Texas Calculatem and Poker Office Blog

Read some interesting posts on GaryC's and Acorn's blogs about advertising. Both of them seem to like using ads. But apparently there's been a bit of a backlash.

I'm not too sure why visitors would have such strong views against marketting. Blogging takes time. And time is money. Some bloggers, such as myself, host their blogs on their own servers. That costs a few bucks to run every year. One of my colleagues is severely against internet advertising. I showed him my blog once and he spent two weeks telling me that Internet Poker is a waste of time and that this blog does nothing to the internet. The fact that it's a good communication tool for conversing with the friends I've made playing Poker seems irrelevant to him. Though the irony is, that though he works for a trading firm, he doesn't understand that his salary comes from a bunch of guys who stare at computers all day pressing buttons.

Moving back to advertising here... Well, as the other bloggers say, these blogs are our property and we can do what we like. And if I use this blog to support the entrepreneurial activities of myself or my associates, well, I'm going to do it regardless. The only thing that slightly worries me, though, is that I might be making this blog a bit hard on my regular readers by interspersing random content with commercial content with poker content. I might start pre-fixing my titles in the future to make things easier.

COM - for commercial content
RANT - for random rants
POKER - for Poker related chat

Regular readers will therefore be able to easily ignore the COM posts. While the new guys who come from the search engines will have no idea what I'm on about and read them anyway.

I could also make the blog a bit tidier, as it's one of the ugliest blogs out there. But making it nice would be hard work. And there have been discussions on digital point forums that recon that "ugly" sites are more profitabe. SMT SMT.

N.B. The advertising procedes from this blog have been used to make the world a better place. The following list details some of the things I have done using my advertising cash.

- sponsored two cats.
- sponsored one dog.
- donated to some kids charity (I've forgotten the name)
- bought a few chew toys for Nacho, Acorn's dog.
- bought Juice a webcam for Christmas
- bankrolled Juice's $500 NL challenge
- bought a friend a rape alarm before her secret internet date
- bought a friend some female pheromones to help her seduce a prince.

My big shot trader mate came to visit last night. He gets to put down big size and has done well.

Like all traders, he's after even more dosh than he's got, so I showed him my Poker Strategy using Texas Calculatem and Poker Office 2. He thought Texas Calculatem was a bit crap but was astounded by the tracking abilities of Poker Office 2.

Was asking an idependent trader about his Vegas trip last night. He said he didn't gamble much at Vegas as it's too similar to trading. I guess he's right in a way and maybe that's why I get so impatient with online Poker - I need to get other things into my mind!

Tried cooking a lamb steak for dinner tonight. It was not a success and I think I ruined my le creuset griddle pan. Need to season it properly I think. This site has some instructions about how to season a griddle pan.

I was reading this interesting story on poker bots and wondered why Poker rooms ban bots? Plenty of confident players would be happy to play against them as they'd move faster and (potentially) act more predictably.

Personally, I'd like to write a limit poker bot, just to see if it could beat the game. Perhaps the Poker Rooms could allow bots, but force them to identify themselves as bots (via avatars and/or aliases such as "BOT:The Edge") to other players. This way, players would only play against bots if they were happy with it. Poker rooms could also limit Poker bots to certain rooms, and possibly limit the number of bots that can sit down at a single table.

I'd be interested to know what other bloggers think of this. I remember reading something on Sirfwalgman's blog about a Poker bot project but don't know how far he got with it.

Yet again I was chatting to J on MSN. Yet again I was weak and sat down at a NL table. A place at which I always lose. Yet again I lost my buy in. Why do I keep on wasting my fucking time playing NL!!!????

Even worse, J is thinking of giving up his $500 challenge.

Went to visit Mad Josie for her birthday this weekend. She lives in Canterbury and is one of the luckiest girls in the world, being happily married to an up and coming MP who supports her while she tries to launch a writing career. We started the evening with a visit to Cafe Rouge. I had the Deep Fried Camembert for starters and Steak Frites for main course. The camebert was great. A nice solid outer layer with melted cheese inside.

After the meal we went to a casino. They didn't have Texas Holdem so I tried the Black Jack card counting system described in Bringing down the house". Unfortunately I have not been practising the skills and found it hard keeping up with the count. Eventually (I think) the count hit 6. So instead of flat betting £2 I bet £10. As expected I got two high cards that totalled 20. Pretty damn good I thought. The dealer had a 7 so I didn't split. However, the dealer somehow managed to hit 21. Nasty. I was pretty pissed off and decided to call it a night. There are easier ways to make money than professional gambling.

This morning I climbed out of bed at some point in the morning, having lost 1 hour due to this silly daylight saving thing. Just lounged around Josie's flat and got whipped by the husband at Streetfighter 2. The old games are often better than the new ones. My bro has Ridge Racer and Perfect Dark for the new xbox 360 but I think they're crap. Afterall, I'm sitting here blogging instead of playing them. Also had a nice chat with Josie to catch up on things. It's nice to see the different perspectives people have in life. Josie wants to have kids, write books and help people (she works part time as a carer). Her husband wants to help people through political work. It makes me feel a bit small to be nothing but a city trader looking to retire by 30. However, there's a ying and yang in all things, and Josie seemed to feel a bit guilty about possibly taking more (finanically) than giving to the country. But in the future this up and coming couple are bound to do lots of good things. As an example, one of her book projects is about a friendship between children of different religions. This could be a big help, considering all the problems in the world today, and is also very brave as a misinterpreted phrase could easily lead to unfortunate consequences. Anyway, I don't think either of us should feel too bad about our situations in life. There are plenty of people who really take the piss and make me wonder if the country's generous benefits system do nothing but damage the human gene pool.

Oh dear. Just realised it's Mothers' Day today. I hate all this stupid commercial shit. It's just a desperate attempt by crappy card shops to sell intrinsically worthless pieces of cardboard. Why should a stranger dictate when I'm supposed to be nice to my mother? How many of the lazy cunts have ever bought their mothers a nice car, instead of a pointless card or bouquet of flowers that may smell nice but will be gone in a week? I need to cook dinner now so I'll stop ranting.

I went to my 2nd Thai Boxing class today. Made two big mistakes:

- I ate a big fish and chips beforehand.
- I did not trim my toe nails first.

The first mistake made me feel sick. The 2nd mistake meant that my toes hurt everytime the skipping rope smashed into my delicate feet.

On to the class... The teacher was only 27, but knew his shit and was great at motivating the massive class of 4 people. His kicks were very hard, even when he wasn't trying, and my noticing that only shows how weak I've become. SMT SMT.

I feel really sick now, but the Accountant and myself decided we should try to go atleast once a week to keep in shape. There was a student there who was really hardcore and trained 3 times a week. He said the uni clubs weren't tough enough for him and he just wanted the real deal. What a nutter.

After class the Accountant popped round to stare at my new TV. It's big, flat and LCD. But otherwise it just plays moving pictures. We tried some Xbox 360 games but thought they were both a bit crap. I guess we're just getting too old and mercenary for games. So we started watching The Incredibles. That looked pretty sweet on a larger screen. But not really a techy geek and therefore can't provide a good review.

My current Poker TODO list contains playing more Noble Poker and writing a Poker Office 2 review. I'll try to do it on Sunday evening. Am off to Canterbury for a friend's birthday this weekend. I am very jealous of her as she does not work and has a husband to support her. I really wish I could retire.

It's nearly the end of the month. I haven't put that many hours into Texas Calculatem or Poker Office, but I did worship in Vegas earlier on and have put in some solid limit play at Noble Poker over the last week.

However, taking stock of things, I think I might be destined for a scorching demise... The reason is that a Christian preacher friend said that I should do something to "help other people". However, this is what I have done this month...

- got back from my Las Vegas trip, where I gambled lots of money.
- bought a big TV.
- bought female pheromones for a mate so she can woo a rich person.
- invested $500 in Juice's Poker.
- bought a rape alarm for a mate who was going on a date, having met someone on that Trader Dater website (I introduced her to it).
- got free copies of Holdem Genius and Poker Office 2.

So to summarise, I have mostly spent my slush funds on trivial pursuits

The only person I've helped is Juice, but some would say that I've just encouraged him to gamble more. Whether or not that is a good thing is a moot point. I met Miss W for dinner last night and told her of Juice's good progress. Her reaction ranged from total disinterest to disapproval. She didn't seem to understand that I'm doing my best to help a friend support himself.

My bro has described my web enterprises as amoral. I'm not sure if I agree, personally believing that they're morally neutral. But having said that, if I'm totally honest I really have no interested whether or not any of them serve the greater good. As far as I'm aware I don't harm anyone, and the people who pay me are getting exactly what they're paying me for. I'm not a criminal, a lying politician, a cheating estate agent, or a salesman from a "sub prime" loan provider.

Is gambling a sin?

Introduction

HoldEm Genius is an automatic Poker calculator, similar to Texas Calculatem, that reads cards from online Poker Rooms, calculates odds, and presents advice to the user.

It can currently be acquired free from holdemgenius.com for users who open new accounts with Pacific Poker, PokerRoom.com or Party Poker.

First Impressions

The download and installation of Holdem Genius was straightforward. Upon first running the application I got a small box, similar to that of Texas Calculatem. It also has a similar "attach" function.

However, once the application is attached to a game, it overlays the advice bar on top of the table and has a menu bar that automatically tracks the top location of the Poker table. This is very nice. As the centred advice window makes the game less frantic when multi tabling.

Heading to the "Playing Style" menu presents a set of options similar to that of Texas Calculatem. The "Option" menu, however, presents a smaller set of odds display settings. This is only a superficial ommitance and will not affect most users.

Usage Comments

For my Holdem Genius review, I sat down at two Noble Poker $0.25/$0.50 tables, playing for two hours straight. Poker Office 2 identified these tables as loose-passive, and I won $3.10 over the course of play. That equates to 1.5 BB per hour of table play. Good players can expect to make 2-3BB. So a calculator making 1.5BB on its first attempt is an excellent effort.

There is also an excellent pot odds calculation, that will advise the user to call if the pot odds suggest that calling to draw a stronger hand would be profitable. This feature is not present in some rival pieces of software.

However, despite proving its ability to beat the micro limit game, there were occasional questionable pieces of advice given. I make this judgement based on my study of the ubiquitous Bible of Low Limit Holdem - Small Stakes Holdem: Winning Big with Expert Play. As examples...

- Many experts will recommend following a pre-flop raise with an automatic bet on the flop. Holdem Genius does not do this. And can therefore be regarded as a little weak / passive.

- It's a little too weak with certain pre-flop hands. As an example, it does not recommend a re-raise pre flop with QQ.

- Some of the advice changes between the flop and turn don't seem to fit. For example... I was dealt 88 pre-flop and called as recommended. The flop came JJ7. Holdem Genius recommended a call. The next card was a 3. Holdem Genius recommended a fold. This felt strange to me. The advice felt as if Holdem Genius was drawing to a bigger hand, missed and then folded. But the only cards to improve would be the two remaining 8's. That's 26:1. And was therefore a poor call. I would have either preferred to fold (most of the time), or raise if I felt that the opponent was bluffing.

Conclusion

Despite making a few bizarrer recommendations, Holdem Genius helped me win some money and could definitely help new players improve their game. However, I'd recommend users to learn the game properly as well, as some of the advice can be a bit questionable.

Get your own free copy of Holdem Genius

If you'd like to try out your own free copy of Holdem Genius, please click here.

Was looking through the traffic logs of my site and found this comedy review from one of my Amazon pages:

"I hate these Bratz dolls. I know I will never buy any of Bratz dolls for my child. I think it's a shame that these Bratz twins dressed like sluts. Parents out there, please don't buy these dolls for your child because they may teach your child to dress like a slut. Buy other dolls for your child's sake. " Source page

As suggested by Rose, I tried a Limit Poker tourney at Laddies today. It was only a $2.00+$0.30 buy in. 5 players. Top two places play.

I'll have to admit I made a few mistakes. But that comes with not worshipping the Gods. I'll also have to admit that I was also inspired by the Play Poker Like The Pros book that J got me for my birthday. It has a section on Limit Poker tournies that recommends very tight play early on. And lots of aggressive steals on the bubble when the opposition opens up. I feel I was a little too aggressive early on. As the players were call stations and I was betting into them with nothing. However, I later redeemed myself and came 2nd of 5. Making a healthy profit of $0.70.

Hit a record day in my web ventures today. My earnings for today have exceeded my entire Poker Bankroll. Good skills!

I just played at the tightest $0.50/$1.00 limit game conceivable at Noble Poker. I'd heard rumours that such tables existed during bonus whoring periods. But the other players all denied bonus whoring.

The tightness of the table can be seen in the Poker Office 2 screenshot above. Despite being tight, it was a profitable game, as steals were easy. However, the frequent folding was frustratin on many occasions. As raising pre-flop with premium hands led to folding all round, and me just picking up the blinds.

I even raised with 23s from the button. And then bet/re-raised the flop with bottom pair. A little risky. But I had a feeling the guy would fold.

I've wasted most of the evening washing up after yesterday's roast.

Managed to squeeze in a couple of hours of development work. I'm adding a friendlier content management interface to the Drupal software on my Blapper site. I've only done the bit for adding, modifying and deleting terms so far. An emtpy Travel related category can be found here.

The next step is to write some content adding functionality. That will allow me to write and add custom content. At present the site only contains affiliate based stores that are augmented with product information pulled from Amazon. It's definitely been a worthwhile exercise, and lists a massive selection of products ranging from bikinis to Julian Bowen Beds . And I'm getting over 100 visitors a day. But I feel I should give my loyal fans a little more, and will add some custom written rants about my travel experiences when the scripts are complete.

It's 10pm now. So I'm going to try squeezing in a bit more Limit Poker with Poker Office 2 before I go to bed.

Everyone knows that bouncers are nothing but hired thugs out to intimidate fellow males and eye up a bit of skirt. So I felt disgust, but no surprise, when I heard that friend had been man handled by bouncers from one of London's exclusive clubs. Here's his story:

I was in a place called P***** in Stamford Bridge celebrating the Irish Victory. I was slightly drunk, but was in no way abusive. I was just stumbling along when next thing I know I'm frog marched out, arm behind back with wrist in stress position. At all times I was civil and polite. Such treatment was very unnecessary. When I was thrown out on Saturday they were far more polite.

Especially annoying on Friday was the fact that I had to pay 15 quid to get in. However one of the guys I was with got stung for 5,500 quid. He wanted to go to the VIP room and everybody started ordering really expensive drinks. As he was leaving the bouncers collared him and made him pay up. Ouch!

Was thrown out of Pangaea in Piccadilly on Saturday night, stumbled on the dancefloor and nose dived into a drink laden table, some nice bloodflow. However the bouncers dusted me down and arranged a taxi. So much nicer!

Hmmm... I've had to * out the name of the nasty place for fear of being sued. SMT.

My first impression of Poker Office 2 has been pretty positive. They have a few useful new features such as the ability to replay hands. This is obviously good for analysing play from prior hands. But I've done something bad to the mySQL database and it isn't working. So I'll have to create a new database next time. It's not a big deal as I should have started a new one for my Pacific Poker play anyway.

Speaking of Pacific, regular readers know that I have nothing but contempt for Pacific. The software is appalling. But so are the players and that is why I play there on occasion. I assume that the unreliable software was the reason why previous incarnations of Poker Office didn't work with Pacific Poker. But Poker Office 2 supports Pacific Poker and the results are as expected. I played for one hour on a $0.25/$0.50 table and only two players (me being one of them) saw under 40% of flops.

I'll write a full review later, but need to do Holdem Genius first. I'm going to be so busy! Next week I'm on early's Monday. Lates Tuesday, with Opticians appointment in the morning. Have a dinner with Miss W on Wednesday (Juice might be joining us). Am working lates on Thursday (waiting for big TV delivery in the morning). And am going to learn how to beat things with my bear hands on Friday. I will then visit Mad Josie over the weekend. In between all that, I'll try to write up some reviews.

I just got a copy of Poker Office 2. It feels like Christmas. Unfortunately I'm a little busier than usual next week, so it'll be a while before I get to do a good review of it.

The HoldEm Genius test went well on Friday. I played for 2 hours straight on two tables at Noble Poker. I won a massive 2 dollars and will share more information in a full review at a later date.

Despite it feeling like Christmas, I made a stupid mistake and went to The Swan in Stockwell last night. What a nasty place. We got so fed up that we left two people chasing Swedish Au Pairs in there. They weren't very chuffed. But I wanted my beauty sleep.

Anyway, I need to go help my bro cook a roast now. I'm only on the computer to quickly find a recipe for Apple Crumble.

I am feeling very ill today. Every part of my body feels a bit tender. And internally I'm shivering lots. Not a good sign. Part of the pain must be down to the unaccustomed exercise that I did on Tuesday, but I suppose I have a cold as well.

Juice has not updated his blog in a couple of days, and I've been both out of touch and desperate to see how he's doing. A quick question to Rosie on MSN suggests that he was up $80 last night. So he's up $130 overall. Nice.

The Digg campaign to make him famous doesn't seem to be progressing. Please digg Juice by clicking here.

This weekend, as well as trying to recover from my cold, I shall be going paintballing for a mate's birthday. The plan is to hit birthday boy in the back with lots of friendly fire. This is where we're going.

Noble Poker have just given me £20 for free. Even though I haven't played with them for many months. Nice!

I guess it'll be a good place to begin my intial trials of Holdem Genius.

Dear Edge,

You have been awarded a bonus amount of £20.00! The money has been added to your account. You are free to use this bonus amount to play at Noble Poker. However, if you wish to cashout the bonus, you will need to play 500 crowns within 30 days starting today.

The bonus has no restriction and is available NOW in your account.

Did you hear about our $500,000 FreeRoll? Daily qualifiers available twice a day- FOR FREE.
Register, play and win your portion of the huge prize.

Visit http://www.noblepoker.com/100m_tournament.html to learn more...

Who knows? Maybe you'll wake up with 100 Million dollars!

See you at the tables,

Edward Spencer
Manager
Noble Poker
Home of the $100M Mega FreeRoll
http://www.noblepoker.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Toll Free Number International Number
Phone: +1-866-860-1181 Phone: +6328459001

The kind chaps at Holdem Genius have provided me with a key of Holdem Genius for my planned review. I'm pretty chuffed, and looking through their list of compatible rooms, it looks as though the software is compatible with Laddies, Royal Vegas and Pacific Poker (i.e. all the poker rooms that I currently play at).

At time of writing I have yet to download the software. However, I'll definitely be giving it a go over the weekend, and will let you all know how I get on with it and how it compares to Texas Calculatem.

While surfing the web I came across an interesting site called Digg.

Users submit and vote for stories. Popular stories get put on the front page.

I therefore think we should all "Digg" Juice's $500 NL challenge.

Please follow this link to visit the Digg page, and then click the "digg" button next to the article name, to help propel Juice to Internet stardom.

My Texas Calculatem affiliate has moved to Super Poker Affiliates, and that has made me aware of a new tool called Holdem Genius. I'd like to see if Holdem Genius is any better than Texas Calculatem (which has a few aggression problems) and will try to get hold of a copy with which to do a full comparison.

For some reason, the press will often portray gambling in a negative light. I've just read this story from the BBC about a kid who failed to look after his bankroll and acquired high debts.

The story seems a bit rediculous to me. Someone has to lose at Poker. And the kids parents think it's a disease just because he didn't study properly before upping the stakes. And subsequently lost. He should have used Texas Calculatem!

Anyway, the big Poker won't let such stories hinder them, and I'm confident that the fish will continue to feed the $50 challenge.

Juice has made a good start to the $500 NL challenge and is already $50 up. Nice!

I cooked some lamb from Sainsburys today. It was labelled as Mediterrean Lamb and I just chucked it in the oven. I also did some potato wedges. These were done by microwaving the potatos with the skins on, slicing them into wedges with a knife, mixing them with salt and oil, and then frying them. They weren't too bad, accept that the inside was a bit too dense and smooth. The insides should have been soft and fluffy. I have a feeling that might have been due to the type of potato that I used. SMT.

Went to see the Optician today. He asked me when the last time I had my eyes checked was. I had no idea. And hazzarded 2 years at a guess. It's probably longer than that. However, he was not happy, and said I should look after myself better. After staring into my eyes with a bright light he also decided that I needed to see a specialist. Which means that I need to take next Tuesday morning off. Doh. After that he fitted some contact lenses for me. I'm 6.25 in my right eye, 5.5 in my left. How strange. My eyes are wonky. Just like my face. And every good English student knows that Jane Austen enjoys criticising unsymmetrical faces in her books. Anyway, it costs me £70 for the eye test and two months of daily disposable contact lenses. That should see me through my Thai Boxing and summer footy for a few months. Checked out the website for my old Muay Thai association and it's definitely the same as the new one. Not sure if the new place will insist on me doing the gradings. I won't be keen as I completed the syllabus with the Phraya Pichai camp. The new club is a different camp but is under the same big organisation. Anyway, we'll see how it goes. Today arse muscles are totally aching from the unexpected exercise. I really am unfit. My calf muscles were cramping up as my shin made contact with the kick pads. That has never happened to me before, and I assume that it's a sign of old age.

Times are tough and the markets are quiet. So I'm just doing a few bits and bobs on my website(s). Unlike Thomas Tank, I feel it would be a bit too cheeky to play Poker in the office. Will try not to play NL with the Juice tonight! But I am weak. Should really have stuck to my Texas Calculatem and Poker Office strategy. It worked but was so boring.

Anyway, I stumbled across a new pyramid linking scheme while browsing the Digital Point forums. It's a link exchange system, but you exchange one way links for one way links from other sites on the program. This means that reciprocated links should come from sites that you don't link to, and will therefore count for more with the search engines. And the pyramind bit comes from the fact that you get twice as many links as you provide.

Anyway, readers can learn more (and join) the new Pyramind Linking scheme via the following link: pyramidlinking.com.

Webmasters could also try the Digital Point Coop Ad Network. This uses PHP scripts to automatically publish adverts/links. It's more complicated than the Pyramid scheme, and is more suitable for large sites with page rank. However, I've achieved great results with it.

In the meantime, if you just want a one way link from a free directory, please try my new free directory here: http://dir.blapper.com/.

After reading Rosie's latest post I've realised that my last
post was a little crude so I *'d out a load of offensive words. Noticed that she'd been to the chemist for a bit of flirting. I've not heard of going into shops to flirt before. But maybe I'll give it a go some day. In the mean time I've set up a free online dating service on my blapper domain. You never know, it might get somewhere. Though at time of writing there are no members.

Poker was frustrating again last night. I lost a massive $8 at NL. Was only playing while chatting to J about our $500 NL challenge. Maybe I need to go to a GA session. It isn't as if my overall bankroll is negative. But I learned the skills at limit tables but keep sitting down at NL as I get bored playing limit on my own.

Maybe it's time to hang up the gloves and move on to other endeavors. But then where would my readers be? I feel I owe them lots of pointless posts about the random junk that comes into my head.

Here's another post that has absolutely nothing to do with Poker...

After a 5 year absense I returned to the world of Thai Boxing. i.e. I got off my arse, found a gym, and went for a class. The gym is new. Only openned in January. And is 15-20 minutes door to door from my Balham pad. Nice!

The coach was a nice friendly chap. A 55 year old Thai dude. Reminded me of my old coach from Coventry who used to try and wheel and deal Thai Boxing related merchandise from his car boot after class. I used to barter with him and was even made an honourary Indian for my skills. Anyway, I digress...

The other class members consisted of my accountant, a chap called Kurt, a tall Lithuanian, and the coach's primary school aged grand daughter.

Technically, the class was similar, yet different to my old Thai club. The footwork included steps. Where the footwork from my old club consisted of "shuffles" and the left leg was always in front. I'm not sure of the reason for this. Perhaps it's an older style that isn't focussed entirely on ring fighting. In ring fighting styles the student is often taught to keep one foot forward. But this requirement is not retained in non-ring fighting. As you can't really shuffle around if the floor isn't perfectly flat.

I'm tired and may write more later. In the $500 challenge, we have already been butt f**ked by Pay** for $17. I transferred $500 and we were charged $17 for the privelage.

Every Player Gets a Bonus Every Month at InterPoker!

The Acorn recommended InterPoker for Juice's $500 shot at glory. And also suggested that $500 might be too little for $100 NL, recommending $50 NL instead.

InterPoker will give players up to $90 monthly for making deposits. This is better than Party Poker's $100 as that is a one off. However, a pedantic player would compare the rakes as well.

However, at the end of the day, we are here to make money from playing Poker. Bonus whoring is much easier and faster at InterCasino, but I've given up casino gambling as web development is more interesting and less stressful.

I'm not too sure what the Juicester will decide on. The choice is his. I'm just here to help him along financially.

Click here to join InterPoker

The Juice's bankroll is stagnating and I'm afraid that he's not progressing. I am therefore going to bankroll him $500 to play $100 NL at Party Poker.

Using my bonus code he'll get a 20% bonus of $100 for his $500 deposit.

If you'd like to take advantage of the offer from Party Poker, please click here. However, I'm only bankrolling Juice for the time being as funds are a little short.

Click Here to follow Juice's punt at glory.

I was going to post a day by day account of my trip to the states. But am too lazy. So here's a quick run down of Vegas!

First day we got to our hotel room. It was the Venetian. The one with the amazing fake canal. We had dinner in a cafe in the canal section of the hotel. The ceiling is painted with clouds and serves as a light source, thus making it feel as if you're outside. God. This is too slow. Who cares.

After dinner I moved to the Flamingo Casino for some low limit Poker. Only $2-$4 limit as I haven't been putting in the hours lately. This is much higher than the $0.25/$0.50 that I've been playing at Pacific. But it's the lowest at Vegas and I didn't think I could lose.

The interesting bit of the table was the 3 drunk Canadians. It transpired that they were there for the cheap ($1.00) drinks. I'd sat down with $200, but most players were sitting down with $40. And so they couldn't really lose much if everything went pear shaped. One of the drunkards even went to the bathroom. And upon his return regaled us with tales of two (unattractive) ladies who dragged him into the bathroom, stripped off his shirt, and played with his nipples.

Anyway, that isn't what you guys are reading this for. You want to hear about me. My SSHE Poker skills. And how they performed without the aid of Texas Calculatem or Poker Office. To put it briefly, I played a super tight game. I'd frequently fold hands like AT, KT or KJ from early to mid position. As you need to hit on the flop. When I played I did so aggressively. Folding marginal hands. Raising when I was ahead. It seemed to work well enough, but I was only up about $13 at the end of the session.

The next morning entered a $50 tourney at Harrahs. As expected I played shit. Early on, someone made a raise from UTG. I had JJ. I knew from the Acorn's blog that the correct move would be to re-raise to see where I was. However, I was shitting my pants and didn't want to be knocked out early. I therefore folded. Had I kept on playing I would have hit a full house and taken down a big pot.

Later on in the tourney I played even worse. I called a 300 raise with KQs. The flop gave me two overcards and a flush draw. The opponent went all in for 600. I therefore had 2/1 pot odds. And was 2/1 to hit the flush. With 6 outs (7/1 odds) to hit an overpair. It was more or less a +EV call. However. I missed. The opponent had ATo and beat me with a high card ace. I had less than 1BB left after that. And my next hand was QQ. What could I do but go all in? Well. I did go all in. And that came up against an AK that rivered me to make a pair of kings.

So... I played badly. Should have re-raised with the JJ. And should not have been played KQs against a raiser when I was so short staked.

Anyway, after that it was the early afternoon. I went to Caesars to sulk and sat down at a $3-$6 limit table. The play was more serious from the $2-$4 at Flamingos. Either because it was too early to get lashed, or because the higher stakes made the players more serious. Anyway, the standard of play was still beatable. I presented a tight game which was definitely noticed. In one hand I raised from mid position with TT. The table shit itself and everyone folded to the table sheriff. Who laughed and said he couldn't let me steal. The flop came Kxx. The sheriff shrugged. Showing weakness. So I announced "MONSTER HAND" and bet. The sheriff folded.

On a later hand I'm not too sure how I did, though. I was dealt AQo. And raised. There was one caller. The flop came Kxx with a flush draw. I bet out automatically and was raised by a fellow Chinaman. I paused to think. Definitely a mistake. I could not really re-raise at that point. And therefore called. The turn was a King diamonds. And gave me a flush draw. Though that would not be the nuts due to the paired board. I checked and the opponent bet. There was now 5BB in the pot. So I just about had the odds to call. Though the implieds weren't great and I might have been drawing dead. ANyway, the river was not a diamond. So I folded. Doh.

I played a bit more Poker at Flamingos after that. It involved lots of folding. And wining big pots when I hit. Managed to 3 bet a turn when I had a straight which was nice. Though a scare card on the river (gave me a weak straight) forced me to check/call. I was surprised to see, though, that the guy who'd raised me had raised the turn with top pair (Aces). I guess he didn't think that I'd play 58o from the big blind.

Overall, I made $40 from Vegas. $90 from limit Poker. And a $50 loss from the tourney.

I think I've worked out why NL is killing my BR. The main reason has been the 4BB raises with premium hands. Followed by Pot Sized Bets (PSBs) even when I miss.

Assume that I'm UTG with JJ. I raise 4BB. There are two callers (for simplicity's sake, let's assume that the callers are the small and big blinds).

I have just risked 4BB to win 1.5BB. This has failed. And it usually does.

And there is now 12BB in the pot. The two other players check to me. So I bet the pot. That's 12BB.

- Assuming that both players fold, I've made made 12BB from this last bet. Though 4BB was mine to begin with. So in all, I've risked 16BB to make a 8BB profit.

- Assuming only 1 player calls (this is usually the case), then I'm probably behind. And have lost 16BB for a potential profit of 8BB. i.e. reward is less than the risk. And this standard play works less than 50% of the time.

Rosie says that I think two much. And I'm sure there's a quote about excessive thinking causing problems. I believe that one of the characters in one of the Bernard Cornwell Starbuck books that I've been reading thinks that as well.

My accountant is thinking of getting the following Digital Camera. Don't know if it's any good.



Have ordered that TV that I blogged about a few days ago. Should get it on Thursday. Nice!

My friend Becs cooked me a nice vegetable dish using home delivered organic vegetables. The veg just gets delivered to her door every week. Sounds good. And the veg was very tasty. If you want to stay healthy, here's the link: http://www.abel-cole.co.uk/

Here is interesting online Poker TV Show that Rosie recommended to me last night. It has a show that analyses players' real moves. So it could be educational.

Rosie also sucked me into a NL game at Laddies late last night. I'd vowed never to play NL again, but after the cash game on Friday, I believe that I may be getting killed at NL because I've been blindly following book recommendations of TAG play, and getting killed by pot sized continuation bets when I in fact have no cards.

Did some late night cash NL last night. The game was £5 buy in 5p/10p blinds. 4 man game. I was the only idiot who had to rebuy. All that continuation bet shit just doesn't work for me. However, I recouperated my losses later by just sitting there and waiting for a hand.

Found this interesting Conan novel published in full on the web. The Hour of the Dragon. Not sure if it's copyrighted or not, but the site looks official enough.

The following is some promotional content from Holdem Genius. I recently wrote a Holdem Genius Review that tells readers my assessment of this interesting piece of Poker software.

“How To Calculate Pot Odds”
You DON'T need to be a "math genius" to understand poker odds...

Not at all.

In fact, you can be TERRIBLE at math (like me) and still be able to use "odds" to your advantage at the no-limit Holdem tables.

There are TWO main things you need to learn right away:

1. The concept of OUTS
2. The concept of POT SIZE

These are easy. Let's start with the first.

"Outs" refers to the number of cards in the deck that will complete (or "make") your hand.

For instance... if you have Ace-King and the board reads Q-J-4, you need a ten to make your straight.

Since there are four tens in the deck, you have FOUR OUTS.

Or... let's say you're holding Q-J and the boardreads K-10-5. That means you have an open-ended straight draw-- either the Ace or the nine will complete your straight.

Since there are four nines and four Aces in the deck, you have EIGHT OUTS.

Let's do one more. Let's say you've got 8-7 of clubs and the board reads 2c-Ad-Kc-3s. That means there are two clubs on the board and two in your hand. If one more club hits on the river, you'll have a flush.

There are a total of thirteen clubs in the deck (thirteen of each suit times four suits equals fifty-two cards).

But that DOESN'T mean you have thirteen outs, because you're already using four of the clubs.

Instead, you have NINE OUTS (thirteen minus four). If any of those nine cards hits on the river, you'll have a flush.

OK... so that's how you calculate OUTS. We'll do some more in-depth examples in a minute, but first let's talk about POT SIZE.

Pot size is how much money is in the pot. Pretty simple, right?

There are three main parts to pot size:

1. How much money is already in the middle
2. How much is bet in the current round of betting
3. How much WILL be bet in the current round

Let me explain.

Let's say four players call the big blind of $4 in a game. That means there's $16 in the middle.

The flop comes out. You're on the button, which means you're LAST to act. Player 1 bets $10 into the pot. Player 2 calls, and Player 3 folds. Now it's your turn. What's the current pot size?

The answer is $36. There's the $16 that was in the middle first, then $20 more from Players 1 and 2.

The $16 is the first part, the $20 is the second part, and there is no third part since you were last to act.

Let's take another look. Let's say you were SECOND TO ACT, instead of on the button.

Four players call the big blind of $4, which means there's $16 in the pot. Player 1 bets $10, and now you must make a decision. What's the pot size?

Well, it's $16 + $10 + UNKNOWN.

Why "unknown"?

The reason is you DON'T KNOW if the two players BEHIND you are going to call, raise, or fold. So you really don't KNOW the exact pot size.

This is a fundamental reason why math doesn't solve all your problems in poker. You must use your INSTINCTS to "guess" and "infer".

In this case, you would try to guess whether or not the other two players would call or fold (or raise) and make your decision then. This is also another reason why POSITIONING in a hand is so important.

One more thing about pot size before we move on...

A lot of players don't know whether to count THEIR OWN MONEY in the actual pot size.

The answer is you count your own money that's ALREADY THERE from before. In the example, your big blind of $4 is already in the pot... so you DO use it to calculate the pot size.

Once your money is in the middle, it isn't yours any more. Period.

But you would NOT include your $10 in the pot size, because you haven't put it in yet. You're THINKING about putting it in.

Make sense?

Let's say you called the $10 bet from Player 1 and the other players all folded. The turn card comes and Player 1 bets $20. What's the pot size?

Well, it's $16 from pre-flop, $20 after the flop, and now $20 after the turn.

You DO count your $10 after the flop because now it IS already in the middle.

OK... so what does OUTS and POT SIZE have to do with ODDS?

The answer is EVERYTHING.

Now that you know these two basics, you're ready to start calculating "complicated" poker odds.

To calculate odds, you need four pieces of information:

1. Number of outs
2. Number of "unknown" cards in the deck
3. Pot size
4. Current bet amount

We talked about the outs and pot size. The other two are very straightforward.

The number of "unknown" cards in the deck simply means how many cards you DON'T KNOW. Before the flop, there are 50 cards you don't know. You only know the two in your hand.

After the flop, there are 47 cards you don't know. You know the two in your hand and the three on the board and that's it.

After the turn there are 46 cards you don't know.

Like I said, this is simple stuff.

And the CURRENT BET AMOUNT is just... well, the current bet amount. It's how much you must put in the pot to "call".

OK, let's review.

Let's say you get dealt J-10 offsuit. You call the big blind of $6 and so does one other player. The small blind folds. The player in the big blind checks. That means the POT SIZE is $21 ($6 + $6 + $6 + $3).

The flop comes out Q-2-9. You've got an open-ended straight draw. Either a King or an eight will make your straight. Since there are four Kings and four eights in the deck, you've got EIGHT OUTS.

There are 47 unknown CARDS in the deck (52 cards minus the five that you see).

You're second to act. The first player bets $12. That means $12 is the CURRENT BET AMOUNT.

The POT SIZE is $21 + $12 + UNKNOWN. The unknown is what the player after you does...

So there you have it... those are the four pieces of information you need. The only thing you don't know for SURE is the pot size in this example.

Sometimes you'll know the pot size exactly (like when you have good positioning). Other times you'll just have to estimate.

OK, let's do some odds.

THE WAY TO CALCULATE ODDS IS TO COMPARE THE ODDS OF MAKING YOUR HAND TO THE ODDS OF THE POT.

Here's the exact "formula":

(Unknown Cards - Outs) : Outs

VERSUS

Pot Size : Current Bet Amount

If the first comparison is smaller than the second one, that's good. It means that "pot odds justify a call" (or raise).

For instance, if you have 12 outs and there are 47 unknown cards, that means you have ABOUT a 25% chance of "making" your hand.

The odds against you are 35:12, or about 3:1.

Remember... when you see two numbers like X:X, the first number is the chance of one thing happening against the chance of the second thing happening. You'll miss your hand three times and make it once. That's 1/4 or 25% or 3:1.

Now let's say the pot size is $50 and the current bet amount is $10. That means the odds would be $50:$10, or 5:1.

It's easiest to look at in the X:X format and not use percentages.

OK, so here's what you've got for this example:

Outs = 12
Unknown Cards = 47
Current Bet Amount = 10
Pot Size = 50

There are 35 cards that WON'T HELP YOU (47 - 12).

So the odds are 35:12 for the cards.

And for the pot it's 50:10. You don't add your $10to the first number. Just use the current pot size.

35:12 is about 3:1. 50:10 equals 5:1.

The entire point of calculating odds is to make a good decision. To make a decision of whether or not to call a $10 bet here, you would compare the 3:1 versus 5:1.

The odds here are IN YOUR FAVOR.

If this scenario played out four times, here's how it would look STATISTICALLY:

- You lose $10.
- You lose $10.
- You win $50.
- You lose $10.

You lose three times and win once (3:1). When you add your losses it equals $30 but your wins are $50, giving you a $20 profit.

If the scenario happened eight times you'd win twice and lose six times. That means you'd lose $60 and win $100... for a $40 profit.

For real life poker situations, the key is to calculate whether or not you can "justify" staying in the hand.

Let's say you have A-8 and the flop comes out:

K-10-4

Someone bets $10 and the pot size is $20. What should you do?

Well, you don't have anything but an Ace high. If the Ace comes on the turn, you'd have top pair. So let's ASSUME that your top pair would be the winning hand.

That means there are three cards in the deck that can help you (the other three Aces). And there are exactly 47 unknown cards in the deck.

So we have our numbers:

Outs = 3
Unknown Cards = 47
Current Bet Amount = 10
Pot Size = 20

Using our formula...

(47 - 3) : 3

VERSUS...

20 : 10

So the numbers come out 44:3 (about 15:1) versus 2:1. Should you call?

Of course not.

You're only getting 2:1 for your money but your chances of winning the hand are very slim.

If the hand played out 16 times you would win ONCE. So you'd lose $150 (15 X $10) and win $20, for a total loss of $130.

You're always striving for good odds on your money and good odds on your hand.

Good odds on your hand means the X:X number is as SMALL AS POSSIBLE... because you want lots of outs. You don't want there to be only one or two cards in the deck that can help you. You want fractions like 47:12, 46:10, 46:8, and so on.

Good odds on your money means the X:X number is BIG. You want 10:1, 5:1, 12:1, and so on.

OK, I'm going to give one more example. See if you're smart enough to figure this out on your own (you may need to use a scratch piece of paper)...

You're second to act pre-flop and look down to see Kc-Jc. You limp-in by calling the $4 big blind.

Three other players call. The small blind (who put in $2) folds.

The player in the big blind decides to RAISE the pot to $8. You call. Two of the other three players call... but one folds.

So now there are four players total in the hand... the guy in the big blind, you, and the two other callers. (Still with me here?)

The flop comes out:

Ac-4s-8c

What a great flop for you. You've got the nut flush draw.

The player in the big blind is first to act. He checks. You check also (which I would NOT recommend doing here, by the way).

The next player bets $16. The next one calls. The guy who made the original pre-flop raise folds.

So now the action is on to you.

What is the...

Number of outs? Number of unknown cards? Current bet amount? Pot size?

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY...

Should you call?

See if you can figure it out before I give you the answer.

...

...

...

...

OK, so the answer is this:

Yes, you should call.

The pot size is $70. The current bet amount is $16. The number of outs is 9. And the number of unknown cards is 47.

The pot size was the hardest thing to figure out. Remember... the small blind folded his $2. Another player folded their $4. So there was $6 in the middle, plus $32 with the four callers. So $38 before the flop.

Then there were two players in for $16 after the flop, which equals $32. $38 + $32 = $70. Luckily, there weren't any other players left to act after you in this exact round of betting.

The number of outs is simple. Thirteen clubs in the deck minus the four you already see equals nine. And the number of unknown cards is 52 minus the five you see... which equals 47.

Plugging those numbers into our handy "formula" gives us:

(47-9):9 Versus 70:16

That's equal to 38:9 versus 70:16

Now you might be wondering, "How the hell am I supposed to know what 70 divided by 16 is or 38 divided by 9? It's not like I'll have a calculator handy at the table!"

True.

But you don't have to know the EXACT numbers. All you need to know is if the second one is bigger than the first. And that's pretty easy.

When I do it, here's what goes on in my head:

"38 over 9 is about the same as 36 over 9, which equals 4. That means 38 over 9 is 4 and 2/9ths.

70 over 16 is closest to 64 over 16, which also equals 4. That means 70 over 16 is 4 and 6/16ths.

Now I just have to compare 2/9 to 6/16. 2/9 is like 2/10, which equals .2. 6/16 is kind of like 6/18, which is .33. So the second one is bigger."

And that means the call IS justified.

Now let me clarify something...

In this example the two numbers are VERY close (4.22 versus 4.375). Usually they WON'T be that close. Usually they'll be something like 3.3 versus 8.2 or 2.5 versus 4.1.

That means in MOST cases you won't have to do all that fraction stuff. OR, even if you DO have those fractions, you won't need to calculate it. You'll probably just consider it "about even" and make your decision based on other factors.

All right... so that's basically how you calculate pot odds. Of course, there's more.

You also want to know IMPLIED ODDS. Implied odds aren't as math-related. Implied odds basically pertain to hands where you can "bust" or "surprise" your opponents.

In the last example, you were on the nut flush draw, because you had the King of clubs and the Ace of clubs was on the board.

If your opponent was ALSO on the flush draw and he had the QUEEN of clubs, this would be very good for you...

Because if another club hit on the turn, you and your opponent would both have flushes. But yours would be higher.

In this case, your opponent would likely go "all-in" and you would win a TON of chips.

So even though the "odds" on your money are 4.375:1, they're actually higher because of the "implied odds" of your NUT flush draw.

Besides implied odds, you'll also have to think about the "unknown" pot size, as we discussed. Many times you just won't KNOW the exact pot size, and will be forced to guess.

Also... you must be careful to consider what your OPPONENTS are holding...

Let's say you're holding As-5h and the board reads: 8h-Qh-2h

You have the flush draw. And the odds of "making" it are good. But that doesn't mean you want to calculate the nine other hearts in the deck as your "outs".

Why?

Because all your opponents need to BEAT you is a heart higher than a FIVE. And someone most likely has it.

The point is, when you calculate OUTS, you want to calculate outs based on making the WINNING HAND.

And obviously there's no way to know for sure what the winning hand will be... unless you've got the nuts.

So as you can see... there are a LOT of different factors to take into consideration.

Calculating pot odds is a useful technique for the right situations. Over the long term, it can become very handy and will help you make sound, logical decisions at the poker table.

Of course, pot odds is only one small aspect of "poker math". There are dozens of calculations you'll want to make at the table to quickly, consistently, and easily dominate online poker.

And the best way to achieve this is with an advanced odds calculator. "Holdem Genius" is the world's most advanced odds calculator... and it's available FREE for a limited time. Just click here to learn more:

I think I'm still jetlagged from the States.

Went to bed at 11.30pm last night. Was still awake at 2am!!! At 5.30am my phone received a text message, but I didn't bother to check it. Upon my alarm going off at 6.35am I decided that I may as well check out which idiot was texting me at 5.30am. I was expecting it to be my accountant, giving me the latest news on yet another arbitrage opportunity. But no! It was from a colleague who had broken his back in the gym, and who wanted me to cover his late shift. So back to sleep I went. Except that I couldn't sleep anymore. And I had a dodgy position from last night so I had to log in (and had my first broadband problems with HomeChoice at the same time!) at 8am to ask my boss to sort it out for me (which he kindly did). After that my mind was too awake for sleep so I popped off to the supermarket. What fun.

Anyway. I've now had a nice cup of tea and done a few productive things on the web front. I purchased phplinkdirectory 3.xx and installed it. When the subdomain propagates around the web you'll be able to see it at http://dir.blapper.com/. It's basically a web directory site, and visitors can add their own sites to it for free. I've already added a few of my favourite blogs to it.

Final point of interest. Juice's dream babe, Gemma Hayes, has just had her latest gig advertised on the radio. Looks like her posters will be adorning more teenage bedrooms in the future. A pity you can't go long celebrities with real money.

Click here to see pictures of Juice's favourite hottie.

Might be playing a live game with Juice tonight. But last time too many people pulled out so we just went to The Swan in stockwell. How classy.

Am very tired today. 12 hours sleep Monday night. 5 hours sleep Tuesday night. Not very good or consistent. But trading international markets requires obscure hours and it'll be worse when I begin puntint on the Japanese energy markets.

Have just been watching a TV show that is following the lives of some kids who were born in 2006. One of the parents did not have the advantage of a good education, and wants to give her daughter a better chance in life by helping her do well at school. Such thoughts fill me with despair and remind me of my wasted school/college days. I studied what was allegedly one of the toughest Mathematics courses at Uni. However, I found the going very tough and was struggling to get acceptable grades. At a careers fair I went to chat to Codemasters. They were offering £16k to grads with a 2:1 to become coders. Or £12k to grads with 2:2's to become testers. I had a brief chat with their HR chick and asked how rigorous the 2:2 requirement was. She scowled at me, asked me if I'd only gone to chat to her in order to get the free Codemasters CD (she was actually correct about that), and said that if I only got a 2:2 I'd only get £12k. She was in no way taking the fucking piss. And I as a result was seriously questioning the wisdom in choosing a tough degree when I could have gone to the local poly down the road and get a 1st without even waiting for 3 years of lectures to pass. Why work my ass off to get a low degree and crap pay, when I can talk bullshit, get a 3rd from a mickey mouse uni, and get paid £38k??? Anyway, such traumatic experiences, and a very nice meal courtesy of UBS Warburg, convinced me that good educations aren't the way forward. Neither is hard work (if you're an idiot). You just have to so what it takes to succeed, though I suppose that does not make much sense. But amongst my peer group, the two most successful individuals both got 3rd's and are very dedicated to their chosen professions. The least successful have better degrees but either don't bother or pursue less mercenary lifestyles.

Ending the pointless rant, and moving onto Poker, I realise that I haven't posted a BR chart in a while. So here it is:

Yes. The chart is going straight down. And demonstrates why I should not be playing NL with Juice. The steady climbing bit is from when I used combinations of Texas Calculatem, Poker Office and Small Stakes Hold'Em inspired plays. The downward bit is my failure to migrate to NL with the Juicester.

The declining BR makes me feel like a bit of a muppet. Though the kind Rosie tells me that I shouldn't feel too bad. I guess it's just a bit of a strain on the ego, that everyone else with a blog appears to be reaping steady gains.

The one redeeming point of my Poker career is that some of you kind readers have taken advantage of the free Texas Calculatem offer. And I therefore have a few more dollars in my Paypal slush fund. I'm probably going spend the dollars on another random chew toy for Acorn's Nacho (if anyone can suggest a good indestructible chew toy on ebay, please leave a comment below) and the next version of phpLinkDirectory for my Blapper site.

Blapper.com is coming along slowly but surely. The Link Directory software should hopefully help me to get more backlinks and this stabalise my position in the search engines as things are a little wobbly at the moment.

I read about a dating site that's pulling in $10,000 a day and decided to install my own dating site here using the free script from AzDG. However, I'm not too sure how to market it or get new users in. A few of my friends have been experimenting with internet dating and speed dating so I might need to ask them for tips.

A member of J's Mandarin class wrote the book Fairy Dreams.

J asked me to pimp it. So if you're interested in childrens' books, please buy it to support her. She quit a career as a successful doctor to help bring a joy to children's lives through books.

I'm thinking of getting this Samsung LCD TV for my new bachelor pad.

Not sure whether or not I'll dump it on the wall as the only available spot is above the fireplace.

I survived Vegas, making a massive $40... $90 profit from cash $2-4 and $3-6. $50 loss from a $50 MTT. Am very tired and will post more details and some photos later. A twat sitting next to me on the plane back was very free with his elbows and I didn't get much sleep. The muppet looked like an ugly version of Eminem. Might have to inves