Anybody play at PartyPoker (or any other online poker)?

Cafe Society
41

What you want in games like this are hands that make big hands. Rolled-up trips, big suited connectors (say, AKJ all diamonds), etc.

Avoid hands that put you in difficult spots. For instance, don’t play pairs alone, unless your third card is an overcard to everything showing on the board, and your made pair is big enough. Nothing worse that being up against a maniac when you’ve got a hand that could easily be second best, but is likely the best at the moment, and the pot is large.

If it were hold’em, I’d say stay away from hands like AT, KT, AJo, etc. They tend to make pairs, but rarely make straights or flushes. Pocket pairs are golden in wild games - you either flop a set, put your seatbelt on, and go for a ride, or you’re out of the hand with little damage.

One problem in wild games is that you think you’re often getting odds to draw to all kinds of longshots - 10 players in, capped before the flop, you’re looking at 40 small bets. So you play your AT, and the flop is KQ2. You’re about 11-1 to make your gutshot on the next card, and there’s a bet in front of you. The pot is currently laying 40 small bets, and it’ll likely double before the hand is over. Do you call to peel one off? You’d better remember that a raise behind you, and maybe two or three raises behind you, is likely.

But a lot of people just can’t give up on that pot, so they call. Then they miss the gutshot, but hit an Ace on the turn. Now you’ve got top pair, there’s FIFTY small bets in the pot, and a bet in front of you. NOW what do you do? You may have the best hand, in which case it would be a huge mistake to fold with a pot this size. On the other hand, it’s going to cost you probably four or five big bets to see if it is the best hand, and if you’re up against a made straight you’re a a huge dog, and hoping for at best 2 cards in the deck to allow you to split the pot.

Those are the kinds of decisions you want to avoid having to make. Sometimes you’ll have to anyway, which is why wild games can be tough to play in. But try to start with hands that will define themselves early.

42

Can you give us quick explanations of what these might be? I’ll be reading some of these books soon, and I’ll keep an eye out for such things.

43

[hijack]

It’s not just Visa.

Most Mastercard issuers, American Express and Discover have cracked down on allowing any online gambling transactions on their accounts.

Why?

  1. Too much fraud involved.
  2. Too many accounts ending up in arrears.
  3. The companies violate the merchant agreement *repeatedly.
  4. The legal issues - if you live in an area where gambling is illegal, are you allowed to gamble online? (This is being discussed in Congress)

[/hijack]

44

Thanks for a great response.

p.s. Gave a mild spanking to a maniac this am. Whee!

45

So what do you (all) recomend as an expeditious, yet sterile way to fund an online poker account?

46

You can use firepay or netteller on a bunch of them… which are basically electronic bank transfer services.

47

You can try…those transactions usually get stopped as well.

48

Asking again because the first time it was probably overlooked in the multitude of mini discussions.

Can you tell us what sort of things to keep in mind when we’re reading this stuff so that we don’t learn these errors?

49

Sorry to bump, but I’d rather get this info now than have to unlearn it later.

50

I used to fund with credit cards directly to the site. Not allowed any more. Then, I used PayPal; but I don’t think PayPay allows gambling transactions any more either. I tried net-teller, but my credit card company won’t authorize deposits.

So, I’ve gone to FirePay. You can fund a FirePay account directly from a bank checking account. Transfer the money to FirePay, and then to the poker site. Payouts work in reverse. Poker site sends funds to FirePay and then you can have them transferred back to your checking account.

51

I don’t think anyone has yet mentioned PokerPages, which is where i play.

They have no-limit hold-em games going all the time. You sign up for a game, and when ten people sign up (usually only takes 2 or 3 minutes) the game starts. Each person begins with 2,000 “dollars” in chips, and the game continues until one person is left.

But the best thing is the tournaments. They have two or three no-limit hold-em tournaments a day, and each of these usually attracts about 250-380 people, mainly from the US and the UK. In the tourney, you get 10,000 “dollars” in chips to start, and as people get eliminated the software moves people around and reduces the number of tables in order to keep each table full. If you get down to the last 4 or 5 players (something i haven’t managed to do yet) you can easily have a million bucks in chips. It’s lots of fun. I got my first straight flush ever (K high) in a tournament the other night.

The tournaments are better than the regular games, because people tend to take it more seriously and not make stupid bets. In the regular, non-tournament games, you often get players who go all-in on the first hand, even if they have nothing, because they know that if they lose they can just sign up for another game straight away. The tournament players still tend to play looser than if they were using real money, but you get far fewer “all in with nothing” morons. If someone goes all-in during a tournament, they’ve either got the nuts, or they’re trying a genuine bluff, not just being an idiot.

While you can’t read physical tells online, you can certainly get a feel for how people play and the sort of bets they make. I’ve only been playing at PokerPages for a few weeks, but i already recognize quite a few names, and have a good idea of how those people wil bet in certain situations.

And you don’t have to play hold-em. There are also games and tournaments of Omaha and 7-card stud.

I’m not sure how well the system works with a dial-up internet service, but it should be OK. The software download that you need to make is pretty big, though–about 15MB, IIRC.

If you decide to give it a go, keep and eye out for me–i use my SDMB username as a handle.

52

In the absence of any other answers I’ll give a couple of examples I’ve picked up from Sklansky and Malmuth.

There are certain hands such as small pairs, medium suited connectors, and one-gaps (like J9s) which can be played successfully from early position in a loose passive game where you can expect many callers and no raises. These will lose money in an aggressive game where there is a lot of raising and only a couple of players see the flop.

When facing tougher opponents you must adopt more aggressive and deceptive tactics. It’s important to raise and re-raise much more often to thin the field, isolate opponents, and steal blinds. Bluffing and semi-bluffing can be profitable, whereas they wouldn’t be against loose players who call no matter what.

Basically you have to size up your opposition and adjust your play accordingly.