high stakes report

the last 7 days on full tilts nose bleed tables has been intense to say the least! if you have been following any of the action you will have seen the same familiar faces as well as quite a few new ones.

it seems that since the highest action has moved from the $500/$1000 tables down to the $200/$400 and $300/$600 with ante tables a couple of the almost there players decided to step up to the mark.

now don't get me wrong, the players stepping up are at the top of their game, players like aejones or cole south, however in the past these players have had a pretty tough time at the very highest stakes. so the fact the action droped down maybe made it all the more compelling for them to take a shot. and what a shot they have taken. in the last 7 days some of these players have been on sick heaters, just ripping through the likes of ivey, antonius and durrrr.

taking a quick look at highstakes db you can see that the big winners in the last 7 days are

> martonas, up a staggering $1.6m
> richard ashby, up over $1m as well
> aejones, clocking in at just shy of $900k

but when there are big winners there has to be big losers, and there are

> durrrr, down $1.5m in 7 days. after pulling himself out of the $4m hole he found himself in he is now stuck again!
> patrik antonius, down $1.4 million although he is still very much in the green for the year
> din_fru, running bad and down $1.2m

the action has been mad and the play has been unreal. not mentioned above is cole south, but he has been tearing the plo tables in recent weeks, so do not be surprised to see the red pro book some big wins in the coming days.

also worth a quick mention is the return of matusow to the high stakes online tables. maybe matusow felt the new blood sitting would be easy pickings. sorry mike, i'm sure they were happy with the $140k you donated yesterday!

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poker copilot review

i've spent enough time with poker copilot 2 now to review the product, so here we go :)

synopsis

a stand alone poker tracking and analysis program that runs on the native mac os. its currently prices at $59.99.

highlights

> hud display

> hand and opponent analysis

> hand re-player

> performance tracking

> supports cash and tournament play

> works with pokerstars and full tilt poker

software

solid software with a simple and user friendly interface. i haven't experienced any problems since downloading and installing the program and have never had any issues with hand tracking or hud performance. from my experience poker copilot is stable and effective, in other words it just works :)

features

all the basics are there and if you only use the top-line features of any hand analysis and tracking program then you won't even notice. however if you like to play around with your and others stats then you'll start to notice some omissions, some big, some small. here are a few examples;

> there is no a date range option meaning you can't analyze how you performed over the course of the month

> you cannot break out table performance both in hud and in general. its therefore hard to see how you and other players are performing on a table by table basis.

> there's no $/bb toggle against the hands that you have played, ie. i have currently lost 9054 bb playing a/k suited. what's that in $?

having said that, the features that are missing are few and far between. there is more then enough functionality in poker copilot to add value to your game.

future

here's the thing, poker tracker 3 is meant to be released on mac in the early fall of 2009. that's only a few months away. pt3 is a great program, has been used by a lot of players in the past, and will certainly set the benchmark for mac poker tracking and analysis software. what happens to poker copilot? well they have a few months to prepare and if they can up their feature set sufficiently (which i know is possible) then they will have a chance.

overall

poker copilot is a decent program for the mac and does provide us mac users with a native option. as i said previously, its a solid and effective program that undoubtedly stable. its easy to use and does the foundation work very well. if you are desperate for some mac hand analysis and tracking then you can do no wrong by purchasing this product.

seymour:cards gives poker copilot 7/10

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will obama free online poker?

while there were many regrets american citizens had about the policies of the bush administration, one of the toughest blows came to online poker players in the form of the uigea, the unlawful internet gambling enforcement act. this act made it illegal for banks in the united states to do business with online gambling sites, which spelled the end of online poker in the united states for a number of sites.

uigea and poker

online poker players were outraged, specifically feeling that it was unfair for online poker, which can be proven to have a vital skill element, to be lumped in with video poker and other online casino games that are entirely luck. this was especially grating to online poker fans when considering the fact that forms of gambling that benefit the government, such as horse racing and state lotteries, were still considered completely safe and legal.

obama’s response

many poker players whooped that obama would ride in to the rescue. as a democrat, it was hoped that he would be less morally conservative and as a poker player, it was hoped that he would recognize the merits and distinctive character of the game.

the future of online poker

it remains to be seen what will happen. it seems likely that the current question now is not “will obama free online poker?” but “when?” when the white house posted a website asking citizens to post their most important issues for consideration and for people to vote on these issues, legalizing online poker was voted the number one technology issue and the number eleven issue overall.

when will obama free online poker?

this is a new administration with much to do in the wake of the last administration’s failures with respect to the economy and other issues. obama needs to choose and time his battles carefully. however, when the time is right and the right bill is introduced into congress to restore the legality of online poker, it is almost certain that president obama will sign it. when he does, online poker players will be free to come out into the light once more, playing on their favourites sites with no fear of persecution, hopefully ever again.

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