Background of thepokerdb.com
After Paul and I discussed the issues with the old version of thepokerdb.com, we came up with the following solution:
1. Delete the old version of thepokerdb.com as it only included cashing information. We wanted to start tracking non-cashing information so we could offer a more informative database in the future.
2. Move the database to it’s own site. Eventually, we came up with thepokerdb.com as a suitable name.
3. Develop a way to track every multi-table tournament without all of the manual labor associated with the old version.
4. Develop a bunch of new features, including profit statistics, rankings, subscriptions, etc.
We’re now about 5 months into the new version of thepokerdb.com. We’ve done just about everything except rankings.
The most important step in the development of the new thepokerdb.com was the tracking system. While I can’t discuss exactly how we do it, I think it’s a pretty impressive system. Most of the credit for it can go to Paul, as he was the primary programmer.
I can talk a little bit about exactly what goes in to such a tracking system. First, you have a bunch of raw data in text files, which might look something like the following (this one happens to be a Party Poker tournament from a few nights ago):
Tourney ID: 557849
Date: Dec-29 09:15
Type: Multi-Table NL Hold’em
Buyin: $5+$1
Entrants: 230
Total Prize Pool: $1150
1st: $310.60
2nd: $178.25
3rd: $120.75
4th: $92
5th: $80.50
6th: $69
7th: $46
8th: $34.50
9th: $23
10th: $11.50
11th-20th: $9.77
21st-30th: $8.62
1:Elvis93
2:nku_soccer
3:BURGOS11
4:MICHTON
5:japcomputers
etc.
The text file continues down to the last place finisher. You then need to somehow get all these pieces of information into a database in the form of separate variables (player names, placing, buyins, prizes, etc). The problem is, you’re dealing with thousands (or even millions) of variables when you’re uploading hundreds of tournaments at a time, so you need a fairly robust piece of software to get the job done. Over the summer of 2005, this took us about a month to figure out how to do.
We’ve since built the database to the point where we’re tracking over 350,000 players and 25,000 tournaments going back for years. Of course, this is all only from PokerStars. In the near future, we plan to add Party, UB, Dise and Bodog. After that, we’d probably move on to: Prima, Tribeca, Crypto, Pacific, FTP and maybe a few more.
Also on the table is the expansion to non-MTT poker tracking databases. I’d like to move on to STTs (aka Sit’n'Goes) next, but there is also the possibility of adding cash game tracking as well. In other words, the site may become truly huge during 2006. I’m excited to see what happens.
In my next post, I’ll probably talk a bit about my background. After that, I’ll be headed to Atlantis and I’ll be reporting from there for a week.
Related posts:
- Background of PSCrew.com
- Start of thepokerdb
- I get some goofy support emails at thepokerdb
- thepokerdb update
- the re-release of the new thepokerdb
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