With the annoyance of Full Tilt Poker getting shut down many people are getting away from online poker. Full TIlt was my favorite online poker site for many reasons but now I must play elsewhere.
The big issue I guess is money and how safe is it in online poker sites. Even before all this Apr 15th nonsense happened I have never trusted any online poker site with a large sum of money.
Why? Think about it, they are all hosted and run offshore in tax havens. Full Tilt says they are going to pay back all of their customers but there is really nothing that can make them. We have to trust their word.
I am going to still play online poker but I am only going to leave small amounts of money in my account. Everything else gets taken out and put into a proper bank that I can trust.
I recently decided to start studying and playing poker seriously again. I have been playing off and on since june 2009 and in the last year and a half have learned much and come a long way. However its no secret that i’m not a winning player by any means.
I have decided to make a go at being a profitable player. Switching exclusively to No Limit Full Ring Cash games because i really need to work on patience and tightness.
I purchased Poker Copilot for Mac OS X to track my results. This tool has already paid for itself by showing my a number of leaks in my game.
I will do a whole series on Poker Copilot and how im using it soon.
I also switched to Ultimate Bet from Full Tilt because Full Tilt decided to stop paying me rakeback?!
I will switch back one day but honestly UB is pretty cool.
I will post updates to how im doing regularly as i am playing about 3 hours a day.
I am playing NL25 because i am comfortable with these stakes for now.
Playing a little bit below my bankroll but i will just put more money in if necassary. I am getting decent money from my job this year so i have a good cushion just in case.
Strategy is simple but requires discipline to not play weak hands. Basically playing tight, blind stealing, and waiting for monsters.
Also by playing one table i can take notes on my opponents and that is really helping me make quality descions.
I’m not bleeding chips anywhere close to what i was before either.
All in All things are going very well and will keep you updated.
Today I started to play Rush poker Full Ring 2cent/5cent again. I buy in for the MAX $5 and play for ONLY 15 mins.
During those 15 mins I focus on being in the ideal mental state so that I make the best decisions possible. As a result my bank roll is increasing because I’m not really making really stupid calls anymore.
I find the 15 min time frame allows me to focus on playing correctly in an optimal manner.
Also because its Rush I can leave and join and all my user data for the people I played are still completely relevant.
Been playing a lot of $1 tournaments for the last 3 weeks. Losing a lot of them but that’s because I’ve been so unfocused when playing. I decided to give them a rest and go back to cash games. Basically made back all the money I lost in the last 3 weeks in only 2 hours.
Gonna keep playing both but i will try and focus more on cash games.
The main reason i think I started doing better is because I switched to a standing workstation and I’m taking notes in players again.
I will do a separate post on the standing workstation but basically its just as it sounds, i stand up instead of sit on the computer. This has helped my focus and concentration. I’m quite pleased with the results.
As for the notes I have been making better calls and getting a better feel for how people play.
Anyway thats it for today I’m going to do some poker reading and go to bed.
Played 30mins or so of Rush Poker 2cent/5cent. Also read about 30 mins of Zen & the Art Of Poker. The chapter on SAMSARA or the cycle of self frustrating effort. Basically the point of the chapter was to simply take the ordinary natural way with complete emotional detachment. I had an opportunity to practice this for the following hand:
Flopped a SET of 8s. Rainbow flop. The guy with pocket As bet heavy. I was short stacked so I went all in. Long story short he got runner runner clubs to give him an A high flush. Clearly a hand I statistically should have won.
I was annoyed because I lost my buy in but then emotionally detached myself and kept playing properly. Soon after I won almost all of the money I had lost back.
All of the inner game poker books stress its not what cards you have or what your opponents are doing that causes you to win or lose. It is your attitude and state of mind.
Well its 3 months later and obviously the whole be a pro poker player by June 1st thing has sort of failed. However I’m glad I took that break as I needed it.
Today I played for about an hour on RUSH POKER 2cent/5cent table. I really enjoyed it and even made a dollar.
The reason for my return is that I am re-reading Zen & the Art Of Poker again and I decided to practice a few of the principles taught within.
1st: Detachment and Egoless state while playing
2nd: Don’t get fancy, start tight but more importantly STAY tight.
I will focus on these 2 simple but powerful principles for the next little while and see where it takes me.
Well Rush Poker is here and its taking the interweb by storm. For those of you who don’t know what it is just watch the video I made and it will all become clear.
Some potential issues with Rush are as follows:
-You can’t observe tables which means the Poker Tracking websites can’t get hand histories. I personally like this since I don’t like HOW I play to be accessible to everyone but many people won’t like this.
-HUD doesn’t work! For all you grinders out there the HUDs aren’t fast enough to give you stats. I personally like this as well because that means the hardcore grinders might stay off of Rush and leave the fish to the real poker players.
-Rake Back info may not be accessible to 3rd party websites. I go through PokerStrategy.com and I have heard rumors they can track it so lets hope.
-Can’t get an immediate feel for your opponents but not impossible. What I mean by this is you are always playing new people. You can however label the psychos and nut jobs who raise EVERY hand.
-You can lose ALOT of money VERY fast. That being said you can make ALOT of money really fast.
-SUCK OUTS SUCK OUTS SUCK OUTS!!! Holy shit suck outs. Only play with MONSTERS and BET aggressively. Don’t slow play anything but the NUT hand.
FULL TILT POINTS – I racked up 500 Full Tilt Points in the 4 hours I played poker! IRON MAN challenge here I come!
Over all I am very impressed with Rush. I think its going to be the next step in online poker.
Thats right! On Aug 11 2009 I started to seriously study and become a student of poker. I am glad to report that I have consistently stuck with studying and playing poker. In fact this is the first thing I have really stuck with in my life.
Most other things have been kind of half assed. I mean I’ve had a number of short term projects that I have done well but this is the first long term thing that I can really say I have stuck with.
Just a quick summary of what I have accomplished over the last 6 months:
250 Hours Spent READING and STUDYING Poker Books
400 Hours Spent on the tables applying what I have been learning
Just started formally grinding cash tables
I believe my income should accelerate upwards very quickly because of all the studying and experience I have accumulated over the past 6 months.
The next 6 months should be exciting so check back and follow my progress!
I read a book called Treat Your Poker Like A Business by Dustin Schmidt which I will do a full review of later. The book is basically about the worlds best grinder who played 7 million hands and has won over 3million dollars in the last 5 years.
Made $30 in 1 hour for the Grinding TEST RUN
I have decided to setup my poker playing exactly like him and start grinding. I played for 1 hour during Full Tilt Poker’s Happy Hour and it went well. I made $30 overall across 4 tables.
5cent/10cent NL Hold’em Cash Games
My strategy is simply Blind Stealing when I can and then playing good hands aggressively. I am just playing 4 tables for now because I can focus on strategy AND playing hands properly.
Honesty this is fast enough for me at the moment.
I am mostly concerned with getting a good rhythm down so I can consistently make money on my tables. The key is to start out focused and STAY focused because this is a long term conservative consistent money maker.
