Your Worst Poker Loss

[Pekka]

Kassi, where do you play? Also, what was your initial deposit, I'm curious to know what your bankroll is ...also, what type of games you play? SNGs? ring games? What's the limit?

[Pekka]

also everyone else who plays online, let's hear your throughts on some casinos.. I'm looking for a new one right now, I don't like my primary casino a lot, I'm looking moving my bankroll to another one. More games, the better, more players, the better.. more fish' , the best.

[Kassiopeia]

I play on Eurobet, it's in the PokerRoom network. My initial deposit was 60 USD, half of that won from a freeroll (i.e. by sheer luck) on another online joint.

I started two months ago in the 0.10-0.15 FL ring games with my 60 dollar bankroll, and built it up to about 100 dollars, when I switched to 0.10 pot-limit.

I played pot-limit until I built up to 380 dollars, when I changed to 0.10 no-limit, this was a couple of weeks ago. Been on a down-swing since then, either I'm still getting used to the different style or I'm just having a bad run luckwise.

In NL, I enjoy being able to protect by hands better preflop, but I think I'm letting big raises intimidate me too much. I'm also not taking enough advantage of position and picking up pots when they're offered to me on a platter.

Don't play tourneys of any kind, just ring games.

I've only played about 7000 hands in PL and about 1500 in NL, so I'm a noob.

[Pyrodrew]

$40

Originally posted by David Floyd
Well, talking about stretches, I lose almost every time I play online, and have lost almost every time I've ever played online in the past.

That's why I don't play online anymore. I absolutely hate it - the players are ridiculous and I don't trust the software.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=websites&id=4053330

some cheats set up a room with eight or more computers and pretend to be eight different people, but it's one person who sees the cards in all of the other hands, a huge advantage.
...
"The online sites say they can monitor everyone's play and know if someone is using a bot. That's a bunch of bullcrap," he said. But the biggest threat to the integrity of online poker comes from hackers.
...

http://www.zeejustin.com/journal.php?journal_id=81

For those of you that aren’t aware of the situation, I recently got caught by PartyPoker and PokerStars using multiple accounts in tournaments.
...
For big tournaments, I would often use these accounts to enter a single tournament with four entries. I did this by exploiting a bug which let you open multiple PartyPoker clients on your computer simply by clicking on the icon rapidly.
...
If the goal was collusion, I would have multi-entered smaller tournaments like sit’n’gos.
...
At that time, I unfortunately did not realize that what I was doing was unethical.

Riiiiight.

[Pekka]

Kassi, OK you're still new to the game, seeing the number of hands played. Hmm, one thing you are aware of is that pot limit is different than NL in more ways than the rules.

This means, that betting becomes way more different, and the game is all about betting the correct amount any moment. .10 tables aren't that bad though, I mean you don't lose a lot of money in them unless you're nuts, so keep playing and if it doesn't seem to work out, go back to pot limit, build your bankroll and come back to NL.

And if you didn't know, now realize that it's a whole different ball game than pot limit. Learn to figure out pot odds if you haven't done that so far, which is likely given that you've only started.

[Pekka]

In short, new players play lots of hands in pot limit tables (if they are low enough). They love to see flops, and most of the times they got **** but they love to see the turn and the river.. and even then they just love to see if their Q high wins it for them. So, to win in pot limit, you should play quite conservatively.

In NL, it changes a bit, plus you have a different betting system. Plus you don't need to win lots of hands. Just make it count when you do participate in a hand. And get out and don't be stupid to have the fetish for seeing all the cards. When you're not covered and you know it, get out.

[Kassiopeia]

Yeah, PL and NL is very different. I've been making rough on-the-fly calculations on pot odds so far, but it isn't exactly science. And yeah, .10 tables aren't that bad, especially if your bankroll is deep. To be honest, I've read a lot of material online and some books too, so there was nothing new to me in what you posted.

[Pekka]

Cool. Because these crackers think it's a game of luck and that any two cards can win. In some sense true, in reality, load of bollocks. Read books, learn the game, be a student of it, and keep learning... and earning.

I know how this is going to end. You and me, in the final table of the WSOP in 2008. I win. You cry!

MUAHEHAEHAAHE!

But you still became a millionaire through it so it's not all bad.

[David Floyd]

Exactly. Everyone knows that any two cards CAN win. What they don't understand is that mathematical poker ISN'T EVEN GAMBLING. Just because you can lose any given hand with perfect play doesn't mean that you will lose in the long run - rather, it means the opposite.

I love playing against people who think they are gambling, and get excited when their K10 runs down my QQ on the river. I just shrug, rebuy, and smile about the opportunity to run that type of situation over and over again.

[Pekka]

David, and one thing that can't be overstated is experience. I mean, I still pretty much use the first advice I learned from the first 'book' I read. It was to spot a fish in the table, if you can't, then you're it. Know where you stand against the others skill wise. This is of course great in online, because you can just change the table and/or find the best for you. Live games, it's a bit different.

[Kassiopeia]

For the record, I do not want to make a living with poker. I don't enjoy it that much, I'd much more enjoy a job that fits my education. I don't think I have the mental strength for real poker, but busting idiots in lower limits should be a nice source of extra income. Of course if I get *so* good I can make a good hourly wage with six hours of play a day, maybe, but it'd be very difficult to have your next rent on the table.

Also, you won't see me in WSOP because I dislike playing in tournaments.

[David Floyd]

Yep, it's also important to observe your opponents - using different styles of play against different people is very important. Tighten up against loose players to break them, but against rocks, apply controlled aggression.

[Pekka]

One of the greatest feelings by the way is when you notice your 'opponent' has made a bad read on you and your style basically and is not hiding it to fool you of a bad read (aka faking it). Then not only do you know his plays and most likely what he holds, but you also knows what he thinks you have, and you can mix it up as you wish and make some money. It's lovely. Almost sexual feeling.

[Kassiopeia]

Ah, categorising players is one of my weak spots. On the other hand, 90 % of the people in my limit are loose and either passive or aggressive, so it's not that big a deal, but it'd be useful to spot players like me, who there undoubtedly are. Mainly it's because I play several tables simultaneously and can't really spare the time to observe opponents. I've been cutting down to one or two table at a time so that I can concentrate more on the game and the players. I should probably also spend a bit of time monitoring the game before I sit in, but I don't have the patience for that...

[Pekka]

poker is a game of patience

you can play with what ever algorithm you use, but at the end, it's all about figuring out styles in order for you to know what the other player has. So you make the correct decisions and most of all; INFORMED decisions. But in lower limit tables, it doesn't matter THAT much, and it's sometimes difficult to read players beyond 'newbie' because they make weird bets. So they could have it or not.

for example, I'm starting to read players a bit better than when I was total newbie. It determines how I play. First I play tight, maybe see where I'm at with a feeler.. now, whne someone is very tight, I will be stealing pots from them and know when to get out. When there are wild players, I sit more tight and reap the reward every now and then. Change your gears depending what styles you're playing against, and sometimes it's good to play few hands when you're steaming because it gives the impression of you steaming, tight players stay out of that stuff usually.

You prolly read Doyle's supersystem, so what he says right in the beginning is that when you're weak, its' good if they think you're strong and vice versa, keep then guessing you know, don't let them on to you. THey're all observing you, just you do to them, so mix it up sometimes.