WHITE LAKE TOWNSHIP, MI A suspect is in custody in connection to the death of a poker player whose burned remains were found at an Oakland County park in July.

A 60-year-old Pontiac man was arrested on Friday, July 31, in the investigation of the homicide death of Susie Zhao, of White Lake Township, WXYZ reports. Charges have not been released. A complaint will be forwarded to the Oakland County Prosecutors Office.

The burned body of 33-year-old Susie Zhao, known as Susie Q when playing poker professionally, was discovered by a passerby on July 13 at the Pontiac Lake Recreation Area in Oakland County.

RELATED: Death of woman found burned in Michigan park could be linked to her pro poker career

Zhao recently lived in Los Angeles. She relocated to Michigan about a month before her death.

White Lake Township Police obtained search warrants on Thursday, July 30, WXYZ reports. Detectives and an FBI task force assigned to the case began to search for a suspect vehicle, which was located on Friday morning. The vehicle was stopped near I-275 and Michigan Avenue where the search warrant was executed.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information about this case is asked to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALLFBI or submit tips online to tips.fbi.gov.

READ MORE:

Yes, Matthew Stafford has tested positive for COVID-19

Suspect caught shooting gun right in front of parked MSP troopers, 4 arrested following pursuit

Man killed in head-on crash with tanker truck on U.S. 127 near Jackson

Read the original here:

Suspect arrested in death of pro poker player found burned at Michigan park - MLive.com

Poker players of every skill level are invited to go all in for a good cause as Miracle Flights, the nations leading medical flight charity, hosts its first-ever online poker tournament on Wednesday, August 5 at 7 p.m. EDT/4 p.m. PDT.

Celebrities scheduled to appear include Brad Garrett, Richard Kind, Michael Ian Black, Oksana Baiul and poker pro Matt Berkey. A $100 buy-in earns players a spot in the tournamentand goes directly to support Miracle Flights, the national nonprofit that provides free plane tickets to families who need specialized medical treatment far from home. Registration is currently open here.

The poker tournament marks the first online fundraiser for Miracle Flights, which has been flying families to distant medical care for 35 years. The organization has continued its mission amid the Covid-19 pandemic and even expanded its services to help more families in needrelaxing its income guidelines, coordinating ground transportation and providing face masks to every flyer.

For so many families, postponing life-saving medical treatment is simply not an option, says Miracle Flights CEO Mark E. Brown. Every dollar raised in this tournament will not only help alleviate the financial burden these families face, but also ease the emotional stress that comes with having to travel during the pandemic.

Brown will join Faded Spade Card Club CEO Tom Wheaton as co-host of the tournament, which will stream live on Twitch.

Read the original post:

Online Charity Poker Tournament Helps Fly Sick Children to Medical Care - Look to the Stars

Susie Zhao(Photo: (Meredith Rogowski, Special to the Free Press))

A 60-year-old Pontiac man was taken into custody Friday in connection to the death of professional poker player Susie Zhao.

White Lake Township Police Department took the Pontiac man into custody around 9 a.m. Friday after locating the suspect's vehicle, the department said in a news release. Police stopped the suspect nearI-275 and Michigan Avenue and executed the search warrant, White Lake Township Police Detective Lt. Christopher Hild said.

Zhao's body was found badly burned July 13 at a state land park area on Maceday Lake and Cross roads in White Lake Township. Authorities believe she was killed at the recreation area then her body was set ablaze, although her cause of death has not yet been released.

The professional poker player, 33, had recently moved to live with her parents in Waterford after living in California and Las Vegas for more than 10 years.

More:

Mystery deepens in death of professional poker player found burned

White Lake Twp. police: Pro poker player's death may be tied to her travels

The investigation into Zhao's death is ongoing and police ask anyone with information to contact the FBI at 1-800-2255-324 or submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.

Free Press reporter Emma Dale contributed to this report.

Meredith Spelbring is a news intern with the Detroit Free Press. Reach her at mspelbring@freepress.com or on Twitter @mere0415.

Read or Share this story: https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2020/08/01/susie-zhao-poker-player-death/5562527002/

Go here to read the rest:

Man, 60, in custody in connection to death of professional poker player Susie Zhao - Detroit Free Press

Full Episode Description For those wondering, Steve's easy acronym - WITWICWRN - stands for 'Where in The World Is Carlos Welch RIght Now'. While it does not roll of the tongue, it is a question that always comes up when we have Carlos on. The two discuss about fishing, cryptocurrency, and at 30:50 they dive into a strategy hand discussion. Remember that you can always submit a hand for our resident poker analysts to dissect by emailing [emailprotected]! Alex Fitzgerald gives away for FREE his 3 Hour Training Packon 3 betting. He has also put out a class Master Small Stakes Cash Games in One Class, and his tournament version, Master Tournament Poker in One Class. Use the code hupoker to get your discount, good until 2/21/2020. Elliot Roe! Start with thefreeTilt-Buster MP3, or look at his collection ofMental Game MP3s. If you need to be putting in more volume, thenThe Simple Volume Systemis for you. Total Mindset Makeover? Join thePoker Mind Coach Courses. If you are atournament poker player, you may already know aboutTournament Poker Edge. Check out somefree training videoshere. Check out all things poker atHeadsUpPoker.info. Sign up for a coaching session with Steve, watch instructional videos, and check out all previous podcasts. You can contact Steve viaTwitter,Facebook, or email at[emailprotected]

Read more:

Heads Up Poker Podcast: 234 - Steve and Carlos: WITWICWRN - Pokerfuse

Are you looking for the best poker bonus to play online for real money and challenge other players in games of Texas hold'em and Omaha poker? You are not alone.

This page doesn't list all the online poker bonuses under the sun. We are PUMPED to announce that this new collection of poker offers features only the best poker bonuses to play online and access the most exciting real money games out there.

Continue reading to discover:

In other words, if you are looking for the best online poker bonuses in 2020, you'll love this page.

Right now, GG Poker provides a bonus of up to $100 in tickets for World Series of Poker satellite events. You can deposit at least $20 to get up to $100 in tickets. The site offers a 100% match bonus on your first deposit.

The tickets will be released to your account in a few days. If you have $100 in free tickets, $60 will be released over the first six days on your site. You can earn the remaining $40 in your bonus by completing challenges in the All-in or Fold games on the GG Poker website.

These include points where you have to win enough matches, or you have to attain certain things while you are playing. The site will provide details on what you need to do to meet these bonus requirements.

PartyPoker is one of the oldest online poker sites around. When you register to play here, you get a first deposit bonus where if you add $10 to your account, you get $30 in free play tickets.

The bonus is good for most of the games on the site. You should ensure you use your free tickets soon, as they will expire seven days from the issue. But there are also plenty of games available where you can wager enough funds to cover everything.

The tickets are good for use on SPINS games on the site. The SPINS games are three-handed sit and go tournaments where a wheel will decide the value of the prize pool before the game starts.

You could potentially compete for a first prize total of $1 million depending on how much you spend on your ticket and whether the wheel lands on the 12,000x multiplier.

The next of the online poker bonuses on the list comes from PokerStars. You can choose one of two bonuses when you sign up for the website.

First, you can deposit $20 or more to get $30 in free play tickets. The offer is a traditional welcome bonus for tickets that you can use on many games.

Second, you can choose a different reward that offers a welcome bonus worth 100% of your first three deposits for the first sixty days after you sign up.

You can get up to $600 in free money through this offer. This second choice is for people who are looking to stick around for a while.

You can get up to $400 in free money for use at 888Poker through the first deposit bonus available on the site.

Deposit $10 or more with the promo code WELCOME100 to get a 100% bonus of up to $400. The free money is good for use at freeroll games and poker tournaments.

But you will have to play through the poker games to release the extra funds. You will get $10 from your welcome bonus every time you collect 100 bonus points.

You will get two points for every dollar you spend on poker tournament fees and for every dollar you contribute to a poker ring game. You'll also get a point for every $10 you wager on casino games at the site, provided you are playing these games through your poker account.

Unibet offers an online casino and sportsbook to go alongside its poker room. But the first deposit bonus for the poker room is different from the other rewards available on the site.

Unlike most other first deposit poker bonuses, Unibet provides a no-deposit bonus. You'll get $20 in free money when you create an account. You may be limited as to what games you can play with your free money bonus and how much you can win at a time.

You can then get a welcome bonus of up to $200 depending on how much you deposit. You'll get a 100% match bonus on your first deposit.You can then use your funds to enter various outstanding tournaments. You can enter events for the chance to qualify for the Unibet Open, among other competitions.

The welcome offer at Bet365 Poker is 100% bonus of up to $100 on your first deposit. You must provide at least $10 for your first deposit to utilize this offer. You may also require a bonus code, but that code will vary based on your country or state, if you play from the United States.

You would also have to play through the bonus funds at least fifteen times before you can withdraw anything.

Online poker bonuses are available through many websites that offer poker games. A poker bonus is a reward given to people who sign up to play games on a specific website. Poker bonuses exist to encourage people to play games and showcase the many things a poker rooms offers. Players can use these funds for various assets.

You can enjoy one of many quality poker deposit bonuses while you play online. These are offers that should be noted when you're looking for a great deal.

There are various rules surrounding what is open, so you should be aware of what you might find when looking for something of value. You should also review the rules for whatever you wish to collect, as every site has unique terms to note.

A match bonus is the most common offer you'll find through an online poker room. Deposit bonuses work in that you will deposit a specific amount of money on a site.

You will then get bonus money based on the site's rules. For instance, you could deposit $50 and get a 100% match bonus, thus giving you $100 for play.

You will have to note a few things surrounding a match bonus. These rules should be open on the site you visit, but it does help to see what is open:

The match offer is a reliable choice, plus it gives you a great way to start playing anywhere. Check your website of interest to see what match bonuses are available where you wish to play.

It is one of the best online poker bonus options you can find. This is different from other online poker bonuses in that you don't have to place a deposit on a site to collect the pffer.

You will register for an account and then collect the free money for poker play. You don't have to spend any money on the no deposit bonus. You should review a few points surrounding how you can use your no deposit bonus:

You might also have to provide some payment information to the site to confirm your identity. You would not be charged anything when you do this and you collect your no deposit reward. But the data will be saved, so you can complete a real money deposit in moments when the time comes.

A tournament ticket may be offered among first deposit poker bonuses. A ticket is a voucher that you can use to join a tournament. There are many rules to note for a ticket, including:

The rules for these tournaments will vary by each site. It is possible that you could win a great deal of money in a tournament, although this is all based on your skills and how well things can work.

Reload bonuses occur after the first deposit. You will collect your money off of a deposit you utilize to add more money to your account. The offer is for people who stick around on a site and enjoy playing here, plus it encourages loyalty.

Reload bonuses aren't as substantial as first deposit poker bonuses. Whereas a first deposit bonus would entail a 100% match, a reload bonus might be worth 50 or 75%.

There might also be a limit over how much money you could collect. You might get up to $50 on a reload bonus instead of $100 or so. But a reload bonus will give you a great opportunity to play with more money, especially if you are satisfied with the website.

You can qualify for a VIP bonus if you stick around a website long enough and earn reward points. The offer can be the best online poker bonus for any player, what with it often having better terms than many welcome deposit bonuses.

You would earn a VIP bonus based on one of these factors:

You have to review the VIP bonus rules on your site when seeing what the rules are and that you have an idea of what you can do to qualify for them. Most places will automatically place you in the VIP club, but you might have to put in the effort depending on what you wish to utilize.

You can also utilize a referral bonus through some websites. A referral bonus works with a few steps:

The terms for collecting a referral bonus vary, as your friend would have to deposit enough funds and play through them before you can collect anything. The total you will gather from the bonus will also vary by offer. The website can provide details on what you'll get from your work.

The best online poker bonus may include some playthrough requirements. These are rules where you have to play through your bonus funds enough times before you can withdraw the money.

These rules apply to ensure people who sign up and deposit funds aren't going to take out the free money right away.

The playthrough rule might entail going through the bonus value a few times. The total can vary by site.

Poker bonuses are great for how they provide players with the opportunity to try out different poker sites. These deposit poker bonuses and other offers can help new players get started in enjoying online poker.

These bonuses also make the online poker industry more competitive. Every website will aim to produce the best online poker bonus, giving more rewards to new members. There's no limit as to what these virtual rooms can offer when producing the best bonuses around.

You can use your bonus funds to play real money, although that depends on how much you have. You should review the value of your bonus and how much it would cost to enter a game.

The best online poker bonus is the one that fits your desire. You should look at how great a poker bonus is based on:

Anything that provides entries to specific tournaments is always worthwhile.

Not all poker rooms require bonus codes for when you're claiming a bonus. You can automatically get a bonus off of most places. But others might require a bonus code that you can enter when funding your account.You can review a virtual poker website to see what bonus codes are necessary for an offer. You could also look around third-party sites to see what bonus codes are open, but there's no guarantee that the information you will find is accurate.

You can only collect a signup bonus once. You will have to sign up for the site and provide your contact info and payment data. You cannot establish a second account with the website to collect more bonus money.You could still get a bonus from referring people to the site. Reload bonuses are also available in some places.

The playthrough rules are terms associated with wagering enough money on poker games before you can collect your bonus. You must play through the bonus enough times before it can become real money that you can withdraw later.Gaming websites have these requirements to ensure people don't abuse the free money offers at these places.

You can contact the help desk at the poker website you are on if you did not receive your bonus. Explain to the help desk what happened and provide information on your account and the deposit method. Most cases where people are missing their bonuses come from people forgetting to complete their deposits as necessary.

Continue reading here:

What Site Offers the Best Online Poker Bonus in 2020? - PokerNews.com

OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. (WXYZ) A 60-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the death of a well-known professional poker player in Oakland County.

On July 30, detectives from the White Lake Township Police Department secured search warrants regarding Susie Zhao's homicide investigation. The detectives and FBI task force began searching for a suspect vehicle named in one of the search warrants.

The next day around 9 a.m., investigators were notified by the FBI task force on the location of the suspect vehicle. Police say the vehicle was stopped in the area of I-275 and Michigan Ave. and the search warrants were executed.

A 60-year-old white male resident of Pontiac was taken into custody, according to the White Lake Township Police Department. The complaint will be forwarded to the Oakland Co. Prosecutors office review.

Susie Zhao's body was found badly burned in a parking lot at the corner of Maceday and Cross roads in White Lake Township the morning of July 13.

The 33-year-old was a professional poker player who most recently lived in Los Angeles but came home on June 9. Her mother and step-father live in northern Oakland County.

The investigation is ongoing.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALLFBI or submit tips online to tips.fbi.gov.

Susie Zhao Poster - Hotline Number by WXYZ-TV Channel 7 Detroit on Scribd

Read more:

60-year-old man arrested in connection with Oakland Co. professional poker player's death - WXYZ

Dear Powers That Be,

When the World Series of Poker Online schedule was released this year, I couldnt help but notice that there was only one, single, mixed-game event. One solitary, lonely, Omaha eight-or-better event that was originally, incorrectly listed as its degenerate cousin with a gambling addiction, pot-limit Omaha.

The schedule didnt even have a stud eight-or-better event, and I know you have the software capacity to run it. I live in New Jersey and have seen your Stud tab. There have even been rumors of the occasional stud cash game running on the site. To say I was disappointed about the lack of mixed games is an understatement.

I implore you to reconsider your sentiments towards mix games. Now, I understand that mix games may not have the allure and big prizes as no-limit holdem. I even understand that the clientele may not be desirable. I know the mix game community has its fair share of complainers, but I promise you they mean well. Since you already muted the chat, you wont have to hear them complain anyway.

The whole point of this open letter is to lay out why I think it is a mistake not to give poker players the opportunity to compete in other disciplines outside of big bet games.

But seriously, are you f#%ing kidding me? Only one mix game? Surely you can do better than this, and heres why you should.

Learning More Games Opens Up More Opportunities

At the beginning of my career, my goal was to be able to play whatever the best game in the room was. That meant any game, whether it be $50-$100 no-limit holdem or $400-$800 stud. At the time, I only knew how to play limit holdem. Thats only 20 percent of H.O.R.S.E., let alone any game in the room. I knew I had a long way to go. but I was determined.

Fast forward five years. I learned eight more games and was on my way to being able to accomplish this goal. I was always playing in the best game on the right side of Borgatas poker room, but that side of the room was dedicated to the limit games. I still was unable to play any game.

I started coming in on my days off to play $2-$5 no-limit holdem. I needed experience to learn the game that would one day allow me to play with one of the biggest celebrities on the planet. Fast forward another few years and now its 2018. I was playing on the right side of the room when I heard that Kevin Hart was on his way to play no-limit holdem. I quit my game of $80-$160 OE to secure a seat at $10-$25.

I had to wait. And wait some more. But sure enough, in walked Kevin Hart, along with four security guards. This was it, the moment I had been waiting for. I could without a doubt say that I was playing in the best game in the room.

The game escalated quickly. It started out with blinds of $10-$25, but it wasnt long before half the table had blinds out and we were playing $10-$25-$50-$100.

I wish I could tell you I crushed this session or even that I booked a win, sadly I cannot. While being able to play the best game in the room is making the most positive expected value decisions for your bankroll, it doesnt guarantee youll come out a winner

Mix Games Are Good For Development

I could very easily make the argument that mix games prepare players for the future of poker. Every year a new game comes out that threatens the stronghold no-limit holdem has on poker.

If there is even the slightest chance that players will like the new game, you learn it. I know its tough to remember because the internet wasnt really around back then, but there was a time when limit holdem was the most popular game in poker rooms. Before that, it was stud. You cannot stop poker evolution, you can only grow with it.

Right now, the game of choice is clearly no-limit holdem. Its been like that for nearly two decades. Thanks Moneymaker. Maybe try winning a limit tournament next time. However, there is no reason to believe no-limit holdem will reign supreme forever. At some point, you either learn the new game or watch the game pass you by. Youll still have solitaire though if nobody wants to play no-limit with you.

Each new game expands a players perspective on poker. Even after 15 years of playing professionally, I still find spots Ive never seen. I truly believe that learning these games has allowed me to develop my overall poker strategy into a profitable creative one.

Learning on the fly and being prepared to take on new challenges is a life skill that not many poker games offer.

Mix Games Develop Reliable Poker Instincts

Mix game players are forced to evolve with the game. We are constantly challenged to not only learn new games but learn them faster than everyone else. Kids these days are spoiled by solvers and charts. In some of the newer, more complex games, equities are almost impossible to calculate. I can find a basic no-limit holdem odds calculator with a simple google search. I dare you to find one for badeucy.

As games become more complex games as specialists evolve, players must trust their natural poker instincts. With no answer in the back of the book, poker becomes a battleground for heuristic math and poker intuition.

Playing one game becomes monotonous and players become complacent. No one wants to be that person who used to be good but got passed over by the game. If you play mixed games, fear not this fate.

Mix Games Develop Self Awareness

All players that excel in poker, will do so in at least one variant. The specialists, however, learn that one game and stick with it. They become the best player in the game and they grind out a solid win rate.

Few will ever know how it feels to be out-classed. They study all the different spots in one game and they make sure that their game is solid. They will be very hard to exploit in their game of choice.

Mixed games, on the other hand, can and will humble almost any player. No mix is created equally. If you get a seat at a table that is playing a mix of games, instead of just one, you will sometimes find yourself in a mix that is not your best but is still favorable.

Three other players will have more experience and more volume in 70 percent of the games. The two fun players bring the game to an acceptable level of profitability to play, but still, you will find yourself in gross spots versus the professionals. It is a feeling of humility that is arguably necessary for a player to truly reach their potential.

Mix Games Build Character

Live mix games players are forced to overcome obstacles other players will never face. There is no ladder to move up and hone your skills while building a bankroll. If you want to play bigger, you must either take shots at bigger games or build a bridge between stakes.

To build a bridge between stakes means you must bring players together and form a new limit. Building a bridge between stakes requires networking and hard work. It requires focus and determination. Mix games teach you at an early age that a good personality and some polite manners will get you into the games you want to be in.

There are no micro-stakes for mix games. To be perfectly honest there arent even mid-stakes for mix games. It takes a certain amount of fortitude, character, and just enough gamble to get to the top with that landscape. The players that are able to get to the top had to take huge risks along the way and certainly deserve to be there.

Promoting mix games online can provide another avenue to players who are interested in learning mix games. Online poker allows players to play more hands per hour, thus allowing them to gain experience faster than in a live environment. No-limit holdem has already shown that this path of volume leads to the breeding of new legends every day.

WSOP, please. I fear for the future of poker players. Please consider shifting a minimum amount of focus to mix games. I promise it will be good for both your bottom line and the poker world.

Every renowned poker room has a big limit mixed game. If you are trying to become the premier online poker site that boasts WSOP bracelets and prestige, wouldnt you want to follow the same business model?

Lastly and certainly not least, mix game players have a vicious reputation for being degenerates. No one peels cards harder than a 2-7 triple draw player holding 2-3-4-5 and peeling a three spotter (6-7-8) on the third draw. If you run more online events, we might go off in your casino. Think about it.

Sincerely,

Melissa Burrrrrberry Burr

Melissa Burr is a seasoned high-stakes mix game professional. In her spare time she enjoys the occasional 30-minute craps roll, sports betting, and short reasonable walks on the beach. Find more adventures on her twitter @burrrrrberry.

Read the rest here:

An Open Letter To The WSOP: Why Mixed Games Are Good For Poker Player Development - Poker News - CardPlayer.com

This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others here.

Hugh P. Freyer played seven-card stud in the Bronx with a core group of fellow recovering alcoholics for more than 30 years. The discretion demanded by his day job as a private banker, combined with the self-discipline required by Alcoholics Anonymous, made him more prudent than most of those at the table.

He always had a budget when he played, and he did not play beyond his means, ever, his daughter, Carolyn Freyer-Jones, said.

His prudence, she recalled, extended beyond poker: He had no debt, he paid off any credit cards he used every month, and all of his end-of-life details were paid in advance, by him.

Mr. Freyer was admitted to a Bronx hospital on June 20 for blood pressure problems. He tested negative for the novel coronavirus, as he had a week earlier when he was examined by his own doctor.

But the day before he was scheduled to be released for rehabilitation, Ms. Freyer-Jones said, he tested positive. Nine days later, on July 14, he died at the hospital. It was his 86th birthday. She said the cause was complications of Covid-19.

Hugh Philip Freyer was born on July 14, 1934, in Manhattan, the son of Josephine (Shannon) Freyer, an Irish immigrant who worked as a cleaning person at New York Hospital (now NewYork-Presbyterian), and Hugh Freyer, a window washer who was born in South Africa.

Hugh was raised in the Washington Heights neighborhood and, after graduating from George Washington High School, served in the Army in Korea from 1957 to 1959 as a radio operator. He started working at what is now Citibank in 1959 and attended night classes at New York University, earning a bachelors degree in business in 1967.

He rose from branch manager to corporate vice president, then moved to the New York office of the London-based bank Standard Chartered, where he was a senior vice president until he retired in 2001 at 67.

As a member of Alcoholics Anonymous for more than 50 years, he counseled patients at Roosevelt Hospital (now Mount Sinai West) who had been admitted for drug and alcohol overdoses. He also served on A.A.s board.

He married Gertrude Flexer in 1956. They lived in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. She survives him. In addition to their daughter, he is also survived by their sons, Philip and Paul Freyer; seven grandchildren; and his sister, Kathleen Harmon.

The prudence Mr. Freyer showed at the poker table paid off, his daughter said.

My dad bought every grandchild their first car, she said. Nothing fancy, just good used cars. He made sure in his will that theres money set aside for my daughters first car as well.

Read more:

Hugh Freyer, Poker Player With Discretion of a Banker, Dies at 86 - The New York Times

White Lake Township The mystery over the slaying of a professional poker player in July remains, even as friends and family welcomed news of an arrestin the case.

While preparinga memorial honoring the life of a talented, high-stakes player, they cautiously embraced the news. But they're bracingto learn the truth about the death of Susie Zhao, 33.

This is a horrendous thing that has happened, said Kinga Wierzbicka, a friend since middle school. Its amplified because we have no answers.

Police said Sunday a60-year-old Pontiac man has been arrested in connection with the death of the professional poker player from Waterford Township.

The man was taken into custody about 9 a.m. Friday after his vehicle was stopped near an area freeway, according to White Lake Township police.No charges have been filed and no other details were released.

Susie Zhao(Photo: White Lake Township Police Department)

Zhao had recently returned from Los Angeles to live with family in Waterford Township.

Her body was found at about 8:05 a.m.along the edge ofthe Pontiac Lake Recreation Area,clad in jogging pants and other clothing, lying in a parking area on Maceday Lake and Cross roads in White Lake Township, police reported.

A Michigan Department of Natural Resources worker last checked that area around 11:45 p.m. the night before, said Detective Lt. Chris Hild of the White Lake Township Police Department.

Hild has said her death could be related to her travels on the poker circuit.

For her friends, the loss of someone so lively and with no likely enemiesis difficult to fathom.

I dont think Im ever going to stop thinking about it. Its not something you can let go of, saidMichelle Lagrou, a friend since high school.

Zhaos close social circle is workingto ensure the fun-loving woman who once described herself online as a knowledge seeker/adventurer/Little hippie is not forgotten.

She did not deserve this, said Meredith Rogowski, a longtime friend. This is a horrible tragedy and I hope this doesnt define the life she lived.

Susie Zhao, pictured in 2017.(Photo: Facebook)

Those 33 years, they say, were anything but ordinary.

Immigrating from China as a child, Zhao,known as Susie Q,grew up in Troy and lived not far from Somerset Collection, her friends said.

After middle school, she attended Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills, then Northwestern University in Illinois, Wierzbicka said. According to Zhaos Facebook page, she studied psychology and business.

Gaining friends was easy for someone whose vibrant personality matched the colorful outfits she favored.

She just had a beautiful aura, Wierzbicka said. People loved her. She was just super bubbly. She had one of those personalities you wanted to be around.

Following successful poker sessions as a youth and online gaming in college, Zhao parlayed her playing prowess into a professional career, her friends said.

In time, she moved to the West Coast and graduated to competing in tournaments that earned her more than $150,000 between 2009 and 2017, according to a profile on the World Series of Poker website.

The website for Hendon Mob, touted as the largest live poker database, listed her winnings as more than $222,000,including $73,805 at an event in 2012.

Being able to quickly turn a little money into a big pot of money gave her the freedom to live life how she wanted, and she got a lot of satisfaction dominating in a mostly male profession, Rogowski said.

On a Twitter profile, Zhao described herself as being able to prance like a unicorn in a sea of horses. I proficiently play high stakes poker for a living. Its kinda weird because I'm a girl.

While a deftness at reading people and creative thinking made Zhao a formidable opponent, she inspired loyalty, said Yuval Bronshtein, a professional player who first mether during a competition more than a decade ago. Everybody liked her. Everybody rooted for her.

Clayton Fletcher, a comedian, remembers meeting her during the 2015 World Series of Poker main eventin Las Vegas when they played at the same table.

First prize was something like $8 million, but you wouldn't have known there was that much at stake from the atmosphere of joyful (camaraderie) at our table, he told The Detroit News.

Susie immediately got the party started by introducing herself to all her opponents, making silly jokes, and basically putting us all at ease with her great sense of humor and disarming smile. As a professional comedian, I really appreciated her style and attitude: buoyant and whimsical between hands, but focused and extremely competitive once the cards were dealt.

As Zhao rolled to success, she never lost touch with her Metro Detroit friends whether sending random texts or meeting up when returning to the region for holidays. The year several members of the group turned 30, she invited them to celebrate in Las Vegas,showing her super-generous nature, said Lagrou. She was never too big to care about us.

Zhao with Kinga Wierzbicka, left, in California, 2016.(Photo: Facebook)

On July 12, the last day she was seen alive, Lagrou said Zhao had just returned from a weekend trip up north, near Saginaw, with her and others.

Relatives last saw her at their home around 5:30 p.m., Hild said.

While awaiting results from an autopsy to determine the cause of death, investigators have been examining whether her poker background is related, Hild said. Were also looking into where she was and who she was with locally here in the few days prior to her death.

The FBI has also been investigating, said Special Agent Mara Schneider, public affairs officer for its Detroit office.

Although friends recall Zhao did not divulge some aspects of her life, they doubt she had enemies. I dont know anybody who might be mad at her, Bronshtein said.

Those who joined Zhao for New Years Eve parties and other festivities over the yearssavor their memories while also wrestling with a question about her death: why?

"We just want to know what happened," Lagrou said. Were trying to figure out for our own peace of mind."

Read or Share this story: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/oakland-county/2020/08/02/man-arrested-connection-death-waterford-twp-pro-poker-player/5560428002/

Continued here:

From poker pro to slaying victim: Susie Q's unlikely story - The Detroit News

NBC Sports Chicago recently caught up with six-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu to talk about the type of player he's evolved into and a key moment from the beginning of his career.

Negreanu, who was promoting the subscription streaming service PokerGO, has cashed in 112 WSOP events, earning $14,908,224 in them.

"There's two ways of playing. One is called the Game Theory Optimal approach and the other is Exploitative," Negreanu said over the phone. "So the Game Theory Optimal approach is designed so that if you're playing against the perfect robot, there's one specific play or one way of playing a hand that is correct. And now, when you play exploitatively, you might know that but you go, 'I know this would be correct, but this guy here, he always folds. So I'm going to bluff him. More than I should.'

Related: Why Daniel Negreanu thinks betting 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs is 'huge wildcard'

"So what I learned over the last couple of years is how to incorporate both Game Theory Optimal play and Exploitative because I was purely one-hundred percent Exploitative until the last few years that I learned it was important to have some balance of myself because when you do veer from Game Theory Optimal you do become exploitable yourself and some of the top players are doing that against me."

Negreanu, now forced to play online like many others, is trying to eliminate the tendencies he sometimes displayed earlier in his career.

Related: WSOP's Daniel Negreanu says no questionable algorithm in online poker sites

"I wouldn't describe them as risks, I would say that I've had tendencies that if somebody is paying attention... So for example, as simple as this, when I bet all my chips on the river, I'm not bluffing. If my top opponents know that, now they can start making really big folds and their exploiting a weakness in my lack of balance in the situation because what you want to have, on the river you want people to think like, 'Well, alright... he could be bluffing, he could have it.' When they know specific things about what you'll do in a situation, they can take advantage of you," Negreanu said.

Daniel won the first WSOP event he ever played in, the $2,000 Pot Limit Hold'em event in 1998 when he was 23. As he pulled all the chips in, Negreanu became the youngest player to ever win a WSOP bracelet at the time.

Related: Why Daniel Negreanu thinks Phil Ivey is the best poker player in the world

"I was just happy to be in the money, then I was at the final table and I was like, 'Wow, this is cool.' All of a sudden, I found myself heads up in a form called Pot Limit Hold'em, which I never really played before. ... In the final hand, we both had about even chips and I had ace-queen of hearts and he had the jack-10 of clubs and the flop came queen, jack, four with two clubs and one heart. So I had the top pair, he had the second pair, but he had a four card flush, a three card straight... He had a ton of outs.

"The turn card was a blank, the river was a little black card and I couldn't even see it because I was just so emotionally invested, but I did see some people cheering for me, raising their arms. I was like, 'Alright, that means it's not a club.' And it was the six of spades. I won on the very last hand. An absolute what's called a 'coin flip' situation. The odds of me winning the hand right after the flop were around fifty-fifty."

Related: How WSOP's Daniel Negreanu uses someone's appearance as a tell

PokerGO is showing classic moments from the World Series of Poker every night at 7 p.m. ET.

Read the original post:

Why Negreanu thinks Ivey is the best poker player in the world - Comcast SportsNet Chicago

Facebook researchers have developed a general AI framework called Recursive Belief-based Learning (ReBeL) that they say achieves better-than-human performance in heads-up, no-limit Texas holdem poker while using less domain knowledge than any prior poker AI. They assert that ReBeL is a step toward developing universal techniques for multi-agent interactions in other words, general algorithms that can be deployed in large-scale, multi-agent settings. Potential applications run the gamut from auctions, negotiations, and cybersecurity to self-driving cars and trucks.

Combining reinforcement learning with search at AI model training and test time has led to a number of advances. Reinforcement learning is where agents learn to achieve goals by maximizing rewards, while search is the process of navigating from a start to a goal state. For example, DeepMinds AlphaZero employed reinforcement learning and search to achieve state-of-the-art performance in the board games chess, shogi, and Go. But the combinatorial approach suffers a performance penalty when applied to imperfect-information games like poker (or even rock-paper-scissors), because it makes a number of assumptions that dont hold in these scenarios. The value of any given action depends on the probability that its chosen, and more generally, on the entire play strategy.

The Facebook researchers propose that ReBeL offers a fix. ReBeL builds on work in which the notion of game state is expanded to include the agents belief about what state they might be in, based on common knowledge and the policies of other agents. ReBeL trains two AI models a value network and a policy network for the states through self-play reinforcement learning. It uses both models for search during self-play. The result is a simple, flexible algorithm the researchers claim is capable of defeating top human players at large-scale, two-player imperfect-information games.

At a high level, ReBeL operates on public belief states rather than world states (i.e., the state of a game). Public belief states (PBSs) generalize the notion of state value to imperfect-information games like poker; a PBS is a common-knowledge probability distribution over a finite sequence of possible actions and states, also called a history. (Probability distributions are specialized functions that give the probabilities of occurrence of different possible outcomes.) In perfect-information games, PBSs can be distilled down to histories, which in two-player zero-sum games effectively distill to world states. A PBS in poker is the array of decisions a player could make and their outcomes given a particular hand, a pot, and chips.

Above: Poker chips.

Image Credit: Flickr: Sean Oliver

ReBeL generates a subgame at the start of each game thats identical to the original game, except its rooted at an initial PBS. The algorithm wins it by running iterations of an equilibrium-finding algorithm and using the trained value network to approximate values on every iteration. Through reinforcement learning, the values are discovered and added as training examples for the value network, and the policies in the subgame are optionally added as examples for the policy network. The process then repeats, with the PBS becoming the new subgame root until accuracy reaches a certain threshold.

In experiments, the researchers benchmarked ReBeL on games of heads-up no-limit Texas holdem poker, Liars Dice, and turn endgame holdem, which is a variant of no-limit holdem in which both players check or call for the first two of four betting rounds. The team used up to 128 PCs with eight graphics cards each to generate simulated game data, and they randomized the bet and stack sizes (from 5,000 to 25,000 chips) during training. ReBeL was trained on the full game and had $20,000 to bet against its opponent in endgame holdem.

The researchers report that against Dong Kim, whos ranked as one of the best heads-up poker players in the world, ReBeL played faster than two seconds per hand across 7,500 hands and never needed more than five seconds for a decision. In aggregate, they said it scored 165 (with a standard deviation of 69) thousandths of a big blind (forced bet) per game against humans it played compared with Facebooks previous poker-playing system, Libratus, which maxed out at 147 thousandths.

For fear of enabling cheating, the Facebook team decided against releasing the ReBeL codebase for poker. Instead, they open-sourced their implementation for Liars Dice, which they say is also easier to understand and can be more easily adjusted. We believe it makes the game more suitable as a domain for research, they wrote in the a preprint paper. While AI algorithms already exist that can achieve superhuman performance in poker, these algorithms generally assume that participants have a certain number of chips or use certain bet sizes. Retraining the algorithms to account for arbitrary chip stacks or unanticipated bet sizes requires more computation than is feasible in real time. However, ReBeL can compute a policy for arbitrary stack sizes and arbitrary bet sizes in seconds.

The rest is here:

Facebook develops AI algorithm that learns to play poker on the fly - VentureBeat

Associated Press Published 9:18 a.m. ET Aug. 2, 2020 | Updated 12:30 p.m. ET Aug. 2, 2020

White Lake TownshipA 60-year-old Pontiac man has been arrested in connection with the death of a professional poker player from Waterford Township whose burned body was found last month at an Oakland County park, police said.

The man was taken into custody about 9 a.m. Friday after his vehicle was stopped near an area freeway, according to White Lake Township police.No charges have been filed and no other details were released.

Susie Zhao(Photo: White Lake Township Police Department)

Susie Zhao, 33, known to other players as Susie Q, had returned from Los Angeles to live with family in Oakland County.Although friends recall Zhao did not divulge some aspects of her life, they doubt she had enemies.

I dont think Im ever going to stop thinking about it. Its not something you can let go of, saidMichelle Lagrou, a friend since high school.

Zhaohad winnings of at least $187,441, according to the World Series of Poker website, including $73,805 at an event in 2012.

Her body was found July 13 at the Pontiac Lake Recreation Area in Oakland County., about 40 milesnorthwest of Detroit.

Relatives last saw her at their home around 5:30 p.m., said Detective Lt. Chris Hild of the White Lake Township Police Department.

Her body, clad in jogging pants and other clothing, was found about 8:05 a.m. the next day, lying in a parking area on Maceday Lake and Cross roads in White Lake Township, along the edge of the state Pontiac Lake Recreation Area, police reported.

A Michigan Department of Natural Resources stafferlast checked that area around 11:45 p.m. the night before, Hild said.

Hild has noted that her death could be related to her travels on the poker circuit.

We have to determine whether or not this is a cover-up or this may be some sort of retaliatory incident because of her profession, Hild said last week.

The Detroit News contributed.

Read or Share this story: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/oakland-county/2020/08/02/man-arrested-connection-death-waterford-twp-pro-poker-player/5560428002/

Visit link:

Man arrested in connection with death of Waterford Twp. pro poker player - The Detroit News

There are a few rules that players overlook when they are playing Omaha Holdem. One is the cardinal rule of the game you MUST play two cards from your hand in making your best five card combination. But there are a couple of other axioms that are overlooked also. One of those is, when trying to determine your best hand, it isnt so much as your outs that you must look at, it is the likelihood of improving your hand.

One Pair Isnt Going to Win Often in Omaha

This isnt a news flash for those who play Omaha frequently, but youre not going to win many hands with a singular pair and especially if youre playing any form of Eights or Better. Thus, when you have an A-A-x-x in your hand, you cant get married to those Aces because theyre going to be crushed by the end of the hand. That singular pair of Aces will, to be honest, get you in more trouble than you might think.

Omaha is a game where the object is to always have the potential to draw into a better hand (unless you flop it, of course), which makes double suited, multi-card hands extremely popular. Lets say you have a J-1098 double-suited. Thats a great starting hand, especially if the flop were to come J-10-x. In this example, youve flopped the world with the top two pair, but youve also got the ability to improve with your 98 (remember, you MUST use two cards in Omaha) to a straight and, if the board has two of the same suit that you have, youve also got a four flush, a draw at a flush (not a huge flush, mind you, but a flush draw).

A Lead on the Flop Is Run Down by the River

In Omaha, normally the hand that starts with the lead on the flop is the losing hand by the river. People forget the simple fact that they, in all likelihood, will have to vastly improve that hand to stay in the lead and get married to that flopped two pair or even trips or a set that doesnt improve. It isnt critical to count the outs that you have, but look at how your hand can improve and whether that is going to be good enough for you to win the pot with the board texture and how your opposition is betting.

For example, using the above situation, lets say that flop is J-10-A. That shrinks up your potential 98 significantly as anyone on a K-Q-x-x has flopped Broadway and your potential Jack high straight is already drawing dead. Or lets say the flop is J-105 and your opponent has 55-x-x. Now lets have the turn and river come with two of the same cardlets say it finishes out with two treys. Your two pair, which never improved from the flop, was beaten by a flopped set and (although it wasnt necessary) crushed by a runner-runner full house.

What Do I Look For?

Instead of counting outs, this is the time you must be able to examine at the potential of what your opponents hold. Just because you have hit everything in our example hand, you could be virtually drawing dead from the start. Your hand in Omaha must always have the potential to improve or be so strong from the start that you can withstand action. Then again, this is pokeryou cannot sit around and wait for dominant hands to come along and, it is arguable, in Omaha, they just dont exist. Thats when the skills of the game come into play.

This is one of the things that draws the action players to Omaha. The potential for the lead in the hand to change on each street ensures there is plenty of betting action and plenty for players to take into consideration. While the outs are nice, you must be able to improve and then is that improvement enough? Those are the things to be looking for in Omaha Holdem.

View original post here:

Poker Strategy: In Omaha, Outs Aren't Everything, It's Whether You Improve Enough - Poker News Daily

August 1, 2020, 9:47 PM

2 min read

Police in White Lake Township, Michigan, have arrested a 60-year-old man in connection to the death of a professional poker player.

The body of Susie Zhao was found burned in a parking lot on July 13, police said.

Detectives with the White Lake Township Police Department were notified by the FBI on Friday that they'd located a vehicle belonging to a 60-year-old Pontiac resident wanted in connection to Zhao's death.

The vehicle was stopped in the area of Interstate 275 and Michigan Avenue, and the man, yet to be identified by authorities, was arrested.

Susie Zhao, 33, a professional poker player also known as Susie Q., was found dead on July 23, 2020, in a parking lot in Lake Township, Mich. A 60-year-old man was taken into custody in relation to her murder on July 31.

Susie Zhao, 33, a professional poker player also known as Susie Q., was found dead on July 23, 2020, in a parking lot in Lake Township, Mich. A 60-year-old man was taken into custody in relation to her murder on July 31.

"The complaint will be forwarded to the Oakland County Prosecutors office review," Detective Lt. Christopher Hild said in a statement.

Zhao, 33, was a resident of Waterford Township and recently relocated to California. She was known professional as "Susie Q" and was featured in ESPN World Series Poker events during 2012, 2015 and 2017, according to her online obituary.

A graveside memorial service for Zhao took place on Saturday at White Chapel Memorial Cemetery in Troy, Michigan.

The investigation continues and anyone with information is encouraged to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALLFBI or submit tips at tips.fbi.gov.

Read the rest here:

Police arrest suspect connected to apparent killing of professional poker player Susie Zhao - ABC News

Six-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu has seen everything and everyone at live tables - before the COVID-19 pandemic hit - duringthe course of his career.

NBC Sports Chicago recently caught up with "Kid Poker", who was promoting the streaming service PokerGO, and asked who he thought the best poker player in the world was.

"So for me, it's always going to be Phil Ivey until otherwise stated," Negreanu said over the phone. "When you say 'poker', I think of all poker games. I think of Stud, Omaha, Triple Draw, Short Deck, everything... and Phil Ivey plays them all. There are certainly going to be some players who play just No Limit Hold'em, the most famous game, better than Phil Ivey right now because people have worked really hard on it. But as far as I'm concerned, Phil Ivey is the goat."

Ivey has 10 WSOP bracelets and 59 cashes tohis poker portfolio, which earned him $6,261,200.

PokerGO is showing classic moments from the World Series of Poker every night at 7 p.m. ET.

Why Daniel Negreanu thinks Phil Ivey is the best poker player in the world originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago

See the original post here:

Why Daniel Negreanu Thinks Phil Ivey Is the Best Poker Player in the World - NBC Chicago

OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. (WXYZ) A 60-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the death of a well-known professional poker player in Oakland County.

On July 30, detectives from the White Lake Township Police Department secured search warrants regarding Susie Zhao's homicide investigation. The detectives and FBI task force began searching for a suspect vehicle named in one of the search warrants.

The next day around 9 a.m., investigators were notified by the FBI task force on the location of the suspect vehicle. Police say the vehicle was stopped in the area of I-275 and Michigan Ave. and the search warrants were executed.

A 60-year-old white male resident of Pontiac was taken into custody, according to the White Lake Township Police Department. The complaint will be forwarded to the Oakland Co. Prosecutors office review.

Susie Zhao's body was found badly burned in a parking lot at the corner of Maceday and Cross roads in White Lake Township the morning of July 13.

The 33-year-old was a professional poker player who most recently lived in Los Angeles but came home on June 9. Her mother and step-father live in northern Oakland County.

The investigation is ongoing.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALLFBI or submit tips online to tips.fbi.gov.

Susie Zhao Poster - Hotline Number by WXYZ-TV Channel 7 Detroit on Scribd

Go here to read the rest:

Person in custody in connection with Oakland County professional poker player's death - WXYZ

Progressive knockout tournaments have successfully expanded to all corners of the online poker world, with the format now introduced to the last remaining regional regulated US site, the leading offshore US network, and sweepstakes poker site Global Poker.

Knockout or bounty tournaments split entry fees between two separate prizes: part is set aside for traditional payouts, awarded to players that last the longest; the remainder is put on each players head as a bounty, awarded to whomever knocks them out. The split between these two prize payouts is traditionally 50/50.

A progressive knockout (PKO) tournament makes the bounty portion of the prize pool grow as the tournament progresses by splitting bounties when they are won. A portion is awarded to the player as an instant prize, as before, but a portion is added onto that players own bounty. Again, this split is usually 50/50.

This format has been popular for years, and all major real money online poker operators have offered both KO and PKO tournaments for a while.

However, in the last couple of weeks, the tournament format has extended to smaller regional and niche operations, further establishing the format as one of the most important game types spread online today.

See the rest here:

PKO US: Progressive Knockouts Roll out to Global Poker, WPN and Partypoker NJ - Pokerfuse

Never in a million years would I dream of being in this situation

For 22-year old poker player Ethan Yau, the situation hes referring to is being a newly crowned World Series of Poker gold bracelet winner. In the early hours of Monday morning, Yau topped the 2,502-entry field of WSOP Event #26 ($500 NLHE Grande Finale) to claim the $164,494 first-place prize and his first gold bracelet. And, he did it all while streaming on YouTube to an audience of thousands.

Yau is the first to admit, hes not a tournament pro. For the past couple of years, Yau has been focused on playing live NLHE cash games and doing it all in front of the camera for his rapidly growing YouTube channel, RampagePoker. When his summer plans of flying to Las Vegas for the first time to play at the WSOP were derailed due to the coronoavirus, he pivoted to picking a weekend in New Jersey to get his first taste of the World Series of Poker by playing online.

One of the cool experiences for me is getting to play in a WSOP event for the first time in my life because Im twenty-two, Yau said. I wasnt able to go to Vegas last year and I had planned to go this summer. Unfortunately, that never worked out. So I just had the intention of trying to have a good time and also put out an entertaining stream for the people that watch my videos.

What started out simply as possible content for Yaus 22.5K subscribers, turned into something much more. Sunday night turned into Monday morning and Yau found himself progressing deeper in the tournament. His viewer count began to soar and those viewers were there to cheer him on. And maybe even guide him a little here and there.

The stream played a really huge part in helping me out because, for one, Im obviously new to the game. So Im very unfamiliar with different pros. I knew that the WSOP events were very pro heavy and super tough, he said. So the stream helped me navigate through the tournament where if there was someone that they knew, theyd tell me. Theyd say this player to your right is a huge, crazy prosuper, super good so try to avoid them even though you have position on them.

It was really cool to have that instantaneous feedback to help me navigate through the tournament. If I ever made a mistakeI would know immediately. So just being able to kind of tighten up and play a little bit better, getting that feedback and knowing what mistakes I was making. That was huge to kind of prevent and prolong the eventual punt that I assumed I would make.

Yau has always been open to audience feedback when it comes to poker. Thats part of what makes his WSOP victory extra special, as it was his audience that drove him to compete at higher levels in the first place.

Unlike a generation of online grinders that picked up poker through a family home game or by watching Moneymaker on ESPN, Yau stumbled into the game just two years ago. As a student at UMass, he first gave playing blackjack a serious shot. But after losing a decent chunk of change as a college student a friend helped him switched over to poker.

In the first thirty minutes, I lost five hundred dollars. I lost two buy-ins in basically thirty minutesterrible, he recalled.So I walked away from that experience thinking alright I am going to try and get good at this somehow or never play again.

Yau went to YouTube and searched for ways to get better at poker. He quickly found videos from some of the top poker vloggers like Andrew Neeme, Brad Owen, Johnny Moreno, and Jaman Burton. He absorbed the content and not only learned more about poker by watching them, but he became inspired by them.

I had some experience making YouTube videos before. I used to make gaming videos, he said. So I was familiar with editing videos and posting a schedule. So I thought why not just go for it? Try. Because I needed to find a way to learn anyway.

So Yau followed in the vloggers footsteps and created his first poker video in January 2018.

It was one of my first five sessions playing live ever, he said. I was still unsure of how the button moved.

What he lacked in poker knowledge at the time he more than made up for with drive. He kept an open mind and responded quickly to those who watched what he was creating.

I got a lot of helpful feedback and a lot of real criticism, which I needed. I kept making videos, I kept learning from the YouTube comments. And that was honestly one of the main ways Ive learned, just getting feedback from random people online. And it was very harsh, but it was what I needed to hear to learn. Over time, I have improved along the way.

Not only has he improved as a player along the way but his channel has flourished as well. Over the past two years, Yau has created over 170 poker vlogs some of which have upwards of 80,000 views.

Yaus gold bracelet weekend in New Jersey has come to an end but his YouTube exploits are just beginning. He says he has plans to expand into blackjack and golfing channels while keeping his focus on RampagePoker. When the coast is clear hell be traveling to poker rooms across the U.S., and possibly internationally, to give his vlogs a different flavor.

Yaus journey through poker has been helped by the advice of his audience but as he drives home after winning a WSOP gold bracelet he also has some feedback for those who watched him do it.

If someone like me who has virtually zero experience with tournaments, poker or studying the gameI think if someone like me can win a tournament, anyone can. Seriously, like literally its the dream. If I can do it, anyone can. You just need a little bit of luck on your side and anything can happen.

See the original post:

Ethan Yau Brings Audience Into His World Series of Poker Dream - PocketFives

In a strange turn of events, online poker is as popular as its ever been. But for the same reasons online poker is now thriving, live poker is scrambling to figure out its future. To discuss how the pandemic has affected the entire poker industry, Ivonne Montealegre, Event Director of the Malta Poker Festival, joined our Becky Liggero Fontana for this weeks episode of The Long Con.

To understand the current moment in poker, you need to understand the last 20 years of it. Poker has been the underdog always, Montealegre said. 10 years ago, we had what is called the Chris Moneymaker Effect where this guy, an accountant from the U.S., Chris Moneymaker goes, qualifies to the World Series of Poker for nothing, for a few dollars, and ends up winning the World Series of Poker for millions of dollars. So that brought poker to the mainstream.

But that surge in popularity didnt last forever, and mostly due to legal issues. Black Friday happened, and a lot of the U.S. market was shut down, and poker after that was never the same, she noted. We experienced very low revenues all across, where online casino was much more stronger than poker.

But with everyone locked at home, online rooms are fuller than theyve been in years. Its a second wave, its crazy, because Im playing poker like crazy, everyone I know is playing poker because you can make a living out of live poker.

Being an events director herself, Montealgre has seen first hand how the poker industry is adapting, and how the live sector has had to embrace its online cousin. We had an event in May when Covid-19 was just announced in Italy, she began. We had to completely shut down the event, so we moved it online and its been so much fun, and we did so great. Live poker has had to adapt, thats the thing. It has had to adapt and find online platforms. Now imagine Becky, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) that happens in Vegas, every summer, finished for 2020. So it moved online as well and its still millions of dollars, $25 million on the Main Event still. It makes you wonder, I mean online and live poker shouldnt be divorced.

But for those who love the felt of the table and the shuffling of cards and chips, its just not the same. Of course its not as exciting as live poker, I miss it dearly, but well come back.

Montealegre spoke a bit more about the hurdles the WSOP is facing too, and specifically the lack of access Americans will have to a tournament that is typically based there. Thats crazy because even if youre American, you have to be in New Jersey or Vegas to be able to play it, she noted. So then comes the GGPoker solution, which is GGPoker is a worldwide platform and 54 of a hundred events are going to be played at GGPoker, Im going to play some here in Malta.

Liggero Fontana and Montealegre have seen lots of each other at the recent digital events, but Montealegre wished for a return to what once was. We need to take care of our resources more and enjoy quality time, so these online summits are great. I just to meet when we really can and yeah, I really hope I can have some drinks with you soon.

Watch the whole episode to see Montealegre discuss how poker microinfluencers are growing in status, the hurdles an online WSOP will face, and how operators are protecting players from sharks. And make sure to subscribe to the CalvinAyre.com YouTube channel so you can see every episode of The Long Con as it goes up.

See the original post here:

Ivonne Montealegre discusses how live poker is embracing the online space - CalvinAyre.com

Facebook has developed a new AI system called ReBel which performs even better than its previous poker bot, Pluribus.

Just one year after developing Pluribus (which amassed a total of $1,000 per hour when competing with human pros), Facebooks researchers have created ReBel. This new AI system that learns poker in a new and more efficient way, and has achieved a higher aggregated score than Pluribus.

ReBel AI is based on the common model of reinforcement learning that allows it to learn a game quickly from scratch. What sets this system apart from other AIs is that there are two models in play, one representing value and the other representing value.

This creates something called a public belief state that allows the AI to devise probabilities based on all of the relevant aspects in play. These include the overall pot and the various possible outcomes of the hand. Since ReBel uses a public belief state instead of the specific domain knowledge used by other AI programs, it has a more general application.

The most interesting thing about ReBel isnt that it can likely beat some of the best poker players in the world. Actually, its that this AI that was originally developed to solve the game of poker can have other applications off of the felt in the development of self-driving cars and cybersecurity precautions. In fact, one poker bot was actually hired by the Pentagon to help with military planning!

To test the success of ReBel AI, the system competed against Dong Kim who is widely known as one of the best heads-up players in the poker community. Three other top players played against ReBel, and the results were very interesting over 7500 hands.

ReBel managed to play at a much faster rate that the human players, taking less than five seconds to make its decisions. Over the course of the trials, the AI landed an aggregated score of 165 while Kims score was 136. For reference, Facebooks first poker bot Pluribus score 147.

Facebook has stated that it will not be releasing the Rebel codebase. So online poker players can rest assured that they will never encounter this game-breaking AI bot in the real world.

However, this does lead us to the issue of the more common poker bots that can be found in the online gaming world. Many players have wondered whether hackers will be able to recreate the type of top-level AI in the kind of bots that do make their way into online poker games.

To develop AI like Pluribus and ReBel, extensive research must be done. In fact, Pluribus was created in conjunction with researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. These scholarly researchers have made it their lifes work to develop this type of software while Facebook researchers are likely being paid a very pretty penny to do the same. Its very unlikely that the same people developing online poker bots in their basements have the same time and money to put into this type of project.

Theres also the fact that many online poker sites have entire teams committed to identifying bots. So, even if very sophisticated poker AIs are released into the wild, there are processes in place at most poker rooms to have them shut down right away.

Read the original here:

Facebooks New ReBel Poker AI Scores Higher than Pluribus - Beat The Fish