Poker Bloggers are the sharpshooters that come down from the hill after the battle to shoot the wounded, in this case, the dead.

I detailed why the suckers are leaving in this article. Well it might be worse but what I think is most interesting is that it does not need to be. Let me give you two examples.

My Father basically represents every casual poker player there is, recently he had some trouble getting money off of a site. That is not what is the interesting part though. At the end of what he considered to be an ordeal (actually just a major inconvenience) he sent them an email saying that he thought his situation was treated poorly and he doubted that he would be playing on that particular site any longer. That of course is his prerogative but that did not need to be the end of his story.

I am a grizzled old vet of online poker. I understand that the circumstances have caused major inconveniences for the cardrooms. For me and the friends I know the most important thing is to play against bad players, sometimes the fact that money is a bit tough to move around actually can make the games a bit better (so can bad software but I digress). I was using epassporte which is no longer available. So when I was asked for my ID and a utility bill it annoyed me a bit that I would have to take a trip to Kinko’s but I get it, not a huge deal. The huge deal came in the tone of the response I got, or the lack of tone. Not only am I a great customer if you define great customer by someone who starts games and keeps games going but I actively refer people to rooms where the games are good. I can not imagine that card rooms would want anything more than I can provide them as a customer. So while I will trekked to Kinko’s all I could think about was how unhappy it made me to have to do this.

The two scenarios are tied to each other in the fact that the customer service departments of online poker rooms are making enemies when they could simply just say “you are right”. That is all my dad wanted and all I wanted was someone to recognize that what I was going to have to do is a bit of a hassle. Now I get it, these people’s jobs are not easy and I work with a lot of people on their customer service systems but something is very wrong when customer service departments are picking fights with customers either intentionally or unintentionally. Let me give you an example of a sample letter that I bet they get a lot:

“I could not be more upset, after numerous faxes and emails I have finally gotten things resolved and to be honest I do not think I will be playing at your room any longer. The way I have been treated has been poor and I can not believe you can run a business the way you are.”

Trust me, I am a consultant that deals with customer service, that is about as nice as they come. So you can imagine they get a lot harsher but even with that said there really is only one acceptable response. Here is an example of what that response should be:

“I am looking over your file and it does appear you have been inconvenienced in a major way. That is a short coming of our current situation. At this point excuses are of no value to you so I and XYZ poker room will not be giving you one. I will speak for both myself and XYZ in saying that you are right. No one should have to go to the lengths you have. I completely understand why you are making the decision you are and I would like to say personally that I am sorry. Both XYZ and myself failed you Mr. Customer.”

Do not ask for their business because that takes away from the sincerity of the situation. When you let people down you might want to consider whether or not you want to further continue brooming them, after all, if you were in their situation would you not have similar feelings and emotions?

I am not picking on Customer Service representatives because they have a thankless job. I am picking on the company owners that barely know their Customer Service managers and certainly do not answer incoming emails. They should, because I do not think they have any idea how their customers are being talked to. When they built the business they are in they likely could not have envisioned the success they have achieved in such a short time. They did dream once though and in that dream they likely did not figure that their extreme growth would cause them to let down customers so acutely.

Let me make this clear. The customer service departments at these companies are not at fault it is the leaders of these companies that are absent and negligent. It is time to quit the excuses on why you can not do something. No one is to blame, not the UIEGA, not payment processors. So coming in with an iron fist approach will not work. You will need to profoundly change the environment that these people are working under. All people want and expect is someone that seems to care and right now no one seems to care at all.

Presumably when the WPT Championship was dreamt up the idea was that it would become not just the crown jewel of the World Poker Tour but of all of poker. Coming into this season numbers were down on the World Poker Tour. This season was a virtual disaster. They will not come close to matching even the numbers from last year and the WPT is no longer even second on the block, the EPT (European Poker Tour, which is sponsored by Poker Stars) now holds that title. Which, by the way, was a big success and every year they seem to draw more and more people to Monte Carlo. Legal issues aside the WPT is getting their ass kicked.

The World Poker Tour’s stock sells at little more than the cash reserves it holds. It has been talked about a lot that poker needs fewer poker tournaments. Well like in most markets the last few go kicking and screaming. As someone who started on the World Poker Tour it does not sadden me that they have suffered this fate. They fought the players at every point and created competition with every decision they made. When they could have brought in online poker sites they chose to compete with them and now it appears they are failing.

If indeed they do fail it will be because their ideas never really got better. A lot will be made of their relationship with their players and how badly they botched that, personally I have always felt that is a bit too convenient. The reason I believe that is because with good ideas the people will follow. All of the logical ideas of added money to tournaments and professional poker tours failed not because they were not good ideas, they were just executed so poorly.

The simple fact is that a business is supposed to get better and if you look at the World Poker Tour today it is virtually the same product that it was in the beginning. If you were to ask Steve Lipscomb he will tell you that it was his genius that made poker what it is today but in reality he borrowed other ideas to make his own. Which is not bad, businesses do that all the time but to be successful you need to work to get better, even in a competitive environment. When the WPT could have made friends they made enemies, in the end, that will be their legacy.

Most people think that the best use of sunglasses is to disguise your emotions. The theory is obvious, if you can hide your true intentions from your opponents then you gain an edge. Which is why a lot of people believe sunglasses should be banned.

Occasionally I use sunglasses but not for the reason mentioned above. For better or worse I try to manipulate my opponents into doing what I would like them to do, sunglasses take a certain percentage of that away from me. But I do use them occasionally and this is why, my eyes hurt when I play poker, especially tournament poker. If you watch me play poker I have a focus at the poker tables that does not exist in other areas of my life. That focus requires concentration when others are not concentrating. That concentration comes from my eyes.

The theory is obvious, whether it is sunglasses or taking a nap during the dinner break, resting your eyes makes you a better player because it allows you to maintain focus.

As is always the case PokerStars does a great job with this event and the coverage so far has been great.

Maybe that is why Epassporte did this on a Friday knowing that those guys do not work on the weekend. Either way, what the hell is that? I will tell you what it looks like if you are the customer. It looks like you are hiding news for your own selfish interest. That you really are not news organizations as much as you are advertisers for the online poker companies.

Fact is, this likely does not hurt online poker sites much even though I am sure they are not happy about it. Whether they had to tell you to do or not is irrelevant. By the way, is it possible that you guys could cover stories different from each other. Your news is kind of whack and is just regurgitating news releases that the sites send you.

The big winner in all of this, Cake Poker. They sent an email to their customers explaining the problem.

This is not the first time you have come under these criticisms, when the Absolute scandal came out you ignored that too.

Just seems silly, what do you think you are accomplishing by doing this? Without readers no advertisers would want to do business with you.

Many poker sites are saying that epassporte is no longer an option. Do not hesitate to rush to the ATM, this news is going to spread fast.

I can’t suggest this is a great article but it always makes me laugh when the traditionalists spout their nonsense. Taking a stance against the WSOP spreading its wings and staging an event in Europe the author says “I thought “World” Series of Poker meant just that. The world’s best players would travel to Las Vegas to play with the best of best and prove their worthiness.” So the “US” is the world? The later arguements against the worthiness of Annette Obrestad winning the title and her opinions of fellow professionals are equally farcical. I think Annette Obrestad talks poker as she sees it. There is no real agenda with her and if she thinks players played poorly against her she will say - no matter how many WSOP bracelets they have won.

The discussion is hosted by Gary Wise and ESPN and includes a who’s who of online poker. Very good article.

“It’s not just the destination my friends, it’s the journey.”

Why poker software is a waste of money.

Won 38k!! Had a really good Monday(45k) but lost today (-7k).  I played a lot of 25/50 cap and some 50/100 PLO as well.  I leave tomorrow for Louisville and I am excited to get back to playing some live poker.  The games should be pretty good the next few days because of the Kentucky Derby.  I talked to Robert Willaimson who said him and Phil Hellmuth will be in town and want to play some big PLO Saturday night maybe.  If so, then I will have to take it easy during the race so I will be ready to play some high stakes PLO that night…. I guess there are going to be a lot of celebs and poker pros in for the derby and they are also hosting a charity poker tourney at the casino.  Wish me luck…

Matt Humphrey

Humphreyin@hotmail.com

First off I wanted to thank everyone for all of their emails… it’s nice to see that so many people read and follow your progress.  I really haven’t played much since my end of last week mostly because I hung out with friends all weekend but also because I wanted to start my weeks on Mondays for now on.  I probably lost around 8k this weekend playing and ran really really bad in the cap games but it was bound to happen at some point. 

I am still playing some of my best poker but it really is hard not to open up my game too much when I feel like I am running good.  When things go well you sometimes feel like you can do no wrong.. which is true for poker and life in general.  Just as long as I keep starting off my sessions tight and then adjust accordingly the game then I will be fine.  I have played about 3 hours today and won a little over 7.5k.  There was a really bad player sitting at 50/100 CAP PLO and i played him for a little which is where most of my profit came from (6,700).

I am going to head to Louisville on Wednesday to play some in the PLO game down there (10/25)(50 straddle).. golf with a friend on Thursday.. play Friday down there.. and then Saturday is the Kentucky Derby.  I can’t wait to go since it will be my first time and it should be interesting since me and my 2 friends have NO WHERE to stay.. anyone have any ideas?  All the hotels seemed to be pretty well booked for up to 40 miles away.  So I am guessing our plan will be to go to the race then out to 4th street for the rest of the night.  So with all that information it won’t take a genius to realize I won’t have as much time to play online this week as last.  Today, Tomorrow, Thursday and some of Sunday.  I still think i should be able to win around 20k though which would be great and hopefully another 10k in the live games(however, usually it is either win 30k or lose 15k) …lol. 

I am going to try to talk about one hand every post from now on out but today I will just leave you with the biggest pot I’ve ever lost… luckily for me it happened like 6 months ago..  http://www.pokerhand.org/?2513213

Also, if you don’t get rakeback right now then email and I can help you out.

Enjoy Your Week and Good Luck,

Matt Humphrey

Humphreyin@hotmail.com

I have been playing a little more poker lately.  At this point I am so far out of the poker loop that it is almost scary.  I have been playing a lot of Limit Poker lately which is my strongest game.  It has been interesting one of the guys that I did not think was very good and that I have a significant edge over has been playing 200-400.  There are times where I play Heads Up well but I think I am actually a lot better 3 and 4 handed.  The person I am thinking of is a friend so I have stayed away from playing him.  The funny part is he likely thinks the same thing about me so I highly doubt he would mind the action.  Lately though I just can not muster the desire to play anything more than games that are basically just killing time.  I will say this though, Limit Poker on Cake has to be about the easiest games on the internet.  While I am about break even I do not think that is indicative of my win rate there over time.  The only problem is I am playing 20-40 and the games I would want to beat are 50-100 and higher.  I am sure some of the players are similar but usually that changes the lineup significantly.

It is interesting that the sites have started this nuclear war of high stakes poker, essentially causing a lot of players to go bust.  Personally I do not think there should be any game higher than say 10-20 NL online and 50-100 for Limit Poker.  The reason is simple, it will keep more money in the poker economy.  Sure a few players will miss the nose bleed stakes but what is happening now is people on tilt are essentially just blowing out.  I doubt any card room will make that change but it would be smart if they did and likely better for the long term health of poker.

This probably should not be the third item in a rambling blog but here it goes.  In the next month my hand replayer/stats analyzer should show its face.  It has been a long time coming but I think we finally got this right and if we did it should change poker in a major way allowing people to share hand histories easier and even allowing them some robust stats analysis.  We are still trying to nail down how we can make money off of it but I am pretty sure if we do it right that will not be an issue.

I ended up losing about 10k last night before I went out but still had a pretty good week… won 10.5k on UB…won 45k on FullTilt… here is a screen shot of my pokertracker…
 

Good Luck,

Matt

Wow, what a rush… It has been a while since I have been on a heater like this and I really needed it for my confidence.  I am up 13k on UltimateBet this week and 55k on Fulltilt.  A pretty GREAT week and way ahead of my goal of winning 30k for the 3 weeks.  I am so excited for my trip to New Orleans and for the upcoming WSOP because I have finally started to remember so many of the little strategic things I have forgotten along the way.  The best part of it all is that I don’t feel like I have been running all that great… I am sure I have ran above expectation to some point but I know I have had some pretty sick beats in large pots that could have made the week a whole lot better…. but that is just like a poker player to remember the bad and forget the good.  Today is the last day of my “week” since I got here last Tuesday so tomorrow I will post some pictures of my pokertracker and my final results.  I can’t figure out how to use it for UB so that stinks and I also played alot of my PLO on a friends computer but at least I will have SOME IDEA at what BB/100 I am running at along with which limits I have won the most. 

Tonight we are going out for Emily’s B-day dinner then maybe out after but I am not sure, so that should be a nice break… and then I will finally be back home Thursday.  Going out Friday to the Indianapolis Indians game and Saturday me and some friends are going to a bags(cornhole) tourney.. TOP PRIZE……wait for it…wait for it.. 500 smackers!!  Hope everyone else is having a great week too!!

Good Luck,

Matt