Unless you have been living under a rock, you’ll have seen a lot of Eastern European players at the bigger online poker sites. They multi-table. I’m not just thinking about the central and Eastern EU countries…. Russia, Belarus and Ukraine are all part of the same problem.
Submitted by Planet Mark on Tue, 01/23/2018 - 12:59
New poker formats are goldmines. There is a sweet spot of 2 to 3 weeks to fill your bankroll. Recreational players flood in to see what all the buzz is about. ‘Regs’ (grinders) have not yet had time to settle in and develop strategies to beat the games.
This is the reason I logged on to the new game at 888 called ‘flopomania’ early on a Sunday morning to check it out. As you’ll find out, I was not disappointed!
Here is what is below:
Submitted by Planet Mark on Sun, 08/20/2017 - 09:35
There are certain things that new players do at online poker tables which flag them as novices. This is dangerous. You will find plenty of players who are looking out for these flags. Their aim is to play pots against the new players, taking advantage of mistakes. This post has two goals. First, for newer readers, to highlight some ways you ‘give yourself away’. Second, for readers who have more experience – to show some things to look out for!
Submitted by Planet Mark on Tue, 07/18/2017 - 14:19
With the 2017 World Series of poker in full swing, I checked out poker vloggers on YouTube to see how the coverage was looking. This was a positive surprise, with some really good coverage out there. I have to admit that after watching some of Daniel Negreanu’s videos, I found myself rooting for him in the $10 Omaha/8… never saw myself as a fan before!
If you have any alternative suggestions, feel free to add them (Facebook please, I gave up on blog comments many years ago!).
Submitted by Planet Mark on Thu, 06/15/2017 - 13:52
There have been many ‘changes of the guard’ as far as the popular poker sites go over the years. As I mentioned in my Poker Inflection Points post recently, changes are happening again. I have always been a fan of the iPoker Network (for their soft games more than anything!), though have noticed a decline there recently… I’m now starting to wonder whether this is terminal!
The short answer is not a lot!
Submitted by Planet Mark on Mon, 05/22/2017 - 20:03
When I saw that both Party and 888 Poker had scheduled their latest events to clash with the PokerStars SCOOP, I was puzzled. Surely the behemoth that is PokerStars have enough players to crush these ‘minnows’ ?
After pondering this for a couple of days, I have changed my mind. There are a few different reasons for this, detailed below. First up, some background on the clashing events.
Submitted by Planet Mark on Tue, 05/02/2017 - 14:18
Considering how short a time online poker has been around, the history has been a real rollercoaster. We have had booms, busts (in 2006 and 2011), renewals in between – and a phase when it looked like rakeback / grinders would literally suffocate the games… Poker survived, it always does. As we hit spring 2017 there are many forces acting on the game. I have split these into 5 ‘Inflection Points’. Of course, they interact with each other too, and there are always the unknown unknowns to complicate the picture.
Submitted by Planet Mark on Fri, 03/24/2017 - 10:25
Some interesting news coming from MicroGaming. In among several changes to their Sit N Goes, they have announced that full-ring games are to become a thing of the past… I think this is the start of a trend. In many ways, full ring Sit and Goes have become a victim of how easy they are to play mechanically…
First, here is an overview of the main changes over at MicroGaming. After that are some expanded thoughts on what this means for Sit n Go fans moving forward.
Submitted by Planet Mark on Wed, 02/01/2017 - 15:10