The Future of Online Poker

As you may have already heard, Nevada Senator Harry Reid is adding the Legalization of Online Poker to a Tax bill, much like Bush added the UIGEA to a tax bill in 2006.

If it passes, it will legalize Online Poker, however there will be a 15 month blackout period for any site that wishes to obtain a legal license (Hello FTP and Stars obv)

So if FTP and Stars shut down for 15 months... is that really a good thing for us?

There's a monster 2+2 thread here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/57/poker-legislation/reid-pushing-plan-legalize-u-s-online-gambling-930754/

I hope the bill passes, since it will make the game we know and love 100% legal, regulated and safe. But 15 months without online poker? Yuck. That means we won't have it again until April of 2012 (according to the current timeline)

Let's see how this all plays out.

-Kenny

My New Life: SNG Grinder + Mookie Win #9

So I've taken a liking to the $6.5 Turbo SNGs on both Full Tilt and PokerStars. And tbh, I'm... LOVING IT.

It helps that I'm good friends with one of the best SNG players around, Aaron 'abarone68' Barone. His advice has been great, but I kinda had an understanding of the SNG game anyway. It's good to have someone like that as a friend.

And, for the 9th time (and I believe 7th time in 2010), I won The Mookie. Yes, it's a long cry from the days of 5 tables, but I outlasted 10 other donkeys (flopping a Straight Flush in a 3-way all in pot helps) to take home my 9th.

-Kenny

Need to Update...

So I haven't blogged since the summer.

I won 4 (yes, 4) Mookie Titles since then, mainly because we're only getting 2 tables lately, anywhere from 12-18 players. And I've been running good in them.

Draw Poker has been introduced to Full Tilt, and I donated a good chunk of my roll learning the games.

Now I'm back to playing 2/4 limit online, and haven't played live much.

My good friend Nik Santi had a sick live limit session, go read his blog for the details.

I'll try and update this a little more regularly, but we need more players in the mookie!

Four Time!

Yeah, I won The Mookie for the 4th time last night.

This was by FAR the hand of the tournament. We're down to 4: Me, Lightning, Buddy and Dave. Me and Lightning have huge stacks, Buddy and Dave are on life support. Then, the coldest of cold decks occurs, with me on the right side:

Full Tilt Poker Game #23019096199: The Mookie (176453690), Table 2 - 250/500 Ante 50 - No Limit Hold'em - 00:13:25 ET - 2010/08/12

Seat 1: BuddyDank (3,130)

Seat 3: NYRambler (21,106)

Seat 5: lightning36 (26,014)

Seat 6: DDionysus (3,750)

BuddyDank antes 50

NYRambler antes 50

lightning36 antes 50

DDionysus antes 50

NYRambler posts the small blind of 250

lightning36 posts the big blind of 500

The button is in seat #1

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to NYRambler [Ac Ad]

DDionysus folds

BuddyDank folds

NYRambler raises to 1,500

lightning36 raises to 3,000

NYRambler raises to 7,000

lightning36 raises to 25,964, and is all in

NYRambler calls 14,056, and is all in

lightning36 shows [Ks Kh]

NYRambler shows [Ac Ad]

Uncalled bet of 4,908 returned to lightning36

*** FLOP *** [9h 5h 8s]

*** TURN *** [9h 5h 8s] [As]

*** RIVER *** [9h 5h 8s As] [3c]

lightning36 shows a pair of Kings

NYRambler shows three of a kind, Aces

NYRambler wins the pot (42,312) with three of a kind, Aces

NYRambler: so rigged

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 42,312 | Rake 0

Board: [9h 5h 8s As 3c]

Seat 1: BuddyDank (button) folded before the Flop

Seat 3: NYRambler (small blind) showed [Ac Ad] and won (42,312) with three of a kind, Aces

Seat 5: lightning36 (big blind) showed [Ks Kh] and lost with a pair of Kings

Seat 6: DDionysus folded before the Flop

With such a huge chip lead, I was gonna try to find a way to blow it, and I almost did as I got Heads Up with Lightning, and gave him the chip lead for a short while. But I was able to out-aggro him and get back into the lead, then took him out with a cruel river (for him)

Full Tilt Poker Game #23019436011: The Mookie (176453690), Table 2 - 400/800 Ante 100 - No Limit Hold'em - 00:32:50 ET - 2010/08/12

Seat 3: NYRambler (28,591)

Seat 5: lightning36 (25,409)

NYRambler antes 100

lightning36 antes 100

NYRambler posts the small blind of 400

lightning36 posts the big blind of 800

The button is in seat #3

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to NYRambler [8s Js]

NYRambler raises to 2,400

lightning36 raises to 4,800

NYRambler calls 2,400

*** FLOP *** [7s 2c 9s]

lightning36 checks

NYRambler checks

*** TURN *** [7s 2c 9s] [8d]

lightning36 bets 3,200

NYRambler calls 3,200

*** RIVER *** [7s 2c 9s 8d] [Qs]

lightning36 bets 17,309, and is all in

NYRambler calls 17,309

*** SHOW DOWN ***

lightning36 shows [Kh Qh] a pair of Queens

NYRambler shows [8s Js] a flush, Queen high

NYRambler wins the pot (50,818) with a flush, Queen high

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 50,818 | Rake 0

Board: [7s 2c 9s 8d Qs]

Seat 3: NYRambler (small blind) showed [8s Js] and won (50,818) with a flush, Queen high

Seat 5: lightning36 (big blind) showed [Kh Qh] and lost with a pair of Queens

-Kenny

Summer Update: Post-TOC, Vegas, Still Running Good

Okay, I haven't posted since I won my 10k seat for the WSOP... Here's my tl;dr journey since then.

Like the other guys who won the TOC, I took the 10k in T$ on Full Tilt. I really needed the money to help me and my family, so it was a great thing to have. I withdrew $7500 in cash and kept $2000 on Full Tilt.

It's been helping me play Poker without fear of going broke, which is always something that has loomed over my head. $200NL is now my new home, both Live and Online. I'm now playing more MTTs and with the proper bankroll management that I have never used before. I recently took 2nd in a $5 2 rebuy/1 add-on tournament on Stars for $4800+.

Now to the Vegas part. I planned the Vegas trip anyway, but with the new money, I was able to play a little looser than I usually do. I wound up dropping $800 in total, which wasn't too bad. Plus, I got to meet Al, lucko, LJ and stoner when Lucko was making his WSOP run. But for the most part, I hung out with my usual gang that includes Nik Santi, et al.

I spent most of my time in Vegas at the Venetian card room, playing 1-2NL, 4-8 Hold 'em and 4-8 and 8-16 HORSE. Also played a lot of Pai Gow and especially Baccarat, as the strategy in baccarat is just have a deep enough roll to play where you bet player every hand and double your bet if you lose. The largest bet I made using this strategy was $800. That was when I was starting out at $25 bets.

I've been playing The Mookie, and lately, the Tuesday Spewday, on a semi-regular basis, and as i've said, the various MTTs and $200NL.

I'm gonna TRY to keep the blog more up to date, but I can't promise anything.

-Kenny

Holy Crap...

I Love AlCantHang

ToC News and Notes

One extra donkey to avoid after oossuuu denied Numb a TOC seat last night, so the field is currently at a 23 max.

Here are the players who are in so far, and my review on them:

Jim McManus - He's written a few poker books, made a Main Event Final Table. Standard TAG Pro, imo

Adam27X - No Clue.

All In At 420 - aka Matt Stout, insanely successful Online Pro. Def. a major threat.

dignitasODEE - No Clue

hoyazo - Very strong player, I know his game very well, hopefully I have position on him.

jjok - Tight-ish, imo.

Julius_Goat - After I snapped him on the turn with nothing but A-hi (and a gutter ball and NFD), I think he lost all respect for my play (standard). Also a threat.

KeepFloppin - Heard of the name, have no idea how he or she plays.

maigrey - Team Vagina Member. No idea how she plays.

NYRambler - Total Donkey.

oossuuu754 - Probably the second or third most aggressive player in the field atm.

pvanharibo - See oossuu754.

TexansBaby - She won her TOC seat alongside me, and She plays a solid TAG game.

VinNay - I'll have to do some research to remind myself of his play.

xkm145 - Also a standard TAG player.

People I Don't wanna see win a TOC seat (because they'd absolutely crush the field or die trying)

1. Lucko

2. Chad

3. heffmike (tho he'd probably be a little more on the tighter side than the first 2)

People I wanna see win a TOC seat (because they'd be easy monies)

1. Waffles (obv, even though he has my number, everyone else has his. It's kinda like me vs. hoyazo and lucko.)

2. VBPro

3. Ali Nejad

People I wanna see win a TOC seat (because I like them as a person)

1. Turtle (obv)

2. CK

3. Joanada

Good Luck in the last 4 tournaments, everyone!

-Kenny

Ship the ToC Seat!

I will probably try and do a recap tomorrow... Plus I wanna read what twoblackaces thinks about the QJs call at 3-handed...

And yes, 2 members of Team Vagina chopped it. Screw you, I'm poor.

So I Busted Out of the Mookie Early...

And decided to fire up a Donkey $5 Omaha Hi-Lo tournament to keep me occupied...

Um...

BBT5!!!

ck31 (Observer): cruuuuuuuuuuuuuubs (aka Mookie #3)

About a Year after Mookie #2, I finally take down Mookie #3. The end game happened insanely fast. 7-handed seemed to take FOR-EV-ER, with tons of raise/fold hands going down. With lucko to my right, I had a hard time stealing since HE was stealing so often. Luckily, I had hoy and edgie, a couple of TAG players, to my left so when I did raise, they tended to give me respect.

Edgie finally took a stand against me with 5-5, I was holding 9-8 of Diamonds. I think it's exactly 50-50, tho I might have a slight bit of equity. I bink the straight on the river with about 12 outs to hit (board was paired and all cards were above 5, and I had an OESD).

Then, I sat back and watched lucko and heffmike blow their loads all over the place, and when the dust settled, it was me and heffmike HU4title. I quickly got a double up when I called his shove for about 15bbs with A5o. He had KQs, outflopped me but I spiked an ace on the turn AND river. A few back and forth hands of nothing, and then we get to the final hand, which was a little interesting to say the least...

Full Tilt Poker Game #18166164592: The Mookie (135782084), Table 3 - 500/1000 Ante 125 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:46:20 ET - 2010/02/04

Seat 1: heffmike (26,727)

Seat 7: NYRambler (45,273)

heffmike antes 125

NYRambler antes 125

heffmike posts the small blind of 500

NYRambler posts the big blind of 1,000

The button is in seat #1

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to NYRambler [Ac Kc]

heffmike calls 500

NYRambler raises to 3,000

heffmike calls 2,000

*** FLOP *** [2s 2c 5s]

NYRambler bets 4,000

heffmike calls 4,000

*** TURN *** [2s 2c 5s] [9c]

NYRambler checks

heffmike bets 14,250

NYRambler raises to 28,500

heffmike calls 5,352, and is all in

NYRambler shows [Ac Kc]

heffmike shows [9s 6s]

Eh it's a close race. I have 4 pair outs (non-spade Ace or King), 9 club outs. that's 13 outs to try and hit the river to win my third Mookie Title... So I'm about 28% to win... but wait a minute...

ck31 (Observer): cruuuuuuuuuuuuuubs

YES! the Queen of Crubs, CK, has blessed us with her call! This immediately doubles my win-rate to 56%!

Uncalled bet of 8,898 returned to NYRambler

*** RIVER *** [2s 2c 5s 9c] [7c] (obv)

NYRambler shows a flush, Ace high

heffmike shows two pair, Nines and Twos

NYRambler wins the pot (53,454) with a flush, Ace high

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 53,454 | Rake 0

Board: [2s 2c 5s 9c 7c]

Seat 1: heffmike (small blind) showed [9s 6s] and lost with two pair, Nines and Twos

Seat 7: NYRambler (big blind) showed [Ac Kc] and won (53,454) with a flush, Ace high

Thanks, CK!

-Kenny

Freerollaments!

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 121052