There are a lot of crazy players in online poker. Sometimes you love them, sometimes you hate them.

I buy in at $1000 to play poker today. The first hand I am dealt pair jacks which I usually hate to play. I raise to $30, and the next player who join the table with me raises to $120 very quickly. I suspect he has a middle or big pair, but it is my first time playing with him, so after some consideration I call (everyone else folds).

The flop is K-K-J. Perfect flop for me.

I bet $90 hoping that he has a king. Very quickly he raises to $240. Alright, if he has pair kings I am dead but I do not think he will raise to $240 if he does. I move all in and he calls very quickly. He turns over king-three. Nothing on the turn and river; I have doubled up on my first hand. Well done.

On the very next hand I am dealt king-two of clubs. I limp in at $10, this same guy raises to $40. Everyone folds to me. Normally I do not play this hand but I feel he may be on tilt and playing crazily, and I have a chance to make a flush draw to kill this guy. I call.

The flop is A-K-2, no clubs. Is it another opportunity for me to make a killing?

I suspect he has ace-three or king-three or something like that. Probably one big pair. I bet $30 and see what he does. He thinks for a good long while before he raises to $200. He is probably worrying about what I have, but I do not feel he will suspect me having a two. I move all in again, and again he calls.

He turns over ace-king. Oh no. Nothing on the turn and river, and he has get back his $1000 from me within one single hand.

Maybe I should be a bit more cautious on this second hand, but overall I do fine. There are lots of players who will bet with one ace in his hand. This kind of roller coaster day is what poker is all about. I love poker.

I am getting a lot of success on online poker games; I am starting to feel that in general online poker players are weaker than live games at casino poker rooms, and it is more profitable to play poker online at home rather than playing at Macau every week.

I play online for three hours today, and I find that I can accumulate chips just like a good player does, and I can demonstrate some of the poker skills that I learn in the last few months. Maybe I am just lucky to sit with a few weak players, but I can consistent gather chips from them. What a good feeling.

My moment of glory come later in the day when I have queen-jack suited, and they keep calling my raises. When the jack on the river landed my full house, I move all in, and as I predicted, my two rivals call. I win the three way all in and more than $5000 in profit. For the first time in history, I am actually ahead and making money with my online poker gaming account.

I do not know what they are thinking, maybe it just happens that they decide to play jack-ten or jack-nine and it is not their day, but if they do not even have top pair, why are they playing their hands and keep calling me? I read in a poker magazine some months ago that you do not need to be the best poker player in the world in order to be profitable in this game; you just have to be better than the players on your table.

Which is exactly what I do: I have added these players onto my buddies list. From now on every time I log on I will know where my buddies are playing. Maybe this is an easier way to the road of fortune rather than learning from my poker mistakes. That is what friends are for.

I play about two hours of cash game on canbet poker; about $1500 profit, not bad. I quite like playing on this website, I think the players on canbet are a bit weaker than the ones I played with on my previous operator.

I also play on my first freeroll tournament there; the money is small but I just want to try it once. It is a beginners’ freeroll tournament, by the time it starts there are I think about 650 players; I never think I will win it but I would like to see how players play here. In fact, the top prize of about $200 hardly justifies my effort of beating the other 649 players anyway.

Right on the first hand, a player has push all in with his ace-ten offsuit. Why would you want to do that? He has 50 big blinds in his hand! He is called by a pair of jacks, and with no ace coming out, he is the first casualty of the tournament. What a weak play. He has probably watched too much poker television.

I play solidly but I really never got some good hands to play with; I do not see the players being much better than I do and I expect myself to last quite some times. After two levels and about twenty five minutes into the tournament, my time is up. I have pair queens and someone raises to five big blinds; I push all I and he calls. Ace-king suited. An ace on the river ends my tournament life.

I know I am predominantly a cash game player and I think that is where I will spend most of my time in the coming weeks. I will check out if there are any satellite events for APPT Macau. I will probably play there anyway but if I can get some free entries into the tournament that will be a big plus.

My bad luck continues. Oh my god.

I am one of the 31 players sitting down at the $10,000 high roller Red Dragon event at Grand Waldo at Saturday. Not being an experienced live tournament player myself, this is so far the most expensive tournament I have played in. I decide to play a bit tighter, using more time to watch my rivals and read how they play before I make my next move. At least that should get myself playing a bit longer and get my money worth.

Not only me, but most of the players played much cautiously compared to the event the day before. Two hours gone by and still 20 players remaining. I am second last in stack size on my table, about the size of 9 big blinds. I got pair kings. The loose player on my table bet $500; I know I need to make my move to stay further in the competition, and I move all in. He thinks for about 30 seconds; I know he does not have pair aces. He calls.

He has queen jack offsuit. Good.

The flop is 6-5-4. Thank god I think I have doubled up. The guy stands up and prepare to put on his jacket and leave.

The turn is a 3. Wait, don’t tell me……..

The whole table erupts when the 2 landed. Split pot. The guy besides me pat on my shoulder. I am speechless.

The very next hand I got a pair again, this time pair eights. I bet $500 when the American quickly moves all in, I know I am in trouble. I have no idea whether he has a big pair, but I remember him playing some hands with only one ace, and I am hoping he gets an ace-king or ace-queen. I call.

He has pair sevens.

Nothing on the flop and the turn. You know what happens next. 7 on the river. My tournament has ended.

I shake hands with a few guys and I slowly walked away. I am feeling very bad, and I decide I do not want to play the cash games that night, nor am I interested in who will win the tournament, it is just not my day. There goes $10,000.

I need some sleep. There is always the next tournament.

I arrive at the poker room at Grand Waldo 15 minutes late and miss the start of the Charity event which kicks off the Macau Cup event starting this weekend. I never want to play tonight anyway, I just want to watch the action.

A total of 59 players played in the event; well done to the organizer, this is pretty good result. Each player pays $2000 to enter the event, the top 2 players can each get $25,000 and gets a direct entry into the APPT Macau event in early September. Cash reward for all players down to the 35th player who will get $600. More than half of the players will get some home.

About one third of the players still remain after 3 hours of play, the final two players are not decided until four and a half hours into the event. At this moment the event has become something like a all-in festival. Most of the players are playing very tight and it is either fold or all in. I guess most players want to finish at least 5th which will get the player a hard earned $10,000 and an entry into the $10,000 Red Dragon event Saturday night.

The winner I think is a well deserved winner, among all the players who is playing this super tight tactic, he is the only one who seems to be consistently building his chip stack. By the time there are only five players left he has already half of the chips on the table. He has a very commanding lead against the players who are simply struggling to survive the ever rising blinds.

Most players are actually more than happy to play one of the many cash games available in the room. I am a bit tired after my travelling from China, but I will come back and hopefully will enjoy a good run in tomorrow’s tournament.

I still have not received my funds from the poker operator I previously use; I am getting a bit impatient with this.

If I have the chance to speak to all the online poker and casino operators in the world, I will tell them that payment is the number one factor I will consider who I play with. This is so important for any players in China, I cannot emphasize it more. I think most of these operators, whether we are talking about online casinos, poker or even sports betting, they have more or less the same products. The poker operator I use now have I think exactly the same software that this previous operator use, but the service is what matters. We Chinese are already living in an environment with a lot of restrictions, I do not need more restrictions when I just want to get my money back.

I hate to need to call the operators to get my money back; I will only do that unless I am filing a complaint. Why do I have to? They process thousands of withdrawals everyday anyway, does everyone make a phone call to them to do that? If I need to call my bank to make a money withdrawal I will never use that bank ever again. All banking should be made online, this applies to my poker operator too.

Maybe all operators are like this in the world, if you deposit they take your money within 5 seconds, and when you make a withdrawal it will take forever. I will make a withdrawal from my current operator today just to test their efficiency. I think all operators should treat Chinese customers with respect; this is a country with massive potential in this market, and whoever gets their business will be doing very well. Let’s see who is up to this challenge.

If anyone have suggestions for me or have any good or bad experiences with any poker operators, I would love to hear their stories.

Poker chip is an important element in any home games; without proper chips, poker is no fun.

I still remember when I start playing this games, I had a few games in a friend’s home. Most of the players were beginners and novice players, and we did not have the proper equipments. We played on the dinner table with chips that were borrowed from two mahjong sets. First of all, the standard mahjong set of about 40 chips for each colour simply is not enough for a proper six player home game. In additional to that, the feel of playing with the traditional Chinese style mahjong set chips is simply way too different compared to what you get from poker chips. You know, poker players like to play with all sorts of things with poker chips. The way they stack them, they way they toss them into the pot, the sound that poker chips making when they hit the table, it is all part of the game. Without proper chips, the game is no fun.

Unfortunately, it is not that easy to find proper poker chips set in mainland China. Even though most of the poker chips in this world are already made in China, nearly all of them are shipped overseas.

Last week, I was asking my fellow players at my tables at Grand Lisboa where they get their poker chips. One Chinese guy told me about Ladies Street in Mongkok, Hong Kong having some decent ones, but I was told by another guy that those are low quality ones. It seems it is difficult to find top quality western style poker chips in this part of the world unless I order them from the internet. I can do that, but shipping cost is a problem. Poker chips are heavy, you know.

It is always a good idea to put poker chips at places where one most often play one’s home games. Do not try to carry poker chips around; it is hazardous to your health. Unless you need a serious workout.

21 July 2008

Got an email from Mike this morning, he said he is going to play poker at Grand Waldo this coming Friday to Sunday. He emails me about the Macau Cup tournament at the pokerstars room.

Apart from the APPT tournament last year (the first of its kind ever in any part of China), this is one of the bigger tournaments in Macau. There are two satellite events for the APPT Macau tour stop this September. I really want to play there. And there is a $10,000 buy in high roller event this Saturday too.

Last year Mike went to the APPT tournament. There were about 250 players I was told, Mike got half of the entry fee money from his friends supporting him, and he paid up the rest himself. That is a lot of money for playing exactly six hands. Yes, six hands. He got pocket kings on the sixth hands, and too bad they come up against pocket aces.

Mike is not giving up easily I know. The prize money is at one million at this year’s APPT event and I know he wants a shot at it. He said he is watching youtube everyday. Well, I think too much Gus Hansen and Phil Hellmuth is actually hurting him. Sometimes you need to know how to play in tournaments, rather than on some poker TV shows.

Yes I want to play in September too. I know I am not the best poker player yet, but I feel I need the experience to help me go to the next level. I read poker magazines that said you really cannot start any sort of professional poker career unless you can some sort of sponsorship from one the websites company. Geez, don’t tell me I need to make the final table of the WSOP before I can get one of those. If I can get to the final table at WSOP, why the hell do I need a sponsorship anyway?

I still think the satellite events at Macau is my best chance. Maybe I need to go more often to play every Sunday. They are cheap and to be honest the players are not that good there. Only about 20-30 players, I think I can get to the final six to ten, then it depends on lady luck.

Hopefully one day she will smile on me.

19 July 2008

I hate poker rooms, maybe I should stick to online pokers in the future.

Maybe it is just not my day, I think I got 4 ace-king suited and I lost all four hands. The flops are simply not helping me the whole day, but I managed to beat the local boy’s jack pair with my 3-5 spades. Two spades on the flop and I shove it all in. He calls within two seconds and the spade I need shows up on the turn. Alright yeah.

On the very next hand I got ace-king of hearts. I need to double up here to have a winning day. Seat 3 raises to $60 and the lady opposite me pushes all in her $150. I think she wants to leave and have dinner with friends or something like that. The local boy calls again as expected; he is willing to call everything. I have about $1,000 and I push it all in.

He is murmuring to himself about ‘If I do not all in here, it will be a big mistake’. He is hesitating, so he does not have pocket kings or pocket aces, the only hands I fear. I do not mind going up a pair like QQ or even 99. Finally after about two minutes he calls.

The lady has J-10 offsuit.

The local boy has ace jack offsuit. Oh my god what is he thinking?

The first card on the flop is the ace; I like my position. Then comes the queen of spade, and I wonder where the hell are the low cards.

Then the third card is the dreaded jack.

Only two jacks left in the deck, how could this be? The local boy has two pairs, and the lady has an inside straight draw.

The turn and the river offer no help, and I need to join Mark early for drinks.

I do not mind bad beats but sometimes I hate the way Chinese people celebrates a lucky win. I do not even know if the local boy knows that he is a huge underdog here. That is another reason I like online poker. There are too many crazy guys like the local boys at Lisboa. Maybe I should play less in Macau and stick to canbet. At least I can offline anytime I want.

Or maybe I am simply a bad poker player.

17 July 2008

Another horrible day playing online; I decide to change to canbetpoker and give it a try.

I know I only have myself to blame, but it seems the players playing online are getting better and better. There are players who are using software to give them an advantage while playing online; I have not tried any of those things but maybe I should give it a shot.

Last time when I finally win some money on poker, it takes me so long to actually get my money in my bank account. I am not happy with the way it is, but I know this is always a problem in this part of the world. I am not sure if banking is always a problem in China, maybe it is just my bank. Maybe I should switch to Bank of China instead.

I see ads on canbet poker on some live scores websites but Andy keep telling me about good things about them. I think Andy is right, sometimes playing on the ‘brand name’ poker sites is a liability because all the good players are playing on them already. Think about the money that some of the professionals get paid for to get them playing on these sites. Andy has been playing on canbet for a couple of weeks and he is doing well there.

I open my account today with canbet and very quickly the canbet guys give me confirmation emails. So far so good. I will probably withdraw some of my money next week to see if they are up to it. As I told Andy many times, for these overseas companies, withdrawal is the ultimate test on their reliability. I am not going to deposit a big sum of money with any overseas company unless I know I will get my money back.

I get an email from Mark, he is heading over to Macau this weekend to play poker at Grand Lisboa. This is good, I have a meeting there at lunchtime on Saturday, so I could play a bit there before heading back across the border. Maybe Mark will have a hotel room for me to crash in too.

16 July 2008

I arrive at the poker room at Grand Waldo with high expectation; a poker room with 18 tables and professionally managed by Pokerstars should be something good. With poker becoming more and more popular at this part of the world, I think this is something Macau needs.

When I arrive there are two tables, one with $1,000 buy in and the other $2,000-4,000. The place was modeled after the poker rooms in the States and Europe, with players’ lounge and a bar area. A line of computers are at the corner for players who play on pokerstars online to register and check their account status. One does not need to be a pokerstars player to play there. I am greeted by Hil, the manager on duty that evening. He briefs me on the rules at the room. The room opens every day 7pm onwards, although players usually started after dinner around 9 or 10pm. On Fridays til Sundays it is 24 hours. There is a big screen showing the status of the tables: around 8 players playing at both tables, and 4 players have phone in beforehand to reserve a seat at a $10-50k table starting at midnight. I suspect these four players are from Hong Kong and know each other.

Hil manages to persuade me to play at the $4,000 table. I change my chips and play for about half an hour. Rake in is at 5%, I feel it is too much, but I understand that the room probably cannot come even close to break even with that rake in percentage. Without high stakes poker player playing at the room, the room will not be profitable anyway. I think this is just a marketing gimmick from Pokerstars. With Macau becoming an APPT tour stop, they have to have a presence here.

I got pocket Aces on just my third hand. I raise to $150, two callers, then a Korean on seat 7 raise to $600. He has about $6,000 in front of him, I had $3,500. It is just the third hand, I had no idea how he plays. I shove it all in.

He is muttering in Korean language, I have no idea what he is talking about. Probably he does not want me to understand anyway. He is hesitating, I think he either got big slick or JJ or something like that. Hil and the players start coming over to watch the action. After probably five minutes, the Korean turns over his pair queens and folded. Nice fold.

I win another $2,000 with pocket kings about half an hour later. The players are pretty tight and there is not much action. The $10-50k table opens up later and most of the players at my table head over; it is my first visit and I don’t want to play that late so I decide to call it the day. About $2,500 profit, not bad.

I think the players at Grand Waldo were better than the ones at Lisboa. At Lisboa there are too many players who simply refuse to play anything worse than pocket queens and they all in even if there are only $20 in the pot. I call that a lucky draw, not poker. Having said that, Grand Waldo is located at an absolutely horrible part of Cotai. I could imagine that if I leave the place at 3am, I will need to wait for more than an hour for a taxi to bring me back to my hotel.

People are telling me that they think in the future all the best poker games will be online; I agree.