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
