Speedyfold Poker Blog

I saw a new tourney format on Pokerstars today. It was a Heads-up Hyper-turbo. The buy-in was $10.20 and there were 512 entrants.
You started with 1000 chips and the blinds increased every 2 mins starting at 50/100. The blind levels in full were:

50/100
75/150
100/200
150/300
200/400
300/600
400/800
500/1000
750/1500
1000/2000

The whole tounament from start to finish lasted a mere 44 mins. First place won $1280.00

Yes that is 9 entire rounds of heads-up battles all completed in 44 mins! Dont pause for breath, you might just miss it.

Ancillia Tilia has been seen a bit on the poker scene recently, including at the Twente Classics poker event in Holland. She is a model particularly well known for the fetish scene, so dont be surpirsed to see her in leathers or even rubber!

Somewhat bizarly it would seem, some of the poker rooms on the iPoker network have been forced to trim back on the number of profitable players.

Firsty we saw Blonde Poker being told to find a new network, and being given a months notice to vacate iPoker. Now we have also seen some sites such as Victor Chandler being told they must reduce the profitable players and hence forcing some players to leave. The have actually emailed players citing this reason.

At first glance this does seem totally ridiculous, but if we think further about possible motivations we can derive a probable reason for it:

Several skins are likely to have been part financed by some online pros in collaberation. Obviously they spend their time playing on their own skin and mopping up the fish. This basically looks like it applies to Blonde Poker. Similarly others have actively targeted a small market of good/better players (lurring them over from sites for example) and are reliant heavily on them to make money.

These type of operators dont really have the millions needed to effectively market to a broad audience so they are largely reliant upon their inner circle and niche marketing for their players.

The problem though is that the network (ipoker) generates its revenue from part flat fee and part commission of the skins rake. Commission making up the lions share. So if sites like those described exist they contribute very little to ipoker’s revenue but they are drawing lots of withdrawals from money on the network. Effectively there’s too much of a shortfall between the two. Too much money out, not enough money in.

It seems very unlikely any site which does market heavily on the ipoker network, like Titan or Sun Poker etc, are going to be told to change anything. But it seems increasing likely that the small operators will need to justify their place by having enough deposits (by players) in relation to the pseudo shortfall. Otherwise they are essentially draining funds from the hard work of the major skins, and contributing very small commissions for the priviledge.

Nanonoko is a absolute legend from the mid-stakes games on PokerStars. He recently broke through the $1 million profit barrier. This is a totally sick acheivement considering most of his hands were played at $2/$4, $3/$6 and $5/$10 (all NLHE Shorthanded). He plays long sessions with often as many as 24 tables running at a time. It takes tremendously focus to deliver that volume, but Nanonoko has done it.

He acheived $1,019,091 profit from 2,318,079 hands (at a win rate 3.65 BB per 100). Just 2.3 million hands in a year and a bit, about 5.5K hands a day… an average internet grinder eh

WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack has just announced he is stepping down from his position. In some parting words he said “Thank you for allowing me to be part of the WSOP these last few years. I will always be a fan and friend to the poker community”.

It is unclear as to the reasons or motivations why, but I speculate he will have another high profile position lined up before long (if it isnt already). I think he just thought the time was right and he needed a change.

Pollack did good jobs for both the NBA, and Nascar before being recruited by Harrahs for the WSOP role. Generally speaking I think he was very successful at that also. Sure he had his knockers and doubters, but that is par for the course for any sort of role where you need to make tricky decisions. I met him a view times at one venue or another and always found him amiable and professional. Whatever the reasons for the departure I wish him well, and I am sure he’ll be successful with his next venture.

Darvin Moon, a likeable lumberjack and WSOP Main Event final tablist lost out to Joe Cada in the Heads-up battle to be crowned world champion.

Moon, who has refused many endorsement and martketing deals is fully commited not to let the $5 million winnings change his lifestyle. He is going to go back to his job chopping trees, and his wife has been told she cant have a new lawn trimmer, as the old one is just fine.

Perhaps the sites and the poker industry in general are happier to have Cada as the winner. At least there will be some marketing miles in him. Joe Cada became the youngest Main Event champion ever, surpassing Peter Eastgate’s record of last year. He won $8.5 million and the much coverted WSOP ME Bracelet. He has been signed up by PokerStars.

yes my friends, you did indeed hear it here first, at the hands of super fast speed typer speedyfold.

Two players from the WSOP 2009 Main Event table (November Niners) have also made it to the final table of the WSOP Europe Main Event (WSOPE ME Niners). Sick Sick Sick. When you run good you run good! wow.

The November Nine men in question are James Akenhead (of Hitsquad fame) and Antoine Saout (a baguette munching, garlic chewing man from a medium sized town somewhere in northern Europe)

When I called up my pal at a local bookermakers and enquired on some odds of this sort of thing, he said he havent got a clue. After further prompting he/we agreed on 850,000-1. Wow again. Epic? For sure

over and out, Speedyfold (fastest blogger in town)

Full Tilt’s ironman rewards scheme must be one of the worst explained I’ve ever seen. How difficult can it be to explain this things in plain English and make them appealing to it’s players. Most poker players are inherently a little lazy when it comes to reading large chunks of text. Lets remember we stare at images and click buttons for most of the day ; Most of us want to glance at something and understand the gist of it within the first paragraph.

Full Tilt’s Ironman explanation though is a long ramble that doesnt really tell you much. What the hell is an Ironman Chip for instance, and how about Ironman Medals? And they have these very vague tables which imply you need to accumulate a certain number of points every day. However it doesnt explicity state that. Then they add more layers like Ironman Plus levels, and the need to opt-in and decide in advance what you want to use the points towards.

Language such as “You could receive bonus medals at the end of the month if you reach at least Bronze status and earn at least 500 points in a day. ”

It is the sort of information page that has just been repeatedly amended over time, and no-one has actually taken the step of sitting back for 2 mins and considering how it looks to “fresh eyes” to the page. I say all this not even really in personal frustration or anything, just more the fact that it such a poor use of an incentive scheme and marketing tool.

There was an interesting thing in the news today. In the UK Annette_15 was being used by Betfair to advertise their site. However there was a complaint. Not only is Annette quite young looking, but it was suggested that her actual screenname “Annette_15″ suggested she is younger than she actually is (she is currently 20 btw).

Whilst reviewing this complaint it was declared that there was in fact a law banning persons below 25 from being used for gambling advertising. Betfair seemed unaware of this law. They have therefore subsequently stated that they wont use Annette_15 again in the UK in any advertising compaigns.

It seems a little harsh considering that Annette won the WSOPE main event in the UK, making her a prime advertising asset. I guess I can see both sides of the argument, and hopefully it wont mean that Annette’s Betfair sponsorship is not renewed.

The WCOOP on PokerStars is well underway. In previous years this has been a tournament series that has got me licking my lips in anticipation. Large field, large buy-in, large stack, long blind levels, etc. OMG what was not to love. However this year’s WCOOP has been somewhat of a disappointment. Gone are virtually all of the 30 min blind levels. The stacks have frequently been a reduced size, and the starting blinds often have come in at a higher level. It is difficult not to think the series has been cheapened somewhat. It just doesnt feel that special.

Lets take tonights $320 HORSE event as a case in point:

There is a regular $33 HORSE tourney on Stars with 3000 starting chips, 12 minute blinds, and first levels of 20/40, 30/60, 40/80, 60/120, and 80/160. Regular, run-of-the-mill, ordinary HORSE tourney.

So, how special was Event 25 of the WCOOP I here you ask? A HORSE event with a $320 buy-in and 1180 entrants? I will tell you how special: 10 min blinds!! 5000 starting chips and first levels of 50/100, 50/100, 60/120, 60/120, and 80/160!!

It is a major disppointment that this has happened to virtually all events. God did I used to love playing this highly skillful series, where you’d still be pitting your wits 17 hours deep. Now it feels like so un-very-special in comparison.

All I can do is pray enough poker players moan in order that Stars re-instates the former glory of this series next year.