Forum members poker school q & a

[ultimodragon]

I thought might be a nice idea,and to get back to poker in the forum a bit,to start this..hope all jump on board

Most of the forum visitors have been playing poker for a good while,but the love of the game is what keeps us all here,its so cruel,and kind so you need an edge,thats how i see it
The lure for me is that you learn more everytime you play...

I was thinking,amongst ourselves can i throw a topic out on the game and have people chip in?
Please dont spam tho or rip of the net,lets discuss as friends,and best insight gets to pick next topic

Heres this weeks Topic...

Do you only play one style? fold/hold same cards,tight,aggressive..or does game or opponents,position count?


Please post all,will be a great weekly thread

[lorry]

depending what my pocket cards are determines if i fold or not ...but even playing with pocket aces doesnt mean you win the game.and yes i do try and read what opponents have ....doesnt work most of time tho lol...i try ..i enjoy playing watever happens ... win or lose.

[DeborahLee]

Ulti I would like to jump on this if I may

I know I play a low level of poker....I don't think I will every move up the scale from where I am. I have tried to follow some basic advice from others ....using others table position and chip counts to my advantage. I do like certain sets of cards and regulary play them the same.

I have tried to bluff a hand..sometimes it works...often it doesn't. I would realy like others opinions as to if I am an easy player to read.

Am I predictable? Do players have me picked before I finish playing my hands?

Any advice would be appreciated.....I would really like to improve my game.

[teebs]

Nice topic indeed Ulti. Yeh I generally play the same hands although I do vary depending on position and opponents.
If im card dead, I will definately try to get some blinds in position, and min raising UTG with a shite hand is good fun too
As for opponents, play will vary depending on whos sat at the table. Theres some players which you know you can get them off strongish holdings, and others its best not to bluff against.

As for you Deb, I generally play it safe when you're in a pot just in case
Wouldnt say your predictable, but you're one of those players that I'd never call without something strong :P

[daddyspoon]

i honestly think my game is too predictable. which is often why i dont understand a lot of peoples calls from behind. but maybe im giving to much credit to people reading players. think my biggest problem is my anger, i tilt to easy. but strangely this doesnt happen live.

[future2112]

Nice thread ulti, altho what your asking is for people to give away there playing style etc.. are you trying to gain and edge over us by asking this question....

"Do you only play one style? fold/hold same cards,tight,aggressive..or does game or opponents,position count?"

Anyhow, as for me i tend to play the same way depending on whether im playing free chips or cash.

My style when playing with free chips is pretty loose compared to my style on the cash tables. playing free side i tend to play the cards that im holding and try not to get too influenced by the players im up against. As for cash side i try and play position and defo generally play premium hands.

[cuddycat]

This is an interesting one. Since I have been back I have noticed a few players have changed styles of play and have become a lot stronger players and new players have entered the scene which has meant that I in turn have had to alter my style and am holding back more until I can read the style of the players on the table. I think it is also wise to look at the flow of winning hands on a particular table as even though the cards are Random it does seem to me that a particular table favours flushes, full houses etc.

That being said I do have my favourite hands which invariably I will play whatever position I am in.

[stevo_58]

Good thread Ulti. I tend to play the same all the time, which is crap lol

Like several people I do have certain hands I like. I started to take more notice of position then I used to do. I also widened the range of starting hands I would consider playing at the beginning of a tourney, mainly because I noticed there were opportunities being missed. Yes this can be considered a 'leaky' form of play, but it can also provide a few smallish pots to be picked up. Every now and then I might see a flop (unraised) with quirky hole cards, just chancing my arm so that if I hit I wouldn't be put on the cards I have. I also bluff far less than people seem to think I do, so I have to make sure I show my bluffs just to keep that image alive lol

I definitely play differently on freeside Vs money, even though I know I shouldn't.

Just for the record Deb, I don't find you at all easy to read.

[akatiger]

all posts duely noted for future referencelol
oh and ulti nice thread m8

[sexynomore]

Ulti my favorite person from the UK northeast.

Interesting thread indeed. My achillies heal is probably an agressive person at the table that passes or checks his cards waiting for a raise then re-raises pot or all in. I can't stand that so, I have a tendency to target that person and call one of his hands (after he/she "mostly he" afte the third time) with some success with my down cards being aveage at best. It bugs the bajeebies out of me when at one of the four tourneys this is happening. I expect that play on the ring tables but not in the tourneys.

No, I do not play certain cards all the time. Very seldom do I play prs under 8 and never ace with a 7 or under. I will have to change that strategy the next time I play lol.

[ultimodragon]

Originally Posted by sexynomore

Ulti my favorite person from the UK northeast

Im Blushing

Thankyou all for the posts so far,is exactly the thread i wanted..even if just a few of us posting on it
And no im not here to get player notes lol

I would hate this thread to just disapear quickly as so many do,so propose a main topic change every Wednesday and Sunday so dosnt become stale,il pick my favourite response this time and then they post new topic and then chose next to post,if that makes sense

Oh and in answer to my own question..
I have really changed this year,i think its a mix of not playing as much(time wise) and focusing on cash

If i play now i want to stay in...i fold low pprs,hands like K 7,8,9..any two mish mash cards unless suited

Ive got in the mindset that if you play a medium kinda hand and hit,where are you? whats the other guy/girl got?

But ive been playing any cash game within my spend limit this year,and have learned you have to up and down your range,i might grab 1 game a night might be Omaha pl,heads up or a holdem game..

Im not good enough to give advice,but what works for me is change your hand range depending on number of players is key

My biggest problem is i just wanna play hands...so lets not start with the bluffin git label...i just get creative


PS..Debs you kick ass at poker!! You just need to turn off the natural nice lass you are..and go dark and brutal on the tables,you will enjoy x

[tony48]

i will let you all into a secret i never bluff thank you
all for folding when i bet

[BBOB]

Yep ulti great thread. And to elaborate on what you said in ur last post. I used to be very tight agressive and predictable but Ive been playing alot of 6 seat cash games and this has really helped me open up my game and helped me learn more about playing in position and reading my opponents. But dont take this to far or it will destroy ur tourney game LOL. For any of you who play a tight tourney game I recomend putting some time in the 6 or 8 seat cash games , this will force you to examine your game. Good luck at tables all.

[daddyspoon]

Originally Posted by BBOB

Yep ulti great thread. And to elaborate on what you said in ur last post. I used to be very tight agressive and predictable but Ive been playing alot of 6 seat cash games and this has really helped me open up my game and helped me learn more about playing in position and reading my opponents. But dont take this to far or it will destroy ur tourney game LOL. For any of you who play a tight tourney game I recomend putting some time in the 6 or 8 seat cash games , this will force you to examine your game. Good luck at tables all.

i think im strongest on a 6 seater. it is a bit odd tho i also think im good at the last 3 but my heads up game is real bad. iv tried a few different tactics in heads up but never seems to pay off

[DukeOfDeath]

Wow. This is the good kind of strategy talk I've been pushing for awhile. Personally I can't not change it up. To keep the game the same between cash or free, tourney or rings, high or low limit, loose or tight players, etc. is suicide. It's like sniping with a shotgun or using hand grenades to take out bad guys in a hostage situation.

I guess one of my biggest fears is playing "blind". Like someone said about playing any two cards and wondering how to play when you hit medium pair. A lot of times at a table that's tight aggressive-ish I'll raise twice in a row with suited connectors or A rag and steal the blinds but then fold KQ the next hand just because I feel my image is getting too loose and if I get reraised it's hard to distinguish between a player just making a stand or actually having AK or AQ. And raise-folding loses me all the chips I just won (plus if I raised the first 2 with position I usually will have inferior position by this time). So I'll just muck a technically better hand to preserve image and keep people guessing. I don't know how good this strategy is because then I make it too obvious that I have something good if I'm raising it up the 3rd time in a row. Also I lose the benefit of a player getting fed up with my raises and playing me back with KJ or something worse.

Anyway, there's a little glimpse of how I vary, but I definitely vary.

[shezzabell]

Originally Posted by tony48

i will let you all into a secret i never bluff thank you
all for folding when i bet

im with tony here ..i never ever ever bluff !!!!!

[BBOB]

I put this to the extreme last nite all be it on the 2 and 4 cent tables. I played with same faces as usuall on 6 seaters. I raised everytime i had the button with garbarge, got lucky the few times i got calls, ended up almost 20 bucks after several hours , i even showed alot of my bluffs which i rarely do. I must have made some people mad with my play as when I got on tonight to play I lost a star. Won 20 bucks and I lose stars. This stars system is a joke but would rather have fewer stars than more, it helps ur image aswell. I mean I got away from hands early if i was called or caught stealing. I thought this must be how Gus Hanson feels when he plays LMAO

[DukeOfDeath]

Originally Posted by BBOB

I put this to the extreme last nite all be it on the 2 and 4 cent tables. I played with same faces as usuall on 6 seaters. I raised everytime i had the button with garbarge, got lucky the few times i got calls, ended up almost 20 bucks after several hours , i even showed alot of my bluffs which i rarely do. I must have made some people mad with my play as when I got on tonight to play I lost a star. Won 20 bucks and I lose stars. This stars system is a joke but would rather have fewer stars than more, it helps ur image aswell. I mean I got away from hands early if i was called or caught stealing. I thought this must be how Gus Hanson feels when he plays LMAO

That's how I was on Outlaws last night. Except I was honestly getting some good cards a majority of the time too. But in contrast I wasn't showing anything. Even though I had pocket Ks hitting trip Ks or nut flushes and hands like that, I wasn't showing. I got caught on two bluffs in a row and didn't slow down, but after those two bluffs I started getting better hands again and still no calls. A couple "Hey, where'd my chips go?" remarks and I slowly just accumulated all the chips.

To tie back in to the original question, I intentionally played to my opponents. They leaned a little loose passive and so I played a tight aggressive style making sure to bet my good hands, hoping to get paid off. When the loose passive became tight passive after the blinds went up a little I notched up the aggression and became a little Loose Aggressive myself. So to your ORIGINAL question: YES to the first and then NO to the second

[ultimodragon]

Loving the posts so far,and nice work Bob and Duke!

Had a couple of PMS loving the thread,so lets keep it alive...

Does anyone wanna throw a new topic or question out there?

Heads up play might be a good one,but someone else start one..

[DukeOfDeath]

What about how to play small blind. I always find it tricky, because if you fold you're wasting odds quite often. However, if you limp you could face a reraise from BB who does have position on you. Then there's the raise, but unless BB folds it'll be hard to play out of position.

So how do you play SB with an average hand? How do you play with a strong hand? How do you vary based on prior action or different types of players?