Hello fellow Kossaks. I'm going to Las Vegas to celebrate the overriding of Governor Gibbon's veto of domestic partnership legislation. I'll be staying at the fabulous Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino ( those of you in the know are sticking your tongues out ). Harrah's, of which Imperial Palace is a property, were instrumental in getting the legislation passed. So if they are supporting the rights of LGBT people in Nevada, I think it's only fair that I support their properties when I stay in Las Vegas.
Now the Texas Hold'em Poker Part:
Once I planned my fabulous vacation, I decided that I would try to play Texas Hold'em poker against actual humans. I've done this before without any success at all so I'll be more than happy to listen to any advice you can give. I do reasonably well against virtual/human opponents at online websites like FullTiltPoker.net and PartyPoker.com but I will not play for actual money on the Internet since, well, it's illegal for me ( according to the Justice Department ) and quite frankly, I don't trust online "casinos" with my banking information.
I will not play a money game in Las Vegas. I will only play in a tournament format. That way, my loss is limited to the tournament entry fee. Fortunately, I am going to Las Vegas the week of the World Series Of Poker tournament sponsored by Harrah's. So I should be able to find plenty of players to play against ( although they may be a league or two above my current ability ).
I guess my distrust of computer controlled online gambling is rooted in my career choice. I'm a computer programmer by trade. I know how easy it would be to rig the system. Taking the tin foil hat off for a moment, I would like to share with you something that I've been calculating the last couple of days.
Hypothesis/Question: What are my chances of winning a Texas Hold'em poker hand, sitting at a table with nine other players.
Answer: There are very good online sites that have that information for me already. So I took it a step further.
Methodology: Using MSSQL Server, deal a randomly shuffled deck of cards to a Texas Hold'em table with ten players, burn a card, deal the flop, burn another card, deal the turn, burn another card and then deal the river. Evaluate each hand ( Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Trips, Two Pair, Pair and High Card ) including the kicker and store the results in a table. Lather, Rinse, Repeat!!
Here are my results. After millions of hands, I broke down the results into High Hole Card, Low Hole Card ( by rank ), Whether the two hole cards are suited and what the final resulting hand was and whether that hand won, tied or lost to one of the other sets of hole cards for that 10 hand deal.
One of the things that I discovered in my initial look at the stats is that a hand with only a high card, like Ace High nearly never wins. But my online poker experience indicates otherwise. I'll chalk that up to the opponent with the eventual winning hand folding early. I'm still learning and like I mentioned earlier, I could use some help. Any advice would be helpful.
Have a look. To you, that spreadsheet may be meaningless or it may be useful but I thought that since I was celebrating a victory on the road to marriage equality, I should share my work with my Kossak friends.