Timing

I closed my Finspreads account last week in a fit of pique. For some months I'd had trouble logging on during the afternoon at work. In addition, the home Finspreads page insisted on loading a pile of Flash and ActiveX shit that caused problems for my work computer. The last straw was when I kept seeing a "phone only" indicator on a stock that I wanted to close. I eventually e-mailed them and they said in response that I should clear all cookies and temp files.

I'm usually hesitant to do this, but I was wiling to give them the benefit of the doubt. I tried it. It made no differences -- apart from the fact that I suddenly remembered all the cookies that I needed.

So, I e-mailed them back, said that their advice was crap, that it had wasted my time, and that I was closing my account.

I had planned to open up an account with Cantor Index, but this morning the opportunity arose to trade currencies without opening up a new account.

Lo and behold:

PartyGaming launches alliance with City Index


PartyGaming Plc ('PartyGaming'), the world's leading listed online gaming company, announces the launch of PartyMarkets.com, a platform for financial spread-betting and contracts for difference (CFDs), created through an exclusive alliance with City Index Group ('City Index'), a world leader in leveraged retail derivative trading.


Under the terms of the alliance, City Index will develop this online trading platform giving PartyGaming customers access to financial markets around the globe through which they can trade CFDs in the UK, Europe and Asia, with the additional option of financial spread betting for UK residents.

Not sure how they are going to bypass the know your customer and regulatory rules on this. You can let anyone open an online poker account, but it's different in the land of spread betting. But it's a nice little capital-efficient possibility for me, as the money in my Party account will now, I hope, do two jobs -- fund both online poker and online currency trading. Kosher.

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Jan-June 2008

Very much a tale of two quarters. And, although I probably ran better in Q1 than in Q2, I suspect that much of the reason for the bad performances in April (minus $300) and May (plus $300) was down to two factors. Hubris, and rakeback/bonuses.

Basically, I focused too much on 'just turning up". This led to the "play 150 hands" or "play 300 hands" line of thought. This in turn led to lazty play (usually making a bad call preflop out of sheer boredom). When your stats creedp up from 17/12 to 21/12, you know that you are going wrong somewhere -- particularly if your numbers are in the red.

So, from looking to be on target for $18K this year, with table winnings making up 65% or so of that, I find myself at the end of June in roughly the same position for FY 2007. On target for $9K to $10K, with rakeback and bonuses making up the majority of my winnings. Disappointing.

Aims for second half: To be able to play at the same level for 400 hands as I can for 100 hands -- which usually means not looosening up too much pre-flop because I get bored.

Site Notes: Betfred and NoIQ are the same site -- the IP network. On NoIQ I am still winning big over my whole time there. But for this year, BetFred is stomping all over it.

Party; I went a grand down in my first three days in January (around mid-Jan). Once that is taken into account, it's not a bad performance. The new bonus system seems to be serving me well.

Pacific: Oh that all games were like Pacific's at the weekend. Unfortunately there just isn't the liquidity there. I have to accept that the majority of my games will be against tight-passive players, with the occasional tight-agressive player who should really be at higher stakes, and the very occasional total fish. At the weekends, things are infinitely easier, and patience is all that you need. From Monday to Friday between 6pm and 9pm, I have to win the money from people who are probably playing just as much, if not more, than me. Just a quickl look at the percentage VPIPs and pot sizez n Stars or Party or IP Network is enough to show you this. My daily stats reflect this, with small wins on two midweek days, a small loss on one and a big loss on another. Friday, a tough day last year, is my second-best one this year. Saturday, my best day last year, is a really bad day this year. Sunday continues to be Mr Softee day, particularly Sunday morning up to noon, when there seem to be a number of casual players just mucking about for an hour.

IP Network: Tough, tight, rakeback and bonus land, to be frank. You get the occasional loose game, but it doesn't last long. Luckily, most of the players at my level are tight-passive and can be read fairly easily

	Data	BONUS	$50	$100	FREEROLL	$200	RAKEBACK	$400	Grand Total
PTY	Sum of Win	$480	$783	-$1,339		$9	$105		$38
	Sum of HOURS	0.00	62.60	27.06		1.75	0.00		91.41
FTP	Sum of Win	$300			$26				$326
	Sum of HOURS	0.00			1.00				1.00
NO_IQ	Sum of Win		-$345	-$201		-$261	$853		$46
	Sum of HOURS		27.60	77.59		38.00	0.00		143.19
BetFred	Sum of Win	$1,312	$9	$1,452	$25	$868		$7	$3,672
	Sum of HOURS	0.00	17.55	100.85	1.00	21.50		0.25	141.15
Pokerstars	Sum of Win	$120	$103	-$87					$136
	Sum of HOURS	0.00	29.65	10.59					40.24
Pacific	Sum of Win	$107	$247	$41					$395
	Sum of HOURS	0.00	15.30	8.75					24.05
	TOTAL WIN	$2,319	$796	-$135	$51	$616	$958	$7	$4,613
	Total Hours	0.00	152.70	224.84	2.00	61.25	0.00	0.25	441.04

And here's the chart for the year so far.