To be successful at poker you need to come to terms with the idea that you're playing for chips. Chips are worthless pieces of clay (or plastic), their only purpose that of keeping score. Deviating from this simple idea is the catalyst for the majority of money-based mistakes at the lower levels of poker like $1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em.
Since 2001, Americas Cardroom has dealt millions of action-packed hands to US players every day and runs one of the largest selections of tournaments anywhere online. https://labelomg.netlify.app/america-can-play-online-poker.html.
Earlier this year I decided to start playing online poker again after a short break. My good friends know by now that when I say I have quit poker that it simply means I have quit the game until I return:) I can understand how negative this behavior seems from a neutral perspective and a part of me agrees. I mean if someone decides to quit something then it should be for good right?
The night I decided to quit the game I got cleaned out at a local live cash game and just couldn’t take the run bad anymore. I was very emotional and decided to quit the game altogether. After a few days and after talking to my poker buddy Eddie I had a realization which made me realize that over the last few years I had been doing a massive injustice to myself when playing live poker.
The Israeli Poker Scene
To explain this I need to put the live poker scene in Israel into perspective. The live games I have played in over the years include loose aggressive players who like to gamble. The 1/2 shekel game plays like a 5/10 and even 10/20 game where the average player can drop 2-4k shekels in a few hours. The average raise is anywhere from 16-60 shekels pre-flop. The problem I have had in these games is that because players will risk 1000’s of shekels on draws and single pairs, the variance is super high and you need to gamble yourself against players who are always pushing the action. In order to play in these games and to give yourself a chance to beat the game you need to be able to invest 500-2000 shekels in a session and this has been my problem for years. I have never really played with a poker bankroll when playing live poker. Online I have no trouble with bankroll management because I have more freedom in the stakes I can play. This isn’t the case with live poker in Israel. There are no passive games where you can bring a few hundred shekels and grind up a bankroll. Most of the players in the games I am involved in are business men or guys earning nice salaries who love the rush of chasing that straight or flush draw and aren’t phased with dropping a few thousand shekels once or twice a week.
No Limit Poker Free
I know what you are thinking, this sounds like a dream situation for any winning poker player and it is as long as you can play your optimal game which I haven’t been able to because of the factors I have mentioned above. This is why I haven’t been able to beat these games and grow a bankroll. When I came to this realization I realized that my decision to quit the game altogether was born out of all the frustration I had gone through in these live games and a very long break even streak I had been experiencing online.
I took some more time to think about what to do and how to approach the game I love. I decided that because of a lack of significant bankroll to play live I would concentrate on playing online until I could build up a significant bankroll to play optimally in these live games. I decided that I had had enough with the variance of online tournament poker and decided to return to the cash tables.
Closest casino to greenwood ms. Complete information on all casino listings found in Greenwood, Mississippi, including address, telephone numbers and attached hotel information.
The new approach
My approach would be very different to what I had tried in the past. My only focus was to beat the cash games over a significant sample size. My thinking was that if I can improve my level over enough hands and slowly moved up in stakes that over time I would get to the point where I would be printing money playing cash. Playing cash has so many more advantages over tournaments that I now feel silly I hadn’t made this decision sooner. With cash I can play at any time of the day for as long as I want. I can play when I get up in the morning and quit after 20 minutes if I choose, this is something I can’t do playing SNG or regular tournament poker.
I have also decided to play only 6 tables in order to maximize my focus at the tables and be more aware of interesting spots and help improve my skill level over time. I now believe that playing too many tables was one of the biggest issues I had in my game.
Thanks for the question.As you said, those first few rounds of freerolls both at and everywhere else are full of insane all-in-or-fold gameplay. Best us poker sites with freerolls.
The plan is to beat each level and move up until I am crushing 25nl (10c/25c No Limit Holdem) over 50k hands and then add tables slowly until I reach 16 tables. I plan to add 2 tables at a time and see how it affects my win rate.
No Limits Poker
I am also being very conservative with my bankroll because over the last year I have come to realize that the swings in online poker are much worse then reported in the forums and in books. Thankfully I have come to realize that when you are crushing a limit, the swings aren’t too bad, we will see what happens when I reach 25nl. With regard to bankroll management I start to add in tables of the limit I am planning on moving up to when I have 28 buy ins of that limit. Once I reach 40 buy ins I play only that limit until I drop down to 30 buy ins and then I move back to half-half. By playing with 28+ buy-ins and moving down in stakes if needed, the chances of me going broke are close to zero.
Limit Poker Online
No Limit Poker Online
I am pleased to say that since grinding micro cash at the start of January I have earned $626, with $596 coming from winnings and $20 from bonuses. As you can see from the table below I am beating 10nl for a nice win rate of 7.62 bb/100 hands over 39k hands and in a matter of days could potentially start adding in 25nl tables to the mix.
I’m most happy about my graph which I have included below. You can see from the shape of the graph how skill is a much bigger part to winning in cash game poker. Except for an 18k hand break even streak I recently went through the line is moving in a 45 degree angle which shows an almost constant win rate. Over the 40 days I have played so far this year I have won money in 30 of those days.
I am very happy with how things are going especially since I made $100 this past weekend and finally got out of the break even streak. Each one of these streaks I get through makes me stronger and realize that there are periods of complete bullshit that everyone goes through and all you can do is play through it the best you can. Thankfully cash poker makes it easier to do it.
I plan to blog more about my progress towards crushing 25nl and adding more tables and hope that I wont be quitting anytime soon:)
Comments are closed.