Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

Poker is a fantastic game.  It has so many facets and nuances that if you only ever played Texas Holdem, you could spend your whole life concentrating on perfecting it, and still have work to do.  That being said, poker is also great because there are so many variances.  There’s Omaha, 7 card stud, Razz, 5 card draw, and i’m only scratching the surface.  The reason i’m asking is not because i think you dont know about other types of poker games.  The reason is much much deeper than that.

Profit

So you take a bad beat on Full Tilt in a small sit n go, and are pissed at holdem’.  So, instead of taking another shot at multi tabling in the same game, you fire up an Omaha table, or a Hi/Lo 7 Card table.  And guess what? You come out making a lot of money.  Way more than you would have if you had won that sit n go.  That’s my story anyway, and that’s how i started playing 7 Stud more often than any other game (by far my favourite).  Was it because i was better at 7 stud than most people?  I don’t think so, but i gave myself time to learn the game, and really studied it.  This made it my most profitable game; how would you go about diversifying or changing games entirely?

Making the Decision

In my experience, a bad beat led me to change my game, and winning at 7 stud kept me coming back.  It just happened to be my perfect game.  I was able to set goals and combine those goals with solid strategies i either learned from books or witnessed from other players.  The thing that appealed to me about 7 stud was being able to view cards that other players were holding, and use those statistics to make a decision on my cards. This let me use skills that Holdem doesn’t really value. Other players may find the appeal of Omaha and 4 starting cards appealing.  The point is, making the decision to try out a different game may be as simple as a bad beat, but to stay with that game it comes to profit and opportunity as well as maximising your personal skills.

So, what is your most profitable game?

While this may not be a valentines day themed post, it’s still very relevant to any player who has been able to sneak away from their significant other and load some money to their favourite online poker site. But, in the last year doing that simple transaction has become increasingly difficult.  Recently Mastercard has come out swinging against online gambling by blocking gambling transactions.  That coupled with world governments realising what a cash cow they have been missing out on, and regulation on the horizon, many new poker players could be confused as to what their options are for depositing money to any online poker site.

Enter PokerDeposits.org.  While still in it’s infancy, really, PokerDeposits.org offers a fairly robust outline of who’s who with regard to putting your money online, and offers many different options for players all over the world (and is very clear what works and what doesn’t in the USA).  It gives step by step instructions how to deposit using specific payment methods, and give an overview of the online rooms that accept those payment options (handy if you’re taking all of your money out ofpokerstars to move to a different room, and all of the money is being put into paypal..)  it also offers reviews of poker sites all over the net (and more crop up daily), and i was told there was rakeback news, but i couldn ‘t find it. It’s still a little rough around the edges, but overall, for the purposes of loading your online account, or moving your money, it’s a one stop shop to sort through your options quickly.

Click below to see pokerdeposits.org

**Full Disclosure** i was not paid by pokerdeposits.org, nor do i know them at all in any way

With the blessing of the Quebec cabinet, and the go ahead from Loto-Quebec CEO it appears that Quebec will be the first Canadian province to have a government regulated online poker site. For the record, BC has online gambling, but the games are casino like games and pseudo-poker games, not the true poker game that is being proposed in Quebec. But wait, can’t we already play online poker in Canada without regulation? Isn’t it “Legal?” Has this worked in others places around the world? And wont there be too many barriers for existing players to make the jump to a publicly run site?

The “Illegal” Question

It always makes me laugh when i read stories like this and there are learned men and women speaking about the legality of online poker, and getting the complete wrong end of the stick. For example, during the press conference the Finance Minister Raymond Bachand spoke about the legitimacy, regulation and protection that provincially run online gambling would offer consumers. “Inasmuch as this is a sector that is developing exponentially in an illegal way, Loto-Québec is being given the responsibility of working to redirect this … to a site that is secure, legal and trustworthy.” I don’t know if he’s speaking about illegal live poker clubs (a huge problem in Quebec), or if he’s alluding to the “illegal” gambling site that have been allowed to run in Canada. The fact is, while it is illegal for someone to run a gambling site in Canada, it’s perfectly legal to frequent a site run on foreign ground. I dislike the vilification of people playing “illegal” games and simply by saying “look at us! we made a site and it’s LEGAL now, come play on it!” doesn’t sway me in the slightest. Quebec, you’ll need to make a GREAT online poker site and offer some GREAT rakeback and incentive offers to come close to enticing players from the already well established online poker sites like Full Tilt and Poker Stars.

What Happened in Sweden?

Okay, so there is president for this. When Sweden launched is publicly owned Swedish lottery corporation online poker offering it took %25 of the market share in four hours. I’m not sure how they came to that conclusion, or if it has been sustained over a long period of time, but in 2008 it generated $600,000 million so it looks to be a viable option. Of course, with the widespread offerings and few barriers to those offerings (you just need an internet connection and a way to get cash on the site), i maintain it will be difficult for a “Regulated” online poker room that’s state run to succeed in the way the politicians are expecting.

Barriers?

C’mon, you didn’t think that adding red tape and government control would mean an easy way to get online to play poker.

The Quebec site will be open only to Quebec residents who are physically within the province, but those players will be able to engage players in the other participating jurisdictions. Age verification will be done by an outside firm using a process that could take days and, in some cases, require the player to show up in person.

GREAT. I’m totally getting rid of my illegal online accounts to wait a few weeks to be told i have to go down to some private firm to verify my age (hello…i pay taxes, you seem to know how old i am on there..eh?).

All in all, i think their intentions are good, but you can’t all of a sudden change the rules and expect people to be excited about it. If this were happening in the states, it would be really exciting. In Canada, it seems ill conceived and not well thought out. I’ll stick with my “illegal” option thank you very much.

There are a lot of poker blogs out there, however one of the most comprehensive has decided to shut it’s doors on October 31st

Poker Pages, which provides a database of professional poker players updated tournament earnings, Poker News and Tutorials, posted a notice on it’s main site Thursday announcing it’s own demise.   The announcement states:

“It is with sadness and regret that we must announce that Poker Pages and all of its related services will be closed on October 31, 2009.

“For many years, Poker Pages has enjoyed providing the best source of poker-related content, arguably the Internet’s largest and most complete live poker tournament results and listings database, as well as a place to play poker for free.

“These services will certainly be missed, but we realize that the most appreciated benefit of our products and services has been the community created by our user base.

“We thank you for the many great years you allowed us to provide you with the best poker content on the Internet and wish you all the best in your future poker endeavors. It has been a pleasure and a privilege serving you over the years!”

The notice is signed “Poker Pages Management.”

No other info was posted about why the site is closing, nor is there any indication as to possible future endeavors planned by the poker pages management.

This past Friday WSOP parent company (Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment) took a step in the direction of online gaming.  They have partnered with 888, and their Dragonfish division will provide the software and develop the platform.

This is not likely to happen quickly, however, so i wouldn’t be holding my breath!  888 Holdings is a major player in the European online gambling market, but not nearly as big in North America due to pulling out of the US market when the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was passed in 2006. 

With their decision to go with 888 as a provider and developer it seems like Harrah’s is hedging their bets that online gambling will soon be “legalized” in the states.  It makes sense, as no one would want to dump money into abusiness that is “illegal” and working with a company that pulled out as soon as the waters were muddy seems like a smart move. 

Seth Palansky (director of communications, Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment) stated:

“Obviously we are hopeful the U.S. government will recognize that – like our brick and mortar gaming establishments – online poker can be regulated, taxed and run with the utmost confidence. If that happens, great, if not we’ll focus on other markets.”

Maybe those other markets include Europe……?  hmm…

A few weeks ago news was breaking about Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars checks bouncing, and echecks was down.  A month or so before that, the American Department of Justice froze a ton of money from being returned to online poker players (and that is still not resolved as far as I know).

While the reports are currently spotty about checks bouncing (there were more last week..not so many that i could find this week..), FullTilt.com and Pokerstars have no official comments yet.  This is really surprising to me.  For 2 of the biggest online poker rooms in the world to stay silent on something as fundamental as money management, it really makes you wonder how stable this whole online thing is in the states.

I have no doubt that both of these sites are working on it, and that it will be fixed as soon as possible (if it’s not already), but reassuring your customer base goes a long way to keeping their respective status in this competitive market.