The 20/40 at talking Stick has always been fantastic when I played. The 8/16 was good but not nearly as good as 20/40. I think the rake was 4 and 2 for 8/16.

There's plenty of great action at Talking Stick's 8-16, that's for sure. lol @ anybody who thinks it's a bad game except maybe 5% of the time. And if it is you can switch over to the 8-16 0E and do well if you have any sort of a clue.

I'll add that I've been told by several players that they can't win at 8-16 bec there are too many players/pot. I keep my mouth shut.

Awesome, that's good to hear. We're hoping to come visit in the next year or so and move out that way eventually.

These are two true statements incorrectly glued together. They can't win. There are too many players per pot. The second has no causal impact on the first.
"You need a better lucky hand."

You're missing opportunities to misinform people.

"Nobody can win. The house takes $300/hour off the table, do you think anyone is winning in the long run?"

All the losers feel better about losing and all the winners feel superior to you because you suck.

Yeah, maybe say something silly but the remarks came from oldsters who like games where ppl respect their raises, seriously, they think they'd do better w/ just one caller. And they sure aren't going to find respect at 8-16.

They keep score by the number of pots they win.

The frustration is remarkable. I'm nearly 67 and I adapt all of the time but these guys haven't learned a thing. I mean it's not really all that hard if you apply yourself.

"90% of life is showing up."

-----

The other 10%? gamboool!

I want to bring up an issue that might make a decent thread maybe in psych (where I think I might be too active, lol, maybe someone has a suggestion where to put it or even here if Doug approves) but there's hardly anybody in that forum. The topic is this:

What do we do w/ players that ask for advice? I have a particular problem: I don't like to mislead. I might refrain from answering w/ something like 'I'm not qualified to give advice' but I found myself in a situation w/ a player that I like. I went out to have a smoke (don't say it, I'm old and I don't care) when one such approached me and asked what he's doing wrong. Another player from the 8-16 was there and told him (sick brag) 'he's the one to ask.' So I asked him who he thought were the better players in the game (he's been trying the 20 and I wanted to know how he rated himself) and he listed himself as one of them which is a huuuuugggggeeeee lol.

I groaned inside. Tell him something or not. Say 'you're just running bad' or not. But he's a good guy so I tell him that he gives too much action for example never being able to lay down top pair no matter what the betting's telling him and I doubt that's worked. Many other things I left out.

Do any of you run into this and what do you do?

Once upon a time I was running hot preflop vs the player to my immediate right. It seemed that every time he opened the pot for a raise, I had a solid 3 betting hand. He finally had enough and said something like this: "here we go again. You gonna 3 bet to isolate the weak player?" I replied, "nah man I'm just getting good hands."

The moral of the story? Get a good hand. Build a big pot. Don't fold unless you're positive that your opponent couldn't be bluffing.

That's exactly what I would tell them.

Also, I figured out the secret to poker sometime last year:

I suppose it depends on if you're playing to win money. If someone's my friend, I tell them the truth, because friendship is more important than money. If they're not, I don't, because I'm trying to win money.

If you're just playing for fun, then anything seems fine.

FYP

Haha. What about maniacal stations?

I will help ppl I'm friends with and laugh at them if they are horrible listeners. People I'm not close to I usually say something like "man I never know what I'm gonna do until it's my turn" or "honestly, I wasn't even paying attention." I try to deflect any and all strategy talk at the table, unless absolutely no one else is paying attention.

One of my favorite things about poker is that even with all the resources available for everyone to get better, most ppl just can't help but be fish anyways. I see players reading books on their devices at the table and then play like absolute dog ****. Even decent players mentally unravel after a tough pot or two. It's beautiful.

If I'm at the table, I'll just say that it's a tough decision and I can see it going either way, but against that villain I'd do what he did. Sorry that's not helpful if you're uncomfortable misleading.

Away from the table, I tend to answer all direct questions truthfully, whether the question comes from a friend or nonfriend.

The game I'm being asked about doesn't factor in. At low stakes, I'm not disclosing special information, so I'm not worried about losing a competitive edge. At higher stakes, the value gained by having a good discussion usually outweighs the value of disclosure. If I had some amazing insight that revolutionized poker, and were asked by someone I didn't think would reciprocate, maybe I'd hold stuff back.

But most people who bother to ask are people interested in reciprocating.

I rarely see it as in my limit games everyone (there is a pool of about 40 regs or so) is so loose passive that my moderately aggressive play brands me as a lunatic luckbox. Almost all of them would sooner vote Democrat or raise without the nuts than come to me for advice.

When it does happen, I answer questions honestly. I'm not going to violate trust if someone asks for advice, but I'm not wanting to be professor seminar either. Limiting it to answering questions mostly winds up with the person asking seeking validation more than wisdom. So it usually works out.


Then as soon as I show up on the river with some goofy suited hand I played on the button after six limpers that flopped a gutshot and backed into a flush... they assume I'm a hypocritical moron and life goes on.


I guess the point is to try to not be branded the good player, but if this sort of thing happens direct the conversations to just answering questions and they probably won't ask the right ones...

ETA: that is away from the table. At the table I just always felt it coming, every hand I fold is AA, and how 'bout them 'eers?

I want to be branded as a good player by good players and a bad player by bad players.

"You guys see the backwards hat, the ugly socks, the funky outfit and you think "this guys a chump! Am I right?""

"Yeah a ****ing geek"

"See? A ****ing geek."

"But what you don't realize is that it ain't easy. It is hard god damned work making something this pretty...look like a chump, or a geek. So I must be doin it for a reason."

"Well you got me convinced whatever that reason is."

"Fact is if I miss this shot, I'll walk away and I'm still a chump. <swishes 3 from top of the key> <dramatic pause> But if YOU miss...then you've been beat not once but twice by a slow, white, geeky, chump."

.....

Sorry couldn't help it as that's the best trash talk sequence ever imo. Now I feel like I owe some content regarding the future:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...27/?highlight=

Fair point. I haven't encountered a good limit player in years, so I tend to forget about that sort of thing...

Maybe they just want you to think they are bad players.

LOL.

It actually hit me right after I FYP that you might have been joking and I took your words too seriously.

But arguably one of the top 5 epiphanies I've ever had in my 5-year poker "career" is that if you sit down at a table, look around, and realize, "There's not one single station at this table and there's not one single maniac at this table," you have to accept that you're just not going to get rich unless you get lucky (cooler over cooler). You're just not going to eek out a 20bb/100 winrate against nits no matter how many times you steal their blinds.

I still only play LHE live but I still play microstakes NLHE and PLO online and I love tables where there are 4 limpers around to me, I mash pot and they all call!

How about when they say, "Can I see the river card so that I know whether or not I made a good fold?"

EDIT: Or how about "This site loves idiots who make bad calls"

I'm serious. Winrates vs maniacs are higher than vs any other opponent type. Just one huge win vs a maniac can make up for a long breakeven stretch. I'm not talking about slightly overaggressive opponents, but true maniacs that have no rhyme or reason to their play.

Respond "i smell jellosy"