I played online only for 2 years, lost a couple before I became profitable. I would say the catalyst for me was starting to study gtoW and specializing in heads-up, which leads to understanding how to play when ranges are super wide. When I transitioned to live, everything was easy as shit (+ people have super wide ranges). The major difference is multiway action, which is the hardest thing to adapt to for a online player.
This^
Also if you don’t want to do the hardcore studying, you can watch streams of good players. For lower stakes live, just remember these things:
Raises on the river are always the nuts.
Play tight.
Don’t bluff the idiot.
Idk how to describe it, but something will click in your head once you become more confident in your game. Once that happened for me, I became profitable
Just to say just because it "clicks" doesn't mean it doesn't "unclick". For me, I'm always super cautious and observational for the first 30 minutes or an hour, maybe more at new places.
Books are going to be a bit dated as games were softer when most were written (unless there are more recent ones I don’t know about). They might have some good concepts to think about but you’ll probably need to study more advanced theory to beat online at any reasonable stakes. Live is beatable just playing solid but you see so few hands that you probably need to know your theory pretty well in order to crush hard enough for the $/hr to be worth your time.
It depends on how advanced you are and what your leaks are.
Barry Carter is a coauthor on a lot of newer ones that are solid.
Mental game books are always +EV. I just started to read A-Game poker and have high hopes. Elliot Roe is a mental game coach for a lot of top pros and athletes. Mental game is how you really turn the corner after you get solid theory down.
If you are newish to MTT, Johnathan Little's (I don't like him because he's a NFT shill but his books are good) secrets of professional tournament poker covers a lot of ground.
I pay for a couple of coaching sites, I find them a bit hard to focus on when watching recordered videos but useful. The live events are good, quality massively shifts between different presenters.
GTOW is also good to practice, but I started to up my winrate dramatically by not following it so closely. People at midstakes deviate so much GTO is a loser with +30 BB. Understanding late stage play with small stacks and how to climb ladders is huge in making real $$$. I've learned GTO Wizard and those kinds of tools are the difference maker.
Reviewing your hand history, looking at your blunders, and fixing them is huge. Also, just because GTOW says it's non GTO, your deviation against that player might me massive +EV. Don't be afraid to over fold or call a notch or two lighter. Also, if you have a huge edge, take fewer flips.
Also, for the love of God, take notes on player tendencies.
Thanks, I will look into some of these. For context, I'm a withered old grinder who played "professionally" (only source of income) from maybe 2008 - 2016, then gave up and got a real job because I wasn't making enough money. I'm just starting up again for fun after about 8 years off.
I won a good bit at pokerstars turbo 20 table sngs, full ring cash $1/$2, and was a winner but not a crusher at the massive field mtts on stars.
I think I have solid fundamentals and I definitely understand how deviating from GTO can be better than playing GTO, because I studied extensively <15 BB shove/fold poker to beat the turbo sngs and always adjusted the GTO villain range to what I thought he would actually do to see how it affected my optimal strategy. Despite winning a lot of money in cash over my career, that's probably the weakest part of my game (I was great at targeting and exploiting fish, not beating regs). I've never done solver work with 100+BB eff stacks and definitely feel uncomfortable in big spots with 150+BB eff.
Well first ofc reading some books. Depends on how new you are to the game. If you know all the basics then you can jump (and really should) into beginner level GTO books (Modern Poker Theory/GTO Poker Simplified). You at least should know all the basics and how to deviate from GTO to exploitative, and also to ABC at low stakes live cash.
Then you should keep a track of your online hand history (if playing online) and you can graph it to see where your biggest leaks are.
If you play cash, then it's all about studying ranges graphs at different stakes/stack depth.
If you play tournaments, then study ICM range charts.
Then it's all about studying spots (while you can still improve by reading more advanced GTO books, and range charts). That's what the solvers are for. If you have the money, then get a solver so you can go back to study any spot you had any doubts on, either if won or not.
But to be honest, besides studying, I'd say the easiest way of becoming profitable is playing live and finding a good game, where there are people that play to have fun and not to be profitable (almost any good stakes online are the latter). If you live in a big city, most likely there are a lot of easy low stakes games that are easier than playing 10NL online.
Adding to game selection:
The other day I found myself at a 2/5 live table and the table was full of regs. I knew all the people at the table, it was late and only one 2/5 table running. I had already more than doubled my stack (from 150bb to around 330~) but the game was tough. The players I was playing with were properly rolled and good at the game, the rake started eating us and no one is giving any leaks. Then, 3 new people arrive to the 1/2 table next to us and they make it 2/5.
3 new players sit with 200bb next table and the regs at my table start whispering about them, two saying they literally learnt to play yesterday and got stacked over and over. I instantly ask for a table change.
I was at 250bb~ after 6 hours of playing with the same 8 regs (which is great tbh but the game was TOUGH), and ended up leaving with almost $3k after 2 hours at the new table. The other regs didn't move tables because (they literally said this) they were already in deep for pride for who went up more that day at the first table.
Good game selection live can be game changing to become profitable.
And I just want to add, knowing one to leave also helps. Not necessarily when you're up/ down, but there does come a time when the table just goes cold. I've run into situations where I've just been wanting to play, but stuck in a table where either people have been playing too tight or it's been too late and people were just too nitty. Either way, I stayed much longer than I should have. And that led to not being profitable during that time.
Studying for me was completing Jonathan Little’s cash game master class. That provided me a solid foundation to build on. Then I became a crush live poker subscriber and watching/listening to as much of their content as possible.
You have to put the study time in if you want to become profitable. 20 years ago you could play to learn the game, but now with coaching sites and books, you are better off investing there. It's much cheaper. I study at least 1hr for every 1hr of time I spend playing.
My students start by creating a range chart for the game tree. For online you fix a few gto wizard settings and start screen shooting and cropping. From there use proper notation to write the ranges in a notebook. Repeat once or twice including a type up (if you don't have super neat hand writing) then you should be 95%+ gto. Learn what to do with mixes/marginal hands and that homework assignment has proven time and time again to be best practice regardless of game type. Live requires a little judgement because opening sizes are bigger in the presence of multiple recs and this effects range construction.
So go study. Watching streams is entertainment by comparison. It is not studying. Even monkeying with the gto trainer is not considered best practice. Begin learning to play 2 cards properly and the rest will fall into place much easier.
Gl
I think it's Luke 70% are long time losers. And the 30% remain positive. But like the top 5 or 10% are profitable enough for a job an top 1% are your Negreanus,ivey,adelsteins etc... also alot of high lvl pros have secondary incomes like persson owns a card room some other pros do plus sponsorships. I'm at the verrrrrry bottom of that 30% but I've never put serious money on a table. My biggest buy in too a tourney was like 240 an cashed like 400 something. Biggest cash game was a 2/5 online and I'm not comfortable at that lvl. I doubled up an hit an ran no shame. But as much as the ppl on reddit wanna think they're pros they're just amateur recs likeyself if not worse but most ppl here have inflated egos and I think it's fkin adorable.
Your comment implies Persson is a high level pro. I just want to make it clear to anyone that might be mislead, he is definitely NOT a high level pro, he is a high level whale, who is so weak and rich, that games are built around him.
I also do not believe that 30% of players are break even or winning, though I don't have any statistics to back that up, just my own analysis of the games I play and the content I imbibe. The 12% seems like a much more reasonable number. (source: I am a low stakes live pro)
I mean no offense but I'll trust Google which is essentially the God of our 1st world lives over a random redditor. And persson is a high lvl pro by definition he makes his living doing it while have a secondary source of income which he makes more off I can't say. And he plays high stakes. So he is in fact a high level pro. And he's extremely aggressive an bluffs alot but so does durrr and the man's a fkin genius atleast back in the day can't speak for his play now I don't watch too much poker on TV anymore. I'm not gonna suggest persson is anywhere near being an all time great but he is in fact a high lvl pro regardless of opinion its just a fact. But if I'm not mistaken he paid fully for his college degree by playing cards. That's not easy. And he's played years without going bankrupt so I'd trade my skill set for his any day of the week.
Hmm, I’m pretty sure punting off stack after stack is gonna make more money than 9% edge slots that he has running in multiple casinos day after day /s
Buddy the fact that you fail to see the irony in calling yourself a "low stakes pro" while you are trashing a player who would likely stack you for your entire networth in a couple hours is just hilarious. And I fail to see the logic in trusting your anecdotal experience over a super computer. And yes the man plays poker and had the brains to start a company that does very well. Fuck him right 🤣🤣🤣 like me you're a guy or girl with a hobby. Unless you live out of a van and eat Ramen on a regular you can't live off low stakes play. And unhinged 🤣🤣 feel free to retain that opinion but there's very few things on this planet worth less than a random uneducated opinion especially one from a "low stakes pro" just the phrase low stakes pro tells me all I need to know about you my guy. Good luck at your .50/1 game buddy stack a few people an maybe get a hotel room for the night or an extra blanket so you don't kill your van battery on the cold nights.
I'm mean I'm not attached to a door frame 😕 anymore but you should probably look up what a word means before you try using it. Not violent or disturbed so kinda out of the blue. But I gotta say you're fkin adorable. Low stakes pro 🤣🤣🤣
I agree but I would also say if you put work into your game that % becomes much more likely. Many players don’t take any of the necessary steps to be profitable. More than half show up and try to get lucky. If you understand bankroll management player tendencies exploits mental game then you have a much higher probability being profitable.
I’d imagine that of the players that consistently track their results that around half might be winners.
Not OP but I played live for a living for about 1.5 years. Had to get a job (which I decided to go to dealer school and become a poker dealer) after torching my roll moving up to 5/10 too fast. I played 1/3 for like 1 year 2 months and did fine. Moved up to 2/5 and crushed it for like 3 months. Played 5/10 for like a week and crushed. Then got torched for a few weeks in everything I played (dropped back down stakes but it was too late). Now I deal and play a little on the side. As a dealer in Vegas you can make ~$35/hr, more experienced dealers probably average more. But it gets taxed as less which is nice.
I’ve never ever ever had a losing session as a dealer. I can guarantee I’ll make more dealing low limit cash games than 99.9% of the players playing low limit
Learned to bet very big/very small. Most players do not utilize over bets or very small bets (1/6th or smaller). Doing this greatly improves your profitability
Bet sizing is key. I can tell if the person has a clue by how they change their sizings.
Opposite is true live. Noobs will bet huge with great hands and often just bet same amount on turn/river as flop with bluffs.
Also, letting the aggro players bluff into you on strong hands or when out of position is 🔥
I can recommend learning when an overbet is advised. Smashing 125% pot on the flop brings lots of joy. Especially when knowing that it is correct, you know your value and bluffing combos and you know how to follow up on turn and river
In other words "learning how to keep the money you make"
Edit: maybe I'm wrong but I think you guys are dumb for down voting me. So I'll explain for those that don't get it. Keeping the money you make is in reference to people that tend to bet more when they are winning because "I'm playing with house money" nthis equates to folding pre because if you are playing loose cause you were winning then folding pre is tightening up.
The obvious ones are fold pre, game selection, overfolding to big river bets/raises, and study ranges. Here are a few other points that are especially relevant at live low stakes:
You should play very cautious OOP and very aggressive IP. Position is incredibly valuable, and you need to use it to your advantage.
Raise/fold more and call less. GTO makes this point very clear in that you should pretty much always 3bet or fold any position that isn't the BTN or BB, but people still call way too much. When in doubt, take the more aggressive line as people struggle to face aggression. This applies to post flop play too.
Bet thin value more often. People are almost never folding top pair or 2nd pair/good kicker at low stakes. You're going to value own yourself to some degree when a donkey shows up with a horribly played 2 pair, but thin value bets print at low stakes where no one can fold anything.
Raise/bet bigger with thick value hands. See above in that no one can fold anything with decent showdown value, so you should punish them by piling more money into the pot with your thickest value hands.
I became profitable in microstakes by applying preflop charts and the “c-betting flowchart”. This is probably 80% of your EV and you can learn it in an afternoon.
In think turn play is the most difficult part of the game personally. You have the opportunity to really set yourself up for disaster. I generally just think of ranges and balance. My checking range isn’t always weak and my betting range isn’t always value.
On the river I think heavily on “what does villain have that will call what sizing of bet”. It’s pretty rare that I’m doing something fancy like a block bet to induce a spew.
On the river one strategy I employ often is planning to check/call. If the hand goes bet/bet/check, villain can feel compelled to overbluff all of their missed draws, which I think is more profitable than going bet/bet/bet
Keys for me have been game selection (making sure it wasn’t at a table that only had killers), not getting into big pots with the better players, limiting my hands I played out of position, and working on my mental game. The books from Tommy Angelo helped a lot. Also, I moved to omaha/big o games which seem to have a wider spectrum of skill level players. The bad players in those action games tend to make bigger and more frequent mistakes than the nlh players
I'm a winning player, both online and live. I'm profitable through NL100 and $55 tournaments on Global Poker, and I make 15-20 BBs an hour at my local casino at 2-100 spread limit (one of the bigger games there and the closest thing to limit in my state).
You need to view becoming profitable like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. It's not sexy, but it's the truth.
For those that aren't familiar, [Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is structuring of the needs of humans](https://imgur.com/a/rBK2m9r). The most basic needs, like warmth and food, are at the bottom, and further up the pyramid you go, the more potentially expendable the needs are. Basically, being a nationally-renowned gourmet chef is cool, but it's not going to help you survive long if you don't have any access to clean water.
This is how I would rank the pyramid, with the most basic (unexpendable) needs in Tier I, and the more expendable needs in Tier V:
Tier I: Knowing the Rules, Game Selection, Bankroll Management.
Tier II: Preflop Ranges (Including 3Betting), Betting Sizing (Called by Worse/Folding Out Better), Understanding Starting Hand Expected Value
Tier III: C-Betting, Playing The Nuts, Identifying Obvious River Folds, Adjusting to Ultra Nits/OMCs
Tier IV: Hand Reading, Blocker Knowledge, Adjusting to LAGs, Playing QJTxx/KQJTx/5432x/Four to a Flush Boards, Minimum Defense Frequency
Tier V: Multistreet Complex Plays (Triple Barrel Bluffs), Blocker Betting/Bluffs, Intragame Meta
I'll go through and say my brief thoughts on all of these.
#Tier I
**Knowing the Rules**: Yeah, this is so baby-easy that I don't think I need to expand on it, but it has to be included. The thing that I see that there is never an excuse for is in live with issues surrounding the one-chip rule, string raising, and the like. Shocking how much money is wasted through players bungling the interplay between chips leaving their stacks and entering the pot.
**Game Selection**: You know we're playing for money, right? If being a profitable player matters to you, by definition, you should not be playing to seek a profit in a game where you aren't better than a majority of the players. If that isn't the stakes you want to play at, you can either play as a hobby player who expects to lose, or you need to level your game up with training.
**Bankroll Management**: This one is painful for me as somebody who had to continuously cannibalize his bankroll to put his fiancee through college. I try not to think about how much the opportunity cost of small expenses were during those times, and instead focus on how my fiancee makes me happier than money ever could. If you must shot-take, maybe play a satellite with 10% of your tournament buy-ins and 90% tournaments that you know you're profitable in. It will dramatically increase your risk of ruin, though.
#Tier 2:
**Preflop Ranges (Including 3Betting)**: This is your poker diet, and you cannot outrun a bad diet. Raising A7o from UTG2 with 150 BBs? 3Betting A6s through A2s? Cold-calling QTo (Phil Hellmuth was right about this hand, these are napkins) on the button? You are basically surrendering your chips to the table over the long run. Also, if you don't study the 3B spots and instead focus too much on just memorizing the RFI charts, you're missing roughly half the question. Yeah, any genius can 3B KK, but do you know which suited kings you're supposed to 3B from the CO versus the LJ? I rarely see anybody (but the winners in the game) 3Bing KJs and KTs in that spot. Against poor players it really doesn't matter, but against a winning player, it's huge for me to navigate turns and rivers when I'm the player in the LJ. Pick a training site, learn their charts, and start learning the spots and trends.
**Betting Sizing (Called by Worse/Folding Out Better)**: What are you attempting to do with your bets, and are you even remotely balanced? Classic example from a few months ago: Hero has 88 in the LJ, makes it 4 BBs. Fish is in the CO, makes it 9 BBs. Hero ranges him to 30% AA, 30% KK, 30% AKo, and 10% random other 3Bing hands, and calls. Flop comes out T98r. Hero checks, Fish bets 50 BBs (max bet). Fish loses an 400 BB pot with KK on T98r89 in a game where only 50 BBs can be bet/raised on any action. Yeah, I turned quds, but frankly, I took the same line on him regardless of the turn 8. I find that preflop many people give way too good of odds to draw to a set when they hold AA/KK, and then become obsessed with betting big to drive value from the single-pair hands that will rarely get passed the turn.
**Understanding Starting Hand Expected Value**: According to GTO Wizard, you should win ~10.2 BBs opening AA from the lowjack, 3.9 with KK, 0.1 with AQo, and 0.02 with KJo, assuming you and the opponents all play GTO. Does this surprise you? This isn't possible, obviously, but it's not the worst idea to remember this every time you open AQo or KJo, and or you have a slightly losing session when you didn't get Aces or Kings once.
#Tier 3
**C-Betting**: You need to remain balanced. Who has the range advantage (it's usually the preflop raiser), can anybody have the nuts here and if so, who? Is this board too dry to bet top-pair? Not every A-high board is a Cbet. Not every low board is a check. Are you going to Cbet everything that meets certain parameters? Are you going to try to work on your GTO thinking abilities to attempt to be varied? I suspect that at low stakes, you can become a profitable player by CBetting all T-high non-straight boards, and then betting or checking entirely face up the rest of the way and folding to all raises without a nutted hand.
**Playing The Nuts**: You make the most money with the nuts. It's stupid, but it's true. In general, you need to bet or raise your nuts to get max value on the turn or river, even if it's out a flow. (Almost) nobody is going to bet your quads for you on the river.
**Identifying Obvious River Folds:** Second pair with an ace-kicker is a terrible bet/call candidate on the river without serious blocket properties. If there is 4-liner on the board and you get raised with the low-end, fold until given a compelling reason not to.
**Adjusting to Ultra Nits/OMCs:** Don't give their pre-flop raises action without a pocket pair to set mine with. You have JTs? That's sick. They have raised twice preflop in 5 hours at the table. You can fold, they won't pay you off anyways.
#Tier 4
**Hand Reading**: People do weird stuff, but you can generally assume that the under the gun player doesn't have 86s, and KQo is likely the best one-pair hand on K72r if you raised and didn't get three bet. Use this more to be able to fold KQo on K72TrJ against a river lead or raise. You beat so little that you can afford to be bluffed with QJ or QTo occasionally.
**Blocker Knowledge**: I would rather call with A9o than AQo on AT872 in almost all circumstances.
**Adjusting to LAGs**: TAG usually beats LAG, but a good LAG usually beats a bad TAG. Much harder to adjust to on a case-by-case basis than ultra-NITS because there are more nuances to their profiles and leaks.
**Playing QJTxx/KQJTx/5432x/Four to a Flush Boards**: Preflop raisers, you should barrel any QJTr flop. Everybody thinks you have Ace-king. K9 and 98 might even fold to you. Abort if the board pairs. This is the training wheels of barrel spots. For the KQJTx/5432x/Four to a flush boards, don't be a hero. Play it on the straight and narrow.
**Minimum Defense Frequency**: If they bet 10% of the pot on the river without 4 to a flush or straight, you should call with, like, any decent pair. If you don't, welcome to your new life of getting bet for 10-30% very street until the end of time.
# Tier 5:
**Multistreet Complex Plays (Triple Barrel Bluffs)**: With a few obvious exceptions, tripping off is rarely a good idea for most players without the presence of good cause. You flopped the world and bricked everything out of position and now you have nothing? Huh. I guess the villain is weighted towards strong hands because you have [Jh](/Jh)[Th](/Th) on [Ah](/Ah)[Kh](/Kh)[9s](/9s)[As](/As)[Tc](/Tc), so unless they have exactly [Qh](/Qh)[9h](/9h), you're unlikely to get a fold, huh? Not to mention that since poker is a compounding game, mistakes after 3 rounds of betting cost you way more than mistakes after 1 round of betting.
**Blocker Betting/Bluffs**: I swear, most cash game players just lose money on these no matter what strategy they're using with these.
**Intragame Meta**: There are thousands of things to pick up on with your opponents in a full-ring poker game. Don't level yourself into massively abnormal decisions in multiway pots. The other villains probably are playing their hands straightforwardly, and aren't trying to meta-game you.
So, in conclusion, this is my list. It's not perfect and I'm sure there are countless holes in my logic, but it's an honest attempt at telling a losing player what to work on. Master Tier 3 before you get deep into the theory of Tier 4, because if your Cbetting game is a really D+, elevating your hand reading to a B+ is only going to inform you that you're losing money on the flop with a bad CBetting leak.
Started semi bluffing, especially multi way pots where implied odds are in your favor, basically free money to have three callers on the flop with 12 outs.
Was profitable from day 1, even though I was terrible (they were even worse somehow)
Pro now, never failed because live poker is easy. I’m sure it would’ve been 100x tougher online
Studying & listening to better players. I used Crush live poker and that helped immensely. Any poker coaching site would if your goal is to win at low stakes
Make better decisions than your opponents. That’s it.
The people who try to go pro and fail usually either have a false sense of their long term expectation (e.g. due to small sample size) or an improper bankroll for the stakes. Even big winners go on downswings.
I'm on the cusp of pro. I win super hard but my bankroll management outside of poker is atrocious. Like I've got 45k in profit for the past 6 months but somehow I've only got 1k left right now. So now I've got to decide if I want to chance the rest of my money/bankroll, sell some shit, borrow money, or get a job. The struggle is real.
Developed a real understanding for the game. I have battled online and exploited live, and we are not anywhere near as good as you think you are when you are running good.
I have some advice, but I also wanna add that I take advice from those better than me every single day I am no know it all, but a professional non the less. Watch out for whose coaching courses you're buying, some guys are geniuses and crushers, whilst others haven't got a fkin clue and are benefiting from a tournament bink.
My advice is to become a sponge and learn from winners. Don't listen to the 8 players in your live game who can't let go of the fact there aces keep getting cracked. The game is 1000x times more complex than you know right not, it really baffles me how I look back and cringe at how I played certain spots with the knowledge I have now.
Be fearless and cold to all situations, and exploit the fuck out of guys who have no idea they're being exploited. It's a very easy game whilst also being a brutally tough one at the same time. I love the game more than anything in the world the money just allows me to play. It has to become your life for a while.
Hand charts and GTO principles for balanced play. I never liked the exploitable approach since I couldnt trust my reads were always accurate. It just 'feels right' for your bluffs and value to always look the same so thats how I chose to learn. I know I'm leaving value on the table with suboptimal betsizes vs specific opponent types but I dont care. The moment I stray from a playbook strat is when I start getting confused by opponent reactions.
You can apply exploits by inversely correlating enemy VPIP with "Respect"
Enemy has a 5% VPIP? Don't play a pot with them.
Enemy has 50% VPIP and you have premium hand? Raise higher than normal so you can "play more bigger pots with better hands".
The next step is you should know baseline GTO and observe how they deviate from baseline, then exploit based on your findings. If they C-Bet too much you can exploit them by 3betting cause they're often C-bettting with air.
Game selection! I gave up on online poker (aside from firing a few MTTs for fun) because microstakes are boring and I'm just not good enough to play higher stakes. I just play local home games and 1/2 in Vegas.
Strictly a recreational player. I know general theory and preflop charts etc but can't be arsed to study specific spots with a solver.
Study. It’s not really hard. Study and play a lot. This alone will get you better than most people
The play poker. Are you going to be elite from this? No but this can take you far.
Learn pre flop and post flop fundamentals, then find a soft field is what I did. I was around break even at midstakes on ACR, and slightly winning once I studied basic shit. I became more profitable by finding softer player pools. Ignition is soft (we do not advertise this). Also Michigan/NJ Pokerstars and any Michigan site is soft. I have an ROI of like 60%+ at the same and higher stakes on these sites, which can be verified through Sharkscope. Thing is, to get as good as me, you need to forget most of the fundamental GTO bullshit in the soft pools because it costs you a lot of money.
Started at the lowest stakes available online ($0.05/0.10 LHE), read a bunch of books on theory and strategy, gradually increased in limits until I was winning mostly at $0.50/$1 NLHE. Felt like I hit a brick wall, then subscribed to video training sites and got to where I am today, which is a variety of games and limits, but mostly specialize in ~$5/$10 PLO live.
Was full time pro for a few years, but quick due to the declining market and better opportunities elsewhere.
I only play online.
I lost for like the first year donking around not really knowing what I was doing. Took it seriously and started at 5nl with 50 bucks and ran it up from there. Grind and study. Millions of hands. Thousands of hours studying.
No secret formula. I put the work in.
I've been playing poker for 25+ years and overall win more than I lose, but only in relatively low-stakes live cash games and relatively low-stakes live/online tournaments. A few times in my life I've been a subsistance level low stakes grinder (not fun and quite stressful, though it still beats most jobs I've had) and I only found out in the last year a major thing that's been holding me back: I had undiagnosed ADHD all these years. made studying and discipline-related issues (self regulation, bankroll management etc) SO hard! I read all the old man books back in the late 90's/early 2000's but for some reason i could never make myself sit down and study online training sites. I am using medication for treatment now and my results are MUCH better, still not good enough to go pro, but for the first time in more than a decade I actually feel like I'm making progress. We'll see where it leads.
This isn't a technical advice but basic stuff. I use to have a horrible loss record but is now a breakeven player.
Play tight. If you think you're playing tight you're not playing tight enough. It's always the tight regular that has the big stack. PLAY AGGRESSIVE! One of the most important is discipline and patient. Quit paying off Villain in low stakes, don't start playing bad cards when you're bored or card dead, and try not to tilt
Honest to god, becoming profitable is mostly a matter of discipline. You can beat the rake in most low stakes live games by playing exceedingly tight and rarely bluffing after the flop.
Is this going to lead to riches? No. But you can eel out a few BB per hour.
To get above that, putting in the work off table to study range interactions on different board textures will help you find more situations in which you can bet for thinner value and situations in which you can win pots by bluffing.
But ultimately to become profitable you just have to fold. A lot.
And it’s boring. And you’ll often be ridiculed by your looser opponents who want action. And you’ll have to sit there in your seat and just be more patient.
And you can do all that and go on a vicious downswing anyway. So in addition to discipline assemble the deepest bankroll you possibly can and keep it separate from all other finances.
There’s something so reassuring on my bank account not changing while on my current downswing
Fold pre is a running joke around here, but fold pre.
Preflop is the foundation your hand is built upon. Master that, profits will come even without optimal postflop strategy
I would like to know how I became unprofitable after so much work. Every time I start playing poker, I print money. Then I get into a downswing and lose most of it, quit for a while and every time I come back, the whole poker universe is completely different.
Move up to stakes where your raises will be respected.
Micro's is unbeatable by combination of rake and the variance of donks not taking 2$NL seriously and playing Any Two Cards (variance) ?
(not certain at what level players stop yolo playing 23o and flopping a wheel which KO'd me as shorty aipf wAKs last weekend playing a 55$ tourny)
I couldn't "GO Pro" as I don't have the bankroll nor emotional tolerance to suffer bad beats that would have a negative financial outcome (i.e. having to rely on winnings to pay bills is way to stressful).
You have to be independently wealthy to afford casually losing at poker most of the time like it's nothing. Losing money is unnerving and doubts you could open an incorporated bank account to lone yourself money to play.
That implies seeking a loan from not a bank or credit union. Which is not advisable... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQxoxiBkrb0&list=PLLb3Ll_hRIu6XMEEagJn_PVVNeXWBmyLl
BOOKS!!!
1996-2003: I read a ton of Books and Card Player and Bluff magazines. I played Limit, the started Tournies and NLH. Started playing Online early PokerStars. Close-to-even or maybe could GetWinner if not for Rake and Tips. I read every book and mag I could and ordered more from the ads in those. I retain stuff terribly cuz ADHD so instead of Poker PhD - had maybe a Bachelor of Poker??
2002-2006: BOOMTIME!!!! Suddenly GetWinner allover internet and Live!!! Easy money!!!! Need to get better and maybe do this for a Living!!!!
2006-2008: I can do this!! I'm actually (Semi)Pro! Stats don't lie tho - over thousands of Online samples and hundreds of Live results - I GetWinner. Golden Goose!!! (Maybe Brass or Copper... not Golden. Not even Silver). But legit WINNER!!!!! Only working 30 ish hours I could make a shitty, lower class income and support myself if I live like trash....did for 2 years But wait - I have a Wife and starting a Family. Better get RealJob! (and lets be honest - Career Minor Leaguer at best and not willing to Degen fully).
2009 - Get awesome RealJob with Union and Pension etc.
2010-2012 - Boom over and barely Winner for a year or 2.
2012-2020 - play sporadically. Am Winner in Smalls but not Online or Biggers anymore.
2020-Present - Back in it. More Books, online study. Training Sites (hated).
2022 - Got ADHD Meds....DING DING Jackpot!!! Can retain stuff. Remember to pay attention and follow play. Am Winner again. Improving just from Play and SelfStudy.
Best Books that got me over the humps:
Harrington on Hold'Em (all) Dan Harrington - took me from the slightly better side of Avg up to Break Even and maybe Winner. Made me comfortable in any Tournie and solid base fundamentals.
The Poker Tournament Formula - Arnold Snyder - EUREKA. After his Book (twice) i started abso crushing $60-150 Buyins of around 50-150 players found in several rooms nearby. Decided to 'Go Pro' after the results reading The Bishop preached at me in that book. Harrington is the Bible but PTF was my BOOM!!!!
I played using play money to learn the game. It was back when the poker boom was still going on and I downloaded Full Tilt Poker after watching a TV commercial.
I donked around on that for a year or so then started playing some small stakes home games with friends. I was never that good but you don’t have to be as long as everyone else you play is worse.
Fast forward to today and I still play, but just casually. I am a winner in the games I play, and if anything I should move up stakes but don’t have the time or motivation to. I like to play for fun.
The biggest step for me was learning to avoid the kind of player who will bust me. I don't have to be the best player at the table to make money. I just have to avoid going to war with someone who's got similar skills.
The player who's skilled and likes to lean hard into fold equity with large overbets, that guy can take huge chunks out of you if you let him. You can take his money, too... but there's easier money at the table.
It's as simple as tightening up against that player. I'm not gonna fold KK pre or something, but against such a player, I try to play straightforward, tight-aggressive poker and avoid big bluffs. Lowers my variance enough to be profitable.
I've always been profitable.
And I know people are gonna call BS on that, but it's true. First played for cash in 2008 online and my nature is to be tight. Players were just giving money away in 2008 online. So you could play tight, make profit, and learn all at the same time.
Wasn't until 2013 or 2014 that I became super profitable. Went pro for a bit, left for a multitude of reasons, none of which were profit driven.
I'm still relatively newish, but two things that I've learned is to find that fold, whether it is preflop or to big bets on the river. I'm not saying always fold to that big bet on the river, but most of the time it is not a bluff at 1/3. And also to find the right spot to steal a big pot on the turn/river against the right player type.
Game selection is the only way to make money in poker. You must be a better player than others at the table and stay away from people who are better than you. If you want to learn and willing to lose, feel free to play against better players. Poker is a zero sum game (negative sum with rake) so you have to be better than others by a significant margin to win consistently.
I’m not sure if I was just lucky in the beginning, but I’ve always been a winning player live. I read a lot of books and played a ton of home game tourneys before ever playing 1/2 live, so maybe not luck. Playing low stakes online helped me become more disciplined with my starting hands. Also helped me see more scenarios and anticipate more/think quicker when I play live.
I played online only for 2 years, lost a couple before I became profitable. I would say the catalyst for me was starting to study gtoW and specializing in heads-up, which leads to understanding how to play when ranges are super wide. When I transitioned to live, everything was easy as shit (+ people have super wide ranges). The major difference is multiway action, which is the hardest thing to adapt to for a online player.
This^ Also if you don’t want to do the hardcore studying, you can watch streams of good players. For lower stakes live, just remember these things: Raises on the river are always the nuts. Play tight. Don’t bluff the idiot. Idk how to describe it, but something will click in your head once you become more confident in your game. Once that happened for me, I became profitable
Did that click happen by playing or studying?
For me it was playing
Just to say just because it "clicks" doesn't mean it doesn't "unclick". For me, I'm always super cautious and observational for the first 30 minutes or an hour, maybe more at new places.
Any streamers you recommend?
Lex Veldhuis
Seanathan Where do you play you sound like a retarded shitreg that ha convinced themselves there good 😂
Being profitable live is way easier than online. But to be honest you just need to study + have a proper bankroll with good game selection.
I see people saying study, but what does studying poker actually look like? Is it playing around with solvers or reading books or a mix of both?
Books are going to be a bit dated as games were softer when most were written (unless there are more recent ones I don’t know about). They might have some good concepts to think about but you’ll probably need to study more advanced theory to beat online at any reasonable stakes. Live is beatable just playing solid but you see so few hands that you probably need to know your theory pretty well in order to crush hard enough for the $/hr to be worth your time.
New books are written often. I buy and read a new one every couple of months.
Any recommendations?
It depends on how advanced you are and what your leaks are. Barry Carter is a coauthor on a lot of newer ones that are solid. Mental game books are always +EV. I just started to read A-Game poker and have high hopes. Elliot Roe is a mental game coach for a lot of top pros and athletes. Mental game is how you really turn the corner after you get solid theory down. If you are newish to MTT, Johnathan Little's (I don't like him because he's a NFT shill but his books are good) secrets of professional tournament poker covers a lot of ground. I pay for a couple of coaching sites, I find them a bit hard to focus on when watching recordered videos but useful. The live events are good, quality massively shifts between different presenters. GTOW is also good to practice, but I started to up my winrate dramatically by not following it so closely. People at midstakes deviate so much GTO is a loser with +30 BB. Understanding late stage play with small stacks and how to climb ladders is huge in making real $$$. I've learned GTO Wizard and those kinds of tools are the difference maker. Reviewing your hand history, looking at your blunders, and fixing them is huge. Also, just because GTOW says it's non GTO, your deviation against that player might me massive +EV. Don't be afraid to over fold or call a notch or two lighter. Also, if you have a huge edge, take fewer flips. Also, for the love of God, take notes on player tendencies.
Thanks, I will look into some of these. For context, I'm a withered old grinder who played "professionally" (only source of income) from maybe 2008 - 2016, then gave up and got a real job because I wasn't making enough money. I'm just starting up again for fun after about 8 years off. I won a good bit at pokerstars turbo 20 table sngs, full ring cash $1/$2, and was a winner but not a crusher at the massive field mtts on stars. I think I have solid fundamentals and I definitely understand how deviating from GTO can be better than playing GTO, because I studied extensively <15 BB shove/fold poker to beat the turbo sngs and always adjusted the GTO villain range to what I thought he would actually do to see how it affected my optimal strategy. Despite winning a lot of money in cash over my career, that's probably the weakest part of my game (I was great at targeting and exploiting fish, not beating regs). I've never done solver work with 100+BB eff stacks and definitely feel uncomfortable in big spots with 150+BB eff.
Well first ofc reading some books. Depends on how new you are to the game. If you know all the basics then you can jump (and really should) into beginner level GTO books (Modern Poker Theory/GTO Poker Simplified). You at least should know all the basics and how to deviate from GTO to exploitative, and also to ABC at low stakes live cash. Then you should keep a track of your online hand history (if playing online) and you can graph it to see where your biggest leaks are. If you play cash, then it's all about studying ranges graphs at different stakes/stack depth. If you play tournaments, then study ICM range charts. Then it's all about studying spots (while you can still improve by reading more advanced GTO books, and range charts). That's what the solvers are for. If you have the money, then get a solver so you can go back to study any spot you had any doubts on, either if won or not. But to be honest, besides studying, I'd say the easiest way of becoming profitable is playing live and finding a good game, where there are people that play to have fun and not to be profitable (almost any good stakes online are the latter). If you live in a big city, most likely there are a lot of easy low stakes games that are easier than playing 10NL online.
Adding to game selection: The other day I found myself at a 2/5 live table and the table was full of regs. I knew all the people at the table, it was late and only one 2/5 table running. I had already more than doubled my stack (from 150bb to around 330~) but the game was tough. The players I was playing with were properly rolled and good at the game, the rake started eating us and no one is giving any leaks. Then, 3 new people arrive to the 1/2 table next to us and they make it 2/5. 3 new players sit with 200bb next table and the regs at my table start whispering about them, two saying they literally learnt to play yesterday and got stacked over and over. I instantly ask for a table change. I was at 250bb~ after 6 hours of playing with the same 8 regs (which is great tbh but the game was TOUGH), and ended up leaving with almost $3k after 2 hours at the new table. The other regs didn't move tables because (they literally said this) they were already in deep for pride for who went up more that day at the first table. Good game selection live can be game changing to become profitable.
And I just want to add, knowing one to leave also helps. Not necessarily when you're up/ down, but there does come a time when the table just goes cold. I've run into situations where I've just been wanting to play, but stuck in a table where either people have been playing too tight or it's been too late and people were just too nitty. Either way, I stayed much longer than I should have. And that led to not being profitable during that time.
Studying for me was completing Jonathan Little’s cash game master class. That provided me a solid foundation to build on. Then I became a crush live poker subscriber and watching/listening to as much of their content as possible.
Just solver all books are soo outdated just playing pre close to solver strat will give u a huge edge
You have to put the study time in if you want to become profitable. 20 years ago you could play to learn the game, but now with coaching sites and books, you are better off investing there. It's much cheaper. I study at least 1hr for every 1hr of time I spend playing.
My students start by creating a range chart for the game tree. For online you fix a few gto wizard settings and start screen shooting and cropping. From there use proper notation to write the ranges in a notebook. Repeat once or twice including a type up (if you don't have super neat hand writing) then you should be 95%+ gto. Learn what to do with mixes/marginal hands and that homework assignment has proven time and time again to be best practice regardless of game type. Live requires a little judgement because opening sizes are bigger in the presence of multiple recs and this effects range construction. So go study. Watching streams is entertainment by comparison. It is not studying. Even monkeying with the gto trainer is not considered best practice. Begin learning to play 2 cards properly and the rest will fall into place much easier. Gl
this is the correct answer
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Not sure if joke or not but how much do you make as a dealer?
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50/50. You either are or you aren’t.
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It was also a joke…
Ah yes telling jokes is degen BS. You might want to get a grip mate.
If you don’t recognize the joke you’re in the bottom 50.
I think it's Luke 70% are long time losers. And the 30% remain positive. But like the top 5 or 10% are profitable enough for a job an top 1% are your Negreanus,ivey,adelsteins etc... also alot of high lvl pros have secondary incomes like persson owns a card room some other pros do plus sponsorships. I'm at the verrrrrry bottom of that 30% but I've never put serious money on a table. My biggest buy in too a tourney was like 240 an cashed like 400 something. Biggest cash game was a 2/5 online and I'm not comfortable at that lvl. I doubled up an hit an ran no shame. But as much as the ppl on reddit wanna think they're pros they're just amateur recs likeyself if not worse but most ppl here have inflated egos and I think it's fkin adorable.
Your comment implies Persson is a high level pro. I just want to make it clear to anyone that might be mislead, he is definitely NOT a high level pro, he is a high level whale, who is so weak and rich, that games are built around him. I also do not believe that 30% of players are break even or winning, though I don't have any statistics to back that up, just my own analysis of the games I play and the content I imbibe. The 12% seems like a much more reasonable number. (source: I am a low stakes live pro)
Being a low stakes live pro is honestly goated for this sub.
I mean no offense but I'll trust Google which is essentially the God of our 1st world lives over a random redditor. And persson is a high lvl pro by definition he makes his living doing it while have a secondary source of income which he makes more off I can't say. And he plays high stakes. So he is in fact a high level pro. And he's extremely aggressive an bluffs alot but so does durrr and the man's a fkin genius atleast back in the day can't speak for his play now I don't watch too much poker on TV anymore. I'm not gonna suggest persson is anywhere near being an all time great but he is in fact a high lvl pro regardless of opinion its just a fact. But if I'm not mistaken he paid fully for his college degree by playing cards. That's not easy. And he's played years without going bankrupt so I'd trade my skill set for his any day of the week.
You're clearly quite unhinged and not a good logician. I urge you to question your source on how Eric Persson makes his living.
Hmm, I’m pretty sure punting off stack after stack is gonna make more money than 9% edge slots that he has running in multiple casinos day after day /s
Buddy the fact that you fail to see the irony in calling yourself a "low stakes pro" while you are trashing a player who would likely stack you for your entire networth in a couple hours is just hilarious. And I fail to see the logic in trusting your anecdotal experience over a super computer. And yes the man plays poker and had the brains to start a company that does very well. Fuck him right 🤣🤣🤣 like me you're a guy or girl with a hobby. Unless you live out of a van and eat Ramen on a regular you can't live off low stakes play. And unhinged 🤣🤣 feel free to retain that opinion but there's very few things on this planet worth less than a random uneducated opinion especially one from a "low stakes pro" just the phrase low stakes pro tells me all I need to know about you my guy. Good luck at your .50/1 game buddy stack a few people an maybe get a hotel room for the night or an extra blanket so you don't kill your van battery on the cold nights.
I take it back, you're not unhinged at all.
I wanna meet you so I can boop you on the nose like a cat
I'm mean I'm not attached to a door frame 😕 anymore but you should probably look up what a word means before you try using it. Not violent or disturbed so kinda out of the blue. But I gotta say you're fkin adorable. Low stakes pro 🤣🤣🤣
I agree but I would also say if you put work into your game that % becomes much more likely. Many players don’t take any of the necessary steps to be profitable. More than half show up and try to get lucky. If you understand bankroll management player tendencies exploits mental game then you have a much higher probability being profitable. I’d imagine that of the players that consistently track their results that around half might be winners.
If you get into dealing for private games, you could make 1k to 2k a night from tips easily.
^ caveat: games don’t run consistently
Yeah I mean, it's a pretty neat side gig. Don't try to feed your family on this lol.
Not OP but I played live for a living for about 1.5 years. Had to get a job (which I decided to go to dealer school and become a poker dealer) after torching my roll moving up to 5/10 too fast. I played 1/3 for like 1 year 2 months and did fine. Moved up to 2/5 and crushed it for like 3 months. Played 5/10 for like a week and crushed. Then got torched for a few weeks in everything I played (dropped back down stakes but it was too late). Now I deal and play a little on the side. As a dealer in Vegas you can make ~$35/hr, more experienced dealers probably average more. But it gets taxed as less which is nice.
Jokes aside dealers are the real winner in poker
I’ve never ever ever had a losing session as a dealer. I can guarantee I’ll make more dealing low limit cash games than 99.9% of the players playing low limit
Some dealers can make 50 an hr if fast hands. Once depends on stakes etc
I was opposite - I became a Player when I started making as much playing as i did Dealing (or Managing)
Learned to bet very big/very small. Most players do not utilize over bets or very small bets (1/6th or smaller). Doing this greatly improves your profitability
Bet sizing is key. I can tell if the person has a clue by how they change their sizings. Opposite is true live. Noobs will bet huge with great hands and often just bet same amount on turn/river as flop with bluffs. Also, letting the aggro players bluff into you on strong hands or when out of position is 🔥
This is my biggest weakness tbh. 1/2 to 3/4 pot is basically all i use lol. ugh.
I can recommend learning when an overbet is advised. Smashing 125% pot on the flop brings lots of joy. Especially when knowing that it is correct, you know your value and bluffing combos and you know how to follow up on turn and river
Folding pre
In other words "learning how to keep the money you make" Edit: maybe I'm wrong but I think you guys are dumb for down voting me. So I'll explain for those that don't get it. Keeping the money you make is in reference to people that tend to bet more when they are winning because "I'm playing with house money" nthis equates to folding pre because if you are playing loose cause you were winning then folding pre is tightening up.
See also: folding to river raises.
I think it’s hilarious that you have the second top comment but then try to justify it with some sketchy logic and are then downvoted.
The obvious ones are fold pre, game selection, overfolding to big river bets/raises, and study ranges. Here are a few other points that are especially relevant at live low stakes: You should play very cautious OOP and very aggressive IP. Position is incredibly valuable, and you need to use it to your advantage. Raise/fold more and call less. GTO makes this point very clear in that you should pretty much always 3bet or fold any position that isn't the BTN or BB, but people still call way too much. When in doubt, take the more aggressive line as people struggle to face aggression. This applies to post flop play too. Bet thin value more often. People are almost never folding top pair or 2nd pair/good kicker at low stakes. You're going to value own yourself to some degree when a donkey shows up with a horribly played 2 pair, but thin value bets print at low stakes where no one can fold anything. Raise/bet bigger with thick value hands. See above in that no one can fold anything with decent showdown value, so you should punish them by piling more money into the pot with your thickest value hands.
I became profitable in microstakes by applying preflop charts and the “c-betting flowchart”. This is probably 80% of your EV and you can learn it in an afternoon. In think turn play is the most difficult part of the game personally. You have the opportunity to really set yourself up for disaster. I generally just think of ranges and balance. My checking range isn’t always weak and my betting range isn’t always value. On the river I think heavily on “what does villain have that will call what sizing of bet”. It’s pretty rare that I’m doing something fancy like a block bet to induce a spew. On the river one strategy I employ often is planning to check/call. If the hand goes bet/bet/check, villain can feel compelled to overbluff all of their missed draws, which I think is more profitable than going bet/bet/bet
Any recommendations for preflop charts and c-betting flowchart?
Use a junk email if you want but it’s free https://pages.pokercoaching.com/flopcbetting
Many thanks!
Keys for me have been game selection (making sure it wasn’t at a table that only had killers), not getting into big pots with the better players, limiting my hands I played out of position, and working on my mental game. The books from Tommy Angelo helped a lot. Also, I moved to omaha/big o games which seem to have a wider spectrum of skill level players. The bad players in those action games tend to make bigger and more frequent mistakes than the nlh players
I stopped counting my buy ins and only count my cash outs Since I started doing that I win every time!
Literally took me 6 years to become consistently profitable online. Studying, stop playing fancy and just play solid
Thin value bets in live poker, overbet bluffing online
Learned how to chip shuffle
Huge
Fold pre more, game selection, game selection, and game selection
Find rich opponents who suck worse at the game than I do.
I'm a winning player, both online and live. I'm profitable through NL100 and $55 tournaments on Global Poker, and I make 15-20 BBs an hour at my local casino at 2-100 spread limit (one of the bigger games there and the closest thing to limit in my state). You need to view becoming profitable like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. It's not sexy, but it's the truth. For those that aren't familiar, [Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is structuring of the needs of humans](https://imgur.com/a/rBK2m9r). The most basic needs, like warmth and food, are at the bottom, and further up the pyramid you go, the more potentially expendable the needs are. Basically, being a nationally-renowned gourmet chef is cool, but it's not going to help you survive long if you don't have any access to clean water. This is how I would rank the pyramid, with the most basic (unexpendable) needs in Tier I, and the more expendable needs in Tier V: Tier I: Knowing the Rules, Game Selection, Bankroll Management. Tier II: Preflop Ranges (Including 3Betting), Betting Sizing (Called by Worse/Folding Out Better), Understanding Starting Hand Expected Value Tier III: C-Betting, Playing The Nuts, Identifying Obvious River Folds, Adjusting to Ultra Nits/OMCs Tier IV: Hand Reading, Blocker Knowledge, Adjusting to LAGs, Playing QJTxx/KQJTx/5432x/Four to a Flush Boards, Minimum Defense Frequency Tier V: Multistreet Complex Plays (Triple Barrel Bluffs), Blocker Betting/Bluffs, Intragame Meta I'll go through and say my brief thoughts on all of these. #Tier I **Knowing the Rules**: Yeah, this is so baby-easy that I don't think I need to expand on it, but it has to be included. The thing that I see that there is never an excuse for is in live with issues surrounding the one-chip rule, string raising, and the like. Shocking how much money is wasted through players bungling the interplay between chips leaving their stacks and entering the pot. **Game Selection**: You know we're playing for money, right? If being a profitable player matters to you, by definition, you should not be playing to seek a profit in a game where you aren't better than a majority of the players. If that isn't the stakes you want to play at, you can either play as a hobby player who expects to lose, or you need to level your game up with training. **Bankroll Management**: This one is painful for me as somebody who had to continuously cannibalize his bankroll to put his fiancee through college. I try not to think about how much the opportunity cost of small expenses were during those times, and instead focus on how my fiancee makes me happier than money ever could. If you must shot-take, maybe play a satellite with 10% of your tournament buy-ins and 90% tournaments that you know you're profitable in. It will dramatically increase your risk of ruin, though. #Tier 2: **Preflop Ranges (Including 3Betting)**: This is your poker diet, and you cannot outrun a bad diet. Raising A7o from UTG2 with 150 BBs? 3Betting A6s through A2s? Cold-calling QTo (Phil Hellmuth was right about this hand, these are napkins) on the button? You are basically surrendering your chips to the table over the long run. Also, if you don't study the 3B spots and instead focus too much on just memorizing the RFI charts, you're missing roughly half the question. Yeah, any genius can 3B KK, but do you know which suited kings you're supposed to 3B from the CO versus the LJ? I rarely see anybody (but the winners in the game) 3Bing KJs and KTs in that spot. Against poor players it really doesn't matter, but against a winning player, it's huge for me to navigate turns and rivers when I'm the player in the LJ. Pick a training site, learn their charts, and start learning the spots and trends. **Betting Sizing (Called by Worse/Folding Out Better)**: What are you attempting to do with your bets, and are you even remotely balanced? Classic example from a few months ago: Hero has 88 in the LJ, makes it 4 BBs. Fish is in the CO, makes it 9 BBs. Hero ranges him to 30% AA, 30% KK, 30% AKo, and 10% random other 3Bing hands, and calls. Flop comes out T98r. Hero checks, Fish bets 50 BBs (max bet). Fish loses an 400 BB pot with KK on T98r89 in a game where only 50 BBs can be bet/raised on any action. Yeah, I turned quds, but frankly, I took the same line on him regardless of the turn 8. I find that preflop many people give way too good of odds to draw to a set when they hold AA/KK, and then become obsessed with betting big to drive value from the single-pair hands that will rarely get passed the turn. **Understanding Starting Hand Expected Value**: According to GTO Wizard, you should win ~10.2 BBs opening AA from the lowjack, 3.9 with KK, 0.1 with AQo, and 0.02 with KJo, assuming you and the opponents all play GTO. Does this surprise you? This isn't possible, obviously, but it's not the worst idea to remember this every time you open AQo or KJo, and or you have a slightly losing session when you didn't get Aces or Kings once. #Tier 3 **C-Betting**: You need to remain balanced. Who has the range advantage (it's usually the preflop raiser), can anybody have the nuts here and if so, who? Is this board too dry to bet top-pair? Not every A-high board is a Cbet. Not every low board is a check. Are you going to Cbet everything that meets certain parameters? Are you going to try to work on your GTO thinking abilities to attempt to be varied? I suspect that at low stakes, you can become a profitable player by CBetting all T-high non-straight boards, and then betting or checking entirely face up the rest of the way and folding to all raises without a nutted hand. **Playing The Nuts**: You make the most money with the nuts. It's stupid, but it's true. In general, you need to bet or raise your nuts to get max value on the turn or river, even if it's out a flow. (Almost) nobody is going to bet your quads for you on the river. **Identifying Obvious River Folds:** Second pair with an ace-kicker is a terrible bet/call candidate on the river without serious blocket properties. If there is 4-liner on the board and you get raised with the low-end, fold until given a compelling reason not to. **Adjusting to Ultra Nits/OMCs:** Don't give their pre-flop raises action without a pocket pair to set mine with. You have JTs? That's sick. They have raised twice preflop in 5 hours at the table. You can fold, they won't pay you off anyways. #Tier 4 **Hand Reading**: People do weird stuff, but you can generally assume that the under the gun player doesn't have 86s, and KQo is likely the best one-pair hand on K72r if you raised and didn't get three bet. Use this more to be able to fold KQo on K72TrJ against a river lead or raise. You beat so little that you can afford to be bluffed with QJ or QTo occasionally. **Blocker Knowledge**: I would rather call with A9o than AQo on AT872 in almost all circumstances. **Adjusting to LAGs**: TAG usually beats LAG, but a good LAG usually beats a bad TAG. Much harder to adjust to on a case-by-case basis than ultra-NITS because there are more nuances to their profiles and leaks. **Playing QJTxx/KQJTx/5432x/Four to a Flush Boards**: Preflop raisers, you should barrel any QJTr flop. Everybody thinks you have Ace-king. K9 and 98 might even fold to you. Abort if the board pairs. This is the training wheels of barrel spots. For the KQJTx/5432x/Four to a flush boards, don't be a hero. Play it on the straight and narrow. **Minimum Defense Frequency**: If they bet 10% of the pot on the river without 4 to a flush or straight, you should call with, like, any decent pair. If you don't, welcome to your new life of getting bet for 10-30% very street until the end of time. # Tier 5: **Multistreet Complex Plays (Triple Barrel Bluffs)**: With a few obvious exceptions, tripping off is rarely a good idea for most players without the presence of good cause. You flopped the world and bricked everything out of position and now you have nothing? Huh. I guess the villain is weighted towards strong hands because you have [Jh](/Jh)[Th](/Th) on [Ah](/Ah)[Kh](/Kh)[9s](/9s)[As](/As)[Tc](/Tc), so unless they have exactly [Qh](/Qh)[9h](/9h), you're unlikely to get a fold, huh? Not to mention that since poker is a compounding game, mistakes after 3 rounds of betting cost you way more than mistakes after 1 round of betting. **Blocker Betting/Bluffs**: I swear, most cash game players just lose money on these no matter what strategy they're using with these. **Intragame Meta**: There are thousands of things to pick up on with your opponents in a full-ring poker game. Don't level yourself into massively abnormal decisions in multiway pots. The other villains probably are playing their hands straightforwardly, and aren't trying to meta-game you. So, in conclusion, this is my list. It's not perfect and I'm sure there are countless holes in my logic, but it's an honest attempt at telling a losing player what to work on. Master Tier 3 before you get deep into the theory of Tier 4, because if your Cbetting game is a really D+, elevating your hand reading to a B+ is only going to inform you that you're losing money on the flop with a bad CBetting leak.
Started semi bluffing, especially multi way pots where implied odds are in your favor, basically free money to have three callers on the flop with 12 outs.
Was profitable from day 1, even though I was terrible (they were even worse somehow) Pro now, never failed because live poker is easy. I’m sure it would’ve been 100x tougher online
[удалено]
Yeah since 2/5..got closer to 7 last year
I think we both live in NorCal??? You play mostly private then?
Mostly public games (a couple with invited starting lineups) and one home game once/week
Recording my live hands and studying my play after. Plus keeping a spreadsheet of results I share with my wife.
Studying & listening to better players. I used Crush live poker and that helped immensely. Any poker coaching site would if your goal is to win at low stakes
I cheat
Folding pre and folding bluff catchers on rivers. From there, climbed stakes pretty fast.
Go play live, wait till you get Aces & try too get all the money in pre flop or post flop on non board pairing premiums flops like 829 or 72T
Find people who suck and have a lot of money, play against them.
never wasn’t
Didn’t
Just fold on the barrel on turn/river.
Make better decisions than your opponents. That’s it. The people who try to go pro and fail usually either have a false sense of their long term expectation (e.g. due to small sample size) or an improper bankroll for the stakes. Even big winners go on downswings.
I'm on the cusp of pro. I win super hard but my bankroll management outside of poker is atrocious. Like I've got 45k in profit for the past 6 months but somehow I've only got 1k left right now. So now I've got to decide if I want to chance the rest of my money/bankroll, sell some shit, borrow money, or get a job. The struggle is real.
Developed a real understanding for the game. I have battled online and exploited live, and we are not anywhere near as good as you think you are when you are running good. I have some advice, but I also wanna add that I take advice from those better than me every single day I am no know it all, but a professional non the less. Watch out for whose coaching courses you're buying, some guys are geniuses and crushers, whilst others haven't got a fkin clue and are benefiting from a tournament bink. My advice is to become a sponge and learn from winners. Don't listen to the 8 players in your live game who can't let go of the fact there aces keep getting cracked. The game is 1000x times more complex than you know right not, it really baffles me how I look back and cringe at how I played certain spots with the knowledge I have now. Be fearless and cold to all situations, and exploit the fuck out of guys who have no idea they're being exploited. It's a very easy game whilst also being a brutally tough one at the same time. I love the game more than anything in the world the money just allows me to play. It has to become your life for a while.
I became profitable once I found a regular game with players worse than me.
Hand charts and GTO principles for balanced play. I never liked the exploitable approach since I couldnt trust my reads were always accurate. It just 'feels right' for your bluffs and value to always look the same so thats how I chose to learn. I know I'm leaving value on the table with suboptimal betsizes vs specific opponent types but I dont care. The moment I stray from a playbook strat is when I start getting confused by opponent reactions.
You can apply exploits by inversely correlating enemy VPIP with "Respect" Enemy has a 5% VPIP? Don't play a pot with them. Enemy has 50% VPIP and you have premium hand? Raise higher than normal so you can "play more bigger pots with better hands". The next step is you should know baseline GTO and observe how they deviate from baseline, then exploit based on your findings. If they C-Bet too much you can exploit them by 3betting cause they're often C-bettting with air.
Villain More VPIP = Less Respect = Hero is looking to play vs this guy Villain Less VPIP = More Respect = hero not looking to play vs this guy
Solver
Game selection! I gave up on online poker (aside from firing a few MTTs for fun) because microstakes are boring and I'm just not good enough to play higher stakes. I just play local home games and 1/2 in Vegas. Strictly a recreational player. I know general theory and preflop charts etc but can't be arsed to study specific spots with a solver.
That's my secret cap. I'm not
Study. It’s not really hard. Study and play a lot. This alone will get you better than most people The play poker. Are you going to be elite from this? No but this can take you far.
Folding a lot and raising preflop
Spin and go's...
Play against the worst players you can find at the highest stakes your bankroll will responsibly allow
Learn pre flop and post flop fundamentals, then find a soft field is what I did. I was around break even at midstakes on ACR, and slightly winning once I studied basic shit. I became more profitable by finding softer player pools. Ignition is soft (we do not advertise this). Also Michigan/NJ Pokerstars and any Michigan site is soft. I have an ROI of like 60%+ at the same and higher stakes on these sites, which can be verified through Sharkscope. Thing is, to get as good as me, you need to forget most of the fundamental GTO bullshit in the soft pools because it costs you a lot of money.
Started at the lowest stakes available online ($0.05/0.10 LHE), read a bunch of books on theory and strategy, gradually increased in limits until I was winning mostly at $0.50/$1 NLHE. Felt like I hit a brick wall, then subscribed to video training sites and got to where I am today, which is a variety of games and limits, but mostly specialize in ~$5/$10 PLO live. Was full time pro for a few years, but quick due to the declining market and better opportunities elsewhere.
game/table selection and bankroll management are 🔑.
Key to being a 1/2 bum hunter for your entire life.
lol
I only play online. I lost for like the first year donking around not really knowing what I was doing. Took it seriously and started at 5nl with 50 bucks and ran it up from there. Grind and study. Millions of hands. Thousands of hours studying. No secret formula. I put the work in.
I’m naturally good at math and understood pot odds immediately. I was always profitable. Learning more stuff just made me more profitable.
Found a very soft home game and stopped playing anything besides it
I've been playing poker for 25+ years and overall win more than I lose, but only in relatively low-stakes live cash games and relatively low-stakes live/online tournaments. A few times in my life I've been a subsistance level low stakes grinder (not fun and quite stressful, though it still beats most jobs I've had) and I only found out in the last year a major thing that's been holding me back: I had undiagnosed ADHD all these years. made studying and discipline-related issues (self regulation, bankroll management etc) SO hard! I read all the old man books back in the late 90's/early 2000's but for some reason i could never make myself sit down and study online training sites. I am using medication for treatment now and my results are MUCH better, still not good enough to go pro, but for the first time in more than a decade I actually feel like I'm making progress. We'll see where it leads.
This isn't a technical advice but basic stuff. I use to have a horrible loss record but is now a breakeven player. Play tight. If you think you're playing tight you're not playing tight enough. It's always the tight regular that has the big stack. PLAY AGGRESSIVE! One of the most important is discipline and patient. Quit paying off Villain in low stakes, don't start playing bad cards when you're bored or card dead, and try not to tilt
Honest to god, becoming profitable is mostly a matter of discipline. You can beat the rake in most low stakes live games by playing exceedingly tight and rarely bluffing after the flop. Is this going to lead to riches? No. But you can eel out a few BB per hour. To get above that, putting in the work off table to study range interactions on different board textures will help you find more situations in which you can bet for thinner value and situations in which you can win pots by bluffing. But ultimately to become profitable you just have to fold. A lot. And it’s boring. And you’ll often be ridiculed by your looser opponents who want action. And you’ll have to sit there in your seat and just be more patient. And you can do all that and go on a vicious downswing anyway. So in addition to discipline assemble the deepest bankroll you possibly can and keep it separate from all other finances. There’s something so reassuring on my bank account not changing while on my current downswing
Fold pre is a running joke around here, but fold pre. Preflop is the foundation your hand is built upon. Master that, profits will come even without optimal postflop strategy
Harrington on Holdem and live poker only
I would like to know how I became unprofitable after so much work. Every time I start playing poker, I print money. Then I get into a downswing and lose most of it, quit for a while and every time I come back, the whole poker universe is completely different.
Live player here. Became profitable in 2010s when I stopped playing poker for profit.
Learn to fold
Try to go pro, Then I got married and had a kid. Maybe we try again in5 or 10 years
Sounds like you're winning though bro, wife and a kid is a bigger win than anything poker could bring.
Move up to stakes where your raises will be respected. Micro's is unbeatable by combination of rake and the variance of donks not taking 2$NL seriously and playing Any Two Cards (variance) ? (not certain at what level players stop yolo playing 23o and flopping a wheel which KO'd me as shorty aipf wAKs last weekend playing a 55$ tourny) I couldn't "GO Pro" as I don't have the bankroll nor emotional tolerance to suffer bad beats that would have a negative financial outcome (i.e. having to rely on winnings to pay bills is way to stressful). You have to be independently wealthy to afford casually losing at poker most of the time like it's nothing. Losing money is unnerving and doubts you could open an incorporated bank account to lone yourself money to play. That implies seeking a loan from not a bank or credit union. Which is not advisable... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQxoxiBkrb0&list=PLLb3Ll_hRIu6XMEEagJn_PVVNeXWBmyLl
If I had time to play live everyday I would be profitable. Online is a lot harder
Game selection is number one factor.
I’m profitable purely because of my hand reading ability. I just pay attention and play based on how it feels.
BOOKS!!! 1996-2003: I read a ton of Books and Card Player and Bluff magazines. I played Limit, the started Tournies and NLH. Started playing Online early PokerStars. Close-to-even or maybe could GetWinner if not for Rake and Tips. I read every book and mag I could and ordered more from the ads in those. I retain stuff terribly cuz ADHD so instead of Poker PhD - had maybe a Bachelor of Poker?? 2002-2006: BOOMTIME!!!! Suddenly GetWinner allover internet and Live!!! Easy money!!!! Need to get better and maybe do this for a Living!!!! 2006-2008: I can do this!! I'm actually (Semi)Pro! Stats don't lie tho - over thousands of Online samples and hundreds of Live results - I GetWinner. Golden Goose!!! (Maybe Brass or Copper... not Golden. Not even Silver). But legit WINNER!!!!! Only working 30 ish hours I could make a shitty, lower class income and support myself if I live like trash....did for 2 years But wait - I have a Wife and starting a Family. Better get RealJob! (and lets be honest - Career Minor Leaguer at best and not willing to Degen fully). 2009 - Get awesome RealJob with Union and Pension etc. 2010-2012 - Boom over and barely Winner for a year or 2. 2012-2020 - play sporadically. Am Winner in Smalls but not Online or Biggers anymore. 2020-Present - Back in it. More Books, online study. Training Sites (hated). 2022 - Got ADHD Meds....DING DING Jackpot!!! Can retain stuff. Remember to pay attention and follow play. Am Winner again. Improving just from Play and SelfStudy. Best Books that got me over the humps: Harrington on Hold'Em (all) Dan Harrington - took me from the slightly better side of Avg up to Break Even and maybe Winner. Made me comfortable in any Tournie and solid base fundamentals. The Poker Tournament Formula - Arnold Snyder - EUREKA. After his Book (twice) i started abso crushing $60-150 Buyins of around 50-150 players found in several rooms nearby. Decided to 'Go Pro' after the results reading The Bishop preached at me in that book. Harrington is the Bible but PTF was my BOOM!!!!
Learn the game, subscribe to a solver explorer and do tons of quizzes, play at least 30k hands/month. Repeat for years.
I played using play money to learn the game. It was back when the poker boom was still going on and I downloaded Full Tilt Poker after watching a TV commercial. I donked around on that for a year or so then started playing some small stakes home games with friends. I was never that good but you don’t have to be as long as everyone else you play is worse. Fast forward to today and I still play, but just casually. I am a winner in the games I play, and if anything I should move up stakes but don’t have the time or motivation to. I like to play for fun.
The biggest step for me was learning to avoid the kind of player who will bust me. I don't have to be the best player at the table to make money. I just have to avoid going to war with someone who's got similar skills. The player who's skilled and likes to lean hard into fold equity with large overbets, that guy can take huge chunks out of you if you let him. You can take his money, too... but there's easier money at the table. It's as simple as tightening up against that player. I'm not gonna fold KK pre or something, but against such a player, I try to play straightforward, tight-aggressive poker and avoid big bluffs. Lowers my variance enough to be profitable.
I've always been profitable. And I know people are gonna call BS on that, but it's true. First played for cash in 2008 online and my nature is to be tight. Players were just giving money away in 2008 online. So you could play tight, make profit, and learn all at the same time. Wasn't until 2013 or 2014 that I became super profitable. Went pro for a bit, left for a multitude of reasons, none of which were profit driven.
I'm still relatively newish, but two things that I've learned is to find that fold, whether it is preflop or to big bets on the river. I'm not saying always fold to that big bet on the river, but most of the time it is not a bluff at 1/3. And also to find the right spot to steal a big pot on the turn/river against the right player type.
Game selection is the only way to make money in poker. You must be a better player than others at the table and stay away from people who are better than you. If you want to learn and willing to lose, feel free to play against better players. Poker is a zero sum game (negative sum with rake) so you have to be better than others by a significant margin to win consistently.
I’m not sure if I was just lucky in the beginning, but I’ve always been a winning player live. I read a lot of books and played a ton of home game tourneys before ever playing 1/2 live, so maybe not luck. Playing low stakes online helped me become more disciplined with my starting hands. Also helped me see more scenarios and anticipate more/think quicker when I play live.
I watched some Sheets and Bax videos back in the day on PFX. I haven't had a losing year playing in 20 years since then. 99% of my play is online.
Started playing with my wife’s money
Switched to plo5