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Affilliation
Redding, Digging, and a Triplejack Comeback
The past few days I’ve been reading around about Digg and Reddit. I’ve been considering promoting this blog to something more than a personal journal, so I’ve been looking around at what I could do. Well, it would seem that I’d have to do quite a lot if I want this to be more than a journal.
The thing is, original content is tough. There are tons of original content already out there, just finding a topic to talk about that hasn’t been dealt with can be somewhat of a feat. Of course, I can always just give commentaries/opinions (don’t I already?), but it does take a lot to stand out and be respectable.
For now, that’s a bit too much work for me, and I am on vacation. So, I’ll just stick with journaling for now.
With that, I’m just gonna mention that I had a very bad Triplejack day last Sunday, I lost more than 80% of my bankroll. Given the rough gaming week I had last week, it was a bit of a struggle not to feel down. It took a while for my professional mode to kick in: it happens, just like poker, you can’t always be dealt a good hand, and even good hands can lose. So, I let it roll. I stopped playing for a while and focused on other things.
Today, I resumed play. My Warcraft got better and my Magic: The Gathering Online, though not improved, is going to get some changes based on what I’ve been reading (apparently, fungus decks appear to be unfavored, in spite of the fact that I currently enjoy playing it a lot).
As for my poker? I got back my lost 80% PLUS profit! I also beat my “most profitable hand” stats.
Not bad, not bad at all.
With that out of the way, I can resume my various readings for the rest of the day.
Tags: TriplejackJack’s the Man of the Day
Before I retire for the night (morning?), I just want to mention that today was a Jack day. I lost a lot at Triplejack.com today due to a lot of weak plays. I lost a lot, and I lost bad. After (or while) doing some website related research, I basically worked on getting it all back, and it was very difficult.
Just as night was ending for me, I was getting some of my groove back, and I noticed that the Jacks were the hands that were helping me. I still had a ways to go to break even when I chanced upon pocket Jacks, and people started with their all-in frenzies. I was the stack leader, so I decided “what the hell”, and joined the bandwagon.
It turned out to be the most profitable Triplejack.com hand so far! Monster pot given the buy-in and blinds! As usual, I was too excited to get a screen shot, but the record is in my stats.
There, I let it out already. Now I can sleep.
Tags: TriplejackFirst Quads!
I got my first quads today at Triplejack. My hand being A3 off-suit, I was pissed at the pre-flop “all-in guys” dominating the board, so I decided to take a shot. It ended up with an Aces over King quad! I was so caught off-guard that I wasn’t able to take a screen-shot, but it’s recorded in my Triplejack stats.
Given the luck, I used the opportunity to practice using a large stack. It’s quite risky, but I managed to take a bunch of people off the board, but I still need to practice using the stack. In the end, I did lose 1k from that particular session’s high, but I still gained 3k profit, which is pretty good for me.
I wonder if the day will come when 3k profits are more the norm than the exception for me…?
Tags: TriplejackDelayed Nuts
For some reason, all the hands being dealt to me are the nuts for the previous hand!!! So annoying. Put me on tilt several times today.
— edit —
For some reason, I did great in Full Tilt. I missed a big pot when I had flushes (the person who got the pot just had a straight! A STRAIGHT!), but I folded to raises. I was so afraid that they had a better flush, I sometimes forget that flushes can be tough to get (not to mention that I was blind to the straight).
Well, at times like that, I always try to remember what 2005 WSOP 2nd placer Steve Dannenmann said during the final table… “Folding to a raise is just a small mistake”. I got myself into a nice 2 pair, buffed up my guys, and won a bigger pot! Now my Full Tilt bankroll is at its record high (still pathetic compared to the regulars, tho).
Aside from me not feeling so bad when I lose, Full Tilt has several has a big advantage to Triplejack (where I’m at a -$500 this weekend to my all week high, but still $1k higher than last week) that helps me relax… no or few roulette players. Roulette players make me tense, since they make me gamble instead of play. I like playing poker ‘coz the concentration I put per had helps me focus on a single activity. Roulette removes almost need for concentration since everyone basically has a good chance of winning the pot.
I still feel more accomplished when I do well in Triplejack, tho. It’s probably because to survive in such a hostile and random environment is a different kind of accomplishment.
Tags: Full Tilt, TriplejackDownfall on Tilt, Comeback on Jack
Since I don’t feel so attached to my Full Tilt Poker .net game, I use it primarily as my experimentation account. I tend to play loose there, and I practice being aggressive. I got a lot more practicing to do, I lost everything there, and I just had another re-buy.
It almost seemed that my bad beat in Full Tilt Poker .net would also go to Triplejack, I almost lost everything I painstakingly gained this weekend, but I slowly got a few nice bumps. I had several hits and misses, and my stack was kept jumping up and down. This was mainly due to some remnants of the loose/aggressive game I was practicing in Full Tilt Poker .net. Somehow, I got into a good groove, and I managed to improve my blend of conservatism and aggression. Due to this, I not only recovered my stack, but also made a little bump to my best winnings yet.
I just have to understand what plays I did right, and what plays I did wrong, hopefully, I can confidently repeat this winning, and reduce the losing.
BTW, I noticed that I seemed to get the dog/canine/fido hand (K9) in Triplejack a lot, and it proved to be an unlucky hand for me. I have won several of my key pots by having a Queen in my hand somehow. Maybe the Queen was my muse at today’s games. I wonder if she’ll be helping me the same way in future hands…?
Tags: Full Tilt, TriplejackLearning to Transcend the Crawl
I tried to get back my max play money in Triplejack Poker, but I was just a few hundred dollars away. Still, I made a careful and calculated comeback. I noticed that aside from Filipino’s, the players are mostly Aussies. It’s probably because of the time-zone.
I think that tight play is good for crawling, but that’s just it, it’s a crawl. I know there’s a lot to improve in my win rate, so I decided to loosen up and try to see things in a better perspective. I watched a semi-finals match between Gus Hansen and Antonio Esfandiari (The Magician). It was only between the two of them, so they only have to outread each other. I was amazed at how well they could tell what cards each other had! The viewer can see both hands, but whenever they fold, you’ll be amazed at how accurately they can tell who had the better deal (only one fold was wrong in this particular episode).
I noticed that Hansen wore a Full Tilt Poker .net shirt, which to me is further proof that the .net version of the software and site is affiliated with the .com version (although they never mention it in either sites, strange). Well, I said I wanted to play loose and learn, and based on my previous post about Full Tilt Poker .net, I don’t feel as bad losing money there. So, I loaded-up Full Tilt Poker .net and got on with my experiment.
Although my objective was to get loose, it was quite frustrating. I’ve been on a losing streak in Full Tilt Poker .net the past few days too, but this time I lost everything. I had to rebuy the base play money and basically start over again. I did notice that people there bet more, most probably due to the larger sums they have. In my typical games at Full Tilt Poker .net, a player had around 5k to call and raise, so they are probably willing to risk more given an average hand. In Triplejack Poker, I run into few with more than 1.5k, people tend to bank when they get around that much (perhaps since the typical buy in is lower and the blinds are higher).
When I restarted, I resigned myself to losing and just use this opportunity to experiment with risk (hey, I did hit rock bottom already). I tried to be careful as usual, but I also tried to call relatively high raises in hands that I felt just had an fighting chance. It turns out that those risks were very profitable for me. Yes, I did fold a lot eventually at times, but I also gained back quite a few where my hand ended up being better upon the river. I didn’t really close notice how I chose my battles, I wish I did. I do hope that it was ingrained in me somehow, and that I notice it next time.
Well, I not only regained what I lost in Full Tilt Poker .net, I also reached my record high! I hope I continue to learn the nuances.
I was so nervous in my “big win” (others will scoff at the pathetic amount) that I wasn’t able to take a screen shot. Below, however, is a screen shot of a small win shortly after my “big win”. It may not be much, but yey, I’m AM still a newb.
Triplejack and Full Tilt
Given that Triplejack Poker is the flavor of the month, I’ve been surfing for poker related items on the ‘net. After following some chains search results and links, I ran into the the name “Phil Ivey“, which eventually landed me on “Full Tilt Poker“. It claims to be made with a lot of feedback from players, and it does appear to be one of the more popular means to play poker online. Like Triplejack Poker, it features “play money”, but it also supports real money.
What confused me was that there was also a “Full Tilt Poker .net“, with pretty much the same stuff. I was wondering if one of the sites is a fake, but based on the Wikipedia article about it, it appears that the .net site is “play money only”.
Since I have no intention of using real money, I got the play money only version of the software and tried it out. Here are some of the more significant things I noticed in the past few days of playing Full Tilt Poker .net:
- you can “re-buy” play money, and have a 5 minute waiting time like Triplejack Poker (re-buy is 1k though)
- although there are wacky avatars, in general, Full Tilt has a more serious feel
- people there don’t talk much
- few people there play roulette style (I don’t like roulette style, so its a plus for me)
- the entry level game is 1k buy in and 10/5 blinds, which makes a “re-buy” last longer theoretically (Triplejack Poker is 500 buy-in with with 20/10 blinds)
- you don’t feel you bet/gain a lot, even if you actually do (I feel like I’m rewarded or that I lose more in Triplejack Poker)
- I seem to be more aggressive when I play there
- I do feel that the players there are better in general
- when the showdown comes, the winning combination is not highlighted (I get confused ‘coz I don’t know how a particular player beat me)
- Triplejack Poker is more casual, and feels more “fun” to play
- I haven’t run into anyone I could say was a Filipino there
Given these, I think Full Tilt Poker .net is geared to the more serious type of player. The website, the “pro player chat” and other things makes Full Tilt Poker .net a good place to start learning poker. Their objective it to make poker popular, and given that pro poker players play there too and give advice, it seems to be the premiere place to learn and get into the poker bandwagon.
I can’t maximize what Full Tilt Poker .net has to offer since I don’t intend on playing with real money. However, it’s a good place to learn, and you’ll be playing against players of a different sort from that found in Triplejack Poker. If I want fun, though, I’m more in inclined to play in Triplejack Poker.
See you in either! 
Triplejack Poker Day
My SO is out with some friends today, so I’m spendin’ most of this Saturday by myself. I just finished Prophecies yesterday, I think, so I’m in the mood for something else. Yes, I know that this weekend is the Dragon Festival at Shing Jea Monestary, and I did drop by for the festivities for a while, but most of this afternoon was spent at Triplejack Poker.
I mentioned before that I’ve been playing it a while, and as much as I run into a lot of Filipinos, I do want to play with pals from time to time. I ran into some of my former officemates in IM, and managed to convince some of them to try it out. Some didn’t know how to play poker, which actually makes Triplejack Poker a great place to start learning, particularly since you can play without losing real money.
I tried to create a private table, but either my free membership doesn’t have that feature, or that feature hasn’t been done yet (most probably the former), so I just made the smallest table possible and hoped nobody but my pals would play while we went through things slowly. Of course, you can’t stop others from butting in, and there was one spammer who was annoying, but otherwise, things went well. I’ll run into more pals next time.
If ya wanna check it out, please click here ‘Triplejack Poker‘ or the other referral links in this blog (if I refer people to join, maybe I’ll get some perks… maybe…).
See yaz at the poker tables!
Tags: Triplejack
