G5 Poker

The first time you play somewhere new or different there’s a danger of becoming so focused on the new venue or the new players you’re likely to meet that it’s easy to forget the simple stuff. So here’s a quick recap:

1. Know the rules. If you’re not sure, there’s an excellent online trainer on The Hendon Mob site.
2. Game selection. Don’t play above your limit, although the occasional bigger game can add some depth and new perspectives to your regular game. Search for tournament entries you’re comfortable with on the G5 Poker Tournament Database and make sure that you’re playing for an amount of money that’s comfortable for you.
3. Make sure you know how to get there and where the car park or train/tube station is! Just like a job interview, if you’re rushing and in danger of getting there late you’ll be stressed / annoyed and beginning to tilt even before you’ve bought in. Be there in enough time to register, find the loos, get a drink and some food etc
4. If you draw the dealer’s seat on a self-dealt game, ask if someone else will deal for you unless you’re comfortable doing it. A regular will usually offer to deal for the table.
5. Take a few hands to settle in, assess the mood at the table, see what the ’standard’ raise is if there is one, and see if you can spot the fishes, the gobby table captains, the quiet dangerous ones and in particular pay attention to the person on your right and the two people on your left as they’ll probably have the most influence on your play.
6. Regulars will ‘test’ new players, notably in rebuys they will sometimes call you with nothing knowing you’re ahead just to see what you’re playing. Their reasoning being that if you’re going to become a regular too they’ll want information as cheaply as possible as early as possible. Even if you have no intention of playing there again, tell them you’re thinking of moving to the area and making it your local. Then get as much value as possible….
7. Rebuy tournaments at casinos can get a bit crazy, freezeouts usually provide a slightly more sensible introduction and more and more UK casinos are offering freezeouts as part of their regular weekly lineup.
8. If you get any grief from anyone else at the table, have a word with the tournament director. You have as much right to be there as anyone else at that table. It’s why poker is so democratic
9. Remember about verbal declarations. You may may see regulars tossing various chip amounts in without saying anything, but the safest way to avoid having your move mis-interpreted (and a tedious lecture about how you should play) announce your raise as a total amount (”I’ll raise to a total of 1000″) and if you need change the dealer will pass this back to you.
10. Have fun

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Tournaments (also known disparagingly as ‘donkaments’ by snobbish cash game players) are the bread and butter of poker. They’re likely to be your first experience of poker, as it’s a fairly safe way to get involved. The average home game is a Freezeout meaning you only pay once, so you know how much you’re going to spend. A full run down of the various tournament structures is given below:

Freezeout – classic knockout tournament. Everyone starts at the same time with the same amount of chips, and once you get knocked out, you’re out. Go and find a cash game to play or have a quiet cry in the corner and begin composing your bad beat post for a forum (note tha even thinly disguising this as a “did I make the right play?” will garner no sympathy if you obviously got it all in pre flop with aces and got sucked out on by the muppet with A6 unsuited). Freezeout tournaments sometimes cater for late entrants (usually up to 30-60 minutes after the actual start time of the tournament) and if you start late then you can usually expect to pay a small penalty (a big and a small blind) when you join a table. You may also see the term ‘alternates’ and this is to allow for a small number of people to go on a waiting list for full tournaments. If seats become vacant in the first couple of blind levels, alternates may be allowed to join in with the same penalty as other late entrants. Freezeout tournaments without a late entrants policy NEVER start on time (until the one time you’re running late, obviously.)

Rebuy – Everyone starts at the same time with the same chips, but for the first 60-90 minutes (usually), if you get knocked out you can rebuy an unlimited number of times for the same amount and get a fresh set of chips. Most popular in casinos and the play is usually slightly looser during the rebuy period than the novice may be used to. Five-way all ins preflop blind can be quite an eyebrow raiser, but whatever works for them eh? You usually have to lose a certain number of chips before you can rebuy (from all of them to anything less than your starting stack – ie start with 2000 chips, pay a small blind of 25 and you can rebuy…). At the end of the rebuy period you can usually do a single ‘add-on’ which is almost the same as a rebuy but you don’t have to have a minimum or maximum number of chips to do it. You’ll usually hear the immortal cry of “last three hands for rebuys” during which point the medium stacks will all subtly be trying to lose just enough chips to be able to qualify to do a rebuy and an addon once the three hands are up. It can be quite amusing making bets which take them just under or over this amount and see the expression of annoyance as they give up on seeing just another cheap flop with utter dross hoping to hit a monster just before the break.

Limited rebuy – as per unlimited / normal rebuy, but a fixed number of rebuys or add-ons. For example; the old Friday night game in the Bournmouth Gala casino was £50 to enter, then either 2 x rebuys for £50 or 1 rebuy for £50 AND 1 add on for £50 – either way you’d spend no more than £150.

Doublechance – pay once (as per freezeout) but get 2 lots of chips – you can usually either take both lots of chips at the start to give yourself a deeper stack, or save one lot of chips for the inevitable bad beat (you wouldn’t be casually coinfliping early on in a freezeout now would you? hmmm?) The doublchance format is often attributed to Roy Houghton (now proprietor of the Loose Canon club in London) who invented it for the American players who travelled fair old distance only to get knocked out in the first hand when their aces ran into a set of kings.

Triplechance – as per doublechance, but the clue is most definitely in the name. Pay once, and get three lots of chips. Has been known to encourage somewhat loose calls: “ah well I’ve got another two lots of chips to come so I’ll call all in on my middle pin straight draw with one card to come”. Donkeys. Valuable donkeys in the long term, but donkeys nonetheless.

Shootout – similar to a freezeout, but each table plays independently in rounds. So the winner or top 2-3 from each table then form a new table / group of tables and so on. Example: 100 people enter and play to the last 2, 20 people in the second round on 2 tables play to last 5, final round is one table of ten. Simple!

Heads up – one on one. Mano a mano. Or Mano a chica if you’re lucky. We know poker players don’t get out much, especially the internet ones. Essentially follows a shootout structure and in an ideal world would start with 2,4,8,16,32,64 etc players. But life is never that perfect, so where there’s an odd number of people there is usually an extra round thrown in to make it a perfect square number. If you get chosen to play an extra round, tough. Treat it as a warm up.

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Welcome to the wonderful world of live poker. Sometimes referred to as “I’m not playing that bloody game any more.” But those people are just wimps. Listen sympathetically, nod and smile ruefully and tell them it was just bad luck (and they are absoloutely and categorically not a fish) and that they’re sure to do better next time.

But enough deep strategy for this early on.

We’ll assume you know the basic mechanics of how to play: the difference between a bet and a raise, when you can check, how much to raise to, blinds, dealer button etc. You may also be aware of hand rankings, though this is arguably unimportant knowledge as the best players (and if you listen to most casino regulars this means them) will declare that what hand you actually hold is immaterial.

They do have a point of sorts. Though, whilst pushing someone off a better hand is a key concept in poker, it probably shouldn’t be attempted every single hand. Some people, bless ‘em, have yet to learn this. These people will give you money, so don’t be too harsh on them.

Poker games come in two broad types: tournaments and cash/ring games

A poker tournament is where lots of players pay the same entry fee, sit down at the same time (not in the same chair obviously – that’s a game which sounds like poker but without the ‘r’) and play to take each others’ chips. Once all your chips are gone you’re out of the game and the aim is to be the last person still with chips. There are slight variations on the format for tournaments, but in all of them you start with many and play until there is only one. The money is then paid out to the last few places with a significant proportion usually going to first place (‘top heavy’ refers to the payouts, not the valet staff). The blinds (and sometimes antes) start off low but go up every level which is usually between 15 minutes and 2 hours and this forces action so that people don’t just sit there for hours.

A poker cash game hypothetically runs forever, and you can join when there is a seat free, play for a bit, then leave. There is usually a table minimum and maximum to sit down with, the blinds always stay the same (unless everyone at the table agrees to change them) and the aim is just to make money, and not be the last man standing. If you’re good, then you don’t want to be the only player at the table as you won’t make any money off empty chairs… There is etiquette and rules involved with cash games as well as tournaments – it’s usually considered bad form to hit a big pot then run away very quickly. Whilst fairly commonplace online, in live poker it gives you a reputation. And that kind of reputation means you can’t come back later and taken even more money off them. You also can’t leave the table in profit, then sit down again for the table minimum having ‘banked’ the profit in your pocket or fed the mistress’/toyboy’s roulette habit.

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