Poker Novice Questions

[wizard]

Cheers.

I have doubled my money in the last hour and have been looking at my stats. Are they important? what %'s should i be looking to get?

[wizard]

Another question, whats the best way to make money cash or stt?

wizard

[Valiant23]

Whichever suits your style/temperament best.

I am Rubbish playing cash games, but do okay in STT's/MTT's. Others do okay in both, and others only play cash. It depends on time restraints too. Cash games are perfect if you only have 15mins, STT's can take about an hour, MTT's up to 3 or 4.

[AJ]

Playing some stt's and doing some reading, people refer to "TPMK" and the like wtf is this ??

Also exactly what do people mean when they talk about "top pair"

[Paul Ross]

Not sure what TPMK is Fools, but top pair is basically this:

Flop shows 5d 9h Jc

You have: Jh Qh

Hence, you have top pair (Jacks) and with a high kicker, the queen, so you would be in the driving seat in that hand.

[AJ]

So top pair refers to what is on the board ??

He could have pocket aces, but we'd still call what i have as top pair ??

[Valiant23]

Strangely, yes.

Look at it this way;

Flop shows 5d 9h Jc

You have: Jh Qh

Player 2 has xx/xx
Player 3 has xx/xx
Player 4 has xx/xx
Player 5 has xx/xx

At that point, until the betting starts your only knowledge is as PR says, you have top pair with a good kicker, and it is other peoples betting and what you read into the way they bet that is your only clue as to what they hold.

Some of the betting that goes on is basically to see if it's possible to get a read on what other players hold. So in this situation you'd put in a reasonable bet (say 100 chips).

Player 2 has 5c/4s and folds (bottom pair and v.low kicker).
Player 3 has 5h/Ah and calls (hoping to hit his 'outs').
Player 4 has Ac/Ad and calls or even raises - but he is 'slow-playing' or 'sand-bagging', so just calls (this time).
Player 5 has 8c/10c and calls (he is hoping for either any 7 or Q, although strangely a 7 makes his hand slightly stronger, as a Q could give others a higher straight).

As you weren't raised on that round of betting you can be quite confident of being ahead on the hand, but you only know at the end, when hole cards get shown.

[AJ]

Thanks for that, i've just played my third STT (first real money games) and I won !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Low stakes, but some of the people playign were shocking, going to try another one later

[Valiant23]

Good start, Fools!!!

[AJ]

thanks, so back to topic what is TPMK ? seems to refer to a hand, reading a guide and someone says when you have TPMK you should..........

[stereoman]

....Top Pair, Middle Kicker I believe.

[AJ]

sounds good, so whats a middle kicker ?

[stereoman]

Low kicker would be 2-5 or 2-6, Middle kicker would be 5/6-10, and high kickers would be jack-to-king with the king, top kicker.

Surely you know what 'kickers' are? And don't say a make of shoe!

[AJ]

I think a kicker is what you use to decide in a tie, i.e if we both have a pair of tens, and I have an ace, he has a king. Then I a win with a higher kicker ??

I know some of these question may appear dumb, but I've only played in the PL freerolls before, and a couple of hours on the play sites.

[GotaFancy?]

Nice start Fools

You ought to look at the PL Leagues if you can (I appreciate Time Zones probably make it difficult!!!!) - you'll get a decent standard of play, for a low buy in, and large added value.........

Just one thing I disagree with above - If the board shows Flop shows 5d 9h Jc and you have a J, then you have top pair, however if you have AA then you don't have top pair, you have an overpair.........

Your definition of Kicker looks good

[Blade]

another thing to remember with kickers is that what's on the board counts as well.

An example would be if you have A7 and your opponent has A3 and the board comes JK8A9 then the pot would be split because you can both make the best hand of AAKJ9 ie. your 7 kicker vs his 3 kicker has been made redundant by the board showing higher cards.

[AJ]

Thanks for that guys.

I was playing a stt last night and it seemed a bit strange to me, 5 player tournement and the other 4 players all went all in preflop first hand, why would they do this ?? Two of them split the pot, I folded. I think they all knew each other.

I got constant abuse from one of them as soon as he sat down, I'd played him once before (when I won), then in chat he'd tell the other player what he had, stuff like "pair of aces here" but it seemed to be lies most of the time. He made a negative comment about the PL

I made it to the last 2, short stacked got a pair of nines, went all in preflop and came up against a pair of aces, but in the money again, made the cash two from four, so quite encouraged

Does this seem very strange, or is the world just full of nutters ??

[Valiant23]

Originally Posted by Foolsgold

I got constant abuse from one of them as soon as he sat down, I'd played him once before (when I won), then in chat he'd tell the other player what he had, stuff like "pair of aces here" but it seemed to be lies most of the time. He made a negative comment about the PL

Sorry Fools, this is Poker Novice Questions - not Remedial Poker player issues.



Gaf - Where were overpairs mentioned?

[Mr Intensity]

was playing a stt last night and it seemed a bit strange to me, 5 player tournement and the other 4 players all went all in preflop first hand, why would they do this ?? Two of them split the pot, I folded. I think they all knew each other.

I got constant abuse from one of them as soon as he sat down, I'd played him once before (when I won), then in chat he'd tell the other player what he had, stuff like "pair of aces here" but it seemed to be lies most of the time. He made a negative comment about the PL

I made it to the last 2, short stacked got a pair of nines, went all in preflop and came up against a pair of aces, but in the money again, made the cash two from four, so quite encouraged

Does this seem very strange, or is the world just full of nutters ??

I'd love it if they all went all in first hand. Did they all have monster hands? It does seem very strange, never seen it before.

You could have tried complaining to the poker site if you had any evidence that they all knew each other and were colluding, but I don't think they'd do anything about it

[wizard]

Why should I be wary of Hungarians?