Happy Easter

Hi all and happy Easter (you know, if that's your thing). Don't have time to write a real post today but wanted to say hi. Got back from Lake Tahoe on Friday evening. I hope to write a little trip report in the next few days. Also, made almost 3 BI's at 25nl last night. I'm at $265 on FTP.

Heading back to Iowa City this evening.

No rakeback for me

I made a big mistake when I signed up for Full Tilt. I did not sign up through a rakeback affiliate. And now it appears that I am screwed. I received the following as a response to my inquiry about the possibility of being transfered to a rakeback affiliate or perhaps given permission to recreate my/create a new account.

Hello John,

Thank you for contacting The Affiliate Team at Full Tilt Poker.

Full Tilt does not pay players rakeback directly. There are a number of
rakeback affiliates who offer players up to 27% rakeback if they sign up
to Full Tilt Poker through their site.

Please note that this is not an issue which can be solved by opening
another account with Full Tilt Poker, it is against our site policy to
open more than one account. Though you could cease using your account,
we do not remove it from our system, nor do we freeze accounts in order
for players to create new ones.

However, we do value your continued support of Full Tilt Poker, and we
are currently looking into organizing something that will help players
who are not receiving rakeback from an affiliate. We have added your
username to our files for further consideration. Please be patient.

Also, it may interest you to know that there is an affiliate payment
plan in which the affiliate earns a percentage of their players rake,
but there is no rake back deals offered directly to the players. Our
affiliate program is not designed for personal rakeback, but can be used
to earn commission on other player?s activity.

You can sign up for an affiliate account through our website at:
http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/affiliates

If there's anything else we can help you with, please don't hesitate to
ask.

Best of luck on the tables!

The Affiliate Team at Full Tilt Poker.

Gee.... thanks. I guess I'll be moving back to PokerStars until they "[organize] something to help players who are not receiving rakeback from an affiliate".

Thurdays nights at work

Since the full-timers leave at 5pm during the week I can pretty much browse the internet in the evening (5-8) on Thursdays. I imagine that most of my posts on here are going to come on Thurs. evenings or weekends while I'm working because if I'm at home I'll probably play poker instead. These Thurs. evenings also give me a good time to scour the 2p2 forums for useful information.

Another time waster for me will also be Lord of The Rings Online, which I recently started playing. I'm currently running a elf Lore-Master on the server 'Windfola'. Currently level 12 with the name "Celathier". I'm new to the game but if anyone plays feel free to whisper me in game. Also, any that wants to try out a fun MMO I can give you a referral for a 10 day trial (the non referred trial is 7 days).

Had a nice night on the e-felt last night. Played only for a little more than an hour and managed to pick up 3 BI's at 10NL. I am also close to the next $20 release from my bonus from Full Tilt (90fpp or so). I will be picking up that $20 this evening as I grind out my 100fpp for the day. I am attempting to get the silver Iron Man level on Full Tilt this month. I would be trying for gold but I will be gone for 10 days so gold is pretty much out of the question. Managed to get bronze last month despite just starting on FT a third of the way through the month.

Current b/r:
Bodog - $80 - $90
Full Tilt - $120
Carbon Poker - ~$30

Hey all...

...or more likely no one.

I am back (I hope). It is my intent to revive this here blog and perhaps even make it worthwhile to read. I am currently playing mostly on Full Tilt with a little Bodog mixed in. I am currently sitting on about $80 - $90 on each site. I've been mostly 4-tabling 10NL full ring. I know that I should be rolled a little higher for 10NL but I am willing to deal with the possibility of busting. The last 2 days or so I've been 6-tabling with half buy-ins ($5 on 10NL). I am hoping to get more used to the extra 2 tables and make it my regular game plan.

I am currently trying to clear as much of the $300 bonus I was granted by Full Tilt to compensate for their servers going down several times in the last 2 weeks. I was only effected by the downtimes once but I'll take the bonus. The goal is to clear as much of the bonus as possible before spring break. The bonus deadline is the 22nd of this month.

I will be unable to play online over break because I will be in Lake Tahoe with my dad. I will be snowboarding during the day and I hope to make it to a poker room one or two evenings to play a little live poker.


I hope to come up with some goals for my poker play. I want to (and need to) improve my game. I've joined the twoplustwo forums (s/n: iamsolitary) and have been reading many posts there. I also have purchased pokertracker and will be going over my PT stats soon.

Deposit Bonuses

Got a couple deposit bonuses available. First, from Carbon Poker:

200% First Deposit Bonus + Super Seat Satellite Entry

Make your first deposit with CarbonPoker.com and use coupon code FIRSTSUPER to earn a 200% bonus on deposits up to $500! That's $500 free on deposits of $250. After depositing you will receive one coupon to use as entry to any daily Super Seat Satellite you wish!

You will also receive entry for 14 days into the $500 Freerolls for New Depositing Players.

And from Bodog if you deposit more than $20 you will receive a 10% bonus for free.

back in the thick of it (almost)

I intend on depositing $100 (or so) into my newly created account on Bodog Poker. I downloaded the software today and registered myself under the username solitary.



I also started playing a little play money poker in order to get used to the software Bodog uses. While I don't usually enjoy play money poker (online at least) very much, I actually enjoyed myself a wee bit. It was nice to play poker again after a long break. It certainly helped that I hit quads twice in the short while that I was playing. Too bad it was only play money.

haven't posted in a while

Although I doubt that anyone checks this daily hoping for some new words of wisdom I suppose I will explain. I have been going through some personal shit that has kinda taken the majority of my time.


Girls......



Anyways, I played in my first live tourney. $30 buy-in at Riverside Casino (outside of Iowa City). I played alright but was completely card dead. I believe my best hand was A-10 off. I won 2 pots before I busted. It was still a fun experience. They have them every Thursday evening so I imagine I will be playing almost every week.

Poker updates

I will hopefully have an opportunity to write a long post in the next day or two but I wanted to post a few short things while I had a few minutes.

Poker.com has released version 4.0 of their software. EVERYONE SHOULD GO CHECK IT OUT! I did some beta testing for it and I have to say that I am very very pleased with the new release. There are a few minor bugs to be worked out still, but nothing that really affects gameplay too much. More about the new software next time.

The Aussie Millions are going on right now at the Crown Casino in Melburne. Head over to the AussieMillionsBlog.com to check out some of the action. There are a number of Poker.com members in the running.


Blog Related:

If anyone knows a good place to find a 3 column layout that works with Blogger please let me know. I would like to be able to customize the color-scheme though. Thanks.

Poker updates

I will hopefully have an opportunity to write a long post in the next day or two but I wanted to post a few short things while I had a few minutes.

Poker.com has released version 4.0 of their software. EVERYONE SHOULD GO CHECK IT OUT! I did some beta testing for it and I have to say that I am very very pleased with the new release. There are a few minor bugs to be worked out still, but nothing that really affects gameplay too much. More about the new software next time.

The Aussie Millions are going on right now at the Crown Casino in Melburne. Head over to the AussieMillionsBlog.com to check out some of the action. There are a number of Poker.com members in the running.


Blog Related:

If anyone knows a good place to find a 3 column layout that works with Blogger please let me know. I would like to be able to customize the color-scheme though. Thanks.

$5 NLHE

I finally won a buy-in MTT on Poker.com. I won the $5 no limit Hold'Em tourney just a little bit ago. I'm excited because it is my first MTT win that was not a freeroll (I won a NACPC* qualifier). It's a good start to the new year.

*NACPC - North American College Poker Championship

Post Christmas

Well my holiday season mostly over (New Year's on Monday). Back to the daily grind.

The Blogger Poker Tour finished up it's second season this past weekend with the grand final. Since I was at home with the family I was unable to watch any of it. The results are as follows:

1	purechaos
2	Evil666
3	ZowieZ
4	Irongirl
5	freeroll26
6	imjusthere4thebeer
7	brodoughno
8	ViezeMan
9	JayNYC
10	natsdad
11	EgonOlsen
12	astinaguy
13	kufolem
14	cerberi
15	skinski
16	Hacksaw2000
17	DawgRoyal
18	OhioMike
19	PearlSnapMan
20	iyatoni

Congratulations to all involved. Also, imjusthere4thebeer of the Poker Pub will also be sent to the Aussie Millions to keep us all update via the Aussie Millions Blog.


I personally haven't played much poker lately. I've been beta testing the Poker.com version 4.0 software. I have to say that I am very excited about it. There are still a few bugs that need to be worked out, but the new games are very nice. I mean, they have 5 Card Draw w/ Jokers. How awesome is that?!. Anyways, I hope everyone has a nice New Year's. Have fun and be safe.

See you all on the felt.

Update on me

First poker related stuff.....

I was not able to play in the final BPT event of this season. I was at my girlfriend's uncle's house for their family Christmas celebration. I think (hope) they liked me. Anyways....

this is the result of the final event. The top 20 is as follows:

Skinski's Blog	1125
Irongirl01	1016
Scary Poker	871
Poker Pub	858
Peetscheet	830
Poker Athletes Blog	749
Flopilicious	734
astinaguys poker blog	712
Perfectly Beastly	711
Freerollcalendar Weblog	708
Alex	701
I hate money	681
Royal Poker	677
Gamingology	642
Evil666	631
EgonOlsenPoker	605
riverdemon	582
PearlSnapMan Plays Poker	560
5TH Street Forum	546
Life, The Universe and Poker	538

These people (blogs) will move on to the grand final on the 23rd of this month. You can check out up to the second chip counts here.


Played a few hours of poker today. I lost $10 pretty quickly on a .10/.25 table and then moved down to the .05/.10. I was doing fairly well (up to $20 or so from $5) when I lost $10 in one hand. Had 88 and (s)he hit a 6 on the river to make a set. I left the table a short while later with about $8.

I also dumped $20 into the $1,500 guaranteed(1R/A) this afternoon. Busted out pretty quickly and then used my 1 rebuy. I was short stacked near the first break and I picked up aces. I pushed (had little else I could do). Person thinks for a few seconds and calls. He then proceeds to crack my aces with ace-7. He picked up his final card for the straight on the river. The table then goes to break (without me).

Finally, I placed 6th in a $5+.50 shorthanded. I busted out with pocket sixes against ace king off suit. No bad beat (for me) or anything like that. I got lucky 2 times after the bubble burst when I made marginal calls. Other than that I think I played alright.



Non-poker news:

I passed all my classes. Go me!

Shorthanded Hold'em

Played a $5 NLHE shorthanded last night on Poker.com. I have to say that I'm not really a fan of shorthanded. Well I suppose thats a lie, I'm just not used to it. I haven't played much shorthanded poker except for home games (but that's a little different in my opinion). It was not too odd except for when it was nearing the final table. There were 28 people (I think) in the tourney and I ended up busting out 7th or 8th (top 5 got paid). It was odd playing with only 4 people on a non-final table. I was trying to stay alive for the FT but didn't want to get there with no chips. I usually play pretty tight near the bubble and loosen up when the FT get a little low on players. I just must have played loose to early and ended up trying to push someone out of a hand at a bad time. It's alright though, I made a little more than the entry fee back playing 5¢/10¢ at the same time as the tourney. Overall, I played well untill the last 10 or so hands where I went considerably downhill.


I've added a list of poker blogs to this site. They are blogs that fit in one (or more) of the following:

• I enjoy reading it
• it contains useful information
  
• I know/respect the blogger
• it's just sweet and deserves to be there for some other reason

The list will probably change from time to time so check it every so often. Click the links and read better blogs than this one.



Personal notes:

• last final is on Friday morning (9:45 am)
• I will probably sell my textbooks back and then go to Riverside Casino and play poker with that money
• not sure if I will be able to play in the BPT event this Sat. (I may be going to my girlfriends family Christmas event)
  

Last Call has changed

It seems the due to unforeseen circumstances the final open event of the Blogger Poker Tour this season has changed format.

The following was posted by Shane B(Poker.com Media & Merchandise Manager) on the Poker.com forums and in the BPT blog:

With the release of the new games at Poker.com moved back a couple of days Omaha Hi/Lo wont be available so there has been a late game switch for the final event of the second season of the Blogger Poker Tour.

Now the name of the game is Deep stack poker, thats[sic] right, with everything on the line we are giving everyone a few extra chips, instead of the usual 2000 starting chips we are giving everyone 5000.

Now, this is a good thing for some people (me included) because some people (me included) don't really know how to play PLO8 very well (or at all really). I imagine people will be gunning for imhere4beer in order to get that host bonus bounty of his. I had best get lucky if I have any chance at all to be at that Grand Final.

So.....

Sign up for Poker.com here
Sign up for the Blogger Poker Tour here
and join in on the fun.



Also, you can check out up to the minute info on the tourney here(will be kinda boring until it starts though).

I've calmed down now

Last post I was quite steamed about poker. After not playing for almost a week I've calmed down. My bankroll diminished quite a bit these past few weeks. After I made my last withdrawal ($100 around Thanksgiving) I basically lost everything. I had about $80 on PitBullPoker and now I'm on empty. Until yesterday I was at $10 on Poker.com. I played some 5¢/10¢ no limit and I made about $8. I basically need to completely rebuild. I am trying to do it without putting any more money in. I miss playing the $10 NL tourneys, but I suppose I'll have to wait until I've got a little more scratch.

Poker.com is feeling a bit festive this holiday season and has a promotion just for that. On December 30 the Poker.com Holiday Tournament will occur. The way this tournament works is as such. Poker.com will put up $10k + $50 for every person in the tournament. In order to get into said tournament it is required to refer-a-friend or to be a referred friend. You simply need to deposit and acquire 300 comp points by December 29th (this is actually quite easy - can be done in 1-2 hours). Also, if you do this I get $50 credited to my account (which I certainly could use right about now) and you get all the other Poker.com bonuses.

• first deposit bonus (100% up to $200)
• free 1k freeroll coupon
• 7 days of new depositor freerolls ($500 prize pool each)
• 4 weeks of $50 new player freerolls (run every 3 hours)

In addition, you get access to Poker.com's many freerolls:

• $50 freeroll every 2 hours
• $1000 freeroll every day (M-F)*
• $10k freeroll every Sunday (except for below)*
• $50k freeroll the last Sunday of every month*
  

*comp point requirements

To get these things click here or on the pictures above and use promotion code 100FIRST1k with your first deposit. You may just go to www.poker.com if you don't want to use me as a referal (that's not very nice though).


This Saturday (Dec. 16th) is the final event of the second season of the Blogger Poker Tour season 2. The Poker Pub is hosting the last call Omaha Hi/Low event. I'm sitting at 79 points (had to work the day of my only event - blinded out) and most likely have no chance of getting in the top 20 for the Grand Final. However, Imjusthereforthebeer (the host) had decided to put up his host bonus as a bounty on his head. So basically, if I were to get lucky enough to have him at my table, and then get lucky enough to bust him out at a game I've played maybe twice in my life, and then place high enough to get some points on my own....... then I would be able to get into the top 20. It might help if I were to get some referrals (HINT: join Poker.com, then join the blogger poker tour from my link). Anyways, good luck to those who have a chance.

I am so tired

Was up all last night working on Java programs for my Intro to Software Design class. If anyone want to look at them they are here (username: swd, password: qwerty). More school stuff to do tonight after I get off work. Then more to do tomorrow... and the next day. I just want it to be next Friday so I can be done with this semester. Then maybe I can play some poker. I played some this past week and it has been all down hill. Finished 23rd in a $1,500 guaranteed on Poker.com (that $450 first prize would have been nice). I lost most of my money on Pitbull Poker at the .50/$1 tables. I am, however, up to 52 comp points there, halfway to being able to cash out any winnings from the free $10 I got. You just don't get pots big enough for points on the .10/.25 tables there. I'll just have to grind it out and work my way back up.

Also, when the semester is over I'll be able to head back out to the Riverside Casino. I'm yearning for some live play and if I have some money I'd like to be able to get in a good 8 hour session. I might be able to get some blackjack practice in too.

Anyways, I'm going to cut back on poker for a bit. I'm thinking about picking up a copy of Pokemon and playing that. It's much less irritating.

EDIT: Just lost my last pennies at PitbullPoker. Fucker calls an almost pot sized bet with an open-ended straight draw, hits on the river. I'll probably just play freerolls there and see if I can get some more free money.

Even though I said I wouldn't...

I have been playing poker this week. Made a FT at Pitbull Poker last night on a $5+.50 NLHE tourney. Was playing at my girlfriends apartment while watching Monsters Inc. Unfortunately I got no payout because only the top 3 were getting paid. There weren't that many people in the tourney. I think I made 7th (but I don't remember right now). Fortunately I made some money in a ring game at the same time. Current Pitbull Poker bankroll: $64.

Also, I played the $1,500 Guaranteed R/A this afternoon on Poker.com. Played well (in my opinion) up until the 1st break. There were 40 or so remaining at the first break. Since I was 10th in chips after other people added on I opted not to add on. This may have been a mistake (I am never sure how to play these types of tournaments). The problem came immediately after the break. I flopped 2 pair from the small blind. My only caller picked up a straight on the turn and I was down to about 10xBB. I was tilting a little from the hit and donked the rest of my chips away a few hands later. Current Poker.com bankroll: $83 (approx.)



I have some (personal) Blogger Poker Tour news to report. I received my BPT coupon and am psyched about it. Unfortunately for our hero, I will be working this Saturday during the tourney. It looks like I will be blinded out for my first BPT appearance. The host blog for the upcoming event is Flopilicious.com. Good luck to all those participating.

Also BPT related is the creation of a custom BPT google search. I would like to thank Mike from the Poker Pub for the creation. I will be adding the code for the search bar after finishing this post. Terms will be searched within all of the BPT participating blogs.



I joined up with this recently created poker community. We will be playing frequent MTT's on Poker.com. The first tourney will be Friday Dec. 15th at 9pm (lobby time). The plan is to move through several different types of poker (Texas Hold'em, Omaha, etc...). Feel free to register for the forums and say hi. Things haven't really gotten into high gear yet but when the group grows things should be kicking. I post under the forum name: solitary.

Ok, I guess I lied

I have been playing some poker over this here little break of mine. I have been playing tonight on PitbullPoker.com. The site is annoying but I am able to play it at home better than Poker.com. For some reason my parent's internet connections hiccups a lot (that's the best word I can think of to describe it). Because of that Poker.com software seems to get d/c a lot and it's quite annoying. Since I'm playing with "free money" at Pitbull it's not as big of a deal. Although, it did suck when it made me muck cowboys pre-flop and I would have made $5-6 off the hand (2 small stacks all-in pre-flop). Other than that not much. Current Pitbull bankroll has been upped to $55 or so. Poker.com sits at about $120 after a $100 withdrawal the other day.

Other interesting gambling events today. I won $23 at my aunt/uncles this afternoon at our Thanksgiving get together. We played a game of complete chance and I won once. The game is called Left-Center-Right. Basically you play with 3 $1 bills (or $5 or $10 or $20....) and you roll dice. The dice have an R, L, C, and dot on them (I don't remember which have 2). Basically you roll the 3 dice and do what the dice says. You pass a dollar to the right, left, or center for R, L, and C. You do nothing if you get a dot. Eventually only one person has any money in front of them and they will it all. It's fun and easy and fairly cheap. Best of all, I happened to win the second time we played. Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving soon

I suppose Poker.com must be feeling holiday spirit-y because on Thanksgiving they are offering a few neat things. The following was posted by Liam in the Poker.com forums.

With Thanksgiving on Thursday, Poker.com thought we should put up an offering of our own and give you a chance to really carve a turkey.

All day we will be running the "Turkey Room", a $10 +50c heads up Sit n Go, for every Sit n Go played we will add $1 to a $100 jackpot. At the end of the day, who ever has won the most Sit n Go's will win the jackpot.

The turkey carving doesn't end there, Thursday night we are running the Turkey Tournament, a $1000 added tourney with a $100 bounty for busting out our Queen of Hearts Tina.

Turkey Day Tourney: Thursday 23 Nov @ 18:30 Poker.com time

Good luck!

Good luck to anyone participating is said events. I most likely will not be because I will be at home (i.e. parent's house) for the next few days. As is, I will probably not be playing much, if any, poker. I might post once or twice before next week but we'll see.

Anywho, have a great Thanksgiving

The BPT and my first Casino visit

Alright, the first order of business is an update on the Blogger Poker Tour. As I mentioned yesterday (see this post) Skinski, of The House of Poker Blues, was hosting the 5th event of the BPT Season 2. Though I wasn't able to watch any of the event (I'll say why in a bit) and I wasn't able to play (I guess my blog isn't up to snuff or something, oh well), I can certainly report the results. They money was played out to the following people:

iyatoni          $125.00
skinski          $100.00
JayNYC           $75.00
freeroll26       $55.00
Enortone         $45.00
winaa2233        $30.00
cerberi          $25.00
astinaguy        $20.00
luckylulo        $15.00
ReplicantPoker   $10.00

With Skinski finishing second in his own event he picked up an amazing 636 points to catapult himself onto the top of the leaderboard with 1002. The leaderboard looks as follows after event #5:

Skinski's Blog                1002
Irongirl01                    719
Freerollcalendar Weblog       642
Peetscheet                    598
Perfectly Beastly             597
Poker Athletes Blog           556
Poker Pub                     550
Royal Poker                   522
astinaguys poker blog         518
Gamingology                   515
Alex                          500
ReplicantPoker blog           474
elc3105s blog                 430
I hate money                  415
11ave.blogspot.com            411
5TH Street Forum              403
riverdemon                    387
free poker                    363
PearlSnapMan Plays Poker      350
the life of a don             346
Counting My Outs              344
EgonOlsenPoker                343
From school boy to pro        340

The top 20 on the leaderboard are numbered above but I thought it pertinent to show those just outside the top 20. Since they are so close all they need is a good performance in the final event and they will be in the final event. Since I wasn't able to see the final table I cannot give specific hands but I imagine it was a nice final table. I would go down the leaderboard to check those blogs for details about the FT (I know I will be).

Yesterday I went to a casino for the first time. I went with my friend Dan after work for about 4 hours or so. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. First off, we headed right to the customer service desk to sign up for our players club cards (Resort Cards at Riverside). As incentive for joining the Resort Club we were credited with $10 credit for the slots. To release this credit we had to play $1 so we did. I had not really had intention of play much (if any) slots before we got there, but to play mostly for free was worth it. My goodness are slots boring. I don't know if it's just the fact that I had no idea what the machine in front of me was doing for the most part but sitting there pressing a button over and over again was not exactly fun. However, I only lost 65¢ of my own money and still have $7 or so of the free credit they gave me. Maybe I'll go try to will that car they had on display with that $7.

Please note: I am not very good at blackjack. I sat with Dan at a blackjack table for a little bit. I figured I could at least hold my own (I know a little bit of blackjack strategy) but I was gravely mistaken. I lost $40 pretty quickly before I left the table. That is when we parted (Dan and I). I went to the poker room and he stayed on the floor. I was seated immediately at a $2/$5 table with $100 in red $5 chips. I got rags for a while and folded every hand until I got an Ace/10 offsuit. Now, I don't usually put too much stock in that hand but I hadn't seen anything playable until that. I shouldn't have played it (especially the way I did) because the BB saw a free flop and in the end came up with a full house. I was down to about $45 or so in chips and was played quite tight for some time. I picked up some blinds with an all-in and then eventually doubled up with pocket queens (who calls a $50 all-in with jack/3 of clubs. I worked my way up to about $210 before I had to leave. I was at the table for about 3 hours but I feel like I could have sat there for another 5. I learned that they have tournaments a few times a week so I might just have to play 1 or 2 of those. Overall, I had a blast. I feel much more comfortable in a live game than I did yesterday morning (I was quite nervous for a bit, which probably wasn't good) and I made a few bucks at the same time. I will certainly be heading back there again.


EDIT
Notes about the poker room:

• 14 tables
• Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Low, 7 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud Hi/Low
• tournaments Sun/Mon/Wed/Thurs
• not in a separate room (but in a nook as to reduce noise from the rest of the floor)
• there were about 6 or 7 full tables going on a Sat. afternoon
• some dealers better than others but none were incompetent (not major mistakes and all personable)
• rules loosely enforced (swearing, player mistakes, etc.) but dependent on the dealer