Morale Support Needed

[rp_Froggy 0]

***Edit - Should be noted that most of this was written from a cash game or deep stack portion of a tourney perspective.Tswing could have been gentler, but his post makes a lot of sense. The question you and the OP are asking is not one that an inexperienced player can ask and expect to understand the answer to.Most people that have an understanding of what I believe you are getting at have put in thousands of hours and figured it out for themselves. As you climb in stakes, you may find that players play even more “bizarre” hands in a particular position with certain players in a hand. The range of hands played by better players expands as the competition gets better. Otherwise the game would stagnate and be a card catching exercise.You can’t sit and wait for premium hands and bet with the nuts and expect to make a profit at higher levels. Players will quickly figure you out and will never pay you. On the other hand they will not be employing that strategy either. The cards are secondary at higher level with playing position and the other players being more important. That must be learned, period! You can’t ask “how do I play a more complex game at higher stakes and expect to understand the answer. Just as I can’t ask a brain surgeon how to go about removing a tumor because I have learned to draw blood and am no ready to try some surgery.On the other hand, at low stakes you can and should do exactly what I stated you can not do against experienced players in the above paragraph. Play premium hands or slightly less than premium hands when in position and wait for your opportunities. The donks will hand you their money if you are patient. Don’t be afraid to fold! If you have AA and a scary flop comes and some idiot goes all in on the flop AGAIN, it is ok to let it go. Bide your time and wait to flop sets, top pair with flush or straight draws, or straight flush draws, and then play back at them and take all their chips. Once you get a solid understanding of how to exploit the weaker players and are doing so consistently, you will begin to understand the answer to the question you are asking. Only then should you move up one level and learn the nuances of a slightly higher level of play. We were all at a point where we said, “I have read a book and understand starting hands and pot odds” and felt the only difference between you and a higher stakes player is they have a bigger bankroll. Most of us learn that is not the cases by taking a shot at a game outside both our bankroll and skill level and getting our *** handed to us. A few learn by mastering each level and moving up slowly. Either approach will give you an education but if you decide to take a shot be sure to have a source of funds to replenish your roll.This is a long response that I know does not give you the magic answer you are looking for. I can tell you that many players who are new to a higher stake or taking a shot comment on the loose crazy play they are shocked to see at a higher level. The difference is there is a method to the madness at higher levels. At higher levels the second you begin to believe you are superior to another player since you would never play that 46o you just saw him show down against Ace high, that player will have all of your chips. So in closing when will players stop playing “trash” hands? Never! The players will just play those hands masterfully and for a reason for the most part at higher levels. The reason will likely be that you have shown you only play HOH hands and when they have position on you and hit their hand a little harder than you do, you will be dead meat! So enjoy it while the “trash” hands are being played because people are idiots and can be exploited.Ok, this it too long to proof, so apologies for errors.

If you are all in pre-flop with AA. Yes you are winning but would you rather be in against one player or 5 because it drasticly changes your odds. That's what we are talking about. Why do some people feel the need to be Dickheads here all the time!

[Smiddywap 0]

You will never get away from people playing trash. Generally, the skill level goes up as the stakes increase but there's always individuals with little skill who play, no matter the stakes.As has been already advised, you want to play against these people and everyone plays like a donk in freerolls.If you're looking for a tidy answer: push with J10 off because in the long run you're +EV of fun.

[iggymcfly 0]

I was just talking about this exact thing the other day to someone who's played a lot higher than me. (I didn't bring it up for the record; I do understand poker.) Anyway, he was talking about how no matter what level you're playing at, people always will make calls that bother you if you get pissed off about suckouts. His quote was: "if you're playing 80/160, people will say 'you'd never make that call at 300/600'." I think the basic idea's true. Suckouts will happen so play you're game and you'll come out ahead in the long run. If you just want to learn how to play the game properly though, I'd suggest starting out with the $10+1 SnGs and MTTs.If you want to make your money by being more aggressive and clever than your opponents rather than just tighter, you'll probably have to move to at least the $50+5s and maybe the $70+7s.

[MikeR 0]

How many hours have you wasted in freerolls? Those hours should have been spent working some job, and then you'd have a small amount to start with. If you really understand pot odds and read up on the game you should deposit cash and start playing limit, or $5 sngs. Even microlimits have better players than freerolls, and at least in the microlimits you're making money.Also keep records when you start playing for real money, and start looking at your game over the long run.

[BearCanada 0]

Irrelevant. Poker is a game of imperfect information. It is only relevant whether a hand is 52-48 or 49-51 if you know EXACTLY what a player is holding. Just as the poster who said AA is 35% was close enough. Running hands through a calculator is only helpful to get you close and for study. Are you going to make a different decision against five players with a possible 5% difference in your odds? Very unlikely.

I feel like I need to clarify,For me, I'm hoping that at a certain monetary level people won't call an all-in pre-flop because "what the hell", I'm looking that level where if three players are all-in pre-flop the 4th guy with 8-9 suited doesn't call because hey his cards are suited. I'm fine with players playing a wide variet of hands with intent and reason. I'm even fine losing money for awhile while I learn to be a better player, for a while. But I think that taking a slight step up will A) help me be a better player long term and B) end the frustration of rediculous play just for the sake of pure gambling versus some sort of stratedgy even bad statedgy because again at least then you learn something. I can lose money on bad beats and suckouts to good card players and still want to play poker. I hate losing money to gamblers who take a shot because hey any two cards can win after all. I'm not sure if this clears it up anymore.Also, the point isn't that you are going to change your decision based on the 5% the point is that the fewer people you have in the pot when you go all-in pre flop with the best hand, the better your chances of winning. When you play with better players they are less likely to call your all in unless they have a hand that is worthy of calling someone's all-in pre-flop bet. So in the case where you have all your chips pushed in pre-flop with AA you don't want 5 players calling you with various random hands because they think "what the hell", you want one, maybe two callers who you are going to have seriously dominated with a much better percentage of winning then 35%. For me it's not percieved poor starting hand selection that frustrates me, it's bet's with no sense or stratedgy behind them that bug me. At a certain level I'd like to think most players act with stratedgy, intent and purpose. Win or lose, those are the players I want to play with because I love playing poker. Bear