Prohibited Online Poker Software Programs

I bought Poker Office a while ago and I tried the free version of Hold 'em Pirate out of curiosity.

Hold 'em Pirate simply doesn't work at Poker Stars and I've never tried it anywhere else.

Poker Office worked fine at first but seems to be more confusing than anything lately and I haven't gotten to the bottom of it.

It does however provide a wealth of (mostly depressing) information about my own play.

I think, for beginning/intermediste players, concentrating on playing our own cards well is more important than the play of others. I'm slowly integrating guesses about other players' behaviour into my betting choices.

Prohibited Online Poker Software FAQ

"... people have developed programs to help them play better online. We think it is okay for players to use some of those programs. However, some of those programs go beyond what we consider acceptable as an aid in playing online.

There is a range of things that a player can do to improve his chances in a poker game. For instance, he can play a lot and gain experience, or he can read a book about poker. Both of these techniques are clearly appropriate. At the other end of the spectrum, he can work in collusion with another player, sharing information about hole cards and teaming up against other players. This is clearly cheating.

In between those two extremes are many programs - some of which we consider to be too close to cheating. For example, there are people building huge databases with profiles of every player on PokerStars, and they are selling access to these databases. A player with access to such a database can call up detailed information about every one of his opponents without ever playing against those opponents himself. We believe this gives that player an unfair advantage against others at his table."

"Q. In general, what kind of programs are acceptable?

A. 1. Programs (or charts) that simply tell you odds, starting hand recommendations, etc.
2. Programs that profile your opponents, but make use of only information which you have accumulated by your own play."


--PB--

A Personal Milestone

Before I spent any of my own money on poker I stayed on the play money tables, promising myself that I wouldn't go into my pocket until I amassed $1M in play money chips. It took me over a year but I did it actually leaving ~$1.5M in my Tiger Gaming play money account.

In January of this year I plunked down a whole $25 of my hard-earned cash. The new deal with myself was based on knowing that real money games would be vastly different from play money tables. This time, I would only put up $25 at a time until I got better at the real money games.

For most of this year I was going into my pocket for $25 about once a week. Sometimes more or less but that's about the average. I've never had a stack bigger than $200. Many times I was down to my last few bucks and I would patiently and carefully rebuild the stack playing ultra-micro tables and SNG's. I'd do well for a while then it seems that every donkey with a nose smelled my stack and came after me handing me one bad beat after another.

The only thing worse than an idiot is a lucky idiot and the only thing worse than that is a lucky idiot that thinks they're good.

The biggest table I play on is $0.25/.50 so far. The biggest SNG has been a $20 buy-in. The only MTT's I play are freerolls and the Blogger Poker Tour at Poker.com.


Any way, the last 15 days have been the longest I've gone on $25. I put together a string of SNG wins and have generally been able to keep my biggest foe (me and my bad attitude) in check. At the risk of inviting Lady Bad Luck to move in for a while I felt I deserved a pat on the back. Even if it's only from me.

Once I am more certain of my skills I will start playing live games and bigger tables and trying to develop the vulture-like patience needed to wait for the right situation to come up at the tables.

--PB--

Online poker school

My search for decent poker courseware has continued through a couple of years of online play. Most of what I've seen is text from a book pasted into a web page with no attempt to adapt the material to the web.

While the quantity o lessons here is less than desirable the quality of both the course materials and the software that runs it is the best I've seen so far.

Switching from learning to testing is simple and getting instant feedback on your answers is invaluable.

Online poker school:"Poker School Introduction

It is not too difficult to find a free poker strategy source nowadays. There are plenty of poker sites providing you with a lot of information on any variant of poker you can just imagine. But the articles are pitifully mixed. When there is some classification it usually does not help too much as the division into Beginner/Intermediate/Professional is quite relative and even illogical. Plus there is a great number of sites which duplicate each other and sometimes it is almost impossible to find an article on a certain topics."


Launchpoker promises regular additions to the lessons.

--PB--

Minimize your Risk With PokerScams.org

I found this while inputting events in to the Poker Event Calendar.

Avoid Poker Scams : Play Smart: "PokerScams.org is an independent 'watchdog' agency that monitors the Online Gaming Industry in an effort to provide the public an avenue to find reputable companies to wager with.

We are a professional non-biased third party organization that gives objective opinions, based on your feedback, independent research, phone calls, tips and inside news. We started this business with the customer in mind and are resolved to keeping the philosophy that there are safe places for online poker. Because of the climate in the industry today people need to have additional information on online poker from an outside source. An educated gambler needs to know where to get information for online gambling. The following pages include valuable news and advice on how to pick a poker room, how to avoid a scam, and how to best capitalize on your wager.

To view a list of safe, secure, and legal online poker rooms, visit www.PokerIntensity.com."

PokerScams.org has a set of player resources to help you
There are a few of these types of organisations that will help you settle disputes and generally not get hosed by crooked poker site operators.

• New Player Guide


• How To Spot A Scam


• 10 Poker Room FAQs


• Gambling Addiction Help

There are a few of these types of organisations that will help you settle disputes and generally not get hosed by crooked poker site operators.

• eCOGRA : e-Commerce Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance: "eCOGRA, a non-profit organization, is the independent standards authority of the online gaming industry, specifically overseeing fair gaming, player protection and responsible operator conduct. The function that eCOGRA performs protects those who engage in online gaming where it is lawful. "



• Online Casino Information and Watchdog - Casinomeister: "Casinomeister is dedicated to providing information and news on online gambling, online casinos, player issues, and industry events. Casinomeister has been online for eight successful years and there is no other site like this.
  
  Accredited Casinos List Only those online casinos that pass Casinomeister's rigid standards are welcome to our Accredited Casinos list. Discover why these are the casinos that deserve to be listed here. Become a Casinomeister player and join the cyber-world of safe online gambling."

--PB--