How Good Is It Possible To Be?

So, a thought that runs through my head every once in a while: how good of a winrate could you sustain? And not with some sort of able-to-see-your-hole-cards ability like on Absolute Poker, but against a table full of opponents that are bad. Maybe not any-two-cards-bad, but at least as bad as what you see in a live casino.

I know what you're expecting - some mathematical treatment of how you would fare against a table full of players who played top 60% hands. If I had the time and a clear idea of how to do this, I would. However, I do not. But I do have a close alternative - the results of my playing Hold'em on my Palm Pilot, something I tend to do while bored in meetings (yes, Lou, that's what I'm doing. Surprise.)

The AI players in this game are bad. Live game bad, and maybe a bit worse. So, how badly have I hit the game up for?

In 10,401 hands, I am up 2890.9 BB for a winrate of 27.8 BB/100. When I first started writing this article a few weeks ago, I was actually above 30 BB/100, so I am evidently on some sort of downswing. :-)

I (unfortunately) do not have stats that will allow me to calculate VPIP, W$SD, etc. but the adjustments I make for this game that actually carry over to live play are:

1) Open WAY up in late position. I would imagine I'm playing 35-40% of my hands in the cutoff and on the button. This is partially a no brainer, and partially because of the fact that the c/r was not programmed into the AI at all - if the computer checks to you and you bet, the worst you will be faced with is a call. Lesson - against bad, non-tricky opponents you can play a lot of hands with position.

2) Make a ton of river valuebets. When checked to on the river, it is amazing the number of hands you can valuebet if you do not fear a c/r. Again, the lesson is against non-tricky opponents, you can valuebet a lot thinner on the river than you might otherwise think you can.

Now, let me dream that I could run at 30 BB/100 double-tabling $3/$6 at PlayersOnly, thus making somewhere in the neighborhood of $180/hr......