Be Excellent To Each Other

Back on World of Scotland I remember trying to set up a Poker night. There was some interest but as usual nobody was ever bothered to commit. However those around these parts seem a little more proactive so I'm attempting to gauge the interest.

Now some have the Texas Hold'em Game on the Xbox but I'd rather not use this; it's really slow and requires people to actually have an Xbox and buy the game (it remains a possibility though).

I was thinking of using an online poker room. Many allow you to set up play-money private games for friends. It wouldn't cost anything to play. I expect you'll just need to submit card details to prove your age. For all I know there may be some for free only rooms that don't even need that...

Furthermore if we find some referrer thing going we may be able to actual make some money by joining and be able to buy ourselves a very small trophy

So, opinions?

Ill play, Ill play for money aswell if its nothing daft.

Yep. If it's at a time when I'm available I'll roll up.

I suspect there will be a couple of people on here who alrady have accounts at sites they could vouch for, and could use us as referred visits or something to add money to their account.

me.

I'm useless, but why not?

I'll play.

Big money only. I'll clean all youse out*!




















*may be lies**

**does actually like poker though

Don't worry if you've never played before etc.

FTFY

Colour me interested.

Sounds fun. My first ever poker hand was four 10s. It was very much downhill from there. I haven't a clue how to play.

Consider it paying for tuition.

Potentially interested... I'm not very good though. Can barely play.

UNLESS! This is a bluff, and I am actually quite the shark, and am lulling you all into a false sense of security.

BUT! I'm not.

Or AM I?

OR am I?

Etc.

[Vote:Scarysheep3000]. Obvious Mafia ploy.

Show me the flop and I'll think about calling.

I'm game, but most of my weeknights are already booked with Other Stuff. Wednesdays or Fridays are the only evenings I'm available.

Having just had Poker Night on Obscure Night, I'm all Pokered Up. Count me in, if it's a site that's half decent that you use.

Not Mondays or Wednesdays though.

I'd be up for this. It might be more fun if there was an entry fee of a couple of quid, just so the winner would get some actual physical winnings, but as that might discourage the less ardent gamblers of the BeEx population play money is probably the best bet. Any weeknight apart from Monday would be fine for me (Monday is when I'm out playing live poker. Saying this now is only going to make it more humiliating when I go out on the second hand after an ill-advised all-in on pocket jacks, isn't it?).

I'm happy to join in! It sounds fun!!

Which is why I didn't mention that that's what's taking Tuesday nights out of play for me.

But now you have!

This is why I'm going to get taken to the cleaners. D'you see?

I'd be interested if it wasn't too late at night.

I'll play!

Something like a very small £5 buy in might be a good idea. Something like that would give an opportunity for real prizes and no major losses for anyone. It'd make it more interesting, certainly.

Yeah I'd be up for that, assuming it doesn't limit the players too much. If the majority wants to play for free then I think we should play for free.

I'm rubbish, so it'd be akin to setting a fiver on fire.

I'm not sure I'm willing to give any of you filthy crack-addicts money to fuel your dirty addictions.

Also, did I mentioned I'm rubbish?

Also, what happened to Cadmium Lemon? He was a poker master, and used lots of words I didn't understand.

I'm rubbish too. As seen by the fact I wasn't great last night at Poker. I'm not sure I want to play poker in a game with Dave again though. Or Jasmine, she's a swine.

I don't think it's a great idea to play for money as it will prevent some people from joining in. If it's to stop people from playing as though nothing was at stake then we can simple make the game a tournament. Thus all players will have a limited number of chips and if they throw them all away then that's them out! We can allow a few rebuys so people who get unlucky don't have to leave after the first hand

With that kind of structure there are clear 'winners' and thus an incentive for doing well. We will have our own BETEO European Poker Champion!

That's a great idea. However, if it gets in the way of our drunken Gears of War shenanigans, I'll become quite cross...

I'll need to be drunk.

There will be shenanigans.

Good idea, Craig!

How are we doing it, then? Some sort of PartyPoker style website? Surely there's some kind of freeware Texas-hold-em style software for PC that we can all download?

Websites are better, as some of us have Macs, some PCs. At least if it's just Java based or something it can work across platforms.

I haven't had time to have a really good look around but I'm thinking http://www.pokerroom.com/ maybe the best site for what we need.

Don't sign up yet though in case we can arrange some referrer type con.

If everyone is mic'd up I have a TeamSpeak or Mumble server I can donate to the cause. Or we could just Skype, or something. Or we could just rely on text chat =)

I liked the fact that despite the way I said I never bluffed, and indeed, not once in the entire thing did I ever bluff*, people still thought it was worth calling me on it (QJ10 on the table, and I'm raising as much as I can at every possible moment, judging by past behaviour I have the AK to go with it, and yet 4 people go against me with this. The outcome was inevitable. Ace high straight, and lots of money for me).

* - I play it as a game of odds, not as a game of gurning/betting your opponent out of the game. With play money (particulary an unlimited supply of play money), the scope for bluffing is much less. The one time in my entire life I've bluffed, I won. That was 8 years ago. (and based on 10 years of not ever bluffing)

Playing "a game of odds" hardly precludes the odd bluff, though.

F'rinstance, if you've raised pre-flop with AK and the flop comes down three unconnected unsuited small cards, you might bet again because there's a decent chance that your ace-high could be ahead, and if it isn't you might get someone who's hit, say, bottom pair to put their hand down and even if they don't you've probably got six outs to outdraw them. The odds of winning the hand are better by betting on the (semi)bluff than they are if you check to the river.

Betting a flush or open-ended straight draw is a similar principle - you might hit your hand but equally you could get a better hand to fold.

You are Cadmium Lemon and I claim my £5.

I wish. He can actually play this bloody game.

My set of poker chips just arrived. It's one weighty piece of kit. For £17 I'm right pleased.

With 7 people on the table, most of whom don't backdown before the flop the chances of the winning hand being only a high card are very slim. (Not once did we have a high card winner), so basically, I'd be putting down money on there being either an ace or a king coming out in the next two cards. Odds are not good, and not worth chucking away $500 on if all you're protecting is $18, or whatever the usual preflop bid was. Yes, you might miss the winning hand, but 19/20 times you won't.

But this does mean that smart people will just fold the second you raise and you'll never make much of your really good hands.

And then I'd have to change the way I play. As it stands, I didn't.

Looks like we're all round to CG's for this then chaps!

Unless all the stuff about him never ever bluffing was in itself, a great big bluff. Personally, I always bluff, every single time. There's never a hand where I don't bluff ever, so it's always worth re-raising me whenever I place a bet.

*Crosses fingers*

I'll change tactics to include bluffing, but so far it hasn't been needed, and with play money, there's no real risk to calling bluffs. Poker requires real money to work properly, and I restrict my actual gambling to two specific days a year.

Therein lies the folly of bluffing. When there's nothing to lose (either in a play money game, or a massive online freeroll with a small prize), bluffing is pretty much pointless, as the other players have nothing tangible to lose by calling a suspected bluff, or even making a bluff in the first place. In a cash game (or a pub-based poker league game, where losing means you're stuck in a pub on your own with nothing to do until your friends get knocked out of the game), it's a lot more interesting when someone goes all in after a mixed-suit flop of 4-7-J.

This in turn makes things like The BeEx Poker Classic more interesting. On a table full of people who play poker regularly, Johnny Poker might wish to 'represent' a monster hand, scaring everyone else away from the pot, when in actual fact he's got naff all. On a table containing people who don't play as regularly, such a move might well be called, with the relative novice meekly showing a pair of sevens after the river, causing Johnny Poker to mumble something about how these people shouldn't be allowed as he slams his queen high on the felt and storms off in a fit of pique. That's always fun.

Count me in too, I like a good ol poker tournament I do

This doesn't look promising now people have started talking about tactics.

Looks like my plan of looking at my cards, then winging it and learning along the way may not be the best way to not get killed off straight away.

Who's saying to bet $500 into an $18 pot? Other bet sizes are available.

Even in the specific example you're stating - seven people in the pot, all of whom will call with anything - I think I'd argue that a modest bet with ace-king high is the right play. But telling people that the way they play poker is wrong is a) stupid and b) really, really rude so I'll apologise sincerely and shut up now.

$18 as in $18 from each person (hence all that I'd be protecting by continuing with a bluff, as that's all I'd have lost), and $500 from each who could by the end*. ($500 reached, I should mention, by the largest possible raise each time from me.)

Got me the maximum possible from my ace high straight (Q J 10 2 2 on table, the only possible hand that could beat we was someone holding a pair of 2s).

If people didn't follow me in things like that I'd have to change my play style, but did me well enough on wednesday. (Indeed, I'd argue no other style would've worked, considering there was little scope for bluffs to get through under the radar - that 4 people called me on the above hand demonstrates that well enough)