Poker Odds and Ends - and a 5th Place for Nik

I said I was not going to try any more poker sites, but I did it anyway. Tropical Poker is getting some trial play from me. I'll report on it early next year. That woman with the blog 'Poker Happs' was playing there and said they stood by their software glitches (refunding money and giving freerolls in qualifiers for the trouble) - which they claim are solved. So far not impressed with the software. I was there once before to look around and left because there were not enough players and the software was average. Everything seems to still apply, but they do have a nice line-up of cheap big tourneys.

I finished 5th in a World Poker Exchange tourney - netting only a 4 times return on my entry, but the field was only 52 players. Big enough to qualify for a BIG tourney (under 46 players is a SNG) but not a big enough tourney to write a story about.

Speaking of the WPE, it is a nice second or third site to have. NO RAKE!. Give it a look.

I have been playing a ton of freerolls at the Sportsbook .com Poker Room. They are trying out the software right now so all they have is $100 freerolls and satellites to a $100,000 tourney later. The software is really clean, good looking and fast. I think is the same software The Poker Room/Hollywood Poker uses (both sites now closed to US Players). Just different avatars and SB doesn't show the percentages when all-ins occur. It is not a skin of those two other sites, however. It is a different player pool all together. I think it is another site you should check out.

What drives me crazy is there is no link to their sportsbook from the poker site. You have to go to the sportsbook via the internet address. Very annoying if you want to check game lines while playing poker. They should fix that.

FYI - Thai Food has been downtown battling the mopes at the Greektown and Motor City casinos. Send positive vibes his way. I plan on sitting out 2006 in the casinos, but plan on making trips to Mt. Pleasant again next year - at least every other month. Detroit gets none of my money if I can avoid it.

Next year - internet poker wise - IS the year. I have experimented with sites, tourneys, SNG's, money management systems, styles of play, rabbit's feet - and I was even going to sacrifice a virgin but Fourputt would not hold still long enough. I have to set a goal for next year and then hit it.

I'm up some bling on the internet, but after about a year and a half of trial and error - it is not what I would call enough to write a book over. Time to throw out what I don't think works and go with what does - or at least is working at the time.

I was experimenting alot and didn't take advantage of situations that I should of. Like I was killing SNG's - on every site - early this year. But I only played in them in my standard rotation of play of things I was trying out and charting results. I should of played nothing but SNG's until the players caught up to me and the cash stopped pouring in. I didn't.

I was playing ring on one particular poker site and absolutely destroying the tables every time I played there. I mean every time - for 2 hours on three tables - cashing on all three. Did I stay there and ATM the site until the bank was empty? NOoooooo! I rotated and went to new sites to get their hours of play up. I even played longer at sites that were beating me early to get back to even with them. Just STUPID. Eventually, the site I was killing - toughened up.

Certain sites at certain times always have freerolls into big tourneys. I could of played in them until I won a seat - like Beerhog did - then try to catch lightening in a bottle for a nice payday. I blew them off to win chump change trying different sites and tourney types.

Next year I am all about value and overlays. I did my homework and had my practice time and got out unscathed. Time to do something - one way or the other on-line. In order to do that I have to not only play well - but pick my spots better.

Of course I do this NOW that the sites have all got alot tougher. What a genius I am. - Nik Faldo