POKER TIME

Monday 5th June 2006

For the last three weeks, I've barely left the office. Since the football season ended it's just been one long round of World Cup articles and preparation.

I really needed a break after the longest football season ever. Sixty-two Middlesbrough matches that included relegation dog-fights, cup finals and semi-finals, a defeat at home to Sunderland and massive wins against Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United.

I figured I might get some time off around mid-May but then the search for a new manager began in earnest and there was the coverage of that still ongoing saga to consider, so that break went right out of the window.

And then the aforementioned World Cup preparation kicked in and it involved building two new Microsites and publishing thirty-six articles across three different websites, over three weeks. And doing all the daily updates on the 'running' articles and publishing the odds for all fourty-two group matches - twice.

But we're pretty much ready now. With just four days to go until the tournament kicks off, all that remains is to tidy up the sites a bit and keep checking the bookies for the best available offers.

So am I going to take a day off before we get really busy with World Cup match previews and reports? Like hell I am.

I've been involved with all the major online bookies for almost two years now but I never took the time out to have a dabble myself in that time and put into practice a system that I thought out over a year ago.

In short, despite writing at least two betting articles every week for the last nine months, I haven't had a proper bet myself for ages now. I've had a couple of small punts on tips that I've received from Flash Harry and others and I would have backed Graham Frankland's horse, Bolckow, last week but I was credit card-less at the time.

In fact, the last time I was involved in serious betting on a personal level was when I lived in South Kensington and I used to supply football tips to Christie's. I was on 25% of all winnings and I lived off that income alone for a whole season. Happy days. But it's the electronic age now and I think that we can do even better than that.

Last week the bank very kindly supplied me with a nice new shiny piece of plastic and the time has now come to make some money with it and put my betting system into operation.

Over the next five weeks, the duration of the World Cup, I will be trying out all of the major bookies and some casinos as well and trying to take full advantage of the bonuses they have on offer and turning them into cash profit.

I'm thinking right now about which bets to take for the World Cup and I'll be covering that tomorrow. But today, it's poker time and I'm going to play a few hands at 888 Pacific Poker. I like 888 because they sponsor the Boro and because it's quite easy to make a profit.

You get an instant 25% sign-up bonus, up to a maximium of $100 so that's the first thing that we need to make sure of. So this afternoon, I opened a brand new account and deposited $400 into it. That's the beauty of having a brand new credit card. You can open a new betting account and get a new start-up bonus.

I played for just over two hours and I played very cagily. I folded every starting hand that didn't include a picture card and at least a nine and I only chased a hand once and that was for a very good reason.

I used to play every Tuesday night in Maastricht, Holland and one of the regular guys was called Ron Bernstein. Now Ron used to swear by the immensely foldable starting hand of a five and an eight, even when it rolled up unsuited. It was his 'lucky hand' and it always used to work for him, every single time. So when I drew it this afternoon, I decided to abandon my cagey play and go for it. And a 7-6-9 appeared on the flop. Lovely.

But I got a bit over enthusiastic about this win and loosened up a little too much. I was on the low stakes Hold 'Em table and the blinds were 10c/5c. The object of the game for me was not to win but keep losses to a minimum and to play 100 or so hands and then cash out that bonus. I'd started with $20 and the original $400 was still in the account, along with an extra $80 from my bonus, so even if I lost the $20, I would still be well up.

I said I wanted to play 100 or so hands and that is because you used to get an extra bonus from 888 Pacific Poker when you had played that many hands. They never advertised it and I don't know if is still in force so I figured I'd find out by doing it. And if it isn't in force, no problem.

My $20 went down to $17.50 at one point and then I hit a rich vein of luck and won five hands on the trot, three of them with three of a kind. The next two deals gave me nothing and I felt the 'luck wave' had deserted me and that it was time to get out. My balance was now $22.30 and I folded out the last few hands before the blind hit me.

So my original investment of $400 has now turned into $502.30. That's $102.30 profit in two and a half hours. Looking at the account, I think I could cash out the whole lot right now and walk away with it but I want to have another game tomorrow to see if that extra bonus kicks in. If I get to 120 hands and it doesn't, I may cash out there and then. It all depends on whether the 'luck wave' comes my way again.

Tune in tomorrow evening because I'll be playing some more poker and placing some World Cup bets, starting with Victor Chandler who has a free £60 bet on at the moment.

Steve

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