Aftermath

Well I am fully recovered from this weekend's games. Being fired up on Saturday went "bye bye" after only getting 4 hours sleep started to wear on me mid day. I kept wanting to take a power nap but something always came up and forced me to stay awake. I went into the SJPC game half asleep but managed to build up a healthy stack early on. Of course hitting a straight flush put a bunch of chips on my side, I was easily the chip leader half way through the action. Then it happen... a bad call on a good read? I'm not sure. I was in the BB and got folded to the SB. The SB is very aggressive, loves to bluff, and loves Ace cards. He limps in and I look down at JJ. The blinds were 500-1000/200 at the time so I pump it up to 4k (no limping allowed sir). He takes about 5 minutes and moves all in. I think about this and figured he is just trying to steal here, to protect his blind. I am really feeling he thinks I am on a bluff but I have some problems. I put him on A-x so I know he has at least one overcard. As well, he is second in command, calling here leaves me with about 18k left over. Folding keeps me almost at 50k. I look at him and say, "I know you got Ace high but I call." Indeed he flips over A-8 and I show my JJ. The flop comes with all unders, the Turn an Ace, and the River an Eight. He wins and becomes massive chip leader. Now I look back on it I guess I shouldn't have called with the Jacks. Technically I made the right call as far as putting your money in with the best hand, but loosing to him crippled me. I soon turned into all in or nothing, and got busted about 7 orbits and 2 blind levels later. Just a horrible way to exit after being the leader for so long. But I blame a lot on myself. I made a few mistakes that cost me chips, plus I was falling asleep doing the action and also battling a massive headache. I blame the headache on the cigar smoking combined with the lack of sleep. But I definitely wasn't focused.

Now it's Monday and it's back to work. Hopefully I can redeem myself this week and get some of the cash back I donked away this weekend. Might do another live game tonight, we will see who's up for playing. Until then, cheers!

Fired up for the weekend

I woke up early this morning, around 6AM. This is pretty bright for me considering going to sleep at about 2AM. I am fired up though and looking forward to a night of poker. I am down here at the Jersey shore getting ready for an MTT SJPC tourney which should be interesting. We got a nice line up, some aggressive players, a few maniacs, and some tight players. I just hope that the table I am at is a nice setup. There are a few players I just haven't figured out yet so I hope that they get busted early. (Sorry!)

In other news, I've been running pretty good. Online has been ok and I recently took down a live game where I was the "new guy". Same group of people invited me into their league and I am truly considering joining. The guys are a lot of fun and taking down the game my first time there is definitely a motivator.

I hope to post later tonight or tomorrow about the SJPC game, but in the mean time Lucko has posted a very good link that should entertain everyone for a while.

Profiling, real life comparison

I have a lot I been wanting to discuss but haven't had much time to write since I been focusing a tremendous amount of time on my game. This topic entitled, "Profiling, real life comparison" is one generated about a month ago while I was driving to a client during work. It has been brought to my attention, over the course of talking with my poker friends, that one of the difficulties in poker is profiling a player; whether it's online or in a brink and mortar casino. The problem they face is, "how do I know if I am right?", or the common "I know what he's trying to do but I can't go against him... the one time I do, he will bust me."

While all these comments are true concerns, the problem these players face is the lack of confidence they have in reading their opponent. What they fail to realize is, most of the time... it's not hard to profile someone.

Now I am not talking about looking at a elder guy who seen every day for the last 100 years and you figure him to be a tight player who will just plays the nuts verses the 21-yr old next to him with his ball cap, shades, and FTP jersey who's likely going to be super aggressive. This type of profiling is outlined in any popular poker book, and as well, physical appearance profiling can not only be misleading, but also hold no value to online play. My focus on making profiling easier is more focused for online play than it is for live. This focus will not truly help you make immediate assumptions that "the guy in seat 5 is super aggressive"; but rather open you up to the idea that you can make these assumptions on your own, which isn't as difficult than it may seem.

There is a reason why I included "real life comparison" in this blog's title and that is because I want you to take a moment and compare the action at a poker table to action you see in every day life. Assuming that everyone playing poker is of the legal age I would like to use driving as an example. Lets take a look and profile some of our drivers:

Super Aggressive - These drivers are the road warriors of the highway. They come in all genders and ages, and drive a wide variety of vehicles. These are the drivers who edge up every 5 seconds at a red light and by the time the light is green half their car is in the middle of the road. When the light turns, they are across the street before you even tough your gas pedal. These kats zig-zag out of heavy traffic, often tailgate, use merging ramps as chances to pass a line of cars, and of course, accompany all of their actions with excessive speed. These super aggressive drivers are the one's cops dream of catching and usually get multiple tickets for their actions.

Aggressive - Aggressive drivers are a little more common then your super aggressive. These drivers will still edge up at red lights, but don't smoke the tires when it turns green. They drive fast and take opportunities to pass cars with minimal risk. They some times get brave and will use some traits from the super aggressive driver, but for the most part they just want to get to where ever they are going in a hurry.

Selective (Tight) Aggressive - These drivers seem to be the most common in my area, your area may differ. These drivers are the ones that still hang out in the fast lane when there is not a lot of traffic. They don't zig-zag and do all the crazy stuff that your super aggressive/aggressive drivers do. They usually hang around 10 MPH over the speed limit, and when they see a cop they slow down for the next 3 miles. They some times share traits from an aggressive driver when they are behind a slow moving vehicle and "take a chance" to get around them, but for the most part they are just trying to exercise every bit of aggressive they can get away with without jeopardizing getting a ticket.

Passive - These drivers go the speed limit, no more then 5 over. They always slow down to and stop to a red light, and never take off fast. They are happy to be in the slow lane in a multi-lane highway, and feel there is no reason to do anything "stupid" or "crazy" while they are driving. These passive drivers are usually focused on all the other cars on the road, and stay away from using cell phones, or eating behind the wheel. These drivers couldn't win a race to save their life, but they are more out for a Sunday drive than a race.

Weak - These drivers are the ones who just never caught on. While their driving may make it in small towns or large country roads, in the city they get chewed up and spit out. They stop at lights as soon as they turn yellow. They let everyone pass them and let everyone in front of them. They usually drive under the posted speed limit and usually seen with a tail of cars behind them. Others often honk horns at weak drivers when they are still stopped from a red light even after it's been green for some time now. They some times do crazy moves that can almost get them killed, like turning slowly in front of oncoming traffic. These drivers seem to be in the own little world, completely scared to do something illegal or get into an accident, but when one does occur, it's often their own fault and lack of situational awareness.

Clueless Amateur - The amateur drivers are often the new kids on the road. They have a slight aggression to their driving because for some reason they feel like they are "hot shots" now they have wheels. They often do really stupid things and are often seen in accidents. They take chances to race other "hot shots" and really focus on ego while they are driving. If alone, they might drive normal but with pressure of friends in the car, they go insane -they have to be "cool". If they see someone getting away with something, say using a short side street going the wrong way to cut around traffic, they will be turned on to try it themselves. Often these types of drivers learn their lessons the hard way, sometimes at the cost of others.

All these driver labels are ones that I am sure you can relate to. From time to time I think we seen these types of drivers in our everyday travels and maybe even pointed their actions out to others in your car; "look at that asshole speeding in between cars". Sound familiar? It should. While my "driver profiling" may not be 100% accurate, it is my own interpretation of the various drivers I see on the road. My friends claim that I am indeed an aggressive driver, but I fail to see myself anyone but a person who just wants to get where I am going. So ignorance is bliss when it comes to labeling yourself. But this blog isn't about labeling yourself at all, nor is it about labeling what type of driver you are. It's about making these types of profiles when you are playing poker. If it's this easy to profile drivers, then how can it be much difficult to use the same concept in profiling your opponents. I will not go in depth with these profiles since I am assuming you already know the classifications. The real focal point here is to understand the relationship to these classifications to the classifications of something that is everyday. Now, lets take a look at the same profiles but in terms of poker.

Super Aggressive - These players are in a lot of pots and love raising. They have no fear in throwing all their chips in the pot and never slow down even if they get caught. These players are never happy until everyone is out of their way. They are the "bullies" of a poker table, and their risk vs reward is always huge. Most players try to stay out of their way so they are not to be run over. These players can often be viewed as maniacs.

Aggressive - These players are ones that like to steal pots they are in. They try to represent hands and often buy people out of the pot. They love to play position and almost always do so with a raise. They constant apply pressure to their opponents and once in a while will attempt to make a big play borrowed from the super aggressive player's book. Aggressive players do not play as many pots as your super aggressive player, and their bets are not as big... but they still keep the action expensive while putting all their opponents to the test. They want to be first and will take risks to get there.

Selective (Tight) Aggressive - These guys play their position, usually with a raise. They like applying pressure and try to read their opponents. If they sense weakness, they make a move at a pot with a less then normal betting hand. If they sense strength they back away. They feed on the poor, and know when to attack and when not to. Selective Aggressive players will also tend to slow down once someone looks them up with a "not so strong hand" and they loose. But as soon as the player feels that his loss is out of everyone mind's, he is back attacking. This player will do anything to be first without jeapordizing himself.

Passive - These players hate the idea of raising. They like to see every flop for cheap. They love premium hands but will often loose by letting others take the lead. They rarely defend themselves and are often the players that end up blinding themselves out. These are the players who make comments like, "every time I had a good hand someone had a better hand". Usually such a comment is made after they allowed their opponent to catch runner-runner for free and now they are busted from the game. Often these players are just happy to be there, and even happier if they go deep in the tournament. The money is just an added bonus.

Weak - Weak players are the fish. They have no situational awareness and often get caught and go bust and have no idea how it happened, meanwhile the rest of the table is saying, "what was he thinking". Often these players don't play the hands or the position they should and then make moves when they shouldn't which causes them to go on a head on collision with a guy who has the nuts verses their top pair to a straight-flush drawing board.

Clueless Amateur - Different from weak, these players usually seen a couple poker games on TV and think they know how to play. They make what they feel are "professional, top player moves" but have no idea on how stupid or risky that move was. To them, it worked for that guy so it should work for me. They often play their cards with the intention to show off. These players are the ones you see raising all in preflop then show their 7-2 os to everyone with no other intentions but to brag. When they get lucky in a tournament early (usually by a suckout) they feel they are superior and usually end up donking off all their money later on the tournament as their ego gets in their way. They confide in their friends (who are even more clueless) and brag on how good they are and how much they can get away with. More often then not, these players have more "bad beat" stories then any other player. Usually these stories are exaggerated to seem more favorable for them so when they tell their friends they don't look completely stupid. These players are also too, the fish.

The above post is not to say if your an aggressive driver you will be an aggressive poker player. While this may or may not be true, the point being made is that it's often easy to label a driver on the road. The same approach can also be used for the poker table. All too often I see people not being able to label a player, especially online. If you watch a player's actions you can make the same assumptions on that person that you could if you seen them drive. Use your eyes, focus on the action, and note results. When the player raised from early position how strong was is hand? Does this player always bet on the flop but often fold to a raise? Has this guy played a hand lately? All of these questions can help you determine the profile of your opponent. It's not hard to do as long as you do not over complicate the matter.

Lets look at some other factors. Sometimes drivers change their habits. Maybe an aggressive driver received too many tickets and their next ticket will take their license away so now he is more passive. Maybe an aggressive player is starting a family and can not take the large risk anymore. Maybe the passive driver has a family emergency and is willing to be an aggressive driver for the time being as they drive to the hospital. Such changes in a driver's habits are also seen at a poker table. If a super aggressive player looses all his chips, he might start to tighten up and look for a situation to double up. At the same time, if the super aggressive player comes into a massive amount of chips he might switch to a more selective aggressive mode. The passive player might have picked up a book since the last game and feel like he might try some new moves. Reasons for a poker player to chance their way of playing can go on indefinitly. Simply people change and situations change. The point here is what you profile someone today, or even for the time being - might change. You need to keep yourself open to this and always keep re-evaluating the table.

I hope this blog was at least interesting and maybe someone learned something out of this. The point being is, when you pay attention to the road when driving you can often profile what type of driver someone is regardless of what vehicle they drive or look like. If you use the same observation skills at a poker table you can employ the same profiling on players without knowing their physical appearance or age. Just remember that people and situations change and keep an eye out for such changes. Never fall in love with your first assumption, always be willing to adjust your view on the player as time goes buy. Consider: What's different now then before?, what's his stack to everyone else?, what's the blinds?, and what happen previously to this player in a similar situation? All these questions, plus others that you can craft on your own, will help you determine the mindset of your opponent when they suddenly switch gears. Poker is a game of knowledge and the more you have the better player you will ultimately be.

Welcome Sana

Hey gang. I have a ton of items I been wanting to blog about, and I will get to them hopefully over the weekend. So expect some reading material for the next few days. In the meantime, I have been really focusing on my game and have been doing good overall. I recently finished Poker Tournament Formula and currently reading Mathematics of Poker. Also I finally became a member over at PokerXFactor and looking forward to studying the material on the site. I am anticipating being able to play at a whole different level by the end of this month. I am marking February as my month of training which I hope the time spent now leads to a good year.

Now that you know that I am alive, on to the real reason of this post. Tonight Sana finally joined the blogging family. Sana has been playing poker for a while now and has a great feel for the game. He does extremely well for never reading a book or doing much studying of the game. He is definitely a player who just plays by his feel of the game. It's working good for him since he has been in the positive for the last year and change. Tonight he finally took down a MTT on WPEX. I had the privilege of gracing the final table but got knocked out short of the money when my all in shove with 7-7 got called by A-K, my fate was sealed by an Ace on the Turn. Sana on the other had not only got cards when he needed them, but ended up dominating the final 5 players. I would love to go in to detail but I much rather Sana share the experience of his first MTT win on his newly created blog site.

Great game Sana, and finally.... Welcome.

I am my own worst enemy

Recently I been giving too much credit to those who don't deserve, let me explain. This month has not been a good month and we are only 6 days in. I have managed to not end one day being profitable and I blame it on my inability to realize my opponents are bad at playing poker. Yes, you read that last line correct; I can not come to the grasp that my opponents do not know how to play poker.

For instance, have you ever been in a situation were a flop comes down something like A-A-T and the first person to act bets out 1/2 the pot, you reraise with K-T and everyone folds to the original raiser - he calls. The Turn brings a 3 so the board looks like A-A-T-3. The 3 added two diamonds, but the rest of the board is a rainbow. The opponent, first to act, goes all in. Now your sitting there wondering what he might possibly have. Is he on a flush draw, does he have a T or a 3, does he have the A? You try to quick think before your 20 seconds are up and assume that any decent player would not raise, first to act, with a set - you rule out the A right away. So does he have pocket pair QQ-KK, or even TT? Maybe he has 33 and has a full house? You have all this information, yet you have to process it quickly and make a decision.

AA, Ax, TT - Unlikely that a player would bet 1/2 the pot when first to act into multiple people.
KK-QQ - The player did not raise preflop, so this is unlikely
KQ, QJ, JT, QT - Likely hands that a player might limp into with multiple people in the pot. A player might feel that he has enough outs to make an all in play now that the pot has grown rather large.
99-66 - Likely as well, limps in hoping to score a set and now has two pair and feels he is in front. The lower the pair, the more likely they would have fold to the raise on the flop.
55-22 - Most of these hands would fold with the raise on the flop.
33 - He's betting that the 3's helped him, but it's unlikely that they did because of the action on the flop
Flush - Unlikely with the betting on the flop.

Most likely hands, a huge drawing hand, a pocket pair, or a T with a weaker kicker making a move since no J, Q, or K hit the board.

You make the call and the player has A-4, you lose.

This above scenario is just that, a scenario. Sometimes you see a player make an all in bet like this on the Turn when they have a huge chip stack. When this happens you also consider things like "is he using his stack against me, hoping I fold?". I've had this happen to me so many times playing low limit games. The few times I do call these bets the opponents have a monster hand and I lose most, if not all, my chips. Plays like this become more dangerous when you are short stacked. A player bets 1/2 the pot when he is the first person to act, you raise all in which may be 2x-4x his original bet, all others fold, your feeling good, he calls and shows trip Aces, you lose.

So where did I go wrong? Most average poker players know they they can gain maximum profits from trapping players with such hands. The same situation where a player first to act checks, another person bets, and then this player either smooth calls or reraises are typical actions you see a person to do when they have a big hand. The reason most people do this is because they want to guarantee that they make maximum profit from their monster hand. When there are no danger cards, you have no reason to chase out any of your opponents. Fundamentally it all goes back to "weak means strong, strong means weak". An average player, or at least a player who knows "something" about poker, performs this action. This is where I go wrong.

My problem is that I give my opponents this credit. I give them the credit that they will act weak when strong, and strong when weak. That they will try to maximize profits off big hands and not attempt to scare off their competition. All this, I give credit to automatically... and it's cost me a lot of money. The truth is, playing in "micro limit" poker the players are not average... they're complete fish. I've found that most of the time when a player moves all in on a strong board, they have the hand. Now I am not saying every time a player moves in they have a hand. I am saying when a board has a flush, straight, or full house potential and they go all in, they usually have the hand. The fact is, these players are too weak to play "tricky" and completely lack the know-how on maximizing their hand value. These players are simply playing their cards and betting them respectfully. They are not trying to "out smart" or "out think" you, they don't even know how! And here I am, the guy who gives these players all the credit that they don't deserve, losing my money to them - the fish.

Lately, it's I have been in a lot of situations like this that has cost me my chips. My normal action has always been to fold in situations like these as long as folding still leaves me healthy on chips. Being that I have been labeled as "too tight" of a player, I have been attempting to be more aggressive, take more chances, and try new plays. All of this has done nothing more but lose tons of money in the last few weeks. My feelings on the subject? I should have stayed my tight-ass self =)

My Course of Action
I will finish the tail end of The Poker Tournament Formula, then start reading (and finish or course) Mathematics of Poker. I will also make the investment to join PokerXFactor, since I haven't found much guidance with Real Poker Training that I've hoped for. I think Todd Arnold and the gang are excellent players, but a lot of what I've seen there is what I already do. The only difference is, when they raise 4x BB in a $100 SNG, a player doesn't call them out of position with A-3 like a $20 SNG player, thus your not loosing your money with a hand like QQ when T-3-3 comes down. (I've had my Ace's cracked recently with a hand just like this). I'm not saying PokerXFactor is better then RPT, hell I have no idea because I am not a member, I am simply saying that I have watched all their videos, gained all the knowledge I think I can, and need something with more content. I must compile all this information and spend the time needed to redevelop my ability to control a table. For some reason, ever since I won those 3 WPEX tournaments I haven't done much else but watch my graph go down. There has to be a reason for it, a leak in my play, and I am out to plug it up. But first, I need to learn how to call a spade a spade, a club a club, and a weak player who only plays he hands.... a weak player who only plays his hands.

Full Tilt and MyWebATM

A friend just informed me that Full Tilt sent out an e-mail informing it's players that they are now accepting deposites from U.S. customers with their new deposite system entiled "MyWebATM". Here is the contents of the e-mail:

We are pleased to announce the addition of MyWebATM, a brand new deposit option which provides a fast and easy method to fund your Full Tilt Poker account using your personal bank account.

Once you have funded your MyWebATM account through their secure Web interface, you can access your funds online at Full Tilt Poker or at thousands of stores and ATMs worldwide.

We have worked to deliver this deposit option as quickly as possible, and are confident that MyWebATM provides the convenience our players expect and deserve. Withdrawals through MyWebATM will also be fast, easy and secure, and will also be available within the next few days.

We apologize for any inconvenience you have recently experienced, and want you to know that:

* Your money is completely safe and secure - Any money you have in your Full Tilt Poker account remains completely accessible.

* We're adding even more new payment processors who are committed to the U.S. market - We are establishing relationships with a variety of companies who will offer even more convenient ways for you to deposit and withdraw funds from the site.

* Our processing speeds will return to normal - As we continue to add new payment options, all withdrawals will again be processed within our normal time frame of 48 hours or less.

Thank you for your patience and support during this time of transition, we look forward to seeing you at the table.

This should be good news for some!

Position, an important lesson

In no'limit Texas Hold'em position is said to be the most important aspect of the game. When you're in position you get to see everyone's action in front of you. Position allows you to play medium-strength hands, call small raises, and make steal attempts when everyone else shows weakness. Position can also force others in folding the best hand, or reject their ability to see a free drawing cards. The reason casino's make so much money on their card games like blackjack is because they have position. It is said that in poker, if you always had position you'd never loose. Of course this is not completely true, but if spread out over a years time I think you would find that little saying true and a fact.

The reason for this entry is not to tell you what you already know, but to question you if you truly understand the importance of position. I like to consider myself an above average player. I make money over the length of the game, and I have a wide knowledge on the subject of poker that I keep trying to expand daily. I am always trying to learn what's the right move and never trying to "gamble" when I don't have the best of it. I, like almost every other player who considers themselves decent at poker, know what position is and know it's importance. The problem I had is that I never appreciated the true meaning of position until today. It cost me $33 dollars to find out, but it was money well spent.

Over my time studying and reading I have heard numerous professional poker players attempting to make a point about how important position is in NL Texas Hold'em and that they highly recommend playing a few games blind. One poker pro even mentioned that the game should be anywheres from $10-50 dollars depending on your bankroll, he further stated that playing blind in games cheaper then $10 and or "play money" games would not lead to a healthy result. The pro insisted that in such low limit games you can not buy your opponents off hands like Ace-X, or small pairs, thus playing position will not work. I've always read this and assume it to be true, but never truly respected what they were trying to tell me until I tried it today. I gathered a piece of tape and a cardboard cutout and blocked my cards while I attempting to play in a few 9 player SNGs. The best result I had was actually finishing on the bubble at a 9 player table. I could have actually finished in the money in this tournament, but I ran into a legitimate hand and lost all my chips (I was tied for second). The flop came down Q-Q-9 and after my raise (in position of course) there was over 1,000 in the pot and I had a little over 2,000 left. It was checked to me and I went all in (simply playing my opponents actions and position) and was called by A-9 OS. Apparently I made all these moves with 7-2 OS (friend was spectating) and I busted out being a huge joke to the guy who only had 800 chips left. What he failed to realize is that through the tournament I never seen one of my cards and was tied for second place, while he played all his cards with full acknowledgement of his actions and was completely short-stacked, about to get blinded out. Who has the right to laugh here?

My friend noted that I should have pulled the tape off my cards and played to win after I had such a solid chance in winning the tournament. I, however, never counted on winning this tournament and any type of money finish would have been just an added bonus. The fact is, I don't dislike my pushing all in to a Q-Q-9 flop after my opponent checks considering winning that pot would have put me in solid second. I don't agree with it 100% either, but there is some justification that could actually back this play up even if I knew what my cards were. Obviously I wouldn't have done such a play with 7-2 OS, but still... it's not as a horrible a play as it may seem.

In the end I am out $33 but I had a hell of a good time. It truly proved to me the importance of position and showed me that cards are not the most important aspect of the game (this I already knew but it solidified my knowledge on the subject). I believe that every serious poker player should try playing position completely blind a few times and donate the money if your bankroll can afford it. It truly has regain confidence in my game (if I can finish just shy of the money without looking at my cards, then I should be able to finish ITM with no problem). I will most likely play a few more SNGs tonight to see if I can not make back the money I donated; but in the end, this lesson was well worth the time and money spent. It was also one of the best times I've had playing cards. Nothing beats the rush when you push all in on the flop, completely blind, and everyone folds to you. Your sitting there grinning like a little school boy who just received their first kiss. Truly a great experience, highly recommended.

Vista makes multi-tabling easier

With Microsoft's new release of Windows Vista multitudes of people, from businessmen to every day home users, have debated about upgrading to the latest operating system. If you are one of these people in the "debating" stage and play poker, then debate no longer.

The new Windows Vista features some impressive new ways to manage multiple windows that once cluttered your Start bar. Some of these new ways of managing these windows might be just eye candy to your everyday user, but as a poker player I can see many advantages for Vista's new features.

First, this is the new Windows+Tab view. When you press the appropriate keys, Vista allows you to scroll through multiple windows and stop at which ever one you want. You can even hold the Windows Key+Tab down and use your scroll button for faster selection. This can really be beneficial when you are trying to manage multiple tables on a small monitor. The best thing about this feature is that the windows update while your in windows+tab mode, allowing you to quickly scroll through your tables and look for the one that's prompting you to act.

The second new addition to Vista is built off Windows' previous versions of PowerToys. When you press Alt+Tab a new Tab Window appears giving you little icons of which windows you have available. As with the previous feature, these icons update, which again helps you find the table prompting for your action. I find this feature a great benefit when I am playing 3-4 rooms on a small monitor. I can easily switch rooms with no hassle, and keep an eye out on all of them at once.



The third, and final, benefit to Vista's new multi-window management is the ability to just simply mouse over a window icon on your start bar for a snapshot of it's contents. As before, these snapshots stay updated. I find this feature useful when I am in a large tournament and sort of in "premium hands only" mode while playing a SNG. I will have the SNG on my screen and keep my mouse over the MTT's icon (watching for my turn to act). This allows me to better focus on my SNG as I wait for premium hands on my MTT.

I believe with enough practice these added features of Vista can really help a poker player with managing multiple windows at once. I've definitely have grown fond of all these features and will continue to use them as time goes on.

Sportsbook.com

Yesterday I received a letter from Sportsbook.com that was very appealing. Here is some of the key points of the letter:

Remember playing in Paradise Poker? Remember those Frequent Player Points you were piling up? Boy, do we have a poker offer that'll interest you...

Greetings,

It was never any fun getting kicked out of Paradise, but at least we can now reveal a plan to get a serious poker product back on the desktops of American players - and put cash in your hands to try it risk free.

Since Paradise pulled out of the US, their parent company also had to sell off their crown jewel: Sportsbook.com. Now backed as a private venture, Sportsbook.com continues to service and satify players for both sports betting and casino entertainment.

And now Sportsbook.com has launched a new poker platform.

Our players are serious about poker as they are about sports. In the few weeks we've had the beta version up, literally thousands of people have come to compete in our first $100,000 freeroll and daily cash freerolls.

With cash games and tournaments now available, we figured it was time to invite you to join in. So we're sending you this software and this sixteen digit number that will unlock anywhere from $10.00 to $100.00 in free cash for you to try poker at Sportsbook.com

The rest of the letter goes on to market their company and software. Being a previous Paradise Poker fan I decided to check them out. Their software doesn't resemble Paradise in anyway, and with it's limited customization options you can tell it just came out of beta. What's good about the site is that the cards are easy to read, and so is every one's chip counts. While I haven't played a game on the site yet, merely spectated, I am definitely going to give their software a try. My sixteen digit code gave me $20 of free staring money, so we will see how far that will take me.

So with all this in mind I decided to look into Sportsbook.com a little more. For money transactions they use a company called EFS (Electronic Financial Services International Inc.) EFS has been in business since 1995 but doesn't seem to have an official website. EFS' site seems to go to http://www.worldgaming.com/ which only list a contact number for questions. I am assuming that this may be in light of what happen to Neteller. Maybe a way for them to protect their business and their people?

But the real question is, do they accept US transactions. I took it upon myself to find out the answer:

Sportsbook: How may I help you today?

Me: I recently received a letter from sportsbook.com inviting me to participate in their new poker room. The letter makes it appear that your company is allowing US customers. Is this true? Can US customers transfer & receive funds from your company?

Sportsbook: Yes we do indeed accept US customers

Sportsbook: We are open for business! As you know, we've made a habit of looking after our customers, and we don't intend to stop now! The management team who have lovingly built the site remain in place. We have always made it our aim to provide top-quality service from our experienced and professional team of people, and we're going to continue to do so. We thank you for your continued loyalty and support during these changing times.
All your transactions remain secure, your details completely confidential. Your account is safe with us.

Me: So just to verify, we can safely deposit and withdraw from your site?

Sportsbook: Yes indeed

This is actually pretty enlighten news considering the recent actions of Neteller. In the next few days I will attempt to test out their new software and make a deposit if I like their room. Overall I think this is good news for some poker players who might have gone bust over the last few weeks and haven't had a way to replenish their accounts. Right now, this is the only site that I know of that we can deposit funds into, and withdraw without a hassle (or so they claim). As I find out more information I will keep you all informed.