A friend just sent me a link to this site called PurePlay.  You can win money playing poker, but you don’t have to deposit any of your own money, which means that it is legal to do.  How is this possible?  I haven’t downloaded the application, but I suspect that the format is similar to freerolls that are offered in online poker rooms.  I used to play in these freerolls, and I think that they are good for beginners, because you get some real experience playing with players who have some skills and take the game seriously.  You can’t win much if you place in the money, and the odds of doing this aren’t particularly good.   I never won any money.   It is definitely better to play in freerolls than to play for play money, but not by much.  So give it a try, but expect to be bored in short time.

After waiting about a month, I got my $50 no deposit bonus through YourPokerCash to play at Full Tilt Poker.   I had already received a $50 no deposit bonus through YPC to play at Ultimate Bet, which only took me about a week to get, but I had lost that money, and I wanted more action. 

I’m not sure why it took so long to get the bonus money to play at Full Tilt Poker; it was only supposed to take about 7 business days.  Everytime I would write to YPC I would get an immediate response from them saying that my request was being processed and that it should only take a few more days, thanking me for my patience.  

I’m not upset with YPC for the delay.  In fact, I think that YPC is a great site if you’re interested in no deposit bonuses, because I eventually did get the money to play in both online poker rooms, over $100, and their email support is excellent.   So a shout out to YPC! 

Full Tilt is a pretty decent online poker room.   I’d even consider playing at the site with my own money.  Their smallest stakes for NL Hold’em is $0.05-0.10, which is my speed.   Not only did they facilitate the $50, I would get additional $$$ (increments of $5, up to $50) after playing a certain number of raked hands.   In the end, I had earned an additional $20 through this mechanism.   I never had to wait for a table at Full Tilt, and the graphic interface with avatars is pretty straightforward. 

I did lose all the money I was given to play at Full Tilt, but I know why.  I was playing poorly, way too aggressively, overplaying too many hands, sitting down at a table with only $4, when I should have started with $10, chasing flushes and open-ended straights when the pot odds were not in my favor.  I was doing all the things that I have told my readers never to do when playing at these stakes. 

I finally started playing tightly when I had about $20 left.  But it was really too late.  The damage was done.  I did make an amazing little comeback when I was down to my last two dollars, working my way back to about $25, with the help of those $5 extra bonuses I mentioned above, and I fluctuated between $20 and $10 for several days.  But I couldn’t hold on, and about 30 minutes ago I lost it all. 

Of course I’m bummed when I lose it all.  But in a way I’m kind of glad that it’s over.  I kind of felt as if I was losing control, playing way too many hours, getting really upset when someone called me a “donk” after he beat me, and not getting any of my work done.  My 11-year old daughter asked to play with me near the end,when I only had a few dollars left, and I told her in annoyed tone to stop bothering me, for which I now feel guilty.  I was felt a little like Tony Soprano in the episode of Sopranos called “Chasing It” which focused on his gambling problem.   

I began posting on the site on May 24th, 2006.  Since then I figure I’ve written around 40 posts, not bad from a guy who doesn’t like to write.  But I don’t deserve all the credit for the 8 months of content on PokerMoments.  I’ve had considerable help from others.  Sparky and Cowboy in particular deserve special thanks for all their help.  I am grateful to Kevin and Graeme for their contributions.  Also, thanks to Jennifer Brown for her great interview, to QuietStorm, SomePokerGuy, and others for entertaining comments, and to YouTube for some cool free videos.

As a result of PokerMoments I’ve had many memorable poker moments.   Some of the highlights include,

Being part of a friendly community of poker pondering people.  I continue to be amazed when people I don’t know leave comments on posts.  I’m amazed that anyone even comes to the site. 

Enjoying a lot of online poker, some with my 10-year old daughter, who finally understands that one shouldn’t always go all-in.  I’ve come to re-realize that Poker is a great distractor from the anxieties and drudgeries of everyday life.  Poker, Not Prozac!

Winning $784.  Thanks JonWoodGaming and Hold’em Poker.

Being a part of something bigger than myself, namely the world of online poker.  I’ve played in many, some might argue too many, online poker rooms (around a dozen), in part because I have a weakness for no-deposit bonuses.  (Speaking of no-deposit bonuses, I started a post a while ago that I never finished that is about a really cool site that offers some excellent no-deposit bonues.  It is called PokerSponsor and it is owned by a stand-up guy named Jeroen.  I discovered this site at United Poker Forum, a really helpful site that gives a ton of information about promotions and bonues for online poker rooms.  Sorry Jeroen it took me so long to say thanks in a post.  As long as I’m on the topic of no-deposit bonuses, I remind the readers to avoid a site called LTD Poker – They are full of *S)

Improving my poker skills and recognizing my poker weaknesses.  I confess I have LOSS AVERSION!  Boy do I hate to lose.

Learning something about blogging, and earning something from blogging, and getting others into blogging (see here and here), and being inspired by blogging (see here). (For my entry into the blogging world I give a big shout out to Cowboy!).

Reading some fun poker/gambling books – e.g. Poker and Philosophy: Pocket Rockets and Philosopher Kings, The Biggest Game in Town, Bringing Down the House. 

Receiving a free cool poker odds calculating tool (Pokerbility) for a review I wrote about it (see here). 

No question, these 8 months of PokerMoments have been fun, not to mention profitable.  But I believe 2007 will even be better, especially now that Saddam is out of the picture. 

I have made a tentative New Year’s resolution not to play any more online poker.  Ok – I’ll probably break this resolution if I get a no-deposit bonus to some online poker room.  I always give into temptation.  But if I stick somewhat to the resolution, then there will be far fewer posts about my poker exploits, something I’m sure readers will appreciate.  Who really wants to read about how I won $2 at $.01/.2 stakes.  

What then will readers of PokerMoments have to look forward to in 2007?  Here’s a taste.

From Sparky, you will see many more unique posts, four are already in the pipeline, including a really funny and great interview with Ben Mezrich, the author of Bringing Down the House.  I think I’ll post this interview with Ben in mid-January.  Sparky doesn’t play poker, but, as we’ve seen, has a lot to say on the subject as well as the subject of pain. 

After the positive feedback I received from Jennifer Brown’s interview, I have been looking forward to doing another interview with her.  Expect to read this in January.  I hope to do more interviews with others in the world of high stakes poker.  I’ve written query letters to a few top female professional players.  I’ve also written to Gabe Kaplan.  No responses from them yet.  But I’m persistent. 

Of course, there will be more writings on the philosophy of poker.  I have a lot more to say about the essays in Eric Bronson’s collection of essays called Poker and Philosophy.  

I will continue to read poker and gambling books and give my thoughts on them.  I look forward to reading Positively Fifth Street.  I may re-read Poker Nation, which I remember really enjoying. 

Yes, PokerMoments has a lot to look forward to in 2007.  So to all you readers and writers of PokerMoments, keep on reading it, posting to it, commenting on it.  And whatever you do always avoid tilting.

Happy New Year

My predictions for 2007

- There will be a surge in Iraq and by 2008 things there will have improved.

- Neither the Phillies nor the Cubs will be in the World Series

- My cholesterol will be around 300  

 

I noticed that at certain no-limit tables (both real money and play money) the amount of money that players bet is not always the same as the amount of money that the poker room gives these players credit for betting.  But what’s simply amazing, unbelievable, makes me think that either someone is hacking into the site or there is a scam going on, is that this mistake benefits the player, not the poker room.

Let me give one example of this error.  At the $.25/.5 no limit tables, if there are three people playing a hand and each one puts in $.5 into the pot, then after the flop the house credits the pot with $3.8, instead of $1.5.  I did some quick calculations and it seemed that on average the house was losing between $5 and $10 a hand at the $.25/.5 no-limit tables.

Given this problem, it is possible for all the players to come out winners at the end of a game, as was the case two nights ago when I played at the $.25/.5 no-limit tables.  In a matter of a few hours I had “won” $250 and my two opponents also won, one of whom won over $600.

It was a joke how easy it was to “win” money because of this glitch.  If I had played at these tables when I first noticed the problem, I would have easily been up over $1000.  God only knows how much I could have won, er, stolen if I had played at a higher stake table.  I imagine that JWG has already lost thousands of dollars because of this mistake, assuming that
they actually will let people cash out, something I am not so certain of (see below).

Before I won the $250 I called my brother up and told him about the problem and he initially thought that a poker room would never make such an egregious mistake.  He thought that perhaps the $s that one uses to play with are not real $s, but rather have a smaller monetary value, and that JWG was merely giving the impression that it was giving extra money to the players.

In part because I find it so difficult to believe that an online poker room could have such a significant bug in their program, I initially thought that there was considerable plausibility to my brother’s explanation.  But I didn’t fully understand it, so he decided to chat with support and ask them about the discrepancy.  As soon as he mentioned it, the person with whom he was chatting said that the technical people were working on it, which meant of course that there was a problem and that his theory was incorrect and that my theory was correct.

The next day I decided that the right thing to do was to notify JWG about the problem, as I believed (with my wife’s encouragement) that it was unethical to cash out any of the money that I had won because of the problem. Not only did I explain about the glitch, and the fact that some of the money that I had recently won was not legitimately won, I explained that some of the money that I won was kosher. I assumed that JWG could easily sort out the kosher from the traif, and that in no time my balance would be smaller, but still above $100.

As of yet, two days later, I haven’t received any response from JWG.  No thank you.  No change in my balance.  Of course, I was hoping for a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory sort of ending to the story.  But I’m not holding my breath.

The day after I won $250, I went back to the original .$.25/.5 table.  And the problem was still there.  Unbelievable!!!!  Could it be the result of an inside job, some greedy or disgruntled employee doing some mischief?  I discussed the  problem with two other players in the room and they said that this problem had occurred in the past and that the technical people would “fix” it, but in a few days the problem would reappear.  They also agreed with me that it would be wrong to take the money out before the problem was fully resolved. I assume this was true, as poker players never lie.

I won around $50 playing at this table.  Why so little, you may ask, given that the problem had not yet been fixed?  Answer: I was playing against checkraisa, a player who is extremely loose against tight players like myself, making it much more difficult to limp in and try to hit hands.  He is a real nice guy, but can be a serious threat to my winnings, as I show
below.

In the middle of our three-player game a message appeared saying that the room was being shut down. No explanation was given.  We all assumed that they were now going to fix the problem, and so we moved to another table, $.5/1 no limit.  Although I’m not comfortable playing for these stakes, and the problem didn’t seem to be manifesting itself at this table, I felt that my bankroll was large enough for me to experiment.  I won a little bit of money, and when I had decided to stop playing, I was up $466.  Unbelievable!!!!

Last night I decided to go to bed early, because the night before when I had won the $250 I had stayed up late and couldn’t get much sleep because I was so pumped thinking about the mistake.  I was trying to construct a reason for why it would have been ethical for me to keep all the money.  The best I could come up with was the analogy that if you win money in a casino from a broken slot machine you’re entitled to the money. But I had doubts about this analogy, and my wife, whose ethical intuitions are stronger than mine, immediately said that it would be immoral for me to take the money from a broken slot machine.  So I deferred to her righteousness.

I still suspect that what counts as stealing in a casino or online poker room may not count as stealing in some other venue, say, a supermarket.  Ethical judgments can change depending on the context.  For example, a lie on the show Survivor may not be unethical, where it would be unethical in everyday situations.  So I haven’t come to any definite  conclusions about the JWG case.  If anyone can think of a good justification to take the money, I’d like to hear it.  Perhaps another post will examine the ethics of such a sistuation in more detail.

As I was saying before I digressed, I was trying to get to bed early last night because I didn’t have much sleep the night before.  So what’s the best remedy when you can’t sleep?  Why, of course, play poker.

I go straight to JWG and see that there are only two tables that are active in the real money no-limit section, one for $.02/.04 blinds and the other $1/2.  Guess which one I chose?  You got it.  The higher stake game.  And guess who was playing?  Right again.  Checkraisa.  But what the hell, I’m up $466, much of which I’m thinking I don’t deserve.  How much can I really lose if I play my normal tight wad game? Well, how about $50 in the first 20minutes?   And then another $50, and then another $40. was I going to lose it all? Not so fast.  I finally hit some decent hands, and in no time I’ve climbed out of my hole and I’m actually up $50.  I quickly learn that the money goes quickly – too quickly for me – in both directions when you’re playing at these stakes.

It’s getting late.  I’m getting tired and I’m thinking about quitting ahead.   But I make the fatal decision to play just a little onger (damm greed).  And I get dealt hand that does me in. It’s against checkraisa, and since he’s so loose, I figure there’s a good chance he’s bluffing. I’m holding an Ace, no hearts, and the flop shows three hearts, one of which is an Ace.  After the river I have two pair, Aces and Queens.  I don’t remember much more about the hand, but it doesn’t matter, because checkraisa was dealt the 3 and 5 of hearts, and his flush kicked my two pair’s ass.  And I lose $250. 

Surprisingly, the $250 loss didn’t hurt that much, even though I did lose it in one hand and obsessed over it and my stupid playing for a while (I didn’t follow my advice that one should not go all-in unless one is %90 confident that one has the winning hand).  I also have to give credit to checkraisa because his loose style of playing tricked me and sucked me in.  I learned that I need to stay away from these stakes for a while, at least when checkraisa is playing.

So where do I stand?  I’m thinking seriously about depositing $25 and playing 4x this amount of raked hands to that I can cash out some, if not all, of my money, which is presently at $266.  My friend (MKS) thinks that I will never see any of the money that I’ve won.  Perhaps the “mistake” was a ruse, an attempt to get people like me to deposit, and then say that the problem prevents the house from paying out any winnings.  Although I value my good friend’s worldly advice and I’m highly suspicious of any online poker room, I tend to think that my friend’s doubts are unwarranted.

First, I’ve asked people I’ve played with at JWG and some have said that they have gotten money out.  Remember poker players never lie.  second, I’ve gotten money out of other poker rooms, such as Party and bodog, albeit bigger rooms, and ones that don’t have bugs.  Third, I’ve never seen any discussion on the web about how JWG is a scam site or makes it difficult to withdraw cash.  Fourth, I’ve been told by other players that JWG was primarily a sports booking room and only recently has included the poker room.  So this may account for their technical problems, not some intentional ploy to trick the customer.  Finally, JWG’s customer service is pretty easy to reach either by phone or online.  So if I had to bet, I’d bet that I could get my money out.

And so I shall do it!  I resolve to make a $25 deposit to JWG in the next few days.  I shall let the chips fall where they may….most likely in checkraisa’s stack.

And it all started with a $5 no deposit bonus.  That’s over a %2500 increase.  Anyone want to sponsor me for WSOP 2007?

At JWG, I play almost entirely at the $.05/.1 no limit hold’em tables, and it is basically with the same group of characters: oberppool, dallasglass, charlie2000, karikos, adrianm, eliez, paulriss, checkraisa, and a few other regulars whose names escape me.  

Except for checkraisa the style of play is extremely tight with a lot of limping in.  What I find interesting about my success, which I think has to do more with good cards than any great skill, is that I win a lot against people who play loosely (sorry checkraisa), but I don’t enjoy playing against them.  Too much adrenaline. 

The players at JWG are by and large polite and good natured and since we play with each other almost every night it has a feel of a friendly cash game.  If it were not for this aspect, I don’t think I would enjoy playing at JWG, since there are a number of problems with the poker room (see my comments here).   

In order to cash out, I will need to deposit a minimum of $25 and then play for 4x this amount.  I said to myself a few weeks ago that if I ever make it over $100 I would make the $25 deposit.  I thought that $100 was enough of a cushion, but after a day where I lost $30 in three hands (see previous post), I’m not so confident that this amount will be sufficient.  So I have still not made the deposit, and hence am not eligible to withdraw any of “my” money.  But I’m in no rush to get it.  I’m winning and still having fun.  

Side note:  Someone by the name of Joe left a comment for me on one of my posts regarding JWG.  You offered to use me as a referral for the site.  Did you do this?  And if so, what is your username?