A change is as good as a rest

I have been playing a few multi-table tournaments lately on sites like www.pokerstars.co.uk  and I've been doing really well. I'm not entirely sure what key things I've changed, but I've made the money in probably over 50% of them I've played recently. Unfortunately you really have to get far in one of them to make a lot of money, and that has been the biggest struggle.

Just tonight I played a $5+rebuy tournament on Pokerstars with my mate and things were looking pretty poor with only $7000 chips after the first break (the average was around $11,000), but relative to the blinds I had plenty. I moved around a lot and had really good table position for the first three hours as I stayed around and right above average. I think I played very well and mixed it up a lot, but there was a lot of poker to go.

Needless to say I got all the way down to the final two tables after being a short stack for most of the time during the last three tables. I was in 9th place out of 18 people when we combined tables. I doubled up early with 66 vs QJ suited to get to $500,000 chips (average was $800,000) and I was playing pretty tight, picking up a few hands here and there. The blinds were 20000-40000 and I was blinded back down to 300k when I was dealt AA, finally a hand I can really pick up some chips with. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) a short stack went allin and I raised on top, forcing the rest of the field out. He had 79 of spades and lost his last 90k to me. Take what you can get though, eh!

The next big hand came up with 14 people left. I raised from middle position with J9 of clubs and the short stack directly to my left reraised all in for an additional $160k. The pot was $480k and I had committed myself to calling. He flipped over AKo and down came the flop:

6 9 9 !! PERFECT! My roommates and I yelled and high fived and all that crap and I said these terrible words "Well he's gotta hit runner aces or kings now..." Why do I talk! Haha, you can imagine ... A .... A. He hit his 0.7% draw and doubled through me, leaving me with $245k. After screaming YES we were all just... screaming, haha. I wasn't out though, and two hands later I was dealt AKo myself in the small blind. The button raised, I went all in, and they showed QQ, woops! I didn't improve and I busted in 13th place for $250, so close!

I haven't made a final table since my big $10 rebuy win for $1,500 in 6th place, but I keep getting closer and closer, so it's only a matter of time, I'll keep you all posted!
 

The power of the float

Last night my mates and I invited five other guys over to play a small sit n go tournament in our house instead of at www.pokerstars.co.uk . 10 People started and we were paying out top three. I took some liberties in the first hour and dwindled down to $3500 (From $5000 starting chips) and decided I should start tightening up. I made a few hands on the turns and rivers and was back up to around $8200 with 5 people left when the button made a standard raise to $1200 (blinds 150-300). He was a fairly tight player that doesn't try to steal the blinds that much (fairly passive in that respect), so I knew he had a hand worth playing, I however was in the big blind and looked down at KK...

Most often I would try to play a big pot preflop with my kings and not risk having him folding after the flop if he had a hand like 55 or A10, but I've been burned enough times in my online tournaments by someone cold calling with a high pair that I decided to give it a try. I called and the UTG limper called as well. The flop came down 2 4 6 and I decided to lead into the raiser for $2200. The UTG limper shook his head and folded (later said he had 47 and didn't believe me at all, haha) and the button reraised all in. I called instantly and showed the two kings, this time it was his turn to shake his head as he showed JJ, my play had worked perfectly!

The turn gave him a flush draw but he missed on the river I had him outstacked, propping me up to 2nd place on the bubble, and later going on to win the tournament. Cold calling with a really strong hand like KK works really well late in a tournament. I know it has happened to me deep in online MTTs, because at that point the blinds are so high most of the hands end up with someone all in. The last time it happened I opened with 1010 and the SB cold called, bet into me on an 8 high flop, and I pushed, he called with QQ, so it felt good to be on the other side of the hand. However, early in a tournament dont' cold-call. At that point the blinds are low and people have plenty of play left in their stacks and it's unlikely to make a huge pot post flop, not to mention letting other limpers in the pot behind you could potentially spell diaster.
 

Not bad for an older guy

Today has been a pretty good day on the whole but I feel a little jaded now. I woke this morning at 6a.m after a late night last night trying to get back a silly little $200 loss. But anyway I finally went to bed at around 1a.m about $250 down for the day but made around $400 this morning.

Then it was back to the poker and more $0.50-$1.00 games. I need to pay more attention to my game selection policies or should I say the tables that I hang around on after the weaker fish have gone. I stayed on two tables today with six regs and two short stackers on them that I clearly should have been swerving and leaving. This just gets down to value and making money from Texas Hold Em depends on the little things that you do and these days I tend not to do them as often as I should do.

But things went my way today and one example shows how well the day went. It gets folded around to a fish who makes it $3.50 from the cut-off with an $89 stack. I have 7c-6c and call. The flop comes 5h-Jd-3c giving me a gutshot draw. They make a c-bet for around $5 and I smell weakness and get it wrong by raising to $16 and they snap call. Now I know that they have an overpair and so am looking to catch runner runner or my straight. The turn card is the Qs and they check and I check behind and the river card fills my straight with the 4d. They bet half pot and I raise them all in and they call showing pocket queens……nice!

Things like that have been happening a lot lately but you have kind of caught me at a good time with this blog because I have just come through what has been a very bad run by my standards. I have also just gone through the $40k mark in my $100-$100k challenge and so I am very happy with where my poker is at this time.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson plays as www.pokerstars.co.uk

Playing the game correctly is tough

In online poker then you absolutely must select the proper strategy to use against individual opponents. My strategy roughly falls into two broad categories. I play No Limit Texas Hold Em full ring and in an average game then there will clearly be players of all different categories. For example you may see the full ring regular that could be playing on anything from between four and twelve tables depending on their ability to be able to handle many tables at once.

These opponents tend to play solidly and if they get involved in a big pot then they will tend to have a big hand to go with it. Their method of operation will tend to mean that they always buy in for 100bb and they will play conventionally when out of position and open up their ranges from later position just like any other normal player.

So if a player who is playing eight tables raises from early position then rest assured that they have a strong hand. So three betting to isolate them may not be a good idea because you will be isolating a likely premium hand. At the end of the day you are trying to match hand strength versus your opponents hand strength. In actual fact though you are not just looking to do that but to also match up against their likely hand strength as well or lack of.

So if a regular raises from UTG+1 in full ring then they are likely to have a premium hand. So three betting with 7-6s on the button does not really look such a good idea anymore does it? This is because you are isolating a better opponent with a stronger hand and also someone who could four bet you and take you from the hand completely. For example if the stakes are NL100 then someone raising to $3.50 and you three betting means that your raise will be to at least $10 and that is 10% of the stack size that you bought in for. In fact if you only have $100 then it is exactly 10% and there will be many regs.

But contrast that to a fish who limps and you have the same 7-6s. Now you can raise because the situation is different. Firstly you are up against a fish and not a reg and secondly their hand strength is likely not as strong. If you can isolate against them then they will not play their hands as strongly as a regular grinder would. So you can see here how strategies that you employ in online poker should differ.

Come and play poker with Carl at www.pokerstars.co.uk

Exploding the big stack myth

If another big stack has signalled their intention to attack you then it is in your own best interests to figure out an acceptable defence that will tell them that you mean business without it leading to world war 3 or in this case the total decimation of your stack. The only time that it may be in your interests to not go up against a big stack is if you are the one who will be starting the aggression. Just like in politics, other players will know when you are being out of line.

So should we avoid another big stack when it is merely poker chips and money that in poker tournaments? Once we make the connection then we understand that the conventional thought of avoiding big stacks is blatantly wrong just like much of the perceived wisdom in poker books is wrong. It is wrong because much of it fails to make this game theory connection with other fields.

Let’s say that you have studied poker so well and worked so hard on your game that you are now the poker equivalent of Manchester United (bear with me here). Would Alex Ferguson send his team out into a third round FA Cup tie at home to Grimsby Town with a game plan of sitting back and hitting Grimsby on the counter attack?

Of course he wouldn’t and the reasons that he wouldn’t are obvious. Their overwhelming superiority over the opposition means that this is not the optimal strategy. Better to go at them and be 3-0 up with twenty minutes to go and then rest players for the next match. Despite the fact that Ferguson knows nothing about the Grimsby players he knows their relative ability because he is aware of what league they are in.

But change the opposition to a mid-week Champions League clash against Barcelona and he is not going to play the same gung ho style because he knows that not only will it not succeed but it could seriously backfire on them against opposition that are their equals.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson plays poker at www.pokerstars.co.uk

Moving my game forward

I remember the first coaching session that I had at NLHE and my coach who was successfully beating NL100 and NL200 said to me… “Carl, why are you raising from the button with 8d-4c?”

He had a point because looking back then this “any two cards can win” rubbish belongs in the realm of novice poker and players that frequent poker tournaments. In cash games and especially multi-tabling cash games then I had to start thinking about equity and fast.

I was coached on equity and how to identify the equity with regards to certain types of hands. Equity comes in different shapes and sizes and is pot equity and fold equity. A hand like 9-2o for example has a very slight equity edge over 8s-7s but the suited connector fares better against stronger hands. This is the first big lesson of equity because the 9-2o is around 50.02% against the suited connector of 8-7s but is an 87-13 dog against a hand like pocket queens.

However despite being a slight underdog to the 9-2o hand when heads up, the suited connector does much better and is a 79-21 dog. This is what equity does because the suited connector wins far more big pots than the 9-2o hand and this is where it catches up and passes the inferior holding. The suited connector can make the nut straight and a flush while the 9-2o hand is going to find itself in an awful lot of unprofitable spots.

I have recently been playing my poker at http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/promotions/rafa-nadal/

The British Poker Awards are back!

There are many ways to cast your votes again this year but there are two categories you are not allowed to have your say in unless you are Jesse May - the much loved American poker commentator and player or one of the five other members of this year's Judging panel. which include Bluff Europe, Poker Channel Europe, Poker Listings, Poker News or PokerStrategy.com.  These categories are Player of the Year and Best International Player.  While the three other awards you have to leave to 'Pro's Choice' are Best Card Room, Best Card Room Manager and Best Tournament Director.

But there are eleven other opportunites to have your voice heard as voting is going on.  The first thing you'll probably notice when you check in to cast your votes is Neil Channing's face - not a bad way to go really as he was voted the Best Cash Player in the inaugural British Poker Awards.  Neil is part of a video clip highlighting the 2010 event.  James Akenhead is there as the Best Tournament Player as well, while Sam Trickett was voted Best New Player.  The online side of the game saw awards go to Chris Moorman as Best Online Player while Best UK Poker Forum went to the Hendon Mob.  Best Contribution to Poker went to Vicky Coren and The Player of the Year honours went to Praz Bansi.
 
The 2011 awards saw some some players receiving second awards.  Vicky Coren was awarded Best Social Media User, Neil Channing got Best Blogger, Chris Moorman repeated as Best Online Player and Sam Trickett took Best Cash Player.  The faces changed for the other big categories with Jason Mercier awarded Best International Player, Kara Scott was recognized as Poker Personality of the Year and Jake Cody scooped as Best Tournament Player AND Player of the Year.

This year Sam Trickett is up for Best Cash Player again as well as Best Tournament Player, Chris Moorman is back as a Best Online Player nominee (can he three-peat?) and Neil, Kara and Vicky are also on one nominee list or another for their contributions to the game.

The awards ceremony takes place on 17th September aboard the Yacht H.M.S. President - for a very reasonable £21.85 including fees you can buy a general admission ticket which gives you an invite to the VIP player's cocktail party with live music and entertainment as well as your seat at the ceremony.  The historic yacht is docked on the Embankment in the City of London, so no anti-nausea medication required unless your favorite player loses.

Carl "The Dean" Sampson plays poker at www.pokerstars.co.uk

Latest Poker News

Starting in July of this year, after the news that Shuffle Master cancelled its agreement to purchase the online poker company Ongame Network, mutters and whispers began to emerge regarding a Zynga/Ongame deal.  At the time the Shuffle Master/Ongame Network deal fell through, bwin.party issued a statement that Ongame Network was "re-engaging with other third parties that have expressed an interest in acquiring Ongame" after both itself and Shuffle Master "mutually agreed not to proceed with the proposed transaction".  Zynga's name came to the forefront of the rumours when Chief Executive Officer and founder of Zynga Mark Pincus stated that Zynga was actively exploring the real money gambling market internationally.

Having recently been beat to the Facebook real money gaming punch by Gamesys, it seems that if these current rumours are true and Zynga is no longer one of the companies touted to be in negotiations with the Ongame Network, they've lost out on another real-money gaming plum. Ongame is the second largest online poker network, with 30 faces including Hollywoodpoker, bwin, FullDeckPoker, Gala Casinos, Coral and Betfair.  Of course, the Ongame Network skins base their online gaming on more than poker, offering casino games, slot machines and sportsbetting among other real-money action.  They have skins aimed at Denmark (Scandic Bookmakers), Greece (Poker.gr), Russia (Fonbet) and almost every inch of the rest of Europe, and are heavily supported in the UK by multiple outlets.

However, the plum has been pruning a bit in the harsh climate created for online real-money gaming by the events surrounding the shutdowns of several major sites such as PokerStars and FullTilt poker by the U.S. Department of Justice which began in April 2011, just one month after Ongame went on the market.  Like many if not all of the other competing networks, Ongame has seen its player traffic down a hefty chunk over this last year and is surely hoping that the recent news of the PokerStars settlement with the U.S. authorities for itself and FullTilt signals a change in the weather for the better.

Come and play poker with Carl at www.pokerstars.co.uk  

The WSOP main event favourite?

He's been chosen as the favorite by betting sites to take down the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event at 3-1 odds, and the man himself, Jesse Sylvia seems to agree with this by reportedly saying, "I will be the next champ."  The odds, and most likely a lot of Sylvia's confidence, are based on his chip lead.  He'll be sitting down in seat 6 at the Rio, Las Vegas on 28th October with a stack of 43.8 million chips.

Sylvia says he's learned a lot from fellow final tablist Russell Thomas, whom he roomed with in 2010.  Since that time, Thomas went on to a full time job as an actuary while Sylvia turned pro.  They had many conversations during the first 10 days of the 2012 Main Event, about chip counts and hands played and a few jokes about the impossible dream of them both making the final table.  But by the time they got to 10-handed they both just looked at each other, too speechless to do anything but shake their heads in wonder
.
Jesse started playing with friends in home games during in his final year of high school in his home town of Martha's Vineyard.  He moved on to on-line play once he was in college, making small deposits and learning the game.  It was in his senior year that he stunned fellow students and himself by cashing in a big Sunday online tournament for over $100,000 - playing in the university's math lab because his own laptop was broken.  He's had many peaks and valleys since he started playing, but Jesse says he needs those in his life, not just working a regular job in an office.

Though Sylvia says he can live on no money and be very happy, and in just making the final table has made a lot of money, he does recognize that it's not the kind of money to do whatever you want for the rest of your life.  But still his gut instinct tells him that come 28th October, Jesse Sylvia will be 'going for the glory' and the WSOP Main Event bracelet.

Carl "The Dean" Sampson plays poker at www.pokerstars.co.uk

The FTP balances

Christmas bonuses are not really relevant for professional poker players.  Even recreational players don't equate the holiday season with poker unless there happens to be a great tournament they can make around that time or the extra time off they might get from their day jobs gives them extra playing time.

This year, however, anyone who has a balance on Full Tilt Poker (formerly known, at best, as a balance in limbo) might be feeling like a Christmas bonus is coming their way.  Many, if not most, of the on-line players who had money on FT when the ground fell out from under us courtesy of the U.S. Department of Justice shut-down, had gradually stopped thinking of their balance as real money as the reality of the big freeze took hold.  The loss sank in more quickly for some, but it was painful for all.

And now, TA DAH!  The official announcement has finally come that balances will be repaid, and we can be done with hints, inklings and speculation at long last - at least regarding the legitimacy of the PokerStars/Full Tilt deal.  International players have the most clear-cut information at this point: www.pokerstars.co.uk  will be repaying balances in full.  U.S. players have to apply to the U.S. Department of Justice, which is quite a bit more daunting.

But any online player who had a balance on Full Tilt now finds their balance changing colors - again.  If they had money on the site, they were in the black.  Losing that balance put them in the red.  Now come the shades of grey.  Some view it as 'found' money and have said they'll splurge with it.  Some have 2010 tax debts that must be paid (or repaid).  Many are saying they plan to leave their balances on Full Tilt because 'the best poker software in the world run by the best poker business in the world' will be their best bet.  But the resounding feeling from all players is 'Tis the season to be jolly!'.

Poker in Prague

The city of Prague is home to many wonders, ancient and modern.  Some of the newest:
The infamous Ice Bar atop the Hilton Hotel - where the customers all look like Jedi knights once they're wrapped up in the hooded cloaks the bar provides.  Though I'm not sure Yoda would approve of the 'Minus 9', the most popular cocktail the bar serves: vodka, cranberry juice and elderberry syprup, served in a beaker made entirely of ice, as is most everything else in this balcony bar overlooking the city.

Fancy hurtling down a mountain at 62km?  The Prague Bobsleigh track begins gently enough but the pace picks up very quickly as you ride on your little sled down and down through eight looping curves.  There is a handbreak and helmet provided for the more sensible adventurist.
But possibly the most exciting experience Prague offers in 2012 is the MindSports Festival in November/December.  On offer will be Scrabble, eSports, Backgammon, Bridge, Risk and a stunning three weeks of poker events.

The Prague Poker Festival will take place 26th November through 16th December at the King's Casino and 5-star Corinthia Hotel.  Numerous titles are on offer here including World Poker Tour, PokerStars European Poker Tour and the Grand Series of Poker Live.

The WPT main event will start with day 1A on 3rd December and run through the 9th.  They've included 3 starting days for this 3300euro entry event.
The EPT main even will follow starting on 9th December through the 14th - a six day event with an entry fee of 5300euro for which structures will be published later this month.

The GSOP live begins their 1000 + 100 euro main event on 12th December for four days of play ending on the 15th.

The World Sit 'n' Go Masters kicks off the Prague Poker Festival on 27th November with a 2,200euro entry, four day event.  Another notable is the Kings High Roller two day event with an entry fee of 20k euro running 7th and 8th December.  888, win365 and PokerTraveller all have events lined up as well (many of which have entry fees around 500euro) to make this festival a fantastic reason to visit Prague and experience as many wonders as you can handle.

Carl "The Dean" Sampson plays poker at www.pokerstars.co.uk

Value betting is the key

One of the key areas where players fall down in no limit play is by not extracting the full value from their hands or as much value as they possible could. Let us say that the total possible losses in poker amount to $500,000 per year while the total possible gains amount to the same.

A good player may reduce those losses by $100,000 over the space of a year and come close to maximising their value and have $450,000 in gains. This leaves them with a net plus of $50,000 in profits. Poker is about maximising the value that you get from winning hands. If you do not try to do this all the time and you are merely "satisfied" with winning pots then you will stagnate as a poker player.

Quite often you will need to value bet in spots where other players may fear to bet at all. Like for example if you have 10c-10d and the board is 9-5-2-A-5. If you bet the river then there are many hands that can call you that called on the flop. Hands like top pair or 8-8, 7-7 and 6-6. If you do not like the thought of betting fully for value then you can dovetail the number of hands that beat you to the size of your value bet. So however thin or thick your value is can be tailored to your value bet size.

Come and play poker with The Dean at www.pokerstars.co.uk

Making a living from poker

Is it possible for a player to make a living from poker with almost no money? Well that depends on the player and how good they are. The answer to the question is "yes" but that comes down to how good the player is and not how much they have has a bankroll.

A strong NLHE player will be able to use a 20 buy in bankroll at say NL50 which is only $1000. Even a mediocre winning reg who won say $5/100 hands would make $15/hour plus rakeback and sign up bonuses.

Adding rakeback and sign up bonuses would add another $5/hour and so a mediocre winning player could make $20/hour. For a 50 hour working week then this equates to $1000/week and $50,000/year. This is not the kind of money to make you rich but we are talking about money that at least 99% of the online poker playing population couldn't earn.

In fact there is no way that even 1% of the playing population were earning $50,000+. With a global poker population of around 50 million then 1% is 500,000 people. So if 500,000 people were taking $50,000 or more from the economy then the entire online industry couldn't sustain those losses. That equates to $25 billion. I would be surprised if even one player in a thousand made $50k from playing online poker.

Carl "The Dean" Sampson plays poker at www.pokerstars.co.uk

The World of Professional Poker Part 2

The 2000 WSOP winner Chris “Jesus” Ferguson renowned as one of the best players in the world once went 18 months without seriously cashing. If players as good as that can experience runs like that then what price the lesser players. It is why behind the scenes, players are constantly swapping pieces of each other in tournaments and doing deals that the public never get to see. Then we have the mystery financial backers that are behind a lot of professional players, these are the guys that make the money without even playing poker as long as they tag on to a good enough player.

In short, the named players do not need money because they know that they can get it from somewhere or someone. If a player had to finance themselves these days to play on the circuit, there would be hardly any big name players. The top players know how demanding tournament poker can be and is why they frown on the publicity thrown on certain players all because they have won a tournament or two. They know that the reverse can easily happen and especially in some of these tournaments with speeded up structures where literally anyone can win if they are aggressive enough and have enough gamble to try and amass a big stack.

But the way that poker is promoted and marketed, it advertises BIG tournaments with BIG prize money to lure players into the game in the same way that the National Lottery attracts people to buy lottery tickets by making the jackpot well into seven figures. They know that if they spread the prize money more evenly that many people would lose interest once they knew that even if they did win that the amount would not be a life changing sum of money. But players perceive that they are in with a shot of winning these tournaments but for the vast majority of them, this is an illusion.

You will no doubt have heard of the term “dead money”. It is a term used by the pro’s to indicate the players in the tournaments that have no chance…it is just a polite way of saying it. But if you asked one hundred players if they viewed themselves as the “dead money”, how many would say yes? But when one of them gets lucky by winning one of them by overcoming astronomical odds then they are touted as the next poker superstar. Look out for part 3 of this series coming soon.

Play poker with The Dean at www.pokerstars.co.uk/poker/getting-started/free-poker/

The World of Professional Poker part 1

I want to lift the lid on just what professional poker actually is in 2012 and to wipe away the crap and the smokescreen that is created. The reason that I have included this topic in my blog is very simple. During your poker life, you will be constantly bombarded by pictures and stories about all things poker on TV, websites and magazines and such. Some of it is good stuff and some of it is not so good.

Something can be bad in many different ways, it can be bad if it is misleading and someone is trying to learn from that piece of material. In fact MIS-LEADING is probably a better phrase for the image of the poker world seen through the eyes of the average person. Let me tell you a few home truths about tournament poker. There are not many players making it pay operating solely on their own and this is not my opinion but common knowledge within the industry.

What the successful professionals are doing that you hear about is cushioning their participation by other means. Many of them have big sponsorship deals from magazines and poker sites that actually pay for or heavily subsidise their tournament buy ins. Any player that plays on the big circuit needs at least $650,000 in buy ins alone every year, add to this the air fares and hotel expenses and everything else that goes with it and it is approaching a million dollars.

A player has to win close to a million dollars a year just to BREAK EVEN. If they have a bad year then they could very rapidly get into serious financial difficulty of which many actually have. A couple of years ago, a big name World Series of Poker bracelet winner had to pawn their bracelet in a Las Vegas pawn shop because they were skint. The entire thing was kept under wraps and to avoid any embarrassment for the player, I will not name him as I know people who are good friends with him. But these stories are common in the poker world, the variance in these big tournament fields these days is frightening. I will going deeper into this topic in part 2 and so look out for that.

Come and play poker with Carl at www.pokerstars.co.ukhttp://www.pokerstars.co.uk/poker/how-to-play/strategy/

I can still play this game you know

It has been a while since I last posted but I have been busy of late playing more poker than I have in ages. In fact I have had a change of strategy since Christmas and I have been playing more deep stack games.

That has seen my earn rate rocket because of the fact that I have not been handicapped by the minimum stack regulars. In actual fact I have doubled my earn rate from around $45 per hour to around $80 per hour multi-tabling NL100 full ring. I have had a fantastic three month period and made around £10,000 in that time and so I am pretty pleased with how things have been going.

It is pretty difficult to put any tracker stats on my earn rate because I largely haven’t been using one as I have built up the number of tables to 12 and that has been going very well. Yesterday I won a massive 300bb pot with J-J. I open raised from early position and a A-Qs called as did pocket tens on the button. The flop came K-J-10 which was pretty sick as I knew that short of someone having A-Q that I had the lead. I bet out and the next player raised and the button shoved all in.

I called only to hope that the board paired but obviously not the ten as that gave the guy with tens quads. The turn card was another king and so I have jacks over kings and the straight is dead. River card bricks out and I win a huge pot and that has been a while since that happened. In fact I got AA vs KK twice during the same session and also managed not to lose my buy in with KK vs AA as well. The total session win was around five buy-ins which is huge considering how tightly I play! Now that my earn rate is higher then I should hopefully be playing more.

Come and join me at www.pokerstars.co.uk/poker/getting-started/free-poker/

Sign up bonuses are the key to survival

In my years as an online texas holdem poker player then I have been only too aware of how external financial incentives are vital for any online poker player. I have learned over the years that the key to making serious profits in online poker is to actually treat the entire thing like a business. This means that you are not essentially just concentrating on playing poker hands. You are concerned about reducing your costs of doing business but also you are also interested in getting as much external monetary assistance as you possibly can. This is done in two key areas and I will go into those shortly. I would also like to take this opportunity to inform regular readers that Pokerroom has opened its doors again for business.

Some years ago then this used to be my favourite poker room for cash poker for reasons that I will go into. However they have a sign up bonus of 100% up to $1000 and so this is a fantastic start up cushion for any new player looking to try and make poker a career. You will inevitably make mistakes as a novice poker player and this needs to be cushioned somewhat. So you are looking for the best sign up bonuses and rakeback which allow you to earn money without it having to come from the actual games themselves. So in this instance then the $1000 sign up bonus that you get on Pokerroom could just be the cushion that helps you make it as a winning poker player.

Let me put a scenario by you, imagine a poker player starts out playing micro-stakes levels and loses $500 as part of his education of learning. That $500 may be the catalyst that causes them to stop playing poker. However if you have taken advantage of a $1000 bonus then you are actually $500 ahead during that same period of learning! This will then really give you the confidence to move on and possibly play higher levels. I mentioned earlier about my reasons for playing on Pokerroom and they are as follows. Firstly the site has around 40,000 players at peak time and this is something that is key to being able to make money from the game.

Secondly I find the software to be pretty good and especially the lobby screen which is a vital source of information that needs to be tapped into for maximum effect. For example I need to see clearly how big my potential future opponent’s stacks are before I sit at the table. If they have middling size stacks or several of them do then I know that this game will be lucrative. This is because serious players in no limit holdem will tend to have either full stacks or minimum stacks. They either want to capitalise on their opponents deep stacked errors or they want to get all in as soon as possible. Both strategies are viable but good players do not play in between stacks.

Trading is the new poker in 2012

Regular readers of my blogs will know that I am just as much a fan of trading and sports betting as I am of poker. In fact it wasn’t poker at all that was my first venture into gambling but blackjack. But there are numerous connections with all of these fields if you look closely enough. Having too many bets is the key mistake that kills sports bettors and stops them from making profits. This is the same as someone who plays too many hands at poker and bets too big on too many hands in blackjack when the count is negative.

Also too much trading can lead to you simply not being able to overcome the transaction costs even if you make a good trade. The term selective aggression is often used in poker but the term is equally factual to nearly any risk based market. For me then financial trading simply suits my personality more than what poker does. I tried for years to find the best form of poker to fit my personality and that eventually turned out to be NLHE.

However this does not alter the fact that the variance is very high when you risk money in this way irrespective of how good you are. Losing 25%-50% of your bankroll and it being normal has never really sat well with me over the years. If I made a $1000 trade then I may lose no more than 5-10% of that trade if it moves against me and so my maximum loss may be $100. If that same $1000 was in a NLHE cash game then the entire grand could be gone on one hand and it will do that at some stage.

Not only this but my next buy-in and the next and the next can all go the same way. This can never happen in trading and your risk and variance is far lower if you find a very good trading system. So 2012 will see me playing a lot less poker and I am not really sad about that either. But I will still be playing poker at www.pokerstars.co.uk  and so keeping a look out for my trading and poker results being placed here on a regular basis.