How Many Poker Players??? (2 Viewers)

[Joker]

Just wondering how many poker players we have here? The Main Event at this years World Series of Poker starts today. They have almost 9,000 players this year playing with a buy in of $10,000 each. $10 million to the winner. I wish I was sitting with them.

 

[Rollout96]

Just wondering how many poker players we have here? The Main Event at this years World Series of Poker starts today. They have almost 9,000 players this year playing with a buy in of $10,000 each. $10 million to the winner. I wish I was sitting with them.

I like to play it and watch it on TV. I only play with some frineds and the occasional tournament at church.

Oh yeah, and I have a little hand-held Hold-em game I play.

 

[Bob]

Just wondering how many poker players we have here? The Main Event at this years World Series of Poker starts today. They have almost 9,000 players this year playing with a buy in of $10,000 each. $10 million to the winner. I wish I was sitting with them.

My avatar is a chip, so waddaya think?

I've been playing poker in casinos since the early 90's, back before it was so popular. For a while, I was a proposition poker player for the Turf Club Casino in Cripple Creek CO. They paid me an hourly wage to play poker with my own money. Back then, some casinos used shills as well as props. The difference is, a shill plays with the casino's money, and they don't get to keep any winnings (and their losses are limited and dictated by the card room manager). A prop gets to keep everything they win (and absorb anything they lose). That job taught me the most important factors involved in playing serious poker; patience and discipline. Also, playing 12 hours a day three or four days a week taught me how to read people, and read them quickly. Those three things are necessary if you want to have success playing the game over time. Of course, luck helps, but you can't count on it.

I'm a member of a club that is devoted to the hobby of collecting casino chips. Quite a few of the club members play poker at one level or another, and we have online tournaments on a regular basis. I feel most comfortable playing online in these tournaments, because we all know each other and are real life friends. It eliminates the possibility of collusion that can and does sometimes happen in online cash games and small tournaments like sit-and-go's.

We have a pool for this year's WSOP. The entry fee is chips (what else?). One $5 chip for each player you pick to go the farthest at the big game. While its always tempting to pick the usual suspects like Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey, Johnny Chan, Daniel Negreanu, Jennifer Harmon (broke my heart when I heard she got married), TJ Clothier and a few other big names, I fired four shots at the pool this time. Lesser known players, but all very strong players--John Juanda, John Cerruto, Phil Gordon and Humberto Brenes. At last count, there were 110 chips/entries in our pool. ...sure hope one of my picks goes farther that everyone else's!

So yeah, I play poker. ...almost forgot. A couple years ago, David Baca's team had the Plaza in downtown Las Vegas spread a $1/$2 limit hold'em game for them one night during an NHRA National event. I managed to get in that game and made a few bucks. I found out Rick Henkleman and Johnny West aren't very good hold'em players.

Bob

 

[Rollout96]

My avatar is a chip, so waddaya think?

Jennifer Harmon (broke my heart when I heard she got married),
Bob

Sorry Bob. I just HAD to marry her!!!

(MUST be dreaming because there is Melanie Troxel on the other side of me)!!

 

[Mike]

My wife Barbara plays about 5 nights a week. Was in the World Series last year but didnt win a seat this year.

 

[BlueStangGT]

I learned to play basic poker games from my dad when I was a kid... he, my brother, and I would play penny poker after dinner every once in a while, I'm not sure how thrilled mom was about this, lol. I started playing casino poker in about 92 or so. The game has really changed in the last few years, that's for sure. It's certainly interesting to watch the evolutionary cycle of poker games come around again. Seems like everyone and their dog wants to play no-limit games now and just a few short years ago you couldn't find a no-limit game in a casino unless you wanted to sit in on a half-million dollar table (which was WAY more than enough to keep me out of 'em!). It'll all come back around to mostly limit games eventually.

 

[Joker]

I can spend hours on hours at the poker table. I just love it. I have always been a gambler. I am like you guys, I started playing poker back in 98 before it was popular like today. I would have to beg people to play. Nowadays, here in Houston we have several websites and you can find several games around town every night of the week plus we have a bunch of cardrooms as well. Its like heaven on earth now!!! I dont play as much as I would like too. I normally play once a week in a live game and a couple online tournaments. I am a pretty decent player. I can take down home games pretty easily but I am no match for a pro but I do well.

Bob, I myself am in a pool for the winner/who goes deepest in this years WSOP Main Event. Last year I won it with Phil Ivey. This year we were able to pick 5 guys and my 5 are:
Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Phil Hellmuth (he's on fire right now), Chip Reese,
and Greg Raymer. Raymer is very underestimated, the guy is a great poker player. He isint like Moneymaker. Moneymaker got lucky. Raymer is good. I saw Harrington is already gone after the first day. I was hoping he would do better. Oh well. Good luck to everyone out there.

 

[Mike]

Nice games tonight at the card house in Elsinore. $5000 purse.

 

[Bob]

I can spend hours on hours at the poker table. I just love it. I have always been a gambler. I am like you guys, I started playing poker back in 98 before it was popular like today. I would have to beg people to play. Nowadays, here in Houston we have several websites and you can find several games around town every night of the week plus we have a bunch of cardrooms as well. Its like heaven on earth now!!! I dont play as much as I would like too. I normally play once a week in a live game and a couple online tournaments. I am a pretty decent player. I can take down home games pretty easily but I am no match for a pro but I do well.

Bob, I myself am in a pool for the winner/who goes deepest in this years WSOP Main Event. Last year I won it with Phil Ivey. This year we were able to pick 5 guys and my 5 are:
Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Phil Hellmuth (he's on fire right now), Chip Reese,
and Greg Raymer. Raymer is very underestimated, the guy is a great poker player. He isint like Moneymaker. Moneymaker got lucky. Raymer is good. I saw Harrington is already gone after the first day. I was hoping he would do better. Oh well. Good luck to everyone out there.

Hellmuth's out. ...and while I don't take any joy in it because you had him in your pool, I did like seeing him leave early. The guy is a jerk, and he didn't show up to play today until two hours after the tourney started. He HAS to be the center of attention. His wife is a shrink; one would think she'd be able to council down his ego.

Raymer and Reese must be in the 4th first round. I have one player gone, Cernuto. Yer right, Raymer is for real, much more so than Moneymaker, but Chris still manages to cash at an event or two this time of year.

I wish I was there playing!!

 

[Joker]

Hellmuth's out. ...and while I don't take any joy in it because you had him in your pool, I did like seeing him leave early. The guy is a jerk, and he didn't show up to play today until two hours after the tourney started. He HAS to be the center of attention. His wife is a shrink; one would think she'd be able to council down his ego.

Raymer and Reese must be in the 4th first round. I have one player gone, Cernuto. Yer right, Raymer is for real, much more so than Moneymaker, but Chris still manages to cash at an event or two this time of year.

I wish I was there playing!!

Yeah, I cant stand Phil Hellmuth either but he was on fire this year. Several final tables and he won his 10th bracelet. Though I cant stand him, I wish I had his skills. As for showing up late, he does that at every tourney. He shows up about 2 hours late every time. Moneymaker and Hachem I thought were lucky but Hachem has played really good this year in some of the events. Jeff Madsen is who has surprised everyone. The kid is 21 and has come out of no where. 4 final tables and 2 wins. Almost $1.5 million. Thats gotta suck. Dont know if yall know it or not, but here in the drag racing community, we have several really good players. I know Bo Nickens does pretty well for himself on the card table. He was out at the WSOP this year and had a good trip from what he told me. And there are some others too. And I wish I was there as well.

 

[vegasnitro]

I live in Vegas, and poker is by far the best game you can play. It's the only game in the casino where you don't have to beat the house.

I love to play and I spend many hours a week in the $10-20 blinds no limit game at Wynn or Bellagio, as well as the $15-30 limit game at Bellagio. The $2-5 blinds no limit game at the Palms is a lot of fun, mainly because it has crazy action because of the relatively low limits. I don't play in many tournaments, as I normally cash in live games, but I think I am going to start playing them a bit more seriously as the money available even for the local tournaments here in Vegas is just getting too big to ignore. Look at this year's World Series, top 12 are millionaires and the winner gets $12 million. That is an unbelievable overlay for a "mere" 10K ... almost like winning the lottery ...

 

[Bob]

I live in Vegas, and poker is by far the best game you can play. It's the only game in the casino where you don't have to beat the house.

I love to play and I spend many hours a week in the $10-20 blinds no limit game at Wynn or Bellagio, as well as the $15-30 limit game at Bellagio. The $2-5 blinds no limit game at the Palms is a lot of fun, mainly because it has crazy action because of the relatively low limits. I don't play in many tournaments, as I normally cash in live games, but I think I am going to start playing them a bit more seriously as the money available even for the local tournaments here in Vegas is just getting too big to ignore. Look at this year's World Series, top 12 are millionaires and the winner gets $12 million. That is an unbelievable overlay for a "mere" 10K ... almost like winning the lottery ...

You should be playing more tournaments Chris! I've had the most success playing single table sit-and-go's, but the larger tourney's offer deeper payouts and more money. I see you play both limit and no limit. It's like two completely different games, but that doesn't hurt at all. I think the best players are those who can play a wide variety of games proficiently. After playing 7-stud and hold'em for years, it took me a while to figure out what was a set of good hole cards for Omaha Hi/Lo. Now, it's one of my favorite games!

The $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E event in this year's WSOP may have been a better representation of who really are the best players in the world than the WSOP main event, but that could be a hard point to make if the main event winner is also someone who has one or more WSOP bracelets, or is a WPT event winner. ....almost 9,000 entries. Amazing!

Bob

 

[Joker]

I agree with the HORSE tournament statement, its considered by big time pro's to be the real deal now. And Chip Reese is considered to be the best cash game player in the world. And Chris, you need to play tourneys. Its a different world than a cash game but I think its better. I think it takes more skill to play tourneys myself. On mistake and your gone plus your return especially in the big games are awesome. I have always played just No Limit and Limit hold'em and 7 card stud. I have been practicing Omaha for about a month and I played my first tourney Monday night and finished 2nd. I was happy. Just think, 12 millionaires and one with 12 million. Thats unbelievable. But to win it, whether it be a nobody or a former world champ, it takes unbelievable luck with 9,000 players. I saw Chris Ferguson say yesterday that he figures your going to have to go all in 3 times atleast with the worst of it and get lucky enough to catch cards and win the pot. Its just the nature of the beast. Everyone always wants to know why the pros get knocked out early alot of the time but what people dont realize is, they are leaving a $10k buy in game and going to play $2k/$4k limit poker. Big $$$. So they just try to build there stack early or go play the side games wehre they make alot more in alot less time. My goal is to satelitte my way into the Main Event next year. We will see.

 

[vegasnitro]

I am going to start playing more tournaments, as there are many local tournaments here in Vegas with reasonable buy ins, like $300 or so, that are attracting 250-300 players. If you win, you are taking down like 25K. The Bellagio has a tournament every Friday at noon for $1,000, and the winner of that tourney is often times taking down 80K or more.

Not many places here in Vegas spread sit-n-gos, though I have had a lot of success online in sit-n-gos.

I agree about the HORSE event at the WSOP this year. That final table was ridiculous. Phil Ivey, Chip Reese, Doyle Brunson, TJ Cloutier and Andy Bloch. WOW.

 

[Rollout96]

BTW.... Which on-line poker sites do you guys like? I would like to start playing on line occasionally but there are a lot of sites and I would rather go with someone's recommendation.

 

[Joker]

As for where to play online, there are some sites I like and some I dont. Overall, they all have the same pro's and con's and all have some really stupid players. Pokerstars is probably the worst for that, but I like it.
Especially for the beginner, Pokerstars is good. They have the best free online games and a bunch of freerolls.
I play real $$$ on Pokerstars, Ultimate Bet, Titan Poker, CD Poker, and just signed up for Party Poker. My recommendation would be either Pokerstars or Ultimate Bet. I seem to do better at UB than the others but thats me.
CD and Titan I have a little $$$ but mostly I just play a few freeroll tourneys they have every week. They really dont have alot of tourneys and stuff compared to UB or PS. PS has the most games probably by far I think.
But thats me.

 

[Bob]

BTW.... Which on-line poker sites do you guys like? I would like to start playing on line occasionally but there are a lot of sites and I would rather go with someone's recommendation.

I like Poker Stars. Lots of variety in the games, any limits you want (.02/.04 to $100/200), and there isn't a time limit to qualify for a bonus deposit. Party Poker requires you play a specific number of raked pots in a short time frame to get what ever bonus they might be offering--like 20% on a deposit--which won't work if you don't play a lot.

 

[BlueStangGT]

I've been with Paradise Poker since sometime in 2000. I've never had any issues with them. They even had a server crash once while I was playing in a live game and they managed to get my account reinstated to the penny of where it was when the shutdown occurred. I'm guessing redundant servers saved the day.

 

[Joker]

Well not sure if its exactly the same guy or not, but I saw on the WSOP Main Event list that a Frank Kohutek of Mesquite,TX finished 385th this year and cashed for $30k. Not sure if its the same Frank Kohutek that was the Super Comp World Champ a few years back or not, but if it is, and I know he's from that area, then Congrats Frank.

Justin

 

[Rollout96]

I like Poker Stars. Lots of variety in the games, any limits you want (.02/.04 to $100/200), and there isn't a time limit to qualify for a bonus deposit. Party Poker requires you play a specific number of raked pots in a short time frame to get what ever bonus they might be offering--like 20% on a deposit--which won't work if you don't play a lot.

I played around with PokerStars a little and I do like it. I want to try some real money games so I think I'll try some of these other sites everyone has been mentioning. I am just looking to play for real small stakes.