Tag Archive for 'Cash'
Holy smokes! Is this post actually going to have poker content? Why yes boys and girls it is! You see, I might have been silent lately and not showing up for most of the blogger events but I've actually started playing on a more regular basis again.
The 6-max NL tables at Full-Tilt are where you can find me currently. Mostly seated at the 25NL and 50NL tables. I've taken the stance that I know how to play poker dammit, I just need to actually think about my cash game and make the adjustments necessary coming from almost purely a tournament background.
I have had very limited long-term success at the cash tables online the past few years. I think that there are two very good reasons for this. First and foremost, there is admittedly a relatively small sample size. I mostly play cash games just for fun or to fill a little bit of downtime. Secondly, because of this, I never really took the time to study the differences between cash and tournament enough to really be successful. At a live cash game, I hold my own, mostly because I think the players are even worse and I tend to pay attention more because I don't have anything else to do while sitting at the table.
So far the results have spoken for themselves. I haven't had a single losing session this month. Now I know and realize that this cannot be sustained long term. However, I'm winning because I'm putting myself in position to win. I am studying my opponents' tendencies and taking control of the table. If the game is not good, I get up and find a better one. When I find a fish, I find their weakness and wait to exploit it or manipulate them to exploit it. I think it's mostly just about finally finding the proper mindset and taking the game seriously again.
I am going to start over on my attempt to become a better NL cash game player. I am planning on doing this at an alternate site, preferably one of the smaller ones. Pokertracker support would be a huge plus because it's easy to datamine a smaller site so I am putting Absolute, UB, and Bodog at the top of my current list, but it is not a requirement per se. What smaller rooms can you recommend? Rakeback availability would be great too.
- Bodog
- Pluses
- Pokertracker support
- Loose players
- Good mtt structure
- Minuses
- Don't get rakeback
- No bonuses
- Limited number of tables
- Poor selection of deposit and withdrawal options (no epassporte or paytrucard)
- Software design makes it hard to multitable
- Pluses
- Ultimate Bet
- Pluses
- Fast software
- Currently have a ton of bonuses
- Good mtt structure
- Pokertracker support
- Epassporte support
- Minuses
- No rakeback
- Limited number of tables
- A lot of mtts are rebuys
- Pluses
- Absolute
- Pluses
- Always offering reload bonuses
- Pokertracker support
- Smaller mtt fields
- Epassporte support
- Minuses
- Because of bonuses, there are a lot of rocks
- Only OK mtt structure
- Limited number of tables
- Software is slow and poorly designed
- Pluses
Remember how I said that I was still alive in both the Daily Doubles after my 2nd place finish the other night? Well I was able to hit the cash around avg stack in DDA and so had consecutive cashes for the first time in quite awhile. Of course once in the money I went card dead and the high price of the blinds forced me to make a few moves and I went out in 66th. Still finished ahead of about 1000 other donkeys. DDB I finished 300-something as I never really got into a good position there but a top-half finish still made me pretty happy.
I finally subscribed to the PokerDB at the Bluff website. Yes there are free websites like OfficialPokerRankings that provide good information. Bluff just is laid out slightly better and the info seems a little bit more complete. After studying my stats, I have a very solid ROI in the $24 and $10 tournaments at FTP. Both in fact are well over 100% and are where I also have the most entries. I've lost money in the $69 tournies, although I really want to start playing more of those as the sample size is still small compared to the others and I feel that the level of play isn't all THAT more difficult. I'm solidly in the black at the $500 level as well, although there's only 3 entries there and my 38th in the FTOPs VI Main Event explains that 
For some reason I actually have not done great overall in the peeps, especially lately. I think the level of play has improved greatly overall, with about half the field knowing what they're doing. That leaves you about 2-3 short of the token when it becomes a pushfest. I don't care for that and it's not saving me a bunch of dollars by playing them. So I will continue to mostly just buy in directly at the $24 level and save my token time for the level 2 ones for the $69 tokens.
Oh, and a big congrats to Chad on his taking down the $26k guarantee on FullTilt. The dude has been on an absolute tear lately in the $24 guarantees lately. I can only hope that I can emulate his results now that I've got my game back on track.
For some reason I actually have not done great overall in the peeps, especially lately. I think the level of play has improved greatly overall, with about half the field knowing what they're doing. That leaves you about 2-3 short of the token when it becomes a pushfest. I don't care for that and it's not saving me a bunch of dollars by playing them. So I will continue to mostly just buy in directly at the $24 level and save my token time for the level 2 ones for the $69 tokens.
Oh, and a big congrats to Chad on his taking down the $26k guarantee on FullTilt. The dude has been on an absolute tear lately in the $24 guarantees lately. I can only hope that I can emulate his results now that I've got my game back on track.
