Introductions and Questions

[Idaho]

Greetings all. Thought I'd start a thread to introduce myself. I've just started playing poker after being invited to play an online tourney with a (non-poker) online community I'm a part of. We've played three games now and I won the first two!

I've done a bit of reading and I'm at the stage where I'm picking the right hands and folding fairly well (except for the odd tilt moment) and I'm just starting to understand and use the pot odds.

I seem to get slowly killed on low limit for some reason. Whenever I throw away my 8 6 off the flop comes up 8 8 6! When I raise up with AA and the flop comes out with rags someone always calls to the river and hits trip 4's or some such! Trying to sit it out when people on the showdown are turning over 3 6 off beating J 2 etc is torture.

Played a sit and go tourney the other day which seemed better. No limit seems to be a bit more artistic and flexible. You can shut out the calling stations a bit better I suppose. Anyhow I was in a 20 person tourney and got down to the last 7. Someone with a short stack went all in and two people called. I was sitting on AKs and called.... did I do the right thing?



... I lost - flop came down Jack and rags, the rest were low cards. Someone nicked it on two pair. I reckon I did the right thing. Made a calculated gamble that would have made me chip leader and put me well in contention on what should have been a good hand. Am I wrong?

[NickHow]

Exeter

Myself and Geno went to Exeter Uni

As for your question, AK is a raising hand rather than a calling hand. Saying that though I probably would have called it as 2 other callers give you good pot-odds. Its difficult to throw away one of the best hands pre-flop to a pre-flop all-in.

[Idaho]

Cool. So do you know of any card rooms in the area? There are a couple of casinos in Plymouth and one in Torquay...

[Nut Flush]

Depending on my stack size would etermine if I make the call or not. With an all in and 2 callers, I'm gonna think about this one a bit longerr than normal. I'm thinking either fold here or push all in to try to get one or both of the other callers to fold. I'm leaning towards fold here, there are only seven people left so you are either in the money or close to it. By folding, you know somebody is most likely going to get knocked out, maybe even two people.

Now that we got that out of the way, send me some Plymouth Gin! I had a friend I met from the UK and last time I saw her she brought a bottle back. I don't normally drink gin but that was good stuff!

[Idaho]

Depending on my stack size would etermine if I make the call or not. With an all in and 2 callers, I'm gonna think about this one a bit longerr than normal. I'm thinking either fold here or push all in to try to get one or both of the other callers to fold. I'm leaning towards fold here, there are only seven people left so you are either in the money or close to it. By folding, you know somebody is most likely going to get knocked out, maybe even two people.

Now that we got that out of the way, send me some Plymouth Gin! I had a friend I met from the UK and last time I saw her she brought a bottle back. I don't normally drink gin but that was good stuff!

My stack was middle-low and had I won I would have taken out 2 and severely dented another. When I say 'call' it was effectively an all-in as I was swiftly out after that.

Plymouth Gin? You want to get yourself some Bombay Sapphire. And always Schwepps tonic

[vegasholdem]

over the long run...good starting hands like AA should win more than it loses...and thats what really counts...is the long run.

Bad beats are a part of poker. It happens and will continue to happen...you have no control of that.

so just be glad that you played you cards the best way you know how...and that the other player will hafta carry a big rabbits foot in order to beat you!