Poker Novice Questions

[leroyloverod]

Thanks danny thats almost exactly the way i have been playing for the last 3 nights now. I've entered a few mtts and struggle there as players are too aggressive to go up against early in the game (bad pockets doesn't help either) and i end up relatively short stacked. Learning though got halfway in laddies freeroll last night, but got pretty much blinded out after getting beaten with a straight against 3 of a kind. (river card did it for them)

fair enough you have to take a chance as there was always the possibility of the last card being the straight, but i was holding one of the fgour he needed so i thought the odds were in my favour.

Some tips for the early going in stts and mtts is what i need as thats where i fall down mostly in the past.

As for the small stakes stts, i have been doing remarkebly well. Out of 6 played so far on bf, i have won 4 come 2nd in 1 and nowhere in the other. Been playing a lot less than usual and it seems to be keeping me sharper. Its uncanny what danny has said as after reading a few posts on here and relaxing a bit i seem to be doing just that and find that 75% of the time i can tell whats gonna happen after my turn.

With the £1 stts i find the best thing to do is not to play a hand for the first 2 rounds or so (unless nuts in hand) this way you always watch at least two or three go. The people who are well stacked at this stage are easy to separate:

1) They play almost every hand and inevitibly give a large chunk of their stack back

2) They sit tight on their large stack ond don't give much back checking and raising until good cards come by.


Its at this point i normally start playing as the table has lost most of the early volatility and good hands tend to do well. I give myself a good chance once down to 4 even short stacked. (last night, someone beat my kk with a flush, knocked me down to 160 chips at blinds 100/200- i came back and won. Even for a fiver that had my heart going as i hit a run of the best pocket cards & flops i have ever seen. Kept getting called by the chip leader think he got a wee bit frustrated! Lucky i know but i would havew paid £1.20 to watch someone else do that!

Anyway less is more for me now and i'm enjoying my cards because of it!

Merry Christmas everyone on PL. Hope to see every one about the forum over the next few days.

[Hedonist]

I will not offer any advice as there are better players than me on this forum to do so.

I play mainly freerolls and low level sit and goes, I started on Betfair and played 10 games during which my winnings were £9 from a stake of £10 + £2 charges (20%). I therefore lost £3.

I then moved to a site where I play $2 + .20 (10%) charges, I have been playing there for a couple of months and am currently showing a profit of $5.80.

If I had been charged 20% I would be showing a loss.

The one thing I know is that I am playing at the correct level for my capabilites, if my profits increase I will move up the levels, if not I will continue to enjoy my poker.

Have a Happy Christmas all.

[Valiant23]

Originally Posted by Danny Cash

There are probably more tips I can give you but it's late. There are much better players in this forum than me so I hope they can contribute.

Remember you can't be a world-beater overnight. I've been playing about 18months and it's only just clicked really in the last 3-4 months. Experience is everything, the more you play, the better you become and the quicker your brain will be able to calculate outs, when to be aggressive and when to fold.

Good luck mate,
DC

Danny, that was an excellent post and good common sense advice.

Originally Posted by Hedonist

I will not offer any advice as there are better players than me on this forum to do so.

Hedonist, you opinion also makes a valid contribution too. Some people find a level and continue to show a profit, regardless of whether it's £1 or £10 or $10.

Another point is that a £1 STT at Betfair may have a better level of player than a £1 STT at Sporting odds, so sometimes it isn't finding your level, but rather finding your poker 'home'.

But guys please remember that any opinion is valid. There are better players than me on here too (and a lot of them), but that doesn't and won't mean I'll be reluctant to post.

It is possible that you could help a 'better' player with one aspect of their game with something that you regard as second nature.

[Dodger]

I'm not an expert either (been playing less than 2 years online), however want to pass an a tip I read in a poker magazine a few months ago...

If you feel down, tired or poorly...then DON'T play poker at all...save it for when you feel well and wide awake!

Yes, well that's a bit obvious, isn't it?
Maybe so, but I was on a bad 2 week long losing streak, battling against toothache to play my beloved poker! Now how stupid was that? My concentration was shot to pieces and I was playing the worst poker of my life without realising what I was doing.

So now, if I don't feel 100%, I just will not play at all.

[socky1]

A quick question to those in the know if you are playing stt say A Six pack would it possible for sombody to manipulate it say with more than computer or somthing cus thought of that always tends to put me off playing STT

[GotaFancy?]

You mean one person playing 2 hands and therefore seeing 4 pocket cards?

There aren't many people who have the skill to profit from that I don't think - if you pay 2 entry fees out of 6, you have to be pretty confident one of them will hit the money every time..... and those that do have the skill to profit from it probably play at high limits, where they wouldn't get away with it (because their opponents would soon realise!!)

I've always thought as well - if I were to cheat - then I wouldn't chose Texas Hold'em - I'd choose something like Omaha where you get 5 private cards () - that way, with 2 players, you're seeing 10 cards - or 20% of the pack!!

[Jaded]

GaF, Omaha you only get 4 private cards! :P

(Yes, this is a pointless post, but it's making me feel intelligent, so hey...)

[Pocket Lady]

Are you sure that you are playing Omaha -Jaded and not having double vision?
I saw somewhere that you are as nissed as a pewt and still trying to play poker!

[GotaFancy?]

Ok - fair enough You can tell I don't play Omaha!!!! The point stands though - there's twice as many visible cards as in Holdem!!!

[Jaded]

Me, PL? You must be officer, joking! I'm nowhere near as think as you drunk I am!

[kevsul]

Hi Guy's & Gals.. Well i have been playing quite alot of the freerolls lately and i believe getting better..But i seem to look at where i am in the game and how many chips i have for me to get in the money... E.G yesterday i was 1st/243 payout at 27 only 65 left in so now i start thinking about staying towards the top as i want to beat my P/B.then you get hands that you raise on JJ or QQ someone raise's you on the flop with a king there but rubbish otherwise. So you fold only to see all they had was Ace..Something you could of beat.. So then you start to play tight just to get in the top part for the money hoping along the way u get a chance to hit a good flop... any advice as to how i should play a little better ...BTW i have also read what D/C say in the thread earlier.. that has also helped G.L all KEV

[Valiant23]

Originally Posted by kevsul

Hi Guy's & Gals.. Well i have been playing quite alot of the freerolls lately and i believe getting better..But i seem to look at where i am in the game and how many chips i have for me to get in the money... E.G yesterday i was 1st/243 payout at 27 only 65 left in so now i start thinking about staying towards the top as i want to beat my P/B.

Kev it took me a while to realise that although it's nice to be chip leader it doesn't really matter until the last 2 tables or so, and even then it can change very quickly.

I have found that in any tournament the people at the top leapfrog each other, so if you find yourself dropping down the leaderboard don't panic. Don't worry about your position, just how you are playing.

then you get hands that you raise on JJ or QQ someone raise's you on the flop with a king there but rubbish otherwise. So you fold only to see all they had was Ace..Something you could of beat..

That boils down to watching a player and deciding if they are bluffing or not - if someone rarely bluffs and makes a raise to represent a bigger pair then you could either call his raise or fold. If someone bluffs a lot then you make a decision there and then, but even bluffers are allowed good cards occasionally. BUT I tell myself that if I get bluffed off a hand that it was a good fold anyway.

What you must remember about pocket pairs Kev, is that they are only strong before the flop. After they are just a pair, and could be beaten by any 2 raggy pair.

Not a complete solution, but one to help you progress I hope.

[robilaruk]

Shove or fold dependant on your chip stack compared to their chip stack compared to the blinds

think about this - heads up you will not see a PP very often (1 every 16 hands or so) so if you get one, you are AHEAD

if you see a flop 50% of the time you miss it completely so if you do hit anything - BET, and bet big - make them pay to chase

and be prepared to play rags - Q8, K6 etc - any face card has tremendous value against one opponent - suited connectors etc have similar strengths - as always, the closer together/higher the cards are the better

At the end of the day, you will only get a feel for the game by playing it - so play as much as you can - VC poker has 10 and 20c STT so you can get lots of cheap practice

Hope this helps

Damo

Originally Posted by jtw1

Any advice please ! , When it comes down to heads up play or down to last 3 ,can anyone please give some tips .
It is SO different a game .

[Hodgey]

Total Newbie Alert here!

I've been reading lots of the threads in here and also some excellent links provided by various people too. And until 2 weeks ago I had never played a hand of poker in my life. So I decided to give it a go. However, obviously, I didn't want to risk real money. I didn't know where to start to be honest so have ended up at Yahoo Games poker tables. Now I'm guessing this is probably not the best place to be, however I only went there cos I didn't want to download any software initially.

I have a couple of newbie questions:

1) Where would be a good place for me to start playing? Ideally I want to get some experience playing STT or MTT's rather than these ring games at Yahoo, but still for play money.

2) My second question is regarding sign up bonuses. If I download a poker site (for example Bet365 or VC), do I have to create a real money account to be able to play for play money? If I don't, then great, there is no issue regarding bonuses. But If I do, do I forgo any bonus entitlements. Obviously eventually I would like to be able to play this game properly and do not want to do myself out of bonuses cos they are a good way to start a bankroll.

Thanks in advance.

[GotaFancy?]

Hodgey

Good to see you take the plunge - I'm sure you'll become as addicted as the rest of us.

Practically all of the sites offer "play money" games - so you should have no troubles there. If you don't want to download sites, some have now started offering games that work within the browser - so downloads can be avoided (though I don't feel you have anything to fear from downloading!!). Real Money accounts are not usually required to play for play money (and indeed, deposits/banking details are not usually required to have a real money account, which will allow you to play freerolls - games free to enter with real cash prizes). As a newbie, you shouldn't worry about sign up bonuses - you have to turn over your bonus (in the form of raked hands) at cash tables to release it, and cash games are the surest way for newbies to lose money.

With freerolls, there is absolutely no need for new players to risk their own money, yet they can start building a bankroll (at no risk!!!) - for example Mr V won over £300 in a Freeroll just last night!!!

Practice with play money, yes - to understand the rules of the game, and how the software functions - but don't trust these games to learn any strategy - start that in Freerolls!!! (though don't expect the strategy in Freerolls to be that high either!!)

Any questions - feel free to fire away!!

[Hodgey]

Thanks mate.

I shall download Bet365 this arvo and give it a go...

[Hedonist]

Hodgey

Bet365 also do playmoney sit and goes, I have found them very good for learning as people play them more seriously than cash play money games.

[Hodgey]

God damn it's addictive!!

Played around a bit on all sorts of tables to get used to the software, then played 4 STT's for play money. Came 2nd in one and won the last one. I know it's not real but I'm well happy with that! And totally hooked!

Not that I'm gonna start playing for real cash yet, but are the cash STT the same format. Ie - if it's a $2 buy in on a 10 man table do you all get 1000 chips and compete for $10 first place, $6 second place and $4 third place?

Also one other question - my Bet365 sports account is in £ but all the poker seems to be in $. Is there a conversion rate or is it in effect £=$ ?

Cheers.

[GotaFancy?]

The format is similar - may be differences between games, speed of blinds, amount of starting chips, but the difference is more site by site and game v game than play money v real money. Typically a 10 man STT has top 3 paid at 50%, 30% and 20% (so the same).

Almost all poker (though there are a few exceptions) operates in dollars - I can't think specifically for Bet365, though the sites usually do the exchange at the mid rate (i.e. between buy and sell rates) - and your winnings are converted at the same rate as the buy in - so as far as I am aware, they don't profit at all with exchange rates. If you play in a $1 game, then something like £0.60 will be deducted from your account.

Seriously consider playing a few Freerolls - it sounds to me like you're ready for it, and you are risking nothing of your own!!! Popular ones amongst the beginners are Safety Net at Sporting Odds at 19:00 each evening and Bankroll Booster at Blue Square at 19:45 each evening. The Europoker Freeroll at 17:00 each evening is good value. I'd recommend you pick one and make it your mission each time you play to finish higher than you did last time - you'll be hitting the money (with no investment) in no time!!!)

If you want to play a freeroll on Bet365 to avoid getting any more software - they have a $5,000 freeroll every Saturday evening. This does have in excess of 5000 entrants though (with top 130 I think receiving cash prizes!!!)

[GotaFancy?]

Just to be sure as well - I presume from your first post that you have seen them, but make sure you have read Poker On A Shoestring Budget or £0-£150 In 4mths. and Stages of Development