Ranked sizes of online poker sites

This is a pretty cool website one of my friends showed me.  Basically, it shows that PokerStars is still the largest online poker site by far even after losing all of its U.S. customers.  The cash game players average is over 2xs the next closest site which is FTP.

To all the U.S. players who are content with playing on the tiny sites that remain serving the U.S... I don't think it will last very long.  I feel like the U.S. government is going to gobble those sites up next after they are done with their main course of Stars, FTP and UB/AP.  If you think that Bodog poker uses more legit ways to facilitate money shifts off and on their poker site then lol at you.

Also, I'm sure that once everyone is finally given their money back that is stuck on Stars or Full Tilt a few things will happen.  Firstly, a huge % of the recreational players will be spooked by this huge disaster and never play online ever again because of the scare of having their money locked up for "several weeks" as well as the impression that "online poker is now illegal in the U.S.".   Obviously, the fish fall in this category.  This is not good.  Don't expect the average fish to just say, oh well.  And then deposit on Carbon poker when they know that the same thing could easily happen to Carbon. 

Secondly, the U.S. pros are unlikely to completely give up... but a lot of pro poker players are lazy and will not bother or want to relocate outside of the United States.   The result?  A big influx of pros into the sites that still allow U.S. players.  Therefore effectively killing the games at the remaining sites.

Only time will tell to see what actually ends up happening.

First lesson free promotion over

Just letting everyone know that the first lesson free promotion on my package deals for coaching that I listed on my blog on 4/16/11 is over with, as one of my former students, Steve (UK based player), has booked the first 5 lesson (10 hour package) and will be the only one to receive that deal.


So this part of the 4/16/11 blog post no longer exists, "For the first student that purchases a 5 lesson package, I will give the first lesson for free in addition to the 62% off so hurry up and ship in the emails!"


Don't worry though, as I still am offering my services at a great price for a package deal, $94 per hour (which is 62% off).  Details are listed on the top part of my blog.  Please send in an email if you are interested.   Thanks!

Party at the DOJ

Here's a funny vid about the not funny online poker situation.  Enjoy!

Thoughts from a top online poker pro & friend

Hey everyone, one of my good friends, Sparks... aka "GoMukYaSelf" on Stars wrote a really awesome note on Facebook about the recent events in the online poker meltdown.  It's a great read whether you're a pro, casual poker player, or basically anyone who wants to get a feel for what it feels like for an online pro right now.

Part 1: “The darkest hour is just before the dawn.”

It has been a very scary and frustrating few days.  I have gone from the height of confidence to the depths of despair and everywhere in-between.  For the last couple years, I have outworked and outplayed my competition to become one of the very top at my profession, making a lucrative and satisfying career playing the game of poker online.

It’s not curing cancer or teaching young children how to read, but poker paid the bills and allowed me the freedom to travel as well as the autonomy of being my own boss free from the bureaucracy that cripples the best and brightest “wage slaves” in the business world.  I met hundreds of the most intelligent, diverse, interesting, and just plain awesome people that you will ever come across through the game of poker.  To succeed, I needed to apply all of the concepts I learned in psychology and business school every day in new and unexpected ways.  I was rewarded with more experience managing employees, optimizing a portfolio of investments, making complex decisions with limited information under pressure, and running a profitable business venture than any job would have been able to offer me.

 On Thursday April 14th, I deposited my six figure check into the mailbox and sent it off to the most corrupt, uninformed, hypocritical, incompetent organization I could find – the U.S. Government.  I frowned as I heard the cold and definitive sound of the mailbox closing and dismissed paying every cent of my taxes owed as simply the cost of doing business in the U.S and of sleeping well at night.  I packed up my car with camping supplies and headed off to Coachella in Indio, CA for a weekend of music and bonding with some of my closest friends (as well as over 100,000 “new friends”).

I awoke the next day to the familiar sound of my phone ringing beside me.  I am a pretty sound sleeper and couldn’t summon the energy to answer in time.  I glanced at the clock – 10:42am.  The sun was starting to pour into the tent and the cold of the desert began to give way to the day’s expected 98 degree heat – I wouldn’t be able sleep much longer anyway.  I looked down again at my phone – 7 missed calls, 16 text messages, 44 new e-mails.  How long had I been asleep anyway??? I checked the date, it was Friday.  I recalled the words to my favorite song and felt relieved that Friday did indeed come after Thursday.

I began to go through the messages, each one more panicked than the next.  “United States Dept of Justice indicts the Big Three – PokerStars, FullTilt, and Absolute Poker.  Real money online poker from within the U.S. has been suspended indefinitely.”  I was so shocked that my legs became immobilized.  I opened my mouth to scream my four-letter explicative of choice but no sound came out.  Reality began to set in - the fan had been painted brown.

- Check back sometime in the next couple of days for Part 2!

PokerStars FAQ

A friend just gave me this link, it outlines the plan PokerStars has moving forward in regards to U.S. players.

Looks like I'll be just fine grinding it out in Canada. 

BREAKING NEWS!!!

We should be able to get our money off!  Sweet!!!  Shippppp it!

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-20/online-poker-companies-reach-accord-with-u-s-on-players-access-to-money.html

Sports bet fail

Ran really bad my first online sports betting attempt... lost all three of my bets.   I had good picks but lost both games by a goal and lost on the over-under because of an empty-netter.

FML

Sports betting!

Have to make some coin somehow!  May as well be through betting on the NHL playoffs!!!  I love the NHL playoffs, they are so intense and awesome.  No other sports league's playoffs are as intense or lengthy as the NHL's.  They play like it is life or death and it's so fun to watch.

Since I can still play poker on Bodog I'm trying to build up my roll on there so I can play a bit higher stakes than 25NL and 50NL.

Here's the bets I put on tonight's games:

50% off poker lessons!!!

Due to a delay in my pursuit for 2 to 3 million VPPs on Stars because of governmental interference, I have decided to re-open my coaching services.

Now is the perfect time to improve your game at a huge discount, as I'm offering poker lessons for 50% off!!!  Improve your game significantly so when online poker sorts itself out you can annihilate your opponents!

I have decided that I will offer my services at 50% off of what my hourly coaching rate was when I last coached in 2010, which was $250 per hour. It will now be $125 per hour. I think this is a great value and you have the added bonus of knowing that I'm a considerably improved poker player since the last time I was coaching students.

My coaching lessons are two hours in length and I feel like a minimum of 5 lessons (10 hours) is ideal for being able to fully convey my knowledge to you and have a significant impact on improving your game. If you choose to purchase a 5 lesson package, I will give you even a further discount of 25% off of the already reduced hourly fee of $125 on the entire lesson package.  That's only $94 per hour for quality poker lessons!  That's a total of 62% off my normal coaching rate!!!

For the first student that purchases a 5 lesson package, I will give the first lesson for free in addition to the 62% off so hurry up and ship in the emails!

This is just a brief post to announce my services as available. At the beginning of the upcoming week I will make another coaching post with more details on what a student can expect to learn and receive by taking lessons from me. My specialties are NLHE 6 Max cash games and mass tabling. I can help boost your # of tables played by at least a table or two by helping you understand how to use a few secret things that I've discovered in my VPP quest this year... I have slightly over 600k VPPs already for 2011.

If you would like to contact me about getting lessons feel free to private message me on Cardrunners.com or email me at "Duckslayer2k@gmail.com" and I'd be glad to respond.

Doomsday Site report

This is a poker site status update on what I've found, by messing around on the various sites for the past few hours.

PokerStars:

Login?:  yes
Play real money cash games?:  no
Cash out?:  maybe... you can click the buttons to cash out in the cashier, it will go through, you will get a confirmation email... however I'd guess there's less than a 25% chance that the funds will appear in my bank account.   Unknown if transfer funds is available or not, I did not try.


Full Tilt Poker:


Login?:  yes
Play real money cash games?:  yes
Cash out or transfer?:  No.


Ultimate Bet/AP:


Login?:  yes
Play real money cash games?:  yes
Cash out or transfe?r:  Unknown


Cake Poker:


Login?:  yes
Play real money cash games?: yes
Cash out or transfer?  Unknown


Bodog Poker:


Login?:  yes
Play real money cash games?:  yes
Cash out?:  Unknown


If anyone has any updates to this list, please feel free to go ahead and post it in the comments of my blog.  Thanks.

We're fucked

ONLINE POKER BANNED IN US

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704628404576265060852516194.html

I can't sit in a real money cash game on Stars.

This is for real.

Doomsday

600k VPPs

I hit the 600k VPP milestone today, thus putting me 60% complete towards Supernova Elite.  I'm looking forward to hitting SNE probably in June and it will be really nice to get the increased multiplier.

I had a pretty fun weekend, as my Dad, brother, and I headed down to Minneapolis to shoot in the Minnesota State 5-Stand Championships.  I did decent, especially considering I hadn't shot since the U.S. Open last summer.  I hit 122/150 in the Sporting event and 180/200 in the Main 5-stand event.  Not sure exactly what place that put me, but some people had done amazingly well during the first day of the main event... one person had only missed 3 out of the first 100 targets.

I got a chance to hang out with my good friend Billy, who lives in Minneapolis, on Saturday night.  We went out and grabbed some really tasty wings and then played some poker on the online felt after that.  He does programming stuff for his job and was intrigued by my Gunnar glasses and thought they might help him during his job during the day so he ordered a pair.  It was good to hang out with him, as we hadn't seen each other in a while.

Does anyone know how to build a PT3 HUD well?  If you do give me an email... I am looking to get one built and will be willing to compensate you for your time if the job you do is satisfactory.

Sioux Hockey

I'm very disappointed that the Sioux hockey team lost yesterday in the first game of the Frozen Four.  They were the favorite to win the National Championship but couldn't score against Michigan's goalie despite 5 power plays and ended up losing 2-0.  If they had won this game, they would have been in the Championship on Saturday night in Minneapolis vs. Minnesota-Duluth... then my Dad, brother, and I were planning on trying to round up some tickets but since they lost obviously that plan is no more...

First sporting clays shoot of the year!

This weekend my Dad, brother, and I are headed down to Minneapolis for the Minnesota State 5-Stand tournament.  It is the first shoot of the year, plus we didn't get a chance to practice at all so I'm sure I'll be very rusty but it should still be fun.

We're leaving in a few hours and we'll be back on Sunday night.  I'm bringing my laptop and a 27'' monitor so I can get some hands in at night after we're done shooting.

Financial goals for 2011

I've been thinking a lot the past week or so what I'd like to get accomplished by the end of this year to feel like I'm back to being 110% super solid financially.  I plan on continuing my VPP tear and finishing the year with enough of them to make the following goals achievable.

Financial goals to be completed by the end of 2011:

• Have approximately $5k in my checking account at all times.
• Build a "safety net" fund of $25k to cover living expenses for 6-12 months in case of a ridiculous downswing, poker legislation that causes a huge blackout period, etc.  Put this money aside in a low-risk, savings account or money market account.
• Maintain a bankroll of 200 buy-ins for the stakes I'm playing at the time.
• Pay off my house in North Dakota.

I plan on doing these in the order they are listed.  It will feel really great if I'm able to complete all of these things by the year's end.  It would be so nice to get my house 100% paid off because then I am absolutely debt free.  I don't owe anything for my car... paid cash for that.  Also don't have any credit card bills or anything else like that so once I'm able to pay off my mortgage I won't owe anyone anything.

After I figure out my taxes next week and cut the huge check to the IRS, I plan on beginning to work on all of these things.

Back in ND for now...

My lease on my apartment in downtown Chicago ran out a few weeks ago and ended up moving back home to my house in ND due to burning through all of the money I had set aside for my emergency living expenses fund (6-12 months of living expenses set aside in case of a terrible stretch of poker results) that every professional poker player should have.  So I'm back here for the time being, focusing on grinding like crazy to get my financial situation back to a reasonable level.

It's disappointing that I let myself get to this point, but I made the correct but tough decision to minimize my expenses as much as possible for now to rebuild.  My bankroll is still very healthy but my offline funds are not what they used to be... I had a lot of fixed expenses in Chicago and I had my worst year as a poker pro in 2010.

My lofty goal to reach 3 million VPPs is looking basically impossible at this point, as I'm around 200,000 VPPs behind pace.  However, I am ahead of pace for 2 million VPPs so I am going to shoot for a milestone of anywhere from 2.25 to 2.75 million VPPs depending on how it goes.  Any one of those three milestones will still guarantee that I have a very solid year in 2011.

Liz and I are still dating and she took the train to ND with me and did an amazing job of helping me move into my house.  I couldn't have done it without her.  We have an adventure planned in Minneapolis the weekend after Easter so I'm looking forward to that.

Current VPP count is 574,739 and I am 9th overall on PokerStars in VPPs for the year so far according to this list.

Hope everyone is doing well and I intend to try and update my blog more frequently from here on out.  I have been very busy lately but since it only takes a few minutes I would rather churn out a few short blogs rather than wait weeks between posts.

Here's a pic of Liz when we were on the train.  One of my friends, Blair, left a sock monkey at my place and he said Liz could have it.  She couldn't have been happier that the sock monkey is now hers!