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[Carlos del Vaca]

Yeah yeah, thanks to ESPN and the World Series of Poker, every dumb-assed former fratboy thinks he's Mr. Texas Hold 'Em.  So sue me.

Anybody else play?  I've been playing in a weekly free game at a local bar, and dabbling online in free games.  I am about to make the leap from play chip games to real money--I've given myself a budget of $50 for the year, and if I lose it all I can't put in more money until January 1.

Saturday I played in the big-ass regional tournament that stemmed from the weekly bar game; rather than typing it all over again, I'll just send you here to read about it if you choose.

[Tangle]

Yeah, I've dabbled in online holdem poker since, I don't know, October - so not too much experience here. Never played any "brick&mortar" games, only online. And yeah I also got bit by the bug after watching some holdem on TV... well, at least I was patient enough to do some studying before jumping in

I started out with a bankroll of about 200$, playing the lowest limit games I could find ($0.10/0.25 and so on), getting my feet wet. Kept making a little money, mostly thanks to the bonuses at the sites I played at.

Then I took part in a freeroll tournament where the total prize money was $30,000, with the top 60 finishers in the money. The tournament was open to every player at the site that had played at least 250 raked hands the previous month, there were about 3700 players in all. I actually finished 3rd of the whole lot, pocketing a tidy 2,100$!  I withdrew most of that and left about 600$ in my bankroll because I really don't want to move up to higher limits too fast, I wanna "earn" the higher limits - so, I'm currently playing limits of $0.50/$1 or $1/$2.

It's been quite a fun hobby so far, only thing is that with a day job and all it's sometimes hard to find the time to play.

[Carlos del Vaca]

Then I took part in a freeroll tournament where the total prize money was $30,000, with the top 60 finishers in the money. The tournament was open to every player at the site that had played at least 250 raked hands the previous month, there were about 3700 players in all. I actually finished 3rd of the whole lot, pocketing a tidy 2,100$! 

Daaaaaaaaaaaaamn.  My best finish in a big tournament thus far is 28th out of 2500.  That was in a freeroll for "bonus money," which is only converted to cash when you play for real money, so I scored $2.50 in fake money for all that effort.

I am dying to get back to Vegas.  My last trip there (Dec. 2003) I played there for the first time, at the beginner game at the Excalibur.  $1-$3, and they give you a little lesson on the protocols; no sharks are gonna bother with such small stakes, so it was quite comfortable.  My second hand, I got pocket aces, and took down about a $30 pot.  "I LIKE poker," I said to myself.

[Tangle]

Yeah, I'm gonna take part in that $30,000 freeroll again this week, but I have no illusions of doing as well as last time... I have to believe there was quite a bit of luck involved in finishing so high.

Seeing as I've only played for some months, in no way do I consider myself qualified to give advice to anyone - but I will, anyway.  And my two-fold advice is this:

If you're really interested in playing online:

1) Read a book. Or two. Then read them again.
2) The sooner you move to playing real money tables, the better. The time you spend at play money tables is pretty much useless, because play money = meaningless = people play like chickens with their heads cut off. You're better off spending that time studying or playing at micro-limit tables - even the $50 you mentioned will go a long way if you stick to the lowest limit tables, and don't enter into play with crap hands.

[Hobo Frenzy]

I've tried to get on PokerStar (online poker thing) but they don't like my debit card and my bank doesn't seem to like online poker sites. So I haven't figured out a way to play except friends transferring money through the Poker site itself. Speaking of friends, a buddy of mine for some reason is amazing at this online poker stuff. He has won nearly $70,000 (last time i asked). I tell you what he told me, "Just find some good books about poker and read them. Follow them and poker will come pretty easy." So I guess it would help to find some books on the subject.

[Tangle]

I can heartily recommend this book to start with. It's not "poker for dummies" though, it presumes you have some level of understanding about holdem poker.

Can be a bit difficult to follow from time to time, but totally worth the effort (IMHO).

Oh, and Royal Vegas Poker at least used to offer $10 free money to play with for anyone that signed up. Dunno if that is the case anymore though.

[Gimpson]

Fuck Poker... Contract Bridge is where it's at. 

[AugustWest]

Fuck Poker... Contract Bridge is where it's at. 

I agree.

[Golfhaus]

Man, gimme backgammon any day of the week.

[CortJstr]

Man, gimme backgammon any day of the week.

You every played The Royal Game of Ur? I used to play that growing up. But much like Sorry sometimes you'd spend an entire game never getting the right roll to "come out" and just watch the other guy punish you.

[jough]

I'm a chess player myself.  I have a really crappy USCF rating and everything.

[robot_god]

Yeah yeah, thanks to ESPN and the World Series of Poker, every dumb-assed former fratboy thinks he's Mr. Texas Hold 'Em.  So sue me.

Does it count for anything to say that I played alot of poker before it blew up?

When all the fanboys started playing, my buddies and I quit for about a year, but lately we've been playing again, about a month.  No tournaments, though.  You just buy any amount of chips you want and play as long as you want.  Dealer calls any game they want, perhaps wild cards, whatever.  Also, we tend not to bet in turn.  It makes the fanboys want to scream, and dealing without concern for burning cards makes them positive they are being cheated, but it's the only way we've played since we were like 14 years old.

[acoxcae]

If you can stack a deck, you can stack it just as well with cards to burn as without.  I wonder why more people don't see this.