Full Tilt is Returning!

I kinda forgot about this but I got an email from Full Tilt 10 days ago;

It certainly has been a long time coming. Since Black Friday when it got closed down, the site has had so much drama, from its poor ownership and lack of organisational structure, the shocking fact that it didn't have credit, the selling of red pro accounts, the loaning of money to its pro's straight from customer's deposits.... ouch. Plus the trouble it has had in finding a new owner who is willing to pay for all the shit... literally.

And strangley enough it was its rivals, Pokerstars who now own Full Tilt. But it has cost them $731 million to settle with the US Government.

In my last post we talked to Josem who works for Pokerstars on the Isle of Man. He told us that Full Tilt are literally gonna be setting base in the Pokerstars offices right there. So as far as running both sites are concerned, its not gonna be a problem... they're probably even gonna save space!

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly?

The question that we're all asking (well me mainly, lol... I don't really go on twoplustwo forums or anything like that), is how will things turn out and how will that effect the poker community as a whole? Before they were rivals and there was competition, but now Pokerstars literally owning such a big part of the pie, how will that effect it all?

One thing for certain is that Pokerstar's reputation for its customer service support has been second to none. We are in good hands when it comes to that, comparing to the week long waits for [automated] email responses from the old Full Tilt that drove me nuts. And as a whole this is a really good thing, because there's nothing worse then not trusting the site's ability to handle its customers.

There are talks that Pokerstars are planning to integrate a money transfer system through both sites. This seems interesting. Seems like an example of how Pokerstars can really have a huge advantage in this market. Maybe they've managed to turn the US [Vegas Casino] lobbyists who want a piece of the online poker pie on its head. By the time they start up again, will Pokerstars have too much power?

Even if that's the case, many of us poker players are not going to be too fussed at all. Pokerstars has proven itself to be a great precedent for Online Poker, and if they're the ones in charge of this field, then a lot of us aren't gonna be worried at all.

So another big question is going to be, what's the traffic going to be like? This certainly is going to be interesting to see. I do know a few people who actually only played on Full Tilt and not Pokerstars. From an Interactive Design point of view (that is actually my university degree), I have to say that Full Tilt has a way better interface and overall friendlier cartoony style that would appeal to more casual players. The fact that it had taken this direction was great for its brand as it really distinguished itself from Pokerstars.

I'm certainly gonna be playing on Full Tilt when it reopens again I think. For one thing, I also liked its promotions that it had, The Iron Man was relatively easy to get, and I remember something about The Black Chip which was basically the same as Supernova Elite on Pokerstars but the Full Tilt equivalent. With these promotions it basically means extra income and I'm happy to put in a few extra hours for it.

It will be very interesting when Full Tilt opens again. They never managed to rival the traffic numbers of Pokerstars when they were both in its prime, and I think that's not gonna change either. Only time will tell what happens, this is just another stepping stone towards seeing what happens when USA finally fully legalizes Online Poker again. Only time will tell... but I welcome it.

We will also be interested in how Full Tilt is promoted. With a few of its previous owners being under so much scrutiny, how will the Pro's be represented and how will they market it again?

The Most Minus EV Cash Game Ever [Again]

So last weekend we had another reunion and another pretty minus ev cash game!

I'd say that I've improved a lot since last year but unfortunately I was stuck in between Jamie (Buffyslayer1) to my right, and Tim (Entim) on my left who has a combined winnings of $300k between them... and that's only on Pokerstars lol.

Other guys at the table was Deurdy and "NJD77" Neil Doyle, as well as an amateur who was Neil's friend, who I am glad to say actually wiped the floor with us with his solid tight (and card hitting) play! Sometimes, poker needs the "Average Joe's" to win too, or it wouldn't be profitable!

But hey it was a cheap game with lots of drinking, and even though the banter was hilarious, the analysis also way too in depth, ultimately we were just there to have fun. Highlights included Entim's rather loose 300bb call vs 2 players with 45s and getting there, Neil's impressive moves based on his image, and my shit scared nittyness lol (I'm the fish).

The previous night we met up with Josem from Pokerstars, who was the guy who basically did all the research and analysis into uncovering the UB scandal. Really great meeting him, very interesting guy who did something great for the poker community and its seems very karma-like that its landed him a great job. Apologies to him for the barrage of questions, but him being so Ozzy he was chilled enough to answer them!

Please enjoy this rather "obvious" pun like picture of Deurdy and Michael! Unfortunately we couldn't find any Elites, like in real like they're pretty rare! =D

It was great to see everyone again, I had a blast. I'm really in awe of those guys, they're so much better at me in Poker and I just hope one day I can be half as good as them and I'll be happy. So much to learn! Will deffo try and hit up a trip to Holland to visit Deurdy as our funny poker "gang" [money pending] haha!

October Goalage

Just gonna post this real quick so that I can refer to it at the end of the month. I do this every month but haven't posted it in my blog. Tbh, the last few months have been pretty much the same, just a few tweaks here and there. The reason for that is because I've come up with a good schedule for myself to stick to so that I can see the type of volume I can and cant achieve.


Sup y'all

Pls post up your goals for the month here. Its always a good way of giving yourself a mini target to reach.

[ ] 26/31 Days playing!
[ ] 1000+ x 180m... bump up sessions to 75 games minimum... add in some $15s!
[ ] 1000 x $7/$15/$15KO Turbo 9m... maybe add in some 30s
[ ] Watch more vids and study HHs
[ ] 100hrs of play
[ ] Push ups and/or Sit ups during breaks... nothing helps concentration then some blood flow!!
[ ] Goldstar... push Platinum?
[ ] Gold League in SC2 EU and stream it! 3 Games a day!
[ ] Blog moar man!!
[ ] Stop giving a fuck about what happens in showdowns. Doesn't matter how you lost, you lost! Don't waste emotions on that rubbish!

Hope you all have a good month guys, and enjoy these randomly hot girls!

A Long Time Coming (Gangnam Style)

4th Final "Lucky" for Andy Murray finally taking down a Slam, the US Open! Kinda relate to him but obviously not on that scale haha! Congrats!

As with most poker blogs, we post up reviews of our month/year etc and mostly brag about the profits we make. After all, no unsuccessful poker player would want to blog, right? But I'd like to think that my blog has been about the journey of being a poker player, and kinda showing the bad and good times. Right now... its good! :) But in saying that I've worked really damn hard at it, and in no way do I believe its just a "luck" thing [hopefully lol]

At the beginning of the month I like to put up some goals, so September's was;

[ x ] 25/30 Days playing! Did this in STTs, played 16 sessions in 180m
[ x ] 1000+ x 180m... bump up sessions to 75 games minimum
[    ] 1000 x $7/$15/$15KO Turbo 9m... bump up STT sessions to 60 from 40. Nearly I played around 930! Didn't bump up the session tho, stuck to 40 
[ x ] Watch more vids and study HHs. Had some good study sessions with my friend, it was beneficial for both of us! 
[ x ] 80hrs of play 110hrs yay! 
[ x ] Goldstar... push Platinum? Was very close to Platinum but didn't get it. Don't really mind.
[    ] Gold League in SC2 and stream it! Not even close, just not playing enough.
[    ] Blog moar man!! Errrrr
[ x ] Stop giving a fuck about what happens in showdowns

Pretty solid performance I'd say!

I still struggle to push myself to make the more aggression choice, mainly being rejamming into another big stack with my big stack, especially near the end game. Its something I'm aware of and trying to change.

Its weird to think that I'm "running good" but it really doesn't feel that way. Now I can understand those months in STTs when I felt like I was running bad all the time, when in fact this was because I was so dependent on my HU calls hitting, instead of not giving up my button shoves, and rejamming on theirs. I totally understand what I was doing wrong HU, so glad that I've come this far!

So in TRUE PARTY STYLE here's amazingly the [first Korean] UK No.1 SONG in the charts... zomg, GANGNAM STYLE!!!!!!!! DO DA DANCE! Love how this has randomly gone viral and exploded all over the world!

Big shout out to my friend Kwon who is the sexy guy in the straw hat dancing over the Korean dude in GANGNAM STYLE LONDON!

GL@theTables guys, GG HF!!