My Weekend Experiment Online With Poker Tracker.

Last week I made a thread discussing why I'm not really an online player.

Here it is. My shots against online poker.

The comments I got back, especially from Zach made me wonder if I should take a little time and see whats changed. Its been two or three years since I have played online for more than a quick session here or there. I decided that I need to take some time and try to catch up with the times. So, I downloaded pokertracker 3, opened up my PokerStars account and went to work. I was smart enough to leave myself with some money last time I cashed out, but not a lot. So I was stuck with a small bankroll and limited to low stakes.

My Strategy: I wanted to play sit and goes, 18 or 27 person multi tables mainly. I played the $1.00 +$.10 games yesterday and today. And was pleasently surprised with the competition. I played 3 or four tables at at time and wasn't as bored as I thought I would be.

First..Poker Tracker: I completed 2100 hands. I realize that it is a very small sample size, but think that it does give me a fair understanding of what I have missed. Poker Tracker is even better than all the stuff I have read and heard about it. It is a huge edge to have. I will never play online again with out it. The HUD is...helpful to say the least. The stats that it keeps, the graphs, the info. Its just so much. No wonder you guys can keep track of how well your doing so easily. This program makes studying your game..almost fun. It almost makes me want to play just to see my stats. The hand analysis is a perfect way to fix your game and see your flaws.

I keep graphs and records for how I do in my live game. But nothing like the stats that can be kept with the program.

I would like to post stats from poker tracker but don't really know what people would want to see or look at. Is there like a good overall stat to look at? Like OBP is for baseball?


Second..Online Players: Well. I was wrong. Maybe its because of the super low stakes, or because they are mostly foreign. But the average player was not very good. There were many more fish than when I had left. (But then again, I never played this low of stakes). The big difference I see is that there are so many more foreign players. (No offense to those of you viewing this site from abroad) I find in general that foreigners are usually losser and more casual players than Americans.


Third..The Manotiny : As expected it was kind of boring. My back hurts because my chair isn't comfortable. I have ripped through my pink floyd, kenye west, Jay Z, and Chili Pepper collections. Caught my self looking at porn a few times when I was down to 1 or 2 tables left. And in general didn't socialize with anyone for the weekend. (it helped that I was fighting off a cold). I can see how people complain that live is boring because you are only playing 1 table, but the atmosphere is just so much better than sitting here...alone.

Complaints: The money is so much worse than live. The fact that I'm playing $1 sngs is kind of pathetic. I think I would get very bored with it if I was stuck at this limit for a week or so and just start pushing. Its hard to go from $500-$1000 cash buy ins to $1 sit and goes without it playing some part in your head. Playing for 2 hours to win $10 won't cut it for me.

I tried playing .10/.25 cash and just went crazy after about 10 hands. Just a waste of time. "Am I really spending my time playing for dimes and quarters?"


Conclusion: Turns out that some of my original complaints may have been wrong. I still do think the poker tracker gives the player using it an unfair advantage. Its an advantage that as long as the site allows it should be utilized by every player (again to use a baseball analogy) like steroids in MLB. I still think its more boring (personal opinion I realize) than a live game. But over all I was pleasantly surprised with my weekend online.

The poker Tracker program is awesome and kept me entertained. The players are much worse than I remember them being. Its not too bad. I might have a personal challenge to myself to try to get my bankroll back up to where I would enjoy playing tournys more. But I don't know. The 25 minute drive to the casino to play real cards is still much more enticing.


Also...

Holler @ the 100th post. (I feel like I should have a lot more than that)