25 The Newbie Chronicles: The Old RGP

[mdlm]

I've been surfing through RGP on groups.google.com and discovered what I'm sure many of you already know: The old RGP was very, very good.

With articles by JP Massar, Andy Morton, Roy Hashimoto, Gary Carson, Abdul Jalib, Izmet Fekali, Michael Maurer, Paul Pudaite, and Dan Kimberg the site was chockablock with some very serious hold'em poker analysis and theory.

My first question: Where did all of these people go? I'm particularly interested in Maurer's IRC articles: "Bankroll Variance as a Function of Game Size," "Profit Rate as a Function of Position and Game Size," "Player Strategy Statistics: Abridged Set," and "A Study of Variance Using the IRC Poker Database." As far as I can tell he published these on a personal web site after discussing the ideas on IRC, but the original web site is no longer reachable and I cannot find the articles anywhere else.

Some of the work here is quite amazing: Andy Morton explaining why Sklansky's Fundamental Theorem of Poker is wrong; Jalib saying that it is neither a theorem nor fundamental; Maurer analyzing the IRC poker database and showing that "short-handed holdem is less volatile than a full game"; Pudaite submitting problems to the American Mathematical Monthly and discussing them with Sklansky; Hashimoto on implicit collusion; Jalib discussing how drinking coffee influences his play; Roy Cooke on the Edge Concept; Jalib/Michael Hall on Magic Glasses; Sklansky discussing who his father's professors were; and on and on.

My second question: Is there any book that incorporates all of these insights into a strategy?

My third question: When did RGP go to pot?


==>
Goal Update

Last week I spent 15 hours on poker: 6 hours in PokerPages tournaments, 8 hours playing TTH, and 1 hour on 2+2.

I have spent a total of $476.43 out of my $1000 budget.

An update on each of the four goals (which are to be accomplished by 3/30/03):

1. Read and study Jones' "Winning Low Limit Hold 'Em"
I have confirmed 2 1/3 out of the three points I need to achieve this goal. A point (flush draw value bet) is pending an analysis of 10,000 hands.

2. Beat Acespade
Goal Completed on 11/5/02.
Over a period of 100 hours (3600 hands) I beat Acespade?s best lineup at the rate of over 4 BB/hr.

3. Beat Masque World Series of Poker
Goal Completed on 11/17/02

4. PokerPages 85% rating in one calendar month playing 20 tournaments
My rating is now 78.57%. I played three tournaments this past week and finished #92 out of 155, #84 out of 208, and #13 out of 160.

[Louie Landale]

I haven't been on RGP for a few years, so I don't know what its like now.

[A] what what it WAS like was [1] A very high noise-to-signal ratio: you had to wade through hundreds of posts to find the few apparent gems [2] You had to read dozens of responses of the few apparent gems in order to find some reasonable response to it (that is, to help distinquish the false-gems from the real-gems). [3] There were lots of well-said false-gems [4] You could COUNT on someone deliberately misunderstanding your posts, and flaming you for it.

[B] 2+2 has expanded extrordinarily and it contains LOTS of quality posts that are reasonably ..err.. comparitively easy to find. I suspect lots of the RGP'rs (who were there for the content) are now here.

- Louie

[Clarkmeister]

"8 hours playing TTH"

So, whats the hourly rate for beating up on Conan the Librarian?

You are aware of this cool concept called opportunity cost?

[Mike Gallo]

MDML,

When do you plan on applying all of your new found knowledge in a ring game?

[Clarkmeister]

I think the answer is never. He is less than 2 weeks from the end of Phase One and isn't going to meet his play tournament goal.

[Ulysses]

Some of the work here is quite amazing: ... Jalib discussing how drinking coffee influences his play ...

My second question: Is there any book that incorporates all of these insights into a strategy?

My book isn't done yet, but this might help you out: Strategy Post

[jasonHoldEm]

I'll have to give this a try. Mac & Cheese doesn't seem to be working...

jHE