PokerDominator Weblog

Low Limit Poker with the Family

Sun, 04 Mar 2007 13:13:00 -0400

About twice per year, the men of our family get together for some poker. We play low limit to keep it “friendly.” I say “friendly” because when you get brothers together, there is always a fair amount of competition…and it bleeds thru to our poker game. There’s never any trouble, just a fair amount of name-calling and belching in the general direction of the person who took a pot from you. “High quality family time” (read “happy hour”) begins at about 7 pm and continues until sometime between 3 and 5 am. This particular game ran until 5am…which doesn’t make my wife too happy, but she generally understands it’s only twice per year.

We typically play hold’em, pineapple, Omaha, Omaha hi/lo, 5 card stud and 7 card stud (with a stupid wildcard variant every now and then). I’m not a huge fan of the wild card games like baseball…mostly because I always seem to get burned when I have quad aces, running into straight flushes like a champ! This always brings out the name-calling: “cork soaker”, “farging icehole”, “c0ck block”, “f%^kstick”…you get the idea. During these low limit games, I’m not there to make money, so I will see about 80% of the flops. Nothing makes me happier than taking down a pot from my brothers with 59off.

Here are some of the memorable hands:

Playing Omaha, I’m in the big blind, brother #1 raises, cousin #1 calls from middle position, father in-law calls from the button. I haven’t looked at my cards yet, but I tell brother #1 “I’m calling blind cuz you know that I own you tonight.” The flop comes 10♣ Q♥ Q♠, I still haven’t looked at my cards, so I check. Bro #1 bets, cousin #1 folds, father in-law calls, I decide to look at my cards, squeezing them one at a time. First card – 4, second card Q, third card 5, fourth card Q. DAMN. Is there a better feeling than knowing you have the nuts? I call. Turn comes 8♣. Bro #1 bets, father-in-law calls, I raise, bro #1 re-raises, FiL folds, I cap it. River is 3♣. I bet, bro #1 raises, I re-raise, he calls and says “I suppose you have the one hand that will beat me, you have the full house, right?” Me: “Well, I don’t have a full house, but I think I have another hand that will beat you.” Bro #1: “Every f$%king time, you are the cooler.” That’s right, Snapper, now slide those chips my way.

Later in the night, as the low limit stragglers bust out and don’t buy back in, we decide to switch it up and play some no limit hold ‘em. By this time, I’m 3 sheets to the wind, feelin’ no pain and up a fair amount, so it was cool by me. Two hands into NL, here’s how it went: Bro #1 raises to 3x BB and gets 3 callers (myself included from SB with 10♣ 8♣). Flop comes 4 Q Q. I check, Bro #1 bets 3x BB, MP folds, FiL raises 5x Bro #1’s bet, I fold, Bro #1 says “I’m calling no matter what you bet.” Turn comes J. I’m thinking that at least one of them has the Q when Bro #1 says “I’m all in” for about 2/3 of the pot. FiL looks at his hole cards and calls immediately (he has Bro #1 covered). Bro # 1 flips over 6 6 and FiL flips over J J for the boat, river didn’t matter. Bro #1 muddles something under his breath, then goes to crash on the couch. 66? WTF? Definitely not a move I would have made at that point, but what the heck do I know?

Four handed, I’m in the SB with AA. Cousin #1 calls, FiL calls from the button, I raise to 10x BB. Cousin #2 calls from the BB, cousin #1 folds, FiL calls. Flop comes 4 A 10. I hate this flop…hate it. So, I move all in for about 2x the pot. Cousin #2 thinks about it, then calls. FiL folds. Cousin #2turns over 39. Huh? I seriously did a full on Scooby Doo “RRRHUH?” Ballsy, stupid, bonehead, whatever name you give him, I prefer Cousin #2 who politely waits for the perfect opportunity to dump his chips in my lap. Turn was the 10 and that’s all she wrote.

Around 4:45am, we decide that we will only play until 5am. Around 4:50 (playing 3 handed), the following hand takes place: I’m in the SB with Q9. FiL raises to 2x BB from the button, I call and cousin #1 calls. All skate and here comes my dream flop: J 10 8. Honestly, I had to look at my cards twice to make sure I wasn’t looking at them wrong from all the Coronas. I check, cousin #1 bets 2/3 of the pot, FiL re-raises to 5x c#1’s bet, I think about it for a few seconds and then raise to 2x FiL’s bet. Cousin #1 calls all in for about half of my bet and FiL calls also. Turn is 7. I push all-in for about ¾ of the pot. FiL takes his sweet time counting out the chips then pushes them into the pot (he had me covered). Cousin #1 turns over Q3 for an overcard and a prayer and FiL turns over JJ for top trips and I have to sweat the last card. River is a freaking……………4. I take down the biggest pot ever at our family game. I have mixed feelings about this…I had no real desire to make money, but the competitive side has a way of taking over and making me try as hard as I can to win any pot whether it’s $2 or $300…I just want to win.

Backup My Session Tracking Data

Sun, 04 Mar 2007 13:05:00 -0400

PokerDominator allows you to create a csv (comma separated values) file of your sessions to save to your computer. The csv file can be viewed with most spreadsheet programs or a text editor.

To create the backup, click on the “Sessions” tab.
Notice the link at the top right of the Sessions tab. Does it say, “Filter is OFF” or “Filter is ON”? “Filter is OFF” means the export will include ALL sessions you have entered. “Filter is ON” means the export will only include the sessions that are a part of the current filter. To turn off the filter, click on “Filter is ON”. This will take you to the filter section…click on the “TURN FILTER OFF” link.
Once you have applied the filter you like, click on the “Export Sessions” link at the top left of the Sessions tab. Clicking this link will open the export screen (see below) where you will be able to select the fields you wish to export.
By default, most of the typical fields are checked. You may add or remove any fields you wish. Once you have finished selecting the fields, click the Submit button.
A screen will appear explaining how many sessions have been exported. To download the file, click on the link provided.

How can I speed up new session entry?

Fri, 26 Jan 2007 23:28:00 -0400

PokerDominator's Session Tracking gives you a great method to track your poker sessions. Giving you up to 18 points of session detail, the entry can be tedious. Well, there's good news! PokerDominator.com has incorporated a feature we call "Session Templates". Session Templates allow you to store most of your common session statistics for quick recall later. Session detail stored in session templates includes: Location, game type, ring/tourney, tournament placement, tournament type, number of players, number of tables, structure, limit, opponent level, time spent, buy in and cash out.

You say "Wow, cool feature, but what sort of hoops do I have to jump through to get it?" to which I reply, "a caveman can do it…no offense to those snaggle-toothed cavemen, of course." To create a session template, go to the "Add New Session" tab and simply enter all of the fields as you typically would. At the bottom of the new session form, you will see a check box titled "Check this box to save this session as a Session Template". Place a check in this box. When you do this, a new text box will appear below titled "Session Template Name". Type a name that will define the session template for you. Examples of template names: Absolute Poker 3/6 6max, PokerStars SNG 10+1 1st Place, Home Tourney $30 Rebuy.

To use session templates, go to the "Add New Session" tab. You will notice there is now a drop down list box titled "Use a Session Template" above the new session form. To use a template, select it from the drop down list box. The appropriate fields will automatically be filled in with the values you saved for the template.

To delete session templates you will no longer use, you may click on the "Edit Templates" link at the top of the "Add New Session" tab. Once the templates are displayed, you can click on the "Delete" link to remove the template.

To edit the name of a template, click the "Edit Templates" link mentioned above. Once the templates are displayed, click the "Edit" link. Edit the template name as you see fit.

How can I graph Poker Tracker data?

Fri, 26 Jan 2007 23:28:00 -0400

PokerDominator.com Session Tracking allows you to import your Poker Tracker data (Hold'em Ring/Tournament and Omaha Ring). Importing your data into PokerDominator gives you the ability to summarize your data in many ways(winrate, roi, etc.) It also gives you access to up to 40 different charts and many useful and insightful summary reports.   Import your hold'em ring and tournament sessions as well as Omaha ring sessions.

To begin, you will need to import your Poker Tracker data into PokerDominator.com. Please note: there are a large number of steps, but they are meant to explain every detail of the process…once you go thru the steps once, it's typically about a 2 minute process from start to finish. To do this:

   1. Open Poker Tracker
   2. For ring games: click on the Ring Game Statistics Icon. For tournaments: click on the Tournament Statistics Icon.
   3. Make sure the current profile is YOUR profile (click on the My Stats button at the top left of the statistics page). Otherwise, you will be importing someone else's sessions.
   4. Filter your sessions as you like in the Preferences tab. Filtering by date is the preferred method.
   5. Click on the Session Notes tab for ring games or Tourney Notes tab for tournaments.
   6. IMPORTANT: FOLLOW THIS STEP CLOSELY. For ring games: in the Session Notes tab, click on the "p" button above the session detail section. For tournaments: in the Tourney Notes tab, be sure to check the "Show Time/WR" box then click on the "p" button above the tournament detail section. This will open the print window.
   7. In the print window, click on the "Export" button. Doing so will open the Export window.
   8. In the Export window, find the "File Type" section and select "Comma Separated". BE SURE TO LEAVE ALL OF THE EXPORT FIELDS AND "INCLUDE HEADERS" CHECKED.
   9. Next, still in the Export window, find the File Name To Export To box and click the "Browse" button located next to it.
10. When the Browse dialog appears, you will need to type a name for the file (ex. ptexport) and select a folder to store this file. Then click the "OK" button. IMPORTANT: Be sure to remember where this file is stored, you will need to recall it when uploading it into PokerDominator.
11. Now, back at the Export Window, click the "Export" button.
12. Log into PokerDominator.com's Session Tracking. Click on the "Import Data" tab. Click on the "Import from Poker Tracker Session Export" link.
13. Select the type of sessions you are importing. (Hold'em Ring, Hold'em Tournaments or Omaha Ring)
14. For ring games: In the "Multiply big bet by this number to determine buy in amount" box, enter a number to use for calculating the buy in. Buy in is not specified in the export from PT. Example: you played a 1/2 session and the Multiple you entered was 25...the buy in would show up as $50. For tournaments: In the "Average number of hours you spend on the a tournament" box, enter an estimate of the average number of hours you spent on the tournaments you are importing. This is necessary because PT does not export the stop time for the tournaments.
15. Place checks in the boxes for information you want to include in the Notes Field of each session.
16. In the "Select your .csv file" box, click on the "Browse" button and locate the file you created in step 10.
17. Click the Import button.
18. PokerDominator will display the number of sessions imported.
19. Click on the "Summary" tab to begin analyzing your sessions.

Using Poker Tracking Software to Choose the Right Game For You

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 08:57:00 -0400

I was a little surprised to learn that No-Limit Hold'em wasn't the game for me. I had always fancied myself a purist and stayed away from Limit Hold'em, variants of Omaha and I shied well away from HORSE, RAZZ and especially 7-Card Stud. When I joined PokerDominator.com and started tracking my play using their session tracking features, I decided to vary my play a little and see which game best suited my style of play, discipline, mentality, etc.

As it turns out, I am a much better $10/20 Limit Hold'em player than any other game. I played ring games, multi-table tournaments, and sit-n-go's in all shapes and sizes and all different limits (including pot and no-limit). My $5/10 play wasn't horrible; I actually made a good hourly return. But based on my session results gathered by inputting all of my play using the poker session templates , I found that my greatest hourly return in any one game was at the $10/20 game.

Here's the other funny thing I noticed: when I tracked the time played, which is part of the poker tracking software at PokerDominator.com, I saw a steady pattern of wins and losses based on the amount of time I spent playing. For example, if I stayed to long (say 10 hours) or only stayed for 30 minutes, my results were really poor because I either became fatigued/bored or was too aggressive trying to make a big hit quick. That's another topic for another time, so stay tuned.