ILX Poker Players Unite

i've been on partypoker.com for a bit though so i may well be all dumbed-down.

i've already noticed that i trash-talk a lot more than i did

Heh. I sometimes play at Empire, which is affiliated to Party. Don't like it very much, but it's pretty fishy.

If anyone fancies a poker challenge, have a look at this. I'm in the middle of it right now. Scary but fascinating seeing how the big boys live!

Wow - that actually sounds like a plan! (Also, it would accomplish my ulterior motive of securing my $40 deposit bonus FOR REAL.)

FWIW: haven't played in the past couple of days, due to school stuff. Last week = not good. Got HOSED, lost $100+ in ring & tourney shenanigans. Usually hosed myself to boot.

Mark, that AI bluff would make me wanna call you bad names. :)

You mean the final hand? Why, I had top pair!! No kicker, admittedly, but hell :) I am terrified about playing $3/$6 NL, but I have to do it at some point. I do know my luck's about to run out - it just can't last.

(got 2nd in a $5.50 SNG tonight, but very mixed performances at ring)

Had a good week - up to £640 profit now, and am ready for the POKER EXTRAVAGANZA on Wednesday night - if you lot are still up for it?

Show of hands??

I haven't played much online lately. Barely at all. I did pick up WSOP for PS2 though and its great fun. I've been playing a lot of home games as opposed to online as my frustration with online play got the best of me. Its best to walk away then to sit there and keep putting money and and complain.

No, it's best to play with your ILE BUDDIES! Ah go on Chris, it'd be good to see you again on the tables...

I've been stopping & going w/ the Markelby Scheme. Farthest I got was to $1/$2 tables, but got wanged when I got pocket Ks and a K on the flop that gave someone else an K-high straight (on the turn).

BTW, if I get taken out by a big stacked squatter that stumbles into 2 pair while calling my raises when I'm dealt AK or AQ and get top pair on the flop, I'm gonna drive down to PR's offices and beat the shit out of someone's fax machine.

Also - to the rat bastard that A) reraised ALL IN w/ AQ off when I raised initially w/ AK suited (when we both had the same sized stack), and B) had no idea he caught a 2-flopped runner runner flush (off the stupid-ass Q) until the next hand: eat me you know-nothing rattit.

(Hi - I'm the Lupton Pitman Bitch & Moan Rebuy King.)

last time i played i blew through $200 in 15 minutes.

Last night I had my biggest swing ever - down £50 in 30 mins, in the doldrums for an hour, then up almost £120 to finish £68 in profit. And this was all at £0.15/£0.25NL

So, tonight - should I assume no-one fancies it then?

LOST is on tonight markelby, NO WAY I AM MISSING IT.

I gots night class. Alas.

I've got law exams tomorrow.

I'm still crying at the guy who rivered three tens against my pocket rockets yesterday. That would have put me in for big money, rather than knocked out just before the tourney started paying. Cunt.

Dom, I hope you don't lose that charming bedside manner when you enter the courtroom! (Also, good luck!)

My sob story from yesterday (first time playing in a week): why is it so hard for me to fathom that someone besides me might actually have a pocket pair? It's not like 99 is the be-all, and it's not like it's uncommon for someone else to get AA, and sorta slowplay them (raising only 2x the blind preflop to my right, calling my flop probe bet - rainbow 742 flop), and then reraise ALL IN on the turn (after Q comes out). And it's not like I'm all that smart that I can realize I'm beat. "Oh, he's totally playing AK or some crap," I think.

David, I don't think you'll appreciate this, but last night I had 99 heads up and raised the guy's 4xBB pre-flop bet. He re-re-raised, I pushed, and he turns over JJ. Oh fuck, I think - £23 down the shitter.

And then I flop a 9. He was not pleased :)

i played briefly last night online, i won $45 in 15 minutes.

I think I'm gonna go back to limit sit and go tournaments. That's like $5 in the bank each time I sit down. It's amazing how many people don't actually understand maths.

i can't play pot limit games to save my life. i like to play a little omaha everyonce in a while to mix it up.

Hi dere!

Updates anyone? I have had a torrid time lately - down from my peak of £788 up to only £485 up, though I have slightly turned it round and am now only £226 below my peak. Sigh.

But I have realised I am more than competent at $50NL 5max ring, which is nice, and a different sort of challenge. I also won my first $10 SNG, which made me feel great, even if I did then blow all my winnings entering MTTs which I never, ever get even close to the money in. This has to be rectified :)

Has anyone read Super System? Any good?

mark, i've read super system 1 and super system 2. both helped the game. the bible of poker.

if you ever want to read a good book about poker (and not strategy) try "positively fifth street".

I am sucking ass. Either because I get burnt out and make dumb plays due to frustration (cf. playing 99 to the wall w/ a K showing; bluffing w/ the nut hand against the guy that has the nut hand I'm bluffing @), or get wanged by the river / idiot players (cf. losing AK to AQ because of a rivered Q w/ my tourney on the line; losing KJ to a 35 3-drawn flush on the river; making a great call on an AI bluff w/ my 88 all over KQ until he turns a K; losing a flopped K-high straight to a big stack who gets quads w/ his fancy 95 off because of THREE DRAWN 9s including, BTW, RUNNER RUNNER).

I'm down $300-350, after being up probably $1000 (don't hold me to that), because of high tourney buy-ins and the aforementioned bad luck / stupidity / stubbornness. Also, I'm a dick when I lose, because, y'know, a decent beat in light of that horseshit I just described is still a beat, & I hate losing. I think I've developed a rep as either a donkey or an ass on le site, both of which might be deserved. I need a siesta. And for the bad beats to happen in the SMALL pots, not the pots where my stack is on the line.

Super System 2 is good stuff. Is Super System just the same stuff as SS2. (Please note: I think I've done worse since I started reading books.) (Which clearly means I was just lucky before hand, and am now getting my just desserts.)

i need to go all-in less often.

super system 2 has the updated "online play" section as well as more updates from 1.

Ken, can you get to Clapham Junction for 7.30 on Thursday? Starting with a £10 buyin SNG, then a £10 buyin cash game (rebuys positively encouraged), lots of beer and pizza etc. We can email to confirm the details.

sounds great. how many players?

a few weeks ago i won a $30 buy-in tourney on poker room, raking in a nice $900. since then i've played almost exclusively the multi-table tourneys, and have lost most of it, even though i seem to finish in the money about a third of the time.

also, the fastest way to make (and lose!) money on pr is the omaha 8 tables. after going on a run where i made $500 in two days playing .50/.50, i then lost about $600 in about the same stretch. ugly stuff.

Blimey Yancey, that's good going - what's your MTT strategy? I seem to end up just camping, then not getting any value from my premiums. Which is odd as I'm semi-loose-aggressive at (shorthanded at least) cash games.

i tend to see a lot of flops early -- you'll find a lot of weak players fishing in the early going. i push hard on those early pots and hope the fish don't suck out on me. i try to build a bankroll of about $4k before the blinds hit the $50/$100 mark -- this allows me to wait on good hands and to push hard enough to scare people out when i hit them. inevitably, i always lose big on some really nice hand -- like flopping two pair, trips or a straight -- that i don't push hard enough, and allow someone to suck out. it's one thing to maximize the value out of hands, but it's another to let someone steal it from you.

my final rule is never ever ever (unless i'm on a blind or up against someone shortstacked) play an ace with anything less than an eight as a kicker. i will make some exceptions if suited, but i have lost way too many pots with shitty kickers.

obviously those rules are contingent on getting good cards and not getting unlucky, so they are by no means foolproof. but i have had success with that. (if you get bad cards be patient, while taking occassional stabs at good-sized pots.)

Ha - is it any wonder I tend to be timid early on & get stuck w/ the blinds equaling one-tenth my stack before the 1st hour's out? It's because of assmasters playing 94 offsuit non-blinded and flopping 94A rainbows when I have AJ, and me betting the farm. Gotta play the cards, tho, not the shit luck or shittier players (which all my bad bad beats have "taught" me to do - "oh god, AK off got busted the last 3 times I played when I was put AI preflop; I should fold").

Yesterday, I was blessed w/ AQ off right before the button in the first hand of a tourney. 3 people called, someone raised 2x the blind, someone called THAT, and then it was my turn to bet. Something tells me I should've re-raised, but I just called the small raise, and the flop (88x or something) didn't hit me, so when the raiser & the first caller started probing the pot, I ran. I think a Q came on the river, which would've won, of course.

don't forget to calculate pot odds! that should tell you whether to call in a spot like that, david. i.e., say, a $700 pot w/ a flop w/ garbage but only a $60 bet to call. it's ABSOLUTELY worth hanging in there in that case, especially if you have overcards and there's nothing paired on the board. HOWEVER, i never hang in for, say, a straight draw when there's also a flush draw in the board. if i'm on a draw, it needs to be for the best one.

Yeah, I always ignore pot odds in the heat of the moment, or get stymied by them - "so I got QT suited w/ an KJ4 2 to the flush I can't get; pot's $300; someone bet $75, so that's 4:1 pot odds; I have 8 outs w/ 30 cards left - oh, shit, it's the cards THAT I DON'T KNOW, so that's 47:8 = 6:1; fuck, is that good odds or bad?; oh shit the timer better call; oh no don't lag don't lag don't lag F******************CK"

Anyway, my strategery now (until I have more money to burn): play the $5 MTTs for the cheap reps, regain confidence, hopefully win a wee bit, and then step it up buy-in-wise once I get back in the black. And AVOID THE 40K REBUY.

oh rebuy tourneys are certain death! never play one!

Ha! I've actually had all my recent success come via rebuys. Ideally, I only buy in once (depending on how much you're willing to burn), and ride out the first hour playing the table - if it's loose, tighten up; if it's tight, let it fly a bit. And, of course, hope I don't get stuck w/ the Asshat All-Inster willing to risk a stack on any damn thing because s/he has money to burn. Getting stuck with a loopy freak in an UNLIMITED rebuy tourney when you're getting stuck w/ middling cards (like T8 suited, or KJ off) and a guy to your left raising every other hand like he's got pocket trips is no fun @ all.

Yancey, what kind of hands do you see early flops with? And how important is position? How much of a raise will you call with sub-premium hands? Do you avoid the first orbit or two because that's when maniacs will be pushing anything to try and double up?

Sorry for all the questions - I'm really struggling with this and I tend to play like David says, ultra-rock-like until I'm being eaten by the blinds and my fold equity is almost worthless against all the players with 5-10x my stack.

I just can't get my head round a rebuy tourney - even though I can be quite Laggy I am naturally cautious, and thinking ah well, I'll go all in with QTo cos I can always rebuy just doesn't work for me. I'll stick to nice, cheap, unthreatening freezeouts I think :)

While I'm not Yancey, here's how I see it (&, yeah, position is very very key) (& please note that I probably don't follow my own advice):

- early position: suited connectors, AJ up, pocket pairs TT or higher; I usually raise w/ KK or AA or AK, tho I think accepted knowledge sez to either raise minimally or slowplay w/ those hands.

- middle position: suited connectors, face-carded connectors, pocket pairs; maybe raise w/ KQ suited or something similar, always raise w/ face-carded pp?

- late position: depending on what's preceded, go for it w/ just about any hand that has potential, and put down the hammer if you got the good stuff w/ lots of callers

If I'm off-base, someone w/ skillz plz let me know! (Of course, you'll need to switch it up to keep people honest, esp. in tourneys.)

that sounds good, david. when i'm on the button i'll play pretty much anything, provided there aren't any raises greater than, say, $60. (8-2, 7-2, etc excepted of course) but those suited connectors (7-8, 6-7, 9-10) can be BIG MONEY. but beware the flushes -- someone might be in there with a better one. but you should get a strong sense from betting patterns if you have it or not.

FINALLY: if you raise with a middling pocket pair (4s, 5s, 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s) and a flop hits with face cards and you had more than one caller, make ONE PLAY at the flop with a big bet, and if you get called or raised, run. going into the hand you were the favorite, but once you see paint you can safely assume that you are an underdog. against one other person you can push harder, especially if they only call rather than raise. if you get a calling station to the river, consider trying for all in, unless the player has been proven to overplay weak hands, in which case his bottom-pair on the board (like 10s when there's a,k and j on the board and yr playing 8s) will take you out.

pls note that i break all of these rules all of the time but seem to do best when i follow them

If I wasn't skittish before about online gaming, I am now after reading about the dudes who play four or five hands at the same table via unique telephone lines.

Things I just learned tonight:

1) When you have 3 people in a pot, and one goes AI pre-flop, you're supposed to check your remaining opponent to the river - it's the "ethical" thing to do.

2) When you have T8 suited, and the turn gives you a Q-high straight, don't bet w/ it, because the other guy's gonna have KT suited and take your chips.

2a) Losing this hand is proof that you, Mr. Bet With One Guy All In, are unethical, rude, and got what you deserved.

2b) Thinking that this "check to river" thing is chickenshit nonsense is wrong wrong wrong. You got what you deserved. Prepare for some bad luck.

3) When you're dealt AQ suited the very next hand in early position, FOLD because there's someone waiting across the table w/ AK. DO NOT raise 4x the blind and then go AI when the paint-free flop comes.

Note to self: LEARN HOW TO READ STRAIGHT DRAWS

#1 is bullshit.

Tell that to the melonheaded namby-pamby shitwits I play against! This is the SECOND TIME that nonsense has come up - the first time (when I once again deigned to bet in such a situation), half the table was like, "yeah, man, WTF?" and I was like "no, YOU WTF? do you want to WIN CHIPS, or do you want to play La La Check-n-Fold?"

Please note that I believe #2 and #3 are bullshit as well (tho I'm at fault in #2) (at fault for forgetting I have the luck of a dead black cat under a ladder).

i wouldn't go 4x the blind with AQ suited full stop

pot odds smot odds.