HI, this is my first ever post, so bear with me, lol what would you do if in cash games, you are constantly dealt weak hands and are just losing blinds, and also if you are given decent hands but are never producing anything on the flop, turn and river, bluffing always seems to be a bad move as always being called with better hands, this is happening even if i change rooms also?
HI, this is my first ever post, so bear with me, lol what would you do if in cash games, you are constantly dealt weak hands and are just losing blinds, and also if you are given decent hands but are never producing anything on the flop, turn and river, bluffing always seems to be a bad move as always being called with better hands, this is happening even if i change rooms also? Posted by bebill666
Hi bebill.
I'll take the easiest part of that question first - "it even happens when I change rooms".
Understanding that would solve most of your problems.
You can change rooms every day, go to 10,000 different ones, or play Live Poker. It matters not, it's nothing to do with Sky Poker, or 'Stars, or Grosvenor Casinos - it's how poker works. The variance possible when 52 different cards are shuffled & dealt to a bunch of players is massive.
Some nights, the cards don't come, we miss every flop, & that's that, you can do NOTHING about it. Other nights, we get monsta after monsta, & get paid off every time. Again, it's how the game is designed to work.
You just have to accept it for better or for worse, end of story.
Key pointers.....
Be patient.
Recognize that some nights, it just ain't gonna happen. Nothing you do will change that.
The best Tourney players in the world win, if they are lucky, less than a handful of Tournaments in every 100 they play. A decent Tourney player will cash in about 20 to 25% of his Tourneys, assuming they are well-structured. (Invert that stat - "a decent Tourney player will FAIL to cash in 75% to 80% of the Tourneys they play).
Cash players have winning nights & losing nights. ALL of them. The kidz idolize Tom Dwan, aka durrrr, but he has big losing nights & big winning nights.
Nobody is exempt from variance. "Variance" is a posh word for luck.
Luck plays a large part in poker, maybe as much as 80%.
A competent player will have only a very small edge over the field, but it'd be enough to make sure he is lifetime-neutral as to wins & losses. A good player wuill exploit that edge & make a small ROI.
Don't treat poker as free money - it's not. It's a hobby, a recreation, & something we should do for pleaure, not profit. If you can enjoy the game & break even, you are winner in my book, as you have a free hobby.
I have been playing on sky poker for 6-7 months and i find it so much better than the massive US sites i have played on. Much more friendly and i love the interaction with the tv show. I play quite a lot of cash 10/20 and 15/30 but have never been on the box once. I try to play tv tables and tape sky poker cash programmes but im never there. Even a losing donk play would be nice!! played on table 5 today and got my £30 upto £157 and hoped i might get at least one hand shown. By the way the comments at the beginning werent grovelling they were genuine!!!
The Trevor Harris Omaha Hi-Lo video is on THIS page.
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Probably been asked a thousand times but not seen by me. OK . It is regularly said that play strategy to a large extent depends on the buy-in levels (I dont play cash ) so playing £1 tourneys is very different to high buy-in play. So how do you adjust if you go thro' the satellite route to major tournaments. I enter small stake sats. and get through reasonably often as this is the level I normally play and am quite successful at. But as I hit the higher stages the success rate goes down. I am a tight/aggressive type normally but with occassional swings of insanity just to liven things up. Do I stay tight and stick to what I know or try to match the other players at that level. It could be I'm too conscious of being with higher stakes players and undervalue my own ability? Advice please | Why not televise the odd low stakes tourney to highlight the differences ?
Probably been asked a thousand times but not seen by me. OK . It is regularly said that play strategy to a large extent depends on the buy-in levels (I dont play cash ) so playing £1 tourneys is very different to high buy-in play. So how do you adjust if you go thro' the satellite route to major tournaments. I enter small stake sats. and get through reasonably often as this is the level I normally play and am quite successful at. But as I hit the higher stages the success rate goes down. I am a tight/aggressive type normally but with occassional swings of insanity just to liven things up. Do I stay tight and stick to what I know or try to match the other players at that level. It could be I'm too conscious of being with higher stakes players and undervalue my own ability? Advice please | Why not televise the odd low stakes tourney to highlight the differences ? Posted by tiercel
Yo Tier.
Good question.
As a general rule, the higher you go up the money ladder, the better the players you will face. That's a given. Players who say "if only I could afford to play at higher stakes I'd be a winner" are kidding themselves - if they are good enough, they be able to afford to. We - you & me & most others - find our own level, & enjoy ourselves without winning or losing much.
But here's the thing - if you suddenly find yourself playing at a higher level, in the circumstances of your question, you should NOT change your game. We cannot be what we are not, so don't try to be.
And even at high stakes, a low stakes Tourney player still has a very reasonable chance of cashing big, winning even, due to the luck quotient.
I've seen countless big Tourneys won by relatively inexperienced, low stakes, players When you are "hitting", anyone can win. ANYONE. And of course the know-alls say "what a lucky fish" & all that nonsense, hey-ho.
The WSOP Main Event, supposedly the greatest Poker Tourney on earth, has been won by some very mediocre or average players, how many "great" players have won it in the last decade? 1? 2 at best? And every year, some players who have never read 2+2, don't what about "Level 4" nonsense, what floating is, or ever read a Poker Hand Analysis Bord, merrily cash for big money. It's what makes poker so universally popular - anyone can bink.
So, don't change your game. Get the basics right, stay disciplined, & you can cash big at any level. But don't change your game, whatever you do.
Televise a low stakes Tourney? We'd LOVE to, but there is only so much airtime available, & everyone wants to see different things. Right now, many hundreds like to play the bigger buy-in Televised Tourneys, so it's hard to cater for everyone. But who knows, maybe the Channel will have more time to cover those sort of things soon......
Hi Tikay, Mr SPT has advised me to ask you this on another thread so here goes... 1) Can you divulge how many Priority Club members there are who are now eligible to buy in direct now to the legs of the Sky Poker Tour? and, 2) With only 125 seats (ATM), how many have already brought in direct to Luton? Regards, Alan Posted by MAXALLY
I'll take that in 2 parts, Q1 first.
I know the answer to that, but Sky Poker might well consider it to be commercially sensitive, & I'd prob get a stiff memo - on cardboard - if I bandied the number around.
Let's keep it a bit vague. Several dozens, a few score, that sort of area.
Hi Tikay, Mr SPT has advised me to ask you this on another thread so here goes... 1) Can you divulge how many Priority Club members there are who are now eligible to buy in direct now to the legs of the Sky Poker Tour? and, 2) With only 125 seats (ATM), how many have already brought in direct to Luton? Regards, Alan Posted by MAXALLY
I have no idea, is the honest answer.
But let's cut to the chase of the real thrust of your question.
A lot could buy-in direct. Considerably less will buy-in direct.
The Suits have talked long & hard about this. The bigger players are very important, & deserve the perks they get. We hear "what about the smalll players?" all the time, & quite right too, & I'll champion them until the day I die, but lets not forget the big players have their rights, too, & so they should.
We have made a shot at estimating how many will want to take up their option, & as a result, modified the usual "seats available" to take account of that number. You should, from that, be able to work out the estimate we arrived at.......
They have, or will be, informed, that they ONLY have until Midnight on Jan 31st to exercise their option. So, if the estimate comes in wrong, & they want more want seats, we can modify our plans accordingly, to ensure a reasonable balance between available seats for low stakes regulars & high-rollers.
For now, we have decided to peg Luton SPT capacity at 150. Only 125 seats are currently available. We always hold back 15 seats for Celebs, Special Guests, Prize Winners, derserving freebies, etc. Hence, with 150 capacity, we usually cap qualifiers at 135.
In almost every case, we end up releasing a good few of those "reserved" 15 seats. At Newcastle, on the day, we squeezed an extra Table out of Aspers, & 11 Alternates got in, so the 135 "available" ended up as 171.
Luton may pan out differently. It's a very popular venue, & one that I, Sky Poker, & my other place, all have lots of regulars there. The actual capacity at Luton could - in theory, size of room, # of tables, etc - be as high as 200. But that would cause problms with dealer availbility, & make the Tourney run beyond it's design length. But I do expect considerable seat pressure, & for once, my "allocation" will cause me some problems, as everyone wants a seat, so to speak.
So, the plan is to re-assess after Jan 31st. If the Priority Club take-up exceeds our estimate, then Sky Poker may well up the capacity. It depends upon a lot of things, but it's part of the plan to consider it.
Keeping the balance between high-rollers & regulars "just so" is not easy, but I'm 100% happy that it's been fairly addressed.
It's nice to have these problems of insufficient capacity, though, it shows just how popular the Tour is. Old Trafford sells out for every game, and why?, because it's a successful business.
As a matter of interest, the UK is appallingly served by B & M Card-Rooms. In Vegas, we could find 10 Venues that could each seat thousands. In the UK, only one Venue can comfortably accommodate more than 150. So the Tour is designed around that number, but we vary it as we see fit, & are able, whilst still trying to meet the design criteria.
I hope that has fully answered your question. May I ask why you enquired, as it's quite a curious question?
I fully understand the need for balance and I think that is one of the main reasons that these events are such a success. I went to Luton last year just for the experience of a live event and was gutted to be the bubble boy in the morning sat for the live event but really did enjoy the week end and met loads of Sky regulars down there. It also gave me the drive to attempt to qualify for future legs. This year though, I have decided to have tighter BRM and not to just keep continuing to try and qualify through the sats for all the legs. This can become expensive and most sats have tough fields. I shall attempt a few of the Vegas sats though instead. Hopefully I will bink another FT Open and have the BR come September to buy in direct to the Final @ DTD. (fingers, toes and eyes crossed for that!)
Alan, I really hope you bink a VLV or Grand Final seat. Good luck.
You ask some very searching, some might say "awkward" questions, hence the long replies. I'm in a tough spot really. Some things are commercially sensitive, & I'm not encouraged to be so open, but I prefer to be as open as I'm allowed, or dare. So I have to word stuff carefully.
Most know I'm straight, of course, but I still get accused of bias from time to time. I awarded a spot prize recently, & someone said "it's not what you know, it's who you know". Marv. If they did but know.
PS - I still have your recent long e-Mail on my "to-do" List, I've not forgotten.
In Response to Re; satellites : Yo Tier. Good question. As a general rule, the higher you go up the money ladder, the better the players you will face. That's a given. Players who say "if only I could afford to play at higher stakes I'd be a winner" are kidding themselves - if they are good enough, they be able to afford to. We - you & me & most others - find our own level, & enjoy ourselves without winning or losing much. But here's the thing - if you suddenly find yourself playing at a higher level, in the circumstances of your question, you should NOT change your game. We cannot be what we are not, so don't try to be. And even at high stakes, a low stakes Tourney player still has a very reasonable chance of cashing big, winning even, due to the luck quotient. I've seen countless big Tourneys won by relatively inexperienced, low stakes, players When you are "hitting", anyone can win. ANYONE. And of course the know-alls say "what a lucky fish" & all that nonsense, hey-ho. The WSOP Main Event, supposedly the greatest Poker Tourney on earth, has been won by some very mediocre or average players, how many "great" players have won it in the last decade? 1? 2 at best? And every year, some players who have never read 2+2, don't what about "Level 4" nonsense, what floating is, or ever read a Poker Hand Analysis Bord, merrily cash for big money. It's what makes poker so universally popular - anyone can bink. So, don't change your game. Get the basics right, stay disciplined, & you can cash big at any level. But don't change your game, whatever you do. Televise a low stakes Tourney? We'd LOVE to, but there is only so much airtime available, & everyone wants to see different things. Right now, many hundreds like to play the bigger buy-in Televised Tourneys, so it's hard to cater for everyone. But who knows, maybe the Channel will have more time to cover those sort of things soon...... Posted by Tikay10
Very well put you dont need to change your game at higher levels as the players that are there are mainly qualifiers in the first place. Yes there are the regulars but if you constantly qualify for these tournaments then you will be able to tell the good players appart from the lower limit qualifiers. Sticking with it is my advice as even if you only limp in to the money your return for your investment is pretty good in the long term and ofcourse if you do manage to win one of the bigger tournaments then you wont look back. I think all low limit players should be trying a low limit qualifier at least once a week after all we all want to win the lottery.
In Response to Re: Re; satellites: Many thanks for reply ( and Bigred later ) . It is as I half-suspected and has much to do with my feelings of being the underdog as I get further in. I shall persist.
In Response to Re; satellites : Yo Tier. Good question. As a general rule, the higher you go up the money ladder, the better the players you will face. That's a given. Players who say "if only I could afford to play at higher stakes I'd be a winner" are kidding themselves - if they are good enough, they be able to afford to. We - you & me & most others - find our own level, & enjoy ourselves without winning or losing much. But here's the thing - if you suddenly find yourself playing at a higher level, in the circumstances of your question, you should NOT change your game. We cannot be what we are not, so don't try to be. And even at high stakes, a low stakes Tourney player still has a very reasonable chance of cashing big, winning even, due to the luck quotient. I've seen countless big Tourneys won by relatively inexperienced, low stakes, players When you are "hitting", anyone can win. ANYONE. And of course the know-alls say "what a lucky fish" & all that nonsense, hey-ho. The WSOP Main Event, supposedly the greatest Poker Tourney on earth, has been won by some very mediocre or average players, how many "great" players have won it in the last decade? 1? 2 at best? And every year, some players who have never read 2+2, don't what about "Level 4" nonsense, what floating is, or ever read a Poker Hand Analysis Bord, merrily cash for big money. It's what makes poker so universally popular - anyone can bink. So, don't change your game. Get the basics right, stay disciplined, & you can cash big at any level. But don't change your game, whatever you do. Televise a low stakes Tourney? We'd LOVE to, but there is only so much airtime available, & everyone wants to see different things. Right now, many hundreds like to play the bigger buy-in Televised Tourneys, so it's hard to cater for everyone. But who knows, maybe the Channel will have more time to cover those sort of things soon...... Posted by Tikay10
hi again tikay can you now tell me why there is no scottish leg on the SPT cheers m8 Posted by RAB642
Hi RAB,
We were unable to find a Venue in Scotland which met our criteria, a criteria which is very strict about ensuring our players are properly looked after, treated with respect, & in a CardRoom that is suitable.
We went to Glasgow ALEA last year, & I'm sorry to say, it was not good enough. The previous year we went to Gala Maybury, in Edinburgh, but the cardroom there is divided into 2 rooms, which is far from ideal.
Hopefully, we will return to Scotland next Season, but only if we find a suitable venue.
Comments
what would you do if in cash games, you are constantly dealt weak hands
and are just losing blinds, and also if you are given decent hands but are never producing anything on the
flop, turn and river, bluffing always seems to be a bad move as always being called with better hands, this is happening even if i change rooms also?
I'll take the easiest part of that question first - "it even happens when I change rooms".
Understanding that would solve most of your problems.
You can change rooms every day, go to 10,000 different ones, or play Live Poker. It matters not, it's nothing to do with Sky Poker, or 'Stars, or Grosvenor Casinos - it's how poker works. The variance possible when 52 different cards are shuffled & dealt to a bunch of players is massive.
Some nights, the cards don't come, we miss every flop, & that's that, you can do NOTHING about it. Other nights, we get monsta after monsta, & get paid off every time. Again, it's how the game is designed to work.
You just have to accept it for better or for worse, end of story.
Key pointers.....
Be patient.
Recognize that some nights, it just ain't gonna happen. Nothing you do will change that.
The best Tourney players in the world win, if they are lucky, less than a handful of Tournaments in every 100 they play. A decent Tourney player will cash in about 20 to 25% of his Tourneys, assuming they are well-structured. (Invert that stat - "a decent Tourney player will FAIL to cash in 75% to 80% of the Tourneys they play).
Cash players have winning nights & losing nights. ALL of them. The kidz idolize Tom Dwan, aka durrrr, but he has big losing nights & big winning nights.
Nobody is exempt from variance. "Variance" is a posh word for luck.
Luck plays a large part in poker, maybe as much as 80%.
A competent player will have only a very small edge over the field, but it'd be enough to make sure he is lifetime-neutral as to wins & losses. A good player wuill exploit that edge & make a small ROI.
Don't treat poker as free money - it's not. It's a hobby, a recreation, & something we should do for pleaure, not profit. If you can enjoy the game & break even, you are winner in my book, as you have a free hobby.
Welcome to the Community, & enjoy your poker.
I have been playing on sky poker for 6-7 months and i find it so much better than the massive US sites i have played on. Much more friendly and i love the interaction with the tv show. I play quite a lot of cash 10/20 and 15/30 but have never been on the box once. I try to play tv tables and tape sky poker cash programmes but im never there. Even a losing donk play would be nice!! played on table 5 today and got my £30 upto £157 and hoped i might get at least one hand shown. By the way the comments at the beginning werent grovelling they were genuine!!!
Cheers
Steve MOVER
PS I run a removal company before you ask.
First person to spot the mistake in the video wins a prize of your choosing*.
*You must choose your own prize within 5 minutes of posting, withdraw the funds to pay for the prize from your own bank, go and buy your chosen prize yourself with your own money.
Hi Tikay,
Mr SPT has advised me to ask you this on another thread so here goes...
1) Can you divulge how many Priority Club members there are who are now eligible to buy in direct now to the legs of the Sky Poker Tour? and,
2) With only 125 seats (ATM), how many have already brought in direct to Luton?
Regards,
Alan
Why not televise the odd low stakes tourney to highlight the differences ?
Delighted.
Expect abuse.
Good question.
As a general rule, the higher you go up the money ladder, the better the players you will face. That's a given. Players who say "if only I could afford to play at higher stakes I'd be a winner" are kidding themselves - if they are good enough, they be able to afford to. We - you & me & most others - find our own level, & enjoy ourselves without winning or losing much.
But here's the thing - if you suddenly find yourself playing at a higher level, in the circumstances of your question, you should NOT change your game. We cannot be what we are not, so don't try to be.
And even at high stakes, a low stakes Tourney player still has a very reasonable chance of cashing big, winning even, due to the luck quotient.
I've seen countless big Tourneys won by relatively inexperienced, low stakes, players When you are "hitting", anyone can win. ANYONE. And of course the know-alls say "what a lucky fish" & all that nonsense, hey-ho.
The WSOP Main Event, supposedly the greatest Poker Tourney on earth, has been won by some very mediocre or average players, how many "great" players have won it in the last decade? 1? 2 at best? And every year, some players who have never read 2+2, don't what about "Level 4" nonsense, what floating is, or ever read a Poker Hand Analysis Bord, merrily cash for big money. It's what makes poker so universally popular - anyone can bink.
So, don't change your game. Get the basics right, stay disciplined, & you can cash big at any level. But don't change your game, whatever you do.
Televise a low stakes Tourney? We'd LOVE to, but there is only so much airtime available, & everyone wants to see different things. Right now, many hundreds like to play the bigger buy-in Televised Tourneys, so it's hard to cater for everyone. But who knows, maybe the Channel will have more time to cover those sort of things soon......
I know the answer to that, but Sky Poker might well consider it to be commercially sensitive, & I'd prob get a stiff memo - on cardboard - if I bandied the number around.
Let's keep it a bit vague. Several dozens, a few score, that sort of area.
But let's cut to the chase of the real thrust of your question.
A lot could buy-in direct. Considerably less will buy-in direct.
The Suits have talked long & hard about this. The bigger players are very important, & deserve the perks they get. We hear "what about the smalll players?" all the time, & quite right too, & I'll champion them until the day I die, but lets not forget the big players have their rights, too, & so they should.
We have made a shot at estimating how many will want to take up their option, & as a result, modified the usual "seats available" to take account of that number. You should, from that, be able to work out the estimate we arrived at.......
They have, or will be, informed, that they ONLY have until Midnight on Jan 31st to exercise their option. So, if the estimate comes in wrong, & they want more want seats, we can modify our plans accordingly, to ensure a reasonable balance between available seats for low stakes regulars & high-rollers.
For now, we have decided to peg Luton SPT capacity at 150. Only 125 seats are currently available. We always hold back 15 seats for Celebs, Special Guests, Prize Winners, derserving freebies, etc. Hence, with 150 capacity, we usually cap qualifiers at 135.
In almost every case, we end up releasing a good few of those "reserved" 15 seats. At Newcastle, on the day, we squeezed an extra Table out of Aspers, & 11 Alternates got in, so the 135 "available" ended up as 171.
Luton may pan out differently. It's a very popular venue, & one that I, Sky Poker, & my other place, all have lots of regulars there. The actual capacity at Luton could - in theory, size of room, # of tables, etc - be as high as 200. But that would cause problms with dealer availbility, & make the Tourney run beyond it's design length. But I do expect considerable seat pressure, & for once, my "allocation" will cause me some problems, as everyone wants a seat, so to speak.
So, the plan is to re-assess after Jan 31st. If the Priority Club take-up exceeds our estimate, then Sky Poker may well up the capacity. It depends upon a lot of things, but it's part of the plan to consider it.
Keeping the balance between high-rollers & regulars "just so" is not easy, but I'm 100% happy that it's been fairly addressed.
It's nice to have these problems of insufficient capacity, though, it shows just how popular the Tour is. Old Trafford sells out for every game, and why?, because it's a successful business.
As a matter of interest, the UK is appallingly served by B & M Card-Rooms. In Vegas, we could find 10 Venues that could each seat thousands. In the UK, only one Venue can comfortably accommodate more than 150. So the Tour is designed around that number, but we vary it as we see fit, & are able, whilst still trying to meet the design criteria.
I hope that has fully answered your question. May I ask why you enquired, as it's quite a curious question?
Thank you for your long and in depth replies.
I fully understand the need for balance and I think that is one of the main reasons that these events are such a success. I went to Luton last year just for the experience of a live event and was gutted to be the bubble boy in the morning sat for the live event but really did enjoy the week end and met loads of Sky regulars down there. It also gave me the drive to attempt to qualify for future legs.
This year though, I have decided to have tighter BRM and not to just keep continuing to try and qualify through the sats for all the legs. This can become expensive and most sats have tough fields. I shall attempt a few of the Vegas sats though instead.
Hopefully I will bink another FT Open and have the BR come September to buy in direct to the Final @ DTD. (fingers, toes and eyes crossed for that!)
Regards again,
Alan
Alan, I really hope you bink a VLV or Grand Final seat. Good luck.
You ask some very searching, some might say "awkward" questions, hence the long replies. I'm in a tough spot really. Some things are commercially sensitive, & I'm not encouraged to be so open, but I prefer to be as open as I'm allowed, or dare. So I have to word stuff carefully.
Most know I'm straight, of course, but I still get accused of bias from time to time. I awarded a spot prize recently, & someone said "it's not what you know, it's who you know". Marv. If they did but know.
PS - I still have your recent long e-Mail on my "to-do" List, I've not forgotten.
Many thanks for reply ( and Bigred later ) . It is as I half-suspected and has much to do with my feelings of being the underdog as I get further in. I shall persist.
We were unable to find a Venue in Scotland which met our criteria, a criteria which is very strict about ensuring our players are properly looked after, treated with respect, & in a CardRoom that is suitable.
We went to Glasgow ALEA last year, & I'm sorry to say, it was not good enough. The previous year we went to Gala Maybury, in Edinburgh, but the cardroom there is divided into 2 rooms, which is far from ideal.
Hopefully, we will return to Scotland next Season, but only if we find a suitable venue.
Your best poker moment?: Seeing the Sky Team do so well in Vegas in both '08 & '09
Couldn't this do with an update to read '08, '09 and '10?
Might as well get in early and put '11 as well I think. ;-)