Bull's Sports Betting Journal

When I was working poker promotions for ITH I found that most poker sites wanted me to find cash game players (they generate the most rake) and then reward them with tournaments - freerolls or free entries.  Those promotions were never very popular.

The most popular promotions were the rake races, promotions that rewarded cash grinders with a bonus for generating the most rake.  Now that Matthew wants to focus ITH on the core poker strategy aspect of his website, I don't think we'll be seeing any more rake races at ITH (although I don't know that for sure.)

But, you know me - I am all about the promotion/bonus/rakeback/getting-something-for-cash-game-grinding kind of guy.  Therefore, I wanted to expand on the rake race concept, so I have established a new website dedicated to monthly rake racing....(drum roll, please...)

Rake Racers!!!

I have four poker sites (all US friendly) lined up, and hope to add some more in the future.  I am also paying out to A LOT of places every race, every month, so this is an excellent opportunity for players to grab a bonus on top of their regular rakeback every month.

If you have already registered for one of those poker rooms via one of my other sites, then you are eligible for the races at Rake Racers.

The site is functional, but far from finished.  Your input is always welcome on how I can make this good idea a better reality.  I hope to see you there.

Posted by Bullajami at 07:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was on fire at the tables for most of last week.  3-tabling at Cake Poker I was finishing every session up.  My last session was a real hoot.  I jumped on a $2/4 table as the 7th player.  In the first 7 hands I went to showdown 4 times and won a big pot every time.  I busted one guy who complained at me for a while in chat and then left the table.  So, I was up 35 BB in 7 hands. 

Unfortunately, 140 hands later I was up only 2 BB, and I was now 5 for 14 at showdown.  Friggin' poker!

DogDaq is doing OK.  I got some very good feedback from some math geeks at SBR, both of whom think the methodology is sound and the math will eventually bear that out.  When I contacted them we had only 93 bets, so we had not yet reached a statistically significant threshold, but if the ROI remains similar for another 93 bets, we will reach statistical significance.  I look forward to that, and hope it comes.

On the home front, my baseball playing son, Dawg is benched for the summer.  He broke two fingers playing football in PE class at school.  The doctor wants him to be seen by an orthopedic surgeon, they may need to operate.  He managed to chip a large piece of bone off of his middle finger, and it is free-floating in the swollen mass.  Fortunately, it is not his pitching hand, but he will not be able to play for several months.

I leave for Las vegas on June 4.  Getting excited! 

Posted by Bullajami at 07:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am going to Las Vegas from 4-13 June.  This will be the longest time I have ever stayed in Vegas, and I am a little nervous that I will get burnout.  I stayed in Vegas 5 days once and I was ready to go home after 4 days, so this will definitely test my focus.

The trip just kept getting longer and longer.  My original plan was to take my brother to Vegas for a surprise birthday present from June 8-10.  He has Down's Syndrome, and I do not think either of us would do well in Vegas for more than two days given his limitations.  When I asked my Dad if he thought there was anything wrong with my plan he was so enthusiastic that I invited him to come as well.  Then my other brother got added in.  Plus a side trip to the Grand Canyon.  Then my Dad made the flight plans for them to leave Vegas LATE on the 12th, and being the master of ceremonies, I did not want to depart before them, so I am staying until the 13th.

On the front side I saw that quite a few of my ITH friends are going to be in Vegas for the first week of the WSOP.  That is THE BEST time to be in Las Vegas, so I extended my trip forward to the 4th so as to be able to spend some time with them.  That is how it got to be from teh 4th to the 13th.

I need to play some cash poker games while I am there.  Those games are so very soft, and it would be nice to get some of the trip financed from the other tourists.  I'll have two kids in private school next year, and they both need new shoes!  My best time for that will be early in the trip before my family arrives, but that is also the time I want to provide some live reports on ITHers at the WSOP, so I will need to stirke a balance. 

Plus I have to get loaded with these guys once, and I need to stay away from the tables AND THE RAIL when I do.

Many of my poker playing friends encourage me to play in the WSOP or some of the large tournaments that pop up in Vegas at WSOP time.  I have to say NO THANKS to that!  I am not a bad MTT player, but I have no desire to play 10+ hours of poker in a day anymore.  I played (and won) an ITH event at last summer's Atlantic City convention.  It was about 5 and a half hours and I was getting nutty.  I finished second in a big tournament on AP after 6.5 hours once, and I was ready to shoot myself I was so sick of playing.  There's no way I am playing my best (or even good) poker at that point, so why bother?  It's just not my cup of tea.  Give me 4 hours of cash tables and a nice long break, and I can be back at it again.

I also want to try scalping live vs internet sports bets again.  It was not good last year when I tried it, but I want to at least LOOk at it again this year.  I might score a few comps at the hotel if I can give them enough action in their SB.

Posted by Bullajami at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

DogDaq is up over 12% currently.  It should not last at that level, though.  The value of our bets is not that high - but we'll take the positive variance wherever we can get it.

I am also testing another value betting strategy I conceived.  I'll go public if it's winning after 100 bets. 

I think Matchbook Exchange is having an impact on the other online sportsbooks.  I see the lines on games change more rapidly now than in the past, and finding scalping opportunities is getting a bit tougher.  Perhaps it was like this during baseball season last year and I did not notice, but it just feels like the lines are moving faster - as if someone is sitting at the sportsbook monitoring the moving lines at Matchbook and adjusting their own lines along with them.  Maybe I am just paranoid.

I am going to be adding some monthly sportsbook specials at Bull's Betting Information.  This month it is an EXTRA 10% bonus on SportsInteraction.  

I have also been adding some content to Bull's Betting Information, so if you haven't been to the site for a while, be sure to check it out.

Since resigning/being let go at ITH, I have been looking for poker rooms to promote at Bulls Betting Information.  One method I use to do this is to participate at aa variety of online poker forums.  One forum frequently has posts for people wanting to exchange money at one poker site for money at another poker site - for a profit.  Typically a 10% mark-up.  So far I have made $40 swapping cash between poker sites.  Its like getting paid to be a forum member there.

I have found some good poker rooms to promote as well.  After getting nearly everyone who trusts my poker judgement to join at Cake Poker via ITH, I got a Cake rakeback deal for Bull's Betting Information.    (My deal is a little better, though, if you have not yet signed up.)

I also have PokerNordica for 30% rakeback.  I like that one because they put the rakeback directly into your account DAILY.  They also do not count your bonus against your rakeback.  It's not a great bonus on its own, but once you've added in the rakeback, it's a pretty sweet deal.  PokerNordica is on the Merge network.  Carbon Poker is the big room on that network - and they take US players.

I set up a different site for RedStar Poker.  The domain name Redstar-rakeback.com was available, so I grabbed it.  It's the next best room to play on the Cake network, and it has the same rakeback and bonus deals as Cake. 

My two recent poker bonus chases were the Cake reload and the initial deposit bonus at the bizarrely named Collegiate Series of Poker.  I deposited $30 at CSOP to get a $90 bonus, then I deposited another $10 when I busted the $30 playing $50 NL.  I cashed out $437 yesterday.  That site is unbelievably soft at lower NL play.

HAPPY CHASING!

Posted by Bullajami at 08:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Been feeding the fish lately playing $50 NL.  Getting called when I'm way ahead on the flop just to get outdrawn down the stretch.  I did manage to get all my money in when behind once when my pocket 99 was an overpair to the board, but I rivered my set, and busted his AA for a big pot.  What goes around comes around.  At least every once in a while.

I continue to try to improve Bull's Betting Information.  After spending weeks on SEO and seeing no real improvements in site traffic I have decided to just focus on content and organization.  If its useful, people will come.  I am tired of licking Google's boots.

I am also going to start offering some more specials.  In fact I have already got a few on the site, and I plan to get some others out there as soon as I can.  Its tough being a part time webmaster.

I am going to be in Las Vegas for 9 days in June.  4-13.  I have never been in Vegas that long before.  I will be fortunate to survive.  Really looking forward to covering the WSOP events and the friends I have playing in them during that time.  Rail support until they bust, drinking buddy thereafter.

We increased the DogDaq betting unit to 2%, and have been getting our asses kicked ever since.  Now our results look pathetic, and it's very misleading.  We were betting small when we were hot, and betting big when we were losing, so our results are all skewed.  In the long run I am still convinced we will come out ahead by 6-7%.  Hopefully that long run doesn't take forever to get here.

Posted by Bullajami at 01:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)