Poker
Just wondering if anyone else plays this great game. A couple things have happened in the past year to renew my interest in the game.
1. The Travel Channel's coverage of the World Poker Tour. This has had the best production values of any poker tournament coverage, and it gave the Travel Channel their best ratings ever (OK, so that's probably not saying much). The key is that they have little spy cameras that show you the cards that the players are holding, so you know if they're bluffing. The events are no-limit, so they can bet all of their money at any time. They're shown every Wed. night and Sat. afternoon on the Travel Channel.
2. The World Series of Poker. This past year, an amateur name Chris Moneymaker won $2.5 million. He had never played in a live tournament before (he had played on the internet). They say it's the biggest payout of any event of its kind, including Wimbeldon, the Maters', etc. He put in $40 and won an internet tournament to gain entry in the WSOP. Not bad, to turn $40 into $2,500,000. ESPN did a nice job of tournament coverage, essentially copying what the Travel Channel had done. ESPN has been re-airing them regularly, so see if you can catch it if you haven't. At the final table, they're making bets of $1,000,000+.
I'd have a heart attack if I bet anything more than about $25.
So tomorrow on Thanksgiving day, Fox Sports and ESPN are having competing all-day poker-a-thons, again copying the Travel Channel's success.
I've been playing in a home game once a month for a couple years now, and I find myself looking forward to it more than just about anything else. There are about 10 of us usually, and we play lots of hi-lo split games (Omaha, 7-card stud), and also some silly games (midnight baseball). But it's fun.
Fantastic game - psychology, math and probability, strategy, everything.
1. The Travel Channel's coverage of the World Poker Tour. This has had the best production values of any poker tournament coverage, and it gave the Travel Channel their best ratings ever (OK, so that's probably not saying much). The key is that they have little spy cameras that show you the cards that the players are holding, so you know if they're bluffing. The events are no-limit, so they can bet all of their money at any time. They're shown every Wed. night and Sat. afternoon on the Travel Channel.
2. The World Series of Poker. This past year, an amateur name Chris Moneymaker won $2.5 million. He had never played in a live tournament before (he had played on the internet). They say it's the biggest payout of any event of its kind, including Wimbeldon, the Maters', etc. He put in $40 and won an internet tournament to gain entry in the WSOP. Not bad, to turn $40 into $2,500,000. ESPN did a nice job of tournament coverage, essentially copying what the Travel Channel had done. ESPN has been re-airing them regularly, so see if you can catch it if you haven't. At the final table, they're making bets of $1,000,000+.
I'd have a heart attack if I bet anything more than about $25.So tomorrow on Thanksgiving day, Fox Sports and ESPN are having competing all-day poker-a-thons, again copying the Travel Channel's success.
I've been playing in a home game once a month for a couple years now, and I find myself looking forward to it more than just about anything else. There are about 10 of us usually, and we play lots of hi-lo split games (Omaha, 7-card stud), and also some silly games (midnight baseball). But it's fun.
Fantastic game - psychology, math and probability, strategy, everything.
Comments
my dad loved poker and I want to honor him with my own game... The Poker shows are great... I went to one game and lost about $100 in 45 minutes, those people have been playing for years and were not messing around... I need to start a much lower stakes game. With a bunch of novices like me.
Couldn't they get a real rock star to play?
Originally posted by chu_bakka
I've been wanting to start a hold'em game for a while...
my dad loved poker and I want to honor him with my own game... The Poker shows are great... I went to one game and lost about $100 in 45 minutes, those people have been playing for years and were not messing around... I need to start a much lower stakes game. With a bunch of novices like me.
Was this a home game or a casino game? If it's a casino game, the problem is that at lower limits you're really swimming upstream because of the percentage the house takes. And yeah at higher limits the competition will be much tougher.
Poker is legal in my town, but the casino games just haven't appealed to me. They seem to be populated mainly by obese, chain-smoking retirees - with apologies to any that may frequent this forum.
Maybe we should get a private table at Yahoo games sometime, if we can get enough players.
Originally posted by BRussell
Maybe we should get a private table at Yahoo games sometime, if we can get enough players.
i'm down, like a clown, charlie brown. internet games don't work as well though, cuz u can't read the others. people don't go typing in all their tells.
i love poker. a couple of years ago, i skinned my coll roomate for over $500. the bastard dropped out of school though, so i didn' get my full pay. in h.s. i lost like crazy, but lower stakes. avg was -10 or so per week. in coll, i did a lot better. no one could touch me in a card game. even if they were any good, i could throw around all the money i had made on all the bad players. we put ceilings and floors up, and we also had "honor rules". like, you can't quit the game if your up without an hour notice. no money on the table, but stringent records were kept. you could look over your day's history, and see where it all went wrong (or right!). good times. last year, my roomate was really into poker. he bought books, videos and shit on how to read people. it worked out reasonably well for him, but we didn't put too much in the pot. i picked up a few tricks too.
i haven't played in a while though. i'm probably rusty. i might not even remember how to play. maybe we should start with a fat game, like $100 ante, no ceiling?
Originally posted by chu_bakka
It looks good but they have what's his name from Creed playing... uhg.
Couldn't they get a real rock star to play?
rock star? two words my friend.........cool io!
they don't get any bigger than that!
Originally posted by superkarate monkeydeathcar
bravo is beginning a celebrity poker series that debuts next tuesday night.
Wow, it's really catching fire. I don't think I get Bravo though. Is that a premium channel?
Originally posted by thuh Freak
i'm down, like a clown, charlie brown. internet games don't work as well though, cuz u can't read the others. people don't go typing in all their tells.
i love poker. a couple of years ago, i skinned my coll roomate for over $500. the bastard dropped out of school though, so i didn' get my full pay. in h.s. i lost like crazy, but lower stakes. avg was -10 or so per week. in coll, i did a lot better. no one could touch me in a card game. even if they were any good, i could throw around all the money i had made on all the bad players. we put ceilings and floors up, and we also had "honor rules". like, you can't quit the game if your up without an hour notice. no money on the table, but stringent records were kept. you could look over your day's history, and see where it all went wrong (or right!). good times. last year, my roomate was really into poker. he bought books, videos and shit on how to read people. it worked out reasonably well for him, but we didn't put too much in the pot. i picked up a few tricks too.
i haven't played in a while though. i'm probably rusty. i might not even remember how to play. maybe we should start with a fat game, like $100 ante, no ceiling?
Uh oh, thuh freak is a ringer. What games did you play? When I played with my dad when I was a kid, we just played 5-card draw, maybe stud. Now no one plays those. Everyone plays Hold'em, maybe Omaha or 7-card stud.
I have a return rate of about $20 per night at my home game. Basically all you have to do is fold every so often at the beginning if you don't have a decent hand, and you'll come out ahead. I play in a game where everyone stays in all the way til the end, every time.
It's fun though.
One day he meet a guy, he played against him, and loose all his bucks. The guy told him, today you have lost all your money, but it will save your life. How do you win against me so easily. It's simple said the guy, i cheated.
Nearly all professionals are able to cheat : stay away from them.
we play 7 stud... my favorite - can't imagine playing on the net though - how can u play poker without seeing your game mates in the flesh?
Now that I moved i don't play . . . *sniff sniff*
as willing as they are to toss thousands around in poker games, i've got house payments.
so instead, when it's just us playing we play for drinks.
two shot limit per hand. it's funny though, because people with a higher tolerance have a much better time bluffing their way through, since a few double shot hands won't take them out of the game.
Originally posted by segovius
A friend of mine is a Poker Pro and she played against Moneymaker. Apparently because he had never played against 'live' people and only on the net he was impossible to 'read'. He just never picked up the human 'clues' and conventions.
He is just totally impassive, like a computer in fact, kind of the perfect player in a MS sort of way. Robotic was how she described it. Actually Pro's are a bit worried because there are a few like this new breed and many people think they are the future. The old-timers don't like it.
That's progress I guess.
Wow, she must have been playing in the World Series.
Yeah, I've wondered that about online players. It wouldn't surprise me if they play better because they don't rely on all these "tells." I just get this feeling that many players fool themselves into believing they can read their opponents from their body language and such, but they'd really do better simply by focusing on their objective betting patterns. People just aren't good at reading body language.
Originally posted by pfflam
I love the odd games like Anaconda, High/low call-em and stuff like that
We play Anaconda too. What other games did you play?