Duplicate Poker - Poker as a game of skill

There is a new pokersite called DuplicatePoker. But what is the difference between this site and all others already on the net ?
Poker on Duplicate is different to what you know. You don't compete against the other players on your table. There is always one other with the exact same deck of cards and one other player who gets the same cards as you. After a couple of hands your results are compared to this player. This way the element of chance is reduced because the way you play your hands is more important than the cards you get. Because the element of skill is increased DuplicatePoker claims to be not a gambling site therefor they are open to US players and everyone who is allowed to play games of skill for money.
If you sign up now they will give you a free $3 to start playing with. You can cash out this amount after a couple of hands (a couple of players from the 2+2 forums have already cashed out successfully). They are also offering a 200% up to $100 bonus if you cash in.
The only downside right now is that the games play really slow because each table has to wait for a other table to finish first. Now go give it a try at:

Skill games for fun --- or money

You can play a wide range of different games like from good old pinball, pool billard or backgammon to luxor. Play solitaire, freecell or sudoku sweep. Shooters or quiz shows and many many others. All for jewels (just to boost your ego and get nice avatar gadgets) or play for real money. 
It's really a lot of fun playing all these games against others around the world in big jackpot games. There is also a strange version of chess on a 5x7 board called chesster. You only got one of each 
light figure to play (one rook, one bishop, one knight). I really have to take a deeper look into this 
game. Also you just have a certain amount of time per move and if you run out of time it is your opponents turn.
Besides chesster i can mostly be found playing sudoku sweep, quiz queen and pinball. Oh, by the way site is called king.com.

PokerParadime - the long term in no time

PokerParadime is a new site to play texas hold'em. But it is not build to play for cash. It is totally web based so you do not have to download any software and install anything. You play against other players online or against bots. And here is the clue, bots are not only allowed to play it is what the site is build for. As soon as you have played a couple of hands you can turn yourself into a virtual player who will continue to play just like you did. So you can train your virtual self and then check how you would do with this style after thousands of hands. Because the bot also plays while you are not online.
There is no fee or anything else involved but you can not win any real money. But it is a really funny website and a good way to check your moves. My virtual me is currently in the top 20 of 354 registered players. How good is your bot ?

Poker: September Graph

After my bad downswing September turned out fine in the end. I was able to maintain my aces status at PartyPoker and i am also happy with my winning rate. I won about 200 big bets within 9200 hands. That is 2.60 BB/100 which is actually more then good. I guess i was running good at the end of the month. So here is the graph:

I guess it is pretty easy to tell where the downswing hit me. It is part of the game and this graph shows that playing "good" will be rewarded in the end.