Poker Software - All in or All out?

[lesbolove]

Ever noticed that certain sites will produce bad beats more than others..?
Ever noticed that certain sites will produce far more huge hands on a more regular basis....?
Ever got p***'d off at continually losing to the underdog...?
Is this such a bad thing for poker...?

Having been playing poker (mainly texas holdem) online regularly for about a year now, and offline for many many...many years, I have found myself fairly well equipped to judge the inaccuracies of online poker hands. Bearing in mind the larger tables and the more hands played per game i have found that there is an unrealistic proportion of large hands being drawn - therefore countering the odds of such hands/cards actually hitting.

Assuming that most online players (due to the recent massive poker infusion) have learnt to play via these sites, and may have read books or articles on tactics and odds, then there are a hell of a lot of people out there who wrongly believe that what they do and how they play is correct - according to playing the percentages.

I believe this to be the cause of the 'lottery poker' style of play, the 'all-iners', the 'hit & hopers', the 'flush chasers' and the 'gut shot drawers'.

Does this induce a different style of play?...and if so is this style effective?....or is it detremental to poker??

I have found that the newer sites, especially the next gen ones, have a much more realistic card distribution and therefore a higher overall percentage similarity, but they still seem to operate on a bad beat overkill setting - and they will favour the underdog in an all-in situation 70-80% of the time. The more experienced players will know which cards to play or throw to give them the best chance of success and let lady luck take her course (but will also know that an all-in scenario should be avoided unless you are controlling it).

I am finding more and more that this kind of 'dumb luck' is nullifying the skills that better players have acquired and generating a more gung ho influx of players.

Is this a good thing or not? I'm not sure yet, however the last few live tourneys i played in, where there were 100-200 players, it was laughable to spot the obvious fish (they were the ones who were either propping up the bar - or hidden behind a wall of chips at round 2)

I would be interested to hear any comments regarding any of these matters -and i do have some considerable evidence that certain sites may be able to control the payout percentages to individuals

[scrawnybob]

hi

I think quite a few live players have commented that the online players have thrown the live game into a whole new way of playing

good or bad ? diffferent definately

The thing is that alot of the game IS luck and LUCKY cards - live and online

Yet the professionals seem to consistently come out on top in the long game

Both online and offline

But the pro's know how to ride out the bad luck and make the absolute most of the good luck

that does come down to skill - the way most of the players play online they are maximising the amount of luck at the table against your skill

9 idiots going to the river will almost always win out against the best hand preflop - the skill is in getting the luck out and the chips in IMHO

sometimes I think - hell I ws having a great run until I cashed out - now its all gone to pot -
Then I think about the hands and realise that actually while I was winning I didnt really get loads of great starting hands - I just played wisely and made the most of what I had and got out when I was behind

Then after I'd cashed out a profit I played badly (although it seems I was playing the same ) - I was lax, less observant, more confident without reason to be - and then you play even the good hands badly - getting greedy - keeping players in because hell - I have aces - I want all their money

so much of poker is variable - hand histories alone wont give you a fair picture IMHO

cheers scrawnybob - webmaster