Oh dear, look what happened to me today on VC Poker .. Of course it just LOOKS like I have a hand here untill you read the whole hand history. But I thought it looked funny and the irony is of course 72 becoming the nuts on the flop... Wish I had called and taken all the chips from the guy with the Q on the river.

It was a very depressing tournament all the way anyway. A little sit and go I started to play in with my friend DutchDuke, for $2 on VC poker with 20 players. I managed to sit it out to the final table, only really playing 1 hand where I got pocket queens. DutchDuke was not so fortunate and when his chips were nearing the 1k limit and the blinds hit 100 he had to push A9 (I believe) and got called by a limper with A10.

After that I was even more card dead then I already was. I saw an ace deuce under the gun which I folded. Maybe I should have pushed there because I didn't get to see a picture card until I got K8 suited and shouted 'I'm ALL IN' !!!

Got called by pocket 55 and they held up against my overcards (and the flushdraw I got on the turn)

You know ... they say you can't win em all ... but can you lose them all ? I certainly seem to be doing that lately as this blog proves. My last few posts have been nothing but misery. Oh well, it's all free money anyway (got this $35 free for VC Poker at Free Poker Bankrolls ) . I still have more then $10 left at VC Poker, so all is not lost. Maybe I'll play another SNG there tonight. I'll keep you all posted.

This  is of course a question a lot of people are wondering about. After having played online poker for some time now and also having quite some experience with live play at home games and in casinos, I thought it might be nice to share my view on this particular question.

First question asked should of course be, can someone be a consitent winner at (online) poker, merely because he is more skilled at the game then the other players ? I'd have to say yes. Anyone with a little bit of poker knowledge has an obvious advantage over pure beginners and at more advanced levels the differences between the level of skill of the players involved is smaller, but still present.

However, if this advantage could be expressed in percentages, I would have to say that at the higher levels this advantage is only about 1 or maybe 2% at the very highest. This means they will have to play a LOT of poker before the money will be coming their way. Consistently, is something else. This is maybe easier at the higher levels as the swings that your bankroll will take are quite regular and in general you will slowly be increasing your bankroll over time.

At the lower stakes, everything is upside down. You do have a large advantage, but because the players play such a wide variaty of hands against you it's hard to make any reads or predictions on their play. This means you will experience heavier swings as it will be harder to make the proper call on the river. Often at these stakes if there is a good amount of chips already in the pot, you will barely ever make it to the river without going all in anyway. More pre flop all-ins means less skill involved in the play of the hand. This happens a lot more often at low stakes, so there is a lot smaller advantage to the skilled players in the end. So even though they have a huge lead because of their higher skill, it affects the outcome of the game less because of the luck involved in low stakes holdem games.

So my answer to the question is .. yes you can be a consistent winner, but you have to be very very good and be willing to play against the best of the best at the highest stakes. Better bring a nasty big bankroll for that job my friend. So my ambitions are not high at all with online poker. I'd like to be able to win back my money most of the time, maybe win some or lose some and during that time I'll learn the finer points of the game to prepare me for perhaps bigger live tournaments when me and my wife move to Vegas.