Daniel Negreanu's Top 10 Rookie Mistakes

1 PLAYING TOO MANY HOURS

Your brain just doesn’t function very well after 22 hours sitting at the table. Rather than getting some rest and coming back fresh the next day, most rookies end up playing too many hours trying to chase their money back. In the process, they end up throwing away even more money. Your mind plays tricks on you after too many hours and you’ll often convince yourself that you’re playing really well,when the chances are you’re not!

2 QUITTING WHEN AHEAD

There is no ‘system’ for when you should get up and leave. The worst system that many rookies use is when they ‘hit and run’ – quitting a game after very small wins, but continuing to play when they’re far behind. If anything, that’s the exact opposite of what you should be doing. When you are winning, you have a powerful table presence that you should look to exploit. When you are losing your table image is tarnished and it can have a negative effect on your confidence.

3 PLAYING IN TOUGH GAMES

Rookie players will often find themselves sitting in games with competition that they just can’t handle. Rather than playing in smaller stakes games with opponents of comparable skill, they prefer to go head to head with the pros – and you can guess how that turns out...

4 PLAYING TOO HIGH

Nothing is more detrimental to your confidence – and your bankroll – than playing for money that you can’t afford to lose. You simply can’t make smart and unbiased decisions when you also have to think about how you’re going to pay the rent if the Qs doesn’t bail you out on the river. It’s absolutely crucial that you play within the limits you feel comfortable with – that way you’ll be able to focus on the game you’re in, without worrying about the financial implications.

5 PLAYING TOO MANY HANDS

Most beginners play more hands than they should and fail to understand the importance of starting off with premium hands in premium situations.

6 WATCH OUT FOR YOUR EGO

You’re not as good as you think you are! The day you realise that you know nothing about poker is the day you might start learning a thing or two. It’s important to be objective about your poker skills and where they might need improvement.

7 LACK OF PATIENCE

To play poker properly you’ll find that you go through long stretches of sheer boredom waiting for good cards. Rookies often don’t have the patience to wait, so they play hands that they know they shouldn’t out of sheer boredom.

8 BLUFFING TOO MUCH

Many rookies have seen too many movies and think that poker is all about bluffing. They think that if they keep betting everyone will get out of their way. The problem is that the habitual bluffer is identified by opponents early and then they are on to him.

9 GOING ON TILT

Playing more hands with less focus, a tilted player will lose all faith in his gameplan and chase inside straight draws, when he knows he shouldn’t.

10 DRINKING WHILE PLAYING

You need to have all your wits about you to make quality decisions at the table. It’s no coincidence that casinos will offer you free alcohol – it clouds your judgement.

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Sky Poker UK Tour

The last event of the first season of the Sky Poker UK Tour (SPUKT) wrapped up at the Dusk Till Dawn poker club in Nottingham, with players after their share of the £56,000 prize pool. There were 280 players and the first place prize of £17,322 went to Robbie Fisher-O'Brien. Second place went to heads up competitor Alex Mcwhinnie, who snagged £10,127 for his efforts, with Pete Winter taking £6,076 for third place. Fourth went to Wayne Barber for £4,264, and rounding out the top five was Toby Lewis for £3,198.

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The Check Is Good

Online poker rooms like Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars have been having trouble with payments to members recently, thanks in part to the seizure of more than $30 million in funds from the United States Department of Justice recently. However according to threads opening up on popular online poker forums across the internet, poker players are now having some success in depositing the checks they are receiving form these poker rooms, and having them clear without a problem. This includes checks being processed by the Instant ECheck option, one targeted by the US DOJ.

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Heartland Poker Tour in Black Hawk

While the big poker events are running in Las Vegas, like the World Series of Poker, the middle of the country is looking forward to the arrival of a different scene. A poker tournament is coming to Black Hawk, Colorado, and the TV cameras are warming up. The venue will be the Golden Gates Casino and Poker Parlour in Black Hawk, and the event is the Heartland Poker Tour, which will arrive in July. The largest cash payout in five years is what the Heartland Poker Tour officials are predicting, thanks to recent attendance records.

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Utah Transit Authority Cracks Down on Internet Gambling

According to a story that appeared on Fox 13 in Salt Lake City, the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) is cracking down on its riders’ internet usage. Now, viewing pornography or gambling online will result in a $300 fine.

Fox 13’s Arikka Von broke the story, which appeared last week. When asked why UTA management implemented the new rules, Von explained, “UTA says it’s not because they had a bunch of complaints. The old ordinances are just that: old, at least 10 years old, so they have some new policies that include some of the new services like free WiFi.” On a national scale, online poker players have faced the same difficulties interpreting age-old laws like the Wire Act, which was enacted in 1961, nearly 50 years ago. The Wire Act, although passed before the advent of the internet, has been largely extended by the U.S. Department of Justice to include many forms of internet gambling.

Von noted, “A train ticket gets you free internet once you agree to the Terms of Service. That means no online gambling or viewing pornography. The UTA now has a new ordinance that fines passengers for illegal or offensive internet use on the train. The first violation is $300. Do it again and it could cost you $500.” The UTA is one of a growing number of transit systems to include internet onboard. American Airlines recently debuted Gogo Inflight Internet on cross-country trips. The service is available for a fee.

Enforcement of the UTA’s ban on internet gambling and pornography is done by the organization’s police force. Fox 13 noted, “These are real police officers,” and explained, “An officer will always try to educate first and foremost. Riders say they’ve never seen anyone watching porn on the train.” UTA has enacted a full appeals process if riders feel they were targeted unfairly. A representative of the transit system admitted that identifying what is acceptable and what is not can be a complicated process: “The definition can be very difficult to pin down for everyone.”

Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) Executive Director Joe Brennan told Poker News Daily, “I’m surprised that they’re going to waste anyone’s time enforcing internet gambling. I’m also disturbed with the constant association with pornography. Our opponents try to make that linkage constantly between gambling and pornography. All you have to do is look at the acceptance of all things gambling. There is no comparison between the two activities.” The term “internet gambling” is mentioned in the Fox 13 story just once, while references to pornography pervade the rest of the two and a half minute piece.

With regards to enforcement of the UTA’s guidelines through law enforcement personnel roving the trains, Brennan commented, “They’ll have police officers looking over the shoulders of riders. This announcement is someone grandstanding politically. The claim on internet gambling is dubious. The claim on pornography is also misguided.” Brennan added that viewing pornography is typically done in private, not in the middle of a commuter train in a major metropolitan area.

According to text found on the UTA’s website, the internet service provided by the transit system filters content automatically: “UTA’s service providers use content-filtering software that attempts to restrict access to offensive sites; however, no content-filtering software is totally effective. Please use the same precautions you would use accessing any public wireless network.” The service is available for riders age 18 and over.

iMEGA is fresh off filing a lawsuit against the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS), which attempted to force the censorship of 200 internet gambling domains by its residents. The DPS served notice to 11 of the world’s largest internet service providers (ISPs) calling for the blockage. However, after iMEGA’s suit, it rescinded its notice.

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Bankroll Management

Let’s talk about bankroll management. But let’s talk about it in a different way than most advice-lenders do. Most articles about bankroll management discuss it from the perspective of a professional player, or at the very least, a semi-pro. What I want to do is discuss proper bankroll management for the casual player. The kind of player who plays to have fun first and to make money second. As a casual player, you may have dreams about that big score and winning that huge tournament, but in the end, you are happy if you can enjoy yourself at the poker table and scratch out a small profit in the long-run. Of course, if you are a more serious player, this article isn’t for you. Move along, there’s nothing to see here.

Poker Money is Poker Money

First and foremost, never, ever, ever, ever, never, never, ever, ever mix your poker bankroll with the money you need for everyday expenses. Your poker bankroll is just that – your poker bankroll. For you, the casual player, poker is an entertainment expense (true, you might never lose, but let’s be realistic), just like going to the movies, going to a baseball game, or attending a concert. Just like you wouldn’t skip a mortgage payment to go on a trip to Costa Rica, you shouldn’t skip a mortgage payment to reload your online poker account.

Not only is keeping your poker bankroll segregated from your household accounts the responsible thing to do, but it will also make your poker playing more enjoyable. Poker can be a stressful enough game to play under normal circumstances, even if you are primarily playing for fun, but having your child’s tuition hanging in the balance adds a whole new layer of pressure.

If you hit a bad stretch and have no more discretionary income with which to play poker, just stop playing for a while. It’s just a game. It’s not worth taking food off the table to play another hand.

Play Comfortably

When it comes to choosing table stakes, I recommend playing at a level that will make you comfortable, not one at which you think you “should” play. There are formulas out there that determine what blind levels you should play at based on the size of your bankroll, but I don’t really buy into that. Play at a level where you can handle the competition and where you won’t break into a cold sweat when all pf your chips are on the table because you can’t bear to lose that money.

That doesn’t mean play at stakes so low that they don’t mean anything. The element of risk is one aspect of poker that makes the game fun. You do want to be a little nervous, but you don’t want your stakes to be so high that it would severely damage your poker bankroll if you dropped a buy-in or two.

Many people would look at my poker bankroll compared to the low stakes that I play and consider me crazy. I should move up, they would say. But you know what? I’m not a pro. While I try to make money when I play, profitability isn’t the end all, be all for me. I could probably move up and do okay for myself, but I enjoy playing low-stakes because I feel comfortable there. The tables where I play allow me to make a moderate profit while having fun and not fretting on the occasions when I get stacked (those are rare, right?).

That all said, if you want to “take a shot” once in a while, then go for it. It can be fun to try your hand at a richer, tougher game on occasion, but don’t make it a habit and don’t shoot so high that it will drain your roll if you lose. Tournaments are a great way to take a shot while limiting your downside potential.

Reward Yourself

For the longest time, I would deposit and withdraw over and over and various online poker rooms, just building my poker bankroll. Through winning play or deposit bonuses, I pretty much grew my bankroll with no real goal in sight. But recently, I had part of my house remodeled and decided to pull out some of my poker bankroll and put it towards the construction. However lame it might have been, I finally used some of my winnings to reward myself.

Many players probably do the same thing I had been doing. Their poker winnings went right back into poker. And that’s fine. You want to keep building that roll, but you should treat yourself, too. What good is all of that money sitting in your poker accounts if you can never do anything with it besides play poker? Take some out and buy yourself something. Heck, pay down some debt that you wouldn’t have otherwise paid down if that’s your style. Reward yourself for your success.

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After Cashout Issues Traffic For Online Poker Sites Are?

Traffic on PokerStars, the largest online poker site in the world, has slipped 9% in the last two weeks, likely due to potential cashout issues for its players, according to PokerScout.com. PokerStars has recommended bank wires for players seeking cashouts.

On the first Thursday of June (the 4th), PokerStars saw a peak of 37,523 real money ring game players. By June 11th, one week later, that number had dropped to 34,692, a fall of 8%. Yesterday (June 18th), the site hosted a peak of 34,207 cash game players, representing a 1% decline week over week and 9% drop since June 4th. As further evidence of a slowdown, on June 13th, PokerStars recorded a peak player count of 28,455, the first time it had slumped below 30,000 since December 31st, 2008.

However, traffic on the site is up during the first 18 days of June in comparison to the same period in May despite the ongoing World Series of Poker (WSOP). During the first 18 days of May, PokerStars boasted an average peak player count of 34,626 at its virtual cash game felts. In the same period this month, it has seen an average of 34,872, a boost of nearly 1%. Throughout the month of May, PokerStars had an average peak volume of 34,886 players. An article released by PokerScout on June 14th noted that traffic on Stars had fallen 5% in the last week alone to the “lowest level so far this year.” Year over year, however, the world’s most popular online poker site has experienced a 54% growth in activity.

On Full Tilt Poker, the average peak player volume over the first 18 days of May stood at 16,801. In June, that figure has ballooned to 17,736, a growth of nearly 6%. During the same period when traffic on PokerStars fell by 9%, player counts on Full Tilt grew by 2%. The site will bring back its Sit & Go Madness promotion this weekend, offering nearly $200,000 for players competing in the popular single-table tournaments. Between April 19th and May 10th, the peak number of cash game players on Full Tilt Poker exceeded 18,000 just once. During the first 18 days of June, the 18,000 plateau has been breached eight times, including four straight days between June 15th and June 18th. Year over year traffic at Full Tilt Poker is up by 59%.

At the CEREUS Network, which includes Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet, cash game traffic has remained steady. During the first 18 days of May, an average peak of 3,144 real money ring game players could be found on the CEREUS Network. Over the same period in June, that number grew slightly to 3,148. Over the last 30 days, the Network has hosted fewer than 3,000 real money ring game players just five times and has not attracted a peak of fewer than 2,000 since April 30th. According to PokerScout, CEREUS is the fifth largest Network worldwide with a seven day running average of 2,300 real money ring game players.

Finally, traffic on PartyPoker, which does not accept players from the United States, is up significantly. PokerScout.com claims the spike in player volume by the longtime industry staple may be due to the Million Dollar Hand promotion. During the first 18 days of May, the average peak cash game traffic was 7,351 players. During the same period in June, the figure skyrocketed to 9,410, a jump of 28%.

Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) Executive Director Joe Brennan gave Poker News Daily his reaction to the drop in traffic on PokerStars: “Operators know the burden is on them to make sure the players have the money due them. Any operator that would have problems would likely lose share to companies that don’t. But, it’s too early to say any one company is having major problems and no reason to think that all of the operators who have been affected aren’t working overtime to resolve slow pay problems. There is no need to panic.” iMEGA has not yet become involved in the situation legally. So far, it has allowed the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the main lobbying force for the poker industry, to take the lead.

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