theonlinepokerleague.com Blog

Playing at Cake

Actually playing more like a fruit cake - got no cards and when I did I either misplayed them or got unlucky.

Thats 3 sit n go’s down the spout with no return but it is my first session this year so hopefully I will be able to turn it around next time.

ECOOP III Main Event Satellite

I played the satellite for the ECOOP tonight and it is fair to say it didn’t go too well. I was playing OK picking off the sit outs where possible and generally keeping myself in the game. Just before the hour mark the blinds were 100/200 and there was a raise to 400 in front and I had 88 so I pushed in for my 1800 chips. I was insta called and was surprised to see that I was in good shape with my opponent having KJ. Magic I hit my set with an 8 on the flop but a Q also meant that I could get knocked out if hit a runner runner straight. I was not really surprised to see a 10 come out and then an A.

Out in 445th (of 681 players) place and to someone who didn’t really need to call with such a marginal hand.

c’est la vie

Update - about time too!!

Gee has it been that long since I last posted!

I have been side tracked for the last 6 months on a model train project and this has all but reduced my poker playing to nil. Since my last update 7 months ago I have played in the Bigger Deal monthly tournament 4 times and three times I was card dead for most of the tournament and unfortunately I played too tight so when I did catch something then it was no big deal for the big stacks to call me. On the other occasion I actually won the tournament so I guess that sort of makes up for it albeit that my signed copy of Bigger Deal hasn’t turned up yet. I’ve got the book already so its not really a problem.

I had a phone call from Titan Poker last week who invited me to play in a Saturday freeroll which I did and I finished 151st out of 1548 players and frankly it was a stupid call on my behalf with a suited Q8 but it was against a player who had been going all in with low cards and playing good hands cagey so I though I may be in good shape. He had two lower cards sure enough … it was just a shame that one was a 7 and err so was the other!

I have another 6 Saturday special tokens in my account so I am going to try and do better next time I play that tournament but what is really exciting me is that I was also asked if I wanted to play in a ECOOP tournament which offers seats to the $1500 ECOOP III main event. There are 10 seats on offer so I thought why not. What I wasn’t told at the time though was that there are only 350 players invited to play into the tournament so I feel quite glad to be asked. That tourney is at the beginning of December so I will need to get myself up to speed before I play that one.

I am so far off my targets for this year that it is untrue BUT I have recently changed my job and I am now working a lot closer to home and I am close to a Rileys snooker club that have life poker games every week. If I don’t, therefore, break my live poker playing virginity by the new year then I will definately be joining the club and playing in the Monday night games in the new year so I think that I will be in good shape to do that and then play in their poker leagues.

Best Online Poker

Away from the game…

Its been a few weeks since the last post and to be honest I’ve not played any poker in the last 3 to 4 weeks (apart from 4 sit n goes at Stars that I sucked at!!). This is because my work took me away from home in the week so I need to spend some quality time with the guys at home during the weekend which to be honest was preferable to continuing my losing streak on the felt!!

Anyways I see we now have half a dozen people on our new forum for people who play in leagues (both online and live) and we would like to welcome any other player who players in any poker league to join us. Our forum is situated at the following url: http://topl.freeforums.org/portal.php .

I played the WAPT game at their free money site this evening and I was doing OK for a while but got devastated with an AJ clubs v 88. My miniscule stack thereafter meant that I could only makle 25th place from 50 runners. I was pleased to see though that the players at the WAPT were treating this almost as a real money game and there were no all in idiots like you would usually get in a freeroll. There is a lot to be said for pride in these events and with only one prize of a bracelet available everyone was going to play solid to try and win the thing. I must say the whole experience is helped by the bespoke version of the Poker4Ever software that they have which I must admit I do like and the logos on the table etc and the banter of the players make for an enjoyable hour or so (well for me at any rate!!)

The APAT have a game tomorrow and I would like to play it but I have a day out planned tomorrow so hopefully I will be back in time.

Poker group’s lobbying raises online law

The Poker Players Alliance spent $900,000 in 2007 to lobby the federal government on online- gambling legislation.

The group, which says it represents 800,000 poker enthusiasts nationwide, lobbied on a bill that would exempt poker from a law that restricts online gambling, and for legislation that would regulate the Internet gaming industry, according to a disclosure form posted online Feb. 15 by the Senate’s public records office. The alliance spent $780,000 lobbying on those issues in the second half of 2007.

It’s legal to play poker online, but the law made it illegal for domestic banks and credit-card companies to process payments to online gambling businesses. The act, passed in 2006, bars financial institutions from handling gambling transactions, with exceptions for lotteries, horse racing and fantasy sports.

The Poker Players Alliance is chaired by former New York Sen. Alfonse D’Amato.

Lobbyists are required to disclose activities that could influence members of the executive and legislative branches, under a federal law enacted in 1995.

Bad steps..

I’ve been playing the step tournaments at Empire/Party today and I have had a bit of a bad day with 5 step 1’s played and only one 4^th place to show for it.

In the first game my AJ was all in was against AK(7^th place finish – I admit that was bad play!). In the second my KJ shove was called by A5 (7^th place again –at least this was a marginal +EV play). In third I finished 4^th but I went out with a K 10 shove as short stack against QQ (eek!). In the 4^th I pushed after the flop with an open ended draw whilst I still had a deep stack which was a critical error and in the 5^th I pushed with 44 and was up against AQ and a substantially high board saw an Ace come. This was probably my best +EV play of the day so that is about the only one where I didn’t make a mistake!

Hopefully I’ll do better in the week.

The Biggest Poker League On The Net is Now Underway at CelebPoker.com

CelebPoker League is now underway with a massive prize pool of more than 612,000 in prize money to be won through their new Poker League. The new Poker League will be run as a monthly competition for all CelebPoker players, factoring in a unique points system (which considers the number of participants and level of buy-in at each tournament) to ensure that only the best players rise to the top of the table. Indeed, with a staggering 51,000 to be won every month, the lofty position at the top of the leader-board is definitely a place that poker players will want to finish.

The NEW CelebPoker League is the Biggest Poker League Online. We are fully committed to making our Poker League more Competitive, Challenging, and Fun, for players at all levels with Massive Added Cash Rewards in Selected Weekly Guaranteed Tournaments.

Daily Poker League Schedule (http://www.celebpoker.com/download/)

Play in 21 Selected Weekly Tournaments at CelebPoker and you will accrue points that go towards our monthly poker league table; finish in the TOP 20 and win great monthly CASH Prizesbut wait that’s not all.

What Can I Win! Double Your Prize Money In Selected Tournaments

Win 7000 in Monthly Cash League Prizes and in addition to this we’re adding a further 44,000 in extra cash prizes every month to Selected Guaranteed Tournaments.

Our unique CelebPoker Points System (which factors in the number of participants and level of buy-in at each tournament) ensures that only the best players of the month rise to the top of the poker league table.

This is the Biggest Poker League on the Boss Media Network and for CelebPoker Players only. Win outstanding Monthly Cash Prizes and massive additional cash incentives to be won if you win one of the 4 weekly Bonus MTT Tournaments. We even add an additional 1,000 to the prize pot for any CelebPoker players who finish in the top 5 of the weekly 100,000 Guaranteed Tournament.

Double your prize money.

o    Monday 11:00 (GMT) 4,000 Rebuy - Win this and they will double your 1st prize

o    Wednesday 20:00 25,000 Daily Guaranteed - Win this and they will give you a 2000 bonus

o    Saturday 14:30 5,500 Rebuy - Win this and they will double your 1st Prize

o    Sunday 20:00 100,000 Weekly - Finish in the top 5 receive an extra 1,000

These great tournament prizes are available exclusively for CelebPoker players and are not available on any other Boss Media partner. In short, you have to join CelebPoker to get your hands on the cash and play in the league.

‘Our main objective was to create an online poker league that is competitive, challenging and fun, for players for players at all levels, and we have produced a great league format with a simple structure and excellent prizes. At CelebPoker we’re not afraid to push the boundaries, and the fact that we are adding extra cash incentives on-top of existing tournament prize pools will be a great attraction for many online poker players. Why would you want to play your tournament poker anywhere else’

With more prizes on offer than any of their competitors, free entry for all CelebPoker players and a league structure that is simple and easy to understand, it’s a very good question.

Judges rule that poker is a game of chance

Hendon Mob League disaster again

Once again I seemed to completely misplay the non NL league game. This week was Limit and to be honest I didn’t realise that until the second level. I felt such a fool and yet I managed to get a few hundred chips above my starting stack and then I disconnected and it took a few mins for me to get back and 10 minutes later it went again and this time I almost missed the whole level at 80/160 so I was getting short and I had AK of clubs so I jammed the pot and two clubs on the flop ended up with me trying to get all my chips in. Unfortunately no further club came and my opponent had KK so I’m out early again…80^th from 90.

I need to try and make up for that on Thursday when APAT have their next game.

We are now officially a two modem family

OK my router has been dead for two days and I have reset it and tortured it to try and get it to reconnect. In desperation I raised a call with BT but the response was not what I was after. It then occurred to me that whilst I had been messing with the router that maybe I should input the user name that they first sent me in 2004! Fortunately I had seen the letter from BT with the required info on it just a few weeks ago and so I entered the log on name and my 2 days without my router were over…yippee

Not all is well though as the problem I had before the router played up was still there and that is for some reason I cannot access any 888.com website or use Pacific Poker. This is where my 3 3G Modem cam in handy as I can access the site using that. Downside with 3 is that you can’t access Full Tilt! Thus we are now a 2 modem family and I can access all the sites once again…happy days