It's Official. I Don't Know How to Play Strong Pocket Pairs.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Here and here is an example of my inability to play pocket KK. And now, I shall post an example of my inability to play pocket AA. I have bolded all my plays.

Seat 1: Titan293 ($2,765 in chips)
Seat 2: lana888 ($7,545 in chips)
Seat 3: PokerfaceBas ($1,605 in chips)
Seat 4: drdave2 ($7,190 in chips)
Seat 5: bigjohn22223 ($4,735 in chips)
Seat 6: 25KID ($205 in chips)
Seat 7: sharkz48 ($6,825 in chips)
Seat 8: asterion [AH,AS] ($8,370 in chips)
Seat 9: ShowdownX ($9,605 in chips)
Seat 10: DocWatz ($4,131 in chips)
ANTES/BLINDS
lana888 posts blind ($150), PokerfaceBas posts blind ($300).

PRE-FLOP
drdave2 folds, bigjohn22223 folds, 25KID folds, sharkz48 folds, asterion bets $600, ShowdownX folds, DocWatz bets $900, Titan293 folds, lana888 calls $750, PokerfaceBas folds, asterion calls $300.

FLOP [board cards QD,QC,JD ]
lana888 checks, asterion checks, DocWatz bets $3,231 and is all-in, lana888 calls $3,231, asterion calls $3,231.

TURN [board cards QD,QC,JD,10D ]
lana888 bets $600, asterion calls $600.

RIVER [board cards QD,QC,JD,10D,10H ]
lana888 bets $600, asterion bets $2,214, lana888 calls $1,614.

SHOWDOWN
asterion shows [ AH,AS ]
DocWatz shows [ JC,10C ]
lana888 shows [ QS,KD ]
lana888 wins $5,628, lana888 wins $12,693.
SUMMARY
Dealer: Titan293
Pot: $18,321
Titan293, loses $0
lana888, bets $6,945, collects $18,321, net $11,376
PokerfaceBas, loses $300
drdave2, loses $0
bigjohn22223, loses $0
25KID, loses $0
sharkz48, loses $0
asterion, loses $6,945
ShowdownX, loses $0
DocWatz, loses $4,131
This effectively knocked me out of the tournament. (I was out two hands later.) I’m out no money, as this was a freeroll, but it’s still annoying, because I was doing fairly good for a change. Poker dopers and gurus, I beg you, correct this young disciple’s play so that he can actually win with large pocket pairs. And if you tell me that my betting was bad yet again, I am going to smack myself yet again.

2

I’m not even close to being a poker guru, but I have played the game, and I think that pocket rockets are never stronger after the flop than prior to the flop. If someone raises you pre-flop, re-raise. Never call.

3

Two things.

  1. You need to bet more with pocket Aces pre flop.

  2. If a person goes all in on the flop and another person calls him then it’s generally best to get out of the way unless you’re holding the nuts. Once you showed that a pair of queens came out on the flop, I knew one of those two had the other queen. Just get out of the way because you’re probably already behind.

4

With two queens on the board, someone else is bound to have another queen, especially the way they were betting. Pocket aces are nice, but up against that flop, not so much.

5

Dude, what is it with you and Queens on the flop?

I can only echo what others have said. Raise bigger before the flop, and if you’re re-raised, all in. If one or the other of them calls and that board comes out, at least you can content yourself with the knowledge that you got your money in with the best of it.

6

You mean me having Queens coming out on the flop, or sticking around after Queens come out on the flop? Well, I’ll just have to learn to play even more aggressively. That’s what these free rolls are good for. There’s nothing on the line, but since I like tournament play more than ring games, I can learn when to loosen up a bit, when to tighten up, and how to actually bet.

I’ve asked before, and I will again here. Does anyone know of a good no-limit Hold’Em book?

7

There are tons of good NL books. My intro to poker books was The Complete Book of Hold 'Em Poker by Gary Carson. Cardplayer magazine is also a great source of information.

8

And I just came out too strong. Man, I’ll never get the hang of this.

9

Sure you will. I’ve been playing for about a year and I still make donkey moves. Pros who’ve been playing for decades still make donkey moves. It happens. And remember that you’re playing freerolls, which as far as I’m concerned aren’t poker anyway. They’re bingo. People make stupid plays (like for example DocWatz re-raising with JTs, not a raising hand and certainly not a re-raise hand) all the time and get lucky. You could have put them both all in pre-flop and they still might have called. because there was no real risk.

10

Actually, the first scenario, the QQ, was a 5+0.50 tourney. That’s why I was so pissed at myself. I would’ve gained 7 bucks without any of that “player points” nonsense had I been able to stick in just a bit longer.

11

And, of course, when I’m playing for play money, I get AA and flop ATT. I think somebody up there hates me. On the plus side, I got an idiot to go all in, so I’m up 4000 imaginary dollars.

12

Play money games are excellent practice insofar as learning the mechanics of the site: which buttons to click to call, where you type in your raise if you don’t like their pre-programmed raise, how fast the game forces you to move, etc. I would never play for real money on a web site without some of that training.

But play money is utterly useless as far as at SKILL of playing poker goes, and the reason was explained perfectly by Otto: there is no real risk. I have about 30,000 imaginary dollars in my account at Pokerstars; if I play it, I see all sorts of crazy play… people going all-in with a 9-3os aftre losing half their stack. Why not? If they win, they’re right back in the game; if they lose, they can recharge their play money account and get right back in the game, and if no one calls, they steal the blinds and do it again.

I promise you that no lays out a real $250 all-in under those circumstances.

13

$5 tourneys are almost as loose as freerolls. People at micro-limits tend to play looser both because the risk isn’t as great and because they’re often beginning players who over-value hands. I was playing the other night at a .25-.50 table and there were about three people there betting huge on every hand. A typical pot at that level is maybe $5 if that much and the pots at this table were routinely hitting $50. I said something to the effect of “is anyone else at the table not crazy?” and one of the mad raisers comes back with “it’s only money.”

Of course I was getting garbage while the mad raising was going on, then when I got pocket AA one hand and pocket QQ the next suddenly all the mad raisers started folding before it got to me, dammit.

Doyle Brunson says that the best players are able, while playing, to forget entirely that the chips in front of them represent money. They stop being money and become nothing but tools. I haven’t quite attained that level of greatness I suppose because if I’m playing for real money those chips still look like money to me.

14

Crazy play? Crazy play?! 9-3os, also known as THE SIK, is the most powerful starting hand in poker! I can name you a dozen players off the top of my head who routinely put out $250 or more real dollars on that hand. The only reason not to go all in with it pre-flop is to disguise its true strength.

15

Oh, I just play the play level for fun, and so that I can play a bit looser than I would with something on the line. Actually, I think of it a bit as practice for freerolls.

How loose are $10? They’ve got some 10+1 where placing in the top 10 or so gets you a ticket to one of the qualifier tournaments for their Grand Tournament.