First impression of iPoker

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm playing on iPoker this week mostly.
Just want to see if the rakeback/faster tables/more tables/better bonuses make up for the tougher games.
After 10K hands I can say for sure that the games are definately thougher, mostly because there are lot more multitabling regs and not so much complete donks.
On some tables the only 'fish' are the 30/10, 17/5 type of players.

So am still not sure on which site my $/hour will be the highest.
If I have to guess I think my winrate @ iPoker will be at least 2 ptbb lower then on Everest.
When playing on iPoker it helps alot to install iPokerbolide ($39) it let you change the tables and cards and that's really helpful.

I also bought 500K hands (NL400/NL600) on HHdealer.com (thanx for the tip in the comments) and this is really a very big advantage when playing on a new site.
Besides that I now already have huge samples of almost all my opponents it's also nice to do some analyzing on the winners/losers in the games....

Some interesting things I noticed:

* From the 10 players that play the most hands (20K+), 7 are losing over this sample.
* During a month on NL600 and 10 days of NL400, fishy players (get fish list in HM) donated $155K to the games, which is around $350 per fish.
* The average grinder (10K+ hands) plays a 20/16/3.4 game.

Some nice hands:

This hand was against a decent player, my image was pretty tight here so I didn't like 4betting here that much.

***** Hand History for Game 1133246594 *****
$600.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, August 25, 12:19:51 ET 2008
Table Ribeira (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Seat 1: Motommy ( $771.00 USD )
Seat 3: thedeise ( $344.15 USD )
Seat 5: bucuster ( $615.59 USD )
Seat 6: Tweeeek ( $861.30 USD )
Seat 10: bldzwttrn ( $1212.00 USD )
bldzwttrn posts small blind [$3.00 USD].
Motommy posts big blind [$6.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to bldzwttrn [ Qs Qd ]
thedeise calls [$6.00 USD]
bucuster calls [$6.00 USD]
Tweeeek folds
bldzwttrn raises [$27.00 USD]
Motommy raises [$84.00 USD]
thedeise folds
bucuster folds
bldzwttrn calls [$60.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4d, 7h, 6c ]
bldzwttrn checks
Motommy bets [$96.00 USD]
bldzwttrn calls [$96.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qc ]
bldzwttrn checks
Motommy bets [$585.00 USD]
bldzwttrn calls [$585.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 6s ]
bldzwttrn wins $1551.00 USD from main pot
Motommy shows [Ks, Kh ]

This player is an ubergrinder, don't know what happened with him here....he left right after this hand.

***** Hand History for Game 1133256970 *****
$600.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, August 25, 12:28:35 ET 2008
Table Ovalle (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Seat 1: Tweeeek ( $600.00 USD )
Seat 3: bldzwttrn ( $605.25 USD )
Seat 6: SantaFe04 ( $627.45 USD )
Seat 8: bucuster ( $923.15 USD )
Seat 10: tusendrakar ( $556.44 USD )
tusendrakar posts small blind [$3.00 USD].
Tweeeek posts big blind [$6.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to bldzwttrn [ 8h 8d ]
bldzwttrn raises [$21.00 USD]
SantaFe04 calls [$21.00 USD]
bucuster folds
tusendrakar calls [$18.00 USD]
Tweeeek folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6d, 8s, 2h ]
tusendrakar bets [$34.50 USD]
bldzwttrn calls [$34.50 USD]
SantaFe04 raises [$186.00 USD]
tusendrakar folds
bldzwttrn calls [$151.50 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ac ]
bldzwttrn checks
SantaFe04 bets [$420.45 USD]
bldzwttrn calls [$398.25 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Ad ]
bldzwttrn wins $1269.00 USD from main pot
SantaFe04 wins $22.20 USD from main pot
SantaFe04 shows [Qs, Ks ]

Slowplaying can be fun....

***** Hand History for Game 1134667669 *****
$600.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, August 25, 10:52:14 ET 2008
Table TURBO Kanyu (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Seat 1: wasson8 ( $881.00 USD )
Seat 3: bucuster ( $621.90 USD )
Seat 5: black117 ( $111.00 USD )
Seat 6: time25 ( $777.40 USD )
Seat 8: Unclefvcker ( $650.55 USD )
Seat 10: bldzwttrn ( $597.00 USD )
Unclefvcker posts small blind [$3.00 USD].
bldzwttrn posts big blind [$6.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to bldzwttrn [ Qs Qh ]
wasson8 folds
bucuster raises [$18.00 USD]
black117 folds
time25 folds
Unclefvcker folds
bldzwttrn raises [$52.00 USD]
bucuster calls [$40.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qc, 4d, 9d ]
bldzwttrn checks
bucuster checks
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3c ]
bldzwttrn bets [$80.00 USD]
bucuster raises [$160.00 USD]
bldzwttrn calls [$80.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Qd ]
bldzwttrn checks
bucuster bets [$403.90 USD]
bldzwttrn calls [$379.00 USD]
bucuster wins $24.90 USD from main pot
bldzwttrn wins $1194.00 USD from main pot
bucuster shows [Ad, Ks ]

This guy was really overagressive spewy.

***** Hand History for Game 1133877261 *****
$600.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, August 25, 03:11:17 ET 2008
Table TURBO GreveStrand (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Seat 1: Meta1Gear1 ( $1353.95 USD )
Seat 3: gogoplex ( $951.00 USD )
Seat 5: bldzwttrn ( $537.00 USD )
Seat 6: BiancaConti ( $908.90 USD )
Seat 8: iibmuz ( $606.00 USD )
Seat 10: crazygirl100 ( $594.00 USD )
iibmuz posts small blind [$3.00 USD].
crazygirl100 posts big blind [$6.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to bldzwttrn [ Ts Th ]
Meta1Gear1 raises [$18.00 USD]
gogoplex folds
bldzwttrn raises [$63.00 USD]
BiancaConti folds
iibmuz folds
crazygirl100 folds
Meta1Gear1 raises [$210.00 USD]
bldzwttrn raises [$474.00 USD]
Meta1Gear1 calls [$309.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9s, 5c, 3s ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qh ]
** Dealing River ** [ Kh ]
bldzwttrn wins $1080.00 USD from main pot
Meta1Gear1 shows [4h, 6h ]

I like the way I played this hand, although the river is pretty thin:

***** Hand History for Game 1135271195 *****
$600.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, August 26, 12:41:13 ET 2008
Table Adria (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Seat 1: alfiesdad99 ( $547.30 USD )
Seat 3: FabMab ( $542.33 USD )
Seat 5: Gohansan ( $594.00 USD )
Seat 6: hestkewken ( $1194.00 USD )
Seat 8: bldzwttrn ( $639.55 USD )
Seat 10: crazygirl100 ( $600.00 USD )
Gohansan posts small blind [$3.00 USD].
hestkewken posts big blind [$6.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to bldzwttrn [ As Qh ]
bldzwttrn raises [$21.00 USD]
crazygirl100 folds
alfiesdad99 folds
FabMab calls [$21.00 USD]
Gohansan folds
hestkewken folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8h, 6s, 4d ]
bldzwttrn bets [$39.00 USD]
FabMab calls [$39.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Kh ]
bldzwttrn bets [$88.00 USD]
FabMab calls [$88.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Qs ]
bldzwttrn bets [$190.00 USD]
FabMab calls [$190.00 USD]
FabMab wins $682.00 USD from main pot
FabMab shows [Kd, 8d ]

Setup vs huge fish (the other player folded 6d4d):

***** Hand History for Game 1133024223 *****
$600.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, August 24, 09:46:51 ET 2008
Table Ostia (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: mypot147 ( $793.49 USD )
Seat 3: bldzwttrn ( $1116.00 USD )
Seat 5: Gohansan ( $894.00 USD )
Seat 6: Kriskator ( $619.35 USD )
Seat 8: ThinkB4UAct ( $734.85 USD )
Seat 10: bucuster ( $871.40 USD )
Kriskator posts small blind [$3.00 USD].
ThinkB4UAct posts big blind [$6.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to bldzwttrn [ 9d 8d ]
bucuster folds
mypot147 raises [$12.00 USD]
bldzwttrn calls [$12.00 USD]
Gohansan folds
Kriskator folds
ThinkB4UAct calls [$6.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Kd, Qd, 5d ]
ThinkB4UAct checks
mypot147 checks
bldzwttrn bets [$30.00 USD]
ThinkB4UAct calls [$30.00 USD]
mypot147 raises [$60.00 USD]
bldzwttrn raises [$150.00 USD]
ThinkB4UAct folds
mypot147 raises [$721.49 USD]
bldzwttrn calls [$601.49 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8h ]
** Dealing River ** [ Qc ]
mypot147 wins $1628.98 USD from main pot
mypot147 shows [Ad, Jd ]

Back to the grinding

Holidays are over so it's time to play some hands again.
Haven't really played much the past 7 weeks, but I'm planning on playing a lot again starting tommorrow. Had some troubles with my computer, which was getting way too slow. Couldn't get 8 tabels open with a HUD. When I have my new computer I will try to play 8-10 tables again.
Really hope to play at least 75K hands until the end of September.

I'm also planning on playing some more hands on iPoker as I have a very nice deal over there, but I just hate the software. Hope that installing iPokerbolide will make it a better site to play on, so far it seems a lot better. Now I just have to see how the competition is over there.
It's always difficult to start on a new site, because the advantage to know every player on a site is so valuable.

So far August has been very unlucky. On NL400 I'm just above 0, but running 20 buy-ins below equity. Lucky for me I run a little bit above expectation on NL600+ (2 buy-ins), so still making an average profit of $0,40 per hand.

As I'm planning on playing more, I also hope to post some more hands here.
Just wish me luck.

Back from holiday

I just arrived back home from my holiday in Greece.
Had a very nice time with a lot of sun and relaxing.
Had time to read a lot of books and as I'm planning to start investing some money, I read some books about it.
One very nice and interesting book was Liar's poker (no it's not about poker...).
It's about a bond trader in London during the mid 80's. It's amazing to read how easy it was to make money in the bond market during that period.
It's really fun to read how much poker is like trading bonds/stocks, it's all about taking calcaluted risks, so no suprise I'm thinking about a future job in that area.
For the moment I will go back playing poker, but never know when the time is right to look for a 'real' job...

Not easy to start grinding again after days on places like this...