Speedyfold Poker Blog

Randy Lew (aka Nanonoko) has set a new world record in volume play in online poker. Although “set” is probably too broad a word in this case. More specifically we should perhaps say “created”, as this was a brand new record so he didnt actually have to beat anything!

What he did was play 23,493 hands over an 8 hour period. He was playing up to 40 tables at a time on Pokerstars. And he made a total profit of $7.65 whilst doing so. Not exactly a profit to set the world alight, but making a profit was in fact part of the volume play being considered a legitimate world record.

Officials from Guinness World Records were there to observe him doing it during the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure. And nanokoko, who is already very accustomed to multitabling many online poker cash tables, didn’t even take a toilet break. A sure sign of a true grinder!

I guess you could say the shit has hit the fan. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued an indictment against the 3 major poker sites that are operating in the US online poker market (Pokerstars, Full Tilt, and Absolute Poker). Basically online poker for US players looks like it could be over for the time being, with the exception of a few smaller operators.

11 people were indicted, 2 from Stars, 2 from Full Tilt, 2 from Absolute Poker, 4 from payment processors, and 1 from a bank. Early indications suggest they are trying to get the payment processors and bank on money laundering and bank fraud, and the poker sites on running a gaming site that they allege is illegal in the US because of UIGEA.

If there’s enough dirt some of it may stick, and the sites may end up with quite a chunky fine. The bank and payment processors are probably screwed if there is enough evidence.

It’s unlikely that the DOJ would fair that well making a case off the back of the UIGEA legislation mainly because of the words “unlawful” and “gambling”. It could probably be argued by a team of lawyers/experts that poker is a skill game and not gambling. And it could probably be argued that the game of poker wasn’t unlawful in the first place, therefore not covered by UIGEA.

Perhaps a little dirt linking them a bit too close for comfort to the payment processors will be the DOJ’s main weapon of fear. But a gambling man (or a man keen on skill based wagers) would probably bet on a settlement being reached at some point later down the line. Pretty shitty for US players though. Tough break guys.

The SCOOP (Spring Championship of Online Poker) is taking place on Pokerstars in May. There are 38 events in total all taking place at 3 different buy-in levels (low, medium, and high). So whatever your budget you can take part in the events of the series. There is a total of $25 Million in guaranteed prizepools so it is certainly a good chance to take a shot at a decent payday. If you sign-up to Pokerstars you will get a deposit bonus of up to $600, matching your own deposit.

Here is the full Pokerstars SCOOP Schedule:

01 08-May 10:00 NL Hold’em (6-Max)
Low: $22
Med: $215
High: $2,100

02 08-May 14:00 NL Hold’em
Low: $22
Med: $215
High: $2,100

03 09-May 11:00 NL Hold’em (6-Max, w/Rebuys)
Low: $5.50
Med: $55
High: $530

04 09-May 14:00 FL Badugi
Low: $16.50
Med: $162
High: $1,575

05 09-May 17:00 NL Hold’em (Turbo, w/Rebuys)
Low: $11
Med: $109
High: $1,050

06 10-May 11:00 PL 5-Card Draw
Low: $11
Med: $109
High: $1,050

07 10-May 14:00 NL Hold’em (Heads-Up)
Low: $16.50
Med: $162
High: $1,575

08 10-May 17:00 NL Hold’em (Turbo)
Low: $11
Med: $109
High: $1,050

09 11-May 11:00 Mixed Hold’em (6-Max)
Low: $22
Med: $215
High: $2,100

10 11-May 14:00 7-Card Stud
Low: $33
Med: $320
High: $3,150

11 12-May 11:00 PL Omaha (Heads-Up)
Low: $22
Med: $215
High: $2,100

12 12-May 14:00 NL Holdem Knockout
Low: $27
Med: $265
High: $2,600

13 13-May 11:00 NL Hold’em (Ante Up)
Low: $16.50
Med: $162
High: $1,575

14 13-May 14:00 FL Omaha Hi/Lo
Low: $55
Med: $530
High: $5,200

15 13-May 17:00 NL Hold’em (2X Chance, Turbo)
Low: $16.50
Med: $162
High: $1,575

16 14-May 11:00 NL Holdem Shootout
Low: $22
Med: $215
High: $2,100

17 14-May 14:00 PL Omaha - 6-Max w/Rebuys
Low: $16.50
Med: $162
High: $1,575

18 14-May 17:00 Triple Stud (Turbo)
Low: $22
Med: $215
High: $2,100

19 15-May 10:00 NL Hold’em
Low: $22
Med: $215
High: $2,100

20 15-May 14:00 NL Hold’em
Low: $22
Med: $215
High: $2,100

21 16-May 11:00 Mixed NL Holdem / PL Omaha
Low: $16.50
Med: $162
High: $1,575

22 16-May 14:00 NL Hold’em (4-Max)
Low: $33
Med: $320
High: $3,150

23 16-May 17:00 PL Omaha (Turbo, 1R1A)
Low: $11
Med: $109
High: $1,050

24 17-May 11:00 2-7 Triple Draw
Low: $11
Med: $109
High: $1,050

25 17-May 14:00 7-Card Stud Hi/Lo
Low: $22
Med: $215
High: $2,100

26 17-May 17:00 NL Hold’em (Turbo)
Low: $11
Med: $109
High: $1,050

27 18-May 11:00 Razz
Low: $22
Med: $215
High: $2,100

28 18-May 14:00 NL Hold’em (Big Antes, w/Rebuys)
Low: $11
Med: $109
High: $1,050

29 19-May 11:00 8-Game
Low: $33
Med: $320
High: $3,150

30 19-May 14:00 PL Omaha Hi/Lo
Low: $11
Med: $109
High: $1,050

31 20-May 11:00 NL Hold’em (1R1A)
Low: $22
Med: $215
High: $2,100

32 20-May 14:00 FL Hold’em (6-Max)
Low: $55
Med: $530
High: $5,200

33 20-May 17:00 NL Omaha Hi/Lo (10 min levels)
Low: $22
Med: $215
High: $2,100

34 21-May 11:00 PL Omaha (6-Max)
Low: $55
Med: $530
High: $5,200

35 21-May 12:30 NL Holdem High Roller (Heads-Up)
Low: $270
Med: $2,600
High: $25,500

36 21-May 14:00 HORSE
Low: $22
Med: $215
High: $2,100

37 22-May 10:00 NL Hold’em (6-Max)
Low: $22
Med: $215
High: $2,100

38 22-May 14:00 NLHE Main Event
Low: $109
Med: $1,050
High: $10,300

Full Tilt Poker had a pretty interesting software addition recently with the introdution of Multi-Entry Tournaments. These, as the name suggests, allow you to register for the same tournament more than once. Most of the tournaments are being restricted to about 6 entrances per person at the moment, but that is thought to increase to possibly as many as 10 or 20 per person.

The software makes sure all your entries are seated at different tables so there is no major disadvantage to players who choose to only register once. In the event that the situation arises where you have more entrances left than there are tables then a stack merger will occur. The entrace on the table that breaks will have it’s chip stack added to your smallest other stack left in the tournament.

It’s a decent software addition because it increase prizepools quite a bit, and also enables players to play more of the tournaments that they like. If you want to give the Multi-Entry tournaments a go then sign-up to Full Tilt and get a $600 deposit bonus.

Pokerstars have recently introduced Home Games, a very nice addition to their software where people can effectively run their own little sub-site within Pokerstars. They can decide what poker games are offered and what tournaments are run. They can approve whoever they wish as members (eg friends/family/colleagues), they can run leagues, and they can even customise the look of the club by adding logos and changing colors.

All games are offered from Holdem, Omaha and Stud, right through to likes of Triple Draw and 8-Game. In cash games you can decide on the game, the limits and on the table size. In tournaments you can decide the start time/date, the blind speed, the starting stack, the pay structure, the table size, and whether rebuys are allowed or not. You can choose whether a particular tournament’s outcome will contribute to a league, and you can decide over what period the league is run. Overall there is a lot of power and flexibilty in what you can do and it has certainly raised the bar in online poker software. You can create up to 3 clubs yourself and you can join up to 10 clubs, so you can get involved with several (eg one for work, one for friends, or whatever). Each poker club can have up to 50 members so you can create quite a sizeable “home game” really. Even if you have just 4 or 5 of you as a family who want all the flexibilty of the sotware and not having to shuffle cards or anything then the feature is great. Leagues tables and the like all become a walk in the park.

Some of the other things you as Club Manager can do is decide on the club name, and grant admin powers to other members. So if you have someone whom you trust to run some games or tournaments when you are not around, you have that flexibilty of handing over a bit of the power.

From Pokerstars point of view it is a great opportunity to encourage a few new sign-ups. If someone is into online poker the home games feature might just be enough for them to persuade a few friends/colleagues/online buddies to try it too. So all in all it is a great idea both from a users point of view and for them as a site commercially. Worth checking out for sure, and making use of all the features.

To set one up click on the Home Games icon in the main Pokerstars lobby. Then click the Create a Poker Club button. You will need to enter a club name and an invitation code (of your choice). You will then be given a club ID number and immediate access to your private poker club. For friends to join you just give them the club ID number and the invitation code. They simple enter that info, again via the Home Games icon. You will get an online prompt anytime anyone has submitted the correct details and you can choose to then approve them or reject them. Once approved they will have access to play the poker games/tournaments within the club. You can get emails sent to you when new people try to join, so if you dont have pokerstars open you can still be kept informed of club activities.

It’s once and a while that poker software additions really make you sit up and notice, and this is certainly one of those occasions.

There was a pretty interesting event at the fixed limit tables recently. In an act of politcal correctness IhateJuice has forced by Full Tilt Poker to change his screen name becamse of complaints that it was phonetically too much like “I hate Jews”. Considering juice/rake is a perfectly reasonable thing for a poker player to hate this seems heavy handed, but what can you do eh. The powers that be have spoken.

Now, IhateJuice is a very good FL Holdem player who has made over $2 million in profit at the FLHE tables on Full Tilt over the last couple of years, mainly at stakes $30/$60 thru to $2000/$4000. More lately it has been very much the higher of these levels.

So, Full Tilt, aware that name changes (particular of such good regulars) are a sensitive issue, informed the FL Holdem regulars via email that IhateJuice has changed his name to “Kagome Kagome” (his chosen alternative).

But he was also allowed to change his location from Germany (where he lives) to Japan, in what he later described as “just for fun”.

Now herein lies the controversy. A player called bicyclekick noticed this guy from Japan by the name of Kagome Kagome whom he had never seen sat at the 30/60 tables. He decided to take a shot against him. bicyclekick started to win some dollars and decided to push Kagome Kagome to play at higher limits. He agreed to this but then bicyclekick went on to lose $7200 until he found out his opponent was in fact IhateJuice. He quit the game but felt he had been hustled by him hiding his identity and allegedly playing sub-par at 30/60 to lead him to believe he had an edge, a fact which IhateJuice denies.

In a generous act IhateJuice shipped 33% of his profits from the game back to bicyclekick, but he was still a little annoyed about the possible unethical nature of the game.

The jury is out. IhateJuice didnt want to change his name, and also for a period had been mentioning it to players at the table after it had happened. It was also decent of him to ship some money back. However name changes are very rare and the “Japan” location does hint at the slight possibilty of a desire to bypass a few bumhunters’ lack of desire to play him. All in all I think IhateJuice didnt do anything wrong really. It was reasonable in-my-opinion to just let Full Tilt inform possible opposition, and carry on as normal. Affected opponents should probably be a little less sensitive, if that doesnt sound a bit harsh. Especially when they often base a lot of their player selection on info that isnt officially permitted by the sites (such as P&L databases).

Chiren80 is perhaps more famous for his other online gaming exploits. He was one of the top players at World of Warcraft (WoW), playing under the name of Athene. During this time he created increasingly more outlandish videos of his games and encounters and lifestyle. This lead to him become somewhat of an online celebrity if there is such a thing.

Athene decided to turn to poker where his experience of WoW is generally thought to be useful in the sense of quick decision making and information processing. At Pokerstars he adopted the screen name Chiren80. Well not content with being average Chiren80 quickly established himself as a high volume regular which let to him eventually becoming a member of Team Pokerstars Online. He is now taken that volume to the extreme and is attempting to play 1 million hands in a month. This is some insane grinding when you work it out. It is 32,358 hands a day, every day for a month. If he plays for 12 straight hours a day that is 2688 hands an hour every hour. Well if he plays 24 tables constantly for those 12 hours then that is still 112 hands an hour. Many tables play slower than that so that basically means he need to play 24 tables at the same time, for a period of longer than 12 hours a day for 31 consecutive days. A truely remarkable feet of grinding if he pulls it off.

And it seems he is actually on target also. He is up to over 750,000 hands with still about a week left. It is going to be close, but if he gets there then it’s a very unique accomplishment that is unlikely to be acheived again any time remotely soon.

You can follow his progress at Pokerstars

After many years as the key big names promoting the Ultimate Bet (UB) poker brand Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke have called it quits and moved on, by mutual agreement. Hellmuth famous for his grand WSOP entrances and similar UB marketing stunts is reported to possibly be moving on to promote the WSOP itself and/or some of the major Las Vegas casinos. With 11 WSOP bracelets to his name he is certainly well suited in that sort of capacity. Annie Duke is reported to not be considering any endorsement deals right now. Her profile is pretty high with her taking part in Celebrity Apprentice and other TV shows. So she could be a valuable marketing asset at some site.

The reasons for them leaving have not been fully disclosed but it is widely thought to be a combination of factors such as the negativity surrounding the superuser scandal that Hellmuth and Duke whilst defending UB have carried around and been affected by a little of the stigma. Other factors such as UB adopting a more youthful marketing approach have also been mentioned with a move towards a much lower average age for the Team UB pros.

The mysterious Swedish player Isidur1 has joined Pokerstars as one of their official online pros. Isildur1 (widely thought to be Viktor Blom) first came to the world’s attention at the high stakes tables on Full Tilt. In some extreme Heads-up multi-tablling he took on all comers at all stakes. He managed to take $4 million of Tom Dwan’s money in the process, but then ended up losing that to Brian Hastings. A few short-lived comebacks never really fully materialised but with the intense coverage the online sensation received Pokerstars saw him no doubt as a great marketing opporunity. There are Superstar Showdown Challenges planned, and expect to see Isildur as a regular fixture at the high stakes tables on Pokerstars very soon.

RaiseOnce on Pokerstars won the $25K Highroller Heads-up WCOOP Event on Pokerstars last night. He’s also been seen playing very high stakes over the years at the cash tables on Stars. But who is RaiseOnce I hear you ask. Well I am here to say that it is 99% certain that RaiseOnce on PokerStars is the one and only Phil Ivey. Cue shocked expression.

The 7-part Evidence

1. Location: Las Vegas. Yes yes in isolation hardly evidence really. But lets continue…

2. RaiseOnce/Phil Ivey play very very few online tournaments. Only really the ultra high buy-in ones:

Pokerstars

9 tournaments. Buy-Ins:
$25,500 x 1
$10,300 x 4
$5,200 x 2
$1050 x 2
That’s an ABI of $8800

Full Tilt

16 tournaments. Buy-Ins:
$25,000 x 4
$2620 x 4
$2100 x 1
$1060 x 2
$535 x 3
$216 x 2
That’s an ABI of $7296

3. Language Similarities

otterkopf: gg
otterkopf: be back later
RaiseOnce: thx

harrington25: YOU ARE THE GREATEST TO EVER PLAY THE GAME
harrington25: LOVE THE 78 HAND
Phil Ivey: thx

Ziigmund: ok gl m8
Phil Ivey: thx u2

Phil Ivey: someone just transferreed me 6dollars
Phil Ivey: thx whoever that is

4. Cash Games

Plays all games, and plays them at a v.high standard at the highest levels. For example at 1000/2000 Limit HE, and 1000/2000 2-7 Triple Draw. The player pool of people doing that is very very small.

Here he is in action:

PokerStars Game #49923191501: Triple Draw 2-7 Lowball Limit ($1000/$2000 USD) - 2010/09/20 18:46:40 ET
Table ‘Psyche III’ 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: Wrasse ($32500 in chips)
Seat 5: oogee ($40460 in chips)
Seat 6: RaiseOnce ($45960 in chips)
Wrasse: posts small blind $500
oogee: posts big blind $1000
*** DEALING HANDS ***
RaiseOnce: raises $1000 to $2000
Wrasse: raises $1000 to $3000
oogee: folds
RaiseOnce: calls $1000
*** FIRST DRAW ***
Wrasse: discards 1 card
RaiseOnce: discards 2 cards
Wrasse: bets $1000
RaiseOnce: calls $1000
*** SECOND DRAW ***
Wrasse: discards 1 card
RaiseOnce: discards 2 cards
Wrasse: bets $2000
RaiseOnce: raises $2000 to $4000
Wrasse: calls $2000
*** THIRD DRAW ***
Wrasse: discards 1 card
RaiseOnce: stands pat
Wrasse: checks
RaiseOnce: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Wrasse: shows [8c 6d 5h 2c Jh] (Lo: J,8,6,5,2)
RaiseOnce: shows [3d 8s Ts 4h 2d] (Lo: T,8,4,3,2)
RaiseOnce collected $16998 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $17000 | Rake $2
Seat 1: Wrasse (small blind) showed [8c 6d 5h 2c Jh] and lost with Lo: J,8,6,5,2
Seat 5: oogee (big blind) folded before the Draw
Seat 6: RaiseOnce (button) showed [3d 8s Ts 4h 2d] and won ($16998) with Lo: T,8,4,3,2

5. Live Buy-ins via Pokerstars

RaiseOnce registered for the £20,000 High Roller London EPT event via Pokerstars. He also registered for the 25,000 Euros EPT High Roller Event in Monte Carlo via Pokerstars. The EPT is owned by Pokerstars so registering via them is the easiest way. Now these events had a very small number of entrants.

The Americans who played the London EPT Highroller:

Chris Moneymaker
Dennis Phillips
Greg Raymer
Vanessa Rousso
Steve O’Dwyer
Nicholas Schulman
Erik Sediel
Dan Shak
David Steicke
Vadim Trincher
Brian Powell
Joe Cada
Tom Dwan
Chris Ferguson
Matt Glantz
Barry Greenstein
Ashton Griffin
Phil Ivey
John Juanda
Harrison Kaczka
Eugene Katchalov
Bryn Kenney

As you can see many of those names have very well known Pokerstars IDs, particularly the PokerStars Pros. So if we actually remove those names we get:

Erik Seidel
Phil Ivey
Dan Shak
David Steicke
Vadim Trincher
Brian Powell
Chris Ferguson
Matt Glantz
John Juanda

If we then take off the players who didnt play the Monte Carlo EPT High Roller we get:

Phil Ivey
Chris Ferguson
Dan Shak
David Steicke
John Juanda
Erik Seidel

Then if you ask yourself who plays the highest stakes games on Full Tilt out of those you only really end up with:

Phil Ivey

6: Availability. Yes again hardly evidence (as in no.1) but building a full picture here.

Phil Ivey is currently in London but there is a bit of a gap in events. His had busted from events in progress and had a while to wait before the WSOPE 10K Heads-up and the WSOPE Main Event. A perfect time to have a crack at the $25K Heads-up WCOOP on Pokerstars.

7. Playing Style Similarities

RaiseOnce on Pokerstars has a very similar playing style to Phil Ivey on Full Tilt. And I dont just mean to the naked eye, but using a range of PT3 stats. The style/stats also arent very similar to any other high stakes players. Many of the stats are very close to or in the same orientation/magnitute as the Full Tilt account. For example his C-bet Percentage in limit holdem and the amount he calls from the BB when playing Heads-up games.

In conclusion, hello Phil