ILX Poker Players Unite

small fish though really. but it made me feel better esp seeing all the addicts on l.t. losing $$$$$$$$$$$$$$s.

I also played poker during it but, after 600 grinding, tedious, painful hands I finished down £35 (though rb and bonus makes it about breakeven). Man I've seldom enjoyed poker so little - but in comparison to all these astonishingly self-deluded idiots (the Roberto Baggio/Toadfish out of Neighbours fellow in particular) I felt like I had a money-printing machine in front of me.

I am loving PKR.com! haha, like, i was sceptical at first, but, after the first time you make CHICKEN NOISES at people, you fall in love with it.

oh my god.

the only thing is you need a pretty decent computer for it to work.. my laptop can just about run it on the min spec settings.

Yeah, I tried it and it was just ridiculously slow. Haven't played it for a while, so they may have ironed out the issues. Have you actually played real money there?

Having a pretty crappy May - am only in the black thanks to bonus and rakeback. $100NL isn't kicking my arse as such, but it's not letting me get a foothold either. Still trying though...

i've just played STTs there so far!

but with real money

Finished May $100 down on the tables, but $450 up in rakeback and bonus terms. Oh! Just checked my stats and actually I finished UP about $45. Not sure how that happened. Played less than 10,000 hands for the first time this year, but that's okay.

Here's May's graph. Enjoy the mid-month downswing...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/biondino/May2007.jpg

I think Ken might have an update for us?

My update (after I started playing again, just in time for the anti-poker legislation to kick in):

- I suck
- I get angry way too easily, and I start sucking as a result
- I should not play when I'm tired, because I get angry
- people suck, and should not be allowed to play poker against me
- STOP CATCHING ACES

i just won £1000 at some crazy rebuy tournament thing! omg, dudes on TV were there! and they all got pwn3d!

played pretty damn tight at the rebuy stage.. probably strange tactics, but it somehow worked, and won a bunch of chips when i had a hand and guys were playing loose. and with that money somehow survived the endgame and was in the money. amazing.

then it was mental, everyone were on the brink of going out, but doubles through when they go all in, and it went on til like half past midnight and then we got to the end of the highest blinds and we were going to play 3 last hands, with 4 of us left, but when we played the first hand one player went out we were all pretty much even with 2 hands to play, so we just split the money.

amazing. i didn't rebuy at all (but bought an add-on)!

Hi Dave!

My update: $1000 profit in June, mainly thanks to bonus/rakeback. Not sure what to do in July, what targets to aim for.

Nice work, Ken :)

did you know all of those people there mark? some of them looked famous

I've eaten through $600+ this month, of my money & of bonus deposit money (just like I did the first few months of my online back a few years ago), and it's all I can do to slap myself. Most of that was @ ring tables, tho, which I'm avoiding like the plague (just like I did when hit rock bottom after starting off) - sticking to sit-n-gos of the $10 / $20 persuasion, & some regular old tourneys, until I get back on my feet. Then I will move to Monte Carlo, oil my chest hair, and get buck wild.

That is, until the preznit decides to cap my ass.

Congrats, BTW, Ken! Winning in a rebuy w/out rebuying is the best feeling ever.

BTW, how awesome is it that foreign countries are pitching a fit @ the US online poker ban!

it's harsh cos online poker is harder without america :((

Ken, no, I didn't know many of them, and the ones I did know were producers rather than actors/presenters etc (apart from the gregarious H4rd33p K0hl1 who I know a bit). Glad you had fun :)

I joined a Sunday night game. Tonight will be my 3rd night with this group. Went home broke both previous nights.

But still I'm SO EXCITED about tonight. I love it. There is the bothersome issue of why did I lose all my money the past 2 times, but still I think it's just a matter of time before rise to the top of this field.

These dudes just play it straight. Period. It's funny, but this is actually a bit of a predicament. When you're on a table where you know everyone's playing straight (weak hands are folded, good hands stay in) what's the best strategy? I almost find it easier to play against more daring/colorful players b/c if you're good with reads/tells you can sniff out a bluff... With these guys there's nothing to read, a check is a check and a raise is a raise... hmmph.

Wanko, if they are playing it straight and tight, then you bet and raise more, both pre- and post-flop, with position being almost more important than cards. Bear in mind that most of their hands WON'T hit on the flop, so you can take down a lot of pots by betting, especially with position.

Equally, you know that when they do bet, or call your bets, you're going to need a good hand to showdown. So play very cautiously in these situations when you have draws or marginal hands, and make decent raises when you have strong hands, especially if they'll call down almost anything with top pair etc.

Play drawing hands in position, make regular semi-bluffs when they show weakness, and if they don't bet enough to take away your odds, you should win a few big pots.

Since this thread's back, here's a proposal for you. I am 14 FPPs away from being able to set up private tournaments at Pokerstars, and I want to do an ILX invitational for all the people who post on this thread or would like to play.

I have a list of 30 or so players who have posted to this thread, so I know there's plenty of possibles. The idea would be to have a nice cheap tourney - $5.50 or $11 I imagine - and just have a laugh.

I chose Stars because it's open to anyone in the world, and is the biggest site currently operating, so if you don't already have an account you can quickly and easily make one.

I was thinking of emailing people rather than posting on this thread, but I'll do that too :)

So, what do you think? Let me know if you'd be up for it!

Wanko, if you fancy chatting on messenger about poekr I'm always up for that - drop me an email.

Thanks, Mark. I haven't studied Hold 'em formally to any degree yet, and I really don't know about positions and those dynamics (I guess it's sort of apparent, but I haven't given much thought to it). I'm going to start reading up. ESPN doesn't go into much strategy.

Count me in for ILX tourney.