Dear Pleno.......Best Regards, Richard

[tikay]

Pleno, or anyone really, who moves in these high roller circles.

I was alerted to an interview with Richard Chadwick. (I think....)

The whole thing, almost every word, just blew me away.

I just don't recognize this poker world.

Would love to hear more about these sort of things. Not sure I'd like what I hear, but I'd like to hear it, all the same.

Are ALL these guys on Staking deals? Does nobody play with their own money, & 'roll, any more? I do understand the whole staking thing, but then again, stuff like this makes me challenge it, too. What would happen if, in some parallel universe, somehow all staking was banned?  

The "reg wars" blew me away, too, it's almost like a little exclusive circle, where you need "approval" to gain admission. Just wow at how far Online Poker has come in it's short life, which is barely 15 years?


.


http://www.husng.com/content/interview-richard-chadders0-chadwick-i-stopped-my-1k-shots

[Eck]

Not read it but the interview is with a different guy called Richard Chadwick, you do realise that don't you?

[MahoganyVic]

Am way behind the times with online poker so that article may as well have been in another language

What does it mean when he says he 'shares the lobby' with this Dan bloke. Is that an agreement not to play eachother? Is there some sort of agreed code with all the regulars?

[tikay]

Not read it but the interview is with a different guy called Richard Chadwick, you do realise that don't you?

Ha! I get so confused. I'll edit my OP, but my point remains valid, it all seems an alien world to me.

[tikay]

Am way behind the times with online poker so that article may as well have been in another language

What does it mean when he says he 'shares the lobby' with this Dan bloke. Is that an agreement not to play eachother? Is there some sort of agreed code with all the regulars?

The link was contained in a fascinating Post (which I may post, too) in which the "etiquette" & rules of who is allowed to play whom was detailed.

The whole thing just completely amazed me. There is, it seems, another online poker world out there.

[tikay]

The context of that Link being Posted Next Door, & some more stuff......

The chap, who has the alias Next Door of "TeddyBloat" is a really intelligent & highly articulate guy. I happen to like him, even though I have not met him, as he seems to have decent ethics as to poker generally, & has always been very helpful to me, & others, on that Community.

So, we were chit-chatting about something, he posted a 2 liner, & I asked him ro expand, as I never understood a word of what he had written.

So he replied.

More follows......

[tikay]

".....tikay, the politics of hyper husng's on the big site is incredible. i'll try to outline it briefly, but it is a big beast:

so here goes, ahem...

regs dont like playing other regs and sitting first in a lobby is a great way to avoid regs as they wont sit you. so virtually all regs on stars use a program called sharkystrator. this is a very cool program that auto-registers you in the next available lobby and is difficult to 'out-click manually'. sharky places everyone in a queue for the next lobby so the regs all sit in a line waiting for the next lobby to come-about all safe from each other.

the recs dont have this software and so rarely get an empty lobby and so always play regs. the problem is that this is a bumhunters paradise. bad regs waited in line at high limits and the queues got huge upto 60 in a line and depending on rec traffic this led to big gaps between games at mid-high limits.

one solution is for strong regs to clear the lobbies by sitting these weak regs and force them to move down. unfortunately this meant that small groups of regs where clearing the lobbies for large groups to freeroll off smaller wait times and higher rec/reg ratios.

so the regs formed cartels or divisions. basically all those in the group set sharky to auto sit anoyone not tagged as a member. anyone not in therefore cannot play recreational players at that level and will be forced to move down. only members of the division gets to play recs. this works and there are former $100 regs now forced into playing 7-15's as they cannot beat anyone semi-decent.

this is obviously bad for people trying to move up and some groups [100s down to $30] have clear entry requirements. if you achieve a certain ev ROI over a few thousand games against the division you are in and they vote a weak member out. this means to move up you have to play thousands of games against the better players and prove yourself.

there are some crazy politics above 100's:  the $200 division is no longer accepting new memebers and at the very top you have people like dan coleman [one drop winner] who will only share if you take close to 200k off him. it aint happening, and his bankroll will out last yours. [colman: "I have good news and bad news. The good: Before becoming a 1k reg, you will have won 200k off me. The bad: Most likely not going to happen."]


heres an interview with a well respected british hyper player on his failed shot at establishing himself as a $1k reg [in which he lost $140k to colman alone].

http://www.husng.com/content/interview-richard-chadders0-chadwick-i-stopped-my-1k-shots

one thing to take out of that is that he had to set aside a years living expenses and be willing to lose a 150k+ to take a 'shot' and get established.

----


you can imagine the politics and ego that goes with all this.

one phenomena the sharky queue caused was that of 'sit-declining'. if there is a reg you dislike in an open lobby you can sit him then decline a rematch meaning he goes to the back of the queue and waits another 30mins for another game. you can destroy someones hourly doing thyat and this is frowned upon and 'sit decliners' are auto barred from entering divisions. also if you value your chance of moving up annoying leaders or established members of divisions is really bad, so blinding them down and not sending back etc is a no-no.

sitting regs can cause some horrendous ego problems. i use sharky and only avoid players i have marked as being worth avoiding [if an unmarked player is in a lobby and no-one ahead of you wants to play him but you do then you jump to the front and end up sitting the player]. one player i have been sitting has blocked scope stats and i genuinely thought he was a rec, here's the chat off our last game. there is some i didnt save where he accuses me of being an $5 av buyin player taking the p--s sitting $15 regs.

CezarPoker21 said, "fu borstal"
CezarPoker21 said, "gonna sit u everyday u little ****"
tommyborstal said, "whats up mate?"
CezarPoker21 said, "i said FU CK YOU"
CezarPoker21 said, "thats whats up"
CezarPoker21 said, "and that im gonna sit u every fukin day"
tommyborstal said, "oh ok good luck brother"
CezarPoker21 said, "im not ur brother biitch"
CezarPoker21 said, "fu k off"
tommyborstal said, "sorry if i upset you,dont like to make people upset"
tommyborstal said, "good luck"



CezarPoker21 said, "why?"
CezarPoker21 said, "and why the hell do u sit regs"
CezarPoker21 said, "when theres so many fish"

crazy politics and ego on display....."

[tikay]

A later reply by "Teddy".....the last para in particular fascinates.

Its actually  really good system in theory, esp upto the 200's. It forces regs to play each other and means people cant bum-hunt above their level.

Good aspiring regs have clear entry goals that they can meet to get in.

Its bad for bad regs and any non professional regular as its hard to break into the divisions without skill and  time.

The politics are ugly tho. The 100's recently kicked a well known coach as his stundents were killing the members. And 200' above are closed shops without any clear entry requirements. Yoy have to force people to share by targetting some of the best in the world and making it unprofitable enough for them to be forced share. And they are very difficult to crush to the extent that it eats into their bankrolls, even making them pay the rake would be a huge achievement.

[tikay]

One more.....


Its a vast improvement on the behaviour that preceeded it where people bumhunted the levels and got stroppy if anyone semi-decent sat them. You had people who  couldnt beat $30 regs printing money at the $100 level.

Now if you want to play recreationals you have to prove yourself against the best regs at that level and also be willing to sit any reg that wants to move up and be willing to battle them.

Regs actually battle each other now, and the level they play at is a reflection of their skill level. It is a terrible system for bumhunters.

Stars have stated that it is none of their business who plays who. If you dont like being sat by players you cant beat either stop open sitting or move down a few levels. If you dont like queues then dont queue and sit whichever reg is open sitting. Its great for stars as reg on reg violence generates tonnes of rake and money leaves regs bankroll and flows to the site.

The politics of the higher levels where entry is near impossible without contacts or the ability and bankroll to crush the best for weeks on end is much shadier, but again it doesnt interest stars unless recreationals are put out. They dont notice anything except games firing off quicker.

In many ways its the natural equilibrium of the lobby system and  much better than cash hu where no regs ever play each other and can and do decline action.

Its a bad system for me as I would almost certainly be a bad reg at the $30s and that is the next level up for me. I couldnt bumhunt the level without being the bum that was hunted. Thats actually not a bad thing for the game. If I did gain entry to the 30's I could not simply bumhunt as I would have to defend the lobby against anyone else moving up and if I was one of the weaker members would be targetted by people battling to get in. I would constantly have to prove myself. Again that has to ve a good thing for the game.

[tikay]

I did seek Teddy's permission to steal his stuff.

I hope nobody wants to discuss Teddy, he just helped me (?!) by replying to my questions.

Everything about it blew me away, in much the same way that I only just realised that the "Face of Full Tilt" was $20 milly in the hole, & yet he was employed there for years.

Maybe none of this interests anyone, so be it.

Lordy Lordy, it's nearly time for me to go, I just can't come to terms with all this stuff. Thought-provoking to say the least, or at least, it is to me.

Do we have any blondes in this "system" on 'Stars? Would love to hear more about how it all works.  

[DungBeetle]

These upset "regs" are laughable.  At the end of the day 80% of them are just people who can't find a job.

[MahoganyVic]

Cheers Tikay, that is fascinating    

Everything is so much more complicated than the old days!

[tikay]

Cheers Tikay, that is fascinating    

Everything is so much more complicated than the old days!

It was to me, & you, but maybe the blonde High Roller boys will think it all perfectly normal.

Certainly opened my eyes. 

[AndrewT]

At reads as if they've essentially set up a league system, whereby to get 'promoted' from $100 to $200 you have to relegate someone down by beating them.

[cambridgealex]

Haha, cartel system pretty cool I enjoyed that thanks Tikay!

Sort of like Breaking Bad but with "geeky spotty 20 year olds" in their pants living in their mums basement?

PS hasn't been a UKPC for a while eh?