Poker Tonight!

[forestfan]

Can’t remember the name, though have just been looking back through some of the old poker threads, it really was big business on here at one stage.

It’s easier to learn than you might think, but difficult/impossible to master, and the element of luck will always infuriate you however proficient you get! And full of great terminology. You can “flop the nuts” for example, that’s a genuine poker phrase...

[bspittles]

It was all the phrasing that really put me off!

[forestfan]

It was all the phrasing that really put me off!

You certainly had a few successes, from looking through the old FISO game threads...

So many of the names on there have long since disappeared from FISO, so a revival of it looks unlikely!

[Karrde]

There is still a little group flying the Fiso poker flag. The guys that made up a lot of the old meetups are still in contact and still representing the name in the APAT Team events each year, captained by Tall Paul.

[forestfan]

Do you still play any online poker?

[Karrde]

There is no private game going, but a few of the guys are still joining big field MTT tournaments on Pokerstars and keeping a social Facebook chat open for added entertainment but that is born of the live poker experiences really. This current lockdown has certainly seen a revival of online poker enthusiasm.

[RomynPG]

There is no private game going, but a few of the guys are still joining big field MTT tournaments on Pokerstars and keeping a social Facebook chat open for added entertainment but that is born of the live poker experiences really. This current lockdown has certainly seen a revival of online poker enthusiasm.

I've been playing a fair bit over the last few months - MTTs mostly - and my bankroll has increased by about $20

[Tall Paul]

We have a Team FISO group chat on Facebook. Me and Spirey have been playing most nights during the lockdown and a Stars homegame group has been set up but no games running yet due to lack of numbers. Happy to give anyone who wants them the details.

[forestfan]

Any active players here these days? Been getting back into it recently. Also looking for TV poker content, at one stage there were two dedicated channels on the Sky guide… but guess the novelty wore off and also most of the content will be online these days.

Still wish Sky would bring back Poker Million, which is what got me hooked in the first place 20 years ago when I stumbled across novice player Helen Chamberlain from Soccer AM taking down a table full of pros (think she made it to the final and finished second!) Though in later years it did end up full of rock-like online qualifiers who folded 90% of hands and as a result the live finals took hours and hours, I seem to recall…

[hancockjr]

I stopped when the assistant software became very prevalent. Had no desire to learn how to use it, but not having it gave up too much edge.

Much the same with FPL in fact - I was good when “your own work and talent” was what decided your success, whereas now it’s much more about how well you can use other people’s tools and analysis.

[forestfan]

I stopped when the assistant software became very prevalent. Had no desire to learn how to use it, but not having it gave up too much edge.

Much the same with FPL in fact - I was good when “your own work and talent” was what decided your success, whereas now it’s much more about how well you can use other people’s tools and analysis.

I’m playing at such low limits (even less than I did 20 years ago, and there’s inflation to factor in as well!) that people probably aren’t bothering with the software, and I’ve never played for money that I’d be bothered about losing. It’s just good to win on occasions and preferably feel you’re better than most of the opposition…

Just played a sit and go where I hit absolutely everything, from starting hands to flops to taking down a flopped set with a runner-runner full house… had such a chip lead that nobody even wanted to have a go at my big blind. All the luck I haven’t had in the last week or so, all at once…

[bloggie]

Watching the WSOP stuff on Youtube more than playing it at the moment.

[forestfan]

Watching the WSOP stuff on Youtube more than playing it at the moment.

Been meaning to check some of that out, as aware it’s going on at the moment.

Also, back in the day I often used to stay up way too late watching “Poker Night Live” on one of the short-lived poker TV channels (ran for a couple of years which covered the peak of my interest). Basically almost-live viewing and analysis of online games. I’ve found someone has uploaded over 100 complete episodes to Youtube, watched one last week and was amazed how much I (re-)learned about the game.

[Dr. Giggles]

Much the same with FPL in fact - I was good when “your own work and talent” was what decided your success, whereas now it’s much more about how well you can use other people’s tools and analysis.

Rarely, if ever, agree with you on anything... but on this one, 100%!

Can't stand all these content creating twits, so won't watch them... Means my finishes will continue to get worse, but at least the crap job will be all my own work.

[forestfan]

Much the same with FPL in fact - I was good when “your own work and talent” was what decided your success, whereas now it’s much more about how well you can use other people’s tools and analysis.

Rarely, if ever, agree with you on anything... but on this one, 100%!

Can't stand all these content creating twits, so won't watch them... Means my finishes will continue to get worse, but at least the crap job will be all my own work.

Yeah, is it really something to take pride in, finishing (say) 50,000th in FPL when you’ve done it thanks to other people’s/machines’ work?

With something like poker I can see the point if it’s earning you material money (though if against the rules of the sites you’re playing on, you could get found out and banned anyway). But if you just play for fun for amounts you don’t really care about losing and just enjoy the challenge of winning/getting lucky on occasions at a low level, no point bothering with detailed analysis tools.

Incidentally it seems there’s little action at very high stakes these days (on Pokerstars anyway). Maybe the high-stakes players gather elsewhere, on or offline, or it is just that AI etc. means it’s not worth their while playing on mainstream online sites. But even in 2005 people talked about bots distorting it.

[RomynPG]

I don't play online much at all these days - got a small balance on Pokerstars but a couple of hours every few months is all I do.

Played in few decent pub leagues here and while I still play those ocaasionally most of my poker is home games - microstakes circus/dealers choice cash mostly but some deepstack tournies.

I host a fair bit at my place and went the whole hog and built myself a (collapsible) table with custom cloth and chips (+case)











If you're interested you can read all about it in excruciating detail on the Poker Chip Forum (PCF) where I have threads on my table build, my custom chip project and the case to put them in.

With reference to the games we play I noted them down when we played a couple of Sundays ago and we played 34 game varieties - with a couple of games of Pineapple the closest we got to Holdem. Listed them all in a recent post

Poker in Brighton anyone

[forestfan]

I’ve never really tried out any alternative variations of poker (other than drunken skill-free draw poker at uni, and the odd hand of limit hold’em or Omaha for play money just to figure out how they work). 34 varieties (almost up to Heinz proportions ) sounds mightily confusing, especially if beer is involved!

[RomynPG]

I’ve never really tried out any alternative variations of poker (other than drunken skill-free draw poker at uni, and the odd hand of limit hold’em or Omaha for play money just to figure out how they work). 34 varieties (almost up to Heinz proportions ) sounds mightily confusing, especially if beer is involved!

It takes time to pick the mixed games up but most have their base as Holdem, Omaha, Stud or Draw and the Hi/Lo versions of those. For home games especially mixed games are much more fun than Holdem - you're playing a lot more hands for a start. The beats are on a different level though - this is a favour meme of mine.





(Ahead of you there on the Heinz thing - check out the last link )

[forestfan]

I’ve never really tried out any alternative variations of poker (other than drunken skill-free draw poker at uni, and the odd hand of limit hold’em or Omaha for play money just to figure out how they work). 34 varieties (almost up to Heinz proportions ) sounds mightily confusing, especially if beer is involved!

It takes time to pick the mixed games up but most have their base as Holdem, Omaha, Stud or Draw and the Hi/Lo versions of those. For home games especially mixed games are much more fun than Holdem - you're playing a lot more hands for a start. The beats are on a different level though - this is a favour meme of mine.





(Ahead of you there on the Heinz thing - check out the last link )

Well, you’ve already got a couple of tins of Pineapples… number 57 would have to be a newly invented Baked Bean variation.

In terms of playing more hands, surely in particular Hi/Lo formats offline without pro dealers would take half the night to work out who wins/splits the pot?

[RomynPG]

Well, you’ve already got a couple of tins of Pineapples… number 57 would have to be a newly invented Baked Bean variation.

In terms of playing more hands, surely in particular Hi/Lo formats offline without pro dealers would take half the night to work out who wins/splits the pot?

Splitting pots isn't that difficult and most of my players can do even the most complicated splits, multiple side pots etc, fairly quickly. I can do the straightforward ones but defer to others for the nastier ones - I can do them but not as quickly. A couple of minutes is the max the more difficult ones take and maybe once every other session we'll call a natural break when even the most competent among us looks at it in horror

[bloggie]

Watching the main event while getting close in this.

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