I've known how to play no-limit hold 'em since I was 15, but just recently got good and started going to casinos.
I totally agree with everyone who said that poker teaches/helps you with real life. Most real-life situations can be interpreted using poker as a metaphor. In real life, you need to know how to read people, know when to "fold," "call," "raise," which "hands" to play and which ones not to play, etc.
Poker is obviously not as complex as real life, and obviously it is not a perfect metaphor, but my point stands nonetheless.
I am currently living in South America, and the players there at the low stakes (which is all they have) are pretty bad. At least most of them are bad enough to where I am able to play profitably.
I started with just about $200, and within about 3 weeks I was up to $2000. Then I had a few bad days and went on "tilt" for the next few days and ended up losing the whole $2000. I borrowed a few hundred from a friend back in the U.S. and quickly made back my $2000 (I lost $500 of it back the next day, most of it to some American dude, but whatever).
I came back to the U.S. for a visit these last few weeks. I spent a couple of days in Atlantic City and made just under $350 playing the $1/$2 tables.
People who are not familiar with poker seem to think it is just like any other gambling game (i.e. the house always has the advantage, and you will always lose in the long run). However, in poker, you are playing against the other players at the table, not the house. The house makes money by taking a rake (a percentage of each pot that is played). This means that if you are a good player, you can make money.
There are people at the casinos, both in the U.S. and South America (although more so in SA) who are not that good at poker, and just see it as another gambling game. They go to the casino, play a little blackjack, a little roulette, and a little poker, etc. They are usually pretty easy to beat, since they are not serious poker players and just want to gamble.
I agree that live poker is more profitable (for good players) than online poker. It is easier for me to win money at the live tables than it is at the PENNY TABLES online. I think this is because online poker tends to attract serious players, while casinos tend to attract a mix of serious players, casual players, and degenerate gamblers. Also, you can't read people in online poker, so you're mostly relying on math and odds.
Quote: (04-14-2017 02:32 PM)MX90 Wrote:
Been playing poker now for 15 plus years, just like you said as a side hustle. This might sound counter intuitive but my tip is to go straight to 2/5 or 5/10 if you are a winning player online and have the proper bankroll.
Live poker at 1/2 is closer to bingo. Not that the skill level at 2/5 is substantially better but what you'll notice is that most players at those stakes are at least aware of the key fundamentals of the game. For me personally it makes the game less swingy which to me is better to grind as a side hustle.
Not sure I agree with this. If people at $1/$2 are playing like this, that means they are bad players and easier to win money off of (in the long run). Yes, the swings will be bigger, but you'll come out on top if you're a good player. Why wouldn't you want to play agains players who don't know the fundamentals? Sure, it can be less fun and less challenging than playing against better players, but it will be easier to make money.
You just have to play super tight pre-flop, and then play very aggressively post-flop if you think you have the best hand. Only bluff if you're SURE no one has anything. Avoid bluffing out of position, and avoid trying to catch people bluffing, as 90% of the time they won't be bluffing.
If you have a maniac at the table raising to $25 pre-flop every single hand, then you just need to sit and wait for a premium staring hand hand (or even a hand like AQ or AJ or a medium pocket pair) and re-raise him.
You're less likely to get seven callers to a 8X UTG preflop raise then have some donk go runner runner straight with no odds to call because their poker logic is 'the pot is too big for me to fold'.
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I noticed this too at the low-stakes tables. People simply will not fold their draws. The strategy here is to bet big enough that your opponent is not getting the right odds to call. The goal isn't to get him to fold. The goal is to get him to call with bad odds (i.e. he will be losing money to you in the long run by calling). Sure, the 30-35% of the time he hits his draw, you will lose money, but the 65-70% of the time he misses, you win money.
The goal is to make it so that you win as much as possible when he misses his draws, and lose as little as possible when he hits his draws. Some people at the casino I played at would do retarded things like going all-in with just a flush draw (or straight draw). Am I mad about this? Of course not. I will call that all-in bet every single time, and I will usually win, which means it is profitable for me to call in the long run.
You want your opponents to pay to draw to their hands. You don't want to give a free card to someone you think might be on a draw.
At 1/2 the effectiveness of bluffing is greatly reduced. It's also harder to rep a range since most don't play ranges but rather their hole cards.
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Not exactly true. A lot of times, people will make it obvious that they have a shitty hand (or a medium-strength hand, for that matter) because they check a couple of times in a row, and they have a bored/annoyed look on their face like they just want the hand to be over so that they can play a new hand. If there is a lot of money in the pot and you are fairly confident no one has a good hand, go ahead and bluff. They will fold (assuming you were right about them not having a good hand).
It is best, in these types of games, to avoid bluffing when you're out of position, because you never know if the guy behind you just hit something. People tend to play a lot of trash hands in these types of games, so literally any card that comes out can possibly make someone a good hand.