Texas Hold’em Table Position Winning Percentages

Texas Hold’em Experts offer various strategies for adjusting your play according to table position, unlike hand ranking which can be readily determined mathematically, position strategies are a bit more of a black art.  I was curious to see just what effect position may have on your outcome.  I extracted winner table position statistics from 270,000 hand histories. Only pot winner’s positions were noted,  return on pot investment data was not available. Continue reading

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Real players winning hands compared to odds calculators

A number of on line odds calculators, as well as the starting hand exercise holsted here predict winning odds based strictly on mathematical ranking of card combinations.  Curious to see how well real world hand choices coincide to the odd calculator recommendations, I generated a winning hand stats chart based on real game history data.

Utilizing game history data from about 1/4 million IRC “no robot holdem” hands played by a couple thousand players from 1988 to 2000, to create a chart comparably to statistically generated tables.  Some issues:

  • Winning and tied hands are combined here (it’s more work to separate ties)
  • Some data skewing may result from the exclusion of foldout wins in which the hole cards aren’t revealed.
  • The size of the sampled tables varied, probably more weak winners sneaked in from small tables.

Perhaps the most interest, but not surprising difference between the theoretical and real world hand choices, is the lower success of junk hands (those ranked below 36 of 169) of real world players (in Red). This no doubt is due to lousy hands being folded well before the river, while the calculated odds (in Blue) assume all hands are played to the end.

start-hand-odds-chart

The complete comparison table is shown below Continue reading

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Texas Hold’em Turn-Flop-River Exercise

Finally found time to fiddle with an interactive trainer idea.

flop-turn-river-exercise

Flop-Turn-River Odds Exercise

This is another early user interface concept test, it’s really passive, but may help some see more clearly how the opponent’s prospects change along the way.

Attempting to address an issue that deserves a bit more attention, this one shows the winning card odds in graphical form, based strictly on what is displayed on the flop-turn-river. Too often one focuses on how these cards add to the value of your hole cards, while it’s equally important to project what hands your opponents may end up with.

Check “Guess the odds” box to bring up a quiz stage at the river, you then click on the graph to show your estimate of the odds. The error scoring is a simple total of percentage mis-matches. This trial version has a small fixed pre-calculated data set, for a 10 player table. These stats don’t take into considerations player folds before the river, it’s showing the likely best hands, should all hands play out.

Sorry, no odds calculation tips are given here, the module should still be useful for those less mathematically inclined, who play by the seat of their pants, this sort of exercise may speed the development of an intuitive sense for the odds based on experience.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated…

Your suggestions and feedback will help shape the future of any more useful, refined version of this application.

The other experimental exercises:

Pre-flop hand strength ranking exercise. Do you remember your starting hand tables.

Simple Hand Recognition Exercise Cross-Cards.  A laid back eye test of sorts.

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Poker Software for the Macintosh

Those holdout Macintosh users, still using a Mac perhaps for it’s relative immunity to internet viruses, might be interested in these quality poker programs available for the Mac.

poker-acadamy-in-monitor

Poker Academy Pro, the Texas Hold’em version comes in a Mac version.

This program, using artificial intelligence, offers challenging robot opponents who adapt to your playing style.  Here’s a chance to advance you skills,  playing tough opponents without burning down your bank.

Continue reading

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Gambler Bling Gallery

I ran across a couple of online jewelry stores that carry poker themed jewelry. It may not dazzle the ladies, but there’s a chance of blinding the competition. Most pieces are well under $50.


Pendant Samples

(click image for a larger view)

hip-hop-bling-pendants

Hip Hop Bling Money Clips, Buckles, Cuf Links, and a $14 watch.hip-hop-bling-samples Similar Designs at  Outrageous Jewelry blog
icedoutgear-skulls

.Try Our Cross-Cards Mind Game

Try Our Cross-Cards Game

Iced Out Pendants
Iced Out Gear Pendants

Iced Out Gear has a slightly smaller selection, but some unique pieces.

icedoutgear belt buckles
icedoutgear belt buckles
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Skills Training Modules Inspirations

Welcome Visitor…

This site is behind schedule, less entertaining projects have consumed our time.

The main intent of this site is to provide brain enhancing, Flash based interactive exercises. Thee exercises should ultimately help one make complex decisions more quickly, without breaking a visible sweat.

Originally planned to be focused on the pure mathematics of playing 21, it now looks like Texas Holdem skills enhancement exercises may have a larger audience.

As one doesn’t not learn to speed read by just doing a lot of reading, but by expanding specific skills by isolated, focused exercises, like those provided by the infomercial Eye-Q package. Likewise some card playing skills may be best improved by specific, focused exercises.

The intended focus is on enhancing brain functions using in the process poker hand analysis. As examined in the Public Television Brain Fitness programs detailing the brain’s plasticity, the ability to reorganize it’s structure to meet new demands. Narrowly focused mental exercises can enhance very specific brain functions, an expensive ($400-$500) software package is marketed in association with the PBS program.  A more realistically priced set of brain exercises are available at one of the better commercial brain enhancement sites,  Lumosity for a cost of about $6/mo., these are not brain teaser puzzles like Sudoku, but rather simple categorized exercises designed to focus on specific brain functions: 

  • Arithmetic
  • Face-Name Recall
  • Focus
  • Information Processing
  • Logical Reasoning
  • Planning
  • Quantitative Reasoning
  • Response Inhibition
  • Spatial Orientation
  • Spatial Recall
  • Task Switching
  • Verbal Fluency
  • Visual Field
  • Working Memory

Some skills obviously applicable to card games include:  Arithmetic, Focus, Working Memory. interestingly, Response Inhibition exercises might help some improve their bluffing.

Lumocity sample Exercises CLICK TO TRY

I recommend you try the 1 week free trial at Lumocity, registration only requires an unconfirmed email address. Some free, less focused exercises can be found at: braincurls.com, Brain-Gym, Brainwaves and Queendom.

Any requests or recommendations for card skill exercises would be greatly appreciated.

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