Sean Poker

Away From The Tables

Sean — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:11:40 +0000

Away

Been away from the tables lately, spending some time reading, traveling and seeing family and friends. I have a pending review of Hold’em Forge, a game theory analysis software that seems interesting; just started toying with it and comparing some results with StoxEV.

I also intend to go on with the PLO combinatorics articles pretty soon, so be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed or Twitter if you’d like to know when they are out!

Book Review: The Poker Blueprint

Sean — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:37:26 +0000

A guide for micro-stakes.

Micro-stakes poker is generally dismissed as a simple case of playing solid poker and value-betting your opponents to death. It certainly makes sense, but you still have to know how to play solid poker and how to value-bet appropriately. In other words, you must get the basics right.

That is what Aaron Davis and Tri Nguyen address with their ebook, The Poker Blueprint.

Aaron, a student of Tri, is still relatively unknown on the poker scene; however, it should not be a real concern for micro-stakes content. As for Tri, you can check the previous reviews of DailyVariance books on this blog.

The Poker Blueprint is 168 page, divided into 13 main chapters. Maths, preflop and postflop game are the bulk of the book, along with two chapters on 3bets and 4bets.

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Instantly Visualize How To Manage SPR

Sean — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:47:39 +0000

Free charts to optimize your play according to SPR.

Here’s some companion resource for our How To Manipulate The Pot Size Effectively previous article.

If you find yourself stuck again with an awkward stack amount on a later street, this won’t be our fault!

The charts are available on http://seanpoker.net/betchart

Comments and link love always appreciated!

Omaha Odds: Hitting A Suited Flop

Sean — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:47:09 +0000

How often does a standard preflop range hit a suited flop?

Proceeding with our PLO odds exploration, let’s use the ProPokerTools “count” feature (in the beta) again to find out how often our standard preflop range hits a suited flop, two-tone and monotone.

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Extra Syntax For ProPokerTools PLO

Sean — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:00:20 +0000

Smooth new operators

Last post, we suggested some extra syntax that would come in handy for the great ProPokerTools simulator. As it is, the syntax is now expressive enough so that we can implement new operators using a “preprocessor”.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to know what a preprocessor is — just load http://seanpoker.net/seanppt in your browser and scroll to the usage section.

Please share your comments, suggestions or bug reports in this post, and don’t forget to subscribe to the RSS feed if you haven’t yet so as not to miss any post.

Thanks!

Omaha Preflop Range With ProPokerTools

Sean — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 18:24:51 +0000

Using the new ProPokerTools syntax.

It has been about three weeks that the new ProPokerTools syntax is out, and it enables users to define much more precise ranges, thanks to the intersection and grouping operators. The textfields have also been fixed, now allowing ranges of much greater length.

Another nice new feature is the count form (available in the beta site), showing how many hands a given range actually represents. This is a very useful tool when working with combinatorics, as we briefly did in this blog.

Let’s use it to check the numbers we calculated in the Breakdown of an Omaha Preflop Range article.

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BIRDUCY?

Sean — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:25:50 +0000

BIRDUCY?

DUCY? is the upcoming book from David Sklansky and Al Schoonmaker from 2+2 publishing. Here’s the link to 2+2 website.

Not sure I will buy it, as I am afraid it might just be the authors’ opinions on various subjects with some rationalization using gambling metaphors, but I could be totally wrong.

Anyway, the title is pretty irritating, and I have had some fun with it lately while killing time. Thanks to El Gonso for the pics of the original cover (good job, by the way).

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A Good PLO Coach: Wazz

Sean — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:05:40 +0000

Wise monkey.

When it comes to improving your game, nothing beats a good player watching you play, fixing your leaks and clearing many things up.

This is all the more true for PLO, as there is not a great deal of good resources both on the web or in the current literature; there are always forums, but the advice should often be taken with a pinch of salt, given that many players either play overly aggressive and tell you to shove every other hand, or only play the nuts with redraws.

By the end of 2008, after several months of CardRunners membership, I decided to take a coach. My PLO game was pretty rough and ABC, but I was used to 6max games and I didn’t nutpeddle anymore. One of my goal back then was to have a better control of aggression. So there I was, looking on the web for a PLO coach.

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How To Manipulate The Pot Size Effectively

Sean — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:31:39 +0000

Don’t get lost with your bets.

In poker and many other games, a significant difference between the newcomer and the more experienced player is the ability to devise a plan and anticipate how the situation could evolve. Of course, one does not know (hopefully) what cards will fall or what one’s opponents will do, but it is not too complicated to categorize the various possibilities and figure out how likely each category is. This contrasts with the beginner who simply tries to find the “best move” in each situation (playing quiz poker), with no real plan. The same trait shows in chess, where beginners play mostly for tricks and tactics, and have little understanding of strategical requirements.

This lack of game plan generally translates into the inadequate use of available resources, ie. poker chips. Many beginners bring some chips at the poker table as though it was a second, temporary bankroll for the session. They don’t plan on putting it all at stake unless they have the nuts. Naturally, this is all wrong. Chips are like infantry on the battlefield: you must know how many men you have, and how many assaults you can launch. If a general “throw some forces” at the enemy and he realizes in the middle of the battle that he has no division left for the decisive onslaught, this is very poor planning. Same if he sends a few divisions in some murky situations, only to find out that he cannot back them up with the rest of his troops as he cannot risk losing too many men in such a mess.

In poker, you need to know how many “assaults” you can launch with your stack, and whether you risk getting caught in some predicament where you have already invested many chips in the hand but the situation doesn’t look good anymore. In other words, you should manage your stack adequately to make the most of it.

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Omaha Odds: Hitting The K72r Flop

Sean — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:33:37 +0000

How often does a standard preflop range hit a K72r flop?

Using the preflop range we defined in this article, let’s examine how often an opponent will hit something valuable on the prototypical K72 rainbow flop. Please check the previous similar articles for extra information about the charts and what the columns mean.

Hitting K72r - Part I Non-paired starting hands have a 2% chance of hitting top pair/two-pair, and about 0.2% chance for top two (details not shown in the chart).

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