Rise and Grind, SCOOP and Chocolate Cake for a Year

I was glad when May started because a new month always seems like a fresh start. I played just over 1,200 SnGs in April and ended up losing the most money I’ve ever lost in a single month of playing poker.
This seems strange considering I used to play MTTs and you would think that I would have had my biggest losses back then. It also seems strange because I moved to SnGs to avoid big downswings, and now I’ve lost more money than ever before!
On the other hand, my average buy-in is four times higher now. From my limited experience, it seems pretty common to see SnG swings of 80 to 100 buy-ins, so I can probably look forward to regular $10k ups and downs. I’ll still take it over the potential downswings of MTTs.
I have a couple things to work on in May marked poker. My goal is to play 1,300 games, which sounds easy in theory but actually difficult because I’m a terrible procrastinator. I really have to motivate myself to get going earlier in the day so that I can start playing poker while games are still plentiful. Otherwise I start too late and then games die around 4 hours into my session.

Volume Still a Concern

I had that prop bet in April which did the trick for motivation temporarily. The problem is that halfway into the prop bet my friend conceded and bought out, which left me with nothing to motivate me again. I estimate that I played around 200 fewer games due to the prop bet ending early, which is pretty terrible if you think about it.
(The good thing about the prop bet ending early is that I get chocolate cake for a year as part of the buy out agreement. This can’t be overlooked.)
I definitely have to do something about my motivation issues. My problem isn’t that I don’t want to play poker but the fact that I take forever to get going in the morning. I suppose it comes down to being lazy after I wake up, which seems pretty shameful now that I am writing it down here cheatpoker.

Rise and Grind by Noon PST

It would do me a lot of good to start playing by noon PST on a daily basis, so I’m gonna make it another goal to do that for 80% of my sessions this month. I’ll definitely be telling a couple of friends about this because it always helps to have people hold you accountable when it comes to goals.
Another reason to start sessions earlier is so that I can play some SCOOP events on PokerStars. I wasn’t planning on playing a ton of events this year, but last night I had a dream that I won $100k in an online MTT. My subconscious must be telling me something, so I should probably add a few in.
I haven’t been playing any live poker recently, but I’ll probably play some this month since Edgewater (in Vancouver) is hosting a series starting next week. They have a $1k 6-max event that I am looking forward to, and they also have a shootout event.
The Main Event of the series is a $1,650 buy-in, and I haven’t decided whether I’m playing it yet. I’ll almost certainly sell action if I do, however, which means that I’ll be using twitter for tournament updates (to update my backers).
Feel free to follow me @courtiebee if you are interested in knowing how I do.

Sweden's Answer to Allen Iverson

We never figured the Swedes for knock-off artists. Cheap furniture that's difficult to put together yes cheat poker, but not knock-offs.

Apparently we were wrong. They've knocked off Allen Iverson.

Meet Alex Ivarsson. Like a Sorny or Panaphonic, the difference is barely noticeable. Personally we can hardly tell the two apart. You be the judge.

Ivarsson, or maybe Iverson, is among the chip leaders in the $2,500 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em event that will play down to a winner later today. We're hoping he takes it down so we can go party with the Detroit Pistons. No wait ...
Tune in later as we crown a champion.

Stout's Sunday Report: March 27,2011

Joe Cappuccio and I must have been on a drug called "Charlie Sheen" this Sunday, because we were doing some epic winning all over the place.
It was honestly one of those sessions after a dry spell that made both of us remember just how much we love this game again, and why.
When I say that I don't just mean that it's fun when I'm winning and it sucks the rest of the time. Losing is never fun, but the only thing that's brought me as far in this game as I've come is a true love and passion for poker that has very little to do with money. Without it I'd have never pursued this dream and would not be the person I am today.
It's what keeps me going and hungry when I'm on downswings that stretch deep into six figures, like right now. I suppose it just courses through my blood the way tiger blood and Adonis genes do for Charlie Sheen!
The first of my final tables came in the PS $109 1 rebuy/1 add on turbo, which was about $45k for 1st. The turbo structure made the final table a crapshoot, and I busted sixth for $10,404.
Then I made the final table of the Lock Poker $60+rebuys guaranteed and had more than half of the chips marked cards lenses in play five-handed, and more than five times as much as my nearest competitor. I somehow managed not to punt that large of a lead, and took it down for $4,884 to guarantee a nice profit for the day.
I stayed as hungry as always though, and managed to make the final table of the FT Sunday Mulligan. David Chiu, Ed "foxypham" Pham, and I had one hell of a three-handed battle for a while, but unfortunately I was the first one to fall in third place for $22,704. Congratulations to Ed Pham on taking it down though!
Joe "Joey Capp/Cappuccio816" also put Charlie Sheen's motto "I'm Bi-Winning!" into action by winning two tournaments outright for ~$40k himself.
Another one of my good friends who'd been running terri-bad had a huge score as well, and it seemed like my Facebook feed was full of friends who'd CRUSHED it for the day. All in all I've got to say...
Don't forget the Bluff Pro Challenge running on Lock Poker throughout the month of April. The player in the contest who has the highest profit in MTTs + cash games for the month will win a Lock Pro contract juice cards and be featured on the cover of Bluff Magazine! Registration is still open .
Anti-tilt video of the week:
Length of session: 13:32
Total # of tournaments played: 48
Total # of cashes: 7
Total buy-ins/rebuys/add-ons: $10,617
Total amount of cashes/bounties: $39,470
Net win/loss for session: +$28,853
Net win/loss for 2011 in Sunday online tournaments: +$9,762 (Every dime of that will go back into play this coming Sunday session, but for now...

Checking Out the Best in iPhone, Xbox 360 and Android Poker

There have never been more ways to play poker and this week’s Positively Nerd Street takes a look at three new ways to get your fix.
Feel free to give us suggestions for future nerdy pieces in the comments.
In today’s Positively Nerd Street we’re going to review three separate poker video games that represent a shift from the traditional online poker model popularized by the likes of PokerStars and PartyPoker.
We’ve got one of the first reviews of the official World Series of Poker app by EA games (one of the first reviews of the newly launched game), Zynga Poker-competitor Pokerist and finally the casual-style Full House Poker on Xbox 360.

Pokerist

By: KamaGames
For: PC, Mac, iOS, Android, Facebook
Released: 2012
Pokerist is another rather standard social media-based online poker game that’s free to play but extras will cost you.
It’s very similar to industry leader Zynga Poker but a little more streamlined.
You’ll find all the barebone features of online poker games with your basic check, bet, raise, fold buttons as well as a few extras like a visual lobby and a multi-table mode.
The interface is much less cluttered than the Zynga Poker one, which some players will no doubt prefer.
Surprisingly Pokerist is the second most popular Facebook poker game next to Zynga Poker with 100,000 active monthly users. Zynga does have a vast lead, however, with 260,000 active monthly users.
There are also some differences between the Desktop and Facebook-based clients with the Facebook one seemingly getting more updates, including model Carmen Electra as the dealer.
In our experience this client is actually superior than Zynga Poker in several ways and worth checking out as a free-to-play online poker game.
+EV

• Carmen Electra
• Decent tutorial
• Sit & Goes

-EV

• Boring interface
• Only Hold’em

  Full House Poker

  For: Xbox 360, Windows Phone 7
  Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
  Released: 2011
  Full House Poker on Xbox 360 has a devoted following on Xbox live and it’s easy to see why.
  The game takes the right approach to free poker games and puts the emphasis on fun with stylish art, an XP-based leveling system and a great tutorial to get you started.
  Unlike numerous poker games on the market, Full House Poker has a personality and while it’s nothing easy cards tricks like an actual brick-and-morter casino, it’s a welcome vacation from the boring bare-bones poker clients on the Internet.
  One of the highlights of Full House Poker is the Texas Heat events. These scheduled 30-minute affairs essentially act like rake races in traditional online poker and you can win massive bonuses for generating the most XP. About four Texas Heat events are scheduled every day.
  The XP system is very well-crafted and works a little bit like Frequent Player Point programs on actual online poker sites. You gain XP for every hand you play, including the ones you lose (albeit not as much), so it helps pump the action too.
  Setting up is a breeze as the game imports your avatar from Xbox live so you’ll instantly have a customized poker player who represents you.
  Full House Poker isn’t perfect and it can be slow if everyone is taking a long time to act. Fortunately there is a 30-second time limit on each decision, which helps tremendously.
  The other flaw is that Full House Poker costs $10. Most online poker games are free or in the $1-$2 range so it’s quite a step up.
  We’d argue the production value in Full House Poker is enough to justify a purchase.
  +EV
  
• Ability to show one card is awesome
• Tournaments and cash games
• Online and offline play

-EV

• Can be slow
• Costs $10

  World Series of Poker by Electronic Arts

  For: iOS, Android
  Released: May, 2012
  Publisher: Electronic Arts
  EA picked up the rights to the World Series of Poker brand last year and their first game to carry the WSOP brand is pretty damn sweet.
  Very similar to Zynga Poker the game is based on a freemium model. It costs nothing but getting extras, such as VIP status or more chips, will set you back at least $.99.
  The game has an extensive store where you can buy avatars and clothes to customize your playing experience.
  Overall it’s not a bad playing experience. The game client is quite simple for the most part and you won’t find any infrared contactlenses advanced features, although Pot-Limit Omaha is a nice addition.
  It’s worth noting that World Series of Poker takes place completely online and there isn’t a single-player tutorial.
  There are some minor quibbles. For instance the fold button is on the wrong side, compared to traditional online poker and the raise button can be finicky at best.
  In addition it appears they are still building a player base for the game as it's common to click the Play Now button and be put on a table with zero players.
  If nothing else it’s a massive improvement over the dreadful World Series of Poker Holdem by GLU, which was riddled with bugs from the very beginning.
  The game will get much more interesting if it starts offering actual freerolls into WSOP events.
  Bottom line, it’s one of the better free poker games for the iPhone and Android phones.
  +EV
  
• Offers No-Limit Hold’em AND Pot-Limit Omaha
• Gameplay is simple but effective

-EV

• Average graphics
• No single player
• Difficult finding players
• Betting wheel is too sensitive

Poker Gym Offers Interactive Poker Training for Cheap

Poker Gym is a straightforward poker-training app that caught our eye earlier this year.
We played around with the software (which is entirely in-browser, btw) for a few hours this week and really liked what the Poker Gym team was bringing to the table.
Poker Gym emphasizes fundamentals and gives players a chance to practice their newfound knowledge on a simulated table juice cards.
The training program is broken down into six major components: Counting Odds, Break-even Pot Size, Hand Equity Concept, Combos, Preflop Hand Equity Values and Flop Statistics.
Counting Odds and Break-even Pot Size are free while the other four components cost from $.99 to $2.99 a piece. We tried out the two free components as well as the $2.99 Hand Equity Concept in our review.
Each component has a learning session, which explains concepts and a practice session where you put the concepts into use at the poker table by completing a quiz. A Poker Gym, so to speak.
Each practice session is randomly generated so it’s a different set of questions each time, which keeps things fresh.
It’s the interactive nature of Poker Gym that separates it from competing training products.
Poker Gym is one of the best new poker training tools we’ve used lately and only costs $10 for every component.
If you are a newish poker player or just want to brush up on your fundamentals this is a great product and considerably cheaper than subscriptions to the big training sites.
To learn more just head over to www.pokergym.com and complete the first two training modules for free.

Hits

• Cheap but effective.

• Reinforces simple but useful formulas for counting odds and estimating equity.

• The interactive nature of Poker Gym makes it more compelling than some training tools easy cards tricks.

• There are some rather obvious percentages that a lot of people (including ourselves) calculate wrong. Poker Gym helps with that.

• The major formulas in Poker Gym are surprisingly simple and relatively easy to grasp.

Misses

• A timer would add a degree of difficulty and also foster competition between friends. 

• Would be great if Poker Gym had a way of explaining what you are doing wrong when you answer a question incorrectly.

• Poker Gym will be overly simple for some players.

How to Play Online Poker on Your TV Using AirPlay and Apple TV

Does it ever seem ridiculous that you’re grinding away on a 13-inch laptop when you’ve got a 50-inch LED/LCD/Plasma monstrosity five feet away?
Well if you have a newish MacBook or an iPad or iPhone and an Apple TV you can make that happen today.
Apple’s AirPlay protocol makes it ridiculously easy to sling your entire desktop to your TV and we’re going to show you how easy cards tricks.
Note: You’ll need an Apple TV to make any of the following guides work.

What is AirPlay?

AirPlay is a protocol released by Apple in 2010 that allows wireless streaming of audio, video and photos but recently was made even more useful by allowing AirPlay Mirroring.
AirPlay Mirroring allows users to stream the screen on their iPad, iPhone or Apple laptop to any display with an Apple TV attached without any need for cables.
More and more devices are offering support for AirPlay and it's very effective so don’t expect the standard to go away any time soon.

How to Use AirPlay for iPad or iPhone

This is ridiculously easy.
You’ll need an iPhone or iPad with iOS 7 and an Apple TV (and an actual TV, obv).
1. First off make sure that AirPlay mirroring is enabled on your Apple TV. You’ll find the option in Settings>AirPlay but it should be enabled by default.
2. Make sure that your Apple TV and iOS device are connected to the same WiFi network.
3. Now open Control Center on your iPad or iPhone with a quick swipe from the bottom of your screen (check below for a visual on this).
4. Tap AirPlay, Select Apple TV and turn on Mirroring.
5. Now boot up whatever poker app you want on your iOS device and you’re ready to go (we used PokerStars in this example).
That’s it. It’s honestly that easy infrared contactlenses.
Couple notes: First off, playing poker on a TV from an iPad isn’t perfect because there’s no cursor and you can’t exactly see what you’re about to press on the TV. Secondly there is a bit of lag between the TV and iPad.
Also the resolution doesn’t exactly match up with your TV so you’ll have some letterboxing going on.

How to use AirPlay Mirroring to Use Your Laptop on Your TV Wirelessly

Now this is pretty sweet.
If you have an Apple laptop from early 2011 or newer you can use AirPlay to wireless stream your entire desktop to your screen.
It’s also quite easy, too.
1. Just connect your laptop to the same network as your TV and look for the AirPlay icon in the menu bar on the top right of your screen (check below).
2. Click the AirPlay icon and select Apple TV. You can tweak a few of your settings by matching resolution to the TV.
3. Now start whatever poker client you want (including in-browser only ones).
You’re done. Enjoy your 52 inches of poker.

Understanding Casino Poker Tables? Blackjack Terminology

When you first begin playing blackjack, and you've never played before, you may start noticing that there are quite a lot of terms being used and you have NO idea what they mean! The blackjack terms are pretty important because not knowing them can? well it can make you look like an idiot okay? And you don't want that to happen on a casino poker table.

If need be, get someone to quiz you so you can make sure you get all the terms right! Playing blackjack, but not knowing the terms is somewhat like riding a horse, without the horse. And if you don't want to be the horses(you know what), you should take these terms into consideration when playing your next game.

5, 6 or 7 Charlie: I've had this quite a few times when playing blackjack. This happens when you have 5, 6 or 7 cards equaling out to be under 21! Very simple!

Bankroll: This is the players' starting out money, or the money you walk up to the table with. Usually at the table this will refer to the amount the player invests in the game rather than the money the player has.

Break / Broke: This is when a player has something like a 14, then he or she hits and gets an 8. You just broke the bank, aka the hand. This means you lost, since the point of blackjack is to get 21 pts! Some people may also know this is a "bust". 
Card Shark: As with a similar term "pool shark" this is a person that played it off like they were inexperienced, when really they are an expert marksman and YOU were their mark. Chances are, they whooped ya hard!

DOA or Double On Anything: This is said when you want to double down on any two first cards you receive.

Face Card: You should know this one and I hope you do because it's an easy one - a face card is a King Queen or Jack.

High Roller: A person that places large bets - this can be down out of intimidation or simply because they can afford to do so.
  
Hit Me: This is used when you want to get another card from the dealer. You can keep on adding cards or hitting until you reach 21 or the number you want to stop at. In an actual casino while playing at casino poker tables, this is done by tapping your forefinger on the casino poker tables.

Mid Shoe Entry: This is when you join a blackjack game that is already in process. Most casinos will NOT allow a Mid Shoe Entry simply because there is always that chance that the person entering late, may have cheated and brought extra cards with them. If they want to play, they have to wait until the game is over and the dealer reshuffles the card for a new game.

Sweeten A Bet: This is always a big one when watching casino Poker tables on television. It simply means to increase the wager when it's possible to do so. Ultimately you can wager as much as you want to unless there is a cap off, which there usually isn't - not in a casino anyway.

Quarters: This is a confusing term! It should mean quarters, but it doesn't! Instead, it's a $25 chip!

As aforementioned, there are MANY more terms than the ones listed above, probably a good 200 or so. These terms are important to learn to make YOU look like a professional when working the poker chips or when playing at casino poker tables. At home: You can be a little more relaxed in how you play and what you do. But in an actual casino setting you need to know what all of these terms mean. It's especially important if you are ever in a tournament!