Cold cards or do you just suck?

[Lebronomania]

A few years back, I was playing 5/10 at Harrahs in east chicago, just a newbie to the game. I lost a few hundred that night, which I did alot back then. During the game, this one guy, who I had talked to a couple times, looked at me and said, "You know, kid, some people are just not cut out to be good poker players." Well, I was so offended, and so convinced that I was just getting unlucky with my cards, that I was actually an okay poker player.

The bad news is that it turns out that the guy was right and I wasn't a good poker player. The good news is that I became a good poker player after a few more years of experience. So good that I can now make a living off of it.

How do you know whether you are a good player or not? You can either wait until you have enough data to be able to produce statistically significant results. Or, if you wanna know right now, just have a friend who you know is a good player examine your play. If I saw you play for just a thousand hands, I could tell you definitively whether you are a winning or losing player.

[Gildersneeze]

Well, when Chris (the calling station/fish) comes by and wants to sit in, I generally only play pairs JJ and up, suited Aces (but not A6, A7, A8, and A9, because they can't make a straight or straight flush), and high suited connectors (IMHO, 9Ts or higher).

With his unpredictability, that's all that you can do. Also, no betting for value until you have the nuts, let him handle that. See flops and any other board cards you can for as cheaply as possible until your monster is made, then raise, raise, raise, because he'll either call you or raise you. This guy almost never folds and usually just calls a raise. Make sure that at all times, if the board completely misses you, that you're able to walk away from a hand that you've risked money in, no matter what the pot odds are shouting to you. If you don't have the nuts, chances are this guy will show them to you just by dumb luck.

Remember, against this kind of guy, especially in head-up, position means nothing because he's just as unpredictable as a guy who was in the big blind and was able to just check to see cards. He'll call a bet with AKo as quickly as 38s when the board is 3-8-8. Doesn't matter.

Just consistently show this guy the nuts and he'll eventually run out of money.

[trillig]

If you never leave ahead, and you read a few books, and practice with software for a fair amount of time, and you still never leave ahead.

Rinse and repeat on practice...

If you still never leave ahead.... switch to another game.

Myself I can play almost any card game decently, except Canasta, I never took the time to learn it and don't know anyone who plays it at all.
I love playing cards .

If you don't have the love for the game and it's not fun for you:
Walk away...

If you still enjoy it, practice practice practice.... every dog has his day though... you can't ALWAYS lose, it's just not possible (with in reason).

-t