Choosing where I play on line

I have realized something about my playing patterns that might be a bit surprising to some, but it isn't to me now that I think about it. It concerns how I decide which poker site to play on when I feel like sitting down for a session.

It used to be that I would first find out whether any tournaments were scheduled that were hosted by the poker bloggers that I am acquainted with, or that I knew some of them would be playing in. I haven't been doing that very much recently, in large part because most of those games were played on FullTilt, and my bankroll there had dwindled to the point where it would take most of my balance just to buy in. Since I wasn't playing in those games, I would look for tourneys with buy-ins small enough for me to handle and have a decent chance to build up my roll.

I chose to play those micro games on FullTilt so I could try to win enough money to allow me to play in the blogger games again. Then, as mentioned in my last post, I did win a tourney that more than doubled my bankroll there. Still, it would take about one tenth of my balance to buy into a typical blogger tourney. So, I looked at my balances on other sites. I'm doing fine at Bodog, thanks to the cash and T$ that I won during the Blogger Series earlier this year. I have more money there than at any other site. PokerStars is another story. I haven't had a lot of success there over the course of 2008 so far, and my roll has fallen well below $100.00.

So where do I play most often these days? Why, at PokerStars, of course. Since I am comfortable at Bodog and no longer on life support at FullTilt, I feel the need to work on building up my stake where it is the smallest. I've done pretty well there over the past few weeks, playing in eight low buy-in SNGs since the middle of September and cashing in three of them. I barely eked out a $2.30 profit over that period, but I consider it a positive sign that I have done at least that well. I'm hoping that the trend continues or even improves so that I can pump things up at Stars. Wil Wheaton has said that he is thinking about hosting tournaments again, and I assume that they will be on PokerStars. I would like to be able to play in them, which means I need to have some funds in my account there. As big a hassle as depositing can be, I would certainly rather win to increase my roll rather than have to try to deposit. Who knows, I may try to deposit anyway, to give myself a cushion sooner than later, but we'll see.

Meanwhile, looking ahead to some live poker playing in the future, I am all booked for the WPBT Winter Classic in Las Vegas the weekend of December 12 - 14. American Airlines changed my original flight booking so that now I am scheduled to fly home on Monday morning at 6:00 AM instead of on the red-eye about five hours earlier. That sucks, because I did not book a hotel room for Sunday night, but I also didn't plan to stay up the entire night like I may have to now. I will need to look into seeing if there is any other option to fly home, that won't cost me big bucks in change fees.

I have not yet seen or heard much about what is planned for the Winter Classic, nor a list of people who are planning to go. If anyone out there is compiling such a list and wouldn't mind directing me to it, or letting me sign up for it, please leave me a comment or e-mail me. I'm looking forward to seeing many of my blogger pals in just a few months!