Occasionally it becomes necessary to do some ‘house cleaning’; however, as we are all aware, it is imperative to remember our roots. One of the steps to achieving this goal is to tidy up the blog. We decided that instead of removing and deleting older posts, we would combine and republish the old posts, keeping their message as intended. We will neither make changes nor edits to any entry and preserve our history. We will retain all images associated with each post. The only adjustment will be the addition of the original date of the post.
Enjoy this journey through our online poker history that you have made possible.
Part 1 – January 1st, 2017 through February 14th, 2017
Originally posted: February 1st, 2017
Welcome to the GGPoker blog!
Welcome! Chip up, chill out and have a relaxing read of the new GGPoker blog.
The new GGPoker site is live, and in the coming weeks the full GGPoker app will follow and throw its doors open to the public.
We can’t wait to share with you all that we’ve been busy working on behind the scenes – we’ve tons of unique features and promotions planned, all with our distinct GGPoker flavour J
We’ll be using the blog to post regular updates about competition winners, things we like and care about, interesting facts about poker and its history and future, as well as development updates about what we’ve got coming for you further down the line. It’s nice to have a less formal channel to be able to be a bit more casual with you.
If there’s anything you’d like to see us cover or that you think would be good to include, please let us know – what do you want to see?
Here’s to the future!
DaveD
Originally posted: February 2nd, 2017
Poker Careers: The Pro Streamer
What do people look for in a Twitch poker pro? A driven individual with a strong personality fits the mold. Out-of-this-world poker skill is a plus but not a complete necessity. In fact, that could be the conceit of your stream. Fans watch you grow as a player, and with it the stream and the numbers.
There’s no typical media-savvy pro. From the cocky and shy to the smart guy in shades and headphones silent at the far end of the table, each applies their own, oftentimes unique, winning methods. A strong web presence and social media literacy is another must in this age of 24-7 updates and endless content churn.
Having only one or two of the four central tennents is OK starting off, and it’s a long road to the top with plenty of learning curves and pitstops.
The four pillars of poker wisdom
- Fundamentals
- Moving on up
- Content is king
- How do you get to Carnegie hall?
1. The basics
Master them or risk being mastered yourself. Every budding drummer dreams of pounding skins with machine-gun blasts from the get-go. Painful as it may be, every maniacal thumper from Moon to Bonham gave innumerable hours to the practice pads, drilling rudiments to their deepest neural clusters until even the most complicated maneuvers became instinctive. Quick off the mark, that split-second response time that separates the good from the great is your aim as a drummer; as a poker player, it might be the ability to quickly analyse a situation and make your decision keeping in mind hand ranges, equity and everything else.
Beginner’s luck kills. New players can throw off veterans with their styleless play, as yet displaying no familiar traits, which can lead to big initial wins and a disastrous premature rising of stakes. Spend time learning rules and jargon, be the know-it-all at every table, talk to other players and be involved in your community. When you play poker for real money, the micros is where it’s safe to make mistakes and learn bankroll management.
2. Moving on up.
For highly-skilled players the micros will soon lose their lustre. Provided you’ve completed the first step, you’re ready to ascend to stage 2, where your hard-learned Phase One bankroll management tips are truly tested. Always stay within levels you are beating and can afford.
3. Content, content, content
When creating your Twitch poker profile, consider composing a strong introductory or welcoming statement. Let people know the real ‘you’ or at least the one they’ll see on stream. Why should a visitor choose your stream over another? This is the angling stage. Once someone is hooked, you’ve got yourself another fully-formed subscriber.
Archive past streams. Chop the best and funniest moments into easily shareable social media links. Share previews of upcoming content. Ask questions, encourage feedback to find what your community like and want jettisoned.
If you’re having a hard time getting feedback, share a survey and give tickets in return for completing it. When you’re busy and can’t stream post updates, let them know! KTITK, or #KeepThemInTheKnow.
4. Practice
Practice is the binding glue. Practice is what goes on off-stream in the thankless offline hours, with no subs to show for your effort. The days you wake feeling bleary-eyed, wanting nothing more than to switch off the computer, don’t. This is where you prove who wants it more. All those nappers can’t possibly be practicing simultaneously, right?
Having followed the instructions to the letter, with some favour from the poker gods, you’re well on the way to success. Additionally, know your value and never lowball yourself, but stay grounded, if you’re still grinding with only two followers, nobody is going to give that golden ticket for free.
Remember nobody ever lost from trying.
Set goals, follow these steps and we’ll see you on the Twitch poker partners page. Focus on long-terms goals and allow today’s failures to wash over you.
Originally posted: February 2nd, 2017
8 of the Greatest Adult Card Games
Move over, younglings. Full Jedi only on this one. Made men exclusive. ADULTS ONLY.
With the world of Rugrats swept carpetwise, let’s concern ourselves with the mature cheddar of adult card games.
1. Cards Against Humanity
When I hear stories of people playing this over Christmas with grandparents and wider family, I shrink back into my collar and wonder how. Hilarious, cringeworthy and nauseating in equal measure, this game is monopoly’s sordid cousin. More test of familial bonds than mere amusement.
Playing is simple; fill blank spaces on cards to form offensive sentences. Winners triumph, while revealing their inner docker’s tongue. Losers enjoy the debasement of close associates. Guaranteed to destroy what frayed strands of your paternal relationships remain. The last time I played, an apparition of the ghost of my childhood innocence shrieked through the air like a mist bullet and exited via the chimney.
If it’s not the question about Harry Potter’s chocolate starfish, it’s something worse. Due to immense popularity, additional card sets and boosters can be purchased to re-filthify the vanilla game.
2. Exploding Kittens
No, not the title of a darkweb video. Not a crappy hipster band singing about crustless sandwiches and typewriters either. July 2015’s Exploding Kittens matches the Deer Hunter bullet for bullet when it comes to Roulette, only with cats instead of colts. Famously raising over $8.7 million on Kickstarter, this product from the Oatmeal’s finest minds was evidently lacking from the public consciousness.
It’s simple to play. SIMPLE LIKE A CAT! Cards on the table, take turns drawing. If you draw a boom boom, you get boomed and everybody spends ages peeling you off the wall like stubborn gum. You’re out of the game from here on. BUT there’s also defuse cards, laser pointers, catnip sandwiches and more feline miscellany than one can shake a ball of yarn at – anything to lead those pesky pussycats and their ticking tummies away. Skip your turn, force other player’s hands, secretly relocate cards. The fun never stops.
There’s a million ways to die and only a couple to live. Always chaos.
3. Citadels
Citadels, like Lords of Waterdeep, is a game of courtly intrigue. Play as rogues, merchants, adherents of dark arcana, pious clergymen and fearsome plated knights, each vying for control of their sector.
Each player receives a character card to start their turn, each with their own unique abilities. Consisting of three possible actions, a turn can go quickly – choose wisely.
Character cards are then shuffled and returned to the centre at end of each round. So on and so on, guilefully trying to ensure you get the character you both want and need to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and bask in the golden glow of their burning citadels.
In fact, I’d go so far as to say that Citadels is simply Waterdeep lite, keeping the same rough frame and fantasy art style, with less rules and game pieces.
4. Yu-gi-oh
Again, arguable whether it’s designed for adults or kids. If complexity be the measure, it’s for people 70 years+. Countless, ever-changing rules, monsters mutating in real-time – the works. The glory days of Yu-Gi-Oh was during my childhood, shortly after the first western syndication of the show. A simpler age with fewer monsters, fewer arch-villains and generally less arbitrary complexity.
Relinquished, a thousand-eyed floating deathball which releases a noxious miasma as it glides, still haunts my nightmares.
5. Magic the Gathering
Remiss not to mention the big bold. A game of fantasy and intrigue, for the arch-nerds and super competitive collectors among us. Even Bryn Kenney, ultra high-roller, apex predator and general poker monarch, got his start icing fools at MTG comps with Planewalker Nicol Bolas.
I remember my mother buying a booster pack of MTG cards in Nimble Fingers, our local craft shop, and being totally transfixed by the card art and stark, arcane descriptions. An indelible impression, no doubt.
6. Footie stickers
Why have regular footballers when you can have miniature paper ones with gluey spines? Best of both worlds.
Swap ‘em, trade ‘em, buy ‘em. Beg mum and dad, just one more packet. After all, you’ve been so well-behaved all week.
A typical childhood scene. Want stickers? Behave. Behaving? Oh well, you had to have inwardly wanted to behave for it to count, otherwise you’re only doing it as instructed.
Buying stickers to fill books might be childish to a point, but there’s no denying the satisfaction as you colour every empty frame with icons of your favourite athletes. If you don’t want to look strange, just have a kid and pretend he wants the stickers. If he complains out loud in the shop that he doesn’t like sports, a fact you’re aware of, buy him sweets until the problem goes away and you can be home alone with Alan Shearer.
7. Hold’em/Omaha/Strip Poker
I fear further expounding on my part upon the virtues of Strip Poker should leave me looking deviant. Taking what motes of dignity are left in hand, holding them like the final embers of the last fire, I’ll instead point vigilant readers toward our previous post wherein I – ahem – undressed the game.
Hold’em is the Cadillac of poker. Played from the smoky dens of South East Asia to the lofty, palatial homes of the 1%, Hold’em is the great leveler. Given our name and penchant, there’s tons of info on the website, from a dictionary of table spiel to a ‘poker school 101’. Check it out:
Omaha
Poker’s darker cousin. T’other side of the coin. Omaha is doubtless the second most popular variant offered, differing from Hold’em on several key points:
- Four, not two, hole cards are dealt
- In Omaha, players must make the best possible hand using exactly two of their hole cards (no more and no less) and three from the five community cards
8. Cranium Dark
One sees dark and immediately imagines a nemesis clad in black, the opposite of a starkly white iteration. Not so, it’s dark in the sense of being intended for a more mature audience. Vanilla Cranium contains different rounds involving singing, molding clay and charades. Cranium Dark is a twisted charade, literally. Not only must you act out, or articulate, the action on your card, but must do so while performing another action, which will either be complimentary or distracting. The cards, black-backed action cards and white-backed charade cards, are shuffled and put into play. You might end up a drill sergeant describing a fashion show, or gyrating like a dancer while miming Godzilla – always fun.
Concluding statements
It’s a gamers world now. Board games shops on the high street. Nerdcore as the popular cultural fashion of the day. Million dollar esport prizes. Stadium shows. Maybe even groupies, or GrouPlaystation as the case may be.
It’s a brave new world if you’re a dice-throwing, button-mashing, Twitch-streaming looney, with ample opportunities to walk professional avenues to the bigtime.
Back in the day, being good at Mario speedrunning gave you pallid skin and crooked fingers. Now, you can get famous with just microphones and a Twitch channel. Ride your skills to the bigtime, capitalize on momentum, stick with it.
Some helpful tips for any young upstart, a hardy buck looking to make a name:
- Seek endorsement from respected brands – brands selling products you not only use, but believe in
- Create a patreon channel
- Create extra features for Twitch subs, encourage actions such-like
That’s all for now.
Mike at GGPoker
Part 2 – February 15th, 2017 to March 31st, 2017
Whether you’re a fan of high-stakes cash games or the excitement of multi-table poker tournaments, GGPoker is the premier destination for poker enthusiasts. For those aiming to compete for a prestigious WSOP bracelet, push through the ranks for a WSOP Circuit ring, or simply hone their strategies in classic poker formats, GGPoker has something for everyone. The platform offers a seamless online poker experience, with innovative features like Smart HUD, PokerCraft, and integrated staking, designed to elevate your game. Whether you’re grinding your way up in daily cash games or competing for life-changing prizes in major online series, GGPoker provides the best environment to play, improve your poker skills, and succeed in the world of online poker. And if you are not sure where to start, you can always play free poker games and learn at the GGPoker School.