Online Poker

[Twentytwo]

Anyone play any online poker for real money? If so how serious are you and what sites and everything? I've been really into the past few months and just looking for some ppl who might also be pretty into it, figured this was a big enough community.

[MisterBob]

Never really got too into it, but I've always wanted to give it a shot at some point

[Anyway]

I play on Bodog occasionally when I'm bored. Online poker annoys me more than times than not though because of it's need to give people bad breaks over and over. Much rather just go to local tournaments and place or win every time.

[Twentytwo]

Online poker has nothing to do with the need to "give" bad beats, 10x the amount of hands are played per hour per table online than live, so you see 10x more bad beats and 10x more pocket pair, its the same as any live card room only much much faster.

[Anyway]

Online poker has nothing to do with the need to "give" bad beats, 10x the amount of hands are played per hour per table online than live, so you see 10x more bad beats and 10x more pocket pair, its the same as any live card room only much much faster.

no, lol many times it's so obviously set up its ridiculous. Oh here flop trip aces. Your opponent decided to call your substantial raise with 2 4! Turn gets a 3, and guess what? 5 on the river, surprise! You lose $100.

That's another problem with online poker. People just don't give a flying fuck what they have, they go in with anything just because they don't actually see the money being lost.

[Twentytwo]

Online poker is not setup whatsoever, many people make their living playing online poker, the community is huge and the site live and die by their reputations. At any given moment you can go online and see big name pros playing online against either random online pros or other household name pros. When your playing low stakes even up to 1/2 the money to a lot of ppl isn't as significant as it is to other so they're willing to put thier money all in on draws and outdraw you, but thats the luck thats involved in poker, if you're better than the idiots going all in on draws, over time you'll win the hand more times than they will and in turn win money and not go broke. If you honestly think its setup then you haven't played online enough or just don't know the game, variance happens and there are way to minimize it. Sometime trip aces will lose to runner runner straight, most of the time it wont.

[pohibaba]

I play on Full Tilt and I really like it. Mostly I just play the $1 9 person sit-and-go NLHE tables (usually 2 at a time, I've tried more than that and it got too confusing). Recently though, I've started trying to play HORSE, but I still suck at it.

[Bweigelt]

I play quite a bit, but I wouldn't really say I'm serious about it. I usually play 10/25 cent blinds and 5$ buy-in sit and go's. Made about $130 so far but I'm mainly just play for fun. Oh and I play on Pokerstars, but haven't really tried any of the other sites.

[Twentytwo]

Nice to hear Bweigelt and pohibaba, I mostly play on Full Tilt and Bodog myself, I dont really like the layout of the rooms on Poker Stars. I play a lot of SNGs on both sites and even lots of MTTs, its really fun. Once you get more serious about the game it's really amazing how much theory and strategy there is to it. Its not just being able to read a persons hand or even have the best hand. From knowing peoples playable ranges to counting outs and odds and making good decisions. There are even ways to make losing a hand more profitable, all this and more has gotten me really into it recently and of course the fact that it can be very lucrative.

[Jotaru]

I played ALL THE TIME on Party Poker a while back... got really into it for a year or so, read a ton of books, hit up some casinos, etc.. but didn't really know anyone who played IRL so it was kinda meh.

Would be kinda fun to all hook up at some online site and play sometime though, I've been dying to get back into it. Let me know what you decide :D

Btw, when I used Party Poker, it was pretty awesome - lots of tables. There are even training tables which cost no money (which is kinda a shoddy way to learn, but its there nonetheless). What the other posters said is pretty true, online poker tables are very quick and loose, which is far from the realm of pro poker where you fold most of your hands... but its must tighter than a home game in which it pretty much is a game of luck cuz all four players are going in every hand, lol. Even so, there are 1c/2c games, all the way up to $50 and above I believe, they hold a ton of tournaments, and even have qualifiers for the WPT, which I want to try and get in on in the next few years... they have supersatellites and whatnot, so there's plenty of chances to actually go somewhere if you're any good at it.

TL;DR version - hit me up when you decide where to play, would like to play with some of ya.

[wyrmtung]

So is it business as usual now? I know a lot of sites were scared off by that law a few months ago

[pohibaba]

I don't wanna go to another poker site as all the money I wanna put into it is on Full Tilt, but if any of you guys wanna play on there my ID is Bobiscommon. Like I said, you'll probably see me on there in the $1 NLHE SNG's (well, as soon as my GH3 fix is over).

[Plow]

I play at ultimatebet, it's easy as hell to make minimum wage just playing at one 25/50c table while doing other stuff, and not hard at all to keep up more than 1 table if you want.


It gets a little tougher as you go higher as there's less idiots, but bluffing that makes sense to good players starts to actually work too.


Edit: also all the low limits are crammed full of bots, once you figure out which they are and what styles they're running they're suuuuuuper easy to work over.

[kisada]

there was a big thing about online cheating recently where someone had access to old beta administrative software, and the guy was able to see people's hole cards. he got caught (calling an all-in bluff with ten high was a bit too suspicious), and outed to the poker community. i generally wouldn't worry about playing online though. the worst thing you'll have to worry about is collusion, but that is so plain obvious you could report it and just get your money back.

a lot of people like to denounce online poker for whatever reason (they think it's rigged, cheaters, etc.) but that's pretty illogical. nobody would play online at all if it was rigged. the players would know right away, and the businesses would have no credibility. personally i see a whole lot worse beats/crazy shit in real life in one day than i do in one month of online poker.

so don't buy into the people who put down online. generally they're just money losers and looking for excuses for their bad play. the great majority of people i know who dislike online poker are just as bad in real life; what makes them think they'll fare better online against better players? i know several people who play both irl and online and are equally successful in both places, from rinky dink limits (.50-1.00) to big limits (75/150).

anyway, about the sites: just play whatever site is most comfortable to you.

ultimate bet is the fastest i've seen with dealing cards but i can't stand the way the windows are forced to the front. the player base is generally smaller than the others. mostly deals with hold em and i don't see too much else.

full tilt is the most comfortable for me and has a huge player pool (mostly playing hold em). they hold a lot of tournaments for a wide variety of formats. this is probably the best site for pot limit omaha, and the software's pretty friendly. i play full tilt for cash games mostly, and occasionally some tournaments.

absolute poker is the best site for playing low limit omaha hi/lo, but i don't like them for much else.

pokerstars generally has better tournaments if you're into that. the sunday millions tournament is like an 11 dollar buy-in for a huge first place prize. i don't really like the software though.

the rest i don't have any personal experience with.

[Plow]

UltimateBet has the biggest tournament system from what I understand, it's pretty crazy how often a new one starts.

If you're going to play online though you should know that unless you're reeeeal good at tournaments that's where you'll lose your money if you play em much, it's far far harder to stay ahead of the margin on such a limited time for action.

[Nchabazam]

I used to play tons on party poker. I'd normally play 4 20/2 sit and go no limit tournaments at once which were quite profitable when you played hundreds and hundreds of them and had a good strategy. I haven't played since party poker stopped serving US customers. I routinely go down to foxwoods to play 10/20 limit hold em, and I think I'm going to start playing on pokerstars at some point soon (I think they added an easier way to put money on the site recently).

Online poker is not rigged... when you're playing 200 hands and hour you just see tons and tons of hands... which includes tons and tons of your good hands holding up and winning (as they normally would), as well as ridiculous suck outs and streaks of bad luck that will make you pull your hair out. When I play live there'll be stretches where I'll flop set after set and hit running straights/flushes like they're nothing, going up a grand in less than 40 minutes... but that's not the normal, and I also get streaks where it seems like the world is against you. Same thing in online only multiplied.

[Twentytwo]

Out of the sites right now Poker Stars is the biggest in the world, they have a tournament starting every second of the day, literally. Full Tilt is the second biggest and then the list goes on from there, but they're both pretty insane and you really cant go wrong playing on either. About the hole card scam that was actually absolute poker, they ended up tracing the IP of the cheater back to the home of the CEO of Absolute Poker, pretty crazy but they've completely redone their software so hopefully something like that cant and wont happen again.

As far as the poker legislation goes, it's illegal for american banks to allow transaction with online gaming sites for now, the government says you're not allowed to play "luck" based games for money on the internet tax free. Everyone who knows anything more than pocket aces are good know thats there is far more skill based than luck, but there is some luck. There is a poker player alliance which consists of a lot of big name pros and very intelligent people who have been going to Washington a lot over the past few months to get something done to change the law, and actually within a few months the laws should be changed back to allow full access to the sites, something like 48/50 of the congressmen the PPA have talked to have been in favor of allowing online poker in the US.

The thing the US doesn't want to deal with is that they're breaking a WTO law by that was made in the 70's. Since all the online poker sites are based outside of the US we really have little or no jurisdiction on the matter at all. The WTO has already awarded the island of Antigua 21 million a year for a total of 3 billion in sanction against the US. Anyway to get to the point the US cant stop you, wont stop you and couldnt do anything if they did stop you.

So if anyone wants to talk poker or start playing more shoot me an IM, I leave it on 24/7 and I'm usually playing anyway, my SN should be in my profile.

[Weltall]

I play on Full-Tilt, and a big LOL @ dude that said it is setup.

[kisada]

oh yeah, and to OP on games i play:

i normally play .50/1.00 NL hold em on full tilt, play some 15/30 limit hold em occasionally live, and my main game is a live 20/40 omaha hi/lo and stud hi/lo.

i used to not play very much hold em (i still can't stand the game) but i'm trying to focus on it right now. i haven't really had any losing sessions for a long time, but i'm trying to bankroll up to about 2000-3000 online before i move to 1/2 NL.

[Twentytwo]

Building your bankroll to have 15-20 buy ins for the next level is defiantly a key to success, you have to be able to cover swings/bad beats/losing sessions and just variance over all. Moving down stakes once you're under the 15 buy in rule isnt anything to be ashamed of either, good luck getting to 1/2.