Biggest Poker Game Hole
Current Roll: $9192
Want to know the biggest change I made, going from an ok player to a strong, consistantly profitable player? I've had more than one person emailing me asking me for advice, and this is the best advice I can give for those that understand the fundamentals of poker and want to make money. It was, by far, the hardest thing for me to do. Don't play when you can't play your best game. That's it, it's that simple. Don't play when you're tired, stressed, emotional, or unfocused. Don't play desperate poker; play poker confident in the knowledge that money's going to flow from them to you. I play completely confident that I will make money playing this way, and I do.
I see it almost every night, people that should be playing decent poker are literally giving their money away. The Cards Speak had an excellent post on this subject, far better than I could write. He suggests 35BB as a stop loss limit - I'd suggest even smaller. Although, if you can get to the point where actual results don't matter - only the quality of your play matters - then you can ignore everything I wrote. This is much easier if you have an obscenely large bankroll - I'd barely notice 35BBin my roll.
I'm at this point, or think I am. Yesterday I dropped 30BB in my first 20 minutes of play, I was getting crushed. Getting huge hands that woudn't hold. But I kept playing my game and finished up a respectable and healthy 9BB / 100. I can't always ignore results though, someimes it angers me; but I'm getting far better at recognizing these times and walking away. Walking away down is one of the hardest things to do, as I'm sure many of you know. But I promise you this - it will improve your bottom line. It took me a long time and a lot of money to learn this the hard way, hopefully my advice will help someone. If not, you're always welcome at my table :)
Want to know the biggest change I made, going from an ok player to a strong, consistantly profitable player? I've had more than one person emailing me asking me for advice, and this is the best advice I can give for those that understand the fundamentals of poker and want to make money. It was, by far, the hardest thing for me to do. Don't play when you can't play your best game. That's it, it's that simple. Don't play when you're tired, stressed, emotional, or unfocused. Don't play desperate poker; play poker confident in the knowledge that money's going to flow from them to you. I play completely confident that I will make money playing this way, and I do.
I see it almost every night, people that should be playing decent poker are literally giving their money away. The Cards Speak had an excellent post on this subject, far better than I could write. He suggests 35BB as a stop loss limit - I'd suggest even smaller. Although, if you can get to the point where actual results don't matter - only the quality of your play matters - then you can ignore everything I wrote. This is much easier if you have an obscenely large bankroll - I'd barely notice 35BBin my roll.
I'm at this point, or think I am. Yesterday I dropped 30BB in my first 20 minutes of play, I was getting crushed. Getting huge hands that woudn't hold. But I kept playing my game and finished up a respectable and healthy 9BB / 100. I can't always ignore results though, someimes it angers me; but I'm getting far better at recognizing these times and walking away. Walking away down is one of the hardest things to do, as I'm sure many of you know. But I promise you this - it will improve your bottom line. It took me a long time and a lot of money to learn this the hard way, hopefully my advice will help someone. If not, you're always welcome at my table :)
posted by mike at 8:19 PM
1 Comments:
I actually struggle with this one. Sometimes I think "putting in the hours" is the most important thing, and other times I think if you don't have your A game then you shouldn't be playing.
I guess the compromise is, if you don't have your B game then don't bother playing, but you've gotta put in the hours unless you're totally out of it.
Or something.
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