Hi,

I've been playing poker for just six months, on line virtual stuff to start off with and get plenty of practice with a view to playing real cash games, read half a dozen books so now want to take it to the next level.

I've played 6 cash games, 2 serious boys poker nights, 3 at the casino and 1 at a private club

Came up around twice the buy in with what I think is a fairly tight/aggressive strategy.

Went to a private club last night, big raises pre flop, a total open range of hands, basically looked like playing loose aggressive on more or less anything + the pre flop raises versus stack sizes were huge, tried to be patient for several hours, ended up bluffing a bit and got totally wiped out whilst at the same time feeling I found it very intimidating and difficult to read whether the table was full of gamblers and what range of hands they were actually playing on.

Can you give me some advice on :

a) whether I should just not enter these type of games
b) how I adjust my strategy accordingly
c) the best way to practice in live real cash games without getting wiped out again
d) any other comments

Would really appreciate your advice.

Many thanks.

Stephen.

I have been in a game like that before. They took my hole bankrole. I was the fish and, well you know who the sharks were. If I were you I would avoid that game. You need to be willing to mix up with those guys. Until then, stay clear. Plat some low limit online. GL to you

Oh and pokerstars can suck on my testicles and fuck off.

anyone else please with some useful advice, I'm very keen to hear it

Stay tight preflop, open as big as they do, don't be afraid to get all the money in with top pair top kicker if 1/10 of your stack is in the middle already.

22Fish - thanks on the right track then, thing is this is a 10/20 HK$1,000 buy-in - so they are sometimes, or should I say most of the time putting $200 or $300 pre flop and then bet at least the same on the flop and say $700 on the turn - so going off your advice I need to commit 33% of the stack to see the flop and then if I hit I'm looking at all-in - NB people were going bust and reloading in the first few rounds - is this usual ?