Prose from a Poshboy

[tikay]

Agree with it all except the not having a 3bet range which is pretty silly and a bad idea. Great post otherwise.

Last year in gib I was up around 100bis in a pretty short time, I came a little deluded and would always take pics on my phone of big stack, I'd often go all in ott for 1k with 400 in the pot of deep vs a Spanish guy with a capped range. I'd 3bet most opens and just really made the game boring for everybody else. People made ridic folds vs me like qq pre and I'd be like 'what are you serious?' etc

The game generally died a little bit because of my ego at the time and now it's a very small 50/50 game and if I ever go to play its because im there to gamble on a Friday night and there are a lot of groans if I come to the table. Have learned from that of course.

In Newcastle a few months ago I was playing in a 20r. I had about 6rebuys and was trying to get a stack, the local regs were being wayyyyyyy ool. Shouting to their friends on other tables 'we've got a huge fish here' and after hands would shout full HHS across the room. If I was a recreational guy who was there to punt I'd 99% never play live poker again.

You make some good points there, especially as to the deluded thing, & photos of towering stacks. 

all young players take photos of their stacks and use em as profile pics on social media. Even seen people posting pics of the blue 100k chip at Dtd. It's just what they do. No harm in it intended

No, I don't suggest they intend any wrong, its just what young folks do. With the passing of years, they go more the giq route.

[david3103]

Agree with it all except the not having a 3bet range which is pretty silly and a bad idea. Great post otherwise.

Last year in gib I was up around 100bis in a pretty short time, I came a little deluded and would always take pics on my phone of big stack, I'd often go all in ott for 1k with 400 in the pot of deep vs a Spanish guy with a capped range. I'd 3bet most opens and just really made the game boring for everybody else. People made ridic folds vs me like qq pre and I'd be like 'what are you serious?' etc

The game generally died a little bit because of my ego at the time and now it's a very small 50/50 game and if I ever go to play its because im there to gamble on a Friday night and there are a lot of groans if I come to the table. Have learned from that of course.

In Newcastle a few months ago I was playing in a 20r. I had about 6rebuys and was trying to get a stack, the local regs were being wayyyyyyy ool. Shouting to their friends on other tables 'we've got a huge fish here' and after hands would shout full HHS across the room. If I was a recreational guy who was there to punt I'd 99% never play live poker again.

You make some good points there, especially as to the deluded thing, & photos of towering stacks. 

all young players take photos of their stacks and use em as profile pics on social media. Even seen people posting pics of the blue 100k chip at Dtd. It's just what they do. No harm in it intended

No, I don't suggest they intend any wrong, its just what young folks do. With the passing of years, they go more the giq route.

Indeed

[Honeybadger]

Agree with it all except the not having a 3bet range which is pretty silly and a bad idea. Great post otherwise.

Thanks Patrick. The point about 3betting was over-stated in order to make my point and I did end that part of my post by highlighting this over-statement. Of course I don't really think you should never 3bet in a live cash game! That would be, as you say, pretty silly. However, there ARE some spots in live poker in which you should either not have a 3betting range, or else this range should be extremely narrow. These spots are usually when 3betting would most likely isolate you vs a very strong player (who is not likely to make many mistakes vs you) whilst flatting would likely allow you to play a MW pot with that strong player plus a number of weaker players (who ARE likely to make many mistakes). It is all situational obviously, and a clear 3bet one minute could be a clear flat 5 mins later.

[rfgqqabc]

Serious young people bias here. And how does anyone get offended by a photo of a chipstack? Just how?

[Honeybadger]

A similar thing happens with fruit machines.

A good player on certain machines can pretty much guarantee a profit. However, the machine has to be "ready", i.e. it has had enough money put through so it isn't "dead".

So I have a ready machine and can do 2 things:
1) Take a modest amount of value and leave the machine in a half-decent state where the locals will still get wins here and there, or
2) Take the full amount of value (which isn't always much more) and leave the machine dead.

Option 2) is the short term gain option. But the result of this is the locals quickly realise that the machine is always dead and they never win on it. Not only do they not win but they don't even get any gameplay because the machine is dead and it's just taking money off them fast. So the end result is you go back to it but the machine still isn't ready. You play it anyway and this time are lucky to break even and leave the machine dead once more.

Option 1) on the other hand the locals are more happy to play as they are getting some gameplay for their money. They'll win occasionally but they'll generally lose but they know this and are happy to lose the money as long as they're getting some entertainment for their money. So when you do go back to the machine it's had lots of money put through and is ready for you again.

Other players can become an issue, especially if a machine has a reputation of being good. What happens here is players go out of their way to find a certain machine. What happens in the end is that so many players keep playing it that it's never ready and everyone is just losing money. Locals will never play said machine. It's a similar idea to poker. If a game has a reputation of being good the last thing it needs is an influx of good players because it's then no longer a good game.

That's the weird thing about poker and fruit machines. We're essentially taking money from other people and they are happy to let us do this, as long as in their minds they are getting perceived value for money.

This is an extremely good analogy IMO and shows that you 'get' gambling/poker and see the big picture.

[tikay]

Serious young people bias here. And how does anyone get offended by a photo of a chipstack? Just how?

Not at all. And they don't get offended. That misses the point completely.

I would say that both pleno & Stu are pretty young too, & they seem to agree. OK, Stu is not EXACTLY a yoof.......

[leethefish]

Serious young people bias here. And how does anyone get offended by a photo of a chipstack? Just how?

Not offended in the slightest

[tikay]

Serious young people bias here. And how does anyone get offended by a photo of a chipstack? Just how?

Not offended in the slightest

Lol, winner.

[PeeJay]

from what i have gathered the big game at DTD is far too cliquey and the players are coming across too arrogant within there own group , with the help of Blonde they have believed their own hype a little too much, I played a few times last year and found the banter very focused only on the group and as for PJS hollywood dwells on nearly every hand , anything but professional
in short
Stop blaming DTD and look at yourselves, and lets seehow many of you are still 'doing it'in 10 years time



i

Another boring troll on Alex's diary shocker. After going to DTD a 'few' times last year. He's got it all figured out ofc.

[tikay]

from what i have gathered the big game at DTD is far too cliquey and the players are coming across too arrogant within there own group , with the help of Blonde they have believed their own hype a little too much, I played a few times last year and found the banter very focused only on the group and as for PJS hollywood dwells on nearly every hand , anything but professional
in short
Stop blaming DTD and look at yourselves, and lets seehow many of you are still 'doing it'in 10 years time



i

Another boring troll on Alex's diary shocker. After going to DTD a 'few' times last year. He's got it all figured out ofc.

Alex is popular & successful, so I'm afraid he is going to get trolled, he just is.

He has a nice arse, too, that always helps.

[rfgqqabc]

Serious young people bias here. And how does anyone get offended by a photo of a chipstack? Just how?

Not offended in the slightest

Lol, winner.

How is it "sad"? I mean, just because younger people interact via social media and forums etc, and use this to show off or brag to their friends doesn't make it sad, just because its something your not used too, or wouldn't do yourself. I wouldn't do it myself, but that doesn't mean I think people who do are sad. I personally wouldn't go trainspotting but I wouldn't call it sad either.

[JamesBee]

Hardly a Troll PJ, just observations from experience, take it on the chin and learn from what many on this thread are saying

[Mondeoman]

Great post Stu, while it's all true, there's something that doesn't quite sit well with me about all this.

The idea of us all clubbing together, ganging up on somebody, playing a certain style that avoids playing pots with other regs, and targets the "fish", letting them into pots.

And this whole notion of schmoozing up to them, "giving them a good time", it's not really the sort of person I want to be - I find it massively cringeworthy. Maybe that's what it takes, but it's a pretty sad world to be a part of if that's true. Reminds me of what I imagine the rat race to be like, buying champagne for clients you despise, sweet-talking and arse-kissing your way up the career ladder.

For the record, we really don't talk icm and technical bollocks at the table, maybe very very occasionally, but it's pretty rookie to do so as you mentioned and most of us are aware of that.

I agree with you Al.  Also a lot of this is pretty unfair - I doubt theres many better players around than Mitch at schmoozing with just about everybody in the game (fish and regs, on and off the felt ) - I mean he obvs doesn't make money by playing hands well.  Problem you've got is too many regs (you prob need to take it in turns or something) and not enough money swilling around in the general poker community - that coupled with a lot of it could be just peaks and troughs/circle of life etc.  

[rfgqqabc]

Hardly a Troll PJ, just observations from experience, take it on the chin and learn from what many on this thread are saying

The lets see where you are in 10 years comment was loltastic.

However, apart from that your post was just opinion and welcome, at least in my eyes.

[Honeybadger]

You should be spending more of your mental energy thinking about how to create the best possible environment for your customers than you should thinking about how to play your hands.

Whilst your points are so thoughtfully constructed its difficult to argue, I do take slight issue with this. I agree with pretty much everything you said but if I really wanted to make money from this particular game I would be focussing the majority of my energy on trying to become the best reg so that I would win off everyone and then it's irrelevant how good the game is.

This is the wrong way of thinking about things, and the part I bolded is especially incorrect. If your game is bad, it does not matter if you are the most skilled card player in the world... you are not going to make much money. And if you don't have a game, you are not going to make any money at all!

I have spent, and still do spend, more time than most working on improving the card playing part of my skillset. Whilst being very far from a good player, I am not terrible in terms of playing ability as those of you who have read my posts in PHA, or played with me, will know. But really, ability to play your cards well is only a very small part of what it means to be a successful professional poker player. And it is VERY VERY FAR from being the most important factor in your success.

What makes someone a 'good poker player'? Card playing ability is one of the last things I would consider when assessing someone's skills and judging how good they are. A certain level of skill is of course essential. But assuming that base level of skill is in place, other abilities and attributes will have a much bigger influence on a player's ability to make money in the long-term than his skill playing the cards.

Obviously everything I have written about is concerning live cash games. In tournament play and online play it is possible to be extremely successful with a much narrower skillset, mainly just being able to play cards well. Many of the same principles do still apply in tourneys and online, but the effect of them is much more indirect.