I hate doing two blog entries so close together, but this is cool and didn't want to make a thread bout it.
Gamers have solved the structure of a retrovirus enzyme whose configuration had stumped scientists for more than a decade. The gamers achieved their discovery by playing Foldit, an online game that allows players to collaborate and compete in predicting the structure of protein molecules.
After scientists repeatedly failed to piece together the structure of a protein-cutting enzyme from an AIDS-like virus, they called in the Foldit players. The scientists challenged the gamers to produce an accurate model of the enzyme. They did it in only three weeks.
This class of enzymes, called retroviral proteases, has a critical role in how the AIDS virus matures and proliferates. Intensive research is under way to try to find anti-AIDS drugs that can block these enzymes, but efforts were hampered by not knowing exactly what the retroviral protease molecule looks like.
"We wanted to see if human intuition could succeed where automated methods had failed," said Dr. Firas Khatib of the University of Washington Department of Biochemistry. Khatib is a researcher in the protein structure lab of Dr. David Baker, professor of biochemistry.
Remarkably, the gamers generated models good enough for the researchers to refine and, within a few days, determine the enzyme's structure. Equally amazing, surfaces on the molecule stood out as likely targets for drugs to de-active the enzyme.
"These features provide exciting opportunities for the design of retroviral drugs, including AIDS drugs," wrote the authors of a paper appearing Sept. 18 in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. The scientists and gamers are listed as co-authors.
This is the first instance that the researchers are aware of in which gamers solved a longstanding scientific problem.
Fold-it was created by computer scientists at the University of Washington Center for Game Science in collaboration with the Baker lab.
"The focus of the UW Center for Game Sciences," said director Dr. Zoran Popovic, associate professor of computer science and engineering, "is to solve hard problems in science and education that currently cannot be solved by either people or computers alone."
The solution of the virus enzyme structure, the researchers said, "indicates the power of online computer games to channel human intuition and three-dimensional pattern matching skills to solve challenging scientific problems."
With names like Foldit Contenders Group and Foldit Void Crushers Group, the gamer teams were fired up for the task of real-world molecule modeling problems. The online protein folding game captivates thousands of avid players worldwide and engages the general public in scientific discovery.
Players come from all walks of life. The game taps into their 3-D spatial abilities to rotate chains of amino acids in cyberspace. New players start at the basic level, "One Small Clash," proceed to "Swing it Around" and step ahead until reaching "Rubber Band Reversal."
Direct manipulation tools, as well as assistance from a computer program called Rosetta, encourage participants to configure graphics into a workable protein model. Teams send in their answers, and UW researchers constantly improve the design of the game and its puzzles by analyzing the players' problem-solving strategies.
Figuring out the shape and misshape of proteins contributes to research on causes of and cures for cancer, Alzheimer's, immune deficiencies and a host of other disorders, as well as to environmental work on biofuels.
Referring to this week's report of the online gamers' molecule solution opening new avenues for anti-viral drug research, Carter Kimsey, program director, National Science Foundation Division of Biological Infrastructure, observed, "After this discovery, young people might not mind doing their science homework. This is an innovative approach to getting humans and computer models to 'learn from each other' in real-time."
The researchers noted that much attention has been given to the possibilities of crowd-sourcing and game playing in scientific discovery. Their results indicate the potential for integrating online video games into real-world science.
Dr. Seth Cooper, of the UW Department of Computing Science and Engineering, is a co-creator of Foldit and its lead designer and developer. He studies human-computer exploration methods and the co-evolution of games and players.
"People have spatial reasoning skills, something computers are not yet good at," Cooper said. "Games provide a framework for bringing together the strengths of computers and humans. The results in this week's paper show that gaming, science and computation can be combined to make advances that were not possible before."
Games like Foldit are evolving. To piece together the retrovirus enzyme structure, Cooper said, gamers used a new Alignment Tool for the first time to copy parts of know molecules and test their fit in an incomplete model.
"The ingenuity of game players," Khatib said, "is a formidable force that, if properly directed, can be used to solve a wide range of scientific problems.
According to Popovic, "Foldit shows that a game can turn novices into domain experts capable of producing first-class scientific discoveries. We are currently applying the same approach to change the way math and science are taught in school."
The other scientists involved in this project were Frank DiMaio and James Thompson, both of the UW Department of Biochemistry, and Maciej Kazmierczyk, Miroslaw Gilski, Szymon Krzywda, Helena Zabranska, and Mariusz Jaskolski, all of the Faculty of Chemistry of A. Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland, and Iva Pichova of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague.
The project was supported by the UW Center for Game Science, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Microsoft Corp
is 0Human0 basically the best player online now? Wondering anyone who has played what they think but I mean his results do not lie, endless crushing HS with practically no downswing. Also, anyone have any articles/post/vids made by him?
Been running horrible on prima lately, time to try svenska spel. Im having trouble getting HM to work though. I've added the Svenska spel folder to the auto import folders in HM, but HM still doesnt find anything to import. Could the "ö" in my screen name possibly be a problem? Would be really nice if a fellow swede (or anyone else who knows this stuff) could help me out here.
Been running horrible on prima lately, time to try svenska spel. Im having trouble getting HM to work though. I've added the Svenska spel folder to the auto import folders in HM, but HM still doesnt find anything to import. Could the "ö" in my screen name possibly be a problem? Would be really nice if a fellow swede (or anyone else who knows this stuff) could help me out here.
Well I went over my bank account and student loans and monthly costs and stuff and I realized I was gonna run out of money somewhere around october until the start of december where my second 13 000$ loan kicks in. I didn't need much money just 1 500ish. Now I really really didn't feel like getting a shitty part time job so I decided to keep on playing poker. Being a winning micro stakes player at about 2.5ish BB over 150k+ hands, I thought this would be a good idea. Using the party poker sign up bonus and moving up to 25NL soon enough would have been more than enough to cover the money I needed + leave me with some kind of bankroll. After my loan kicked in I could have started grinding with the goal of moving up again. What I didin't take into account was that once I started to play poker for money that I needed kinda fast and not to get better at the game, my game would suffer a lot and the downswings would not be as easy to deal with.
So it started with the switch from pokerstars to party poker, I felt kinda disoriented and semi-tilted by the new software and new look and went on a downsing. Then I went back to grind mode a little bit but after going up a little, i lose some more and then went on major tilt. Started by playing PLO, lowest was 25PLo so I played that and lost a little, so decided to switch to 100 PLO (logical move imo.) Went up to 250 then lost a full house vs full house where it was easy fold but me being tilted I could not fold, so ended up about breakeven at 100 PLO. After thinking to myself : why am I playing PLO when I have no clue how to play it, I should at least play a game I'm familiar with, I decided to play 100 NL HU. I sit vs this guy, he seems kinda tight passive, I tell myself he might be some random noob, I go check his stats on PTR, hes up 2K at a steady rate at 100NL HU. Doesn't matter I'm tilted so I decide to play anyways, end up about 50$ and I'm a little less tilted (or so I thought)
Feeling a little better I decide to go to subway, eat fresh, and come back. After being up 50$ at HU I decide that I'm obviously better than everyone and if I just run a little good I'm gonna win for sure. So I decide to play 50NL HU. First guy I meet sits down with 30 BB, doesn't rebuy, limps his button, bets small with air and bets big with the nuts + he's a calling station. Easy right? I proceed to be card dead and he runs good, he's up almost a buy-in and he says : thanks and leaves. TILTTTTTTTTTTTT
I then win some, think I'm god's gift to the game once more and then proceed to bluff a calling station and lose lots of money and tilt and tilt and tilt.
I guess lesson learned, I will go try to find a shitty part time job tommorow. Will keep playing poker but only 2 tabling six max and trying to work on my game rather than grinding. Will probably leave my part time job and go back to playing only poker once my second loan kicks, reason being I really do enjoy the game and would much rather have it as a part time job than let's say Subway. On the other hand the Subway next to my appartment is looking for people and I do spend about 20-30 bucks weekly there so working there would be very + EV. Will try to find something a little bit more interesting first but probably won't.
Also schoolwise I have nooo clue what I want to do and that kinda sucks because I feel like my life is going nowhere right now.
On the brighter side of things, I had a lot of fun playing 100 PLO and HU NL + I'm 2/3 of the way to my first 50$ bonus from the sign up.
fun fact - I did only play the 3$R yesterday, no other mtts! Bought in for 3$ because i just wanted to gamble, didnt even rebuy once just took the add-on
so thats 6$ -> 6k$ for the night was a long night tho i was so tired and so was my hu opponent that he agreed to 50/50 chop + 500 for winner altho he was in the chiplead
how to approach a super standard spotby patti, September 16
I don't think I've improved in a really long time am a bit upset. It never really was for the money but to truly get better at this game. I play really tight and just beat on the fish. Shooting fish in a barrel. I vbet when I have the best hand, check when I'm unsure or feel like I can catch up and fold the worst of it. I play in position as much as possible.
I've tried to figure out this game myself and unfortunately have cone as far as I could. Graciously I ask for advice.
I am playing 1/2 attempting to open more hands and play trickier spots.
I isloate 3 limpers with KQo late to 17 with 200 starting stack. BB calls who I truly consider a good reg aa he is fearless and makes plenty of moves. He imo has a great feel to when his hand can get to sd, and turns a lot of hands into bluffs. As long as he isn't raised I see him tripple barrel a lot, I really like his game. Random fish limper calls
flop is QT7 with a flush draw. I cbet 35 into about 45 (looks like the bet is too small but live dynamic is a bit diff than online althougj I prob could bet more). Good reg calls and fish folds.
Turn is an 8 which also brings a flush. Villain leads for 60 into 120 ish with about 120 remaining.
My assumptions
- villain is good enough to bluff here and will follow through on river
-villain can hand read
-my range actually is tighter on such a drawy board, I'm not cbetting as much air as I normally cbet. I'm checking all my Tx here and cbetting Qx or better as well as all my 8 out draws, as well as suited Broadway 3 flushes (as in gutshot and backdoor draw)
-i believe villain to be checking Qx hands on the turn and leading pair Plus draws, flushes, straight draws. Basically nut/air.
Knowing this a call is obvious with a bluff catcher like Qx. Or any random pp I happened to cbet as a bluff. But how do you APPROACH how do u guage how many draws he has here? If it s a pi graph how do I know its 30 percent flush 70 percent air? Or 80 percent flush 20 percent air?
I felt so exploitable in this spit esp with live timing / physical tells and felt my hand to be face up. I know I can flat some flushes here too but I didn't feel like I looked like I ever have 1 here. As a side note ill say that I think most ppl here just raise their flushes to instinctively and that's why tricky reg does this. When flatted it is like a green light to barrel river. I have been noticing this a lot and have adjusted by planning to slow play lots of strong hands against him.
So to summarize how do u guage how much nuts vs air he has?
What can I do to protect myself?
How do I ultimately become a better player?
how to approach a super standard spotby patti, September 16
I don't think I've improved in a really long time am a bit upset. It never really was for the money but to truly get better at this game. I play really tight and just beat on the fish. Shooting fish in a barrel. I vbet when I have the best hand, check when I'm unsure or feel like I can catch up and fold the worst of it. I play in position as much as possible.
I've tried to figure out this game myself and unfortunately have cone as far as I could. Graciously I ask for advice.
I am playing 1/2 attempting to open more hands and play trickier spots.
I isloate 3 limpers with KQo late to 17 with 200 starting stack. BB calls who I truly consider a good reg aa he is fearless and makes plenty of moves. He imo has a great feel to when his hand can get to sd, and turns a lot of hands into bluffs. As long as he isn't raised I see him tripple barrel a lot, I really like his game. Random fish limper calls
flop is QT7 with a flush draw. I cbet 35 into about 45 (looks like the bet is too small but live dynamic is a bit diff than online althougj I prob could bet more). Good reg calls and fish folds.
Turn is an 8 which also brings a flush. Villain leads for 60 into 120 ish with about 120 remaining.
My assumptions
- villain is good enough to bluff here and will follow through on river
-villain can hand read
-my range actually is tighter on such a drawy board, I'm not cbetting as much air as I normally cbet. I'm checking all my Tx here and cbetting Qx or better as well as all my 8 out draws, as well as suited Broadway 3 flushes (as in gutshot and backdoor draw)
-i believe villain to be checking Qx hands on the turn and leading pair Plus draws, flushes, straight draws. Basically nut/air.
Knowing this a call is obvious with a bluff catcher like Qx. Or any random pp I happened to cbet as a bluff. But how do you APPROACH how do u guage how many draws he has here? If it s a pi graph how do I know its 30 percent flush 70 percent air? Or 80 percent flush 20 percent air?
I felt so exploitable in this spit esp with live timing / physical tells and felt my hand to be face up. I know I can flat some flushes here too but I didn't feel like I looked like I ever have 1 here. As a side note ill say that I think most ppl here just raise their flushes to instinctively and that's why tricky reg does this. When flagged it is like a
Best Way to Stop playing poker?by Dapi, September 15
Hi all, long time lurker of liquid poker
Today I come to you guys with a question. How the hell do you make yourself determined to stop playing? I don't come here to seek compassion and pity because Ive lost all my money but rather, since I know some of you have probably been in the same spot at some time, I wanna know the best way to get the hell out of it!
So my story goes...
Back in April I had just finished my second year of uni in computer science. I live at home and therefore could pay off all of my schooling without getting any loans, I was looking forward to playing working full time at a semi-fine dining restaurant and playing starcraft2 all day and hopefully going on a trip at the end of summer. My bank account had 5 grand in it, I had enough for a trip and for going out about everyday after work. With some fellow co-workers I started going to the casino, i started playing blackjack and roulette, but hated them both because I was one of those people who always thought you cannot beat the house... So i started going to the poker room, it was entertaining and my money lasted me a lot longer than it did at blackjack and roulette. The trips to the poker room became more frequent and instead of playing 1-2 no limit i started playing 2-5 no limit where the average stack was 500-1000, most of you will see me as an idiot already (wtf are you doing playing with a 500-1k buy in with only 5k in your bankroll). But my work was good and i was making 100-150 a night in tips (5 days a week) since it was cash I was ending up going to the poker room every night... I bought books on poker, read a ton of internet articles, but surely enough that wasn't what i needed and I ended up losing all of my bankroll... This summer I ended up losing all of my revenue from work (around 7-8grand) and had about 1 grand of credit card debt... my dad was kind enough to have sympathy for me and bail me out of my CC debt if i promised to never go back... I of course broke that promise... at the end of summer i maxxed out my credit card (5grand) and ended up having to buy student loans to pay for this semester, Now i have to juggle a full course load in 3rd year computer science and a full time job... I managed to pay off a grand from my card, but with intrest accumulating it went back up to 4780 a few days after the deposit... I was about to make another payment of a grand but stupidly enough I went back to the poker room and lost it...
Now the worst part is... the casino is a 5 minute drive away from university, so if I even have any cash on me im tempted to go and spend it at the casino and even skip classes to do it...
So LiquidPoker What would be the best way to stop playing? as unlikely as it may sound I have had good days where I've won a ton and then either spent it or lost it later on.. with being in school and working full time poker seems like a sanctuary if i win helping me reduce that CreditCard Debt.
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was a long night tho i was so tired and so was my hu opponent that he agreed to 50/50 chop + 500 for winner altho he was in the chiplead
