If you would, please.

Hey, I never ask anyone to do anything in this blog but I'm asking you now to help out here. If you scroll down on the right you'll see a widget I added from Barack Obama's voteforchange.org. Rumor has it that Mr. President elect plays a mean game of poker. I'm asking you to take a few minutes of your time and help support the cause for getting online poker's status changed.

It seems silly to me that the NFL has a carve out to keep Fantasy Football legal (which is actually gambling), as well as Interstate Lotteries ( which is serious gambling if you look at the odds of winning), and Horse Racing (um, you guessed it....gambling) but online poker is made out to be the big bad wolf on the internet.

There is more skill involved in poker than randomly picking some numbers on a lottery sheet, or guessing which quarterback is going to light it up this week. So out of all the gambling games mentioned above we have exemptions for the ones that a monkey could do and your odds of winning would be the same.

Now let's say the monkey was playing $1/$2 No Limit Texas Hold Em with $200 and had Ac,Kc pre-flop and is up against a player who plays 40% of his hands. He bets $10 and the monkey calls. He's already a 66% favorite against the other guy's range of hands. (Examples below, courtesy of Poker Stove)


Text results appended to pokerstove.txt

765,399,888 games 1.562 secs 490,012,732 games/sec

Board:
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 66.445% 64.70% 01.74% 495236094 13336967.50 { AcKc }
Hand 1: 33.555% 31.81% 01.74% 243489859 13336967.50 { 44+, A2s+, K2s+, Q4s+, J7s+, T7s+, 97s+, 87s, A3o+, K7o+, Q8o+, J8o+, T9o }

Let's take it further. Suppose the flop comes up Ah 5c 8c and the monkey is faced with an all in bet from the opponent. Should he fold? If he does he is making a critical mistake since he is now a 91% favorite in the hand.

Text results appended to pokerstove.txt

372,240 games 0.046 secs 8,092,173 games/sec

Board: Ah 5c 8c
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 91.213% 90.59% 00.62% 337208 2325.00 { AcKc }
Hand 1: 08.787% 08.16% 00.62% 30382 2325.00 { 44+, A2s+, K2s+, Q4s+, J7s+, T7s+, 97s+, 87s, A3o+, K7o+, Q8o+, J8o+, T9o }

The point of this is to let you non-poker playing readers know you can calculate your odds of winning a poker hand in any situation by reading your cards and seeing what kind of odds the pot is offering you. If the price is wrong you fold. If it is right you must play the hand because, if you've done your homework on the game, mathematically you'll win in the long run by making sound decisions.

Poker is the only game on the UIGEA list where this is possible.

Omnivore's 100

Here's something for you all to try.

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile - nope, but I've had alligator
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho OMG yes. This is awesome!
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle - not that I know of but I'm dying to.
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper - not a whole one
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee Absolutely!
100. Snake

It Happened Again

If you're a reader here you'll remember my moment of genius in this post. I really need to watch wtf I'm doing when opening up tables at Bodog because it happened once more without even knowing it.

It could've been disastrous but maybe these guys aren't that good? Or I'm just on the better side of variance. I played about 50 hands before I realized I wasn't on a play table and managed to win 10 Big Bets at a $5/$10 Heads Up cash table.

Maybe watching all those Death Donkey HU videos at Deuces Cracked is paying off because I never felt out of control during the (short by choice) match. Or, more than likely, since I didn't know I was playing for real cash I just focused on the opponent's style and how to expoit it? At any rate I think I'll pause for now.

Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand.

Changing Colors

11-5-08


I love

the autumnal season

with the leaves

changing their hue,

and how

the political landscape

has gone from

red to blue.

A Different Kind of Poker Challenge

I participated in a unique challenge that was posted in a thread here and it was really interesting to say the least.

The rules are: (copied from the post)

1) You must play at one table 100 continuous hands.

2) You must see the flop 100%.

3) You must attempt at least one pre-flop raise (PFR), if possible. We're going for 100% PFR on PT stats, so open raising and calling a 3B is fine. If it is capped to you, your PFR may not be 100%.

4) You can only buy in for 50 Big Bets.
(Stakes $.02/$.04. - 50 Big Bets = $2.00 buy in)

I played this at a Limit Hold 'Em, $.02/.04 Full Ring Table (9 handed) at Poker Stars . The reason being is this challenge is something I didn't feel comfortable with. I don't play loose at all pre-flop and this would get expensive if I tried it against players at my normal stakes. Once people adjust to your style their opening range will widen because you look like a spew monkey to them.

I tried this twice and had two totally different results. The first attempt had me busto in 28 hands (I won a $5.00 prize for this as the player to bust the quickest).

I felt frustrated raising hands like 62 off-suit and/or having to call a player's 3-bet after I open raised in early position. I knew I had little value and didn't like throwing away 3 small bets pre-flop and check folding flop after flop, or donking with a small pair and folding to raises on later streets. It wore on me pretty quickly.

The next attempt was better as I started hitting flops and running good. The table also got shorter after a few people commented on how stupid my style was and left.

Overall I got more comfortable with this sort of retarded style of playing. It clearly is a losing proposition in the long run and I don't advocate anyone consistently playing like this. But for a short stretch it opens your eyes to the value of post-flop play. That's where the most money is won in this game. Making a small mistake pre-flop is OK if you don't compound it on later streets. You must be able to hand read and know how your opponents will react to you play.

I posted the stats of this challenge below from Poker Tracker. You'll notice in the second row that my pre-flop raise (PFR) number is below 100%. In a couple of hands the play was folded around to the Small Blind who folded instead of having to call another raise from me, the idiot, in the Big Blind.

Stats :

Session 1

Hands played - 28
VPIP - 100%
Pre-Flop Raise - 100%
$ Won ($2.00)
BB/100 - (178.57)

Session 2

Hands Played - 100
VPIP - 99%
Pre-Flop Raise - 100%
$ Won - $1.53
BB/100 - +38.25




If anyone else is inspired to try this please let me know how your results turned out and what you learned from it. I'd be interested to hear.

Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand..

Update

One of the parameters set in 2+2 of doing this 15 Big Bet Challenge is to complete it in 3 hours and see how far you can make it up the ladder. That doesn't work too well for me as I may be interrupted with work, which was the case today. But I'll try to stick to the requirements and see how it goes.

I finished off the .05/.10 level in 144 hands. I was really card dead for about 6 orbits and saw a ton of action being thrown around. Needless to say, I was licking my chops and eager to see some hands come my way.

Most of the players are so weak passive it isn't even funny. Patience is key and you'll get paid off with your good hands like this one. I was hoping for some more action after seeing the other guys' hands, but alas.....

Thanks to Deuces Cracked for the hand history converter.


Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 Limit Hold'em - 6 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



Pre Flop: (1.4 SB) Hero is MP with 9 9

1 fold, Hero raises, 1 fold, BTN calls, SB calls, BB calls



Flop: (8 SB) 3 9 9 (4 players)

SB bets, BB folds, Hero calls, BTN calls



Turn: (5.5 BB) 8 (3 players)

SB checks, Hero bets, BTN calls, SB calls



River: (8.5 BB) 2 (3 players)

SB checks, Hero bets, BTN calls, SB calls



Final Pot: 11.5 BB

BTN mucks Qd Qh

SB mucks Jc As

Hero shows 9s 9h (four of a kind, Nines)

Hero wins 11 BB

(Rake: $0.05)

So I'm on to the next level after playing a little over an hour. I'll be back at it later this evening and hopefully have some good news to report.

Run Good

A Micro Limit Challenge.......

Since I'm focusing more on Limit Hold 'Em I'm doing a challenge I read about on 2+2 in the Micro Limit Hold 'Em Section called the 15BB challenge.

You start with 15 Big Bets at a very low level. Once you make 15 BBs you move up to the next level. I'm starting at the .02/.04 level with $.60 and I'll move up to .05/.10 once I have $1.50. From there I'll move up to .10/.20 when I have $3.00, and so on and so on.

I just finished the .02/.04 level on Poker Stars in 38 hands playing some 6-max (my normal game now) and will continue tomorrow during the day. I actually did it in 15 hands after flopping quad 10's and getting action from 3 players but sadly didn't sit out before the Big Blind hit me.

Four hands later I cap AK pre-flop against a complete maniac. The flop comes 2, 7, 6 and he smooth calls, as well as doing the same on the turn and river (the turn is a 6 and the river is a 10). He beats me with the mighty power house hand of 92 soooted.

I'll keep updating my progress and see how far the 60 cents can take me. I'll post some interesting hand histories that come up.

Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand...........

A Quick Quiz For You.

Is there really any difference between what this person says here



And what Sarah Palin says here?


Watch CBS Videos Online




I rest my case.

The First Step.....

Linked from pocketsfives.com, this could be the first step towards ensuring online poker is considered legal. Way to go, Barney Frank! Keep up the effort!

Link

More Rodrigo y Gabriela- Captain Casanova

I can't get over how awesome these two are. If they come to a town near you GO! I'll be at the next Atlanta show since I doubt they'll make it to B'ham. They are releasing a live album in October so be on the lookout for it.