1. It should be an interesting WSOP this year as I know at least 3 people playing full schedules this year! ZH, XL, and CC should do just fine :)
2. I haven't played too much online/live poker, but have been trying to revise my mental approach to individual hands/sessions. I've been reviewing some of my HUD sessions as well.
3. I've signed up for rakeback at RPM (Merge Network) as their deadline approaches for rakeback signups. I'll be restarting my online journey soon in preparation for the WSOP.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
FTP: End Era
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
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
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)
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Approaching a milestone...
After putting in larger/longer sessions, I'm approaching FTP's Black Card status! I've gotten 2 reminder emails that "you're getting close".
I'm projecting to get it in the next couple days....
1. Here's hoping that the "benefits" of having "the most prestiguous card in poker" are worthwhile at the RIO/WSOP (which was the whole point)...
2. I actually kind of want the actual physical black card :-P ...and will probably email FTP's Black Card support and hope to get the physical version!
On a side note, I will be trying to mix in a lot more NLHE and PLO. I was really putting in a huge volume of PLO8 (PLO8 - 90%, PLO - 9%, NLHE - 1%) which is good in prep for the WSOP. But, I'm hoping to get it back to more of a 60-20-20 now that i'm not pushing to get BC so quickly.
2 posts are pending:
1. My Last Live NLHE/PLO session at Rivers
2. My Thoughts about the mini-FTOPS 10 game (which coincidentally, I chose mini-FTOPS 10 game over St. Patrick's Day + NCAA tournament start/bracketology) and the need for me to play/learn some NLHE MTT strategy sometime amidst all the other things I need to improve.
I'm projecting to get it in the next couple days....
1. Here's hoping that the "benefits" of having "the most prestiguous card in poker" are worthwhile at the RIO/WSOP (which was the whole point)...
2. I actually kind of want the actual physical black card :-P ...and will probably email FTP's Black Card support and hope to get the physical version!
On a side note, I will be trying to mix in a lot more NLHE and PLO. I was really putting in a huge volume of PLO8 (PLO8 - 90%, PLO - 9%, NLHE - 1%) which is good in prep for the WSOP. But, I'm hoping to get it back to more of a 60-20-20 now that i'm not pushing to get BC so quickly.
2 posts are pending:
1. My Last Live NLHE/PLO session at Rivers
2. My Thoughts about the mini-FTOPS 10 game (which coincidentally, I chose mini-FTOPS 10 game over St. Patrick's Day + NCAA tournament start/bracketology) and the need for me to play/learn some NLHE MTT strategy sometime amidst all the other things I need to improve.
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