I have learned something totally stunning playing on Party Poker the last little while. There is just enough chance for a crappy hand to win that when you are playing a full table of idiots, someone will stay in with a crappy hand and beat a good hand. Last night I played a number of games, and time and again I was losing hands to people who had stayed in with things like 75os or J5os. I am stunned to see people going all in with 74os. It’s stunning.

I have come to the conclusion that unless you are playing truly big money tables, then Party Poker is NOT the place to play from about Friday noon until monday morning. The moron factor is high, and they are taking hands through sheer luck and nothing else.

I have also noticed the trend in tournaments on TV. Online players making the final table but not having a clue how to bet or how to read a bet. They are playing on balls, luck, and gumption, and often lack the basic skills. Thankfully, at the highest levels, they mostly get blown out.

Chip and a chair applies equally to morons, I guess.

Alex

Here is an interesting theory I have come up with…

I play a bunch of “sit-and-go” tournaments, which basically is one table, 10 people, playing with a top prize of about 50% of the money paid in. The blinds start small and increase every 10 hands. A typical s-a-g table lasts about 60-70 hands, maybe 45 minutes to an hour total. If you get into the top 3, you make money… it’s not terrible.

It is a good testing ground for ideas and theories to win bigger tournaments. You get to see 10 people go through all their paces, and depending on the type of table (read PRICE) that you play, you will see many different playing styles, from sharp as the pros to dumb as dogshit. I should point out that I feel sometimes I am both of those players… good as gold on some hands, stupider than a bag of hammers on others.

Anyway, back to the theory.

In the opening hands, everyone has the same number of chips. The blinds are small (about 2% of the stack), and the play is usually pretty free and easy. Nobody has a clue what anyone else is up to, and a such, people are playing a bit of whatever. This is doubly true when you have a couple of either ignornant or very loose players on the table, who bet up almost anything looking to “get a big pot”.

My theory is this: It is RARELY worth playing in these opening hands. First off, most hands are going to play to completition and cards will be shown. That means if you are called, you will have to show your cards. It is very easy for a better player (or one of those poker assistant things) to get a line on you when your cards are shown. More importantly, you are often playing for VERY few chips in the overall pictures at this point. Why do I say that? The table has 8000 chips on it (800 X 10 players). Winning a small pot (100 net chips or so) gets you only 1.25% of the total chips required to get to the end.

A note on pot sizes: I often discount or ignore the part of the pot that I put in as I could have retained it had I not gone in. A head to head pot of 1000 will almost certainly be made up of at least 40% your chips. Therefore, it is really a 600 net chip pot. Net pots are important because they represent your stack size gain overall. Many people are impressed by winning a huge pot (you have won 1185 chips!) – but really you went all in with your 800 chips into a pot that had 385 in it… you only netted 385… not 1185!

Anyway, at the end of it all, my theory of the day is similar to the techniques used in many sports: You cannot win in the first few minutes of a table, so why play like it? Take and play the really good hands that come your way, and otherwise wait it out until the table gets a little more short handed and the values on the pots become more significant. Otherwise you are showing yourself, your showing your skills and making your future play easier to predict.

Plus, as a bonus, it’s nice to be the unknown force later in the game 🙂

Alex

I have been playing a bit here and there, around work and other projects outside that take me away from the computer. When I do play, I am amazed to see what people consider a “good hand”.

Seeing people UNPROMPTED moving all in with T6 offsuit just stuns me.

While it is true, any two cards can win (and every card technically has the same chance of coming up on the flop, turn or river) it isn’t true that all hands are created equal. Too many people get lucky a few times with strange hands, then they start to play those strange hands as normal.

The end is a train wreck.

You will lose a ton of money playing bad hands. Sometimes you will win, but most of the time you will get screwed.

Any two cards can win. Two better cards win more often.

Alex

Well, I keep on keeping on. Received my copy of Sklansky’s “Hold’em poker for advanced players” today. A very interesting read indeed. Opened my eyes to many interesting strategy plays and such. This book is more more oriented towards limit hold’em, and many of the strategies are based on the raise / check raise / number of raises options that exist in the game. Some of the theories, especially of card play and sequencing apply in all games, and I can say without a doubt I am learning a lot from the book.

As always, there are ups and downs in any learning experience. There are many very difficult concepts in this book (I read about half of it already) and some of those concepts are difficult to put into action without tons of experience. It is also, without a doubt, harder to play this sort of game on computer, mostly because you have no physical tells from the other players to work with. The good news is that if you get really good at reading JUST from bets, then actual real world play with give you even more stuff to work with.

Daniel Negreanu is one of the top players in poker today. While I have never met him, he is Canadian like me, and seems to have a genuine nice streak through him. He has a nice little blog… Daniel Negreanu’s blog it can be a little silly at times, but it can give you some good insite into the weird world of poker.

Have a good one!

Alex

I have spent a fair bit of time playing poker in the last little while, including a few days playing live in Vegas in january, playing tournament style with friends, and such. I play online pretty regularly, not big money or anything, but a few hundred dollars a month for the pure fun of it. I make some, I lose some, and I learn a bunch.

First off, this weekend was one of the first times playing in a “more expensive” situation. Basically, I played a lower dollar sub-qualifier table, which I won handily, and that moved me on to a higher up table. That one then lead to a $300 per person deal.

Let me tell you, the cards are the same, but the players are MUCH better the further you go up. It’s amazing that these people are playing from the same situations that we play on lower tables.

Anyway, I have a book coming this week that will help me with the actual numbers of the game. I have been playing mostly by the seat of my pants plus some online learning, but I think that I can go a whole bunch better if I work on understanding the numbers and the odds. Apparently there is enough difference between one chair and the next as the deal button moves around to make some hands worth playing and some not.

On one of my amazon sites, I am going to set up a whole poker only area with books, videos, and more that have everything to do with poker. There is a bunch of stuff out there, but most of the stuff is pure junk or VERY simplistic.

I should warn you (and this is funny because this is on a website) be very careful what sort of information you take as true from online sources. I have seen a few sites that will remain nameless who suggest betting strategies most likely to drive you broke within minutes, making you an easy mark for more experienced players. Remember that many of these systems depend on a specific understanding a feel that maybe only the author has been able to master. Don’t take any one source as god on this issue!

Now, good luck and play poker!

First off, I just want to say that I am NOT a professional poker player, far from it. Rather, I just like to play cards, online or with friends, and money makes it MUCH more interesting. It really does keep people on their toes and playing well.

I play at a number of places online you can try them by visiting poker online, you will find it interesting. These places have “free play” areas where you can try out the idea and see what you think, which is all good.

Online poker is easy to start, but it isn’t all that easy to make a ton of money. If you really want to do well, you should take some time to learn and study the game first. In a future post, I will put up a list of good poker books and training stuff that will really help you understand that games and do well.

Finally, remember that gambling is addictive and can be VERY bad for you. Don’t play to kill yourself. Set limits, play wisely, and most of all, enjoy yourself. When it isn’t fun, it is time to stop.

More in a while.

Alex