The "official end of era announcement" was "Black Friday" on 4/15/2011 at around 2:00PM EST when the US Department of Justice indicted various owners of 3 online sites (PS, FTP, and UB/AP). (It's ironic it's "black friday" because the normal analogy is to Black Friday - when retailers make lots of money and "get in the black" on the day after Thanksgiving).
The FTP client software started offering a new download at 4:00AM EST on Friday night. Luckily, I had my computer/FTP software still on and was able to play for a couple days until an official "rebooting" of all the US IP addresses happened on 4/18 (Monday) at 3:00PM EST. After that point, only play money games are available.
FTP's Traffic during the "interim period"
1. Needless to say, traffic was gone 50-60% since it was mainly US players.
2. ~22 players at 50plo8/rush at 11:00PM on a Saturday (normally 100). Additionally, PLO8 ring games were almost non-existent.
Other thoughts about my "grace period" (after Black Friday until Monday afternoon).
1. I was fortunate to be able to play a couple extra days and complete a couple last promos (Silver Iron Man + Take 2 Promo).
2. My overall graph for PLO8 very recently officially made me a non-rakeback pro :) PLO/NLHE were still in the RB Pro status though.
3. I was attempting to change my playing habits to accomodate for the more European crowd (playing more in early afternoon-late afternoon as opposed to late nights). If FTP was still up, i was taking shots at the FTOPS PLO8 events (which would have started on Wed with a Rush event followed by a 6-max event the following Monday)...
4. Sadly, I wasn't able to enjoy those last couple days on FTP as much as I would have because of the large amount of social activities that were going on (figures...)
5. I hope that FTP does the honorable thing to convert and/or pay out for Take 2, Iron Man bonii, medals, FTP points, FT Academy, T$, and the other random "value items".
My concerns/thoughts after the closure:
1. Lack of Preparation for the WSOP. I didn't get a chance to play any PLO8 MTTs and now have almost no way of playing them.
2. Strong desire to play some FTOPS (PLO8)/mini-FTOPS (10 game multi-entry + other) events for the practice/experience.
3. Continued "practice" for improving cash game play in NLHE and PLO!
Hopefully, some day, FTP (and PS) will come back into the market stronger or a strong US presence emerges. In the meantime, it looks like I'll be devoting lots of time to watching videos/reading strategy/posting in online poker forums.
Later posts:
1. reflections on PLO8 cash, PLO cash, and NLHE cash
2. reflections on Mini-FTOPS 10 game
3. live cash game sessions
4. thoughts about resuming online poker?
5. sifting through all the online poker training videos/literature
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
Online Update
1. I spent a week playing 25plo/6m/rush and some NLHE (and staying away from PLO8). I really feel I need to spend more time on NLHE as my hope to change my volume didn't exactly happen. (Even the week where I took PLO8 off, my volume was mainly 80-20 PLO-NLHE).
2a. I took some unexpected time off, but decided to put in some serious PLO8 volume to earn a lot of FTPs in coordination with Take 2 (+1x multiplier for all rush + top 2 ring games). Thus, I can get 4x multiplier for rush + top 2 tables when playing during happy hour.
2b. Coincidentally, I think there's a bug for determining "top 2 ring games" when super multitabling with rush. I've gotten more bonus points than I think I should. For example, I was 4 tabling 50plo8/rush, but had 6 other plo8 tables going ranging from 6 max to fr at 50 or 100plo8 (which I will try to not do so much anymore). I'm pretty sure I got more points than what should have happened.
3. I feel decently comfortable at 100plo8, but there are a lot of smart, aggressive, and talented regs that I have to get adjusted to. It also helps to tile tables better using ctrl-9!
4. The swings are nasty though + misclicks are just as bad. I was getting mentally tired after ~40-45 min. of 7+ tabling. My PLO/NLHE games are shot b/c I think it's ingrained to play PLO8 right now.
5. I will hopefully really devote time to my NLHE (specifically) and PLO8 games. I think I need to watch more bluefirepoker videos and reread some literature.
6. After Take 2 promo ends, I hope to play some PLO8 sats to either FTOPS events (yay for 2 PLO8 events, although 1 of them is rush)
2a. I took some unexpected time off, but decided to put in some serious PLO8 volume to earn a lot of FTPs in coordination with Take 2 (+1x multiplier for all rush + top 2 ring games). Thus, I can get 4x multiplier for rush + top 2 tables when playing during happy hour.
2b. Coincidentally, I think there's a bug for determining "top 2 ring games" when super multitabling with rush. I've gotten more bonus points than I think I should. For example, I was 4 tabling 50plo8/rush, but had 6 other plo8 tables going ranging from 6 max to fr at 50 or 100plo8 (which I will try to not do so much anymore). I'm pretty sure I got more points than what should have happened.
3. I feel decently comfortable at 100plo8, but there are a lot of smart, aggressive, and talented regs that I have to get adjusted to. It also helps to tile tables better using ctrl-9!
4. The swings are nasty though + misclicks are just as bad. I was getting mentally tired after ~40-45 min. of 7+ tabling. My PLO/NLHE games are shot b/c I think it's ingrained to play PLO8 right now.
5. I will hopefully really devote time to my NLHE (specifically) and PLO8 games. I think I need to watch more bluefirepoker videos and reread some literature.
6. After Take 2 promo ends, I hope to play some PLO8 sats to either FTOPS events (yay for 2 PLO8 events, although 1 of them is rush)
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