Raise or Fold:  A Year of Risky Business

Writing and playing poker as if they were activities worth doing well.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Think You Know How To Play Poker?

Go read the Red Pro Discussions on the Poker Room Forums and then see how you feel about it.

I just got done reading this thread about heads up SB v. BB play in a tourney setting. It made my head hurt, although I think I got the gist of the main arguments.

This is the competition I'm supposedly going up against? Might as well hang it right on up now. I have neither the patience nor the skillz to keep all these considerations at the forefront of my consciousness while playing in a tournament. At least, I'm mightily skeptical that I do.

The key to my success is inevitably going to be game selection.

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6 Comments:

Blogger Crash said...

I read only Greenstein's last comment in the Red Pro area. He said most of that heavy math approach is useless at the table. Even the people at PAO that do it in the forums admit they can't do much of it at the table. I am sure there are some pro savants that do it, but I don't think you will run into it much.

7/16/09 5:52 PM  
Blogger BLAARGH! said...

Hey Grrrrrrrrl,
I have a couple things that have really helped get my brain wrapped around these types of discussions.

I bought holdem manager and went through all of the help files associated with it, plus some of the threads about how to use it on 2+2.

I grabbed poker stove and now I use it almost every day - was I REALLY correct to shove my 2h3h on an AsTh5h board? - now I can easily find the answer and know for certain what a fish I am! Sometimes I use it just to see what player ranges are... if I'm up against someone who has a vpip of 10%, what does that REALLY consist of? Plug in 10% in pokerstove, and now you can see approx what that looks like. It certainly makes raising or folding easier against certain opponents.

The last one is sngegt - ICM calcs are pretty dang cool! Once you start playing with all this stuff, the range games they're talking about become pretty clear. And quite frankly, I agree with Barry - these calcs are good to know, but in the long run, they're completely situationally dependent. I love his calculation of # of aces in the BB as well. Interesting idea.

If I remember correctly, you have a mac. I'm using Parallels with all of this stuff and having no problems whatsoever. HEM is a little sluggish, but everything else runs fine. I'm pretty sure you're using prospector. Dump that piece of garbage. It could have been cool, but they never update, and when it breaks you're screwed and tech support disappears (like since april for me). HEM is about 1000 times better AND you get the HUD, which is very useful.

I'll quit blathering on now....

blaargh

7/16/09 6:01 PM  
Blogger The Vegas Flea said...

The comment about Yang, Gold and Moneymaker was a joke, btw.

7/17/09 11:45 AM  
Blogger Cardgrrl said...

@Vegas Flea: What comment? If you made another comment on this point it didn't get through...

7/17/09 12:20 PM  
Blogger The Vegas Flea said...

Oh, sorry Cardgrrl....

I orginally said something pertaining to the fact that you should dismiss these heady poker discussions, just ask Yang, Gold or Moneymaker.

It was meant as a joke. You must not have received it.

7/17/09 12:55 PM  
Blogger Cardgrrl said...

@ Vegas Flea: Evidently it got lost in the ether. This happens sometimes for no apparent reason. Then people accuse me of censoring them!

Thanks for re-commenting!

7/17/09 1:00 PM  

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