One more ATSC video

Here you can actually see the gear, plus I captured some video of the transmission on a spectrum analyzer.

Amateur ATSC and consumer tuner compatibility

One of the big questions about all of this is whether or not the output of this system would actually be receivable on consumer ATSC tuners.

Well, it is conceivable that someone could tune this gear up on UHF TV channel 16, but it would be a shocking violation of FCC rules to do so. Nevertheless, if someone were to attempt something so foolish with a tenth of a milliwatt, and attempt to receive it with, say, a Samsung SIR-T451, they'd find that it actually would show a picture! Unfortunately, the audio wouldn't work, since it's MPEG 2 audio instead of Dolby AC3, but the picture would decode properly despite the lack of proper PSIP and despite the audio being the wrong codec.

For what that's worth.

Another ATSC recording

This time, I'm on camera.

More DATV success!

I was able to use MPEG Streamclip to export the video and audio from my first captured ATSC transmission this afternoon and upload the result to YouTube!

I suspect that there are still some tweaks necessary for full HDHomerun compatibility - for one thing, I haven't yet gotten EyeTV to actually bring up the video yet. Probably has to do with the PSIP tables (or lack thereof?). I suspect a firmware upgrade may be forthcoming. :)

First ATSC transmission from N6QQQ!

I hooked up the stuff I got from Germany today and set it up... And it appears to work perfectly! In fact, the output waveform looks exceptionally clean - just like a real broadcaster! We'll have to see what happens after it gets run through an amp, of course...

The output is -10 dBm, which is less than I had hoped. I will need to boost that, somehow, before feeding it into a DEMI amp. But even so, it was enough to set it running at 420-426 MHz, feed it to my UHF vertical and receive it on the broadcast TV system at -60 dBm! Not only that, but the HDHomeRun actually was able to save the transport stream!

That, unfortunately, is where the good news stops. I don't have the software tools handy to decode that transport stream, probably because I didn't make any attempt to filter the transport stream by program ID or anything.

Forgotten old movie tech

Last night, Scarlet and I went to Davies Symphony Hall and watched the 1925 film "The Phantom of the Opera" (starring Lon Chaney) with the original accompaniment score performed on solo organ (and Foley board) by Dennis James. Mr. James played the renowned Ruffati organ installed in Davies 25 years ago this year. It is the largest concert hall organ in North America. It was a spectacular evening, but the real highlight for me was a re-introduction to early motion picture technology.

Advances in the state of the art in any field always obsolete prior technology, resulting in the loss of specialized techniques used to optimize the technology of the time. Case in point: the iambic keyer. It represents the state of the art in optimizing the transmission of morse code. Morse code is an obsolete technology, relegated largely to the amateur radio bands nowadays. With the advent of satellite based search and rescue beacon technology, the last non-amateur use for morse code (namely the maritime service) has gone by the wayside. Apart from Amateurs, nobody therefore has a use for an iambic keyer. And I think it won't be too long before you'll need to go to a museum to see an Iambic keyer - the furthest development of a technological cul-de-sac.

Thus is it with film. When we think of early films, we think of black-and-white silent films. We think of that because we're used to television, and before color television, TV was itself monochromatic (black-and-white is a misnomer: both TV and film offer a continuous greyscale). But, as I discovered last night, early cinema was not monochromatic. Early TV was monochrome because the actual color that the viewer saw depended on the color of the phosphors that were built into his own TV set. Thus, everybody saw exactly one color - which tried to be as close to a neutral grey as possible.

This was not the case for film, however. While the actual photographic process was greyscale, the film stock itself could be tinted. Within the single film we saw last night, I counted at least 3 different film-stock tints. These differing tints were used by the film's creators to change the tone of the scenes. This is something that was impossible for television before the advent of full color broadcasting in the 1960s. When you saw a film on TV, it was greyscale, period (unless you put colored films or other such trickery in front of the tube).

Not only that, but certain scenes in the film we saw last night were actually in full Technicolor! Color photography was in its infancy in the 1920s. It was nightmarishly expensive, but it could be done. In addition, it was possible for much less money to highlight a single color - the Phantom's red cape, for instance - in a particular scene. This was also done in the film we saw last night.

In addition, it was not unheard of for some filmmakers to have certain elements of their films hand tinted. An example of this is still preserved today in the Chriterion Collection edition of Jacques Tati's film Jour de Fête, where the french flag is tinted red and blue.

Lastly, before the advent of synchronized soundtracks, it was customary for the projection frame rate for films to be variable. Usually, instructions were provided to the projectionist along with the reels of film for what speed various scenes were to be shown. Sometimes the projectionist would ignore those instructions and do whatever they felt was right (or perhaps they were just lazy and set one speed at the start). Because of that, individual experiences in viewing a single film could actually vary. Essentially, there is a tradeoff between slower speeds that flicker a bit less and use less feet-per-minute of film, versus faster speeds that make fast action less blurry.

With the advent of synchronized soundtracks, it was necessary to stick with a standardized frame rate (the industry chose 24 fps) to insure that the pitch of the sound didn't vary, but at the same time, one of the tools used for decades to customize the performance was lost.

With modern digital video technology, resolution and frame rate are, once again, adjustable. There's nothing that would prevent someone from varying the frame rate by scene. But the problem is that it likely wouldn't do any good, since most displays simply adapt the incoming material's frame rate to the native refresh rate of the display. Making matters worse, some displays either do a lousy job of this, or fail if faced with non-standard refresh rates. For instance, most cartoons are animated at only a maximum rate of 12 fps (with adjacent frames of 24 fps film being identical), and that's only during action sequences. The reason for this is the enormous cost of animation. It would make sense, therefore, to MPEG encode such cartoons at 12 fps. But this typically isn't done. Instead, the encoding is done at 24 FPS and redundant, empty I frames are sent in the extra time.

With the advent of television and full color movies, these techniques were rendered obsolete. In the case of television, the viewer could only see monochrome anyway, and in the case of movies, full color made the other tricks unnecessary. It is only in experiencing what must be characterized as an early cinema museum performance that we in the audience were privileged to get a glimpse of the highest state of the art of early cinema.

What do YOU do?

This sort of thing happens far, far, far too often.

This is a scheduled MTT. 125 folks are vying for 27 prizes. That's right - one chance in three.

What? I bought in before I figured that out. :)

Anyway, let's take a look at this hand:

Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $75 Token Frenzy (_), Table 5 - 20/40 - No Limit Hold'em - 16:55:20 ET - 2008/10/25
Seat 1: (1,290)
Seat 2: (1,950)
Seat 3: (1,770)
Seat 4: (1,395)
Seat 5: (1,440)
Seat 6: (1,375)
Seat 7: (5,245)
Seat 8: hero (1,560)
Seat 9: (1,835)
Seat 9 posts the small blind of 20
Seat 1 posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [Ts 4c]
Seat 2 folds
Seat 3 folds
Seat 4 folds
Seat 5 raises to 1,440, and is all in
Seat 6 folds
Seat 7 folds
hero folds
Seat 9 folds
Seat 1 calls 1,250, and is all in
Seat 5 shows [7c 7s]
Seat 1 shows [Qh Ah]
Uncalled bet of 150 returned to Seat 5
*** FLOP *** [As Js Kc]
*** TURN *** [As Js Kc] [4d]
*** RIVER *** [As Js Kc 4d] [7d]
Seat 5 shows three of a kind, Sevens
Seat 1 shows a pair of Aces
Seat 5 wins the pot (2,600) with three of a kind, Sevens
Seat 1 stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,600 | Rake 0
Board: [As Js Kc 4d 7d]
Seat 1: (big blind) showed [Qh Ah] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: showed [7c 7s] and won (2,600) with three of a kind, Sevens
Seat 6: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: hero (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: (small blind) folded before the Flop

Come on now. You're seriously going to flip a coin with 7s (after all, with pocket 7s, you're likely at best a coin-flip against any hand that can call) on a tournament that's one-in-three? Really?

The big question here is, what do you do with AQ? It's for sure that the donkey opposite wouldn't bet 30 big blinds with a really premium hand. So you're either up against a weaker ace or a small pair or perhaps even dog crap. In other words, the AQ is at worst a coin flip.

But fundamentally, even though your opponent has forced you into a decision like that, I can see both sides. If it were a cash game, you'd be +EV to call, but this is a tournament. If you fold AQ in that spot, you do so only because you don't want to risk the entire tournament on a single early coin flip against a maniac.

How should that hand have gone?

The 7s should have either made a normal raise or limped with the expectation of ether flopping a set or folding. Whether you raise pre-flop or not depends on your playing style. The AQ would have either re-raised or called, depending on his playing style. The 7s would have flat-called the re-raise if it happened. The flop would have come and if there was no re-raise pre-flop, the 7s would have perhaps continuation-bet and the AQ raised, or the 7s would have checked and the AQ bet. The 7s would have folded and the AQ would have taken down a pot with maybe 300 chips in it, but both stacks lived to see the next hand.

M zone calculator

I actually made this little site to help someone else, but on the off chance that it is helpful, I'll let my other 5 or 6 readers check it out too. It's an "M zone" calculator. You can use it during a tournament (it is set up for Full Tilt and PokerStars SnG tournament structures) to figure out what M zone (basic and effective) your chip stack lies in.

Check it out.

Cold deck

I wasn't involved, and there's nothing really to be learned here, but you don't see this sort of thing every day.


Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $55 + $5 Sit & Go (Turbo) (_), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 12:06:21 ET - 2008/10/21
Seat 1: (1,485)
Seat 2: (1,455)
Seat 3: (1,395)
Seat 4: hero (1,470)
Seat 5: (1,500)
Seat 6: (1,500)
Seat 7: (1,545)
Seat 8: (1,650)
Seat 9: (1,500)
hero posts the small blind of 15
Seat 5 posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [4c Qc]
Seat 6 folds
Seat 7 folds
Seat 8 folds
Seat 9 folds
Seat 1 folds
Seat 2 raises to 90
Seat 3 folds
hero folds
Seat 5 raises to 180
Seat 2 calls 90
*** FLOP *** [8d Ad As]
Seat 5 checks
Seat 2 checks
*** TURN *** [8d Ad As] [Th]
Seat 5 bets 300
Seat 2 raises to 1,275, and is all in
Seat 5 calls 975
Seat 2 shows [Td Ts]
Seat 5 shows [Ac Ah]
*** RIVER *** [8d Ad As Th] [Tc]
Seat 2 shows four of a kind, Tens
Seat 5 shows four of a kind, Aces

And there you have it: quads over quads.

If this was a cash game at Lucky Chances, that would have been a bad beat jackpot.

Seat 5 wins the pot (2,925) with four of a kind, Aces
Seat 2 stands up
The blinds are now 20/40
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,925 | Rake 0
Board: [8d Ad As Th Tc]
Seat 1: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: showed [Td Ts] and lost with four of a kind, Tens
Seat 3: (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: hero (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: (big blind) showed [Ac Ah] and won (2,925) with four of a kind, Aces
Seat 6: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: didn't bet (folded)

Beat iPhone hold 'em

So that picture is what you get when you win the Dubai tournament. It's the same as the "winner" screen for all the other tournaments except for the prize amount. I've done this a few times now. It's really not too much trouble to beat the bots in the iPhone poker program. They don't really change any as you progress upwards through the tournaments.

I play with the phone in the landscape mode. In this mode, you can't watch the video of them to look for their "tells," but I find I can't easily follow the position very well with the portrait view. And position and relative stack size are more important anyway.

The biggest weakness of the bots is that they don't have any internal concept of being pot committed or of fold equity. They're quite content to bluff 75% of their stack and then fold to the re-raise. This makes the ideal strategy against them to be one of always raising and never calling. They will call you all-in with crap draws that would normally be very -EV plays (particularly in tournament play). Yes, occasionally those will suck out, but most of the time they won't. And once you cash, simply either fold or go all-in on every hand pre-flop (which alternative will obviously depend on the relative stack sizes in question and, of course, your cards).

Of course, all of this is sort of poker masturbation. In general, it's a bad idea to play against bots - particularly bad ones. The risk is that you'll pick up habits against the bots that don't work against real players (particularly good ones). But in this case, the ideal strategy isn't tremendously different from normal SnG strategy. You just need to crank the aggression factor up much, much higher than you normally would.

The payouts for the "two table" tournaments (that is, everything above the "Cruise Ship") have payouts that would be reasonably correct if they were actually 3 table shoot-outs, meaning that they take the top 3 finishers from 3 tables and sit them down at the final table (which means you actually had 27 opponents in the prize pool). I've never come across any real tournaments that do that (most shootouts take the 9 first place finishers from 9 single table tournaments and have them play a final table). The payouts for the single table tournaments (Cruise Ship and below) pay out at a much higher rate than they should (obviously the Garage game, being a free-roll, pays out fixed prizes simply as a bootstrap). Thus the ideal bankroll strategy is to play only up to Cruise Ship for as long as you can to build your bank. Then skip upwards only once you've got a lot of (fake) money. Once you have a couple hundred grand you can take a couple shots at Dubai and if one of them hits, you'll have plenty of bank to repeat and build from there.

Oh, *I'M* the donkey?

After the hand, the guy called me out in the chat window, so he gets a public rebuttal. He took a chance on a deceptive play and it backfired on him. That's my fault somehow?

Let's see who made the bad play here.

Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $55 + $5 Sit & Go (Turbo) (_), Table 1 - 100/200 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:30:18 ET - 2008/10/20
Seat 1: (1,900)
Seat 2: (1,015)
Seat 3: (1,600)
Seat 4: (2,920)
Seat 6: villain (1,390)
Seat 7: hero (1,635)
Seat 8: (3,040)
Seat 8 posts the small blind of 100
Seat 1 posts the big blind of 200
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [5d 5c]
Seat 2 folds
Seat 3 calls 200
Seat 4 folds
villain calls 200
hero raises to 1,635, and is all in

1. The two limpers are unlikely to have better pairs since they didn't raise.

2. Because the blinds are so high here, any raise would be enough of my stack that I should just push anyway.

3. I have enough fold equity left to hopefully push these two off mediocre hands and pick up a nice pot.

Seat 8 folds
Seat 1 folds
Seat 3 folds
villain calls 1,190, and is all in
hero shows [5d 5c]
villain shows [Td Ts]

Really? Limping with tens? So you're ok letting a big blind see the flop for free with a big pair?

Now, don't get me wrong: I've done a limp-reraise play myself sometimes. But you pull that sort of play only against very aggressive players who have established a pattern of raising with junk. It's also a lot safer once you're actually in the money. Before the money, it's much, much better to win a small pot than lose a big one (which is really about the only two choices available to you with pocket tens).

Uncalled bet of 245 returned to hero
*** FLOP *** [5s 9c Kh]

So, yeah, I sucked out there. But what if the big blind had 59? You make a proper raise there and I guarantee that my 5s hit the muck before your chips stop moving. And if you get called by someone else I'll see that 5 come and I'll go kick my dog.

*** TURN *** [5s 9c Kh] [2s]
*** RIVER *** [5s 9c Kh 2s] [Ad]
hero shows three of a kind, Fives
villain shows a pair of Tens
hero wins the pot (3,280) with three of a kind, Fives
villain: lol pos

I agree: limping with tens is a very POS play, dumb-ass.

villain stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3,280 | Rake 0
Board: [5s 9c Kh 2s Ad]
Seat 1: (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: folded before the Flop
Seat 4: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: villain showed [Td Ts] and lost with a pair of Tens
Seat 7: hero (button) showed [5d 5c] and won (3,280) with three of a kind, Fives
Seat 8: (small blind) folded before the Flop

What does it take?

What the do I have to do to get retards to lay down their stupid flush draws? Go all-in on any flop with two of a suit?

Full Tilt Poker Game #_: Turbo Fiddy (_), Table 13 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:15:06 ET - 2008/10/20
Seat 2: (3,595)
Seat 3: (540)
Seat 4: (2,005)
Seat 5: hero (2,000)
Seat 6: (1,315)
Seat 7: villain (3,675)
Seat 8: (1,060)
Seat 9: (3,810)
Seat 4 posts the small blind of 25
hero posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [Ad 6d]
Sear 6 folds
Seat 7 calls 50
Seat 8 folds
Seat 9 calls 50
Seat 2 folds
Seat 3 folds
Seat 4 folds
hero raises to 225
villain calls 175
Seat 9 folds
*** FLOP *** [As Qc 5c]
hero bets 525
villain calls 525
*** TURN *** [As Qc 5c] [Kd]
hero bets 1,250, and is all in
villain calls 1,250
hero shows [Ad 6d]
villain shows [2c 3c]

Really? You called a pre-flop raise and went all the way to the river with the worst flush draw possible?

You know, when they talk about licensing and regulating Internet poker, I often wonder if it's the sites they should really be licensing.

*** RIVER *** [As Qc 5c Kd] [8c]

Oh, of FUCKING course.

hero shows a pair of Aces
villain shows a flush, Queen high
villain wins the pot (4,075) with a flush, Queen high
hero stands up
The blinds are now 30/60
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4,075 | Rake 0
Board: [As Qc 5c Kd 8c]
Seat 2: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: hero (big blind) showed [Ad 6d] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 6: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: villain showed [2c 3c] and won (4,075) with a flush, Queen high
Seat 8: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: folded before the Flop

There is nothing to say

Here's a two-fer from the same SnG:

First, try and guess what each of these two players has. You're going to be wrong. Promise.

PokerStars Game #_: Tournament #_, $50+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2008/10/19 3:05:13 ET
Table '_ 1' 10-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: donkey (1540 in chips)
Seat 3: (1460 in chips)
Seat 4: shark (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: hero (1500 in chips)
Seat 10: (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: posts small blind 10
shark: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [7s 3s]
Seat 5: folds
Seat 6: folds
Seat 7: folds
Seat 8: folds
hero: folds
Seat 10: folds
Seat 1: folds
donkey: raises 20 to 40
Seat 3: folds
shark: raises 60 to 100
donkey: calls 60
*** FLOP *** [Qc Js 5d]
shark: bets 100
donkey: calls 100
*** TURN *** [Qc Js 5d] [Ah]
shark: bets 180
donkey: calls 180
*** RIVER *** [Qc Js 5d Ah] [4h]
shark: bets 500
donkey: raises 660 to 1160 and is all-in
shark: calls 620 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (40) returned to donkey
*** SHOW DOWN ***
donkey: shows [Ts 4s] (a pair of Fours)
shark: shows [As Ad] (three of a kind, Aces)
shark collected 3010 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3010 | Rake 0
Board [Qc Js 5d Ah 4h]
Seat 1: folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: donkey (button) showed [Ts 4s] and lost with a pair of Fours
Seat 3: (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: shark (big blind) showed [As Ad] and won (3010) with three of a kind, Aces
Seat 5: folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: hero folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 10: folded before Flop (didn't bet)

And this one:

I was involved here, and once again... There must be something in the water.

PokerStars Game #_: Tournament #_, $50+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2008/10/19 3:21:33 ET
Table '_ 1' 10-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: (1640 in chips)
Seat 3: (1515 in chips)
Seat 4: (3465 in chips)
Seat 5: (1215 in chips)
Seat 7: villain (2000 in chips)
Seat 8: (1870 in chips)
Seat 9: hero (1975 in chips)
Seat 10: (1320 in chips)
[skip a bunch of lines of everybody putting in a 10 chip ante]
Seat 5: posts small blind 50
villain: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [Kd Ks]
Seat 8: folds
hero: raises 200 to 300
Seat 10: folds
Seat 1: folds
Seat 3: folds
Seat 4: folds
Seat 5: folds
villain: raises 1690 to 1990 and is all-in
hero: calls 1665 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (25) returned to villain

He turns up 5To.

Really? I was making a bull-crap move from 2nd position? Having played almost no hands so far?

*** FLOP *** [4h Jh 6h]
*** TURN *** [4h Jh 6h] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [4h Jh 6h 2h] [4s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
villain: shows [5c Ts] (a pair of Fours)
hero: shows [Kd Ks] (two pair, Kings and Fours)
hero collected 4060 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4060 | Rake 0
Board [4h Jh 6h 2h 4s]
Seat 1: folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: villain (big blind) showed [5c Ts] and lost with a pair of Fours
Seat 8: folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: hero showed [Kd Ks] and won (4060) with two pair, Kings and Fours
Seat 10: folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Nice call, eeyore

Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $110 + $9 Sit & Go (Turbo) (_ Table 1 - 80/160 - No Limit Hold'em - 10:26:14 ET - 2008/10/17
Seat 1: (1,230)
Seat 5: (3,920), is sitting out
Seat 6: (850)
Seat 7: villain (4,650)
Seat 8: hero (2,850)
villain posts the small blind of 80
hero posts the big blind of 160
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [3h 3d]
Seat 1 folds
Seat 5 folds
Seat 6 folds
villain calls 80
hero raises to 480
villain calls 320
*** FLOP *** [7c 4s 7h]
villain checks

He called a raise. The only hand I would do that with in this spot would be a couple of face cards or maybe a dry ace. If he has A7 then that would suck, but it's unlikely. This guy has been getting out of line all day long, so I think I can get paid in this spot.

hero bets 2,370, and is all in
villain calls 2,370
hero shows [3h 3d]
villain shows [9d 7d]

Fucking donkey. Keep calling my raises with shit.

*** TURN *** [7c 4s 7h] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [7c 4s 7h 2h] [8h]
hero shows two pair, Sevens and Threes
villain shows three of a kind, Sevens
villain wins the pot (5,700) with three of a kind, Sevens
hero stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5,700 | Rake 0
Board: [7c 4s 7h 2h 8h]
Seat 1: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: villain (small blind) showed [9d 7d] and won (5,700) with three of a kind, Sevens
Seat 8: hero (big blind) showed [3h 3d] and lost with two pair, Sevens and Threes

AP screws up statistics, film at 11

From this story about a deadly helicopter ambulance accident, comes this little tidbit:

It was the sixth fatal crash involving medical helicopters this year, according to federal data, including one just last month in Maryland that also killed four.
[...]
On Sept. 28, a medical helicopter carrying traffic accident victims crashed in a Maryland suburb, killing four of the five people on board. On June 8, a copter crashed on an isolated ranch in the Sam Houston National Forest in Texas, killing a patient and three crew members. Those and other crashes have raised questions on whether medical ambulance flights are overused.

Really?

Six incidents and you're ready to question the safety of medical ambulance flights? How many people die every year in four-wheeled ambulance accidents? I'd rather question whether or not perhaps helicopters are underutilized as ambulances if I were merely inclined to make judgments on accident statistics in isolation.

Stupid AP. No cookie for you. Instead, you get the Golden [Citation Needed] award.

ATSC vs DVB for North American amateurs

Fred Spinner, W0FMS, posted a comment to an earlier post that I think is deserving of a prominent reply. Here's his comment:

A okay quality DVB-S receiver can be had for far less cost than a PC electronics downconverter. All that likely would be necessary is a preamp at the antenna. I've seen PC card DVB receivers go for $10 and used DVB-S receivers go for $30. New ones, non high def, are less than $100 at the low end.

The disadvantage of ATSC is the complexity and the fact that you are transmitting on a 6 MHz channel. A DVB-S transmission can be done in good quality at about 2 MHZ. Also QPSK isn't going to be nearly as touchy as 8VSB as far as linearity is concerned. I've experimented with both-- I have an e-bay ATSC modulator/transmitter (formally used for demos at "Best Buy") and I find the fiddling that has to be done with ATSC (such as PSIP) data to be a big waste of effort.

The only disadvantage with DVB-S is multipath as QPSK/Satellite isn't really designed for that.. but if you are going to use gain antennas on both ends who cares? The MPEG-2 DVB-S or S2 standards are also far more lenient of audio and video rates. I suppose if you'd like to be cutting edge DVB-S2 and MPEG-4 H.264 would even be better than ATSC.... It's possible to do HD at low rates with H.264 and still only use 2-3 MHz of bandwidth.

I do hope if you are going to use ATSC for a repeater output that you strongly consider multiplexing multiple input receivers.. otherwise you are literally wasting the spectrum that the null packets consume.

Everything Fred says is true on its face. I still, however, believe that ATSC for amateur TV is not a completely wasted effort.

Although DVB-S receivers can be had for cheap, DVB-T would be the better mode for terrestrial reception (it is, after all, what European broadcasters themselves use). DVB-T receivers not only would be uncommon here in North America, they'd likely not be set up for the U.S. Amateur bands. DVB-S receivers also are going to require some fiddling to get them to work.

But some ATSC receivers are frequency agile enough to be able to work at least on the 73 cm ham band (I'm thinking mostly of computer controlled receivers, like the HD HomeRun or DTV receiver cards). I have some hopes that the HD HomeRun may work on the 900 MHz band as well. We'll have to see. But even if we have to use downconverters to tune alternate bands into the receive range of a traditional ATSC receiver, those downconverters could also be used for analog TV as well. And, as Alton Brown is fond of saying, I look down on unitaskers. :)

We hams have been extraordinarily lucky that for the past 30 years or so cable ready TVs were able to receive 70 cm ATV transmissions completely without modification. I wonder how many TV hams we'd have today if it weren't for the fact that anyone could take a consumer TV, attach a different kind of antenna to the input and tune in the local repeater. With the transition to digital, the chickens are coming home to roost and this happy coincidence is going to go away. Because most (but not all) ATSC receivers are not frequency agile enough to tune amateur bands, we won't be able to tell interested folks that all they have to do is tune their TV to a certain channel. But the opposite side of that coin is that in a few years' time after the transition is complete and the last generation of analog TVs is put out to pasture, there will be a boat load of old ATSC converter boxes that potentially could be modified (perhaps simply by supplying alternative firmware) into amateur TV decoders. There's also all of those PC controlled receivers that are frequency agile.

Fred's last comment about bandwidth is also true - and it is certainly the case that the intent is for the system to multiplex multiple inputs eventually. But you have to walk before you can run. Eventually, I'd like to see the system have 4 video channels: an outdoor camera, an analog TV input, a digital TV input, and a system information slide show.

Full Tilt Poker Matrix SnGs

Have you ever thought that you were better than the rest of the folks at the table, but that you couldn't prove it because of a cold deck or bad beat?

Full Tilt has introduced a new concept called a Matrix Sit-n-Go. The idea is that they take 9 players and sit them down to 4 simultaneous single table SnG tournaments. It's one thing to get lucky and win a tournament. It's quite another to pwn the same field of 9 over the course of 4 independent ones.

But is it worth it? Let's analyze the Matrix and see how far down the rabbit hole goes.

There are actually 5 prize pools in a Matrix tournament - one for each of the individual tournaments, plus an overall prize pool for the Matrix itself. The prize pools take the traditional 50%, 30%, 20% breakdown for 1st, 2nd and 3rd. If you win all four of the individual tournaments, you can "scoop" the Matrix pool. So let's make the math easy - There are 50 "points" for the Matrix, and winning any of the contests gets you 5, coming in 2nd gives you 3 and coming in 3rd gives you 2. "Scooping" the Matrix gives you 10. So the best you can theoretically do is 4 * 5 + 10 - 30 points. For a $22+$2 Matrix SnG, each point is worth $3.96, so that's $118.80. If you instead had entered 4 plain SnGs each worth $5.50 + $0.50 (which is the $22+$2 divided by four), you'd have won $99. That's a premium of $19.80, or 20%. The next best finish you can get is winning 3 of them and placing 2nd in the 4th. No scoop for you! Instead, you'd almost certainly win the Matrix prize, plus 3 1st place and 1 2nd place, or 4 * 5 + 3 - 23 points. That's $91.08, compared to the alternative of $89.10 - a premium of only 2%!

Still, I played a $22+$2 one for the novelty of it. I didn't do too badly. I won two of the four tournaments, placed 4th in the third (bad beat) and 9th in the last (made an ill advised move against pocket kings). I wound up 1st in the Matrix prize pool, so I earned 15 points, or $59.40. Had I played individually, I would have won $49.50 - a 20% premium.

Here's how it broke down:



Figuring out who benefitted is easy. Everybody who cashed at all cashed 20% less than they would have, except for the 3 of us who cashed in the Matrix pool. So if you don't make it into the upper echelons pretty predictably, you probably should avoid these. I may play one once in a while for the novelty of it, but playing 4 SnGs at the same time is a bit more busy than I would normally want to be.

More N6QQQ video on YouTube

Mike taped and uploaded some more of my ATV transmissions.

More Analog ATV success

I decided to mount the 1.2 GHz loop yagi pointed towards K6BEN/R today. Of course, that also meant getting a run of really good (LMR-400) coax to go up the tower for it. Soldering the N connectors on is sort of weird. I have to sort of take it on blind faith that I did it right, I guess, because it appears to be working correctly.

Right now, the run of coax is way too long, but I am going to cut a hole in the outside wall of the garage above the sliding door and epoxy in a big piece of PVC to use as a pass-through (Scarlet will just love how that looks!) to make the coax runs as short as possible. I bought a long enough piece of the LMR coax so that hopefully I can get two runs up the tower out of it and use the other piece for the 420 MHz receive side. That should hopefully improve my reception side a little bit as well.

But at least now getting into the ATV repeater is no longer extraordinary.

Gizmo vs CalTrain

Gizmo seems bemused by my HO gauge CalTrain.

A quick tour of bay area TV via spectrum analyzer

Playing around with the new spectrum analyzer.

OJ

So OJ was found guilty on all counts stemming from his involvement with a wacky scheme to retrieve stuff that he says was his.

My my my.

Let's say that that stuff really was his. How did it come into the hands of this other guy? Could it be because OJ was trying to hide assets from the Goldmans?

Let's FURTHER presume that the whole thing was on the up-and-up. If you were in OJ's shoes, wouldn't your next step be to call either the cops to bust the other guy for possession of stolen property, or call a lawyer to sue?

But most importantly, if you were going to be forced to spend the rest of your life in a rather intense tabloid spotlight, wouldn't you try to be sure to be on your best behavior? Is a scheme involving other guys toting guns in any way compatible with that concept?

I'm pretty sure that OJ was guilty of something. It may not have been exactly what he was actually convicted for, but it's probably pretty close.

Hasta.

Analog ATV video

Michael Wright (K6MFW) recorded my first analog transmission through K6BEN and put it up on YouTube!

Taking a hard, honest look at my play

SharkScope really is an invaluable tool for anyone serious about poker.

I played a dozen $14+1 and $28+$2 Super Turbo 9 handed SnGs on Full Tilt this afternoon. Lost Every. Damn. One. Sat down to a 9 handed $55+$5 SnG and won it.

Now, the good news is that the Super Turbo and regular Turbo tournaments have different stakes, so you can delve into SharkScope's database by filtering on a stake list to differentiate them. It's also nice that the Turbo and non-Turbo tournaments also have different stake levels.

So since my last boot camp, I have a -4% average ROI overall. That's actually much improved from where I was, say, a year ago (lifetime at full tilt before the last boot camp, average ROI -13%).

But the really shocking thing is that if you filter out 6 handed SnGs and super turbos, I actually have a positive 9% aROI.

6 or fewer handed, I have a -15% aROI and in the Super Turbos, I am -11%.

And then, it struck me. The reason I play 6 handed and Super Turbos is that I want it to be over faster. Call it a short attention span, or a desire for instant gratification or impatience, whatever, but I rather suspect that if you analyze every aspect of my life, that's the most glaring character flaw you'll be likely to find. And I can see it turning up in Poker too.

Sigh.

I don't need a Poker coach. Playing the plan that I was given at the last boot camp is working. SharkScope proves that. What I need to do is not try and get fancy in an attempt to get success more easily, because it should be obvious to me by now that it doesn't work.

6th and 7th

Well, I am in the hospital for the weekend with a DVT, but I borrowed Mark's WAN data dongle so I could work and play. Yesterday I played a $10+$1 tournament and came in 6th. I played another one today and came in 7th. Each win was about $120 or so. Not bad for playing in bed in a gown with my ass hanging out the back.

Analog ATV success

The 1.2 GHz amp I ordered in July finally arrived. I was able to use it to get into the K6BEN ATV repeater tonight. That was fun. So that's step 1.

Ironically, Gizmo got his face on TV before I did. I still actually haven't been on camera above the waist, but Gizmo walked by me and got his picture out. :)

IOC clears China of gymnastics age cheating

*cough*bullshit*cough*

Online poker cheating scandal

Slashdot is reporting that a scandal has broken out around Absolute Poker involving a backdoor that exposed players hole cards to cheaters.

Now, since Internet poker began, poor players have always groused that the only explanation for their losses was that the sites were dishonest. Heck, it's been that way in meatspace since Poker was invented. It only takes a few moments of thought before it becomes completely obvious that a site has far, far more to gain by attracting players to a scrupulously honest game and far, far more to lose if any whiff of scandal surfaces. It's nothing short of astonishing that a poker site would throw away its reputation so easily.

I'd be quite surprised if this doesn't completely end Absolute Poker. I do hope that the more mainstream sites (Full Tilt and Poker Stars, in particular) at least make some hand-waving to reassure the playing public that their sites are secure. I'm actually quite sure that their sites are secure, but it would be nice for them to go through the motions of some sort of external audit (perhaps some auspicious body like Card Player magazine could oversee it) to bring it out into the open.

The financial crisis - what's old is new again.

Once upon a time, a song was written to commemorate a government bailout of a public company. I still like that song, and in the situation where we find ourselves today, it is still applicable. Just a few words in the chorus need to change.

All together now!

I am changing my name to WaMu
I am going down to Washington D.C.
I will tell them all as well, man
That what they did for Alan Fishman
Will be perfectly acceptable to me
I am changing my name to WaMu
I am headed for that great receiving line
So when they hand a million grand out
I'll be standing with my hand out
Yes sire I'll get mine

P.s. Yes, I know that Washington Mutual has been (largely) acquired by JPMorgan Chase rather than being directly bailed out by taxpayers, but of all of the banks that have been mentioned, WaMu fits into the meter of the lyrics the best. Arlo Guthrie has been singing it lately changing Chrysler to Fannie Mae, but I'm not sure how that would work. Besides, it's not really his song, anyhow.

Speechless

Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $33 + $3 Sit & Go (Turbo) (_), Table 1 - 100/200 - No Limit Hold'em - 5:46:27 ET - 2008/09/29
Seat 4: (3,095)
Seat 6: villain (3,100)
Seat 7: (2,095)
Seat 8: hero (2,400)
Seat 9: (2,810)
hero posts the small blind of 100
Seat 9 posts the big blind of 200
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [Jh Js]
Seat 4 folds
villain raises to 3,100, and is all in
Seat 7 folds
hero calls 2,300, and is all in
Seat 9 folds
villain shows [9s 9c]
hero shows [Jh Js]
Uncalled bet of 700 returned to villain
*** FLOP *** [6d 2c 4s]
*** TURN *** [6d 2c 4s] [Qh]
*** RIVER *** [6d 2c 4s Qh] [9d]

You know, I don't think I ask for much from this game. I really don't. If I get my money in with the 2nd best hand, then so be it. But I think that having your opponent down to two outs on the river (for those of you following the math, that's better than 20 to 1 odds) really ought to come through.

It's been one of those nights. Every coin flip comes up tails, every time I have AK, I run up against AA. And then there's hands like this. I finally get a big pair that isn't an under-pair, and it still ends me.

At the boot camp they talked about good players and bad players both having A games and F games, but that for good players, the F game is not much worse than the A game (in contrast to the bad players). Fine. My F game is not so hot. I can admit that. But anyone who doesn't truly understand this game can't know the anguish of playing an A+ game and being punished for it.

villain shows three of a kind, Nines
hero shows a pair of Jacks
villain wins the pot (5,000) with three of a kind, Nines
nsayer stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5,000 | Rake 0
Board: [6d 2c 4s Qh 9d]
Seat 4: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: villain showed [9s 9c] and won (5,000) with three of a kind, Nines
Seat 7: (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: hero (small blind) showed [Jh Js] and lost with a pair of Jacks
Seat 9: (big blind) folded before the Flop

Football season next year is going to be AWESOME!!!

You've heard me bellyache before about the situation football fans face in the San Francisco bay area. The NFL's rules say that whenever the home team is playing, no other in-market TV station may air any out-of-market games. For us, that is tres suck, because we have two teams. The Sunday morning game is usually the 9ers and the afternoon game is the Raiders, or vice-versa. The only time we get to see potentially 3 games is when either team plays on Thursday, Sunday or Monday night or has the week off.

The good news, at least for us here at chez Sayer, is that next February, they turn off the analog TV stations and we go 100% digital. What does that have to do with anything? Well, KCBA-DT is on (RF) channel 13, and we should be able to get that with our VHF-hi beam pointed to Fremont Peak! We get it today, except that it gets co-channel interference from KOVR-TV in Sacramento. Fortunately for us, since KCBA is in the Salinas/Monterey market and is a Fox affiliate, they're going to air the Cowboys game opposite KPIX's coverage of the Raiders. Now, since the Raiders are playing the Chargers this week, I'll probably watch that game, but if it turns into a laugher, I have somewhere else to go... except for the fact that KCBA probably won't come in today over KOVR. But this at least proves the point that if you can pull in KCBA (or if you could pull in the Fox or CBS affiliates from Walnut Grove), you'll once again get your choice of 3 games.

Of course, if I could pull in KION-DT (the CBS affiliate in Salinas/Monterey), then I'd have a choice potentially of 4 games, but unfortunately KION is UHF, and even if I had a UHF antenna pointed the right way, I probably couldn't pull in a signal good enough for a digital tuner to decode. Oh well.

My favorite iPhone apps

Here's what's on my phone:

• Texas Hold'Em $
• AIM
• TouchTerm $
• Showtimes
• SolFree
• Speed
• Here I Am
• ICE $
• StillInTune $
• Remote
• VNC $
• PayPal

I actually paid for the apps marked with the $.

As well, I've got links to Bejewled (you can play on the web for free instead of buying the full app in the store), iCalTrain, iMineSweeper, and BattleFleet on the home page.

Moving

I'm moving the blog to being hosted at blogspot. It turns out that there are more things you can do with your blog by having them host it than you can do with the FTP style of hosting.

I could have set it up with a custom domain, but I couldn't think of a name that was any good.

If you're reading this, then you probably already figured out that things have moved. Good! If you know someone who hasn't yet figured it out, then first, tell them the new URL is http://nsayer.blogspot.com/, and then tell ME what URL I've managed to miss redirecting.

Good news on the ATSC front

It looks like the go-to guys for DTV hardware are the SR Systems folks in Germany. I traded some e-mail with them, and it turns out that their minimod system does null-stuff the transport stream to 19.38 MB/s, so their 8VSB modulation should be tunable by the HD HomeRun. Very exciting!

I traded some e-mail with their software guy, and while he didn't promise anything, it seems like it wouldn't be too much trouble to add a set of static PSIP tables to the transport stream. If they were able to add support for even a low bit rate monaural AC3 audio stream, then that would make their system completely compatible with ATSC! That would be a win!

In other areas, I think I did the math wrong the first time. Their minimod puts out 107 dBµV, which at 50 ohms is about 0 dBm. Feeding 0 dBm into a DEMI 60 watt 900 MHz amp would yield about 15 watts of output. That may not sound like a lot, but the really good news is that that level of output would be squarely inside of the amplifiers linear response range. One of the things that's absolutely required for DTV is that the power system be absolutely linear. When you drive an amplifier to saturation, it stops being perfectly linear, and that would trash 8VSB.

15 watts of output into a 12 dBi antenna winds up being over 100 watts of ERP. If you can count on the receive stations having 15 dBi of gain in their antenna systems, then that's likely to be a 20-30 mile (line of sight) service area. That's not bad!

Of course, it's all just predictions and hot air until you actually get hardware. But at least the predictions and hot air don't cost anything.

How not to play Kings

What is it with dumb-asses slow-playing big pairs pre-flop lately? Did someone send out a particularly stupid memo without telling us all?

For the record, a big pair is a made hand, but is particularly vulnerable to suckouts. If your opponent(s) hit the flop, you have at best two outs to catch up. That's an 8% chance after the flop and a 4% chance on the river. That's assuming, of course, that a set will win. If you raise or re-raise with your big pair and take it down pre-flop, that's still better than letting your opponents catch some stupid bizarro two pair and end you.

Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $14 + $1 Sit & Go (Super Turbo) (_), Table 1 - 20/40 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:26:39 ET - 2008/09/19
Seat 1: (570)
Seat 2: (540)
Seat 4: (330)
Seat 6: (330)
Seat 8: villain (690)
Seat 9: hero (240)
Seat 1 posts the small blind of 20
Seat 2 posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [Qd Js]
Seat 4 folds
Seat 6 raises to 80
villain calls 80

I'll end the suspense. The villain has kings.

And he just calls? Doesn't he know what that'll start?

hero calls 80
Seat 1 calls 60
Seat 2 calls 40

The button and blinds here are getting the right odds with just about anything, despite the rather early position pre-flop raise (which, by the way, was not big enough).

His kings, at this point, are actually going to win less than 50% of the time against four random hands.

*** FLOP *** [Jh 8c 6s]
Seat 1 checks
Seat 2 checks
Seat 6 checks
villain checks

Really?

You're going to give that straight-threatening board a free card?

hero bets 160, and is all in

Top pair and an over with 400 in the pot? Damn right, skippy.

Seat 1 folds
Seat 2 folds
Seat 6 folds
villain calls 160
hero shows [Qd Js]
villain shows [Ks Kd]

Fuck me.

*** TURN *** [Jh 8c 6s] [7h]
*** RIVER *** [Jh 8c 6s 7h] [Ts]
hero shows a pair of Jacks
villain shows a pair of Kings
villain wins the pot (720) with a pair of Kings
hero stands up
The blinds are now 25/50
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 720 | Rake 0
Board: [Jh 8c 6s 7h Ts]
Seat 1: (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 2: (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 4: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: folded on the Flop
Seat 8: villain showed [Ks Kd] and won (720) with a pair of Kings
Seat 9: hero (button) showed [Qd Js] and lost with a pair of Jacks

The difficulties of ATSC

It's a bit surprising where the difficulties of Amateur ATSC TV lie.

It turns out that getting MPEG encoding gear isn't going to be very difficult after all. Part of this is due to the work of European hams, who have been transmitting digital TV using European standards for years now. North American ATSC standards, however, are more challenging.

At first I thought that I'd be able to simply take the output of the MPEG encoder and feed it into the 8VSB modulator, but it appears that the result, though it would be a valid MPEG 2 transport stream, would not be good enough for ATSC. There are three issues remaining that I've identified:

1. The audio has to be Dolby AC3. ATSC doesn't support any other audio format, and AC3 is heavily patent encumbered, meaning there are no low cost encoders for it. You can encode it with open source software, but now you're using a PC as your encoder, with all of the complications and reduced reliability that entails.

2. ATSC requires a constant 19.39 MB/s data rate. You're supposed to stuff the channel with null packets to make it so if your data is less than that.

3. The dreaded PSIP. PSIP is a complete waste of time and effort for amateur TV, but if you want the thing to decode properly with consumer grade tuners or receivers, you've got to generate at least a static set of PSIP tables.

On top of all of that, one other ham I've talked to who is extremely experienced with ATV says that 900 MHz and 1.2 GHz in the bay area are more or less useless due to heavy interference. And if that weren't enough, there's 8VSB's sensitivity to non-linearity in the RF chain, which has implications for the design of your power amplifier.

European hams have had success with DVB-T, which doesn't have these issues, but you can't use ordinary North American consumer equipment to decode it, which makes it (at least here) just another specialized ham-only mode. The value of attempting to transmit ATSC compatible video is that just adding a downconverter to a standard consumer system is the only change required, which expands the potential receiver pool exponentially.

This is looking less possible daily. :(

ATSC for ATV? Yes!

Well, maybe. For the acronym challenged, ATSC is the standard for digital television broadcasting in North America. One of the aspects of amateur radio that I have toyed with of late is ATV, or amateur television. Although ATV using broadcast compatible analog transmitters is relatively commonplace, no one that I know of has attempted to transmit digital ATV using the ATSC 8VSB modulation standard. I aim to try to be the first.

I will attempt this by setting up a repeater. The repeater will receive standard analog FM ATV on the 1.2 GHz band and retransmit it using ATSC on the 902 MHz band (hopefully). I sent some mail around and believe I can get tower space on Mt. Chual (near Loma Prieta), which will have excellent coverage of the South Bay.

So to do this, I need to get all the pieces: a receiver, a controller, an MPEG encoder, complete with SMPTE 310M transport stream output, an 8VSB modulator, a custom 900 MHz upconverter, amplifier, mask filter and antennas.

Of all that stuff, probably the most expensive will be the MPEG encoder. I have a potential line on the 8VSB modulator, and the rest of it all is pretty standard stuff. Thankfully, putting pieces together like this should not be a problem, since FCC type acceptance is not required for amateur equipment.

So how will anyone receive it? Well, they would need a downconverter and an ATSC tuner. The downconverter can be easily has from P.C. Electronics. Model TVC-9S would do nicely. You're not supposed to use the government issue ATSC tuner coupons to buy ATSC tuners for amateur radio operations, but if you happen to use them to get yourself an ATSC tuner, there's nothing to say you can't use it for amateur TV reception. :)

It's even possible that in the future multiple encoders could be set up to send on subchannels. But you have to walk before you can run.

More YouTube: Fun with dry ice

No, it's not the coolest or most fascinating dry ice related video on YouTube, but I thought it was pretty cool.

The bluff that roared, redux

Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $110 + $9 Sit & Go (Turbo) (_), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:28:58 ET - 2008/08/20
Seat 1: (1,485)
Seat 2: (1,470)
Seat 3: villain (1,500)
Seat 4: hero (1,500)
Seat 5: (1,500)
Seat 6: (1,545)
Seat 2 posts the small blind of 15
villain posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [Qs Ad]
hero raises to 105
Seat 5 calls 105
Seat 6 folds
Seat 1 folds
Seat 2 folds
villain calls 75
*** FLOP *** [6h 3d 4c]
villain bets 150

We have rockets (wink wink). Let's act like it.

hero raises to 450
Seat 5 folds
villain calls 300
*** TURN *** [6h 3d 4c] [4h]
villain checks

Well, let's continue the charade. I can't believe he'd be here if he didn't have an overpair. Maybe it's a small overpair and I can drive him off it.

hero bets 945, and is all in
villain calls 945, and is all in
hero shows [Qs Ad]
villain shows [8d 5h]

what what WHAT?

A straight draw?!

You called a pre-flop raise with an 8 and a 5 at the beginning of the SnG?!

Of course, the other question is, what's with the hero bluffing his whole stack at the beginning of a SnG? What kind of donkey shit is that? :)

*** RIVER *** [6h 3d 4c 4h] [6c]

None for you!

hero shows two pair, Sixes and Fours
villain shows two pair, Sixes and Fours
hero wins the pot (3,120) with two pair, Sixes and Fours
villain stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3,120 | Rake 0
Board: [6h 3d 4c 4h 6c]
Seat 1: (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: villain (big blind) showed [8d 5h] and lost with two pair, Sixes and Fours
Seat 4: hero showed [Qs Ad] and won (3,120) with two pair, Sixes and Fours
Seat 5: folded on the Flop
Seat 6: didn't bet (folded)

In San Mateo, Poker < Prostitution

You'll recall I blogged about San Mateo County Sheriff's deputies busting a home poker tournament. I've found yet more proof that law enforcement priorities are messed up in San Mateo County: The SM County Sheriff and his undersheriff were recently busted in a Las Vegas massage parlor raid by Las Vegas Police.

Chris Hanson says, "So, what are you doing here?"

Send it... a little...

6th out of 477. $50+$5->$1192.50. Fastest turn-around time between MTT cashes either online or B&M.

I hate this fucking game

That graph is my SnG finish positions for the last two days. 27 percent of the time, I've cashed. 27 percent of the time, I've come in fucking fourth. Makes me want to cry. I can't identify any mistakes at all. I've just gotten totally ass-raped.

Depressing

You know, it's cold decks like this that make me second guess myself so constantly. I spent quite some time building up a nice little stack. And then shit like this happens:

Full Tilt Poker Game #_: Turbo Hundo (_), Table 7 - 30/60 - No Limit Hold'em - 3:18:17 ET - 2008/08/12
Seat 1: (1,920)
Seat 2: (1,170)
Seat 3: (1,880)
Seat 4: (2,350)
Seat 5: (1,890)
Seat 6: (1,705)
Seat 7: villain (2,100)
Seat 8: (1,735)
Seat 9: hero (5,250)
Seat 3 posts the small blind of 30
Seat 4 posts the big blind of 60
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [As 5s]
Seat 5 folds
Seat 6 calls 60
villain calls 60
Seat 8 folds

Ok. There are a couple limpers. With a suited ace, the idea is to try and flop at least a flush draw and then see if you can finish it cheaply.

hero calls 60
Seat 1 calls 60
Seat 2 folds
Seat 3 folds
Seat 4 checks
*** FLOP *** [4c 4s Qs]
Seat 4 checks
Seat 6 checks
villain checks

I like to semi-bluff. It disguises the draw so nobody has a clue what it is. A check-call is a dead giveaway.

hero bets 330
Seat 1 folds
Seat 4 folds
Seat 6 folds
villain calls 330
*** TURN *** [4c 4s Qs] [Ks]
villain checks

And there it is. At this point, the villain is pot committed if he has any sort of hand. If he called the flop, I can't see him folding here.

hero bets 4,860, and is all in
villain calls 1,710, and is all in
hero shows [As 5s]
villain shows [4h 4d]

I mean, he sure isn't going to fold having flopped fucking quads.

Uncalled bet of 3,150 returned to hero
*** RIVER *** [4c 4s Qs Ks] [Qd]
hero shows a flush, Ace high
villain shows four of a kind, Fours
villain wins the pot (4,410) with four of a kind, Fours
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4,410 | Rake 0
Board: [4c 4s Qs Ks Qd]
Seat 1: folded on the Flop
Seat 2: (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 5: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: folded on the Flop
Seat 7: villain showed [4h 4d] and won (4,410) with four of a kind, Fours
Seat 8: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: hero showed [As 5s] and lost with a flush, Ace high

Tonight has been just a series of either bad beats or coolers. It just drives me fucking bananas.

Send it!

2nd out of 448. $50+$5 -> $3472.00.

That's my best online tournament cash, both in percentage beat and cash. I've done better a couple times at Bay 101, but never online.

Heads-up was brief. We started the last hand almost exactly equal and I went all-in with a king and was called by AJo and neither of us hit. Oh well.

Wha...?

This was very, very early in a 400 player MTT. That, in and of itself, should say something about the result of this hand.

Full Tilt Poker Game #_: Turbo Fiddy (_), Table 25 - 40/80 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:21:13 ET - 2008/08/08
Seat 1: Mario (2,037)
Seat 2: (2,685)
Seat 3: (2,610)
Seat 4: hero (4,040)
Seat 5: (2,020)
Seat 6: (3,290)
Seat 7: Luigi (2,460)
Seat 8: (2,165)
Seat 9: (1,670)
Luigi posts the small blind of 40
Seat 8 posts the big blind of 80
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [Kc Jc]
Seat 9 folds
Mario raises to 280
Seat 2 folds
Seat 3 calls 280

Raised in early position and called. Bye.

hero folds
Seat 5 folds
Seat 6 folds
Luigi calls 240
Seat 8 folds
*** FLOP *** [7d 3d 6d]
Luigi checks
Mario bets 560
Seat 3 folds
Luigi calls 560
*** TURN *** [7d 3d 6d] [5c]
Luigi checks
Mario bets 1,197, and is all in

This has to be a big pair or a straight protecting himself from a diamond draw, and the other guy either has the flush or has a flush draw.

Luigi calls 1,197

Mario shows [9h Ah]
Luigi shows [Ts Jd]

Really? There are more than three hundred fifty players remaining. The tournament pays 45. I could almost see Mario representing the big hand. But what's with Luigi? He called with the jack-high flush draw. Setting aside the fact that he's likely a 3:1 dog to make his flush, who says that the jack-high is going to be the best one?

*** RIVER *** [7d 3d 6d 5c] [Qc]
Mario shows Ace Queen high
Luigi shows Queen Jack high
Mario wins the pot (4,434) with Ace Queen high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4,434 | Rake 0
Board: [7d 3d 6d 5c Qc]
Seat 1: Mario showed [9h Ah] and won (4,434) with Ace Queen high
Seat 2: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: folded on the Flop
Seat 4: hero didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: Luigi (small blind) showed [Ts Jd] and lost with Queen Jack high
Seat 8: (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 9: didn't bet (folded)

Piracy boosts popularity, film at 11.

According to this /. article, the music industries own studies have affirmed the idea that it is better for bands and for the music industry to just give away MP3s and let the resulting increase in popularity drive concert ticket sales.

Gee, you think?

Isn't this the exact same concept as allowing music to be played, more or less, for free on the radio (yes, radio stations pay for music rights, but the amount that they pay is virtually negligible - it certainly pales in comparison to the amount of money spent in promotion) spurs concert ticket sales? According to everything I've ever read about the music industry, bands pretty much just make records for free in the hope that album sales drives concert ticket sales, which is where the average band actually makes their money. What they get out of the "big record deal" isn't money from album sales, it's promotion from the record company that, yes, drives album sales for the record company, but also drives concert revenue for the band.

As for me, the last CD I bought was National Lampoon's "That's not funny, that's sick," which was actually a record first released in 1977. I bought it about 3 years ago, promptly ripped it into iTunes and filed the plastic in the garage. Apart from that, for about the last 5 years or so all the music I've bought has been either DRM-free iTunes plus AACs from iTunes, MP3s from Amazon, or when absolutely necessary iTunes DRMed tracks (but only when there is software available to easily strip the DRM. And, no, burning a CD and ripping that doesn't count).

TV reception and black magic

Well, I spent some more time fiddling with the antennas. I've actually turned the VHF beam southeast to try and pick up KSBW and KCBA (Salinas) from Fremont Peak. Here's where things stand:

DTV stations that come in perfectly, with no issues: KPIX, KQED, KBCW, KICU, KCSM, KTEH, KKPX, KCNS, KSTS, KTSF, KGO, KMTP, KBWB, KFSF, KNTV

DTV stations that are marginal - most of the time they're fine, but sometimes they pixelate or drop out: KRON, KTVU, KDTV.

DTV stations that come in at least sometimes, but are not 100% coverage: KSBW, KCBA, KRCB.

DTV stations that don't come in at all, but I don't see why not: KTLN, KTNC.

If I go up to the roof and aim the UHF a little bit more northerly from where it is now, KRCB, KTLN and KTNC seems to come in a little better, but KTVU and KRON start getting more marginal. We're talking about maybe 5 degrees, with an antenna whose half power beam-width is more like 30 degrees.

The only thing I can think of is that perhaps the pre-amp is being overloaded and that it's pushing the weaker signals down a little. If that's the case, then the analog shutdown next February will help somewhat.

The shutdown will certainly help KSBW and KCBA, which currently suffer co-channel interference from KXTV-TV and KOVR-TV. We also will likely be able to pick up KAXT-LD. At the moment, KAXT-LD is co-channel with KTNC-TV. One worry is that KRCB-DT is going to be co-channel with KMUV-LP, but fortunately it will be in the opposite direction, so the antenna's front-to-back ratio should bury it. The bad part about that is that we will have no chance at all of picking up the other UHF channels from Fremont Peak: KQET and KSMS. But KQET is redundant if you can receive KQED and KTEH already (KQET-1 is the same as KQED-1, KQET-2 is the same as KTEH-1 and KQET-3 is V-Me, which is on KTEH-5), and KSMS is a Univision affiliate like KDTV.

Bad beat of the year

Very. First. Hand.

Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $28 + $2 Sit & Go (Super Turbo) (_), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:03:08 ET - 2008/07/31
Seat 1: (300)
Seat 2: (300)
Seat 3: hero (300)
Seat 4: (300)
Seat 5: villain_a (300)
Seat 6: (300)
Seat 7: villain_b (300)
Seat 8: (300)
Seat 9: (300)
Seat 1 posts the small blind of 15
Seat 2 posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [Kd Ks]
hero raises to 300, and is all in
Seat 4 folds

Later on, Seat 4 claims he folded an ace. That will be significant later.

villain_a calls 300, and is all in
Seat 6 folds
villain_b calls 300, and is all in
Seat 8 folds
Seat 9 folds
Seat 1 folds
Seat 2 folds
hero shows [Kd Ks]
villain_a shows [Qs Ac]
villain_b shows [Jc Ad]

You just LOVE to see that when you've got kings. I didn't see Seat 4's comment that he folded an ace until later. If it were true, then that means that, barring a set, there was only one card left in the deck that would beat me. That's just a great spot to be in.

And yet...

*** FLOP *** [As Js Jd]

To quote young Eddie Murphy in "Raw,"

"And then he kicked him in the ding-ding!"

*** TURN *** [As Js Jd] [Td]
*** RIVER *** [As Js Jd Td] [2h]
hero shows two pair, Kings and Jacks
villain_a shows two pair, Aces and Jacks
villain_b shows a full house, Jacks full of Aces
villain_b wins the pot (945) with a full house, Jacks full of Aces
villain_a stands up
hero stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 945 | Rake 0
Board: [As Js Jd Td 2h]
Seat 1: (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: hero showed [Kd Ks] and lost with two pair, Kings and Jacks
Seat 4: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: villain_a showed [Qs Ac] and lost with two pair, Aces and Jacks
Seat 6: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: villain_b showed [Jc Ad] and won (945) with a full house, Jacks full of Aces
Seat 8: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: (button) didn't bet (folded)

There but for the grace of the poker gods...

I've been playing the super turbo tournaments at Full Tilt lately. It works well with my short attention span.

Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $28 + $2 Sit & Go (Super Turbo) (_), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:15:54 ET - 2008/07/27
Seat 1: villain (330)
Seat 2: hero (255)
Seat 3: (300)
Seat 4: (270)
Seat 5: (300)
Seat 6: (300)
Seat 7: Luigi (300)
Seat 8: (300)
Seat 9: Mario (345)
Seat 4 posts the small blind of 15
Seat 5 posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [Ts Td]
Seat 6 folds
Luigi calls 30
Seat 8 folds
Mario raises to 345, and is all in
villain calls 330, and is all in

Well, shoot.

Against one caller, I'd figure my tens would be good to go. I'm probably against either a smaller pair or an ace. Only if my opponent has a bigger pair am I in any real trouble.

But with two opponents, the chances are much better that one of them has a bigger pair or an ace with a better-than-ten kicker (if two opponents have an ace and neither has pocket aces, the odds go up a little - each has one of the other's outs, after all). Besides, there is the early position limper to consider. What's he gonna do?

This is a hard one, but I've got to give it up.

hero folds
Seat 3 folds
Seat 4 folds
Seat 5 folds
Luigi calls 270, and is all in

Sure enough, he did join the party.

Mario shows [7h 7s]
villain shows [4h 4c]
Luigi shows [6s 6c]

AAARRRGGGHH!!!!

FOURS?! You CALLED all-in with fours?!

I mean, being the third in with sixes is pretty dumb too, but if you're second in with fours, you're at BEST a coin-flip.

Uncalled bet of 15 returned to Seat 9
*** FLOP *** [5d Tc 4d]

Holy dog shit.

At this point, the 4s would have one out to beat me had I made the call - That's about 19:1. It has to come runner-runner 9 for the 9s to win. That's also about 19:1, it turns out.

Of course, as it happens, he's in fat city. There are 4 cards in the deck left that beat him, so he's about a 5:1 favorite.

*** TURN *** [5d Tc 4d] [4s]

Wow. Nice catch, Eeyore.

*** RIVER *** [5d Tc 4d 4s] [9d]

Had the river been a ten, and had I made the call, this hand might have gone down in history as the ultimate cooler. 4 pocket pairs all-in before the flop, two of which flopped sets, and both of which made quads.

Maybe next time.

Mario shows two pair, Sevens and Fours
villain shows four of a kind, Fours
villain wins the side pot (60) with four of a kind, Fours
Luigi shows two pair, Sixes and Fours
villain wins the main pot (945) with four of a kind, Fours
Luigi is sitting out
Luigi stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1,005 Main pot 945. Side pot 60. | Rake 0
Board: [5d Tc 4d 4s 9d]
Seat 1: villain showed [4h 4c] and won (1,005) with four of a kind, Fours
Seat 2: hero didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: Luigi showed [6s 6c] and lost with two pair, Sixes and Fours
Seat 8: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: Mario showed [7h 7s] and lost with two pair, Sevens and Fours

Statistical stupidity

ABC News recently had a video on My Yahoo that had the "worst" foods purported to be good for you (alas, I don't have a deep link to the video). First on the list of diet soda. The silly woman said that those who drink diet soda are heavier than those who don't, so you shouldn't drink diet soda.

Uh, newsflash: You've got the cause and the effect backwards there. People who are heavy drink diet soda because they know they're heavy. The ones who aren't heavy drink whatever the hell they want because whatever they're doing is working for them (or at least isn't a problem).

It's like saying bariatric surgery causes obesity because only obese people have it done.

Solving the CableCard / OpenCable conundrum

One issue I've always had with satellite TV is that before recently, every tuner has required so-called "home run" wiring. That is, a coax run all the way from the receiver to either the dish or a multiplexer, with no splitters in-between. The reason for this is that there needs to be a communication path from the tuner back to the dish (or multiplexer) so that it can select which set of transponders it wants to tune at that moment. If you've got a couple of dual-tuner DVRs, that's quite a lot of coax. The latest little innovation from DirecTV is the SWM-8, which neatly solves this problem. It allows you to connect up to 8 tuners using as many splitters as you need (with the caveat that you need to have at least one branch of the splitters pass DC power from an indoor mounted power supply module). The way it works is very similar to SDV cable TV systems. There are 9 channels set aside - 8 of them provide one tuner's worth of signal down from the dish, and one is a shared upstream request channel from the tuners back to the SWM. Each tuner requests a channel to be allocated to it from the SWM at startup, and as the channels are changed, it requests a different satellite transponder be sent down its allocated SWM channel.

With this system, the satellite system itself can become arbitrarily complex, but the complexity can be hidden behind the SWM. Already the SWM can handle a single 5 LNB Ka/Ku dish plus two auxiliary dishes (one for international programming and one for carrying local channels for some markets).

As I've previously noted, this system is somewhat similar to SDV systems for cable - the only difference being that SDV channels are shared by all subscribers, not allocated solely to a single downstream tuner.

Verizon's FIOS offering already includes a box that transitions from fiber to coax for the household. In principle, that box could also provide addressable decryption so that the house simply sees all of the subscribed channels as clear QAM - no need for CableCard at all.

This same idea could apply in the world of cable TV as well. Each household would have an addressable box that would perform pre-tuning and decryption for a set of tuners within. There would be a spec for the channelization and for the upstream communication protocol. The channel data would be clear QAM. The same box could also have an Ethernet jack and provide IP service as well, for subscribers to cable-delivered Internet. Since the box obscures the cable infrastructure, it offers greater flexibility to the cable company in laying out their networks.

Got my iPhone 3G!

Well, I gave up on getting an iPhone 3G today, but my lovely wife Scarlet didn't. She called up the Valley Fair Apple store and they still had some. Clearly Apple has managed to prepare for the launch better than AT&T.

For the most part, the new phone isn't really that distinguishable from its older counterpart. It's a little bit lighter, and the 3G network is noticeably faster. The bad news is that in my house, the phone only gets EDGE (well, it really gets WiFi, of course, but if I disable WiFi for testing, I get no 3G coverage).

The GPS functionality works well. As long as you're outside (and in some cases, inside) you get a blue dot on the map that follows you around. Unfortunately, Apple didn't turn the google maps app into a full GPS turn-by-turn app. The official excuse is that the GPS receiver isn't "good enough" to properly deliver turn-by-turn navigation. I still don't know why Apple didn't go with a bluetooth GPS solution. The receiver could be plugged into a car's power jack (remember when they were called cigarette lighters?) and basically left there. But as it is, the GPS functionality that is there is an improvement. At my parent's house on Point Loma in San Diego, the old phone always decided that we were near Lindbergh Field in downtown (an error of over 5 miles and across two bodies of water).

I still would not have bothered with the upgrade if it wasn't for the broken screen. The only appreciable difference between the two generations is the 3G networking and GPS. The rest of the updates were in the 2.0 firmware, which means they're available for users of both models.

I've bought a few things from the App store so far: ICE, which is a small app intended for emergency responders who find you unconscious (say, laying near a set of railroad tracks), and check your phone to see if there are any clues as to who you are. The icon is a giant red cross in a white field, labeled "ICE," which means "in case of emergency." At $1, the price is right.

I also fetched the PayPal app, the AIM app, Remote, and I bought the Apple Texas Hold'Em game. I also bought Bejeweled 2 for my wife's phone. The Texas Hold'Em game is beautiful and functional, but the AI for the computer player is rather annoying. They tend to be calling stations.

Has Apple lost their tiny little minds?

Go click on this link.

It's a 404 page now, but it used to be the home of Apple's retail stores. Why they'd move that page is a giant mystery to me, but whatever.

Go to the bottom of that page. There's a link to click on to visit an Apple retail store. That link takes you to -- wait for it -- that same page.

I have no words.

EDIT: At some point later that week, they fixed it. It was, at the time however, yet another thing that was annoying me that particular day (the iPhone 3G launch day).

iPhone 3G anger management

I was not angry since I came to France
Until this instant.

- Henry V, Act IV Scene VII

I was confronted with a situation this morning of such effrontery that I can't leave it alone.

A couple weeks ago, I dropped my iPhone and the screen got cracked. I took it to the Apple store and they basically said that it would cost as much to repair it as it would to simply wait for the iPhone 3G and upgrade to one of those.

Now, right away my response to that is that Apple is becoming more and more like HP (and we're not talking about the old, good HP - the ones who are now Agilent). I'd have paid $100 to get it fixed rather than $200 to get it replaced, but no.

Now, I stood in line at the iPhone launch. I was there a couple hours before the launch time, and by my estimate everyone who was in line before the actual launch time got the phone of their choice.

So I was not too concerned about this launch, seeing as how they managed to do things more right than wrong. Surely they can't fuck it up - particularly having done one of these before.

Yes, they could.

I arrived an hour early. 7 AM. I was, by my estimate, perhaps the 150th person in line. When I got up to 6th place in line, they announced they had run out of the 16 GB versions - both colors. By that time, it was about 9:45. Almost 3 hours of my life that I'll never get back. Thanks to AT&T.

Let's say that only 10% of the folks in line wanted the smaller phone. That means that they must have started with fewer than 70 of each color of the 16GB model.

Really, AT&T? 70 of each was going to be plenty?

Now that's even before I rant about how they could have counted people in line at 7:45 and let us know then rather than waiting until they ran out. What could they possibly have had to gain by not telling us 3 hours earlier that we were going to be wasting our time? When they sell concert tickets, they start by handing out numbered wristbands. That never occurred to them at AT&T?

And, naturally, you can't just order them from the Apple store. No. That would be far too convenient. So now, I will be forced to poll the store(s) daily until either Apple or AT&T pulls their fucking thumbs out.

Thanks for nothing, Steve.

Idiot commentators on YouTube

First, we have to start with the video in question:



Oliver Hudson and Sam Farha are playing the very first hand of the WSOP main event. Hudson flops tens-full and loses. Lots of the commentators on YouTube berate Hudson for going out on hand 1, but I think they're wrong. If you don't go broke in that spot, you're not getting full value out of your monsters in the long run. Let's look at the math.

If you flop a boat with a pocket pair with your boat being an under-set and overpair, there are 3 cards left in the deck of which your opponent must have two in order to have you beat. The odds of that happening are 360 to 1. I'll bet my entire tournament on those sorts of odds every time you give me the chance.

Recently, I got a chance to do exactly that:

Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $33 + $3 Sit & Go (Turbo) (_), Table 1 - 20/40 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:25:52 ET - 2008/07/03
Seat 1: (2,385)
Seat 2: (795)
Seat 3: (1,380)
Seat 4: (1,510)
Seat 5: hero (1,520)
Seat 6: (1,500)
Seat 7: (1,500)
Seat 8: villain (1,410)
Seat 9: (1,500)
hero posts the small blind of 20
Seat 6 posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [Ts Tc]
Seat 7 folds
villain raises to 120
Seat 8 folds
Seat 1 folds
Seat 2 folds
Seat 3 folds
Seat 4 folds
hero calls 100
Seat 6 folds
*** FLOP *** [Th Ac As]

There's my boat.

hero checks
villain bets 160

Ok. Either he was continuation betting and he's never going to put another nickel into this pot or he has an ace or maybe pocket kings and thinks he has the best of it. If he has an ace, then the only way he's beat at the moment is if I have him out-kicked or have a boat already. If I'm in his shoes, and I have an ace, I have to call unless I have a super-weak kicker. But then, if I had a dry ace, I wouldn't have made an early position raise pre-flop.

hero raises to 1,400, and is all in

My raise is designed to look like one of those idiot bluff plays that you see pretty frequently online.

villain calls 1,130, and is all in
hero shows [Ts Tc]
villain shows [8d Ad]

I thought so. A8 is sort of weak for an early position pre-flop raise. I had him on an ace-and-a-face.

In any event, he has 4 outs at this point - the case ace and 3 8s - plus the board pairing runner-runner. He's a 4.5:1 dog.

Uncalled bet of 110 returned to hero
*** TURN *** [Th Ac As] [7d]

He can also now win with any of the 3 remaining sevens. He's still a 7:1 dog.

*** RIVER *** [Th Ac As 7d] [2c]
hero shows a full house, Tens full of Aces
villain shows three of a kind, Aces
hero wins the pot (2,860) with a full house, Tens full of Aces
villain stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,860 | Rake 0
Board: [Th Ac As 7d 2c]
Seat 1: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: hero (small blind) showed [Ts Tc] and won (2,860) with a full house, Tens full of Aces
Seat 6: (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 7: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: villain showed [8d Ad] and lost with three of a kind, Aces
Seat 9: didn't bet (folded)

Don't play during the day

I have a day job, so I don't play during working hours. Even if I didn't have a day job, I think I would refrain. Here's a small example of why:



This is the SharkScope dump of a $33+$3 tournament that started at about 12:30 PM PDT today. There are 4 players with positive ROIs and 1000+ tournaments of experience, and one of those has a 20% ROI. Two out of the three negative ROI players have too small a sample size to be significant, and one of the players at the table is a fish.

If I've learned anything as I've improved it's to recognize when it's best wait for a better opportunity.

Sharkscope and Safari

So for a while now, I've had to use SharkScope in Camino. It turns out, though, that if you use the "Develop" menu in Safari to change the user agent to Opera for mac, the page will work correctly. I managed to get the page sort-of working with the IE5 user agent as well, but the login widget wouldn't work. Opera for mac, however, seems to do the trick.

It's also possible, however, that the whole thing is just a heisenbug, and that it just happened to work best when I picked Opera. I rather doubt that the SharkScope developers test their site with Safari (though now that they can get Safari for Windows, they have less of an excuse).

All rise for the royalty, redux

PokerStars Game #_: Tournament #_, $15+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2008/06/19 - 21:37:59 (ET)
Table '_ 1' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: (1545 in chips)
Seat 2: hero (1460 in chips)
Seat 3: (1515 in chips)
Seat 4: (1390 in chips)
Seat 5: (2955 in chips)
Seat 6: (1250 in chips)
Seat 8: (1600 in chips)
Seat 9: (1785 in chips)
hero: posts small blind 15
Seat 3: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [Ad 6d]
Seat 4: calls 30
Seat 5: folds
Seat 6: folds
Seat 8: folds
Seat 9: folds
Seat 1: calls 30

Ordinarily, this is supposed to be a fold so early on in the tournament, but for half price, let's see if we can see a cheap flop.

hero: calls 15
Seat 3: checks
*** FLOP *** [Jd 8h Kd]

The nut flush draw? Sure!

hero: bets 90
Seat 3: calls 90
Seat 4: folds
Seat 1: calls 90
*** TURN *** [Jd 8h Kd] [Td]

And there it is.

hero: checks
Seat 3: checks
Seat 1: bets 90

Let's not scare anyone away.

hero: calls 90
Seat 3: calls 90
*** RIVER *** [Jd 8h Kd Td] [Qd]

WHOMBA!!!!!

And, of course, we're out of position. What to do? Value-bet here or hope that one of these two bluffs at it? Let's try the slow-play.

hero: checks
Seat 3: checks
Seat 1: checks

ARRGGGHHH!!!!!

*** SHOW DOWN ***
hero: shows [Ad 6d] (a Royal Flush)
Seat 3: mucks hand
Seat 1: shows [Ts Qs] (two pair, Queens and Tens)

Well, the board was four-flushed. Nobody was going to call a value-bet without a diamond.

hero collected 660 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 660 | Rake 0
Board [Jd 8h Kd Td Qd]
Seat 1: (button) showed [Ts Qs] and lost with two pair, Queens and Tens
Seat 2: hero (small blind) showed [Ad 6d] and won (660) with a Royal Flush
Seat 3: (big blind) mucked [Kh Ac]
Seat 4: folded on the Flop
Seat 5: folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Final TV setup

I've finally decided on how our TVs are going to be set up from now on. I thought I'd share how I did it.

In our house, we've got 4 TV receiver type devices. Two of them have DirecTV HR21 DVRs, one is a TV in the guest bedroom with an ATSC tuner, one is an HD HomeRun ATSC decoder on the network for the computers.

We actually have 8 RG6 cable runs in our house, which is a lot given its small size. To the extent possible, it would be nice to give all of these cable runs the same signal, so if we decide to move a receiver around it won't be a problem. It also turns out that splitting the signal that much causes problems for some of the channels. Plus, we only have two cable runs to the living room, which causes a problem for the HR21 (ordinarily) because it has 2 tuners plus the AM21 ATSC tuner (which would require a third cable run for its antenna feed).

Fortunately, all of this can be worked out.

We start at the TV antenna. There are actually going to be two of them - one is a ChannelMaster 4228 UHF antenna. This will capture most of the DTV signals. However, we are going to have a couple of VHF-hi channels post 2/09 - KGO and KNTV. For those, I have an AntennaCraft Y5-7-13 VHF-hi antenna. Both of those feed into a ChannelMaster 7777 mast-mounted amp. The 7777 can take a separate VHF and UHF input and amplify and combine them into one feed into the house. The amplifier is necessary because of all of the losses caused by all of the splitters used to feed all of the drops.

We also have DirecTV. The fix for the living room running out of cables is an SWM-8. The SWM-8 allows a single feed to be split with conventional splitters and drive up to 8 DirecTV tuners. Not only that, but the SWM also has an input to diplex in the terrestrial antenna feed too! The downside of that is that we need to power the pre-amp. So we need to inject power into the antenna line, but after the SWM, which is awkward. Fortunately, there is an RG6 run from the distribution point out back into the garage, where the pre-amp's power supply can live. The only thing left is to figure out how to inject that power into the line after the SWM.

Well, it turns out that you can use an ordinary satellite diplexer to do just that! Just connect the VHF/UHF line to the OTA-in port on the SWM with a short length of RG-6, connect the satellite port to the line coming from the power supply in the garage, and connect the combined port to the lead going to the CM7777. The satellite leg of the diplexer has a DC power-pass on it, and the VHF/UHF side has a DC block. A regular power injector would probably do this job with slightly less loss (since the diplexer has a needless low-pass filter on the VHF/UHF port), but it was handy and worked.

The SWM also has its own power injector. If you use a splitter on the SWM1 port, it needs to have a power-pass port, and that port must be connected to the port in the house to which the SWM's power supply is connected. In our case, however, I just connected one line from the bedroom directly to the SWM-1 port. Inboard of the SWM power supply, I am using a diplexer to break out the VHF/UHF and satellite signals for that receiver.

The SWM-2 port has a 1-4 splitter feeding two lines to the living room and one line each to the guest bedroom and the port for the HDHomeRun (which is actually in the dining room). If we want to upgrade the guest bedroom from standard TV to DirecTV, we simply need to diplex that port.

The only downside to this setup is that we now are only able to use SWM compatible receivers. Turns out that isn't likely to be a problem going forward, since we already have the two HR21s we're probably going to have for the foreseeable future, and if we wanted to add a receiver later, we would probably only be able to get compatible ones new.