Cain is Abel

Rush poker was introduced by FTP less than 1 month ago.  Due to the terrible shortstacking problem causing bad game-selection at Stars, I’ve put much more time in at Full Tilt experiencing their new Hold’em variant.  The first ~40-50k hands have gone very well, and I’ve learned enough to write an article about the positive and negative differences in Rush Poker.

For those who have not played it, or do not quite know what Rush Poker is,  here’s a brief explaination:

The rules/layout are the same as normal Texas Hold’em. 6 or 9 players at a table,  same betting order, etc.  The only difference is – at the end of every hand, the table is broken up, and a new randomly generated table of players is created for your next hand.  Every hand will be played against a different random table, from a random position.   You are also allowed to “quick fold” a hand if you are planning on folding anyway and do not want to wait for other players to act.  This allows you to immediately see a new hand at a new random table without having to wait 1+ minute for the current hand to end. Because of this, Rush Poker players generally get 200+ hands per hour, which is 2-3x more than any standard table.

This change may look somewhat minor to someone who has not played before.  The rules are the same, the cards are the same, so why is it so revolutionary?  Here are the differences from my experience.

RUSH Positives:

• Faster hands per hour across the board.
• Faster load-up time.  Usually, 16 tables at FTP would take a good 15+ minutes to load up and be playing 1000 hands per hour.  At Rush poker, you can immediately load up 4 tables, and within the time it takes the software to say “3…2…1…” you are in the action! The same 1000 hands per hour is achieved at 4 tables with 10+ minutes of load time saved.
• Weaker and Tighter regular players.  The strong players who have put in time at Rush Poker tend to 3-bet way less, steal and defend way less, and play a much more ABC game that can be exploited more than their usual game would allow.
• Faster rake/FTPs generation. For those working towards Iron Man status, 4 tables of 100NL rush poker will take about 15 minutes to qualify you for the day.  This is about 50% faster than loading up 16 tables of the equivalent stakes and waiting for the blinds to come around.

RUSH Neutral:

• No HUD / Reduced HUD.  Both Hold’em  Manager and PokerTracker have trial versions of Rush HUDs available, and they both are functional.  Eventually both of them will have a working version and there will be very little difference.  Basically, as the tools are developed, experienced players will be able to use them.  A slight positive aspect of this point is that fish feel safer at the moment – due to HUDs being less available.

RUSH Negatives:

• Fish are significantly tighter.  There are still plenty of loose weak players, but they have much less incentive to play those bad preflop hands when they can just fold and immediately see the next one.  There are still plenty of weak players in the field, but their preflop mistakes are being corrected by their ability to quickly see a new hand.
• It is more suited towards Mid and Low stakes games. The 1/2NL games have about a 3rd the players of .5/1NL.  Experienced players get a huge portion of their edge from game flow and personal reads, so it seems unlikely that we will see a large audience for higher stakes Rush Poker games.

SUMMARY

I predict Rush Poker will have a moderate following in 2010, but I don’t see it overrunning the standard 9-man tables.  It is a fun, simple variant of Texas Hold’em that moves at a faster pace and encourages a tighter style of play.  In the long run, I expect it will be somewhat less profitable than standard games, but not by much.

REAL ESTATE BUSINESS:

For the past year, I’ve been learning from scratch how to repair and manage some low-income investment property.  From the beginning, I never really intended for them to be such a hands-on experience.  However, when your property manager is stealing from you, the few tenants aren’t paying, the repair men are conning, and the business is hemorrhaging money, a more personal approach becomes necessary.

In February of ‘09, we were at 21% occupancy, with ~16% needing complete rennovation, and the remaining 63% needing serious work. I fired the crooked manager, started overseeing the repairs myself, and started doing all of the legal/financial/management footwork that was needed.

1 year later, we’re at 69% occupancy, with all of those units in vastly improved condition.  10% still need repairs, 10% need rennovation, and 10% are rentable.

Despite the vast improvement, low income properties are still a giant pain in the ass.  This is a job that clashes heavily with poker, because there is almost always something that needs your time, effort, and patience.  The job wears on your patience especially, because you are constantly negotiating with people who either don’t want to work, or want to scam you.

I passed off the management torch this month, in order to give myself more time to focus on poker, family, etc.  Despite having a manager to deal with the majority of the issues, it still requires daily effort.

Fortunately, after this past year, the business has become close to self-sustaining.  I still need to put in the time, of course, but they aren’t nearly as much of a liability as they were last year. I have learned a ton about life in general by taking on the management of these buildings.  It has been a very growing experience, and while it came at the cost of other aspects of my life, these lessons will be very beneficial in the long run.

As I get more time in the future, I may write some more detailed articles about my experience.  From a crazed schizophrenic tenant I inherited, to a crooked manager, to a conman contractor, I’ve got quite a few interesting stories built up.

The best advice I can give to anybody who is considering real estate investment is: Either do the management yourself, do most of the repairs and manual labor yourself, or don’t get into the business. If you aren’t hands-on, you are going to get robbed and things are not going to run the way they should.

Back to poker!

2010 has been running just fine for me.  I put too many of my resources into the RE business in ‘09, so by the time I got serious about poker again in January, my bankroll was left a bit shorter than I would prefer.  I’ve been crushing the 100NL level as always, and building back up to a comfortable bankroll.  Just this month, I started mixing 200NL in there as well (and killing it, of course).  By the end of February, I should easily be where I’d like in terms of bankroll.

SHORTSTACK EXODUS:

Full Tilt Poker made a huge update in January that increased the minimum buyin from 20BB to 35BB on standard tables, and created “shallow” tables for the shortstacks to play against each other.   To an average player, this may not seem like much – but it is a huge deal.

“Shortstacking” is a strategy that involves buying in for the minimum, playing a watered down strategy, and enjoying a strategic advantage against other full-stacked players at the table.  A couple shortstacks here and there are not too terrible to worry about, but this strategy has spread heavily in the past couple years, and has caused games to be less enjoyable and less profitable.

FTP finally did something about it, and as a result, their games have been more profitable than ever.  Many people are encouraging Stars to make the same change, and we are still awaiting an official response.

The issue is so strong that I have already moved the majority of my play over to FTP in order to enjoy this great update.  If Stars does not make a similar change in the coming months, after I’ve cleared my bonuses there, I wont have much reason to continue playing anywhere other than FTP.  I’m not the only high-volume regular who has made this transition, so it is a pretty big deal.  As good as Stars has been to me for the past couple years, they need to embrace this change or they will have a hard time getting my business back.

Unfortunately, shortstacking has become so popular on Stars, that I think they may be reluctant to make a similar change in fear of scaring away a large part of their player base.  I look forward to hearing their official response.

I plan on writing a longer article about what I consider the benefits and drawbacks of shortstacking on a personal level, and how I believe it effects the game of poker in general.

“Rush poker” has also been recently introduced by FTP.  It is a unique way to play Texas Hold’em where you are matched up against a random set of opponents every single hand – sort of like changing tables in a tournament.  It eliminates a lot of the player reads you can make, and vastly changes the dynamic of the game due to not having any table history to work with.  I’ve put in quite a few hours of Rush poker over the past month, and will also be writing an article about my experiences there.

Look forward to more updates in February!

Poker has still been a bit wish-washy for the past month.  I’ve been getting in a reasonable amount of time just table selecting and playing a low # of tables, but even at best, my hourly rate is not going to be over 100 using this approach.  It’s nice, but it just is not profitable enough.

There is definitely not enough time to complete SNE in ‘09.  I may give it another run in 2010.

My biggest issue in the poker world has been a lack of focus.  In 08, my goal was clear, and it was very easy to see if I was ahead or behind my own personal expectations.  I haven’t had that for close to a year now.  It is just much less motivating and seems much less significant to float around and play random length sessions with no ultimate target.  It is almost too easy to make more than my own personal cost of living every month, and with that in mind, there is much less pressure to get in more than part-time hours.  Other distractions do effect the situation, but if I truly wanted to put in the hours, I would have. Having a “SNE Quest” to set my pace may be the best solution.

I applied to be a “Stars Online Pro” shortly after they opened the registration. Considering my (relatively) veteran status as an online pro, I think I’ve got a pretty damn good shot.  Not many have been in the game as long as I have without going bust.  That, on top of my poker software and training videos, makes for a decent resume.  If I’m accepted into this new program, I am 100% going for SNE in 2010, and will accomplish it.

Fingers Crossed!

So, I’m sure my regular readers have been wondering “Wtf is Belok going to do about SNE? He’s way behind!” Well, I did fall behind – and have decided not to go for it this year. I think I’ll hit some milestones, but for now I’ll be focusing my time on…

THE MASS TABLING VIDEO SERIES

I’ve begun seriously progressing on the videos, and am extremely excited.  In addition to being very informative, I have some pretty great demonstrations lined up, and enhancements out the wazoo. Things that have not been seen before.  This series is going to be the ultimate source for multi-tabling information for both advanced and novice players.

ETA ~1-2 months, but I am not releasing it until the entire series is complete. The wait will be worth it.

The ice storm that hit the midwest has been mentioned quite a bit in the news recently. Since my house is surrounded by trees, I was effected relatively strongly.  Since about 1am on the 28th, we started hearing large ice-covered branches crashing in our yard. At about 4am, one of the crashes resulted in the loss of our power. With a 1-year-old daughter, 2-year-old dog, a poorly insulated house, and a bunch of ice outside, it was a bit of an ugly situation.

We were able to find a hotel that accepts dogs, and get ourselves out to a room by about 9am.

This means much less work for me. Hopefully the power will be back up within a day or two.

In poker news, I’ve been testing out Omaha games, table selecting some higher levels, and improvising quite a bit more. I think I’m still quite a bit burned out from FRNL, so i’ve been experimenting around.

For those of us who mass table at PokerStars, we build up quite a few FPPs in our cashier.  While the 60″ TV and 30″ monitor are pretty mouthwatering, using other options can increase the value of your points and earn more money.  Anybody who is Supernova or above should know the most efficient ways to spend their FPPs. It can earn you literally thousands of dollars over the course of a year! The best part is – it is extremely simple and easy to explain!  I must preface this though, if you are one of the many players who is already planning on buying a Porsche, your best option is to save the 5 million FPPs for that, because it is hands down the best $/FPP value (at about 2c/fpp).

All you need to do is break down the FPP value of each thing in the store. We wont even bother covering any of the electronics, because the value of those is very low compared to the other options in the store.

BONUSES:

Most players go for bonuses, because everybody loves cash. Unfortunately, most of the lower teir bonuses are terrible FPP rates compared to the higher. As a reference, i’ll show how much the value changes for someone who is reaching SNE, and will have 3.5million FPPs accumulated over a year.

$50 for 5k – 1c per FPP  – $35000 SNE value

$285 for 25k – 1.14c per FPP – $39900 SNE value

$650 for 50k – 1.3c per FPP – $45500 SNE value

$1500 for 100k – 1.5c per FPP – $52500 SNE value

$4000 for 250k – 1.6c per FPP – $56000 SNE value

The difference between the highest and lowest teired bonus amounts to a $21000 difference for a Supernova Elite! Of course no SNE chaser is going to waste their time on 50$ bonuses, but there are plenty of people who don’t see how much value they are missing by going for anything other than the $4000 bonus.

To take it a step further requires a little more work. The PokerStars Concierge is an excellent service, and you just need to send them receipts of things you would like them to “buy” for you. The minimum amount for a receipt is $500, and it must show the name on the receipt. They convert your FPPs to $ at a rate of 1.61c per FPP.  For a Supernova Elite, this is $56350 worth of value, and your most efficient option.

Not everybody has 56k worth of receipts every year. The $4000 bonus is very close to the exchange rate of the concierge, and is also an extremely good option.

So for anybody who is a Supernova or Elite at Pokerstars, you will make significantly more money if you exchange for only the 4k bonus and Concierge receipts. Anything else is giving up value.

Unless it’s the porsche…

So there’s my short and sweet guide to FPPs! Hopefully it helps some of you readers build your rolls a bit.

VPP COUNT: 17418

Pennsylvania Judge Rules that Poker is a Game of Skill

This is very good news!

I’m definitely getting a bit more time in the past few days, but my late/slow start is still pretty obvious. I’ve been very happy with my play, and have been doing a good job of balancing the rest of my life out as well.

I put in an early AM session this morning, and ran pretty crappy. The early AM games were pretty good though, and that is a convenient time to play with the rest of the house asleep.

Another random thought – Slumdog Millionaire is a great movie. I highly suggest it.

http://citizensbriefingbook.change.gov/

Obama’s website has put up a list of issues that you can vote for/against. The issues are ranked based on popularity, and Legalization/Regulation of Poker is moving up the list quickly (hooray for a large online community!)

So take a minute, and help support my right to take money from fish

Well, I kept this secret mostly to myself throughout the year. Now that Bodog has decided to willingly screw up their software, lose their PT support, and randomly crash while I’m in a hand – I have decided to leave the site.

The information included in this post could be used by many of you new grinders to increase your $/hr in a very big way. Of my close friends who I let in on this little secret, ALL of them saw an extreme increase in their earn over a large sample.

For those of you who play 8+ tables and are reliant on HUDs, this probably won’t effect you very much.

**Bodog has the absolute best table selection at mid-high stakes that I have ever seen.**

Over a sample of ~400k hands on PokerStars 100NL(mostly) and 200NL, my earn was about 3.2ptbb/100. Pretty decent considering the toughness of the tables.

My 109k hand sample at Bodog showed returns of a whopping 7.1ptbb/100. This win-rate is pretty much unheard of for long term FR players. About 60% of my play was at 200NL and the rest was played higher. I even played a few thousand hands at 1000NL, which went very well. The 200NL game on Bodog plays like the 50NL tables on PokerStars. That is how extreme the difference is.

For most of you multi-tabling grinders, this wont make a difference. If you can 12+ table for 2+ptbbs, you’re better off staying where you are.

For the mid-level players who aren’t pulling a great win rate, or don’t play very many tables (or for all of the tuff_fish’s out there) There is absolutely no reason for you to stay with Stars/FTP. Non-Americans would probably have the same result with iPoker, Boss, etc. Even if you can’t get rakeback on the smaller sites, in the long run it will probably be worth it for you to make the move.

I wish someone had given me this advice around the time of the UIGEA. My bankroll would be much bigger right now.

Well, Bodog is officially forcing everyone to update to their new crappy software. Unfortunately, the only handgrabber available has basically been discontinued for the last 1/2 year, and it seems unlikely that they will have an update in the near future.

So without hand histories, HUDs, rakeback, or tolerable software, it is time for me to say goodbye to Bodog. Since I wont be playing there any longer, I think I might include my lifetime Bodog graph in another post, just to show how profitable it was in its prime.

As usual, I’ll have PokerStars to fall back on. They are easily the most reputable, have the highest traffic, and a very solid VPP program. The games are really rough, but I have ~1/2mil hands there as a solid winner, so I’m not concerned. Plus the recent ability to 18-table has been pretty sweet.

Sophy is nearly 2 weeks old now… This parenting thing is much easier than I expected… Nothing exciting aside from an endless wave of soiled diapers and the occasional diaper-change-while-multi-tabling.

I have also applied to prop at a couple of smaller poker sites. They don’t support HUDs or PT either, but if I’m being paid 100%+ rakeback, I don’t really care.

Lifetime Bodog graph, and propping updates to follow!