skartdo plays poker

winning at zynga Poker

2010-04-27T11:34:00.000-07:00

Over to FaceBook, I'm playing at the Zynga Texas Hold' em game. The Next posts are going to be about how to win there.

The thing about Zynga poker is there really is no winning. You can win chips and pick up buddies but your chances of winning actual money are few and far between. So I'm going to define winning as increasing your Zynga bankroll.

1) You can actually buy chips but you can't sell them back so I don't recommend that.
2) Zynga gives you a bonus everyday you play if you are a fan on FaceBook. So do that.
3) If you give chips to your poker buddies using their give chips icons your buddies will give chips back to you
4) If you click on the pictures/avatars of the people you are playing with you can make them your buddy and they can help you.
5) Accept challenges using one of the challenges icons on the sides. The challenges are fairly easy and get you chips and points.
6) Play a lot. Just for playing you get experience points which move you up levels and get you more chips. This leads to being "faced" or spending to much time on FaceBook.

7) and most important. Play like you mean it. Most of the people playing play way to loose. You can tell when someone plays poorly because their current chip bankroll is significantly lower than their high chip count. That is half or more. Find that info by hovering your mouse over their picture at the table.

Play tight. Don't bluff unless you notice people folding to you. If anyone bets back at you they probably have a better hand unless you have the absolute nuts. If someone does have a better hand fold.

yeah yeah 2 and a half years

2009-07-09T19:53:00.000-07:00

OK so maybe blogs are hard to keep up. I've been keeping a running commentary on some google spreadsheets about my play for the last few days. If you are into viewing low stakes poker send me an email or leave a comment and I'll publish them so they are readable.

The main thing I seem to be learning is somewhat reminiscent of a line from Bangkok Dangerous.

"When you start to think that it might be time to get out, it is." or something like that.

I refer to that thought as my voices. Sadly I don't always listen to them and start to lose.

I think it's a Law of Attraction kind of thing. You start to think failure and failure comes to you. Think positive, confident, alert, focused thoughts and you do better.

One problem I think I have is sort of trying to think of nothing, of stillness. Once you realize you have achieved it, stillness is broken, vacuum fills. One must learn the mind, no mind.

By realizing that I am up in the chip count, I wonder if I should get out while ahead. As soon as that thought enters my head I start to lose. I need to learn to leave then.

2007-02-26T12:10:00.000-08:00

OK so I got my butt kicked the Saturday. I was playing very well. I was catching cards and reading the situations correctly then I got to thinking I was bullet proof. I forgot that when someone is betting like they have a hand they often do. Not always by the way, I did catch a few hands in the cookie jar.

Still working on folding when I'm beat.

I also noticed that it seems easier to distiquish betting patterns online than in person. It tends to be quieter and I can concentrate more. That doesn't always help by the way.

Ya know when I finally get all this tweaked out. I should be a force to be reckoned with. I had hoped that I could do it in a couple of years now it looks like it may take longer.

2007-02-21T10:47:00.000-08:00

I am working on not being quite so sticky. When someone is betting back at me or even calling large bets it's really time for me to consider that they might have something. It turns out that a set of 2's really will beat pocket rockets no matter how hard you shout or bet.

It's working too. I've laid down hands recently that I really didn't want to but if you want to survive in a tournement you gotta be willing to lay down the best hand sometimes. Course I've forced a couple of people to lay down their best hands too.

Sometimes it's nice to have an abundance of chips.

I just wish that when I bet the pot preflop more people would decide that maybe J7o wasn't such a great hand. That maybe I had something that could beat it. Course it's tough to beat it when the flop comes down 277. Grrrr.

Course people play a little tighter when there's money on the line.

So I'm also working on not going all in if at all possible.

And so it goes. Turns out poker really is a tough way to make an easy living.

2006-10-18T06:10:00.000-07:00

Playing a little better this week. Still bluffing to much but folding more hands. Played at a table last night with a guy who was getting a little tired of me bluffing so much, mostly because I bluffed him off a side pot to my advantage but much to his disadvantage. He then proceeded to tell me what an idiot I was for bluffing so much. "And yet you still don't call" says I.

Of course the time when folks did call I had pocket Aces. Picked up a good pot there. Finally I said to him "If you don't like my bluffing wait til you see my donkey work." The next hand I had pocket 3 and he went allin with pocket 10, I called, for maybe 10% of my chips. I caught my set on the turn and he went out, got canned as they say over to http://poker.milbestlight.com.

It was sweet.

A word about http://www.milbestlight.com. I like playing there. It's free the play is improving but not much. I'm afraid I'm not helping that much. And they are still giving away a seat at the WSOP each week. That ends soon but I'm hoping that they will revive it when the stats come in. Especially if people move away from the other online sites that may be suffering from the recent legislation.

2006-10-16T11:14:00.000-07:00

Been playing like a drunken sailor of late. I can see people have me beat. They are betting like they've got me beat and still I bet into them. fortunatly on Saturday I played against someone else who was having the same problem. He had himself convinced that he was unbeatable. He even put a bounty on his head for the first person to take him out of a game. So Saturday night was a freeroll after I took Doug out. Good thing to cause Fred kicked my butt.

Three handed tourney's are a bit out of my comfort zone. But I managed. Doug wasn't at his best and Fred was just sitting back and letting Doug and I go at it. I finally lost to Fred when it turned out he actually did pair the Ace on the flop and my pocket Jacks just weren't enough.

2006-10-10T07:21:00.000-07:00

Well I am not sure at all what's happening with the new legislation. It's been suggested that even by pointing you to a sight that I'm an accessory to a crime. I hope not. But then I don't think that's a real problem for me right now.

But that's not what this is about. Did you ever have one of those weeks where you could do nothing wrong. All your bluffs worked. You had no bad beats. and all your draws went your way. And even when things went poorly you were so far ahead that it didn't matter. That was last week for me. I was patient. The cards went my way. I got lot's of respect from the other players. I was playing in a series of short tourneys at Milwaukee's best light sight for a chance at one of their WSOP seats. I was in like Flynn I was gonna play in their final the next day and I stopped playing to soon. I thought the count stopped at Midnight Saturday and it ended 6am Sunday and I missed by 800 points.

Which brings me to this week. I started by playing like a drunken sailor. Fortunately I stopped what was quickly becoming a trainwreck. Yesterday I played slightly better but I wasn't waiting long enough for the cards and when I did bad beats abound. Same today. I raise up the pot by 1.5 times and somebody with a 64 suited decides he wants to play because he's in position. I hit the K on my AK on the flop and come in with a big raise again. This guy hits his 4 and decides to stay in the turn comes down an A I go all in, this should be a major clue for this guy and he calls and hits the trip four on the river. This is how my week is going.

What should I learn from this. Continue to be patient. The reason my bluffs worked last week is that I only played quality cards.

2006-08-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

BTW I cashed, top 50, in this mornings TEC Freeroll at UB so I will be playing on Sunday unless something comes up. The last two times something has come up. But I'm getting better. Course the real trick will be to cash Sunday, top 10. Not sure whether they will be playing tighter or looser. Presumably they will be playing better than most of the people I played today.

2006-08-14T11:29:00.000-07:00

Played a bunch of mini tourney's Saturday. Won 3 of 6. I could see the people playing tight I could see the people playing loose. Tried my best to take advantage of both and it seemed to work. Not always, I didn't win all the games but enough so that I walked away with more than I came with.

Put my winnings on Ultimate Bet and am in the process of Doubling them and on and on... Unless I don't and end up losing it. But then I figure it's found money so it's not so bad. I also collect bottles from some of my friends. It can be really gross and smelly but I figure that it's important to see what my poker habit is making me do so I don't get to happy with it.

Turns out, though, that if you start with better hands you win more hands and usually more money. Except that people can come to rely on the fact that I'm going to play really good or really bad hands and start to bet accordingly. The real trick to poker is to figure out when your opponents think they have you figured out.

Then switch.

2006-08-02T09:01:00.000-07:00

so I played a nice hand the other day. I caught a K hi straight flush on the turn at the same time the guy betting against me caught a queen hi straight flush. I'm thinking he was a bit surprised.

Same tourney I bet pocket Q and got out played when I folded to an Ace on the river with a straight draw showing, probably shouldn't have bet on the turn.

What really annoyed me was going all in with AQ and being called by someone with a K10 and having him hit his K on the river.

What did we learn from this. All in is for the nuts. When you have a big stack it's ok to push people around but ya gotta protect it as well.

This particular tourney payed the same to the top 50 places, a place in another tourney. If I had sat back and just let my cards fold for me I probably would have coasted in.

kjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkj

playing a lot of very small stakes limit doing pretty well building up a small bankroll and then moving to the next level. Turns out that Poker needs patience not only with the cards but with your bankroll. With 100 big bets you can absorb some mistakes and bad beats to come back and finally come out ahead. With less than 50 you cannot. OK maybe you can if you are really lucky but don't count on it.

I learned that hard and now I'm back to building my small bankroll again.

2006-06-11T09:47:00.000-07:00

OK so it turns out that to play poker well you kinda gotta focus on the game. That means if you gotta pee, pee. If you are hungry go get something to eat. If you have other needs that are unfulfilled take care of them somehow.

Do you have kids that are asking for you're attention? Don't be a dink go play with them. Does your spouse want to talk? It would probably be a good idea to talk or whatever.

In the long run if you are not focused on the game you are not winning. For me anyway focus takes concentration and concentration take some semblance of quiet.

Poker is a willing mistress she will wait for you to be ready.

stuff I'm learning:

2006-06-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

stuff I'm learning:

At a tight table you can push pretty hard but if people start to push back even a little back off quick and reevaluate.

At a loose table play really tight betting occasionally to see if anybody has noticed. If they have then loosen up a bit, so that they might fold to some bluffs. If they haven't then tighten up cause somebody'll call anything.

I played a table today when it seemed everybody was going all in on every hand. Play chips will do that to some people. I just waited til I got something playable and when it hit on the flop nobody noticed that I had gone all in too. Until I had most of their chips.

2006-06-08T11:16:00.000-07:00

Turns out I won my way to the next level, that very night. I picked up a lovely set of shipyard branded poker chips on the way. I did not win the next level. I lost when I bet heavily on a pair of jacks on the flop and the guy with pocket kings just kept calling me. Doh!!!

Turns out top pair ain't always so.

I also behaved very badly. I have excuses for that but the end result is I behaved badly. It was nice of shipyard to do this and while it could have been a bit better organized, I think that everyone had a good time.

2006-03-08T12:37:00.000-08:00

Win some lose some. I was up 300K in play chips at UB and started to think I was invincible and it turns out that I'm not. I'm now up 10K but there you go.

I'd like to mention that Scott Haron, Scoob1 over to FullTilt, has been playing very well recently and consistently kicking my ass when I see him at a table... At least the he won the last time we played at the Shipyard Tourneys, a series of hold'em satellite tourneys at local pubs that feed another satellite which feeds a larger tourney. No buyin so it's fun and no one gets hurt.

Course I seem to remember beating him the time before that but he is ahead of me in points on our score sheet.

Anyway tonight I try again for a seat so that I can play Scoob again later this month and maybe show him that he's not invincible. We'll see.

The tourney's are set up so that each player gets fifty chips, the blinds start at 1 and 2 and double every half hour. So the play moves right along.

Tonight I play tighter. Unless I don't.

2005-12-04T18:14:00.000-08:00

So I've been playing a lot at ultimatebet.com lately. Just joined their affiliate program. OK so I'm now a poker pusher. C'mon the first one's free all the cool people are doing it.

Seriously though, gambling, even for play chips, is a time killer and will, not may but will, eat into your life hard; so be careful. However if you are so inclined, Ultimatebet.com and Fulltiltpoker.com are the places I like to play.

They both have a table like feel to them that gives the player the look of sitting at the table rather than looking down at it.

Full Tilt was the online poker site that I started at and I have a certain affection for it. Full Tilt has the best interface by far. They include lot's of different avitars for the players so it's not quite as dull.

Play Online Poker

Full Tilt has an excellent CRM program that includes weekly emails called "tips from the pros" that are short helpful articles about improving your poker game.

When you want to step into a ring game there is always a table open.

Full Tilt also has twice daily freeroll tournies at 1:30 am and pm that actually pay real money should you win or even place. They also have play chip sit and go tournies that enable a player to practice for free. You could sign up for fulltilt and never put down a cent of your own money and wind up playing in the World Series of Poker. Yeah that might happen.

All that said about Full tilt, I've been playing more at UltimateBet.

They have tournies of one sort or another almost hourly. The tournies max out at 2500 players rather than 900 so you have more time to join them. The sit and go tournies have a wait list so that when a spot opens up it take you right to it rather than the player having to wait around and hope to act quick enough to join.

The ring games seem to be tough to join the fill up quick and the software doesn't open up new tables quickly on play chips anyway.

The tournies while plentiful are not for real money. They are for bonus dollars and points which or a chance to play for an entry into a real money tourney.

Full Tilt	Ultimate Bet
like	like
Daily Freerolls that pay real money easy to jump into a game good newsletters Pros are pointed out in red and sometimes play the play chip tables	Plentiful tournies tournies easy to join sit and go tournies have wait list
dislike	dislike
play chip tournies hard to get into limited to 900 players and fill up in minutes holdem sit and go tournies fill up to quickly with no wait list	Freeroll tournies do not pay real money ring games are difficult to get into quickly

Essentially if you want to do play chip tournies play ultimate bet, if you want to do ring games play full tilt.

win some lose some

2005-08-24T07:56:00.000-07:00

I'd like to say the Scott Haron beat me the other day. Not gonna say how cause it's getting a bit old. Also like to say that he didn't show up to play the last time we played and I won. Not gonna say that he was at all concerned that he would lose cause I'm sure he had more important things to do like taking care of his family. Just saying he didn't show up.

2005-07-13T20:50:00.000-07:00

OK so I'm watching the FullTiltPoker.net poker challenge or something and John D'Agastino just Layed down an AJ suited. Turns out it may have been the thing to do, not sure about that but that's why I'm here and he's there. Anyway I'm not sure I could have layed it down, see above sentence.

2005-07-07T08:35:00.000-07:00

Play Online Poker

So I've just been entered in a Freeroll to win a piece of $5K because I finally made a deposit and played enough to earn 100 pts.

Not bad it looks like they are paying 360 out of 1500 places. I'm pretty sure I can manage to finish in the top 20%. I guess we'll see.

Been playing and losing but in order to get better one has to make mistakes and learn from them. In my case, I'm learning to fold more often.

Fulltilt also offers a learn from the pro's newsletter. I particularly like what Howard Lederer has to say.

A month on the River

2005-07-02T13:57:00.000-07:00

Been playing a lot lately and losing to much. Oh sure, I haven't lost anything in my play money account, it's been coasting between 150 and 200k for about a month. It seems that I've been losing the big hands to that last card. I went all in on a set of sixes last night and boom, my opponent hit the straight draw the river. Any card but the one that came up and the chip stack switches from him very dominant and looking to clean up, to me dominant and just needing to do some housekeeping.

I should have known better. He'd been hitting it all night but he was wild reraising large against known tight players who just don't raise unless they have a hand and hitting the river more than he should have. I'd been stealing the blinds trying to unnerve him and it was working. You could see it in his face. He didn't like losing before he could play. The hand before he bet large and it didn't work.

There it is he took home the pot and I didn't.

Just got kicked out of a tourney for the WSOP doing essentially the same thing. With essentially the same results. Winning right up until the last card. I'll have to think on that a bit.

2005-06-04T19:37:00.000-07:00

It seems to me that playing poker is essentially not doing stupid things.

that seems to be a good goal in general.

That said for now my goal is to win 50 percent of the pots that I bet on. 70 percent of the flops I bet on. 95 percent of the rivers I bet on.

playing for free is different because there is not as much to lose. Even in free tournements people don't enter them to lose. The ones that don't care so much, they are tired, a phone call comes, whatever, are quickly eliminated and play starts in earnest. The key at first is not to do anything stupid, somebody that is betting on a hand that could beat yours has that hand... except when they don't... :)