Anyone here play online poker? I’ve been having a dabble on a site just for fun.. seem to be keeping around the price I put in and seeing a lot of hands… is this the best way to learn?

I’m only doing it as a bit of a harmless hobby and for curiosity

A bloke I used to work with used to only play after 11pm on fridays and saturdays…this was so that a lot of the folk he was playing against had got back in from the pub or had been drinking at home. He’d always have £5-600 in his account and only play tables with a £20 buy-in. This way he could bluff and bully other players who only had £20-30, who would be out if they played loose. He would regularly win more than £1000 over the weekend, by his own admission the times he would lose was when he got too greedy or didn’t know when to walk away. I don’t know which site he played through though.

Thats a fair amount of cash! I’ve just been toying around with £30 and seem to go from about £15 to £50 – I know I’m playing loose and making quite a few stupid mistakes at the moment but not crazy enough to play drunk – but it does sound like he had a good formula… wonder if he still plays?

Poker is much more enjoyable when played in a social situation with real people in front of you.

At least, that’s what I find.

I play/practice online to learn the game, but only play for money when I can peer in to the whites of their eyes 😛

dont get mugged in by this shit, i know people that regularly win hundreds and the occasional thousands, you never get to hear of their TRUE losses

Thats a fair amount of cash!

I know, but he only ever planned on using a £100 of it…having that in his account was just to put other players off. I think he’ll still play as he used to be bad on the horses (for years). He lost interest in them after the poker, something he couldn’t believe himself!

dont get mugged in by this shit, i know people that regularly win hundreds and the occasional thousands, you never get to hear of their TRUE losses

True enough. The bloke I know seemed to know what he was doing. I’m not saying it’s something that anyone can decide they want to do and be good at.

I just stick to playing on my phone. No cash involved. Wanted to learn the game. Got a book from the library which improved my playing greatly.
Was written by someone who plays online, he makes a good living but can also have very long runs of bad luck. Put me off playing for real.

A bloke I used to work with used to only play after 11pm on fridays and saturdays…this was so that a lot of the folk he was playing against had got back in from the pub or had been drinking at home. He’d always have £5-600 in his account and only play tables with a £20 buy-in. This way he could bluff and bully other players who only had £20-30, who would be out if they played loose. He would regularly win more than £1000 over the weekend, by his own admission the times he would lose was when he got too greedy or didn’t know when to walk away. I don’t know which site he played through though.

you know him too? wow! It seems everyone I’ve ever met knows this chap. Always get a bit sketchy on the details though. Like which sites have a £20 min and £600 max buy-in for ring games (answer: none of them).

dont get mugged in by this shit, i know people that regularly win hundreds and the occasional thousands, you never get to hear of their TRUE losses

this is the REAL truth. I have NEVER met a gambler who is honest about how much and how often they lose. You always hear about the wins though. And yet very few of them are driving around in Ferraris…

Poker is a fun game, but play it for real at a casino or with mates. The online game is crushingly dull and unless you invest a lot of time in it and play for higher stakes than you will probably be comfortable with AND you are very patient/good you will never make any money.

I used to play a lot, I just withdrew my funds from Full Tilt after them being in limbo of what seems like years. Pokerstars was my favourite site but you should try ll the big ones. Tournaments were the most fun thing for me but you will never make any money from them in the long term unless you are really good. Playing £20 tables with only £600 bankroll is ridiculous, you need much more than that to play those sort of stakes otherwise you are just playing short term, and poker is a long term game

In Uni there was a guy who got really into his on line poker, some weeks he would be begging for food other weeks he was standing rounds in the pub. He lasted about 8 months and just vanished. I have no idea if he won big or ran out of money or was kicked out.

Victoria Coren is quite a good player isn’t she?

I know someone who dabbles in online poker and on the face of it appeared to be quite successful.

He had a small fortune tucked away to begin with, had a few big wins and a couple of years later that small fortune is no more 🙁

That small fortune could have been a sizeable house deposit…

Don’t get sucked in, go and play online chess instead 🙂

It’s easy to learn, which is good. The basic card game is mind-numbing though, you could replace the cards with coloured rocks drawn from a bag. The depth and complexity of the game comes from the money and the people playing, which I think you only start to appreciate when you’re reasonably good. Even then it’s a total grind online.
I play bridge, though, which is almost the opposite (v deep card game, not usually played for money), which is more my style. A lot of people do well at both games though.

http://www.gamblersanonymous.org.uk/

At the risk of being a killjoy,

With any gambling, there’s only ever one real winner, and that’s the house. Be that the bookies, fruit machines, the lottery, dogs, online poker. There’s big money to be had, but not by the vast majority of players; if that weren’t true, they’d not be in business.

I’ll drop a couple of quid into a quiz machine here and there, not with any expectation of winning but because I enjoy the games. I’ve been known to buy the occasional lottery ticket and take part in office sweepstakes for, eg, the Grand National. But you should only ever bet what you can afford to lose, if you view stakes as dead money then if you win it’s great and if you lose it’s no big deal.

The depth and complexity of the game comes from the money and the people playing,

A few mates and I used to play “high stakes” poker of an evening. Ante was a penny, on a good night you could come away with up to two pounds! Swapping the cash for casino chips made it all much more real though; betting 10p is obviously nothing, but in a game where the ante is “one” and someone has suddenly raised “ten”, wow, that’s crazy talk, he must have a straight flush!

go and play online chess instead

Backgammon, anyone?

Victoria Coren is quite a good player isn’t she?

Liv Boeree, man.

What do we think, is she bluffing?

hehe all interesting and wise points… I do agree that the casino’s always win in these things – but it does seem a bit of fun and I think writing off 30 bucks is ok … my mate on the other hand has probably lost double that already and keeps adding cash.. thats when it gets bad. I see it as a game of patience at the moment.. spent about 2 hours folding last night then won 20£ in two hands and went to bed… not exactly a money maker but not bad for a quiet two hours i wanted inside…

like you say tho games with mates are better so i’ve arranged a match for next week 😀 anyone in morzine is free to come 😀

@cougar it’s not strictly true that the only winner is the house – especially with poker. Margins in online poker are no where near what you think as it’s other players that take the winnings.

Also, in online casinos approx 95-98% of all bets placed go back to users – so they’re not really creaming it in given the cost of running these sites.

Not condoning/condemning it and not saying the house doesn’t win – but it’s not as lucrative as most people think.

You might be right, but they can afford big server farms and TV advertising. They’ve got more money than I have, put it that way.

Also, in online casinos approx 95-98% of all bets placed go back to users – so they’re not really creaming it in given the cost of running these sites.

LOL – They are making money like it’s going out of style. They are bathing in a jacuzzi of cash, so much so that the US government has stepped in out of sheer envy at the waves of cash jostling around their necks.

@Alexxx Folding garbage hands all night is one of the problems with online play that makes it so tedious – I think good players often have a few tables on the go simultaneously to get more action going.

Start with a book and lots of hands at a comfortable level. Harrington on Cash Games is a good place to begin.

As for making serious cash…. It used to be a lot easier but the average player has gotten a lot better and the amount of regs (Regulars who are there purely to make cash) make things a lot harder. To make a reasonable hourly rate you’re either multi tabling like crazy at the micro stakes or having to seriously increase your skill level at higher stakes.

A few crap players, lots of good players playing 24 tables,

Also poker isn’t gambling. It’s a game of skill with a random element (much like every sport, rugby ball anyone?)

It’s harmless fun if you don’t go in to make a ton of cash. I use poker stars and deposited $15 a year ago and I’ve still got most of it, it’s been as low as 1 dollar and as high as 27. I play the micro tables for fun so the blinds are like 2 cents & 4 cents. Either sit & go or the micro tournaments where they can last an hour or so and you can come away with 5 dollars, woo hooo. I can play on the tablet or on my phone, so if the wife is watching america’s next top shallow bint I can be with her in the living but doing my own thing.
If you wanna learn play the zynga one on facebook.

If you wanna learn play the zynga one on facebook.

You’ll learn the rules of the game, but not how to play. Playing for (meaningful) money is a completely different game than play money.

Also poker isn’t gambling. It’s a game of skill with a random element (much like every sport, rugby ball anyone?)

Ridiculous. You’re wagering money on the outcome of an event. It’s gambling. If Federer puts £100 on himself to win Wimbledon how is that not gambling?

Rather than win the argument myself I’ll let the pro’s do it for me.

freakonomics on the skill of poker

Never played myself as I’m generally an unlucky person.

Got a pal who only started a couple of years ago but is now a multi millionaire though 😐

Can’t be bothered to listen to that, I assume it’ll be something to do with money being a “tool” for leverage, etc rather than just a betting stake. That would be an excellent point, but IMHO applies only to the highest level of the game and the very best players. For Joe Poker on an online site, it is just gambling.

I enjoy “real poker” its a good excuse for a a few beers with the boys.

I tried online, I quickly got bored, wasn’t really playing for sufficient stakes to make it interesting and I wasn’t prepared to actually invest real money in it.

There is definitely an element of skill, I mean Daniel Negreanu and Liv Boree aren’t just “lucky” but in the short term or when playing for fun luck is far and away the over riding factor.

As other have said, play online for fun by all means, or if you are serious then be prepared to invest time and money in it, but be realistic about what this entails.

Used to play a fair bit until I got bored and haven’t done for a year or two.

I started with about 30 dollars and signed out of my account with about 120, took a couple of years though. The truth is you can make money from poker but it is in no way a get rich quick thing unless you get lucky. Basically you will lose five out of every hands you play/tournaments you enter and you just need to make sure you win a bit more than you lost in total on that sixth hand when you do win. I think when you realise this you realise it’s just a grind. Much better to grab a few beers and have a mates penny poker evening.