Grade the September Magazine
 

The more honest feedback I get about the Internet Magazine, the better a job I will do as editor and the better future Magazines will be. So, I'd like to hear all positive and negative comments about the September issue.


I like breaking down the September issue like this:

Strategy Articles
Scoop Outs Compared to Other Outs in Omaha-8
Is it Getting Bubbly in Here?
A Critical Look at the Stop 'n' Go

General Poker
Bankroll Requirements for the Coinflip Game

Poker and Other Fields
Insights from Behavioral Game Theory: Manipulating Opponents
Poker and Finance Part II

Poker Journalism
30 Questions with Daniel Negreanu
A Few More Reviews
The Dying Days of Las Vegas 1-5 Stud

Non-poker Gambling
Betting NFL Regular Season Win Totals
Fantasy Football: Strategic Principles of Drafting

Classic Article
Modern Poker


For me, the primary strengths of the September issue were Tysen Streib's article "Is It Getting Bubbly In Here?" (which may cause a revision of HOH based on his criticism)and Frank Jerome's article "Scoop Outs Compared to Other Outs in Omaha-8". Both of these were great strategy articles.

Mason really liked both Jay McCauley's "Insights from Behavioral Game Theory: Manipulating Opponents" and William Jockusch's "Bankroll Requirements for the Coinflip Game".

I think the biggest weakness of this issue is that only three of the twelve articles are strategy articles and not one of them was for hold 'em cash games. I'd like to see at least half the articles focused on strategy. Without reaching that mark, I can't give the Magazine too high a grade.

My grade: B-

Re: Grade the September Magazine
 

I'll have to give 'em all a full read before grading, but this poll is a great idea Dy.

Some quick thoughts- Tysen's stuff is primo, as I expected. The behavorial GT article looks intruiging. The bankroll article is meh, only because this stuff has been beaten to death, but I suppose those who aren't familiar may find it interesting.

Keep it up.

Re: Grade the September Magazine
 

I graded this a "B," and then went back and read the non-strategy articles. Now I'd give it a "C."

I really liked the O8 (this had to have been written by Buzz) and bubble articles that you mentioned. I thought your article on stud was interesting, and Malmuth's book reviews are always worth reading. If I was interested in football betting I'm sure I would have found those articles helpful, but I'm not interested.

In the future I would love to see more omaha 8 articles, as there isn't a whole lot of information out on that game as the two good books on the topic are quite short. I would also like to see some discussion of some of the less well known games that have virtually nothing written on them like PLO8, Badugi, etc. Definitely more strategy articles on the whole.

As for criticisms, I think some of the pseueo-strategy articles were pretty weak. I am quite familiar with the workings of the ultimatum game, but I think equating that with getting calls at the poker table was a major stretch. I'm also not sure the magazine needs multi-part series on bankroll management. This information is already out there, and I've never seen it put in more complicated terms. That's enough complaining from me for the day, but in the future I think it would help the magazine to replace these sorts of articles with strategy articles.

Good luck with the magazine...

Re: Grade the September Magazine
 

Not finished reading, so no grade yet. The articles I've read seem great, but I'll be subtracting half a grade for minor but annoying forma9¨8§4§Tªng issues.

Re: Grade the September Magazine
 

[ QUOTE ]
The bankroll article is meh, only because this stuff has been beaten to death, but I suppose those who aren't familiar may find it interesting.

[/ QUOTE ]

The obituary hasn't been written yet.

Judging from the frequent threads and the crummy replies on this topic, there are many not familiar with this topic. Of course, those people probably won't read these articles, but whatever.

I think this article is extremely well written. I look forward to the remaining articles and hope the author continues to contribute.

Re: Grade the September Magazine
 

I gave it a B. Good content but a bit short on actual play. I liked Mason's 10 year old article on poker. That really brought a smile. Yours was a good article too and I thought it worked well with Mason's.

For the future I'd like to read some articles from players who enter tournaments and their over all experience there, including non tournament time. I'm not interested in reading about the hands, just the overall experience and some of the behind the scenes stuff.

Speaking of behind the scenes, that would make an interesting article. How about getting a Casino manager or Floor to write something up about how poker rooms are organized and run and what they think of different types of players?

Good job on this magazine.

Re: Grade the September Magazine
 

I gave it a B, which I think is solid without being exceptional. I don't think there should be 2 sports betting or tourney strategy articles in that same issue, in order to have a little more balance. Even though I don't play O8 but only PLO & NL, I thought that was a very good piece of strategic analysis. The game theory articles are always good. All 3 of the journalism articles including yours were good. In fact since you labled Mason's article a "classic" articles, I think you might consider having that be a regular feature with articles not just from the 2+2 writers, but also previous articles in the magazine no longer availabe for which people make requests later if the author is willing to have it put up again. So overall good first effort in editing.

I realize having made that comment about there being 2 tourney and 2 sports betting articles, topics which I admit don't personally interest me, that you are dependant on what is submitted to you. But I would encourage you to try to "commission" some articles like magazines often do by asking some of the best posters in the various forums to write about either a topic of their choosing or maybe some topics that have been requested (There could be ongoing threads here for posters to make their requests either of specific posters or for various narrow enough topics).

Also, even though they would hold little interest for me, I can tell from browsing various forums over time including ones about forms of poker I don't play, that there is a huge interest in player stories, i.e. how various players both tourney and cash game, make their livings online, how they built and hold onto their rolls, what their playing day is like, what they do to better themselves and the like. Kind of like your own 5 years in Vegas threads and similar threads by other posters. So maybe there could be a semi-regular article in the category "making a living playing poker online" or something like that.

Re: Grade the September Magazine
 

Add me to the choir wanting more poker play articles, especially a balance of games and structures. Is limit hold'em officially dead?

Quite a few formatting problems, such as saying "x2" meaning "x squared", and ": spade :" for "[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]".

Scoop Outs started out with some fallacious math, so I just skimmed the rest of it. Nothing that isn't obvious.

Getting Bubbly and Bankroll Requirements were articles beating a dead horse.

Stop 'n' Go is tired too. But things like this should have big warning signs about how narrow their application is, so the article is reasonable to have. Another example would be raising to drive out opposition when you are sure you are behind to a made hand.

I don't like the Behavioral Game Theory articles, but this one is a little better.

Poker and Finance has nothing in it.

30 Questions was meh. This seems more appropriate to a glossy print mag. It's not like any of the interviewees have ever said anything deep for these pieces.

Book Reviews are fine. I like that there is an explanation of why a book gets a good review, so I can ignore it if it doesn't apply to me.

The 1-5 stud and Modern Poker articles are good material to lend variety.

The two non-poker gambling articles are good to have as well. Yao really puts a nice effort into each sports betting article.

Re: Grade the September Magazine
 

I really like the Modern Poker article. I've always been a fan of Mason's essays and wouldn't mind seeing more.

Re: Grade the September Magazine
 

i gave it a c+, mostly due to the fact that what i thought was a great article (the scooping outs in omaha piece) proves to be mathematically flawed, there's nothing here for cash games, and "poker journalism" is not interesting to me as a category.

the poker/investments piece is underdeveloped and it's impossible for this layman to figure out how to apply the concepts the author describes. the negreanu interview was rife with typos.