PLO50 in profit at last

Date: Sun, Sep 26, 2010

Just wanted to post this while I'm still in profit at PLO50.

Daleroxxu PLO 50BI Challenge
6max PLO10 +50BI 100% complete
6max PLO25 +50BI 100% complete
6max PLO50 +0.9BI 1.8% complete
6max PLO100
6max PLO200

PLO50 has been a bit of a struggle so far but I'm finally above the zero line on the graph. I guess I'm back to where I started, back to square one, but climbing out of this hole feels like a mini-victory. I've never been a loser in any form of poker I've played so not being able to beat the many clowns who play PLO50 just simply isn't acceptable. Hopefully I don't get smacked in the face by negative variance and can coast to the +50BI mark.

Really since the last update I'm pretty much break even at 6-max, with most of the profit coming from heads up 50bb PLO.


I've just 1-tabled when playing HU, hence the low number of hands. I've been hit-and ran so many times in those 4000 hands haha, even guys typing "ty" or "fish" into the chatbox after suckout-stacking me, before quiting the table. Tonight I played this Turkish guy for about 5 minutes and he won 1.5 buyins from me then typed "sorry but I gotta run" right after a big pot, lol nice, then left the table. A minute later I find his clown ass sitting alone at a new table, so I sit down "remember me?", stack him, he loses-and-runs this time lol but he's still quiting me half a buyin ahead. Yet again I see him at another table alone, I sit down and take him for 4 buyins all while he berates the crap out of me.

Wtf is wrong with people? I have a theory that PLO at these stakes is the worst game in online poker for idiots talking crap in the chatbox. It's normally the kind of stakes (SNGs or holdem cash) where theres a lot of shit-talking anyway but PLO is a game that just tilts the hell out of people who don't really understand the game. Some guy gets it in with top set versus a wrap and flushdraw and thinks he just took the worst beat in the world "hyachachacha u moron how can you get it in with a draw, ur so bad".

Most people would say just to turn the chat off but it's a pretty huge tell that someones on monkey tilt when you see a bunch of "******* *****" in the chat. I guess when it really pisses me off though is when I see guys who have looked up someone's stats from a tracking site and use that to berate the player that just sucked out on him, like "lol u fish, ur down $$$$$", that's just the absolute worst thing anyone can do in the chat, just embarrassing the source of all the money in the poker economy into not wanting to deposit/play again, so I have a policy of reporting that to the chat mods every time I see it. I just hope they in turn have a zero tolerance policy of chat-banning these morons.

peace

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Video: Fanboys and girls going crazy

Date: Thu, Sep 16, 2010

This video is dedicated to my awesome fans.

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PLO Progress

Date: Thu, Sep 9, 2010

A while ago I set myself a challenge to beat each level of PLO for 50 buyins from PLO10 up to PL200. Although I've put very few hours into playing towards this goal, relative to how long ago I set it, I'm planning to take it more seriously in the near future. Therefore I thought this would be a good time to post my stats and thoughts so far.

6max PLO10 +50BI 100% complete
6max PLO25 +50BI 100% complete
6max PLO50 -19BI 0% complete
6max PLO100
6max PLO200


PLO10




PLO25




PLO50



As you can see, PLO10 was a piece of cake. I'd be surprised if any of my opponents had the ability to tie their own shoelaces, they were so awful. At PLO25 I struggled for a while before fixing some of my leaks, I stopped bleeding money at non-showdown and went on a big upswing straight to the +50 buyin mark.

I was feeling super confident at that point but the transition to PLO50 wasn't much fun. I guess you can look at the graph and a picture will tell 1000 words. I kept getting into situations where we'd get 80% of stacks in by the turn and the river would complete whatever garbage draw the fish was paying the wrong price to hit. When stacks did get in before the river, well you can see the "All-in EV" line on the graph, nuff said.

I'm very frustrated with my PLO50 results. Sure 30,000 hands is a super small sample size, but I am only 8-tabling just now, getting in 600 hands per hour, so that like a full 50 hours of play that I've invested in PLO50, just to lost money, sigh.

Pokerstars changed the games a while back so that they are now split into 20BB-50BB tables and 40BB-100BB tables. I'm not a big fan of this at all. It's now a choice between playing on the few full stacked tables with the same competent players on every table, or playing short stacks with the fish while a bunch of 16-tabling 20BB rakeback clowns on every table making life hell. I'd much prefer every table were 35-100BBs and let people who want to play 20BB poker go play Sit n Gos.

Some more PLO50 stats:

Hands played: 30959
Profit/Loss: -1939 big blinds
All in EV adjusted P/L:-102 big blinds
Rake paid: 4826 Big Blinds

The rake I've paid at this level so far comes to 7.8 PTBBs/100 or 15.6 big blinds per 100 hands.That pretty much speaks for itself.

Between the huge mountain that is the rake, being hit by negative variance and the problems with the short/deep stack table divide, that's a lot of obstacles that I need to overcome.

Also I have played the first 2 PLO events of the WCOOP so far. I went deep in WCOOP-4, was among chipleaders for most of the tournament before getting card dead for hours (not good in full ring PLO) then picking a terrible time to gamble for a double-up, busting with the 2nd nut flush for 53rd place money of $1400. The $83,000 for first would have been nicer tho. In the WCOOP-10, the PLO Knockout event, which I woke up early to play, I took 2 awful beats in the 3rd hour from someone that I'd bet barely knows the rules of PLO, so that sucked.

Tonight (Thursday) I'm playing the Mini-FTOPS PL Omaha Hi/Lo Rush Knockout tournament. I can't wait, I'm super excited to play this! And tomorrow I will play the WCOOP PLO 6-max event. Planning on playing all miniFTOPS and WCOOP PLO events that I'm awake for. Hopefully I can make something happen.

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Interview with Michael 'Wazz' Piper - PLO Poker Pro and EPT Final Tableist

Date: Fri, Aug 27, 2010

Video Interview with Michael Piper aka 'Wazz'. Michael is a professional poker player specialising in Pot Limit Omaha, and has recent NLHE tournament success including an EPT final table.





MP3 Streaming:

MP3 Download: http://drop.io/0pyb2gz/asset/daleroxxu-interviews-wazz-mp3

Don't forget to check out other interviews. TheLipoFund, Nick Rainey, Jhub3000, Jonathan Little, Spacegravy

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Poker Avatar Tells - 5 easy ways to spot the fish.

Date: Thu, Aug 19, 2010

When you play live poker you can usually tell a lot about a player without even playing a hand with them. The way they look can be quite a reliable source of information. Well, the same is true with online play, you just need to look at their avatar.

Here are the top 5 types of avatar that will let you spot the fish at the tables.




Pocket Rockets

Why not show everyone how "into poker" you are by choosing some cheesy poker-related image as your avatar? Popular choices include pocket rockets, royal flush or a picture of some cartoon shark.

Yes, these fools are the same people that turn up to the casino to play 1/2 No Limit wearing some ridiculous "I'm all in" t-shirt. Most of these guys will be new to poker but those who aren't will not have improved since, or will be worse than, when they first ever played the game.

Will usually own at least 2 books by Phil Hellmuth and spend more time typing in the chatbox than playing hands.

Most likely to say: "I hate all these frickin donkeys, they make it impossible to win. I play better against people that know what they are doing, at least you can put them on a hand".





Douchebag






The douchebag pic is a favorite avatar of your typical egotistical, fake tanned, kissy faced douchebag. I mean, when you spend your whole entire day looking in the mirror it's the natural to chose a photo of yourself as your avatar. I wonder, do these guys really think that other poker players want to sit and look at a picture of some dude's face while they are playing? I guess they do! Right-click -> Block Image -> GTFO.

With an ego the size of the BP oil spill, these players have way too much confidence in their ability as poker players to ever feel the need to learn how to play better or take advice from anyone else. Every hand of poker for them is personal and they will try to outplay their opposition at every opportunity, generally spewing off large amounts of money in the process. Value-checking strong hands to these guy will make you rich.


Most likely to say: "ty" (straight after winning a hand)



Famous pro




When you suck at poker, why not trick people into thinking you know what you're doing by using an avatar of your favorite pro player. Phil Ivey or Stu Ungar seem to be the most popular choices.

These "poker enthusiasts" spend far too much time watching poker on TV and not enough time working on their own game. Word of advice guys, you're never going to get better at poker by watching Mike Matusow and Chris Ferguson play a donk-n-go on Poker After Dark. And just because you watched durrrr 3-bet 73s in a deepstacked TV cashgame it doesn't mean that you can do the same thing profitably with a 30bb stack in some turbo SNG.

Most likely to say: "I knew you hit the damn flush, I knew it. Nice chase donk." (after paying off a huge river bet)




Athene / Chiren80






This is another very accurate tell that a player is bad. Unfortunately these players are rarely found playing above the very micro-est of micro stakes offered on the site.

People with Athene avatars are all newbies to poker, struggling to learn how to play a game that doesn't involve running around a virtual world casting magic spells on hobgoblins and gnomes.

The Athene avatar player is almost always atrocious at poker but when their main influence and inspiration in poker isn't even a winning player himself how could they turn out to be anything other than terrible?

Most likely to say: "POOOOONED" (After hitting their 3-outer on the river).




Ugly Baby




What is it with people who have babies that think everyone else wants to see them? I couldn't care less that you have a baby and I certainly don't want to look at the wrinkly little bastard while I play poker. It's a pretty terrible idea to put photos of your young children on public display on the internet in the first place, but to put those photos up while you gamble away the nappy/diaper money is just lolridic. Not to mention that you're just asking for some wise ass to write "Hey, what breed of dog is that in your avatar?"

In my experience, baby-avatar donk is almost always a loose passive calling station. Typical full ring VPIP/PFR in the 37/9 range. When you have screaming kids to look after and stop you from sleeping you're never going to have the time or concentration to improve as a poker player. That is why the baby avatar is one of the most accurate online tells available, always a fish!

Most likely to say: "That's my child!"

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Video Highlights of the Epic Hyper Shoveament

Date: Sun, Aug 15, 2010

The poker tournament of the year was held tonight and you can see video highlights right here. No, I'm not talking about the WSOP main event, I'm talking about Daleroxxu's Hyper Turbo No Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Shoveament Freeroll of course. Not only was there much more thrilling action in my tournament but you won't have to listen to Normal Chad telling some garbage ex-wife jokes while watching the highlights.

Thanks to everyone who signed up at short notice and thanks to Steve and The PokerStars VIP Club for setting it up and adding to the prizepool, also at short notice. That was pretty awesome!





Everyone who played seemed to have enjoyed themselves thoroughly playing this so I think it's about time we saw some Hyper Turbo 45man SNGs running regularly on PokerStars. Not only NLHE but NLO and NLO H/L too (pot limit doesn't work in SNGs, not hard to figure out why). I believe these action filled games would be extremely popular with both recreational and pro players.

From the recreational players point of view, the chance to play and win a multi-table tournament in 15-20 minutes is very appealing, especially for those with busy lifes. From a pro player's perspective, the ability to play an insane volume of games while still having a good edge over the field is a no brainer.

If you agree please write a quick message to support@pokerstars.com from your stars registered email stating your support for Hyper Turbo Multi Table SNGs.

Sample email for lazy bastard poker players:

Dear Pokerstars

I would love nothing more than for you to start spreading Hyper Turbo 45man SNGs on your poker site. These games would encompass all the speed, fun and action that I look for in playing online poker, and I'm sure many of your customers would feel the same way.

Yours,
Lazy Bastard Poker Player

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100,000 Hits Celebration - Hyper Freeroll Fun

Date: Mon, Aug 9, 2010

As the new version of my blog is about to reach 100,000 hits, it is time for a celebration.

This Sunday PokerStars will be home to the "Daleroxxu's NLO H/L Hyper Shoveament Freeroll". A No Limit Omaha Hi/Lo tournament with very shallow stacks and extremely fast blind increases. The winner walks away with the $100 prize, with runners up prizes of $30 and $20 provided courtesy of The Pokerstars VIP Club.

And a bounty on Daleroxxu - A ticket for the Sunday quarter million.
(If multiple people bust me, bounty will be awarded to the player with the most chips at the start of the hand, if equal - then decided by who lasts longest in the tournament)

The tournament takes place on PokerStars this Sunday, 15th August. 3pm Eastern, 8pm British. Tourney ID: 299717523

To sign up for this event you need to be following my blog on at least 2 of the 3 following ways: Twitter , Facebook or youtube.
(Subscribe to Daleroxxu on Youtube, Follow @Daleroxxu on twitter and either click "like" on any of the facebook icons on this page or via the new Daleroxxu's Blogaments facebook page.

Blog comment, facebook comment, youtube message or tweet at me to let me know your Twitter/FB/Youtube usernames, plus your PokerStars ID and you will be credited with a ticket before the event starts.
Final date to do this is Friday morning (13th August 6am ET / 11am UK time). No exceptions. You must make sure to type your PokerStars ID exactly, with the correct case.

Lets gogogo.

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Interview with TheLipoFund - Poker Pro and World Traveler

Date: Thu, Aug 5, 2010

Video interview with Marty 'The Lipo Fund' Mathis (TheLipoFund on Stars and WISHIGOTFPPS on ftp).

In the interview Marty tells us how he built a roll up from nothing and has been traveling the world, meeting tons of other poker player and having fun.





MP3 streaming:

MP3 download: http://drop.io/3lgf9gx/asset/daleroxxu-interviews-thelipofund-mp3

Don't forget to check out other interviews. Nick Rainey, Jhub3000, Jonathan Little, Spacegravy

-

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PokerStars support extreme awesomenes. (Monkey Flag Semaphore)

Date: Sat, Jul 31, 2010

I recently had the pleasure of interacting with PokerStars support team. Awesomenes ensued.

I sent an email to stars about a bug and they replied:



I noticed the subject was in Italian. Luckily I was able to translate it no problem - it's just english words with a bunch of i's and o's stuck on the end - but thought I'd have some fun with them.

I replied:


Translation: Who is the best poker blogger in the world?


They replied:


Translation:


I replied:




Translation:


They replied:



Translation:


So epic! PokerStars support team are, by a mile, the very best in the online poker industry. They are always quick to reply and with a friendly, personal touch and many times in the past they have refunded buyins to me and my friends for situations where they weren't even at fault, such as internet disconnections / power outages. I compare this to the time when I used to grind SNGs on the Tribeca network (now merged with ipoker), when THEIR servers would crash once every 48 hours and I'd have to send 5 emails begging to get my buyins refunded - eventually after a week if I was lucky. What a contrast.

Even when I think of other industries where I, as a customer, have had to deal with a company's customer service department, the experience is never pleasurable. It usually ends up with me being put on hold for a very long time followed by a conversation with someone in Bangalore who I can't understand a word of, and who doesn't understand me either (Seriously I had to spell out the word GLASGOW to a girl from ebookers.com). That crap puts me on life tilt for the rest of the day.

Thanks to Stars and Giuseppe G for being awesome!

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Cake Poker Security Alert and Chiren80 VIP Abuse Update.

Date: Tue, Jul 27, 2010

Cake Poker Security Alert

It seems that Cake Poker (Doyles Room etc.) are using the crappy, easy to hack, XOR encryption method between client and server rather than something that is actually secure such as SSL.
This means that any 13 year old with some knowledge of computers and a script could easily decrypt this data and view sensitive information such as hole cards and login/password. They just have to be somewhere between your computer and Cake's servers, most likely the same wireless network, but also people working for ISPs and people working for Cake could be snooping too.

This is the same drama that was brought up relating to UB / Absolute not so long ago, which has since been fixed (eventually).

If you are a user of ANY Cake skin do NOT play on the site until they fix this mess!

Again, all the work on exposing this was done by Poker Table Ratings.



PTR - Security Alert: Cake Poker Uses Weak Encryption


Chiren80 VIP Abuse Update

It was mention in a previous blog entry that PokerStars Team PRO player Chiren80 (Bachir Boumaaza) had exploited a PokerStars promotion to effectively steal money from the company that he was representing.

Since then, Steve D from PokerStars VIP has issued the following statement:

And Chiren80 has issued this statement:



The reaction to the statements on 2p2 has been largely negative. Not least from the fact that Chiren80's apology ends with some self promotion, but there are many comments from people saying that the punishment isn't tough enough and some have accused PokerStars of favoritism.

When players have been caught chip-dumping in the past it almost always results in a permanent ban from the site. However PokerStars has decided that this wasn't a case of chip-dumping by their definition of the meaning. They decided that although the players were "dumping" chips back and forward, they did so to abuse the VIP system rather that to transfer monies under the radar, and have issued their normal punishment for such an offence.

I think this will be quite a tough punishment and hard lesson for both Chiren80 and 3J55 as they both 24-table the same games. Now that they can't sit at the same tables, they can't get their normal volume of hands in to reach Supernova Elite again, there just aren't enough tables running. It's also a major blow to Chiren80's image in the poker community which was already fairly low due to his reputation as a "break-even rakeback pro". However he remains a PokerStars user and PokerStars representative so it's in his own hands how he goes forward and tries to recover from this.

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South Africa / FIFA World Cup - TRIP REPORT

Date: Mon, Jul 19, 2010

Found all these video clips and photos on my phone from South Africa, mashed them up into a video with some voice-over to create a Trip Report.

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