HELP! :) Can you profit in poker without a HUD on sites that allow it?

kirkham69er

kirkham69er

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Hi guys!

I am currently in a dilemma, i am looking at using aeround £200 as a starting bankroll and im unsure as to go with pokerstars or GG Poker... as i already have accounts elsewhere....

What do you guys feel is better for a few rerasons...

1. the bonuses on offer
2. the fact i dont have a HUD and i would rather use the money to get one as my bankroll atm.
3. which site is better for low stakes tournaments and satelites into major tourneys.

Cheers
 
Nafor

Nafor

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Personally I would go with PokerStars (if you really have to choose only one).

1. Bonuses on either site are really not breathtaking. The monetary value of received tickets seems higher on GG.

2. Stars is definitely more HUD friendly. Is that a pro or con is up to you to decide.

3. Since I do not play on GG I can't really comment on their games. As a very low stakes player I am quite happy with Stars game selection.

4. I'm a person who likes to read the fine print. Neither site has user friendly TOS, but in my opinion, GG's TOS are even worse.
 
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SpanRmonka

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Hey Nafor,

I recently deposited $20 on GG. By the time I'd finished playing the hands per day on all in or fold, and the free spin and goes per day I had it at over $100. That wasn't an exceptional winning streak I don't think, its just quite a lot of tickets, and $ bonuses for number of hands on all in of fold, which seemed fairly easy to beat, although not really poker!

In terms of the site itself, its solid, but I find all the graphics etc pretty annoying. Maybe they can be turned off.

I would deposit and play at GG, use all the bonus, and if you don't like it the switch your bankroll to Pokerstars as its def slicker with more range of good tourneys and more players. There's loads of satalites available, I would say more than at GG.

If you do join GG, make sure you use the cardschat link, as I don't think you can play the freerolls otherwise.:)
 
Nafor

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If you do join GG, make sure you use the cardschat link, as I don't think you can play the freerolls otherwise.:)

As far as I know there is no such rule that would require anyone to do this.
On the other hand, using CC's links during sign up is hardly a bad idea.
 
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donpiatnik

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I think gg poker may be more suitable for you ... Fewer opponents, weaker opponents, of course less price. At pokerstars, players are usually better at lower stakes (Then GG) and usually a lot of people play. If I were you, I would try myself here and there too. :) But gg poker is better suited to boost your bankroll i think.
 
jsnake716

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Hi guys!

I am currently in a dilemma, i am looking at using aeround £200 as a starting bankroll and im unsure as to go with Pokerstars or GG Poker... as i already have accounts elsewhere....

What do you guys feel is better for a few rerasons...

1. the bonuses on offer
2. the fact i dont have a HUD and i would rather use the money to get one as my bankroll atm.
3. which site is better for low stakes tournaments and satelites into major tourneys.

Cheers

If you are going to begin logging your games and keeping track of your play a HUD is crucial. I don't care if you use it "in game" if you don't want to look at stats while you play, don't. You absolutely need a database of your hands. If you are trying to improve at poker you must have a way of reviewing your play.
 
GeckoAA

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As far as I know there is no such rule that would require anyone to do this.
On the other hand, using CC's links during sign up is hardly a bad idea.

If you want to play the CC Games on GG you MUST sign up through CC. I did not sing up through CC and CANNOT play the CC games any longer. When I first joined GG I could play the CC games but that changed shortly afterwards.
 
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Axmanace

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Short answer: yes.

Long answer: HUDS were originally developed to track history and exploit weaknesses. Although that is still important, it’s taken a back seat to GTO theory.

HUDS help you realize who is a fish; however, you don’t need a HUD to make those observations.

Knowing/understanding nash charts, ICM, pot odds, implied odds, and other calculations is far more important to being successful.
 
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fundiver199

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First of all if your goal is to play poker for profit and make you bankroll grow, then you need to understand, what bankroll management means. And when you ask about satellites, that makes me think, you probably dont, because satellites dont have any place in the schedule for someone playing with a small bankroll like 200£.

So do yourself a favour and read some articles or watch some videos about bankroll management. There is free material here on CC and several free videos on Youtube from people like Bencb, Felix, Jonathan Little and others. I am not going to make this reply another tutorial about bankroll management, but with 200£ you can basically play the following games on PokerStars:

* 2-5NL cash (30-40 BI or more)
* Single table SnGs up to 3,5$ (50-70 BI or more)
* Multi table SnGs up to 2,5$ (70-100 BI or more)
* Small field MTTs up to 2,2$ (100 BI or more)
* Large field MTTs up to 1,1$ (200 BI or more)

I have never played on GG Poker, so I dont know, if the cash games there are good. But I know, PokerStars have lower rake for 2-5NL cash, and those games are certainly beatable, so I dont see any big need for an alternative. If you want to go the tournament route, then a big drawback of GG Poker is, they dont have SnGs, and most of their MTTs are fairly large.

This is problematic from a bankroll building perspective, because it increase variance and makes it difficult to get volume and practice. So I would highly recommend starting at PokerStars, if you want to focus on tournaments. And maybe its then worth giving GG Poker a try, when you have 500$, so that you can play small field MTTs with up to 4,4$ buyin and large field MTTs with up to 2,2$ buyin.

As for playing without a HUD on PokerStars I have never tried it, but I am pretty sure, its possible to beat all those games, I listed, without using a HUD. I will also say, that HUDs tend to be less usefull in any kind of tournaments, because the player pools are so large, and because stats are affected by varying stack sizes and number of players.

I always have my HUD running, but its actually pretty rare, that I use it to make big adjustments. As Axmanace say, a HUD makes it easier to identify the fish, but especially if you only play 1-2 tables at a time, manual observations can also go a long way. Lets say you open AJo for 3BB in the first hand of a SnG, and the player to your left now jam his 75BB in the middle for an absurd overbet. You fold, and so do everyone else, and next hand he open limps. Do you need a HUD to tell you, that this player is a fish?

Also I will say, that while it obviously makes no sense to spend half of your 200£ of software, if that is all, you have to work with now, in the long run you are going to need to make some investments in order to play poker for profit. And a tracker should probably still be the first piece of software, you invest in. So maybe consider doing this, when you have grown it to 400-500£.
 
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suehtam05

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I played in Pokers for a while and recent started playing in GGpoker. I liked the bonuses and i am doing reasonably well in the tournments, but it has less players online, its good in a way because the fields are smaller so your variance is smaller
 
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