Tony's 'Online Poker' Blog Entries
Wednesday, September 7th, 2011
Not much remains to be said about bad beats in poker. Investing emotional capital in results outside one's control is illogical. 'Nuff said - I'm not going to waste hundreds of words flogging that dead horse. However, as one who likes to theorize and generalize, I think it's important to understand bad beat psychology (and the converse, which I creatively call reverse bad beat psychology)...
Tags: bad beat, entropy, Kurtis Blow, preparation, psychology, the breaks
Posted in Beyond the Felt, Misc, Online Poker | Comments Off
Sunday, June 26th, 2011
The 6/23/2011 edition of Keep Flopping Aces is now downloadable. Keep Flopping Aces is a podcast hosted by Lou Krieger and Shari Geller, and I appeared as a guest on the 6/23/2011 show...
Tags: Black Friday, government, Keep Flopping Aces, Libertarianism, life management, Lou Krieger, Online Poker, professional poker, Shari Geller
Posted in Beyond the Felt, Live Poker, Misc, Online Poker | Comments Off
Wednesday, May 25th, 2011
The second wave of poker site seizures by the US DoJ makes me even less inclined to put money in an online poker site since I have access to juicy live poker action in Vegas. The decision is tougher for those without access to live poker and for those who enjoyed being able to play for stakes smaller than what live games can reasonably accommodate...
Tags: Black Friday, Department of Justice, DoJ, FBI, Merge, Party Poker, rakeback, site seizure, UIGEA
Posted in Online Poker | Comments Off
Saturday, May 7th, 2011
Why the Kentucky Derby should anger online poker players in the US.
Tags: Black Friday, Churchhill Downs, Kentucky Derby, Kyl, Leach, Libertarianism, Twin Spires, TwinSpires.com, UIGEA, US Congress
Posted in Beyond the Felt, Misc, Online Poker | Comments Off
Friday, May 6th, 2011
I know some people who had $1,000s worth of FPP in their accounts. Fortunately for them - and for you - PokerStars is allowing players to exchange their FPPs for cash...
Tags: Black Friday, Bronze Star, FPP, Gold Star, Milestone Bonus, Platinum Star, PokerStars, Silver Star, Stellar Rewards, Supernova, Supernova Elite, United States, US, VIP, VIP Reward Bonus
Posted in Online Poker | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011
Black Friday updated regarding PokerStars cashouts for US players.
Tags: Black Friday, PokerStars, US players, withdrawal
Posted in Online Poker | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011
Why I'm not currently putting money into Merge, Bodog, or Cake. Why putting money into Merge, Bodog, or Cake doesn't make much sense unless you don't have easy access to live poker.
Tags: Black Friday, Bodog, Cake, Libertarianism, Merge, US players
Posted in Beyond the Felt, Online Poker | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011
My thoughts on Black Friday and how the US should begin thinking about legislation in order to move forward from its current broken state
Tags: Black Friday, Libertarianism, US government
Posted in Beyond the Felt, Online Poker | 7 Comments »
Monday, April 18th, 2011
I just wanted to write something quickly to say that I've been working on a blog entry regarding my thoughts on Black Friday. I'm eschewing random ranting for a well-researched piece. Well-researched pieces take time, but I'm hoping to have something soon...
Tags: Black Friday
Posted in Online Poker | Comments Off
Friday, April 1st, 2011
Next time you're at a tournament final table, know when you should make a deal and know how to politely decline a deal that you don't want to take.
Tags: deal making, final table, Venetian
Posted in Live Poker, Online Poker, Tournament Poker: MTTs | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011
Analysis of when you should late register for tournaments based on whether you're +cEV or -cEV during a tournament's late registration period.
Tags: hourly, late registration, multientry, optimization, PTBB/100, ROI, Rush On Demand SNG
Posted in Live Poker, Online Poker, Poker Math and Theory, Tournament Poker: MTTs | Comments Off
Saturday, February 26th, 2011
My deep-stacked game is much more read-dependent and deep-thinking - and much less auto-pilot - than I had previously thought...
Tags: deep stacks, multitabling, nanonoko
Posted in Cash Game Poker, Hold'em, Online Poker, Tournament Poker: MTTs | Comments Off
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
Very few regs are really easy to win money from. However, most regs play too many tables for their own good and are likely to be exploitable in some manner...
Tags: heads-up display, Hold'em Manager, HUD, player tracking, Poker Tracker 3, regs
Posted in Online Poker | Comments Off
Sunday, February 6th, 2011
With multientries now available in many Full Tilt tournaments, should you ever take multiple simultaneous entries or be willing to pay for a reentry?
Tags: Full Tilt, hourly, late reg, late registration, multientry, reentry, ROI
Posted in Online Poker, Poker Math and Theory, Tournament Poker: MTTs | Comments Off
Wednesday, January 12th, 2011
Multitabling is essential if you're looking to maximize your profits as an online poker player. Here are the three keys to effective multitabling...
Tags: multitabling
Posted in Online Poker | 2 Comments »
Sunday, December 19th, 2010
Here are three tips that will help you get the most out of Poker Tracker 3 when reviewing your own play.
Tags: filters, hand history replay, Neteller, Party Poker, Poker Tracker 3, pre-UIGEA
Posted in Cash Game Poker, Hold'em, Online Poker, Poker Software, Tournament Poker: MTTs, Tournament Poker: SNGs | Comments Off
Friday, November 26th, 2010
Do you feel like your current computing environment is hampering your ability to multitable? Have you priced PCs and Macs and thought that a high-end machine was out of your price range? If so, then you should consider an alternative route: building your own computer.
Tags: computing
Posted in Beyond the Felt, Misc, Online Poker | Comments Off
Friday, October 22nd, 2010
One mistake in a big pot can cost more than mistakes made in five (or more) small pots. However, since small pots occur much more frequently than big pots, mistakes that you make in small pots may actually be bigger than those you make in big pots.
Tags: cEV, chip accumulation, chip preservation, CO, cutoff, Full Tilt, hand review, isolation raise, open-limping, smallball
Posted in Hold'em, Live Poker, Online Poker, Poker Software, Tournament Poker: MTTs | 6 Comments »
Monday, October 18th, 2010
Poker strategy is complicated. Measuring your effectiveness at poker isn't. Your effectiveness as a poker player is defined by one number - which we can conveniently call your poker hourly...
Tags: poker hourly, PTBB/100, ROI, Utility
Posted in Beyond the Felt, Live Poker, Misc, Online Poker, Poker Math and Theory | 2 Comments »
Friday, October 1st, 2010
The most obvious question to ask about cashout tournaments is: "when (if ever) should I consider cashing out." The answer to this question: NEVER.
Tags: cashout tournament, final table bubble, FTOPs, Full Tilt, payout structure
Posted in Hold'em, Killer Poker Analysis, Online Poker, Poker Math and Theory, Tournament Poker: MTTs | 2 Comments »
Thursday, September 23rd, 2010
Suppose you're in a multitable tournament (MTT), and action is nowhere close to being at the final table (in other words, you're making decisions entirely with respect to maximizing the expected value of your stack). Blinds are T80-T160 with no antes. Action folds to the small blind, who shoves all-in to T1,545. You have 17 hands on the small blind; ...
Tags: blind vs. blind, cEV, cheat sheets, equilibrium, equity, Expected Value, HUD, jam/fold, no-limit, non-exploitable, open-shove, player tracking software, rebuy, RFI, semi-exploitative, top-heavy payout structure, VPIP
Posted in Hold'em, Online Poker, Poker Math and Theory, Poker Pwnage, Tournament Poker: MTTs | 3 Comments »
Friday, September 3rd, 2010
PokerStars and Full Tilt both have a big tournament series coming up. WCOOP at PokerStars begins this Sunday (9/5/2010) and features events with buy-ins ranging from $109 to $10,300. Meanwhile, MiniFTOPs begins next Wednesday (9/8/2010) and will be catering to players who prefer tournaments with smaller buy-ins: $11 to $216.
PokerStars and Full Tilt aren't just competing head-to-head with ...
Tags: bonus, deposit bonus, FPP, FTP, Full Tilt, Iron Man, loyalty programs, Mini FTOPs, player rewards, PokerStars, VIP Program, VPP, WCOOP
Posted in Online Poker | Comments Off
Friday, July 16th, 2010
It's been quite a week since my last blog post. I've been doing quite a bit of programming for three different things I've been working on. The hours have been long, I haven't played any poker, and I'm a bit tired, but I've really enjoyed this past week. Improving one's skills at something is always a rewarding experience!
Aside ...
Tags: balanced strategy, limpers, open-limping, open-raising, Utility
Posted in Cash Game Poker, Hold'em, Killer Poker Analysis, Live Poker, Online Poker, Tournament Poker: MTTs, Tournament Poker: SNGs | 1 Comment »
Friday, July 2nd, 2010
I'm a bit sick today, but the show must go on! I'm predicting a non-negligible amount of sniffling, nose blowing, throat clearing, and coughing. However, I'm also predicting an overwhelming amount of killer poker analysis. The high quality of today's content should compensate for the low quality of my voice:
1.) The importance of board texture in no-limit hold'em ...
Tags: board texture, Harrington's M, no-limit
Posted in Cash Game Poker, Hold'em, Killer Poker Analysis, Live Poker, Online Poker, Tournament Poker: MTTs | Comments Off
Monday, May 31st, 2010
For those of you who don't know what datamining is, it's the practice of getting hand histories from games you haven't played in. Basically, you go to a website, purchase text hand histories, and then import them into Poker Tracker 3 (PT3) or Hold'em Manager (HEM). To my knowledge, some of the top websites providing mined ...
Tags: 6-max, datamining, HEM, Hold'em Manager, LHE, nanonoko, NLHE, Poker Tracker, PT3
Posted in Cash Game Poker, Hold'em, Online Poker, Poker Math and Theory, Poker Resources, Poker Software | 1 Comment »
Friday, February 26th, 2010
On last week's edition of Killer Poker Analysis, I covered the following topics:
1.) Open shoving distributions from the small blind in tournament situations when antes are around 12.5% of the big blind
2.) Knowing when to start playing in bigger games
3.) Heads-up play
I also announced that I won't be doing a podcast today. I'll miss ...
Tags: $EV, FPP, FPP conversion rate, PokerStars, tournament equity, Turbo Takedown
Posted in Online Poker, Poker Math and Theory, Tournament Poker: SNGs | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Another weekend; another Pokerstarsathon! This has been my 3rd consecutive weekend of logging 20+ hours on PokerStars. The past two Mondays, I felt horrible despite pulling in some nice profits. Yesterday, I felt a bit more chipper even though I netted a loss for the weekend. I'm proud of being a bot whose physical and mental states are outcome-independent and ...
Tags: $500K Guaranteed, bluffing, check-raise, NLHE, no-limit hold'em, poker hand analysis, PokerPwnage, PokerStars, smallball
Posted in Killer Poker Analysis, Online Poker, Tournament Poker: SNGs | Comments Off
Monday, February 8th, 2010
First off, if you didn't catch Killer Poker Analysis last Friday, I covered the following topics:
1.) The squeeze play in no-limit hold'em
2.) My opinions on Full Tilt's Rush Poker now that player tracking HUDs work with it (I haven't tried it out, but it seems to be word on the streets)
3.) Implied ...
Tags: $EV, cEV, GFN Forum Wars, HUD, implied odds, jam/fold, MTTs, no-limit hold'em, payout structure, Rounder's Radio, Rush Poker, squeeze play, tournament survival
Posted in Killer Poker Analysis, Online Poker, Poker Math and Theory, Tournament Poker: SNGs | Comments Off
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
I woke up today to a pleasant surprise: today's discount item in the PokerStars VIP Store is a $530 tournament ticket for 25,000 FPP (at $.016/FPP, that comes out to only $400). I was disappointed a few days ago when the $285 cash bonus didn't have an exchange rate of at least $.016/FPP, but PokerStars made up for it today. ...
Tags: $500K Guaranteed, poker hand analysis, poker statistics, PokerStars, Sunday Million, tournament survival, VIP Store
Posted in Online Poker, Poker Math and Theory, Tournament Poker: SNGs | Comments Off
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
It's been 6 days since my last blog post, and it's been raining a bunch in Vegas. I miss the sun, but it's stupid to complain about rain here; we need every damn drop of water we can get!
Meanwhile, John Vorhaus (JV) was in town over the weekend. He played in a celebrity charity event for the Heartland ...
Tags: Full Tilt, John Vorhaus, multitabling, PokerStars, rakeback, Red Rock Casino, Rush Poker, table selection, Vegas restaurants
Posted in Cash Game Poker, Live Poker, Online Poker, Vegas | 2 Comments »
Friday, January 15th, 2010
Before getting into the meat of this post, I have a quick announcement: don't forget to tune into my weekly podcast, Killer Poker Analysis, today at 5:00PM PT at Rounder's Radio!
PokerStars is kicking off 2010 with a bang! Their VIP program has traditionally made them the site of choice for players capable of putting in ridiculous ...
Tags: FPP, PokerStars, VIP Store
Posted in Online Poker | Comments Off
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
Good afternoon! It's been a great start to the day. I got in some "relaxing" Gunstar Heroes action.
I got a Wii for Christmas, and one of my favorite things about it is the Virtual Console, which offers hundreds of classic video games. All I can say is that Gunstar Heroes on expert mode is a tough game...they ...
Tags: math, player tracking software, poker statistics, Poker Tracker 3
Posted in Online Poker, Poker Math and Theory, Poker Software | Comments Off
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
Happy holidays everybody! It's almost Xmas, meaning that I'm in CT visiting my family. It's damn cold here...I miss Vegas!
I've been trying to keep up with work, and I also managed to squeeze in some online poker two nights ago. Topping today's to-do list are the following items:
1.) Work for CEREUS
2.) Analysis for a ...
Tags: PTBB/100, rakeback, table selection, win rates, Xmas
Posted in Cash Game Poker, Hold'em, Misc, Online Poker | Comments Off
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
Evelyn and I are still settling into the new place. I finally unpacked my video games, and I introduced Evelyn to Duck Hunt for the original NES. (Yeah, I still own an original NES...and it still works thanks to the replacement 72-pin connector that I installed a few years ago). We also hosted some friends from CA for two fun-filled ...
Tags: Bellagio, heads-up display, HUD, Killer Poker by the Number, NES, player tracking software, poker hand analysis, Poker Pwnage, Poker Stove, Poker Tracker 3, Rant, Video Games
Posted in Beyond the Felt, Hold'em, Misc, Online Poker, Poker Math and Theory, Poker Pwnage, Poker Software, Tournament Poker: MTTs, Vegas | Comments Off
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
The strengths of my poker game are my theoretical understanding and my ability to dissect nuanced scenarios. I was chatting on AIM with a friend of mine today. As he put it, "you definitely have the most rigorous understanding of the game out of anyone i know/or even read about...except maybe sklansky. haha"
These strengths have made me ...
Tags: David Sklansky, exploitative, Killer Poker by the Numbers, multitabling, music, nash equilibrium, non-exploitable, semi-exploitative
Posted in Cash Game Poker, Online Poker, Tournament Poker: MTTs, Tournament Poker: SNGs | Comments Off