OK - so I'll be the first to admit that consistency has never been my strong point. That magic move you just saw me pull off? I honestly couldn't do that again if I tried. It's something that has plagued me since my adolescence and has been exemplified by poker.
So you'll find me fairly surprised that my bankroll not only exists, but is gradually increasing. But I do feel isolated in the sea of online poker rooms. I feel like a football fan without a team to support and I'm desperate to nail some colours to the mast.
Since starting to take the game more seriously (and serialising my highs and lows in this subsequent blog) I've played in MTTs on 888 Poker, SnGs on Sky and cash on PokerStars - but not for any particular reason. I detailed the reasons as to why I chose to play in 888 Poker's Super XL Series here, but there's been no rhyme or reason to the rest of my play.
And this is unsettling. Considering my game - and my subsequent style of play - was so meticulous and mindful, it feels horribly clumsy to sit at the majority of tables on nothing more than "that'll do". So, I loaded up Google and searched for some fish. And, as I've mentioned before, the forums don't seem to be as helpful as they once might have been, so finding any real person's opinion was difficult.
I will invite open suggestions at the end and would also encourage anyone wishing to have a hand analysed in this blog to shoot me an email.
I'd always rushed towards Sky for its Sit and Goes, because they were often and, appreciatively, in my local currency, GBP. PokerStars was my go-to cash option because, well, it's the biggest and you'd assume that fishy players with lots of money would find it at the top of Google. Grinding is fun and, as I've mentioned before, I've always loved the idea of having a consistent set of rules to play under that "ground" out a decent hourly wage - but variance has never been my friend here.
The internet is full of websites claiming to 'rank' the best poker players, how they're ranked in often a bit of a false economy.
So, where could I go to feel like Tom 'Durrr' Dwan or Phil Ivey on the tables? On a number of searches, the top result was "BetCoin" - a cryptocurrency-using online poker room which provides anonymity to its players. But, to me, surely only those with a fairly intrinsic knowledge of the internet would ever use such an ominous poker room. I'm looking for rich fish - not nerds with cash; nerds can do maths.
888 Poker appears to come out top in many of the "top online poker room" lists. Poker Update suggests this is because of "a lot of their poker traffic are rollovers from the sportsbook and casino games." It adds: "They aren't poker players, which means more money in your pocket." But all these reasons mimic why I use Sky - in the hope that drunken sports betting winners might fancy their chances on the card tables.