A few blogs ago, I expressed my plans to get back into playing more online poker, as well as to check out some new poker rooms and networks along the way. I'm hoping the changes in scenery and new goals will help me put more time in at the tables. While playing at these new rooms, I plan to play a multitude of poker games and formats, while taking some notes and giving my thoughts on what I like and don't like at each room in future blogs. I'm currently waiting on a cash out from my poker room of choice, and once I receive it, I begin to set my plans in motion.

The other day I was trying to come up with criterion in regards to how to review these rooms. While it may not be my “stress-free, relaxing” game of choice, NL 6-max is my strongest game. But I've also had quite a bit of experience and some success in SnG and MTT formats. And I started out playing Limit Hold 'em online, and always found the “Mixed” poker games to be challenging and fun, so there is interest for me there as well. So along with going over their game types and poker software, I also plan on taking into account the sign up process and “first deposit experience”. I think one problem that is often overlooked is the hurdles many US players need to jump over to make their first deposit. Often times it can take up to a week or two with your money in limbo before you know it's been successfully deposited to your poker account, and you can finally sit down and start playing some poker. And of course, along with “first deposit experience”, I am going to be taking into account the withdrawal process from each room. This has been a cause for much consternation among US players in recent months. My current poker room of choice should probably expedite my withdrawal from last week so I can get this project started, lest they receive a poor review from me in this department later! =)

So now I've come here, to ask anyone out there in PAS-land, if there is any particular area you would like to know more about from a player's perspective at online poker rooms. Are there any poker rooms or networks you'd like to hear more about? Do you care about the quality of the software of a poker room, or just the quality of the games? Perhaps you've heard the tournament structures are “bad” at one room and you'd like to hear another opinion or some comparison between rooms? Please let me know in the Comments section below if there are any rooms you'd be particularly interested in hearing about, or if there are specific areas you'd like me to pay special note to while I take my tour of the 2011 online poker world. Thanks.

A few days ago, a co-worker asked me what my strategy was in handling the really disgruntled customers. You know the type, the players that, at times, submit some really angry, downright nasty support tickets and emails. I feel that one thing that helps me manage, is recognizing that the majority of the time our medium for communication with our players and customers is the internet. It is difficult to convey one's tone in text over the web, and couple that with the fact that dealings are not face-to-face, and it's a little easier to understand how a disgruntled customer can easily come off as aggressive. Also, many complaints revolve around money and poker. As someone who has logged over 2M hands of online poker, I understand how emotional someone can become when the cards don't fall their way. And when money is involved, emotions often become amplified. Being able to recognize this allows me to let the more personal criticisms roll off my back.

If a player is especially angry, heated, or nasty, I typically go over other support requests and come back to the “angry” guy. Things never seem as angry or personal when reading them over the second time around. Another method I use to appease a disgruntled customer is something I learned a few summers ago when working in the dining room of a high end spa and resort. Often time’s customers simply wanted to be treated with respect, and recognized with a little personal attention. After all, they are the ones that make a business run, and sometimes customers just want some recognition that the company needs them.

Something else I learned at that old summer job was if someone is especially offensive, I try to be overly polite, and explain the entire situation. Giving out minor details in regards to how a process is run, instead of a just a blanket response of “we are working on it” or “it will be done soon”, helps to foster understanding between the customers and the company. Often times in the course of text correspondence, things are overlooked or forgotten. At times I'll receive complaints that a player only received a Freeroll invitation 3-4 days before the tournament. They didn't check their email until now, and forgot about and/or missed out on the Freeroll tournament. Now they are livid that we did not provide them with adequate notice. When this happens, I very politely let them know that the email is just a friendly extra reminder, and provide them a link to the rakeback page where all Freerolls and events are typically posted 3-4 weeks in advance. Back when I was more involved in playing online tournaments, I would often have Post-its stuck to the four corners of my monitor, scribbled notes, and multiple cell phone alarms set for different times of the day when various tournaments and freerolls were going off.

All-in-all, dealing well with a disgruntled customer comes down to patience, politeness, and understanding. You need to put yourself in the players' shoes, and try to imagine where they were, and in what state of mind they would have been when they fired off that angry email. Understanding the customers' predicament, while responding politely and informing them of the current situation has helped me to disarm many tense situations and foster a better relationship with our players and customers.

So now that it's a new year, I was coming up with a list of changes I plan on making to improve my quality of life in 2011. Some might call these “resolutions”. There were the standard changes any online poker player could likely come up with...play more hands, study the game more, get outside, play more hands, eat healthier and exercise, spend more time with family and friends, and of course...play more hands!

Something else I came up with, was that I wanted to check out some new poker rooms in the new year. In the “Golden Age” of online poker, I probably had accounts at 20 or more different poker sites. In the past couple of years, mainly due to VIP programs and rakeback, I only maintained active accounts at 1 or 2 poker rooms at a time. I wasn't really giving other rooms a fair shot, or checking out any new, fun promotions that may be more interesting than the same old things I was used to by playing at the same online poker room all of the time.

So one of my goals has become to open up some new poker accounts at new online rooms, and new networks that I don't currently play on in 2011. That got me thinking a bit more...

What do YOU want to see from us in 2011? Is there a certain network that you think we should work to promote more? Are there new poker rooms or skins that your players have been inquiring about that you want us to add? What about promotions? Everyone does rake races and freerolls. Would you just like to see more rake races and larger freeroll prize pools? Or are there new promotions that you feel your players would enjoy in 2011. Please feel free to leave comments, as we'd love to have a discussion and hear your thoughts on new offers and poker rooms. Happy New Years.

Through years of playing poker, I have found that the most effective way to keep you motivated is to create challenging, but attainable goals for yourself. By playing multiple tables of poker day in and day out, your game, mindset, and abilities can become stale. The game, as almost anything, can become monotonous after awhile. To combat this, at the beginning of each month, I would look ahead to see what vacations, holidays, or events were going on, then decide what was a reasonable number of hands I could play in a month (I'd usually settle around 55K hands, not counting tournaments hands.)

Early on I learned from some successful middle stakes No-Limit Hold 'em online pros that you cannot set your goals based on monetary numbers in poker. Those things are out of your control at times in the poker world. It's much like a sales job, sometimes you make the big sale and receive a large commission and other times it's a bunch of small sales where you turn your profits. Then there are other times, no matter how good your sales pitch is, and no matter how many clients you reach out to, your product just won't sell and you don't make any money. So when you ARE setting goals for yourself, set goals that YOU can control the outcome of. I can control my mindset at the tables, the number of hours spent at the tables, and the number of hands I choose to play. I cannot choose whether or not I will win a particular hand.

And as in sales and poker, the affiliate world of online poker is much of the same. You cannot set monetary goals as to how much money you would like to make in a month. You can, however, spend time marketing and reaching out to customers, making correct choices, and putting yourself in the right positions to earn more money. I've found this way to approaching goals as much less stressful, and just as rewarding. I feel a great sense of accomplishment knowing I pushed myself a little further to reach my goals. Most people would only feel frustration if they failed to reach a monetary goal, when the important thing is that you've put in the time, worked hard at it, and made the correct choices along the way to put yourself in the position to make money. The money will come eventually if you work at your business and make the right decisions.

I can preach all I want about how important it is to set goals for one, but the truth is I have slacked off myself the past few months. With the nice weather going away, students back at school (and back at the poker tables!), and the holiday season in full swing, I have found less time than ever to dedicate to actually sitting down and playing poker. For a couple of weeks now I have been tossing around ideas and goals that I wanted to set for myself in 2011. Some of them are related to number of hands, or multi-table tournaments played in. The others involve improving my game, trying out some new online poker rooms, and trying to get more of my family and friends involved in online poker. I encourage anyone reading this to do the same going forward, and set some difficult, but attainable goals for you. Here's to hoping we all have a very profitable 2011.

Although there’s been some unpleasant news in the Online Poker world as of late, with the backing out of the state of Washington by Full Tilt, and the temporary closure of eWalletXpress, I’ve always found this time of year to be fun, exciting, and hopefully, a very profitable time of year for the online poker player.

Typically, starting this week and going forward into the first few weeks of the New Year, there are many aspects of online poker that are amplified during this time of year. Online poker rooms are doing everything they can to add to their bottom line and their customer base before the end of 2010. We will hopefully see a lot of bonuses and promotions being offered with a holiday theme that will help to get both new and existing players to the tables. I’ll always remember back to when I started playing online poker, and scheduling my days around Christmas break based upon what promotion Interpoker was offering, or what bonuses from Party or Paradise I needed to clear before New Year’s Eve.

Another interesting dynamic that takes place during this time of year, is the type of poker players we see, and see more of around the holidays. There is always an influx of the regular “grinders” who are trying to hit that next VIP level, or earn enough points to reach Supernova or whatever other year end goal they set for themselves as a poker player. (Side note, I will far well short of Carbon Ether…maybe in 2011!) I’ve seen players put in some insane volume in past Decembers, sometimes doubling their monthly average totals and playing well over 100K hands in a month! There is also a large increase in casual players this time of year, as suddenly students have some free time now that they are home for the holidays and have no classes or exams hanging over their heads. They also sometimes have some increased disposable entertainment money burning a hole in their collective pockets after they visit grandma and grandpa!

All in all, I’ve always found this to be an interesting and fun time of year for online poker. I’m hoping we see an increase in holiday themed promotions for December that will give players of all types (myself included), a little added incentive to visit the tables and push forward to reach all of their poker goals in 2010.