Noble Poker: The Shallow Fishbowl
Noble poker is a relatively new site with a lot of advertising and promotions bringing in a lot of new players, many of whom have never played online before (and seem to not play much offline either). The software is managable, not the best by far, but for the soft games you’ll be getting on it, you can certainly make do. First lets talk about the tournaments:
1. Tournaments
Noble poker has tournaments from $1 - $30, and most of them are guarenteed pots, meaning they put up something like $750 of their own money regardless of the # of buyins. The only way they can secure that guarentee and not lose money is by making almost all of their tournaments unlimited rebuys in the first hour. If that is your sort of game, then you’re in heaven. For those of you a little more into old-fashioned they also have several ‘Freezouts’ a day usually ranging from $5 buyins to $30 buyins, also with guarenteed pots (and usually the casinos loses money on these games). Here is an example:
$750 Guarenteed Freezout $5 buyin. 98 Players registered, top 20 are receiving cash. From the buyins the casino has collected $490 but are offering $750. It’s like playing a $8 tournament for $5! And don’t get me started on the types of players that fill the ranks of noble poker’s tournaments. Wait for a big hand and value bet, value bet, value bet. They don’t fold, period. It is an entire site of loose passive players, meaning, they don’t like to fold, and they don’t like to raise. They just like to see flops and call down and see what YOU have. At one point I flopped the nut flush with A♣8♣ and bet 2/3 the pot all the way to the river, had 3 callers to the turn, 2 to the end, and both of them went all in with mid pair and a two pair. If you can survive the rebuy period, or in the freezouts, if you can capitalize on your big hands, you’re set.
Warning: You will take some nasty beats, and you probably will not see them coming since loose passive players let you do all the betting.
2. Cash Games
After losing my $3 investment in the tournament to a poorly timed bluff I realized something … Don’t Bluff. If they have low pair they’re going to call, how could I let myself believe I could bluff them out of a pot, stupid stupid Steven! So on to the cash games where I figured I could at least make back that $3 I lost, I first entered the arena of $1/$2 limit holdem.
I dabbled and broke about even after 20 minutes of boring play and wandered on to the Omaha tables … oh wait, there are 2 people playing the omaha tables at the microlimits! Guess you have to stick to hold ‘em at Noble Poker. So back to hold ‘em I go to a 6-handed .50/1 limit table. I sit down with $44 and run it up to $55 and then the guy 2 seats to my left hits every straight known to man and I’m down to $27. Now it took a good 20 minutes to get down to $27, but it was nonetheless disheartening. I never suggest continuing to play trying to break even, it’s not a good mindset to make any money at the poker table, but I just couldn’t leave this game.
The game breaks down like this.
6 people, average number to the flop: 5.
Average percent the hand was raised preflop: 25%
Times I saw a three-bet in my hour of play: 3.
It was by far the most loose passive game I’ve ever had the pleasure of sitting down in. I decided to see a lot of flops with hands like 7♥6♥ and actually preferred them to hands like A♣Q♦ because raising with them got you … 5 callers, haha. If you didn’t hit the flop you had to let it go. So I lose about $20 to seeing flops and not hitting them, taking a few hands too far, etc, etc. But what you have to realize is for every pot you lose, you’re losing 1/6th of the pot and every pot you win you win it all, so you really only need to win 1/4 to 1/5 to be slightly above even and win it all back. That is when this hand came up:
I’m dealt K&spadesJ♣ UTG, so I limp. The odds of me getting raised like I said with 25%. Everyone calls to the small blind who raises it up 50 cents more. I call, as does everyone else.
Flop: 4♦J♦J♥
The small blind leads out for $0.50 and the BB immediately raises to $1. I don’t want to scare anyone off and I’m pretty sure I have the hand so I cold call $1. The person to my left also calls, as does the original bettor.
4♦J♦J♥ … K♣
Glorious. Now I’m clapping my hands and praising god for finally giving me something to work with. SB checks, BB bets out $1, and I decide to call again due to my position and once again, I want the people behind me to throw in $2 more of dead money. Both other players call behind me.
4♦J♦J♥ … K♣ … 3♦
Perfect. I feel like I’m in Rounders, without the whole KGB $30,000 pot thing. I figure the guy behind me cold-calling the whole way had the pleasure of hitting those diamonds, and little did I know it but the BB who had been doing all the betting was an unlucky SOB with J&spades3♣ and filled up on the river. BB bets, I raise, cold-caller calls. BB reraises to $3 and I cap it at $4, and the cold-caller continues to piss away his money. Both call for the show down.
Hero: K&spadesJ♣ Boat J♣J♦J♥/K♣K&spades
BB: J&spades3♣ Boat J&spadesJ♦J♥/3♦3♣
cold-caller: 6♦7♦ Flush 3♦4♦6♦7♦J♦
and I took it down with the Jacks full of Kings, a pot totalling $25.00 in a 0.5/1 game, not bad … and I’m back to +$2 for the hour and decide to leave and watch the WSOP of TV.
For some great advice on how to play these No Fold’em Hold’em tables check out this article. Read up on how to clean up and tackle Noble Poker’s fishbowl before the sharks all move in!
Good luck out there!
Steven
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