New Boy

[James20zs]

Hello ppl This is my first post on punters lounge and my favourite forum the poker lounge. I have been playing online poker now for about 3-6 months and it's nice hearing of all the good players on here that win so much money. I feel im just starting to find my feet and being able to make a small profit which pays for a few beers when i go out. I just really wondered what's ppl's favourite type of game is it heads up small tournament multi table tournament or just cash hands. I think cash hands is more of a buzz but you can lose far more money although the rewards over a short time can be high. I enjoy playing the $3-5 NL tournaments with about 500-1000 people involved. I can occasionally make the money but find it hard to push on to get real big money the top 5 places. On Saturday making 19th place and getting beat on A 6 suited by someone having Q J off suit I assume that's just down to look really when it gets down to the last few players and blinds are so high. Does any one have any tips on cash hands is it best sitting at a small stake blinds table and try and watch for people playing loose and if it's not happening move on to another table. I always hate the 10 seater cash hand table as I always am scared of being beaten by the perfect hand which 9 times out of 10 the opponent doesn't have. Does being able to read people come with years of experience. Any advice would be nice. Just to let you know Im 20 and from Notts

[Big Andy]

Re: New Boy :welcome to PL James :ok I`m still a Poker novice myself mate but have picked up no end of great advice from the guys on here. They`ll be along soon mate, I`m sure they`ll tell you what you want to know. :ok

[Jezza]

Re: New Boy Hi james, Welcome to the poker forum mate. Glad to hear you have been enjoying some online poker action :clap.....I will answer your other questions in depth later on tonight when im not buried in 3 games at once (like now lol)! Jez

[laidbackbloke]

Re: New Boy Hi James :welcome to the PL Don't worry about not having the greatest ammount of experience. A lot of us haven't been playing that long either. I only started playing at the end of October ..................... though i do tend to play most days. If you are starting to make a consistant profit (no matter how small) then you must be heading in the right direction :ok I go through different phases of what games i choose to play, but generally I stick to Single Table Tournaments (STT's) I Used to play the $5, 5 seat tournaments at bet365 a lot, and went through a spell of Playing a lot of heads up, but lately I've moved on to playing £5 or $10, 10 seat STT's. The sites that i play on vary, but since i recently discovered how low the general standard of play is at the Party poker STT's its rapidly becoming my favourite :lol I don't play Multi-Table Tournaments that often and I'm pretty much in the same category as you. I sometimes get in the money..............though more often not :lol Probably best you get your advice for them from someone else :lol Same goes for cash games .................I don't play them very often, but Jez and Staffy (and anyone else who feels like it) will be able to help you out. In answer to your last question "Does being able to read people come with years of experience." It doesn't neccessarily take years................. Just experience. The more hands you play, the more experience you gain and the better you get at judging situations. You won't always get it right, but you will make less mistakes ................. and that will mean better results :ok

[Jezza]

Re: New Boy All right james, Personally I prefer cash games - I play them up to 10hrs a day sometimes across all the sites. The thing with NL (and to some extent PL) cash games is that you can really punish weak play by taking someones entire stack of money. They are not friendly in the slightest and although I would say they are the most consitant profit form of poker to learn you really have to find your feet slowly in them - start at the smaller limits and work your way up or any cash game virgin is going to find themselves in uncomfortable situations! MTT's are for the "glory".....smaller entry fees (and a fixed limit to what you can lose!) offer shots at huge prizes and the chance to put your name on a trophy. All the famous RL players made their name from MTT successes like the world poker tour etc...cash game players never reach this level of fame! MTT's can be highly profitable for the good player but the level of variance is very high. I do enjoy playing them but only occasionly and I dont treat them as my bread and butter, more a little fun now and again. What you say about being able to make the money but havnt made it to the no 1 place yet is nothing to worry about it. You are obviously playing a pretty good tight game to get that far james..what you have to do when the blinds get large and the prizes become in sight is open it up a notch. Become a bit more LAG (loose aggressive) preflop, raising more frequently and be the one challenging everyone, not the one calling. This will lead you being knocked out a bit more often but the times you do survive you will have plenty of chips, a table that fears you and 1st place in your sights. In cash games my advice would be to play at small stakes to start with. Always take the maximum to the table...if you want to play with 50 dollars then dont take 50 dollars to a 200 buy in table, take 50 dollars to a table where 50 is the maximum. Keep it really tight, and when you hit a good hand BET IT HARD (pot size bets all the way) - you should get paid off most of the time. If there is a raise preflop try to ditch trouble hands like AJ AQ KQ KJ etc, but provided the raiser has a lot of money behind them and its not too much to call you can play suited connectors (with position) and pocket pairs to try and break him. Reading people just comes with experience (something you can gain a lot of on the net if you wish to). All the way through a hand try to put your opponent on a hand. This is a difficult thing to do but after a while you will get better at it (and it is a CRUCIAL skill to become a great NL player). The times you do get to see your opponents cards you can think back through the hand and consider how the way he played it gave clues to what he held. An awfully common one is people who act weak on the flop etc then liven up on the river usually hold a monster Jez