There are many so called “rules” of poker and we are not always talking about the basic rules either because there are golden rules as well. For example many money management rules shouldn’t really be broken at any price. In fact we can substitute the word “rule” for the word “dogma” because fundamentally then you are trying to become indoctrinated in a certain way of playing poker when you study the game. I know that I haven’t posted for a while but that was purely because I haven’t been playing much poker of late. So the golden rule for me in these circumstances is to only play when my head is right.
So the rules of poker mean different things to different people but to sophisticated players then they mean more than just how to play the game, they mean much more than this. They basically stand for an entire ethos of poker playing. In my mind then the main reason why so many players are struggling in the modern online game is that they break perhaps the greatest of all rules without so much as even realising it. This is that they utilise and use strategies that are too widely circulated.
The effect of this can be seriously damaging but don’t take my word for it because an in depth study of evolutionary theory will reveal this to be the case. In food chains then it takes an adequate number of prey to feed the predators. If the zebra die then what is left for the lions to feed off but each other. So if every lion sat back and waited to catch food in the same way that was proving non-existent then lions wouldn’t be around for much longer. So the lesson is don’t be so quick to jump on the bandwagon of how everyone is playing the game because one thing is certain in the universe…….the masses lose.
I was having a discussion recently regarding Pokerroom reopening its doors to the public once again. This used to be one of my favourite online poker site some years ago and I am delighted to hear that it has reopened its doors and is doing business again. I have been onto their site and have been very impressed by what I have seen so far. Most serious online players need various attributes from any poker site to be able to optimise their earn rate. The first and most important one is player volume. Most professional players these days live and die by volume.
If you cannot get enough hands in then you are not really going to make a living player poker. You need to get access to as much dead money as possible and in the meantime then you need a plan for not passing money to the other regulars at your level. This is the basic strategy for making money multi-tabling because you are trying to offset volume for quality. This can really only work if your opponents are not as skilled in taking advantage of your semi-automated game and the levels are low enough. So if you want to play sixteen tables then it would be very difficult to do that at a world class level of play.
So when you play a site then you really want to see lots of volume so that you can select good tables. This is key because if you are not selecting good poker cash game tables then you are really doing nothing more than taking a risk with regards to what sort of profit potential is on your tables. Pokerroom have around 40,000 players at peak times and this makes them a very large card room. The combination of their excellent software and attractive player lobby makes the poker experience worthwhile as well.
Speaking of lobby screens then most players need good data from this area to assist their game play. For example then you need to know what stack sizes your opponents have and also how many hands per hour the table is seeing. If you have a combination of players with slow download speeds or who are playing too many tables or maybe multi-tasking then you could easily be losing as many as 30 hands per hour from your game. If you make say 5ptbb/100 as an earn rate and you play ten tables then this is going to cost you a very significant amount of money by the year end.
So whenever you choose a poker site then you are essentially choosing one with very good player numbers and also one with excellent software and security features. This is for me the most important part of online poker and you have to remember that one site going to the wall and taking all of your money can erase months of long hard work and there is no worse feeling in the world when that happens to you.
I haven’t posted in ages and have to say sorry about that but time has been rather pressing in many areas. I haven’t even found the time to play much poker online these days and trading on the exchanges has been taking up my time. However there has been a lull in proceedings and so I have been back active playing a little poker again. I also need to say that I am also delighted to hear of the return of one of my favourite poker sites from the past and that is Pokerroom which opened its “doors” again recently.
I think that there is a lot of viability for many players to play poker at this site because of the fact that you can get decent player numbers here which I think is pivotal for any serious player on any poker site. At peak times then I have seen as many as 40,000 people active on the site and that gives players some decent choices for multi-tabling. I have been talking with a few people as well and the consensus is that the site isn’t as tough as many of the larger sites and networks and this is especially the case in no limit hold’em ring games.
That is music to my ears because I think that in the modern online poker world that it is vitally important for serious players to be able to switch sites. I know the arguments for staying because your notes have an awful lot of value attached to them. However once you start to play above certain levels in cash poker then your notes have lesser value because the better players are constantly balancing their ranges. Lots of players with very extensive notes are not making money in middle limits these days and so it is debatable just what value notes have above and beyond certain levels of play.
What I like about Pokerroom is that the lobby seems pretty good and this is what I use to game select. I like to multi-table full ring and so this means that my game selection policies are actually simplified compared to many peoples. I am looking for full ring games and decent stack sizes. I do not like minimum stack players as they make it difficult or more difficult for me to properly execute my game plan. While they cannot really harm me financially in a direct sense, the way that they conduct their business is a hindrance to my methods.
So I like big stack tight ABC regs and players with less than full buy ins. I also like standard reg type ABC multi-tablers as well and at the NL100 level that I play then most players are +EV to my style unless they are a good min stack player, a solid single or double tabling player who is reading my style or a very strong deep stack reg. Luckily these players are in shorter supply at these levels and so I am confident in most games that I select. But you do need to select the best games but good site lobby data can cut through an awful lot of rubbish very quickly and shorten the process.
I know it’s been a while since my last post but things have taken a rather dramatic step since my last post and in fact over the summer in general. Firstly I stopped playing the challenge (just got bored with it) and stopped it at $50,000. I could basically make it up and say that me playing PLO now is part of it but that simply wouldn’t be true. I got fed up of playing NLHE full ring and felt that the level was getting too tough at NL100 to play 10-12 tables on automatic pilot and I have felt this all year.
The action at sites like www.pokerstars.co.uk makes up for everything but I have played more PLO this year although at my preferred full ring then you are always struggling to find the same level of action that you are at six max. I have also stopped writing for poker magazines as well. So no more articles in Poker Pro Europe, Online Poker Pro and Player Ireland!
Drastic changes but things were getting somewhat stale but last week saw my first week in nearly two years without playing NLHE ring whilst trying to make money within a gambling environment. I have had breaks away from poker games before but always to have a break permanently. But last week saw me play around 15 hours at PLO and I spent another 30 hours trading which is taking over my life more and more in the same way that online poker did in 2001-2002 and writing did in 2005-2006.
The act of trading and the theory behind it fascinates me every bit as much as poker and despite going back on The Hendon Mob forum recently and writing for them again……I feel once again that I need a fresh boost. I like full ring PLO as I think there is more value at the same levels than a comparable game at NLHE but that will probably change and is changing.
One key factor with PLO is that although the average starting hands are pretty close in value, the way that the equity disperses post flop means that many players end up getting into some pretty poor spots in a way that they wouldn’t do in NLHE and that has meant that I have been recording some excellent bb/100 this year but I am not even sure that I will be playing poker at all in 2012 but seeing as I am supposed to be a poker player then I better find time to do some of it.
So no more poker magazines, no more challenge and also no more Viper and Vulture…….I tried to get these down into print but time restrictions have just blown me out of the water now and so don’t bother contacting me asking about it because it isn’t going to happen anytime soon.
I realise that I haven’t been posting much lately but I haven’t been playing much poker either. I really think that the days are gone when I play poker full time and I simply do not want to do that anymore. What I have noticed though is in how the NL100 level that I have been playing has become a lot tougher over the past year or so. I have been having numerous discussions with fellow pro’s who are all saying that their earn rates have fallen over the past year by around 2ptbb/100.
I really don’t think I want to be making around 5ptbb/100 to be quite frank as this isn’t enough to warrant me staring at a computer all day. But I am a poker player and so I need to be playing poker. However I do need to say that I have been trading more and this is why I haven’t been posting as often. Trading has become my new passion and there is simply far less variance than poker. Even so though I played some PLO this week and short stacked. You need to devise strategies these days because the minimum buy-in has risen on most sites. I have a good short stack strategy in place but the variance is significant……..I have always hated variance as you can tell.
But for me then the key is to be playing as close to free poker as you possibly can. This means getting rake deals that are non-standard, getting sponsored, stakes…..anything that reduces the cost of playing poker. This process has served me well for the past 3 years since my dodgy 2008 and for me then this is the best way to ensure long term longevity. I will be playing $2-$4 NLHE single tabling this week in an effort to play differently to what everyone else is doing….this is multi-tabling the same levels using PT…..there is no future for players doing the same as everyone else. So I am hoping that I can maybe find value playing against players higher up who are multi-tabling but NL400 will be more of an entertainment these days than anything serious. But 4-5 hours per day trading is taking up my time and and so a poker player/trader is now what I am……weird.
Carl “The Dean” Sampson plays poker at www.pokerstars.co.uk
How long can we keep this up for?
I was having an interesting discussion on the Hendon Mob forum the other day regarding the longevity of online poker players and it is indeed alarming for everyone connected with the game in a playing capacity just how much tougher the game is becoming. However I do feel that there are millions of people who are playing poker who are in fact very good poker players but who simply lack other types of vital gambling knowledge.
I often quote Charles Darwin when I talk about online poker because his famous quote applies perfectly to online poker games ……. “The species that survives will not be the strongest or the most intelligent but the most adaptive to change”. A massive concept that applies to poker and especially online poker perfectly. In my opinion then an online poker game is nothing more than a microcosm of the entire poker environment…….what do I mean by this?
Well from a game theoretical perspective then the optimal strategies to use in a poker game are dependent on how each individual actually plays. Clearly though when thinking about mass multi-tabling then less than optimal play can itself be optimal not in the quality of the decision making processes but in the ability to successfully manage a large amount of volume and this itself becomes the key skill……..volume management.
But what happens when everyone else starts doing the same thing……..by the same thing then I essentially mean multi-tabling and playing tight poker looking for rakeback and sign up bonuses. Suddenly everyone is falling into a pattern and playing like too many other people loses value irrespective of how solid your game is at a theoretical level. So to do something different is to at least give yourself a chance at long term survival as a profitable poker player.
So what could that be? Well if the regs are playing 6-12 tables and in a relatively uniform way then the best value could be in single tabling but at a higher level. I have been contemplating lately playing NL400 and NL600 but only one table. If I can handle the variance then it shouldn’t be a problem but there has to be meta game edges feeling players out when they are playing so many tables like this…….if after ten years in the game I cannot beat a player who is playing ten tables when I am single tabling then I may as well pack it in.
Carl “The Dean” Sampson plays poker at www.pokerstars.co.uk
Despite the fact that many online poker sites are/have increasing their buy-in levels from 20bb to 30-35bb then you may be forcing players to play more post flop poker but don’t think for one minute that you are deterring the good short stack players. Online poker games these days are tough to make money at and that is something that the modern player has to live with these days.
Anyone who is interested in getting the better of online card rooms by playing a short stack system can contact me through the website simply by leaving a message for me. Also don’t think for one minute that just because you are playing a short stack that you cannot match the big players. Let us say that you want to play NL200 but are afraid of risking $200.
Well join the club because many players do not want to risk $200 on one hand of poker and also they know that the players at these levels tend not to be mugs anyway. So why not buy in for 35bb and make it $70? With $1-$2 blinds then you really cannot make a huge mistake but the key to playing a 35bb stack is to simply look for spots more and to play like it isn’t a small stack. But also if you lose or drop say 15bb then do not top back up as you have a far more ideal stack of 20bb.
Poker sites want you to make them rake and there were far too many players operating a short stack who were getting all in pre-flop and the hand was being won without paying rake. So the big stack players were getting hot under the collar and demanding bigger minimum buy-ins and the site then followed suit. Still, this is good news for the Viper because other short stack players are going to be terrible at playing poker post flop or laying too much getting all in pre-flop with a deeper stack.
Carl “The Dean” Sampson plays poker at www.pokerstars.co.uk
I was asked something today by Richard at Top15Poker regarding the validity of earn rates. This is a fascinating topic because what exactly is an earn rate and how can we establish one in online poker games? Well let me put it this way, let us say that you made 10ptbb/100 at NL50 over 1 million hands……how conclusive is this? Well I have mentioned this before in a previous post but it is very instructive in one very key way. This is because the online landscape shifts constantly and so we need to be careful trying to ascertain what is likely to happen in the future to what has happened in the past.
All that earn rate establishes is that the earn rate has been pretty conclusive for that one million hands. However if that sample size was played out over a year then one year is not an awful lot of time. I have spent nine years in the online poker industry and have seen many changes in that time. What this means of course is that strategies that have proven to be successful previously have become stale and players who were making money are no longer making money.
I wished I had a thousand dollars in my pocket for every online player who I either knew or heard about between 2002-2005 who could no longer make the game pay! If the environment shifts then in many cases the player needs to shift with it. Remember it was Charles Darwin who said that the species that was most likely to survive wouldn’t be the most intelligent or the strongest but the most adaptive. I was having a discussion on a major forum a while back about the hand reading capabilities of players like Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth.
I championed their case because when you skilfully mix playing poker with business then you no longer need to be a world class poker player in the modern sense. It is quite amusing really because some of the best live game players look at online players with disdain and the same happens in many cases the other way around……I wonder who is right?
Carl “The Dean” Sampson plays poker at www.pokerstars.co.uk
The November Nine will soon be upon us again and does it only seem a year since the last time? I was talking to someone down at my local pub the other night who asked my opinion on the best way to approach large MTT’s. Now I would never consider myself a skilled tournament player but I do feel that many of the field go in without a set strategy and try winging it. All poker games in my opinion need a plan otherwise you risk running around like some headless chicken.
Do you play tight during the early rounds like in a STT or do you chase the “dead money”? Well firstly when you talk about “dead money” then you had better be sure that it’s not you. If you are inexperienced in tournament poker then I advise the former strategy of playing tightly during the early levels. At least this will or should get you to the middle stages and beyond much of the early wild play.
But there is no doubt in my mind that the serious pro’s milk this sort of thing and I have never been a fan of the “tight is right” philosophy but I guess that I like to be more aggressive in looking for chips. At the end of the day, whether you are playing in a WSOP event or the Sunday Million at www.pokerstars.co.uk then you are still looking to win the event……..or are you?
I know it sounds kind of weird but if you have reasons for increasing your chances of cashing then by doing so you could be drastically reducing the chances of a win. It is often the case that a player who has shorter odds to win the event may have longer odds to cash. This is a strange anomaly but not once you understand it. Some players have a far higher strike rate when it comes to cashing than others even though some players my win more events.
Much comes down to how you want to play and if you are happy cashing. If you have won your way into a $200 event for $1 then a minimum cash represents a massive return on investment. But a pro who may have bought in directly for $200 is certainly not going to be happy only getting back their buy in……not long term anyway.
You can contact Carl to discuss his new VIPER poker system……simply leave him a message.
Regular readers of the blog or at least readers who have been following me for quite some time will know that I started a challenge on the 1st April 2010 to try and turn $100 into $10,000. The first levels that I played were $2 NL Texas Hold Em games because I wanted to get a feel for very low stakes poker and also if I could maintain discipline. I moved up to $4 games after about a week or so but it took me about a month to make $100 and double my bankroll. As soon as I hit $10 games then the whole process started to move quite rapidly and I eventually made the $10k mark on the 30th December last year.
I like to give myself challenges and have done so periodically in all areas of Texas Hold Em down the years. So I decided to take the challenge onto $100,000 but I don’t really think that this is challenge at all because I know that I can beat NL50 and NL100 full ring. Also this is where I am going to stay as well as NL200 is a tougher level and while I know I could beat that level with good game selection……I prefer the easier levels because you can beat them with less work.
I don’t think that this is a challenge anymore because I am merely playing for wages now. Let’s face it, if you made $50 per hour and played 40 hours per week then you are going to make $1 million in ten years. So you could have a $1000-$1 million challenge but how much of a challenge is that when all you have to do to make $1 million dollars is to play long enough? I had another idea though and making money no longer motivates me in poker and I think the main reason for that is because I have found my optimal level at cash games.
I go through phases where I play a lot and then suddenly I stop again. The challenge has just gone through the $40k mark and so I have made $30k this year at NL100 playing 6-8 tables. I don’t use tracking software as I have a very good game selection process and I have different game strategies for fish and regs that work quite well in a sort of algorithmic way. I was looking on www.pokerstars.co.uk the other night and the traffic on that site is staggering.
I don’t know if I will reach $100k this year and time is/has run out for that. But the other day I started messing around trying to spin up $1 and got it up to $31 before I got all in with A-Ks and flopped top two pair against pocket nines. I got hit on the river with a nine for a $60+ pot but the idea to spin up $1 into $10,000 suddenly zoomed into view. I could have used bankroll control after I hit $60 and if I can make $10k from $100 then I can make it from $60. I have always been interested in spinning up (don’t know why).
You can contact Carl at Sharkpooldean@yahoo.co.uk for his new V.I.P.E.R poker system and to get the first lesson FREE.
