Victory Poker, Computer Games, Super Poker Day at Pechanga
Here's some random musings as I self-banned myself from playing poker or going any poker-related site over the weekend...
Victory Poker
I keep seeing these guys pop up here and there now as the latest site to launch that accepts players in the United States. They don't have an official rakeback deal anywhere but the rumor is you can PM them on TwoPlusTwo and get 40% rakeback for life. Another Everleaf skin, Minted Poker, already offers 40% rakeback and the same "stuff" that Victory offers. I see a lot of really weird advertising and money thrown around to some poker celebrities for viral videos and stuff, which is cool, but the thought is that many regulars would enjoy them advertising their site more so that recreational fish show up in their games. The Everleaf software is said to be pretty dated and there's no HEM or PT3 support right now. The promotions overall seem kinda weak and the traffic at a minimum. However, there's always a special place for a new site coming up the ranks so I'm definitely pulling for them to grow because competition in this space will only mean better things for the consumer.
Computer Games
Well, even though my review of Command & Conquer 4 hasn't appeared yet on GamingIllustrated.com, the sneak preview of the content for that review will be: "This game stinks!". It's really the most disappointed I've been in a game in a really long time. It's terrible.
Everyone is still waiting for StarCraft II and Diablo III and the word on the street is that SC2 is now looking at a Q3 release as opposed to the customary June 28th release which Blizzard always targets for their games. They already announced Diablo III will be a 2011 release and there's no other really awesome PC games in the works. If you know of one though please suggest it.
Super Poker Day at Pechanga
I have a rare day coming up with absolutely nothing to do and the wife out of town. The last time this happened I did the 30,000 hand prop bet which I completed in 5 days (gave myself 7). Instead, because I don't have an entire week, I figured I'd show up at my old live poker stomping grounds for a full day of poker fun. That day will be announced soon but here's what will be on tap:
- 10am - $25 Tournament ($4k Guarantee)
- After tournament - Lunch
- After Lunch - $1/$2 Live NLHE cash games
- 5pm - $125 Deep Stack & 30 min blinds $20k Guarantee Tournament
- After that - Probably more cash game poker
Hopefully I don't crash/burn/tilt right away. I tend to be streaky! My live tournament results have always been pretty good and I tend to play well here historically at the cash tables. I am looking forward to this and maybe a few poker friends might show up too - that'd be real fun.
read moreWhen You Start To Dream Bad
I took a nap today after donating some of my time to a local worthy cause. It was a good deep nap that I needed. I slept for two hours which for me is all I need to pull an all nighter.
I've had my share of poker dreams in the past and I think it didn't help that before my nap I watched the recording of the last WPT episode where Tommy Vedes luckboxed his way to the win. I lost respect for his game watching him play during the last two episodes ... imo he's a tournament donk all the way. But what does my opinion matter ... well ... it will when I'm in the booth one day.
Anyways, I took a nap and dreamed I was playing poker. It was SO vivid! Here's the hand.
Me: 4
8
Villain: 4
8
We each went to the flop after I made some big raise on the button. By the way this hand was played live in my dream, not online.
FLOP:
Board: 4
8
A
I make a cbet, the villain raised and I shoved all-in. He made the call and we saw that we were going to chop. That is, until the rest of the cards were dealt ...
Turn: 4 8 A 3
River: 4 8 A 3 K
Yes, in my DREAM I got the money in and took a runner-runner bad beat. Clearly, my sub-conscious is focused on how bad the run as been the last few weeks and it came to light in my dream. I do not plan to play for the next few days and after this blog post, put poker completely out of my mind.... at least, I hope I do because I definitely don't want to take another massive beat in my sleep!
read morePoker Update – It’s Not Happy Time
This month has been one of the most grueling and trying months I can remember. This year in fact has been very frustrating and disappointing in terms of progress with my game. The results, well, those speak for themselves but I've gotten into the habit to ignore them for the short term and check them once a week. When I do, it's never really good.
I was looking at this week's sessions playing 50nl FR and I'm barely above even with AA and a loser with QQ over the last 10k hands. Just the last session I enjoyed:
- QQ into AA against a 39/15 on a 66J board
- QQ vs a 51/11 who shows up with JJ and hits his Jack on the turn
- QQ vs a 24/10 who shows up with JJ and hits his Jack on the flop
- QQ vs a 62/2 who limp calls my pfr, and stacks off with a gutshot + FD and gets there
- KK all-in against JTs and villain hits a gutshot river
- QQ vs AA AIPF
This happened over the course of 900 hands. Clearly, I'm really going through one ugly spell here and I just got to play through it or just not take it seriously ... or some other way than just getting frustrated and sad that I don't win anymore.
Anyways, that's how things are going. I'm even though for the month, so there's just only so much crying that can be done over a 10k stretch. It doesn't help that my computer froze up twice today after never having done so over the past 4 months. I installed a new sound card and it made a world of difference, but the only problem is that now the computer will occasionally lock up and then just have the HDD spin real fast and everything comes to a grinding halt. It's about 500x more tilting than anything that can happen at the tables. I had Norton run a scan and I'm clean, but I uninstalled some audio codecs and rebooted a few times and hopefully that does the trick.
So thats the update. Running bad, playing decent imo ... computer problems ... not much else.
read moreThe Laptop Arriveth! ASUS G73JH-A2!
You might remember me posting back in January about this new kickass laptop I pre-ordered over at XoticPc.com and how it would rock my world. Well, consider it rocked my friends.
I bought the new Asus G73JH-A2 system and it's absolutely outstanding. I can't believe how amazing this laptop is ... here's a picture of it but it really doesn't do it justice:
The screen is a 17" full 1080p, meaning it runs at 1900x1080 resolution and it is absolutely gorgeous and actually is as good or maybe a little bit better than the new MacBook Pros I have seen. The keyboard is a full sized keyboard with the number pad and the touchpad is pretty standard but nicely done. It comes with a BluRay Reader / DVD Burner which is amazing too.
Did I talk about the horsepower? It has the new Intel i7 720 chip which is amazing and has a really cool widget for Windows 7 that shows you how fast it's running at any given moment. If you are idle or just surfing the net, it'll run around 1.6GHz, but if you are doing some high intensive single thread application I have seen it reach 2.8GHz. Did I mention the 8GB of RAM? Or the dual 500GB 7200rpm drives? What about the EAX 4.0 Sound card that makes my Sennheiser headphones rock?
Yes my friends, this is a very rare but shameless brag post.
I was able to install all my video games on there in addition to the poker software I like to use. Importing hands was a breeze and I regularly saw 70-80 hands per second speed times building the new database which was good to see. Playing games like "Kane's Wrath" with every single feature turned on was an amazingly fun experience. This thing has an ATI HD Radeon 5870 video card (1GB) inside so it's built for high performance gaming. I can hardly wait for StarCraft II!!!
Anyways this means I will be very happy when I am not home or just decide to not be at my main computer in the office. I'll also be able to do all my work on the road too, since before I wasn't able to do any video work for the sites I write for since Camtasia doesn't work on a MacBook and the alternatives kinda suck for Mac.
For poker this thing is going to rock. Considering the 17" widescreen LCD and the amazing resolution, I can tiled 12 tables without any trouble at all. Should make grinding a lot of fun, assuming I don't gouge out my eyes at how bad I have run in March. BUT the good news is that life stuff is going really well, and I'd always rather run bad at the tables and good in real life than the opposite!
read moreHow to Take and Give a Bad Beat
I played a pretty wild session earlier today and ... well if you've ever read the blog, you know the rest. Anyways, lets go to our first example...
Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter
samar19 (BB): $37.65
el_fennec (UTG): $50.00
EesYksiPotti (UTG+1): $50.75
ACESFULLMIC (UTG+2): $18.75
joyjoh (MP1): $63.20
POKERR_FAACE (MP2): $117.60
NBLACKMORE (CO): $53.75
Hero (BTN): $50.00
PokerAce1990 (SB): $53.00
Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN with 6 6
2 folds, ACESFULLMIC raises to $1.50, 3 folds, Hero calls $1.50, PokerAce1990 calls $1.25, samar19 raises to $3.25, ACESFULLMIC calls $1.75, Hero calls $1.75, PokerAce1990 calls $1.75
Flop: ($13.00) K 6 3 (4 players)
PokerAce1990 checks, samar19 bets $3, ACESFULLMIC folds, Hero raises to $9, PokerAce1990 calls $9, samar19 calls $6
Turn: ($40.00) K (3 players)
PokerAce1990 checks, samar19 checks, Hero bets $22, PokerAce1990 raises to $40.75 all in, samar19 folds, Hero calls $15.75 all in
*** I am a 85-15% Favorite getting the money All in for a 200+ BB pot ***
River: ($115.50) A (2 players - 2 are all in)
Final Pot: $115.50
Hero shows 6 6 (a full house, Sixes full of Kings)
PokerAce1990 shows K A (a full house, Kings full of Aces)
PokerAce1990 wins $112.50
So this guy didn't have to do this but he wrote in the chat:
"Holy crap man, so sorry"
then I replied back:
"ty, it happens."
Seems fair man, I took a really shitty beat in a huge pot and was a whopping 150bb under EV in one single hand. I thought it was real nice for what looked like a reg to write that. I'm not depressed or pissed, it happens all the time ... at least to me. I'd be curious to see if stuff like that happens to you all on a regular basis.
Anyways ... here's another bad beat / cooler during the same 45 minute session ...
Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter
PIZINHO (MP2): $13.45
zenia2009 (CO): $53.90
ScottyDogg88 (BTN): $14.65
toppertoni (SB): $33.75
Hackerr77 (BB): $50.45
Naty66 (UTG): $50.00
82Sue (UTG+1): $57.95
Hero (MP1): $58.80
Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is MP1 with 8 8
2 folds, Hero raises to $1.75, 1 fold, zenia2009 calls $1.75, 1 fold, toppertoni calls $1.50, Hackerr77 calls $1.25
Flop: ($7.00) K K 8 (4 players)
toppertoni bets $2, Hackerr77 folds, Hero raises to $6, zenia2009 folds, toppertoni calls $4
*** Tried to get the money in here obviously, and turned out to be a 77-23% favorite at this point ***
Turn: ($19.00) J (2 players)
toppertoni bets $5.75, Hero raises to $25, toppertoni raises to $26 all in, Hero calls $1
*** Sick cooler ***
River: ($71.00) 6 (2 players - 1 is all in)
Final Pot: $71.00
toppertoni shows K J (a full house, Kings full of Jacks)
Hero shows 8 8 (a full house, Eights full of Kings)
toppertoni wins $68.00
And so this moron who plays 38/12/4 over 500+ hands in my DB then writes:
"88 lol donk"
Wow. So I wrote nothing back rather than get into it. But it certainly didn't tilt me, but it did make me think of making this post. There's a good way and a bad way to give and take a beat. The moral of the story? Don't be a douche.
read moreAbout Me
My name is Sean Gibson and I am a poker journalist and part time poker player. I work full time at PokerNewsDaily.com where I host a daily news show called "The Daily Deal" and also handle the bulk of the live player interviews. In terms of poker you will find me playing $1/$3 No Limit Hold'em in Vegas or in Los Angeles (or San Diego) and online playing small stakes games.
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