Talk,Text, Triple-Barrel Bluff: The Emergence of Mobile Poker.
It's the question every grinder has been asking:
“I know I can play online poker pretty much 24/7, but when my girl/boyfriend is getting ready to go out for a movie together, and I've got 25 minutes to sneak in a couple of hands, how can I do it without having to wait for my computer to load?”
Well, my fellow degenerates, good news. A number of poker sites have listened and have produced their software specifically for the use of Smartphones (primarily Android and iOS, including the iPad.)
Mobile poker, was an inevitable step, gaming and portability had already proven to be a major hit with the general public, the Game Boy is the third-largest selling console in history, even above the PS3 and Xbox 360, with over 118 million units sold, showing the interest for gaming entertainment to be able to be taken on the public's travels. More recently, the use of smartphones and online gambling has been becoming engrained within the gambling community. Back in 2005, it was believed gambling on mobiles would reach more than $19.3bn, now, it's believed this could rise to $48bn by 2015
An attempt at mobile poker had begun much sooner than online players would expect, however. 2005 was also the year that PokerRoom, a site from the Ongame network before the site was bought by Bwin Party Digital Entertainment, was known for it's innovative ideas, including the first mobile poker room. However, it never took off, and Pokerroom was shut down in 2009 by Bwin, due to increased competition. There were some setbacks to mobile poker at that time, mobile phones at that point were awkward to use for poker play, with the keypad controls so fiddly, it would cause players to make mistakes with their betting actions, costing them money. Phone screens were too small and too low a resolution and pixel count to produce a visually appealing interface, most mobiles were still using WAP technology to access the Internet, which was too slow and unreliable for a fast flowing poker game, and mobiles at the time had different operating systems, depending on the manufacturer that produced it. A separate program had to be created for a Nokia phone, then for a Samsung phone, and so on.
More recently however, phones have advanced in technology, with dual-core processors for more power, high-quality displays with touch-screens, allowing for a better interface and a method to play poker in a similar fashion to what you would on a computer, two more-or-less standardised format of operating systems for smartphones, and two new connections to the internet with 3G, which could come with unlimited subscriptions on mobile price plans, or the ability to connect to a Wifi network for even faster bandwidth, allowing for mobile poker to be re-born.
PokerStars recently launched it's first mobile client in the Italian market. A sign of things to come?
In 2010, while Full Tilt Poker was once again not the first poker site to come onto the scene, it did manage to become the best, with a mobile poker room designed for their new poker game “Rush Poker”, called “Rush Poker Mobile ”. It was a format that seemed to be made for mobile poker, allowing the player pool to instantly play another hand the moment you folded the previous one, maximising the number of hands you could play in any time period. Despite this success, Full Tilt is currently in hiatus after seizure by the DOJ and that's left mobile poker market back up for grabs. Numerous poker sites such as RedKings, Switch Poker, Unibet, Speed Poker, and mFortune have already produced mobile-poker sites to establish themselves further in a now untapped market. Pokerstars have produced a mobile-poker platform for their Pokerstars.it domain, as a means of testing the platform out, and even Bwin have returned to take another stab at it.
So what does this mean for online poker? How will this be an influence to an already quite saturated market and benefit all those in it? The obvious benefit will be that you can play 24/7, anywhere in the world, as long as you have an internet connection to your smartphone or iPad. This could potentially mean a higher average player count throughout the day, a benefit for the poker sites with a higher revenue in rake. This should be seen by the poker players at that site through better promotions, bonuses, point rewards etc from the site. For the more serious player, this could mean better, softer games available for longer, as those who like to play one table at a time (i.e. the fish) can play whenever they want.
Will this mean we'll see an influx of new players? There are considerations as to why this could happen. With smartphone users coming closer to 50% in the UK, and with most smartphones on contracts with free internet bandwidth, the cost of playing poker online is going to crash down for many who find computers and broadband too expensive. It also becomes a useful application for those who travel regularly around the UK, to have a machine that can link to poker on them at all times. The easier method of just downloading an app onto their smartphone could bring back those who once played but now have dormant accounts. This doesn't take into account that poker is still a niche market and there are still a large audience that can be tempted into giving it a go with the right advertising and by having the more recognisable players on T.V promoting the sites.
If the fact that software developers have already produced poker-tracking software similar to Poker Tracker and Hold'em Manager for mobiles is anything to go by, mobile poker is beginning to boom, and for good reason. Mobile poker is fast becoming big business in the UK and Europe, add to that the USA currently out of the online poker scene, and with Asia still up for grabs to poker sites in the future, mobile poker exploding in later years, seems inevitable.
When CFR says "Time to Attack Iran" , the red button has already been pushed. These are the guys who tell the president and the other monkeys what they MUST do. I advice you to start prepare, guys. This is not some idiot speaking. It's the fucking CFR saying on their fucking website that Iran is to be attacked. Time to drop the iPhone, turn off the TV and spare a thought or two on the implications of the situation. The bullet has been fired, it's your choice if you are going to move away from it or wait to be shot down and then start thinking what to do.
We made the decision: we are going to Bangkok. Tomorrow I'm gonna flight to my hometown (Saint Louis) to spend Christmas and New Year with my parents and Desirée (my gf) is gonna stay here (Brasilia) with her family. Then in January first she is gonna flight to Saint Louis to meet me there and spend a couple days getting to know my family (she never met then since they dont live in the same city as us). We are gonna spend a good 14 days there together.
Saint Louis (São Luís in portuguese) is not a big city, but its has some nice beaches and a lot of stuff to do so its gonna be quite fun.
On January 15th we will come back to Brasilia to pack our stuff and leave to Thailand. We are gonna fly Qatar Airlines (heard they are sick good) and its gonna take more than 30 hours from the time we leave Brasilia to the time we get to Bangkok. January 24th is the big date!
I'm very excited about this, never been to Asia before and now I'm gonna live there! I already sold almost all of my stuff and just annouced my car for sale. I own a Hyundai i30, I'm asking R$47000 for it, that's about $27,000 USD. Yeah you might think thats a lot but cars here in Brazil are very very very very very expensive. I bought my car for R$58,000 (~$33,000 USD) 2 years ago, correct me if I'm wrong but a car like mine in the United States cost something like $15k lol. For those who dont know what car I'm talking about here is a pic:
Pokerwise things are OK, not great, just OK. I have some plans to achieve, but I rather not share them, maybe if I achieve them
One thing I will say is that I have been putting some volume in MTT's lately and playing less NL50.
I feeling really good about everything in general, the future looks promising!
Just watched this documentary and it really is an amazing masterpiece. Revolves around the topics of collective and individual consciousness, ancient forgotten history, universal rights,the universe and stuff of that nature. One of the best movies I've watched. A real masterpiece! http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MkbvJFEQgJU#!
I got a key from Shlim (lp poster). Anyone else is playing the beta? I can play a couple matches between 15-20h LP time. Would be nice to play with some LPers. I'm a noob though, be aware.
It really bothers me that there are lots of huge scams going on in the areas of coaching players. I dont think there is a lot of good/affordable coaching out there. I also want to give myself a way to make more money when I am not in canada and cant play online.
PLO coaching: $125 an hour
full ring NL: $100 an hour
MTT: $75/hr
After Feb 1, 2012 (refer to post #20 in this thread):
PLO coaching: $175 an hour
full ring NL: $150 an hour
MTT: $125 an hour
get 4 hours of coaching, 5th hour is free
I would consider trying a different method (ie % of profits) for a reputable lower stakes PLO/NL player who cant afford it. I would try to work something out with someone who wanted coaching but doesnt have a lot of money.
i only offer coaching in these 3 things as they are the only I have been beating the past few years for good winrates. I dont have every hand I've ever played, but these are about 95% of my online cash game hands since october 2009. of this 26 month period, I took lots of time off due to travel, breaks, and the DOJ. my total hours played is listed as 891, which makes my hourly $105.76, which is how i chose my coaching rates.
Prior to these hands, from 2005-october 2009, I made about 200k in NL cash on pokerstars, 75k in NL cash on full tilt, 100k in PLO cash, and made about 30k total on ub/cake/merge total. in total ive made roughly 500k from online cash games + maybe 150k worth of rakeback/fpps.
In live tournaments, I am up approximately 1.3-1.4million dollars with 3 major final tables in WPT events. In online tournaments I am up about 315k total. +387k on stars, up about 15k on ub/other sites and down about 85k on ftp.
However I am not a tournament regular. I only play a few hundred a year and stay up to date on how the game is played, but since it is not my main game I dont feel comfortable charging the same price as I do for PLO or NL.
I would do anything from hand history reviews to going through sessions to watching a current session to theory. For theory I would probably either require more hours or a higher rate due to a lot of preparation required. But I would be fair in how that rate was decided. Whatever the student wants, as long as I know ahead of time.
I am not available at all times as I do spend a lot of time traveling. But in any given month there is at least a 2 week period where I would be available.
I have done a little bit of formal coaching, but not much. However, I have made 15+ videos for cardrunners.com and have experience explaining my thoughts in all 3 games.
either post here or send me a pm if you are interested.
It really bothers me that there are lots of huge scams going on in the areas of coaching players. I dont think there is a lot of good/affordable coaching out there. I also want to give myself a way to make more money when I am not in canada and cant play online.
PLO coaching: $125 an hour
full ring NL: $100 an hour
MTT: $75/hr
After Feb 1, 2012 (refer to post #20 in this thread):
PLO coaching: $175 an hour
full ring NL: $150 an hour
MTT: $125 an hour
get 4 hours of coaching, 5th hour is free
I would consider trying a different method (ie % of profits) for a reputable lower stakes PLO/NL player who cant afford it. I would try to work something out with someone who wanted coaching but doesnt have a lot of money.
i only offer coaching in these 3 things as they are the only I have been beating the past few years for good winrates. I dont have every hand I've ever played, but these are about 95% of my online cash game hands since october 2009. of this 26 month period, I took lots of time off due to travel, breaks, and the DOJ. my total hours played is listed as 891, which makes my hourly $105.76, which is how i chose my coaching rates.
Prior to these hands, from 2005-october 2009, I made about 200k in NL cash on pokerstars, 75k in NL cash on full tilt, 100k in PLO cash, and made about 30k total on ub/cake/merge total. in total ive made roughly 500k from online cash games + maybe 150k worth of rakeback/fpps.
In live tournaments, I am up approximately 1.3-1.4million dollars with 3 major final tables in WPT events. In online tournaments I am up about 315k total. +387k on stars, up about 15k on ub/other sites and down about 85k on ftp.
However I am not a tournament regular. I only play a few hundred a year and stay up to date on how the game is played, but since it is not my main game I dont feel comfortable charging the same price as I do for PLO or NL.
I would do anything from hand history reviews to going through sessions to watching a current session to theory. For theory I would probably either require more hours or a higher rate due to a lot of preparation required. But I would be fair in how that rate was decided. Whatever the student wants, as long as I know ahead of time.
I am not available at all times as I do spend a lot of time traveling. But in any given month there is at least a 2 week period where I would be available.
I have done a little bit of formal coaching, but not much. However, I have made 15+ videos for cardrunners.com and have experience explaining my thoughts in all 3 games.
either post here or send me a pm if you are interested.
You can see this all around: poker players throwing money away at often ridiculous stuff, buying the most expensive and luxury things that they often get bored with within days. But even high stakes grinders often don't care or simply underestimate effects of having a proper poker grinding setup. No, I'm not talking only about buying a fast desktop computer and 2* 30"Dell Monitor that covers playing on 40 titled tables at once; I will try to talk about this as well, but first I would like to focus on something that's been bothering myself lately: a comfortable chair.
It might sound ridiculous, but I would argue this is one of the most important parts of every poker setup, especially for players that tend to spend 8-10 hours, or even more, per day in front of their computer. A good chair will make not only your posture correct ( which will result in less health problems in few years ), relief back pain during long session, but will simply make you win more - the more comfortable you are, the longer you can sustain focus and play your "A" game. It's as simple as that.
There is quite a big choice of good ergonomic chairs on the market, and as I spent 3 full days riding around and trying various chairs to have a good comparison, I will try to give my own opinion on the most worthwhile ones.
Order of reviews is random, I will give a summary at the end. I'm going to skip on all 'presidential leather' chairs, as those are not adjustable and there is about a million of them available - if you want one like those, just go and test them yourself!
1) Herman Miller - Aeron
The Aeron chair is long in the tooth as office chairs go, having been introduced to the market way back in 1994, and is a signature "dot.com" chair that revolutionized market for office chairs, by being a first company to use a mesh instead of classical materials. It's also available in million configurations, you can choose base color, mechanism and back spine color ( black/white ) and seat material coor.
Long story short, this is an extremely comfortable chair that comes in 3 sizes ( A,B,C ) that should fit pretty much everyone. There are ton of versions of the chair, with standard black or aluminum polished base ( it's for looks only, costs are significantly higher for the aluminum option ), different back support options ( lumbar or posture fit, with the second one being better and more expensive ).
Mesh material was a spot on hit - it's not only comfortable to sit at, but provides a good air conditioning, which helps a lot, especially during summer. The chair doesn't offer a head support, but that's Herman Millers policy, as none of their chair have that option. I'm not a huge fan of it, so it wasn't a problem for me.
Whole chair is TOP A quality, design is slick and nice, but that's obviously my personal opinion.
Biggest downside? Cost obviously, in Europe this chair retails at $1500 in the best setup, and around $1200 for the basic one. In USA it goes for around $720 for a new basic setup ( black base, lumbar option, fully adjustable ) and around ~$1000 for the fully loaded option.
The chair also comes with a 12 yeas warranty on mechanism + 3 year on gas cylinder + 5 year on material. However, if you materials wears out after warranty period, it's possible to replace parts like seat pane, or back, without replacing whole chair, at lower cost.
Worth a note: If you would want to buy it, make sure you ask if it's fully adjustable option, and not just up/down and lay back model. Also, even this comes with a 12 year warranty, it covers only ORIGINAL BUYER, which means if you bought this second hand you are not eligible for warranty, even if the chair is week old.
This is quite a new model ( 2006 ) from Herman Miller that's supposed to be successor of Aeron.
The prize is WAY higher, especially in Europe. In USA this chair retails at around $1090 for the basic option ( worse material, standard black base ) and around $1390 for the fully loaded one ( aluminum base, better material ). However, in Europe I was quoted at $1300 for the basic option ( inc VAT ), and around $1800 ( yes, 1800 ) for the fully loaded option. There is also one size option only, but it's supposed to fit 98% of people. It's also available in million configurations, you can choose base color, mechanism and back spine color ( black/white ) and seat material coor.
Herman Millers policy regarding 12 year warranty and second hand products applies here as well.
Let's talk about Embody then: it looks fuc%@*ng amazing. Seriously, this thing looks huge, and looks like a bionic spine. This is obviously a personal opinion, but I loved it, it looks exclusive and doesn't really make your home office/poker setup feel like a call center setup with 100 people around in their cubicles.
The most important part obviously, is the back panel. Herman Miller claims at their site that "a matrix of pixels creates dynamic seat-and-back surfaces that automatically conform to your every movement and distribute your weight evenly." They also say it will even help your heart rate and other insane stuff, which is hugely exaggerating, but one thing is sure here: this thing 'moves' with you. If you try to turn your body by a small margin, while still putting pressure on the back, it will adjust, thanks to the multiple panels on the chair.
Arm rests also have more configuration option then Aeron ( you can adjust how close to body you want them ), however the back support is less configurable, as the back curve is pre-set and can only be configured by setting a proper level of tension. You can also adjust the depth of the seat.
So how does it feel? Do you know those hard-foam pillows that are supposed to adjust to your body? I have one of those ( from Ikea, paid like 15$ for it ) and I cant imagine sleeping on a standard pillow now. I mentioned it simply since Embody is close to that, basically the mechanism covers your whole back when you sit in it, which could make it comparable to an expensive suit tailored exactly for your body, even there are less adjustable options the on Aeron. I sat in it completely straight, close to standing posture ( which is supposed to be perfect for your health ), and I simply didn't feel the chair at all. It didn't change after half an hour, if the effect stays same for 10 hours straight, this has to be one of the most amazing things ever designed.
This is unfortunately a clear winner for me from all ~30 chairs I sat in, if not the cost I would be buying this in a heartbeat. However, this thing IS EXPENSIVE, so let's take a look at other alternatives.
Prize level here is comparable to basic Aeron option, it costs around 750-800$, pretty hard to get in Europe, no problem in USA. Happily, I have a friend who owns it, so I had an opportunity to test ride it.
Standard material, no mesh, which I now consider a worse option, but I'm pretty sure some people will favor it hugely over mesh. The chair itself is supposed to adjust itself to your body ( hence the Freedom name ), and it does the job pretty well. As opposed to previous two chairs, it does have a head rest, which will make quite a lot of people consider it over chairs without head-rest.
My personal opinion: I didn't like it. I prefer to set the chair as I want it, I didn't like the headrest and used material.
This costs around $550 ( cost is pretty much the same in USA/EU) for a brand new chair ( $750 for the version 2 with improved tilt mechanism that makes your whole chair lean back instead of just back panel ), and provides higher number of adjustments then any other chair out here I think. Material used is mesh, same one as in Aeron, but it's also possible to get a leather one for a few bucks more. You can adjust almost everything here, and even arm rests have 4 adjustment options ( height, direction, how far they are in front/back, and how close/far away from body ).
The base is aluminum, which makes it looks quite exclusive and nice ( especially you don't have to pay extra for it, as opposed to other brands ), and it comes with a headrest that you can take off if you don't like it - a huge plus.
Verdict? I liked it a lot... but! There is a major con, that I hated and made me not buy it. Some people will say it's funny but.. the arm rests don't have an option to block them ( only height regulation is block-able, 3 other option use pure physical force to adjust ), which makes them loose a little ( maybe half a centimeter each way, not much ) and that really irritated me. Basically if you try to shake them, you can do that freely in every direction, and it made me feel like I'm paying quite some money for something that's about to fall apart ( well , in EU you get 5 year warranty, but regardless it was irritating ).
In the end, I think the quality of the product should be way better for the prize.
This is a low budget option, this chair costs ~$200 and comes from one of the biggest worldwide furniture shops, Ikea.
There is not much to say about it besides it's a very solid, comfortable chair.
Obviously it doesnt offer as many adjustable options as more expensive chairs, as you can adjust height,tilt function and that's about it. It also has a built-in lumbar support which provides extra relief and support for your back, very comparable to basic Aeron lumbar support, however this one is not adjustable as opposed to Aeron. The headrest is also really nice in my opinion, as it doesn't "force" it's use, as opposed to Ergohuman or Steelcase chairs, where it sticks way forward.
The chair is a hybrid made from mesh ( back support ) and leather ( head rest and seat ). Worst thing? Arm rests are not adjustable at all, and they were way too low for me, meaning my hands were floating in the air. Best thing? It's probably the best chair you can get for 200$.
Few other chairs I didn't look at ( or didn't have option to test them ) and might be worth considering:
-Humanscale Liberty Chair, comparable to Freedoman, but little different ( mesh back ), I had no access to it
-Other Eurotech chairs: Ergohuman is the only one available world-wide, and the rest is just slightly cheaper, so it's not really worth considering them at the moment.
-Other Herman Miller chairs ( I tested them, but they were not that good to pay over 1k in Europe for them, so not really worth a mention, maybe Mirra is worth consideration, but back is made from a soft-plastic a-like which I hated )
-Random leather chairs, as mentioned in the begging.
-Amazing and stunning FitBall Chair, check spoiler tag: + Show Spoiler +
L O L.
My personal summary: 1) Best comfort and overall feeling: Herman Miller Embody, nothing comes even close when it comes to comfort for me. As I said previously, if this chair didn't cost ~$2k in Poland, I would already have it. This prize is ridiculous for a chair, and I find it irrational that the cost is double of what it costs in USA. 2) Best price/quality and comfort - USA: Aeron, as you can get a fully loaded version ( fully adjustabe, posture fit kit, but with black base ) for 738$ now with sale on HermanMiller's site ( till December 12th 2011). Consider this a 12 year investment, and this turns out to be a great value. 3) Best price/quality and comfort - Europe: Really hard to say. If not the fact that Herman Millers chair cost TWICE as much as in USA ( yes, twice ), they would be a clear winner here. However, I would say Ergohuman is a pretty good choice here, as for $500 you can get a really nice mesh chair with ton of configuration options. 4) Low budget : Ikea Markus, all day long. To be honest if the arm rests fit you without problem, I think I would get this over Ergohuman, as it costs 1/3 of the prize and looks nicer in your house/apartment environment. I liked it a lot.
Last, but most important advice: you should NEVER, EVER buy a chair without an option to sit in it first. If you are in USA it's no problem as most of companies offer a 30 day return policy, in Europe it's way more problematic.
All opinions in this blog are my personal, so please don't blame me if you order something without testing it first and don't like it.
Just to make it easier to compare I am 178cm / 75kg.
Thank you for participating.
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It's 4:30am here in Brazil. Gonna sleep now, wake up around 12pm then me and my GF are gonna go to the movies to watch Breaking Down (yeah lol) 1pm (we already bought the tickets). Prommessed her that if I got top 3 on that tourney I would get her a little gift... well 4th is almost 3rd so I'm gonna get her something anyway Gonna be back home around 5pm to start the sunday grind. Tomorrow is one time lee red open
need to share this lol :D
have you ever done something so stupid that you feel embarresed about? most likely yes!
I just did one very stupid thing poker related. Some of you may not know about the PokerStars PCA GiveAway Promotion where they are giving away 100 PCA Packages 2012. There are 2 qualifiers every Sunday each one giving 10 Full Packages. In order to play those qualifiers you need to win a ticket on the fpp, cash or freeroll satelites. Since this promotion started I'm trying to win as much tickets as I can so I'm playing every final qualifier for a higher chance of winning a package. Until know I've won 3 tickets and there is a total of 10 tickets that you can win since there are only 10 qualifiers giving 10 packagers each. OK!
Now I'm gonna tell you about the stupid thing I've done. Today I was playing one of those satelites, it was a 10 cent tourney with about 400 players registred in wich the 20 first get a ticket to a final qualifier. There is 21 players remaining and I'm the 21st, game is hand-for-hand, I have like 2bb. Some guy with a bit of a higer stack than me sitting in another table(I'm observing all the 3 tables) shoves with A7, gets called with A9 and loses. I get happy thinking: "yes got another ticket" and insta-shove my hand and lose the hand. The thing is, the game was FUCKING HAND-FOR-HAND, AND I HAD THE SMALLEST STACK, SO I GET 21st and BUBBLE THE FUCKING SHIT. IF I HAD JUST FOLDED THE HAND I WOULD HAVE WON A TICKET!
omg it actually feels better to write about this here. I know how stupid it was, and the moment after I clicked all-in I was like WTF AM I DOING WHY DIDNT I JUST FOLD THIS OMG.
I know its a stupid ticket and that I can win a lot others in time but I really felt bad for this... damn. Thought about how can I turn this into a positive thing: blogging about it! Writing it here made me feel better, a lot better :D
Now tell us about a really stupid thing that you did :D weeeee
cliffs
-I'm playing a 10c satelite to a PCA final qualifiers
-Game is hand for hand, I'm the smallest stack
-A guy with a small stack sitting in another table shoves and loses
-I see that he lost and shove my hand too, and I lose
-I bubble cause my stack is the smallest
-If I had folded I would get the ticket to the final qualifier
-tell us about a stupid thing that you did :D
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