Rolled On The River

I’ve been blogging here about the book recently, which has taken up most of my time as of late, but I wanted to steer away from that and just ramble on about a subject that has been floating around in my head.

I tried to steer as far away from social networking sites as humanly possible for a long time, I have the attention span of an ADD puppy and it takes a fair bit of effort to get me to sit down at the tables or to research and write for the book. It’s hardly that I’m not passionate about those things, it’s just that it takes discipline and a conscious effort for me to not let my mind wander onto something else. Enter Facebook, this wonder of the internet and similar programs/sites are annihilating the productivity of the world, our most base curiosities can be sated instantly as we’re electronically tethered to almost everyone in our life through it. We want to know who’s the same and who has changed. Whether we’re there for the gossip, pictures of loved ones, meaningless quizzes, stupid games we are all giving in to our desires and ignoring what we should be doing.

Most of the people I have on my Facebook are people I knew from high school, co-workers, or poker players. Just reading through some of the posts and comments makes me want to hold my head in my hands and cry, you see the same people saying the same stupid shit and going through the same cycles over and over again. Girls complaining about how guys treat them one day, then heading out to a club to get hammered the next. Guys beating their chest and acting tough one day, wondering why they got into a fight and ended up in overnight lockup the next. I’m not better than these people, maybe I’ve learned from others’ mistakes to avoid making them myself, but that’s all. I’ve seen the womanizing jocks from high school end up having kids they didn’t plan on, then trying to convince everyone else that because they can father a child they’re more mature and further along on the road of life than everyone else. It’s just sad that so many people who had hopes and dreams back in school just end up coasting through life, their biggest aspiration is a new car or a pay rise.

This could steer into a philosophical post but I’ll leave it before it get’s to that. I’m still working, I have a long way to go, one of the best things about the poker industry is you’re working with people who are independent and goal-oriented. Sure, you may get your toes stepped on by someone climbing their way to fame and fortune, but the majority of people are full of life and chose poker because they wanted to break out of the norm. I guess what I’m trying to say is plan ahead, pick some goals and stick to them, don’t get caught up in everyone else’s shit, and don’t let other people drag you down with their mediocrity. If you want money, it’s out there to be made, if you want good friends, they’re out there too. It’s been proven time and time again that success is mostly due to planning and determination.

Or you can add me on Facebook and cry on your wall about failing another university subject. I’m sure if you go out drinking or shopping to relieve the pain your marks will magically improve, it’s not like you need to work for anything in life, I’m sure things will change for the better.

No regrets, right?

Editorial note: As the owners of CaptureRake both Johnny and I are particularly biased in writing this entry. That said I think the content speaks for itself and that bringing this to everybodys attention is important.

This morning Poker Affiliate Solutions posted the following on Poker Affiliate Listings:

We have been informed by Full Tilt management that beginning March 1st, commissions for all rakeback affiliates will be set at 3%.

This change will not be retroactive and will only affect the commission on players who sign up starting March 1st. Players will still be paid 27% rakeback.

As we learn more from Full Tilt about this change and its impact on Poker Affiliates, we will post updates.

Tony Guerrero

Poker Affiliate Solutions

If true (and based on the reputation of the poster this is very likely) – what does this actually mean? Primarily – less money for affiliates. Understandably FullTilt affiliates have for some time been receiving a rather hefty commission on your signups (most rakeback affiliates currently receive 35% of your MGR and pay you 27%). This extra money goes towards rake races, support and in some cases sub-affiliates.

This change, although not retroactive creates a situation that makes it near impossible for sub-affiliates to exist (the margins would be too low on new signups), a reduction on the payout for rake races and a far less active affiliate community (which may or may not have an affect on the size of the player pool).

At this point in time nothing is completely verified but should we get first hand news or anything further then I will update this post.

If you’d like to view the original forum post click here.
To view the associated TwoPlusTwo thread click here.

• When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to discover they are not it. #
• Exhausted… 1am-9pm spent writing with only one, one hour break. #
• Checked my FTP Login history after a prompt when I logged in – 18 failed attempts from 7 different countries… Somebody's determined. #
• From FTP: "Make sure that you're logged in to Full Tilt Poker this Sunday evening (ET) for a special announcement." – Rush Tournaments? Read the rest of this entry »

We’re at a pretty strange place right now, Skelm has been on Skype constantly the last week or so co-ordinating guest authors, reviewing content and writing. The poor guy has been clocking 19 hour days, working in between grinding sessions. I came into the office after a week of being interstate to find McDonald’s rubbish strewn across the office desk and an unshaven, red-eyed fool sitting there.. ‘Oh I got into contact with some of our guest authors, should be getting the Legalities chapter in soon, and the Rakeback content is coming along swimmingly’. He hadn’t slept for over 30 hours and was prepared to soldier on, my recommendation was for him to go to bed but what would I know?

‘Oh and Zandry said he’s been waiting ages for you to send him the TableScan Turbo article for final approval’. The funny thing was, I had sent Michael the article to review and then forward to Zandry. Five days ago. My confusion was met with a blank stare. ‘Oh, THAT’S what that was’. I thought it would be in our editor’s mailbox by now. Time for sleep dude, do it when you wake up.

We’ve only got one chapter that hasn’t been started in one way, shape or form. This is really good news, everything else has been written, is being written, reviewed, researched, allocated, or collaborated on. It’s all moving ahead, and within a month, the workload will be shifted from us to Scott, our editor. I’m really looking forward to/dreading the day when the flow of content is out of my hands. It’s still our baby, a foetal imprint of our collaborative input, eugenics of information flow, without the Nazi overtones. Soon it won’t be ours to shape, the delivery will be handed over to the powers that be, and its acceptance or rejection will be on the shoulders of the community and public.

Infanticide is commonplace in Sparta.

Will it be appreciated for what it is? What will it be remembered for? What will the average reader get from it? Will Scott be pissed that I used a metaphor to describe him as a midwife?

I guess time will tell.

• 4.6k hands played today. Going to take a break before the Sunday Majors. #
• 6.2 hands played today… on a roll! Games seem decent tonight, drunk Americans post-superbowl perhaps? #
• @neteller For a British company why must I deal with somebody who can't even speak English every time something goes wrong? #
• Going to try for 8k hands today… Will see how I go #
• @neteller I'd like to see some sort of VIP program – The more transferred, the lower the fees become. in reply to neteller #
• Left arm has been randomly numb since I woke up (about five hours now)… Weird #
• http://bit.ly/dbqeR2 – Piracy cases in Australia now? Interesting times ahead perhaps… #

Read the rest of this entry »

We’re in the thick of it, at the point of no return, I’ve been typing like a madman trying to pump out as much book content as I can at every opportunity. I’m still working full-time though, and I’ve been travelling away for work 5 days a week, which is really killing my productivity, I’d like to just take a few weeks off and do everything I can get done but it’s not feasible at the moment. We’re pulling everything we can together so we can get content off to our editor right away, but things just get in the road, the review process takes time. Contacting sources, getting permissions, making deals, changing schedules, reworking scopes, rewriting articles and then hoping to god the developer of the program you’re writing about, or the in-house review team don’t shoot your hard work down in flames.

I just finished one of the introductory articles, I got a little freedom with this one, It’s about the jump to taking poker on as a profession, it was a breath of fresh air being able to just write. I still worked from the notes Skelm and I created, but it flowed so much easier than writing about software since we gave ourselves the liberty of expression, compared to the stricter tutorial style we had been keeping to before. Not that there’s anything wrong with the software articles, they just leave little room for interpretation, let alone opinion. We’re doing the (hopefully) last change to the table of contents today, removing just as much as we’re adding by taking away some of the fluff and chapters that don’t add enough or change too rapidly to really fit into the book while also adding some more tournament content.

• New blog post: See Rakeback on Hold'em Manager Reports http://rolledontheriver.com/2010/02/see-rakeback-on-holdem-manager-reports/ #
• @swpoker How about the most tilting #poker hand? http://www.pokerhand.org/?4499473 is my entry in reply to swpoker #
• Only 3k hands today… Been putting in good volume this month and running decently well so going to take tomorrow off #

One of the handier tricks with Hold’em Manager that I like to utilize is custom statistics. Using these you can add various values to your reports, one of which is rakeback.

For example:

Adding this to your reports is relatively simple. First, locate the file customstats.txt – It can be found in your Hold’em Manager reports folder (typically C:\Program Files\RVG Software\Holdem Manager\Reports). If the file doesn’t exist then create it in this location.

Once you have the file open you want to add the following information to it:

<stat GroupName="Default" ColumnName="FTP Rakeback" ValueExpressions="Sum(PH.RakeAmount)/100.0*0.27 as FTPRakeBackAmount" Evaluate="FTPRakeBackAmount" ColumnHeader="FTPRakeback" ColumnFormat="$0.00" ColumnWidth="*" Tooltip="FTP Rakeback based on 27%" />

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been writing about this little table selection tool for Away From The Table, the book Skelm and I are writing if you’re behind on the news.. Or just didn’t care.

It’s really great, I know I’m supposed to table select like a madman, it’s as important as playing position, but I’ve never really delved into how deeply you can customize these programs. I got put in contact with the… I don’t know what he want’s to be called, lead developer? Programmer? The guy who makes the thing do the stuff it does. Anyway, I sent Zandry what I had been writing about his product and he seemed pretty excited, it’s great to have these industry contacts and really work with the guys who have poured their heart and soul into a program. We want to do good by them, not in the sense of a masturbatory crusade of self gratification, but this is someone’s baby, this is their passion, job, and often, livelihood. We’re just a couple of douchebags cataloging the highlights of their works, and taking credit for bringing their stuff a little more exposure while they plod along adding updates, tweaking their code and listening to community feedback hoping to god the poker world doesn’t collapse into it’s own asshole, or someone with a billion dollar bankroll doesn’t snatch their idea out from under them.

Anyway, before this turns into a shed-a-single-tear hero montage, I’ll quickly run through what makes TableScan awesome:

You can use multiple databases, and multiple sites simultaneously: I haven’t tried this yet, but I will by the time I’ve finished screwing around.

You can set custom fish definitions based on statistics: Fish come in many shapes and sizes, identifiable usually by their VPIP and PFR stats, but they can often slip under the radar, you can set multiple different fish definitions based on statistics you choose. Your game/stake/limit probably has a completely different style of fish to mine, therefore you can make the weak players stand out straight away.

Both Scan Filters and List filters: You can define everything that appears in your list, if you only want to see tables with 8/9 players, you can filter them, colour them, or order them any way you want. You can set custom filters for players that have VPIP’s between 10-30, are playing on 3 tables and have less than 20BB and colour them fucking purple if you want.

Bend me, shake me, any way you want me: Totally customizable table columns, if you got any more customizable it would be a fucking excel spreadsheet, you can move everything around, add and remove about 26 default table columns or create your own.

Right Click is your friend: I hate programs that make you choose from the File, Edit etc, dropdown lists for something that you need right now. TableScan, like many great programs has a comprehensive right-click menu, you can assign players as regs, do one-click poker site searches, or click-drag over a bunch of tables, right-click and sit down/join waiting lists on all of them.

I feel like I’m selling the Slap-Chop here. It’s in beta, Download this shit.

Johnny.

Ok so this is a bit of a spammy entry but all the same…

We now own a rakeback skin! I’ve been unhappy with my current affiliate for some time – they don’t list deductions, my MGR updates slowly (if at all) and the rake race is ridiculous. In shopping around and talking at length with Schwallie I came to the (somewhat ridiculous) conclusion that having my own skin would be a better solution.

We’re (Johnny, Schwallie and I) over at http://capturerake.com – If you have any questions in regards to rakeback amounts, deductions, etc’ then feel more then free to e-mail me at skelmer at gmail dot com.