Ok, so it's not the Australian Poker League exactly, more like the Manly Boys Poker League in Sydney, but whatever.... Lee won a couple of games and Jeff overtook Rod on the poker league scoreboard (average winnings). We played until the wee hours 2.45am but it was good fun. Thanks to Sandy for the booze samples and Lee and Benny for their place, as always.

PokerDIY has poker games and poker events. This can be a little confusing so I am going to explain the difference as they serve slightly different purposes. Poker Games (middle icon on top  ) are like poker game ads - ie. the intention of holding a poker game, looking for players, leagues etc. Here is an example of a proposed poker game in Manly, Sydney. You can drill down by location, search by distance from your closest town etc. As you can see, it is essentially an ad (always free ;) for a poker game or league to try and get players or to find a game. Poker Events (main menu bar) are useful for poker league managers to schedule, manage and organize an ACTUAL poker game, event or tourney. For example, you know you are definitely playing a poker tourney next Thursday as part of you poker league and you want to see which of your poker league members can make it and who is busy etc. You can schedule an event and make it private (so only your poker league members see it). They will receive an invitation and can RSVP (you'll get notified) so everyone can see who is busy etc. This works very much like MeetUp, Facebook events etc (you can export your poker event to Outlook via iCal). Here is an example of a poker event (for an online freeroll - it doens't have to be a live game!) You could of course use both methods - post your home game in the Poker Game section if you are looking for players and then set up an event everytime you have an actual game scheduled. This is what we do for our Sydney Poker League. Sorry, one last thing just to confuse you even more- after you have uploaded your scores for your poker league on PokerDIY (you do have a poker league scoreboard right?) you will notice that your profile shows "Last x Poker Games". Basically a poker league has one or more seasons which consist of one or more poker games. So here is my poker league, here is the 2008 Season and here are the poker game results from last week. I hope that clears it up a bit! Let me know on the poker forums if you have any queries!

Thanksgiving I have a couple poker-related things to be thankful for today. First, I went deep in a freeroll tournament on PokerStars to get a little money to get going again after going broke on that site a while ago (I've been playing on Full Tilt since). It was a Turbo MTT, so a lot of luck was involved and I got some good hands. I finished around 190th out of about 5000 players, so that was cool. A couple observations about these that helped me. I avoided the marginal situations. I had AK and someone went all in with what was revealed to be Queens and ended up getting a full house. I used to snap call those with AK, but why go into a coinflip when you can find better places where you have more of an edge. Aggressive play wins. I found myself continuation betting about 80% of my hands after raising. I usually caught a tiny piece of the flop, such as 2nd pair or a straight or flush draw. I would bet about half the pot, and often would win the pot right there. Just be sure not to get carried away trying to bluff if you don't hit your draw of if your opponent plays back strongly against you. In a turbo format, people tend to play recklessly. You can combat this by playing tighter but aggressively when you have good hands. People will call you with absolutely nothing. Apparently, they think you are always bluffing when you bet. Just let them pay you off! In any case, I won $0.50, which isn't much, but I later parlayed it into a little more in a $0.10 SnG tournament! Hopefully, I can build my bankroll on this site as well. To those of you who celebrate it, Happy Thanksgiving!

With the steady growth and new users it was bound to happen sooner rather than later – Alexa puts PokerDIY at 98 906 as of the 26th of November, 2008. This really is exciting and shows that poker players are finding value in our free service.

I had a very real brush with Google Death recently and I thought I would share my experience out of interest. I run PokerDIY.com, a social network for poker players that allows you to manage your poker league and find local poker games and players. You do not play poker on PokerDIY, it is a service for connecting poker players with league management (think Facebook + Craigslist for poker). All this is free of course. My prime revenue stream is online advertising. I just want to state now that I do not ever want to be an affiliate-driven poker site – i.e. I send someone to an online poker room and I get $50 (they probably lose $500) – most of the large poker sites operate on this model but my long-term vision is to have a successful social network and provide a respectable, useful, free service (I started PokerDIY because I kept sending our home poker league scores on a spreadsheet with mass emails). I personally do not play much online poker (playing live poker with a couple of mates and a few beers is one my favorite pastimes) and I really dislike the spew of keyword-rich poker sites with masses of affiliate banners of them offering no real value to the net visitor. I have tried MANY different types of online ads – ranging from AuctionAds, AdBrite, Adsense, Affiliate Ads, etc. and the most lucrative (as-in, keep me afloat lucrative) has always been the custom, flat rate ads (i.e. Not CPC or CPM - a webmaster contacts me, we agree on a rate and I put up their banner or text-link for a set duration of time). Why not Google Adsense? A year ago the great Google god (GGG) decided that PokerDIY does not comply with their guidelines (no gambling or casino sites) so they disabled my Adsense account. (For the record, I completely disagree and have appealed this decision as my site is a social service, not a gambling platform - you don’t play poker on PokerDIY!). I hope to hear back from them soon and will keep you posted. I think contextual ads (as opposed to untargeted, content-insensitive ads) are of course better for everyone. So; my point - Every now and again I experiment with different ads and options but I have repeatedly found text-links always give the best ROI (note, this depends on so many factors like your site’s target market, UI, traffic etc. This is merely my experience). The reason for this is PokerDIY’s good PageRank. For a few years the home page has been a PR5 and all the major subpages either a PR3 or a PR4. This directly translated into good ad rates for text-links and the advertising income made the time spent on the site worth it. This has all changed over the last year as Google have made their guidelines quite clear regarding bought and sold links. In a nutshell, they say that buying a link to increase your page-rank (incoming links count as “votes” towards a site’s worthiness) is a no-no and any site caught buying or selling links will be penalized. I won’t go into detail on this – it caused an ongoing, massive debate in the SEO and advertising world and this post is merely the affect it has had on me, the little guy. Firstly – I should state that I do agree with this conceptually. I don’t want to be able to move up the rankings in Google because I have money (or lose out in the rankings because my competitor has more money). I want a fair race where your web visitors are the judges and a sites ranking depends on its usefulness and the value it offers in its respective field. However, we have to be realistic – I (and most web entrepreneurs) rely on online ads to make money – if you remove this revenue stream a webmaster has to either secure an alternate stream if possible (we are in a recession in case nobody noticed) or shut shop. I fear for most people like myself “who just get by” and have no major backing behind them this is almost a death blow. Let me show you the tangible effect this has had on me: Two weeks ago I noticed that my Page Rank on my homepage had dropped from a PR5 to a PR3. Several potential advertisers inform me of this fact (almost gleefully) and suggested I reduce my ad rates and moved on. I did some research and although I can’t be sure I got the impression that Google was starting to “slap” webmasters on the wrist who were involved in the illicit link trade business. This had happened to many sites over the last year and seemed to be on the increase. But I never thought it would happen to me though (I’m the little guy!). I dropped everything and did some serious research on their guidelines – suddenly my worst fears had become a reality overnight with that casual PR drop. You might argue that PR has no influence on SERPS and or whatever (there’s endless discussions on this too) but it definitely has an effect on my revenue stream and the reactions of the advertisers whose payments I rely on. So, I had to make a big decision – Continue along my this path and risk a harder slap or Re-think my ad strategy, update my site, humbly get on my knees and beg for forgiveness (which involves pleading for my PR2 increase back). Oh yeah, and watch revenues tumble.   Let me give a brief bit of background on why neither of these 2 choices thrilled me: Either way, my ad revenue is going to drop – it’s just a matter of time. In the first case, I could keep my ad rates the same for the next 6 months or so, but I would definitely notice a drop in re-buys (90% of my advertisers periodically re-purchase their ads and I have a good relationship with every one of them (PokerDIY grows stronger every month – we are now in the Alexa top 100k, although of course this is no real indicator of a site’s success as I could have written a bot to hit the site periodically if I didn’t have better things to do)). Over time though the Google slaps would get harder and PokerDIY would wither up and die in the long run. Who knows what GGG is capable of when you risk his wrath – let’s see – PR0, lower SERPS and worst of all, the Google Death Blow – de-listing from the index). I therefore decided that whatever happens I want to stay on the right side of Google (Matt Cutts take note!) like a good little dog. But… if I play by the rules it means I keep my PR and traffic, but then I have to do things like a) not sell links or b) sell links that rely on eyeballs and not SEO – ie. Add the “nofollow” tag to them so Google does not think you are bigging-up the site you link to. Again, I see their point. If Paddy’s Poker Palace buys a link from me I should not be telling the world that PokerDIY endorses them (with link juice), I am merely saying – here’s an ad, click on it if you like and make your own mind up. Adding a “nofollow” tag is the only real option but boy, this is where the problems start. I have to either refund the advertiser (the value of their purchase has diminished) or offer them an alternative. Refunding is not an option as I cannot suddenly raise the money to pay back all my advertisers at once. So I am working on an ad package of an equal value (with a bit more thrown in for the trouble and hassle this has caused!) to make sure they get value for the remainder of their ad time. For example, if they had a direct text-link I will now offer them a 125*125 non-direct banner. Someone might argue that I could just leave the ”nofollow” tag off until the end of their advertising, but besides killing PokerDIY PR and traffic this would have a negative effect on their site anyway – not only because of the loss of traffic and PR, but Google would penalize the target site too for engaging in the despicable practice of ad purchasing for PR gain (it’s no secret that this is why people buy the little text links that no one clicks on). Out of interest, I had one existing advertiser contact me and request that I PUT the “nofollow” tag on as soon as possible (their site was being penalized for purchasing links), which I did. *UPDATE* A few days after implementing the “nofollow” tag on all text-links my PageRank was restored to a PR5. I believe this shows that Google is using algorithms and bots/spiders to automatically handle this affair (as you would expect). If this has not affected you then I would imagine it is only a matter of time – take action now so you don’t have to face the mess I am in. The other very tangible affect is that I have literally slashed my ad rates by more than half. In one day my potential forecast has more than halved with a single action from Google. A big company or firm might be able to budget for this kind of drop and have a contingency action plan built in, but for a many web entrepreneurs this is a serious blow. It could very well lead to a mass of small players dropping off the face of the web, leaving a clear web-class divide between the big players with money and the rest of us. So in a way even this action allows the big players to get to the top of SERPS – they’ll be #1 if there are no competitors with the financial backing to compete. Is this perhaps what Google want – a clean sweep of the web riff-raff to improve the quality over time? I will save the details of my Advertising Rethink for another post as this is getting a bit long. I thought I would share this story as testament to Google’s power and how it affects me, the little guy...

Recovery As mentioned previously, I have recently crippled my bankroll because of a downward spiral. Right now, I'm grinding out low stakes 1 table SnG's and Freerolls to try to build back up. I am having some success, winning 2 out of the last 3 SnG's I've played. I have a few practices that have been helpful for me. Stick to the Fundamentals I usually get into trouble when I try to be to fancy. For example, I once had AJ of clubs from late position. I raised and got two callers. The flop had two clubs in it. I bet about half the pot as a continuation bet with such a strong draw. One player folded and one called. The turn failed to produce a club. I bet half the pot again, hoping to shake my opponent off and still with the hops of hitting the club on the river. My opponent called. The river again failed to produce a club, leaving me with ace high. I went all in, hoping to bluff my opponent off his hand. He called, and turned over trips. My stack was crippled after being one of the chip leaders and I soon busted out. So what do I mean by fundamentals? Basically, it comes down to betting and raising when you've got it and checking or folding when you don't. It means being patient for good hands and not playing trash like 37o or J4s - but it's suited, I used to say. It also means bluffing and semi-bluffing if your reads indicate that would be best, but I'm finding at the lower stakes that players will call with bottom pair or just a couple of overcards. Often, straightforward play combined with patience and focus has been sufficient to help me get out of slumps. Be Engaged I have found that it's hard to concentrate at the lower stakes, especially if I've found some success at higher stakes. I think a key to my recent recovery has been the ability to engage the game and focus on a $1 SnG as much as I would a $26 Tournament. In the past, I would try to rush things at the lower stakes, as if it were beneath me. This would cause me to rush, play too loose, and basically suck. It is true that it is easier to win at lower stakes, but if you only use 50% of your ability, you can lose easily as well. One thing that has helped is the realization of the dire straights I'm in. Basically, by reminding myself that I've been playing losing poker and that I'm grinding the low limit SnG's because of past mistakes have helped me to focus. Patience One thing I'm trying to do is stay disciplined with bankroll management. I have been tempted to jump up to a bigger tournament as soon as my bankroll barely covers it. This has led to the situation I'm in now - barely any bankroll. A key to my recovery will be staying patient during the grind, improving my skill level, and build up the bankroll gradually so I'll be ready to tackle that tournament both financially and ability-wise in the future. This includes the realization that the journey back will not be a smooth climb. Having the patience to play through bad beats is crucial and I believe will also make me a better player. Conclusion These are some of the things I'm focusing on as I build up my bankroll again. I hope you find them helpful and I hope to update you in the coming weeks as to the success of my bankroll recovery.        

$100+20 NLHE tourney on saturdaay dec 6th at noon in the allentown, PA area. 27 seats available. one rebuy in first 2 rounds allowed and an add-on available at first break. top 6 places paid. free food and drinks.

There is a new free poker league in Bowling Green, KY... the Aces Full Poker League. We play every Thursday at 6:00 p.m. and Saturday at 1:00 p.m. (holidays excepted). We play at the You & Me Sports Bar and Pizza at Sugar Maple Square on Richardsville Road (Hwy 185).Since Aces Full is a start-up league, we still have seats available for anyone who wants to play... we even have two or three (so far) young ladies who are trying to make their mark in the league. We are a "points" league, with the top players being guaranteed a seat at a winner-take-all CASH tourney already set up (with others planned).For more info, please contact me.I look forward to seeing you at the tables...

Identifying Dangerous Patterns I have noticed for me that psychological factors may be keeping me from winning than technical factors. There is much to learn of course technically, such as hand reading, bet sizing, etc. but the psychological factors and mindset I believe are the main reason my bankroll is in the red. Fortunately, I've identified a dangerous pattern that has often led me to go broke. Here it is, and a few ways I plan to deal with it. Phase 1: Initial Bad Beat Usually, this involves me going fairly deep into a MTT, perhaps close to the money. This increases my positive expectations for my prospects. I then get a huge hand, such as Kings. I then hit trips, shove, and then my opponent hits his card on the river to beat me with a bigger hand. My emotional state drops from a near high to an all time low. It feels like someone just punched me in the gut. I might get a little faint. I then go into phase 2. Phase 2: The Comeback (Attempt) After taking the initial bad beat, I usually want to finish off my session on a winning note, so I'll enter a 1-table SnG that I usually have good results in, such as $5.50 6 Max. My thoughts are that I'll just win this tournament, get my entry fee from the other tournament back, then I'll stop for the day. This mindset then causes me to play a lot faster and aggressively than I normally would. I play a lot more hands, I bet a lot bigger, and in general, try to force the issue. I may actually take the chip lead in the tournament with the aggressive play, but eventually it ends with one too many bluffs or again, hitting a bad beat. Now, from here, there are two results that usually occur from here. By chance, I might actually win the tournament. Unfortunately, I mistakenly think that I am on a rush and then usually enter another SnG with the same buy-in and enter Phase 2 again. More frequently, I bust out and enter Phase 3. Phase 3: Redemption During this phase, which usually occurs within 10 minutes of busting out in Phase 2, I enter a much larger buy-in MTT, such as a $26 MTT with huge prizes. The mindset here is that I was playing well (in Phase 1) and if I just continue that type of play, it will get rewarded here as karma for the bad beat in the initial tournament. I play better here than in Phase 2, and sometimes very well. However, after breaking through the first few rounds, I'm usually playing against tougher competition. For example, in a tournament with 400-500 players paying out the first 50-60 spots, I might make it to the top 200. At this point, I usually get ground down and end up having to shove with the short stack and busting out before making it to the money. After this phase, it usually hits me that I'm on tilt. However, due to my psychological state, I continue on the downward spiral and enter Phase 4. Phase 4: The Last Chance During this phase, I realize that my bankroll has taking some huge hits and that I'm probably on tilt. So I enter a low stakes single table SnG with the intention of just making  a little money to get momentum going into the right direction before ending my session. As you can probably guess by now, this doesn't happen. Like Phase 2, I'm playing differently than I usually do. However, this time it's on the cautious, passive side. My opponents end up catching on to this and raise my small bets or bluff more often. My stack gets whittled down slowly and I end up having to shove where once again, I usually end up busting out. At this point, my bankroll is down 70-80% in one day! The last time this happened, my bankroll went from over $150 to about $30 in a day. That's the day I started this blog. New Procedures So now that I've recognized this dangerous pattern, I've decided to take on a few procedures to combat this. Basically, it's standard bankroll management with some self-discipline thrown in. I will not enter any tournaments where the buy-in represents more than 5% of my bankroll After losing more than 2 tournaments in a row, that's it for the day. In this case, I will actually use the responsible gambling features on the websites to lock me out for 24 hours (or 12 hours if I'm playing later in the day). That way I get to sleep on it and perhaps take the time to study my game. After every loss, I will take the time to look at the big hands and see if there's anything systemic I can identify. This has the dual effect of improving my game (by going over my hands) and separating me from playing after perhaps taking a bad beat. This blog: I decided to write this blog as a measure of accountability. I figure that besides the three things above, having a community of other players who read about my victories and defeats will help me to play more conscientiously. Deposit only once a month. If I do go broke, I'm resolving not to be able to deposit any money in my online account unti lthe next month. Of course, it will take some willpower to stick to this, but if I do so, I can see myself at least avoiding this dangerous cycle of bankroll decimation!  

An Introduction One of my favorite motivational speakers says you need to face reality before you can make changes. Positive thinking can only get you so far unless you face reality. So my reality is that I'm a losing player! Of course, I'm trying to change this. I study my game. I read forums and books. this current endeavor is to add some accountability and community to my effort. Hopefully, by posting my results, challenges, progress, and emotions, I'll be forced to not play recklessly (so I won't have to post my embarrassing hands), and also manage my bankroll (so I won't have to post about my going broke again). I enjoy the competitiveness of poker, the intellectual challenge, the psychological aspects, and the excitement of chance. I think poker is a game of skill, but one cannot deny that lady luck plays a roll as well. I hope you will enjoy my journey and may lady luck travel with me on occasion.

Many people sit around and play stud poker in their homes and in casinos. However, if you are mainly an at home player you may not be playing by the rules that you will see at an online poker room or in a casino. This could be very bad, if you start playing and make a big mistake that can hurt your pocketbook. The best way to ensure you are ready to play is by learning the rules of stud poker. All casinos offline and online use the same basic rules of play. This article will give you the basics for playing 7-card stud poker, even though there are other varieties such as 5-card stud poker.The way in which the game of 7 card Stud Poker is played is that each player begins by putting the ante in the center of the table. This is normally a predetermined amount of money set by the casino or online poker room.Once everyone has anted the dealer begins with the player on his or her left and deals two cards down and one card face up to each player. The player that has the lowest card face up begins the betting, known as the “bring in”. The betting goes around the table in clockwise fashion until every player has made their bet with each player either calling, raising the bet, or folding.After this round of betting, the dealer deals the fourth card to every player that is still in the game, meaning they have not folded. Now, the player with the best hand showing begins the betting. Then the betting goes around the table again with players once again calling, raising, or folding.The next card or fifth card is dealt to each player face up with another round of betting as before. Then the sixth card is dealt face up with a round of betting. The last card or seventh card is dealt by the dealer to each player that has not folded face down.The players after this have another round of betting and then show their hand, known as the showdown. The winner is the one with the best 5-card hand. Each card that is dealt is also referred as street such as Fourth Street instead of the fourth card and so on until reaching Seventh Street or the seventh card.Of course, this is just the basic game play, in order to play poker well, you must learn all about the rankings and what hands beat which hands. You may think that you have a great hand just because you have 2 pair, however, if another player has 3 of a kind or a full house, you will loose. The better you are at learning the rankings and the way in which to play the various types of poker games, the more likely you are to bring in some winnings.

Playing poker online is fast becoming a way for many to enjoy the sport of poker without all the hassles of traveling to another state or getting out in all kinds of weather to find a casino. Many states in the US do not even have one casino with any type of table games, thus many individuals cannot just drive down the street to play a hand. They must go on vacation to find a casino, thus the main reason online poker is so popular. However, do people real win at online casinos? The answer is yes, but you must know how to play in the virtual world in order to win.Online poker is pretty much the same as in a casino. You can play in a virtual world today and even in a 3D world, making the game even more enjoyable. The 3D games are practically like being there only without all the noise that you found at casinos.To win at online poker games, you still play just about, like you would in a casino. You should start out by playing your highest hand at the beginning of the poker game. You should also remember the old saying, “know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold”. If you think, you have a bad hand, fold. This way you will not lose as much, because no one wins every time. Online, you can watch the player’s faces and learn if they are bluffing, it is better to fold than lose a huge amount of money.As you enter a poker room, observe before joining in. What are the stacks? If they are higher than you wish to lose, then leave. You can find a room where the stacks are not as high and you can enjoy winning.If you are losing, lower your bet. You do not always have to bet the max. This will also help you win while minimizing your losses.Even though, you are playing online, try to get to know the other players. Learn how they bet, their strategies, etc…, by watching the game prior to joining in if possible. You must still learn how to outsmart the other poker players in the room if you wish to win.Not only must you learn about the other players, but you must also learn how to bet. Betting defensively is the best option. Learn how to bluff your opponents. This is a great way to win at any poker game. Your bluffs may not work on the hardcore players, but new poker players will fall into your trap.

Omaha Hold’em is very similar to Texas Hold’em only with a twist. However, this article will give you a step-by-step guide so you will know the basics.The way in which the game of Omaha Hold’em is played is that the first two player sitting to the left of the dealer place blind bets. The first player puts out a small blind bet and the second player puts out a large blind bet. A blind bet is a set amount that is determined before the game and is placed prior to any player seeing any of their cards, the reason it is called a blind bet.The dealer will now deal four cards to each player face down, known as pocket or hole cards. The game begins with the person to the left of the one that placed the large blind bet. This player after looking at his or her cards can bet, raise, or fold. The betting continues clockwise around the table. (In Texas Holdem, two cards are dealt to each player).After everyone has had the chance to bet, the dealer will then deal three cards to the center of the table face up, known as community cards. These cards are also called the flop. The community cards will be used along with the player’s cards to create a poker hand. After the flop is dealt, the betting begins with the player to the left of the dealer. Each player will be able to check or bet.After everyone has had a chance to bet after the flop, one more card is dealt to the center of the table, also known as the board, face up. Many call this the turn card or Fourth Street. Once again betting is done around the table. The last card commonly referred to as the river or Fifth Street is dealt to the board face up. Another round of betting is done.The players that have not folded will now show their cards. Now here is another twist, each player must use two of the four cards they were dealt in their pocket cards to form the best hand. The hand must include five cards in which two cards are theirs. All players must also show all four cards. The player with the best hand wins the pot. If a player only shows two cards and discards the other two, he or she will forfeit the game. If the best cards are the ones on the board, then all players left in the game divide the pot.Now, you can enjoy playing a game of Omaha Holdem and at least have an idea of what is going on. The best way to learn more is by watching others online playing and getting a feel of the game.

If you want to become a serious poker player online or offline, you need to know the poker, hand rankings or you not know if you have a good hand or a bad hand. Of course, if you are use to playing with friends at home, you are more than likely not playing by the rules that are seen at casinos. All casinos, poker rooms online, and offline play by the same rules.The first thing you must know is that all 52 cards are used to play poker in most cases; however, the joker may or may not be used. The joker is often only seen in Draw Poker games and is not used in Texas Hold’em, other hold’em games, and stud poker.Cards are ranked from highest to lowest with the Ace at the top. The King, Queen, and Jack come next in that order and then 10 all the way down to the 2 often referred to as the deuce. The Ace can be used at the top or the bottom as a one for straights or even for the lowest card.In practically all poker games, only the five best cards are counted even if you are playing a seven-card game. Here is the breakdown so you will know if you have a good hand.If a joker is in play, the best hand a person can have is a five of a kind with five Aces at the top of the list. If no joker is in play, the best hand is the straight flush. A straight flush is five cards of the same suit such as all spades, all hearts, all clubs, or all diamonds. Of course, the cards must be in order to be a straight such as five diamonds from 5 to 10. A Royal Flush is the best hand, which includes the Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and Ten.Four of a kind comes next. All four cards must be the same card, such as all tens, kings, etc… with the higher the card ranking the better. The best of course would be four Aces.Next is the Full House. A full house is three cards that have the same rank and then a pair. The higher the three cards the better such as 3 Kings and 2 5’s. Of course, the person with the higher three cards will beat other players.The flush is next. A flush is cards of the same suit, but not in order. This means you can have five hearts of any rank. The person with the highest rank card will win if everyone has a flush. The straight is next with five cards in order from various suits. This means you can have 1 ace space, 1 diamond king, 1 heart queen, 1 club jack, and 1 spade 10. The suit does not matter.Three of a kind means the same card such as all three kings. The next is a two pair of the same such as 2 Aces and 2 fives. The last one is one pair such as 2 tens.Of course if no one has any of the above, the person with the highest card will win the hand.

Playing online poker is not the same as playing in person, as you cannot watch body language, which is a great advantage if you want to win. However, there are ways you can read the action of other poker players if you know what to look for in an online poker game.The first thing you should pay attention to is how long it takes the person to place a bet. This is known as the stall. However, many experienced players are now using this method to try to fool other players. The best way for the stall method to work is that you must know the players in the room. After you play a room awhile, you will get to know the regulars and learn who is an expert. Once you know this, then the stall method will help you know which players are new. Inexperienced players often stall due to the fact they are not sure how much to bet even if they have a great hand. Just watch your step, remember pros are now using the same method to side track you.Watch for players that have been playing rather quickly and then all of a sudden stall or vice versa one that has been thinking a bit before betting and then bets quickly after being dealt a hand. Either one of these could mean they have something good in their hand. No matter whether you are playing online or offline, you can learn behavior patterns of other poker players and get the edge.The pattern of poker players is probably the most important factor with online poker. Since you cannot watch their faces, you can still watch the patterns that are there from betting, to calling, to raising. You should pay attention to the way in which each player bets compared to the size of the pot as well. Online players are normally those that play all the time, they have their own routine and patterns, just as in real life. These are things you must learn if you want to win at any online poker game.Watch those chat boxes. Yes, it can be fun to chat with your friends; however, you can also be heckled just like in real life. A matter of fact, the chat box might be your worst enemy. They can yell at you with all capitals, use rolling smiley faces, and more to distract you from your main goal. You will hear all kinds of insults such as “newbie”, the “game room cheats”, and so on and so forth. Anything to get your mind off the game and watching the other players.Of course, you cannot watch the other players in your poker room, but you can watch the way they play and learn from experience how to read online poker players.

4 Games were played last night with 4 different winners. Rod won the first poker game in true Joyce style and vowed that if he won the next 3 he would buy the new Chilli surfboard he had his eye one. He lost the next 3. The 4 games that were played: 1st $20 Game - Rod pips Jeff 2nd $20 Game - Morgs pips Jeff too 3rd $20 Game - Lee beats Morgs Last Game - Jeff beats Rodders and here is the current league scoreboard. See you next Thurs... (ps - Benny and Lee are moving - anyone know where?)

1/2 NL Holdem Home Poker Game in Philadelphia, PA PhillyHey guys,Just wanted to introduce myself and tell you guys I am hosting a 1/2 No Limit Holdem game in Philadelphia. We have about 22 players who come and play 4 times a week. We usually have a full table, but some days we have about 2-3 seats open.We play every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. if you are interested shoot me an email @ pokersouthphilly@yahoo.comThis is an honest game with a great bunch of guys and girls. Free food and drinks will be served. BYOB.This is a great way to meet other poker lovers in the Philly area. We also take group trips to AC and split the tolls and gas. (we usually go to Trop/Taj?borgata/Showboat)Game: 1/2 No Limit HoldemStarts: November 14 2008 @ 9pmEnds: Usually 5-6am sometimes 10am.When: Every Monday, Wed, Fri, SunAge: 21-45Players: 8-20Rules: Borgata RulesAll races and ages allowed just be cool.

Congrats out to Peter Eastgate, the newest, and youngest ever WSOP Main Event Champion!! He broke Phil Hellmuth's (self-proclaimed unbeatable) record being only 22 years old and won over $9 million along with the bracelet and probably numerous sponsorship deals to come. I just finished watching the final table show tonight and it was a very exciting final table. Plenty of suckouts and suprises. In the end, it seemed like the 2 most introspective players seemed to rise above the rest. Ivan Demidov and Peter Eastgate were left to battle it out after fan favorite and chip leader coming in Dennis Phillips, who previously seemed to play pretty solid and straight forward, was KO'd 3rd making a huge bluff with only Ace hi after a jack hi junk flop. After seeing the show 1 time I haven't fully been able to collect my thoughts on the plays shown, however, it was clear that ESPN was determined only to show the biggest most exciting pots, so I had a hard time figuring out were everyone stood, what the blinds were, etc. In the end I really did like the final table being filmed at a later date in a theatre that was filled with the fans of each player and numerous big name pros looking on. It gave you a feeling like you were watching 9 different teams fighting it out, each with there own cheering section. It seemed more exciting than the random collection of fans who don't have much of a personal interest in the competitors and are just there for the spectacle or it all. On the bad side, when it got to heads-up, which sould be the most exciting point of the tourney, apparently ESPN cut 103 out of the 105 hands played and on TV it plays out in only 2 big hands. the final of which both players make big hands and are pretty much committed to get all the chips all-in. I didn't know this after watching it, and figured they must have just happened that way, but after looking into it online, I am now dissapointed to know they just cut out all the heads-up hands I guess due to time constraints. I really felt a bit ripped off after learning this. I feel like they could have at least showed 10-15 hands to show a little back and forth warfare. I do know they claim this was the longest final table ever, but if I was them add an extra half an hour or cut out something less critical. I also wish Peter Eastgate would show the least bit excitement about winning. He reminds me of a you Barry Greenstein. Can you say Parrrrrtttyyy!!! Maybe not. lol. At least I feel he won't do anything too stupid to bring a bad rep to poker, but he is only 22, so I guess you never know? Overall, I like the direction the WSOP went this year. Ratings are up and many exciting events took place. Here is a link to "Cardplayer's" final table time-line of how it played out. http://www.cardplayer.com/tournaments/live_updates/14422/20824  I'd like to get some feedback on what others think. Did you like the delayed Final table?, the way it was aired?, was it interesting and exciting? What changes would you like to see? Here's this weeks dose of Chinese war master "Sun-Tzu" : "If he is taking ease, give no rest. If his forces are united, separate them." Better luck next year for the rest of us common folk. Donkeyherder.   If interested you can reach me at http://donkeyherder.livejournal.com  

I have recently joined the iPhone Owners club (yes, sorry) and it's time to jazz it up with cool iPhone poker apps! I am looking at a couple of poker games but this (Texas Hold'em for iPhone) one seems to be the daddy (written by Apple so it's gonna be good I think ;) Does any one have an iPhone and if so, what poker apps do you have on it? Anyone got the THNL from Apple?

If you enjoy the right to play poker and are interested on how our country's representatives would be rated regarding these rights, here is a link to the Poker Players Alliance "Congressional Ratings Website", which breaks down and rates each representative by state. Here is the link: http://donkeyherder.livejournal.com/2008/11/02/

Tip #1 - Don't be afraid to get felted. This holds true early in a tournament or cash game.

I routinely hear the same questions when I talk to friends and family about my online poker career. Is playing poker online legal? Answer: Yes, in most states and countries it is legal to play, however recent U.S. legislation has put pressure on banks to not process illegal gambling transactions, which is very difficult to discern. You can usually find a variety of options to deposit funds and withdrawl. I've been playing online for 5 years and the longest it took to get my money on was a few days and the longest it took to get off was a few weeks by standard check. Typically you can deposit same-day and cashout in 1-3 weeks. How do you know the site or the other players aren't cheating? Answer: The same would just as well apply in a live casino except online every hand and detail is databased and can be analyzed and if there is some funny business the perps can't just grab the money and run like in a casino. I'm not gonna say it doesn't happen, but the online sites make boat loads of money just running a straight game and the entire industry's success is based upon this trust. Typically the extent on cheating is a couple people who are playing on the same table and know each other's cards, which can be an advantage, but if exploited on a regular basis would be easy to figure out after a while. Most of the controversy spurs from a recent situation at Ultimatebet and Absolute Poker (Which are now the same company) in which a top level employee was able to exploit a software weakness and access the hole cards of the other players. This player eventually was caught after getting reported by other observant players and showing an excessive profit margin playing in high limit games. The website got most of the blame for trying to keep the incident quite, but eventually apoligized and like most sites offered to reimburse all affected players. All in all, the threat is currently small especially at the lower limits where it would not be a worthwhile venture. There are also thousand of very observant players in the poker community who keep an eye out and report any unsual incidents. In my best estimate I would guess 95% of the time everybody is playing straight which is probably better than the games in the casino or at home.I've been looking forward to doing a post reviewing the different online poker sites. Many of the top players play on many different sites in order to take advantage of what each poker site has to offer. Some site have worse players, better bonuses, better rakeback, unique tournaments, special promotions, etc. Not to mention just having a larger selection of tables/games to find what is most fun or profitable for you. I personally play on 5 of the largest "U.S. friendly" sites: Pokerstars, FullTilt Poker, UltimateBet, Absolute Poker, Cake Poker, and used to play on Party Poker (Until they kicked the U.S. players to the curb. I look forward to getting feedback on Bodog and Doyle's Room, which I have been interested in joining, however, neither at this time offer any kind of rakeback program, which is very important to me. So here's my personal rundown on these sites:Pokerstars - Volume - By far the largest poker site in the world!! Volume ranges from 50,000-almost 200,000 players playing!! This makes the variety of games and limits very easy to fill.Tournaments - Again very numerous at all limits. From freerolls to regular $Million guaranteed tournaments. Sit in Go's - From $1 - $2,000 and they are all full even up to $1,000, HU, 6man, and 9mans, Turbos, etc.Cash Games - From 2cent/4cent up to $1000/2000 - They all fill well - Typically 20,000+ cash game playersCustomer Service/Software - Very good, usually quick customer service. Software rarely has issuesBonuses - They usually match $50-100 at 100% for 1st deposits Rakeback/Player Rewards - They have a player VIP rewards system. Also, SNG leaderboard rewardsPromotions - Very big multi-table tournament promotions (Including WSOP, WPT, EPT,etc.) and a ton of different satelites. They also showcase a number of Pro players sponsored to play on their site.Overall - I'd give them a Donkeyherding 8.5/10. I think it's almost a must to have an account on Pokerstars with so many options available at any time. You can always get a game and great support. My only concerns are that you can get better Deposit/Reload bonuses and easier competition elsewhere and they currently don't offer rakeback. They do on occasion have overlay (Free money added) on some tournaments and is a good site for me if I want to play during non-peak hours Full Tilt Poker - Volume - The 2nd largest poker site in the world. Volume ranges from 30,000-almost 80,000 players playing! Not quite as large as Pokerstars but still very big. This also makes the variety of games and limits very easy to fill.Tournaments - Very numerous at all limits. From freerolls to some $Million guaranteed tournaments. Sit in Go's - From $1 - $2,000 and they are all full even up to $1,000, HU, 6man, and 9mans, Turbos, etc.Cash Games - From 25cents/50cent to $2000/4000, Typically they have about 10,000 cash game players going at it, so it is pretty easy to get any size game to fillCustomer Service - Very good, usually quick customer serviceBonuses - 100% $600 max 1st deposit bonus (Which plays off reasonbly quickly)Rakeback/Player Rewards - You can get rakeback if a new account. Also, leaderboard rewardsPromotions - Fulltilt seems to be a little more creative in trying out new tournaments and structures. They recently introduced a "Matrix" tournament in which you play 4 SNG's at the same time against the same players and you are payed based on finish as well as an overall performance placement score. I like it, very interesting, but can be tough on your eyeballs if you're not used to playing 4 at a time!! Overall - I'll give them a 9/10. I really like FullTilt Poker. It is a great site all-around. Plenty of volume, promotions, variety, and good customer service. A nice deposit bonus and you can get rakeback. They usually have good customer service. My only beef might be lack of reload bonuses, a bit tougher competition, and occasionally I get disconnected from only their site, but I'm not sure if that is just me?Ultimatebet - Volume - Ranks probably 4th largest "U.S. friendly" poker site in the world. Volume ranges from 10,000-20,000 players. A bit of a step down from Pokerstars and Fulltilt in size, but depending on the limits you play still quite active. Over the next year they expect to merge traffic with similarly sized Absolute Poker which will make them the 3rd largest U.S. accepted site.Tournaments - During the morning and mid-day you can find lo-mid stake tournament, while large buy-in tourneys will run during hi traffic times and on weekends. They run a 200K tourney weekly and an annual large tournament event series called UBOC, I think twice a year. You can also come across occasional overlay (free money added) tournaments especially in some satelites.Sit in Go's - From $0.20 - $1,000, however, typically they fill well up to $100 buy-insCash Games - From 1cent/2cent to $300/600, Typically they have about 1,300 cash game players. I would say 10/20 15/30 is the highest limit that fills reasonably well unless heads up.Customer Service - I will definately say customer service is not their strong suit. Maybe with their merger with Absolute might improve. Don't get me wrong, they will respond to your needs, however, not necessarily within 24hrs. They many times run satelites which if you win more than once are credited with tournament dollars and occasionally it is not automatically creditted to your account and I had to send a number of emails to make sure it got fixed.Bonuses - up to 111% $1500 max 1st deposit bonus!! (Luckily with no deadline to play it off. If you're a cash game player it will be earned quicker, I mostly play tourneys so for me it takes much longer) Reload bonuses are also availableRakeback/Player Rewards - You can get rakeback if a new account, however, only for cash game play not until after any bonus payouts. I believe they also have leaderboard rewards.Promotions - Even though UB is not as big a FT and PS, they do run a number of satelites for bigger events including WPT and WSOP. Phil Helmuth and Annie Duke are also popular site backers. I have been part of a couple of their live events in which they put on a nice party.Overall - I'll give them a 7.5/10. Currently, most of the time I like UB. It is a solid site all-around. Good volume during peak times, fun promotions, reliable software and variety. A nice deposit bonus and you can get rakeback. I actually like the fact I can play a $50 multi with around 100-300 players vs 1000+ like some of the bigger sites. They caught alot of crap over the earlier cheating scandal and I have the impression they are trying to go out of their way gain trust. If their customer service improves with the merge I will probably re-rate them between 8.0-8.5.Absolute Poker - Volume - Ranks probably 5th largest "U.S. friendly" poker site in the world. Volume ranges from 10,000-20,000 players. A bit of a step down from Pokerstars and Fulltilt in size, but depending on the limits you play still quite active. Tournaments - They run weekly 100K and 150K tourneys alnog with some satelites to some bigger live tournaments. Typically mostly small to medium tourneys during non-peak times and larger tounreys during peak times and weekends.Sit in Go's - From $0.50 - $1,000, however, typically they fill well up to $100 and occasional $200 and $300 6 handers fill ok.Cash Games - From 2cent/4cent to $300/600, Typically they have about 1,500 cash game players. I would say 15/30 sometimes 30/60, is the highest limit that fills reasonably well unless heads up.Customer Service - Their email is no better than UB's, however, they do offer a live telephone # available, which has been helpful in the past. Rarely do they have any software glitches, and I don't have the additional entry tournament dollar problem here because they don't currently let you play a satelite if you already have won an entry. Bonuses - up to 100% $600 max 1st deposit bonus!! Very nice reload bonuses are also available up to 100%!!Rakeback/Player Rewards - You can get rakeback if a new account and it apllies to all games/tourneys and bonuses are not subtracted. I also believe they also have leaderboard rewards.Promotions - This site is currently a lo frills UB with better support, they do run a number of satelites for bigger events including WPT and WSOP. Currently poker pro Mark Seif is their front man. Overall - I'll give them a 8.0/10. Within the next year UB is expected to merge traffic with Absolute Poker (Their sister site) which is almost the same size and will propel them to being the 3rd largest U.S. accepted site, which will hopefully make them even better. Currently most of the time I like AP. It is a solid site all-around. Good volume during peak times, reliable software and variety. A nice deposit and reload bonuses, and you can get full rakeback. I actually like the fact I can play a $50 multi with around 100-300 players vs 1000+ like some of the bigger sites. They caught alot of crap over the earlier cheating scandal and I have the impression they are trying to go out of their way gain trust. Once their traffic improves with the merge and hopefully they can be a little more aggressive with promotions and new games, I will probably re-rate them 8.5+.Cake Poker - Volume - Ranks probably 6th largest "U.S. friendly" poker site in the world. Volume ranges from 3,000-10,000 players. Suprisingly even some higher limit games fill quite well, especially during peak hours. You can almost always find low to medium limit games running. Tournaments - You can find plenty of $1-30 multi's. Besides the weekly guaranteed multi's, most are around 100-300 players and below $50. They do have satelites to WPT and WSOP events and many of the players can play pretty bad.Sit in Go's - From $0.50 - $1,000, however, typically they fill well up to $100 and occasional $200 and $300 6 handers fill ok.Cash Games - From 2cent/4cent to $300/600, Typically they have about 1,500 cash game players. I would say 15/30 sometimes 30/60, is the highest limit that fills reasonably well unless heads up.Customer Service - I usually get a reply within 24 hrs. from them, but no phone number is availableBonuses - up to 100% $600 max 1st deposit bonus!! Very nice reload bonuses are also available up to 100%!!Rakeback/Player Rewards - You can get 33% rakeback if a new account and it apllies to all games/tourneys.Promotions - They run the typical WSOP and WPT satelites and run a couple larger $100-200 multisOverall - I'll give them a 7.8/10. They're definately not the greatest site around yet, but they have probably the most fishy players vs. the others' I've mentioned so far, they also have the highest rakeback at 33%, and have good bonuses. They definately need more reliable software and better deposit methods (I had to transfer money in through another player) I grew my bankroll faster on this site than any other makes me overlook some of its downfalls and I can only assume it's gonna get bigger and better.Party Poker - (No longer U.S. friendly)They used to be the #1 poker site around until they made the unpopular decision to dump all of their U.S. customers, which hurried over to Pokerstars, due to U.S. regulations. Very similar to Pokerstars in nature, however now about the size of Ultimatebet. Still they big tournaments and good support. At least that is until they decided to send me emails charging my account for the few dollars I had left due to "inactivity"?! Can you believe the nerve? Needless to say I told them where to stick it and they closed my account. lol.Bodog - Similar in size to Cake Poker, however, their traffic has been declining, while Cake's is growing. They also, currently don't offer rakeback, however, I hear there's alot of fish there and overlay in some tournaments. It might be somewhere I play in the future if I hear some good things and/or they start giving rakeback, but for now I've never played there so I won't offer my opinion.Doyle's Room - Again, similar in size to Cake Poker, but no rakeback. I also don't personally know anyone who plays there so I have no opinion other than if the site grows or offers rakeback I will give it another look. Anyone else with feedback please let me know.If you do decide to sign-up for a new poker site make sure to click on my rakeback link first and follow the instructions, because once you sign-up if you don't use the rakeback code you cant go back and still get rakeback!! This once screwed me on FullTilt and I didn't have rakeback for a long time and lost alot of free money. My other recomendation is to try not to split up your bankroll too thin by moving funds into a new site, while at the same time you want to take full advantage of the 1st deposit bonuses which typically offer 100% up to $500-600. Basically if you only have $1000 or less on 1 site, maybe try and save up $300-600 so you don't cripple your bankroll on another site in case of a bad run. I unfortunately have learned this the hard way. I was doing quite well on Pokerstars and decided to sign-up for UB and AP and it spread out my bankroll too thin taking me months to build each account back up to sufficient levels in order to play larger games. Also, try to break the new site in slowly at a lower limit than you're used to in case you get confused by the software and have time to get comfortable. Usually it takes me about 2-3 weeks to have a new site dialed in. Also remember you probably don't have any feedback on your new opponents, so best play small and slowly move up.GL, and good herding, Donkeyherder.For more on me and my blog posts please check me out at: http://donkeyherder.livejournal.com

Joined this site last night to discuss my ongoing target. I plan to emulate that of Chris Jesus Ferguaon. However unlike him i have started with $50. at the moment i am sitting at 280. I Started top build my bankroll by playing 6 handed $3.4 SNGs on stars and grinded my way to $200 where i started cash. Posting $12 on 10 25 cent tbles. After a damn lot of grinding i got to 250 and decided i wanted more action to win quicker. Therefore i have decided to play four tables of $20 at 25 50 cent tables. A little naughty i know but if it fails i will drob back down. thankfully yesterday i won $30 and now my poker blogging friends you have been filled in on how i made it to $280. So far today i am up $40 nevertheless ive been playing for four hours. not a great wage $10 an hour lol. i have had a few very interesting hands. For example i had made it up to $75 on one of my 6 handed tables and was holding AK. I elected to raise to $2 it folds round to the small blind who pops it up to $6.5. Didnt have a great read on his style so i just flat called. The flop comes down Ac Ks Qd of which he bets $5 a ery inducive bet into a $13 pot. Most people would just raise it hear and now but i sensed strength and decided to just flat call of which a 4c came off a meaningless card but i still felt strongly that i was behind to QQ. My opponent fired another bet of $13 of which i decided to fold having put him on QQ. I asked in the chatbox what he had of which he said J 10 for the nut straight and was sik at me folding. Ive only been playing for a couple of years but i feel like my reads are getting better and i stress to anyone starting out to trust in their reads youllll make bad folds but i would rest assured youll save a lot more cash in the long run. i wish i got a dollar every time my dad says i have to call(even though he thinks hes behind)because id be a damn rich guy. Please dont addopt this approach trust your reads and choose to fold it will pay off. My bankroll is now sitting at $300 which im extremely pleased with after the hand i just stated which would have cost me $50 if id have pushed all in.

We played 3 poker games last night with Benny's mate Luke joining us for his first 2 games here in Aus. NOTE: Our league scoreboard is now sorted by Average Profit and not Total Profit. This changes things quite a bit, but next year we'll use Points instead of Profit (to take the focus off how much money Jeff is taking from us). Man of the Poker Match was Olly (despite misreading his hand completely and effectively knocking himself out) who won 2 of the 3 games. The 3 games that were played: $10 Game - Olly wins, Jeff second 1st $20 Game - Jeff pipps noob Luke 2nd $20 Game - Olly beats Rod at Heads up THNL and here is the current league scoreboard. See you next Thurs...

Well this month has been sick i get up then back to even all month been happening all week to up 20 bucks right now so hopefully i can run it up but based on how i run in these sngs i wouldnt be surprised if im back to even again, the sngs are very soft btu you gotta run good been playing some limit o8 which has been very profitable as well so im definitely gonna be playing more of that. peace dbk

I am all for televised poker and online poker, but what ever happened to the 'class' of poker, or the mystique of the back room game. It seems that it is no longer about the fun of the game. It is all about how much money the casinos make. Two casinos are replacing live dealers with video/auto dealers. Online websites like this one, and www.win247.co.uk where you can actually post a review, vote, or submit a post (like I am doing now) are few and far between. I signed up tonight, and really didn't believe they would give me the chance to post my own comments. I look forward to chatting with other poker players.  

Well to ensure i do not go broke again im starting to write all my progress to ensure that i do run 50 bucks up to 1k 2 times and lose it all when i run bad. Im 19 years old player poker for fun although i wish it could be more than that, dont pretty well live up around 6 k playing 1 2 with some old guys in Montreal at the casinos or various poker houses, but thats just easy money with a terrible rake. anyways through strict br management zero shots and just through rolled 4 tabling sngs, ii plan on turning 50 into 1 k again and hopefully build back up playing 6 max sngs ill keep everyone updated on how it goes. Reporting my progress here should keep me in line and not make me take any stupid quick shots high up, hopefully it works out. peace DBK

You can now rank your league season by Points, Average Points, Profit, Average Profit or by Games Played. You can set the scoring method at Season level so that each season you could decide to change it and not affect past results. Here are some more poker league scoring enhancements.

We have just released a new version of the PokerDIY Poker League core software. There are a number of major enhancements and a couple of small new features. If you manage your poker league on PokerDIY or know someone who does then read on!

After running well over the last few months I could get down on myself after having a slightly down month. However, I actually feel good about my game. I played quite a bit more multi's last month due to vacation time and I landed 3 final tables with unfortunate coinflips going the wrong way missing the big money payouts. I was running white hot on sng's until this month and finally got hammered. Even with the bad luck I think after later review I probably got a little too loose and made the problem worse. I can usually tell if it's partially my fault if I bust out of alot of tourneys too early. I keep records on how long each game takes my and if I have a large number of 5-20 min finishes in sng's or less than 60 min multi's, I'm probably not concetrating and/or playing too reckless. If you try and go by overall money results it can be deceiving if a couple wins disguise numerous other poor performances. I find if I focus on avoiding risky plays early, the results tend to take care of themselves. Another great story this month, my friend Steve Frasure, who won a seat to Aruba last year, at the last minute, won another seat, went to Aruba and made the final 10 players/500+ and is taking home over $30,000!! http://www.cardplayer.com/tournaments/live_updates/16189/21564 All being said it was a good month with solid potential going into October to have one of my best months this year. Near the end of the month, I quickly picked up and focused on a new game on a smaller site. After 60 hours of play it has shown to be very profitable so far. I'm on vacation again this week and will continue to see how things pan out. I would say it takes at least 100-500 hours of play to really get a semi-reliable statistics, which depending on how your play can still change. My rule of thumb for trying to improve on my game is to try and focus on one game and try to use the same playbook while changing one thing at a time. This way, if your results dramatically improve or fail, it is much easier to pinpoint what works and what doesn't. If you try make make multiple changes to your game it makes it hard to figure out which changes have worked out for the better. Alot of players tend to get bored playing the same game over and over, but let me try and break it down. If I went to school and studied all subjects equally it would take me 10 years to graduate. I might know a fair amount about everything, but if I tried to debate a professional in any one particular field, I would be way out of my class. Another example might be if I had 10 new video games. If I played each game 10% of the time I would be an average player at 10 games. If I played 1 game 90% of the time I would probably be able to master the game in a very short period of time and be able to move on to trying my success in other games much quicker. If you play poker strictly for fun and recreation then by all means play whatever you enjoy most,but if you really care more about making money you might want to specialize. I would like to try and start leaving poker book reviews. I probably have about 90% of the books you'll find at the bookstore and while I don't think a book will necessarily transform your game, for a $20-30 investment if you pick up just one idea or plug one leak the small investment will pay for itself probably multiple times over. I think just the act of reading the book and dedicating yourself to focusing on your game and learning is what pays the real dividends. To the new or casual players, it seems like so much work and so far-fetched, but as with most hobbies or skills you start small and continue to build, until before you know it you've gone from a skinny stick boy to a buffed out poker body builder. The current book I'm reading at the moment is "Poker Essays", by Mason Malmuth. Most of his books I've read tend to be basic strategy books which can be a bit dry even for the greatest of poker enthusiast. "Poker Essays", however, while probably written many years ago and revised, is geared towards all the other things that have to do with poker, other than how to play pocket 77 from UTG+2 with a TAG or your right and LAG on your left, blah, blah, blah. It gets a variety of issues: Money management, Image, taking notes, structure, psychology, etc. Not a bad read so far to kill some time while waiting around. It primarily focuses on live poker and does use some refrences to Stud games (which used to be more popular years ago until No Limit Holdem took over the world). All in all I would say it's worth a look especially when you're bored with the same-old strategy books. It retails for about $24.95 in the U.S. I'm giving it a DonkeyHerding rank of 7 out of 10.Here's this weeks dose of Chinese war master "Sun-Tzu" : "If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant".Good luck grinders, please keep the comments and questions coming. I look forward to reporting on a already great October. Donkeyherder.Here is a link to the "Poker Players Alliance" website which posts the latest poker legislation news and is the largest lobbying group supporting our right to play poker. http://pokerplayersalliance.org/

We played 3 poker games last night with a full house of 9 players (which is the most we've ever had). NEW LEAGUE ENHANCEMENT: You can now filter the league on a Minimum Number of games. You will see this icon on the league scoreboard (top right) - . This eliminates lucky wins - for example, set the view to 10 on our league and it changes dramatically. Man of the Poker Match was Jeff, much to everyone's disgust. Jeff won the first $10 game AND the next $20 game (where some idiot put in $20 too much) and then came 2nd in the final game (after Morgs put a stop to a new record). The 3 games that were played: $10 Game - Jeff wins, with Rod second 1st $20 Game - Jeff wins with Davy a close 2nd 2nd $20 Game - Morgs puts a stop to Jeff's wins and here is the current league scoreboard. Soon the points system on PokerDIY will be implemented so that the league will be based on Points and not cash which should level things out and make it more interesting! See you next Thurs!

The CPL Poker Blog is for all who love the game of poker and for those who run a home poker league! And, check out our (more or less) weekly podcast covering poker and more! Hey, we've had Andy Bloch on the show.

This is the email blast that was sent to all poker league owners on PokerDIY to let them know about the new poker league scoring enhancements.

I wrote a long-winded book of a post and misclicked and lost everything. Seems like a paralel to my poker life. You do everything right and forget one detail and it comes back to bite you 10 fold. Basically treat your game like you're going to war and don't let your guard down or even the worst donks and fishes will capitalize. In my dissapearing post I rambled on about how the nature of this game is so deceiving. Winners look like loser, losers look like winners, and for a few hundred bucks you can sit down and actually beat the best players in the world!! What other game/sport could you do this? It also shows how hard it is to make a living at the game and how fast you think you have a game nailed. Basically most pros (if playing in a game that on average they can beat) after subtracting the rake paid to the casino have a small advantage of maybe a few percent. It would be like being able to bet on a coin flip and know that heads is a 55%/45% favorite. It's not hard to see that even as a favorite you could still flip tails 7 times in a row!! Even after months and years of solid results, things turn or leaks grow overnight and next thing you know you've become a donator. If you want to beat this game, you really need to use every advantage you can get. Play small vs. bankroll, find your best $ returning games, stick to those games and try to master them. Take advantage of bonuses and rakeback. One note on bonuses, don't play any higher limits than your used to in order to cash in bonuses. Let them come as freebies on their own. I have in the past played much higher than I'm used to in order to try to claim bonus money before it expired and lost hundreds of dollars in order to claim $100-200.This website routinely posts a daily hand quiz which asks for viewers feedback. Here is the most recent hand that I broke down and left my opinion on: http://www.dailyhandquiz.com/2008/09/26/top-pair-out-of-position-on-the-river-nl-tournament/The last week or two has been a bit distracting. I was on vacation and tried to take advantage of my free time and play more multi's and it threw off my sng routine, coupled with a horrible run of bubbles and suckouts. I eventually decided to play smaller even though I was facing my 1st losing month in a while and only a week or so left in the month. I was very tempted to keep playing somewhat high to make up the difference, but I knew it was smarter to choke up on the bat and just try and make contact until I get make into the routine. I also tried to play a few new games. You never know what might be your next solid money maker and it after a few solid days and tremendous results I might have found something BIG. I'll keep it under raps for now. I need hundreds of games in order to get more accurate stats. It will be smart to scale up the new games if they continue to show potential. You never know, I might be back 2 weeks later with completely different results. This game is so brutal, because you really don't know if you are doing well until a few months later looking back. Here's some more "Sun-Tzu" for you grasshoppers: "All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using forces, we must seem inactive."Good luck fellow poker players and poker followers. Please continue to pass on the questions and comments. DonkeyherderYou can reach me at http://donkeyherder.livejournal.com

Do you look like "The Poker" Brat Phil Hellmuth? Well, if you do, I feel very sorry for you! But there's good news...get down to the World Series of Poker Europe because UB and Phil Hellmuth are hosting a Phil Hellmuth look-a-like contest. The winner will receive ₤2,000 and accompany Phil "The Poker Brat" Hellmuth and a dozen models into the playing area of the WSOP Europe Main Event. Phil Hellmuth is going after WSOP bracelet #12 at the WSOPE so perhaps he's hoping that seeing a bunch of people that look like him will give him the ego boost he needs to get that record 12th WSOP bracelet.

We played 4 poker games last night with a smaller crew than normal (what with the boys being in Fiji and all!) NEW LEAGUE ENHANCEMENT: You can now filter the league on a Minimum Number of games - . This eliminates lucky wins - for example, set the view to 10 on our league and it changes dramatically.

Mike Matusow will try to break his losing streak on Poker After Dark this week as new episodes start airing tonight in "Mission Impossible" week. The "Mission Impossible" is to poke fun at the fact that Mike Matusow has appeared 8 times on Poker After Dark and hasn't won yet. Clonie Gowen (2-4 on PAD), Gavin Smith (1-1 on PAD), Phil Hellmuth (3-7 on PAD), Phil Laak (1-3 on PAD) and David Williams (1-1 on PAD) will try to make it "Mission Impossible" once again for Mike "The Mouth" Matusow and prevent him from getting his first Poker After Dark win. Epsiodes appear weekdays Monday thru Friday late night (early morning) 2:05 AM on NBC with a directors cut appearing late Saturday (early Sunday). On the Poker After Dark site it states: Your mission Mr. Matusow, if you choose to accept it, is to beat five Poker After Dark champions - a title that has eluded you in eight previous attempts. You will face Phil Hellmuth, a player with an encyclopedic knowledge of Hold ‘em. His expertise is especially evident when players send him to the rail he tells them how bad they played against him. Phil Laak is the complete opposite. He tells players how bad he is even when he’s raking in their chips. Clonie Gowen is as beautiful as she is deadly. She’s won two PAD titles in four appearances.  And don’t let the fact that David Williams developed his poker skills by playing "Magic: The Gathering" fool you. This guy’s no nerd. He has a WSOP bracelet and has won over $6 million. Gavin Smith might have a reputation as a party animal, but he’s definitely more ferocious when he’s on the felt. Finally, there’s you, Mr. Matusow. More times than not, you are your own worst enemy. When it comes to this tournament, make sure you don’t self-destruct.

Normally I have been posting after the weeks end, but I have been on vacation from my real job this week and have some extra time. Most of the week I have been babysitting our 11 month old, but I have been able to squeeze in couple multi table tourneys (MTT's) in when my wife gets home from work. Unfortunately my Sit-in-go "SNG" stats have taken a dive after being on a pretty good run over the last couple months. I pretty much expected a bad run eventually, but I've really faced alot of bubble outs and suckouts keeping me out of the money.  Nothing much to worry about. I haven't played enough sng's lately to make the downturn anything out of the norm and I can tell I still playing well, or more importantly, not making any more mistakes than usual. If I was to give advice on downturns it would be to play smaller till the kinks or karma turn around and focus on where I might be a bit out of line.  This is exactly what I did and played a level below my norm and avoided over multi-tabling. It wasn't a major thing and since I had some extra time I've been playing some rebuy multi's and taking a percentage of my buddy T_dawgonu. We've both been running pretty deep into alot of multi's lately, but unfortunately haven't had alot of time invest in multi's together.  He's made a few final tables as of late and won an Aruba WPT trip which he I think he leaves next week. The only problem is we keep getting deep and get busted out like right before final table or 6-9th place and keep getting so close to the big money that any other finish seems like a disapointment and this week I think he hit 2-3 final tables and I hit 2 final tables myself. Again, I got coin flipped out 5th and 7th. I've also been on a great 10 game multi run: 38/232, 13/215, 128/346, 23/127, 7/191, 53/145, 10/45, 5/191, 27/158, and 18/193. So in the end I feel great about my play but need some better luck in the end.  This week I signed up for an account with myspace. My login is under Donkeyherderpoker. Unfortunately some donk already has my name there. Yahoo also has a new blog account called bloglog. I'm leaving links on those sites to my blog which will help expand my blog. Like most serious poker players I'd like to get a few ponsorship/advertising deals and as the blog grows and I keep hitting final tables things should keep rolling. I got an email from an advertiser this week so I expect to get the ball rolling over the next year or two. If anyone else out there who has experience in this dept. has recommondations let me know.  I'm planning on starting to do some reviews on various poker subjects. I've read and own dozens of poker books and plan on sharing a few of my favorites. One book I have is called "Tournament Poker and the Art of War", by David Apostolico, which incorporates Sun-Tzu famous war strategies into sometimes corny but useful poker strategy lessons. Here's a one for you: "If you know the enemy and you know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt."       In general for pay 30-33% Some 10 handers on Cake Poker pay 4 spots: 36-39% might break even, Over 40%=Usually would show a profit, and 45%+ Very profitableFor most good players finish in top 42% or better and most the multi's I play are around 200-400 players so on average I should make a final table at least 1 in every 20-40 tourneysMay 08 - 118/283= 41.7%                                    12 Tourneys - 42/100 - 0 Final tablesJune 08 - 58/138= 42.0%                                    10 Tourneys - 39/100 - 1 Final TableJuly 08 - 86/183= 47.0%                                        9 Tourneys - 33/100 - 2 Final TablesAug 08 - 60/118 = 50.8%                                       9 Tourneys - 36/100 - 1 Final TableSept 08 - 38/97 = 39.2% (So far)                         21 Tourneys - 31/100 - 3 Final Tables  (So Far)Good luck fellow poker players and poker followers. Please continue to pass on the questions and comments. Donkeyherder 

I'm new to poker, although I lived in Las Vegas at one point in my life, I never hit the tables. Mostly I'm here because I'm a DNN developer checking out Rod's great work. For a living I manage the technology group http://www.snapforseniors.com. We help people in the US find senior housing options. Doing this work I've found that senior citizens play a lot of poker and can be pretty serious about it too! Seems like a good way to pass time, stay mentally sharp, and maybe win some extra booty. Cheers, Ralph

I knew the poker karma was flowing and it seems like you never just coast back into your normal winning patterns after a nice hot streak. I think almost every time I basically get slammed against a wall at full speed and I can usually see the wall coming from a mile away and can't do anything about it. I pretty much got bubbled and sucked out and lost every coin flip over the last week.  I won't bore you with a bunch of beat stories, but I thought the start to this weak would be pretty good. On Sunday I played 3 satelites to the Pokerstars $3 million and won 2 of them, basically getting a free entry. The tourney had over 7000 players and after 3 hours was on the leader board which is tough vs thousands of players left, and unfortunately had JJ run into KK and then bad beat a few hands later somewhere around 2000/7000+. After Sunday, which ended as an overall loss, I proceeded to post a loss 4 more days in a row, for around -$1700 :(  Fortunately, I've been able to tread water the last few days and I feel very good about my play and chalk it up to bad luck and knowing I've been running hot for a while. I was also able to squeeze in 9 mutli's this week and cashed 2 including 1 final table in which I was booted 1st hand in on a missed coin flip. I also finished deep in a few of the others. Today I also just missed a final table on a Full tilt $20 rebuy and got KO'd 13th/215 which didn't een show a profit. So my play has felt good, but my luck had fleeted me for a few days. I'm on vacation from my real job next week and should get some extra playing time in, so I still expect to at least finish the month in the positive unless I get involved in alot of multi's that don't hit big. That's definately one topic I'd like to cover that most players probably blow there bankroll on while a few cash big. And the one's who cash big typically want to try and play all sorts of new games and give it all back before they know it.  Believe me I know. Even though I've always ended up at the end of the year in poker, there have been plenty of stretches were I cash a big multi and spend the next few months dumping it all back because of bad luck or loose play thinking I was so good I didn't really need to think out my plays and went on auto-pilot.  I've also fell into the pit of playing a bunch of satelites which I did very well, only to play in the big tournament and constantly bust out, and in the end showing a loss for my efforts, when the whole time I coulda been grinding out SNG's or cash games and made a big profit. If I was training another player, I would tell them to use maybe 25% or less of their profits per month to play in multi's so that the profit part is constant and if you are on a good run you can take a couple shots at a multi and treat it like a lotto ticket with better odds. Variance is hard enough on cash games and sng's, you start smashing things and cursing the world after playing any lengthy amounts of multis (Ask my metal trash can:)  ). Early this week I did get a request to show the difference in playing the same hand in a SNG vs Cash game. I would like to get a few good hands to show but have been pretty busy.  Basically, in a cash game you will play most any hand in any position or circumstance which in the long run shows a profit. That seems obvious, but the real question is how do you know and that's were all the boring research comes into play and all the experience pays off.  Most people don't want to do the research and over time some might get a decent feel for what to do, but if you do the research your learning speed is multiplied. The other part of this is SNG strategy is usually much tighter early on. There are many times I lay down hands which would show a positive return, but it isn't worth the risk of being knocked out of a tourney early in return for a 50% chance of a double up. You have to remember that just because you double up in a tourney doesn't guarantee that you even cash. An example might be if early in a tourney you have AK OR JJ and are pretty sure the other guy is committed and you will win the hand in general 50% or more of the time, but it is only the first few minutes of the tourney. I would pretty much pass up any major risky hand unless I was almost sure I had the odds in my favor.  Another similar example of this might be playing suited connectors. In a cash game with the right odds would be a great investment, but in a tourney you will probably find yourself losing half your stack after missing your draw 2/3 of the time and forced to shove too early when there are more players at the table who can call you down. For now that's it I guess. I'm heads up in a $100 9 player and don't wanna donk off my chips not paying attention as usual. Any other questions or comments I'll be happy to answer next time. GL, Donkeyherder.May 08 - 118/283= 41.7%June 08 - 58/138= 42.0%July 08 - 86/183= 47.0%Aug 08 - 60/118 = 50.8%Sept 08 - 32/74 = 43.2% (So far)    

It seems they have finally agreed that it was unfair to force U.S. financial institutions to implement a law that is unclear and Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has reintroduced the Payments Systems Protection Act HR 6870 which is scheduled for mark up on Tuesday. BUT...and it's a BIG BUT...The regulations that will continue to be upheld are those concerning online sports bettors. So all you sports betters out there in the good ole U.S.A are out of luck for now. This new bill is "to ensure that implementation of proposed regulations under subchapter IV of chapter 53 of title 31, United States Code, does not cause harm to the payments system, and for other purposes."