Category Archives: Poker

Poker

Free money is free money…

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…even if you have to play 10x the bonus amount in raked hands. Another Party affiliate bites the dust:

Dear player,

We’re pleased to announce that PokerNOW.com has joined forces with PartyPoker.com, the world’s largest poker room.

To celebrate, we’re offering existing PokerNOW.com players a great ‘merger’ bonus to say thank you for your loyalty.

Now, this merger means that PokerNOW.com services will no longer be available. However, you will now have access to all the exciting games and services at PartyPoker.com. To make the transition as straightforward as possible, click here to follow the easy steps that will help you get your PartyPoker.com account up and running in no time.

For me, this meant a chance to move 80 whole cents over from PokerNow to Party. They’d just been sitting there, mocking me, safe behind withdrawal restrictions that didn’t allow for anything under a dollar to be transferred to a place where I could get myself a newspaper and a pack of cheap gum. The demise of PokerNow meant that I could finally zero out that column in my bankroll spreadsheet and go on doing whatever obsessive-compulsive thing I had next on my agenda. To my great amazement, Party actually gave me the $25 bonus. Woo hoo! And just when I was considering adding a few more bucks to my Party account to take advantage of the 20% reload bonus.

Poker

A bad fold

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A momentary lapse of clear thinking…

Party Poker 3/6 Hold’em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is UTG with 2d, Ad. CO posts a blind of $3.
Hero calls, 1 fold, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, 1 fold, CO (poster) checks, 1 fold, SB (Good Player) completes, BB checks.

Flop: (6 SB) 9d, 4d, Js (6 players)
Good Player bets, BB folds, Hero calls, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, CO calls.

Turn: (5.50 BB) 7h (5 players)
Good Player bets, Hero calls, MP1 raises, MP2 folds, CO folds, Good Player 3-bets…

…made me fold. How embarassing.

Poker

When all the draws come in…

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…you better fold.

Party Poker 2/4 Hold’em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with 2h, 2c.
1 fold, Hero calls, UTG+2 calls, MP1 calls, 2 folds, CO raises, 1 fold, SB calls $5 (All-In), 1 fold, Hero calls, UTG+2 calls, MP1 calls, CO calls.

Flop: (16 SB) Ac, Td, 2s (5 players, 1 all-in)
Hero checks, UTG+2 checks, MP1 checks, CO checks.

Turn: (8 BB) 3s (5 players, 1 all-in)
Hero bets, UTG+2 calls, MP1 calls, CO folds.

River: (11 BB) 4s (4 players, 1 all-in)
Hero checks, UTG+2 bets, MP1 raises, Hero folds, UTG+2 calls $7.50 (All-In), MP1 calls.

Final Pot: 16.75 BB

SB has Ah 7h (one pair, aces).
UTG+2 has 5d 8h (straight, five high).
MP1 has 4h As (two pair, aces and fours).
Outcome: UTG+2 wins 16.75 BB.

When something like this happens you wonder if there’s anything you could have done, short of magically transforming it into a big bet game–then again, I fully expected to see MP1 to show down something better than 2 pair.

Poker

Adelphia blows big hairy monkey chunks

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This is me winning a huge pot, giving me nearly a 2:1 chip advantage against a loose overplayer while heads-up in a 5-table SNG at Full Tilt.

This is also me before Adelphia completely crapped out, leaving me in second place for my troubles.

I’ve had a lot of issues with Adelphia, but I’ve been hesitant to get locked into a year long agreement with a DSL provider or pay the $100 startup cost for a month-to-month plan. But as smarter people around me have pointed out, I lost that much tonight just by not having a reliable internet connection.