Anyone play Poker?

[ArcticHeron]

I've recently started playing relatively seriously online again and have gotten reasonably good. Strictly Hold'em.

Found a few cash games at my local Grosvenor the past few weeks and am trying to get used to the change in environment and found that I'm really enjoying it.

I put in a tenner into online play twice a month and use the winnings to buy in at casino tables.

Anyone else play often?

Mods, please feel free to move thread. I could only find ones from 2010.

 

[ArcticHeron]

Bricks and Mortar tend to be softer games than online, just make sure you pay attention and work out quickly who the good regs are.

Aha yeah, already sussing a few of them out. I can only play midweek and starting to recognize a few of the better players that rarely limp and aggressively re-raise.

It's crazy just how different it is to online. Almost a different game, though a lot more enjoyable for obvious reasons, especially if it's a sociable table.

 

[ArcticHeron]

Never played for real money - used to play HoldEm online with a couple of people regularly - more for the social aspect, forgotten most of what I knew about the game though now.

I always felt like the free online ones tended to try and manipulate you into feeling confident enough to play with real money though - the results were odd sometimes as someone who has a head for passingly noticing patterns, etc.

I think unless you have something to stake and potentially loose, the game lacks all purpose and majesty. So much of what makes poker viable and interesting as a game is how you and everyone else at a table values their hand. If you have nothing to loose then there's no value to it.

It can work the other way too. Last week I played at a £50-250 buy in table, 1,1 blinds. Was there for about an hour before this guy joined, ****** as a fart and took a fat wedge from his pocket and brought in for £250. He was making these ridiculous bets that had no sense to them at all and therefore you couldn't ever get a read on him. He ended up pushing everyone off the table because he clearly had enough money not to care and it was never worth calling him unless you had a monster hand. People who don't care about valuing their own hand make the game just as pointless as if you where playing for nothing.

Not to say there's no value in playing for play money of course, it's a good place to learn the basics, just very poor for teaching you ranges and such.

 

[ArcticHeron]

Play a monthly home game.

Use to play a lot online until Black Friday and the games just got too tough/too much of a grind. Rake increase and i went from a B/E player to losing. Stopped playing online. I’m sure it worked out to be roughly that rake costs roughly 1BI/1000

Play[ed] locally in the Grosvenor as well with a mate from my home game but he’s moved away and lost my lift to there so that put an end to that.

Aye, my brother talks about how it all changed after Black Friday. How there was no value in playing single games from that point onward. He used to do reasonably well out of it too, basically a second income.

I was playing just after the boom started but quit before BF and didn't really pick it up seriously again until about 6 months ago.

 

[ArcticHeron]

Aha, classic. That's the danger in thinking your the big billy when your off the tables. You're only ever as good as your last hand and whilst it's important to feel confident, you should never get cocky.

 

[ArcticHeron]

Since the reopening of my local Grosvenor post covid, most of the tournaments are self deal and that doesn't interest me, so I haven't been back. Tbh I haven't played much since black friday which was what, 2010 or so? Used to play NL heads up as I found it to be the purest form of poker and the most difficult. Was only a break even to slight winner even at low stakes though. It was tournaments where I made some big wins, even though they weren't ever really my thing.

I do miss the days of watching High stakes poker and WSOP on tv.

Aye, seems bizarre that they use all the available dealers for cash games, though I suppose the rake back helps. Ever have any success in cash games at the Grosvenors?

 

[ArcticHeron]

Had an exceptionally bad run last night. Sat at the 1,2 table as the 1,1 wasn't open. Won a hand or two but it was far too aggressive for me and I walked off shortly after. Sat at the 1,1 when it opened and didn't hit a flop for almost 2 hours, never had such a bad run, even online. Tried to bluff a few hands to rake in a little profit but got jammed both times. Ridiculous. Maybe I'm just easy to read, 2 hours of hitting nothing will do that I guess.

 

[ArcticHeron]

Some of the PAD content is the worst. Someone folds a flush at least once a video, it's embarrassing. Chris Eubank Jr was on recently and was just awful.

Played last night and doubled up my buy in after an hour. Had 66 on my last hand, flop came 3, 6, Q followed by one more Queen. Player raised me all in on the turn. Of course, river came Queens and he had quads... worst suck out I've ever seen. One of the few times I've left a table genuinely frustrated.

 

[ArcticHeron]

Ouch. Sucks to lose those hands where you do everything right. But at least you know in the long run you'll profit from calling that all-in. It's actually the ideal situation I guess up until the river...

Last time I played I lost with a set of 10s (top set) where the guy went all in on the turn with nothing but a flush draw...which he of course hit. Shortly after my AA got cracked by kings on the turn with both of us all-in pre-flop . Even worse I actually flopped a flush draw in that hand, but didn't connect.

Ooooft, guess there's solace to be taken in knowing that it happens to all of us. I wouldn't have minded but earlier last week I went on a horrendous run and felt like I was making up for that this time round. Is what it is and I suppose you have to remember that Poker is all about mitigating risk and even with supposed made hands on the flop, it'll all chance after then for a lot of the time.

I was a bit of a tit and broke my own rule tbf. As soon as you double up, leave ASAP. I was well into 150% profit before that hand and should have just walked.

 

[ArcticHeron]

Managed to scrape top 10 on the Pokerstars 2,5 leaderboards yesterday and won $7.50. Not bad considering I only played for an hour in the morning and a few on the eve. Starting to see a tidy profit from those tables. Made around $100 the past 2 weeks and netted just over $150 for the month.

 

[ArcticHeron]

Made the jump to 5,10 tables for an hour last night. I'd forgotten just how much more aggressive that jump seems. Turn jams every other hand and bluff catching is so much harder for obvious reasons. Did surprisingly well however and basically doubled my buy ins at 2 tables within half an hour. Jumped on this morning for an hour and had similar results.

Started to keep track of my bankroll again now, especially as I'm at 2 tables and have been playing daily for the last 5 or so weeks. As stated in my previous post I'm well into profit at this stage and if I see those numbers continue to stay stable or tick up over the next few months I'd be tempted to drop some of the overtime I'm doing at work.

 

[ArcticHeron]

What site do you play on? I also do a lot of overtime at work and dream is to not do it but make the same amount playing poker instead.

I prefer live though, just got home from a 1am-5.30am session at local Grosvenor. £1/2 sat down with £300 out £900 so a good night

Pokerstars mainly. They have the best layout for mobile I feel and some decent incentives.

That's fantastic mate! You make a hobby out of winning like that then overtime becomes a lot easier to give up I imagine.

Haven't played at all this week myself. Went to the Grosvenor last Thursday and ran pure as hell for about 3 hours. Didn't quite hit your levels of profit but walked away around £200 up after 4 hours. The best profit to time ratio I've seen since picking it back up again.

To be quite honest I'm starting to remember why I quit online. There's too much variance for too little profit and doing it alongside 10/11hr work days can be a bit of a struggle. Problem is that I don't want to give up family time to sit in a Casino 2 times a week for 5-7 hours at a time. GF's taking the kids away in a few months and my plan is to use that time to field test some long hours and late nights. If I can make genuinely good profit and figure out where my bankroll should be then I'll devote 2 week nights to it for a few months and ease off the overtime.

 

[ArcticHeron]

Recently switched to the Paddy Power Poker site as my variance on PS was getting ridiculous. I have to say it's a lot easier and quicker to get into the green. Bluffs get through more often and people bet with a weaker range pre flop. Noticed more people making poorly structured over bets that basically scream bluff as well. Think bet sizing is the hardest thing to learn for newer players who (at a guess) are just tagging onto PPP from the main sport betting site.

 

[ArcticHeron]

Having a right game with Betfair Poker.

Made an account to take advantage of the quite generous Promo offers. Played the free tourney tickets linked to the Promo and made a decent wedge, especially on the bounty hunter ones. Ended up turning a tenner into around £112. Went to withdraw once all tickets used and the app blanked on me, crashed and when I restarted it stated I had nothing...

Spoken with 'customer services' these past few days and they are beyond useless. It's all there, every hand and every total loss/profit in every session yet they're refusing to credit me any of my winnings, only my original deposit amount.

Really quite disgusting. I have their complaints line as well as a few names to throw about but they really haven't got a leg to stand on if they refuse to pay me out. Not really sure what to do if it comes to that... I know they can back you off from virtual blackjack profits if they suspect you of being 'advantaged', but never heard of them withholding funds purely generated from Poker.