I just thought I'd start up a thread about poker, since I know at least a few of us around here are old enough to gamble

So, I was curious, who all here plays Hold'em? I love the game myself, but i'm still needing to get better. I get a little loose mid-game once I take chip leader position, and end up getting stuck in quicksand, heh. One loss leads to another leads to another. Its so sad to go from 10k to 0 in just a couple hands >.<

Annyway, yeah, who else here is a poker addict?

I'm actually going to be dealing some Hold'em at a party tonight heh.

I love poker and black jack lots of fun. Almost as good as Duno! (drinking uno)

Black jack is great too.. but I lost $50 at it yesterday >.<

I'm actually going to a Hold'em party tomorrow night, $20 buy-in. Which is why i've been playing PartyPoker tournaments straight for the past few days, lol.

Never played drinking uno though.. sounds interesting, lol. Too bad my girlfriend doesn't drink, cause she loves uno

Argh! 1407th out of 11500. Money prizes started at 1100th

Its rather fun. Any time you get skipped, reversed to, or cant lay down you have to drink. If you get a draw # card you have to take that many drinks. Theres also some special cards I cant remember that are "kill" cards which you have to finish off your drink.

Last time I played I had to kill my drink RIGHT after I had opened it >.<

Is it really sad that I looked at this topic and thought, "What the hell is pooker?"

With that said, I suck at poker. Absolutely terrible.

Obviously

And yeah.. that's sort of sad

play poker every few weeks. However, I enjoy playing many forms of poker instead of just one type of game.

The worst poker game however is 3 - 5- 7.... thats a good game to lose or make lots of money really quickly.

I used to play hold em on fulltiltpoker, but my former coworker played it too, and I stopped playing after he tried to find my house to demand that I quit where I used to work, and I kind of wanted to minimize contact after that.

Yay! I won a tournament of 24 people tonight, and came out of it with $230!

...I should learn to play poker.

Actually one time I did play against these guys, and I guess I had beginner's luck because I made 30 bucks

You shoould.. No-Limit Texas Hold'em is one of the greatest games. It employs and improves math skills (and no, I don't mean counting. There are things like pot odds and estimated value that advanced players use to gauge hands they don't yet have but are hoping to draw for), situational decision making, psychology, and definitely self-control. It also has a huge social aspect when you play it in person, while also requiring the ability to read your opponent.

People like to say its all luck, but no game that is all luck can have pros. Which Texas Hold'em does. By the law of probability, it will balance itself out over the long run, so winning in the long run isn't about luck, but rather with your actual skill. Which is what makes it such a fantastic game.

As for the social aspect, I have never bonded so much with a group of 14 people so quickly in my whole life. When you spend a few hours trying to read people, and trying to understand how to react, even if you hardly talk at all, you get a really weird sense of knowing the person. And with fun, talkative people, the game because even better with all the trash talking

Oh, and of course, there's also the fact that when the Poker Gods deem me and another person or two worthy of a big show down over a huge pot, its one of the biggest rushes I have ever experienced. Even when you lose, you can't help but be blown away by the power that is watching a total of 5 cards be revealed.

So.. if it wasn't clear.. I highly advocate the learning of Poker

It involves skill, but a lot of that comes down to not playing lots and lots of hands. I watched the World Series of Poker maybe three times, and it's annoying to have a table of 8 people and only 2 playing any given hand, 3 if you're lucky.

Sure, it's skill, but I still prefer Magic for my card game of choice. I can't just toss my hand because of a bad draw. Although it does probably end up costing me more than playing poker with my friends would.

My problem with Magic, which i played up until recently.. for about.. 10 years or so. Maybe a little more. Is that once you're playing with top tier decks, the game is completely about luck. If both decks are built to be stream-lined killing machines, then the only thing that matters is the luck of the draw. The skill in magic is in building your deck, not in playing.

You played with decent players then. Past a certain point, perhaps. I know that anyone from the Pro Tour would stomp me, though, unless I was playing a deck purposely built to hose theirs. People of the same level it can come down to luck, playing someone who's not is evident quickly. And poker comes down to luck too. Any game with a random factor will, at some point.

Eh. With the law of probability, over a series of sessions, luck will balance out. So, yeah, in magic that's true as well, however, in Poker, you can bluff and play a psychological game which only exists in group games of magic, where you can scare people away from attacking you while you build up.

In poker, luck may shake you for a few sessions, but skill can overcome that. In poker, you don't need the best hand to win, and that's something I love.

But yeah, I did play with some great Magicers. The people I played with made magic their lives (literally, one of them runs a very successul ebay store for MTG). These were people who had practically every card ever released memorized, and could quote to you the makeup of almost every championship deck. I was playing against decks with values of up to 3-6 grand sometimes. So yeah, luck was a much bigger factor in our games than skill. Though, when I was playing people with less skill, no ammount of luck was going to save them. The game just gets boring when you're playing your equals at a high tier, heh, which is when, in my opinion, the game should be at its best.

Oh, and since it appears that I'm a poker hater or something, I'd like to say that I do like to play it. I'm just not a poker nut, and watching other people play is godawful boring.

Poker can be mildly exciting at times, but I really don't understand the hype. I'm a big fan of chess, myself, though I can't stand playing it in Lusternia. I need the board in front of me and the pieces in my hand - then I can usually put up a good fight.

I want to see 'World Chess Tour' on ESPN.

I used to play hold'em in London on a daily basis. We'd round up a group of anywhere between 6-18 guys for tournament or cash games. Paid for a lot of beer that way...

I suggest that anyone interested in learning how to really -play- go check out doyle brunson's Supersystem (haven't read the new one) and Caro's Book of Tells. Fun reads, and very interesting/useful. The tells book is more to see your own tells and fix them, or use to your advantage.

I'm by no means a great player, but I can hold my own. Only live games though, internet poker kills me.

Oh, and sure, luck has a hand in the game, but everyone has the same luck given enough time. It's skill that separates the players from the fish.

My favorite hand of all time was a small round of 7 card draw, straight up. Quick rule explanation: 7 cards dealt, bet, can choose to trade in up to 4 for new cards. Bet again, showdown. I was initially dealt a straight flush, 3-7 of clubs. I try to keep myself from wetting my pants and trade in 2 cards, already having a made hand. I pick up a 8 of clubs, actually slightly improving my hand, making the straight flush a bit higher. My friend trades in 3. We get our cards, round of betting with constant re-raises up to all-in between us two.

We showdown. He reveals a straight flush, spades, 3-7. That 8 of clubs I picked up makes my straight flush 4-8, thus, winning the hand. We stopped after that, he was too mad to keep playing. To all those unfamiliar with cards, the odds of one straight flush, let alone two, in a single 4 handed game of 7 card draw is astronomically slim. Needless to say, I will never forget this hand, ever.

I like Hearts