Online poker has changed…….I mean seriously changed. A few years ago you could look at the players who were considered “World Class” and they are far different to the players who are considered “World Class” today. Its like the old series of Late Night Poker on Channel 4, I remember those shows and the players in them. To be honest and with the greatest possible respect to every single player who ever appeared in those series, I cannot recall one single player who would have the game to succeed at high-stakes online pokerin 2009.
I am not saying that many of them were not good poker players because they were and some were even great poker players. But it’s different now and it is something that I have had to learn the hard way. Today’s video shows one of my favourite players….Isaac Haxton. This short video highlights something that is very important about online poker in 2009 so pay attention.
The process of actually being self aware enough to know not just how good you are but how good you are in relation to the other players and where you actually fit in with that is pivotal to your chances of making money at poker. My game is technically good enough for me to know 100% that I can succeed at certain levels.
Like when I used “The Vulture” earlier on in the year but that was at NL50 where you know full well that enough players drop in that are purely bad players and careful play makes money. I know that I could sit in any game up to NL200 and be +EV without having to make preparations and game select (almost certainly will not stay that way).
But once I go higher than this then it becomes a whole new ball game and you need to know your place in the pecking order. Knowing ROUGHLY how good you are and ROUGHLY how good your opponents are isn’t enough. You need to be able to accurately estimate your EV in games before you sit down in them otherwise you are merely guessing and guessing in poker leads to losing.
Guessing was what I did last year and look what happened. The thing is that you cannot spend as much time doing non poker playing related activities as I do and expect to know these things. This is why I have been hit and running and I have been using this to try and circumvent this problem. There are many things that I don’t know in online poker but the key is to know that you don’t know them and to also know what it is that you don’t know (has that come out right) and then try and find a way to work around the problem……listen to Isaac……I even love that kid’s croaky voice but he sure is some player.
Carl “The Dean” Sampson at poker loco
