Closing accounts...

Is that right? The idea was to close my original account (the one i've had for years which was originally flutter.com until betfair took over), and use my one and only debit card to fund my newer account which i sometimes use for poker. Only reason i set up a new account was to get rakeback on the poker. Having only 1 debit card meant that i ended up using Paypal to fund the new one. Oh well, bollocks to betfair then, i'll play all my poker at Betdaq instead.


Incidentally, how's your poker learning curve going fred? I quite like betdaq, you can play it in the browser via a java applet (ideal for Ubuntu fanboys like us) and they do sit n gos as cheap as 1 euro. They also do some multi tournaments for small stakes (0.50 euro is lowest, i think) and there are freerolls galore with regular ones every 2hrs and others in between. The rakeback is 30% so same as betfairs. Even if you only fancy an occasional game, i strongly recommend getting a rakeback deal. It's a 30% refund and it's surprising how much it adds up to over a month...

It can be boring but then again i always dream of becoming good enough (and having big enough balls) to play large stakes such as £500 sit n gos. I average about 20% ROI playing 6 seater sit n gos at low stakes. Let's say that dropped to 5% at the bigger stakes...you'd only need to play about 20 sit n gos a week to average £500 a week income.

I did have this dream of building another poker helper or automated bot, but in reality i can play much better poker than any rules based program. You can play poker by numbers and be reasonably successful but how do you get a bot to decide that the guy who's just pushed all his chips into the pot is actually bluffing? When you play enough poker online, you get a "feel" for it. You seem to develop this weird sense that you KNOW what your opponent is about to do. Having said that, it's a lot easier on the small stakes because some of the players bet $50 into a $900 pot with only one opponent. They have absolutely no idea whatsoever about basic odds and wonder why they constantly get beaten by players who got to draw out a cheap flush or straight or whatever.

I've been reading a book called "The poker tournament formula" by Arnold Snyder. Tell you what, it's a brilliant book. I've been "playing" poker for about 8 or 10 years on and off and after reading the book, i suddenly realised that i didn't know shit about "proper" poker.

Must stop rambling, i'm starting a 12hr night shift in less than an hour. :(

I think everyone can relate to feeling bad about losing runs, especially when we do something silly like increase the stakes to try and recover some losses. Of all the various forms of gambling i've tried, i've never really felt 100% comfortable that i was in total control and there was always this part of me that worried it would all go tits up and i'd end up with a zero account balance. Even using an automated strategy, there's always a chance that something changes within the market data, or a previously undiscovered bug rears its ugly head. You can't even rely on companies like betfair to be 100% consistent with their data feeds. When all is said and done, the hunan brain has far superior decision making powers than any computer, although a computer is MUCH faster at maths.

That is probably why i've returned to poker. It's a game of skill with a bit of luck thrown in and there are tried and tested methods that allow you to manipulate your luck into a long term profit. When you know you have a 50% chance of winning a pot and the cost to take that chance is only 30% of the pot, it becomes a no brainer decision. Then there's the whole bullying aspect. Some players are so scared of losing that you can push them around and take their money. As they always say, you should never play with more than you'd be happy to lose.

Incidentally, i recently read an artical where a bloke did a £0 to £10k challenge. He played nothing but freeroll tournaments to get his first few quid and then built up from that. It's true that money won is much sweeter than monet earned...
http://www.chrisferguson.com/article-4