After two and a half years of blogging for CardsChat.com, it is time for me to move on. There was no drama involved, no disagreement between me and site owner Nick about quality or quantity or artistic freedom or, honestly, anything at all. It was a disagreement between myself and making a blogging commitment. At this point in time, having what essentially comes down to a writing job just isn’t working out for me. It’s not that I don’t have the time, necessarily, it’s that I don’t want to have to have the time, if you know what I mean. When writing for CardsChat, I felt guilty if I didn’t post an update at least once a week, and as things in my life get more and more hectic, that feeling of guilt and “I have to” kept coming on more and more often.
I only mentioned in passing how poker has been going in the last post, so this time I figured I’d give you one of them graphs you’re all so fond of. June first through present. Enjoy!
I’m just now getting ready and packed up to go visit my parents. From there, we will (on Monday) take the train to Stockholm to go on a two-day cruise to Tallinn (Estonia), then back to my parents, celebrate midsummer with them, and then back home. So I’ll be out of town for a week, but hopefully connected through parts of it. Any suggestions on what one can do in Tallinn?
Bringing four books, a laptop and my golf clubs. What could go wrong?
Just a brief update on my current situation in poker and life:
I’m still playing poker, and I’m still winning (knock on wood). I’ve averaged another 4ptBB/100 in June, over about 5k hands, and I feel like I’m playing better than in May. A lot better. I suppose that means that I’m not running as hot.
Socially and work… eh… workly? Bah.
Socially and professionally, I’m busy busy busy. My vacation - starting Friday - is coinciding with a deadline at work, so there’s a bunch of stuff that needs to get done before that. Also, it seems there’s a wedding or stag party or just random party every other night in these past few weeks. It’s hard to keep up with. I’m not complaining, though, merely explaining why I may have seemed to dropped off the face of the earth.
Party Poker’s latest promotion strikes me as geared to players who apparently don’t do anything but play poker:
http://www.partypoker.com/news/items/free_ride.html
Take a Free Ride with our amazing commission–free offer
Commission–free play is the dream destination for poker players – and now we’re giving you the chance to get there.
Once you’ve played for 160 hours, you’ll play with no table charges or fees. And we don’t mean for just a few hands; we’re offering up to 80 hours of commission–free play.
To qualify for your Free Ride you must play a minimum of 160 hours within a 30-day period.
So one month and 15k hands at 50NL :
If I look at how I’ve changed my game this month, it’s primarily become more aggressive and I’ve loosened up quite a lot in position. The last week of May, I played a 22/18/2 style, and the first week of May it was 18/13/2.7. That’s actually a fairly significant difference. And almost that entire difference comes from this stat: Attempt to steal blinds on button = 70%.
I’ve also started 3-betting light a little bit here and there. And just to top the month off, I’ve now occasionally started four-betting light. It’s fun.
PokerStars Tournament #84311864, No Limit Hold’em
Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00
81 players
$200.00 added to the prize pool by PokerStars.com
Total Prize Pool: $1010.00
Tournament started - 2008/05/18 - 13:30:00 (ET)
Dear FPau,
You finished the tournament in 1st place.
A $303.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.
Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.
———-
I forgot to post a link to the story in the last post; sorry about that:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/poker/2008-04-30-WSOP_N.htm
I’m still not entirely sure what to think about this, except my gut instinct - and I’ve come to trust it - says that it’s a pretty bad idea. It also says that I’m not really that interested in the WSOP in general, but I do get that a lot of people are.
tl;dr: The WSOP Main Event will play down to the last 9 players, at which point the remaining play will be delayed until November 9th.
Basic argument FOR the change: It will make for better television, with plenty of time to interview the contestants, follow them through their three-month preparation, etc. Because it’s better television, it might make more people start to play poker and cause another mini-poker-boom.
