Texas Hold'em

[Brap]

So I searched for a thread on poker but couldn't find one, so I made this (apologies if it's in the wrong place). Since I've been gone from the pokemon world and smogon over the past ~2 years, I've got really into poker, specifically no limit texas hold-em, but I play other variants too.

My university has a poker society and I'm one of 5 people who help run it every week, and probably one of the better players there. We get about 40 people per week and I'm currently top of the league after 16 weeks. We don't play for money so that's all good. Online I play small and micro stakes tournaments, generally on Pokerstars. I've won a couple of tournaments. .55 cent turbo and a $1.10 turbo 6-max where I beat over 1,500 runners to come first and win $255. Also won a similar amount coming 3rd in the bigger $1.10 comp.

As for live competitions, it's kinda awkward as I don't drive yet and there are 2 casinos like 20 miles either side of where I live, both accessible by train. But I have been to more live casino comps this year, however I still need to work on my live game in a casino. I feel I play too passively at times under pressure and don't think about the hand deeply enough. Biggest cash at a casino is only like £120 min cash in a £30 buy-in 100 runners comp. Variance is such a killer though. Last comp I went to, second hand I got KK and got it all-in pre against AA and lost. Sat down at the .25/.25 pence Cash table. One orbit in, got dealt AA utg, raise. Button 3 bet huge, I went-all-in. He called with JJ. QQJ flop. gg me I suck, lost like £70 that night but things like that can happen so easily.

I play a bit of cash games as well, but feel I'm much more confident at tournaments. My flatmate is basically a 0.10/0.25 pro and when he has the time can make $200 profit a month easily, so I've tried to learn a bit from him this year, but I'm still getting there. However I deposited a tenner onto PartyPoker a month or so ago. Purely playing 0.01/0.02 and 0.02/0.04 cash games I've managed to run that up to over £50 now. Speaking of running it up, I love watching poker streams on twitch, especially Jason 'JCarver' Somerville when he's on. I even ordered myself a Run It Up t-shirt for christmas just gone.

Poker is basically a huge part of my life now. It's kinda a pipe dream to pack in the uni and work life and become a poker pro one day, but I'm very far away from that. Poker has also helped me improve my pokemon battling, in terms of figuring out my best possible course of action in order to win the match (just like winning a pot in poker).

So is there anyone else out there who plays poker? Regularly? Just for fun? Or if anyone wants to start getting into poker (really fun game, 9.4/10 would recommend) I think I'd be a half decent beginners coach.

 

[GotR]

I play super-casually with friends when we're all around and get bored of video games or whatever. It's not for actual money; more of a way to waste time and chat a bit. Usually it's Texas Hold'Em but we have done Black Jack and a couple other games in the past.

I probably have the best idea of what's going on in a game out of us, but that doesn't always translate to winning in the end. We're close enough in skill level that it's more luck than anything that determines games.

Also the fact that we're all friends and play in person gives us a much better idea of when someone else is bluffing, which, again, just contributes to the 'luck over skill' kind of deal we have going.

 

[Ksh13]

So I searched for a thread on poker but couldn't find one, so I made this (apologies if it's in the wrong place).

http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/poker-thread.3550676/

 

[billymills]

http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/poker-thread.3550676/

He probably meant threads that weren't locked.

 

[Brap]

Went to Blackpool casino last night and played the comp. £20+10+6 (buy-in+bounty+reg free). 41 runners. Managed to come 6th and min cash, as well as getting 4 knockouts. Came out with £100 in the end.

That's despite some idiot calling me with 8 high on a 1064 flop when I flopped top set and hitting runner runner straight on me.

 

[Brap]

*Bump*

I'm a student and this week it's the United Kingdom Student Poker Championship (UKSPC) in Coventry. I'm heading down on the Wednesday. Not too fussed about cashing, more bothered about playing well, having fun & getting drunk.

On a side note, not so long back, I won my first live tournament! Won the Tuesday Bounty KO comp at Grosvenor Casino Bolton. Won £235. Followed that up 2 days later by coming 3rd at Blackpool Genting for £105. Not spent any of my winnings yet, but it'll probably be all gone by Sunday!!

 

[Zodiax]

I like to play Poker regularly in my local Grosvenor and I mainly do well, off the top of my head I've won 3 tournaments, 4 2nd places, 6 3rd places and about 15/20 final tables. I think my earnings from poker are in the range of £2,000-£3,000 at this point. I've made a lot of friends playing poker and I think it's a fun hobby to do.

I would like to make a point in this thread that hasn't been mentioned which is that gambling can be addictive and can put you in financial difficulties, no matter what country you are from. If you do experience these please go to a gambling awareness website to seek advice.

 

[Celestavian]

I've been playing on ACR at the micro stakes MTT's as well as live 1-2 cash games at my local casino, both with moderate success, and both a lot of fun. I've been watching a lot of Twitch poker and reading plenty of online articles to help keep my game up. I really wish I could have PokerStars in the US, but ACR so far has been fine, just haven't had any huge deep fields of thousands of people in these MTT's.