Poker Basics, how do you play?

Whenever I play (not very much), I always try and fake the other person out and have them think I have a good hand when I have a horrible hand.

Yea i'm not really into poker yet. I play with my friends about once every other week or so. But it's never with money. Though when i do play i usually always play my hand

I don't play online much, but I do play often with friends for money. I always go for big bucks seeing as there's not much point in winning a few pence here and there. We all pretty much use that strategy.

good luck keeping it that way. LOL. Ive found that poker is one of those games that it's hard to stay "not really into." Most people become semi-obsessed or quit altogether. Of coarse, I have to include myself in the former.

lol well im an exception. I spend to much time on the computer to be obessed with poker but i love it :P

Well, I have tried a few different strategies for myself as well. Mostly the tight aggressive works for me, but that said, one of my most profitable nights was online after a couple of beers, not drunk, but on the road - i was gunning it for my opposition every time i had a sniff of a winning hand, and well, to my surprise i ended up cleanng out 8 out of the 10 players at the table.

I will not be in too much of a hurry to do it again, but it was an awesome feeling, knowing that if you raise, you are going to get at least four or five folders in the back.... and having the cards fall your way on top of it - i think i could have kicked butt almost anywhere that night.

Good Luck, Good Poker and may the flop be with you

I agree with you it is pretty addictive, me and Toby often spend hours on spend brushing up our skills on holdempoker.com (the graphics are great so it keeps you hooked )

Nick, how much money do you play for when you play with your friends? If you dont mind me asking.

To consistantly win, every poker book tells you to play tight/agressive. This is almost always the case (except for some situations in N/L tournament). Expecailly ring games, keep your starting conditions to the premium hands and bet them hard when you make something on the flop.

And this is the fella to listen to, our first tourny winner!!!

I'm a bit of a tricky player. I'm mostly about mind games, which is why I hardly play online.

For example, yesterday I was playing a game with some friends. Pretty small, really, 30$ buy-in, winner takes all. So here I am on big blind and get Q4o. All 5 people left limped in, I checked. Flop comes QQ4. I say "People, I've got Qs4d in hand. I have a full house on the flop, but I want you to keep your chips. I'm going to bet 10 so you'll fold" and bet 10 chips (we start with 35 each). Everyone thought I was bluffing and called except the small blind who folded a T6o.

Turn comes 7, and I say "Since I don't have a 7, I'm going to check". Dealer goes "Right, check a full house?" and bets 15 chips. I reraise him to 20 and under the gun calls it. He looks at his hand, thinks and calls my 20.

River comes 4. I bet their respective all-ins, keeping 5 chips back. They call. Dealer had Ac4c, utg had QhKh, I won a 170-odd chips pot.

A few hands later there flop came 6J3. I was on the button and said "I got J6. I'm going to raise 15. If you people got JJ in hand, call. Else, just fold". I raised 15, everyone folded, I showed 24 in hand, smiled and said "I did have J6, and so did you. They are on the table, after all".

That sort of deal. Other than that, I'm extremely tight, so when I go in it's somewhat intimidating.

I'd watch out there Ice. Playing like that is gonna make you some poker enemies. The next time you get together they'll all likely be gunning for ya (Unless that's your goal, because it's difficult to win when people are either trying to bully you or setting traps like crazy).

Yeah, I'm aware of that. The very next game I lost an early hand of JJ vs QQ on QQJ94 board and went down to 19 chips, everyone was like "Quick, we gotta cut him out while he's short". It was kinda funny, but I tried playing normally until they settled down. Heh.