Changing life

It seems that I have to climb up on PokerStars or some iPoker room instead of 888. I have stared a vefirication process on 888 yesterday, sent documnets, etc.
Just received an e-mail from 888 today, that they are closing my account. "This is due the fact that our Legal Department has informed us that at this present time, we are restricted from providing a service in your jurisdiction."

Update from Today:

888
I was looking for it in the Hungarian forum. It seems that it is not only me who has been disabled, but 888 is withdrawing itself from Hungary (there are some news from March about it). Players says that 888 is paying them off, so I wrote to 888 support and received an answer:
"Please be advised your current withdrawal is 42.19 USD"
Not the whole, but at least this is something.
Now I am looking for an other poker room if it worth to open a new account with this money, as I have an old (back from 2011): Full Tilt.

PokerStars
After the news that my account was closed on 888, I was not in a playing-mood. So I went to PokerStars zoom yesterday, and played super-aggressively (at least for me) - i.e. raising with any two cards from BU. I did not feel comfortable, and I found myself in some really difficult spot, loosing sometimes. But at least I was slightly positive at the end.

Today I also had a little run on zoom, and also I opened a $ 0.11 tournament. This one I will not do anymore. 1 hours late registration. WHAT?
I finished on place 3xx and won some $0.3 and it took 2,5 hours of my life...

I should have learned confidant's newest coaching, as I am a bit behind...

My bankroll at the moment is:
$42.09 from 888
$19.19 on PokerStars

Hi legeny, welcome to the blogs!

I was looking for any concrete information on 888 withdrawing from Hungary, but I couldn't find anything in specific. From what I was able to gather, though, it seems that this is not due to 888's policy, but as a result of the Hungarian government's regulations on online gambling.

Also, 888 is typically charging some considerable fees on withdrawals, which is probably the reason why you didn't receive the full amount of your bankroll.

Good luck with your goals! Do you have any tracked accounts?
Also, are you aware that there is a free 30 day trial version of PokerTracker 4? Maybe this is enough to hold you until you can make the money for the full version.

Hi Harrier,

Yes, this move from 888 is becase of the Hungarian goverment's regulations. Probably the "withdraw" was not the best expression here. But this high fee is weird, but OK, I did not read about it before.

What do you mean about tracked account? At the moment I do not have tracking fostware installed. I will think about this trial versions, as I see there is a trial for both Hold'em Manager 2 and PokerTracker 4. That leaves me 2 months for reaching my 1st goal :-)

Originally posted by legenyPS
What do you mean about tracked account?

I was asking whether you have an account that is tracked through Pokerstrategy, so you'll have a way to earn StrategyPoints and reach a higher status.
I see that you have been around for quite a while (longer than me, actually), so I don't know if you ever had access to content that is restricted to a higher status.

If you don't have a tracked account, you might want to take this into consideration if/when you open up a new account with the money from 888.

Hi Harrier,

Unfortunately only iPokes rooms are tracked, 888 and PokerStars are not. I either create a completely new one on a new room (FullTilt just answered that I am welcome at the old account - which is not tracked probably) or I will pay for the status upgrade :-)

Which will be harder than I thought, I had a bad session now with PokerStars, actually $ -5.

But I have Poker Tracker 4 installed now.

Do you know how can I upload images to PokerStrategy?

Originally posted by legenyPS
Do you know how can I upload images to PokerStrategy?

There are two ways. Using the old method, you would upload your picture at an image sharing website like imgur, and then copy the image location and insert it with the "insert picture" function.

Nowadays, there is also an easier option, which simply involves dragging the picture you would like to upload directly from the desktop into your post.

Pokerstars
So, yesterday was a bad day, lost some $5 on Pokerstars.

Titan Poker
I did not know before that I am goint to speak about any iPoker room here this early. So about Titan Poker: I have opened this account when I was a member of PokerStrategy, so this is one of the few sites are linked here. Never deposited there, all of my money come from freerolls and SSS play. This year I played some FL hands there, and for today I had exactly $7.10

As I was looking for alternative site for 888 Poker, I had a mailings with FullTilt - in 2011 I had an account there linked to PS. The account still exists, but it is not linked to PS anymore and I did not like the way support team spoke with me so I decided to not deposit there anything from 888.

So today I was trying Titan Poker's Speed Hold'em. Little (?) difference that the smallest stake is NL5 here, but it worth a try I thought

Titan Poker gave me a gift, here is the hand I played:

iPoker - €0.05 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: 41 BB
UTG: 119.6 BB (VPIP: 14.29, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 7)
MP: 180 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 9)
CO: 105.2 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 9)
BTN: 104.8 BB
Hero (SB): 111.4 BB

Hero posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has J:heart: A:heart:

fold, fold, CO raises to 3 BB, fold, Hero calls 2.6 BB, fold

Flop: (7 BB, 2 players) T:heart: 3:diamond: K:heart:
Hero bets 4.8 BB, CO calls 4.8 BB

Turn: (16.6 BB, 2 players) Q:heart:
Hero bets 11.6 BB, CO raises to 29 BB, Hero raises to 52 BB, CO raises to 97.4 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 45.4 BB

River: (211.4 BB, 2 players) 5:heart:

CO shows 8:heart: 9:heart: (Flush, King High)
(Pre 36%, Flop 17%, Turn 0%)
Hero shows J:heart: A:heart: (Royal Flush)
(Pre 64%, Flop 83%, Turn 100%)
Hero wins 197.4 BB

Yes, it is my life's first Royal Flush, and well, it has been paid off

I think I will go with Titan for a while - also because I generated 3x club point ws earlier months. I need to check their tournaments too. I also need to gain better knowledge to Poker Tracker, listen to the last two courses, etc... lots of work ahead

This is for today, and bankroll at the moment is:
$14.17 on PokerStars
$13.98 on Titan Poker

I feel myself on a roller-coaster (copyright - I don't remember where I read it), up and down, up and down... I noticed that my worst played hands have been made in the last 5-10 minutes of each day. I noticed the same on 888 too. When I feel tired and click on the "Sit out next blind" button, I instantly receive some hands which worth playing. For example yesterday I got this one:

iPoker - €0.05 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: 100 BB (VPIP: 23.33, PFR: 6.67, 3Bet Preflop: 6.67, Hands: 30)
UTG: 100 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 13)
MP: 116.4 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
CO: 91.8 BB (VPIP: 80.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 25.00, Hands: 5)
BTN: 150.4 BB (VPIP: 100.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
Hero (SB): 95.2 BB

Hero posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has K:diamond: A:diamond:

fold, fold, CO calls 1 BB, fold, Hero raises to 5 BB, fold, CO raises to 20 BB, Hero raises to 60 BB, CO raises to 91.8 BB, Hero calls 31.8 BB

Flop: (184.6 BB, 2 players) T:club: 7:spade: 5:spade:

Turn: (184.6 BB, 2 players) 6:spade:

River: (184.6 BB, 2 players) A:heart:

It is interesting to see how people goes all-in with TT. As far as my knowledge goes by, this hand was played fine, I wanted to go all-in anyway with suited AK and "hope for the best"

So, I am at the same level as started on Titan. On Pokerstars I played some hand on NL5, got some quick win, but I still don't like this room very much.

I will not be using the sit out next blind button anyway, just leave if I want (at least at zoom tables) that is for sure.

Quite late today, I will try to post some hands in the hands-forum too.

Bankrolls:
$20.87 on PokerStars
$7.52 on Titan Poker

I need to learn some discipline. I will start with the following:

• hand review before start playing
• stop playing afer 1 hour of playtime

So I had a controversial day today, lost all my bankroll at Titan Poker, but won approx. the same amount at PokerStars. All in all I am break even, the sad thing is that I am not getting strategy points if I do not generate any money at Titan. Or WH. Or I might play at Coral? No speed at Coral until I do not deposit though. That 888 account close is a great blow for me.

And the hand enabled me to get back at PokerStars:
I am lucky at the end

PokerStars - $0.05 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 114.2 BB
Hero (SB): 124 BB
BB: 157 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 2)
UTG: 111.2 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
MP: 91.4 BB
CO: 60 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 3)

Hero posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has J:club: J:spade:

fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 3.4 BB, Hero raises to 10 BB, fold, BTN calls 6.6 BB

Flop: (21 BB, 2 players) 6:club: 3:heart: T:diamond:
Hero bets 13.4 BB, BTN calls 13.4 BB

Turn: (47.8 BB, 2 players) 3:club:
Hero bets 30.4 BB, BTN calls 30.4 BB

River: (108.6 BB, 2 players) J:diamond:
Hero bets 70.2 BB and is all-in, BTN calls 60.4 BB and is all-in

Bankrolls:
$27.99 on PokerStars
$8.51 on Coral

Not much is happening lately on the tables, I am trying to bring myslef on the study side after loosing all my BR at Titan Poker. Playing a few hands every day and reading a lot, but it seem that I am losing on iPoker much, seems that there will be nothing left there
I am reading some of the blogs / challenges here, and I like the Discipline Challenge very much, it is well edited. I also introduced me to the Spin&Go, which I tried with play money first.

Let's see some good hands first:

Never slow-play a pocket AA pre-flop:

PokerStars - $0.05 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 117.4 BB
SB: 166.2 BB
BB: 104.2 BB (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 50.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 2)
Hero (UTG): 102.2 BB
MP: 95.8 BB (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 50.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 2)
CO: 148 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has 6:spade: 6:heart:

Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, CO raises to 6 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 3 BB

Flop: (13.4 BB, 2 players) Q:heart: 5:diamond: 6:club:
Hero checks, CO bets 14 BB, Hero raises to 42 BB, CO raises to 142 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 54.2 BB and is all-in

Turn: (205.8 BB, 2 players) Q:spade:

River: (205.8 BB, 2 players) K:club:

That is all for today :), and on the losing side:

iPoker - £0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: 41.5 BB (VPIP: 37.50, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 17)
MP: 78.5 BB (VPIP: 64.71, PFR: 17.65, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 17)
CO: 134.5 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 26.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
BTN: 170.5 BB (VPIP: 46.88, PFR: 31.25, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 32)
Hero (SB): 91.5 BB
BB: 183.5 BB (VPIP: 17.65, PFR: 5.88, 3Bet Preflop: 12.50, Hands: 17)

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A:heart: A:spade:

UTG raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 6 BB, fold, UTG raises to 10 BB, Hero raises to 30 BB, UTG raises to 41.5 BB, Hero calls 11.5 BB

Flop: (84 BB, 2 players) 3:club: K:spade: T:club:

Turn: (84 BB, 2 players) 8:heart:

River: (84 BB, 2 players) 6:club:

(I got tilted already):

iPoker - €0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 100 BB (VPIP: 17.65, PFR: 17.65, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 35)
SB: 102 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 25.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
BB: 224 BB (VPIP: 26.42, PFR: 20.75, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 54)
Hero (CO): 85 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A:heart: 8:heart:

Hero raises to 3 BB, BTN calls 3 BB, fold, BB calls 2 BB

Flop: (9.5 BB, 3 players) 3:diamond: 7:diamond: A:diamond:
BB checks, Hero bets 7.5 BB, BTN calls 7.5 BB, fold

Turn: (24.5 BB, 2 players) Q:diamond:
Hero bets 12 BB, BTN calls 12 BB

River: (48.5 BB, 2 players) 2:diamond:
Hero checks, BTN bets 32 BB, Hero raises to 62.5 BB, BTN calls 30.5 BB

and the last one is

iPoker - £0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: 72.5 BB (VPIP: 34.78, PFR: 4.35, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 24)
UTG: 82.5 BB (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 24)
MP: 137.5 BB (VPIP: 36.36, PFR: 27.27, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 22)
CO: 188 BB (VPIP: 41.03, PFR: 28.21, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 39)
Hero (BTN): 34 BB
SB: 175.5 BB (VPIP: 20.83, PFR: 8.33, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 24)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A:club: K:diamond:

fold, MP raises to 3 BB, CO raises to 9 BB, Hero raises to 34 BB and is all-in, fold, fold, fold, CO calls 25 BB

Flop: (72.5 BB, 2 players) 3:heart: 5:diamond: T:diamond:

Turn: (72.5 BB, 2 players) 5:heart:

River: (72.5 BB, 2 players) 9:heart:

So I have the feeling that all of my money I had on iPoker is transferring somehow to Pokerstars... I started playing with my 20 cents which I found on William's Hill, there is a "Super Turbo 10c double up" 4 headed tournament there, which I like very much, it is also good to practice blind defense there. I won 2, lost one, so I have 28c there just for fun

Bankrolls:
$32.95 on PokerStars
$2.44 on Coral

Quote of the day: "Just don't fall in love with your strong hands" -by confidant,(8)

Lets summarize April a bit, with the help of PokerTracker's -still- trial version:

Played

• 6,500 hands on cash tables
• 1200 hands on Tournaments

on Poker sites 888, Pokerstars, Titan Poker, Coral Poker and William Hill. Ugh, lots of sites there...

And let's face it: I am not as good as I woule like to be on cash tables and it is the same on tournaments. Altought I have not reached final table yet in MTTs, I played 7 or 8 double 10c and lost only one. This means that up till the half of the tournaments I am okay. So I like this double-ups :coolface:, but I need still to learn how should I play tournaments better to make

In these double-ups my VPIP reaches 40 while on cash games it remains around 10-15. Would this mean that I need to loosen up in cash games?

I also have a good news, I won 20c on Titan on the daily freeroll, played one double ups, so back on track again on Tital

And here is the most interesting hand from today's doulbe-up at Titan:

And yes, with those 1BB left at my side, I "won" the dobule up

Quote of the day: "Scared money don't make none" -by Anomic (?)

I was spending a lillte time this weekend on NL2 tables again after a blow at NL5 (not because I could let myself NL5 with a $30 bankroll :-) ). I was able to save that day, but it was a hard work.

I realized that most of the time in case I am sitting at SB or BB and just call, after a bet on the flop, people tends to fold from the button :-) Some good examples are from today:
9♠:5♣: misclicked
6♠:6♥: save the pocket pairs

I was also enjoying some good spots today:
K♠:T♠: instant flush with two all-ins
K♣:K♥: and the flush draw

And a few losing ones:
K♥:T♥: 3-barrels the busted draw...

(I am not sure if the links will work hopefully they will, please tell me if not)

I am playing more aggressively, hitting the 21 VPIP, and for the moment it seems worths it.

Bankroll:
$38.29 (Pokerstars)

I knew that I should not play today, or at least I should stop after losing the first BI. But not, I started chasing the loss and ended up with losing all of my this-months winnings, so that is about -7$ for today. I only had one valuable hand, the rest of it was crap.
Oh, I won two 10c double up on WH just to mention, at least somewhere it was good going mad

So I started to view one of my "childhood favourite" film, which I have not found in English, but only a little clip:

spadla z oblakov in Slovakian

I have quickly recovered from the previous bad session, making my daily stats again green in PokerTracker. But on Friday I became recreational: a friend of mine come over to play a bit of Poker, and in the beginning we decided that we must stop a losing $20 and we share the losses at the end. He brought some wine too, so we were not thirsty at the end - drinking about 2,5 litres of wine ♠_drink:

First I showed him the two options which I thought he might like (he liked them):

• Zomm
• Spin & Go tournament

I was also showed him the learning materials (the ones I printed out), etc...

1. ZOOM
OK, lets start in zoom on NL5 with $5.
Nice, we have a pocket Aces, lets see what we can do with them:

losing all of our money of course...

2. Spin & go
After this blow at zoom table, we moved quickly to Spin&go. We liked it very much

On the Friday we played 18 Spin&go, while on Saturday we continued with an other 25. And I do not think that it is because of the drinking, but our ITM was higher the 2nd day
The shortest Spin&go was finished in 3 hands - and won!

All in all, my bankroll has suffered a significant losses by this session, dropping to below $20. At first I thought that I will deposit the losses, but now I think I will be able to climb up myself by playing zoom, which I have already started

But I noticed that there is something wrong with PokerTracker. Sometimes it seems that it does not record all hand, so all of my statistics are fake now, I am missing some wins and losses with huge pots

Anyway my bankroll is:
$23.35 (Pokerstars)

Quote of the day: "If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." Henry Ford

I made some pointless move, bluffing too much and neglecting what I learned and my play were too impatient, so I decided to keep up the learning phase and have one or more week with emphasis on learning, meaning that reviewing videos and reading a lot, which has happened in a way, but I did not have much time for poker anyway...

Seems that my PokerTracker trial period is over in a couple of day, so here is my overall result, which has all* hands I played, even before I installed PT.

* with the exception of some hands which were deliberately omitted by Poker Tracker...

Oh, yes, and I become ChromeStar at PokerStars

My bankroll is:
$21.53 (Pokerstars)

That's an impressive winrate so far, keep it up!

Thanks Harrier, this felt really good

It was a good day today. I played only 121 hand on PokerStars, but a few of them was really nice:

Q♦:7♦: from the BTN turns to be a full-house
A♠:K♣: vs K♠:9♦: ships a little present
Q♠:Q♣: at the end, I was tired and fired

My bankroll is:
$25.07 at the end

Wow that Royal flush vs straight flush hand. Shame there wasn't a bad beat jackpot, I've never seen that! Nice blog by the way, very humble, keep it up.