Barabajabal
Jul. 30th, 2007 10:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksI'm been feeling a bit under the weather all day, probably from taking rather too many ibuprofen and not sleeping well last night.
Despite the irrelevance of $250 in the grand (or even in the not-so-grand) scheme of things, I still get riled when I lose money that I shouldn't have lost.
I've had about £16 in my Virgin rakeback account, going up by about 40p a month in what must be the worst rakeback arrangement in the history of mankind (148 hands of $50NL for 5p, anyone?). Since the minimum payout is £25, I've been heading back to Virgin and playing the odd half-hour here or there, gradually building up this money to the level where I can take it out and fuck off.
But last night, a combination of tiredness, Virgin's crap software and minor bad beats (but both involving hands where I could and should have laid it down on the river) sent me to a 2.5 buy-in loss. Thinking about it today, despite my grogginess, I reckon I could have kept that to 1.5 buy-ins if I had been fully aware. That's $100 of money that I shouldn't have lost.
Bad sessions tend to run to a pattern for me. I start off moderately badly (say, 20 hands without winning a pot). Then I'll get a bad beat. In this case, I raised 4 BB in mid with AQ and was called one spot behind with 99. I continued with a 75% pot bet on a flop of A84 two hearts. Opponent (stats of 56/33 - this was not a strong table) calls. Turn brings a black 9 and I bet 2/3 of pot. At this point I still have $40 left behind of the $95 or so that I started the hand with. Opponent mini-raises me. I call. River brings a Q giving me top two pair, although this is rather irrelevant. I've kind of pot-committed myself if he continues on the river. I check. He bets, I call and he turns over 99.
While all this was going on, I had raised two limpers in late with 77 at the other table. SB mini-raises. One of the limper calls and I get timed out, because Virgin's software totally sucks and I got no aural warning. Needless to say the flop comes J73 and SB (a tight player who has virtually marked his hand as AA or KK) continue-bets, taking down the pot.
That's the point at which I should have left, but the pattern of the bad session has a life of its own. Various other bits and pieces happen for an hour until I pick up T8s and carve it dreadfully. I defend a raise from the button. One limper calls the raise as well, and I flop 679 two diamonds, giving me the nut straight. I bet the pot and get raised. I reraise. He calls. That puts about £18 in the pot (we were playing 25p-50p GBP) and I have £37 behind. Turn brings a black Queen and, instead of betting sensibly (at least the size of the pot), the timer on Virgin and the shitty software sends me into a panic and, before I now it, I'm being buzzed with a danger of an enforced check. I manage to get £10 into the box and bet it (about half the size of the pot). Opponent calls.
River brings the diamond and, with £27 behind, I make the insane bet of £10 and, then, even more insanely, I call his £20 raise. He turns over KT of diamonds. Welcome Tilt-land.
This kind of thing turns a moderately disappointing session into a nightmare. Luckily, I know when it's time to walk away. Once again, all the knowledge in the world counts for nothing compared with "feeling good". If you are tired, just don't play.
Luckily, it was $100 buy-in (or equivalent), and I'd been playing $200 buy-ins on NO IQ for most of the weekend, so the damage for the whole day wasn't that serious. But it's still enough to rile me and affect my sleep. Stupid that I let it do so.
So, I set myself a few bankroll limits in my head.
1) Make sure I quit if I get 2.5 buy-ins down. Don't even wait for it to get round to my blind. My theoretical +EV when I'm not the blind counts for nothing if I am heading towards the land of Tiltania. This isn't far off from Fox's recommendations anyway.
2) Quit a table if my liability gets to 2x the buy-in. This is not the same as quitting the table when I have doubled-through. I'd love a table where I'd doubled through and everyone else was on between the minimum or half the maximum buy-in. In this scenario I know that if any of them plays back at my raises and continuations, they have the goods. However, if I have doubled through and two or three other players are sitting there with sizeable stacks similar or bigger than mine, I have effectively moved to a game that's twice the size, but with half-blinds. The techniques for this kind of game are different, so it makes sense for me to leave for other tables where my standard and limited knowledge thus far will be more accurate.
3) Never play for more than two hours straight, even if the game looks juicy. Tiredness impacts decisions on the downside more than weak players push up your EV on the upside.
4) If I suffer a 2.5 buy-in defeat, accept that I am going to have a couple of these a month, in the ordinary run of things, and that I will suffer a 10 buy-in downswing during the year. If I don't, that's all to the good. But if I do, it doesn't mean that I have lost it. Also, remind myself that even a 10 buy-in downswing is utterly irrelevant in terms of lifestyle impact. A 2.5 downswing doesn't cover the trip to the dentist. Have a cup of hot chocolate. Sleep well.
One good thing came from the whole affair. I decided today that enough was enough with Boss Media software. I emptied my Paradise account and I redeemed my V-points on Virgin for cash. I'll cash that out tomorrow. I've got too many sites where a few hundred dollars are sitting there doing me no good whatsoever.
As for that sixteen quid sitting in the shit rakeback account. Well, I could open up some other account with them and generate the rakeback via the deposit bonus in a week or so. And, no need to see anything of Boss Media software (or the sucky mainland Europeans who play on it).
Speaking of whom, I stacked one of them off tonight on NoIQ (back to $100 buy-ins for weekdays). My 2.5xBB raise preflop from utg was cold-called by a Swedish set-farming friend in MP1. Ah-hah. flop came 942 rainbow. I bet, he called. Turn was a 10. I bet. He called. River was another 10. I go all-in for $60 (about 1.5x the pot) and he couldn't call quick enough. I showed 44, and he showed 22. Ahh, fucking a Swedish set-farmer. Is there any greater pleasure?
++++++++++++++
Despite the irrelevance of $250 in the grand (or even in the not-so-grand) scheme of things, I still get riled when I lose money that I shouldn't have lost.
I've had about £16 in my Virgin rakeback account, going up by about 40p a month in what must be the worst rakeback arrangement in the history of mankind (148 hands of $50NL for 5p, anyone?). Since the minimum payout is £25, I've been heading back to Virgin and playing the odd half-hour here or there, gradually building up this money to the level where I can take it out and fuck off.
But last night, a combination of tiredness, Virgin's crap software and minor bad beats (but both involving hands where I could and should have laid it down on the river) sent me to a 2.5 buy-in loss. Thinking about it today, despite my grogginess, I reckon I could have kept that to 1.5 buy-ins if I had been fully aware. That's $100 of money that I shouldn't have lost.
Bad sessions tend to run to a pattern for me. I start off moderately badly (say, 20 hands without winning a pot). Then I'll get a bad beat. In this case, I raised 4 BB in mid with AQ and was called one spot behind with 99. I continued with a 75% pot bet on a flop of A84 two hearts. Opponent (stats of 56/33 - this was not a strong table) calls. Turn brings a black 9 and I bet 2/3 of pot. At this point I still have $40 left behind of the $95 or so that I started the hand with. Opponent mini-raises me. I call. River brings a Q giving me top two pair, although this is rather irrelevant. I've kind of pot-committed myself if he continues on the river. I check. He bets, I call and he turns over 99.
While all this was going on, I had raised two limpers in late with 77 at the other table. SB mini-raises. One of the limper calls and I get timed out, because Virgin's software totally sucks and I got no aural warning. Needless to say the flop comes J73 and SB (a tight player who has virtually marked his hand as AA or KK) continue-bets, taking down the pot.
That's the point at which I should have left, but the pattern of the bad session has a life of its own. Various other bits and pieces happen for an hour until I pick up T8s and carve it dreadfully. I defend a raise from the button. One limper calls the raise as well, and I flop 679 two diamonds, giving me the nut straight. I bet the pot and get raised. I reraise. He calls. That puts about £18 in the pot (we were playing 25p-50p GBP) and I have £37 behind. Turn brings a black Queen and, instead of betting sensibly (at least the size of the pot), the timer on Virgin and the shitty software sends me into a panic and, before I now it, I'm being buzzed with a danger of an enforced check. I manage to get £10 into the box and bet it (about half the size of the pot). Opponent calls.
River brings the diamond and, with £27 behind, I make the insane bet of £10 and, then, even more insanely, I call his £20 raise. He turns over KT of diamonds. Welcome Tilt-land.
This kind of thing turns a moderately disappointing session into a nightmare. Luckily, I know when it's time to walk away. Once again, all the knowledge in the world counts for nothing compared with "feeling good". If you are tired, just don't play.
Luckily, it was $100 buy-in (or equivalent), and I'd been playing $200 buy-ins on NO IQ for most of the weekend, so the damage for the whole day wasn't that serious. But it's still enough to rile me and affect my sleep. Stupid that I let it do so.
So, I set myself a few bankroll limits in my head.
1) Make sure I quit if I get 2.5 buy-ins down. Don't even wait for it to get round to my blind. My theoretical +EV when I'm not the blind counts for nothing if I am heading towards the land of Tiltania. This isn't far off from Fox's recommendations anyway.
2) Quit a table if my liability gets to 2x the buy-in. This is not the same as quitting the table when I have doubled-through. I'd love a table where I'd doubled through and everyone else was on between the minimum or half the maximum buy-in. In this scenario I know that if any of them plays back at my raises and continuations, they have the goods. However, if I have doubled through and two or three other players are sitting there with sizeable stacks similar or bigger than mine, I have effectively moved to a game that's twice the size, but with half-blinds. The techniques for this kind of game are different, so it makes sense for me to leave for other tables where my standard and limited knowledge thus far will be more accurate.
3) Never play for more than two hours straight, even if the game looks juicy. Tiredness impacts decisions on the downside more than weak players push up your EV on the upside.
4) If I suffer a 2.5 buy-in defeat, accept that I am going to have a couple of these a month, in the ordinary run of things, and that I will suffer a 10 buy-in downswing during the year. If I don't, that's all to the good. But if I do, it doesn't mean that I have lost it. Also, remind myself that even a 10 buy-in downswing is utterly irrelevant in terms of lifestyle impact. A 2.5 downswing doesn't cover the trip to the dentist. Have a cup of hot chocolate. Sleep well.
One good thing came from the whole affair. I decided today that enough was enough with Boss Media software. I emptied my Paradise account and I redeemed my V-points on Virgin for cash. I'll cash that out tomorrow. I've got too many sites where a few hundred dollars are sitting there doing me no good whatsoever.
As for that sixteen quid sitting in the shit rakeback account. Well, I could open up some other account with them and generate the rakeback via the deposit bonus in a week or so. And, no need to see anything of Boss Media software (or the sucky mainland Europeans who play on it).
Speaking of whom, I stacked one of them off tonight on NoIQ (back to $100 buy-ins for weekdays). My 2.5xBB raise preflop from utg was cold-called by a Swedish set-farming friend in MP1. Ah-hah. flop came 942 rainbow. I bet, he called. Turn was a 10. I bet. He called. River was another 10. I go all-in for $60 (about 1.5x the pot) and he couldn't call quick enough. I showed 44, and he showed 22. Ahh, fucking a Swedish set-farmer. Is there any greater pleasure?
++++++++++++++
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Set-Farming and Pleasure in Sweden
Date: 2007-07-31 12:13 am (UTC)This is, after all, merely a half-poker blog. ((c) Aksu, with thanks.)
The other half, I am determined, will become impenetrable observations on the lives of everyday computer science folk in SE17...
... but the thing is, and I've never even thought about this (living in a world of 99.99999% perfect communications, as I do), why would anybody put up with a site that times them out? (And it doesn't surprise me that it's a Mr Pickle site.)
This is just rather odd. It seems, from the outside, to bespeak a change of behaviour between, say, playing at the Young Chelsea club and the Mr V Pickle Online Emporium.
I mean, you'd be faintly pissed off if it happened in real life, wouldn't you? And it certainly isn't worth chasing after £16 for. (Beat that, Mr Churchill.)
The general defensive thinking sounds like a good idea, however. When the blow-out comes, it's well worth sleeping on it and coming up with a strategy for tomorrow. This isn't Poker advice (God forbid). It's just life.
Re: Set-Farming and Pleasure in Sweden
Date: 2007-07-31 11:27 am (UTC)The problem is that the timing notification is so awful. It can be your go for 75% of your available time before you even see that it's your go, because there is no aural signal and the visual signals are not that good either. And the interface is poor, so actually getting to do aything is a rush.
PJ
Re: Set-Farming and Pleasure in Sweden
Date: 2007-07-31 10:40 pm (UTC)Interestingly enough, were one to design a poker site using plug-ins rather than HTML, it would be quite easy to add proper timers, based on the client-side clock. Of course, one could get around that by hacking the system, but what's the point? You'd be caught by server-side monitoring and thrown out anyway. Any fool who's been watching the Tour de France or the MLB for the last twenty years would know that.
The browser-based web is an abomination, and should be aborted right now. There are better ways to do this. And they're all much less frustrating for the customer.
(However, "the customer" is not exactly what the web is all about.)
Re: Set-Farming and Pleasure in Sweden
Date: 2007-08-01 05:07 am (UTC)PJ
Re: Set-Farming and Pleasure in Sweden
Date: 2007-08-01 07:52 pm (UTC)In that case, all I can say is "Wow."
I thought corporate greed and contempt for customers had a limit, but apparently not.
It would take a team of four or five programmers roughly six months to set up a decent "fat client" solution for on-line poker. Even Woodhouse could do it, if he could bear to tear himself away from Excel macros.
A decent "fat client" offering would beat the shit out of the crap you and others on this blog report.
I mean.
Wow.
Re: Set-Farming and Pleasure in Sweden
Date: 2007-08-01 08:51 pm (UTC)Boss Media (of which Virgin is a "skin") is Swedish, and is responsible for most of the more horrible things about the software. I rest my case. (BTW, the French bit was a "joke". I think I was typing "piece of piss" and for some reason a 'd' snuck in there, and the next thing I knew, I'd stuffed in a grave over the "e". Changing it to "tout simplement" would somewhat have defeated the object of the exercise...)
PJ
Re: Set-Farming and Pleasure in Sweden
Date: 2007-08-01 09:24 pm (UTC)I'm just not too sure that 99% of your readers would have realised it.
Incidentally, what kind of software allows you to "stuff" a grave? It certainly doesn't seem to be the kind of software that livejournal provides.
Oh well, I'm off to Bracknell tomorrow. Goodbye Sweden, hello cross-to-bear.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-31 10:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-31 11:29 am (UTC)PJ
no subject
Date: 2007-07-31 12:28 pm (UTC)Full Tilt and Stars have it exactly how it is needed to be. No fancy pictures, just the text, stored on server side so you get all the details, even if you disconnect.
You can't always get ...
Date: 2007-07-31 10:30 pm (UTC)It is, however, an interesting question. Why do sites make it so difficult to find what you want?
I've been thinking about this (I've spent the last month trying to find a contract via Jobserve, which has a similar problem). I'm not sure what the answer is.
The best I can guess is a McLuhan-esque comment that "the medium is the message." Web-sites, on the whole, are store-fronts. Nothing more, nothing less. Consequently they deal in pretty pictures and animation (I'll bet you're going to love poker sites with beating hearts, glistening diamonds, clubs turning green and singing old Oirish bar songs, and ... well, we'll leave spades to one side here) over and above content.
My overall experience tends to suggest that a new "channel" (eg poker sites) starts off relatively lean and mean, and swiftly clogs up with irrelevant garbage. This is made worse by (a) an explosion in broadband availability -- great for high-speed garbage; just try www.mlb.com -- and (b) the fact that every nit-wit employed by the company has drifted over from some other, marketing-obsessed, company. This includes web programmers. After all, they don't make a living out of the status quo ante flop.
The interesting question, perhaps, is whether this cynical supposition that "we need to give the people what they want" is actually justified in a niche market like poker. I'd like to think that this is precisely the sort of market that would prefer a hard, clean interface with the relevant information easily at hand.
But I'm not so sure.
Re: You can't always get ...
Date: 2007-08-01 05:43 pm (UTC)DY
Re: You can't always get ...
Date: 2007-08-01 08:51 pm (UTC)PJ