Eurolinx

I mainly played at Eurolinx on the weekend trying to clear a bonus. I’m not fairing too well; down about $300 about half way through clearing the bonus. I actually had a chance to get close to even when I was allin against a guy. I had KK he had JJ, but unfortunately he hit a J on the river to take the $225 pot.

I’ve played at quite a few sites and this one seems to be suckout central. I saw one guy hit quads 3 times within about ½ hour. I don’t think I’ve hit quads 3 times the entire time I’ve played online poker, and this guy hits them 3 times in that short of time….unreal.

I just hope I can clear the bonus before going bust.

League (event #7) & other play

Last night sucked at the tables; here’s a recap of the events.

Eurolinx
I played a little more on Eurolinx (ring games), and didn’t do too well. I’m down around $175 so far after a couple of hours of play. Definitely a different style of play with mostly Europeans playing.

Pokerroom
I used my $100 +8 tournament ticket from Pokerroom for the US Daily tournament. 156 entrants and I ended up finishing in 38th place. I hung around ok, but the whole tournament I never got any cards. Finally went out when I went Allin with A Q o and got called by the SB who had QQ; couldn’t catch an A.
I still have a $150 + $12 ticket; hopefully I’ll have a better result.

Absolute Poker (League event #7)
Once again I played like crap. I think it may have been because of the disappointment in the Pokerroom tournament and my head wasn’t in this tournament. I wasn’t patient enough and ended up in 50th place after I went allin with 99 and unfortunately ran into AA.

I think I’ll take a couple of days off from poker, maybe the weekend too. I think I’ll try to pick some College football games instead.

Bankroll ( I need your help)

I’m toying with the idea of moving up in limits, so anyone reading this, I’m soliciting your thoughts/idea’s.

Where I’m at…
I’m usually GRINDING things out at the $.5/$1.00 NL tables. I’m really comfortable playing $.5/$1.00 NL (100NL). I’ve ventured to the 200NL $1/$2 tables a couple of times. My current bankroll is around 3K. I also plan on using part of my bankroll for a future Vegas trip in 2007.

I’ve read all about a person’s bankroll being about 300BB for the limits you play. So if that was the case I should be playing at a much higher level. I’m a little confused if they mean playing LIMIT POKER OR NO LIMIT POKER???

But not having played much at the higher levels I’m a little worried about:

A. losing too much of my bankroll
B. I guess I don’t really know how good the players are at the higher levels. Is there that much of a difference?

But at some point most of us want to test ourselves. I guess I’m kind of there but a little nervous at the same time.

I would appreciate any feedback on this topic

PSO League (Event #6)

I played ok in this event, finishing in 20th spot.

When we got down to about 20 players I got moved to a new table sitting with around 3500 in chips. The first hand I play, Actyper goes allin with his 2100 chips. I had a hand but didn't want to risk it on the first hand at that table so I folded. (Actyper if you read this and remember what you had please share it) I was kicking myself for not calling. Blinds were up to 200-400 and I was getting crap and getting blinded. Decided to try a bit of an allin bluff in the SB position. MISTAKE..big blind calls and that puts me out of the tournament. In hindsight I think I should have been a little more patient. However most hands were being raised pre-flop so there wasn't much of a chance to see a cheap flop. I could have waited another orbit or two to see if I could catch a hand.

I'm still have a lot to learn on tournament play. This league is very good practice for me.

Different sites Different results

It’s funny how well I do at some poker/casino sites and very poor at others. My poker and casino play doesn’t differ much from site to site.

I do very well on Party Poker, both William hill casino and poker, Pokerroom, and Prima sites.

I do absolutely crappy on Paradise Poker, and Intercasino. Paradise just seems like one suck-out after another for me. I can’t figure out why I do so lousy on Intercasino compared to William Hill because they are both Cryptologic based casinos.

On the poker side I don’t think there is much difference in the quality of players on Party compared to Paradise.

An example last night I’m played $50NL on Paradise.
I have A 6 in the BB one other player limps in.
Flop is A 6 2 rainbow. He bets $1.50, I re-raise him to $4.50 he calls.
Turn is a J. He checks, I bet out $6, he calls.
River is an 8, he now bets out $10 and I call.
He turns over his A 8 to win the pot.

He says after, “ I thought you had 2 pair on the flop”. Then why the hell do you call a re-raise and a big bet on the turn??? Even If I only had an A, he only had an 8 kicker. I thought my bets were big enough that they should have made him fold, and I didn’t want to bet out more than that in case he hit his set. I’m not sure why the players on Paradise want to take it all the way to the river on most hands.

PSO League (Event #5)

Event #5 was very uneventful for me. I really wasn’t in the mood for a tournament but decided to play at the last minute anyway.

I think I was overanxious and lost half my chips within the first few hands, but clawed my way back to around 1100 in chips and was just hanging around. I was sitting in the BB when the SB raised on a flop of 9 9 3 two clubs, one spade. I held a 3 K spades. He bet out 300, I knew he had nothing so I called his 300 bet ( I should have re-raised here). Next card I think was like the 2 of spades he bet 300 again I raised him 645 and was all in, thinking he had nothing (and I was right). River is an 8 of spade’s, he turns over his A 5 of spades to take down the pot….Brutal

I ended up finishing in 50th place. There are three more events to go and I need a win and another good finish to have any chance of finishing in the top five overall.

PSO League (Event #4)

Things went a lot better in event #4 for me, and I finished in 2nd place.

I had some decent hands early and got my chip stack up. I was chip leader for most of the first hour and into the first break. I faired fairly well after the break until the cards went COLD. I was patient and bided my time dropping to around 11th place. Players started getting eliminated and I made the final table. At the final table, I doubled up against Red Diamond twice and was sitting pretty good in about 3rd place. One more eliminated and I was heads up but dominated by over a 2 to 1 chip count. Final I bet about 1/3 of my stack preflop with AD 9H, he called. Hit an A on the flop with 2 diamonds. I pushed the rest of my stack, he called with a 4 6 D. Diamond on the turn, couldn’t catch another diamond for the suckout. I was very happy to make second place and I’m looking forward to Wednesday’s event. I will need to pull off a win to have any chance of finishing in the top 5 overall. 4 more chances!

Paradise Poker Offer

As a loyal Canadian player here at Paradise, we thought you deserved something extra special. Like cash? Or a trip? Or even a shot at fame? Then we thought, why not give you all three! We're proud to announce that the 'Great Canadian Deposit bonus weekend' will start this Friday here in Paradise with 3 great offers.

A 50% deposit bonus (maximum bonus is $100)
One FREE round trip airline ticket
A shot at Fame and Glory Down Under


I made a deposit, we'll see what kind of airline offer they make

PSO League (after three events)

I’ve played in two of the first three league events; I missed last Sunday because of Thanksgiving.

I started off ok in the first event, until I got a little too aggressive and overplayed a couple of hands and finished up the pack. The third event was worse. I had Mike J to the left of me at the start and I had to lay down a hand to him early I was on a flush draw after the flop but he pushed me all in and I folded, this dropped my chip stack from 1500 to about 960. I played a couple of small pots after that to get back to about 1050. Then I get AA, I raise it up from the 2nd position, everyone folds to the BB who calls. Rag flop (like 3, 7, 10) I bet out about 400 he calls. Nothing on the turn, now I’m down to about 400 and am all in. He calls and shows his 77. NO LUCK!

I now have 3.32 pts from event 1, zero for event 2, and 2.56 for event 3. Not a great start, but they are only using 3 of 8 tournaments. I’m fine playing Wed nights, but Sunday nights can be busy with family commitments. So I’ll give it a shot for another couple of weeks to see how I do.

I am finding this to be a really good test of my MTT play, and so far I’ve failed the test.

US Ban

It will be interesting to see what affect the US ban on online gaming has on the industry. There have been several online sites already that are banning US players from playing real $ on their sites, the two biggest being PartyPoker & 888 (Pacific Poker).

There has been lot’s of talk and discussion on the various forums especially from disgruntled US citizens. I am going to watch very carefully how this plays out.

As a Canadian, I’m not sure how this will affect me. Here are some thoughts:
1. Less traffic
2. Smaller sites closing or merging
3. Sites being more creative with their bonus offers for Non US players
4. I’m also going to consolidate some of my $ I have sitting around at various sites back to Neteller
5. I’m holding onto my Pokerroom tickets for a while as there could be some nice overlay if they also ban US players on their site.