Poker / poker strategy

Wednesday, Poker chat tonight. 8 PM UK time. (7 PM UTC). Buddy Up Server. https://discord.gg/Y8sbvA5 Topics: Open forum. Raising or not. Bet sizing. Position. Everyone should play the game of poker the way they have fun. If there is no fun in the playing then you should not play, This game of poker will not make your fortune. It can though provide an hour or two of entertainment. The show is open to all levels of player. The game poker we play is held on https://scorumpoker.com This site is linked to https://scorum.com/en-us and https://steemit.com. Both Steem and Scorum are available in rewards for playing the games available. There is a range of games available and I will be working on a post for the basics of them all. If you have questions about any of the games, Bring them along to the show. The only silly question is the one not asked. No Limit Hold'em the more popular of the poker series of games is available with quite a few tournaments, Other games include, Stud Stud Hi Lo (eight low) Omaha, Omaha Hi Lo and some mixed games too.

Poker chat is a new show started up in the Buddy Up Discord server. A show is held each Wednesday at 8 PM UK time (7 PM UTC). Bring your questions share your answers. The show is open to everyone with an interest in poker. Players of all levels are welcome to attend. This weeks show looks like it is going to be about what bet's to place in what position. A few people I have been bitching at to raise the bet in certain spots. Sometimes it is not the chips you don't lose, but the chips you fail to gain. With each hand in poker you want to take the smallest risk to win the most back. When you have good cards, you do not want everyone at the table to call. This would reduce the chances of your cards remaining strong. I hold a few statistics I have had drilled into me by experienced players. one of those is AA. When you get AA the best way to play. In the statistics, it says AA will win with a higher frequency than any other two cards. Playing 1 on 1, the success rate of AA is at the 90% mark, It is only 10% of the time they will lose. This is against all other ranges. If there are more people in play, those %'s drop. On a full table of nine players, the win % drops to as low as 7%. Is there n advantage to raising with these cards, or is the advantage in limping so no one knows you have Ace's?

I don't hate poker. I love to play it. It is entertaining. It is challenging. However, it also makes me want to punch something.......at times. I am trying to control that urge. I know it is just a game. BUT...........here are the things I hate: The fake chatter. The pretend platitudes. The constant, annoying, repetitive acronyms. You know,,,,,,gg, ty, gh,,,,,,I mean, come on. Some people do it AFTER EVERY HAND. It is just like everyone getting a ribbon for participation. IT MEANS NOTHING after awhile. Sure, you are trying to be nice, which is fine. But NOT.......EVERY.......HAND. And I will do it too. I just find myself getting more and more annoyed at seeing it. If you have to say something, mix it up. Talk about the weather or something, sheesh. The pompous person. We all know at least one player like that. They play like an idiot, get lucky, and then think they are something special. I would be ok to lose if they would admit their idiocy. To quote Dean Wormer in Animal House...."Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son". The fat and drunk part is assumed by me. Now me, I will try things. New ways to bet, just to see how players react. I don't, however, think I am a great player. I don't like the analytics and percentages. Makes poker too much like work. Or math. I bet by instinct....and feel. The donkey. Now, a disclaimer on the donkey thing. There are many types of players. And many styles of playing. One persons donkey is another person's genius. And this is a fun league, so there are inexperienced players. However, if you want to win, you chances of doing that go up markedly if you try to improve each day. Don't keep doing the same things.....like, instead of checking, you bet say,,,,,,um,,,50 chips when the pot is already 2000. What are you trying to accomplish with that bet? It is usually one of the following: (a) a weak hand, (b) a drawing hand (c) a strong hand or (d) you don't know how to play. Have a clue here. You can accomplish the same thing by checking to the next player, thereby saving your chips for later hands. That weak 50 bet is a losing play. You will NEVER find winning poker players playing that way. You may get lucky occasionally, but overall a bad play. If I was playing in a big money tournament, I would love for people to play like that. Gives me a chance to improve my hand cheaply. However, in these games for chips and tokens, (with their low monetary value) I will raise sometimes just to see what will happen. That is not something I would normally do in a tourney where I have to pay my own money to enter. These chips and tokens you win should be invested back into the poker site by donating or by sponsoring more poker tourneys. Winning should not be your goal. It should be somewhere to play poker with people you enjoy playing with. Give til it hurts ;) So, do yourselves a favor. Don't be a phony, pompous donkey. It doesn't make you friends or chips. It just makes you a time waster. (Not that there is anything wrong with that). The object was not to offend, but to get you to improve as a poker player and a person. I, however, am an old f**k. And I will not change. So let me have it in the remarks.... I can take it. Source of all gifs is giphy.com

Poker player @kryptokeeper recently posted an insightful review of some lucksacks.com players. Check out the link here because my post is comment to him gone long. Figured may as well author a post with it and maybe get a longer conversation going. https://scorum.com/en-us/poker/@kryptokeeper/the-crew-of-lucksacks-and-scorum-poker-players-my-take-on-their-skills He did not say it but this might be the first in a series making comments of members play. IDK, except we have lots of great players and lots that are learning for free how to play poker well from each other. So.. on with my comment to the post: "Thank you so much for inclusion and analysis. Certainly anyone who takes the time to read/study this will improve verses players mentioned. And generally overall. Personally, it will force me to improve. Add new tactics and adjust to the adjustments made verses me. Allow me to give feedback to your self analysis. Perhaps your game has changed the most in the time we have been battling for chips. You have adjusted from being very conservative to speculation with a wide range of holdings as you have self described. Another adjustment is calling or more often now three betting openers when in position with up to 30% of of hands. I do suspect this is a play reserved for players you feel will fold more of the time. I would guess that when we met you were closer to playing 17% of the top hands from all positions. So I would guesstimate you have nearly doubled your opening range especially in position over the last year or so. Our game here ultimately is a freeroll. This introduces the widest styles of play and is the most difficult to play against generally. Some of our most knowledgeable players (many not mentioned here) in regards to hand odds have adopted a time saving method of play. They are wagering complete stacks early with weaker holdings. Either they double or triple their stack or move on to other activities. Others just don't know the value of their hands verses the odds. They by accident kind of employ the same method of play. What you describe as lack of patience can also be defined as going on tilt. That emotional reaction tied to the hand result. It challenges the best of us to make less than the best decisions. Your admitted intolerance for limpers and small bets causes a greater chance to make +4x preflop raises. This is a page out of my favorite poker coach teachings, Alex Fitzgerald. He is also known to do it with a wide range of cards. IMHO your doing the right thing for the wrong reason some of the time, maybe not. I can't say I know you well enough if your 3 bet is a emotional play or a tactical play. Probably a little of both. It occurs to me that @tadas has made as large a change to his game in as you have yours but in the opposite direction. He reduced his opening range from maybe 50% of hands down to 30% or so. Both of you have fantastic aggression to exploit the calling stations and loose players among us. Thanks again for including me in the post. I think its great we are getting more players. That we are all growing our stacks in both SBD and SCR. I'll close with a shout out to @tuck-fheman for his hard work and constant effort and expense to keep it going no matter what the status of the crypto markets."

I have been playing on scorumpoker and lucksacks long before they were combined. As such, I have seen most poker players come and go. I know who does what and to whom. Poker-wise anyway. Their poker skills are varied. So this post is my notes and takes on a few of the regulars........... TUCK......ALIAS: BUCK -------Tuck is hard to figure out for me. He can be a conservative player most of the time. I think he is comfortable with that. I think that is really him. However, he goes off on a side street sometimes. Probably bored. Will play wild and bet same. This is just a temporary thing, mostly. You could beat him when he is in those moods. I only engage with my best hands. Do anything else at your own peril, unless you are feeling lucky. BETHALEA.....ALIAS: BETH, BINDIB, THUGALEA, AND OTHERS-----Bethalea is a wild girl. She plays everything by feel (wink,wink). I don't think she plans to play that way, just goes with the flow. My ultimate compliment....doesn't play like a girl. Can be beat. Actually wants to get beat sometimes. Probably because she has many things going on, like keeping everything going on the poker site. Engaging her will get you some big hands or bust. She will call you and raise you with nothing. CHOPS316......Plays conservatively. Very sound player. Knows how others like to bet and will not chase very often. Hard to trick. If he bets big, and you want to call, you had better have a good hand. POTPLUCKER.......Very hard to pin down on a hand. Likes to do the fancy betting....777 or 1111......number combinations with three or four of the same numbers. I just ignore that and look for the bet percentage after the flop......He will very seldom go all in with nothing or a small percentage draw......however, will take chances. Especially if he feels weakness. Use check-raises if you detect weakness in him. Make him commit his hand. He is a very smart player and plays the player against him well. THEBULL.....ALIAS: SEVENDST19------Solid player. Knows how others play. When he bets out first, he will bet big, usually a pot bet after the flop. But only if he has something. If you call him, he will check to see what you will do and make you give up more chips. If he goes all in after all five community cards are out, he usually has the best hand. INTHENOW........A cautious player. Will let you bet out and then call or fold. Doesn't make wild moves. To get chips from him, you have to bet big if you have a good hand. He will call if he needs a card. KRYPTOKEEPER....ALIAS: CELSIUS100----That's me! I like to think I am very hard to pin down on a hand. I am a solid conservative player most of the time. I am comfortable with that. However, I have low tolerance for players who play every hand. Especially with what I call the limp in Louie's. They will limp in every hand and try to get lucky with the flop. I want them to bet more with their low percentage cards. I will raise when they bet the minimum. Periodically. If I do it all the time, they will limp in with premium cards and try to trap me. You have to get their chips before someone else does so make them play those weak cards when you feel the time is right. The percentages are usually with you. I also try to play a wide variety of hands. I love suited cards, so watch out for my flushes! My most glaring weakness is I am not patient. I also play by feel. I know what some players like to do. I know which players might fold. And I also know which players will call my raises, so I don't usually bluff them. Poker is a great game.......Although luck plays a part in poker, you won't win many real tournaments relying on luck. However, this is a fun poker league and luck is a factor. The only way to learn is to get in there and try. I have given you some help in trying to beat some of the top poker players in Lucksacks and scorumpoker. Use it to your advantage!