www.dudeopia.com
There are several things in progress regarding the legality of online poker. I'm perfectly fine with the situation US players are in. We certainly want it made legal to attract a lot of new fish and lower costs for the companies so they can lower the rake and give more bonuses although they already make a boatload. The government has 2 lines of thought, votes and taxes. Online poker is in its current state because of votes and has bills to legalize because of taxes.
The Menendez bill has several problems. First it states one has to be 21 in order to play, ignoring the adult 18 year old who can vote, smoke, join the army, and gamble at casinos in states that don't restrict it to 21. The major problem is that this bill will tax 10% of deposits. Many on the 2p2 legislation forum have accepted the government getting theirs, but I have not. Arguments have been made that the site can cover this cost because of lower operating costs. This makes sense until you consider the high stakes games where a fish will lose thousands while the table has raked hundreds.
Barney Frank also has a bill going through the rounds and I'm unsure about the specifics of it. I have heard talk about a 3% on all wagers.
30 million was seized from several bank accounts in California owned by a payment processing company used by every poker site that allows US players. This company is being charged with bank fraud, money laundering, and other stuff related to illegal internet gambling. This scared US players because paper checks were unavailable for a bout 1.5 weeks. In the end $30 million is nothing for these companies and they have a solid shot of winning the court battles.
As soon as the government gets a tax taste of online poker the taxes will only go up. They will squeeze the life out of this untapped cash cow until the high stakes superstars and 3rd world shortstackers are the only ones left winning off the fish. Because banning or prohibiting online poker is impossible we need to wait and get legislation made with the poker player in mind.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
college bs
www.dudeopia.com
So as school is nearing I've been having some doubts about whether or not I want to commit to it. Several things are contributing to my uncertainty. So many people graduate and then can't find a job or end up settling for something less than they had hoped for. A solid chunk of school work is completely worthless and just wastes time.
I'm in the process of helping build a web site with a few friends with big ideas and somewhat limited know how in the technical aspects. I downloaded a few books about xhtml and php which made me think I can educate myself. I'm not even going to want a regular 9-5 with a boss for 30-40 years so what good is a degree anyway.
Then there's the financial side. Thinking about how classes and homework will add pressure and might cause my poker play to deteriorate is a little scary. UTD has a guaranteed tuition rate which locks in tuition prices for 4 years and any hours over 15 are free. The problems are that it is $650 more for my 12 hour semester, I don't have a choice between that and the other tuition rate listed, and unless some unknown benefactor gives me a free ride I won't ever take more than 15 hours.
So as school is nearing I've been having some doubts about whether or not I want to commit to it. Several things are contributing to my uncertainty. So many people graduate and then can't find a job or end up settling for something less than they had hoped for. A solid chunk of school work is completely worthless and just wastes time.
I'm in the process of helping build a web site with a few friends with big ideas and somewhat limited know how in the technical aspects. I downloaded a few books about xhtml and php which made me think I can educate myself. I'm not even going to want a regular 9-5 with a boss for 30-40 years so what good is a degree anyway.
Then there's the financial side. Thinking about how classes and homework will add pressure and might cause my poker play to deteriorate is a little scary. UTD has a guaranteed tuition rate which locks in tuition prices for 4 years and any hours over 15 are free. The problems are that it is $650 more for my 12 hour semester, I don't have a choice between that and the other tuition rate listed, and unless some unknown benefactor gives me a free ride I won't ever take more than 15 hours.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
keeping pots small and pot button
www.dudeopia.com
Lately instead of raising to 3.5-4x as the first into a pot I've been raising to 3x or 2x if I'm close the the button with a short stack still left. Now I've been wondering about why my cbets are not working as much and the conclusion I came to today is simply that the pots are smaller which causes smaller cbets. The great thing about it is it throws people off what they are used to. Some people go into a hole b/c a raises is smaller so it will be harder to get me off a marginal made hand, some like the idea of not having to raise as much as a bluff but a lot of times have few or no outs.
The pot button on full tilt offers some interesting dynamics in that certain players, mostly fish, love to use it. The problem is that a good top pair hand ends up being a complete bluff catcher as the pot grows exponentially. There's not a better situation than having a set with the preflop raiser mashing pot oop.
The funny thing is I'm only up 1/2 a buyin over 17k hands this month at nl50fr. Extending on my last post I've pretty much accepted that I'm only able to play 1-2 hours of my A game each day. Hopefully that changes but grinding fpps at $15/hr while mentally preparing for the bigger games isn't so bad.
This hand sums up both of my thoughts. not sure why this guy thought I was folding the river after calling a pot sized turn bet.
***** Hand History for Game 13858140193 ***** (Full Tilt)
$50.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Thursday, August 06, 03:24:29 ET 2009
Table Timber Canyon (Real Money)
Seat 7 is the button
Seat 1: liveblind ( $23.20 USD )
Seat 2: dtorres3 ( $9.40 USD )
Seat 3: momo99 ( $31.50 USD )
Seat 4: DONK4LIF3 ( $9.25 USD )
Seat 5: Kairos_X ( $16.85 USD )
Seat 6: elgreenhornet ( $50.00 USD )
Seat 7: primemutton ( $64.15 USD )
Seat 8: MeiBra ( $18.55 USD )
Seat 9: celQ ( $12.10 USD )
MeiBra posts small blind [$0.25 USD].
celQ posts big blind [$0.50 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to elgreenhornet [ Js Kc ]
liveblind folds
dtorres3 folds
momo99 folds
DONK4LIF3 folds
Kairos_X folds
elgreenhornet raises [$1.00 USD]
primemutton calls [$1.00 USD]
MeiBra folds
celQ folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ Jd, 4c, 6d ]
elgreenhornet bets [$2.00 USD]
primemutton calls [$2.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3s ]
elgreenhornet checks
primemutton bets [$6.75 USD]
elgreenhornet calls [$6.75 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 6c ]
elgreenhornet checks
primemutton bets [$20.25 USD]
elgreenhornet calls [$20.25 USD]
primemutton shows [Td, 8c ]
elgreenhornet shows [Js, Kc ]
elgreenhornet wins $57.75 USD from main pot
Lately instead of raising to 3.5-4x as the first into a pot I've been raising to 3x or 2x if I'm close the the button with a short stack still left. Now I've been wondering about why my cbets are not working as much and the conclusion I came to today is simply that the pots are smaller which causes smaller cbets. The great thing about it is it throws people off what they are used to. Some people go into a hole b/c a raises is smaller so it will be harder to get me off a marginal made hand, some like the idea of not having to raise as much as a bluff but a lot of times have few or no outs.
The pot button on full tilt offers some interesting dynamics in that certain players, mostly fish, love to use it. The problem is that a good top pair hand ends up being a complete bluff catcher as the pot grows exponentially. There's not a better situation than having a set with the preflop raiser mashing pot oop.
The funny thing is I'm only up 1/2 a buyin over 17k hands this month at nl50fr. Extending on my last post I've pretty much accepted that I'm only able to play 1-2 hours of my A game each day. Hopefully that changes but grinding fpps at $15/hr while mentally preparing for the bigger games isn't so bad.
This hand sums up both of my thoughts. not sure why this guy thought I was folding the river after calling a pot sized turn bet.
***** Hand History for Game 13858140193 ***** (Full Tilt)
$50.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Thursday, August 06, 03:24:29 ET 2009
Table Timber Canyon (Real Money)
Seat 7 is the button
Seat 1: liveblind ( $23.20 USD )
Seat 2: dtorres3 ( $9.40 USD )
Seat 3: momo99 ( $31.50 USD )
Seat 4: DONK4LIF3 ( $9.25 USD )
Seat 5: Kairos_X ( $16.85 USD )
Seat 6: elgreenhornet ( $50.00 USD )
Seat 7: primemutton ( $64.15 USD )
Seat 8: MeiBra ( $18.55 USD )
Seat 9: celQ ( $12.10 USD )
MeiBra posts small blind [$0.25 USD].
celQ posts big blind [$0.50 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to elgreenhornet [ Js Kc ]
liveblind folds
dtorres3 folds
momo99 folds
DONK4LIF3 folds
Kairos_X folds
elgreenhornet raises [$1.00 USD]
primemutton calls [$1.00 USD]
MeiBra folds
celQ folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ Jd, 4c, 6d ]
elgreenhornet bets [$2.00 USD]
primemutton calls [$2.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3s ]
elgreenhornet checks
primemutton bets [$6.75 USD]
elgreenhornet calls [$6.75 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 6c ]
elgreenhornet checks
primemutton bets [$20.25 USD]
elgreenhornet calls [$20.25 USD]
primemutton shows [Td, 8c ]
elgreenhornet shows [Js, Kc ]
elgreenhornet wins $57.75 USD from main pot
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