Here is what Lorenz B from Germany had to say after using the Betting Tree to study one of his usual heads up opponents :
"with the tree i saw his leaks exactly and knew how to exploit him"
Below is the graph of their match, which was long and choppy... until we did a session analyzing together the betting tree for those first 17000 hands. Then the graph pretty much speaks for itself.
This was playing 1-2 NL and 2-4 NL heads up. Lorenz made 3100 $ on this match, of which 2500 $ came on the last bit after studying the Betting Tree.
05/12/2010 - Beyond procedural memory
Most poker players would love to be able to get by using procedural memory alone. This is the term psychologists use to describe the step-by-step part of our reasoning, typically the one used when we play on auto-pilot. Wouldn't it be great ? To have one's edge hard-wired into long term memory, and to be able to repeat it over and over on 24 tables until all the riches of the poker world amass themselves in front of us. However, procedural memory is only half the battle. Actually, maybe a lot less than half. Once the fixed part of our game has been dished out, like a chess opening, we still need to use our ability to project what's going to happen in different scenarios, using an updated model of what our opponents are likely to have and do. If our brain is well disposed, this will result in accurate prediction of the ev of different lines, all performed in parralel and before we run out of time bank. But this does take a lot more effort, in the form of mental exertion, than reciting what we know about poker. And, to make things worse, out ability to perform in such a way varies over time, depending on sleep, stress, swings, a whole variety of factors. People who suck at chess like to point out that they don't know opening theory. I suspect I, a recreational player, would have no chance in a chess game against Niman, a former Master. If I was allowed to use the whole opening tree that comes with my chess program, I would still have no chance, it would just let me get into a middle game position that will be just as demanding on tactical ability and strategical understanding. Similarly, poker players won't be handled the keys to the kingdom just by watching a bunch of videos or buying an expensive e-book. That will just take them to the point where they have to rely on the form of intelligence that poker takes. Scary, isn't it ?
05/04/2010 - I joined Bluefirepoker as a video instructor
My first video my Phil Galfond just went up !
04/06/2010 - The Megareport
Pushing Holdem Manager query technology to the limit, I created a query that lets you know everything you need to know about your regular opponents, and then some :
The query takes 2 player names as arguments, the second one usually being yourself. However in this example I use two high volume Pokerstars players, nanonoko and punketty.
So here, the "vs Me" stats will actually show how nanonoko plays when punketty is left to act. For instance, you can notice that on average, nano opens 48% of small blinds, but will open 90% when the BB is punketty !
Then you get a breakdown by position and stack size, as well as a few useful postflop stats, also specific to situations where player1 acts facing player2.
03/30/2010 - holdem with a two card flop !
Full Tilt has the best client software out there, but occasionally it won't get the memory it needs and weird things will happen : here I'm playing while only seeing two of the flop cards. Fortunately, this is a capped game and I have a play that is decent for the range of possible flops : I check-raised all in and won the pot. Only after did I discover the missing card in the HUD : another 5.
Welcome to PokerNerdz !
Our mission : help poker players reach their full potential
How we do it : by using the scientific method. Game theory and statistics give us our framework of analysis. We believe such a perspective allows players to develop faster than if they were just using trial and error while playing a lot of hands.
If you are analytically minded and want to improve your poker, please join us !
Alix Martin
