Online Poker Tournament Finder

Chaos at William Hill

noreply@blogger.com (O.T.Finder) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 08:57:00 +0000

William Hill has a problem. Their long awaited move to the IPoker network took place yesterday amid accusations of incompetence and lack of readiness.

One user told us that it was impossible to download the new software, and that the telephone help lines were jammed.

Others who did manage to get to the lobby reported that they had to change their username and then found their bankroll had disappeared and were unable to play.

Poor game selection was also a hot topic with accusations that too many tournaments were rebuy and add on tournaments.

Cryptologic may have not been the best poker network – but at least it worked!

Spam from Poker Sites

noreply@blogger.com (O.T.Finder) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:17:00 +0000

Poker Rooms spamming!! It seems someone from the now defunct Ritz Poker Room has 'passed on' its members database - names, addresses email etc. Previous members are now being bombarded by spam (see example below). Ahem... it is alleged that Skybet are now the official owners of the residue of Ritz, via their acquisition of Club on the Park.

Congratulations,

You have been randomly selected to receive a $500 e-check to be redeemed in the next 24 hours.

I am thrilled to bring you this official notice which confirms The Write-a-Check Committee's certification as a guaranteed eligible candidate. This is not in error. If you submit the winning check in accordance with the official rules of Write-a-Check you are guaranteed a prize award.

Even now, you probably thought this could never happen, that you could become A WRITE-A-CHECK WINNER. But it's absolutely true: ALL Prizes won in the WRITE-A-CHECK RANDOM SWEEPSTAKES S3 are 100% GUARANTEED to be redeemable by the confirmed winners.

Congratulations and be sure to redeem this check before the 24 hours is up, otherwise the next eligible candidate will be contacted.

Regards,
John Dawson & The Write-A-Check Committee

William Hill - er...yes?

noreply@blogger.com (O.T.Finder) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:09:00 +0000

Anyone notice any difference? We can't. William Hill poker is back and up and running again after a 24 hour shutdown.... and??

An accident waiting to happen

noreply@blogger.com (O.T.Finder) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:02:00 +0000

When I first learnt to play online tournaments I was the most cautious player on the table. I meticulously learnt the values of hole cards, carefully considered my position and chip stack, evaluated and studied the flop and folded to a reraise in a flash.

After one sit and go I was mentally exhausted!

Then in one game I accidentally hit the call button for half my stack when I had decided to fold. After an agonising few seconds during which (of course) I got unceremoniously dumped out of the tournament, I realised that this had happened within minutes of me thinking that I had this game of poker cracked.

This happens all the time, confidence overcomes ability, self belief increases faster than skill. That is when danger stalks and you are not only destined (for sure) for a fall but start to become paranoid believing all sorts, like the game is rigged, everyone is out to get you on the poker table or you have somehow earned the title of Mr. Bad Beat 2008.

What this has told me is cockiness on a poker table is one of the worst styles of play you can develop, and is in my view, the most certain way to lose chips - and your mind!

Enjoy the fun.

Onlinetournamentfinder

William Hill poker site to be switched off today.

noreply@blogger.com (O.T.Finder) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:36:00 +0000

William Hill poker is to shutdown tonight (Tuesday 2nd Dec from 10.30 pm) for upgrade work. No indication has been given as to when it will be back up and running.

This looks like part of the changes regarding their old association with the Cryptologic network and their new Playtech partner.

Could it be that before too long the old Crypto players will find themselves playing on the iPoker network?

What are Partouche doing? No sign up bonuses!!!

noreply@blogger.com (O.T.Finder) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:28:00 +0000

Partouche poker, a new French based online poker site run by Patrick Partouche is now fully up and running with real money cash games and tournaments.

The software looks good and support appears adequate, but where are the sign up bonuses? Have they not seen the competition out there?

Come on Partouche, put your hands in your deep pockets and make signing up worthwhile!

Partouche comes up trumps!

noreply@blogger.com (O.T.Finder) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:46:00 +0000

Not only did Partouche poker (eventually) reply to our email, they actually took the trouble to telephone us. Apparently we can expect their trailing to be complete this year and the real money games to start soon after.

Err..Partouche poker - is anyone there?

noreply@blogger.com (O.T.Finder) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 08:42:00 +0000

Oh dear!

It seems that our praise of Partouche Poker might have been a little premature - if not totally misplaced.

Recent sucessive attempts at trying to contact them by phone and email have failed miserably.

They will have to get to grips with this crucial aspect of service - if they are to become the new name in online poker as they hope.

Watch this space!

Partouche Poker is coming - and it looks good!!

noreply@blogger.com (O.T.Finder) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:09:00 +0000

The French often consider themselves to be the world leaders in Casino gambling. But up until now (for various reasons) they have been conspicuously absent in the online poker field.

Could this be about to change?

It just might be the time for the traditional online operators to brush up their act - if what Partouche has achived so far, indicates what they might achieve in the future.

More to come from www.onlinetournamentfinder.com

2008 Caesars Classic

noreply@blogger.com (O.T.Finder) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 10:36:00 +0000

Congratualations to Hevad Khan for winning the 2008 Caesars Classic Poker Tournament. Hevad walks away with a cool £1,000,000!!

Big Changes on the Poker Scene

noreply@blogger.com (O.T.Finder) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:39:00 +0000

William Hill Poker, a small but popular UK based poker room is said to be leaving their Cryptologic skin behind and is metamorphing into a beautiful new butterfly by joining forces with the iPoker Network.

Bizzarely, at the same time Cryptologic, the provider of William Hill’s skin is allegedly in talks with Party Gaming!

IPO Tournament Dublin

noreply@blogger.com (O.T.Finder) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 09:38:00 +0000

After battling for two days and dodging the crazy all ins as the blind levels increased, our intrepid reporter can hold his head up high.

No he didnt win, but he did easily make it into the money after gallantly clawing back from the brink of extinction.

Very well done.

Full tournament report tomorrow...

IPO Dublin

noreply@blogger.com (O.T.Finder) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 12:44:00 +0000

The final day of this "Peoples Tournament' has kicked off in blazing style, with a number of pre flop all ins with players holding premium hands.

Just listen to the bad bad beat stories being told over the pints of Guinness....

Full tournament report soon...

International Poker Open 2008, Dublin

noreply@blogger.com (O.T.Finder) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:45:00 +0000

Online Tournament Finder Team member qualified in Day 1A at 4.00 am this morning in the International Poker Open 2008, with a very respectable chip stack. Batteries are now on recharge for the final on Sunday.

Asked how the competition was he said.

"Weird actually... they were fighting my raises a lot at one point, but now they are not! Havn't had many premium hands , had AK twice but once the other guy had Kings and I made a really good laydown".

Congratulations on getting into the final!

Full Tournament report to come....

£200 NL Freezeout at G Casino Thanet, U.K.

noreply@blogger.com (O.T.Finder) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:10:00 +0000

It was my first visit to the new G Casino, found near Ramsgate in Kent. The tournament had a decent structure, with 6,000 starting chips at 25/50 blinds. The clock was 45 minutes, and the blinds had fairly gentle increases (but no 500/1000 level, why do most UK casinos ignore this level?!), so there was plenty of time to make moves if you wanted to play that kind of style. 114 runners gave us a good sized field, with the top 13 getting paid.

As it was the first day of the GUKPT Festival, there was a fair smattering of well known pros playing, including Marc Goodwin, Dave Colclough, Ian Frazer and James Akenhead. As luck would have it, I drew a table of unknowns except for Frazer, two seats to my left in Seat 3. So every time I raised from the button, he'd be in the big blind - no doubt a few confrontations would be likely here.

It didn't take long for us to butt heads, it was folded to my button where I opened AT diamonds, he called. Flop came low and paired, and he check-called my continuation bet. The turn and river checked, and he showed a wierdly played AK to scoop the small pot.

I played quite a few spec hands, usually with me raising in position, and my stack wavered around the starting stack for most of the duration of the first level. Then, I picked up TT on the button at 50/100 level 2, raised to 400 behind 1 limper and was raised to 1,000 by the guy immediately to my left in the small blind, who seemed quite loose with various degrees of aggression, and also severe issues with his bet sizing. I called with position and we both checked a QJJ flop. The turn also came a jack, he bet 200 (wtf!) and I called. River was a 4, he bet 300 and I called. He showed AA for a better full house, again bizarrely played in my opinion.

It was in the 50/100 level that I achieved a much needed double up. It took it's shape in a huge donation - it was raised to 300 by a new player to the table, I reraised to 900 with AK, leaving myself with 3k in chips. He called and led for 1500 on a 4TA rainbow flop - I shoved and he tanked it and then called with KJ, lol. I doubled through and I hit the break with 8k.

More chips soon ended up in my stack with K7, 3 limpers and I complete the SB. BB checks and we see a lovely K74 flop. I check with the intention of checkraising, but the huge donk UTG+1 who had a habit of severely overbetting the flop with air, bet 2500 allin into the 1000 pot. I obviously called, he showed 64, so another huge donation.

I got moved soon after to a new table, where bizarrely two of my friends I know from the local scene were on. The rest were unknowns, and I generally just took pots down with single raises and reraises, actually with premium hands every time. I probably worked my stack upto about 16k, and then got moved to another table.

I knew several players on there, including Joe Grech, who I've played with in several festival events before. I ducked and dived with my tight image before losing a smallish pot with AA v AJ, all in preflop where he turned a straight, lol. I got the chips back plus interest though, when I found AJ in the small blind folded round to me. I knew the BB had about 10BBs in his stack, so I just shoved and he snap called with AT. No improvement for him, and I hit a jack on the river for good measure.

Dave Colclough soon got moved to our table and started off playing quite tight. Then, with the last two levels of the day soon upon us, he gave a masterclass in pre-bubble play, probably raising about 70% of pots. I'm pretty sure he viewed me as super tight, so I reraised his open on my big blind with air, as I felt his range was any two cards, he turbo mucked. I then raised his big blind the next two orbits just to show him that maybe I might just have seen what he was upto…Unfortunately none of the other players on our table seemed to mind him doing this, and just folded to his constant minraises every hand.

It got to the end of Day 1, and I finished with 33k in chips, slightly above the average of 32k. 21 players left, with 13 to be paid.

Day 2 started at 2pm, and I made a couple of raises and reraises to get upto about 40k quite quickly, although I think that my image was somewhat tight still. It wasn't easy to steal though, as the table redraw gave me Colclough and Karl Mahrenholz in the blinds when I was in late position. Though the latter soon bombed out, when he made an excellent checkraise allin holding 77 on a Q456 2 club board. He was called by a loose guy to my immediate right from Hong Kong, with J2c, who promptly rivered the final club.

I found myself getting shortish stacked near the prize money, the blinds had reached 1500/3000/a200 and I had about 30k in chips, so I started shoving in good spots and never getting called, though there were several occasions I would have liked a call. It got to the first break and finally the bubble burst, the other table had the unlucky victim and we were all in the money.

Unfortunately, with the blinds at 2000/4000/a200, even the average stack was around the 12BB mark, so the tournament was turning into somewhat of a crapshoot. I shoved AK in mid position, the small blind tanked for several minutes before calling with AQ. If I double through, I'm probably the chip leader on my table with 70k and only James Akenhead on the other table would have had more chips. But a cruel queen on the turn ended my tournament in 13th place.

Whilst I was disappointed in how the tournament ended, I felt I gained a lot from the tournament, particularly regarding pre-bubble play. I also realised that the so-called live 'pros' really aren't that good, and I felt like I was one of the best players in the field. If I win with the AK hand, I'm pretty sure I cash in the top 3, and I got my money in good, and that's all I can do.

There wasn't one hand I'd have played differently, and whilst I can only take a small profit from the event, the amount of confidence I can take from this into my usual online cash games and future live tournaments is invaluable.

O. T. Finder

Early Tournament Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (O.T.Finder) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:17:00 +0000

O.T. Finder has a question for you. Have you noticed how online Holdem tournament play is changing even at low level buy ins? Not so long ago, tournament play in the first few blind levels would almost guarantee at least two callers to every all in. And in the process, crack your pocket Kings.

I was constantly amazed at the junk some 'players' would toss their entire stack in with, presumably in an attempt to build early chip utility. But even more amazing was when by an incredible run of never to be repeated luck, after they had built up a formidable stack, just like a crazed junkie, they just could not stop. Invincibility quickly turned to vulnerability leading to extinction!

We have all seen it - but less so lately. Advice to conserve chips and play tight early seems to have fallen on fertile ground and most of the nutters have all rocked up. Early tight play now prevails.

Now there is nothing wrong with tight play don't get me wrong, but whereas we used to regularly see three or four way all ins, now it seems that even when a premium starting hand comes their way, some players seem incapable of extracting maximum chips from their opponents. Just the other day, I observed the table wimp on the button play pocket Aces passively (submissively) to showdown. Its strange, from attempting to double up quickly - its gone completely the other way. Chip conservation gone crazy.

In my view poker is like life, do the opposite of what everybody else is doing and you wont go far wrong.

Tournament success hinges on the accumulation of early chip utility - and keeping it without being reckless.

Be conscious of position and use it, don't miss stealing opportunities by not concentrating.
Observe other players actions and exploit their weaknesses.
Don't be afraid to bluff - when circumstances permit.
Control the pot.
And finally, keep an eagle eye on your opponents stacks - this, above all dictates their actions.

See you on the tables!