Planet Mark's Blog. Thoughts, News And Strategy For Poker Tournaments Of All Sizes

Planet Mark's Blog

Plugging Poker Leaks By Thinking In Years

Today’s post is about a subtle shift in perspective that can save (or make) you a lot of money at the poker tables. I have introduced the idea of thinking in years using 2 non-poker examples – and then after that return to 3 areas of your play and show how the financial rewards of working on them may be a lot bigger than you think.

Thinking in years gives you a bigger incentive, and increases your motivation to work on things. Here is a recent true example based on Sugar.

Submitted by Planet Mark on Tue, 03/18/2014 - 12:06

Sunday Million Event - A Great Opportunity To Stock Up On PokerStars Tournament Dollars

The $8 million guaranteed Sunday Million this coming Sunday (March 2nd) is 2 opportunities in one. First, there is the obvious opportunity – to win the thing and take down the $1,000,000 guaranteed for first place. Second (and the subject of today’s post) is to pack your account full of ‘Tournament Dollars’ which can be used to enter any tournament or sit and go you choose.

Here is how it works:

Submitted by Planet Mark on Thu, 02/27/2014 - 12:17

First Look At Carbon’s Mobile Poker Client

Carbon Poker have become the first of the offshore US-friendly sites to offer a mobile poker game. This can be played in your browser, and handles cash games only at this point. There are also promises of full apps and tournament play in the future. I had a try via both my Android Phone and iPad, and here are my initial thoughts and some screen shots.

Submitted by Planet Mark on Wed, 02/19/2014 - 09:43

Planet Mark’s Guide To Not Being A Full Tilt Blackjack Fish

I saw some play at Full Tilt Poker last night that brought tears to my eyes. Nothing too unusual there you might think - only this was at the new Blackjack tables rather than in poker. Some of these plays were handing the house a 50%+ edge on each hand. It was not just the 10c players making them either, one guy doubled a 14 against a dealer 6 betting $25 a hand. Once you know even the basics of blackjack odds that is enough to make a grown man cry! 

Submitted by Planet Mark on Fri, 02/14/2014 - 10:46

Random Thoughts On Mimicry In Online Poker Games

One of the things I love about poker is that psychology is vital to winning. There are many situations from hand-reading, through to stack pressure and inducing tilt where mind-games are a key factor. At the same time there are many more subtle uses of psychology, and the ‘Mimicry’ idea which I’m exploring here comes directly from completely different phenomenon.

Most people will mark themselves as ‘above average’.

Submitted by Planet Mark on Thu, 02/06/2014 - 10:22

Two New Poker Games In 2014 That Managed To Get Me Excited

I’m a difficult guy to excite when it comes to poker… Having started when No-Limit Holdem was the ‘brand new thing’ I have seen just about every format, variation and innovative twist appear over the years. It all gets a bit ‘yeah – whatever’ in the end. Then, in 2014, not one but two new things have come along which made me think that, well, maybe there is life in the old online poker dog yet!

Submitted by Planet Mark on Tue, 01/28/2014 - 08:44

TCOOP Starts Today!

Coming from a Sit n Go background I do have to admit enjoying Turbo tournaments. The push-fold, the sense of danger from rapidly increasing blinds and the levels of thinking games based on ‘would he push any two here knowing that I would expect him to push any two’ make these games very entertaining.

PokerStars TCOOP is the biggest Turbo Tournament event online – and it starts today (23rd Jan), running through to the 2nd of Feb.

Submitted by Planet Mark on Thu, 01/23/2014 - 14:33

3 Poker Questions You Should Never Need To Ask

I’m going contrary today. You see, there are questions which come up again and again on poker forums and blogs which really should never need to be asked.

The reason is, that if someone is asking them, the answer will almost always be ‘no’. If the answer to any of them was a ‘yep, sure’ then the person involved would not need to ask them at all. This post is meant to be light-hearted with just a smattering of cynicism.

Submitted by Planet Mark on Tue, 01/21/2014 - 12:00