Poker Stories
Does anyone else play poker?
My parents taught use how to play various five and seven card games at a very young age. They played a lot of nickel/dime/quarter dealers choice games with friends when I was younger, though that seemed to eventually peter out. My brother and I would often get friends to play, though never for actual money (mainly because we didn't have any to play with). A few years ago, while at my brother-in-law's in Boston for a party, some of us decided to play Texas Hold'em. I had never played Hold'em, though I had recently read up on the rules. I mistakenly thought I played pretty well, and ended up turning my $20 into $40 or so. Ever since then, I began trying to organize a home game, but for quite some time could not find enough people I knew in NYC who wanted to play. Finally, late last fall, I convinced enough co-workers to play, and they brought a few more people, so that for awhile we had a decent game going every other week. The first two games we played with a maximum $25 buy-in and blinds of .05/.10. Both times I busted out for two buy-ins, and with the beer and liquor and snacks I bought since I was hosting, was out for a decent amount of money. In the mean time I started becoming more of a student of the game, mainly via reading what I could find online, and watching the occasional tournament on TV.
Of course, having been on a losing streak up to that point, I decided it was a good idea to raise the stakes to a $50 minimum buy-in, .25/.50 (no limit). Fortunately, I started making my money back, and also managed to win or at least money in the $10 tournaments we would end the night with. Sadly, we've had trouble getting people lately, so the last two games were canceled (oddly my wife did not share my sadness at this turn of events).
While I've been playing online now as well for awhile, and I enjoy making money there, it in no way makes up for the sheer entertainment of a live game. A co-worker and I planned on getting our fix last night at a free poker league tournament at some bar, but just before we were going to leave work to head there, he received a phone call about some friends of his playing a cash game. The chance of winning actual money, instead of gift certificates to said bar, seemed much more appealing.
They normally play $10 tournaments apparently, but I'm not sure that helps explain the odd way they run cash games. They have a $20 max buy-in, which is fine, but with blinds of .25/.50. Starting out with only 40 big blinds makes early play rather bizarre. To make matters worse, due to the known difficulty of pushing some at the table out, opening raises tended to be between 3 and 5 dollars ... its almost a given that there were multiple buy-ins early on. I also found it amusing that we were playing with .25 and .50 cent chips; I had made the mistake of doing this at my house one night when some of these same people were there (including the host), and we spent quite awhile discussing who poorly that worked out, eventually getting read of the .50 cent chips alltogether ... and here they were making the same silly mistake.
The player on my right, is a very funny player. He likes to play almost anything, and seemingly has huge streaks of luck. The one time he played at my house he managed to double up before he left. Knowing this, I was play very tight (ie, folding almost every hand). Eventually, I had a QJ offsuit, and the flop came out a Q23 rainbow. I was first to act, so I bet $6, which was roughtly 3/4 of the pot. To most people, this should have been an obvious clue that I at least had a Queen, and given how tight I was playing it was either a very strong queen or maybe trips. Everyone folded except the guy to my right of course. Another low card came on the turn, so I went all-in with my remaning 11 dollars or so, and he called. I do not remember what the river card was exactly, except that it was another low card which filled in the inside straight he was chasing, and I was out. That disturbed me quite a bit, but I bought back in, knowing that eventually his luck would run out, and hoping that the end would occur sometime before the night ended. It took awhile though, before too long he probably had close to $200 in his stack. Fortunately, while his streak of luck began with me, it also ended with me as well. I was on the big blind with a pair of deuces, everyone limped in and I hit my third deuce on the flop. I bet a somewhat small amount, and he took me all in with his pair of jacks. A few hands later he now had a smaller stack then me. I hit two pair on the flop, and was fairly certain I had him beat by the river. I was also fairly certain he would call if I took him all-in ... but his earlier string of luck still scared me and we were leaving soon so I was unlikely to be able to recover a second time, so I just checked and let him live a wee bit longer. He lost big again to someone else on the next hand, and we calledit a night. I think he was down to $15 by then. I went home with an extra $70 in my pocket, and without the costs of hosting the event to eat at my winnings. I was very glad we skipped out on the free tournament.
Anyone else play poker, and/or have any poker stories to share?
private String paula = "Brillant";
First game Fed invited me to, he spilled a drink on the dude's card table and I took home a big chunk of the money.
I play about twice a year with friends or neighbors, usually $20 buy in. It's fun, but I don't get all crazy about having to play poker.
Xbox Live | Steam | Last.fm
I just got back from AC, but I mostly play private games. Had a Holdem hand the last time I was in vegas I flopped a straight, turned a heart flush, and rivered a royal flush - boy was that guy pissed. When you loose a all in to a royal, you take the rest of the night off. I'll chat more when I'm not on my iPhone.
q6600, 8GB DDR2, 8800 GTS 512, 16MB/s Cable
Xbox Live: Shoal07
Steam ID: Shoal07
PSN: Shoal07 (<--Friend me up!)
I like poker but I don't have any people around to get a game together so most of my playing is online.
My poker stories are like, "this one time, this guy raised, and I only had a pair of fours, so I folded."
Letters to the Internet
I was in Vegas once, playing a couple rounds. This girl sits down at the table and its immediately obvious that she really doesn't know how to play. She just knows the very basic rules of the game. She ended up losing all the money she bought in with, but them bought some more. During one handed, I had folded due to crappy cards, she ends up with a royal flush. Not only wins the hand, but wins the casinos "jackpot" money for the hand. Damn beginner's luck
Chumpy wrote:
Malor wrote:
Fixed that for you. You can thank me later.
Xbox Live | Steam | Last.fm
I've seen that happen more than once at the "friendly" games when a girlfriend or wife sits in. They don't know a winning hand from a pile of leaves, but somehow they double their money.
Xbox Live | Steam | Last.fm
Nice.
Letters to the Internet
I'm terrible hold'em player. I win small pots and lose big ones. But mostly I enjoy playing and the social aspect of it, and truth be told, I'm a tight-passive player who usually end up breaking even anyway. I've tried in the past to read up all the books by Harrington, Sklanky et al, memorize the odds, counting outs and calculate pot odds in my head. But that pretty much just took the fun out of it for me. I don't stick to math nearly as much as I used to. If I'm conflicted about the odds, most of the time I just fold. Don't play like me, I'm a donkey.
I have two groups of poker buddies, the cash game group is all computer science-type math wizard sharks and the tourney group full of donkeys. Once in awhile I bring one of the sharks to the tourneys with me and we have a good laugh afterwards about all the weird plays, like a bluff call on the river (ie. I don't think you have anything, but I think my rag hand can beat your rag hand so I'm gonna call your bet...)
I know Jayhawker is a poker player. He and I both own Poker Academy for the PC, after all we are gamers, so I used to run into him playing that online every once in awhile.
Xbox Live: NOVOCAIN1217
I play with the other managers here at work monthly.
We do a 20 dollar buy in tourney style. Everyone plays till busted and winner takes the buy ins.
3 months in a row I have won it all. On June 20th we will see if I can keep the streak alive.
I have been tempted to start playing a bit online but never been real comfortable with the processes, or forming another bad habit.
lancejt wrote:
WAR -Vozhd Bratovitch
Poker? I hardly knew her!
Sorry.
McChuck wrote:
Past year i took some time off, but i play quite a bit. Online and in private games. Been doing it for years even before it got famous. I actually work with a guy that's been to the WSOP and in the money 3 different times. It's one of my goals in the next 5 years to actually get a seat in the WSOP.
As for stories the only cool one is that i scared off Chris Moneymaker from a table. The year after his WSOP win he held a benefit tournament here. 250-300 players showed up. He announced that he would jump in and play after the first player was eliminated. Well i eliminated the first 2 people with one hand. So he came down to my table. I expected him to be a bit of a bully and if i had decent cards i called or pushed on him. He won 1 hand when he flopped trips, but i won the rest. As soon as another seat at another table opened up he moved. Apparently that's when the newspaper reporter started taking notes because the article said he dominated play from the moment he sat down
I ended up coming in 6th in that tourney. I had 4 to the flush on the flop and called a guy i knew was holding crap. He flopped a pair of 3's and i never improved. o well.
Gamer Tag: Rantyr
My history of live poker is limited to a single $20 tournament that I played during my last trip to Vegas. The old lady/shark that I sat next to convinced me to hone my skills in free games online.
I finally got around to it earlier this week and I'm enjoying myself. I'm thinking about trying some really low limit games online in the near future if I continue to win.
Semper Delectatio
Xbox Live - Cannibal GWJ XFire - cannibalcrowley
http://cannibalcrowley.blogspot.com/
I've never had very good experience playing free online games, or even micro/low-limit games (never tried anything beyond that). Most of the time they are just all-in fests, half of the time 4, 5 people go all-in preflop even. Kind of like playing bingo at that point. Although you can usually use that your advantage in tourneys, and just fold the first few levels and weed out the wackos. You do sometimes have to contend with someone with a humongous stack afterward, but a lot of the times they won their huge stack going all-in preflop with a pair of 2s or something, so their stack dwindle down quickly if you have enough patient.
Xbox Live: NOVOCAIN1217
All of my poker learnin has been what I've picked up over the years, gradually getting better. For example, learning how to bet in no-limit is just as important as having good cards. Do you bet into the pot, bet the pot, over-bet the pot, raise, fold, call, etc... What you do when matters enormously. It matter between winning a big pot, winning a small pot, and loosing to the river card...
I have never read book 1 on poker. I know those who have, and try to play by the rules, but the rules (like in blackjack) only get you so far. I have come to gain an understanding of the strength of hands, bets, and other players by playing, and listening to those who reguarly make money in poker when they speak. Experience is the real teacher in poker, and after a few years, you either are getting better, or you should probably quit (i.e. only play for fun).
For example, while in AC I made $700 off of 200 in 3 hours, during a $1-2 no limit game (and my first hour was pretty suck). Mostly off of a big stack 2 seats to my right (he had close to $1k when I sat down). Everytime me and him went to a big showdown, I had the nuts (the winning hand) and he took a huge hit. The guy never learned his lesson. The only reason why I can think he had any money at all was because everyone else had the impression he was a strong player (and he was a good at bettin) because of his stack. Usually he'd build the pot, then scare them off with a large bet. He had me all-in twice, and he doubled me up twice.
That crap only works on the Donkeys.
q6600, 8GB DDR2, 8800 GTS 512, 16MB/s Cable
Xbox Live: Shoal07
Steam ID: Shoal07
PSN: Shoal07 (<--Friend me up!)
Low limit online poker IS NOT a good way to learn. Everyone sees every flop because it's cheap. Real players see about 30% of the flops. Amatures call too often, if you can't bet/raise it, maybe you shouldn't be in the hand. If you're going to play online to gain experience with real poker, play a 3-6 or 5-10 game, limit, at a minimum. Honestly, it would be better just to play live poker. 3-6 can be rough in a casino because ovewr the hours you loose out to the rake. 5-10 and 10-20 are better, but 10-20 starts to get expensive. I like some 1-2 NL games, but any NL game is a swing game (meaning one minute you're the big stack, the next your broke, rinse, repeat). Limit games weed out the bad players because even a catch on the river once and a while won't save them like it does in NL games.
q6600, 8GB DDR2, 8800 GTS 512, 16MB/s Cable
Xbox Live: Shoal07
Steam ID: Shoal07
PSN: Shoal07 (<--Friend me up!)
I hate limit games because you can't play the player like you can in NL. I want my bets to mean something. Can't count the times i've lost to people who would river something just because they were bored and wanted some action so they kept betting.
Gamer Tag: Rantyr
Agreed, I will not play a limit game.
lancejt wrote:
WAR -Vozhd Bratovitch
At low stakes, thats almost as likely to happen in no-limit games as in limit games. In either case, its certainly annoying, but I still love those people. In the long term, they will give me their money ;p
Low stakes 7 card stud seems to be an even bigger haunt for those who refuse to fold. As a fine example a few minutes ago, I had pocket kings with a six as door card. It was a .10/.20 table, Mr. Donk raised to .10 and 5 of us called. I hit a King on fourth street, and started off the betting with .20. Mr. Donk raised showing a QJc. All but one other player folded, so I re-raised, Mr. Donk raised to the cap, the other guy called and so did I. Mr. Donk and I raised to the cap for each betting round after that (the third guy folded on the first bet on 5th street). It turned out that Mr. Donk was raising my Kings with a pair of Queens,Again, as long as you play straight up poker, and avoid trying to be tricky, these people will pay you off in the long run. Fifth street didn't appear to help him much, but as mentioned he kept at it. 6th street gave him an inside straight draw ... and he kept at it. And of course, the river filled his straight. I was hoping to play with him some more, as I would have gladly taken his money the rest of the time he made such moves, but sadly I had to leave to take care of a call from work.
private String paula = "Brillant";
True! and it feels SO good
Gamer Tag: Rantyr
I thought that the feds had clamped down on on-line poker. That appears to be wrong. Where do you guys play?
"All that time you waste dating and having sex could be better spent scouring the web for new game developer press releases." - Quintin_Stone
I have heard good things about Bodog.com
lancejt wrote:
WAR -Vozhd Bratovitch
I'm pretty sure a blind person would be able to see when I'm bluffing, so I only play poker when I don't feel like having money.
"I think Elysium has the right of it" - Certis
I have played on Full Tilt and Bodog, but I have pretty much given up playing poker online. I'm not willing to invest time or money in third party software tools to maximize my odds, and I'm not interested playing against those who do for money. I've been pretty much a break even player online.
I'd strongly encourage you to check out Poker Academy before investing much money in learning the game. There really is no other free poker you can play oinline that can teach you what PA does. First, the offline bots in the software are strong. But the online community is pretty incredible. It is helped by an online interface that really promotes chat among players. I never chat when playing online for money, but I have made many new friends playing online there.
You have to earn your PAX dollars by playing freerolls that are similar to online free play. All-in fests, and just spectacularly poor play. But once you accumulate some PAX in these freerolls, you then play tournaments and cash games with whatever you have earned. You either build your bankroll and keep playing, or trudge back to the freerolls for more PAX. It is actually an amazingly great way to lean about bankroll management, which if you plan to play regularly at all, you need to learn about.
As you earn more PAX, your bankroll will allow for higher stakes games. The higher the stakes, the better the play generally. But the community has taken it even further, now having leagues, where you track your success of over a season of tourneys. They also have a great form online. It's not flame war free, but it is much more welcoming of new players than 2+2, which is the gold standard poker forum.
Basically, the gamer is me, as Novocain pointed out, just loves Poker Academy as a game. For just playing poker, I prefer it to playing for cash online. Mostly because you find better play there than you do in the low limit games online. Even if you can beat the low limit games, I find that it is not a game that is much fun to play.
Xbox Live: JayhawkerGWJ
last.fm: JayhawkerGWJ
I originally played at Bodog, but eventually moved to pokerstars due to the much greater number of players around.
private String paula = "Brillant";
Both my wife and I play, and we hold $20 tournaments at our house every couple of weeks during the winter time. Summer time it kind of hard to get people together, due to what ever reasons. Poker is a game of pure emotional and mental toughness. Once you realize that their is no such thing as luck so to speak, and that everybody is going to win a hand on the river and lose on the river on BS, then you learn to make the most of whatever cards are in your hand. Knowing when to go ahead and get somebody out of the pot when holding a pair of aces, vs. stringing someone along for more money when all you have is a small pair or draw, is how you make your money at NL. And that is what your after. Limit games are a little different. You have to grind these out which takes alot of patience.
The thing that kills me the most is watching my wife play. She is a little smarter than the average bear. She will use the I'm a girl with blonde hair to her advantage in every way. I've seen some pretty stupid calls by men that thought she didn't know how to play and other guys that were willing to just give her their money hand after hand knowing they were beaten. It is just funny as hell to watch.
Give 'em Hell !!!
"Forgiveness is between them and God. It is my job to arrange the meeting." - John Creasy
When I'm just playing for fun (99% of the time) I actually go to MSN's Texas Hold'Em rooms.
There are a good amount of people that just want to play poker and it has a Halo-esque ranking system that puts you with some people below you and some people above you in just about every game.
It's free and runs in an IE browser. They don't have monogrammed hats or anything but I find the atmosphere very relaxed. It's mostly people just wanting to play cards. I think the entire time I've been a member I've only come across maybe 5 people that were all in, all the time. Since it's free, if I see them I usually try to call a huge bet to kick them out, or get kicked out myself to join another game.
Just food for thought if you are just wanting to get comfortable with Hold'em. Also the game lets you know when someone looks at their cards, looks at their stack, is stacking chips to bet, looks at the pot, or looks at your chips. So you can actually start to get tells off of people that are fidgety.
I usually have a really good time.
Letters to the Internet
When I play at the casino here in town, I play strictly $3/$6 limit poker. I love it when NL players show up, becasue they get so frustrated by the different rules, which dictates different strategy, that they just give away money.
Seriously, part of the reason I enjoy limit, is I get away from those experts that pout every time they lose a hand. There is some of that in limit, but it usually the NL guys that are mad they can't figure out the game. Limit really teaches you about hand strength and the power of position.
Where I really got interested in limit play was the book The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King by Michael Craig. In it he desribes the highest stakes ever played in a poker game, as Billionaire Andy Beal took on many of the great players ever in a series of heads up limit matches. We're talking about limit poker with millions of dollars on the line. Blinds varies, but went up to several hundred thousand dollars per hand at times. But it is such a great book, that people not even that interested in poker would find it to be pretty entertaining.
Here's a shot from my last poker night:
Yes, that's my daughter as the big stack. And, uh, that's me dealing, already having been knocked out. My daughter is actually a pretty good poker player, and in this game personally knocked out each and everyone of us.
Xbox Live: JayhawkerGWJ
last.fm: JayhawkerGWJ
Yeah, that's what drove me off as well. I think Bodog is my favorite, but it doesn't allow for many of the tools players like to use, so they don't play there. Overall, you will find weaker players and a much more fair game at Bodog. I switched over to Full Tilt because there were so many more players, and i was using another product PA makes called Prospector, which analyzes all of the hands you play, and finds the leaks in your game. It would not work with Bodog hand histories.
Xbox Live: JayhawkerGWJ
last.fm: JayhawkerGWJ
We've played the first Monday of the night for the last ~2 years. Just a $10 buy in, usually starting with .05/.1 blinds and reaising as high as .5/1.00 depending on whose house it is and how late it is. I don't have a lot lot of stories but I did bust a guy out with a King high straight flush once. That one was pretty nice.
According to the PokerStars.net stat boxes, I've been running 20-25%.
I would if I could; but the nearest poker room is several hours away.
I'll definitely give their demo a spin to check it out.
Semper Delectatio
Xbox Live - Cannibal GWJ XFire - cannibalcrowley
http://cannibalcrowley.blogspot.com/