Online Report
Elected officials are trying to tell us we can’t play poker online. Thus far, they have been unsuccessful, but you can bet they will keep trying. If you’d like to make a difference, go to www.pokerplayersalliance. org and sign up to be a part of this lobby group that supports our freedom to play as we choose.
Meanwhile, let’s talk about some poker, and particularly about who’s winning online, since that’s our specialty at PocketFives.com.
ActionJeff and Shaniac have officially cracked online poker’s Top Ten, and it’s about time for both of them, as they are two of the hottest and most talked about players in any venue.
Shaniac (Shane Schleger) has been destroying the majors (tournaments that generally have a $100k or more guaranteed, most of which are on Sundays). In the past six months, he has won the $150k guaranteed on Ultimatebet, won a daily “Super” tournament on PartyPoker, won and placed second in the Full Tilt $60k guaranteed, taken second in the $200k guaranteed on Full Tilt (the same day he took second in the PokerStars $200k), and won numerous rebuy tournaments.
ActionJeff’s results are not far off from Shaniac’s. He won the first $200k guaranteed tournament of 2006 on PartyPoker, which was worth $54k. Not bad at all for an 18-year-old kid who hasn’t even finished high school. He posts his tournament stats every month in the poker discussion forum on PocketFives.com, and they will blow you away – he is typically putting up $40-$50k in wins every month! This is one of the brightest young stars in the game, and he’s not going anywhere.
Another player to watch right now is Roothlus. He started heating up late in 2005 and still hasn’t cooled down since, with several five-figure scores already in 2006. One of those scores was a third place finish in the PokerStars One Million Guaranteed, which is now a weekly event.
And yes, that wasn’t a typo – PokerStars has become the first online site to have a weekly $1 million guaranteed tournament, and 40 weeks out of the year, it has only a $200 buy-in. That’s some value!
As always, good luck at the tables.
A Look at… BeL0WaB0Ve
GETTING INTO POKER:
I grew up in Chicago, IL, and all year round you could find me participating in sports. I was never the best athlete – always among the shortest and slowest – but it was my desire to win that kept me on these teams. Around 14, I started playing pool, which is how I was first introduced to poker. We played mostly Pot-Limit Omaha in the beginning, eventually getting into No Limit Hold’em. I’m 25 now, and it wasn’t until two years ago that I discovered online poker.
In the beginning, there was a lot of losing and frustration, but online poker was mostly a hobby for me. I had a regular job that paid my bills, and any winnings from poker were just extra spending money. But like a lot of people, I caught the poker bug and decided to take the game seriously. I decided in January of ’05 that, after a few medium tournament wins, my new goal in life was to be among the best in the world. I took a slightly different road than most: learning largely through trial and error, discussing poker with friends, and watching other people play. Most people are shocked when I tell them that I have never read a poker book, but that’s the truth. Reading is something I have never really enjoyed.
LIVE EXPERIENCE:
That July, I decided to take my shot in Vegas – my first time there. I dropped my bags at my friend’s house and headed over to The Rio to check out my first ever WSOP. When we arrived, there was a $200 No Limit Hold’em tournament starting, so I figured, what the heck, why not? Four hours later, I found myself six-handed at the final table as the chip leader making a chip-count deal. My cut was 12kish, which was second place money, and I was off to a great start. That was where my Las Vegas success ended. I did have fun playing over my bankroll, though. I busted from the 2k No Limit Hold’em Event before the second level ended.
The other event that I played was the 5k No Limit Hold’em. I had a little more success here. It had about 500 players, and paid 45 places. With 48 people left, I raised UTG with A-K suited, and the table maniac announced he was all-in. It folded back to me, and here was the biggest decision of my poker career. This guy had me out-stacked, and it was my tournament life on the line. He had moved all-in about six times since we had got down to under 60 people, and nobody had called. The blinds were 600/1200, and I had about 22,000 left if I folded. If I was to call and win, I would finally have an average stack for the first time all tournament. If I lost the hand, I was out, and would miss the money by three people. When it got back to me, I immediately announced, “I play to win. I call.”
He flipped over 6-6 and flopped a set. I headed home before the Main Event to attend to personal issues that I could not ignore. Since then I have played the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure WPT event in January, and the Bay101 Shooting Stars WPT event in February. In both tournaments I gained stacks fairly easily, but made poor decisions late in Day 1 to either cripple myself, or bust from the tournament.
ONLINE PLAY SINCE THE WSOP:
Once I got home from Las Vegas, I went through one of the toughest runs I have ever experienced. I couldn’t cash in a tournament, let alone win one. I was very discouraged, and towards the end of September, I ventured back into the real world and got a job. That job lasted all of one week. I had taken a shot the week before I got my job, and e-mailed a “known” online player about possibly staking me, in hopes of rejuvenating my poker dream. He laid down the rules, and I agreed. I was honest about my cold run, and he told me, “Don’t worry, you have lucky money now.” Man, was he right? ! Three days later I had my biggest win yet, winning my first major Sunday tournament. Somebody did not show up for work on Monday. That was the day my poker dream was officially re-born. Since then I have become a ranked player on the highly regarded website www.pocketfives.com and a dominant force online. My next goal is to terrorize the live poker scene. Look out, WSOP; here I come...
