Shabbir's Diary

Poker software playing online

I am, of course, hype-deficient in many ways.  The current outrage over poker robots ought to not bother anyone.  You're talking about a piece of software that is, by nature, going to fall into set patterns.  You shouldn't be particularly bothered, and it should improve your game quite a bit.  I suspect you're more likely to see these bots at the lower levels where I play ($.50/$1) than at the higher levels, or even in big money tournments.

Check out the article.

Link: POKER-FACED.

Loyal to the game

Link: LOYAL TO THE GAME - Los Angeles CityBeat.

LA CityBeat has an article about prop poker players, players paid by the casino to fill empty poker tables to keep slow games going.  Props play with their own money and get a small hourly amount from the casino, never enough to cover their losses.

As you can imagine, finding an empty poker table in a casino now is getting hard, so being a prop is a less than available occupation these days.

Another $.5/$1 session

I had an excellent session last week, playing 200 hands of $.5/$1 and winning $40.  Here's my analysis.

Table stats: Avg. pot: $5.71, Average saw flop % for whole table: 28.25%, Avg. players per hand: 9.4

My stats: VP$IP: 22%, Saw flop (not a blind): 15.48% of the time, went to showdown 35.56%, won $ at showdown 81.25%, won $ when saw a flop: 44.44%

Here's some breakdown of my play.

Small blind
I played nine hands from the small blind.  AQs, AKo, QJs, and A5s were appropriate.   J5s, T6s, and 95s were a waste of a half a bet.  I played 87o with only one caller in, and I should have really had three in, so that was loose.  96o was raised when it was just me and the big blind, and he folded.

Early position: I played AKo twice and KQs.  No junk was played.

Middle position: 87s was played, which is a little weak for the table, but it flopped a flush and worked out.  I also played AKo, AJo, ATs, A6s, A4s, A3s, KQs, JTs, JJ, TT, T9s, 99, and 88.   I played all the Aces with appropriate odds, which is an improvement in my game.  I also handled my "first in" situations, raising or folding appropriately.

Late position: I played 15 hands here, which is not a lot, and I folded my button quite a bit.  The loosest play I made was to play A6o in the cutoff to try and steal the blinds.    The small blind called me, and even bet out the flop.  I had to raise the flop and bet the turn after he checked before he folded.

I played K8s and 33 without the requisite 4 callers in already, and of course I lost those hands.

And now, the hand of the session:

Naming the baby...

About six months ago Sarah and I helped Katie move to her fabulous new apartment.  Katie had bought us lunch at a Mexican place and I showed my appreciation by drinking margaritas on Katie's tab.  Pregnant 'No tequila for my son' Sarah ate her mexican food and stewed.

Katie needed supplies for the new place, so we all walked over to a nearby Target, where I went on a literal drunken shopping spree and bought a Dyson vaccum cleaner (pet hair model).  In case you're curious, yes, it is worth every tequila-addled penny we paid for it.  I haven't seen my carpets that clean since they were bought.

Then we ended up in the baby section of the book department.  Still reeling from the effects of my margaritas, I spied "1001 names for you baby", picked it up and flipped through it disdainfully.  Drunkenly I blurted out, "What kind of pathetic loser needs a book to help them name their baby?"

The presumably pregnant woman standing next to us, quietly flipping through her own copy of "1001 Names" put it back on the shelf and quietly slunk off.  I withered in Sarah's "You're such an asshole" gaze.

Last night's $.5/$1 session

Last night's $.5/$1 session was good, though sleepiness took away some of the gains I made early in the session, I still came out ahead yesterday.  Here's the blow by blow.

136 hands, VP$IP: 16.91%, Won $ when saw the flop: 26%, Saw flop (not a blind): 15%, Went o showdown: 44%, won money at showdown: 46.6%

Small blind: played AQo, A3o, KTo, and Q3s.  Although the Q3s and the A3o were weak hands, I called them with odds, at least according to Hilger, and got away from them when they didn't hit anything.

Early position: ATs and KQo.  These hands were ok, but the ATs was an underdog on the flop I flopped a 10 but no Ace, and yet I kept drawing to hit.  In multiway pots, I need to learn to let these go, because I may not be good even when my Ace hits.

The KQo flopped a rag board with a pair and two suits.  Because the pot was so big, I paid a bet to keep drawing, not realizing that with that many people in, the flushes were out there, as well as the trips.  My goal of drawing to top pair was without a doubt going to be at least second or third best hand.  Definately should have folded it.

Middle position: AKo, AJs, AJo, ATs, A4s, KQo, 88, 22.  I broke the rules and raised the AJo from middle position, betting hard on the flop and turn and taking down the pot before the river.  Hilger says to raise it only if you're first in, but the table was a little short (7 players) so I deviated and it paid off.  I also raised my 88 preflop, and blew 2.5 big bets on that adventure as well.

Late position: I played 7 total hands: AKo, AQo, ATs, KTo, QTo (from the button), TT, and T9s.  The tens I should have raised preflop.  The ATs (hand below) was a dream hand.  The best part about it is that I knew I was beat by a flush on the turn, but assuming I was going to get at least one bet on the river, I had the odds to draw to my four potential outs for my full house.  Little did I know that one of my aces was dead already, making my draw statistically unlikely given the amount in the pot.

Katie's big hand at the World Series

Katie said I could post her key hand from the World Series event she played in: $1,500 Limit Hold 'em. It is of course the heartbreak hand, pocket Aces. She was somewhat saddened to see several TV pros at her table, but did her best anyway.  I'm really proud of her.

Another $.5/$1 session: why I hate AQ

The single largest factor in my play from last night was the dreaded hand, AQ, dealt to me in early position.  Even suited, it's still a tricky hand to play unless you can predict the behavior of the other players at your table well enough.  I may actually fold it if I get it in early in a session before I have a read on the general mood of the table.

Here's my totals from last night.

151 hands played, saw the flop (not a blind) 13.68%.  Voluntarily put $ in the pot 16.56%.

Can you tell?  I had crap for cards.  For limit, these numbers are low, I think.

Early position: played AQs, AQo, and ATs.  No junk was played.  (Hey, I'm getting better)

Middle position: AKo, AQo, and ATs.  No junk was played.

Late position: AJo, ATs, ATo, A5s, A4s, KQo, K8s, J7o, TT, 87s, 55, and 22.  I played the K8s without sufficient callers (I needed 4, but I only had 2 plus the blinds).  Bad bad. 

The J7o was the original posted bet to enter before my blind, but I made the mistake of calling a raise because it was one more bet and I had position.  The extra bet was a waste, and position is obviated by people at this level who can't lay down AA or KK to a scary board.  I gotta learn not to do that.

Small blind: In the small blind I played T5o, A9s, QJs, 98s, and 74s.   As you imagine, I consider the T5o and the 74s to be wanton wastes of money.

I'm generally playing without Matthew Hilger's book in front of me, which accounts for my deviations from normally solid starting hands, to try and hone my instincts about what starting hands do well.  For this session I had three instances of junk hands out of 151.

Rolling Stone article on Dutch Boyd

There's a good article in RS about the history of Dutch Boyd and his crew.

For non-poker fans, Dutch Boyd is an infamous player who's poker site went bust, leaving many players  who had poker money in the site holding un-recoverable debts.

You'll get your dose of schadenfreude (see definition) if, like me, you were sick of hearing about Dutch Boyd's Poker "Crew" at The 2004 World Series that was going to "take over the poker world".

Link: RollingStone.com: Poker's New World Order : News.

Partypoker's founders to become billionaires

There's a piece in Salon ("Earning $58,000 an hour") about the founders of PartyPoker.Com, a former porn actress and a graduate of India's most prominent technical college, IIT.  Their stakes on the company will be worth about a billion pounds a piece after the IPO, though they aren't being allowed to cash out all of it.

(Thanks for the tip, Aaron!)

Of course, nothing's that easy.  Large institutional investors in the US are nervous about buying into the company, since in theory they'd be investing in something that's illegal here in the United States.  (US Gambling Laws Threaten 5.5 bn pound float, UK Observer)

$.5/$1 session last night

I played 69 hands last night over 61 minutes and lost a total of $4.75.

Table stats: Avg. pot: $4.76, Average flop % for whole table: 36%, Avg. players per hand: 8.6

My stats: VP$IP: 24.64, Saw flop (not a blind 15.38%) of the time, went to showdown 20%, won $ at showdown 25%

I've compared my play to Matthew Hilger's starting hand recommendations and found that I played the following hands incorrectly.

Early position: played A2s when I shouldn't have and I failed to raise with AJs (failed to possibly drive out the KQo behind me, who caught two other Q's to beat my top pair.)

Middle position:  No great errors here.  I played AKo, 88, and AQo.  I raised when I was supposed to and let them go when they didn't hit, minimizing my losses.

Late position: Also, nothing of note.  No deviations from allowable starting hands except once, when I was first in with A7o.  I describe it below.