Neteller pulls out of Canada

Buggers!

Ah well, I wasn't using Neteller much anyway, but this is still a pain. I don't have much sitting there, but I guess I'll be moving it to Poker Stars or Party. I wonder if this a precursor to Party or any other poker sites pulling out of Canada. Now may be the time to clean out my other poker accounts and move all my funds to Stars and Party while I still have an easy way to move money around. Perhaps it is also time to open a Full Tilt account and spread a little love their way.

http://www.neteller-group.com/press/en/127.htm

Press Release

NETELLER Announces Service Changes to Canadian and Turkish Market

Monday, 26 March 2007 – The NETELLER Plc Group (“NETELLER” or the “Group”) (LSE: NLR), the leading global independent online money transfer business, today announced several significant changes to its services in a number of markets.

The Group continually assesses the risk profile and status of the markets its serves. Recent actions by regulators, payment processors, and online gaming operators have increased the uncertainty around certain activities related to online gambling in some jurisdictions. The Board of Directors of the Company reached a decision, on 25 March 2007, that the risk to the Group’s ongoing business in Canada and Turkey has increased in the light of such developments. The Board has therefore concluded that the Group will no longer process transfers related to online gambling sites on behalf of Canada or Turkey resident customers.

Reduced Service to Canada

* Cessation of Canadian transfers to gambling merchants: the Group will cease processing online gambling related transactions for Canada-resident customers with effect from 12.01 AM MST Monday 9 April 2007.
* Suspension of InstaCASH transactions: As of today Monday 26 March 2007, at 12:01 AM MST, Canada-resident customers were no longer able to deposit funds using NETELLER’s instaCASH service either directly or from any online gambling site.
* Non-gambling services continue: Canada-resident customers will continue to be able to use their e-wallet accounts for non-gambling transactions, including peer-to-peer and pre-paid debit transactions.
* Available customer funds: Customer funds, including those of Canadian residents, are held in a pooled, segregated trust account and will be available for withdrawal by customers, on demand. Canadian customers continue to be able to use their e-wallet accounts for non-gambling transactions.

...blah blah blah blah

Three Weeks at 25NL

Another successful week at 25NL is in the books. My three week total winnings at this level is now just over $500 with the bulk of the winnings over the last week coming from the short handed tables, which now account for about $150 of that total.

I am still down a couple buy-ins at 6-max at Party but this is slowly moving in the right direction. Paradise continues to be kind to me, making up $400 of the total $500 in winnings. With another $100 in bonuses yet to clear at Paradise, I expect to be playing there a fair amount.

Last night, I found an old forgotten $20 sitting on Poker Time, which was my old River Belle account. I played a bit of 6-max $10NL there and ran the total up to $30.

If things continue to go well, some shots at 50NL may not be too far away.

Monkey

I will not stack off with top pair top kicker.
I will not stack off with top pair top kicker.
I will not stack off with top pair top kicker.
Yeah, okay, I probably will. Many times.

I managed to shove a whole stack overtop of a flop donk bet last night with my awesome nut flush draw with only one overcard. I slightly over estimated my fold equity, and lost a stack to the mighty flopped top pair, 6th kicker. I am continually amazed by what some people will go to the felt with and it keeps me puzzled on when I should be getting away from big pairs.

As I slowly figure out this no limit thing, I am trading a lot of mistakes back and forth. Despite playing like a total donkey from time to time, I am getting the better of the trades so far and really hope that trend continues.

Things are chugging along nicely at Paradise, despite dropping a couple buy ins last night. I still have about $120 of bonus left to clear there before sliding back to either Party or Stars where I can get my Poker Tracker and HUD fix. If it turns out that Paradise is more profitable I could learn to live without those goodies, or take the time to import hands and look into GameTime for a HUD.

Two weeks at 25NL

After two full weeks at 25NL my initial trend of doing well at fullring tables and getting smoked at 6 max continues. Overall, I am up about $350 at 25NL, all from fullring play as I am down a buy-in or so at 6-max.

My former nemesis, Paradise, has accounted for $270 of the total upswing as I have been playing a fair amount there due to 3 weeks in a row of a 100% to a max of $100 bonus being offered to Canadian players. I am even doing okay at the short handed tables at Paradise, with $50 or so of the overall profit coming from 5-max play.

Party makes up the remainder of my 25NL profits over the last couple weeks, up 6 buy-ins at fullring and down 3 at 6-max.

I haven't bothered going through the hassle of importing hands to PokerTracker for play at Paradise and I do miss having a HUD when I play there but the softness of the games more than make up for it. Running hot seems to help a lot too.

I still have $200 of bonuses to clear at Paradise, so will likely be spending a good chunk of my time playing there while that clears. I expect that I will mix in some 6-max at Party as well to get my PT and PAHUD fix while I take more shots at sorting out the shorthanded games.

The issue I seem to be having with the shorthanded games is the increased aggression I face, which at 25NL really isn't that much. I find the fullring games a little easier to push people around and run over the table a bit more and I am fairly tilt-proof there while I find myself getting frustrated relatively quickly at 6-max. Whether fullring or short, I still find myself paying people off with 1 or 2 pair more often than I would like, and need to better identify which players I can take a stand against with an overpair or bottom two and those who I need to lay it down too.

I am having a blast learning no limit so far and the positive results to date only help that.

Superstitious Feeling

For the fourth time in my very long and illustrious poker 'career', I cracked the $1,300 net winnings barrier. In each previous case this event was immediately followed by a fairly major downswing. The first time I made it to this mark, I promptly dropped over $600, with a smaller $300 drop and finally a $700 downswing on the two subsequent occasions.

So, as I slowly crept back towards $1,300, I vowed not to take any notice of the event this time and would definitely not be mentioning it aloud or in print. I am not superstitious at all but I just didn't want to jinx myself in any way.

I crossed the barrier for the fourth time last night for a brief period after some play at Paradise before I moved over to Party and spewed away $60 or so it. Half of which was just due to cards not going my way and the other half was 100% stupid tilt. Have you ever decided that the 6th button raise in a row on your big blind must just be pure garbage, so you re-raise with T9s? Then when re-raised again you decide to put this punk to a decision for all his chips? I can now say that I have, and the outcome wasn't pretty. On the bright side it was a somewhat liberating feeling to shake off a bit of nittiness and throw caution to the wind. Er, BS!

Anyway, hopefully I bust through my $1,300 barrier curse this time, not that I believe in curses or anything. Just in case though, I will not play black jacks or red queens, I will not raise pocket Aces and will always open raise with 94o in order to appease the poker gods. I will also not play poker while wearing matching socks without also wearing a tinfoil hat.

Up and down with $25NL

I am riding a roller coaster as I settle into $25NL. Although I have only played a small number of hands so far, an early trend is developing: I am doing very well at full ring games and am getting crucified at the 6-max tables. Some of this is just due to short term variance, but for the most part I have been unhappy with my play at the short handed tables.

The full ring games are much tighter and far more boring but are seemingly better suited to my game, so I should probably focus on those tables for now. I do find the short handed tables much more fun however and will definitely continue to take little shots at them.

All in all, this current no limit kick is still going well and while I dropped several buy-ins at 6-max tables in the last week I have won several more overall.

After almost 18,000 hands in pokertracker at $10 and $25 NL, both full ring and 6-max, I am running at just under 7ptbb/100. This excludes play at Paradise which I figure is pretty close to that figure, maybe a bit lower.

Heaters are Fun!

The current no-limit kick I'm on has been going quite well so far. I'm sure Captain Variance is lurking around out there somewhere but I'm having fun riding the good side of it for now. I am up a couple hundred at the $10NL tables, both 6-max and full ring, and have been running at just under 10ptbb/100 for the last few weeks.

I just completed a $100 reload bonus over at Party and was up a further $65 or so while clearing it, which helps pad the bankroll a little bit. All of my play at Party was spent at the $10NL tables and they were very kind to me.

Yesterday, I ventured over to Paradise as I have another $140 or so in bonuses waiting to be cleared. After playing the 5-max $10NL tables for a bit, I realized a couple things; the Paradise no-limit players are awful and there is no way I will be clearing those bonuses at the $10 tables.

So, I made the big leap up to the lofty $25 tables. I'm such a big boy now. I played one long session during which just about everything went right. I flopped a straight on my very first hand, turned a fullhouse which gave someone else a smaller fullhouse in another hand, was successful with c-bets more often than usual, and never really found myself in much trouble all day. It was a nice way to start at a higher limit and I closed off that session up $80 plus another $10 on bonus which was cleared along the way. I played a little more later in the evening and had pretty much the opposite experience. I was down about $30 or so when I decided I was making the next orbit my last. It turned out to be a good orbit and I ended up $15 or so, in addition to clearing another $10 of the bonus.

The limpers and call stations are out in full force at Paradise and it really stood by its name for me yesterday. Prior to this, Paradise held the record as my worst site. I am still down $100 there on play, but if yesterday was any representation as to the normal level of play at the no-limit tables, I do not expect it to hold that title for long.