No Hands Holdem

Maudie recently wrote a post about No Hands Holdem. It is basically a calculator that allows you to see % change of winning and gives advice on Bet, Raise or Fold. I wonder if anyone would consider this cheating? I am a little on the fence. On one hand it makes a lot better split decisions on how I am currently doing. I like this. I should be able to do this in my head but I cannot yet, so this might be cheating. However, is it cheating if I read SSHE starting hands. I have no idea how to calculate what hands would be good to call, raise, fold for starting hands. So am I cheating? Would Felicia approve?

Anyway I decided to try the program out as a little experiment. I wanted to just see how good it was and have posted my observations. I think if I could play half as well as the computer I would do well. I also have changed my mind on bots. I used to think it was very unlikely because I thought the client was written in Java. Now that I know it is windows I know that I personally could write one that works on Empire and plays all the hands for me. It would miss some bluffing and cost me money sometimes but I think it might make more money than I do now! Shows how bad of a post-flop player I am.

Seems good Pre-Flop. Possibly a little passive. It basically seems to play SSHE tight starting hands where I have moved down to loose for the Empire Fishies. AK is not a raising hand. AKs is. Hmm. The play Post Flop just shows me how passive I really am! Good example. AKs. Raised pre-flop. Hit an Ace on the flop. Two of us left. He bets. The program tells me to raise! RAISE! WTF! Ok, so I raise. Next card is a low card too. Raise. RAISE???!?!?! Yes Dummy, Raise. Checked to me on the river. I bet. He folds a $24 pot to me. Would have been half as large if I stayed in. We agree most of the time on what to play pre-flop which says to me that I am playing this part well.

It also tells me to fold more. I seem to believe it is correct most of the time. One example of where I agreed and might not have folded. I had KQ suited. The flop was A-2-10. I bet that. The next card is an A. In the past I would have probably called. I was told to fold and took the advice this time. The pot was not large enough.

Another example of post-flop play I did not agree with. I have As10d. The flop is a scary three spades. I make the spade and I win. Period. The middle position bets. I raise him. Two reasons for this: Bluff him out and just take the pot, or get paid off in spades when/if I make my flush. I believe he was 4 to a flush also. He folded and I won. I believe this was a better play.

I believe that the program is a little passive pre-flop. Holy crap! I just scared the crap out of myself and won a pot. I had 55. I bet in early position. I hit the scary flop of **A-5-2** verify table 12579 ** It tells me to raise. I do. A VERY scary 3 comes out. HOLY CRAP! YIKES! CHECK! DO NOT BET! It says bet. Ok. I will bet. I get raised. It says shove it back at him baby! WHAT!?!?! OK. I did it. Snivel. Last card was not helpful to anyone. I bet. I get called. I win a $27 pot with a SCARY ass straight on the board. Yikes! So now I fourteen bucks up instead of just a few! Nice. I see why I am called Passive betting the board. I should change my name to SirChickenAlot.

I like how the program will tell me to fold if anything scary is on the board. I need to adjust these recommendations depending on my read of people, but some things I might take a shot at it tells me to shut up and fold. It also tells you to fold if your flop totally misses. Sometimes I like to chase the A high stuff like a dummy.

I just lost a lot on a capped flop to 22. He had the trips. I had AKs and the flop was 2AK. DAMN! Oh well. It happens. I think I played it well anyways. If I had won I would be up to $100 instead of down to $41. Not a bad shot to take. A straight draw was also on the board by the end. It sucks but it happens.

It seems like when the board says you *might* be beat you should slow down a little.. However the program does not take this into account. I had a straight with a flush possibility on the board. Why bet that out on the river? Call the flush persons bet maybe, but I personally would not bet on it.

Anyways I played one hour’s worth just to get a feel for what it does. I was impressed. I ended up down fifty bucks!. Obviously one game does not mean much, but it was not much fun. Freaking aggression killed me! Lol. It really does not know when it is beaten, kind of like me. I probably will not use it anymore. I wanted to try it out, and now that I have I am satisfied that it is a cool program I figure I will go it myself. At least I lose slower.

Hands of the night. AA cracked by Q2s, KK cracked by 47. It would have lost to AA anyway. K over Q boat split with another guy. Basically another bad night. Sigh.