Here's a crazy idea... but is it allowed?

So... thanks to the wonderful people at CardsChat, I just won $10 for being a new member and posting in the new members thread. And this is how I want to spend the $10.

I want to open up my PokerTracker HUD (I don't have much data on this since I only just started to get this up and running on my computer), open up 2 tables at 2NL a night and basically get into the game and sit out all of the hands until the $10 runs dry and collect as much data as I can on the players... on the regulars until the $10 runs out. I'll probably be on my computer doing other things while it runs in the background. And then basically use the history from the hands to have a good idea of what I'm up against when playing in the cash games. Maybe I can get a shade under 300 hands of data per open table (100BB / 3BB * 9) assuming it keeps going... It also really skews the data for people who are collecting data on me too... lol)

Do you think that's a good use of the $10? Is this allowable at the PStars TOS or am I breaking any rules? I know that PStars has a huge playerbase, but I'm already running into some regulars at the tables I have been playing -- those who are multitabling, it seems. Or is this a waste of money?

does PT collect HH when youre sitout?
Wouldnt be better if you open 2 tables and play with those 10 bucks?

As you can see in the terms of service it does not allow external player assistance tools:
https://www.pokerstars.gr/en/poker/room/tos/

Anyway it is an interesting idea to use the 10$ to gather players data. The hands you can see are hundrends, everytime you play, especially the "zoom", so there are your data!

Why to do that when the best way to "gain" something is by having experience, in this case by playing, and the best data in the world about any player will not make you beat him if You are not playing good.
And i guess that on that limit 2nl, are not so many regulars to gather data of, i guess there play those who are in casino or bets too...
In that way you can simply donated to me, and will be a way more better investment), cause how the name sounds "bankroll builder" is made to help you having some money to play. Good luck in any of you choises.

Let me know when you are going to play and sit out so i can play at your table. I expect that you will not learn too much about my play if i am playing against a "sitter".

LOL - just kidding, sort of. I think you would be better off trying to win the most you can from that $10. There are all kinds of issues relying solely on the hand databases to assess your opponents. The real value of the hand databases is to assess YOUR play and find YOUR weaknesses. IMHO.

Good luck.

DrazaFFT said:

does PT collect HH when youre sitout?
Wouldnt be better if you open 2 tables and play with those 10 bucks?

Click to expand...

I agree take the $10 and play a table or 2 at a time. You can take notes on how your opponents play in your notes section if you want to gain an edge on your opponents in the cash games.

By the way... I did bad math. At a full ring table, 200BB would give me 900 hands until my max buy-in is bled dry. I really don't need that much from opponents... maybe 100-200 hands would suffice to give me an idea of what's going on?

DrazaFFT said:

does PT collect HH when youre sitout?
Wouldnt be better if you open 2 tables and play with those 10 bucks?

Click to expand...

It's probably true. I can't "sit out", but I'd literally have to click the box to fold every hand. If I had a bot to auto-fold for me, that would be great. But I think that would definitely violate TOS at any poker site. lol... so I'd have to manually do it myself. Is it worth that time? haha

makisaa said:

As you can see in the terms of service it does not allow external player assistance tools:
https://www.pokerstars.gr/en/poker/room/tos/

Anyway it is an interesting idea to use the 10$ to gather players data. The hands you can see are hundrends, everytime you play, especially the "zoom", so there are your data!

Click to expand...

Doing this on zoom is actually a great idea -- pokertracker does have the functionality to integrate data from zoom tables.

From everything that I've learned, PStars has not discouraged the use of HUDs and poker trackers. https://www.pokerstars.gr/en/poker/room/prohibited/ -- as long as we are using data that we get from personal observation and participation in hands... it's all legit. I'd be theoretically paying for the data at 1.5BB per orbit and manually clicking fold for each hand.

jhon24 said:

Why to do that when the best way to "gain" something is by having experience, in this case by playing, and the best data in the world about any player will not make you beat him if You are not playing good.
And i guess that on that limit 2nl, are not so many regulars to gather data of, i guess there play those who are in casino or bets too...
In that way you can simply donated to me, and will be a way more better investment), cause how the name sounds "bankroll builder" is made to help you having some money to play. Good luck in any of you choises.

Click to expand...

Haha... yes. I totally agree. But my question is that if I wanted to use this $10 to mine for data, while I do other things at the same time, would that be a good use of free money? It's also opportunity cost... what I could be doing with my time outside of gathering data. hehe

NWPatriot said:

Let me know when you are going to play and sit out so i can play at your table. I expect that you will not learn too much about my play if i am playing against a "sitter".

LOL - just kidding, sort of. I think you would be better off trying to win the most you can from that $10. There are all kinds of issues relying solely on the hand databases to assess your opponents. The real value of the hand databases is to assess YOUR play and find YOUR weaknesses. IMHO.

Good luck.

Click to expand...

Well, if you want to "steal" 1.5BB each orbit from me, and you think that's worth it... be my guest! You'll have to compete with a bunch of other players who wants my pennies. lol

That said... I completely agree with you. Learning from my own tendencies is the best way to learn and my goal is to become a better poker player. And I'm already doing that constantly myself and have already identified some statistical holes in my game.

But I think having a solid understanding of whether your opponent tends towards LAG/TAG/Maniac/loose-passive/tight-passive can help me decide whether to 3bet on a speculative hand or something with LAGs or maniacs behind me. Extra information (if you can assimilate it quickly enough) can always be useful, no?


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At the end of the day, I don't think I'll do this. Doing this would violate the spirit of the TOS. But I still think it's an interesting idea of using free money to legitimately mine data on other players in the micro stakes cash tables and using this information to play my game in the future would be an interesting investment of money given to me.