How does a beginner play these guys??

    • Helipacter
      Helipacter
      Bronze
      Joined: 28.07.2010 Posts: 474
      Hi,

      I'm a newb with this, and I'm going about teaching myself how to play the game. Odds/outs; push/folds. It was all going well up until tonight's little saunter to the tables.

      I played a couple of SNGs (not at the same time) on FTP. Both games were remarkably similar in that, out of the 9 players at the table, 5 would bet, and bet, and bet, and bet.

      I would like to say that they were knocking each other out, whilst the remaining players happily watched and waited for their monster hand. But it didn't - the money went around the big betters and the blinds swallowed the rest of us.

      I got one decent hand all night, a King high straight, which was beaten by a guy who raised continuously, and then caught an Ah on the River for a flush - beating me handsomely. Other than that it was an evening spent in the company of low pocket pairs and off-suits before a trip to the rail.

      Oh -I digress- my point is, how do you go against players who just raise continuously when you're getting nothing in your hands? I tried semi-bluffing with some draws, but nothing worked out and I then became a target.

      Any old pros want to put a donk out of his misery? Or do I just chalk it up as "one of those nights"? :s_confused:

      Cheers!
  • 3 replies
    • SvenBe
      SvenBe
      Headadmin
      Headadmin
      Joined: 19.04.2006 Posts: 13,444
      Hi Helipacter,

      welcome here in our forums!

      I use to compare Poker and Chess.
      In Chess a experienced player wins almost every time vs the newbie. The newbies get no fun and stop playing "the sharks".
      In Poker it is a different story. With cards being random you have to trust your strategy on the long run and the fish will also win their amount of games. You can not say you are a better player and that's why you will win 100% of the time. That is where the fun part comes into play for the fishes!

      For myself I had a massive beat yesterday as well in a 500BB pot where I got runner-runnered, the fish only having 2.3% chance to win - happens!
      That is what we have our Bankroll management for.

      As I am not that kind of a pro in terms of SnG's please allow me to refer you to our strategy articles: http://www.pokerstrategy.com/strategy/sng/#bronze
      Even our videos are fine and if you got questions concerning one particular hand please please please do use the hand evaluation forum - It helped me sooo much and you should not think the 2 minutes for posting a hand are wasted time when you could rather played.
      Of course if you got direct questions I can also recommend our live coachings. 1pm on sunday CET there is the SnG bronze coaching with our coach chenny8888 - he will be able to give live answers to your questions, he will also show you some live plays and you will surely get a better feeling what to do and what not.

      Hope that helped,
      Sven from Gibraltar
    • EmanuelC16
      EmanuelC16
      Bronze
      Joined: 02.01.2010 Posts: 13,909
      Micro SnGs are more about ICM and push-or-fold stage than semi-bluffing and playing drawing hands because you are just not deep stacked enough for this. And chips lost are more important than chips won. It's not like in cash where chips lost = chips won. Read through the strategy articles and if you think SnGs are for you try them out. If you don't like it, you can always choose something else.

      Manu :diamond:
    • Helipacter
      Helipacter
      Bronze
      Joined: 28.07.2010 Posts: 474
      Thanks Manu, I enjoy playing SnGs, but last night was the first time I'd encountered "rotten luck" so I needed to vent :evil:

      Thanks Sven, I thought of Chess too. I play it quite regularly, and I was wondering if I'm going through the poker equivalent of:

      1) e4 e5 2) Bc4 Nc6 3) Qh5 Bc5 4) Qxf7#

      which is how every new blitz player is hazed online by Chess Fishes (if such a concept exists).

      I'll check out that strategy article today. Oh, and sorry to hear about the bad beat!