Why is this game so freaking hard?

[Phughoff]

I must be terrible at poker, I can't even win a single ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tournament. Any suggestions on how to beat these tools. I only bought the game so I can get the glados outfit for zer0 in borderlands2

[StuArt]

[The Iron Yuppie]

Apparently one of the pre-reqs is knowing a bit of poker strategy and statistics, of which I have neither.

[Flagge]

Yeah its pretty punishing for just going all in all the time.

[Phughoff]

I wish you could skip all the dialogue too, it gets old quick

[Enrem]

Originally posted by Fluffy?!:

I wish you could skip all the dialogue too, it gets old quick

the dialogue is the whole point of the game... without it, you might as well play any old poker game

[jw770]

I'd pay attention to their tells. For instance, Max pretty much never bluffs. Try buying them drinks - it makes their tells more noticeable. Also, don't be afraid to fold if you aren't confident in a hand.

[acedia]

Just won the banjo by going all in every hand.....i tried to lose and i won.

[Crowlly]

Gotta know when to hold em, know when to fold em

[Jim777]

I have found it fairly well balanced

[robes]

I'm finding it brutally hard, though I am a beginner. Trial by fire!

I'd be interested to know how many hands on average it takes a good player to win a tournament though. Took me 42 hands to finally grab my second trophy.

[EpicNormal]

I won a couple of tournaments and then lost a whole bunch before I got the hang of it. Basically, be patient and don't try to be overly committed to any hands unless you know you have a good chance of winning.
When you first start let the computer players eliminate each other first. Let them duke it out between themselves so that one or two are eliminated then start to jump in. Try to eliminate the ones with the lower cash. When they're are low on chips (or even you) the best course of action is to go all in every chance they get. They do this to double up on chips or sometimes just to steal the blinds. Whatever it might be, captialize on it when you have good cards.
Some times you can have good cards and still lose. That's just the way poker works. Just be patient. You can end up folding on most of your hands. I think on average I win roughly 20% - 25% of the hands. The best I did once was 50% but it's just luck of the draw. Most of the winning comes at the end when it's a show down between you and a single computer player.
In the beginning, when you don't have to pay small/big blinds, just fold when you don't have good cards.
When the computer raises on you and you're missing a card to get a straight, flush, etc... don't ever expect to get that card. The odds are against you. If the raise is too high, it's best to fold.
There's a lot more you pick up from playing more but it's mostly patience. Don't jump into a battle you don't think you can win.

[SpaceCadet1334]

Lol good luck getting the glados skin

[Ruben]

I know the feeling of this game being "too hard" but I really don't think it's all that harsh. I found that my win percentage went way up when I actually started folding a whole lot more.

In Hold 'Em the only real difference in hand is your hole cards, and if you don't have at least two face cards or a pair chances are you're going to lose. But if you remain patient and start betting higher when you actually have good hole cards you'll win a bit more often.

The thing that helped the most, though, was actually reading up on Hold 'Em. I used to think I was fairly good at Hold 'Em but realized I was doing a lot of things stupidly (I used to bluff a lot). It's much harder to bluff the computer.

In short, fold liberally and don't throw good chips down on bad cards in the hope that the computer will fold. Because they won't.

[NullSkills]

Basic (Tight aggressive) strategy in poker is to play only premium hands (From AA-99, AK-AT, KQ-KT, QJ-QT, JT.) or suited connectors (Cards that share suit and run in value ie. 98s, 45s etc.) Either open a pot or call a raise never limp or check through preflop.

If you dont have a decent hand on the flop fold, theres no point sticking around with a 25% or less chance of hitting a card. if you dont know your odds on poker for turn and river heres a basic way to work it out (not 100% accurate but close enough to work well.)

Work out your outs by thinking what cards could be left in the deck that can help your hand
Eg. if you need a king or an ace to increase your hand strength you have 8 outs (4 of each in the deck) minus whatever is on the board or part of your hole cards (say you have 1 of each that would be 8 outs -1 ace -1king so a total of 6 outs) this can work for straights and flushes too (although be aware if your looking to hit two cards running this wont be accurate and runner-runner play is usually a bad idea)

On the flop with two more card to be delt work out your outs and apply this formula

2(O2) (where O is the amount of outs you have)

So in the example you have 6 outs and do the working of 2x(6x2) = 24 which means you have a 24%(ish) chance of hitting one of those cards on either the turn or river.

for working out your chance of hitting something on the river simply work it out as O2, so with the 6 outs you would have a (6x2=12) 12% chance of hitting either an Ace or King on the last card.

this is just some basic theory and theres tons more stuff to learn out there but maybe this will help a little on the way.

[NullSkills]

Also it may be bad advertising but theres a famous poker quote that goes along the lines of

If you find poker a fun and exciting game, then your doing it wrong.