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New to tournament poker

Posted by nixie on March 31st, 2009. Tagged:

My exposure to Poker is a fortnightly game with friends which normally involves more beer than poker chips. I religiously watch WSOP on the telly though, but recently the energy required to put a game together between six busy people has been lacking, so I’ve started looking at online poker as a way to play more often.

I’d heard of PokerStars and so that was the first client I downloaded. Wow, I was simply not ready for the complexity of online poker! The amount of vocabulary required just to understand the incredible hectic scheduling was overwhelming. There seemed to a bewildering array of options to set the client up as well, again requiring terms I just didn’t understand. I went through a number of other poker clients, dismissing the downright tacky and clunky, and finally settling on FullTilt for no other reason than it was the one I had loaded when I finally decided to play.

It was clear that I wanted to play sit&go; cash games looked as though they would cost me money if I didn’t know what I was doing! My first attempt at an s&g failed because the game started before I had confirmed I wanted to play! This turned-out to be good thing because, now being a spectator, I realised I wouldn’t have been ready for the speed the game is played at. Poker, for me, is a plodding game where I have lots of time to take the piss out of my opponents, and make a decision; this was something else entirely. It’s alright making a choice in a hurry but would I know how to control the thing? There’s $1.25 at stake here, I don’t want to blow it on the first hand! Watching a game’s fine but you’re not watching how the players interact with the client; how they actually make the bets. The options were no help: “bet slider mode exponential” – what the hell is a “bet slider”?

I finally just decided to go for it: chose a game with very few registered players and pressed the button without delay. The game filled up and we’re all sitting there - I’ve actually got butterflys in my stomach - I’m looking around at the usernames, chuckling at the silly ones, then suddenly realise that everyone is waiting for me to press the “I’m ready” button…

Getting to grips with the game

Posted by nixie on March 31st, 2009. Tagged:

I’ve never used a poker client before and the first thing that bothered me was those stupid avatars, two of which were the same as me. I mean, how crap is that? I didn’t have time to dwell on it though as it was coming round to my go. I’m surprised that I have options even when it’s not my go but I ignore them because I’m not sure I fully understand them. A few quick folds from the others and it’s my go. The first thing that struck me is that as big blind I have no option to fold when there’s been no raise. Cool! That stops me looking like a total amateur. The “Check” button seems to be under the mouse so it seems simple just to click it. I see what they mean by a “bet slider” but I’m not ready to use it yet. I see my first flop which I total miss and now I see why there’s a way to fold in-advance!

For a while I just use the “idiot buttons”: check, call, and raise; the slider still scared me. I notice I’m playing a lot of hands; it’s partially the excitement of it and partially the fact with 1500 chips that it seems quite a cheap to just have a fling at the flop. However it’s surprising how fast your pot goes down when you try to see the flop and fail because of big following raises. Another weakness I’m noticing is that after missing the flop I’m checking and the rest of players are walking all over me with big bets – I need to stop doing that!

I’m in a turbo game and now I know what that means. I’ve been so caught-up in the action I really haven’t been concentrating on what I’ve been putting-out for blinds. I’ve now only got 3 big blinds left. I’ve got some crap pocket but I’m going to try and bluff-it because I’ve already left it too late to go all-in…how do I go all-in!? The stupid timer’s counting down and I can’t see any way to go all-in! I’ve only got a few seconds left and so I just drag the slider up high and press the button. The bluff works and the panic subsides for a while. This time I’m going to fold but use the time to play with the controls a bit – Hey, the mouse-wheel moves the slider, great!

My game finally fizzles-out with a pathetic all-in which the big-stacks took in their stride. I was definitely caught out by the speed of the blind increases and came-in at the worst position, 4th. On the plus-side I only need to go one-better next time and I’ll be in the money…