The endless onslaught of “winning is everything” weasels is more than I’m willing to tolerate. One can only assume that the act of intimidating other players into submission rewards them with a sense of fulfillment that somehow soothes the pain and suffering they must endure as their fragile egos deteriorate more & more, day after day, helpless and hopeless amidst the cruel injustice of emotional starvation. Otherwise that crap they have the audacity to call “strategy” would have to get boring sooner than later. Face it, flipping a coin offers some rather limited potential as a means of entertainment. Winning free poker chips without appreciation for the intricacies of the game is the intellectual equivalent of playing checkers and calling it chess. Who raised all these people? I’m done.
This is very well said,…Maybe too well said. I love the part about employing strategy instead of flipping a coin. If a person is not going to employ strategy to the game they should play children’s games where strategy is non existent.
Right On Ranchcracker…You expressed what many of us have (all too silently) felt about this juvenile play. It certainly reduces the pleasure for the rest of us that treat “play” chips as if they were purchased with “real” money. I would like to see some method of reporting frequent use of this tatic so they can be prevented. Better yet, seat all of them as one table and let the idiots beat each otgher’s brains out ! i suppose it may be too subjective to determine which “all-in” is a legitiment bit and which is not.
THANKS from SUPERUNO
How would you guys go about reforming someone that’s primarily experimenting with bingo? Do you think it’s an education thing? Know that it is a valid tactic, how would you go about breaking someone of the habit?
I don’t know if you could reform this type of player. Many people do not realize poker is a game of skill (the US government for example - can gamble on fantasy football but not online poker?) or compare poker to playing Blackjack possibly (I’m grasping for this one). More than likely they are recreational players (around the kitchen table) anyway.
Only way I have found to deal with “Bingo” runners is with position (in relation to the dealer button), premium hands, and tightening up on my starting hands a bit. Even this does not work 100%. As JoeDirk has said in a previous post (I paraphrase): “…a 2 outer on the turn will hit about 10% of the time…”
I don’t think it’s a playstyle that will ever go away, since it can be effective, but I’m not sure just giving up explaining the finer points of not bingo’ing is ideal.
I’m trying to think of ways we can help cut down on the generally disliked styles of play without preventing anyone from having a good time. As you said, there are going to be casual players pitted against more experienced ones. We do see less bingo in higher stakes, or fixed-limit games too.
Mostly, I see the opportunity to help new players learn more, and learn how to enjoy the game. Many of us know the real fun starts /after/ the flop, but that’s something that takes time to learn. (And remember, every game…) If I had to guess, I’m willing to bet a lot of bingo players don’t really know they’re bingo players.
I have to agree. More than once I’ve been seated at a table where one player went all-in, pre-flop, repeatedly who was not only unaware of the stigma attached to the strategy, but saw himself as the only player courageous enough to employ the technique. (Which, in a sense, is true.) The far more common scenario: “Oh no! Not this brain donor again!” I would say to myself upon recognizing the name of a notorious bingo bomber with whom I’d crossed paths before. Some of them seem to relish the attention and bask in the limelight as insult after insult rains down upon them.
Here’s the big drawback to the bingo strategy: It’s a loser. It might work for a while but those who live by bingo die by bingo.
Sadly, there are plenty of skilled players who come right out of the starting box going all-in on everything, hoping to catch 1 big pot or enough small pots and stolen blinds to give them a conspicuously bigger stack. The pre-flop bingo stops and it’s, once again, a poker game. Time for phase II: Bully Bingo! Usually after the turn an ambush is waiting for the player(s) with a legitimate shot at taking the hand. Do you think you got it? You’d better hope so because you’re going to have to go all-in to find out-against a player who can afford to lose the total amount of your bankroll, several times. You lose and you’re done. Here’s the big drawback to this strategy: There isn’t one! This works. There’s a little more to it than straight up bingo. More or less it comes down to the same things that make a bluff either highly effective or obvious B.S. Except for the fact that it’s do or die for you and a drop in the bucket for the bully. The longer it goes on the worse it gets. The players that rely solely on this strategy are the players I despise the most.
Make no mistake, this is a valid technique that every skilled player has at his/her disposal and should employ in order to win the pot. But not every pot. At the final table in a big MTT, use it to death, literally. But using this strategy to cut a trail through 90 players standing between you and the finals table is not going to distinguish you for having highly developed skills amongst your peers. It will, however, distinguish you for having form of mental or psychological impairment which in turn rendered you developmentally disadvantaged ultimately resulting in your deficient sense of ethics, fair play, and sportsmanship. If winning means everything to you and seeing your name at the top end of the all-time leaderboard brings you the satisfaction and fulfillment that you desire, well, there ya go. Whenever I run into you at the tables, you can look forward to me calling you a “One-Trick-Pony”. Of course, you won’t respond to my jeers because you’ve been ignoring the vast amount of dialogue in the chat box ever since the day you realized that you traded the respect of your peers and cast yourself into monotonous routine to gain the upper hand in pursuit of the most important aspect of your fondest past time: WINNING.
Isn’t it ironic that winning can make you a loser?
why worry about how others play? Play your own game, be patient and wait till you get the nuts and trap them. Sure you’ll get burned once in a while but it will be rare. Patience is the name of the game anyway for me, unless I go trolling for fun at the cheap seats. I guess all I’m saying is don’t stoop to their level and don’t go gray over a free game!
I live in Colorado where we have limited stakes gaming. It’s about a 45 minute drive for me to sit at a table with real money. There’s a couple games with $10 max bet, $1/$2 blinds, $100 buy in. That’s about my speed but if those games aren’t running I’ll play at $1/$2 table with $100 buy in that has a stretch limit so bets are anywhere between $5 to $100. ($100 is the max wager allowed in Colorado.) I’m buying in at the $100 minimum so it’s entirely possible that I might have to push my whole bankroll in after just a single bet. Believe me brother, I am patient and then some!
Now compare that game to playing in the Replay Cup trying to qualify for the final. The Replay Cup is all for free chips but to make the cut you have to invest some time into playing in order to accumulate points. After spending 3 or 4 days trying to catch every game you can it starts to become meaningful! Also, as each game winds down, those blinds have gone up a little from where they started at $10 or $20. When the blind is $600, patience isn’t so affordable. At $1500 patience is no longer part of the vocabulary. You can either go down swinging or slowly bleed to death waiting for playable cards! It’s no longer just goofing around playing poker on The Internet! But that’s the cool part, if you like to compete but don’t feel comfortable with living on the street as a consequence of losing, where can you play? Right here on Replay Poker! It’s so much fun when you find yourself at a table with several good players and there’s this constant dialogue of “nh” followed by “ty”. The truth be known, often times it wasn’t a “nice hand” at all. It was a lucky turd your opponent fished off the river to catch a flush that beats the straight you’ve had since the flop and you can’t believe the s.o.b. called your bet twice when they had nothing but hope. But they won the hand and you lost so you suck it up, show some class, and type the “n” then the “h” and then hit enter. Seconds later they reply “ty”. That is mutual respect between 2 decent players. At that point you can fire off something like “farging icehole!” Which is bound to be followed by one or two responses of “lol”. It’s a damned good game that does involve luck but the skills and the know-how that you gain from experience are what separates the really good players from the rest of the field. It’s so cool when you pick up on some aspect of play that you can use to your advantage and realize that 3 months ago you weren’t even aware of that particular aspect of the game. Now you’ve learned how to use it to determine certain outcomes that can be eliminated as possibilities.
Just then the game is interrupted so players can be consolidated from 5 tables to 4. In the blink of an eye you’ve been relocated to another table. Seat directly to your right is Ned the no-mind, a reputed bingo overlord who’s is poised to strip the game of all of it’s intricate details and turn it into an elaborate coin toss. Thanks Ned!
it is not always what the hand you have its how you play it. sick of people
whinging because they dont win with a ACE
Adjust your own ‘strategy’ and GAMBLE. Obey bankroll management math and you’ll be fine. Your aces might lose to a Q6 offsuit, but that happens to someone EVERY SINGLE DAY. Newsflash: People that play way more loose and aggressive than you and people that have you out-bankrolled will always be a part of the game. Get used to it.
I was playing at a table with a 40K buy in. I was being a bully and was stuck about 200K or so. This guy who had already doubled up off me hadn’t played a hand in like 20 minutes and tells me he’s ‘tired of my ****.’ He told me he just folded AJ suited like that meant something other than him telling me a little bit how he plays. Imagine if you’re at the casino and some stranger is losing his ass off and you’re beating him, but you’re bored. Would you tell this guy that you’re upset with him because he’s not losing his chips the way you want him to lose?
And for the record, poker is not chess or checkers. Neither can hold a candle to poker. That’s why even over play chips, poker can get to you and you think you’re justified talking bad about someone else’s game play. You forget how good you have it: you’ve got a computer and free time to play pretend poker over your nice internet connection, but someone else playing loose can ruin your day?
I hope this post gives some perspective to these people who think their complaining is justified. Maybe you’d be able to enjoy yourself and the game a bit more if you give a poker bully the respect s/he deserves and accept that it’s just part of the game. Gamble gamble.
Peace,
VinegarStroke
To be honest I haven’t read every post in this thread but here’s my two cents:
You want to play against bingo players. Gatzby said it is a valid tactic that won’t go away because it works, but I respectfully disagree. It won’t go away because new players will come along and try it because they don’t know how to play, but the bottom line is: bingo players will always lose.
The way to beat bingo players is to keep folding until you have a very strong hand. I love playing against them because I get to choose which cards I call with while they risk all their chips with weak hands. They are easy money.
To ease some fears, we are definitely looking at the impact of bingo play, and trying to brainstorm some ways to discourage it. It IS a valid tactic, but we realize it’s not the most fun.
One of our trains of thought is it might be helpful if those players were made aware of their playstyle, provided with more statistics, and maybe encouraged to “level” out of it. Nothing ETA on anything yet, but we are listening. =) Feel free to continue to share constructive ideas!
Until they learn the strategy of poker, Bingo players know of no other way to play, And continually going ALL IN is not likely to educate them either.
Why cannot Replay Poker have tables where it is a condition of play that you raise only AFTER the flop.
There are already specialist tables like Ante Madness and Ante Sensation that cater for players who like a higher blind, so why not tables that do not allow bingo players?
Trying to understand the mentality of bingo players is just a waste of good poker playing time.
There are several Mixed Limit (ML Holdem) ring game ttables, (pot limit pre-flop, no limit after flop), on these tables players can not go all in pre-flop.
Precious Opal ML Hold’em
Yogo Sapphire ML Hold’em
Gachala Emerald ML Hold’em
Tigers Eye ML Hold’em
Fire Agate ML Hold’em
Deep Red Ruby ML Hold’em
Smoky Quartz ML Hold’em
Faceted Onyx ML Hold’em
Star Sunstone ML Hold’em
Black Pearl ML Hold’em
Flame Spinel ML Hold’em
the way i see it is to each his own, if you or i dont like the way a player plays ,then move on to another table. and let me say …the kicker needs to be done away with and split the hand ,because every hand isnt done fair …thank you …
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yes ‘winning is everything’. the fact that u cant beat bingo players is ur inability.
You cannot ignore the kicker. The kicker is one of the 5 cards that makes you have the best hand. When you have both 2 pair (the same pair) you can not ignore the 5th card, in that case the 5th card is decisive.
i was wonderin watcha all do when playing the" bingo player" and everybody at the tables keeps calling with nothing those are the tables i lose most in…ring games that is.
I have just been warned for calling other players bullies. That is fine as some of the players at the table were being nothing but bullies.
Even in fixed limit games players have found a way of keep raising the bets to the max each turn in order to force out other players. This is bullying and should not be tolerated.
I play for the fun of the game and am a fairly good player and win or place in many of the tourneys I play even with all the bullying happening.
I know that many players have asked for a solution to this problem and your answers are always the same that it’s a fact of life and the game.
It is and I accept that but having players who keep raising to the max limit in a fixed limit game is still bullying and I won’t stand for it and will call players when bullies when it happens too often is a game.
If I keep getting warned or even muted for it then that’s fine with me also. Just remember that you need me more than I need your site and if I can’t call a spade a spade then too bad. Warn me or mute me too often and I will be gone from your site forever.
If you don’t want to deal with the bullying that is happening more often then I will and if I can’t then I will not be playing on your site any more if that is the case.
Good luck to everyone and hope you all find a way to deal with all the bullies. As I said it is becoming way too often any more and it just spoils a great game that is meant to be played using your brain not your stack of chips to do your thinking.