Topic: Texas Holdem

[hans]

I just won my first play money sit&go tournament (PokerStars.net with 45 players). Took me two hours of playing but I won with an Ace high flush.

Anyone else play? I'm thinking of eventually playing a real tournament. I have a pretty good knack for reading people and I think with a bit of studying the math I could be a decent player.

[Perspective]

Ive played $5 per person winner takes pot while drinking as much home made win as possible games. But never online or at a casino or anything. How much did you win and how much was the buy in?

[Govtcheez]

Bassy plays a LOT, so when she posts this thread will become way more useful.

That said, I used to play pretty frequently, but haven't at all since I went to Vegas last June.

My advice:
-Get a book.  They're kind of expensive, but once you pull down a pot using the knowledge from that, it's already paid for itself.  I can't recommend Sklansky's Theory of Poker enough.
-Listen to Kenny Rogers.  If you think you're not playing up to form for some reason, walk away.  When I was in Vegas, I usually played for about 5-6 hours at a time.  You get really tired in that time, especially when they're feeding you free beer all night long.  Don't be afraid to get up and take a walk.  Your stuff will still be there; don't worry.
-Again, listen to Kenny Rogers.  Know when to fold.  Just because you managed to catch 2 runners 1 time to make your 58o into something special doesn't mean it'll happen again anytime soon.  At a home game I was running, I left the table for a few minutes to take a phone call.  My mom sat in while I was gone.  She called on 23o and eventually made a full house out of it, but in the long run it's not worth it to stay in for the once or twice a month that'll hit
-Play a lot, because I haven't been and I miss it

[A Bit of Fruit]

i play a bit only in real life with friends...just $10 each and winner takes the pot...im good some days and bad others

[PJYelton]

My advice, only play regular poker if you are perfectly ok with the fact that you will continuosly lose hands like pocket aces to people playing Q3 offsuit and who hit their queen on the river for two pair.  Or a hand like two pair aces and kings to someone who catches a gutshot straight on the river with an 85 offsuit.

Poker is a lot of fun when you are at a table where it feels like people are playing real poker, ie bluffing, check raising, etc.  Problem is that its getting tougher and tougher to find tables that don't just feel like giant slot machines.  People put their money in before the flop with just about anything, then wait to see what five cards show up on the board and see if they hit a jackpot.  All raising does is increase this "jackpot" amount they win if they hit their crappy hand.  One or two people calling your good hand with crap cards is great for the bankroll, having a whole table do it is nothing but frustration and heartache.  Of course when you have the nuts its great because they all call you down to the end, but you can easily go a day without ever hitting a hand on the flop that someone can't outdraw you on.

Tournaments are a lot better, but even a lot of those are being overrun with people with no skills who tend to go all in at every opportunity with the idea of simply "letting the poker gods decide".

I'd suggest trying a few small tournaments and see how well you do then go from there.  Play tight at the beginning of every tournament, let the bad players knock each other out.  Even if you quadruple up your money early it won't mean anything near the end of the tournament, but if you lose then you're out so its stupid to take chances.  As long as you only bet money you can afford to miss you should have fun win or lose.