Current belt status
Your current belt level. Each belt level has an associated monthly maintenance cost (in belt points) that are required to maintain your belt level at the end of the month.
Black Belt Poker Grading Group
Group Info
Grading starts:
1st Feb 2010
Grading ends:
14th Match 2010
On Monday, January 18, 2010, players commenced a Pre-Grading Selection Week in order to earn entry into the 2010 Black Belt Poker Grading. 20 players completed the requested hours, thus becoming the Dublin Two-O. Up for grabs are three Irish Open packages worth €6,500 and promotion to Blue Belt status. Watch this space to follow their progress as it happens!
Members
Gerard Harraghy
Jamie Burland
Javed Ghazi
Ermyas (uSayMrE) Birru
ramsey ajram
Nikhil Persaud
Andy (Redkite) Brisland
Joe Roberts
Rob Jarrett-Smith
Kevin Williams
Mike Carroll
Jennifer Mason
Gavin (TFMonty007) Hall
lee clarke
Mike (sceaga2) Shaw
Owen (Ruaction) Robinson
Simon Mairs
Martin Rice
richard hinds
John 'LuckBeerLady' Hayes
Adam 'Snoopy' Goulding
Carey (CareybearBBP) Hollick
Black Belt Poker Grading Group
9 May
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John 'LuckBeerLady' Hayes posted on  26 Mar, 5:55pm
LIVE TOURNAMENTS

Anyone got plans for a live tourney appearance with their points in April yet? Would be great if a few of us coincided somewhere again - you can never have too many last longers to battle for, after all.....
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Andy (Redkite) Brisland posted on 11 Apr, 11:43pm
Congrats on the Cash , massive field to get through !
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Andy (Redkite) Brisland posted on 15 Apr, 8:35pm
Whoa just seen the full UKIPT DTD Schedule, some tempting games in there , going to try to spin up a seat on Stars , but if no luck, then going to see how many points I have left over in May.

http://www.ukipt.com/tournaments/nottingham/
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Andy (Redkite) Brisland posted on 9 May, 7:07pm
Are you browns blues and greens going to set up a thread for this ? it seems that it is going to be a popular event for BlackBelt players :-) Who is playing day 1a or day1b, who is playing the side events ? I hope to get up for one of the £100 games.
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richard hinds posted at  2:20am
good luck to gerard harraghy, a fellow second term grader, in the JP Masters, where he is currently 1st/15 with 35k in lovely euro notes for 1st. info and updates here: http://www.irishpokerboards.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=33
4 May
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richard hinds posted on  26 Apr, 2:05am
I would quite like to buy a purple belt using points, like a real one. Reckon this might become a clothing item accessible in the store soon?! would be cool to wear my actual colour of belt at all these tv tables :)
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Kevin Williams posted on 30 Apr, 11:59pm
One thing that's ALWAYS visible on the TV table is the person's belt... :)
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richard hinds posted on 2 May, 5:42pm
nah I want to buy the belt, since it is "black belt poker", see?!

Oh and @ Kevin, go fuck yourself =D
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Martin Rice posted on 4 May, 1:21pm
I have a purple dressing gown. Remind me next time Im home and I'll bring the belt for ya.
11 Apr
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Neil Channing posted at  4:06pm
Hello all,

 Just a quick reminder that it's iPoker Monthly Million day. The $535 tournament starts at 6pm and with one hour to go they still haven't reached 1000 runners.

 They may struggle to reach 1400 this month which will mean a massive $300k+ overlay.

 iPoker have decided to "rest" this tournament until September after this one. If you can possibly stretch to it you should take advantage of this insane value now.

 Good luck if you play. Hopefully a Black Belt player will win the $200k first prize.

nc
9 Apr
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richard hinds posted at  6:54pm
GUYS there is a 215 euro sat on stars at 8 (maybe wih late reg) wth 3 different 2k packagesfor a seat in the fit stop of the french poker tou, and only SEVEN people ha signed up HUGE verly I have no $ on stars ubut anyone who does GET ONTO IT NOW QUICK!!
6 Apr
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Neil Channing posted on  6 Apr, 1:53pm
If you want to play with an Irish Open champion tonight then Black Belt Poker is the place to go.

 I'm actually off out to dinner and can't make it but James Mitchell has promised to play in the $5 league game at 7.30pm and to give everyone a spin at 25c/50c in the cash game on table NeilChanning.

 So if you thought he was a total luckbox and you want to tell him, or even if you just want to congratulate him, make sure you drop in.

 Don't forget the Deepstack Mulligan at 9.30pm and the Donkament at midnight.

 Good luck all.

nc
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Mike Carroll posted on 6 Apr, 1:55pm
These Irish Open Champions are becoming two a penny on this site. :)
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Andy (Redkite) Brisland posted on 6 Apr, 6:18pm
Don't forget James made the FT in Walsall and of course Neil's 2nd in London, somebody just HAS to win in Manchester !
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Andy (Redkite) Brisland posted on  1 Apr, 0:12am
Nash Equilibrium Headsup Push/Fold

Did anyone write an article on this during the grading ? I have been browsing tonight and printed off the charts. There are various Forum threads that say it is as useful as a chocolate teapot lol but Jennifear rates it :-)

I used it in a $2 30seater just now when I got down to 3 players, I tried to play strictly to the chart if I had the time to look it up. Am I right that on the Button 3-handed you divide the number by two in both pusher and caller charts ?

I like the idea that the lowest stack is the effective stack no matter who has it ! I got to headsup and definitely played differently to what I would have done without the chart in front of me, I ended up pushing with K4os and getting called by Ace rag which held up, but I was happy with that.

LOL just got KO'd early by someone who called my JJ pfr with 77 and got lucky, now I need a chart that tells me to fold a big pair with 3 undercards on the flop, oh well, still only low stakes at the moment so live and learn.
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Andy (Redkite) Brisland posted on 1 Apr, 1:43am
I think I need to read up more lol , just had one of the longest HU I have ever had, and it was a $1 STT. My opp NEVER called one of my NASH pfr allins !!! he limped virtually every time on the button, do I then use the Nash chart to push or check ? most of the time I checked and waited to see what the flop was like and decided then. I pushed him off more flops than he did me.

When it got to allins, he survived ALL the time :-( and the final hand that crushed my spirit was sick, I flopped two pair and checked, he bet I raised he called allin with Ace high no draws ..... apart from runner runner flush of course ! after that it lasted 2 hands, I did not need the Nash Charts lol
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Simon Mairs posted on 6 Apr, 8:44am
Nash is fine vs. good villains, and for STT grinders a great way to ensure your not losing value HU due to multi-tabling. Its not optimal vs most villains though, as they generally shove and call too tight, so you should be shoving loose and calling tighter.
31 Mar
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John 'LuckBeerLady' Hayes posted on  25 Mar, 9:53am
MAINTENANCE REQUIREMENTS

Has anyone done the maths on the hand requirements to maintain Green belt and keep up the live action...?

My first stab based on HEM's reported rake over the grading period (no idea if that is accurate to BBP structures or not) would suggest about 15,000 hands for 6000 points. (Full ring, mainly 1/2)

Anyone looked at it - or anyone from the BBP team able to estimate...? 
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Andy (Redkite) Brisland posted on 25 Mar, 7:07pm
Aha , Green you get 6 points per $ and Blue you get 8 points per $.
I think the best way is to keep a close eye on your hands played over the next few weeks and work out your own personal scoring rate.
I am quite happy that it may be possible to keep Green running for some time just by Tourneys alone ! As long as I follow good brm. I am going to take on board all the fantastic knowledge you Cash Players have made available to me and play that small scale until I have fine tuned stats / ranges / betsizes etc etc
It really is great to see so many colours across the boards now :-)
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John 'LuckBeerLady' Hayes posted on 26 Mar, 5:51pm
Quick update over today's play.... At 1/2NL full ring, it looks like a green belt will be getting just over a point per hand - so that would suggest about 6000 hands per month, which compared to the last few weeks is like not playing at all!!

I have never had cause to look at how HEM works out its Rake figures - I get whatever rakeback and bonuses I can get and what is left over is my playing tax - but it seems that the HEM rake is about half of what is accruing as points in BBP. Not that that matters much as the points on the site seem to be updating in real time now...

Have fun all - see you somewhere soon.
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Andy (Redkite) Brisland posted on 31 Mar, 5:26pm
ttt , in response to a thread on another board.
30 Mar
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Neil Channing posted on  30 Mar, 9:57am
Hi guys,

 I got a nice email from the people at iPoker this morning:

 Starting April 12th at 00:00 GMT, iPoker will introduce the below changes to its NLH cash tables and freezeout tournaments. These changes come after collecting licensees and players’ feedback, and we believe they’ll contribute to improve our players’ game experience. 

The changes are:

1.       In cash tables:

A new minimum sit down amount of 30BB will be implemented on all NLH cash tables where the minimum sit down is currently 20BB. Cash tables with 50BB and full stacks will remain as they are. 

2.       In tournaments:

The starting stacks of all freezeout tournaments will be updated, according to the tournament buy-in, as detailed below:

·         Freezeout tournaments with buy-in of: $10<=(Buy-in)<$20, will have a starting stack of 2,000 chips. 

·         Freezeout tournaments with buy-in of: $20<=(Buy-in)<=$100, will have a starting stack of 3,000 chips.

·         Freezeout tournaments with buy-in of $100<(Buy-in), will have a starting stack of 5,000 chips.

 
 Don't know what you think but it sounded good to me. A definite change in emphasis to get rid of annoying short stack players in the last few months and better structures in the tournaments.

 The future is bright...
 
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John 'LuckBeerLady' Hayes posted on 30 Mar, 10:16am
Definitely loving all of that. Looking forward to getting some of the bigger MTT's going and using some of these tokens from the store for the highlight events.
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Andy (Redkite) Brisland posted on 30 Mar, 12:11pm
+1 looks very interesting , I assume the equivalent double stacks at each buyin range will still have double stacks !!
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Gavin (TFMonty007) Hall posted on 30 Mar, 4:26pm
6k for the mulligan :)
29 Mar
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Kevin Williams posted on  23 Mar, 4:34pm
Alright guys, 

I'm off on my chairty hitchhike and there's a tracker service to follow my progress.

Follow every moment of victory, despair, blag-mongering and rape
avoidence, all condenced into digestable, txt size morcels here: http://www.bummit.co.uk/tracker/team/67

Thanks everyone who supported or is still going to, and gl everyone for tommorrow!
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Gavin (TFMonty007) Hall posted on 28 Mar, 8:13pm
almost there
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Andy (Redkite) Brisland posted on 29 Mar, 1:33am
They did it :-)
........ on 29th Mar at 0:26
Wow. 3 hours after officially entering Budapest we make it to the hotel. A short hitch to a bus stop led us to David who made a legend of himself by guiding us in person through the night bus network, getting us past ticket inspectors and walking us for 3 miles to our hotel. WE DID IT!

Hungarian Salami :-) yeah yeah we believe you lolololol
Well done guys , hope you get back in more comfort , not flying BA are you ;-)
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Kevin Williams posted on 29 Mar, 3:21pm
Cheers guys, made it here 4 days early so are relxing in a 4star hotel waitng for the others to catch up. We seem to have paid 14 euros each for four nights. We're not asking any questions.
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Mike (sceaga2) Shaw posted at  12:51pm
Has it really been two weeks since the grading finished !   I have certainly been enjoying the sheer luxury of being able to play what games I like, when I like and stop playing when I want :-)

Since the grading I have only played 76 minutes of NL HE Cash (and am $48 UP so certainly happy so far)    Just for a change, have also been tinkering with other cash games... mainly low limit Omaha HL (266 minutes and $24 down) and 7 card stud (about $19 down)   My main activity is back to playing $10 STT (1024 minutes and $35 down) plus a few MTT such as 7th place in the BPP league :-)

Overall I am about $2 down since the grading ended but have been taking it very easy and just really enjoying my games.... April will see me ramp up my playing a bit more and get back into a more serious mode of playing to really try and get my bankroll moving in the right direction plus taking advantage of my Green belt to get into some of the big online MTT

Saddle up and here we go again....