Online Poker Forum - Pre Flop Play

Philbird1 · Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 12:45 pm Post subject: Pre Flop Play

For the pro play. Play 100 consecutive hands........8 or 9 handed.
If I am at a table, taking this challange and two or three people leave, or sit out, does it reset the counter?
Do I need to continue to play till more people show up? Or move to a different table?
TY

vectorspace · Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 5:46 pm Post subject:

Yes. Unfortunately, if you are dealt into a hand with less than 8 players, then the counter will reset. 100 hands is not that many though. I wouldn't really worry about it. If you are worried about the counter resetting, then uncheck "auto post blinds". That way you can manually post your blinds when enough people are at the table and choose to sit out when there aren't. As long as you aren't dealt into the hand, then the counter doesn't change. Oh, and you can switch tables all you want. The counter will just pick up where you left off. Don't post your BB out of turn though. That will reset the counter I believe.

Also, if you're multitabling at say 4 tables, then playing 25 hands at each of the tables will qualify assuming they're all 8 handed or more.

NoTilt · Royal Flush Joined: 16 Apr 2009 Posts: 839

Really? The counter resets? It's been ages since I finished this challenge, but I'm pretty sure the counter stays the same if you're dealt into a 7 handed hand. No advancing, and no zeroing. I could be wrong tho'. I always played 9-max tables and never kept track of players at the table.

I do know that the counter can be advanced quickly by multitabling. Also, if you choose to "pause" this challenge and move to another, it will "remember" how many hands you've done. This is all vague empirical evidence; your results may differ. Plus they're constantly closing loopholes and tinkering to improve tasks.

wildqat · Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 3:38 am Post subject:

I concur with NoTilt. I recently did this challenge, and I had plenty of tables shrink down to 7- with no problems.

vectorspace · Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 12:00 am Post subject:

Philbird1 · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 4:30 pm Post subject:

Philbird1 · Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 8:14 am Post subject:

Having a difficult time with this challange!
1. I don't think it's very realistic to expect everyone to fold to you for the first three tasks. Seven or eight people are not going to fold in front of you. And if they do it's at a higher stakes game. Why must everyone fold to you? Why not just raise with these hands?

Raise or fold 100 hands....... This task prooved costly! Open limping is NOT always a bad idea.
2. It gives you an idea of the strength of another player's hand. Let's say you want to look at a J 10 suited, cheap. It happens all the time in professional play!! I've seen Chris do it himself.
Did anyone who took this task on profit? I found myself folding some great hands cause they were questionable preflop.

Grrrrr

NoTilt · Royal Flush Joined: 16 Apr 2009 Posts: 839

For #1, you're absolutely right. People just don't fold at lower stakes games, because they don't know any better. You see people open limping with 95o because they "have a feeling" they'll get two pair, or "just because it's cheap - nobody's raised yet, so it's only 2 cents." You want to punish those open limpers by raising - perhaps even raising with crap yourself. In his lesson, Gus even talks about REraising with crap to punish people who raise with crap. It's all about "leveling", which is a cool game theory idea.

The other problem I had with #1 was remembering to raise 2.5 times in the middle position. I'm so roboting with my 3x raises that I sometimes forgot.

For #2, JTs might be playable even for a raise. You probably don't lose a whole lot of EV by folding it, tho'. You don't want to limp with suited connectors and suited aces, and raise with PP or two broadway cards. That's telegraphing your hand strength to your opponents. Raising with all categories disguises that.

Also, remember that the task specificalyl refers to never OPEN limping. I think you can complete the task doing the following actions:

1) Calling a raise. You don't have to re-raise a raise, you can call it.
2) Calling ANOTHER limper. If 4 people have limped in already, I think you can limp too, and it won't reset the counter.

Philbird1 · Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 4:24 pm Post subject:

Didn't know 1 and 2 you mentioned at the bottom of your post, TY. Hmmm, I'd like to spank a few bluffers with a bluff, but man, I have a hard enough time semi bluffing. I'll consider it.

wildqat · Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 2:46 pm Post subject:

Philbird1 · Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 4:51 pm Post subject:

Points well taken, TY

Rincevent · High Card Joined: 25 Apr 2008 Posts: 9

there is something I don't understand with the challenge !?

I've activated it a while ago. I've played about 200 hands in cash game normal holdem no limit. I've done a turbo and normal holdem no limit MTT with more than 150 hands each (about 120 hands without the blinds). I've still not completed the pro task.

_ I've never OPEN limp except on the small blind (but they are ignored in the description).

Does that mean I need to see the flop to validate a hand or a folded one is taken in count ? I'm lost.

KronX · Pot Committed Joined: 10 Jan 2007 Posts: 5072

Rincevent · High Card Joined: 25 Apr 2008 Posts: 9

muktuk2 · Flush Joined: 09 Dec 2006 Posts: 136 Location: belgium

didn't have a problem to complete the challenge 10 times in about a week

I never play cash games, i like tourney's more. Don't even feel so much for holdem, omaha 8ob is my game so it cost me about 5 bucks...

But i managed to pull the full holiday bonus (100$) by cashing 5000 challenge points into 5000 ftp, so i would recommend this to anyone Smile

You have to be patient and play (and thus fold) A LOT OF hands, but in all it is one of the easiest to multiply achieve (and best 'paying') challenges they offer imo...

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