The rings at Noble

Nothing better to do last night so I decided to work on clearing my bonus at Noble. The cards haven't been running well for me there lately but I figured I'd just play tight and see how it goes. Took $25 and sat down at a 6 seat .50/1.00 table. Folded about 20 consecutive hands as I was receiving nothing but junk cards; however, during this time was able to get a good read on the table. One fella had his raise button stuck and would raise with anything. Another would call anything with no hand at all. Figured if I could score a couple of premium hands I'd do OK.

In the BB, finally get a hand A-K suited. First position (raiser) raises, 3 people call, I raise, raiser reraises, everyone calls. Flop is A-K-3 rainbow - I have top 2 pair. Raiser takes off, I raise, everyone calls. Turn is 8, same pattern of bets as on the flop. River is 3 which pairs the board; however, I'm not really worried. Anyway, raiser turns over 3-5 offsuit for trip 3s - lost about half my stake in this pot.

Fold about another 10-12 hands and get another good one - pocket kings. To make a long story short I lost another $10 to an 8-4 offsuit.

I guess I'm wondering whether playing the rings is worth the frustration. People see every flop, raise with nothing, and call you down. The worst part of it is these folks hit their 1 or 2 outer consistantly - almost like they know it's coming. I read other threads about folks clearing their bonus so they must not run into the strange players I do. I think I just stick to forum events for now as I'm getting gunshy even with pocket aces...

I hate the .50/1 tables

have you tried jumping up to the 1/2 at all

people tend to respect raises a little better (not a much but enough)

I had a nasty night on the PLO ring games. The amount of times the board paired on the river after I made a nice big bet on the turn with the nut straight :/

Yeah 'Dook I've been at the 1/2 tables a few times lately with exactly the same results. We have a lot of threads here asking "what hand would you put them on" and I'm never any good at these because I usually run into a 9-3 offsuit 1 outer that catches...

Well I have managed to exit on the bubble 3 sit and gos in a row now ;]

'Dook you're starting to scare me. Is it possible that you're not invinceable? This is why I like the forum events so much, we all try to play good poker...

Dave, were your cards worse than Saturday morning (see your post Miserable morning)? You make posts like this a couple of times a week - have you never caught a card yourself? You know as well as anyone else what these tables are like - if 4 players go to the wire every hand you are going to get bad beats. You're not the only one who has trouble churning bonuses, you cant get an edge at those limits. If people aren't shifting from the pot, either look at it as an opportunity to make big winnings with increased volativity, or find another table.

Let's try to have a week without a negative post? Look on it as therapy.

Rob, I guess I still just have a hard time believing that folks will invest $10 bucks in a pot with nothing. As far as cards being worse than Saturday, no they were about the same which is to be expected. I'm more patient and wait for the hands to play (as we all should) and this is when I get hammered by the 8-3 offsuit etc. Think I may just let the rest of the Noble bonus fall by the wayside and keep playing the SNGs there and at Jetset. I just keep reading posts about how folks cleared their bonus in a week and I just can't see how based on what I've seen at the rings...

You mean the "I won $2 in freeroll and run it up to $800" posts. Of course they did! Me, I made a little bit on Betfred, lots on Noble (yesterday tourney money, not ring games), lost $50 in 20 mins on Royal Vegas, deposited $50 in Empire by time cleared bonus, cashed out $51!, and am currently working way through Caribbean Poker bonus (though they only count raked hands over $1, so I'll have to deposit again if I want to try and clear cos need to play 1/2 or above).

If I type "I deposited $25 into Noble and now have $600" That would be true, but in no way would be a reflection of my overall situation. I consider myself better than average (2nd quartile!), as are you but any moron can have their day in 0.5/1.

Today I am that moron, cept I am not hitting.

Need to improve, I can play better than this