Yes! I’m the same way. I’ve played limit Hold-em for 10 years or so, from 3-6 to 20-40, but I’ve only gotten into tournament poker in the last year or two. It is a very different strategy. For example, in limit games one of your best strategies is the check-raise. In tourney poker, it’s the well-timed “all in.”
As an aside, I was playing an on-line mini-tourney last night. $22 buy-in at a 10 seat table. Top 3 make $$. Well, my cable connection went out for 15 minutes. A the time I lost connection, I was second in chips with 6 players left. I got blinded off for those 15 minutes and when I get reconnected I found out I had come in 3rd place! Almost ended up outlasting the second place guy–he busted out just one hand after me.
I registered for a tournament at PartyPoker and fell asleep. When I awoke the tournament was long over. I finished 67th of 200 odd just by being blinded off.
If you are doing well at cash games you should love tournament play. The well timed all in is largely an illusion (except when stealing the blinds). It is possible to get a long way in tournaments without ever being all in and I often muck winning hands early on just to avoid losing to a lucky draw. It is easy to structure a game you are comfortable with that allows you to ignore most of the BS all in bets made by others.
Depending on when you can play PP has tournaments with $6 buy ins that attract over 1000 competitors. They are cheap education as you watch several players per minute drop out. Even just folding everything (unless you’re dealt a big pair) and watching is an edifying experience.
Hm. Maybe you could give me your opinion, then.
After getting barbecued a couple times in No limit, I decided to move to the pot limit 10-20 game. There are fewer maniacs, way more rocks. Is that typical of pot limit? Very few players seem willing to commit to betting the pot, and the game moves slower. I’m about to throw my hands up and go back to stud; I’m bored out of my mind.
Do you consider a straight limit game to be slow and boring? This is not a value judgement on my part; I’m genuinely curious as to your perspective.
I’ve not played at too many Hold-em tables that I would consider boring, whether it be cash (structured limit) or tourney. I’d rather not play with a bunch of maniacs, but even then my conscious effort to play even tighter than I usually do can really pay off (in terms of $$ and satisfaction) when you hit the monster and they’re doing all the betting and raising for you. Sure, that hand may only come around once in an hour, but boy it is sure nice when you get paid off! But I can fold fold fold at a table like this without getting bored.
Also keep in mind with this scenario, if there is more than one pot the following happens:
The low man who was “all in” can only win the pot he was in on.
The second (and any additional pots) the winner is determined by the people in those pots.
So the 2nd pot, player 2 and 3 compare their hands to see who wins it, then all three compare hands for the initial pot.
We has a situation like this 2 poker nights ago when on one hand toward sthe end of the night we had 3 separate pots on one hand. Nicely enough I won all three.
No, I’ve played straight limit, and I enjoy it. I decided to play pot limit with the impression that the skill level needed would be a bit higher than lower no limit games. And, naturally, the way pot limit is structured was enough to get my interest. I don’t mind playing three hands an hour for several hours if the game is good. But four hours of getting my blinds eaten was discouraging.
Well Maureen if I were you I would stick to limit. If you check with Phil Hellmuth, you will find that while he was a big, big winner at no limit he couldn’t win at limit games and had to get advice on how to play. If you are beating a game that he couldn’t just rest on your laurels. Learn about PL and NL by playing online tournaments - they are cheap, your losses are limited and you may find them more fun.
And online you can read a book between hands if play is slow - just keep the sound up so you don’t miss your turn.
Unfortunately, I’ve done this. Last time I was in AC, there were 3 guys all-in and me at a $1/$2 no-limit game. There was a main pot of like $384, one side pot of like $60 and a third of like $24.
Ouch. There are several places in Reno that have bad beat prizes. I won a pizza at the Atlantis last trip. So at least there’s some consolation, even if it isn’t monetary. don’t ask, I was actually thinking about switching down to the 4-8 table as opposed to changing back to straight limit.
A buddy of mine was playing a local casino here (Goldies in Shoreline for those of you in the PNW).
He was dealt pocket aces. The flop came up A A 10
A round of big bets
Turn was a 7
A round of big bets
The River was a Q
A round of big bets and much raising.
Long story short, he gets beaten out by a royal flush.
Goldies usually has a jackpot for the first time a hand is hit each day. 4 Aces was alreay paid out… so not only did he lose with 4 aces, he got no jackpot.
I honestly don’t understand this. I’ve been beaten by idiots getting lucky with garbage more times than I can count, but the idea that any player somehow has an obligation to bet or not bet a certain way is ludicrous. If you aren’t comfortable calling/reraising a raise with a given hand, don’t blame the raiser – you chose not to risk your money on those cards. Poker is a competitive game. If you want everyone to play nice, go play Uno or something.
That’s the funny thing about certain types of gambling. Some people read books on how to get your best odds and they play stictly by those rules. Those people get VERY pissed if everyone else doesn’t play by those rules also.
Now true, some of those books do have a valid mathematica groundign and if EVERYONE at a table is playing by those rules then you are set. But that just doesn’t happen.
The thing is when people don’t conform to those rules they are usually bullied out of the table.
It’s like in Blackjack. You get 2 "10"s (10, j, q, k). The rule books say “stand” and the fact is yeah you have probably won a hand if not pushed with the dealer. Now you can also split the hands and now you have a base of 10 to build on. Seems like another logical step if you want more of a “risk” to win more money. People will shit kittens if you do it at their table though.
The fact is some people don’t see gambling as fun. Some people see it as deadly serious (or even worse, how they make a living). My idea is, if that’s your sole means of support, you’re a moron anyway and you get what you deserve from some rube playing the game his way.
Here’s the thing. Blackjack is my game. Yes, there are other games in the casino I play, but since I’m generally going into the casino with 50 bucks instead of 500 or 5000, I can’t play the other games (like craps) with a high variance. I am also one of those who knows the chart and does his best to make the mathematically correct play every time (though I will occasionally go on instinct, though I doubt that it makes much of a difference.) Still, though, I do my best not to lose my patience with anyone else playing at the table. However, I have seen a lot of players that should never have sat down. They would’ve been better off had they taken the money they converted into chips and used it as cigarette paper.
It goes the other way too. I also do my best not to get mad at whoever is playing third base, but it helps a lot if they are making mathematically good choices. On the other hand, I try to never play third base for similar reasons. For example, you should hit on 12 against a 2 or a 3. When it works, and you get an 8 (for example) and the dealer turns out to have a 12 or 13 then gets a 10, you look great. When it goes the other way and you get the bust card and the dealer the 8, you are roundly cursed. Nobody will ever remember the times you made the mathematically good bet and won for the entire table, but they will remember every time it went the other way. Human nature, I guess.
And they have no more business getting angry at you for taking a card than a poker player does getting mad at someone for betting into a dry side pot. The whole “you took my card” thing is total bullshit. Uh, sorry scooter, but it wasn’t your card and it ever was. It was my card to take or not take. Don’t like it? Get up and sit back down on the other side of me.
(of course I only play blackjack online, for play money, and alone at the table)
I know and I agree. It doesn’t stop people from being irrational about it, though. As I said, human nature. I figure that if I start getting crap from other players or get pissed at other players, it’s time to walk away from the tables for a while. Cool down, maybe put a few bucks into the slots or video poker, then come back to it later.
Everyone goes on tilt every once in a while. That’s part of the game, too. Dealing with someone on tilt is like dealing with maniacs. Or idiots who don’t know that betting in front of me is wrong when they’re sitting two seats behind me. Or worse, angle shooters who DO knw that betting in front of me is wrong when they’re sitting two seats behind me and do it anyway.
I’ve had people give me dirty looks for playing the darkside in craps while they’re shooting. When your adrenaline get flowing, rationality takes a vacation.
Craps is only high variance for suckers. And by suckers, I mean people who play the way you’re supposed to play, with max odds and whatnot. I rarely play odds, and have had to explain the variance concept many times at many tables to people who can’t seem to grasp that odds are not an “even money bet”, they are a “bankroll buster”.
There are good $50 strategies for craps. Poor Man’s Hope from this thread is an example. The $10 Don’t would also work if played for $5 instead of $10.
Sorry for the delay in getting back, was gone yesterday.
Thanks to all who answered my question. Guess they were right (grumble, grumble)
I guess since I had never seen that particular situation come up while watching on TV, and since it seemed to always be me coming up on the short end of that stick, I assumed it was just some house rule.
Guess the main lesson is to always make sure you have the most chips and are the muscler and not the musclee.
Yes, I find having the most chips is the key to a successful poker game.
Not that I’d know what that’s like, having busted out of my tourney last night on the first hand and trying to run semi-bluffs at a couple of side games on guys who had turned a straight and flopped a set, respectively.
