My top 10 holdem tips for Replay

Poker Strategy
41

Joe Dirk and I agree a lot and I regularly advise people to read what he writes. If my memory serves me you will find the above words of yours stated, more or less, by none other than Joe. We concur there is a body of relatively knowledgable players. I am also sure, though I am desperately walking on thin ice when I say this, there are likely a half dozen professionals at work brushing up on their poker skills (and will also likely find that not any of them have much of a ranking, so the real meaning of what you are saying is there are about 500 decent players here who will not dare play 27o).

Replay Poker has done its job, we also agree, by providing a good job at continuing to make this place a wonder.

It is our job as players who supposedly strive to get better, to avoid the 27ers and instead play at the level, where one or two may show up, but will be quickly and soundly get sent running with their poker tails between their legs.

Scratch

42

I have said that, and plenty of other less-than-positive things, about the player pool on Replay. I have seen players inside the top 200 or even 100 make some pretty questionable plays, but that is also just part of poker. Even great players make mistakes a fair percentage of the time because it is a game involving incomplete information and luck from hand to hand.

I have learned a lot on this site by playing enough hands to find myself in all kinds of situations and then analyzing to see where my decision making could have been different or how other players are likely to behave. Perhaps ironically, one of the biggest things that holds me back as a poker player, which this site enables me to practice, is being emotionally balanced. I get extremely frustrated by the bad plays that people make when they get lucky. Getting unlucky is just a part of poker no matter the level, and a big part of the skill of the game is dealing with it. I would be more successful if I didnā€™t get tilted by it or let it affect my future decisions.

People sometimes say they hate AA because they always lose with it, but the truth is not that they ā€œalways loseā€, but that they always remember when they do, they let it affect them, and then it affects their play in the future. Treating each hand like a new beginning (while tracking the previous actions of your opponents) seems like the best way to play poker.

43

Speaking of AA-- just lost with them on second hand to a player calling my raises with 3/9o in multi table game-- he has pair of 9s after the flop Free Chip Poker

44

cute

45

@JoeDirk

I guarantee if you played that way against me I would trap you. If I flopped a set on a draw heavy board I would slow play it making it look like I were chasing a draw and if it appeared I ā€œmissedā€ a draw on the river I would shove knowing you would call.

A couple of days ago I was playing short handed and I slow played a pair of Jacks. I flopped a set and a guy was betting into me on a draw heavy board (flush draw). I knew he wouldnā€™t bet on a draw so I put him on a pair and called making it look like I had a draw. He actually had air on the flop but got top pair, queens on the turn and bet again- I called. Then I ā€œhitā€ my flush draw on the river (perceived not actually) and shoved. The guy thought I was bluffing (but had to use max time) and called me down and I got all of his chips haha- if there wasnā€™t a diamond on the river he woulda instacalled me. Big bets on the river are usually perceived as bluffs regardless of whether you hit or missed a draw on the board.

46

Welcome to the conversation, and the forums! I appreciate your dredging up this old post, since I hadnā€™t read it previously, and the advice is really solid.

Iā€™ve recently been on a tear playing very similar to how Joe describes, steadily gaining over 4.5M chips playing at the 2K-4K rings over the past two weeks. Based on my experiences grinding up through the stakes, building a bankroll without ever buying chips, his guidelines would work at any low- or medium-stakes game on this site. Having never played the 20K-40K rings or 1M buy-in tournaments, I canā€™t speak to whether theyā€™d work for all of the high stakes games as well, but based on how soft the games on the lower end of the ā€œhigh stakesā€ spectrum are, Iā€™d be shocked if they didnā€™t.

@JoeDirk clearly has a strong understanding of the fundamentals of the game. Personally, Iā€™ve gained quite a bit from his posts in the forums, and often find myself nodding in agreement when I read what heā€™s written. If he does rise to your challenge, you should jump at the opportunity to learn from one of the strongest players on the site. Just donā€™t be surprised if youā€™re on the expected end of a certain witticism.

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47

I know what a mod is and I know what a player rep is, but what is a ā€œVolunteersā€ and how many chips does that pay?

48

Irrelevant to the topic at hand, but I occasionally submit posts for the RP blog. The going rate isnā€™t nothing (not sure if Iā€™m at liberty to provide the details publicly). That said, Iā€™ve been ā€œpaidā€ fewer total chips for my blog posts than I have through the free Facebook giveaways, just to give you a sense of magnitude.

49

Thanks for the reply.
Since you brought up your gain of 4.5M chips without buying chips I thought it was only fair that readers know that you earn chips in return for services rendered to Replay.
Iā€™m not on Facebook and donā€™t have any idea of the size of those giveaways.

50

As to this, I disagree.
The topic is Joeā€™s tips. You wrote in support of Joeā€™s tips using the argument that your bankroll has improved using much of Joeā€™s method. You also said you donā€™t buy chips. The implication is that your chips are amassed in the same way as everyone elseā€™s. We now know that that isnā€™t accurate, We now know that you add to your bankroll by writing a blog for Replay. So now the fact of your bankroll increase becomes less persuasive, since we donā€™t know how much of that increase is due to playing poker and how much is due to writing.

51

Whittaker, you asked pretty much the same question in this thread: About Volunteers

You were the 7th response and my reply was the 14th. The answer has stayed the same. More recently, Iā€™ve likely averaged a bit less since I havenā€™t written much lately (though there is one of my stories up on the blog right now, 16 May 2019).

Wannabecoder started here much later than I did. Last year, due to personal issues, he was absent from the site for about 5 months, during which he didnā€™t play or write at all. I am about four or five times as active as a writer as he is. So, he EARNED all those chips by winning them in games from people like you and me. Heā€™s a very good player.

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52

Over the past three weeks, when Iā€™ve increased my bankroll by over 4M chips, I have not submitted any articles.

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53

Thanks both of you for the info.
I think when bankroll is used to support a poker argument it is only fair to divulge chip streams into a bankroll that arenā€™t won at the tables, especially streams that are not available to the typical player. I appreciate the openness.
May I ask, are there still volunteer-only tourneys with high payouts and low entry fees, and if so, wouldnā€™t those winnings be another bankroll boost that the reader could factor into his evaluation of forum posts regarding bankroll?

54

In the interest of full transparency, since May 1st Iā€™ve grown my bankroll in the following ways:

Daily Bonus: 16 transactions, +40,000 Chips
Tournaments: 7 transactions, +101,500 Chips (2nd and 3rd place in 100K SnGs, less 3 100K buy-ins, a 25K SnG buy-in, and a 1K tourney that failed to cash)
Admin: 1 transaction, +100,000 Chips (Facebook trivia winner - awarded this afternoon, after posting my earlier responses)
Ring Games: 75 transactions, +4,435,011 Chips

The ā€œRing Gamesā€ section can be subdivided as follows:
Total ring game buy-ins (including top-ups): 46 transactions, -15,570,000 Chips
Total ring game cash-outs: 28 transactions, +20,005,011 Chips

Starting Balance: 12,469,990
Current Balance: 17,144,001
Total Change: +4,676,511

Iā€™ve spent most of my playing time this month on ring game tables. 90% of my non-Daily Bonus transactions are from ring games, and 95% of my bankroll growth since May 1 has come from ring games. Also, note that Iā€™d mentioned (either earlier in this thread, or another thread) that I play a relatively aggressive, high-variance strategy. This is evidenced by topping up or re-buying an average of 0.64 times per session.

Hopefully thatā€™s enough detail for youā€¦

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55

You forgot to mention what you were wearing.

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56

You stand corrected. I started out as a tournament player on poker star. They use to have this WSOP event where more then 10000 people would join. I won such tournament 3 times. And finished on the final table countless times. After those accomplishments I thought I was a poker god. It is only after I started playing cash, that I realized how bad of a player I was. Cash is way harder than tournament, the reason you think it is not harder is because you havenā€™t played enough highest stake cash against the best players!

57

eddie if you canā€™t beat players ranked under 500, than you yourself is most likely not playing real poker LOL!

58

JoeDirk I applaud you for writing this very good basic strategy for replay poker. I think you got a lot right!

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59

This post from 2016 gives some idea of the chip inflation. In 2019, Iā€™m at 8.4 million chips, ranked 2274th.

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3 posts were merged into an existing topic: Rankings determination