Download Pokerstars Eu Client - livebonuscasino.com

Does anyone have some info regarding this?
Here is all I could find on their website: "The poker app is launching soon on mobile and Mac! You can play casino on the web, and download the client on windows for the full poker experience!".
Sure, I should just be patient - but I'm so eager and desperate to get away from pokerstars horrible rake-back system :P

So I was being a massive degenerate on pokerstars, my poker playing was 100% in control and perfectly fine playing micro stakes SnGs and fifty50's. Typically breaking even or a slight small profit at those stakes. Poker was never an issue, I play casually. I have home game group and played home games now and again etc.
However, my issue was a growing addiction to losing all my poker balance on slot machines. Well, I wasn't addiction to losing... Addicted to winning, except I wasn't winning.
I took the smart decision to disable Casino on pokerstars client, so the temptation was not there. So I email them asking to block Casino (I'm now aware you can disable it yourself in the settings, however I was unable to find it at the time which is why I sent the email). A week goes by... still able to use casino. At this point I'm out of control, I am really struggling not to load up slots at this point. I'm also increasing my bet sizes as I lose getting tilted at not hitting any bonuses etc. I realise I'm struggling.
So I contact them again via email. Maybe another week goes by, still nothing.
I then look harder about the place and find I can speak on livechat if I am talking about a promotion/bonus on casino. So I join that and credit where it's due, the guy I spoke to blocked Casino instantly and the problem was resolved. However, he then passed my case on to the responsible gaming department as he felt it had been dealt with poorly. Which I would agree with, 2 weeks and it still wasn't blocked without me chasing it for a 3rd time.
At this point, I'm still able to play poker. I feel so relieved that the option for casino has gone and I'm happy I can't lose anymore money to their casino ever again. It felt like a bigger win than hitting any bonus on a slot machine.
Fast forward to now, I receive contact from responsible gaming who have taken the decision to refund everything I lost since I requested my account be blocked from the casino. Which is great, but they're also saying they feel it's best they block poker on my account too. As a result, my whole pokerstars account is now frozen.
I'm not sure if there's anything I can say to stop them blocking poker? Is it because they messed up not blocking my account, if I then lose money on poker they believe I could build a legal case against them so feel it's best just to get rid of me completely?
Just so badly dealt with all round by pokerstars honestly. I just wanted Casino blocked on my account and it's escalated.

Click HERE to submit your questions in the #ama_questions channel. All non-questions will be deleted in order to keep the channel clean for the AMA, along with anything abusive, so please keep it polite but feel free to ask anything you want, as long as it's Stars Rewards related.
I'll update this post with the full AMA once it has concluded.
For anyone who misses the AMA, still feel free to submit your questions as the Stars Rewards team will hang out in Discord and keep answering questions throughout the next week.
Edit: Clarification
Full AMA:
July 7, 2017 Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 5:02 PM Hello @everyone and welcome to today's AMA! We've received a lot of questions and feedback regarding the new Stars Rewards program and we wanted to take the time to address as many of them as possible. So, on that note, it is my pleasure to introduce @Dylan | Ravageur . Dylan is the Head of Customer Loyalty at PokerStars and has overseen the transition and launch of the new Stars Rewards program. He has been with PokerStars for over 6 years and is here to answer your questions today :smiley:
Dylan | Ravageur - Yesterday at 5:04 PM Hi Pete, thanks for having me on here. Looking forward to diving in to the questions and will do my best to provide some answers.
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 5:06 PM Welcome welcome :smiley: I know you've been crazy busy putting this whole thing together, so let's jump straight in with some of the harder ones so that we can address them while our brains are still fresh... "PokerStars hate winning players and is doing everything to destroy online poker and turn it into casino? Do you really think your customers don’t understand what you’re doing? Shame on you"
Dylan | Ravageur - Yesterday at 5:11 PM Oof, jumping right into the deep end I see. Well here we go...
We designed Stars Rewards to offer better rewards to net-depositing players than winning players as these players ultimately drive the poker economy. We want to encourage players to win at the table using their skill rather than playing primarily to maximise returns. One of the main differences between this program and the VIP Club system is that it ensures that volume is not a decisive factor like it was in the past to receive meaningful rewards.
It's not that we don't love winning poker players - we do. However, there's a difference between appreciating and celebrating winning poker players versus giving them additional rakeback on their winnings. A lot has changed over the course of eleven years since the VIP Club was first designed, and the online poker landscape is a different place now that needs a new program that better serves our diverse customer base. Since we implemented the changes in 2016 to reduce rewards for the highest-volume players, more hands are seeing the flop which indicates a more appealing table-dynamic and deposits are lasting longer for new and casual players. We no longer believe that the previous approach which allocated the majority of the rewards to winning high-volume players is the right direction for us.
I appreciate that this is not what many of you want to hear, and the significance of these changes is not lost on us. Our goal is to grow poker as a whole and a new and better designed rewards program is an important step towards achieving this.
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 5:13 PM So, in simple terms, the goal is to keep net-depositing players playing the game, adding more money to the economy?
Dylan | Ravageur - Yesterday at 5:14 PM Put very simply, yes. The goal is to engage and retain new and casual depositing players, who are ultimately the backbone of the poker economy.
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 5:16 PM Ok, thanks for the clarity there :smiley: We'll move swiftly on to another tough one... "Will PokerStars pocket the rakeback decrease or will it just be more distributed to losing players?"
Dylan | Ravageur - Yesterday at 5:20 PM I am already sensing a trend....
The overall percentage will decrease for poker. Casino and sportsbook will of course see an increase as they're giving more rewards where they previously hadn't. Loyalty remains our most significant spend as a company and we will continue to invest in the development and engagement of our players. We invest in poker far more than anybody else and we play to continue to invest in our innovations and our marketing. We announced this week that we are picking up the tab for 60,000 PKR customers left in the cold without their bankrolls, we've hired Usain Bolt and Kevin Hart to reach out beyond the current poker base to bring new people to the game, and with the launch of PokerStars PowerUp, a new poker product, we are again trying to bring in new players to the game and reactivate players.
This kind of stability & resilience comes at a price, but we believe these changes are working. The company and the ecosystem is healthier, and we believe recreational players are having more fun.
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 5:23 PM Well then, that leads perfectly on to "I see people justifying the changes by saying it goes to recs yet I haven’t seen stats that they say the same amount of rakeback is being paid out?" asked by @Gosha(edited)
Dylan | Ravageur - Yesterday at 5:28 PM Because the program is personalised to each player, I don't think I'll be able to satisfy that question. I can share that most of our recreational players will receive a similar level of rewards as before, and in many cases players will receive more rewards.
I've heard a lot of players in the questions thread claiming that the program only offers 5% in rewards, but recreational players will receive much more than that and this is across the full spectrum of our player base. As an example, there are former Supernova VIPs who are now receiving more with Stars Rewards than they did in our previous program.
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 5:30 PM Ah, that somewhat addresses my next question already "Can we get a tangible figure for RB now that the new rewards are in place? Party does 40%"
Dylan | Ravageur - Yesterday at 5:34 PM Yes I think it does. The short answer is that Stars Rewards is not a traditional rakeback program. Rewards are personalised and can vary based on recent activity.
We cannot guarantee a specific level of rewards for any given player givena few factors:
-The rewards inside Chests are randomised -Progress bar requirements are personalised and may change based on recent activity. For example, a long-term winning player will need to earn more reward points to unlock a given Chest than a net-depositing player -Players receive additional reward points in Chests which are also randomised -Players who play more frequently will benefit from boosts, which net you double reward points when boosted.
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 5:38 PM Given the untraditional nature of the Rewards program, people are finding it hard to find ways to compare it to the old one, maybe you can help with this? "Hey, greetings! My question as i have not yet understood ( and dont think it has been specified at all), is what is the ev of rakeback that the company is giving back? I understand that rewards are randomized and for 1 chest people can get different rewards depending on their vip status. But what i dont understand is how ev rakeback should a goldstar or a silverstar for instance expect to get on 1 month? with the previous system , to say , we knew a goldstar could get minimum 100 usd per month and platinum star 300. what is the difference ev wise in the new system? Thanks"
Dylan | Ravageur - Yesterday at 5:39 PM That's a good question. First - Stars Rewards is a significant departure from the previous VIP Club program and it's very difficult to compare the two as it's apples and oranges. In general terms if you are a long-term winning player you will be receiving less rewards than previously. Other players will be receiving a similar level of rewards, or more, with Stars Rewards.
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 5:46 PM Since we're changing things quite drastically for the winning players, maybe you can help explain where we received our positive feedback? "I would really like to know where the positive feedback has been found regarding Stars Rewards. Since I havent heard a single positive word from people I rate highly that have gotten their rakeback slashed from 27-35% to 4-5%" This question was asked both by @BarreMolenaar "LordBarre II" and @TilTinDuCeR
Dylan | Ravageur - Yesterday at 5:49 PM I had a feeling this one was coming :). A lot of what is posted about the program on forums and in the press originates mostly from winning players, who understandably are upset that they are receiving fewer rewards than previously. The program is designed to appeal more to recreational players. The level of engagement we have seen with the program so far in Denmark and Italy has exceeded our expectations. We have been reaching out since those launches to speak to recreational players about their experiences with Stars Rewards and the majority prefer the new program than the previous one.
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 5:51 PM Speaking of the launches in Italy and Denmark, we received this question about how the launches there seemed "sketchy at best"... "Why did you switch from a transparent system to a non-transparent, “individual” one? I personally believe that the poker industry especially needs to be as transparent as possible. The way this has been rolled out in Italy and Denmark so far seems sketchy at best."
Dylan | Ravageur - Yesterday at 5:54 PM I agree that the poker industry needs to be as transparent as possible. However, while Stars Rewards is "individual" as he says, the probabilities and prize values for each Chest are published on our website and you can see how many points you need to unlock a Chest by clicking on your progress bar or visiting the 'My Stars' portal. In addition to the 'normal' Chest values on our webpage, there will be additional top prizes on a regular basis such as the $1,000 Chests we are currently awarding for launch.
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 5:56 PM A recent question from @Croakspkr which ties in well with transparency... "why cant i review how many chests i've opened yet and what i got from them?"
Dylan | Ravageur - Yesterday at 5:58 PM You can contact Support at any time to receive a full audit of your Chests and everything that was in them. However, I agree that it would be beneficial if you could review them in-client, so I will add this to the list of future developments we'd like to add. Thanks for the feedback/suggestion @Croakspkr
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 6:01 PM And this one has come in from @Artello referencing a previous question... ""As an example, there are former Supernova VIPs who are now receiving more with Stars Rewards than they did in our previous program." It doesn't sound logical at all with rewards we have, unless some regs hit 1k from chests (which is luck, not a statistic)."
Dylan | Ravageur - Yesterday at 6:03 PM Just to clarify, long-term winning Supernova VIPs will be receiving much less. However, there are net-depositing former Supernovas who are receiving a similar level of rewards, and in some cases more. That isn't assuming they get lucky or win a $1K Chest.
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 6:05 PM In terms of the rewards in general, there has been a lot of feedback regarding how different the size and frequency of the rewards are compared to what people are used to. That feedback has been accurately summed up by @IFlipBurgers in this question: "Do you believe that rewarding people with extremely small rewards (compared to the buyin of the games they play) at a high frequency gives them satisfaction and make them feel like a valued customer? So far, I've only heard feedback of people feeling insulted by these rewards and would go as far as to argue that they have a negative net effect on their playing experience, even compared to not receiving anything at all."
Dylan | Ravageur - Yesterday at 6:09 PM Unlike the previous program, Stars Rewards aims to reward players multiple times within a single session. Most of our players can only play a few times a month and we feel that offering them multiple opportunities to win something significant does, in fact, make them feel valued. Of course, there's no "one-size fits all" and some players would rather receive fewer Chests but that held a higher value, so there is a balance to be maintained. Like any other new product, we will be reviewing feedback from all our players and looking at the numbers to determine if we've found the right balance between frequency and value.
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 6:11 PM That leads perfectly into "Are rewards completely finalised or are they very much experimental and subject to change?"
Dylan | Ravageur - Yesterday at 6:13 PM The rewards could change over time, yes, especially in regards to our top prizes. Currently we're awarding $1K Chests as the top prize, but, for example, when WCOOP comes around later this year Stars Rewards can award WCOOP tickets in Chests. In the future, these top prizes will change and can range from cash prizes, tickets, and exclusive physical items. FailFish1
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 6:15 PM Okay! :smiley: Thank you very much for digging into some of the nitty gritty about EV and reward amounts with me, now I'm going to address some of the questions we've received about how everything functions We received this question "hey, im fairly sure i was on like 80% towards 2k vpp and didnt receive anything for it. isnt it supposed to convert? is this a problem more people ran into or just me" from @don artie , perhaps you could clarify?
Dylan | Ravageur - Yesterday at 6:17 PM Good question, and that shouldn't be the case. Players received the full prorated StarsCoin value for their in-progress VIP Step when Stars Rewards launched. You can verify having received this credit by going to your StarsCoin audit in Tools -> History & Stats of the desktop client. You can also just shoot our Support an email and they can check on your behalf and makes sure that you received everything you should have.
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 6:20 PM Thank you for clearing that up :smiley: Now, in terms of the exact functionality, @Scoobydubious asked: "When you open your chests, what are the coins for that go to the right side of the chest? I think theymight be purple if I recall correctly."(edited)
Dylan | Ravageur - Yesterday at 6:22 PM Purple?!! They are green, and those are reward points :smiley: You get reward points everytime you open a Chest, so that your progress towards your next one gets kick-started. In poker you earn 100 reward points for every $1 in rake/tournament fees paid with the exception of high-stakes cash games.
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 6:23 PM On that note, from @Caribou "What is the least amount of points necessary to clear a red chest? How many points, on average, will net depositors need to clear a red chest?"
Dylan | Ravageur- Yesterday at 6:28 PM That's a good one. Reward point requriements can vary over time, but for example, some higher-volume recreational players need to earn 8,000 reward points to unlock our biggest Platinum Chest. They will also receive on average 800 points every time they open it. Some of these also receive a boost of 4,000 points every 8 hours from their last one. Effectively, they need to earn 3,200 reward points to earn their first Platinum Chest each day (which is worth about $23.50 on average).
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 6:33 PM So in terms of this being more weighted for net-depositing recreational players @SetMiningWithKings asked "So that I can make a decision whether this is a better thing for players, or for Pokerstars - Has your average revenue per player gone up or down when you account for the new programme being in place?"
Dylan | Ravageur - Yesterday at 6:35 PM We certainly hope to increase engagement in our playerbase which ultimately should increase revenues, but it's much too early to say what the impact of Stars Rewards is given we only just launched in most areas this week!
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 6:38 PM In that case, asked by @TilTinDuCeR "Question: Do you think you as a company understand the gaming industry enough to try to emulate it and accurately project the success of such endeavour?"
Dylan | Ravageur - Yesterday at 6:42 PM There has been a massive amount of effort and research across the company in preparing for Stars Rewards based on years of data and experience in the industry. We're confident that this is a step in the right direction, and early indications in Denmark and Italy support this as well. So I guess in short, yes. But we are of course also listening to our players on all our channels (here, other forums, social media, customer support, 1-1 discussions, etc.)
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 6:46 PM Speaking of feedback from the players, we're seeing a lot of people asking for a more specific breakdown of what they need to do to earn their chests. "is there anywhere we can check the least and the most points requiered for a certain chest?" from @monroymx
Dylan | Ravageur - Yesterday at 6:48 PM Each individual can always click on the progress bar to see how many reward points they need to unlock a Chest. However, because these targets can vary over time based on recent activity, they aren't being published.
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 6:50 PM Ok, good to know that it's easy for people to see what they need to do then :smiley: Let's burn through another couple of quick ones and then wrap this thing up so I don't leep you all night. "Will players be able to weed out the rewards that they will never use?"
Dylan | Ravageur - Yesterday at 6:53 PM If I remember correctly that question was referencing not wanting to recievemore than one freeroll ticket in a day. This is a great suggestion and something that we are actively looking to add to Stars Rewards functionality. Ideally once you receive, for example, a freeroll ticket for a weekly freeroll, you shouldn't receive the same ticket until the following week (and that prize would be replaced by something that isn't redundant). It's on our list of future developments that we'd like to add, and I hope we can add it in the coming months.
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 6:55 PM So, to quickly summarise a question that is being asked a lot, are there any plans to decrease rake? Spin and Go's and PLO seem to be mentioned a lot here "With such reduction in rewards to SN Winning players, is there a chance that (for example) Spin and go rake might be decreased a bit to compensate, because as of it is today, average 60$ limit player regular was earning around 44% of his overall profits from rakebacks, because there are a lot of regulars in the pool, only a handful of crushers get better results (in chipEV) than that to stay comfortable withouth rakeback" Dylan | Ravageur - Yesterday at 6:57 PM That's a popular question. We are constantly evaluating pricing and the economy of each game. However, at this time there are no plans to decrease rake.
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 6:57 PM That being the case... "Wouldn’t they be making more money if they brought back the old vip system which incentivized volume players coming back = more rake being paid?"
Dylan | Ravageur - Yesterday at 7:02 PM This is a good question as there are quite a lot of misconceptions out there on this topic. There is a very high overlap between "volume players" and "winning players". This is pretty intuitive given poker is a skill game and you improve the more you play. The poker economy is fuelled by deposits, which for the most part originate from low to medium-volume players. This is one of the main reason that the level of rewards players receive through Stars Rewards is not solely based on volume, so that we can allocate rewards to the players who contribute the most to the poker economy (and of course, our company).
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 7:05 PM Thank you for explaining that :smiley: Ok, I hope that this session has helped to clear things up for a few people, @Dylan | Ravageur thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to do this with us. I know that we haven't managed to address everything which we've been asked, but Dylan will be around throughout the coming week to hop in here and answer more FAQ as they arise. If there are an absolute tonne of questions, we will schedule a second AMA for some time next week :smiley:
Dylan | Ravageur - Yesterday at 7:08 PM Sure - thanks for having me Pete and I appreciate all the questions and feedback from the players. I know that not everyone will love the answers, but I'll continue to chime in here next weeek to try and answer questions as they come up. Sure - I'd be down to do this again. Cheers.
Pete Simm | Ice3lade - Yesterday at 7:09 PM Awesome, thank you again for joining us!

First ill explain what happenend. Pokerstars is charging money while playing live casino will u didnt bet that money. Also it doesnt show at the start of the hand but at the end of the hand or somehwere in between. Which seems odds to me, because it gives quite rapidly a error when u wasnt on time with betting.
Also when i check the "Game History", it doesn't show any charges being made, while it clearly got charged of my "balance".
Example1: 27 february i betted $1,- , while finishing the hand it suddenly the bet amount changed from 1 dollar to 19-20 dollar while the hand was about to finish, i sent them a email and their reaction was that i " misclicked"
->------- Email 1-------
"Sent: 02/27/2018 17:09:59 Subject: Casino Queries (.EU v3) SC you charged me 18 dollar at blackjack, there was no bet.
you charged me 18 dollar will i betted 1dollar behind only, hand @ 22:01:53 blackjack 5 dollar table stockholm I betted 1 dollar behind i got charged 69-20=49 instead of 69-1=68. please resolve this, thanks alot"
->----- Response on Email 1 from pokerstars" Thank you for your email, we have now completed a thorough review of your query.
Following our investigation into this matter, we have determined that no wagers were placed without your instruction.
Therefore, we can confirm that no technical issues were at play and the value of the wager in question was simply a result of a ‘Mis-Click’.
While we fully understand that this was not your intent, please note that all wagers committed at the tables are final. Therefore, in the interest of fairness to all of our players, no adjustment can be made in this instance.
To avoid this kind of issues in the future, you can set the maximum betting limit for slots following the steps below:
'Tools' > 'Responsible Gaming' > 'Restrict Casino & Vegas Limit'
You can lift the restriction later through the same menu. But, once you have set the limit in the client, you will be unable to request an increase or removal of it for 7 days. Once this period expires, you can request an increase or removal and it will take 24 hours to be approved.
We thank you kindly for your understanding on this matter and thank you for choosing us.
Regards,
Keven Stars Support "
example 2 -email 1:me: "I played all day and u cantfind. Any bj game? You stealing peoples money because of bad software Thisisoutreagous, this isnt the first time this happenend. You make millions and i dont. I just ask if you guys to be fair, got me tilted so well done. I shit over 20dollars " -email 2: pokerstars response: " Van: [email protected] [email protected] Verzonden: donderdag 25 januari 2018 11:50:57 Aan: [email protected] Onderwerp: Stars Support - Stars ID Confirmation Request
Hello xxxxx,
Before we can review your request, please confirm your Stars ID and full name.
Unfortunately, we didn't find any Blackjack game under "xxxxxxx" StarsID.
Please include this information every time you contact us as it helps to verify your identity.
Regards,
Fede Stars Support"
If you see the customer support emails, they clearly are not trying to cooperate, they tell me they cant find any blackjack game which must be a lie as i played that day, and the day before blackjack. Funny thing was that suddenly 1 week later they send to my "bank account" exactly 50,00EURO, which totally made no sense, because while they mabye charged me 60-70 dollar too much, no way you can convert it to exactly to 50 euro. I got alot more information and screenshot of live supports(more like live brick support).
I'm not trying to spread any bad shit about pokerstars, but trying to get some awareness and actually get this fixed so i can play in a legit environment. I also like to hear your stories if you encountered anything similair or if i posted this in the wrong forum.
Thanks alot,
Harde

PokerStars has greatly diversified its portfolio over the last couple of years, but the online venture still remains the most lucrative niche. As they continue to expand in New Jersey and organize more tournaments in land-based casinos, there are also paying a lot of attention to their online clients. That's why the poker room has announced the soft launch of a new poker client that will be available exclusively to residents of New Jersey. This is a move of extraordinary magnitude, because it is very likely that PokerStars will follow suit and use the same approach in other American states. As lawmakers contemplate the possibility of legalizing online gambling in general and poker in particular, the competition among major operators is intensifying. For the time being, they industry giant has an advantage over the pack and obvious intentions to consolidate this dominant position. One way of doing so is by offering the same kind of advantages to its American players as those enjoyed by Europeans and international poker fans. The lineup of Sunday tournaments has expanded, which is quite an achievement since these are the events anxiously waiting for by dedicated players. The combined guaranteed prize pool now exceeds $85,000, which is a lot of money for the American market and there is plenty of room for the prizes to go up. The tournaments are going to start at 4 PM ET with the Sunday warm-up, a tournament that has a buy-in of $50. Players will be competing for a guaranteed prize pool of $10,000 and if past performance can be an indicator for future results, this amount is going to be surpassed significantly. One hour later, another tournament starts and things go on like this for quite a while, with several events scheduled for Sundays. By 7 PM Eastern time, competition gets as high as it gets, because this is the time when the $500 Sunday High Roller is scheduled to start. Many players can't afford to make this kind of investment, but those who don't mind spending a three digit amount for the sake of competing for 20 times more, are obviously enthusiastic. The poker room has a guaranteed prize pool for this event as well, which makes perfect sense, since you can't know for sure how players react to highroller competitions. American players are widely regarded as some of the best in the world, but many regular ones have lost contact with the highly competitive world of online poker. Since PokerStars is just returning to the market, it's important for them to make sure that amateurs and regulars are not overlooked. If you want to learn more about the upcoming Sunday major tournaments, all you need to do is to go over the list below: 4 p.m. Sunday Warm-Up $50 $10,0005 p.m. Sunday Storm $10 $5,0006 p.m. Sunday Special $200 $50,0007 p.m. Sunday High Roller $500 $15,00010 p.m. Sunday Supersonic $75 $5,000
from
via Casinoreviews

(you can find a TL;DR at the end of this post, containing my yearly results and my goals for next year)
My first contact with gambling started with the famous "use this strategy to get rich at XY" (XY being mostly blackjack or roulette). As i was still very young i believed these stupid things. I didnt know better. Hours after hours i played for playmoney online, and i got fascinated having the idea to win money by playing a game. After a while i finally learned that in every gambling game the edge is on the side of the casino.
Every game? No. There is poker, a game of skill and psychology. A game where the better player can be a winner. I HAD to learn this game. So i bought a few books, and started learning. I only learned the very very basic stuff, but i thought that was enough. I deposited 10 bucks and started playing 2NL, with the occasional 5NL or 10NL mixed in because i was on tilt or "trying to win my money back". Obviously i was a total fish. I lost my money very fast, and got frustrated. Every now and then i came back to try but, who wouldve guessed, i lost over and over again.
I am a very competetive person, but my competetive drive was focused on other computergames. After i peaked and plateaued in the games i grinded for hours and hours each day for years (at first CoD, then League of Legends where my best ranking was Diamond 3), i started looking for a new challenge. And then it hit me. POKER! But this time i would take it more serious. This time i would be a winner! So the journey began...
On the 1st of january i created my account on pokerstars. This time i deposited 50 bucks. I was still in school, so i couldnt play it fulltime, but i used every free minute i had to play and learn the game. I taught the game to myself by reading through articles online, learned the basics from pokerstrategy.com, and started playing 2NL with proper BRM. For christmas i got money to buy Pokertracker4, so i could finally track my results aswell. After a bit of trying everything out i decided that 6max Zoom was the game made for me. Action all the time and the ability to grind for hours without getting bored. Perfect. So i did. And i was winning, what a great feeling. With the things i learned i was able to beat 2NLz all by myself. I didnt care about the amount of money, which obviously was nothing, but i was making money all by myself, with a thing i loved doing. My passion grew with each and every day. At first my mother was against this whole thing. She didnt like it if i "gambled". Obviously she had no clue about poker not being gambling, but i was far away from being able to correctly explain it to her, as i was still a noob too, so i cant blame her. This is the 2NLz graph for the whole year: http://i.imgur.com/iKHbI6W.png
As you can see i was a solid winner at 2NLz. But moving up was hard. I did take many shots, but the first 50k hands of 5NLz i was losing at it. I had all the typical problems: i was money scared, i thought villains were playing better, i just didnt play the gameplan i had established at 2NL. That is also the reason why i had such a big sample at 2NLz (100k hands), because i always had to move down again. I was getting more and more frustrated. And i was stubborn. I didnt even think about studying more to get better. I was just grinding and grinding each and every day, trying to finally get the succesfull shot. I was still somewhat active in the online community though. I started watching twitch streamers, and i even became mod in "KomodoDragonJesus"' stream. I started reading articles again and i recognized that if i wanted to beat 5NL i had to study again. So i did. And ca. in the middle of may i finally started winning. From one day to another i was good enough. It was like someone turned on a switch. The big thing i learned in these days was that i cant just grind the whole day, because i will be plateauing sooner or later. If i wanted to climb the ladder i needed to study all the time. I started reading more and more, most of it in the 2+2 forums. I started connecting with people, chatting with them over skype. It could be that that was the time where i started being active here on /poker. I was always a big fan of reddit, and i was happy that there was a sub for poker. Here you can see my 5NLz graph for the whole year: http://i.imgur.com/KWVQsPw.png - and this is the graph since i was winning: http://i.imgur.com/rTCiqrl.png
After grinding for some time i started taking shots at 10NLz, and history repeated itself. It was pretty much the same as when i wanted to move up from 2NL to 5NL. Not much to say to this situation tbh. BUT a big thing happened at 10NLz. My first BIG tiltingspree. This was the first time a major downswing hit me, and i got mad at the game, mad at myself for playing poorly, and so on. You cant miss it if you take a look at the graph: http://i.imgur.com/OIswdAg.png After a while i could stop myself from tilting though, and focused on improving again. As you can see in the graph i didnt win enough to move up yet though: http://i.imgur.com/evkw3Ef.png
I was always playing some MTTs on the side for fun. I never really took them serious, never really learned how to play them properly. But in august i had the luck to bink two of them. One was a 1.10 deepstacked MTT where i placed 3rd for 72$, and the other one was the Hot 1.10, where i got 4th for 243$. A MASSIVE boost for my bankroll. Suddenly i was rolled for 16NL, and i took the shot. It wasnt my first shot at it, but it was succesful. From here on its basically the same as always. I grinded, took shots at 25NLz, they didnt work out, i had to move back to 16NLz. Here you can see my lifetime 16NLz graph: http://i.imgur.com/Lsy12An.png and this is the graph since i was winning: http://i.imgur.com/4ZtzI7o.png
In the meantime many things in the reallife happened. I just finished school in summer, and since february i was living on my own in a small 1-room-appartment. I started working 39 hours a week (if you are interested in that you can ask, but its too long and irrelevant to put in this post), and didnt have that much time for poker anymore. I still devoted pretty much all of my free time to poker. Now that i had results and knowledge, i could also finally convince my parents that poker isn't gambling, and that its not bad to be a pokerplayer. My mother taught me to always have the right priorities in life, which i am very thankful for. I always made sure that i had enough time for my friends, my girlfriend, and school. Well maybe not school, but not because i couldnt. I simply decided that school wasnt worth my full attention anymore. My goal for the future was to study psychology, and even IF i put my full energy into school, i still wouldnt have been able to reach the grades i needed. And to get the spot at university it wouldnt matter if i was close to the requirements or more far away, i would need to wait the same time (or i would sue the university for a place, which i will try next year if they dont let me in. Yes, its possible to sue the university for a place to study, god i love my country sometimes :D) So it was irrelevant if i tried my hardest in school, or just made sure i could finish it and get my "abitur", which is german for the graduation from highschool. If i look back i can say for sure that i put more energy and time into poker and studying for poker than into learning for school. But because i already knew what i wanted and how i could get it i didnt regret this decision.
The second big thing that happened was the legalization of online poker in Schleswig-Holstein, the nothern part of germany where i live in. Before they gave out licenses it was a grey area, so not totally illegal. But following that we got an own client, "pokerstars.sh", and a few rules, eg. not more than 10 tables open at a time etc.. These changes didnt affect me that much though, as i was always only playing 4 tables of zoom anyway.
Then i had my first live poker experience. In september i decided to take a 50bb shot at 2/4 in my local casino. It was basically just meant for fun, because i never played live before and wanted to experience it. In my first night playing live i left with 1238€ profit. I decided this would be my live bankroll, and went to the casino about once per week. I grinded it up to 4.5k, then went down to 2.5k again. Here i chose to stop, because i needed money for next years vacation (me and my gf want to travel to japan, which will be very expensive). Also i felt like online lost the needed focus and dedication from me.
To give online poker my full dedication i needed to get better. But learning by myself just wasnt good enough for me anymore. I needed to learn more efficient. I needed to get a coach. And i found one. We had coaching roughly once per week, and i learned so much every single day. I got better and better every day, and finally the day came where i would take a succesful shot at 25NLz.
This is where i am right now. After exactly 1 year playing/studying i went from 2NLz to winning at 25NLz. And my current winrate is pretty impressive, even though i guess its only samplesize and not my real winrate :D here is the graph of my latest 25NLz shot, and hopefully the last one: http://i.imgur.com/Kt5tdYj.png - and this is my lifetime 25NLz graph, with all the shots that didnt work out: http://i.imgur.com/GLBQr0T.png
I hope this wall of text was at least somewhat interesting for you guys. The main reason i wrote this is to remember the year and be appreciative for how far ive come. I've had an awesome poker year, went through ups and downs, but i still managed to come out ahead.
Here are some final results of this year:
The cashgame graph of my whole year, including every cashgame ive played: http://i.imgur.com/QLQZ9Ku.png
And this is the graph only showing my zoom results: http://i.imgur.com/FMFf317.png
edit: HeyitsClay suggested to show the results in bb to show a clearer picture. Here is only the zoom results shown in bb: http://i.imgur.com/SHl8Mzc.png
My online bankroll went from 50€ (~55$) to 1400$.
My live bankroll went from 200€ to 2500€.
My passion for poker is more alive than ever before. My plan for 2016 is to beat 100NL, and maybe play live again with a proper bankroll. When i start going to university this fall i will hopefully be able to finance myself purely through poker. That is the dream...

PokerStars is the company behind some of the most important live tournaments in the world, while still dominating the online environment with great competitions. After acquiring Full Tilt Poker a few years ago, they invested massively in their new project and the results are now self-evident. These guys have returned to their winning ways and their reputation has been restored, with players once again flocking to their online tournaments. Some great events were scheduled for March and the first two weeks of April, but good things are at the horizon. Full Tilt Poker has survived for such a long time by constantly reinventing itself and making sure that the games it provides are well-liked by customers. The fact that they have a nice diversity of ring-games is well known but some of them will no longer be available at the end of the month. The decision to make these changes comes as a surprise for those who play these games routinely, but truth be told, the community is growing smaller. The reason for why these games are going to be removed from the client is that they are no longer that popular and players have a hard time finding competitors. It is only fair to assume that after all these titles are gone, new ones will be introduced to compensate the lacking and some of them could prove to be massive hits. The best proof is that over the last couple of days, the company has released a couple of Omaha variants and they are all available in a new five max structure. These already have plenty of fans among highrollers, while regular players are far less enthusiastic about the changes. Past performance suggest that Full Tilt Poker knows exactly what is doing and people should patiently wait for the results. Meanwhile check out the list of games that will be removed at the end of April: • Adrenaline Rush games• Cap and deep-stack heads-up no-limit hold'em games• Cap, deep-stack, and deep-stack-with-antes six-max no-limit hold'em games• Shallow-stack full-ring no-limit hold'em games• Pot-limit hold'em heads-up and six-max games• Full-ring fixed-limit hold'em games• Deep-stack pot-limit Omaha heads-up games• Cap, deep-stack, and deep-stack-with-antes pot-limit Omaha six-max games• Deep-stack-with-antes six-card pot-limit Omaha heads-up games• New-to-the-game tables for certain games• Irish poker• HORSE, HA and 7-game• $0.25/$0.50 and $1/$2 pot-limit Omaha Rush Poker games
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One of the biggest concerns for those who play online poker is privacy and safety, with security of funds and personal information being of critical importance. PokerStars is one of the companies that brag about running some of the most comprehensive security checks and until recently, they didn't have any problems in keeping scam artists away. More recently, news has surfaced in the media about a vulnerability of the Open SSL at both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. It didn't take long for the company to issue a formal statement and apparently no downloadable clients were affected. This is great news for the poker players who have an account and even better for those who had to download the applications to start playing. On the other hand, the company is aware of the fact that these vulnerabilities could be exploited in the future and will make it its top priority to address these issues. Apparently, it was the user ID and player passwords that were in jeopardy, which explains why players were so worried about the prospect of someone hacking into their account. In the past, hackers got past the firewalls and security protocols to strip players of their hard-earned cash, and people are still edgy after all those years. On the bright side, the Full Tilt Poker client was never in danger, because the company owned by PokerStars uses slightly different protocols. The vast majority of poker professionals have an account with both companies, so this is not enough to put their concerns to rest. A patch was applied quickly and at the time of writing there are no vulnerabilities, but both companies will continue to look into this problem and promise to keep the audience up to date.
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PokerStars is going through some great times worldwide and most of the customers are located in Europe, with the company aiming to expand on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. While they are waiting on the legislators to pass a favorable bill, the poker room is trying to make the most of its European presence. Surprisingly enough, PokerStars.fr decided that it would be better to bid farewell to UK customers, starting on October 1. Those who have followed the discussions surrounding the UK gambling licensing and advertising bill, are probably not surprised by this decision. The reason for why the company decided to withdraw from the lucrative market is that otherwise they would have had to pay a lot of taxes, on top of those charged by the French regulator. Those players who chose their platform to play poker over the Internet were notified in time, so that they can make the transition to the other branch. The good news is that those who enjoy PokerStars and the services they offer, don't have to look elsewhere for online gambling. The same company will cater for their needs and the only changes to be made are not going to take more than a few minutes. The poker company promised that all of the tournament money, frequent player points, VIP status and real money tickets will be migrated automatically. There is no need to worry about what might happen to the pending bonuses, because they are going to be re-credited whenever possible, or paid out. Those who have played a lot of time and were lucky enough to obtain VIP status are advised to double check their accounts, to make sure that everything is going according to the plan. The vast majority of players will need not to worry about anything, because everything will be migrated to the UK account. All they need to do is to download the new client, which will allow them to play over the Internet hassle-free and to enjoy the same high standards promoted by PokerStars. There are not going to be any shortcomings for those who play almost exclusively on mobile, because these devices will works closely with the new game client. Basically, the only thing that would change is the domain, which is hardly a problem for those who couldn't care less about such issues. All existing features are going to be available from October 1 onward, so the transition is expected to be silky smooth.
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There is nothing wrong with lucrative companies to conquer new frontiers and online poker rooms have frequently expanded to the casino business. The latest to make such a move is Full Tilt Poker a subsidiary of PokerStars who proudly announced that it will provide its members with the opportunity to play blackjack and roulette. Instead of creating a brand-new client to incorporate these new games, they will use the same application that already runs on millions of computers worldwide. Back in January, when the new client was released, it was obvious that it was a major improvement to the previous version. Very few would expect Full Tilt Poker to undertake such a big change in a relatively short period of time, but that's exactly what they did. For the time being, only clients from the United Kingdom will be able to play blackjack and roulette here, but it is only fair to assume that players from abroad will soon enjoy the same benefits. Not so long ago, Full Tilt Poker was virtually broke with all its assets seized by the Department of Justice and players were anxiously waiting for their funds to be returned. The process completed in late March 2014 and at the time of writing, players from all over the world, with a few exceptions can play poker here safely. PokerStars was wise to make this acquisition, because after acquiring Full Tilt Poker, the number of clients grew a lot and they are now the biggest poker room in the world. By adding online casino games to the poker client, the Rational Group hopes to attract even more customers. In order to maximize their chances and in an attempt of speeding up the process, they decided to team up with Leander Games a company who has a reputation for developing excellent online casino games. The partnership was announced by the CEO of Leander Games, Steven Matsell earlier this month and both companies are confident that this joint venture will be a huge success. The game should be available on both play money version and real currency, just as the games of poker that have so many fans at Full Tilt Poker. There is no reason to believe that the poker room will change its profile and turn into a fully-fledged online casino, but this addition can't hurt.
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Remember the online poker operators and casinos in N.J are like Robin Hood in a way. Only they take from everyone, but give to us smart poor if we feel like taking advantage of free promotional money. This money is there for anyone to have; you just have to SHOW UP!
Once you realize this truth you must simply sign up for the main online poker sites legal in N.J (Pokerstars, Borgata, 888, and WSOP). These do not REQUIRE deposits, but you will often be better off with a small deposit.
Goals/Thoughts:
1) Help a friend learn how to get started making money from poker with zero risk. Keep it straight forward; stuff anyone could use just getting into poker brand new. Emphasize that anyone can win money even if they haven't played before with freerolls at a minimum; which any pro will confirm is fact. Just keep in mind you will always win more if you put time into improving your poker skill; even if there is no risk for you now.
2) Want to provide useful links and information to opportunities available to anyone who lives in N.J. This can include: - Review of poker clients and why you should sign up to their site - Freeroll tournies offered and schedule (sometimes daily) - Time commitment required. - Link to site to download the client.
Note these are legal and regulated poker operators in the state of N.J. The only catch is you have to be physically located in N.J to play and fight for free money.
3) This is for people who are SERIOUS ABOUT MAKING MONEY; NOT GAMBLING. I am not recommending anyone gamble without a skill-edge unless it is a free tournament that pays out free money!
Update (4/26): Have a lot going on right now, but going to work on continuing to add info here tomorrow. Notably on promotions you can take advantage of on Pokerstars NJ, Borgata NJ, and WSOP NJ. I really only covered 888.
Update (4/27): Still need to complete this. This sort of 'boring task work' for me is sometimes very hard to focus on because of the way I'm neurological wired. However, I'm committed to completing this by Saturday.
Update (5/3): still need to get on this! I was on a business/pleasure trip over the weekend that was completely spontaneous. So being out of N.J and unable to play I needed to push this back a week.