The World Of The Poker

[Dokhtar Bandari]

I know the MD of Party poker, he gave me $5,000 free chips for a London tournament, i lost it all in like 1 hour i wanted to leave after one round and take like $4,500 with me home but he was hanging around and i'd look like a cheapskate

Is the thought that counts....

[csite]

I know the MD of Party poker, he gave me $5,000 free chips for a London tournament, i lost it all in like 1 hour i wanted to leave after one round and take like $4,500 with me home but he was hanging around and i'd look like a cheapskate

anyways the proper tournaments are amazing and very thrilling.

[Rasputin]

IS POKER a game of skill or luck? For regular players that's a no-brainer, but showing that skill wins out has proven surprisingly difficult for mathematicians. Now two studies that tapped the vast amounts of data available from online casinos have provided some of the best evidence yet that poker is skill-based. Many hope that the results will help to roll back laws and court decisions that consider poker gambling, and therefore illegal in certain contexts.

Most players insist that poker is predominantly skill. "I depended solely on that skill for my food and rent," says Darse Billings, a former professional player who co-founded the Computer Poker Research Group at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. In many jurisdictions, however, poker websites and organised games are heavily regulated or even banned under gambling laws, partly because chance is considered the dominant factor.

Previous attempts to quantify the relationship between skill and chance have involved building theoretical models or playing software bots against each other. However, Ingo Fiedler and Jan-Philipp Rock at the University of Hamburg's Institute of Law and Economics in Germany argue that these methods fail to reflect real games, and this may explain why some courts and lawmakers have yet to be swayed by them. So over three months, the pair recorded the outcomes of 55,000 online players playing millions of hands of poker's most popular variant, "no-limit Texas hold 'em".

They reasoned that if skill dominated, this would eventually show itself over many hands, so they chose two factors to define this threshold. Firstly, they measured how much each player's winnings and losses fluctuated: the higher this variance, the greater the role of chance. Secondly, they measured the average value of a player's winnings or losses: highly skilled or terrible players would do noticeably better or worse than would be expected by chance alone.

Based on these factors, they found that the threshold at which the effects of skill start to dominate over chance is typically about 1000 hands, equivalent to about 33 hours of playing in person or 13 hours online, where the rate of play is brisker. So although chance plays a role, they suggest that because most players easily play this many hands in a lifetime, poker is more a game of skill (Gaming Law Review and Economics, DOI: 10.1089/glre.2008.13106). "Our results should have greater impact on the legislators than the results of other studies; they refer to reality," says Fiedler.

However, Sean McCulloch, a computer scientist at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, says the results may fail to sway a judge or jury. "If you want to use a mathematical argument as the basis for legislation or court decisions, it has to be easy to explain, easy to follow and intuitive," he says.

McCulloch used an alternative method to explore skill and chance in poker, also based on real games. Together with Paco Hope of the software consultancy Cigital of Washington DC, he looked at 103 million hands of Texas hold 'em played at the PokerStars online site and calculated how many were won as the result of a "showdown" - in which players win thanks to their cards beating their opponents' cards - versus those that were won because all the other players folded. They argue that the latter hands must be pure skill, because no one shows their cards. Their analysis, released on 27 March, revealed that 76 per cent of games did not end in a showdown, suggesting that skill is the dominant factor.

John Pappas of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) in Washington DC says both studies are badly needed to help properly define the law. In many US states, judges and juries use a so-called "predominance test" to gauge skill and chance, based on the opinions of expert witnesses. Although courts in Pennsylvania, Colorado and South Carolina have all ruled this year that poker is a game of skill, not all courts do. "It would not be wise for any of us to rest on our laurels," Pappas says. The PPA expects the Cigital study will now be used as evidence to fight appeals against court rulings that decided poker is a skill game.

However, Preston Oade of law firm Holme Roberts and Owen in Denver, Colorado, who worked on a separate poker case in Colorado, cautions that the studies still may not persuade juries, as this is a "moral, political and social issue", as well as a mathematical one.

Pappas hopes the studies will help to persuade the US Congress to grant poker an exemption from the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, due to come into force in December 2009. The act will make it illegal in some states for banks to process transactions from gambling websites.

[Rasputin]

Poorya Nazari wins 2009 PCA

Poorya Nazari from Toronto, Canada turned $700 into $3 million when he won the sixth PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

The 2009 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure returned to the Atlantis Resort this week for it's Main Event



The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure had over 1,300 entrants with the majority being online qualifiers.

Nazari, who graduated last month, admitted he was stunned by the win one of the biggest sporting prizes in the world. He said: "It was only today that I started thinking about winning. At one point yesterday I was down to virtually nothing but I got off to a good start today and at that point I thought I might have a shot."

The record field at this year's PCA included 746 PokerStars players, including Nazari who had won their seats online with PokerStars. Team PokerStars Pro Alexandre Gomes made the final table but was knocked out in fourth place, earning $750,000. Among the stars in the tournament were German tennis legend and PokerStars Ambassador Boris Becker as well as 26 Team PokerStars Pros.

The roll call of top players included last year's PCA champion Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, former world champions Joe Hachem, Greg Raymer and Chris Moneymaker, the multiple bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu and sponsored PokerStars player Peter Eastgate, who became the youngest ever WSOP world champion when he won $9 million in November.

The final table was stacked like the rest of the field, with PokerStars pro Alexandre Gomes coming into the day as chip leader. Gomes was beat when his full house was beaten by Benny Spindler's four of a kind. Gomes' elimination put the brakes on what had to that point been an amazingly quick final table. It took just three hours to bust the first four players from the final table, and four and a half hours from the time that Gomes left to the rail in fourth place to bust Benny Spindler in third place with $1,100,000.

From that point it only took four hands for Nazari to take out Tony Gregg. The two players got it all in preflop with Nazari holding Ace ♣ 10♦ to Gregg's Q♦ 7♠. The board was dealt 10♠ 6♣ 5♣ 3♠ 9♦ and Nazari became 2009's early year tournament money leader.

The results from the PCA Main Event final table are:

1. Poorya Nazari - $3,000,000
2. Tony Gregg - $1,700,000
3. Benny Spindler - $1,100,000
4. Alexandre Gomes - $750,000
5. Pieter Tielen -$550,000
6. Dustin Dirksen - $400,000
7. Daniel Heimiller - $300,000
8. Kevin Saul - $234,000

[Rasputin]

Carta Persica

Iranian designs on playing cards

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC91qJ6V77I"]YouTube - Persian Playing Cards-Carta Persica[/ame]

I play poker with friends once a month or so. Would be fun to play with cards made with Iranian designs like these I found on YouTube.

Also visit www.CartaPersica.com

[donsaeid]

dame adam garm ke hale computer ro gerefte

[Rasputin]

Humans best computer in poker match

In a poker contest of man vs. machine, the results are in. Humans-2. Polaris-1. (And one draw.)

On Tuesday night, Phil Laak and Ali Esmali, two professional poker players, faced off against a computer program called Polaris, which was developed over 26 years at the University of Alberta. The contest, held at the American Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) conference in Vancouver, Canada, was one of the first scientific poker contests involving real players.

In the end, Polaris beat Laak and Esmali in the first match of 500 hands; tied the second match; then lost the last two rounds. Laak and Esmali walked away with almost $20,000 each, including a $5,000 honorarium for playing in the scientific game.

"It was very challenging and a far more sophisticated bot than what they put out before," Esmali, 30, said in an interview. "Previous versions were much more exploitable and you could adjust your strategy and beat it. (Polaris) used a much more varied strategy."

Esmali, a resident of Los Angeles, said that the play wasn't about the money for him or Laak, but rather about helping advance the field of AI. "It's the implication in society that this technology can be applied to like collaborative problems. That's what's so exciting is being at the beginning of this adventure."

For Jonathan Schaeffer, professor in the department of computing science at the University of Alberta and who's been working on Polaris since 1991, the game was also a win for his team.

"This is the first time any computer program has won a match against a strong human player, and from our point of view, that's a huge milestone for us and AI," said Schaeffer. "But we have a long way to go to beat the best in the world."

The consolation prize for Schaeffer's 12-person team was that Polaris won the Second World Computer Poker Championship, in which as many as 18 computer programs played each other over weeks. The results were announced Wednesday at the AAAI conference.

The University of Alberta team chose to work on an AI program for poker, rather than chess, because it's a game of imperfect information, just like life, Schaeffer said. That means that a player can't know what cards his or her opponents are holding, making the game one of luck and skill.

The man vs. machine poker contest was designed to eliminate the luck factor by dealing the same cards in each hand, but in reverse. So in one hand, Laak might get lucky with two aces, but in the other room Esmali would be unlucky as the computer was dealt two aces. To finalize a winner, officials added the two human scores and two computer scores separately, and the highest number won.

Even though the University of Alberta team lost, they can take heart that it was no easy task for Laak and Esmali.

Esmali said that the game wasn't like professional poker online, when he can typically watch TV or eat some food while playing. "This required really intense focus to play at the level to beat this bot."

[Rasputin]

It was around 10pm. As I got closer to the $5,000 buy-in no limit game, I noticed that the game was super juicy; that is, every pot was over $2,000 with many pots approaching $5,000. Seat 1 was a huge white American guy with approximately $15,000 worth of chips in front of him. This guy was easily 6'4" and was sitting on multiple seat cushions, making him tower over the table and everyone around him.

This was an obvious attempt to intimidate everyone. Besides being huge, this guy thought (by the way he talked) he was the professor of poker and the best player on the face of the earth.

Seat 4 was an average looking medium built Israeli man in his 50s. He had around $9,000 in chips in front of him. Kept playing shitty cards and kept losing. Once he would see that he had lost, or fold his cards to the bettor, he would cuss out the casino dealers in what I am guessing was Hebrew. As if the Chinese or Vietnamese dealer would understand him. Nevertheless, his behavior was rude and uncalled for. Let's say he wasn't earing browny points from the dealer or the players at the table. Nobody would miss this guy if he left the table.

Seat 8 was a very young looking Iranian guy; in his mid 20s. He had the iPod thing going on; listening to the music as he was intensly watching every move of every player. He looked liked a very "pedar sookhteh" kinda of a guy, but nice pedar sookhteh. Interestingly enough, he also had close to $10,000 in chips as well. I thought to myself, where did this guy get all this money?

About 10 minutes into watching the game, a new hand started. The big American guy bet $3,000. A couple of players folded and it was now the Israeli guys turn to bet or raise. After about 3-4 minutes of thinking, he raised the original bet to $6,000. Seats 5, 6 and 7 folded and it was now our Iranian bro's turn to call, raise or fold. He thought about his move for 30 seconds or so and called the $6,000 raise.

After it got to our American friend, he raised his bet to all-in or close to $15,000 total. Everyone was kind of expecting this. It was now up to the Israeli guy. He hemed and ha'd for an eternity and also went all in.

The bet to our young Iranian friend now was all his chips or close to $10,000. Again, it took him all but less than 10 seconds to call.

The dealer asked the 3 players to turn over their cards. The American player had 2 Aces, the Israeli guy had 2 Kings and the Iranian player had Ace Jack of spades.

The first 3 cards, or the flop, was 8, 9 and 3. All different suits. The gentle giant in seat 1 got up and yelled YESSSSS at the top of his lungs. The casino walls were shaking! Then he said "that's what you get for donkey plays... YESSSS... YESSSSS..."

Actually, the phrase "donkey player" was coined by the Iranian players at the Commerce Casino because they kept calling other players "khar".

The dealer then placed the 4th card or the "turn" on the table. It was a Jack. Now each player had a big pair; Aces, Kings and Jacks. The American guy was way ahead at this point.

The last card or the river would now seal the fate of this hand. Guess what! That's right, the last card was another Jack and our Iranian friend won a pot over $30,000.

After winning a hand worth over $30,000 this young guy didn't bat an eyelash! Holy crap! What's running through this guy's veins, I asked?

After cussing the dealer for a few minutes, our Israeli friend packed up his things and left. The giant kept saying "how could you call a $17,000 all in bet with Ace Jack off suit? How could you call...." This guy was in shock.

The only response from our Iranian friend was, "Sorry man, that's poker".

Later that night, I spoke to this kid whose name was Hooman. He told me that he was 26 and from age 21 he had been making a living playing professional poker in Las Vegas and Atlantic City with occasional visits to Los Angeles.

He had finished his degree in Political Science from UCLA and to great dismay of his parents, who had disowned him, had turned to poker instead of going to law school.

When I asked him if he is happy with the decision he had made, he said that although he is having a lot of fun and making a lot of money, he missed his parents and his younger brother and was planning to quit playing and go to law school with the hope of rejoining his family. He said he was worried that his dad may not accept him back.

Hooman jan, good luck in law school and enjoy your family's love. A real father would never say no to being close to his son. So, thank you for making my night by winning from the 2 guys I wished I had made broke and thank God for making you see the light.

[donsaeid]

Amir Vahedi is one of the best poker players around. If there's a poker match on an American TV channel -- ESPN, Travel, on Fox Sports, ... -- he's likely to be one of the players.

tvet cheghadr ghadimie... jolosham kezadi shekondi loool

[Sepideh_UK]

looool khoda bede barekat

[donsaeid]

mashallah

[Parinaz_M]

en ham yeki az talentaye ma irooniys dige

[donsaeid]

are mashallah ma irania bara hichi khoob nabashim bara fake bodan va bluff kardan khobim

[Parinaz_M]

man ham beram poker bazi konam koli pooldar besham

[Sepideh_UK]

lool
thanx.