Info About Poker Card Reader

Wanderings
I met Peter Berlin for Tea on Friday afternoon. We had arranged to rendezvous at a place that I must have walked past a thousand times in my life -- a tea shop next to The Coach & Horses on Greek Street (now, I note, called "Norman's The Coach & Horses", a homage that the brewers denied him for most of the time that he was alive).

It was very pleasant, albeit not cheap, and perhaps they could have offered a second cup of coffee and tea, given the time that Peter nad I chatted. It's nice to get to the West End after months in the dreary rush-everywhere City. Although the West End has its irritants (in the City other people are usually moving faster than me, while in teh West End it's the other way round), but generally it's a far more preferable place. City people are, in the main, let's face it, cunts.

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I was a bit early to meet Peter (although actually he was early as well and was sitting there waiting for me.... d'oh), so I popped into the Empire Card Room on the way to the café. The day's £20 freezeout was in full swing, so the room was crowded. I think that I spotted one female who wasn't an Empire employee. The average age of the tournament plaeyrs was mid-20s; the average age of the cash players was probably early 30s. I didn't feel very comfortable. Perhaps, as David Young tells me, you do get to have some interesting conversations with people. But it just didn't look that way to me.

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I looked up today's Party Poker "enemies" on PokerTableRatings, and my suspicions were confirmed. It's got MUCH tougher. It's as if all of the losers quit at once, and those that didn't, got good. I suppose I should be pleased that I am still winning, but I hope that this increase in quality is only a blip.

There are still fewer shotstackers than on Stars (not sure whether or not this is a good thing for me, TBH), but the main new irritant is that at least four players have suddenly become fans of the light three-bet on the button, particularly if there is a looseish raiser (i.e., me) and two or three cold-callers behind. There are counterplays to this, obv, although all of them entail cultivating volatility. But it's a bit irritating, just as I had put together a masterful play to fuck up floaters on the button (of which there are still a few UK-based Laggy lovers, thank god), for opponents to move to the pre-flop three-bet as a counter-counter-play.

And when they DO float, they've taken to raising on the turn. I suspect that much if this is a general improvement in stack-size analysis. In particular, the raise on the turn nearly always means that, given our stack sizes, I have an immediate tough decision (doesn't help that both of us will often have 140+ big blinds). Once that decision is made, the river decision is trivial, unless a very odd card indeed appears. And, often, there is no river decision, because, if I am staying in on the turn, I really have to shove.

I think I should be three-bet shoving more on the turn than I am at the moment. My win-at-showdown percentage has gone up, but my losses without seeing a showdown have gone up as well. However, some of this is probably noise.

Another new fad (or a revival of an old fad) is the mini-raise by the small stack. The relevance of a raise is not just the implied odds from what is already in the pot, but also the odds relative to what opponent has remaining in his stack. So a mini-raise from a short stack is "more" of a raise than a mini-raise from a big stack.

However, the best tactic (particularly if you are in the Big Blind) is just to think of it as a limp. I will often put them all-in preflop with a rather light hand (usually eliciting a fold from anything bar AQ+ and 88+). Other times I will flat-call and then pot-bet any flop such as K95 rainbow. About a quarter to a fifth of the time my hand has so little value (something like Q2 off) that it isn't even worth the pf call.

Increased aggression pre-flop inevtiably leads to more showdowns if you are to respond correctly. The limp becomes the raise, the raise becomes the three-bet, and the three-bet becomes the all-in. That's fine by me. If I can do that with the odds in my favour, then I make more money.

But I was looking at one such player, stats of 18%/14% (and a good winner) and it became clear that he had the 'right' attitude, in that if you catch him out (e.g. he once BIG three-bet from the button a raiser and three cold-callers, all with that grand powerhouse J9o) he doesn't fold. He's already put in 25% of his stack, but if you then shove, he calls and in effect says "I need to get lucky". This is negative EV for that particular call, but sends a powerful metagame message to the four-bettor: "don't try this against me unless you have the goods".

In fact, you have to grit your teeth and carry on trying it against him with thinner values (AJs+, AQo+, TT+ I would say, in this particular instance) even though you know that you have no fold equity. Many a tournament player abhors the thought of shoving light when he knows he has no fold equity, but, just as opponent's play says to you "make sure you have the goods", you have to say back to him "well, I might not have the goods every time, but I might still be a good favourite against your range".

++++++++++++++++Hello, and welcome to the MYBALLSUCAN Hold 'Em Poker Tournament!

Last Wednesday, I posted a puzzle that required people to spell a five-letter word that corresponded to a poker hand. Let's see how everyone did!

1. High card

harley  opens with BASED (2A654)
stickyboy  responds with AGILE (A79Q5)
kymutt  loves his ZEBRA (K525A) but that has a pair of 5s. so he is shown the door
ZILCH (K9Q38) for roxbear 
The amazing dr_tectonic  enters MILKS (K9QJ6)
progbear  tries MENTAL... but that has six letters, so he offers TAILS (7A9Q6)
thornyc  ASKED (A6J54)
ultramundanecom ? CLAIM (AKQ93)
Meanwhile, I (mudcub ) am BLACK (2QA3J)

Winner: the amazing entry by ultramundanecom  that has an ace, king, AND queen

2. One pair

stickyboy  likes NAMED (AAK54)
dr_tectonic  enters TUMMY (78KKQ)
ultramundanecom  responds with RAINY (AAQ95)
thornyc  submits ANISE (AA965)
mudcub  calls everyone NAMES (AAK56)
harley  does PORNO (325A2)
But kymutt  is NAKED (AAJ54)
For roxbear ... his people call it MAIZE (KA9K5)

Winner: mudcub . NAMES barely beats out stickyboy's NAMED

3. Two pair

The only entry from foodpoisoningsf  is AGENT (A75A7)
MAMAS (KAKA6) for stickyboy 
ultramundanecom  continues to AMAZE (AAKK5)
progbear  starts with TIGER (79755), and then upgrades to LANKY (QAAJQ)
Dr. Evil... I mean roxbear ... says MAGMA (KA7KA)
harley  tries RIVEN (5995A)
Very similarly, kymutt  does RAVEN (5A95A)
Similar to his last hand, TUMMY... this time dr_tectonic  submits YUMMY (Q8KKQ)
It NEARS (A5A56) for thornyc 

Winner: stickyboy ! MAMAS is a genius hand...

4. Three of a kind

stickyboy does a RALLY (5AQQQ)
geometrician's only entry is ABAYA (A2AQA)
harley  likes RESET (55657)
BULLY (28QQQ) for dr_tectonic 
roxbear  wants a DOLLY (42QQQ)
But kymutt  wants a LOLLY (Q2QQQ), and is disqualified for submitting four of a kind!
thornyc  does a BOOST (22267)
Yummy BACON (AA223) for mudcub 
For ultramundanecom , it's like a MANIA (AAAK9)

Winner: The three aces with king high from ultramundanecom

5. Straight

WHIST (T8967) for thornyc 
roxbear  offers HIRST (89567). Is that even a word?
The similar WIGHT (JT987) for ultramundanecom 
For harley , HEIST (85967)
kymutt  is CONED (32A54)
dr_tectonic  swears FUDGE (68475)
stickyboy  tries to make me accept MAJYK (KATQJ) though he also thought of FUDGE (68475) and CODES (32456)
That was mudcub's answer... CODES (32456). We know who the programmers are here!
Meanwhile, arcane_nitehawk  is a THIEF (78956)

Winner: Sorry stickyboy , I just can't go with MAJYK. It brings back too many bad memories of Ye Olde Renaissance Faire for me. The hand goes to ultramundanecom  for a jack-high straight

6. Flush

dr_tectonic  is a little RUSTY (5867Q)
For this one, harley  chose PORTS (32576)
arcane_nitehawk  says FLAME (6QAK5)
stickboy  BALED (2AQ54)
This one's WURST (T8765) for thornyc 
STONY (672AQ) for mudcub 
Another food item, kymutt's BAGEL (2A75Q)
roxbear  should get a MEDAL (K54AQ)
Also WURST (T8765) for ultramundanecom 

Winner: arcane_nitehawk  for the ace, king, and queen with a 6 high

7. Full house

mudcub  starts with RIVER (55588), though I also liked HUNAN (88AAA)
REEFS (55566) for harley 
arcane_nitehawk  tries BORER (22555)
BORER (22555) also for dr_tectonic 
A third BORER (22555) for kymutt 
AMMAN (AKKAA) for stickyboy 
I'm not sure if I should accept MAMMA (KAKKA) from roxbear 
thornyc  BOFFS (22666)
ultramundanecom  is in the ARENA (AAA55), though if I accepted French, he'd give me MAMAN (AAAKK)

Winner: stickyboy  with AMMAN. Wouldn't you know that he would toss in obscure geography? That guy knows his middle east!

8. Four of a kind

The only hand boysnightout82  submitted was BOOBY (2222Q)Are we *sure* he's gay?
Please REFER (55655) to mudcub 
harley  likes MANNA (AAAAK)
MANNA (AAAAK) also for stickyboy 
Finally, MANNA (AAAAK) for ultramundanecom 
arcane_nitehawk  is VIVID (99994)
VIVID (99994) also for dr_tectonic 
spikejrt  says BOOBS (22226)
BOOBS (22226) also for thornyc 
Something different... NANNY (AAAAQ) from roxbear 
And NANAS (AAAA6) for kymutt 

Winner: I am throwing out duplicate entries, just because I want to reward one-of-a-kind novelty. So the win is split between roxbear  and kymutt  as a tribute to their mothers

9. Straight flush

The closest stickyboy  could come is PONZY (321KQ), which violates the statement in the rules that an ace could be high or low, but not both
But roxbear  says "NURTZ"! Which isn't even a straight...

Winner: mudcub ! For making a bunch of people beat their brains out, searching for something that was impossible - but looked like it might be possible.

Points:

2 ultramundanecom 
2 mudcub 
2 stickyboy 
2 arcane_nitehawk 
1/2 roxbear 
1/2 kymutt 

Overall winner: thornyc ! Becuase i am His slave, and in my eyes, He is the biggest winner. And i need to apologize to Him for coming up with this game when i should have been focusing on keeping still and serving as a footstool. i am sorry Sir. It won't happen again.