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Poker is mostly about some weird sort of secret autistic like aptitude that no one really understands. Programmer types are higher in weird autistic aptitude th

by rms 14y ago

Poker is mostly about some weird sort of secret autistic like aptitude that no one really understands. Programmer types are higher in weird autistic aptitude than average. Moderately outlying poker players can make about as much as they can as Bay Area programmers, and it's kind of a lot more fun to hang out all day getting served drinks in a casino all day than be in the Bay Area, though the Oaks Card Club is quite good for live multi table No Limit turbo-ish tournaments. Email if you want to play sometime there. Also email me if you know of a Bay Area Startup poker game with a decent buy-in. I only ever find the social club low-limit ones on Facebook. I didn't read the article and upvoted it.

encoderer 14y ago
For the best, maybe "reading people" is just how you described it -- that "weird sort of secret autistic like aptitude that no one really understands." This is like that famous (to poker players anyway) first scene of the movie Rounders where Matt Daemon's character goes around and tells you to some sick level of accuracy the hand range of his opponents. But in my experience, not being that, I can describe it better: For me, reading people is about giving them as much negative stimuli as possible and watching closely at their reactions. I'm really only passably good at this in a 1-on-1 setting. I avoid big money in multi-player pots if i can even though they provide a chance for much richer implied odds (eg the ability to earn 2, 3 x my money). What that means is this -- I play what's known as a "tight aggressive" game. I only play about 5-10% of the hands dealt to me. And I play them hard. I raise a lot. Not usually huge raises, instead I like to have more, smaller raises. A good Pot Limit game is great for that. The idea here is simple: I want to make you make more decisions. If I think you're a worse player than I am, then my odds increase the more decisions I make you make. And I would much rather be in a position where I re-raise and she comes back with a huge re-raise and I fold than a position where I have less signal about her hand, and more noise, and think I have the best of it all the way down and lose a big pot. YMMV, but that's what "reading players" means to me. Edit: Also, build a poker bot. For fun. Not profit. You probably won't profit. But I loved it. There are great "engines" you can build off of. I used WinHoldem but this was circa 2005 so certainly there are better options. It's great. You get computer vision, machine learning, etc, it's loads of fun.
- rms 14y ago
  Reading people in internet poker means using a HUD plus drawing distinctions based on how long they wait before making a move. That's it.

by rms 14y ago

encoderer 14y ago

For the best, maybe "reading people" is just how you described it -- that "weird sort of secret autistic like aptitude that no one really understands." This is like that famous (to poker players anyway) first scene of the movie Rounders where Matt Daemon's character goes around and tells you to some sick level of accuracy the hand range of his opponents. But in my experience, not being that, I can describe it better: For me, reading people is about giving them as much negative stimuli as possible and watching closely at their reactions. I'm really only passably good at this in a 1-on-1 setting. I avoid big money in multi-player pots if i can even though they provide a chance for much richer implied odds (eg the ability to earn 2, 3 x my money). What that means is this -- I play what's known as a "tight aggressive" game. I only play about 5-10% of the hands dealt to me. And I play them hard. I raise a lot. Not usually huge raises, instead I like to have more, smaller raises. A good Pot Limit game is great for that. The idea here is simple: I want to make you make more decisions. If I think you're a worse player than I am, then my odds increase the more decisions I make you make. And I would much rather be in a position where I re-raise and she comes back with a huge re-raise and I fold than a position where I have less signal about her hand, and more noise, and think I have the best of it all the way down and lose a big pot. YMMV, but that's what "reading players" means to me. Edit: Also, build a poker bot. For fun. Not profit. You probably won't profit. But I loved it. There are great "engines" you can build off of. I used WinHoldem but this was circa 2005 so certainly there are better options. It's great. You get computer vision, machine learning, etc, it's loads of fun.

rms 14y ago
Reading people in internet poker means using a HUD plus drawing distinctions based on how long they wait before making a move. That's it.