So I was playing Texas Hold 'Em (not a gambling thread)...

[Gobbla2001]

Was playing Texas Hold 'Em at a sports bar Thursday night (and Friday night, and last night, and here in about an hour)... at this sports bar the game is played on a TV screen, everyone around the bar gets a controller...

You start out with $4,000 (if you're registered, $2,000 if not)...

Well this one dude named Red would go ALL-IN every freaking hand before the flop had ever been thrown... I counted, and he lost about 15 straight times and came back in the game back at $4k and would go all in... finally, after 4 other players called him one hand he actually won... so he was up at $20k... then he started folding almost every hand or betting chump change and only calling little stuff... finally a few of us teamed up to suck him dry...

So anyway, my question is: WHY EVEN PLAY THE FREAKING GAME???

Here I am and I can't even get on a roll (much less get my feet wet) because I have to go all-in to call every damned hand...

They need to have a Texas Lottery game up there for this guy so he can pick numbers and hope his pop up... I can't see how the guy was having any fun at all...

[PPHSfan]

Those guys should stick to the slot machines. I hate playing with losers like that. That is why I only play in legal cash games now-a-days.

[Gobbla2001]

Actually his screename wasn't Red, it was Chili or something.... I remember now because I went all-in a couple of times that night and would tell this girl next to me who was pissed as well "Watch this, I'm gunna pull a Chili"...

[Adidas410s]

Originally posted by Gobbla2001
Was playing Texas Hold 'Em at a sports bar Thursday night (and Friday night, and last night, and here in about an hour)... at this sports bar the game is played on a TV screen, everyone around the bar gets a controller...

You start out with $4,000 (if you're registered, $2,000 if not)...

Well this one dude named Red would go ALL-IN every freaking hand before the flop had ever been thrown... I counted, and he lost about 15 straight times and came back in the game back at $4k and would go all in... finally, after 4 other players called him one hand he actually won... so he was up at $20k... then he started folding almost every hand or betting chump change and only calling little stuff... finally a few of us teamed up to suck him dry...

So anyway, my question is: WHY EVEN PLAY THE FREAKING GAME???

Here I am and I can't even get on a roll (much less get my feet wet) because I have to go all-in to call every damned hand...

They need to have a Texas Lottery game up there for this guy so he can pick numbers and hope his pop up... I can't see how the guy was having any fun at all...

This isn't even a game. Like you said, it's just a crapshoot. I played poker at a very competitive (and what some might consider gambling...it's not but that's another discussion) level for about 4 years before recently taking a break. These games in the bars are a joke. You are better of getting an account on an online site and playing in the freeroll tournaments that are run on the "real money" side. You can play in these tourneys and use them to qualify yourself into a tourney that pays out $$$ w/o ever having to risk any money. If you want to learn the game...try that! Also, I bought a really cheap poker program called DD Tournament Poker (I got it almost 2 years ago...there are newer versions now) and once you turn the difficulty up to high it gives you a pretty good simulation of the game. Next month there is a game coming out called Stacked that is Daniel Negraneu's poker game. It will be out on PC, XBox360, PS2, etc. and it has AWESOME artificial intelligence. I was fortunate enough to get to beta test it a while back on PC and it is a great game. They have been pushed the release back from last November because they found some minor chinks in the AI and wanted to improve it before releasing it. Trust me...if you want to play the game against "realistic" competition w/o having to risk any money...check out one of the above options.

[Adidas410s]

Originally posted by Gobbla2001
Actually his screename wasn't Red, it was Chili or something.... I remember now because I went all-in a couple of times that night and would tell this girl next to me who was pissed as well "Watch this, I'm gunna pull a Chili"...

Was his name Chili Palmer? ;)