Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

With 2009 coming to an end Tonight, i was asking myself what is the biggest poker story of the year??? I have spoken a lot on this blog about theUIGEA and how the PPA lobbying group delayed the compliance deadline.  But 2009 has been a banner year for the high stakes online poker scene with Isildur1 vs. durrrr, and 2009 has crowned the youngest WSOP Main Event Champ in it’s history. 

UIGEA Deadline Delayed
Not much has happened in the last month or so with the UIGEA deadline.  At the beginning of December Barney Frank and the PPA were successful in getting Treasury Secretary Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Bernake to delay the deadline by 6 months (to June 2010), essentially preserving on-line poker in the United States, and giving necessary time for “further research” into on-line gaming.  This move is huge, as it’s widely believed to be a shift in thinking toward on-line poker (basically a cash grab for the government), but more importantly it allows on-line players to continue playing in the states without interruption.  Look for developments in this story as 2010 will see further debate and hopefully strong legislation to legalize and regulate on-line poker (instead of criminalize and stop it). 

Isildur1
Isildur1, the unknown Scandinavian, ignited the high stakes tables at Full Tilt poker this fall, and during his rise to super-stardom in the on-line poker world, took down Tom “Durrrr” Dwan.  There was huge coverage of these back and forth battles, and even records set for largest on-line poker win in a single hand, and we sawDurrrr drop down in stakes to rebuild his bankroll.  The end of 2009 was not so rosey for Isildur1, as Phil Ivey and others took note of his play and the wildest swings ever seen by on-line poker resulted.  While this story is far from overIsildur1 changed the way high stakes poker is played on-line.

Youngest Champ in History
This could have been the section i talked about a man who hadn’t played on-line poker, but won the WSOP without a sponsor.  But it’s not.  This is the story of the youngest ever winner of the WSOP main event.  Joe Cada beat out an impressive “November Nine” final table that included huge chip stacks (Darvin Moon), a very seasoned poker pro, who was on everyone’s list to win it (Phil Ivey) and a hole host of others.  Since winning Joe became an excellent ambassador for online poker, appearing on many late night programs and generally helping to bring poker into the mainstream spotlight.

So goodbye 2009. We had some big wins, some records broken, and some losses.  But overall, in 2009 the world of poker continued to push into the lives and living rooms of more and more people, and i can’t see that trend ebbing in 2010…we’ll have to wait and see though!

Maybe I’ve been living under a rock, or just don’t pay attention to extremely hot poker babes (no, that just isn’t true), but i have totally missed Beth Shak.  While her website is overdone (it looks like someone went crazy with flash and, while it’s impressive, it takes away from the person it’s trying to showcase…) her poker skills are NOT overdone!

She started playing professionally almost 5 years ago, and her first cash was in the 2005 WSOP Ladies NLHE event where she took 8th place for $16,000.  She has cashed consistently since then, with her biggest cash coming while playing the 2007 WSOP ladies NLHE Event when she took down 2nd place and $328,683 for her troubles.  But what is really impressive is that she has had 5 children and she looks like THAT!  Awesome.  Keep up the good work!

On unrelated to poker news, Beth is a businesswoman and fashionista who develops her own line of clothing, and is an active philanthropist and promoter of charitable causes.  And, she looks like THAT.

So, Beth Shak, as someone who is married to a poker pro (Dan Shak), and has made a very successful life both on and off the poker table, you Madam are my last poker babe of 2009! (but mainly, cuz you look like THAT)

Yeah…5 kids…

Today, the worlds largest online poker site, Pokerstars is attempting to create another record in the Guinness Book.  Last year’sChristmastime tourney had an $11 dollar buy in with $500,000 in guaranteed prizes, but this year Pokerstars wants to break the current record (set by themselves) of 65,000 players in a single tournament. 

So, Today (Sunday, December 27th) at 2:45 the tourney will start.  The buy in is only $1 and the guaranteed prize pool is $300,000.  Registration is open and as ofSaturday morning the 65,000 person record has been broken (there were 71,000 people signed up Saturday morning!).  No late registrations are allowed and no cap for the tournament has been given.  If you put your $1 into this tourney, you’ll get 2000 starting chip stack and the blind levels will run 5 min each.

My personal feeling on this whole thing is that it’s a publicity stunt, and any tournament with that many people is nothing but a blind push fest after you hit the 5-9 blind levels.  And with the buy in being so low, you’ll have a lot of players happy to get in and start pushing right away to hopefully double up and out last conservative players.  Still, if their goal is to create buzz and get 100,000 people on a table to break a record, Good Job Pokerstars!  *slow clap*.

So, if you feel like getting into the fray of this GIANT tournament (literally, the biggest tournament you could ever play in, period) head over to Pokerstars and open the sites filter and type “record” before 2:45 and sign up.  Then put all your chips in the middle because that’s the only way you could possibly go deep in this tourney!

As 2009 barrels to a close, all of the major online poker networks are gearing up for a BIG 2010, and the rumours are swirling!  The major thrust of the changes that will be announced in the coming weeks are changes to the VIP reward systems.  They are rated on a yearly measure (Supernova Elite program @ pokerstars) so it is expected that they would be first on the list of announcements.  But there are a lot more changes in store. Specifically for Full Tilt a brand new VIP system will be announced, and a new buy-in structure for cash games is in the works for early 2010. 

VIP Rewards

Currently Full Tilt is running the Iron Man Promotion.  The rumored change to their VIP program is not something that will eliminate the Iron Man, but instead be an additon to what’s already there.  There isn’t much to know yet, as it’s still in the planning stages, but it is expected that Full Tilt will let the other online poker networks announce their VIP system revamps and then top them.  This seems to be confirmed by the 45 day extension of Iron Man bonus clearing time. 

Buy In Structure
For most of 2009 Full Tilt has been dealing with an influx of “short stack” players (players who buy in for the minimum and have a “push or fold” mentality).  Due to these short stackers style of play, and their tendency to “Rathole” (immediately leave the table after doubling up) the other players, regular Full Tilt players have become frustrated.  To combat this problem Full Tilt spokesperson “FTPDoug” posted on twoplustwo that Full Tilt would be raising the minimum buy in on it’s standard tables.  “That’s not all we’re going to do, but that’s the biggest change.  And that’s all I can say about that until the update.” – FTPDoug

Despite not being able to say more, the thought going around is that instead of the 20 big blinds required as the minimum, they would now require 40 big blinds, and leaving the cap-game tables to buy in for 20 big blinds (cap-games have a limit to how much money you can lose in a hand. An example would be a $2/$4 table would have a cap at $120), thereby eliminating short stackers from the no limit tables and enabling a more pure game (with less wanting to throw your mouse at the keyboard because you can’t win back the money you lost).

So, if you’ve never given Full Tilt a try, Head on over and give it a try!

This week i have been talking a lot about bankroll management and when to move up in stakes, but i haven’t yet touched on when to drop down.  There is a stigma attached to this, and most people when faced with a dwindling bankroll tend to try and “go big or go home.”  They play more tables, bleed chips, pull moves they normally wouldn’t.  In short they are tilting, and bleeding away their chips, and wrecking their bankroll.  The reality is, you know when you should drop to lower stakes.  Your bankroll is telling you, your pokertracker is telling you.  To boil it down, and simplify it: when you have fewer than 20 buy ins at the stakes you’re playing, you should drop down. 

It’s not much more complicated than that for players playing tournaments or NLHE.  But i want to dispel the stigma.  Dropping down a level in stakes is not a defeat, nor is it something to be ashamed of.  It should be looked at as another tool in your arsenal to help you refine your play and keep your bankroll in tact for as long as possible (if not forever..who likes reloading?). 

The first step is recognizing that you’re not playing winning poker.  You will see this much more quickly than the 25,000 hands required to move up in stakes.  This involves dropping below the 20 buy in’s required.  At this point you should be looking at lower stake games, and planning your return to the higher stake ones.  When you do drop down to a level that you’ve presumably already conquered, chalking up a few easy wins will do wonders to boost your confidence. 

When you have a few wins under your belt, and your bankroll is back to the level it was before going card dead, move back up and play aggressive poker without worrying about destroying your bankroll.

When to move up?
I am a huge fan of going on a heater.  It’s a great feeling, and sometimes it feels like i can’t lose.  However, there have been times whenI’ve been riding the wave of an amazing session, and have literally doubled my bankroll.  And what did i do right away?  I moved up to the next level of stakes.  Was this incorrect?  Mathematically , absolutely not.  I went from $450 or so to around $1200 in a single session, easily giving me the 20-25 buy ins that i comfortably need to move up a level. But when i started playing on the higher stakes tables, i started losing.  Badly.  Missing big pots, chasing stupid hands, and letting the other players get under my skin enough so that i didn’t notice when i was making a bad call, or until well afterI’d priced myself into the pot.

Get Conservative!
What i forgot to do, in this example, was to make sure that my game was good enough for the higher levels.  I had the bankroll, that much i knew.  I also knew that if kept winning the way i was winning, i would win a lot more at the higher level.  But i didn’t think about the fact that players who play regularly at the higher levels either have more money to give away (the gamblers), or are much more experienced than the $25 no limit table players. After i lost all the moneyI’d won to get myself up to the higher level (it was not a great evening session that day…) i started doing research about how to gauge when to move up in levels, and how to measure yourgame play.

Poker Tracker and ptbb/100
Up until this point i wasn’t using a tracking software to compare what i was winning to what i was putting out.  I was a recreational player, and was quite content with reloading my bankroll every 6 months or so.  I set up pokertracker, and played at my old level for a few weeks to get a good handle on my game play.  The conservative approach is take a sampling of 100,000 hands before moving up, but this is akin to needing 60 buy in’s to play NLHE at any level (overkill.)  I went with 25,000 or so hands and  I realized that my winrate was 3 ptbb/100 (based on this at .50/1.00 nl i was making $6 / 100 hands..click here for a more in depth forum post on the topic..), and so that was good enough for me to move up.  4 ptbb/100 is better, but i felt confident.  My bankroll supported my move (again), and this time i knew where i had gone wrong in moving up in stakes the last time. I did much better and am now thinking about moving up again.

So, in short, ensure that you have the bankroll for a higher level and make sure that you’re game is up for the challenge of the new level.  If you feel like moving up, do it, but remember…keep a close watch on your win rate and adjust accordingly.