Help Regulate Online Poker: Send Pre written letter to your Senators

Here is a prewritten letter by PPA. Follow link and send to your senators. Very quick and easy to do.

http://www.mmsend25.com/link.cfm?r=6...597536&type=CO


Summary of what we know so far on 2plus2

Summary of Bill.

November 2010 Review

I'm going to give credit to Citizenwind (Alvin), Mpethybridge (Matt), and the Tilt Breaker Software for my result's this month and a lot of run good. I have finally put it all together and created my own style of play that I am comfortable with. I won't get complacent and will always be looking to tweak my game. For example, The Poker Theorist on CR posted on his blog that he was going to give a couple of free sessions. I pm him and already got 1 free session completed. I'm looking to see if I can get a second lesson this coming week if he is not busy.

I got coaching from Alvin back in July. He has improved my game tremendously. I'm more confident in my pre flop game and post flop game. He gave me so much new information that it took awhile for me to realize why it worked and how to use it in real time at the tables. Matt looked at my HEM Database and was able to spot alot of leaks and offer ways to plug them. I got a copy of Tilt Breaker Software around late October. It has allowed me to play with a peace of mind that I won't light 10 buy ins on fire because I set it at 2.5 bi stop loss. Once it hits my pre set values, the software kicks me off the tables.

I probably played my A game about 90% of the time. I would like to get this even higher so that I can move up stakes and accomplish my long term goal of beating 1/2 NLHE FR. I'm just mediocre at poker so beating that level would be a dream come true.

Goals for December 2010:

1) Complete Rush week and earn $250 bonus.
2) Play A game 100% of time or just quit for day/session
3) Earn at least Gold for the Iron Man so that I can collect my end of year bonus.
4) Stop being a calling station without solid reads.

October and Tilt Breaker Software Review

Swinging down and then back up. I probably played my B game overall because I made too many hero calls for no reason and made alot of little mistakes that hurt my results at $100 NLHE FR Rush.

I've been talking with Winthrop on Skype. I met him a few years back on CR and we have kept in touch. It's def good for my game to talk to someone like Winthrop who has very interesting views on how to play hands. He use to play higher but is currently playing $25 nlhe SH at Poker Stars.

We also made a prop bet where we have to ship each other $1/hand that we play bad. I need to add them all up. I probably owe Winthrop about $10 or so and maybe even more after I critically review all my hands again.

It's so sick, I know what I need to do but I still can't do it while playing. It's like I'm not in control when I'm playing poker. It's ridiculous and I need to fix this ASAP because the cycle of losing and breaking even will continue forever.

I've been testing out this new software called Tilt Breaker. There is also a post by SuicideKing who is looking for feed back in the software program at 2plus2 Software Forum.

It was easy to install and set up. I basically downloaded it and typed in my screen name so that the software would recognize me. It automatically picked up where my hand history were stored. It works with HEM or PT3 but you don't need either as it is a standalone software. You can try it out for free for 15 days before you decide to buy it.

There are currently 4 different ways of controlling your tilt. You can preset stop loss, stop win, stop time played and/or stop hands played and lock down time for each category. Whatever you hit first, it will activate Tilt Breaker and kick you off your cash tables. I don't play tournaments or sit n goes so I"m not really sure how it works. From what I read, Tilt Breaker will let you finish your session but won't let you enter into new tournaments or rematches.

For example, you can preset Tilt Breaker to kick you off your poker tables by presetting it for $300 stop loss from start of session or session peak. Peak session means that if you win $200 within your first couple of hundred of hands and then proceed to lose $300 to be at negative $100 for the session. Tilt Breaker will kick you off the tables. You can also preset how long you want Tilt Breaker to keep you on lock down. I would recommend 30 minutes to two hours depending on how badly you tilt.

There is also a Rage Quit Button that you can manually activate to kick you off the tables. There are 3 levels of tilt that you can preset it at. For example, level 1 will lock you down for 30 minutes, level 2 for 1 hour and level 3 for 3 hours.

I highly recommend this software if you got tilt issues. I know I do, and it has helped tremendously so far in November. I personally set it up at negative $250 (lock down for 30 minutes), positive $250 (lock down for 5 minutes), 1200 hands (lock down for 30 minutes), and 1 hour per session (lock down for 30 minutes). I notice that these numbers were optimal for me because I'm never playing my best when I'm down 2 1/2 bi or up 2 1/2 bi. After 1 hour, I'm playing bad and probably chasing my losses too.

I'm looking forward to seeing how my results will be this month with Tilt Breaker because in October I had sessions where I couldn't get up off the tables and ended dropping around 4 buy ins or more in a session when I should of stopped down 2 or 3 buy ins.

September Review

Went on a little downswing in the beginning of the month and dropped back down to $50 NLHE FR Rush Poker. I got my confidence back and jumped back up to $100 NLHE FR Rush Poker. Feels good to be winning again but I know I can get better results.

I got so many leaks, it's ridiculous. I'm really happy that I can spot my leaks because that allows me to be a better player.

I'm a Black Card Member but it seems like it's not too much of a boost. I earned it by averaging 500 FTP points in the past 100 days. FTP released a new update on 9/30/10. They basically got rid of Iron Man Plus and changed their rakeback system from dealt to weighted contributed. So instead everyone getting an even share of the rake, they will now split it up evenly to the players who contributed. For Example, if sb and bb got it all in preflop for $100 each. FTP would rake $3. SB and BB would get $1.5 worth of mgr. I'm no math wizard but it looks like it might be hurting us in the short term. I'm just going to wait for HEM to release the new rake update for FTP so I can see how it affects me.

My Goals this month is to just keep playing my A game. I'm still trying to stick to my 1 hour session game plan. I went over a little when i was tilted and down a couple of buy ins. It's still very hard for me to quit when I"m stuck. I need to stick to this plan unless I'm playing ridiculously well or the tables are awesome. It's just a way to stay discipline and not tilt off 10 bi in one session because I've done it in the past.

August Review

I think I played alot better this month than last month but my results don't show it. I was up close to 8 bi over 30k hands then I went crashing the next 20k hands down 1 bi. With rakeback, I'm a very very small winner at $100 NLHE Rush Poker. I also tried experimenting with 5 and 6 tabling by adding a couple of $50 NLHE FR Rush Poker toward the middle. Once I started going downward, I dropped back down to 4 tabling.

In the beginning of the month, I was using Citizenwind's concepts but I sort of got away from it because I was frustrated that I kept getting sucked out on the turn or river. It was either a suckout or action killer card. Overall, I just need to think with a clearer head and not be so result oriented. I gotta think through their range and figure if I can get their whole stack, 1, 2 or 3 streets of value. Use logic and reap the rewards.

I'm going to limit myself to 1 hour sessions no matter what for awhile and see how that works with my new style. I got a pretty bad leak where if I'm losing I start to play too many 3 bets pots OOP. I should just fold and get into a better spot IP or as the preflop aggressor. I also gotta stop being a calling station because that is probably my biggest leak. If I can fix those leaks, I should win atleast 10bi's this month for sure because donks just love giving away their money.

Shoutout to SkinnyBrown at CR. We're in the same boat and aspire to be poker pros. He plays $50 and $100 NLHE FR Rush Poker too and we're going to be sweating/talking poker strategy this month.

10k bankroll (Milestone)

I've been thinking about making this milestone for awhile now. My bankroll will fluctuate but it's nice to see 10k in the bankroll. I always withdraw so it never got this high ever until now. Def feels good.

July 2010 Summary

I finally decided to hire Citizenwind (Alvin Lau) to coach me in $100 NLHE FR Rush Poker. I always liked his CR videos and his style of play. I've gotten 3 of 4 lessons already and will get the last one sometime in August. If your thinking about hiring Alvin, you have to throw your ego out the window because he isn't going to hold back if he thinks you play bad. I read his review on CR so I didn't take any of it personally but it did sting a little :)

I was down 14 bi in early July and then i hired Alvin to coach me. I then went on a 14 bi upswing over about 40k hands or so. So I broke even for the month over 68k hands which is not so bad because I made money from rakeback/bonuses.

I'm really looking forward to August and seeing how this new style will work for me. The sick thing is I think I ran bad on turn and rivers for the past 40k hands. I would easily be up about 10 bi or more. I can remember about 4-6 sets that gut suck out on the turn or river or very scary cards hitting and killing my action.

Good Luck

All Hands Since Oct 2009 to end of June 2010

That graph represents all my hands since Oct 30 2009 to the end of June 2010 in big blinds. Overall, I'm okay with it because I tilted so much during that time. With rake back and bonuses it's not too terrible.

The last 80k hands on that graph is all $100 nlhe FR Rush and I didn't even look at my results all month. If I would had looked when I was down over 20 bi I would had tilted. I made a nice recovery and almost go back to even for June but ended down about 6 bi.

I'm going to stick with not looking at my results again. I notice that I play very long for my losing sessions and about 1-2 hours for my winning sessions.

I'm going to try to stick with 1 hour and if I feel good go another hour or so. Funny thing is I just played a 4 hour session. I'm such a degen and set rules that I break. If only the tilt demon software would work for me on my computer. I got Morny, tilt demon support to do a teamviewer session with me but he couldn't get it to work. I'm hoping he can find the problem soon because I def need that piece of software.

As for fitness, got a lot of family members visiting for graduation parties and July 4th so I haven't been too good with diet/exercise. Going to get back in a better routine this month for sure. At least I didn't gain any pounds and my stamina is way better. I'm able to run over 1 mile on the treadmill without killing myself so that a positive. I did end up losing that ten pounds and hope to lose another 5 pounds this month.

Happy 4 of July!

Oh yeah, Please Donate if you Can. The PPA is trying to raise funds to help get online poker regulated in America. I copy and pasted a post that "TheEngineer" posted on 2plus2......



On July 1st, PPA will mark the one month anniversary of full implementation of the UIGEA banking regulations with the Poker Money Bomb! The money bomb will allow us to fight back and to stand up for ourselves proactively via donations to PPA and the PokerPAC (paid members are eligible to donate to the PAC). We'll let our opponents know that we're not lying down and we're not giving up.


I recorded a spot promoting the Poker Money Bomb, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFjeUo3KnQI.
DIGG: http://digg.com/world_news/Poker_Pla...mb_on_July_1st

Main site: www.pokermoneybomb.com
PPA Donations: http://theppa.org/donate
PokerPAC Donations: http://theppa.org/about/pokerpac/donations/

New Poker Mindset

I played about 80k hands last month. I played a mix of $50 and $100 NLHE FR Regular and Rush Poker. I"m probably up around $1500 with rakeback but I'm not exactly sure because I haven't looked at my HEM results or FTP cashier. I got the idea after I read Bazclef's blog about resetting your poker bankroll mentally and accepting for what it is. Tommy Angelo also talks about it in his Deuces Crack video about not getting attach to your peak bankroll. I'm starting to realize that it leads to me tilting and chasing losses because I want to get even all the time.

I chased losts twice last month at $1-2 NLHE FR Rush. It could of led to disaster but I was lucky that I ran well up there.

I haven't looked at my HEM results or FTP cashier for over 1 week now. I'm probably up a little but I'm not exactly sure. I like this approach and don't plan to look at my results until the end of the month. We'll see how long I can last because I might accidentally see it.

Once I look, I'll post a graph of my last 100k plus hands.

I'm also trying to get Tilt Demon Software to work. It's a neat program that will shut down your poker client if you reach your stop loss, stop win, hand or time limit. You set it before hand and it will keep track for you with HEM. I haven't got it to work yet but I emailed support. I'm hoping to get it running so I can test it out. If I like it, I will buy it. There is a 14 day free trial. Check it out and let me know what you think. Here's the link.

Tilt Demon Software


He also has a Tilt Demon Savings Calculator. It will calculate how much you won/lost after a hand min, cash won or lost min or time min. For example, if you put in 1 hour. The savings calculator will calculate your win rate after one hour. So if your session lasted 1 hour and 30 minutes. The software will show you how much you won/lost for the last 30 minutes over your whole or range of data in HEM. It's pretty neat. and it's free too!

As for this month, I'm focusing on playing 4 tables of $100 nlhe FR Rush. I never thought I would get hook but I'm starting to like Rush Poker. I'll try to limit my sessions for 1-2 hours. After 2 hours, I notice I'm not playing my A game anymore because I'm probably chasing losses.

Good luck

April Summary and Goals

I played about 22k hands of $50 nlhe FR, 2k hands of $50 nlhe FR Rush Poker, and 600 hands of $100 nlhe HU. I know I said I wasn't going to play $100 nlhe but I think that was before I made my last post. It's strange, I have a little degen in me that always wants to play higher and chase losses. I gotta fix this leak or I will never reach my poker goals.

Overall, I won about $500 plus $200 in rakeback so it was a successful month in my book. I read Vizer's blog and he wrote about eventually playing 4 tables of Rush Poker and 12 regular tables. I tried 2 tables of Rush and 14 regular but it was too fast pace for me. I dropped it down to 1 table of Rush and 15 regular tables and it was perfect. I use Table Ninja and Hotkeys so I don't have to click as much so I can play about 1200 hands/hour.

I use to hate Rush Poker but I've accepted it for what it is. A total nit fest with some players who love to spew off stacks. I don't think I could ever just focus on Rush but I'll play one table of it.

As for the fitness goals, I only lost about 5 pounds so I'm halfway there. If I stick to my diet and gym plan, I should lose another 5 pounds this month and start to play $100 nlhe FR again.

I'm at around 70k hands since my last graph. I will post the 100k hand graph when I get there.

March Summary and Goals

I've been playing alot more $50 nlhe FR because I went on a 8 bi downswing at $100 nlhe FR and lost some confidence. It feels good to play a little lower because the competition is softer. I played a little over 20k hands losing about $100. With rake back, I must of won around $200 for the month of March. I'll take it, much nicer than losing.

I cashed out some money and I plan to play $50 nlhe FR to regain some confidence. My plan is to keep playing $50 nlhe FR until I lose about 10 pounds. I want to feel better mentally and physically before I jump back up to $100 nlhe FR. It'll be a win win situation. I'll be healthier physically and get to challenge myself at a higher level. I think it'll take me a little over a month to do this if I watch my diet and go to the gym.

Good Luck

February Summary and $100 NLHE FR

I started off playing 1k hands of $50 nlhe FR and won 1 bi. I then jumped up to $100 nlhe FR and played about 19k hands and won 8 bi. At first, I was def scared money but I quickly adjusted to the bigger pots and started winning.

I seriously need to learn how to bet/fold at this level. I have not caught too many unknowns who are capable of bluffing in beginning of sessions or when I have no reads. The only time I can make a hero call/or be happy about it is when I actually have a read that they don't bet thin for value or their tilting after getting bad beated. I guess my thought process is, "I'm about breakeven or down for this session. If I catch him bluffing, I'll be up for this session. I call." I need to get that out of my system because I'll never be able to beat $100 nlhe FR over a significant sample if I keep doing that.

Overall, I'm happy that I played relatively well enough to win at $100 nlhe FR this month. I'm hoping to plug my leaks and win at a higher clip.

I'll post another graph at 100 k hands.

Graph of 101k Hands of $50 nlhe FR at FTP since Nov 2009

I basically fought the urge to play higher and stuck with this stake since November. It kinda of feels good that I have the discipline to stick with a plan. I give credit to my online alarm clock system and the willingness to just quit when I don't feel like playing my A game. It's still tough to get up when stuck but it's best for my long term edge.

Toward the end of my 100k hand run, I tried Rush Poker and dropped 2 bi at $50 and 2 bi at $100 nlhe FR over 5k hands. Kinda of sucks to drop that cash when I hate Rush Poker. I hate that game, no read and history. I def plan to never play it again for anything significant. I might play it if I feel like messing around but nothing serious.

I also love the fact that FTP increased the min buyin for the regular tables from 20bb to 35bb. It has made a tremendous difference in table selection and dynamics. I'm hoping this will actually increase my win rate because it was tough to extract value from donkeys when short stackers kept shoving over my open raises. The donkey would limp, i iso r and sstacker shoves. They def ruined the game and made everyone's win rate go down.

I probably tilted around 3-5 times during this 100k hand stretch. I notice that I tend to call alot when I'm on tilt and push draws. It's kinda of weird way to tilt because villain's range is already tight and they tend to hero call with medium strength hands or better. If I can turn it down a notch and pick the right spots to semibluff or bet thin for value, it would def increase my win rate.

To tell you the truth, I don't know what I want to do right now. I didn't crush $50 nlhe FR like I wanted to. I played and ran terrible in the beginning but made a nice comeback toward the end. I'll probably just continue to play $50 nlhe FR during the week and play $100 nlhe FR toward the weekends. Once I feel very confident, I'll step it up and play alot of $100 nlhe FR.

Good luck at the Tables

80k hands of $50 nlhe FR and counting

I finally had the urge to move up to play $100 nlhe FR yesterday but I fought that urge when I saw that I had around 80k of $50 nlhe FR hands since November 1st, 2009. I'll stick out the 100k hands at $50 nlhe FR and I'll post my graph when I complete that challenge. Overall, I didn't run so good but I probably only tilted about 2-3 times. Nothing major because I set my online alarm for 1 hour and then check my mental status when it beeps. I've gotten strong enough mentally to go 2-3 hours without tilt now, which is nice.

I've also been watching alot of CR, Leggo, and Bluefire Poker Videos. My favorites are Niman Kenkre, Aejones, Leatherass, Brian Towsend, and Boywonder's videos. Boywonder is a new instructor at Leggopoker and his first video was amazing. I particular like his mental approach to the game. He has a cool thread at 2plus2 where he answers lots of questions about his approach to the game of poker. Check it out if you haven't , u won't be dissapointed.

I've also been analyzing my hand histories. I've been in contact with Damnringer, Peterpjames, and Jason (LuckySOB). I Aimed Jason but somehow he wasn't able to view weaktight. I'll have to resend him those hand history in text form because he's played millions of FR hands. I've also been talking with QQ-Q u a d s-QQ who plays $100 nlhe FR at FTP. He's been crushing it for over a year now and I was able to get in contact with him at 2plus2. He's agreed to coach me even though he has no experience coaching. I've sweated him a few times and I like his game. He does alot of things well and is very confident about his poker game.

As for 2010 goals. I just want to play my A game at all times and eventually just beat $100 nlhe FR. I'm just going to set my goals low and realistic because I want to reach my goal this year. My real longterm goal is to beat $200 nlhe FR. Who knows when that will take place because of my tilt issues.

Good luck