January is still terrible

I've been neglecting the blog because I don't want to complain, but January continues to be a thorn in my side. The registration problems I blogged about last time were only the beginning of a much more annoying problem. iPoker, my preferred poker network, has been undergoing a painful update process that has made it very difficult to get on the grind.

I figured out a workaround to the registration problem and was able to put in a solid 4-5 days. However on the 19th the client forced a major update that broke all of the modding programs. Those of you who don't play on iPoker, or play online poker period will probably have a hard time understanding the significance of this. But to put it candidly iPoker is an extremely ugly platform and the only way to facilitate mass multi-tabling is to completely change the way the client displays information.

Because iPoker uses a proprietary format for images and text this isn't a simple matter of swapping files around. In fact the problem is so widely recognized, and the ugliness of the client so profound, that there is enough demand to sustain the development of three different commercial applications (two of which I own) whose sole purpose is to make the appearance of the tables more friendly to iPoker customers (ipskinner, minimaxmod, and iBolide).

On top of this the commercial iPoker betpot application is also broken. A betpot program makes it easier to execute decisions when you're playing a lot of tables at the same time (I typically play between 12-20 tables). For example, instead of having to click the fold button I can simply right-click anywhere on the table. And instead of typing a bet amount into the betting box I can simply scroll the middle mouse wheel to increment my betting up and down. When you have to make 30+ decisions a minute these are the 'conveniences' that become absolutely necessary.

So I've basically spent a lot of the past three days trying to cope with this change in my playing environment. Until this problem is fixed I'm going to be focusing on finishing a staking arrangement on my Stars account that I started last year. Hopefully the iPoker mess gets fixed soon. Also I will be blogging more going forward. Three blogs in 23 days is pretty lazy!