E-Mail Internet Poker Server Manual

September 22, 1998

What's new for WRGPT8

Table of Contents

The Basics

 This section explains all you need to know to play poker by e-mail. However, by reading the entire manual you will be able to customize the dealer's behavior to suit your own taste, and, more importantly, you will be able to contribute to a quickly moving game.

You communicate with the dealer by sending e-mail to a predetermined e-mail address. Your messages may contain bets as well as commands to control the amount of mail you will receive, vacations, etc. The server will take care of all administrative details, such as dealing cards, announcing actions, handling showdowns, computing winning hands, awarding money, shuffling the deck, and so on until the tournament is over. You just play your hand and read your mail.

Betting: In its most basic form, betting goes as follows: when it is your turn to bet, send a message with the dollar amount you want to bet. You must have a $-sign in column 1 followed by the amount, and no other text is allowed on that line, (ie. none of the switches discussed below), eg. 

    $0
The above will check or fold, whatever the case may be. The dealer will compute whether your bet constitutes a call or raise, eg. if it is $200 to you and you want to raise $300 send in a $500 bet.

Your USER-ID

 The dealer identifies incoming mail not by looking at the "From:" address (which can change in strange and unpredictable ways), but through a User-ID, or ID for short. Each player is assigned a six-character ID at the beginning of the tournament, and it remains the same for that player for the duration of the tournament.

All private messages from the dealer to a player contain that player's ID in the subject line, for example: 

Subject: Holdem game (ID=casino): your cards
When sending mail to the dealer, you must include the string ID=<yourid> in the subject line. Other text may also be in the Subject line. If your mailer includes the old Subject line when you "reply" to a message, all you need to do is reply to a message that contains your ID and all will be well. Alternatively, you could put the ID by itself: 
Subject: ID=casino
No spaces are allowed between the = sign and the ID. The ID is always in lowercase, and you must also supply it that way.

Of course, messages that go to multiple players do not contain anyone's ID on the Subject line. If you "reply" to such a message you must supply your ID yourself by editing the Subject line.

Note: if you inadvertently cc the other players on one of your moves, your ID will be revealed to the rest of the table. This is not a good idea. While opportunities for cheating are limited (and will be detected since all mail is logged), you should request a new ID from the floorman in such a case. You cannot change your own ID.

If you lose your ID, write to the floorman, or wait for the reminder message that it is your turn to bet, it will contain your ID.

Advance(d) Betting

 It is possible, and highly recommended, to post bets in advance. Since the dealer is the only account to receive your mail, no one will find out about your advance bets. By using this feature you will be able to greatly speed up the game.

The following commands are available for advance bets:

BET $x
Equivalent to MAKE $x. When it is your turn to bet, BET $x is equivalent to plain $x. BET $x is useful there because it allows switches whereas $x does not.
CALL $x
Call any bet up to $x, fold otherwise. Note that CALL $0 will check or fold when it is your turn. Recommended highly when after looking at your hole cards you decide you will fold no matter what, but also useful in later betting rounds.
CALL *
Call any amount. Equivalent to RAISE $0 (see below).
ELSE
See below under Advance Betting for Experts
FOLD
Fold at the earliest opportunity. The FOLD command will bet $0 until you fold or the hand is over. (Equivalent to CALL/S $0; see next section for explanation of /S switch).
IF
See below under Advance Betting for Experts
MAKE $x
Attempt to make the bet $x. For example, if you send in MAKE $1000 and by the time the action reaches you it is $400 to you, you end up making a $600 raise. If it was $1000 to you you would be calling. If it was more than $1000 to you, your action would fail and you would be getting mail saying that you need to make another bet. Similarly if your raise wasn't large enough. Another way of expressing what MAKE $x does is: The MAKE command is one of the most useful advance betting features; try using it whenever you can. After you get your cards for a new hand and the big blind is, say, $200, MAKE $200 is a way of saying "call when it's only $200 to me, but don't do anything if someone has raised." If you had put in a $100 small blind you would say MAKE $100 to do the same thing. If you were the big blind, MAKE $0 (or CHECK) would be appropriate.
RAISE $x
Attempt to raise $x. If the raise isn't large enough you'll get an error message and a chance to make another bet. Note that RAISE $0 will call any bet. Use with care when playing no-limit.
POT
Bet, or call and raise, the pot. If you don't have that much, go all in. This works in no-limit as well.
CHECK
Equivalent to MAKE $0. You intend to check, but if someone bets, you get a chance to make a different decision.
JAM
Bet the maximum amount allowed, eg. the pot in Pot Limit, or your entire bankroll in No Limit.
UNDO
Undo any advance action. New for WRGPT8:Also undoes any PROTEST.

It is not necessary to use these features out of turn, ie. you can also use them when it is your turn to bet.

You can change your mind about these bets; just send in a new bet and it will override the existing one (provided your mail gets there in time of course).

Sticky Betting

 By default, all the commands described above are executed once. Eg, when you post an advance CALL $0 intending to fold as soon as possible, you may still survive the first round, eg. because you were the big blind - the advance action translated into a check. Now the flop comes and you will need to make another $0 bet to fold. For such purposes, the concept of "sticky" actions was invented. When an action is sticky, it applies for the duration of the current hand, then is erased before the next hand.

The syntax is a /S appended to the specific command. Examples: 

    CALL/S $0
Keep betting $0, ie. fold at the earliest opportunity. The command FOLD does the same thing. Note that FOLD/S is redundant. 
    POT/S
Bet or raise the pot at every opportunity.

Advance Betting for Experts

 This section describes the full set of powerful conditional advance betting features that are available. In short, an if-then-else style command language is available, where the conditions to be tested can be quite complex. This feature is designed to be powerful enough to cover nearly all betting situations, making it possible to cover almost any situation with an advance move.

The general form of an advance conditional action looks like: 

    IF/<conditions> <action>
    IF/<conditions> <action>
    ...
    ELSE <action>
The first IF line for which all conditions evaluate to TRUE will cause its action to be executed. There is a maximum of 8 IF lines per advance action. If no IF lines match then the ELSE part is executed. The ELSE part is optional.

In other words, the above is equivalent to 

    IF <conditions> THEN <action>
    ELSIF <conditions> THEN <action>
    ...
    ELSE <action>
    ENDIF
The <conditions> can take the following form, best illustrated by an example: 
    IF/P<=2500/B<=500/N=3/I:3/O:2 POT
The above command means: if the pot is at most $2500, and the bet to me is at most $500, and there are 3 players in the pot, and player 3 is in, and player 2 is out, then bet (or call and raise) the pot.

Conditions are one of:

Expressions are one of:

= (equal)
# (not equal)
> (greater)
>=(greater or equal)
< (less)
<=(less or equal)

Here are some examples of using expert-style advance betting: 

    IF/N=2/I:1 JAM
If there are only 2 players in the pot, and player 1 is in, then JAM. In other words, if it's down to just me and player 1, JAM. 
    IF/B=0 POT
    IF/B<=1000 CALL *
If checked to me, bet the pot. Else, call any bet up to $1000. If the bet is more do nothing.

The simple form "$x" is not allowed as an action guarded by IF or ELSE, ie. the following is illegal: 

    IF/N=2 $100
This would be illegal even if it were that player's turn to act.

Effect of other switches on IF commands:

The /S switch may be applied to individual actions within the IF construct, or to the IF as a whole. In the latter case, for the /S switch to have the desired effect it must appear on the first IF, in case multiple IF's are used.

Examples: 

    IF/N=2 CALL/S *
    IF/N=3 CALL *
If only two players are left, call anything to the end. If three players are left call anything, but just once. 
    IF/S/O:6 JAM
>From now until the end, when player 6 is out, jam.

Other switches (/H, /Q and /R), when appearing either on the IF itself or on any of the commands inside the IF's, are always promoted to the "outer level". For example, 

    IF/N=4 FOLD/R
    IF/N=3 CALL *
    IF/N=2 JAM
The /R switch implies "REVEAL" (see Revealing Folded Hands) and always takes effect even if the first IF arm is not the one actually selected.

Quiet Mode

 Normally, the dealer will confirm advance moves with a reply message. This behavior can be suppressed using the /Q switch on advance commands, eg. 
    FOLD/Q
Note: the /Q switch is not allowed on UNDO.

Restricting Your Action to the Current Hand

 Sometimes it is useful to be able to specify that your action should only apply to the current hand. While usually this situation takes care of itself, there are a few pitfalls. For instance, on the last betting round you intend to check-raise. So you check and then send in an advance JAM. Meanwhile, everyone else has also checked, the hand finishes, a new hand is dealt, and finally, your JAM arrives, which is now applied to the next hand. To avoid this situation, use the /H switch, as follows: 
    JAM/H=99
This ensures that the JAM will only take effect during hand 99. If by the time the command is received the hand number is 100, the JAM is ignored. Note: you cannot use the /H comand to specify an action for a future hand.

HINT: if your mail connection is less than reliable, always use /H. It can prevent nasty surprises.

Restricting your Action to a Certain Betting Round

 This feature allows advance actions in situations where it would otherwise be impossible or at least very dangerous to do so. You can restrict your advance action to be valid only for a certain betting round. When the action reaches you, your advance actions takes affect only if the then current betting round matches the one you specified.

This is mostly useful in a situation such as the following. Suppose you are first to act after the big blind. You call, and everyone else either calls or folds, except the big blind who didn't put in an advance action. Should he check, you will see a flop; but if he bets, you need to decide whether to call or not. Typically, you might be able to decide the latter in advance but not the former. That's where this feature comes in: you want to say "call X if betting round is pre-flop". The syntax is: 

IF/F=1 CALL $x
where 
F = 1	pre-flop
F = 2	post-flop
F = 3	turn (4th card)
F = 4	river (5th and final card)
An important rule to remember is that advance bets "expire" immediately after your next bet. Ie. if you have an advance action in, the dealer will attempt to apply it the first time it's your turn to bet; whether or not the action actually "fires", it is immediately discarded (unless of course you specify "sticky", but even that is erased if the first attempt to use it fails).

This means that if you do someting like this pre-flop: 

IF/F=4 JAM
intending to jam on the river, it will not work since your next "real" action will wipe it out.

Revealing Folded Hands

 In some cases players may want to "reveal" their hand even it would normally not be shown. This feature can be turned on by using the /R switch on any of the advance betting commands, eg. 
    FOLD/R
An UNDO command will erase the intent to reveal your hand. Needless to say, the default is to not reveal folded hands.

Vacations

 The dealer enforces certain deadlines for making your bets (more on this later). When you are going to be out of town for a longer period of time, it is best to use the vacation features described in this section.

While you are on vacation, the dealer will post antes and blinds for you as necessary. When the action gets to you you will bet $0 at all times, ie. check or fold.

To go on vacation, send a one liner with the command GONE "until-string", where the argument "until-string" indicates when you expect to be back. The first six characters of this string will be included in every status report that the dealer sends out. It is not interpreted and there is no penalty for returning earlier or later; it's intended strictly as a courtesy to the other players.

Example: 

    GONE 13 Sep
To indicate that you are coming back from vacation, send a one-liner with the command BACK.

When a player goes on vacation, if it was also his turn to bet a $0 bet will automatically be made. Vacations are announced to the rest of the table at the end of a hand. They are not announced immediately to prevent people from "going on vacation" with no intention of really leaving town, but rather with the plan to come back during the same hand when no one expects it. However, a player on vacation may come BACK at any time during the hand, and if he hasn't already been folded he has the right to play his hand.

You may infer correctly from the above, that sticky actions take precedence over vacations. Unless of course your sticky action translates into an insufficient bet (possible with MAKE or RAISE), in which case you will be folded.

In a given tournament, there may be limits imposed on the number of hands that can be played per day while someone is on vacation, to avoid the situation where a small number of people quickly eliminate a vacationed player by making him use up all his money in antes and blinds.

New for WRGPT8: you cannot win a hand while on vacation. Exception: you can win the hand during which you go on vacation.

Protesting

 If for some reason you feel that eg. due to a software error you have been slighted, you may protest the game by issuing the PROTEST command. This command freezes the action at your table until the dispute can be resolved by the floorman. Needless to say, this command should not be used lightly.

Any text following the line on which the PROTEST command appears is forwarded to the floorman. It will not be sent to the other players at your table; they will simply receive notification that you filed a protest. It is up to you to inform them of the reason why, but you don't need to do so.

Example: 

	PROTEST
	I timed out at 4PM, but the last message I got
	said my timeout was scheduled for 5PM.
New for WRGPT8:You can withdraw your protest through the use of the UNDO command.

Resigning

 If for some reason you must resign from (quit) the game, send the following command: 
    GONE RESIGN
This will be treated as a special sort of vacation with no limits on the number of hands that can be played per day. You cannot come BACK after resigning from the game.

NOTE: sometimes players resign after being eliminated from the tournament. While harmless, this has no effect whatsoever.

Changing Office Hours

 By default, the "work day" starts at 9AM in the timezone of the host machine. Each player can change the "start of day" using the START command. Example: 
    START 12
This command will cause your day to start at 12 Noon in the timezone of the host machine. The START command does not take effect until the NEXT hand, ie. you cannot change your schedule while a hand is in progress.

You can choose any value between 0 and 23 (inclusive) for your start of day. Only whole hours are allowed, eg. 6:30 will not work.

A WHAT command will tell you your own "start of day". There is no direct way to find out what the "start of day" for other players is.

CAUTION: it is possible to create non-contiguous office hours this way, due to the fact that there are no office hours on Saturday and Sunday in the timezone of the host machine. For example, if you use START 18 and the "length of day" is 9, you will only have 6 office hours on Friday (18-24); the remaining 3 hours are on the following Monday (0-3 AM). It does not matter that for instance, "START 18" implies 15:00 or earlier in your timezone. All calculations are done in the host machine timezone.

With the host machine typically residing in the continental US, players in "faraway" timezones such as Australia or New Zealand will have a problem if they cannot access their mail on Saturdays. There is no way for them to avoid having "office hours" on their Saturday.

Time Outs

 When it is your turn to act you have a fixed number of "office hours" to respond. Office hours normally run from 9AM to 6PM in the timezone of the host machine, Monday through Friday, but may be changed by individual players to suit their schedule. The following examples assume a 9AM starting time and a six hour timeout:

This more complicated example assumes a 18:00 starting time and a six hour timeout with a 9 hour length of day (see Changing Office Hours):

If you miss your deadline you will be put on vacation and a $0 bet will be entered for you. In future hands your status line will show "AWOL". While AWOL, you are NOT protected by the rule that limits the number of hands per day while someone is on vacation.

Changing Your E-MAIL Address

 The ADDR command is available to change your e-mail address. Example:
ADDR me@my.new.place
You will receive a confirmation message both at your old address and your new address. After that, mail will go only to your new address. Note that it is easy to add address(es) to your current address, eg:
ADDR current@address.com, additional@address.com
Now you will receive future mail at both addresses.

Note: it is of course up to the player to supply the correct address(es). In particular, the dealer does not analyze the argument to see if it contains syntax errors, and it does not "know" that the last example is a comma-separated list. It simply passes the entire string to the system mailer.

Reviewing Your Outgoing Mail

 Sometimes it is useful to be able to check on mail delays or other types of problems with your mail to the dealer. The LOG command will retrieve copies of your mail as received by the dealer. Without an argument, retrieves "today's" mail (ie. since Midnight in the host machine's timezone). With an argument up to 4, retrieves mail from the last n days.
Examples: 
LOG
get today's mail. 
LOG 4
get mail from the last 4 days.

Seat Assignments

 Starting with WRGPT8, a new seat assignment algorithm is used. The new method is designed to be more "fair" in the sense that people who have spent a lot of money on blinds will get the better seats at the start of a new round. At the end of each round, the pool of surviving players is randomly assigned to new tables, as before. Within each table, players are assigned seats based on average cost per hand played so far. The player who has spent the least amount of money in blinds per hand becomes the big blind and the player who has spent the most becomes the button. At any time during the tournament, players can get a detailed report about the starting seat assignment by using the SEATLOG command. Note that during the first round of the tournament, this command does not generate meaningful information. Also note that it is still not guaranteed that you won't get the big blind two tables in a row. But if that happens, it is because other players at your table have paid even more in blinds (per hand) than you. Players who are resigned will automatically draw the big blind.

Starting a Round

 Often, a new tournament or new round will start with everybody on vacation. This is done because it is not always known who will be on vacation at the start of a tournament. Players then must send in a BACK command. As soon as all players have done this, or when the standard timeout period has expired (whichever occurs first), the table will start.

Status Report

 If you forgot your hand or deleted all the status reports from the dealer and you want to get an up to date picture, send the following message: 
    WHAT

Tournament Standings

 In a tournament with multiple tables, you may want to see the total aggregate standings of all players. To get such a listing, use: 
    SCORE
Normally, this listing will not include players who have been eliminated. To see the full list including eliminated players, use 
    SCORE/L
You can also subscribe to a daily update of this listing. See Showdowns From Other Tables below.

Note: in case of ties, tied players are ranked in an irrelevant order; except that eliminated players are ranked in reverse order of elimination.

Reminders

 Periodic reminders are sent, at least twice a day, to the person whose turn it is to bet.

Table Talk

 "Table talk" is a poker term for any conversation that takes place at the table, but often specifically used to confuse other players. You can issue table talk in this game by including it in your mail message that contains your betting action. Starting with WRGPT8, table talk must be explicitly announced through the use of the TALK keyword. This command must be on a line by itself and start in column 1. As before, you can end table talk by using the SIG keyword. This is often desirable to suppress signatures that are automatically added by many mailers. Any line that begins with two hyphens ("--") also ends table talk. You are not required to announce the end of table talk. Example: 
    $1000
    TALK
    I'm betting a thousand.
Table talk may also be added to out of turn bets, and all table talk is shown interspersed with action in the showdown messages.

Example of the use of the SIG command: 

    JAM
    Here is a line that will not show up.
    TALK
    I'm going all in!  This line will show up!
    SIG
    This line will not show up!
    Neither will this one.

Limitations:

(1) table talk lines longer than 80 characters are truncated to 80 characters. There is a limit of 31 lines of table talk for advance bets (additional lines are ignored); there is no limit on the number of lines when it is your turn to bet.

(2) There is no way to combine table talk with an IF bet.

(3) The dealer applies certain filters to table talk, eg. it tries to suppress "quoted" messages which often occur when people include the entire message they're replying to. Prolonged abuse of the table talk feature may result in a player's table talk capability being shut off (eg. when someone always includes a lengthy signature without applying the SIG command, or when players repeatedly include commercial messages).

Nicknames

 At the beginning of the tournament, each player is assigned a "nickname", typically the person's first and last name as indicated by their mail header, eg. "Doyle Brunson".

It might show up as follows in a dealer status report: 

    Doyle Brunson is next to act, $500 to call.
It is possible to set your nickname to something different using the NAME command, eg: 
    NAME Texas Dolly
And you would see the status report say: 
    Texas Dolly is next to act, $500 to call.
At the beginning of a tournament you will be notified whether you are allowed to change your nickname (a) never, (b) once, or (c) anytime.

Personal Information

 This is new with WRGPT8 and takes the place of the ill-fated "biographical information" which was collected in past years without being made easily accessible. At the same, this feature reduces the risk of being exposed to spam by removing your email address from the long score list. You may now supply short biographical information using the command 
    ASL
ASL stands for "Age Sex Location" and an example might be 
    ASL 34/M/New York
Of course use of the ASL command is optional. If you prefer, you can use your email address, or a URL, for instance if you have a home page on the web that you want people to refer to. Until you use the ASL command, your info will show up as "asl unknown" in the score listings.

Mail Management

 By default, you will get every action mailed to you, including an updated status report. There are ways to customize this behavior, using the READ command. The following options exist:

READ NONE
Don't get any more mail, ever. This option is intended for use by players who are eliminated and don't want to receive any more mail.
READ SUNDAY
Receive only showdown messages. Intended for players who are eliminated and want continued coverage of the showdowns. It can also be used while on vacation.
READ PICKY
In this mode, you will receive only "significant" mail. You get a message only if you're not folded, and one of the following applies:
  • Someone raises
  • Cards are dealt or flopped
  • It's your turn to bet
Regardless of whether you folded, you will always receive mail when:
  • A new hand is dealt
  • A showdown occurs (or the hand is over without a showdown)
READ JUSTME
Receive mail only while still active in the hand; with this option you will stop getting mail after you fold; mail resumes with (and including) the showdown of the current hand.
READ ALWAYS
Get all mail (default)

Showdowns From Other Tables

 The only way to see what happens at other tables is to join the "rail". Instructions for subscribing and unsubscribing to the rail will be published at the start of the tournament. Once on the rail, you will receive every showdown message from all other tables, as well as nightly "score" messages with the grand total tournament standings.

Getting Help

 A summary of commands can be obtained by sending the one-liner 
    HELP
to the dealer.

The latest version of this manual can be obtained by sending the one-liner 

    MANUAL
The FAQ list can be obtained by sending the one-liner 
    FAQ

Other Notes On Syntax

Syntax for bets and commands to the dealer are case in-sensitive.

All commands must start on column 1, and use only a single line.

Only one command per message (except for SIG command.)

Do's and Don'ts
  1. Don't send any commands to "floorman" or "daemon"; the correct address for the poker server is "dealer". If you have a mailer which ignores the Reply-To field, you'll have to fix the To: address yourself. floorman will not forward misdirected mail.
  2. Don't include the entire message you're replying to.
  3. Do use the SIG keyword to suppress signatures.
  4. When sending mail to floorman, always include your table number somewhere in your message.

Antes and Blinds

 Antes and blinds go up periodically. They may go up either after each multiple of N hands, or after each multiple of N days. This will be announced at the start of the tournament. Also periodically, seats are redrawn.

Blinds are always live.

Other Poker Rules

 In case of split pots, odd chips go the first player to the left of the dealer.

If the player with the big blind is eliminated, the dealer does not move prior to the next hand, and there will be no small blind.

In no limit, to qualify as a raise, the raise must be at least the size of the last bet or raise. The minimum bet is the size of the big blind.

Other rules to be determined per tournament.

Example Status Message

Following is an example status message from the dealer 

To: X1, X3, X2, X4
From: dealer
Subject: Broadcast Message 10008 [a1] (-> X2)

! Hand Number 2
! Day Number 1

! X4 raises $4950 and is all in
! X5 folds
! X1 calls - side pot
! X3 is on vacation and folds
! X2 is next to act, $4950 to call.
! Unlimited raises
! Pot size: $10050
! Next timeout set for Wed, Aug 26 11:02 EDT
! Current board: ? ? ? ? ?
+-+------------+--------+--------+------+----+--------+
|#|   Name     |Bankroll| Action |Status|Pot#|Pot Size|
+-+------------+--------+--------+------+----+--------+
 1|D  X1       |      0 |   4975 |all-in|  2 |   9850 |
 2|V  X3       |   4925 |     25 |Aug 30|    |        |
 3|>  X2       |   5025 |     50 |      |  3 |    175 |
 4|   X4       |      0 |   5000 |all-in|  1 |     25 |
 5|   X5       |   5000 |      0 |folded|    |        |
+-+------------+--------+--------+------+----+--------+


Your automated Holdem dealer
Explanatory notes:
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Page last modified: 6-20-96