Can't beat the Muppets

I have decided that my online poker days are pretty much at an end.

I'm not playing enough poker to average out the odds of bad beats, muppet play, drunken pushes, all in bingo boys, clueless new players and yer general donks.

I intend to play more live games where the donk has to look you in the eye and actually hear the laughter his poor plays and pushes generate.

The way the standard of play at Ladbrokes has gone since going down the road of ipoker is quite unbelievable. I have looked at other sites and they are all going down the route of getting slots players and bingo players into the world of poker.

The more poor players there are the better you may think, but when you are looking at MTT's I don't believe this to be true. Whereas 2 or 3 years ago a 300 player MTT may contain 20% mines (donks) waiting patiently to blast yer ass to kingdom come with a 2 outer I now believe we are looking somewhere nearer 50-60%.

I mean lets face it if you are offered £1,000 to run blindfold through 1 of 2 minefields only a trumpet of the highest order would choose the one containing the most mines!

I believe there are less mines to contend with in live play than online.

Would appreciate any thoughts people may have on this.

maybe its time to try a different type of poker, I know many of the pro's now play omahi I do agree its harder to win regularly now since poker has exploded GL

Its a minefield m8, my comfort zone is $10 to $20 mtts. Almost chucked it thru them but got in the tank. U got to hit them pre flop.

first up khenny m8 - dont give up online poker altogether, mbe just take a break, come back fresher.

I know what youre saying about the idiots - a table full of idiots is no fun. But neither is a table full of aggressive pros. Personally id prefer a table full of pretty tight passive okish players lol.

Theres certainly more of this type of player in live games, but theres a fair few donkeys around as well, no matter where youre playing.

Try a few different variants, and a few different game types, a change is as good as a rest and all that...

gl on the tables whatever you do m8!

Are there any other sites that would present a better standard than Ladbrokes is now?

I enjoyed the mtt's on Laddies when it was an independant but the new version is just a joke.

One thing that any new site would have to have is good banking.

It is for mtt's and sng's that I would be using it so pros and cons for both would be nice.

I think your going to find Donkeymuffishlagtards where ever you travel now to be honest, and this is not always a bad thing gimme a table full of Fishtards on a $20+ rebuy any day (that maybe coz i feel at home though ).

That said i must say the standard of Laddies has slipped lower than a snakes belly, this is in part though to the type of "new" player the "Micrograbbing network" attracts and not always a bad thing but certainly frustrating getting mugged by 1 & 2 outer rivers, but would you feel the same if a top pro had made the same move ?.

So long as I have my money in good then i'll let them take worst of it and rely on variance and luck, painful as it maybe at the time, over the long term they will be the looser.

I get slagged down for suggesting this I know, but I truly think the days HUD stats software being the reserve of cash table players is long over and these are becoming an essential tool for the MTT player now, as just after 10 hands at a table the afore mentioned fools are just a ATM for personal abuse, even within a RB period of a tourney as most these donkeys cant change gear after the RB period ends

all IMO

lol at this whole thread

you dont like the fact that more donks are starting to play???!!!

i think ur right matey, just quit as you wont go far believeing that

its simple. if you are losing then its because you're bad at poker

ok toiletbrush... look at it like this. Imagine every tournament you played, every other person in the tourn went all in every hand. Do you think youd do well? No, because all the skill would be taken out of the game, and it would just be bingo. Well thats the problem with more idiots playing. Much better to have tight passive players than aggressive donkaments.

ToiletBrush wrote:lol at this whole thread

you dont like the fact that more donks are starting to play???!!!

i think ur right matey, just quit as you wont go far believeing that

its simple. if you are losing then its because you're bad at poker

I think you have the wrong idea of what the thread is about, as i see it khenny's views are not aimed at online poker as a whole but slanted towards the current situation at Ladbrokes.

Ladbrokes once had some of the toughest MTT fields going on a daily bases in what can only be described as penny games $3 - $33 bracket, the field size's were never large but the quality of player within those fields were high, the sad fact is over the past 18months the quality of the site (not the players) shrinking GTD's and the total wipeout of some of the best games has resulted in 60% of the quality players being scattered to the winds, Laddies can't fill this void with top players/the old guard, there is just no value there, they have tried with the network change over special tourneys, which I must say were good to see some old faces, but this was very short lived and then the rakerace which only succeeded in attracting the multi tab cash shortstackers.

So in all the whole structure of the site/games/players & customer service has changed and not for the better, the void left has been filled by a mixture of player types but DONKS do seem to have made up the larger part.
Fish we love as there easy money but DONKS are fools and become a nightmare.

A DONK can't see past the 2 cards he holds and would believe he was good for a coin flip when he had 1 outer, even a Fish thinks about there play a little even if there on the wrong path.

So as poker pays my Tesco bill, mortgage, holidays blah blah blah why on gods sweet earth would I willingly want to sit with DONKS ? I want to earn money not have to coin flip every hand with them.

IMO

I understand where you are Khenny having been there myself.

I had a similar story felling that Laddies was ruined and went to throw my chips around elsewhere predominatly Pokerstars. I tried plenty of other sites and ultimately they are very similar in terms of player quality. I used to have a theory that a pair was more likely to stand up against overcards on Stars than Laddies. But honestly it was my paranoia and ultimately the way i was playing.

If the minefield analogy is a good one then the bigger the minefield the more likely you are to get hit. This is a problem at sites elsewhere such as stars where the field are huge. This offers massive wins but much greater variance and longer streaks. With such deep fields there are plenty of muppets in various guises which requires a lot of bullet dodging. However I found the major problem was the payment structure paying too many people too little. Finishing in the top 50 with 2000 runners can pay pennies

Now I have completed my psyco therapy and realised that Laddies didnt specifically want me to lose I have returned. I like the field sizes that make winning realistic. If I'm honest the absence of some of the very good players is good for the roll.

I have downloaded a superb spreadsheet which manages my poker results superbly. It helps me realise that streaks ebb and flow and that long term profitability is the bottom line. This can be difficult to see when in a bad streak. I would recommend working out your profit over the last few months and taking some reassurrance from that.

Best of luck m8 your a good player and you will win long term.

Again all IMO.

Thanks for taking the time to reply guys. I appreciate all your comments and advice.

I think I will play live and perhaps give online a rest for a while and return in a few months. Still well up for DTD in August and can't wait to meet up with you guys and have a pint or 8.

wildrick wrote:ok toiletbrush... look at it like this. Imagine every tournament you played, every other person in the tourn went all in every hand. Do you think youd do well? No, because all the skill would be taken out of the game, and it would just be bingo. Well thats the problem with more idiots playing. Much better to have tight passive players than aggressive donkaments.

move up levels then to where they respect your raises and stop playing retarded $5 rebuys imo

any tournament between $1 and $100 is pretty much the same on each site, there's certainly no more respect for raises, in fact there is often less. The only place where a raise gets respected constantly is live.

wildrick wrote:any tournament between $1 and $100 is pretty much the same on each site, there's certainly no more respect for raises, in fact there is often less. The only place where a raise gets respected constantly is live.

Which is why I'll be plying me trade in the live arena for a while.

It's the fact that the guy has to look you in the eye and either show he has outplayed you or fold and spare himself the blushes of being bare ass spanked in front of a live crowd.

What you say with regard the buy-in level is very true m8. I rarely played the larger mtt's but when I did the rebuys at $50 and above were treated pretty much the same as those $20 and below. The only time I enjoyed good quality poker from start to finish was either in the Daddy or in weekly finals for live events.

Thanks for the input toilet brush I know it musta been an effort to type such a long winded reply.

np

Have to agree with cleric in terms of laddies mtt field sizes ie that they're not too large, Which is why i think its still ok, altho i agree it was better b4. Making profit on mtts is always gonna be a thing of variance, but massive fields just increase that. As long as you get your chps in right then it will end up as profit in the medium/long term. Patience required obv (and irritation along the way)...

great topic, ive read and posted on other sites about this and each time i get its only variance ,i agree with most posts on here difference between the fish you can play pots,aggresive donks commit you to coin flips ,ok your ahead pf, its not a matter of getting lucky its a matter of not being unlucky,
would be nice if poker could take a lot of the badbeats out of the game,ive always liked the idea of what the big cash games agree on sometimes ,run the flop 2 or 3 times, this would take the badbeats out of the game, i wish this was practical and pokersites used this for all ins for the rest of the cards flopped, never going to happen but i would not object if it did.