www.CardRunners.com

I'd like to let you all know I am going to be teaching/writing for this website. Anyone interested in improving their game should stop by.

Taylor

Book Review: Tales from the Tiltboys

So, in the past I haven't been particularly kind towards Phil Gordon. I gave his book (Poker: The Real Deal) a terrible review. Then, I told about how he cried like a little bitch when we played together at a preliminary event during the WSOP. Well, I'm going to make up for it a little bit by giving his newest book, Tales from the Tiltboys, a glowing review. The book is actually credited as being written by all of the 'tiltboys', which includes Phil and 12 others. This is an extremely funny book which tells about the tiltboys' trips to Vegas, betting on roshambo, and setting each other on tilt playing the circle game. Oh yeah, there is a little bit of poker in the book also. If you've never read a trip report from the tiltboys I would recommend looking that up first. If you don't find that funny don't spend your money on the book. If you were crying out loud laughing like I was than you will find this book equally hilarious. Phil, your other book sucked and you were a big crybaby when we played together. All is forgiven.

I busted out but Drew is still alive!

I had a hell of a run and in some ways it was more satisfying than last year's. The money just wasn't quite as good. I started day 3 with 57,000 in chips and I really felt that I had put myself in a great position if I could start to get some cards. But, right away things went dramatically wrong. On the third hand of the day I was on the button with AK off. Everyone folded to a player 2 off the button who moved all in for 15,200. I called on the button and then Garry Bush, former Euro player of the year, moved in from the SB. He had me covered and I folded without hesitation. I've played with Garry before and I was surprised that he only had KK. Of course, an ace hit on the river and I would have won a monster pot against KK and JJ. I played it right though and I don't think there is any other play I can make there. You could make a case that I could fold AK but I don't think I can with blinds at 1000 and 2000 and 2700 in the pot from the antes. I am getting pot odds against any hand but KK or AA. I called 15,200 into a 36,100 pot. I only have to be 42% to make this call. It was unfortunate that Garry picked up KK but I only had to risk about 25% of my stack to try to take a player out. I flat-called incase Garry or the BB picked up a big hand. After I made the money I raised to 7000 in the cut-off with 99. The SB moved all-in for 55,000. I mucked my 9's feeling that there was just no way he could do that without a monster hand. He showed me KK and I again felt like I was making good plays that were costing me money. Finally, a round later, I raised to 10,000 on the button with AJ. The SB called and I only had 12,000 left. The SB moved in on a flop of 6 7 8 rainbow and I automatically called. I wasn't about to fold for 12,000 into a pot of around 47,000. As it turned out I had the best hand anyways when he showed me AT. Of course, a ten hit the turn and I was out in 501st place. I missed making another $1,635 but a measly 10 seconds by finishing 501 instead of 500. But, 5 minutes later they called me over the loud speaker to tell me someone got knocked out before me but left the Rio. So, they gave him 501 and switched me to 476. I wasn't complaining and I got an extra $1,635! I really am proud of how I played. I hung in there and gave myself a chance. I just couldn't get the cards to absorb a bad beat. But, the most exciting part of the trip is that my younger brother is still alive in the $1,000 no-limit hold 'em event #44 at the WSOP. This is his first WSOP event ever and he is in around 14th place out of 27 with an average chip stack. 971 people started so he has outlasted about 97% of the field already. He's guarenteed $4,300 or something like that so he's already making some nice dough for a kid without a paying job. I'll be there watching him kick some ass tomorrow (today - damn I'm tired).

Still alive

I made it past day 2. It's time to get some rest so I'm not going to write too much but maybe I'll come back later and finish. I started the day with 26,775 and almost immediately got involved in a hand with Clonie Gowan. I played it about as bad as possible and I'm not going to go over it right now. I was down to 10,000 after that hand though. I doubled up about an hour later when everyone folded to the SB and he raised with 99 - I pushed with QQ and he called. I then proceeded to move my stack up to 44,000 before going card dead. How card dead? I haven't had aces all tournament and only got kings once but this was unreal. I couldn't find anything playable and moved under 25,000. After my table broke I had abou 22,000 with 45 minutes left in the day. I raised with 99 and the button moved me all in. I called and won a coin flip when I turned a flush vs. his AK. I then knocked out a short stack and stole some blinds to end the day with 57,000. The average is 98,750 and there are 569 players left. 560 make the money. I'll post more another day.

Through Day 1 - Ship It!

Well, if I am only going to make one freaking dinner break the whole WSOP I guess the Main Event is the one to do it in. I'm through to day 2 with 26,775 in chips. This will be about average on Sunday when play resumes for me. I want to get some sleep so I'll get to some key hands. My first table was pretty tight. Nobody busted out for 5 hours. I didn't recognize anyone but then about 3 hours in Layne Flack showed up and he looked sick as a dog. Immediately he went from 9,000 down to 3,000 and just as quickly moved up to 28,000. He then left to take a nap and didn't return for 3 hours! Apparently he is doing very well still. I stole lots of hands early and took advantage of the fact that my opponents were playing very tight. I had my stack up to 11,500 early in level 3 when I looked down at 99. One player in middle position raised, another called in the cut-off, and I called on the button. The BB called and we had 4-way action. The flop came T 8 2, all clubs. All checked to me and I bet 1200 into a 2100 pot. The BB called and the other 2 folded. I was pretty sure he was on a flush draw but he only had 2500 left. The turn came jack of hearts and he checked. I could have moved him all-in but I checked behind him. The river came 3 of clubs and he led out for 3oo! I had to call 300 into a 5100 pot and he showed me the ace of clubs for the nuts. Oh well. Later that same player was down to 3500. I raised in early position to 900 with JJ and he moved in for his last 3500. I of course called because I never lay down JJ in the main event (kidding). He showed me QQ and I got incredibly lucky when a J hit the flop. Instead of being down to 7000, I was slightly above the average at 14300. One interesting hand came about 7 hours into the tournament at my first table. I raised in middle position to 1100 with J T suited. Blinds were 200 and 400 with a 25 ante. The player on the button tossed in 700 in chips. When told that I made it 1100 he tried to take back his money. The ruling was pretty obvious; he could either call the extra 400 or fold but leave in the 700. He then proceeded to fold! I love this guy. Everyone else folded and I was at my all-time high for the day at 18,000. Just before our table broke a short stack moved all-in for 1500. I called with QQ in late position and he had A T. A ten hit the flop and a ten hit on the river and just like that I lost all the momentum I had. I went card dead for about 30 minutes waiting for our table to break and lost a couple hands when Layne Flack re-raised me. Each time I had no better than KJ so they were easy folds. Still, I was at only 12,000 when our table finally broke. At my next table I was seated 2 to the left of David Grey who finished 8th in the WSOP main event in 2003. For about two hours I did nothing but fold as there were two aggressive players dominating the action. One of them was directly on my right and the other was 2 to my left. Finally, I got to play a hand when the aggressive player on my right just limped in from the SB. I checked in the BB with A 5 off and just the 2 of us saw a flop of A 4 7 rainbow. I checked behind him looking to trap. I know I had a weak kicker but I had a gut feeling he would fire on the turn. A jack hit the turn and he fired 1500 out and I just called. He checked when a 4 hit the river and I bet out 4000. The 4 was a great card for me because it gave me two pair and a jack kicker. He folded quickly and after falling below 10,000 for the first time in a while I was now at 12,000. 2 hands later everyone folded to David Grey who made it 2500 to go. Blinds at that point were 250 and 500 with a 50 ante I think. I just called on the button with my favorite main event hand, JJ. David only had 7000 left and had been playing very aggressive. He was up and down a lot and I just knew I had the best hand. I didn’t raise because I could fold if the SB or BB raised. To my surprise the SB called. He was an inexperienced player I think. The flop came down T 5 3 with two spades and the SB checked. David moved all in and I moved in behind him fairly quickly. I was pretty sure I had the best hand and when the SB folded I immediately showed JJ. David said, “I have that crushed….when I hit my hand”, and showed 7 5 of spades. Not exactly what I wanted to see, but I was ahead in the hand for a monster pot. The turn came 8 of clubs and the river came 9 of clubs. All of the sudden I had 23,000 in chips and I knocked out David Grey. I felt pretty good. The table really tightened up as we got close to our goal of 650 players left. I used that to my advantage and built up my stack by playing aggressively. I seemed to be winning about 1 out of every 7 hands and we were 10-handed. Every trip around the table I seemed to have more than the trip before. I was pretty happy with where I ended up with 26,775. I played for about 12 hours, got KK once and never got AA but I managed to stay alive and keep my stack near the average. Can’t wait for Sunday. Ship it.

Still Strugglin

I feel like making this blog into an entertainment blog since poker has been pissing me off lately. So on that note, I'll start with some short thoughts about some movies I saw. Batman Begins was great. It is probably one of my top 5 favorite movies of the year (Crash, Sin City, Mr. And Mrs. Smith, and Cinderella Man being the other 4). I'm usually not that into big-budget films but I thought director Christopher Nolan (Memento) was perfect on this one. Unfortunately, last night I watched The Longest Yard. Wow, what a disaster. I was embarrassed for everyone involved. I probably laughed at most 6 times. I am also a huge Adam Sandler fan. I have seen every one of his movies. That's right, every one. Even that stupid Going Overboard piece of crap. On Thursday, some of my friends came up to visit, which was fun. Chris Power, who posts about those amazing reload bonuses, came down and a couple girls from home, Ashley and Christie, came to Vegas and cheered me on. Ashley and Christie met Luke Walton and Richard Jefferson on Thursday and hung out with them all weekend, which was kind of cool. One funny moment came when Ashley told me she had talked to Greg Raymer when she was extremely intoxicated. She then proceeded to tell me that she told Greg we were married while not wearing a wedding ring (obviously). Greg went from first out of 7 people to out in 6th at his final table shortly after. I can only hope his weird conversation with my intoxicated 'wife' didn't throw him off. Fine, I'll talk about poker. I am currently 0 for 5. I haven't even made a dinner break. The limit event was a complete disaster. I was close to being the first out of the tournament, which is hard to do. But, then I made a miraculous comeback to my original chip count. At that time, the blinds were getting higher and I got committed in a pot with A T. I raised on the button after one person had limped. The flop came T 6 2 rainbow. The BB tried to check-raise me and I three-bet to see where I was. The turn came 3 and he check-raised me again!!!! I lost another bet on the river and he showed me trip 3s. He then told me he was gone on the turn if he didn't hit his 3. I freaking hope so!!! I was out soon. In my next event, the $1500 no-limit event I got off to a great start. I doubled up with a set early and then got sent to Phil Gordon's table. There was one hilarious moment when I raised with AQ of spades. Phil called. The flop came 9 8 2 rainbow and I led out for 3/4 of the pot. I used my best reverse tell which I won't reveal. I only use it against tough players and I obviously considered Phil and tough player. He folded and then a couple hands later someone commented that Phil was playing tight. He then said rather bitterly, "I would have had all that kid's chips if I hit my set." He was looking at me! It kind of caught me off-guard so I asked him to repeat what he said. He said he had pocket sevens and that if it came 9 7 2 instead of 9 8 2 I would have lost all my chips. He told me that he was sure I had pocket jacks. I couldn't help but laugh in his face. I mean, I didn’t even have a pair and I’d like to think I wouldn’t lose all my chips with JJ on that flop in the second level of the tournament. Phil Gordon was talking shit to me! He then repeated, "I'm sure you had jacks...or queens." At that point I was almost crying laughing. Is Phil Gordon a little girl? He later glared at the dealer when his A9 could only garner a split against A8 when the board came A K 3 7 3. Maybe he was just having a bad day, maybe he just wanted to find out information about my hand for later. He looked like a baby though. Unfortunately, I went card dead at the worst possible time and ended up getting all my money in with AKs against 99. The flop came with a 9 and that was all she wrote. I had a rough time in the $2500 no-limit tourney where I doubled up early again and then lost a huge pot with AQ vs. KQ in level 6. Two people at my table commented that they folded a king. Shocker, king on the turn crushed me. I was up against a short-stack and was committed after a pre-flop raise so that only took half of my chips. Later I re-raised a short stack with only the A T of hearts but I thought he was weak. He finally called the rest of his chips off with 6's. Of course I didn't win that one either. Later, when I was extremely short-stacked my JJ lost to AA and that was it. In the $2000 no-limit event I had a premonition that I would play well. In fact, my mom had a dream that I would win a bracelet. Within an hour I was down to 375 chips and was playing the worst poker of my life. I then re-raised the rest of my chips off with 22 and somehow doubled up. What a truly awful play, I know. I then doubled up with KK vs. QJ and then doubled up when I flopped an open-ended straight draw and rivered the straight. All of the sudden I was slightly above the average with 4000. I re-raised a player with 2700 chips when I was on the button with 99. He decided to make a stand with AJ even though he was just below the average in the 5th level. Of course, a jack on the river took most of my chips. One round later I raised half of my chips with 99. Only the chip leader called in the SB and we took a J J J flop. He checked and I moved all in. He didn't think about it much with AJ. I hate AJ. Oh well. 2 events to go. I'll post again later. If you made it to the end of this entry you win the right to knock me out of my next event. Good luck with my chips.

My First Event

Howdy gang. I know I haven't posted in a while, but there is a very good reason. I just didn't feel like it. But, since I'm in Vegas for the WSOP I thought I'd ramble on about some of the events I've been playing in case anyone cares. My first event was the $1500 No-limit Shootout which took place on Friday June 17th. For those of you who don't know, a shootout is a sit-n-go/single table satellite format tourney where to advance you must win your table. The only player I recognized at my table was Mickey Appleman who has a number of WSOP bracelets. We all started with 1500 worth of chips and when play began 3 people at our table had not shown up. Blinds started at 25 and 25. My first hand was 4d 6d on the button and I raised to 75 after one person had limped from middle position. The BB and the limper called. Both players checked a flop of Q J 7 so I threw out a bet of 150. The BB called and the other player folded. When another Q hit the turn the BB bet 250 into me. I didn't feel he was very strong but I didn't feel like going broke on the first hand of the WSOP for me so I folded. The next hand I limped in with Qd Td from the cut-off and 6 of us took a flop of Q T 2. One player in middle position bet 100 chips and I raised to 300. I think there were 2 clubs on board so I wasn't thrilled about letting too many players see the turn cheaply. Only the original better called. When a 4 of hearts hit the turn he checked to me and I bet 500. He folded and I was now second in chips at the table. Of course I get QQ the very next hand and I decided to just limp because I was a little wary of the UTG player who limped also. The flop of A A K didn't really help my hand much so I check-folded. The next hand I got QQ again and decided to raise to 100. At this point I was wondering if I was ever going to sit out a hand. The cut-off raised it to 350 and I just called. My thinking was that I was so aggresive that my man would call an all-in with AK which is what I put him on. I decided to let him bluff at me if he missed the flop. Of course the flop came K 8 6 so I went ahead and checked. He bet 200 into a 750 pot which seemed awfully small. Please call Matt! I decided to wait for a better spot and folded. I was down to about 1300 in chips after the first 4 hands of the tournament. I really slowed down after that and picked my spots. Mickey Appleman was directly to my left so I didn't get too out of line. I managed to get my stack up to about 1900 with 6 players remaining at the table when I got involved in a big hand. The blinds were 50-100 and I had As 8s in the cut-off. I made it 300 to go and the BB called. The BB had by far the most chips at the table. He probably had 6000 while the next closest player had maybe 2800. The flop came 9s 7s 3d. The BB checked to me. I decided that I wanted to take the pot there so I made it 500 to go. The BB then moved all-in like a shot. I counted out that I only had 1100 chips left which would go into a pot of 3850. I only needed to win the hand 29% of the time to make this a profitable call. More importantly, this is a winner take all table. I knew (obviously) that I was behind with just an over and the nut flush draw but if I fold here I have 1100 chips and just as important - the chip leader has 7000! I didn't think too much before I threw the rest of my chips in. The BB turned over pocket 9's and I was in worse shape than I could have ever thought possible. The turn and river brought no help so I went to the rail (translation: strip club). If I had to do it all over again the only thing I'd do different is that I'd get my final chips in a little bit faster. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose - that's poker. I'll post about the $2,500 limit event when I feel like it.

False Tells

This comes from a question I received about using false tells. Here is one example of a false online tell I will use.

yes - i do use false tells.

generally they only work against really good opponents who would actually notice online tells (online tells are harder to notice as there is less information to convey to your opponent. ie: they cant actually see you, just your betting pace and amount).

it really depends on the game. i try to just think about what i have done earlier in the game, or against that player at another time.

for example: lets say on the turn in a heads up game against a really aggressive opponent i have top pair, weak kicker (or some fairly marginal hand) he may make a large bet on the turn and i may just decide that i think my hand is the best and i am going to call him here (i WONT raise here because he will only call if he has me beat).

now, lets say it takes me awhile on the turn to decide what i want to do. i may use up almost all of my alloted time to decide. assume the player is bluffing, and he fears i have a monster hand so he checks on the river. he sees that i have top pair with a weak kicker, and thinks to himself - "i probably could have bluffed him off that hand." (which he probably could have)

later on in the match, or sometime against that player, i may use this false tell. if i have a MONSTER that i want to slowplay, i will play it the same way. I will not only slowplay it, i will use a lot of time to 'think' about if i want to call on the turn (or flop or whenever). this player will be very likely to think i have that same marginal hand again, and continue to bluff.

this is just an example of using natural tendencies the other way around to trick players. i would be interested to see if anyone else has some examples that they use.

taylor

Answer to Zac's Question

Zac Wrote:

Hey Taylor, I'm currently playing $5/$10 HU SnG's at UB looking to improve. Eventually, I want to play higher cash games. What's the most important things you learned from HU SnG's that helped make you a great cash game player? Also, what do you think helped improve your HU the most? Thanks in advance.

This question hits home for me as this is just how i started to play poker online.

The are a TON of things to learn from HU SNG's. I would recommend anyone that has a basic knowledge of NLHE to start playing these before they dive into the cash games.

First, you get to play a TON of hands. Playing one on one you should be playing maybe 8o% of hte hands you are dealt. However, along with playing a lot of hands, you should be noticing some things. Simply put, higher cards win more pots than lower cards. Same thing goes with pairs. You will start to see that hands with just one face card and a 2 or 3 just dont win too many hands. You basically have to hit your big card to win.

You should also concentrate on how opponents play their hands. When an opponent shows down a huge hand like a full house or something, go over the hand history and look at how he played it. Most poker players tend to check their big hands trying to trap the other player. Look at peoples tendencies. You can get a feel for how 'the average' player plays his big hands. Also, when you see a monster hand, think back to any pauses or inconsistencies in the way the player was playing. Did he make the bet really fast? Did he pause? Most times a player with a HUGE hand will change his pace a little bit because he will either A) bet really fast because he knows what he wants to do (bet) or B) wait a little longer because he is unsure of how to play it. If a player is usually chatting, or never chatting, changes in this might also tell you something about his hand.

You can go through the same rundowns of players when you catch someone in a bluff. Basically you just want to make a mental profile of what the average guy tends to do in different situations. You also want to make sure YOU are never doing these things either.

You should focus on playing hands in position as well. it cant be stressed enough in poker to play a hand in position as you have a lot more information with which to act on. When you raise a hand preflop and you are in position, you should make a bet near pot sized about 3/4 of the time. Sometimes if you flop middle pair or if you have two overcards you might check just to keep your opponent off balance. BUt you need to get in the habit of following up a preflop bet with a bet on the flop in order to try to win the pot there.

Once you start to do well at these games, you can start to move up in stakes. See my bankroll management posts for information on that. Once you start to master the higher stakes games, you are probably ready to try to apply this knowledge at the cash games. Along with playing these HU SNG's, you should be playing some full table SNG's too to get experience in full games.

Hope that helps, keep the questions coming.

Taylor

I'm Back....Sort Of

Sorry for the big delay in posts...I've had a crazy spring so far. I am going to be taking a lot of time off of poker this summer (maybe an hour or two a day at night) because I landed an internship in New York. I figured the opportunity was too much to pass up even though it will cut into my short-term bottom line.

I would however like to talk some poker with you all still. Right now I don't have anything in particular I want to talk about, but I'd like to leave this page open for any questions anyone might like me to answer. Anything about no-limit cash games, situations, or poker in general I'd be glad to (try) to answer your questions!

And yes - I did make the "wall of shame" for that website that lists online poker players results! I had a terrible ferbruary/early march where I probably lost close to 40K. The 25-50nl game has brutal swings. If anyone has been watching lately though, things have definitely picked up as I actually had two amazing sessions a week or two ago where i made well over what i lost in the previous month or so in 48 hours. Unreal! Poker is so weird sometimes.

Anyway, throw some questions my way. I'd be glad to help!

Taylor

Party Poker Bonus Codes

Here are a few lesser known Party Poker bonus codes:

$100 Igmpay Bonus: This bonus is a 20% deposit bonus up to $100. It is open to all accounts, old or new. The bonus code can be used one time for each Party Skin (Party, Empire, Intertops, Multi, Pokernow except eurobet).

Igmpay is Party’s version of neteller. Like neteller you register a bank account with Igmpay and they withdraw and deposit directly from your bank account. If you play on the party network I would suggest setting this up. It is free to sign up and usually takes 3 to 4 business days to verify your account. Igmpay will make two small deposits to your bank account to verify that it is valid. You will need to keep track of these numbers because you will need them to re-verify your account at each skin. You can use the same bank account for each skin.

Once you have your account verified you are going to want to make a $500 deposit and enter the code “IGMPAY”. Then send an email to support stating you made a deposit with Igmpay and would like your 20% bonus. They should put it in your account within an hour or so. You will have to play 5 raked hands for every dollar of bonus (Intertops X 7). Some of the smaller skins like Intertops and Multi might be reluctant to give you this bonus. Just keep sending emails till you find a CSR that will credit you with the bonus. I would send a new email each time I was turned down. Do not attach the old reply with the denial. I think it took me 4 emails before I received the bonus from Intertops. Here are the email addresses to support for each site. If you would like more info on signing up for each skin read this post.

Party: info@partypoker.com
Empire: info@empirepoker.com
Intertops: info@intertopspoker.com
PokerNow: Info@pokernow.com
Multi: info@multipoker.com


$100 Compbonus: This is a deposit bonus open to accounts exclusively on party poker. It does not work at the other skins. This code is valid for both old and new accounts. The bonus is 20% up to $100 Type the code “COMPBONUS” when making your deposit. You will need to make a $500 deposit to get the full bonus. This code is not a published code. It is party’s code for support when they screw something up. If you do not get this bonus automatically credit to your account then you may have unknowingly already used the code. Unfortunately since this isn’t a code you are supposed to know about you can not email support to complain that you were not credited with the bonus. If the bonus does not appear in your account after you deposit you are one of the unlucky few. This code should work for about 90% of accounts.

Empire Reload for April

Empire is currently offering a 25% reload bonus up to $150. Just deposit between Wed. April 6, 2005 at 00:00 EST and Sunday April 10, at 23:59 EST. Enter Bonus Code "EPmania" with out the quotes when depositing. You will need to make a $600 deposit to get the full bonus. For every dollar in bonus you will have to play 7 raked hands. To clear the full bonus you will have to play 1050 raked hands. You will have 7 days from the time of your deposit to play the required hands. For some people this is a lot of hands to play in a week. Playing full ring limit holdem I average roughly 35-40 raked hands an hour per table. Playing 3 tables at a time I usually clear a bonus like this in 10 hours.

You can combine this reload bonus with the new player sign up bonus. They are currently offering new players a 20% bonus up to $100.Click Here to get this Bonus. You will need to make a $500 deposit to get the full bonus. You will have to play 5 raked hands for every bonus dollar. To clear the full bonus you would need to play 500 raked hands. If you already have an account on the party network and are having problems signing up for an empire account read this post.

If you are considering playing both bonuses I would suggest not doing the deposits on the same day. I would make the initial deposit for the new player bonus then try to clear that one before the reload bonus expires then making the second deposit for the reload bonus. That way you won’t have to play 1550 hands in 7 days. If you are a new player you will have to claim the new player bonus before the deposit bonus. Any hands played will go to the sign up bonus until it is cleared and then hands after that will count toward the reload bonus.

Lil' Dean Goes Down

I've talked about how my brother, Drew, is a pretty good poker player. Pretty good meaning he's taken me out of the biggest tourament in the world, The World Series of Pikes, in which I finished an impressive third. Last week my brother called me with a horrible bad beat story during a qualifying tournament online when I was throwing down a few drinks. He was in 11th place with 19 people to go and gets KK in the big blind. Blinds were at 1000/2000 so Drew made it 4000 to go. He had about 45,000 in chips. Under the gun, who had limped, called immediatly. Everyone else folded. Flop came 8 9 3 rainbow. Drew went all in. In one millisecond, UTG called with 10 7 suited. As you can probably guess...yeah, 6 on the river. Tonight my brother calls me again. Same type of tournament, I'm still drinking. He's the short stack at his table with 4,000. Blinds at 300/600. Drew gets AA in the big blind. Three callers so Drew pushes all-in. Table leader calles with 9 6 suited. Flop comes 676. Drew now has to buy a new computer, or at least that's what I think cause he was throwing stuff all over his room. Let me say this: to win a tournament, you have to get lucky. You have to win with your draws, win with your big hands, win on the river and swim like a shark. So keep your head up little brother, you'll be at the Series this year. Of course, you'll probably be watching me win it. Ship it!

The Party Skins

Well I just finished playing off Party’s March reload bonus. 1400 raked hands is a lot of hands. It took me about 15 hours of playing 3 tables of .50/1 limit holdem to clear the $200 bonus. Now that this out of the way it is time to find the next juicy bonus. I think I am headed over to Intertops Poker a new Party skin I just found. Don’t know what I am talking about? I will try to explain.

The party network is actually a network of 5 poker sites all playing on the same servers. Each site is called a party skin. The party skins are Party, Empire, Intertops, PokerNow, and Eurobet. If you are playing on Party you might be sitting at a table with someone playing on Empire or any of the other party skins. The software for each site is almost exactly identical. The only difference is the look of the table. Each site offers their own bonuses and other promotions. Each bonus code is specific to a particular site. If you enjoy playing on party poker then you have no excuse for not having accounts at all 5 sites.

Party has designed their software to make it difficult for players to create accounts at multiple sites. They do not state that you cannot have accounts at all sites. They just don’t make it easy for you to do so. Once you have user accounts set up on each of the skins you will not have problems. You have 2 options when creating a new account on a party skin.

Option 1: For most this will be the easiest option. First find a computer that has never had a Party skin previously installed on it. This should not be very hard to do. Any PC with an Internet connection should work. Once you have found a clean computer follow one of the links below and download the skin you want to create a new account on. Install the software and set up a new account. You will have to create a new username because your old name is already taken by yourself. You are going to want to use all the same information as you did for the previous accounts. (I.E. same Name, Address, Neteller, etc). I wouldn’t use fake information because sometimes party will make you verify the information you have provided. Every once in a while party will call and ask you why you are setting up a new account. Just give them some BS answer. “ I like the freerolls offered at such and such.” They will say OK and leave you alone. I have never gotten one of these calls. Once you have setup your new account you are done with this computer. You can now head back to your main computer and play on the new site as much as you want. Just download and install the software on you main computer and login with you new account information.

Option 2: This option is for those that are comfortable messing with the windows registry. I would only use this option as a last resort. Any time you mess with the windows registry you are taking a chance of messing up your computer. First you need to disconnect from the Internet. If you have dial up make sure you are not connected. If you use broadband or access the Internet through a network unplug the network cable from the back of your computer. To make sure you are disconnect from the Internet try and visit a web page. If you can’t pull up a web page then you are not connected to the Internet. If you can still pull up web pages then you are still connected. Once you are disconnected from the Internet you will have to uninstall all of the Party skins Installed on your computer. You may want to back your notes and hand histories before uninstalling. Once you have deleted all the Party skins. Go to start then run and type in regedit. I would suggest backing up your registry before making any changes. Go to hhkey local machine then software then calculator. You are going to want to delete this entry. Save your registry and restart your computer.

If you are using windows xp do the following otherwise skip to the next paragraph. Xp users are going to want to create a new user account on your computer. Go to control panel then User accounts then create new user. Make them an administrator. Now log off and switch to the new user you created.

Connect to the Internet and follow one of the links below to install the new party skin. Make sure to reconnect any connections that were unplugged. Install the software and set up the new account just as you would have in option 1. Once you have set up your new account you can go back and reinstall the other skins you just deleted. You will have to follow one of these steps for each new skin you want to create an account on.

This is the order that I would sign up for the different skins. If your bankroll is not large enough to get the max bonus then I would suggest waiting till it is. Some of these bonuses are one time deals and you don’t want to leave money on the table. Just because you make a large deposit at a site does not mean that you have to play with all that money. Make the big deposit then wait 24 to 48 hours and cash out the majority of your initial deposit. The money can be back in your bank account within under a week.

Empire: Empire is the largest skin after Party. They are currently offering new players a 20% bonus up to $100. Click Here to get this Bonus. You will need to make a $500 deposit to get the full bonus. You will have to play 5 raked hands for every bonus dollar. To clear the full bonus you would need to play 500 raked hands. I would start with empire because they are one of the few skins that offer monthly reloads like Party. Cash outs from Empire are very quick. The average cash out to neteller takes 3 hours.

Intertops: is the next skin I would sign up for. Folow This Link and use bonus code "HAPPY2005" to get the bonus. You will need to make a $500 deposit to get the full bonus. You will have to play 5 raked hands for every bonus dollar. To clear the full bonus you would need to play 500 raked hands. Intertops occasionally offers reload bonuses but not monthly like party or empire. To cash out at intertops you first have to transfer your money from the poker room to the sports book. Once you have transferred your money login to the sports book and transfer your money to neteller. Transfers are slow and takes 4 to 5 days for the money to hit your neteller account. Remember your poker screen name and your sports book login name are different.

Poker Now: They are currently offering new players a 20% bonus up to $100. Click Here for the bonus.You will need to make a $500 deposit to get the full bonus. You will have to play 10 raked hands for every bonus dollar. To clear the full bonus you would need to play 1000 raked hands. This is not as good as the other sites but still doable.

Eurobet:. They are currently offering new players 25% up to $50. . Folow This Link and use bonus code "LOY25" to get the bonus.You will need to make a $200 deposit to receive the full bonus. You will have to play 5 raked hands for every dollar in bonus. You will have to play 250 hands to clear the full $50. You will have to transfer money from the sports book to your poker account and vis versa for withdrawals. Make you sure to write down any sign up information you are given. I have yet to receive a confirmation email from Eurobet even though I have deposited, played off the bonus and cashed out.

So this should get you another $350 not including any reloads these sites will be offering in the future.

Check your Party Account.

Party offered certain players special bonus offers today. Login to you party account to see if you are one of the lucky bastards that got one of these bonuses. If are one of these lucky fucks then the bonus will appear in a pop up saying you get a bonus or it will appear under your bonus account. I apparently wasn’t cool enough to be blessed with one of these account specific bonuses. I mean I sell out this site and put up Party affiliate codes and you guys can’t even throw me a bone. What are you going to do next, take away my birthday? Hey my parents died when I was ten why don’t you write me an email reminding me of that! Thanks for nothing party.

Ok, now that that is off my chest. There appear to be 2 different bonuses party has decided to give to people other than myself. It seems if your account was empty then you had a better chance of picking up one of these bonuses. So I would suggest not keeping any money in your party account unless you are actively clearing a bonus. I would keep the money in Neteller or another skin/ site. (You like that party? I just told everyone to cash out their party accounts. Maybe next time you will think before you pass me over on a special bonus.) The first bonus is called MAR05RELEASE. This is a 15% bonus upto $100. You would have to deposit $666 to get the full bonus. If you did get this bonus you are going to hell for sure. The other is called MAR05CASHOUT2. This is $50 bonus for 500 raked hands. I am not sure if you can get both of these bonuses but if you did then I have a little secret to tell you. You are adopted and your parents don’t love you.

P.S. Anyone who posts in the comment section about how great it is to get these bonuses will be ridiculed off the internet. So don’t even think about it.

UB Reload Extended

If you thought you missed the reload bonus at Ultimate Bet then you were sadly mistaken. Ultimate Bet has extended its current reload offer until Wed. March 23, 2005 11pm ET. For further details see the post below entitled Help Out the OL Bank Roll.

Party Reload for March

Well I was hoping to have a little more time between post, but I had to let you guys know about the latest offer from Party. Party is the largest site on the Net and has more players at any given time than any other online poker site. Being the largest allows them to throw more money around than the smaller sites. I would say at least half of my bonus money comes from Party and the different Party Skins. Some people hate party and just refuse to play there. I used to be one of those players. I don’t particularly like the software and the players there are so fishy that they can put some of the most horrendous beats on you. That being said party is a gold mine. If you can avoid the tilt factor on the suckouts then you will soon fall in love with this site. After you clear a few of their bonuses you will soon forget about the less than stellar software and become immune to tilt on the suckouts.(Ok the suckouts are still going to be a bitch but they sting less and less each time) If you haven’t signed up for Party then I suggest you do so right now.

Party is currently offering a 20% sign up bonus up to $100 for new players. Just click here , Download the software and make your first deposit. You will need to make a deposit of $500 to get the full $100 bonus. You earn the bonus by playing raked hands. For every 5 raked hands you receive $1 in bonus. A raked hand is any hand you were dealt cards and party took a percentage of the pot. Not all hands are raked but most are. To check how many hands you have played go to cashier then click bonus account and it will show you exactly how many hands you have counted toward the bonus. To get the full bonus you will have to play 500 raked hands. The bonus expires if it isn’t cleared in 30 days. The bonus will be released all at one time once the raked hand requirements have been met. If you don’t play 500 hands in a month then I suggest depositing less than the full amount so that you can get some bonus. It takes me roughly 5 hours playing 3 tables of .5/$1 to clear a bonus like this one. So roughly 15 hours of single table play should clear the bonus.

Already have a Party account? They are currently offering a 20% reload bonus up to $200. Just deposit between now and Wed. March 23, 2005 at 23:59 EST. Enter Bonus Code "BONUSMAR" with out the quotes when depositing. You will need to make a $1,000 deposit to get the full bonus. For every dollar in bonus you will have to play 7 raked hands. To clear the full bonus you will have to play 1400 hands. You will have 7 days from the time of your deposit to play the required hands. For some people this is a lot of hands to play in a week. Playing full ring limit holdem I average roughly 40-45 raked hands an hour per table. Playing 3 tables at a time I usually clear a bonus like this in 15 hours. $13 an hour is pretty hard to beat when playing .50/$1.

You can combine this reload bonus with the new player sign up bonus. You will have to make 2 separate deposits to get both bonuses. Any cashouts prior to the reload bonus will void the bonus so you can’t pull your money out then put it back in just to get the bonus. If you are considering playing both bonuses I would suggest not doing the deposits on the same day. I would make the initial deposit for the new player bonus then try to clear it before the reload bonus expires and then make the second deposit for the reload bonus. That way you won’t have to play 1900 hands in 7 days. If you are a new player you will have to claim the new player bonus before the deposit bonus. Any hands played will go to the sign up bonus until it is cleared and then hands after that will count toward the reload bonus.

Well that should keep you busy for a little while. Two post and you have already picked up an extra $625. If you were fast enough to pick up the reload bonus at UB and don’t have enough funds in Neteller to do the Party reload I would suggest withdrawing your funds out of UB to Neteller and then depositing into Party. Cashouts from UB to Neteller usually take 2 to 3 hours. The bonus from UB never expires and it will be there once you are done with the Party Reload. Besides the Party reload clears at a much faster rate than the bonus at UB. I have a few other bonus codes for Party that not a lot of people know about but I will save those for a later post.

The One The Only

Well I probably should have introduced myself before making my first post but I wanted to make sure that some of you were able to pick up the reload bonus offered by UB before it expired. Now that we have that out of the way I’ll give you a little background information on myself and how I hope to contribute to this BLOG.

My name is Chris and I have been playing poker for about 2 -3 years now. Matt, Lloyd and I all went to Southwestern University together. We all started playing poker about the same time, right around the time the first season of the WPT started airing. Matt and Lloyd seem to have progressed a little faster than I have but I can still hold my own at the table. I have never met Taylor but he is the resident badass at UB so hopefully I can learn a thing or two from him. Most of my post won’t be about strategy and will be more of a heads up about the hottest bonuses and promotional offers from the different poker sites.

I have been bonus hopping (I called it whoring in my first post but obviously that was too much for some of you railbirds to handle so I will call it bonus hopping from here on out) for about 2 months now and have setup a rather good system to take full advantage of all this free money poker sites are giving away just to play at their site. In the first two months I made $1400 in bonuses alone. I now know how to get even more bang for my buck and will most likely earn $1,000 this month and don’t see that slowing down anytime soon. When I am clearing a bonus I like to play 3 tables of full ring .50/$1 limit holdem or 2 tables of $1/2 depending on the site and the bonus. Multi-tabling does effect your BB/hour/ table rate but clearing the bonus at a faster rate more than makes up for the 1 or 2 bets lost due to multi-table play. I will say this if you are new to multi table play then start slow and work your way up. Don’t just jump in and start playing 4 tables at once, it can get a little hectic at times and takes a little time getting used to.

I usually play 2 to 3 hours of poker a day. The income I generate from bonuses is about triple what I make from players at the table. Unless you are playing $2/ $4 or higher you will probably be able to make more from bonus hopping than you will from table profit. This doesn’t mean if you are playing the higher limits that you can’t collect the bonuses, it just means the higher the limits you play the less the total income these bonuses represent. .50/$1 may seem like low limits to some but I just made the switch to limit holdem and am taking my time making sure I am a winning player at a certain limit before moving up. Prior to this I played 10 person $20 SNGs exclusively but made the switch to limit because I saw the kind of money I could be making by switching over. I plan to move up limits as soon as I am satisfied that I have mastered the limit I am playing. The eventual plan is to be playing 2 to 3 tables of $2/$4 or $3/$6. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

I’d like to take this moment to give a shout out to Little Kiki and Lee Dawg in A-town. With out them none of this would be possible. OK that last part was a lie. On a side note my birthday is Thursday and my favorite beer is Fat Tire. HINT HINT HINT.

What to do When Things go Wrong

Many times during the normal course of a poker players career, things aren't going that well. This is inevitable. It can be the result of bad beats, bad cards, or other factors in life causing you to not play your best game. I wanted to talk today about what to focus on when you are going through a time like this. I feel it is very important to consider these things as sometimes to be a winning player its more important to minimize your losses than to just try to maximize your wins.

The first thing to focus on is pretty obvious, but it still should be mentioned. Tighten up the cards you are playing. When I am playing poorly, it is usuall a result of a combination of two things. Usually I am playing too loose, and also not catching any flops with these cards. Because of this, my table image suffers as I am in a ton of pots and am not showing down great cards. The only way to remedy this situation is to start showing down some big hands. However, since my table image is not good, I will not be able to pick up many pots unless I have a good hand. This takes away a lot of the value of playing these cards because I have to hit my hand in order to win a pot. Because of these reasons, playing tighter is necessary when things aren't going well at the table. Once you start winning a few hands, you can start to loosen up again. I would recommend throwing away any hands except for pairs, AK, AQ and maybe something like JTs.

You should also focus on playing in position more. This is something you should always do, but you should focus on it more when you are having a bad stretch of cards. Don't be afraid to fold a hand like AQ or AJ even if its unraised to you and you are in middle position. If you have a loose image, someone is liable to call from the button with anything and try to 'take the pot away' from you. However, if you have this hand on the button or cutoff, you should still be agressive with it.

Finally, I think it is important to take some time away from the game. Lloyd mentioned this the other day, and I agree with it. If you are having a terrible session, just quit for the day. I've talked about this before but I think some people lose sight of it. If you find yourself unwilling or unable to quit, it's probably a sign you have a gambling problem and poker probably isn't the best thing for you to be doing. Next time you are having a terrible session, make yourself stop before you really want to. If you can't stop, you should seriously consider if you have might have a gambling problem.

Help out the OL Bank Roll

If you are just starting out, building your bankroll is going to be key in becoming a successful poker player. I will be giving you a few tips on establishing a solid bankroll through bonus whoring. If you already have an established bankroll then I will explain how to pick up an extra $500 to $1,000 a month just for doing what you are already doing, Playing winning poker. If you are currently playing at a poker site and not receiving some kind of bonus from the site then you are just throwing money away. If you aren’t interested in becoming a bonus whore then you don’t have to read my posts and can read the other great posts on this blog, otherwise let the whoring begin.

The first thing you will need is a Neteller account. I assume most of you have one of these already but if you don’t just go to www.neteller.com and sign up. It takes about a week to get your bank account verified but it is pretty painless and is the best way to move money between poker sites. Once you have your Neteller account set up you are ready to start bonus whoring. I would suggest putting at least $1,000 into your Neteller account. I like to have at least $3,000 floating between poker sites and Neteller at any given time. I know some of you don’t have or don’t want to invest this much in your bankroll at this time. If you can’t put $1,000 in I would suggest putting as much money as you can possibly spare into your account at this time. The more money you have in your bankroll the more money you will receive in bonuses. Don’t worry though, if you follow these posts your bankroll will explode with free money and by the end of the first or second month you should have a very healthy bankroll.

The first site I will discus is Ultimate Bet. This is by far my favorite site. Everyone that posts here plays almost exclusively on UB. The software is the fastest I have seen of any site and I have accounts at over 20 sites. If you haven’t signed up at UB yet this is the perfect time to do it. They are currently offering new members a 40% sign up bonus up to $200. If you want this offer just click here or on the banner to the left. Download the software make a deposit and you are all set. You will need to make a deposit of $500 to get the full $200 bonus. Yeah we get a few bucks for you signing up but you get $200 plus a great post later on how we blew through all the money we made from the site in Vegas on Hookers and Blow. Seems like a fair trade to me.

To clear the bonus you have to earn Ultimate Points by playing in cash ring games. For every 10 UB points you earn you clear $1 in bonus cash. At this time points earned in tournaments or SNGs don’t count toward the bonus. The best part about this bonus is it never expires and you receive the bonus money you earned as soon as you leave the table. You don’t have to wait around a week or a month to get your bonus. You get it in small increments every time you play. The higher the limits you play the faster the bonus clears. Another trick is to be one of the first people to sit at a table. UB will give you double points if you start up a new table. This means you clear the bonus twice as fast. The official rules for the bonus can be found at the site.

Already have an account at UB? They are currently offering a 25% reload up to $125. (The site says up to $100 but as erci pointed out it is actually up to $125) Just deposit between now and 11PM ET Thursday March 23th.(this was extended from March 17th recently) You will need to make a deposit of $500 to get the max bonus. You can do both the sign up bonus and the reload bonus. You will have to make 2 separate deposits but you can do them back to back. You will not be able to make 1 deposit and then cash out and make the 2nd deposit. The first cashout will void the reload bonus. If you don’t have the funds in you Neteller account but do have the funds in your bank account then you can do an instant Neteller transfer and UB will pick up the charges at no cost to you. Just be sure you do this through the UB software.

Once a bonus from UB hits your account it never expires. You can work through this bonus as fast or a slow as you like. Don’t want to play at UB right now? Just wait 48 hours from your last deposit and cash your money out. Neteller cashouts usually take around 3 hours tops. Your bonus money will stay in your account until you come back.

This is the first of many sites I will explain how to whore out. I will periodically be posting the best sign up and reload bonus so check back often. If you follow these posts then you will easily add an additional $500 to $1000 a month just by simply hopping from site to site picking up bonuses. Hell this is only your first site and you have already picked up $325 bucks. See how simple this stuff is.

New Poster

A lot of our posts have referenced bankroll management and in fact have stressed the importance of it. Tonight, a new poster will give a different take on the subject than Taylor, Lloyd, or I. He actually generates most of his income from bonuses. He will show that even if you are a break-even player how to make money online. Chris Power is a good poker player that I've known for five years. He graduated Southwestern University with Lloyd and I and is a regular drinking buddy of mine in Houston. I expect, no I demand you give him shit in the comments section.

Alive/Sorry

Yes, I'm alive. I apologize i havent been able to post because it is the week of midterms at U of I and for some reason I really care about them. I have three exams Monday, which is why I am sitting here saturday night studying. Expect me to start posting Tuesday or Wednesday, when I wake up from my sleep after the hell that will be Monday.

Aruba, Jamaica....ok well just Aruba

Over the Christmas break I went to Aruba with my brother and my folks for a vacation. Was the fact that there were three casinos with texas hold'em mearly a coincidence? I don't think so. Aruba was sweet. I won one small tournament and made about $1500 even though I only played 3 or 4 days. My dad won a tournament also but the real star of the trip was my little brother, Drew (not that little - 22), who won 2 tournaments and finished 3rd and 4th in two others. He only played in 6 total tournaments also. He's turning into quite a player and won't let me forget it. Of course we had a deal before two of his big tournaments so I made a lot of money off of him. Thanks bro. Let's just say that most of the players in Aruba are terrible. "I had KJ - I had to go for it right?" I heard that phrase or one like it over 100 times. Anyways, sorry for not posting that much. It's been a rough week as I've been sick and Lloyd has been out of town. We think that Taylor is still alive but it hasn't been confirmed.

It was down in ole Virginny

I traveled to the always exciting Georgetown, TX this weekend to hang out with some fellow alumnus of Southwestern University. It was 'Founder's Weekend' for our fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha (Pike), which was founded on March 1st a long time ago. While I admit, poker was not the main reason I drove 6 hours roundtrip, there was a poker tournament that I intended on winning. I first played hold'em because of the fraternity and we take the game very seriously. The tournament during Founder's Weekend and the one at the University's Homecoming are kind of a big deal in our fraternity. Admittedly, the Founder's tournament isn't as big as the Homecoming tournament but there is still a lot of pride at stake. I have never won a big Pike tournament and to my knowledge neither has Lloyd which is a fact that has not escaped the members of the fraternity. And, I'm sorry to say the losing streak continued for me. Lloyd was in South Carolina so it was up to me to take home the trophy and I came in 10th out of 16. Oh well, there's always next year. There were only 16 players at 2 tables and the prevailing thought was to hurry the tournament up so we would have more time to drin......hang out. We started with 1000 chips and blinds of 10 and 20. The blinds went up every 10 minutes so you had to catch some cards. My disaster hand was when I raised with AK of diamonds and got 2 callers. The board came 3 4 8 with two diamonds. There was about 350 in the pot and I had 1000 chips left but I only bet 250 and got one caller. The turn was the 3 of clubs and it went check-check. The river didn't help and we checked it down. I lost to 55. I played it terribly and it cost me. The blinds killed me as I didn't catch any cards. I ended up moving all-in with A9o and getting called by AK. See ya. My brother, who got 2nd out of 35 last time, is a very good player and got knocked out before me. That was about the only saving grace. Congrats to Josh Nowak who won after making a deal. Also, congrats to James Lundquist who was the defending champ and took 2nd place.

Poker Tracker

For those of you who don't know much about this software, I'd like to give a little recommendation on one of the best ways to improve your game. Poker Tracker is a program you can purchase that will keep track of all of the stats you can imagine at the poker table. I'd like to start by saying that I have no financial interest in this program whatsoever, I just love the program and think it is a great tool for anyone looking to improve their poker game.

Why use poker tracker you ask? I'll tell you why I like it so much. Poker Tracker uses hand history information to keep track of every player at the table's stats. You can figure out your hourly rate, BB/100, how often you saw the flop, how often you raised, how much each of the 169 possible hands has won/lost you, and much much more. You can also keep track of who the big winners and losers are, which is important when you are playing with the same players everyday (this happens at the higher stakes games more often than the lower stakes games). You can also use it to figure out what type of game best suits you. I have found that I have the best BB/100 in NL games where there are between 2-5 players. I still am a winning player at the full tables, but not by nearly as much. I have made a decided effort to improve my ring game play (full table) because of poker tracker, and I feel I am becoming a better player because of it. Next, it works great with UB with the hand history grabber program that you can download with it. This program grabs every hand history that you tell it to, just by running the program as well as opening the hand history box. All you have to do is import these hand histories, and you can see all of your stats.

I seriously recommend you check out pokertracker, at www.pokertracker.com. You can download a free trial version, and it will let you store up to 1000 hands for free. After that I think the software costs about 50 bucks. If you are playing .5-1nl, or 3-6 limit or above, buying this software is a no brainer in my opinion. The stats you see about your game, and your opponents will win you back your investment in a few weeks, tops.

Should you fold the best possible hand?

The title of this post is slightly misleading and I'll get to that but stick with me. There are times in hold'em when it is correct to fold the best possible hand at the time. In Omaha there are plenty of possiblities where you can have the best possible hand after the flop and still be an underdog but it's fairly rare in hold'em for this to occur. One example I have comes from a hand I played a couple of months ago on PokerStars. I was playing in the $5/$10 no-limit game when I decided to limp in from the cut-off with A4 of hearts. 4 of us took the flop which came K J T with two hearts. This was a pretty big flop for me. I had 9 outs for the nut flush (maybe the J and T were hearts making a straight-flush possible I don't remember) and 3 queens for the nuts straight (not double-counting the Q of hearts). It was unlikely but not impossible that an ace may get the trick done for me also. I called a $25 bet from the big blind which put about $90 in the pot. My opponent and I both had begun the hand with about $1000. The turn brought an offsuit queen which gave me the nut straight and the nut flush draw. In other words, I was free-rolling my flush if I was up against another ace. My opponent bet out $70 at me and at this point I couldn't wait to get as much money as possible into the pot. I was praying that my opponent had an ace also. How much should I bet here? I didn't know much about my opponent but I hoped that he wouldn't fold an ace so I moved all in for about $895 more. Technically, my opponent can fold an ace here. It's a very close call though. If my opponent somehow knew I had an ace and a flush drawa than it is definitly the correct fold. You see, my opponent will lose the hand about 20% of the time and split the pot the other 80%. He will never win the whole pot. His expected value is therefore approximately 40%. The calculation is (20%*0 (you lose) + 80*.5 (you get half). He's being asked, though, to put $895 into what will be a $2020 pot. $895/$2020 is 44.3%. He should have an expected value of at least 44.3% if he's going to risk putting $895 into only a $2020 pot. The obvious argument against folding is that you can't be sure your opponent does have a flush draw here. Possibly your opponent has only the ace of hearts. Or, your opponent doesn't have a heart at all but doesn't think beyond the fact that he has 'the nuts!'. Oh yeah, in the actual hand my opponent called in a nanosecond. The river was the harmless 3c. I was a little confused but not at all disapointed when my opponent showed trip tens and I got the whole pot. Ship it!

Mailbag!

This post is a little update on what you, the readers, have been saying. We have gotten many e-mails from you and I’m going to share some of them right here in my post. Without further ado I bring you our first mailbag.

hey guys, i want to thank you guys for maintaining your blog, the "your game" posts have really helped me fix some leaks headsup. it seems you concentrate your posts on ring games and headsup, do you think you could write about some strategy in small tourneys and sngs? thanks again, drew

Drew, I’m happy we could help you with your leaks. I hope your high school English teacher doesn’t read your e-mail though. It may kill her. Mix in the shift bar every once in a while. Oh yeah, definitely expect future posts on strategy in tournaments and sit-n-go’s.

Guys, I read your site and really enjoy it. I also publish a strategy blog focused on NLHE cash games and I am going to link to your site. if you like what you read at mine, please do the same. http://bettingforvalue.blogspot.com Tyler

Only because you asked nicely. Throw in some more posts though so that we don't boot you.

Hi guys,

Found your site via DoubleAs. I have to say, it’s the best Poker blog I have read (up there with The Poker Chronicles) and by far the most useful. I have read your advice on heads up play over and over and then I put it to the test last night. Now Im a winning player and a healthy one at that, but I am amazed at how I have won at all in the past after reading what you wrote. The bit about playing with the button seems to have somehow escaped me over the last 9 months. It is the greatest single bit of advice I have ever been given.

I hit 10/20 last night (above my usual stakes) and launched into heads up with a known good player who sits there waiting for his prey. An hour later, I was $400 up and he actually said ‘well played’. No-one who was worth anything has ever said that to me before and I was buzzing. I have NEVER been so aggressive. Thanks guys. You have improved my game no end and I will never miss another post.

Flintoff,
Pokerchamps player
England.

Flintoff, I’m glad we could help you. Hopefully you can continue your newfound success. I’ll e-mail you our physical address where you can send us 25% of all winnings. I think that’s the least you could do.

Fellas -Great info in your posts, I really appreciate it. One suggestion I have, as I am reading the 'player type' and other posts, you frequently refrerence previous posts. It would be very helpful to hyperlink them back, so readers can quickly jump back and get a refresher on that info. Keep up the great work. Thanks, Andy

Thanks genius. Now Lloyd links every other word of his posts. Do me a favor and never e-mail us again. Just kidding. Thanks for the support.

Matt,
I am looking for a relative named Matt Dean. Just wondered if it was you. Can't find out much about you on the internet. If you are the correct Matt...your relatives would live in Arkansas. Either way, will ya let me know? Thanks,Val

Val, that’s not me. Sorry. You wouldn’t happen to be 20-27 years old, single, and attractive would you? Remember, we aren’t related!

There were some negative e-mails too but I found those people and let’s just say they won’t be bothering us anymore. I was sorely disappointed with the fact that not one of you sent us pictures of attractive females. How are we supposed to churn out good poker advice if we aren’t inspired? Keep e-mailing us and we’ll try to do a mailbag like this once every couple weeks. We linked some other poker blogs this week also for you to check out.

Playing a Hand Fast for Deception

Today I'd like to talk about a strategy that many good cash game players use. This situation comes up when you are in the blinds, and you flop a very good hand. Lets say in this case you hold K6 in the big blind, and it is an unraised pot. The flop comes out Q66. You know are holding just about as close to a cinch hand as it gets at this point. You reaslly are only worried about 6A, as QQ is highly unlikely given the betting preflop. Most weak players will check this hand in the big blind, wanting to look weak. I am going to tell you why sometimes this is not the correct play.
There are times when I am in this situation when I will bet out with this hand. Usually i will make a pot sized bet, or close to it. The reason i do this is because i want to trap anyone who is holding a queen, or may have slowplayed AA or KK. Most people rationalize, "why would the blind bet so strongly if he had a 6, he would rather check and try to slowplay it to get more value." This is the correct way to sometimes, but how much action do you expect to get if you check then call his bet, then check on the turn? Any good player will realize that you could very well have a 6. This is why betting pot works well here. Most opponents will think you have either a Q or a small pair, and are trying to protect your hand. If they hold a Q, they are probably going to go along for the ride. An opponent may take this strong bet as a sign of weakness, and try to re-raise you on the spot. If this happens, you have to decide if you think he will call a reraise, or if you think you should just call him here. If he doesnt raise, and just calls your bet, you should continue to bet hard on the turn. You could also check the turn if you are almost certain he will keep up with his "weak" read and make a bet himself.
The point here is that sometimes you need to make plays that other people think you wouldnt want to make. Playing a hand a strong hand very fast is something that many players just dont think you would do. Once you do this one time and win a big pot off someone, you can do it a few other times when you hold a draw or nothing as an attempt to bluff. You should continue to switch up your play and possibly slowplay a monster like this the next time you get one.

Read 'em and Weep - Part Deux

Here is part two of my review on some popular poker books. I’m sure you’ve read most of the books I recommended from Thursday. Well, you’re in luck. I have some more here including my all-time favorite poker book. Check it out.

Hold em Poker - David Sklansky: This book is one of the first books a new poker player will pick up and for good reason. It begins with the basics such as which hand is the best and then moves to starting hand requirements. Hold em Poker for Advanced Players (which I’m not reviewing) by the same author is an extension of this book and goes into more subtleties. Both of these books are painfully boring though. The beginning poker player will sometimes quit halfway through the book or not bother to reread important sections. Perhaps Sklansky is too smart for his own good sometimes. Still, Hold em Poker is definitely a must for the beginning poker player. My rating: 8

Tournament Poker for Advanced Players - David Sklansky: This is actually one of my favorite books. I got a lot out of it. If you want to know when to throw away aces pre-flop or haven’t heard of the gap concept pick this book up. Of course, this book isn’t directed at cash games but that doesn’t mean there isn’t some very valuable information in the book. There is also a very interesting chapter about ‘The System’ which is a very interesting read. This isn’t as boring as Sklansky’s other efforts. My rating: 9

Caro’s Book of Tells - Mike Caro: If it’s good enough for Mike McDermott it’s good enough for you. I think Mike McD had the tape but you get the picture. This book covers what seems like one million tells that your opponent may have and is a must if you are looking to play at a casino. The tells involving five-card draw won’t help usually but this is packed full of valuable information. My rating: 7

Poker Nation: A High-Stakes, Low-Life Adventure into the Heart of a Gambling Country - Andy Bellin: Long title; short read. This book reads more like a novel with enough poker to keep you more than entertained. You won’t get much in terms of strategy (there is a little) but you need some variety in your life. The anecdotes are humorous and there is an interesting chapter or two about a couple who cheated at poker Gotta love that kind of stuff. My rating: 6

Moneymaker : How an Amateur Poker Player Turned $40 into $2.5 Million at the World Series of Poker - Chris Moneymaker: I think the folks at Barnes & Noble caught on to my little game. A couple of them stared me down the other day and guilted me into buying this book. I didn’t mind though because I was hooked by the first chapter. This is a story about a rookie who plays in his first big live tournament and makes a lot of money. I obviously may be a little biased here. Moneymaker talks about what he was feeling throughout the tournament and on key hands. He also gives his background into poker and gambling which I’m guessing most people don’t know (I didn’t). Overall, this is a very good book. My rating: 8

Poker Wisdom of a champion - Doyle Brunson: This book was a collection of stories in the life of Doyle Brunson, each of which used to illustrate an important lesson regarding poker, life, or both. You also get a lot of the background on how Doyle got started in poker. I thoroughly enjoyed this book even though I knew a lot of the background. Some of the stories had me laughing out loud. One of my favorite stories was about gambling on a football game and didn’t have much at all to do with poker. It’s a quick read that will keep you entertained. My rating: 6

Championship no-limit and pot-limit hold'em: On the road to the World Series of Poker - Tom McEvoy & T.J. Cloutier: Most of my friends have heard me tell people this is my favorite poker book. Well, it still is. I read this book the week before I went to the World Series and it’s influence on me in that tournament can’t be overstated. The format is great, T.J. and Tom look at certain situations differently and explain the pros and cons of each side. It’s great for tournaments or cash games. I can’t say enough about this book. My rating: 10

Championship Tournament Poker - Tom McEvoy: I was pretty disappointed in this book. Maybe I missed T.J. chiming in or maybe it was that I read this after Championship no-limit and pot-limit hold’em. Either way I didn’t get much from this book. My rating: 2

It took about as much time to write these damn things as to read a new book. I hope this has been entertaining at the very least. Again, our site continues to get hooked up. This time it was the boys over at http://www.upforanything.net/poker/. Apparently we stole their three person format. Ship it! In all honesty though, they have a quality site that you should check out if you haven’t already. I’ll be commenting on some e-mails we have received in my next post and we’ll be adding some new links on Thursday so be sure to watch for that. That’s my equivalent of a cliff-hanger on a day-time soap opera.

Cash Game/Tourney Play

Many players don't really know the differences between cash game play and tournament play. Today I'm going to talk about some observations I have made that may help a player deciding on which to focus on.

The obvious difference is that in a tournament you cannot rebuy. You must always be aware that on any hand (in NL) you can lose all of your chips. This will cause you to play very cautious at certain points, as sometimes it is simply not worth taking a risk on losing your chips, even if you think you are a favorite. An example of this is early in the tournament when you are holding AK. There are certain players that will push all in with a wide variety of hands just because they have watched the WPT and think this is how you should play (this IS how you should play at some points, but only late in a tournament and if you are short stacked). You know that when this player pushes in for a huge reraise, he probably has a pocket pair, and maybe has AK, AQ, or even AJ. Your call is most likely +EV due to the fact that there is probably a 15-20% chance he has Ax, and the other hands are just about 50/50. However, this is not a call you can make. It's just not worth risking going broke as you can pick a better spot to take advantage of this player later (IE when you have AK and see a flop, and he goes all in when you flop an Ace..here you are most likely at least 75% to win). This is an obvious point to many players, but it illustrates the fact that in tournaments you have to play much more cautiously. In a cash game, you would probably make this call depending on the other player. First of all, if a player goes all in like this for a huge reraise, he probably doesn't have AA or KK because he would usually try to milk it for more money. Second, a player willing to make an enormous raise in relation to the pot usually doesn't grasp the way to play in a cash game (aka has watched the WPT like the previous tourney player). We can deduce that if they are this type of player, there is a wide variety of hands they could be reraising with.. a few of which AK totally dominates (Ax), some which AK is a pretty large favorite over (JsTs, etc), and some in which AK is almost a coinflip (pocket pairs), add this all up and we can see that this call is +EV in this situation. Let me reiterate that this is against a weak player....if a known tough player makes this move i would think very hard about calling with AK, and most likely fold. These examples show just how different you can play the same hand in a tourney/cash game. It should also be noted that if you are playing with a short bankroll in a cash game, this call with AK would not be recommended. Although it is a +EV play, the variance that comes along with it is very high. You might lose 8 or 9/10 of these, before winning a bunch in a row. If you are on a short bankroll, you would need to pick a better spot (note: see how important a large bankroll is?).

The big difference in the way i play in cash games and tourneys is the type of pots i like to play. In cash games, i'm usually trying to build the pot as big as possible, because i feel i can make the best decisions and want to get as much money into a pot (that is, when i WANT a lot of money in the pot) as i can. In a tournament, I'm much more cautious. Even though i still have total confidence in my abilities of outplaying the other player, I don't like to play unreasonably big pots because of the fact that one bad card and i can get broke.

Here is an example of how i would play a big hand differently in cash game and a tourney. Lets say i have 77 and i rasied preflop. If the flop came down 723 and i was playing a cash game, there is a VERY high probability that i will make a pot sized bet on the flop. I want them to think I am trying to buy this pot (as i often do). There are many players who will call with ace high here, because often times it is the best hand. And on the turn, i will usually fire out with a pot sized bet too (sometimes i will slow down, or even check, just to stay deceptive). The point is i don't care if i scare the people out of the pot, my style of play is very aggressive and i know that eventaully a player is going to catch a small piece of the flop and decide that i am probably bluffing. They may even raise me with nothing, in which case i will probably slowplay the rest of the way inducing a bluff. The point is, it is very rare i will slowplay in this situation even with the nuts, as it just is too hard to build a big pot and it gives them chances to beat you.

In a tourney, i would play this hand diferently probably. Since I am playing tighter in a tourney, i will see less flops and have less chances to make big hands. When i get a hand, i need to maximize the value of it. Even though i could win the biggest pot possible if i bet pot and get called, i will either bet less than the pot or check with this hand, so that i can almost always get something out of the other player. The reason for this is because of the nature of tournaments themselves. If the player has a mediocre hand after the flop, he would probably fold to a large bet because he is worried about losing his chips. If i make a bet that is half the pot, or check, he will probably be sucked in because he thinks he has the best hand. I can continue to bet bigger and bigger as the hand progresses, in order to get the best value for my hand. Now, if i am playing against a tough player, i may be more apt to bet larger because he may view this as a bluff or may want to make a play on me.

To summarize, when you are playing cash games there is rarely a reason to slowplay even a monster. You shouldn't be afraid of going broke, so you should be aggressive most of the time. This should carry over to your monster hands as well. In a tournament, you are afraid of going broke, and you won't have as many chances to get monster hands so you should try to maximize their value, even if it might cost you a little bit in EV.

Read 'em and Weep

So you haven't read a book since 8th grade and your reading skills are on par with those of an NBA player. But, you want to start fresh and need a good poker book to pick up. Well, you've come to the right place. I'll be reviewing some poker books in my next two posts. Here are my first 9 reviews. My rating is based on how much I liked the book and how much I got out of it for my poker game.

Doyle Brunson’s Super System I: I only read the no-limit portion of this book 18 months ago. There, of course, is some great information in is book. But, for me, the style that Doyle recommends didn’t fit my game. And, at the lower levels his aggressive approach rarely works, especially online. My rating: 4

Doyle Brunson's Super System II: I loved this book. The limit section by Jennifer Harmon is incredible - I've read it 4 times. I also enjoyed the triple-draw lowball section written by Daniel Negreanu. I didn't read the omaha sections or the seven-card stud section but there is some great stuff in this book. Again, I was dissapointed wih the no-limit section. Perhaps my hopes are too high for a true legend of poker. For some reason I got more out of this than the original Super System. My rating: 8

Winning Low-Limit Hold’em – Lee Jones: I enjoyed this book and found some valuable advice in here. I’ve only read it once and I admit that I didn’t absorb all that much of it. This book is probably best for someone looking to go to a casino to play low-limit hold’em for the first time. My rating: 3

Play Poker Like the Pros – Phil Hellmuth: I’ve heard many people bash this book but it holds a special place in my heart. I probably read this book 8 times cover to cover in the summer of 2003, mostly because that was one of the only poker books that Lloyd and I owned in South Carolina. I enjoyed the stories more than the strategy but still this book is great for the beginning player. My rating: 7

Poker: The Real Deal – Phil Gordon: This is a short read and not a bad one. Ultimately, I felt like it didn’t help my game much if at all. Granted, this was the millionth poker book I had read so it’s tough to cover new ground at that point. Phil Gordon’s story is pretty interesting but I knew a lot of that before even opening up the book. Phil is a very funny guy so I would have liked to see more humor in this book. My rating: 2

Zen and the Art of Poker – Larry Phillips: This is my favorite poker book. Ever feel like your going on tilt? You think you are better than your opponents but you lose money online? Please read this book. You won’t learn how to play KQ from middle position with an early limper in the pot and two people to act behind you. This isn’t that type of book. Just read the damn book. My rating: 10

Phil Hellmuth - Bad Beats and Lucky Draws: This book was decent but not great. I mean, most of these stories you can get off of cardplayer.com. Just go to Phil's archives and you'll get at least 50% of these stroies. I promise. My rating: 2

Positively Fifth Street - James McManus: This is a really good book. Half of the book centers around the murder of Ted Binion. I found it a little boring but still loved the book. The poker stuff is great. For those that don't know I won't ruin it but James McManus wins a seat into the World Series of Poker in 2000 and chronicles his tournament. My rating: 6

Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People : The Memoirs of the Greatest Gambler Who Ever Lived: This book is so great. It's not much of a poker book but go out and get it right now. You will be amazed the stuff Amarillo Slim does. Great stories. The lack of poker brings down my rating a bit though. My rating: 6

Wow, that was fun. Go head to your local bookstore and check out some of these bad boys. Or, better yet, do what I do and read these at Barnes & Noble without paying for them. On a side note, as our site continues to draw more people we want to continue to get better. We have included a link to our e-mail address so please e-mail us with comments, complaints, pictures of girls, etc.

And.......another long distance shout out goes to DoubleAs. This guy has a terrific blog that we have now linked. Him mentioning us at http://doubleas.blogspot.com/ has helped an incredible amount of budding poker players find our site. Hopefully the information they find here will help them get better and not worse. Thanks DoubleAs, we really appreciate it.

How Quickly a No-Limit Hand can Change

For those of you that asked, I am going to talk more about Sit n Goes, tourneys, and cash games, and the differences and what I recommend doing. That will take an in depth analysis and I dont have time this afternoon. I should get to that this weekend. Today I just want to go over a hand that happened to me recently, and explain a concept.
This hand came up at the 25-50nl game on UB. I will post the hand history, then talk through my thoughts. Names of players have been changed.

Tight Aggresive Player is at seat 1 with $3288.
Green Plastic is at seat 2 with $4950.
A is at seat 3 with $9605 (sitting out).
Loose Aggressive Player is at seat 4 with $5000.
B is at seat 5 with $9593.
C is at seat 6 with $4922.
D is at seat 7 with $8300.
E is at seat 8 with $1987.
F is at seat 9 with $6597 (sitting out).
The button is at seat 1.
Green Plastic posts the small blind of $25.
Loose Aggressive Player posts the big blind of $50.Pre-flop: B folds. C calls. D calls. E folds. Tight Aggressive Player raises to $200. Green Plastic calls. Loose Aggressive Player re-raises to $900. C folds. D folds. Tight Aggressive Player calls. Green Plastic goes all-in for $4950. Loose Aggressive Player folds. Tight Aggressive Player goes all-in for $3288. Green Plastic is returned $1662 (uncalled). Flop (board: Td 7s Jd): (no action in this round) Turn (board: Td 7s Jd Ad): (no action in this round) River (board: Td 7s Jd Ad Th): (no action in this round) Showdown: Green Plastic shows Kd Kc.
Green Plastic has Kd Kc Td Ad Th: two pair, kings and tens.
T.E.P shows Qs Qd.
T.E.P has Qs Qd Td Ad Th: two pair, queens and tens.
$3 is raked from a pot of $7576.
Green Plastic wins $7573 with two pair, kings and tens.

note: I organized this the best I could, its not easy with the format they give you.

Basically, with two early position limpers, a tight aggressive player on the button making it 200 to go, and me in the SB with KK, i had two options. Raise, or Call. At this point I'm 90% sure my kings are the best hand out there, as in a cash game you can't be afraid of AA when you have KK, unless you have an amazing read on a guy. I normally raise with my Kings. But a few thoughts went through my head. First of all, I knew the Tight Aggressive Player (T.A.P, who I had coincidentally played with for a day at a WPT event and knew he wasn't messing around here) had a good hand. The odds are he had AK, or a PP between TT-QQ (again, if he had AA, so be it, i was going to lose). I knew that if I reraised with my kings, he would fold TT, JJ, possibly QQ, and probably AK. Doing this would eliminate two of hands for sure (TT, JJ) that I really wanted to play a big pot with my KK. I would get called by AA, and MAYBE QQ, and probably not by AK (which i would also want to play against). I decided to just call the 200, and hope the flop came with low cards. I was aware I took the risk of letting one of the EP limpers catch something, but I figured one or both would fold, and sometimes you have to risk someone sucking out on you in order to stay deceptive.
An interesting thing happened in the BB. This player thought and reraised to 900. Now, this guy plays extremely loose, and had alrady lost about 5-10k on the night. He was bluffing a lot and in a normal case I would be really worried about AA here (raising into 2 limpers, a reraise, and a call). The two limpers folded (if one of them pushed in I would fold my kings as they would probably be beat and I only had 200 invested). The T.A.P thought and thought, and finally just called. This pretty much made a light bulb go off in my head. I knew that this guy knew that I was a good player. At this point I would NOT call without QQ at the minimum, and he knew that. There would be little reason for him to slowplay AA at this point, as he might as well get his money in against the loose player who had been making some pretty bad calls previously (he wouldn't want to risk the loose player missing his hand totally and folding the flop...even this loose player would have a hard time bluffing if he missed, or risk the loose player catching a great flop relatively cheap). So basically, I ruled out AA for the T.A.P. I decided already that I had the L.A.P beat. At this point, I saw no reason to second guess myself and decided to push all in. The L.A.P. thought for a long time and folded, then the T.A.P thought for a long time and finally called. Turns out he had QQ (as I expected) and I took down the pot. What is interesting here is if I hadn't pushed in, this hand could have been a lot more tricky to play with T J X flop (TT, JJ being 2 of the 3 hands i thought he had...also being hands L.A.P could've had)
The moral of this story is that there are times you want to slowplay a big pair in NL cash games. You must do this sometimes in order to stay deceptive. However, things can quickly change with one raise behind you, and you shouldn't fall in love with your first decision. I would like to point out that most of these players playing were excellent players, and this is the reason I need to stay deceptive. If you are playing low stakes no limit, you should almost ALWAYS raise with KK in this spot, not slowplay at first. Players at low stakes will not fold QQ on the button, no matter what the situation is. Ok this got long, and I haven't proof read it so my apologies if I messed something up.

Lake Charles Baby, Lake Charles

I came to the realization the other day that my posts will probably get more boring as time goes on. I can only talk about the past so much. Once upon a time I got 7th in the WSOP and went to Ireland, all expenses paid. Now about the most exciting poker stories I have come from my online play and an occasional trip to Louisiana. For those that don't know, I'm a Texas boy, and poker is illegal here. So, for my live poker fix I have to travel three hours to Lake Charles. Let’s just say Lake Charles isn’t Vegas and leave it at that. So, me and four of my highly intoxicated friends decided on Saturday night to drive down and check the place out. We went to Harrah’s first. It would also turn out to be our last stop at a casino. It’s kind of tough telling four drunks to get back in the car because you want to find better games. Anyway, the only two games they had were $3/$6/$12 limit hold ‘em and $5/$5 no limit. I played $3/$6/$12 while waiting for a no limit seat and proceeded to immediately lose $120. Come to think of it, maybe I had had a little too much to drink also. I have a rule that I never, ever drink when I play. But I never said anything about just before I play. I finally got to sit at the no limit table and I was ready to play a little cards when the dealer told me I had too many chips?! The crappy thing about this game was that you could only sit with $300 maximum. I relented, turned in my ‘extra’ chips and ended up getting some good cards and making some money. I had QQ vs. AJ on one hand. I raised to $40 pre-flop, got re-raised to $100 by the SB, and just called. When the SB bet out $100 at the 7 7 6 flop I just pushed all-in for not much more. No help for that guy and I doubled up. Later I had 10 9 on the button and limped in. 8 people took the flop and I got it all-in against the same guy when the flop came 10 9 3. He had AA and my hand held up. I ended up making $398 for the trip which was pretty sweet. We didn’t get there until midnight and at 5 a.m. we took off back to Houston, but not before a little Waffle House action. Ship it! All in all it was a bunch of fun. Lloyd, Taylor, and I are lazy people who would never take the time to find a bunch of cool poker blogs. But we know one guy who actually did all the work for you. Check out his blog at http://guinnessandpoker.blogspot.com/. Sure, his blog makes us look amateurish but don’t stop checking us out.

Building a Bankroll

Many people have asked me how I am able to play in some pretty high stakes games when I am so young. Most assume that my parents gave me a large sum of money to play with, and I turned that into an even larger amount of money. The opposite is actually true. Today I'd like to talk about how I built up my money playing online poker, and some advice I have to anyone trying to do the same.

I started with 35 dollars on UB in Summer '03. I had been playing poker for about 5 years at this point, all througout high school and my freshman year of college. I didn't really know what games to play, I just knew i liked NLHE. I decided to play the 1 on 1 $5 dollar sit n goes. I played these for about 2 months and built up my 35 dollars to a whopping 150 or so. I was making about 5 dollars an hour! After this I moved up to playing 10 dollar 1 on 1 games, as well as some 6 seated and 10 seated sit n goes. I really recommend playing sit n goes to start out, because you have a limited amount of risk and you can get a lot of experience. About two months later I had made almost 1000 dollars, and I started to cash out about 50 bucks a week to pay for my living expenses at school. I was now playing 20 and 30 dollar sit n goes. Eventually I started playing the 50 and 100 dollar heads up sit n goes, with a bankroll of around 1500. It was at this time I really decided I wanted to play in the cash games. I saw that there were some huge pots at the 1-2nl and 2-4nl, and I wanted in on the action. The problem was, I wasn't at all ready for the cash games. I would build up my account to 1500 or so. Then immediately lose 2 or 3 buy ins at the cash games over the course of the day, and be down to 800. I was very frustrated so I stuck to the sit n goes to build back up. Eventually, I improved as a player and was able to hang at the 1-2nl game, making a small amount of money over the course of a month. I finally broke through and had a huge day, and moved up to 2-4nl. With a lot of practice and moving up and down, I eventually had a bankroll to play 5-10...10-25...25-50, and so on.

The reoccuring theme in my efforts to build up money was that I would work hard to make a few hundred bucks a week in the sit n goes, and then lose it very quickly in the cash games. This happens to so many people. I'm not exactly sure why, other than it takes more skill to win at the NL cash games because you can play for all of your chips (chips=money) on any given hand. One bad decision (or suckout) and you can lose a hefty amount of money. Things brings me to my first tip:

Always have an adequate bankroll for whatever you are playing. People complain that they can't handle the bad beats of the cash games, because you can lose a ton on a 2 outer or something. This is inevitable, but if you have a big enough BR you can make up for this with good play. I recommend a bankroll that is bigger than you might even think. For sit n goes, i think you should have 30-40 buy ins. This is probably a bit extreme, but it's not unheard of to have a stretch where you might lose 10-15 in a row. Now you probably would still have a bankroll left, but what I found happening to me is that when I went through a bad streak I started playing timidly. If you have an excessive bankroll, you will realize that you have more than enough money left to play through it. For no limit cash games, I recommend having at least 15 buy ins for whatever game you are playing, more if you are playing short handed. If you want to play 5-10nl, you should have 15k, at the minimum. I know very many people that don't stick to this, and most of them lose in the long run.

Next, you must be able to control going on tilt. Tilt to me is the single biggest BR ruiner. In the last 4 days, I've lost 17k in 'bad beat' pots at 25-50nl. These were all in pots after the flop or turn where my opponent had at most 3 outs. I could have tilted and lost a heck of a lot more, but everytime i just decided to leave the game. I was pretty upset and I thought, there are better things I could be doing right now than playing poker, if I cant play my A game. I recommend having a backup plan if you decide you can't play your best anymore and must quit. I signed up for a gym that's one block from my apartment, so I usually head there to work out. Otherwise I bought a few video games that I can play if I feel like doing something like that. People ask me, how do you not tilt? The truth is, I do tilt. I just know when I am on tilt and I leave the game. I cannot stress how important that is.

Finally, I recommend having some sort of cashout plan. Use something like pokertracker to figure out how much you make/hr. Then figure out how much you plan on playing a week, and calculate your average weekly profit. Make a cashout once or twice a week and take out about 25% of this average profit. I withdraw almost every day because frankly it feels good to take money out of my account and put it into the bank. If I have a bad week, I still take out money. If I have a great week, sometimes I will take out a little more. This is a great way to keep your BR growing, but also put some $ in your pocket. Nothing helps me feel better about playing poker than having money to spend as a result of playing.