roadtorobusto

I’ve been reading Nate tha’ Great’s (Nate Silver from Baseball Prospectus) blog at FiveThirtyEight a lot lately.  Very cool stuff about Elections Forecasting, polling, and predictions on the election.  Check it out when you have a chance.

This is a topic that has been covered in general before (best by KyleB/coldcaller — for a great comprehensive look at online security look at this thread by KyleB and this blog post by Nat Arem), but I figured I’d post about what programs I use to help w/my security.  Any time you’re keeping a significant amount of your money online, you should be aware of the tools that you can use to help guarantee your security.  There is no 100% safe solution, so be aware that there will always be things to be concerned about, but this is a pretty decent checklist.

1. My poker PC is only used for work and poker.  Nothing else — I significantly lower the chances of any sort of virus, worm, trojan, keylogger, or other security hazard finding its way onto my computer.  So, for the demographic I’m addressing here: don’t use your poker PC to browse porn.
   
   
2. I can’t believe how many of you neglect this — keep your computer updated.  I auto-update to Microsoft, which you can enable (in XP) by going Control Panel -> Automatic Updates.  Mine is set to update every day at 3:00AM.  In addition I check about once a week to check for other driver updates or anything else.  Be vigilant about this.
   
   
3. My poker passwords are not guessable.  I use KeePass personally (KeePassX for my Mac) but know of others who use PasswordSafe.  This database is password protected as well, so in order for you to get access to my passwords (online banking, poker sites, etc),
   
   
4. If you insist on using AIM for communication (I know, it’s convenient and widespread) use an alternative client like Digsby.  This alone isn’t going to do a ton for your security, but I’ve seen holes in AIM in the past and it’s certainly not a program I trust the coders of to secure well.  Beyond that, there are lots of alternative programs that combine all your clients (Google Talk, AIM, MSN Messenger, ICQ, Yahoo Messenger) and use them from one program.  Digsby is one of those (I use it for AIM/Google Talk/Twitter/Facebook Chat).
   
   
5. Use a good antivirus program.  I highly recommend Kaspersky Antivirus.  I just use their virus scanning and not their other apps which are a bit heavy for my tastes (use up too many computing resources).  It’s worth every penny and then some.
   
   
6. Look into anti-keylogger programs.  I use a anti-rootkitting and anti-trojan software called ProcessGuard.  As much as it can be annoying at times to have to click “allow this program,” it’s much better than Vista’s UAC and is a very worthwhile and important step to prevent rogue programs from running on your PC or accessing other portions of your PC (for example, preventing poker clients from scanning the contents of your HD) without your permission.  A free alternative to ProcessGuard is SnoopFree, but I can’t speak to the effectiveness of it as a program.
   
   
7. Use FireFox 3.  Update your browser frequently.  IE is well known for having various security holes which FireFox generall either avoids or patches before the exploits are utilized as much.  Get Firefox now.
   
   
8. Don’t save your passwords in your browser or in your poker client.
   
   
9. Don’t login to your poker accounts from your friend’s computers.  Any computer you haven’t personally secured should = a risk in your mind.
   
   
10. Develop some common sense!  Don’t click links from people on AIM on your Poker PC.  In general try to avoid random browsing, etc, on any computer that is linked to your poker playing / poker accounts.
    
    
11. Get a better OS.  Whether it’s buying a Mac (everyone from DeucesCracked runs on Macs now for the majority of their non-poker playing work and day to day activities) or running Ubuntu, there are a lot of benefits to running a non-Microsoft based OS.  I know that’s not feasible for a lot of you out there, but it’s worth mentioning.  When I’m at home, I’m on a Mac, and most of the time I’m working I’m on a Mac.  I use my PC for HEM and for the majority of my playing, but beyond that I try to use my PC as little as possible.

That’s all I can think of for now, but this is definitely something that everyone should be aware of.  Worst case scenario each of you should have a friendly computer geek (SOMEONE YOU TRUST) who can help you secure your computer.  It’s not that hard to do and is something that can help save you from a lot of problems down the road.

DeathDonkey just released our first FireFox extension, HandFire.  It’s pretty young in its development (version 0.1.3 as of this post) but works great for doing quick conversions of hands that you’d like to post on forums that don’t have a built in converter. 

I just used it to convert this hand, for example.  Copied from the clipboard in PTO, then clicked the DeucesCracked icon in FireFox and now when I hit CTRL+V, I get this:

Full Tilt Poker $2/$4 Pot Limit Omaha Hi – 5 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: $394.00
SB: $79.50
BB: $525.50
UTG: $803.00
Hero (CO): $414.50

Pre Flop: ($6.00) Hero is CO with 9 A Q A
1 fold, Hero raises to $14, 1 fold, SB calls $12, BB calls $10

Flop: ($42.00) 2 8 8 (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $30, SB folds, BB calls $30

Turn: ($102.00) K (2 players)
BB bets $52, Hero calls $52

River: ($206.00) A (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $180, BB calls $180

Final Pot: $566.00
BB mucks 2 T T 4
Hero shows 9 A Q A (a full house, Aces full of Eights)

Hero wins $563.00
(Rake: $3.00)

Holla!

Just installed Scribefire to try to encourage some more frequent posting on my side.  My main problem is that I just don’t open the tab to my blog often enough. 



Kate and I got back from the Enchantments the day before yesterday.  We went up on Thursday morning (4am wakeup call) and got back about 2pm on Sunday.  Day one was ~9 miles of hiking, which is normally pretty tame, but with about 6500 feet of elevation gain I was soulcrushed by the time we set up camp.  We crashed at about 7PM and got up pretty early the next morning to meet up with my dad and stepmom who were joining us for the hike (they got a late start and couldn’t make it up to Sprite Lake on day one).

I snapped quite a few shots — probably close to 300 — over the course of the hike with my camera (Canon EOS30D) which was great for me as always.  I forgot to bring a lensecleaning cloth though, so some of the dust storms and inclement weather had a bit of an impact.  Overall I was really happy with about 30-40 of the shots like this one (me in front of Lake Vivian):



I took a lot of time-lapse photos as well which I love doing — here’s a shot of my stepmom in her tent on our second night up there.



Overall the trip was awesome and helped me to get back a feeling of clearheadedness.  I’ve got a lot of work to do on DeucesCracked and am pretty excited to start cranking with that.  Yesterday I played a ton of PLO — more than I’ve played in quite a while, putting in a 3k hand stuckmonkey session.  Near the beginning I played pretty badly, splashing around in a lot of pots and putting my money in semi-marginally, though looking at the hands afterward my equity was usually a bit better than I thought (overpair+blockers vs semiwrap type hands where I was 55/45 but thought at the time I was 40/60).  I’m feeling more comfortable in big pots though the trickiest spots for me still are onepair+livekicker hands on dry boards vs. aggressive players.  Never a spot where I want to play for stacks, but no matter what my options always feel ugly.  Made some super thin calldowns yesterday, one or two I think were borderline brilliant and a few were incredibly idiotic.  Overall though I think I’m getting better at recognizing spots where I can apply pressure better and spots where I can take a bit more heat than I used to think.  After yesterday’s marathon I’m running pretty well (despite being stuck more than $2500 at one point, I wrapped the session +$550 or so).  Over 7400 hands of full stacked PLO I’m running at 14BB/100 which is most certainly unsustainable.  Including my cap PLO hands I have about 16k hands now for +$3k and a much more reasonable BB/100 of 4.6.  There are definitely some regs who think I suck and for the time being, it’s probably the case, but I game select and seat select really well and do a pretty decent job of playing like a goofball doing strange things against bad players but am fairly in-line against the better regs.

Long update IMO.  More to come soon, but I need to get in some LHE playing and am thinking about starting a LHE classroom where we structure some lessons and do some group sweat sessions with ~5 students.  If you’re interested post in the comments here or LMK somehow as I think it could be a fun exercise, but it’d require committment from students — probably 4 students x 4 sessions minimum @ $300/package (4+ hours of instruction for $300).  Just tossing the idea around right now but I’ve been testing some software and some other methods of instruction that should give a smaller learning environment without the cost of individual lessons that some people are averse too.

It’s been a crazy few weeks and I’ve been pretty delinquent in posting around here.  Many apologies as usual but I won’t waste your time talking about how I don’t write enough; we both know that’s true.  Today I’m sitting at home and actually am spending my Saturday by and large doing very little.  It’s quite nice.  In the past few weeks we’ve had DeucesCracked meetups, work on releasing Season 5, house painting, and I’ve been captaining a hat/draft Ultimate Team through Disc Northwest as well.  Free time is definitely at a premium, though that’s nothing new for me.  In poker I’ve been playing more and more PLO and have been taking it a lot more seriously, playing more $200PLO and less and less capped games (which I used to play a lot more).  My results have been pretty good and I feel like by talking hands through with DJ Sensei occasionally and learning from Vanessa’s 2×6 series and rbk/DJ’s Mad Potters series, I’m feeling a lot more confident about my play.  Winning flips helps, though — I can see that running bad in this game is going to be incredibly devastating.

Right now I’m watching Oregon try their best to blow the game vs. Purdue — they’ve handed them several turnovers throughout the game — but it’s in the first overtime right now and I’m realizing just how much I love the college overtime rules vs. the NFL ones.  Sudden death = teh suckness compared to watching both teams get a chance to score.  After this is over (but before the USC vs. OSU game starts) I’m going to head up and record a few Tool Time videos to help people who want to learn how to do more things with the videos on DeucesCracked — converting any video to iPod, streaming videos to your Xbox 360 or PS3, etc.  Post in the comments here or on the forums with DC if you want to see any other tech-ninja tricks.  I haven’t had enough time unfortunately to talk about some of the cooler things you can do with vids on DC but am looking forward to releasing those.

Even though I don’t play a whole lot of poker, I’ve been spending quite a bit of time coaching and have produced a few vids with PygmyHero in the Mentor series that I’m looking forward to hearing comments on.  Mike’s been taking shots at $5/10 and our recent 2-part video talks a lot about different lines to use vs. aggressive opponents including inducing bluffs, waiting for the turn to raise, and showing down Ace high (when to, when not to).  Hopefully y’all like it.

Next week I’m going for a 4-day hiking trip to the Enchantments and will definitely be taking my camera again.  Unfortunately we only have permits for the upper enchantments for camping, so we’ll be chilling at Snow Lake quite a bit, but I’m still hopeful that it’s gonna be a good trip — may get to see the Larch trees turning though I’m not sure if we’re too early in the season or not.