Online Poker Tournament Rankings

And I can prove it!

I have been waiting for this moment a long time. I deposited a total of $380 on Stars in around a year. I ran my account up to $450 once, tried BR management and failed. Ultimately I figured out I suck at online pokerz and prefer, by far, live. So I was going busto, almost on purpose, waiting for the day my account would be low enough so I don't even have a buy in for a $0.10 SNG. I was close.

Last weekend I ran my BR don to $3.31 when I failed to cash a $10 DON. Yesterday was to be my long awaited release from the chains of online poker. But no, it was not to be.

I registered for a 6 max 1 table $3.25 SNG. I just had to not be 1st or 2nd, and it would all be over. I came 2nd and my account showed $6.36.

So I registered for the biggest 1 table SNG I could play: a $5.20 DON... and cashed to run that up to $11.16.

I then registered for a $10.40 DON, and guess what? I cashed and now have $20.76.

Internet poker is rigged, they just don't let you go busto.

I was so dissapointed with myself that I gave up playing yesterday. As soon as I have the time again, I will continue playing STTs for my whole bankroll. Since I am missing 4 cents for a $20 DON, I guess I'll play a $16 full ring STT.

I'm finally getting away from online poker, I have 16 bucks left on stars and will likely lose that soon, and that will be a relief.

After my trip to Macau, my live bankroll almost doubled, making me more comfortable playing the stakes at my local club. And it showed this week.

I played a 200 rebuy tourney last wednesday and dropped 600 in there, never really getting cards, and playing spewy. I came back for cash on Sunday and made a nice 1300 in a couple hours. Like most of my recent sessions, including in Macau, I'm a little down or even for most of the session and make all my profit in the last hour or less.

I played well at the end of that last cash session, while getting cards too. I like this one hand where I flop quads holding TT, and managed to disguise my hand well enough to get maximum value on the river (Check flop, check call turn, bet river when my opponent likely hit a flush on a very scary board: TTQKA, 3 spades).

With that, my BR is up to RMB 14500, around $2100, good enough to play RMB 5/10 without being scared.

I just spent 3 days in Macau with a couple friends. The goal of the trip was to play as much poker as possible (and win) and celebrate one of my friend's b-day on Sat evening.

Our plane was on time this time, and we landed in Zhuhai, on the other side of the China-Macau border around midnight. It takes an hour to get from the airport to the border, and when we got there, we discovered the border is closed from midnight to 7AM. After briefly looking for hotel in Zhuhai we decided to spend the night in a bar. We got insanely drunk on whiskey and beer, playing a game we like. If you like to gamble (Oh, wait... this is P5s) you should try it. it goes like this:

(does anyone know the name of this game in English? we call it "le nettoyeur" in French)

52 card deck

1- Dealer decides to bet (anything he wants, there is no "set" bet amount

2- Dealer deals 4 cards to each other player one at a time. No cards for him.

3- Player 1 decides to bet (any amounts he wants, max=the pot, min=1. he HAS to bet smth)

4- dealer deals himself 1 card.

    - If the card is higher than P1 cards in the corresponding suit, dealer wins P1's money. P1's money is added to the pot.

    - If the card is lower than P1 cards in the corresponding suit, P1 wins the equivalent of his bet from the pot. P1's bet and dealer's equivalent money are removed from the pot and go to P1. If P1 had bet the pot size, he takes it all and the hand is over (no more money in the pot)

    - It the card is of a suit that P1 does not have in his 4 cards, dealer wins and money is added to the pot.

5- Repeat until either there is no more money in the pot (dealer lost all), or each player in the game have played against the dealer.

6- When the hand is over P1 becomes dealer, go back to step 1.

It's really a fun game, especially drunk, and that night I made 1000 yuan (~US$150). Good start to the weekend.

Comes 7AM, we make our way to the border and then the hotel in Macau. We had the room booked in the Best Western Taipa for the previous night, so we could check in right away at 9AM. Hotel is OK and rather cheap for Macau, but don't go for the breakfast, it's ugly!

So we sleep until 2PM on Friday, and make our way to the Grand Lisboa for our 1st session. there are 2 tables of 10/20 running at this time. We sit and start playing.

The room is fairly nice, I preferred the Grand Waldo though, but they don;t have any games there. Dealers are ok except for the occasional trainee who can't deal or count for shit. I have 1 in mind that pissed me off each time she was dealing.

The game starts awfully for me, 3rd hand I get AA, get 2 callers on my raise pre, check shove a Q high board, and lose to QQ. That's 1 buy in (HKD2000). Reload and 15 hands later I get AA again (Nice, twice in my 20 first hands) and lose to a strait (I had AA 5 more times during the weekend and won all 5). I'm down to 400 in 30 minutes. It's going to be a looong day. Shortly after that I get a few double up to go back to 4000, and get card dead for like 10 hours, staying around 4000. Around 6AM Saturday, I get cards again and run this up to a little over 7000 for a 3k profit. After 19h of play I'm kind of tired and go to bed. My friends went back to the hotel a couple hours earlier, one down 6k, the other one up 5k.

I Sleep for 6 hours, and we go back to the casino for just a few hours poker, we have to meet our friend for his bday in a bar at 7. I buy in for 3000 (max buyin), we play for 3 hours, and I end up even after losing big on my first hand.

B-day party. We planned on a long party, getting trashed all night. We started having champagne in the Moet Bar at the Four Seasons. Weird place, the bar is empty... and in a middle of a shopping mall. Seriously, it's in between Gucci, LV, Prada and Hermes. Champagne mojito are great though. We then have dinner in a small Portuguese restaurant. Fantastic food and lots of wine. Then we proceed to the bar street and have a couple long island ice teas in the Casablanca Bar. Around 2AM, my bday friends gf is drunk, so he take her back to the hotel.

So my other 2 other friends and I... go back to the Grand Lisboa. Drunk. I lose my 1st buy in in 15 minutes (don't play drunk, you always think you have the nuts) and then try to play tight until I'm more clear. We play until 11AM, and by the end of the session I', up 5500 HKD. In the only really notable hand, I flop a set holding KK on AKx flop and get called all 3 streets with by 2 pair and win a big pot. Play is really not good in Macau.

By then, we have to leave to catch our plane back, I end up the only winner out of 4, with a significantly increased bankroll.

Hope to go back there soon!

Didn't play much online last week, but got what I needed live this weekend, some confidence back.

We played our homegame on Saturday and I made over 700 on my 100 buy in which is my 1st big win in over a month. I also think it's my 1st game without rebuy in a very long time. I played well made good calls and set great traps.

Then Sunday I played at the club, that's the real test. 80% of the players there are way better than me, and the game is much bigger. We play 5/10, I bought in for 800 and played 7 hours on that, ending the session with a small profit. I played really tight for most of the game, didn't hit much, but I managed to back when I did. I made good reads, bad folds, but after a couple hands, the scare was gone and my relative confidence was back...

And that is exactly what I needed before going to Macau Thursday. Until last Friday I was thinking I'd lose my roll at the tables there, now I am much more confident, especially since most players are week there, I'm going for a big win so I can really boost my bankroll and stop having to play out of my roll when I go to the club.

Next stop Macau, wish me luck!