I have been a professional internet poker player for 12 years, playing mostly no limit hold’em cash games with buy-ins ranging from $200-$1000 and have been playing online in New Jersey since it was regulated in November 2013. Since Party Poker and Borgata Poker (henceforth referred to as Party Poker) began operating in New Jersey, their software has been plagued with crashes, disconnections and other bugs. Over the past 6 months of playing on Party Poker their software has crashed on my computer approximately 500 times and each time it crashes, the software folds my hand on each of the 10 tables I play simultaneously, often when I have already put a significant amount of money into the pot. As a result of the high volume I play and the frequency of the crashes, the amount of money I have put into pots and folded away as a result of their faulty software has been staggering. This is a problem not just for me, but for players all over New Jersey and all over the world that use Party Poker’s software. I, along with many others, have made Party Poker aware of the software problems for over 6 months by emailing support, tweeting, conversing with upper level management and advising their tech people. Their response has always been the same “there were no technical difficulties that arose from our end, check your computer” or “We are working on it and have escalated it to the appropriate department.” These are the same form responses that I, and many others, have received word for word for over 6 months without any resolution to the problems. Despite these responses, I have gone to great lengths to ensure that the problem is not on my end including purchasing a new computer and changing internet service providers.

When Party Poker software crashes and I am automatically folded, the hand history, the report that lists what happened in each hand in note form, is not written to my hard drive like it is when there is no crash. As a result of this, I only have a rough guesstimate of the amount of money I have lost due to the software crashes and I have no record of what took place in those hands. I have been asking Party Poker for a complete copy of my hand histories for nearly nearly 2 months so that I can do my 2014 taxes and so that I have accurate records. For a few weeks they were “working on it” “escalating it” and “forwarding it to the respective department,” until they started ignoring my emails. Only after contacting the Department of Gaming Enforcement in New Jersey, was I able to get approximately 160,000 of the 470,000 hands I have played on Party Poker in the past year and they have been unable to locate roughly the records of more than 310,000 hands.

I put the 160,000 hands I received into an empty Hold’em Manager database and approximately 14,000 of those hands had the action incorrect or wrong, including every single time the software crashed. The actions, as represented in the hand histories I was sent, were often impossible such as me betting and then calling my own bet or me betting and then folding to no further action. I repeat, there was not a single time where the software crashed that I received a correct hand history demonstrating that, and the only records of hands where the software crashed that exist are incorrect. There is therefore no way for me to account for the money the software crashing has cost me.

I believe that when the software crashes on my computer, the hand history is not correctly written to their servers. This is akin to Gmail not saving your conversation with a friend because the friend signed off in the middle of the conversation. Of the 14,000 hand histories that were incorrect, not all of them were incorrect because Party Poker crashed on my computer. Since the crashing on my computer caused the hand histories to be incorrectly recorded on their servers, when it crashed for others their hands must have been incorrectly recorded as well. Since approximately 10% of the hand histories I received were incorrect, I believe that in 10% of the hands I played in, myself or someone I was playing poker with was disconnected from their site due to a crash caused by the Party Poker software. Based on my own approximate losses, the prevalence of these bugs and the sheer number of players affected, the amount of amount of money lost due to this bug is in millions of dollars if not more.

Regulated internet poker was established to prevent disreputable sites that have little regard for their customers from participating and to protect the players. It is incredible to me that politics have prevented PokerStars, whose reputation and customer service is impeccable, from receiving a license in New Jersey thus far, but Party Poker, who has a history of operating in the manner I have described above have been allowed to operate.

I request that Party Poker finally and completely fix their software bugs and compensate people for the losses they have incurred as a result of their negligence.

Huffington Post

Bonus: Jon Stewart on Chris Christie

Playing $1/2 6max no limit.  I raise 99 in first position to $6 and get called on the button by a very weak recreational player(60/20 for those interested in stats) and a poor playing regular(27/12) in the small blind.

The flop comes 9h9s6c giving me four 9′s.  The small blind checks. Since neither of the two players were likely to have anything or to call with nothing(float), and the button was likely to bet when checked to, I elected to check.  Unfortunately the button checked behind.

The turn is the 6h.  The small blind checked and I bet $6 into $19 hoping that my opponents would either call me with Ace high or a pair, or try to bluff me, since it doesn’t look like I have too much.  The button folds and the small blind calls.

The river is the 5h, so the final board is 9h9s6c6h5h and the small blind open shoves for $190 into the $31 pot.  I call, he shows a 8h7h for a straight flush and I lose.

The point of the story isn’t to complain about how unlucky and rare it is to lose with four 9′s, but is to wonder what the heck the small blind was thinking and how we can use his mistakes to better our play in the future.  Here is the way he should be thinking about the hand on the river from his point of view (forgetting about ways to take alternative actions previously):

“It looks like my opponent doesn’t have much, so betting a large amount is likely to make him fold the vast majority of his hands.  If he did have something like AA that checked behind the flop or a flush, there is no way he can call a huge amount(6 times the pot) on the river with so many hands that he loses to.  My best bet is to bet something small in the hopes that he thinks I am bluffing either with something like T8, a pair under 6′s that got counterfeited or ace high.  If I bet a small amount and he does have a 9 or maybe even a 6, he is likely to raise and I can reraise and get all the money in, the same as if I had shoved.  Plus, if I bet small, there is a chance he might decide to bluff me.  If I shove all in, I take away all chance for him to call me with weak hands (since he knows I would never do this with a bluff) and he also cannot bluff me.  Clearly, the best play is to bet small, pray to be raised and expect to be called sometimes.”

His actual thinking went something like this:  ”I made a straight flush!  I am going to push all in and hope to get called because I cannot be beaten.  Wow, I can’t believe someone called me, didn’t he realize I had a straight flush?  What an idiot!”

Before I called, I remember wondering what he possibly could have(given that I had all the 9′s, his most likely shoving hand) and that whatever hand he had, he misplayed it.  For instance, if he had four 6′s, he should use the same logic I outlined above for when he had a straight flush and he should never be bluffing all in when a smaller amount would have done the job done with a similar frequency.  Fortunately for me, this short term variance where people grossly misplay their hands and still win occurs frequently.  Over time though, playing my hands more correctly than my opponents leads to better outcomes for me and is the reason I have been a successful professional.

For the record, on the river it’s still a good call by me because he would do this with one combination of four 6′s and one combination of 8h7h.  This means I win 50% of the time, and need to call $190 into $411, which only requires me to win 46% of the time to break even.

They could not give a time frame for PokerStars coming to New Jersey, since their licensing is still being processed, but as  soon as it is (I have read sometime in October) they expect to hit the ground running.  They have experience in implementing single country PokerStars brands and they expect to be able to improve on many of the areas which the current sites lack, namely depositing problems, software malfunctions, customer service and the rewards programs.

With so many of the major problems improved, I believe that they will be are able to pick up significant market share and I look forward to playing on PokerStars New Jersey as soon as it becomes available.  I hope that they can show other states what is possible when internet gaming is run the right way and thereby encourage internet poker to be more accepted in the United States.

My reply lately has been to ask why these players aren’t in Ivey’s Room in the Aria Las Vegas where the buyins are hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Clearly these players exercise some choice in who they play, and their willingness to play anyone extends only to playing people they believe they have an edge over.  In fact, many of these players do not play every available game online in New Jersey, but are using criteria for game selection that is not primarily concerned with profitability.  Though I find it irritating to be berated, especially by people with whom I have been friendly, I believe that they are less skilled in achieving the end goal of playing poker professionally: making money.

I believe there are 2 sets of essential poker skills, hard skills and soft skills.  Hard skills encompass everything related to playing a poker hand like whether or not to bet, how much to bet or whether you think your opponent is bluffing.  Soft skills are everything else involved in playing poker, like being in the correct mindset, where to sit at the table and how not to tilt.  You need both sets of skills to be a successful professional.  For example, someone who is great at betting, but who tilts off their whole bankroll when they take a bad beat, has soft skills that counteract their hard skills to the point that it is going to be tough for them to be a long term winner.  

There are many, many situations that occur at the poker table, and as a professional, it is my job to know which ones are profitable and to try to put myself in those situations.   I have spent thousands of hours doing analysis in order to figure out where the money is made and how best to make it.  For example, there are many players who I would not like sitting on my left (acting after me) but who I am happy to have on my right (acting before me).  Does that mean that I will never sit with them on my left?  Of course not, but there needs to be a something positive that counteracts the money I lose (or cannot make) because of the tough player on my left.  If you are not consistently not discerning about these small edges that frequently occur, they quickly add up  and really eat into the bottom line.

Before I play a hand, I try to determine whether or not it is profitable for me to play in a game.  Into that calculation goes some of the following: am I a favorite in this game?, will it distract from my other games?,  do I have enough games going now?,  will I learn something from playing here?,  will the game start if I play heads up?, in addition to many other things.  I do the mental calculation to figure out if  I think it is profitable, and if it is, then I play, if not, then I don’t.

Often when I do start a game and the weaker player sits, I find myself in a poor position and not able to make money, while someone else who sat later will get one of the more profitable seats and therefore reap the benefits of my playing heads up to start games.  I don’t generally play in a game with 5 other tough regulars, not because I don’t think I can win in the game, but because its not worth my time and mental energy to win at a small rate (and endure a lot of variance),  when I could be focusing my attention on more profitable scenarios.  If my opponent does x, and I have trouble reacting to x, I am not going to go out of my way to play them heads up, a.k.a. giving them money.  Once I figure out a good way to counteract what they are doing, I might play them heads up to challenge myself and see if my solution works.

I play poker to make money, not for ego or to show the world who the better player is.  In fact, if one of the people who berated me had asked me nicely, I probably would have talked poker with them and we could have discussed how I think we match up against each other.  If other good players want to battle each other by “playing anyone” and distract themselves from the games I am in, go for it!  If I sit out against you heads up, please don’t be mad at me, take it as a compliment that I thought you were good enough to not be worth my time and energy to play.

I immediately emailed support on July 6th (before the sale was over) informed them of the problem and told them that I wanted to purchase the bonuses at the discounted price, and asked if they could do it for me manually. That was over a week ago and I have since inquired 2 additional times and have been told twice that the issue has been escalated to a supervisor and that I should have an answer soon.

I have lost what little faith I had in Party Poker and Borgata Poker. I have been playing on Party Poker(and Borgata Poker, which shares a player pool) since December and each time I have had a problem, I have been told it will be escalated to a supervisor and I have not heard back from them. It has now been nearly 8 days since my original email and given their history of ignoring problems, I would like to make this issue, along with many of the others that I have experienced over the past few months, public.

Here are just a few of the problems:

1)When I caught a player cheating by playing on the same table under a different screen name, I informed them and to my knowledge, there was nothing done about it.

2) The geolocation software, which ensures that the players are in NJ while playing, intermittently cannot locate me in NJ and therefore disconnects me from my games frequently. Because of a Party Poker software glitch, I must leave the table(losing my seat) in order to be geolocated in NJ. This does not happen on the 2 other main sites.

3)Their software crashes on me at least twice a day, they refuse to fix it and the reimbursements that I have asked for have also been escalated to a supervisor and ignored.

4)There is a phone number to call for support but no one ever answers it.

5)The security email that ensures that you are the one logging into your account(as mandated by NJ law) often arrives 5-8 hours after logging in, providing no security and ensuring that if your account is hacked, nothing can be done.

6)There are more software glitches than I can name, from prizepools being wrong, to clicking on the lobby making the software freeze, to the login window not opening until you restart the software several times.

Because of the limitation on the number of available games, I am forced to play on Party/Borgata in addition to WSOP/888 Poker and I understand that I make more money using their crappy site than if I boycott them.

Back in 2006, I made a conscious decision to no longer play on Party Poker because of their horrendous customer service, terrible software and lack of concern for their players. I chose to go with PokerStars, who left no stone unturned in attempting to become the best site out there for the players and whose reputation for customer service is impeccable. It is unfortunate that the politics of gambling in NJ has forced me to resume playing on Party/Borgata.

I know there are many out there who have expressed similar complaints about Party Poker NJ and who are excited for PokerStars to enter the market.

I have heard that PokerStars might be granted a license to operate in NJ soon. Be very afraid Party/Borgata, because I will be moving there and I am definitely not alone.

http://www.wnyc.org/story/new-jersey-online-gaming-bet-comes-up-short/

-Jason

Since internet gambling has been up and running in New Jersey, I have been putting in a lot of hours playing online poker.  It feels really great to be able to play online again and my results over the last several months have been much better than even I could have expected.   I would like to share my experiences with you.

As I said above, it is great to be back online again.  When I started playing poker professionally, I began online because of the convenience, the ability to analyze my game and the flexibility of my schedule.  Those advantages have returned in full and not being forced to travel to the casino has made a huge improvement in my quality of life.  Travelling to casinos was not why I became involved in poker and though I met some great people,I am very happy to return to playing online.

Since I travel to New Jersey every day, I feel a bit like I have a regular job, commute and all.  I don’t mind the regularity so much, as it allows me to get into more of a routine than I had over the past 10 years or so.  I play at a local coffee shop which is nice enough to let me sit there for hours at a time and is open late.  I have adapted well to playing longer sessions since it is more difficult to take breaks.  The downside of not being able to play at home is that I get less hours at night when the games are the best.

The games have been excellent and there has been a lot of action most of the time.  I have been impressed by the number of players and am looking forward to New Jersey making compacts with other states to widen the player pool.  It seems like it won’t be too long before other states allow internet gambling as well and are looking to join New Jersey in the online gaming arena.

Geolocation is a huge issue for me.  To play, you must be in New Jersey and the software that checks your location is spotty and though it is improving, I still get disconnected frequently.  The geolocation is finicky and I have sometimes had trouble finding a place to play that is recognized as being in New Jersey.  The location system should be better, especially with a real and significant amount of money involved.

Depositing was very difficult in the beginning, but over the last month or so, I have had no trouble.  The addition of Neteller as a payment option and the ability to deposit at the cage have helped as well.  I hope that the banks will soon allow deposit via credit cards.

There are 3 main sites where there are a significant number of game: Party Poker/Borgata, WSOP and 888.  The software on WSOP and 888 is good and their promotions and customer service are responsive.  Party Poker/Borgata software frequently crashes on me and I have many more geolocation issues there than on the other two sites.  The crashing of their software has been an issue for nearly six months and they have refused fix it or even to acknowledge the problem.  I hope that as more sites and games become available, I will not need to play there any longer.

Firstly, live play is usually significantly deeper than on the internet.  This means that the river bet is going to be more significant amount live and you often will have had to announce your strength to your opponents earlier in order to be betting that amount.  The combination of these two effects means that your opponent will more often fold when a lot of money goes into the pot.  While this was not always the way people reacted in the past, I believe it is the way that the games are trending.

Secondly, on the internet the pot size is right in front of you, whereas in live play, you must make an effort to count it.  This means that while people have a general idea of the pot size being small, medium or large, they don’t know it exactly and thus a 2/3 pot size bet to them means less than it would online.  In addition, live opponents (especially the poorer playing ones) are more influenced by the amount you bet (also being small, medium or large) then the amount relative to the pot.  So, if the pot is “big” to them you will be called with roughly the same range for anything they perceive to be “big” bet.

So how should this affect your strategy?  I think that when value betting, you should be betting the most your opponent will call and that in live poker, the amount is inelastic once it has become “big.”  When value betting against certain opponents, you will have to be content with not getting their entire stack.  For an extreme example, if your opponent will not call more than $500 on the turn or river, then you are often best off betting $500 on both streets, instead of trying to set him up for a 2/3 pot size bet on the river(which he won’t call if it is more than $500).

Also, I think that you can push your opponents off hands by betting amounts that push them out of their comfort zones.  For example, in a limped 4 way pot, if the flop comes 922 and I lead out from the big blind and get called by one player.  I check the turn 4 and he checks too.  I can make a “big” bet on the river and win the pot most of the time, since when my opponent does not bet the turn, he doesn’t have a “big” hand and thus won’t call a “big bet” with it.

I hope this stirred up some thoughts on bet sizing, and I would love to hear what others think about the differences between live and online.

1.  ”Poker is not a job.”  Dictionary.com defines a job as “a paid position of regular employment.”  While playing poker online, I worked 50+ hours a week playing and working on improving my game and won nearly every week and every month.  The IRS considers professional gambling an acceptable occupation and I pay taxes as I would at any other job.  Just about anything that would make it “not a job” could be applied to things like professional athletes, stock traders, artists and a whole host of other professions.

2.  ”You wasted your time and education.”  My education provided me with the skills and ability to hone my poker game and anything else I do in the future.  I strongly believe that it is not for people to decide how others live their lives and what is best for them.  There are plenty of doctors who choose to administer botox and do plastic surgery instead of performing heart transplants and saving sick children in Africa.  They have chosen something that they are happy with and I do not think they have wasted their education.  Being challenged daily, working for myself and having my time be flexible were important to me and thus poker was a good choice for me, whereas it might not have been for others.  While I could have chosen to pursue other occupations (and still might), I do not consider my education a waste and it is a foundation I can always build on in the future.

3.  ”You should have chosen a more productive career path.”  There are so many jobs that could fall into the “unproductive” category that makes this argument almost laughable.  Is making a movie productive?  Does it make the world a better place?  No and no.  I don’t believe it is right for other people to judge and apply their values to others.  People enjoy watching movies and they enjoy playing poker, how big would the uproar be if the government told Steven Spielberg and other directors to “do something more productive” because movies don’t help anyone?  When I think of countries that tell people to do jobs that serve the public good, I think of North Korea, not the United States.

4.  ”You should have forseen the end of online poker when determining your career choice.”  I don’t believe that it was possible to see this outcome when I started playing poker in 2003.  Moreover, there are thousands of examples of jobs that were solid and safe, until technology changed and they were no longer viable.  Someone posted in the 2+2 thread that he had a secure job in the newspaper industry, which was a fantastic and stable job until people stopped buying newspapers.  Even if I could have seen what might have occurred in the online poker realm, that does not make what has occurred acceptable.

5. “You were not fired.”  I admit that I was not actually fired, since I was self employed, but frankly, it makes for a better headline.