Turn is a 6. And river is a .......you should be able to guess it after playing poker for this long. River was an 8 so that he makes his higher straight and busts me out. Hyuk.

3. Last is the 7.5k guarantee at FTP. I don't normally play this because of the number of people. I wanted a tourney that would end somewhere around midnight so I can still get a good night's sleep even if I reach the final table. When it started out, it only had around 400 something players. So I thought it looked manageable with a chance for an overlay. But once the late registration period ended. We ended up with 916 players. WTF. Should have known it looked too good to be true.

Anyway, I was already in it so griping doesn't help. I tried to play patient all throughout. Don't remember too much of the hands. Was in danger of busting out near the bubble with a low stack. But my luck was holding as nobody called my all-ins which allowed me to steal some blinds and survive. Bubble breaks at 90 people and I was still in it.

By the way, never be scared of pushing near the bubble. The chance of someone calling is quite small especially if you still have a decent stack. Before I used to wait around for the bubble to break before pushing when I'm low stacked which is safe and logical. But I always ended up busting out with peanuts as every other low stacked guy called your push. Now I just push whenever I was in position with a semi decent hand without any regard for ITM and it seems to be working.

Second lucky break. I was in SB with K6 suited. Folded to me. Had an M of around 8 or 9. So I quickly push. BB gives me a very long pause. Then finally calls and shows AAs. FUCKING SLOWROLLER. But fate has a unique way of fucking up the fuckers who do this. Flop shows a 6 and the other 6 comes up on the river and I double up.

Down to around 50 people I think when finally I get KKs. Standard 3x raise. Reraised by one player. Next player pushes all in. Thought for a while but couldn't really fold Kings. So we gamble on a 3 way. The reraiser shows Ace fucking Jack and the other shows 88s. My KKs hold up and I triple my stack. (I love KK, it always seems to carry me through)

This stack enables me to coast and then we're on the bubble of the final table. I had a healthy stack of around 100k at this point. I get 10 10. standard raise again. Pushed all in by somebody with a 60k stack. Fucker. I think this was a wrong move on my part but I call anyway and he shows AK. The K flops and I was now in danger of busting out just before the final table.

Again, as I emphasized before. Waiting is not really an option. Although this time, the jump from 10 to 9 is quite big so there is some logic to waiting it out. But the gap between 9th and 1st is bigger and I was in this to win it. I push a few hands with no callers and this keeps me above water and then finally two mid stacks collide and I reach the final table with an M of around 5.

And then I get hot. I get some AKs and JJs and ended up doubling each time. There was a maniac with a huge stack who was the ultimate luckbox and busted out everyone until we were down to 3. I had about 100K, other player had 200k and luckbox had a million something in chips.

And this is where my run ended. I flopped an open ended straight draw which I needed to push because calling with my stack was not really going to do it. Luckbox had top pair and I bust out at 3rd. It would have been nice to win this one, but I think that's asking too much from lady luck as I already copped a couple of wins prior.

Tourney ended at 1:30AM but was definitely worth it. One or two more ITMs like this and my Singapore budget will be all locked up. Heheh.

Repeat Performance

2010-08-30T22:36:00.004+08:00

After taking down the $1k Guaranteed over at Cake a few days ago, I decided to try out my luck again. Wasn't really doing anything last night. Really planned to play the Sunday Million that Monday morning but I didn't wake up in time as usual, so this was the best tourney for my schedule after a long day with the family.

Right off the bat, it looks good. Only 82 people playing giving a $180 overlay. After a few hands, I doubled up with a well hidden straight against somebody's two pair. So I had some buffer to have a leisurely dinner while sitting out.

Came back, still had a good stack, and about a third of the field gone. Time to go aggressive. Stole some blinds, stayed patient. Then bingo. Got KK with 2 players coming along for the ride. And just played TAG the rest of the way and reached the final table comfortably. I actually didn't know that I had already reached the final table until somebody mentioned it in chat. I thought there were 2 tables left. Heheh.

Final table was just me using SNG strategy, stealing some blinds to stay afloat and picking off the small stacks. Unfortunately the big stacks were consolidating. And when we were 3 handed. I had about 35k left against the 2 other players who both had about 90k in chips.

Checked out both player's stats in Sharkscope and found out they weren't really that experienced and were negative profit players. So it gave me some confidence to try out some moves. But I wasn't really getting any cards and knew I'd be blinded out if I didn't make a stand. Finally, in one flop, I had a flush draw. I knew opponent had hit something (top or middle pair). When he led out, I just pushed all in hoping for the fold. But alas, I underestimated the fishiness as he instacalled and showed middle pair. Luckily, river gave me the out and doubled me up.

This tilted opponent 1 and he starts spewing his chips. Unfortunately for me, my other opponent gets the benefit as he flops a set and proceeds to clean up when fish again overplays his middle pair.

And then we were heads up. I had about 70k. Opponent 2 had about 150k. Long way to make up but the blinds were still manageable. So this time, I just raised everything. I wasn't even looking at the value of the cards. Just raised everytime when I was first to act. Folded a few to make it seem like I was honest. But eventually opponent 2 sensed that I was raising with crap and he started playing back. And then I got lucky again. I raised with crap. I think 7-5 or some shitty hand like that. He called. I then proceeded to get the straight on the turn and he was on a flush draw. So he just called me all the way down.

And now I had more chips than him. And this was where he lost his patience I think. So I went back to being hyper aggressive only folding when he obviously had something. Finally I got AQ, raised it up, got reraised, pushed all in, and got called with KJ. All low cards. And that was it.

What's Up, Dude?

2010-08-12T11:58:00.007+08:00

Time for an update. I realized that I owe it to my countless and devoted group of less than 10 readers to give them a heads up on what's happening with my poker playing.

Well basically, I'm still alive and playing online. I pretty much just 4 table the $11+1 SNGs in Full Tilt. Around 2 sets every night. Doing relatively well, my bankroll is creeping up slowly these past few months. ROI hovering around 9%-10%. My objective is to win enough in the next few months to sponsor a Singapore trip for me and my family come next summer. Heheh.

My bankroll in FTP is actually more than enough to play the next level. But why bother with the extra stress. I get enough from work such that I want my poker playing to be as relaxed as possible. I can lose 8 games in a row at the 11s and it would just be a small blip in the bankroll. Don't get me wrong. I still go on tilt once in a while. But the low buy in combined with a large buffer keeps me stable as I really cannot do any big damage to the BR unless I suddenly decide that I'll play the nosebleed SNG stakes.

Tournament wise. Well, I do occasionally join some online tourneys mostly at Cake Poker. Haven't really hit any big scores lately. I would ITM once in a while but would then go on a long dry stretch. So my tournament playing is pretty much break even.

I don't know. Lately, I find that I don't really have the patience to sit down in long tourneys. This degrades my tournament placings as I find myself just pushing some semi marginal hands even though there is still a lot of play left.

I think its because poker up to a certain period of time desensitizes you. I've been playing online for around 4 years now if I'm not mistaken. And even though this game has been quite good to me. I've think I've lost some of the drive or the excitement of that one big score. You know, the feeling that you can win anything if you just stay patient and play your game properly.

I've accepted in my mind that the probabilities of playing against thousands of other players catches up to you and no matter how well you play. The suck outs and the bad beats really will happen with this many people in the fray. And you really need some luck to come up the victor.

So I just stay relaxed and take my time. I have a couple of $215 tickets good for the Sunday Million or the Sunday Warm Up which I won in the step SNGs. So I can easily play these if I was inclined to do so. But again, the drive is just not there. The thought of waking up at 5AM on a Monday morning and playing against thousands of people is too tiring.

There is a long weekend up ahead. The August 30 holiday. And if there ever was a right time to play these PS tourneys. This is it. Hohum. ... let's see. If I wake up, I play. If I don't, I sleep. Heheh

Oh and as I was writing and editing this blog post. I entered the $1K guaranteed over at Cake and waddya know. I take it down. Didn't really need luck in this one. Just stayed aggressive all throughout and waited for opponent's mistakes. I do not recall any one time where I had to go on a flip with somebody in this tournament to survive. Maybe its because I never got AK even once. If you notice, it was a 10 dollar tournament with 1k guaranteed. There were only 78 players. So easily $220 in overlay in a very manageable tourney with good structure. Pretty good deal.

Further proof that Poker is not all about Luck

2010-06-18T16:35:00.007+08:00

Truth be told, I am one of the unluckiest lucky persons I know. My mother and my wife will attest to this.

Ever since I was a kid, I've been involved in numerous situations where I have had some kind of misfortune dealt to me.

When I was 8, I had to have stitches sewn above my left eye. This was the result of a misguided game where numerous kids in my neighborhood were kicking around this open can of sardines with razor sharp edges and I was the unlucky recipient of the can's trajectory. A few inches more and I would be blind in one eye.

When I was 10, I slipped and fell down this long flight of concrete stairs and broke my nose. My mom was saying she thought I broke my neck as I was not moving when I finally stopped on the bottom landing and copious amounts of blood was gushing out my nose.

During my college years, I was waiting for the light to change in a street corner when this deranged man came out of nowhere and stabbed me in the chest with a freaking kitchen knife. This is a whole story by itself which I will blog about in the future. But rest assured that I had no idea who this man was and I was not even getting robbed. It was just me being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He could have stabbed anybody who was standing there beside me but noooo .... obviously my powers were too much for him to resist. I almost died then and there and had to stay in the hospital for close to 2 months to recover.

My girlfriend (who is my wife now) and I were on a date and visited a friend's house to pick up something. The friend had a huge chow chow dog tied near their door. When we passed by the dog, the dog just lunged up for no apparent reason and chomped down on my left arm. Seriously man, I did not provoke that dog in any way. I was just walking by minding my own business.

I attended a wedding reception once and I developed a very severe case of food poisoning immediately after. I had to be hospitalized for 2 days. Oh and guess what. It was a buffet but nobody else got food poisoning. It was just me. Think of that weird possibility for a bit so you can appreciate the way fate always smiles on me.

My wife fondly calls me a walking human disaster just waiting to happen. There are various more cases that have happened through the years. Too many to mention but I assure you that everything I have stated is true. No exaggeration or made up stories here. I think I must be secreting some kind of pheromone which attracts the worst kind of misfortunes. Or the goddess of luck was feeling frisky one day and just decided that I should be his boy toy .

With all these seemingly unlucky things happening to me, there is one thing that I do know. I know that I am a winning online poker player. I may not have won anything really really big but I consistently make money playing poker year after year. My stats are all in the black from every site that I play in. I do not confess to be a great poker player. But I am a student of the game and play with the correct math and the concepts that I have learned through the years.

And this is your incontrovertible proof that poker is not all about luck. If it is, and knowing my special kind of luck, then I should be bleeding money and bitching about how I always get drawn out or sucked out. And how I can never seem to catch a break.

But I don't. And that is why it is easy for me to believe that if you work on your game and play correctly, you will make money. Because poker is really more about learned skill than luck.

Of course, the next time I play, the LCD screen might suddenly explode in my face for no apparent reason just when I was about to win the Sunday Million by calling with Aces when my heads up opponent pushed all in with crap. When that happens, then we can talk again.

Feeding the Donkeys

2010-06-11T23:06:00.007+08:00

Just a few minutes ago, I was playing a bunch of 11 dollar SNGs over at Full Tilt. And in one sequence of events, I made 3 pushes against 3 different opponents in 3 different SNGs and I was in total shock when all 3 called and all 3 of them won when I was ahead in all 3 pushes.

It wasn't the calls that got me as obviously you'd get random calls in the span of an SNG. It wasn't even the bad beat as that happens all the time. It was the sheer awful play that these players exhibited. They had sufficient stacks to fold but they just called with only semi decent hands.

I was shaking my head in wonder at this surreal turn of events. And here I was thinking that the sit and go games are getting tougher and tougher and the skill level of online players have exponentially improved these past few years. Then I get bombarded with 3 dumb moves right on top of each other. And at one of the supposedly toughest sites to play in. (FTP)

I made a bet to myself right then and there. I will sharkscope these 3 guys and I will fucking eat my grimy mousepad if any of these 3 turns out to be a winning online player. That was how upset I was and how sure I was that these players couldn't be making these kinds of moves and winning, right ? The poker gods can't be that cruel.

And this was the result ....

Ahhh .... there is still justice in this crazy poker world of ours. I am now happy because I have done my part in feeding the donkeys every once in a while to make sure that they do not become extinct. =)

Watch U Want

2010-05-25T17:21:00.006+08:00

I have a confession to make. I have not worn a wristwatch for close to 10 years now. I used to wear watches. But for some reason or the other, I just stopped wearing them. I tried to think about the reason why I did this. And I really couldn't come up with anything specific .

I think it was because as cellphones kept evolving, they eventually managed to displace the functions of the watch which was essentially to tell me the time and the date. And since we carry our cellphones every single second anyway. There was no compelling reason to keep on wearing watches except as a fashion accessory.

I also went on kind of a minimalist phase where I shunned anything not really essential in what I wore. I used to wear a necklace and a bracelet. But got rid of them the same time as I stopped wearing watches. I just didn't feel comfortable anymore with things dangling or attached to my body.

My last watch was a Tudor Submarine Something watch. It was actually quite expensive with a retail price close to 100k if I am not mistaken. When I decided to forgo watches, I gave it to my father in law as a gift. When my father in law passed away a couple of years ago, it was returned to me and I eventually sold it to a friend for around 40K. I realized eventually that this selling price was actually a bargain, as another friend who was into watches told me that the model that I had could have fetched a higher price even though it was second hand because it was considered a classic, blah blah blah.

Anyway, I never really felt that I got the raw end of the deal as the watch was quite old and wasn't in good shape with dings and scratches everywhere. So I was quite happy with the amount that I got considering that I had no use for it anyway.

Fast forward to today. And guess what? I am again wearing a watch. A few days ago, I just decided at the spur of the moment that I wanted to wear watches again. I have no idea where the urge came from. I don't know how it came about. I just woke up one day and thought to myself that I wanted to wear a watch.

And so after a little bit of looking around, I bought one. Are you curious to know what watch I got ? It's not a Rolex. It's not an Omega or a Breitling. It's not even a Tag or a Technomarine. My wife was shocked to see me wearing a Casio G-Shock. (pun on words deliberate).

It is the essential everyday watch. It was tough. It was water resistant to 200 meters. It runs on solar energy. It had different date formats, world time, alarm, stopwatch and a bunch of other features that I can use when I travel. I can drop it from a building or bang it against a wall. I can do all these things and it would keep on working. I can even tell the ambient temperature if I wanted to.

It is the ultimate anti-rolex. It was designed to work and last forever but it is relatively cheap. As I grow older, I realized that I don't really care about expensive brands anymore. It isn't even about saving money. I could have easily purchased a much more expensive watch. But it just didn't feel right.

In some ways, it is like a big fat middle finger to all the people who look at your watch and judge you for how expensive it is. The ultimate fuck you to the establishment. It was perfect. Well, perfectly geeky maybe. Heheh...

I can just imagine the jaws of my officemates dropping and their eyebrows raised when they see me wearing this watch. With their rolexes and omegas tucked neatly in their sleeves and then they'll see this big black chunky thing on my wrist. Classic.

Heard it Through the Grapevine

2010-05-14T17:15:00.004+08:00

1. Set vs Trips. Not the same. Set is when you have a pair and there is a similar card on the board. Trips is one in your hand and two in the board.

2. Slowplay vs Slowroll. Slowplay is when you have the nuts or close to the nuts and you play passively to induce calls or bets from your opponent. Slowroll is when you act like a moron and pretend you lost the hand even though you have the better hand.

3. I'll call even though I know I'm behind or I'll call even though I know you have the better hand. DUH ..... this is like totally illogical but you hear it all the time from dumb opponents. If you know you're behind, why would you call ? It's primarily a defense mechanism that one makes so as not to look stupid in front of other players. It's like he's saying that all the signs say that you're ahead. But I can't help my stupidity so let me just qualify my call by saying the term to minimize the damage to my ego just in case.

4. Paying tuition. I think this is probably only used in the Philippines. Players use the term loosely to describe the amount that they lost when they play poker. It is like saying that losing is part of the process of learning poker and it is necessary for you to pay a certain amount to learn poker which is actually not true. It is another human defense mechanism to massage one's ego from bad decisions. Personally, I find the term totally illogical. I think it stems from the fact that you pay tuition to learn in schools. But in poker, you gain experience and knowledge from both winning hands and losing hands. So when you win, do you also pay tuition? But you get money when you win. So are you refunding your tuition ?

There are tons of other examples, but these are the ones that I can think of right now. Sorry, I know I'm probably inadvertently bashing other people. But I can't help it. It's like an itch that I can't scratch when I hear people say these things.

Much to everyone's surprise ...

2010-05-11T11:09:00.004+08:00

No matter how much negative comments and bashing they got from the media and those last minute flash card snafus. In all fairness, one has to admit that the Comelec did a good job in the country's first automated election. Even with long lines and isolated failures, the PCOS machines did their job and for the first time in the country's history, we are enjoying credible results a day after the election.

From my observation, solving the long queues for the next election should be quite simple. They just need to add more machines and increase the number of voting precints. The process was actually already ok, there was just too many voters for the number of machines allocated.

My own personal experience was pretty positive. I was up in Clark with the family for the long weekend. So I arrived in Manila at around 4PM already and I immediately went to cast my vote in my old high school. And there was absolutely no line. I sauntered up to the desk, got my ballot, shaded my choices, placed it in the PCOS machine, and got my finger inked. I was done in about 15 minutes. My brother went in the morning and he said that he waited 2 hours in line.

So if you think about it, it was just a matter of too many people wanting to vote in the morning, at least in my area.

If you care any iota about the Philippines and its economy, then we can all heave a sigh of relief. Who wins is actually much less important than the fact that we had a fairly successful credible automated election. The worst case scenario of an election failure would have been a big blow to our country's already reeling state .

The successful staging of the election should now allow our country to move on and focus on the bigger problems. One side comment. You really cannot underestimate the charisma of Erap. Even with all the things that he did last time. Filipinos are still voting for him. Everyone thought it was going to be an Aquino-Villar battle, but he is a surprisingly strong 2nd place with Villar a far third. I don't think he's going to win. But his numbers are amazing considering all past events. Hindi mo tuloy alam kung he's really that popular and charismatic or that our masa is really that stupid. No offense. But seriously, that's the only conclusion you can make.

Still Got the Mojo

2010-05-04T09:46:00.005+08:00

Over the labor day weekend, I had some free time. So I decided to play in some online tournaments.

First try, played a super turbo satellite for the $5k guaranteed bounty in Cake. Top 4 gets a ticket. Played well, finished 3rd in chips, got the ticket. Proceeded to then play the bounty tourney. Busted out somewhere in the middle. My pocket pair (88) push was beaten by an A2 dumbass call by chip leader in our table. Ace flops and sayonara for me.

Second Try, played in a $12+1 and $24+2 90 man Turbo Knockout Tourney simultaneously in Full Tilt. Made the final table in both tourneys. After the smoke cleared, I finished 4th in the first one and 2nd in the other.

3rd Try. $2.5K Guaranteed Rebuy in Cake. Joined right before the rebuy period ended. Just playing tight as a lot of jokers play these rebuys. I get AK in early position with about half of the players eliminated. Had about 12 BBs left but blinds and antes was a fifth of my stack. So easy push. A guy with roughly about the same stack tanks but proceeds to call and shows AQ.

If you've been playing poker a long time. You will come to realize that there is always this one time in a tourney where the situation makes or breaks you. You know that if you double up then you can make the final table for a good payday. If you lose, then a good chance wasted. Sometimes its hard to recognize when this critical point happens. But in this case, I knew that this was it. I was playing well and was confident in my decisions. With a good enough stack, I knew I could easily make it to the final table. AK vs AQ. Dominated hand. What more could you ask for ?

Alas, the poker gods again decided to fuck me over as the Q came out on the turn. Bugger!!

Anyways, it was a good run after a long period of inactivity. All my eliminations were 3 outer bad beats and I netted close to $500 over the weekend. So quite satisfied and ended up thinking that I still got the cojones to play and beat this game.

Sex in Video Games

2010-04-30T17:32:00.005+08:00

I know it may be an old topic, but I never realized just how far sex in mainstream video games have evolved until I got to play a game called Dragon Age Origins in my PC recently. I haven't been playing PC games that much for the past few years, but I read a review of the game and a friend also heartily recommended it, so I decided to try it out.

For you PC gamer addicts, I'm sure you're familiar with the game. For everybody else, its basically a role playing game where you assume the role of like a warrior, mage or rogue and battle evil beings.

So I played the first few nights and before long I was hooked. It was the same old dungeons and dragons stuff that I used to play back in the days. So nothing new there except for the really good graphics. But the main difference was that there was a lot of interaction with the characters in the game. Such that you can actually get a character to fall in love with your character and then they have video sex.

The first time this happened, I was shocked. What the heck! I mean it was quite funny and the woman character was in bra and panties. But there was no mistaking the scenes that were being portrayed. Man on top, woman on top. The shock factor was not because of any moral indignation on my part, but more because it was totally unexpected in a mainstream RPG.

So now, you're wondering. Can you do it with another character ? So I buttered up one of the other female characters to make her fall in love. And waddya know, she also agrees to have sex. And then the 2 computer characters you had sex with are now fighting because your character wooed both of them and they are asking you to choose between them.

The dialogues were hysterically funny and as a self confessed morally depraved human being. I have to admit it made the game much more compelling. I am certainly not going into the issue of the morality of portraying sex in video games that can be accessed by kids. I mean, half of the movies that are being shown now have sex scenes in one way or another and they are certainly much more graphic and revealing. But my curiosity was piqued so I surfed the net and read some of the comments made on the game and I find out that you can actually do sexy time between same sex characters in the right circumstance. Yep! So gay sex and lesbian sex is also included. So as not to alienate certain portions of society. Heheh.

I'm guessing its just a normal evolution. As video game graphics get more realistic, then I'm guessing the designers have to make the scenarios more realistic also. I am sure that the addition of sex no matter how awkwardly handled has made the games sell better as the people who play these kinds of games probably get a big kick out of fulfilling their fantasies in whatever form they can get it.

Now if I can just find a hack to remove the bra and panty ........... ;)

UPDATE 05/04/10
Attached sample pic from the net just so you have an idea what I am talking about

Hoping for Thunder

2010-04-26T12:03:00.005+08:00

We're right smack in the middle of the first round of the NBA playoffs and everything appears to be going as expected except for two matches. The Mavs and the Spurs where the Spurs are currently beating the tar out of the Mavs and leading the series 3-1. I can't really say this is unexpected as the Spurs are a tried and tested playoff team with the trio of Duncan, Parker and Ginobli anchoring them. Although they are getting old, the emergence of George Hill and the addition of Jefferson has been enough to keep the team in the playoff race with an outside chance of getting to the finals.

Can't say the same for the Mavs who have a reputation of being soft and playoff chokers. Nowitzki got some support this year with the addition of Marion and Butler. But they just can't seem to get over the hump. Even though they finished 2nd in the regular season, they are in danger of getting eliminated again. I think Mark Cuban is scratching his head trying to figure out what the heck is wrong with this team. He has poured millions of dollars into getting complementary players to no avail. My opinion is that it lies directly with your star player. Some players can kick it up a notch during playoffs and carry their team (Lebron, Kobe). Nowitzki cannot seem to do it.

The other more interesting match-up is between the Lakers and Thunder. The Thunder behind a run and gun hustling game are making the Lakers look old and have currently tied the series at 2-2. Everyone predicted this to be a sweep and although the Lakers are probably still going to win this one. I am secretly hoping for the Thunder upset. Durant has shown his huge potential this season and together with Westbrook, Green, Harden and Ibaka are giving Phil Jackson and Kobe all that they can handle. If they can just continue this energy thru the last 3 games, then they have a good chance of stealing this one in 7 games. Kobe appears to be somewhat bothered by his injuries and the Laker point guards Fisher and Farmar cannot guard the speedy Westbrook. Durant has actually been off his game (guarded by Artest) and the Thunder can still win comfortably. So if he figures this out and gets his groove, the Lakers might find themselves eliminated in the first round.

I know there are a lot of Laker fans here in the Philippines especially Kobe fans. I for one have always rooted for the Lakers since the Magic Johnson days. But you can't help rooting for the young Thunder team who are the underdogs but have shown great resiliency. If they steal this one, I don't think David Stern would be that disappointed. Even though there won't be a Lakers-Celtics or Lakers-Cavs possibility. The idea of a young team with only 20+ wins last season possibly taking it all the way is also a good story line and will be milked for what its worth. Durant vs Lebron doesn't sound so bad. Heheh.

Still No Poker but Turning Japanese

2010-04-12T17:47:00.008+08:00

As the title suggests, poker is still taking a back seat to my everyday life. Not really playing that much. Just came back from a trip to Osaka Japan though. And it was one of the coolest countries I've visited. People are so polite, it is relatively clean and the food is awesome. I always had the impression that the food is expensive in Japan, but the opposite is true. There are lots of small places that you can go to where the price is reasonable and the food is delicious. Curry, Ramen, Udon, Huge Beef Bowls, Tempura. YUM.

Places to visit are of course Universal Studios, the Kaiyukan Aquarium, Den Den Town for electronics and Osaka Castle. Just make sure to cop one of those cheap flights from Cebu Pacific and the total cost for the trip is surprisingly only slightly higher than a Hongkong visit and you get to experience a totally different and unique culture. Hongkong is already too common as everybody has been there including their maids.

The only negative during a March visit to Japan is the weather. The average was around 6 to 8 degrees and for us warm blooded filipinos. Way too cold.

Notables from the trip include (1) seeing so many pretty Japanese ladies in their ubershort skirts. My wife had to turn my head back a couple of times or else I would bump into something. Heheh. (2) Getting a shirt from Uniqlo with a Mazinger Z design. OK. For those who are not familiar. UNIQLO is a clothing store that originated from Japan which now has many branches in Asia including China, Singapore and Hongkong. It is like the GAP of Asia. It offers fashionable and good quality clothes for men and women at very reasonable prices. Be sure to visit their stores whenever you see them around Asia. Mazinger Z is a cartoon about a robot. Together with Voltes 5, it was one of the mainstay programs that I watched during my childhood. Seeing a shirt with Mazinger Z on it. My geeky side couldn't resist. (3) Heated toilet seats with automatic bidets and dryers. This may sound totally weird and out of this world. But after having experienced this in cold weather. I have become a convert. I want one here in the Philippines if I can get one. Heheh. (4) Eat all you can sushi in a rotating sushi conveyor. My cousin and I finished 45 plates between the 2 of us. BURP (5) 100 Yen Stores like Daiso. I know we already have them here. But the Japanese stores have tons more stuff in them. I got a set of earphones for 100 yen. Also a nice pair of boxer shorts. Of course you can't expect high quality but still that's just 50 pesos. (6) Japanese chocolates. Lots of different kinds to choose from. From high quality fresh chocolates to Kit Kat Green Tea Flavor.

Some people might have a problem with the language as almost all Japanese people cannot speak English. Even the hotel staff have a hard time communicating. But the people are so helpful and polite that it is still easy to get around. Just be ready to make silly hand gestures and lots of finger pointing and bowing. Their subways and trains are very well organized with accurate schedules. If they say it arrives at 9, then it arrives at 9. I don't think I took a train or bus that was late during my whole stay there. Just get one of their subway maps and you should be able to roam around at your leisure.

What else can I say ? Great place for a vacation. I am definitely going back when I get the chance.

Cool Video

2010-02-23T16:31:00.001+08:00

Anybody Home ?

2010-02-10T15:00:00.002+08:00

I decided to check my blog today and saw that its been more than a month from my last post and even last January, I actually only made 1 tiny entry about the blogger tourney which I never got to play by the way.

Some of my friends who read my blog regularly (all 4 of them) have bugged me about this. But what can I say, its the same answer. No poker, no post.

Actually, to be honest, I have been playing some poker lately. More than the previous months, but still not back to original levels.

Am I winning ? Errr ..... I would probably say break even. Not winning much, not losing much either. As I've indicated before, playing only low buy in SNGs and MTTs doesn't really result in big swings in my bankroll. A two hundred dollar swing in one day is already quite big.

At this point in my poker playing, my ROI in SNGs would usually be in the plus 8% to 12% range. A little bit more if I play less tables and a little bit less if I play more tables in one go. This is then balanced by my MTT playing which of course eats up any small winnings from the SNGs. The only time that my bankroll really moves is if I score in the top 3 in the MTTs that I play. This would usually happen once or twice every few months.

And that in a nutshell is how my poker goes. Kind of boring, but almost zero risk at this point with slow positive returns. And I think that is the reason why my poker playing has waned lately. The excitement has been replaced by a kind of bored indifference. I play because I know I will earn a little bit if I just keep at it. But the dream of a big score is way back somewhere in the depths of my consciousness.

I know that I should be working on my game. But now, I'm so lazy to read a poker book or go to the forums. So I pretty much just rely on my current knowledge and experience which is acceptable but nothing great. In short, I haven't really made the next leap to advance my skills.

I keep telling myself to snap out of this funk and get my ass moving. And sometimes I feel the old excitement coming back. But real life then interferes in so many ways. Company needs you to go to China, daughter needs homework help, etc. Just recently, my brother in law was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He's only in his early thirties and it came as a big shock to everyone. With all these things going on, poker just sort of fades in the background.

The good thing about poker is its always there waiting for you. Unlike other sports, age is not really an issue. As long as you keep your mind active and you don't get any weird disease like Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, then you're pretty much good to go even up to your fifties or even sixties.

Some people say that it's become a young man's game. But just when you're about to believe the bullshit. You still see old geezers like Cloutier make final tables and what about that 96 year old guy (Jack Ury) who played in the WSOP. He has bad eyesight and hearing but still plays year after year. Never cashed but that didn't stop him from playing the game that he loves.

Poker will always be there. We just have to find the time to play.

It's Baaaaack

2010-01-09T10:30:00.003+08:00

As you can see from the ad near the top of this page, the Pokerstars Bloggers Championship of Online Poker (WBCOOP) is back. Last year, I managed to qualify for the main event but was not lucky enough to ITM. I think one or two other Pinoy bloggers qualified and one of them got deep.

So calling all Pinoy online players with blogs. It's that time of the year again.

Unexpected Win

2009-12-17T10:45:00.004+08:00

I was just fooling around last night in front of my PC, surfing for NBA news which were relevant to my fantasy basketball team when I saw a $1.5K Guaranteed $10+1 buy in tournament about to start in Cake.

As most of you who follow my blog know, I haven't really been playing any serious online poker the last few months. Just a few SNGs here and there. But I decided, what the heck, let's register since it's positive EV for me as the tournament appeared to have some overlay.

Right from the start, I was extremely lucky. I kept getting AQ which I raised, and the Q for some reason always flopped. The payoff came somewhere around the middle of the tournament. I got AQ for the upteenth time, raised it up in early position, chip leader decided to 3 bet me, I just shoved everything in and he called. AQ vs 99. Flop came with 2 Queens and just like that I was chip leader.

With a good amount of chips, I pretty much just raised everytime I got an Ace or was in position and this allowed me to stay in the top 3 in chips and cruise to the final table. There was another instance where I had another AQ, somebody shoved all his chips. Insta call and he showed KQ. Hyuk. Donkey poker all the way.

Final Table, I shifted gears and went tight. Not so much, but around SNG tight if you know what I mean. Just play premium hands and wait for the low stacks to bust out since the money concentration was in the top 3 places. In this case, the low stacks are pretty loose since everybody was already ITM and you can sit around with your good stack and wait for the bust outs to happen.

Final 4 was an international group, 1 Russian, 1 player from China, 1 American and me. Artificial bubble. The Russian player and the American player were butting heads all throughout the final table and this time was no different. Chip lead kept changing between the 2 of them and finally Russians busts out the American and he types something like "America sucks" in the chat table. Heheh. Sounds like a remnant from the Cold War.

China player had the shortest stack and he pushes all in almost every hand. I wake up with JJs. And iso-shove. He shows K-8 or something and I bust him out.

Heads up. Russian had a 3 to 1 chip lead over me. But he plays passive for some reason which allowed me to catch up. I kept raising and showing him junk hands. Eventually he kept calling and I was lucky enough to catch a straight on the river for a big pot. I now had a slight chip lead over him.

Final Hand. He calls my blind. I see A 10. I raise it big. He just calls. Flop goes A, 8, 7 with 2 spades. I bet half the pot. He insta-raises all-in. Whoops. I tank and I was thinking what the fuck does he have. He can't have 88 or 77, otherwise he would have raised me from the start. An Ace rag is possible but again, heads up play, wouldn't you automatically raise? I didn't think he was trapping with AK or AQ since from what I observed, Russian was not a sneaky player.

So finally, I decided with the massive overbet that he was trying to scare me away with some kind of draw. I called and he showed 2 spades in his hand. Flush Draw. I was chanting No Spades, No spades and waddya know. My hand holds up for the win.

Phew! And to think I wasn't even serious about the MTT from the start and the poker gods decide to grant me an early Christmas git. It was nice to know that I still have the chops to win one of these donkaments.

Again, I have observed that whenever I play without any pressure to win. I end up doing well. It just goes to show that the old adage about Scared Money never winning is so true and every poker player should always be reminded about this.

Long Time

2009-11-27T12:05:00.003+08:00

I know I haven't posted in my blog for a long time and the reason is pretty simple. I haven't really been playing poker. So no poker, no entry in the poker blog. Heheh.

I don't know what it is. But my desire to play has been really low this October and November. It's not that I'm losing and my bankroll is also quite healthy. It's actually been stagnant in the same level for the past month due to non usage.

I just find that the usual desire to play is not there. I've been using my spare time tinkering around with my fantasy basketball team and reading books (not about poker). I've also been watching quite a few of the new seasons of the shows in US TV like Glee, Californication, Big Bang Theory, Entourage and looking forward to Chuck and Breaking Bad which are about to start soon. So I'm actually relaxed and enjoying my free time.

A few nights ago, I did manage to play a few sets of the Step 1 SNGs in Pokerstars and I parlayed those into a Step 3 and Step 4 ticket. The Step 4 ticket worth $215 I'm reserving for a crack at the Sunday Million. So I believe I'm not too rusty even with the extended break. But even these recent wins have not given me any kind of excitement.

I'm not too sure how long this poker malaise will last. I'm thinking its probably a case of burnout and I need some time off. As to how long, heck, your guess is as good as mine. =)

Bluffing with Nothing

2009-10-23T10:30:00.004+08:00

I am sure most of us has seen the PBA (Philippine Basketball Association) incident where a player by the name of Arboleda pummeled a fan who was verbally abusing him. I would like to chime in with my take on the matter. Let me just qualify this by saying that I have no vested interest in any side. I have not watched the PBA games for a long time. I do not know anybody in Burger King and I certainly am not remotely acquainted with the Katigbak guy who was assaulted.

Simply put, I think both guys deserved what they got.

1. Fan being pummeled. If you are going to verbally abuse someone in whatever setting. Then you have to be prepared for the consequences. I'm sure it went something like this. By what I saw, Arboleda did this fake falling down but actually making sahod to the Smart Gilas Player. Katigbak is livid and shouts something to the effect of "Put...ng Ina mo, arboleda, gago ka talaga" Arboleda hears him, has had enough of the abuse since it was not the first time the guy said something abusive, and starts walking towards the fan. I am pretty sure the fan thinking he is safe within the confines of his front row seat does the fake taunt that everyone does when faced with this kind of situation. "Oh ano, laban ka" or some similar phrase. Arboleda vaults the divider to the utter surprise of the fan (you can see it in his face) and starts raining kicks and punches down on him. Fan cowers in fear and covers up his face.

You are rude and obnoxious to somebody who was just doing his job. You get punched in the face. Karma. In poker analogy, you're like the guy with the big stack who keeps pushing players around by going all in, but then somebody decides to call you and you show a 6-3.

2. Arboleda being banned for a year without pay to the tune of around 2 million pesos. Quite extreme, but you assaulted a paying customer. No matter how abusive or haughty the guy was or how hyped up you are with anger. A player has no right to physically engage a fan. It simply cannot be done and tolerated as you are essentially harming the reputation of the whole league you are in.

You violate the rules and cross the line. Fined 2 million pesos. Karma. You decide to call the poker bully with your A-3 and delighted to see his 6-3. Until the flop comes and its 6 6 K. You lose your stack but at least you feel you made the right move and showed that you were not going to be pushed around.

See if it had ended here, then you just say. Both guys got what they deserve and leave it at that. But in a sudden twist to this incident. Lawyer of fan writes the PBA and wants Arboleda banned for life. Now this is just plain pathetic. I am sure that the Katigbak guy's ego was crushed. All his grandstanding and he ends up in the fetal position cowering like a girl. I mean I symphatize with what happened and we all know that Arboleda is bigger. But you could have at least tried to throw out a weak kick or something to save your pride. But you didn't do it and the damage is done. Threatening somebody's livelihood doesn't put back the inches in your dick.

Actually, legally, it was the best thing that could have happened. Trying to retaliate would have made his case weaker and Arboleda might be slightly justified in his actions. But if this was caveman times, the fan would be like the cave guy who ends up sweeping outside the cave while the alpha cave man bonks your girl with his club and drags her inside his cave. You cannot solve the problem by complaining to the elders and having him evicted from his cave. The only way is to pick up your club and battle to the death. LOL.

Fantasy Basketball Season

2009-10-13T17:23:00.002+08:00

OK, it's fantasy basketball season once again. This is one of my other hobbies besides poker. If you have zero to little interest in NBA basketball, then feel free to skip this post as it has nothing to do with poker.

This year, I joined 2 leagues with live drafts. Both are 14 team Head to Head leagues counting 9 categories under the normal yahoo system of having PG, SG, G, SF, PF, F, C, C, UTIL, UTIL and bench as positions.

The first league is a local money league. Everybody puts in a certain amount and cash prizes go to the one who finishes with the best regular season record as well as prizes for finishing in 1st, 2nd and 3rd after the playoffs. The 2 teams who finish in last place are also required to pay an additional amount that goes into the pot. (This was done to prevent last place teams from colluding and trading their stars for scrubs in exchange for some favor)

I drafted 7th in this money league and here are the players that I got in the order that I got them. The number inside the parenthesis is the overall draft position

1.(7)Kevin Durant SG,SF
2.(22)Joe Johnson PG,SG
3.(35)Brook Lopez PF,C
4.(50)Nene Hilario PF,C
5.(63) Mo Williams PG
6.(78) Charlie Villanueva SF,PF
7.(91) Eric Gordon SG
8.(106) Greg Oden C
9.(119) Louis Williams PG,SG
10.(134)Courtney Lee SG,SF
11.(147) Brandon Jennings PG
12.(162) Nenad Krstic PF,C
13.(175) Antonio McDyess PF,C

Overall, I was pretty satisfied with this draft. Durant as a 1st round pick is quite good as he will absolutely explode this year in Oklahoma. Some experts were picking him as high as no 4, so getting him at 7 is good value. Eric Gordon at the 7th round 91st overall is an absolute steal. I took a risk with Oden at the 8th round even though he's been injured every year, because he's tearing it up this pre season and I see a lot of upside as long as he stays healthy. Louis Williams inherits the starting point guard position in Philly with the departure of Andre Miller to Portland and he should be in for a big year. Courtney Lee takes the place of Vince Carter in New Jersey, so that's another pick with a lot of upside.

The 2nd league that I joined is a champions league. The managers are screened. If you don't have a fantasy gold trophy in your yahoo profile, then you cannot join. This assures everyone that it is a very competitive league even without money involved as there is some pride at stake of being the best among the best. It is composed of players around the world who love to trash talk and the live draft was one of the tightest ones with lots of nasty comments. Everybody knows their basketball and draft steals were harder to get.

I drafted 12th in this league and here are the players that I got

1. (12)Dirk Nowitzki PF
2. (17)Joe Johnson PG,SG
3. (40)David Lee PF,C
4. (45)Kevin Martin SG
5. (68)Russell Westbrook PG
6. (73) Jeff Green SF,PF
7. (96)Greg Oden C
8. (101)Mike Conley PG
9. (124)Thaddeus Young SF,PF
10.(129)Samuel Dalembert C
11.(152)Al Thornton SF,PF
12.(157)Drew Gooden PF,C
13.(180) Terrence Williams SG,SF,PF
14.(185) Steve Blake PG

This is just a fair draft for me. Good picks were Nowitzki in the 1st round and Kevin Martin in the 4th. Oden at 7th was too early but this was caused by a dropped connection. Conley at 8th was also a bit early as TJ Ford was still there and I missed drafting him. The only steal I think I got was Thaddeus Young at 124th overall. The rest were just average picks and not so much upside. Again, as I said, everybody knew their stuff and all the players I were targetting were coming off the boards before my turn.

Oh well, I've been playing long enough to know that fantasy leagues are won through free agent acquisitions, so I'm hoping for a good pick up during the course of the season to bolster the team.

For those poker players interested in fantasy basketball, comments about the teams above would be appreciated. Thanks for reading.

I made 2nd by folding AA

2009-10-04T21:01:00.005+08:00

Just finished playing the above tournament. 271 players with 504 rebuys and 126 addons. Buy in of only $3.30. These are the kind of donkaments one tries to avoid playing for the sake of maintaining one's sanity. But sometimes when luck goes your way. It's still a good return on a $6 investment.

Played basically ABC poker. Doubled up on my KKs and AAs in the early part. Went into the money (50 players) with a short stack. Then proceeded to play aggressive short stack poker. Got lucky once when I pushed Q6s in the dealer position. SB called with JJ. The Q flopped and allowed me to survive.

Went into the final table with an average stack. Then went into a heater of AQs and AJs and eliminated a guy to bring my stack up to around 300k which was 2nd in chips at that point. Then this hand came up when there was 9 of us left.

I got AA in early position. Raised 3xBB. Got called by chip leader at BB. Flop is K J 9. Chip leader checked. I made a 1/2 Pot bet. Villain called quickly. Turn is another J. Vilain bets pot at this point which was ringing alarm bells but I made the call. River is a harmless looking 5. Villain puts me all in and he's got me covered. I had about 140k left behind. Blinds were still at 4k-8k. So still a lot of poker left with my stack. I tanked then decided to fold.

I actually think it was a wrong read on my part as succeeding plays with the guy showed me that he was actually a fish overplaying top and middle pairs. But I made the fold and it allowed me to finish in 2nd place. The villain chipleader busted out in 5th if I'm not mistaken.

So all's well that ends well. =)

Fast Withdrawals Make My Day

2009-10-02T10:12:00.007+08:00

As I've previously mentioned in this blog, Cake Poker has one of the most convenient and fastest withdrawal methods available. I am not pimping Cake because I play there. I am just stating a fact. I know a lot of Pinoy players have a difficult time withdrawing online funds because of various requirements that are in place. But seriously, the way Cake does it is just ridiculously easy and you wonder how come the bigger sites cannot do it the same way.

Once a month, the site allows you to make a withdrawal request (minimum $500) by cheque and they will send this to you by courier free of charge. Any additional withdrawals for the month will get charged the normal courier fee of about $30. For recreational players who don't really withdraw that much, once a month is just perfect.

The other great thing is that the cheque that they send is a local cheque. It is not a US Dollar or Euro check which takes ages to clear in our banks. It is a local cheque for pesos that is addressed to your name that clears in 2 days. Seriously cool.

I made a withdrawal request last September 25, 2009 right before Ondoy hit. The Fedex envelope containing the cheque was in my office on October 1. Not counting Saturday and Sunday. That's just 3 freaking days. I'm sure there was even some delay caused by logistical problems due to the typhoon.

In terms of exchange rate, its not too bad. Right now, the official rate is about 47 pesos to US$1. The rate that they gave me in their conversion less whatever bank fees is about 44. So about a 6.5% deduction to cover bank fees and exchange rate spreads. I think that's quite acceptable.

So from your online poker account to your bank account in about 5 working days and in pesos to boot, ready to be used. No hassles. Just a simple, fast and efficient procedure.

This really leaves you wondering about the procedures of other sites. If a small site like Cake can do it, I'm sure the bigger sites can do it better. It just adds to the conspiracy theory that they are deliberately adding layers of red tape to delay your withdrawal. I think this is primarily being done for 2 reasons : (1) It conditions your mind about the negativity of doing withdrawals. This obviously works to their advantage as you would just tend to play with the money and delay your withdrawals or do it less often. The more money you have in your account, the more playing time you spend and in the higher limits which earns them bigger rake. (2) Any delay that they cause means more interest earnings. Let's just say average withdrawal requests for a day sum up to about US$100K. Just delaying its transfer by 3 days earns them a few hundred dollars in interest earnings alone. Multiply this by the number of days in a year and you can imagine the thousands of extra dollars they earn by simply delaying your withdrawal. Quite unethical but financial institutions have been doing this for ages and poker sites are no different.

Again, since online poker is pretty much unregulated. We just accept and make do with whatever crappy procedure is currently in place. The only protest we can do is to take our business elsewhere. But then, other sites are even worse. So wala ka ring choice. Heheh....

The Great Flood

2009-09-28T10:53:00.003+08:00

I'm sure each of us has our own unique story of where we were during the great flood. As for me, I was pretty much stranded in my office since we have work on Saturdays. I tried to get home but had to turn back because traffic was at a standstill.

Good thing our office had electricity, internet, food, water, TV and clean toilets. So I pretty much spent a relaxing evening just doing some extra work, playing online poker and chatting with officemates who decided to also stay put instead of stupidly braving the flood.

A lot of my officemates did try to make a go of it, but ended back in our office a few hours later, describing horror stories of how high the floods were.

I ended up sleeping in a conference table with my jacket as a pillow and eventually managing to get back home in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

All in all I believe I was one of the lucky ones. A lot of my friends got stranded in the middle of flooded streets where water was slowly seeping its way inside their vehicles. My cousin's wedding which was scheduled Saturday had to be cancelled because both groom and bride were stuck in their respective areas and couldn't get to the church on time.

A common theme in the stories that I've heard were sob stories of people's home who never flooded before, but was now suddenly experiencing heavy flooding. These are homes that were not in low lying areas like Marikina or Valenzuela. But parts of the Metro where there was never any flooding before.

This is kind of scary. I know that the meteorologists are saying that what happened was a once in a lifetime thing where the amount of rainfall for that day was equivalent to the supposed amount for a month. But still, you cannot help but wonder if global warming and the higher water levels had anything to do with it. Not to mention the antique drain system of Metro Manila which are clogged with garbage. Just imagine how much worse it could be in the future if we don't clean up our act with regards to the environment. Brr....

I just hope that everyone's OK. Material things are just things. So what if your Civic turned into a submarine. As long as you're alive and kicking, we should already consider ourselves lucky and be thankful.

Downswing Buster

2009-09-10T17:16:00.002+08:00

After a good August where I managed to increase my online bankroll significantly, September is starting out sluggish.

Probably because after I cleared out my bonus in Full Tilt. I now shifted to playing in Pokerstars to clear out my other bonus there. Unfortunately, the SNG turbo blind structures are different between the 2 sites and it takes me some time to get used to the slower speed of play required. After playing for 1 whole month in FTP, I find myself going to push fold mode too early in the Pokerstars SNGs.

Or I could just be rationalizing and I'm just into one of those downswings that happen every once in a while to every player. Oh well, I'm thinking that I can break the curse by writing about it in my blog. Heheh

I did manage to play in the $200+15 PS Sunday Warm Up the other week when there was a long weekend. I played pretty well I think but was really not catching anything. About 2 hours into the tourney, I had to go into one of those 50-50 showdowns between my AK and another player's pocket pair. Unfortunately, was not lucky enough to catch my cards and busted out.

Hoping the cards turn my way soon. Looking to earn some extra moolah these next few months. Trying to save up for an extended vacation and hoping to use 100% poker funds. =)

14,832 Players

2009-08-28T14:54:00.003+08:00

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

2009-08-28T10:48:00.010+08:00

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

2009-08-24T12:14:00.005+08:00

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 ?

2009-08-11T21:45:00.003+08:00

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. =)

Full Tilt Bonus

2009-07-31T17:26:00.003+08:00

Just in case you're hiding in a big rock somewhere and are not aware, Full Tilt is currently offering a bonus simply for playing the game. No deposits required.

This is to entice players to try out their new software. I've already tried it and nothing really major. Just some new snazzy interface in the lobby and new filters on what tables to show. The actual playing table remains the same as far as I can tell. The one significant thing is the ability to cut a deal at the final table in tournaments which was not there before.

The bonus is quite significant, at least $100 to be cleared in 30 days in $10 increments. Not too shabby especially if you already have rakeback in the site.

For an SNG, the bonus is equivalent to about 42% rakeback. Combine this with your normal rakeback of 27% and you'll be essentially getting almost 70% rakeback. It would be criminal to play at other sites at these rates.

So expect to see me mostly playing in Full Tilt the next 30 days trying to clear this bonus. See you around.

Dabbling in Omaha

2009-07-27T12:15:00.003+08:00

Lately, I've been incorporating a lot more PL Omaha into my usual games. Usually I'd open 1 table of a Double or Nothing Omaha SNG and mix it with my normal Holdem sets.

It's a refreshing break for a holdem addled mind and gives one different angles of thinking. Some common mistakes that would happen to me are as follows:

1. Mistakenly thinking that I already have the straight on a coordinated board. I always have to remind myself that I can only use 2 cards out of the 4 that I am dealt. A rookie mistake I know, but it takes some time to get the right frame of mind especially if you played holdem exclusively before.

2. When the board pairs up, you have to be very careful even if you have the nut straight or flush. A full house is entirely possible and probable. I have learned this lesson the hard way in a couple of big hands.

3. Bluffing is harder to do especially after the flop. Usually opponents would hit some kind of draw and would call you down.

4. AAxx and KKxx are still good hands much like holdem. You just have to remember to bet them aggressively preflop and after the flop. If there are still multiple callers, then be wary of possible straights or flushes.

5. The equivalent of suited connectors in Omaha are coordinated hands which are double suited. Hands like JT98 where let's say JT is hearts and 98 is spades. These hands are excellent beggining hands and should be played.

6. In an Omaha SNG, the concept of pushing all in when your M is low, first in vigorish, having fold equity appears to be much more effective. Players are very hesitant in calling with semi-decent hands. I think this is because it is harder to compute the odds of certain hands being ahead.

I've only read one section on PL Omaha strategy so far but its working out okay. I seem to be winning more than losing. But at this stage, I'm not too concerned about my bottom line. I just want to learn to play it better.

Going where the Sharks are

2009-07-23T17:15:00.003+08:00

I recently made a blog entry advising beginners to choose their poker sites wisely and avoid the sites where the good poker players hang out to increase their profits.

I would now like to make an exception to this rule. If you are already a somewhat experienced player. Sometimes, you would actually prefer to play with experienced players. For 2 main reasons: (1) you can pick up new tricks/betting patterns from better players. (2) you can anticipate the moves of better players and react accordingly.

No. 2 is quite important especially near the bubble of an STT. The correct push at crucial times will mean the difference between ITM and a big fat egg. Let's say you're in the dealer position with A-x or a small pocket pair and the action is folded to you. You have about 6 big blinds left in your stack. Automatic push for you. But you don't necessarily want the call from the blinds, a fold is just fine because there is no risk involved and the blinds are already significant during the bubble.

With good players in the SB and BB who hold mid level stacks. Holding hands like K-10, Q-10, J-10 or K-J, folding would be an easy thing to do. They'd usually look for better spots to make a stand especially if they can still afford to. They'd correctly assume you hold some kind of A-x hand and they'd gladly get out of the way with their K-10 as they know they're behind and they can afford to fold.

But if you happen to encounter a fish/beginner in the SB or BB, K10 is an insta-call. Not even seriously thinking about it, just seeing the guy with the moustache and sword makes their teeny-weenie penises go hard and folding is not even an option that they would consider.

You might say, so what? You are still ahead with your A7, but its only around 57-43. Holding a small pocket pair like 5-5. The odds would be 52-48. Almost close to a dead heat. This means that almost 1 out 2 times, you'd get beat. I would rather just steal the blinds.

Do you understand what I mean ? I won't put complicated math into the scenarios regarding the equities of calling and the equities of folding. I'm just simply pointing out that playing against experienced players, you can usually anticipate how they think and make the correct move or response especially with some kind of tracker data in your hand.

Playing against fishes, you're in limbo. You're constantly guessing. There is sometimes no logic in their calls. Obviously, you'd be happy if they called with Q2 suited. But consoling yourself with the thought that you were way ahead with your AJ doesn't really mean squat once they luckbox the 2 in the river.

Berating them via chat doesn't do any good. They're happy just to be lucky because they don't realize how stupid the move was.

If its not too obvious, I'm actually ranting about some bad beats and disguising it as a poker lesson. Heheh. Thanks for listening.

Hiatus

2009-07-18T14:17:00.002+08:00

Not really playing that much poker. For two main reasons.

1. Got sick for about a week. Developed some persistent low grade fever which was eventually traced to a wisdom tooth infection. Decided to just have it extracted. Dentist found some other problems with other teeth. So recommended oral surgery under general anesthesia. Went under. Had all the problems fixed in one go. Did not realize how hard it was going to be. Couldn't eat for a week. Only soft foods and liquids. Lost 10 freaking pounds !!

2. When I eventually recovered, our phone line now goes busto and obviously the DSL that goes with it. So I haven't played any kind of serious poker for about 3 weeks now. Which is kind of a record for me. It's refreshing in a weird sort of way. I don't really feel like an addict who had to go cold turkey. It's more like a persistent itch that I couldn't scratch.

Anyway, am on my way to full recovery and I'm so glad that I can eat semi solid stuff again. I am now salivating at the thought of ordering a big juicy steak at my favorite resto which I plan to do the moment the dentist gives the go signal.

Amazingly, I am looking forward to the steak eating more than the poker playing. Heheh.

A Rare Quadruple Win

2009-07-01T21:15:00.003+08:00

Just for posterity's sake, I decided to post this result in the blog. I would usually play STTs in sets of four and it is quite rare for me to finish ITM in all 4. I guess the moons where in alignment last night or my fever was making me light-headed and playing at my best. Heheh.

Going where the fishes are ...

2009-06-26T11:09:00.004+08:00

One of the aims of an online poker player is to find ways on how he can improve his game. He will usually read books about poker strategies. He will study hand histories and use various software to analyze his game. He will discuss hands with fellow poker players for advise and validation.

All these things he does just so he can play better and earn more money.

But there is usually one overlooked aspect that a player can do to improve his online earnings significantly. And this is simply to go where the fishes are.

I am not talking about choosing the correct tables, although this is also proven effective. But more on choosing the correct site.

Simply put, there are sites where the game is easier. Much, much Easier. Now the reason behind this is quite obvious. The pros or the pro wannabees would usually choose sites where they can multi-table so they can maximize their profits per hour. They would by logic, gravitate to the more popular sites like Pokerstars, FTP, Party and the like where anytime of the day, a table of their choosing can be found.

The smaller sites are not too interesting because it takes forever to fill up a table, much less talk about multi-tabling. But for the beginner poker player who only plays one table anyway, it doesn't really matter. You are doing yourself a great disservice if you insist on playing on the more popular sites. You're like a guppy who is suddenly thrown into a raging river filled with piranhas, you may evade them for a while, but you will eventually get shred into pieces.

Wouldn't you like to be thrown into a nice, quiet, placid lake with fellow guppies where you can swim calmly to your heart's content.

I know the metaphor's not too good. But I'm sure you get my point. You may say that you only play in the low limits anyway and the players there are not too good. That may be true. But in the fishy sites, even the players in the higher limits are not good.

And I am not talking about finding a random fly-by-night site where your online bankroll is at risk. But more on choosing the less popular, but steady sites like Carbon or Cake where there is a regular stream of players.

The advantage is not only in the lower skill level but also the quantity of people in the guaranteed tournaments. Which would you rather play ? A tournament with a guaranteed $1M but you have to compete against 8,000 other players. Or something with a 50K guaranteed but there's only 200 of you playing. The rakeback is pretty much the same and sometimes even higher because the less popular sites need to attract more players.

I am not claiming this from my personal experience alone. It is a fact that given the same number of games played, you will earn more money in the fishy sites. It is just logical dictated by the harsh truth that you are playing against less experienced players.

You might say that your skill set will not improve if you constantly play against fishes. But let us not kid ourselves. Your primary objective in playing poker is to earn money. Fuck personal improvement. =)

So the next time you lose your bankroll for the upteenth time in Full Tilt or Pokerstars. And you are thinking of quitting poker once and for all. Do yourself a favor and try out one of the smaller sites. You just might surprise yourself and discover that earning steady money playing poker is not so hard after all.

Turning Points into Dollars

2009-06-17T09:56:00.004+08:00

The other night, I happened to check my FTP points and I saw that I had around 5,000+ pts accumulated. Every game you play earns you a couple of FTP points and some might think that these points are no use since FTP doesn't really ship any of their items to the Philippines.

But there are actually ways to roll the dice with these points and get some dollars in return.

For an SNG player, the best way in my opinion to try and turn these points around is to play the 1,800 FTP points 9 man turbo SNG where top three get a $24+2 token. You can then use this token to enter an STT or MTT depending on your preference.

This was what I tried to do. I had about 5,200+ pts, so I was still missing around 200 pts to make it 5,400 which would allow me to play 3 sets. So first I played a 50 pts turbo SNG to the Daily Dollar tournament. The guys who usually play these are totally crappy since they're basically scraping the bottom of their bankrolls. Top 2 get the dollar or 200 pts. I had no intention of playing the dollar donkament. I just wanted the quick 200 pts. As I said, easy win, just wait around for the premium hands and suck somebody in.

So now I had 5,400+ pts and it was time to play the 1,800 FTP points SNG. To make a long story short. I managed to get 2 tokens for the 3 games that I played.

So now, the 5,400 pts has been converted to two $24+2 tokens or $52 imaginary dollars. But its still just tokens at this point. You now need to convert it to real dollars.

I now used one of the tokens and entered a 45 man SNG where top 6 was paid. You could also enter just a 9 man SNG or even a guaranteed MTT. There are many tourneys being offered round the clock where the token can be used. But it was already getting late and I wanted one that finished in around 2 hours.

Well as luck would have it. I finished 3rd in the 45 man for a cool $170.

Heheh... so 5,400 pts turns into $52 which now turned into $170. And I still had the spare token left.

The purpose of this post was not really to brag about the win. Well OK, maybe just a little. I mostly wanted to get the point across to beginner players and maybe even experienced players to not underestimate the value of the pts that you accumulate.

One lucky streak and you do get a good return for these seemingly useless points. =)

Shark Bait

2009-05-30T10:12:00.006+08:00

I'm sure most of you guys are aware of Sharkscope. Its basically a site that allows you to check a specific player's online poker tournament results. There's usually 2 uses for it.

One, you can use it to check you own stats. This allows you to determine whether you are making money playing online. The number of games you've played, your ROI, your average profit, even total profit.

Second, you can use it to check your opponent's stats. This enables you in limited ways to determine if he or she is a good player. You can then adjust your play accordingly. But more than this, I actually use Sharkscope as a tilt breaker. What do I mean by this?

Sometimes you play a hand perfectly, raising when you have to, betting the flop hard to scare away the draws. Getting your money in way ahead. But then, there's this guy who just keeps calling and calling. Eventually, he rivers his gutshot and takes away a big pot. It is times like this that make you want to tear your hair out and beat the living shit out of the guy. Instead of steaming and ranting, just relax, type his screenname in sharkscope. And revel in the knowledge that this same guy has already lost a few thousand dollars playing small stakes poker and is destined to lose more.

It gives you great comfort and some closure knowing that the poker gods are fair and fishes will be fishes, even though they do get lucky sometimes.

What is irritating about Sharkscope is that it only allows you 5 free searches a day. If you want more than this, then you have to pay a monthly fee which is quite steep and unnecessary. The other sites naman like officialpokerrankings track mostly MTTs and not STTs.

I've recently discovered another site called Top Shark (just google the name) which basically offers the same service but is actually free of charge. Meaning there is no limit to the searches you can do and it tracks both MTTs and STTs. You can even filter it by date or by the type of game (MTT, SNG or HU), by limit and even by buy in. There is also a ranking system. Just so you can see how well you stack up against other players. The other cool feature is you can display your stats in other websites like a blog or forum by pressing "get player graph link"

The only drawback with Top Shark is the number of poker sites that they cover. It is significantly less than Sharkscope. But the major ones like Full Tilt and Pokerstars are there. The other is the coverage date. It only started tracking data around end of 2007. So data prior to this date is not included in their stats. Sharkscope's date coverage extends up to early 2006.

Now for those people who think their privacy is being violated by these online tracking sites. You always have the option of blocking your name. But you should be aware that nothing screams donkeyplayer more than a blocked name. I know that sometimes it is embarassing to see your stats and knowing that everybody can see just how fishy you are. But one should treat it as some sort of constructive criticism and as an incentive to get better.

So the next time you're playing donkey style and you hit your 3 outer in the river, and the other guy types "Yeah, nice call, lifetime -32% ROI loser". Don't scratch your head wondering where he gets his data. Heheh.

ICM

2009-05-26T21:47:00.011+08:00

Last night, I decided to play 2 STT games simultaneously with the express intention of loading the hand history into SNG Wizard to analyze my bubble play. I don't normally use any kind of ICM calculator during actual play, since it takes a long time to set-up. And I am of the belief that even though it helps you earn some money, it also acts as a crutch and you tend to rely on it more than you have to. Its better to rely on your own ICM knowledge and then compare results afterwards with the software. Analyzing hand histories every once in a while using an ICM calculator is critical to figuring out your wrong moves and leaks.

In the 1st game, I finished 1st. I loaded the hand history into SNG Wizard. And waddyaknow. It turns out that I did not make one single mistake. A perfect ICM decision game and I end up 1st. Hmmmm...

In the 2nd game, I finished 5th. Same software. But this time SNG Wizard told me I made 4 mistakes in the ICM pushes that I made. Or rather the ones I didn't make. 3 of the mistakes were me being in the small blind with a hand like J2 and Q7 which I folded. But the software was asking me to push. The other mistake was actually a borderline push on my side. I pushed with A8 in the cutoff+1 and the software was asking me to fold, but A9 was already a push. So I'm ok with this decision.

I am actually aware of this "SB not pushing" leak in my game. But for now, I just cannot wrap my mind around the concept of pushing from the small blind when it is folded to you with a very wide range of hands. I do push loosely when its just SB vs BB. So hands like Kx or J9 or Q9s, I would push. But still iffy on the crappier hands even if the math says otherwise.

To conclude of course that playing perfect ICM will allow you to ITM everytime is fallacious. It is entirely possible to play with no ICM knowledge but still end up winning the game. And on the opposite side of the spectrum, you can play and make perfect ICM decisions and still not end up ITM.

To put it simply, ICM is just a mathematical model that allows you to make the correct push fold decision in the latter stages of an SNG or STT. It compares the equity of folding and the equity of pushing. And whichever is higher is the decision that you make. Actually, it is a little more complicated than this. But this is the easiest way to understand it without making it seem like mumbo jumbo to the average poker player.

ICM is not the end-all of SNG play and it is not perfect. It relies a whole lot on the hand ranges that you think your opponents will push or call with. Wrong assumptions will result in wrong decisions.

But one thing should be clear. As you mature in the game and you increase in limits, the only way to make consistent money if you are an SNG player is to know when to push or fold during the bubble. And the only way of precisely measuring this decision is thru ICM. Mastering ICM will enable you to make positive expectations decisions everytime and obviously this will lead to profits in the long run.

Say Cheese

2009-05-21T10:45:00.004+08:00

I'm sure by now, everyone and his brother has seen the Haydengate videos.

Some random thoughts:

1. The girls in the video seem to be genuinely unaware that Hayden was filming the whole thing.

2. Say what you want about the immorality and depravity of Hayden's act. The red-blooded male in me cannot help but shake my head and admire Hayden's taste in women. Those 3 girls are HOT.

3. The most important question everyone is asking is who released the videos to the internet ? I am sure it was not Hayden Kho himself because that would be the epitome of stupidity. If you know your filming fetish is illegal, you'd do everything in your power to keep it a secret. I've even heard some rumors that Hayden was being blackmailed by somebody who got the videos and was demanding money in exchange for not releasing the videos.

OK. Enough Cheese. Back to Poker.

Breakthrough

2009-05-17T20:44:00.006+08:00

Woohoo. I know its just 3rd place. I know its just $255. But heck, after a really bad April, I'll take anything. Besides, my total investment amounted to the ridiculous amount of $6. The original buy-in and one add-on.

The short break and the realization of some leaks allowed me to tighten up my game. I was also heeding my own advice to just play without any pressure. Hence the lowly $3 tournament which I don't normally play.

I tinkered a bit with my playing style and my adjustment basically amounted to being more patient in waiting for the premium hands and trusting my instinct to fold when I know I'm beat. I realized when I checked some of the poker tracking sites that I'm basically seen as an aggressive player preflop and I think that some of the other donks could be subscribing to these and playing back with nothing. So toning down a bit on the steals was part of the plan.

And it worked. Well except for the last hand. Chip leader and me both flopped top pair and all the money went in. He outkicked me. I raised with 7-3. He played 7-9. LOL.

For the love of the game

2009-05-11T15:04:00.011+08:00

I'm currently in semi-hibernation mode when it comes to my poker playing. Not stopping completely, but basically just playing whenever I feel like it and not forcing myself to play every night just to earn extra money.

I've come to realize during my self imposed break that poker playing has become some sort of required activity that I do as part of my "breadwinner" role in the family. So I play even when I'm tired. I play during my rest days. I play on Sundays and holidays. I even force myself to wake up in the wee hours of the morning just to play. I realized during the short break just how "forced" my poker playing has become.

So instead of being the fun activity that it originally was, it's now become some kind of chore. Of course, the money is there for the taking and some would say that its a wasted opportunity if I reduce my playing frequency. But I think its worth it in the long run in terms of improving my total well being and allowing me to spend more time with my family.

Its true that the money's quite good, but I don't really need it to provide for my family. It was just a supplement. Yes, it paid for the last HK trip. Yes, it paid for some fun stuff like the Xbox360 and a netbook. But I could easily have paid for these things from my regular income.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that I don't enjoy playing poker anymore. I firmly believe that I will be a poker playah the rest of my life. But I think I will enjoy it more if I approach it the way I did before. No expectations of regular monthly winnings. No forcing oneself to play because of the possibility of a big win or because I got a free ticket. But just playing for the sake of enjoyment and for the love of the game.

You could say that its hypocritical to disassociate poker with the money. Because in poker, more than any other game, money is the ultimate litmus test of one's skill. I'm sure that none of us enjoys playing with play money except probably for the weirdos in facebook. By the way, what's with that gig ? Lately I find myself talking to people who when I say I play poker, they would immediately say they also play and brag about the thousands of dollars that they've accumulated in Facebook.

I'm like, ok, so what can you do with your facebook dollars ? Can you exchange it for things or some sort of benefit ? And they'd look at me funny as if I was the one going bonkers and say that its like some sort of prestige thing to have mucho money in facebook poker. Uhm, yeaah, riiiight, I get you. =)

Going back to my topic. I'm just saying that poker is more fun when there's no pressure to earn big money. I used to treat it like a hobby which gives me free money whenever I win. But I think I kind of lost my way and lately was treating it as some sort of money making venture which made losing and variance harder to accept. And this was the reason why I was tilting easily.

So now I need to go back to the previous mindset. No expectations. No pressure. Just playing the game and beating the hell out of the fishes.

A Few Days Off

2009-04-27T12:02:00.004+08:00

I've decided to take a short break from poker playing. Nothing too major. Maybe a week at most. I've been analyzing my play for April trying to figure out some of the leaks to explain why I seem to be losing more than winning this month.

Well, basically, my own analysis tells me that I have been far too impatient with my online tournament play. I've been willing to gamble with coin flips early in the tournaments and sometimes even calling when I already know I'm behind.

Now this impatience seems to be a result of some kind of tilting. The 1st quarter of the year was ok with positive profit but the first 2 weeks of April were kind of bad and I attributed this mainly to variance. I know that I played optimal the first few weeks but the results were not there. This is quite normal and will happen to every poker player. But this has resulted in me being in semi tilt mode and I may not have realized it.

So just to be on the conservative side and to make sure that I don't waste any more of my bankroll playing catch-up. Let me just take a short break with no poker to clear my head. I've been playing almost everyday in one form or another the past year so I guess some burnout is to be expected.

Again, for those people who have been following my blog and who know me personally, its actually no big deal. I am not busto. My poker bankroll is actually quite healthy. But relatively speaking, the amount I lost from end March to April is significantly higher compared to any losing month before. And considering I only play a couple of SNGs and MTTs a day.

For some, the amount may just be a small blip on the radar, but since I did not increase my playing levels. I find it highly unusual. I pretty much play the same buy ins and frequency that I played last year. So the only logical advise that I can give myself is to take a short break just to refresh my mindset a bit. I cannot really advise myself to lower my playing levels since I did not increase it in the first place. I'm also playing in the same poker rooms with the same sharks and donkeys for the past year or so. In short, nothing changed except I can't seem to win. =(

May 2 will be my self imposed deadline. I'm hoping the break will do me good and enable me to play better come May.

Rebuy 101

2009-04-25T10:59:00.003+08:00

I've been playing a lot more online Rebuy tourneys lately and I've realized that there are some unique aspects in the game that are worth discussing in a post. Let me just share some of my thoughts and some of the things I've read and up to you if you find it useful.

Just for reference, the rebuy tourneys I refer to are the normal "buy in with unlimited rebuys during the 1st hour and one add-on after the 1st hour" tourney. These are the most common ones I see around and these are the ones I refer to in this article.

The 1st and most important issue in rebuys is with regards to buy in management. How many rebuys should you spend for it to be cost effective? Should you just keep on rebuying if you bust out until the rebuy period ends ?

The answer to this question is a qualified NO. There is actually what I would call the "break even" point for lack of a better word. The standard budget you allocate should only be something like 3x to 4x the buy-in. Anything beyond this is no longer cost effective because the poker sites actually use this rough guide to determine the last place cash.

An example would probably illustrate this better. Let's say the buy-in is $10 and the tourney starts with around 180 players. So if you follow the rough guide of buy in management I have stated above. The most that you should spend is around $40. This is equivalent to one buyin, maybe 1 to 2 rebuys and finally the add on.

How is this relevant? Well, if you would apply it to the 180 player tourney in the above example and assuming that 40 places get paid. You will notice most of the time that last place cash meaning places 31 to 40 will pay you slightly above $40. YEP.

Of course, I would like to reiterate that this is not a clear cut rule. Some sites may offer some varying amount. But I have noticed that this is the most common payout. In rebuy tourneys, last place cash is usually a little bit more than 4x the buy in. So in order to avoid negative wins (this is where you ITM but you actually lose money), then your total buy ins should be below that range. Sounds logical ? Of course, if you have cash to burn and you're aiming for 1st place anyway, then feel free to rebuy 10x.

OK. Now that you know how much budget to allocate. The other common question is should I take the add-on ? The answer is yes. Unless you're like the bad-ass chip leader with a humungous stack. Otherwise, always take the add on. Why ? Because it usually offers good value for money. Whereas a rebuy is the same amount as your starting stack. The add-on is usually something bigger in amount. Also, you need all the weapons you can get as the real tourney starts after the add-on period. There is no reason not to take it since you've already allocated it as part of your budget and you will be automatically disadvanatged if you don't since everybody gets it.

The other important aspect in rebuys is your play during the 1st hour. You should be extremely tight and play only premium hands. This way, you take advantage of all the loose play, calling stations, and hail maries that go on. Everybody is justifying playing stupid because they always think that they can rebuy anyway. Take advantage of this retarded thinking by playing tight ass poker. Your objective is to pad your stack before the rebuy period ends by playing basic poker and finding a spot where you're way ahead and then double or even triple up.

The worse thing that could actually happen even if you play no hands is you rebuy and you add on and you would actually find yourself still with an average stack after the rebuy period ends. This is true and that is why tight play is correct. One valid strategy that I actually see is players only buying in during the 1st hour break to conserve buy-ins and avoid all the mayhem. It's quite a good tactic but you should be well-versed in short stack play to pull it off.

After the rebuy period ends and the tournament resumes, then you can just play it like a normal freeze-out. Find your spots, be aggressive, etc. I would still advise patience as because of the rebuy, there are still tons of fishes remaining in the tourney. You wouldn't want to bust out because you thought you could bluff stupidjoe out of the pot and he kills you with middle pair against your busted flush draw.

And that's basically it. Rebuy 101. Thanks for reading.

Seat of the Pants Blogging

2009-04-20T15:40:00.003+08:00

Lately I find myself blogging just for the sake of blogging. Meaning I don't really have a good poker topic in mind. It's just that I haven't written for a while, so I make a new post without really knowing what I want to write about.

This post is a very good example of this kind of blogging. I am just winging it from whatever weird idea that's currently swimming on the top of my head. Hehehe. Let's call it seat-of-the-pants blogging for lack of a better word.

Actually, I think the reasons behind it are quite simple. April for me is a busy month both in terms of the things that I have to do in the office, the trips abroad that I have to make, plus the fact that April is also the period where we would usually schedule family and company outings. So it's just less time for everything.

I would also blame the evil XBOX 360 for some of this lethargic writing. I'm currently in the middle of Resident Evil 5 and its taking quite a chunk of the usual time reserved for poker and blogging. (DIE ... you motherfucking zombies). Add to this the fact that my brother would also suddenly drop by for extended NBA 2k9 sessions.

So less poker means less poker stuff to write about.

Anyhow, the Pokermanila regulars seem to be of the consensus that April is a bad month in terms of poker playing. I have heard numerous sob stories about variance rearing its ugly head this April. And for me it's no different. Haven't really won anything significant this month. Just when I think I'm on a roll and on my way to a final table, some weird thing happens. You know what I mean. Getting Aces and having them cracked by somebody who played Q2. Getting your stack way ahead and runner runner flush kills you. Mind boggling events that make you want to tear your hair out and punch a hole on the LCD monitor with your fist.

And so it happens to the best of us. We always feel we have enough skill to beat this silly 2 card game, but we still end up eating some donkey shit every few months or so.

So how does one deal with it? The obvious and most common answer is of course Bankroll management.

Bankroll management is an easy concept to understand and I'm sure most of you have read enough that you don't need another nerdy blogger like me lecturing you on it. Do not play beyond your means. Always make sure you have enough buy-ins to withstand variance, blah blah blah ..... It's been discussed to death by pros, semi-pros and pro wannabees. Nobody denies its effectiveness and there are different rules advocated from making sure you have 50 buy ins to staking only a small % of your bankroll.

Everybody knows it, everbody is trying to adhere to it, everbody believes its one of the golden rules of effective poker playing. But why do good players still seem to lose their bankrolls?

I think its because some poker players (me included) have big egos. After a certain number of years playing this game and more often showing good results, one tends to develop this kind of high and mighty ego. So even if you're losing big, you still think you're just being outdrawn. It never crosses your mind that you're actually being outplayed by smarter & better players.

And sometimes what's worse is you may say to yourself that Bankroll management is for sissy beginners. You're already too good to be affected by something as common and pedestrian as variance. So instead of realizing that you're way in over your head and humbly going down levels. You insist on playing at a level that in your mind you should be beating. But in reality is way above what your bankroll dictates. And much worse, it could even be beyond your skill level.

You may think you're good just because you won a big tournament before or cleaned up the same cash game level last month, but long term results is what eventually matters. You cannot proclaim yourself to be the best player in the world but show squat in your balance sheet at the end of the day.

So that's basically my convoluted point. A good poker player is humble enough to know when they're beat and will show willingness to go back to the drawing board to plug the leaks. More than bankroll management. Sometimes, it's actually more ego management that is needed by most of us.

Quickie lang

2009-04-08T11:22:00.004+08:00

I know I know ... haven't blogged for a while. So trying to make that up by writing a quick one. Let's do a top 5 things that happened during the time of my last post until now.

1. Played the $100K Guaranteed at Cake last Monday. Holiday so it gave me the opportunity to use the ticket. Should have stayed in bed as I busted out early when my pocket KKs faced the donkey god who played A10 suited and who then proceeded to luckbox the flush. I did make a huge mistake here as I had an opportunity to fold after the turn but I was too damn sleepy at 5AM and was not in the correct mindset. Heheh ... excuses excuses.

2. Also in the same time frame, played the $50K Guaranteed at Pokerstars and I did manage to ITM this one. Unfortunately, I was short stacked once we reached the money, and I busted out shortly thereafter when I made an all-in bluff in the big blind with K8 with 2 limpers in front. SB called with A9.

3. Couldn't resist a great deal that was offered to me on an XBox 360. Some guy won it in an office raffle and just wanted to convert it to cash. So I basically got it at almost 40% off retail. GTA IV, Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter 4, Karaoke Revolution. Enough said.

4. Just came from a 4 day trip to Hongkong with the wife and kids. Did the usual things there, HK Disneyland, Ocean Park and Shopping. And just to reiterate again why I play poker. All our expenses for the trip were sponsored by the Equus africanus asinus over at Cake, Pokerstars and Full Tilt. Thanks again guys. Sa uulitin. (click the link if you don't undertstand latin)

5. Finally, will be going to my favorite beach hang out this holy week so I might not be able to play any poker. In the years past, I would usually cram a lot of tournaments during the holy week holiday. But this year, my cousin got the early booking. So off to the beach we go. I'm definitely looking forward to the down time. The HK trip was supposed to be a vacation but with the kids in tow. It was more hectic than anything else. Now if I can just resist the urge to bring the laptop and the Smart Bro modem. =)

And with that I end another edition of Poking Fun at Poker. Seeya next time!

Nerds and Gamblers

2009-03-10T15:24:00.008+08:00

I was reading thru the posts in Pokermanila about how different people got their starts in online poker or what they spent their time in before they got addicted to poker. Some were Counterstrike players. Some played Ragnarok and other MMORPGs. Justin Bonomo and a bunch of others came from Magic the Gathering. There was a different group of people who where exposed to gambling games early on in their childhood whether it was pusoy or blackjack or sabong.

As I clicked thru the different posts, it was like looking at eerily similar backgrounds. And I came to the realization that poker seems to have a tendency to attract 2 kinds of people. The Nerds and the Gamblers.

I know I'm generalizing a bit, but work with me on this. Next time you play poker, please look at the people around you. I am sure you can easily categorize them into one of the two groups I mentioned above. They're either middle aged men/women who were casino regulars before who have now migrated to poker - GAMBLERS. Or they're part of the new generation of guys who were weaned on computer games and tried poker and got hooked - NERDS. Some were exposed to poker at a young age either by an uncle or a father who played - could be a NERD or a GAMBLER. Foreigners who have money to burn and call with anything under the sun - GAMBLERS, well dumbass gamblers but they still fall under gamblers. =)

One way or the other, they're either Nerds or Gamblers. And when I say nerd, I don't mean the usual negative connotation of a guy with glasses covering half his face, wearing high waisted pants, with ballpens in his pocket and stutters when he's talking to a girl. The updated wikipedia definition actually sounds correct.

"Nerd refers to a person who passionately pursues intellectual activities, esoteric knowledge, or other obscure interests rather than engaging in more social or popular activities. Stereotypical nerd qualities have evolved in recent years, from awkwardness and social ostracism to a more widespread acceptance and sometimes even celebration of their abilities. This is largely attributable to the rise of the computer industry, which has allowed many "nerdy" people to accumulate large fortunes and other measures of social prestige. Some measure of nerdiness is widely considered desirable, because it suggests a person who is intelligent, respectful, interesting, and able to earn a large salary. This evolution has dovetailed with waning emphasis on the social awkwardness of nerds, with more attention placed on their intelligence and academic enthusiasm."

In a way, its actually now socially acceptable to be a nerd. Attractive girls now prefer going out with the school nerd because he has the potential to be the next Bill Gates rather than the jock who will most probably end up behind the counter at Mcdonalds.

So what's my point ? Basically I am saying that if you love poker. You either love the rush of going all in with your gut shot straight draw and winning that big pot of cash which makes you a gambler. Or you are part of that other group who is intelectually challenged with figuring out the correct odds and gets intense satisfaction out of making the mathematically correct move which makes you a nerd.

Some people might say that they love to play poker but they're definitely not a nerd? Why ? Because you go to the gym and you dress cool. Heheh. Sabi ko nga. If you think you're not a nerd but you enjoy playing poker, then you're a gambler. It's either one or the other. There is no such thing as a successful non-nerd non-gambler poker player. You win big because you play using the correct math or you were willing to risk everything you owned in that 2 outer and you got lucky.

Looking at it the other way. If you're not a nerd and not a gambler then you will definitely not enjoy poker. Simple as that. You may be part of that group of people who try out the game since it is gaining popular recognition among your friends. But you will eventually drop out of the game because there is no satisfaction involved for you if you are not a nerd or a gambler.

As for me, I am a self confessed nerd. Ever since I was a child, I loved playing video games and my favorite subject was Math. Sure, I could be considered a semi-jock since I played high school ball. But given the choice back then, I would rather jump and bonk my way into the castle to save Princess Peach from Bowser than go out in the hot sun and practice my jump shot.

Note : if you know who Princess Peach and Bowser is, then you're definitely a nerd!

Bugged Out

2009-03-09T14:45:00.003+08:00

I came down with some kind of nasty flu last week, hence the lack of updates. I was coughing and hacking and my temperature was in the 39s. It was so bad that I didn't even have the strength to play too much onlike poker. And that's saying a lot.

Do you notice that as time goes by, illnesses take longer and longer to go away. Where before, you'd usually just shrug off a cold or maybe take a day off and the next day you'd be all hunky dory. Now I was totally incapacitated for 4 days and even now a week later, I still have this persistent cough that doesn't want to go away.

It's like its getting harder and harder to kill the bugs that invade our immune system. Some people blame it on the use and abuse of antibiotics and I really think they have a point. The bacteria just develop immunity to the antibiotic and no longer respond. Even if the drug companies come up with stronger and stronger antibiotics. We all know that this is not sustainable and eventually a SUPER BUG will come out that will be resistant to all known antibiotics and then we're in big trouble.

Anyway, I did manage to play a little bit during the latter part of my illness. And I was lucky enough to get 2 qualifying tickets. I got a $200+15 Pokerstars ticket thru the steps qualifiers so now I'm ready to take another crack at the Sunday Million. I also got a $150+15 ticket to the 100K Guaranteed Tourney at Cake.

Both of these big tourneys fall on those godawful early Monday morning skeds our time and I don't see any long weekends or holidays coming up, so I may need to skip work one Monday to play these tourneys simultaneously.

By the way, oluaris over at Pokermanila was asking the other time whatever happened to my objective to play in more live tourneys this year. Well, believe it or not, I was actually going to do something about this lack of live play experience. I was seriously planning to play the Metro Perfect 10. Yep. I had my buy-in prepared (cashed out some online profits) and was already preparing a leave form for Mar 12-14. And then last week I find out that our China supplier decided that they will visit our office on those days. Since I am essentially the point man for some of these joint projects, I cannot be away when they come. And that's pretty much the end of that.

I don't know if I should be disappointed or relieved. Disappointed because I've been itching to play a really good live tourney for quite some time now. Relieved because I think I save myself 25K as I'm pretty sure I will probably bust out early on some donkey ass play. =)

My wife knows more about poker than me ...

2009-02-24T11:51:00.005+08:00

I was playing the 3K guaranteed Rebuy over at Cake last night. I did my usual buy in only after the 1st hour routine and was lucky enough to triple up early on using short stack poker strategy.
So now we're near the bubble and I had about 11K in chips. Blinds were already up to 800-1600. I get dealt 10 10 in middle position. One limper in front. So I push all in. Everybody folds except for limper who insta-calls with KK. Fug... the limp trap with monster hand. Flop comes and it shows a 10 to complete a miracle set for me. Woo hoo. Limper had about 10K in chips so I bust him out and double up in the process.

A few hands later and I got moved to a different table. I now had about 20K in chips when I get AJ in late position. Blinds were now 1K-2K. Again one limper in front. So I push all in. SB and BB gets out of the way. Limper tanks for a while. I had him covered by about 1k. He then eventually calls. Guess what he shows. QJ. Dominated hand.

Flops comes Q rag rag. Another Q on the turn. And that essentially cripples me and I bust out on the forced all in on the next hand. I scream and rant at the screen shouting all kinds of stupid names that I can think of at the donkey caller who couldn't hear me anyway.

My wife who managed to observe this whole sequence of events was bemused. She understands the basics of holdem as she sometimes plays in house games. So she asks me. "Hon, why are you so upset ? Isn't that the same exact thing that happened a while back when you had 10 10s. You were the one that dealt a bad beat to the other guy. That was even worse because you only had 2 outs".

I answered quite rudely since I was still steaming. "It's totally different. In the first hand described, I was the aggressor and my M was pretty low. So a push there was the correct move. 7 out of 10 times I would have stolen the antes and blinds which was worth a third of my stack. 2 out of 10 probably I would get called but my 10s would be good. Nagkataon lang in this case, Limper 1 was trapping with monsters and obviously was going to call. He just got unlucky. If I had busted out there, I would have accepted it graciously knowing I made the correct move in that situation. It was just poker fate that doubled me up.

In the 2nd situation, it is totally different. I was still the aggressor and trying to steal the blinds thinking limper had a marginal hand. I blew my top because limper was a total donkey and the poker gods rewarded him. He was presented with a situation where he had to call all of his chips and his tournament life on Q fucking J. And he did it when the correct move was to fold. He has no read on me since I just got moved to the table. So you can't say he was trying to stand up to my aggressiveness. There is no plausible reason except that he is a total donkey."

My wife shrugs .... and says "It sounds like the same to me". =D

Basketbol - Noon at Ngayon (Finale)

2009-02-18T22:02:00.000+08:00

Now armed with new basketball shoes, and wearing my lucky boxers (the one saying World Series of Poker on it), I was ready to rock this fuckin basketball tourney.

Our next game was on a Thursday and by Thursday morning, I was hopping up and down with excitement. I take a look at the bulletin board and check who our next opponents are. Hmmm... it says logistics department. I don't seem to know anybody from there. And does our company even have a logistics department ? I mused while scratching my head.

Game night rolled around and the place was rocking. Well, not really. There were a few staff people watching but it was pretty much an empty gymnasium. I sat down on our side of the bench and gleefully pushed my feet into the Lighstpeeds. Ahhh.... feels like my feet got swallowed by this soft cocoon. I could feel the adiprene watchamacallit working already. I jumped up and down a few times and stretched. The referee blew the whistle and it was game time.

It turns out that the aforementioned logistics department is composed of delivery drivers and pahinantes. If your company has these kinds of employees. Then you probably know what we're up against. Pretty much short dark guys with "bato bato" muscles and who run up and down the court like bunnies on steroids.

I look at my team composed of pale, pasty faced, limp armed programmers and some senior supervisors and managers with love handles and I knew we were in for a looong night.

First play of the game and I was designated point guard. Not because I dribbled like chris paul, but because the only other guy on our team who could dribble worth squat had to go home. His wife did not allow him to play that night bec. of some petty quarrel. Mweheheh.

I dribble slowly past the mid court line and I see a teammate flash to the middle holding his hand up. I quickly whip the ball to him expecting a turn around jumper or maybe a strong post move down the middle. He dribbles once, bounces the ball off his foot and straight into the waiting arms of an opposing player. And it was off to the races as I suddenly find myself running backwards while 3 players are coming down fast. I commit to the guy dribbling and a quick bounce pass to the guy on the wing and swoosh. 2-0.

Won't bore you with the exact game details but suffice to say, we were run out of the courts. It was fastbreak galore for the opposing team. The first half was close just because I made a couple of outside shots (ehem) and we had this guy on our team who played commercial league level before. I basically passed him the ball every chance I got and watched him make his move. But eventually he also got tired and by the 2nd half, we got creamed pretty good.

Final score 53-42. I scored 10 pts. The commercial league teammate scored 26. And the other 6 pts was shared between the pathetic losers we call our basketball teammates. Yes, I'm referring to you programmer guys. =)

Did the shoes help at all ? Heheh .. well, I still couldn't dunk. I don't think I jumped any higher or ran any faster. But I thought it offered better support and traction. I know its all mental, but it did help my confidence a bit and I think that's the reason why I made some of those jumpers.

The game was obviously played differently from when I was in HS and I knew I was going to wake up the next day with muscle pains everywhere. But basketball is basketball. All pinoys love to play it and I was surprised to note just how much I enjoyed it and how much I missed the game.

I'm thinking for our next game. I need to get one of those DRI-FIT shirts from Nike. The ones which wick away the sweat to the outside so that it evaporates faster. With new shoes, I scored 10 pts. Imagine what I could do with these babies. (grin)

THE END

Next : Enough about basketball, let's get back to POKER

Basketbol - Noon at Ngayon (Part 2)

2009-02-13T15:37:00.005+08:00

Having decided that I needed new basketball shoes. It was time to go shopping. But first, I decided to set a budget. I am a highly impulsive buyer and sometimes when I see something that I like. I don't necessarily look at the price anymore and end up paying an unnecessarily big amount. So in this case, I put it in my mind that I was only going to spend around 3K for a basketball shoe. Spending more than 3K for something that may just end up in our shoe cabinet gathering dust didn't sound like a good investment.

I first checked out the Nike store in greenhills and although there were some models that I saw which fit my budget. There were these 2 shoes that absolutely spoiled my taste. The Lebron 6 and the Kobe 4. Seeing these 2 models made the other shoes look downright shabby in comparison. Seriously, the Kobe 4s were supposed to be the lightest basketball show ever made weighing in at something like just over 11 ounces. While the Lebrons were simply beautiful. See pics

Dangnabbit. Sabi ko na nga ba eh. I didn't even want to look at the price tag of these babies. But I had to know. The Lebron 6 were 7K++ while the Kobe 4 was 6,995. Arrrrgh!! More than double the amount that I had in mind. With a loud sigh and with much regret, I placed both shoes back in their stands and grudgingly walked out of the store. I didn't even want to look at the other Nike models anymore. I knew that if I stayed any longer, I would be tempted to just say " Aaah, fuck it" and tell the saleslady to bring a size 10 of the Lebrons. Heheh.

Next stop was the Adidas signature store. And here I was surprised to see a new selling concept for basketball shoes. It seems that Adidas has decided not to release exclusive signature models for their basketball endorsers anymore. They would release the same signature shoe for everyone except that it came in different colors and slightly different designs. So before, they used to have the TMACs for Tracy Mcgrady and the GilZero for Gilbert Arenas. Now it was the Bounce Commander and your choice was Garnett, Howard and Duncan. The basic shoe was exactly the same for all 3, the only difference was the colorway. See pic.

I think the concept is similar to what Converse did before where Magic Johnson and Larry Bird wore the same shoes except they were different in color. In any case, the bounce commanders were still way off my budget retailing at 5,495 if I remember correctly.

Grrrr .... I was starting to think that there was a conspiracy going on and these marketing geniuses at Nike and Adidas really knew what they were doing. If I really wanted something nice and with somebody's name on it, then I had to pay up. I think the Adidas saleslady sensed my apprehension and belatedly told me that they had last year's signature models on sale and pointed them out to me.

As it turned out, last year's models were quite nice. They were called the TS Lightspeed and they were at 40% off. Original price was also 5,495 but now selling for only 3,200. Ahhh... I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Well to make a long story short, I found a color that I liked and Cha-Ching. The lady swiped my mastercard and I am now the proud owner of brand spanking new TS Lightspeed basketball shoes TMAC version. Obviously, they weren't as nice as the Lebrons or Kobes, but what's important is I stuck to my budget and got some nice signature shoes although old model lang nga. Heheh. Ang daming drama just for a basketball shoe. But that's just for blog purposes, the actual shopping trip took only an hour at the most.

Next : How I did in the next basketball game with new shoes

Basketbol - Noon at Ngayon (Part 1)

2009-02-07T15:55:00.007+08:00

If my memory serves me right, I was a decent basketball player back in high school. I had a fairly good medium range jumper. I could jump. I was fast on my feet and I had good basketball IQ. I am about 5 foot 8 inches tall. So I would usually play either shooting guard or the small forward position in my high school team.

After high school, I seldom played basketball on a competitive basis. College was pretty much a hectic affair with girls being my first priority. My studies were a far second. And basketball. Well, let's just say that aside from the once in a while pick-up game in the gym. It was pretty much forgotten and put aside.

After college. I don't think I ever played basketball again. It was kind of hard getting a group together to play 5 on 5. But I engaged in other sports like badminton when it suddenly became popular and badminton courts sprouted like weeds in every corner of the city. Also, I did keep up with what's happening in the basketball scene and watched NBA games on a fairly regular basis aside from playing fantasy basketball on the PC.

A couple of weeks ago, the company I worked for had its yearly basketball tournament among the different departments. I don't normally join this tournament. But this year, a new team was formed and being short handed, I was coerced to join. I thought it was going to be one of those events where severely unfit guys from each department huffed and puffed their way down the court with their beer bellies sticking out and people taking a break every 5 minutes.

I was dead wrong. It turns out that its a highly competitive affair complete with referees and wooden courts, where people dive for loose balls and gave elbows to your gut when the referees were not looking. I also found out that I couldn't run fast anymore and my vertical jump was pathetic. Heheheh. There was a 50+ year old guy from the sales department who outhustled me every time there was a loose ball. I still had my outside shot but it was woefully inadequate and our team lost by an embarassing margin during our first game.

Obviously, I wasn't going to take this kind of humiliation every week. So being your average normal guy, I came up with the brilliant conclusion that my failure to run fast or jump high was caused by my ratty, old cross trainers which were not fit for basketball. I remembered wearing these really cool Converse Hi Cut Shoes back in high school and doing pretty well. (If I remember correctly, they were similar to what Magic Johnson wore) So I decided then and there that I was going to buy a new pair of Basketball shoes before our next game to bring my game to the next level.

(to be continued)

The Quest continues ...

2009-01-29T17:49:00.001+08:00

My quest to become a good online tournament player continues as the first month of 2009 comes to a close. I've been playing mostly MTTs the whole of January with buy-ins ranging from $10 to about $30. My schedule would usually look like this. Work from 8:30 AM to 5:30PM, come home, have dinner, play with the kids for a little bit. Then fire up the old PC and start playing. I'm averaging about 2 to 3 MTTs per night played simultaneously from about 9PM to whenever I bust out.

So far, the results have been encouraging. My ITM rate has gone down since my playing rate has gone up. But my overall profit has been on the upswing. Recent notable events include a 3rd place finish in a JBET 1.5k Guaranteed. 2nd place in a 3K Rebuy Tourney at Cake. And just last night, I took down 2nd in a 5.5K FTP Tourney. Didn't really have time to take screenshots so just take my word for it. Heheh

The JBET account was newly registered in light of the recent APT, but I never did get around to playing any of the qualifying freerolls. I do want to wish good luck to every Pinoy who qualified especially fellow PM members. Since this is the first time I played in JBET, I wanted to comment a bit on the experience. First off, the software is buggy. The software would usually stop and hang if you play too many tables or sometimes for no reason at all. This also happens to other sites which I think is caused by the fluctuating speeds of the DSL connection. But the other sites recover automatically. JBET does not. It just stays in that "stop" position unless you close all the open windows and restart the software which is quite troublesome. This is also the first site I have ever encountered which does not seem to have an automatic tracking facility for bonuses. For some weird reason, they are requiring you to email them to inform them that you have already achieved your bonus.

On the positive side, it is absolutely filled with donkey players. I have never seen so many illogical moves in a money tournament than the ones I played in at JBET. It's like people are willing to gamble with junk all throughout the tourney. Normally this kind of reckless playing happens at the start of the tourneys. But once all the fishes are weeded out, then it becomes quite serious and you can usually expect good play. Not in JBET though. Even as we were already nearing ITM, people were still getting caught with weird plays that spewed chips left and right.

Finally, and I don't know if this is a good thing or not. Once you reach the final table, you have the option of offering chop deals with fellow players. They have a nifty module where you indicate the deal and if everyone clicks that they agree, it automatically ends the tourney and distributes out the pot as per agreed. I have seen chop deals happen in Pokerstars but it would usually entail some manual intervention by a PS staff. I guess it's good in the sense that it shortens up some play and you can even out the distribution of prizes automatically. But I'm used to playing for top 3 and it sort of jars your train of thought on how you approach an MTT. I'm still on the fence on this feature, but I would think its something that most poker players would appreciate.

And that's what's happening so far. See you next time !!

Withdrawal by Cheque

2009-01-19T11:08:00.003+08:00

I'm not sure if this tidbit of information is interesting to most of you. But worth posting for future reference I guess.

During the 1st week of January, I requested for a cashout from Cake Poker. This was long overdue but since the demise of Moneybookers, I was too lazy to figure out how to make a withdrawal. Eventually I got around to emailing them and activating the withdrawal by cheque option.

Cake Support was very helpful and got this done promptly after some verifying of account information and such which was quite understandable. I then found out that there was a $35 courier charge for sending me the check. This was also OK for me as getting it safe and sound was worth the small amount.

I finally received the cheque last Saturday via FEDEX. I expected a check in US Dollars or Euro. But to my utter surprise, it was a peso cheque. Seriously, it was an ABN-AMRO Check and it was seemingly issued from their head office in Ayala Avenue, Makati. The account name listed on the cheque was PACNET Service Europe Limited . I double checked the Fedex package and it came from the Cake office in Vancover, Canada. Heheh ... I have no idea how they did it. But it was very welcome as I didn't have to wait for clearing. I could just deposit it and the funds would be available for immediate use.

The only drawback is the conversion rate. Roughly, it came out to about 43.42 is to $1. Which is highway robbery if you ask me. If I'm not mistaken, the current rate is about 46.8 or something. But heck, what can you do. I'm just happy that they have a withdrawal method for the Philippines that is fast and secure.

The thing is, if the cheque came from a Philippine bank, why not just send it to me directly to save all those courier expenses??

The Year That Was ...

2009-01-02T12:38:00.001+08:00

First post for 2009 and as per custom, let me do a quick recap of what happened to my poker playing this past year. Before anything else, let me qualify to everyone that I am a low limit recreational player. I work 8 hours a day, 6 days a week and travel quite a lot. So my playing time is limited to a few hours a day plus the occasional Sunday. I don't consider myself a pro in any sense of the word. But I am an avid student of the game.

With this in mind, I am happy to report to my stockholders (which is basically my wife and kids) that I've managed to triple my online bankroll this year while still managing to take out around $3K worth of profits. Whether this is big or small is relative obviously. But I am quite satisfied with this level. Again as I've always said, where else can you play a game which you enjoy tremendously where the money inflow is positive instead of negative. A lot of my previous obsessions have always taken out a chunk of my salary and poker is the only one that is the opposite, actually giving me extra spending money. It is also the only hobby that my wife encourages me to play, sometimes even chiding me for missing out on some of those early morning freerolls which I qualified for. Heheh. Buhay nga naman.

Also in 2008, I did finally get to play in a Sunday Million Tournament and even made it ITM which was good. My playing has evolved a bit. Instead of focusing purely on single table SNGs. I find that I play in a lot more MTTs now. Surprisingly, my ITM rate is quite high for MTTs hovering in the 30+% range. I find that I also enjoy MTTs more with its unique challenges and formats. Cash game experience is still zero except for the occasional stab at low limit tables when I am trying to chase a bonus. I find that I'm clueless when to quit when I play cash. Sometimes I'm already up 2 to 3 buy-ins and I end up losing it back to the table. This is so unlike SNGs or MTTs where you always know where you stand and there is a definite end time.

If there is any regret that I have for 2008, it is that I fact that I played in only one (count them in your fingers) live game. And it was even a charity event where the players were not really playing seriously. So for 2009, this is the main thing that I would work actively to change. I would like to play in at least 2 or 3 big live local tournaments. With the growth of poker in the Philippines, I am sure that there will be lots of live MTTs with great prizes. So let me try to qualify for one of these suckers.

I guess that's it. Happy New Year to everyone !!

Rebuy my Ass

2008-12-30T15:01:00.005+08:00

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

2008-12-26T16:47:00.002+08:00

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 !!

2008-12-24T14:09:00.003+08:00

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

Shut Out

2008-12-22T09:33:00.002+08:00

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

2008-12-17T12:07:00.003+08:00

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

2008-12-12T10:39:00.006+08:00

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

2008-12-06T14:46:00.004+08:00

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

2008-12-05T17:06:00.002+08:00

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

2008-12-01T12:04:00.006+08:00

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?

2008-11-17T23:43:00.005+08:00

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

2008-11-04T17:04:00.004+08:00

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

2008-10-25T14:50:00.006+08:00

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

2008-10-20T15:14:00.006+08:00

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

2008-10-03T11:54:00.007+08:00

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?

2008-09-29T11:42:00.009+08:00

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)

2008-09-26T12:00:00.008+08:00

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)

2008-09-23T16:22:00.003+08:00

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

2008-09-19T10:54:00.003+08:00

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

2008-09-16T10:23:00.010+08:00

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

2008-09-11T10:45:00.002+08:00

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.

2008-09-07T21:38:00.002+08:00

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

2008-09-01T10:51:00.002+08:00

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

2008-08-27T09:58:00.005+08:00

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 .....

2008-08-22T09:39:00.004+08:00

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

2008-08-21T11:49:00.002+08:00

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$

2008-08-12T09:58:00.002+08:00

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

2008-08-04T17:49:00.007+08:00

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

2008-07-22T10:04:00.002+08:00

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?

2008-07-14T14:42:00.003+08:00

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

2008-07-07T15:07:00.004+08:00

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

2008-07-03T11:15:00.003+08:00

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?

2008-06-27T15:12:00.003+08:00

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.

Travelling in Taiwan

2008-06-23T12:05:00.005+08:00

I just got back from a 5 day trip in Taiwan and just wanted to post some of the notables. Was there for an exhibition fair and some factory visits, but did get a chance to go around a bit

1. Taipei 101 - 2nd tallest building in the world. Great view of Taipei city especially near dawn. Entrance fee was quite expensive at NT$400 to get to the observatory near the top. (around 600 pesos)

2. Rode a 70 m. tall ferris wheel on the rooftop of the Miramar mall. 1 revolution took 15 minutes.

3. Excellent food - try the xiao long bao(its like a small siopao/dumpling combination with meat and some sauce inside the bun) at the Din Tai Feng restaurant. Very Tasty and the prices were quite reasonable.

4. Betel Nut Girls - scantily clad girls inside small glass structures selling cigarettes and highly stimulating / addictive betel nuts to truck drivers. Hard to explain if you have not seen it firsthand. So I've attached some pictures from the net. These girls earn around NT$30,000 a month just selling the betel nuts. My Taiwanese friend says that for NT$500-1000, some will flash you their boobs. Heheh ... kung meron tayong "only in the Philippines". This is "only in Taiwan". Don't mistake it for some kind of prostitution thing. It's a real job. The girls are basically selling products primarily to male drivers, so if you think about it, baring their bodies to attract customers is just a form of marketing.

Overall, I would have to say that Taipei is nice for a short visit. Traffic is surprisingly good considering that it is a highly populated city. Language barrier may be a bit of a problem as most of the population still cannot speak english. Mandarin and Hokkien are the common language. But there are lots of english signs so it is easy to get around. Taxi drivers are polite and don't try to fleece you.

Since this is still a poker blog, let me just say I did get to play some online SNGs during the night. Hotel offered free internet and the connection was lightning fast. I don't think poker as a game is popular in Taiwan, though. Casinos are currently still illegal but I heard Taiwan is also planning some kind of Macau style casino in one of their small islands. High stakes Mahjong is probably still the game of choice if you're looking for a rush.

Almost Lover

2008-06-14T17:20:00.004+08:00

Let me just qualify this post by saying firsthand that I am not a person who likes music. I mean I listen to the radio sometimes. I appreciate good songs, but I don't go out of my way to let's say buy a CD or watch a concert. I don't even own an Ipod or an MP3 player. I don't know any of the new artists and I only surfed the net for Britney Spears once because of the infamous beaver shot. =)

The fact that I am talking about a song in a poker blog means something. The first time I heard the song "Almost Lover", I was surprised by how much it affected me. It was both lyrical and haunting at the same time. It brought up images of long forgotten stuff. The voice of the singer, Alison Sudol, is amazing. But again as I said, I am not a song listener and I don't know if my opinion is valid.

So I am just going to post it and let you hear it for yourself. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. It also gives me a chance to embed a youtube video for the first time. Heheh ..

On the verge

2008-06-14T16:17:00.003+08:00

On the verge : (dictionary meaning) the limit beyond which something happens or changes.

The Boston Celtics are on the verge of winning the 2008 NBA Championship. MVP Kobe Bryant with all his skill and the Gasol trade (trade doesn't seem to be the right word, robbery sounds better), appears to be not enough to deny the Big 3 their ring.

Even though I would normally root for the Lakers against the Celtics, I am a long time admirer of Garnett and this is one time that I hope that the Celtics take it all the way for the sake of the veterans who have shown everyone how teamwork and sacrifice can work wonders. The Lakers are young and with Bynum coming back next year. They will be the team to beat in the 2009 season and for the years to come.

So go Boston !!!

In poker news, I was on the verge of breaking my monitor last night. Heheh.... $22+2 SNG in FTP. There were 5 players left. Had a medium stack when I get dealt AAs. I make the perfect trap and got the chip leader to go all in with his KJ in a King high board. Turn is a blank and river is a K. Good game me.

Another SNG, I think an $11+1 this time. I get KKs and again I got somebody to go all in with his spade flush draw after the flop. River is the spade. Arrgh....

Makes you wonder if you just want to overbet the monsters pre-flop to at least get the blinds instead of succesfully outplaying someone by having them lay all their chips in the middle a huge underdog, but getting drawn out in the end.

Poker.... hayy ...

In hindsight, should have broken my monitor. This way, I can get the 19" inch LCD widescreen that I've long been craving for. heheh

Not made for grinding

2008-06-10T11:03:00.004+08:00

I recently had a chance to review my Full Tilt SNG stats for the month of May. And here are the results according to sharkscope.

Games played : 106 games
Limits played : Combination of $6+0.50s and $11+1s
Ave ROI : 34%
Profit Made in FTP site for May : approx $300

*I do not include rakeback in any of my computations.

Of course, I played some games in the other sites but I would say that these only total up to somewhere around 30 to 40 games. So overall for May, I played a total of around 140 SNG games give or take together with an occasional MTT tournament.

If you analyze my stats, the logical conclusion to be made is that I should play more games. If I can maintain this level of ROI, wouldn't I be making a killing just by playing more games ?

Unfortunately for me, I believe the answer is NO. Believe it or not, that 140 something games is the most I've played in a month from the time I started playing online poker. YEP.

I regularly only play around 3 or 4 games a night and to me this number is just right as it falls somewhere around 1 to 2 hours of playing (2 tables at one time). During these 3 or 4 games, I can really stay focused and more often than not do well. I've tried stretching out my poker playing some nights and what happens is that I end up playing sub optimal as I'm already sleepy. Working a full work day and battling Metro Manila traffic does suck out some of the excess energy I may have. Considering that I don't play everyday due to other commitments and you can see that 140 games is a lot for my schedule.

I will not deny that like most poker players, I've had the dream of playing poker for a living. And stats like these reinforce this belief. But I've realized as I grow more experienced in this game that I am not made for grinding. I go on tilt quite easily and I don't think I have the stamina to stay in front of my screen more than a few hours at a time.

In hindsight, this actually ends up protecting my bankroll. My full schedule forces me to quit after a few games even if I have this intense desire to still play after a losing session to make up what is lost for the day. Forced to quit because I have to go to bed sounds wimpy, but that is essentially what happens.

So will I forever be the casual player that I am now? Most probably. It is nice to know that I can always fall back on poker to earn a few hundred dollars every month. And that is I think what makes the game enjoyable for me. If I had to do it for a living and go through the stress of suckers sucking out every few minutes of every hour of every day. I'll probably curse the game and quit.

But to be honest, the poker dream will always be in the backburner simmering. But my version is now different than before. I don't really want to play poker for a living anymore. That's a brutal life. Guys quitting their jobs with a bankroll and grinding day in and day out is not for me. I'll probably die of some cardiac thingie a few months down the road.

My poker dream is now basically hoping for that one big score. That someday, you end up getting all the balls bouncing your way, all the planets aligned, all the gods listening and you suck out with your pocket fives against KKs to win an eight figure payout. (converted to peso of course)

And once it does happen. I pack my bags, quit everything, invest the money in some kind of stable investment, live off the interest in some sleepy beachside town in Palawan with my family. And play poker for fun. That for me is the ultimate poker dream. =D

Lakers vs Celtics

2008-05-31T13:44:00.003+08:00

Woohoo! Dream Finals Matchup. I am sure David Stern is jumping for joy. Can't wait ....

Sharkscope HUD Update & Pokerbility

2008-05-20T17:35:00.005+08:00

After using the Sharkscope HUD for a couple of weeks, I decided to just turn it off. It wasn't that it was not helpful. But it sort of confused my game.

The first effect that I noticed was that it made me play looser against the fishes to the overall detriment of my game. A case in point, I got AQ in cutoff. No action beforehand. So I raised 3x BB. The guy in the SB reraises me. Everybody else folded.

Normally, my play is just to call, take advantage of my position and see the flop & take it from there. I would also sometimes fold if I strongly believe he has KKs or AAs.

This time around, the HUD was there and it shows a flopping fish. HAHAH!! Bluffing, eh. So I put him all-in. Of course he shows AAs and I am a huge underdog. This kind of false tell happened once or twice with different kinds of hands. Hands which I could have easily gotten away from if I had played my normal game turned out to be bust-outs against certified fishes.

So I decided after a while to just turn it off and play my usual game without any enhancements. And surprisingly, my overall results were much better.

So what this does show? Well, for one thing, it shows that just because they're a fish doesn't mean that they don't get lucky. The often quoted "you don't need skill to play them Aces" also come to mind.

The HUD has some value especially near the end game where knowing who is good or bad is relevant to end game SNG play. But at my low limit levels, playing with it especially in a full table just makes me play looser. And that's bad. We all know that playing disciplined ABC poker in the lower levels is enough to keep a good ROI. So I don't think I'll renew it once my free subsciption ends.

Another product which I installed lately is Pokerbility. This is more of a traditional odds calculator which attaches to the main game window and gives you the percentages of hitting certain hands. It also has a hand ranking system for your opening hands with real time advise on whether to fold, check, call or raise. Sounds good in theory, right ? But at the end of the day, I also ended up not using it.

Why ? Well, it didn't give me any information that I already didn't know. After playing more than a year now, some of the odds I already instinctively knew. Chasing a flush draw while the opponent is overbetting is neg EV and vice versa. It doesn't work for multi-tabling as you can only attach it to one table and you also cannot adjust table size while using it. Finally it doesn't take into account implied odds in certain situations. So not much benefit for me.

But I believe this product is useful especially for a beginner. It allows you to be more disciplined in your starting hands and gives logical advice if you end up flopping good hands. So this product I would recommend wholeheartedly for those newbies just learning the game. But for some of you veterans out there, it's kind of redundant. Attached a screen shot in case you are interested to know how it looks

So there. Two "supposed to be helpful" poker products and I end up using not one of them. I guess nothing still beats the human mind. =)

Sharkscope HUD

2008-05-05T11:27:00.003+08:00

I don't know if anybody uses the Sharkscope HUD software, but I recently got a free 2 month trial of this thru a promotion with Luckyace Poker.

Instead of opening sharkscope and typing your opponent's name to check his stats. It superimposes the stats like Ave ROI, Total games played, Ave profit etc on top of the playing window. It also tells you if the guy is a fish, a shark or on tilt. See sample below.

Theoretically, it should give you some sort of advantage as you can see who the good and bad players are. You can be wary of the good players and consequently try to take advantage of the bad players who have a tendency to overplay their hands.

I've only had time to try it once on a Full Tilt SNG and I finished 1st in that game. I'm not sure if it was because of the stats I saw. But there was one hand where I definitely used the knowledge given. I was in the BB and I get AAs. Two limpers. I checked out their stats on the display and both were negative profit players. One of them had a -16% ROI. I would usually raise my AAs here around 3x to get money in the pot.

But the HUD showed me a fish so I went all in. The other player folded. But as expected the neg 16 player called and showed 66s. No improvement and I immediately doubled up. As we know, an immediate double up near the start of the SNG almost always assures you of an ITM finish.

Right now, its still in Beta testing and only works with Full Tilt and the Ongame network as well as some minor sites. I will try to get some volume with this HUD and see if it can improve my game. After the trial period ends, I might then be tempted to buy it.

The danger I see is that I might encounter a fish who gets a legitimate hand but you end up thinking its a bluff because of his stats. Oh well, pros and cons for everything. I will give an update after maybe a month of use. This should be enough time to tell if it was helpful or not.

What do you guys think ? It is not an odds calculator but more of an indirect way of reading opponents online. So should have some value one way or the other.

Prepaid Broadband Internet

2008-05-02T11:55:00.003+08:00

If you are one of the less than 10 people following my posts regularly, you would know that I recently changed address. It was a move to a much better neighborhood with easier access to malls and commercial establishments , so I'm pretty happy with the move.

Except for one thing. It's taking forever for PLDT to install my telephone line and consequently my Internet connection. It's been weeks of excuses and whatnot.

Finally the other day I just got fed up and got a Smart Bro Prepaid Kit.

The kit will cost you 4,500 which is relatively expensive because you are basically just getting a HSDPA USB modem. But certainly better than getting one of their fixed plans. With my erratic schedule and out of town trips, I didn't want to get monthly bills for something that I wasn't able to utilize fully. The lockin period of 2 years was also bothersome. So prepaid broadband is perfect.

Aside from just loading the amount that I need, now I can take my laptop anywhere there is a Smart Signal and voila, instant wireless broadband internet and you know what that means. Poker Anywhere. Now when my wife drags me to the province to visit her parents, I'll be set. Heheh. Playing poker while lounging in a beach chair in Laiya is now a reality.

The rate is quite reasonable. P10 for 30 minute blocks. The speed is just average. They claim you can get 384 kbps, but actual speedtests give me somewhere on the 200+ range. Good enough to run any poker software. Of course, you will still get better speeds with your fixed DSL line. Also, sometimes the speed drops for no apparent reason. But all in all, I was quite satisfied with the thing.

I am also expecting the usage rate to drop within the next few months as Globe is also gearing up for their own mobile internet thingie, so competition rules. =)

Party Animal

2008-04-21T20:09:00.004+08:00

Warning : Brag post ahead.

I posted previously that the games in Partypoker were kind of soft. And I do believe it is just a lucky streak. But before I donk the winnings away, let me just post my Party Poker "shark" status for posterity before it disappears forever in the annals of poker history.

I know its a pretty small set of data and not really conclusive, but heck it only happens once in a while and it's my blog anyway. So I'm bragging about it while it lasts. =)

In semi related poker news, I was in Guangzhou China for the Canton Fair last week and I am now convinced that online poker/gambling is controlled in some way by the government. I stayed in a different hotel from last time and like before, all the poker sites were not working. The only exception was the merge network and even then it was mind-numbingly slow to the point of impossible. Suspiciously similar to the circumstances of my last visit. All the other sites like Google and Yahoo were working fine.

So if the USA wants to control the proliferation of online poker in their shores, they should take a page from the Chinese. I have no idea how they do it, but its damn efficient. I'm guessing the USA can also easily do it thru the ISPs, except they're probably scared of lawsuits and whatnot.... so they're going about it in a roundabout way by controlling the payment processors.

Oh well, I'm glad I'm living in good ol Pinas. Where the government is too busy politicking and leaves online poker alone. =)

PSP vs Poker

2008-04-05T14:51:00.004+08:00

Part of the reason why my poker blogging has been non-existent lately is because my wife got me a PSP last month.

I've always been an avid gamer ever since I was a kid. Name the system and I've probably had it at one time or another. Game & Watch, Atari, Famicom, Superfamicom, Genesis, etc. When the Playstation first came out, I think I was one of the first buyers. I didn't care that it was 20K ++ at that time and was only out in Japan. The first time I saw Toshinden (don't know if anybody even remembers this game). I knew I had to have it.

My fascination with video games only waned when I got married and had kids. So my last systems were the PS2 and the Gamecube which I sold a long time back since I wasn't playing with them anymore. Setting it up coupled with work and family life was just too much hassle.

But I more or less kept up with what was happening and knew about the Wii, PS3 and Xbox360 when they came out. But the high price and the knowledge that I wouldn't have time to play with them kept me from buying them.

Last 2006, I purchased a Nintendo DS, but this was for my daughter's sake. She apparently inherited my love for games and plays with it all the time. I play a couple of games here and there. But the games were too cutesy to really catch my attention.

My wife knew about this previous hobby of mine and decided to surprise me with a PSP last month. Mweheheh, now she's regretting it as a lot of my already sparse free time has been sucked up by the device. The list of interesting games is endless, Metal Gear Portable Ops, Grand Theft Auto, Medal of Honor, Negreneau's Stacked and now the sequel to Final Fantasy 7. I don't even know if I can find the time to finish an RPG as I remember how long it took me to play one of these things.

The fact that its a handheld device suits working adults perfectly. You can always just play a few minutes at a time while in the loo or before going to bed. It's sleep feature comes in extra handy as you don't even need to wait for a save spot if you need to do something. Just put it to sleep, finish what you need to do and turn it back on and you just continue where you left off. Add the fact that you can download ISOs for free makes it an even better proposition.

But of course, poker is my new addiction and it's really no contest. I still automatically migrate to the PC after dinner to play a couple of SNGs. The good thing is, during those times I go on tilt, I now have something to divert my attention. Instead of opening up another table at the higher stakes to get back what I lost. I just fire up the PSP and mow down old ladies using my beat up Chevy. Great way of releasing the pent up stress of poker. =)

Online Poker - Free Market or Cartel?

2008-03-24T12:07:00.004+08:00

Haven't you ever wondered why the sites seemingly have their rakes pegged at their current rates? In the SNGs for example, its normally somewhere around 10%.

To the best of my knowledge, it has been like this for the past couple of years and some sites like Party Poker even have it higher. If I recall my economics lessons back in college, shouldn't a free market exert downward pressure on the rake as more and more of these online sites battle for a limited number of customers. Consider the fact that US customers are banned from certain sites, then the effort to draw customers should be even bigger. Why aren't the sites killing each other with some kind of reduced rake to get your business?

Well, one could argue that these sites need a big amount for their investment. But think about it, they're basically operating servers in some remote island in Gibraltar or in the mountains of Kahnawake. How expensive would it be to maintain ? Also, they have huge economies of scale. As more and more customers patronize their sites, fixed costs are spread out and cost to serve one customer becomes smalller and smaller. Their monthly costs are basically electricity & other utilities, customer service & IT staff, endorsement deals with the pros and probably the rent of the small office where the servers are located.

I think its common knowledge that the online poker sites are making huge amounts of money from the rakes. So why couldn't an upstart company suddenly decide. "Hey, why shouldn't I compete based on lower price. Let me reduce the rake to increase customer inflow."

Like what Sun Cellular did in the telecoms industry. Before they came in the market, our usage rates for text messaging and calls were high. But Sun competed based on price in their various promotions and at the end of the day, Smart and Globe had to reduce their rates to be competitive as Sun was slowly eating away their customer base.

That is the concept of competition and consumers benefit from it.

So why is the same thing not happening in the online poker industry. Sure, they give out bonuses, rakeback and such which in effect reduces part of the rake. But its all indirect. If you think about it, it should be easy for a newcomer site to make an immediate impact by offering 9 person $10+0.50 SNGs. I for one would jump at the opportunity to play at a site which offers lower rake and even at half the rake, I believe they would still be making a profit.

So again, the question is WHY. And the only thing I could come up with is they have some sort of informal cartel which controls this amount. Parang why kill the goose that lays the golden egg? If the big sites can come up with some kind of gentleman's agreement to keep the rake at a certain level and only compete on promotions. Then every site is happy. Only the players are being fleeced and they're all degenerate gamblers anyway who would still play even if we peg the SNG rate at 20% just to get their thrills.

Heheh... another example is The Metro. Before they came along, the other poker organization was cheating the players during the big tourneys by pocketing the excess buy-ins beyond their guarantees. Now they're forced to "moderate the greed". =)

Just something to think about.