I have now been a poker player for about 18 weeks, only online. As I play and talk read and listen I find that there is an awful lot more to the game other than just who's lucky enough to win.
I've been trying to fathom out where the "skill" in the game is. I know that "reading" players is part of it, looking for tells of strong / weak or indifferent holdings. As yet I can not work out how to do this. I have a few notes but they tend to be just how much was bet holding what cards. There isn't really anywhere I have found that can help explain. Or failing that somewhere to help you along a step at a time.
The other part to the skill I think, is in how cards are played. I have read on the forums about "bad beats", heard it on the tables as a hand goes down that the player thought should have won. But my thinking is that on a table of ten players each has a hand, there will be 5 cards in the centre for everyone. Elementry I know, now these hands will have an order from best to last that doesn't mean that the AA will always win but it will have its place somewhere. These placings will change as the cards are dealt. With no community cards the AA wins 23 suited or off will come last. All this changes when the FLOP is dealt 23J rainbow moves the 23 to the head of the table and the AA down. Again things change with the TURN and RIVER are dealt. So another key to playing or skill is knowing when you are in front. This is what is meant when the books go on about driving out the weaker hands when you have strong hands. To do this you need to know your opponents. So the two skills go together. Without both you are just playing a game of luck so you can't cry when you lose......
What would be a good idea would be a site, forum, group or such like that had people that could assist you. Perhaps sit in while you play games and help you in learning to read players. Not doing all the work for you but pointing you in the right directions. A teacher of sorts. To help players get into the game, but I suppose this won't happen as they would rather keep fleacing the "fish" when they come along. But wouldn't a better player stay around longer perhaps give the opportunity to win more or improve your game!!!

Oh well never mind no one reads these so it doesn't really matter what I think does it :)

A New Game??

As theres a new promo I've been trying to find a way that will accumulate points at a fast rate yet not break my bankroll, which thanks to trying to many tables at once in NL games has dwindled quite significantly.
Therefore I have looked elsewhere and came across a short handed limit table .25/.5 6players. This has possibilities I thought. Can't lose much here, should move fairly quickly. The speed I got right the games move fast and so points can be gained very quickly. But oh how wrong I was about loses. I was losing more than I won eek. The trouble lies in the make up of the game. Short handed I am playing a tight game to limit loses so I can gain more points. Its just this game thats losing money for it seems that you can play any hand in these games. This is because of the cost I think, so people play just about anything. Then decide to go on or not after the flop. I just cant get the hang of calling everything yet. Its like a completely new game. Still If I can persevere with it I may be able to keep my head above water while gaining quite a few points. Handy as there is a nice tourny to celebrate the sites birthday. Could be a way for me to gain a seat. It should also add a new string to my bow giving me more confidence at the latter stages of tournys where they start going short handed.....

Tilt

Well its only been four days since the introduction of the new promo and the tables are filling up like theres no tomorrow.
I'm just surprised by the hands people will play. I am quite new to the game and still trying to aquire info on best ways to play. I can't anything to help with the kind of plays that I have experienced in the last three days !! What point is there to trying to play the "right type" of game if you are not going to win any. Is there any place that has any info on playing the same way or how to defeat these plays.....
I was on one table low stakes, .10 / .25 NL, I was only there to gain the comp points for the promo. Still you have to win a few to keep from constantly having to add to the table. I played 170 games and managed only 3 wins. 3 I ask you, probable could have won more by playing every hand out, If I had enough money to. I played in those 170 games 3 sets of pocket J's 2 sets Q's 3 sets K's and AK suited twice off once. Of all these only one set of Q's won the rest lost. Is it the way I play? don't know yet. Perhaps i dont play them hard enough, yet If I play harder other players pack. Hard to get the balance right. Lost nearly all my bankroll in the last three days. Managed to pull some back today, got 2nd in a $300 guaranteed. Then theres the $20,000 tonight perhaps..... you never know.
Oh I played in my first blogger tourny Sat night. Could have made a mint at the bookies with my luck of late. Guess where I finished....................yep right on the button 11th place you just gotta laugh.
Stll noticing how the site seems to favour chip leaders, table leaders as you near the button. Could be people get desperate and go more on hands the wouldn't usually? Yet there's some pretty good hands beat by some very iffy calls. I'll keep a check and see how this develops. Perhaps I could form a strategy around it. Later peeps

A new promotion

It seems the staff at poker.com have found a new way to increase thier revenue. A new promotion that lasts for 45 days has been awarded to all I have spoken with. It takes the guise of a coupon that awards players money once a set amount of points are earned, up to a max. The money is released in $50 lots upto a max of $500.
It seems a good way to increase the table play as players already acrue points to take part in thier 3 large "freerolls". This coupon will no doubt have people staying on the tables longer to gain some "free" money. I have found a lot of players play on the tables each week until they have enough for the freerolls then they leave perhaps this is what its aimed at.
I know I shall try and gain a few extra points :)

A brief outline

I started playing poker for fun last October as an online game treating it much the same a others I have played -pool, jewel quest, runescape , puzzles etc. It was only when I stumbled upon a site, Poker.com, that I realised you can turn this fun into the possibility of cash. There are every 3hours free to enter tournaments that pay real cash to the winners. I duly started to play these as often as I could eventually recieving $5. What can I do with $5. I checked out the real tables and I also saw more tournaments that you buy into. Both of these I saw gave away what Poker.com call computer points. Obviously these are there for the purpose of keeping you playing real money tables, so whats the reward? Upon further examination I found that the site runs 3 other "freerolls" these use the aquired computer points as a way to enter. The prize money on offer really got me intrigued. 1 has a prize fund of $20,000 with the other 2 both $4,000, these are run every week. Well now I just have to try and accumulate enough points to try these out.
With my new found $5 winnings I ventured on the tables intent on not winning money but collecting the points. Realising very soon because of the blinds that you also need to win a few hands to keep from going bust. I stopped playing then and checked out the process for depositing on the site and duly sent $25 to top up what I had left.
Now that I have a little more on the site I went about gaining those points again. I found that you can get enough points fairly easily with alittle care. 1 week after making a deposit I was in a position to try my 1st big tournament for real cash. I entered the $20,000 played every Sunday and after 4hrs of playing I finished 4th out of 1200 or so players. But what was more amazing was that I bankroll had swelled to the turn of $1,000. Never played proper real money games before and here I am 1 week later with $1,000. Needless to say I withdrew a large amount straight away. In the 3 months since then I have won a few more times in these freerolls to the tune of nearly $3,000.

I am now wondering if it is possible to keep this up and ever increase it to such a level that you can live of it as if it was a job. There are such alot of games going on 24/7 that I can see the possibilites.Shall I try and do just that? My 1st aim must be to try and be consistant . As I have no idea how the game works properly, when to stay fold raise bluff I will also have to learn all this as I go along.
So here goes nothing ventured nothing gained