Drawing Dead The Highs & Lows Of Online Poker

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Drawing Dead The Highs And Lows Of Online Poker
Drawing Dead: The Highs & Lows Of Online Poker

In the new documentary “Drawing Dead: The Highs & Lows of Online Poker,” which is scheduled to make its debut on DirecTV Thursday night, first time filmmaker Mike Weeks looks to shine a light on the underside of the online poker boom. 1) High draw poker. 2) The point during the playing of a hand at which active players discard the cards they don't want and receive new ones. 'You must bet or fold before the draw.'

When Chris Moneymaker took the title of World Series of Poker Main Event Champion back in 2003, the modern era of poker began. Affectionately called the “Moneymaker Effect” by players and the poker industry alike, the sight of an everyman winning millions, simply by qualifying online, opened the floodgates for hundreds of thousands to try their hand at not just poker, but online poker.

As the television commercials from online sites bombard the public with tales of making it rich, “Drawing Dead” presents itself as the reality for many of those who take their shot and miss.

The film follows the poker trajectory of two subjects. The first is well known Team Online PokerStars Pro Dusty “Leatherass” Schmidt, a one time aspiring pro golfer sidelined early in his career by a heart attack. Schmidt turned to online poker as a way to pass the time at the suggestion of a friend and discovered he was good enough to climb the ranks and end up a millionaire.

We also follow Michael Korpi Jr., honor student and athlete who finds himself unable to control himself when it comes to playing online. He steals from friends, gets kicked out of school and watches his 4.0 GPA disintegrate to a 1.6, all while looking to hit big scores online and subsequently dusting it off in a matter of days.

While it may seem like “Drawing Dead” is going to be a balanced look at both extremes of online poker, this is a documentary with an agenda. With a distinct focus on problem gambling and exploitation by online sites, “Drawing Dead” casts a heavy-handed, dark cloud on the online poker industry.

The film does quite a few of things right, from the retelling of the history of the WSOP Main Event to the breakdown of Black Friday to interviews with experts about pathological gambling, there are plenty of interesting facts to be learned about poker and its link to problem gaming. The tale of Korpi Jr.'s trek from Seattle to Boston, by foot, is interesting and he is an affable character who you hope gets the help he needs to move on. But unfortunately, it is not enough to overcome the extremely biased viewpoint of the film which turns this from a documentary to a lecture.

Director Mike Weeks does some nice things in the movie—in particular animations throughout are adeptly used to help illustrate points—but he also narrates the film. He makes a number of claims and often interjects his opinion, essentially endowing himself as an expert, never really revealing his education on the subject save that he was once a fan of online poker.

His choice of words, for example as he calls Chris Moneymaker “chubby” and a “nobody,” drip with distain for the industry. His claim that “Most online poker players are engaged in some form of cheating” goes unproven except by his own admission that he was in fact a colluder and a cheater when he played. The story, and facts, are told through Weeks’ voice and his personal filter as opposed to letting experts do most of the talking for this film.

There were plenty of interviews in the film, which are the highlights. ESPN analyst Lon McEachern, WSOP Main Event champ Jaime Gold, Problem Gambling psychologist Dr. Henry Lesieu and Neurologist Dr. David Linden were just a few of the conversations which provides the bright points to the film. In between them though, as the stock footage rolled, it is Weeks who bridges the gaps in story and facts and, like a lover spurned, one sensed he is unable to contain his distaste for his former game of choice.

If you don’t know anything about online poker prior to watching this film, you would likely be swayed into wanting to keep online poker offline. If you are an online player or in the industry you would likely find the film to be closer to a morality play than a documentary.

In the end, the film would have been better served to have had experts, on both sides, do the talking both on problem gambling and the positives of online poker. Like online poker itself, “Drawing Dead” should be enjoyed with moderation.

The film is also be available for viewing and purchasedirect from the filmmakers website.

Here is the online trailer for “Drawing Dead – The Highs And Lows Of Online Poker”

A poker player is drawing if they have a hand that is incomplete and needs further cards to become valuable. The hand itself is called a draw or drawing hand. For example, in seven-card stud, if four of a player's first five cards are all spades, but the hand is otherwise weak, they are drawing to a flush. In contrast, a made hand already has value and does not necessarily need to draw to win. A made starting hand with no help can lose to an inferior starting hand with a favorable draw. If an opponent has a made hand that will beat the player's draw, then the player is drawing dead; even if they make their desired hand, they will lose. Not only draws benefit from additional cards; many made hands can be improved by catching an out — and may have to in order to win.

2Types of draws

Outs[edit]

An unseen card that would improve a drawing hand to a likely winner is an out. Playing a drawing hand has a positive expectation if the probability of catching an out is greater than the pot odds offered by the pot.

The probability ${displaystyle P_{1}}$ of catching an out with one card to come is:

{displaystyle P_{1}={frac {mathrm {outs} }{mathrm {unseen} ,mathrm {cards} }}}

The probability ${displaystyle P_{2}}$ of catching at least one out with two cards to come is:

{displaystyle P_{2}=1-{frac {mathrm {non} ,mathrm {outs} }{mathrm {unseen} ,mathrm {cards} }}times {frac {mathrm {non} ,mathrm {outs} -1}{mathrm {unseen} ,mathrm {cards} -1}}}

{displaystyle mathrm {non} ,mathrm {outs} ={mathrm {unseen} ,mathrm {cards} }-mathrm {outs} }

Outs	One Card %	Two Card %	One Card Odds	Two Card Odds	Draw Type
1	2%	4%	46	23	Backdoor Straight or Flush (Requires two cards)
2	4%	8%	22	12	Pocket Pair to Set
3	7%	13%	14	7	One Overcard
4	9%	17%	10	5	Inside Straight / Two Pair to Full House
5	11%	20%	8	4	One Pair to Two Pair or Set
6	13%	24%	6.7	3.2	No Pair to Pair / Two Overcards
7	15%	28%	5.6	2.6	Set to Full House or Quads
8	17%	32%	4.7	2.2	Open Straight
9	19%	35%	4.1	1.9	Flush
10	22%	38%	3.6	1.6	Inside Straight & Two Overcards
11	24%	42%	3.2	1.4	Open Straight & One Overcard
12	26%	45%	2.8	1.2	Flush & Inside Straight / Flush & One Overcard
13	28%	48%	2.5	1.1
14	30%	51%	2.3	0.95
15	33%	54%	2.1	0.85	Flush & Open Straight / Flush & Two Overcards
16	34%	57%	1.9	0.75
17	37%	60%	1.7	0.66

A dead out is a card that would normally be considered an out for a particular drawing hand, but should be excluded when calculating the probability of catching an out. Outs can be dead for two reasons:

A dead out may work to improve an opponent's hand to a superior hand. For example, if Ted has a spade flush draw and Alice has an outside straight draw, any spades that complete Alice's straight are dead outs because they would also give Ted a flush.
A dead out may have already been seen. In some game variations such as stud poker, some of the cards held by each player are seen by all players.

Types of draws[edit]

Flush draw[edit]

A flush draw, or four flush, is a hand with four cards of the same suit that may improve to a flush. For example, K♣ 9♣ 8♣ 5♣ x. A flush draw has nine outs (thirteen cards of the suit less the four already in the hand). If you have a flush draw in Hold'em, the probability to flush the hand in the end is 34.97 percent if there are two more cards to come, and 19.56 percent (9 live cards divided by 46 unseen cards) if there is only one more card to come.

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Outside straight draw[edit]

An outside straight draw, also called up and down, double-ended straight draw or open-end(ed) straight draw, is a hand with four of the five needed cards in sequence (and could be completed on either end) that may improve to a straight. For example, x-9-8-7-6-x. An outside straight draw has eight outs (four cards to complete the top of the straight and four cards to complete the bottom of the straight). Straight draws including an ace are not outside straight draws, because the straight can only be completed on one end (has four outs).

Inside straight draw[edit]

An inside straight draw, or gutshot draw or belly buster draw, is a hand with four of the five cards needed for a straight, but missing one in the middle. For example, 9-x-7-6-5. An inside straight draw has four outs (four cards to fill the missing internal rank). Because straight draws including an ace only have four outs, they are also considered inside straight draws. For example, A-K-Q-J-x or A-2-3-4-x. The probability of catching an out for an inside straight draw is half that of catching an out for an outside straight draw.

Double inside straight draw[edit]

A double inside straight draw, or double gutshot draw or double belly buster draw can occur when either of two ranks will make a straight, but both are 'inside' draws. For example in 11-card games, 9-x-7-6-5-x-3, or 9-8-x-6-5-x-3-2, or in Texas Hold'em when holding 9-J hole cards on a 7-10-K flop. The probability of catching an out for a double inside straight draw is the same as for an outside straight draw.

Drawing Dead The Highs And Lows Of Online Poker

Other draws[edit]

Sometimes a made hand needs to draw to a better hand. For example, if a player has two pair or three of a kind, but an opponent has a straight or flush, to win the player must draw an out to improve to a full house (or four of a kind). There are a multitude of potential situations where one hand needs to improve to beat another, but the expected value of most drawing plays can be calculated by counting outs, computing the probability of winning, and comparing the probability of winning to the pot odds.

Backdoor draw[edit]

A backdoor draw, or runner-runner draw, is a drawing hand that needs to catch two outs to win. For example, a hand with three cards of the same suit has a backdoor flush draw because it needs two more cards of the suit. The probability ${displaystyle P_{rr}}$ of catching two outs with two cards to come is:

{displaystyle P_{rr}={frac {mathrm {outs} }{mathrm {unseen} ,mathrm {cards} }}times {frac {mathrm {outs} -1}{mathrm {unseen} ,mathrm {cards} -1}}}

For example, if after the flop in Texas hold 'em, a player has a backdoor flush draw (e.g., three spades), the probability of catching two outs on the turn and river is (10 ÷ 47) × (9 ÷ 46) = 4.16 percent. Backdoor draws are generally unlikely; with 43 unseen cards, it is equally likely to catch two out of seven outs as to catch one out of one. A backdoor outside straight draw (such as J-10-9) is equally likely as a backdoor flush, but any other 3-card straight combination isn't worth even one out.