Of scandals and miles

A recent commenter pointed out tons of topics that I could blog about so for the most part he is going to get his wish. Someone also suggested a video blog but I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon, it's really not my thing. I have to admit though, I also use to look forward to Seri's video blogs just as much as the next guy. Still, I think it's better for me if I put thoughts into written words and like I've said before, this is pretty much all the writing I do nowadays anyway.

I just recent had an "aha" moment where it struck me how much I've been missing out when it comes to airline miles. I've been traveling the world for several years now being a member of just one frequent flyer program. I finally got the motivation to sign up for the big ones (StarAlliance, oneWorld, etc) so now I should at least be getting max value out of the already overpriced airline fares. It's kind of ridiculous how much people miss out on just by being lazy.

Someone asked what I thought about the Pitbull Poker scandal. Tbh I think it is a total disgrace. For those who are not familiar with what happened, basically people discovered that the site employed superusers and once that information became public, the owners tried to shut the site down and disappear before being arrested by Costa Rican authorities. Now they say that people will be able to cash out their funds but it would not surprise me if this ended up not happening.

The simple solution would be to avoid these small networks. I've played on some myself and have had to deal with ridiculous cashout delays (2 months+) where I have honestly had to worry if I was ever going to see my money again. You have to understand that several of the smaller skins/networks out there are not operating a profitable business and are still pumping money into their systems, so really if the investors ever pull the plug it would be gg for a lot of people. However, not just the smaller networks have to deal with various cheating scandals. Both UltimateBet and AbsolutePoker had individual superuser scandals, the big irony is that they joined forces and created their own network! Why anyone would play there I have no idea, I have been boycotting both since I heard about the scandals. "New ownership" blablablabullshit, neither company has ever been honest from the start, these companies have only ever released information after the poker community found out about it in the first place.

At the end of the day we as poker players have pretty much no rights anyway. Any of these sites could pack up and disappear any day and there's nothing we could do about it. That's just unfortunately one of the risks involved in the industry. It's a scary thought but it would be naive to think that all money held online (Neteller/Moneybookers/other ewallets included!) is safe.

Anyway, also per request, I also dug up some hands that I recently played. The first one is a hand where I got pretty heavily owned while playing NL5k hu against an aggressive, herocally opponent. He was up a few stacks when this hand went down.

They say that a 6bet is always for value. That's what this guy was going for and he got there.

Here's an example of what constant 3betting and 4betting can get an opponent to do. You won't find his play in any strategy books.

I am pretty sure that I want to play EPT Portugal coming up in November. Not only is it going to be pretty good value, but I haven't been to Portugal in years and I'm sure the weather is bound to be a bit warmer than here in Berlin. I'd say it's like a 70/30 chance of me going as of right now, I'll know for sure pretty soon. That's it for now, I'll go over some other random stuff next time!