Full Tilt Tournament Offers Something for Almost Nothing

For those of you interested in the various online challenges I have discussed in previous posts, Full Tilt offers a tournament that makes for a good beginning.

Firstly, the challenges I have referred to are the Chris Ferguson and Daniel Negreanu challenges where they are taking nothing, as in the case of Ferguson or a couple bucks, as with Negreanu, and turning it into tens of thousands of dollars using smart bankroll management.

Full Tilt has a tournament every day at 8:15 p.m e.s.t. where for just $1 you can win a share of $10k. The reason this is a good tournament for those interested in the challenge is for several reasons. First, it only costs one dollar. Or, you can use Full Tilt points that you accumulate from playing on the site. It doesn't take many points or much to accumulate enough to play in the tournament therefore, you can enter for next to nothing.

The other cool thing about it, as far as the challenges go, is that it pays out to just over the top one thousand entrants. Now that's a lot of pay spots. Keep in mind that there are usually over nine thousand entrants, so it is a pretty thick field to get through. However, the structure makes it quite viable to finish in the money.

You will not become rich playing this tournament. I have entered it several times and have finished in the money most times. However, it takes a very long time and usually the payoff is small. To give you an idea, my best finish was 30th and I made $20. That was after seven hours! Pretty crazy I thought. However, it didn't cost me anything, and would work well towards building a beginning stack for the challenge.

If any of you are interested, give it a shot and let me know how it goes. Especially, if you are trying the challenge out for yourself. Good luck!

Patrik Antonius and Isildur1 Battle Continues on Full Tilt

Full Tilt appears to be the place for high stakes confrontation. Last night I decided to check out the big rooms to see if anything interesting was happening after having heard about the record breaking pot won by Patrik Antonius over Isildur1 from Sweden.

Surprisingly or not, both Patrik and the swede were at it again. In a heads up battle that spanned more than one table the two were going at it with what appeared to be well over a couple million spread out over the tables.

Is it just me, or is that a tremendous amount of confidence in an online site to leave that much cash with them. Let's say there was some kind of problem with the site, it goes down and you can't access your million. Who do you call? What if every time you call the line is busy? A lot of people who play at Full Tilt would probably be calling as well to figure out what had happened. The big difference however, is that you left them with over a million. What if they never come back? Who do you call then? I'm sure it wouldn't happen.

Anyway, the battle raged for a while and to be honest, I watched for a little bit but then got bored and decided to move on. The most entertaining part about watching Patrik and Isildur1 were the constant comments coming in from everyone else who were observing. It was pretty hilarious. Each one seemed to have some opinion or advice for the two players. I was more fascinated with the fact that there were several hands were more money was exchanged than most of these railbirds will earn over several years. With each passing hand there was enough money passed to account for something significant. Hey there goes a Mercedes. That was three months in St. Tropez. Hey, I think that was my house!

It was entertaining for a while but then, I had to move on. I believe Patrik Antonius was victorious again for about a million. Or was it Isildur1.

Patrik Antonius Wins the Largest Online Pot in History... So Far

Some of you might have heard about this already and some may not. Here it is:

The place was Full Tilt. The table was "Royal Guard".

The players were Patrik Antonius and Isildur1. When the hand started both players were sitting with over $400,000.00. I know most of you play online with this amount of money most of the time so I'm sure you can all relate. Personally, I like to save that kind of money for dog race betting.

Without going into too much more detail than is necessary, by the turn, Patrik Antonius was all in and Isildur1 only had a little over $11k left over. When the cards flipped up, both players were tied with two pairs A's and Q's. Both had draws to break the tie with just the river remaining and who hasn't seen an exciting river card online before.

This hand and river was not to be an exception. An 8 came giving Patrik an inside straight and he scooped the pot for a grand total of $878,958.50. That should buy a few more shirts and hair cuts.

The action at Full Tilt, particularly in the PLO section seems to be getting fast and furious. Perhaps the arrival of Tom "Durr" Dwan has a little something to do with it. Surely, the future will have more stories to tell in the "millions". Keep in touch, there may be a new record any day now.

Great new home game "Anaconda" keeps poker interesting and insane all at the same time.

In the past when discussing various poker games I have mentioned one of my home games that I have every week with a group of friends who really enjoy crazy bingo type poker.

For those of you who don't know, bingo poker games are those that are far more dependent upon luck than any real strategy.

The newest bingo poker game that has gripped my home game with a fever is one that we call Anaconda. Don't ask me where the name comes from. All I can tell you is that when it gets a grip of you it can really take your breath away. I know, terrible puns.

Regardless, poker at home will never be the same once you introduce this game to your friends. The pots can get huge and the action is furious. It is a limit type game with a high low split. It is not based on traditional poker hands but is instead a point based game. All cards are worth their face value with pictures worth ten and Aces worth one or eleven.

Five cards are dealt out across the middle of the table face down. Each player is then dealt five cards of their own. The game begins by turning over one of the cards in the middle. If you hold that card in your hand, you have to lay it down face up on the card in the middle of the table. With each turned card a betting round ensues. By the end, which ever players remain make a determination as to whether they want to go for the high end or the low end. This is done by secretly placing one chip or two in your hand then simultaneously exposing it with the other players at the end.

Here's where it can be fun. You also have the option of going for both the high and low on a sweep. If you win, you get the whole pot. If you lose one, you lose it all and the other player or players take it all. Finally, if you mange to get rid of all the cards you were holding in your hand after the cards are turned up in the middle, you win the whole pot.

Sound fun and easy? You have no idea what you are in for. Trust me your poker home game will never be the same. That snake is vicious. Good luck.

Is online poker rigged? The debate continues.

After my last posting I received some feedback explaining that the reason for my difficulty online stemmed from the reality that the programs on most online sites are rigged for action. This is something I've addressed before but have remained unclear on as far as a final decision.

There was an interesting story done by 60 Minutes last year about the question regarding whether online poker sites were rigged and if any kind of cheating was going on. The story is readily available online if any of you are interested in seeing it.

It is not surprising that some would respond to me in that way given the types of experiences that seem uniform to many engaging in the online poker experience. However, there are the arguments that because so many more hands can be played online, that the bad beat experiences and combination hands just "appear" to be more frequent.

In any event, both sides to the debate have legitimate positions and it is up to each person's own experiences to make a determination. I've heard people swear that their online experiences have been nothing but positive while others have gone completely in the other direction.

During my recent discussions with somebody on this matter they suggested a fun experiment. Log on to one of the sites with a friend and go into a heads up room. That way you can check with one another the number of times each of you are in play simultaneously when the flop comes down. It you both make hands on a frequent basis at the same time, it may be evidence of rigging. If it doesn't happen, maybe it isn't. Regardless, it sounds like an interesting experiment. Do it online with a poker buddy then try it for the same number of hands at a friends house with a deck of cards and see what kinds of results you get.

One thing is for sure. The question of online poker being rigged will be one that floats around for a while to come.

Negreanu enters the ring for a version of the Ferguson Challenge

First I would like to apologize for taking so much time off of writing the blog. I really have been crazy busy with all kinds of things going on.

That's enough of that.

So Daniel Negreanu announced that he has started a challenge with online poker over at Poker Stars. It is similar to Chris Ferguson's challenge which I have commented on in the past. The format that Negreanu has laid out is interesting and may also be feasible.

His basic rules, although subject to amendment as he has mentioned, are pretty straight forward. He will attempt to turn $10 into $100,000.00 over a few years using straight forward strategy and a solid small ball approach with good bankroll management.

He started at $.01/.02 and has since moved up to $.02/.05. The rules go like this. He must have a minimum of 500 times the big blind and he can never buy in for more than 1/5 of his existing bankroll. That is pretty much it. He has left it open to amendment as he moves up to the higher levels but this has yet to be put into action.

Now, in the past when reviewing and trying out Chris Ferguson's challenge, I had my doubts. Simply because his rules were incredibly strict, particularly as they apply to bankroll management and playing in the micro levels online make it incredibly difficult to move forward. If you want more details about his challenge you can check out a couple of my earlier entries.

So I decided I would take a swing at Negreanu's challenge. Firstly, I would like to say I don't believe I am of the same calibre player as Daniel or Chris but I believe I can hold my own. Secondly, I believe that playing initially at the lower levels, most players are on similar play fields only because things are happening that wouldn't happen with better players at higher levels because people in the "micros" don't care about pushing all-in at anytime just for the hell of it.

Anyway, I started out and much like Daniel, I made it through to the next level. Having gotten my role up to $25, I was able to graduate to $.02/.05. That being said, the difficulty now ensues. If I get busted with one buy in that takes me down to $20 and according to the rules, I have to drop back down. In fact, with any session that I drop down beyond $25 I am supposed to drop down. At such low levels, the play is pretty bad but the luck factor is kicked up a couple notches. Needless to say, it has been difficult getting out of this position while adhering to the rules.

I was of course curious to see how Daniel had been doing and found out something interesting. Negreanu had commenced the challenge around the beginning of the year. He had posted over at Full Contact Poker near the end of January that he had moved up to the next level and also outlined all his sessions for anybody who may be interested. However, there hasn't been another entry from him since. This could mean many things. He may not be continuing with the challenge, he may simply not be posting his progress at the moment or he may be having difficulty.

Personally, I think it is incredibly difficult to pull it off. Both Negreanu and Ferguson's challenges are crazy tough. This is not to say they are impossible. I just think the nature of play in the micro levels online combined with strict bankroll guidelines make it tough to move.

I have tried the challenge on both Full Tilt and Poker Stars and I am of the mind set that it is incredibly difficult to move forward and make anything online. I take crazy beats one after the other in close proximity to one another and every time I think I'm about to move forward I get knocked down again. I have come to the conclusion that I am a super online donk. If anyone has figured out a way to conquer the repetitive low percentage underdog hands from taking you out with such high frequency, I would love to hear from you.

If somebody pushes all-in preflop with pocket 4's and I have pocket AA and I call, we go heads up and he spikes a 4, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do anymore. Do I fold the AA preflop? This type of thing seems to happen way too frequently for me to overcome. I know that low percentage hands will hit from time to time, it is just the incredible frequency that occurs online that gets me. Often, only a few hands apart. In the meantime, I will stick to "brick and mortar" games for my income and leave the online gains to the magicians.

Good luck all and hope to hear from you, especially if any of you are in the midst of trying the challenge.