Fat City

Fat City is a movie directed by John Huston and starring Stacy Keach and Jeff Bridges.  Keach plays an alcoholic, over the hill boxer and Bridges is his protege.  It is a good movie and rated high.  In this scene the two main characters are walking into a spacious card room and bar in California somewhere. A railbird is on the left.

This poker room is spacious and has just a few tables.  There at least six players per table and they must be playing poker.

Walking towards the bar.

This looks like a scene from Nighthawk by Edward Hopper.  This is not a poker movie and worth watching.

The King is back at the penny tables and taking a few shots at the higher tables when they are loose and passsive ones available.  There are many loose aggressive tables all the time.

Back to the Penny Tables

The King went back to the loose penny tables.  There were some loose tables at higher micro limit tables but they were few and far in between.  Most tables tend to become tight and even more so at the tables with higher stakes. With tighter play, the pots won become less.  After giving up, temporarily, on the 25-50¢ it was a relief, because the last two big pots the King won were showdowns with high cards - what a stressfull way to play poker.

Losing Again

The King moved up in stakes but still at the microlimit level.  These tables are tougher with isolation plays and tight play.  Most of his pots were won without a showdown and these pots were smaller.  The past two months have been terrible. 

Romans 5:3-4


Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Day 3, Month 3, Year 3

The King finally broke even at the 25-50¢ tables for the month.  He knew it would be like this and that is how it was.  In this session, he just played the small blind tighter and didn't table hop as much.  The blinds are 10¢ and 25¢  and similar to the 5-10¢ tables where they are 2¢ and 5¢, and in both games the small blind is less than half of the big blind.  Playing tighter in these games are from Miller and Sklansky.

Back for More Punishment

PokerStars didn't let the King cash out, so he returned to the microlimit tables again. When playing at 2-4¢, his bankroll was 300 big bets or $12.  Playing at 25-50¢, his bankroll is 300 big bets or $150.  Recently there was a $12 loss over 2-3 days and he was devastated.  A $12 loss is 12/150 or 8% and 8% of $12 is 96¢, and the King has had many sessions of being 96¢ down at the 2-4¢ tables.  Still, to lose $12 in a couple days is terrible.

One problem was getting a good top pair hands and high pairs get beat by hands like flushes, straights, full houses, trips and two pairs.  Playing big offsuit cards like AJ, AT, KJ and QJ are a real problem.

The Bluff that Failed - AQ♥

Playing in a freeroll NL Hold 'em tournament, the King came in 965 out of 9,000.  Close but still far from the top 72 that would get free tickets.   He might have made a big mistake going all in with AQ on the flop as a bluff because he was running low on chips - about 6,000 and the blinds were 150-300 and they were antes.  Another player bet 6,000 with pocket fives and there was a five on the flop.  Its free anyway.

Coming Back for More Fun

After taking a big loss at the 25-50¢ tables, the biggest microlimit stakes, the King gave up poker for the uptenth time.  And like always he came back.  However, his two big site accounts had no money because they were withdrawn.  So instead he played in a no-limit freeroll on Poker Stars and did not win a free ticket.  The next day, the King played with a sportsbook poker account with just $2 and some change.

An interesting thing happened here, instead of moving to another table when the table became short-handed, he had to stay there because he had no where else to play.  So the game fluctuated between 2-9 players and pot odds became less important than at a full ring game.

It has been done before, it can be done again. A seed grows into a big tree and $2 and some change can be bult into a big balance.

Pocket Queens - All In

Playing a NL freeroll tournament the King went all-in on the flop with pocket queens and lost.  Another player had KT offsuit and had top pair TT.  The river had a King and
that player made two pair.  

Would going all-in before flop have been better, perhaps the KT offsuit would have folded then.

The King came in about 2,500 out of 9,000.

An Uphill Battle

The negativety lurking behind the King's recent bankroll downswing, is not from the bad luck of missing a 20 outer or taking some bad beats, but the nagging suspicion that his play was not good enough to win.  Playing the high offsuits like AJ, AT, QJ, QT and JT are a real problem and playing these cards have eaten away at his buy-ins.  There is still more poker studying to do and it's the football season.

Speed Poker - Woutstar

In his first year, the King witnessed speed poker by a player from Kopenhaven with the screen name - Woutstar.   There was a maniac on the table and he (she) was taking down pot after pot.  Woustar appeared and challenged the maniac to about 85% of all hands whilst the maniac was playing 100%.  In a matter of minutes Woustar cleaned out the maniac and increased his buy-in by $5 and this at the penny tables too.  The maniac never knew what happened because it happened so fast.

Studying poker and playing a lot of heads-up, the King is dominating the play money heads-up tables with his instantaneous decisions. Heads-up doesn't have the pot odds of full ring games and often a high pair wins. Winning and being on top of his game is fun.  How far he has come.

How to Play in a TAG

Play just your strong hands and move to another table when the blinds reach you.

A Period of Study

Until the end of month two, the King plans to study before his elation from his wins turn into loose, sloppy play and all of his wins get flushed away.

There are updates to do on his starting hands, the rules of split pots, and statistical studies are projects that he would like to do.

The King has played more 25-50¢ this month than the past 25 months. 

Thinking back to year one, he was experiencing a long period of junk hands - something like four hours of play and only winning five pots in full ring games. He jumped up from 2-4¢ to 25-50¢.  Won a few pots and quit for the year which was almost over. In a way, this was good because a great deal of preparation was for a game with about 50% seeing the flop. 

Back to the present, the King feels comfortable, but not totally familiar, at the 25-50¢ tables. Perhaps it is the numbers, but the the 2-4¢ and 25-50¢ tables have more action than the 5-10¢ and 10-20¢.

Overcard Hand Review

This review is from a hand the King played on a 25¢-50¢ loose eight-handed table at PokerStars.  After the session was over, he thought if he made the right play.  The King was in the second position and position one folded.  The King raised with A♥-K♦ the cutoff, button and big blind called (8.5 small bets).  The flop was 6♥-2♣-3♣, the big blind checked, the cutoff (Joe), a loose player, and the button called, and the big blind folded (6 big bets).  The turn was the 3♦, the King checked, the cutoff bet, the big blind folded and the King called (8 big bets).  The river was the T♦, the King checked, the loose player bet and the King folded.   The loose player collected a pot with 8 big bets. Thinking it over, the King wondered if he should have called the turn bet.

A Glimmer of Hope and Devasted

The King survived the battles on the poker tables and is totally devasted.  If his widthdrawal cleared, he would have been out of PokerStars totally.  His widthdrawal would have cleared in several days.  He made the widthdrawal request, but had to wait several days.  Six days of losses was just too much to take.  Doubt crept into his mind that this was just not fluctuations but that that 25-50¢ poker required skills that he did not have.

Early this morning he played for over four hours and it was bad beats after bad beat.  The King cashed out of Full Tilt Poker and tried to cash out of Poker Stars but had to wait. After some sleep, he played again and there was a good selection of tables to choose from.  Playing meekly, so the straight and flush draws could not have proper odds to call, he won a few pots with big unsuited cards and also caught two flushes. So for month two he is in the black.

The balance being in the black is so fleeting, he would like to savor the moment and lay off real money playing for awhile.  There is very little left, the devstation of a week of losses was beyond his tolerance.  But for now, there is a glimmer of hope and he will continue with Poker.

Make or Break, Do or Die, Raise or Fold

The King moved up to 25-50¢ and suffered a big downturn.  He recovered somewhat, but month two is a loss.  With a lower profit rate the fluctuations will be greater and only in the long term will there be stability.  Meanwhile, the present is hell.

No Limit, Again

The new Sportbook.com poker is more visible when maximized.  Sportsbetting.com poker did not switch to
the new slick format and has the one the the human cartoons.  The older format, that Sportsbetting.com still has, is easier on the eyes and a game can be played without maximizing it. 

The new slick format has many fancy features - more than Pokerstars or Full Tilt.

Having recovered from the downturn, the King is thinking about playing in some freeroll NL Hold 'em tournaments.

Another Bad Beat Blog

Alan N. Schoonmaker wrote in one of his books - "Your Own Worst Enemy" that if witnessing a table of players that most people would not be happy with their results.  He said that scene were a workplace, that there was a serious morale problem. 

Another poker blogger starts of his blog with - this is not another bad beat blog. All this is funny because the King started off the month with a downturn.  With hopes of making his yearly earning goals, the King moved up to the nickel and dime games and lost a few rolls of pennies. 

Overall the higher stakes are more aggressive in that there is more raising to narrow the field. With tighter play, at the showdown, the tighter player with higher cards wins the pot.  The adjustment was to aggressive play was a shocker.

Loose Aggressive Player - Big Buy-In

In heads-up play money games, the loose aggressive players typically buy-in for about three times the minimum buy-in.  Whether it is luck or skill remains unknown but it is quite amazing to watchsome loose aggressive players play heads-up and make money. 
The big buy-in reflect to big variance of their style of play.

50 Billion Hands at PokerStars

The King got a little caught up in PokerStars 50 Billion Hand milestones.  This promotion is endless and requires no skill to win.  A table gets chosen and everybody on that table wins.  The first table everyone won a $234 each and a little while later another table got chosen and everybody won $155.

Normally, at this time of day there is about 40 tables of full ring penny poker games going, but with this promotion (that never stops) there are several hundred penny poker tables going.  At every level, the site is overflowing with games.

PokerStars several times an hour is giving several hundred and up to several thousand dollars away free, just for playing, unbelievable.

No Thinking Involved with Rules

Studying the rules, there is no thinking involved.  Thinking in the sense of decision making is not required, but thinking of all possible situations is necessary. So, initially the King will go thru all the hands and categorize how the pot are awarded and split for each hand.  Later, after this project is over, he will add situations as they happen.

The Rules of Poker and Half Juice

Yesterday was day two into the next project of the rules of poker and specifically the winning of pots and split pots rules. Turbo Texas Hold 'ems software is going to be used to create the different scenarios.
BetEd Poker has a 10% rake at the microlimits for limit poker, and this is higher than other places which have 5% rake.

Sportsbook.com has half juice on Fridays which is great for sportsbettors.

Gamber's Anonymous

1 Did I lose time from work due to gambling?   No
2 Has gambling made my home life unhappy?  No
3 Did gambling affect my reputation?  No
4 Do I feel remorse after gambling?  No
5 Do I gamble to pay debt or am financial strained?  No
6 Does gambling decrease my ambition or efficiency?  No
7 Do I have return to win back my losses?  No
8 After winning, do I have an urge to win more?  No
9 Did I gamble until last dollar was gone?  No
10 Did I borrow to gamble?  No
11 Have I sold anything to gamble?  No
12 Reluctant to use gambling money for normal expenditures?  Does not apply because the bankroll is so small. The bankroll for a 2-4¢ hold 'em game, that should last forever, is $12. 
13 Did gambling make me careless of my welfare.  Yes, The King has been eating more junk food to spend more time studying.
14 Have I gambled longer than planned?  Yes, when losing
15 Have I gambled to escape worry, trouble, boredom or loneliness?   Yes
16 Have I done illegal things to finance gambling?  No
17 Did gambling cause sleeplessness?  No
18 Do arguments, disappointments, and frustrations create an urge to gamble?   Yes
19 Do I have an urge to celebrate by gambling?  No
20 Considered suicide because of gambling?  No

Compulsive gamblers answer yes to at least seven of these questions.  The King has answered yes to several questions, but this hobby is profitable, barely, in fiscal year three, month one.

No More

After days and day of losing, the King widthdrew his money from PokerStars.  After over two hours at the 5-10¢ tables at Full Tilt and more losses, he decided to pull out of there too.  Playing this first month of fiscal year two for 68 hours and making practically nothing was just to futile.

Maybe he will renew his interest and play no-limit or 5 card draw or no-limit freerolls.

Coming out of the Hole

After doing well, the King gave playing one level higher a shot and caught a lot of trash cards and bad beats.  Retreating back to the lower limit and looser tables, most of his losses were recovered.  It was a long and tiring session playing over 10 hours continuously.

Taking a day off from game playing and making voice memos for instructional purposes on a Ipod gave the King a break. 

Returning to the tables after the break, it was quite amazing to see several showdowns in two handed pots with players showing trash hands - there is hope.

Finally, after breaking an old computer with Windows XP, the next project the rules for the game was started.  Turbo Texas Hold 'em will be used to determine the rules for split pots and for winning pots.

The Eight Month Project is Over

The strategy guide is finished and is being used for decision-making in games. 
Any future work with this guide will be for making it uniform and compressed.
The guide is divided by the five positions: early, middle, late, small blind and big blind. 
Each position is divided by the hand type: pairs, suited and offsuits. The problem with excessive categorizing is found at the early position where not many hands are played. Compression means to reduce the guide, because when referring to it, time is limited (and even more so in fast games).

The Starting Hands Composite Strategy Sheet is Done

It took eight months to do this "little project" and initially it was expected to be completed very quickly.  The King has been using Hilger's strategy sheet and it has been helpfull even tho it is for tight games.  To wrap things up, for this project, another short day will be spent compiling the acronyms and notes used for this strategy sheet.

The next project has to be split pot rules (and rules of what makes a winning hand) an area that needs attention.  Together with this project, another project to do would be to do a Lou Krieger style chart of the starting hands broken into 4 charts instead of 2.

Raking in the Pennies

Another great session at the penny tables and the King dominated them, to an extent.  The calling stations do not fold and the bluffers called their bluffs at opportune times - they set the course for the tables.  There were three river calls, that seemed hopeless and just a pay off, but they weren't.  In each case, the bettor had a terrible hand and because the pot was big enough the King resigned himself to paying them off.  Interesting reads, especially the section on bluffing, the book, "The Theory of Poker".

Good Score

The King scored seven pots in 80 hands. Again it is a time of good luck. The way it has been done is this: if the King made a score, he would devote some time for studying before the next playing session.  Sometimes, the good luck streak runs for weeks and the King accumulates a lot of study sessions.  The studying comes to a stop when he loses and keeps playing till he gets even - which can take hours.

Relieved

Session One was a little over an hour, just before work, so session time was set at an hour.  Playing three tables at once, getting crappy hands and winning just two pots was just terrible. The way people think is that if there are 10 players, they should win 10 pots per 100 hands or even more if they are aggressvie or bluff.  Winning one pot every 10 hands has been a disaster for the King.  But playing tighter for 118  hands and winning just two pots was just bad luck.

Without getting good, or even halfway decent hands, meant not even contesting the pot so it was mostly the blinds that chewed up his buy-in. The King's only possible mistake was not playing a pocket Kings hand more aggressively preflop.  Knocking out one or two players could have made the difference between winning and losing.

Session two after work was just a half an hour long and a big success. The pots the King won made up for the previous session's small loss and three other sessions that were long and not the norm in catching good cards. So in this session the King caught some good cards, played aggressively and won some big pots.  Worn out from the other sessions, the King stopped after just 30 minutes and rested.

Another long session of ring games is over.  DrCh@ch@ was a memorable character on one of the tables.  He was from Russia or Eastern Europe and was having a winning session. He played loose but folded quickly if things went wrong, and during an hour of play, his hole cards did not indicate that he played too loose.   

Another Exhausting Session

It was another tiring day at the tables, where hand after hand got cracked by loose player playing trash hands - calling stations.  Calling stations go all the way to the river and one of them, in each game, catches that miracle card that completes a big hand like a flush or straight. The King caught many big pairs and sets which are strong hands, but these just did not hold up much. It was like the other session, where like the western movie the white men, fighting the indiams, preservere until the cavalry comes. If all  the sessions were like today, it would not be worth it.

But there are days where luck smiles at the King, and he can do no wrong, and win pot after pot with no effort.  Even playing loose, he wins many pots and feels like he could walk on water.

Todays session, even if it ended with a small winnings, if it were always like this , would not be worth it. To lose an extraordinary amount of pots brings in doubt and depresses the soul.

Multi-Tabling

Multi-Tabling went better today and yesterday.  Putting the monitors at the same height and as close as possible helped a lot.  After doing these two things, a third window could be viewed in the middle with half of the window on one monitor and the other half on the other monitor. 

The third screen was the online poker site's lobby where all the stats for the present games were displayed. 

A Rough Day at the Tables

The King tried multi-tabling to terrible results.  The cards were not coming either, there were very few playable hands and the blinds and shallow entries ate up his buy-in. It was a terrible session one.  He also played a little loose with some suited cards and made some minor mistakes.  Finally after several hours he caught two small/medium sized pots and partially came out of the deep hole he was in,

Session two was the same, in that the losses gradually depleted his buy-ins on each table he hopped around on.  The despair of a losing a  week of winnings is unimaginable.  Finally after a couple hours of carefull play, this time, at a higher table, luck came in the nick of time.  The first hand was the nuts a straight with no flush or full house possible, however the pot was just medium to large because the pot was contested by only two others on the river.  The pot, that sealed it, was a low straight and it did not come easy.  The river put a three of a suit on board so somebody could have had a flush, and the straight was not the nuts.  With half the table at the river, the pot was big.   Not a victory, when there is nothing left - everthing was gone - emotions, nerves, hope.....   and the Cavalry arrived.

Multi-Tabling, Quitting Too Soon, Full Moon Shining, The King of Micro Limit Poker (resigned to another year in mediocrity)

Multi-Tabling, August 28, 2010

The 5-10¢ tables were tight, as usual, so the King stayed at the 2-4¢ tables, but achieving a higher end of the year earnings was also important, so he tried multi-tabling.  The session went well and his efficiency was about 95% that of playing on just one table.  The problem of keeping track of table selection was solved by having both games of the same type, namely, loose and somewhat passive.  Mason Malmuth, in Poker Essays volume one, wrote that medium size pots are the best pots to play in.  These pots are bet and raised once on the preflop and flop and with the smaller pots - they are usually not raised much.  An interesting occurance is that games usually become tigher and aggressive, people get tired of losing so they play tighter.  By being aggressive, the try to knock out the players after them by raising and reraising and if they succeed the pot will be contested by fewer players.  Loose aggressive games are just terrible sometimes because of their wild fluctuations.





QUITTING WHILE AHEAD - A MINOR MISTAKE
Some players play until they get ahead and then they quit when they win a big pot or two. In poker, the odds of winning a pot are low, so the graph of a buy-would be gradually declining and occassionally it would spike up when a pot is won.  The blinds are the least profitable positions and the right time to leave the table is just before the blinds, but some people are so tired from long sessions, trying to get even. that they leave the table after winning a big pot. They don't wait till the blinds reach them.  The King, in a year has not left a table, until the blinds reach him, more than a few times.



FULL MOON SHINING

This photo was taken because there was a familiar avatar at the table.  1) Don Corleone is from Lubin, Poland, 2) JCFB028  from Lima, Peru,  3) Joant - Zaandem, Holland, 4) Seobanker - Kpeme??r, Turkey 5)  Tripanic - Millington, Tennessee, 6) Gonzsay - Corrientes, Argentina, 7) Vasia10 - Mockba (Moscow is spelled Mockba), 8) xSheryjanex - Telford, England, and waiting to come on is Llyashka - Minsk, Russia.  Actually, since working on the starting hands project, game play has been minimal, and since beginning there are not many familar avatars.  The player with the red and black avatar with the Batman type of logo was aggressive.  Many times the avatar reflects the playing style,and the major concern is the avatars that look like the player might be aggressive and bet and bet.

There was a white sheet of paper under the screen and the screen had a lot of reflected light on the bottom part, but with photoediting the white glare was minimized.

THE KING OF MICRO LIMIT POKER

RESIGNED TO ANOTHER YEAR IN MEDIOCRITY

Draw poker, so far, is more appealling as a second game besides limit hold 'em.  There are only two rounds of betting compared to four in hold 'em.  PokerStars has a fair number of five card draw games. Because each player holds five cards instead of two in hold 'em, the amount of players is limited to six or less.  One of poker's strange outcomes is that there is more stability with more players in the game.  Stablity in the buy-in and bankroll are key considerations for the King

End of Fiscal Year Two

It is the end of year two for the King and having reached his earnings goal, he plods on to year three.  For fiscal year three, The King will try more of the higher stakes games like 5-10¢, 10-20¢ and 25-50¢ in limit hold-em and also give draw poker a good shot.  Progress is slow and the King will have to spend another year in mediocrity at the micro stakes tables.

Cowboy Poker

Draw Poker is the game most people are familiar with, and PokerStars has a good number of these games.  No-limit is just so wild, draw seems like a game that the King can devote some time into.  Unfortunately, there is not a lot of books out on this poker variation.  Full Tilt does not have this game and Cake Poker does.  It is an easy to learn but hard to master poker variation.  In the old west, this is the game they played and also on the riverboats .

Another Session of Some Looseness and Some Aggression

Certain times of the day have the good games and this past session was at a non-optimal time and the results were break-even. 

There are three more days to the end of the year and the strategy sheet, with its massive amounts of info, is taking shape but will not be finished in time.  However, two of the five parts are finished and being used.  The late position was 200+ lines and was separated into pairs, suited and unsuited before being compressed.  After shortening this section, it should be a total of about 135 lines. 

The button is the best position and Poker Tracker has proved that it is.      

A Little Loose and a Little Aggressive, Boring

It was not the best time to play, but what the hell.  The games were a little loose and bets were getting raised and even reraised.  If those games were very loose it would have been better. The fishes were trying isolation plays but with crappy hands.  So, jumping into the fracas required waiting for a good hand or two.  So those hands came and after an hour, the session was over and the King had another winning sesssion.  It wasn't great because besides being in aggressive games, the cards were not coming. 

The strategy sheet is coming along, but is longer than desireable.

Beating the tight games is, at this time, all theory, but this is the future.

Finally, the King threw away two pennies in a sit and go tournament and lost on his first hand AQ offsuit.  The 2¢ sit and go is very fast moving and the blinds were chewing up his chips. 

One of Five Strategy Sheets Completed

There is no end to perfection, so 8/24/10 is the deadline for the King to finish his strategy sheets in five parts.  The first part, of early position play, is finished and ready  to use.

On the 24th, fiscal year two ends and the gains have been good but not like month two.  At this stage, working to the strategy sheet is mostly compressing the information that is already there.  The new strategy sheet is modeled after M Hilger's strategy sheet (that is only five pages) but will be much longer - something like 35 pages.

No-limit, No-limit, No-limit

The limit games were not ideal for playing, but the King played anyway for fun and his earnings were minimal.  No-limit games are always there in great numbers and everywhere. With just a little time available, the King played in play money no-limit and made $400 +.  With a little study, making play money is much easier with no-limit.

The King is still trying to finish his strategy sheets little by little and spent just 1/2 hour on them yesterday.

Limit Poker Subsidizing No-Limit

After a short but winning session on the limit hold 'em games, the King played in a 2¢ buy-in sit and go tournament.  The tournament went very fast with its escalating blinds and the four hands that he played were  KK, KJs, QQ and J9 offsuit.  The KK won he pot with another player going all in, KJs was just for a $200 bet, a late player went all-in and the King folded, with the third hand he had QQ and lost to K5 offsuit a garbage hand.  The idiot caught a King and won the big pot.   In the final hand the King was left with $120 and the $400 big blind was next so he went all in with this crappy hand and lost it.  It was a good experience.

In colonial America 2¢ could buy a block of cheese, the King is not smiling

Multi-Tabler from Korea

While playing at a full-ring, limit hold 'em table, the King accidentally put in a search for PokerStar Pros who are online at the very moment.  At that time of day, there were many pros online and the King perchance clicked on a Korean pro since asian countries have their favorite games and poker is not as popular as in Europe, Russia, Latin America and the U.S.

The Korean is Tae Joon Noh and he was playing 14 tables simultaneously with 12 tables of $1-$2 no-limit hold 'em and two tournament tables.  The above picture is from a $300 buy-in tournament, where he had to pay $320 as an entrance fee.  Noh's estimated winrate at the $1-2 tables is, being conservative, about $15/ hour per table.  For 12 tables he makes $180/ hour. 

Noh's Bio from PokerStar's Website

The Korean pro gaming scene has produced some exceptional poker talent over the years, and another Team PokerStars Pro to come from that background is Tae Joon Noh. Before he discovered poker, Tae played Warcraft 3 professionally, as well as studying business management at university. He took his first steps in poker when he played a live freeroll, and incredibly he went on to win the tournament. The thrill of making the final table and winning that event inspired him, and he’s now one of the top Korean players on the circuit.

After that first live success, Tae took his game online and began to build a bankroll. He’s a high volume player, and that experience came in very handy when he sat down to play his first major event - the PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour event in Manila in 2008. Considering he was still pretty much a live poker rookie, his runner-up finish was a massive result and announced him as a big talent on the Asian scene. He narrowly missed out on glory after a grueling six-hour heads-up battle, but the $103,760 he won for 2nd place, as well as the confidence he gained, have meant he’s been able to take his career to the next level. He’s a regular at the Macau Poker Cup, and has numerous cashes in those events to his name, including five final table appearances. With so many deep finishes on his resume, his main focus now is to get that elusive big tournament win under his belt, and it should just be a matter of time.

Tae enjoys the pro poker lifestyle and the rewards it brings. He lists collecting cars and watches as his interests away from the tables, and judging by his tournament results, those collections will continue to grow for some time. In his downtime he still likes to play video games, with Starcraft 2 being his favorite. Tae plays poker online only at PokerStars, and you can find him at the tables with the User ID ‘Tae Joon Noh’.

Bad Omen

Real Money Session (after work)
Einstein with his toungue out is a bad omen when another player uses this as an avatar.  In the past, this omen always resulted in a loss, but last night the King triumphed for the first time and had a winning session. This omen appears when the King is fatigued, not playing optimally and acting mechanically.  The tide has turned and the King, armed with new strategies and with more experience, can play, well enough, even when tired.

Fast forward.  Played in a freeroll tournament and came in 1,400th out of 9,000.  The loose aggressive players were droppng like flies and some of them were winning big pots by going to the river.  Slept a few hours, then played another session and felt somewhat insecure for playing just for the experience of playing.  The King has been playing using a very brief outline and a somewhat detailed outline for a tight game (but playing mostly in loose games).  The Hilger tables have been helpfull but they take up too much space for fast referral, in the heat of battle (fish carnage, slaughter), at the poker table.  The King has been having a great month at the micro-limit tables.

Set up another computer to open excel (student edition) separately. Excel does not open up twice, ie the King is not able to open two spreadsheets and compare them side to side with the dual monitor set-up. 

Every Little Edge

Advancing in poker requires taking on every little edge to make a bit more and to appear more loose. When a very tight player bets, he has a good hand and the other players tend to fold more, and the tight player gets no action to recover from all the blinds he contributed to.

Beginners are advised to avoid playing marginal hands and thus have a smaller range of hands to play.  When a beginner has a good hand, he has to maximize the winnings from that hands. Small Stakes Hold 'em by Miller and Sklansky is not easy reads and in the beginning the King had to just find the essence of the book and applied them to the real money games.  The pots entered were few and far in between, the outcome of these pot battles were heart pounding because the pots were so big.

Pot odds were not important when starting to play poker and starting hands were important.  With high pot odds, more hands can be played as strange it seems.  Another strange situation is that loose games with a lot of players are easier to beat than tight games with fewer players, because when starting poker almost two years ago, the King avoided loose games.  The King played in tight passive games and playing them wrong, lost a little and his bankroll hovered between $19 to $24 continually for the first six months.  The initial deposit was $25 and he was in the red from $1 to $6 always. Progress was slow and the King was learning tools were 1) mimicking the play of Conan from Turbo Software and 2) statistical analysis of card distributions using mostly Turbo software.  Realizing that it would take several lifetimes to learn the game, the King turned to "Hold 'em for Advanced Players" and from that time (March 2009), the gains started happening.

Hold 'em for Advanced Players helped with the tight passive games but no so much with the loose games and the King struggled when switching to loose games.  The first year ended with a small gain and the achievement of a goal to make at least $5 or quit poker.  Believe it or not, playing year round and making $5+ seemed like an impossible goal.

With year two ending, and working on starting hands it as quite a surprise to have memory jolts to gameplay more than a year ago.  The King's play was like drownproofing methods where you take a small movement to get a gulp of air and submerge (survive).  Year one passed with a little luck too, if the King didn't reach his goal, he would have quit poker and returned to sports betting.

A Set at the End at the Nickels and Dimes Tables

A little break is a good thing.  Amazing and instantaneous solutions to problems happen after a rest.  Today, dizzy with eyestrain and mental fatique from doing studies of unsuited high cards, the King took another rest with his head spinning with figures.  After the rest, he immediately adjusted the slider, that enlarges the page, and the studying went at a fast speed and accurate too.  Even earlier, with a new stragtegy sheet format, and departing from the Mathew Hilger table form, his eyes were fatigued from the looking at so many numbers.  Reeling, like a drunk, he took a resltess break, came back to his studies and immediately, without thought, shortened the figures displayed from 99, 88, 77 to 99-77 and applied it to other situations. Looking at the numbers immediately got easier.

Studying for two hours was tiring, much more tiring than playing.  Playing games is not tiring but stressfull on the nerves when loose players, playing junk hands, take their turns and win pot after pot.  Today's second session was after studying and started with a gradual loss of the King's buy-in, not much but he hung on and tried not to go on tilt.  The game offerings at that time of the day were good and the nickels and dimes tables were good enough that he played two hours there.  In the end he won two big pots and came in the positive.  The pot that put him in the positive had him with pocket queens and the flop had a king and a queen.  A set is a powerfull hand that has many outs to turn into a full house.  The king on board was worrisome and the player to his left bet and raised on the flop, turn and river, so he could have had pocket kings and a set also.  He didn't have pocket kings, and the King won a big pot and cashed out.

Micro Stakes Sit and Go Leaders

Today, Attract1ve, Ju_Poker, Squirt777 were three of five players at a sit and go semi-final table and were already in the money.  These three players, from checking Bluff magazine's online player profile, are long term winners in tournaments.  The two other players were not long term winners.  These sit and gos are dominated by winning players.  Attract1ve was the player that initially attracted attention for multi-tabling - 17 all at once.  Ju_Poker is from Tatui, Brazil.

The King had a good limit session altho from fatique he made a couple mistakes.  Mistake one was calling the bets preflop until they got capped with King Jack suited.... but it is questionable whether this is a bad play.  A loose aggressive who was betting, like there was no tomorrow, with a garbage hand kept betting and forced out two of five players.  The King stayed in with KJs.  Another mistake was accidentally calling a raise, from the small blind, with 72 offsuit. 

The play that stands out was a three outer that connected.  The King had 6♥-5♥ and the flop was 3♣, 2♣, A♦.  The pot was giving 10:1 odds and with two clubs on board the 4♣ had to be discounted leaving just three outs.  So with three passive players following the King, the King called, the turn was a 4♦ and the river  was a safe card.  This was a nice pot to win after a tough call and being tired, playing after work.

Strategy Sheet and a Session of No-Limit Play Money Poker

The strategy sheet project was changed in format from a listing based on order and position. The new format will have an additional classification of grouping, and then order and position.  With the grouping there will be a very short summary of the group, a ranking within the group and an overall ranking.  In the heat of of battle at the tables, this should be easier access the information.

Today's practice session on the no-limit tables went well.  In no-limit, as they say, the profits are bigger for the same blind size as limit, but the bankroll requirements are a lot bigger.  Playing 2-4¢ no-limit the total bankroll needed would be about $80 and playing 2-4¢ limit the bankroll needed would be $12.00.  With two years of limit experience, there is a lot of transfer of skills to no-limit.  The rules of the game are the same, but the change in betting structure changes the play of the game drastically.

Looking at the freeroll offerings at PokerStars, it is quite amazing that they have many more variations of poker other than limit and no-limit hold 'em.  They have draw, stud, omaha, badugi, and a few more, and each of these games have their variations. Pot limit Omaha is the 3rd most popular poker game after no-limit and limit.

A Different Layout

Putting the preplanned starting hands play in table form is resulting in large amount of repetitive information and this information will be hard to refer to in the rush of playing a real game.  The plans of action may have to be changed to categorization of hands by pairs, suited and unsuited.  Each of these could then be furthur separated by position and rank.

Exel, Student Edition, problems - only one spreadsheet, can be opened at a time.  With dual monitors, two spreadsheets cannot be put side to side. 

Windows 7 has Microsoft Works and the spreadsheet program load fast and is perfect for simple word processing.  XP did not have Works.  Works is good in that two spreadsheets can be opened and seen, at the same time, on dual monitor.

New Goals and Agonizing Over Preplanned Plays

With fiscal year two winding down, what are the King's goals for fiscal year three?  There will be a monetary goal, like years one and two, and some other goals to consider are:  branching out to no-limit, leading a more balanced life, having fun, moving up to 10-20¢ and 25-50¢ a bit more, ..

Working on preplanned plays are very tiring and the King is presently working on them at the middle position.  If as planned, this project will be done by the end of fiscal year two on 8/24/10.

Split Pots and Full Houses

The next project (split pot rules) is confusing.  Today there was a situation with a full house on the board Q♣-4♦-4♣-Q♠-4♥ and from the play of the two remaining players, until the river, no one seemed a better hand, than the board such as Qx, KK or AA.  Here, knowing the split pot rules would be usefull in choosing the correct play of betting, calling, checking or folding.

The beginning part of this project will be easy because the rules are unchangeable.  The second half, where actions are planned, beforehand, for the different situations, will be a brainteaser. There might be websites that offer advice on the myriad split pot situations.

Rules, Split Pots and Playing Any Ace

Sometimes, the appearance of playing too tightly is because of having a run of catching trash cards.  And when a good hand comes, the other players fold - making the good hand worth just the blinds.

Playing a few more hands to get more action, and to make a marginal return from them, will be the next step for the King.  In playing more aces, and a few more hands, a thorough study of the rules for split pots will be very usefull and is another project that is long overdue.

The next project, after the current Starting Hands Project is completed, will be split pot rules.  The target date to complete the current project is before the start of the next fiscal year in a couple of weeks.

A No-Limit Hold 'Em Session

Getting started in a regular practice session of no-limit hold 'em is a terrible experience but is necessary.  The  King played an hour of no-limit for play money and reading the recipe book by McEvoy and Daugherty has made a difference.  It was the second session and the plan is to play at least once a week in a no-limit ring game and to play at least once a week in a freeroll tournament.

Perusing the no-limit ring games offerings on  PokerStars, it was mind boggling in that there were a vast amount of no-limit games.

The King's interest level is higher with no-limit studying and the first study session today was much longer than the average limit study session.  Hitherto, studying has been limited to reading a recipe book by McEvoy and Daugherty a minute or two daily.

Theater View of Sportsbook.com Poker

Today, PokerStars' games were a bit tough, but Sportsbook.com Poker had just one full ring table and that table was soft. 

Cake Network, of which Sportsbook is a part of, did a total makeover of their table design.  The new design has long, thin avatars that are crisp and slick, but hard to look at because the avatars and wording are much smaller.  Switching to a horizontally stretched view made it a lot easier on the eyes.  Maximizing the screen didn't help much.

A plus side of Cake Poker is that players can change their screen names frequently, making it impossible to be handicapped by hand histories.

Any Ace and Aggression

In loose games, it is common for weak players to play "any ace" - a derisive term used by tight players .  Any ace means playing suited and unsuited aces from many positions relative to the button.  High cards are  valuable in hold 'em, but it matters if your cards are suited  A♣-5♣ or unsuited A♥-6♠.

In preparation to playing more in the 5-10¢ limit games, it is quite a change to play different starting hands such as ace offsuits a bit more frequently.

Playing aggressive is recommended but it doesn't seem necesary because many games are aggressive or quickly becomes aggressive once a player or two becomes aggressive and create a domino effect.  Another progression in almost all games is that they become tighter and aggressive.  Perhaps it is because the players came to their senses and played tighter or because the game was just loose temporarily.  Keeping a game not so aggressive allows playing speculative hands for just one bet, and in an aggressive game it is too costly to play these speculative hands like J8 suited and 54 suited for two or three bets.

Add, to the small list of good poker books sources: Noted Poker Authority.

Chipping Away at Freeroll Tournaments

Ended another fruitfull day in the pits on a sour note. 

The day started by playing 2-4 cents limit hold 'em and with an immediate drop in the buy-in by playing too loose.  The worst play the King made was calling down, with nothing, to the river, a loose player who had T7 offsuit and made two pair.  This player was so loose and seeing the flop about 75% of the time, so the King called him down to river with nothing but two high cards. The chance of making two pair with AK offsuit is the same as with T7 offsuit.  The lucky fish, was from a Spanish speaking country.  Putting off getting revenge, the King moved to a greener pasture - a less aggressive and loose table.

Playing tight, the losses were put in control and eventually the gains came back little by little.  The best hand of the day was a full house of three aces and two nines. It was not the nuts, but the thanks to a calling station the pot was big.  This play stands out also because preflop, the King cold called a raise with A9 suited fron the middle position. A9 suited is not a strong hand for cold calling but if many others cold called the raise it is a good hand.  It was a passive table of about 30 cents average pot and four others cold called the raise and there were not reraises.  Two aces flopped giving the King trips with a good kicker..  On the turn, a nine came making aces full of nines.  This was not the nuts but close to it.  After going for overcalls to build the pot on the turn, the King raised on the river and hoped for a raising war that never happened.

It is the last month of fiscal year two and financially it will be another good year, with no way of going in the red. 

The day ended, on a sour note, by getting eliminated on the first hand, in a no-limit hold 'em tournament, by going all-in with aces top pair with a jack kicker and getting outdrawn by a loose player with a garbage hand who caught two pair.

Awareness and the Process of Elimination

The board reveals what possible hands there are. Straights, flushes, full houses and higher hands are way above average in strength, but their possible presence are all indicated on the board. Straights must have connected cards, flushes must have three of one suit present, and full houses must have pairs on board. So, the strong hands, or the presence of strong hands, are absolutely indicated on the board.


In his second real money session today, King had AQo and called a bet on the flop without a made hand or a strong draw - a daring move because playing overcards is risky business and not recommend for beginners. The pot was big and the board was ragged. An ace luckily came on the turn and the brave flop call paid off. On fifth street a queen made two pairs and with the process of elimination, only a set could beat two pair, so the King bet on the the river. His two pair held up and a nice pot was collected.

Play Money NL Hold 'em

Over the past two years, playing in play money NL games were total disasters.  Several buy-ins were lost instantly. After reading "No-Limit Texas Hold 'em" by McEvoy and Daugherty (what Sklansky calls recipe books) bet sizing according to the big blind and pot became a bit more understandable and today's play money session went well.  Maybe by the end of the year, will the King be ready for NL hold 'em.


From today, playing logs will be kept for no-limit gameplay with playtime measured by hands instead of time.  After x amount of play money hands, the King will have to jump into playing NL real money games.
 
Fluctuations are less, in the long run, with ring games compare to tournaments and this is the way to go for making money.  In the short term, ring games, as experienced in limit games, has some wild fluctuations.  In a 10¢ buy in NL sit n go, the possible loss is just 10¢.  Attract1one went 50 something tournaments without coming in the money.  U.pressure went 30 something tournaments without winning.

Keeping Records

Before keeping a record of the game play (and later studying), a few times the King played some marathon sessions of limit hold 'em.  Usually, these sessions were long in order to get even.  Getting even is still a preoccupation, but with an improved gameplay, the ups and downs are not as steep.  Getting even is not recommended and is somewhat controlled by patience - waiting another day or week with controlled no-tilt play.  Having records help in weathering the downturns because long term results are the important results and if studying more than playing, the earnings will not even out and be up there. 

Doubt is a terrible thing to have, was 16 months of winning due to luck and is that Perfect Storm downswing in the future.  The only cure for doubt is to keep improving in some way and to review the present gameplan.

Even Money Tournaments and Ring Games

PokerStars has even money tournaments, sort of.  For their 2¢ and 10¢ buy-in sit n go tournaments the payouts equal the buy-ins.  For tournaments above 10¢ buy-ins, the house payout is less than the buy-in.

The buy-in is the entry fee that each player pays to play in the tournament.  Sometimes, in bigger sit n gos there is a buy-in fee plus another fee, whatever the case, thinking terms of the online site, they neither gain or lose from these tournaments. Just 360 players are allowed to register and with the rapidly escalating blinds these sit n gos finish fast.

For these tournaments to be even money, a participant should play no-limit hold 'em fairly well.  The players who play below average will be long term losers. In addition to improving from experience, learn from books, dvds, websites and observing others.  Think in the long term, because the effects of luck are diminished then.  Expect to have long losing streaks and some winning streaks.

Ring games where the pot, at PokerStars is below 20¢, has no rake.  The rake is only a penny for 20¢ but it adds up: saving a nickel a day adds up to over $18 in a year.  Games that have just one to four players have pots that frequently stay below 20¢.  In addition, playing heads up is a usefull skill to have when moving up to small stakes where the play is more aggressive, there is more bluffing and the number of opponents decrease instantly.  Heads up is tough against aggressive and loose players who play well after the flop by folding and bluffing in the right mix.

Ed Miller

Ed Miller, Sunny Mehta and Matt Flynn are the authors of "Small Stakes No-Limit Hold 'em" and it looks like a winner.  From the start, the way they break down the game is scientific and desirable.  Miller's qualifications are imppecable, but even if they were not, the proof is in the pudding.

Branching out to no-limit will result in more opportunities in game selection. The smaller, online poker sites rarely have a good fixed limit-game but they always have a lot of no-limit games.  With limit poker, play, with game selection, is limited to PokerStars, but with no-limit, many of the poker sites have enough microlimit no-limit games to choose from.  The sites that have a lot of no-limit games are PokerStars, Full Tilt, BoDog, Absolute Poker, and the Cake Network which represents a lot of sites such as Sportsbetting.com,  Sportsbook.com etc. 

For sports punters, Sportsbetting.com has the best lines and the least vig of 10.5/10 for spreads and totals.  Close to 90% of bets should be with them.  Their site isn't as slick as the other sites and they may not offer as much information, but their prices are the best.

It is a bit of a nuisance to put in the long password to open this ebook.  The plus sides of an ebook are that the pages can be magnified to make reading easier and an ebook takes up no physical space.  It takes half a megabyte of disc space.

Sklansky in a You Tube interview predicted that, in the future, fixed limit poker would be the number one game.  This is good, but the present has to be dealt with and the no-limit offerings are tempting.

Annette_15, U.pressure and Woodstar?

Annette_15 has made from Poker Stars tournaments 1.8 million.  So she has made more from ring games, at other sites and from brick and mortar games and tournaments.  She is about 20 years old. 

She played in a tournament without looking at her hole cards and did well.  Watching her play on You Tube, it was strange that she relies so much on the visual clues of her opponents, that she folded before the flop a pair of aces.  Aces in the hole are the best two cards in hold 'em, regardless of the amount of players, type of game etc.  Annette_15 (while googling her name to spell it right) is banned for a week from PokerStars.

U.pressure is the best microlimit (2-4¢) player, the King has seen on PokerStars. U plays in loose, aggressive games and for the most part lets others be aggressive.  U's card sense is amazing.  U also blends in, sort of, because of U's looser play than the King.  U has made a bundle in tournaments at PokerStars.

There was a player from Copenhagen that played at a table with the King and there was a maniac at the table who has controlling the table.  Woodstar (his screen name might be spelled differently) came to the table and jumped right in with some very fast playing.  The maniac was playing about 95% preflop and Woodstar appeared and went toe to toe with the maniac with about a 74% preflop play.  The maniac started with about $4 and Woodstar took him to the cleaners.  The maniac and Woodstar played instantaneously, the games went fast.  in a matter of minutes the maniacs money went all to Woodstar.  The action was fast and furious with the betting gettting capped at a lot.  Since then, the King has played a lot of heads up with play money and someday will devote time to study this aspect of the game.

Bluff Player Profile and Two Hours of Trash Cards

Bluff Magazine, available at newstands, has online player tournament profiles.  The best player, at the lowest microlimit level at Poker Stars, has not been found in ring games, but this player has been playing in tournaments for over two years and done well.  Those tournaments must be no-limit, because they are so few fixed-limit tournaments relatively speaking.  In another article, the playing style of this player will be described.

The King played for three hours and for the first two hours won just two pots.  Those two pots were won with just high cards and the pots were very small.  Having a run of trash cards for two hours happens and is hard to deal with.  Another scenario, that is hard to deal with, is in the first round of play, where the button goes around the table, when you are dealt several great hands and lose them all, because the other five cards were of no help.  To have the buy-in plummet in several minutes is disheartening.

The ups and downs of poker are hard to take.  Sometimes, in the third hour, the trash cards keep coming. 

Ended on a Sour Note

Overconfidence is bad and makes the King play loose and sloppy, so playing in a tournament and getting eliminated was good.  Placing in the top 72 would have been better. 

First is studying and the current preflop project should be done by fall.  The King is using a tight guide for preflop play and is branching out to a tight and loose guide and with some adjustments for passive and aggressive games and players.  Poker Essays  volumes I-III from 2+2 Publishing has a couple articles on the different game types.

The King, to be efficient, has been specializing on just preflop guidelines, and completely neglected the basics. When doing just one task, it is easy to restart it the next day.  Neglecting the basics affects game play and has resulted in losses the past two months.  But after reviewing the basics, a little, everyday, the gains have returned.  After completing this project, preflop studying will be stopped except for some minor tweaking later.

Next was ring games and there were some loose and not too aggressive games to play in.  PokerStars is the one stop site for poker.  Although the smaller sites, once in a while, have some profitable opportunities.   Full Tilt used to have the best freeroll tournaments but not any more.  The Cake Poker network was good until they change the avatars to small slits that looks slick and classy but is an eyestrain to look at.

To cap it off, the King played in a freeroll tournament, that only had 8,750 players, and finished in about 1,250th.  He lost it all, in the final hand, to a loose player who had an unsuited, one-gap connector - 97 offsuit and the flop had a nine and a seven. The King had AJ offsuit and it was over at the flop unless a miracle could happen on the fourth and fifth streets.

A Math Bent

Reinventing the wheel takes too long.  Learning from the right teachers is important, since life is so finite. For the King those teachers are David Sklansky and the other authors of books promoted in his 2+2 Publishing Company. Sklansky has a math bent and this is fine.

All is not on a silver platter, because to progress to higher level requires study that is not totally available from books - which are mostly geared to the lowest level.  And even at the lowest level, the knowledge that is given must be applied to the many situations.

A Missed Opportunity is also a Loss

Using Turbo Texas Hold 'ems simulation, playing A2 suited, from the big blind in a five handed ring game with a $10-$20 blind structure, results in a net gain of 9¢.  Applying this to a 2-4¢ game, playing A2 suited result in a gain of 1/111 of a penny and conversely, not playing A2 suited results in a loss of 1/111 cent.  This extreme example was chosen to show that some of the advantages of microlimit poker are very small. 

In a brick and mortar cardroom, the lowest stakes might be $2-$4 and the astute poker player should factor in the cost of tipping in deciding on whether to play this very marginally profitable hand.  Turbo Softwares net gain per hand is for all hands (played and folded) and not just the ones played. 

The King's Odds and MicroMania at Poker Stars

The daily Poker Stars, Hawkings freeroll tournament is free to enter and the top 72 of 9,000 entrants win a ticket to a paying weekend tournament.  The average player should win once in every 125 tournaments or 72/9,000.  The above average player should win  at a rate of less than 1/125.

The King capped today's limit hold 'em session with a 10¢ buy-in No Limit Hold 'em tournament and finished, after playing horribly, 80th place out 360 entries. He played T9 suited and KJ offsuit wrong by not jumping into the pot even tho the pot odds were favorable and the board was ragged and low.  Only the top 36 finishers win money in these turbo tournaments.  Turbo is a very fast moving tournament where the blinds rise rapidly.

Poker Stars catch phrase is "Micro- Mania" and there are 2¢ buy-in No Limit tournaments running at this moment.  The King has played in just two No-Limit Hold 'em tournaments, so far, and both of them were 10¢ buy-ins.  A 2¢ buy-in tournament is a great way to gain experience.  No Limit Hold 'em is immensely popular online whether in ring games or tournaments.

Where have all the players gone?

Today, Attract1ve was playing at two NL Hold 'em 10¢ buy in tournaments and doing well in both of them.  NL is very different than fixed limit.

Plotting the players in poker in a pyramid, there are a lot of players at the bottom and very few players at the apex.  When going up in limits, the number of games decrease rapidly and the difficulty in playing those games increase the same.  The player "upressure" no longer plays and was an absolute penny poker winner, after watching her play at the next level she did not seem to be doing well.  But my judgement of her was from very little observation.  Perhaps she is playing in a casino in Germany.  Today Princess was playing and she (he) is one of the older micro limit players.  At Poker Stars, the biggest poker room on the internet, screen names and avatars cannot be change.  So... where have all the players gone... most of them have quit it seems.

The Bot is Not a Bot.

Micro stakes greatness comes with a price, and that price is public scrutiny.  That player that was multi-tabling - his screen name is "attract1ve".  Today he is playing in a 10¢ buy-in, No Limit tournament for 360 maximum players.  The payout is 1st place $8.50, 2nd place $6.00, 3rd place $4.00 and on.  Attract1ve is currently in 4th place out on 360 and will win some money.

This player is to be reckoned with in the future but he will probably be playing in higher stakes when the King of Microlimit Poker resumes playing.  Oh, Maggimae went all-in with AJ offsuit and lost to AQ offsuit.

Poker Tracker and King Queen Offsuit

King jack offsuit is a starting hand that beginners overplay and the King of Microlimit Poker went in Poker Tracker and saw that there was a overall loss for KQo.  So, this hands seems much stronger than KJo because there is no gap and can make more straights, and furthurmore a queen kicker is better than a jack kicker in a kicker showdown.  So, it seems that KQo was most likely overplayed recently.

The good news from Poker Tracker is that pairs were played better, especially small and some medium pairs.  Small pairs play better in loose games and folded, usually, after the flop.

The multi-tabler from Bulgaria was going at it again but on 16 tables today.  He has about $1.15 in each table and seems to play Ok. Watching just two of his decisions where one decision took five avatar pulses to make, the question of whether this player is a pokerbot wavered between that or perhaps he can play fast. 

There was this player from Florida who played 8-9 tables and initially he was losing money and a big fish.  Several months later, his style became tighter and he looked like a small winner.

Poker Bot?

On Poker Stars there was a player who was multi-tabling - 17 tables.  He seemed like a tight, aggressive player and winning, and after putting him in "find a player" for future reference - the drop down showed that he was playing on 17 tables.  His decisions were fast the (avatar which pulses)  pulsed no more than twice before he made a decision. Only when posting a blind, did he take time and his avatar pulsed more than 5-6 times before he posted his blind.  All this was at the 2-4¢ hold em limit, full ring games.  How can you play 17 tables at once?

Absolute Poker ... has 1-2¢ No Limit Poker

No limit poker is much more popular than limit poker online. There are always no limit texas hold em games going at Poker Stars, Bodog, Sportsbook, and Full Tilt. No limit poker is very different from limit and a good plan is to play at the lowest limit or 1-2 ¢. Absolute Poker has many games at that level but so does Poker Stars and then some.

There is a lot of value in playing in play money games, because these games are similar to penny poker games. People play just as seriously in play money games. There is not much difference in losing several thousand dollars in play money vs losing 80¢ in a real game. People play to win games and to win money, two different objectives.

How do those poker experts learn to play limit and no-limit hold em in addition to stud, omaha and maybe some NBA and NFL sportsbetting. It is just too difficult to play poker with concentration after working all day and with the brain not finished processing the day's activities.

Is it the online poker room's plan to make no limit hold em the number one game because it has more action and they make more money from it? Or is it because Skalansky has written that no limit is easier to play than limit. Whatever the case there are a lot of freeroll no limit tournaments at Poker Stars.