Seals with Clubs Poker Room Review

I love Seals with Clubs. It's exactly the site that beleaguered Maryland players like me need since our only "mainstream" poker network option is the disaster of the Revolution network (aka Lock "takes over 100 days to cashout" Poker, Intertops "charge you $50 for a check" Poker, etc.), and it's practically tailor made to what I was looking for.

Here are the reasons I play there as a recreational cash gamer.

1) Steady action up to the equivalent of NL50
2) No mass multitablers and no HUDs = no professionals on the site
3) Possibly tied to #2, the games are very, very beatable
4) Very low rake (2.5%, with 50% "table starter" rakeback for playing at 2-3 handed at 6max or full ring tables). On top of that, you can get rakeback if you play there long enough, and there's no losing rakeback levels (it's cumulative and eternal).
5) Very generous promotions/freerolls. There's a high hand bonus that you don't have to use both cards for, just get quads or better. There's a free roll every hour where the winner gets the quivalentof $1. Their twitter account sends out codes for free chips every few days, and they also run special monthly promotions for freerolls or extra rakeback and the like.
6) Site uses Bitcoins. This means that it doesn't violate UIGEA sinc bitcoins aren't a legal currency. Also, cashing in and out is easy and quick (12 hours max) since they don't have to dodge regulators. Converting to USD via exchanges is only a 1% fee each way (some charge more).
7) Seals also uses a system that I think helps people to play better poker, helping disassociate the chips on the table and their real money value. You play with Seals chips (1000 seals chips = 1 BTC).

Cons:

1) Software is not amazing. The main chat can get annoying since you can't really mute people, just replace what they type with a "*".
2) You have to get the currency (Bitcoins) through a third party. Seals has some resources and FAQs about Bitcoins themselves, it's pretty easy to pick up, but it is a minor inconvenience.
3) Low traffic. It's been picking up as the site gets more notice, but there isn't a wealth of tables at each stake. Currently, I play at their highest regular game at 10/20 (in seals chips), and it's not uncommon for a game to fizzle and die (just this morning I had everyone sit out or leave on two tables after about an hour of play) and not have another one running.
4) Collusion is a possible concern if they play higher/get more traffic. It's not a concern for cash games (most colluders end up being easy money despite collusion), but I'd be concerned if I played tournaments on the site.
5) Few tables run and no HUDs, so if you're used to that, you won't get it here.
6) Nothing runs higher than the equivalent of NL50 with regularity on the site.

All in all, it's a great site for micros players to have fun in and get better or practice for live play. This is really what I'm doing; I'm looking more towards playing live, and this 1-2 tabling at SWC is really good practice. I have an Atlantic City trip in four days where I'm planning on hitting 2/5 at the Borgata... so wish me luck!

Bitcoin Poker

I'm definitely back, and oddly enough, I'm now a cash gamer.

Current bankroll: 28 bitcoins ($574.56 at today's market rate) That's right, my bankroll is being held not in dollars, but in bitcoins.

What's a bitcoin, you ask? Well, it's pretty much the best currency for online poker in the US since Black Friday happened. Bitcoins are a digital crypto-currency made up in 2008 by some group of possibly Japanese programmers.

Here are the important parts: It's as good as cash, it operates in a legal grey area because it is not a legal tender, and it can't be frozen by any government or law enforcement agency. This means that all those laws under UIGEA that shut down poker and gambling web sites for illegal money transfers don't apply, cashouts are blazingly quick from bitcoin poker sites compared to USD poker operators like Merge and Revolution, and most importantly, there's no chance of funds being frozen like on Black Friday!

At the site I play at (Seals with Clubs), it takes 12 hours maximum for a cashout. Compare that to waiting half a month to four months for a check from the dollar-denominated gambling sites, as well as ruling out another Black Friday, and you have a site that dominates the competition. Bitcoin poker is here to stay, and I'm very glad for it!

I'll do a more in-depth write-up of Seals soon.

It's been a while...

It took me a year and a half, but I've finally rebounded enough from the shock of Black Friday to venture out into the poker world again. It's a strange new world, and the live/online poker worlds seem to have been completely switched up for me. Before, the nearest live casino was 5 hours away in Atlantic City while online poker was available just a few clicks away.

Since then, not only did Black Friday kill PokerStars and Full Tilt, but Bodog changed its name to Bovada and pulled out of my super anti-online poker state of Maryland. Casino construction projects in Baltimore and next door in Prince George's County were approved. Hollywood Casino (formerly Charlestown Races & Slots) in West Virginia got a poker room, this one just 2 hours away. I've tested the online waters recently, but no site seems to want to touch Maryland after its part in seizing the bodog.com domain name. The money-grubbers opening casinos must want all the action to themselves, but the casinos are probably years away from being built and opening. There's a big void for Maryland players... so I've started turning to home games, found on 2+2.

I sent an email to a game of likeminded young professionals (According to the ad, the average player age is just 23! At 25 I might actually be one of the older people in the group.). Aside from the blogger crew (wonderful as you are), I haven't had any live bodies to really talk poker to. It'll be nice to make some live friends who actually share a passion for my favorite hobby, to talk difficult hands through with after, etc. Also, I was surprised to learn that I still have some followers despite disappearing for so long! Thanks Josie, Mojo, and Lou for sticking around :) Look for more updates in the near future! I'll be able to find some poker action somewhere...

Full Tilt: Tips for Salvaging What You Can

The poker shutdown's Black Friday came and screwed up my day, and my favorite hobby, but I'm doing what I can to make the best of it and have done something new and exciting that I've never done before: Redeemed my Full Tilt points for merchandise!

I've always held out since it cuts into your rakeback, but seeing as I won't be playing for a while, and might not be able to do anything on Full Tilt ever again, I decided to give it a shot.

Yes, my order went through, but it's exciting how I really have no idea whether or not they'll be able to honor it. We will see! Here are the steps necessary to do this yourself:

1. Download the software update from to access the FTP client again
2. Open client
3. Redeem FT points at the FT store!

I ordered the 60" umbrella, the velour bathrobe, the Logitech z313 Multimedia speaker system, and a teddy bear for the wife.

Wish me luck; I hope I get it!

Riding the Rollercoaster

Today was a little crazy. I went up and down a couple hundred dollars, tried new games, had a PokerTracker3 malfunction, scored my biggest online tourney win to date, and finished the day $50 down.

First came the bad. I decided to stick my head back into cash games for the Take 2 Promotion on Full Tilt, where if you play 2 or more cash tables (or just RUSH) every day, there's some stupid prize at the end of a week. Just the carrot to lure a cash fish like me to open up EIGHT six-max tables. 30 minutes later, $61.44 down the drain. Hmmm how about heads up games? No luck there either, another $12.00 down the drain over the course of 2 hours.

WTF cash games! I hate you. I'm quitting you, for real this time! So I mosey on over and pull up the STTs again. I play two sets and lose about $20. Still, I don't feel bad about it. Unlike with the cash games, I actually understand the STTs inside and out and can pretty much assure myself I just ran really, really bad.

That means I need a change! MTT land it is! 45-mans and the Daily Double. Gotta dream big! Except I donk out of the first 8 45-mans, including one painful bubble and one near-bubble, and both Daily Doubles. I've lost over $200!!! That's worse than my RUSH downswing debacle.

I had one left and had just made the final table... and then my HUD stopped working. Right at the MOST IMPORTANT PART! AGH! And then I win it all to take back $171. SCREW YOU PokerTracker3! I don't need no stinkin' HUD to win it all! And now I'm drained. So this is what it's like to grind MTTs. Made me feel like this guy.

I think I'll do it again some time.

Exercising for life (and poker)

Exercise is good for your life, both physically and mentally, for my muscles and my poker. It keeps you sharp. I know this, but I've been a slacker. Since doing 80 days of the p90x program to get in shape for my October wedding, I haven't done anything but lose all my progress, enjoying the lazy married life and throwing sticks of butter into my cooking (the wife makes me do it, I swear!).

Waffles has been doing some really inspiring exercise programs lately. I mean, if this pushup program whipped an ol' mess like him into shape, it's gotta work for everybody!

Just the type of exercise program I need, actually. It holds your hand, tells you what to do, and sets your schedule FOR you. Perfect for a guy like me.

I'm in. And I think I'll throw in the situps program too, on the pushup rest days.

Cashing the Dank!

I decided to play in the final Survivor Dank.

I came in third, finishing behind 23Warsaw and Shabazz Jenkins when my AQo failed to hold against Shabazz's KJo all in pre.

So it's been forever since I last cashed in the Dank. It was actually still called the Mookie back then. And I definitely can't complain about losing to KJo because it took a hell of a lot of sucking out for me to get that far!

I pretty much couldn't lose the tourney until the bubble burst, cracking DDionysus multiple times, including his AA with QQ all in pre, taking down Josie's top pair with 3 outs after getting it in on the flop, and conquering Numbono's AK vs. my A3, also all in pre.

It was fun, but I'm tiiiiired. Goodnight!

If you want to join in the fun, look for The Dank on Wednesday nights at 10:00pm, and visit to hear a live webcast from the organizer! Password is vegas1.