Just a few quick bullet points in lieu of a full post:
I’m about 90% of the way to Supernova on Pokerstars. Should have it finished by mid-october. In addition to the 40% bump in FPPs over Platinum Star, I really like the ability to make big purchases outside the VIP store with FPPs through the concierge service.
I received a review copy of Poker Co-Pilot, a pokertracker-like program for Mac from Steve, the developer. I will write up a full review on this site shortly. It’s a very promising program, though it still needs work to compete with Hold Em Manager and Pokertracker as a truly professional tool.
Frustratingly, I’m still playing the same stakes I was about 9 months ago – mostly 50c/$1 and $1/$2 NL 6max. While this is a lot higher than I started in the poker world, one of my goals for the year was to start playing $2/$4 regularly and I’ve probably played fewer than 500 hands at those stakes so far this year.
I played one WCOOP event and didn’t cash. I don’t even know why I bother with tournaments, my record is pretty terrible but I always get the itch to take a shot.
I finally bought a new home computer. I decided to put Ubuntu Linux on it, and it’s been quite the adventure trying to get all the poker software working in the Virtual PC program. Good learning experience.
I’ve started a wonderful new job, which means I have far less time to play poker than I used to. I’ve set up several pieces of software like TableNinja that make multi-tabling much simpler. I only have 1-2 hours a day to play at most so I try to get in a lot of volume during that time.
I’ve been playing a pretty loose VPIP ~30 style at the small-stakes games, with the corresponding LAGtard stuff like 3-betting really light and flatting 4-bets in position. This is kind of a funny development for me, as I was THE biggest nit when I started playing poker, and made my way up the stakes playing a pretty laughably weak-tight style (probably PFR 12 or so).
I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of poker, and the “games are dead” debates that seem to permeate most forums. I think there’s a lot of truth to that, and the days of random tournament winners and rich fish just donking off $40,000 at a time playing Durrrr heads up are probably in the past. At the same time, the poker companies have globalized their markets masterfully. The games at 100NL and 200NL are fantastic and virtually every 69/0 fish is from Germany, Russia, France or some of the newer markets that weren’t a part of online poker until recently. Credit the EPT, televised poker, and the Stars/Full Tilt marketing apparatus.
Poker is still fun. I’ve had some awful swings but you definitely become a little more numb to +/- 500bb swings in NL the more you play – it just can’t be avoided. There are still interesting spots, there are still fish, and there are still 200,000 people logged onto stars most of the time. I’m still happy.
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Great post Verstehen! GL with your NL games!