I started with a simple $50 deposit on Pokerstars back in the day after I saw Chris Moneymaker win the World Series of Poker on TV. I used to always play with my buddies socially (we were all pretty terrible at that point), and once I got the poker bug I had to try it online.

I initially played $5.50 Sit-n-Gos on PokerStars, and grinded out a small profit playing them over a long period. Once I figured out the basic optimal strategy (play tight early on followed by eventually switching to push-fold mode once you get to less than 15 BB’s or so), I started multi-tabling the $5.50 Sit-n-Go’s by playing 4 at a time. From that initial $50 deposit I never went bust. Once my bankroll was sufficiently large (I think around $500), I switched to playing $16 Turbo Sit-n-Gos (four at a time) and grinded those out. Sit-n-Go’s are profitable because your typical opponents at these stakes are beyond terrible at poker, but once you start moving up and playing with other players who understand the strategy, you jump on the variance train and it’s like playing bingo.

Then randomly I went out to Vegas for a vacation with my buddy and started playing $1-2 No-Limit cash games. I instantly started making money at cash games because the people that play $1-2 NL live in Vegas are also beyond terrible. I ended up staying in Vegas for 4 weeks just grinding out $1-2 No-Limit every day. By the end of the four weeks I was up around $5,000 and the decision to switch to playing online cash games was very easy. I realized that was where the money was to be made.

So I started playing 25NL online with my old SNG bankroll, and quickly moved up 50NL and then 100NL after I started beating them for a decent amount. After watching some big winners online, I realized that the real money was made playing 6max (as opposed to Full Ring 9-handed) with a tight-aggressive style that I still advocate in my videos today. I stayed at 100NL for maybe a month or two, and then moved up to 200NL where I grinded out a large number of hands. I think anyone who is disciplined and dedicated to learning the game can beat 200NL consistently. It took me some time to move to 400NL because the games are a lot more aggressive (I would play 200NL and then add in some 400NL tables when I was feeling good about my game), and eventually I made the switch full-time to 400NL after grinding at least 100,000 hands at 200NL. One thing to say is never feel bad about moving down if you are running bad, as we all run/play bad from time to time. Follow strict bankroll rules, and don’t “move up” to chase losses or stay at a level where you can’t sustain the swings – this is the quickest way to hit busto-ville.

One other tip I have is to remember, that at many points in your poker career, you will run worse than you can possibly imagine. It happens. Play enough hands and you will eventually run terrible for a seemingly endless amount of time. I’ve had up to 20-buyin downswings before. They are tough to weather mentally, but if you stay calm, continue to grind, don’t chase your losses, and make sure you follow a strict bankroll strategy, you’ll be okay.

Nowdays I play a mix of 400NL, 600NL and 1000NL, wherever I find good games with players that like to donate money to my cause (ie. weak passive players).

I advocate quite often in my OutstandingPoker.com instructional videos that slowplaying a monster usually isn’t the correct play in No-Limit Holdem. Here’s a fantastic hand from my session yesterday:

No-Limit Hold’em, $4.00 BB (6 handed) – Hold’em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) ($779.20)
UTG ($469.06)
MP ($930.50)
CO ($674.70)
Button ($276.50)
SB ($90)

Preflop: Hero is BB with K, J
2 folds, Hero raises $16, 2 folds, MP calls $12

Flop: ($34) A, Q, 10 (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $28, MP raises $81, Hero raises $212, MP raises $833.50 (All-In), Hero calls $523.20 (All-In)

Turn: ($1560.40) 5 (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($1560.40) A (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $1560.40

Results below:
Hero had K, J .
MP had 9, 8 .

I played an interesting session tonight with some good results, up a few buy-ins at $2/4. I ran across an interesting hand that I’m hoping will inspire people to really start thinking about how to optimally play hands by evaluating all factors – the board texture, your opponent’s style and aggressiveness, and recent history with your opponent (also known as ‘metagame’).

CO ($74)
Button ($213)
SB ($440.70)
BB ($74)
UTG ($400)
Hero ($579.30)

Preflop: Hero is MP with Jh, Jc.
1 fold, Hero raises to $16, 1 fold, Button calls $16, 2 folds.

Flop: ($38) 7h, 6c, 9c (2 players)
Hero bets $30, Button calls $30.

Turn: ($98) Qh (2 players)
Hero bets $66, Button calls $66.

River: ($230) 9h (2 players)
Hero checks, Button calls $101 (All-In), Hero calls $101.

Final Pot: $432

Results below:
Hero has Jh Jc (two pair, jacks and nines).
Button has Tc Jd (one pair, nines).
Outcome: Hero wins $432.

In this hand, I was playing a weaker player who had been playing a wide range of hands, so I was pretty confident that my overpair of Jacks were well ahead of my opponent’s range on the Flop. After he smooth called my continuation bet on the Flop, it seemed very likely that my opponent was drawing, as there was a plethora of draws on the flop (flush draw, plus tons of straight draws). I lead out on the Turn again, as I wanted to charge my opponent for his likely drawing hand. When he called and the River produced another 9, it really made me think about whether putting my opponent all in for another $101 (into a $200+ pot) made sense. Analyzing the hand up until that point, I really wasn’t going to get called by a lot of hands that I beat. My opponent’s hand is very likely a busted draw, or three 9’s. Given that the three 9’s is calling and winning if I bet, but the busted draw is folding, it makes no sense for me to bet myself since I gain no additional value from my opponent. But if I check, I can induce my opponent to bet his busted draws and gain even more value from the hand. While I stand to lose if he does indeed have three 9’s, I only have to call an additional $101 to win $328. So if my opponent is bluffing more than 31% of the time (calling $101 to win $328, so $101/$328) of the time, which I figured he would indeed bluff with a high frequency given my read that he was weaker and also due to the fact that his line looked strongly like a draw. With this line, I got maximum value from my opponent.

This hand just goes to show that you really need to always be thinking about more than just your own hand in order to extract maximum value from your opponent.

Good luck at the tables!
Tim

It seems like the crazy people never cease to exist. I had a quick session today and broke even, but I ran across this interesting hand that reiterates the concept I made in my previous post.

SB ($716)
BB ($635)
UTG ($2)
Hero ($609)
Button ($133.20)

Preflop: Hero is MP with 5h, 4c.
1 fold, Hero raises to $24, 1 fold, SB calls $21, 1 fold.

Flop: ($54) 5s, 7h, 5c (2 players)
SB bets $66, Hero calls $66.

Turn: ($186) Tc (2 players)
SB bets $166, Hero calls $166.

River: ($518) 8c (2 players)
SB calls $460 (All-In), Hero calls $353 (All-In).

Final Pot: $1222

Results below:
SB has Jd Ts (two pair, tens and fives).
Hero has 5h 4c (three of a kind, fives).
Outcome: Hero wins $1222.

Now on the outset my line looks terrible. Against any normal opponent I would be raising at some point and not playing it so passively. But this particular villain was crazy, so I figured I would just let him put the money in the middle for me. Once again, on the river, he pushes the rest of his stack in with a hand that does have showdown value, but is never going to get called by worse. He has turned his hand into a bluff, especially since the flush card came on the river. If you are new to the game, you should always be asking yourself “what worse hands are going to call my bet?” You will save yourself a lot of money if you ask that question before each and every bet you make.

Poker can be so streaky sometimes. I’ve had a decent month in February so far, up a few thousand overall with random swings here and then – but finally today I managed to break out of the cycle to score a $3,961 day, playing a mix of $2/4 and $3/6 No limit hold em at Party.

I was splashing around quite a bit today being very aggressive, and I attribute this to the fact that I’ve been playing a fair bit of Heads-up poker, where aggression is absolutely key. I think it’s helped my regular 6max game tremendously, as it’s landed me in quite a few difficult spots that forced me to stretch my mind.

I won’t deny that a lot my money today came from noobs who didn’t really know what they were doing. Take this hand for example:

Hero ($1,485.44)
SB ($1,085.80)
BB ($600)
UTG ($720.91)
MP ($706.20)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Kh, As.
UTG raises to $12, 1 fold, Hero raises to $48, 2 folds, UTG calls $36.

Flop: ($105) 5s, Jh, Ad (2 players)
UTG bets $40, Hero calls $40.

Turn: ($185) 6h (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $133, UTG calls $133.

River: ($451) Th (2 players)
UTG bets $250, Hero calls $250.

Final Pot: $951

My opponent’s play is pretty weak on all streets. First of all, he leads into me with middle pair after I raised preflop. The first problem for him is that all better hands are calling/raising, and all worse hands are folding. I decided to call since I had a read that this player was weak, and I figured it was pretty likely that he had nothing at all or a weak Ace and perhaps he would bluff off more money on later streets. There were no draws to be concerned about. The turn blanks off and I bet to extract value from my opponent from a likely weak-ace.

On the river, the villain makes a fundamental mistake. He has some show-down value, so the best move for him is to check. He is not getting called by a worse hand at all. But he for some reason bets into me, basically giving me his unwanted money. I had to think for a second to determine whether he actually had me beat, but given my read that he was a weak player and his odd line, I figured I was ahead of him a good amount of the time.

My opponent needs to realize that if he checks the river, I will check behind all medium strength hands (such as a Jack or weak-Ace) and only bet my monsters or complete bluffs. There is no value in betting a medium strength hand on the river, as you only get called by better hands, and you still can perhaps win at show-down if your opponent checks behind. You also have the opportunity to snap off a bluff by your opponent if you have good reason to believe he’s bluffing.