Texas Holdem Poker

Guest · Guest

I was playing at party poker in a $10 NL with 5 and 10 cent blinds(BIG MONEY, lol)game last night and something I never really thought about happened.

The board flops Q9Q22

It came down to 2 of us and we both had a full house Q's high, neither one of us had a 9.

We both go mad betting at it and end up putting about $10 dollars each into the pot.

Well, someone sarcastically says "Good job fellas Party poker won that pot." I didn't know what he was talking about until I looked at my money and I actually lost money. It wasn't much maybe 20 cent.

I honestly didn't think he had the 9 to make a higher full house and I felt pretty sure we were going to split it and it was a waste of time for us to keep on raising each other but I didn't no it was possible to actually lose money on a split pot.

Is there a general rule to bettting to prevent losing money to the rake on a pot you know that's going to be split?

webmaster · Site Admin Joined: Nov 26, 2003 Posts: 643

There are a couple of point to make here:

1) You never know a pot is going to be split until it actually is. You didn't have the nut hand here, as your opponent could have had Q9, and also there are a lot of people especially at the low limit tables that would have gone allin with a full house 222QQ (losing to your higher QQQ22)

2) Your loss would almost always be mitigated by the blinds and raises or calls that others have put in up to that point. It's rare to actually lose money or hit situations like this heads up.

Party rake is high at 5%, and higher than the other sites I feature here. That's offset by the fact that you have more fish to play against and more game choice than anywhere else. If you want a lower rake room you should try switching to Aspinalls or Titan who operate lower rake but as I've just said there's a trade off and pros and cons to each of these rooms. In the end there was no way for you to not lose your 20c in this example, but such a loss caused by quite a rare set of circumstances arises and upsets you then you ought not to be playing poker. The unexpected can, and will hit you both positive and negative - thats the beauty of poker.

Guest · Guest

Thanks, for the reply and suggestions. Your right, I couldn't be for sure he didn't have the 9.

I had another couple of questions I meant to ask:

1)If the table was to flop a royal flush would it be a split for everyone? I'm assuming yes.

2)If the table flops a four of a kind of anything with a ace would this be a split for everyone? I'm assuming yes.

I read alot of the topics on winning hands on here and you always say the 5 best cards. That's why I'm assuming the answer to be yes.

Great site by the way. This is in my opinion the most informative site by far on how to play the game.
Thanks

webmaster · Site Admin Joined: Nov 26, 2003 Posts: 643

Thanks for the complement Guest. The site is a 3 year work and growing all the time - sign up as a member. All that means is that I send you invites to freeroll poker tournaments. I don't send you spam, and I don't hand your email address to anyone. It's simply a way for me to round up a decent game, and I plan to off freerolls twice a month from January.

The answer to both your questions is yes. You'll never see a Royal Flush on the board because the odds agains it are long in the extreme. I've seen one once (from 7 cards not 5) in all the years I've been playing this game. I would add I didn't have it!

I do repeat the best 5 of 7 thing a lot because it answers a lot of questions at once - you'll see lots of questions in the forum about the 6th or 7th card but they never come into play.

It would be nice if I could get more people to post in the forum. Todate it's only really been used by people who want me to answer a question, and I'm happy to respond to those (always within 24 hours). Hopefully my next addition will be taken up. I'm creating a poker diary that all members can use to record their experiences playing poker online. They can either keep it to themselves or publish it here in a blog. I know lots of people will be interested to read how others get on day to day - I just hope under the annonymity of their member name here players will utilise the function for the benefit of everyone. More on that when it's finished in the next week or so.

If you do nothing else, sign up as a member and you'll get my freeroll tourney invites. Cool

Texas Holdem Poker: Forums