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Asking for Help in Online Poker Forums

By grapsfan | Published Dec 28 2008, 03:14 PM

A .300 batting average means you have failed 70% of the time.  Yet, most Major League hitters have a better success rate than people who post on a message board seeking advice.  In general, there are some very simple guidelines that forum posters can follow to greatly increase their chances of receiving a relevant response from their colleagues in the Poker Discussion forum.  These simple rules offer both sides of the give/take equation a greater likelihood of a more rewarding experience for everyone.

If you’re posting a hand to ask a question or solicit advice:

- Don’t ask for “pros” or “top players” to help in the title of your thread.  Not only does this technique NOT help, it alienates others who will have perfectly legitimate, if not better, answers to your question.  Honestly, a high-stakes pro will often have a less valuable answer to your micro-stakes question than a fellow micro-stakes player.

- Be accurate in your title.  Give the kind of game (cash, SNG, MTT) and stakes.

- Avoid any descriptive adjectives or phrases, especially negatives, about anyone else in the hand.  If you start with “man, can you believe how bad this donkey played it?” you’re not truthfully asking a question.  You’re looking for someone to validate your skills and make you feel better about what happened as a result of your rotten luck.  For your convenience, PocketFives offers a Bad Beats forum, full of people willing to help you in this particular quest.

- Take 30 seconds and edit the hand history to remove the results.  Get to the part where you have a question…and cut out the rest.  You will get far more objective advice if you remove the ending.  Taking the time to format the hand history correctly will also show you’re serious about discussing the situation.

- If someone responds by telling you how bad you played, don’t argue.  If you can construct a follow-up question in a rational, unemotional voice, feel free to do so.  But understand that poker strategy is often very subjective and there will inevitably be people who agree or disagree with analysis of a certain hand.

If you’re posting a response to answer the question or provide an opinion:

- Provide some detail.  Just saying “fold pre-flop” does no good whatsoever if you don’t say why.  The person with the question doesn’t learn anything, and you look like you are not interested in taking a minute out of your busy schedule to help.  If you can’t or won’t add anything more than one sentence, save the keystrokes and don’t respond at all.

- Negativity has to be about the play, not the player.  If you don’t like something about how the hand was played, it’s important to say so.  Sugarcoating how bad someone played only provides them an excuse to hide from the truth in your words.  But there’s a huge difference between “I hate how you played the turn” and “that’s terrible” or some personal attack.

- If you don’t regularly play as high-stakes as the hand in question, consider this when responding.  Opponents have different general tendencies depending on a wide range of factors, including stakes.  A $5 grinder may not yet understand the level of thinking, table dynamics and player history in the Stars $100 rebuy or deep in a Major.  Any correctness in your “advice” would strictly be coincidental.

- Redundancy is OK, but you should do your best to add a new spin or opinion.  If three other people have previously said the poster should have called a shove rather than folding, being the fourth voice provides some extra justification to the correctness of the play.  If you can also come up with another sentence or two with another reason as to why, so much the better.

- Do your best not to appear like a “fan boy” when a top-ranked player or other board “celebrity” responds.  You can agree with how SCTrojans or Annette_15 may have played the hand, but responding with just a quote of their post, or the “^^^^” symbol so prevalent in recent message board history, is counter-productive.  Find a way to expand upon a specific point of theirs.

We’re all here to improve.  We all like talking about the best way to play.  Thoughtful, courteous and focused discussion will strongly increase how much fun we have, and how much we all get out of the online poker learning process.

-----


Comments
HanoverFyst 

HanoverFyst said:

Very well put.....but will fall on deaf ears.

Quoting R. Chapelly

"Hater's wanna hate....lovers wanna love.....poker players want...none of the above....they want to pizz on you...."

January 7, 2009 6:07 PM
StoneColdNz 

StoneColdNz said:

Nice Article ~  One more thing

-  This is a site for online poker and the grammer police belong on Dictionary.com

January 7, 2009 6:20 PM
dgillis 

dgillis said:

VN sir. I think that since most of us play poker to make money, and following those guide lines would make improving quicker and easier they could make us all more money... IMO more money = more betttter

January 7, 2009 6:35 PM
Gags30 

Gags30 said:

i generally agree with everything in this article. i do have to say though, a lot of times, answering with a short "^^^^^^^" or quoting what someone said is a quick way to write that you agree with what that person is saying. it doens't necessarily add to a discussion, but there are many times when there's no need for further explanation.<br><br>a good example is all of those "can i fold KK pre here" posts. there's no need for me to add to "NO, never", when it's already been discussed in depth many many times and a simple search would have eliminated the whole thread. saying you agree with someone is just adding to the fact of what should have been done in the hand. when i make a thread about a close spot with a hand pre-flop, i like looking back on the thread and seeing how many say fold and how many say call. and yes, all the quoted responses count. it's just like voting for an option, and i see nothing wrong with it

January 7, 2009 7:01 PM
Jennifear 

Jennifear said:

^^^^

(Just kidding)

Great article Grapsfan!  I think that if everyone followed these rules, the site would get better.

January 7, 2009 7:32 PM
haysuslizard 

haysuslizard said:

I rarely ever post but this article is worthy of flaming because, well frankly, it's worthless.   It doesn't matter what you post, SC Trojans or Annette, etc. are not going to provide input on a hand history from a donkey no name like me, regardless of whether we have game or not. And getting advice/guidance from a micro-donk p-fiver is miserable / useless.  Basically posting HH is a waste of time and I will never ever waste my time or the Sc trojan's  of world's time trying to anymore.  

January 7, 2009 8:09 PM
grapsfan 

grapsfan said:

haysus, if you posted more, you'd know that ranked players like SCTrojans and Annette make responses to HH questions on a fairly regular basis, if they have time and find something which interests them.  Honestly, I can't think of too many players who HAVEN'T gotten involved in strategy debates from time to time.  If people could constructively start and advance HH discussions, they'd probably post a lot more (I know several ranked or formerly ranked players who barely post anymore because the negativity drove them away).

I would like to encourage you, Haysus, and everyone, to consider submitting an article and sharing your ideas with the rest of the community.  Assuming you have something less worthless to say, anyway.

January 7, 2009 9:09 PM
grapsfan 

grapsfan said:

Gags, that's a fair way to look at the "^^^^" response, and if more people would see it that way, I wouldn't have mentioned it.  But for everyone who uses it as a "voting my opinion, but I have nothing more to add", 10 use it to be rude or just nutswing from someone popular who previously responded.

Thanks for reading, everyone.

January 7, 2009 9:11 PM
lordxixor101 

lordxixor101 said:

Haysus,

Actually, getting "donkey" advice on a message board from players who play your level is far from a bad thing.  Even if you can't incorporate what they say, it shows you some of the thinking that "bad" players make at these levels.  That can be invaluable when your trying to put a player on a hand range.

That, and as Graps said, if your playing a $5 game, Annette/SC Trojans, etc offer great advice.  But, they think along with table image, etc.  They think an advanced game.  Some of these elements just don't exist at the lower levels (and, though, I'm sure they could win at these levels if they wanted to, where is their motivation to do so).

I went from a breakeven player to a winning player mainly be reading this forum.  I've read/posted elsewhere, but the bulk has been here.  I've had all sorts of people answer my no name donkey posts.  I've been called everything from a great poster to a blundering idiot for my advice.  Sometimes the other player was wrong, sometimes it was me.  The thing is, I learned and incorporated play into my game.

There is acutally one thing I'd like to step on Graps and say I wish he added to the article here.  It's that every piece of advice you get will help you.  Some will hurt you.  I know shortly after joining this forum and incorporating some advice, I was losing money.  It took time and patience (and practice) to see what strategies worked in my games (at my level) and what didn't.  However, as I learned and got better, I improved.  It's sort of obvious advice, but it's something that a new lurker/poster here can get frustrated with.

That and keep posting.  So, your an idiot on a post. You post some bad advice and get called out on it.  You learn and go on.  Trust me, anyone who has over 500 posts in PD at some point gave horrible advice.  It wasn't done on purpose, it does happen.  Don't be embarrassed, admit your mistake and go on.  

Great article Graps.  It may fall on deaf ears, but it's articles like this why your stuff is must read.  Though, in some ways, since I play lower limits, you are making my life harder.  Anyone just reading your articles and incorporating your advice (with a little bit of intellegence) can win at the lower stakes, and dream of winning big.  You take them by the hand and walk them through step by step.  I really feel like I should send you $20 or something (don't hold your breath waiting for it though).

January 8, 2009 6:20 AM
andressoprano 

andressoprano said:

^^^^^What he said

January 8, 2009 6:44 AM
Rev.K 

Rev.K said:

Reading hand histories and getting opinions on how to play a hand is my favorite part of P5s. There's a lot of people on here with some really interesting insights and really great advice and obviously they're not all pros.

I wish there was more thoughtful debate on hand histories.

January 8, 2009 7:14 AM
MALS6 

MALS6 said:

LOL at the "grammEr police"

January 8, 2009 12:12 PM
haysuslizard 

haysuslizard said:

I have posted numerous HH in the format graps suggests.  Response is either 0 or several remarks that are completely awful advice, or are rude.  I have gotten some benefit from reading advice from top players to other top players.  

January 8, 2009 5:40 PM
grapsfan 

grapsfan said:

Sorry, haysus, but 3 does not equal "numerous".  You got reasonable advice in 1, not much out of the other two.  That's a better average than I suggested at the start of the article.

Like Lordxixor suggests wisely (I'm not just saying he's wise because he likes my work, but flattery never hurts), you have to stick with it a little bit.  

One other thing I've mentioned in a few articles, but not in this one, is the more you give to the forum, the more you get back...this is true on every message board, not just P5s.  If you regularly get involved, create threads, and participate in discussions, the more people will help you when it's your turn to solicit information and ask for help.

January 8, 2009 6:57 PM
Run 4 Shelter 

Run 4 Shelter said:

Never learned anything on here, except who is winning what on the weekends and how to flame someone appropriately.  The best bennefit I get from P5s is a good laugh at least once a day, tis why I can't stay away!  Reading causes Cancer, didn't you know?

January 8, 2009 11:14 PM
Elmseeker 

Elmseeker said:

It's not the reading that causes cancer it's the replying. I haven't been around P5 very much after signing up due a death in the family so have never posted. Besides I usually like to lurk for awhile and get to know some about the personalities found on forums before jumping in and saying anything but this article and discussion are so nice I felt I needed to say Thanks to Graps for this one.

I think the biggest problem for new posters, especially, is the fact that a lot of times some of the more established posters tend to ignore them or even be downright rude to them. I believe that quite a few people who respond to and/or post on forums don't see a person on the other end they just see words on a screen. If people would remember that those words aren't just computer generated junk, but another persons opinions, outlooks, aspirations or what have you the net could be a much better place overall. I am not saying we would achieve world peace, even face to face we've failed to do that in several thousand years of history, but I am saying that we could all have a much more enjoyable experience.

January 11, 2009 1:27 PM

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