Internet Poker Player

When Good Tourneys Go Bad - PokerStars Has Got Your Back

2007-03-14T19:28:00.000-04:00

PokerStars Recovers Nicely from Major 'net Outage During Texas Hold 'em Poker Tournament

Ever wonder what happens if the Internet goes Kaflooey (that's a technical term) in the middle of a big tournament? If you think that would be bad for you as a player think about a site operator like Poker Stars with over 50,000 players at 10,00 various tables and tournaments at various stages of play.

Well it just happened to me and, the waiting aside, it was no problem. The whole thing was taken care of in about an hour.

When I first got disconnected I thought it was a problem with my wireless router and/or DSL connection but then a message from Poker Stars support scrolled through the chat window about a major disconnection. That was it for about 45 minutes. I killed the time by working on a budget for a trip this summer.

When we came back we were able to chat for a while. There was the usual wondering what happened etc. For reasons I'm sure everyone will understand I won't reproduce it here.

In the end, we got messages in the chat window saying the tourney would be canceled as per the Poker Stars Cancellation Policies.

A few minutes later I got an e-mail telling me our tourney had been rolled forward with 50% of the prize pool divvied up between the remaining five players and the other 50% given out according to chip count. It was a $10 SnG and I ended getting almost $20 back.

Nobody's happy about these kinds of problems but it's nice to know Poker Stars was right on top of it and sorted it out quickly and fairly. Well Done Poker Stars.

--PB--

Indiana State Trooper Caught in Poker Club Bust

2007-03-14T14:09:00.000-04:00

Journal and Courier Online - Breaking News: "

By THE INDY STAR

Indiana State Police will investigate a trooper who was ticketed during a raid on Northeastside poker club.

Trooper Kyle D. Freeman, 30, a seven-year veteran assigned to the Indianapolis post [of the State Police] was cited for unlawful gambling, a misdemeanor.

Freeman was put on administrative duties and an internal investigation will be conducted, state police announced today in a press release.

Indianapolis metropolitan police raided a club at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 3900 block of Pendleton Way after a year-long vice investigation into illegal gambling.

Police arrested three men - one who had a firearm in his boot - and issued summons arrests to 60 people – including Freeman -- for illegal gambling.

Players ranged in ages from 18 to 70, were males and females and reside in Marion, Hancock, Morgan, and Hamilton counties, police said.

About $6,000 was seized from the establishment, in addition to poker chips, computers, flat screens and other gambling paraphernalia."

Internet Poker Ego Search

2006-12-13T11:07:00.000-05:00

Sharkscope bills itself as "The Ultimate Tool For Increasing Poker Profitability"

It's a database of 28,210,434 online poker sit n' go tournament results from the PokerStars, FullTilt, CryptoLogic, Ongame, Pacific Poker and Poker.com networks that offers 5 free searches per day to let you see who you're up against or analyze your own statistics.

I don't like giving away free information especially since this documents my long (and unprofitable in dollar terms anyway) learning curve as an Internet poker player and there's no way to hide this info completely.

N.B. Sharkscope uses some huge, convoluted Javascript scheme to run their site. It actually crashed Firefox at one point. I can't link to the page that allows users to block their own information. Go to the FAQ page and click on "Can I be removed from the database?"

That will tell you remove your tournament data from the prying eyes of free users.

"Paying subscribers will still be able to see your number of games played, along with your ROI data and form. All other statistics including average profit, average stake and total profit will be inaccessible, along with all the remaining graphs. Hence, once blocked in this manner, no one will be able to calculate your total amount won or lost."

I have to wonder if the tracked sites support this or not.

Bloggers There's Still Time ...

2006-12-06T12:30:00.000-05:00

... to win your seat at the Aussie Millions from Poker.com's Blogger Poker Tour.

You can also help me improve my chances of winning because we get 20 bonus points for every blogger we refer.

If you have a blog:

Get the Poker.com software here http://xscrewballx.friends.poker.com/

Then register your account and then

Register for the BPT here and make sure to put xScrewballx in the "Referred By" box.

Good luck,

--PB--

Event #7 - Poker Pub's Last Call

2006-12-02T18:53:00.000-05:00

Today's Poker.com BPT S2E6 saw me finish 16th. I figure to hang on to my 39th position in the tour but my chances of making it to the final event are dwindling. Because ... "the final event of the second season of Blogger Poker Tour will be hosted by imjusthere4thebeer from the Poker Pub.

To celebrate the release of the new games in the Poker.com software this event will be Omaha Hi-Lo with regular 10 seat tables."

I don't play (or like) Omaha so I'm going to have to do some homework to give myself a chance. Apparently the other BPT'ers are less than thrilled and have said as much on the Poker.com BPT forum.

BPT Event #6 - Flopilicious's Where's My Flop BPT Tourney

2006-11-24T18:26:00.000-05:00

Event #6 - Flopilicious's Where's My Flop BPT Tourney: "The penultimate event of the regular season will be hosted by [ZowieZ of]It's Flopalicious."

I had my best finish yet in this series - 11th in BPT Event#5 - but it was painful to get knocked out one position shy of the money and the points multipliers. Still, it's a fun series with a lot of banter and kidding around during the games.

I'm sitting 39th even with a 70th place finish in the 3rd event and a DNP in the 4th.

Full results are here: BPT Leaderboard

This weekend I hope to finish in the money. I need a top ten finish to put myself in the final event Dec. 23 the givces the shot at the Aussie Milions seat.

--PB--

World's Standard of Online Poker (WSOP.com) Raises HARRAH'S Bluff

2006-11-10T20:04:00.000-05:00

World's Standard of Online Poker® (WSOP.com) Raises HARRAH'S Bluff: "is the headline of the latest salvo in a long-running dispute between the World's Standard of Online Poker® and Harrah's, the giant gaming conglomerate (12 brands and 80,000 employees) that bought Binion's Horseshoe (home of the World Series of Poker) in 2004.

The story timeline in point form:
(Source: http://www.wsop.com)

1970 - Benny Binion started what is now known as the World Series of Poker

In 1970, there were only about 7 entrants into the final event; in 1980, only about 73; in 1990, only about 194; and in 2000, only about 512.

May 7, 2003 - Mr. Schiavio received the domain registration for WSOP.com.

" I immediately told Becky Binion Behnen about this registration and offered to transfer the domain name to Binion's Horseshoe," says Mr Schiavio. "Ms. Behnen told me "You keep it." as the Horseshoe was not interested in the domain name."

1999 - January 2004 (the closing of Binion's Horseshoe Hotel & Casino), Federico Schiavio (owner of wsop.cpm domain and World's Standard of Online Poker®) was a consultant for Binion's Horseshoe and acted as its IT Director. Negotiations to keep Mr. Schiavio on to help with the transition did not work out.
January 7th 2004 - The IRS places a federal tax lien on the Binion's Horseshoe Hotel & Casino.
January 9, 2004 - Federal agents shut down Binion's Horseshoe and seized its cash and assets to pay some outstanding debts owed for health care and pension contributions. 1800 people lost their jobs.
March 2004 - Harrah's Entertainment purchases Binion's Horseshoe
March 11, 2004 - Harrah's Entertainment sells Binion's Horseshoe on to MTR Gaming Group. Harrah's retains the rights to the Horseshoe brand and the World Series of Poker Wikipedia entry on Binion's Horseshoe)
when it sold the casino and hotel, but sold the Binion's brand. (Source:
March 23, 2004 - Schiavio is sent a cease and desist letter from Harrah's lawyers demanding he refrain from using the WSOP wordmark, abandon his (then pending) claims for registration of the WSOP trademark filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and transfer ownership of the WSOP.com domain to Harrah's.

The letter further claimed that using the design and trademarks to identify "directly-competitive services is certain to result in substantial actual consumer confusion with Harrah's world-famous World Series of Poker and WSOP [trade]marks."

April 8, 2004 - Schiavio's lawyer's respond to Harrah's in a letter explaining Schiavio;

was not using, and had no plans to use, the WORLD SERIES OF POKER trademark
Binion’s Horseshoe Hotel and Casino never adopted or used WSOP as a trademark and never transferred rights to the trademark to Harrah's or MTR
Binion’s approved of Mr. Schiavio’s WSOP project at least as early as 2001, and never objected to the project or to the use of the WSOP mark

April 30, 2004 - Harrah's responds to the earlier letter citing the Horseshoe's use of WSOP as a service mark (not a trademark --PB--) as early as June 2000 and claiming possession of documentation proving transfer of the rights to Harrah's
September 04, 2004 - Schiavio's application to trademark WSOP is approved by the USPTO
September 16, 2004 and November 17, 2004 - Harrah’s files intent-to-use applications for WSOP
October 19, 2004 - USPTO decides there is too much similarity between WSOP and World Series of Poker and decides to revoke Schiavio's trademark rights
April 19, 2005 - USPTO withdraws its objections after a lengthy and detailed defence by Schiavio's lawyers
June 30th 2005, Stokes & Bartholomew the firm representing Schiavio merges with Adam’s & Reese a firm representing Harrah’s and Schiavio's attorney cannot get a waiver to allow him continued representation
September 6, 2005 - Schiavio's right to the WSOP trademark is affirmed and published in the official USPTO Gazette.
October 2005 - Harrah's files a trademark opposition action against Schiavio's application to register WSOP as a trademark for the World's Standard of Online Poker® online poker tournaments
May 30, 2006 - Harrah's files domain dispute over wsop.com asserting Schiavio had no legitimate interests or rights in the WSOP mark, had registered the domain in bad faith and wsop.com would get confused with the World Series of Poker. Harrah's law firm further claimed there were no other legal proceedings happening in this case despite being the same firm that filed the trademark opposition action the previous October.
August 2006 - Schiavio files suit against Harrah's in Los Angeles
August 22. 2006 - The Domain Name Arbitrator dismisses Harrah's claim to wsop.com because the rights to it are being disputed elsewhere.
September 2006 - Harrah's file suit against Schiavio in Las Vegas despite "as part of the domain name dispute, [agreeing] to jurisdiction in Los Angeles to decide any issues related to the domain name transfer."

PB - I e-mailed Harrah's Media relations department yesterday and received an automated(?) reply thanking me for my inquiry and that "Your inquiry will be routed to the appropriate contact and processed accordingly" putting me in 'wait-and-see' mode for now.

Gary Thompson, the Director of Communications & Operations in the Sports & Entertainment Marketing department of Harrah's Entertainment Inc. replied today with the following;

"Thanks for your inquiry regarding the lawsuit over wsop.com. Your email was forwarded to me for comment.

I appreciate your interest in the story, but Harrah's has a long-standing policy of not commenting on pending litigation. Therefore, there is nothing we can say about it."

That is a standard response from a publicly-traded company involved in a lawsuit so, while we can't hold that against them, it doesn't help us decide who's right.

Your comments are welcome. Do you support Schiavio? Should he give it up?

--PB--

Thanks Poker.com and Blogger Poker Tour!

2006-11-06T08:59:00.000-05:00

I had to miss the Blogger Poker Tour (BPT) Event #4 because I was tied up with other commitments and was feeling down about that because that (and going out earlyish in BPT#3) dropped me to 54th position.

I feel a lot better after opening my gmail account today and finding this;

"$20 FREE CASH JUST FOR YOU!

Dear Patrick,

As a valued member of the BPT Season #2, Poker.com have given you a FREE $20 cash gift to let you hit the real money tables risk free.

Your cash is already waiting in your Poker.com account and can be used to play any cash games or poker tournaments you wish!

You could even use your gift to buy-in to our satellites and win your way through to Poker.com's next Grand Final:

Saturday 11 November @ 15:00 Poker.com Time

Best of luck at the tables with your cash and hopefully we'll see you down under at the 2007 Aussie Millions."

Prohibited Online Poker Software Programs

2006-10-31T20:29:00.000-05:00

I bought Poker Office a while ago and I tried the free version of Hold 'em Pirate out of curiosity.

Hold 'em Pirate simply doesn't work at Poker Stars and I've never tried it anywhere else.

Poker Office worked fine at first but seems to be more confusing than anything lately and I haven't gotten to the bottom of it.

It does however provide a wealth of (mostly depressing) information about my own play.

I think, for beginning/intermediste players, concentrating on playing our own cards well is more important than the play of others. I'm slowly integrating guesses about other players' behaviour into my betting choices.

Prohibited Online Poker Software FAQ

"... people have developed programs to help them play better online. We think it is okay for players to use some of those programs. However, some of those programs go beyond what we consider acceptable as an aid in playing online.

There is a range of things that a player can do to improve his chances in a poker game. For instance, he can play a lot and gain experience, or he can read a book about poker. Both of these techniques are clearly appropriate. At the other end of the spectrum, he can work in collusion with another player, sharing information about hole cards and teaming up against other players. This is clearly cheating.

In between those two extremes are many programs - some of which we consider to be too close to cheating. For example, there are people building huge databases with profiles of every player on PokerStars, and they are selling access to these databases. A player with access to such a database can call up detailed information about every one of his opponents without ever playing against those opponents himself. We believe this gives that player an unfair advantage against others at his table."

"Q. In general, what kind of programs are acceptable?

A. 1. Programs (or charts) that simply tell you odds, starting hand recommendations, etc.
2. Programs that profile your opponents, but make use of only information which you have accumulated by your own play."

--PB--

A Personal Milestone

2006-10-30T17:26:00.000-05:00

Before I spent any of my own money on poker I stayed on the play money tables, promising myself that I wouldn't go into my pocket until I amassed $1M in play money chips. It took me over a year but I did it actually leaving ~$1.5M in my Tiger Gaming play money account.

In January of this year I plunked down a whole $25 of my hard-earned cash. The new deal with myself was based on knowing that real money games would be vastly different from play money tables. This time, I would only put up $25 at a time until I got better at the real money games.

For most of this year I was going into my pocket for $25 about once a week. Sometimes more or less but that's about the average. I've never had a stack bigger than $200. Many times I was down to my last few bucks and I would patiently and carefully rebuild the stack playing ultra-micro tables and SNG's. I'd do well for a while then it seems that every donkey with a nose smelled my stack and came after me handing me one bad beat after another.

The only thing worse than an idiot is a lucky idiot and the only thing worse than that is a lucky idiot that thinks they're good.

The biggest table I play on is $0.25/.50 so far. The biggest SNG has been a $20 buy-in. The only MTT's I play are freerolls and the Blogger Poker Tour at Poker.com.

Any way, the last 15 days have been the longest I've gone on $25. I put together a string of SNG wins and have generally been able to keep my biggest foe (me and my bad attitude) in check. At the risk of inviting Lady Bad Luck to move in for a while I felt I deserved a pat on the back. Even if it's only from me.

Once I am more certain of my skills I will start playing live games and bigger tables and trying to develop the vulture-like patience needed to wait for the right situation to come up at the tables.

--PB--

Online poker school

2006-10-30T08:59:00.000-05:00

My search for decent poker courseware has continued through a couple of years of online play. Most of what I've seen is text from a book pasted into a web page with no attempt to adapt the material to the web.

While the quantity o lessons here is less than desirable the quality of both the course materials and the software that runs it is the best I've seen so far.

Switching from learning to testing is simple and getting instant feedback on your answers is invaluable.

Online poker school:"Poker School Introduction

It is not too difficult to find a free poker strategy source nowadays. There are plenty of poker sites providing you with a lot of information on any variant of poker you can just imagine. But the articles are pitifully mixed. When there is some classification it usually does not help too much as the division into Beginner/Intermediate/Professional is quite relative and even illogical. Plus there is a great number of sites which duplicate each other and sometimes it is almost impossible to find an article on a certain topics."

Launchpoker promises regular additions to the lessons.

--PB--

Minimize your Risk With PokerScams.org

2006-10-29T08:56:00.000-05:00

I found this while inputting events in to the Poker Event Calendar.

Avoid Poker Scams : Play Smart: "PokerScams.org is an independent 'watchdog' agency that monitors the Online Gaming Industry in an effort to provide the public an avenue to find reputable companies to wager with.

We are a professional non-biased third party organization that gives objective opinions, based on your feedback, independent research, phone calls, tips and inside news. We started this business with the customer in mind and are resolved to keeping the philosophy that there are safe places for online poker. Because of the climate in the industry today people need to have additional information on online poker from an outside source. An educated gambler needs to know where to get information for online gambling. The following pages include valuable news and advice on how to pick a poker room, how to avoid a scam, and how to best capitalize on your wager.

To view a list of safe, secure, and legal online poker rooms, visit www.PokerIntensity.com."

PokerScams.org has a set of player resources to help you
There are a few of these types of organisations that will help you settle disputes and generally not get hosed by crooked poker site operators.

New Player Guide

How To Spot A Scam

10 Poker Room FAQs

Gambling Addiction Help

There are a few of these types of organisations that will help you settle disputes and generally not get hosed by crooked poker site operators.

eCOGRA : e-Commerce Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance: "eCOGRA, a non-profit organization, is the independent standards authority of the online gaming industry, specifically overseeing fair gaming, player protection and responsible operator conduct. The function that eCOGRA performs protects those who engage in online gaming where it is lawful. "

Online Casino Information and Watchdog - Casinomeister: "Casinomeister is dedicated to providing information and news on online gambling, online casinos, player issues, and industry events. Casinomeister has been online for eight successful years and there is no other site like this.

Accredited Casinos List Only those online casinos that pass Casinomeister's rigid standards are welcome to our Accredited Casinos list. Discover why these are the casinos that deserve to be listed here. Become a Casinomeister player and join the cyber-world of safe online gambling."

--PB--

Well I _was_ tied for 19th

2006-10-28T20:12:00.000-04:00

The bad luck around BPT#3 continues - at least for me and Egon Olsen (AKA Morten Petersen of Denmark).

Egon represented Poker.com at WSOP 2006 and got donked out somewhere out 95th out of 101 players when somebody called his pocket-all-in with a flush draw.

I kept getting put all-in on draws and then Cazwil cracked my pocket cowboys with AQ off that caught on the river for dramatic effect knockling me out at 70.

I don't think BPT#3's over yet but I certainly won't be in the top 20 when it does.

Below are the standings up until today.

Tournament Schedule & Results - Blogger Poker Tour:

Position Points
1 natsdad 321
2 ViezeMan 320
3 DawgRoyal 300
4 ReplicantPoker 241
5 Michael1965 238
6 brodoughno 218
7 DamRiver 211.5
8 Quackpot 201
9 BobbyOlsen 196
10 elc3105 189
11 Irongirl 185.25
12 iyatoni 177.5
13 JCL514 151.25
14 Hacksaw2000 148
15 booboy119543 144
16 Mada1970 116
17 Porkrind333 116
18 astinaguy 112.5"

--PB--

Blogger Poker Tour - Event #3 Re-scheduled

2006-10-25T19:21:00.000-04:00

Poker.com wants to Send a Blogger to the Aussie Millions! so they're holding a series of tourneys to see which blogger wins the Aussie Millions prize package but there was a little glitch last week.

"Event #3 of the second season of the Blogger Poker Tour which was scheduled for 21 October was shutdown due to technical difficulties.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused our fellow blogging community.

Event #3 has now been re-scheduled for this coming Saturday and will feature host blogger: www.UltimatePokerForumOpen.

Re-Scheduled Tournament Details:
Tournament: Blogger Poker Tour - Season 2 Event 3
Date: 28 October 2006
Time: 15:00 Poker.com Time (GMT-5, ET-1)
Location: Tournaments > Scheduled > Special tab
Structure: 10 min levels, 2000 starting chips
Entry: Free to Blogger Poker Tour Players
Prizes: $500"

Let's hope we have better luck on the technical sde this week.

--PB--

Poker.com's Poker Blog: What makes online poker different from casino poker?

2006-10-25T19:18:00.000-04:00

We don't know who kris@poker.com is but here's some wisdom the main differences between online and live poker.

"Anyone who plays online poker for the first time, expecting everything to happen exactly as it does at their local casino or home game is kidding themselves.

"There are many differences between online poker and real life poker, and a lot of new or inexperienced players don't seem to realise this. Their failure to account for the differences can often lead to them making bad decisions or going on tilt and therefore not being as succesful playing online as their previous experience playing with real cards would lead them to expect.

.....

"Perceived anonymity has a big influence over decisions online.

You just can't always use the same tricks you could use in a real poker game, because people simply do not have the same fear of failure...."

Kris lists 8 differences and makes good points in every one.

--PB--

Blogger Poker Tour 2007 - Poker.com SHUTDOWN

2006-10-21T18:37:00.000-04:00

Well no fun for anyone today. 10 minutes before the start of BPT#3 the tournament was shutdown. Other tournaments apparently went down at the same time according to the chat in the Poker.com forum

Katie of Poker.com Support was sympathetic.

=====Start Chat Transcript=====

xScrewballx: Chat Request from PlayerAdmin

You are now speaking with Katie of Poker.com Support.

Katie: hi

Katie: how can i help?

xScrewballx: Hi Katie

xScrewballx: Any news on what happened to BPT#3?

xScrewballx: It was shutdown a few minutes before the start.

Katie: yes we are still looking into it, sorry for the inconvenience

xScrewballx: Where should we look for news about this.

xScrewballx: I feel bad for you guys. It can't be any fun.

Katie: its not too much fun at all, we are waiting to hear back from the dev guys

Katie: so there should be something up in the forum when we know the deal

=====End Chat Transcript=====

No e-mails, no word at all over 2 hours later.

--PB--

Blogger Poker Tour 2007 - Poker.com

2006-10-21T14:37:00.000-04:00

Blogger Poker Tour (BPT) 2007 is a series of tournaments hosted by bloggers, for bloggers, with the top prize being a $12,500 Aussie Millions package.

Get Flash

This year to earn your place in the BPT Grand Final, and take your shot at over $25,000 in prizes, you will need to make it to the top of the BPT Leader board. Click here for more details on how the BPT works."

Before Signing Up - BPT Participant Requirements

1. You must have your own blog (web log) or be a contributing member of a communal blog. Vist this page at Wikipedia.com for a definition of what a blog is.

2. You must be able to add the participation banner code to your blog

3. Your blog must be regularly updated
(If your blog has been created recently, you will not be eligible to participate in BPT events until you can show a history of regular blog posting.)

4. PLEASE DO NOT WASTE OUR TIME IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A BLOG!

If your blog meets the above requirements, please follow the two-step sign-up process below to register for the BPT and obtain your participation banner code."

Signup and Register - Blogger Poker Tour

**** We get points for referring other bloggers please mention that you heard about this on IPP ****

I played in this last season, had a lot of fun and won some nice Poker.com tcotchke.

Event #3 is today and I'm really excited. BPT Commissioner Shane has already cleared out some pretend bloggers (see It's the BLOGGER poker tour)so don't try to scam your way in.

My skills are much improved this year and I've stayed in the top 20 through the first two events. My goal for Event #3 is to improve on my 18th place finish in the lat event.

<<< Fair Witness >>

I'm a real, professional journalist with a diploma and everything. See "by Patrick Boake" for some of my work that's available online. One of the principles drilled into our heads in J-School was we don't pull any punches. That means we report the good AND the bad as objectively as possible. So, when a situation on which I've reported critically gets cleared up, I have an obligation to report that as well.

I have given the Poker.com software (and certain support people) a rough ride in the past. Before J-School I did 20-plus years in IT that left me with a low tolerance for commercial applications with major bugs and less for support departments who try to make out that it's the user's fault.

Having played 2 BPT events in the past month I can say that the Poker.com no longer has the problems referred to in earlier posts. It worked flawlessly through the last 2 events and I'm sure it will continue to do so.

Well done to all at Poker.com for clearing that up.

--PB--

Full Tilt Poker - Tips From The Pros

2006-10-17T17:01:00.000-04:00

Clonie Gowen comes up with some excellent tips on Balancing Poker and Life for both the player and their partner.

"I am always trying to find the balance between family and poker, and I know a lot of you struggle with the same issue. For the serious player with a significant other, the poker lifestyle can be a real challenge. Here's a little advice for making poker work with the rest of your life. I've included five tidbits of advice for both the player and his or her partner."

My personal favourite:

"Don't even consider going pro until you can cover all of your bills for at least six months in advance."

Guess it'll be a while before I turn pro. :>

There is a whole range of excellent tips here including;

Playing Big Slick in Deep Stack Tournaments by Paul Wolfe

Check-Raising on Draws by Steve Breche

Representing a Bluff: by Huckleberry Seed

I read a lot of this stuff and the Full Tilt Pro's seem to come up with the best.

--PB--

Absolute Poker.com Responds to U.S. Anti-Poker Legislation

2006-10-16T14:06:00.000-04:00

Absolute Poker.com - Absolutely Business As Normal : "'It is the belief of our legal and executive team that online poker is a game of skill and the prohibitions signed into law on Friday Oct. 13, 2006 by the President of the United States neither apply to online poker nor our business.

'All existing and new customers of Absolute Poker can rest assured their funds are safe and secure and that their online poker playing is entirely legal and can continue to enjoy playing poker uninterrupted at Absolute Poker.com -- our business will operate entirely as normal."

Good for you Absolute Poker!

While I'm disappointed in the fact that the online poker industry let this happen in the first place the response to it has been positive.

My take on this is the U.S. is that it's a protectionist move (check the history of the trade dispute between the U.S. and the Canadian softwood lumber industry for more) intended to hobble online poker (which the U.S. can't tax mostly) to give the bricks-and-mortar casinos a chance to set-up online (which they can tax).

--PB--

How It Works - Blogger Poker Tour

2006-09-23T14:59:00.000-04:00

How It Works - Blogger Poker Tour: "The Blogger Poker Tour is a series of tournaments hosted by bloggers, for bloggers, with the top prize being a $12,500 Aussie Millions package.

In this season of the Blogger Poker Tour, Poker.com will be the venue for a series of 7 preliminary $500 freeroll tournaments, each one hosted by a different blog & blogger(s)."

BPT event #1 is today and I'm hoping to get off to a strong start in the tour.

I played in last years and got some poker.com chotchke like a deck of cards, some coasters, a T-shirt and, the thing I like best, a pair of poker.com flip-flops that leave a poker.com imprint when you walk on wet sand or soft ground.

I brought the cards to our monthly dealer's choice game and cleaned everyone out. I don't think it had anything to do with the deck. Just one of those nights where I could do no wrong and others ended up with a lot of strong but 2nd-best hands.

I enjoy dealer's choice because you end playing all different games. We play a game I invented (I think) that's called Patrick Poker. It's 5-card stud, no wild and no draw but, after the initial round of betting, players pass 1 (or 2 or 5 if you want) cards to the right, bet, pass to the left, bet, pass across and then bet again.

Sometimes you can get your own card back and other times your hand will get made, then broken and then made again as you receive and then have to pass off a card/cards.

A real emotional rollercoaster that I have now copyrighted by publishing it. It could also be played with more/less cards and with wild cards and draws.

It's kind of like Calvinball for poker.

--PB--

Dream Poker $15 000 Freeroll

2006-09-15T17:01:00.000-04:00

Dream Poker is hosting a $15 000 Freeroll open to all players on the 1st of October at 13:00 EST.

$15,000 is being paid out into 3 categories:

Registered players (No deposit required) = $5,000
Deposited players (If you have made a deposit) = $10,000
Anyone with 10 DreamPoints (Deposited and accumulated 10 DreamPoints between 13th September until the tournament starts at 13:00 EST) = $15,000

Dream Poker also has a 120% match bonus plus the $10 free sign up bonus!

My Poker Psychology

2006-09-15T16:12:00.000-04:00

I started playing online a couple of years ago. In phase one of my plan, I set myself the goal of winning $1 million in play chips before putting any money in. It took over a year but I did it. I realised however that real money makes people play different (people like me for instance).

I'm still in phase two which is I put in $25/$50 and play until it's gone keeping track of how long I can make it last playing micro no-limit ring games and $5 no-limit SNG's. That way there's a limit on how much damge I can do myself on tilt.

I'm an intense and passionate person and no-limit texas hold'em is pretty exciting (and some of the players are annoying) causing me to sometimes get my head up where the sun don't shine and crap out.

I find limit annoying because it seems I get sucked out too often. People will stay in with the darnedest hands and then get lucky. Also I've developed a good sense of when I can take the pot even when I don't have the cards. While that's still a work in progress it's almost as much fun as taking down a big pot. Anyone can win with good cards.

Being able to build the stack with stolen chips has kept me alive in many an SNG allowing me to get into position to take someone out for large amounts. On the other hand it increases the risk factor and has backfired catastrophically several times.

My most recent deposit at Full Tilt saw $50 last 11 days. I got it up to $107 at one point and was down to around $10 three times before building it back up to $50 each time. This most recent run saw me play through 3 days of getting slaughtered no matter what I did and coming back from that which felt like a huge victory. I'm definitely learning how to adjust my play to the table I'm on.

I just started playing on FTP and people there are very timid pre-flop, especially in the ring games. My flop rate gets really high as I rake in blinds both pre and post flop. You can't tell if you're actually in a hand until the turn most of the time.

In order to not get too emotional or break the pattern when I do I've started placing limits in how long I can play in one session and generally go for a flop rate of 30% or less. One thing I've noticed is that winning is almost as dangerous emotionally as losing a bad beat to some lucky moron. I try not to bet immediately after a big win

I've gotten to the point where I win 50% of the flops I see. The current weakness I'm working on is not laying it down when pot-committed which has caused me some big losses. Last night in a micro ring game on FTP I worked my $10 starting stack up to almost $40 in about 90 minutes and was just about to uncheck Auto-Post-Blind and bank my profits at the next blind when I lost with two pair twice in a row and the stack was gone just like that. I think it took less than 90 seconds.

I lost a couple of SNG's after that and then this morning took the last of the bank roll into two .05/.10 rings games and watched it dwindle away. I couldn't do anything right today it seemed. I played over 50 flops and won 4 times.

One of the last hands I gave up and threw the last chips into the pot on a high ISD (something I never bet on) and it hit. I felt like I'd gone through the looking glass to Bizarro World where everything's backwards, upside down and inside out however I've learned that the cards will come back and I have to develop even more discipline and patience to get me through the rough spots.

That brings up one of the biggest insights I've gotten from playing poker. It's an excellent way to learn about yourself and become a better person. Both success and failure at the tables highlights personal strengths and weaknesses giving me more confidence and showing me where I need to work on myself.

Maybe I wasn't gifted with incredible skills but I can make up for that with hard work, persistence and discipline. All qualities that will help me away from the tables as well.

One day I hope to be able to play for big money at least once in a while but until then I'll play within my limits both personally and financially.

So far I've only found one thing in Texas Hold 'em that is 100% for sure. If I fold, I may not lose but I certainly won't win.

--PB--

Poker Client for Linux Users

2006-07-31T11:52:00.000-04:00

This clean-looking and highly-playable Texas Holdem Poker client at gpokr.com is written in GWT/AJAX by Ryan Dewsbury

Ryan's effort has received favourable notice from Micahael Arrington's Tech Crunch "a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies" ... "featured on CBS News, Technorati 100, Feedster 500, and CNet Top 100 Blogs." with an enviable 79,000-plus Feedburner subscribers.

I think Ryan has picked a solid platform on which to build his code by using the Google Web Toolkit: "a Java software development framework that makes writing AJAX applications like Google Maps and Gmail easy for developers who don't speak browser quirks as a second language."

--PB--

The Baddest Beat of All: Blame the User

2006-07-18T14:17:00.000-04:00

If you've been reading Internet Poker Player you will know there's been an ongoing conversation with poker.com tech support about some problems with the client software.

Recently, the software crashed in the middle of a tournament hand costing me about 500 chips which was almost half my stack. I restarted the software and got back in the game in about a minute but I never recovered and was out shortly after. For some reason my concentration wasn't there. I kept wondering if the software was going to crash again.

I got tech support on the live chat and the ensuing conversation has caused me to uninstall the poker.com software permanently.

Not only did the tech support person not recognise how annoying having the software crash mid-game is, the inconvenience and lost money wasn't something he was going to talk about, nope the whole thing was caused because not only do I not know how to use the software, I don't know how to get help properly.

===Begin Live Chat Transcript===

On 7/15/06, Charles Rowe < charles@pokercs.com> wrote:Hello xScrewballx,

Below is the complete transcript of your chat session:

<<<>>>

===
Company: Poker.com

Department: Poker.com Support

Operator: Charles Rowe <charles@pokercs.com >

Visitor: xScrewballx <-@-.com>

Chat Info: Sun 07/16/06 11:15 am

====

xScrewballx (Verified): Chat Request from PlayerAdmin Welcome xScrewballx! Please hold while we contact a representative. If a representative does not respond in a few seconds, then he/she is not available at this time.Currently 2 chat request session(s) before you.

You are now speaking with Charles Rowe of Poker.com Support.

Charles Rowe: Hello xScrewballx! How can I help you?

xScrewballx: Can you keep my client from crashing in the middle of SNG's?

xScrewballx: on the bubble no less

xScrewballx: in the middle of a hand against the big stack?

Charles Rowe: One moment

Charles Rowe: It appears you have been having issues with your connection to our server which is causing you to be sat out of hands. This lag can occur at several routing points between your ISP and our servers.

To resolve this matter please try implementing the following measures to allow your computer and connection to cope better;

1) Click the "settings" button in the software.
2)Click on the "Window" tab and select "Lobby Window"

If you still find that you are experiencing poor performance then;

3) click the "settings" button then click the "performance" tab and slide the button further towards the "performance" side until you find that the software is running more smoothly.

xScrewballx: I did that. [The slider] ... was halfway with all the bells & whistles turned off

xScrewballx: I will turn it down the rest of the way

xScrewballx: that crash took me out of that tourney

Charles Rowe: Ok, no worries

Charles Rowe: Good luck

xScrewballx: I lost a good chunk of my chips and never recovered

xScrewballx: Have you received any new Audio support requests?

xScrewballx: I am worried

Charles Rowe: Audio support?

xScrewballx: one monent

xScrewballx: http://internetpokerplayer.blogspot.com/2006/06/blinking-tabs-audio-tech-support.html

xScrewballx: My problems with this software have been going on too long

xScrewballx: I don't have problems with other poker rooms or apps I use for work

xScrewballx: I am basically on the computer all day

xScrewballx: the problems are most decidedly not with traffic or performance

xScrewballx: For awhile I was e-mailing you daily

Charles Rowe: Have you uninstalled and reinstalled lately?>

xScrewballx: no I haven't

Charles Rowe: i would suggest you try that, it could help.

xScrewballx: so could sacrificing chickens :)

Charles Rowe: Awesome, look I understand you are frustrated but the way you are going about this is not going to get you better support.

Charles Rowe: I would try uninstalling, if it still doesnt work, live chat us again and we will look into it asap.

xScrewballx: thanks

- Your party has left this session. -

- Your party has left this session. -
===

Thank you

====End Live Chat Transcript====

===Begin E-mail Response====

Well done Charles,

You've done it. I won't be complaining about blinking tabs or anything else about poker.com to tech support but I will continue to complain on my blog. I won't be complaining becausing I am only taking the first half of your advice. I'm uninstalling the poker.com software but I'm not re-installing it.

I started out honestly trying to help and the Blinking Tabs Audio Tech Support Request was an attempt to bring some levity to a difficult situation.

Even though I follow all the suggestions from poker.com tech support (or should I say the suggestion) and turned the graphics quality down and killed background apps the tabs still blink and the software has even developed new problems where the listings (tables, tourneys, contacts, etc.) overlap the buttons used to act on them at the bottom.

Want to add a contact? You have to guess which button is which because a lot of the time I can only see the bottom edge of the buttons and don't use them often enough to know which one does what from their position.

Not a huge defect and I can work around but, to me, indicative of a poor QA process that lets defects like that out in the wild. If we were talking about some inconsequential app with local data files I wouldn't be concerned but we're talking about people's money here.

I know, I know it's somehow my fault. Those pesky customers eh? What a great business Internet poker would be without them.

My 25 years of experience in IT means nothing. The fact that my machines are spyware and virus free and have been for almost 2 years now is irrelevant.

The fact that I sit in front of this thing for hours and days at a time editing photos and playing poker on other sites and only have a problem when I'm on poker.com is meaningless.

I never put a lot of money into poker.com at any one time because I have just never ttrusted the software and that raises questions about poker.com's management that I don't want to think about when i'm confirming a big deposit. Questions like; do they have the same carefree attitude about my money as they do about their software?

You've fixed the problem though Charles. The user 's at fault and you've ensured that this user won't cause problems for poker.com anymore.

===End E-mail Response====

Screw Ball - Notice of recent deposit in your account.

2006-07-15T08:48:00.000-04:00

One of the worst things about the 'net and online poker is people are always pitching me. I mean, I'm pitching other people too but I don't lie to them.

In scoping around looking for things to write about I happened to the hoaky "Amazing Gambling Systems" (AGS)web site. I'm not linking to them so don't bother looking.

I got an e-mail from AGS entitled "Screw Ball - Notice of recent deposit in your account".

The body says "This email is to notify you that $200 is waiting for you now. Get up to $200 FREE with your first purchase. That's right, a $200 New Player Bonus!"

So it's just a 1st deposit bonus and not a very exciting one at that. I guess why they felt the need to lie in the e-mail subject.

I guess what bugs me is it's such a bad lie. How can they make a deposit in an account that doesn't exist yet?

You know what's worse? One of the sites Web Casino World links to is Golden Palace Poker (GPP).

If you go directly to the GPP site and check their promotions page it says there's a 300% match bonus on an initial deposit of $25 to $100 using NETeller, myCitadel, or FirePay.

I don't imagine too many people will get sucked in by Web Casino World but anyone who does deserves it.

--PB--

P.S. Looking around the GPP ads I see they're heavily into responsible gambling and supporting some good environmental and social causes. Good on them.