The Aftermath!

The dust is still settling from "Black Friday". The American players are no more on the major sites and there are signs on the horizon as to how the big three will handle this. The guarantees on all of the Sunday majors across all the sites have been slashed dramatically. In most cases the guarantees have been halved but for the FTOPS Event #1 on Full Tilt the guarantee crumbled from $3 million to $1 million. This doesn't bode well for the Pokerstars SCOOP series and I wonder how Pokerstars will cope with the reduced traffic flow during one of their flagship events.


On Friday night I put in a cashout request to get my entire bankroll off the site. I just wasn't comfortable with all the uncertainty surrounding payment procedures and waiting periods. Who knew whether the site would be around in a month's, week's or even a day's time! In the end it was relatively pain free and my $577 was soon resting in my moneybookers account. I put the €25.28 that was sitting in my moneybooker account before the cashout back onto the site, sure I couldn't just turn my back on on-line poker altogether (It has been a great friend in the past)!


And then Pokerstars tried a little gambit to keep the worldwide players interested! They announced a 50% reload bonus up to $200 for the SCOOP series. It worked on me anyway! I took €100 of the moneybookers account  and bing, bang, boom, I now have a €50 bonus ready to unlock! I set my sights slightly high though. I need to earn 1,350 fpp's by the 31st of May which will give me some added motivation to step up the grind. If I can get this entire bonus cleared then It will mean I have another two VIP Stellar rewards earned and that would be a big step towards my 5,00 fpp yearly total.


I am just going to keep my running total for the end of the month the same as if I never withdrew! It's easier that way and also I don't want this "Black Friday" debacle to mess up my yearly goals (triple bankroll, 5,000 fpp's etc.). So here is the stats for April so far:
April:
Bankroll =  $584 (+ $42)
Vpps = 366
Yearly vpps = 2,025

Online Poker's Armageddon?

I have just been reading an article on PTR about the F.B.I moving in on the three main sites, Pokerstars, Full Tilt and Absolute poker. I have just been on the Pokerstars client and I see no US players sitting at cash tables or any MTT's. Is this online poker's armageddon? Either which way this action has massive ramifications. America, the land of the free, the land of opportunity? What a laugh! And knowing how reliant on America Ireland is, who knows, maybe the major sites could be banned from these shores.
                        This is a fairly sobering screenshot.

March Stats And Another Goal Complete!

My "double the bankroll" challenge is complete! It happened a lot quicker than I expected and I didn't have to rely too heavily on the VIP Stellar rewards or reload bonuses (having earned a total of $32.50 from these sources). Not suprisingly the hand that sealed the deal was on the 25c/50c tables where I had followed a total fish. The hand is posted below.

https://www.pokertableratings.com/hand-history/stars/59822186475/13843194658

 This now means I have a new biggest online pot to the total of €98.35. Other than this pot though I don't think I have been playing my best poker. I donated a chunk of it right back at the 2c/5c tables. Seeing as one goal is complete, Here comes the next one(as proposed by jrmontano). TRIPLE MY ORIGINAL BANKROLL. This would see my bankroll to the $810 mark and that is just around the corner from a grand!!


 My fpp's have also creeped across the 2,500 mark so I could cash all these in for a $25 bonus. I still think there are better ways to turn fpp's into cash so I might have to do a bit of studying to find the best way. If anyone out there has any suggestions as to how to use them wisely just leave a comment on the blog. I need all the help I can get!I will leave you with the stats from my best ever month:
March:
Bankroll =  $542 (+ $145)
vpps = 457