But I wouldn't be a blogger if I let a little thing like having nothing to say stop me from posting.
I don't know exactly what's up, but I've kind of lost interest in poker. When I used to work with darval (I'd link to his blog, but he hasn't posted in ages so there's little point) we would talk poker on a daily basis and almost always spend our Sundays playing for nickels and dimes. Even after I was no longer employed at the same place, we'd regularly exchange emails about poker, railbird each other in tournaments, and we still played pretty much every Sunday afternoon and evening. Poker was a huge part of my life.
When I moved to Orlando, I lost the Sundays of poker. Our poker emails grew fewer and further between. I haven't found anyone here who's remotely as interested in poker as I am/was. Darval got sucked into some other online pursuit and pretty much stopped playing. I don't know that I'm following in his footsteps, but the lack of someone to regularly converse with about poker strategy, bad beats, and general poker goings on has resulted in me slowly but steadily losing interest. I'm not even watching poker on TV anymore. The thought of watching another "Poker After Dark" makes me want to throw things at my TV.
I've gone back and forth on the blogger tournament thing. During one stretch that was about all I was playing. Then run-ins with a few donkeys in those made me realize there was little to recommend playing in these tournaments. The competition is generally tougher, but there are still enough donkeys that you can't expect everyone to play in a reasonable and intelligent manner. I figure if I have to put up with the donkeys, I might as well do it where there's lots of dead money.
The combined blogger tournament leader board thing piqued my interest again at least briefly, but this last week I just didn't have it in me to play in any of them. Having missed a number of events I've probably lost any opportunity I may have had to get into a decent position on the leaderboard.
I don't know, maybe I just need a break. But this is the second break in the last couple months. That's not a good sign.
For right now, I'm going to just take each day as it comes. If I feel the urge to play poker, I'll play. If not, so be it.
16 April 2007
03 April 2007
Idiocy at Party Poker
I've never been a fan of Party Poker. The only reason I ever played there were the bonuses. And even with that it was marginal as to whether I actually profited anything. The schooling of the fishes was something I had great difficulty overcoming. When Party withdrew from the US market, I took out all the money they'd let me, and figured good riddance.
Last night I get an email from Party. It seems my account has been "inactive" for 180 days and their terms say they can deduct an administrative fee because of this. The fact that they've completely declined to take my action is apparently beside the point.
Those of you who've been reading here a while know that I'm generally pretty level headed. I might whine about this or that injustice, but you don't generally see me calling people names or using especially harsh language. I'm not saying I'm above that sort of thing, but I tend to control my tongue (even if only virtually) in public settings. When dealing with customer service reps I always keep in mind that I'm talking with someone who's just doing their job. I'm not bashful about letting them know when I'm displeased, but I do it in a civil manner and if I'm particularly irked I'll let them know ahead of time that I don't mean it personally.
With Party Poker, I made an exception. Here is my response.
You refuse my action because you haven't the backbone to stand up to the ridiculous laws passed by the US Congress, the actual regulations for which do not even exist yet, and now you have the unmitigated gall to charge me an administrative fee because I haven't logged in to see if you've come to your senses? Have you lost your mind? Are you purposely trying to totally piss off the few remaining US players who might think of Party Poker as victims of circumstance rather than spineless bastards who really don't give a damn about their players? I'll tell you what, take whatever is left in my account, turn it into paper money, fold it five ways and stick it where the sun don't shine. Idiots.
Not exactly the strongest of complaints. I'm sure the reps at Party have seen far worse. But, for me, this was going way over the edge.
To my great surprise, they responded in a very timely manner. I guess all those CSRs don't have quite as much to do as they did a few months ago. Here is their reply.
Thank you for contacting us.
I have located your account and I can confirm that an administration fee of $0.26 was deducted from your account due to inactivity. This is management decision as laid out in the Terms and Conditions.
As your account balance is now $0, there will be no further fees
deducted from your account. You may use your account to access our Play Money games.
In case you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will be more than happy to help you.
Thank you for choosing us as your online gaming site!
In other words, yes, our management are complete idiots who haven't clue one about customer relations, and we're proud of it.
Well, Party, I hope you choke on my 26 cents. And, please, feel free to continue deducting any fees you want. I assure you, regardless of what may eventually happen with online gaming in the US, that 26 cents will be the last of my money you will ever see. May you all rot in hell you greedy bastards.
On the more normal poker front, I played the inaugural event in the Battle of the Blogger Tournaments. Mondays At The Hoy, freshly moved to Full Tilt, was the first of 40 tournaments which make up the complete battle. It appeared from the action that some people were maybe a bit too anxious to do well in this tournament. These blogger events tend to have a slightly lower than normal attrition rate compared to open tournaments, but last night I think we pretty much met the average open tournament elimination rate.
I got off to an early lead when willwonka and I got it all in, me with a flopped set of fours and he with a flopped straight. One of these days I'm going to learn to judge holdings based on the betting and not on the apparent likelihood of someone actually holding specific cards. The flop was A45. I figured the odds of somebody holding 23 were pretty slim, so I bet. The turn brought a 6. This upped the odds of a straight, but I still thought 23 or 78 an unlikely holding, particularly after I'd bet the flop. I bet, willwonka raises, I push, he calls. I got lucky and caught one of my ten outs, doubling up while still in level 2.
I weak played my way into losing a quarter of my stack with AA. The turn paired 3's on the board and I was afraid weak_player may have had a 3, so I checked it and let him fill his straight on the river. Stupid move on my part.
On the last hand before the break it folds to the button, who calls. I complete from the SB with T9 and SirFWALGMan, the BB, checks. The flop comes KQJ, giving me the second nut straight. I bet and SirFWALGMan raises. I figured if SirFWALGMan had AT he'd have raised into the weak action before the flop, so I figured him for top pair, maybe KJ or QJ at most. He bet slightly less than the pot when the turn brought an inconsequential 3. I raised all in and he called, showing, you guessed it, AT. As I said before, maybe one of these days I'll learn to evaluate the situation based on the betting, not on what would seem to be logical holdings based on early action.
I finished 24th of 47, just barely making the points. At least I'm on the board.
The next BBT event is Wednesday's Mookie, 10PM EDT at Full Tilt, whose bet slider sucks, regardless of what hoyazo says.
Last night I get an email from Party. It seems my account has been "inactive" for 180 days and their terms say they can deduct an administrative fee because of this. The fact that they've completely declined to take my action is apparently beside the point.
Those of you who've been reading here a while know that I'm generally pretty level headed. I might whine about this or that injustice, but you don't generally see me calling people names or using especially harsh language. I'm not saying I'm above that sort of thing, but I tend to control my tongue (even if only virtually) in public settings. When dealing with customer service reps I always keep in mind that I'm talking with someone who's just doing their job. I'm not bashful about letting them know when I'm displeased, but I do it in a civil manner and if I'm particularly irked I'll let them know ahead of time that I don't mean it personally.
With Party Poker, I made an exception. Here is my response.
You refuse my action because you haven't the backbone to stand up to the ridiculous laws passed by the US Congress, the actual regulations for which do not even exist yet, and now you have the unmitigated gall to charge me an administrative fee because I haven't logged in to see if you've come to your senses? Have you lost your mind? Are you purposely trying to totally piss off the few remaining US players who might think of Party Poker as victims of circumstance rather than spineless bastards who really don't give a damn about their players? I'll tell you what, take whatever is left in my account, turn it into paper money, fold it five ways and stick it where the sun don't shine. Idiots.
Not exactly the strongest of complaints. I'm sure the reps at Party have seen far worse. But, for me, this was going way over the edge.
To my great surprise, they responded in a very timely manner. I guess all those CSRs don't have quite as much to do as they did a few months ago. Here is their reply.
Thank you for contacting us.
I have located your account and I can confirm that an administration fee of $0.26 was deducted from your account due to inactivity. This is management decision as laid out in the Terms and Conditions.
As your account balance is now $0, there will be no further fees
deducted from your account. You may use your account to access our Play Money games.
In case you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will be more than happy to help you.
Thank you for choosing us as your online gaming site!
In other words, yes, our management are complete idiots who haven't clue one about customer relations, and we're proud of it.
Well, Party, I hope you choke on my 26 cents. And, please, feel free to continue deducting any fees you want. I assure you, regardless of what may eventually happen with online gaming in the US, that 26 cents will be the last of my money you will ever see. May you all rot in hell you greedy bastards.
On the more normal poker front, I played the inaugural event in the Battle of the Blogger Tournaments. Mondays At The Hoy, freshly moved to Full Tilt, was the first of 40 tournaments which make up the complete battle. It appeared from the action that some people were maybe a bit too anxious to do well in this tournament. These blogger events tend to have a slightly lower than normal attrition rate compared to open tournaments, but last night I think we pretty much met the average open tournament elimination rate.
I got off to an early lead when willwonka and I got it all in, me with a flopped set of fours and he with a flopped straight. One of these days I'm going to learn to judge holdings based on the betting and not on the apparent likelihood of someone actually holding specific cards. The flop was A45. I figured the odds of somebody holding 23 were pretty slim, so I bet. The turn brought a 6. This upped the odds of a straight, but I still thought 23 or 78 an unlikely holding, particularly after I'd bet the flop. I bet, willwonka raises, I push, he calls. I got lucky and caught one of my ten outs, doubling up while still in level 2.
I weak played my way into losing a quarter of my stack with AA. The turn paired 3's on the board and I was afraid weak_player may have had a 3, so I checked it and let him fill his straight on the river. Stupid move on my part.
On the last hand before the break it folds to the button, who calls. I complete from the SB with T9 and SirFWALGMan, the BB, checks. The flop comes KQJ, giving me the second nut straight. I bet and SirFWALGMan raises. I figured if SirFWALGMan had AT he'd have raised into the weak action before the flop, so I figured him for top pair, maybe KJ or QJ at most. He bet slightly less than the pot when the turn brought an inconsequential 3. I raised all in and he called, showing, you guessed it, AT. As I said before, maybe one of these days I'll learn to evaluate the situation based on the betting, not on what would seem to be logical holdings based on early action.
I finished 24th of 47, just barely making the points. At least I'm on the board.
The next BBT event is Wednesday's Mookie, 10PM EDT at Full Tilt, whose bet slider sucks, regardless of what hoyazo says.
02 April 2007
The Weekend
This weekend I continued trying to clear my free $50 Full Tilt bonus. Like every FTP bonus I've ever chased, it's clear this one will expire long before I get close to clearing it all. I've cleared $20, just about breaking even in the process, so this has been my best FTP bonus chase ever.
I continued pursuing the bonus at the 6-max NL tables. The going was incredibly slow at the $25 buy-in tables, so yesterday I decided to move up to the $50 tables. I had a couple great hands, though my winnings had dwindled by the time the table broke up. I still walked away up $10, so it was a good session. That's five winning NL sessions in a row. And the one right before that would have been a winning session too if not for two bad beats. I'm thinking I've found my niche.
I tried another of the Tier One ticket tournaments that get you entry to a $24+$2 tournament for $8.70. I've done quite well at these. I was doing great last night too -- second place with 3400 in chips and ten players remaining. Then I get dealt AA in the BB. It folds to the SB, who completes, and I raise to 900 (3BB). He calls. With 75o. Pocket aces aside, what kind of nutjob calls off over a quarter of his stack with 75o? The flop comes T76 and he pushes all-in. I'm already looking for tournaments to enter with my new ticket. Adding his 2500 to my 3400 means I can fold my way to a win. Naturally, he catches a 5 on the river. I bust out on the next hand.
The Battle of the Blogger Tournaments starts tonight with MATH, which has allegedly moved to Full Tilt for the duration of the battle. I still haven't decided whether I want to participate in this thing or not. But I'll probably show up if only to delay the decision of longer term commitment.
I continued pursuing the bonus at the 6-max NL tables. The going was incredibly slow at the $25 buy-in tables, so yesterday I decided to move up to the $50 tables. I had a couple great hands, though my winnings had dwindled by the time the table broke up. I still walked away up $10, so it was a good session. That's five winning NL sessions in a row. And the one right before that would have been a winning session too if not for two bad beats. I'm thinking I've found my niche.
I tried another of the Tier One ticket tournaments that get you entry to a $24+$2 tournament for $8.70. I've done quite well at these. I was doing great last night too -- second place with 3400 in chips and ten players remaining. Then I get dealt AA in the BB. It folds to the SB, who completes, and I raise to 900 (3BB). He calls. With 75o. Pocket aces aside, what kind of nutjob calls off over a quarter of his stack with 75o? The flop comes T76 and he pushes all-in. I'm already looking for tournaments to enter with my new ticket. Adding his 2500 to my 3400 means I can fold my way to a win. Naturally, he catches a 5 on the river. I bust out on the next hand.
The Battle of the Blogger Tournaments starts tonight with MATH, which has allegedly moved to Full Tilt for the duration of the battle. I still haven't decided whether I want to participate in this thing or not. But I'll probably show up if only to delay the decision of longer term commitment.
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