Winning a PTQ with White Weenie
Since 2004 i am playing Pro Tour Qualifiers trying to win a seat in one of the biggest prestige Magic tournaments around. Every year i was making the PTQ’s top-8 atleast once, but never i was able to take the slot. Time has changed. Last weekend i won a PTQ and qualified for Pro Tour Amsterdam 2010! Awesome! This is like every competitive magic players dream, playing the Magic Pro Tour. How did i get there?
The White Weenie deck can be a uber agro and beat most decks if they have a subpar draw (Luck for the win?). Its a very consistent deck and after adding Elspeth it started to take off, but still it was loosing a lot to Jund and U/W Control. After going 0-2 in PTQ Aachen, i cut the Kor Firewalkers for more flyers and replaced Path to Exiles with Harm’s Way to make the deck even more agressive, this is the way to battle Jund, more pressure then they can remove.
My PTQ decklist:
Toleria White(RoE Standard)
4 Steppe Lynx
4 White Knight
4 Knight of the White Orchid
4 Kor Skyfisher
4 Student of Warfare
3 Kor Aeronaut
4 Honor of the Pure
4 Brave the Elements
4 Harms Way
4 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
13 Plains
4 Marsh Flats
4 Arid Mesa
Sideboard:
4 Devout Lightcaster
4 Silence
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Day of Judgment
Is the gaming industry keeping us on Windows?
Games, I like playing games. The thing is most games are only for Windows. Everyone knows Microsoft created a unfair advantage over other computer operating system providers in the 90′s. They are a trailed and accused monopolist, but time is changing and other platforms are gaining momentum. So, why aren’t most games being developed cross-platform? Does the gaming industry really think there isn’t any money in the other 6-7% computer platforms? Maybe they are right, but this really going to stay a chicken or the egg problem. If nobody develops the games for the other platforms then they wont grow as a gaming platform at all. Keeping me stuck on Windows.
This got me thinking, how are the game console developers handling this? They have to program games for at least three different consoles. Wii, PS3 and Xbox. Those don’t share a lot in the architecture department, meaning they need to be programmed differently. You’d figure company’s like Electronic Arts have to know how to create cross platform games. Take a look at their Need for Speed product page and see which platforms its supports: iPhone, Wii, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Nintendo DS, PSP. Why is Mac OS X and Linux missing? How hard can it be to support another two major platforms? Makes me think, is Microsoft telling them not too? Lets not get too paranoid…
Come on gaming industry lets get Mac OS X and Linux into the mix! If a Indy gaming house like Guild Software can develop a game (Vendetta Online) for three platforms, why aren’t the big boys doing this then?
But there is also some good news. Valve recently announced Steam is also going to support the Mac platform. Also Blizzard has a good reputation of supporting the Mac OS X platform. So some are heading into the right direction although Linux could use some more love.
A lot of people are daily using Macs and Linux for both work and entertainment, but for gaming most of the time they need to switch to Windows. Windows is still the biggest gaming platform. I don’t understand why the gaming industry keeps betting on one player. They are helping Microsoft to stay the biggest player in the market. Don’t they know Microsoft is a competitor of them in the gaming field? Fools i tell you, just plain fools…
The game of Poker
And with poker i mean Texas hold’em. Texas hold’em is one of the biggest hype’s of the last decade. Everyone is playing poker these days, aren’t you? I started playing poker in 2007. There a couple of things that made me interested in poker. Overall it’s a lot of math and commonsense, but even better it’s a big competitive massive multiplayer online game you can play any time of the day. It’s a game of skill, not luck. Therefor its not gambling, although a lot of people think it is. Of course it’s gambling in the short term, but i am pretty sure its a skill game in the long run.
I used to play cash games until i was on tilt a couple of times. Lost most of my winnings in matter of minutes. Each time this was around four months of daily grinding the low blind levels, a hard lesson. The conclusion is that cash games are not for me. They need a lot of patience and emotion control at all times. So tournament poker is the only type of poker that i play these days.
Winning
Most of the player lose money while playing poker, some people say 60% of the poker players lose money, 30% play even and only 10% win money in the long run.
Seems i am on the winning side as my online tournament statistics show since 2007:
Nickname: Quazion
Total Winnings: $3,925
Profit: $1,053
Return of investment: 37%
Average buyin: $5.95
Average number of players: 1315
In the money: 11%
Strategy
If you are interested in playing poker, be sure to read up some strategy guides on the Internet. A good way to get up and running quickly is to read some books about poker. I wanted to develop my own poker style and skill set. Therefor i haven’t read any poker books. Although this is working out. It will be easier and more profitable if you read some good books early on. In the end your poker style will be a combination of all your past poker knowledge.
Bankroll Management
Bankroll Management is the second most or maybe even the most important part in poker. You don’t want to go broke, just because your having a bit of bad luck. Master this!
Where to play poker
Pokerstars.com is the best site play to play poker if you ask me. A insane amount of people are playing there all the time, nearly 280.000 online at the moment of writing. It will be easy to find players in any game type and or buy-in. Other poker sites can be slow in filling tournaments and such, not pokerstars. Every hour new tournaments start with thousands of players. Smaller tournaments like the 180 player maximum can fill up in minutes. Other poker sites often try to lure you into unprofitable casino games. Like PartyPoker for example keeps flashing the Blackjack in your face, not Pokerstars.com its a nice and clean site.
Really i suggest you start playing at Pokerstars.com and forget all those other sites, unless your a poker professional and know what kind of people and games you are looking for.
Cashing out
A lot of people don’t trust poker sites or anything else in the internet with their money. Do you ever get it back? I can confirm that most online poker sites are very trustworthy. On multiple sites i have withdrawn funds back to my private bank account or my online Neteller account. Often this is done with in about three working days.
