Pokerstars WBCOOP Event #2, PLO....

Pokerstars ran Event #2 of the World Blogger Championship of Online Poker last night, a Pot Limit Omaha game. Since I do play a fair amount of Omaha and PLO rather than the O-8 rendition, I had my hopes set pretty high for this one.

I eased into the game by taking a pretty big gamble. After folding for the first dozen or so hands and observing the wild starting hand variety of a few of the players, I made a note or two on who were acting like the Hold'Em players and who it was, that seemed to be playing PLO. The player RuzGerman was definitely falling into the Hold'Em category of players. He had won and lost a few good pots, with nothing more than top pair. So after his pre-flop call and subsequent re-raise after this flop, I took a shot that the flush was not what he was after.


I don't particularly like that as a starting hand to be honest but given the play ahead of this hand, my gut said I was going to make out alright.

Thank goodness I did too! Just after that I get this :


CRAP!

Oh and then I see this one next!


For what seemed like an eternity, I couldn't get back into the game. Soooooooooooo frustrating. I see the Internet & DSL lights on the box flashing at me, taunting as a reminder that I should be playing Poker right now but can't. All I can do instead, is sit and wait.

As my connection issues finally resolve themselves and I get back in the game, I see my folded hole cards and the hand being played out as follows.


Although I would have preferred the hand double suited to be honest, that is one of my favorite starters in PLO. I think I could have increased my chip count on that one.

Playing four-handed later against the two players on my left that would start with just about any four cards, I drew another of my favorite starting hands and hit the nearly perfect flop.


After abuabu1 checked, I bet it out. His check-raise was met with a re-raise of my own and after a long pause to think about it, his fold slid me another healthy pot.

The player to my immediate left jcars, was constantly showing a penchant for betting out on flopped top pair. Holding the set, I built up the pot a bit post flop.


Improving to a boat on the river, wasn't going to slow me down any time soon. So I managed to get his entire stack into the middle and the rest as they say, is history.

Well into the event, the number of players sitting out made for a challenging table. Here we sit 3-handed with a monster stack to the left of me, for what seemed like forever!


It basically came down to who had the balls to make the run at the open blinds. A pretty tough way to play the game. So I picked my spots and quite honestly, a lot of them were where the two active players were actually in the blinds. I figured that anyone can chip away at an empty spot with chips in front of it. Why not show them that I'm not afraid of a spot with a live player at it? Solid play or not, I don't know. But for the most part, I held my own and managed to garner a few pots along the way.

At the $150/$300 level and a pot grown to over $2000 in chips, I found another favorite starter and decided to play pretty aggressive pre-flop. With the uber-aggressive nature of the two behind and to my left, I was actually quite surprised to see the pot pushed my way before a flop. Bonus!


Although two hands do not a player make I know, I'd seen poltsik on my right get it in twice in the last 8 or so hands, with Quad's in the hole. That to me is JUST the kind of player you want to have sitting there ahead of you.

Poltsik was also playing a lot of hands quite aggressively as well. So when I picked up a starter that I thought was pretty good against his pre-flop aggression, I played right back at him on this flop. I got all my stack in with the flopped set, only to watch his set of Kings in the hole improve to the flush.


I'm just not good enough I guess, to have seen that one coming.

So I'm busto!


Out in 206th. of the 1634 that entered.

GG me and GG poltsik, whoever you are.

I railed a couple of players through the rest of the event and would like to offer my congrats to both BadBlood for his 73rd. place finish and Lightning as well, for picking up a 3rd. place for his efforts. Great work both!

Event #3 goes tonight at 6:00pm ET and will return back to NLHE. I hope to see you all there for the fun!

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

Pokerstars WBCOOP, Event #1 ....

The good :

I was sat at my first table with TanOrpheus, so that was a lot of fun. Also had a chat by siting of Zeem. That always puts a smile on this kids face too.

I played solid early on, building a stack with stop n' go's and one very well timed bluff against the spot to my left. I also got a hand or two dealt to me, which I find helps a surprisingly large amount of the time. Nothing really special mind you, but getting off to a solid start just the same.

The Bad :

I busted out around 1188th. or so, of the gazillion bloggers that had entered. That I busted out there isn't actually as bad as it sounds, it was more the way I busted out that bothered me. Holding crap at the time and with a very comfortable chip stack, I jammed the stack in on a total mistake. Just as I was supposed to be clicking fold, Peb's let out a yell from upstairs in the kitchen. She burnt her hand getting dinner out of the oven. (yes she's just fine now, TYVM for asking!) Needless to say I miss-clicked and somehow, my crap didn't manage to get there.

The Ugly :


Playing at a four-handed table because some signed up and then didn't show, was verging on total re-donkulous at times. I get that the timing of the event made for some serious rushing around for a few. I also get that it's the luck of the draw if you get one of these tables too. I'm just saying that despite it not really being anyones fault, it still sucks huge, hairy Donkey Balls when it happens to you.

Pokerstars WBCOOP Event #2 goes off at the same time tonight and one things for certain, with it being PLO things could get really interesting early!

Hope to see you there!

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

To Betfair or not to Betfair....

That indeed IS the question!

As most of you that are crazy enough to follow the exploits of this particular Poker playing idiot already know, I am a member of a fine organization just recently started up around these parts. The Canadian Amateur Poker Tour is live and local Poker, being run at several locations throughout the week. It's an organization that I feel deserves a little push whenever I get the chance, based on the owners commitment to keeping it fair and fun for everyone.

Recently the good folks at Can-Am added an on-line side to the fun, holding two games a week on the Poker client Betfair. Betfair is supporting the live games with prizes for the weekly winners in the form of a T-Shirt, and it only made sense for Can-Am to hold their games over there. Support those that support you is a good solid business plan, at least IMHO. The plus side for Betfair as I see it is, those that start playing on-line Poker at Betfair for free, might just want to deposit a little cash into the site and make it their on-line gaming headquarters. At least that's the only reason I can see, that Betfair would actually want to run these free games at all. As a side note to that, the folks at Can-Am are just starting to put the finishing touches on a few on-line cash games to be held at Betfair as well. Meaning that if you want to play in them, you'll have to deposit some cash and Can-Am gets what they want, hoping to strengthen their support with the sponsor.

Now the drawback is that Betfair is no PokerStars or FullTilt, as far as the workings of a Poker client go. It's actually quite frustrating to sit at one of their tables for the first time, as there is nothing comparable between it and any of the other descent sites out there. Having said that, I put aside my differences and started up a play account to support my friends at Can-Am.

Now here's where it all gets a bit fuzzy for me. I wanted to learn how the Poker client worked over on Betfair, prior to actually sitting down at the virtual felt with my friends. So I enter the proper member name, password etc.... and get myself into the 'Play Lobby' to find a game to learn from. I kid you not, every single game was "suspended" at that time. Every game! So I wait, and wait, and wait. Nothing!

Suddenly over in the incredibly large advertising section on the right, there pops up an invitation to a freeroll event called a "Bankroll Starter." I click the link and it takes me directly to the tourney lobby for the freeroll. Perfect I think to myself. A free way to learn the client and how it all works over here at this new, (to me) site. One little click later and I'm in.

Despite navigating my way through the client as gracefully as a certain wheelchair bound friend of ours making his way up the Las Vegas Strip, I figured it all out and I became pretty comfortable with the sites unique characteristics as I went. Enough so I guess, that I took a 1% portion of the $5.00 that had been added to the game by Betfair as a "bankroll starter." Yes kids in my very first attempt to understand Betfair, I scored a $0.05 profit!

For which I received the following:

= = = = = = = = = = = = =
CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve just won a cash prize in one of our Betfair Poker Freerolls.

Your prize has been credited on your Betfair account. To comply with Gaming regulations we need to verify your age and make sure that you are not under 18 years old. Unfortunately failing to do so would lead to the temporary suspension of your Betfair account.

In order to verify your age, please send us a copy of one document from the list below:

Personal Identification – a copy of one photo ID from the following list:
• Passport (full front photo page, including algorithm at the bottom)
• Driving License (full card)
• National Identification Card (photographic ID required)
• Citizenship Certificate

The copies of the documents have to be sent to freerollwinners@betfair.com. The sooner we receive the document, the sooner you will be able to enjoy the cash prize you’ve just won.

Please remember to inform us of your Username and good luck for your future tournaments!

PLEASE NOTE:

• Do not send original documents, but rather copies of these documents.
• The documents must be clear and legible. NB: please DO NOT include your password in any correspondence.
• Send documents that state your residential address. Regrettably, documents addressed to a P.O. Box number are unacceptable for validation.
• Please send scans in JPEG, PDF or GIF file formats only with a maximum size of 10MB per page.
= = = = = = = = = = = = =

So if you followed along properly at home, here's the rub.

For the $0.05 they placed into my account that was set up for play money and some fun with friends, my first contact with the site administration is that they will be forced to suspend my account, should I choose not to send them a copy of my passport or drivers license.

Makes sense right?

It's not exactly like I want to yell at Betfair to get off my lawn or anything, but for cripes sake! Wouldn't you think that they make enough money out of this on-line gaming thing they do, to take the time to analyze the situation before they piss off someone that's supposed to be a potential customer?

I wanted to try FullTilt and did so, I then did the same on PokerStars. In both cases I found the sites to my liking and then, I made deposits and started an account like any other customer. It would appear to me at this time that Betfair's current business model on customer service, will make it pretty difficult for me to do the same thing over there.

But that's only my opinion, based on how they're treating me.
As with everything, Caveat emptor.

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....