My Wife Will Not like This

My wife sometimes has, well, delicate sensibilities.  When I told first told her that I use a pee jar when I play online poker, her response was a loud, "Oh Gross!"  Of course, in another tournament the next day, I called her into my office when I was using that jar, and I was told "Oh gross!" as well as, "That's disgusting!"  (Believe it or not, whether to use a pee jar is an issue that is discussed in the poker community):

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/32/beginners-questions/do-people-really-use-pee-jugs-1111471/?highlight=do+people+really+use+pee+jars

I just finished watching a 1.25 hour webinar on range building.*  Someone asked whether, when he was knocked out of a re-entry tournament and got flustered, he should take some time to get his head together and decide what to do, or would it be better to jump back into the tournament and not miss a hand.

The poker pro teaching the webinar said that "re-entry guy" should definitely take a little time to get focused.  I disagreed.

One of my poker rules is , "Never miss a hand." I typed into the chat box that the best way to get a good hand is to not miss it when it comes. If  I play an online tournament that lasts for nine hours, I will have a pee jar on my desk and I'm going to stay at that desk and play every single hand.  Other players might get tired, or drunk, or whatever, and that gives me an edge when I'm in a hand with that opponent.  I don't miss hands, period.

The re-entry question was the last of the webinar, and the pro closed it by saying that both I and "re-entry guy" had valid points.  He said that a lot of players looked at it as I did, that a hand should never be missed.  He also said that he understood the other playing taking some time to calm down.

That was how the webinar ended.  I'm sure that my wife will enjoy reading this post.

As always, questions or comments are welcome (see box below.)

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*https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=building+a+poker+range&&view=detail&mid=1D9AD836489DC2CF6B111D9AD836489DC2CF6B11&&FORM=VRDGAR

The Tech Nightmnare Continues--Part 2

I'm not playing much poker lately, even though it's supposed to by my job.  I spent the last year setting myself up for multiple options, playing both live and online.  It hasn't worked out that way at all, and a big part of that is that the available online sites are a mess.  It must seem to some of you that all I do is whine, but the following, which was posted in a poker forum, might change your minds--it really is that bad.

The following comments were posted in a poker forum during the last week.. This is just a sample, there are pages and pages on this topic and no one is happy.  All posters, including me, are also players on the site, Americas Cardroom, which was updated a few days ago.  That update has been a huge mess with no end in site.

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Originally Posted by Poker Clif

You're right, this doesn't work without input from the players. At one time PokerStars had a player's committee. Daniel Negreanu was on it.

My experience with writing programs (in the 1980s, "code" was a noun, not a verb) is not extensive, but it was enough to teach me a few things. The one thing that we were told in class, over and over, was to consider the end user. Make it simple. Make it do exactly what the user wants done.

Only an end-user (poker player) knows what he needs a program (poker site) to do, and those needs are mostly simple and basic:

Keep accurate times of levels.

Cards, numbers and words should be easy to read.

Crashes and lags should be rare (this was the worst or second-worst ACR problem, depending on where you rank botting) in 2018 and early 2019.

All computations should be accurate.

Animation should be clear and not too distracting.

Your list could be completely different from mine, but this isn't rocket science. Each item on my checklist, and probably on yours, is basic and necessary. The point is that they all should be pretty much nailed down before beta testing.

Of course it's more complicated then a simple check list. You need nerds to deal with all of the complicated math programming that we don't see--but if the site crashes or the numbers on the screen are hard to read, what good is all of that math?

I'm expecting a check from another site in a few days, but I'm not going to put any more money on ACR until these problems are fixed. I won't pay to be a beta tester.

Then a player with the user name PokerPastor posted the following:

As someone that worked as a Director of Technology for a couple years for a major corporation in California I can safely say that there are a million shortcuts taking place right now...
Computer Science departments all over the world could use this as a case study on what not to do in software development. It's gross incompetence at an incredible level, and they simply hope that people are too stupid to realize it...

Live Options

As my online poker options have become less and less viable, the live options are getting better.  I would still like to have as many options as possible, live and online, but that's not the case right now.  Some (live) options are certainly better then no options.

The problem with live options is that they have what economists call a "barrier to entry."  In this case, that barrier is the price.  Online one can literally play for pennies.  In 2017 I got on a site where I had not played for two years and $42 had been sitting on the site.  Starting with playing $1 tournaments, I built that up to about $600 before I found out that the minimum withdrawal on Juicy Stakes Poker was $250.

I was going to keep doing that, grinding up bankrolls* on two or more sites, get my Juicy Stakes balance over a thousand, then make some decisions about what to do next.  As outlined in my previous post, that's no longer an option.

Live poker works exactly the opposite way. Technology barely matters, but it's expensive  There are no $1 tournaments.  It's hard to find a poker room that runs tournaments with a buy-in of less than $50.  Unless the power at the poker room goes out, tournaments don't lag or crash, and sometimes even if the lights go out it can still work.  I recently read an article about the lights going out in a casino poker room.  People gathered around the table with their cell phone flashlights to keep play going until power was restored.

I'm in a position where the online options are really bad, but more live options are opening up:

1. There is a new casino 70 miles from where I live.  I played there for the first time a week ago. It's a bit of a drive, but until recently the closest poker room was about 100 miles away.  The opportunity cost and driving expense of a 140 mile round-trip drive is a lot less than driving 200 miles.

2. There is a project for a new casino  just 17 miles from where I live.  It looks like it could be open in about two years.  That would be a game-changer.

I will have to carefully manage my very small live bankroll.  The tournament that I played a week ago had an $80 buy-in, not something that I can afford every day until I start getting some big cashes.  Once I'm backed up by a bigger bankroll (I'm still waiting for my money from Juicy Stakes Poker) I'll be able to relax a bit.  I will be playing my second tournament at the new casino sometimes next week.

As always, your questions and comments are welcome (see box below.)

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*When I use the word "bankroll" I'm talking about money that is available for, and only used for, playing poker.  It could be on an online site, in a bank account, cash, or all of those.  As my online bankroll grows, I will probably keep most of it in a safe deposit box, taking out cash as I need it.

A New Start

I haven't posted for a while.  It's time that I let you know why.  The main reason is that online poker is a technological mess, making it almost impossible for me to play.  I made a profit last year, but playing online has steadily become a very poor option. I will describe those and other issues as well:

1. Internet problems.  I called Comcast twice but they couldn't fix my very slow internet.  My wife and I both work at home and her employer requires that she use their Comcast router.

2. Holdem Manager, the program that I use to track my results as well as the results and tendencies of my online opponents, hasn't worked for me for months.  Many players, including me, can't even get the program to open.  If I don't have that available and my opponents do, I'm bringing a knife to a gun fight.  For that and other reasons I have almost completely stopped playing online. According to the company,  "sometime in 2019" Holdem Manager 3 is coming out and perhaps that will solve the problem.

3. Americas Cardroom, one of the online sites on which I played, has had major lagging and crashing issues.  As with Holdem Manager, it's not just my problem.  Many players have complained or left the site.

4. I got a nasty surprise from another site, Juicy Stakes Poker.  When I was ready to withdraw about $600 from the site I found out that they charged a $250 fee for each withdrawal and that that would be the case with future withdrawals as well.*  I took my money (minus $250) off the site and closed the account.  I'm waiting for my check to come in the mail.

I am now concentrating on two things, studying and playing live tournaments.  As my online options were falling apart, the live options have greatly improved.  That will be my next post.

As, always, your questions and comments are welcome (see box below.)  I look forward to hearing from you.

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*I could avoid future withdrawal penalties if I played enough tournaments in a calendar month, but as Juicy Stakes is a low-volume site, I would be unlikely to hit those numbers. 

The Tech Nightmare Continues

It seems fitting now that many years ago I got kicked out of MENSA.  (I stopped paying dues because the local meetings were disbanded due to lack of interest.)  I'm clearly not smart enough to solve all of the technical problems that have been blowing up everything that I try to accomplish.

I really want to be able to write about poker, and to play poker.  I am months behind on my plan. My goal for the end of this year was to start with $40 and grind a bankroll of at least $1,000 on Juicy Stakes Poker.  I was hoping to then withdraw some of that money so that I could add a second poker site and/or play some live tournaments.  That goal has been put off, probably for several months.  I wanted to have multiple options and now I have none.

There isn't much more that I can say, except to show you what I just sent to the twoplustwo.com poker forums, Holdem Manager Support thread:


I have a big problem. I play on two online sites and I have problems playing on either of them.

I'm not playing on Juicy Stakes Poker because I'm waiting for an update from Holdem Manager that will allow me to use a HUD on that. That's the smaller of the two problems as I should be able to play with no problem eventually.

The big problem is that I also want to play on Americas Cardroom, and that's a mess, partly because of an emergency support session (I think that that's the right term) where the support  person fixed nothing and made it even more confusing.

When I open Holdem Manager, in the upper left corner it shows my site as Cake Poker (Juicy Stakes Poker) but I can't change it. HM2 shows that I am tracking both sites, but I can't change the display to show that I'm playing on Juicy Stakes Poker.

I played a test freeroll on Americas Cardroom yesterday and the HUD worked, but the HM2 display still showed that I was playing on Cake Poker, so I don't really know where those hands are stored.

When the support person was trying to fix that, he also did a lot of other things while I watched on Teamviewer. There was very little communication and he did things that I didn't ask or want him to do. I didn't question any of it because I didn't know what to ask.

He added a new database called Newbase and he was moving other database icons around. He changed the statistics that I was using and, I guess, he put in the stats that he thought were more important that the ones I chose. For example, he deleted my 3-bet stats and gave me an aggression factor stat, which I have never used. He was jumping all over the page moving and changing things and I had no idea what was going on. I can fix the stats but it's certainly annoying that he changed them.

He was not able to do anything about which site HM2 showed as active, but at least I got my $60 back. I have tried to do it myself. I googled "site-setup" and could not find any videos that showed how to set up two sites. The HM2 site setup video shows only one site as well.

It seems that both sites are tracking, but I'm not sure where the hands are winding up, or how reliable my HUD numbers are. Many years ago I tracked two sites and I don't remember any problems like this. I have no idea what is different, or what I might be doing wrong.

I don't really understand the relationship between the poker sites, databases and HUDs. If there is somewhere I could go to do some reading on how it all works together then maybe I could fix it. I have no clue what I'm doing and I have no idea which hands from which site(s) are supposed to go to "Newbase."

Any advice or help is appreciated.

More Bad News from Holdem Manager Support

Still another holdup with Holdem Manager support getting me back on Juicy Stakes Poker.  In fact, I was notified that nothing has been done yet.  Here is that communication, starting with post #49702 on the Holdem Manager Support thread.*

Me:  Because of a Juicy Stakes Poker update, I've been waiting for the HM2 update that will allow me to use a HUD on that site. Today I opened JSP and they have a new update. Does that affect my situation?

Holdem Manager Support:  An update from them isn't likely to fix anything for you. I just downloaded the update and tested and the HUD still doesn't work (hands do import). I left a note on HM-8966 but never got a reply so I just pinged the QA/Testing Manager directly to ask him to try and get this in front of a developer for our next beta update.

Another player:  So the issue for Intertops** still hasn't been fixed? Are they even aware of the issue?

Holdem Manager Support:  It is something we need to fix on our end in HM2. They made a change in their software that broke our HUD on the Horizon network sites. Unfortunately most sites don't let us know in advance before they make these types of changes so we have to react after the fact. I bumped the issue again with our QA/Testing Manager so hopefully he can find room in the developer's schedules to get it looked at soon finally.

So, nothing has been done. I haven't been able to play on Juicy Stakes Poker for several months, and I'm not the only player out in the wilderness, wondering when everything is going to be working again.

As always, your comments and questions are welcome (see box below.)

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*https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/167/commercial-software/holdem-manager-support-1535/index1989.html#post54401515

**Intertops is the parent company of Juicy Stakes Poker

IRS Daily Tournament Record

I'm still waiting to be able to play online poker again.  Holdem Manager has not yet matched their code to the recent Juicy Stakes Poker update, so I can't use my HUD (see previous post) and I'm not going to play without it.  I did get one small victory.  I had not been able to print my IRS daily tournament spreadsheets (see below), but I finally worked out that glitch yesterday.

Almost all income is taxable in the United States,* including income from playing a game, whether that game is professional baseball, a Scrabble tournament or poker.  Poker is my job, which for income tax purposes makes me the owner of a Schedule C business.  I have to provide information about my business income and losses.

For poker players there are other complications that I won't go into here, but the bottom line is that I want to be bulletproof if the IRS has any questions.  I use sheets like the one below, with each of the six large boxes showing all of the information for one tournament.  I have these records online as well, but the IRS loves documentation, so I'm prepared to hit them with a lot of paper which shows my numbers for every one of the hundreds of tournaments that I play in a year.  It's not a lot of work for me, I just fill it in after every tournament.

As always, your questions and comments are welcome (see box at the bottom of the page.)

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*The only exceptions that I am aware of are income from tax-free municipal bonds and military pay earned in a combat zone.

Date			Date			Date
Poker site			Poker site			Poker site
Tour. Number			Tour. Number			Tour. Number
Start			Start			Start
End			End			End
Hours			Hours			Hours
Finish place			Finish place			Finish place
Players			Players			Players
Buy-in			Buy-in			Buy-in
Rebuys			Rebuys			Rebuys
Add-ons			Add-ons			Add-ons
Re-entries			Re-entries			Re-entries
Cash			Cash			Cash
Bounties			Bounties			Bounties
Bonus			Bonus			Bonus
PROFIT/LOSS			PROFIT/LOSS			PROFIT/LOSS
Rake			Rake			Rake
FPPs			FPPs			FPPs
Date			Date			Date
Poker site			Poker site			Poker site
Tour. Number			Tour. Number			Tour. Number
Start			Start			Start
End			End			End
Hours			Hours			Hours
Finish place			Finish place			Finish place
Players			Players			Players
Buy-in			Buy-in			Buy-in
Rebuys			Rebuys			Rebuys
Add-ons			Add-ons			Add-ons
Re-entries			Re-entries			Re-entries
Cash			Cash			Cash
Bounties			Bounties			Bounties
Bonus			Bonus			Bonus
PROFIT/LOSS			PROFIT/LOSS			PROFIT/LOSS
Rake			Rake			Rake
FPPs			FPPs			FPPs