The Incredible Lightness of Being On The Button

Somewhat like Elvis, I'm not dead, I'm just on vacation.. A long, long vacation! Like all vacations, though, they come to an end, and so it is... The Intrepid Card Player is again poking his toe back into the pool to see if it is still full of nice tasty fish!

Actually, I've been back in the micro-limit action for a little over three weeks, and again, I have embarked on the journey to parlay $50 into a fortune. In a way, we've come full circle! What started so many years ago as a fun experiment wound up with me meeting many good friends, having an excellent time and, though I didn't really parlay a "fortune" out of my $50, I did manage to scrape up a decent coin. If I had had the discipline to not occasionally plunder my poker account for cash, I probably would have made it out of low limit land. I'd like to say my discipline will be a bit better this time around, however, I've already planned to pickpocket my account should I make headway, as I'm planning a trip to Vegas in the middle of May... A trip that will see me both playing a bunch of poker and sweating a close friend of mine who also has gotten into the scene and is turning into a pretty good player. So I guess really I'm not so much robbing my account but rather cashing some of it for some live action.. The stitch comes in whether I actually re-deposit it when I get back... We shall see.

I have noticed some pretty significant changes in the scene since I was last involved, some 500 days or so ago. Biggest of these was of course the legislation that basically screwed many U.S. online players. My favorite place to pick off fish, Party Poker, immediately ran for the hills. Luckily, not all virtual poker houses have wimped out. I've found a new home at Pokerstars. Though the players there generally are a little more knowledgeable and skillful, there are still plenty of cash stations logging on and donating to the cause! In a way, it's good that the players are better... First off, it helps to be able to actually improve my game in the event I actually DO get out of the low limits and into some actual cash generation, and second, it makes victories just that much more sweet.

Most of the friends I have met previously are still out there! Some have taken their poker to new levels, others are still very active, and some have just simply faded into the ether, with one that basically went out with a big Foxtrot Uniform to the community. This blog, until now, was one of the ones that seemed to just fade away... Let's see if anyone notices I've stirred back to life, eh?

Anyway, in addition to haunting the .50/1 limit hold-em tables, I've also discovered the $6.60 NL Holdem 6 Max tables. These pay roughly $27 for first, and I've found that it's relatively easy to score on these. The players are a bit better then the old $5+$1 PartyPoker NL tourney specials, but most of them are the tight/aggressive types and are rather predictable.

I also discovered that they have a "6 step tourney" for qualification to the WSOP. Entry for level 1 is 500 frequent player points. I found that I had a little over 700 points that were doing me no good, so I figured I'd take a run at it. For the first two levels, the 1st and 2nd place prize is a ticket to the next step, and I have managed to score the next step in the last two events, so now I'm at level 3, which I may play later on today.

So, back to work!