Learning Poker - Page 2

On October 13 2010 09:11 AssuredVacancy wrote:


Wasn't it like that for YEARS? it's been there for as long as i can remember.

On October 13 2010 10:06 geometryb wrote:
Since it's a friendly game with friends and low amounts of money, don't bother learning poker and just have fun/splash around. Trying to get good takes 90% of the enjoyment out of the game.

On October 13 2010 08:34 micronesia wrote:
To get the hang of the rules/hands why not play some quick free online poker? Practice following what's going on and what hands beat what... if you screw up it doesn't matter!

On October 13 2010 08:08 LSB wrote:

Well, in live poker, I always play tight, bluffing is always a good way to lose money.

On October 13 2010 08:46 hoborg wrote:


Seriously, though, there's always pokerstrategy.com, they sponsored the TSL2. They have some easy-to-follow strategies. I'm not sure how applicable they would be to a friendly table game of poker, though, they're moreso about playing internet poker. The most important thing to know is that you should be playing a lot tighter than you think you should be - it's typically very cheap to fold compared to playing a mediocre hand.

On October 13 2010 10:34 BcGladiator wrote:
I have questions about learning poker (albeit not as basic as knowing what a pair is etc). How do you calculate your chances of winning any certain hand? I always hear people talking about things like "Oh you should play that hand, it has good pot odds." Or if its worth it to play when you've already put in a good amount of chips (when are you pot committed?).

The only person I played with (I play tournaments with my friends for $10 buy ins) who understood this stuff is now at Harvard haha, so I always assumed that this kind of stuff was for geniuses or something (he tried to explain it to me but at the time I was like fuck this math shit, I just wanna play some poker for fun).

On October 13 2010 10:56 Sinensis wrote:

This may sound simple and extremely intuitive, but poker is gambling. Think about it this way:

Lets say you have a decent hand, e.g. low-ish suited connectors (same suit, and one after the other like 7 of hearts and 8 of hearts), depending on the number of people you're playing with you won't always want to play this hand. Say you're the first to bet, meaning no one before you has put money in except for the small and big blinds. By calling and putting in your money you are essentially gambling on a hand that is only decent for an empty pot. This is a bad idea, you should instead fold.

HOWEVER, if you are the last to bet and everyone before you has called, it might be a good idea to gamble for that large pot since your suited connectors do have a small chance of winning a big hand, along with that big pot.

Make sense?

On October 13 2010 11:11 BcGladiator wrote:


Yeah that makes sense.

But how about calculating your odds of winning? Like lets say you have a certain hand (I'm just picking something at random here) like K-Q, and the flop comes K-10-5 (again, completely random). Is it possible (I guess feasible is a better word) to calculate your chances of winning, then have those chances dictate how much you should bet/call/re-raise, or is that just retarded of me to imagine (I have no idea if this is completely unreasonable, or something that people do fairly regularly)? Like "Oh, there is a 70% chance that I have the best hand. There for I should bet X% of my chips / X% of the pot"

On October 13 2010 12:02 BcGladiator wrote:
Haha thanks Sinensis. Just talking about it whets my appetite for some poker.

Where's the best place to play poker online (for low stakes kind of stuff)? And how easy is it to get started (I assume you need a credit card or bank account or something? I've never done it before)?

On October 13 2010 12:22 exalted wrote:
lol

On October 13 2010 11:11 BcGladiator wrote:


Yeah that makes sense.

But how about calculating your odds of winning? Like lets say you have a certain hand (I'm just picking something at random here) like K-Q, and the flop comes K-10-5 (again, completely random). Is it possible (I guess feasible is a better word) to calculate your chances of winning, then have those chances dictate how much you should bet/call/re-raise, or is that just retarded of me to imagine (I have no idea if this is completely unreasonable, or something that people do fairly regularly)? Like "Oh, there is a 70% chance that I have the best hand. There for I should bet X% of my chips / X% of the pot"

The next card off will be a club 20% of the time. Since he bets $0.02 into a $0.16 pot.. he's betting less than 20% of the pot. That's why you're happy to call.

So how did I know it was 20%? First, you count your outs (cards that you think will make you win the pot). In this case, you think only the 9 clubs left in the deck will give you the winning hand. Now we multiply 9 by 2, getting 18. We now add this number to 2 getting 20.. that's the percentage: 20%. So it's simple really: number of outs times two plus two.

On October 14 2010 04:39 Hawk wrote:
if youre just screwing around with family, play free tables until you learn the hand rankings and basic play (what blinds are, how betting goes, etc)

dont even worry about actual strategy at a small cash game with friends, most of it isn't even applicable.

the best way to play these games is just by picking someone to fuck with all game. whenever i play small cash games with my brother, i go out of my way to ignore the rules and just bet him out of the pot and make him feel like a pussy. it's a giant pissing match. even better is fucking with people to the right of you.

betting goes left, so at certain points, you'll bet at the end after everyone. there's few things more satisfying than having the table all limp in (just bet the minimum) before the dealer places cards down and you just raising it at the end just because. in person, everyone goes ballistic. or they get angry and play and then you smoke them.

i pretty much play home poker games with the intention of finding out how much of a dick I can be without getting my teeth kicked in

On October 13 2010 11:42 Sinensis wrote:


Your brain calculates very precise odds like this all the time without you realizing it. It's where your game sense in SC comes from. Think about how impressive it is being able to instantly judge whether a near maxed army of yours will beat the opponent's compared to a simple poker hand.

Check out pokerstrategy.com and I think you will surprise yourself with how naturally it comes to you after your experience with SC.

On October 14 2010 05:37 rastaban wrote:


I don't know the match behind it but pretty cool if it is accurate. Any of math pros know why this works?