Posted by James
Wed, 02 Jan 2008 08:09:00 GMT
I haven't played much poker in the past year. Last week, I was on a cruise ship in the middle of the Caribbeans and I consciously stayed away from the poker table. There was only one poker table in the casino on the ship, one of those new touchscreen PokerPro tables, and it was always packed. I saw the same people playing day after day, so I thought to myself, "these guys must be really good."
On the last day of the cruise, I went down to watch poker and it happened that there was a spot open. I finally gave in to temptation and played. I flopped a set of 6s on my first hand. In 5 minutes I was up $370 (out of an initial buy-in of $100). I doubled up on a trip Jacks with a Queen kicker when someone else called my all-in with a J3 offsuit. So, it turns out my fellow vacationers aren't all that good, especially considering that I'm really rusty.
In this week's Economist, there was a really interesting article on Texas Hold'em Poker. Apparently poker is now the 3rd most watched sporting event in America, behind Football and Nascar. The US Department of Labor has officially recognized Professional Poker Player as an occupation. Since a few years ago, there has been so much money in poker (the winner of this year's WSOP went home with more than $8 million). Parents are even encouraging kids to play poker because it's more "mentally rewarding than video games" and even schools are thinking about introducing poker classes.
Almost a year and a half ago I wrote an article in defense of poker. My parents are finally slowly coming around. I ended up winning $350 in about 1 hour of poker last week, and afterwards, my mom asked me to teach her to play.
The greatest thing poker has taught me is that it's okay to take risks. I think I have become much less risk adverse and much more analytical as a result of playing no limit hold'em. Fortunately or unfortunately, I'm way too busy these days to take up poker seriously as a hobby. So, winning that world series bracelet will have to wait until another time.
Posted in My Life, In Depth, Poker | no comments
Posted by James
Mon, 26 Feb 2007 23:10:00 GMT
This past weekend, a bunch of friends and I went to South Lake Tahoe for a little fun. It became quite an adventure, at least for me. I think the word, "epic" (adj. definition #2) has been used quite a few times to describe what happened.
I'll post the short version. The long version will probably fill up 18 pages.
There were 6 of us in total and we took 2 cars. I drove the second car and we left Berkeley a bit later on Saturday (around 10 am instead of 8 am). Half an hour after departure, I get my first speeding ticket on I-80. I was apparently going 80 mph but the speed limit was 65 mph. I guess I was just too used to driving on the interstate in Texas where the speed limit is 75, and going 80 is probably slow. The cop was just being an asshole since he needed to fill his monthly quota at the end of the month, and I happened to get caught. But I wasn't going to let that ruin the weekend.
We get to Tahoe and by then it's almost 2 pm. The slopes close around 4 pm, so my friend and I decided to ski on Sunday instead. After I rented some ski clothes (for dirt cheap... like less than $5), we went to the casino. Now mom and dad, you might want to skip to the next paragraph. I played in my first game of poker at a real casino. I was nervous as hell, but I did well. As it turns out, my entire weekend, including the speeding ticket, has been paid for. I only played for an hour.
Then after a big dinner, we went clubbing and bar hopping. By then it was snowing pretty hard. To be honest, there weren't actually that many choices of bars and clubs to go to, after all, it's not Vegas. We had a lot of fun (especially when I tried to get girls to buy me drinks). I even met up with a friend from back in my college days.
The next morning, snow has turned into a blizzard. Most of the slopes were closed. But we went anyways. And by the way, I have never skied or snowboarded in my entire life (nevermind the fact that I grew up in Canada). And somehow we went to a slop that is intermediate, and they have no lesson packages. So, to keep a long story short, let me say this: learning to ski during a blizaard (visibility at about 25 feet), on a steep hill (with trees and rocks) for intermediate skiers, with no prior instruction is probably a dumbass thing to do (at the entrance to the lifts, there was a big red sign that said "No Beginners" and now I know why). For that feat, I award myself this week's Dumbass of the Week. In the middle of my attempt at getting down the slope without killing myself, I get a cell phone call, one of my friends saying that we had to leave because the conditions are so bad, the roads will be closed. Needless to say, that was the worst introduction to skiing, ever. On the plus side, I'm still alive with all my limbs intact and the next time when I really learn to ski, it will seem so easy.
Getting out of Tahoe was an adventure in itself. No, getting out of the ski resort was an adventure in itself. At one point, going up the hill, my car had to be pushed because it kept on slipping on the ice, even with chains. Then the road out of South Lake Tahoe was completely backed up. We spent hours just idling (we clocked our progress at a neck-breaking 0.5 miles per hour). By the time it was 6 pm, we still haven't even reached the most mountainous stretch of US-50. My friend and I made the pretty easy decision of stopping for the night at a near-by motel. We figured driving at night, with blowing snow, icy roads, in a Corolla, with two tired people, and unfamiliar mountain terrain filled with bumper to bumper traffic is probably not the best of ideas. We agreed that sometimes, it's okay to gamble with money but it's never okay to gamble with our lives. But the other car filled with my other friends decided to push on (they made it back to Berkeley at midnight, after a total travel time of 11 hours over a distance of about 170 miles). Instead, my friend and I ate a wonderful dinner at a local Italian restaurant, watched the last parts of the Academy Awards, took a hot shower and passed out in our beds at 10 pm. That was the smartest thing I did all weekend.
We left Tahoe this morning at 8:45 am. We got back to Berkeley at 1 pm. I missed a few meetings, but still alive.
That was one surreal weekend.
Posted in My Life, In Depth, Poker, Dumbass of the Week | 4 comments
Posted by James
Mon, 06 Nov 2006 01:15:00 GMT
Well, thanks to the all-wise Republicans, online poker has been outlawed in the United States. The poker sites that I use, PokerRoom.com and PartyPoker have stopped taking bets from people connecting from the US (voluntarily, until the law gets reversed).
As a member of the PPA, I am very disappointed at this development. Ofcourse, the bright side is that I'll be spending more time doing other stuff (such as reading, learning new skills and playing with girls), instead of practicing poker. I firmly believe however that eventually the laws will be changed so that online poker can be regulated instead of prohibited. This time the government has gone too far into regulating the personal lives of its citizens and I hope the Republicans pay dearly on Tuesday.
Online poker was great because I could practice for very little money. The alternative is to go to a casino or a card room (California is full of them). However the minimum buy-in is larger (which means I would need to spend more money to learn the same thing) and the game goes slower (which means I would need to spend more time to learn the same thing) at a real table. Besides, I'm way too lazy and cheap to do that. So, you won't see me at the WSOP anytime soon... sigh.
Posted in My Life, In Depth, Poker | 2 comments
Posted by James
Mon, 21 Aug 2006 18:20:00 GMT
So a few months ago I had a conversation with Stuart Russell, who wrote the book on AI. He expressed to me that computer poker is perhaps not the best area of research. So I can't help but smile when I saw this article linked from slashdot today.
This group from the University of Alberta is actively doing research on computers playing Texas Hold'em, and recently won the AAAI's computer poker tournament by a large margin. An excellent but somewhat longish paper by the group spells out the challenges of Poker in an artificial intelligence setting.
My take is that poker is difficult because it takes place in an partially observable environment. Chess, blackgammon, go and other games that have been studied all occur in a completely observed environment. Couple that with non-determinism, and things get pretty interesting. A lot of times to play correctly, one must guess not just what cards the opponents have, but also their intentions. A clever player will "change gears" in the middle of playing. In fact many good players may from time to time deliberately make suboptimal play, just to keep their opponents from correctly predicting their behavior. This type of play obviously will never work in chess. The reason this type of play works in poker two fold. First, sometimes suboptimal play is rewarded because you can get a very lucky card and win. And second because there is no a priori correct strategy; instead the correct strategy is dependent on the environment (your cards, others' cards, and others' strategies), which cannot be observed accurately. As long as you can deceive your opponents into thinking that their environment is somehow different from the actual environment, they will adopt a strategy that will lose in the long run. Thus to play poker well, the computer must be able to not only detect possible deception, but also convincingly deceive others.
So, is poker gambling? Hell yes. But since there are also seriously academic research around it, I'd say it's more skill than luck. What they say is right... hold'em is a game that takes minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master. Maybe in this case, it's millions of lines of code and a few tera flops.
Posted in Computers & Technology, Poker | 4 comments
Posted by James
Sun, 13 Aug 2006 02:59:00 GMT
So my parents finally decided to have a talk with me about my poker playing. They expressed great sadness and disappointment that I have become a degenerate gambler. I have great respect for their opinion, while I can understand their thought process, I can't say that I agree with it.
First, I don't (and will never) deny that texas hold'em poker is gambling. Poker is not a card game played with money, but a money game played with cards. Take the money out of poker, and it becomes a meaningless game.
Now the real issue at hand is gambling. My parents maintain the line that gambling is bad, because it ruins people and their families. However, from my perspective, gambling is a complex human phenomenon and can't be described by a mere good or bad. (Is war good or bad?) Sure, gambling CAN ruin people and the same can be said about alcohol. However, millions people engages in both activities, yet only a small minority of them gets ruined. Nothing about gambling is inherently good or bad, but rather it depends on the individual's attitudes and persuit of it. Taking anything across the acceptable boundary, whether it be gambling, alcohol, or work, and it will ruin you.
Furthermore, poker is as much of a gamble as it is a game of skill. Unlike drugs, poker sharpens the mind, instead of destroying it. Poker, for a good player, yields positive expectation, while most other gambling games yields negative expectation, no matter how good you are. The money won from poker comes from the mistakes made by your not so good opponents. While there are day to day fluctuations in outcome, over the long run, a good player wins money. But of course all that assumes that you are a good poker player. To play poker well, one needs to have a good theoretical understanding of the game, great mathematical abilities, and a deep insight into human psychology. All of which, when practiced, sharpens the mind.
I started playing in April, so it's been about 4 months now. I haven't learned nearly enough to be good at the game, but on the other hand, I'm not bad either. Since the beginning, my total poker losses to date has been -$200. That's right, negative losses... that means I'm in the black. That of couse doesn't include the money I have currently ear-marked as in play. You can't count the money that you're risking as your own. As a hobby, I'd say I'm doing pretty well. Suppose instead, I were to go to the movies every week. A movie admission is about $10 (I'm in California), so that's about $40 a month. In 4 months of movie going, I'll be down $160. A hobby that is fun and pays for itself, doesn't this warrant further investigation?
Lastly, my parents seemed to think poker players are degenerates. Poker is now mainstream. Yes, thirty years ago, poker is an underground business filled with shady characters. But today poker players are celebrities. Most of them are extemely intelligent and well educated. For example, Chris Ferguson has a Ph.D. in computer science, Robert Varkonyi went to MIT, as did Ed Miller. I don't want to be a professional poker player, but it's not a bad life either.
I don't expect to change my parent's mind, nor do I expect them to be supportive on this issue. But simply to say gambling is bad therefore you shouldn't do it, only works on toddlers, and I'm not a toddler anymore. The reason I believe I can make money in poker is simple. There are millions of people playing poker right now. I scored in the 99th percentile in the SAT, which makes me smarter than most of them. The good players (which implies smart) is mathematically guaranteed to win money in the long run. I believe the logic is sound, and nothing in my experience so far has convinced me that it's not.
But, since I respect my parents' opinions, and the fact that they're right about most things in the past, will make me re-examine my position and ideas in the next few weeks. And to convince them (and myself) that I'm not addicted to poker, I will stop playing poker for a week. So, no more poker for the next week. But I still ask, if a fun hobby can generate money on the side, is it so evil?
Posted in My Life, In Depth, Poker | 5 comments
Posted by James
Sat, 12 Aug 2006 14:22:00 GMT
I entered into the Saturday $2560 added lucky dollar tournament at pokerroom and hoped that I would have more luck today than in the weeks past at this event. As usual, the event was filled to capacity with 2400 players and lots of idiots.
I doubled up early with pocket Queens when a dumbass re-raised all-in my mid position opening bet with pocket 7s. This dumbass, having doubled up earlier, didn't get knocked out, and in fact, he stayed around to bully the rest of the table. He managed to regain the chip lead by the second level. Then he raised to 200 under the gun. I had AQ offsuit, and I hesitated a bit before calling. I didn't respect his raise, and the raise was a bit too big. The flop came and was 2, 10, A different suits. I flopped top pair with good kicker. The dumbass was first to act and he bet 500. The overbet told me everything I wanted to know, so I went all in, and amazingly enough the dumbass called with Q 10 offsuit. So at that time I was 90% expected to win. Then the turn came and was a 10. He hit one of his two remaining outs.
And like that, I was out of the tournament. I know suckouts are a part of the game, but c'mon. I had the cards, I was in a dominating position, I played better, I had better instincts, but it didn't matter in the end.
Posted in Poker | 4 comments
Posted by James
Thu, 10 Aug 2006 01:46:00 GMT
I entered into a $5+0.5 SnG (sit-and-go) tournament tonight. I made it into heads-up play. The blinds were 300/600, and I'm second to act. The small blind had 8890 in chips and I had 6110 in chip. SB bets 1k more and I look down at mediocre 10♥ J♣. We've both been playing quite conservatively and I thought I could do a gear shift here, so I called 700 more to see the flop. The flop comes: 10♠ J♠ Q♥ and I flopped two pair! SB bets 1k and now I've got a decision. I knew a two pair heads up is extremely good and the other guy would not have expected it. But the real question at this point is what did the other guy have? I assumed that he had an Ace with a decent kicker, maybe an AQ or A10. With that thought, I made my first mistake and raised 2k. Now the more perceptive of you would have noticed that I made it $1k more to call, but the pot is now 5600 and the pot odds was more than 5.5 to 1. If I had gone all in, I would've made it little less than 2 to 1 odds. Ofcourse with such great pot odds, the SB calls. The turn was 9♦ and SB checked. Suddenly, I became alarmed, if the SB had a K, then he just made straight. So, I made my second mistake, and this mistake was much more serious. I went all in with the rest of my 2810 in chips. This was a serious mistake because it was a bet that couldn't possibly make me any money because my opponent would only call if he made the straight. Of course, immediately the SB calls and shows K♦ 7♠. The river was useless and I'm knocked out by the King high straight.
The lesson is never slow play two pair especially when the board shows straight and flush possibilities. If I went all in after the flop I might have won the pot. Even more than that, the last bet was just plain dumb. But by finishing 2nd, I won $15, so the lesson wasn't as painful as it could have been.
Posted in Poker | no comments
Posted by James
Sat, 05 Aug 2006 17:27:00 GMT
First hand:
Blinds are at 50/100. A loose player calls under the gun, followed by the player to the right of me raising to 400. I'm in mid position and looking at A♥ Q♥ and decide to call. The original limper calls the raise and it's 3 to the flop. The flop comes Q♠ 8♥ 9♥ and is checked to me. I have top pair with the ace-high flush draw, so I bet 400, slightly less than 1/3 of the pot. The limper calls and the original raiser folds. The turn was a harmless 6♣ and the caller checks to me. I go all in, and I was very surprised that I got called. The player under the gun shows Q 6 offsuit. Another 6 hits on the river and I'm eliminated from the tournament by 6 full of queens.
Second hand:
Blinds are at 75/150. I'm the small blind holding pocket jacks. Two limpers in front of me. I raise a further 550, and both player calls (sigh...the internet is full of calling stations). The flop is 4♣ 8♥ 9♥. No overcards with a possible flush and straight draw and I'm out of position. I go all in for the rest of my 1700 in chips which is a bit more than half of the pot. The two other players both call. First caller shows a total garbage hand with a 4 in it, the other had A♥ 7♥. The turn was 2♥ and the second caller makes the nut flush. Again, I am eliminated.
In both cases I played correctly, but ended up eliminated from the tournament. In the first hand I was justified in calling since I had to assume the raiser had as good of a hand as me, and after the flop I was justified in believing that I had the best hand. My bet was perhaps on the low side, but it wasn't enough to justify a call if my opponents were on a draw. That guy was foolish enough to call and lucky enough to hit on 2 of his 3 outs. In the second hand, I had the best hand preflop and postflop and I knew it too. The only thing that tripped me up was that stupid idiot who called my all-in with a pair of 4s and made it good enough pot odds for the second person to draw to the flush. Although the second player was also very dumb since my preflop raise and postflop all-in never registered with him. Such is the peril of playing poker online.
Posted in Poker | 10 comments
Posted by James
Sat, 05 Aug 2006 02:38:31 GMT
I was bored tonight, so I played the lucky dollar tournament at pokerroom. But I guess the dollar I used wasn't very lucky. I didn't get any good cards to play with so by the end of the first hour I was pretty much at the bottom of the pack.
Early in the second hour, the player under the gun goes all in for over $4k in chips and I look down at K♣ A♣ in mid position. At that time, I had only a bit more than $1k left and was way behind in the tournament. Believe it or not, suited big slick was the best hand I've gottten in the whole tournament. I figured the all-in for a small pair and he overbet to prevent anyone from calling (a horrible play). At the worst, it was a coin flip, so I went for it.
I was right. The other player showed pocket 6s, and it was a 52% to 48% coin flip slightly in his favor. However, in the end, it was good enough for him to win. I came out at 189 out of 571 and winning nothing.
Posted in Poker | 7 comments
