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.