Where do I start?

Black Friday And My Future

First let me start with the fact that I can no longer play on PokerStars or FullTilt Poker.  I am literally depressed too.  Even though poker is just a money-making hobby for me at the moment, I was seriously considering making a job out of it.  All my plans and hopes were instantly shattered when the United States DOJ handed out the indictment of 11 individuals tied in with online poker.  Specifically PokerStars, FullTilt Poker, and Ultimate Bet/Absolute Poker.

I am so frustrated at the moment.  The only reason I have stayed at the job I currently have is because it was flexible enough to let me put in a considerable amount of time into my poker game.  Now that poker is basically gone for me, it is time to start looking for a new job.  I really hate my current job.  But the thing is what do I want to do? What skills do I have to offer?

The first question is much harder to answer than the second question.  I feel I have a ton to offer to a prospective employer. The only problem is….I just don’t know if I want to do it.  I just have lost the all “working for the man” lifestyle.  I want to be my own employer.  I don’t want to have to answer to a boss.  That is the problem, and I really just don’t know where to go from here.  As I have said before though, I guess I can be happy that I do still have a job in a time like this though.

So I have been thinking of learning how to program.  Maybe make some programs for Android (phones) or something.  Maybe get a job in programming.  I really don’t know.  But I feel like my personality really meshes well with programming; and if I get good enough, maybe I can start up a company.  Again, I just don’t know.

Was Gearing Up

Back on the poker debacle.  I haven’t hardly played that much at all this year.  I have been really busy working on my game.  I have basically been preparing for making the jump to play poker full-time.  I basically wanted to get all my ducks in a row.  I actually was thinking of making the jump at the turn of the year.  But since I had a pretty rough last couple months of ’10, and the fact that a possible blackout was looming if online poker was legalized and regulated, I decided to hold off for a little while longer.

I was really making great progress with my game.  I did some really in-depth analysis, and was ready to tackle what ever was thrown my way.  After all, I had to have some pretty big leaks to lose over 10k to one player at the end of 2010, right?

Cheated

Well, come to find out maybe I didn’t have as many leaks as I once thought.  Instead, I was playing against a player with an unfair competitive advantage.  If you recall, there was basically one player that was just giving me fits with 5 card draw.  In fact, I have never lost to one player the way I was to this player.  I was (and should have earlier) about to not play him due to the fact he was just better than me.  That alone is quite a lot, as I pretty much will play anyone.  I just have that much confidence in my game.  Yes, there is one or two other players I try to avoid, but if they REALLY wanted to play me, I would have.

But this one player that I was having fits with basically came out of nowhere and was sitting at all limits, and only playing heads-up.  I should have seen the red flags then, but I didn’t.  I mean how often does someone just come out of the blue and plays the better 5 card draw players and just absolutely crushes them?  In fact, this specific player was up on everyone he played except for one.  That “one” wasn’t even really a regular heads-up player either and his small profit was dwarfed by all the other players losses.

This “cheater” was eventually banned from PokerStars.  But the damage was done.  I lost well over 10k to him in a matter of a couple months, and I suspect that he easily made over 50k in that same time with all the opponents he was taking on.  I don’t want to name this “cheater” by name, though I should.  But here is the thing.  PokerStars banned him, but did not refund any of the players affected.  REALLY??? Ugh.  The thing is, once this player showed up and I was pretty skeptical; I emailed PokerStars about this player.  I basically just got a standard response email and it seemed I was just wrong about my assessment.  Remind you though, that just for me to send an email about possible cheating was totally out of character.  In fact, I have never done that before.  Though I have sent a couple “joke” emails asking that the “Doom Switch” be removed.

Anyway…about two months after my email was sent to PokerStars support, more evidence was sent to PokerStars about this player.  Some pretty damning evidence was provided too.  It was pretty obvious, that at the least this player tried to take advantage of the system.  Because of this evidence that was brought on by another player (I will not name names) PokerStars decided to ban this cheater from ever playing on PokerStars again.  But I later found out that PokerStars did not feel they had sufficient evidence to confiscate the cheaters account, thus paying back those that were affected.

What really upsets me is I was down maybe 1-2k at the time I first had suspicions and sent PokerStars an email.  I lost another ~10k over the time period until he was banned.  It was sad that a player had to find the evidence that was out there.  That should be the job of PokerStars security.  I was really let down by PokerStars.  But at least they did take some kind of action.  Full Tilt never did.

That’s right, FullTilt was still letting this player play!  Though, I wasn’t playing him anymore…he was sitting at nearly every limit.  I know they were presented with the same obvious clues to possible cheating that PokerStars was presented with.  The only thing that was ever sent in response from FullTilt, was just a standard response email.  Thanks!  Way to make me feel secure!

This type of stuff is the exact reason online poker needs to be legalized (though it’s not illegal, it just kinda like the Wild West) and regulated.  It will protect the consumer from this exact type of thing from happening.

What was this player doing?  I don’t really want to dive too much into the details.  I do know he had a program that assisted him with his play that no other player had access to.  Even if it just gave him a slight edge, that can be huge and the small edges can accumulate pretty quickly when playing heads-up.

The Aftermath

So after the whole cheating took place.  I was wondering what to do next, should I remove the PokerStars ad on my site?  Should I let everyone know what was going on?  Well I just didn’t know what to do.  But at the advice of the person who submitted the evidence-filled email to PokerStars, he asked that I keep it under wraps for a bit.  But now that time has gone by, and I am not dropping any names; I am letting the cat out of the bag.  What about still being loyal to PokerStars?  Well, I can’t play there anymore.  But really, they were the most secure site to play on.  It was just a shame that this happened and to be honest, I don’t know the whole procedure and righting the wrong over at PokerStars.

When all the smoke cleared from the cheating, lets just say my motivation for playing dropped to an all-time low.  I was having to scramble at the end of each month just to keep my supernova status on Stars.  But away from the virtual felt, I was analyzing what it was this player was doing “well”.  Now there are some things he did extremely poorly, but I think it was more as an image play.  This player, and his cheating ways, basically pointed me to some new directions as far as improving my heads-up game was concerned.  I slaved away at crunching numbers and probabilities.  I improved my game a ton over the first few months of this year.

I was all geared up to take my new-found knowledge to the tables……but then boom, I was not allowed to play anymore simply because I was an American.  Sigh, thank you Department of Justice!

This Blog and Other Websites

I am probably going to stop posting on this blog.  I am just going to let it expire when the time comes.  Sadly, I just don’t have the motivation to keep it updated.  I made a whopping 15 bucks from ads though!  Ha, I know it isn’t the most appealing thing.  Someone trying to make money from their blog, but I was simply just trying to pay for the cost of the website.  After all, I was hoping that I was providing some kind of entertainment/information to those that came to my site.

Instead, my time will now be focused more on some other sites that I have coming through the pipes.  They are strictly business-oriented.  Maybe, if I finish some of them before this blog reaches its deadline, I will provide links.

Again, I also plan to learn how to program.  I would like to make games and apps for computers/cell phones/etc.  This is my future, as I see it right now.

I will hopefully be able to play some poker a little here and there.  Whether it be on the smaller internet poker sites or a brick and mortar casino (closest casino to me is over 3 hours away).  I just don’t know.  But one thing is for sure, I will still keep myself in-tune.  I am looking forward to the day that this so-called “land of the free” allows me to have my hobby/perspective career back.

One thing I need to do is work on my holdem game.  Sadly, 5 card draw is just not that popular.  If it was as popular as holdem, I would already be a millionaire by now (assuming the same quality of opponents).  If I truly want to make the amount of money that I dream of, I don’t see 5 card draw as being a viable avenue.  However, it was a good start!

What could have been and more

One thing I never did was post my full name on this blog.  Mostly because I have bashed my current job situation so many times, I was worried someone at my workplace might come across it.  The day I was to turn pro in poker, I was going to title the post “Hello, My Name is Tommy ____”.  Well, that post is going to have to wait.  In fact, if poker is not legalized by time this blog runs its course.  I might start up another blog in the future, but it will likely just be a blog named after my name.

In fact, I have read how important it is to have a site under your name for possible networking opportunities.  I might create another website, just about me and maybe add a blog there.  It will likely have my work history and a resume for possible future employment opportunities.  Again, this is just a thought running through my head.  Right now I am still just in shock of the recent developments with online poker here in the USA.

Final words

I feel like I am leaving out a few things.  But if they deem to be important to mention, I may post again here in the near future.  But in the meantime, the best thing I can do is direct you to Poker Player’s Alliance’s website.  They are an organization that was created to fight for the right to play online poker.  So if you are from the United States, please email your local and federal representatives to protect this wonderful game of poker here in the States.

No, I am not on tilt.  I am talking about Fulltilt Poker.  They FINALLY added draw games today.  It has been a long time coming too.

I was like a kid on Christmas morning when I found out that the latest update was THE UPDATE that added draw games.  I came home early from work and the first thing I did was modify the way my tables look on Fulltilt.  Now they look almost identical to my PokerStars custom tables.  I did this to make it easier to play both sites at once.

My thoughts on the first day of draw on Fulltilt:  There seems to be a few random players willing to play 15/30 and higher.  Unless of course these are already regulars and I just don’t know it yet due to the new screen names.  My name is NoMeNot on both sites which is probably putting me at a disadvantage against someone that already has an idea of how I play.  The software is OK, but it could use some improvement in my opinion.  For one, the cards are smaller than that on PokerStars, and it can be hard to click each card to discard at times.  This inherently makes the game slower.  It is a small issue, that I am sure they will fix in the future.  Another thing I noticed is that when you draw, you don’t actually see what you have drawn to until the last player drawing has taken cards.  This also, will slow the game down.  But both of these are just minor issues.

However, I must say that PokerStars is still my top choice at this time.

I just wish PokerStars would add higher limits and add HU tables.  Both of these things, Fulltilt added.  However, one thing Fulltilt did not add was limit 5 card draw HU SNGs.  Oh well, maybe eventually.

So how did I do today?  I won 640 on Fulltilt and about 800 on Stars.  Since now I have multiple totals to keep up with, it will be harder to keep tally of where I am on my goal.  But as it stands……..

Amount to 60k: $31,797.46

Looking forward to an action-packed weekend of cards!

Oh…and sorry for the lack of updates recently.  I have been working on my game or playing pretty much every chance I get, so the blog was taking a back seat.  I can also probably expect it to take a back seat as I really buckle down here for the last two months of my goal.

I went to the Virginia Tech-Boise State football game last night and the game did not disappoint.  Though for a second there I thought it was going to be a blow out, it ended up being won by Boise State on a last 2 minute drive.  It could have gone either way, and there were plenty of great plays throughout the game.

The only problem with the trip was that we took a bus up to the game and when the game was over we had to wait forever for a couple people who couldn’t find the bus.  We didn’t get home until 3:30 am.  Since I drank plenty of beer and I got zero sleep, heading into work today was rough.

I wasn’t at work but like maybe 30 minutes, when I finally decided to go home playing the sick card.  Though it wasn’t your traditional sickness, I was definitely feeling awful and was very unproductive today.  So I went home and slept it off.

I slept it off only to wake up for the WCOOP PL draw event.  Sigh.  Not much luck there.  I late registered by about 20 minutes and I was chipping up pretty nicely, playing small pots and just taking advantage of some spots.  My stack never grew all too large, though I was well above average in chips nearly the whole time.

In the past WCOOP/SCOOP PL draw events I have played, I always seem to get coolered to get knocked out prematurely.  Well this tournament was no different.  Here I had a 66699 full house lose to a better fullhouse.  I started with 666 and drew 2 to improve where the other player most definitely started with JJ88 to improve to JJJ88.  I know he had 2 pair and not the trips to start because of the way the hand played out.  It was a multiway pot with one shortstack all in.

He led into my draw 2 and he drew 1 where I thought he made a flush or straight.  I reraised, and got reraised once again all in.  With the pot so big, I had to call.  But I still thought I was ahead until shown a better hand.  Sigh.

I really need to learn to play pot control in those tournaments.  I should have just called.  If it was a cash game, I am going broke there, but I can reload.  In a tournament, one big pot lost and you are done.  This is the 3rd out of maybe 4 or so of these tournaments where I got knocked out early with a fullhouse.  Really frustrating.  But I will most definitely be playing the next go ’round.  Hopefully next time I will have learned my lesson.

I expect to play some more later tonight.

I have had a really good month at the 5 card draw tables this month.  I have been playing great and for the most part the luck has been on my side.  I have made 5 figures over the past 30 days from 5 card draw alone, and am really happy about it.

One problem though…..no one will play me now.  I don’t mind it when tough competition isn’t sitting to play, but NO ONE is sitting to play.  In the past, if there was no game going I would sit at a table on PokerStars and eventually someone would sit down with me.  Sometimes it would just be a quick heads-up session.  Other times it would turn into a full ring game.

The last 10 hours + of sitting at the table, no one else has sat down with me.  It is frustrating, since I just want to play.

I guess that is what I get for trying to specialize in a game that is not as popular.  Soooo, it is my goal to specialize in a few other cash games.  I am looking at Badugi, PLO, and limit holdem.  I already know I am a winner in limit holdem at the 2/4 level (4 tabling).  I have played a few PLO sessions in the past, the most recent one I won a few buyins in the matter of about an hour.  I just don’t have enough experience to really tell what my win rate is in PLO.  Badugi, well that is a whole different beast, I have little to no experience in Badugi and I plan on attacking that game the same way I learned 5 card draw.  Do as much research as possible and expand on my findings by working out some stuff on my own.

You will still find me at the 5 card draw tables waiting for competition while I work on my other games.  Also…..I still have plans to win a few WSOP satellites.  So I will also be playing some WSOP stuff.   So far in the WSOP satellites I am 0 for 1, but I have a few months to win a seat.

One thing that a poker player strives for is recognition and/or respect from fellow poker players.

Today I found my name under a list started by someone else in a 2+2 forum asking who were the best 5 card draw players on PokerStars.

I am not going to comment whether or not I agree with the short list of only 3 players, but my name was on it!

LOL, I know its not much, but it made me feel good to get some recognition for my hard work!  Thanks ThorKGB!  Now you can remove my name from the list, I don’t want to scare away any of the fish.

Poker is a love-hate relationship. I just lost over $700 playing 5 card draw. Yes, I made a couple of bad plays here and there. But 95% of the time I put money in the pot, there was nothing I could do. The cards just weren’t cooperating. When I was ahead, I got drawn out on. When I had a huge hand, someone had a bigger hand….and so on.

I really hate playing when it seems nothing at all goes right. So I am done for the next few hours, until I can get my head straight again.

I am still up $300 for the month of October. Honestly though, I don’t know how the way I have been running the past week.

I am looking forward to when the tables are turned and everything goes right. Those are the most fun days playing poker. You feel invincible and the bankroll grows at a fast pace.