31.7.06
Online Poker Rooms Cheating?
Online poker is rapidly becoming the most popular gambling game anywhere on the internet. It is currently estimated that around 2 million active real money players visit the online poker rooms every month. That amounts to a phenomenal number of people hell-bent on gambling away their hard-earned cash, in the hope of cleaning up at the tables.
Many believe that poker is a game of skill, and while this may bear some truth in the real world, playing poker at the online casinos is anything but skillful. It’s very unlikely that anyone can ever really win and walk away with the pot on any online poker room anywhere. You may win a little here and there and you may beat your opponents from time to time, but the chances of beating the house are absolutely remote.
It’s well known that the world’s greatest poker players don’t ever play online, simply because they know there’s no way to win. Some may say they do, because the online casino companies are paying them to endorse their poker rooms and associated products.
But still the lure of huge possible winnings from well publicized tournaments, keep the masochistic herds flocking back to the tables, to endure more self-inflicted financial pain time and again. Some almost appear to be oblivious to their losses. The only goal they have is to feed their hunger for easy monetary delights at the expense of their bank accounts and their ‘shot-away’ nervous systems.
As they eagerly await their next online poker fix, many will undoubtedly deliberate, for a few seconds at least, over their past experiences of loss, and then shut it out of their minds forever. Denial is a dangerous thing. Is online gambling addictive? It must be highly addictive. There can be no other answer for it. In my view it should carry a government health warning.
Preying on people’s addiction to gambling is a sure-fire way to make a small fortune in a relatively short period of time. Is it any wonder then that there are literally hundreds of online poker websites, boasting thousands of active tables? This does go to prove that some people, namely online poker site owners, are making a killing from the game.
One major drawback with online poker is, there’s always the possibility that what you see on your computer’s monitor may not necessarily be the same as others see. What am I inferring? Cheating? Yes, online poker cheats are rife. And who can to blame them? Money is a very powerful resource and people will do almost anything to get their hands on it.
If someone’s cheating in a poker room in which you’re playing, how would you know? Chances are you won’t. The only way to keep everything on an even keel is to cheat your self. Cheating may be the only way to clean up at the tables, or at the very least, give yourself a fighting chance.
A little research will reveal that a number of online poker cheat software programs are available, and at very reasonable prices, considering how much you may have lost already. For the many hardened online poker players with more losses than wins to their credit, a top-rated poker cheat software program must surely be a consideration.
Of course, this article would never have been written at all if everyone played the game fair and square.
online poker rooms
Many believe that poker is a game of skill, and while this may bear some truth in the real world, playing poker at the online casinos is anything but skillful. It’s very unlikely that anyone can ever really win and walk away with the pot on any online poker room anywhere. You may win a little here and there and you may beat your opponents from time to time, but the chances of beating the house are absolutely remote.
It’s well known that the world’s greatest poker players don’t ever play online, simply because they know there’s no way to win. Some may say they do, because the online casino companies are paying them to endorse their poker rooms and associated products.
But still the lure of huge possible winnings from well publicized tournaments, keep the masochistic herds flocking back to the tables, to endure more self-inflicted financial pain time and again. Some almost appear to be oblivious to their losses. The only goal they have is to feed their hunger for easy monetary delights at the expense of their bank accounts and their ‘shot-away’ nervous systems.
As they eagerly await their next online poker fix, many will undoubtedly deliberate, for a few seconds at least, over their past experiences of loss, and then shut it out of their minds forever. Denial is a dangerous thing. Is online gambling addictive? It must be highly addictive. There can be no other answer for it. In my view it should carry a government health warning.
Preying on people’s addiction to gambling is a sure-fire way to make a small fortune in a relatively short period of time. Is it any wonder then that there are literally hundreds of online poker websites, boasting thousands of active tables? This does go to prove that some people, namely online poker site owners, are making a killing from the game.
One major drawback with online poker is, there’s always the possibility that what you see on your computer’s monitor may not necessarily be the same as others see. What am I inferring? Cheating? Yes, online poker cheats are rife. And who can to blame them? Money is a very powerful resource and people will do almost anything to get their hands on it.
If someone’s cheating in a poker room in which you’re playing, how would you know? Chances are you won’t. The only way to keep everything on an even keel is to cheat your self. Cheating may be the only way to clean up at the tables, or at the very least, give yourself a fighting chance.
A little research will reveal that a number of online poker cheat software programs are available, and at very reasonable prices, considering how much you may have lost already. For the many hardened online poker players with more losses than wins to their credit, a top-rated poker cheat software program must surely be a consideration.
Of course, this article would never have been written at all if everyone played the game fair and square.
online poker rooms
30.7.06
Poker Strategy
Are you ready to win money playing an online poker tournament? Advancing to the money in one of these multi person tournaments takes some luck but the right strategy can help you to overcome the challenge of trying to win one of these tournaments. First, start off by playing a low entry fee tournament. One dollar and five dollar entry fees are the way to go if you are first beginning. Dont be intimidated by the amount of entrants in these tournaments. About 10-15% of these people are just in it to try and get lucky. Dont fall victim to their early raises or perhaps all in bets. In the early stages of the tournament, dont try and cash in on a good hand right away. Some idiot will call your pocket aces with a seven three and beat you with two pair. Simply call and only bet if you know you cant be beat. Many players will go out early and it is critical that you just survive and pick up a few chips along the way.This strategy will enable you to move on to the second stage of the tournament. By now, half of the players are gone and you can try to build your chip stack now. Start playing more aggressively and beware of players with bigger stacks trying to push you around. If you have a good hand, dont be afraid to play it. Now is the time to put yourself in position for the final run and get yourself in position for the money. If you are lucky enough to make it to the end, the pressure will build drastically. By this time in the tournament, some players are weakening and just waiting for the hand to go all in on. Stay focused mentally and think about the odds carefully before playing your hand. Try slow playing that killer hand and trap your opponent into thinking that you have nothing. Chances are he will think you are bluffing and you can bury him. Finally, dont get frustrated if you dont make it very far into your first few tournaments. Work on developing your skills and becoming a good tournament poker player. Stick to your strategy even if you lose a couple of good hands. Chances are, your patience will pay off in the end and you can happily accept your prize money with a feeling of great satisfaction.
Online Poker Rooms
Online Poker Rooms
27.7.06
26.7.06
Armchair psychology and Tournament poker – Preparation
I want to explore why a player can be fundamentally sound, understand the math, and still never be better than a “zero sum player”. Or stated another, more entertaining way, if I were programming a robot (with artificial intelligence) to play poker, what would I program if I wanted the robot to play NO LIMIT instead of limit? This is a LARGE topic and I do not wish to write a dissertation, so the flow of the articles may not be perfect. So be it. What do you want for nothing, rubber biscuit?
Let’s start with a solid foundation of play. With that, just assume we have all read the post “Absinthe revisited” . Sets, bigger pairs, flops that ‘hit a suited connector over the head’. These are your money winners. Dominated holdings, skill moves against push monkeys, races. These are your leaks.
Also, note from DoubleAs, As the tournament gets to the long middle stage, finding pressure points is important.
And from any good poker book and many poker forums, At the end stages, stealing and catching is paramount.
And from my post on “rules of engagement” a set of clichés that help your play (such as “Don’t eat the peppered beef”).
After each chapter, except this intro, I will attempt to update the rule-set for my mythical NO LIMIT robot. Discussion and counter arguments HIGHLY encouraged...
Let’s start with a solid foundation of play. With that, just assume we have all read the post “Absinthe revisited” . Sets, bigger pairs, flops that ‘hit a suited connector over the head’. These are your money winners. Dominated holdings, skill moves against push monkeys, races. These are your leaks.
Also, note from DoubleAs, As the tournament gets to the long middle stage, finding pressure points is important.
And from any good poker book and many poker forums, At the end stages, stealing and catching is paramount.
And from my post on “rules of engagement” a set of clichés that help your play (such as “Don’t eat the peppered beef”).
After each chapter, except this intro, I will attempt to update the rule-set for my mythical NO LIMIT robot. Discussion and counter arguments HIGHLY encouraged...
25.7.06
Doing the "What If?" Shuffle (the sequel)
In my last post I decided to track down the answer to a question about how the shuffling software works over at PokerStars, a site where I play frequently. After one of those very common “what if?” situations (I had folded a hand preflop that would have flopped a straight), I wondered about a comment I had heard on the PokerDiagram podcast regarding online sites and how they “reshuffle” the deck all throughout the hand. I wrote an email to PokerStars and they told me that, in fact, they only run their randomizing program once prior to the hand and thus “set the deck.” This meant that when you decide to fold that four-flusher on the turn and the fifth of your suit comes on the river, you can correctly torment yourself with the woulda-shoulda-couldas. If that’s your cup of tea.Anyhow, since the fellows on PokerDiagram play on PokerRoom (a site on which I do not play), I decided to send PokerRoom an email asking how their shuffling software works. In his comment on that post, derbywhite said not to “hold your breath waiting for a reply” from PokerRoom -- good advice, as they have yet to respond (over 48 hours later). But I was already wearing my detective hat, so I decided to keep snooping. I thought I’d ask around at other sites to find out what the “norm” was. Doing so would serve a few purposes: (1) I’d find out whether other sites, like PokerStars, only shuffle the deck once prior to the hand or not; (2) I’d learn a bit about how shuffling software works, generally speaking, and how sites defend the integrity of their games; and (3) I’d perform an informal survey of the level of customer support at each site.
I looked on Poker Listings -- a helpful site that gives tons of information about fifty or so poker sites -- and picked out the ten sites that currently have the highest player volume. Those sites (from highest volume on down) are PokerStars, PartyPoker, PokerRoom, Hollywood Poker, Ultimate Bet, Paradise Poker, Doyle’s Room, Poker Share, Full Tilt Poker, and Pacific Poker. (PartyPoker has the highest cash game volume, but PokerStars makes the top of their list because of its frequent high-entry tourneys.) I had already contacted PokerStars and PokerRoom, so I sent a similar message to the other eight sites asking them about whether the cards were reshuffled during the hand or not.
The first to respond was Paradise Poker. Within 15 minutes I was directed to a page on their website with a fairly detailed description of their shuffling software that appears written for programmers. I battled through it, however, and toward the end found my answer. Each time they run the program, they create what they call a “seed” (referring to the shuffled deck). They then update the seed very frequently (again, like PokerStars, incorporating lots of input such as players’ mouse and keyboard movements), including during the hand. As they explain, “The updated seed is used for dealing cards during each card dealing round, and since a hand always lasts longer than it takes to inject 2000 bits of new random data, all subsequent cards will be dealt using a seed which is completely random and which is completely unrelated to the seed used to deal the previous hands of cards.” So Paradise reshuffles throughout the hand. Asking “what if?” is even less meaningful over there, as the cards would not necessarily have come out the same way.
Pacific Poker sent a response shortly afterwards (within 30 minutes), and while they also sent me a somewhat technical explanation of the process, the support person helpfully prefaced that with this handy sentence: “I am enclosing an explanation but in answer to your specific question it is done on every card.” Then came Hollywood Poker's response (within 45 minutes) which begins in uncertainty (“I cannot say for sure how does the random number generator works [sic] in shuffling and dealing . . . ”) but concludes by saying that at “each phase in a single hand, the cards are generated at the moment it is shown on the hand or table and not pregenerated in the deck.” Soon afterwards, Poker Share sent a terse but clear response that “the deck is shuffled after every card, rather than after every round.”
Like poker players, detectives are always looking for patterns. And I was seeing one. Of the first four sites to respond, all four reshuffled the deck throughout the hand. I wondered if I might be approaching an "industry standard" here -- one that PokerStars didn't necessarily follow . . . ?
Full Tilt Poker got back to me within 90 minutes or so with a detailed message defending its software’s integrity (but not really addressing the question). However, FTP did direct me to “a newsgroup link to a simplified explanation by Perry Friedman (one of our pros) of how our random number generator works.” I followed the link which didn’t seem to feature Perry Friedman at all but did include a transcript of a chat session involving Howard Lederer. There Lederer explains that over at FTP “the remaining cards are shuffled during the action.”
In his comment to my earlier post, mattastic had said he thought FTP reshuffles throughout the hand and he was right. Incidentally, Full Tilt has incorporated a new feature in its games that seems doubly useless, given this information. After you have folded, for the rest of the hand you can hold your mouse over your avatar to see what cards you folded, in case you forgot. (There is a thread in which some were discussing this new feature -- and related issues -- over on the Card Clubs Network Forums over the past couple of weeks.) But since they reshuffle the deck during the hand, the only thing that is significant about the cards you folded is that no one else will be receiving them. In other words, the only person who gets this information is the one person for whom it is utterly meaningless!
The only other site that responded to my message was Doyle’s Room. (I never heard from PokerRoom, PartyPoker, or Ultimate Bet.) Within an hour or so Doyle’s Room got back to me with a valiant but ambiguous reply that didn’t really answer the question. They did, however, tell me if had any further questions to contact Gaming Associates, an independent agency that consults with many online gambling sites. I sent them the question, and looking at their response it appears I’ve got the whole team buzzing over there:
Of the seven sites that responded, then, six of them reshuffle throughout the hand. And Mr. Pedley here (who probably knows a bit more that you or I do about the subject) says that “generally” speaking that is the way it is done -- online sites don’t usually “set the deck” the way PokerStars does.
Based on this information, I’m guessing that PokerRoom -- as Henry and Zog were saying on the PokerDiagram podcast -- probably does as most of the industry does and reshuffles throughout the hand. There’s probably an advantage, security-wise, in doing so, I would imagine, although I’m not too concerned about the integrity of PokerStars’ games. Nor am I that concerned, really -- despite the length of these last two posts -- about whether I should have played that 58-offsuit when the flop came 746. Hard enough to live in the world as it is without worrying over what it might have been . . . .
WSOP Safety, PokerStars Blog, and Liz Lieu Tuesday...
WSOP Safety, PokerStars Blog, and Liz Lieu Tuesdays
The rumors are true... I'll be writing for the PokerStars Blog.
When the main event starts on Friday, I'm contributing roughly three posts per day. The cool part of this gig is that I get to work with Otis and Wil and a few other special guests.
I'll still be posting at the Tao of Poker for the remainder of the WSOP. This is my primary blog and all the juicy stuff and pics will be found here. PokerStars will be getting a few updates everyday from me, so stop by the PokerStars Blog from time to time during the main event.
I also expect to be contributing to Poker Player Newspaper, Lasvegasvegas.com, and Fox Sports during the main event as well. I wasn't planning to sleep over the next two weeks, so I'll have the time to write for five different outlets. Just a few days before I left for Las Vegas, I was ready to pay my expenses out of pocket and cover the WSOP for just the Tao of Poker and Lasvegasvegas.com. Since then, I picked up a sponsor in Paradise Poker and got picked up by both Fox Sports and PokerStars.
By the way, if you don't know... the main event is 6,100 players and counting. Over 1,500 of those players are from PokerStars.
* * * * *
Spaceman posted about The Grinder's brother and wife getting robbed from gunpoint in the parking lot at the Rio. His statement sums it all up:
I heard about one guy who got his laptop stolen from one of the hospitality suites.
The bottom line is this... be careful out there. Harrah's just wants your money and has been doing a piss poor job about beefing up security during the 2006 WSOP. Don't carry around a lot of cash. Travel in numbers. And don't assume that the eye in the sky is going to protect you.
They experienced similar problems last year. Mike Lacey got his laptop stolen from the media room. Players were robbed in the parking lot. Players returned from breaks missing parts of their stacks. Cash game players had chips stolen from the table when they went to take a piss.
* * * * *
Been bogged down writing a couple of articles for Fox. Deadlines suck the life out of me. Anyway, the guys from Wicked Chops Poker are in town. They invited me to the BoDog party at Tao on Tuesday. Wil scored me an invite to the Full Tilt bash on Wednesday. Yes, party season is in full swing at the WSOP.
The WSOP parties officially kicked off on Sunday with Liz Lieu's surprise birthday bash at Pure. It was thrown by John Phan and I was on the guest list listed simply as Pauly + 1. And yes, Change100 was my "+1" for the night.
I arrived at Pure there late because I was hanging out at "The House of Cards" watching Jen Leo's episode on the Poker Dome. She shares a house with 8 other people including Brandon Schaefer and Carl Olson. They have a pool, a beach volleyball court and a par three golf course in their backyard. Sickness. Next year, Michalski and I are going to rent a similar house.
On Sunday, Carl finished in 6th place in the NL event. He celebrated by coming home and playing beer pong with his housemates.
* * * * *
Here's some results from six events from last week:
My brother Derek has a WWdN tournament named after him, taking place tonight at 8:30 EST or 5:30 PCT on PokerStars. Check under the Private Tourney Tab. The tourney is called The Hermwarfare Invitational. Password is monkey. I'll do my best to play in this event.
The rumors are true... I'll be writing for the PokerStars Blog.
When the main event starts on Friday, I'm contributing roughly three posts per day. The cool part of this gig is that I get to work with Otis and Wil and a few other special guests.I'll still be posting at the Tao of Poker for the remainder of the WSOP. This is my primary blog and all the juicy stuff and pics will be found here. PokerStars will be getting a few updates everyday from me, so stop by the PokerStars Blog from time to time during the main event.
I also expect to be contributing to Poker Player Newspaper, Lasvegasvegas.com, and Fox Sports during the main event as well. I wasn't planning to sleep over the next two weeks, so I'll have the time to write for five different outlets. Just a few days before I left for Las Vegas, I was ready to pay my expenses out of pocket and cover the WSOP for just the Tao of Poker and Lasvegasvegas.com. Since then, I picked up a sponsor in Paradise Poker and got picked up by both Fox Sports and PokerStars.
By the way, if you don't know... the main event is 6,100 players and counting. Over 1,500 of those players are from PokerStars.
Spaceman posted about The Grinder's brother and wife getting robbed from gunpoint in the parking lot at the Rio. His statement sums it all up:
Just as it's your responsibility to protect your cards at the table, Harrah's is making it your responsibility not to get shot while in its parking lots.Allie Prescott told me about guys who are getting bricks of cash stolen from them at the NL cash game tables. The two-bit thieves wait to they go to the bathroom, then do a grab and run.
I heard about one guy who got his laptop stolen from one of the hospitality suites.The bottom line is this... be careful out there. Harrah's just wants your money and has been doing a piss poor job about beefing up security during the 2006 WSOP. Don't carry around a lot of cash. Travel in numbers. And don't assume that the eye in the sky is going to protect you.
They experienced similar problems last year. Mike Lacey got his laptop stolen from the media room. Players were robbed in the parking lot. Players returned from breaks missing parts of their stacks. Cash game players had chips stolen from the table when they went to take a piss.
Been bogged down writing a couple of articles for Fox. Deadlines suck the life out of me. Anyway, the guys from Wicked Chops Poker are in town. They invited me to the BoDog party at Tao on Tuesday. Wil scored me an invite to the Full Tilt bash on Wednesday. Yes, party season is in full swing at the WSOP.
The WSOP parties officially kicked off on Sunday with Liz Lieu's surprise birthday bash at Pure. It was thrown by John Phan and I was on the guest list listed simply as Pauly + 1. And yes, Change100 was my "+1" for the night.
I arrived at Pure there late because I was hanging out at "The House of Cards" watching Jen Leo's episode on the Poker Dome. She shares a house with 8 other people including Brandon Schaefer and Carl Olson. They have a pool, a beach volleyball court and a par three golf course in their backyard. Sickness. Next year, Michalski and I are going to rent a similar house.
On Sunday, Carl finished in 6th place in the NL event. He celebrated by coming home and playing beer pong with his housemates.
Here's some results from six events from last week:
Event 26A $1,500 PLOThat kid Jeff Madsen won his second bracelet of the 2006 WSOP. Bill Chen also won two, but he'd been around the block a few times. Madsen came out of nowhere. He's leading the ESPN Player of the Year standings:
Number of Entries: 525
Total Prize Money: $716,625
Final Table Results:
1. Ralph Perry (Las Vegas, NV) $207,817
2. George Abdallah (Houston, TX) $109,644
3. Brian Kocur (Baltimore, MD) $57,330
4. Luzhe Zhang (Vienna, Austria) $50,164
5. Ray Lynn (Alexandria) VA, $42,998
6. Spiro Mitroksotas (W. Yarmouth, MA) $35,831
7. Frank Henderson (Houston, TX) $28,665
8. Jason Newburger (Vernon Hills, IL) $21,499
9. Russell Salzer (Hollywood, FL) $14,333
Event 26B $1,500 PLO with Rebuys
Number of Entries: 158
Number of Re-Buys: 472
Total Prize Money: $908,100
Final Table Results:
1. Eric "E-Fro" Froehlich (Washington, DC) $299,675
2. Sherkhan Farnood (Kabul, Afghanistan) $165,274
3. Chau Giang (Las Vegas, NV) $90,810
4. Kevin O'Donnell (Scottsdale, AZ) $72,648
5. Bruno Fitoussi (Paris, France) $54,486
6. Matt Overstreet (Henderson, NV) $45,405
7. Richard Freire (Miami, FL) $36,324
8. Rafi Amit (Holon, Israel) $27,243
9. Ayaz Mahmood (Houston, TX) $18,162
Event 27 $1,500 NL
Number of Entries: 2,126
Total Prize Money: $2,901,990
Final Table Results:
1. Mats Rahmn (Stockholm, Sweden) $655,141
2. Richard Toth (Budapest, Hungary) $333,729
3. Padraig Parkinson (Dublin, Ireland) $203,139
4. Chris Birchby (Hollywood, CA) $145,100
5. James Sileo (Burbank, CA) $116,080
6. Michael Binger (Atherton, CA) $101,570
7. Jordan Morgan (Norman, OK) $87,060
8. Ashwin Sarin (Redmond, WA) $72,550
9. Billy Duarte (Berthoud, CO) $58,040
Event 28 5K Seven-card Stud
Number of Entries: 182
Total Prize Money: $855,400
Final Table Results:
1. William Lin (Rockville, MD) $256,620
2. Sean Sheikhan (Las Vegas, NV) $171,080
3. Cyndy Violette (Los Angeles, CA) $102,648
4. Allen Kessler (Huntington Valley, PA) $76,986
5. "Miami" John Cernuto (Miami, FL) $55,601
6. Patrick Bueno (Paris, France) $38,493
7. Lupe Munquia (Odessa, TX) $29,939
8. Mike Caro (Shell Knob, MO) $21,385
Event 29 $2,500 PL Hold'em
Number of Entries: 562
Total Prize Money: $1,292,600
Final Table Results:
1. John Gale (Bushey, UK) $374,849
2. Maros Lechman (Columbia Station, OH) $197,768
3. Kevin Ho (Gainesville, FL) $103,408
4. Joe Hachem (Melbourne, Australia) $90,482
5. Alex Jacob (Parkland, FL) $77,556
6. Lee Grove (Superior, NE) $64,630
7. Jeffrey Roberson (Rolla, MO) $51,704
8. Lee Markholt (Eatonville, WA) $38,778
9. Greg Alston (Miami Beach, FL) $25,852
Event 30 $5K NL Short-handed
Number of Entries: 507
Total Prize Money: $2,382,900
Final Table Results:
1. Jeff Madsen (Los Angeles, CA) $643,381
2. Eric Lindgren (Las Vegas, NV) $357,435
3. Tom Franklin (Gulfport, MS) $214,461
4. Tony Woods (Murrieta, CA) $150,123
5. Jonathan Gaskell (Wigan, UK) $119,145
6. Paul Foltyn (Doncaster, UK) $83,402
7. Cliff Cantor (Hollywood, CA) $69,104
8. Vanessa Rousso (Las Vegas, NV) $61,955
9. Jenny Kang (Portland, OR) $54,807
ESPN Player of the Year:Phil Hellmuth made his third final table of the 2006 WSOP. He still seeking bracelet #10. He's entering the final table as the chipleader. We'll see if Hellmuth can make a run. With my luck, I'll be at the BoDog party as he wins his 10th.
1 Jeff Madsen 1,401,881 Pts
2 Justin Scott 842,262 Pts
3 Jeff Cabanillas 818,546 Pts
4 William Chen 810,740 Pts
5 Mark Vos 803,274 Pts
$1K NL With Rebuys Chipcounts (courtesy of Poker Wire):Stay tuned for Hellmuthian updates. Blogger has been "acting up" over the last two days. It seems to be fine now.
1 Phil Hellmuth 768K
2 Daryn Firicano 450K
3 Juha Helppi 436K
4 Ralph Perry 235K
5 Terris Preston 164K
6 John Spadavecchia 122K
7 David Plastik 121K
8 Elio Cabrera 95K
9 Tony G 77K
My brother Derek has a WWdN tournament named after him, taking place tonight at 8:30 EST or 5:30 PCT on PokerStars. Check under the Private Tourney Tab. The tourney is called The Hermwarfare Invitational. Password is monkey. I'll do my best to play in this event.
23.7.06
Doing the "What If?" Shuffle
Just listened to the latest installment of PokerDiagram, the podcast in which two Londoners play online poker tourneys (SNGs, MTTs) and narrate their adventures as they do. If you haven’t heard it yet, go check it out. The show’s hosts, Henry and Zog, are quick-witted and knowledgeable, and they interact in ways that usually make the show entertaining and even compelling. (See my earlier post for a review of PokerDiagram.) During this particular show (episode 42, titled “Cheers!”), Zog enters a $20+$2 MTT on PokerRoom (their favorite site). After struggling for a good while, Zog finds himself sitting in 36th place out of 44 remaining players with about 1900 chips, something like a third of the average stack size. The blinds are 100/200 and only the top ten places pay, so he’s feeling a bit of pressure to make a move when he gets dealt T9-suited in the big blind. The Zogster really wants to play the hand, but sees a substantial raise from one player and a call from another before the action gets back to him. The duo hem and haw a bit before Zog finally says “It’s close, but I’m gonna fold this.” No longer in the hand, they watch the flop come T9x and momentarily express disappointment at what appears to have been a missed opportunity.
We’ve all been there. Just today I had a hand in a $0.50/$1.00 limit ring game where I was dealt
in the small blind and after deciding it wasn’t worth the quarter to complete watched the flop come 
. Why didn’t I call!? It was just a quarter! Then I remembered Zog having said something about how “it’s not a preshuffled, prearranged deck” when one plays online. The subject came up again later in the show, and Henry and Zog make it clear that it is their understanding that the cards are randomized at every stage of the hand, not arranged in a particular sequence before the hand and left unchanged (as would be the case in a live game). In other words -- if I’m understanding the pair correctly -- they believe that flop might not necessarily have come T9x if Zog had called.I wondered if this were in fact the case -- if the sites don’t “set the deck” with each hand but in fact apply their shuffling software to each and every card that comes off. If I'm going to call myself a shamus, I figured some detective work was in order.
I have no account at PokerRoom, so I went over to PokerStars (where I do) and checked out what they say on their website about their shuffling software. How can they guarantee the deal is really random? Well, as they explain it, they ensure “a fair and unpredictable shuffle” by constantly gathering a great deal of “truly random data” that is then used as source material affecting the order in which the cards are dealt for a given hand. In other words, PokerStars randomizes its shuffle by figuring other, independently-produced information into the equation.
Here’s an analogy: Pauline knows her husband, Bruce, likes to have either a ham sandwich or vegetable soup for lunch. She also knows Bruce doesn’t like knowing beforehand what she’s made him for lunch, he so enjoys being surprised each day when he opens his lunchbox. (Bruce is easily amused.) So each morning Pauline makes up both lunches, places them in identical lunchboxes, and watches as Bruce grabs one off the kitchen table as he leaves for work. In order to make sure his choice is “fair and unpredictable,” Pauline checks the weather report in the newspaper to see what the high temperature is forecasted to be that day. If the forecasted high is an odd number of degrees Fahrenheit, she places the lunchbox with the ham sandwich nearest the door. If it is an even number, she places the lunchbox with the soup nearest the door.
The weather report provides Pauline source material with which to help randomize her placement of the lunchboxes, and thus, Bruce's selection. Similarly, PokerStars gathers what it considers “truly random data” to plug into its software in order to produce a random (or “fair and unpredictable”) shuffle. While Pauline only uses one piece of information for this purpose, PokerStars says it gathers 249 “random bits” and enters them all into their shuffling software in order to produce the deal. Pauline gets her one “bit” from the local newspaper; the PokerStars software -- the random number generator that determines what cards are dealt -- gathers its 249 random bits from two primary sources.
One source is the “thermal noise” produced by a resistor -- that is, the genuinely unpredictable fluctuations that occur when voltage is applied to that resistor. These fluctuations are measured and redistributed as some of the “bits” needed by the random number generator. I imagine this must be a machine or computer of some sort rigged up somewhere in Costa Rica (where PokerStars is headquartered) with lots of measuring instruments taking down various data related to the fluctuations and pumping those numbers into its randomization program.
The other source of random bits might surprise you. It’s us. That’s right -- the players. Data is gathered from “a summary of mouse movements and events timing” and used along with the thermal noise data to determine the ultimate order of the cards. So the amount of time you spent deciding whether to check, raise, or fold actually affects the order in which the cards across the site are being randomized. Of course, we’re talking about at any given moment tens of thousands of players’ movements affecting hundreds of thousands of deals, so there’s little hope of precisely tracking the effect of how one person moves his or her mouse and the timing of his or her clicks. But such actions do, most definitely, affect the process of randomization. (Reminds one more than a little of the butterfly effect, from chaos theory.)
All of this information was very diverting, but my question hadn’t really been answered by any of it. Would I have made my straight had I played my crappy 58 on that hand with the 746 flop? I wrote PokerStars support an email asking them whether or not the randomization process is applied multiple times throughout the hand (e.g., before the deal, before the flop, after the flop, after the turn) or if it is only applied once prior to the hand. As usual with PokerStars, they got back to me very quickly (in less than two hours). Here is what they had to say:
I would have made my straight! It didn’t matter whether I hesitated or moved the mouse around the screen before folding -- the order of the cards for that particular hand already had been determined and would not change, regardless of the action. Zog and Henry’s claim about there not being a “preshuffled, prearranged deck” wasn’t the case here . . . ! PokerStars does, in fact, "set the deck" (as what they call a "virtual stub").
I wondered if perhaps PokerRoom does things differently, so even though I don’t have an account with them I sent them a message asking the same question. Half a day later, they've yet to get back to me. If they do, I'll post their response. Meanwhile, I'll just keep on wondering what if . . . .
(Click here to read the follow-up post.)
22.7.06
Poker Group Suggests Legalizing, Taxing Internet Games
In response to a bill that would ban Internet poker, the nonprofit Poker Players Alliance has released a study making a case for the online games to be legalized and taxed by the federal government.
Last week, the House passed the "Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act," which would update the Interstate Wire Act of 1961. That act has been made somewhat nebulous thanks to modern technology, outlawing betting on sports across state lines over the telephone but leaving the enforcement of Internet gambling in a legal limbo. The House bill would specifically outlaw bets made using the Internet or any other form of electronic communication, appropriate $10 million to the Department of Justice's budgets in 2007 through 2010, and increase the maximum penalty to five years in prison.
The bill would also place some of the enforcement burden on Internet service providers and financial institutions that process online transactions by requiring them to "identify and block or otherwise prevent or prohibit restricted transactions."
The poker industry study found that more than $3 billion in federal and state revenues could be raised if Internet poker was regulated and taxed in the United States. The alliance asked for Congress to create a bipartisan commission to examine all online gaming.
The alliance said that Internet gambling is regulated in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, which passed legislation in 2005 to regulate and tax Internet gambling.
Last week, the House passed the "Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act," which would update the Interstate Wire Act of 1961. That act has been made somewhat nebulous thanks to modern technology, outlawing betting on sports across state lines over the telephone but leaving the enforcement of Internet gambling in a legal limbo. The House bill would specifically outlaw bets made using the Internet or any other form of electronic communication, appropriate $10 million to the Department of Justice's budgets in 2007 through 2010, and increase the maximum penalty to five years in prison.
The bill would also place some of the enforcement burden on Internet service providers and financial institutions that process online transactions by requiring them to "identify and block or otherwise prevent or prohibit restricted transactions."
The poker industry study found that more than $3 billion in federal and state revenues could be raised if Internet poker was regulated and taxed in the United States. The alliance asked for Congress to create a bipartisan commission to examine all online gaming.
The alliance said that Internet gambling is regulated in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, which passed legislation in 2005 to regulate and tax Internet gambling.
20.7.06
Cyndy Day? With 15 players to go in the $5K Seven...
Cyndy Day?
With 15 players to go in the $5K Seven-card Stud event, Cyndy Violette is at the front of the pack as the chipleader with 157K. The 5K Stud event is the highest Stud buy-in at the WSOP which means that the winner is considered the Unofficial Stud World Champion.
Since Cyndy Violette is a fine looking woman, her poker game is always overlooked. Sure, she's always mentioned on the list of "best looking female poker player" but she'd rather be recognized for her poker skills that equally (if not surpass) her remarkable beauty. If you've played against Cyndy at the tables over the past two decades, you know first hand that she's not just a pretty face, but one of the toughest poker players around today... male or female. Indeed, Cyndy Violette is a triple threat -- she's smart, good looking, and is an excellent poker player.
Cyndy Violette is a native New Yorker and was born in Queens, NY. She enjoyed playing cards as a child with various relatives at the kitchen table. When she was 12, she moved to Las Vegas, NV with her family. One of her first jobs was dealing blackjack at a casino. She started playing poker when she was 22 years old and pregnant with her daughter. She was looking for something to do in order to kill time. Although she admits she didn't know what she was doing at the time, she quickly discovered that she enjoyed the game immensely.
She dealt poker and blackjack, but it wasn't until she visited Lake Tahoe in 1984 that she took the first big step in becoming a professional poker player. At the time, she was strictly a Seven-card Stud player and she cleaned up in the cash games. She entered a Stud tournament and won the entire thing. First place paid out $74,000, which at the time was the largest purse ever won by a female in the history of poker. Overnight, Cyndy Violette became known in poker circles. She was also the subject of an article in Playboy after her victory and that gave her exposure to a wider audience.
Cyndy soon quit her job as a dealer and decided to play Stud full time. She eventually made her way up in stakes from $15/30 to $30/60 and eventually to $75/150.
When Cyndy Violette met her second husband, she took a brief hiatus from poker, mainly because he didn't want her to play. In those two years, she focused on her family life instead of gambling. On a visit to Caesar's Palace in 1990, she couldn't resist the temptation to sit at a poker table. She entered a tournament and ended up winning it. She made the decision to return to playing on a semi-regular basis and spent time in Southern California and Las Vegas playing cash games and tournaments in various card rooms and casinos.
When Cyndy's relationship with her husband ended 1993, she spent that summer playing at the Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City. She ended up moving there permanently with her daughter. She would return to Las Vegas for a few months every year to play in the World Series of Poker and do the tournament circuit in California.
2005 was a special year for Cyndy Violette. She made three final tables and cashed five times at the World Series of Poker. If it weren't for a bad beat by Erik Seidel, she might have won her second bracelet. She proved that she's an excellent all around player with cashes in Limit, Pot Limit, No Limit Shorthanded, and regular NL Hold'em. She earned her first and only WSOP bracelet in 2004 when she won the Seven-card Stud Hi/Lo event. At this year's WSOP, Cyndy cashed in two NL events.
Cyndy Violette is one of the top seven female money winners of all time. She has made ten (soon to be eleven) final tables over her career at the WSOP. If she never took a hiatus, she might have become the most successful female player of all time. She also used to be strictly a cash game player, but recently began playing more tournaments.
Cyndy at the 2005 WSOP
Cyndy's charms
Cyndy doesn't just focus on poker. She leads a very healthy lifestyle as a vegetarian. She has a personal chef prepare her special foods during the WSOP, which she would often eat at the table during grueling 12-14 hour sessions.
Cyndy also practices yoga and aroma therapy and you can often see some of her lucky charms at the poker table. She keeps several healing stones within close reach.
"You have to have balance in life," she said in an interview. "Poker can be obsessive and then it's not good for you. You have to stay focused at all times; don't get emotionally involved, and don't let it take over your life."
Cyndy is also once of the nicest people you will meet in poker. She always has a warm smile and I've never seen her get angry at another player. She's a true class act and treats everyone with respect, which is rare to see these days.
By the way, the photos in this post were taken by Flipchip. Check out his 2006 WSOP photos.
With 15 players to go in the $5K Seven-card Stud event, Cyndy Violette is at the front of the pack as the chipleader with 157K. The 5K Stud event is the highest Stud buy-in at the WSOP which means that the winner is considered the Unofficial Stud World Champion.Since Cyndy Violette is a fine looking woman, her poker game is always overlooked. Sure, she's always mentioned on the list of "best looking female poker player" but she'd rather be recognized for her poker skills that equally (if not surpass) her remarkable beauty. If you've played against Cyndy at the tables over the past two decades, you know first hand that she's not just a pretty face, but one of the toughest poker players around today... male or female. Indeed, Cyndy Violette is a triple threat -- she's smart, good looking, and is an excellent poker player.
Cyndy Violette is a native New Yorker and was born in Queens, NY. She enjoyed playing cards as a child with various relatives at the kitchen table. When she was 12, she moved to Las Vegas, NV with her family. One of her first jobs was dealing blackjack at a casino. She started playing poker when she was 22 years old and pregnant with her daughter. She was looking for something to do in order to kill time. Although she admits she didn't know what she was doing at the time, she quickly discovered that she enjoyed the game immensely.
She dealt poker and blackjack, but it wasn't until she visited Lake Tahoe in 1984 that she took the first big step in becoming a professional poker player. At the time, she was strictly a Seven-card Stud player and she cleaned up in the cash games. She entered a Stud tournament and won the entire thing. First place paid out $74,000, which at the time was the largest purse ever won by a female in the history of poker. Overnight, Cyndy Violette became known in poker circles. She was also the subject of an article in Playboy after her victory and that gave her exposure to a wider audience.
Cyndy soon quit her job as a dealer and decided to play Stud full time. She eventually made her way up in stakes from $15/30 to $30/60 and eventually to $75/150.When Cyndy Violette met her second husband, she took a brief hiatus from poker, mainly because he didn't want her to play. In those two years, she focused on her family life instead of gambling. On a visit to Caesar's Palace in 1990, she couldn't resist the temptation to sit at a poker table. She entered a tournament and ended up winning it. She made the decision to return to playing on a semi-regular basis and spent time in Southern California and Las Vegas playing cash games and tournaments in various card rooms and casinos.
When Cyndy's relationship with her husband ended 1993, she spent that summer playing at the Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City. She ended up moving there permanently with her daughter. She would return to Las Vegas for a few months every year to play in the World Series of Poker and do the tournament circuit in California.
2005 was a special year for Cyndy Violette. She made three final tables and cashed five times at the World Series of Poker. If it weren't for a bad beat by Erik Seidel, she might have won her second bracelet. She proved that she's an excellent all around player with cashes in Limit, Pot Limit, No Limit Shorthanded, and regular NL Hold'em. She earned her first and only WSOP bracelet in 2004 when she won the Seven-card Stud Hi/Lo event. At this year's WSOP, Cyndy cashed in two NL events.
Cyndy Violette is one of the top seven female money winners of all time. She has made ten (soon to be eleven) final tables over her career at the WSOP. If she never took a hiatus, she might have become the most successful female player of all time. She also used to be strictly a cash game player, but recently began playing more tournaments.
Cyndy at the 2005 WSOP
Cyndy's charms
Cyndy doesn't just focus on poker. She leads a very healthy lifestyle as a vegetarian. She has a personal chef prepare her special foods during the WSOP, which she would often eat at the table during grueling 12-14 hour sessions.
Cyndy also practices yoga and aroma therapy and you can often see some of her lucky charms at the poker table. She keeps several healing stones within close reach."You have to have balance in life," she said in an interview. "Poker can be obsessive and then it's not good for you. You have to stay focused at all times; don't get emotionally involved, and don't let it take over your life."
Cyndy is also once of the nicest people you will meet in poker. She always has a warm smile and I've never seen her get angry at another player. She's a true class act and treats everyone with respect, which is rare to see these days.
By the way, the photos in this post were taken by Flipchip. Check out his 2006 WSOP photos.
18.7.06
Shannon Elizabeth is addicted to poker!
'American Pie' star Shannon Elizabeth's addiction of playing cards is beginning to take over her life, so much so that playing poker has become her 'second career'.
She recently revealed that she is so hooked on to poker that she travels to Las Vegas, Nevada almost three times a month to play with America's top card masters.
"I have become addicted to poker. I am in Las Vegas two or three times a month these days, playing every other night sometimes. Poker has become my second career", Contactmusic quoted her, as telling the Blender magazine.
Elizabeth who has become one of the leading celebrity poker players and has won few striking victories at the card table, once walked away from a card game with 57,747 dollars.
Her stunning looks seem to act as her lucky charm to win the game; for she admitted that sometimes she likes to use her feminine charm to distract the attention of the male players.
"A lot of men get lost in their cards if you introduce a decent distraction", she added.
She recently revealed that she is so hooked on to poker that she travels to Las Vegas, Nevada almost three times a month to play with America's top card masters.
"I have become addicted to poker. I am in Las Vegas two or three times a month these days, playing every other night sometimes. Poker has become my second career", Contactmusic quoted her, as telling the Blender magazine.
Elizabeth who has become one of the leading celebrity poker players and has won few striking victories at the card table, once walked away from a card game with 57,747 dollars.
Her stunning looks seem to act as her lucky charm to win the game; for she admitted that sometimes she likes to use her feminine charm to distract the attention of the male players.
"A lot of men get lost in their cards if you introduce a decent distraction", she added.
Everybody's Talkin'
Was at the Razz tables again today for a bit (on Full Tilt Poker, the only major site that currently spreads Razz). There are easier things in the world than trying to find a Razz game, frankly. I found only four tables going -- 21 players total (out of about 5000 who were on the site at the time). And three of those tables were out of my league, stakes-wise. But there was that one $0.25/$0.50 table that mostly held together for the hour or so I was there. Actually ended up ahead this time (about $7.00). Was able to resist playing those 9-high hands or chasing other dubious draws, unlike before. I’m starting to see that while Razz might appear to be overwhelmingly a “math” or “numbers” game, it actually involves a lot more “feel” than I realized before trying it out. I haven’t played enough, obviously, to be able to explain what that means, really. But it has been interesting to see how the third-street raising tends to go (usually only two or three players see fourth), how you really can bluff folks out of pots (and/or be bluffed out of pots), how one can go from being the favorite to a dog and back several times before a hand is complete, among other aspects of the game.
When I finished I tripped over to the 2+2 Forums to see if anyone ever talks about Razz over there. Didn’t find much. There is no “Razz” forum -- only an “Other Poker Games” section where Razz very occasionally comes up. (A couple of Razz-related threads actually popped up over in the “Stud” section as well.) As usually happens whenever I skim through the forums (at 2+2, RGP, the Card Clubs Network Forums, CardPlayer, THF), I ended up clicking around and getting distracted by other threads that looked interesting. I enjoy reading these and occasionally will contribute. Given that I live hundreds of miles from the nearest casino and am currently without a regular home game, it’s good to be able from time to time to have a kind of “community” of poker players with whom to discuss the game.
The poker forum is an interesting animal, really. Some of the threads on 2+2 get fairly competitive, almost as though those who are posting see themselves as participating in a hand of poker. One will “open bet” (let’s say) with a comment challenging some sort of accepted wisdom, for example, “Harrington’s Law of Bluffing” which states “the probability that your opponent is bluffing when he shoves a big bet in the pot is always at least 10 percent” (from Volume 1 of Harrington on Hold ‘em). Nonsense, says the thread-starter -- there are some players who simply never ever bluff. The first few respondents write comments that essentially agree with the original post (they “call” him). Then someone decides to put in a small “raise” by modifying the original argument, applying the principle to limit hold ’em (not NL tourneys). Then another “reraises” by challenging that assumption. And so forth.
That particular thread has thus far remained fairly amicable, although sometimes you’ll see posters aggressively battling each other as if vying for a huge pot. Another similarity with playing online is the fact that irony/sarcasm generally doesn’t go over terribly well -- oftentimes you’ll see threads taken completely off-track by someone having mistaken a tongue-in-cheek comment for sincerity, follow-up “I-was-half-joking-when-I-said-that”-type posts, or the like.
These phenomena aren’t specific to poker forums, of course, but the fact that poker players are usually trying not to “communicate” with complete transparency when at the table -- instead deliberately deceiving others with false cues -- makes it doubly interesting to witness these genuine attempts to communicate in the forums.
Or via blogs, for that matter.
17.7.06
16.7.06
Raising a Glass to the Return of Prohibition
All of Dashiell Hammett’s great hard-boiled novels -- Red Harvest, The Dain Curse, The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key, The Thin Man -- take place during the time of Prohibition. Except for the The Thin Man, all were published prior to the 1933 passage of the 21st Amendment (repealing the 18th Amendment prohibiting “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liqours”). The Thin Man, published in 1934, is set a couple of years earlier and shows its protagonist couple Nick and Nora Charles and other characters easily locating drinking establishments (“speakeasies”) where they consume prodigous amounts of alcohol throughout the novel. Some see the high frequency of drinking in The Thin Man as adding up to a kind of commentary by Hammett on the futility of trying to enforce prohibition laws. Characters often end up in joints like the Pigiron Club ordering drink after drink, clearly nonplussed by the legality of such establishments. Early in the novel Nick and Nora wake up one morning and over the paper Nick suggests having “a drop of something to cut the phlegm.” “Why don’t you have some breakfast first?” Nora suggests. “It’s too early for breakfast,” Nick replies. In truth, consuming or possessing alcohol was never illegal -- only the “manufacture, sale, or transportation” was. Still, the law helped create what many deemed a disproportiately large “criminal” class of citizens, not to mention handed bootleggers and organized crime leaders a readymade business opportunity of which toughs like Al Capone, Earl Weiss, and “Bugs” Moran took full advantage.
Some have linked recent legal efforts to criminalize online gambling to Prohibition, particularly those who oppose bills like the one passed last week by the House of Representatives. As a recent article in CardPlayer Magazine helpfully points out, the bill the House passed was not the so-called “Goodlatte Bill,” a.k.a., H.R. 4777, a.k.a. the “Internet Gambling Prohibition Act.” Rather, what passed was a different bill sponsored by Rep. Jim Leach, an Iowa Republican, that includes some but not all of Goodlatte’s proposals. Like Goodlatte’s bill, Leach’s bill (H.R. 4411) also (1) disallows online gaming sites from accepting payments via U.S. banks; (2) disallows U.S. banks from delivering payments to online gaming sites; (3) amends the definition of “wire communication” to include the Internet; and (4) places a “burden” upon ISP’s to block online gaming sites. There are other provisions in the bill, including dubious “carve-outs” or exceptions for lotteries and horse racing.
The bill now must be approved both by the senate and the White House. Word is the White House will support the bill, if it gets that far. However, the senate appears less concerned about even discussing the bill for now, and apparently (at present, anyway) there aren’t enough votes there for it to pass through. Still, the fact that H.R. 4411 passed in the House by such a large margin -- 317 ayes, 93 noes -- suggests that a lot of our elected representatives see reason to support such a bill. Allyn Jaffrey Shulman’s article “A Comprehensive Analysis of the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act” (from the May 2, 2006 issue of CardPlayer) does a great job explaining what Goodlatte’s bill is, the political context for its having reached the House floor now, as well as the various implications of the bill should it ever pass. (Much of what she says about Goodlatte’s bill also applies to H.R. 4411.)
A lot of online poker players don’t realize that Goodlatte’s bill has been around for a long time -- longer than any of the online poker sites have been in operation. The bill actually originated over in the senate when Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Arizona) proposed it back in 1997. (Goodlatte then proposed the “House version” of an essentially similar bill shortly thereafter.) Thus when debate began nearly ten years ago about the possibilities of creating a federal law that would make online gambling a crime, there was no PokerStars or Party Poker or Full Tilt Poker. (While online gambling sites first came about in 1995, the first online poker site, Planet Poker, didn’t arrive until 1998.) This means that the sites on which we all play were (in most cases) constructed very deliberately so as to avoid possible legal hassles down the road. All are located offshore (i.e., not in America) in other countries, many of which in fact regulate internet gambling (such as the U.K.). Also, credit card companies and banks quickly began to disallow money transfers to and from these sites (even though they weren’t compelled by any law to do so); thus the popular “third-party” money transfer sites like Neteller and Firepay (also located offshore) stepped in to provide a means for players to get money to and from the sites.
The very way online poker has developed, then, proves what some observers were saying way back in the late 1990s when the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act was first presented. Back in May 1998, Andrea Lessani of the The UCLA Online Institute for Cyberspace Law and Policy argued that “the passage of the Internet Act would not eliminate online gambling and protect against the dangers of Internet gambling. Instead, its passage would drive online gambling underground and may even intensify the problems of Internet gambling.” (Her article can be viewed online at the Institute’s archive.) Lessani instead favors regulation and taxation -- not coincidentally, the same solution eventually settled upon in America regarding the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol.
The fact that our favorite sites have already anticipated such a crackdown, putting into place the offshore “loophole” even before it was necessary, demonstrates in part how impotent bills like H.R. 4411 and H.R. 4777 potentially are. If either bill passes and ISPs indeed start to block Americans’ access to online poker sites, you can bet that other “loopholes” will already have been created well in advance to ensure uninterrupted play.
What’ll be different? Not much. Aside from the fact that, technically speaking, we’ll all be criminals. Some of us even before breakfast.
Online Poker Rooms news
The proliferation of poker productions continues -- with at least 3 big-screen movies, in addition to such TV fare as celebrity-poker tourneys and reality TV. With Curtis Hanson's "Lucky You" drama with Robert Duvall, Drew Barrymore, Eric Bana and Jean Smart, due Sept. 15, Joe Carnahan's "Smokin' Aces" is in hold 'em mode -- now due in January.
That's the action-comedy with a cast including Ben Affleck, Andy Garcia, Ray Liotta, Alicia Keys and Jason Bateman.
After ten years of toil on the poker tournament trail, after a life span of revelry, after ultimately dedicating much of his energy to a charity and the pursuit of science and research, Rafe Furst, a 37-year-old chief technical officer from Los Angeles, won his first WSOP gold bracelet. Henry Orenstein, the Verona resident who created the card camera, continues to provide new ways to present poker on TV.
While most of the poker world is focused on the 2006 World Series of Poker, which began last week, Orenstein has his own summertime coup -- a weekly poker series on CBS. World Cup of poker on CBS
Australian poker king Joe Hachem is in the money again after winning $345,000 in a WSOP tournament. A year ago, Joseph Hachem was a mortgage broker who surreptitiously played poker on the internet to support his family. After winning last year's World Series of Poker main event and $7.5 million, the Australian says he's now treated like a rock star - but he's got a price on his head.
That's the action-comedy with a cast including Ben Affleck, Andy Garcia, Ray Liotta, Alicia Keys and Jason Bateman.
After ten years of toil on the poker tournament trail, after a life span of revelry, after ultimately dedicating much of his energy to a charity and the pursuit of science and research, Rafe Furst, a 37-year-old chief technical officer from Los Angeles, won his first WSOP gold bracelet. Henry Orenstein, the Verona resident who created the card camera, continues to provide new ways to present poker on TV.
While most of the poker world is focused on the 2006 World Series of Poker, which began last week, Orenstein has his own summertime coup -- a weekly poker series on CBS. World Cup of poker on CBS
Australian poker king Joe Hachem is in the money again after winning $345,000 in a WSOP tournament. A year ago, Joseph Hachem was a mortgage broker who surreptitiously played poker on the internet to support his family. After winning last year's World Series of Poker main event and $7.5 million, the Australian says he's now treated like a rock star - but he's got a price on his head.
15.7.06
Poker Drinking Game
columbo its the poker drinking game!
Easycure cheers!
* Easycure raises his Pacifico
DrizDrunk I need to refill
columbo win a race=drink, suckout = drink
DrizDrunk I can suckout, but I get sober if I wait for a race
Easycure Driz says something funny, spit out drink
DrizDrunk well you don't have worry about that
columbo oh yeah, min raise = DRINK
DrizDrunk Monks are better comedians then me
columbo double up = DRINK
columbo Double up on a suckout = 2 drinks
Easycure suckout at greater than 3:1 odds = shot of SoCo
DrizDrunk CJ would have to be hospitalized
columbo KK called on his all in by T6 sooooooted. That is an ALL DRINK!
* facty complies
* Easycure too
columbo recap - any caller to an all in who makes the call with 2 suited cards = all drink
Easycure anybody with a Rock avatar that calls an allin preflop without a Top 5 hand = all drink
Easycure cheers!
* Easycure raises his Pacifico
DrizDrunk I need to refill
columbo win a race=drink, suckout = drink
DrizDrunk I can suckout, but I get sober if I wait for a race
Easycure Driz says something funny, spit out drink
DrizDrunk well you don't have worry about that
columbo oh yeah, min raise = DRINK
DrizDrunk Monks are better comedians then me
columbo double up = DRINK
columbo Double up on a suckout = 2 drinks
Easycure suckout at greater than 3:1 odds = shot of SoCo
DrizDrunk CJ would have to be hospitalized
columbo KK called on his all in by T6 sooooooted. That is an ALL DRINK!
* facty complies
* Easycure too
columbo recap - any caller to an all in who makes the call with 2 suited cards = all drink
Easycure anybody with a Rock avatar that calls an allin preflop without a Top 5 hand = all drink
Online Poker Rooms WSOP
The first World Series of Poker was commenced in 1969 by Tom Moore of San Antonio, Texas at the Holiday Hotel and Casino in Reno and was an invitational event. This original event was won by Crandell Addington who went on to place eight times in the top ten of the World Series of Poker Main Event. This is a record that still stands in 2006, and likely will never be .
The set of tournaments the of Poker would progress to was the brainchild of Las Vegas, nevada legend, casino owner, and poker player Benny Binion as well as his two sons Jack and Ted. The Binion family not only encouraged the WSOP, but Texas Hold Em in general.
Prior to the 1970s, poker was not found at many because of the difficulty of keeping cheaters out. Through better security techniques as well as the Binion's tireless promotion through events like the World Series Of Poker, poker became a very popular game.
In 1970 the first WSOP at Binion's Horseshoe took place as a series of games that included razz, [deuce to seven low-ball draw], seven card stud, five card stud, and Texas Hold-em. The format for the Main Event as a freeze-out Texas Hold-em game came the following year. The champion in 1970, Johnny Moss was elected by his peer group as the first World Champion of Poker and received a silver trophy as a reward.
The set of tournaments the of Poker would progress to was the brainchild of Las Vegas, nevada legend, casino owner, and poker player Benny Binion as well as his two sons Jack and Ted. The Binion family not only encouraged the WSOP, but Texas Hold Em in general.
Prior to the 1970s, poker was not found at many because of the difficulty of keeping cheaters out. Through better security techniques as well as the Binion's tireless promotion through events like the World Series Of Poker, poker became a very popular game.
In 1970 the first WSOP at Binion's Horseshoe took place as a series of games that included razz, [deuce to seven low-ball draw], seven card stud, five card stud, and Texas Hold-em. The format for the Main Event as a freeze-out Texas Hold-em game came the following year. The champion in 1970, Johnny Moss was elected by his peer group as the first World Champion of Poker and received a silver trophy as a reward.
14.7.06
Betting casino online
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online casino, online casino gaming, riverbelle online casino ...Dazed and Confused; or, My Introductions to Omaha and Seven-Card Stud
Still keeping an eye on that H.O.R.S.E. event at the WSOP. They’ve finally whittled the original field of 143 down to the final 9. Gotta love that final table, with Doyle Brunson and T.J. Cloutier still there. Talk about a couple of tough “horses" -- a couple of 70-plus-year-olds making it through that ungodly 19-hour second day. Phil Ivey, Andy Bloch, Chip Reese . . . should be a great finale. A shame that they will now play it out as a no-limit hold ’em event, but I’ll still be checking in to see who survives.Again, as a nod to the H.O.R.S.E. event, I wanted to make one more non-hold ’em post and talk a bit about Omaha and Stud. I used to play both games quite a bit, especially Pot Limit Omaha (high only), though not so much for the last six months or so. My introduction to Omaha was kind of interesting. I had only been playing for play chips on PokerStars for a month or so when some of the friends with whom I had been playing recommended giving Omaha a try. After only a few hands at a ring table, I entered one of those Sunday afternoon freeroll tournaments Stars regularly runs, a fixed limit Omaha (high only) tourney with over 6000 entrants. I searched around on the web a bit just before the tournament began and found what looked like a reasonable, simple little chart explaining how to rate Omaha starting hands by assigning certain points -- e.g., AA gets 30 pts., Ace & anything suited gets 10 pts., connectors get two points, etc. If your hand totalled 10-15 pts., you could call the BB. If you had more, you could call a raise. Even more and you could raise yourself. I propped my chart on the keyboard, loaded Led Zeppelin’s eight studio albums into Winamp, and watched as the first hand was dealt.
Now these huge freerolls tend to attract a lot of less-than-serious players, and in the case of an Omaha tourney, I’m sure they also bring in a significant number of folks who aren’t even clear about the rules of the game. (I at least knew the rules, even if I didn’t have much of a clue about strategy.) I followed my little chart pretty closely, which I soon realized only permitted me to play about 10-15% of the hands. Such a super-tight approach allowed me to survive the first couple of thousand casualties pretty easily, although my stack wasn’t growing very much. Then somewhere around “Gallows Pole” I caught a rush of cards and found myself among the top hundred. I continued to limp along. A couple of hours later we were down to 800 and “Achilles’ Last Stand.” Then there were 300 left -- “Hot Dog”! Finally came the last, drawn-out chords of “I’m Gonna Crawl” . . . an appropriate title, as I had become one of the shorter stacks clinging for dear life. The music stopped and I looked up to see I was sitting at 9th out of 12 remaining. Then 9th out of 11. Then 9th out of 10.
The “prize” for the tourney was only for those who made the final table (top 9) -- an entry into the “Weekly Round 2” tourney the following Sunday (a freeroll with a $100 prize pool). I remember being dealt something like
and actually folding it, nervously eyeing the guy on the other table who only had a single big blind remaining. Finally, after folding a few more hands, I watched as he was bounced. “Congratulations, you have made the final table!” The very next hand was an all-in fest, and I happily went out in ninth place. Ninth! Out of over 6000. I was starting to think I might like Omaha.Only later did I realize that I had misread the chart I had used -- it was designed for Omaha 8-or-better (or “high-low”), not just Omaha high. So that’s why it awarded 15 pts. for having a deuce and a trey in your hand! (Shamus smacks forehead.) Still, somehow, I’d overcome even this self-imposed handicap to get through five-plus hours and thousands of opponents. Have to say, for someone who’d yet to make his first deposit to play real money games, this was some serious fun.
I checked the schedule and saw the following Sunday’s “Weekly Round 2” was actually a limit Stud tourney. I didn’t realize at the time that Poker Stars allows you to bank tourney entries and use them whenever you wish, so I thought I had one week to learn yet another game. I picked up a copy of Roy West’s 7 Card Stud: 42 Lessons How to Win at Medium & Lower Limits -- not necessarily the best way to learn how to negotiate a stud tournament (although there is a section in the back by Tom McEvoy about “Tournament Tactics”), but definitely a nice introduction to the game. I read through the entire book, took lots of notes, and made up a chart that compiled West’s recommendations for starting hands and fourth-, fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-street play. Whereas I had prepared a total of ten minutes for the Omaha tourney, I had probably put in at least 15 hours getting ready for my big Stud debut.
What happened? Not much. I busted out within the first hour. None of West’s recommendations seemed to work as described. I was placed at a table where five of the eight players had neglected to show up for the tourney, so it was just me, the five “sitting out” zombies, and two extremely aggressive players who appeared ready to cap the betting on every street. I couldn’t keep up at all, and thus received both an early exit and a short-lived prejudice against Stud.
Eventually I came to appreciate Stud and played the ring games every now and then. Omaha I liked even better, and for a time played nothing but PLO on Stars (nothing above the $0.05/$0.10 tables, of course). I did reasonably well in a few PLO SNG’s, and I even made another final table in another Omaha freeroll, finishing ninth again out of another field of thousands. I gravitated back to hold ’em, however, where I’ve been mostly camped out ever since.
I’ve been leafing through West’s book lately and occasionally sitting in on a few rounds of Stud. I’d like to get my hands on a good Omaha book, also, and get back into that game as well. I’ve seen recommended Ray Zee’s High-Low Split Poker (which covers both Stud and Omaha) -- I may pick it up. (Can anyone who has read it tell me what they think of that one?) Even if the WSOP has decided now that we’ve reached the final table of the H.O.R.S.E. event that these other games are no longer interesting, I’m still curious. Would hardly be a self-respecting detective if I weren't . . . .
12.7.06
All That Razz
All eyes on the WSOP today as the much-ballyhooed H.O.R.S.E. event finally began. I discussed the event in an earlier post, where I also mentioned how it had renewed my interest in games other than hold ’em. Coincidentally or not, today was the day I finally took the plunge on the Razz tables over on Full Tilt Poker. Intended only to play a few dozen hands, but ended up sticking around for close to two hours. I ended up on the losing side, but had a lot of fun and will likely be back soon. Before playing my first hand, I had compiled some advice from a few different sources. No exhaustive study, mind you. But I did at least make sure I knew the rules of the game going in. The original cue to give Razz a try had come from an episode of the excellent Ante Up! podcast from a few months back. Hosts Christopher Cosenza and Scott Long discussed how the game is played and offered a few strategy tips, then Cosenza followed up with a post on the Ante Up! blog in which he shared some more advice. I read through Cosenza’s comments there, then (as he recommends) I also read over the brief section on Razz in Doyle Brunson's Super/System: A Course in Power Poker as well as Phil Hellmuth’s chapter on Razz in Play Poker Like the Pros.
(I am aware how Hellmuth’s book tends to provoke extreme responses -- mostly negative -- and one day will post something here about Play Poker Like the Pros. I won’t be blindly defending the book or Hellmuth, mind you, but neither will I reject it wholesale as most seem to do.)
When I clicked the Razz tab at Full Tilt I saw that there were only a few tables going. There were a couple of active tables at higher stakes (one $2.00/$4.00 and one $8.00/$16.00). I knew I didn’t want to venture there. I scrolled down to find a couple of $0.25/$0.50 tables going and so took a spot at one of those. I adopted Cosenza’s “tight is right” strategy and restricted myself only to playing hands where I had been dealt three cards eight or lower (non-paired, of course) -- i.e., a "three-card eight." Was actually dealt
once and cringed as I folded. I was doing a lot of folding, actually, and after a while decided to fill the time calculating exactly the chances of being dealt a three-card eight. (If my math is correct, it is a little over 16% . . . just about 1 out of 6 hands.) I finally got involved in a few pots, winning a few and losing a few. I won about half of my showdowns -- I don’t know if that’s a decent percentage or not, really. I realized fairly quickly how you can often know precisely whether or not you are holding a winner. Occasionally you have your opponent “board-locked” (as Hellmuth says), meaning you can know with 100% certainty that your hand beats what he is showing. This circumstance comes up more frequently (per hands played) than does having the “absolute nuts” in hold ’em, to be sure.
By far the most memorable hand came when I was dealt
. Everyone put in the $0.05 ante. A player two seats to my right with 
had to put in the bring-in of $0.10. The player to his left, Petty, called with 
. I completed to $0.25, and GenialGeorge called with the 
. Petty called as well. Fourth street brought me the , giving me four-fifths of a wheel, so I bet out the quarter. GenialGeorge had picked up the and called. Petty folded. Fifth street was a sweet for yours truly, giving me a “smooth 6-low” -- a very strong hand, especially by fifth street. GenialGeorge, meanwhile, had picked up the and so he was first to act. He bet the $0.50, and I immediately raised him to $1.00. He called. He drew the 
on sixth street, and so I bet out again only to be raised by GenialGeorge. I reraised to $1.50 and he called.Looking at the hands -- I had
and George had 
-- I felt pretty confident I had to be ahead. He had to have precisely a deuce and a trey in the hole to be ahead of me, and I had one of each. (Also, Petty had folded a trey as well.) Seventh street cards were dealt face down, and I again bet. GenialGeorge again raised me. Could it be? I called and yes, indeed, he had the wheel: 
. We had been dealt the two best possible hands in Razz, and we both had hit those hands on fifth street! I couldn’t complain, though. I did make a couple of wheels myself before I finished, and while I ended up down about $12 for the session I went back over to the limit hold ’em tables and quickly made that back. Looking back, I realize I did end up chasing a few times when I shouldn’t have and even allowed myself to play a couple of 9-high hands when I knew better. Most folks at the table seemed to know what they were doing, although there was that one guy who showed down a full house on one hand and quads on another. (That caused some chat.)
Fun to learn and play a new game. I certainly recommend it. Meanwhile, what is this I hear about marked cards at the H.O.R.S.E. event?! I can see how marking the cards would make Razz easier. Somewhat, anyway . . . .
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