I have been playing professionally since 2007 . I was a tournament player .

I had tremendous success playing MTTs and even won the 100K on Bovada .

I thought I was printing money and was very irresponsible with it and my hours at the tables went way down .

I had a very short bankroll and was starting to rebuild again and then one day when I logged in I got the message April 15th 2011 "NO MORE POKER IN YOUR COUNTRY."

Sit N Go and tournament traffic dried up and the only site I had left was BoDog. I went to Borders the next day and picked up a few books on cash games and now I mainly play them.

I play 100NL at Bovada - I'm looking to run 4 more tables for a total of 8 on another monitor but still deciding on what those 4 tables should be - MTTs on Bovada and possibly other sites , 4 more cash tables at BetOnline or 4 more cash tables on Merge.

Do you have any opinions on Merge or BetOnline as secondary sites ?

Thanks for reading ,

Ron

So I had another good session last night and now I haven't been able to open a cash game table for the last 4+ hours without it saying "you are disconnected. Please try to connect again." Tried uninstall/reinstall, rebooting, clearing cache, etc. I can access web pages without issue.

BV is killing my run good! 😩

Session Profit/Loss: +$410
Current Bankroll: $6284

I took some more shots at 2/4. Will try to post some hands. Lemme know if you want me to share more or less hands compared to what I've been posting.

Bovada software has been really bad for me lately too.

As far as merge, it's a decent site. The vip program is w/e, and I prefer the bovada tournament schedule but for a few 100nl tables I think it's fine. I thought the software was actually pretty decent, way more consistent than bovada.

Nice score on winning the 100k! I enjoy playing tourneys but don't have a ton of experience playing them. Going to try to play a couple of them over the next few weeks to prep for this yearly live tournament I play in that my friend puts on. I am almost always able to cash in it. This year is going to be the biggest BI ($250) and should have about forty players or so.

I bet we've played more than a few hands against each other at NL100 on Bovada.

As far as other sites go, I've tried Cake poker and found the cash out turnaround time to be absurd (took 3 months). That was about three years ago though so maybe it has improved. The player pool wasn't as soft as Bovada/Bodog.

Haven't tried any Merge network sites or BetOnline. The first I would consider using as a secondary site would probably be ACR. Heard the players are pretty soft. Plus they have RB.

That reminds me. Man I miss the days of Bodog RB. Soft play + RB = easiest way to make money playing online poker.

Cool thread. Have been seeing more Bovada threads lately in the PG&C section. I play 400/600 so I'm sure well be seeing each other soon.

As for posting hands, try using a hand convertor. It makes them much easier to read.

TLR
OP, I'm having a hard time reconciling the fact that you emphasize your in your post that you're a Christian, and yet you play poker. Isn't this counterintuitive to your beliefs?

Glad to see you move closer to your goal today

Do you feel there is a big jump in skill at Bovada from 100NL to 200NL to 400NL?

I have a ACR account with RB and I have a BCP account with Elite Rewards.

I am considering playing there primarily to challenge for 'The Beast'

If I decide to play there I will be mass multi-tabling and it will be the only site I run at once.

Until then I'm trying to add 4 more tables but not sure which direction I want to go.

Have a Good Night and Best Wishes on your next session

congrats on your run good man! what is your desired BR?

Cool. I'm sure we'll be unknowingly battling each other soon

Thx for the suggestion on the Hand converter. will look into it.

Hi Larry,

Definitely understand the question. I get it a good amount from both Christians who don't understand poker and from non-Christians who don't fully understand Christianity.

The Bible doesn't say anything explicitly about gambling being a sin. It says that we are supposed to be good stewards of God's money and that the *love* of money is the root of all evil, but it never states that gambling is a sin. Some people will site references to "casting lots" in the Bible as to imply that all gambiling is always wrong. That is a misconception, however. There are instances where casting lots are used to determine positive things such as who will be the disciple that will replace Judas (after he committed suicide after betraying Jesus).

Now, do I believe gambling can ever be a sin? Yes. Is it always a sin? No. Where it can become sinful is if you are not stewarding God's money well. This can be possible no matter what your profession is though. Where I believe in poker it can become sinful is if I was a losing player and still continued to play. Or if i was a winning player and let my love for poker eclipse my love for the Lord, then that would be sinful. For as it is written "you shall have no other gods (read idols) before me." Again, any job or hobby has the potential to do this.

There are some well known poker players who are Christians (Daniel Negraneau, Jason Mercier, etc.).

Hope that helps explain my perspective.

Got an email from support that fixed my issue with being unable to open cash game tables.

Here's what i had to do:

http://poker.bovada.lv/getting-start...ificate-update

I haven't played enough 2/4 to form an opinion on the skill level yet. It does seem to be a lot more aggro pre flop which I am not as used to.

The players at 1/2 are a little more creative than the players at NL100 and a little more aggressive but it's still pretty easy to beat IMO

Thanks for the well wishes. Broke even yesterday despite some bad beats so that's a win as far as I am concerned.

Thanks. Here are my goals updated with my current bankroll:

Thanks for the reply . Hope you are doing well today

this thread is exactly what I needed for motivation! I'm grinding as well to buy a condo, there is still a lot of money to be made despite what everyone else says, especially on bodog/bovada and Live especially, sucks we can't rail one another, but I do wish you the best of luck and hope ur reach ur goal soon

Here's a hand I think i misplayed. Not sure how i should have played it differently other than perhaps not 3betting it pf. I think i didnt' notice until the middle of the hand that the villain was 8/8 lol. I just don't like sticking in half a stack and not feeling super confident about my fold as well.

P1(BTN) $125.05 - VP:58 PFR:42 AF:Inf. W:20|100 STL:67|100 3B:0|50 CB:67| N:26.55 Hands:12
Me(SB) $99 - VP:38 PFR:25 AF:1.0 W:40|0 STL:100|50 3B:40|0 CB:100| N:-158.50 Hands:8
P3(BB) $211 - VP:42 PFR:25 AF:0 W:50|50 STL:0|33 3B:38| CB:0|50 N:105 Hands:12

P5(UTG) $132.73 - VP:33 PFR:8 AF:3.0 W:25|100 STL:0|100 3B:0| CB:100|50 N:12.28 Hands:12
P6(CO) $104.87 - VP:8 PFR:8 AF:2.0 W:0| STL:33|100 3B:0|0 CB:|0 N:42 Hands:12


Pre Flop: Me(SB) with [Th,Ts]
P5(UTG) folds, P6(CO) raises 3, P1(BTN) folds, Me(SB) raises 9.50, P3(BB) folds, P6(CO) calls 7


Flop: (9s,2s,Qc) (2 players)
Me(SB) bets 12, P6(LP) calls 12


Turn: 4d (2 players)
Me(SB) checks, P6(LP) bets 24, Me(SB) calls 24


River: 5d (2 players)
Me(SB) checks, P6(LP) bets 58.87, Me(SB) folds


Final:
Returns 58.87 to P6(CO)
P6(CO) wins 91

Here's a pretty interesting hand. I floated pf and on the flop. Villain put in 2/3 of their stack before folding and showing lol.

P1(UTG) $50.35 - VP:40 PFR:0 AF:Inf. W:0| STL:|100 3B:0|100 CB: N:-0.65 Hands:5
P2(MP) $116.23 - VP:50 PFR:2 AF:0.9 W:28|63 STL:0|33 3B:4|0 CB:0|44 N:26.23 Hands:56
P3(CO) $95 - VP:7 PFR:4 AF: W:0| STL:0| 3B:0| CB: N:-5 Hands:27
Me(BTN) $146.70 - VP:34 PFR:31 AF:2.7 W:40|42 STL:67|67 3B:0|50 CB:72|0 N:78.96 Hands:104
P5(SB) $137.80 - VP:54 PFR:23 AF:5.0 W:44|50 STL:67|100 3B:25| CB:33| N:-58.20 Hands:13
P6(BB) $79.94 - VP:24 PFR:5 AF:2.0 W:29|25 STL:10|89 3B:0|0 CB:100| N:-20.06 Hands:55


Pre Flop: Me(BTN) with [4d,Td]
P1(UTG) calls 1,
P2(MP) calls 1, P3(CO) folds,
Me(BTN) raises 5,
P5(SB) raises 9.50,
P6(BB) folds,
P1(UTG) folds,
P2(MP) calls 9,
Me(BTN) calls 5


Flop: (8c,9s,Qh) (3 players)
P5(SB) bets 18, P2(MP) folds, Me(BTN) calls 18


Turn: Jh (2 players)
P5(SB) bets 68, Me(BTN) raises 118.70, P5(SB) folds


Final:
P5(SB) shows [Qs,As]
Returns 50.70 to Me(BTN)
Me(BTN) wins 201

Good to hear. What are your goals specifically regarding how much you're trying to save and over how long? What stakes do you play on Bovada? Do you play poker full time or do u also have a full time job as well?

Good luck in your goal as well!

First off, im a full-time student, so I have 4 months till my fall semester begins, initially the plan was to go and find a job. I had about 400$ laying around, so I decided to deposit and grind off small and tried to play poker throughout my summer break. Long story short, the first few days I ran insanely well @ nl25/nl50 HU, so I decided to take some shots at some tournaments, played the nightly 55$ 15k garantueed(i believe) and finished 5th for 929$, the very next day played a 33$ tournament and finished first for 1890$.. at this point i was getting a bit cocky/confident and i thought i was invincible, I went ahead and deposited 209$CAD and played the Sunday masters on Ipoker(150euros) and finished 3rd for 4,5kCAD.. so I'm currently sitting on a 7k~ roll my goal is to reach 20k by September 1st, I'm back playing nl50/nl100 HU and doing quiet well, there's still a lot of money to be made despite what everyone else says, the only downside is the rake when playing HU it's a killer!

Last Session Profit/Loss: $271
Current Bankroll: $6,602

Played a short 26 min session on 2/4 and finished up $50. The rest was on 1/2 for about an hour and a half.

Wow that's quite a run up! $400 to $7k. Yeah the rake on Bovada is the worst. I've been meaning to take some shots at MTT's but need to be able to block several hours in a row to play them. Would really like to take a shot at the Main Event Satty. Gl to ya.

Without that much information on the CO and the BB I think flatting TT is a better option here and it also keeps the pot small while playing out of position with a hand thats tough to play OOP.

The 3betting dynamic along with your hand , position and lack of information is going to make TT tough to play in that spot .

Thanks for sharing your hand

Agreed. Good point about the low amount of hands. Didn't notice that either when reviewing the hand and i'm pretty sure i didn't take that into account when playing the hand. Thanks for the feedback.

I hardly ever comment on peoples hand histories but since you are a new friend I made an exception .

Happy Grinding =)