A wee update
June 30, 2007
Poker has taken a back seat lately. I still can’t remove myself from the ‘can’t be bothered’ corner. But I have played a couple of forum games, fairing not too badly in some of them.
PKR games on a Friday night have been my more successful games of late, winning 2 out of the last 3, including last nights game. Games at Abs/Vegas though have been the complete opposite, even going out on the very first hand last week.
But for my shortcoming in forum games at Abs/Vegas, I am doing a tad better in sit and gos, especially multi table sit and go’s. Last night I played a 45 player game along with a few of the skype crew. As is now tradition on a Friday, I had had a few beverages down my neck before hooking up with the crew. Once the game started I felt good and played well - that is until the final table where I went a bit card dead. Being almost 3am I started losing concentration and taking chances when there were 3 players left. I say chances, but most of the time I had half decent hands and I was up against a complete monkey and his sidekick! Needless to say, the one hand where I thought monkey play was happening I got stung big style. For once the guy had a decent hand.
Anyways I finished 3rd in that game for just over $14 and along with the $22.50 won in PKR earlier, I made a nice wee profit from the two games from a $7 investment.
I enjoyed the games last night. I felt as though the recent lethargy had lifted and I had that will to win return. Long may that continue.
This weekend see’s more challenge games at Vegas. Not forum challenges, but country challenges. A bit of a silly concept as US players have other countries outnumbered big style, so are likely to win it for their country. But that won’t put me off in the slightest. I’ve done well in the past in these games (a 4th place last time out), and I don’t really play for the country. I play for myself. I’m more interested in making money for myself than gaining a freeroll for my country!
The forum is kicking off another league tomorrow, with points scored in private games. It’s not something I will be focusing on to be honest, mainly because I play virtually zero games during the week and only play a select few at the weekends. I would probably have to win every single game I entered to be anywhere near winning. Even then, I’d probably still be beaten by those that will play virtually every game. So the league isn’t really on my ‘to do’ list.
OK, update over, I’m off to get ready for the country challenge game. Hope to see ya all at the tables at some point. Take it easy.
Blagz has re-entered the building.. sorta.. nearly
June 27, 2007
Again I find myself apologizing for the dearth of any news or new content on the blog.
I do have a pretty good excuse this time for not being as active as I would like to be. Well a couple of good excuses;
* 1 - It is still summer and
* 2 - I managed to get slightly ill.
Not immediately life threateningly ill, but bad enough to stop me in my tracks and to get me in the local hospital pretty sharp-ish.
Want to play live - start with a home game!
June 19, 2007
The poker boom just seems to get bigger and bigger, and eventually, those who play solely online will probably want to try a live game in a casino at some point. And I have to say that its a completely different ball game to online poker!
Here are some common sense differences between online and live games.
- you can’t hide behind a computer screen playing live. People will be watching you looking for tells. As a novice you will probably show every tell in the book if you are not careful.
- no crying about there being a ‘fix’ when you get sucked-out or a bad beat as happens online. You can see the cards being shuffled in a live game so they will be totally random
- you won’t see as many hands per hour live as you would in a live game. Online you could easily see between 60-80 hands per hour. Live, reduce this to around 20 hands per hour, or less.
- no betting buttons / slide bars to make your bets in a live game. You have to concentrate and watch the betting. Learn how betting works in a live game before you go.
There are numerous other things I could point out but these are the main items. Every casino or cardroom will have different rules for within their premises. You won’t find out what they are until you actually visit. But the actual game of poker will be just the same as what you are used to online.
So, onto the home game. For the complete novice, wanting to play live, I would suggest getting some friends over for a friendly game of poker before even attempting a casino. It’s better to learn how to play live in a comfortable environment than in an alien environment against complete strangers.
The home game set-up
The basic items needed are obviously a deck of cards. Try and get a quality deck. Not the flimsy paper ones. Go for a high quality plastic playing card. You can buy genuine used casino cards off the internet for around £2/$4. These will have been in actual use in the casino, but will have been ‘clipped’ so that they can’t be used in the casino again (for fraudulant activities). Alternatively, you can get a half decent deck for around £5/$10. If you really want to push the boat out, invest in a set of KEM cards. These will set you back around £15/$30, but are argubly the best cards out there.
Next basic item is a chipset. There’s no point in playing with matchsticks if you are wanting to proceed to playing in the casino. Buy some chips - even jusy a cheap and tacky plastic set. You can get chipsets very cheaply off the internet and at a lot of high street stores. Again, you get what you pay for. £10/$20 will get you a very cheap tacky set but will be good enough to start your home games. If you have the money, you can invest a couple of hundred pounds for casino look, weight, feel and sound, clay poker chips. You want to learn how to bet with chips so it’s not alien to you when you do eventually go to the casino. Also get a dealer button, although you can use almost anything to signify a dealer button (like a lid off a jar). Dealer buttons cost around £3 / $5.
Ideally, you want a good sized playing surface. The kitchen table is a good starting point. Buy some felt to put over the table so it ‘feels’ more like a poker table. If you intend to have home games on a regular basis, why not invest in a poker table. They come in all shapes and sizes and at prices to suit all budgets. Obviously, the more you pay the better quality table you will get. You can also find plans for building your own poker table on the internet. You can get these free and all you have to pay for is your materials and some time and patience!
OK, now you have the basic set up, you just need a few bits and bobs to have your home game off and running….
- FOOD - now if you are anything like my mates, food will never be wasted. Have a selection of crisps (or chips to you US folks) and nibbles available. You don’t have to go all out for 3 course meal!
- DRINK - If you are hosting the home game, tell your mates to bring the beer. Have a few bottles at the ready yourself, in case of emergencies. If you are invited to a game, be sure to take a few bottles over with you. (When you go to the casino, I’d advise you stick to non-alcoholic drinks.)
- MUSIC - I normally have some music playing in the background - not blaring out, but loud enough that its not a distraction.
For the game itself there are a few things that you must make clear before the game starts. You should have some basic rules. As I’ve said, every casino has its own house rules - you should too. These should include blind levels, time between blinds, string betting, betting out of turn and who decides on disputes. You as host should have final decision on any disputes.
Don’t just play for the fun of it. Have a buy-in for your game. When there’s nothing to play for, people will tend to play stupid hands and can get easily bored. Its suprising just how much more, people try to win when there is cash on the line! Set your buy-in at a level everyone can afford. If you make it a £5 ($10) buy-in you might want to have a rebuy period of say one hour. I’ve played a few games where the buy-in was £5 for 2500 chips and rebuys were £1 for 1000 chips. Rebuys help to swell the pot. Just remember to have a decent payout structure. If you have 9 or 10 playing pay out to the top 3. If you only have 5 or 6 then payout to the top 2 and for less than 5 players payout winner takes all.
Use your home games as a learning curve for playing live. Not just for you but your mates as well. Help eachother for when you do hit the casino. Ask them if there are any tells you show, whether it be a physical tell or a betting pattern or general mistakes you make. Take all comments on board and try to eradicate them from your game. In return you have to help them too. It aslo means a tougher game when you all meet up to play again!
The natural step to take before heading for the casino is to play home games. The more you play, the more comfortable you will feel at the table, and the more confident you will get. Once you feel you are ready to take on the world, head off to your local casino / card club and play the low buy-in games. Its a whole new learning curve, but at least you will have had the basic preparations.
Sit’n go team challenge
June 18, 2007
Woohooo for my team The PokerVikings who won the sitngo team challenge!!
Short Update
June 15, 2007
Well, I thought I would post a small update from the last couple of days.
It has turned to Summer around here. The weather is nice and I finally got the boat launched. So, any nice days will take away from my Poker time because we will be out cruising, fishing, and drinking on the Lake.
I played in the final SNG Challenge game last night. I got third place. Anne Marie (gotmewrong) won. She did a good job. Blagger showed up for a little while. He has been quite sick for a while.
I hope he gets better soon. Read more
Updates
June 14, 2007
It’s been a long time since i reported how i’m doing in my quest of building a big bankroll! The past 2 days i have played 4 games. One freeroll wich i placed second giving me $15, the ladies game where i struck out early, wasn’t concentrating due to be in the $1 buyin $1500 guaranteed rebuy/addon at vegas at the same time. Did better there and placed 10th of 424 bringing me another $18 in winnings.
