Poker Earnings LEAKED! How Much Money They Really Made At High Stakes Online

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Bluff 3-Betting vs. Variable Raise Sizes

Hi there, I just read a new strategy article about 3-Betting light by James "SplitSuit" Sweeney.
Check this out!

Source: http://redchippoker.com

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How to Play Against Highly Aggressive Poker Player

Years ago when I first started playing poker online at the micros all of the regular players that you would encounter each day were extremely passive and tight. So much so that any time they 3Bet you or raised you after the flop you could be sure that they had aces or a set.

But times have changed and even at very lowest stakes now you will sometimes encounter very aggressive players. They will 3Bet you light and raise you and float you with all sorts of hands after the flop as well.

Since most of the time in poker nobody has anything very good, this aggressive strategy that they use is highly effective and difficult to combat. However, there are still several adjustments that you can make to play effectively against these kinds of players.

In this article I am going to discuss some of the key ways to beat the aggressive regulars in small stakes cash games.

Don't Get Into Reg Wars

One of the most annoying things in poker is having a highly aggressive reg on your direct left. This is because they can just 3Bet the crap out of you every time you raise a hand and basically make your life suck.

This is such a frustrating spot to be in that sometimes I will just leave the table or rejoin in another seat. But more often than not I am at the table for a reason (i.e. there is a fish on my right). So therefore, I don't really want to leave.

So if you choose to stay at the table how do you deal with the aggressive troublemaker on your left without losing your mind?


Well let's first talk about what most people do.

Most people let their ego get involved and they start 4Betting and 5Betting the aggressive player light with all sorts of ridiculous hands. They will also start calling 3Bets out of position and floating and raising postflop with weak hands.

Both of these strategies are doomed to failure and here is why.

When somebody has direct position on you in poker, you are always fighting an uphill battle. This is like voluntarily choosing to fight someone with both of your arms tied behind your back.

The aggressive regular on your left is always going to have a big advantage over you in each hand because he gets to act last on every street. In other words, he gets to see what you do first before making his decision.

You on the other hand will make all of your decisions in the dark with zero knowledge of how your opponent will react. This is a massive handicap to overcome.

Furthermore, you are choosing to focus your attention on another regular who is probably somewhat close to you in skill level meaning that your overall edge is minimal.

And at the same time this takes away your focus from the entire reason that you are at the table in the first place, the fish!

Talk about a disaster.

So for all of these reasons it is important to keep your cool in these situations and avoid getting in the proverbial "reg war." Even if you win the battle, you will still lose the war.

Tighten Up Your Opening Range and Widen Your 4Betting Range

The smart approach is to instead recognize that this guy is going to 3Bet you light a lot and simply tighten up. This is not to be viewed as a sign of weakness.

This is simply accessing the situation as it is and taking the appropriate response. And this applies the most around the button because this is where the aggressive player is most likely to 3Bet you a lot.

So instead of opening with your typical 30%-40% steal range get rid of a lot of the weaker speculative hands, especially stuff with no high card strength like some of the suited connectors and all off-suit connectors (i.e. 5♥4♥, 6♣5♣, 7♦6♦, 9♠8♥, J♣T♦).

Get rid of a lot of the dominated broadways and crappy aces and kings as well. By this I mean hands like: Q♦T♦, K♥T♣, A♣8♦, K♥9♥.

On the flip side you also want to open up your 4Betting range. Since we know that the aggressive reg is going to 3Bet us with all sorts of broadways, pairs, suited connectors and suited aces we know that a lot of the time he will not be able to continue versus a 4Bet.

So if you typically only 4Bet with hands such as AA, KK, QQ, JJ and AK, then start adding in TT, 99 and AQ for instance. Add a bluff or two in there on occasion as well with a suited ace blocker hand like A♥3♥ or A♠5♠.

You should also flat the 3Bet out of position from time to time with a decently strong range in order to balance your range.

Now I know that I consistently advise against flatting 3Bets (and even opening raises) out of position in both of my books, my blog posts and videos. And if you play at stakes of NL10 or lower (or are new to the game in general), then I think this is perfectly fine.

However, once you get to stakes such as NL25 and higher where the regs start to get a lot better, you can't only 4Bet or fold when out of position or they will exploit this. So you should start to develop a bit of a flatting range with reasonably strong hands out of position as you move up the limits.

How Should You Play a 4Bet Pot Postflop?

So obviously the aggressive player is not going to lay down and die every time we 4Bet him. Sometimes he will flat. Also, as just mentioned, sometimes we will just flat the 3Bet ourselves at higher limits.

So how should we continue postflop in these situations? Well, let's talk about what we should do as the preflop aggressor first.

The thing about a 4Bet pot (assuming 100bb stacks to start the hand) is that there really isn't a lot of room to manoeuvre. By this I mean that the stacks will be very shallow.


A typical raise progression before the flop will look something like this:

• 3bb open > 10bb 3Bet > 22bb 4Bet

So by the time you see a flop in a 4Bet pot you will already have close to 1/4 of your stack in the middle.

Since the actual pot size is going to be close to 50bb then (assuming just one opponent), if you make a CBet you will have nearly half of your stack in the middle.

So what this basically does is create a situation where if you have an overpair, hit top pair or a good draw there is almost no way that we are folding.

I will probably just CBet and look to get it in with any made hand. With a draw it is a little bit different because I don't want to call it off. So often this is a good spot to try and check/raise the flop all in to put the pressure back on them.

How Should You Play a 3Bet Pot Out of Position Postflop

Playing a 3Bet pot out of position postflop is a difficult situation to be in. Most of the time you will miss the flop and be first to act in a bloated pot.

This is why I specifically advise against getting into a spot like this so often for newer poker players at the lower limits.

However, once we got ourselves in this mess what do we do now?

Well, if there is one thing that highly aggressive poker players like to do it is to be aggressive of course. So if we check, then we can probably expect to face a CBet a large amount of the time.

Now a 3Bet pot is totally different from a 4Bet pot. We don't have nearly as much of our stack in the middle and therefore we can still get away from plenty of hands if we think that we might be behind.

However, we do still need to fight for plenty of pots or else calling preflop out of position will be a disaster for our non-showdown winnings (red line) and therefore our overall winnings as well.

This is exactly where most people go wrong.


So you will need to mix in a whole array of different lines such as:

• Check/call
• Check/raise
• Donk Bet

Now when to do each of these is a vast topic that can't possibly be covered in a little blog post like this. However, a lot of it will have to do with how the aggressive reg reacts to these various lines.

This is why I am such a big proponent of having a good HUD setup so that you already have data right in front of you on how your opponent is likely to react.

But in general you should just be mixing up your play here with all sorts of hands from top pairs, middle pairs to draws and even semi-bluffs and total air on occasion.

Versus an extremely over-aggressive reg (high 3Bet%, high flop CBet, high turn CBet), you can absolutely destroy them with a turn check/raise all in line here that includes plenty of value hands and strong draws.

Of course let me be clear that you should also simply fold to the CBet on the flop a fair amount of the time as well. Fighting for every single pot out of position against a competent reg will not be good for your winrate.

Final Thoughts

Dealing with a highly aggressive poker player on your left is never an easy thing to handle. In fact it just plain sucks no matter how you cut it.

Getting your ego involved though and fighting fire with fire will usually be a mistake for the simple reason that you are always fighting an uphill battle.

Don't get me wrong, it is definitely a good idea to mess with the regs. In fact I do it all the time, such as when I try to intentionally tilt them.

Don't go to war on their soil though. Counter their aggression with more aggression (or just flat the heck out of them) when you are the one in position.

When you are out of position though the only thing that you can do is tighten up. However, you can also expand your 4Betting range and even flat out of position a bit wider as well if you play at higher stakes.

Let me know in the comments below what you do when there is an aggressive reg on your left at the poker tables. Do you have any tips on how to handle them?


Source: http://www.blackrain79.com

how a Broke Guy Went From Losing at $2NL to Making 7 Figures Online - Nick Wealthall

Hey

 

What’s the best poker story you’ve heard?

 

Mine involves me as a teenager at a party where the girls way out numbered the boys and someone suggested strip poker!!! *

 

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You’ll love the story - so check it out and let me know what you think.

 

Talk soon

 

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*PS - once we’d all agreed to play, the girls went upstairs and put on about 10 bracelets each as well as every scarf and accessory they owned… fast forward to two blokes in not much and many fully dressed girls…

 

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Source: Nick Wealthall newsletter

Trying To Rep A Bluff With QQ | Ask SplitSuit

An ante for the button? The most profitable position, even more profitable!

Nice variant, but as SplitSuit said, would be more interesting with UTG ante.

About the hand, I would choose to squeeze for 80$ I guess. Don’t forget the bonus 80$!

Cbet seems ok, and  I agree with jam on the turn.

There's a New Update at my Thread at 2+2 With Results

I almost forgot. There is a new update at my thread at 2+2 with results.

2+2 forum is the biggest poker forum in the world. You can find anything you want about poker and many more. Make an account, and you can follow your favorite threads.

You can also post in public your own goals and post updates. It's not easy, but you can give a try!

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Upcoming Changes to the Skrill Fee Structure

Skrill announced the new fees that will come into effect on 17th October 2016.


(1) Bank withdrawals using secondary bank account are charged €5.50

(2) Please view the information below for a number of planned fee changes which may affect you.



Changes coming into effect on 31 August 2016

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Changes coming into effect on 17 October 2016

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Folding TPTK In A 3Bet Pot? | Ask SplitSuit

How to Stop Making Bad Calls in Poker

Making bad calls at the poker tables is one of the easiest ways to screw up a good win-rate. But there is a big difference between a call made for the right reasons and one that is made simply due to emotion and poor logic.

We definitely want to make plenty of the former (good calls) and avoid making the latter. In this article I am going to explain exactly what the difference is between a good call and a bad call. I am also going to give you strategies to stop making bad calls.

What is a Good Call?

Let's start by talking about the kind of calls that we want to be making. A good call is one that is made for any of the following reasons:

• You think you have the best hand 
• You have the right odds to continue 
• You are setting up a bluff for later on in the hand 

All of these reasons for making a call are based on solid logic and entail a plan for the hand. There is no emotion involved.

A good call also presupposes that you have weighed your other two options (raising or folding) and have decided that there is a higher EV (expected value) in calling.

Let's look at a few examples of each of these.


1. You Think You Have the Best Hand

Hero has A♥J♠

Villain bets $5 into a $10 pot on this river

Q♣J♣7♠4♥3♦

Hero???

We could make the call in this spot if we think that we have the best hand. There are plenty of missed straight draws (T9 and KT), missed flush draws (any two clubs) and even a few worse Jacks that might be trying to value bet (KJ, JT).

We do not expect to be right all of the time though. It is important to remember that in poker we play against ranges, not individual hands.

So while our opponent's range might include several missed draws and some worse Jacks, sometimes we will also be shown a Queen, a set or something else that beats us.

Our decision in this spot really depends heavily on the player type. Some players are going to have more value hands here. Some will have more bluffs.


2. You Have the Right Odds to Continue

Another reason to make a "good call" is because you have the right odds (i.e., the poker math makes sense). So in the example above for instance villain has bet $5 into a pot of $10. Our pot odds here (Bet + Pot Size / Bet) are 3 to 1.

What does this mean to us though?

It means that we should be 3 to 1 against at most to win the pot. Or more specifically, we need to be right here at least 25% of the time. As long as we think that we have the best hand here 1 out of every 4 times or better, we can profitably call.

If we were in a situation say on the turn with a draw then a similar logic would apply. If the odds of making our hand are equal to or better than our pot odds, then we can profitably continue.

For example:

We have a flush draw on the turn. A flush draw is roughly 4 to 1 against to hit on the river. If we are getting 4 to 1 or better pot odds, then we can call and make an immediate profit.

Furthermore, if we have implied odds on the river as well, then sometimes we don't even need to have the right pot odds in order to make a profitable call.

I don't want to turn this into a lengthy treatise on poker math though. I have talked about poker math in detail before on several occasions. You can find a recent article here.


3. You are Setting up a Bluff Later on in the Hand

This last reason for a good call is a little bit more complicated and it is not something that I suggest doing very often if you are new to the game or playing at the micros.

Nonethless, it can certainly be a valid reason to make a call. Here is an example:

Hero has 8♦7♦

Villain CBets on a flop of

9♥5♠2♦

Hero???

We could call in this spot with the intention of taking away the pot on a later street. We don't have much equity (gutshot and a backdoor flush draw) and so this is much more about playing the player rather than the cards.

If we are up against someone who CBets the flop frequently for instance but then gives up a lot on the turn, then this could be a profitable spot to float and then bet the turn when checked to.

For specific examples of the types of regs to do this against and the associated HUD stats, you can check out my article on beating the regs.

What is a Bad Call?

Ok, so now that we have outlined some of the main reasons for making a good call let's talk about some of the reasons (or lackthereof) behind bad calls.

A bad call is made for any of the following reasons:

• Tilt 
• There is no reason 
• Faulty Logic 

Bad calls, as opposed to good calls, are made based off of emotion and/or a lack of logic. And sometimes there is simply no reason at all. 

Furthermore, when somebody makes a bad call, often they have not even considered their other options in the hand. It is often the case in poker that raising or folding will show a higher long term EV.

Let's talk about these "reasons" for making a bad call one by one.

1. Tilt

Tilt is the 800 pound elephant in the room that affects every poker player on earth to varying degrees. Poker is an emotional game with endless ups and downs. Most people are not very good at dealing with downswings in particular and it can affect their decisions at the table in a negative way.

Here is an example of a bad call based off of tilt.

Hero has 9♦9♥

Villain (Nit regular) triple barrels on this river

2♠2♣4♥7♠2♦

When a nitty regular at the micros triple barrels us here (raised preflop, bet the flop, turn and river) we are going to get shown a higher overpair (higher boat technically on this board) a very high percentage of the time.

The correct play here is to fold. 

But this is a spot where some people may have a problem laying their hand down especially if they have been losing a lot and they are on tilt. They will make a so called "crying call" here when deep down they know that there is very little chance that their hand is good.

2. There is No Reason

Newer or inexperienced poker players in particular may often make a call without any real reason at all. We have all seen this countless times when playing against recreational players for instance. 

The river comes with an ace, we check it down and they turn over the rivered ace. We are dumbfounded as to why they are even in the hand. But this is just what bad or inexperienced poker players often do, call for no reason. 

3. Faulty Logic

The last reason for making a bad call I will loosely just call "faulty logic." This can mean stuff like not understanding how to calculate pot odds and hand odds correctly as I discussed above. 

This can also include making a bad call based off of superstition. Some people have a "favorite hand" for instance. There is no logic or reason for them behind making a call in a specific spot. They just happen to love 8♦6♦!!

 

 

How to Stop Making Bad Calls

Now that we know the differences between good calls and bad calls let's talk about how to stop making the bad ones. Good calls which are made for the right reasons can have a beneficial impact on our win-rate in the long run.

But as I mentioned at the top, bad calls can have a very negative affect on our win-rate especially if you make them frequently. 

  1. Always Make Calls in Poker for a Reason

Most importantly, the #1 way to stop making bad calls is to always demand a reason out of yourself for why you are making a call. Do not allow yourself to just blindly hit the call button or throw the chips in the middle...just because.

Poker is game where we get ahead by making better decisions than our opponents. If you are routinely not even thinking about why you make the decisions that you do, then you may as well just give away your money or go play Bingo.

We need to always have a reason for the actions that we take at the poker tables and a plan for the hand. If you are going to make a call, then once again, it should be for one of these reasons:

• You think you have the best hand
• You have the poker math on your side 
• You are setting up a bluff for later

2. Always Make Sure You Have Weighed Your Other Options

Secondly, before making a call always make sure that you have considered raising or folding as well. You should have clearly determined that both of these options are inferior to calling. 

So many people just randomly click buttons in this game without even thinking. It is often the case that raising or folding actually are the better options in poker. Show me somebody who likes to call a lot and I will show you a losing poker player. 

Make sure that you have carefully considered raising (either as a bluff or for value) or simply just folding, before you hit that call button.

3. Quit When Tilt Takes Over

Lastly, the biggest reason why people make bad calls is because they are on tilt. They are frustrated by a recent run of bad beats/coolers and therefore their logical decision making skills are diminished. 

Countless studies have concluded that emotions (and frustration/anger in particular) negatively affect our reasoning abilities. For instance, in a recent Harvard study Litvak et al. found that angry decision makers frequently exhibit signs of increased "aggression and unrealistic optimism."

In poker terms this means that when you make that tilt induced bad call on the river it is often because you subconsciously want to get back at your opponent by showing them that you won't back down. The problem is that there is no room for ego in poker. When you are beat, you need to fold.

When on tilt you may also find ways to convince yourself that they are bluffing more than they are in reality. Or you will simply make that crying call because you just want to see it (even though you know that you are beat deep down).

Obviously both of these are very negative and unprofitable ways to approach the game. This is why when you know that you are on tilt the best decision is pretty much always to simply quit. 

In your poor state of mind your ability to even discern the difference between a good call and a bad call can be severely comprimised. Making bad calls while on tilt is one of the biggest destroyers of bankrolls and win-rates.

The acclaimed poker mental game coach Tommy Angelo famously talked about the need to "Lop off your C-Game." What he meant by this is quitting when you dip into your C level game (or even worse D, E, F) because during these periods your ability to think straight and make high quality poker decisions is greatly reduced.

The bottom line is that if you can learn to quit when tilt starts to take over, then you will almost over night say goodbye to a large number of your bad calls.

Final Thoughts

I hope that this article helped provide you with good outline of the differences between a good call and a bad call in poker. Good calls are based on logic and mathematics. Bad calls are based on emotion, faulty logic or even no thinking at all. 

The best way to stop making bad calls in poker is to simply get better at quitting when tilt starts to get the best of you. When in this state our ability to think clearly and even determine the difference between a good call and a bad call is severly diminished. 

Furthermore, in order to avoid making bad calls, always make sure that you can give yourself a solid reason for why you are making the call (you have the best hand, poker math etc.). 

Lastly, make sure that you have weighed your other options and you can confidently conclude that calling is indeed the best course of action.   

Let me know in the comments below how making bad calls in poker affects you. What methods do you use to prevent them from happening?


Source: http://www.blackrain79.com

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Full Tilt nl25 zoom insane call

Fixing Bad Habits in Micro Stakes Poker

Bad habits are one of the biggest problems that hold people back in micro stakes cash games. Nobody starts out as a perfect poker player. In fact such a thing doesn't exist even among world class pros.

My education in poker was (and still is) largely about making adjustments from the bad habits that I had either developed naturally or that I learned from somewhere else.

In this article I am going to discuss some of the worst bad habits that I had when I was starting out in poker and how I went about fixing them.

Nit or LAG?

The first thing that I want to mention before I get started is that I think most people broadly fit into one of two categories when they start playing poker.

In one corner we have the Nits. These are people who naturally play really tight, will only bet with the nuts, will rarely bluff and need 180 buyins before moving up to the next limit. Playing it safe is the key for them.

On the other hand we have the LAGs as I will call them. These are people who are naturally very loose, love to bluff and have absolutely zero regard for bankroll management. These people are action junkies and they love to gamble!

A recent podcast interview with the tournament poker phenom Dan Colman perhaps best illustrates the LAG approach. This guy cut his teeth in poker at the very highest limits and has crazy amounts of gamble in him.

And I would have to actually nominate myself as one of the best examples of a Nit given my well known crazy amount of play (and winnings) at the very lowest stakes online.

Most people fall somewhere between these two extremes. However, the reason for this discussion is to point out that Nits and LAGs will naturally develop different bad habits. Since I was (and still am) a Nit for life, I will be discussing bad habits mostly from the Nit perspective in this article.

Playing Too Tight

So obviously the first problem that all natural Nits like me are going to suffer from is playing too tight. I was a terrible Nit when I first started out. I would only play if I had a big ace, good broadway or a pair. In other words I was a preflop folding machine.

Now this approach can still be profitable in today's games but only at the very lowest limit (NL2). However even then, your winrate will be small and you will be giving up a ton of EV.

If you currently play way too tight like I did in the beginning, the answer is not to start raising every suited connector and 3Betting J9 in your next session. It has to be a gradual progression to playing more hands.

The first thing that you should focus on is playing more hands when you are in position. This will make it far easier for you to get used to playing lower strength hands. It will also make it much easier for you to turn a profit since all the money gravitates towards the button in poker.

Secondly, as I mentioned above, it is much better to gradually open up your game. So if you currently only open A9 or better for instance from late position, just try adding A8 next time. When you get comfortable with that, add A7 and so on.

In time you can start to open up a bit from other positions as well but it should not be by too much. As I mention in both of my books I think you should be playing at least 3 times as many hands from late position as from early position. And you should be relatively tight from the blinds as well.

And this isn't just the Nit in me suggesting this. I say this because this is the way that the game works. If you look in your Pokertracker or HEM database and check your winnings by position, then you will see exactly what I mean.

As you move up the stakes to NL25 and higher you will want to start balancing your range more from all positions. But at NL10 and below where most of your opponents are paying no attention to this, I would just abuse the hell out of the most profitable seats (LP for sure and MP to a lesser extent) and stay reasonably tight in the less profitable ones (EP and the blinds).

Afraid to Bluff

It took me the longest time just to get used to stealing the blinds with anything that wasn't a broadway, pair or a premium hand! CBetting as a bluff? Double barreling? These concepts were crazy to me when I first started out as well.

But in today's games if you don't get used to betting from time to time when you don't have much of anything, then your winrate will suffer in a big way.

And I am not talking about running triple barrel bluffs with 5 high here. This is still largely suicide in a lot of small stakes cash games given the amount of bad players who will call you down light.

What I am talking about is stealing the blinds with 30-40% of hands, CBetting the flop 60-70% of the time and double barreling 50% of the time. These are rough numbers that require adjustments as you move up but I think you get the idea. You need to be betting a fair bit when you don't have much of anything.

Now of course it is still smart to have some equity. If it is folded to you on the button and you have 83o, you should definitely just fold unless both of the blinds are epic scale Nits.

And likewise postflop, you don't want to be blindly barreling no pair/no draw hands into the many calling stations at these limits. You should have some equity, a favorable board texture, and most importantly, an opponent who will fold!

I talked about how to find these types of players and exploit them in a recent article that I wrote for PokerNews.com.

The bottom line is that you can't be afraid to bluff a little bit at the micros. This is something that becomes increasingly important as you move up to mid and high stakes.

It is also a gradual progression much like playing more hands. Focus on the player type first and foremost and ask yourself if you can get this player to fold by stealing the blinds a bit wider or CBetting or double barreling with a bit higher frequency.

After you start to understand the situations and players who can be moved off of their hands then it will all become second nature. In fact, it won't even seem like "bluffing" anymore.

Can't Fold a "Good Hand"

This bad habit probably applies to both Nits and LAGs. And so many people at the lower limits (including myself before I fixed it) suffer from it greatly as well.

This is the idea that you can't fold a good hand like top pair. Or you have to make that "crying call" because you have an over-pair. As I have stated before, I do not believe that there is any such thing as a crying call in poker, just bad calls.

I talk about the lines that people take all the time on this blog and elsewhere. And these typically tell the story at the micros. Most players at these stakes are simply not capable for instance of calling you preflop, flatting your CBet and then raising your double barrel without the nuts.

This line is literally them screaming at you with a bullhorn that they have at least a two pair hand. Therefore, you can fold your AA and say thanks to them for saving you money. Or you can call down, let them show you the nuts, and give away your money.

Making the correct fold with a strong hand like AA (or TPTK) is one of the hardest things to learn and it literally took me years. But once you understand how basic and robot-like most people play at these limits, you will realize that in certain spots when they are showing aggression, their hand is literally face-up. Turn and river raises are almost always two such instances of that.

You can simply filter in your database for all the times where you got raised on these streets and you continued in the hand. You will see just how much money you are losing.

For me it took getting stacked probably 100's of times before I decided to change this bad habit of mine. Who likes folding aces after all? Exactly nobody.

But once you realize that there are certain situations like this where you are clearly behind, you can decide to change. Of course many don't change and that is the difference between winners and losers.

Afraid to Move Up

This was and still is to a certain degree a huge issue for me and many Nits. We fear moving up and require way too many buyins before we take a shot at the next higher stake.

In some ways this is a good thing. I for instance have never gone broke (as in having 0$ in all my poker accounts) in 10 years of playing online poker. Dan Colman (mentioned before) on the other hand has gone broke countless times by his own admission. However, he has made 10 million+ dollars playing this game and I definitely have not.

So there has to be some in between here. I already wrote a guide on bankroll management for the micros. In that article I suggest that 30 or 40 buyins should be enough for most people at these limits. If you find yourself with 50 or 100 buyins for the next level, then it is time to stop being such a Nit.

You are definitely holding yourself back by being too conservative in your bankroll management strategy. The facts are that all of the real money in this game is made at mid and high stakes.

I only talk about the micros on this blog and in my books and videos etc. But my intention is to help get you out of the micros. That really should be your goal in this game if making a lot of money is a priority for you.

So this means that you will need to take shots more often at higher stakes games. And with this of course will come failure. Moving up is never easy and everybody fails at some point (sometimes multiple times) before sticking at the new limit.

But unless you want to trade nickels at NL5 for the rest of your life, it is necessary that you break out of your Super Nit shell and take shots at the next limit a little more often.

You never know, you might just succeed! In fact if you are already winning at your current limit then I can all but guarantee that you will win at the higher one as well, in the long run.

Monkey Tilt

This bad habit once again applies to both Nits and LAGs. It doesn't matter how good you are at this game, you will have days where your AA gets "cracked" 6 times.

You will have days where every flush runs into a higher one, heck you can't even win with a full house! And sometimes these days will turn into weeks of this same sh crap over and over and over again.

This will be enough to drive anyone crazy. Poker is a highly emotional game and when combined with the speed at which online poker is dealt, the results can be disastrous for some if things are not going their way.

I tilted like crazy early on in my poker career. I made all the classic mistakes of turning into a LAG, rage typing, jumping stakes and playing ridiculously long sessions when I was in nowhere near my best state of mind.

I threw away countless buyins (money) through both minor and major forms of tilt for years. The problem though is that if you ever want to make it in this game, you obviously can't do this. I had to make some changes in a big way and that is exactly what I did.

Number one, I actually just stepped away from the game (at least on a full time basis) for a year. When you have a "real job" the ups and downs don't affect you as much because you don't rely on poker to pay the rent.

Secondly, I started really focusing on the long run. Even through all of my crazy tilt sessions I was still somehow a big winner over my entire poker career up until that point. I put my career graph as my desktop wallpaper and any time things started going badly I would sit out for a bit, take a few deep breaths and look at that graph (reality).

Lastly, once I finally got it through my thick skull (after years) that the long run is the only thing that matters in this game, I just stopped looking at my results altogether, at least on a daily basis. Sometimes to this day, I go weeks without looking at my results.

Why? Because they don't matter. I am always properly bankrolled and playing in games that I know I can beat. So why should I get all upset that I happened to lose 5 buyins today. Or get a false sense of happiness because I happened to win 5 buyins?

I know that I will win in the end. I don't care about the details of how I got there.

Monkey tilt has been the death of so many promising poker careers. You need to take the steps that will help you be more relaxed at the poker tables and focus on the only thing that matters, the long run.

This means focusing on the only thing that you actually can control in this crazy game which is making the best poker decision in each hand. The results will take care of themselves.

Playing in Bad Games

This last one applies to both LAGs and Nits as well. It took me a long time to accept the fact that I had to table select if I wanted to win big even at the very lowest stakes.

I started playing in an era where I could load up 24 random tables at NL25 on PokerStars and expect there to be at least one huge fish on every one of them. This is just nowhere near the case today even at much lower stakes.

About 5 years ago I made the conscious effort to start dramatically reducing the number of tables that I play at in an effort to spend way more time focusing on who is actually sitting at my tables.

My ego held me back for years in this regard and I think this is the case with many others still today. I had to accept the fact that I am simply not going to "crush" a table full of regs even at very low stakes. They simply do not make enough fundamental mistakes in order for this to happen.

If you want to win big at the micros (or at any stakes for that matter) then you need to get off the Zoom tables and start hunting the bad poker players. Learn how to play short handed as they often hang out on these tables. And site select and play as many formats as you can as well.

A commitment to always playing with bad poker players is the only way to "crush" today's games no matter what limit you are playing.

Final Thoughts

Everybody has bad habits at the poker tables, even world class pros. The real key to moving forward in this game is constantly trying to recognize them and fix them.

The reason why so many people fail to achieve their goals and dreams in this game is because they keep making the same mistakes over and over again for years on end.

Nearly all of my biggest breakthrough moments in poker have come when I consciously made the decision to stop being such a stubborn idiot and do something differently.

Ego is a very real thing in poker. Much like driving a vehicle, everybody thinks they are good at this game. But when 3 out of 4 people lose at poker in the long run, this is obviously not the case.

Don't allow bad habits to stop you from achieving the goals that you have in this game. Always remain flexible to the idea that there might be a better way to do something.

The best poker players in the world are chameleons. They know how to adapt under any circumstances. They don't cling to beliefs that there is only one right way to play a hand or that they have everything figured out in this game.

Because none of us do.

Poker is a lifelong journey that humbles us all at times. Take it all in stride, learn to pivot when necessary and you will have the most success.

Source: http://www.blackrain79.com

To Call Or Shove A Nut Flush Draw? | Ask SplitSuit

Tiger Fight

Politeness At Online Poker

 

Mental Game Of Poker Book Review

I finished the reading of the book "The Mental Game Of Poker" by Jared Tendler and I want to a small rewiew.

The book is amazing and helped me so much. The mental part of the game of poker is extremely important. Sometimes a mental game edge can be the difference between winners and loosers, winners and break even players, crushers and winners. When playing this game, with so many variables, you have to take the best decision as many times as possible. This book gives you all the tools you need to do this.

Variance can drive crazy even the calmer players. That's the nature of the game. You are gonna lose many times. You may lose more times in a row than you can imagine. You can't control the run out of the cards, but you can control your emotions, cure your mental game leaks, and play more your best game.

It may sounds to some players that it's not a big deal to train your mental game and game strategy it's all that matters. I can say that in my opinion mental game is more important than playing skill. This book worth the time to read it. I will read it again, or at least some parts of the book.

Yes I'm A Proud Bumhunter!

How to Deal With Bad Beats in Poker

Controlling your emotions at the poker tables is the number one key to your success. Sure, you can always get a little bit better technically by improving your understanding of the game and learning how to play optimally versus specific player types.

However, the big leaps and bounds in your winrate will be found by improving your mental game. You know, that aspect of poker that even in 2016 almost everybody still ignores. You can find countless books, videos or forum posts that will tell you how to play AK better out of position.

But there is scant little information anywhere about how to react to getting 2 outed for a stack a few times in a row. Or chasing a big fish around only to get destroyed when all his flush draws and miracle gutshots hit.

Reacting correctly to situations like these though are where bankrolls and made and lost. They are where poker careers fail or succeed.

So in this article I am going to address the topic of how to react to bad beats in poker. And more specifically, how to deal with multiple bad beats in a row.

What is a Bad Beat?

Let's start off first by asking ourselves what a bad beat really is. A bad beat by definition is simply losing a hand of poker when you were the statistical favorite. And really what is meant here is losing as the statistical favorite when big amounts of money go in the middle.

A lot of people confuse bad play with bad beats. They are far from the same thing. For instance, calling off big bets on the turn and river when a major draw came in and your overpair is obviously no good anymore is in fact just bad play.

In this article I will be talking about situations where the large majority of the money went in when you were the statistical favorite in the hand (i.e., you had more equity in the pot than your opponent). This is what a bad beat is.

Bad Beats are a Mathematical Certainty in Poker

I think the first thing that we need to understand about bad beats is that they are a deeply rooted and fundamental part of the game. Somebody almost always has equity in the pot. Often they have a lot of it in fact.

 As we can see in the example above, even if all the money went in on the flop, our opponent here, who currently has just 6 high versus our aces, still has 37% equity in the pot. He will win the pot more than 1 in 3 times.

It doesn't take a math genius to then realize that losing 3 of these in a row would not be something unheard of. In fact in the fast paced world of online poker where we are playing thousands or even millions of hands this will be a common occurrence.

Now don't get me wrong. Winning 3 of these in a row is a lot more common. Or winning 2 out of 3. The point here is that we should not be shocked when we lose a few times in a row even with a hand like AA since our opponent often has big amounts of equity even with a simple flush draw and a backdoor straight draw like in the example above.

How Should You React to a Single Bad Beat?

So with this understanding in place we can begin to think about bad beats in poker more from a detached, logical and mathematical perspective. We can think of them in terms of numbers instead of some mortal affront to our very being.

Even if the fish hit a 10% gutshot the facts are that 10% will come through on rare occasions. Instead of reacting with anger you should train your mind to think in terms of these numbers instead. That 10% (or 20% or 30%) is simply going to come through from time to time.

This is what you signed up for when you chose to play this game. Poker is very much gambling in the short term and there is no guarantee that you will win the pot just because you got the money in good.

I prefer to view bad beats as a tax that I have to pay for my long term winnings. I know that they are a mathematical certainty and I also know that they are why I can profitably play this game.

The reason why is because if the fish (bad players) lost every time they got the money in with poor equity, then they would go broke at lightning speed and eventually just give up.

The fact that they can get lucky on occasion though allows them to get some small wins from time to time which keeps them depositing. If poker were a game of 100% skill in the short term like chess then the bad players would quickly lose interest and go find something else to blow their money on.

How Should You React to Multiple Bad Beats?

I think that most of us can process a single bad beat though at least on some level and brush it off. The problems start (i.e., tilt) for most of us when the bad beats start piling up in quick succession.

We have all been there. Aces have lost 5 times in one session. We have lost every flip, every 60/40, we have been 5 outed, 2 outed and on and on. This is the stuff that can drive people nuts. This is too much tax to pay.

The "tax system" in poker is simply not fair sometimes. Sometimes you will be required to pay much more than your fair share. But as I said before, in a game where we knowingly sign up for short term gambling what is "fair?"

And this hits to the very crux of the problem. When we lose a bunch of pots in a row as the statistical favorite we view this as being unfair. We take this personally. We think that somebody is screwing us over or out to get us.

But once again, from a detached, logical point of view this seems silly. I have played over 8 million hands of online poker. I have seen some of the craziest sh stuff on earth. But I wouldn't still be playing this game if anything was truly amiss in the long run. I can simply check my Pokertracker 4 database to verify this.

There is a reason that nobody takes the "online poker is rigged" idiots seriously. It is because they have no statistically significant evidence to support their conspiracy theories. Those of us who have actually played massive amounts of hands online (millions) can clearly see that they are wrong. But the illusion of the short term can be overwhelming for some people.

So it all goes back to what we talked about before. Bad beats are a mathematical certainty in this game, and although rare, it only follows that they will sometimes happen in very quick succession.

Take a Step Back

Given enough bad beats in a row anyone will go on tilt. Beyond all of this effort to think from a detached, logical and mathematical perspective there is a deep yearning in all of us to win. Nobody likes to lose. Even the fish.

And a bad beat is almost like a double slap in the face because you worked so hard to get your opponent to make a big mistake against you and then he gets rewarded with your money for his bad play.

This is literally unheard of in any other profession, sport or anything. And when it happens multiple times in a row it can drive anybody crazy.

So this is why I think it is important to take a step back when something like this happens. Many online poker sites have the option now to simply sit out on all of your tables at once. If you feel your blood pressure rising then just hit that button and get up and take a walk somewhere.

It is really important to escape from the heat of the moment and try to process what just occurred on some sort of rational level. Even if you cannot process it, the biggest key is preventing yourself from making the big mistake of playing while on tilt.

This is what destroys bankrolls and dreams in this game. Many people do not even realize that they are doing it. But all those little bad calls and silly bluff attempts add up in a big way.

Winning at Poker Is Not Easy (It Never Was Meant to Be)

If winning at poker was easy, everybody would be doing it. Who doesn't want to ship stacks while sipping cocktails from a tropical beach in Thailand? The reality of professional poker, or even just winning poker in general, is much different than what most people think it is.

And one of the biggest reasons why many people fail to achieve success is not because they lack the technical knowledge. Most people these days have a reasonable understanding of how to play a simple TAG game.

The real reason why they cannot break through is because when several bad beats happen in a row a switch flips in their head and they go crazy. Usually it is just minor tilt in the form of some hopeless calls or a silly river bluff raise.

But as I mentioned before, all of this adds up in a big way. In an era when the games are tough you cannot afford to be making these kinds of mistakes. This is the difference between winners and losers in today's games.

Step away from the tables when multiple bad beats in a row happen and calm yourself down. Quit for the day if you need to. But do not allow tilt to ruin your results in this game. The games will always be there tomorrow.

And in time you will learn to deal with multiple bad beats in a row better. I do believe that inexperience is often a factor. When you play a lot of poker there is a certain point where you will become almost numb to it because you have seen it all before countless times.

When I see people complaining about their bad luck in this game often they are talking about sample sizes that are so insignificant that it is laughable. It is a lack of experience and a belief that results should come quick and easy in poker that is their downfall.

This isn't the way that poker works. This game isn't easy. It was never meant to be. And that is very much a good thing.

Final Thoughts

Dealing with bad beats in poker is hard and there are no easy answers. It is probably the most difficult part of this game in fact. You outwit your opponent and then get rewarded by shipping your stack to them. It is absurd, ridiculous and almost feels downright insulting.

But it is also a necessary component of the game. The bad players would quickly leave on mass if they couldn't get lucky on occasion. We all have to pay that tax.

But of course on occasion we will have to pay much more tax than normal. But what is normal in a game that is based on short term gambling? Words like normal, fair etc. are a myth in this game. Poker does not owe you anything. This game is a cruel hearted bitch that will rip your soul out at times.

The vast majority of people can't handle it.

This is actually a great opportunity for you to rise above everyone else and ultimately get better results though. You cannot allow your emotions to control your decisions at the poker tables. This is the difference between the small amount of big winners in this game and everybody else.

Source: http://www.blackrain79.com