Here we are in 2013. Anyone know what date it is on the Mayan calendar? While you are googling that, let me tell you we appreciate our readers and welcome you to the first edition of "The Digest" in the new year.

Our columnists have worked very hard to bring you information in an entertaining way. We hope you like it.

Another month has passed and US on-line poker legislation seems no closer to being resolved. "The Digest" is non political but we hope each of you has joined the PPA and each is resolutely writing, calling, and emailing their Senators and Representatives. Many of us are and we hope you will join the effort.

SHENANIGANS and SHANOOBIGANS are in a state of flux right now as Mike and Bee search for a new home site that will meet the need. But in the meantime, keep your eyes open in the forums for posts of forum games.

We appreciate the folks who write regular columns for the digest. It isn't always easy to conceive and develop a column idea, especially month after month as they do. If you would be interested in being a digest columnist please PM Bona.



Some of the most ignored sources of profit in poker are bonuses and other promotional offers. Yet these promotions can often have a significant impact on your bottom line. Looking through my own database of 25nl hands, I paid $1,358 in rake over 98,000 hands. This works out to 5.54bb/100. Assuming my figures are typical of the amount paid by other 25nl players, taking advantage of promotions equal to 50% RB will increase your winrate at 25nl by 2.77bb/100. This is a huge improvement in winrate – it is extremely difficult to increase your winrate by that much though other means. Of course you can do so by studying diligently to improve your game, or by exercising table selection. Yet both of these things require much effort – taking advantage of available promotions is very easy and basically free. In this article, I will discuss some of the common promotions available at different poker sites, and how best to evaluate and take advantage of them.

I can anticipate that some of you already have a favorite site and may be wondering why you should even consider playing at other sites. There are several good reasons I can think of for playing at other sites. You may wish to take advantage of table selection across many sites rather than one. You might find softer tables, or a better deal at another site. There may be multiple tournament series which you can play on different sites. Finally, you may wish to spread your bankroll among several sites, so that in case one site leaves the market, you will still be in action at your other sites. This last reason is especially salient for US players. On the other hand, if your bankroll is small enough that splitting it up at several sites would preclude you from playing the games which you would normally play, then you are probably wise to play on a single site. Further, if any loss of funds would be unacceptable to you, then you should play only on the site which you believe is safest and most reliable. Also, if you are a mass-multitabler at small stakes or higher, and would suffer a great loss on your hourly rate if you cannot play as many tables, then you should avoid smaller sites. Yet even in this case, you may still benefit from playing multiple sites, as long as you are comfortable playing at more than 1 site at the same time.

Now, let's talk about how we are going to quantify the value of the different promotions. In my experience and estimation, the best way to do so is by calculating the rakeback equivalent of the various promotions at a site, adding them together, and arriving at a number. You can use this number to calculate how much your winrate will be increased. So, if you have 30% rakeback, a bonus which clears at 10% rakeback, and a monthly freeroll equal to 5% rakeback, then your total rakeback equivalent at that site at the stakes you play is roughly 45%. If you are paying 6bb/100 in rake, then these promotions are worth 2.7bb/100 to your winrate. It is easier to calculate it this way than by looking at each promotion separately and trying to just intuit whether you are getting a good deal or not.

If you are a serious player who intends to play decent volume over a long period of time, then you absolutely need to sign up for rakeback if you are playing at a site which allows it. In order to receive rakeback, you need to sign up at the poker site using an affiliate's link. You will then be tracked to that affiliate, who will receive a portion of your rake from the poker site. You will also receive a specified amount of your rake back. Usually it will be paid weekly or monthly. There are a few sites which pay rakeback daily. Be aware that there are generally 2 types of rakeback which are offered. Dealt rakeback gives you rakeback on every hand you play, whereas contributed rakeback only gives you rakeback on the hands where you contribute to the pot. Different sites use different types of rakeback – check with your rakeback provider to see which sites offer what type of rakeback. Dealt rakeback is generally better for nits and taggy players. Contributed rakeback is generally better for maniacs, LAGs, and fish. For most 2p2ers, dealt rakeback is better, as we tend to be tighter than the average opponent. 27% dealt rakeback may in fact be better for you than 33% contributed rakeback. Be aware, however, that many sites which offer dealt rakeback are attractive to rakeback grinders and thus the quality of the games suffers. Some of the popular rakeback sites are ThisIsTheNuts, RakeTheRake, and Rakemeback.

If you do not wish to receive rakeback, or if the site where you are thinking of playing doesn't offer rakeback, another option is to take advantage of kickback sites. You can usually receive either rakeback or a kickback at a site, not both, so choose wisely. To receive a kickback, you signup through an affiliate website, just like you would for rakeback. But instead of receiving rakeback, you receive a one-time gift from the affiliate once you have completed a specified amount of play. These gifts include poker merchandise, books, tracking software, movies, and a whole host of other items. Usually there are a few “near-cash” options available like Amazon gift cards, or poker site transfers. Earlier in my poker career, I took great advantage of these offers, to the tune of over $500 and perhaps as much as $1000. Now, you might be wondering in what circumstances you might be better off choosing a kickback offer than a rakeback offer. Well, if the site you are considering doesn't have rakeback, choosing a kickback is clearly better than nothing. Furthermore, if you are not going to play much at the site in question, then the value you gain from kickbacks will likely be greater than what you will receive from rakeback. Be careful about this, though. If there is any chance that you will be playing more at that site in the future, you will really be kicking yourself for passing up rakeback. But if the site you are considering is on a network with multiple sites, you can “save” one site on the network for rakeback, and feel comfortable clearing kickbacks at the other sites on the network. Be sure to check the rules regarding opening multiple accounts and receiving multiple bonuses at that specific network though. Rules vary from network to network. Some good kickback sites where you can receive a good deal are PokerSource, Boogster, and PokerSavvy. As an example of the kind of deals which are offered, there is a deal currently running wherein you can sign up at Betsafe, rake about $280, and receive a $120 gift. This is 43% rakeback, even without counting the value of the signup bonus, poker points and other promotions. Another kickback promotion which is active right now is to sign up at Carbon, rake $160, and receive a $110 gift. This works out to 69% rakeback, before counting any other bonuses and promotions. When you add up the value of the kickback, initial deposit bonus, welcome freerolls, and points, it is not uncommon to find deals which clear at greater than 100% rakeback.

There are some additional benefits to signing up through an affiliate, besides the value of the rakeback or kickbacks described above. When you have a good affiliate, they will go to bat for you in case of any disputes or problems with the poker sites. The larger affiliates have considerable clout, as they are driving traffic to the poker sites, and thus the sites have an incentive to cooperate with them and provide a good experience to the players, lest word should spread and adversely affect their market share. Additionally, many affiliates offer monthly rake races, freerolls, and value-added MTT leagues. These extra promotions can easily add 5%-10% to your effective rakeback. For an example of the value which can be realized from rakeraces, look at the following email response I received regarding a rake race from 2009 in which I partook (I have replaced the name of the site and affiliate with *):

If you look at the chart above, I paid $958.83 in rake during the period covered by the rakerace. Yet I won $500 in the rakerace. This is 52% rakeback from the rakerace alone! I know that I was getting aproximately 55% from rakeback and bonuses, along with perhaps 10% from other promotions. So I was basically paid to play poker that month. That's not a bad deal at all. Now, it is true that the deals which were available back then were a bit better than those which are currently available, but there are still some good opportunities for those who look for them.

Be certain to take advantage of the initial deposit bonus, wherever you decide to play. If the bonus clears in parts, you can deposit as much as you can for the bonus in the hopes of clearing as much as you possibly can. But if the bonus releases all at once, you will have to do some calculating to figure out how much of it you can realistically clear before it expires. Whenever you decide to redeposit at a site, check to see if there is a current reload bonus being offered. It surely can't hurt to receive a bonus, even if it turns out you don't clear as much of it as you would have liked. Don't be dazzled by huge offers like “$2,500 bonus”, what really matters is the clear rate, expressed in terms of rakeback equivalent. When you figure out how much action you are likely to put in within the timeframe of the bonus, choose the bonus which will give you the highest rakeback equivalent. For example, let's say you figure to rake $500 during a month. You have an option to receive a $100 bonus which clears $10 for every $30 that you rake, or a $200 bonus which clears $10 for every $60 that you rake. Well, you should clear the whole of the $100 bonus for your $500 rake paid, for an effective rakeback equivalent of 20%. Of the $200 bonus, you can expect to only clear $80 while generating $500 of rake, for a rakeback equivalent of 16%. Clearly, you are better off with the smaller bonus, despite the fact that you will clear the whole bonus and still be playing a significant amount with no active bonus. If you have a bonus and rakeback, you will receive more than just rakeback alone. This is true even if the poker site deducts bonuses from your monthly rake total. Consider the following example. You have 30% rakeback and have the opportunity to clear a $200 bonus while raking $1000. Your poker site deducts your bonuses from rake. If you had rakeback alone, then you would get back 30% of $1000, or $300. If you have the bonus, then you receive the $200 bonus, and 30% rakeback on $800, which is $240 for a total of $440.

Do not neglect the value of your poker points! While they are easy to dismiss as irrelevent, they often are worth 10% or more in rakeback. With savvy shopping from the points store or tournament offerings, you can often realize a better rate than other players are getting.

Be alert for freerolls, value-added tournaments, and tournaments with overlays. While freerolls may appear to be useless at first glance, the fact that you cannot lose money in freerolls greatly increases their value. Consider a freeroll with a $1000 prize pool and 1000 entrants. This freeroll offers a value of $1/player. Hardly worth anything, right? Well, what if you are a microstakes MTT player, playing tournaments with a buyin of $5.50 or less? Let's suppose your ROI is around 15%. This means that in your average $5.50 tournament, your expected EV is $0.82. The freeroll offers you a higher EV than your normal tournaments, even though the prize pool is probably much smaller. And that is even without factoring in the fact that the freeroll is likely full of poor players, further increasing your EV. Similar considerations apply in value-added or overlay tournaments. I recently had the opportunity to play in a $2.20 tournament with $10k guaranteed. This tournament attracted fewer than 1500 entrants, for a whopping 300% overlay. If we suppose that I was of average skill compared to the field (which is actually a ridiculous supposition), my expected value in this tournament was ($10,000/1500) - $2.20 = $4.47. If my normal stake is $10 MTTs with an ROI of 30%, I'm not doing as well as I would in this puny $2.20 tournament. Of course tournaments are huge investments in time, and perhaps you have more important things to do. But if you would be playing anyway, and you have the opportunity to partake in one of these tournaments, be aware that they offer value much larger then their nominal buyin amount may tend to indicate.

Those of you who are comfortable table-starting and playing short-handed might want to look into propping. Propping is an arrangement wherein a poker room pays you to start tables and keep the action going. This has been a long-time practice for decades at brick and mortar card rooms, and is now available online as well. Most of the time, the sites which offer propping deals are smaller sites which are new to the market. Usually, the payment takes the form of extremely high rakeback – 80% or higher. In exchange for this extraordinary amount of rakeback, you will have to follow certain rules, designed to generate traffic. You may be prohibited from joining waitlists or taking the last open seat at a table. You may have to leave full tables. There is usually a minimum stake which you are allowed to play – the site doesn't really gain much from having a ton of $.02/$.04 tables running, so why would they pay anybody to keep those games running? Additionally, props are usually not allowed to fully participate in other promotions which are run by the site. Yet despite these restrictions, it can be a rewarding and profitable experience. I used to be a prop at a site which has since increased their traffic and ended their prop program. I was receiving 85% rakeback, and had to play at $.50/$1.00 or higher. Due to being required to start tables, I had to play a lot of HUHU and shorthanded, which made me very slightly uncomfortable, but I was getting 85% rakeback, so I was able to practice and improve my game in situations which were new to me while getting a steep discount on rake. On the whole, my experience was a very positive one, and I certainly gained more than I lost.

Sometimes, you may be playing at a site which not only offers poker, but casino games and sportsbetting as well. You may be given special offers and bonuses which apply to those products. While a thorough analysis of the best ways to maximize the EV of casino bonuses is beyond the scope of this article, I think a few words are in order, as you may be passing up some highly +EV situations through ignorance. If you receive a blackjack bonus, and the house rules at your site are not terrible, the EV of the bonus will be roughly equal to Bonus amount - (Playthrough * .005). If you receive a bonus of $100 with a playthrough of $4000, the EV would be $100 - ($4000 * .005) = $80. The only reasons to pass up an opportunity like this are if your bankroll is too small to withstand the variance, or you are extremely uncomfortable playing casino table games, or you REALLY REALLY like playing casino table games. You can find basic strategy charts for blackjack online easily. A general rule of thumb regarding blackjack bonuses: If the playthrough is 40x the bonus amount or less, then you have a very good bonus indeed, if it is 50x or 60x then you can either take it or leave it depending how you feel, if it is higher than 60x it's still +EV but likely not worth your time unless you really want to do it, and if it's 200x or higher then it's probably -EV. Regarding sportsbetting, if you get an offer of bet $x in the sportsbook and receive thing y, you can figure that your expected losses from betting $x is probably around 10% of $x, perhaps a bit less if the sportsbook offers a reduced vig. Then you just compare the value of 10% of $x to thing y and proceed accordingly. If you don't know what you want to bet on, just bet on sporting events where the outcomes are relatively equally likely, ie bet on your favorite football or hockey team. Stay away from exotic bets like “Player to score first goal” and “American Idol winner”. These esoteric prop bets may have unusually bad odds, and should not be bet for profit except by sophisticated bettors. If you receive a “free bet” wherein the amount of the bet will be returned to you whether you win or lose, but you get to keep the winnings, now the math works out such that you SHOULD bet on a weird longshot and hope it comes in; this is the strategy which yields the highest expected value. Finally, I am giving this advice regarding casino and sportsbook bonuses in the interests of thoroughness and because I don't want anybody to miss out if they have a really good opportunity. By no means should you play a bonus if you are unfamiliar with the terms, or you are unprepared for the variance, or you can't decide if it's a good deal or not. There is a lot more information out there about these topics for those who are interested.

Finally, a word of caution. If you do decide to try to maximize your bonus opportunities, do your homework. Read the T&Cs of every bonus you decide to use. And research which sites are reliable and trustworthy. While I have played at dozens of sites over the years, mostly without incident, there have also been perhaps half-a-dozen occasions where a site disappeared with my money. In only a couple of these cases were the losses significant (fuuuuuu Minted Poker!). If you act responsibly with your bankroll, never leave more on a site that you are comfortable possibly losing, and do your research thoroughly, I think that chasing the various promotions which are offered can be very profitable.

LINKS:

A very good thread idea from "Auntie" WDWF
BQ forum regs having secret santa fun for the season wp guys!
This series (links to all parts of it are in the post) contains enough information for most beginners to become winning players. Thanks to DiamondDog for writing these and posting them
December 2012 issue of "The Digest"
updated view of Freteloo's autologous starting hand range progress
Discussion of drawing odds and pot odds in BQ
This is what BQ is for


A look at how to develop a pre-flop hand chart. It's important to remember Fret was a 30/60 HU reg. Still useful in many ways.
AKo hand that appeared to be a river decision goes back to fundamentals on the flop.
A fun TR from a regular poster
A spirited discussion about SD, and playing against bad players.
A discussion on constructing ranges.
A decent discussion about a 0ev hand.
Even more in-depth discussion of 0ev decisions.

Links to previous Digests

"The Digest" December 2012
"The Digest November 2012
"The Digest" October, 2012
BQ Digest September 2012
BQ Digest August 2012
BQ Digest July, 2012
BQ Digest May and June 2012



This article is something that I have been looking to put together for a long time now. It’s a collection of truths that I have realized over time, and actualizations that I have realized in myself, and other posters. I will say things that you will be insulted by, but the correct reaction is to not be angry, but instead to truly ask yourself if what I say is true. One of the hardest things about poker is being honest with yourself, and so there is no better time to start than now. So let us begin:
You study wrong, and overestimate how much you actually study. This one is rather easy to understand on the surface, but is something that many people think they do well. The questions you really need to ask yourself though are: How do I watch videos? How do I review sessions? How do my hand analysis posts look? Do I have a binder/word file/etc. of past analysis?

The answer to these questions varies a bit, but there are some ways you really shouldn’t do it, and some things you need to for sure be doing when participating in these activities to really say you are getting the most that you can. When you watch videos, how do you watch them? Do you pause it every time before a decision point? Do you watch them in 15-20 minute blocks? Do you take scrupulous notes when watching them and then review them each time before you start a new video? Do you run equity calculations on the situations you are seeing? Do you question each answer you are given in the video and make subsequent comments in the video, or at least read the viewer comments? I will give you a hint; you should be doing all of these, or at least 75% of them, and any less and not really watching videos. Passive study will not help you very fast and can lead you to thinking that you are supposed to be progressing at a much faster rate.

When reviewing a hand, there is a right way to do it, and a wrong way. Something I have seen with other posters is claiming that there calculation is “close” to right. They use this excuse to not narrow the rage of villain significantly given the action, or as an excuse to not run numerous calculations on what each turn card will do to them and how it will affect them. When you really break down a hand it should go on for at least 3 pages in a word document with at least 10 different equity calculations, and this is minimum. I can think of many hands I have done where the analysis consists of 20+ calculations. One of the best things to do is post the hand, and write your comments and thoughts about it. Then on every decisions point, EVERY decision point, run a few calculations. Run what will happen to your equity on a 2h 7h Kx, etc. Then after everything is done, make a closing comment paragraph saying if what you thought above was right and if you would change anything. Also write what you think you gained from this, and how you can look to apply it at game speed.

You should have a master file with all of this in it, or have a master list of everything you are doing. One of the coaches I am working with has a massive OneNote database he works from, I have a word document that has everything that I work on, and so I have easy access to it. What you are doing should have something like this. It’s easiest to have it on your computer, so that you can look at it any time and take very detailed notes, however, you can do what you feel most comfortable with.
The last point from this sub-topic is that of reviewing sessions. When you review a session, it shouldn’t just be looking at hands for 20 minutes. At least, that shouldn’t be the normal way of doing it. When you review a session it should methodically looking at every major decision and seeing why you think you made the right or wrong choice. If you are not 100% sure of the equities, run them again. Eventually, you will learn and things will go quicker, but getting to that point is key, and isn’t something you can just do without a lot of strict practice and time.

People like to talk about how much they study, and trumpet around the hours they put in to it, and when the downswing hits, they generally overestimate how much they really study. While it’s not for sure that you are lying about how much study you put in, it’s likely, and your mind thinks it has done more than it really has. If you find that you are lacking in any of the areas above, I would challenge you to rethink the way you study, and really ask yourself if you are getting as much as you can out of it. Not everyone has to study, but just because others don’t, doesn’t mean you should assume that you are the same. Who cares how you get to a certain point in playing, as long as you are winning.

You make far too many excuses for not getting hands in. This is a super common complaint among microstakes player. To be honest though, if you play less than 5k hands a month, then you are not even trying. Playing 2 tables 7-8 hours a week means you are going to hit 5k hands, and if you don’t have that kind of time, then you will not climb the ladder in stakes. Playing even a short 30 minute session will add up over time, and there s nothing wrong with doing that. This is a matter of will and desire, and how much you are really willing to put into the game. If you really want to get better, just putting in hands will help an enormous amount. Playing an average of 1 hour a day is plausible for anyone who wants to move up and keep getting better.

You make excuses about how much harder the games are today. While this is true, it doesn’t really mean anything in the grand scheme of things. It’s akin to saying that high school was harder than middle school. While it is true, it doesn’t matter because that is reality and learning to accept reality and hen work with it becomes 100x more important than anything else. Saying the games are harder and then using it as an excuse on why you can’t move up is just lazy and shows a much larger hole in your game than what your bluff/3! range is on the river. The games are different and no one is going to argue that with you, but just because a lower win rate is now the norm doesn’t mean the games are unbeatable, and I doesn’t people will give you sympathy when you don’t win as much as you used to with the same amount of work.

Putting yourself in a positive mindset and not making excuses is kind of the key to this entire post, but I think its best highlighted when talking about previous win rates and how much you could beat the game for back in the day. It’s more important to have realistic expectations and not ruminate about how things used to be. Accept reality and then make the adjustments needed to beat the games. This also kind do of goes with the above excuse of not playing enough hands. If you don’t play enough you will have a hard time beating the games, welcome to reality.
You deify people far too often. Just because someone with a lot of posts, or who plays higher stakes says something, does not mean that it is true. We all have people we respect greatly, but that doesn’t mean they are infallible. Realizing what is good advice and what is bad advice for the games you play in is really important. Not every piece of advice is good for your particular games, and though patterns and likely behaviors vary based on stake, but also on table dynamics. If something sounds fishy to you, then you really should take a tough look at it and be critical. Don’t be afraid to call people out on the forum. While it might appear that there is a hierarchy of who can question who, this simply shouldn’t be true. If you think something is wrong, then say it.

You play distracted far too often and try to pass it off as no big deal. When you play, having music on that doesn’t really do anything to your mood is fine, but having TV on is never going to be +EV. Having Skype conversations is the same way, and trying to talk to people in the room you are in still takes your mind away from the game. When you are playing, you should be completely focused on what you are doing, and doing anything that even begins to take away from that is never going to help your bottom line. The issue becomes that everyone thinks they can do it. You can’t though, and even if it takes a small amount of attention, that is attention that is not getting devoted to making the best choice on your next decision. Auto-pilot might seem like it doesn’t take much though, but that isn’t the way you should be playing anyway. Every choice has new things to think about and thus should be looked at differently before making a decision.

You play too many tables. While the sexy thing to do is to play 20 tables and crush souls, it’s not going to make you the best player. Even at full-ring where the choices seem easier and more cut and dry you cannot simply auto-pilot and become a better player. Playing fewer tables and taking good notes and analyzing situations will help more in your long-term development, as opposed to your short-term hourly. Take the time to focus on decisions on 2-4 tables and see what happens. If you can add a few more feel free, but remember the more you add, the less time you have to think and really aid development of your skills.

You assume players are worse than what they really are. They are bad, there is no doubt about that, but realizing they do think some, is really important. Of course, there are some players that don’t, but as a general rule, everyone thinks some. Considering this, trying o run bad bluffs, or thinking that someone always has a certain range of hands just makes for bad situations. People are not as bad as you think they are, and they can make plays, and make folds. The key is to find out what the person is capable of, and then adjusting accordingly. Don’t assume everyone thinks on the lowest level and think hard about what you are going to do. Even a little bit of thinking can change how a player responds to something, so assuming everyone is a mindless zombie will not help you at all. Assume people are capable fo reasoning on the level you could at 1 month of playing, so not much, but enough that you wouldn’t do the stupidest things possible.

A lot of these things may seem basic, and he list is far from comprehensive, but many players at the levels that this is geared to see to really struggle with at least one of these areas, if not more. The challenge for you as a reader is to assess if you are one of them, and if you are that person what you will do to fix it. You should talk in this thread about what you do to help you with some of these to help other players overcome there weak spots. Hope this was informed while not being to harsh.






Playing in home poker games has helped my limit holdem game tremendously. Around Thanksgiving of 2011, I searched the Home Poker forum for a home game listing in the Chicagoland area. I found one particular game--hosted by jzpiano--that was very close to my home in the suburbs. I contacted jz via PM, and he quickly replied back with detailed information about the game. I filled out a small background check form--a wise procedure jz uses to vet whack-os from his game--and soon spoke with jz over the phone. A week later, I was at his mixed game, playing forms of poker I never played before in my life: Stud, Omaha Hi/Lo, Stampler, Razz, Chicago, and 2-7 Triple Draw, among others.

Initially, I was hesitant to even try these games. I was only particularly comfortable with limit holdem, and could hold my own at a no limit game (although I preferred to stay away from them). However, after playing in his extremely well-run game that night, I realized that playing other forms of poker was a rejuvinating and challenging experience. Games like NL 2-7 Single Draw and Razz forced me to apply the principles of poker in ways I had never attempted before. In 2-7, I quickly realized the need to play my draws aggressively, balancing my pre-draw opens and my post-draw bets and raises. In PLO8, I was perplexed by the thought of a split-pot game, realizing the need to account for pot odds and outs when I may only get half the pot.

These deviations from my bread and butter limit holdem are not too intricate--nor may they be that accurate. But playing them for the first time forced me to go back to the basics--the poker principles I can so easily compute in limit holdem--and apply them in brand-new ways.

Another aspect of home poker games that is absoultely absent in online and even live games is the chance to make friends and socialize. Online, these chances are extremely limited unless you are an active poster and/or partake in forum games like SHENANIGANS. (R.I.P. RPM.) In a card room, socialization is present, but in an awkwardly skeptical manner--the camradery of a live game is that of a loosely-tied gang of bank robbers. However, with home games, stakes are typically close to that of micro-stakes online games and are generally friendly. I have made friends with many of those I play with in jz's game, and I play whenever I can because I enjoy socializing.

Whether or not home games are good for every player is debatable. Ultimately, it boils down to your poker-playing goals. I absolutely love to win--I enjoy crushing my opponents and taking their money--but I equally (and even moreso) like to challenge myself and have fun playing any form of a game I love. At a home game, I can maximize all of my goals while still making friends and socializing in the process, and as such, I play in jz's game every chance I can get.

Thanks to his game, I have taken limit Omaha Hi/Lo to be my second main game. Not only does O8 challenge me in different ways than limit holdem, but it gives me something else to play when the lobby is empty or I am simply sick of playing my main game. However, without that initial exposure to a new form of poker, my game would be nowhere near where it presently is.









The entire Digest staff wishes each of you a happy and prosperous 2013. U.S. players, please encourage your lawmakers to pass favorable poker legislation. Watch the forums for SHENANIGANS and SHANOOBIGANS announcements. Play in them when they are held.

"The Digest" staff solicits and encourages you to participate in the production and improvement of "The Digest" by: giving us your suggestions or by offering to contribute your effort to the digest.

FRIST!

Secondth. Will read.

Great stuff Bona!

I hadn't realized just how much I could recover with rake back. To bad I joined before I knew, yet I will in any future sites I join. I will be busy checking the other links you provided. (you sure did put a lot of work into this post)

Thanks .

theb3rn: While I bask in the glow of your praise I realize you are crediting me with more than I have produced or am capable of producing. Credit the staff of columnists for the columns, this month those were Mike, Breich, and Schu. I also had help getting the links together as I do every month from these guys.

Really, if they asked me in a staff meeting what I do to get "The Digest" published each month. It isn't that much.

I hope you continue to enjoy it, we expect to publish on the 1st of each month, and there are links to the previous issues should you want to read them.

Hooray for everyone who has contributed to this issue and to the other issues and thanks to all who read it.

Bona, you herd cats, that is pretty impressive.

Can;t herd bees though.

@ A_Schupick

Well written, tons of great info to absorb there. I am still making my way through Mental Game but it seems to have a similar insight. I was burnt out before from HHs and equity calculations and forgot there was so much more to my game. Hopefully you can make that list comprehensive and let the BQ community thank you for it.

Great stuff!

I will work on that, actually. I will combine it with some new material, and what is being posted this month.