*2000th Post - Being a better Pro

luckylucky

Well here comes my 2000th post in 2 and a half years on Boards – I’ve slowed down a lot in my post level and my browsing level on Boards since last summer but somehow I finally reached the big 2k. I thought I’d better make some sort of something or other type of post to mark the landmark in the forum where I first got going on Boards.

I've decided to touch on just some of the vitals on being and staying a successful full-time player in these relatively tougher days of online poker.

There are a lot of good regulars, either pros themselves also or decent part-timers at the sort of levels you need to be playing to have a decent expectation (2/4 NL and above, 1-2 perhaps if you are a serious grinder). Almost all these type of players will be using the likes of Hold’em manager or Pokertracker and their associated Huds and if not they will be aware of them and supposedly have reasons of their own for not using them.

You are basically relying on the recreational player who plays on occasion, people who have the money (and often not caring much if they lose) but not the poker skills or guys who have made money at lower levels and prematurely move up levels and have not yet adjusted their game or play with scared money. These sort of guys though are not in plentiful supply at all and a lot less than in previous years.

This is the environment the journeyman poker pro lives in today and you need to get a lot of things going in your favour I believe to survive and hopefully thrive in this environment.

To prevail in this environment, you obviously need to understand the game and have honed your knowledge through playing, reading (either books and/or forums) and discussing hands. Anyway taking that as a given, here is what I think

1. What games should you play online? Obviously a lot depends on what you are most skilled at. And at times just to keep things interesting you may wish to play games other than your most profitable because that's what you feel like doing. Anyway all things being equal I think a lot depends on what degree of multi-tabling you go in for. So here's my take on it
   
   
   1. Heavy Multi-Tabling 6 tables and beyond. I personally think NL Cash is best suited for this purpose – with the exception of a small percenatge of super lag players most winning players will be folding more hands preflop than they would do in Omaha so you can afford to stay uninvolved more, thus it’s easier to multi-table from that viewpoint at least. I have played 9 to 12 tables on occasion in NL, and while I have never done it with any long degree of regularity I can manage it. 5 tables seems to be the most I can safely manage in Omaha and at times 4 is enough. Anyway personally I don’t think I could keep up this sort of play day in day out – some of you young’uns might take it in your stride.
      
      
   2. Light Multi-Tabling 3 to 5 tables. I’m inclined to think you are better off playing Omaha or Sngs in favour of NL cash if you do what I can at best describe as light multi-tabling. The standard is also getting better in these games but it’s still not up to the equivalent level in NL cash. This is why personally I play these games 80% of the time. One downside though is at the medium and higher stakes the availability of these games is a lot less than at NL.
      
      
   3. Mtts are too high variance for me personally. When I play them I consider it an indulgence tbh. Besides I suck at them coz I run out of patience if I don't get donked out after a couple of hours . Like the live successful mtt players, though perhaps to a lesser degree I think hugely successful mtt players have a lot of notoriety in the online poker circles, but the reaility is that they are in a small minority of the overall online pro group. At least that's my take and understanding of it - but then again I am biased I suppose
   
   
2. The reality of being a poker pro is not the one we may have envisaged when we first got hooked on this game of ours. As a journeyman poker pro it’s time to grow up. Forget your boyhood/girlhood dreams of poker stardom. When poker first got a grip on many of us and we began to think (rightly or wrongly) hmm I’m good at this. I like many of ye degens, no doubt, harboured dreams of being the WSOP champion, or once we learned of other big tourneys that we would make our mark in them. The reality is very different though. The vast majority of today’s pros are not known faces. I’ve managed to qualify for 3 tournaments over the past 8 months, great you might think – but it’s cost me a lot of money between travel, expenses and the costs of actually trying to qualify. Add this in to the fact that I’m away from my regular online games. It’s EV- in a big way. I’d estimate it’s probably effected my bankroll by as much as $20K. A figure that wouldn’t go amiss now. Don’t get me wrong I don’t want to sound ungrateful for the opportunities I’ve had as result of winning my seats for these events and seeing different parts of the world. But as an online pro with limited experience of live play – this is not my bread and butter and I’m fully starting to realise this.
   
   
3. Be well bankrolled for whatever game you play, even be over-rolled. I’ve been shocking with my bankroll plenty of times, it’s a bad habit I got into – probably as a result of being pissed too often. The attention to protecting your bankroll though I appreciate more and more is so vital. As we know variance in this game can blow holes in your roll at any time – but in these days where sharks abound and fish are in scarcer supply it gives you a huge psychological advantage over any opponents who are not adequately bankrolled for the game. 3 or 4 years ago if you had asked me what roll you needed for a game I would have said around 20 to 30 buy-ins. If you are a part-timer I think 20 buy-ins for micro-stakes is perfectly ok still and 30 for low stakes. But for a pro playing medium stakes or higher I think you got to get yourself way more comfortable than that. I’d say 60 buy-ins as an absolute minimum, and if you wanted to set your bar a whole lot higher I wouldn’t argue. Once you hit medium stakes, there’s absolutely no need to lose the head and every reason to wait until you are well into your comfort zone before moving up levels.
   
   
4. It’s important not to be too hard on yourself. Playing 1000+ hands a day online it’s inevitable we will make mistakes. It’s important to accept this inevitability(not saying you shouldn’t try to eliminate them as much as possible – of course you should but what’s done is done – mistakes and the reasons behind them can always be analysed later) and try to move beyond it asap. If composure is ruffled, obviously it’s better to stop for a while. Much easier said than done, but it's better again if you take the approach that you won't let it phase you at all and instead direct your thoughts to try to make some good out of your mistake. Think how all your opponents are going to react to you now that they’ve seen you doing something horrible. Some of the better players will realise that you are in general a good player but they think they now have an advantage over you, stay cool and try to think how this might translate in their plays. This is an aspect of my mindset to the game I have been working on lately.
   
   
5. Dealing with bad beats is probably one of my strongest points these days – they don’t bother me anywhere near as much as when I make a bad play. Anyway like bad plays from you it’s essential to put them behind you asap. Don’t berate the other player. Don’t curse when they happen, don’t even break a sweat, they are not worth it. If some player makes a comment designed to rub it in, if it helps just turn off chat – next hand folks!
   
   
6. Booze. I've gone to the extreme of quitting drink totally over 2 months ago. That no doubt would be a non-runner for just about every poster here. When I was drinking I found that when I was playing and drinking it wasn't so bad, but coming to poker cold with drink on board was often disastrous. Whatever way you want to colour it though Drink is EV- quite simply it impairs your decision making ability - so unless you are a bad player in the first place who somehow has his erroneous decision making improved on booze it's to be avoided as much as possible - for me I've taken it to the nth degree - not just for poker reasons of course

Ramiriquez

Nice post, good read

Macspower

Wd on the 2 k Barry.... Nice post with good honest points...

luckylucky

Ramiriquez wrote: »

Nice post, good read

Macspower wrote: »

Wd on the 2 k Barry.... Nice post with good honest points...

Thx.

I just noticed that there was another 2k post here. soz tylerdurden

DrJFF

Don't know you but good honest post, well done on the 2k

Moneymaker

DrJFF wrote: »

Don't know you but good honest post, well done on the 2k

.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Super honest post Barry, all the best in 2009.

tylerdurden94

Nah its grand the more the merrier, nice read and best of luck for this year.

connie147

Excellent post. I really enjoyed reading it. Post more please!!

Connie

luckylucky

cheers Lads.

To Connie, these days I normally just post to ask dumb questions off the computer 'geeks' in the techie forums .

Conbro

Excellent post Barry. You really hit the nail on the head with many of your points, especially about drink and bankroll management.
gl in the future,
Conor

Flipz4Rollz

Nice post, Good read.