Start Your Day / Poker Grind With St Germain - "Sure Thing"

A great tune to kick start your day:

St Germain Live Version - Sure Thing 

Hand Range Pop-ups PokerTracker PT4

Made the decision to test out the new PokerTracker version upgrade of 1.11.6 (custom cache feature). At the time of it's release, I was creating hand range pop-ups with version PT4 1.09.


All MTT Tourney / SNG / Satellite Positions & Stack Sizes:
Each position calculates the preflop equity for each all-in by villain. The red circles indicate that the player went all-in short stacked (ss), and placing the mouse over the red dot, the tool tip displays the exact sum.

These are the hand ranges that I have created with the red circles representing short stacked hands for tourneys, and out of position on flop for cash hands. The showdown hands are with varied custom filters applied and sums up the card count for each hand combination.

Preflop Equity is calculated separately for each position for tourneys, with the stack sizes of short and large included separately.

I was still using PT4 version 1.09 because of it's ability to populate stats on previous villains, before the first hand was dealt. I had no plans on upgrading PT4 since latter versions had this feature removed.

PT4 version 1.11.6 was released at the same time as I was creating hand range popups. This version had touted the custom cache feature that would greatly improve performance. The ability to decrease the time of the hand range popups to load was enough to try it out.

The hand range pop-ups was greatly decreased from 5-6 seconds to 2-3 seconds. I noticed a lot of little improvements in PT4 with the jump from 1.09.

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I uploaded the PHD_$_Thiefs Tournament - Mirror HUD vs Hero in the download section. The will track all of your attempts and steals from the HJ, CO, BTN, and SB positions, that would be recorded from other players if they have a HUD on you.

This does not work with the version of PT4 1.11.6 (unless you create a new DB to test or have a small DB of less than 100K hands), I have made mention of it to the PT4 devs in their twoplustwo forum thread.

Load up your PT4 Replayer and test out the values while you give it a try. I did not get a chance to document the stat descriptions, so excuse the mess.

Here is the link for all the zip files that I have available for download on Google Sites:

(click file - wait few seconds to appear - click top right download icon)

Link: PHD_$_Thiefs_Zip_Files

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HU Version Hand Range Pop-ups:

Hands villain went to showdown with and red circle indicating short stacked.

If you can get 1.11.6 working properly, it's an exceptional product. The problem is like the horse racing analogy "There is one way to get 1.11.6 right and thousand ways to "F" it up!"

I would strongly recommend to anyone thinking about custom stats, is a complete backup and a fresh install of PostgreSQL 9.3 and PT4.  Work your way slowly through a small sized DB until everything works fine.

ALWAYS backup working PT4 setups since it takes only a few minutes of your time, but potentially hours to remove / redo any errors that were introduced.

I have seen a lot of crazy things with this version, but when it's working correctly, it makes a large difference in performance and speed.


Cash Ring / ZOOM / RUSH / HU Hand Range Pop-ups:
Hands villain went to showdown with and the red circle indicates the number of times were out of position on the flop.

One thing to remember is that the cache that is being rebuilt does not have the sophistication and intelligence to detect, flag, and repair faulty stats, missing stats, corrupt stats, incompatible stats, and non-existent stats (Hud import missing stats).

Usually the way that you will detect a PT4 custom stat problem is if the import is very slow, the HUD takes a very long time to load, or someone going through your log files to identify the problems.

The Windows 7 Snipping tool is very useful in providing support details with a before and after snapshot. Suggest that you use it before tackling large imports while running Windows Task Manager, as seen below. The info will help isolate potential problems or system hangs with PT4.

The PT4 product is a time consuming application (reboots, restarts, duplicating errors, isolating errors), from a trouble-shooting point of view. This is why PT4 customers logs are valued at a premium for support and development issues.

In PT4 version 1.09, I discovered that importing a HUD profile through the MAIN MENU, and then immediately shutting down and restarting PT4 would keep the HUD placement table layout intact. I believe I have seen this problem in the newer PT4 version as well.


SB Position All Stack Sizes Hand Range Pop-ups:

From Same Player as in Image 1

My best suggestion is to do a brand new install of of PostgreSQL 9.3 and PT4 1.11.6 (backup beforehand), and import only about 1 -2 K worth of hands, until all of your huds are operating correctly. Do another backup before any large imports (working huds), in case anything goes wrong.

A fresh install of PostgreSQL 9.3 and PT4 1.11.6 (rename existing leftover folders from uninstall to extension with _OLD, if still needed), can be done in 10 - 15 minutes.

Always start the HUD with default profile to help detect any problems before hand. Access to second computer / notebook will speed things up considerably, connected with Windows 7 HomeGroup.

Always backup PT4 to protect anything that is working correctly. A light DB restore only takes about 10 minutes.

SS & GTR Stack Sizes ALL Positions Hand Range Pop-ups:

Be prepared, it's a lot of work! Here is the link on the PT4 forum in creating this hand range popup:

Hand Range Popup Forum Link

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The newer PT4 1.11.8 version states:

• Stats: Do not allow column names to not start with a number, this change was made to remain compliant with PostgreSQL standards

This basically ends any PT4 upgrades for me in the future since I created all my hand range stats starting with card numbers (87,87s, 76,76s,....). So be aware if you are going to create any custom stats.

Update: I created AHK scripts for my CPU layout, to generate any Hand Range Pop-ups in about 30 minutes, as I described in this post:

#BlacklistBrockU

New NFL Overtime Rules Can Solve All 2014 & Beyond

Existing NFL Overtime rules:

• NFL regular-season overtime rules match the playoff format (Regular season games can end in a tie if the score remains tied after 15 minutes)
• Each team will have an opportunity for a possession in overtime, unless the team that receives the first kickoff scores a touchdown on its opening drive
• First team that scores, wins!
• Also, teams no longer will need to challenge turnovers or scoring plays, as they are automatically reviewed

   Modelmayhem Profile Link 
Photographer The Goat Farm Art Center Link

Suggested Simple Overtime Alterations: 

 ________________________________________________________

"No kickoffs, Punts, or PAT eliminates needless injuries"

• If the first possession team scores a 35 yard FG, then the second team must score a FG from at least one yard closer (34 yard FG or less to win, with auto PAT awarded for game / score stats)

• If the first possession team scores a TD (no 2 point conversion allowed), then the second team must score a TD and a 2 point conversion to win. A failed 2 point conversion automatically credits the first team with an auto PAT, and the OT victory

• If both teams fail to score on first possession, next team that scores wins

• If neither team scores in 15 minutes of regulation time, then the regular season game is marked as a tie

NFL Coaches Conundrum 

New NFL Overtime rules will provide four things that everyone wants to see in OT:


Fairness  ► Each team will get at least one possession regardless of previous result

Safety      ► No kickoffs, Punts, or PAT eliminates needless injuries

Duration ► Likelihood most OT games end after two game possessions, in total

Victor      ► Rarely will we ever see another overtime tie in this format

Synopsis: "Stop them or STOMP them"

\

6 Simple Rules:

1- No coin flips: Team that scored last will automatically go on defense in OT and teams will switch field sides. This allows the coaches the added luxury of scripting plays towards the game's end and saves time.

2 - The first team will assume possession at their own 40 yard line. They have 4 downs to achieve a FG or another 1st down

3 - If the first team scores on their possession, the second team will get the ball on their 40 yard line. If the first team goes four and out, the second team will take over possession at the line of scrimmage.

4- FG attempts are only allowed if the team can decrease their opponent's FG distance by at least one yard, or be the first team to score in the game.

5 - No PAT for a TD, but if a second team ties the game on it's opening possession and misses a 2 point conversion, then the first team is automatically awarded a PAT for box score purposes (tie breaker)

6 - No coaches challenges, but two timeouts are awarded to each team in OT. Turnovers and scoring plays are automatically reviewed, and any other play where a ruling is contested by a fellow referee.

SUMMARY:

This format will challenge the coaching staffs of each team, especially 4th downs. Their coaching decisions will have many implications regarding field possession, whether they are the first or second team with possession.

The ideal overtime game should end quickly (logistics), be fair (both sides have possession), consideration to player safety (no kick returns), and be decisive (own 40 yard starting line).

When you add it all up, everybody "WINS", as this overtime format "Solves all".


Stats based on these two links:

Early Returns on the NFL’s New OT Rules

Inside the Numbers: Starting Field Position in the NFL this season

#BlacklistBrockU

Color PokerTracker PT4 Notes (PokerStars, FTP, PartyPoker)

I have uploaded batch files that will allow you to color the PokerTracker Note Icons.

You can automatically tag / color players, using the PT4 Note Icon to indicate various attributes (winnings, post flop play, PF Equity, .......).

PT4 Note Icon combined with other positional stats, can give you a better picture of your opponent 

You can also color hands specific to any filters that you select in reports for poker population tendencies, as described below.

Color PT4 Note Tags files are:

PHD_$_Thiefs_PokerStars_PT4_Color_Tags.zip

PHD_$_Thiefs_FTP_PT4_Color_Tags.zip

You might want to keep them in separate directories. It does not overwrite present PT4 notes that you have stored on players (do backup prior testing), but it does create an extra line every time you import, which can push down your notes by one line.

I don't use PT4 NoteTracker note system, so you may need to adjust the extra line if required.

Here are the two directories and contents once you unzip the files to the directories of your choice:

Edit Color PT4 Note Icons Batch Files:

Color batch files avoid using percentages equal to 0 % or 100 %,  to avoid table selection errors. It eliminates the players who are sitting out or went all-in on the first hand. To edit this, simply change the first batch file to  geq "0.0" and the last batch file with only one gtr "0.X", that covers all upward percentile ranges (X being the last value).

The batch files are expecting only one variable after the players name, as in the previous posts for coloring your notes (see post Color Your PokerStars Notes While Playing Online ).

The default settings in the 6 batch files are for percentages of 0-10, 10-15, 15-20,20-30,30-50,50 ++, that are set as follows in the PokerStars batch files:

if /I %%b geq "0.1" if /I %%b lss "0.15"

This line from batch file PT4-PS-1-Note.bat will filter all players that fall into percentages of 10 and less than 15. The decimal numbers in the quotes can be adjusted to reflect your required percentile.

It will also color the player's Note Icon number 1 (Yellow). Again, adjust the number to correspond to the color of your choice, as shown in the table.

{ "site": 100, "name":  %%a , "color": 1,

You can adjust those two variables for percentage and colors in each batch file. Make sure they cover all percentages so you don't have any players falling through the gaps. The following table will guide you to which numbers relate to which colors:

Color PokerTracker PT4 PokerStars Players Notes Icons:

1 - You would first run your PT4 Player Report as in this post 

Color Your PokerStars Notes While Playing Online

2 -  Save the report in the directory that you extracted PHD_$_Thiefs_PokerStars_PT4_Color_Tags.zip in, overwriting the present file of either Cash.csv or Trny.csv, depending on your report.

3 - Run NOTES-PT4-Stars.bat in your extracted directory.

4 - You will now have a file called ALL-StarsPT4Notesimport.PT4NOTES.

5 - Select PT4 main menu option of Database and then Notes and select the pop-up window of Import Notes.

6- Navigate to your extracted directory of PHD_$_Thiefs_PokerStars_PT4_Color_Tags.zip and select the file of ALL-StarsPT4Notesimport.PT4NOTES.

7 - Go to your PT4 Replayer and select the hand that the player was involved in, and using the Replayer default profile, verify that the PT4 Note icon is colored properly.

Always test with small samples and test each color that you have selected. You can use any filters or expressions in your reports as long as the report only generates that players name and a decimal variable.

PokerTracker PT4 PokerStars Population Tendencies vs Hero:

This procedure is a little different in which you will create a PT4 Hand report. This can only be run after you have colored all of your database players as mentioned above, for complete analysis. For testing, continue with small samples.

1 - After first step completed, create a PT4 Hand Report, select the Filters Option, and then select the pop-up window of Edit Existing Expression filters.

2 - In the bottom window, copy and paste the expression below, or I uploaded this PT4 Hand report which you can simply import and run the Hand report: Create one report for each color.

PHD_$_Thiefs_Hand_Report.pt4rpt    

tourney_hand_player_statistics.id_hand in (SELECT chps.id_hand from tourney_hand_player_statistics chps, player p, notes n where p.id_player = chps.id_player and chps.flg_showdown and n.id_x = p.id_player and n.enum_type = 'P' and n.id_color = 6)

3- Select Validate to make sure it's been copied properly and then save it.

4- You can now run your report and any players that are colored purple (number 6), and went to showdown, will have their hands displayed in the report. For simplicity, only Marked and Hand # options selected for your report in testing.

5 - You can now select any hand and right click to select the Replay Hand option.

6 - If you don't have any hands, check that you have the right colors selected and defined for players. Marking the hands or manually color a player to check if the report is working on a tagged hand.

7- You can use any filters and then tag all hands with a specific Tag name, using it as analysis of players that you went up against.

8 - You can also remove any color tags on yourself (manually color black in Replayer), and do population tendencies on specific colored players tags throughout your database (uncheck active player option in filters expression)..

You can also create stats that target specific existing tags and get stack size reports on each different situation, on any combination of tags in columns.

The PokerTracker thread that deals with tagging hands can be found here:

PT4 Forum Thread: Filtering on Player Tags

This snip shows the report I generated (purple players that went to showdown), and pasted the Hand Report in the corner. The purple player (color 6) in the Replayer went to showdown.

FTP Note Color Borders:

I found this Full Tilt Poker notes setup to be very useful:   

I download this image file and instructions

from these twoplustwo forum posts:

FTP MODS 1

FTP MODS 2

FTP MODS 3

I re-sized that image (RankDiodes.PNG) in order to get the proper dimensions for the FTP tables. I have uploaded it if you prefer not to go through the editing yourself ( RankDiodes.PNG ).

1 - After you have the RankDiodes.PNG file, copy it to the directory of:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Full Tilt Poker\Graphics\NewTable\Common\Pod

2 - Edit your Layout.xml file with Notepad++ located in the directory of:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Full Tilt Poker\Graphics\NewTable\RaceTrack

3- Search for this line:

<image_object x="5"  y="29" url="Graphics/NewTable/Common/Pod/RankDiodes.png" id="rank_nobadges" />

4- Change x = "23", and y="11"

5 - Restart FTP and go to Options and HIDE all badges in Table Options / Badge Display Options and uncheck any badge boxes at the bottom.

PokerTracker PT4 Showdown Hand Report:

This is the showdown hand report (Preflop All-in), with villains winners hole cards uploaded as - 

 PHD_$_Thiefs_SD.pt4rpt  

Click on the image and you will see that the report as follows:

1 - BB Won, Expected BB Won, BB Differential
2 - Big Blind size, number of players
3-  Hero Stack size, Effective Stack size
--------------------------------------------

4- Four stack sizes that you can configure in the four stats with the present ranges set as (0-10, 10-20, 20-30, 30++).

Note: Importing this report loses it's colors for stack sizes. Go into the four stack size stats and just select the color options and save again for colors to re-appear in reports. IDK why PT4 is bugged in this way.
---------------------------------------------
5- Basic Equity, position, and board cards and actions
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6- Villain Winning Hole Cards not Hero

You have to go into the two stats of  Hole Cards NO HERO and Winner NO HERO and replace my username PHD_$_Thiefs with your username exactly the same spelling: 

Example: if(this = "PHD_$_Thiefs", format (""), format(this))

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The quick filters only allow 2 players seeing flop and showdown, All-in preflop only. The custom stats have been edited to only have hands where 3 or more players were dealt in. Adjust as needed.


PartyPoker Lifetime Color Notes & PT4 Note Icon Colors:

Unzip PHD_$_Thiefs_PartyPoker-Color-Notes.zip

PHD_$_Thiefs_PartyPoker-Color-Notes

Import PartyPoker-Color-Notes.pt4rpt into Pokertracker which will be used by both batch files if needed.

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** Noticed that the player's color note does not appear in the PartyPoker lobby. I think it's still a bug with their new software.

** This will overwrite any colored notes that you may already have. Also Backup your Notes.txt file (C:\Programs\PartyGaming\PartyPoker\Notes.txt) to make sure that you don't lose them if you write and save player's notes, while playing.

** You cannot have PartyPoker running in order to have the colors take affect.

** If you don't want lifetime but want only lifetime stats against players from a certain date range (last 7 days, month, ...), then you will have to edit / add the filter expression as mentioned in earlier posts.  Example last 7 days:

player.id_player in (SELECT p.id_player from player p, tourney_hand_player_statistics chps where p.id_player = chps.id_player and date_trunc('day', now()- interval '7 days' ) < chps.date_played)

** HM2 is slightly different vs PT4 as explained at the bottom of this post.

** You can save both cash and tourney reports and run them both at the same time (need to also convert tourney report to a cash report).

** Always test with small sample and backup any files that may be altered that you are using (notes.txt, WatchList.txt)

** See Edit Color PT4 Note Icons Batch Files: on changing default percentages and colors for batch files. I have no grey batch file because that means no color selection but only a player note added.

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PartyPkr-Color-Notes

PartyPoker Notes Colors (modifies Partpoker WatchList.txt file that contains the color codes):

(Edit each color named batch file for percentile ranges (0.5" if /I %%b lss "0.8"))

1 - create a directory and copy PartyPkr-Color-Notes.zip to it and extract it
2- run PT4 PartyPoker-Color-Notes report

3 - right click and save report as PartyPokertrnynotes.csv or PartyPokercashnotes.csv in same location of directory
4 - run batch file COLOR-PartyPoker.bat
5 - hit pause key to finish batch files

6 - file called Watchlist-2edit.txt is created and open it with Notepad ++
7 - Select menu option SEARCH and the REPLACE
8 - In pop-up window enter just the quote symbol " in FIND WHAT and leave REPLACE WITH empty.
9 - Select REPLACE ALL and it should return a value of number of occurrences replaced

Before Replace:                                                 After Replace:  

                           

                                  

                                 

10 - Select FILE and then SAVE AS and navigate towards the PartyPoker directory where the file WatchList.txt is located.

C:\Programs\PartyGaming\PartyPoker\WatchList.txt

11 - Select the save and YES to replace.
12 - start up PartyPoker and your colored notes should be visible on the players

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Party-PT4-Notes

PokerTracker Notes Icons colors (modifies the PT4 Note Icons colors for it's HUD if used):                                      

(Edit each PT4-PP-?-Note batch file for color and percentile range (%%b gtr "0.15" if /I %%b lss "0.2" echo    { "site": 200, "name":  %%a , "color": 8,))

1 - create a directory and copy Party-PT4-Notes.zip to it and extract it
2 - run PT4 PartyPoker-Color-Notes report
3 - right click and save report as PartyPokertrnynotes.csv or PartyPokercashnotes.csv in same location of directory
4 - run batch file NOTES-PT4-PartyP.bat
5 - hit pause key to finish batch files

6 - file called PartyPT4Notesimport.PT4Notes is ready to be imported into PT4 from Main / Database menu
7 - Select Notes option and Import Notes and navigate to your directory containing PartyPT4Notesimport.PT4Notes
8 - Check your PT4 replayer and verify players colored with PT4 Note icons.

FYI that if you use Notetracker notes, these batch files will push down your notes one line down every time. You will need to adjust this if want to use both.
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HM2 is slightly different as explained in this post in the blog:

Color PokerStars Notes with HM2 Holdem Manager PT4

The batch variables of %%b have no quotes in PT4 batch files ( %%b ) where HM2 needs them  "%%b" (see post link). Like this example:

for /f "tokens=1-2 delims=," %%a in (HM2-GOOD-Name-Players.txt) do (
if /I "%%b" gtr "0.001" if /I "%%b" leq "0.1"

This new PartyPoker table design isn't too far off my previous post of:

PartyPoker Table Theme & Cards Mods with Paint.NET
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Here is the link for zip files available for download on Google Sites: (click file - wait few seconds to appear - click top right download icon)

Link: PHD_$_Thiefs_Zip_Files

This is a pic of the files available for download: