Online Poker

[Squeezer]

Does anyone else play this addictive shit?

I play for free at planetpoker.com

Seriously, I've been playing for like 2 days straight. Come try it, my user name is Springy

[Ignominy]

I've made several thousand from PartyPoker.com. While its software is not the best, it has the worst playerbase, and will be easier to win at.

Both my roommates are pro poker players. They make so much it's sick. One has made ~200,000 from playing party poker.

I don't think cards is something that's easy to pick up and instantly do well over a long period, there's a lot to learn about percentages, plays, betting patterns, player types, and more. So I really can't suggest you just jump in without first learning what you're doing.

Play money is NOT a good way to learn. Neither is watching it on TV. Play money is a joke, and is nothing like real poker, and I can't stress that enough. TV is bad because often a) the announcers are bad and sometimes straight up wrong and b) the good players have so much more going on than can even be told to you in the time it takes to play a hand. What may be a good play for them won't be for you if you aren't working with all the information they have.

If you want to start learning more about odds, a great site I use all the time is http://www.twodimes.net/poker/ You can put in the starting hands and board (if it's out yet) and see all the stats related to the hand. It also calculates a bunch of games.

If anyone actually wants to start playing on partypoker, I'll be more than happy to do a friend referral for them. You'll have to deposit at least $50 and then play 125 raked hands. That'll give you a $25 bonus and put $50 in my account, and I'll send the $50 to you, so you can keep all of it. This was done for me when I first started, and it helped a lot, and I don't care about keeping your $50 for little to no work on my part. The 125 hands go by really fast, and if you're playing at low stakes and know what you're doing, there's no chance you can lose your whole fifty dollars. If anyone wants to do this, either drop me a private message here or ?message me in game. A 150% bonus on $50 is a hell of a deal, and you're not going to find a better one if you're trying to start without investing much money.

Oh yeah, for clarity, all the numbers I mention in this post are US Dollars.

[phata$$]

Full Tilt Poker

[Galleleo]

I played party poker, but the play money is a joke. People just go all-in for no reason whatsoever.

Then I played for money. I put in 50 euro. I won my 50 euro back (actually put it back on my bankaccount) and played with the rest (I doubled it). I was winning again, then losing then winning.. and this went on until I lost it (really bad night, way to high stakes table). And I haven't played since. I just said to myself: I am gonna play this 50 euro, if I lose it, too bad, if I get it back, no problem, if I win, it would be nice. In the end I lost nothing I won nothing. But I gotta draw my own lines. It'll be a while before I would even consider playing with money again.

I like the rl stuff better anyway.

[NaiLed]

used to, got lucked out so many times all in a row and i gave up for a while. at least until after exams anyway (last one is today)

[winipcfg]

I love playing poker online. I'm no good, but still find it funny anyways. On PartyPoker, I just stick to the penny tables. I haven't played in a while, though.

[SEAL]

I signed up at partypoker about a year ago. Lost my 50 dollars fairly quickly and quit playing it. Then i started playing it in RL.
In march they gave me a "free" 30$ and only for last week i desided to use it.

I just noticed that everyone keeps raising and lucking out, so I figured that you have to move up a stake to get a fair amount of players (where not everyone will go all the way and luck on the river). So not the 0.50/1$ tables. Now I'm at 180$, so.. so far, so good =)

Ignominy: What stakes do your roommates play. I've read some 'hack the party poker', etc books about tactics etc, but I don't think they would work.. Once a while you see this clown walking in, raising all the bets and all ya gotta do is wait for that good hand and empty his wallet. what do you think? Any more advises?

[Refer]

i play a lot of live games in casino in London, and North London

mainly at Victoria Casino and a 2 local poker clubs in COlindale Snooker Club and Harrow Snooker Club. and i also play at Gutshot [in Central London; the biggest European Poker Club].

i made £1500 profit since the turn of the year [that's about $2800 USD] mainly through live games. i'm still trying to adapt to online play. i feel when u play online u have to have so much more patience because u go through so many more hands. i've been losing on online poker; but not much; only about £200 total [$360 USD].

A key to how i win in more live games is that i usually sit in cash game with a certain about of money, which is not a lot in terms of my bank roll [probably about £50-£100, depending on the blinds], and if i lose then i lose; but if i win then i'll walk away a happy man

[Galleleo]

I had a really bad night when I lost my last cash online. I kept getting pocket pair kings, streets and whatever. And people kept beating me on the river.

[NaiLed]

pretty much nothing pisses me off more than losing against a lucky hand. i know it's part of the game but, fuck.

[Squeezer]

I agree. I hate having two pair, and getting beat by some punk's straight or flush draw.

[Ignominy]

Ignominy: What stakes do your roommates play. I've read some 'hack the party poker', etc books about tactics etc, but I don't think they would work.. Once a while you see this clown walking in, raising all the bets and all ya gotta do is wait for that good hand and empty his wallet. what do you think? Any more advises?

Well, playing online, the most important thing is having a good table selection. You want to get on a table with the worst player or players you can find. When you're playing live you don't have as much of a choice, but online, you can spectate and get wait listed for tables and such.

Recently, my one roommate (the other one mostly just plays live) would play four 100+9 single table sit and go tournaments at a time, where it pays top three. Before that, he'd play (depending on the action) 20/40 limit games or 15/30 or even 10/20 if the action was good. Earlier on, before party upped their max buy in for tables he would just play at the highest no limit tables ($200 buy in, I can't remember the blinds... 2/4?) but once they changed their format (halved the blinds for each buy in, added up to 2k max tables) the action on NL changed completely, and a lot more rocks/grinders started slipping in, and both of us played much less no limit.

More recently (i.e. last night), we've just been playing a 1/2 or 2/5 no limit game live at a casino, my roommate backed me in a game (I'm poor, but good, I've made him money every time he's backed me), but they've played the 5/10 games at Caesar's and the Bellagio (you need a thousand minimum to sit).

As for cheating online, the worst situation I think you're going to run into is someone with multiple accounts on a single table. Now, the worst of these would be a ten-handed omaha game where someone has 9/10 of the seats, so he's knowing 36 of the 52 cards. That's a really big advantage, but still not a lock. Most of the major internet sites check IPs and account associations, so it's pretty tough to get away with.
I've heard, but don't know anything about algorithm programs that can let you see cards ahead of time, but I'm inclined to believe that the giant corporation making millions of dollars whose entire profit comes from not having things like that exist is more likely to be able to prevent that than not.

As for advice, table selection is probably one of the most important things newer people overlook. Find tables with large avg pots, find out who the retards are, and take their money. Honestly though, I don't think the average online game is nearly as soft as it was a couple of years ago, when the holdem boom first hit.

Edit: Also another really big important thing that I forgot to mention: bankroll management. In playing cards over a long period of time, you're going to have good sessions and bad ones. You want to be able to absorb the variance and not bust all your money on a down swing, because it could literally come at any time. I would suggest optimally having 20 to 30 buy-ins of the stakes you're playing at. That's a lot, though, and you might not be able to afford that at first. I'm just saying, don't start where you can't lose, and don't go nuts and up your stakes after just one big win. I've managed my money extremely well, and I've never rebought. I bought in $10 to a home game, and turned that into over 200 in some weeks, then I bought in 150 online and never busted. So essentially I've been playing on winnings my whole time. I don't know if a lot of people have been as fortunate as me, but I learned a lot before I ever risked a dime.

[AnZu]

I've heard, but don't know anything about algorithm programs that can let you see cards ahead of time, but I'm inclined to believe that the giant corporation making millions of dollars whose entire profit comes from not having things like that exist is more likely to be able to prevent that than not.

This has happened just once on some minor site, someone made a hack for seeing everyones cards when they were dealt.. It was fixed immediately ofcourse though. I had article about this somewhere but too lazy to find it..

Anyways, I play pretty much everything on every site.. party/ongame/pokerstars/absolute/pacific currently mostly.

[Eric is God]

A few people on Sk8 play online poker 10 hours a day. I knew this one guy in 4th year corporate finance who won $600 during the first lecture playing on his laptop. I was sitting next to him and I have to admit it looked really tempting. Too bad I suck at picking up players' habits.

[NaiLed]

sigh lost again on against shit cards. i dont even think im playing bad. fucking hell.