Feb 12 2010

If I Was Only Allowed One Form of Poker

Category: Texas Holdem FAQ — malcolm @ 2:58 pm

Let’s assume that you force yourself to only focus on one type of Texas Hold’em poker game from this moment forward. What would you choose? Here is the case for each of the three main disciplines offered in poker. They are cash games; multi-table tournaments and single table sit and go poker tournaments.

Cash Games

Cash games are real money pots with real cash being won and lost every hand. Probably over half of all poker players would choose this as their preferred form of poker if they had to choose only one type of poker to play. Cash games are played with a specific strategy that once learned will form a solid foundation of your future poker playing.

Using good bankroll management you can work your way up and down the poker levels to manage swings of luck and if you are good enough at the strategy required in cash games you can show a consistent profit over time. Many players make over $100,000 from relatively small stakes by combining actual cash wins with rakeback or VIP player points and prizes.

Cash games are always available and accurate statistics can be kept on regular players to help your decision making and when you win, you win real money. You can also start and finish playing whenever you want and, perhaps crucially, you have full control over which table you play at and against which opponents. Game selection can enable you to always be contesting hands against players who you should beat.

Multi-table Poker Tournaments

Life changing wins can be obtained by winning a big poker tournament. Cash game wins are more consistent but compared to your buy-in a poker tournament win will be a lot higher. For those who like the chance to win big money and have a bankroll to withstand the swings of playing regular poker tournaments this would be a good game for you to play.

There are players like Shaun Deeb, who play only poker tournaments and show a good profit from doing so. Playing multi-table tournaments is not something many players would choose to do exclusively but if you understand the correct strategy to make it work you can show a good profit over time.

Single Table Sit and Go Poker Tournaments

SNG’s are a great way of learning final table strategy. As you are repeating the same blinds, chip stacks and bubble way once you understand the concepts of Sit and go play and the push fold ranges on the bubble you can play many of these tournaments at once and repeat the strategy over and over.

This is a relatively low risk way of building your bankroll as even against good players you are able to repeat sound strategy and show a decent profit. ROI (Return on Investment) of between 10% and 15% is very achievable over the long term for a good Sit and go single table tournament player.

The downside of SNG play is you never know who you will play against until players begin to register and often there is too large of a playing pool to know whether you should unregister based on the other players joining the game.

My own choice would have to be cash games. My favourite game is playing Sit and go’s, but cash games are the bread and butter of the quality poker player. You would need to play many $10 SNG’s at a 10% ROI to earn enough to make a living whilst playing cash games this could be done playing less hours but having more of an edge over the players you choose to play against. Poker tournaments are what I use for a shot at a big prize depending on my success in other forms of poker so I would be hesitant to play these exclusively.

By Malcolm Clarke

VN:F [1.7.5_995]
Rating: 9.0/10 (1 vote cast)
VN:F [1.7.5_995]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

Tags: , , , ,

Jan 28 2010

Talking about poker bankrolls part three

Category: Poker strategy — carl @ 5:27 pm

In the third and final part of this series then and following on from part two, this highlights another so called piece of poker wisdom that is wrong and that is that just because a player is playing successfully at $100-$200 Hold’em online for instance, that they can beat all of the levels below that. Maybe they can but chances are that they can’t for the reason that I stated. As I have said many times, there is a lot of rubbish spoken in poker and much of the advice that is bandied about is far too generic for it to be of any use whatsoever.

Because of my very cautious attitude to money then what I had to do was to basically trick my mind into playing with large amounts of money. What worked for me personally was to take $2000 for instance that I had earned down some other gambling avenue and to use it to take a shot in a poker game. If I lost it then I would not play until I had mentally absorbed the loss.

This brings up yet another point of why the slide rule “experts” have missed the point. Let us go back to the case of the 18K poker bankroll. What if you are the type of person that tilts easily or simply cannot mentally absorb a loss until a certain amount of time has passed. If you have lost 1K in the blink of an eye in a big no limit pot with an unbelievable outdraw then you are hardly the type of person that can be entrusted to have another seventeen grand at their disposal immediately can you.

If everyone had to wait until they had the correct theoretical poker bankroll available before they could play at any level then hardly anyone would be playing the game. Here’s another thing, do you really have to play down to the felt and lose all of your bankroll before you admit to yourself or find out that a particular level of poker is too difficult for you. If the “experts” say that you need 12K to play theoretically at a certain level to avoid going bust then what if you stump up the money but are wrong in your assessment of your abilities.

If you are five grand down, do you play on just because you have another seven in your poker bankroll before you say “oh well, better drop down a level but I will have to wait until I have got some more money because I have lost it all trying to prove that I could beat 20-40 holdem”.

This is insane and utter madness. The upshot of all this is that don’t go along with what you hear about poker bankrolls and just do whatever makes you feel the most comfortable because if you are uncomfortable then this will affect your game plain and simple. If a bankroll approach helps you then fine, if you prefer a no bankroll approach then that is fine also but too much rubbish is spouted in this area by people who have never tried to gamble for a living and I think that you know my views on them by now.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

VN:F [1.7.5_995]
Rating: 8.5/10 (2 votes cast)
VN:F [1.7.5_995]
Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)

Tags: , , , , ,

Jan 28 2010

Talking about bankrolls in poker part one

Category: Poker strategy — carl @ 5:06 pm

The subject of bankrolls and how much money to have behind you gets talked about an awful lot and just like anything else, most of it is WRONG. Much of this RUBBISH has been spoken by people who have never played poker or gambled in their entire lives. I have my very own attitude towards bankrolls and financing my playing that has worked very well for me.

Firstly let me state something blatantly obvious, a poker bankroll will not turn a losing player into a winning player. When you hear about big stakes players frequently going bust then so much for bankrolls. But I have always argued that any part time semi-professional player simply does not need one if they have other sources of income that is disposable.

For example, let us take what used to be my bread and butter game of $30-$60 Limit Holdem poker once upon a time. All the books say that any working pro who wins at a rate of one big bet an hour ($60) needs at least 300 big bets to avoid going broke. But that is $18,000 which is a very substantial amount of money to many people. But what if you don’t have that kind of money then does this mean that you can never play 30-60.

But what if you do have that kind of money, does this mean that you can automatically jump right in, I say no to both. What if you have the skills to play 30-60 holdem but not the mindset to want to risk 18K. What if the mere thought of having this mental eighteen grand disturbs you so much that it drags you away from your optimal game. Also, what about the guy who starts off playing at 30-60 with his 18K bankroll and despite being a very good poker player, is down $9000 after a couple of months and then packs it in because the fear of losing it all has affected him.

Any player that does this has not in theory started with $18,000 but actually $9000 and a 9K bankroll is not big enough for 30-60. But the mathematicians in the gambling world make me laugh because they churn pathetic advice out to people that is based on figures and nothing but figures as if Hold’em poker online is played by emotionless robots. Much of what they talk about is unworkable for many people and looks good when seen on paper or in a book.

It is exactly the same principle with financial advice, it would be blatantly wrong to advise someone to transfer money from a much lower interest bank account to an investment that was linked to the stock market all because the FTSE had risen by an average of 10% per year since it was formed and the bank account in question was only providing 3% at best without finding out certain things about the nature of that person first. Look out for the second part of this article elsewhere on the site.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

VN:F [1.7.5_995]
Rating: 8.5/10 (2 votes cast)
VN:F [1.7.5_995]
Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)

Tags: , , , ,

Jan 27 2010

Risky Bankroll Management

Category: Poker strategy — malcolm @ 10:08 am

Never would I try and persuade people to manage their bankroll less than safely nor would I encourage or dissuade gambling of any kind, it is your choice. Personally I play Texas Holdem with a high regard for money and this allows me to stay in the game and minimise the pain when I lose because the participation in poker is at the limits I am comfortable playing. Whilst I minimise the gamble, many participate in poker in such a way that increases it.

For some players being dangerous with their bankroll is part of the fun. Phil Ivey was quoted recently saying that he enjoys the empty feeling of disaster when faced with a big loss. Phil is therefore happy to play a dangerous game with his money and has no fear of losing it. He does not get a buzz from low limit poker and plays as high as he can because only larger amounts of money mean anything to him due to his vast wealth.

Being conservative with your bankroll is recommended because it is easy to go on tilt and start chasing money. When I worked in the bookmaking Industry I watched people get into a series of losses then start chasing their losses making irresponsible wagers. Their bets got bigger as their losses got bigger, compounding the loss. Sometimes they won and were saved and other times they had to leave with a disproportionate loss.

There is nothing wrong with taking a shot at a higher game in poker. Many players do this within sensible bankroll management. Their normal amount of buy-ins for cash games may be thirty buy-ins and when they reach a point where they have twenty buy-ins for the next level they take a shot. If they lose they move back down and try to re-build and if they win they stay at the higher level until they can move up again or suffer losses dictating a drop. Their sensible approach is maintained by the moving up and down through the levels to remain safe.

Your income outside of poker should be a factor in how risky you are prepared to be with your bankroll. If you have $1000 and you can re-load that amount every month then you can be more inclined to gamble with it than a person to whom that $1000 is everything they have. Many players are prepared to risk $100 each month to try and run it up into something more. Providing this $100 is not required elsewhere then this is fine. Your own personal and professional circumstances will dictate what an acceptable amount of money to play poker is for you.

Note that risky bankroll management is not taking your last $215 and buying into a large poker tournament on a Sunday. That is not risky, just stupid. Risky bankroll management is anything whereby a normal swing in poker could result in going bust, for a winning player. This must be a conscious decision that you are truly at ease with if you play poker this way.

This article is relevant only for those who Play Texas Hold’em and are winning players. If you lose your money will be lost no matter how well you manage your bankroll. Poker players who ignore bankroll management can suffer a standard downswing and be ruined. Bankroll management is poker risk management and very important to staying in the game and allowing the downswings to run their course before returning to profit.

There is no reason, however, that if you wish to be slightly bolder with your bankroll that you cannot do this providing your circumstances allow and the reason for your wish to live dangerously is not just to satisfy a gambling urge. You should always keep the euphoria of gambling under control and make the right decisions for your poker game when relating to your bankroll.

By Malcolm Clarke

VN:F [1.7.5_995]
Rating: 8.7/10 (3 votes cast)
VN:F [1.7.5_995]
Rating: +2 (from 2 votes)

Tags: , , , , , ,

Jan 18 2010

Freshen Up Poker with a Change

Category: Poker Blog — malcolm @ 12:26 pm

If you are a regular online poker player you can often feel like the game gets very repetitive. You may sit every day on the online poker tables and watch the same poker software playing against the same players and the grind can seem very grinding indeed. Perhaps you need a change either focusing on poker tournaments instead of cash games or vice versa. Avoiding burn out and looking for the signs of burn out are important to becoming and remaining a winning poker player.

Running multiple cash game tables removes the feeling of being involved on every table. Feeling a part of the cash game keeps you interested but if you are moving to and from different tables quickly then you feel like you are almost above the action and only a small part of it. This can resonate into a player becoming bored very quickly, which can compound any losses and make players leave a session early.

You could change your poker room and try a new site to keep things feeling fresh. Something as simple as looking at a different table style on a different poker room with different usernames playing poker can cause you to instantly perk up and feel more enthusiastic about playing poker. Do you ever get bored of seeing the same view from your office window? Although the feeling of buoyancy if you moved positions in the office is temporary, the feelings are real and you can harness these positive feelings by enforcing change in your poker routine.

Shaun Deeb, the online poker tournament phenom who played around thirty poker tournaments per day on multiple tables is currently on a break from tournaments after admitting to be completely burned out by them. Playing thirty tables per day I am surprised he was not burned out sooner, yet it shows even the best players recognise the need to change or take a break. He will probably come back a more dangerous player and enjoy renewed sustained success as a result of this self imposed vacation.

The right time to make a change is when things are not going well for you. The best time to make a change is just before the run of bad poker which comes about either through luck or self-inflicted bad play. Recognise the signs that you are becoming fidgety or on edge with the poker room or games before it turns into losses.

Remember, however, that grinding online poker is not easy and you must endure it to some extent exactly like a person working a full time job needs to do. You should enjoy playing poker but sometimes you will want to do something else and this is the point where you must be professional and grind it out. The research you have done on fellow players and hand histories you have worked on are lost if you change sites so some degree of pain is tolerable in the poker grind. If you work a normal job then you will probably regularly feel this way but stick it out and keep trying hard to win.

Playing on a new poker room will reignite your interest in poker as every room as different poker tournaments to participate in with slightly different structures, prize pools and bonuses. Try bwin.com which is backed up by the large sports betting company. Aesthetically the dark style of poker software and table layouts they use will be enough to make you feel fresh even when you play a lot of online poker.

By Malcolm Clarke

VN:F [1.7.5_995]
Rating: 8.0/10 (2 votes cast)
VN:F [1.7.5_995]
Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)

Tags: , , , ,

Dec 08 2009

Low Stakes Poker to Air Next Summer

Category: Poker Blog — malcolm @ 8:48 am

Fox Network has recorded a new Poker TV show which any poker player can take part in. They have enjoyed great success with their show “High Stakes Poker” where fans sit back in awe watching players willing to play at the highest stakes fight for pots worth sometimes over $500,000 of real money. The new show is going to be called “Low Stakes Poker” and Fox believes this will relate to every poker player as something they understand and could take part in.

It is a shrewd move by Fox who appreciate that the player pool at the top level of Texas Hold ‘em poker are a close knit group and the players style is governed on High Stakes Poker many times by previous history with the opponent. Playing at lower stakes the show will be more about standard play highlighting the flaws in the player’s games. Closing these leaks will help the participating players get better without costing a lot of money.

The action is $0.02/$0.04 meaning that an adequate bankroll for this game would be around fifty to one hundred dollars of real money if you follow the recommended guidelines of good bankroll management. Of course players will turn up to this poker show with their last ten dollars, that is the nature of good poker television.

Fox are keen to show that they do not share the blasé attitude that the top poker players have to large losses at the poker table on shows like Poker after Dark or High Stakes Poker. In the current economic climate they appreciate that times are tough and they want to encourage poker players that fun games can be found at any level of poker and you do not need to risk it all at the high stakes poker tables. If you only have $10 to play poker with there are still games to play and you should play hard just as if you had $10,000 at the table. This is a view shared by Kevin Reilly of Fox.

Kevin is quoted as saying that the decadence of poker players and their tolerance to large amounts of risk is not something they wish to promote too hard. They do go to incredible lengths to ensure comparisons with High Stakes Poker are obvious only in their difference to it. Play was recorded on an Air Hockey table in a public area and not in the closed and securely guarded room in the casino. Players had bundles of nickels rather than the thick wad of dollar bills used by the high stakes participants. This does not mean the players do not try in low stakes poker and the value of money is stressed at all times.

It is pleasing to see that the TV network appreciates that the value of money depends solely on the individual. Many lower stakes poker players would feel just as bad losing $10 as a high stakes player like Tom Dwan would feel losing $100,000. In Low Stakes Poker every player is fighting for the chips no matter what their value.

Rather than the pots being $180,000 they are more like $18, but hopefully people will still enjoy the entertainment. The players selected are likely to make up for the lack of large cash pots with superb entertainment and some slapstick humour. You can expect an inadvertent High Stakes Poker spoof show with serious poker being played as players realise the stakes are small and viewers do not tune in for the poker pots like they do on High Stakes Poker. For many of them this is their moment in the spotlight and they will ensure you are entertained thoroughly. Phil Hellmuth is taking part and this will ensure plenty of lively banter at the table.

I cannot wait for this show to air and only hope it is shown in the UK where I am based. This could be something very popular and something most players could participate in and aspire to be part of. Make sure you tune in to what could become a cult poker sites in 2010 and could see many players join in at the lower stakes games.

By Malcolm Clarke

VN:F [1.7.5_995]
Rating: 6.0/10 (1 vote cast)
VN:F [1.7.5_995]
Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)

Tags: , , , , , ,

Nov 26 2009

Isildur1 Continues to Play High Stakes Poker

Category: Texas Holdem FAQ — malcolm @ 10:18 am

At one point this month Isildur1, whose identity is still not known although it is thought it is a male from Sweden who is nineteen years old, was $5 million in profit after crushing players like Brian Townsend, Phil Ivey, Phil Galfond, Patrik Antonius and Tom Dwan at online poker. Due to the initial success with which Isildur1 dismantled even the best professionals, there was talk of him cheating in some way; although this is not a widely held view. Thousands of railbirds have been watching the online poker action as yet another unknown player with a big wallet and big heart is taking on the best players in the world on the online poker tables.

On the 17th November 2009 Isildur1 sat with Patrik Antonius and they played a marathon online poker session which saw the biggest ever pot seen online of $839,000 (which has since been eclipsed). Antonius won $2,978,963 from Isildur1 on that session. Isildur1 was unhappy as Antonius would not play deep No Limit Heads Up and the two had an argument in the chat with Isildur1 berating him for his approach to the game. There were signs that Isildur1 was tilting as he lost around 50% of his previous ten days winnings. Antonius persuaded him to play heads up PLO which is Isildur1’s worst game according to a tracking site with him losing $2.1 million in around 50,000 hands. If Isildur1 wants to be profitable, he should probably concede he is not good enough at this version of online poker to beat the best players.

Showing signs of tilt at these nosebleed stakes can be extremely painful for any online poker bankroll as Isildur1 has found out. He continued losing until his losses from his richest point were close to $5 million and he was about even according to tracking sites.

It was expected that if Isildur1 busted out then he would become another person on the list of playings who have turned up at the highest stakes of online poker and played the best, won a good amount of money but then lost it all back with a bit extra. As Isildur1 got back to a mere $100,000 in profit for the month which is a small amount considering the amounts wagered people were expecting him to be the next casualty of the high stakes poker game.

Except this player is a little different. After forum regulars and the many thousand players railing the action it became clear after analysing the hands played that Isildur1 really does know how to play poker. There were signs he had a good run but his play was consistent with what was expected by any other top player getting similar cards. This online poker player looks like he may become a permanent part of the high stakes games.

Isildur1 and Patrik Antonius went on to play the biggest ever pot seen online. The eventual pot size was $1,356,947 when Patriks KKA3 preflop held off the higher straight draw from Isildur1. When I watch the hand back you see raise and a series of re-raises pre-flop until the players have both got $81,000 invested before the flop. Patrik re-raises to $779,000 after betting out $91,000 on the flop and being re-raised to $439,000 which is raised all-in by Isildur1 and Patrik calls. With a 452 board the bets suggest that Antonius has hit his draw and has something like A3xx here and as a lower stakes player I was surprised that Isildur1 carried on firing. Both players showed real guts in this hand as Antonius must have known he was facing a hand that could outdraw him. This hand was part of a session where Isildur1 lost more than $2 million. It may be quite some time before this hand is eclipsed in size by any online poker player.

Isildurs current high stakes poker activity can be tracked by visiting poker table ratings which keeps a track of No Limit Texas Hold ‘em stats. Whilst the numbers are not exact, they form a reasonable indication of the success or failure of the player’s current poker play. Isildur1 has managed to build his profit back to around $700,000 with some smaller wins since his losing sessions so we may yet see more fireworks in the high stakes online poker games.

By Malcolm Clarke

VN:F [1.7.5_995]
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)
VN:F [1.7.5_995]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

Tags: , , , , , , , ,