Last few days I've been doing pretty well - being on a heater and all. Sadly don't have enough time to utilize the heater to its maximum, but It's fine like this as well. Maybe this one can stay forever and ever?! Thx!
In my spare time managed to meet up with a couple of friends, played some pool as well as snooker(the latter went horrendously - it took us like an hour to clear the table. Was fun tho!
Still got some exams coming up and some work to do too, so not much time until the end of the month.
I also still have no plans for the summer and more specifically where would I go on holiday or something.. Gotta figure that out soon too.
Also, I`m really hoping to have enough time to really focus on poker during July, although I just realized it may actually be kind of a bad idea. Given that this is the month we get the Midyear Bonus, it might be a big regfest for the better part of the month and thus slow my grind down a notch. I was initially planning on doing a 2k sngs challenge but I don't think it'd be realistic. Gotta work it out - maybe 1.5k (ye ye i know its not a lot, but it would be a challenge for me, as I have never played even 1k/month)
Take care!
Over n Out!
P.S I wish I could go some place like this:
Hopefully I`d be able to afford it one day, but for now I`ll have to stay with the pics only.
"Be the change you want to see in the world."
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:diamond: Go to my bloggament! :diamond:
Had an exam today which went relatively good. No clue how I did, to be honest.
Played 30-40 sngs, break-even and below ev. Nothing special.
I do, however, have a little brag - from today I`m officially a video producer for the Bulgarian community.
I also have been following Wimbledon - I love tennis. Today the best Bulgarian player - Grigor Dimitrov lost to Tsonga in a pretty entertaining match (lost in 4 sets with 2 tie-breaks). He managed to save like 5 match balls and also had a set ball for the 4th at one point, but he just couldn't get there. Still, well played - hopefully he`d have a better draw at the US Open.
Now that he's eliminated - Go Roger! Go Djoko!
Tomorrow I`ll go play some tennis myself with a couple of friends.
And to end the post with some multimedia:
This guy is awesome!
"Be the change you want to see in the world."
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:diamond: Go to my bloggament! :diamond:
"They say we are dreaming too big
I say this town's too small.
They say that we're flying too high
Well get used to looking up."
Today I spent my poker hours having fun - played some HU SNGs with relative success(relative due to failing at winning flips) and more importantly - I played some PLO25SH. It was the most fun I've had with poker since a loong time! I sat at 2 tables with the clear thought that I shall not be bothered by swoongs. So far so good - first 6-8minutes i dropped 4 stacks. I didn't care much though because I was getting my money in good. In the next hour and a half I made up for the losses and was already up 6+stacks. After that hit a cold deck streak and at the end after 2tabling for a total of 500ish hands i was up 2 stacks. At one of the tables I had 700bb stack though ♠_cool:.
I gotta say it was amazingly fun experience. However, I don't think I`ll be playing any higher than PLO50SH in the foreseeable future, especially not without more preparation and w/o HEM Omaha.
Note: The rake at this thing is WTFLOL!?
Played some pool with friends afterwards.
"Be the change you want to see in the world."
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:diamond: Go to my bloggament! :diamond:
Well.. I really don't know what to say. The Full Tilt affair caught me off guard and damaged my bankroll, to put it mildly - 'severely'. Depends mostly on whether or not the last transfer I requested will go through or not.
At first I wanted to do a recap of the month, then I thought whats the point when I can simply use a graph like this to describe it. But now I`ll just do the recap.
-------- June 2011 Review ---
--------------------
Do some sweat sessions!(If I find the time) [ - ]not much time
Play ~ 450 SNGs [ + ]
Get Ironman status again (Gold, seems reasonable - no time for Iron this month) [ + ]
Try to maintain platinum status on PS, although that's going to be hard. [ + ]
Do NOT play MTTs with a buy-in > $10. [ + ]
A bit more detailed:
I had exams which prevented me from putting the volume I wish, so managed to play just 484 (would have been ~600, but yeah you know what happened). I was running pretty hot though, during the better part of the month. The huge downswing from the $36s has been reduced to minimum now where I`m breakeven (after being $1,4k below EV at one point in April)
I also played some $20-55 HU SNGs where I`m with +14%ROI but over ridiculously small sample so w/e.
Furthermore, I played PLO25-50SH for fun mostly. I think I made about 1.2-5k hands tops, but since I have no tracker I have no real clue whether I`m ahead or behind. I generally am pretty clueless as far as Omaha strategy goes, although I've watched most of GodlikeRoy's videos, it still is about a lot of reading and practising. Nonetheless, I`m pretty sure over this small amount of hands played my game improved tremendously and the hand analysis in the forum helped a bunch for that. Still, I do not plan to play this as a main game any time soon, especially now when my roll is *poof*.
I was really pumped up and generally happy with my game this month. I also got a coach status for my local community which additionally boosted my motivation and desire to play. Since my exams finished a few days ago and I had no real plans for holiday-ing in July I was actually planning on doing a hardcore poker month. I was gonna put up a 1.5k-2k SNGs challenge and other things, such as getting some coaching from <3 and playing more HU, but I guess I can shove all that down the drain. I was also planning on playing live once a week or so, but again, I guess this will have to wait.
Some random thoughts on the FTP problem
It was obvious something wasn't really right with FTP ever since, unlike PStars, they were still delaying giving back money to the US players.(Kind of my fault for not pulling out my money, but it took some time to set up a bank account and a card for that and then there's the 'i can do it tomorrow' thing) I would assume they have been using the players' funds for their own personal things, which from what I gather has been forbidden. Logically, this would mean that whatever they've done they have less $ than what they should have, so they cannot give back all the money to all players.
All that delaying is what caused their license to be revoked. Temporarily or not, this is a huge hit cause we all know even if they didn't have all the money, by having the site running (and at a reasonably good activity rate too) they would have eventually got it all and would've been able to repay. Before today's updates I was way too sceptical to even consider ever seeing any of this money ever again. Sewed by the USA, now seized by Irelands' AGCC seemed like the end. I was expecting bankruptcy and endless trials in court for years which more often than not prove fruitless. I guess I still am seeing this as the most logical result.
However, seeing what FTP are doing and not being a lawyer, nor being fully informed and acquainted with all the information, I still have hope that they might actually try to get out of the hole. Maybe if Kahnawake give them, for some bizarre reason, a gambling license, and maybe IF FTP are able to let people have most of their money cashed out initially, this would slowly get the room going slowly. Without a shadow of a doubt, should the site ever be up and running again, first thing everyone would do, would be to withdraw like 80-90% of their money there, so that's another huge issue that could possibly pose a problem, should things go in a positive direction.
I`m not sure what kind of profit could one expect, if they were to buy FTP and somehow cover their losses/expenses/debt to the players, but if that happens, it would be cool.
I have been playing on FTP the whole time, I love their software and I can say for myself that it's the best one out there. Also, they do have the image of the room with the best highstakes cash games and if that's not all, they have pretty awesome features, such as Rush Poker and the Multi-Entry Tournaments, which could all be great boosters for a poker room's revenue.
I really hope something good can turn out from all of this, but until proven otherwise, I consider my money on FTP gone for good.
note: Don't you find it weird that there was info about Phil Ivey being in Ireland right before this happened? What is exactly doing? There's rumours he's been trying to find inverstors for FTP before, but then he files a lawsuit.. Now where does he stand?
Future
That being said, I now have to grind from scratch again. What bothers me, besides the money factor, is that I don't know how safe PokerStars is, as this is my natural 2nd choice of room to grind in, considering FTPs absence. Who knows if the long hand of the DoJ can't catch up with them as well? So far, since BF, they have proven to be dealing with all this way better, but let's not forget that there are lawsuits against them in the US.
I honestly am not sure what I`m going to do at this point. I guess I`ll try to do some micro grinding on Stars for some days and then see from there. I also have to see if my money would arrive, which I guess could take up to 3 weeks... I could look for a staking, a loan or something else, don't know.
In the end, what most adequate and reasonable people here think and say(<3, Tim, Hlynkinn, others) is perfectly true - we lost just money, we still have our skill and the ability to grind it all back, if we have the time. I agree with this and think the same way. What bothers me is that little bit - the amount of time I would need to spend, to get back where I was.
Here's a nice tune:
On a brighter note, I`ll go shoot some pool now.
Thats it for now!
"Be the change you want to see in the world."
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:diamond: Go to my bloggament! :diamond:
Good news. The more likely the fines are waived or reduced, the more attractive FTP will be to investors and the more likely purchase goes ahead and site gets back up.
Definitely. Even took a break today - didn't play at all. However, I am getting the hang of it, so tilting less and less now.
Instead of playing today though, after I woke up at 1pm, missing quite a few phone calls, after returning the first one I ended up having to leave ASAP to go have lunch with friends, followed by seeing Transformers 3 in IMAX. Movie was pretty decent for its genre, lots of pewpew and action + Jason Statham's girl is just hoooooooot... Optimus Prime voice ftw!
After that went to a park to have some beers with friends in the outdoors. Then one of them suggested that we go to a pretty epic rooftop of his building (18 floors and an epic view towards the whole city + clear sky) so that had some more whiskey + nice music action.
Plenty of fun and no grinding today. Tomorrow's a new day. Maybe some new info on FTP might pop up, who knows..
"Be the change you want to see in the world."
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:diamond: Go to my bloggament! :diamond:
According to a thread in another popular poker forum with numbers *cough*, some guy who claims to be a FTP insider tried to answer some questions. His answers are in italics.
Who are the new investors? Don't know
Who are the buyers? How close is the deal? It's a done deal
Are they able to pay out players money? If not is it true that FTP is going to be sold to European investors? I'd say it's 75% likely now that the European investment deal is done
Yes
Most important: How soon can we expect FTP to come back, if ever.?????? I'd be amazed if it didn't happen this week, most likely in the next couple of days
No way will they operate without a license. I believe they've already got their Alderney license back
Why were funds not segregated? Incompetence
Is FTP ready for people(non US) running to cashier to withdraw all the money when u reopen? Do you mean "do they expect it" or "can they handle they volume"? Yes to the former, and not sure about the latter
Are the new investors preparing to re-enter the U.S. market either before legislation or after? Entering the US market before legislation is just not an option
FTP has previously claimed that paying back US players was the top priority. In your opinion was that statement factual when it was made? yes, but now getting the game client back online is the top priority
Several months ago they banned all employees playing for real money at any time of the day. I've seen people use the game client during work hours, but it could have been on a test server or on the live server for play money
Still no clue whether or not he's legit, but one can only hope.
"Be the change you want to see in the world."
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:diamond: Go to my bloggament! :diamond:
Originally posted by neelton
According to a thread in another popular poker forum with numbers *cough*, some guy who claims to be a FTP insider tried to answer some questions. His answers are in italics.
Who are the new investors? Don't know
Who are the buyers? How close is the deal? It's a done deal
Are they able to pay out players money? If not is it true that FTP is going to be sold to European investors? I'd say it's 75% likely now that the European investment deal is done
Yes
Most important: How soon can we expect FTP to come back, if ever.?????? I'd be amazed if it didn't happen this week, most likely in the next couple of days
No way will they operate without a license. I believe they've already got their Alderney license back
Why were funds not segregated? Incompetence
Is FTP ready for people(non US) running to cashier to withdraw all the money when u reopen? Do you mean "do they expect it" or "can they handle they volume"? Yes to the former, and not sure about the latter
Are the new investors preparing to re-enter the U.S. market either before legislation or after? Entering the US market before legislation is just not an option
FTP has previously claimed that paying back US players was the top priority. In your opinion was that statement factual when it was made? yes, but now getting the game client back online is the top priority
Several months ago they banned all employees playing for real money at any time of the day. I've seen people use the game client during work hours, but it could have been on a test server or on the live server for play money
Still no clue whether or not he's legit, but one can only hope.
Other than that, been slacking badly these days. I have barely played 100ish SNGs on Stars. I am crushing them(or in a heater or both w/e) for now, even though the sample is tiny - 22% ROI, 42.4% ITM.
Tomorrow I've arranged to play tennis with a buddy of mine. Looking forward to finally move it move it a bit. Maybe this might motivate me to sit on my ass and put in an actual volume.
"Be the change you want to see in the world."
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:diamond: Go to my bloggament! :diamond:
Last couple of days I've been slacking mostly, barely played any poker. Played tennis in Thursday - went good but I have a lot of practice ahead, if i want to regain some form. I can barely make my forehands and backhands to hit inside the court... most of them are 5-50cm beyond the base line. Anywaaay..
Went out tonight with friends to a nice local disco, but apparently the cool people have all went to the seaside to partay so it was pretty lame, even though 'twas full - most of the people were just annoying and lame. So came back home quite early.
I also did a sweat yesterday with Tim, which was fun, I think. Looking forward to more of this.
Still hoping for the best as far as FTP goes, but obviously it would take more than a day or two to get all that crap sorted out between the DoJ, AGCC, FTP and the supposed investors. One time plix.
Thats it for me for nao.
p.s. Oh, and one cool old-school house track - the chick that's 'singing' is epic. I want a girlfriend like this girl..
"Be the change you want to see in the world."
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:diamond: Go to my bloggament! :diamond:
Was fun tho!
