Life of a Grinder

Winning At Heads Up Poker

2010-02-24T05:51:00.001-08:00

Hey guys, sorry I haven't been posting for a while but I have been super busy with the website and coaching so many new students, it's unreal.

I've taken on so many HUSNG students and the results they have shown after the training have been amazing! Seeing -30% fish on sharkscope turn into long term winning players in only a few short weeks after taking what's come to be known as my 'Apprentice Course'.

The best part of this training course as opposed to hundreds of other would be miracle secrets is the fact that you can see the students progress yourself and even talk with them in my Tagpoker student forum. The next best thing is the fact that you can get it for free. The lead instructor is also so confident of his teaching abilities and the results of his students that in some cases he actually stakes them to play micro stakes heads up games right from the word go. Unlike most staking deals, these guys let you not only keep your stake but keep all of your profits too.

Have a look for yourself at the coaching options that are available on my site and at the bottom of the screen (on Tagpoker), what the past students have to say about their free training: Free Heads Up Poker Training & Staking.

Below is a typical example of a review from on of the students that took the course. There are many more examples and testimonials to be found and yours could very well be the next one.

Ottocat01

Just wanted to take a minute and share my thoughts on Brokerstar’s HUSNG course. The first three lessons were theory based and very insightful. He helped me gain an understanding of the different player types and how to respond to each of them. I have just completed the first of two leakfinder reviews and he has helped me plug a few leaks that happened at critical spots in my games.
Prior to the course, I was a losing TAG player. Adjusting to the small ball type of play that Brokerstar coaches was a bit of a paradigm shift for me, but this style is very exploitative and effective.
I’ve included my graph before the course as well as the current one. I started receiving coaching at game 150 on Cake. If anyone is considering a HUSNG coach at these stakes I think Brokerstar is a great value.

Good luck and enjoy this amazing free coaching & staking offer whilst it's around.

Dominic

$10 HUSNG vs Semi Agro Calling Station

2009-10-26T11:09:00.000-07:00

This is the second of the $10 games in the 'This is how we roll' series. We started with $50 and played the $2 HUSNG's until we had $125, then the $5 games until we reach $250. Now we'll be playing the $10 right up untill we hit our $500 goal.

Our opponent is slightly aggressive in spots but his most fundimental flaw is the fact that he calls way too much. So our strategy here is to nearly never bluff, value bet thin and make large value bets when we're sure that we are ahead. We can make several adjustments against these guys in order to maximise our value against them.

(To enlarge the video click on the four arrow button at the bottom of the screen)

Results Graph Of The Challenge

Below is my graph after finishing the 'this is how we roll' challenge. I completed the $50 - $500 after only 600 games, most of which were at the $2 level.

If you too would like your low stakes graph to look the same then watch all of the videos that I have made and put up at tagpoker.co.uk.

Here are some more free poker videos from Tagpoker.

Squeeze Play

2009-08-06T11:09:00.000-07:00

I have many students saying to me that they think their game is too robotic and very ABC. Well good, you finally have a solid foundation to build off of.

One of my favorite bluffs that is simple and easy to employ is the squeeze play. Too many beginner players misunderstand bluffing and often use it at the wrong times. So today we'll talk about how to add this play into your arsenal.

The squeeze play is a simple bluff but a very powerful weapon when used at the right times. You are effectively going to be making a huge bluff pre flop with a non premium hand, looking to take the pot there and then. It's success relies on a few key factors all coming together at the same time.

Firstly you are much more likely to pull off a squeeze play if your image at the table is that of a tight, solid player, one who doesn't get out of line. What you're looking for pre flop is for a loose/ aggressive player to make an opening raise and another player to flat call his raise. Then at this point you make your large re raise looking for both players to fold.

Why does it work?

Well the idea is that you don't expect the loose, initial raiser to have a very strong hand all too often because he plays so many hands and the caller probably also doesn't have a monster or he would of likely re raised himself. When you raise the loose player not only probably doesn't have much of a hand but he has the additional problem of worrying about the third player left to act behind him. But what we are concentrating on here is that the loose player raised with a marginal hand and is now getting far more action than he wanted. The caller will likely fold too as he has already told us that he doesn't have a monster by flat calling the initial raise.

You will want to make a large raise to 4 or 5 times the size of the initial raise and if you find either of these players flat call you then they probably have a high pocket pair or AK, AQs type hand so beware post flop.

If you get called

This play is mainly a pre flop play but that's not to say you can't pick it up post flop. In re raised (three bet) pots you'll only need to bet around half the pot to pick it up after the flop. far too many beginner players spazz out and mash the pot button to try and get their opponents to fold. The truth is that the pot is so inflated already that they will call or fold the same frequency to a half pot bet than they will to a full pot so save yourself the extra money on your bluffs and when you actually do have a hand, it will still be easy to get all the money in by the river, even with a half pot flop bet.

For more poker lessons check out the Tagpoker Poker School

Good Luck at the tables.

Broker

$1500 Free On Betfair

2009-08-04T04:29:00.000-07:00

I've come across a poker bonus offer that looks like the very best I've ever seen.

Betfair are giving new players a $1500 bonus, no matter how much you deposit. The betfair bonus clears at a rate of 40 Betfair Points per $1. The bonus is then released in $10 increments and expires after 60 days.
To be eligible for the bonus you must deposit in the first 30 days after creating your betfair bonus account. The bonus is paid weekly to your Betfair account on Wednesdays.

This is an amazing offer to get started if you want to put some serious hours in at the tables.

Keep in mind that good bankroll management should be adhered to depending on how much you deposited so that you don't run too much risk of going broke whilst trying to clear this amazing bonus.

So start off in the lowest buy in sit and goes or the micro stakes cash games and simply play a solid, ABC game to get your roll looking healthy at the four figure mark.

Visit http://www.betfairbonus.org/ to get this fantastic free money bonus now.

As always enjoy the money.

Broker

High stakes poker season 5 episode 12

2009-07-24T02:59:00.000-07:00

High stakes poker season 5 episode 12 has to be one of my favorite high stakes poker shows to date. For those of you that don't know, I'm a huge Sam Farha and Tom Dwan fan (aka: Durrrr). As well as being an online poker legend he has also managed to transition very well to playing live (something a lot of old school players said he'd struggle with).

Enjoy the videos:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

It's crazy to think that Tom Dwan only started with a single $50 deposit on Full Tilt and now has millions in his account. Every time I need a little inspiration, I only need to see him in action to know what is possible if you work on your game.

If you feel that you too could be the next superstar to roll $50 into millions then you can always request one of these free poker bankrolls where you'll be given a $50 deposit free at one of six poker rooms.

Broker

Pokerstars Bonus Code 2009

2009-07-20T09:46:00.000-07:00

A few people have asked me if Pokerstars offer rakeback and what their current 2009 bonus code is?

Well I can say that their bonus is still a 100% match upto $50 but this is not where their true value lies. Pokerstars are without a doubt the largest online poker room in the world which means that the game selection is simply amazing. The fish are plentiful and very easy to find, but beware, as where the fish swim, so do the sharks.

A couple of guys asked me why they should play at Pokerstars rather than say Full Tilt (as Full Tilt offer rakeback) and the simple answer is their player points and VPP points scheme, rewards players in the same way as rakeback and dependant on how much you play, it can end up exceeding what you can make in rakeback.

Read more about all that Pokerstars has to offer in this Tagpoker, Pokerstars review.

Broker

Free Poker Money No Deposit

2009-07-06T14:22:00.000-07:00

I decided a few weeks ago that rather than just blog for the sake of blogging, I'm only going to post when I feel like I have something of value that I want to share with you so today I want to talk about free poker money no deposit. Lots of people have asked me what the best poker bonus code is and the truth is that there are so many to choose from that I'm just going to highlight my personal choice in this blog post.

I have to say that every time I see another advert for 'free poker money no deposit' I automatically just dismiss it as some sort of sales tactic or simply think there must be some sort of catch, after all I was always bought up to believe that "nothing in life is free" or "if it seems too good to be true, it normally is".

So that would be why you have never seen me blog about any such deals, well until now that is.

I came across a site called Yourpokercash through PAS (poker affiliate solutions) and decided to check them out. The main reason that I gave them the time of day is because of the solid experiences I've had with PAS in the past.

I was amazed when I saw the poker rooms and deals being offered. Bellow is what's currently being given away for first time players at any of these sites.

Upon reading through the terms to getting my hands on free poker money and no deposit needed, I thought I'd see if this wasa legit offer and it is!

Now there's no catch but there are rules, strict rules. These guys are smart and they have done a great job of protecting themselves from getting ripped off by implementing fraud protection.

I signed my brother up to get a free $100 on cake poker. We had to create an account at Yourpokercash then confirm our telephone number, finally we e-mailed a copy of photo ID with a hand written certification number that was requested by YPC then once they were happy, we rquested our bankroll.

This may seem like a slightly long process (because it is) but it's worth it for the fact that you do end up with free poker money no deposit needed.

If you do nothing else today, sign up for free poker money now and then come back to the blog and say thankyou (it's always nice to hear from you guys).

Enjoy and good luck.

Broker

How To Play Poker For Beginners

2009-06-22T10:32:00.000-07:00

I want to take a step back and reflect on what's been going on in my blog. For anyone reading this that actually wants to learn how to play poker and especially if you are a beginner, here we go.

I feel as if my blog has been rambling some over my last few posts and hasn't spent very much time on the important things such as figuring out how to actually make money. That's why were all here right? To learn from each other in a never ending quest to hone and sharpen our poker skills?

So lets get back on track, I want pass on some of the lessons that I've spent an incredible amount of time (and money) on getting right.

I firmly believe that being good at poker is less about the regurgitation of information and more about the ability to think for ones self. I constantly get asked by friends, students, members of poker forums etc, how do I play X, Y or Z hand when it's already been raised pre flop, blah, blah, blah.

Now rather than think of any one situation we are going to take a step back and start looking at the bigger picture. I'm going to teach you how to play each player type and talk to you about why taking different lines with the same hand vs different players will show more of a profit.

So lets call this lesson one and in lesson one I want to talk about why raising as the first player to act pre flop is better than limping?

Why Raising is better Than limping

I often find players that are beginners like to limp in to a lot of pots in order to see a 'cheap flop'. The irony to this situation is that you are in fact (in the long run) making the flops you see more expensive and lets look at the reasons why.

Firstly when you raise pre flop with all the hands you want to play to play (and are first to enter the pot) you just give yourself a lot more ways to win the pot. If you're limping in then you are normally going to see multi way pots and have to make a hand in order to take the pot down. If you raise though, you can win the hand pre flop or on the flop with a continuation bet, not to mention that you will be letting less people see the flop for free (the blinds) and thus when you do have some sort of hand, you will win more often as you are facing less opponents.

Let us look at a few other good reasons to raise pre flop with your entire range of hands rather than limping in. Well for a start it makes you much harder to read. if you're raising AA, KK, 22, 89s, JQs etc then your opponents have no idea what your playing. If you limp small pairs for example in order to hit a set but raise big pre flop with AA, then you become very transparent to play against and easy to read.

Lastly your image at the table. If you are constantly raising with every hand that you decide to open first with then you'll start to get less respect from the other players which means they are more likely to start playing back at you. They have no idea when we are strong or weak as our bets are consistent so it's for this reason that they are a lot more likely to make a mistake in a hand against us than we are against them.

In short we'll keep our opponents guessing and off guard, we'll win more pots pre flop, more post flop and showdown winning hands more often because there are less people in the hand with us on the whole.

Remember this the next time you're sat at the tables.

Broker

Time To Stick It To The Donkeys!

2009-06-10T14:22:00.000-07:00

So most you (my loyal followers) know that I love to play poker online. However the same cant be said for playing live, especially in tournaments.

The few live poker tournaments that I have played in have (to be fair) been full of droolers. Granted I'm not exactly playing in a WSOP event but still the quality of play from most of the opposition that I saw should be the equivalent to Usain Bolt racing a stag beetle.

So why haven't I destroyed the local tournaments week in week out and why on earth am I not even trying? Tesco is why!!

Yes you heard, Tesco!

Well maybe not directly, I mean I'm not trading out a game of poker to eat a bowl of Tesco value cornflakes, or sit down to try the free taster foods that funny old woman keeps trying to tempt me with. You see the problem goes deeper than that. Let me start by asking you a question, do you remember when shops used to be shut on Sundays? I may be showing my age a little here but I do, vaguely.

The point is that if you wanted to shop, you had to do it within the opening hours of the shop. Roll on the 21st century, 7/11, 24 hour tesco and more importantly, Internet poker.

I don't want to que up and wait around for everyone to sit down. I don't want to wait for the dealer to finish cutting the cards, because no matter how fast he is, like the abacus vs the Pentium, he's too slow.

I'm so used to playing 4 to 8 tables and seeing 300 - 600 hands per hour that the painstakingly slow, mind numbing idea of only playing around 30 in the same time makes me want to suck my eyes out through a straw.

I don't want to feel this way, really I don't. I'm like an impatient child on a road trip constantly screaming "are we there yet?" except I find myself screaming (in my mind at least) have you dealt yet. So I point the finger of blame to Tesco. It's their fault that if I want to get four beers and a tub of Hagan Das at 3:30am then I expect to be able to get it. It's their fault that I have no patience, they've killed my live tournament poker chances.

But alas I won't let them beat me. That is why I'm going to make a concerted effort to get down to the card room, hang out with the guys, have a drink, enjoy the socialising first and the poker second because after all only geeks get off sitting, playing games on the computer all day, right?

Broker

An Exciting New Room On The Entraction Network - Tricky Play

2009-06-08T14:11:00.000-07:00

Today I'm going to talk about stepping outside the poker box somewhat. You see I started writing this blog as an online journal if you will. I talked (sometimes moaned) about the ups, downs, thrills and spills of my poker life. Then one day, rather unexpectedly, the blog started to gather a following and before long a Google page rank.

So what does this actually mean? Well I could post a tonne of bright, flashy banners all over the place to promote poker rooms and/or plaster my beloved blog with Google AdSense to earn a little extra money. However, that's not going to happen. The point I'm trying to illustrate is that if you have a love for poker there are so many different ways you can make money from it that you may not even realise.

So let me tell you about a site that I've come across called TrickPlay.com. Tricky Play is not simply a poker room, it's a poker room and so much more. Let me give you a little background on them before I tell you all that they have on offer.

Last Year the well known Entraction network was the fastest growing network in the industry and decided to press its dominating position in the European market. Then not too long ago a new Entraction poker skin, TrickyPlay.com was launched.

TrickyPlay has a fantastic affiliate scheme which delivers excellent affiliate support and not just any standard deals and promotions. This should be a great chance for affiliates to promote a fast growing network and earn a lot of money doing so. One thing that stood out for me was when I discovered that TrickyPlay is offering an affiliate school where you can find lots of useful articles about the affiliate industry and -techniques like SEO (search engine optimisation), building websites, and so on.

TrickyPlay not only offers an Entraction poker room but also a Netent online casino with games like Icy Wonders, Voodoo Vibes, Vikings Treasure and so on. If you’re a gambler and looking for online casino action you will have tons of fun in the TrickyPlay Netent casino. Currently they offer a 50 % up to 50 Euro instant cash bonus for the casino.

There are some good reasons to play at TrickyPlay and the Entraction network merits its fast growth. If you’re talking to European players most of them love the Entraction software because it’s fast and clean with nice action where you can make a lot of money as a good poker player. You won’t find any avatars or dealer at the table. Most of the players don’t even care about that. They prefer to play online poker rather than watching at virtual female dealers. Less is more according to these players who are happy because of the reduced distractions especially while multi-tabling.

A new trend seems to becoming more and more popular in the online poker industry which is what's known as browser poker. That means that you can play poker in your web browser without downloading any poker client. For Players who want to play on other computers, this is a big selling point. There are not many software providers that offer a browser based client. Even the likes of Full Tilt doesn't offer it right now although they may do in the future. At TrickyPlay you can play in your browser – from anywhere you want to.

I for one share Trickyplays vision for stepping outside the box and offer more choice to their players and of course players that one day may want to become affiliates themselves.

Broker

The Future Of American Poker Players

2009-06-06T06:31:00.000-07:00

As many of you avid readers know, I spend a lot of time thinking about poker. I think about all aspects of poker from where to play, what deals are out there to be had, what games are looking juicy and as of late where Americans are soon going to go to get their poker fix?

Right now the US players must feel like the English do about football (soccer to my American fans), we invent the sport, share it with the world and now find ourselves in a position where we can't even qualify for a major tournament.

For those of you that aren't up with current affairs, a couple of years back the Bush administration brought UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gaming Act) into effect. This act essentially makes it illegal to play online poker in America. Now I could go into detail about all the ins and outs of this bill but the truth is that right now, all is not lost for our colonial cousins.

Firstly the introduction of UIGEA has unfortunately had an impact on the games to a certain extent because a lot of poker rooms have now withdrawn from the US market. But before we panic too much, lets look at what's going on behind the scenes to put things right. Firstly the Obama administration are looking to over turn a lot of the Bush administrations last minute bills and secondly there are still a few die hard USA poker rooms that are in fact willing to take on American players.

One of the many rooms included is a site called Bodog Poker and they are really growing at a rapid pace where the likes of former online giants have slipped considerably due to no longer allowing the massive US market to play at their tables.

I can't wait to see Obama get things straight on the poker front and bring an end to the UIGEA. It's a sad day in history if people from Dallas are left unable to play Texas Holdem.

Broker

Beat The Recession With RakeBack!

2009-06-06T05:06:00.000-07:00

When times get hard you need to start playing smart.

I think we've all been touched in one way shape or form by the global economic crisis but despite the doom and gloom that the worlds media portray I'm happy to still see plenty of people the world over filling up the online poker rooms.

I imagine some are there to let off steam, to chase the dream of riches, to supplement their income or just hang out and relax with other poker enthusiasts.

No matter why you find yourself at the green baize one thing remains the same, and that's the fact that the poker room will still be helping themselves to your hard earned money by way of the rake.

We all know the poker rooms take their slice otherwise why would they be there? it's not as if they're a charity, they too are in business after all. What does surprise me though is the huge amount of poker playing veterans who don't realise that you can take some of this money back.

The term used to describe this is aptly named rakeback. The rates of rakeback offered by different rooms vary quite a bit from around 25 - 50%. What you have to take into account is that some rooms that offer the higher end may only have a small amount of traffic/games running. Bigger rooms such as Full Tilt who only offer 27% on the other hand make up for the lower percentage by the sheer volume of games that seem to be endlessly running.

So you're probably wondering how you go about getting your money back now? There are many companies out there that will go between you and the poker rooms to ensure that you have the best deals available here's a link if you really want to find some of the best rakeback deals.

Now go, enjoy this extra money. Perhaps treat that special person in your life with a little something, if you're anything like me, they may feel a little like a poker widow at times and a good bottle might be just what they need (just don't let them know that your poker room bought it for them)

Good Luck

Broker

Tom Dwan - Durrr

2009-05-22T04:39:00.000-07:00

I've recently been thinking about who I really admire and love to watch play poker. As a kid you always have your favorite action hero, football player or actor, someone that you like the idea of being someone you could emanate.

I always saw myself as a Maverick style, adventurous, risk taking wild child so you may imagine that I'd be more of a Stu Ungar fan or some flash, extrovert, loud, ostentatious young pro. However it surprised me when I found myself thinking that if I had to pick my favorite poker player right now it would be the rather plain looking, softly spoken Tom Dwan aka Durrrr.

When you first lay eyes on Durrrr the man that you'll see looks decidedly normal even boarder line geeky. If someone pointed him out and said he was a train enthusiast or has seen every episode of Star Trek you probably wouldn't doubt them.

But you see that's just it, he's understated (thinking about it, maybe not the best choice of picture to illustrate his understated, low key style). Much like an Aston Martin compared to a Ferrari, (one day that DB9 will be mine!!) the Italian machine snarls and grabs attention with it's normally flamboyant coloring and attention grabbing design, whilst the Aston is just that little more reserved with it's understated style yet still a very capable beast.

For me Durrr may in fact be one of the smartest poker players out there. He learnt the game whilst only in his teens and in no time at all found himself in the biggest games going. He doesn't have the mouth of Mike Matuso or the brat like character of Phil Helmuth yet everyone still knows who he is, all this and he's never even won a WSOP event.

It seems now that every time I watch poker on TV, he's there or whenever I pick up a poker magazine there's an article about him in it. His latest $1,000,000 challenge open to all comers has indeed made many headlines where even the likes of the great Phil Helmuth have already declared that they will not play Durrrr. Helmuth (the often self proclaimed greatest tournament player) went as far as to say that Durrrr is the best player under 30 right now and may even be the best player there is. I think the man has done a terrific job of marketing himself and knows precisely what he's doing, all this and clearly a talented player.

Whilst searching google for the latest news on what Durrr is upto at the moment I stumbled across a site that really sums up what a great job he is doing with his self promotion. The site is simply called Tom Dwan and if you want to know more about the guy then you should check it out.

Durrr clearly loves playing heads up poker and here is an amazing heads up poker course with some insane videos on how to crush the games.

Good Luck

Broker

Full Tilt Is Easy To Beat

2009-05-20T03:19:00.000-07:00

OK so the title may be a tiny bit misleading in as much as you have to do some work to make money fromFull Tilt but as long as you're willing to learn then there is a second income waiting to be had at the low stakes games on Full Tilt Poker.

I love the simplicity of this site and the absolute plethora of games that seem to be running endlessly. Myself and a few fellow players have got together to bring you guys a blog filled with free poker training videos which will show you exactly how to find the weak players then how to exploit them.

The site/blog is called freepokertrainingvideos.com which is a bit of a mouth full but does what it says on the tin.

There will be five coaches at the moment making tutorial videos. I have made and will continue to focus on micro - low stake, 6 max to full ring cash games. Agexg113 will be making small stakes cash videos focusing on playing a loose/aggressive style for anyone wanting to learn a more exciting style of play. El Wayneo is our resident, micro stake sit and go expert. He has fantastic results in these games with one of the best graphs I've seen. He wins consistently and will show you how to do the same.

We also have two more coaches who are in the process of making videos, one will focus on heads up poker and the other will be specialising in multi table tournaments.

The videos are free so all we ask in return is that you become a fan/follower of the site or better yet, link to it if you have a site/blog of your own so that we can continue to bring you free poker training videos.

Enjoy

Moving The Bankroll Challenge To Full Tilt

2009-04-19T22:39:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys, as the title says, I'm moving the bankroll challenge over to Full Tilt Poker and I wanted to give you the reasons why I've decided to do this.

So firstly Minted Poker is great in terms of all the fish on the site as well as an amazing poker rakeback deal where you'll get paid weekly, straight into your poker account. However the downside of the site is the low traffic which to be fair was never a problem back in England as I could get games easily between 11am - 10pm. However now that I'm in Thailand, I can nearly never get any games during the morning/early afternoon which is really slowing the challenge down.

So I have decided to move over to Full Tilt simply because there are games going 24 hours a day and if you love to play Texas Hold'em then you'll never be lost for a game here. The downside of course is the fact that the rakeback drops to 27% but I think that'll be made up for with the volume of games going.

So I've really been enjoying playing heads up poker but this presents another problem. Full Tilt heads up games start at NL50 which I wasn't rolled for. I shipped my $626 accross and thought about just grinding it out on 8 tables of NL25 on auto pilot and then realised that most of my profit and enjoyment in this challenge simply came from playing really bad players on the heads up tables. This is when I decided to play the HU games but I had to set myself some pretty strict rules in order to churn out a profit and not risk going broke.

Firstly I only play against players that sit in with $20 - $30 and who simply appear to have no clue how to play. I am practicing extreme table selecting and bum hunting. As soon as a player seems to have a clue what they are doing or playing a short stack too aggressivley, I simply quit them and find another bum.

I've played around 1500 hands in this way, so far and with pretty good results. The sample is too small to put much stock into but I'll keep you posted with a new graph, every week.

The bankroll is up to just over $800 now and the four figure milestone seems just around the corner. I'll be making a bum hunting video shortly, as soon as I have logged a decent amount of hands. I'll be demonstrating good table selection and adjusting to the different types of fish that you'll find and how to best exploit them.

The pictures here are of my heads up poker results since just making the move to Full Tilt.

I'll keep you guys posted.

Good luck

Brokerstar

Hand History Converter For Everleaf Gaming

2009-04-02T11:36:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, Minted Poker is on the Everleaf Gaming network. There are many sites on the Everleaf network and many people have been asking me, how I use poker tracker on everleaf.

Basically I use a hand history converter that I found on the 2+2 forums which converts the hand history into a readable format for poker tracker. The hands get converted from everleaf into Pokerstars format then you can upload them to your poker tracker. The best part of this is that your HUD on poker tracker 3 seems to work just fine which gives you a huge edge on most of the other players at the table.

Another thing to notice in the picture above is not only the fact that the heads up display (HUD) is working fine, but if you look at the actual stats of the players (super high Vpip's), the fish on Minted Poker are in abundance. The sheer volume of fish is the main reason that I opted to run my $50-$5000 Minted Poker bankroll challenge there.

The converter can be downloaded here. On the right is a screen shot of the program. Simply locate your hand history which you'll find in your 'my documents' section then create an output file to send the converted hands to (which is where your poker tracker will find the hands to read).

You will need Java in order to run the program. If you do not currently have this installed on your system then you can download Java here .

You will notice from the stats of the players on everleaf gaming that they tend to be very loose, in most cases extremely loose so I have made some free poker videos to demonstrate an easy way to exploit this huge leak.

The program is not without a few bugs here and there but from my experience it really is the best solution for using programs like poker tracker and holdem manager on Minted Poker and the everleaf gaming network.

I hope this helps you guys crush the the very easy games on Minted poker, if you have any issues with the setup of this software then feel free to leave some comments on the blog.

Good Luck at the tables.

Brokerstar

Back In Action On The Minted Poker Challenge

2009-04-02T09:56:00.000-07:00

OK guys I've just moved into my new house which is a really nice little place, with great internet access, swimming pool and right next to the beach.

I love it here but it is time to now get back to work. The $50-$5000 challenge has been very much put on hold until now.

I've got all of my stats together and made a graph using poker tracker 3 and an everleaf hand history converter.

As you'll be able to see I have only played about 11,000 hands and made $405 which just goes to show what a big deal the Minted Poker rake back is. So as of today I am going to play for a couple of hours a day, either one table of heads up NL20 or four tables of 6 max NL20, just depending on what takes my fancy, until I get to $1000.

I'll keep you posted on my progress and will be making some more free poker videos for Tagpoker where I'll show you exactly how I play and the thought process I go through in order to build a roll from the ground up.

Good luck at the tables

Broker

Back In Action

2009-03-25T21:02:00.000-07:00

Hey guys I just wanted to give you all a quick update on the challenge. I haven't played for nearly three weeks as I've just moved out to Thailand and finding a place with a solid Internet connection has been nearly impossible.

Anyway as of yesterday I'm back and I'll be attacking this challenge head on. I've seen that there are a good number of new players that have joined up through Tagpoker which is great, I wish you new guys all the best in building a roll on the site and I'd love to hear how you're getting on so just send me an e-mail at Brokerstar@tagpoker.co.uk with any brags.

Right now the roll is just over $600 and I'll be playing a mix of NL20 6 max and NL20 heads up until I reach $1000 then it'll be time to take some shots at NL50.

For anyone new to this blog or challenge, I've also made some free poker training videos which will show you the exact style I use to beat the games.

See you guys at the table.

Broker

Zero 2 Hero - Fish of the week

2009-03-09T09:07:00.000-07:00

For anyone in any doubt as to why I have chosen to really pursue this challenge on Minted poker, keep reading!

Firstly the rake back is huge and paid weekly right into your poker account. This is great for speeding up the growth of your roll and helps with staying motivated when you have the odd bad week.

Secondly (and most importantly) the fish. Some of the guys that I've been playing with are so unreal that you will have to see it to believe it. Granted I never intend to run into any super stars at NL20 but I can't stress how bad a lot of these guys are.

In order to really illustrate just how soft the games are and how terrible some of the guys playing are, I've posted the above screen shot. The guy in the hand with me has valiantly earned the title - Fish of the week.

To give you a run down of how the hand played out, here goes. Bad player limps in under the gun (first to act), the table folds round to me where I raise for a pot size bet. The bad player takes half a second to think about his options and snap calls. I flop two overs and a flush draw so am happy to get my money in here (if I can).

I fire out a pot size bet on the flop and the donkey calls. On the turn I make top pair with the nut flush draw so I still want to extract value but not scare him off so I fire about 2/3 pot, if he calls the river is a very easy shove as his stack is so short (basically I don't need to mash the pot button on this turn). After I bet the turn, to my surprise the guy then decides that his hand is best and shoves all in, I snap call, not entirely sure if I'm good or not but he's too short stacked to fold by this point.

Now I have no idea what the guy is thinking from start to finish and to be fair I don't care, there is no real lesson to be learnt from this hand but what it should do is make some of you want to get involved in what is essentially shooting fish in a barrel.

I have a feeling that it'll take some doing to get this guy off of top spot but then again I see more and more amazing and wonderful hands played by these guys everyday, so never say never.

If you also feel like jumping into the huge fish tank that is Minted Poker then check out the sign up details and get started.

The only other site that I know to have so many bad players (from my personal experience) is PKR. I'll do a seperate review before long but the main reason being is that the graphics seem to entertain people to the point where they stop focusing on how you play. Also the PKR rakeback is pretty good.

Good Luck

Brokerstar

(Current Bankroll)

Free Poker Training Videos

2009-03-07T16:16:00.000-08:00

Hey guys I wanted to let you all know that I have been making free poker training videos on Tagpoker. These videos are aimed at micro stake and beginner players.

I focus on No Limit Texas Holdem, 6 max cash games and walk you through how to play a tight, aggressive game.

As well as videos of me playing poker I have been making leakfinder videos for some of Tagpokers member. These additional free poker videos help the guys with problems that are specific to their games yet many beginner and micro stake poker players suffer from.

There will be plenty more videos coming on a regular basis and from other players and coaches and this will remain free poker training.

I hope these really help move your game to a level where you can start building a bankroll.

Good Luck

Brokerstar

Zero 2 Hero - How To Crush Micro Stakes Part 1

2009-03-04T07:22:00.000-08:00

There are so many reasons why micro stake games are easy to crush but today I want to talk about one subject in particular. I want to talk about the danger of playing dominated hands, hands that have reverse implied odds.

The picture on the right is a screen shot that I took today which to me summed up everything about the majority of bad micro stake players.

To run you through the action quickly, I raised pre flop, the guy called (not totally horrible, if you are capable of laying top pair down). I fire the flop, he calls, I near pot the turn, he calls, I shove the river, he calls. So the guy is a first class calling station that had no clue what he was doing and will never fold a pair.

Now don't get me wrong, these are the guys that will suck out on you from time to time, rivering all sorts of weird two pair type hands etc. But on the whole they are just going to donate money over and over until you either move up in stakes or they go broke and stop playing. So a side lesson here is make hay whilst the sun is shining and value bet the hell out of these guys.

On the flip side, if you are just learning the game and starting out yourself, avoid playing dominated hands, especially if you're out of position. The reason why is because when you flop a top pair type hand you either win a small pot because your opponent is scared by the ace or you lose a stack because he has you crushed. This is what's meant by the term 'reverse implied odds'.

Patience and position are key to building your bankroll at these levels. Don't be tempted to play inferior hands out of position just because they are 'suited'. Suited hands only gain a little bit of equity for when they flop draws and drawing hands are best played in position, in multi way pots, where you have more control of the hand. You just can't draw to hands out of position as your hand will look pretty obvious and you may not get paid when you hit plus you'll normally be getting charged the wrong odds by the person in position. You are totally at their mercy when you play out of position.

I have no doubt that this player justified the play because his hand was 'suited'. But the cold truth is that just because his cards are the same colour doesn't mean he'll win the hand. The fact that he had no kicker, ended up losing him his entire stack and this will be the case more often than he'll ever flop a flush or even a flush draw.

So to sum up, avoid marginal situations, avoid playing out of position, in fact just refuse to play out of position (premium hands aside). Value bet the stations and patiently watch your bankroll grow. This advice alone with the addition of a good rake back deal will be enough to make you a winning player in these games.

Good luck

Broker

Zero 2 Hero - Heads Up Poker Is War

2009-03-02T09:36:00.000-08:00

For those of you poised, waiting to see how far along with the challenge I am, all I have to say is not very far!

"OMG, why?" I hear you scream.

Well let me tell you. Today, my bankroll should be hovering somewhere around the $700 mark, should be.

Whilst trying to think of an excuse to tell you I realised that poker players are a lot like fisherman, their endless bad beat stories remind me of the fisherman's 'the one that got away' story. But sadly I can't even blame my lack of progress on running bad, tempting as it was, I just decided to be honest with you and myself.

I take full responsibility for where I am in this challenge as I allowed myself to be consumed and fell victim to the beast that is tilt. Oh yes, I fell, I fell hard and I fell fast. My ego hasn't hit the ground that hard in a while.

You see I've played six max poker to death, I'm at a stage where I accept bad beats, I accept variance and just get on with things, I mean I'd need a huge down swing to really take me off of my game. But six max isn't where the problem lies.

Now lets talk about heads up poker and lets talk about what it's not. It's not a friendly game between two people, oh no. It's a personal war, it's a fight to the bitter end and I have found it hard not to take the game personally.

This is all fine whilst I'm claiming scalp after scalp, but as soon as I get sucked out on or dare I say out played, I instantly start to feel my heart pounding. Another stack or big pot lost and that's it, I find myself out for blood. I was sat at a NL20 table yesterday with a guy who to be fair was an ok, aggressive player. Normally when I run into anyone who is even half capable, I leave. Not because I'm afraid of playing them but more because we just won't beat the rake at these stakes.

So lets talk about why I'm not up to $700, what exactly happened?

Well a guy sat down to play and as I said, seemed very aggressive. we played about 15 hands and I was just about to leave in search of the real bums that just hand over their money when it happened. I was dealt AKs and open raised from the button, the guy three bet which he had done a few times already. So at this point I decide to four bet and he calls. The flop comes A,5,8 and he checks, I bet, he jams for a a tiny bit more, I snap call and he shows 55 for trips.

That was it, the beast instantly got hold of me and I immediately reloaded, muttering under my breath about what a donkey the guy is, I mean calling with 55, WTF is he going to do unless he hits a set, what a monkey.. blah, blah, blah. Yes I was actually saying that to myself.

The amazing thing is that when I was playing $2/$4 I'd be 3betting pre flop to $38 -$40 and not fussed about folding in the right situations, yet here I am, ready to explode into monkey tilt over losing twenty bucks.

I concluded that the guy was not any good and decided it was defiantly +EV to play him. A few more hands later and I've 3 bet pre flop with 56 suited, he calls. Flop comes down 346. I flop top pair and an open ended straight draw. I c-bet the guy raises and I insta jam. He snap calls with Q6suited and ends up scooping a pot.

By this point I'm past help. I'm in full on, self harm, irrational, monkey spew, tilt monster mode and there's nothing anyone can do except watch me spew off four buy ins. Afterwards I wanted to throw up. A whole weeks worth of work simply undone in an hour.

It's not about the money, it's more about setting myself back in this challenge. I haven't tilted like that in such a long time but then again I've never been a heads up player or involved in the psychological warfare that goes with it.

The lesson here is that tilt is real. It really can and will have a huge effect on your bankroll if you let it. The best thing you can do when you feel consumed by the beast is stop playing. Now if only I can follow my own advice.

My only saving grace is rake back, as with it I managed to eek out a small profit for the week but nothing like I could have.

Learn from my mistakes as it can happen to the best of us.

Broker

The Hoff - A Student Becomes The Master

2009-02-28T01:49:00.001-08:00

Back when I first started writing this blog I also began to help a friend (Alex Gould) develop his poker game.

Alex or the Hoff as he's known to many of his friends looked like a natural poker player that just had a few leaks and misunderstandings that were holding him back from being a winning player. Alex was naturally aggressive and not scared to put people to tough decisions, I simply had to show him the difference between good and bad spots in which he could unleash the fury off the Hoff.

I told Alex to drop down in stakes as his bankroll just wasn't big enough for the games he was playing. Alex being the action junkie that he is wasn't too happy about this at first but soon found his feet playing four tables of NL50 (No Limit Texas Holdem with a $50 buy in). Now however Alex has moved up in stakes and is playing 4-6 tables of NL200. After speaking with Alex yesterday, it's apparent that he firmly has his sights set on NL400 as soon as his bankroll allows and I for one have no doubt that he'll get there.

I can't take all of the credit for Alex's game now as he's put a lot of work in behind the scenes. The big guy played enough poker to earn himself a Free Deuces Cracked Membership through Tagpoker where he was able to further develop his game.

Here is Alex's graph since December 2008. Pretty amazing when you think he was not even a winning player four months ago. One thing that this graph doesn't show is the $2400 Alex has also earned in Rakeback, taking his total winnings to just under $11,000. Not bad for a part time hobby.

So this post is a huge well done to Alex and all I have to ask now is, when can you fit me in for a lesson?

If you're struggling with poker or you're just starting out, then here I have some free poker training videos.

As always.

Good luck at the tables.

Broker

Zero 2 Hero - The Graph!

2009-02-26T12:35:00.000-08:00

OK my beloved poker fans, groupies, worshippers, stalkers and random readers, I have a little something for you.

Not a lot has changed since my last update as I haven't played much. I've been helping some of Tagpoker's micro limit grinders with their games.

I have been really trying to produce a graph of my results which has been only slightly tricky as Minted Poker doesn't support Poker Tracker. But alas, I found a hand history converter on the 2+2 forums that converts Everleaf hand histories into Pokerstars format so that PT can read them. (yay!)

I've also found it hard to stay focused playing 6max micro stake games as I'm used to playing higher and as such think some of my motivation has been lacking. So to combat this I have been playing on Minted poker's micro stake heads up games. The rake is killer but my edge is crazy compared to these players, and along with 46% rake back I have managed to run up some easy money, whilst staying focused by playing a new format.

I've just started playing NL20HU in this challenge and I'll keep you posted of the ups and downs along the way. Here is the graph of my first 10,000 hands played.

The sites huge lack of traffic is more than made up for by the rake back and also the fact that the few players that are on there happen to be the best fish I've ever tasted.

Notice also that my graph is only $418 profit, the other $100 in my roll is all rake back, pretty sweet and just goes to show how much money you're missing out on if you're playing without it.

If you too would like to start playing on Minted Poker then check out the Minted Poker Rake Back Deal on Tagpoker.

Good luck guys.

Broker

Zero 2 Hero - Moved up in limits

2009-02-23T13:11:00.000-08:00

Hey guys

This is just a quick update. I haven't played much at all this week but I have managed to move up in limits to NL20 after hitting $500.

The NL10 games were super soft and most players were either really loose and over played weak top pair type hands and chased draws no matter what price I was setting them or they were very, very tight and played a very straight forward game where it was easy to dodge their big hands or float in position and take pots away on the turn when they check/folded with nothing.

I expect NL20 to be much the same and I will try to put more hands in to get to NL50 ASAP. I intend to move up to the next stake level when I hit $1000 giving me 20 buy ins.

If I lose more than five buy ins now that I have just moved up (leaving me $400) then I will move back down to NL10 and re-grind my roll but due to the level of competition I expect a pretty low variance game.

This just goes to show that playing a straight forward game is all you need to crush NL10. You will not need to run crazy bluffs or chase draws as most of the money I have made has just been value betting the hell out of fish and reading the board texture to make good decisions.

Broker

Zero to Hero - Minted Poker Bankroll Challenge

2009-02-18T15:40:00.000-08:00

Hi Guys

I must admit that this challenge was kind of an accident. I deposited some money on Minted poker to transfer to a friend. I deposited $50 to send him but was only allowed to transfer $30 (as I had to have a minimum of $20 in my account to make transfers for some reason).

Rather than put another $20 on with my credit card I decided to play some heads up, no limit, holdem $10 poker. After I grinded another $20 out I send it over to said friend but still found $20 in my account. So not being much of a heads up player I donked around on the NL$10 heads up tables not really caring if I won or lost. Due to the standard of play being unreal (lots of really bad players) I quickly found myself with $50 again.

A few days went by and I was reading the latest edition of Card Player magazine where Chris "Jesus" Ferguson had another article about his zero to $10,000 bankroll challenge. I'm not a bad poker player by any stretch but I wouldn't put myself on his level. I splashed around here and there for the next two weeks (when I was drunk or bored) messing with some micro stakes heads up.

Then last week I decided to challenge myself and show the micro stakes players on Tagpoker what is possible with a $50 deposit. So this week has been a fairly solid grind (about three hours a day at least lol) and I am nearly ready to move up to NL$20. Seems amazing that in a week of play I have gone through a whole level, when I hit $500 I'll be moving up.

Above is a screen shot of my Minted Poker account, I have high lighted my current balance, the fact that the account is showing all transactions (I have not topped the account up in any way) and my initial deposit. I'll post more screen shots as I hit milestones.

I'll also be using hands from the Zero 2 Hero challenge to make videos for Tagpoker focusing on the adjustments I make as I move up. I have never actually grinded micro stakes so this should also enable me to relate to the games better in order to help those guys out.

My screen name on Minted is Paris_Tilton in case you try to find me in action.

Good Luck at the tables

Brokerstar

3 Ways To Impress Your Poker Friends.

2009-02-06T10:59:00.000-08:00

(Warning: The following tips are likely to cause severe losses to your bankroll during Poker sessions. However, you will look damn good in the process. )

For some, Texas Hold'em Poker is all about getting the better of your opponents and winning money. However, that's an old school way of playing.

To be a great Hold'em Poker player these days, you need to go out of your way to play in style, so that your opponents and friends know that you mean business. As long as you look good, nobody is going to care about how much money you might be winning or losing.

Use these quick tips to help you become the star of the Texas Hold'em table, wherever you decide to play.

Use lots of flashy plays

Check raises
Randomly large bets
Min raises
Ridiculous calls

These sort of plays are key in the game of Texas Hold'em Poker.

If you want to look good, you have to play like you have no idea of what's going on at the table. It's the ultimate deception.

The wilder and borderline foolish you can be with your plays, the more respect you are going to be able to command at the table. Checking and betting is for the weak. How about mixing it all together into one obscene manoeuvre to create the mother of all plays?

Learn chip tricks

It's not about how much you bet or when, it's how you play with your chips in between.
Nothing screams inexperience louder than a Poker player that is not twirling chips in between making decisions. These players are simply looking to get run over by all of the other guys at the table.

Stand your ground and learn how to do the butterfly with your chips. When the other players see this, they will think twice about continuation betting the next time you are in a pot with them. Everyone knows that the best way to defend against an aggressive player is to do a knuckle roll.

Explain your actions at the end of each hand

Did your opponent have a better hand? Let everyone know that you were aware that they had you beat before you made the call.

Did you fold the winning hand? Congratulate your opponent on playing so deceptively, but don't forget to remind them that it will not happen again.

Did you win the hand? Be sure to let everyone know how your superior poker skills led you to make the winning call at the end.

Bluffed your opponent? Go wild. It's your time to shine.

Overview

The more you play Texas Hold'em Poker, the more you realise that it gets harder and harder to establish yourself as a great player and let everyone know about it through solid strategy alone. Most of your good plays will go unnoticed, and nobody will be aware of your greatness.

You really have to go out of your way to push those edges, and take those steps to ensure that your presence at the table is felt by all the other players.

Just as with anything in life, the more you practice, the better you will get.

Best of luck.

Feels Good to be Home - Poker4ever Home

2008-12-18T04:16:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-14T07:11:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-09T11:17:00.000-08:00

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)

2008-12-07T05:57:00.000-08:00

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

No Tapping The Fish Tank

2008-11-20T04:33:00.001-08:00

Imagine yourself sat down at the poker table, you check your hole cards to see big slick smiling right back at you(Ace, King). You instantly reach for your chips and throw out a raise. To your delight, the one player that you've been longing to play a pot with calls. This player is the soft spot at the table, the mark, the sucker, the fish!
The flop is dealt, King of spades, seven of hearts and a two of spades. The fish is first to act making a smallish bet into 'your' pot, This is the moment you've been waiting for, this guy hates to fold and will call you all the way, as far as you're concerned, you have the nuts. After taking a moment to plan your move or at least trying not to look too excited, you announce "I raise" as you calmly yet confidently push a stack of chips into the pot. The fish hesitates for a moment, looks at his cards and calls. At this point you're trying to use your superior poker savvy to ascertain his possible holdings. Being the shark that you are, you don't just put him on one specific hand, you choose a range of hands that you think this sucker is likely holding. In any case, at this moment you are happy to see more chips entering 'your' pot.

The turn is dealt, a three of hearts and our unwitting victim checks. Now you've read a few chapters of super system, posted maybe four times in an online poker forum and even subscribed to a poker magazine, you deserve this, this is your reward for all the effort that you put into your game, it's time to get paid! When the guy checks again, you're sure you still have the best hand, you put him on a weaker king, an under pair or a flush draw. You fire out another bet, this time with meaning, directness and aggression, you want the guy to know, we mean business, of course if you're online it'll just be the automated sound of artificial chips being chinked into the centre of a cyberpot. Our opponent once again looks down at his cards, thinks for a second and again elects to call.

The river card is rolled over, it's the eight of clubs. The pot is huge by this point and our fishy little friend decides to check for the final time. You're feeling happy, the eight doesn't complete any straight or flush, if he had a set then he probably wouldn't check on the river, you put him on a busted flush draw, weaker king or a hand like QQ,JJ,TT that just didn't believe we had the king or he's just too fishy to fold. Based on your thinking, you decide to move all in. At this point you're already planning how to spend the money, you're already enjoying the sense of victory, the fact that you'll show the rest of the poker table how much of a guru you are, the other players will be in awe of your mightiness, "I call" and right then a slightly unsettling feeling kicks in, you still think you're good but it's a feeling of uncertainty that many poker players have felt by this point and with good reason. Your heart skips a beat as the guy rolls over a seven (please dont have 77, please) and finally an 8, and then it happens, your emotions hit the fan, your toys get thrown out of the pram. "How the f**k do you call me with that s**t??" "you fu**ing fish" "you know how many outs you had?" "dumb mother"Well you get the picture.

If I'm honest, I've been in this very situation or situations like it many times. Early on in my career I was one of most abusive 'good players' there was. That was until one day another player said to me "No tapping the aquarium please".After thinking about it, all you're doing is scaring the fish, by berating them you look weak and pathetic but even worse than your poker playing, guru status being slightly tarnished you might do one of the most damaging things that you can do to your poker profits, you might scare away the fish. Think about it, do you really want them to stop playing?Of course not, for a start they still have your money. That's the worst case scenario, but lets think about other negative side affects of your verbal assault, well they might listen to you. Yeah they might go away and learn how to play, great, another competent player, just what we want.

The best course of action that you can take will be the toughest pill for you to swallow, yes the best thing that you can do for your bankroll is to politely (not sarcastically) say, "nice hand". What? I hear you cry in protest, complement them on getting lucky, on getting a miracle?...... Yes! If they feel good for chasing against the odds and feel that's an acceptable way to play poker, then they'll keep doing it and that my friend is plus EV for all of us.

Good Luck

Broker

Out with the Nitt and in with Super Tag

2008-11-18T06:16:00.000-08:00

Finally I'm starting to step out of my super nit comfort zone, like Clark Kent stripping off his rain coat and glasses for Superman to emerge. For so long now I've been a winning poker player - I haven't had a losing month all year and have played hundreds of thousands of hands. 'What's the problem then?' I hear you cry. The problem is that I've been playing twelve tables at once and only sitting down to play when there is a super huge fish sat on my right (for those that don't know, a fish is just a horrible player and preferably one that doesn't even know how to play).

As some of you know Alex Yen over at Card Runners has been my personal coach for a few weeks now and whenever he watches me play I find my self playing in a style that I'm not used to. I only play four tables as opposed to my usual twelve, and all those with alarms going off letting me know it's my go, hurry up!!!! Playing fewer tables allows me to spot far more opportunities to make plays against the regulars and I find myself almost showing off when he watches me. I make squeeze plays, defending my blinds like a Viet cong soldier, in a tunnel, poised, waiting for someone to try and steal them. I am, indeed, a superhero. But the next day, with Alex no longer shadowing me, I load up 12 tables and Clark Kent, the Nit of the poker world, comes back out to play.

I realised too that the regular players at the table could read me like a book. If I ever showed any sign of aggression they could make big folds as I was so tight, I may as well have played my cards face up.

For some time now I've been feeling cheap. I've stopped feeling any sense of victory - beating fish and just losing the minimum to regular players for a small profit is the equivalent of Usian Bolt challenging a one legged, epileptic to a race in a night club, it's just pathetic!

Alex (my coach) on our first ever session together said to me, "just sit at a few tables and play, whilst telling me what you're thinking". Immediately I protested, telling Alex that I hadn't had any time to table select (where any profit I ever made came from). Alex calmly responded, "It doesn't matter, the style that I'll teach you will make money from the regulars as well as the fish, the fish will just increase your hourly win rate".

A couple of days ago the penny (or $160 an hour that he charges) finally dropped, and without Alex being by my side, I played only four tables and finally managed to pull the 20/17/2.7 style that I had been longing for, out of the bag. I felt like Dumbo the first time he flew without a feather. All of my money came from regs 'making plays' at me at totally the wrong times.

To give you an idea of the sheer contrast in styles, my previous stats, whilst on twelve tables were (can't believe I'm even admitting this) 14/11/2.6 with a 3.4 3bet %

Today (over the last 1000 hands) they are 20/17/2.6 with a 6.72 3bet % (it also doesn't hurt that I have been running at 9ptbb/100, I know it's a small sample but just let me wallow in my glory).

In conclusion, I questioned the benefit and value that Alex was bringing to my game; is it really worth while? Could tonight be the last of my sessions with him? I'm pleased to say that it wont. It's opened up a whole new dynamic to my game, a dynamic that might not seem like a revelation to some but one that's new to me and one that I want to fine tune, polish and shape into the weapon that I know it will be. As with any style of poker, be it tight, loose, aggressive, passive, tricky or straight forward, each has it's own challenges and I'd sooner face them with the experience and insight that Alex has to offer. Now the only question is, do I c-bet that low board after I squeezed and got called???

The Protege - Part 2

2008-11-17T03:26:00.001-08:00

Continuing turning a friend who to be fair was an enthusiastic, recreational, yet sadly losing poker player into the beast that will tear up the low stakes world.

OK so after out initial 2.5 hour tune up, Alex is indeed running like Usian Bolt. I'm super impressed by Alex's results so far and the best news is that there are still lots of spots that he can improve on to really Crush the NL50 games on Full Tilt.

Al shipped me over his entire poker tracker database. I've studied his last 4000 hands in depth and so far found a fair few leaks that can still be plugged along with another $150 that he should of had in his account. I know better than anyone that in the heat of battle, your judgment can be somewhat impaired as you throw your chips around and caution to the wind, but some of the spots that I've seen Alex in, he should never of been in, in the first place.

Alex is now playing (for those of you into the poker jargon) a 21/19/3.6 style which at NL50 makes him a force to be reckoned with, the only real tweaks i want to focus on with him now are hand reading and ill timed bluffs, which to be fair, kinda go hand in hand as subjects.

I'm really excited about our next session together, I'm certain that if he takes in what I have to say, he will be an even stronger player and moving up to NL100 within a couple of months.

My Protege - Project Hoff

2008-11-16T10:59:00.000-08:00

Whilst I've decided to take a leap of faith, hand my game over to the 'pros' to work on, help in my development as a player and give me back the edge that I once had, I in turn thought about how I could use my ability to help someone with less experience.

I decided to work with a Friend (Alex) who is a keen poker player on a recreational level. He phoned me up recently and asked my advise on what books to read, DVDs to buy and where to gain the information to improve his game.

Alex was playing on William Hill poker and playing in games that to be fair he was under rolled for and that were above his skill level, to make matters worse Alex seems to love playing volume intensive sessions and his account with William Hill did not have any sort of rake back deal set up.

The first thing I did was point Alex in the direction of a free poker training site where there were a huge amount of free tutorial videos that he could watch and learn from. The next thing was to get him a rake back deal, so I pointed him in the direction of my rakeback provider ( www.tagpoker.co.uk) and through them he decided on www.fulltilt.com that has plenty of games going so that he could practice good table selection. Once signed up I asked Alex to save his hand history (every hand he plays, sounds like a pain in the arse but it's literally a couple of clicks to set up) and play loads of poker so that i could review his game and see where I could help.

A couple of weeks in Alex had played about 12,500 hands at Full Tilt Poker which was enough to give me an insight to his fundamentals and style of play. Straight off the bat I could see that Al had sound reason for a lot of his plays but found himself in lots of marginal situations coupled with a tremendous amount of aggression and the desire to really study the game, I knew I could help out straight away.

I plugged about six major leaks in his game and cut out all marginal situations for the time being
(that was all that I had time to do in our initial2.5 hour session). I now have his entire Poker Tracker data base and will be sure to find more spots where we can make even more money. I'm going to post his before and after graphs so far and continue to help, shape and monitor his progress until he is ready to move to higher stakes, where more qualified coaches will be waiting to help him.

The first Graph is Alex before I got involved and the second is after our 2.5 hour initial session.

First 7000 hands since I employed a poker coach

2008-11-07T05:45:00.001-08:00

I've been looking at my game since I've employed a poker coach to help tweak my play, but to be fair on him, it's too early to judge results based on one lesson. I have ironically found my self playing even tighter (ironic since my goal was to improve and open up my game), especially out of position, but I think my post flop skills are getting better, especially against regular players, I feel more comfortable making 'moves' in good looking situations. Oh yes baby, it's only a matter of time before I get back into the souls of my poor victims, gathered around the table, like cattle rounded up for the slaughter (touch wood).

The above graph is the result of playing 9 tables, running at 650 hands per hour (sick, wasted life, but decicated none the less).

I'm so pleased that Obama won - Posted in a poker forum

2008-11-06T12:16:00.000-08:00

I saw a post on one of my poker training sites that read "congratulations Obama". I immediately opened up the thread to share my support and was horrified by what I saw. Some of the people in said forum were truly not happy to see Obama win so here is a comment in particular that I had to put my two cents worth across. lol

Originally Posted by The_Drake
Not sure how a junior senator with no experience could be someone's hero but to each their own I guess..why people in American want to become more like Europe & be taxed to death is beyond me....

I'm not sure how...
Taxing Small Business
Unionizing Small Business
Enacting the Fairness Doctrine
Nationalizing Healthcare
NOT drilling for Oil in the US
Bankrupting the Coal industry
appointing judges who legislate from the benchand
having unchecked liberalism in both houses, could be good for this country...

Hopefully a true conservative can run in 2012 and help change the destruction an Obama admin will have on this country.....Having said all that I hope I am wrong and we will more moderate then what he's record otherwise suggests..

My reply

LOL

I'm not American but from a european standpoint I'm so relieved that we no longer have a war mongering, fundimentalist Christian, nutcase sat in the white house with his hand hovering over the self destruct button, eyes rolling round the back of his head whilst chanting "tell me when lord, tell me when!"

This is such a significant day in history period! I sat up until 3am to watch this momentous occasion and wow I'm impressed, speechless that it's actually happened. Surley this renews and brings true meaning to the term "The American Dream".

Just a quick one on being so heavily taxed and Obama destroying the country. Americas economy is on its knees, the world wide perception of the states is certainly not good (shoot first, ask questions later) the health care system looks expensive, corrupt and a mess (in the UK if I need major surgery for the next ten years, on a weekly basis, it won't cost me a penny) and to top it off, you as a poker player get taxed... Tax free over here baby!

And now you have a President who can actually string a sentence together, seems like a decent person, has real morals, and may try to avoid wars instead of instigate them. Man this is the best thing that could of happened to the states and probably the rest of the world (lots less innocent people being bombed and shot by crazy soldiers just looking to kill something like back home on the ranch).

Did make me laugh though, on TV here there was a program about some white, religous nutters over there that say an African should not be able to lead America... Laughable really as I don't think Bush's ancestors would of been native American.

Anyway when I think of the USA and the next four years I do it with a smile, a thought that I was here when that happend (a black president) and a feeling of safety that I havn't felt for nearly decade.God Bless America!

Edit: (I have my fingers crossed that you guys at least try, just try, for the love of god and innocent third world countrys, not to assasinate this president. Everytime you have a cool president some nutter gets out his free gun that he probably got for opening a bank account then goes and shoots the poor git before he has a chance to make a difference)

Just my two cents!

Going On Tilt! - How to make more money playing poker

2008-11-05T06:16:00.001-08:00

Any of you that play poker for long enough will , at one point or another, experience tilt! I think this affects everyone but it especially affects guys. To anyone who may be reading this that finds themselves unfamiliar with the term 'tilt', let me try and explain.

Tilt is the beast that consumes and overrides logic, it is an emotional fury that supersedes even that of road rage, or being refused entry to a night club on grounds of being 'too drunk'.

Now I expect I'm talking more towards the guys in this post, and the part of you in particular that I am talking to is the alpha male, dominant monkey, aggressive, caveman that lurks in us all. I don't care if you get your hair cut at Toni & Guy, use moisturiser every day, drink latte coffee's or even drive a convertible car, deep down we all have the beast to answer to.

I'm talking about the part of you that leaves the toilet seat up, the part that doesn't need to ask for directions, the part of you that wants steak and chips every night, the part of you that hurls abuse at the TV when England don't win a match.

However well you try to play good, solid, rational poker, the fact of the matter remains that the beast will come out at some point. It might be after a horrible bad beat, your sexy AA gets cracked twice in a row or you have a super aggressive monkey (aka Agro Monkey) at your table who just keeps on re-raising your bet, every time!

Whatever the reason why, you need to get a handle on the red mist that consumes you at this point, the best advice I can give you is walk away. I'm laughing as I read this as it seems ironic that I have never been capable of walking away from a fight in my life, but you have to. Making money in poker is not easy and any edge you may have is small at best but being able to identify when the beast has you and then acting on that by closing the laptop, calmly standing up walking away and maybe breaking an inexpensive object will show massive returns in your overall win rate. breaking a £10 vase is nothing compared to blowing another 3-4 buyins and then potentially throwing your laptop against the wall.

Good luck at the tables

Chapter One - I need a Poker Coach

2008-11-05T04:43:00.000-08:00

My first blog! Wow I've become a cyber geek, it was only a matter of time.

Recently I realised that I'm not the absolute Don of the poker world. I felt like I could reach into peoples soul and take away their money before they even knew what hit them. Well that's how it went for a few months until i hit the wall (20 buyin downswing).

Rather than cry about it, well rather than keep crying at least, I've decided to take my game to the next level by giving it over to the 'professionals'. Yes Tiger Woods might be a legend on the golf course but even he has enlisted coaches to improve his game, ensuring that he stays one step ahead of the competition. I've employed a poker coach! yes you heard (read) that right, a twenty something, online poker player who's going to watch me play and improve my game to the tune of $160 per hour. My god, whats that in real money? nearly £95 an hour, he wants to be able to work some miracles for that! lol

Anyway, I've had one lesson/session so far and it mainly consisted of him watching me play and asking what I'm thinking as I make my decision's (for £95 an hour I think I could force myself to do that). To be honest there were a few spots where he genuinely got me thinking and the answers didn't come as quickly as I had hoped. It slowly dawned on me that I don't think as much as I should, I just kind of run on auto pilot, and although I think my auto pilot is better than a lot of people play in my game, it's clearly far from optimal.

I have two more lessons booked in and at the end of which I'm going to decide if I really feel this guy is adding value to my game.