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The official No Limit Texas Hold 'Em thread

bought negreanu's book the other day just before i got on a plane it was absolute garbage wouldnt help anyone who has been plaing longer the 6 monthes. i was actually offended that he wants people to pay money for it.

if you really trying to stress position and patience (which i base my entire game off of... plus trapping) please do your self a favor and get harrington on hold em best poker book i read even better then ss
 
Sim0n said:
^
What did he have? AQ or something? A9?


yea he had AQ. Sickening call, I played it off good until he started going over the hands that beat him, I kind of tightened up and stared at the pot in the middle. I think some of the more experienced players picked up on it, but I am positive he didn't. The better players had been pushing him around all night long so I think he was getting sick of folding hands on the river and decided to call. I think I made the right move against the right person, it just didn't work out.


To above poster, I am dissapointed Negreanu's book is garbage. I got Helmuth on hold 'em for Christmas this year and it was pretty terrible as well. I think Negreanu's style of play would be very difficult to teach in a book because it does not rely on a lot of technical aspects of the game. He makes good reads on people and it is that ability that allows him to loosen up and dabble in a lot of pots. This style of play achieves its maximum amount of success against amateurs who are unconciously giving away their hole cards in a lot of ways...

Against other pros his style does not work so well, just look at his performance in high stakes poker.

I have heard Harrington on hold em is a very good book but it is also geared towards tournament play. I just recently finished reading Skalansky on No Limit Hold 'Em (or something like that, I am not sure that is the exact title). This book is completely amazing. It will not tell you what exactly to do but it will go over the theory of everything in the game. After reading this book I felt like my game had expanded hugely. It introduces moves that I have never even thought of before. If anyone plays cash games I HIGHLY recommend this book.
 
Harrington's books are very good, but totally focused on tourney play, in my admittedly non-expert opinion. I glanced through Sklansky's books a few days ago (as I mentioned above) and they did look good. I might have to pick one up :)
 
Kill Phil is another good book relating to the all-in/fold method. It goes into a lot more detail and can be used with some success for sure.

My only problem with the method is you loose chips in the beginning of the game, leaving you to make some desperation plays at the end.

My game has been going pretty well. I decided to reconstruct my online game by starting at the .01/.02 level and not moving up until my role is 20x the next highest buy in (which is $200). Otherwise, I'm too poor to play live right now....gotta wait till my first paycheck in two weeks :D


On the cheating deal, that is interesting about the 100 k hand analysis, makes me more confident in online play. However, being worried about hackers and the occasional insider is a no brainer in my opinion. It is the internet
 
Casino report

Jackson Rancheria

Game: NL hold 'em 200 dollar maximum buy in

blind structure: 2/2

I have been bored as hell lately in Vacaville so I decide to head up to the casino. I buy in the full amount and sit down. Most of the table is sitting down with around 100 dollars so its basically short stacked poker. My first hand dealt to me is QQ and I bump it up to 11 bucks. I get 4 callers and the flop comes all rags. I c-bet and take it down. Very next hand and I am dealt ladies again. This time an ace hits the flop and I fold to a bet from someone in early position. I figure this is a good way to start the session and I probably should run good.

The major hand that decided everything for me follows. I am dealt pocket aces in middle position and I bump it up to 12 dollars. I get 3 callers. The flop comes JT8 rainbow and a player in ep leads out 25 dollars. Perfect, I raise him up to 75 and to my surprise the player to act last pushes his whole stack in. It is 30 dollars to call and the player in ep says he isn't scared of me but he is worried about the player in lp. He eventually calls and I am sick to my stomach. I mutter some swear words and complain about how I am beat but I am pot committed. At this point I call. In retrospect I was not quite getting the odds to call and this is probably a good spot to lay it down. I am getting about 10 to 1 on the call but in reality I am about 8%. I say screw it and call. EP player shows JQ...figures HEE HAW. LP shows a set of 8s. I knew someone had a set. Anyways the miracle ace hits on the river and I win a HUGE pot. Finally I suck out on somebody its about time.

I play for another couple of hours and break about even by stealing some pots. The last hand I play of the night I limp with 88 into a community pot of around 5 people. The flop misses everyone and its checked around. Turn gives me a set and first to act bets 5. The player before me calls and I call while everyone else folds. River is meaningless and 1st to act bets another 5, it folds to me and I raise him up to 25. This guy just sat down so he doesn't know how I play and hes staring me down. I start to tighten up and act like I am bluffing. He starts running his mouth asking questions and I don't reply. He asks how much I have behind me and I don't say a word, I just move my hands so he can see my stack. He eventually calls and mucks his hand.

All in all a very nice nite and I came up 360 bucks....not bad, but its my rent money.
 
^^nice work thizz, always great to catch a suck out :D

update for me:

played a $20 buy in .25/.50 blinds last night against a group that usually takes me for a ride on the cash games. My general feeling on this was that I was constantly getting bad cards.

Short story shorter, I made some sweet calls on bluffs, ran a couple myself, rallied a few sets and doubled up my $60 with a full house on the last hand. BING! looks like I'm ahead versus those jokers :)
 
Here's a poker question for ya'll

I'm in a 45 person sit and go (3.25 buy in) on pokerstars. The blinds are at 50-100 and the table is playing very loose and aggressive. I have 2400 and am in early position. I'm dealt TT and raise it to 400. 4 people go all in after me.

My thinking was I probably had the best hand, but with that many people going all in, there had to be some aces, kings, etc. in play. I folded the hand and lived to fight another battle.

What would ya'll do?
 
how much were their all-ins - i assume one or more of them had you covered?

how many players were left? based on what you've said, i would probably fold.

what did they have? who won?

alasdair
 
I would probalby fold in that situation but not because of fear of getting sucked out on. With a chance to greatly increase your stack if you think you have the best hand I would call, winning large tournaments is about pushing small edges and building up a dominant stack that you can push people around (at least thats the strategy I like to use).

In the above situation I would most likely fold because odds are with 5 people pushing your beat unless the table was playing really fishy.
 
it was 1800 more to call, there were about 20 people left.

the table was very LA and I did have the best hand...there were plenty of suck out cards floating around though so i think it was a good call.
 
I have gotten back into on line poker a bit. I won a bet with a friend over a drinking contest and he transfered me 20 bucks on full tilt so I am currently attempting to dominate the 10NLHE tables on full tilt. If someone wants to come play at the penny tables with me toss me PM and lets smash these donks for all there money!!!
 
Sick sick sick home game report. Heres the run down. .10/.25 blinds big stack poker, 40 dollar maximum buy-in. This game was nuts almost every single flop was an action flop. I am talking ridiculous amounts of paired boards and suited flops.

The game for me boils down to a couple of hands. I raise in ep with 99 and get 2 callers. First to act checks in the dark. The flop is K42 with the 4 and 2 being clubs. I check, and the action goes check, all in. Huge over push by a LAG opponenet who checks in the dark a lot but only with borderline hands. I immediatly rule out any king with a good kicker. Small pocket pairs are a possibility and maybe K with a bad kicker, but he would not push all in with these. I finally narrow him down to a draw and call. He flips over 38 of clubs and hits his flush on the turn. Goodbye stack. Sick.

I rebuy and don't do anything for a lont time. I am dealt J9s on the CO and I limp behind a bunch of limpers. Probably should have raised here. A TAG opponent that just sat down is on my left and he raises from the button. He has a very wide range here, he likes to try to take pots down with multiple limpers in position. All the limpers call so I toss in the 1.25 more. We are 4 way and the flop coems KhQh9c. Not a bad flop for me. I check and call a bet from TAG on my left and everyone folds. My thinking is that this is a good flop to float. His bet is standard and my check-call tells him I am drawing. I now sit back and hope a scare card hits and it does, the Ac is the turn and I lead off for 7. He pushes me all in and I have to fold. Turns out he had A5 and was trying to make a play on me. He bluffed to stop my bluff...Thinking back on the hand I need to define my hand more on the turn to get him to fold. I think an all in push there would have worked a lot better, otherwise it looks like I could be betting mid-pair from the hand before. At least thats what he told me.

I am left with 14 dollars left and am dealt AK in the SB. Someone rasies up to .50 and LAG opponenet that hit his flush on me raises to 1.50. I push my remaing stack in. The original raiser is short stacked and he pushes all in. LAG follows suit. Raiser has 99 and LAG has 22. King peels of on the flop and I feel great but a 2 falls on the river.

Overall very sickening day in poker. I think I might have played a little too loose and made a poor attempt at a play out of position.

sick
sick
sick
 
thizzSantaCruz said:
I push my remaing stack in. The original raiser is short stacked and he pushes all in. LAG follows suit. Raiser has 99 and LAG has 22. King peels of on the flop and I feel great but a 2 falls on the river.

Luckily Full Tilt has a "Find a Player" function and you can find that donk any old time.

I've been playing 6-Max $50 NL/PL lately.

Good for bonus/rakeback reasons. Also, it seems a lot of degenerate gamblers who just want action play it too.

Oddly enough, I've been running well in the cash games and like poop in the tournaments, which is the opposite of usual for me.

Glad you started this tread, Thizz. Been a while...
 
Yea, the above hand that you talked about is actually a home game I play in. The LAG has been running absolutely sick hot the past month. Hes pushing all draws because he sucks out every single time, it really makes me want to puke but he is a good friend.

I kinda quit playing online but I am trying to build my roll up on the penny tables now.


*edit* check out the post count...first milestone!!!
 
thizzSantaCruz said:
Yea, the above hand that you talked about is actually a home game I play in. ..

*edit* check out the post count...first milestone!!!

That's what I get for skimming your post!

And congrats on the landmark post! ;)
 
so what do ya'll think the best poker show on t.v. is?

I'm going with High Stakes Poker on game show network for sure. This show just rules hard and that that's it :D

also, World Poker Tour is good for tourny play. Much more pre-flop/small ball play than the world series..which has a lot of "all in/coin flip" type coverage.

*edit
 
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I definitely enjoy High Stakes Poker quite a bit. The fact that you get to see the same players from week to week means you get to understand how their table image affects play, instead of tourney play (especially the WSOP) where NO ONE knows each other and they're constantly being moved, so there's not much time to see those types of nuances.

Mehm said:
also, the profesional poker something on espn is very good for tourny play. Much more pre-flop/small ball play than the world series..which has a lot of "all in/coin flip" type coverage.

Do you mean "Professional Poker Tour" on the Travel Channel? I think that show is pretty good too, but I don't care for all the "pop-ups" and "factoids" they're constantly offering.

Maybe it's b/c I know most of it already, and maybe it's because I don't want the donks learning it!
 
I was actually thinking of World Poker Tour. It has some factoid type stuff but is still mostly poker play.

Some things I think these shows should add are more displayed statistics/records.. a note on how each player acted, what position they are, and how big their stack is

Some meta statistics would be cool too. They could show pre-flop fold %, fold to raise/rr % in a certain position, pre-fold raise %etc. This might be a bit much though
 
I just wish they'd show better details of what's happening in the hand - like what the blinds and antes are, who's got the button and is in the blinds. And a running list of the action instead of just the pot size.

WPT is pretty good, but fairly contrived, IMO. I mean, you get to see basically the best of the Final Table of a 20-30 table tournament. And then those "theme shows" they occasionally run kill me.

The Professional Poker Tour is a little better, because it takes like 4 episodes to cover 1 tournament and they show a lot of the grind.
 
I am a big fan of HSP, the last episode of season 3 was completely crazy, the hand between Bederman and Esfandari was absolutely nuts, I just wish Antonio could have followed up with a river bet, it looked like Bederman was very uncomfortable with his hand.
 
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