Know When To Hold 'em...

Walker

Walker

At the Start
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
Messages
197
Location
Hull
A few will remember me giving up the gambling lark a few months back now. I was attending GA meetings and was desperate to quit all forms of gambling in hope to sort my finances out, keep my girlfriend and stop disappointing my family.

I must say that the GA meetings were actually quite crap. At first I thought that the informal way in which they are run was good, but after a few weeks I found myself turning up, sitting by myself listening to people who had been there a few years talk about shite (buying a new brand of coffee etc..)

Anyway, i stopped going and found i was still able to refrain from gambling. I must say that i found it extremely boring not having a bet of any sort. Saturday afternoons were almost un-bearable as were most lunch times at work and nights out with friends who would end up on the card table playing 3 card brag by 10pm.

The one thing that was doing me the most harm was probably the roulette machines. I was going into the bookies with every intention of having say, a ton win on a 3/1 shot, but before i knew it i had started on the machines and had no bloody money left to back the horse. Of course, the horse would always end up winning as i hadn’t backed it and i would get really pissed off, get hold of some more money somehow and end up losing that on horses that i never really wanted to back!

I did pack the machines in, completely. I think back to how stupid i was filling those things at every opportunity and it makes me sick. I honestly think i could lay my life on me not putting another penny in one of those damn things. The horses, well i slipped a couple of times. Id banned myself from most of the bookies but could always find a mate to go in and back something for me. Not touched them for a good while now though and rarely even look at a card.

Life without having a flutter was as i said getting extremely boring though. I was proud of the fact that id almost fully given up but still missed the buzz from having a bet. So, after talking it over with my girlfriend and family i decided i would let myself have one night a week to play poker. I thought this would be good as in most poker tourneys you can only buy in for the first 2 hours max, restricting me from sitting there all night chasing money. I go with a mate who always makes sure i keep myself away from the house tables if i get knocked out early and to be honest i doubt id go near them anyway after playing such a skilled game like hold 'em. I read the channel 4 book, how to play poker and win, a few years back and made sure I went through that again to refresh my memory. Its good, but very basic. Every one I speak to about poker tells me I’ve got to get Doyle Brunson’s Super System, but after reading a few reviews I decided to wait a while and get a little more clued up before I read a book that would have me playing super aggressive poker. I got David Sklanskys, the theory of poker from the library. This is a very good, complex but understandable book. I have to read some chapters five times before I get what he’s going on about but when it clicks you can see just how good this guy really is.

Not sure why I just wrote an essay as my original post was supposed to be just about hold ‘em. Wondered if anyone had any info, experiences worth sharing on here? Any books apart form the ones mentioned above worth a read? Any strategies worth trying out? Any informative site? Etc etc…
 
Brian will praise Brunson's book to high heaven, maybe it is a good read, I don't know, but books shmooks in my opinion.

Welcome back to gambling Walker. :D
 
Just looked in other sports and see you show a lot of interest in poker Phil. Are you familiar with the semi-bluff and its defenses? Sklanskly gives a great account for this in the book i have but im yet to put it into practice. I was also amazed at the amount of importance the "position" has on the way you should play your hand.

Anyone on here disagree with check-raising or slowplaying/sandbagging? I hear a lot of people think its out of order, i think its all part of the game and its one of the only things i think ive got my head round at the minute.

In the tourneys i played in, 3 so far. I finished 13th, 11th and no-were. You need to get to the final table of 10 to be in the money. Its a £5 buy in night and i think i spent £35 last time, £15 the first time and about £25 the other, which for a nights entertainment aint bad.
 
Good luck Walker old son. Console yourself with the thought that your not the only one who has been sucked in by those infernal machines in the bookies.

Colin
 
Cheers Colin. I remember when i went into the bookies i used to use most and i asked the manager (who i sort of knew but always thought he was just a tosser who was nice to me because i probably paid for his lexus within a year or two) if i could self exclude (ban) myself form his shop and all the other Will Hills in the area.

It turned out he was actually quite a nice guy. He asked why and i explained that the machines were killing me. He tried telling me that he could make sure i wasn't allowed on the machines but could back the horses and dogs. I said no, i wanted to be banned copmpletely and he said of course. He said he thought what i was doing was a good thing and that he'd seen many people go down the same road and do nothing about it. He seemed to hate the machines almost as much as i did. He said they were taking on avg £800 each a day but most of that was initially going to be put on the racing by punters who like me thought "ill just have a £20 in here" but then ended up putting everything in.

It was a good lesson i suppose, a bloody expensive one mind :rolleyes:
 
Walker I hope you can keep a lid on it mate with the poker . I think fruit machines should be banned .
 
I enjoyed Brunson`s book (although his penchant for suited connectors doesn`t work for me) but i prefer Hellmuth`s "Play Poker like the pros".

Thing is though these top class prof get so much respect at the table that what works for them (especially representing what`s on flops they`ve missed) just doesn`t work for mere mortals.
 
If theres one thing i have learned Ardross it is that the only way to solve a problem is to admit the problem first. I am confident that if the poker becomes a problem, i will see it, admit it and then address it immediately.

I may be on here in a few months saying i fukt up and got in a mess again? I dont believe that will be the case but cant guarentee it wont be?
 
I'm very lucky. I tend to only bet horses, only singles, only televised races and only where I've looked sufficiently at the form.

I have friends who have serious drinking and/or gambling problems and cannot understand how I didn't end up the same. I really don't know, but my father always said better to be lucky than good and as far as drinking and gambling go, I'm very lucky not to be addicted.

All the very best Walker. I certainly appreciated your sharing your experiences.
 
Anyway....i was hoping for a kind of discussion? on how people might play certain hands etc etc...

Suppose a good place to kick it off would be...how would you play pocket Aces?

From what i have learned so far, pocket aces want to be up against only one other player. The more players in the pot the more chance of being outdrawn. In an early position, with relatively small blinds, i would be inclined to make only a small raise hoping to be re-raised. In a late position i would almost definately raise any amount possible, forcing all mediocre hands out and hoping to get an all in raise or at least a call from a hand such as A/K A/Q or any other pocket pair.

Anyone add something more?
 
I assume that you're talking about tournament play, Walker, a "ring" game (full table of 9 or 10), pre-flop and no limit? Bearing in mind that nothing is gospel and sometimes you might play the hand totally differently, in this instance I tend to follow the Brunson method. It depends on position and, as always, who is sitting around the table with you.

(1) In an early position I'd just call, hoping that someone would raise.

(2) In middle position if someone raises before me I'd re-raise high, if all that happened was the blind was called I'd probably play as in (1) above.

(3) In late position, I'd raise hoping that someone before me had been slow-playing a hand and I'd get re-raised. They'd then get re-raised for sure - probably all-in.
 
Semi-bluff is good. My favorite is the flush draw after the flop/turn with the top pair semi.

Most deadly bluff is the check-raise bluff but you need balls of steel.
 
Hi Brian,

Yes, i was talking about tournament play, but pot limit is what ive been playing the last 3 weeks. All the practice i got a while back on the net was no limit, but i think that its common in most casino tournaments now to have pot limit.

I just ordered Brunson's book from Amazon, along with a book by Caro about tells.

One thing that has been bugging me is 2 weeks ago i was holding about 20000 points in chips. Id say it was a reasonable amount for what was at the table and i was pretty confident about getting to the final table. Anyway, the blinds were set at 1k-2k and i was dealt pocket 10's. Two or maybe three people called the blind and then one guy (who id spotted counting up a decent stack before it was his turn to act) raised the pot which now meant it would put me more than half my stack to call, or my whole stack to re-raise with my tens. I thought about it, and came to the conclusion that he was holding at least A/K, possibly A/Q. I know its basically 50-50 if he was holding one of those hands and i wasnt willing to gamble my whole stack on a 50-50 chance and risk being knocked out after playing what i thought was pretty well. I folded and the guy showed A/J offsuit, i was honest and said id folded pocket tens. Nearly everybody on the table looked at me as though i was stupid "i would have re-raised and had him all in with that hand" one guy said. If id have known he was holding A/J, maybe i would have acted differently, but still, he had two overcards that could have put me out of the tournament and like i said i didnt feel it right to gamble after playing well for the last 3 hours.

Should i have called, thinking i was against at least A/K or A/Q?

Should i have called the A/J off even?
 
Makes no odds to you whether it is AK AQ AJ KQ KJ QJ. He could have had a higher or lower pair than you, of course, or total shit(unlikely). Personally I'd have gone balls in with two 10's in that position. It guarantees you a place at the final table with a fair chance of winning if it comes off. If it doesn't there's always next week. Just calling means two or three may remain in the game, and that you'll probably need a third ten to win. No - Balls out, all in and hope for a one on one.

Now lets hear what the real experts think!
 
It's not that easy without knowing the player who had the AJ - it's a game of people, after all - but I probably would have gone all-in after the raise. If sounds as if he's the type who wouild have gone all-in himself with AK. Don't forget also - there is a lot of talk about "even money" when a pair is matched against two over-cards but in fact the pair is 4/5 - a 25% difference in your favour compared with what it would be at evens. To be pedantic (who, me?) you were actually in this instance a 57.5% favourite, as his chance of a straight was reduced by your holding the tens.

In summary, Melendez is right - you assessed your opponent correctly, you were favourite, make him go for all he can eat!
 
I think Phil has more chance of understanding his OU course than I have of understanding Poker and this thread :nerd:
 
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