Big One Came !!!

I don't know why, but a couple of weeks ago I noticed a post on a forum mentioning an instant deposit bonus on 888 Poker, so I decided to put in £80, which gave me a instant $24 bonus, not a lot I know, but free money is free money. I decided to play the Friday night challenge, which is a $32+3 $20K guaranteed. Its a lot more than I would usually buy in, but I thought technically I'm getting it for $9. Its about 800 runners and a good structure. I was card dead most of the tourney and eventually went out about 273rd, but I must admit I enjoyed it. I think it was the first tournie I had played this year and made a change to the cash grind.

So, you may be thinking what the fook was all that boring shit about.....Well, this Friday, I decided I was going to play it again. Things went a tadge better this time, I managed to hold out rather nittily into the money and was quite happy with my $100ish score, desperately keeping an eye on the payouts I nitted up trying to reach the next payout level. I got really lucky with about 80 left and I shoved my final 8-10 bbs from the cut off with Ax and was snap called by the button with QQ, I spike the ace and doubled up. I managed to cling on for a few more places up the money tree, stealing pots where I could. Eventually I was down again to about 8-10bbs and shoved with AJ sooooted it, I was again snap called by QQ, this time I muffed the flush and doubled up again. I began to think, may this is my day. I was dealt a few hands then, hit a few flops, took a few steals uncontested and next thing I knew we were down from 809 runners to the final table.

I was nearly always the short stack and my plan was to try and hold on and move up to a $1k+ payout. I was fortunate when there was a 3 way all in, The big stack had AK, the other two hands had AJ and AQ. The flop came down xQJ and I was gutted, but the river hit the 10 and two players went packing in the one hand. Kerching, I was moving up the money tree. Once we were down to the last 6 I was happy with my payout and I knew the players left were good players and would of noticed my passive nittiness so I opened up a bit, 3 betting light and overshoving a few hands and getting them to fold. Eventually down to 4 handed I had about 300k chips with the other 3 players had over a million, but I managed to hold my nerve and again stole quite a bit and next thing I knew I was the chip leader with 3 left. I well timed KK with the sb shoving into me meant we were heads up and I had a 3:1 chip lead. I managed to get him down to his last 500k chips and we were all in pre, me AQ and him K7s. He hit the King and doubled back up. I was starting to think my luck was gonna run out and I was destined for 2nd. But chipped back at him, getting him back down to about 400k and again we were all in pre, me A9s and him K5, this time no one improved and I had just binked my biggest tournie win ever by more than double. It was 4:45am and we had been playing for over 8 hours and I was buzzing, so much so, as I couldn't scream out cos of the time of the morning, I have hurt my right shoulder from all the silent fist pumping !!!!!

After that, I just couldn't sleep, I think a managed about an hour, before it was time for a celebratory beer or ten, so the remainder of Saturday was a bit of a blur as I was rather pissed when I got back home at 21:00 from my lunchtime swifty.

I have decided to leave $1000 on 888 as a separate tournie bankroll. Put £700 into my Poker Bankroll in my savings account and use the rest to buy some stuff and pay a bit off the mortgage. I am still gonna stick to the cash grind, but will def play a few tournies a month in the hope that I can muff my way to another nice payday.

Start of Heads up as Chippie.....

The sweetest of leader boards :-)

Oh and I didn't get to play much cash last week, but the small amount I did play I won, didn't have a single losing session and I am about 25 buyins up for the month, even played a small amount of 25NL which I hope to play more of next week and hopefully start to get some serious exercise in as although I managed some this week, its no where near enough to start getting mega healthy again, I think I need another cunning plan.

Goth

A Good Lazy Week

With the goals for this month set, I have to say this week has been very lazy but very productive.

Volume - Fail. Only managed to play about 11.5k hands last week.
Exercise - Fail. didn't do one sniff of anything vaguely sweat inducing apart from a couple of stubborn dumps.

However,

Profit - Pass. Up about 17 buyins over the 11.5k sample running at 14.84bb/100
Weight - Pass. Managed to somehow lose 3lbs despite a night on the piss, a bottle of wine on two other nights and a chinese.

Bankroll now above £2000, so will also be able to take some shots at 25NL. So overall not a bad week !!!

My only worry I have now is the dreaded withdrawal doom switch. I try not to keep too much money online since the Full Tilt fiasco so at the moment, I take £300 out when my balance reaches £1000, the next withdrawal will be when I get it back up to £1100, take £300 out, then next at £1200. You get the drift, this should give me a decent amount of overall protection relative to the size of my bankroll and the stakes I am playing. I don't plan to ever keep more than £3000 online, as to be honest, I do not expect to ever play higher than 200NL.

Thats the poker news out of the way, I forgot to update my health situation on my last blog, so here goes.

Basically things are starting to pick up. I have been signed off by my respiratory consultant as everything is all clear in that area. I had my first appt. with my Cardiologist recently and had another Echocardiogram, which showed that all is functioning fine and also, not only have my pleural effusions cleared up off my lungs, but the scan showed that the pericardial effusion that I had round my heart has now also cleared up. The downside is that I also has a 2nd E.C.G and this is still showing some sort of anomaly.  This might not be too worrying though, my consultant suspects that when I was ill for a month, it was actually a rather nasty virus that has possibly left some scarring on my heart. I am being sent for a cardiac MRI at some point to confirm if this is the case, if it is, I don't think they will taking any action and I will just live with it.

I have also seen a vascular consultant, I was referred to them as I am still getting a build of fluid (oedema) in my legs so I had a doppler ultrasound scan to ensure that there were no issues with my veins, which in the event of no heart failure, is the most common cause. The good news is that the scan showed no issues and that all was functioning fine, with no signs any problems at all. I guess the only downside of this good news, is that we still don't know whats causing the buildup of fluid in my legs, although knowing my luck, its prob just being a fat bastard sat at a desk all day, no exercise and sitting at a PC all evening/weekends playing poker and writing dumb blogs that no one reads........cough.

So the plan for this week is to start exercising, drink less, more volume and also play some 25NL, this if the withdrawal doom switch is not firmly in the "On" state.

Goth.

[x] Volume [ ] Nice profit - June Review

Unfortunately the last week of June was the opposite of the rest of month, I knew I shoudn't of opened my big gob on the last blog about running hot !!!

It was partly my own fault, after my last post I tried a change of style and tested out some different lines of play, which, if I had thought about it, they may of worked at 100NL, but they def ain't gonna work at 10NL where no fcker is folding top pair shit kicker. This had the added effect of tilting me a bit in a couple of sessions and caused quite a big downswing.

I did however manage to double my volume of the first 3 weeks of the month and was only really 1 buyin down on my 28 buyins that I was up on my last post (although I did manage to get to 31 up at one stage in the month.

Overall, I cant really complain too much, ran at 4.44bb/100 over the 60k hands on the month. To be honest I would take that every month if I could. Had two Stellar Bonuses at 3k+4k so that was an extra $20 in the kitty to give a total profit of $289.50 without taking into account any fpps. I currently have about 4.8k fpps, but I am going to save them for later in the year when I hope to be at gold or platinum to get better value.

Not much else to say really, graph of the month is posted below, will still be play 10NL Zoom this month as my bankroll is currently about £1910 still, but hopefully will move up sometime this month for a few shots at 25NL again.

Goals for this month are:-

[ ] 100K hands
[ ] Lose 10lb in weight, currently 15st 3
[ ] Playing at 25NL by end of the month

So not much to strive for, the 100K hands will be a first me, hoping that this will get me to Gold level and the first step towards getting the roll ready for the supernova challenge next year.

I def think with a bit more discipline and study I can make some decent money over the next couple of years as long as the gov don't decide to fck it all up with new gambling tax laws which is always a possibility !!!

Goth.....

Volume [ ] Nice Profit [x]

Well as you can see by the title of this blog entry, I have failed at any significant volume, however the good thing is I seem to be running fairly hot at the moment and I am about 28 buyins up over 30k hands or so for the month so I can't really grumble too much, I guess its better than the other way around. Running at approx 9bb/100 over the 30k sample def makes you smile a bit :-)

I have already reached Silver Status for the month, but due to the volume fail I don't think I am going to be able to reach Gold as I had hoped for. The main reason for the lack of volume has been the Euros as I have been watching every match that I can so far, which means at least two hours out of my evening schedules being lost to watch the games and in the case of the England games the whole evening is gone as they just HAVE to be watched in the Pub.

I am off work now until the 2nd July, so I do have a chance to get some volume in over the next week or so, especially as the wife is off to Rome for 4 days. I will however, probably be without my internet on Monday as I am having it upgraded to BT Infinity which I am looking forward to, just hoping they don't fook it up and there actually is a big improvement as I am hoping to be able to watch the footy on my PC while grinding without the pics buffering all of the time !!!

I have decided to go back to my old nitty bankroll style and I am returning to an 80 buyin move up, 70 buyin move down rule. Currently my roll is approx £1900, so all being well will be moving up to 25NL by the end of the month.

I have also been reading the 2+2 forum a lot more, not so much for the hand histories, which I def know I should read more of, but for the poker goals and challenges. I think I will def put my own up next year as at the  moment I will be going for Supernova in 2013 as the volume I can put in on zoom makes it a lot more realistic with the time I can actually put in at the tables. I am pretty sure I won't be making it this year unless I can get up to 50NL by the end of August, which I will probably have to have some serious run good to do. Ideally if I can get to 50NL by the beginning of December, then get to platinum, it should be be a good start of the year and a great incentive to get the supernova grind on the go. I even hope if I can have a few stabs at 100NL that might get me to 200k-300k supernova which would be nice.......

It does make me laugh when I see myself writing things about having stabs at 100NL as back in 2008 when Crypto was still going, I was playing a load of 100NL, but as times get hard, the poker bankroll gets used for more important things like new TVs and golf clubs !!!

Hope to be posting a lot more over the course of the year to get me into a habit for my PGC thread that I will start on 2+2 in late December. With at least a monthly graph posted on the previous months review, maybe even a weekly one, not sure yet.

Thats it for now, will update you all on the state of my health next week as I wanted to concentrate on the poker for this thread.

Goth.

Zooooooooming back ????

Not quite give up poker totally just yet :-) Had a fantastic holiday away in Yorkshire with the wife and doggies, although we almost didn't go as on the Friday before we were due to go on the Saturday morning, Red my iccle old staffie started collapsing. We rushed the poor little fella to the vets who decided that he needed to have some x-rays to find out what was wrong, these were scheduled for the Monday, so the holiday was postponed for a few days while he had his tests. It turned out he has a very enlarged heart and a lot of fluid on his chest which was causing him to faint on any sort of exertions, so he was given some diuretics and some heart tablets which he now has to take for life. He was given the all clear to go on holiday. We eventually left on the Tuesday, which as we had booked the cottage for two weeks, wasn't really a problem. Luckily the tablets helped a lot and he was a different dog, not quite his normal self, but he was able to come with us everywhere we went and didn't leave our side for the remainder of the holiday. We know he won't last very long as its just a matter of time before his heart gives way, possibly a few months, maybe even as much as a year, but at least we can live with the memory of the holiday that we had with him and it was one of the best holidays I have ever had in my life.

The best thing that came out of the holiday is that I have now found out where I want to live, it will probably be when I retire in about 16 years time, but I live in hope of getting there sooner. Basically we came across a small little village called KirkbyMoorside. I have always said I want to retire to a place just like Alvechurch where I currently live that isn't Alvechurch. KirkbyMoorside has a much larger village centre with a load more facilities, yet the surrounding housing area is a lot smaller, giving it a much tighter nit community, there are many pubs and takeaways within walking distance, what more could a man want.

With the final destination for my life now sorted, I just need a cunning plan to get there as quickly as possible.

So, how do I get there quicker, well, you guessed it....POKER !!! While I was away, my priorities definitely changed from playing poker to spending more time with my family, especially with Red and his heart problems and also my current health problems which are still under investigation. However, there has to be a balancing point somewhere that I can fit in both. Playing Regular sit and goes, is just too time consuming. Even 9 tabling, If I was to play one session, I still would have to put aside 1.5 hours at least, this along with the fact that I am finding them mind numbingly boring has lead me to move back to the cash tables. I have decided to go back to basics so have dropped back to 10NL, For those regulars who read my blog, they will know I had a failed attempt at Supernova a couple of years ago 15+ tabling 50NL, basically breaking even even after the bonuses/rakeback. This was mainly due to the mass tabling. I believe I may have found a solution to this in the form of Zoom Poker, Poker Stars equivalent to Tilts old Rush Poker. This enables me to only have 4 tables open at a time, but still crank up between 1200-1400 hands per hour. So far things have gone ok this month, played about 20k hands and I am about 10 buyins up. Having only 4 tables open does allow you to follow the flow of the game much more, with the benefit of folding instantly hands you don't want to play and moving straight on to the next hand. I am still adapting my play to the nuances of playing zoom, but I think long term for me, it will be a lot more profitable/less variance than mass tabling regular tables.

I am also going to amend my bankroll strategy and take more aggressive shots at moving up than I normally would, which for me was always 100 buyins to move up. This time I am going to move up at 40 Buyins and moving back down at 30. I will still keep an extra £1000 back in a separate account as an emergency on top of what would be deemed my "Active" bankroll. I should get back to Silver Status by the end of the month. I have a week off planned in June while the wife is away in Rome with her friends which should allow me to really up the volume during that month and hopefully get to Gold Status, or if I can move up to 25NL during June, maybe even make platinum.

If things go really well during June an July, I have done some rough calculations that while playing zoom, it is feasible to get to supernova by the end of the year. This would the the ideal scenario ready for 2013, where if I could start on supernova level and then aim for 300k Supernova, some decent $$$$ would be coming my way, especially if I can get any sort of + BB/100 hands going at the tables.

So overall, even with Reds and my health issues, things are very positive at the moment and I am only looking ahead for the time being and not at the past which I have always been prone to do.

For now, Goth is back.........

AC/DC - Back in Black

Bored and had enough !!

The title says it all, for now that is. Since I have had a few health issues, I have really been struggling to sit down and play. Its so annoying as I know at the end of last year I was on a high, knew where I was going and knew the more I played, the more I was going to earn. Now sadly it has all gone, the enjoyment is not there and there I now have other priorities in my life that I need to concentrate on.

I am off on holiday for at the end of the weeks with the wife and dogs and have withdrew all of my roll from Stars and the limited roll I had on a couple of other sites. It will be a much needed break away from it all. Maybe while I am away I can have a long think about what I want to do with poker, playing the hours that I do for the money that I am now earning doesn't seem reasonable any more. I either need to go one way or the other. I guess when I come back from my hols at the end of April I will know more and post an update on here, but for now, I can't even be arsed to post a vid.

Good luck to all and hope to see you soon.

Goth

General Updates

Not posted for a while mainly as I have been struggling for enthusiasm to do anything at the moment. My health, although slowly getting better is still not right. I am still struggling for breath when walking up stairs/hills and carrying any sort of weight, but I guess there is a improvement, so at least I should be grateful for that. My blood tests have all come back ok. The Echocardiagram showed that there are no issues with the ole ticker, which is a relief and my liver ultrasound scan came back all clear. I did have some some of the pleural effusion on my right lung drained which involved a needle being stuck in my back and guided through my rib cage to get there which was rather uncomfortable but not overly painful. I am still getting some fluid build up in my legs and thighs which is obv not right and must be related somehow to whats causing the fluid elsewhere. I have got some further lung function tests and an appointment with the consultant in the next two weeks but I can't see that this is going to track down the underlying cause. I guess its now just a waiting game to see if my body will recover on itself if they are unable to find out any issues.

As a result of the health issues I really have struggled to put any volume in at the tables, I again failed to even reach silver star in February on stars which is a real ball ache as it does affect the bonuses quite a lot. Whats even more annoying is that when I do play I am playing quite well. In the 147 games I played in Feb I had a 16.1% ROI and 43.5% ITM for a total profit of $164.28. Considering that is the amount of volume I should be playing in a week at least, I am missing out on some decent money even only playing $7.

I haven't put that much volum in this month either, but I think I will be doing enough to get to silver status and then I think I will cash in some fpps just to boost the roll and then start to fit in some $15s as per my bankroll plan.

So thats it today, not even got the enthusiasm to post a decent blog at the moment. At least my health has improved enough that we I can take the dogs out for a nice walk somewhere today as the sun is out for a change, it doesn't get much better than that I guess.

New Order - 60 Miles an Hour.

Running on Empty

I guess there comes a time in everyones life when you get dealt a serious kick up the ass to sort yourself out. Well I guess my time has come, the issues with my lungs haven't cleared properly so  I was referred for a chest xray which showed fluid between my lungs, now this may be caused by the chest infection, but they weren't sure so I was referred for a CT scan. The scan unfortunately has shown that there is further fluid around my heart, which is what is probably giving me most of my problems. I have been signed of work for the last 3 weeks and although with all of the rest I have been getting, my breathing has improved quite a lot, something is still obv not right as I am struggling to carry out even routine tasks like carrying a bag of shopping 200 yards without my chest starting to hurt and getting out of breath. I have two further hospital appointments this week, one a follow up for my original respiratory clinic I attended earlier in the month, then on friday, I have to attend a cardiac diagnostics clinic to have an Echo Cardiogram done and prob a few other tests.

I am hoping that all of this is a result of the infection that I had over xmas, but theres a small part of me that thinks that some of the small health issues that I have had over the last few years were just building up to something like this to happen, I guess its just a case of waiting till Friday and then getting the results back so at least I will then have a better idea of a course of action, wether that be surgery or hopefully just medication for a short while until the problem clears up. I have always been someone that goes through life taking things light heartedly and likes not to worry about things, but I have to admit, I am finding life a bit stressful at the moment, which is probably not helping matters at all as I do tend to bottle things up and keep them to my self rather than finding some sort of release mechanism, its not as if I can even go to the gym and blast the crap out of summat at the moment either !!!

Anyway, enough of the health stuff, you would think that being on my 3rd week off work, I would of been able to grind out 1000s of STTs and be on track for supernova...........Well guess what?.......It hasn't quite gone to that sort of plan, in fact I failed to make silver star on stars in Jan as I only played about 149 STTs for a total profit of $40. Due to the lack of energy that I have had I have not been able to concentrate much on anything at all so have not been in the mood to play at all. In fact the only real volume I stuck in was chasing the 75 Billion milestone hand, where I 18 tabled 1c/2c tables for a few hours trying to hit a bonus, but got fook all.

Feb has been sort of the same. My energy levels have picked up a bit over the last few days, so I am hoping to try and play at least enough volume to get to silver star, then hopefully if I feel better in March grind out enough to hit Gold Star so I can at least cash in some fpps for the $300 bonus to help boost the bankroll. The few games I have managed to play in Feb so far have been ok, currently played 27 $7 Reg 9 mans and I am up about $120, but I am running a fair bit above EV for a change.

Hopefully by the time of my next post, I will have some better news regarding my health and maybe I'll even be back at work, which I never ever thought I would say, but I actually miss it !! I am sure that won't last though as soon as I return :o-)

Madness - Cardiac Arrest

2011 Review

Bit late I know, but I am still getting over the problems I had with my chest over the xmas and new year period, been a bit of a downer really with the only good part of it is losing approx 10lb in weight since mid December, not exactly how I planned to kickstart my new weight loss and fitness program for the new year, but hopefully it will stay off and I can build from here when my chest eventually recovers and I can start training again. Went back to the Docs yesterday and it seems that the infection has now cleared but my lungs are still suffering a bit so I have been given an inhaler to use to ease the current pain and discomfort until it eventually eases and fixes itself.

On the poker front, due to the illness 2011 finished off with a bit of lull as I didn't play at all for the last two weeks of the year. Overall I have to be slightly disappointed. When I went back to SNGS in about March time, I got straight back in where I left off from a few years ago when SNGs were my main game, quickly clocking up over $800 in profit in about 750 games, but then Black Friday came and also stars changed the buyin structure and I hit a severe patch of variance and had about a 2000 game break even stretch, in fact it wasn't until I had the Team Moshman Coaching that I really started to pick back up again. I then had a pretty steep drop over another 300 or so games before starting to recover again. As you can see by the graph I only played about 3200 games over the year, this needs to go up substantially this year if I want to get anywhere near the profits I want to make.

I finished the year only $1901.85 up, but I do have about 18k fpps still to cash in which I will wait until I am back up to Gold Star/Platinum before doing so to get the better value. Its twice as much profit as last year, but still no where near what I was getting the previous few years, again this is down to not playing any MTTs and binking the odd $1k+ payday which I used to do a couple of times a year. I guess I do need to start putting a few of these back into my schedule, maybe even keep a seperate roll.

I still have one eye on supernova this year, but due to illness I have only played 4 STTs this year, so its gonna be a long grind and unless I can move up to be playing 15s/30s by July, I think I will struggle. But for now the plan is tro try and get enough volume in at the lower levels in the first few months that I will have at least a shot at it by the end of the year.

Thats it for now, a short and sweet review.

Rammstein - Keine Lust (need to crank up the sound on this one !!! )

Merry Xmas All

Well its that time of year when............well basically, we all get ill !!! I have been suffering with a really tight and sore chest for the last few weeks and have been living on ibruprofen to get by but basically I have been as miserable as hell and not been able to concentrate on anything, so much so that I have not played poker or drunk any alcohol for over 10days. Broke up from work on Tuesday this week till after xmas, hoping that all would be ok, but after getting the xmas food shopping done on weds morning, I spent the next two days either in bed or lay on the sofa, rather than my chest getting better by relaxing it was getting worse. My wife, bless her, eventually had enough and sent me to the doctors on Friday morning. As a typical man I hate going to the docs and I don't think I have been for about 5 years, but wifey knows best. For once wifey was right and it turns out that I have a severe chest infection and also possibly some pleurisy, no wonder I was in so much pain !! Luckily the antibiotics seem to have started to kick in as of today and I do feel somewhat better, my whole upper body still aches from all of the coughing that I have been doing trying to get up some phlegm from the depths of my lungs that refuses to come out. Hopefully I will also get my appetite back ready for the big xmas nosh up tomorrow as I have hardly eaten anything in the last few days either, but at least things are picking up and I should be back to health for the new year and the new goals/persuits.

On the subject of the new years persuits, the plan of possibly hitting Paddy Power in the new year took a blow as I didn't know that you were not allowed to play on your own affiliate links, so thats fooked up the extra rakeback plan on there for now. So I guess the only other option for now is to get my head back down on stars. Due to the serious lack of volume I will almost certainly be back to Bronze star at the start of the year, but that prob won't make that much difference to me anyway. It would be good if I could put enough volume in on the first few months of the year to give myself a realistic chance of getting to supernova by the end of the year should I manage to move up in stakes sticking to my strict bankroll plan which I blogged about last month.

I will def play a bit before the end of the year, but probably not much, only played 88 sngs this month for about $20 profit, but I am am not that bothered at the moment as all I care about is getting my health back on track ready for the new year.

Will probably have a more detailed think about next years plans and goals over the next few days and hopefully post on NYE.

So until then, Merry Christmas all, drink lots, eat lots and do everything to excess, oh and take time out and give a small thought for all those SNE wannabes desperately grinding 20k vpps a day over xmas cos they left it a bit late ;-))

Goth

Greatest song ever made...........

Joy Dvision - Love will tear us apart

November Review

November didn't really go according to plan, mainly due to lack of volume. I had a really good start hitting everything in site then the doom switch flicked and went on a $200 downswing, luckily it didn't last too long and I managed to finish the month off it profit, albeit only about $60. As I said the biggest problem was the volume, I still can't seem to get back into the grind and I only played 182 tournies in the whole month. This annoyingly means that I am going to probably miss out on one of the stellar bonuses, I think I need get about 2900 vpps in December to get another $50 bonus, with xmas and all of the pissups coming up, I just can't see me getting to this. Although if I do decide that supernova is a realistic aim next year, I might just try to get to Gold Star ready for the start of 2012. There is a chance that I might just use 2012 for bonus whoring around some of the sites I have not yet joined, amazing Paddy Power is one of those, they are doing a 200% signup bonus at the moment up to $2000. I have worked out that in the 3 months, I could probably get $1200 of that possibly more if I squeeze in some 6 max cash, althuogh I have heard mixed views on where iPoker is going at the moment. The added benefit of Paddy Power is that I am already an affiliate for them, so if I join up via my own link, I can probably get another 25% on top of any bonuses and VIP payments, so it could work out for 3 for the first 3 months of the year, would be nice to turn over about $2000 before any profits at the table.

I guess the main driver of what I do is what stars do the change the VIP system. They really need to do something so that the low stakes grinders who knock out about 3k VPPs a month can get a guaranteed 30% or so rakeback equivalent. The new year will also probably bring in a lot of ex Fult Tilt Regs who are waiting for the new year to start grinding for supernova, this might water the fish pool down a bit, but will at least keep the games going.

I also hear that Bodog has completely anonomised all of the tables, so I can really see a huge exit from that site of all the regs who can no longer use huds and tracking software, so again most of these will end up stars I guess which is quickly becoming the only real place to play.

It will be interesting to see what happens when Full Tilt evenutally comes back and what format it will come back with, will they come out with all guns blazing with large rakeback and VIP deals to attract everyone back and if they do, how many people will really trust them to go back?

I think 2012 is going to be an interesting year for online poker, lots of countries seem to be ring fencing it to their own countries so they can claim their share of the golden pie, unfortuantely I can only see this increasing. The land of freedom will of course come back on the scene, hopefully in 2012, but again, I have a feeling that all of the sites that they are allowed to play on will be completely ringfenced to just the yanks.

Part of me thinks the bubble as burst, the players seem to be getting more and more knowledgeable and the games getting harder, the other part of me sees this as a challenge to improve my own game and try to have my best year ever as again it seems that I am only going to be about $2k up by the end of the year, better than last year, but still no where near the results of the previous 3 years when I was probably only playing 1/5th of the volume that I have put in. Maybe I need to look back through my records and I am sure that they will show that I was winning a lot more playing MTTs that I thought I was and need to introduce them back into my schedule. Although funny enough, I have been playing a few of the $2.50 180s on stars, only played about 5 so far and not got a cash yet, I still gonna give them a go on the side of my 9 mans which I still think will be my bread and butter for a while.

Determined to get at least 500 STTs under my belt this month, then if it look I can get to Gold Star, will play some cash on side. I will probably end up playing a bit of cash anyway, as I think stars are doing another 72 Billion milestone hand promotion, so will def try and bink a bit of that, I'm due some after 18 tabling for 7 hours last time and not hitting a bean !!!

Bit of long update this one, but its been a while, off to the pub now for a nice couple of lunchtime pints before getting back to hopefully grinding a few tournies out.

Something mellow for you to chill out to today from my all time fave godfather of grunge......

Neil Young - Harvest Moon

STT (SNG) Bankroll Strategy

The Internet seems to be flooded with cash bankroll strategies, ranging from 30 buyins and take a shot at the next level, to the more nitty, 100-200 buyin approach before moving up to ensure that you never go broke. If you have read my blog regularly over the last few years, you will know that I favour the latter approach, which is why 5 years ago I was 1 tabling $20 STTs and I am now still 9 tabling the 7s lol. You may laugh at this, but even after my failed mass tabling effort last year to get to supernova, I have still made a profit every year and I am still living off my initial £100 deposit into online poker way back in December 2003.

I guess my ultra nitty bankroll approach and the fact that like most people, I have had to dig into my roll to pay bills every now and then ,means that apart from the odd drunken $200NL cash session, I have not played higher than I have. Now that I have decided to stick with STTs for the next year or so at least, I hopefully intend to move up to at least the $30s on stars by the end of 2012.

I have therefore developed s bankroll strategy that if all being well will see me happily taking shots at the higher levels with the big boys and hopefully with the bigger fish too.

I do tend to tweak my plan every now and then but the basics will always stick the same and should you choose to follow something along the same, it can suit most levels and bankrolls.

The basics involve never keeping any more money online than you really need to, which  is a rule that I am sure more than a few Full Tilt players wish they had adhered too !! but thats another story. In my case I have a VirginOne account, which is absolutely perfect, as this account is my mortgage/current/savings account all into one, so basically if any of my bankroll is in here, I am effectively getting my mortgage rate in interest, which is currently 3.75%. The account also allows the ability to set up virtual savings areas which look logically seperated. In here I have setup two areas, one called "Poker Stars Bankroll" and one called "Poker Winnings" How I use these areas will be made clearer below.

At the moment, my active bankroll is approx £1300 and I do have to point out that even though I play in $$$ I ignore this and treat it as ££, which to be fair, does make it even more nittier than if my stars account was in $$ to, but thats just a personal way I do things. My Roll is currently split with approx £1050 on stars and £250 in my "Poker Stars Bankroll" savings area. I do also have approx £1300 in my "Poker Winnings" savings account.

While playing the $7s on stars, the maximum I keep online will be £1500. Once my stars account hits £1500 I will withdraw £500. This £500 will split 50/50 with £250 going into my "Poker Winnings" account and £250 into my "Poker Stars Bankroll" account, so in essence if I was starting from scratch and this was my first withdrawal when reaching £1500 for the first time. When I withdraw I would have £250 in the winnings area, £250 in my bankroll area and £1000 online, giving a total bankroll of £1250.

As I work full time, I don't really have to eat into the poker winnings area, but if you are a full time poker player, you could easily adapt the above so that the "Poker Winnings" area in essence becomes your "income"

In my case, I intend to leave the poker winnings area until December 31st and then split the winnings area as follows:-

25% = Payment off Mortgage
25% = Towards a new car (seperate savings account for this)
25% = Luxury Joint Item (something visual my wife and I can reward ourselves with)
10% = For my wife to spend as she pleases
10% = For me to spend how I please.
5%   = Miscellaneous (possibly looking at a seperate MTT bankroll for the few I play a year)

Splitting it the way I have above, seems like a good balance between getting the mortgage paid off early and actually seeing something at the end of the day for all of the hours that you put in, which at the end of the day is why we sometimes play 40 hours plus a week on top of a day job, it def isn't just for fun !!!

So thats the spending part of the strategy, the next part deals with moving up the levels. As you know I am very nitty, so if you follow my strategy below, you may feel very frustrated in playing a lot at the lower levels, but if you do decide to follow it, you should never go broke, unless your a mega fish that is !!!

I think the lowest bankroll you should be playing at for the stars $7s is £750 (or $750/€750) and move up as follows:-

At Bankroll of £750 - £1500, Play 100% - $7s.
At Bankroll of £1500 - £2000, Play 75% - $7s + 25% - $15s.
At Bankroll of £2000 - £2500, Play 50% - $7s + 50% - $15s.
At Bankroll of £2500 - £3000, Play 25% - $7s + 75% - $15s
At Bankroll of £3000 - £3750, Play 100% - $15s.
At Bankroll of £3750 - £4500, Play 75% - $15s + 25% - $30s.
At Bankroll of £4500 - £5250, Play 50% - $15s + 50% - $30s.
At Bankroll of £5250 - £6000, Play 25% - $15s + 75% - $30s.
At Bankroll of £6000+ Play 100% - $30s.

Thats really as far as I have looked ahead for now, with my nitty withdrawal plan, I am going to have ro run well and play a shit load of hands to be able to get to be playing 100% at the 30s by the end of 2012, but I think it could be a realistic aim.

One other adjustment that I might have to make if I am putting in a lot of volume is the online level where I withdraw at, so I might amend the max amount I keep online as follows:-

100% $7s, max in account = £1500.
100% $15s, max in account = £2000.
100% $30s, max in account = £3000.

The above should allow for any real bad runs of variance, obviously if you do hit a real real bad run, you have to drop down the level of the game you play when your bankroll hitsthe levels that you came up on, but hopefully as you will be moving up slowly you should be able to adapt better to the higher skill levels that you will probably meet.

So that is basically it, very nitty, but I think it is very effective. If you don't have an all in one mortgage account, I still recommend you open up a couple of online instant access savings account for your bankroll and winnings areas, in this day and age, you should be able to move money around in a matter of hours and if you plan ahead, you should always be able to get some money into the area you require to deposit into your Stars account should you need it.

I hope some people find this article, feel free to comment as appropriate.

Good luck at the tables, this is GothmanUK on stars, signing off for today.

After putting up a Kristen Hersh track last week, I came across I song that I love and had forgotten about:-

Throwing Muses - Bright Yellow Gun

Struggling for Time

If your looking for a review of October and how the hundreds of games that I have played have gone you are going to be sorely disappointed. Since coming back from a couple of weeks away in Zante, which was by far the most relaxing holiday I have ever had I must say, I have bearly had time to play. So far in October I have managed a whopping 21 STTs !!!

To be fair, I was struggling to put the volume in before I went away, but since coming back, family stuff and work have seemed to taken priority, so much so that I have had to leave the Team Moshman coaching scheme as I was unable to commit to the time. I have to say it was a very positive experience and I have learnt a lot, I would def recommend it to anyone, especially if you are breakeven reg, it can be a very cost effective way of getting quality coaching.

The lack of time has however put me in a bit of a dilemma, I will almost certainly lose silver status this month so will be losing out on a fair bit of value on the rackeback side of things. My workload in November is going to be quite heavy, so I can't see it improving that much, I maybe ablet o get 200+ STTs in if things go to plan, which is not really enough.

I think the plan for now is fit in as many as I can in November and then hopefully have a push in December to get to Gold Star for the beginning of the month. The reason for doing this is that I am hoping for two things. One that the changes in the stars VIP scheme for 2012 will be of benefit for players like myself who log about 2k-5k VPPs per month and two that the changes for cashing in the fpps will be better for Gold Star in the new year so that I can get better value for the 20k or so that I still have remaining from this year which will give the ole bankroll a nice boost at the start of the year.

Talking of a bankroll plan, I have already developed a detailed plan for next year and will be publishing that next saturday, so if you are interested in a mega bankroll plan for part time players who don't need the profit for income, watch this space ;-))

Thats it for this week, gonna try and get back to weekly posts, with the compulsory monthly review, well the good months that is lol

Peace and good luck at the tarbs.

Song for Halloween this week

Kristen Hersh - Your Ghost

Early September Review

Posting my Sept review early cos I am off on me holibobs, 11 glorius all inclusive days in Zante. The plan is to do fck all....and I mean FCK all. After the hectic tour of Canada last year, we decided that this year was gonna be all about relaxing. So it will be beer by the pool, lots of reading, lots of sunbathing and not a lot else. I've never been on an all inclusive before, so I am just hoping that I don't come back a stone heavier and in need of a new liver !!! Got a couple of poker books to take with me and some note pads. Decided its about time I got more into the maths of the game, so have a couple of books on that and ICM. Also determined to finally read JD Salingers "Catcher in the Rye" always wanted to read it, mainly due to the fact that it Winona Ryders fave book and it will give us something to talk about post "rumps" when I eventually meet her and slip her off to the bedroom............

Anyway, back to the poker. September was my best month at the tables so far, finished just over $500 up at the tables, so it looks like the coaching is now really definitely starting to pay off. I think initially a lot of the agressive play that I was looking at putting into my game was a bit misdirected and I was "over" using it. Now I  seem to be be picking my spots and opponents better. Having your big hands hold up as well always helps too.

The one annoying thing was the lack of volume that I put in, considering i had the luxury of being platinum for the month I should of tried to put the extra hours in to get the benefit of the August 10% promotion, but just my luck, I had so much other stuff going on I actually played less games than any other month since I started playing stts, I ended up only playing 332 games, I know I am gonna lose 7 days, cos of the hoilidays, but I still should really be 500+ games at this point. Its a shame really, as I definitely think that the games were a lot softer this month, I was tagging fish at every table especially on the weekends and late evenings. I think this was the main reason for my profit. My stats and graph for the month are as follows:-

Games Played - 332
ROI% = 21.4
ITM% = 45.8%
Winnings = $500.10
$/hr = $10.17
 
So overall very happy with the results.

Still enjoying the coaching, Lasse has been trying to get me into other forms the game and I did a reverse sweat session where I watch him play some of the 18 man turbos, which he thinks are insanely soft at the moment. Some of the players in them while I was watching were truly awful, so I def think I will give these ago and see how I get on. I did actually play 3 of them this week, but never made the final table in any of um, after getting snap called by 10 7s and JT for 8BB vs my Q3s and 88 shoves. So as you can see the players are truly bad, so just need to get a few hands to hold up and maybe I can bink a few of them :-))

Thats it for now, got some packing to do and tidy the house before my Mother comes round to stay and look after the dogs while we are away. Ain't Moms just great !!!!

Greenday - Wake me up when September ends.

August

August, although my 2nd most profitable month of the year was really a bit of a damp squib, I finished he month just under $300 up on the STTs and after a bit of MTT cashes and Stellar Bonus the month finished off $400 in profit, however I was actually about $270 up after the first week alone on the STTs, then just hit a bit of a break even stretch.

Also, I did play an MTT on laddies and managed to bink a 3rd place. It was only a €5 86 runner jobby, but I was quite a big chip leader when down to the last 3 and like a muppet, I blew most of my chips away trying to be uber aggressive and bossing the ther two out of pots, one of the guys was a reet calling station, so I was just giving my chips away, but nevermind. Considering it was only my 3-4th MTT of the year, I guess making the FT should of been comfort enough.

The coaching is still going well and I am really enjoying it, learning a lot, but still need to learn a lot more of the concepts being explained to me in a bit more detail, I think its my age, but although I understand what I am being told, the day after I am starting to struggle to remember the exact details of the concepts. My memory these days seems to be getting worse and worse. I am starting to convince myself that a lot of this is down to my fitness levels, the training is going ok at the moment and I have managed to lose nearly a stone, but I think I need to start upping it a bit more. Also gonna change a lot of my diet to see if I clear out some of the fuzzy thinking I seem to have a lot (might be the scrumpy lol) I know for a fact the days when I can hold my concentration my results are drastically better.

So will keep plodding along, have got a holiday at the end of the month, so should be able to recharge the batteries and come back in October even more focused and get the bankroll moving back up again so I can play the $15s fully from November, hopefully then this will give me the foundation that I need to start the new year on the 15s and some 30s which will give me a realistic chance of getting to supernova.

Joy Division - Shadowplay

Bad Timing

The title of this blog entry is not about my bad timing, but about Stars timings for the battle of the planet promotion. If it ran from Monday- Sunday instead of Sunday-Saturday I would of pissed the weekly 100 STT one lol, however unfortunately for me, I had a real bad day on the Sunday (1st Day) before running uber hot for the next few days, then with only about 13 tourneys to go I was going to place easily in the top 20, I then hit the next bad spell before running uber hot again once the 100 completing, sooooo frustrating, but no iccle extra bonuses for gothdude.

Its good to see Stars pushing the STT promos at the moment, with double BOP payouts next week and and a free $7 entry if you deposit $20, I do like some freeeeee $$$$ Also the promo to get to platinum for 750 VPPs also seems to have bought some more feeeesh to the pond and the games do seem slightly softer at the moment.

It would be great if stars could keep the VPP promo going for an extra few months, although I will be missing out on some of the value as I bugger off to greece at the end of september, so will try and get some extra volume in to make up for it.

The coaching has been going well, still enjoying it and learning plenty, hoping that it will start coming to fruition soon and bring a steady upward swing to the graph, which is obv the aim.

Still playing the $7s for the time being so I can try out some of the changes that I am making to my game, must admit when I first started going back to STTs I thought I would be 18 tabling them by now, but I still can't keep up with 9 tabling too well at the moment, but I am sticking with it. Its strange that somedays 9 tables is easy and I can follow everything and other days I seem to be struggling to keep up with everything, I guess its down to concentration levels which vary from day to day and hour to hour, something I def need to work on.

Gonna play the $30k 100fpp VIP event tonight, keep forgetting about these, they are a bit of luckfest so I will probably try and chip up early with a few gambles, if it don't pay of, nay bother.

Still enjoying it at the moment especially as the profit for the year has gone back above $1k, which annoyingly it was 1/2 though May !!! Still got about 10k fpps which I have not done anything with but will probably be saving these till the end of the year. I am thinking about trading them in for 500fpp $7.50 steps tickets as this gives a lot more value, although if the platinum promotions keep going, I might just buy the $650 cash bonus when I get enough fpps, not to sure yet. If I knew stars were going to do steps promos for the WSOP main event next year as I do intend to go and play in 2012, It could work out a good way to get a seat. Alternatively grind them up to the level whenre you can trade them in for the $215 tourney tickets and try and bink summat bigger lol, who knows, I guess i'll decide later in the year.

So for now, its keep on grinding, its not an easy life at the low stakes ;-)

Snogged one of these babes back in the day looool

Bodysnatchers - Easylife

Losing but loving it....

Well, not acutally loving losing $$$$ lol but strangely enough, even as my downswing continues and I am quietly confident about my game and I am enjoying it. Even the sick sick beats that come STT after STT comes with a quiet "of course" rather than a What the F%&£ and bits of desk flying everywhere. The opposite of course comes when I dish out the sick beats, which if you shove and steal as much as I do, you are bound to deal out the muff, jumping out my chair when I river my one outer screaming, take that you premium hand calling mother f*^$er loooool

Still not sure wtf has changed, the downswing still seems to have stemmed from Black Friday, so it must just be less fish around. I Reckon I have proably dropped about $600 since the change, but I am happy with my game and to be fair its not so much the beats that are the problem, its just the walking into bigger hands all the time which is the real issue and seems to be happening more and more each time I play. I seem to be getting a lot more of my steals shoved over than normal as well and can do nothing but fold and whinge. *sighs.

On a positive note, I have had my first two coaching sessions and they seem to have gone well, I am very impressed with his overall knowledge of the game, in particular odds and percentages and puts across his reasoning for doing things very well, will not mention who it is at the moment, but he is a very well respected member of the poker community and pretty decent winner. I just hope that the changes I have started implementing following his advice so far start to come to fruition, othewise as its a % profit coaching deal, I can see me being dumped before the end of the 4 month contract, which is fair enough. By my reckoning, with the quality of his coaching, I have already had approx $1000 worth of tuition and due to losing the first two weeks running, not paid a bean. I think the main stumbling block is the 150 stts a week that I am having to play as part of the contract, as I work all day, this doesn't leave much time for study and session review and I am also having to carry on 9 tabling, which is not ideal when you are trying to implement changes into your game that you have not tried before. However the learning experience has been excellent and has really helped me change the way I think about the game. I think the sessions have also made me think about life in general and to try and stop pussy footing my way through it with no clear direction of where I am heading or want to be. Also trying to be the best at what you do in all walks of life, it your gonna do it, might as well do it well. My new motto now is "try to do something as good as you can, then step back and think how you can do it better"

We are off for a few days holiday down Cornwall to relax after tomorrow, but once I come back I really want to focus on improving everything I do and have a lot more drive and motivation. Obviously the health and fitness part of this will be one of the main areas of attention, but things at work also need to change, with a lot more productivity in the right areas required.

Some interesting times ahead I think, lets hope it all goes to plan.

I notice Rammstein are touring the UK again next year in Feb, so will be def be off to see them again, just the greatest live act ever !!!

Rammstein - Engel

Struggling

Just can't seem to get a decent run together at the moment, its so bad, I actually posted my first negative month last month, which I thought would never happen playing sngs. The run of bad variance (maybe bad play) really does effect you mentally and you just don't want to sit down and grind out another 20 or so STTs for fear of blowing off another chunk of your roll.

Only played 99 STTs this month, which is not good preparation for when I start getting some coaching as I have to do 150 per week, the way I am running at the moment, I think I will end up in the nuthouse after the minimum 4 month period lol....Hopefully they can identify some simple major leaks that I obviously have that can stem the freefall that I seem to be in at the moment.

Gonna try and get at least 30 in today and try to use next week as a test run to see if I can get 150 per week in without losing my marbles.

Have had the dreaded Man Flu over the last week as well, which hasn't helped the new fitness plan, although it has killed my appetite, so have had no takeaways or nights out in the pub and to be fair, I have lost 5lb due to it, which is better than it was when I was able to get some swimming in !! Should get below 15st again by the end of the month if I can stick to even 1/2 my goals, so at least that part of my life is back on track. Next goal after that will be 14 1/2 stone by the end of July. Its strange, but I feel I have really turned a corner on the health front, I think the stark reality of how much weight I have put on over the last 15 years has at last kicked in and I know now if I don't do something soon, I will not be making my 50th Birthday.

So lets try to keep things on a positive front, even if the poker is running like a dog......

Old Skool Music today

PWEI - Ich Bin Ein Auslander

Had a Holibob !!

Not posted for a while, one reason being that I have been away on Holiday for a week in the beautiful Yorkshire Moors. It was the first time we have take our two new rescue staffies away on there hols since we got them in November last year. We weren't sure how they were going to react, but I can safely say they absolutely loved every minute of it. We hired a wonderful cottage in the middle of nowhere, with just the farmhouse and a few other smaller holiday lets. The nearest village was over 2 miles away called Glaisdale and that only had a butchers, general store and the mandatory pub. It really was heaven. We tried to pack in as much as we could during the day and never left the doggies on there own for a minute, where we went, they went: including the train ride on the North Yorkshire Moors Steam Railway. Its a journey we have always done with our previous dogs where we jump on the station at either Pickering or Grosmont then ask the driver to stop at the unmanned platform called NewtonDale Halt. There is then a beautiful 3 mile walk through the woods to the next station called Levisham, I highly recommend this to anyone, if you do decide to give it ago, be careful to check the train times to make sure you don't end up with a 2 hour wait at Levisham for the next train to return you to your car !!!

While I was away I thought about poker quite a lot. The main thought was basically: is it really worth all of the effort I am putting into playing for what now seems to be small profits. I think all forms of the game MTTs, Cash and SNGS have all moved on to a much higher standard and to be truthful, my game just hasn't. This really came to light looking at my results in April, where over a couple of hundred STTs I was actually slightly down at the tables which I thought over that large a sample I would never have that happen. It has also been the same story this month in the 150 or so STTs that I have played, again slightly down at the tables and only the reload bonuses and the Stellar awards giving me an overall profit.

My thoughts led me to the conclusion that I either just have to stop putting the hours in that I do and just go back to playing for fun, mainly low stakes MTTs, with the odd STT and sats into bigger MTTs. Option 2 is to pull my act together and get a coach. It was not an easy decision as I have quite enjoyed not having to stick to a routine every night that revolves around poker, but I have decided that I really do want the extra $$$ to pay my mortgage off as quick as I can and for this to happen I really need to concentrate more on the studying side of the game than I do.

I look back at what I have called "study" in the past and to be honest it has just consisted of watching cardrunners vids and reading through the forums. It is one thing to watch and read, its another to learn and adapt and I think that I have learnt a lot about poker by doing this, but never ever really learnt how to incorporate this extra knowledge into my game and improve overall as a player. This is the reason why I have decided to give a coach a go. I have contacted a site and have an offer with them which I intend to take up the next week or so.

Lets hope by the end of the year I can sit back and say, well I listened, I learned and now its paying dividends and have a decent profitable year. I am not looking to tear up the world, in fact I think all that I am after is a modest $750-$1000 a month in profit from the tables from approx 600-800 STTs and the odd MTT. That along with the rakeback and bonuses would make me more than happy.

I have also started back on to a new fitness program which has already started going well and I feel a lot better after only a few days. I weighed myself for the first time yesterday and came in at a whopping 15st 10 !!! which I think is only 2 lb lighter than the heaviest that I have ever been.

I will obv keep you all informed of my progress on both fronts.

Todays song is quite apt and if you wanna get stoned off your tits, the album "Sleeps with Angels" which this is off is a damn fine choice.......

Neil Young - Change your Mind

America’s Live Casinos thriving After ‘New Crackdown

With class warfare in full, bloody battle across the United States of America, the federal government, the driving force of the country’s 14-trillion-dollar debt, does not take kindly to individuals flying under the IRS’s radar. Well, unless you are General Electric or another corporation that ships thousands of jobs overseas while being anti-oil, of course. Then you have carte blanche to evade taxes and “gamble” with the welfare of the country. But for everyone else, though, if you make a dollar, you better be sure to give the government its 50 cent.

The FBI’s crackdown on the big three Internet poker sites—PokerStars, Absolute Poker and Full Tilt Poker—has resulted in a mob-like influx of indictments, 76 bank accounts frozen in 14 different countries, and thousands of players—if not more—in America suffering an L due to their suddenly non-working sites.

This is not new news. In the poker world, the contradictory nature of America’s principles vs. America’s practices has been well noted for over five years. But it does make people wonder what’s next. These sites are poker sites, but a slew of bingo rooms and game-specific sites are still out there. A word of advice: Run, run, run for your lives!

If there is any silver lining encompassing this dark cloud, it’s that live casinos have been the beneficiaries of massive traffic since the FBI bust. Casinos from West Virginia to California have been reporting increased action. Many of these casinos were suspiciously abreast of the shutdown, or so it would seem, as they began offering increased poker tournament action.

When the poker rooms shut down, the online players showed up in droves to compete in live casinos.

Now, this isn’t a conspiracy-laden piece. It’s the Native Americans—usually exempt from taxes—who benefit the most from live casino action. But the timing does make some wonder if there’s anything on the back end for the state governments or for the federal coffers besides the obvious increase in immediate tax dollars.

The fact that players can do down the street in thousands of towns and cities in America and play any type of game they want leads some to question why they cannot do the same in the privacy of their own homes.

According to the government, someone playing online roulette might be funding a terrorist organization or helping people to traffic drugs, but since the owners of Full Tilt and other sites have been thoroughly vetted since 2006, that doesn’t wash.

Think about it. ShoveThisDrug-FilledCapsuleDownYourThroatAndCrossTheBorder.com wasn’t targeted, not that any such site exists, obviously. FundATerrorist.net is also not a viable option for Internet gamers. The American government is so involved in the life of its citizens since the Patriot Act that any “shady” enterprise instantly has the lights turned out.

The fact of the matter is that government already knew who was behind these big poker sites. So the excuses being made are asinine.

Meanwhile, America’s live casinos are once again thriving. People claiming huge winnings are immediately prompted to pay in their “fair share” (probably 50%, at the least) before even leaving the doors. And there you have it.

Unfortunately, the live casino crowd is going to die down. Internet gamblers will find a way to play online, and the government has no right to be in their business. The massive government will try to make it its business, but the folks will win.