If you have a poker question you think is too dumb (or too short) for its own thread, go ahead and post it here. Don't be shy!! We were all n00bs once.

If you do start a thread, that's fine too, we're pretty casual in this forum. But hopefully this thread will catch a bunch of the simpler repetitive questions that come all the time and are easily answered.

There are two resources you should be aware of, the first is the Beginners Forum Frequently Asked Questions.

There is no trolling in this thread.

The other is WCGRider's excellent Need Help? Ask me thread.

That covers a lot of ground and should get you started, but if you're still lost, confused, or have questions, this is the place to be!

what is reverse fold equity?


edit: and 1rd obv

Most likely it was a joke...

I guess it would be an action which makes your opponent less likely to fold, rather than more. Big overpushes on the flop can have this effect for example.

no, its an LHE concept. I've seen it a couple of times mentioned recently, pretty sure its serious and I dont know what it means or how it applies? My guess is that it applies to building large pots but I've never seen it expemplified.

I've played any 10 people's worth of LHE, and I've never seen it used seriously. Generally you either have folding equity or not. That said, I can think of a few examples of where it technically could be used:

-What you mentioned, in taking an action which only serves to build a multi-way pot and make it more likely that future bets will be called, rather than limit the pot odds your opponents are getting.
-Making a particularly odd (and likely -EV) play which is likely to decrease your folding equity in future hands, or basically what CMAR said. I suppose this could actually be useful in a heads up or short-handed game.
-When game conditions make it highly unlikely that your opponent will fold regardless of his holding and/or the board. For example, when your opponent is stacking off or you are in a jackpot hand.
-Making a loose call or bet which bloats the pot and ties you into making future calls because of the pot odds. Without seeing any of the references you saw in context, this seems to be the most likely use of the term.

If you Google "reverse fold equity" you get two hits. So if people are using it as a real term, it's very, very new.

What does T mean when someone's hand history says they bet txxx?

A tournament, I think, without seeing it in context.

Pot is T200

UTG bets T120

is that it? Then it means tournament chips.

I've always wondered if there was a term for this. Let's say I have KQ against one opponent and flop something like KQ7. The turn is a 4, the river pairs the 7, and I lose to AA.

This isn't "counterfeiting," because as I understand it counterfeiting alters your hand. For example, if I had K4 on the above board, the river changes my hand from Kings over Fours to Kings over Sevens because the river seven counterfeited my pair of fours. Whereas in this hand, I flopped Kings over Queens, at the end my hand is still Kings over Queens, but I lose because AA has used the board pair to make Aces-up.

I dunno, it seems like there oughtta be a word for this. Other than "SONOFAGODDAMNBITCHYACHACHACHACH!", I mean.






Also, why does the title of this thread have five asterisks on one side and only four on the other?

Ok i figured it out, kinda, so here is Oinks explanation for those that are interested.

Reverse hidden outs?

Hello folk, I have a few questions:

1) NL25=means a .10/.25 no-limit game, right? If so what does a $3/$6 and a . $25/$50 game look like when written like the NL25 game. My question is really, . when I see NLxx should I just assume they are talking about a micro game?

2) What is someones SN? what does that mean?

3) 3-bet light??? what is this, is there a 3-bet heavy? is this for both NL and .limit

4) Big Bet-what is it and how is it used?

5) Value betting thin- what is it, and is there a Value betting thick??

6) What does the direction of the "<" sign mean?? I have seen it like <6 and/or . >6

7) When starting out does one start in limit or NL?? I prefer NL, but when I asked a few good players, they said start off in micro-LHE games and progress into micro-NLHE. But why wouldn't I just start off in micro NL. I hear that both games are very different from each other. Please tell me the what the industry standard is on this for a new new player, I don't want to circumvent my learning, I'm more then happy to do what ever it takes to become a winning player.


8) when I ask how to become a better player, a lot of people tell me forget the books and just play a ton of hands. Well I have probably over 50k hands now in various micro-limits in both LHE and NLHE, and it's hard to see much improvement. I hear that the lower games are harder, because no one folds.
Question is, is just playing a trillion hand and multi-tabling the key to success??

Ok, that's it for now, thanks in advance for your guys time.

I'd still call it counterfeiting. With that board, the only hand you have to worry about is AA. Depending on the action, you might not feel to confident in your top two, but most of the time, you're going broke. Now if you instead had 87 on an 873 board, turn's a 2 and river's a 2 or 3, you've got a weaker hand, especially if your opponent's showing strength. It's more likely he has 99+ and now has a bigger 2-pair.

1. The number refers to the max buy-in. Generally, online, this is 100x the big blind amount, so yes, NL25 will almost always have .10/.25 blinds. A 3/6 or 25/50 game would be, almost always, NL600 or NL5000.


2. "SN" = "screenname," i.e. marchron, RedAlert, etc.


3. "Raising light" means that someone is very aggressive. They don't need really good cards to raise. Thus, they raise "lightly" — i.e. with very "light" cards. I suppose theoretically one could raise "heavy," but nobody ever uses that as a term.


4. Big bet is a fixed-limit term. In a 1/2 limit game, the small blind is 50 cents, the small bet (preflop/flop) is $1, and the big bet (turn/river) is $2.


5. "Thin" is sort of like "light." If you are betting, say, Ace-high because you think your opponent will call with less, that's very often "thin" value. You're making what would appear to be a very dangerous or stupid bet because you think there is value in it and you want to squeeze out every bit of it.


6. Whichever way the point leads is less than whichever way the angle leads. For example:
12 < 15
9 > 6
the amount of time I spend here > the amount of time I should spend here


7. It depends on what game interests you more. If you can't stand fixed-limit, I don't see any reason why you should ever play it. The game mechanics don't differ that much.


8. Unless you are very very good at reading comprehension, reading all the books in the world won't help if you don't play hands. Sometimes it takes personal experience to understand the lessons taught on 2+2, either in the books or in the forums. Of course, just going out and playing won't help you if you don't make the effort to get better.

1) NL25=means a .10/.25 no-limit game, right? If so what does a $3/$6 and a . $25/$50 game look like when written like the NL25 game.

It's 100bb buyin standard. So, 6*100 = 600NL, 50*100 = 5000NL.

My question is really, . when I see NLxx should I just assume they are talking about a micro game?

Yes

2) What is someones SN? what does that mean?

The name they use when they play

3) 3-bet light??? what is this, is there a 3-bet heavy? is this for both NL and .limit

3-betting light is when a player raises preflop and you re-raise with a hand like 87s, or 55. There's normal 3-betting where you're 3-betting for value with a hand like QQ+, AK.

4) Big Bet-what is it and how is it used?

Big bet is a limit term which means 2big blinds. It refers to the turn and river where the bet size doubles.

5) Value betting thin- what is it, and is there a Value betting thick??

Thin value betting is when you have a medium strength hand which figures to be the best hand. For example, you have middle 2-pair on a 3-straight, 3-flush board. This is probably a thin value bet. There are no thick, there's just regular.

6) What does the direction of the "<" sign mean?? I have seen it like <6 and/or . >6

> means greater than. < means less than. >= is greater than or equal to, <= is less than or equal to.

7) When starting out does one start in limit or NL?? I prefer NL, but when I asked a few good players, they said start off in micro-LHE games and progress into micro-NLHE. But why wouldn't I just start off in micro NL. I hear that both games are very different from each other. Please tell me the what the industry standard is on this for a new new player, I don't want to circumvent my learning, I'm more then happy to do what ever it takes to become a winning player.

It depends on the player. Both have vastly different skill sets. I played NL, because that's what my friends played and what I learned. I've only played maybe 5000 hands of limit, mostly in horse tourneys, or razz or stud.

8) when I ask how to become a better player, a lot of people tell me forget the books and just play a ton of hands. Well I have probably over 50k hands now in various micro-limits in both LHE and NLHE, and it's hard to see much improvement. I hear that the lower games are harder, because no one folds.
Question is, is just playing a trillion hand and multi-tabling the key to success??

You can read a lot of books and learn a lot of stuff, but in the end, your best learning will come by playing.

1) You'll put into practice the theory you've learned.

2) You'll be able to recognize things. i.e. this guy thought for a long time and then called, he probably has a weak hand, I should bet the next street. Etc.

Don't play a ton of tables at first. You need to master a number of tables before adding one. If you struggle with making decisions on 2 tables, just play one. There's no sense in playing too many to the point you can't play quality.

Here's a good thread to read through by a really good player:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...ad.php?t=89941

Online the standard for NL is pretty universal that the max buy-in is 100 big blinds. So 100NL is blinds of $.50/$1. Online it's very common to refer to all limits (from micro to high stakes) in this format.

For live NL games, the max buy-in differs from card room to card room. Often anything from 50BB max buy-in to uncapped. So live NL games are usually referred to by the blinds, usually $1/$2 is the lowest NL live game anywhere.

Limit games are always referred to by the blinds since buy-in in limit games is basically arbitrary.

> "greater than"
< "less than"

(Grade school math ftw!)

Thanks guy, man you broke it down question by question, nice.

Yes, the great than and less than stuff is grade school, but I've seen them improperly used on this site and thought there might be some other type of poker meaning going on, but anyway thanks again guys.

What does IMO mean? In my opinion? What else does it mean? I see this used everywhere in poker forums in the most random of context. How is it used?

IMO = In my opinion

I think the abbreviations and lingo link in the sticky should be up to date. There's a ton of abbrevs people throw around, just ask, cause they're pretty fluid.

Yeah, Internet slang shows a very wide variety of influences and the language is morphing all the time. A lot of these terms are not in any way exclusive to 2+2 or poker.

Speaking of which...

There's a decent dictionary in the FAQ. Another good place to reference slang is www.urbandictionary.com.

> and < are also commonly use here to mean "better than" and "worse than" — often with multiple symbols for emphasis, like this:

raise >>> fold >>>>>>>>>>>>> call

translates to:

Raising is better than folding, which is WAY better than calling.

We're dorks in minbet.

Hello. This is probably a dumb question, so I guess I should post it in this thread:

Does the term "lucker" have a specific meaning?

I often see players accused of being "luckers", and I always assumed it referred to situations where they unjustifiably call large bets with drawing hands and get lucky (or other similar situations in which bad play is rewarded). However, I was called a "lucker" by an opponent the other day, and I was slightly surprised by it. Here's the hand (heads up at the end of a single table sng on Stars):

(BTW, this is my first time posting a HH, so if I'm doing it wrong, please shout at me. I've rendered it in "Hero"s and "Villain"s language, which I think is the standard way of doing things.)

Villain (BB): t8813
Hero (BTN/SB): t4687

Pre Flop: Hero is BTN/SB with 7 9
Hero raises to t600, Villain calls t400

Just to explain this raise: I'd been getting pushed around by Villain on the previous few hands, and I felt I was probably playing a little too tight, so I felt the need to fight back a little.

Flop: (t1250) 7 Q 2 (2 players)
Villain bets t200, Hero raises to t600, Villain calls t400

You may be wondering about this move, but Villain had been betting just about every flop he saw for the entire game, so I thought I'd come over the top with 2nd pair here, and see what developed ...

Turn: (t2450) 7 (2 players)
Villain checks, Hero bets t1200, Villain raises to t3400, Hero raises to t3462 all in, Villain calls t62

River: (t9374) 8 (2 players - 1 is all in)



So ... am I a "lucker"??? If this just means that I was "lucky" to get dealt a 7 with a 9 at the same time my opponent was dealt a 7 with a 6, then I guess that makes me a "lucker", but surely this is just the deal of the cards. Every hand involves "luck" in this way. I don't think I played the hand terribly badly, so it's not as if I was unjustifiably rewarded for a bad decision, in the same way that a total suckout player might be. (However, if you think I did play it badly, please let me know!) In fact, with the lower kicker to the set of 7s, surely it's Villain, not me, that made the worse decision.

Anyway, I'm just curious whether people think the term "lucker" applies in a situation like this. (It's not a big deal really, but I'd be interested to hear your views.)

Cheers!

When someone is describing a players style of play, they would say he went 10/24/3 over x amount of hands. What does this mean? Is it derived from some poker software information?

Start with the forum FAQ, and "what do the number xx/yy/zz mean".