Texas Calculatem and Poker Office Blog

I'm off on holiday for the next few days and won't be playing Poker.

In the mean time, readers can learn more about the game by perusing some articles, written by Dave Colclough, that I have posted here courtesy of bet365 poker.

I have been working on a new way of using Calculatem post flop. This is because the standard advice doesn't work too well.

My current startegy is documented here.

This guy is thinking of writing a Poker Bot. It might be worth following his blog:

http://sirfwalgman.blogspot.com/2004/10/rise-of-bots.html

I just played another session using the Calculatem strategy discussed below.

At the beginning of the session the strategy won some hands through showdowns and forcing opponents into folding. It then got ground down by blinds, and did a little call stationing. The calling was probably OK, though, as the odds (as estimated by Calculatem) were in my favour.

Got bummed playing another live poker game. This is not good! The game was a No Limit Hold 'Em tournament. My problems were:

a - the tight strategy I employed just got killed by the blinds
b - I don't know how to bet/raise correctly as I've been studying limit poker

I'm not too sure what the correct solution is. The most tempting answer is probably to just stick to the limit cash games that I'm doing on the Internet as it's what I've been learning and will always be there for me to take a few bucks from when I get good.

I played around with Calculatem's deck window and tried out a few test hands. It has serious issues counting outs and that could be why it's post flop advice is so poor.

However, one statistic that I've been neglecting to use is the "odds to win" (OTW) estimate. From what I gather, the OTW estimate is generated using a Monte Carlo simulation. It could therefore be more accurate than the rest of the advice. Therefore, I tried out creating some rules for post-flop play using Calculatem and followed them for a 1.5 hour session. I was successful, but such a short session does not provide me with a significant result as to the validity of the system.

Anyway, these are the rules that I tried and that I will be using in the near future:

pre-flop

(Settings as in the current user guide)

- If the signal is "check/fold" then check or fold.
- If the signal is "call unraised" then bet/call unraised.
- Otherwise raise one bet
- Only re-raise if Calculatem recommends a re-raise.

Flop, Turn and River play

These condition could overlap. If they do then choose the item that is highest on the list.

- If bet odds (# players other than yourself) >= 2 * OTW then bet/raise.
- If pot odds >= 2 * OTW then bet/call.
- If pot odds >= OTW then check/call.

Only re-raise if Calculatem recommends a re-raise.

I played a live no limit cash game the other day and was down. The problem was that the strategies I've been studying lately have been for limit hold'em and weren't particularly applicable to the no limit game.

However, my low limit game is doing well at Ladbrokes Poker. I've been reading Small Stakes Hold 'em: Winning Big with Expert Play for the second time and have been trying out some of the author's ideas.

I'm still keeping to low $0.25/$0.50 games as this allows me to apply the correct strategies without the emotional difficulties of potentially losing lots of money.

Empire Poker gave me $10 free as I haven't played with them for a while. There's a 300 hand wager requirement before I can withdraw, but I rose to the challenge, and using a newly upgraded version of Poker Office made a whopping $6.25.

The major new features of the new Poker Office version are overlaid pieces of information on top of the poker table. This makes it easy to instantly read vital information. Specifically, the following are all displayed next to players on the actual Poker room table.

- Player Style icons
- Player statistics (e.g. "SawFlop %")
- Player histories

Also, current pot odds for the hand are displayed, saving novices valuable thinking time.