how does rakeback work?
i know in theory but give me an example

Pot puts out rake.

Rake back gives back rake.

Player has rake back.

so lets say rake is 5% of pot?
how much rakeback do players get and based on what?

Trying to get to 1700 solo queue is like impossible. People pick supports and don't support. Carries pick carries and don't carry. I can't believe how down hill this game was gone since they implemented the verified bullshit system. Your KDR now becomes negatives because you try to do everything because people are incompetent at their role.

This post was edited by TonyAbbott on Jan 10 2014 11:03pm

you don't get rakeback on a per-pot basis. Rake is 5% of pot capped at like $3. you earn frequent player points at a rate of

5.5 * how many $ contributed in rake * VIP status multiplier

You can then trade in those points for cash rewards and you also get "stellar rewards" for reaching certain player point milestones

In general stars rakeback isn't that good if you're not playing too much, you get maybe 20% or so at SilverStar status. If you hit Supernova Elite though you get around 70-80% which amounts to roughly $100k/year if you count all the rewards.

There are lots of other sites out there that offer like 40% flat rakeback but from what I've seen no site is as secure or has as good software as stars so I stay away from them

This post was edited by sMACKTRiCKz on Jan 11 2014 01:54am

i'll say it again, online poker for me has no feel really plus u can use additional software to calculate hand % and odds etc
sure a decent player can do a rough math of these but even so i don't trust any site

Yeah of course, everyone that has a clue and wants to win uses additional software. This is mostly database software and things that help you review your play post-game. I don't think anyone can get a huge advantage from using software to calculate hand %/odds while they're playing. If you're half decent you have alot of the equities memorized for lots of situations, you may be off by like 1% but that doesn't really affect your decision. Plus, if you try to do exact calcs while playing you're going to be playing REALLY slow so you won't be able to play many tables. The only thing that sucks is people using software or bots which tell them what moves to make. Most bots kind of suck and don't win for now, but they're getting better so in the future they might be a big problem.

As for feel, yeah there isn't much. There are very few situations that evoke any emotion from me nowadays in Poker. I mean, after you 12-table for thousands and thousands of hands you see the same shit over and over, nothing really phases you except some very unique situations. I think "feel" is hugely overrated in that game though. Maybe back in the day when everyone sucked "reading" people was a huge deal. Now, I think people that are mathematically solid and balanced players will just win both online and live even if they have no "feel". Of course, being able to read people live helps but it's not as big of a deal as people make of it. Plus, some of the top pros are getting to the point where their play is so perfect you can't really win against them, you can only break even. At that point, it doesn't really mater how good of a feel you have you're fucked anyway.

e: and oh yeah, you're right most sites I don't trust either. Pokerstars has been around forever, has great support, has amazing software that does well to prevent botting, and in general is just very secure. I've never had any problems getting money in/out, and never felt I was being cheated or anything. I have some ridiculous stories of playing on other sites though, some really absurd shit happens on the smaller less trust-worthy sites.

This post was edited by sMACKTRiCKz on Jan 11 2014 12:35pm

well if u bluff say 70 euros (most i bluffed in a live game) trust me ur hands might shake or u might feel uneasy i know i did tho i did my best to hide it
if u bluff online no1 can tell any reaction. this is just an example plus online u mostly play the cards and u cant do so with players as opposed to live games
now if u play with casuals they are generally easier to read or will make mistakes a seasoned player won't, these r the types u wanna play against and not other grinders
i'd like to play some live but i cant afford it atm i think i would be able to do ok since poker is mostly a patience game and u can train urself to be better (its not for everybody ofc)
i was quite a fan of poker few years back and in live games where u play with other pros (take high stakes poker for instance) u can see people adapt and mix their play which makes a good poker player

i agree with u on pokerstars, its the one site i did play on in the past and i still got some cash there from a tournament i won with friends
i might start again maybe start off stt i got some patience but i prolly cba playing like 3-4 or more hours and stt usually arent that long
i'd really prefer cash games but if u play with people who have higher bankrolls its kinda hard to win unless u play premium hands cuz they can easily bluff u off with money that for u is high but for them is kinda like peanuts

Well once you get more experienced making those bluffs becomes pretty standard and just part of your game so it loses some of the excitement. It's true online is alot less personal, but you can still get reads from bet sizings and timings, you just have to pay attention. I wouldn't say you mostly play your cards though, from opponent statistics you can assign them hand ranges in different situations and basically play the player instead of playing just your own cards. It's all really situational, that's how poker is.

As for being pushed around in cash, that's not really true. Just make sure you have 30 buyins for any cash game you play and you're fine. You obviously don't want to be sitting with all your money at a table at once, playing scared money is just terrible. You always want to make the best decision possible without thinking things like "oh that's too much money". Small mistakes add up long-term and can really cost you alot.

If you want to get started on sngs, I'd recommend this.

http://www.holdemresources.net/h/web-calculators/nashicm.html

You can get Nash equilibrium push/call ranges for basically any single table sng situation. Yeah they're not perfect since they assume all you can do is go all in or fold, but they're good starting points for your play towards the later stages where blinds are high.

This post was edited by sMACKTRiCKz on Jan 11 2014 01:39pm

yea scared money is shit, thats why its rly important to have a good management of ur bankroll, hell i even seen pros doing it wrong
i like to play aggressive in tournaments specifically early stages not bet too much but put pressure on others
im not good at positional poker but in most cases if u got the button and u got a semi decent hand and u r left with bb and sb u usually wanna pressure them
as for early positions u generally wanna have premium hands, as matt said in rounders if its good enough to call and be in the pot it should be good enough to raise too

i got some general knowledge but knowing what to do and actually doing it and applying it is not same thing
poker is awesome tho and i like reading stuff about pros like stu ungar for instance was a nice read like in november last year
and ofc u probably know about andy beal and his challenge on the pros (as well as his conjecture which still is up for grabs for 1mil $. google it if u wanna for fun)