I’m angry enough to pit this, but I’ll just post it in here instead. Full Tilt Poker is a complete joke. I’ve been playing for a few days now, and I’ve got nothing bad bad beats. People play stupid hands because it’s play money. It seems like every time I go in with the best hand, some joker catches a straight or a flush. Just about no one folds before the flop no matter how much you raise. It’s agrivating to see a good hand busted because some idiot like his suited 9-3 and made a flush on the river. I’ve just about put my hand through my screen a few times.
The last hand was the worst though. I’ve got pocket Kings in late position. The blinds are 5-10. First guy raises to 20, which is common for these morons. Two calls to me and I raise to 50, knowing I’ll probably get raised again by someone behind me. Sure enough, I do. Everyone calls, I raise again and every one calls again. Flop comes without aces so I feel pretty good. Guy ahead of me bets, I raise all in, everyone calls. The turn and the river bring no pair that can beat me, but there is a straight on the board if someone was stupid enough to go in with 4-7. Sure enough, someone was that stupid. 4 F’ing 7, and this jackass calls hundreds of play dollars before the flop. Once I build up a suitable bankroll, my days of play money are over. Those are the kind of beats a guy just shouldn’t have to take more than once.
This has been said by many other, here and elsewhere, but what the hell: Poker with nothing on the line is not poker. The only that makes the game interesting is the implied risk of a larger bet. If there is no actual risk, then there isn’t much skill left, and it’s all luck of the draw.
I honestly don’t get the appeal of playing online poker for play money. It sure ain’t practice. I guess it’s kinda like playing Doom in god mode. It may be fun for a while to wander around with unlimited ammo and blast bad guys without risk, but it gets old pretty fast. If the big bad can’t hurt you at all, how much fun is that?
Hey now, don’t be dissing the BIG SIK, the second most powerful starting hand in poker (right after THE SIK, which is 93os).
But seriously, it’s play money, don’t aggravate yourself over it. Now when you switch over to playing for real money and the same damn things keep happening, then you can aggravate yourself.
That’s not really true. Look at someone like Gus Hansen, who plays a ridiculously wide array of starting hands. Fish see that sort of thing on TV and decide to emulate it so they mess around with the 74os or whatever. What they don’t seem to understand is that they’re only seeing a fraction of the hands that are dealt, that Hansen throws away a lot more of those garbage hands than he plays, that Hansen is an amazing reader of other players and that he is an extraordinary post-flop player.
And every so often even those of us who aren’t Hansen-like in our abilities get in there with garbage and “get lucky.” Of course it helps if the guy you’re playing with is a complete moron:
I joke about THE SIK (which gained a certain level of infamy on PokerRoom, along with another crap hand that gets paid off a lot, 52os) but there are advantages to mixing up your play and every so often playing garbage like it’s the nuts. Not the least of which is that it sets up your opponents to think you might be bluffing later when you’re in with a monster.
And since we’re speaking of Full Tilt, does anyone else really love their commercials? I especially love the one with Chris Fergusen bluffing the guy with the 7-2 and the one with the guy dancing at Howard Lederer.
You might have the best odds against any given player but not against the whole table combined. Playing play money games is a good way to get a feel for the flow of a game and how to read the board and such but it’s nothing at all like a real game.
One think you can do to find better free money poker is to play free tournaments, they have some on Ultimatebet.com that are pretty good. Even though its still free money, if you wait out the first hour the “all-in” and bad bet idiots will eliminate themselves and you can actually have some good play.
Of course, all the advise offered here is dead on right. Play money sucks and I shouldn’t get too up in arms over it. If you aren’t playing for real money, you’re just playing a video game. But even when it’s just for fun, constantly getting beat by a stupid play gets on a guys nerves.
On a related note, I went back to Full Tilt later on that day and put a bit of a bad beat on someone. I had A10d and not a whole lot of play money, so I go all in. Everyone folds to the big blind, who calls. He turns over pocket Kings. The flop and the turn don’t give me anything, and as resigned myself to yet another loss, an Ace hits on the river. The first thing I did was apologize to the guy. I felt bad winning that pot.