Avoid being complacent.

It is so easy to be complacent. A good way to avoid this is to find different ways to measure and ultimately stick to your rules and goals.

For example, some days you need to just set a goal of placing in the money if you play tournaments, or doubling up if you are playing cash tables. Then adjust that goal to how much you want to win per day or per week. Next forecast what that would mean monthly.

What you will discover is that your gut instincts are going to be working for you. Your general approach to the game will not change. What will change is your focus on why you are playing.

The idea here is to improve your game by finding additional ways to stimulate your mind. The game can become boring at times. In those cases players tend to try and make things happen. Unfortunately this tends to end up as a negative impact on your chipstack as well as your mental condition. Better to find new ways to measure your goals than to discover a new bad habit.

Time Management

Unless you play poker online full time, or do not have any responsibility, you will often be forced to choose tables based on things going on in your life. For example, you can not start a Multi Table Tournament, which will take several or more hours, if you have a commitment to take care of before the tournament would potentially be over.

Maybe you have an hour to play. Do you play some cash games? If so, to make the time worth it, do you find a loose or tight table and what stakes do you play? Maybe you play a few Heads Up Sit-N-Go's?

I do not have the answers. It all depends on your style, and what is currently working for you. With just a hour or so to play I prefer an aggressive table, with no more than one very good TAG or LAG player already building a stack. Possibly one of each will work. I will also keep my buy-in something toward the lower end of my current playing range. Right now my minimum is $25 buy-in on NLHE 10-player tables, up to $100. I learned to not play $100 tables for short sessions so $25 or $50 works for me here. Also $5 to $20 HU SNG's work for me for short sessions.

Two other areas to make sure you are working on is the amount of time you play, as well as the number of tables you play (multi-tabling). Do not push your limits. If you are making bad decisions, time to adjust.

Chasing your game.

I recently found my comfort zone in small tournaments and sit-n-go's. At first I kept grinding at my cash game, limiting the number of small tournaments I played. I was not playing into my strength, at the time. I made the adjustment and comiited more time to small tournaments, while still working on my cash game. Over 3 days I won over $300 playing small tournaments and about $50 on the cash tables.

Do not force yourself to play good, instead recognize your current strengths and work with them. Chase your game, do not chase cards.

Leaving Money on the Table

Prefessional poker players know how to make the most money possible every hand. They bet based on their opponent, not their cards. This is why with strong hands you will see them value bet against the best players to induce calls, while they may overbet the pot against bad players that can't help calling.

Online, I often see bad players assume everyone else is a bad player and bet accordingly. They overbet regardless of the other players in the hand when they flop/turn/river a great hand. They rely on the few callng stations paying them off. They can not read other players, so they mix it up some and maybe show a few bluffs early, otherwise they only overbet when they consider themselves to have the best hand at the time.

Our objective should be to take as much money as we can from our opponents, while also protecting our money as well as possible. Overbetting is a skill. For example lets say you flopped a FH and know a calling station at the table just showed a pattern that thay have a draw they like. If you know they will call anything to chase their draw, then bet away. If you know they will only call small bets, bet small. Do not bet big and hope they call, bet what you have determined they are likely to call and nothing more.

Do not confuse this with protecting your hand. This is also an art. Again, if a calling station will call any bet you make then you mave have to bet small amounts, then based on the river extract a little more or admit they hit their draw. I chase a lot sometimes, which in a case like this makes it worse for someone betting small amounts - because when the flush hits on the river I act like I hit it even when I was not chasing a flush. That is I represented a flush chase versus really having one. So bet based on your hand strength and the read you have on your opponent(s).

Betting to maximize profit.

You have to be at a table for a while to maximize profit. Notes are helpful, but not always reliable. That fish you tagged a few days before may have just been on tilt, having a bad day, or sharing an account. Today they may be the most agressive tight player you have ever faced. Give the table a few orbits to get some good reads.

Next, play at a table you can afford to be playing it. The worst thing you can do is move up in stakes for example and sit there afraid to bet the usual increments that work for you just because they are 2x the amount you are used to betting.

Play your game. For example, if you checked to induce a bet then be ready to call or rerasie. I'll call when I feel someone is continuation betting because they tend to bet again on the turn. If i think someone is betting a weak connection or a chase then I bet/raise agressively back at them. I also bet out of position to protect my hand very agressively. Do not get cute and then get a scare card.

Also know your opponents well enough as to when to bet or when to check to induce them to bet. It is nice to get paid off when you flop a big hand. If you flop a FH but the board has a flush or straight draw, make someone pay to hit their draw if you feel a fish is on one. Then when they hit they can not lay it down. On the other hand, slow play your big hand against tight players that will not chase into certain boards. For example, I do not chase a straight into a flush draw in most cases.

I also do not see the value of chasing a flush into a paired board. On the other hand, someone with 2 pair or a set may not have enough discipline to muck if you are protecting your flush. if they are going to call any bet you make then you have to decide will they also call any river bet. If they will, value bet till the river hits and you are sure you are still ahead (ie board has not paired for example). Then find out how much they still value their hand. What is amazing is if you have the right read you can sometimes value bet and they push all-in where there times they will just call so you have to push as they will not muck either. And if it is a good player, they will still find it hard to not call a value bet.

KNOW YOUR OPPONENTS if you expect to maximize profit!

FEAR II

Over and over again I see players pushing all-in pre-flop because they know they lack discipline. They may not admit this, but that is the main reason. It can be because they know they will not muck pocket Aces so they might as well get it over with. In this case, better to get your money in up front then to be a calling station later.

Many others will shove all in pre-flop with almost any 2 suited cards I have noticed. For some reason they want to see the river so they pay in advance. This also applies to playing any pair for a group of players, as well as any combination of Ace through 10, plus any Ace/paint suited for the tighter suited lovers.

The next level of playing these hands in fear is waiting to make a move post flop. These players may just min bet, call, min raise, and/or raise call agressively pre-flop. Then they attack the flop consistently regardless of the flop. Many times they hit a great flop and overbet right away, but most of the time they are an underdog to the flop but go ahead and continuation bet or become a calling station. Finally, some wait until the river to make thier move even though they are a big underdog to the table cards.

In previous posts I have discussed passive tight players. They also play in fear, min betting TIER I hands and losing more then they win over time because they refuse to either value bet when they hit big or bet properly to protect their hand(s).

Fear

Deep down there is a good fear, related to respect. Fear of fire for example and knowing to not just stick your hand in it is fine. As we move up in stakes we can find our mind focusing on the wrong things. That 5x BB $1.25 raise on a 25 cent table is not any different then a $2.50 raise on the next table up or a $5 raise on a $1 table.

If you can not afford to lose your buy-in, for example when calling an all-in pre-flop bet while holding pocket Aces, then you should not be playing those stakes. You will eventually find yourself under attack when your opponents smell your fear. You will not protect your hands properly and also start second guessing your play. Do not allow the stakes to affect your game.

By the way, lack of fear is also not a great thing. Calling someone's big bet just because they have a small stack can cost more over the long run than is obvious at the time. You still need quality hands in these situations. When someone shoves their $5 on a 25 cent BB table, consider would you make the same call if the player had another $20 to continue with? I know the betting is capped with the short stack, some hands make sense to call here, stick to those hands based on your knowledge of the player.

Same thing goes for moving down in stakes. It can help you work on being more agressive, as long as you play with respect. Showing no fear will lead to a break down of discipline.

Find a comfort zone where you are playing winning poker and have goals to work towards.

Playing Styles, they can all help you.

My favorite site, carbonpoker.com, has been running a series of bounty tournaments with related promotions. The basic concept is 1/2 the buy-in is a bounty, the other 1/2 goes to the prize pool. This covers both SNG's and occasional MTT's.

For example: A $20 10-player SNG would allocate $10 towards ones individual bounty and the other $10 to the prize pool. Bounites are paid as someone is taken out, to the player responsible for taking them out. If you win, you get your bounty back.

These games require a different approach then most players apply to SNG or MTT play. The final prize pool is cut in 1/2, it makes no sense to play these games just for the final prize(s). Loose Agressive (LAG) play dominates here. A good TAG player can capitalize if they catch premium hold cards early and they hold up. Players here can attack with any Ace, sometimes any pair or any two paint cards. With bounties the prize, no short stack is allowed to die quietly. Better the short stacks win and stay in to be available later, then too allow someone else to take thier their bounty by checking to the river.

These games are helping, dare I say forcing, me to become a good LAG player. My proof is on sharkscope. I went from being down almost $200 about a month ago to being down just about $70. And sharkscope is not even accounting for the bounties the tournaments pay, just the final prizes. I recently placed well in some traditional games, a large freeroll as well as a 50 plus player MTT. I also won a weekly small private game I rarely made it past the bubble on before.

So go out and experiment, within reason, to find what works for you. The experience helps no matter what.

Swimming with the fishies

Winning a big pot is very exciting. Chasing to win a big pot is even more exciting. Having someone chase to take a big pot from you is also exciting. It is where you are mentally after a hand though that is very important. Win or lose, do not get chip happy. It makes no sense on a cash table to be patient for 2 hours, triple your stack, to just donk off all of your winnings (if not your entire stack) playing superman.

Same if you take a bad beat. It took someone a while to crack a big hand (unfortunatly it was your hand) and it will take you a while to get your money back. Do not become a big fish trying to win back your money the way someone took it from you. Control is always important. As I have said many times, if you lost so much that you lose control then you are playing over your head. If you buy-in for $100 and on a $1 NL BB table and lose your $100, then you are done. But if you lost $10 on a 10 cent table, you can buy back in and keep playing in control.

BTW, check my new link on the right hand side for the upcoming Monday Night Poker Leage - Summer Classic. Low buy MTT which will have nice overlay prizes.

Personalizing Bank Roll Management

I have always tried to find a way to personalize bank roll management. Since I play lower stakes tables, online, I finally found a good way to work this out. This may not work for you, if it doesn't then keep wating for whatever makes sense to you to happen.

I will focuse on the hardest hand to play, which I think is pocket Aces. If you have pocket Aces, are in the big blind, and every player at the table shoves all-in, would you muck? Ok, lets make this a little easier. You have pocket Aces and one other player has gone all in pre-flop, you are the only player left to act, you are going to call. At this point, about 15% of the time you are heads up you will loose the hand. And since many times at lower stakes you will end up with more then one other player in the hand, your odds of losing your money keep going up.

So, ask yourself, are you prepared to lose all the money you have on the table and still have enough left in your bank roll to keep playing your game confidently? If not, you are playing over your head, that is outside your bank roll.

Thus, my version of bank roll management is simple. If I were to lose my entire buy-in, plus potentially any winnings I had built up, will that cause me to freak out? Will it put me on tilt? Will it force me to have to move down in stakes? Will it basicly be more of a negative experience then is acceptable? If so, then I am not using good bank roll management.

Refresher Course.

Getting back to basics can be a good thing. As we move up in stakes, sometimes we need to take a step back to maintain discipline. Pride is not a good thing when playing poker. You do not have to prove yourself to anyone. What you do have to do is maintain control.

One way to refocus is to drop back down a level or two. On cash tables, I also recommend restricting your buy-in as well. Force yourself to stick to your game plan. This should help you admit and/or discover what was going wrong with your game.

Sometimes the only problem is the fear of losing. Stepping up from a $5 buy-in to $10 is not a big step. But the next level of $20 or $25 is going to have a mental impact. When you get to a $100 game, well you better be prepared. It is very easy to play $5 games with a $200 or less BR and show no fear. You will be playing $50 and $100 games with a $500 BR, or maybe just risking your $200 or less you have. Now the pressure is on, even if you won't admit it. One big hand and you lose 25%, 50%, or most of your BR.

Lets put this into perspective. At the lower levels, you took risks and enough paid off. For a lot of players, the risks do not pay off enough and they are forced to play better poker. But for you, they are paying off. So up you go in stakes, you think you are playing good poker. Then you hit a level where those risks are not paying off. You realize that the style you are playing is against the odds many times, so now you have to make some changes. Step down a level or two and learn to play better.

As weird as it seems, you will actually win more at the lower levels as you improve your game. I feel that buying in short at this point forces you to make better decisions. If you can learn to play your large pile of chips, as if you are short stacked, you will force yourself to play better poker. Yuor chip stack will not stop someone from calling you with what they think (or know) is a better hand. When your pocket Kings miss the flop, betting into a Ace on the board would be not make sense if you are a short stack, so why would it make sense if you have a large stack? If you will not chase when short stacked, learn to stop doing it when you have a big stack.

One more train of thought here. Since we play poker to win, never assume higher stakes mean larger winnings. You can move up to a $100 table and after several hours walk away with $125. But back on the $25 table you may have been walking away with $75 after a few hours. I'd rather make $50 on the lower table then $25 on the higher one. And if you run into a cooler, the lower stakes still have an advantage when it comes to protecting your BR. Eventually you want to tripple up on the $100 table, if you can do that on a $25 table. Move up in stakes to make more money. if that is not working, find where you make the most money and work on your game there.

Self Accountability (Your to Blaim)

DONKEY! CALLING STATION! FISH!

Online poker is a very hard game to play. In NL live poker you see about 20 hands an hour. To sit at a $1/$2 live table your max buy-in is from $200 - $300. Online, you can see 60 to 100 hands a hour. Depending on the stakes you play, I'll assume you play $1 BB or less if you are reading this, then yu are buying in from $5 to $100 max. A live Tournament at a casino will cost you somewhere close to $100 to play. Online you can play for about $2, some sites for pennies, all day long.

On top of this, the majority bad of online players do not risk losing a lot at any one time, thus their tendancy to take huge risks. This constant barrage of low quality players are quite a challenge to protect your money from. There are players that win playing online. It is not the software that makes someone a losing player, it is not the bad players either. The bad players may take down some big pots playing bad cards, but they give it all away, plus some, playing those same bad cards against the winning players.

Argue as much as you want about this. The winning players will suffer their bad beats against the bad players, but the winning players learn to also control their loses. They adjust constantly to those bad players. Losing players have trouble adjusting. Winning players know when to muck over pairs, 2 pairs, and wait to risk all their money. Losing players keep putting money in the pot, even though thy played good cards.

The more you refuse to admit you may not have the best hand, the more you will lose. The more you put all your money in the pot, agianst small pots specially, the more you will lose big pots. Drawing hands sometimes are atually the odds on favorites to win, learn that. Stop losing $10 when you called a $9 bet into a $1 pot, jjst because you have TPTK at the time. Or if you make the call, have the better outs.

IMHO, if you can win consistently online then you should do even better live. Unless you have some uncontrollable twitches or noises you make. If you can not win online, do not expect to do any better live. A losing player online will lose just as much live, proportional to the amount of hands they play. Since playing live they will probably have more money on the line at any on time, they will just end up losing more money then they would have online anyways, and in less time.

Playing on multiple sites.

Would you go to the same casino and sit with the same players all the time? Hopefully not. So why play on just one online site, where over a period of days you tend to just play the same core players over and over? I do think there is a general advantage to knowing your competition, but there is also a benefit in playing different players.

Your objective is to keep developing your game, to win more and more. A different site can help you with this. Not just with different opponents, but different structures. Also, different numbers of players in their tournamants. A site like carbonpoker.com allows you to play in tournaments against a reasonable number of other players. Smaller payouts, easier to make it into the money if you are a good enough player. Large sites like FullTiltPoker.com force you to play tournaments a lot differently, because of the number of players in them. The reward though is going to be much greater, plsu their tournaments will pay out to more places.

You may discover that some sites offer additional or different tables (buy-in, structure, players) that you end up doing better on. For example, some sites have cash tables that cap how much one can bet total per hand. Some sites have Heads Up SNG's that have buy-ins that you like better. And some will offer tournaments in your buy-in range at better times during the day then others do. And there is always some type of promotion going on, you may find one sites promotions that month are better for you then the other ones available.

If you have a limited bank roll, and start winning, look into investing some of those winnings into trying out other sites.

Variance and Odds.

I do not believe that you can realistically measure variance in your poker play. You can track it, but can you really measure it? Tracking systems do not take emotional factors into place. They also do not distinguish between your bad decisions verus good ones, bad beats you put on others versus being put on you.

A good example is pocket Aces. Let's say you find it hard to fold them post flop. A tight passive (TP) player loses a lot with pocket Aces, or does not maximize thier winnings. A good tight agressive (TAG) player will lose less with them, and maximize their winnings. The TP player will not protect their hand post flop and end up in many situations with multiple players seeing the flop and cracking Aces. The TAG player will isolate and defend their Aces, possibly going all-in preflop based on their read of the table.

Either style of play, when the flop hits, some players will know when to muck their Aces while most will play them no matter what is going on. This is where variance can not tell you much. Since most players mix their game up, a tracker can not compensate for an individual's variance in play.

Another factor is the environment. Someone playing at online micro levels may have developed a style of play that at live cash levels is nothing but losing play. You get caught up in the fact that online you can limit your loses to $10, $25, $50 etc.. Then you move up online or live and there you sit with $300 in front of you. Or a live $1/$2 player moves up to $3/$6 and has 3x their normal buy-in to deal with.

This brings me to odds. On micro tables odds are meaningless. Let's be realistic here, you have $25 in front of you. You bet or call $2 to see a flop with pocket Queens and you hit a set on the flop. There s a flush chase out there, a possible straight as well could already have hit. But you hit a set, and you value bet it. Someone raises, heck a player in the middle smooth calls. At this point, do you muck when on the turn someone pushes all in for 3x the pot? Probably not, you do not have a lot to risk. But lets go to a $300 buy-in and you put $15 into the pot pre-flop. Next thing you know someone on the turn is forcing you all in to protect $40 out of your pocket so far. What do you do now? (In my one live game last year I was in this situation. I flopped a King high flush and felt a player UTG was betting a flopped set. I reraised their pot sized bet, they came back all in. The board never paired, I won. Odds were not favorable for them to call my bet, so they shoved back. Odds were slightly in my favor to stay ahead. How do you measure variance here copared to the next time they flop a set and win or lose?

Do not get caught up using tools to replace your gut. Do not call just beacuse of the odds, someone may be milking the pot, you are already drawing dead. If you feel that, then let them have the pot. If you flopped a flush and someone pushed all-in for 5x the pot, know they probably have a set or 2 pair. Regardless of the odds you can not muck here, just because you do not have the right pots odds, correct?

If you are maximum your winnings and limiting your loses, and you can see that you are, then avoid looking at variance - something that is not really that trackable IMHO.