Poker and Mercenaries

The long lost blogger returns! Once again I am jacked into the pod and leaping between stars. For many months I was exploring the very visceral and exciting world of Darkfall. Great game. Reminds me of EVE a lot.

But, as Letrange reminds us about EVE and the Eagles, “You can checkout any time you like; but you can never leave.”

Speaking of Letrange and AMC, I have retired from Worm Hole industries and found a new position with Costolle Military Assistance Corporation (C-MAC). This is a mercenary corp with a lot of pilots I’ve flown with in the 22nd Black Rise Defensive Unit (BRDU) and old friends from Faction Warfare in Draconis Combine.

Now, I’ve never done merc work but I have to say – it suits me. And here is why: it is business. And I enjoy business. I like having a clear focus and plan and purpose as I go about my activities. There is a definitive measure of success and an obvious pathway towards growth and progress.

As a matter of fact, merc work reminds me of poker (what doesn’t?). In poker you measure success by the upward mobility of your bankroll. Each session is a campaign, each hand a battle. You’re not taking that guy’s chips because you hate him, it’s just business. And business is good.

In C-MAC, when we are preparing for a new contract we do a lot of homework, intelligence gathering, review of standard operating procedures, detailed planning for upcoming operations, etc. This is a lot like the reading, data mining, and networking you might do before a big tournament to decide upon the best approach given your game and your opponents.

When we engage in hostile operations, C-MAC does so with the right amount of force in the right place at the right time in order to disrupt or destroy the maximum amount of enemy assets as possible. In poker, you put the right amount of chips at risk in order to influence the decisions of your opponent and to extract as much value from each hand as possible.

I am happy to be working with a new team of professionals. There are some poker players amongst the group as well!

Poker Updates: Full Tilt has a new game called Rush Poker. Now, I avoided trying this for quite awhile because I figured it was some kind of soft gimmick that wouldn’t help my game. But it is really a great tool. Here is how it works: you start at a normal table with your normal buy in; say $.10/.25 NL. You post the big blind and the action starts. If at any time you fold (or even click the fold button prior to the action coming to you) you are IMMEDIATELY moved to another table with a brand new hand.

What this means is that you can see an incredible number of hands per hour. In live poker you are lucky to see 30-40 hands per hour. At a normal online table you can see around 100+ hands per hours. If you multi-table you can get up to 500-600 hands per hour but your attention is split between each table and your expected value (EV) / Return on Investment (ROI) will drop.

In Rush Poker you can see well over 500 hands per hour (sometimes up to 800/hr) all on the same table. You do lose the ability to get reads on your opponents because they change every hand but you gain the ability to rapidly fold away the vast majority of mediocre hands while waiting for the best EV hands available. It seems to be a good tool for reinforcing solid poker practice. BUT! If you have leaks in your game this type of poker will amplify them and cause you to lose more $.

I haven’t been on EOH in awhile. I need to get my account unlocked and the chip stack refilled to see how things are there.

That is all for now.