The Poker Aquarium

Been playing some poker again after about a week off. My grandfather has been in bad shape since a bad car crash on Christmas eve, and actually passed away early this morning. Both the loss and timing were bad for my family, but at least grandpa wasn't in pain, and he won't have to fight his cancer anymore.

I've only played maybe an hour or so all week till today when I thought it'd be good to take my mind off things. I played 4 $100 matches today, and I've won all 4. My 4th match was my 60th since I moved up to $100 matches.

My results through the first 30 matches was in the black, but not by a whole lot at 17 wins 13 losses. Don't get me wrong I'll take it, but I'm looking for a higher winning %. I felt that quite a few of the wins were due to bad beats, but some could have easily been avoided.

The last 30 matches have been better though, and I'm 23-7 over that stretch. I feel I'm coming up with a pretty optimum strategy for these heads up matches. Keep the pots small when you are raising strong hands, and raise a little more often than you think you should. Control the pot size, stay aggressive (including calling down when you think you are ahead even if not strong) and you'll win a lot.

$T buying has been going great. Still have over $5000 in T$ and they increase my overall profits by about $8-9 per match, win or lose.

Starting January first as you all probably know stars is starting their VIP program and I'm gonna try and bust my ass and get gold status. I'll have to play 160 matches in January to qualify, or about 5 a day. Should be a fun challange, and at this rate I'd expect about $7000 profit for the month, so wish me luck. At this rate it will only take me about 40 years for the porsche, so hopefully they are still cool when I'm 65. hehe

Good flops in the new year, all!


Cheers,
Tad

I was checking out a list of blacklisted poker and casino sites and came across some disturbing news.

"Pokertropolis is blacklisted because they use poker bots (computerized players run by the house) at their tables. Their management denies this, but anyone who plays there will realize that they are not playing against human opponents. "

Can you believe a poker site is using bots? The site is pretty solid, don't see them making that up. Now while that is one thing... what Joyland Casino did is horrible. I'm just going "Oh My God" throughout.

One poster says, "The problem is that Joyland Casino has changed my transaction history and he has deleted my withdrawal request of 4529 and substituted it for another of only 500 euros (my original deposit), this is the amount that I have received into my neteller account, only 500 of my 4529 withdrawal requested.I have been talking with the casino's support but they have not tell me anything."

Other people have the same complaint. "I have had the same problem with Joyland with my initial deposit made on 8/4. They adjusted my withdraw request of about $1500 down to $500, my deposit amount."

We're talking thousands of dollars stolen from individual accounts. "The total estimated owed to players ranges from $100,000 to half a million."

"I signed up to their casino on the 4th of August and deposited $500 and did receive an $808 signup bonus. I played some video poker (allowed by their terms) and had a very good run, then played blackjack (also allowed) and had some more very good luck. I made some cashouts that night just over ten thousand USD. I also played well over their required wagering for the bonus, and it was removed from my account on cashout.much to my suprise they simply refunded my $500 deposit, and locked out my account. I have not been able to login to the casino since 8/5, and have received minimal support."

Oh my god. 9500 stolen. They won't let you cash out your winnings. They only give you back your deposit. On top of that there are reports that they have altered transaction histories to make it appear as if you didn't actually win anything.

"I did contact the casino CS. They said there was a bug in their system, and so they were voiding all wins for that day. Deposits were being returned instead. Somehow I don't think deposits were returned for people who busted out though."

"Today I received an offer from Joyland to give me $500 to settle the account. Considering I'm missing out on over $10,000, this figure doesn't look nearly as appealing."

What a horrible situation. I can't imagine being one of these players. If anyone wants to check out these devestating accounts, here are a couple links.

http://bonuswhores.com/blacklisted-sites.php
http://www.casinomeister.com/forums/online-casino-poker-complaints/9195-joyland-casino-problem-withdrawal-request.html

I found this hilarious site while browsing fullcontactpoker forums tonight. Parodies include http://www.parttimepoker.com/poker-humor/articles/depositbonus-baby.html

"At least with frequent player points you can choose your merch, but with this you get whatever his wife happened to pop out last. Plus it's like 15 times the bonus in raked hands to clear, which is excessive."

Yes, what is the world coming to when you have to play 15x to earn a baby. I won't do this one for more than 10x.

http://www.parttimepoker.com/poker-humor/articles/tj-ripshead.htm

I especially love the punchline. Then Maksteniks uttered what would ultimately be his final words: "Sorry T.J. - but I love your book. It taught me everything I know."

Another highlight: http://www.parttimepoker.com/poker-humor/articles/aces-terrible.htm

"DID U SEE HIM CALAL [sic] WIHT [sic] THAT CRAP?! I **** HATE ACES. AA IS A ***** TERBIBLE [sic] HAND"

Apparently frustrated by the site's automatic obscenity filter which prevented other players from seeing his curses in chat, MRTITLTY proceeded to experiment with spelling and spacing variations for the following four minutes, including "PHUCKING ACES", "F_UK ACES", "AA FKUKING BLAWS." ...Love it.