Tuesday, June 29, 2004

Fox and the Farmer - Chuck Thompson

hmmm 3.5 BB minimum. When you hit 3.5BB, you MUST make a play.

Fox and the Farmer - Chuck Thompson: "Second, look at your own chips. For you to be a fox, you should not let your chips fall below three and a half big bets, the amount of chips necessary to raise before the flop and still have full compliment of bets for the remaining streets. It's not that you intend to use all these chips. Your hope is that nobody calls. But you need to have the chips so that your would-be opponent knows he can't run you down cheaply. In other words, if you have just three and one half bets, you should be willing to make your steal-raise with a weaker hand, simply because you must take the initiative in order to keep your chips up and survive another round of blinds."

Fox and the Farmer - Chuck Thompson

Fox and the Farmer - Chuck Thompson: "The Fox and the Farmer"

Long distance runners will tell you there is a certain point in a marathon, around the eighteenth mile, when a participant reaches "the wall". At this critical stage of the twenty-six mile race, the athletes who can deal with the wall separate themselves from those who fall victim to it. It's a when-the-going-gets-tough-the-tough-get-going sort of thing.

It's in the seventh level that you reach the wall. Only fifteen percent of the field remains in contention. Half the remaining players will finish in the money; the other half will have put in a long exhausting day for nothing. At the wall, the average amount of chips in front of each player is about five and a half large bets.




Hmmm fox or farmer? No chicken? I feel like the chicken.

Choosing Where to Play

Poker Grinder has some more useful information
Internet Poker Grinder:
"On the old Southern road circuit, or in Brick and Mortar casinos, the men with the best memories (and notes) had the edge. It can be argued that on the Internet, the ones with the best programs and the biggest databases are the favorites. That is why many fellow bloggers are touting tracking software and mostly playing the sites that the software supports. These sites all average about 9,000+ players during prime time. I like that software too. Very Efficient! But how much use is it on sites with that many people online? And at the level I am playing, everyone is popping in and out all the time. No one seems to be sitting at one table very long.

I know more about my opponents at the sites with fewer players. Specially, since I have written templates to convert my hand history files so that they work with the software. At these sites, not many opponents are using such software. With fewer players, the quality of my information approaches completeness compared to the mega sites. Well, maybe I bought a reader or two by divulging that. I think its valuable information.


Again, I need to find where he is playing. Party/Empire is famous for it's fish ( and I might be one) but so far, PokerTraker hasn't helped me that much. I just don't see the same players, even if I use the search function to try and find them. All PT is doing for me right now is tracking my own abysmal play. I'm basically even, having only lost the deposit bonuses.

Need another "come back and play" bonus from Pacific.

Ideal Opponent

Internet Poker Grinder
Internet Poker Grinder: "The Ideal Opponent / The Ideal Game

When you first start to take notice of playing styles or psychological profiles, the easiest type of player to spot is the maniac. This guy is loose and aggressive. He plays more hands relative to your self. He bets aggressively, and often overplays his hand. Once you learn how to play the maniac you might start looking exclusively for games with maniacs. It's a winning strategy and easy to execute. But the maniac is not your ideal opponent and these are not the ideal games. What you'll get is lot more variance in your results, which is to flirt with tilt. Better to stick to "normal" games than to do that.

The ideal opponents are just as loose as the maniac, but passive. They play more hands relative to you and call more than they raise. Commonly tagged as 'calling stations,' they usually are not aggressive enough when they have an edge. They are harder to find than a maniac, but you can start by looking for loose passive games. Look for games that have a lot of players seeing the flop and small to medium sized pots. "

Once you’ve found the loose/passive game you can start watching individual players. The stats I look at are:
1) how many times they see the flop
2) their ratio of pre-flop raises to pre-flop calls
3) their ratio of post flop raises to post-flop calls
4) their ratio of wins per flop they had to contribute to see.




What sites does PT support?
How hard is it to get non-supported sites converted to PT?
Can I get the template from this guy?

What stats are important to look for in PT? I probably need to actually RTFM for PT, and see what the stats are.

SO much to learn.

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

EdCone.com

EdCone.com: "It's time for jihad against invasive marketing software. Bloggers should held spread the word.
I will go out of my way not to do business with companies that use programs like WhenUSearch and CoolWebSearch.
If pop up ads are a little like a telemarketer calling at dinnertime, these programs are like a salesman who pushes into your kitchen, sits down at the table, and starts telling you what he'd like to eat. And every time you throw him out, he comes back.
Until you whack him with a baseball bat called 'Hijack This' (thanks, Terry Heaton, for the tip).
My computer is private property. It's also an extension of my brain. Deploying software that takes control away from me, crashes the browser, and clutters the screen with crap is something close to a physical violation.
Today's WSJ says some big companies think its worthwhile to use these programs. I think they underestimate the negative feelings they are generating.
This page includes a list of some companies that have used these tools. Big names include Allstate Insurance, Chrysler, Radisson, and Verizon.
Let them know how you feel, by email and in the marketplace."

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Sudan

http://passionofthepresent.org: "Help get the word out about the genocide in Sudan.
Read just below for an overall perspective on the situation. "

Monday, June 21, 2004

Putin Says Iraq Planned U.S. Attacks

Putin Says Iraq Planned U.S. Attacks: "After the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and before the start of the military operation in Iraq, intelligence repeatedly received information that the official services of the Saddam regime were preparing terrorist acts against military and civil targets on the territory of the United States and beyond,' Putin told reporters Friday in the Kazakh capital, Astana, where he was attending a summit of several former Soviet republics."

Well, nice to know there was no 'real' threat. Just plans for attacks.