The story is not about my poker play or how I finished in the top ten. It is about a particular player and her strange behavior.

When I got to around 60th position, I noticed one player would disconnect and then reconnect continuously. I did not think much off it at first but then she kept doing it every hand. She was also in the top ten chip count at this stage, so it was an interesting situation.

After a while another playing started chatting about her behavior and calling her a cheater. He said she would disconnect to see everyone’s cards. I asked him how and he said to Google it.

I usually play PKR Poker for real money but have not come across this situation before on that site. I have seen some players disconnect once or twice in a tournament but never every hand like this person. I am not sure if she was cheating or not, but it kind of makes you think twice if she was.

Its one thing to cheat for play money but I would be pretty annoyed if someone cheated me out of real money. I feel others need to know that possible cheating could be going on at Full Tilt Poker, as well as, other poker sites. Hopefully if we spread the word about this, it might help players be more aware of potential cheating and help online poker site administrators isolate these scammers.

This article is brought to you by FarnsworthGixer.

The end was a long drawn out affair. On New Years Eve, I was down to my last £20, I spent a fairly depressing night watching the rest of the world celebrate a ticking clock on TV. Time passing wasn’t something I felt particularly jubilant about. If my life had been a chess game any decent player would have conceded that it was time to knock the King over and find a new game. Of course my life is, if anything, a poker game and Poker players live by the maxim “a chip and a chair” and that was what I was down to.

You quickly learn when playing poker that scared money rarely wins. Its almost impossible to play at your best when you’re down to the very last of your bankroll, calls you should be making are now almost impossible because if you’re wrong its all over. Then what? Back to a 9 to 5 job playing poker on the side telling anyone who will listen that you could have been a contender. The last lines of Goodfellas sum up my dread.

…And now it’s all over and that’s the hardest part. Today everything is different, there’s no action. I have to wait around like everyone else. I cant even get decent food. Right after I got here I ordered some spaghetti with marinara sauce and I got egg noodles and ketchup. I’m an average nobody. I get to live the rest of my life like a shnook.

I had absolutely no idea if I would even be able to get a regular job after all prospective employers might not understand the value I had added to my CV after four years playing poker and generally enjoying myself. I have always been difficult to manage and not having someone tell me what to do or where to be was something that I had become rather attached to. So on January first 2009 motivated by the fear of living a shnook’s life I took my last £20 and somehow turned it into £1200. Enough to pay the rent, enough to eat but I needed to do it all again in February and the pressure was back.

At times I can honestly say it all got to me. There were some nights that were sick with sleepless worry. The wins thankfully kept coming through February and early March and just when it looked like I was set to have a fantastic year, I was in the top 50 tournament players on William Hill, they switched Network. I played the last tournament on the old network at 01:00 on 17th March. It was a little like being in the band playing on the titanic, no matter how well I played the whole thing would be going under soon. The new network should have been just as easy to win on but for whatever reason I stopped winning. I think on reflection I can say it was a combination of self-doubt and a dislike of change. I was certainly not playing as well as I had been and by the end of May the false dawn had ended.

Now the thing about a false dawn is that it should inevitably eventually be followed by the actual dawn. I did get a job, a call center job. The pay was lousy but the hours were flexible and I figured I would just do the job long enough to build a bankroll, I could still play almost as much poker and with the pressure off I might start winning again. When the pressure was off though I couldn’t face playing at all. For the first time in years I didn’t play and more importantly I didn’t miss it. I was enjoying interacting with people who didn’t play, I found I really liked the people I was working with and the job, fund-raising for various charities was almost a karmic payback for the years I spent just trying to win money off people for my own needs without having given anything back. I decided I would only go back to poker when I was doing it for the right reason, because I enjoyed it and wanted to.

October 1st I had $1 in my account and it occurred to me that if I was good enough I should be able to turn that into $1000 before too long. The Rags to Riches challenge was born. Now I know that $1000 is hardly riches but if you can turn $1 into $1000 then you only have to do the same thing again from there to get to a million. After that? Well this time next year Rodney we will be a Brazilianaires. I will document the challenge honestly and hopefully with some good humor hereafter hope we all enjoy the ride.

“Achtung” Dan Hofinger is a London based poker player who can assist those wanting to break into live play through his own journey of bad beats and well-played hands.

How long have you played? When was your first time playing? Who taught you?
My first time playing poker for money I was in the Army in Europe in the early 80′s. The only thing there was to do was drink and gamble.

What games do you play? Stakes? Your biggest profit in one sitting? Largest loss?
My normal game is Holdem’ only because it’s the easiest to find a game playing. I prefer razz and Omaha High, but it’s hard to find a them in the casino. I’d love to play more mixed games, but my Omaha Hi-Lo is terrible. I need to work on it a lot.

Normal stakes are anywhere from 5/10 to 20/40 NL in private games. In the casino’s here in AZ the max bet is $150 so I play a lot of 10/150 (5/10 blinds, max bet / raise is $150)

My biggest profit in one session was around $23,000 Biggest loss was around $9,000. Both were in private cash games.

John “The Greek” Leontakianakos has told me repeatedly that a cash game player is the true poker player. Do you agree with this statement? Why?
I think a true poker player is someone who can play both forms of the game well. Tourney, and Cash. (P.S. I am NOT a tourney player).

Has all the publicity of the WSOP, WPT, and online poker been good for your cash game? Have you seen an increase in your profit margin due to it?
It really helped 3-4 years ago. Now it’s leveled off, more people are becoming good players and not as easy to beat a few years ago.

What poker pros have you encountered that have been “regular” people? Have they given you tips that have helped your game?
I’ve played with a lot of pro’s over the years. My two favorites.

Daniel Negrano – Fun at the table even when he is losing. Brings a lot of action to the table and a truly nice guy.

Tom Schneider – The hardest player I’ve ever played against. He lives local to me and has taken me to school on many occasions.

Have you ever played in the WSOP or WPT events? Buy-in? What did you take away from it?
2006 WSOP main event. What a crazy place, felt more like a lottery than a poker tourney if you know what I mean. Finished 1,000 people out of the money.

I prefer to play the cash games in Vegas during the WSOP, much more money involved and much easier to make a nice profit.

If you could type yourself, what kind of poker player are you?
I’d say I am a mid level cash game player. I am usually the guy always talking and am very friendly at the table. I think that’s why I’m a big fan of Daniel Negrano and Phill Laak.

Do you feel you can read players, determine what type of hand they have? Are you trying to hone this skill?
With my Masters in Mathematics, I depend on math more than reads, but I’m always working on getting better at reading people.

Do you read any of the “must read” poker books? Any you recommend?
I do read a lot of the books, but by far the BEST book I’ve ever read on Poker (and how to be a better player) is Barry Greenstein’s Ace on the River. I’d love to have an autographed copy of it from him if you know what I mean.

Do you have a poker goal(s)? Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
I guess I have the same goal as just about every other poker player – make more money!

I’ve been toying around with the idea of playing full time the past year or so. Right now I play about 20 hours a week, But to do that and make decent money I’d have to leave Arizona and I’m not sure my wife would be thrilled with that idea. If that does not work out, I’d like to start up a private local poker room.

First let’s start with bar poker. Bar poker is just as it sounds poker tournaments at local establishments with little or no entry fee and small prizes to the winners to bring more business to the establishment. Players are generally beginners, people that love to compete but don’t want to play for cash or player wanting to improve their reading skills. It never seems to fail that someone will tell me that this is their first time in a tournament and then later I will see them at a final table, now these people may have played cards before and know the basic of the game, but skill has nothing to do with how they are doing. Most will play lots of hands and catch a few cards and win their races and make the final table, then lose when they don’t change gears when the blinds increase. Then the very next week they will be the first one out because they didn’t catch the right cards.

Next is lower stakes poker tournaments, say $50 and below. These tournaments fall not too far ahead of the bar poker games. There will be more players entered, which means less skilled players and more chances of being taken out by a lesser hand. Play tends to a little erratic at first because most start with a small amount of chips and the blinds rise quickly. They want you playing ring games not remain in the tournament, because that is where they make their money. You must get some quality hands in the first couple of blind levels and avoid the suck-outs to survive to when the blinds get so high that it’s all-in or not play the hands at all. Then to win the tournament you must win your all-ins or race opportunities.

Mid range tournaments fall in $100- 500 ranges. Because of the higher entry fees there are generally less people willing to risk that much money on a poker tournament, so higher quality of play. You will usually start out with more chips and the blinds will increase slowly meaning more of a chance to only play premium hands. But yet even at this level they are always players that money has less value then most and to them $500 is not much different then playing a $50 buy-in. At one such tournament recently I watched as a player won with 8-3 unsuited and a little later won with 2-4 suited, it is very difficult for me to say that he won because of his poker skill rather with his luck. He made the final table but then lost out when he called an all in on an Ace- 3 suited and lost to pocket aces. So did he make it farther then me because of skill or was it just luck. I’m not sure but he placed in the money and I didn’t when my pocket queens lost to Big Slick.

High Stakes or professional tournaments. These fall in the $1000 or higher buy-ins and consist of tournaments like the World Series or WPT events. I have not played a lot of them but have played a few. Generally you will start with 10,000 in chips and blinds will start at 25-50 and raise hourly. Almost all the players are highly skilled, math wizards, or corporate high rollers. (What am I doing in these tournaments?) They have read all the poker books and live and breathe poker. Play tends to be much slower with only big pots if two players get big hands. Most times it comes down to race situations that you must win in order to survive. What wins the race situations? The person that gets lucky. If they win enough of those situations you will make money or have a chance to win the tournament.

I also believe that luck plays a little less then other levels because you will have to lay down a big hand at some point to survive in a tournament of this skill level. In the end the people that make the finals are the ones that got luckier then the ones that lost.

Phil Hellmuth says that if poker were only a game of skill he would win every tournament, well I don’t know if that is true but luck has a lot to do with the outcome of all Texas Hold-em tournaments. To win a tournament one must put oneself at risk many times in a tournament and to survive you must get luckier then the people that you are against. Skill is an important part of tournament poker but as the getting lucky at the right times is more important.

MNFulltilt is co-owner of Full Tilt Magazine and was owner of a bowling center in Minnesota that was raided by the police over a free bar poker game. This lead to a local senator changing a law making free bar poker legal in the state of MN. MNFulltilt currently runs weekly bar games, plays online and live poker and is working on a bar poker book.

Fast forward…there are 125 participants who started this EPT event and it has been dwindled down to 24, all in the money.

You are sitting 16th with 75,000 chips, the leader has 250,000 chips, who is at your table. The limits are at $3,000-$6,000, with a $500 ante. You are dealt pocket Queens down, with a King on top. Only two other players are in the hand, one with a Ace showing, the other with a Seven. The player with the Ace bets out $4,000. The player with the Seven raises it to $8,000. It is now your turn to act.

You need a refresher? Well, we have an extensive library of information, and here is a great article to help you, The Basics of Omaha Hi.

There is no such thing as a bad laydown.

This quote by John “The Greek” Leontakianakos is especially true in the game of Omaha. Laydowns are key!
You need a refresher? Well, we have an extensive library of information, and here is a great article to help you, The Basics of Omaha Hi.

Poker Site: Doyle’s Room
Tournament Name: PokerPlasm Tourney League
Date/Time: June 12th, 2008, 7pm Est.
Password: In Pokerplasm Events Passwords forum, (must be PokerPlasm member to view).

Remember, this Omaha tournament is sweetened! There is a $15 bonus added to the pot. Remember to have fun and we hope to see you at the tables.

Now, do you have what it takes to make a living playing online poker? Maybe Jared can give you some answers to the questions you have been seeking.

At what point did you say to yourself, ‘I can make a living doing playing online poker!’ Did you tell anyone about it? Their thoughts?
In the fall of 05 I found out that all of the part time workers at my work (Bay State Milling) would be getting laid off in a few months due to the purchase of a new machine. I was in that part time worker category since I was going to school at the time. I had been playing poker as a hobby and winning some decent money so I decided to start up an excel spreadsheet to track my hourly rate. I wanted to see if I could make enough to play poker as my job while I was in college. It turned out I was making about $20/hr, which may not sound like much, but it was about double what I was making at my other job. I think my parents and girlfriend were very skeptical at first. This was the point I knew I could end up playing for a living full time. I wasn’t making enough money yet, and was only 2-3 tabling $30-$40 SNGs, but I knew that after continuing to work on my game that I could do it. I didn’t tell anyone of my plans to eventually play full time though because they were already skeptical. That summer I was 6 tabling $38 SNGs full time since I don’t have college during the summer. I was making about $50/hr and my parents and girlfriend weren’t really as skeptical anymore. This is when I basically started telling people of my plans to eventually play full time for a living. At the time I planned to finish school first.

You make a good living playing online. From the stats I have seen, you make $180 to $210 an hour online. Are their still players, professional and non, who give you zero respect? Does it upset you? Do certain players stay clear of you?
I actually make about $300 to $330 per hour playing poker online now. There was a time last year when I was making $180 to $210 per hour. Since then I have improved and found the gold mine that is Cake Poker, which has significantly increased my hourly rate. I’m also starting to coach and stake some select players, which brings in some nice money.

There’s definitely players who give me 0 respect. The thing w/ SNGs is they’re so math based toward the end, and if you haven’t done your homework on SNG strategy and watch a top player make some of the plays they make may look donkish to you, but they’re actually standard +EV plays. Due to that, even some players who have seen my stats seem to think that I’m just the luckiest player on the planet even though I’ve played over 47,000 SNGs. I actually find it pretty funny that people are that naive and uneducated to think that someone can just run good over a sample size that large. It doesn’t really upset me because I realize that if they think I’m lucky they probably donate a lot of money to me and they’re the reason SNGs are still beatable for a good profit. Most professional SNG players have a lot of respect for me because they understand optimal strategy and play somewhat similar to me. I have a lot of people who also like to watch me play, either to try and learn or just to root for me. There’s definitely some players that try to stay clear of me.

Have you ever discussed your living with poker professionals who do not play online? Did they give you any unique advice?
No I haven’t really had any lengthy discussions w/ any live pros.

What steps would you take to guide/teach a person into becoming a profitable online poker player?
I would first start by having them read a few poker books. Their first book should be one geared toward beginners. I would then show them how to calculate whether situations are +EV or -EV and have them do a lot of work with calculations. I would explain basic SNG strategy to them and have them watch me play. I would then have them start at low stakes and I would review a lot of their hand histories. This seems to work wonders. That’s how I taught my oldest brother to play, who just turned pro this week. It’s also how I’m teaching my stakees to play.

Do you have a particular system you use? Or can you give us bits and pieces of it?
I don’t exactly have a “system.” I adjust to the players a lot and try to mix up my game so I’m not so predictable. There’s definitely a lot of spots, particularly late game, where there’s only one optimal play to make. I’ll leave it at that since I don’t hate money.

How much of a bankroll do you need to play at your level? Do you go through any major losing sessions?
I generally like to keep 100-200 buy-ins of my average stake. Most people don’t need that many buy-ins for a bankroll but when you’re 10-16 tabling the highest stakes for a living you’re going to have some pretty big swings. My worst run was last December when I lost about $25K during the month. I was playing strictly Pokerstars at the time and the $1Ks were running more than usual. Needless to say, I ran awful in the highest stakes that month. Rakeback keeps me sane during downswings though. Since I have found Cake Poker I haven’t really had much for downswings since my ROI is so much higher. My average stake is also lower because it’s more profitable to play some of the medium stakes games on Cake than it is to play some of the higher stakes games on Pokerstars. Due to my high ROI on Cake and my rakeback deal, a Cake $52 is more profitable than a Pokerstars $235, and is even more profitable than a Pokerstars $325 or $565 a lot of the time.

Has becoming a profitable player changed your life at all? Has the money changed anything?
My life hasn’t changed too much. I think the major thing is that the money I make now allows me to buy a lot nicer things. The money I make and the freedom I have to make my own schedule has also allowed me to take a lot of nice vacations that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to.

Any thoughts about playing tournaments outside of the online world? If you have already, what are your feelings about it?
I played a few WSOP events last year, the US Poker Bowl, and the EPT Monte Carlo this year. I’ll play a few per year but I’m not really a big fan of playing the tournament circuit. There’s no freedom in scheduling. They tell you when you have to play. If your friends call you up and want to do something you can’t just stop playing and go hang out with them. There’s also a lot of travel costs and being away from friends and family. I think I can make more playing online anyway. Even if I have a 100% ROI in a $5K live event, I’m still going to have to put in a lot of hours to make my money. They play a lot of grueling 12 hour days in live events. Let’s say I have a 100% ROI in a $5K event and average 15-20 hours per tournament. That means I’ll make $5K in 15 hours in 15-20 hours of play. It also takes much longer to get in a decent sample size live and the variance can be brutal. If I played the same amount of hours online I’d probably make somewhere between $4,500 to $7,300 on average w/ less travel costs, the freedom to make my own schedule, less variance, and the ability to put in huge volume and get in a significant sample size.

What tells have you picked up playing online?
I’m not sure I want to get into anything too specific because then my opponents could use it against me. I like to take notes on how players played particular hands and then use that info later to put them on a likely hand. You can find a lot of betting tells by doing this as mostly players just don’t mix up their play well.

Who is the most difficult player(s) you have played against? Do you play them regularly?
I can’t name just one player. I think the most difficult players I’ve played against are probably DDBeast, BigJoe2003, Kenny05, River Prayer/LuckBoxFromHell, amlove. Those are all players that I currently play a lot with or have played a lot with them in the past. There’s also some players that I haven’t played w/ as much but can tell they’re top notch tough players. THE__D__RY and inissint come to mind.

Digging deeper in the interview, you will read that FFcowboy pulls no punches in this exclusive. No apologies are made for his remarks towards various freeroll whores, poker scum, and assorted garbage.

Playing The Jester is like fishing, just throw a line out and he bites every time.

He gets right down to the nitty-gritty and lets the membership know where everyone stands, a unique and refreshing approach.

He is quick to add that a big freeroll is scheduled for tomorrow and invites all that are interested. Here is the important information he has passed on to us.

Poker Site: Doyle’s Room
Tournament Name: PokerPlasm Tourney League
Date/Time: June 5th, 2008, 7pm Est.
Password: In Pokerplasm Events Passwords forum, (must be PokerPlasm member to view).

So if you enjoy poker and would like to see more tournaments and games, then please support the new Tourney Director’s initiatives.

You spent a week with Annie Duke not too long ago. What tips really sunk in? Any new stories you can tell?
The week of tuition with Annie was fantastic. Every day was an intensive course on different aspects of NLH, but some of the most useful information Annie gave me was how to play hands in a way that was mathematically correct, something which makes total sense now but I wasn’t necessarily always doing before. A good story from the week was when we flew out to Vegas for 2 days and I played a tournament at Caesars. By this point I’d had two days of tuition from Annie and it was clearly working as I went on and won the whole tourney!

What poker professionals has Absolute Poker introduced you to? Who has been the most helpful with poker information?
I have Absolute Poker to thank for the week of tuition with Annie, but technically I knew her from before so that doesn’t really count does it? To be honest I’ve known most of the pros I’m friends with for a while now just through playing and working in the industry over the last few years. Those who have been most helpful both with poker and other general advice about the industry include Nik Persaud, Annie and Phil Hellmuth.

Has anyone given you a nickname at the table yet? What nickname would you like to have?
Yes, for the first time actually! It was just after I won the European Ladies Championships ($30,000 payday!) the other week, I went into the Green room where everyone had been watching the final table live on the screens and these two girls come over and say I have a fantastic stone cold poker face, and should be called “Stone Cold”. I thought that was rather cool…

What types of conversations are you involved in at the tables these days?
All! I love the fact that people talk about anything and everything at the poker table, and usually always join in.

We asked this before, but what is your current level of activity with poker? Are you playing live and online? Blinds?
I’m playing online about 3 times a week on Absolute Poker, and play in bounty tournaments every Thursday at 8pm and 9pm UK time. I try and play live at least once a week, usually £100 tournaments or thereabouts, and of course I will representing Absolute Poker at large events around the world which is the best bit!

Have you jumped in on any cash tables? Or still sticking primarily with tournaments? Are you still playing at the Gutshot in London?
I still mainly play tournaments live, but play cash a fair bit online during the day now as well. I still go to Gutshot occasionally.

According to John “The Greek” Leontakianakos, a female poker player who dresses in a revealing outfit and who has a nice smile can have an advantage at a male dominated table. Do you agree with this statement? Do you think your looks or the way you dress can distract a man and throw his game off a bit?
I guess it could be to an extent, but it’s kinda difficult not being a man and hence knowing how distracting a sexily dressed lady can be! I try to dress well but can’t say anyone’s ever told me I’m distracting them… but I can imagine it might be tough for men if a girl is semi-naked if that’s what she chooses to do – anything to get an edge is fair game in my opinion!

If you could play one professional heads up who would it be? Why? For how much? What game?
Hmm, so many I’d love to play! I’d love to play against Phil Ivey, he’s a seriously tough player (I’ve been watching some of his moves on YouTube recently). Although my bankroll is considerably smaller than his so I doubt he’d care too much about a game against me!

What events do you have planned in the next 3 months? 6 months?
World Series Baby!!! I’m heading out for the whole thing and will be playing a fair few events so I’m ridiculously excited!!! I’m determined to come back with a bracelet, so I’ll keep you posted… Otherwise, I should be playing a number of events including Aruba in September, so it sounds like there’s lots of jet-setting in store!

New PokerPlasm Tournament Director, FFCOwboy76, has set up a tournament at Full Tilt Poker and wants the new and old PokerPlasm membership to fight it out. Who will kick off 2008 with a huge win and bragging rights?

Tournament Details

• Site: Full Tilt Poker
• Game Type: No Limit Holdem
• Buyin: $2+.50
• Date/Time: May 13th, 7pm Est
• Password: PokerPlasm Events Password Forum (must be member)

So come on out and play some poker. You never know who might be at the table!