Full Tilt is DEAD?!

Full tilt is being shut down for being insolvent! So, there goes my bankroll. http://www.gamblingcontrol.org/userfiles/file/Media%20Statement%20-%20FTP%20suspension%20290611.pdf

Look, if I EVER hear one more bad word about Dutch Boyd, I am going to punch someone in the face. Talk about being vindicated. Here was a guy at a young age who took a shot and got arguably screwed by his bankers, and took over a decade of abuse for it. Now, the "experts" show everyone how it's done, right? Lessons learned and all that? Bull. Just lip service. These guys actually KNEW they were not covering bank. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? HOW DO YOU NOT MAKE MONEY AS A SOFTWARE SERVICE? ALL YOU DO IS COLLECT RAKE AND PASS ON FEES? HOW THE HELL DO YOU LOSE MONEY DOING THAT? I mean, what are you costs? Servers? You dont even use up that much bandwidth.

This is a TRAVESTY on so many levels. You know what this is reminiscent of? Adelphia. And Enron to some extent.

Now, what comes next? Is this the poster child for NO online poker or is it a call to arms for regulation of online sites operating as a bank?

Want me to venture a guess as to what happened? Full Tilt "executives" decided they did not have to act like Poker tars did (professionally and ethically)and told the US that they would pay back the money when they were "darn good and ready". So the US called UK and said, "Hey, these guys are making a mockery of International Banking, shut it down". The arrogance that they were above US law eventually did them in. Poker Stars was very smart. We got away with it for a while. When the hammer comes down, we take the profits, refund the money and live to rake another day. THAT, readers, is the way its done.

Shameful. And what of Ivey and his suit? Well now, what better way to DISTANCE yourself from the others who may FACE CRIMINAL CHARGES? And poor Clonie Gowen, who was seemingly on to something, will never get a dime AND will have to get dragged into courts as a witness for the prosecution. I would not be feeling very good if I were say, Howard Lederer. I would be selling off assets and HIDING MY MONEY. Which is what I presume is happening and thus the elongated posturing and delays and avoidance of the press.

So dont talk to ME about Poker Spot and Dutch Boyd. Absolved fully as far as I am concerned (and probably long overdue).

Playing poker outside the US

So as FullTilt continues to hold bankrolls hostage, has anyone taken them up on playing (i.e. moving) to outside the US? Could I get a Mexican drivers license, using a friends flat, and open a local bank acct to play out of?

On the other side of the coin, can I play Canadian and pull something similar? I mean, Ontario is less than an hour from me. This seems like an idea whose time has come: an international address instead of just a local address.

Perhaps 50 of us can rent an apartment in Ontario? Only 1 person has to physically sleep there and pick up the mail...

Rise Poker

If you ever want to witness the greatest weakness of the internet, google up Rise Poker looking for reviews. Every single one is a post ASKING for feedback and then 2 or 3 posts with wide ranging opinions on everything BUT Rise poker.

What drives people to post responses that are based on ready 1 sentence of a post and then addressing whatever is the free-range thought that pops up? Stoopid.

Let me step up here. I loaded up Rise poker last night. I played a "free" SnG.
Here is my initial feedback

1. I KNOW its real poker software because I got sucked out on AND lost a race in a single SnG.

2. The FREE version with the Ads is so painful, that either you pay or you don't bother. Really, the fee play is there for the people who will never join. The ads themselves were crippling my laptop.

3. The engine is sub par, in that I cant change seats, re-size, etc. All the things we loved in the mature engines.

Ok. That being said, I cant really tell you how the subscription play is or how the tournaments are... YET. I intend to SOAP UP for the $240/yr (which I put down in a single tournament online, so how can I complain?!). I will report back shortly.

It helped immensely that heard of the site through Dr. Pauly and F-Train, otherwise I would still never even had Rise poker on my radar.


Oh, yeah. WHERE THE HELL IS MY FULL TILT MONIES?

League it up

I missed online poker this spring. I had stored a bankroll to make a WSOP run and now that $$$ is caught in limbo. So I added a second league to my games next year and hope its enough poker to keep me going. I need my bankroll back Full Tilt!

Woe is poker, but more to the point...

It's all gearing up for phase III in the evolution of poker (the next NASCAR). ESPN is going to go with "live" hole card play in the WSOP, the government plays hardball with the rouges to set up the sanctioned. And all of us in the meanwhile, await mystical Full Tilt payouts, complicated by rumors, impatience, and speculation.

That being said, it cant be good for Full Tilt... I wonder if Dutch Boyd is smirking?

Full Tilt impending doom?

I don't know how else to take the fact that PokerStars returned my US money and Full Tilt continues to "work on it". I fear that working on it is actually a euphemism for 'trying to decide what if anything they are going to return'.

I am sure the situation is complex and multifaceted that it seems on the surface, but there is no downside to timely return of funds. Expect for the fact that you would no longer have them! And so what happens with Full Tilt reneges?

Flush over Flush

I went into league night with a strong aggro desire. This worked well early and I pushed action pretty well and put chips to work. But when you take a flop with 74s and flop a flush, your going to get cracked by a bigger flopped flush (much like set over set). So be it. Was not deep enough to warrant different play, and believe me I took the time to work that out.

In then end I went from FIRST overall last year to unqualified this year. UGH.

Changing Landsacpe

The beginning of the next era is coming soon. This year, the WSOP will be telecast tape delay 2 hours with hole cards on ESPN2. (the more events the better.) Expect regulation and a play by Harrah's to roll out the first domestic online sites.

What's to write about?

I would like... (I would like? I would like a trip to Europe.) I would like to play in WSOP satellites online. I even stored up a bankroll to do it. Now that bankroll ($>1K, <$10k) is in limbo until the US Department of Justice can determine how to order that money returned (or so we assume at this point).

What's the use of debating or pointing out the issues here? Like with so many other political events of the decade, we are a nation divided. And no one speaks of what we have lost as a result. By being polarized by politics (right vs. left, religion vs. religion, etc) we have lost our sense of nationalism. You can ask any nut-job about what he loves and get the stoic reply of "God and country", but is it really the truth? If we love our country so much, then why do we fight so hard to defend what is WAS instead of what it IS?

The 1940s are not coming back (thank goodness). And everyone remembers the good parts of the 1950s but not the fact that it lead to the turmoil of the 60s (don't get me started on this dissertation on repressive society). And those golden financials of the 1980s? That came from the dawn of the Age of Information, not from superior monetary policy. But I digress...

The US is an amalgamation of conflicting agendas, conflicting religions, conflicting politics and conflicting people (see incarceration rates). Bad? who is to say? Chaos brings change, change avoids stagnation. But our common ground has eroded through "philosophical wars", widening income gaps, and the dawn of "opinionated news" (Edward R. Murrow is now John Stewart?). Instead of the UNITED states of America, we have been somewhat reduced to the Bickering States of America.

Let me detour to Wisconsin for a second and please put aside your polarized thoughts for a minute if you have them. There we some very important issues in Wisconsin, but to me there was a good set of ideas on both sides. Yet what we SAW was slanted public relations and rhetoric. Absolutely no attempts were ever made to sell the plan outside of the "inner circles". And you could even claim that it was purposefully avoided as to not be seen as "collaborating with the enemy".

The NFL labor dispute went the opposite way, with both sides quickly trying to sell their agenda to each other and to the general public. In listening to the radio, many people have listened to the arguments and formed opinions. But to me it is clear that without being able to operate as a league instead of 32 competing businesses, the NFL is doomed to be 6 teams. In their case, they already had a working model and tore it down.

Whatever happened to debating a decision until it was made, but once it was made, getting on board and making it work? Don't we all do that everyday of our professional lives? Then why is it so damn hard to support a president (any elected president) for a lousy 4 years? (NOTE: I am a REPUBLICAN and I am saying this!) So you cant get $5 Gagillion (sic) cut from the budget. Take the compromise and move forward. (We live in an age where they brought back the Tea Party. Really? Are you kidding me? Is there a monarchy I don't know about?) Instead we reach some middle ground and fight tooth and nail to NOT be there. WTF?

Here is where I choose to wrap this up. It's not that we cant find any middle ground on anything but rather that we are choosing to fight against being there. Against inevitability itself. Because if you crush down 48% of the people, you crush down 48% of America. And where is the "victory" in that?

-Joe Consumer

p.s. why do I get the feeling that after 40 years of verbal mocking, Canada is laughing at us instead of with us?

Time to recycle my last header

Ummm, WTF? No more online poker for 2011? Really? is that what its come to?

WTF? What is going on?

I have really let this go, eh? I have not been playing enough to develop new thoughts on strategy... but I have been thinking quite a bit about it as of late.

I am playing in an invitational this weekend, and lets see what I'll be concentrating on.

1. AGGRESSION.
2. See #1

I have been readying quite a few war strategy books lately, and there is a common theme. There is no substitute for making you opponent have to adjust. To anything.

Feel interest returning...

... the urge to 3 bet coming on...

Frustrating Bubble

Played great poker this evening. I mean, really close to perfect. But in the end went out on the bubble when I lost 3 hands in a row, all getting my money in ahead. No coin flips the entire route. So, frustrating as it was, played well.

But its trying to convince me to skip WSOP this year.

MTT and a somwhat spoiled attitude

I do have to admit that I am a tad frustrated that playing ABC good poker is so incredibly ineffective lately. I mean, I had a lucky break when my AK flopped an Ace on KK, but then it all went downhill as I lost 4 straight all-ins with dominating hands (AQ vs. A8 for example), pushing me from the top 25 to out in an hour.

But, I will say this. I LOVE CAP ENTRY TOURNAMENTS. I was so sick of playing with 800 people, then after an over an hour there are 900 people, because 600 late registered.

I played a 500 cap. under 300 started, and sure enough players keep coming. But in a cap, it STOPS. If I could, I would play ONLY CAP entry MTT online from now on.

Embracing the Future

Would you in today's day and age build the DIY table, or go for the all electronic table?

http://www.videopokertable.net

I, for one, am impressed not by the electronics, but the effort put into the software. Looks better than the electronic casino tables.

Fool!

If there is one thing that always frustrates me about cash games, its watching a player spew chips and when I finally get a crack at the fountain, he draws out. But this is not a bad-beat complaint. No, rather my inability to spew small amounts of pre-flop chips in order to trap people with boats made with Q2o. Yet, across the table is a guy who saw 3 turns all night. Each time he had a boar. And each time the other player with a pair would keep betting into him and paying him off.

I remember now what I love about tournaments. You cant just sit there and spew chips hoping for the perfect flop one day.

Talk about Cliche

If you want to win a tournament, you have to win your share of races. Once again, I played well but went 0 for 1 in the results column. Avoiding getting my money in behind and not calling off with 44, got me to 13th (of 30), but was surprised when KT called my eventual all-in. He had 1600 in the BB and I moved in for only 8.5k, so its not awful. But he is very lucky there I have 99. King on the river and its over for me.

So much comes down to a big race. And I made two huge moves on pots with air just to get that far, so I cant hide behind being passive. I doubled up early (to 20k), but ended up having to release 3 hands in big pots over the next 90 minutes, that put me back to 12k, which forced the inevitable cliche.

You got to win a race. Especially the FIRST.

Multi-entry tournaments

The beginning of the end. And to think that today a majority of the MTTs $24-$150 seem to be ME, I have to ask myself, "Am I no longer the target customer for FT?"

AD-DUH-DUM:
OOPS! This is ME week at FT!!! April fool? ok, I did not know that. Although I still hate MEs.

WSOP

The schedule of events has been released and I am meeting it with new trepidation. I have to admit, I had a lousy time last year. I not only ran bad, I scheduled poorly and spent undo hours not having fun. Not this time.

Get it, play an event (two if I flame out of the first), visit the new "retroarcade bar" and get the hell out of dodge.

#32 is NL $1500 Sat the 18th at noon with a consolation $1k Sun at noon. Quick and dirty. $2500 max exposure.

A more ambitious route would be the following weekend.
#41 is the SHOOTOUT, Friday the 24th at noon, followed by the Saturday $1500 NL at noon and again the consolation $1k on Sunday. Now that would be $4k and that is alot of dough, so I am not prone to take this lightly.

Perhaps some qualifying efforts are in order. If I DONT cash in my league, and boy have I run bad, I won't spend $4k. No way.

Let the satellites begin!

Signs of the times?

The two things I noticed in that last couple of days are changes to the FT withdrawal options due to "temporary complications" and the Home Games offering on Stars. I dont know how either are going to work, but I am testing both so that I DO know how both are going to work.

Its interesting that stars is offering this option, but I have ALWAYS felt it was ridiculous that I had to work through support to schedule reoccurring online games. Let's hope this is a permanent trend.