Online Poker and Data Mining Examined
Card Player Online this week examined the controversial subject of online poker and data mining in a series of well written reports.
What exactly is data mining and why is it so frowned upon by many in the online poker community?
From Card Player:
Data mining can mean any number of different things, but the popular definition is that it is a process of extracting patterns from data, or in poker's case, a database of hands and/or results. Data mining can be done by the individual user, but for the purposes of this article, we will focus on third-party data mining, whether it be through a website or an External Personal Assistance (EPA) program. EPAs are simply software or other download capable tools that can make data mining faster and more efficient. Furthermore, the EPAs also have the ability to interpret the results for the user, as well.
It's easy to see why so many serious online poker players use data mining programs to give themselves a leg up on the competition. Players who take advantage of these programs have access to hand histories from opponents they've never played before, allowing them a blueprint for success before a match even begins. With that information at their disposal, a perceptive poker player can define a set of hand ranges for any particular situation and make better decisions on each street as a result.
Recently, online poker player Brian Townsend was suspended for 30 days from playing at Full Tilt Poker after it was determined he used data mining to cause a fellow player to lose significant amounts of money.
Not everyone in the online poker community is of the belief that data mining is particularly bad.
Card Player asked a number of players opinions, among them Frenchman Arnaud Mattern.
"I do use trackers (only the ones that are allowed to be used on Pokerstars, that is Hold'Em Manager)," Mattern tells Card Player. "I use the software mainly for personal work, like reviewing my hand histories, and working on them.
"I never downloaded hands before, but I'm seriously considering buying most of some high stakes players hand histories, like Isildur1, or Phil Ivey, if they are available, just to learn from them. I don't have a particular opinion on the subject, even though I agree that I would not be especially crazy about my hand histories being available on the web.
"It' s obviously good and bad at the same time, it's just a matter of who is going to work harder, and those people are going to get all the money eventually, so it's going to be harder and harder. All in all, those are pretty good tools if you want to improve, and if you are willing to spend some time studying."
Patrick Flanigan, Gambling911.com
