I Ran Into A Shark...

No I didn't. There aren't a whole lot of sharks at the penny tables. Maybe a baby shark here and there, but a clever guppy can whoop a baby shark, so I'm not scared of sharks.

But I noticed there only seem to be 3 kinds of people at the penny tables. I'm in the first group which is; people who want to work their way up from the bottom and not take many if any risks. Second group is people who have built up a BR but decided the majority of the money would be better spent elsewhere(like one guy who was going to use points to get Christmas gifts for his kids but found out too late he couldn't get them in the UK), so they start over. And a third group that has me baffled, they ran into sharks! That's their story and they're sticking to it.

Last guy claims his BR was up to 9k and he sat heads up with a shark and lost all but a few bucks.

Now I wanna know. Are they really running into sharks? Or are they leaving something out?

I just don't understand how someone can work to get their BR up in the thousands of dollars and then lose it all to one player. It has me completely baffled. I'm a two rebuys kind of girl. Okay so if I'm really stubborn and convinced it's not me it's the table, 4 rebuys. But sooner or later I can put the brakes on.

Then again, maybe I'm answering my own questions. Maybe they're getting their BR's up so high, and maybe even quickly, by taking much bigger risks. So there's a double edged sword of the rewards being huge, and the losses are just equal to the rewards?

I dunno, I just don't get it.

I think you answered your own question here, they get their br up very high by taking many risks and being on a heater and getting lucky, eventually they do end up losing it in a long run. I know this from my own experience.

So does that mean they blame sharks because it's easier that way?

I have watched some pros playing at Full Tilt(cuz they're easier to find there, although I've watched Annie Duke at UB, Phil Hellmuth seems to love his Black Jack online more than poker). You'd think if anyone were sharks it would be the pros. That they never lose etc. But I've watched them win and lose. They win and I'm happy for them, and when they lose it makes me feel better about my tiny losses(I know it's stupid but I can't help it).

when i lost my roll only person i had to blame was me for terrible br management, yes i did get some bad beats but it was my own fault and some people love to make up excuses.

Well to tell you the truth nobody is perfect in poker even phil hellmuth, even though he thinks he doesnt. I can think a mistake of top my head right now. AK in wsop, one person raised another called phil re raises, both call. Phil hits his K bets and gets called by 44, there was no 4 on the flop. On the turn he is first to act and makes a huge mistake by checking and letting his opponent see the river. River is 4, phil does fold but he made a mistake by checking the turn, so this is a perfect example how everybody makes mistakes and nobody is perfect in poker.

We all have days when we win and we all have days whe we lose.

What is a shark?

Is it a definition for it?

bustme said:

What is a shark?

Is it a definition for it?

Click to expand...

well in poker generally shark= someone who is a good player
donkey/fish=someone who is bad

if you want, i can go more in detail

The person that lost the 9k sound like he is full of it. It just does not make sence to sit there and lose the lot to one person, surely after losing half of it you would want to stop playing that person.

Its all about the BR. It dictates the player that you are sometimes. If you have an elevated BR and you can throw money around (were talkin' pennies, right?) you can take chances and gamble more. And we all know what gambling more does.

Zorba said:

The person that lost the 9k sound like he is full of it. It just does not make sence to sit there and lose the lot to one person, surely after losing half of it you would want to stop playing that person.

Click to expand...

i disagree, some people are plain stubborn and dont know when to quit.

Usually the people taking no risks and playing the strongest hands are probably mutli-tabling. You want to avoid them when you see them, because you can be almost gaurunteed that if they get allin with you, that you are beat. I know that I almost feel bad sometimes, when I get someone allin and I know that they are beat. Almost...
The people that are playing multiple tables can be much more selective in their starting hands and also they can give up weak hands much easier. While you may be able to bluff them once or twice, dont be fooled into thinking that you can bully them, because they will hurt you when they catch a hand.

Edit: Well after actually reading the post, this doesnt make as much sense, I guess the moral to me is not to scan threads... But I guess I will leave it, because it could be that the person didn't really get caught up with a shark, instead they probably got caught at a table with a bunch of people multi-tabling. Then it seemed like noone wanted to play when they had a good hand, but everytime they took a risk they got burned. That is the advantages and why most people do it.

bob_tiger said:

i disagree, some people are plain stubborn and dont know when to quit.

Click to expand...

Yeah you see the double or nothing guys, going until they finally are broken. They convince themselves that they can win this next one and then they will break even. Probably not a good idea to try that.

N.D. said:

So does that mean they blame sharks because it's easier that way?

Click to expand...

Probably. Although I've seen people playing higher stakes ($25/$50 NL) on a full table, get pissed at each other and go to another table to play heads up and one guy creamed the other.

These people also tend to lie about a lot of things as well

bob_tiger said:

well in poker generally shark= someone who is a good player
donkey/fish=someone who is bad

if you want, i can go more in detail

Click to expand...

[x] wants more detail

haha

switch0723 said:

[x] wants more detail

Click to expand...

i knew there would be someone that posts this . Are you just joking so I dont waste my time typing lol?

Oh sorry I should have made it clear. I saw him in pennies. He had lost all but a very few dollars to one guy.