Texas Hold'em --- Party Poker Style.

Well, I've officially become addicted to poker. Since watching the WPT on TV lately, I have been drawn to the game of Texas Hold'em. There is plenty of free information on the game all over the web, so I read up and decided to download PartyPoker's software. I started playing with the play money account to get familiar with the game. It didn't take long before I thought I knew what I was doing and decided to play for real money (Deposit 1 = $50).

I tried my game in the multi-table tournaments. You can get into some free tournaments, and there are also several varieties ranging from $1 buy-ins up to $100+ buy-ins. I usually stick to the $1 and $2 dollar buy-ins and register for all the free tournements I can. The tournaments typically range from 1000-2500 people. You can check out the Payout Structure if interensted. I went out in the first 16%($22) my first try, the first 12%(Free) my second try and the first 6%($6) my third try. This was a tad demoralizing so I decided to backtrack to the "play money" tables down $28.

After playing for play money a little while longer I decided play money was a worthless way to practice because people play MUCH different with play money than with real money. Back to the tournaments I went. This time I tried a $6 tournament where you could re-buy 1000 chips if you went under the 1000 chips you started with. You could do this an unlimited amount of times before the 1st break and you could add on a 1500 chip stack one time after the break. I ended up rebuying 3 stacks before the first round was up and lost my chance to add-on after the break because I ran out of money. I ended up finishing in the top 20%, but not good enough for a payout. I was now down $46 at this point and none too happy. Unfortunately I hate being beat and decided to go for more. (Deposit 2 = $50; $100 total).

At this point I was looking through the different kinds of games Pary Poker offered and I saw the sit and go style table. This is a 1 table game where everyone puts in the table requirement and gets 800 chips to start. The prices range from $5 buy-in to $200 buy-in (I usually play the $5 and the $10). I decided to give a $5 table a try. I was the fist person to be eliminated, now down $52. This is another new animal, people don't play the same in single table games as they do in tournaments. I decided to try my luck again and entered another $5 table. This time I was the 5th person eliminated and only 2 people off from payout. These tables pay to the top 3 finishers. Thinking I'm on a roll, I tried again on a $5 table and finished in 5th again. Now I'm down $64 but I'm improving my game immensely and definitely catching on to how people play online. I continued on this journey and played 5 more times finishing 7th, 10th, 6th, 5th, and 4th. I'm now down $94 and getting ready to retire from this game.

To make a long story short, I lost the rest of the 2nd deposit and actually decided to go for one final $50 deposit. I definitely learned a lot during all this losing and took second place on a $10 table and took 47th place on a $2/2000 person tournament. I also decided to play the .50/1.00 tables and have done my best at these tables. I ended up making all my money back plus a couple dollars, but got cocky and proceeded to give $50 back by entering more tournaments. I withdrew all my money today down $48.22. Looking at my records, If party poker offers me another deposit bonus I will defintely put money back and just play the .50/1.00 tables because I have become very good at them (up $38.83 + $35 bonus). The way the deposit bonus works is you have to play a certain amount of "raked" hands which on a .50/1.00 table means you were dealt cards on a hand where the pot reached $5.00.

If anyone knows people who want to get in on the fun, tell them to talk to me first. I have learned quite a bit about the playing styles online and will give them some extremely helpful tips on what to watch out for.