Poker Software and Analysis

I've been busy with work and unable to put much time into the Poker lately, but found some time to do some work this morning.

In order to get some feedback on my VPIP analysis, I posted on the 2+2 forums here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/39/small-stakes-pl-nl/does-vpip-really...

It will be interesting to see what sort of response I get. Most players have been led to believe that tight play is better. However, the data from the PokerFtp database suggest that the belief is inaccurate, and that loose play can be as effective as tight player.

I've been spending more time analysing the Poker FTP data.

Unfortunately, I lost a lot of time due to Java Out of Memory errors. I tried using the -Xmx1g option, but that wasn't enough. And increasing the heapsize over 1 gig prevented the Java virtual machine from even starting. Eventually, I discovered that the problem was the virtual machine. The 32 bit Java virtual machine was limited to a 1 gig heap, while the 64 bit version didn't have the limitation.

I've been trying to generate some VPIP distribution charts using the data from PokerFTP.

It's all done in Java, which is a nice language, but unfortunately I keep on hitting memory problems due to the amount of data that I need to manipulate.

I am considering filtering my hand processing to exlude players with under 100 hands. That will remove players for which I don't have a non trivial amount of data. However, it will also add survivosrhip bias to my results, as it will remove players who are so bad that they lose their bankrolls within 100 hands.

I've managed to solve the languages issue. The problem was that I hadn't copied across the languages.ini file for the GTranslate.php translator.

Anyway, it appears to be working correctly now. I've set up auto translations for French, Spanish and Russian for the time being.

So I have access to PokerFTP and am downloading the database now. The total size of the download files is about 17GB. That's a lot!

I plan on using the data to help me test out common theories about Poker. These shall include:

- Are tight aggressive players better?
- Are certain VPIP ranges better?
- Is there a certain range of Aggressions Factor that leads to better results?

I'm getting a lot of non English visitors, so am trying to get an auto translation thing going. Unfortunately it does not work. Here is my support ticket:

So I have access to PokerFTP and am downloading the database now. The total size of the download files is about 17GB. That's a lot!

I plan on using the data to help me test out common theories about Poker. These shall include:

- Are tight aggressive players better?
- Are certain VPIP ranges better?
- Is there a certain range of Aggressions Factor that leads to better results?

I've been looking at Poker FTP, a big database of Poker hands.

It's stored in an RDBMS, and is accessed via Java. It's primarily for academic use, though they allow the general public to use it via submitted Java applications.

I had a play with it this afternoon. It seems fairly intuitive. The hardest part was working out how to install Netbeans and JDK 1.6. For some reason I installed 1.5 the first time, and that is not compatible due to Arrays.copyof not being present in 1.5.

Might be useful later:

http://www.tina-vision.net/tina-knoppix/tina-memo/2003-003.pdf

Play Online Poker

I got sent some promotional material for Rush Poker at Full Tilt and decided to give it a go.