I'm a big fan of color-coding in software and in life. So I was pleasantly surprised when one of the major online poker sites added support for color-coded player notes several years back.

Opponent color-coding is a nifty feature, deeper than it appears. Once you assign a player a color, that color follows the player at the table...

...as well as in the main lobby when you preview a table...

...giving you an at-a-glance summary of the player composition of a given game. Of course, you actually have to go through and assign each opponent a color, but hopefully this is something you're doing as part of a healthy note-taking regimen anyway, right?

Because make no mistake: proper use of color-coding can improve your online poker results dramatically.

That sounds like a platitude, but the bottom line here is that this humble little feature could turn countless losing players into winning players, if only they cared enough to use it, because it addresses what's arguably the single biggest deficiency of the losing poker player at any limit: poor table/game selection.

If the number one rule in real estate is

location, location, location,

then the number one rule in poker has got to be:

table selection, table selection, table selection.

Unfortunately, online poker table selection is tough. It presents an analysis problem (how do I figure out if a given player is good or bad?) as well as a usability problem (how do I do this quickly enough that I can actually make use of the information?) as well as a motivational problem (how do I make myself do this even though it's boring and tedious?). It's not sexy or particularly exciting. It requires patience and the ability to delay gratification. And you can't tell your friends about how "last night I made this totally awesome table selection play".

Nevertheless, table selection is king and all winning players must kneel before him or face the consequences.

Now in theory, it would be great if we could run a full "background check" on each player at the table before taking our seat.

• Run his handle through Google.
• Fetch his results from Sharkscope/OPR/etc.
• Review his PokerTracker data.

In practice, there's no way we can do this in the 30 or 60 seconds we usually have to claim an open seat. Not if we're human, we can't. And even if we could, we probably wouldn't, because after all, who the heck wants to type forty things into fifteen websites just to sit down and play some freaking cards?

This is the problem that color-coding solves.

It provides you with an immediate visual indication of the player makeup at each table, allowing you to identify advantageous tables at a glance.

Done correctly, this can change the way you approach your online poker sessions. At the very least, you'll be selecting your games on an educated basis, rather than from the basis of what a friend of mine likes to call the "Blind Maggot" Table Selection Algorithm:

1. Open poker client 2. Start looking for games in your limit. 3. Choose tables with the highest pot size and % players seeing flop based on a few half-assed, poorly thought-out assumptions. 4. If you're a multi-tabler, omit step 3.

If that sounds like you (as it has so often been me) then read on.

Automated Color Coding

These days, when it comes to color-coding I suggest you flux the geek capacitor with a two-stage automated color-coding process:

1. Using a tool, auto-generate colors for every player in your PokerTracker or Hold'em Manager database, segmenting them into different color ranges based on key statistics. Store these colors such that the poker client knows about them.
2. As you learn more about your opponents, refine the color selections during actual play.

The point is that initially, player color codes should be generated from Poker Tracker (or Hold'em Manager) data. For example, you could use the Auto Rate feature of PokerTracker to establish an initial rating for each player, and use this as the basis for your color-codes. 

Better yet, incorporate Sharkscope, OPR, PTR, and PokerDB data in your color estimation. (The problem with PokerTracker player-ratings is that they're dependent on playing a certain number of hands with each rated player. This will leave a lot of holes in your color coding unless you supplement the PokerTracker results.)

Whatever you decide, you're not attempting to set any records for statistical largesse here; all you want to do is establish a rough idea about whether a player is...

• Good
• Average
• Bad
• Unknown

...and to preload each player's color such that you don't have to do it manually. Color-coding only comes into its own when you have coverage across large numbers of opponents. You want to get to the point where, when you sit down at a table in your preferred limit and game, a majority of the players at the table are already color-coded.

And for that, you need automation.

Luckily, player notes and colors are stored locally as XML (on Full Tilt, anyway):

The player color value ("ColourIx") is stored as an index into the range of colors defined in the color dropdown...

...meaning you can write a simple tool to go through the player notes file and assign each player a starting color based on whatever data you have. You can then adjust this color manually as you encounter the player in future games.

In the next post, we'll build a simple version of such a tool.

(By the way: Note the smooth interpolation in the color dropdown, from one end of the color spectrum to the other, with the usual result: purples are over-represented. There are 4 shades of purple that are only distinguishable side by side; viewed in isolation, it would be tough to distinguish the top color (purple) from the bottom (slightly darker purple). These extra purples are mostly wasted space. A color wheel which maximizes the perceptual distance between colors would probably produce a better fit, but okay, sort of ADD even to mention that here, especially since the color scheme I use only incorporates five colors. On the other hand, it's interesting how even in this obscure little corner of poker we find connections to classic problems of usability and computer science.)

Choosing a Color Scheme 

On Full Tilt at least, color codes are agnostic, meaning they have no meaning other than what you give them. Some other sites attach a hard-coded meaning to each color, which in my opinion is unnecessary, but still better than what most other sites do, which is not have any color-coding support at all.

Anyway: as you might expect, every player has his own idea for how color-coding should work. Some players suggest color-coding opponents according to Phil Helmuth's animal archetypes. Others like to use color-codes as a way of identifying multitablers. The goal is simply to find a color scheme which makes sense to you. Provided you apply that scheme consistently using the techniques outlined above, your table selection should start to improve almost immediately.

That said, I myself am a fan of the stoplight system:

I like it because it's simple (using only 3 basic colors) and it's one of the strongest color metaphors out there. We all know that green means Go. To most people it will also signify profit, money, success, nature, etc. Red, on the other hand, means Stop, and has those connotations of danger, loss, blood, being in the red, etc.

So having established the twin red/green poles of a color spectrum, I like to color-code players as follows:

• Red: The very best and most dangerous players. Avoid at all costs.
• Orange: Tough players. Avoid if possible.
• Yellow: Average/Unknown players. Treat with caution.
• Chartreuse (the color 50% between yellow and green): Soft players. These are the players you want at your table.
• Green: The very worst players. These are the players you follow from table to table.

The goal of this particular color scheme is to create a simple visual impression of "safety" or "danger" for a particular table. I'm specifically not looking for the most comprehensive color-coding system (why create arbitrary divisions?). I don't particularly want to have to deal with separating players out across 10 or 12 or 14 color-categories.

All I want is a quick visual impression, a feel, a visual gestalt. If I see a bunch of reds and oranges, that means danger; tough players; avoid. If I see a bunch of greens and yellows, that means safety; profitability; an easier game; take a seat.

To return to the animated GIF we started with:

You see the difference?

The value of the color-coding technique described in this article is that it allows you to offload the complexity of table selection / opponent evaluation onto tools and databases, and to perform the bulk of the "table selection analysis" not when you're being prompted to take a seat, but hours or days beforehand. Your only job is to do what the colors tell you.

Accomplish this, and you can rest easy knowing you've done due diligence with regard to table selection. Because in the world of online poker there's always a better, more profitable game to be found. Whether at a different table, a different site, a different limit, or a different time of day, the grass (or felt) really is greener on the other side...

The only problem is that, when it comes to table selection at least, the average player can be completely color-blind.

Posted by James Devlin   25 comment(s)