Well, I am back
July 10, 2007
I am back from a well deserved Holiday in Florida with my 2 sisters and most of the kids (2 were missing because of other commitments).
There was no Internet access the whole time we were there.
Of course, we did sneak in a little live poker one night. We played a couple of $5 buy in mini tourny’s. I got second in both and got my money back plus a little.
One of the guys playing was fairly good (too aggressive with crap cards) and my Nephew who is pretty good just didn’t get any cards.
Is it contagious?
July 8, 2007
I’ve wrote about it quite a few times, and now I’m reading about it from others in the forum and in blogs - apathy towards poker, and just plain pissed off with poker!
It’s all taking the same forms. Either people are playing and getting dismal cards or on the end of constant horendous bad beats, or are just ‘pokered-out’! For me personally, I’ve rediscovered a few things that I used to enjoy, and these things have taken a huge chunk from my poker playing. Yes, I have better things to do than play poker constantly!
I can sympethise with those who feel the need to take a break, whether it’s because of a loss of form or on a big bad luck streak. If you remember, I wrote a piece on it a few months ago when I was going through the most difficult few months of my poker playing career. No matter what I did I lost. I knew I was playing good poker - going in with the best hands - only to see them gazzumped by idiot calls with idiot cards. There’s nothing you can do about it, but it’s so demoralising. And it makes you want to rip someones head off!!
One of the forum guys, and regular blog commentor, Lippy, is one of those going through a bad spell. He is blaming the site he has been playing at - something I have done too. It’s very easy to blame the site you play at as ‘favouring’ some players over others. Normally I am the first to poo-poo this suggestion, but considering most of my bad beats/suckouts/general shit luck was at the very same site, and also a few others have aslo commented that this is happening to them on this site, it is really starting to make me wonder.
Now I’m not for one second going to go all guns blazing and say the site is cheating certain players intentionally, but there is a pattern forming that has and is been noticed. Everyone who has complained about a bad spell has said the exact same things regarding this site.
Lippy for one generally cashes in at least a third of sit and go games he enters. Recently, he has reported that out of at least the last 20 games he has played he has got nowhere near the payouts. I know this is unusual for Lippy. I also know that what he is going through mirrors what happened to me a few months back.
Netsson, our little Sweedish angel, is going through the exact same thing. Gotmewrong has went through it recently too (although she did eventually pick up a nice $300+ prize a couple of weeks ago.)
We have all suffered the problem with going in with the best hand only to see someone calling with a hand so crap that they need both the turn and river cards to help them. Basically, a once in a bluemoon catch! The problem lies in that it’s not once in a bluemoon….. its every single game you play, and can be seen happen at least twice in each game!
The site seems to reward the idiots who call all-ins with 7 4 off up against your pocket aces. Normally, the flop is hugely in your favour with say a 8 A J showing. Then it hits you….. a 5 on the turn and you just know that the river will be a 6. You actually predict it! And there it drops….. that 6. They hit the ONLY two cards needed to beat you. The odds of it happening are huge. For it to happen to you in 10 games in a row (as happened to me…. and I’m being conservative!) the odds are of biblical proportions. The likelihood of seeing that happen in live games is virtually nil.
So why does it happen? Online sites use Random Number Generators (RNG’s) which supposedly give a completely random deal of cards. So why does the overwhelming favourite go down to so many unlikely beats? To me these sites need people spending money for them to make any profit - that’s obvious. To make more money the sites need more games starting. I think that the software deliberately hands out these beats to quicken the game, in the hope that when someone is knocked out of one game they will go into another. They want a constant turnover of games. How it chooses who is on the recieving end of these beats God only knows. But when you are that person it certainly is not fun.
How did I get through it? Well, I basically stopped playing at the site for around a week. Then I went back and played a few sit and go’s to see if anything changed. When nothing had changed I left it another week before playing again. Eventually it did turn around and I started winning again. The monkey had been passed onto someone elses back!
You will notice that I have not named the poker site that all this seems to happen at. I don’t think I need to…. just wait for the comments and I’m sure someone else will! I have more or less moved away from the site and only play the odd forum game and the odd game with the skype crew. Mainly because I’ve found a little nest-egg of a site that I really enjoy, and therefore tend to spend my time there.
So tell me…. is there a problem with online sites? Do you think they favour some players over others, or is it just the software deciding its your turn for an extreme run of cold cards? Conspiracy or are those who have suffered these events just a bit paranoid?
Pokerfatigue
July 5, 2007
Recently i hit the wall!
The famous what’s-the-use-and-why-do-i-do-this-wall! I ended up registerring for tournaments and the fun was gone, just wanted to get out as soon as possible. But in my mind i thought oboy another 3 or 4 dollars spent i just have to get them back so the style were more get the money quickly than fun and that’s the worst possible strategy you can have when in onlinepoker tournaments!
