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2006

post from Poker Profs Las Vegas Poker Blog on 05 April 2006 08:54:00 PM. © Poker Profs Las Vegas Poker Blog

If sending Lederer, Raymer and Ferguson to D.C. to protect the interests of poker players doesn't work, maybe Phil can throw a temper tantrum on the steps of the Capitol. · Yes, yes... by now you've heard that a...

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Interest List for B2B Bonus Cannonball Run

post from Sound of a Suckout on 05 April 2006 02:29:00 PM. © Sound of a Suckout

I've been rolling around this idea in my head for a few days and thought I'd throw the idea out there and see if there's any interest.

There's a whole ton of poker sites on the B2B network (60+), and nearly all of them offer a refer-a-friend bonus. (Not all are available to US players, but at least +30 are). Some offer signup bonuses as well, but for the sake of this let's just focus on the refer-a-friend bonus.

If you use a current member of the site as your referral when signing up, you're eligible for a 25 euro (~$30) bonus, which is credited to your account after you accumulate 200 VIP points from play at the tables. You get 1 VIP point every time the pot reaches ?7.00 and is raked ?0.30 (that's for NL and PL games; for fixed limit the pot has to be ?10.00), so long as you were dealt into the hand.

If you play 2-3 tables of 100 NL simultaneously, you can rack up the 200 VIPs in an hour or two. Ditto if you play fixed limit at 2/4 or higher. That's generally speaking, so your mileage may vary slightly. Lower limits take a little longer but you should be able to clear the 200 VIPs pretty quickly, regardless.

So that's $30 in your pocket for 2-3 hours of play. Given that the games are really soft, you should hopefully add a little profit.

On the other side of the equation, the referrer (the player whose username you used in the referral field when signing up) gets a 50 euro (~$60) bonus when you reach 200 VIPs.

Hypothetically speaking, the referrer could return some of that to you as an incentive. If they kick you back half of it back, you'd be making a $60 bonus for each site, for 2-3 hours of play. If you do 30 B2B sites, you'd be making $1,800, just in bonuses.

The kickback payment could be made to any number of poker sites that allow transfers between player accounts, or through Neteller as a last resort (due to the fees incolved for account to account transfers).

Speaking further hypothetically, the referrer could also arrange it as a contest, and set aside part of their money from the referral as an extra incentive. So maybe they'd set aside 5 euros from each signup and add it to a pool. The top three players who completed the most bonuses would get a piece of this pool, split up something like 60-30-10.

So if 10 players did this, for a total of 200 refer-a-friend bonuses completed, the player who completed the most bonuses would get an added bonus of 600 euros (60% of 1000 euros), second place would get an extra 300 euros, and third would get an extra 100 euros. That's on top of all the individual $60 bonuses for each site.

There'd be some details to work out but that's the general idea. It's slightly skeezy and money grubbin' but it's completely playing by the current rules for B2B refer-a-friend bonuses. It'd be a bit of a pain as far as administration and coordination but not terribly so. Most of it could easily be handled by email.

Hypothetically speaking, if you have any potential interest in such an endeavor, you could hypothetically shoot me an email at prufrockrocks@yahoo.com with B2B in the subject line, and this could be discussed further, if there's enough interest in general.

Hypothetically speaking, of course.

Read The Full Article:
http://suckout.blogspot.com/2006/04/interest-list-for-b2b-bonus-cannonball.html

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Wang Chung Tonight

post from The Obituarium on 05 April 2006 01:18:00 PM. © The Obituarium

Bobby Bracelet is preparing to run (walk) himself into the ground for a good cause. If any of my readers would like to help out, I'd be much obliged.

It's things like this that make me feel like a perfect ass for my morosity. Yeah, things are fucked up, but I'm alive. AJ still has his Daddy and we both have a future, which makes us lucky in so many ways, not the least of which is knowing selfless people like Bob.

Donate like a Champion today.

********************

I will be hosting a juiced-up Doctor and a Junk Grabber tonight at cavernous Chez Speaker for the Rubber Game of the opening A's-Yanks series. Pauly's been on the 'roids for a week or so and I'm interested to see the size of his head. Jason Giambi has apparently been trying to contact him for a fix. On the agenda:

Dial-a-shots

Soco

and

Prop bets

Oh My.

I also expect to shout Wang! at regular, inappropriate, intervals.

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http://obituarium.blogspot.com/2006/04/wang-chung-tonight.html

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A Lucky Man

post from High on Poker on 05 April 2006 01:07:00 PM. © High on Poker

CC's recent posts regarding relationships and poker really got me thinking. More accurately, it got me worried. Wifey Kim and I have been married for about six months, but we dated for six years before tying the knot. I feel blessed to have her. It's not enough that she is the kindest person I know, she is also a piece of ass.

So, after reading some testimonials from blogger wives which were, shall we say, upsetting, I decided to ask wifey Kim to provide a testimonial. Yesterday, we sat down and discussed. Wifey Kim didn't have anything that she particularly wanted to say, so instead I asked her a series of questions. I don't have the questions/answers with me, but for the most part, the answers were brief and I recall them with particularity.

I asked her what she thought of poker and she stated that she's not interested in it. She's tried to play before, but she just couldn't get into it. I asked her if it was a vice. She said she guessed it was, because it is something that I do even when I feel like I shouldn't be doing it.

I asked her how it effects our relationship. Now this is where it got interesting. From reading CC's blog, I was concerned. Hell, I was concerned before reading those blog entries, but those blog entries made my fears real. Internally, I worry that I play too much. That I neglect spending time with wifey Kim, quality time apart from sitting on the couch with a laptop going. I worried that I was doing something destructive to myself, and more importantly to us.

I was really using CC's blog as an opportunity to open up the lines of communication. It was an invitation: Dear wifey Kim, you are cordially invited to dump all of your fears, suspicions and worries regarding your husband's poker obsession, without concern for his reaction.

I built it up enough. Her reponse: I like that you play poker. You win us money to buy things like our mattress and it makes you happy.

WHA? Are you saying that you don't have a problem with my game? Okay, well let's do some more fishing. Here's a loaded question: How do you think my poker will effect our relationship and life in the future? How could she not say something negative? Surely she must have some concerns about me gambling off the deep end or becoming even more of a fanatic.

She surprised me again. I kid you not when I tell you that she said this: It's going to be great because you are going to win the World Series of Poker and we'll be millionaires.

...

Read that again.

...

It amazed me. I was floored. I have faith in my abilities. I know I'm a good player and that I can be profitable to an extent. But wifey Kim, she's got a whole new level of faith in me. When she says things like that, I can feel it too. I might not win the WSOP, but I know I can. I have the abilities or I will have the abilities to play successful, profitable poker. I will make this poker work. I've got wifey Kim behind me, so how can I fail.

So, CC, I apologize. Wifey Kim and I won't be participating in your testimonials, unless, of course, you think this reaction will be helpful. It's kind of odd, overall. Wifey Kim is behind me, moreso than I knew and moreso than I was behind myself. It almost seems wrong to do a testimonial. In the end, I'll just sound like I'm bragging.

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http://highonpoker.blogspot.com/2006/04/lucky-man.html

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Bankroll Management

post from Quest of a Closet Poker Player on 05 April 2006 10:25:00 AM. © Quest of a Closet Poker Player

Hardee's biscuits kept me employed during my early career in G-Vegas. I worked at a textile plant near Marietta, and after third shift we would get our employees together and feed them different Hardee's biscuits: ham, sausage, bacon and egg, or my own sweet spot chicken. While consuming the biscuits, they would tell us what was screwed up and how to improve quality and efficiency. It was an ironical, laughable situation. Here were inbred, mostly illiterate folks who were supervised by college freshouts (mostly engineers who acted above these lowly employees). We called them associates to pretend like they were part of the team. The shift workers would have to break in their new shift supervisors, either humoring them when directing or undermining them when they got pissed off. I was a lead by example kind of guy, so I would always jump in when there were major problems like a tangle in a dye machine or picks coming out of #3. A tangle was when a knot would form in one of the dyeing tubes (three or four-tube machines, each holding 300 pounds of dry plush automotive seating upholstery fabric). The temperature would have to come down to below boiling, the pressure would then be low enough to open the machine, and you quickly had to try and untangle 350-degree wet fabric. It was an absolute mess, and it caused either rework or scrap. The picks were an even better event. We also dyed swimsuit and lingerie fabric in different machines, and we would check the fabric when unloading to see if there were any visible picks (frays) on the fabric. If we found them, we would have to rinse the machine then climb into the tight tube with a piece of lycra fabric to try and find the burr somewhere in the stainless steel tube. When we found the burr, we would sand it clean, then run leader fabric with some more lycra samples to be sure we had found the burr. It was extremely claustrophic if you let it be, but I would normally dive in as it was a big responsibility to find it and not ruin another huge amount of fabric if you screwed it up.

I credit Wes with giving me either tough love or plain being insulting to me regarding bankroll management. I had a basic understanding of bankroll management a year ago, but I thought it was for those less talented than me. Poker was also like golf for me, meaning I spent money on it rather than had it as a self-sustaining enterprise. Today's common wisdom put proper bankrolls at 300-1000x the big bet. I definitely shoot for the lower amount most of the time, and I tend to have different rules online vs. live. Call it either success or a false level of security. I have been much more successful live than online, so I'll play regularly at $15/30 live while my main game now online is $5/10 or below. I don't take premeditated shots but will often sit at a higher limit than I had planned due to lack of tables. Like yesterday, everything was filled with waiting lists like ten or twelve players for 5/10, 10/20, and 15/30. I tried to get another 10/20 game started but couldn't get anyone to join me. Within a minute, a 15/30 table opened for me then a 10/20. So, I'm playing at the 15/30 table.

Is it beyond my bankroll? Yeah from virtually every source of opinion imaginable. Is it outside of my comfort zone? No, I actually tend to play at a more intense level if the stakes are higher (doing less donkified things). Should I do it? No. What should you do if you have a couple hours to burn? Well, that is my perpetual state and is a constant struggle, especially during daytime hours when the few players at the tables are just a bunch of good poker junkies that are only focused on either bluffing me out of pots, calling my bluffs, or having bigger hands than me. The worst thing you can see at a table are a bunch of poker players. I can't even imagine the biggest games.

You just can't imagine all the emails and comments on the Relationships and Poker series. One of the basic disconnects between husbands and wives that ties back into bankroll management seems to be financial vs. time consumption. As a poker player, I measure my play first and foremost with my bankroll. Was I up or down for the session, for the week, for the month. While most wives don't want to be homless except for an internet connection, what really seems to be the driving concern and source of frustration for many is how much time the broad category of poker takes. Playing, watching television, reading books, reading and writing blogs, then distracting us when we are with our loved ones. Of course, we only measure the amount of time that shows up in PokerTracker.

When I say it is connected to bankroll management, I submit that bankroll management starts with the amount of the bets you can make (3/6 vs 15/30). It also is about the quality of your play. If I knew I would only play five hours this week, would I devote myself to playing my absolute best? I would guess that I play my absolute best probably 10-25% of the time, play almost like a bot 25-75% of the time, and play in a distracted, donkified way 20-50% of the time. That doesn't mean that my best yields superior results every time, but it does mean that my play and the others in my life deserve to have me play a finite amount while playing my best almost the entire time.

A great dinner last night at Monterrey's, and a nice day so far of working out and swimming. The boys are off to their next golf lesson, and I'll be working a bit and maybe hitting a few balls. Looks like my big golf week has turned into no golf unless I can play tomorrow morning. We'll see. My brother-in-law and I are off to BadBlood's home game for tonight, so I'll have more tomorrow on that.

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http://ccexplore.blogspot.com/2006/04/bankroll-management.html

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Grindy McGrindsaLot

post from Sound of a Suckout on 05 April 2006 10:13:00 AM. © Sound of a Suckout

Things are pretty calm on the poker front. Grinding out another big B2B network bonus and picking off some of the Crypto poker bonuses here and there for the degenerate challenge. I was going to donate in another Bracelet Race at Full Tilt last night but ended up just hanging out with ScurvyWife and watching American Idol and doing assorted chores.

I'm sort of a contrarian when it comes to American Idol, as I mainly watch just to root against selected people that annoy me. ScurvyWife absolutely hates Bucky and yeah, he's not the bestest knife in the drawer, but for some reason Ace is drawing more of my ire. Yeah, I know he's pretty much a lock to make the final 3 or 4 but dude, Jebus, you could not be more boring and pre-packaged if you tried. I even liked that goofy-looking, Fraggle-esque little dude Kevin more. And I didn't like him much at all.

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Plugging Along

© COPYRIGHT 2006 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Since my last post, I put in a good bit of time at the Imperial Poker/Poker Syndicate $2/4 LHE tables. I ended up with a whopping $3.50 profit over 530 dealt hands. Not bad, though, considering I had pocket Kings cracked 4 times. Somedays they don't hold up, somedays they do. Just one of those days of plugging along.

Still, the competition is very soft at Imperial. I like what I see so far.

I am likely going to head back to my primary site (The 'Dise) today for some limit action. I haven't played there since the weekend and I'm starting to get the DTs. I guess I miss it (LOL).

What Are They Holding?

Yesterday's hand:

Paradise Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed)

Preflop: Michael is BB with [Ts, Qs]

UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, 2 folds, MP3 raises, 1 fold, Button calls, 1 fold, Michael calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls.

Flop: (10.50 SB) [Kc, Jd, 8s] (5 players)

Michael checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, MP3 bets, Button calls, Michael calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls.

Turn: (7.75 BB) [9c] (5 players)

Michael checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, MP3 bets, Button raises, Michael 3-bets, UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, MP3 calls, Button calls.

So, what hands do you think that MP3 and the Button are holding?

Well, the button had pocket 88 and when he raised the turn, I was pretty sure that's what he had. The MP3 had pocket JJ. Can you believe that the turn did not get capped with two sets out there? I was just a little surprised that it didn't.

I do think that the Button should have raised the flop, though. He let every possible draw see the turn too cheaply. I guess you can never be too careful, if you were him (LOL).

If you are curious, the river blanked off and I did take down a nice pot.

Interesting Low Limit Stats By Poker Site

If you want to see some interesting low limit stats by site, check out Russell's Poker As A Second Income blog entry for April 3.

Russell compiled stats for categories like loosest site, tightest site, most passive preflop site, most aggressive site and biggest losers site. I wasn't surprised by a lot of his findings, since I play at one of the sites regularly that was the winner of two categories and used to play at another that was the winner of another category.

Bloggers Championship I am registered to play in the

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http://countingmyouts.blogspot.com/2006/04/plugging-along.html

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Bellagio Five-Star Poker Classic Starts Today

Huge red glass poppy at the Conservatory in the Bellagio. A leisurely lunch stop at Noodles in the Bellagio Resort on the Las Vegas Strip, then a stroll through the glamorous trappings of a by-gone Wynn moment. A strip...

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