Princess Cruise Pokerpro TR/Rant

I just got back from 10 day Alaskan Cruise starting from San Francisco. I was on the Sea Princess ship, which had one PokerPro table.

It was $1/2, 50 min, 200 max.
The rake was 10% up to $7 and they raked pots with no flop.

The donkament structure was $50+$10 with 1500 chips, blinds starting at 50/100 with the blinds going up every 15 minutes. (lol, no I didn't play those)

Summary

Overall, I ended up losing $265 over 400 or 500ish hands. The mega whales ended up sucking out on a ton of hands on the first few days of play and the 4 other 25/8 "regs" ended up valuetowning them to death before I could take my money back. One of the more annoying things of this cruise was that 3 of the regs were two brothers and an uncle, who keep talking during the hands. I might fold like 20 hands in a row and when I raise, they will say "WHOAA!! I didn't see this guy play yet, or they would start guessing my hand out loud while the whales were playing with me. After showing so many solid starting hands playing about 15/11, even the mega whales started to catch on. I found it difficult to get paid off during the last 2 days of play, where as the annoying obnoxious 25/8 "regs" kept getting paid off. On one of the last 50 hands, there were 3 limpers in front of me and I raised to $16 with kings (because when I raised to $10-12 with KQ and get 4 callers I whiff too much). The whales actually folded. Where as the "obnoxious looking" "reg" 3bet shoves with aces and two whales call.

Some Afterthoughts

I only played live at a casino once before this cruise and it was b4 I actually learned the game seriously, so I don't really have much of a comparison.

1. People talking during the hand pisses me off.
2. Playing against a family who call themselves sharks playing 25/8 pisses me off.
3. Open limping small pocket pairs is not a leak here.
4. Overbetting preflop and on the flop with strong hands is very profitable.
5. Betting 1/4 or even 1/5 of the pot on the river with top pair hands is not exploitable. People tend to look at bet sizing like $5/$7/$10 instead of $15/$30/$60.
6. People seem to be more willing to put a ton of money in on draws then with top pair.
7. Playing with the same players everyday sucks.

8. I asked the 25/8 "obnoxious looking" "reg" who probably won $800-$1000 during the trip what stakes he plays online. He said he doesn't because he thinks it's rigged.

Fuck You Pokerstars

So I'm still at FTP right now here is overall earnings progress so far.

Even though PokerStars are fucked me over by chasing away fish with the buyin changes.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/28/internet-poker/pokerstars-announcement-changes-nl-pl-cash-game-buy-ins-758670/

AND raised the microstakes rake.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/28/internet-poker/hold-pokerstars-when-did-you-start-raking-these-pots-800827/
http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/room/rake/

After I finish this promo at FTP, I'm am coming back because I am a fucking sell out pokerstars fanboy. 

Please don't upset me anymore PokerStars. I love you. <3

Some Goals

Been awhile since my last post. I had to handle some school work because I'm such a procrastinating degen.

A few updates since I haven't been posting.
1. Moved to 6 max poker
2. Moved to FTP temporarily (you heard me right). Will be back at stars in a month though.
3. Currently sucking really bad at FTP 5NL SH.

Goals:
1.  Put a good amount of study/school time in each day even if I got nothing due.
2.  Run on treadmill more and do some push-ups
3.  Fix my 6 max before I go back to pokerstars.
4.  Stop playing like a nitting robot or a semi tilted fish.
5.  Update blog more often and post graphs/pictures.

Pokerstars changes min/max buyins for cash games!

http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/games/rules/ring/

So I'm still playing at 5NL, so it actually doesn't affect me at all YET. Although overall the changes seem extremely good, there are 3 things that worry me. The fish are going to go away, the fish are going to go away, and the fish are going to go away.  The fish are no longer going to go in the 40-100bb and will all move to the 20-50bb tables. Fish are losing players, and hate it when they get stacked for huge amounts. Therefore, they will go to 20-50bb tables, where you lose less and skill doesn't play as much of a roll.

I think Pokerstars can help fix this by two ways (that have probably be brought up in the 2p2 forums multiple times).

One, change the 20-50bb tables to 20-40bb. This will close the buyin overlap and possible less bad fish will go to the shallow tables and buyin for 50bb. Plus buying in for 50bb when everyone is 20bb around you is kinda stupid.

Two, label the table shallow, regular(or no label), and deep. The fish will be more inclined just to join the regular tables and not the ones with weird labels. Maybe I'm just a selfish asshole, but the fish really need to know they are playing in the fucking shorty games.

And going back to my own poker...

I transferred my FTP money over to Stars and have enough to move up to 10NL, but I'll probably wait until Hold'em Manager comes out with a new update first. Some people seem to have problems at the new min/max buyin tables that are not at 5NL, but at every table 10NL+

FTP Take 2

So I ended up going back to FTP to take their free money. Basically the deal goes. Play from April 3rd-11th everyday and earn at least 5 ftp points each day (about $.50 per day) and FTP will award $25 dollars. LOL at my minimalist approach seen below.

I just played like 20 minutes of 5NL Rush poker a day and got a free $25 bonus, when I only raked $5.28. That's a 10% increase to my bankroll! I'm going to add the rest of my FTP money to my Stars bankroll through 2p2 player transfers and I will be closing in on the $300 mark. Even though I'm rolled for 10NL, I'm going stick to 5NL for a little bit longer. I want to have a good amount of hands with a solid win rate before I move up. Plus, Pokerstars changed their min/max buyin policy, so everything is all screwed up except 5NL and below. I'll go into more detail about that in my next post.

Thank You "Cry Me A River"

For finally adding my blog to the damn Micro FRNL blog list. Now people can actually fucking read my blog instead of me talking to my damn self. I don't know whether you finally added it because I finally made a RSS feed, or I have a decent amount of posts now, or you're just REALLY SLOW at responding to your PMs, but whatever the reason thank you. (He'll probably never even see this message lol.)

I thought I lost my chances with getting my blog posted when he got mad about my post on encouraging under aged online poker LOL, but maybe he forgot 'insert embarrassment emoticon here'.

Since my blog has been opened to the 2plus2 community. I will work on improving it for possible future followers. This includes improvements like:

1. Make your opinion known
2. Link like crazy
3. Write less
4. 250 Words is enough
5. Make Headlines snappy
6. Write with passion
7. Include Bullet point lists
8. Edit your post
9. Make your posts easy to scan
10. Be consistent with your style
11. Litter the post with keywords
12. Steal your ideas from google (like I just did for the above list)

I think the ones I need to work on are 2, 3, 6, 9, and 11. I want to post many more posts, but make them shorter and more interesting. Honestly, when I read other people's blogs, I just skim. I don't want to read a 4 page essays. So, I am definitely going to make my future posts skim friendly for dumb, impatient people like me.

Don't be afraid to use the follow feature on my blog. I won't think your a stalker. In fact, I might even decide to stalk your blog as well if you stalk mine. =)

nanonoko

http://www.pokertableratings.com/stars-player-search/nanonoko

Hey my graph almost looks like that, except take off like 4 zeros from those profit numbers on the left and they are pretty much identical. Yup. The next nanonoko baby.  Yeah, so the greatest mid/high stakes player in in the world finally created a blog and it can be found at:

http://www.randylew.com/

The greatest cash game grinder in the world posts his first poker video and it's a TOURNAMENT. LMAO!!! You should check the interview he had with pokersoftware.com. It's pretty interesting to look into the mind of a genius and how he got started.

On a side note, I ended up moving my FTP money to Stars, so my current bankroll just jumped $110. I am also doing the Take 2 promotion at FTP. Apparently, I just need to make 5 ftp point each day for 9 days in a row and I get $25. So basically rake about $5 to win a $25 bonus, which will end up being transferred to Stars LOL!!! Thanks for the free money FTP. Plus, I get to reunite with my love, RUSH poker. I'm playing 5NL RUSH with 2 buyins. =D

Currently, still keeping my goal of never putting any money into poker. I transferred my money over through players in the 2p2 forums.

WSOP 2006

Just saw it for the first time and WOWWOWOWOWOWWOW at Jamie Gold for getting the best run of his life. I don't get it. He limps in with any 2 cards and always get the best hand post flop. Unfortunately there's no compilation of Gold flopping all his sets and winning all his all-ins preflop. You have to watch the WSOP 2006 yourself to see that. But here's a small clip of High Stakes Poker that basically shows what Jamie gets in every hand at the WSOP 2006.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy8egl2ZlMM

Man if I ran that good I would immediately go to SnGs and tournaments. Which is exactly what I've been trying LOL.

So first, I was messing around with the $3.40 STTs (Single Table Tournaments) like a month ago. Played 11 of them and ended up with 1.1% ROI. So forty cents profit. Quit it for a bit and went back to try the $5.50 STTs with terrible bankroll management. I don't really feel like describing everything so I'll just post pics.

So at one point I was down 5 buyins ($25), or about quarter of my bankroll, which is why I am bad. But I new I could fall back on micro cash games, so I was TOO worried. Anyways, I quit while I was ahead at 1.3% ROI, so now I'm back at the 5NL tables grinding it up.

Bye Bye 2NL

I haven't been playing much poker recently cause I had a barrage of midterms, but I just finished them and had some time to build the last of a 20 buyin roll for 5NL. After playing 21721 hands of 2NL at pokerstars and 18498 hands of 2NL hands at Full Tilt totaling 40219 2NL hands. I finally hit $100 on pokerstars and can now move up to 5NL. I'm winning 22bb/100 at 2NL Stars and am unofficially self certifying myself a 2NL Pro. YES, that's right at 2NL PRO.

What can I expect at 5NL? Well since it's not m first time at 5NL because I did some at Full Tilt, I know EXACTLY what to expect. It's the same shit, just slightly less call stations and crazy people. I'm pretty much going to play the exact same way. Maybe try to open my 3bets a little, which I've just been doing at 2NL. Even though it will be a bit harder, I expect my time at 5NL to be shorter just because I only need to be up 20 buyins at it(at $200), as opposed to 2NL, where I had to get myself 50 buyins higher than where I started. Oh yeah and here are some graphs.

RUSH

Yeh, so even though I moved to Stars I felt like posting some graphs showing me crushing rush.




And here's me overall at FTP.



I also watched some cardrunner videos on SnGs and hand some moderate success ROI of 1.1% lol. Back to stars cash games for me.

Pokerstars vs Full Tilt Poker

That's the question of my poker career. The decision is tough for any poker player. If I didn't have rakeback on FTP then it would be instantly stars. Through extensive research I will attempt to break down my decision making process between money and other. Money just outweighs so many factors, so it will be a large part of my decision.

Pokerstars is better up until 25NL vs FTP with rakeback. After that the rakes become the same, but the rakeback on FTP outweighs the VIP/FPP on Stars. If I play high volume and reach Platinum VIP or better than Stars is better. I guess if I ever reach 1000NL stars will be an easy supernova even with low volume. But there's a good chance in the long run I'll end up stuck in the low/mid stakes playing low/medium volumes, which would make the FTP rakeback better. For as the money part, I think FTP has a slight lead just because reaching supernova status will be tough, but Stars can surpass it if I really put in the volume. This is keeping in mind that I will not be switching back and forth. It's one or the other because I never plan on making any deposits or withdrawals until MANY years later.

Now for the other part. Stars just destroys FTP. Software, customer service, volume of players, aesthetics. God the stuff at the stars store is just so much sexier than the FTP store. But then again I'm probably getting a better deal at FTP with the rakeback.

Well, the final decision comes down something else. Possibly being banned from FTP for making a second account with rakeback. Even though everything has gone smoothly since. I don't want to risk building a bankroll and having FTP taking it away because I created another account for rakeback. I mean I already got the free HEM, which is the MAIN reason why I did it. I have never submitted any personal information to FTP, but there's still that slight chance they can track me through IP address. Even though it would be totally suicidal to take a consistent loyal customer away by banning my account, I still don't want to risk it. So from that note I am now officially a

I Lied

I've actually been way ahead of what I said I was doing on those past days. My first two posts were more of a detailed description for myself. I shall give you a short recap with the correct dates, so everything can be all up to date.

Sometime in early December, I won my first FTP freeroll with $2.25. Joined 2p2 around the same time and downloaded poker tracker on 12/9/09. Lost the rest of my FTP money in the same night.

On 12/11/09, I moneyed in 2 freerolls on Pokerstars totaling $2.25.

Grinded up to $73 before making a new account on FTP on 1/23/10 for rakeback, but mainly for the free holdem manager (HEM).

Grinded up basically just for MGR because my trials were running out on PT3 and HEM and I desperately need a HUD (Heads-up Display). Hit $100 MGR two days ago and just got my free HEM and CR subscription today on 2/26/10.

Haven't decided whether to stay on FTP or go back to Stars yet.

Back to 23o

So after my epic battles at the Pokerstars freerolls. I played my first 17k hands.

Yeah it's 2NL, but you have to admit 9.77 BB/100 is pretty baller. I really don't understand it when fish call my all-in bets with just top pair. I guess thats how they got the name fish? lol

Anyways, the title says "Back to 23o" because I'm pretty much starting this journey all over, or at least pausing it for a bit. I realized eventually my trial was going to run out on Poker Tracker 3 and playing without a HUD was not an option. My goal was to never put in any money into poker and I wanted to stick to it. I really didn't feel like reformatting my computer every 2 months just so I could keep using the poker tracker free trials, so I found an alternative method. I made a "new" account on FTP through Cardrunners for the free Hold'em Manager. Well, at least almost free. I have to work up $100 MGR before they give it to me. =(

YAH!! MORE FREEROLLS!!!

The Beginning

Why I decided to right my first ever blog, I don't know. Personally, I've always thought blogs were stupid as fuck and why bother writing things people don't care about. But I decided it might be nice to keep "journal of my journey" through poker and life.

The title you ask? 72o (seven two offsuit) is the the worst possible hand in Hold'em poker and it essentially means zero. This is where I'm starting from, in life as well as poker. I have never made a deposit and have never given out personal information to any poker sites. I essentially plan to keep it this way until I graduate college and find my own place. My parents think online poker is risky and don't want me to play, but they really can't stop me. I just promised them I would not submit any personal information to the sites.

To 54o

72o is not exactly where I'm at right now. More like 54o (better because the possibilities of flopping a straight). I started my epic journey with play money at Pokerstars before realizing that Full Tilt Poker (FTP) had a crap load of freerolls. Freerolls are free tournaments where you can win (usually small) amounts of money for free. I won $2.25 around the fourth freeroll I entered. These freerolls are literally full of Helen Kellers with down syndrome, but are still extremely hard because you have to place within the top 1% to get paid and that means playing at LEAST 5 hours in the tournament. I think I placed like 36 out of 7500. Anyways I was successful at play money, so I must be good at the 1c/2c tables right? WRONG!!! Although I wasn't terrible, it was difficult to play with most of my bankroll on the table. I was playing nitty ABC style postflop, while Limpy McLimperson preflop. Lost it all in a couple hours and destroyed my computer (just kidding, but I did scream and cry like a baby). I continued trying FTP freerolls again and lost heart. I almost had giving up after placing in the top 5% multiple times.

Then a shining star appeared. A shining Pokerstar email to be exact. Because I played a lot of play money, I was invited to the Juno Invitational Freeroll. Pokerstars normally has freerolls, but they are really gay because you have to place high in one freeroll before entering a weekly freeroll to win money. The Juno Invitational Freeroll was spectacular because it had a $500 prize pool (as opposed to $150 from FTP) and 20% payout(as opposed to 1% on FTP) and had only a couple hundred players (as opposed to 7500 players on FTP). On my first try as soon I hit the payout I got super excited and went WTF AGGRO DONKEY FISH HAPPY. I busted out soon after and won 65 cents. I went straight to the tables to find out at Pokerstars the minimum buyin was $1. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Luckily, they have quite a bit of these freerolls per week. I won $1.60 the very next one making my total bankroll at $2.25 (the exact same amount I started with at FTP).

This time I went to the 2plus2 poker forums first to make sure I had my game in tack. Learned what preflop raising and position was (which is all you really need to beat the 2 cent tables (also called 2NL). Got my bankroll to like $5 and then played a few more Juno Invitational the following week placing in one to win an additional $2.10. I planned to continue playing the freerolls as well as 2NL to increase my bankroll faster.

The following week, those Jews at Jokerstars stopped giving me tickets to the freerolls. >_<