I havent been blogging at over the last few months. Mainly because I havent been playing a lot of poker because I have been busy with school and other real life things lol. But now that I just about done school I have a lot more time to put towards poker after this month.
I switched to iPoker a while back because of a sick rakeback deal that I got with them. It works out to be about 55% RB which is incredible for me considering I only play 20nl - 100nl fullring. Its a nice bit of motivation to put in large volume knowing that the payback will be huge. The software is a bit tilting when multi tabling since it lags my computer a bit but it is bearable lol.
Im digging through my database looking for hands that gave me trouble. Ive found one so far but will be adding more. Really appreciate the help and feedback guys. (Hands are fullring)
HAND #1
Villain is a 36/13 fish. I expected him to raise all in on the flop after I popped him but he flat called instead which through me off a bit. When he donks on the turn Im not really sure what to make of it. So first off, on the flop do you like flatting or raising better and why? OTT should we just fold as played or ship it? If we change what happened on the flop and flat call instead, how should we play the turn? Are my raise sizes bad anywhere in the hand?
Submitted by : The M Show
***** Hand History for Game 2706546394 ***** IPoker
$20.00 USD NL Texas Holdem - Monday, April 04, 05:57:08 ET 2011
Table Qedib Real Money
Seat 10 is the button
Seat 1: brainer68 $19.25 USD
Seat 2: XinYongFa $12.65 USD
Seat 3: b00y4ka5ha $20.00 USD
Seat 4: Illtaler $19.61 USD
Seat 5: MangoSV $20.00 USD
Seat 6: DreadNutz $20.00 USD
Seat 7: BeyongGod $18.07 USD
Seat 8: Hero $21.85 USD
Seat 9: hxywyf88 $26.19 USD
Seat 10: Baoying2009 $11.91 USD
brainer68 posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
XinYongFa posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
[Q] Depositing money via Instant echecksby billy5000, April 06
So I've been trying to deposit money to pokerstars, but I'm afraid of the reaction that I'll receive from my parents when they see that I'm gambling online.
I tried to find an alternative way such as using a prepaid debit card, but unfortunately pokerstars doesn't accept them.
Now all I'm left is by depositing money by using instant echecks. My question is (I've never used an instant echeck before): will this leave a sign of where I deposited the money under my bank account?
Gonna move my bankroll from FTP to possibly absolute, or somewhere else US players can play. Let me know if you can transfer up to 4k. I have transferred no prob with BoreHM on this website no prob if you scared of me. Let me know if anyone can help.
Recently I'm constantly experiencing little lag spikes and even disconnects for 1-2 secs while playing on FTP. And it cannot be my connection since pinging is all fine + its the same on 2 different providers. You got these latency issues too?
Hi.
It's kind of double post, cause I've already asked about this problem, but now I've came to the conclusion that, since I've signed up for FTP using the bnous offer there is no chance for me of getting rakeback with this acc.
I don't play huge volume of hands, but the reason to be so persistant in this is the fact that I love rush poker and I play comfortable at 100NL and I feel that even though I'm not putting tens of thousands of hands monthly I'm still losing a good amount of money by not getting rakeback, so I thought about two things - making another account by the name of someone at the family, or asking a friend for this, but I wonder If this won't cause a problem because at the end the IP will remain the same, and even though I'm far from sure that there aren't any better ideas so I'll be glad for ay particular advices concerning this issue.
Thanks
-Leron
Ugh. Today I woke up to my grandma's shrieks as she was attacked and hit repeatedly by my schizophrenic uncle. By the time I woke and crossed the house he was fleeing to his room. I helped grandma off the floor. Called 911 and the police came and committed my uncle. Grandma seems to be ok, she is bruised up a bit, worst part is she landed on her elbow and shoulder when she fell and badly sprained her shoulder or perhaps minorly fractured her clavicle. She complains it hurts but also feels numb, and she has swelling. The paramedics came along with the police and told her to should go to a walk-in clinic to get it x-rayed, I've tried to convince her, but she hates walk-ins for some reason. She is going to have her fucking chiropractor-acupuncturist x-ray her.. of course he isn't nearly as well trained to spot problems as a real doctor. And I have to drive her up to the guy. I'll fucking explode on this guy if he tries to manipulate her body. If this chiropractard gives her an all-clear/put ice on it and she doesn't improve markedly in the next day or two I'll make sure to take her to a real doctor.. She refuses right now. I'm glad she didn't break a hip or anything more serious.
Now the whole first 2/3rds of the day are used up.. was supposed to goto the gym when I woke up, have to wait around for gmas appointment now.. I guess my situation isn't a big deal but.. god damn it if I could have a fucking normal environment that I controlled I would be able to keep my focus on what I need to accomplish. I hope I can pull this shit together and make some money, I need to live on my own so badly.
I'm so angry (at my uncle slightly(mostly at his illness), at alternative medicine leading my grandma not to seek a real doctor, my grandma's gullibility) and tuned up and I can't do a damn thing about any of it.
I've been trying this April to avoid having losing sessions! (good plan right) So far it has gone pretty well as you can see from the screenshot below, but when I do decide to have a losing session, I need to make sure it isn't all my monthly profits
Played about 4k hands each of 2/4 and 1/2 PLO so far this month winning at both. I'm really going to start trying to climb out of my 100plo and 200plo hole on PTR that I am currently in. Have been doing well at 100plo so far this month so hopefully I can accomplish that by the end of this month. I'm down about 100 buyins at 200plo though so that one will be more challenging. I really want to start a new diet this month that I will post in the next few days and try to get some feedback from all you diet/workout pros on liquid for ways to make it best. I'm aiming for 200k hands or 20k profits from the table this month so hopefully can combine that with a new diet for a good all around month.
Heres my biggest losing hand so far this month at 1/2. I think I like leading the flop with pair+gutter+bfd, I don't really think I can ever fold on this flop
Submitted by : Joeingram1
***** Hand History for Game 60297761739 ***** Poker Stars
$200.00 USD PL Omaha - Sunday, April 03, 10:27:51 ET 2011
Table Gudula XII Real Money
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: bogmonsta $267.85 USD
Seat 2: JoeIngram1 $513.70 USD
Seat 3: Beauweevil $498.80 USD
Seat 4: atticus281 $212.40 USD
Seat 5: WestSideChic $545.70 USD
Seat 6: VeryK1nd $845.75 USD
JoeIngram1 posts small blind [$1.00 USD].
Beauweevil posts big blind [$2.00 USD].
bogmonsta posts ante of [$0.40 USD].
JoeIngram1 posts ante of [$0.40 USD].
Beauweevil posts ante of [$0.40 USD].
atticus281 posts ante of [$0.40 USD].
WestSideChic posts ante of [$0.40 USD].
VeryK1nd posts ante of [$0.40 USD].
Getting to know rake races: Industry Viewby HeroPoker-CEO, April 05
When I first started at Hero Poker and surveyed the competitive landscape, I said, 'I don't want to do rake races'. Now at an educated site like LP, everyone knows what a rake race is and I would think that all grinders want one.
SKIN=RAKEBACK=RAKERACE=RIGHT?
So as a skin, it's obvious that I should follow suit and do a rake race right? It would be naive not to, but I didn't want to do a rake race as is.
The problem with any new business situation and with a start-up, there is the temptation to simply do as others do and start from there. After all, why re-invent the wheel. That being said for the poker industry, we have that great divide between the network skins and the stand alone sites. It's not to say that standalone sites that give out rakeback do not do rake races, via their affiliates, but it is not their main promotion, whereas for rakeback skins, it is.
I didn't want to simply rely on both rakeback and rake races and pigeon hole our site as another rakeback site. So it has been a much harder start in that regard as the growth we have is very organic. Our players haven't come on board because we have this month's great race promotion, rather, they continue to play for other reasons.
THE OBVIOUS ANSWER IN BUSINESS IS NOT ALWAYS THE BEST
It's always difficult to talk business with players or those who do not have a business background because the first response by those players would be, 'What are you stupid? Do what obviously works, duh.' The problem with that is if everyone is doing what obviously works, how well is it working for getting ahead. No doubt it will keep your company alive for now, but business strategy isn't about keeping your company alive, its about, keeping your company alive and getting ahead.
So as I was beating my head over this entire concept of rake races, which was totally foreign to me as a director at PS. I had to come to grips with reality, that I can't get away from doing some type/form of rake race in the short term, because it is what those on poker communities expect. Until fish start falling from the sky, rakeraces provide a lot of instant value/comfort. Now the 'value of the site' is something I'm dealing with every day and of course includes the entire boutique positioning and community participation; but I've had to face this beast of rake races first and I want to do it on my own terms for the growth of the site.
NO BIG DEAL?
Again, you may be wondering, 'what they hell is the big deal Dave? Do a rake race, people grind, they get money, you get money and everyone is happy'. From a player's perspective, you are absolutely correct. From a CEO's perspective, nothing is that easy. To hit certain revenue targets just using rakeback/rakerace combination I need to hold X amount of rakerace prize pool for at least one and a half months until the promotion is done (so I can't do anything with those funds for that period, just sitting there as the guaranteed payout) and it needs to be significant enough that it is a competitive offering compared to other sites. So lets say the average I want to put up is 25k. I'd say that is a sufficient amount to pique most grinder's interests, but lets say 40k per affiliate site I have because I'm a new site. So I put up 40k at one site.
Now the players will need to rake 40k plus 35% of that for our site to break even (due to player rakeback), then there is the affiliate and network costs; not get into the actual numbers, but lets look at the number with just rakeback: so basically 54k total rake to break even on the 40k. But that is reasonable and it's an educate risk as one would likely minimize your risk by doing a monthly rakeback races at multiple sites. So some rakeraces would be down, some up, but the net would be positive (after all if it wasn't, this model wouldn't work and it does).
But the financial risk isn't my concern (after all I've spent up to 150k on live events in new markets with no expectations for immediate short term returns), rather, what happens next month? If it worked out, I'd probably do it again and increase my scope. But even as I do that, I'm putting up a hold on all my marketing funds for 2 months and there will be a point where the risk of a higher rakerace prize pool out weights the potential return. So then there I'm stuck at this revenue level. So what is wrong with that? It is a steady source of income, and now I can save it for my marketing projects, right?
RUNNING A POKER SITE LIKE HOW A POKER PLAYER PLAYS
What I've come to understand is that just like a poker bankroll, there will be months where there may be a big hit that would wipe out the profits for that month and perhaps even the preceding months, meaning that I took a loss on the rakerace. Thus, the more I do this, the more I need to keep as my 'rakerace bankroll' to deal with the possible variance, which is no worries if our site runs good, but it it doesn't for some reasons, then we'd have to continue doing this rakeraces to get back into the black. It's almost being a poker player backer with a lot of horses while diversifying your risk and having enough bankroll to go the distance (which it inevitably will work out like most players with sufficient bankroll and management skills). That being said, this ain't the stock market with unlimited places to keep increasing your rakerace investment and why would I run a business like a poker player? Because the biggest downfall of this model is that you never build a brand and never attract fish.
Would you rather have lots of fish or a great rakerace? Now that is a stupid question to ask a poker player, the answer is, both of course, but I don't know if that is possible. Additionally, all those months you focused on rakeback races, and then start engaging in marketing, well you're again, starting from zero, as all marketing takes time to take effect. Time is something that I need to contend with more than just short term revenue considerations.
GO BIG OR GO HOME
The fact is, if you need to build up revenue to spend on marketing, then that kind of thinking is from someone who had no intention of making a serious poker company that would ever target the mainstream. You need to have put aside marketing funds for marketing, not for rakeback promotions to one day engage in marketing. The rakeback/rakerace model works, but it exists in this microcosm of a network putting up with your grinders, and when it decides the grinders are more than the depositors, then you have a cash where i-poker starts kicking off skins and affiliates off en mass to stabilize their network. But you guys know all that, and that isn't my point, and while I still could just do both (rakeraces/marketing), I'd rather spend everything on marketing for a long term position as time is the biggest opportunity cost.
RAKERACES AS JUST REWARDS
While I'm not concerned about gaining short term revenue, I do want to increase regular participation on my site by those who are active on poker communities; and if you're active on a poker community, you're likely on rakeback and like rakeraces. So last week I decided to do rakeraces, and have spent the week reflecting on how to do them that works for our site and my conclusion is to make it a capped entry for my existing low stake players who have already shown commitment to the site.
So in this case, I'm not going to use a rake race for the purpose of getting new players, but rather to reward players (aka retention) who are already playing without a rakerace. The amounts won't be comparable to the industry standard rake races, but since they will be capped and selected entry, they will still provide value to our players who normally would get a comparable amount or even less if they had joined an open huge rake race. Again, this isn't ground breaking stuff, I know a lot of sites will use private rake races to reward their top players; but again, their purpose is more revenue than retention and my players are already playing without a rakerace incentive.
HERO POKER ARENA RANKINGS
But I've decided to brand the rake race as 'Arena Rankings' and even if it is fundamentally rake race, as its not a term I really want to introduce in my mass marketing activities either. Before I launch that though, I'll get a freeroll out of the way first; so I'm going to make a thread in the Main poker asking for when and where etc. And in terms of my mass marketing, it launches quite soon, so if you're in that market hopefully, you'll notice it.
Cheers,
David
HeroPoker CEO
SUMMARY
-rake races for a pokersite requires a bankroll like someone who backs a lot of horses because not all rake races work out
-I didn't want HeroPoker to be dependent on rakeraces, but I recognize that somehow they should be integrated
-rake races aren't bad, but I'd rather spend everything on mainly marketing
-will make rakeraces capped and for newer players as more of a reward for those already playing.
I'm grinding out these sngs on heropoker where you start off with only 10bb. On top of that, these fishes have a super high calling range which increases the variance even more. These games end quick so I can grind up to 200 a day pretty easily. I still feel that I have a huge edge regardless of the variance but my graph says otherwise.
So since my money was stuck at betmostpoker for a few days (they take 4 full days to proceed a cashout and i did cash out 31th march since i thought they may take like 10h or so to proceed >_<)
So I could only start my first pokerstars session for the month today.
I have to mention though that it was very nice from the betmost support to send me an individual cash bonus worth 28€ out of nowhere directly after my rage mail towards them
I did only played 1,8k hands on their site last month U normally do get individual cash bonus only when LVL3 VIP or higher
Unfortunately that 28€ make up nowhere to anything i had earned playing on stars the 3 days earlier this month.
Still April starts good so far and i am not much behind pace in profits ( aiming for another ~1K month)
Did start out ugly with ridiculous suckouts but ended well
Says 2 days since i played from 11pm - 1.40am european time
Also graph Box is in € while graph line is in $USD
ALl NL25€ 6max
not really. are you mad at me now? here's a troll song to cheer you up.
Justin Bieber + Blind Melon
heres a legit mashup so you dont hate me forever.
so today im moving up limits from NL5 to NL10 with 250$ currently in my roll, improved from about 85$ or so.
im currently down about 1 BI right now after losing a pretty lame hand (AA vs 87s, hitting 2 pair) but thats poker so its just best to move on and keep going.
are there any significant differences between NL5 and NL10? id assume so but id like to know if there are more apart from what ive observed so far.
thus far ive noticed a small increase in the battle for blinds and im seeing more LAG players which is fairly good for my roll since near all of them dont really know how to play LAG styles effectively. some players will actually lay down weaker hands on scary boards which is a nice change of pace. i get the feeling that most players are still fairly incompetent and wont lay down a lot of hands but theyll at least lay down garbage.
OPINIONS?
PokerStars Game #60325459696: Hold'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10 USD) - 2011/04/04 14:16:20 ET
Table 'Vaticana VI' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: ruskild ($5.13 in chips)
Seat 2: annonymus27 ($7.30 in chips)
Seat 3: VladBlag ($28.45 in chips)
Seat 4: wolfstars ($9.58 in chips)
Seat 5: Jolly2702 ($10.95 in chips)
Seat 6: flOoke ($10.55 in chips)
Seat 7: Paddel100 ($3.60 in chips)
Seat 9: Adams*TM ($10 in chips)
ruskild: posts small blind $0.05
annonymus27: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to flOoke [Kd As]
VladBlag: folds
wolfstars: folds
VladBlag leaves the table
Jolly2702: folds
flOoke: raises $0.30 to $0.40
Paddel100: raises $0.30 to $0.70
Adams*TM: folds
ruskild: folds
annonymus27: folds
flOoke: calls $0.30
*** FLOP *** [8c 8d Ks]
flOoke: bets $1
Paddel100: calls $1
*** TURN *** [8c 8d Ks]
flOoke: bets $2
Paddel100: calls $1.90 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($0.10) returned to flOoke
*** RIVER *** [8c 8d Ks Qd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
flOoke: shows [Kd As] (two pair, Kings and Eights)
Paddel100: shows [Qs Qh] (a full house, Queens full of Eights)
Paddel100 collected $7 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $7.35 | Rake $0.35
Board [8c 8d Ks Qd 7s]
Seat 1: ruskild (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: annonymus27 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: VladBlag folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: wolfstars folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Jolly2702 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: flOoke showed [Kd As] and lost with two pair, Kings and Eights
Seat 7: Paddel100 showed [Qs Qh] and won ($7) with a full house, Queens full of Eights
Seat 9: Adams*TM (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
i felt i had the best hand after the flop when i bet and he only called, the queen came and i still bet for value. should i have checked the turn? in retrospect i think i should have bet more on the flop as well. although i get the feeling this guy wasnt folding on the flop no matter what.
Contact Users: 506 Active, 1 Logged in - Time: 18:20
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U normally do get individual cash bonus only when LVL3 VIP or higher 
