Clueless Wonder

Had a good time last night hosting a nice little poker game for some friends. We actually were able to generate enough interest to start off the game with 9 seats filled with the 10th coming in just a little bit later. We played a cash game instead of what seems to be the normal Sit-n-Go’s in this area. Blinds were just .05-.10 and the max buyin was $20 so it made for a nice game. At those stakes of course it’s still going to be a wild, loose, and friendly game but a $15 or $20 bet will at least make you think a bit more than if you bought into a tourney for $5.

I will need to get at least a few more chips if I can make this a monthly game as after a few people went busto and re-bought I was running low. Also need to ensure that I have more small bills available for the cashing out at the end of the night. I was fine this time since I was up a good amount and just rounded everyone else up a bit when cashing out.

My plan is to build a nice tabletop this winter but I will probably at least buy the speed felt for it sooner rather than later. Using our granite table in the dining room worked, but it was too slippery to use my good plastic COPAG card set. Overall it was a good time had by all I would say and next month we’re going to try and do it again. Can’t wait!

Holy smokes! Is this post actually going to have poker content? Why yes boys and girls it is! You see, I might have been silent lately and not showing up for most of the blogger events but I’ve actually started playing on a more regular basis again.

The 6-max NL tables at Full-Tilt are where you can find me currently. Mostly seated at the 25NL and 50NL tables. I’ve taken the stance that I know how to play poker dammit, I just need to actually think about my cash game and make the adjustments necessary coming from almost purely a tournament background.

I have had very limited long-term success at the cash tables online the past few years. I think that there are two very good reasons for this. First and foremost, there is admittedly a relatively small sample size. I mostly play cash games just for fun or to fill a little bit of downtime. Secondly, because of this, I never really took the time to study the differences between cash and tournament enough to really be successful. At a live cash game, I hold my own, mostly because I think the players are even worse and I tend to pay attention more because I don’t have anything else to do while sitting at the table.

So far the results have spoken for themselves. I haven’t had a single losing session this month. Now I know and realize that this cannot be sustained long term. However, I’m winning because I’m putting myself in position to win. I am studying my opponents’ tendencies and taking control of the table. If the game is not good, I get up and find a better one. When I find a fish, I find their weakness and wait to exploit it or manipulate them to exploit it. I think it’s mostly just about finally finding the proper mindset and taking the game seriously again.

I am going to start over on my attempt to become a better NL cash game player. I am planning on doing this at an alternate site, preferably one of the smaller ones. Pokertracker support would be a huge plus because it’s easy to datamine a smaller site so I am putting Absolute, UB, and Bodog at the top of my current list, but it is not a requirement per se. What smaller rooms can you recommend? Rakeback availability would be great too.

• Bodog
  • Pluses
    • Pokertracker support
    • Loose players
    • Good mtt structure
  • Minuses
    • Don’t get rakeback
    • No bonuses
    • Limited number of tables
    • Poor selection of deposit and withdrawal options (no epassporte or paytrucard)
    • Software design makes it hard to multitable

• Ultimate Bet
  • Pluses
    • Fast software
    • Currently have a ton of bonuses
    • Good mtt structure
    • Pokertracker support
    • Epassporte support
  • Minuses
    • No rakeback
    • Limited number of tables
    • A lot of mtts are rebuys

•  Absolute
  • Pluses
    • Always offering reload bonuses
    • Pokertracker support
    • Smaller mtt fields
    • Epassporte support
  • Minuses
    • Because of bonuses, there are a lot of rocks
    • Only OK mtt structure
    • Limited number of tables
    • Software is slow and poorly designed

Notice that I’ve mentioned mtts even though I’m planning on mostly playing cash at these sites. I plan to dabble in tournies on my alternate site so that I can concentrate on my cashing percentage on smaller buyin-smaller fields.  I fully plan on playing most of my mtts in the $10 and $24 range on FullTilt because that’s where I have success but no reason not to work on my game in other ways.