High stakes report

Date: Sat, Jan 17, 2009 Professional Internet

January is a horrible month. The financial hangover from Christmas drags along as you try and scrape by until payday at the end of the month, ug!

But how are our favorite nose bleeders doing? Some better then others by the looks of it but in all honesty its been fairly slow going up at the top. The year ended in a bang but it seems there is a little bit of a festive hang over on the big tables

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High stakes report

Date: Sat, Jan 17, 2009 Professional Internet

January is a horrible month. The financial hangover from Christmas drags along as you try and scrape by until payday at the end of the month, ug!

But how are our favorite nose bleeders doing? Some better then others by the looks of it but in all honesty its been fairly slow going up at the top. The year ended in a bang but it seems there is a little bit of a festive hang over on the big tables

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Look-a-like Peter Eastgate

Date: Sat, Jan 10, 2009 Professional Internet

Reading a few articles about our current WSOP Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate when it struck me he looks a lot like 60's crooner Art Garfunkel.


Judge for yourself!

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Street fighter!

Date: Fri, Jan 9, 2009 Professional Internet

My journey begins now!

I've spent the last few days organising myself ready to take the full time plunge into the murky world of heads up NLH.

In those days I've downloaded pretty much every rooms poker software and checked the games from the lowest to the highest levels. I've followed traffic reports throughout the day, checked in on the regs, shifted my bankroll around behind the scenes and updated PT to give me a heads up HUD.

I'm happy to say that now everything is in place and I haven't been this excited about poker in a while. That's not to say that I had lost my enthusiasm, I hadn't, but switching to heads up just feels right. Its hard to say exactly what that feeling is, but its there and I like it! Ha!

Moving onto the actual play, my first goals are simple and small.

1) Play 1000 hands and review
2) Play 2500 hands and review
3) Play 5000 hands and review

Since HU is such an intensive game I feel that I will be able to draw some good conclusions from those three check points. It will help me understand where I am strong and weak and seek out the right material to give me a sure footing or strong foundation in the game.

First up though is day one as a heads up player. As I said I'm pretty excited!

I'm starting with one table at a time so I can really focus on the play and the player. My goal today is to play at least 5 HU matches to the death, mine or theirs and see how I fair.

So without further a dew...well I'm gonna grab some food first...I will begin the life of a NL HU Grinder! Bo!

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Toe in the water

Date: Wed, Jan 7, 2009 Professional Internet

Played my first session of heads up no limit last night!

Its frickin wicked! Love the action, love the psychology, love the battle! Really don't know why I didn't think of this before but hey ho.

Problem is though, I had trouble finding micro stakes games being spread. The lowest on Stars was NL50, same with Party and Full Tilt.

I ended up playing on Party and felted my first opponent before taking on a 50BB short stacker and ending up half a buy in down, momentum of the match changed when my top two pair was beaten by his set of Jacks but I'm happy.

I've been searching the net looking for lower stakes HU games and it seems Ipoker go as low as NL4 but I'll be aiming for their NL20 games if I shift the role over there.

The other option is Ultimate Bet, anyone played there on their new software?

I know there was a huge scandal etc but I'm sure things have changed and there is the added bonus of getting 30% rakeback which would be very nice.

Anyway, if anyone has an opinion on UB please comment, would love your thoughts, I'll download the software tonight and check things out.

If they don't spread HU at NL20 then its an easy choice for me as I want to be adequately rolled for the game and 20 buyins at NL50 is just to risky HU in my opinion.

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The future is HU!

Date: Tue, Jan 6, 2009 Professional Internet

For me poker is all about the fight! Me against another player(s) and the result of that contest, the winning or losing of that hand. Problem is, even the fast paces world of 6 max doesn’t give me enough sensible opportunities for these mini battles. I mean I could raise any old junk from any old position but its not clever and will only allow me to donate my bankroll to everyone else at the table.

It was then last night, while laying in bed that I had a weird epiphany! I don’t know if it was the overdose of cough medicine I accidently had or the poker gods giving me a message, either way the message was...Heads Up!

I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before! Heads Up is the purest form of poker there is, its man vs man (or woman :)), no other players, no waiting, no distractions. If you snooze you lose basically!

The more I thought about it the more I wanted to start playing heads up. HU will literally force me into difficult/marginal situations and make me learn! Here is a little of my thinking;

1) I’m going to have to widen my range or I will blind myself away
2) I’m gonna have to be more aggressive
3) I’m going to have to deal with aggression more frequently
4) I’ll have to play more flops in and out of position
5) I’ll be playing more turns and more rivers
6) I’ll be seeing more showdowns
7) I’ll be playing all of the above in more marginal positions

Its gladiatorial!

I think overall as well it will propel my game to the next level at 6max. All my mistakes will be amplified forcing me to learn, learn, learn. If I don’t there is only one way, and thats DOWN!

So here’s the challenge to myself.

Currently my bankroll sits at about $1023, but lets call it $1000.

I’m going to start playing at NL10 and review my position after 1000, 2500 and 5000 hands to get some idea of how my HU education is going.

If I’m a winning player then all move on up the ranks as long as I have 52 buyin’s for the next level. The number 52 gives me 2 tester buyins that I can use to experiment and adjust to the new level before things get serious!

So there it is, my little heads up challenge. I haven’t felt this excited about the prospect of playing poker in a while so absolutely itching to get things going!

If anyone else out there is interested in learning heads up (has a background in FR or 6M) with me then drop me an email and we can move through the ranks together, should be easier to learn in tandem, otherwise wish me luck!

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A year in review

Date: Fri, Jan 2, 2009 Professional Internet

Yup, another year in review post. Sigh!

An hour ago I wasn't going to do this but nostalgia or something has got the better of me.

However instead of your usual 5,000 word essays on the preceding year, 2008 in this case. I thought I would break it up into smaller, more readily digestible posts :)

That way I get to torture you all for a little longer, sorry.

So firstly I want to look back at the world of High Stakes online poker. Its been a year of change for the highest players in the world. Players have come and gone, millionaires have been created and millionaires have lost it all.

Leading the way with high stakes play has been Full Tilt Poker. No other site even comes close. Now I'm not a fan of FT but I have to give it to them, their stable of pro's and high stakes fish have drawn all the biggest players together on one site and predictably so it exploded with action.

The year saw the creation of the $500/$1000 NLH and $2000/$4000 PLO tables and they far from disappointed. Money flew around thick and fast and there were some monumental up and down swings. Sums of money that most people won't see in their lifetimes were won and lost in single sessions on these tables. Sick!

With that in mind I present you with the biggest winners and losers of 2008 across the monitored tables...wow!

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Have a good one!

Date: Wed, Dec 31, 2008 Professional Internet

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Tracking and hand analysis

Date: Mon, Dec 29, 2008 Professional Internet

So I'm just finishing up a little experiment where I have been logging some serious hands using all of the major poker hand tracking and analysis software.

Its been a bit of an eye opener actually, although there aren't many programs to choose from there are some fairly large differences in my opinion between the products.

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be finishing of my little experiment before reviewing each of the main programs and giving a final StackTown seal of approval on my choice.

In the meantime I've added a poll to the right of this post, would love you all to take 5 seconds to click on the program you use or none if you don't so I can get an idea of whats popular.

Many thanks and hope everyone had a great Christmas

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Christmas day action

Date: Fri, Dec 26, 2008 Professional Internet

While most of us were celebrating Christmas with our families, opening presents, drinking bad wine and playing random boardgames the nose bleeds were in full swing!

On what turned out to be a action packed Christmas day there were some big winners and losers.

Although not the biggest winner of the day Tom 'Durrrr' Dwan logged on for a paltry hour, played 75 hands and walked away for a profit of $461,356 on the monitored tables. I sincerely hope the young lad got smashed after this because a) its Christmas, and b) he had just won $450k+!

Here is a round-up of those that found presents under their Christmas trees, and those that found coal;

MR B 2 U SON $557,859
durrrr $461,356
Patrik Antonius $241,938
Ziigmund $205,453
ActionJeff $104,053

Gus Hansen $-762,439
Phil Ivey $-522,778
Urindanger $-219,320
David Oppenheim $-127,355
mastrblastr $-69,607

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

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Merry Christmas

Date: Wed, Dec 24, 2008 Professional Internet

Its that time of year again, the elves are frantically wrapping the last few presents, kids are getting excited and hopefully the donkey's are getting drunk.!

So I'd just like to take a moment to wish you all an extremely Merry Christmas, I hope everyone gets a nice bankroll boost (as long as its not at my expense) and Santa all brings you white hot decks.

-MERRY CHRISTMAS-

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Calling the mother ship!

Date: Tue, Dec 23, 2008 Professional Internet

Today I have an engineer scheduled to come and replace my fried motherboard. I'm strangely excited about this as I've felt a little out of touch at home without my trusty laptop to connect me to the world!

I've also missed the grind. I know I don't play masses of hands but I do like booting up the tables after a horrid day in the office and smoking a few fishes while trying not to get smoked myself. There something simple, yet carnal in it all.

So while I sit here waiting to get back on the tables I've been thinking about what I would want for Poker Claus this Christmas. I know he's a volatile character so I may not get what I ask for but none the less its worth asking.

1) Firstly I'd like a coach, a decent SS grinder who can help me improve my game, close off some leaks, open me up a bit and make me play better in marginal situations.

2) Secondly, I'd like poker to explode in countries like Russia, India and China so the number of online fish sore. The poker economy could do with a little boost at the moment.

3) Thirdly, I'd like a big fat bankroll boost! Don't we all though!

Doorbells just gone, must be time for the motherboard. Finally!

Happy donkey hunting all.

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Look-a-like Tony G

Date: Sat, Dec 20, 2008 Professional Internet

Every one's favorite Australian Russian destroyer Tony G seems to bare an unlikely resemblance to 'This is England' star Thomas Turgoose. If there are any high stakes Russian players reading this then make sure you bring it up at your next game :)


Judge for yourself!

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3/3/3 challenge is over!

Date: Fri, Dec 19, 2008 Professional Internet

That's right, the 3 days, 3 thousand hands, 3 buy in's challenge is kaput!

Today my computer went into meltdown. it totally spazzed out and won't do anything. Have spent about 5 hours trying to sort things out myself but looks like my motherboard has given up!

Obviously its 18 days outside of the warranty! Couldn't have exploded 3 weeks ago, no no no!

Anyhoo, it means that the challenge is over. I'm on my work computer at the mo so I can still play but I'm lacking PT3 and just can't be bovved now.

Oh well, I still like the idea of the 3/3/3 challenge so will have to look for another opportunity to put it into effect.

Hope everyone else's systems are still running smoothly :)

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