Poker?

Hi guys,

Is anyone else a big poker player? Used to play some small stakes stuff at the beginning of college but I really started getting into it my junior and senior years. Gonna be in Chicago and was wondering if there are some good home games in the city?

Also feel free to post anything for other cities too as I'm sure it'd be helpful to the other degens on this website

Comments (32)

11mo 
Drexv, what's your opinion? Comment below:

Poker is so addicting for me. My friends and I started a house game at 9:00pm and we did not stop playing until 6:00 am. 

11mo 
Mr_Agree_to_Disagree, what's your opinion? Comment below:

 [Isaiah_53_5 💎🙌💎🙌💎] 

The poster formerly known as theAudiophile. Just turned up to 11, like the stereo.
  • 1
11mo 
Isaiah_53_5 💎🙌💎🙌💎, what's your opinion? Comment below:

-

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee

  • 1
11mo 
Isaiah_53_5 💎🙌💎🙌💎, what's your opinion? Comment below:

I play so much online because a casino isn't near me. Home games are fun too as I'll usually have some drinks, but never had drinks in a casino playing poker.

I'm currently in three games - a $55 $125K GTD tourney, $55 $150K GTD PKO, and a $33 $100K GTD tourney that are one day events. I have two more final day tourneys starting at 5:30pm, $22 $125K and $55 $420K GTD. 

I need to win this $420K GTD. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

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"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee

  • 3
11mo 
scarlet78data, what's your opinion? Comment below:

Do you play mostly tourney or cash also? I pretty much only play cash bc I feel like it's tough with work to schedule out 8 hours in a row I can play

11mo 
Isaiah_53_5 💎🙌💎🙌💎, what's your opinion? Comment below:

I only play tourneys 

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee

11mo 
Isaiah_53_5 💎🙌💎🙌💎, what's your opinion? Comment below:

haha on Insta I typed "you da man, Poker Brat 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼" to Phil Hellmuth and he liked it 

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"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee

11mo 
Isaiah_53_5 💎🙌💎🙌💎, what's your opinion? Comment below:

-
 

I got 23rd in the $420K GTD yesterday for $1,008.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee

  • 1
  • Anonymous Monkey's picture
  • Anonymous Monkey
  • Rank: Chimp
11mo 
Anonymous Monkey, what's your opinion? Comment below:

Sharkscope?

  • 1
11mo 
Isaiah_53_5 💎🙌💎🙌💎, what's your opinion? Comment below:

My Sharkscope is busted. I'm embarrassed to share. I had a 20% ROI for years and then last fall decided to play higher stakes and treaded water for a couple weeks, but then got crushed and had to go back to a lower ABI. 

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee

Most Helpful
  • Anonymous Monkey's picture
  • Anonymous Monkey
  • Rank: Chimp
11mo 
Anonymous Monkey, what's your opinion? Comment below:

I have a long history with poker.

  • I did some consulting gigs around online poker for some of the largest companies out there and that got me interested overall
  • Decided to try some live tourneys. Did OK, I'm net positive by about $10k
  • Decided to try some live cash. I was a fish
  • Met some friends that taught me some things and I also did some studying on my own. NOTE: *nothing* will move your game further than having a group you can discuss poker theory with
  • Tried online cash. I'm a break-even player online but if you can do that you can be a crusher live
  • Moved to live cash and became a crusher. I took an 8-month break in between consulting gigs and played live cash professionally. Best time of my life (seriously). You know how all the books talk about how to control tilt and that you'll run bad? Well what they don't tell you is how good it feels to pay your bills with money you won from others. That is a very unique feeling and made me love the job. I got so good that I didn't look at my cards half the time and poker became worth about $35/hour to me. Not all the money in the world but I loved it. 
  • I only dabble online now more out of boredom than profit. Haven't played live poker in years. I still watch a lot of the streams/vloggers out of entertainment value. 

If you're looking to get into poker now, I would say two things:

  • Make sure you understand reciprocity in poker. If you don't understand that term then you have no chance at making money. If you do understand it, then you can crush most low-limit games for a high amount
  • Play live cash games. I attribute this to the popularity of vloggers. There are plenty of vloggers out there that are just plain terrible at poker . . . and they are "teaching" their audience. They are effectively creating a whole new generation of terrible players and I would love to get out there among them. Lots of money to be made there. 
11mo 
Isaiah_53_5 💎🙌💎🙌💎, what's your opinion? Comment below:

Yeah online is harder than live. Tons of fish at live games - even at higher stakes. I don't live near a casino though so that sucks.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee

  • 1
  • Anonymous Monkey's picture
  • Anonymous Monkey
  • Rank: Chimp
11mo 
Anonymous Monkey, what's your opinion? Comment below:

Oh yeah, the two don't even compare. But one is a good gauge for the other. If you can play online at least without getting your ass handed to you then you will do just fine. 

One more thing I forgot in my post is that RYE is also the nuts. I have a few of their paid courses and I don't know what's in that German water, but those guy have basically "solved" poker. They have some of the best materials out there and can turn basically anyone into a winner. 

11mo 
investmentspanker, what's your opinion? Comment below:
Isaiah_53_5 💎🙌💎🙌💎

Yeah online is harder than live. Tons of fish at live games - even at higher stakes. I don't live near a casino though so that sucks.

"I don't live near a casino though, so that sucks". You are missing a Comma. Thank you.

  • 1
  • Anonymous Monkey's picture
  • Anonymous Monkey
  • Rank: Chimp
11mo 
Anonymous Monkey, what's your opinion? Comment below:

Could you elaborate a little more on reciprocity?

  • Anonymous Monkey's picture
  • Anonymous Monkey
  • Rank: Chimp
11mo 
Anonymous Monkey, what's your opinion? Comment below:

Sure. I can give the broad strokes but I won't go into how to actually use it because that requires more than just a quick post and it's really on you to do the work. There's many experts that have written on reciprocity, but here's my take:

Reciprocity says that you are not special. You will not get pocket Aces more than your opponent. You will not be "card dead" more than your opponents. In other words, over the long run, the statistics are the same for card distribution for all players (assuming a game that is dealt fairly). You will get Aces just as often as your opponents and you will get 72o just as often as your opponents. There is zero edge in hoping you "run good" during any given game - card distribution equals all of that out. So, reciprocity says that what you do with those cards, and more important what you do differently with those cards against your opponents is what makes money in poker. How much do you win from your opponent when you have Aces? How much does he win from you when they have Aces? How much do you lose when you have 72o? How much do you win from them when they have 72o? That reciprocity is how you make (or lose) money from poker.

If you can understand that, then it leads to you studying the following:

  • What are the ranges that you should be playing? If your opponents range includes 72o but yours does not then you have created an edge.
  • What are the amounts you should be betting? If you make $10 from Aces but your opponent only makes $1 from Aces, then you have created an edge.
  • Did you really have a winning session? Let's say you play with your friends one night and you won! But your biggest hand was when you flopped a set of Queens and your buddy flopped a set of Tens. You took all his money because he couldn't fold (who would, right?). Well, reciprocity says that you didn't win anything at all. Because the next time he will have the Queens and you will have the Tens. If you can't fold that hand and you go broke too then you didn't really win any money that night, you just had positive variance. Now, I'm giving an extreme example here, but then think about all the other hands you play in poker; those small changes in reciprocity create an edge, or a loss, for you over the long run.

Again, these are just the broad strokes, the rabbit hole goes a lot deeper. But I never won a dime from poker - especially in cash games - until I understood reciprocity.  

11mo 
scarlet78data, what's your opinion? Comment below:

I've been playing a while on Ignition and ACR and I fucking love it. I play a lot with my friends who are also pretty good players and really enjoy learning more about the theory.

Mostly play 200NL blitz / zone online and if I'm in Vegas usually play 2/5 NL.

Fuckin love poker

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11mo 
Isaiah_53_5 💎🙌💎🙌💎, what's your opinion? Comment below:

Yeah ACR has good volume. I have a lot of notes on people there. I don't like the anonymous aspect of Ignition, but play on there occasionally.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee

11mo 
Isaiah_53_5 💎🙌💎🙌💎, what's your opinion? Comment below:

Another thing newbies do is to bet 1BB when they are first to act. Always lead out for 2BB or my preferred 2.2B or more. 

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee

2mo 
pxxlsiski, what's your opinion? Comment below:

I play casino usually with friends at my brother's house with some beer and good music.) When I go to the casino, I'm always excited to try out some of the new games. I love the feeling of anticipation when the reels start spinning or the dice start rolling. I usually play slots and sometimes table games like roulette and baccarat. I also enjoy games like blackjack and crap. On login joker123, I can play all sorts of different casino games including live dealer games, video poker, and virtual sports. I also like the convenience of being able to play casino games from the comfort of my home. Playing casino games on login joker123 can be almost as much fun as playing with friends at my brother's house.

2mo 
tarasun, what's your opinion? Comment below:
pxxlsiski

I play usually with friends at my brother's house with some beer and good music))

sounds goooood!
can I join you? :D

2mo 
johnnyysmith55, what's your opinion? Comment below:
[Comment removed by mod team]
2mo 
Smoke Frog, what's your opinion? Comment below:

If you play in house games for stakes over 1-2, keep alert for cheating and not paying debts. To me, playing in a casino is worth the commute.

2mo 
MrPermaBear, what's your opinion? Comment below:

I used to be play quite often. At one point it was like a part-time job in college making around 8-10BB/hr. Live cash games and would go play mostly 2/5 with 1/3, 1/2 sprinkled in depending on where I was, who I was with, waitlist, etc.

I used to multi table cash games online a lot in the early days of my time playing, but nothing beats playing live for me. I had somewhere around 500k hands played that were tracked and was moving into NL25 when I stopped. I miss it sometimes

2mo 
IBDprospectivemonkey, what's your opinion? Comment below:

Gonna be interning in SF this summer and play a lot of poker. DM me if you know of any home games (2-5 or 1-3/1-2 preferably) in the Bay Area

2mo 
luckyjack, what's your opinion? Comment below:

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10d 
starlenemcaveney, what's your opinion? Comment below:

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