Reply to: Casino poker night

[conned tractor]

My advice.... stick to Snap! Much less complicated.

HTH

I am use to playing go fish with my little girl.

[cailin maith]

My advice.... stick to Snap! Much less complicated.

HTH

[conned tractor]

Cheers for the advice guys. I will do a bit of reading up/ play online in the evenings this week - just to get a bit of practice in. But I don't expect to become a decent player within a week at all. No misconceptions that I will win anything at all.

I am looking forward to it. Is that a bad thing.

[JamieMoles]

By far the best advice I can give you is play your position.

Simply put this means that you should not be playing very many hands if you are first to act (AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AKs - maybe) and you should be playing plenty of hands if you are last to act providing there hasn't already been a significant raise.

Also remember the gap concept - you need a much better hand to call a raise than to make a raise/bet. What this means is, if someone in an early position has made a raise you have to assume that they know they need a GOOD hand in this position to have the strength to play against all the people behind them who are yet to act. So you can reasonably put them on one of the hands listed above. You would not want to go up against one of those hands with a pair of 7's or a medium to low suited connector!

The only exception to this would be if you were the dealer and the price to call the flop is cheap. If you can see a cheap flop AND the blinds fold AND the initial raiser show weakness post flop, you can often abuse your position to bet him off the pot. Don't do this too often though - you will get found out pretty quickly.

Also if you are on the button (or one before) and everyone fold to you, don't be afraid to make the occaisional raise to attempt to steal the blinds.

Finally don't fall into the trap of calling a raise with bad hands when you are in the blinds - just because you have already paid something into the pot doesn't mean you want to get caught out post flop with nothing and having to act first. It will always go - you check, you get raised, you fold. Money just thrown away.

Just my tuppence worth....



NOTE: All this advice can be for nothing if you end up with a really bad player or total gambler at the table. You'll spot this kind of person easily and my only advice would be to try and stay out of the same hands as them unless you have the absolute nuts.

[Ravello]

I honestly really would advise not to bluff at all, but if you're keen to do so I'd suggest the following:

1. Think about what your opponent has, with experience you can usually work out from his/her betting patterns what sort of hole cards they're on. Then think about the level of bet required to get them out of the running. If an inexperienced player has a pair of Aces they're unlikely to put them down even if there's an obvious straight or flush available.

2. Remember that good players will be assessing you in the same way, so think about what hand you're trying to represent.

3. Bluff at a time when there's weaker players active in the hand - if you see someone constantly folding to a decent bet then try and force them out.. If they call, you know they have a strong hand based on previous behaviour, so put your hand to rest.

4. Ignore all of the above! Well, sometimes anyway.. To bluff successfully people must believe you're holding on to something better than they have. If there's an obvious pattern to your play, someone will work it out.

Oh, and NO, you really shouldn't be going all in on a bluff! If you're in the latter stages of a tournament you might want to, but otherwise you have to be pretty confident that you'll force the other guy out!

Not bluffing may leave you vulnerable to aggressive players out to steal when they have nothing, but if you're playing reasonably defensive poker just set a trap for them. You keep putting down tulip hands until you get a good one, wait for aggressive player to bet against you (i.e. don't lead the betting) then either re-raise over the top (he'll probably put down at that stage) or if you're not scared that there's something that could be drawn to beat you call and try and force him to bet again..

Finally, never show your cards unless you have to.. Keep them guessing, remember, people always want to know what you had - don't ever give them the information for free, they want to see what you've got? They've got to pay for the privilege. Even the top, top players only rarely show their hands, and that's usually to show an adjustment in their normal style - they do that to keep people guessing who know their game well, you won't have that problem.

[conned tractor]

Cheers guys some mostly good advice there.

Have had a couple of hours online. Thought I may be being too aggressive, but thats easy when not playing for real money I suppose. Good advice regarding strong betting on good hole cards, hadn't realised that, but makes sense. I do realise folding is cheap, but it will not last forever. Will not bluffing leave me vulnerable to other bluffers? If that makes sense. Or do you go all in on a bluff at the end when you have persuaded eveyon e you are honest.

I will doing some, albeit last minute, reading up on the permutations, combinations, possible outcomes. 4 possibilities of royal flushes, etc.

Is it good form to show or hide your cards when you are the last one in or does this totaly dependent on what you want the others to think of you.

Got that Badger, thanks.

Just to reiterate, I am not going expecting to win - or lose my house for that matter. Just a night out with some mates - probably get booted after 10 minutes and can spend the night drinking.

[badger7579]

Its better to make a bad fold than a bad call..

[JoJoGabor]

Go all in every time without even looking at your cards, no really try playing one of the free poker games on Facebook for lots of games to get used to the types of card combos you are likely to see. I think Chips n chat is a free one.

[t2pkid]

Go Broke! This way you realise that your not winning and concentrate on playing better. Bankroll yourself again and again go broke. Repeat this a few time and then after alot of practise and time to define your style of play you may start winning. I think that only 25% (approx) of people playing poker online make money.

[d000hg]

Don't pay to see every hand.

Chances are as long as you aren't a retard you won't be disgraced, it should be a bit of fun. If you just want the social aspect, just don't make massive bets and risk being out in the first 15min...

[sal626]

Also, be aware of what possible hands that may be out there.

Even if you have a v.good hand, think about the other "possible" hands that could beat your, and assess if someone else may have it.
I once had a full house with 3 A and 2 K, and lost a £100 to my friend as he had the other A.

Also, two pairs are not as good as they look....especially if one of pair is on the table.....very likely someone can have 3 of a kind.

[oracleslave]

Not exactly the easiest format to provide advice, but I regularly play in both online and bricks and mortar poker tournaments.

Sounds like if you're coming either first or last then you are tending to be slightly too aggressive - test the water with smaller bets if you're trying to steal.

I'd personally advise that if you're intending to try and spend some time playing (i.e. not going out first) then avoid bluffing almost altogether - you'll find this will assist you in stealing blinds later in the tournament as other players will believe you to always be holding something when you bet (at least, if they're any good and are paying attention that's what they should be thinking!).

If you have a good hand (i.e. pairs above 9,9 or unpaired picture cards/ace) then make a decent raise prior to the flop being dealt - you don't want people on tulip hands getting a chance to pair them/make a straight without paying heavily for the privilege.

Equally, if you have a tulip hand, don't pay heavily to see the flop, fold gracefully and wait it out. If though you get the chance to limp in with any old rubbish, take the chance - if your opponents aren't going to make you pay to see the flop even crap hands can be turned around.

Finally, as tempting as it may be, try and avoid chasing a result (i.e. if you don't hit on the flop and there's a big raise, don't call it!) - there are times when the pot/odds are in your favour to do so, but it takes either a bit of experience or a lot of learning to identify the right times to chase.

HTH and good luck.

WHS.

Will take you a long time to get to a decent level. Doing well at this stage is more by luck and a reflection on the quality of your opponents than anything else. I suggest reading loads on poker and trying some low stakes online games as a start.

[Ravello]

Not exactly the easiest format to provide advice, but I regularly play in both online and bricks and mortar poker tournaments.

Sounds like if you're coming either first or last then you are tending to be slightly too aggressive - test the water with smaller bets if you're trying to steal.

I'd personally advise that if you're intending to try and spend some time playing (i.e. not going out first) then avoid bluffing almost altogether - you'll find this will assist you in stealing blinds later in the tournament as other players will believe you to always be holding something when you bet (at least, if they're any good and are paying attention that's what they should be thinking!).

If you have a good hand (i.e. pairs above 9,9 or unpaired picture cards/ace) then make a decent raise prior to the flop being dealt - you don't want people on tulip hands getting a chance to pair them/make a straight without paying heavily for the privilege.

Equally, if you have a tulip hand, don't pay heavily to see the flop, fold gracefully and wait it out. If though you get the chance to limp in with any old rubbish, take the chance - if your opponents aren't going to make you pay to see the flop even crap hands can be turned around.

Finally, as tempting as it may be, try and avoid chasing a result (i.e. if you don't hit on the flop and there's a big raise, don't call it!) - there are times when the pot/odds are in your favour to do so, but it takes either a bit of experience or a lot of learning to identify the right times to chase.

HTH and good luck.

[conned tractor]

Don't play with your ring.

I try not to generally.


Just looked up website and buy in is £10 on saturday.

Dealers are provided according to website, doesn't say what type though.

[gingerjedi]

Don't play with your ring.