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Playing Poker on Sportsbook.com: Notes
Post-Black Friday, US players are naturally looking for places where they can still play poker. Sportsbook.com, on the Merge network along with PlayersOnly, is a top rated sportsbook that has made significant improvements to their poker software after upgrading to PlayAces software.
They offer a wide variety of different cash games, MTTs and SnGs and while the player pool naturally can't touch the former levels of Full Tilt Poker before its shutdown, there have been many active games every time I've checked. Unfortunately, as I just learned after doing a little research, Sportsbook.com has pulled out of the US market earlier this year, so no new US players can sign up for a real money account. This was a decision by the company that owns these Merge network properties as well as Superbook on the Cake network.
So if you already had an account on Sportsbook.com before May 1 of this year, you can continue to play. If you didn't, however, you're unfortunately out of luck.
The site is enjoying an influx of new players as former FTPers bounce flock to sites that are still available. So if you have an old Sportsbook.com account sitting there collecting dust, you might want to resurrect it. It's not perfect, but it does offer some quality poker.
They offer a wide variety of different cash games, MTTs and SnGs and while the player pool naturally can't touch the former levels of Full Tilt Poker before its shutdown, there have been many active games every time I've checked. Unfortunately, as I just learned after doing a little research, Sportsbook.com has pulled out of the US market earlier this year, so no new US players can sign up for a real money account. This was a decision by the company that owns these Merge network properties as well as Superbook on the Cake network.
So if you already had an account on Sportsbook.com before May 1 of this year, you can continue to play. If you didn't, however, you're unfortunately out of luck.
The site is enjoying an influx of new players as former FTPers bounce flock to sites that are still available. So if you have an old Sportsbook.com account sitting there collecting dust, you might want to resurrect it. It's not perfect, but it does offer some quality poker.
Effects of Black Friday on the 2011 WSOP
Ever since Chris Moneymaker's win in the 2003, the WSOP fields have been growing at incredible rates: the 2010 main event featured over 7,300 players and the total prize pool for the series was nearly $200,000,000.
Many of these entrants win their spots via online satellites, many of which are run by Full Tilt and Poker Stars. Of course, these mega-sites have been shut down by recent US Department Of Justice indictments, announced on a day which has come to be known as Black Friday.
How is the 2011 WSOP being affected? So far at least, it seems to still be going just about as strong as would have been expected without the big shutdowns. The 2011 WSOP began on May 31st, and there are 58 events scheduled, one more than last year. Many of the online players are cut off from their bankrolls as Full Tilt especially is struggling to find the funds to pay them. Live satellites at the WSOP will most likely become even more hotly contested than ever before.
Other interesting areas to watch will be the number of players in the lower-stakes and major events, the sponsored products worn by players as well as the way the media covers the event in such an uncertain climate.
Many of these entrants win their spots via online satellites, many of which are run by Full Tilt and Poker Stars. Of course, these mega-sites have been shut down by recent US Department Of Justice indictments, announced on a day which has come to be known as Black Friday.
How is the 2011 WSOP being affected? So far at least, it seems to still be going just about as strong as would have been expected without the big shutdowns. The 2011 WSOP began on May 31st, and there are 58 events scheduled, one more than last year. Many of the online players are cut off from their bankrolls as Full Tilt especially is struggling to find the funds to pay them. Live satellites at the WSOP will most likely become even more hotly contested than ever before.
Other interesting areas to watch will be the number of players in the lower-stakes and major events, the sponsored products worn by players as well as the way the media covers the event in such an uncertain climate.
Home Game Report
I haven't had many opportunities to sit down for a home poker game recently, so when my roommate and a few friends were getting a game together yesterday, I gladly joined in. Little did I know, the game would end up teaching me an interesting lesson.
I’ve always thought about what it would be like to play ring games without thinking at all about the money. That is, if my only goal is to amass as many chips as I can, instead of focusing on winning twenty of fifty dollars, I figure I would make much better and rational decisions.
Turns out, this is exactly what happened to me in this game. When I joined in, the guy who brought the chips handed me my stack and said how much it was worth in total, but then told me the chips themselves would be worth 1, 2 and 5. Although this seemed rather odd to me, I guess those guys usually play this way and wait until the game is over to calculate who is up and who is down.
After a few rounds, I had no idea if I was up or down, and decided to just focus on playing good poker.
I’ve found that I sometimes get much more conservative when I have a small win going, and if I have a big stack, I tend to play looser and make more aggressive moves. Now of course, I don't do this consciously, but nevertheless, it happens.
Yesterday, however, I wasn't thinking about wins, losses or any dollar signs; just trying to get as many chips as I could. And I was able to make much better long-term decisions, instead of being affected by results-oriented thinking for the session.
When the game was over, I was happy to see that this philosophy worked out. I thought I was only up by a few dollars, but when I cashed out, I was happy to see I had almost doubled my buy-in.
I’ve always thought about what it would be like to play ring games without thinking at all about the money. That is, if my only goal is to amass as many chips as I can, instead of focusing on winning twenty of fifty dollars, I figure I would make much better and rational decisions.
Turns out, this is exactly what happened to me in this game. When I joined in, the guy who brought the chips handed me my stack and said how much it was worth in total, but then told me the chips themselves would be worth 1, 2 and 5. Although this seemed rather odd to me, I guess those guys usually play this way and wait until the game is over to calculate who is up and who is down.
After a few rounds, I had no idea if I was up or down, and decided to just focus on playing good poker.
I’ve found that I sometimes get much more conservative when I have a small win going, and if I have a big stack, I tend to play looser and make more aggressive moves. Now of course, I don't do this consciously, but nevertheless, it happens.
Yesterday, however, I wasn't thinking about wins, losses or any dollar signs; just trying to get as many chips as I could. And I was able to make much better long-term decisions, instead of being affected by results-oriented thinking for the session.
When the game was over, I was happy to see that this philosophy worked out. I thought I was only up by a few dollars, but when I cashed out, I was happy to see I had almost doubled my buy-in.
Mixing in a lot of MTTs Lately
I've been grinding a lot of .25/.50 limit these days, and doing pretty well aside from the occasional day when I get absolutely crushed. (Funny game, it is...)
To balance that out I like to play about as different of a Holdem game as I can find, and I really enjoy big No Limit MTTs. The thrill of the tournament format really gets me and I've had a few big final table cashes this year. I haven't won a large-field tourney yet though, so that's my next goal
Anyway, I'm doing the $200K Double Deuce at Full Tilt this afternoon, and it starts in about 30 minutes. There are about 5,500 players registered right now, and first place is 31K. How nice would that be?
Update: Hendon mob pro Dave Colclough and Scott Fischman are in the field so far. Hope I draw one of them at my table!
To balance that out I like to play about as different of a Holdem game as I can find, and I really enjoy big No Limit MTTs. The thrill of the tournament format really gets me and I've had a few big final table cashes this year. I haven't won a large-field tourney yet though, so that's my next goal
Anyway, I'm doing the $200K Double Deuce at Full Tilt this afternoon, and it starts in about 30 minutes. There are about 5,500 players registered right now, and first place is 31K. How nice would that be?
Update: Hendon mob pro Dave Colclough and Scott Fischman are in the field so far. Hope I draw one of them at my table!
Upset by a Bad Beat? Write About It and Win Prizes!
We all suffer bad beats. They can make us curse out our adversaries in the chat box or complain incessantly to our friends and significant others. But have you ever sat down and crafted an interesting story about a bad beat? If this sounds like an interesting concept to you, as it did with me, it could even win you some cool prizes.
Poker Buddy is an add-on, used mostly used mostly for Zynga poker, that uses algorithms to help evaluate your game and improve poker play. They have just launched a contest for players who can write the best bad beat story.
You can go right to the popular Poker Buddy Facebook page and post your story. Feel free to browse around and "like" your favorite. The Poker Buddy staff will eventually select the most creative and intriguing story and the writer will win a fancy poker case filled with 500 chips. Runners up receive a T-shirt or baseball cap.
To get those creative juices flowing, check out their guide to writing a bad beat story. This contest should be a lot of fun. I know I welcome any opportunity to turn a bad beat into something positive, and free prizes is a great way to do it!
Poker Buddy is an add-on, used mostly used mostly for Zynga poker, that uses algorithms to help evaluate your game and improve poker play. They have just launched a contest for players who can write the best bad beat story.
You can go right to the popular Poker Buddy Facebook page and post your story. Feel free to browse around and "like" your favorite. The Poker Buddy staff will eventually select the most creative and intriguing story and the writer will win a fancy poker case filled with 500 chips. Runners up receive a T-shirt or baseball cap.
To get those creative juices flowing, check out their guide to writing a bad beat story. This contest should be a lot of fun. I know I welcome any opportunity to turn a bad beat into something positive, and free prizes is a great way to do it!
Set up PT3 on New Laptop, Ready to Go
I took a major step forward today by finally transferring PokerTracker over to my new laptop. I've had the computer for a few months now, but for whatever reason I thought it would be difficult to transfer everything over. It's really not. Your licensing code is good for two computers so I just re-installed PT3 and PostgreSQL and entered it. I thought I'd have to do something complicated for backing up the database, but I realized it would be super simple to just save all my HH files on a flash drive and manually import them on the new computer. Boom: 15 minutes and I'm set to go.
I'm glad I finally made the switch: the new computer is much better in every way and has a bigger screen. All of my friends in grad school love sleek, small laptops for note taking in class. My priorities are much different: I want to be able to fit 4 tables as comfortably as possible on the screen!
I've logged some decent play this week. I'm still amazed at how easy it is to get a free $25 from Full Tilt's Take 2 promotion. It takes me under 10 minutes each day to get the 5 bonus points needed to qualify.
For the second week running I went out on Friday night and stayed in on Saturday to get ahead of some work which inevitably turns to poker.
This time I ran about even playing baby micro NL. I'm still doing my challenge of building up a winning sample of 15k hand at every level before moving up. I've dabbled in 25NL and even 50NL back in the day, but I wasn't even close to being properly bankrolled and I didn't realize I was submitting myself to a crapshoot.
I keep wanting to post hands, but I suppose I'll spare the heartbreaking tales of 2NL beats and coolers. I'll wait until I move up a little, at least... I'm still doing really well for the month in .25/.50 limit.
I'm glad I finally made the switch: the new computer is much better in every way and has a bigger screen. All of my friends in grad school love sleek, small laptops for note taking in class. My priorities are much different: I want to be able to fit 4 tables as comfortably as possible on the screen!
I've logged some decent play this week. I'm still amazed at how easy it is to get a free $25 from Full Tilt's Take 2 promotion. It takes me under 10 minutes each day to get the 5 bonus points needed to qualify.
For the second week running I went out on Friday night and stayed in on Saturday to get ahead of some work which inevitably turns to poker.
This time I ran about even playing baby micro NL. I'm still doing my challenge of building up a winning sample of 15k hand at every level before moving up. I've dabbled in 25NL and even 50NL back in the day, but I wasn't even close to being properly bankrolled and I didn't realize I was submitting myself to a crapshoot.
I keep wanting to post hands, but I suppose I'll spare the heartbreaking tales of 2NL beats and coolers. I'll wait until I move up a little, at least... I'm still doing really well for the month in .25/.50 limit.
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