I had to laugh when I saw this after clicking on the lobby link this morning. I wanted to see if there would be any double VPP weeks although those are truly a thing of the past nowadays. This is what I found from Pokerstars tips about Milestone hands.
Milestone Hand Tips:
Play on more tables - If you are able to play on more than one table at a time, you will increase your chances of being dealt into a milestone hand.
Play longer sessions - The size of the prizes depends on the number of VIP Player Points (VPPs) you have earned while sitting at the table. Try to take a seat at a table well in advance of the next milestone hand to increase the amount of your potential prize.
Loosen up - you earn VPPs every time you contribute to a raked pot. The more pots you play in, the more VPPs you will earn.
Play more tables, more hands, and longer hours! Thanks for the tip Pokerstars .
As you are all well aware, the overlay is huge in today's Anniversary Sunday Million and any decent poker player should be +EV. I don't have the roll to play it but I will offer myself up for a stake.
70/30 if you're paying the full ticket
60/40 for me if I'm paying half my way
PM me quickly if interested as it starts in 30 minutes.
Bejamin1 on stars
Mostly a cash-game player but I have done reasonably well in PLO tournaments including a win in the weekly $215. Such a small sample of stats won't mean much but at least shows I'm a winner overall in the games at the time that I sporadically played tournaments. In this specific tournament just anyone anyone is a +EV entry and I certainly am.
Edit: Just as a side note I have played 200k hands of PLO over the past 3 years as a casual grinder. So whilst not playing a lot I am still regularly active.
As I'm sure a few of you are aware I recently posted a rather embarrassing whine blog, my apologies to those it annoyed. It was a moment of frustration borne out of losing a significant portion of my roll through short-term EV. Many will simply state you shouldn't play with a short roll in PLO but I've firmly come to believe that escaping the rake trap is far more important than prolonging ones stay at low stakes with rigid BR management.
So here's the simple storyline. I've had 1k trapped on FTP for ages, the vast majority of my online roll. I've also had 150 on Pokerstars just sitting there untouched since Black Friday happened. I've always wanted to return to poker but for whatever reason made excuses not to. I had trouble committing real time to working on my game and had always been just a casual grinder. That much is self-evident in my 175k hands played over the last 4-5 years. I played 20k hands in February in addition to my full-time job. I started by 1-tabling at PLO50 and eventually I was 8-10 tabling with around 1750 in my roll. I was running about even on EV until short-term variance struck. I ran very cold for an extended streak of 3-bet pots and all-in pots. Anyone who plays PLO is bound to know when you start getting badly out-flopped after 3-betting 20% of your stack it's trouble. The variance hit hard and my roll is down to a pithy 350. Some will ask, why didn't you just move down? Well I've always considered my bankroll to the combined amount from my FTP frozen funds and what's left on Pokerstars. Similar to how players on multiple sites think of their bankroll as one unit rather than small chunks.
I mostly believe my mistake was allowing myself to play more than 2-4 tables before escaping the rake trap. All I did was encourage variance to slap me in the face and reduce my edge in the games. This was utter foolishness and for the most part I got what I deserved for my over-aggressive attempt.
What I'm looking to do now is to consolidate my bankroll. I'm looking to gain early access to my 1k stuck on FTP by having someone transfer me 1k on stars. I have a long posting history and no blemishes on my LP record. There are players from this site who know me in real life who can vouch for me if need be. If FTP does not eventually pay me the 1k to forward to whoever helps me out I will simply pay the 1k myself. If anyone is willing to help me out with this please PM me immediately.
I've recently started playing PLO again after a two year absence. I've got a full-time job so I don't have a tremendous amount of time. My goal was to just focus on learning and not care about the results. At times my emotions still get the best of me but I'm getting stronger at dealing with it. Knowing I don't care about the money and I can just approach poker as a hobby certainly makes it easier.
In 18k hands I've won $257.00. A pithy amount playing PLO50 but hey it's something I guess. The all-in EV has me at $710.00 so as usual I'm well below equity. That of course isn't calculated by street so it's a pretty useless metric considering the number of 3-bets in PLO and if you run bad on flops (where you get it in most of the time) you're losing huge amounts of money to trash play from gambling fish but it is what it is.
I'm used to it so it's no big deal I suppose. I'm trying to play a maximum of four tables and preferably less. Focusing on just learning as much as possible and improving my game. I feel like I've gained a lot of knowledge this month and hopefully I'll keep getting better. My roll is short because 1k is still tied up on FTP but I see no point in playing lower than PLO50. It's a 10pt/bb rake trap even at the stakes where I am now.
Winnings: $257.00
Rake Paid: $1788.00
Yep that's fair. I kill the games at 12pt/bb and Pokerstars takes nearly 10pt/bb for my trouble. that really makes games beatable and fair. I'd estimate 97% or more of PLO players at PLO50 and below are losers. Even the players who deserve to be winning. Honestly not sure why I even bother playing for such a greedy site.
They repackaged a bunch of lies about fixing things but don't kid yourselves. Pokerstars is 100% in it for themselves. The sad thing is if there were say 40% of players being winning players, then Pokerstars would have thousands of people spreading the word about how they're kicking ass and making money. People can't help but brag. People who hear them bragging can't help but want to get into it themselves. That's how the poker boom got going. The idea of easy money. Oh well though, Pokerstars still wins and rakes in millions so they're obviously doing it right for them, can't really fault them for it.
Just remember though if you play poker and you think you work for yourselves, you don't. You basically work for Pokerstars. Part of a giant pyramid scheme. A brilliant one at that.
I know this is a Poker forum but a good few of us are hockey fans on here. I thought I'd start re-posting my daily hockey blog here in case anyone was interested. If you have any Sens fans feel free to link them to it.
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Flyers Soaring High - Sens in the Middle
Peter Laviolette probably has to pinch himself every time he looks up and down the Philadelphia Flyers bench. He then takes a deep breathe and reminds himself once again that in fact he's not dreaming, the Flyers are just that good. The sheer potency of the offense in Philadelphia is enough to make other teams wet their collective pants. So where does that leave the Ottawa Senators?
The Sens are an upper-middle of the pack team in the Eastern Conference. They will be competitive most nights but against the top four playoff seeds it's always going to be a tense hockey game. It's almost enough to give the average hockey fan heart palpitations as we sit in our chairs cheering them on. These games are particularly tough to watch because I find I'm never filled with a strong swell of confidence in the team. I know they're good enough to find a way to win a good share of these games but I also know who the second best team on the ice is going to be when the puck drops.
The run of hockey in 2006-07 had a very different feeling. The Sens were a team that could score at will and seemingly could bend their opponents to the breaking point on a whim. Villain after villain would be slayed by our hometown heroes on the back of an almost unstoppable top line. That line was so good it gave the whole team and the fans the confidence that the Sens were always going to come out on top after sixty minutes. It's a sense of confidence that I just don't feel anymore when I watch this hockey club.
I've always been a fan of the sentiment that there are only two really wonderful places to be in this league. The top five or the bottom five. The other twenty positions are not as enjoyable. You get neither the hope of a new star player to lift the franchise out of mediocrity nor the confidence that your team has a serious shot to contend for the Stanley Cup.
The Senators desperately need a young star forward to come in and tear things up. When Alfie hangs them up they're going to need yet another. The question of where these two forwards are going to come from is a subject of much debate. Murray has always been good with draft picks at 15th and later picking up guys like Getzlaf, Perry, and Karlsson so I'm hoping that holds true. My second great hope is that the Senators develop enough amazing defensive talent that we're able to swing a trade for a young top three forward in the near future. It will be money in the bank if this team is able to move one of it's young stud blueliners for a special forward in the near future. The last hope is that Bobby Butler can be a serious NHL player. He's currently ripping it up at the AHL level but that is no guarantee of success with the big club. If he can come up later on in the year and make an impact I will be a very happy Sens fan.
So yeah I logged into Steam yesterday and apparently this game Alien Swarm is available for free. It's about two gigs and pretty good. Kind of like left for dead with Starcraft sized units. Plays online with four players working as a team to survive and tackle each level the same way as in Left 4 Dead.
I am by no means a brilliant poker player. I have a decent grasp of the game but I'm extremely lazy about applying myself. I've won a small amount over 5-6 years of playing which allowed me to finish University with no debt. Not particularly impressive by any means. I have average results and have always played low limits on an infrequent basis. I don't think I've even logged 100k hands in the last 12 months. I'm extremely casual when it comes to poker. That being said I do consider myself a good friend. A good enough friend to stand up for his friends when others unfairly belittle them for no reason.
Loco you have dedicated a blog to a personal attack on a friend of mine. You attack both his intelligence and his understanding of reality. However you don't know him personally. You've never done any sort of detailed analysis on his hand history database. So what evidence do you have to support your point of view? As far as I can tell your so-called evidence is that he's a winning player who complains regularly.
Lets address some major issues I have with your claim:
1. Your blog clearly infers that a winning player cannot be running bad. It clearly offends you that a winning player could ever have anything to complain about. I define running bad as when a player has won considerably less than they were supposed to over a long period of time.
EX) Player who should have won 40k but actually lost 20k at 1/2 over 150k hands. That player is running very bad.
EX) Player who should have won 100k but actually won just 40k at 1/2 over 150k hands. That player is running equally bad.
2. You post the worst possible quotes you can find. Quotes that were clearly stated in anger and frustration. Quotes like this are unlikely to be highly correlated with what someone would say when they're calm and relaxed. People tend to say things they don't really mean when they're angry.
3. Lots of people make angry posts on hand histories or blogs. They do so for cathartic release. Think of the scene in "I love you, Man" where the guys are under the bridge and yelling at the sky. Sometimes you've just gotta let that rage out. It's better to let it out on hand history comments than on the felt.
4. You have no access to Newblish's database. You have not done any sort of detailed analysis of his all-in luck. I doubt you've ever even watched him play a session. You have basically zero information about whether he runs good or bad. The fact that he is a winning player is irrelevant, both winning & losing players run bad.
5. I've personally watched Newblish play many sessions both online and in person. He has run horrifically bad for long periods of time and I have no doubt analysis of his database would show this.
Personally I think the only thing your blog does is make you look like a spiteful asshole Loco. Someone who is offended by a winning player saying they run bad. Get a life dude.
Was at the game. Pretty special evening to be in the building and to be a Sens fan. I've been watching this guy at ice level my whole life so it's pretty sick to see him honored this way. Easily the greatest Senator to ever play the game and still has a few more years left in his legs. Hoping the team finds some extra energy this year knowing Alfie only has a few more chances to win it all.
In Canada as long as you are a recreational player you don't pay taxes on your poker earnings. If you were to play poker full-time and have it be the only thing you do then you have to pay taxes on it. The rules are a bit murky but it's basically based on saying you derive your income as a professional gambler. I understand all this well and my intentions are to play poker as a hobby and try and make as much non-taxable money as possible whilst maintaining a full-time job where I can socialize and do something interesting and challenging.
However just now I was googling Poker Taxes in Canada and came across a rather interesting 2+2 thread about people who do play poker professionally and what kinds of things they can deduct from their taxes. In the thread someone asked whether they could deduct rake or not. I immediately thought why the hell not? Where as a bunch of people in the thread starting yelling at this person like they were some kind of thief and saying that money is already deducted from your winnings. I feel that's completely stupid and I hate stupid things so I decided to blog about it.
Argument Point:
Claiming Rake on Taxes as a Professional Poker Player should be appropriate. You claim it as an expense.
Why/How?:
1. Report earnings from poker in terms of dollars made from playing in the games.
2. Report earnings made from rakeback
3. Use database to find out how much rake you were charged that was not returned through rakeback
4. Report the amount in #3 as an expense
There is nothing wrong with that and it's not any form of fraud. The important point is that you need to report your rakeback as part of your earnings from the game.
Example:
1. Player X earns 100k playing poker, and 50k in rakeback on individual paid rake of 150k
2. Player X submits earnings as a professional gambler and pays taxes on 150k
3. Player receives 100K worth of tax credit back for expenses paid
This is how it should work if a Poker Player is going to be taxed. The rake absolutely has to be included as an expense. If the rake is not included then Countries should have no right to tax the players at all because otherwise it's a losing circumstance for the players as a group. If 100k is passed around by 100 players and by the end only 85k is left because 15k was taken in rake then the players lose overall. Rake must be 100% returned before the government has any right to tax poker. Even when all rake is returned 100% it is still sketchy to be taxing players on poker winnings because the net result is zero. There is still no profit for the group of players as a whole. I can accept being taxed if the net result is zero just because that's how things work but no way in hell would I ever accept not having rake included as an expense. The only thing I have to do on my end to make that fair is include the money received as rakeback so that my rake isn't returned twice which is fair.
As poker players if we allow ourselves be raked AND taxed it's basically bending over and allowing ourselves to be screwed. As a group the players had a net loss of 15k in rake payments but sure government wants to come along and take a big cut of that 85k they think that would be a neat thing to do. Hell no. Rake must be included. If you're an American player reading this I encourage you to keep good track of your rakeback earnings and report the remainder rake as an expense to be deducted from your taxes. Don't screw yourselves out of your hard earned money.
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