Hi guys,
I've decided to start taking poker more seriously and I’d like to get some expert opinions on some hands and situation I'm coming across.

At the moment I play on Party Poker only. It’s often mentioned that the PP blind structure is flawed. Could someone elaborate on this for me? Should I look to be playing more on other sites with better blind structures if I want to take NL more seriously and improve my game?

Nothing too special for the first couple of hands, just a couple of simple situations...

Hand #1

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $ BB (9 handed)

Hero ($52.1)
MP3 ($37.85)
UTG ($135.45)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with , . CO posts a blind of $1. SB posts a blind of $0.5.
UTG raises to $5, 3 folds, MP3 calls $5, 4 folds.

Flop: ($12.50) , , (2 players)
UTG checks, MP3 bets $6, UTG folds.

Final Pot: $18.50

No showdown. MP3 wins $18.50.

Was this just stupidly weak? I was kinda glad that I folded when I saw the flop. UTG was LA-A so I maybe shouldn’t have given him too much credit for a hand (his PFR% was 12%), he was running over the table and I hadn’t seen him show down a hand. Is this a situation where I should call and muck if the flop isn’t favourable or should I really be re-raising with a premium holding like this?

Hand # 2

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $ BB (9 handed)

Hero ($72.35)
BB ($44)
UTG ($62.25)

Preflop: Hero is SB with , . Hero posts a blind of $0.5.
UTG calls $1, 6 folds, Hero (poster) raises to $3.5, 1 fold, UTG folds.

Should I have just completed the SB or should I always be raising with the big pocket pairs?

That should get me rolling. I'll post some real hands for disection tomorrow.

Thanks in advance.

Hand #1....most times when you are the preflop raiser, you need to follow up with a flop bet even if you dont hit. If you check, the guy is going to bet most anything and take it from you. Remember, he doesnt know if you have AK or AA.

If there were more than caller, then you may need to just check and give it up, but not always even then.


Hand #2...your play is fine. If he folds, he had nothing. Theres nothing you can do about it. If you only complete instead of raising, and the flop is 864 and you lose a decent sized pot to 84, you will wish you had raised preflop.


As far as Party Poker goes, the blinds are double what they are most everywhere else. Youre playing $50 NL with blinds of .50/$1. Most everywhere else, the blinds on the $50NL game are .25/.50. Because the binds are bigger, you get a higher percentage of your stack in the pot earlier in the hand. This causes you to be pot committed in alot more hands. Sometimes thats good, but more often, you have less room for manuever and less room to outplay your opponents.

Also, if you play .50/$1 blinds at Party and I play .50/$1 blinds at Gaming Club....you will have a max $50 stack and I will have a max $100 stack. The bigger the stack, the more compunded your opponents mistakes are. They have more money for you to take for the same initial cost ( the blinds).

Some people like Party, some dont. Most good players end up getting fed up with it, even though the competition is usually pretty bad. Also, when you eventually move to higher stakes, Party doesnt have anything higher than $2/$4 blinds in their NL games.

Heres a link to the Gaming Club if you would like to try it out. The NL play there is pretty passive and bad overall.

http://www.gamingclubpoker.com/index.asp?s=aff93212

Post more hands as you play. We have some really good players here.

I usually play 2 and sometimes throw in another one.

now.....first hand, against a maniac, i'd reraise him...betting 1/2 the pot after a rag flop is the status quo for maniacs....i'd come over the top of him and see if he is going to represent an overpair....CHances are you are drawing to the nuts with the lead at that point, and if he caught some piece of the flop, if people respect your raises/play, they aren't going to go to the house with a pair of rags..I would have raised him 12, and seen his response....

With only 20-30 bucks or so, i think he would have come harder with a piece of the flop, but he could be holding an over PP and hoping his classic half pot bet would look weak...chances are he was just following up his raise, and could be bought out with a strong reraise that puts him to a decision for all his chips....

I have to disagree with Gregor here on the first hand. I don't mind you calling the preflop raise with AK suited for $5, but when the flop hits, and the raiser checks, you should either try and steal the pot with close to a pot size bet of $12+ or check/fold here. If you min check-raised MP3 to $12 after his inital bet of $6 on the flop, and he calls, where does that leave you? Out of position playing for a big pot with only ace high going into the turn. Either make a play for the pot or, if you sense weakness in MP3 $6 bet, CR to something higher like say $15+ to try and steal the pot from him. Either way, on the steals I am done if MP3 calls unless an ace or king hits the turn. I don't think min CR's really scare off anyone unless you have been doing it all day with monster hands and they initial bettor actually noticed this. Not likely at PP.

always raise your big hands at PP. Always. You will find tables where your raise are called in 5 spots. I reraised once on just the $25 NL tables at PP to $5 with AA following a min raise, and got called in six spots! Even more strange was when I went all in for my last $17 on the harmless looking flop, everyone folded. I think they all had KQ or something just as bad.

Party Poker blinds are special...very high to induce lots of all-ins and create really high rakes.