Sunday, May 30, 2010
Zynga Poker
The place is full of idiots. If Zynga showed the true chip count of people including all of the chips they had to purchase no one would buy chips because it would show the millions in the hole they really are. You can spot these people easily just looking at chip count - they have 15k chips and once had a million plus. You slap a fish over their head and play them accordingly.
I was first introduced to Texas Hold'em as a teenager which sounds a bit odd until you realize my first job in life I worked for a bookie. In the 80s I started playing a poker game room on an online service called Delphi. It is the closest I have ever come to an online version being comparable to a real money game. You could not buy chips and there were no free chips. If you lost all you had then you went back to where you started, a once a day 100 chips from the game and play what we called the bot table, another words the computer. It was a long road building a chip stack and you paid by the hour to do so. I was well into six figures but even I rarely played the no-limit room because it was a huge risk if you brought your chips and if you brought a small stack you'd be eaten alive.
In Zynga being able to buy millions of chips for a few bucks completely changes the game. People play for the thrill of pulling the flush or something on the last card and sneaking in the win. With pocket aces against a table you have slightly less than a 50/50 chance to win. In Zynga people constantly go all in with crap like 10 3 off-suit, which means half the time some idiot is going to beat you doing that. They don't care, that 20k chips cost like 5 cents. Any good player knows you play tight to a loose table to win, and these tables are looser than $5 crack whores, but it is still a game of luck. My luck got so bad over the last few days that I started considering folding pocket aces. One hand I had pocket aces, another ace pops on the flop, fish goes all in, I of course oblige him. The flop also had two clubs. He had Jack 7 off-suit with the 7 as a club. The turn and the river both dropped a club, so he win with a flush. Joy.
The nice thing about these fish though is they all have one thing in common, they will pay anything to attempt to fill a straight or flush. Their play also never takes odds into consideration. An example of what will inevitably happen is I have 7 8 suited diamonds in the hole. Most everyone sees the $200 call for the flop. Two diamonds flop. Bozo the fish has to bet so bets another $200 seeing two diamonds and he has the ace of diamonds in the hole. At this point I know the following:
There are 9 diamonds possible out of the 47 unknown cards, so 9:47 or a little worse than 1:5 chance the next card will be a diamond and give me a flush. The pot is going to be about $2000 so my $200 bet will win 10 times the bet. There are no pairs on the table so placing this bet is in my favor, so I do.
The turn drops another diamond giving me my flush and there is still no pair on the table. No pair on the table is important because that means no possibility yet of a full house for someone. Bozo the fish opens with $1000 practically screaming to me he has the ace of diamonds. Bozo has now bet $1000 to win $2000 which is a bad bet in itself because he risking 1:2 and only had about a 1:5 chance to win.
I go all in with 20k because I know at this point the odds of me winning far exceed losing, so any bet on my part is a good bet. Everyone folds except Bozo who pauses a bit and hits the call button. Even if he thought I was bluffing he didn't have the hole cards to call, but he had that ace and he's hoping for a diamond on the last card. If I did flush that means 6 diamonds are gone leaving 7 which means the last card has a 7:44 chance of being a diamond or a 1:6 chance of him getting his ace high flush.
Since he called all in our cards turn up and he has that ace of diamonds and a 7 off-suit. The river drops a club, and he loses. He lost another 5 cents and I know was thinking, "yah, you're just lucky another diamond didn't drop!" And that's the deal, they just don't realize that I would have been UNLUCKY for another diamond to drop. And the real rub is with Zynga Poker it isn't unusual to have 3 or 4 fish trying thei "luck" on one hand and now there's 4 people with a 1:6 chance of getting lucky, and well, now suddenly the odds are....
I was first introduced to Texas Hold'em as a teenager which sounds a bit odd until you realize my first job in life I worked for a bookie. In the 80s I started playing a poker game room on an online service called Delphi. It is the closest I have ever come to an online version being comparable to a real money game. You could not buy chips and there were no free chips. If you lost all you had then you went back to where you started, a once a day 100 chips from the game and play what we called the bot table, another words the computer. It was a long road building a chip stack and you paid by the hour to do so. I was well into six figures but even I rarely played the no-limit room because it was a huge risk if you brought your chips and if you brought a small stack you'd be eaten alive.
In Zynga being able to buy millions of chips for a few bucks completely changes the game. People play for the thrill of pulling the flush or something on the last card and sneaking in the win. With pocket aces against a table you have slightly less than a 50/50 chance to win. In Zynga people constantly go all in with crap like 10 3 off-suit, which means half the time some idiot is going to beat you doing that. They don't care, that 20k chips cost like 5 cents. Any good player knows you play tight to a loose table to win, and these tables are looser than $5 crack whores, but it is still a game of luck. My luck got so bad over the last few days that I started considering folding pocket aces. One hand I had pocket aces, another ace pops on the flop, fish goes all in, I of course oblige him. The flop also had two clubs. He had Jack 7 off-suit with the 7 as a club. The turn and the river both dropped a club, so he win with a flush. Joy.
The nice thing about these fish though is they all have one thing in common, they will pay anything to attempt to fill a straight or flush. Their play also never takes odds into consideration. An example of what will inevitably happen is I have 7 8 suited diamonds in the hole. Most everyone sees the $200 call for the flop. Two diamonds flop. Bozo the fish has to bet so bets another $200 seeing two diamonds and he has the ace of diamonds in the hole. At this point I know the following:
There are 9 diamonds possible out of the 47 unknown cards, so 9:47 or a little worse than 1:5 chance the next card will be a diamond and give me a flush. The pot is going to be about $2000 so my $200 bet will win 10 times the bet. There are no pairs on the table so placing this bet is in my favor, so I do.
The turn drops another diamond giving me my flush and there is still no pair on the table. No pair on the table is important because that means no possibility yet of a full house for someone. Bozo the fish opens with $1000 practically screaming to me he has the ace of diamonds. Bozo has now bet $1000 to win $2000 which is a bad bet in itself because he risking 1:2 and only had about a 1:5 chance to win.
I go all in with 20k because I know at this point the odds of me winning far exceed losing, so any bet on my part is a good bet. Everyone folds except Bozo who pauses a bit and hits the call button. Even if he thought I was bluffing he didn't have the hole cards to call, but he had that ace and he's hoping for a diamond on the last card. If I did flush that means 6 diamonds are gone leaving 7 which means the last card has a 7:44 chance of being a diamond or a 1:6 chance of him getting his ace high flush.
Since he called all in our cards turn up and he has that ace of diamonds and a 7 off-suit. The river drops a club, and he loses. He lost another 5 cents and I know was thinking, "yah, you're just lucky another diamond didn't drop!" And that's the deal, they just don't realize that I would have been UNLUCKY for another diamond to drop. And the real rub is with Zynga Poker it isn't unusual to have 3 or 4 fish trying thei "luck" on one hand and now there's 4 people with a 1:6 chance of getting lucky, and well, now suddenly the odds are....
