Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

If you’re popping a dose of your little brother’s Ritalin when you head online to play poker, you’re probably not the only one. In fact, in a recent survey performed by a team of researchers from Nova Southeastern University in Florida, fully eighty percent of those poker players surveyed admitted to using some type of performance enhancer beyond a regular cup of coffee or an energy drink.

It makes perfect sense, folks, to have a cup of coffee or even a whole pot of it brewed if you’re heading into a big tournament, but seriously people, researchers interviewed poker players in Vegas who said they took everything from marijuana to cocaine to amphetamines, not to mention prescription medications like Valium, Adderal, and Ritalin. Three quarters of the users said they’re looking for a way to focus and concentrate. The others are looking for ways to calm their nerves, stay awake, and keep their memories sharper.

May we recommend some green tea to calm your nerves, some coffee to stay awake, and for crying out loud, if you want to sharpen your memory, stay off the weed! Sure, these tourneys are physically grueling. Some of them go on for hours. If you want your mind to stay sharp, though, you need to keep your body clean of toxins. Get a good night’s sleep before the tournament. Drink plenty of water. Try green tea to soothe your nerves. If you’re having trouble staying calm, learn to meditate.

Poker’s already been termed a sport in some countries. It’s only a matter of time before they start testing players for drugs and performance enhancers. Be ready to play using your own brain power. Don’t let illegal drug use now burn you out for future play. Remember that some of these drugs affect your mind in ways that are not fully understood by scientists and doctors. You may be causing permanent damage, maybe to the very parts of your brain that you need to be the best poker player out there.

Long has been the debate over poker bots; what they mean, their benefits
and drawbacks and weather or not they’re cheating.  Of course, if you
were to take a look at any of the TOS of any major poker site, it’s
written plain as day that they are strictly not allowed, and that if you
are found using one your “winnings” would be confiscated immediately
and i’m sure a ban of some kind would be imposed.  That not
withstanding, they are a very real threat to the on line player.  If you
play on line poker, you have likely played against at least one, and
probably many poker bots.  There are even allegations out there that
some of the “big” poker rooms use bots to fill their tables during
“slow” times.

A few months back, during a regular home game, my
friends and i were discussing if we would use a poker bot were it
delivered to us and set up on our machine.  One guys view was that it
was “an easy way to make money.”  Another thought it was a low risk
thing to do, and to only set it up on one table while you were multi
tabling; strictly to see “how it did” compared to a real live player.

Well,
i stumbled upon an “Academic” poker bot.  This is a bot that was
created by the owner of Robotpoker.org (i didn’t catch his name..).
What does having an “Academic” Pokerbot mean?  Well, here is a quote
from his website…

PokerPirate successfully beat single
table, no limit, Texas Hold’em tournaments. These are better known as
sit-and-go’s. PokerPirate played the $5 tournaments on Royal Vegas Poker
(RVP). After recouping my losses from the development process, I
decided to turn the bot off. I am now releasing the source code and
using it as a case study in artificial intelligence and software
engineering.

So, this guy (and i’m not trying to vilify him
here, i think what he’s done is pretty awesome) has developed a bot that
has successfully BEATEN poker games at the low level.  People take
years to master the skills necessary to accomplish this feat, and most
of them aren’t very consistent.  If you want to read more about
PokerPirate, head on over to his blog. (full disclosure: i don’t know
him, have no affiliation to him, have never talked to him..i just think
that what he’s created is pretty cool) Right now he’s soliciting info on
what people want to hear about, so check it out and vote for what
you’re interested in.

Now, on to my real question.  Here is a
poker bot, and with a little googling, and ninja computer skills, you
could download and run it fairly easily.  Easy source of income? Social
Experiment? Would you install and use it, if you were 99% sure that no
one would know, and you could make $50 bucks a day leaving it on?

Here
is the download link.

Today the International Mind sport Association (IMSA) announced that it
has officially recognized poker as a mind sport, or a game of skill. 
It has put poker on par with games like Chess and Bridge.  IFP
(International Federation of Poker) President embraced “a major
milestone in our campaign to have poker accepted throughout the world
as a game of strategic skill.”  One year ago yesterday (April 29th) the
IFP was founded for the purpose of having poker accepted as a “mind
sport.”  Poker now has a place at the IMSA’s World Mind Sports Games,
which will be held in 2012 concurrently with the London Olympic Games.

The next step for poker is for the IFP to secure membership to SportAccord (formerly the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF))
to maintain it’s IMSA status.  This will not happen until the 2011
SportsAccord conference, however it’s still a positive and necessary
step; one that will entrench poker as a mind game for as long as people
are playing poker.  SportsAccord is the organization that manages and
unites all of the recognized sports on a global scale (this includes
soccer (FIFA),Go (IGF), Chess(FIDE).  To read more about SportsAccord
click here. 

What does this mean for poker?  According to Doyle Brunson “The
IFP deserves our thanks and congratulations, I believe that history
will show this was a key moment for poker. All over the world the game
has been faced with governmental controls and other obstacles. Yet it
is obvious it calls for qualities and skills that go far beyond a
capacity just to take a chance.”

Next year IFP
will be launching poker’s first annual world championships, both team
and individual, as well as participation in regular IMSA events.  I
wonder what this will mean for all the already major poker tournaments
out there.  Will the WSOP still be the defining “Best in the World”
competition for poker, or will the new, internationally recognized IFP
be spearheading a whole new world order as it applies to poker?

I was reading an article over at Pokerstarsblog.com, and the general thrust of the article is this: Why am i fairly profitable when i play Live poker, and generally not as profitable (or a losing player) when i play online poker? 
The short answer to that question is this: you aren’t as good as you
think you are.  That was enough to get me to read on….and comment
(note: i will reprint parts of the article, they will be in
italics…if you want to read thePokerstarsblog article, click here)..

First
things first.  When figuring out if you’re a winning player or losing
player, having a good idea of what stakes you’re playing at, what your
monthly win/lose rate is and how much time are you committing to your
poker game are crucial.

Although poker is recreational for
me I take it very seriously and constantly work to improve my game. I
play live poker 8-10 hours a weekend and average close to $1200 a month
in earnings. It’s a good thing my live play brings home money since I
probably burn $400 a month online in about 8 hours a week play. So I
experience 1,000 live hands a month versus around 2,000 online.

So
this guy spends about as much time online playing poker as he does
playing live, and his win rate live is fairly good.  Online however, he
sees roughly double the hands and loses 1/3 of the money he won to
online players.  The reason for this is many fold, and that’s the meat
and potatoes of this article.  Why is it that if all he did was play
live poker he’d be up $1200 in a 3 month period rather than down that
money? 

More Hands = Ught Oh!
The common wisdom on
this is that by seeing double the hands in the same period of time the
true statistical nature of your game comes out…right out of your
profits.  If you normally get caught throwing away some of your stack
to your live opponents with 7/8 suited, this happens far less live
(because of the fewer hands seen) and so you lose less money to that
donkey play.  When you have multiple holes in your game, your online
losses will be significantly higher. 

Distractions
We’ve
all done it…your wife is watching American Idol, the kids are playing
with something or other, and you just want to escape to online poker. 
Nothing wrong with that…right?

I believe at the end of the
day it is because I don’t take it as seriously. Live, my focus is on
the game. I’m not much of a sports guy so there are usually no
distractions for me….I am never just playing poker online I am doing
work, writing email, have my kids on my lap, have my wife calling,
video editing, messing around onFacebook or CNN, watching TV, etc…
Very rarely just playing poker. In fact, as I write this I am playing
online. Sometimes I’ll catch myself watching poker on TV while playing
online and have to remind myself what an idiot I am concentrating on TV
games.

I think that paragraph is a good representation
of how powerful a distraction can be.  It’s not only that you’re not
100% paying attention to the game, you’re actively doing something
else.  “Oh, those cards aren’t that good, soi’ll just quickly check my facebook
/update my twitter/ finish getting that blowjob…whatever….more
cards will come any second.”  While that’s true, there are a lot of
people who believe that there aren’t as many “tells” in online poker. 
The reason is that people have so many distractions that they actively
aren’t looking for tells.  Use the time when you’re not playing a hand
to see how your opponents play…you will pick up some pretty big tells.

Experimenting With Your Play

I
am a cowboy much more so online than live. Online I take many more
risks and push the boundaries of my creative play regularly. I treat my
money with less respect online since I play with smaller buy-ins than I
do live. It is, in a sense, now monopoly money. Sometimes I just have
much less patience and do stupid things.

This is
as self explanatory as it gets.  If you aren’t respecting the $400
bucks you’re losing a week, of course you’re going to lose it.  I dont
believe the “lower stakes = less respect for the buy in” or even that
lower stakes = more donkeys (even at the $200/400 tables there is
someone there that $50,000 means nothing to and will call your river
bluff), but if you defeat yourself before you even get on the table by
devaluing the money then you deserve to lose it.  “oh, it’s only a $5
sit n go, and there is another one right here when i
lose”…yep..because you will lose.

There is a lot there to think about…….and now that i’m done writing that..i think i’ll fire up my online Pokerstars account…

We’ve all seen the ads.  The guy who’s friends are waiting for him at the restaurant, or the disappointed girlfriend who’s ready to leave and the dude is saying “just one more hand.”  Now, i dont put a lot of stock into these types of things, preferring to believe that it’s the media trying to vilify
online poker for any number of reasons.  BUT, there are people out
there, quite a few people really, who have fallen prey to believing
that they cannot lose.  Or, if they have enough money, over a long
enough period of time, they will make it all back and then some.  So
they play, and get in debt, and to get out of debt play more.  And the
cycle gets worse and worse…..

Take Football (soccer) star Brendan Fevola. 
He’s a professional athlete, at one of the most popular sports on the
planet, and right now, he can’t make ends meet.  He currently has
outstanding debts of about $300,000 mainly to bookies (aside from
credit cards, or citi bank, bookies are the worst places you want to owe
money).  His yearly wage (potentially) exceeds $200,000 a year, so this
isn’t life threatening, actually, it’s more like Brendan became a
“regular” person with a big mortgage, car payment and maybe a baby at
home.  He will get through this, but it illustrates my point.  He
thought he was invincible.  He didn’t put any limits on himself, and
got a rude wake up call.

What can you Do?

Now, i’m
not talking about losing your online bankroll…as long as that money’s
there for just poker lose it all you like.  But when you start getting
into your rent  money, you should take a look at your gambling habits. 
So…..

Dont play with scared money
I’ve said this
before…..playing with money you can’t lose changes your game play and
style.  You’re less likely to take that calculated risk, and more
likely to put your money in foolishly.  Play with money you can afford
to lose, and you’ll play your best.

Use the built in Self Exclusion Software
On
every online gambling site, there is a self exclusion software built
right in.  Utilize it.  Make sure you decide well before playing what
your daily/weekly/monthly limit is, and set the exclusion software appropriately. 
Also, if you find that you’re loading your account with money often,
you should probably set some limits for your own sanity.  Usually
loading your account often means that you’re a losing player…and
giving money away is the actually the opposite of playing good poker.

Do you have any ideas on other ways to limit your online gambling?  Share them in the comments!

Maybe in 3d? Probably not in 3D!

Pokerstars was first in the
race to announce their new show, calling it “The Big Game.”  It will
air on Fox, and looks to be a competitor and or out and out copy of
GSN’s High Stakes Poker.  Fox’s “The Big Game” will have a $200/$400
NLHE cash game with a $100,000 minimum buy in.  So far, Pokerstars and
Fox have only signed Daniel Negreanu to sit in on this game, and i’m
sure that we’ll be seeing a lot of big push advertising with him as the
main face.  This is kind of strange, because i could have sworn that
Negreanu had his own brand of poker to promote (he does, Full Contact
Poker…).  It also appears that “The Big Game” will not be a strictly
pro player paradise, instead, it will allow online qualifiers. 
Pokerstars (as it’s Pokerstar’s show) will be holding daily free rolls
until June 25th, and then the winners will move on to the Big Game
Final Round.  But it doesn’t end there!  If you make it to the top 200,
you then have the chance to send in a casting video, and make your
pitch directly to pokerstars as to why you should be on the show.  I’m
not sure i like that final twist, it seems like it takes the purity of
poker, and cheapens it with “hey, you don’t get to actually win
anything, just the CHANCE to send us a video about yourself!”  But,
hey, i’m sure it will appeal to some people.  Oh, and one final turn of
the knife from pokerstars?  If they do choose you to sit down at the
table, they’ll stake you $100,000, and you can even bring your own
money to the table (lucky us eh?), and get this? if you earn any profit
above the $100,000, you even get to keep it! If you turn a profit,
you’ll also be invited back the next episode.  Great.

When
Pokerstars announced their show, Full Tilt also announced their show. 
It is called “The Poker Lounge” and is a series of ten 6 handed sit n
go tourneys.  Each one has a $20,000 buy in, and the winner will walk
away with $120,000.  Full Tilt will also be allowing it’s players a
chance, although not through freeroll.  You will be able to win in a
$600+40 direct qualifier (next one is April 11).  Of course, you can
satellite into the $600 game.  Winners get $22,000…$20,000 for the
buy in to the tourney, and $2000 travel expenses (you have to get to
the tourney yourself!)  The Poker Lounge will be broadcast primarily in
Britain on Channel 4, and will likely make it’s way to GSN in the near
future.

Neither show is perfect, and me?  I’ll probably stick to High Stakes Poker.