Allgamer.com

Hello,

I’m 38 yrs. old and have been playing poker for months now. I was not that interested with the game but since I received an open invitation to join a weekly poker group I then became a bit interested. The guys were very willing to teach me then, they were so kind. Well with the patience and hard work of those guys, I was able to understand some of the basics of poker and then later joined real games. However I was a weak tight type then. Online, I was a bit okay but in real games, a disaster. Normally, I’d get pushed out of the pot, typically with a bluff; or 2-everyone would fold and then wouldn’t get any action on the hand.

Just recently, I saw your site and started reading some stuff. I then discovered I have lots of things to work out on but I just decided later to have one at a time.

I tried first to treat my raise-o-phobia. Luckily, in a certain game, I was able to re-raise a bluff to take down the pot and also flipped my cards over for others to see I had nothing. I also ended up being on the third spot.

Next I worked out on was my position play and my being the initiator. I entered a 27 person online tournament and fortunately had made it to heads up.

Well, I also wanted to drastically reduce my limp in’s and checks so I tried once if I could do it. I won a lot of pots without going to a showdown. And the hands I lost weren’t that significant as players then just called me instead of betting or raising.

Now, I’m more on being the aggressor and I believe it’s far better. My bluffs, traps, big pairs and even my losing hands are all much better. All points to my advantage. But I’m now bothered, I might return to my old ways, my old approach. Any tips?

Many thanks,
Lexis
Lexis,

Continue to work on your game and use the tools that you have developed to your advantage. Also, continue to work on new tricks and skills to help you get further in tournaments and to take them down. Work more on blind stealing and also on things such as playing small pot poker, table image, and pot odds. The more you learn, the better player you will become.

Hello,

I am new to Poker and actually a very under-funded one. I’m 24 yrs. old and a graduating student. Just yesterday, I tried a live session in a certain casino in Atlantic City. I had $150 at $2-4. In total, I played for 7 hours. During the first 5 hours, I remember the table had very little turnover. Fortunately, I was able to build a table image that I actually want and then used it to my own advantage.

My opponents were mostly in mid age and actually seemed to be moderately experienced. I believe they were such kind if I were to consider their number or quality of hands played, speed or decisiveness of decisions, discussion about hands afterwards, etc.

On the other hand, 4-5 or 10 people saw the flop, 2-3 would showdown. At such point, I was able to have an additional $100 in chips through solid play and an occasional bluff. But later part, things started to change. My opponents one by one left the table and were replaced by married couples in their 70s, single men in their 60s, a frail man in his 80s, and finally by a half blind and half deaf man. Each hand then took twice as long to complete and the average number of people per flop turned 8 while per showdown, 5-6. Later, I started to lose whooping $60+ pots to rags as most of the players at the table played every hand and called down to the river regardless if they had something or not. I thought of leaving the table but I had no idea if it was the right thing to do then. I was too inexperienced to know. Unfortunately, I lost everything.

Now I want to know if at what point do you determine that the quality of your opponents is already poor and that it’s much better to just leave the table? And is there any good playing approach I can use the next time around considering the situation is still the same and so as the kind of players?

Thanks in advance!

Gerry
Gerry,

I know which casino you were playing at. I actually frequent it myself and probably can tell you several of the players you played against. In a game such as that, you will suffer your share of bad beats. You can play tight and you will turn out a long term winner, but you will have wild swings at times. Also, you can loosen up your standards, but again, if you do not hit, you will have wild swings. In such games, I loosen up a bit but not insanely. I usually play a decent range of cards, but the only difference, I don’t wait until later position.

Game like these require a looser approach. This type of loose game is a tough one to play in due to all the bad beats you will take. If the game is too uncomfortable, you can always find another one.