Hi Fanie,
Nice to see a fellow SA player on here
Very impressed with what you've achieved so far. Will be following the blog from now on! 
Since you used to be an advocate, I thought I'd ask for your opinion on online gambling, as I'm still a tiny bit nervous to deposit money into an online casino. I played a lot back in 2009.
Which casino's do you play at, by the way? Do you ever come up to Pretoria for some of the events organised here?
"Since you used to be an advocate"
Do you know something I dont? I am appearing in Regional Court tomorrow hope I will not be arrested. 
"I'd ask for your opinion on online gambling" . Loong story short I think playing poker online is OK. I am not saying it is legal and I am not saying it is illegal. What I will say is that in the case that everyone refers to, the Judge went out of his way to try and declare that online gambling is illegal, BUT because it was a civil case and not a criminal case it is NOT binding authority for the statement that online gambling is illegal.
"deposit money into an online casino" Bad Idea...Bad Idea.
"Do you ever come up to Pretoria for some of the events organised here"
No with 4 casino's within 1 hour drive from my home I really dont have a need to look any further.
Sometimes when I go to Cape Town I will play grand west. Next week I will be in PE for 2 or 3 days and will try to fit some poker there.
Originally posted by mineriva
(Misclick could you please hold my glasses and cane)
JB's glasses and cane too? What about your walking frames guys? Oh, they stand on their own, silly me 
Oops, got my tenses mixed up.
Thanks for sharing your view on that. Appreciated.
As for the depositing, naturally it would be through an eWallet like Neteller. Still, you've made me even more nervous 
What are the casinos on JHB like? I went to Monte once and was the first at a new table. When others started sitting down everyone greeted each other like they've been buddies for years. Felt like I was the fresh meat sitting at a table of 8 regs.
Ty Misclick ... ty
@Ejeckt read my poste (wayyy) above...read what I said about the meerkats. What I meant by depositing being a bad idea: You want to deposit into a "ONLINE CASINO" that is asking for trouble.
online casino != online poker
I have not deposited from or withdrawn to any bank account in South Africa for at least 3 years.
Had my first losing session in a while this weekend and have been in port Elizabeth for a case. Waiting @ the airport atm. 5 hour wait :-(
Will try to join zimmers 2nite so u guys better b there I want ur monies :-)
Love this blog. Hoping to one day make it to SA and check out the casinos there. There seems to be plenty of action down there.
Had another losing session last night.
tbh I played like a idiot.
The casino I normally play at is hosting a WPT event this week and it kicked off last night with some satellites. I went know that I would find some good cash games.
I arrive finding a few players waiting for a cash table to open. Most noteworthy I find http://za.linkedin.com/pub/justin-lowe/3/804/914 two seats to my left. I have known Justin for a very long time and I know he will not mind if I say he is a whale. When the mood takes him he will go 2K ZAR blind preflop. He will also do any time he is requested to do so provided you ask before the cards are dealt.
Naturally the table fills up very quickly. For some unknown reason the pitboss decided that it would be a 10/20 (ZAR) table. Personally I believed that it would be 25/50 (ZAR) and in spite of a request by myself the table remained 10/20.
The game starts and we see a lot of gamble as expected. Most note worthy hands:
Hand 1:
Justin open raise from early position but only 2.5BB. Everyone folds to the player directly left of me who 3bets to 5BB. The next player and the SB calls and Justin calls saying "with this hand I will send you to hospital".
Flop K65 rainbow.
SB check. Justin bets everyone folds to SB who calls.
Turn 5
SB checks. Justin makes big bet. SB calls.
River A
SB checks. Justin ships. As SB is about to call Justin says : "don’t call I don’t want your money". SB calls. Justin Shows A5o for the full house.
Hand 2:
Justin open raise from early position 6BB. Half the table calls.
Flop: 943 (two spade one diamond)
Everyone checks to seat 10 who makes 2/3 pot bet. Justin calls everyone folds.
Turn: 5c
Even before the card hits the felt Justin bets 500. Seat 10 tanks and raises to 1200. Justin ships. Seat 10 calls.
Justin shows 94s (yes he open raised with 94s from early)
Seat 10 shows 67 (yes he bluffed in a multi way raised pot with a gutshot)
Seat 10 holds.
In the next hour and a half seat 10 goes on to hit 3 sets of which 2 sets stacks of and cracks AA. In this time he wins just over 13K ZAR.
Such is the table now for my stupid hands.
Hand 1:
I am in MP3 with AJo. Justin open raise from MP1 to R50. I 3bet to 150. BTN (seat 10) calls. BB calls. Justin 4bets to 450. I call expecting to play HU ip and to stack off if I hit my Ace. Well no such luck both the other players call. Most noteworthy is the BB calling off just more than half his stack.
Flop: 532 (two spades)
BB open ships. Justin min raises. I see that I am getting more than 5:1 and decided to call for the remainder of my stack. Seat 10 ships! Justin Calls!!!
BB shows 54s.
Justin shows AA
I show … a red face
Seat 10 shows bottom set…. Why are we surprised.
Hand 2:
I am sb with J8s.
It is folded to CO who open limps. I complete and BB checks.
Flop K33 (two spades giving me Flush draw)
I check. BB check. Co bets 2/3 pot. I call not putting CO on any hand. BB calls.
Turn As (giving me flush)
I check. BB check. CO bets same amount as on the flop. I raise to half my stack (don’t ask me why). BB min raise and CO folds. I call to see BB flopped a full house.
Truly bad play by me
Had a very good night.
After taking a few small pots I was up to about 130 BB.
Hand 1:
UTG open raise 5BB. I am CO with 55 and I call. WE ARE 8 PLAYERS TO THE FLOP. Yes UTG raise and 8 to the flop!
Flop 852 (two h)
UTG check. UTG +1 bets about pot and MP1 calls. I ship. UTG +1 call and shows AA. I hold up and double up + a bit.
I play about another hour or two by which time the table is down to 6 handed. I, in the BB, tell the table it is my last orbit.
Two hands later and I am on my last BTN. We 7 handed because a new player just joined.
There are 2 limpers and the new player that posted. I look down to AKo and raise to 6BB. BB and new player calls.
Flop: AK7 (two h)
Both check and I bet 9BB simply because I have already changed my chips and that was the "spare change". BB folds and new player calls.
Turn Ah (giving me the nut boat and completing all flush draws)
New player checks. I am sitting with only 3 chips each equal to 100BB. I change one of these chips and bet 25BB. This I know screams monster but I dont care as I simply want to go home. To my surprise the new player cuts out raising chips but for some reason just calls.
River Blank.
New player comes out betting something like 20BB which is his "spare change". He has 50BB behind in one chip. I raise 50BB. He tanks and calls. Even before I can say or do anything one of the other players says "if Fanie does not have AK or better then I will never play this game again". I dont particularly like that guy so I reluctantly showed my AK.
I went home with all the money I lost on monday night plus more than double that.
Had a particularly good night.
Was up 3BI after 2.5 hours. Hitting the deck almost as hard as Mrs JB hits.... oh well you get the idea.
Lesson for the week:
Last night there was this guy, who in the 2.5 hours I was there, got dealt AA x 1 and KK x 3. He lost his stack...twice.
In all 4 hands he limped and then proceeded to play check/call on all streets with the only exception when he flopped top set when he shipped on the flop for more than 2x the pot and was lucky to be called by 2 pairs.
The two times he lost his stack was both times against me in the BB flopping a monster and holding up.
I believe he went home thinking how "unlucky" he was because he lost 2x with KK against T4s and 32s.
THE FACT IS: He played bad. Just bad.
This bring us to the lesson for the week:-
Players believe that
1) When they lose they run bad or got unlucky
2) When they win they played well.
The fact is :-
When you win you did so because there was at least some luck involved. When you lose there was at least some bad play involved.
No Player will ever get better without this knowledge,
Went to play at a casino about 60km from my house last night.
I dont go there much because of the traffic / distance.
Because of traffic it took me more than 1 hour to get there.
Sat down on seat 10 and cashed in. The dealer, as he gave me my chips, asked me "new player?" which I under stood as "new player at the table" so I said "yes". He then proceeded to explain to me what the blinds are and that I had to post ect. I did not want to make a fuss so I said nothing.
The first hand I had to post in MP3 and got dealt J2s. Every single player on the table limped up to the btn, who had in the hand before lost allmost all his money. Btn ships for 1.5BB and everyone calls. I call.
Flop 46J (two spades giving me top pair and flush draw)
The money goes in and villian has 44 and holds. 
I rebuy and play thight for the next hour. In this time I saw no less than two pots where 3 fully stacked players played for stacks and the best hand was less than top pair.
I pick up AQ and raise and get 2 callers. Flop JJ3 and there is a donkbet. I fold. Donk sees other player call. Turn is Q and they go stack. They table KJ for trips and AT for gutshot.
About an orbet later I pick up TT and raise again. I get 4 callers. Flop is 7 high.
SB leads out for 1/2 psb. Because of the other hands I am short and only have psb left and I ship. Villian shows 66 for set.
SO by that time I had played 3 hands and walked into 3 sets.
I rebuy again.
I only played 3 more hands.
QQ I open raised and floped top set. Made cbet and did not get called. I had seen that all the regulars we cbetting 100% of the time and were getting called by any pair.
AA which I 3bet with and got called. I ship on a 732 board and got called by A7o. I held.
KK which I 3bet with and got called. Villian shiped on J72 board and I called. He showed K7s.
I went home about level.
I am sorry I have neglected any updates here.
RL has been very bussy with work with a number of cases going to court.
I have played less than 2K hands online for the last 3 weeks with a very small profit (not even enough to pay for JB's book).
I have played once again at monte. I was card dead and in the 6 hour session only found 1 hand within my open raise range. I doubled up in that hand but went home with only a very small profit. So small that I consider it a break even session.
I had a few more break even session since.
Last week I had one very good session followed by a losing session.
I played the "bounty" tourney and again was part of the final deal.
This week I only played once and lost after my stacking off with AKs on a AKQ9 board against TJo. Although it was a raised pot TJo was getting 4:1 for his call and then floped the nuts. We were about 120BB deep in a 4 way pot and the stack to pot ratio was just less than 3.5:1.
In conclusion I am quite a bit up for May (mostly because of the tourney) but have just about a 50% strike rate.
Hey, could you please add me on skype: skyrocketyourproductivity
mindan would like to speak to you in private.
Thanks!
Mind if I ask which casino it was?