Annette Obrestad and Doyle Brunson had an interesting little spat recently.  It all started with Annette talking in a magazine article that she would much rather play against Doyle rather than an internet pro, implying (if not exactly directly saying) that the 10 time bracelet winner was a has-been and a softer player.   When Mr Brunson caught ear of this he was less than impressed shall we say and suggested it must have been Annette’s time of the month and that she was welcome to come along to Bobby’s Room any time, he was there every day.   Naturally Annette didnt take up the challenge as she would have been severely outmatched, not only in terms of cash game ability, but in terms of bankroll too.  

Actually it is suprising for Annette to see Doyle as anything other than an extremely tough opponent considering the 3 times they have met heads-up Doyle has won every time.

Of course the comments got a bit played up in the media, and I am sure Annette does have respect for Doyle’s accomplishments and game, but you cant help but secretly hope she’s pops into Bobby’s Room some day soon.   Doyle, ever the gentlemen, was quick to apologise about the time of the month comments even when they were merely responsive to the implied slur on his game.

 PokerStars recently uncovered a bug in their SNG Rematch functionality.   When accepting a rematch it would always allow the rematch regardless if you had enough funds for it or not.

This bug was discovered and exploited by several players, one of which is documented below.   As you can see the player nugloker was a SNG player at the $11 and $22 type level, suddenly he spiraled up the levels and played the $5500 HU SNGs with 100% success rate.  He played the games against a friend or an alter-ego called takeittogo to as quickly as possible spiral up the bankroll with win after win.  Basically takeittogo ditched each HU game but then selected rematch each time (despite not having funds), this netted nugloker $5000 profit each game out of literally thin air.  Or more perhaps more accurately, out of the PokerStars coffers.

Needless to say PokerStars has now closed out the bug (booo, I hear you say). Here is the official response from their security department:

“Pokerstars became aware of a system glitch which allowed users to accept a rematch in heads-up SNGs despite having insufficient funds in their account. Once we became aware of this we suspended the rematch feature.

We have carefully reviewed each account which played in a SNG where the glitch occurred, and have taken action as appropriate in each case. We did not simply take action against everyone who received a financial gain as a result of this glitch. We carefully investigated each instance, and suspended player accounts only in cases where there was a clear violation of PokerStars’ terms and conditions, such as collusion or chip dumping to exploit this glitch.

During the course of our investigation we initially suspended a small number of accounts, however further investigations proved that some of the accounts in question did not breach our terms and conditions. Those accounts have been re-instated, and we regret any inconvenience caused by the temporary suspension.

It should be noted that only a very small number of accounts have been suspended for abusing this glitch for their financial gain. The majority of affected players have aided us in resolving this problem in a timely manner, and we would like to thank them for their continued support and custom.

We will reactivate the rematch feature as soon as possible, but we’re not sure at this point when that will be. We apologise for any inconvenience that this issue may have caused to our valued customers, and thank those who helped to bring the issue to our attention.”

No-one really wants to hear bad beat stories, and I think most people switch off pretty early on in the story.  However there has been some interesting additions to many live tournaments recently to combat this.

Firstly, Bad Beat booths, where players can record their moan on video.  “Just let it all out son”!

Secondly, Bad Bear Ears, seen in as prestigious of tournaments  as the WSOP.  Basically a couple of guys sat there, you pay them some fee (eg $5) and they will genuienly listen to your bad beat story in its entirity.   And I mean properly listen, and they will ask you questions and point out what the sick parts of the hand were, in sympathy.     You might think to yourself, ‘I’m not paying $5 for that’, but believe me many do, and there is often something resembling a queue of lingerers.    Poker therapy is available cheaper than the standard shrink folks - Available at a casino lobby near you!

I think there is a reasonble amount of justification for the use of NH (nice hand) at the poker tables being made illegal.  Online poker players seem to have a great tendancy to either over-use it, or to use it in inappropriate circumstances, leading to the annoyance of others (namely me) at the tables.

In a recent survey, 92.1% of NH useage was deemed to be relating to when a player had a pretty looking hand, as opposed to actually playing the hand well.  This sort of misuse could well be very confusing to new and aspiring players leading them down the much travelled path towards donktown.

If NH were made illegal in online poker, the world would undoubtly be a much better place.  I look forward to seeing it happen soon.