April 1st, 2011 / No Comments » / by Grundy
Brian Brushwood of the popular Scam School podcast just released a scam involving our favorite game. If you can endure a GoDaddy ad, the video below will show you how to win the day with a guaranteed (marginally) better hand dealt three different ways. No mechanic skills required, you need only keep track of a single card.
December 31st, 2010 / No Comments » / by Grundy
Enjoy 2010′s Most Popular Posts:
Are the “Learn to Play for Free” Poker Sites Good Learning Tools?
Choosing the Right Virtual Table
Do 80% of Poker Players Really use Preformance Enhancing Drugs?
October 22nd, 2010 / 3 Comments » / by Grundy
You don’t need to visit a poker blog to know that smart phones have been the single greatest target of innovation in the past five years. The abridged recent history went something like this:
The buzz word in mobile as of late? “Apps.” There’s an app for nearly everything on iPhone, some of which I have reviewed. The only apps missing are those Apple has arbitrary laws against. One such law? No gambling. That’s why I have the Nevada of mobile operating systems; Android has no laws. And finally, it’s paid off.
Full Tilt Poker now has a beta version of its poker software on mobile. Strangely enough, it isn’t an app in the traditional sense. It is a web app. Unfortunately for Apple fan-boys, it is a no-go on the iPhone because it relies on the Steve-Jobs-denied Adobe Flash.
The Full Tilt experience runs as while as any poker game available in the Android Marketplace, which is to say, very well. The controls and customization are considerably stripped down from the PC version. The only missing component to the game play is chat, but really I can’t complain. I know one other Texas Hold’em game for Android that supports chat and sharing the limited screen real estate make the risk of missing the action too high now that actual cash is on the line. Besides, the action moves far too quickly in that the only game supported is Rush Poker. This also is hard to find fault. I doubt I would settle down for an hour or more session on my phone, even if battery life wasn’t a more ominous threat than Phil Ivey joining the table. No, this app was meant to fill time while out and about. For a serious game, the PC is still your ticket.
What would I change? Down the line I’d like more games supported, and yes, even the long-term games. It would be awesome to play an hour plus tournament on my PC, decide I have to take off and continue the endgame on my cell. That’s what I call freedom. Thinking even more outside the box, I’d like a warning before starting a game in a sketchy data zone. Dropping a call is nothing compared to dropping a game. It would also be pretty slick to replace chat with voice chat. However, I know that’s pie -in-he-sky for now considering FTP would have to revamp their whole system, both mobile and desktop for that to happen.
Overall, I’m hellahappy. If you want to try and get in on the beta, your best bet is to private message FTPSean over on the Two Plus Two forums with your Full Tilt handle and device. That is, if your device is one of these:
Acer Liquid Stream S110
HTC Desire
HTC Droid Incredible
HTC Evo 4G
HTC Google Nexus One
HTC Desire HD
Motorola Droid 2
Motorola Droid Pro / Droid 2 World Edition
Motorola Droid X
T-Mobile G2
Get it? Go it? No? Then… demo.
August 29th, 2010 / No Comments » / by Grundy
Five card regret is a variation of five card draw allowing for self-deprecation. There are three rounds of betting. The first is after five cards are dealt to each player. The second is after the players have the opportunity to exchange up to three of their original cards for new ones. The final opportunity to wager is after a card is drawn from the deck making the three like cards wild.
The regret is when you realize your discard has become wild, which seems to happen at a rate that far exceeds its statistical probability.
Game tip: Knowing the future holds a few wilds, regardless of what they are, consider drawing to bigger hands than usual. Three of a kind may no hold up in this showdown, draw to a flush or a full house.
Five Card Regret isn’t the most inventive came in the world, or the most fair. But as with all my blogger’s choice hands, it breaks up the monotony of constant hold’em. It may not help your bankroll, but it may improve your humor.
August 16th, 2010 / 2 Comments » / by Grundy
There’s a ton of online literature on poker bankroll building that will guide you on how to build a poker bankroll from scratch, increase your bankroll to allow you to play at higher limits and teach you how to avoid spewing your roll in a spell of monkey tilt. I could have gone down the same road in this article but instead I wanted to explore if the discipline of poker bankroll building is worth the effort.
Before I get started I thought I would give a short introduction to the blog I run. The Poker Bankroll Blog is an online poker article database with articles on every aspect of poker. I’ve written many of the articles myself, but also get contributions from guest authors who want to share their view on poker. My blog has been online for a couple of years now which has resulted in roughly 400 poker articles. I hope to hit 1000 when I reach my 5 year anniversary.
Enough about my blog, let’s return to poker bankroll building. In my opinion there are basically two primary upsides to dedicating your time and effort to building a poker bankroll. One is the satisfaction and sense of achievement of building something from scratch. Secondly, once you have proven to yourself that you have the discipline to maintain your bankroll and the capabilities to become a winning player at specific levels there a never ending series of challenges to be found in moving up in levels.
Usually when there’s an upside, there’s also a downside and in my opinion the biggest downside to any poker bankroll building project is the grind. In order to maximize your chance of success you need to grind it out at levels which are within proper bankroll management. In his famous 0-10000 dollar challenge, Chris Ferguson took 7 months to reach a bankroll of 6.5 dollars. There’s the slim chance you’ll build a bankroll with lightning speed like November 9 finalist John Racener. His mom gave him an initial deposit of 50 dollars which he turned into 30000 dollars in 6 months. He then decided to give the Poker Stars Sunday Million a try and won it in his first attempt. Now he finds himself on the final table of the World’s largest poker tournament with the chance of winning 9 million dollars. You might as well brace yourself for the long haul at the tables whether your building a double or nothing bankroll, a No limit cash game bankroll or a tournament bankroll.
In my eyes grinding is about as exiting as counting ants on an ant hill and the sheer boredom of playing the same tables for hours on end clearly outweighs the upsides. If you ask me poker bankroll building is definitely not worth the effort. Instead I deposit a few dollars once in a while on Poker Stars or Full Tilt and take a stab at some large MTTs. Once in a while I get lucky and have some decent deep runs. If you have the motivation and discipline to get started I wish you the best of luck and have a final piece of advice for you. Do yourself the favor of learning the basics of poker mathematics as soon as possible. Some time ago I wrote an article series about poker odds, poker probabilities and EV poker which you might want to check out.
Good luck at the tables
Mark
July 3rd, 2010 / 6 Comments » / by Grundy
A number of blogs and other news outlets have reported on a Nova Southeastern University study finding that 80% of poker players use performance enhancing drugs. It is a misleading headline in many ways, not least of which in that when you think of performance enhancing drugs, you think steroids. Of course, physical strength isn’t what needs enhancing at the poker table, that is unless you need to strong arm winnings out of a deadbeat player. Looking further into the study I found just what drugs they included in their statistic.
In descending order of use, players employ caffeine, energy drinks, marijuana, alcohol, nicotine, sports drinks, and cocaine.
I think more than 80% of the people I know, poker playing or otherwise, use some combination of coffee, soft drinks, Gatorade, beer and cigarettes daily. The fact that the study is getting any press at all is a symptom of society’s desire to paint poker in a bad light. Connecting one vice, drugs, with another vice, gambling, is a win in appealing to a conservative audience.
If any of those listed drugs are “performance enhancing” it is only in that caffeine and energy drinks are helpful in keeping a player awake during long sessions. A better study would be showing the effects on how weed or alcohol affect a poker players’ results at the table. I guess that they would mellow out an overly aggressive player, but I don’t know because NSU opted not to perform an actually useful study.
To be fair to NSU, most of my rant is directed toward the echo chamber reporting the 80% headline. Their study also found that 28% of players use prescription drugs while playing poker and 46% of players use dietary supplements. I find those numbers of more interest, but when it comes down to it, the study was just an online survey of a self-selected sample size of less than 200. Big deal.
June 21st, 2010 / 1 Comment » / by Grundy
Poker is a game of risk and reward. Using this definition I could argue that free poker isn’t really poker at all. In fact, I do argue “play money” internet poker isn’t. Freerolls are a step away in that they offer some small monetary reward and you risk wasting your time completely rather than slightly. Playing in a “poker league” hosted by your local bar is yet closer to real gambling in that you now risk your time, gas for travel, and some sliver of dignity.
Locally, I have a few options for poker leagues: Full House Poker, Any Two Cards, the Georgia Poker Club, and the Atlanta Poker Club. If you would like a formal review post of each, let me know. As I am unsure of the international popularity of these leagues, I am holding off.
Leagues are usually well organized and have a weekly following of regulars. They are free to play and charge the venue for bringing in customers. My issue with using leagues as an avenue to improve your game comes from their alternate revenue streams.
In short, if you show up to play in one of these leagues and don’t expect to spend anything, expect to be at a major chip disadvantage.
At first this bothered my sense of fair play, but it only brings the game closer to real poker. More at risk and, assuming the league uses some money to offer better prizes, more reward. I don’t blame anyone for a fair business model. However, it is important to know what you are getting into. Once you start playing “free” poker every night you may find yourself out of a lot of money. That is money you could have used playing real poker, and even if you lose, it is a better gauge of your skill level. Have fun at the bars, but when you start to get serious about your game, risk for the real rewards.
June 4th, 2010 / 3 Comments » / by Grundy
We’ve all seen the poker commercials for free poker sites over and over. They bombard us all the time. They are quite entertaining and often a bit humorous even. “Learn to Play Like the Pros” and “Find the Poker Pro in You.” Their basic message is always the same – come play with us and you can learn how to be a top notch poker player for absolutely free. It won’t cost you a thing.
Since you are reading this blog (and thank you, Grundy, for allowing me to contribute to it), you probably aren’t too worried about playing on free sites. You’ve moved past them or never played on them from the start. However, if you are like me, you also have a lot of friends asking you for advice on how they can learn to play poker or get better at it. So, the question is, are the claims of the free poker sites true? If our friends play free poker, can they become top notch poker players? Can they even become winning poker players?
I’m afraid the answer to those questions is an emphatic “Heck, no!” In fact, these sites will probably teach your friends to become losing players if they play there long enough.
Tell your friends to avoid the free poker sites at all costs. Anything they learn from them will probably be counter-productive to being a good poker player. Worst yet, and here’s the kicker, the reasons why these sites will not teach you how to become a good player are not the reasons you may think.
Many people believe “free poker” is bad for you because players play differently if money is not involved. We’ve all seen a player comment, “I wouldn’t have done that for real money.” Don’t believe them – they would have done that for real money and they have probably done it for real money. (Similarly, I wish I had a nickel for every time somebody published a poker hand in a forum and prefaced it by saying “I don’t normally raise here, but …” Yeah, right…tell me another one.)
The truth is that you can find all kinds of players when playing free poker, and most of them are competitive enough to legitimately try to win the “play chips.” The reason to be afraid of playing for play chips isn’t that people are not trying to win; it’s that they don’t know how to win.
Not only that, but the few players on these play sites who are decent players are drowned out by the poor players who readily throw around their bad advice (and criticisms). Let’s take a look at some of the comments I’ve seen on free poker sites recently and explore why they are so dangerous.
Overall, free poker sites are just not what they are cracked up to be. You’ll get bad advice, see players trying to remove judgment from their decisions, see players ignore poker odds, and fail to take responsibility for their own incompetence instead of trying to better themselves through self-analysis.
If you want to give a friend a good start in learning how to play poker, I’d suggest buying them a good poker book or two, and then taking their money in some good home games. They’ll learn more and you’ll profit (for awhile, anyway).
This has been a post by amateur poker journalist Ken Carlson. If you like the article, please let him know in the comments.
May 6th, 2010 / 2 Comments » / by Grundy
For those of you that want acting to be your source of income, I recommend Hollywood. At the table I forgo deceptive acting for a good poker face. I know two things. One, I’m not that great of an actor; and two, people overestimate their acting prowess. In other words, you are not as good as you think you are and I’m even worse then my poor estimation.
That said, there is one time that I do recommend pushing your table image with a little theater–after a lost pot, especially when a bad beat is involved.
There you are processing your loss. You have the strength of will to accept it and move on. That is awesome, you are a good poker player, but lets not let an opportunity pass you by. Say your next hand is strong–a pocket pair or big slick. Bet big like you are on tilt, because the table expects you to be on tilt. Act like you are throwing caution to the wind with a touch of “poor me.” You will likely get a call from a sub-par hand and be in position to take them for a ride to the river if in fact you are confident that you still hold the winning hand.
For me, this act means even more. After a bad beat, I am on tilt. It’s only natural. I’m not full tilt, but I am still stewing. After all, the poker gods have forsaken me. When I act as though I am further along the road to tiltsville than I am, I usually right my course. I focus on the role that I’m playing rather than focusing on the last hand. By acting on tilt, I am no longer on tilt.
Give this strategy a try. In fact, make it a point to play the next hand after a bad beat as long as the position advantage is on your side. The state of your image may well earn you better implied odds when the betting starts.
Warning: If you are the type to easily go full tilt, do not try this. The acting will only be fooling yourself.
April 16th, 2010 / 3 Comments » / by Grundy
The following is a shared article with my new poker site iSmellPoker.com Enjoy!
It’s 2010. We really should be on some kind of space odyssey. Hell, we should be on the sequel. I am willing to accept that I still don’t have a flying car or a robot butler, but do I have to accept playing cards with the same dead trees we’ve had since Gutenberg? Actually, no, I don’t. There are two innovations currently on the rise that allow players to holster their decks in favor of touch-screeny goodness–the Apple iPad and the Microsoft Surface.
First, a word on the iPad. To me, the main draw is the interface. The iPhone made navigating cell phone features not just easy, but fun; the iPad does the same for laptops. There is something exciting about not using a mouse and traditional keyboard to browse the web and interact with apps. It’s new, it’s shiny, I want one. One of Apple’s first apps for the iPhone was a Texas Hold’em game, so I have no doubts that a poker game will be available for the iPad soon if they aren’t already. I am confident it will be fun, on-line enabled and, unfortunately, “play money”. In other words, no matter how slick the design, I won’t be playing more than a couple games before returning to Full Tilt and the like.
Apple’s app store is a walled-garden as they say in the tech world. This means corporate has to approve every app before the unwashed masses gets their grubby little hands on it. Full Tilt has little incentive to make an app for the App Store because it will either be denied or lack real-money play.
So why do I even bring up the iPad? Because it is the shape of things to come. “Me-too” tablet computers with follow Apple’s lead. If history has taught us anything, these new tablets will be less elegant yet more open than Apple. Imagine Full Tilt ported to a touch-screen tablet running a Google Android or Chrome OS? Sign me up!
The Microsoft Surface’s gambling application is already apparent. The consumer electronic blog Engadget has already featured a video of the Surface running a poker table. Picture a Surface at your local casino. You place your drink on the table and it lets the bar know when you need a refill. You place your credit card on the table and the transaction provides you as many digital chips and you’d like. Your cell phone pairs with the table over bluetooth or Wi-Fi and displays your hole cards. The touch screen recognizes all the gestures you already know. Tap the table to check in poker or hit in blackjack. Swipe your cards forward to fold. Drag your chips into the pot as if they were real. Who needs a dealer?
Of course, we may want a dealer. I doubt casinos will ever run their whole operation as a Microsoft Surface farm, but it would be a great supplemental option. Expect to see them soon. The future is now.
Grundy's goal is to build the better poker person. Thanks for visiting Hell's Cold Day, I'm Grundy. I've been playing cards since 2000 and have raised in stakes just short of considering myself a "pro," profiting (mostly) the whole way. I am happy where I am, even though I believe in my heart of hearts I could rely solely on poker for a living. Why not? That is a personal choice you may find in the posts to the right. Enjoy the journey, I hope I can help along the way.
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