Feels Good to be Home - Poker4ever Home

It's been said so many times "the grass isn't always greener on the other side". Like an adolescent teenager (which I'm not, well a teenager anyway) I decided that I knew best and it was time to leave home.

When I say leave home, I mean leaving Poker4ever. I've been playing poker at this site for most of the year and with great results. I knew nearly every player, they knew me and I felt that none of them were particularly hard to play against. I went from NL50 (25c/50c games) right through to NL400 ($2/$4 games) in just a few months. I grew my bankroll from hundreds to five figures again within just a few short months.

So why leave? Well like most men throughout history with any sort of ego to take care of, I just wanted more. More games to choose from, more opponents to work out, more recognition by getting to the top of table ratings (table ratings ranks the top players at any level on a few of the biggest networks online which Poker4ever is not one of), more money, just more god damn it!

Well more is exactly what I got but not for the good. I ended up with more variance, more frustration, more learning curves, more tilting and less, much less money. You see the truth is that I wasn't as good as I thought I was, which has become a pattern if you've been following this blog. Like a whipped dog, I retreated, bruised and beaten, humbled to say the least. My poker game was clearly far from great and I realised what had been carrying me for so long is the fact that on Poker4ever, the opposition is simply worse.

After managing to only churn out a tiny profit I decided to in list the help of some professionals. I was coached, trained, mentored and chiseled into a one man killing machine (OK killing machine may sound a little extreme but it's my story!). I look at the game through new eyes, think about the game on another level and feel as if I have an all new edge. Armed to the teeth with an array of new plays and lethal moves, I've decided to go back home where I fully intend to unleash hell .

The graph above shows my first 6500 hands played and the smooth accumulation of money (except for the first 1500 hands where I experimented with a little head up play) since being back at Poker4 ever. There is far less variance in these games mainly due to the lack of skill from my opposition, once again inflating my ego to rock star status.

In conclusion I find myself asking one simple question "Is it better to be the Great White in a small pond or a Dog Fish in the Ocean?"

As always

Good luck at the tables.

Broker

An Understanding Girlfriend is Beyond Rare

Now before you get too into this a lot of you are here because you Google searches Tom Dwans Girlfriend. I don't know if the guy has a girlfriend but you should check the Tom Dwan fan site.

As aspiring poker players we're always looking for the next angle, something that gives us an edge, that one thing that separates us from the rest of the pack. I must of downloaded every poker tool imaginable, searched for the best rake back deals, watched countless poker training videos, joined forums, got involved in many poker training sites, read nearly every poker book worth reading and so much more.

The truth is that all the above will help you improve as a player but what about when you're on the receiving end of a horrific bad beat? of a miracle two outer? when you drop $500 in one hand? does the latest edition to your poker library console you? make you feel any better at the time? Well mine doesn't! My books just become more inanimate objects that I can use as a means to destroy my front room. They become metaphorical teddies that literally get thrown out of my metaphorical pram.

What about your friends and family, surly they could cheer you up? After all that's essentially what friends are for, a support network for when things are not going well and an audience when things are on the up. But truth is, if your friends really don't get the finer points of poker, they either won't understand the mathematical improbability of the situation you're talking (crying) to them about, or they simply won't care.

Step in, the most important part of playing poker for a living on any level, the understanding girlfriend. Now if you're lucky enough to find a girl that can stomach how much you rave, rant, love, hate, talk or cry about poker, then all I can say is that you're a lucky man.

Now if you manage to find a girl that understands what you're talking about not just because they're bright but because they've taken the time to learn how to play, taken the time to grasp as much about poker as they can so that they can relate to you better and build more common ground in your relationship. A girl that realises when they need to leave you to calm down, finds it in herself to forgive you when you snap at them in a tilted rage, are totally supportive of you chasing your dreams and happens to be an absolute hottie, then you've genuinely found a one in a million.

You see everything I blog about I consider +EV, another string in your bow, subjects far too important to be over looked or taken for granted. Well my girlfriend is all of the above and more. Some days she really must feel like a poker widow. I'm so engrossed in either playing poker, being coached, helping out friends, my blog and other poker related projects that she could (and quite rightly so) feel a little unappreciated at times.

If you are lucky enough to have someone like this in your life, make sure you let them know how much they mean to you and how much you really appreciate having them in your life.

When all is said and done, poker is just a game. Cards, chips and other players wanting to go to war will always be waiting. There will always be another tournament, another fish, another irresistible cash game. But a girlfriend this cool, is a little harder to come by. Food for thought.

As always.

Good luck at the tables.

Free Deuces Cracked Membership

I remember back in the days when I first started playing poker online. With a glint in my eye and aspirations of making my first million within a year it all seemed so simple. When I started out, I was playing without two things, any real idea of how to play properly and rakeback. I never even knew what rakeback was but even when I first discovered it, I really didn't think that it was that big of a deal.

I'm not here today to talk to you about why rakeback is essential to being a winning player at the low stakes, no. I'm here to tell you how impressed I am with my rake back provider and also what a difference it made to me as a player when I first joined a poker training website.

To be honest, most rakeback providers are much the same. They offer the same deals, the ability to track your stats (rakeback earned on a daily basis), payment made directly into your poker account, etc, etc. There is really no real reason to promote any one in particular as they all tend to be a re-hash of each other.

Well today my rakeback provider (tagpoker) has given something extra to everyone on the site, something that actually does separate them apart from the masses of sites out there, something that actually has value (real value). They are giving everyone who plays, a free Deuces Cracked membership.

This is simply genius. Deuces Cracked are one the the best online, poker training sites in the world. To have the chance to get access to that kind of info and for free is definitely worth some space on my blog. At Deuces Cracked you can watch and download hundreds of poker videos to really take your game to the next level. The sheer quality of coaches available to help you develop your game is amazing and I for one am happy to be now getting this for nothing, priceless!

All you need to do is generate a minimum amount of rake in a month, after which you get instant access. If this offer doesn't turn you into a winning poker player (with the addition of some hard work of course) then I really don't know what will.

Free Deuces Cracked membership Link

Enjoy this offer, I know I will and as always, good luck at the tables.

Broker

Poker Coaching Review - Poker Zion (Video Included)

Knowledge is power! I can't remember where I first heard that saying and obviously I would like to present myself as a literary genius but truth be known, I probably picked it up from a movie. Point being, the source of the saying has no bearing on how true the statement actually is.

As some of you know from reading my blog or just generally being around me whilst I bore everyone to death with my endless poker spouting, I've been getting coached to improve my poker game.

I've written about those sessions with Alex Yen from cardrunners previously on the blog and you can go back through my posts to get a handle of my experience with him if you haven't already read them (or for those of you that are too lazy to, it was good.)

However, I've recently been going through a tough time at the tables and even dropped down in stakes so that I didn't lose too much money whilst running bad. I began to wonder if my new style of play had something to do with this? Maybe I was over adjusting? Perhaps the poker gods get a kick out of watching me tilt? Maybe I need to slaughter a small animal and offer it up to the poker gods so that they un-flick the doom switch?

Whilst browsing the twoplustwo forums for an answer I came across a post from a guy (FreakDaddy on 2+2) who worked for a company called pokerzion. He was offering a Hand History review style of coaching. I thought it might be a good idea to get a different style of coaching (Hand History review vs watching me play and listen to my thoughts) to complement that which I have already undertaken with Alex and to get a fresh pair of eyes on my play.

I've only just got the video of the review today. I played 10,000 hands at some low stakes to show my style of play without losing too much more money in the process (just in case I was playing bad instead of running bad). The sample size is small but enough to explore my style of play and find some leaks, and we/he did!

Overall I found this review to be super helpful. One thing that I have noticed is that in one Hand History review session, you can cover several topics that may take three or four 1-1 coaching sessions to go over making it very effective in terms of cost vs time. The review cost me $150 and I think that is money well spent, the format is very professional and I will definitely go back when I have logged some more hands.

Lastly I've been thinking about how I can make this blog more useful to you guys, the poker enthusiast reader. Something that I have realised whilst looking for suitable coaches for myself is that it's hard to find great reviews that help you make an informed decision on the coach thats right for you. So I'm going to be posting videos of sessions where I'm being coached along with a review to help you in your decision making. I'll be reviewing many different coaches independently and unbiasedly, then simply pointing you in the direction of the ones that I found most useful. OK so maybe my incentive will be more readers but is that such a bad thing???

Download the video: Detailed Review & Video Link

As always, good luck at the tables.

Broker