As I said in the topic I am not sure if this appropriate for this forum.

I was just wondering who plays and what your experiences have been, both in the Casino and online. I have just started messing around with poker a little in the past week and I am keen to hear from others and get their impressions.

Do you just play for something to do when you are bored.

Are you serious and only play when there is money to be made.

Or do you just have a little splurge now and then for the hell of it.

I have tried playing online a little, and to me it seems even at the micro stakes everyone generally knows what they are doing now... and even if you are a good player, your edge is pretty small. Especially with all the training video sites that exist now. To me, it just seems that if you want to earn decent money, you are going to have to invest quite a large amount of time to get good enough.

Also i play casually with friends every few weeks for like $30-40.

I play pokerroom.com. I play all the time. It's real good fun.

Used to play each week at Chalk Hotel. Free to play, top few people get free booze or bar tabs or prizes. Get points for where you place and 4 times a year they have state wide comps at Broncos Leagues club and can win decent money or entry into world comps.

They stopped it at Chalk mid-year and there was no decent venues near me in the league (AMP) so starting next year i will be playing in the ALP league at the Jubilee Hotel.

Great way to meet new people and have an evening of fun and challange. Some people take it seriously but not many, you kinda get laughed at and made fun of if you arn't there for fun.

Looking forward to getting back into it soon (been busy with work and personal life so have not got back into it already).

On another note, kinda unrelated. Was looking at getting back into a weekly 10-pin bowling league. Did it for a few years a few years ago but everyone i played with went overseas and stuff. Anyone here play in a league? Was playing at Mt Gravatt but live in Spring Hill so anywhere near there (ie. Cannon Hill, Kedron, etc) is cool. Let me know if anyone is into that and might want a new team mate for next year.

i just play against mates and a bit online (used to play a bit of fb poker)

all my mates play apl at the various locations

I used to play APL until the bastards started making it compulsory to buy 2 drinks in order to get 500 chips (to start with 1500).

I won a tourney once. Ended up heads-up against a guy who was absolutely smashed, so I knew I had won. Beat 210 players.

Here's what I won:

http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v81/63/95/623890638/n623890638_142565_4315.jpg

Very nice Pinky.

You know I am having a crap load of trouble online dealing with two types of players. 1) Players that throw so much money out that you get crushed under the sheer weight of it. and 2) players that more or less totally refuse to bet but blind side you at the end of a hand with something like trip 2's or 3's.

I am only new to the game but still that kind of thing it pretty frustrating.

UNBELIEVABLE! look up tuff_fish on youtube for maximum lols

You know I am having a crap load of trouble online dealing with two types of players. 1) Players that throw so much money out that you get crushed under the sheer weight of it. and 2) players that more or less totally refuse to bet but blind side you at the end of a hand with something like trip 2's or 3's.

ive just read phil gordons greenbook, and he reckons one of the best online players he knows is all about point 1

ive just read phil gordons greenbook, and he reckons one of the best online players he knows is all about point 1

Terrible book compared to whats out there, Brunson's Super Systems and Sklansky's books are probably the best books in regards to the fundamentals.

Harrington on Hold'em Volumes 1-3, hands down, best books out there.

Phil Hellmuth's Play Poker Like the Pros is the best book . He is the self-proclaimed best player in the world. He is also sponsored by Ultimatebet a website found to have cheated players out of millions.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/25/60minutes/main4633254.shtml

I looked up Tuff_fish and got a little laugh then I found this ... lol gold

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Terrible book compared to whats out there, Brunson's Super Systems and Sklansky's books are probably the best books in regards to the fundamentals.

yer, even the greenbook was probably beyond where im at skills wise, so brunsons and co, would be well beyond me

Phil Hellmuth's

lols, can you even spell poker?

last edited by Spook at 22:27:03 22/Dec/08

i play for fun every now and again. I know people that play for 'a living'. Grinding away all day every day, multiple tables with 1000 pounds on the line each table. It sounds exciting when said like that, but it's utterly boring. Too boring. I can't play like that. 'Oh, it's possible he has a better hand, fold.'

When i play it's all $6->$22 sit and go. Probably low stack turbo. Full Tilt have started these matrixes, where you play four tables at once against the same players, it pays 1&2 for each table plus 1&2 overall based on score given for KO's and placings. That's a lot of frantic fun. Turbo matrixes.

gambling is a tax on the stupid.

omline poker is rigged.

gambling is a tax on the stupid.

Only the naïve cry about poker being gambling.

Sure, there is "luck" involved in single hands or tournaments... but if you look at the long term, players who make good decisions will show a profit.

For example, you might have your AA busted by KK. Sure its unfortunate at the time, but you are only supposed to win that 80% of the time. If you look at long term results, the variance gets flattened out and there is no luck.

yea great example about decisions bro

played for about 6 years, won some good money in uk, euorpe and us. just got back to oz and had a crack at going pro. bad beat after bad beat, so i had to get a job. boo.

gambling is a tax on the stupid.

Only the naïve cry about poker being gambling.

i love these arguments! its how i make money. stupid poeple throwing money into something they dont understand. i dont "play" the stock market cause i dont understand it.

its funny that having stocks is more sociably exceptable. my old man just lost $130k this year on the market.

i play serious and i play to make money. i normally cash 1 out of 3 tournaments. i have a log book of every dollar euro or pound ive put on the table. and i know my return.

too many bad beats so no pro? More like sample size increased and u realised u were a losing player

Well if you are playing tournaments (especially large ones), you need an extremely large sample size to see what your EV is

too many bad beats so no pro?

hahaha. well, when their a %5 under dog and they hit ill take it on the chin. when they hit %5 4times in a row, thats a bad beat. anyway, got most of it back.

More like sample size increased and u realised u were a losing player

larger sample size in bris compared to London and Vegas? Hmm... Averaged $100 an hour in vegas, so im doing something right.

last edited by mooby at 16:22:31 24/Dec/08

larger sample size as in playing more hands.......

yeah mooby $100 per hour should be enough to keep most people pretty happy ... I know damn well I'd be grinning. Good luck in the future... I just wish I had the experience to actually go out and make a little cash.

I am not greedy or want to be a some kind of star, just a few busks to supliment my pay each week would be nice.

On a related note, I read a few revues of Brunsons book and the 2002 version. got a beating by reviewers because it's aparently a poorly written rehash of the book he did in the 70's. I do need something for the absolute novice.

sorry for the double post.

I have a couple of small issues with some of the things I have been readind in beginers guides. So yeah please keep in mind that I am a beginer.

One of the these things is riasing on AA before and after the flop. Now pretty much everything I have read says that in the early positions you should riase like you have them. Now what I don't get is that given everyone gets told or taught this surely you might as well turn them face up because everyone is going to be at the least pretty sure of what you have?

Now if the objective is to thin out the number of people going to the flop thats fine, I get it. Of course it also makes people that want to play pay for it and I get that too. But in online play there are a frigging s*** ton of people that limp to the flop or limp on the first round of betting after the flop so how the hell do you deal with them?

I am really struggling with eratic styles between the different people as the betting is all over the shop. The only thing I can come up with is to play as tight as possible and at this stage I see the flop about 40% of the time which I have read maybe a little high. My wins on the at the showdown is sitting about 70% however when I lose I tend to lose bad and in some small way I blame not being able to read peoples style due to it's ertaic nature.

Any personal tips as to what you guys do would be appreciated.

I don't want to make a a living doing this but I want to be competitive because I don't play anything to be an also ran.

Thanks guys

The number of people at the table makes a difference, what games are you playing exactly?

40% is too high unless you're playing super short handed, especially for a beginner. You need to learn to fold more.

well I am playing at 6 player max tables so often you'll get a couple fold right off the bat leaving you with no more than 4 people. I do tend to have a go with high cards if there has been a couple of people that fold. But I am not over the top about that either... although when I get caught I tend to get caught bad.

I have a lot of work to put in and I am prepared to do it so as I said I appreciate any tips/help

i learnt a good lesson after being dealt bullets

i was in a hot streak, and thought yup, this is about right, i cant lose right now, so slow played trying to get as much coin in the middle as possible

few other players are betting and im just sitting back counting my money already, pair of tens or something in the middle, but nothing that could hurt me (or so i thought)

turns out no one else had anyhting, except a dude ended up hitting a low straight with the last card in the middle so i lost, lost it all;

wont slow play a pair of aces again in a hurry

I'll assume you're playing tiny stakes online, no limit hold'em? Your basic casino cash game plays just as basic.

Are you guessing you're playing 40% of hands or are you tracking stats? 40% is too many hands for a beginner to be playing, probably too many hands for a pro to be playing except in specific spots.

At smaller stakes the best advice I could give would be to not do anything fancy, playid tight solid ABC type poker. Don't try and mix it up by limping in with your aces, bet your big hands there's no need to slow play, don't try many bluffs, don't chase s***ty draws.

You'll find it's hard to make people fold at those stakes if they have any piece of the board at all, so keep your bluffs to a minimum, or at least if they are not folding give up on your bluffs earlier.

Then learn about draws and the odds they'll come in so you know if you can chase your flushes and straights and stuff.

I started off playing really tight (but at full ring tables) and slowly learning to loosen up after playing s***loads of hands, we're talking 50k hands+

After a while you'll start to get a feel for which dudes are passive or agro at your table and adjust your play vs each one. If you work out how a guy plays in certain situations write a note on him if the site you play on has notes.

For a basic example if it folds to you on the button, trying to steal the blinds of a dude who never folds is a waste of money, raise him up only when you've got a somewhat decent hand. On the other hand if they always fold, raise up almost any two cards.

And read a lot of poker community sites, poker forums, discuss hands with other players. There's lots to learn. The little green book is pretty basic, have another crack at it after playing a little while. Harrington on hold'em books are decent but more geared towards tournaments. Theory of poker is a must read too, but maybe not just yet.

wont slow play a pair of aces again in a hurry

That's called being results oriented which is bad

yeah mooby $100

thanks, USD too. : ). Just made a good score down here in canberra playing the $5/5 game. Big bluff with 27. Contiunation bet on the flop, get them all to fold. Nice little $200 pot and showed the bluff. Will head down again tonight.

wont slow play a pair of aces again in a hurry

club in london one night got dealt rockets 3 times in one sitting. raised big first 2 times, only won the blinds. last time i slow played to the flop, got paid. never easy and never a right answer. However, one book ive just read says to slow play a big poket pair once in a while. Say red kings. This way your mixing your game up a bit, less predicatble.

Nearly busted aces last night with 46. Flop 635. 15outs twice, should of called him.

That canberra $200 table is the same old guys jerking each other off each night waiting to rape the drunk kids whenever they show up. Thursdays they run $60 sngs which is a bit more my thing.

damn I am having such a hard time atm I really am just treading water right now. I am playing as tight as I can and am simply not getting anything to work with.

Just played in a tourney on Poker stars .... lost of fun :). I finished 195 of 2974 so that wasn't to bad I guess.

sounds like another losing player

where is imitation

Whats that Persay? Sorry man just not sure what you are reffering to thats all.

Just played another tourney on Poker stars and improved my position from teh one before it, so I was happy with the improvement. It didn't cost me anything to buy in (special offer) so it was good for the experience.

At the moment I am not trying to push to hard I am just trying to hold my own. I figure if I go at it like a bull at a gat eand get whipped I'm not going to learn s***. It's obvious though that I need more experience when raising after all it's no good having a killer hand if you go right out and tell everyone about it with a poorly judged bet. I also need to get better at knowing when I should pick up the pace because that last tourney the blinds were starting to take their toll on my stack.