Poker

[rakbeater]

I used to be a huge online poker player before the major poker companies pulled out of the U.S.  Now I only play occasionally, but I do reminisce about the old days of poker when I was lucky enough to win a seat in the 2005 WSOP main event.  Who else is/was a player?

[rakbeater]

(04-16-2016, 11:55 PM)rakbeater Wrote:  I used to be a huge online poker player before the major poker companies pulled out of the U.S.  Now I only play occasionally, but I do reminisce about the old days of poker when I was lucky enough to win a seat in the 2005 WSOP main event.  Who else is/was a player?

Was waiting for my wife to come down from putting my daughter to bed the other night and was flipping through the channels and saw a poker after dark show, so I flipped to it and they were playing Pot Limit Omaha, which got me in the mood so I played a couple tables online until my wife came down.  What a great game!!  Has anyone else dabbled in that game at all?

[ToreadorElder]

I have an account on Bovada that I use occasionally.  I have an account over on Juicy Stakes...IIRC, they used to be Cake.  That one's rarely used.  (It's only got a small amount of money in it, nothing I care about.  For that matter, I cashed out most of my Bovada stake.)  Juicy Stakes had poor traffic;  didn't like their SNGs.  Bovada's got decent SNGs, and I actually have enough player points to cash into some of their qualifiers.  I might do that, just for grins.

I don't play pot limit;  I don't understand the nuances well enough, and how they influence betting.  ESPECIALLY in Omaha, where there are so many potential outs, so often.  I think I'd like Omaha...better yet, hi-lo Omaha...but it's a game that needs a lot of work.  I have yet to see a play-money game that wasn't dominated by jackasses;  there's nothing to learn about tactical betting when they go all in regularly.  You see this in big freerolls, or very cheap qualifying events (something like a $1 buy-in, top 5% win a ticket to a $15 buy-in event).  Played a few of those, ALWAYS expecting to see an all in within 3 hands.  I was rarely disappointed.  (And this was in a middle-stack event.  1500 chips, maybe 10 minute rounds, starting at 10/20, so everyone starts with 50 rounds/75 big blinds, and the structure didn't push the blinds/antes all that fast.)  

And Omaha just changes everything.    is a crazy interesting hand...straight draws, flush draws.  Big pairs are very much harder to improve;     may *start* as the best hand, but gets outdrawn by the first hand quite a bit.  Fewer spades left for the board, to give the nut spade flush;  can't make a club flush.  A paired board is good;  one of    give some help to the first hand but NONE to the second.  First hand is easy to ditch if the flop is bad;  second hand isn't.  Lots of hands that would be good for pocket aces in hold'em, are still risky to the second hand in Omaha...players CAN be playing 4 connected, suited cards.  (And especially so in hi-lo, altho the advice is, don't play for just the low, or at least not often.)

[rakbeater]

It is so fun. It was years ago when it was still Bodog, that I took 200 and turned it into 13k. Unfortunately, that was when I ended up getting divorced and spend most of that money on the divorce, my first laptop computer and a trip to Australia. The best part is that there are so many gamblers that enjoy the game, so you can really do well. Once you hit the 100 buy in level the players are pretty solid, and you have to actually beat them, rather than wait around for the weaker players to give their chips away. But when I played...the 400 buyin to the 1000 buyin were basically the same players. It was just a matter of bankroll at that point. I wish I could have seen how far I could have gone.

Hi-lo I never played as much, because I didn't really enjoy it, but a good hi-lo player can do REALLY well.

[ToreadorElder]

From what I've read, yeah. Chasing the low is a losing proposition. There may not even *be* a low segment. This brings back a hand my team leader had; he played quite a bit before Black Friday on Full Tilt, and played hi-lo quite a bit. He ended up in a 3-way all in, in a cash game, when he had the steel wheel...ace through five *straight flush*. That one pot was worth around $4k, IIRC.

[rakbeater]

Rereading....your team leader? explain?

[ToreadorElder]

(06-24-2016, 12:40 AM)rakbeater Wrote:  Rereading....your team leader?  explain?

team leader at work

[rakbeater]

aha gotcha!! I just won a small PLO tourney this evening. Just under 100 players. I love winning.

[marya]

I have a few questions:

I've had requests to add Texas Hold'em to the site. I've seen it at other sites. Is this the most popular version of Poker?

Is Poker mostly of interest when there's real cash at stake?

In this day and age, what do Poker sites do to curb cheating? It seems impossible to me, especially when cash is involved.

[ToreadorElder]

Yes, hold'em is the most commonly played form; Omaha would likely be next.

If there's nothing at risk, then people just throw chips out there. So, yes, there's very little interest when there's nothing to play for.

Poker sites ultimately have to do a great deal of monitoring to watch for cheating.

If you wanted to seriously consider cash games...let me disabuse you of that notion. To do so, you would now need a casino license. That involves massive background checks. You'd get mired in the laws of just about *every* jurisdiction. Poker has its sleazy underside, so the oversight involved is HEAVY. I would also expect the licenses are *not* cheap.