My latest update

Sorry guys I haven't been writing much. But April/May has been a really busy time for me. Work wise, business wise and poker wise. Just thought I dropped you guys an update as not to disappoint, and one of the new year resolutions for 2017 was to maintain a blog and post regularly.

If you haven't yet, you can follow me on Instagram where I am more regular in my posts (search for HappyRiverPoker) I have a twitter account but I rarely use it.

In April I got involved in a new platform called PPpoker. It is a club based game platform where you can play poker with friends within your club. I am involved in a club called APL (Asia Poker League - ID 11111) and we have about 850 players since it's inception 5 weeks ago. Our players come from different countries around the world, mainly Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, UK, USA and Canada. However the best part about this platform is the players are fishy as hell!

(update Feb 2018, now we have 5000 players and counting)

I have been doing really well here and now I am more of a PLO player where I find value games to play and grind it out. Since the club started 5 weeks ago, I am a good amount. I am not going to mention how much, but I must say it has made me consider quitting my job.

The problem is, many people want to play PLO but they don't know how to. What are good hands, power of position, ranges, blockers, etc. If you have the time, and the patience, and bankroll to handle the variance, you can make a killing. Out of the 850 players in the club, I am the top winner of the list.

The games are fun and available almost 24/7, action is fast and furious, fishes are plenty and fat, time for some omega 3 I say!

If you are interested to know more, please contact me on happyriverpoker@gmail.com, or add me on Instagram (happyriverpoker) or Facebook (peternegreanu@gmail.com - don't send email to this address though)

Pot Limit Omaha is like a hot bitch!

Players who have played PLO (Pot Limit Omaha) will tell you they have a love hate relationship with the game. I describe it as having a relationship with a hot bitch. Sometimes you're in heaven and you feel like the luckiest guy in the world, but at times you hate yourself for loving her. (*singing* I hate myself for loving you... can't break free from the things that you do....)

Recently I have been playing more PLO on a pppoker club (id: 11111). Things have been going okay but last night I had the biggest score.

That's me, wobuhuiwan (it means "I don't know how to play" in Mandarin) Here I'm up 4061 chips in one session. Sorry I haven't been posting much cause I have been involved in so many projects lately but having a good time. So far I have had a good month. I am up about USD 8k in poker profits and rakeback in April. I will write an Omaha article later this month I hope. I can't say I'm a good player in Omaha, but on this club, it is quite easy to win for me.

Anyway, just wanted to write an article as I recently heard that some people regularly check my blog for updates. Sorry to have disappointed you lately. I will try to write more posts when I can. This coming weekend I will be playing the main event at the Pokerstars Platinum Series in Macau. It has been a while I've played in a tournament. Hopefully I can do well and break my duck in Macau! If you know me personally, I am selling my action as well. Let me know if you're interested to buy.

Remember you can reach out to me on Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook by adding Happyriverpoker.

Latest updates, Self Ban, Online Scores, etc.

It has been a while since my last post. One of my resolutions was to keep this blog live and active. Sorry I have been really busy with life, work, poker and play. So let's get into it.

Live games: Still doing well on 5/10 but as soon as I venture to the other side and also bigger games, I got crushed. So I gave myself a ban from playing anything bigger than 5/10 until the 27th of August 2017. Haha. I have stopped for almost a month now, but let's see if I have the discipline to stay away.

Recently I played on Natural8 again. First week I did really well, I booked a USD 3k profit week and after rakeback the grand total was around USD 3600. 3rd day into the second week and I'm up USD 700 with another USD 500 or so in rakeback. This week has been grindy and rollercoaster like. This morning I was up USD 300, then down to negative 800 for the week, but I grinded it back in 4 hours and booked a 700 profit.

The games are really soft, but you gotta find your groove in it. First of all I think you need a decent bankroll. There are some pros playing as well so you gotta recognize who they are and stay away. There are so many betting patterns to pick up, after a while, it is almost playing face up against some players. There are fishes and boy they are bad! Let me share with you one of them. I am sorry to name names but the pictures show the nick clearly. I guess I can edit it out but I suck at photo editing and I really don't have the time. So please forgive me Zizon007.

Soon after playing with Zizon007, I quickly realized that he was playing really badly and I think he was tilted too. Just from playing 1/2, he lost 2-3k in one hour or so. So I targeted him. Isolated him whenever I can.

First one was this hand. He raise pre UTG and I called with 99 on the small blind. I flopped top set with 3 clubs. I check raised him, he calls. Turns I boat up. So I checked to him. He shoves on me! Jack high flush draw, I showed super strength check raising the flop. Anyways I obliged and boom. $414 pot.

 Soon after he was pretty tilted I suppose. Preflop he raised on the sb, I reraised with my queens. He shoves, I snap. Pretty standard steam play I guess! Thanks Zizon007

Today I played this hand and I think I played it reasonably well. Villain is an aggressive player, likes to make moves so I elected to just flat his 3b in position. Flop I hit top pair. He bets pretty small, I just call. turn I boat up so I check behind. River he checks. I thought the best way to extract maximum value is to shove and hope for a call. And he did! Quads baby!

Anyway, pretty good 2 weeks so far. I hope it goes on. I am playing fearless poker and I think I might have found my online style. Let's not get too excited just yet, but I will keep you guys updated!

Sign up at Natural8.com using the code FREEBONUS for great rakebacks and bonuses! Or add me on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook by searching "Happyriverpoker"

Poker in Seoul - REVIEW

A while back I wrote something about this already but I just came back from Seoul so I thought I give another update.

Seoul is freaking cold in winter, but it is a nice city overall. Very modern, although I still feel a bit behind compared to Tokyo, but has a nice mix of culture, history and modern metropolitan. The people rarely speak English, and when they do, usually at native level because many Koreans grew up in America or Canada are now back in Seoul. 

 Nice to hold a 1 million chip!

The first poker room is at Paradise Casino (Walkerhill). Every taxi driver knows Walkerhill. Can't miss it. They even have free shuttle buses from Gangbyeon Subway station and Gwangnaru Subway station) Games are 1000/2000 and 2000/5000 (about USD 1/2, 2/5) and there's a bad beat jackpot that gets up to USD 20k at times. Games are quite soft, action is decent, not a lot of pros on 1/2.

 I've got the NUTS!

One thing I like about this room is free drinks (even alcohol) and free frozen yogurt, and I like mine with nuts! Usually people would tip the waitress $1 but that's still not bad. Great service, dealers are pretty fast, games are 24/7, highly recommend.

There's another casino called Seven Luck, they have a poker room too, but games are sporadic, and I have not played there myself. But it is centrally located in Gangnam.

Happy New Year and New Year Resolutions

Happy New Year everyone wherever you are! Thanks for your continued support of me and my blog. I will continue to update it with interesting sharings and poker stories.

2016 was an up-and-down year for me.

2016 Snapshot

- I kept my blog active
- Made new poker friends (Alec Torelli, Lo Shing Fung, Robbie Strazynski, etc)
- Kept my instagram active
- I have a new "mascot"

 My new "mascot" in action

- I have improved my game - I got myself a coach! 

- 70% winning rate at my home game

- 1 Final Table out of 11 tourneys (not great)

- Mixed results in Macau

Goals for 2017

- Continue to improve my game
- Travel for poker but stay away from Macau
- Improve my discipline
- Improve my memory and mental stamina
- Save up for a month-long trip to Vegas

HappyRiverPoker is on Twitter!

I have never used Twitter, but here you go, my first tweet.

Follow me on @HappyRiverPoker

Can A Shark Talk to A Fish?

I wonder how do they communicate....

First of all today is a cold cold day, not weather wise, emotional wise. Love brings you high, and sometimes low too, and sometimes you get misunderstood but you mean well and want the best for your relationship and the person you love but they think you don't love them.... sorry, I got carried away.

I guess that leads very well into my topic today. Imagine talking about relationship problems with a little boy and he will say "girls are ewwww", talk to a teenager and he will start to salivate, (sorry to my homo-sexual readers but this is a general statement), those in puppy love will tell you how great love is, those in long term or had long term relationships will say it is a roller coaster of commitment, sacrifice, compromise and acceptance....etc 

In my regular game there are a few guys, their poker logic is so funny. I tried to talk to a fish about strategy and it was like talking to a toddler! I am not a shark by any means, but I am not a fish either. It is really frustrating, ironic, funny and conflicted when you are talking to them. It's almost like having a twitter war with Donald Trump. The arguments they throw at you is so laughable but you don't want to laugh, so illogical but you don't want to point out their flaws (as we all love fishes just the way they are) but at the same time you're like WTF!!?!?! 

The irony is you love them as they think they are good players, or try to speech play or hollywood the table, but you're also tempted to put them in their spot and send them to the kiddies table. So another key to being a great poker pro is you have to patronize your fishes, feed their ego, bottle up your emotions. 

Sorry just a random rant. Good luck!