My username on pokerstars is mrnogoodNRJ. I'll be loading my account in a week or two.

I've never liked gambling, that's maybe why I'm still poor as fuck... or... maybe that's why I'm not homeless yet hmmm...

There's no money in poker.

http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2010/0602...rachi1_300.jpg

Everyone that plays poker either is that guy or knows a guy that "knows it all".

Including me. :pimp

All that money, and all money "won" in poker came directly from other people. You're not providing a service, supplying a good, or doing anything other than directly taking other people's money!

For each poker genius millionaire, there are at least a million losers that lost their money.

It starts like this:

Idiots like black vagina finder sign up and lose money to:
level 1 guy
Level 1 guy loses to level 2 guy
and up and up and up until it gets to the pros that win it all

The only ones that win money besides pros and semi-pros are the grinders and grinding is just as useless and just as unprofitable as a normal desk job...

I play pokerstars but only for the fun of playing poker.

I can only play tournaments or sit n goes. Not to keen on cash games.

No your limits though.

omg I just looked at your site :disgust :disgust :disgust

http://www.blackvaginafinder.com/sma...allrobbin1.JPG :uhoh

Erm.. poker is NOT a game to be played with "play money", since money is a vital component of the game.

To say you're good at poker based on your play money experience is like saying you're a good football player because you jogg nicely.

so I ask again. What would it mean if I LOST consistently with play money? What would THAT mean?

Walk awya while you can.
I know quite a few people that keep trying and end up loosing huge....and they are actually GOOD at it!

Wouldn't mean shit because play money poker IS NOT poker.

Anybody saying quit or walk away can go fuck themselves. Only an idiot would lose thousands. Somebodys gotta win and lose. Don't tell me to quit because YOU lost.

Your office looks like shit and you're trying way too hard.

I was in the room when this happened in Monte Carlo.. Ridiculous hand.. I'd made friends that week with all of Paul Jackson's friends from England, and was standing with them and the copper baron who paid for his and 9 other guy's entries into the tournament ($25k buyin) while this hand was going on.. The tournament ended fairly soon afterwards, and Phil told him what he had then.. Paul came over and we asked what they both had, and we were all stunned.. We obviously thought they both had big hands..

I think this hand was from the Full Tilt tournament, not the $25k buyin event.

Phil Ivey took down both tournaments that week, for $1m and $600k respectively. And true story.. Both times he won and was getting ready to get the big check, I said "HEY PHIL, your fly's down!!" and he looked, both times. ;)

I was eating at Cleo's in Vegas in maybe 2008, and Phil Ivey walked in with his wife.. I recognized him from the back of his head lol.. He kept looking over and I could tell he remember me but couldn't figure out where from. He drives a black Mercedes McLaren SLR.

This is not quite correct. If you can't beat a play-money game, you will not be able to beat a real-money game. The reason is simple: the play-money poker players are worse than the real-money players. So if you're just starting to learn the game, why would you intentionally skip the process of learning against weaker players?

Having said that, beating the play-money games is NOT an indicator that you can beat the small-stakes real-money games. However, if you cannot beat the play-money games, you will not beat the real-money games.

The solution to this is simple: play in games where collusion is limited:

Rush Poker (Full Tilt)
Triple Draw / Badugi (PokerStars) (collusion is possible, but most colluders are drawn to the anonymity of the larger player pools over in No-limit Hold'em or PLO)

Yes, I think it was an author (David Sklansky?) that said that anyone who can make money at poker is smart enough to make a lot more money doing something else.

To alleviate the boredom, I suggest playing games that aren't boring! For example, mix games, draw games (2-7 triple draw, badugi), or Rush Poker. The mix games make you think, and force you to analyze many different situations. Also, you can take advantage of other players' weaknesses in particular games (because no one is good at all the games).

Draw games are fun because there are more decisions per hand.

You've grasped an important concept: the biggest mistake that losing players make is that they play too many hands. A winning approach to no-limit hold'em (nine- or ten-handed) is to play 15% to 20% of your hands. You'll typically see losing players play 23% or even 40% of their hands!

What happens is that the bad hands are so far behind that they have to catch miracle cards to draw out, and the money odds (pot odds) offered when they do so aren't enough to negate the money they lose when they don't.

You'll see world-class poker players play terrible hands (on TV or online), but they're doing that for meta-game reasons (i.e. they're attempting to deceive their opponents on a higher level than just this one particular hand). When you're starting out, you should stick to the very good hands, and even then realize that you'll frequently get drawn out on.

Discipline is certainly a fundamental aspect to winning poker, but what you're describing is NOT discipline. What you're thinking of is what many people call "bankroll management", but is actually "money management", and it's very flawed.

(Mason Malmuth wrote about this in much better detail in Gambling Theory and Other Topics)

"Money Management" is usually one of the following:
a) changing bet sizes to turn a negative expectation bet into a positive expectation bet (think Martingale progression at roulette)

b) using stop-losses or stop-wins to determine when to stop betting (playing)


Variation (a) is beyond the scope of this thread.
(b) is not a good approach to poker because if you're a winning player, all that matters is your future expectation (assuming you have the bankroll to withstand variance). So if you get unlucky and lose your $100, and then quit, you've cost yourself potential money that you could have won if you had bought back in and realized that potential.

Of course, if you're actually a losing player, then no "money management" can save you from eventually going broke. Only careful analysis of your play will tell you if you're a winning or losing player.

Also, another thing to keep in mind is game dynamics. You can be a winning player in *this* particular game, but as soon as the worst two players pack up and leave, to be replaced by very good players, you may be a losing player in this *new* game.

This thread is cracking me up, chronig is right, you know how many people think they are good because they win with play money and then lose their ass because they think its easy?

I've played A LOT of poker the past 10 years, read a number of books and if I discipline myself I can make anywhere from $50 to $500 in a setting, but it took a lot of learning and time to reach that point. If you're in a bad mood about something or tired you can and will lose your entire roll very quickly. There is much more to the game than what most people think and the cards are the least of it. Knowing what I know now reading as many books as you can is mandatory.

This thread has to be joke right? I read the whole thing thinking it had to be. I mean he honestly seems like he is serious sometimes, but there's just no way.

Winning with play money. Read a "dummies guide". Going to win $100/day.

I couldn't think of anything that could be said which would make it even more unbelievable. He has GOTTA to be fucking with us all.

build your bankroll with no deposit bonuses from casinos

BVF listen to these people. Play money and real money are apples and oranges, the play money game only exists to upsell players to real money. Think about how many play money players are only there because they don't have the means to fund their account (ie. teenagers).

Winning at poker long term is a lot different than winning a few hands and folding your bad ones early. Throw $100 into a real money account and see how it goes after a week of playing before you start telling people how easy it is.

Enough with bragging about winning 100 play money credits though.

Just don't do it.

It will consume you. The lure of "easy money" is very powerful. For every 1 winner at the table, there are 8 losers. Even if you are smart, you will lose eventually.

The high stakes players on TV have millions and sponsors. Watching them play poker on tv is like watching you playing for pennies with children.

Online poker seduces and lures people into thinking they can make "$100 a day." And you can for a few days... then down a couple, then up a couple...

BUT, what you don't notice is, you're playing all the time wasting your life behind a computer not making any real money. That is the real waste. The time loss and not accomplishing anything with your life.

Don't be consumed in the "financial masturbation" that is online gambling.

BTW, playing for "fake chips" is different than plyaing with real money. Every drunk idiot is on there "calling" with shit, and losing, cause it's fake.

That's the genious of the set up. It gives you a big ego thinking, "yeah, I can beat this game." Well, you can't. Nobody can.

Also, the real money games have 3 and 4 people sitting together in one room just waiting to cut up new players. Young people are very smart. Imagine 5 guys in one living room all on lap tops telling each other what they have and how to check and raise you out of every cent.

There is no regulation on it. No IP control.

Don't waste your life. If you want to play and have some fun, go to a real casino, at least you'll have a fighting chance to really lose the rest of your life.

Bullshit, there are plenty of people out there that can beat the game. I have a friend who makes a nice living multi-tabling $200 NL.

A serious exaggeration. There is collusion control. Even high stakes players that soft-play each other a little can and do get busted.

Everything you said here except the fake chips comment is complete bullshit. Lots of people make a living playing online, not all and probably less than half of the players on TV are millionaires and have sponsors, and there is quite a bit of quality control to prevent player collusion. Your post sounds like it was lifted right out of Nancy Reagans 'just say no' drug campaign.

I can't believe this is a serious post.. This BVF is a college man.. Intelligent, educated.. Isn't he? He is, right?

Well.. In case you're serious.. If you want to get to some goal.. $100/day for example.. You need to be willing to put a-lot of time into learning the game.

You have to work your way up.. You haven't even mentioned what limit you're going to play, I don't think you have.. $100/day doesn't sound like a-lot, but when you look at the number of hours you're really willing to spend while you're learning and then once the new wears off, the rake, variance, etc.... $100/day takes time to work up to.. Unless you're ready to bleed away tens of thousands of dollars while you're busy learning.

Many of the best players out there end up broke.. because no matter how good you are, there are going to be times you'll run bad for a week.. a month.... one time it'll be a year and BLAM. You need to go and do the research, do the math.

First of all ... you should have (completely liquid disposable money) hundreds of x the BB of whatever limit you're going to play.. especially if you're playing NL.

Stop playing the fake money games. Stop now. All you're doing is folding all of the time and being paid off every time you make a hand because you're surrounded by maniacs who didn't pay a buy-in. They'll never pay you off like that at real tables. And if you fold all of the time at the drop of a hat, they'll run over you. Badly. Fake money games will never help your real money game!

BVF has

1. Discipline
2. Intelligence

If he really wants to do it, he will.. but I don't think he has any idea of what kind of work will have to go into it. Personally, I'd much rather spend my time having blowjobs from funny looking women than sit in a chair playing poker all day. :1orglaugh

remember this: You don't play with your cards, You play with other players cards!

Y'all were right about the "play money" tables....People who don't have money to lose play like idiots....A fool will draw a KJ and instantly start betting it up before the flop...Also, you can't bluff fake money players because they don't give a shit.

So now I funded my account and instead of playing the $2/$4 tables, I'm playing the $0.02/$0.04 tables...The action is slower than in play money because people actually have to think more...Also in play money, whatever hand you had showed up on your screen...Now you have to actually read every card...This caused me to win a hand with a straight from Ace to 5 with very little money because I didn't raise the bets and kept checking...That's because I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW that you could get a straight from Ace to 5.

I've also realized that I have to throw in a LOT of hands before they even get to flop...I played EVERY hand at least until the flop in the play money room.....But to listen to people and just walk away is ludicrous...I can afford to play the low money tables all day every day until I get good...Hell, if EVERYBODY was losing, nobody would be playing...

Poker's a day to learn and a lifetime to master. ~Robert Williamson

BVF .. I think the way your brain works would go real well with a game called Omaha 8b .. Do yourself a huge favor and learn that game .. I can see that game paying off huge for someone like you.

BVF I play at full tilt and this is the BEST thing I've learned about online poker.......GET AWAY FROM THOSE RING GAMES the $2 and $4 or even the .02 and .04
I only play tournments.........I buy in and everyone starts equal so bankroll (cash in your account) has NO BEARING on a tournment. Once you buy in that is the most you can lose in that tournment so all you can really do is WIN.
Ring games or cash games are a NO WIN deal in online poker because when you are playing that kind of game online someone ALWAYS has more money than you and overall that is what wins cash games.

I hope that helps you and I hope that makes sense :)

Making a living now, but see how he is doing in the future. Eventually they ALL lose. All of them. It's a matter of simple mathematics. Only .0000001 % of poker players make a living at it for their ENTIRE lives and when they are old, they look back at a life of sitting on their asses, playing with chips and cards all day long and having accomplished nothing with their pathetic lives. Poker is a GAME. Not a career or a job. It accomplishes nothing and takes away everything. It warps your sense of what a dollar is really worth and warps the concept of accomplishment. It's the "American Dream" of free lunch that seduces idiots to the table. All these poker players think they are all "smart" cause they know when to raise and when to fold... then they pat themselves on the back thinking how smart they are and that they don't have to work a real job because they are oh so clever.

One day when your friend hits you up for the rent money cause he's wasted broke, you'll remember this post.

:D I giggled.

Not true. A recent study of online poker players (which was performed by using PokerStars server data) showed that about 90% of players are losing players.

Yes, it is. As long as there is more money coming into the poker economy than leaving it, an individual can be a long-term winner.

Money coming in:
new players depositing
existing players re-depositing

Money leaving:
rake / fees
winners cashing out

Since there are people turning 18 (21) every day, there will never be a shortage of new players willing to try the game. As long as the overall player pool's skill level is lower than the "effective skill level" of the rake, there will be long-term winners.

Although I agree that it's not really what most people would consider a career, it certainly can be a job.

I also disagree that poker accomplishes nothing. It can teach you many things, including fundamental math, risk analysis, critical thinking under pressure, discipline, pyschology, and social interaction.

What does being a "professional football player" accomplish?

The real professional poker players don't pat themselves on the back because they think they're clever. Instead, they constantly think about how they could have improved their play in a particular situation.

Unless you know the opponent personally, how can you know what his total bankroll is? Especially online, you don't. Therefore, how can you know how much money that particular player has available to him? If you know your opponent is playing with case money, and he makes a big bet, you can probably fold your medium-strength hand. On the other hand, if you know he has a lot of money, you might call or raise his bet.

But how would you know the difference?

In a broader sense, though, this idea is incorrect (that is, that players with larger bankrolls will beat players with smaller bankrolls). The only thing a larger bankroll does is either: a) keep a losing player in action longer (there's no bankroll large enough to make a losing player a winner; he will eventually lose it all) or b) enable a winning player to withstand a losing streak.

I think what you might mean is that a player with a larger *chip stack* can bully or buy pots from people with smaller chip stacks. However, this is also incorrect, because poker is played "table stakes", meaning that you can only lose what you have in front of you. So if you have $100 in front of you, and you and I play a pot where I have only $20 in front of me, your extra $80 makes no difference, because the "effective stack" is only $20 in this hand.

That is correct...

Plus this thread is three pages of people telling me to quit...If I quit when people told me that NOBODY would purchase pictures of naked crackheads, then BVF wouldn't be THE MOST POPULAR BLACK AMATEUR PAYSITE IN ALL THE WORLD!....Think I'm lying? Find one more popular than me...

So once again to the naysayers, Go fuck yourselves....I'm playing with real money now and it's actually easier to play because people are now playing with common sense.