Revelations and Online Poker

Another fascinating couple of weeks of poker for me. I played in the headhunter tournament at the ACF and got busted relatively early when I kept taking stab at pots that I didnt deserve to win. Have tried and fixed that flaw in my game since then.

I also analyzed some key mistakes or errors in my NLHE strategy and have made adjustments that seem to have worked out for the best. I played a couple of short-handed home game tournaments since then and have been in the ITM for most of them. I really wanted to work on playing with a short-stack, coz everyone can play with a big stack.

Another problem I notice in my game was that whenever I used to get really bad cards at the start, my starting requirements seem to diminish and I no longer care where I play a hand. I would raise with KJ off or Ace rag at early position and would get beat by position plays and flops that would not help. I learned that most tourneys start off with you no having monsters, you just have to wait for a good opportunity to play cards. In one tournament in particular, I got pocket 5s in late position and with several limpers into the pot, decided not to raise it because I thought that any flop would help the players that would call. Flop comes out J-2-J. Everyone checks. Turn is a 3 and everyone checks again to the button who bets double the BB. I call along with two other players. River brings out another Jack and everyone folds again to the button who bets 2000 this time. Everyone folds to me. I had a decision to make, I was mostly afraid of a higher pocket pair like 7s or 8s, I wasnt really thinking that he had a Jack, his bets seemed a little weak, plus he seemed nervous. After thinking longer on it, I could not even put him on a higher pocket pair than mine, so I reluctantly called and asked him if he had a Jack and turn over my 5s. He shakes his head and turns over one card, a 3. He also had a full house, I just had a better one. At that stage of the tourney, prior to the hand, I was down to half my starting stack, but after the hand I was up and then some. It just showed the virtue of patience and waiting for the right opportunity to make the right moves. If I had raised preflop, I probably wouldnt have gotten paid off as much as when I waited. Later in the same tournament, I ended up on the final table and was short-stacked. Got lucky when my A10 outdrew pocket Jacks when I hit the trips 10 on the turn. I also went all in with my pocket Kings that saw action with AJ. although I was in pretty good shape, another King on the flop sealed the deal and put me in the drivers seat. When it was finally heads up with the chip leader, a guy I played with at the ACF also, we noticed that we were just giving blinds back and forth. He decided to offer me a deal so we could call it a night (it was really late and I needed to go to office the next day). So I finished in 2nd place and got 6k for my troubles. Not bad, not bad at all.

Another venture I came into was online poker. What really disuaded me from playing was the complex and long process it took to fund a real money account from the Philippines. That soon changed when I was looking around the PokerStars software and saw that they offered funding through Western Union (WU). What you do is click on this section of the software and they instruct you to send through WU a minimum amount of $50.00, of course you also have to pay some processing fees which are really negligible. So I did the money transfer, which I have to say was no a pain at all, the WU staff was really friendly and accomodating., and then proceeded to enter the MTCN into the software. It later tells me that tehy will verify the transfer later in the day. PokerStars verifies and processes WU transfers every 1130AM and 930PM Philippine time.I checked my email later that night and was pleasantly informed that my PokerStars real money account was funded. On a funny note, they told me that I only funded $48.97 and they decided to let it slide since it was my first time depositing. So for all those people thinking of trying WU for fund transfer to PokerStars, you might want to send $51-52 just to be on the safe side of the currency conversion. Hehe.

The great thing about PokerStars is that they offer micro cash games. How micro? Well it might not seem awesome to the grinder who makes a living off poker, but to the average joe like you and me who just loves to play, the blinds are the lowest I have seen anywhere, live or online! How low? Try P0.50/1.00 ($0.01/0.02)! I am not joking, of course, its no limit, so it can go up fast, but the maximum buyin for these cash games are only $5.00! That means you can make the right decisions and learn the fundamentals of poker and get a ton of experience. Another great thing is that they offer 24 hours SnG with a buy-in as low as $1.50+0.25. I have tried these games and have been ITM 3 out of 7 times. I have really learned a lot from them, plus its really fun knowing that the next game is just a mouse click away, plus it doesnt hurt that they are affordable. My bankroll is up a couple of dollars and I couldnt be happier.

During the last couple of weeks, I have been listening a lot to a podcast hosted by Phil Gordon on ESPNRadio entitled the PokerEdge. They give weekly recaps of poker news and have a great segment called Expert Insight wherein they invite a notable pro to give advice on all thing NLHE. Notable pros on the show were Helmuth, Negreanu, Seidel, Vos, Lederer, Ferguson, and just last week, Scott Fischman, also known as the Online Ace. He details a strategy for playing winning SnG online. I have tried to integrate his advice into my game and as you can see, its pretty effective. During the early stages of a tournament, he only raises with premium hands and calls with small pocket pairs and connectors. He says that he is looking for locks, or as I understand them, sure wins and/or chances to double up. Basically if he flops a set or straight he is looking to get maximum value from them. He advices to throw trap hands away, regardless of position, he even folds AQ from middle position because he says, even if you flop an Ace, you dont know where you're at. When short-stacked or back to starting stack at the middle stage, which will be the situation most of the time when using his strategy, he looks to push in position to steal blinds because people are trying to sneak into the money. He then plays really loose aggressive at the end stages. So he basically says to play really tight, then really loose. He also says that the best online SnG players in the world will be ITM 40% of the time. Maybe you guys can give it a try and see how it can help your game.

Also, an update about the ring game at the ACF. They have officially removed the P20/40 game and only have P50/100 and P100/200 games now with the same rake system of 10% of the pot or P300 maximum. Although this may seem steep for the weekend player, apparently the miminum buyin at the P50/100 game is only P1000 or 10BB, but the maximum is not even P9000?!? Can anyone please confirm this?

Thats all for this week. If you guys have any questions or inquiries regarding the Western Union fund transfer method, Ill be happy to answer them, just drop me a comment and Ill try to answer them as fast as I can. Thanks again for listening to my rants. Till next time, see you at the felt!