Today I received an email from PTR saying they were giving away 10,000 free hand histories with no strings attached, no credit card needed, etc.

Which wound up being kinda true; no credit card or commitment of any kind was required but I was only able to figure out how to get 2,000, not 10k.

So if you received this offer and really don't need or want those hand histories, consider donating the hand histories to SoulRead, a hand reading trainer tool, currently in development.

The hands I picked were Full Tilt, No Limit, 7-10 players, 25NL.

If anyone would be willing to grab HH's for Full Tilt, No Limit, 6-max or 7-10 players, any stakes 10NL through perhaps 100NL, I would be incredibly appreciative. I'd be happy to add you as a mention on the site when the tool goes beta. Obviously not worth a hill of beans but hey, bits are free and you get to see your name listed as contributing to the effort.

If interested, pls PM me, I'll send my email address and you can send them my way.

THANKS MUCH IN ADVANCE!!!

I got that offer, hadn't really looked at it TBH.

I just downloaded 2000 10NL 6max HHs for you.

PM your mail address & I'll send them to you.

I have PTR marked as spam.

lol +1

Thanks for helping out AlienSpaceBat!!

not had this

Tbh its unethical both them selling hh's and you accepting the offer. I hope that you get snap doomswitched

A little incentive, maybe monetary would work better than mentioning my name somewhere.

Unfortunately the software is free so there's no money to hand out. Fortunately, with only a few donations I'm flush.

Don't be obtuse. If one has an objection to buying and/or selling hand histories, it's because it provides an unfair advantage for one person, the buyer, by having direct information on another player's style and habits to which they would not otherwise be entitled.

These hand histories are being used with obfuscated names, so no inference about any player is even possible, and being used in a program that will be openly available to all.

Please think before you spout boilerplate.

I also had this, and you're right, I had no intention of using it! I'm not massively anti PTR or anything, but I do think it's bad for the games, and kinda would rather it wasn't there I suppose. I wasn't gonna take advantage of the offer, sort of out of principal. Maybe I'm a sucker

But if they're going to be put to good use, then maybe I will take them, if I get round to doing it. I'll post back here if I remember to do it.

If this is true, then your use of these hand histories seems entirely above board, and you are the exception. Unfortunately it puts you between a rock and a hard place, because the buying and selling of hand histories is, in general, unethical.

I'm confused. How can I bet in a difficult spot if it's self-evident that my use is ethical?

I would imagine that "unethical" consists of three elements; action, intent and harm.

Suppose I leave a restaurant without paying. I've done this precisely once, I got home, realized I had more money in my wallet than I could possibly have if I'd paid the bill, called them, they confirmed that I left $20 (not enough to cover the bill), I returned and paid.

We have an action (me leaving without paying), harm (restaurant is out the food they gave me) but no intent. Therefore my action isn't unethical. If I realize the mistake and don't call, the equation is completed and then my action would, in fact, be unethical.

If one does not have an action plus an intent plus harm, the thing cannot be considered unethical.

So I guess my question would be, "who's harmed?"

Saying that I'm in a difficult spot because the thing is, "in general," unethical, just isn't cogent. That's like saying:

• It's unethical to steal.
• You stole an epipen from the drugstore because someone outside was going into shock from a bee sting and there wasn't time to pay for it
• So you're in a difficult spot because generally, stealing is unethical.

No I'm not.

Sorry for beating a dead horse here, I just consider myself to be an ethics nit and so applying the general case to a situation for which it does not apply, and the implication that I'm tainted by it, kinda irritates me.

nice post...

can have mine... you have dropbox or anything?

balls, jus realised the email is on my works email wghich i can't access at night... but jus pm us tomorrow and i'll email myself the email and hook you up...

any particular stakes you would like?

PM'ing you now SI-KICK. Thanks for the help!!

No haven't used it, because PTR is on Stars and FT's blacklist and don't want to risk to get banned.

I thought it was prohibited during play.Pokertableratings is listed as prohibited while playing.http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/pl/prohibited_programs.php
On the other hand shared hand history databases are not permited at all. It is confusing,anyone knows what's the deal?

You are correct on both accounts.

You are prohibited from using PTR in any way, shape, or form while playing. You are free to use it while Not playing for anything other than downloading hand histories. There is no real way, however, for them to know whether you are using downloaded hand histories...unless you publicly brag about it (Brian Hastings). I personally think that their player histories are crap and prefer to just use the ones that I gather during play.


In short, only use PTR when you have both FTP and Stars closed.

Thanks a lot!

I've never understood what people think they gain by looking up players on PTR.

pm sent

Seems to be mainly used for fish-berating purposes AFAIK. Which has got to be the most -EV strategy ever.

I lookup some of the so called 'pros' to see how they are doing...just for fun. It could also be used as a tool when selecting a coach. You wouldn't want someone who is constantly getting raped at a certain limit coaching you at that limit.