So if you're into online poker you undoubtedly know that PartyPoker went through a software redesign and put their new stuff live this past week. I've read a lot about people having problems, both with the software itself and other 3rd party applications that were written with the old version in mind (playerview, poker tracker, etc). The biggest change that has affected the most people is the lack of observed hand histories. You can now get the history for a hand iff you're sitting at the table and have been dealt cards. This means datamining is dead.

My uncle and I were talking briefly in passing about the possibility of creating a screen scraper to essentially "rebuild" the hand histories by having an application actual "watch" the action. At first I kind of rejected the idea thinking it was too cumbersome to track the action through screen scraping code (have zero experience with scrapers). Then later this weekend the thought crossed my mind "hey, what about the chat option Dealer: Everything". This chat option displays every bet, check, raise, etc that happens. It would be much easier to write a scraper that parsed the text. So I decide to fire up Party Poker and watch a few hands with this setting...only to find out that Dealer: Everything has been removed. Foiled again! I'm still a bit intrigued with the idea of a scraper. I really have no idea how tough it would be to create, and how hard it is to write code that takes an image and decides values (such as $100 and a pile of chips) into string values.

So since party poker is still working out some kinks (random crashes, etc that i have no desire to deal with) I decided to try a new site. I had read some stuff on 2+2 that there was a decent european network called "B2B" that had a site called Martin's Poker. This place has an unheardof 100% up to $600 initial bonus, that appears to be fairly easy to clear. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to convert US dollars to Euros through the site without any extra conversion fee. I played roughly 1500 hands this weekend at martin's, at the NL100, NL200, and NL400 all 6max. I ended up down about 100 Euros or so. I took some horrendous beats and made some bluffs (haven't made up my mind whether they were good or not) that got called, and otherwise played my normal game.

Here's a few interesting hands:

I have 55 on the button against a maniac who raises every hand preflop and raises postflop at the slight hint of weakness. Effective stacks ~200 Euros. (1/2 euro NL)

UTG minraises to $4, 1 fold, I call, SB folds, Villain in BB raises to $17 straight. UTG folds, I call the $13 more.

Flop ($39) J 6 5

Villain leads for $30. I call. No reason to raise here as 78, 34, 74 are the only draws out there, and further action from villain won't be a problem if he's got a big pair.

Turn ($99) 4

Villain checks, I bet $33. I figure his range is so wide he's nearly always got nothing in this spot, so I bet small to either get a loose call from him or induce a raise from my display of "weakness". He checkraises all in for another $120 for me to me. I instacall of course.

River ($400) 3

Villain shows 62o for the rivered gutshot. I puke on my keyboard.

Pretty awesome to induce Villain to stick $150 in on the turn with 9% pot equity. Of course the result leaves something to be desired.

Here's another hand I was happy with my spot. Effective stacks $200. I have Q T on the button. LAG UTG opens for $7, TAGish guy in the CO calls. I call on the button expecting at least one of the blinds to come. Neither do.

Flop ($24) 7 J K

UTG leads for $15, CO pushes all in for about $200. Weird. What the hell hand could he have here. Likely KJ or a set or OESD. Flush draw seems remote as he would have to have A X where X less than T . I call, so does UTG. I put in 33% of the money in on the flop with 46% equity against JJ (50%) and 77 (4%), so I'm feeling good. Too bad for me the turn and river blanks and JJ scoops the 600 euro pot.

Here's another hand: I had Q J. On the turn it's A 4 4 Q . I semi bluff checkraise all in and he calls with K 4 that he raised with PF. Doh.

On another, I have 33 in the button. Flop comes 3 6 7 rainbow. Villain has 66, I lose my 300 euro stack.

Another where I have AA no spade on T9 4 board. I get it all in against Mr 62o from the earlier hand. His 8 8 takes it when the 3 hits the turn. In hindsight, I should have considered calling the flop and getting it in on a non-spade turn where my equity is much higher against him. My thinking at the time was that if he's got a non-spade hand, I'll be losing money by playing it safe on the flop the spade comes and it kills my action or he makes me fold the best hand. My flop call is still +EV as i'm 55/45 favorite on the flop, however, if I could induce him to get it in on a turn blank, my equity shoots up to 75%. This guy is crazy enough that he could get it in on a non-spade turn with 88 in this spot... so I probably would maximized my EV by passing on a slightly +EV proposition on the flop to potentially exploit a massively +EV situation on a the turn. Of course this has to offset the times I get outplayed when we both have no spade.

Poker is fun! :-) Even when you made a +EV play, it isn't always the correct thing to do.

I must say the players on Martin's are much different than party. Aside from a few of the maniacs I discussed above, most of the players there are of the loose passive variety. They love to call... I love to value bet them. It works out nicely. I think I'll stick around on this site for a while... certainly long enough to clear my 600 euro bonus...