Ask me about poker!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Ask me about poker!

Ciaphas: Nov 20, 2005; > BEWARE, COWARD

Imaduck posted:

Online poker never has been illegal in the US, except in Washington state. The issue is that banks are afraid to work with online poker sites because the laws are ill-defined. Most of the poker sites that were shut down were closed because they misrepresented what they were doing to banks, which is very illegal. The government has never gone after players on any poker site.

Online poker is regulated in Nevada and New Jersey, and we're probably going to see more states jump on board in the next year or so.

If you're not in Nevada or NJ, your best bet for online poker is Bovada. It's not nearly as good as Poker Stars was in the glory days, but it always has games running at most stakes, and a few goons even make a living playing on there. There's also Carbon and Juicy Stakes, but they're less popular.

Getting money in or out of Bovada usually isn't too bad; most banks and credit cards will allow the transaction. There's also bitcoin if you want to do it anonymously.

That all being said, I would never keep a ton of money on there, as it is a foreign site and there's no guarantee that they won't just disappear. There is a growing fight for regulated online poker in the US. Hopefully it comes soon.

Yep, that was Jay Farber (JaySB)! He beat out 6,351 players to win $5.1 million for his second place finish. You can watch the whole main event here, and check out his heads up (where yes, he tried his hardest and got some lovely cards) here. Jay still does hotel /night club / party planning in Vegas, and is a frequent poster in the Las Vegas thread.

Do you recommend a particular online poker service if you do live in Nevada? (Or NJ for that matter but I'm in Vegas myself so :v:

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# ¿ Jun 1, 2016 03:49

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 12:11

Ciaphas: Nov 20, 2005; > BEWARE, COWARD

Imaduck posted:

As we discussed above, No Limit Hold'em is not a solved game. What you're talking about would basically be a bot that does everything but the actual clicking for you. Like I mentioned, bots right now seem to be pretty lovely, so this probably wouldn't be helpful.

There is a lot of software out there to help you with your game. Pro Poker Tools has some free, online hand simulators that can tell you how much equity your hand has against other hands (like the percentages you see on TV poker). If you have a good idea about the types of hands your opponent has, you can figure out your chance of winning the hand if it goes to showdown. There are also HUDs that help you keep statistics on your opponents, like how many hands they're playing and how often they continuation bet like Poker Tracker. Poker tracking software also lets you keep track of your own hands for later analysis, and has a few built-in tools to help you with that.

But no, there's no "push a button, tell me what to do" software. Most poker sites have it written in their rules that those are illegal, even if they did exist. There's a reason people pay hundreds of dollars an hour for training and hand analysis.

Poker Tracker automatically hooks into e.g. WSOP's software and gives you the reports and this isn't cheating? Whaaaa?

(edit) Random side note: wow the wsop software uses WISE installer, I haven't seen that in a fuckin' dog's age

(edit again) oh I guess it is in fact illegal in Nevada. Question still applies for other areas though, jeez, just seems like a huge advantage to those in the know that such software exists.

Ciaphas fucked around with this message at 01:12 on Jun 4, 2016

# ¿ Jun 4, 2016 01:01

Ciaphas: Nov 20, 2005; > BEWARE, COWARD

I suppose one nice thing about online poker is that I can alt tab and stare at Cheat Sheets For Stupid People With Bad Memories all I need, like remembering that 'no, A9o is actually kind of not great' for example :v:

# ¿ Jun 6, 2016 03:50

Ciaphas: Nov 20, 2005; > BEWARE, COWARD

I played in one of the WSOP nevada freebie online tourneys yesterday and now I remember why I stopped going to poker rooms: it's pretty bloody loving boring 99% of the time. I saw 12% of flops which I guess is about right, but that meant most of the time I was ticking 'fold' for when my turn came around and alt tabbing to watch youtube or whatever. Not an option in live rooms, which are slower than online anyway.

I wonder if cash games instead of tourneys would be any different, but I'd rather not spend a lot of money on it, so I probably won't find out.

Question for the thread: how do you stay entertained at the table when it's boring? How much attention do you pay before you stop caring? I know I should be watching the other people's actions but really there's only so much I can learn at my novice level, and it's just not interesting to me if I've already decided I'm out. :shrug:

# ¿ Jun 6, 2016 22:46

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Ask me about poker!