The Poker/2+2 FAQ

[bisonbison]

Without further ado, I've launched my nascent poker FAQ.

stompandcrush.com (http://www.stompandcrush.com)

At the moment, it's got literally one question and one answer, but I'll be adding to it constantly, and hopefully it'll fill up quick. It's purpose? To give you somewhere to point new posters, curious friends and dubious whatevers so that they can get their basic questions about poker, the twoplustwo forums, the twoplustwo books, the hand converter and a bunch of other stuff answered. A new forum member or new poker player should be able to go there and get his or her questions answered in a direct, private and condescending manner. Hopefully, it'll cut down the crap content on the forum and keep micro for what micro is for: strategy posts.

There's no back end to the site right now, but I'm hoping to get it built pretty quick to make submitting and updating the FAQ simple. For the moment, if you've got a question you'd like to see answered you can PM me or post it in this thread.

If you'd like to write up an answer yourself, I'll give you credit (though I will edit it) - just PM it to me or, again, post it here.

Thanks in advance for any questions you want to suggest, and thanks to Asusfull for scaring me into getting it live. This had been sitting around for a couple of months, and I'd like to actually get it going.

[tech]

--What books should I read?
--Does anyone really beat these games?
--How do you keep people from sucking out on you?
--Are AQo and JJ worth a raise?
--What are the differences between the a/b and c/d levels on Party?

...more to come. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

EDIT: I can attempt to write an "answer" for these if you want. I just thought I would start to generate the list of questions first. Thanks for taking on this task Bison.

[prayformojo]

One I had when I started:

What limits are included in small stakes, micro, and mid-high?

[AsusFull]

Feel free to correct me but here is my 2 cents:

I don't think that the FAQ should be concerned about poker advice very much, if at all.

bisonbison's one little question right now: "What are the different 2+2 forum's for?" is the PERFECT category of questions we should be putting in this FAQ for the forums. What is needed more than anything for 2+2 is a guide to using the forums, how to post hands, maybe explaining weird terms and obscure references("Ed Miller told me to call!").

Remember the old phrase "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and he'll never be hungry."(may not be an exact quote). We should be giving a guideline of how to use the forum to their best advantage, rather than giving specific poker advice.

Of course, I think a plug for a few books, like the 2+2 ones, and WLLH and Ed Miller's book is a good idea /images/graemlins/smile.gif . After all we are on the 2+2 forums!

I actually did start cobbling a FAQ together, and it's here. (http://userpages.umbc.edu/~lizhang1/FAQ.txt)

If you guys could check this out, that would kick ass. And of course, feedback. I'm not trying to start my own faq, that's retarded. I just wanted to compile a list of things that a new poster would need to know in order to start posting and looking at other people's hands.

Oh yeah, I also took the direct quote from uuDevil on the lasat post about this FAQ, which was a quote from Ed Miller's post. Obviously we'd need permission from him to use it, but that NEEDS to be in the faq!

[sthief09]

raise AJs, KQs, AKo, AQo, AQs, and JJ preflop 100% of the time if there's no raise in front of you.

it's so aggravating having to sift through posts where people limp with hands that they should be autoraising.

[sfer]

Dude, your name is Peter?

[bisonbison]

I refuse to be known by an internet forum name outside of said internet forum.

You got a problem with that, Wendell?

[sfer]

Petey,

I vote for every FAQ to end with "Do you see why?" I'll let others elaborate.

Dave-O

[detruncate]

--I've played x number of hands (yes, I know it's a small sample size, but...) please take a look at my PT stats and tell me where I'm going wrong.

I suggest we compile an "Understanding Your PT Stats" section. Posting ranges for each stat and what it suggests about your play. I think most everyone has had the urge to post their stats for comment at some point.

The conclusions would of course be mrerely suggestive, but any insight about how to interpret the numbers being generated would no doubt be welcome to posters and lurkers alike.

[detruncate]

If we get a conversation going about what the important stats in PT suggest about a person's play, we can probably hammer out a rough consensus without too much difficulty (and be over and done with it). No reason our excellent host should be faced with all the work. Pick a stat and have at it.

[uuDevil]

Below are some topics I think could go into a FAQ. In most cases there are posts that address the topic very well. I guess the FAQ could just point to those posts.

One question I have is: Do we need to be concerned at all about getting approval of 2+2 to do this?

PSYCHOLOGY
Losing streaks
Tilt, and how not to go on
Should I show my cards?

BOOKS/SOFTWARE
Book reviews
What book should I read next?
Turbo Texas Holdem

INTERNET GAMBLING (Zoo)
What is the best site?
Is Party down?
Spam
Affiliates
Bonus whoring
Taxes
Are the games getting tougher?
Multiple accounts
Rake
Bots
Pattern Maps

GENERAL/MICRO/SMALL STAKES
Starting Hands
Is it bad to have too many fish in the game?
The long run, how many hands?
PokerTracker:
- Is it worth it
- Evaluate my stats
Multitabling
Play against a maniac
Bad beats
How to post
How to respond to a post

BEGINNERS
Terminology, e.g. "What does CO mean?"
What are pot/implied/effective odds?
What size bankroll?
How do I get an avatar?
Can I learn playing for play money?

PROBABILITY
What are the odds:
- of XX 3 hands in a row?
- of making a flush on the turn?
- of losing XX hands in a row?
I am a winning player?
Why don't we consider the cards in our opponents hands?
Am I a winning player?
Risk of ruin

[bisonbison]

One question I have is: Do we need to be concerned at all about getting approval of 2+2 to do this?

I don't see why. I won't be reproducing any copyrighted material. If Mason or David dropped me a line and said "please don't do X", I'd give it some thought, but I don't think we'll be stepping on any toes. I don't plan on providing in-depth strategy guides or reprinting the hand groupings from HEPFAP.

[uuDevil]

[ QUOTE ]
One question I have is: Do we need to be concerned at all about getting approval of 2+2 to do this?

I don't see why. I won't be reproducing any copyrighted material. If Mason or David dropped me a line and said "please don't do X", I'd give it some thought, but I don't think we'll be stepping on any toes. I don't plan on providing in-depth strategy guides or reprinting the hand groupings from HEPFAP.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ok. Just FYI, below is something relevant from the 2+2 "Terms and Conditions." I'm guessing providing a link does not constitute "reproduction."

[ QUOTE ]
All other trademarks and copyrights appearing on the 2+2 website are owned by their respective companies. Copyrights to all posts on the 2+2 website are owned by the authors of the posts, and not by 2+2 or ConJelCo. If you want to reproduce a 2+2 website post in a publication or on another web site, please get permission from the author of the post.

[/ QUOTE ]

[AsusFull]

uuDevil, I understand that it would be cool to have a general poker FAQ with all this info about poker and online poker and whatnot but check this out:

Where can you find information about online poker, how to play poker better, what bonuses to get, what the rake is, etc.?

Probably a lot of places. There are books that teach you how to play, and websites that give advice for online play.

Where can you find out how to collect and post a hand history on the 2+2 forums, and how to post it so that you encourage active discussion rather than results-oriented thinking?

There is no such way for a new poster to get this kind of information besides either going through the trial and error process themselves or making a post asking about how to post, or lurking for a long time and being very observant.

If we could speed this relatively simple to you and me process of posting hands and where to post them, or even like bison suggested in the previous /images/graemlins/spade.gif post, improve the quality of posts at 2+2(by delaying results posting for instance), that would make the forum more useful to more people, make it easier to browse through hands and give suggestions, and suggestions would be more pertinent.

I think that's the most important thing that needs to be in a 2+2 FAQ.

[uuDevil]

[ QUOTE ]
If we could speed this relatively simple to you and me process of posting hands and where to post them, or even like bison suggested in the previous post, improve the quality of posts at 2+2(by delaying results posting for instance), that would make the forum more useful to more people, make it easier to browse through hands and give suggestions, and suggestions would be more pertinent.

I think that's the most important thing that needs to be in a 2+2 FAQ.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

But I see no reason not to go beyond this. As I recall, bisonbison first brought up the FAQ idea months ago and got some good suggestions from Lori and others. If it takes several more months to produce a decent general FAQ, that's ok. I'll take what I can get when I can get it.

But the need for it is growing. There are now 4x the number of people here as there were when I registered a year ago. With so many new people coming along, a good general FAQ would help keep the quality up.

Really I wish 2+2 would create a good official FAQ, but that doesn't seem to be happening, so I'm glad bisonbison is taking the initiative. How far he wants to go with it is of course up to him.

[jacki]

FAQs

Are the sites rigged?
Sounds stupid to you and me, but it might help clear up newbies misconceptions.

Should I worry about cheating?

Is my money safe in an online poker account?

[AsusFull]

Actually know that I've had a nap, I think you're right. Having a general FAQ with basic poker advice and that kind of stuff may cut down on the number of "stupid questions" and questions that have been answered hundreds of times.

It would save the embarassment of the posters for asking these questions and increase signal to noise ratio. I guess I got caught up in the moment. No hard feelings. /images/graemlins/heart.gif

[Greg J]

Good point jacki, but I think there are ways of addressing these issues without delving into conspiracy theories. For example, a question could instead be:

Which sites are the most reliable regarding the integrity of the game and safty of my deposit?

How do poker sites properly randomize (i.e "shuffle") thier cards?

What are online sites doing about the possibility of collaboration between players?

Or something like that like that. This will encourage newer players to focus reasonable concerns in a rational manner.

[AsusFull]

Sounds like the Lori FAQ (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=inet&Number=212027&Forum=A ll_Forums&Words=attempt%20faq&Match=And&Searchpage =0&Limit=25&Old=1year&Main=212027&Search=true#Post 212027)
If any of you are interested in a blast from the past:this is the old bisonbison FAQ thread (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=511187&page=&view=&sb=5&o =&vc=1)

A lot of the questions have already been answered in the past, but they need to be compiled and edited.

[tiltaholic]

Hi
Sorry if someone's already suggested this:
How about a link to/ description of/ explanation of references to classic 2+2 threads that everyone is always asked to be pointed toward?
(even though the favorite threads thread is out there...)

common references from my current newb stage:
"fearing the flush"
"taking off the training wheels"
"bet the flop" and various varieties thereof
more will come to me...

I love the faq site/idea/initiative. Would like to help out in any possible way.
-t

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

[ QUOTE ]
--I've played x number of hands (yes, I know it's a small sample size, but...) please take a look at my PT stats and tell me where I'm going wrong.

I suggest we compile an "Understanding Your PT Stats" section. Posting ranges for each stat and what it suggests about your play. I think most everyone has had the urge to post their stats for comment at some point.

The conclusions would of course be mrerely suggestive, but any insight about how to interpret the numbers being generated would no doubt be welcome to posters and lurkers alike.

[/ QUOTE ]
This is excellent and I 2nd, 3rd, and 4th this suggestion. I also suggest that any question that's not 100% straightforward ("what does CO mean?") be put up for comments and discussion here first and a consensus answer/summary be paraphrased in the FAQ.

Also, I highly doubt any newbie will find his way to this faq just out of the blue. Perhaps it can be worked out with 2+2 to have some sort of link to it at the top of the forums or somewhere that they'll see it and be able to go there first.

Otherwise, we'll still get all the same threads, only they'll go something like:
"Hey, long time lurker, first time poster. What beats a flush and I've got 426 hands in PT - how come I'm losing with AQo?"
"Look at the faq, newb!"
"Hey fuckface! Answer the poor guy's question - you were a newbie once too!"
"FAQ you!"
"FAQ you! I went to MIT!"
"Yeah, well I have 3 degrees, scored a 1599 on my SAT, and a 2397549765497 on the GRE, the LSATs, and the QRSBWEs all on the same day, plus I was drunk and came home at 4:00am to a note from my mom to remember to bring my ID to the SATs"
"Who cares? Only stuck up geeks who think they're the highest form of genius, yet can't tie their shoes in the morning care to remember what they scored on some aptitude test"
"My animals will kill you"
"Take it to the zoo, you spamming piece of [censored]"
"Needs more cowbell!"
etc... You get the idea.

Also, I think there needs to be something about where one might find a brown trout.


edit: Good work on the faq, Bison - I'm sure it'll be a great tool and very much appreciated when it's really up and running.

[solring]

I would add the recently created "top 2+2 posts list" (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=732981&page=17&view=colla psed&sb=5&o=14&fpart=1#Post828495732981) to the recommended reading list.

[B Dids]

More thoughts.

A central location for 2+2 wisdom and injokes. Like Clarkmeister's Flush Theorum, Shania, FNTF.

Info on the 2_2 tables. Times, locations, maybe even the weeks table and password if that's not a pain.

Potentially cheesy- but I'll throw it out, poster bios, pics, links to websites and what not?

A page devoted to JSD's Guide to straddling, with Caro-esque pics.

[dfscott]

[ QUOTE ]
Info on the 2_2 tables. Times, locations, maybe even the weeks table and password if that's not a pain.


[/ QUOTE ]

I think this would be great, but I'm worried about the burden of keeping it updated.

[bisonbison]

I'm gonna just say what it is and where to find the info.

[B Dids]

bump.

This is a good idea- let's not let it get burried.