Poker: hands analysis, useful stuff and general discussions

[HugoStiglitz]

Hi all.

I have been playing poker for 9 years and still love the game very much. However, today I don't have enough time to play, so I need some other ways to maintain my skill in this fastly developing poker world. As far as I know, there is a big amount of ex or current poker players of different level here, so it would be great, if we start a topic to ask for any kind of related advice, sharing useful material of how to improve your game and general discussions about the latest news.

To begin with, I would like to share a list of different stuff, which I still consider to be great despite reducing of poker role in my life (no referral links)
If you want me to add anything, feel free to write about it in the topic.


Educational resources

1. For beginners.
1.1. PokerStrategy
1.2. PokerStarsSchool

2. RunItOnce
An educational site by Phil Galfond - PLO legend, who has been one of the most dangerous high stakes regulars for many years.

3. UpswingPoker
Training courses by Doug Polk and other top players.

4. ThePokerBank (Thanks for user eternalgloom, who provided the link here)
A very nice site/blog by a passionate guy, who claims to have started it in 2007. It can be really valuable for beginners, but I think others may also find here something useful.


Useful soft

1.1. Holdem Manager. (You can get it free by finishing the official promo on HM website)
1.2. PokerTracker.
The most popular programs to collect statistics and output it in HUD on a table.

2. Flopzilla.
The best program to improve understanding of ranges.

3. CardRunnersEV.
Calculation of EV in Holdem with very easy and practical interface.

4.1. ICMIZER
4.2. HoldemResources
4.3. SimpleNash (free, but less functional)
ICM and push-or-fold calculators

5. StackAndTile
Very simple, but useful soft to make multi-tabling easier.

6. GTO software
6.1. PioSolver
6.2. SimplePostflop
Little discussion about GTO here

7. StarsHelper (Thanks for user crydevil_crypto, who reminded me about it here)
Great and fast program for comfortable playing at Pokerstars. It will take a lot of time and text to name all its functions, so if you are interested, visit the link above.

8. StarsCaption (Thanks for user crydevil_crypto, who reminded me about it here)
Has a lot in common with StarsHelper, but less functional and more simple.

9. 888Caption
Same, as StarsCaption, but for 888.

10. PartyCaption
Same, as StarsCaption and 888Caption, but for PartyPoker.

11. Jivaro (Thanks for user crydevil_crypto, who reminded me about it here)
Outputting stats on your opponents and information about current sessions on the table for PokerStars. Doesn't need an installation of any databases, like HM and PT.

12. Hand2Note
Much more powerful than HM and PT stats collecting and outputting soft. I've never used it, so it will be better if you read about all its advantages in the guide on the website.


Stacking and coaching teams

1. bitB Stacking (MTT team founded by Patrick Leonard aka "Pleno1", "pads1161")
2. FunFarm (The biggest Russian MTT team)
3. SmartSpin (Spin&Go team)
4. StealPhoenix (The best Russian Spin&Go team)


Tracking online results

1. SharkScope
The best site to check statistic of online MTT and Sit&Go with a great number of filters, ratings, and leaderboards

2. OfficialPokerRankings
Another convenient resource, where you can find player's results in 36+ players tournament on PokerStars, PartyPoker, FullTilt, and Carbon.

3. Whotfru
Checking results in online cash games. Registration is available only with an invite from another user (I don't have such invites because I play online cash very rarely)


Interesting web pages connected to poker

1. TwoPlusTwo
Legendary forum, where you can find nearly everything you want about poker

2. Gipsyteam
The biggest Russian poker site, where I lost a big part of my youth.

3. Doug Polk Poker
To my mind, the best poker vlog in the net. If you are keen on poker, there is no need to tell, who is Doug Polk. His videos are as great as his high stakes results. Moreover, he also has a channel about crypto.

4. joeingram1
Another nice channel with a ton of extremely interesting interviews. Joe has already invited such well-known poker personalities as Phil Galfond, Mike McDonald, Bill Perkins and many many others.

5. Dusk Till Dawn
Broadcasts of PartyPoker live events.

6. Pokerstars Youtube channel
A big number of various videos including broadcasts from PokerStars live events.

7. PokerShares
Investing in famous players by buying shares. Founded by Mike McDonald and his friends.

8. Gripsed Poker Training (Thanks for user SyGambler, who provided the link here)
A nine years old youtube channel. It consists of streams, reviews, manuals for poker soft and different basic concepts, which may be very helpful for beginners.

9. TheHendonMob
A database of live tournaments results and schedules

10.1. Pokerdope cash game variance calculator
10.2. Pokerdope tournament variance calculator
A great tool to calculate probability of up streaks and down streaks of different length


P.S. I have few hands, which I would like to analyze, and some topics I want to discuss. However, I think it would better other users to choose opening theme here. Waiting for the feedback  

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[Don Pedro Dinero]

I think it is useful as a general info. For someone beginning from 0 I think it is better to start with an OR table and value betting, but not yet using Poker Tracker or Holdem Manager.

I would like to help as well.

[HugoStiglitz]

I think it is useful as a general info. For someone beginning from 0 I think it is better to start with an OR table and value betting, but not yet using Poker Tracker or Holdem Manager.

I would like to help as well.

You are right. Beginners are also welcome for discussion for sure. I added another little section in the first post with some educational sites.

[BillCoin]

Very informative!
I have a question for you, as a formal poker player, do you believe that you can actually be a poker player as a job if you don't have a large amount of money to start with?
I mean, I know you can earn tickets through satelites, but isn't the game is about 60-65 % based on luck?
What do you think that is the luck rate of the game?
Quite interested to know as poker is illegal on some countries because it is being counted as a luck based game and not as a skill based game.

[milewilda]

Very informative!
I have a question for you, as a formal poker player, do you believe that you can actually be a poker player as a job if you don't have a large amount of money to start with?
I mean, I know you can earn tickets through satelites, but isn't the game is about 60-65 % based on luck?
What do you think that is the luck rate of the game?
Quite interested to know as poker is illegal on some countries because it is being counted as a luck based game and not as a skill based game.

Most of us doesnt believe about making gambling as a job but there are players who can able to do such thing,towards on the thing you are asking on here it is really possible that someone can able to do such thing where they do play on daily basis on making out money which can be compared as a job.It do sounds unbelievable but it is possible.

Luck rate of the game?Most of the time it would be random on how knowledgeable and skillful you are when it comes on card handling which you can able to utilize your winning percentage depending on how you do handle it.Luck will be always for a complete recipe but when it comes to game it would not be a major thing.

This is a very good and useful stuff for newbie people who do start to learn up poker.

[8Habits]

I give you 1 merit for sharing and curating important information about poker. At the moment, as much as I want to learn it, I fight that emotion as I really want to be gambling free and just focus on my important projects but yes, this comes handy to those people who are having lots of time and is considering to make playing poker a living.

[HugoStiglitz]

Very informative!
I have a question for you, as a formal poker player, do you believe that you can actually be a poker player as a job if you don't have a large amount of money to start with?

Yes, poker definitely can be a job, but for the majority of pros, it becomes tougher year after year. You can start if you don't have a large amount of money, but be ready to work hard.

I mean, I know you can earn tickets through satelites, but isn't the game is about 60-65 % based on luck?
What do you think that is the luck rate of the game?

The game is based on luck on a short distance and based on skill on a long distance. The more you play, the more chances you have to reach your EV. Nevertheless, it's very important to remember about a big number of skillful players, who can't do it because of getting unlucky time after time in important moments.

As for the luck rate, it fully depends on the kind of game you play. For example, PLO is an extremely unstable game with large streaks up and down, but it is exactly what opens a wide range of ways to get an advantage over your opponents. Similar situation for multi-table tournaments. Tournaments with massive fields depend on luck much more than small ones, but if you are experienced in playing late stage, it can give you a big advantage over less experienced players.

Quite interested to know as poker is illegal on some countries because it is being counted as a luck based game and not as a skill based game.

It's one of the biggest problems for modern online poker. The USA was banned 7 years ago, somewhere about that France, Italy and Spain were also excluded from the common pool. Nearly a month ago Pokerstars finally opened Pokerstars.es platform, where Spanish and French players can play with others, but this site is still independent from .com and there is much less number of players and not so wide range of games available here. However, it was one of the best news for online poker for many years.

[michkima]

Nice compilation OP.

About the topic of poker, a friend of mine is in the business of employing good poker players and giving them bankroll to play and he mentioned something about Game Theory Optimal. He was describing it as a software but I heard of this theory in my business class. So I am not sure what it is. He goes on to saying that he needs an extremely large cloud computer to handle the computations since the software needs a lot of RAM to be able to compute faster.

Are you familiar with it?

[HugoStiglitz]

Nice compilation OP.

About the topic of poker, a friend of mine is in the business of employing good poker players and giving them bankroll to play and he mentioned something about Game Theory Optimal. He was describing it as a software but I heard of this theory in my business class. So I am not sure what it is. He goes on to saying that he needs an extremely large cloud computer to handle the computations since the software needs a lot of RAM to be able to compute faster.

Are you familiar with it?

I've read a lot about it but never worked with such programs.

If I understand it correctly, the theory is based on simulating a zero-sum game situation. This is important in improving comprehension of how to exploit your opponent's mistakes and making your own strategy less exploited when you play against top players. It's really complicated software and experienced players, who are strong in poker maths advice not to use it without a full understanding of what and where to implement.

Two most popular GTO programs for NL Holdem today are SimplePostflop and PioSolver. As I wrote, I've never worked with it, but I heard that the biggest coaching and staking teams, like bitB, FunFarm, StealPhoenix and SmartSpin rent servers entirely for calculation in SP and Pio.

[tokeweed]

Any suggestions for where we can play poker with BTC that's safe from collusion and bots?  I think BTC poker sites will especially be infested by bots and collusion since they don't require documents.

Go to joeingram1's channel as suggested above.  Look for the video about bots.  I won't say which poker site he outed, but you see their rep here in the gambling section. 

[eternalgloom]

That's already a pretty impressive list, but there's one resource missing that I've personally been using extensively over the past couple of years.
http://www.thepokerbank.com/ -- It's a website that teaches you all of the basic concepts, as well as some advanced ones. It's completely free.

I think that most players must have seen this website at some point, because they top the Google results for some popular queries

[HugoStiglitz]

That's already a pretty impressive list, but there's one resource missing that I've personally been using extensively over the past couple of years.
http://www.thepokerbank.com/ -- It's a website that teaches you all of the basic concepts, as well as some advanced ones. It's completely free.

I think that most players must have seen this website at some point, because they top the Google results for some popular queries

Thanks a lot, the link is added in OP. I am sure it will be really valuable for beginners and maybe for some others too. If this guy doesn't lie about creating the blog in 2007, his passion deserves a great respect)

Any suggestions for where we can play poker with BTC that's safe from collusion and bots?  I think BTC poker sites will especially be infested by bots and collusion since they don't require documents.

Go to joeingram1's channel as suggested above.  Look for the video about bots.  I won't say which poker site he outed, but you see their rep here in the gambling section. 

You mean this video, right?

[SyGambler]

great thread by the way , info and details about poker or any other type of gambling are always welcome here
I would recommend listing Gripsed youtube channel , it's so far one of the largest free resources in youtube where you can find almost everything related to poker starting from mindset to some big tournies hands review

the channel isn't that active these days but the old videos are up and they are useful

[michkima]

Nice compilation OP.

About the topic of poker, a friend of mine is in the business of employing good poker players and giving them bankroll to play and he mentioned something about Game Theory Optimal. He was describing it as a software but I heard of this theory in my business class. So I am not sure what it is. He goes on to saying that he needs an extremely large cloud computer to handle the computations since the software needs a lot of RAM to be able to compute faster.

Are you familiar with it?

I've read a lot about it but never worked with such programs.

If I understand it correctly, the theory is based on simulating a zero-sum game situation. This is important in improving comprehension of how to exploit your opponent's mistakes and making your own strategy less exploited when you play against top players. It's really complicated software and experienced players, who are strong in poker maths advice not to use it without a full understanding of what and where to implement.

Two most popular GTO programs for NL Holdem today are SimplePostflop and PioSolver. As I already wrote, I've never worked with it, but I heard that the biggest coaching and staking teams, like bitB, FunFarm, StealPhoenix and SmartSpin rent servers entirely for calculation in SP and Pio.

That was what I was told, he's been scouring the internet to find a VPS with at least 500GB of RAM just for the computations of the software. Not even sure if that was available anywhere. I'll probably do some more research on it, since it's quite interesting. I'm not very much a poker player as I don't really employ any form of knowledge. I just play for fun on free stuff. Probably with these information I could improve my game.

[HugoStiglitz]

great thread by the way , info and details about poker or any other type of gambling are always welcome here
I would recommend listing Gripsed youtube channel , it's so far one of the largest free resources in youtube where you can find almost everything related to poker starting from mindset to some big tournies hands review

the channel isn't that active these days but the old videos are up and they are useful

Nice one, thanks, the information is added in the OP

[tokeweed]

Lol.  Joe Ingram looks like he's having a mental break down in this vid. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHP2F9auRco

Now this is impressive work by him.  America's Cardroom explosed one of the Winning Poker skins of cheating.  Watch it.  Good job by ACR and Joe Ingram.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhNANPYPsX8

[serjent05]

Thanks for this guide and information, I have never played poker because of the lack of knowledge on strategy and even basic knowledge.  I am thankful that you had breakdown information about playing poker and strategy to use when playing against a certain guy.  Again thank you for this wonderful information.

[yvesp110]

Lol.  Joe Ingram looks like he's having a mental break down in this vid. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHP2F9auRco

Now this is impressive work by him.  America's Cardroom explosed one of the Winning Poker skins of cheating.  Watch it.  Good job by ACR and Joe Ingram.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhNANPYPsX8

Poker is all about cheating but one must make sure that he does not get caught while doing so. A poker player needs to cheat his opponents in order to win. That is the trick of the game. If the guy was really able to fool many people around and name victory, he must be a good bluffer and smart out others at understanding the mind and nature of human beings. This is the only gambling game that is fun and deserves some time.

[HugoStiglitz]

Poker is all about cheating but one must make sure that he does not get caught while doing so. A poker player needs to cheat his opponents in order to win. That is the trick of the game. If the guy was really able to fool many people around and name victory, he must be a good bluffer and smart out others at understanding the mind and nature of human beings. This is the only gambling game that is fun and deserves some time.

I completely disagree with you. To my mind, there is nothing common between bluffing and cheating. I suppose, that every online pro and the majority of amateurs are totally against getting advantage by any way, which doesn't belong to a technical part of the game or reading live-tells. How can you know if these players are related to America's Cardroom or their staff or not? In this case, I consider the situation to be a fraud, if it isn't so, it's also pity that so big and well-named room has such shameful bugs in their software. I think, this method of getting advantage isn't connected to a poker skill and the main question is how big was a role of America's Cardroom in the story?

[Direwolve735]

great thread by the way , info and details about poker or any other type of gambling are always welcome here
I would recommend listing Gripsed youtube channel , it's so far one of the largest free resources in youtube where you can find almost everything related to poker starting from mindset to some big tournies hands review

the channel isn't that active these days but the old videos are up and they are useful

Poker is one of my favorite game. Most of all I like the way people skillfully hide their emotions during the game. I mean, you can know people you play with for many years but while you are sitting at the gambling table, people become completely different. I love Gripsed Poker Training channel very much. This is great that the service focuses not only on the actual process of the game, but also considers such important points as lifestyle and psychology of the player. Video organically connects the theory and practice of playing poker, which allows both newbies to master the game, and professionals to develop their skills.