Lark On My Go-Kart

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Make sure to use signup code jhub for 33% rakeback when signing up for Cake Poker. Make sure you type it in as the SIGNUP CODE, not the promotional code or any other code. There's also a 100% deposit bonus up to $500. Transfers do not count as deposits. However, if you get money transferred into your account you will still be eligible for a deposit bonus once you actually make a deposit. If you need help getting money into Cake I usually have excess money in there & can swap money for money on another site where I have an account. Just post a comment on my blog or email me.

On June 11th I stopped playing Cake super turbos all together. It was a tough decision to make with my high rakeback deal on cake but I think it was the right thing to do. The other week I did some calculations & figured out that over 5,220 cake super turbos I was making less than $1 game after rakeback! Obviously I was running bad during this time but I was also running bad on FTP & Pokerstars during this time. Over the same # of games (although less on FTP cause I haven’t played that many) I was averaging over $4/game after rakeback on Stars & almost $6/game after rakeback on FTP. In 2009 when the games have been tougher I’m not even profitable in super turbos after rakeback. What started off as what seemed to be a dream scenario (Cake adding super turbos) w/ my rakeback deal turned into a nightmare due to the amount of ignorant regs who can’t put their ego aside & table select. Aside from that, super turbos also take away more focus from my other tables. You get about 2-3 super turbos in for every turbo, so if you take 40 minutes of turbos & 40 min of super turbos you’re involved in a much larger % of hands in the 40 min of super turbos. Also, with my multi tabling table selection routine it takes way too much focus away from my other tables while I’m registering & unregistering from all of the super turbos as more games pop up & I bust out of other games. Perhaps Cake will fix the registration process to make it easier when they come out with their new version of software. I’m pretty sure I recommended it to them. The variance of super turbos is also obviously very annoying. I think I can find plenty of games w/ similar profitability & less variance. Lastly, super turbos are very bad for my long run marketability. In super turbos you’re basically just hoping to break-even & make your money from rakeback. This is really bad for my stats when about half of my games were on Cake & probably half to 2/3 of my cake games were super turbos. I currently have a very good deal w/ Cake. However, I don’t want to close out future opportunities. Like most things, there’s also a business side to poker & that should always be a consideration.

Since I stopped playing super turbos I've been crushing so far ($377 hourly over about 100 hours). Obviously it's highly unlikely I will maintain that but it's still nice to see. Once I get in a good sample size I'll probably start posting hourly rate again. I keep calculating new hourlys since I've been experimenting w/ different games so I haven't posted my hourly in a while. Since we finally have nice weather in MN I've been taking advantage of that. I know there was 1 week where I only played 10 hours.

Since no longer playing super turbos I’m super confident in my game. I’m just allowed to focus so much more. I’m only getting in about 15 games per hr now but that’s about what I was getting in when my hourly rate was at its peak. The games have certainly gotten tougher since last year but w/ another site to choose from (FTP) I think I might be able to get close to my 08 hourly (although admittedly I probably ran about $30-$50K above expectation in 08). I might eventually try to play 1 more table at a time on avg. We’ll see how things go.

It’s amazing how ignorant even successful players can be. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard people saying I fell off or that my “luck streak” has ended. Yes I was just that successful over 60,000 SNGs & then suddenly fell off. Yes I was LUCKY over 60,000 SNGs & it’s finally ending. I must be the luckiest guy in the world. When playing multiple buy-ins it’s not tough to lose for extended periods of time. All it takes is losing at your highest buy-ins over a smallish sample. If you exclude super turbos all of my avg. ROIs are still positive on the year other than a -1% on Pokerstars. I can assure you that I'm a better SNG player than I was in 08, despite what my yearly stats are. People just dismiss it as me falling off because they've never gone through a streak like this. Go play 70,000 high stakes SNGs & then get back to me.

I've talked a lot about table selection. I usually center on 6 max SNGs since that's what I play. I've posted some 9 man table selection stats in the comments section of my blog but clearly not everyone reads that since I keep getting asked about this. I highly advise everyone to read the comments on each entry but here is how each player effects your ROI in 9 man SNGs:

Cost of a good regular -2,80%
Cost of an decent regular -1,80%
Cost of a barely winning player 1,20%

Remember, this is how each player effects your BASE ROI. I might as well post the link again to the original table selection entry since most people seem clueless in this area:

http://jhub3000.livejournal.com/2009/03/03/

Maybe I'll just sticky it at the top of my blog.

I'm sure most of you have heard by now that Minnesota gave up in their Nazi efforts to block online gambling ISPs. That's obviously a good thing for myself and other online poker players in MN.

http://www.pokerpages.com/poker-news/news/minnesota-drops-attempt-to-ban-online-poker-internet-gambling-sites-31702.htm

Cake has signed Lee Jones:

http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/lee-jones-signs-with-cake-poker-2431/

http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/lee-jones-discusses-the-future-of-cake-poker-2456/

I was very excited when I heard this. Lee was a big reason for the success Pokerstars has had & I think he'll do a great job helping make Cake 1 of the top sites in terms of volume.

I'm sure most of you also heard about the Nazi seizures by the FED:

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=7808131

A PPA spokesperson does a great job talking about the situation here:

http://www.foxbusiness.com/video/index.html?playerId=videolandingpage&streamingFormat;=FLASH&referralObject;=5885742&referralPlaylistId;=undefined

Send letters to congress in an effort to bring regulated online poker to the US:

http://capwiz.com/pokerplayersalliance/home/

I was very disappointed in the T-Wolves on NBA draft night. Ricky Rubio fell into our laps & I was stoked. I really didn't think we had a chance of drafting him without trading up. Not only were we getting him but we were going to draft Stephen Curry at 6. That young core of Rubio, Curry, Kevin Love, & Al Jefferson was sounding pretty good. Then the commisioner announced the pick. Jonny Flynn. WTF! This pick made absolutely no sense. They just drafted Rubio, about as pure as a PG as there is, then they draft another 5'11" PG when Curry is still on the board. Later they said they believe the 2 can play together. I'll believe it when I see it. It's also believed that Flynn was somewhat of an insurance policy for Ricky Rubio. Stephen Curry can play both the 1 & the 2 so he would have not only served at our starting SG (& a damn good one at that) but could also slide over to PG if Rubio were to continue with his nonsense & not play for us. Sure Curry may not be the pure PG that Flynn is but he serves as more than just an insurance policy & is a better player than Flynn. Flynn was a reach at 6, while Curry probably would have been a steal at 6. Another thing I heard is that Curry didn't workout for us. Guess what? He didn't workout for Golden State either & they happily snagged him at 7. I hope I'm wrong but I think we'll be paying for this for years to come. There was even a rumor before the draft that we were in talks to trade Al Jefferson and the #6 pick for Amare Stoudemire. I wouldn't even trade Jefferson for Stoudemire straight up. It was later reported that the rumor was false but you never know what to believe. For a second I thought Kevin McHale was back in office. I thought the same thing after the #6 pick. Sometimes I think I could run an NBA franchise better than these dopes. Hopefully when Rubio goes through puberty & stops being a whiny little bitch he will actually come and play for the Wolves. If it happens I'm sure he'll spend a couple more years in Spain first. If it doesn't, I guess we'll have to settle for trading him. I'd hope we could get decent value for him. It's ridiculous how players like Rubio, Eli Manning, & John Elway try to choose where they want to play when they come into the league. Be grateful you're able to play professional sports for a living & suck it up. If you don't like where you got drafted you can certainly leave in free agency when your rookie contract is up.

I was happy to see the Cavs added Shaq. He's still 1 of the top centers in the league & will be of huge help against Orlando in the playoffs. They still have work to do though. Both Artest & Ariza decided to sign elsewhere. Now their best bet is to sign Rasheed Wallace & hope he doesn't go to eastern conference rival Boston instead. I think Orlando upgraded its roster w/ the addition of Vince Carter & exit of Turkoglu. Jameer Nelson should also be healthy for the playoffs next year, so they could be even better than this year. I also think the Lakers have upgraded with Artest over Ariza as long as he isn't a distraction. Boston should be healthy again this year so they'll be tough, especially if Sheed signs with them. Either way I think Cleveland will make some more moves this offseason & make another strong push this year. Lebron isn't going anywhere. He's staying in Cleveland beyond next season. Andrew (Voss1313) said he'd bet me $1K on that. At first I said I wanted to wait until after free agency & trades to make the bet official (this was before the Shaq trade) but then I changed my mind. I figured they were almost certainly going to be big players this offseason & after they made those moved Voss might back out. I then offered him the deal again before the Shaq trade was made. I never heard back from him. I then offered it again. I still haven't heard back. It sounds like someone is getting cold feet. Andrew, what do ya think buddy?

The new Asher Roth CD is phenomenal. If you like Eminem you'll like Asher & I'd recommend picking it up.

Results:

Month of June:
147.26 hrs played
SNG Profit: $2,587.87
Rakeback/Bonuses: $27,278.46
Staking: $16,506.00
Total Monthly Profit: $46,372.33

Year of 2009:
889.48 hrs played
SNG Profit: $5,005.05
Rakeback/Bonuses: $152,001.75
Staking: $40,956.65
Total Yearly Profit: $197,963.45



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