Texas Holdem

[CrashOverRide]

Any serious poker players here?

Let me know

 

[sageproduct]

Full Tilt Poker is the way to go. I started playing for real money last summer. I lost about $20 immediately. Now I'm just about good enough to break even. Last Friday-Sunday I had a binge where I played probably about 20 hours total. My profit? About $2 over the course of 20 hours...

 

[CrashOverRide]

I play on Full Tilt too...... I personally like playing the tourneys, although I'll do 1/2 cash, and high stakes sit and gos from time to time....

What rake back company do you use?

 

[sageproduct]

I just use Full Tilt Rakeback, the 27% one. You must have a decent size bankroll, right? Do you make money off of it?

I love Sit n Gos too, but I've been forcing myself to go back to basics with 9 handed ring games. I only have like $42 though, so I can only play $0.01/0.02 with proper bankroll management.

 

[CrashOverRide]

I think I need to switch my rakeback. I am supposed to get 27% back but I've been negative according to their records... which I think should be impossible since you should always get a rakeback. I wrote in to them and they claimed its cause when you use your player points it takes away from them... and I've used them a lot to enter satellites

I make money off the tourneys. If you're a good player you should place a decent amount of times which more than compensate for the times you don't. Lets face it variance can be a bvitch sometimes...

I like playing the 9 table ring games when I wnat to do cash... I'll start with like $150 and play for a set amount of time and then cash out. The 45,90 player MTT are my favorite to play. I'll do a single table tourney also.... and when I literally have a few bucks to blow I'll do the heads up sit and gos.... but those definitely are tough imho

 

[Fortress Maximus]

LOVE hold em man! Playing on PokerStars right now.

Sadly, after moving for school, no longer have a consistent group yet to play with. PokerStars is fun, but nothing like playing in person!

 

[FinalWay]

i also play on pokerstars....gotta love those guarenteed prize pools !!!

 

[Trader]

Have any of you been able to be proficient enough in poker to earn enough money when translated into an hourly wage?

 

[sageproduct]

SH1T man I had a pretty fwcking bad night. Played a 60 person 60 cent or so satellite where the top 25 would cash or qualify for a tournament. I finished in fwcking 26th. It was gay as fwcking hell because it was one of those super turbo tournaments with REALLY tiny stacks and some fag at my table kept taking as much time as he could because he was very shortstacked and thought he could somehow save himself by stalling. Fwcking fag. At this point, BB was like 1/5 of my stack, and right after paying the SB I got transferred to a different table where I IMMEDIATELY took the spot of the BB!! I was fwcking pissed. I was severely shortstacked, was forced to push a few hands later, and lost. Just 1 spot farther and I would have "won" the tournament because all spots 1-25 got the same prize, entry into a tournament.

Played another 9 handed sit n go where the top 3 cash, I fwcking finished 4th...and it was after another guy was shortstacked, I tried to steal his blinds and he ended up having KQ. He beat me, I got shortstacked, I ended up losing before he did...

Anyway, just had to vent so that I don't go off blowing more money.

 

[CrashOverRide]

SH1T man I had a pretty fwcking bad night. Played a 60 person 60 cent or so satellite where the top 25 would cash or qualify for a tournament. I finished in fwcking 26th. It was gay as fwcking hell because it was one of those super turbo tournaments with REALLY tiny stacks and some fag at my table kept taking as much time as he could because he was very shortstacked and thought he could somehow save himself by stalling. Fwcking fag. At this point, BB was like 1/5 of my stack, and right after paying the SB I got transferred to a different table where I IMMEDIATELY took the spot of the BB!! I was fwcking pissed. I was severely shortstacked, was forced to push a few hands later, and lost. Just 1 spot farther and I would have "won" the tournament because all spots 1-25 got the same prize, entry into a tournament.

Played another 9 handed sit n go where the top 3 cash, I fwcking finished 4th...and it was after another guy was shortstacked, I tried to steal his blinds and he ended up having KQ. He beat me, I got shortstacked, I ended up losing before he did...

Anyway, just had to vent so that I don't go off blowing more money.

lol This happend to me but worse earlier this week. I was in a 200 MTT man tourney where the top 18 got paid. I actually was the chip leader with about 30 people left...... Well the blinds went up... and to make a long story short, I finished 19th!!!! 1 spot out of the money!!! I had to make a decision of playing a hand with good pocket cards or trying to fold hoping others went all-in... Unfortunately everyone was playing tight and I took the bad risk....

Bad beats are a part of the game... you'll find they will work for you or against you at time..... Just gotta chalk it up to poker...

Trader,

I play part time so I haven't done the math on my hourly take.....

 

[sageproduct]

Sh11111t that sounds terrible man, it hurts to hear. I'm finally doing better now, on break at a MTT with about 110 people where top 28 get entry to a $2.20 buy-in tournament (if I win I'm gonna take the tournament cash cuz my BR's so small right now). 13th in chips with about 56 people left...I better win now.

Did you ever play the micro stakes? I'm doing all the Full Tilt Academy challenges and stuff, but I feel like a lot of the lessons just mess you up when you're playing against fish because the moves they make just don't make sense.

 

[Trader]

Sh11111t that sounds terrible man, it hurts to hear. I'm finally doing better now, on break at a MTT with about 110 people where top 28 get entry to a $2.20 buy-in tournament (if I win I'm gonna take the tournament cash cuz my BR's so small right now). 13th in chips with about 56 people left...I better win now.

Did you ever play the micro stakes? I'm doing all the Full Tilt Academy challenges and stuff, but I feel like a lot of the lessons just mess you up when you're playing against fish because the moves they make just don't make sense.

Playing against fish is easy.

Follow the textbook, that's it. Never change your style, just play ABC poker, and the poker statistics themselves will cause the fish to wash up dead on the shores.

 

[sageproduct]

Yep...it's been tough for me to stay disciplined to a tight, aggressive purely mathematical style of play. Sitting in 9 handed games, folding until I'm dealt premium hands, and even then still losing sometimes, it all gets so boring for me sometimes. It'll probably be better once I am able to stay disciplined and start multi-tabling.

I mean, I really wanna learn better poker, but my BR's not big enough to play at tables that aren't filled with fish.

 

[Prodigy746]

Full Tilt Poker is the way to go. I started playing for real money last summer. I lost about $20 immediately. Now I'm just about good enough to break even. Last Friday-Sunday I had a binge where I played probably about 20 hours total. My profit? About $2 over the course of 20 hours...

lol at playing 20 hrs for a 2 profit.. wtf u play 1c/2c????

edit: nvm i was right but gosh i dont know how people can sit there play 1c/2c so boring.

i play .25/.5 and .5/1 but online poker is kinda boring to me ... stare at screen and click click click. u cant read people cant sociolize etc etc . I much prefer to play live, i have poker table chips and good cards... me and my friends play sometime and its much more fun.

sage playing tight is not a good thing imo. If you play tight you are very easy to play against, if i am playing against tight players and they enter a pot i know they got face cards most likely or i am against a big pair. Even if i got 6-7off i will call their raise and if i flop two pair or better i am likely to take their whole stack. Also if they are in the pot and they raise and low cards come like 4 7 3 even if i dont have anything i will raise their c bet and they usually fold AK AQ etc. If they call than i know i am beat.

 

[sageproduct]

Well Prodigy the assumption is that the people I play in 1c/2c aren't smart or experienced enough to realize what you know about tight players, and any deviation from purely mathematical play would only hurt me because weak players don't make logical plays.

Yes, it is VERY boring when I sit there for hours and only make like a dollar at a time...but it is very necessary to play at low stakes until my bankroll is large enough to handle variance at higher stakes. A couple weeks ago my friend deposited like $50 for the first time, and I told him to read up on bankroll management. Very smart guy, yet he jumped straight into low/medium stakes tables instead of micro and lost all $50 in one night.

 

[Trader]

Well Prodigy the assumption is that the people I play in 1c/2c aren't smart or experienced enough to realize what you know about tight players, and any deviation from purely mathematical play would only hurt me because weak players don't make logical plays.

Exactly, that's why Doyle Brunson in his classic tome "Supersystem" he says to never bother bluffing a fish. He does not even understand the complexities of the game so he will just call you irregardless. Play ABC poker against fish, and the weight of the mathematics will bury the fish in an oil spill.

Yes, it is VERY boring when I sit there for hours and only make like a dollar at a time...but it is very necessary to play at low stakes until my bankroll is large enough to handle variance at higher stakes. A couple weeks ago my friend deposited like $50 for the first time, and I told him to read up on bankroll management. Very smart guy, yet he jumped straight into low/medium stakes tables instead of micro and lost all $50 in one night.

The advantage of playing low stakes is that it allows you to see all the possible card variations out there, so you also get a mathematical feel/intuition for how often say you hit your flush after the turn.

The downside, like you mentioned is that you really can only play ABC poker at those microlevels since most of the people are just loose calling stations.

The one advantage of poker is that it is scalable unlike other professions. In other words, if you are a doctor, to double your income, you have to see double the patients, which means double the time, unless you can clone yourself. If you become really good at poker, you can jump from $10/$20 tables to $100/$200 tables and make more money in the SAME amount of time.

Caveat: in scalable professions such as poker and trading, there are non-linearities in payoffs. In other words, you have a couple of giants (winners) and lots of dwarfs (losers). Just like in the record industry, you have the pop stars that make millions, and then you have this huge graveyard of aspiring singers who are wasting away at Starbucks.

Competition is more intense in winner-take-all professions such as poker and trading.

 

[sageproduct]

WTF just got an e-mail saying my rakeback deal has been denied!! Because I didn't download Full Tilt through the rakeback site or something. I'm not gonna create ANOTHER account to try to get rakeback. Not worth it for my low stakes anyway.

Trader do you play often? In casinos or online?

 

[CrashOverRide]

Exactly, that's why Doyle Brunson in his classic tome "Supersystem" he says to never bother bluffing a fish. He does not even understand the complexities of the game so he will just call you irregardless. Play ABC poker against fish, and the weight of the mathematics will bury the fish in an oil spill.



The advantage of playing low stakes is that it allows you to see all the possible card variations out there, so you also get a mathematical feel/intuition for how often say you hit your flush after the turn.

The downside, like you mentioned is that you really can only play ABC poker at those microlevels since most of the people are just loose calling stations.

The one advantage of poker is that it is scalable unlike other professions. In other words, if you are a doctor, to double your income, you have to see double the patients, which means double the time, unless you can clone yourself. If you become really good at poker, you can jump from $10/$20 tables to $100/$200 tables and make more money in the SAME amount of time.

Caveat: in scalable professions such as poker and trading, there are non-linearities in payoffs. In other words, you have a couple of giants (winners) and lots of dwarfs (losers). Just like in the record industry, you have the pop stars that make millions, and then you have this huge graveyard of aspiring singers who are wasting away at Starbucks.

Competition is more intense in winner-take-all professions such as poker and trading.

True.... Personally micro-stakes just don't do it for me. I like playing for real stakes.... it motivates me and makes me play at my best. You definitely need poker funamentals to be successful... however the element that makes a player great is being able to get a feel for his opponent and to quote Rounders "you have to play the man, not the cards"

That being said if you are just learning, playing the microstakes is probably a smart idea.

I love poker!

 

[Julius_Seizeher]

I can't stand online poker, I spend enough time on a computer trading stocks.

I just joined the Moose lodge in my town so I could have a real game to go to. If you're not drinking whiskey n water with cigar smoke in the air, you ain't playing poker.

 

[Serialized3]

If you're not drinking whiskey n water with cigar smoke in the air, you ain't playing poker.

What he said. Real poker isn't just luck/skill, it's tells, reads and psych-outs.