Anyway, did I mention that my bet on Nikolai Valuev dipped……if I didn’t then I ought to mention it again

In this post I want to talk about online poker and I would like to follow on from my posts last year about playing for a living and if it is still possible at the lower levels. You can still make $1000/week playing NL50…….but…..you need to have a good solid technical game that is probably good enough to do well at NL200.

I proved that this is possible some months ago by earning $25/hour over 75k hands (whilst still spewing badly) six and eight tabling NL50. The games are tight and rocky and everyone seems to be playing for rakeback. Although you need to watch for this dynamic shifting on sites and networks that don’t allow rakeback.

This will almost certainly lead to players loosening up although that also depends on what other bonuses are offered on various networks. If you want to play poker for a living then I would recommend a thorough study of the Harrington cash game series 1+2.

This will prepare you for full-ring NLHE and then avail yourself of as many bonuses as possible and multi-table NL50. If you can become a technically proficient player then you will find enough value at NL50 to do well.

The problems are two fold……getting to a necessary level of proficiency and playing 40 hours a week at $25/hour. But hey…..I spewed money like it was going out of fashion so maybe you could do better than a numpty like me.

poker online these days still has plenty of fish but do remember that fish come in all shapes and sizes. The harder you work on your game then the more fish you will encounter…..now get working.

see you soon

Carl

But like I said on Saturday, the 2.15 that I got was value in my mind and I would still bet again if that fight was being re-run tomorrow. At the end of the day price is everything…..it is what you live and die by. The majority of competitors in most sporting events have a chance of winning……it is how much of a chance that you have to ascertain.

My own preference with sports betting is bet on sports where the draw is highly unlikely or impossible like Tennis and Boxing for example. This is unless I am bored of course and then I bet on anything

But my method of cross referencing professional opinion and by that I mean people who know their trade and not newspaper tipsters (with a few notable exceptions) then I set about trying to figure when prices are out of whack with certain companies.

I don’t want to go too deeply into this but I use the price of 2.0 (Even money) as a framework to build around and commence from there……it has stood me in good stead for several years.

The amount of online poker has been taking a back seat lately although I did play a couple of hit and run heads up sessions last week and won around the $500 mark. I will be trying to get to play more poker but that is unlikely to happen this side of Christmas.

The final table of the 2009 main event is now coming down to the wire and I have been following it all intently. Its a ritual yearly thing now although had this happened a week ago then I would have missed everything. Darvin Moon seems to have made some bad moves but who can say what pressure can and does do to a guy so how can anyone criticize him or anyone else.

Catch you soon

play poker with TheDean

You just cannot know everything that there is to know about every sport. Some people specialise and that is a very good thing to do. I tend to think that you miss out on many opportunities doing that but it is certainly a sound professional approach.

Some people follow tipsters, there is merit to this but the fact is that 99% of punters who do this get this wrong. Firstly you need to know who the best tipsters are and you also have to remember that tipsters get paid to tip even when they are not confident in what they are tipping.

But no matter who the tipster is, you also have to remember that it is merely one persons opinion. I like to cross reference professional opinion from numerous different sources and then intersperse that with the latest up to date news and then try to see if a price is wrong.

I always find the process of knowing if a price is wrong easier than actually knowing what the correct theoretical price should be. This may sound odd to many professionals who would argue that how can you possibly know that a price is wrong unless you know what the correct price will be?

I don’t know, I can feel it sometimes so I guess it’s just experience. I suppose an analogy would be if you looked in the distance and saw really black storm clouds then you know the weather is going to get bad……but you still don’t know how bad but you do know that its time to close the windows and bring the washing in

Nikolai Valuev at 2.15 against David Haye? How can this monster of a Russian who has one defeat in 52 fights be worse than even money? He is 7ft 2″, has a 1ft reach advantage, 1ft height advantage, 7 stone weight advantage, is used to going 12 rounds, never been knocked out and is a multi-ex world champion to boot. His only loss was on points and he dropped his trainer after that fight. He reminds me of some character off a Playstation game that you get to fight on the hardest level.

I have been cross referencing opinion all week on this fight and my view is that the 2.15 that I got on Thursday was immense value. You can also get the same price today on Sporting Bet.

Even if Haye wins, this is one of those bets that I will still be happy that I took. Would also like to apologise for not keeping to my word about making this a daily blog. I have had some family issues recently that are taking up more of my time so they have had to take priority.

Anyway, take care and see you soon

Carl “The Dean” Sampson plays online poker at Pokerloco

Today’s video shows Brunson at his very best, I think that when he reads people then he reads them very well. online poker certainly wouldn’t be his thing but then again its a totally different animal. There is no way that I would ever take Brunson on despite his age in a heads up match. He would have the experience and the high-stakes game to be able to make moves that I couldn’t…..thus giving him a tremendous advantage.

Many people have criticised Supersystem for being too vague, but yet this is what high-stakes poker is at those levels. It is simply about something that no book can ever teach…..feel. When Doyle sits down with that “do you want to play poker with me face” then you know that you are up against a true master.

In fact I would like to see many of today’s young guns play poker at that level for as long as what Doyle has. It took me years to fully understand Supersystem, in fact even now there are probably things that I would pick up if I read this book again.

All poker books have hidden subtleties and the better the player behind the book, the more of these there will be. So if you haven’t read his book……get it and read it and if you have read it and didn’t rate it……read it again and again….wait a few years……then read it again and I guarantee you that it won’t be the same book

see you soon

Carl

You may say that this is obvious but it surprises me just how many players fail to up the aggression levels until it is too late and this especially applies to tournament poker.

The reason why it applies to tournament poker more than it applies to cash games in my mind is to do with the fact that players are striving to reach predetermined goals and tighten up accordingly. For instance, let us say that you have managed to get yourself into a $200 buy-in online poker tournament by winning a $1 satellite or a $5 satellite.

By getting into the bottom payoff positions you will receive $178. The total prize pool is $250,000 and the winner gets something like $80,000. But you have already thrown away all chances of winning this tournament by your mindset. Firstly there is absolutely nothing wrong with creeping into the money here in this instance because a $178 return is a massive return on investment when your outlay has only been $1 or $5.

Just to repeat, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this at all. But look at the difference in mindset to that of the serious player. He hasn’t bought into a $200 event for $200 just to get $178 back or slightly more than he bought in for……no way. He is looking to amass a tournament winning stack or a stack that will take him very deep in the event and getting to that final table will be his primary goal.

But a vast number of players in this tournament will not even be aware that they have no chance to win the event. Their style will be cautious and defensive and designed for a minimum return based on the total prize pool. Their own ambitions of making $178 will not permit them to win much more than this and they will be folding and folding and folding close to the bubble hoping that players will get knocked out just so that they don’t have to take any risks in order to make that payoff.

This is their style without them even realising it and when this tournament starts, they will think in their own mind that they are playing to win the event……an illusion.

Take care and see you soon

“The Dean” play poker with TheDean

So what better than to look at the main event final table of the 2008 World Series of Poker to wet your appetite! I know that this has little to do with online poker but these are two guys whose games I really respect. You will see the amazing psychological plays at work here and this is what I love about the game.

But as you know I have been in and around PokerLoco recently and this week I have been taking a look at some of their lower buy-in tournaments. The thing is that you don’t need thousands upon thousands of dollars to play online poker tournaments. You can buy in for as little as $1 in some of the events.

A while ago I wrote an e-book called Destination Final Table which looked at my philosophy of playing large MTT online poker events. I do feel that the majority of players sit back for too long in these tournaments and end up too short stacked. This then puts them into a situation where they have to get very lucky very quickly.

I am sure that Peter Eastgate or Ivan Demidov didn’t get down to heads up for the world title outlasting thousands of players by being cautious. Although the structure of the $10,000 event does mean that a solid player can get a big stack simply by exploiting the fish and when you are looking at 6000….7000 or even 8000 players then there are going to be plenty of them.

There is a huge amount of luck of course in the winning of any poker tournament and if you happen to get a poor table or seat then you could be swimming upstream before you even start.

Anyway catch you soon and take care

Carl “The Dean” Sampson recommends that you play poker online at PokerLoco

It would also stop me from doing other things as well that I enjoy. Played my first session of poker in a while and won over $500 at PLO and HUNLE. It actually felt like I was making some special guest appearance. I also intend to play some more limit hold’em as well and poker loco is the destination for that.

But this week I have been looking at the SNG’s on poker loco and this takes me back to when I played these seriously. Today’s video takes a look at the excellent Sit and Go Shark.

This great piece of software is also compatible on poker loco and the overall level of ability at the low-stakes SNG’s along with using SNG Shark should be enough to generate profits for most players. I also highly recommend taking a visit to SNG Planet as well www.sitandgoplanet.com which has some great information on SNG’s.

But SNG Shark will elevate your game and I should know because I have used it. Anyone who says otherwise is simply not using this tool properly. The opponent alert system is worth the price of the software alone and like all good software, it has the ability to fix the leaks that are in all our games….give it a whirl at www.sitandgoshark.com

Catch you soon

The Dean can be seen on poker loco these days ghosting all sorts of games.

Finding the optimal strategy is part of playing world class poker and Hansen is certainly a world class player. He may not be the best in the online high-stakes games but that takes a different skill set but he is still very much one of the leading lights in that arena as well.

In his book, Hansen plays in the Aussie Millions and documents every hand all the way to his final table appearance and winning the tournament beating Jimmy Fricke in the heads up encounter. All key hands are looked at and explained and to see a top player break down an entire tournament in this way is great.

The only other time I have seen anything like this of its kind was when I read the Power Poker Course by Padraig Parkinson, Scott Grey and Julian Gardner. In fact what Hansen does in the video by going all-in every hand is something that I have done several times just for the sheer hell of it (only at low stakes I might add).

But get the book and treat yourself to a serious insight into how a world class player treats various stages of the tournament.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson can be found lurking on poker loco these days

Well today’s video is an introduction to not only PokerLoco but also to give me the opportunity to introduce their $50,000 SNG Decathlon. This runs between the 21st and the 28th of October so don’t delay.

PokerLoco will put up ten FREE SNG tournaments in their poker lobby, these will award points based purely on your finishing place. This competition will be hosted in order to try and find the best SNG player on PokerLoco.

The top 200 players with the most points will all win a share of the $50,000 prize pool and it is entirely free to enter. In fact this kind of reminds me of the article that I wrote a few weeks ago about playing poker for a living. It is imperative to the vast majority of players that they take advantage of free opportunities like these to try and make money.

I mentioned about the guy who won $16,000 over the course of a year simply through freerolls and taking advantage of frequent player bonuses. Quite often you will not need to play with your own money to be able to make money. Remember what Chris Ferguson did with his bankroll challenge….. $0 into $10,000. It can be done if you have the discipline.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson can be found lurking on poker loco these days, home of some of the best online poker on the net.

It is a sniffer that I have used for quite some time but who few people are aware of as they usually go for the more mainstream Poker Tracker or Holdem Manager. I have switched between using Poker Crusher and also Poker Office and I think that there are great features with both.

It is sad that this is how online poker is going now but you know what they say, when in Rome do what the Romans do. Just like to point out that the new Pokersharkpool blog will incorporate lots of new videos and numerous different topics.

So this may come as a surprise to many of you who are coming to a poker blog. But I bet you one thing, you will still find the material on here very interesting from now on and you may even find educational material that you may have previously not been interested in.

I have been looking at my blog through the eyes of other readers lately and thought that it needed something. Would also like a few comments on the Derren Brown video as well so don’t be afraid to leave a comment or to maybe contact me personally at Carl@Pokerquest.f9.co.uk or Sharkpooldean@yahoo.co.uk

One of the things that is so good about Poker Crusher is that it allows you to be able to tap into an already existing database of millions of poker players. I know that this was great for a non techie like me

Carl “The Dean” Sampson can currently be found ghosting the games on poker loco and now thoroughly recommends this site.