Matt Blogs the WSOP: Another Main Event Update
Date: Sun, Jul 13, 2008 Professional Internet
I had a bad last level today, highlighted by a 1 million chip loss in a blind-on-blind pot with top pair vs. better top pair, and augmented by an 800k coin flip defeat. Also today, I lost a million chip pot as a 2.5-1 favorite, and a half million chip pot with 77 vs. 44 vs. 22. Despite all this, I also busted two different players, both times by flopping two small pair, and I was fortunate enough to get AA vs. QQ, so I'm still in this thing. I'm down to 766k, which is the smallest stack relative to the blinds that I've had in the entire event. That said, I still have 25 blinds, which at this stage of almost any other tournament would make me an average or even above stack. Besides, I'm better with a smaller stack anyway. Today wasn't so good, but I'm thrilled to be in a position to have a shot. Tomorrow is a brand new day at the office. Wish me luck.
Living The Life As A Poker Wife
Date: Sat, Jul 12, 2008 Professional Internet
This blog entry is a special entry by Dusty's wife who has been nicknamed "Leatherwife." I hope you guys enjoy....
After a great week in Vegas, I walked away from the group of Stoxpoker coaches and their wives/girlfriends feeling as though I'm not alone in this strange world of online poker. It resolidified the fact that being married to an online poker player is one of the most unique and misunderstood experiences a woman could ever have. We deal with intense and unusual work-related stresses; we have to keep crazy hours to spend time together; and we have to struggle with difficult questions from friends and family members who don't understand online poker.
I'll be the first to admit, I didn't believe that Dusty played poker "for a living" for about two months of us dating. Of course I knew he played all the time, but I assumed his parents were paying his bills or he was a trust fund kid or something. Once online poker was explained to me in great detail (and I was given a good look at his Poker Tracker stats) I believed him. I then understood variance, BB/100, et cetera, and the numbers put my mind at ease. Most women are not going to take the "don't worry about it, it's fine, I got it covered" shpiel for very long. Sharing Poker Tracker stats with your wife/girlfriend is a huge moment and you probably won't hear many complaints after that.
As soon as I was comfortable with the fact that my boyfriend played poker for a living, we got engaged. Then the whole world wants to know what your fiancée does for a living. I meekly answered, "He plays poker… online." Now I know when you do tell them, you have to say it with confidence. You would not believe all of the blank stares, rolling eyes, and boisterous laughter I got as a response. What I've learned over the years is to pick your battles and pick your audiences. I can now anticipate almost every response to telling certain people what your husband does for a living.
There are some people that will NEVER see poker as a "real job" no matter how much someone might make. I have found that, in general, there is a generation gap and a gender gap in how this career is perceived. Honestly, I just tell older people that he works for some online company- it saves me the social tilt of defending Dusty to a brick wall.
The other responses I can anticipate are VERY gender biased: men love it, women hate it. Men are the first ones to be supportive, positive, even jealous that my husband can play poker for a living. The women think a number of negative things about Dusty and I. Most of them even have the balls to ask questions outside of any normal social grace. I have pretty thick skin and very understanding friends but when I have spoken to other poker wives, they really struggle with their friendships and how to answer tough questions.
I thought I would compile the Top 10 phrases Poker Wives should have in their back pocket to answer tough questions. Here are some reasonable answers to common questions that I, and other poker wives, hear EVERYDAY:
1. "No, my husband is NOT a professional GAMBLER, nor a criminal for playing online."
People make it sound like he's a total "degen" and plays slot machines for a living. I understand that all of your buddies logged onto Stars, donked-off a grand and "know that online poker is rigged." It's not rigged, and thanks for the car payment.
2. "Yes, it is still considered rude to ask someone how much their husband makes, even though its 'just poker.'"
I mean seriously, no one would ask this question of anyone else, from a doctor to a ditch digger to a poker player. It's just plain tacky… besides, if I told you, you wouldn't believe me.
3. "Yes, poker is his only job. My husband pays all the bills and I don't have to work. 'Nuf said."
If you're amongst close friends, I just explain that he makes about a dollar a hand and plays more than 1 million hands a year. Also, that it's been his only job for about 4 years. They can take that for what it's worth. More often than not, it's an amount beyond what anyone is willing to believe, they'll probably think you're a liar either way. Now that I think about it, this is a no-win situation.
4. "No, my husband has not been on TV."
But he does take money off of Negreanu and Matusow all the time ;) And he does not have to fly to Vegas for "donkaments" every week. He plays online, at home, in his boxers.
5. "No, I'm not worried we will end up on the streets."
My husband isn't some luck sack that won one tournament or hit it big in Vegas. Financially, we have a comfortable supply of hookers and blow and still manage to pay the bills.
6. "No, sleeping-in 'til noon is not 'lazy.'"
If your husband was up playing ten tables until 4am, he can wake-up whenever the hell he wants.
7. "Yes, my husband is very social."
But he often has to play Friday and Saturday nights because of all the weekend fish and their positive EV. The weekends he does take-off work certainly make-up for it… date night for us includes penthouses at the Palms and the best restaurants in the world.
8. "No, my husband doesn't look like a poker player."
He does not own an extensive collection of Hawaiian shirts and gold chains. Nor is he some greasy Sam Farha looking guy. He's actually pretty hot.
9. "No, playing online poker is not like playing videogames for a living."
Last I checked, your buddy isn't a millionaire from smoking weed and playing Halo in his basement all day. If that were the case, I'd know a lot more millionaires.
10. "No, my husband will not give your husband private lessons."
Although he can become a member at Stoxpoker.com. The funniest thing is when women finally believe how much your husband makes playing poker, they act like they can send their husband Brad over to your house for a couple hours and they'll be millionaires, too. LOL
For the ladies, I offer you this advice: If you have friends that cannot follow these basic etiquette guidelines, I say cut your losses and suggest that they die in a grease fire. :)
Discuss this blog here:
http://www.stoxpoker.com/forums/showthread.php?p=94484#post94484
Matt Blogs the WSOP: Main Event Update
Date: Sat, Jul 12, 2008 Professional Internet
They finally gave us some downtime in this tournament, so I'll post a quick update here. As most everyone reading this probably knows, I've made it to Day Five. There are 189 people left, average stack is around 725,000, and I have 1,126,000. I'm pleased with my position, but there are a ton of great players left in the field, and I have very far to go before I can even sniff the big money. I've run really good so far. I can't believe the number of times I've been dealt aces or kings in my last two tournaments.
A few corrections for those who read about some hands in the updates. As far as I know, they wrote about three hands that I played, so it's about right that I need to correct the write-ups for two of them.
On the AJ hand where I called 210k on the river, my opponent did not have A8 for second pair. He had AT for ace-high.
On the 33 hand, it didn't "appear" that my opponent slowrolled. He slowrolled. I turned over my hand, he said, "that wins" and then said a few seconds later said, "oh wait." That's the definition of slowrolling. I never get pissed at anyone at a poker table, but when you slowroll me in a 650k pot in the main event of the WSOP, you go on my permanent shit list.
Anyway, it's back to work tomorrow. My Day Four opponents were, by miles, the toughest opponents I've faced so far. I only expect it to get worse from here. Wish me luck.
Matt And Stoxpoker Members WSOP Main Event Update
Date: Fri, Jul 11, 2008 Professional Internet
Garret "Gbecks" Beckman has $1.3M chips and is in 39th chip position.
Matt is out in 78th place and cashed for $77,200. Very nice run Matt!
Stoxpoker member Geoff "Zobags" Herzog (and co-author with Stoxtrader of Winning In Tough Hold'em Games) went out in 92nd place and cashed for $51,466.
Robert "Action Bob" Hwang went out in 94th place and cashed for $51,466.
Updated at 5:22 PM EST on 7/13/08.
Please wish Matt and Garret luck and discuss in this thread.
Nice work by all 4 of you!
My Comedic Bust-out to the Main Event
Date: Fri, Jul 11, 2008 Professional Internet
First Stoxpoker's very own Matt Matros is really owning right now, last I checked he was one of the chip leaders with over $800k. As we all know Matt is a super-talented MTTer, and he really has the chips and game to take this very far. So good luck Matt!
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Alright so I busted out 720 or so, around 50 away from the money. Alas... Here's a brief smittering of how the day went.
Started with around $103k. I was playing well and winning a lot of small pots before I made my only serious mistake of the tournament. Blinds are 800-1600-200, I've been very active, and I make a higher-than-normal raise to $5200 with 7 7 from the CO. Hyper-LAG button repops to $13k or so. I give him about 0 credit for a hand and go for my first light 4-bet of the tourny.
The decision to 4-bet here was actually a decent one, I think, the problem was that I messed up my bet size and only reraised him another $9k or so! Obviously he has to call with any two. We hit a flop of
6 T J
I c-bet around half the pot, he goes all-in, and I fold. Wow not good on my part... He flipped T8o so clearly he would have folded to a properly-sized preflop 4-bet. Props to that guy for pulling the trigger after the flop, not sure I would have been able to do that...
I won a lot of the chips back a little later in a pretty strange hand. I'm in MP1 with 7 7 and raise to $5400 during 1000-2000, LAG button calls. Flop is 5 6 K. I bet $13500. He says "raise" but only puts out $15k total. It's ruled he has to make is $27k, and I decide to go with it and move all-in. Despite being very pot-committed he folds pretty quick.
Later during $1200-$2400 I 3-bet an MP raiser with KQo, he calls, and we go to a flop with a big-ass pot. Flop is A 6 A, check check. Turn is a 4, he checks and I bet half the pot. He tanks and folds, hurray!
Two orbits later I 3-bet him again with AQo and he shoves. I'm getting 3:1 so I begrudingly call. He has AKo and takes it.
Then we go on a dinner break, and I thought I had around $55k. I come back after dinner and only have $45k, at the time I just thought I had mis-counted. But right before I busted another guy at my table claimed he was missing an orange chip, so even though we were probably both wrong, I really regret not asking security just to make sure.
Anyway with blinds of $1500-$3000-$400 I have enough chips for around 6 orbits, and I know I need to make a move my first reasonable opportunity. Problem is I get 82o like 6 straight hands, so I'm waiting to either: (a) pick up any real hand and go with it, (b) make a late-position all-in with any non-trash hand, or (c) the stop 'n go...
When I can't do (a) or (b) after an orbit, the BB hits me again and I decide I'll stop 'n go (call pre-flop and shove any flop) if I have any semi-decent hand. A low ace qualifies so I call pre-flop and pretend to think for 10 seconds or so on a 6 J Q flop. Instead of saying all-in, which I thought might be a little transparent, I just said "20" and moved $20k to the center, thinking this might look a little stronger even though I'd have almost nothing left afterward.
Unfortunately the raiser announced all-in. So now I have like $7500 left and have to decide whether to call with a naked ace getting like 80-1 or whatever. The whole table's looking like "what's going on" when I pause with my tiny remaining stack, so I tell them what's going on. A bunch of guys laugh (not meanly, it really was a pretty funny situation), but not the guy who had put me all-in. Obviously I have to call since I'm over 10% to hit my usually-good ace by the river, and when I announce "call" the horror on my opponent's face is so extreme that I honestly think my ace-high might be the best hand against KTs or something.
Actually the guy had T's, and since he had been getting a little short himself and it was very close to the bubble, I think he had just decided to go with it almost no matter what, while strongly preferring to just win without a showdown. The turn and river were low and it was bye-bye SNGMan.
So overall I think I played a very good game, and if you only make one real mistake after 3 days of constant play, I don't think that's so bad. Looking back, I also realize that the hands I got in the most trouble were ones when I made debateable pre-flop reraises. The AK 4-bet on day 1, the 7 7 4-bet and AQo 3-bet on day 3, and a few more. Raise or fold pre-flop is a solid style, but I want to begin experimenting more with a smallball style of smooth-calling some of these raises when I've got position.
Alright, back to sit 'n goes :)
http://www.stoxpoker.com/forums/showthread.php?p=94378#post94378
For What it is Worth
Date: Fri, Jul 11, 2008 Professional Internet
US-95 takes you away from the crowds, the glitz, the glamor and the temptation of the Las Vegas Strip. It leads to another town somewhere on the other side of nowhere. If you head northbound you will notice a billboard on the right side of the road. It states, “With our thoughts we create the world.” I passed this billboard maybe 25 times last week. Each time I could not help but think what a unique and interesting thought Las Vegas is. But then again maybe it isn’t. Maybe it is the same as any other thought. Or maybe, it is just a manifestation of emotion, of logic…of something. Something that each year draws thousands of people to this desert town to purse…..whatever they are pursuing. It is a town built on fantasies and harsh realities. For a long time its renewable resource was math or the lack thereof. Now it is much more than that. It sells the dream that, you too, can have it all.
After a week I am tired. I have had it all, all that I can take. Under slept, over stimulated, and over fed. Your standard Las Vegas experience if you will. It is time to go home. Although I enjoy these trips they take a lot out of me. Due to flight delays I wasn’t able to make it back to Puerto Rico. I only got as far as Birmingham. When I arrived I slept for 12 hours, got up at 2:00PM ate a sandwich, napped till seven, got up watched a movie, and went to bed at 11:00. I did not wake up until 1:30 the next day. They say your body cannot make up for lost sleep. Well, I damn sure tried. If you read other players blogs you will notice that a lot of them get sick during an extended stay in Vegas. I can totally relate.
Tonight I board a plane and will again attempt to reach Puerto Rico. I can’t wait to get home and resume a routine and some sense of normalcy.
The Second Man vs Machine Poker Championship
Date: Fri, Jul 11, 2008 Professional Internet
On July 3-6 a lineup of elite players from Stoxpoker.com, an internet poker training site, went head to head with the latest version of Polaris, a poker AI designed by the University of Alberta’s Computer Poker Research Group.
The match was held at the 2008 Gaming Life Expo, just next door to this year’s World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. The format for the tournament was 6 matches of one on one limit hold’em. Each match consisted of two humans playing against the computer in separate locations, and the contest used a “duplicate” format wherein the set of cards dealt during the match would be the same at both teammates’ tables. At one location a human would play one side of the cards, and in the other location his teammate would play the opposite side of the cards. After 500 hands the winner was determined by
whether the humans or the AI had the highest net score. This duplicate format greatly helped to reduce the short-term element of luck and make the matches a much truer contest of skill.
After the first five matches the tournament was tied at 2 wins for the humans, 2 for Polaris, and 1 tie (according to the rules of the tournament a win of less than 25 “small bets,” the betting unit on the early streets in limit hold’em, would be declared as a tie). That meant that the last match of the tournament would also be the tie-breaker, and to add to the dramatic element Polaris’ last set of opponents was arguably the strongest. Polaris won the match in convincing fashion, winning both sides of the duplicate match for a net win of 90 small bets. This gave Polaris a final record of 3-2-1, and provided the CPRG with their first win over human opponents. The CPRG had created a similar event last year against professionals Phil Laak and Ali Eslami where Polaris finished with a final record of 1 win, 2 losses, and 1 tie.
The History of the CPRG and Polaris
The Computer Poker Research Group is a not-for-profit research group founded by Darse Billings and Jonathan Schaeffer over ten years ago, well before the “poker boom.” Over the years the group has created numerous poker AIs of increasing sophistication. In recent years a number of universities have begun competing against one another by pitting poker AIs against one another in competitions such as the AAAI Computer Poker Competition. One goal of the CPRG is “to create a poker program that plays better than any human being”. Life at the CPRG has not been just about fun and games, however. Many of the techniques involved in solving large games with unknown elements, such as poker, can be adapted to help humans make informed decisions with the help of AIs in many other fields. A variant of one of the algorithms developed for Polaris, for example, has been shown to be useful for laying out sensors in smart buildings in order to identify patterns of use and to improve efficiency. In addition, several members of the CPRG have been drafted into the lucrative online poker industry in order to help online poker rooms maintain security.
The first version of Polaris played against Phil Laak and Ali Eslami last year in Vancouver during the 2007 AAAI conference, suffering a narrow defeat after four matches. This year’s model represented some substantial improvements over its predecessor. According to professor Michael Bowling, "There are two really big changes in Polaris from last year. First of all, our poker model is much expanded over last year’s. The poker AI now has far fewer holes in its play that humans can exploit. And secondly, we have added an element of learning, where Polaris identifies which common poker strategy a human is using and switches its own strategy to counter them. This complicated the human players’ ability to compare notes, since Polaris often chose a different strategy to use against each of the humans it played."
2008 Man vs Machine Poker Championship Participants
The 2008 Man vs Machine Poker Championship consisted of 6 matches played by 7 elite professionals spread across 4 teams. Below is a short biography on each participant.
Nick Grudzien: Nick Grudzien left a lucrative Wall Street position in 2005 to pursue a career as a professional poker player full-time. He has since become one of the longest-lasting marquee players in online poker, with well over $1M in cash-game winnings in both limit and no-limit hold’em. In 2006 Nick founded stoxpoker.com, a website which provides economical poker coaching through access to instructional videos and recordings of real online play by some of the world’s top pros.
Matt Hawrilenko: Matt Hawrilenko is one of the world’s most formidable heads-up limit hold’em players, having won well over $1M last year playing online poker. He can be frequently found waiting for challengers under his alias “Hoss_TBF” at online poker’s largest cash games. Matt is very familiar with the mathematical and theoretical aspects of poker and advocates playing a balanced, difficult to exploit style.
IJay Palansky: IJay Palansky retired from a career as a litigator in a major law firm to pursue his career as a professional poker player. IJay specializes in limit hold’em, and has won over $1M playing short-handed online cash games. IJay is well known for his aggressive style , often driving his opponents to frustration by forcing them to continually play in unordinarily large pots.
Kyle Hendon: Kyle Hendon is a shorthanded no-limit hold’em specialist with well over $1M in lifetime cash-game winnings. While Kyle may be better known for his no-limit hold’em play he has strong roots in limit hold’em and can field a very competitive one on one game.
Mark Newhouse: Mark Newhouse boasts over $1.7M in lifetime tournament winnings, including the 2006 Borgata Open WPT Championship Event. In addition, Mark is a limit hold’em specialist who has spent a fair amount of time playing in online poker’s largest cash games.
Victor Acosta: Victor Acosta has been playing poker professionally for over six years, and is currently a specialist in high-stakes one on one limit hold’em cash games. In addition to his poker career he is also a 5th year grad student at UC Berkeley, studying atomic physics.
Richey McRoberts: Rich McRoberts graduated with a BS in finance in 2004 and moved straight to a career as a professional poker player. His poker career has become specialized in online one on one limit hold’em.
Bryce Paradis: Bryce Paradis is another heads-up limit hold’em specialist with over $2.5M in lifetime cash-game winnings. Bryce retired from poker at the age of 23 to pursue interests in real estate, but is still actively involved in the poker community through his coaching at stoxpoker.com and his work with the Computer Poker Research Group. As Bryce has been directly involved in the development of Polaris his match against the AI (which resulted in a tie) has been counted as an exhibition match.
Match Results and Information
The results of each match, as well as logs of the hands played, highlights, photographs and additional information can be found at http://www.stoxpoker.com/man_vs_machine.html .
About The Sponsors
Stoxpoker.com is an online poker training website which aims to help subscribers play better poker through instructional videos, and is the sponsor of the 2008 Man vs Machine Poker Championship. Stoxpoker features nearly 500 videos where the actual online play of elite professionals is recorded and combined with instructor’s commentary to provide amateur players with insight into the mind of a professional player.
We would also like to thank Poker Academy for providing the poker room software on which the tournament was run.