I’ve just been rounding up some holiday cash from my various poker accounts and submitted a Purple Lounge withdrawal.

It was rejected.

No explanation in the FAQ, but a dig around on the website unearthed this little beauty:

Players depositing using Neteller must place wagers totaling at least 5x the amount deposited before requesting a withdrawal. Players who make a withdrawal request before meeting this wagering requirement will be liable to a financial transaction fee of 4% of the amount deposited using Neteller. This fee will be deducted from the withdrawal amount.

This is one restriction I’ve never come across before, and frankly it sucks. It deserves a big warning in capital letters when depositing, in my opinion.

This is IN ADDITION TO the increasingly frequent withdrawal fee:

NETeller funds requested by user for withdrawal from their Purple Lounge account is available for withdraw within 1 to 3 business days from their NETeller account. There is a US$1 or currency equivalent fee for using this withdrawal service.

There are plenty of other sites out there on the same and other networks that do not have either of these restrictions. I’m going to play a little $10 cash and see if I can work off the restrictions at a profit, but I leave you to speculate on whether I’ll be back to Purple or not in the future!

It’s been a week now since I won this thing. I’ve now sent my third chasing email to Reefer Poker, to find out more about both the Cruise and the $150 freeroll I won for you lot. They’ve replied to my emails but no information.

On Monday they said:

Congratulations on your victory. Please await an email from the relevant department within 2 working days.

then on Thursday:

I am sorry but you will have to wait for them to get back to you. We thank you for your kind patience.

then this Saturday:

Thank you for contacting us. We will forward your request to the relevant department. Please allow for them to revert.

This could go on a while yet, it seems; but I’ve also emailed the tournament organisers at OnlineForumChallenge.com to see if they would like to give Reefer a nudge.

Mind you, I’ve won a few dollars playing cash at Reefer. Early in the morning there is a sprinkling of tired, drunk Americans. It’s doing my bankoll no end of good!

I’m sure Reefer will come through for us once the weekend ganja wears off properly…

(edit) The very next day I received a communication from Reefer:

Congratulations on your win in the Online Forum Challenge. I am very happy to confirm your prize of a cruise for 2. I am currently traveling, but will be back in the office in a few days. I will be in touch with you soon with more information. Thank you for your patience, and I will be in touch with you very soon.

I’ll keep you posted!

It’s been a while since I posted an update on my 2008 challenge – to master short-handed cash games.

I haven’t been playing much on the challenge, but I had a session last night on Virgin so thought I would post a graph.

Only 13K hands for the year to date, but there’s no discernable trend line yet:

I feel that I’m playing fine most of the time, but the evidence suggests otherwise: I would only appear to be a break-even player in these games.

I guess I need to stop doing things like this:

BossMedia Game #1149778690: Table Table TH 752 – $0.25/$0.50 – No Limit Hold’em
Seat 1: CrumbleEMS ($95.20)
Seat 2: Mr Skovbo ($39.48)
Seat 3: slimysnail ($50.70)
Seat 4: faraan_uk ($49.95)
Seat 5: Zip-piZ ($96.55)
faraan_uk posts the small blind of $0.25
Zip-piZ posts the big blind of $0.50
slimysnail is the button
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to CrumbleEMS J♠J♣
CrumbleEMS raises $1.50
Mr Skovbo folds
slimysnail folds
faraan_uk folds
Zip-piZ calls $1.50
*** FLOP *** 4♠2♠2♣
Zip-piZ checks
CrumbleEMS bets $2.50
Zip-piZ raises $8.50
CrumbleEMS calls $8.50
*** TURN *** 8♠
Zip-piZ checks
CrumbleEMS bets $10.00
Zip-piZ calls $10.00
*** RIVER *** 6♥
Zip-piZ bets $34.00
CrumbleEMS calls $34.00
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $105.25 | Rake $3.00
Board: 4♠2♠2♣8♠6♥
CrumbleEMS won ($0.00), mucks
Zip-piZ won ($105.25), showed 4♦4♥

I like the way Zippy played this, but I have absolutely no idea why I thought I was in front, especially since his stats are 21/11/2. If I can cut these out I reckon I’ll be well on the way!

It’s often said, and I agree, that to play poker well you have to treat it as if the money doesn’t matter.

This comment is usually made as a caution against playing scared, playing above your bankroll or comfort zone and so being easy to push off hands.

But it occurred to me the other day that it actually applies at the other end of the scale as well…

People often tell me that they can’t play freerolls or small-stakes games because there isn’t enough at stake to make it interesting: they get bored quickly and start playing randomly or badly in other ways. But I think this is actually a fault. If you are truly able to play as if the money doesn’t matter, you should be able to play penny-ante with total focus and concentration: all that should matter is beating the players in front of you.

If someone can play freerolls well, truly as if the money doesn’t matter, that person is quite likely able to get into the same winning mindset when playing in a really big game: sit down, pay the buy-in and play poker.

Tonight I played in this …

and did this:

So, I wonder if there’s a catch with this Caribbean Cruise for Two?

In the meantime I’m high on the endorphines of victory.

It’s a sign of how much Poker has entered the mainstream.

At work today I was reading a (slightly) interesting article about … well it doesn’t matter what it’s about. However, at one point the author compared a new financial markets initiative to a dodgy casino:

A team of sharks working together only has to shift the odds from 51-49 favouring the house to 51-49 favouring the sharks to win big money consistently. If they’ve co-opted the floor manager to look the other way, the likelihood of being challenged is massively reduced. If they own the casino, and are themselves the dealers, they can rig the tables to whatever odds they prefer to meet quarterly profit targets. If they co-opt the casino commission, hey baby, no worries. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

Okay, so far so standard: the subliminal message is that casinos are nasty places where dodgy things happen. But the interesting thing, for me, is that the author then went on to compare his alternative, nice proposal where everyone gets a fair chance to … A POKER TOURNAMENT!

At what point did poker tournaments become good things compared to nasty old casinos?

Here’s what he said:

Imagine a huge poker tournament where everyone is free to play with everyone else, forming tables and choosing dealers by whatever means they prefer. Any player can demand a new pack be dealt at any time. Any player can leave a table and take a seat at another table at any time. Any player can form a new table with themselves as dealer. Any player can ask any dealer or any other player for credit. Any player can propose an amendment to the rules, which if popular, will be adopted by other players at other tables.

Hmm. That’s a pretty funny poker tournament! Maybe poker still has some way to go before it is truly mainstream…

This was my biggest pot of the year so far, possibly ever…

BossMedia Game #1146336445: Table Turbo TH 47 – $0.25/$0.50 – No Limit Hold’em

Seat 1: Bajen11 ($44.85)
Seat 2: Victim ($208.62)
Seat 3: CrumbleEMS ($115.55)
Seat 4: Donkey ($43.57)
Victim posts the big blind of $0.50
SB posts the small blind of $0.25
Donkey is the button
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to CrumbleEMS 9♦9♥
CrumbleEMS raises $1.50
Donkey calls $1.50
SB folds
Victim raises $2.50

Victim has been playing very aggressively, so I treat this as a captaincy raise. But whatever it is, I’ve got the odds to call it. Look at that stack!!!

CrumbleEMS calls $2.50
Donkey calls $2.50
*** FLOP *** 7♦9♣A♣

Nice.

Victim checks
CrumbleEMS bets $4.00
Donkey raises $19.75
Victim calls $19.75

I think Donkey would slowplay top set and I think Victim would re-raise. I’m in front! I wonder if they’ll call a shove?

CrumbleEMS goes all-in with $113.05
Donkey goes all-in with $41.07
Victim calls $113.05
*** TURN *** 2♥
*** RIVER *** Q♠
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $271.92 | Rake $3.00
Board: 7♦9♣A♣2♥Q♠
Victim won ($0.00), mucks
CrumbleEMS won ($271.92), showed 9♦9♥
Donkey won ($0.00), mucks

Happy days.

I wonder what they both had?

I learned something playing this hand yesterday.

Back on my cash challenge, this was a 5-handed $50 NL table on Virgin Poker.

BossMedia Game #1145008112: Table Table TH 565 – $0.25/$0.50 – No Limit Hold’em
Seat 1: UTG ($65.77)
Seat 2: CO ($60.35)
Seat 3: Button ($41.97)
Seat 4: Villain ($49.45)
Seat 5: Crumble ($50.25)
Villain posts the small blind of $0.25
Crumble posts the big blind of $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Crumble 6♦A♦
UTG folds
CO folds
Button raises $1.50
Villain calls $1.50

Button is loose and tricky: a hint of Fancy Play Syndrome in there somewhere.
Villain is loose too, but much more straightforward.

Some people say that if it’s worth playing it’s worth raising with. That’s bad advice with this hand at this table. You want to see a cheap flop and win big when you hit.

CrumbleEMS calls $1.50
*** FLOP *** 5♦8♦6♣
Villain checks

No point in betting here, button will continuation bet with any two.

Crumble checks
Button bets $2.50
Villain raises $5.00

Now that’s a strange bet. The min checkraise usually promises extreme strength … but he can’t be frightened of a draw because he would have to raise bigger. Has he flopped a straight?

Anyway, I have odds to call and outdraw him here.

Crumble calls $5.00
Button folds
*** TURN *** 8♥
Villain checks

So the button had nothing, what a surprise. But what’s that check on the turn? I think it’s a big giveaway. It can’t be a trap because he can’t have filled up. He must be drawing to something.

But I am drawing to a better hand. I don’t want to bet here in case he raises big with some dodgy pair+draw hand that I can’t call. Let’s see a free river.

Crumble checks
*** RIVER *** K♦
Villain bets $7.50

Bingo bango bongo, I have him beat and he’s betting into me!

Maybe he has nothing and is just trying to take it down? But more likely he has hit his draw on turn or river and he’s looking to extract some value. In that case he will call a raise.

How big a raise? Well all-in sounds a bit big to me. What about something like $20 or $25? On the other hand if he calls that he might call the all-in anyway. I think it’s close.

Crumble calls $7.50

Oops. What a donk.

*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $30.40 | Rake $1.60
Board: 5♦8♦6♣8♥K♦
Villain won ($0.00), showed 7♦2♦
Crumble won ($30.40), showed 6♦A♦

Yep, he would have made the crying call with that. Shame, that’s at least another $15 or so that I haven’t collected. But I have to say it doesn’t – in retrospect – seem hard to get to the right answer. If only I could do it at the table!

So what did I learn? that I can’t always put what I’ve learnt into practice.

Phil Gordon had the right idea in his little green book: the first question you should ask is, “can I raise?”. Followed by “can I fold”. Only then consider calling.

Oh well, if I keep trying maybe I’ll get it right one day.

Well now, it’s been a few days now since the Virgin Poker Festival 3 at Dusk Till Dawn, I’m back in the real world again and I’d like to post my impressions.

Wow.

I was hugely impressed by Dusk Till Dawn. All cardrooms should be like this: friendly and welcoming, spacious, well lit, well organised.

What a contrast to the Gutshot, which is welcoming in a chaotic sort of way! DTD is run with military precision by Simon Trumper and his staff. Tournaments and sessions start bang on time, for a start; there’s frequent warnings of what is starting when; registration closing times and so on. No panic, no rush, just impressively smooth – but friendly – organisation.

There were waitresses who actually come round the poker tables and deliver drinks with a smile! You don’t get that in your average casino.

There was the Virgin mob. A fine friendly bunch, always interested in what’s going on, running all the side events with great enthusiasm.

And Mr Trumper himself, reigning over his kingdom like a benevolent, er, king.

There were the EatMyStack crowd, 30 or so strong, winning the Forum challenge and making their enthusiastic presence felt throughout the long weekend. Old friends and new!

Then there was the poker.

First I had the pleasure of railing JeffChef in his high finish in the Friday night freezout. Well done the Chef!

Then on Saturday and Sunday there was the main event. A great structure, 10,000 chips and a 40 minute clock. I was card-dead throughout, relying on nicking, re-stealing and the occasional muffing to scrape into the cash a couple of hours into Day 2.

Muffings I remember include AT vs QQ, an AQ vs AK split pot, 77 vs JJ flopping the 7; there were probably others. Eventually my luck ran out with AJ vs TT, no ace and no jack, 26th place.

You can see my ignominious exit here, about 2 min 20 secs into the clip.

After Day 1 there was the Forum Challenge to rail, where the EMS team defended their trophy and won by a street or two. Rumour has it that the Chef took the tropy to bed with him (shudder).

And after I was out of the main event in Day 2 I could cheer the FarseBandit in the Bountyhunter tournament, all the way to the final table. Nice one Beth! Then off for a train and home by midnight.

Other memories: meeting RealScot (Robert) who let me share his room and put up with my snoring. The fantastic all-you-can-eat breakfast at the Holiday Inn that I missed on Day 2 through oversleeping. Some donk with a movie camera from AWOP. A fine, friendly table starring Neil, Helen and the AWOP Poker Punk. Jeff and Ram chasing around after people with a microphone to record the EMS podcast.

And lots and lots of friendly people. It only occurred to me on the way home that I hadn’t heard a voice raised in anger all weekend!

So well done Virgin and well done DTD. The next one is in November at the Loose Cannon. Can’t wait!