Texas Hold'em

[Francisco]

I'm fairly new to it. I've played with friends a few times, won a fair amount of pots and started to get pretty decent at it. Having a constant "bullshitting grin" fixed to my face helps I think.

Recently, I've been wasting time on Facebook playing against others. It can be fun at times, but others it can be a royal pain in the ass.

The worst are the people who go ALL IN on every hand... EVERY HAND, no matter what, before the flop. It comes down to folding a 9-10 (then seeing a 9-10-10 flop...) or calling with K-A suited, just to find out the fucker who went ALL IN had 2-6, but wound up with a straight.

Is this something to get used to in general, playing outside of friends, or are these people just random douchebags who don't know what they're doing? I understand the concept of bluffing, but every hand...?

I typically play very conservatively though, so maybe I'm just being a bitch.

[Slapper]

Maybe you shouldn't play games with fake money and play ones with real cash stakes.

[Headspace]

Play with real money, with real people and you won't get donks

[Zalius]

oooh, facebook poker. thats right up there with vegas

[Ferien]

It happens all the time with play money. Only way to get rid of most of the morons is to play for real money, and even then there are still a few who think it's a legitimate strategy...difference being now you can take their money.

[Titanss]

It's poker folks..

[geno]

You could try some of the poker platforms's playmoney tables if you don't want to get into real money stuff. You'll still get that all-in treatment most of the time in lower stakes tables but if you work through it and get to higher stakes tables, a lot of them are weeded out. It'll still be play money and people will still play way more hands than they normally would, but it should at least be better than sit down games with the base chips. People can't get to the higher stakes tables all-in'ing every single hand and expect to stay there.

Or you could play real money tables. Like others said, you'll either find smarter players or you'll make some money, win-win.

[Takedown3]

lol

[Elesirdur]

No-limit poker without the risk of losing real money always devolves into a war of pushing all in whenever you feel like it. If you're going to play for fun (ie no cash on the table) limit poker works better as it forces you to be strategic since you can't bet whatever you want.

Best way I've found to play for low cash stakes is to play "tournament style" where the second place person gets their buy-in back, and the winner gets the rest of the pot. Everyone puts in five or ten bucks for each game and everyone gets a set amount of chips, but the chips don't have a real cash equivalent, just an abstract value for the purpose of the game. I've always found this way better than "cash for chips" games, and allows for some real good playing without having the guy who makes the most at the table willing to play like an asshat because he can just buy more chips.

Watching poker on tv gets more interesting when you see people who came up to tournaments by playing against real people, and people who got there because of their winnings in online games. Seeing the different play styles and psychologies at the table can be fun to watch.

[Denchi]

Generally if you play online, for fake money, or with people who don't know wtf they're doing, you play your hand. Bluffing isn't gonna work, and people are gonna be idiots.

Only if you're playing with real money and with people who know what they're doing, you can start bluffing and getting in people's heads.

But yeah......sounds like you should be playing your good hands only, don't waste your time trying to bluff 2,7 offsuit.