Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

Poker players will be thrilled about the recent release of the Poker Odds Calculator app for iPhones, which has been designed based on the CardPlayer.com Poker Odds Calculator.

This app will be particularly useful to Omaha fans and Hold’em enthusiasts and will help players calculate odds in a quick and effective manner. This application is available at the Apple Store and is compatible with iPhones, iPads and those iPod touch screen models incorporated with iOS 4.0 or higher.

Poker players will be able to choose which game they want to calculate odds for, deciding between Omaha and Hold’em. To use this application, poker players will only have to enter their hands to get winning percentages for that hand. Players will also be able to estimate how strong their hand is, since the app will give players a hand ranking against start up hands.

Players will be allowed to enter as many as two to nine hands, and can also use the app to add board cards for the various stages of a poker game including the flop, turn and the river. After looking at the odds percentages given to you by the app, the player will be better able to determine if they are holding a losing hand, and whether they have good odds to call during play or after a hand. If you are a beginner it is advisable to first use this poker odds calculator to help you learn how to make good calls; however, amateurs and professionals can use the calculator to end side bets as they will always have the right odds with them at the table.

The application also uses a card wheel so that players will be able to see their cards open for selection.

Jason Young, 2008 WSOP bracelet winner, has been complaining about the reliability of online poker games. Also known as “JBY,” Young has gone on to make some really strong statements claiming that there is “some theme” that is wrong with these online poker games.

Despite the fact that Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer made their way to the WSOP by playing online poker games and getting in via an online satellite tournament, Jason Young appears to doubt the integrity of an online poker game.

Young went on to play the blame game and pointed to the entire system, “I have chalked up losing sessions and all that to variance in the past, but someone needs to explain to me how this is even possible.”

His reasons for this being that he has lost $35,000 within two days of playing online poker, believing that something must be wrong with the system. Taking into consideration that hundreds of poker players, many of whom have participated in the WSOP and placed in the money, are frequent online poker players prone to win money while playing, make Young’s statements sound like nothing but the tirade of a player on a bad losing streak. Perhaps Young has lost his edge or may have underestimated the skill levels of online poker players he is competing against.

Young does state that he has not played much online poker and appears to be baffled that he is losing while playing poker online, and doing it frequently. Young tried his hand at online poker in an effort to improve his game, but ended up disappointed with the results and proceeded to vent his anger in a blog, stating, “They are trying to jam it in me around every corner. The biggest joke ever…. I’m literally steaming while I right this…Broken computer and all…I’ve been playing $500/$1K heads up Hold’em, o8 and Omaha Hi the past 2 days I have lost to 2 outers no less than 50 times. I’m not kidding.”

Just last week, we reported that PokerStars has been playing host to a ring of colluding players from China. It seems that now they’ve busted a ring of bots, too. Once again, players are complaining about how long it took the PokerStars staff to figure out who the bots are and to get rid of them.

According to PokerStars figures, the ten bots played a total of at least 8 million hands and they managed to earn $57,000. A PokerStars representative posted to the popular 2+2 poker forum explaining that initially members of the ring were suspected of collusion, but eventually that suspicion was dropped. PokerStars did not, however, drop the investigation. Instead, they looked at the account’s irregularities, compared it to other accounts, and discovered a total of ten accounts that were being played by bots.

Players complained that once PokerStars ascertained that the accounts were bot accounts, PokerStars did not immediately close them. According to a statement from a PokerStars spokesman, the staff wanted to make sure that they had found all of the accounts in the ring before closing accounts, as they didn’t want to “spook” the other account holders and cause them to withdraw their funds before the accounts were found.

The PokerStars representative explained that “PokerStars takes its commitment to bot detection and removal extremely seriously, and will continue to do so, both behind the scenes with our tools (which are under constant review and improvement), and in response to player-generated suspicions. Most player reports of bot suspicions are false alarms, but we still investigate each one thoroughly, and when they actually do locate a previously undetected bot, appropriate action will always be taken.”

It is unclear how much money was won illegally and how much will need to be paid back to players. It is also unclear how much of the money won by the bots was cashed out prior to the freezing of the accounts.

If you play at Full Tilt or at PokerStars and you’re the type who prefers to play from your bed or couch but you find that your arms get tired, there’s a voice solution. Vox4Poker is an application that has been developed by some avid poker fans. It’s available in French, Spanish, and English, and it lets you bet, raise, call, and check just by using your voice.

The software is currently available for free, as it’s still in testing phases. The documentation is a little choppy to read. The programmers and designers for the application seem to be Spanish-speakers, so if you speak Spanish, you’ll find everything easier to read and understand.

One major drawback to the program is the system requirements. You need Windows, and not just any Windows. You’ll need Vista Professional or Windows 7. If you’re still running Windows XP or if you’re running Vista Home Edition, you’re out of luck. Of course, if you’re running Mac or Linux, you already knew you were out of luck. You’ll need to have a microphone hooked up, and you’ll have to adjust the sensitivity.

According to the creators, you’ll also need to make sure that your system is set for the right language. You’ll need to set your Windows default language to the one you wish to play in. That can be a bit of a burden if you’re German, for example, but wouldn’t mind playing in English, as changing your system settings can affect things like spellcheck and in some cases, even character layouts on the keyboard. Hopefully, future versions will allow players to set the language regardless of their system language.

The creators are very interested in getting feedback from users and have said that they plan to introduce a new version every 3-4 weeks. It looks like a very interesting product, so if it suits your play style, why not give it a whirl?

One of the biggest fears of online poker players is the fear of collusion. It’s easy for players to collude, and it’s hard for sites to catch colluding players. More importantly, sites are afraid of going after players without airtight evidence. A few players from the same city in the same room might look suspicious, especially if they’re taking home a lot of the winnings, but that’s not enough to prove that there’s cheating going on.

That’s why the player forums have been buzzing on 2+2 for months and some players have stopped frequenting PokerStars sit-n-go Double-or-Nothing tournaments, but accounts were only frozen for the first time last week. A user with the nickname Jane0123 showed up on 2+2 complaining about an account that was frozen. Usually, such complaints are met with sympathy and outrage. This time, the response was “Ya finally got busted huh? Well it’s about time. I sent about 25 emails complaining about you…”

While no one is certain how many people were involved, there seem to have been quite a few, mostly from the Hangzhou province of China. The group would take up half of the seats at a $52-$108 Double-or-Nothing sit-n-go and proceed to knock out the other players.

PokerStars reports that in addition to freezing accounts and seizing $85,000 from the ring, they have begun to pay back the $587,000 that they believe is owed to other players who sustained losses to the ring. Players are angry that PokerStars took so long to discover, prove, and rectify the situation, but it is hard to fault the site, since the adverse publicity of freezing even one account without adequate evidence of wrongdoing could be detrimental to the site’s overall reputation. Moreover, it looks like PokerStars is poised to lose half a million dollars in this deal. If the collusion could have been stopped earlier, it would have saved the company a large amount of money. It’s hard to imagine that PokerStars didn’t consider the monetary angle as well.

PokerStars asks any player who suspects collusion or suspects that they were affected by collusion to email them at gamesecurity@pokerstars.com.

If you’ve ever thought that you needed performance enhancers to keep you on your game when you’re playing online poker, then maybe instead of drugs, you need better glasses. Much of the fatigue in online poker play is due to staring at a digital screen for hours at a time. A relatively new company called Gunnar Optiks might have just the performance enhancer you need to stay focused and awake without impairing your judgement or creating health risks. Their unique glasses are designed to filter out certain types of light, and to help prevent eye strain for people who spend hours in front of the screen.

According to Gunnar Optiks co-founder, Jennifer Michelsen explains that “Any digital device that is viewed in the near distance for long amounts of time will create digital eye fatigue. The smaller the screen, typically the closer the user puts it to the eye, and the more the eye will strain to see it over extended periods. “

Gunnar’s technology, known as i-AMP helps increase contrast much like shooter glasses. Comparing the Gunnar glasses to shooter glasses, Michelsen says “The difference is that Gunnar glasses are very specifically tuned to the type of light found in artificially lit environments and computer screens.”

According to Michelsen, most of Gunnar’s wearers will experience an immediate improvement in optical resolution, contrast, and detail. She says that over time, instead of fading, the effects actually increase, and that Gunnar advises customers to try the glasses out for at least a week before they try to gauge the results. Prices aren’t terrible either; you can pick up a pair online for around $100, as long as you don’t need a prescription. With a prescription, the price gets closer to $250, depending upon your frames.

If your eyes burn at the end of a long tournament, these glasses are definitely worth looking into.