Anyone here play poker?

[JoeDirt 0]

And I mean live, in-person, not just online stuff.

 

I'm going to start playing no limit hold 'em every week with 5-6 friends and I was wondering if there are any good sites out there (other than www.poker1.com, which I already found) that if good tips for beginners as far as betting, tells, etc. I don't need anything to help me beat pros...just some friends who are novices.

[Hogan Made Wrestling 0]

I play online as well as a weekly live game. Some good sites (including their message boards) are

 

Cardplayer Magazine's website

 

www.cardplayer.com

 

Daniel Negeanu's website

 

www.fullcontactpoker.com

 

Barry Greenstein's website

 

www.barrygreenstein.com

[Guest PlatinumBoy]

I don't know how good your friends are, but honestly, playing with my friends is a lot easier than playing online. I generally win money doing things that would NEVER fly when I play in Atlantic City or Biloxi or what not. If they are novices you can work bluffs fairly easily. Get a Flush or two? Next time the flop shows two or three cards of the same suit and there was some action before the flop, make a decent bluff and watch everyone fold. Always works for me, espically if you play a "reverse poker face" and act like you really have some insane hand.

 

Once again though, playing with friends who are novices does lead to you losing to hands no one in Vegas would play. Folks betting before the flop on a 7 and 2 unsuited then flopping a set and winning with the worst set up hand in poker can be common with buddies, but never in a real setting.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I lost 30 bucks last night. Fuck cards.

[Crimson Platypus 0]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...912938?v=glance

 

That book was essential to improving my game. I went from never finishing in the top 5 to regularly (not always, but often enough) winning in the poker league that I am in. 12-15 guys that play every other Sunday. It really is a fantastic book.

[Crimson Platypus 0]

As far as playing online goes the one thing you have to remember above all else is that you can't bluff. People will call with anything online. Read Jackpot Jay Lovinger's (sp?) column at espn.com for some insight to that whole deal. Generally a good read too.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

I won sixty bucks on Saturday.

 

Highlight of my life thus far.

[Guest Coffey]

I used to play all the time. The biggest tales are when they don't make eye contact (which means they're strong) or when they sit back in their chair (which also means their strong).

 

Once thing you'll want to get into the habit of it always touching your chips even if you're not going to bet. It's a good way to get a reaction from the persons you're playing with. Don't automatically fold either. Wait a little while. Then they won't be able to tell when you have good cards or not when you go to bluff a pot.

 

Mostly common sense stuff, but when playing with amateurs, it's really all you need to know. Just hope to catch some cards.

 

Be weary of the tight players. The players that only play pocker jacks and up. You can run them off almost every pot due to them being so tight, but if they call, abort!

[JoeDirt 0]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...912938?v=glance

 

That book was essential to improving my game. I went from never finishing in the top 5 to regularly (not always, but often enough) winning in the poker league that I am in. 12-15 guys that play every other Sunday. It really is a fantastic book.

Thanks for the reccomendation.

[LessonInMachismo 0]

Back in California, we'd play on Fridays and Saturdays. I bought an old poker table at a garage sale and we'd set it up in someone's garage and order pizza. When whoever's house it was parents weren't home, we'd light up the cigars.

 

Here, some of my friends were playing a year or so ago, in relatively high stakes games. I'm talking about losing a few hundred in one night, maybe more.

 

At the Cherokee Casino, my wife won $1500 at slots in 2003 and we subsequenly won $500 or so a few weeks later. They now have these new Cherokee Resorts from the same outfit, and they are really cool. You can get toasted, get some good food, hear some good music, make or lose some money and still be able to get to your room without driving or being charged with public drunkenness. And all at a killer price.

 

Can't wait for my next vacation.

[Stephen Joseph 0]

In the last three weeks, won a 60-person $50 dollar buyin tourney, placed third in another, and placed each week in our home game.

 

It's been a hell of a run, which ended last night because I didn't play the table, just the cards. *Sigh*.

 

In the tournament I won, the first hand @ the final table saw me with pocket Aces on the button. Facing 2 limpers, I limped in as well (to see if I set or if low cards come out) and both big blinds called. Pot is 3000 chips (avg. chipstack is 20,000, mine is 60,000). Flop comes A,A,K. BB bets hard, gets a caller(He thought his two-pair was good (AAQQ) because that guy goes all-in in. I call, and the turn is a K, which seals BB's fate because he has KK. In one hand, I went from 25% of the chips to well over 60%, and there's still 7 players at the table.

 

Fun!

[The Czech Republic 0]

Back in California, we'd play on Fridays and Saturdays. I bought an old poker table at a garage sale and we'd set it up in someone's garage and order pizza. When whoever's house it was parents weren't home, we'd light up the cigars.

YEEEAAAAAAAAAH!

[Nighthawk 0]

Grow up, Czech.

[Crimson Platypus 0]

In the tournament I won, the first hand @ the final table saw me with pocket Aces on the button. Facing 2 limpers, I limped in as well (to see if I set or if low cards come out) and both big blinds called. Pot is 3000 chips (avg. chipstack is 20,000, mine is 60,000). Flop comes A,A,K. BB bets hard, gets a caller(He thought his two-pair was good (AAQQ) because that guy goes all-in in. I call, and the turn is a K, which seals BB's fate because he has KK. In one hand, I went from 25% of the chips to well over 60%, and there's still 7 players at the table.

 

Fun!

Nothing better than holding the nuts with people betting into you.

[Guest PlatinumBoy]

I came close to punching yet another hole in my dorm wall a few months ago(one hole from Madden, one from NHL HITZ have been made--both repaired) due to Party Poker. Didn't have much money in my account--35 bucks--so I get on, do decent and get up to 80. Hour later or so, I'm down to 65 and in a NL Hold Em' table. Flop comes and I have a Full House, a pretty good one too. First guy goes all in, next guy does, I go all in, and finally the last guy goes all in--only one person at a five person table folded.

 

Since four of us are all in, the cards come down, and we show--first guy had like two pair, next guy had three of a kind, so I'm going nuts thinking I just made a great payday... when the last guy show four 8's. The last 8 came on the damn River.

 

I felt like shit... but I did learn how the guy with four 8's felt when I got all of one guy's chips in some casino in one hand--he thought I was bluffing and saw my set of Jacks with a pair of nines--in fact he went all in with that trying to get me out.

[Dr. Tom 0]

In the last three weeks, won a 60-person $50 dollar buyin tourney, placed third in another, and placed each week in our home game.

w00t

 

Incidentally, where are these tournaments? And do they allow those bloody rebuys I hate so much?

[Nevermortal 0]

I hate poker, and the fact that people play poker simply because it's trendy.

[Guest PlatinumBoy]

In the last three weeks, won a 60-person $50 dollar buyin tourney, placed third in another, and placed each week in our home game.

w00t

 

Incidentally, where are these tournaments? And do they allow those bloody rebuys I hate so much?

Rebuys piss me off as well. Nothing like ultra rich kids who suck at Poker who just keep going all in with shit hands and then rebuying and rebuying...

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

Doesn't rebuying just give you more money at the end?

 

EDIT: I meant they lose that money making a bigger pot.

[iggymcfly 0]

I came close to punching yet another hole in my dorm wall a few months ago(one hole from Madden, one from NHL HITZ have been made--both repaired) due to Party Poker. Didn't have much money in my account--35 bucks--so I get on, do decent and get up to 80. Hour later or so, I'm down to 65 and in a NL Hold Em' table. Flop comes and I have a Full House, a pretty good one too. First guy goes all in, next guy does, I go all in, and finally the last guy goes all in--only one person at a five person table folded.

 

Since four of us are all in, the cards come down, and we show--first guy had like two pair, next guy had three of a kind, so I'm going nuts thinking I just made a great payday... when the last guy show four 8's. The last 8 came on the damn River.

 

I felt like shit... but I did learn how the guy with four 8's felt when I got all of one guy's chips in some casino in one hand--he thought I was bluffing and saw my set of Jacks with a pair of nines--in fact he went all in with that trying to get me out.

If we're going for worst beat stories on PartyPoker, here's mine:

 

I'd been playing pretty well, and I decided I'd play NL 100 for a while instead of NL 50.

 

Anyway, I was up another 20 bucks at that (six-person) table, and I decided to play A-6 suited. The flop came A-6-5, and I checked it. Somebody bet $3 and someone else called, so I raised it to $10. Both called. Then the turn was an 8, and I bet $10 and got 2 callers again. At this point, I was starting to get scared of trips, but then another ace came on the river.

 

With a solid full house, I bet $20 on the river, and got raised to $50. Again, the other caller stayed in. There was only one ace left in the deck, and I knew that I had at least one of the two beat. Plus, it seemed weird that the other guy would call $10 on the flop with just an A-8, so I put him on A-K, A-5, or A-6 and re-raised all-in. Of course, they both called, and the original bettor showed A-8, took all my money and a bunch more for a $350+ pot.

 

That's still nowhere near as bad as the four kings losing to four aces story though. Are you sure you didn't stack the deck that hand?