Poker Update

My apologies for the lack of poker posts (or any posts for that matter), but It was getting old with the whole "hey I'm up, had a great night last night" or the "hey I'm down, but I'm still playing well". Busting out on Party Poker didn't help any either.

I have since reloaded, but I am seriously miffed with PP because they gipped me out of a bonus. I should have gotten a 20% bonus on my reload, but I typoed the damn bonus code and after several emails to tech support I have been told there is nothing they can do, but on my "next deposit", I am eligible for a 20% bonus. I know what you are thinking, just cash out what you deposited and reload with what you withdrew". Yeah, I guess they have been through that a few times, once you cash out, they take all your bonus eligibility away. I am seriously pissed about this and have not played a hand on this site as a result. My most recent deposit is just sitting there. I am still contemplating taking my business elsewhere...

In the meantime I been spending my time on bet365poker.com. Not nearly as many players, but the ratio of fish is very VERY high, bummer part is that there are frequently tables that not quite full. I had about $15 left in that account and over the past month have brought it up to about $65 playing strictly the $.10/$.20 fixed-limit tables. Yes, I am the big spender and have no business writing a blog on poker playing these limits. Go somewhere else if you think like this. It is not about the money for me, its about learning how to play.

February will be my 1-year anniversary for blogging about and playing poker. I may not have progressed as far and as fast as I would have liked over the past year, you will not see me on the cover of card player magazine anytime soon. I have learned a lot, more about what not to do than what to actually do. I miss playing live I wish I could do it more, but I just don't have the time or the bank roll. The best and worst part about online play is the sheer number of players. Tournaments are ridiculously huge. Thousands and thousands of players in a single tournament, even playing your best your odds of winning suck just because of the number of opponents and the lucky suck-outs that you have to make it through. But then again, there is always a game. I have found that I like the limit games online better than the NL. It is a bit more predictable and easier to weed out the lunatics.

I am using Poker Tracker religiously now and man that HUD on the table that has real time data on your opponents is unmatched in helping me. It's like having a scorecard in front of you of every hand you have ever played against an opponent, damn near like cheating. Best $55 I have ever spent - if you play online and are not using this, you are losing money unnecessarily. I know I didn't win every hand I have played because of PT, but I can say that a good chuck of money was SAVED by using it. How does that go? "A penny saved is a penny..." yeah.

Once I get my bank roll back over $100 I am going to try to move up again. I would like to keep my bank roll at 100x the big blind as a guideline.


Does anyone have any suggestions on Party Poker alternatives? Should I cash out and sign up with a new account? Is that even allowed? Should I just suck it up and keep playing on PP?