Best online poker rooms for US?by walkinthebeat, March 15
hey guys! i used to post here about 5 years ago but i had to create a new account because i don't remember the password and it has no email affiliated with it. i'm looking to get back into playing online but i've been out of the loop since black friday and i have no idea where to even start. i've seen a few general recommendations but i wanted to ask here because i've always trusted this community. forgive me for such a dumb question but if anyone could recommend how to get back into online games, you will forever have my gratitude.
Anyone following the alphaGo challenge? next match tomorrow 2-0 for the AI
it's really fascinating what they're accomplishing. 1 year ago they solved Atari games using self-learning AI with 'sight' being it's only input, and now GO. The founder even mentions in an interview that they might try Starcraft in the future. They recently announced that their next challenge is a 3D game..
I`m very pleased with my poker form in February. I managed to play 85 hours, and achieved nice profit. The First half of the month was one of the best periods in my poker career and for sure the best period within the last few months. I`m pretty sure I`ve played 8bb/100 hand Adjusted Winrate poker. I practically didn`t tilt, I was starting evey session with a great focus, 5 hour sessions seemed to last 5 minutes, and I was finally able to achieve the Flow state. The second part of the month was a lot worse, a lot more mistakes and tilted $, my concentration was malfunctioning. Of course working on mindset isn`t any different than learning the theoretical aspects of the game, therefore I`m quite happy with the progress I`ve made. The final goal is to play every session as good as I used to do it at the beginning of the February. One day at the time
Aside from poker, it was an even greater month. I`ve been working out regularly, I`ve tailored a diet for mass gain ( aka. eating shitload of food) and after many years of postponing it I finally started to perform Krav Maga. Furthermore I was a regular visitor at a shooting range. I`ve already tested a Kalasznikow, M16 and the Glock pistol. In brief it was lots of fun. The next 3 months are going to be a very busy period. I would like to play 270-300 hours of online poker, and maybe play a little bit of a live cash games. It`s a lot harder to grind during the summertime, plus the games are usually a little bit worse. Besides there is a Euro2016 starting on June 10th, and I`m hoping I will spend seven evenings, to cheer for my team.
" Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies".
Sadly the quality of the games wasn`t as good as I would like it to be, especially in the second part of the month It probably had some impact on my form. A lot of new regulars came on Party Poker, both very good and average, which caused the reg/fish ratio to worsen up a lot. It was particularly visible in the second part of February when recrational players were showing up less often to recreate. I`m hoping this is just a temporary stagnation, and not the beginning of the pre-summer trend. That situation isn`t very motivating, and it makes me question the future of our industry. Of course there is no value in complaining, I have to work even harder to achieve the biggest advantage versus the field.
The Hand
Although it`s a poker blog, I`ve never posted a single poker hand in here. That changes today.
UTG is a 70/10 Fish, CO is a very solid aggressive regular. After a standard 3b isolation, and 2 calls we are on the flop. Based on the history, the metagame and the positional situation I`ve decided that checking is going to be the optimal play. I`ve expected that the gentlemen on the UTG is willing to do something extraordinary, and EV of my hand would be the highest if I play x/shove on the flop. Likewise I thought that if the UTG would play the way he did, CO is going to have a very tough call without a Qx, because he would expect me to play my top range by checking the flop.
Last time I blogged I had lost a bit and had dipped 37k. Took some time off. Since then bought a car, 2011 nissan sentra, increased roll to 50k, and have been focusing on mix games.
Ive made money over this time but i havent played alot of poker and instead did a lot of uber...like alot while I wasn't playing. I'm not sure how I should feel about that it is somewhat cheating but I mean part of being good at poker is managing your money and I do feel like I am good at that. The way I figured was that I could just grind money anytime I wanted while being able to shot take freely / while getting better at poker. I just wanted a business plan to get to high stakes as soon as possible. No idea if cop-out.
Anyway, if you want to know why I'm so upset Superhighroller event has been going on at Aria. Anyway I decided to do an uber ride and sure enough it's insert millions hendonmob crusher and to boot 22 years old and I just felt like a huge idiot to be honest.
Gonna go to Canada this May for a 4-ish day vacation with a few buddies, probably thinking about going to Vancouver. Not trying to spend too much money as I'll probably be going on another vacation in the summer for just me and my girlfriend.
Just need ideas on places to go, things to see/do, foods to eat, etc. please :o
Found myself turning into a misanthropic ball of hate this weekend and was pretty disgusted with myself when I reflected on it last night / this morning. Hanging around in a Casino too much in that environment can do weird things to you and alcohol doesn't help I guess.
Starting Friday I get in a fantastic game with multiple recs sitting on multi K 400+bb stacks. Regular UTG straddle. Some tech money waiting for the Friday 10/25. I don't play 2 orbits before a couple of nit regs have chased off the biggest whale in the game talking shit to him for "chasing" or something absolutely retarded. People bounce and the game quickly goes to shit. later I stack some indian guy 150bb deep after he raises a $3 limp to 37, proceeds to call my 3bet to 100, and then jams over my flop bet with 88 on 235r vs my KK. Seems like the first time in months I wasn't 2 outered in this spot. He needles me about the hand for the next couple hours despite the fact I won and he played bad. It doesn't bother me until I play a hand vs someone else. I open UTG one or two calls some dude makes a huge 3bet I call (usually folding here tbh but I know he is very likely to have 1010/JJ/QQ/AK some worse and even a few random 95o hands have shown and not aa/kk with this size. plus kinda deep, hes bad, down to gamble a little). Flop comes 947hh or something I check he checks. Out of everyone at the table me and this guy have probably been playing the most reasonably so far; nothing too out of line. Turn is 8x, he checks I bet near 2/3rds. River is the 5h, he checks I jam 285 effective into about 320 or something. He tanks for a while and mutters to himself "3bet pot" repeatedly before flicking in a chip for the call while saying any pair good (I call maybe 1-3 KQs combos pre, no KJ/AJ/QJ/AQo, might call 1-2 AQs look at my smallhand on watch, start calling some SCs again at 89s/910s/10js and then mostly just all pairs 88-AA. I'm not calling his 3bet nearly as light as he thinks or most people in this game. Of course I Get herod by the exact part of his range I'm trying to fold out. AKo > KQs on 45789hhh calling off my 100 bb river bet. Nh sir didn't think you had it in you. One of the lighter calls I've been hit with here and wouldn't have been all that tilting in and of itself but when the Indian dude instantly erupts in laughter and glee and talking shit reveling in my loss I was admittedly pretty annoyed. Left that table to play 2-3-5 then realized I was prob too tilted and 5-6 beers/drinks deep so called it a night.
Next day my friend and I go again. Again we tip the floor 25 to skip the waitlist and get seated. Still takes a while so I'm 3 beers in before I even start playing. I am in another ridiculously soft game with some dudes that literally have never played poker. I play a fun hand where I raise A7s get 5 calls or whatever; flop comes A75cc. Rec to my right donks 20 into 65-80 or whatever and I make it 100. Turn is a brick 5 and he donks AI for 140 and I pay off his K5o. I make a big "isolation" raise with kq pre and flop kq3 rainbow. Fishreg who limp/called donks into me I call. Turn ace obv and the fishreg bets $5 more than he did on the flop. I call. brick river he chops out a big bet and I fold he shows J10o. standard matrix reg play. overlimp J10o UTG+1 then call an 8-9 bb raise; proceed to win min when hitting gin postflop. So basically after a few hours I'm not even down but I am on all kinds of entitlement tilt, lifetilt, most kinds of tilt there are. For no real reason though just running kind of bad. Online the shit couldn't be more standard but playing one table in a game like this it feels much different. I am seeing the worst plays everyhand, old man playing nitty all night just calls a 85bb river bet into a completely dry sidepot on 1077KJsss with AA in a spot he is literally NEVER good to this Reg I really don't like. I defend bb vs this same reg with 85 a few hands later, bet call 553cc. 4c turn he pots and I just fold while he shows KJcc. So yea bunch of dumb hands like that where the only money I was making was through a few bluffs that somehow got through. My boy racks up another 200bb win and I walk out up 13 bones and just feel retarded for this result after playing in one of the softest games of my life, watching the worst regs who couldn't beat 25nl on Bovada come up fat, and prob still subconsciously bitter about getting soulcrushed the night before.
Then last night we return and are #s 2/3 on the waitlist but my boy tips them 25 for us anyways. He is a real nice cool guy who tips generously and I would do well to try and emulate his behavior in general a little more. Either way it is not a bad idea to take care of the floor here since they will plug you with table changes over other people and will allow you to skip 50 person waitlists if you pay them on a Friday/sat night. I brought my laptop though cause I was playing in some dumb online tourney still from earlier in the day and needed to play it out so I'm streaming internet from a phone in the car and on the way in. I go to switch over to the casino internet after I get in there and it doesn't work so I switch back over to the phone. I come back online and see I have KK in ep after being briefly lagged out. however action has already passed me and there is a huge 3 way all in that I would have won had I played the hand. So I bust the tourney shortly after and I ask to get seated and proceed to get passed over by table changes for the next 30 mins. realistically the guy is just doing what he has to do before seating me but after a godseat opens up in the exact spot at the exact table I wanted and I'm standing right there ready to sit down, but then some grimy mexican dude at my buddies table just snap jumps on it after he sees my interest and gets priority. I take my beer to walk outside and smoke a cigarette (don't smoke but started to again this weekend while drinking/tilting/pokerplaying) but no beers outside so I set it down. When I come back in my beer is gone. Sick. I walk back outside and smoke again when some car comes speeding through the parking lot; I pretty much walk in his path looking to make him stop / slow and when he doesn't I flick my cigarette at his window just trying to start shit. I say fuck this place and start walking to the cardroom across the street when my boy calls me out for being a tool and yea he is completely right so we just head home.
I’ve shared my monthly charts on several occasions, and so I chose to include my yearly graph in here as well. As shown, I’ve played 173 days last year, which translates to roughly 800 hours. The goal for this year is 200 days of grind, which will hopefully result in over 1000 hours. I was hoping that maybe I could play even 1200 hours, however this would require from me playing afternoon sessions. In the end I concluded that I want to focus on some other projects this year, e.g. offering more coaching lessons, because I’ve realized that this form of career development can give me lots of enjoyment and a sense of achievement.
January was the month when I’ve finally got back on the right track. I played very decently, tilt happened far less frequently than in previous months (still too often in my opinion) – the poker gods were really gracious to me. I managed to play 90 hours, which is quite a success, considering that poker-wise January began only on the 5th, and half of that time I was fighting with very pesky cold (garlic + lemon + cistus = the omnipresent oging (debilne_ucho®).
The end of the year was not particularly pleasant. The variance definitely wasn’t my ally however the beginning of 2016 proved that the poker gods are looking after me again.
One of my New Year’s resolutions was blogging more actively. In my very first post I’d promised that all kinds of information regarding finances, diet or work ergonomics would have appeared, but each consequent post failed to deliver such info. The goal for this month is at least 1 post per week. My new motto is: ‘shorter, but more frequent’ :D Furthermore I invite everyone to chip in to the discussion and halt my monologue. If you agree with any statements write down why, if you don’t, I’m even more eager to know your argumentation.
Sleep
A topic which I find extremely curious, for three main reasons:
1. It’s interesting…
2. We spend 1/3 of our lives sleeping, so the way we sleep has an enormous impact on the quality of life.
3. I have a pretty serious sleep disorder, which I couldn’t get rid of for years
Probably the majority of you had a problem with falling asleep at some point after a several-hour-long grind. The brain worked at full capacity for hours, and it’s difficult to suddenly switch it to the rest mode. Over the last couple of months my daily functioning has been absolutely pathological. I usually go to sleep around 5 or 6 am, and falling asleep takes me another 2-4 hours. Naturally, my wake-up time has got readjusted as well, and it falls between 2 and 3 pm. I wish to get up before noon, but it’s easier said than done. Even though I could go to sleep at 2 am, it wouldn’t help much as I would still need several hours to fall asleep. So I have a favor to ask you: if you had/have similar issues, please tell me what helps you with falling asleep after a session.
I’m sharing a TED video below, authored by neurobiologist Russell Foster. It’s one of my favorite presentations; it contains tons of interesting info about why we sleep and how important it is for our lives.
After a 2.5k bleed I was finally able to pick up some dollars today. Still down for the past two months, but nice to be somewhat rolled for the 3.50/8 sng game again~ Again wasent able to claim first, but I thought the deal was pretty good considering I was at a 2:1 disadvantage chip wise HU~
Feels good to pick up that score, but feels less good to have a day job to wake up to in 4 hours ^^
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been really close for the past three weeks without any gold, so this one felt good.
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