I've never been, but iirc Commerce has the most tables in LA. I drive by the Bike everyday and have been tempted to stop in and play, but haven't done it as I haven't played in years. I've been to Hawaiian Gardens and that place was pretty shitty.
Thanks for the advice Phil Ivey... Everyone thinks they are the next coming of Doyle Brunson... Grind it out if you wanna live to see another day
Love Harrington's books (have the first two), but they're very specifically designed for tournament situations in NLHE. Super System I and II are great introductory books for a variety of games and deal much more in the general philosophy of approaching them for cash game or tournament purposes.
I used to be a profitable player. I actually hate the game now. If you're only playing 1/2 only play premium hands people just dont fold and will call down most hands with marginal hands. I know a group of pros. I dont know how they handle the swings. Also most of them are great players but throw away hundreds of thousands on table games.
Back in the day, anyone who read a 2+2 book and wasn't a complete moron could crush any low stakes game online or mid stakes live. But most winning poker is pretty boring unless you are world class. Live is slow, dealer tips/high rake eat into your winnings and you have to deal with awful people. And online, you're basically stuck mindlessly 8-tabling like a robot.
Depends what kind of pros, but yeah most pros are either degens that have a good intuition for poker ("stumbled upon a winning strategy" in the words of Sklansky) or are solidly analytical types who end up becoming addicted to gambling after the fact or just can't take money seriously. And how could you take money seriously when you've trained yourself not to be mentally affected by losing thousands, or hundreds of thousands in some cases, on a hand?
most are great Tourney players that are very solid analytical players but are complete degens when it comes to gambling booze and drugs. have 2 stories, first one was an ex friends final tabled the main at the wsop Nola and went and lost 30k at the craps table during the dinner break. cashed for 150k an hour or so later. The other was he won 250k during the day playing BJ and Baccarat then lost it all back that night while he was hammered
I used to 24-table high stakes sngs for about 2 years 2009-2011. Advice about playing better is extremely vague. What is your current skill level, what games are you playing and where, what are your goals, etc. Asking for advice about losing less at your home game is quite different from asking how to beat 25/50 NLHE online.
-Generally, aggressive play > passive play -Learn/understand the value, benefit of position -Have a reason for every decision; if someone were to ask you 'why?' after every poker decision, have a logical explanation/reason. i.e. learn to think analytically. -Videos are better than books for the purposes of learning imo, lots of old ones on YouTube that'll get you thinking like a poker player. RIO is a good site for today's games but $$$. -Learn the basic math, pot odds, outs, etc. -Play a lot. Nothing beats experience. Playing a lot hands and getting yourself into tough spots is the quickest path to getting good, basic strategy is just how to not go broke as fast... if you're an active learner, can understand the principles and strategies you're attempting, have an analytical mind with a philosophical bent, you'll get better by playing more hands in more situations. Ignition (old Bovada) and Winning Poker Network are the two "biggest" American facing sites these days if you're not in a legalized state. Bitcoin makes getting money on/off easy. The games are tough though. I'd bet no one itt could beat 50NL on Ignition or WPN over 50k hands. Poker isn't formulaic, there aren't finite solutions, combinations, perfect strategies. Learn to think like a poker player is my best advice. Which sounds extremely vague and ambiguous, but isn't once things click. This is all pretty much irrelevant if you just don't want to suck at your home game or embarrass yourself on a trip to Vegas, but if you stumbled onto poker and fell in love with it, it's a start.
I used to a play a lot of online poker circa 2005-2007 on PokerStars and Full Tilt but I constantly felt like I was getting fucked. Kind of glad it went illegal.
This goes hand in hand with my earlier advice about avoiding playing marginal starting hands, but don't fall in love with premium starters (Ace-Face, high pocket pairs, etc.) and overplay them. Seen small fortunes lost by players too stubborn to read the board and fold those aces when they should.
This. Some of the biggest pots I've won is after identifying the player that only plays premium hands and won't fold. In a 1-2 NL game, I'd play just about any 2 cards preflop in position for about a $10 raise.
I think TV poker screwed up the concept of being patient for a lot of folks. They generally only show the action hands and not the 20 hand in between where nothing really happens. So people think poker is just non-stop action when in reality it can be a pretty methodical grind.
It really is, my group plays no limit Omaha (wtf?) Its ridiculous when 3 or 4 super degens show up to play.
lol if he is looking for basic poker strategy advice I doubt doubling the number of variables is going to help his cause
The pace of online had pretty drastic effects on the live game in general once the 2+2ers started invading the casinos. It made Negreanu have to reevaluate his entire game strategy because of how loose and crazy the games became.
Good is relative. Winning Poker Network runs numerous skins (Americas Cardroom, Black Chip) and Ignition poker are the two "biggest", but the player pool is really small comparatively and the games are tougher, but they're good in the sense they actually process cash out requests and aren't fly by night operations. Check out pokerscout to see how many active players are on a site at any given time. No need for a spoofer. Bitcoin is about the only timely way to get money on and off the sites. You'll also have to jump through little hoops like sending in identity verification to customer support (scan of driver's license, utility bill, etc.)... and use a middleman site to process bitcoin because US processors still get tight if they see online gambling transactions... for example I use coinbase/circle > blockchain > poker site to get money on and the opposite order to get money off. Once it's all set up though it's pretty simple. Avg withdrawal to my bank account takes 3-5 days.
Reminds me of my favorite part of "Eurorounders" Michel: "Right, okay, but seriously, I played for an hour, doing nothing but folding. Then I won a huge pot." Joey Croissant: "Aces? Kings? Ace-King doublesuited? Suited aces? High connectors? Middle doublesuited connectors? Two big pair?" Michel: "Rags." Joey Croissant: "That's probably fine too, you're only like a 48/52 dog."
one of the games I go to plays $1/$3 alternating rounds no limit hold-em, no limit Omaha and I consistently give it all away in an Omaha hand that I couldn't get away from
Don't play that much anymore. Was awful online but I still make profit playing 5-10 at the kennel club down here when I go. When I was 19 I hit the bad beat at Hard Rock Tampa for 48k. Had 67 of diamonds. Flop was 345 all diamonds. Other guy had A2 of diamonds. CaneKnight can vouch
Typically the losing hand gets half the jackpot, the winner gets around 1/4, and the rest of the table splits the rest.
Playing 1/3 right now 8 handed at my local game. Dominican guy shaped like Jabba the Hut is the alpha of the table, bought in for 1k. I am mid stack, bought in 300 and sitting right around there about an hour in. More to come.
Most likely be less pai gow poker tables soon and fewer Chinese fellas walking around the casinos dropping 10 grand like it's nothing. Legal online won't be coming back anytime soon. That shit was addicting like drugs.
UPDATE: I ended up short stacked and called all-in post-flop on a 4 way hand with an Ace high flush draw. Didn't get the spade that I needed and went home poorer and sad that I missed the XFL 30 for 30
So I used to play 10-20 person tournament style with friends like every 2 weeks for a couple years. Never played many cash games and haven't played at all in 6 months or longer. Going to probably play in a $100 1/2 game tonight with some co-workers. Any tips to not lose all my money in the first 30 minutes?
don't be afraid to fold before the flop. i think my percentage to play before the flop is around 15-18%. if it's good enough to call, it's good enough to raise. basically, don't just call all the time. make sure you're raising and putting pressure. don't chase the flush or straight. be patient with your hands.
Played a shit ton of FTP back when it was legal. Won a couple thousand person tournament that pocketed me 5k. Online poker needs to be legalized again, I have an itch to play.