Topic: Poker: hands analysis, useful stuff and general discussions (Read 880 times)

I think he also stated that buying in short stacked will not be an option.  To sit at a table a player must buy in for the full amount..  As a PLO player , this sounds really juicy.  I imagine a lot of my PLO peers feel the same way. I can see a scenario where all of the talent show up for an easy payday but just end playing each other.  The only time I really hear enthusiasm for Phil's site is among seasoned players. Also Myself and a good portion of PLO players don't Use a HUD when playing ring games. So I don't think he really rubbed any Omaha guys the wrong way with the policies. .

Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu again got nearby boxes at the feature table. Doug prepared perfectly)

More news about RunItOnce. Recently Galfond came in Joe Ingram's podcast. Obviously, the main topic was the soon launching of the room. Short summary:

• Anonymous tables with aliases will be only in non-high-stakes cash games. In tournaments and high-stakes cash everybody will be able to see real nicknames of opponents.
• USA, Spain and Italy citizens can't play in the room due to law issues. Playing using VPN is prohibited.
• On the first phase, there will be only NLHE and PLO available for playing. Limit games are planned to be added later.
• Every player can get hands he or she have played in 24 hours after doing it. The format will allow to upload them in a tracker.
• The Security Department in RunItOnce is not so big as in Pokerstars and PartyPoker, but Phil believes his team is much more qualified. Their main purpose is finding and banning bots.

The link to the full podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yb3uz47-X4

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I am very glad to see decisions for the problems, about which I've written 2 weeks ago. I've told I consider writing notes and remembering previous actions to be an important part of the technical skill, so it's great I can try to get this kind of advantage in my favorite MTT format)
As for the sending hands on emails, I think it should help in the issue of finding bots by enthusiasts from players.
Other news was quite predictable.

It's very close to 6-Plus, but they played with the hand ranking, where straight is higher than three of a kind.
I don't know, why they prefer this game instead of PLO. The only reason I can assume is the fact that online high-rollers have enough skill and experience in PLO to play against amateurs with a big advantage on the distance and businessmen should understand it. 6-Plus is much less popular online, so pros don't have so perfected strategies.

Quite an exciting fact that Phil Ivey played in the T-shirt with Virtue Poker ad. He is their ambassador as well as Daniel Colman and Brian Rast. They finished the ICO a few days ago and raised 100% of the 18.5 mln $ hardcap. I fastly read the whitepaper and it made me think skeptically about their prospects. They emphasized problems of modern online poker pretty well, but I didn't see the way how they are going to fix it. The example of Coinpoker shows decentralization is far away from being the crucial fact for potential players when they decide what room to choose for playing. The most important thing (and the biggest advantage of Pokerstars) is software and I don't believe they can beat Amaya in this issue having 18.5 mln $. I will be glad to be wrong in my estimation, but right now it seems to me they won't manage to become a significant competitor for the already-mentioned monopolist.

^  You mean 6 Plus Holdem?  Yeah, I heard that game is played at Macau private games a lot.  I'm not sure if they play it in the casinos tho.

But if they really wanted more action, why not teach them how play PLO then?

The broadcast from Montenegro Triton Super High Roller Series started nearly an hour ago. Six days of the most expensive tournaments with 36-cards deck and lots of familiar faces. I've read in Daniel Cates's interview that this game is extremely loved by rich Asian amateurs, so it'll be interesting to watch for if it can become popular all over the world. There is much more action in compare with 52-cards deck game. The rules are little bit different, but I still can't understand what exactly hand rankings they are using right now)

Link to the broadcast: https://www.twitch.tv/tritonpoker

^  Of course they hate it.  Most of them are prolly multi tabling, HUD loving, break even rake back pros.  They prolly thought Galfond was gonna bring the golden days of online poker by creating his site like the Scheinbergs' Stars.

I've already written about it here, but thanks anyway. Hopefully, I've expressed my opinion clear enough.

As for your words, I am afraid it's too early to name these things a breakthrough. As far as I heard, the majority of players don't like this news.

Since Galfond's upcoming poker site was discussed here, then we might as well keep updating its progress...

Here's the latest from Galfond and it's looking good imo.  No HUD but with dynamic avatars showing how a player is playing from your own personal POV depending on how he has been playing against you.

Anyway, read about it below.  I think it's a breakthrough of sorts for online poker.

Laying the Groundwork
https://www.runitonce.eu/news/2-laying-the-groundwork/

3x BB raise would be an awful decision in this spot, especially with aces. Firstly, t gives the chipleader on SB an opportunity to take the pressure on the Button by restealing very wide range and BU must fold nearly 99% vs 3-bet all-in because of the ICM considerations. Secondly, it doesn't give me enough chances to protect my big blind, which he certainly wants me to do)
As for the advice to raise, I really like it, thanks. Such commitment opens great prospects to mind games and leveling and I think in this circumstances it can give even more folding equity than just moving all-in because it seems much stronger. I haven't thought about this option, but it definitely worth to be considered, thanks again)

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Guys, check this topic. Maybe somebody missed it and would like to participate: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/poker-wsop-2018-analog-of-the-odb-fantasy-draft-3613739

Well the BTN didn't show a lot of strength with his pre-flop raise (not even 3x BB, so it's almost like a limp here). Maybe he was just trying to put pressure on the blinds, and trying to steal them. The flop was actually nice to Hero, because there are no big cards on the table, and the BTN bet was quite weak (I don't even consider that a continuation bet). Since Hero hit top pair, and still has a backdoor flush draw I would just raise to $18k. This would show some strength since it was a check raise. BTN most likely didn't hit anything. Hero would probably win the hand right away. He would already be quite committed to the hand, so BTN would think twice before trying to bluff him out of the hand, because Hero would probably reply with an all-in.

If hero wants to be really aggressive he could just go all in straight away, but just calling would be a bad move. If a figure shows up on the turn, he just couldn't keep making calls.

Galfond wrote the second post about soon launching of RunItOnce Poker. It was devoted to auxiliary soft.

In a nutshell: HUDs will be prohibited. Instead of it, they are going to use dynamical avatars, which will reflect player's style considering only hands you've played with this specific player at one table. Small example:



Furthermore, if I caught it up clearly, there will be only anonymous tables, where every player will randomly get an alias consisting of a first name and a last initial.

Being, like I call myself, "an advanced amateur", I like the first idea with implementing dynamical avatars and not allowing to use HUDs, but there is also a flaw in such approach because competent regulars can't track suspicious opponents and check if they are bots. I hope, Phil has enough power to do this job inside the company. However, I completely don't like making all tables anonymous. I think writing notes and remembering old hands is an essential part of the technical skill, so I don't understand what's the point in such decision. It seems like Phil and his team got little bit confused with reinventing the wheel.

Link to full post: https://www.runitonce.eu/news/2-laying-the-groundwork/

Yes. In Main Events from second days, in Highroller and Super Highroller tournaments from a start. This old-fashioned square near the dealer is exactly the clock. Watching for a bubble became more exciting, but it looks a little bit funny  

At big live tourney's...?  Cool.  I didn't know BTC is a thing for live poker pros.  I've been seeing it mentioned around 2+2, but other than that, I didn't think some of them used it regularly.

Wow, I am watching the live broadcast from EPT Monte-Carlo. Pokerstars established the new rule and set shot-clock system. Now every player have only 30 seconds on every decesion and limited number of cards, which can be used to get additional 30 seconds. Thanks to PartyPoker, at least in the issue of live tournaments Amaya started to do something  


I suppose Phil knows enough about crypto. I heard it's very popular payment method among American players in deals like buying or selling shares and similar.

Nice.  But it wouldn't really be problem if they accept BTC and convert them into USD like how ACR does it.  As long as that payment option is on there then it's fine.  

I'm sure Galfond has heard of BTC from the likes of Doug Polk...  He has come a looong way since their 'Ship it Holla Balla' days.

As far as I remember, he started working on the room at the end of 2015, when Amaya announced significant reducing of rakeback. Then I listened something like he faced unexpected difficulties and that the process appeared to be much harder than he had thought, so he would need much more time to do everything he wants. I haven't tracked the situation for a long time until yesterday.

As for the crypto, I think there is very high probability they will accept at least BTC, but I'm not sure about playing for it.

^  Is he finally commiting to it?  He already announced about starting a poker site years ago with lower rake, grinder friendly atmosphere, etc...  But nothing really happened.  Everybody thought it fell thru.

Anyway we'll see this summer.  I hope it accepts crypto.

Yes, that's poker in a short. I had very little doubts about hand w T8s, but as I've already written, it was quite a specific ICM spot, just second suchlike situation in my poker life. Nice to see everybody here agree with the line I chose. As for the hand with 88, I didn't manage to get an answer to the question about a difference in calculation even from Simple Nash's developers.

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Here is an exciting recent news from the poker world.

Phil Galfond announced the launching of his poker room RunItOnce Poker. It will consist of 2 phases. The opening is planned for the summer, but there will be only cash games available for the starting period. Phil promises sensible rake and unique VIP system, which should satisfy both professional and amateurs. Sit&Gos, multi-table tournaments, and high limits will be launched on the second phase. The date of it's appearing is still unclaimed.

Here is the link to the post about it in Phil's blog. He told he is going to describe the process there.

Interesting to see, how Phil is going to run so ambitious project. Poker market is shrinking year after year, Pokerstars monopoly seems to be dominating. But there was no any serious opponent for them since FullTilt's crush in 2011. I can't assume how big is RunItOnce's chances to succeed, but if they manage to do it, it will be one of the best things in the history of online poker.

I think you were unlucky because in both hands your opponents had top range, but that usually happens, when we lose a hand we tend to question the way we played it, much more often than when we win, even though we sometimes win hands after playing them incorrectly.

Result of the last hand:

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I can't call to mind the last situation when a newbie won a major tournament. Today, even full amateurs, who wins events like EPT, PartyLive or WSOP, usually have a big experience. The nearest examples I managed to remember are Jan Bendik, who has first cash on thehendonmob dated in 2005, and Sebastian Sorensson, who claims him to already play for a few years. I can't understand what exactly mostkey means, but now newbies really need a lot of luck to start winning right after learning rules.

For example, today is holding the final table of PartyPoker Millions Barcelona Main Event. The list of finalists: https://uk.pokernews.com/tours/partypoker-live/partypoker-live-millions-grand-final-barcelona/main-event/chips.htm
If you check their results on thehendonmob, you can see everybody are very experienced in playing live tournaments.

He just wrote a great shitpost.

A newbie can win a big poker tournament, although it is unlikely.


I don’t know about the difference between those models, but I would go all in. I prefer playing aggressive during the final stages because the price structures rewards aggression. Again, if someone calls, you are going to be behind on average, because he is going to have an OP or higher cards but many times you’ll get the blinds.

So, did you mean to say "sometimes" or "always", because those words contradict each other.

If you play poker long enough you can eventually notice that those aggressive bluffers don't last long at the table. They may be winning during the first 20-30 minutes but they never make it to the top places. Poker is not a game of pure chance but a game of skill. Proper bluffing requires skill, it's not that simple.

Can a newbie, having no clue, win a prestigious poker tournament? I personally doubt that, but I think we should ask HugoStiglitz about the probability of such a win.

although this is very helpful, but we should be able to know where there are some people who ignore the guide and do not want to read. always wanted to jump into gambling. poker is a game that is identical to the luck of the card. and sometimes beginners who ventured to do the bluff game always get the luck

I would go all-in in this situation.


I presume that professional players rarely bluff on the pre-flop. It is most likely that BTN had good cards in the beginning but seeing that the flop is no good news for him and seeing me(Hero) checking he decided to scare me off. So I would make him think I have three of a kind by going all-in.

P.S. I was reading the thread and started writing my reply before reading further. Now I see that I was right on BTN having good cards, but I was wrong with going all-in, I'd lost everything.

The thing is tho if you're gonna play T8s oop then c/c flop just to fold when there's pressure on the turn, then it would be better to fold preflop.

And it's not like you're check/shoving just top pair in that spot.  You could do it with strong hands like your sets as well as semi bluffs like oesd's.

The dead money in the pot makes it a profitable shove even if villain was gonna fold his bluffing range anyway imho.

I had a nearly same opinion, but I was not sure what range my opponents are going to call vs my all-in. It's quite a specific ICM spot and, unfortunately, free Simple Nash doesn't allow to calculate equilibrium on a postflop, so the only way to analyze this hand I have is to do it intuitively. Result:

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Another satellite spot. 18 players are left, top-10 get 215$ ticket. I am on the 2nd place at the start of the hand and there are 5-6 players with nearly same stacks 2-3bb lower than me and 4 players with 3-4bb stacks. Average stack is 185k, average stack for top-11 (bubble) - ~304k. It's new table, so I don't have any information on my opponents.



That's what Simple Nash tells about openshove:




Does anybody know, why there is so big difference between results of calculation equilibrium on Malmuth-Harville and Malmuth-Weitzman models? I was pretty sure open-shove should be a +EV decision. The only question was about comparing different actions and choosing the most profitable. But after calculation, I became really confused. It will be great if somebody can explain the difference between 2 models. If it appears Malmuth-Weitzman to be right, what do you think about a plan for the hand? Should I play raise/call, raise/fold vs someone or maybe limp is the best option here?

I agree for the most part but the fact that Hero is short stacked makes going all in the best option here.  Calling is bad since the J, Q, K and the A could hit villain's range.  We are also oop, so c/c with our stack would make our hand hard to play.

If ever we are vs an over pair then we have 5 outs for two pair and trips, plus the back door outs you mentioned.

Edit:  And there's enough dead money in the pot to make this a good shove.

Bump.

I haven't seen many experts in poker on this forum so, I'm not surprised that this hand didn't get any other reply but I'm interested in knowing what OP says about it.

All in because of the stack to pot ratio (2 to 1). I am the short stack at the table and I need to protect from straight draws and high cards. If he calls, most times he is going to have a better hand (like OP), but I still have backdoor flush draw and backdoor gutshout, lol!

The problem is, I don’t get value from weaker hands and don’t make stronger hands fold, but I can’t think of a better way of playing the hand.
 
If I call, it is quite likely that a high card will appear in the turn (around 51% chance) and then I have to check because donking has no sense and if the rival bets I have to guess if he is bluffing or not to decide if I fold. Most times he is going to have overcards, and checking means he can check behind and get two free cards. I see less likely straight draws with 79 or 57 but those hands would probably pay all in flop, and again, I don't want to check turn because he can have two free cards to complete the draw.

I finally managed to reload some hands to the new database, so I am ready to start hand discussions. Hope, it will increase an interest to the topic. Sometimes I will share hands with stopping action on the decision I doubt to avoid result oriented opinions. Today I have quite a non-standard spot to discuss.

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Top 3 of live event satellite. First and second places get 5.5k$ worth packages on EPT event, third place gets something like 80$.

1) What would you do here - all-in or just call?
2) Why would you choose this option?
3) If you choose to call, what are your plans for turn and river?

Thanks. I used StarsHelper and heard about others, but forgot to include them in the list. Added all three and three more:

1. 888Caption
Same, as StarsCaption, but for 888

2. PartyCaption
Same, as StarsCaption and 888Caption, but for PartyPoker

3. Hand2Note
Much more powerful than HM and PT stats collecting and outputting soft. I've never used it, so it will be better if you read about all its advantages in the guide on the website.

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The final table of the EPT Sochi Main Event has been set. There are no big names, but, for example, the chipleader Arseniy Karmatskiy is a well known online as "josef_shvejk" and he is currently on 15 place of Worldwide and on 2 place of Russian Pocketfives MTT rankings. The cards-up broadcast will resume in 7 hours on pokerstars.tv and PS youtube channel.

Add more programs to transfer your stacks from chips to big blind (bb)
I know three programs:
1) starshelper (I recommend it is her)
official site: https://starshelper.net
The program is multilanguage.
screen:

2) starscaption
official site: https://sites.google.com/site/starscaption/home
screen:

3) Jivaro (a good program for advanced poker fans)
official site: https://jivaro.com/
screen:


The programs are paid, but have a period of free use.
Good luck at the poker tables friends!

As it was said above, Holdem Manager and PokerTracker are necessary for those, who have the intention to make money playing poker not only on microstakes. If you play something like NL5 or 2$ tournaments, you may beat them without such soft and earn for the full version to go higher. But if you are not sure of your skill, there is another way - to register in some room with HM invite and get money for buying as a rakeback: http://www.holdemmanager.com/store/poker-sites.php

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Added some links to the OP. All of them were already mentioned here. It will be great, if anybody knows skillful and successful teams to fill this section. Unfortunately, I currently know just 4.

1. Link about getting HM free.

2. GTO software
2.1. PioSolver
2.2. SimplePostflop

3. Stacking and coaching teams
3.1. bitB Stacking (MTT team founded by Patrick Leonard aka "Pleno1", "pads1161")
3.2. FunFarm (The biggest Russian MTT team)
3.3. SmartSpin (Spin&Go team)
3.4. StealPhoenix (The best Russian Spin&Go team)

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Cards-Up broadcasts from EPT Sochi are starting tomorrow. It will last for 5 days and if I understand it correctly, this time only English and Russian commentators will be available.
http://www.pokerstars.tv/en/tv/

Almost everyone has been using poker tracking software and HUDs since around 2005 or so.  It was right when the poker teaching sites like Cardrunners, one of the first, started gaining some popularity...

It's also what tightened the games. 

Yes, and it takes some time to know how to use the programs, at first is a bit confusing and you’ll have to learn how to configure them, decide which stats to use, to adjust the size, etc. But once you do that and start using them, it pays the price.

It's still quite an investment for other people, especially to those that are just starting to get the hang of it. But the free trial period might make them enough money to be able to  buy the license in time, but of course for sure there is a very steep learning curve here and it would take a long time to be able to play well. Heck we can even say that poker itself takes a lot of time to master.

Holdem manager 2 is just 99$. If you get the small stakes version is just 59$:

http://www.holdemmanager.com/buy/211/holdem-manager-2

Poker tracker 4 costs the same as HM2: https://www.pokertracker.com/products/PT4/purchase.php

So, it's not a lot of money. You can download the trial versions and use them for free for a month.

If you only play for entertainment, you don't need them, but if you want to make money they are necessary not only because you will have more advantage versus bad players, but also because you are in disadvantage versus other players if you don't use them. Nowadays people use them even in micro limits.

Hey,

Thanks for the tracking programs!
I've never used one because I didn't find any one free and I don't play enough to feel like a 500$ program is worth it.
But I'm pretty sure it's a very good data base to work.

Fact is that yes techniques are important but there is nothing universal.
So you have to gather your own data to know which techniques work on your play style ^^

I myself professionally play spin and go on pokerstars. I can explain the basic strategy for this kind of poker. Even earlier I played a lot of Omaha and I know a lot of good information about it. If you are interested, let me know!

Hey. If you play pokerstars, then you probably wonder how often prizes of valuable prizes from the chests. In our community there is a player who has accumulated 183 platinum chests and opened them on the stream! I can translate his words if necessary)
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/237305043

Actually, if you are starting and trying to learn, it is better not to bluff. Just learn to select your pre-flop hands and to value betting. Maybe better to seme-bluff at some spots using projects.

The best way to have a good read is to play the game multiple times, play with different players for you to get used to different styles. You can try playing online, you will a lot hands to play compared to the real poker table. Practice a bluff. It will help if you will wait for your moment to have a good card, play low profile until you have something. Silent killer moves.

The buy-in was something around 5.5k$, 3k$ is the buy-in for the EPT Main Event, which will be held soon. Top pros, of course, pay it themselves. Not so successful regulars usually sell shares, but it depends on everybody's own preferences. From one side, I know those, who always try to play as safe as it possible. On the other hand, there are players, who consider such tournaments as an opportunity to skyrocket and sometimes decide to play 100% from themselves. As for me, I qualified online in one of starting attempts and spent on satellites something like 20$, so I chose not to sell anything. And yes, I was very lucky even without reaching money in the main tournament)


Yes, you are right in some measure. It's called being result oriented, but I don't think it's related to my story. I consider my line to be bad because the only reason I chose it was a fear of elimination from so important tournament.

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Wonder_woman, patt0, thanks for the feedback. Please, don't think about me as about poker guru. I used to be an ordinary low-stakes grinder with rare shots on high limits in case of good shape or winning satellite. Today I prefer to call myself an advanced amateur 

P.S. I wanted to share first hand to analyse, but unfortunately my laptop broke down, so I need some time to reload hands to the database

Cool compilation man. I actually gave my first steps using pokerstrategy. Never got that far, and only got the gold level there, but it was a nice place to learn poker and start playing with no risk. I actually get some decent profit on my short climb. I also used holdem manager, and the one provided by pokerstrategy itself, since I won the license there. TwoPlusTwo is a legendary forum like you said, so really nice compilation man. I definitely know your ways through poker.

I will be waiting for some hand analysis as well. Maybe this is what I was missing to get back on the game.

Thanks for your reply! Wow. Participating in a PokerStars Championship is something valuable in itself. I've read that the buy-in for the Main Event was around $3,000. Is that true? I've been always wondering do players pay it themselves or is it paid by sponsors mostly?

Regarding the big bluff you think you should've made, it's only post-factum looks obvious what should be done. For example if your opponent had a great hand he wouldn't fold and you'd lose everything. But anyway, I can see your point, it's probably not the same. I just never participated in off-line championships so I don't know how it feels.

Yes, surely I heard about it and used it a lot during my career of "advanced amateur". Sharkscope still stays the best resource to track online tournament results (MTT and Sit&Go), but there are also 2 another useful sites, where you can check your stats or stats of your opponents:

1. Whotfru
Checking results in online cash games. Registration is available only with an invite from another user. I don't have such invites because I play online cash very rarely.

2. OfficialPokerRankings
A very convenient resource, where you can find player's results in 36+ players tournament on PokerStars, PartyPoker, FullTilt, and Carbon.

Thanks for your question. I forgot about it, but these links have to be in the OP.


I think, there is a very big difference between bluffing online and live and I have a really valid reason to claim so - my own experience. By today, I managed to play only 1 major offline tournament (PSC Sochi 2017) and one of the most important pots I lost was a result of my fear to make a big bluff. I had to go all-in on the river and I had played many similar spots online, where I successfully did it. But in that situation, I didn't manage to handle the pressure, checked and lost the pot.

Surely, there are a lot of players, who are not afraid of big bluffing and aggressive game right after starting playing offline. But if you think you can act like me in a stressful live game spot, you should prepare yourself for such kind of moments in advance. I have already got a memorable lesson for the future.

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Added 3 links in the last section of OP:

1. TheHendonMob
A database of live tournaments results and schedules

2. Pokerdope
2.1. Pokerdope cash game variance calculator
2.2. Pokerdope tournament variance calculator
A great tool to calculate probability of up streaks and down streaks of different length

Great topic! I hope it will be updated with some poker related info on a regular basis. Among the links listed in the OP I recommend Pokerstars Youtube channel to every poker lover who still doesn't know of its existence(highly improbable, I know ) .

I'd like to see your opinions guys about bluffing in online poker. Do you think it is the same as in a live casino or there is a big difference since we can't see faces of each other? I personally think it is the same because in reality no one can actually read the face of an opponent. Well, I mean, you can try of course, but even the greatest players make mistakes in the reading, and based on my observations I can say those mistakes are not rare.

On the other hand even when playing online poker there is a feeling that you can read someone and it's not so rare when it turns out you were right.

So, what do you guys think? Is there a difference?

Great and very helpful topic, finally something refreshing in this section.
Ever heard of https://www.sharkscope.com/ ?
When I was playing poker it was very useful site to see statistics from your opponent.

I've been looking for a thread like this for a long time. Thanks for the work. As a poker player I need to say that I'm quite familiar with almost all of the resources you posted here, and I consider them top-notch! I've actually started developing my poker game once I went to pokerstrategy.com. I will definitely keep an eye on this thread, to see how hand analysis will go.

I will also link this thread to my "merit give away thread", to help promote it.
I will leave you that thread here, please stop by and share any other good threads like this one, if you happen to know them.
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/topic-post-review-specific-areas-smerit-to-give-2850321

Poker is one of my favorite game. Most of all I like the way people skillfully hide their emotions during the game. I mean, you can know people you play with for many years but while you are sitting at the gambling table, people become completely different. I love Gripsed Poker Training channel very much. This is great that the service focuses not only on the actual process of the game, but also considers such important points as lifestyle and psychology of the player. Video organically connects the theory and practice of playing poker, which allows both newbies to master the game, and professionals to develop their skills.

I completely disagree with you. To my mind, there is nothing common between bluffing and cheating. I suppose, that every online pro and the majority of amateurs are totally against getting advantage by any way, which doesn't belong to a technical part of the game or reading live-tells. How can you know if these players are related to America's Cardroom or their staff or not? In this case, I consider the situation to be a fraud, if it isn't so, it's also pity that so big and well-named room has such shameful bugs in their software. I think, this method of getting advantage isn't connected to a poker skill and the main question is how big was a role of America's Cardroom in the story?

Poker is all about cheating but one must make sure that he does not get caught while doing so. A poker player needs to cheat his opponents in order to win. That is the trick of the game. If the guy was really able to fool many people around and name victory, he must be a good bluffer and smart out others at understanding the mind and nature of human beings. This is the only gambling game that is fun and deserves some time.

Thanks for this guide and information, I have never played poker because of the lack of knowledge on strategy and even basic knowledge.  I am thankful that you had breakdown information about playing poker and strategy to use when playing against a certain guy.  Again thank you for this wonderful information.

Lol.  Joe Ingram looks like he's having a mental break down in this vid. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHP2F9auRco

Now this is impressive work by him.  America's Cardroom explosed one of the Winning Poker skins of cheating.  Watch it.  Good job by ACR and Joe Ingram.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhNANPYPsX8

Nice one, thanks, the information is added in the OP

That was what I was told, he's been scouring the internet to find a VPS with at least 500GB of RAM just for the computations of the software. Not even sure if that was available anywhere. I'll probably do some more research on it, since it's quite interesting. I'm not very much a poker player as I don't really employ any form of knowledge. I just play for fun on free stuff. Probably with these information I could improve my game.

great thread by the way , info and details about poker or any other type of gambling are always welcome here
I would recommend listing Gripsed youtube channel , it's so far one of the largest free resources in youtube where you can find almost everything related to poker starting from mindset to some big tournies hands review

the channel isn't that active these days but the old videos are up and they are useful

Thanks a lot, the link is added in OP. I am sure it will be really valuable for beginners and maybe for some others too. If this guy doesn't lie about creating the blog in 2007, his passion deserves a great respect)


You mean this video, right?

That's already a pretty impressive list, but there's one resource missing that I've personally been using extensively over the past couple of years.
http://www.thepokerbank.com/ -- It's a website that teaches you all of the basic concepts, as well as some advanced ones. It's completely free.

I think that most players must have seen this website at some point, because they top the Google results for some popular queries

Any suggestions for where we can play poker with BTC that's safe from collusion and bots?  I think BTC poker sites will especially be infested by bots and collusion since they don't require documents.

Go to joeingram1's channel as suggested above.  Look for the video about bots.  I won't say which poker site he outed, but you see their rep here in the gambling section. 

I've read a lot about it but never worked with such programs.

If I understand it correctly, the theory is based on simulating a zero-sum game situation. This is important in improving comprehension of how to exploit your opponent's mistakes and making your own strategy less exploited when you play against top players. It's really complicated software and experienced players, who are strong in poker maths advice not to use it without a full understanding of what and where to implement.

Two most popular GTO programs for NL Holdem today are SimplePostflop and PioSolver. As I wrote, I've never worked with it, but I heard that the biggest coaching and staking teams, like bitB, FunFarm, StealPhoenix and SmartSpin rent servers entirely for calculation in SP and Pio.

Nice compilation OP.

About the topic of poker, a friend of mine is in the business of employing good poker players and giving them bankroll to play and he mentioned something about Game Theory Optimal. He was describing it as a software but I heard of this theory in my business class. So I am not sure what it is. He goes on to saying that he needs an extremely large cloud computer to handle the computations since the software needs a lot of RAM to be able to compute faster.

Are you familiar with it?

Yes, poker definitely can be a job, but for the majority of pros, it becomes tougher year after year. You can start if you don't have a large amount of money, but be ready to work hard.


The game is based on luck on a short distance and based on skill on a long distance. The more you play, the more chances you have to reach your EV. Nevertheless, it's very important to remember about a big number of skillful players, who can't do it because of getting unlucky time after time in important moments.

As for the luck rate, it fully depends on the kind of game you play. For example, PLO is an extremely unstable game with large streaks up and down, but it is exactly what opens a wide range of ways to get an advantage over your opponents. Similar situation for multi-table tournaments. Tournaments with massive fields depend on luck much more than small ones, but if you are experienced in playing late stage, it can give you a big advantage over less experienced players.


It's one of the biggest problems for modern online poker. The USA was banned 7 years ago, somewhere about that France, Italy and Spain were also excluded from the common pool. Nearly a month ago Pokerstars finally opened Pokerstars.es platform, where Spanish and French players can play with others, but this site is still independent from .com and there is much less number of players and not so wide range of games available here. However, it was one of the best news for online poker for many years.

I give you 1 merit for sharing and curating important information about poker. At the moment, as much as I want to learn it, I fight that emotion as I really want to be gambling free and just focus on my important projects but yes, this comes handy to those people who are having lots of time and is considering to make playing poker a living.

Most of us doesnt believe about making gambling as a job but there are players who can able to do such thing,towards on the thing you are asking on here it is really possible that someone can able to do such thing where they do play on daily basis on making out money which can be compared as a job.It do sounds unbelievable but it is possible.

Luck rate of the game?Most of the time it would be random on how knowledgeable and skillful you are when it comes on card handling which you can able to utilize your winning percentage depending on how you do handle it.Luck will be always for a complete recipe but when it comes to game it would not be a major thing.

This is a very good and useful stuff for newbie people who do start to learn up poker.

Very informative!
I have a question for you, as a formal poker player, do you believe that you can actually be a poker player as a job if you don't have a large amount of money to start with?
I mean, I know you can earn tickets through satelites, but isn't the game is about 60-65 % based on luck?
What do you think that is the luck rate of the game?
Quite interested to know as poker is illegal on some countries because it is being counted as a luck based game and not as a skill based game.

You are right. Beginners are also welcome for discussion for sure. I added another little section in the first post with some educational sites.

I think it is useful as a general info. For someone beginning from 0 I think it is better to start with an OR table and value betting, but not yet using Poker Tracker or Holdem Manager.

I would like to help as well.

Hi all.

I have been playing poker for 9 years and still love the game very much. However, today I don't have enough time to play, so I need some other ways to maintain my skill in this fastly developing poker world. As far as I know, there is a big amount of ex or current poker players of different level here, so it would be great, if we start a topic to ask for any kind of related advice, sharing useful material of how to improve your game and general discussions about the latest news.

To begin with, I would like to share a list of different stuff, which I still consider to be great despite reducing of poker role in my life (no referral links)
If you want me to add anything, feel free to write about it in the topic.

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Educational resources

1. For beginners.
1.1. PokerStrategy
1.2. PokerStarsSchool

2. RunItOnce
An educational site by Phil Galfond - PLO legend, who has been one of the most dangerous high stakes regulars for many years.

3. UpswingPoker
Training courses by Doug Polk and other top players.

4. ThePokerBank (Thanks for user eternalgloom, who provided the link here)
A very nice site/blog by a passionate guy, who claims to have started it in 2007. It can be really valuable for beginners, but I think others may also find here something useful.

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Useful soft

1.1. Holdem Manager. (You can get it free by finishing the official promo on HM website)
1.2. PokerTracker.
The most popular programs to collect statistics and output it in HUD on a table.

2. Flopzilla.
The best program to improve understanding of ranges.

3. CardRunnersEV.
Calculation of EV in Holdem with very easy and practical interface.

4.1. ICMIZER
4.2. HoldemResources
4.3. SimpleNash (free, but less functional)
ICM and push-or-fold calculators

5. StackAndTile
Very simple, but useful soft to make multi-tabling easier.

6. GTO software
6.1. PioSolver
6.2. SimplePostflop
Little discussion about GTO here

7. StarsHelper (Thanks for user crydevil_crypto, who reminded me about it here)
Great and fast program for comfortable playing at Pokerstars. It will take a lot of time and text to name all its functions, so if you are interested, visit the link above.

8. StarsCaption (Thanks for user crydevil_crypto, who reminded me about it here)
Has a lot in common with StarsHelper, but less functional and more simple.

9. 888Caption
Same, as StarsCaption, but for 888.

10. PartyCaption
Same, as StarsCaption and 888Caption, but for PartyPoker.

11. Jivaro (Thanks for user crydevil_crypto, who reminded me about it here)
Outputting stats on your opponents and information about current sessions on the table for PokerStars. Doesn't need an installation of any databases, like HM and PT.

12. Hand2Note
Much more powerful than HM and PT stats collecting and outputting soft. I've never used it, so it will be better if you read about all its advantages in the guide on the website.

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Stacking and coaching teams

1. bitB Stacking (MTT team founded by Patrick Leonard aka "Pleno1", "pads1161")
2. FunFarm (The biggest Russian MTT team)
3. SmartSpin (Spin&Go team)
4. StealPhoenix (The best Russian Spin&Go team)

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Tracking online results

1. SharkScope
The best site to check statistic of online MTT and Sit&Go with a great number of filters, ratings, and leaderboards

2. OfficialPokerRankings
Another convenient resource, where you can find player's results in 36+ players tournament on PokerStars, PartyPoker, FullTilt, and Carbon.

3. Whotfru
Checking results in online cash games. Registration is available only with an invite from another user (I don't have such invites because I play online cash very rarely)

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Interesting web pages connected to poker

1. TwoPlusTwo
Legendary forum, where you can find nearly everything you want about poker

2. Gipsyteam
The biggest Russian poker site, where I lost a big part of my youth.

3. Doug Polk Poker
To my mind, the best poker vlog in the net. If you are keen on poker, there is no need to tell, who is Doug Polk. His videos are as great as his high stakes results. Moreover, he also has a channel about crypto.

4. joeingram1
Another nice channel with a ton of extremely interesting interviews. Joe has already invited such well-known poker personalities as Phil Galfond, Mike McDonald, Bill Perkins and many many others.

5. Dusk Till Dawn
Broadcasts of PartyPoker live events.

6. Pokerstars Youtube channel
A big number of various videos including broadcasts from PokerStars live events.

7. PokerShares
Investing in famous players by buying shares. Founded by Mike McDonald and his friends.

8. Gripsed Poker Training (Thanks for user SyGambler, who provided the link here)
A nine years old youtube channel. It consists of streams, reviews, manuals for poker soft and different basic concepts, which may be very helpful for beginners.

9. TheHendonMob
A database of live tournaments results and schedules

10.1. Pokerdope cash game variance calculator
10.2. Pokerdope tournament variance calculator
A great tool to calculate probability of up streaks and down streaks of different length

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P.S. I have few hands, which I would like to analyze, and some topics I want to discuss. However, I think it would better other users to choose opening theme here. Waiting for the feedback