Rolled On The River

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.

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.

As you may have seen, Jason Ho is all over the popular poker forums, this is because former students have made allegations against him:

The overall feeling is that Jason owes his students a full refund, but also that StoxPoker.com should share in part of the blame because their coach quality control measures weren’t stringent enough in weeding out someone of this nature, and students were basing many of their financial decisions regarding coaching and staking based of the reputation StoxPoker gave Ho.

When confronted with these allegations in the StoxPoker.com private forums, Jason dodged the issues, made veiled threats and tried to organise a prop bet to combat the claims about his winrate, even though that was the least of anyone’s problems. I never had to deal with the guy personally, but being Stox’s productions manager, Skelm did.

It’s just a shame to see what happens when someone has the power of influence over many, and abuses their trust. Whether or not every detail of every allegation is true, the common theme is that Jason Ho is not, and was never the million dollar winning high stakes pro that was only out to help people improve their game through his charitable nature. StoxPoker’s damage control measures are to refund a portion of coaching to each of the people who have been burned by Jason. How many people come forward, and how they will determine who has a legitimate claim and deserves a refund I’m sure we’ll find out soon.

Original Stoxpoker.com thread – http://www.stoxpoker.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29205

TwoPlusTwo thread – http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/101/coaching-advice/where-did-jason-ho-thread-get-moved-695466/

One of the many programs I’ve been focusing writing on for the book is StoxEV, this little beast is a really in-depth EV calculation tool. You create a hand in flowchart format, giving each player specific hole cards or ranges, and then you can throw some actions in, add a bunch of conditions, set parameters for flops, and weight decisions. You can basically make a tree that represents something that did happen and fuck with it to find more profitable lines, or you can create a big tree full of ‘what if’s’ and build scenarios.

This is true EV, risk vs. reward with all the facts, and all the assumptions. Blinds, site rake, caps, antes, tournament structures are all catered for, including ICM conversions. You can use the program to make unexploitable shoves, create ranges with only +EV hands for situations, or use the powerful math engine to get results accurate enough to hang on your wall.

I’m glad I had to research, play, and try to break this program for the book, it’s taught me a lot, and I hope what I’ve written about it will do it justice.

You can grab it from http://www.stoxev.com

As you may or may not have noticed my blog has been merged with Skelm’s, the reasoning is twofold, firstly, we want to create a fun and engaging blog that combines his technical expertise and my overwhelming bullshittery. Secondly, we have a little announcement:

We’re writing a book.

Around the time Dusty Schmidt was finishing up writing ‘Treat your poker like a business’, he contacted Skelm to see if he could write an article for the book relating to Rakeback and Affiliate deals, upon completion, the cogs started turning in Skelm’s entrepreneurial little skull. People didn’t know much about rakeback, it takes a long time for everyone to learn about affiliate deals and VIP schemes. Coaching site and staking knowledge doesn’t come instantly, you don’t just pick that sort of information up from a book… yet. Professional Poker – Away from the table, the concept was born, a book about everything ELSE, no strategy, no tips and tricks for taking down a pot, a book about the community, the resources available, the tracking software, HUD’s, scripts and the like.

He sat with me in KFC as we were discussing prospects for writing something that would be worth reading, we know a guy who has just self-published a book, through Skelm’s position with StoxPoker we know coaches for all stakes and game types, designers, programmers, software authors, representatives for various sites and products, the foundation was there all along, waiting for us to take the initiative. In addition to this Skelm has also worked for Hold’em Manager Support helping him have a grasp of the areas people struggle to learn early on.

We aren’t known for squandering opportunities, and this one came begging, small enough to turn over in a few months, large enough to destroy anything that could resemble a social life, but important enough to cause a sick feeling in the stomach at the thought of letting it pass by waiting for someone else to pick it up. Within a couple of weeks the idea picked up momentum and we presented it to Dusty who agreed that it needed to be done, and we were the right guys to do it. A day later we were on a call with Scott Brown of Imagine Publishing creating a work schedule and debating the terms of a contract.

It’s been a little over a month since that fateful Toasted Sweet Chilli Twister Combo meal (Pepsi Max, I’m on a diet, thanks), and we’re getting stuck into the meat of it, we’ve invited a few specialist guest authors to write articles about their forte, but kept the bulk of the content for ourselves. The table of contents list has changed twice, and we’re having new ideas for articles every day, so it’s hard to pinpoint an exact release date (however it will be in the next few months), but we’re well on our way with most of the people we needed to contact having responded positively. We’ve got at least 15 people contributing or assisting with the project in their various fields, and clocked well over 10,000 words of writing so far.

In addition to all of this my handle has been changed from padawan to Dutchin to represent my symbolic coming of age in the wide world of poker, though I’m still a fledgling apprentice, I hope I can step up and be worth my weight in information for this monster of a project. Watch this space!

Dutchin.

I haven’t had much time to play poker lately, with work shutting down for Christmas, apparently lots of people want their powerlines up and ready to go for the silly season. This has lead to 18 hour shifts, 7 day weeks, and all the drama that comes with that. I decided to stay home for the holidays and work on my game, as well as a few other little things, and one secret project, which I hope comes to fruition since it’s been something I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid, and should net a decent amount of money, which is helpful.

My ratio of study to play, for a few reasons, has been unhealthily skewed, I suppose time constraints have given me grief in this department, but It’s been 90:10 study:work, which is always a bad idea. Being able to implement strategies you’ve learned is so important, and yet I’m failing miserably. I’ve taken comfort in the fact that I had my first sleep-in for two months last night, and I LOVE sleeping in, so other forces must have been at work in regards to time restriction.

I’ve been reading Dusty Schmidt’s ‘Treat Your Poker Like A Business’, and so far (I’ll reserve final judgment for when I’m finished, of course..) it’s pretty frikkin’ sweet. The moral is ‘you reap what you sow’, but the level of depth is awesome, the different perspectives make the book a worthwhile purchase. I’m a big girl when it comes to reading books, I’ll do anything to procrastinate or get out of study, it’s one of the faults I’ve been working on since the beginning, not getting distracted. So when Skelm gave me the book and said ‘here, read’, I didn’t know what to expect, previous books that have been shoved in my face tout ‘over 200 hand examples’, and as such, chip away at a portion of my soul, but this book isn’t like that. It’s refreshing, well, so far anyway.

The target came flying at me, my reflexes kicked in… I stumbled and it slapped my hand, hard. Enough force to soar beyond my reach from the rebound against my stinging flesh, but then the agreed rule played over in my head, a voice that called: ‘One hand, one bounce’. In my dress shoes I launched my body forward, stepping with the power and tenacity of an enraged Spartan. I eyed the objective in slow motion, it moved so effortlessly away from the earth it had just kissed, another touch of the ground and it was all over. I dived, soaring through the field, tucking my head for a roll, knowing that all calculations had been made, the trajectory plotted, my hand on an intercept course for victory.

My grasp was firm, my resolve true. I had caught the ball.

I met up with some friends of Skelm at the APPT poker tournament in Star City, I didn’t participate in any events, but was more there for the networking, getting to know some of the local talent, making new friends. They all stayed in Sydney for a few days, in a hotel room for the duration of the tournament, drinking, grinding, and generally having fun. The group composed of LacieK, Newmanni, Eurekakid, Petteytheft, Skelm, Ponchoco and myself, with a few others who we met along the way. We all got drunk and played a rotation game that turned into a crazy shove-fest even though we were playing mixed games we wouldn’t have much of a grasp on when sober, let alone drunk. I was there for 3 meals that were paid for via credit card roulette, with Petteytheft losing one, and Eurekakid losing twice, freeroll, baby!

On the last day we had a game of cricket, Petteytheft being American had no idea what was going on, but somehow showed great potential, and bowled Newmanni out, we played a rotation, with whoever took the wicket got to bat, and all ended up with a pretty fair game. LacieK got injured and sat down in his fielding position, and snatched the ball out of the air when it was belted towards him like a true champion. But it was late in the day, when we had all decided to call it quits next wicket, when I spied my objective screaming towards me at mach 3, and it was on.

50NLHUNLHE

If you tried to pronounce it, people would think you were having a stroke, act FAST.

Hmmm, while typing that last line of text, I realized something. The national stroke foundation (like most disease prevention companies these days) has designed an acronym to help the public see the signs of the relevant disease.

Facial weakness
Arm weakness
Speech difficulty
Time to act!

This is all well and good, but as a guy writing a blog with at least one active viewer, I generally do a google research on what I’m talking about, and it got me thinking, how many people have left ’stroke fast’ ’stroke, arm weakness’ on their search history while trying to remember the acronym’s definition. Add me to that list.

Wow, what an eventful post! Its good to keep it casual, I guess, though if I got any more casual, I would probably stop breathing.

Heads up is going good, most of my sessions and sweats have been up, I’ve been reading some books and articles, as well as watching a few of DOGISHEAD’s HU videos. I’ve also been working on a couple of little side projects and doing some part-time work like a good little all-rounder.

My next blog will be soon, and I’ll make sure it’s interesting, well, more than this hunk of garbage…

Ok maybe not, but at least it will have a subject.

I promise.

Really.

Heads up is going well, I don’t believe in karma or luck balancing out, but I’ve been running like the sun, and it’s about time. If I hadn’t been reading the books that explain variance in relationship to sample size, I would probably have quit by now, resigning myself to being unlucky.

This is no more.

I was watching Skelm play an interesting heads-up match, he explained the reads he had on the player, how his 3-bets came in succession. A value 3-bet in a hand, followed by a few bluff 3-bets was this guy’s game, and Skelm caught onto it pretty quickly. His play was exploited, and it was clear he was unable to adjust, or even identify the leak. This cost the guy $800 at 100nl heads-up.

By the time he realized his mistake, he was already down a significant amount, and knew that he was being outplayed. This is where it gets interesting, in the chat box he then offers Skelm $200 for an hour worth of coaching. He thought it in his best interest to lose another $200 to find his weakness and learn how to plug the hole. Skelm gladly accepted, and gave the guy his coaching, and all was well with the world.

It’s just an interesting way to look at how a human thinks about poker. He obviously wanted to play better, knowing that he’d been exploited, an turned to the person who was there taking his money. Apparently he was quite happy with the quality of coaching he got, and thinks the money was well spent. An expensive lesson for him, but cheaper than it could have been.

I don’t really have a heads-up ‘game’ so to speak just yet, it’s basically Skelm telling me what he thinks the right decision is, and me following it, questioning it, and attempting to understand the rationalization behind it. I wouldn’t expect to see half of what he sees in an opponent if I was left to my own devices, which is expected since I’m new at the game. Every decision in NLHU is tailored to the opponent, whereas full ring can incorporate a lot more static play based on combinatorial math and statistical analysis.

I’m enjoying it, you are an integral part of every hand, and your opponent is there, waiting for you to figure him out, you aren’t waiting to take a shot at a fish with 7 other regs, hoping to hit something a little better than what he hits while in position. This is much more fun, less robotic, more psychological, and for me, over my small sample size, more profitable.

While I in no way think that I’ve accomplished all I’ve wanted to accomplish at small stakes full ring no limit hold ‘em, I’m having a little bit of a change anyway. Skelm’s focus and training has switched from full ring to heads up and he discussed with other coaches, and decided that I should also divert my attention there. A game of psychology where the style of the opponent determines the correct play more often than the cards that fall. I’ve noticed, watching Skelm, that he only plays one table at a time heads up, and yet it can still produce a win rate comparable to full ring, therefore he is able to play one person and win as much as the sum of playing 96 people (8 players by twelve tables). This should be read as swingy and emotionally taxing.

Guess I’ll give it a shot!