Singledad is right - players who play too many hands are always weak. (the converse is not necessarily true; just because a player plays tight does not mean he has skill).
In seven card stud, the only real playable hands before the flop are 3-straights with a 3-flush, 3-straights made up of big cards (like 9TJ), 3 flushes made up of big cards, big pairs, small pairs with the third card being higher than any other door card on the table, and rolled-up trips. If you see players that deviate from this a lot, they are bad players.
In Holdem, the biggest sign of a weak player is someone who plays a lot of hands in a raised pot. A hand like AJ is a pretty good hand, but if a good player raises in front of you that hand should go in the muck as fast as you can pitch it. A lot of players never learn this.
When scouting for a profitable game, look for one where at least half the players are typically entering every pot.
Just a technical correction… There is no “flop” in 7-card stud.
7-card Stud
Round 1/Third Street: Each player receives two cards down (hidden), one card up (displayed). The first displayed card is the “door card”. Watch out for a player who pairs his door card. He may have trips!
Round 2-4/Fourth-Sixth Street: Each player receives another up card. The set of displayed cards is called the “board”.
Round 5/The River: Each player receives a card down.
Texas Hold-'Em
Round 1: Each player received two cards down.
Round 2/The Flop: Three cards are dealt face up. All players share the face up “community” cards.
Round 3/The Turn: Another face up community card is dealt.
Round 4/The River: Another face up community card is dealt.
I love to play poker. My friends like me playing poker even more. I’m usually there for the drinking and socializing and do not pay enough attention to my cards. I almost always lose, but always have a good time.
Well, our game was Friday and it wasn’t the best game we’ve ever played. We started a game of 357 around 10:00 and by 11:00, all of the money on the table was in the pot. Shortly thereafter one guy won the pot and the game was over. Kind of sucked. That’s why I don’t like playing guts games. If I had one complaint about our game, it’s that we play too many gimmick games (guts included) and not enough 7-stud and Omaha. I also wish we would play more than once a month, because now I feel all disappointed and it’s gonna be another four weeks before we play again.
I usually play too damn loose. Last week I decided to play a lot tighter and I ended up playing too tight. Eventually I’ll get it right.
One particularly rewarding moment: We were playing hi-lo 7-stud early in the night. By the time we get to 7th street, only me and two other guys are left in the hand. I’ve got a hearts ace-high four flush showing (and another heart in the whole) and the other two are clearly going low. I was in the position of guaranteeing myself a nice return with every bet towards the end and the other two kept betting into each other like mad from about 5th street on.
By the time we got to the showdown we have already seen 3 fours and 2 fives and one guy (a new player whom we all took as a fish) has A-2-3-7 showing. The other guy (who’s a very good player) is showing A-2-3-6 and is just laughing at the other guy for challenging his hand. Anyway, the good guy finally decides to call and he flashes a big shit grin when he turns over 5-9 in the hole. The “fish” flashes a bigger grin and turns over 4-5 in the hole. Everyone got a big laugh out of that one.
Thinking back, I can’t tell if the good player was playing too confidently or if the fish just had a lucky draw. He wouldn’t tell us when he drew the four - that info might clear up these questions… He did, however, end up losing the remainder of his money very quickly after that, and made some pretty bad plays in doing so, so I’m thinking that he just got lucky.
Anyway. I love poker. Nice to see that others do, too.
Sam, SingleDad–another question. I am always hesitant to play poker in a casino (especially around here, where all we have are the riverboats) because I figure that the people playing must be pretty good, or they wouldn’t be playing in a casino. “Winning Low-Limit Hold 'Em” assures me that this is not the case, but I’m still hesitant. What’s your take on this?
Dr. J
“Seriously, baby, I can prescribe anything I want!” -Dr. Nick Riviera
There are very few really good players in the casino, especially at the lower limits. As the limit gets higher, the skill level of the the players starts to go up.
It’s rare to see more than two or three really good players sitting in a 2-4 or 3-6 game, because the ones that are good eventually move up in limits where they can make more money.
When you get to 10-20 or 15-30, you start moving into the territory where you will find some professionals. But that’s okay. As long as there are 2 or 3 weak players in the game, you’re fine. Remember what I said before - you don’t make money because you’re the best player at the table - you make money because there are some players at the table worse than you. You exploit their mistakes. And since the good players play tighter than the fish, even if the table is half good players and half weak players you’ll wind up playing probably 70-80% of your hands against the weak players.
Try to sit to the left of the good players, so you can stay out of their way. If a good player calls from early position, throw away your AJo, KQo, QJo, etc.
Again, you’re not going to see many of these guys in the low limits, and chances are in your typical 3-6 holdem game there won’t be a single player there that really knows what he’s doing.
The biggest thing to worry about at the low limits is the rake. If the game is tight, it’s hard to overcome the rake. So look for a game with lots of callers and big pots, and sit down. If you’ve read WLLH, you’ll be better than most of them, and that’s all you need.
I play a lot of casino Hold’em, and the only thing I would add to the above discussion is that I find the relatively higher limit games (10-20 or 20-40) quite a bit easier to come out ahead in. Maybe it’s just me, but I can read these tables and players so much better than the ignorant players that tend to gravitate to the lower limits.
2-4 and 3-6 is sometimes known as “no fold’em hold’em” because you get all sorts of chasers calling raises with crap. IMO, it is harder to play sound strategy and win against players who don’t have the sense to fold crappy hands. Sure, over the long run they’ll lose, but it can be very frustrating to consistently have someone hit their gutshot on the river or a runner-runner flush (against the trips you flopped) going into the hand with 3-5.
In my experience, the higher limit games are more straightforward. Sure, I’ve probably folded winners against a bluff re-raise; but I’d rather risk that than watch some fish go on a rush.
The main caveat here is that you should never ever play in a game where you are undercapitalized. You’ll lose for sure if you cringe and worry about every raise that comes your way because you are thinking about all the ‘real-world’ stuff you need to do with your bankroll. Scared money always loses.
Gotta keep this one alive because I’m learning a lot–that is, if the real poker players aren’t bullshitting us. I’ll find the recommended books, but there’s no way I’m going into a game that’s more than quarter-ante with a ten-dollar limit on the pot, or else I’d lose my car. And you wouldn’t want that to happen to me, would you? No, I’m afraid you would. By the way, I’ve never played a game that wasn’t five-card draw or seven-card stud. Other games confuse me. This is why I do not play poker in Vegas casinos. Not that I’m anywhere near Vegas.
