PokerRoom.com has reentered the online poker market.

Poker players throughout the globe have been waiting in anticipation for the reveal of the website that serves as one of the big comeback stories of 2012. After nearly two years out of the poker scene, the website is back and ready for players to take on the game, make their first deposit and become part of the popular online poker community.

Players can make a deposit at PokerRoom.com of $100, $500 and $1,000 and get one hundred percent deposit bonus. This can increase playing time, and allow the player to get some practise in at real money games without ripping through the online poker account. Players can convert these credits into winnings that can be cashed out of the game on the basis of poker points that are accumulated.  For each eight points that are accumulated through the account, players can clear a percentage of the online deposit bonus.   Points are earned at PokerRoom on the basis of playing in regular cash games, poker tournaments, and you can even earn points by setting up your real money home poker game.

PokerRoom.com is back and ready to offer players the experience that comes with being one of the first online poker websites to offer players real money poker games, as well as the first company to offer players on the Mac computer the chance to download software to play online poker. This expertise and history in the online poker world is going to lead to big things in 2012 for online poker at PokerRoom.com.

PokerRoom Could Offer Cash Poker Games Once More

Rumors regarding the site reopening began a week ago when Josef Rantamäki, a SEO manager at bwin, tweeted that PokerRoom would soon reopen its doors.  He later retracted that statement when pressed.

This seemed like a bit of clever hype until Tuesday when PokerNewsBoy revealed that the decision to reopen PokerRoom is not yet official.  Sources at bwin told PokerNewsBoy that they are “strongly considering” opening the once famous online poker room.  If the site is not reopened, the site is still due for an update and may be used to support other parts of the Ongame Network.

Why PokerRoom would reopen at the present is unclear.  The current online poker climate would seem to be counterproductive to starting a new online poker venture.  However, PokerRoom did have a history of security and integrity, something that has taken a hit due to the antics of PokerStars, Full Tilt, and UB.

PokerRoom was innovative during its 10 year run as an online site.  They were not only one of the first sites to offer real money poker games, but they were the first site to offer a Mac client.  Also, PokerRoom was the first poker site in history to receive the seal of approval from eCogra.  ECogra is now a respected regulator in the e-gaming industry.

Should PokerRoom reopen, it will be interesting to see how many people return that used to play at the site and how many will give the site a try as an aftereffect of the Full Tilt and Absolute Poker sagas.  Absolute Poker and Full Tilt are now all but extinct.

Unfortunately, PokerRoom will not return as a US poker room, choosing to wait until the legal climate in the US is sorted out.  In the meantime, other players around the world will have yet another option for online gaming should PokerRoom choose to open its doors once again.

Seriously, what is he thinking?

For those of you that don’t remember Swedetooth is that break even donk that somehow managed to win the Sunday Mega-Millions a few months ago for $1.2 Million.  Since that point, he donated a substantial portion of that roll to TurkeyJerkey.  Yes, the same TurkeyJerkey that lost $2 Million in 80 hands back in October.

The challenge was issued as the result a bar spat at Aussie Millions.  Reports have it that Swedetooth took exception to some needling from Röfls and issued the challenge.

WHAT…THE…FUCK!!!!

Dude, are you serious?  Röfls has 6 bracelets, all in different games.  In addition, he wrote “Let There be Triple Range Merge,” which is only the 2nd most successful poker book behind Super System.  Rumor has it that Doyle has asked him to write the Hold’em chapter on Super System III after Doyle finally passes away in 2013.  He is Phil Ivey lite.

In all fairness, I have contacted a few of my fellow media colleagues and various pros to get their take on the upcoming match.  Here is what some of them had to say:

@Kevmath – “Normally I would say that on any given day that a pro could take down a heads-up challenge.  The problem is that I grew my micro-roll playing Swedetooth, so I know how much he sucks.  He has about as much chance of winning this as Daniel Negreanu does of being invited to the Duke family dinner.”

Gary Wise – ESPN (@Garywise1) – Is this the same guy that was the first guy knocked out the Aussie Millions?  If he couldn’t beat TurkeyJerkey, what makes him think he can beat a legitimate pro?  A win by Swedetooth would not be an upset, it would be the biggest travesty in live poker.

Phil Hellmuth – I was joking around the other day and asked some friends, “Would you rather back me in Stud or put money on Swedetooth to beat Röfls.”  My stud games at the WSOP are now rolled through 2015.

Doyle Brunson – I once said that sometimes you have to go out on a limb because that is where the fruit is.  Well, this kid Swedetooth is about to be plucked.

Barry Greenstein – Max should consider giving his winnings from this challenge to charity.  I mean seriously, how good can you fell about taking money from a kid who couldn’t buy a combo from McDonalds with his lifetime poker winnings.  Use the money to buy some Happy Meals for children.

The Jess and BJ show set the line on number of hands played at 95.  Jess Wellman took the over and BJ Nemeth decided to take the under.  He said that Swedetooth would last about 60 hands.

Personally, I have to agree with BJ Nemeth.  I think that this will be a short match with Swedetooth leaving penniless.  Röfls should come into the match to WWE Chairman Vince McMahon’s theme song of “No Chance In Hell” as that song sums up Swedetooth’s chances.

Anyone disagree?  It won’t matter if you do cause you will be wrong.  Trust me.

Disclaimer:  The Food and Drug Administration had nothing to do with this blog post.  Why would they?  It is about a online animated series.  The views, quotes, and opinions expressed in this blog are about as real as Pamela Anderson’s boobs.  And please, would the guy in Oklahoma that keeps sending me week old socks please stop?  It’s just creepy.

One thing that I will mention is a site I ran across the other night. For those of you that like to shop, you should check out the daily deals at Salecamel.com. They aggregate deals from all over the web and put them into one site for you. The site is updated every five minutes and you can find pretty much whatever you want.

I’ll do my best to try and get a post up here a little more frequently. As of right now, it looks like I may be getting busy again. I’ll keep you updated.

My poker so far this trip has been very odd. I normally like to play mixed games such as HORSE, but my run in HORSE tourneys has been horrible. Played in five and the best I have placed is 14th. However, I have made four NL Holdem final tables out of six tournaments played. Sadly two of those final tables were for naught as they paid only three or four spots. However, the other two went a lot better.

The Tuscany casino has a nice NL event. It is $35 with rebuys. I would like the starting chips to be more, but if you play the event on the weekend, you have a good shot to do well even with only $3,000 in chips. This past weekend, I picked my spots and gathered about 12k in chips in the first hour. I was third in chips at that point and actually hovered around that point until the final table. I almost blew it when I ran queens into kings early on in the final table, but I was able to battle back to a decent stack. Ultimately, we chopped 7 ways.

My video poker on the other hand has been going fantastic. Except for the Orleans, I have finished up in every casino for video poker. And as far as the Orleans, I recently hit a decent amount on this past Sunday to cut my losses down to probably just $40 or $60. So far, I have only hit one royal flush. I have hit about 3 or 4 straight flushes and four aces twice or three times on bonus or double double.

Starting Thursday, I will be tied up quite a bit with the World Series of Poker. I will try and do some updates during that time, but I cannot guarantee anything. If you want to follow my coverage, check out pokerjunkie.com.

For those that don’t follow my Facebook or Twitter, quite a few things have been going on since last year.  The primary thing is that I am a primary blogger over at PokerJunkie.com.  I have been working over there since last year and usually crank out four short blogs a week plus any articles they throw my way or that I come up with.  Also, I provide some strategy articles now for PokerNetwork.com.  They are the Australian sister site to PokerNews.com.

Which brings me to my next update. I actually enjoyed my gig this past summer with PokerNews.  I was a recapper for the daily events and I worked with Hailey Hintze.  Sadly, she was let go shortly after the WSOP.  A lot of upheaval over there.    After my WSOP gig with PokerNews last summer,  I heard absolutely nothing from them since.  Not that surprising since the guy in charge of the reporting team was not very communicative.  I could make other speculations but it is irrelevant.  He doesn’t even work there anymore.  I may reapply but I am also waiting to see what other outlets I work for do.

For the most part, I am just continuing the grind of life as a freelance poker writer and content provider.  I have been fortunate to be able to work in the field as long as I have.  As far as this blog, I will start to update it a bit more as I am paying for the space, etc.  I will likely use it for personal poker exploits or other things I can’t talk about on other venues.

Speaking of which, go over to http://www.pokerjunkie.com/poker-blog/ and check out my blog.  I write under the handle compncards but we have several fantastic writers.  Well, except for Melissa Castello.  She sucks.  JUST KIDDING MEL!!

I played several events at PokerStar’s Spring Championship of Online Poker.  I was able to cash in the Stud 8 SCOOP event.  I know, big shock eh?  I came close in a couple of other events but towards the end I was not as focused as I could be.  The FTOPS event over on Full Tilt Poker is coming up and I will be playing several of the Mini-FTOPS events.  I feel good about the Stud 8 and HEROS events obviously.  I’ll also play a PLO Knockout event, a PLO8 event, a Razz event, the PL HA event, and the Mixed Holdem event.  Ill likely get deep in the Razz, Stud 8, HEROS, and Mixed Holdem.  I hope to do well in all obviously, but my PLO and O8 results are a mixed bad.

The biggest news regarding my job is that I picked up a new gig.  I am now writing for Pokerjunkie.com.  I provide some articles and I have a blog under my pseudonym compncards.  I’ve been there for about a month now and my “personal” blog there has been up about a week or so officially.  The big difference between this and my gig for thewsopblog.com deals with the fact that most of my articles are preselected topics that I must write on.  I am not responsible on the article topics, just on the blogs.  That is helpful, and at times a little hairy when I get article requests on things I am not real knowledgeable about, such as Vegas nightlife.  Fortunately I have some resources for those things.

The WSOP is just 3 weeks away now.  I will be attending this year, but I will not be working in any official capacity.  At least, that does not appear to be the case at present.  Instead, I will be playing in numerous events around town.  I am going to play Event #26 at the WSOP and maybe the Stimulus Event.  Yes, that means  I will play my first ever NL Event at the WSOP if I play it.  However, I will only play it if I either satellite or if half of the buy-in is put up elsewhere.

That leads me to another area I have been dabbling in lately, and that is staking.  I have been using ChipMeUp quite a bit lately.  ChipMeUP is an online staking site where you buy shares of people for poker events.  Right now I am up overall in my staking and all of my SCOOP events were 50% stakes.  I am trying to get some of my live events and my WSOP events staked as well.  I’m having some luck with the H.O.R.S.E. events, but not on the WSOP events.

I’m doing a lot better in my NL Holdem game lately.  I have been really working on my aggression in certain spots and it is beginning to pay off a bit.  The biggest difference has been in my Sit-N-Go’s on UltimateBet.  I am still trying to win my Main Event seat, and am now up to Level 5.  Yes, I know that is only half way, but I still have time.  The ultra-turbo sit-n-go’s seem to closely resemble the WSOP satellites and as well as I am doing in those lately, I feel I might have a decent shot at satelliting into some WSOP events out in Vegas.  We will see.

As far as when I am leaving, I have not made that decision as of yet.  I have a couple of things to take care of around here first.  I will likely head out around the 22nd to the 24th.  If I play the Stimulus Event, I will definitely head out then.  I will only be there until around June 22nd as I will be working 4-H Camp this year, and I will not miss that for anything.

Anyway, that’s what’s going on with me at present.  I’ll try and give some updates during my FTOPS and into the WSOP.  Check out my blog over at pokerjunkie.com and my work over at thewsopblog.com.

All of you that know me are probably doing a collective eyebrow raise.  “James is playing NL Holdem?  James is trying to win his way into the Main Event?”  For those of you that don’t follow poker, UltimateBet has a series of Step tournaments that one can enter to win their way into the Main Event.  They start as cheap as a dime.  Now I see most of you doing a collective, “oh, THAT’S why he is doing it.”  Exactly.

What I have decided to do is take 1/5 of my UB bankroll, which is $100, and try and win my way into the Main Event.  I started yesterday by directly buying into a Step 1 tourney for .10 and a Step 2 for .30.  The top two advance.  I finished in the top two in both and got a Step 2 and a Step 3 ticket.   Later in the night, I bought into two Step 1′s and 1 Step 2.  Those didn’t produce much fruit, but I got my entry back.  (That happens if you finished 3rd or 4th.)

Today, I decided I was going to try and win me a few step 2 tickets.   At that point, I have setup a rough idea of how I want to proceed.  Here is my plan:

Win several Step 2 tickets and then try and play the Step 2 events.   Win as many Step 3 tickets from the Step 2′s and then move on to Step 3.  Rinse, lather, repeat.

I have decided that I want to have at least 6 tickets at any one level before I try and take a full shot to move on.  Why 6?  I will explain.  Today, I started with two Step 2 tickets.  I played 5 Step 1 games through the evening.  I finished in the top two in 4 out of 5.  (The fifth I had AA vs KK and QQ with a King on the river.  GG me.)  After winning, I had 6 tickets.   That seems like a fair amount to start taking a shot with, so I will proceed.  Chances are I will have to go back and win a few more step 1′s or even buy into some step 2′s directly to win my way to 3, but I will try and keep the 6 ticket rule.

Here are a few rules that I have setup for myself during my challenge:

1.  I cannot buy-in directly into any Step above Step 2.  Yes, Step 3 and Step 4 are uber cheap, but I want to give myself maximum opportunity.  With $20, I can take 100 shots at going up the Steps.  (Assuming I start all Step 1′s)  If I can’t make a decent showing in 100 tries, then I shouldn’t be playing in the Main Event anyway.

2.  Play a maximum of two tables at a time.  Yes, this can get a little boring for some of you, but this will allow me to concentrate the best.

3.  Do not play a Step tournament above a Step 2 unless I am fully committed to playing.  (One would argue I should be committed all the time, but c’mon, who is really THAT committed for a dime.)

4.  Don’t tilt when you take a super incredible bad beat at the lower step levels.  The lower steps are donkeyville, governed by Mayor McDonk.

5.  Don’t play after 4 a.m.   (No matter how awake I feel, playing after 4 a.m. usually results in break even at best results in my poker sit-n-go’s.  This includes my Stud 8 or Better.)

While I don’t normally like UB as a whole, I couldn’t pass up on playing these Steps.  If nothing else, this gives me a way to play a lot of NL sit-n-go’s cheaply.  With the exception of 1, I have at least made my money back in each one, so this is allowing a lot of play, even if it is at low limits.

I will try and keep track of my progress on this site.

Also, while you are at it, you can also check out www.thewsopblog.com.  I write for that blog as well and will probably mention my results there as well.

Progress so far:

Step 2:  6 tickets

Step 3: 1 ticket

Total Amount Spent:  $1.20

Step ticket Value: $2.80

Good luck at the tables.

The tournament had a decent turnout, but the numbers were still down from last year.  The field that came out was a strong field nonetheless.  Gavin Smith, Bill Edler, Matt Stout, Kathy Liebert, Allen Kessler,  “Captain” Tom Franklin, and Jason Potter all came out. There were also some tournament regulars there as well that you see all around the circuit.  Heading down to three tables, it looked like we might have a pro stacked final table.  In the end, only Matt Stout and Mike Leah were the only true professionals at the table.  We all were pulling for Stout to take it down, but he was knocked out in third.

I got several compliments on my coverage of the event.  A couple of different people came up to me at the final table and was quoting my blogs back verbatim.  Matt Stout even gave me a shout out in the shout box.  That was appreciated.  Hopefully I will get to cover some other circuit events before the beginning of the WSOP.  Considering that it took 6 months to get this one, the prospects don’t look bright.  However, I am available if needed.

Lately, I have been trying to pull the same type of stunt that both Chris Ferguson and Daniel Negreanu have been doing.  They both started out at micro stakes and tried to build up a bankroll.  The difference is that I am trying to do so in Stud 8 or Better.  I have discovered that I may be in for a long road to hoe.  My sessions have been up and down lately and it is becoming apparent that I need to stick to a tighter strategy.  I have been tinkering with my game a bit in NL and in Stud 8 and I notice that in Stud 8, I am leaking off chips.  Typical beginner leaks that I know are there but I have been ignoring because the leaks may cost me literally a buck at the most when I have them.  Of course, when I am hitting, I am hitting decent.  The problem is that I cannot play like that long term in a limit game and hope to be successful long term.  Honestly, I have already decided what I am going to do, but I just wanted to ramble a little bit.

For the first time in almost two years, I played a home game last night.  A friend of mine hosted five other people and we played a “Dealer’s Choice” home game.  Of course, every hand I dealt was Stud 8.  With the exception of myself and one other player, all of these players were utter novices to poker.  One didn’t even know a flush lost to a straight.  As a result, I played very very loose to begin with.  How loose?  I called with a J-10-9 offsuit in Stud 8 on third with 3 low cards up.  That’s how loose.  I ended up making a straight and nobody made low.

This group play uber loose and somewhat aggressive at times.  They also played a wide mix of games.  The oldest guy at the table played 5 card Draw and 5 card Stud almost every time.  I didn’t play a single hand of 5 Stud.  The guy that didn’t know a flush beat a straight liked to play this wierd Indian Cross poker.  I basically only played the deal unless I hit the board super hard.

The hand that I won the biggest pot on was a variation of blind man’s bluff.  Yes, I am talking about where you take a card and put it on your forehead and bet according to what you see.  Well, the first card was dealt and I looked around and the highest card I saw was a 10.  At this point, I am thinking that I will stick in this hand and take a 2nd card and see what develops.  There is a raise and everyone calls.  Then a 2nd card is dealt.   I take a look around and the best hand is 10-6 out of the other 5 players.  I decided that I would pump the pot at this point, and I did.  I got four bets out of the remaining 4 players in the hand.  When we showed down, I just said “I win” before even looking at my cards.  Everyone was in shock.   I explained that everyone had a 10 high or lower and the odds of my not having a face card were long.  Also, I picked up a non-verbal tell from another player that told me that he feared my hand against everyone else’s.  Oh by the way, my hand was J-10.  I beat them with Jack high!!!

I was up probably double my buy-in and then gave a little of it back on a couple of hands where I had a 4 low in stud 8 and couldn’t catch.  I still finished up 3/4 of a buy-in.  In the end, I called it a night when every hand was being played with wild cards.  When there are wild cards, that eliminates the skill factor and makes it a total game of luck.  The good thing is that I picked up some tells and betting patterns of players.  The next time I go to play in two weeks, I’ll probably do as well or better.

My weight loss is still going well.  I am down 12 lbs officially.  My workouts are going well also.  My stamina has increased to the point where my trainer wants to make my circuits longer.  That’s fine by me.  The wierd thing is that I am developing muscles that I don’t remember having before.  Of course, that’s a good thing.

I have developed a deeper appreciation for a certain friend this past week.  For several years now, I have always been the one that made her stop and think about things regarding life, etc.  Lately, she has turned the tables on me and challenged me as to my motivation behind my weight loss, etc.  She was concerned that I was doing over a particular girl.  I had to go over the reasons that I am doing this, which are primarily for my health and not for any “potential future.”  She also gave me her opinion…in full detail about certain things.  Yes, I am being a little vague, but the details are private.  Suffice it to say that I am glad that she said what she did, if for no other reason than to show that she cares about me more than I thought.  She also made me think about several things too.

Anyway, I have begun to really start to follow the show House M.D. with a great deal of seriousness lately.  I don’t normally get into hospital or doctor dramas, but this one is different.  I actually identify quite a bit with House and Wilson actually reminds me a lot of my friend I was speaking about above.  I’ve went back to start watching Season 1 and will start working my way through the show until I have all the eps watched.  Maybe this will be my new CSI.

Btw, I think that Grissom’s last episode is how they should have ended CSI as a series.  I will probably watch the show…but it will never be the same.