ILX Poker Players Unite

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 :)

- 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.)

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.

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).

One side of the table says that Player 1 should win the pot because his flush is made up of higher cards (6 over 5). The other side says that the flush is judged by its highest card, in this case the Ace, and the other four cards are irrelevant. The two players would split the pot.

Apparently, the TV shows play like the latter, but it still nags me that the first player might've had a better hand.

where did the Ace come from?

yeah, rules like that should be defined beforehand.

Yeah! What Markelby said!

I did think that the "a flush is a flush" rule didn't ring right. However, I play with a bunch of dudes who watch WPT and ESPN2 poker all the time, and they said that's how the pro's do it.

Well, just because the American League in baseball has a Designated Hitter doesn't mean that makes it right.

Someone who would bluff with a bad hand in that situation likely wouldn't last long at the table anyway.

So - I got my first money finish on Saturday night! 5th in a Pokerroom $5.50 MTT - I beat 450 players to get there :) Annoyingly, I was actually chip leader with only 5 left, but a mixture of bad luck and mediocre play crippled me before my 66 was beaten by an AKo who made his flush dammit. The prize was $113 - the real money started at 4th, grr. Still, I'm pleased really.

I suck ass. Lost @ a ring table w/ 22 when a 2 flopped but a big stack (w / 33) chased my bets to the river to get a 7-high straight. Was dealt AQ off early in a tourney when the folks directly to my right were dealt AK suited and AA, and went AI on a questionable flop because I thought the big stack (w/ AA, of course) was full of it, and I'm stupid. And lost w/ 99 because my trips came on the flop w/ two suited cards and some loose-betting shitwit (and the other guy in the hand) went AI four to the flush after I bet half the pot AND THE FLUSH HIT OF COURSE BECAUSE GOD FORBID AI BIG STACKED FLUSH CHASING SLAPHEADS SHOULD LOSE TO ME.

p.s. you got a problem with slapheads? ;)

That's part of it (cf. me get AK suited, me get 2p but there's the straight if the caller has a ten, and looky HE GOT TEN, BUT I HAVE BIG SLICK SO ME GO FOR IT) (or me get & raise with QQ, A flops, me bet big and get whacked by jerk playing A4 off). I'm reckless at inopportune times, and play close-to-the-vest when I should open things up.

My favorite moment yesterday = I have TT on the button, raise w/ it, get three callers. Flop & turn reveal 2 flush possibilities but no overcards, but the guys to my left (I'm the button) call my flop bet, and are reraising each other on the turn, so I skedaddle, thinking my TT is beat (because of all the times I've been waxed by a higher PP). They end up AI. One guy was playing Q4 off, the other was playing J7 off, and won w/ a pair of 7s. I got wanged by the flush-chasers soon after.

Which is to say: I'm good enough to get into trouble I should be smart enough to avoid, and when my decentness results in a good read, I get wanged (or, at least, I remember the wangs).

Ken kiss my arp. :)

Tourney situmation. Dealt AK off just before the button. One caller, directly after the BB. I slowplay the sucka. Button calls, SB calls.

Flop comes 5K2 rainbow - happy am I, yes? SB (a large-stacked fellow - 2x what I have right now) bets the minimum. One guy folds. I reraise 4x that. Button folds. SB calls.

Turn reveals a Q; vague flush possibility (think it matched the 2). So, right now, I'm thinking that Slappy McSlappington is playing either Kx or just chasing whatever - I've seen him stick around pots before, which is why his stack's kinda big. He checks to me. I go AI, trying to either scare him off or (hopefully) have him call w/ Kx and is meat. He calls, and turns over 52 off. Dude flopped 2 pair. Of course.

And then a Q comes out on the river, giving me the better 2 pair, and letting me escape w/ my hand covering my ass. I think I lose later on to a pair of Jokers.

As for the feelgood hand, yes, I think you marginally made a mistake going all-in as only a hand that beats you will call. Having said that, had you bet the pot and been raised - what then? At least there were no more decisions to make.

last night i played in the $50+4 us daily. 400 entrants. i ended up finishing 16th, losing on a hand i probably shouldn't have played. i had about 10,000 chips -- average at the time -- and blinds were up to 500/1000. dude to my right had been going all in every hand for a while, and had moved his stack up to 20,000 as a result. i'm on the big blind, he's on the small blind, and no one else calls. he raises pre-flop to $6000, or over half my stack. i had Q-10 of spades, and after deliberating, i decided to re-raise all-in pre-flop. he calls and shows 9-9. i hit nothing on the flop, turn or river, and i'm out, winning $200. i was so close to folding the hand and living to fight another day, but i was convinced he was just trying to steal my blind. argh. i so wanted that $4000 first place!

I might have done the same - certainly my last two attempts at MTTs, including the big one above, ended for me with marginal decisions rather than big suckouts or obvious mistakes.

In other poker news, London's most famous cardroom, the Gutshot club, may be forced to shut down :(

A friend of mine came 4th in the £10K guaranteed at Hills last night - I watched him until I was practically asleep. £750 isn't bad considering he'd won his ticket in a £6 satellite.

Has anyone here played at ultimatebet? A friend of mine is promoting it aggressively, plus there's a good rakeback programme.

I have won my last 2 (two) SNGs and I am playing in a big scary real-life tourney at a Soho members club tonight (I'm not a member but I have contacts, nowotimean). £30 buyin WITH REBUYS omg, but a very generous prize pool and only roughly 40 players. I am, to be fair, bricking myself, more about the social aspect of it (I'll know no-one and feel like a spare arse among all the hyper-confident coked-up TV producers and f-list celebs), but also because I am highly likely to come out of there £100 worse off than I went in.

Ah well, it's all good fun.

You also naturally miss out on the entire social aspect of poker, although, tbh, I'm currently reading Anthony Holden's Big Deal about the year he spent as a poker pro, and the constant travelling, living out of a suitcase, and grinding $10/$20 limit for 18-hour stints sounds pretty depressing to me too.

Essentially, if you are stimulated by the game itself, then online poker can provide a lot of the best bits of playing combined with other positive attributes - it's much quicker, cheaper, with more choice, versatility, opportunities to put it on pause for an hour or two if you like; you can do other things while playing, you can sit in your pants and chuff whenever you like; and you can multi-table, which again speeds it up and also, if you're a winning player, ups your profit.

Also, what Mark said. I played @ a table @ Foxwoods a month or so ago, and after I got over the initial jitters (OMG REAL PEOPLE!), it was great. Maybe I wouldn't be so woo-hoo about it if I didn't win, but whatever. And I think getting slapped down so often online made me much more aware of what could happen if I'm not careful or ever vigilant.

I went out when I drew a straight and got beat by a full house. I basically wagered that Mr. Bluffy McBluff didn't have a pair of fives, but for once, he wasn't bluffing.