Poker Blogs

are there any sites at all that US players can play poker on? if so, what are they and how do i deposit?


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VanDerMeyde just bought $802 ftp money off me. When/if ftp comes back on i will transfer the $802 it to any ftp account he wants.


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Been feeling stressed out lately because I just started training as a personal trainer level one at 24 hour fitness but it's at a location about 50min - 1hr away and the commute is killing me inside. The average income for trainers who are able to have a full schedule of clients is roughly 40k, can earn 6 figures but you'd have to work 60-80 hr weeks maintaining current client relationships and building new ones plus training the sessions you already have scheduled. So far I would have to say that I have a shitty experience with 24 hour fitness starting off as a beginner personal trainer because basically my training has been spending the first 2 days sitting at a computer over viewing orientation materials about 24 hour fitness company, their policies, how to meet/greet guests, general stuff etc, I basically felt rushed through the materials because my manager kept asking if I was done and that I couldn't print the materials out for later review (materials not available on public computers). Then the following days was basically the manager going, "OK go rack weights and go meet and greet people." The stupid thing is that I'm already expected to start offering free sessions and build clientele when they haven't even fucking told me what I'm supposed to do for each type of training package, how to guide clients through the computer when entering info and filling out question-airs, and how to handle personal training data on the computer.

So #1, I'm already expected to sell without clearly knowing what I'm selling, and #2, I haven't received any training when it comes to conducting any of the 24 hour training packages. I'm basically roaming the gym trying to find other trainers to shadow so I know how to conduct a "fitness orientation", and trying to talk people into getting interested in packages that I don't even know how they work. Basically sat my ass on a computer for 2 days, and spent the next days running around the gym learning shit from other trainers (who haven't even been training for a year at least), while the manager who hired me walks around and does his own shit.

I'm already have a nationally recognized certification (NASM), currently working on two others, I personally research articles about training and nutrition just as a hobby, and I've been training myself and with friends for almost 2 years. It's just that during the whole hiring and orientation process, they didn't give me a clue to what to expect, and what I'll be doing during the first 5 weeks of the orientation process.

It's probably the particular gym branch that I'm currently at because another branch that I want to transfer to, gave me an actual outline of the orientation process, and told me that they would feed me at least 1 new client every week so I can slowly get used to the system and running a 24 hour training business. The other branches location is actually only 12 mins away from my home and they have no bad turn-over, not like the one i'm at where no trainer has been there for more than one year. It sucks though because it's not a guarantee that I'll be able to transfer, and I already am going to tell my current manager that I have to leave because the commuting situation is not working.

I guess my current options are to quit and; try to transfer to the close 24 hour fitness gym that probably has better management, or switch to another close gym called In_shape that coordinates with an independent personal training company called "Custom built" and work back my old waiter job at the same time. The thing is that Custom built offers shitty commission rates to trainers but trainers in Custom built don't have to worry about the sales aspect of personal training. If I work for 24 hour gym close by I will have to tough it out through the stress of starting my own personal training business in which only some clients are fed to me through the gym itself, I would therefore have to go out and focus on selling and marketing for most of my client base, but the commission is significantly better when compared to Custom Built (25% vs 8%).

Training people in living a healthier lifestyle is what I want my career to be, but do I want to start off on the more stressful half sales/half training corporate chain gym? Or do I want to start off at the more stress free 10% client sales and maintenance/90% focus on training them, smaller chain gym route with less pay?

Any thoughts would be appreciated, especially from those who are in the fitness industry, sales, trying to go independent in something, etc.



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So 7 days into this and my head is all over the place...Swings are crazy went from being 4k up this month to $300 up ... swings got so much I even gave NLH a go but that sucked people are so nitty and as I'm 16 tabling I don't get really many options to table select. I really don't know how joey did this in 2 months it's pretty sick how he did.
I'm back playing PLO I just played some and finished 1k up. I was planning to take today off as I'm a few days ahead of pace now, glad I didn't but I only played a hour because I have a footy match in a bit (1st 11 a side game since before xmas. I'm gunna be so unfit when we start playing).


Here is my month so far :S
http://i455.photobucket.com/albums/qq273/si777/swongz-1.png



As said I'm ahead on pace I should be at like 21kvpps by the end of day instead I am 25,444vpps So at least the pace is going well.

That's all for now


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Might take a few days off again, just finished one of my worst sessions ever..

-45k

Now -80k on the year..

Been running terribad, but I can't really blame people because i've just been playing anyone HU 25/50 where variance is huge.


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I've looked it up and a few of the sites say you need to be dealt in the hand, as in at the table to receive a peice.


But they also go on to say thats how it worked on UB. When in fact on UB you got a piece of it just for being at the same limit as the jackpot.

That's pretty much what I'm wondering, on merge to you get a piece for just being at the same limit when it hits? Or do you need to be at the table that it hits on?


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http://www.megavideo.com/?v=F5II9NPS


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Graph since relocated here to my new place in vancouver and left my original vancouver place again


like a boss


http://i40.tinypic.com/339hvrk.jpg


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With all the new updated ftp info these days, any takers on my ftp account. I have $802 USD in there. Only serious offers please.


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I would like to get some protoss coaching if there are some good players out there (which I'm sure there are). Let me know!


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Went to Bellagio yesterday and the games were pretty poor. Was up 700 after 3 hours and came home to spend some time with the wife. I've played 17 hours this month and I should be at 30. Plan on putting in 9 hours today and 12 hours tomorrow to try and catch up a little. Also lost another 200 online, can't seem to run good but at least I'm back into the positive overall.

99,913 to go!


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What is Durrr's PS name?


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35 Day Challenge
Hey Everyone, been a lil while since I have done a challenge of any sort, so I'll start one now since I have tons of time and should be grinding more.

(250 hr challenge over 30 grinding days)

I'm going to be playing NL25 FR + 2-3 mtts at a time. Aiming for 4,000 hands a day, and 2-4+ MTT wins before the end of the 35 day challenge.

Its 35 days, because honestly, I want 5 days off during this _atleast_. I'm going to push myself really hard and grind my ass off.

Hero Has some really good MTT's if you're playing in low selection, and becoming among the best in the Full Ring games is very important to me right now.

(Makes traveling to all mtt's lucrative in my current game state, becoming great at fr will pretty much always cover ne mtt costs)

(i'm currently a 3.33bb/100 winner outside HU on Hero, but dropped $900 hu one day so has me in the red.)

January : NL10/NL25 FR CG's + Hero MTT's

February : Pittsburgh Casino - 1/3-2/5 + MTT's + Hero

March : Frequent Pitts often, Foxwoods for bigger MTT's + Hero

April : "" same as above ""

May : "" same as above ""

June : Vegas / WSOP / Live Cash / Hero Poker
July : "" Same as above ""

August : with the USA under martial law, I plan to be out of the states for a long period of time if this isn't veto'd etc.
I don't believe in the reasons the USA are in the current state of affairs they are in, I would rather continue to play poker drama-free, which I will.

I plan to move to a beautiful area, Caracas, Cancun, Australia, or maybe a place like Taiwan again. We'll see in the coming months.

One thing I have realized, is its not worth living "anywhere" to play on stars, no matter what you make. If your outside your home country, you want to be where its beautiful, the women are fine, and you're freedom is 100% in tact. As an american, there are a few places I'd have to avoid, sad right? w/e. politians are gonna politate.

Also - if at any point I bust my online BR, I will scratch above aforementioned plans, and go play @ stars outside the USA staked as I did the last 3 months of 2011. ( was great and did very well, no worries either way )

br at start of challenge : around $600. I'll post graphs and results daily to my website (linked at bottom of my lp posts). i'm aiming for $2500. (thats just 200 hrs at nl25 fr @ 12.50 an hr) - not including rakeback. still 50 hrs more, should make more than 12.50 an hr (thats undercut imo) and i loooooove them MTT's!

Aim - 2500ish
Belief - 7500+

In August 2011 I had $30,000 in debt.

Went to Canada and MTT'd and did very well.

Whats left to be paid?

Artanis11 5.3k
AndrewBoccia 750
quocy04 400
david kent 120
li 2k
Reid 350
John 300


Goal to have these paid off before June with _atleast_ a 25k br to go to LV with.

$9,340 from freedom. Can see the light at the top of that huge hole I dug. Hopefully you guys can give me some good insight on my cashgame hands that I post. Thanks if you can, any and all skill levels.

Dawned upon me recently, I have lots of free time and a chance to build a roll n play stakefree in 2012. Carpe DIEM! stakes aren't bad tho, so no pressure either way :-)

Goodluck everyone,
Ryan Neilly - NeillyAA @ Stars/Hero


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From my 2p2 thread:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/174...ailand-modeling-1149325/#post30774535
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Hey guise!
First off let me start introducing myself: I'm 22 (just turned 3 days ago) my name is Arthur and I'm brazilian. Just a few weeks ago I quit my daily job for a federal court in Brazil where I made around 40K USD/year. Other than that I work as a professional model and I make quite a good amount of money from that. My girlfriend is also a model, we are gonna be moving to Bangkok in a few weeks to work there as Bangkok is one of the fashion centers of the world, so we can make a lot more money there as models than here in Brazil. We are already signed with Bangkok Modeling agencies so that's nice.

Obligatory pic:
(Me and Her)

http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/4359/mg03262.jpg


Poker: Right now I'm a MTT grinder! In the past I've played a lot of cash games, grinded about 700k hands up to NL100 and broke even all the way. After trying a lot of different things I decided that MTTs is the only format I have a big enough edge to keep me on the grind and happy at the same time. Anyway, my goal is to give poker a real chance for the first time!

My goal is to make $20K USD in the next 6 months! I won't need that money to live cause modeling will be more than enough to make a living in Thailand. Some may ask why I'm doing this since I already have a nice source of income and the answer is simple: I love poker! Some difficulties I will find along the way:
-Will have to keep in shape, cause its essencial for my work
-Will have to manage a nice social life with my girlfriend
-MTTs schedules in Thailand will be crazy. Most of the big tournies will be running from 1am to 7am Bangkok time.
-Modeling will keep me busy 3 days a week tops, so I will try to grind at least 4 days a week, including sundays.

I'm planning on spending around $1.5K USD/month in Bangkok. I've been told that it's very cheap to live there and I will be splitting expenses with my girlfriend so I think that's a good budget to have.

Apartment we will rent: http://www.bkkcondos.com/bangkok-apar...ngview/listingID,3337/cmsrealty,user/

Obligatory graph:
http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/6389/graphdz.jpg

I will try to update this thread daily starting on January 12th. In the next few days I wont be playing cause I'm speding a few days in my parents city before moving to Bangkok. I'm arriving in Bangkok on January 25th! Wish me luck!!


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Yo!

Wanted to return to micro stakes nl5/nl10 and grind up to nl25.
Could you recommend me any site, that I should register? I was playing before on stars and ladbrokes but lb doesnt provide service in my country, dunno why.
I was aiming to play at microgaming skin, but my shitty pc wont install the software (not uni, nor red-something, nor nordicbet), I have acc at paradise too, but dunno what is going on with pkr these days.

Any advice?
Any particular site that isn't legit anymore?

And babes, enjoy:

http://www.gorillamask.net/images/content/2011/12/SVhuqr-1323189047.jpg

http://i41.tinypic.com/9u5d3m.jpg

http://i42.tinypic.com/rcsfps.jpg

http://i43.tinypic.com/2uiequ0.jpg

http://i42.tinypic.com/2euk3fb.jpg

http://i42.tinypic.com/2euk3fb.jpg

http://i40.tinypic.com/117qr6b.jpg

Thanks for reply ;]


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Hey what's up guys?

Short bio:
My name is Philip Sam ('BrocheN' on stars) and I am 24 years old. I have been playing online poker professionally for 3.5 years, and during this time I have achieved Supernova Elite twice; mainly through 100nl-600nl fullring. Since this is my 2nd time hitting elite, I've decided to reward myself with the PCA package.

Action:
I am selling up to 50% of the $10,300 Main Event with no mark up:
1% = $103
5% = $515
10%= $1,030

30% Sold
20% Remaining

References:
I am very good real life friends with YaDaDaMeEn21 (handbanana21), Fatdan44 and ChicagoJoey. I am sure they can vouch for my trustworthiness.

Notes:

Investors will only receive % of winnings. Any money or prizes made from anything except for cashing in the tournament is 100% mine to keep.
When I cash, I will pay out via Stars, cash at PCA or other methods we can come up with.


Payment
Stars: 'BrocheN' - (Canada)
HSBC or Wells Fargo (PM for details)
Cash at PCA
Bank Of America
Paypal
Check (PM for details)


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Didn't manage to get to the casino until ~6 yesterday, and only stayed for 6.5 hours, but made almost all my money back from the day before. Online I only played 300 hands and ran a few buyins under all-in ev.

Live: +3k
Online: -150

$100,450 to go, back where we started.


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Took a look on hero, had a dollar.

Play $1-2 HU SnG's. Ran up to $33 now.

My next blog will either be legendary or a sadface.

Lets see if I can make it up to $1/2 HU games!


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Initially I decided I was playing turbos only, and I think I can do it VPP-wise and I had some nice sessions.

Today I was just barely making the VPP goal and played some 60s hyper, did good, I think I should drop the 100s since they are just waaay too reg-filled and while I can crush their souls easily at the turbos, its not the same at these, and at lower I get to play some terrible fish that I should have too big of an edge.

Still running hotter than the sun at my normal games, just barely at 20k VPPs now. Super tired tho, lol, but I think I have it in me to just suck it up and keep going. I think this is what people like joeingram have in them, and what allows feats like these to be accomplished. All my friends who are regs at the same games I am think I am absolutely insane and think what I'm attempting is completely impossible.

Finishing pizza and going for another session.

Turbos
http://i.imgur.com/DL7TY.png

Hypers
http://i.imgur.com/z2uQU.png


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This an update to "My re-entry into poker".

Yesterday I decided to compete in my local casino's 1/2 NL game. As I have previously stated, my goals going into this game were simple. Play safe, don't bluff, study the table, never be the first to limp in, always play in position. These tactics are very generic and although as simple as they appear to be should create a solid 1/2 player due to the level of skill presented by 1/2.

So there I am, walking into the casino seeing a lot of familiar faces from when i was a regular sitting down grinding 8-12 hours a day. Some players recognized me, even most of the dealers. It was nice to be in the atmosphere again. I ended up sitting down as some generic 9-handed table. Everyone's stack was actually quite small. The largest being 300-400$. Since the average stack was around 100 I wasn't able to buy in for the full 200 for some reason. I didn't question my buy in and just accepted it. There was a another table with much money at it with the average stack being around 300$. But I would have to wait for someone to be eliminated before joining.

On the the game!!

The first thing i tried to do was get the feeling of the table. My range of hand were quite high since i told myself to always be in position and value bet your strong hands. The rule everyone has told me was to never be the first to limp in. I'm not quite sure why that is. Why is it ok to limp in behind someone but not be the first. Anyways, the table seemed to be quite tight initially. The average pre flop raise was between 6 and 10$ which I thought was a bit odd and there were always a handful of limpers before each pre flop raise. I tried to eye up who if anyone would see this and decide to be the aggressive raiser trying to pluck these individuals of their limps slowly. There were two people at the table who were more aggressive than the others but when their hands were revealed they always seemed to have the nuts. I picked out 2 people who if i could, I would try to stay away from and steal any pots i could if they were not in the hand.

I always seemed to get mediocre hands just after the blinds. Hands like A,Q off suite, K,Q off, A,T off. Nothing incredibly strong but good hands if i was in position. When I had these hands I was always first or second to act pre flop so i wasn't sure to raise since i couldn't be the first to limp or just fold since i was out of position in this semi-tight calling station of a table. If I were to raise 10-15$ pre flop I was almost sure I would have gotten a few callers and put myself into a bad position being the first to act post flop. I would need to hit since a continuation bet would have just been called in my assumption. I wasn't aiming to steal the pot since my goal wasn't to bluff out the pots. But should I have just bet anyways? I decided to limp in (the first to limp in), already breaking one of my rules i said not to do. 4 Other people limped into the pot as well. I would have called a small raise but I feel I have already made a large mistake by limping. The flop however was incredibly good to me. Coming A,Q,3. I lead out with a bet of 10$ Since the pot was still quite small and the bet would attract any schmuck who plays Ace - anything. There were no flush draws. I got two callers. Turn was a Q. I hit the nuts. Unless someone had A,A I won this hand. Assuming no one's hand strength had changed too much since there weren't any real straight or flush draws i fired a 25$ bet. I got 2 folds and a re-raise to 50. After another fold it was heads up and I made the obvious choice and shoved. River was nothing and I took down the hand. He had trip queens with a low kicker. I doubled up quite fast even making a few mistakes in my play.


As the night continued I wouldn't see any other strong hands and continued to play tight and from position. I would limp in with my low pocket pairs and never trip up. On the button I would play suited connectors and any suited Ace. I never hit on the board and folded more often than not. The day was quite slow from here on out. I never hit any strong hands and if every time i was in position and thought about stealing the pot or tried to raise from my position there was already a raise on the table and my hand was quite weak. I tried not to get frustrated since I came into this game expecting this would happen.

Eventually I moved tables and sat down with players whose average of chips were around 300$ with the big stack having close to 1k. At this point the blind have taken me down to 150% from my double up early on.

This table was a bit more aggressive. The main chip leader was involved in almost every hand which was no surprise but what was a surprise was every time he showed down he had a strong hand. When he limped, he had what you guessed he would have. He was hitting and it was important to avoid him if I could. After an hour of sitting down I found myself in the same situation. Nothing but crap hands and nothing even close to a strong hand when I was in position. I was studying the table quite hard trying to pick up on betting styles and how the big stack played. I found a few players who I would consider calling stations and identified a few players who were playing as tight as I was. The big stack as well as 2 other players were quite loose. Limping in most hands and always raising from the button or a few spots before it. I never got involved with any hands but one or two due to my cards. I thought to myself If I should be trying to raise the limpers from position regardless of my cards since I have sustained a quite strong "tight" image. I however, continued to be safe.

My last hand was a bit silly. First to act pre flop I look at A,9 of diamonds, amazed to see something other than 3,7off suite let alone an ACE. The big stack was in position so raising right now i know would get called by him but in my gut know that i should not be limping in especially since i am chasing the flush and not a pair of aces with crap kicker. I limp in and cringe in my mind as I know this is a mistake. Mostly folds around the table until the big stack raises to 10 as expected and the small blind who was a tight player like me makes the call.
Flop comes Qd-Jd-9s. Quite a good flop for me considering I haven't seen any flop for quite some time. I check, hoping to see a cheap turn and get out of chasing for a relatively cheap price. I think to myself if raising was the right call. I could decide the going price as well as give an impression that im not chasing. But I am a newby and check. Big stack bets 20$ with a call from the tight player. I decide to call since I could hit a A,9, or any diamond and have a shot at having the nuts between the three of us. Turn comes 10s. Now I have open-ended straight and a flush draw. roughly 35% change of winning assuming my opponent haven't hit the straight right now. I check, big stack bets out a large 75$ bet. tight player calls. I take a few minutes to think it over. there is over 300$ in the pot, i have, in my mind about 17 outs. 11 diamonds, 3 kings, 3 eights. Maybe even an ace could hit. Wasn't sure. I decided to shove all-in with another 50 on top of that 75. I watch as both players call. [b]River is a J[b/], nothing for me. Big stack had a King and hit when the 10 landed on the turn and tight player had a pair of queens low kicker which was quite odd of him. I had a 65% chance to win before the turn but when the 10 hit, my odds to win vs the straight were 25%. I didn't think he had the king so in my mind i thought i was around 40%.

Tough games!

I lost 100$ which was fine for me. My first time back i spent a lot of time trying to learn the table and had a hard time knowing what to do when I had semi strong hands in first position like A,Q off suite. I didn't know to raise or limp and semi-aggressive table. When I was in position i never had anything too strong, no pair of faces, suited connectors or anything. I will be going back once design a little more structure in my games and being getting the kinks out of it.

Please help me out and post some good responses that I will definitely go over and do my best to adapt into my play style.

Any help would be great and I hope you enjoyed this article. I will continue to update each time i go back to the casino.






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