rounders to rounders 2

with rumours that a sequel to the seminal rounders is being thrown about in hollywood i thought it would be worth remembering what made the original the stand-out poker movie of our time.

> a great cast, norton, damon, malkovich, janssen, turturro, landau etc. a selection of a listers and legends coming together and delivering a believable and interesting dynamic on screen.

> it wasn't set in vegas. new york added emotion, grit and realism to the movie where as the neon lights of vegas would have blinded the audience to the real struggle portrait in the movie.

> actually watching people play poker took a back seat with the tension and bravery of the game coming to the fore.

> there was no ridiculous quad aces getting rivered by a royal flush moment

> its was about the grind, the emotional roller coaster, about trying to make it playing poker. something that all players can relate to on one level or another.

at the end of the movie damon went off to chase his wsop dream in vegas. i would hate to think the sequel would continue exactly where the last left off, i feel it would be an anticlimax to the power of the originals script. the story in vegas may make a nice intro or even form itself through flashbacks, but for me, the grind in new york is far more compelling than any bright vegas has to offer. here's hoping that rounders 2 doesn't become a traditional hollywood over the top sequel.

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mac poker: your options

how many people play poker on their macs? how many of those players only use native mac software? what are you left with? probably not a lot in all honesty. online poker is predominately a pc orientated pastime, and even those brave enough to use a mac likely run windows via bootcamp or parallels.

however it doesn’t need to be this way. ss a new mac user and one that was absolutely against running anything not built for mac osx i went in search of options, and what follows is what i found. i hope that my research can help guide others that are in the same predicament or are tempted by a mac but find playing poker on the platform daunting.

hardware
i’ll keep this brief as i’m not here to sell the benefits of an apple mac as a system, needless to say if you are thinking of buying a mac you have the same opportunities available too you as you would buying a pc namely a desktop or a laptop. i’m a laptop fan myself as it gives me the flexibility to play poker wherever i please, plus I always have the option of buying a separate screen if I want to take advantage of a bigger viewable area. apple do a great 24inch screen, it may be a little more expensive then adding a standard pc monitor but if you are really that price sensitive then you probably won’t be buying a mac in the first place.

card rooms
of the hundreds of card rooms out there these days there are only 2 that offer native mac support through downloadable software. the alternative to downloadable software is insta play, which is essentially playing within your internet browser. i for one prefer the piece of mind that comes with running the card room off local machine software, meaning you have a choice of pokerstars or full tilt poker.

pokerstars
pokerstars is my favourite cardroom for tons of reasons which i won't go into here, however if you would like to read a full and impartial review of pokerstars then click here.

full tilt poker
full tilt is the second of the two cardrooms offereing native mac support and was actually the first in market to offer it. again, a full review is available if you click here.

hand analysis software
this is where life becomes a little tricky on a mac as the major programs do not currently support native mac osx. there are a number of strands appearing on the major poker forums that poker tracker 3 for mac is well under development and being a big fan of the software i very much hope that this is true.

while waiting for pt3 though, there are 2 alternatives that you can try. both offer 30 day free trials and are resonably proced if you decide to go ahead and purchase the full version.

poker copilot
poker copilot is the software i have mentioned previously in relation to mac poker. they are about to poker copilot 2 with a number of upgrades direct from consumer feedback. things are looking promising for this mac native hand analysis package and i will be putting together an indepth review over the next few weeks which will be available here.

flopzoom
flopzoom is the second piece of mac native software i have found. check out their website here. i currently have no experience with this piece of software but have recently seen some improvements that make me want to test it. if i do take the plunge then a review will appear here. in the meantime any comments or experiences with flopzoom are welcome.

summary
in conclusion, at first glance the opportunity to play and analyse your poker on a mac seems fairly limited. however once the surface has been scratched it becomes clear that there are a variety of options available to the mac owner. so don't sit around fretting mac owners, fire up some of the quality software available to you and get playing poker.

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music to watch the cards go by

poker can be a lonely game. you’re a lone warrior battling in solitude with only enemies for company. many a poker player therefore finds solice in music. a constant companion that can lift spirits or deepen despair.

but can music alter the way you play? can upbeat, high tempo music make you play more positively? and conversely can slow beat, angst esq music make you play more passively? recently i’ve been experimenting to test just this.

this morning i fired up some tables and chose some head candy to be my soundtrack of the session. i found myself tapping my foot to the beat and feeling high spirited. generally the poker session went well. there were no notable bad beats and i ended about half a buy-in up. good result.

this afternoon i continued my musical experiment and spun some placebo, one of the most teen angsty bands i have ever listened to. this time there was no foot tapping to be seen. instead i found myself screaming along to teenage dirtbag et al, and having a good time with it. the poker session again went well and i finished up about 15 bb.

this evening i thought i would try one more time and again the tables came up and i the needle went down on some matchbox twenty. being one of my favorite bands there was a fair amount of air guitar going on which was a little distracting. again the session went well. i played solid poker and finished up about 60 bb.

so what did i learn? well in regards to the genre of music affecting my play, very little. but i did realize the importance of poker to me as a solitary warrior on the felt covered battleground. good music can interrupt the monotony of playing poker, it can provide moments of escapism and distraction without you ever really losing concentration. it adds to the enjoyment of poker and is an undemanding companion to the grind. so fire up some tables, spin some tunes and let you and your music take on all comers!

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mac poker

i've always been a pc guy. ever since i convinced my parents to buy a pc back in the mid 90's, a gateway pentium 75. it ran windows 95 and i loved it! since then i've gone through one other desktop and 3 laptops. my last being a dell xps m1330 which was only purchased in 2007. in fact read my review of that purchase here.

unfortunately my lovely dell had a problem. deep inside its bowels the graphics chip, which was mounted on the motherboard, generated too much heat which eventually shorted its host. dell were kind enough to replace it the first time it happened but it has since happened again and although i'm sure dell would replace it once more i can't live with an erratic pc.

near where i work there is a big glass store with an enticing fruit mounted above the door. that store is the apple store. i popped in a couple of times during my lunch hour to play around with their machines and ended up falling in love! not only do macs look gorgeous but the operating system is so smooth and user friendly. applications open quickly and easily and nothing crashed or blue screened.

so guess what, i bought one! well i actually bought two as i bought my wife one as well so she wouldn't try and steal mine! i bought myself a 13 inch mac book pro and it is one slick piece of kit.

problem is with a mac is that there isn't a great deal of choice when it comes to poker software. only full tilt and pokerstars offer native support and none of the big hand analysis packages run on mac osx. i know you can run windows on your mac via bootcamp but to be honest, why would i slow down my system and eat up all its available resources to run windows.

luckily i'm a big fan of pokerstars so i have no problem placing my entire roll there, the hand analysis software however is something that i miss, even if its just for analyzing my own play as opposed to tracking others. poker tracker have mooted releasing a mac osx version of pt3 but no dates have been set. after a few searches however i came across a piece of software called poker copilot. it built for mac, and although it is fairly basic vs pt3 or holdem manager it does go someway to filling the void. i've only been using it for 24 hours but i have to say that i had zero problems setting it up, it hasn't missed any hands, hasn't frozen or had any other compatibility tantrums. something that neither poker tracker or holdem manager can claim, at least in my experience.

so all well so far then. i put in a couple of good sessions today and am up 2 buy-ins, nothing to do with the mac but at least i'm playing again. i'll definitely post a review of both my new mac and poker copilot as i log a few more hours with both, but in the meantime if anyone was considering a mac but was worried about their poker suffering, i wouldn't! poker lives, and it lives on the mac!

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the top 5 things all new poker players should consider

new to poker, still learning the ropes, confused by it all? If you find yourself nodding your head and you want a little advice about what to think and where to start, then I hope the following five handy insights will set you on your way to a long and successful poker career.

---

>bankroll
the bankroll or roll as its affectionately known. a subject that has been heavily debated by many. what is under-rolled or playing outside your roll? whats good bankroll management? questions that, in my opinion are best answered on a personal level rather than trying to broad brush stroke everyone. the key for any new player really, is not to gamble anything they can’t afford to lose. once you have determined that then if you follow my advice the rest of the decisions that you will need to make initially will almost be made for you. do remember though that your bankroll is your means to play poker. don’t make the mistake of calling your life money (ie. the money you need for food, rent, baby essentials) your bankroll, because its not. your bankroll should sit outside of all other financial obligations and just be there for poker. once its big enough and you are winning on a regular basis then you’ll be able to take money from your bankroll to add to your life money. in other words, poker will be a source of income, now that’s a good thing.

>poker room
so you have your bankroll and you are ready to gamble, but where do you play. there has been an absolute explosion of poker rooms in recent years, with skins such as ipoker and microgaming seemingly adding new rooms almost everyday. beyond just the room itself there are other factors to consider, such as rakeback, traffic, security, customer service and ease and convenience of depositing and withdrawing money. rake back is probably one of the biggest influencers in a small stakes players choice of card room, mainly because it helps offset the rake, which is the house take on each hand that is played. there are varying rake deals available ranging from 20-60% depending on the volume you play, and in part, the desperation of the room to attract new players. if you are interested in looking at the rake back deals that are available then I would recommend looking at those offered by rake the rake. i’ve had nothing but an excellent experience with the team there and they will offer you the same level of service. personally though, after trying room after room, shifting my roll around, there is only one place that I play at these days and that’s pokerstars. pokerstars doesn’t offer rakeback and to be honest there new player sign up deal is pretty lame but if you can see past those factors for a moment you will see that they have 1) the highest average traffic of any card room, over double that of its closest rival. 2) lots of fishy players to cash in on. 3) they have the best customer service I have experienced anywhere, always helpful, prompt and effective. 4) they are secure and safe, you won’t have any problems depositing or withdrawing money, they don’t slow down processing to hang on to your money a little longer and there aren’t any ridiculous security requirements to withdraw either like some rooms. pokerstars just offers the best product in the marketplace by a long way and that is why they are number 1. if you want my advice then play there, at least to begin with while you are finding your feet, and then experiment with other rooms once you are comfortable with the whole online poker process.

>tournaments or cash
the next big decision is whether to play cash or tournaments. new players often ask what the difference is, after all you are playing the same game in both. however the dynamics of cash vs tourneys, as they are affectionately known, are vastly different. the biggest difference is that you can’t reload in a tournament if you lose all your chips. if a player sucks out on you then that’s it, your chance at the money is gone, however in cash you can simply buy back in and wait for the fish who sucked out on you to make the same mistake again and give you your chips back. there have been many occasions where i have seen a particularly bad player get lucky time and time again, building up a huge stack of mine and others money only for me to play patiently and eventually take all his chips off him making a very tidy profit in the process. that obviously isn’t possible in a tournament. however single table tournaments, called sit and go’s (sng’s) are a good place to learn the ropes in poker. your loses are limited to the buy-in and it gives you a chance to play with the safety net of always knowing where you stand financially. my advice is to experiment though, find your groove, develop your style and see where you are most profitable.

>stakes
the question of stakes has more to do with your bankroll then anything else. you would have seen me mention bankroll management above and deciding what stakes to play is a big part of this. the general rule when playing cash is that you have no less than 20 full buy-ins for whatever stake you are playing. so for example if you are playing nl20, or no limit holdem with a max buy-in of $20 then you should have at least twenty times that in your bankroll. so $400 minimum. the max buy in is usually 100 times the big blind, so for nl20 you would have blinds of 10/20c. the small blind being 10c and the big blind being 20c. there is variation to the 20 buy-in rule for example there is less swing in limit holdem then there is in no limit holdem and more swing in heads-up then in ring games but personally i always like 20-25 buy-ins in my account to absorb any bad runs i go on.

>style
lastly, there is the question of style, or how exactly you are going to play poker. so are you a loose or tight player, are you passive or aggressive. generally being aggressive is always better than being passive. all of the top pro’s are aggressive players and they put their opponents under a huge amount of pressure because of it. the difference between loose and tight is more personal in my opinion. loose players get more action but get themselves in many more difficult spots. if you are a great reader of the game then you’ll have the skills to find the right play in those tough positions, if you aren’t then you’ll see yourself making a lot of mistakes. tight players generally see less swing in their game but are easier to read and therefore don’t always get paid off on their big hands. i suggest finding whatever you feel most comfortable with and practicing as much as you can to develop the instincts and experience you need to succeed.

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so that concludes the 5 key elements to consider when starting out in the world of online poker. i won’t lie, there is a lot to learn, but it will be a hell of a lot of fun. i still remember firing up my first real money sng and busting early on. i didn’t really know what was going on but it was fun, and i fired up another one straight away with pretty much the same result! But after about 4 or 5 goes i took down my first sng and the buzz was great! not long after that i moved to cash games and that has been where I have stayed ever since.

however your journey begins though, just have fun and remember, we all started in the same place!

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high stakes report

for those of you that read my high society post yesterday, you would have seen the not to difficult to predict prediction that when tom ‘durrrr’ dwan returned to the online tables the action would pick up. it seems it has already come true! as the $200/400 games raged yesterday turning a little crazy as they went on, it was nothing compared to what was to come. as the games turned down right insane once durrrr and david benyamine sat down. durrrr proceeded to go on a crushing marathon taking down any and everyone that got in his way. what made the action even sicker was the number of deep multiway pots taking place, which naturally durrrr seemed to take down. if the gamble continues then we could see a new biggest pot even at these stakes.

once the carnage had subsided and the dust had settled there were a number of victors with brian townsend, richard ashby, rafi ‘howsitfeellike’ amit all posting a profit but it was durrrr that sat proudly at the top of the pile banking in excess of $800k for the session. hopefully this is the beginning of some sustained high stakes action, as the railbirds have been feeling a little neglected over the past 6 weeks.

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high stakes report

In the last month di dang aka urindanger has been seen playing at far lower stakes than his usual $500/1000 game. the action right at the top was pretty insane prior to the wsop with tom ‘durrrr’ dwan and gus hansen driving much of the gambling. however since pokers biggest event began back in june the action has all but dried up.

recently though, even with the return of gus to the tables, it’s the $200/400 stakes that have seen the most action. a combination of the old guard and new challengers looking to make the leap to the nose bleed stakes has resulted in some high octane games running. it also seems that di’s break from the sick and swingy upper echelons of high stakes online poker has done him a world of good. in fact urindanger is up over $800k in the last 5 days alone. this smoking hot run has helped di erase his previous loses (as recorded by highstaksdb) which topped $1.9m and he is now up by over $650k for the year.

hopefully we’ll see the action continue over the coming weeks and with durrrr still to return, maybe the biggest games will start running once again.

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watch out seymour is about!

i'm coming back!  after a prolonged absence, over a year really, i'm on the road home!  and when i return i aim to bring seymour:cards back to the top of the blog pile, lol!

i'm currently looking at freshening things up a little, dusting off the cobwebs, adding some more functionality and things.  you may, depending on how often you visit, see a couple template changes, although i think that i am close to deciding on the new look.

so whats gonna happen once i'm back, well firstly and most obviously i'll be sharing my poker exploits!  again i'm not gonna be setting the world on fire but i hope my passion for the game comes across and for once there won't be any mentions of bad beats!

secondly i want to help new players navigate the online poker world and find the love for the game that i have.  i'll be writing a series of posts on my poker journey and the things that i know now which i wish someone had told me when i set off.

thirdly i'll be sharing my view on the latest poker news and also posting some interesting insights into the world of online high stakes poker as the action has been pretty frickin insane so far this year and its likely to get better and better.

so make sure you come back soon, post you comments and enjoy the content.

all the best out there!

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poker glossary: the letter a

ace-to-five, ace-to-six
methods of evaluating low hands.

act
to make a play (bet, call, raise, or fold) at the required time. it is seymour's turn to act.

action
> a player's turn to act. the action is on you.
> a willingness to gamble. i'll give you action or, there's plenty of action in this game.
> a bet, along with all the calls of that bet. for example, if one player makes a $5 bet and three other players call, he is said to have $5 "in action", and to have received $15 worth of action on his bet. usually this term comes into play when figuring side pots when one or more players is all in.

action button
a marker similar to a kill button, on which a player places an extra forced bet. in a seven-card stud high-low game, the action button is awarded to the winner of a scoop pot above a certain size, signifying that in the next pot, that player will be required to post an amount representing a completion of the bring-in to a full bet. for example, in a stud game with $2 and $4 betting limits and a $1 bring-in, a player with the action button must post $2; after the cards are dealt, the player with the low card must still pay the $1 bring-in, then when the betting reaches the player who posted the $2, he is required to leave it in as a raise of the bring-in (and has the option to raise further). Players in between the bring-in and the action button can just call the bring-in, but they know ahead of time that they will be raised by the action button.

action card
in texas hold 'em or other community card games, a card appearing on the board that causes significant betting action because it helps two or more players. for example, an ace on the flop when two players each hold an ace.

action only
in many cardrooms, with respect to an all-in bet, only a full (or half) bet can be reraised. anything less than a full (or half) bet is considered to be action only, that is, other players can call the bet but not raise it. for example, seymour bets $100. bob calls. harvey goes all in for $119. when the action returns to seymour and bob, they may only call the extra $19; they cannot raise it. harvey's raise is called action only.

active player
a player still involved in the pot. if there are side pots, an all-in player may be active in some pots, but not in others.

add-on
in a live game, to buy more chips before you have busted. in tournament play, a single rebuy for which all players are eligible regardless of their stack size. this is usually allowed only once, at the end of the rebuy period. the add-on often offers more chips per dollar invested than the buyin and rebuys.

advertising
to make an obvious play or expose cards in such a way as to deliberately convey an impression to your opponents about your style of play. for example, to make a bad play or bluff to give the impression that you bluff frequently (hoping opponents will then call your legitimate bets) or to show only good hands to give the impression that you rarely bluff (hoping opponents will then fold when you do).

aggressive, aggression
leading or raising rather than calling or checking.

air
> in lowball, "giving air" is letting an opponent who might otherwise fold know that you intend to draw one or more cards to induce him to call.
> nothing, as in, that last bluff was with total air, or I caught air on the river.

all in
having bet all of your chips in the current hand.

angle
a technically legal, but borderline unethical, play. for example, deliberately miscalling one's own hand to induce a fold, or placing odd amounts of chips in the pot to confuse opponents about whether you mean to call or raise. a player employing such tactics is called an "angle shooter".

ante
an ante is a forced bet in which all players put an equal amount of money or chips into the pot before the deal begins.

ante off
in tournament play, to force an absent player to continue paying antes, blinds, bring-ins, or other forced bets so that the contest remains fair to the other players. go ahead and take that phone call. we'll ante you off until you get back.

courtesy of, in part, wikipedia.  click here for more poker information.

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pokerstars review

pokerstars is the largest poker site in the world, offering massive volume in cash games and tournaments and action at almost any game and limit 24 hours a day.

it really sets the standard in the industry as far as tournaments go, with an unmatched selection and sit-and-gos at all stakes starting up virtually every second.

pokerstars also offers good promotions and an exceptional loyalty program, with a huge selection of merchandise, special events and qualifiers to all major poker tournaments.

the software is also top-notch and offers fast play, high reliability, great multi-table options and a high level of customization - it pretty much sets the bar for the industry there as well.

if you're looking for a downside, though, it's probably the inconsistent competition. because of the huge player base, the opposition can range from super soft at one table to unbelievably aggressive just the next table over.

lower limits and tournaments are still flush with bad players, say up to the $6 and $11 SNG level, but there are literally thousands of strong players trolling pokerstars daily looking to make a living, so expect some tough competition scattered throughout your games.

if you like more obscure poker variations, pokerstars is for you, with a wide spread of games offered - texas hold'em, omaha and seven-card Stud in all versions, h.o.r.s.e., h.o.s.e., 2-7 triple draw, five-card draw, razz, 2-7 single draw lowball, badugi, 8-game, mixed hold’em and mixed omaha hi/lo. by the time you read this, they've probably added more.

overall, pokerstars keeps its spot at the top of the industry for traffic by offering a real "feel for poker" and responding rapidly to player feedback.

bottom line, it does what it does very well, and if the competition wasn't so tough at the higher stakes and there wasn't the occasional inconvenience that comes with such a huge site, it would be tough not to rank pokerstars higher.

real-money player statistics as of july 2009 show 22,500 ring-game players at peak hours and 155,000 tournament players at peak hours.

hits
> offers a $1.5 million weekly guaranteed, largest in the world
> massive satellite, ring game and tournament spread
> large and well-known pro team to rail, chat and play against
> great software
> very responsive to player feedback, adding new features, games and tournaments often

misses
> only offers e-mail support
> tough opposition in high-stakes tournaments and cash games

review courtesy of poker listings, for more inforamtion visit their great site here

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full tilt poker review

launched in 2004, full tilt poker is now by far one of the biggest and most famous poker sites online, growing daily and always pushing to build its reputation as a market leader.

adding to its visibility and prestige is of course "team full tilt," the site's main sponsored pros and the bulk of its ownership group, including poker legends howard lederer, chris ferguson, allen cunningham, phil ivey, mike matusow and andy bloch.

The site's famous catchphrase is "learn, chat and play with the pros," and they definitely live up to it, with the main sponsored team plus with a growing list of full tilt "red pros" found playing regularly at a variety of limits.

for the regular player there's action at virtually any game and limit 24/7, with games offered including texas hold'em, omaha, omaha hi-lo, seven-card stud, seven-card stud hi-lo, five-card draw and razz.


full tilt poker is also one of few sites with mixed games like h.o.r.s.e., h.a. and h.o.s.e. in both cash games and tournaments, making the game variation one of the most extensive and impressive online.

full tilt poker's software has some very innovative functions, is very stable and features excellent graphics - definitely measuring up as one of the best in the industry. The cartoon avatars are a bit tiresome to look at after a while, but not a huge obstacle to overcome.

same goes for the perpetual spamming and $5 transfer requests in the chat wherever the pros are, but that can also easily be turned off.

for those that want to look like the pros, the points shop is excellent, offering players all sorts of ftp merch that can be bought with their full tilt poker points.

overall, full tilt delivers what you expect - plenty of tables and games to pick from, a strong pro presence to give you the cool "poker experience" and a chance to watch some super sick games at the marquee $500/$1,000 no-limit hold'em tables.

the hard work and huge advertising budget has definitely paid off, as real-money player statistics as of July 2009 show 10,500 ring-game players at peak hours, and 70,000 tournament players at peak hours.

hits
> $8 million in guaranteed prize money each week
> accepts u.s. players
> great points store with full tilt poker merchandise
> chance to play with famous full tilt pros
> great mini-view functions for multi-tabling
> supports completely automated import of tournament and ring-game data to poker tracker

misses
> very tough competition at higher levels
> no-download software isn't available

review courtesy og poker listings, for more inforamtion visit their great site here

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advertise

looking for cost effective advertising that reaches a passionate and active audience of poker players?

If the answer is yes then seymour:cards is the right place for you.

seymour:cards is targeted towards online and live poker players, poker lovers and poker addicts!

we have a range of options available to help promote your brand to our audience.

full page blog post

editorial endorsement in the form of a 300 word post on your brand. this is an ideal way to reach our loyal readers in a less intrusive way. any post will be written openly and honestly to maintain editorial integrity proving correct and interesting content for our readers and position your brand in a honest and believable light.

super square sponsorship

the prime placement on seymour:cards. the super square appears on each and every page and holds the most prominent position on the site. as the largest and most prominent placement on seymour:cards the super square delivers unparalleled cut through to reach our audience

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a footer banner is also available that will sit in a solus position at the bottom of the page. the footer banner will appear on every page allowing a unique opportunity to reach our readers as the enjoy our ever updating content.

text links

text links are the simplest form of advertising available on seymour:cards. a short text ad can be placed in the designated section on our sidebar giving a unique exposure to our audience for your brand.

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the ultimate package! the crème de la crème for your brand. seymour:cards domination involves a 30 day roadblock of advertising across the web experience. the domination includes the super square, footer sponsorship and three, that’s right 3, full page blog posts across the 30 day period. the seymour:cards domination delivers unrivalled exposure and total cut through to our audience.

all advertising opportunities are sold on a 30 day rotation with payment in advance of placement. i do not automatically renew placements on expiry of the 30 days as I would prefer to have conversation with each advertiser on what’s working and what’s not and apply any learning’s to deliver a stronger package. long term bookings however are accepted if required.

for information on rates and availability please email me on seymourcards@live.com today.

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