Rolled On The River

The book has been progressing quite well. I feel a bit more like a coordination-only guy lately with Johnny doing the bulk of the writing. I’ve been finding and liaising with our guest authors, who in my opinion are at the forefront of their specialised fields in the community, making the book greater quality than any two people could write about these topics. Rich Muny has been writing a chapter on the history and information pertaining to the legalization of online poker, I’ve included a teaser below:

The Internet was “born” on October 29, 1969, when the first two nodes of what would become the ARPANET were interconnected between UCLA’s School of Engineering and Applied Science and SRI International in Menlo Park, California. ARPANET expanded greatly through the 1970s and 1980s, eventually becoming the Internet. With the introduction of the World Wide Web in 1989, the Internet became a means for decentralized, uncensored communication for the masses.

As the World Wide Web was designed to facilitate communication via graphical, linked interfaces, and as poker is a popular peer-to-peer game, online poker was inevitable. The first, Planet Poker, opened on January 1, 1988. They enjoyed a monopoly until early 1999, when Paradise Poker brought competition to the online poker industry. Many sites followed, creating a vibrant online poker market.

However, with this growth came controversy. Some aging social conservative leaders who grew up under progressivism cling to a belief that big government could undo the 1960s if only it would pass the right laws. As the Republican Party controlled Congress, these leaders wanted payback for their support for the party, and online poker was a tempting target.

So Skelm convinced me to have a shot at the Dream Job (Australia) tournament on Stars, I’m not really a tourney guy, and I didn’t really feel like dedicating my whole night to it but it was pretty good for a freebie. I was planning on writing that that evening, which I skipped since being fairly new to tournaments I wanted to learn as much as I could. The field was, 2986 players, with the last 9 making it into the finals. I got out 11th. Pissed off..

It was interesting, but annoying all the same, with no cash prizes or consolation for the hours lost staring at the screen and winning flips, but that’s poker. We went over some of the spots I could have played better, which was enlightening, but I don’t think I’ll switch to being an MTT pro any time soon. Some interesting things the last few weeks in town, 5,200 people stripped naked for photographer Spencer Tunick in front of the Sydney Opera House. How they organise something like that, and what type of people attend those sorts of things puzzles me, but each to their own, it’s a pretty impressive feat and brings the city a little publicity. Secondly, we had the Queen Mary 2, a huge luxury cruise liner pull into Sydney. I was in town at the time so I saw this thing and it’s pretty fucking sweet, incredible how something so huge can stay buoyant.

Anyway, back to it.

After working on the book and having just left StoxPoker I’ve had another fairly large endeavour that I’ve undertaken this year that I haven’t yet talked about much. In January of this year I signed a deal with Dusty “leatherass9″ Schmidt as his 2010 Protégé. As Dusty writes on his blog:

I haven’t really talked much about this, but I decided to take on one student this year as my 2010 project. Some of you may remember in 2008 I took on Matt Bolt (mbolt1) as a student and I started with him as a micro stakes grinder and by year end he had a 6 figure month and has made about a million dollars since I began working with him. I have worked with a few others as well who have done well, but Mbolt1 was the only person I have really spent a lot of time working with.

While I don’t expect everyone I work with to necessarily go on to crush the games the way Mbolt1 has, I decided to take on one more student this year and hopefully we can have some success together. His name is Michael Skelton and he holds the distinction of watching more training videos than anyone alive, I would be willing to wager. Michael produced virtually every single Stoxpoker.com video and was as loyal of an employee as you could find. His tremendous work ethic and unprecedented level of understanding of the “away from the table” stuff like rakeback, which software programs to use etc. is what made me decide to take him on as my 2010 protége.’

I have some high hopes for Michael or skelm as he is known to the community and skelmr on FullTilT. He is developing a tremendous understanding of the game of poker and already has shown some tremendous progress over our time working together. Here is a before and after shot:

Before: Pre-Coaching

After: Post-Coaching

As you can see, Michael lost a lot of money when the pot did not go to showdown before we began working together. Our work together took care of his falling red line and turned him into a winner when the pot does not go to showdown. While I don’t think it is as essential as most people think to have a positive red line, it is always nice to improve your red line when your showdown line remains relatively unaffected.

I look forward to seeing if I can continue to have some success coaching Michael. I feel he has a ton of potential and seems to grasp concepts quickly and effectively put them into action. He is not afraid to make changes to his game the moment he realizes he will be better off for them. That is actually a big thing he has going for him because many people will try things, but if they don’t have success with them they abandon the changes right away, when in reality it was probably just bad luck that kept the changes from working. It is huge in this game not to let some bad luck deter you from making the correct adjustments in your game. That is one of the biggest problems amongst amateurs in my opinion. They are too quick to abandon winning plays just because they don’t have success with them right away.

If you want to follow Michael’s blog feel free to check it out at http://rolledontheriver.com

By Leatherass

I’ll be sure to write more about this experience on the blog in the coming future along with some of the advances that I make as a player.

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?

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.

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

One problem I had until recently was checking the Hold’em Manager sessions tab and/or FullTilt cashier when playing to see how a session was going.

I noticed that simply telling myself I wasn’t going to click either of these wasn’t enough – I needed something more drastic. The end result of this was an AHK script that will close the cashier if it’s opened and minimize Hold’em Manager if I try to look at it (if you use the AHK script remember to start auto-importing before you open it).

I’ve included the AHK script below for those who would like a copy. I’m in the process of writing an article on how to use and write your own AHK scripts so although some of you may not yet be sure what to do with it, I will be putting instructions up in the coming week.

#Persistent
#SingleInstance

SetTimer, NoCashierOrHEM, 300
return

NoCashierOrHEM:
IfWinExist , Cashier
WinClose , Cashier
IfWinExist , Hold’em + Omaha Manager
WinMinimize , Hold’em + Omaha Manager
return