November Notes

       Money, get back,
       I'm all right Jack
       keep your hands off o' my stack           Pink Floyd


 INTER-CLUB
   In previous posts I've mentioned the Inter-Club poker tournament. This is  a $20 tournament that is held every 4th Sunday at various club venues. There are six clubs involved in this (I think) and each club enters a team of eight players. The idea is that, apart from the prize money,  players are awarded points according to their finishing position in each game. These points accumulate through the year and at the end of the year there is a prize-giving event where both individuals and teams are awarded cash prizes according to their over-all places on the points table. Each month a proportion of the prize pool is set aside and this is used for the end-of-year awards. I'm not sure how much this is but it is somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of the total.
   I've played in a couple of these events and I even finished in the top three once, but the fact that a big chunk of the prize pool is 'raked' puts me off making it a regular thing. I know that there is a chance of getting some of that back by either finishing well in a number of games, or by getting into a strong team that usually finishes well. But of course that means you'd have to commit yourself to playing every month. And of course if you play in a team, you're dependant on your team-mates' results, and if you don't (you can play as an individual) then you're at a disadvantage because you're up against people playing as teams.
   So I've decided not to play in this tourney as a rule. However my wife enjoys it and has ended up playing regularly for the Onehunga RSA team, so I guess I'll go along for the ride occasionally. There's one coming up that will be held at a club I've never been to before, so I guess I'll go along to that one. The only question is whether I'll play using my poker stake or just take the entry fee out of my spending money. I shouldn't use my poker stake because I only want to use that money to play in games that have a good pay-out structure (i.e. have a low rake). On the other hand, a good win would boost my bankroll, and it needs that at the moment.
   The thing I don't get about the way this tourney works is how you reconcile playing for a team with playing for yourself. Are you really supposed to take it easy on a fellow team member sitting at your table? So if a team-mate raises pre-flop when you have, say JJ or AQ, what are you supposed to do? Fold? Re-raise to let them know you have a hand? And what if you fold some good holdings to help your team-mate out and then they get eliminated, leaving you short-stacked? After all, the higher you finish in the rankings the better for your team, right? It's essentially a game that is based on collusion, something that is strictly prohibited in 'normal' poker. So on the odd occasion when I play in this, it will always be as an individual player. It's less confusing that way.

WITHDRAWAL
   I've always been a little nervous about the notion of withdrawing money from a poker site. The conventional wisdom seems to be that it's dead easy to deposit money with poker sites, but devilishly hard to make withdrawals. Once the sites have your money, they don't want to let it go. But I've always figured that if I accumulate funds at a site, more than I need to play, then I'm better off to have it earning interest in my bank account than to have it earning interest for them. So a few months ago I decided I had more than enough in my 888poker account and should take some out. Almost immediately, the US government started fighting with itself, triggering a cash flow crisis and causing the US dollar to plummet in value against the New Zealand dollar. This strengthening of the $NZ might have been good for anyone planning an overseas trip, but it was bad news for me. So I figured I'd better wait for a bit, and when the $US reached the point of buying NZ$1.20, then I'd take my chances.
   I had previously made a sort of withdrawal from Fulltilt Poker, by transferring my funds to Pokerstars but it's not really the same thing. Coincidentally, a couple of weeks ago one of my work-mates, who plays poker on Pokerstars, decided to make a withdrawal. Apparently it was a bit of a hassle and it took him more than a week of e-mailing back and forth before he finally got his money. Also, because I'd made my deposits using a Visa debit card, I wasn't sure how a withdrawal would work. I thought I might have to use Skrill or Neteller, or some other e-transaction site.
   In the end, here's what happened. I went to the 888poker cashier, selected withdrawal, and entered the amount. The cash money disappeared from my account almost immediately and the 'history' tab listed my withdrawal as 'processing'. A couple of days later it was listed as confirmed. I checked my bank account, but the money wasn't there. However it was the weekend so I waited until Monday and checked it again. The money was in my bank account. It turned out to be a painless, ridiculously easy process. So much for all the horror stories.

FRIDAY TOURNAMENT
   I've been playing regularly in the Friday night $20 tournament at the 'Workies' since early July. I started out with a hiss and a roar, making the top two twice, cashing several other times and often finishing in the top ten. But my results have dropped off a bit in recent weeks. In the last nine games I've cashed just once, and that was a 5th place money-back situation. In fact, in the last seven games five of my finishes have been between 10th and 14th. I seem to be specialising in finishing just outside the final table.
   After winning the previous 'ten week challenge', I decided to try and improve my game further by checking out some strategy websites. One of these was by 'Serial EPT Qualifier' Pierre Neuville on www.pokerlistings.com.  He advocates a strategy based on relative chip stack size. The idea is to stay at or above the average stack size by adjusting the amount of acceptable risk vs likely reward. Although this strategy is specifically aimed at online qualifying tournaments, I decided to give it a go and spent a few weeks constantly monitoring relative stack sizes and trying to keep above the average stack size.
   Then I came across a series of strategy lessons available on You Tube that seemed quite useful. These are by someone called 'Gripsed' and can be found by searching for 'poker tournament strategy' on You Tube. These are divided into different stages and, although I think the later stage videos are less applicable to the loose live game I'm playing in, the early stage advice seems to be much more useful. This strategy focuses more on actual stack size rather than relative stack size. The idea is to play tight in the early stages and look for opportunities to draw to a big hand in multi-way pots. Apart from that, there are different strategies outlined for different stack sizes. The essential message for the early stages is: don't panic, look for the right spots to make a move.
   So I've been more or less following this strategy for the last few weeks. Even though my results so far have been pretty poor, I intend to persevere and see where the"'Gripsed plan' takes me. It has occurred to me that deviating from the way that I was playing before may not be too clever. After all, I was winning when I first started playing this tourney. But I've been playing poker long enough to realise that my initial success could have been a lucky streak, just as my recent losses could be the result of an unlucky patch. I haven't been playing in these tourneys long enough to know one way or the other. There's also the fact that the number of entrants in these tourneys has been increasing. When I first started there was typically 18 to 25 players in the game. Now there is usually 30 to 40. That has to make some difference. So for now I'll be following my new strategy and when the series ends in a few weeks I'll review my progress and decide how to proceed when the tourneys start up again next year.
   I've also decided that I'll be playing primarily in online Texas Holdem tournaments during the summer period, so that will give me a chance to tinker with my playing style and hopefully find out what works for me. That's the theory anyway.