pokerbot101

Decent showing at NAGA

2007-11-02T00:26:00.000-07:00

My first Jiu Jitsu didn't go exactly as hoped. I ended up finishing a respectable 3rd out of the 10 competitors in my division. I was pretty confident going in, but I found out that I'm really not in the kinda shape I need to be to succeed with multiple successive matches. I destroyed my first opponent 15-2 but after four minutes of all out aggression I found myself really gassed. The 2nd match started about 10 minutes after the first and because I was still so tired, I was psychologically drained as well. My opponent got my back within about the first 20 seconds which is never a good sign. I defended the multiple attacks he threw at me pretty well and was happy not to tap out, but I did lose 4-0. In the third match, I was taken down and held full guard for the first few minutes and couldn't pull off any sweeps. Finally I just let guard go and managed a reversal. I was down by 4 points with only 30 seconds left and I knew that I had to get submission to win. At this point I was in side control. I got to full mount and used a kimura as a bate to get an arm to attempt an arm bar. His right arm freed up and I switched to spider guard and used all my might to get a submission.

Grappler's Quest is exactly a month from today and I will have high hopes for that tournament as well.

Jiu Jitsu tournament, NAGA, next weekend

2007-10-21T13:23:00.000-07:00

I've been putting a lot of effort both physically and mentally into my martial arts training for the past 5 months now. I've been waiting for a chance to pit myself against others of similar experience and that will happen next Saturday at the North American Grappling Association (NAGA) tournament. They have tons of different skill and weight divisions, so I will be competing in the white belt, 160-170lbs, Gi division. I'll let you know the results!

Need to keep focus

2007-10-20T10:45:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the truth is poker has been a bit rough lately. I've been putting a lot of hours in online but I've been treading water the last month or so. It is a bit discouraging but I am attempting to keep things in perspective. If I can't handle some tough times then I certainly would not be cut out to do this long term. As it stands, I really think I'm getting better each day, so it could be just a generic "bad luck" situation. Of course, my ego is in check so I know it's been partly my fault as well. I've made some pretty bad plays in the heat of the moment, but have had plenty of sick coolers. I had quads beaten by quads for a huge pot and the nut flush beaten by a straight flush etc. The game was pot limit omaha though so those situations do come up, but it still sucks!

So anyways, I'll keep churning away as I'm sure I'll get out of this slump soon enough.

My First Publish

2007-09-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

In further efforts to expand my horizons, I decided to spend some time working on an article. I submitted it to two magazines and it was picked up by Two Plus Two which is a website mostly known for its forums, but it runs an online only once a month magazine. You can read the article over at:

http://www.twoplustwo.com/magazine/current/

Just search for "Overpairs". It's not a perfect article by any means but it is geared towards intermediate level players and has some really good info. Check it out.

Don't try this at home!

2007-08-18T00:21:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I decided I just had to get money back into an internet poker site. I figured FullTilt was my best option as I get a decent rakeback there of 27%. The only way which seems like it was going to work to get money in was epassport but the damn site took 10 days to get $300 bucks into and that was the max I could put in! Well today I finally put $295 from epassport into Fulltilt ($5 was a fee to get money into epassport from my bank account). So I played for about 7 hours starting with that $295 and was down to $42 playing $.5/$1 and $.25/$.5 Pot Limit Omaha after getting donkey raped every damn hand. All my draws were missing and all my sets were getting rundown by other players' draws. I was getting really pissed and pretty much on insta-tiltomatic. Just about anything was setting me off. Now I figured with $42 bucks I really didn't have enough to play many tables so wanted to either go bust or get a real stake back. So I jumped up to a $1/2 blinds table which really still isn't that big of stakes but with $42 it was all I could join. After 2 hours of some crazy luck against really really bad players I am now still playing and have over $700 in my stack! Don't try this at home!!!

Pot Limit Omaha is amaaaaazing!

2007-08-15T13:03:00.000-07:00

Again I apologize for lack of updates. I'm not sure what will get me posting regularly. Anyways, I was playing $2/5 No Limit Holdem on Sunday over at the Venetian. I was down a couple hundred when the table broke and there since it was 8am Monday morning, the room was basically now dead. There was a $1/2 table running with a donator (ie fish giving away money) so I got on the list for that. In the meantime, I looked over at the only other table running and it happened to be Pot Limit Omaha (PLO). I've never played PLO before live, but I wanted to here. Only problem was that the game was running with $5/10 blinds which is pretty big and over my comfort level. I sat and watched the table for for a round and wow did it look juicy (ie really bad players), so I just had to take a shot. I bought in for short for $500 and most people at the table had between $2k and $10k in front of them. After 11 hours of play with possibly the worst PLO players ever, I cashed out pretty well. Two of the players had actually never played PLO before... like ever... and it really showed. One of them kept forgetting that you needed to play 2 cards from your hand. I hope to find more games like that!

Life outside of poker

2007-07-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

After choosing this new career path, I decided I needed something outside of poker to focus on as well. Maybe I could become a better poker player quicker and move up the ranks faster if I was 100% poker, but I also think it creates a high risk for "burnout". If I have poker and only poker, what do I do when I need to get away from poker? (like if I go on a bad run and need time to psychologically and mentally recuperate) I wanted something to help keep me in shape and something that I have a passion for similar to poker. That something turned out to be Mixed Martial Arts. Most of you should have heard of The Ultimate Fighting Championship and maybe have even watched a few of them. Basically two men enter a cage and try to beat the crap out of each other till someone is knocked out or gives up. I know at first it may sound brutal but there are plenty of safety precautions in place to keep this a civilized sport. I don't have plans to step in the cage anytime soon, but I will be training with hopes of competition somewhere down the line. I am training Gracie Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai Kickboxing and took my first Power Yoga class this week. Yoga may sound a little "woosie" but it can make a grown man cry. There is a Jiu Jitsu tournament coming up in Septemer in Las Vegas called Naga that I will be competing in for the first time as a white belt. I'll return to some poker stories in my next post. Thanks for reading.

Updates from the Lazy Poker Player

2007-07-14T19:41:00.000-07:00

Yah, it's been a while since I made an update and a lot has happened since then. I'll keep it simple for now and give more info in some future updates. Basically last time we talked I was in Dallas for a few months trying to figure out what to do next. I was playing online at PartyPoker for a while (until they banned US players) and I was playing at FullTiltPoker and WorldPokerExchange. I was reading every book I could get my hands on, reading posts at the twoplustwo forums, and playing a ton of No Limit Texas Holdem (NLHE) and some Pot Limit Omaha High. My game just didn't seem to be getting any better despite putting in a lot of effort. I made the decision to move to Las Vegas to get some live play in with the hopes of getting better and moving up limits. So In April, with basically no plan, I logged onto google maps, routed a trip from Dallas to Las Vegas, packed up almost everything I own into my Jeep and drove 1200 miles straight to Las Vegas only stopping for gas, bathroom and a few snacks. After like 17 hours I arrived. I parked my Jeep at New York New York Casino and made my way over to Excalibur for a 20 hour session of $1/2 NLHE. I'll continue that story later.

It's quite amusing how at any one time I always think I'm a decent poker player but time goes by, I learn more and get a lot better and then I realize how horrible I was before. I wonder if this trend will continue until I die. I've read like 40 poker books and always thought I could learn most of what I needed to for playing poker out of a book, but I was horribly wrong. Much of the "good stuff" is left out. I'm not sure if this is to keep "trade secrets" or if no one can explain it well enough. I'd have to guess that anyone making a decent living at poker can't give away all his secrets lest his day job be at risk. I've started taking some notes and may submit some articles to some poker magazines/sites to see if I can get some exposure.

Lazy post Vegas update

2006-12-24T03:29:00.000-08:00

So wow, I'm already a few days back from a week long trip to Las Vegas. I spent four days on the strip and three days hanging out with some cousins I hadn't communicated with for somewhere near a decade. While on the strip, three friends from Austin and I stayed at the Excalibur hotel. It was a nice inexpensive place and I'd recommend it to anyone. The poker room there isnt exactly top knotch but I was there to sleep. There are plenty of great poker rooms at other casinos we found. The first day I spent some time playing $1/2 (meaning $1 small blind and $2 big blind) at the MGM and then a long stay at the Venetian's new poker room playing $2/5. I'd have to say that my ten or so hours at the Venetian was the craziest game of poker I've ever seen. For the first few hours it was "normal" but then a couple guys showed up and raised the stakes. They were dropping down from a $5/10 game to "donk" it up a bit. About half the hands were raised to anywhere from $30 to $95 preflop which is pretty big for standard raises. There was even one hand where I even goaded one of the crazies into making a $420 preflop raise blind! I really wasnt expecting anyone to call him but little did we know that the guy after him had pocket Aces (which held up to the blind raiser's 77). I was down about $600 in the game at one point but made a nice double up with an ace high flush vs a king high flush, so I left the game a $23 loser to get a nice rest after a long day of flying and playing. I'll continue with more stories of the rest of the trip soon.

Last minute studytime before Vegas

2006-12-10T01:42:00.000-08:00

I picked up a recently released book called "Ream Em and Reap" by Joe Navarro. You may be scared that this book is a "beginners" book since it has Phil Helmuth's name on it as well. Phil writes only about 10 of the 200 pages though. This book covers reading players and tells and I'm on my 2nd way through. The only other book in my library covering this subject matter is Mike Caro's "Book of Poker Tells". Is this book better? I wouldnt say that but it is well worth your money and time. They do in fact cover similar material but in totally different formats. Caro's book covers alot of specific tells and what they mean whereas Navarro's book covers alot of what causes these tells and how to catagorize and decipher almost any behavior different from the norm. If you really want to improve your live game play then you need to dedicate some effort to reading both of these books.

Game On at FullTilt

2006-12-07T17:08:00.000-08:00

Well, I jumped the gun a bit yesterday. It appears FullTilt was just in the middle of upgrading its software and tournament schedule and the doublestack and sitngo's are back in business.

On a side note I played a bit of $1/2 blind Holdem over at World Poker Exchange and pulled down a small win. I really hope they can get more people to populate this site because 100% rakeback is KILLER good. Right now, there are usually only a table or two at each of the lower level limits.

World Poker Exchange

FullTilt pulls a switcharoo

2006-12-06T21:42:00.000-08:00

So I've been really getting into these FullTilt doublestack tournaments which allow for a pretty good amount of skill to be utilized. Last night after my high finish I decided to jump right in to another tournament which was $75 buyin and 231 people. I managed to work my way through the field until there was 21 people left. People who play tournaments alot are aware you usually find yourself in quite a few "race" situations where you have a pair vs an opponents overcards or vice versa. In this tournament I found myself in no such situations so didn't have a need to "get lucky" until my last hand... which should tell you how it ended. I am pretty short stacked at this point although the average stack size is still in pretty safe territory. I look at my screen and pick up a pretty big hand, JJ. The pot got raised before me and I decided to push and then someone overcalled and the original raiser called. The hands were AK vs KQ vs JJ giving me a 45% shot at taking down a triple up pot to get me in contention for the big $. Well an ace came on the river and I headed for the door after barely squeaking into the money.

Despite how that tournament ended, I was really looking forward to playing more of these types of tournaments but FullTilt totally changed their tournament schedule and games around today. The good pickins for tournaments is now very slim and I'm left bummed out. I tried a 45 man $22 buy in only to find out that now only the starting chips stack was half like I expected but the blind levels were twice as fast! This tournament quickly became an all out all in fest after about an hour. Sufficed to say, I need to find a new site to play my tournaments on.

3rd place finish in $55 buy in 54 man tournament

2006-12-05T18:49:00.000-08:00

Over at FullTilt I decided to play a $55 buyin 54 man 6-man table sitngo with doublestacks. We ended up at the final table in about 3 hours, so this tourament gave a huge amount of play for the buyin (similar to the $22 buyins I described in my previous blog). I'll admit it took some luck to get there but I did manage to play fairly well on top. I played almost 400 hands and never once got aces or kings and had queens once and jacks once. I did manage to crack a pair of queens with T3 in a blind vs blind battle that scooted me into the money instead of leaving in 7th place. The tournament payed 6 places and there were 7-9 players for a good 45 minutes before the final table and $ started. It was basically an all in fest for the short stacks of which I was one at this time. In the final table I managed a couple of double ups when I raised PF and got all in on the flop with top pair with a good kicker that held up. Down at the final 3 I almost had 3/4 of the chips in play. We had a huge preflop all in race where I had AQ and my opponent had JJ. The flop came AK3 so I was almost jumping out of my chair. My hopes were dashed when a J fell on the turn and a blank on the river. I still had plenty of chips left but slowly ground down as I lost hand after hand. I never let up though and kept raising pots in position with basically garbage since that is what I was getting. A few hands in a row my opponent managed to flop something so I got down to about 10 big blinds and went all in with KJ only to run into AJ and bounce.

I'm really looking forward to some live play though in Vegas. I hope to improve on my observation skills which Phil Hellmuth says is 70 percent of live poker. Some previous coworkers, Andrew, Scott, and Mark, are all heading to Vegas as well so it will be great to see them again since it has been a few months.

90 Man Tournament Win

2006-12-04T21:00:00.000-08:00

It's been a year or more since I've been in "tournament mode" but with my Vegas trip coming up soon and the plan to play a bunch of tournaments there, I felt the need to practice up online some. I found some pretty good tournaments over at FullTiltPoker. They have 3 styles of tournaments: turbo which is crazy luck fast blind increases, regular which has 10 min blind increases and starting chips of 1500, and double stack which has you starting with 3000 chips and gives a ton of play. I'd say these double stack tournaments are the best way to get practice at both deep stack and short stack play. I've been playing mostly the $22 buyin 90 man sit and go touraments which start as soon as they fill up (about once an hour or so). I even managed a win and a 5th place finish so far out of about a dozen tournaments.

On that note, I picked up a new book called Poker Tournament Formula which I can confidently say has changed my game more than any other book I've read, which is quite a mountain of books (around 30). When playing tournaments you have 3 weapons at your disposal: chips, cards, and position. Since most tournaments have pretty short stacks compared to blinds I was limitting myself to mostly playing my cards. I've found since reading this book that position raises and continued agression can pick up quite alot of chips during a tournament if the right conditions show up. You should never allow yourself to just be blinded out because you didnt pick up some big hands preflop. I suggest you pick up this book if you play any number of tournaments.

Vegas trip booked!

2006-11-19T22:49:00.000-08:00

Finally... I'll see Vegas my first time after starting to play poker. I've been there a couple times in the past but only played blackjack back then. Oh how things change. I hope to never play that boring negative EV (most of the time) game again. The trip is in the middle of next month. For those of you who know me personally, give me a ring and see if you can join us on the trip.

This trip will be partly to play cards and partly to scout the city for a possible move early next year. The move is dependent on a few things but mostly on a tech startup company working on its business plan that I may join. If that takes off, I might have to postpone my Vegas move for a while.

I plan on playing some $1/2 and $2/5 no limit holdem cash games and a bunch of tournaments. I found a nice website listing the best tournaments to play in Vegas at:

http://www.pokertournamentformula.com/las_vegas_poker_tournaments.htm

Note, I also got the book related to the website and am about half way through. It has some really good stuff in here... so please don't get it :) I need any advantage I can get LOL

FullTilt Tournament series

2006-11-12T17:57:00.000-08:00

So FullTilt Poker has a series of tournaments called the FTOPS running right now. It's basically a tournament a day and most cost $216 to enter with the final even being around $500. They have Holdem, Omaha, and Razz to spice things up. I took on the first No Limit holdem event this afternoon and worked my way from over 3000 players down to 1400.

I got placed at I think the most aggressive table I've ever seen and didn't know how to combat properly. I'd say 90% of the pots were raised preflop. Out of 120 hands I saw 6 flops! and only won 1 of those. I won 5 hands preflop by raising when no one else had raised before me and 2 hands reraising out of the blinds from a button raise and smallblind raise. The average stack was hovering around 40 big blinds for most of my play which leaves a halfway decent amount of play but when I got down to about 9 big blinds from basically being blinded off (the antes were kicked in at this point), I decided to raise from the button with 7,2... garbage of course but since not many pots weren't being raised preflop, I took the shot while I had it. The 2 people in the blinds weren't calling many big raises either. Suprisingly, I got called by 4,2 and lost. He said, "I thought I had an ace" and apparently decided to call off 90% of his stack with it. Boy does this call illustrate a nice piece of dead money in the tournament. Even if he had an A,2 or A,4 he would AT BEST be a 60% to 40% favorite and could very well be a huge doge if I had A,J or similar. I'm not sure about you but those aren't exactly the odds I'm looking for to call off most of my stack. I'd personally rather take a much weaker hand and raise hoping for a "no contest".

Although I usually like to wait for a better hand than 7,2, I wasn't going to get many shots at an unopened pot. Should I have opened up my preflop reraising standards to try to pick off some of those "light on values" raises? I'm not sure yet... Or should I start calling with good position relative to the raiser with some weaker or possibly dominated hands? 75% of the hands ended up being no flop or heads up with a raiser and one caller. This was certainly the most tight/aggressive table I've ever seen and hope to see the more normal passive/loose table next time around.

Birthday and on the bubble!

2006-11-02T21:38:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I haven't posted in a while. I guess I'm a lazy bastard :) Anyways, it's my birthday today and what did I do? You guessed it, I played poker. I got into a no limit tournament on FullTilt and managed to finish on the exact bubble. Yah that sucks a bit. It was only worth $34 if I finished 1 spot higher so I'm not all that bummed. 1st place paid around 6k.

I've been logging a bit of time at World Poker Exchange (WPX) which is a 100% rakeback poker site that attracts about 1200 people at its peak each day. That's not a ton of players, but hopefully they will start to accumulate more since 100% rakeback rocks! I suggest you give it a try if you play at other sites to see just how much they take from the playes. It will suprise you.

Most of the action at WPX is holdem so I still play Omaha High at FullTilt poker. I'm still trying to work out how to play these 6 man tables since that is what most players opt for. At PartyPoker I always played 10 man so could wait for pretty good hands as I didnt get blinded away too quickly.

I could really use some input as to what to post about.

I've been playing poker online now for about 2 years although really I've played maybe solid for 6 months out of that 2 years. I got enough saved up from my previous job to last until my poker career really kicks in and my living expenses are pretty low not having a wife and kids like my brother! Currently I'm seriously looking into moving to Las Vegas sometime after the new year since that is where all the live action is. I need to get a trip or two out there before the end of this year though to scout places to play and live.

New legislation by our brilliant governement~

2006-10-11T20:28:00.000-07:00

So I've been reading plenty about the new bill that has passed in both the Senate and House and is most likely going to be signed by the President. The basic premise is that no US bank can transfer money to a gambling internet site. At first I was a bit worried how this may affect my ability to play freely on major poker sites. As it turns out, alot of poker sites and related businesses (ie Neteller) are proclaiming business as usual even after the bill is signed into law. However, the majority of my play in the past couple years has been on Party Poker and they along with a few other sites are pulling business from US customers even though this bill doesnt actually change the legality of playing on the sites (just limits ability to get money to and from) Thus, I've moved on to some other sites. After some research, I've found a nice rakeback deal from Full Tilt Poker of 27%. If you are interested in that go ahead and click on the link below and follow the instructions (I get a small referall fee and the your deal is the same if referred or not, so please help me out):

FullTilt Rakeback Link

Still playing with focus

2006-09-23T00:43:00.000-07:00

I've still been playing mostly Omaha with some mixed results. I attempted moving up to a bigger game and got thorougly thrashed. Did I make mistakes here? Well ya, but the biggest pot that I've ever lost (about $900) I got in with the best hand (Broadway straight). I got all in on the flop and someone with a naked flush draw got all in with me, which left me with a pot equity of almost 70%. Alas, the flush card came and my stack left.

To take a small break from Omaha, I have been mixing Holdem play as well. On Friday nights, my dad and I head to a local card room and play a $65 tournament (I won it once for a nice score) and after busting out I usually take a crack at the $1/2 NL game buying in for $200. Last week after I busted out and unfortunately (at least I thought at the time) there was not a $1/2 game running yet as not enough players were busted. Instead, a $2/5 game was just starting up. Now, I normally don't play this big of blinds but I thought "what the hell". I bought in for $200 just like I would for the $1/2 game to limit my losses while I felt this new limit out. As it turns out, my crazy Omaha games got me pretty used to the bigger bet sizes and preventing it from affecting my play or playing "scared". NEVER play a limit or stack in which you are playing with "scared money". Ok, so back to the game. I found some rediculously horrible players with a couple decent ones and certainly no really good players here. In fact, I found the absolute worst player that I have ever seen. This player insisted on seeing EVERY FLOP. If the bet was less than $50 preflop he would actually call with any two cards LOL. And after the flop he would call you with overs or after catching any piece of the board. Retardedly people still attempted to bluff while he was still in the pot, and he managed to catch a few good hands so he built up quite a stack. This while literally seeing EVERY flop. It's pretty hard to overcome paying on average 15 bucks a hand preflop but he did it. I went out of my way to get in pots with this guy with some pretty weak holdings preflop to attempt to get some nice hands to value bet. Well, by the end of the night I built my $200 stack to $779 for a nice score after only 3 hours of play. That was last week. This week the $2/5 game didn't start until right as I was leaving (although I scored over $200 profit from the $1/2 game) and the horrible player from last week I saw entering the building right as I left. I may need to start coming later as this game seems pretty soft. A really big factor in making money playing poker is game selection. If you find one this soft, you bless the stars!

Roooooooooad trip!

2006-09-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

In a couple weeks I'll be flying to my home state during the first 23 years of my life, Wisconsin. I'll be attending a friend's wedding and also taking a road trip to Chicago and possibly Ohio to see some friends. I'll be gone for a month! God I love the freedom of not having a "real" job :) I hope to still be playing some poker during that time by borrowing computertime from friends.

In the meantime I've still been concentrating on Omaha Poker. I've been doing alright. Nothing to brag about yet. Just one pot can sometimes be the difference in a good week and a bad one, so I need some time to mine my way through short term variability. Oh, and I got a new book so for a few days I'll be studying that to hopefully give me a nice edge at the table.

The Number 1 Rule of Poker

2006-09-09T09:57:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna tell you what shouldn't be a big secret but a lot of people seem to forget it. It was personally reinforced to me after reading it in Roy West's 7 Card Stud book.

"If you arent playing happy, don't play"

What's the point of playing while pissed off or sad or angry or revengefull? Any emotion at the poker table can negatively affect your game. Even winning a big hand or being up for a session can make you different poker but usually not as bad as a negative emotion tilt.

You need to be able to control your emotions and watch yourself to decide if they are affecting your game play. If you lose a big pot (especially from a suckout or badbeat), learn to let it go. Maybe even step away from the table a bit to cool off and collect yourself.

I've been slacking some on these blogs because in most of my free time I am focussed on playing and studying poker... oh and my brother just had a baby girl :)

7 Card Stud? Not for me... yet!

2006-09-03T08:32:00.000-07:00

I moved from Austin to Dallas, TX last week and then spent a few days in Houston, so I haven't been playing poker much. That will change soon. In Houston I got a chance to see the www.bodyworlds.com. For any of you interested in the human body, this exhibit rocks!

So back to poker... I picked up a beginning 7 Card Stud book since I plan on learning and becoming good at just about every poker type. I have high hopes of one day competing in the HORSE event at the World Series of Poker which consists of limit format for Holdem, Omaha HiLo, Razz, Stud, and Stud HiLo. That's quite a list of poker types so I have my work cut out for me! 7 Card Stud stresses beginning hand selection, decisions on when to exit hands, and reading other players hand possibilities just like most poker types. But it has a few more skills you need to pick up which includes memorizing what cards have been folded that you once could see to determine if your draws are "live" enough.

Well, I'm only half way through the book I got and have played about an hour of .5/1 limit Stud so far. I'll be playing mostly Omaha and Holdem for now but hope to get plenty of Stud experience in the coming months.

Some advantages of learning multiple poker types:

1) You won't get "bored" as easily since you have variety in games
2) Skills and insights you get playing one type of poker can carry over and help your other poker games
3) You will to be able to step into just about any game if you see plenty of weak competition and sticking to Holdem limits that option

A couple of interesting articles...

2006-08-23T00:07:00.000-07:00

Here are links to a few articles I found rather interesting. The first one is interstingly enough on pokerbots :) Personally, I hope that the online poker sites are doing all they can to track down any usage of such programs. Although, in non limit games, I'm gonna guess there are really too many variables to make an efficient pokerbot except at very lower buyins where human competition is horrendous.

Are poker ‘bots’ raking online pots?

The second article is again related to artificial intelligence (AI). It is much newer than the previous article and it points out that AI is far from able to compete well in poker against good opponents. The problem is in "incomplete information". In something like chess all possible information is there but in chess you have to "guess" on some of the factors. Take a look.

Alberta team studies artificial intelligence with poker-playing computer

Here is a third article similar to the second.

Artificial Intelligence Not Ready for Poker

And an article on the best heads up limit Texas holdem pokerbot in the world.

Hyperborean Wins Poker Bot Competition

Oh the humanity!

2006-08-19T21:11:00.000-07:00

My exploits of the past few days in pokerland start ah like a fairy tail. I started out playing $25 and $50 buy in Pot Limit Omaha and quickly progress up to $100 and then stick at $200 a while. My bankroll is not exactly up to snuff to handle the swings at this level but what the hell, I gave it a shot. I go on a rampage and pick up some nice pots and low and behold all of a sudden I'm $500 up for the day. Well, after a little break to grab some food etc I find my way back and get destroyed through a couple of suckouts and some horrendous donktastic play on my part. Yes, even the almighty pokerbot101 makes plenty of bad poker plays... especially at a new game. I feel I understand enough to hold my own at the $200 buy in Pot Limit level now but barely as a break even player. I lost that $500 and another $300 to boot before I made a comeback to even. Even so, I'm not about to give up. This game is some sick sick action. You can have the nuts and a redraw to a better nuts. One hand a friend showed me a screen capture of has him flopping trips, then hitting a straight flush on the turn and rivering quads!

So what have i learned about Omaha poker?!?

2006-08-19T00:02:00.000-07:00

After a couple days of playing, I already have a fair amount of knowledge at my disposal but there is plenty still to learn. Let's just say I still am missing the finer subtleties of hand selection, but I seem to be able to hold my own at low stakes pot limit Omaha High so far. I can tell you what hands are great and should almost always be played (AAJT double suited and stuff like KQJT). With some restrictions some other hands to play are medium pairs with other working cards, medium connectors without too many gaps like 9875 with some suitedness, and suited aces with connectors like A678. Try not to play too many hands where one card is almost useless (called a dangler, example KQJ3 has the 3 useless in battle unless it's suited to another card). Two holdem hands does not equal one good Omaha hand (crap like KQs with 67s is not really playable although it looks decent, you cant flop very many big draws).

When you are thinking about playing a hand, you usually want to build hands like:

1) BIG sets/full houses -- you should rarely play bottom/middle set for your stack like you would in Texas holdem. This doesnt mean you shouldnt play low and middle pairs ever but try to at least have a semi good position to get the info you need on the flop as to whether a higher set may be out against you. If it goes bet then raise before the action even reaches you and you have bottom set, you should strongly consider folding. Also, with even top set unless the board pairs you need to be wary of straights especially if a lot of players are out against you.

2)NUT flushes -- alot of the hands you will be building will contain suited cards which do not contain the ace of that suit. You shouldn't be looking to get your stack in the middle here either without the nut flush. You can generally bet if it has been passed to you, but if the stakes get big or there is alot of action, you may need to dump a small/medium or even King high flush.

3) BIG straights -- small/medium straights can definitely win your fair share of pots, but they won't be the nuts very often when all is said and done. Big straights like broadway however cant be counterfeited as the nuts simply because a higher card came (they need a 3 flush or the board to pair to lose the nuts).

Never slow play! Well almost never. I slow played once with quads but that is about it. People with draws need to pay to try to beat you and believe me, they can have some pretty big draws. Regular straight draws like QJxx in your hand on a T92 board (a Texas holem like draw) suck in this game. They have at most 8 outs. Now look at something like QJ87 on that same board. With no 2 flush, you now have out of 4 Kings, 3 Queens, 3 Jacks, 3 eights, 3 sevens and 4 sixes. That is 20 outs although only 14 are nut outs.

Don't get in huge raising wars on the flop just because you have the current nuts. You can usually be easily outdrawn and even if you weren't on the next card sometimes you can't tell. Also, someone else could have the nuts with you AND have a huge draw to better hands.

Note, position is HUGE in this game. If you play Texas holdem with proficiency, you should already realize that drawing type hands play much better with late position. You get to see the action in front of you and get on average cheaper draws. Also you a better shot to get paid off more with your bets and raises increasing implied odds. Since Omaha is such a drawing game with usually more outs than Texas holdem, these factors become even more important.

More later on this crazy action game of Omaha!

What is pokerbot101 doing lately? Omaha Poker!

2006-08-17T17:17:00.000-07:00

Until yesterday, when I wanted to play poker I, would usually find my way into some PartyPoker.com 100NL or 200NL Texas holdem action playing anywhere from 1 to 5 tables depending on what else I was doing. At the suggestion of a couple of people though, I have decided to spread out and try some Omaha poker. I borrowed one book and bought another from Amazon.

Why read poker books? Certainly experience can teach you all things if you play long enough and have a critical eye and reflect on hands, but books can give you that info much more quickly. You have the benefit of learning through someone elses mistakes rather than your own which is normally much less costly. Don't discount experience and practice though. You can't be a good player if you dont play! Reading some books can get you in the mode of thinking that you should have memorized what to do in every situation (guidelines with engineered responses). Certainly this is not possible so the sooner you start to think about poker conceptually at the table where you are asking questions while playing your hands, deducing the answers, and adjusting play accordingly, the better.

Back to Omaha... There are basically 4 "types" of this game that you can play. Omaha Hi Limit, Omaha Hi Pot Limit, Omaha Hi-Lo Limit and Omaha Hi-Lo Pot Limit. I started learning the ropes by playing some 50c/$1 limit Omaha Hi. At this point I was in the middle of my books just trying to get some early experience to better grasp some of the concepts I was reading. Omaha is definitely harder to read the board and decide what hand or draw you have and whether or not it is correct to continue since you have 4 cards instead of just 2. There are some instances where it is correct to even fold the current nuts! (because of so many bad cards or redraws that can come if you have no further prospects) Well at Omaha Hi Limit (low limits) there are so many people contesting the pot and seeing it to the river that I kept getting sucked out on, even alot by 2 outers. I recall this similar thing happened to me back when I first started playing Limit Texas holdem. That is mainly what got me to change to No Limit Texas holdem at the time. So what did I do this time? Yep, I moved on over to some Pot Limit Omaha Hi. There are "cheap" $25 buy in tables which I opened up a few and let her rip. I made back the 50 bucks I lost at limit and definitely have found my home at least short term. People make some pretty big mistakes at Pot Limit Omaha Hi and you can punish them for those mistakes a helluva lot more. I'll fill you in on my further adventures in Omaha land soon enough!

The real key to reading a person

2006-08-16T12:45:00.000-07:00

What does someone mean when he says "reading a person"? I think a lot of you out there correlate that to some sort of physical tell. Although tells can be useful, they should almost never be the sole factor in making a decision and they are only part of "reading a person" . The more important pieces of the equation are the tendencies and patterns you can pick up from an opponent's play of previous hands. The expert player has paid attention to hands each of the players have been in to know what his opponent bets out with and what he calls with and what the most likely street he'll fold on. The expert player also attempts to make sure he isn't making reliably predictable moves so he is harder to read.

So what are some things to look for to get a better read on a person? Below are just a few ideas and questions to answer (there are millions more!) so you can change your game based on your opponent's tendencies and patterns. Note that none of these factors which I'll discuss should be used independently. They form a collective of information about each player which needs to be viewed as a whole to make decisions.

1) Does the player lean towards aggressive, passive or straight forward?
Aggressive players like to fight with you over pots. When shown weakness they will pounce and even in the face of strength sometimes they'll try to make a move on you. My best attempts are not to fight fire with fire. I usually sit back and wait for a good hand and let the aggressive opponent hang themselves.
When a passive person checks it doesn't necessarily mean weakness, but it doesnt mean you should always check to the river with them. Depending on other factors, I'll tend to take one shot on a bluff and value bet the whole way down. If they fight back with a bet or a big raise, you should believe they have a big hand since they normally sit back quietly calling off all their money.
A straight forward person will be when he has a good hand and check when he has nothing or is on a draw. If you have position on them, fire away on the flop when they check. And tend to check a few more flops out of position if you aren't sure where you are at because they may just tell you. If they check behind on the flop, fire away at the turn if it isn't too likely the turn hit them.

2) How many hands do they play preflop and what is the quality of those hands you get to see?
You have garden variety preflop tight players that only come in with solid quality hands like pairs and a couple big hards. Thus your range of hands you put them on should be fairly small and easier to act against.
If your opponent play loose preflop however, it is much difficult to put them on a hand but it is much more likely they have a shakey holding after the flop. Definitely never think to yourself, "no way he has this hand because I raises preflop!" I have actually seen some players call signficant raises with any two suited cards and some play damn near 100% of hands!

3) How often do they call on the flop and with what range of hands?
Some opponents will call with just about any piece of the flop hitting their hand and even sometimes with just overcards. Yet some will only call if they have top pair or better. This is a huge factor in deciding whether to fire the next round of betting. If you have top pair, go ahead and value bet the person who calls with bottom or middle pair.

4) How often do they call on the turn and with what range of hands?
Sometimes a player will call on the flop just to see if you have the stone to fire again on the turn. When you do fire, they scurry away. When they do call a turn bet however it should give you a pretty big indication as to possible hands they hold. Look at the board on the flop and then the turn card to decide if the turn may have helped them or if they are calling with the same hand they had with just the flop (ie did the turn complete a draw they may have had on the flop or was it a blank).

5) What type of hands are they betting with on the flop or turn or river?
The previous two points dealt with your opponent calling you. What if they are the ones doing the betting? Will they bet top pair all the way to the river or will they check the river thinking the pot is big enough or trying to snap off a bluff? Will they bet a draw on the flop but check on the turn? How often have you seen your opponent checkraise and with what range of hands?

This only scratches the surface on this very important topic in big bet poker of knowing and understanding your opponent. Think up some other ideas on your own to fit into how you read an opponent.

Tips to keep your game improving

2006-08-15T22:30:00.000-07:00

Before reading this, really think about what your motivation for playing poker is. Is it to just have fun and hang out with the guys? Is it the gamble that keeps you feeling alive? Do you love to compete and want to be the best? If your motivation is a big yes to the last question then read on. If not, then move along, nothing to see here.

I'm going to assume anyone reading this has basic poker skills and unless otherwise noted we are talking about Texas holdem.

So what can help you along your way to becoming a good poker player and maybe even a great one? Let's start with the de facto "experience" factor. I'll tell ya that a lot of people rely soley on experience to get better. For some, that may be enough, but for most, it isn't if they really wanna get good. So what other "things" can you do besides just playing to get better?

1) Don't just sit there and play -- What I mean by this is, really think about what is going on in each hand (even the one's you arent in). Note this may be hard to do if you are multitabling online but you should still be paying attention to the big $$$ hands to see who is making the huge mistakes. During each hand you should be attempting to put each of the players on a hand, though this may be difficult if they don't play logically (and that happens a lot at lower limits). Even if you don't get to see a player's hand because they fold, you can still use info gathered to help you in a later hand. Example: on a drawless flop, something like K72 rainbow, playerA check/called a decent bet out of position and then folded to a turn bet. What did that line of actions say? Well, it probably meant playerA held a pocket pair or maybe hit a 7 or a 2 or possibly even a K with a weak kicker and wanted to see if the flop better had a good enough hand to follow through with a turn bet. This is not always a bad play but it told us something about playerA's habits which can be exploited. It may be a good spot to bluff again on the turn (assuming you were bluffing on the flop and didn't hit the turn card). Also, against playerA you may take the option to check the turn with a decent hand and either call a bet on the river or make a value bet there. Yes, there are missing factors from this example but I'm just highlighting some ideas on tactics here. I'll have some blogs on advanced tactics and strategic planning later.

2) Read alot alot alot of books -- There is a crazy amount of books on the market about poker and specifically Texas holdem. To figure out which books may be good for you start by looking at Amazon.com and reading some reviews. I'll have a future blog devoted to which books you should think about getting. There are alot of mediocre books on the market with a few worth their weight in gold. Just a basic though though is that a book will usually set you back like 20 bucks. If that book helps you win just one decent pot, even at lower limits, it already paid you back and will with dividends later. I have a library of about 15 poker books so far.

3) Use online resources -- Take a visit to each of the Links I have on the right side of the page and read all of my previous blogs. Cardplayer.com posts a new free access magazine online (a real paper version with some extras also available for a decent price) every couple weeks and has the most rediculous archive I've ever seen. You can spend weeks getting lost in all of those old magizines. Twoplustwo.com posts monthly magazine articles which are always great to read but the real meat of the site is in the forums on the left hand side. I started by reading the No-Limit Small Stakes which has a Master Sticky that you should start with. Create an account and ask some well thought out questions and people usually answer. Also read any posts that catch your eye with the title.

This should get you started in the right direction. Please email me at pokerbot101@gmail.com if you have questions or ideas on future posts to keep this site a rolling.

Texas holdem... the game of choice

2006-08-15T11:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I've been playing Texas holdem now for about 2 years. It's funny, I don't even have a clue how I used to play back when I started or what went through my head to make decisions. It's almost as if I played in the dark. My eyes have been made wide open from the books I have read (I'll expand on that topic in another blog later) and the experience playing both online and live games. I've played anything from 5cent/10cent live cash games up to $1/$2 both live and internet play. As far as "fun" goes, live games get you the social aspect missing from internet play, and let's face it, humans are social creatures. As far as "action" goes, internet play blows live play out of the water. I play anywhere from 1 to 5 tables and get tons more hands to play over a live game. I once brought up jokingly at a home game that we should have a couple tables close to each other so I could play 2 tables at the same time.

Is this a game of skill? Sure is... but your skill compared to that of your opponents is what really counts. I've heard and read actually quite a few times from various people something along the lines of, "I can't play against morons, they don't respect my raises" or "I think I'll do much better when I move up limits and can play better opponents". This is utter total trash nonsense. You make your money off of opponents mistakes. Who is going to make more mistakes, a donktastic (yes I made that word up) fish or a seasoned veteran? Here is the truth though... because more players see flops and stay in longer at the lower limits your swings up and down will be much bigger. That is, you'll get sucked out on more but you should also win bigger pots to compensate.

In order to "beat" the fish, you must change your strategy to compensate. Here are some examples and how to change your strategy based on your opponents' tendencies.

1) Identify who the calling stations are -- don't bluff against these people! Value bet Value bet VALUE BET! I love value betting top pair with a crap kicker or even middle pair sometimes If I read the opponent as someone who calls down with bottom pair. And here is probably the number 1 strategy to padding your bankroll at lower limits... find the players who will call overpot size bets with crap like top pair (that is they don't seem to recognize how big the pot is verses the size of the bet) and go all in on the river when you have the nuts. In a lot of instances I have had a pot of like $10 on the river with $100 left to bet. I hit my nut flush on the river and go all in for $100, and the fish calls me with top pair!

2) Identify who the "live" ones are -- you'll find some crazy maniacs at all limits. They love to bet and raise and get out of line so often, it's easy to tell who they are. First off, try to play in position with them. It takes away a lot of their power. Second, don't play mediocre hands after the flop against them unless you are especially skilled. You want to hit something that you can say to yourself, "I'll go to the felt with this hand if I have to". This is usually something like two pair or a set and maybe sometimes top pair if the board is right. Then you string them along as they make huge bets and pop them when the time is right (either the river if the board isn't too draw heavy or before then if you think he may have a decent draw to beat you).

3) Identify who the "tight" ones are -- Mr Tighty limps into a pot maybe one out of ten hands. He plays so tight some of his chips have dust on them. Don't give this guy action! I usually take a small stab at the pot. He'll fold to almost any bet if he has shakey prospects, so why make a big bet? If he bets or raises, run the hell away unless you have a great hand yourself. And if you do happen to have the nuts, it's a good chance to get his stack cause you know he has a good hand.

Freedom does exist

2006-08-14T16:30:00.000-07:00

Where to begin... I have some time on my hands, so I decided to start a blog about poker and this journey we call life. Why do I have some time on my hands? Well, after 5 years of working for IBM, I decided to call it quits. Decent pay, decent job, but I'm about being anything but average. I was a software engineer, tester, team lead, problem solver. Whatever managed to find it's way into the fire, I tried to be a part of the solution. Apparently my view of my value to IBM was significantly higher than that seen by the higher ups. Am I angry? nope... disappointed? yep... but life goes on and I see this as an opportunity to find myself, to find what I was meant to do. Could poker be "it"? We'll see :)

Stay tuned as I fill you all in on my journey to be the best damn poker player in the world. Oh, and I'll help you along the way as well. If you would like to contribute by asking questions, making comments or whatever, shoot me an email at pokerbot101@gmail.com