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Liquor in the front, [Poker] in the rear.
EddieDean
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
POKER!
Specifically, No Limit Texas Hold 'Em
Though all types are welcome here.
Specifically, No Limit Texas Hold 'Em
Though all types are welcome here.
So, who's a fan?
Who plays regularly?
Who wants to know more about the game?
Who has good poker stories to tell?
I'd played poker a few times before with friends, but recently in Edinburgh (where I'm at) a pub poker league's just started where it's free to play and you can win big prizes, so I've started to take an interest.
It's a fantastic game, and if you can get over the apparent glamour of what TV'd have you believe the game's like, and the 'YEEEEE-HAW! ALL IN!' attitude some idiots think exemplifies the game, you discover what makes the game so god-damned good.
Anyone else a fan?
EddieDean on
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Switch - SW-3699-5063-5018
Relevant to the topic- I enjoy poker a lot, but once people start taking it too seriously it crosses over to the realm of unfun. Whenever money is involved people are likely to start taking it too seriously and whenever its not no one cares enough to play smart.
It is good fun if you have a group of people that don't turn into douches when playing.
Yeah, it's cool here, I checked with Echo.
Aye, it's not fun when people get all serious. There's a load of pretense surrounding the game which really annoys me, but with a good group of people it can be great.
It was only recently that I realised how much strategy the game really holds, and how little information people have.
No Limit Texas Hold 'Em is a fantastic game, as it's a game where, unlike say chess, you don't have all the information about the game at any one time. Plays shouldn't be made based solely on what you have in your hand (as new players and TV watchers believe), careful consideration should be made as to what information you're gaining or giving away.
The skill is in gaining the informational advantage over other players, and exploiting it for maximum gain. An all-in early on is normally a waste if all you're doing is winning the blinds because everyone folds out. The real skill lies in, when you have a great hand, misinforming other players so they're more likely to add money to the pot which you know will be won by you.
Disagree. Poker is a horrible game, only made interesting because it involves money (and because gambling really fucks with the human brain). In the short term, the results you get are nigh completely detached from your decisions, which can be a huge source of frustration and stress to the player (which assholes then vent off to other players in the table). And, since like with all gambling, correct decisions are often counterintuitive, the game is exceedingly difficult to learn to play. Impossible, in fact, to learn to play by actually playing (your brain just doesn't work that way!). Those are not signs of good game design to me.
Really, in my experience, most people who don't play poker or play poker poorly think it's all about bluffs and counter bluffs and checking if the other guy is bleeding from his eyes to see if you should fold your straight flush or call his bluff - that is, he "only" has four of a kind so it's a bluff (and now that I think about it, I'm not even sure which is better, because, seriously, when the fuck does that ever come up and I'm never going to fold either of those hands, ever!)
No, not really. It's more about playing your marginal and good-but-not-great hands well. Great hands really play themselves and aren't all that important anyway because a hand you see once in a blue moon isn't going to affect your longterm profits in any meaningful way.
Cheers. It's not original.
Yeah. A lot of new players think that bluffing means raising ridiculously on poor cards every few hands, and when people fold out to them they think 'Fuck yeah, I was great just now!' despite having gained very little.
Allow me to correct myself. The strategy I mentioned (of milking as much as possible out of a good hand through misdirection) is most important for conservative play, which is what I play the most in my local league, as most of the opposition are aggressive or super-aggressive, and it's the strongest playstyle against such people.
But yes, in a well-matched game where everyone's good at poker, your middle-hands are the most important to play well.
So, one night, everyone is getting absolutely crazy hands. I hit trips 4 times on one table, I believe, as did many others. There were a few quads as well, but not from me.
After a while, there are 4 of us left in play, one has folded the hand, and I'm facing off against two people to my left and right. I had a Jack and a King, and the flop throws up two Jacks and a King. So I've got a full house, Jacks full of Kings, on the flop, and I'm thinking there's no way the guys to my left and right have got me beat.
All three of us are betting heavy, and I'm feeling sorry for the other two because I'm taking so much money from them. It comes time for us to show our cards, and the guy on my left shows first. He hasn't beaten me, as I suspected. So I throw my cards down triumphantly, when I'm cut short by the guy on my left who throws down a goddamn Royal Flush. I probably should have expected it, given how many good hands were showing up all night.
I suspect that'll be the first and last time I'll see one.
In last Monday's game I met someone's all-in with fair odds (I was about 8:13 to win, he was about 1:20), but he lucked out, leaving me with a tiny amount of chips left (about 300 compared to an average of about 3500)
So, clearly I was out pretty soon. Next hand, I turned up Ace-King unsuited. Fuck. A guy bet the big blind (of 100) and I jokingly said 'Why don't you put your money where your mouth is? ALL IN!' Essentially raising a tiny amount. Obviously most people bet over me, so I had a tiny sidepot. The flop came up, AK6. Two guys remained, kept betting up. The turn came, Ace. One of the guys folded out, so the first took all of their pot, and it was up to he and I for the tiny side. The guy had nothing, and I proudly showed my full house, Aces of Kings.
Probably the best hand I've seen in a game I've played, and, while awesome, incredibly frustrating that it was worth next to nothing as I had nothing to bet for it.
Haha. That's classic. It sucks that you can't win much with such a fantastic hand. Still, I've seen some people claw their way back to being chip leader or close to it from a couple of hundred. Changes in chips happen so fast sometimes.
Damn, that's some pretty amazing odds right there.
Just played a game now, I was playing like shit though, got out pretty early.
But on the way back, a buddy and I found an old computer someone'd dumped on the street, so he decided to take it home to use as a server. Turns out it was some old homeless junkie's machine, it's full of her diaries about life on the street and her addiction. Fascinating stuff.
You play any poker?
Sometimes yea, I'm a bit fuzzy on all the rules though.