Bitcoin Forum

I enjoy playing online poker ( Texas Holdem ) and so I've decided to run a tournament with Bitcoins ! No 'real' money will change hands. We are playing for electric bottle tops only. ;D I don't encourage gambling and this will probably be a 'one-off' event for fun. Poker is a skill game anyway, like chess ;D



I will be playing and hosting the game and providing the 1000 Bitcoin added prize pool. You are trying to win my Bitcoins ! :D

So, we need another 9 forum members to participate. Entries will be on a first come, first served basis.

Please PM me with your Bitcoin address and a random 'username'. I will then PM you my Bitcoin address to send the 55 Bitcoin entry fee, you will then receive the password for the game lobby.

If a player is a 'no show' or their are less than 5 players, actual players and / or opponents will be 'made up' of computer opponents. Any Bitcoin prize that a 'computer' player should win will be equally divided by the number of actual registered players and equally returned to each participant.

Please download the free pokerTH software to get used to the client. You can also practice against the computer. We will use the 'default' IRC / server and Lobby. You can work out how to connect it through Tor if you want to remain anonymous.

Bitcoin.org or the Bitcube will be advertised in the game lobby whilst we are playing !  8)

If their is not enough interest or participants I will consider canceling or changing the date / time.

Thank you.

BitcoinFX.

This is a great idea, thanks for putting it together. I don't know how to play TH though. maybe I will join anyway.

You can familiarize yourself with the game, rules, probability and hand rankings etc. http://wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_poker_hands

The free open source software 'PokerTH' also has a built in 'chance-o-meter'

You can change your username in 'settings'

In a 10-Max game starting 'playable' hands would probably be:

AA   KK   QQ   JJ   TT   99   88   77   66   55   44   33   22

A9s A8s A7s A6s A5s A4s A3s A2s

AKs AKo AQs AQo AJs AJo ATs ATo

KQs KQo KJs KJo KTs KTo K9s

QJs QJo QTs QTo

JTs JTo

T9s

98s

87s

Any hand with an Ace can be good if you 'hit' on the board. Suited starting hands are always better than off-suit. Low ranking suited connectors can be worth playing sometimes i.e. 76s 54s.

It is better to play few hands in an 'aggressive' fashion. The game is often referred to as 'Texas Fold'em'.

However, its not the winning, but the taking part that counts. Just a fun opportunity to use our Bitcoins.

OK we have 3 players (hopefully) including myself.

This is taking place this Sat. 20th March 2010 at 3pm ET.

We need a minimum of 5 players.

Anyone else ?

You could always register as an intentional 'no show' and hope that the computer replacement opponents beat all the human players ! :D Bitcoins FTW

I'm in.
Come on now everybody, do something with all those bitcoins you've been collecting.

Sure, I'll play and lose some. ;D

Thanks dwdollar. P.S. I will get around to registering on your Bitcoin Market this weekend.

OK all I will PM the pokerTH lobby password and my Bitcoin address for the entry fee in a hope that we get a few more players.

Remember that the game will not appear in the lobby before I log in to create it ! Around 15 mins before the start time i.e. no pre-registration is required.

Please PM me back when you have sent the 55 bitcoin entry fee with your 'username' and a bitcoin address for any winnings !

Thanks.

I sent you the Bitcoins and a PM, but I'm not sure if you got the PM.  Nothing is showing up in my outbox.  Is anyone else having this problem?

Nothing's saved to your outbox unless you select the "save to outbox" option. This can be changed in the settings.

I will be participating in the tournament. You'll probably all slaughter me, though.  :)

Oh I see it now, thanks.

The "Worlds First Sudo-Anonymous Online Poker Tourament" was played with much success. Everyone expressed their enjoyment and we discussed the possibility of holding further event(s) A big thank you to those who took part and to those who expressed interest, but were not able to participate.

Congratulations to our winner dwdollar !!!

Total Prize Pool 1200 bitcoins (4 'real' players)

1st - dwdollar - 600 BTC

2nd - theymos - 325 BTC

3rd - BitcoinFX - 175 BTC

4th - Computer6

5th - Computer5

6th - Computer3

7th - Computer2

8th - DannyM - 100 BTC

9th - Computer4

10th - Computer1

As there were only 4 'real' players and 3 of us finished in the top 3, we agreed that instead of doing a 4 way split on the 4th place prize (won by Computer6), that DannyM should receive the entire 4th place prize.

It was a very unlucky hand DannyM ;)

...

dwdollar was 'un-stopable' for most of the Tourney after taking out 3 computer players in one hand and gaining a monster chip lead.

RIVER [board cards 2h,Kh,Jd,Tc,9h]
Computer3 has [ 6d,Kd] - One Pair, Kings
Computer5 has [ 8d,Js] - One Pair, Jacks
Computer6 has [ Td,Jc] - Two Pairs, Jacks and Tens
dwdollar has [ Jh,Ks] - Two Pairs, Kings and Jacks

dwdollar wins $80150 <<<
Computer3 sits out
Computer5 sits out
Computer6 sits out

...

I'm about to send out the Bitcoin 'winnings', so please confirm that you have received them.

8)

Received. Thanks!

Received thanks. We'll do it again.

Is this going to happen again?

If you organize something again I would participate.

I would too.
Maybe I should host one, (I wont play myself, to avoid "scamming" claims), anyone interested?

If you are hosting the 'private' game on pokerTH then you have to play in it. PokerTH uses a RNG just like any 'real' online poker software, so it's completely fair anyway.

As I hosted the last one and now that we have more fellow 'Bitcoiners' I would be more than happy to host another one ? I suggest the same format as the previous one ( so that newcomers can get used to it ) i.e. 55 Bitcoin entry fee and I will provide an additional 1000 Bitcoins for the prize pool.

So, how about Sat. 29th of May 2010 at 3PM ET ? Please send me a PM if you would be interested in playing in this 2nd tournament.

Thanks.

BitcoinFX.

Any more pokerth action goin on ... ? :)

If someone organizes, I'm in for any stakes.

Im in ... small stakes to start with please :)

Would be nice to make this regular?

Fix'd.

I just got private tournament creation privileges at Poker Stars. The lowest stakes are $1 + .10 fee. I would gladly send a dollar for Bitcoins at a very good rate. Poker stars software is topnotch. I will also cash the winner back to Bitcoins if they wish.

Let me know if this sounds good.

Do stars take a rake?

Seems like a lot of transactions.  Kind of defeats the object :)

pokerth.net is pretty decent now ... you can play 2 - 10 players

If anyone fancies a quick game of 1 on 1 (heads up) ... would love to give it a try :)

Yes Stars rakes. They don't rake transactions though, those are free. We could wager privately though and only play the lowest stakes there which would cost 10 cents each.

Until a Bitcoin poker client is set up we will need to manually transfer all entry fees and winnings anyway. 

pokerth now has ranking, yay!

http://pokerth.biz/

that will make life easier ...

When's the next one? Definitely looks interesting!

Holy crap count me in.

Maybe we should start with some 'freerolls' to get the game going ... I'd donate 1BTC to a freeroll jackpot ...

Which days can you play?  FIll in the doodle poll.

http://www.doodle.com/cnrz8anc4t5nw4rs

I suggest a time of 6PM EST?

I'm a college student, so I'd prefer to play during the week... don't want to cut into my bar time at all hahah.
Also, 1800(6PM) EST is like 1500(3PM) PST, which kind of screws over out brethren on the west coast/in the rockies.  Might I suggest 1900(7PM) EST?  That would give them some more time to get home.  I'm in Minnesota though, so it doesn't bother me at all.

Played 3 games (with eps) on headsup today ... was pretty fun! :)

Next game scheduled for Thursday ... around 5PM uk time (I think that's 5 hours behind EST, so midday EST).

Would be great to have some more people play ... let's chat on IRC too ,,,

Imma post a link to: Topic: Why do we talk about Laszlos pizza but not the 1000 BTC poker tournament ? - here to clarify some history...

Why do we talk about Laszlos pizza but not the 1000 BTC poker tournament ?
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4719415.0

Due to linked references in this article;
Bitcoin History Part 14: The 1,000 BTC Poker Game
- https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-history-part-14-the-1000-btc-poker-game/
(Also, not the 'first bitcoin to fiat exchange' service as NewLibertyStandard exchange / rates was before 'BitcoinFX'.)

Transactions were made from this 'old' wallet ...
Verifying my (old) zero balance wallet address for blockchain research etc.,
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4630066.0

BTC FTW. Win some, lose some! 'Fun' times and C'est la vie...

P.S. I no longer play much Texas Holdem, much of my original interest came from the math and botting (poker robot) side of things.

P.P.S. Don't tap on the glass, it spooks the fish.