Cheating follow-up

Yesterday Ultimate Bet released the results of their investigation into the alleged cheating situation. Full text is here. Here's the short and not-so-sweet:

The investigation has concluded that certain player accounts did in fact have an unfair advantage, and that these accounts targeted the highest limit games on the site. The individuals responsible were found to have worked for the previous ownership of UltimateBet prior to the sale of the business to Tokwiro in October 2006. Tokwiro is taking full responsibility for this situation and will immediately begin refunding UltimateBet customers for any losses that were incurred as a result of unfair play.

The fraudulent activity was enabled by unauthorized software code that allowed the perpetrators to obtain hole card information during live play. The existence of this vulnerability was unknown to Tokwiro until February 2008 and existed prior to UltimateBet's acquisition by Tokwiro in October 2006. Our investigation has confirmed that the code was part of a legacy auditing system that was manipulated by the perpetrators. Gaming Associates, independent auditors hired by the KGC, have confirmed that the software code that provided the unfair advantage has been permanently removed.

If one is to take Tokwiro at their word, and I have no reason not to, they appear to be dealing with this in a very reasonable manner. It would have been nice to have seen a bit more due diligence on their part before buying UB in 2006. And it would have been very smart on their part to launch a full investigation immediately following the Absolute scandal. But I've made more than my fair share of mistakes in the business world, so it's hard for me to be too critical. If they carry through with making cheated players whole and complete all the security tasks they've outlined in the full news release, it would appear they've acted in good faith. I may yet take advantage of that free $100.

Not much happened on The Quest front this week. Tuesday I just felt like taking a break. Wednesday I was in a mood and experience told me playing poker would be setting myself up for mega-tilt. So instead of poker I watched that awful Andromeda Strain remake that was on A&E. Thursday I fell asleep on the sofa and woke up just in time to go to bed. I think I'm becoming my father.

I've been playing with the new Version 3 of Poker Tracker. The tighter integration between PT and the HUD is nice. The couple times I've tried it the display has worked well. The Table Tracker portion could be quite useful, though I'm a bit bothered that it will be a monthly fee add-on and that they haven't settled on pricing yet. Plus, it doesn't work at PokerStars and the details on when it might be working are a bit sketchy. I'd hate to become dependent on a feature and then have it become too expensive.

Tonight is Katitude's $1 rebuy donkament at Full Tilt. Saturday is Dr. Pauly's PLO tourney at Stars. If recent weeks' progression is any predictor, I'm due to win this week. If karma is involved, Change100 will bust me out in a horrible suckout before the end of the first level. Should be fun to see which is stronger.

Cheating

Dr. Pauly linked to an interesting thread at 2+2 today and suggested that other bloggers do the same so the story gets the coverage it deserves. Hard to imagine my link will pick up much that his misses, but I've posted it anyway because I want to comment on it.

I've seen the video of the Absolute Poker cheating. Even posted it here a week or two ago. I thought that pretty damning evidence.

Perhaps a video recreation of the Ultimate Bet situation would convince me as well, but I have to say that based on the statistical evidence posted at 2+2 I'm not convinced. Fewer than 3000 hands is insufficient to base any statistically valid conclusion. Of anyone, the folks who hang out at 2+2 should be among those most familiar with the long run consisting of hundreds of thousands of hands, not a couple thousand.

I believe I've written before about one particular guy I used to run into at Poker Room back in my bonus chasing days. I absolutely could not win against this guy. No matter what happened, if the two of us got into a hand together, it was about a 98% probability that he'd win. I don't have access to the Poker Tracker data, but I know this was over a several month period of me playing two to three hours a night. I'm sure I played well over 5000 hands against this guy.

This fellow was my number one nemesis. I lost more money to him, by a wide margin, than any other player in my Poker Tracker database. And here's the kicker -- he was a major losing player. He was bleeding money at an incredible rate, at least at the tables we played together. I must have been the only guy at the whole site that he was in plus territory against.

I wasn't losing to him because I was playing poor poker or he was playing great poker. As can be seen by his overall results, he was not a good player. I wasn't losing to him because I was seeking to even the score or because he was targeting me. I was losing to him because of variance, plain and simple. It just happened that when we got in a hand together, he would almost always end up with better cards.

I'm sure had he not wisely given up on playing poker, at least at Poker Room, I would have eventually evened the score and most likely taken a lot of money from him just like everyone else had.

All this said, some of the other things outlined in the 2+2 thread go a long way to convincing me that something not right was going on. The account name changes at very suspicious times, the deletion of accounts immediately after they've been outed at 2+2, the tie-in between Absolute and UB, all these make me rather glad I did not take advantage of the free $100 at UB. Not like somebody would be using super-user mode at the $0.01/$0.02 tables, but I don't want to play at a site where it appears systematic cheating is going on at any level.

Following my second place finish in Dr. Pauly's PLO tournament on Saturday, my poker karma had apparently not been properly balanced. I played a two-table SnG where I built up a nice stack early, only to bust out after back to back very bad beats. Monday I played a very cheap tournament at Poker.com, staying near the top of the pack much of the time, again to miss the final table due to a couple really bad beats. One of them was the type where all you can do is scratch your head trying to figure what the other guy was thinking when he pushed all his chips in, only to watch your chips heading in his direction when it's over. I profited a big $0.57 in that one. Well worth the three hours.

The Quest had some ups and downs over the weekend. The bankroll gained $5 this week, which seems to be about average since I rejoined The Quest in earnest. I'm going to have to find a way to step things up a bit. At $20 a month gain it's going to be another ten months before I have the bankroll to move up. I can't spend another ten months at $0.01/$0.02.

I suck(out) at Omaha

Dr. Pauly once again hosted his Saturday PLO tournament at PokerStars this afternoon. I just found what looks to be a pretty cool hand viewer program so we'll try to graphically display exactly how much suckage occurred.



I can't quite figure out how to make this look like I really want and I'm tired of futzing with it, so we'll just alternate pictures and text.

On the very first hand I get what look like decent openers, so when it folds to me in the cutoff I make it 3BB to go. boscodon calls and the blinds both fold.



The flop misses me completely, but I c-bet in the hopes it missed boscodon as well. He calls.



The turn misses me too so I decide to slow it down. I check, boscodon checks.



The river brings me an actual hand. I'm a bit concerned about the flush possibility, so I put in what's sort of a semi-post oak bluff. By betting small I'm trying to represent something stronger than what I actually have. But boscodon still calls.



And, as we now see, the suckage has begun. boscodon had me all the way to the river. In all fairness to me, however, if boscodon had just once bet like he was holding those cards I'd probably have run away.

I don't want to over do it with the graphics so I'll just post summaries from here on. The good Dr picked up a nice pot when his AKK4 turned into broadway. A while later I picked up a medium sized pot with pocket queens. Then I dumped even more when I made the classic blunder of betting the idiot end of the straight and USC55ND24 came over the top big time. I recovered from my blunder by walking away. It was a good move as USC55ND24 showed the top straight.

A number of seating changes later change100 and meeshelle moved to my table. This was particularly notable because meeshelle had 7500 chips. The next largest stack at the table was 2900.

Change100 put a bit of a dent in messhelle's stack when she slowplayed AAKQ, got it all in on the flop of TT7, and boated on the turn when the third ten came up.

Meeshelle eventually restored her stack to its former glory and boosted it even further when boscodon apparently decided to bluff at a connected board. Unfortunately, meeshelle was holding the nuts. Now, with a stack more than three times the next closest, the big stack bullying began in earnest.



Then came the first of two brutal suckouts against change100. I was very low on chips and actually couldn't have been happier when she potted it before it got to me. KKQT with a suited K is a dream hand when you're as low on chips as I was. I joyfully pushed in the rest of my chips. I wasn't quite so happy when change100 called and tabled aces. Since this all happened before the flop and this being Omaha I still had about 97 outs, but what happened was still pretty ugly.



On the very next hand came this. Change100 flops the nuts and I go runner-runner to take it away. Most of the money went in before the flop. I figured I was beat on the flop, but I was getting better than 4-to-1 and on the surface it looked like there were lots of ways to win this. In retrospect I'm not sure I had remotely as many outs as I estimated at the time. But, again, I sucked out and change100 hit the rail. It's probably small consolation, but your chips were put to good use, change.



Then it was time to suck out on meeshelle. Reviewing this hand I honestly don't know what I was thinking. Maybe I was just fed up with meeshelle playing big stack. Maybe I was getting hungry and figured it was double-up or dinner. In any case, I pushed all-in with a weak two pair and a really mediocre flush draw. Meeshelle called and I rivered my flush.

That hand significantly changed the situation. Meeshelle still had a lot of chips but no longer the way biggest stack at the table.

Soon after this we made it to the final table. I caught a couple decent hands and took medium sized pots with them. Then I went up against meeshelle with what I'm guessing looked a lot bigger at the time. Short story, I hit a very small flush that was big enough to take a very nice pot and make me the big stack by a factor of two.

The big chip lead didn't last long as on the very next hand the fates decided it was time to balance the karma. CSuave doubled up off me on a rivered two pair.



Two hands after that I sent meeshelle to the rail with this beauty. For once, I was in the lead right from the start.



CSuave sucked the lead away from me with this one. To be fair, he had quite a few outs, but there was still a bit of a sucking sound when the chips moved in his direction. More universal balancing.

More ugliness and karmic balancing followed and instead of having more than twice as many chips as anyone else I found myself in the middle of the pack.

Quite a few hands later I went on a bit of a rush, taking five out of six in a row. The highlight was the hand where I flopped broadway and sent Mr Nick UK to the rail. By the time the rush ended I was back on top by 7000 chips.

A few hands later Astin bubbled when bayne_s turned a straight and Astin was committed with just top pair.

Next hand everyone but Capt. Homer moved up the money ladder as his three pocket tens were no match for my flopped pair of aces. This gave me double the next closest stack. I tried to play big stack, but it was tough to get away with in this crowd.

The tide changed when CSuave outkicked me by one when we both rivered aces up. I was still well in it, but it's a lot better having twice the stack of the next closest.

Bayne was next to go when his pocket aces went down to my flopped two pair. At this point DrPauly was in the lead with 15.5k, me in second with 14k and CSuave in third with 11.5k.

The very next hand DrPauly and I mixed it up with me pushing all-in on the turn with top two pair and an inside straight draw. Pauly had second pair with 13 outs to a straight. He rivered his straight. Unfortunately for him, it was also the card I needed for my inside straight, and mine was bigger. I now had 28k, CSuave had 11k, and Pauly was on life support. CSuave sent the good Dr to the rails two hands later.

We started heads up with me having almost a 2-to-1 chip lead. We played 57 hands before the winner was decided. The decisive hand was about 18 hands into heads up. I know I said I'd only do summaries after that first hand, but this one deserves more than one picture.



As you can imagine, I'm thrilled to death with this situation. Pocket aces, one suited, with a Q kicker and CSuave has pushed all-in.



Here's an unexpected development. I'm figuring we're going to push and I'll still have a big lead.



I'm still thinking push.



It's my miracle card. I'm counting my winnings at this point.



Oh, cruel, cruel river.

I fought back to almost even, but never regained the lead. CSuave played it very tough, eventually putting me away with a one-two punch of a slowplayed flopped full house and a flush that was just a bit bigger than mine.

Congrats to CSuave on the win and thanks to the good Dr for hosting another great Saturday afternoon tournament.

I'm in the yellow!

Got off work early today. Made a quick stop at Costco on the way home. Barely broke $100. It's a sad day when I can't hit at least $200 at Costco without really trying. It's their own fault though. They stopped carrying this fantastic frozen tortellini I used to buy all the time. And all the grapes were moldy. Not that I'd have bought $100 worth of tortellini, but between the disappointment of no tortellini and the moldy grapes, I just headed to the checkout with what I already had.

Donked out of a cheap tourney at Stars. I was on semi-tilt after a ridiculous suckout and pushed with my top pair even though I was about 85% sure the other guy had a set. He did.

With that as prelude, I rejoined The Quest. Very first hand I flop an OESD and K-high flush draw. Somebody was betting the whole way, but they weren't betting enough and everybody kept coming along for the ride. Priced me in all the way to the river where I caught my flush. I stick in a mediocre bet and one guy min-raises me. I came very close to folding, assuming he had the ace, but I made the call. His flush was smaller than mine and I got a great start with a $1.39 pot.

Very next hand I again luck into a decent flop and eventually took down a $0.56 pot. Two hands and I've almost doubled my buy-in. Very nice.

Maybe a dozen hands later somebody tried to represent a flush against my top two pair. Again I figured there was a good chance I was beat, but there must have been something about the way the guy was betting that made me suspicious. He had total air and I took a $2.14 pot.

Another long wait and many false starts later, I rivered trips to take a $1.81 pot. The guy had me until the river, but his weak bet on the turn allowed me to stick around to take it from him.

Usually I take a lot of small pots in these games, but today there weren't many small pots. I won just the four hands described here, but they gave me a $2.46 profit for the session, pushing the bankroll over the 30 buy-in mark.

I've dabbled with multi-tabling over the last few nights. Turned a profit each time and had no trouble at all keeping up with the action, but it is harder trying to get a read on people when your attention is split between even two tables. I will probably continue to dabble with it until I'm ready to move up.

I emailed Bodog about the tiny font they're using. Their response was that I should reduce my screen resolution so everything would look bigger. Gee, why didn't I think of lowering my resolution so everything on the screen could look like crap? Oh, maybe because I knew it would look like crap? I know their support has to deal with hundreds of issues every day, but this is their response to a complaint that I can't read the screen? Reduce the resolution so everything is really blurry? Yeah, that's going to be a big help.

I think what bothered me most was that I had to respond and suggest their solution was somewhat less than satisfactory and ask that they pass my complaint up the line. I guess I wouldn't be quite as concerned if I hadn't complained about this exact issue two years ago. They clearly either don't get it or don't care. Anybody up for an age discrimination charge against Bodog?

Bodogery and more

The Bodog blogger tournament was last night. For once I actually remembered in time to sign up and play.

Before I get into the tournament I have to say something about the Bodog software. There are some things about the software that I rather like. They've been fairly consistent in the notion that while poker in the real world is played around a table, online is not the real world and there's no reason the game display has to emulate a table with people sitting around it. Bodog has tried a number of different designs over the time I've played there. The most recent one is pretty good.

But Bodog has had one consistent problem with every rendition of the interface. The interface is obviously programmed by a bunch of 20-somethings who have absolutely no concept of how difficult it can be for those of us on the back side of the hill to read small print. Part of the problem is my laptop which has a native resolution of 1920x1200. Setting it to anything else produces a horrible looking display. With most other programs there's some way for me to make the print larger so I can actually read it. Full Tilt and PokerStars both now allow me to make the game window big enough that I can see it without any trouble. Not so the Bodog software. There's no adjustment I can find for font size and I can't make the window larger. I can't partake of chat because I can't read it. The type is too damn small. I had a headache after the tournament last night from squinting at the screen for so long.

I wrote to Bodog about this ages ago and got a reply stating this was a common complaint. They've made dozens of updates to the software since then, completely redesigned the interface, and still most of the print is too damn small for my presbyopia-plagued eyes to read. Bodog, if you want me and others like me to play on your site, you have to fix this. There are few places left to play for those of us from the land of the formerly free. I'd love to spend more time playing at Bodog, but I can't read the damn screen!

Okay, enough ranting about Bodog's minuscule font. I was on fire during the first few levels of the tournament last night. I kept getting decent starters and the flop just kept hitting me. My stack had grown by 50% in very little time at all. And then the cards stopped coming. I went from being obvious table captain to some guy in a little dinghy being towed behind the real boat. And in shark-infested waters like these, you have to be extremely careful about going into the water without some weapons at hand.

From the end of my rush until I finally busted out, I don't think I won but maybe four very small pots. I was basically a spectator, watching my stack slowly disappear. I busted out in 23rd of 41. It was very disappointing because at the first break it looked like this was going to be a great tournament for me. So it goes.

Having busted out fairly early I still had plenty of evening left to join The Quest. Sadly, I should have just gone to bed early. I took a bit of a hit early due to a flopped second-nut straight where it took me a bit too long to realize there was a higher straight possible. I manged to recover to the point of a small profit. Then I got carried away with QQ, running headlong into a three-way all-in against 66 and KK. The kings and I both ended up with sets. At least I wasn't the fool pushing in with 66 against a raise, a re-raise.

I was able to turn a small profit with the second buy-in but still finished the night down $1.61.

There was one hand after my re-buy that kind of bugged me. I know here in the shallow end it's pointless trying to find logic in the play of many of the participants, but I just can't help myself. There's the occasional hand where I just have to sit back and ponder, what the hell was going through this guy's mind?

I get AK in the cutoff. It folds to me and I make it 3BB to go. I don't mind action, but I don't want all of the remaining four players to call either. The SB calls, everybody else folds. Perfect. AK plays great against one opponent. Flop is JTx, rainbow. I c-bet half the pot, SB calls. I'm thinking maybe I need some help here. Turn is a K, just what the doctor ordered. I figure I'm in the lead, but now there are two diamonds on the board. I bet two-thirds the pot. SB calls. The river brings a Q and the SB insta-pushes. Of course I call. The SB tables A9 for a split.

So let's review. Holding A9o, the SB calls the cutoff bet because, well, he's got an ace and he's defending his $0.01 blind. He calls a half the pot bet on the JTx flop because, uh, he has a runner-runner straight draw, and he's still got an ace. On the turn he calls a two-thirds the pot bet because now he has an inside straight draw. And, of course, he still has an ace. Those aces are like gold, you know.

I'm sure he thought he played this hand perfectly. I know I should stop trying to find logic where I know there isn't any, but sometimes I just have to scratch my head and wonder what possible thought process lead to these decisions.

Quest Graphs

Here are slightly larger versions of the graphs detailing progress on The Quest.



This first one shows progress toward advancing to the next level with a safe bankroll. I've defined "safe" as 50 buy-ins of 100 times the big blind. I've arbitrarily defined 30 buy-ins as the dividing line between the red and yellow zones. Since there's nothing below the $0.01/$0.02 level at which I'm currently playing I just have to leave the bankroll at risk even though I'm in the red zone. If I ever get to the point where I move up a level, the red zone will indicate when it's time to drop back a level and do some recovery. When I hit the green I'll be properly funded for the current level. When the speedometer pins out, it's time to move up.



This graph shows bankroll progress on a weekly time frame. The time scale isn't continuous because I left out the weeks I was inactive. This is a decent way to display results because it smooths out some of the daily fluctuations that are bound to occur.



Finally, this is the graph of the raw session data. When I first started I actually did record it session by session. Lately I've been making daily entries, combining the results of multiple sessions on that day. Doing it on a true session basis seemed like the data would rather quickly become unwieldy. The Google Docs spreadsheet is pretty good, but I'm not sure I want to be sending thousands of lines of data back and forth every time I join The Quest, so some small amount of summarization seemed reasonable.

Quick Update

Another good night on The Quest. Up $1.49 in less than an hour. If I could live on $1.25 an hour, I'd have a new profession.

The graph has been updated. One more good session and I'll be out of the red zone. I'm getting anxious to step this up even more, so I may start playing two tables. I don't think it will be too much strain at this level.

TheWeekend

Saturday was Dr. Pauly's PLO tournament. I monied last week, so I was looking forward to having another go. Unfortunately, real life intervened. About 15 minutes in to the tournament I had visitors and had to sit out. By the time the visitors left I was down to crumbs. I pushed it all in before the blinds took it. No joy.

Saturday night The Quest made a very decent score, finishing the night up $4.84. It may not sound like much, but that's over 9% of the bankroll at the start of the day. I recall there being a couple big moves that worked well.

Sunday I again played the Britbloggerment. Things moved a bit faster this week, it taking only 50 minutes to make the final table instead of 80 minutes. I got off to a slow start, but at least I didn't need to dig myself out of a huge hole like last week.

When we got to the bubble, the cards completely dried up. By this time it wasn't exactly a tea party, so I either had to be first to push with total garbage or just keep folding and hope for the best. By the time I finally got dealt QJo, they looked like just one step below AA, so I pushed. Unfortunately, somebody with AJo called. Neither of us improved and I went home as bubble boy.

During Sunday night's Quest I was beginning to wonder if I shouldn't have just taken the night off. My play was mostly spot on. I think I only made one semi-serious mistake. But the suckouts were terrible. I recall one that went exactly as I'd planned, the other guy pushing all-in, me making the call and having him beat, him hitting his 3-outer at the river. I had to reload after that one.

I got most of it back on a suckout that went in my favor, though I comfort myself knowing the idiot should have never made the call pre-flop, so it was really his fault. (Pretty good rationalization, eh?) I mean, seriously, who calls a 3BB pre-flop raise with Q8o? That's just stupid.

At any rate, the suckout got me almost even. A couple good hands right before I quit gave me a $0.41 profit on the night. The bankroll now stands at $56.72. Yellow zone here I come! The graph doesn't yet reflect these numbers. It will be updated after tomorrow's play.

Not much new

The Quest was joined for just a short while last night. I got home later than usual and after dinner I couldn't pry my ass off the couch. Before heading to bed I played for maybe 20 minutes. It almost turned into a rather lucrative 20 minutes.

My table had two of those crazy people who keep betting way more than is called for and then raise each other as if the size of the raise was indicative of the size of their cajones. It took less than two rotations to figure one of these two guys was going to over-raise pretty much every hand and then the other would come back over the top.

I made a couple half-assed attempts to play mediocre hands, as much to openly demonstrate that I was a weak fish as anything else. Then I kept folding until I caught some good cards. Flopped a set on one hand, just tagging along with the crazy guys on the flop and then pushing all-in on the turn. They backed down and I took a rather nice pot.

Crazy guy #1 seemed a bit less crazy than crazy guy #2. #1 was clearly wary of me after than first hand. #2 had no such fear. We got it all in with me holding AK and him holding AQ. I'd have ended up with a very nice stack if the board didn't river a second pair, neutering my king. I think I actually lost money on the hand due to the rake.

After that hand both of the crazy guys settled down quite a bit, betting amounts that were more in line with the size of the pot. I realize everyone is entitled to bet however much they want, but it still irritates me to see players who insist on open-raising $0.20 into a pot with $0.03 in it. Go play $0.02/$0.05 if you want to bet that much into an unraised pot. (I know it sounds stupid to get concerned about such small amounts, but I'm trying to approach this seriously and in proportion to the stakes. I've not played $1/$2 NL, but I'm guessing you don't see a whole lot of open-raises to $20. Or am I wrong?)

I've come upon an offer of free money to sign up at some new (to me) sites. Ultimate Bet is one of the few big sites I've never signed up with, so I'm eligible to get $100 free money to play with there. I'm debating whether I should take advantage of this, moving The Quest to UB and adding the $100 to the bankroll. It kind of cheats the idea of turning $5 into $5000, yet is still in line with the basic idea of starting very small and building the bankroll to a decent size. I'm conflicted on whether I should sign up and add this to the bankroll or not.

I just went off to look up some things about UB before finishing this entry. I guess during my time mostly away from poker over the last year there were some big doings at Absolute and now allegations of the same thing at UB. I had read a number of different allegations of cheating at Absolute but was unaware at least one such incident had been proven beyond doubt and they've been fined and put on probation with the oversight body. This YouTube video is quite revealing, pun intended.

Quest Update

Another good night on The Quest. My first session before dinner I got rather lucky when I flopped a set of kings against the other guy's pocket aces. The board pairing on the turn didn't hurt, removing what little concern I had about that flush filling.

You see the slow play with aces a lot at this level. I've done it myself a number of times, but I have to wonder about the actual wisdom of it. Considering I had kings, in this case I certainly wasn't going away, but if he'd come back over my small pre-flop raise, my call might have given him a better clue about what I might be holding. He might not have been quite so eager to push all his chips in the pot. He played it passive all the way to the river, where, far too late, he finally starting betting. I put chips in on every street, though I tread lightly so I wouldn't scare him away.

I took a couple very small pots after that and decided it was time for dinner, up exactly $2 for the session.

Later in the evening I sat down again. This time I spent at least the first 30 minutes folding. I don't think I made it past the flop once. Just as I was beginning to think I should give it up for the night, the cards improved. I won a few small pots and was soon back to even. A couple small sets helped me finish the second session up $0.64.

The bankroll has now crossed the $50 mark. If things continue as they have been of late I should be out of the red zone some time next week.

I've been giving more thought to how to speed this up a bit and have almost concluded I should start playing as many freerolls as I can find. I can always keep a table of ring open at the same time. It may end up with me actually spending more time at the ring tables. I looked into cheap SnGs, but I don't think the payoff is worth it. The time is likely better spent playing ring. Or maybe I should buy in to two dozen tables for $1 each. Playing so many hands at once should help smooth out the variance.

Weekly Quest Update

Two sessions in The Quest tonight, combined for a $2.53 gain. That recovers the last from the three bad nights this week and bringing the bankroll to a new high of $49.62. The upward trajectory has slowed a bit, but at least it's still moving upward.

Made a couple nice plays tonight, including an all-in where my top kicker was the deciding factor. I'm still letting some pots get away to what's either atrociously bad play or some wickedly good play. I'm leaning toward the former, especially when there's an all-in followed by a call, neither of them having better than second pair, my top pair taking the pot if I hadn't folded. No worries, though. As I've said here many times, my track record with calling all-ins without spectacular holdings are very poor. I'll stick with the small ball and let the lotto players fight among themselves. Unless I'm really, really sure I'm ahead.

Britbloggerment

I've seen the Britbloggerment mentioned in a few blogs but had never played until today. Overall, I have to say it was one of the better played tournaments all around. Only 13 runners to start, but it took an hour and 20 minutes to lose the first four and get to the final table. Considering the total prize pool was all of $65 I would have expected a lot more goofing around and big hammer plays.

I got off to a decent start, adding about $600 to my starting $1500. I had blinded down a bit when ResdentEvil made it 3BB to go and I min-raised him, hoping he'd come over the top big time. He did, pushing the rest of his 1365 in the pot. I instacalled. When the cards were turned over I could hear ResdentEvil cackle, "You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never to get involved in a land war in Asia. And only slightly less well known is this: never take pocket aces up against a Scotsman when his tournament life is on the line!" He turned a third queen and I was left with about M=7 in only level 3.

I had just enough chips to scare people a bit, but not enough to do much aside from push or fold. I was patient and pushed when the time seemed right. One time of which was, oddly, me again taking AA against QQ, this time, fortunately, not held by a Scotsman. I prevailed and was back in the hunt.

As the stacks started to dwindle I got lucky a few times and caught reasonable cards when a smaller stack pushed. As we got to the bubble I was far behind, M of about 1.5 and less than one-third the chips of the next larger stack. I started pushing with anything remotely reasonable and either the other players were scared to bubble or they just kept getting crap. Next thing I knew I was in second. Then I sucked out on Katitude when I turned a K against her QQ.

We were down to three and I had a healthy lead. Then I made the mistake of calling mauzj's all-in with my 33. He had a massive Q2o. The board counterfeited my pair and I dropped into third. A few hands later I got retribution when I pushed with 76o and got called by mauzj's KQo. I flopped a 7 and rivered a 6 to take down a nice pot.

A few more nice pots and I moved into a commanding lead. We got down to two when my A9o held up against Rosie_m_t's KTo. I had an almost 5-to-1 chip lead going into heads up.

It was all but over when mauzj moved in with K9 vs my KQ. But he caught one of his three nines to take a commanding lead. The final hand I again got it in with the best of it, but mauzj caught his cards and I didn't.

Well played all. It was a fun time.

Someone check the temperature in hell

I cashed in a PLO tournament. It's a bloody miracle.

Okay, so there were only 17 runners. And, for a change, I actually got some very decent cards. Early on I got a nice bump when I got priced in on a nut flush play and it hit on the river. The real luck was that somebody else had the second nut flush. I'm not sure I made the best play when I just called his river bet. There were two players to act behind me and I figured a call might entice one of them to call or maybe even toss in a raise. If I'd raised I thought there was a good chance I'd chase everyone out. As it turned out, one of the players behind called, so my plan sort of worked.

That pot gave me a lot of breathing room and I was able to wait for the cards to come. And they did come. I got big suited pairs more times in this tournament than I think I have in the last 100 hours I've spent at PLO.

We got to five left and stayed there for a very long time. When we finally made it to three I had a small chip lead over ResdentEvil and Alexe55, though only 1500 chips separated first from third. My big mistake was when I overplayed pocket aces. I should have bet them bigger before the flop when I probably would have taken it down. Instead I waited until the flop when Alexe55 caught two pair. So I finished third. Congrats to ResdentEvil for taking it down.

I also played one of the freerolls that might lead to something big. These things are so complicated I can't keep it straight. It was free so I played. Finished 161st of 2000+, with the top 50 making it to the next tournament. I mostly just played tight and let the freeroll idiots knock each other out. My big mistake in this one was running AJo into a slowplayed KK. It looked like the perfect situation. UTG limps, one MP player limps. It looks like two weak hands with just the BB to act behind me. So I push. Which was exactly what UTG wanted.

Can I please have my bath size Dial back?

My exchange with PokerStars concerning the MMIAs has begun to remind me of the comedy sequence of letters between a hotel guest and various members of the hotel staff about the soap in the guest's room. The guest has brought his own soap and would like the maid to stop dropping off additional little hotel soaps each day. (It obviously would have been easier to simply throw them away, but it wouldn't have been nearly as funny.) The guest keeps making contact with a different member of the hotel staff, and each of them communicate up or down the line a different version of exactly what they think the guest wants, none of them communicating anything that results in satisfying the guest's simple request.

The issue with PokerStars has several aspects. The first is that each email to support goes to a general address. Whoever happens to be the next available lowest level support person is the one who initially reads and often responds to your email. Sometimes they recognize that the issue is over their head and they kick it up the line. Even when it makes it to a supervisor, it likely won't be the same supervisor to whom you're actually replying. So far I've not received a response from the same person twice.

Because each response comes from a different person and they may not have taken the time to read the entirety of the previous exchanges, there is a tendency to repeat a lot of basic and completely useless information. In this case I've been told about a dozen times that, technically, each player has the right to use the entire 25 seconds they have available on every single decision. I get that, PokerStars, can we PLEASE move beyond it, because I may go postal if I'm told that one more time.

In my reply to the email saying they really wanted reports from players of abusive MMIAs I asked if there was some code phrase or password I could use to indicate I understood the situation and to cut through the normal support BS response. The reply to that once again informed me that each player had the right to use the full 25 seconds they have available for every decision, exactly the BS I was trying to avoid.

The other issue is that Stars either doesn't really have a formal policy on MMIAs or they've done an atrocious job of communicating that policy to their support people. It's been a vicious circle of being told reports of abuse can be made, being told there's nothing they can do, being told they really, really want reports of abuse because that's the only way they have of policing the matter, being told there's nothing they can do, rinse, repeat. Each time, of course, being reminded that each player has the right to use the entire 25 seconds available to them.

I have grown weary of the fight. In my last reply I told them they need to define a policy, communicate it to their people, and enforce it. Until they get their shit together on this, I'm done with it. And there seems to be little reason for them to get their shit together.

It's pretty clear they've done some math and decided they make more money by satisfying the players who want to sit at 24 tables at once (that, I'm told, is the actual table limit in the software) than they do by keeping the games moving at a reasonable pace. They say they're interested in keeping everyone happy, but it's not like they're going to openly admit they don't care about satisfying the single-table player. Actions speak louder than words, and so far their actions are speaking quite clearly.

I'm torn between attempting to make a point by opening 24 tables and playing as slowly as I can on all 24, encouraging other people to do the same, and simply picking up my chips and moving somewhere that has fewer MMIAs. The problem with the latter is that Stars is the only place I've found with $0.01/$0.02 NL tables, and that's the only place I can play with reasonable bankroll safety at the moment.

So I see three choices: continue playing at Stars at least until I build the bankroll to the $0.05/$0.10 level; move elsewhere and take my chances with a grossly inadequate bankroll; or drop some more money in the bankroll to up the safety level. I suppose I could do like Chris Ferguson did and start playing freerolls to pad the bankroll. That seems a real longshot way of doing it. I actually think I'd be better off buying in for half a stack and taking my chances with the nine and a fraction short $0.05/$0.10 buy-ins I already have.

I got the computer fired up and logged into Full Tilt about 20 seconds too late to join the Friday blogger donkament. I was really in the mood for this one too. There's a nearby upscale restaurant that's apparently been having some trouble attracting customers so they've started offering some happy hour specials. There's something really incongruous about a place where the cheapest entree on the menu is $17, but they have $1 beers. Four beers and half a $21 appetizer plate later, I was definitely ready for some rebuy madness. But it was not to be.

Instead I played an Omaha tournament. I don't know why I keep trying that game. I seldom get dealt decent cards, if I do the flop misses me completely, and I have little skill at post flop play. I doubled early against someone even worse than me, but made a couple stupid mistakes and was out before the first break. I should obviously stick to Hold'em. And I will, right after I finish Dr. Pauly's PLO tournament.

MMIAs

PokerStars is starting to annoy me. A Massively Multi-tabling Inconsiderate Asshat (MMIA) sat at my table again last night. I searched on him and found he was on 15 tables. There was another one consistently delaying the game too, but he was smart enough to remove himself from search so I couldn't tell at a glance how many tables he was on.

I hate running to the local authority figure to tattle, but this is really out of control. So I wrote support again. This time I got a reply that was basically polite but had clear overtones of snottiness telling me that they'd already told me there was nothing they could do. Except one of the previous emails said they'd contact the MMIA and tell him to dial it back a couple notches, and that's exactly what I wanted them to do.

I fully realize PokerStars most likely doesn't care in the least what happens at the $0.01/$0.02 tables. They offer them only in the hopes people will gain confidence there and eventually move up to a level where the rake actually makes them some money. But if the agonizing slowness of play annoys the players sufficiently, they'll be taking their action somewhere else. As of this moment of annoyance with PokerStars, that's my plan. I'll build The Quest bankroll at the PokerStars micro-limit tables until I can afford to take my action elsewhere. I'm sure PokerStars will be crushed at this news.

I'm also wondering if I might not do more good joining the dark side rather than trying to defeat it. While my official Quest bankroll won't support it, my actual PokerStars bankroll would let me sit at every $0.01/$0.02 table they have. If a couple people fired up as many tables as the software allows I'm sure the hands per hour rate could easily drop to the 10-15 range. Perhaps that would convince PokerStars this is something that deserves their attention.

I'm sure I won't do it. It just annoys the hell out of me when I see something that's clearly not right and the people in charge appear indifferent.

I suggested to PokerStars that one way to address this is to reduce the time bank by five seconds for every table over four. If you want to play ten tables, that's fine, but you better be able to take your action in the 35 (or 18 on fast tables) seconds you have available or your hand will be folded. This at least provides some kind of penalty for firing up more tables than you can handle and annoying the other players with your slowness. Let me know if you have other innovative ideas on this.

The Quest did not go well last night. A retelling would involve a lot of bad beat stories, so I'll just sum it up as one stupid play, several idiots chasing and hitting four-outers at the river, and a long, slow comeback from early losses. I had battled back to being down just $0.50 on the night, but ended up losing another $1 before calling it quits.

The graph has shifted to weekly rather than daily updates so this loss is not yet reflected. And I have the weekend to make up for it.

Nothing of interest here

I was concerned enough about the massive multi-tabling slowdowns that I wrote PokerStars support about it. They replied that while it is technically within the rules for someone to take the full 25 seconds on every decision, if review of the records shows consistent long delays for simple decisions and the player in question is on multiple tables, they will contact the player and politely suggest they play fewer tables. So if the consistent long delays bug you, contact support and complain.

I also included my suggestion to have the client software monitor response times and refuse to allow additional tables to be opened if average response times are below some threshold.

While Questing last night there was an interesting incident. One hand folds to the SB, who completes, and the BB checks. Flop comes TTx. Some clown who folded types into chat, "Figures. I folded T2." I replied, "Thanks for discussing the hand while it's still live." (In retrospect, perhaps the sarcastic attitude would have best been left out. A simple, "Don't discuss while hand is live," might have been better.) He came back with something like, "You're welcome," and it kind of went downhill from there. What amazed me was him eventually turning it around as though the problem was me complaining rather than him cheating. My original intent was to simply remind him not to do that and then let it go, but his attitude annoyed me almost to the point of reporting it. I didn't, but I considered it.

Finished the night up a bit over $2, making up for most of the previous night's loss. The graph is starting to get a bit crowded and difficult to read when reduced for display on the blog. (Not that the original is all that much bigger.) I'm working on something that will be more of a summary graph.

Update: I modified the graph to show weekly bankroll status rather than session by session results. Close inspection (probably with a magnifying glass) will show the dates are not continuous. I did not include data for the weeks when I didn't play. At least the bankroll data points should be easier to read on this one, even if the dates are illegible.

A couple things

Two topics for today. Since the first deals with narcissism and one of my favorite topics -- me -- let's start with that.

I was reading someone else's poker blog recently and came upon an amazing bit of arrogance and condescension that I'm pretty sure was not intended in jest. Even knowing the individual involved has a very high opinion of his or her own poker skills, I was surprised to see such narcissistic thoughts actually written down for all the world to read.

I've always been one to lean toward self-deprecation, though usually also have a fair sense of where my talents and performance lie in the overall scheme of things.

A clever way to get where I intended to go with this is eluding me, so let me cut to the chase. I've played literally hundreds of thousands of hands, hundreds of tournaments, spent hundreds of hours playing live short-handed games with some pretty decent players (and a few not so decent players). I've seriously studied the game for three or four years now. When I say something about my skills being several levels above $0.01/$0.02 NL I hope it's taken as an honest evaluation and not arrogant bragging. I would hate to come off sounding like the blogger I mentioned above. And, no, I'm not naming names, so don't bother asking.

The other topic for today is rude behavior at the tables. I suppose it's a bit of a pet peeve, but it drives me crazy when someone is consistently late in taking action when it's their turn. We all occasionally step away or get distracted and time out when it's our action. I'm not talking about taking 15 seconds to fold pre-flop once an hour. I'm talking about when you look at the chat window and see nothing but "so-and-so has 15 seconds to act".

There was a player at my table for a fortunately brief period of time last night who was like this. I've seen him before and knew what to expect as soon as he sat down. Last night, though, I decided to check if he was simply not paying attention or was playing too many tables. A quick search showed him sitting at ten different tables. Ten.

I know there are players who can actually handle playing ten tables at once. If you have tables consistently beeping at you because you have just a few seconds left before your action times out, you aren't one of these players.

I also have to question why anyone would want to play ten tables of $0.01/$0.02 NL. I've lately been inclined to try playing two or three tables just to keep boredom from setting in while waiting for others to act. But I fail to see any reason to play ten tables at this level.

If you're interested in making money, $0.01/$0.02 isn't the place.

Honing your skills against players at this level is a bit like using room temperature butter to sharpen a knife. Yes, everybody has to start somewhere, and there is something for beginners to learn at this level, but playing ten tables at once is not a typical mark of a beginner.

So what I see it coming down to is a rather futile activity that accomplishes little other than to be rude to other players, consistently slowing their game down because you think you're being cool by playing so many tables.

The poker sites should monitor this activity and not allow additional tables to be opened if you are consistently delaying play at the tables you're already playing.

On a more mundane note, The Quest did not go well last night. I made a stupid move against a player who had time and again demonstrated his inability to fold. At least this time it was me doing the pushing and not me stupidly responding to a push. After moving to another table the cards dried up so I didn't get much of a chance to make up what my stupidity had lost.

One thing I've learned about play at this level is that many of the players can not be bluffed out of a hand. If they have as little as an overcard, many of them will call any bet. Bluffing, unless you have a good read on the players involved, is usually just a way to lose a lot of chips. If you're not getting the cards, the best thing is to take the small lumps and wait out the cards. Better to lose a quarter of your buy-in to blinds and cheap false starts than to lose several buy-ins on bluffs against the unbluffable.

More Questing

When I was a kid I used to love to play football. It was one of the few sports where my low center of gravity gave me an advantage. Somewhere along the way some coach who probably didn't know what else to do with me told me to line up in the backfield. On occasion I'd actually get to run with the football. Slowest guy on the field and they give me the football. It had to be that low center of gravity. I never made it past what today is called middle school in anything that could be referred to as organized football.

Whenever I would get the ball I had one goal -- the goal line. Anything short of that was failure in my book. I could sneak under somebody and be 50 yards down the field before they noticed and ran me down, but if I didn't get in the end zone I considered that run a failure. In retrospect I realize I was trying to meet impossibly high standards.

I have somewhat the same standards when it comes to fish and poker. If I don't get all their chips, I consider that encounter a failure. Nothing bugs me more than seeing some fish get chewed apart by the other players while I continue to get total junk cards and can reasonably do nothing but fold. One part of my brain says I'm playing smart poker and that there are plenty of other fish in the sea. But some other part smells the blood in the water and desperately wants to get in there and rip off a piece, regardless of whether I'm in position to do so or not.

Tonight I ran into a couple of the wild ones. The ones who keep making ridiculously large bets in spots where it makes little sense. I'm probably being more cautious than I need to be, but unless I'm about 95% sure I'm holding the winner, I'll let them walk with the big bets. (Unless it gets out of hand. Then I'll lower my threshold to about 70%.) I've learned that the safer route to consistent winning sessions is for me to play small(er) ball.

Of course, I'm not above using their tendencies against them, luring them into making the big bet when I've got the nuts. I did that a couple times tonight. Always fun.

I played two sessions tonight with just a short break in between. Between the two I finished
the night up $2.84, bringing the bankroll to almost $48. I'm encouraged by the much better progress I've been making lately. Part of me says this is just an aberration and I'll never be able to maintain this 50BB/100 win rate. But another part says I'm killing this game because I'm playing many levels below my skill and have simply learned how to avoid the traps that exist down here.

One hand in particular stands out from tonight. I was heads up with one of the wild ones. He seemed to be a bit smarter than most of them. I had stung him once or twice and he had been largely avoiding me. These tables have a tendency to be very passive pre-flop so I play a lot of connected cards as long as I can see a cheap flop. I call with JTs UTG. Three of us see the flop of J73, two-suited. BB checks, I bet the pot, button folds, BB calls. The turn is junk, but puts three spades on the board. BB checks. While I wouldn't be surprised to see the BB sticking around with either a 7 or a 3, my spidey sense tells me to put on the brakes. I check. River brings another 3. BB checks. This is one of those situations where any bet I make can only be called by someone who has me beat. Plus, given this guy's loose cannon nature, any bet from me could quite likely be looking at a push with about a dozen ways that I'm beat on this one. I check. He turns over the nut flush. I so wanted to ask him where the other half of that pot was.

Oh, I almost forgot. This same guy, who kept tossing all his chips in the pot, actually called a river bet while holding quad kings, leaving the other guy with about 30BB left behind. I almost timed out on the next hand as I stared at the screen in disbelief and amazement. How do you not realize you've got quad kings? He bet the river, the other guy raised, and this guy just calls. He'll stick all his chips in the pot pre-flop with K7o, but he won't raise with the stone cold nuts.

Yep, no 90MPH fastballs in Little League.

Slow Sunday

Did a bit of Questing Sunday afternoon. I don't know what it is about weekends, or maybe it's just bad luck of the draw, but I ran into more consistently slow players than I've seen since my Days at the monthly William Hill stall-a-thon. At least in the case of William Hill there was some logic to the slow play since many of the players were being paid by the hour. The fewer hands they played, the less money they risked, hence the slow play. At Stars it's far more likely to be either people playing more tables than they can really handle or people simply not paying attention. Either way, it's inconsiderate and rude. You may quote me on that.

Some of the play in the shallow end is still rather baffling to me. It's probably not worth a great deal of thought because I'm fairly certain there's little thought, or at least little right thinking, that goes into it. But I still can't help trying to find some logic in the play. Like putting in a min-raise with 85o from EP. What possible logic can there be in that play?

Oh well, looking for logical or decent play at this level is as pointless as complaining about the play. Don't mind me, I'm just venting. I don't want to do it at the table and scare anyone into doing something drastic like reading a poker book or anything like that, so I do it here instead. Aren't you lucky.

So The Quest finished the afternoon up $0.91, bringing the bankroll over $45 for the first time. I had intended to play again in the evening, but I ended up watching a couple movies instead. Recently I'd seen a couple references to Office Space that got me interested in watching it again. Actually, I'm not sure I'd ever seen it start to finish. Too much rap, too little Jennifer Aniston. Still pretty funny.

One of those sessions

On Saturday I had one of those sessions. You know what I mean. The kind of session where nothing connects, nothing pans out. If you got dealt eight cards and were double-suited in every suit, the flop would bring three cards of a new fifth suit never seen before. This time there were no big one hand losses. No calling of all-ins with second best. Just a continual drain. It could have been worse. I finished the session down just a bit over one buy-in.

I tried to clear away my bad luck by playing Dr. Pauly's Saturday PLO tournament. I did okay fairly early, building my stack to 2700. Then I had the misfortune to run my pocket kings plus suited ace into pocket aces. Fortunately I had the bigger stack and at least survived the battle. I made the final table, but just barely. I sucked out against pocket aces to double up but then almost immediately blew it all on a flush draw and a backdoor straight draw.

After a dinner break I went back to The Quest and managed to win back my earlier losses plus a little bit. Again, nothing really exciting. Just a lot of small pots and a couple mid-sized ones.

One interesting thing I noticed concerned my behavior toward one other player. There's got to be a name for this, but I don't know what it is. This other guy was seeing the flop on almost every hand. He was losing mostly due to his own stupidity, but there were a couple bad beats in there and I could tell he was on tilt. I basically went on tilt trying to chase him. It was nothing terrible and I usually didn't chase far, but I played a number of hands I would have ordinarily folded if not for what I perceived as an added profit opportunity. Fish-induced tilt? Juicy-target tilt?

They call me Straw Man

Full Tilt has long been running their "Iron Man" promotion. Earn 500 points on 25 different days in a month and you're an Iron Man. The problem I've had with this is that I never remember to start it at the first of the month. (Note to FTP: If you want lots of new participants, send out a reminder at the beginning of every month. And I mean a reminder specific to Iron Man, not just a regular "tip from the pros" that includes a link to Iron Man info.) 'Round about the 10th or 15th I'll remember it, but by then it's too late.

So this month I figured I'd start early. I know from long experience clearing bonuses that the best way for me to accumulate points is at limit. I used to be able to play four tables without any problem at all. If I'd had another display, or the sites supported resizeable windows at that time, I'm sure I'd have been able to do at least six. A bit after 7pm last night I sat down to earn me some Full Tilt points. I looked for action at full ring 2/4. Two tables, both full with waiting lists. 1/2? Three tables, all with waiting lists. I ended up at $0.25/$0.50 because that was the only place I could get a seat right away.

There were a lot more 6-max tables available at all the limits. It's an odd thing. I get killed every time I play 6-max limit. It's probably due to what I cut my teeth with. NL I greatly prefer 6-max, but I just can't get my bearings at 6-max limit.

I played for over an hour and earned all of 25 points. I did eventually find a seat at a higher limit table. Don't recall if it was 0.50/1 or 1/2. Regardless, it didn't seem to make much difference with the points.

About 11pm I decided to give it another shot. I got on the waiting list for two of the looser 2/4 tables. Ten minutes later a seat opened up at one of them. This was a table filled with some of the slowest limit players I've ever seen, particularly at 2/4. At William Hill the 1/2 tables used to fill with people purposely delaying so they could clear the five table hour bonus risking as little money as possible. You never saw that at 2/4. I played until almost midnight. A seat on the other table never did open up.

Based on my experience of last night, the "iron man" part refers to the fortitude you need to wait for a seat to open up at a table where you have a chance of earning some points. The evening ended with me earning all of 39 points, 11 points shy of the minimum daily rate for any of the Iron Man categories. So much for my attempting to reach Iron Man status. I'm not comfortable playing much above 2/4, assuming I could find a seat without waiting a week, and it's obviously impossible to earn enough points at lower levels without spending way more hours than I'm willing to devote to this. Call me Straw Man.

One rather odd thing did happen during this experience. I won money. I couldn't tell you the last time I won money at limit. I did see a few of the usual suckouts. Not being able to price out the flush draws kills me. But by the end of the evening I was up about $25.

Due to my time becoming a Straw Man, I didn't spend a lot of time on The Quest. I finished my brief session up a big $0.15.

Upon re-checking my re-checking of Wednesday's results, my original numbers were actually correct. Yesterday I overlooked that I won $0.10 in the last hand.

Oops, I did it again

Wee bit of a set back in The Quest last night. Or, as they'd say on Wall Street, an anticipated correction to the irrational exuberance exhibited by the markets recently.

Once again, I stupidly called an all-in and wiped out a buy in plus a small profit. At least this time I was holding something better than TP. When will I ever learn?

I reloaded and fought my way back, making up some of the loss. I'm thinking right now that I miscalculated last night when I filled in the spreadsheet -- the loss should be greater -- but I'll have to check the hand history to be sure.

I'm not too upset. It was a good run, but I knew I couldn't go on with winning nights forever. Hopefully this is just the aforementioned anticipated correction and things will carry on as before now that this is over.

Edit: Turns out I was both right and wrong about last night's loss. It was greater than what I put in the spreadsheet, but only by $0.10. I had thought earlier today that I was off by $1. So I lost just $0.66 on the night. Could have been far worse.