HH converters

de-coder · #1 02-04-07, 05:24 PM

There are 2 main reasons why I don't use HH converters.

1) I don't really like the output - I prefer the unconverted version
2) I don't like providing people free information on how I play (present company excluded). I've looked at a couple of these tools online and have yet to see a disclaimer against data mining the information. These tools must provide the hosters with a wealth of free info on thousands of players.

If there is a tool we can find that addresses these issues I'd be happy to use it. I can also build one if I need to as long as I can find some output format that makes sense to me.

What kind of output do you guys like? What would you like to see if the sky was the limit?

Boobie Lover · #2 02-04-07, 05:29 PM

Your reason for #2 is retarded. There are many, many easier ways to datamine players than the person submitting only difficult or amusing hands that he played.

The main reason I prefer hand history converters is that it makes it far easier to determine the size of the pot. Although, I do find them easier to read also.

ashmc2 · #3 02-04-07, 06:39 PM

OK, I just can't take it anymore Wes, what's up with all the Fabio shit? The Ron Jeremy pic was tits, but this is just wrong. Horribly wrong. You have probably disclosed this already in another sick and twisted thread, yet I must have missed it. Hook a brotha up.

Boobie Lover · #4 02-04-07, 06:43 PM

Talking Poker · #5 02-05-07, 10:48 AM

I agree that Reason #2 is ridiculous.

That said, I'd be interested in adding a custom HH converter to this site - something that we could all agree on, so all hands posted follow a standard format. I don't usually love converted hands myself, but the addition of the pot size calculation is very nice.

Would love to see what you can come up with decoder. For now, I'd say to try to get the output to be close to (but I'd DEFINITELY like to see the stack sizes listed at the top, as well), and then we can tweak it from there.

melioris · #6 02-05-07, 11:32 AM

Just some ideas for the converter. I don’t know if these are even good ideas, but whatever.

Under the Bold Street heading (FLOP), each action has own line

Currently stack size listed in () after each player’s name on each street?

An example is below.

Turn: 6 ($82, 2 players)
Hero checks,
CO (stack at this time) bets $50,
Hero (stack at this time)calls.

ChipFish · #7 02-05-07, 11:47 AM

Isn't it a good thing to have to figure out the pot for yourself?

Let's see.
Guy opened for 10 in a 1/2 NLgame
2 callers
SB folds
BB calls

Flop
guy bets 30
1 caller

How much is in the pot?
Geeze it's not rocket science.
Here's a tip, you don't have to be correct to the penny. rounding is ok too.

I'd like to see some of you guys playing live.... Ummmmm, ahhh, Crap. Forget it I fold.

Talking Poker · #8 02-05-07, 12:34 PM

You're talking about simple addition. I'm pretty sure we are all capable of it without further "practice." Why not just list the pot size so people don't have to waste time adding and can focus on the hand analysis instead?

de-coder · #9 02-05-07, 06:21 PM

People at work call me the security wing-nut, but hey, it's my job... I still think it's not a bad source for free datamining, but whatever...

If we can agree on a nice output format I'll see what I can do. It'll take a while cause my regular gig is kindof crazy right now, but I'll work on it.

TP - Would you like this as a plugin for vBulletin or a stand alone script?

Talking Poker · #10 02-05-07, 06:35 PM

I think a stand alone script would be the way to go.

As for this being a good tool for datamining, do you really think the couple dozen hands or so per day that people enter into it would be more worthwhile than opening up 16 tables at once (per computer) and datamining 1600 hands PER HOUR??? Come on.

Regardless, I'd love to see what you can come up with... If you want to see the format I'd like to see, I can grab a full HH and reformat it how I think would be best.

de-coder · #11 02-05-07, 06:48 PM

If you can get me HH files from the various sites you want to support (I think some sites use different formats and I only play at a couple of places...) and an output format that will get me started.

What would you like to call each position? I see things like MP21 and stuff for full ring games - there must be a better way.

Talking Poker · #12 02-05-07, 07:05 PM

I'll draw up some basic "specs" for you later tonight (and hopefully people will give a lot more inpot into this thread about EXACTLY what they would like to see), but for the positions, I'm thinking:

6 max:
SB
BB
UTG
MP
CO
Button

For full games, we would add:
UTG+1 (between UTG and MP)

and then either convert MP to:
MP1
MP2
MP3

or even add in:
CO-1 instead of MP3. Something like that.

Thoughts? Anyone? Anyone?

Talking Poker · #13 02-05-07, 07:07 PM

Also, I'd be perfectly happy is this started off simple and we expand on it with future revisions (I'm a fairly smart guy and might even be able to do a lot of that myself). But to start, I'd like to see support for:
1. Full Tilt
2. Poker Stars

-Both cash games and tourneys.

That's probably 90% of the hands people post here anyway, these days, but we could add in other sites down the road...

Nikita · #14 02-05-07, 07:39 PM

Ultimate Bet would probably be a good idea. I've seen a few hands posted from there recently, and I play there a bit.

PShabi · #15 02-05-07, 11:55 PM

Why recreate the wheel?

I use for Full Tilt.

works for most others.

I'm sure there are a few others that people like.

Talking Poker · #16 02-05-07, 11:55 PM

Definitely. Those are BY FAR the worst to read unconverted, IMO.

Talking Poker · #17 02-08-07, 12:46 PM

Any progress with this, de-coder?

de-coder · #18 02-08-07, 02:39 PM

I've pulled 2 all-nighters in the past week, so I haven't had a lot of time. I did check the spec on the server so I'm ok on that front. I also have a rough functional design for it (which is really my first step) and I've built a bit of testing code.

I still need a really good idea of what we want the output to look like, but I'm designing the app to separate the HH from the output.

I'll build converters for whatever site we want that will convert the file to standard xml and then I'll run the xml through a stylesheet. That will enable me to add or change a particular sites conversion without changing the output at all. It will also allow me to generate standard output for each site and if we make a design change to the output it will automatically affect all sites. It also means that I'll be able to plug new sites into the converter easily, without having to worry about design.

It would be helpful if people could post HH files for a site and type of game they'd like converted (I only have stars and party myself and those are limited to tourney's at stars and full ring games at party).

Talking Poker · #19 02-08-07, 04:00 PM

There are loads - and loads and loads and loads - of HHs in thew "How Should I have Played This?" section. That should be more than enough to keep you busy for a while.

I'll try to come up with a pretty output format for you soon (suggestions are welcome), but it sounds like that will be the last step and should be easy to change once you have everything else functional.

Thanks for this, btw.

de-coder · #20 02-08-07, 04:04 PM

DUH... I am really very tired today...

you're welcome.

de-coder · #21 02-12-07, 10:36 PM

just a quick update.

I've designed the xml document and dtd and had a chance to build some poc code and the results are good.

I've got the methods I need and some of the functions built. I should have some beta code for handling pokerstars files sometime this week (I hope). Once that's done I'll work on whatever site is in most demand.

Talking Poker · #22 02-13-07, 01:07 AM

Sweet. I'm looking forward to this.

What will you use to code the front end of this? Well, not so much the FRONT end, but I guess I mean the back end part that formats the results once you've captured all the data from the hand.

de-coder · #23 02-13-07, 07:34 AM

it'll all be php. The xml will be parsed by xsl on the back end so the user will only see the result document.

I still need to do a little work in figuring out what the output for the forum needs to look like, but I'll do that at the end.

The beta code won't generate the prettiest output, but just the gist so I can see if I have bugs in the translation. I'm really hoping to have something you can look at by the end of the week.

Talking Poker · #24 02-14-07, 08:57 PM

This is definitely not necessary, but might be cool long term. See this Hand Converter that bunny linked to in :

While I don't love the converter itself, I do like how it stores all hands in a database and gives a linking URL for them, etc. I suppose people could just link to the thread they make after doing their conversion, but this is kinda nice too.

Just a thought.