Overtop69's Poker Blog

A great weekend on the felts!

2011-04-11T12:56:00.002-04:00

So, after not really playing seriously for a while I have recently taken to the felts in the hopes of rebuilding and finally making a go of this. With limited budget restraints, depositing isn't really an option for the moment. But, thankfully, there are freerolls!

I did deposit on FeltStars about 2 weeks ago and got a coupon to play 14 $50 depositor freerolls. Well, out of the 14 I played, I took 2 1st place finishes and 1 2nd place. There's a nice $45 to play with! I lost all of the proceeds from the first two finishes($35) and was back to freerolls and on Saturday night, with my last entry, I won it again. That gave me enough to be able to play a few sng's and small buy-ins. So, I played the dollar dazzler Sunday night, a $1 rebuy, and took 6th for $19.90...or a $16.80 profit. That gives me a boost of confidence, and some cash to play with! YAY!

It doesn't end there though. I've recently returned to playing the $70 Montreal Freeroll on Poker770, and last night I won it!! So now, all of a sudden, I'm feeling great about my game, and am actually able to play some low buy-ins to try and get back in the game! Maybe I'll see you at one of the games EH!

Poker is not being nice lately!

2011-04-08T21:48:00.004-04:00

Hey folks. I know it's been a while since my last post, but I really haven't had anything nice to say, lol. Poker hasn't been nice to me lately, not to mention some of the players(I won't go into a rant about it today, but it's coming), so I haven't really felt like posting.

As far as playing goes, I've been sticking mainly to freerolls and really low buy-ins. Part of that is due to a low bankroll, but most of it is due to tilt factor. I find that, recently, whenever I suffer a bad beat I get tilted BAAAD. So I don't really want to risk much when I know that I will blow it if I get tilted.

I've been playing a lot of the regular & WCOIP freerolls at FeltStars, along with the 2 daily Montreal freerolls at Poker770, and occasionally one of the 2 daily $500 freerolls at Bodog. I've also been playing for playchips on Pokerstars on occasion, as well as the Home Games hosted by Poker Nuts In Canada. I did in fact come in 1st place in last month's series, but since I had donated the prize for the winner I was not eligible to win it. Oh well, the series was fun, and I made enough profit in the series to pay the prizes and still have some left over. Yay!

Speaking of Poker Nuts In Canada, they have a great promotion going on right now. It's an activity contest and very easy to be a part of. All you need to do is make 5 posts this months, or sign up at FeltStars using the forum's links, and you get invited to a private $50 freeroll to be held on FeltStars next month. It doesn't get easier than that!

They are also hosting a Spring Home Game Series at Pokerstars with some great prizes. The series runs from now until June, and has 30 games in the series. All the games are cheap, $1.10 buy-in, and from what I've seen they are great fun & competitive games. Once again, the cash prizes are donated by me, so even if I win the series again I still can't collect any prizes. That's ok though because it's a fun forum, that I want to see doing well, and because I have a lot of fun at the games.

So come on out and join me at some of the Poker Nuts In Canada games, or find me at some other game(most likely a freeroll at this point), and have some fun! But let's be nice, cause I'm tired of dealing with assholes at the tables EH!

A Cereus Issue...pun intended!

2011-03-04T12:11:00.003-05:00

Below is a copy, word for word, of a blog I posted yesterday at Poker Nuts In Canada about the recent developments in the Cereus scandal. Here's my post :

"Ok. So I normally keep my mouth shut about hot topics, just because so many people have conflicting opinions and I'm not much for conflict, but here goes.

I don't know if anyone DOESN'T know about the big scandals that were made public a few years ago about AP and UB, but if they do they were hiding under a rock, or never read anything about poker except strategy articles. If you didn't know about it and you are interested in online poker than you should definitely do some research and find out how these sites and/or their employees ripped people off for millions of dollars.

Well, recently, one of the figures involved, Travis Makar, has stated that he has evidence that there were more people involved than admitted to by the network. He also states that there was a LOT more money stolen than previously admitted too.

Now I don't really know any of the figures involved in the mix, but I can say that the whole thing stinks of major cover up. Information about this scandal continues to come out, ever so slow as it may be, and the network continues to lie and claim they have done everything they can to shed light on exactly what happened, even after they people proved they were lying. Oh sure, they end up telling SOME of the truth, but never the whole story.

So, can these people be trusted with YOUR/MY/OUR money? HELL NO! I don't care how many pros tell me they are hunting for the truth and won't feel good about themselves until they find it, especially when they then become evasive when asked specifics. I mean "Cereusly" now, excuse the pun, but how much more money needs to be stolen, how many more lies need to be told, how much more covering up can they do before it all comes out anyways?

My opinion is simple, shut them down! Boycott them! Start a mad witch hunt(though one is already on) and burn them at the stake....though that last part is a joke, I can't say that too many people would be against it if you could still do it. How can a community continue to give support to a network(who is currently rated the 5th largest site or network) that has, not just once, but repeatedly proven that they are NOT trustworthy? I just don't get it!

A key example is the latest signing of Prahlad Friedman. How can this guy, who lost millions, got cheated in the worst way, and left to rot, after saying he would NEVER sign with ANY site, sign with the very scammers that robbed him? I think that poor Prahlad has been cheated again by the administration of the network and was led to believe that they have righted their wrongs and are headed in a new direction. Well, the new direction part may be true, but they sure haven't righted ALL the wrongs and they may not EVER be even able to. Prahlad, I think you are a genius, you're play sure is, but I think you just got sucked into a slow played big hand and the river will crush you.

The scandal, the lies, the cover up, the continuation of all 3, should be a warning to ALL that no matter what you may think, there is still a lot more to this than we will ever find out. One thing I can tell you one thing for sure though....I'm done with it. I have given up on Cereus and I think you should too."

If you wish to comment, please post a comment on the original forum thread found HERE.

A weekend of decent poker!

2011-02-14T12:10:00.002-05:00

It's been a long time since I really focused on my game. This weekend I did just that. I tried my best to do well and for the most part I did, except(of course) in the big games. Yesterday was probably the best of the weekend with at least 3 satty tickets won(1 of which I blew almost immediately in the Sunday qtr mill), another weekly round 2 ticket won on Pokerstars and a final table in the $1500 gtd on the Merge network.

Though I did horrible in the big games, I can chalk that up to bad luck. When luck was on my side I did well. I played patiently and picked my spots well for the most part, and even though I did get blown out of the big games, it wasn't because I played bad, I just got unlucky, which seems to be my curse in the big games.

Well at least my confidence is up, my bankroll is doing ok again, and I'm on my way to getting back up there. The $100 casino win on FeltStars really helped lol. Here's hoping I can get some more of that luck stuff at the poker tables EH!

Decent night on the felts.

2011-02-11T17:18:00.000-05:00

Well, last night didn't go as well as I had planned, but I did ok I think. After having made the top 200 4 times this week, I finally made 60th place in a round 1 freeroll on Pokerstars, earning a ticket to the $2000 round 2 freeroll.

It was a surprise to me that I'd win it in that game, since it was Stud hi-lo, which isn't one of my stronger games though I'm still quite good. I was running amazingly lucky though, leading a lot of the way, hitting many hands on 6th or 7th street, some of them even 2 or 3 outers. It was quite a run and it made feel like my luck returned. So now I just have to build on that.

I'm gonna try again tonight to win some in various freerolls. I hope I do more than win just a ticket tonight, though that wasn't soo bad lol. Good luck and see you on the felts EH!

Back to the Felts at FeltStars!

2011-02-10T18:13:00.003-05:00

I haven't been blogging much this year, breaking my resolution, but I also haven't been playing much either. I've been a little, well a lot, down on my success lately. It seems every time I get down to a tight spot I make the right call and get sucked out on. That's poker, frustrating as it is, and I am now ready to get on with it.

So, tonight, I am starting to slowly rebuild and get back into the game. I am starting by playing a few games on FeltStars, freerolls mainly. I'm also going to play a few of the points buy-in freerolls on Pokerstars. The way I see it is I have to start somewhere, and if I can get back to my freeroll roots and build it up wisely, then maybe I can stick to some decent bankroll management and get back to some decent paying games.

Hopefully you all have been luckier than me and don't need to play freerolls, but if not look me up and say hi. Oh, and you can always find me and get in touch with me at Poker Nuts In Canada. Good luck all and see you on the felts EH!

It's a new Year...and I am back to blogging!

2011-01-02T17:31:00.005-05:00

It's been a long time since I've posted anything. It's been a crazy past few months, with me having very little time to play poker at all, no less blog about it lol. However, I do plan to have more time to do those very things in 2011. I can't guarantee daily activity, I do have kids, but I will try my best! At least that's an attempt at a resolution lol.

It's Been a while!

2010-10-16T11:19:00.005-04:00

Well, it's been a while and a half since I made a post on here. For the most part it is because I really haven't been playing much since the end of July. Of the games I have played, most of them were freerolls, and I was not really focused or even interested in many of them. Lately I thought I had finally found found my patience again so I started playing again.

The last 2 days I've been playing a fair amount at FeltStars. I tried to stay within bankroll management boundaries, but it was pretty tough with my small bankroll there. As it turned out I didn't do to bad the last couple of days and have come out ahead by a little over $100. In there were a couple of final tables including a 5th place for a $75 win, making me feel pretty confident. Now, let's see if I can keep it going.

Today is the big freeroll event at Intertops Poker. The prizepool is $5k, so I am hoping to go really deep and create yet another bankroll at another site. I hope to see you all there, and as usual I'm representing Poker Nuts In Canada. See you at the tables!

A nice upswing!

2010-08-18T11:01:00.003-04:00

After 2 days of having horrible luck and running worse than a one legged horse, I was hoping that the trend wouldn't continue. Luckily for me it didn't. I broke the trend yesterday with 2 good tournaments.

It all started in the morning, just after I made my last post. I decided to play the $1750 GTD $4.40 rebuy on FeltStars. I had a played patiently, had a good run, and even had some fun. I made the final table, by the skin of my teeth, but didn't really have much time before I'd be desperate for chips. Finally, after waiting out 3 eliminations, I got pocket kings in the big blind and shoved. Well my kings ran into A-Q of hearts, and after hitting the king of hearts on the flop, along with another heart, I had to sweat the flush. Sure enough, to my dismay, the heart hit on the river and out I went in 7th. Though the hand that knocked me out was a bad beat, I didn't mind so much, because at least it was a premium hand. The $70 I took with 7th spot helped heal the pain and frustration of the loss lol.

Later on in the day, after busting out of the PJD game(seems to be a trend lol), I headed on over to Full Tilt to see if I could find something to play. I found a $3.30 deepstack SH mtt and decided to give it a go. Again I was patient and again my patience paid off. I was in the top for the whole game, even though I bounced up and down a bit, and ended up getting down to the final 2 tables. I went card dead with 5 tables left. I waited and waited and finally got a small run of cards. I got up as high as 2nd and the bottom fell out, all within a 10 minute span. I ended up in 11th for $17.66. Though I did well, the final few hands were crushing, so I felt sort of cheated, but that's poker right?

I tried this morning to play in 2 mtts, quickly realizing that without good cards coming I wasn't being very patient. The 1st game was the $2k GTD $5.50 rebuy at Doyle's Room. Blinds were growing fast, as they do on that network, and I was not getting the cards to be able to hang on and make the money. With A-10 suited in the big blind I decided to shove, running into a pocket pair of 8s, and that was that. I didn't hit and out I went in 36th or something like that.

Meanwhile I was trying to stay focused by multi-tabling and playing a $2.20 rebuy on FeltStars which had a $1500 GTD prizepool. This didn't help me stay patient at all! In fact, it frustrated me even more. In 46 hands dealt I won 2 pots, both of which were just blinds, netting about 150 chips each time. After 45 minutes of folding and losing I finally decided to quit the game even though I could still rebuy for another 10 minutes. I figured, why should I destroy what little patience I have left chasing a few dollars I wasn't likely to make back.

So here I am posting and relaxing before I get back to the felts today. I will be at the PJD FeltStars game tonight, hopefully with better results, at 8pm ET. I will also try to fit some mtt's in today, and we'll see which way my luck goes the rest of the day. I wish you all good luck in your games EH!

A slowdown...or is it over already?

2010-08-17T10:14:00.003-04:00

The last couple of days have been brutal. Nothing seems to go right on the felts. If I have second nuts, someone else has nuts. If I have the nut straight, someone else has the flush draw and hits. That's just the way it's been the last couple of days.

Now the question is how long it will be like that. Hopefully it won't last too long. Well, I can't really think of much else to say except that I hope my luck changes today!

Good luck all.

The run continues!

2010-08-15T11:03:00.004-04:00

Well, I must say, it's nice to FINALLY have some luck and a good string of wins put together. I've been really happy with the last 2 weeks of results, and the last 2 days have been no different.

While browsing through the games list on Full Tilt on Friday, I noticed a $5.50 HORSE mtt with 3 pros in it. Knowing that my step daughter really wants me to win her a t-shirt I decided to give it a go. Although I don't play HORSE much I am pretty good at it. I remember that my first ever mtt win was a HORSE freeroll. Well, I battled and battled, went up and down, and had a lot of fun along the way. I wasn't able to get to a t-shirt, but I did get to play with pro David Bradley at the final table for a while, which was nice. I ended walking away with 5th, for $24 and some change, and a good feeling about my HORSE game.

Yesterday was OFC freeroll day at Doyle's Room. Now I have a history of tanking big time in any big game, or any game where I am representing a forum. Not sure if it's just me, or if my luck really does stink in those games lol. Yesterday though, I broke that trend too. I finally got a good run in one of these, and again, I never looked back. I took it all the way to the final table and took down 2nd for $139. It was the most wonderful feeling to get yet another monkey off my back. To make it even nicer, Poker Nuts In Canada, the forum I play for in these events, pays me $25 just for making the final table and representing them. Cool EH!

Then, last night, after having relaxed a bit, I went over to 365Bonitas to play the Canadian and North American league games. The Canadian games are always small fields, and as it happened we were in the money when we started the game lol. I did one re-buy though, and to make a profit I needed to finish at least 2nd...and I did. I didn't mind losing though, since it was a friend who took 1st and solidified her spot at the top of the leader board for this month. I am in second for the month...and that's fine by me lol. As for the NA league game, it had a few more players. 90 in total I think. With a $300 GTD prize pool I was really hoping to make final table and win some decent cash. I did just that. The cards were coming, I was being patient, and I was winning...and never stopped. I took the game down, winning $90 for my effort, and a bunch of points in that league too.

So now, after a great stretch of games and some good luck, I am finally feeling like this is the best run I've ever had. Even though the amounts aren't huge, it's been a huge boost to my confidence and to my bankroll. I now feel great about playing, which has been an elusive feeling for quite some time now. Let's hope it continues today with the OFC buy-in game at Doyle's Room, and the league games at 365Bonitas tonight. Oh, and also in the PJD FeltStars game, where it's time I put in a good effort and came home with some money lol.

Good luck all and hope to see you on the felts EH!

Yet another success in the shorthanded tournaments!

2010-08-13T17:26:00.004-04:00

So, as I mentioned in my previous entry, I have a firm belief that I should stick to short handed formats for the moment. I had another example, or reaffirmation if you will, of why it's a good idea. Right after writing my last entry I signed up for a 6 max mtt at Full Tilt. It was a $2.20 buy-in with unlimited re-buys and an add-on. Well I did the instant re-buy and the add-on, making it a total of $6.20 spent.

What a great run I went on. It seemed that I could not lose. Hand after hand I was hitting, and when I wasn't I was patient enough to wait for a hand to come along. I led for a large portion of the game, at times with a lead of over 150k in chips. As it happens though, luck was not to stay on my side forever, and I was knocked out in 5th. They weren't horrible beats, so I wasn't enraged by the loss, and the $102+ payout was nice enough to make me smile for a while.

So with a $96+ profit, a final table, a boost of confidence, and a great run, I will dare to continue playing the 6 handed format. I will also attempt to keep this run going, to regain my confidence, and to win back my losses of the last 10 months. Well, it's a start anyways lol.

See you at the 6 handed games, or the PJD FeltStars Group game tonight, and good luck!

Bad day yesterday, but not so bad the day before.

2010-08-12T10:29:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was a rough day on the felts for me. Except for a few bucks that I picked up in my last session playing Omaha Hi at FeltStars I had a horrible day. Everything I did seemed to go wrong.

The day before however, I reaffirmed my belief that I should stick to the 6 handed format tournaments. I played 2 mtts at Full Tilt, both short handed, and got down to the top 12 both times, finshing in 10th and 1th. For the week that made 4 top 12 placements out of 6 SH mtts. Ok so I blew a few of them yesterday, mainly because I just wasn't feeling it, but I'd say that I've found my niche.

So today I'm back at the SH tourneys, trying to win back my recent losses and then some. I also have the PJD Group game tonight at FeltStars which is a bounty game. So here's looking forward to some success on the felts today! Maybe I'll see you there EH! Good luck all.

Wild weekend!

2010-08-10T11:40:00.005-04:00

My last post was Thursday morning, and it seemed like it was going to be a quiet day. Well...it wasn't, and I'm glad it wasn't lol. As it turned out the wife decided to play some tournaments, which she rarely has time for with the kids, and did quite well. In fact she won $1100 and now exclaims to everyone that FeltStars is now her favorite site without any doubt! I can't blame her really, because the site has some great guaranteed tournaments, which never seem to reach the guarantee, and the play can be quite soft at times. She's gone a bit down over the last few days, but she'll get it back and will win again soon.

As for my poker experiences the last few days, it's been quite a different story lol. I have been up and down on both FeltStars and Full Tilt. I'm more down than up on both, but I am on a slight upswing on FeltStars having won the last few double up sng's I've played. Let's hope the luck continues there. I've also been playing the PJD FeltStars group games with limited success, but at least some other members of Poker Nuts In Canada are doing better than I lol.

Where I have had some success is at 365Bonitas. I've just recently started playing the Canadian league there, and boy what a joke. Most games have money added, and some are guaranteed prizepools, making it well worth the change to buy-in. There is a minimum of 5 players for the game to happen and generally there are just a couple more than that. Interestingly enough, a minimum of 5 places are paid, making it easy enough to get into the money. So far I'm up over $10 and I've only played 2 games!

Also on 365Bonitas, they hold a North American league. These games attract a much larger group of people and have great added value, with $300 or $500 added to the games. I did horrible in the last one, due to being in too many games at once, but I will definitely being trying much harder at future games.

I'll finish off with my favorite game. I played the Poker Nuts In Canada "Weekly Change-up" on Full Tilt last night. The game varies from week to week and this week it was HORSE, one of my favorites. I like to play HORSE when I get bored of normal hold'em, and if I concentrate on the game I'm usually quite good. Well, last night was a good night. I had my focus going good, and took it down. It was only 5 people playing, but it was a tough game, as most of the PNIC games are. Next week is Omaha H/L, which is my least favorite game, so I'm glad I made enough to pay for it this week lol.

Well, that's about it for a recent recap I guess. I'll be at the PJD game tonight at FeltStars, as well as some double up sngs, and the Canada league games at 365Bonitas, so maybe I'll see you on the felts?

Good luck all.

Monkey is now OFF my back!

2010-08-05T17:26:00.002-04:00

It's been a couple of days since I posted, mainly because of I really haven't played much, but here is a quick recap of my last few days. It all started Monday when I logged into Full Tilt to play the Weekly Change-up, hosted by Poker Nuts In Canada. Although there were only 3 players this time out, I had a horrible run of cards, well good for most poker games just not razz lol, and got knocked out fairly quickly. I didn't really feel like giving up on poker though, so I signed up for a $3.30 ko mtt. I had a great game, with cards falling my way fairly often, battling it all the way into the money. I ended up with $11.99 in winnings from the game, including 7 bounties, 1 being Jeff Madsen. I was happy to collect the money, and my step-daughter is extremely excited about HER new shirt lol, but felt bad for crashing in the last 2 hands. I then played a bit of Rush poker and built up another $4 of profit. That was it, I don't get lucky often, so off to bed I went feeling somewhat good lol.

Tuesday was an off day for me. I didn't feel like playing poker, or doing anything at all really. I just wasn't quite myself. However, at about supper time, a friend of mine gave me a heads up about a Canadian league tournament happening at 365Bonitas, that only cost a dime and offered the chance to win tickets to the regular league games that have money added. She was telling me that they needed 10 people for the game to happen and that she was afraid they would fall short. So I logged in to take a look and registered, figuring I could afford to lose a few cents to try and win a coupon worth $5.50 to a $100 added game. As it turned out I was smart to play it, because I ended up taking the win for the $5.50 coupon and my friend took 2nd to win the $2.20 coupon to the $30 added game. There's another one tonight at 9pm ET, so I'm going to take another shot at it, and try and win my way into another league game.

Then, to fully get up to date, there was last night. I had logged in to Full Tilt at 8pm to play the Poker Nuts In Canada weekly Wednesday game, "The Nuts' Happy Humpers", only to find out that it was canceled due to lack of participants. Since I was so hyped up to play the game I decided to look around and see if there was another game that looked interesting. Well I found a $2.20 6 handed MTT that looked interesting. I like 6 handed games and decided to give it a shot, while playing some rush poker on the side. Well, I went off on an absolutely incredible run and just knew that I was going really deep in this game. I didn't get discouraged the few times that I lost a big hand, figuring that I had planty of time to get the chips back, and come back they did. The run never ended and I took the tournament down for $172 and some change. I hadn't won a large tournament in a while, and it felt great to get the monkey off my back again. Now, to keep it going is the trick lol.

Good luck all, and maybe I'll see you on the felts tonight EH!

Quiet few days

2010-08-01T11:34:00.004-04:00

It's been a quiet past few days for me on the felts. I haven't really played much the last few days, mainly because I didn't feel like I had much patience. The few games that I have played have been somewhat painful as well, losing in situations where I shouldn't be, but that's poker.

I did play a game last night, a new one to me, on FeltStars. The game was the "Burning aces Saturday night special" which is hosted by Poker Joe and the Doc. It wasn't the first time I'd seen their games, and I decided it was finally time to get in on the action. I must say I was not disappointed. The players are nice people from what I've seen, and the quality of play is quite good. For the first game I've ever played with these folks I am quite happy with my results. I ended up taking 2nd of 16 for almost 8x the buy-in in winnings. Nice payout for a couple of hours work lol. Now that I've played one of their games I'm hooked lol. I guess that means my poker playing will be increased a bit, since they hold daily games on FeltStars, no pw required, and almost all have extra value added.

I also played the Poker Nuts In Canada game, "Saturday Nuts Live", but had less success in that game. Although there was only 5 players it was an incredible battle. I love this game because you start out with only 1000 chips, so the action builds quickly. It always seems to be an intense battle in all of the games for Poker Nuts In Canada, which is what makes them so interesting and fun. I do hope that sometime in the future the number of players at these wonderful games will increase, and make the competition even more fun. Maybe I'll even see you there sometime soon EH!?

Good luck all and see you on the felts!

Didn't play much, but I do have an opinion to share.

2010-07-28T11:49:00.003-04:00

I haven't really played much since my last post, and what I did play was nothing special. I will be making an appearance, as usual, at the Poker Nuts In Canada game tonight. The game is their usual weekly game for Wednesdays, "The Nuts' Happy Humpers". It happens at Full Tilt tonight at 8pm ET and has a low $1.50 buy-in. I always enjoy the games, the people are great and the fields are small, so it should be a great game. Maybe I'll see you there?

On to a rant I MUST get off my chest. Many of you know that I have been playing online poker for quite some time now. I play almost everywhere and I play a lot, though quite a bit less lately. One of the things that has always bugged me is these online stats tracker sites that ILLEGALLY track your stats anywhere you play for the purpose of sharing it with others. Most sites have a policy of removing your stats upon request, but none of them ask you for permission to track you in the first place. They all say that their information can be used to improve your game and find your holes in your game, but let's be serious, MOST do NOT use it for that. Most players use it to see how the players they are up against play and how well they do. That is information that would ONLY be available to those who actually played that person and kept track of what happened, well, under normal circumstances. Many of the poker sites, especially the big ones, have strict rules about using this information and some will even ban your account if you are caught using these sites while playing on their software. What these sites do is steal data that is being transmitted over the web to compile detailed information about every single player they can, and then either selling the information to other players to use(like PTR) or they give you a general breakdown of player's stats to give you an idea of the player's success(like OPR or Sharkscope). There is varying levels of fault amongst these sites but none are as bad in my opinion as PTR who sells hand histories of individual players, information that an individual could NOT have access to UNLESS they themselves compiled the data, which in most cases might even be close to impossible. Hence my opinion of them as thieves and an overall detriment to online poker as a whole. I don't fault the players who use the information as much as PTR, because they might not do it if PTR didn't make it so easy.

Now comes my real complaint, and you guessed it, it's about PTR. Just recently they had announced that they found network security issues with some of the big networks. I won't go into details about the issues, cause that has nothing to do with my point, but let's just say that PTR found security holes that would allow hackers to steal and cheat on the poker softwares PTR tested. Now, as great as it is to see someone caring about the security of poker players everywhere, I have a problem with this particular case. Here are my reasons why :

1) PTR is not, never was, and hopefully never will be, asked to do this by anyone!
2) They WILLFULLY broke the law and HACKED the networks and their signals!
3) PTR then released all details publicly BEFORE contacting the respective networks and informing them!
4) PTR made a video proving that it was possible AND showed it publicly!
5) PTR has made it clear they think of themselves as an authority for the online poker community.

Now, to put this into perspective, here we have a site that WILLFULLY breaks rules and laws, telling respectful businesses how to run their operations. SICK! They claim to be doing it for the protection of the community, yet publicize it both written and in video(for any hacker to see), and make it look BAD for online poker. They tell player's who were notified by them, or learned the news from their site, to not play at the networks until THEY, PTR, give the all clear. Who are they that I should wait for THEIR all clear?

In both cases the overall result for players and poker is that the security holes get fixed, which is a good thing for poker. However, the way they go about doing it and publicizing it is totally the opposite. In a recent post I read about the Barney Frank bill that is being looked at in the US, one of the Rep. Senators had this to say about giving the 2 big poker operators a license if and when online poker were legalized in the US : "These entities should not be invited to play a role where they are going to have to act as policemen," said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.). "We don't want former criminals deputized as cops." Well I say that statement describes exactly how I feel about PTR and their involvement in this scandal. Do we allow them to take "credit" for finding these holes, and allow them to get away with the obvious illegality of what they did? Even though the end result is positive, many negatives don't make a positive in my mind and they don't deserve to be rewarded. Nobody made them, asked them, or even approached them about doing such a thing. So should we honor them for taking it upon themselves to do what only a hacker would even think of trying? I am sorry but in my opinion no matter how much so called "good" comes out of this, PTR is NOT respectable in the least in how they've handled it. They only proved that they are lawbreakers and thieves, capable of doing things many of us couldn't possibly bring ourselves to do because of our morals, and they want us to give them credit for it and respect? NO WAY EH!

That's my rant, and it is only my opinion, so take it for what you will.

Good luck on the felts!

Things are on an upswing!

2010-07-26T14:08:00.004-04:00

The weekend is over, and for the first time in a long time it was a decent weekend on the felts. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I wasn't really feeling like it was going to be a good day yesterday. I stayed away for most of the day only playing the one game before 9pm ET. I did however play the Montreal Freeroll and it got my poker bug going. I didn't do so well in the freeroll, so I left Poker770 and headed over to FeltStars to play some tourneys.

I played about 4 or 5 games, just putzing around, with no real expectations. Well, in one of the $2 bounty games I got off to a good run, and I played it as best I could. Now once I got into the money(top20) I knew that 11th-20 got the same payout, about half the buy-in, so I really wanted to make the final table. I also didn't have many bounties at that point, so to be profitable I really needed a deep run. Not really having any care whether I cashed big or not allowed me to be more patient and aggressive. It seemed to work because I made the final table.

Truth be told I was really enjoying this game due to 2 guys that were making it an absolute riot to be there, at least I thought so. The banter made me want to stay even longer...and I did. I finished, with 6 bounties, in 2nd place which meant a total of $29+ including bounties collected. Not a huge cash, but I had blown about half that much in the evening anyways, so it sure helped lol.

That makes 2 days in a row of profitability...can it last? I will wait until tonight at the Poker Nuts In Canada "Weekly Change-up" before really trying to find out. The game tonight is Limit Stud H/L with a $1.50 buy-in. So far it's been pretty small fields, and fun people, so it should be a good game. Maybe I'll see ya there?

Oh...and it's at Full Tilt at 8pm ET!

Ended well last night...not a great start today lol.

2010-07-25T16:19:00.004-04:00

So I left off last night in the middle of the $3 bounty on FeltStars . Well, I didn't do so great after that. I hit one more bounty to make my buy-in back(minus the fee of course) and then got knocked out myself not long after that. I decided to play a bit at the cash tables, before going to bed, and I did alright, doubling up my $3 buy-in at the 2c/4c tables. You know I sometimes wonder how people lose at that level....what donks they are lol. After that I did go to bed.

Today I haven't played anything except the $2 Grand-daddy $1k GTD at the new 888Poker. I didn't really want to play much today, wasn't really sure why. but I just felt like it wasn't going to be a good day. Well this tourney proved that to me lol. I folded almost everything until I got dealt aces about 30 minutes in. I was in the BB and someone raised to 3x before me, everyone else folded. I raised it to 6x and got called instantly. The flop came king high so I felt good, no flush or str8 draws, I bet 3/4 pot and got insta-called. This left me with over half my stack in the middle and pretty pot committed. The turn came another king...so I shove. The villain flips over k-10 os...and then to make me feel worse rivers the 10 for a boat. Well...gut feeling was right...time to stay away lol.

That being said though, you might find me at the Poker770 Montreal Freeroll tonight at 9pm ET. This game is exclusively open to Canadians and generally has just over 100 runners. With top 25 getting a prize those are pretty good odds, even for someone who runs as bad as I do lol.

Good luck all.

Not a bad day after all!

2010-07-25T00:47:00.005-04:00

Well my day started pretty badly in the WPT freeroll on FeltStars. I played well for the first hour and a half or so and managed to stay close to or just below starting chips. After folding pretty much everything because it was garbage I finally got a decent pocket pair. Well I took my face card pocket pair and 3 bet, even though I was BB and only had 1 limper....being short stacked I didn't want anyone to outdraw me cheap. Well, the other guy called, flipped over his A-4os...and flopped the ace. SO much for the WPT lol.

Next was the Saturday Nuts Live game, hosted by Poker Nuts In Canada, also on FeltStars. This was a great game with friends, and all seemed to fall into place for me. I won the game. It was a small profit, but it still made me feel good.

After doing well in that game I wanted to play more, but not risk anything, so I decided to play the Montreal Freeroll on Poker770. I haven't played this tourney in a while, even though it has great value, and was stunned to find out that it now pays the top 25 instead of the 19 it used to. With only 108 entrants, almost 1 in 4 odds, I felt good about winning something. Well, I played hard, played well and over all dominated most of the hands I played. Again though it was luck that crushed me and I made 28th, just missing the payout levels. I felt bad, but not broken, and moved on to the next game.

That game was the $2.20 SH MTT on FeltStars that started at 10:20pm ET. It only had 39 registered, but what a ride it was. I watched people go down in flames all around me with nothing even close to what I'd call with, but they were losing to me so I didn't mind lol. For the whole game I was in the top 5, mostly first, and had real good feelings about this one. It was not meant to be though. Once we got down to 3 I got all-in with top and bottom pair on the flop, other guy had the flush draw, and we all know the rest.

So all in all it was a good day profit-wise, but it still had those moments of spirit crushing agony where luck beats you when odds say it shouldn't. My girlfriend says I should take the good and focus on that, which is good advice, but after 9 months of agonizing defeats it is difficult. I will use this as a start, build upon it, and hopefully things will start to sway the other way for me. But who's to complain about a day where I profited $11 on $3 investment? I guess she's right, it is a positive thing!

So now I'm on my last game for the night, a $3 bounty game on FeltStars. I have already taken down 2 bounties at the time I am writing this, am 2/76 out of 135 starters, and am still feeling good about my game. So let's hope I have good news to share tomorrow! Good night all(or good morning lol) and good luck.

It's been a while

2010-07-24T11:22:00.004-04:00

It's been a long while since I've been blogging regularly. Since it's been so long I though it would be a good idea to get rid of all my old posts and start fresh. So here goes!

I haven't been playing much poker as of late for several reasons. For starters, having 2 toddlers around the house makes it almost impossible to sit down for any length of time and concentrate. The oldest of the 2 is almost 18 months old now and he gets into everything. He's at the hard headed stage, where you tell him to do something, he knows what you're asking and how to do it, but just won't. Well, that's a boy for ya I guess lol. I've also had pc issues as of late, just recently having fixed my baby, and was working on a dinosaur that took forever to load anything, no less a game of poker online. I've also been feeling down on my game, seeing as though my luck has completely sucked for almost 10 months now, and that has made it hard to play patiently.

About the only games I have been playing steadily are the Poker Nuts In Canada games. I find the games extremely enjoyable. The play is usually very good, and hey have a great bunch of members. The chatbox is usually quite active making for lots of fun besides the game. Tonight I will be playing in their "Saturday Nuts Live" game at 8pm ET on FeltStars. This game is always fast paced, especially since you start with only 1000 chips. It has 10 minute blinds, a low buy-in of only $1.10, and still has a very small field which is great for me.

I also have one other game of note today. It's also on FeltStars, at 4pm ET, and I really want to take this one down. It's the WPT Festa Al Lago Grand Final Freeroll, with the winner getting a ticket to the final where you have the possibility of winning a WPT entry. There is also $100 added to the prizepool. I would just love to make it to the WPT, what a dream it would be.

Well that's enough for now I guess. I'll be sure to let everyone know how I did in the 2 tourneys, so check back for results! Maybe I'll even see you at the games?