CRACKING POKER

            
                   ALL YOU NEED IS A STRATEGY AND LADY LUCK BY YOUR SIDE


As a pro, you're not constantly attacking the weak players hand after hand after hand. If you are, you're guaranteed to go broke. Instead, you sit and wait. And wait. And wait and wait and wait some more. And finally, when you get a decent hand, you strike and win your nicely sized pot.
Then you go back to waiting.

It's a long, grinding game of patience and attrition. And that's because it's all about tediously waiting for the percentages to line up in your favor -- successful poker players only play about 20 percent of the hands they're dealt.  That's right -- 80 percent of the time, they're spectators. And, they know exactly what percentage of hands they're playing, because this is the type of minutiae they keep track of. People think that poker is all about reading facial expressions, but it's actually all about math. In fact, many poker pros -- especially the online players -- are outright stats junkies, entering the details of every single session into analysis programs to calculate their overall win rate and help them fix any holes in their games.

If you're fascinated by high-stakes poker players, odds are it's from watching them on TV in those huge multimillion-dollar tournaments (or, you know, Casino Royale). That's what everyone daydreams himself doing, but the first thing to understand is that those guys on TV are the Kobe Bryants and Tom Bradys of the poker world. And Kobe has decades of slow, dedicated, boring practice behind him, as well as millions of sit-ups and bench presses and endless miles around the track.

It's a pretty terrible life.

 

It's easy to forget that aspect of poker, because the whole point of gambling is that supposedly anybody can hit a lucky streak at any time and win big. That's what draws crowds of tourists to Vegas every year. Hell, maybe you're secretly a genius at it, like Rain Man at the blackjack table. And in fact, rank amateurs have made it all the way to the final table of the World Series of Poker, cashing in a nice million-dollar paycheck (like the ridiculously-named Chris Moneymaker).

Chris Moneymaker, seconds before destroying his opponent, Will Pushhisluck.

 

Even the superstars don't make a living stroking their egos and taking on the other superstars. They make their living beating up on the wannabe pros dumb enough to take them on. Look at it this way: If Kobe's only source of income came from betting his own money in a game of HORSE, do you think he'd take on LeBron? Remember, this isn't about winning a trophy and a ring -- in poker, if you don't win, you don't get paid. Period.

Some would argue this would actually improve basketball.

 

So if you want to make money, you simply have to seek out players you know you can consistently beat. Otherwise, the Peter Principle will destroy you. That's the theory that everyone in a field gets promoted to his own level of incompetence. So in poker, let's say you're able to win at a certain betting limit. So, you move up to the next higher limit, where the players will be that much better. And you keep doing this until you get to a limit where you're now the sucker at the table. And then you go broke.

 

 

 

 

Is good to know your poker odds but when you are playing a live tournament, those odds don't mean shit. You always see those donkeys getting lucky while you are scratching your head and figuring out what went wrong. I've been through this road already three times and now I keep getting beat with pocket 5's when I raised with AK, 4X bet,(ante 1k/5k/10k), I made the right raised at the right time, got all players out but there was always one player that doesn't  want to fold his pocket 5's. I had left 120k in chips and he decides to push me all in. I do have AK unsuited, the only thing i can put him on is a pocket or AK. As I call his all in, I was shock to see someone again making an all in with a small pockets and gettting lucky with it. On tv you see a poker pro going all in with AK while another player call with his pocket QQ's and then the flop is A-9-8. That only happens on TV but they don't show you how this so call poker pro  had been grinding his ass for the past 9 hours. He got far because of his strategy, grinding power  and a lucky streak. I will be writing a book soon and i will teach and show you what it takes to get to any poker tournament final table as long as you follow by step by step strategy. My strategy is so simple to follow and you must stick to it until you get to the final table. My strategedy can be apply to any tournament or cash game and you will see results once you start using it. I had apply this strategy to poker pro wannabes and tight players. As soon as I come out of my strategy, I start bleeding precious chips and then I go back to it and suddenly I'm up again. Poker is all about using a strategy that works and 75% luck.



                                                           POKERMANTIS

 

IMPROVING YOUR POKER GAME

Improve Your Poker Game

I think the standard way to improve your poker skills preached by
most players is: watch training videos, read books and contribute to poker forums by asking questions. Those are all great methods of improving your poker skill. For newish players or players who have just started winning, this is a great strategy. You will pick up a lot from watching videos and talking on forums. However, once you go past that stage and you want to get to an elite level, you need to go outside the realm of popular knowledge.

1) View data-mined hand histories / purchased hand histories

At one point I purchased over a million hand histories and used a popular player look up tool to find the biggest players at that limit. I then looked over the hand histories that reached showdown from these players in my poker tracker. What I did was analyse the why. I looked at all the decisions they made. I then Isolated the decisions which were different to the ones I would make and then considered the “why.” This has helped me modify my play. I have to accept that the people winning the most at the limits above me, know what the hell they are doing, so I figure it out, and copy. I personally need to do this more and when I make a foray back into playing again this will be the first thing I do. This tip really is golden.

2) Sweat good poker players on Teamviewer

I urge you to make some poker friends and try to sweat some of them playing. By asking questions in real time it's a learning experience for both the person playing and the person sweating. Ideally you should try and sweat someone better than you and pick their mind. If you can't find someone better than you because you are new or are an unknown player, I would suggest paying for a coach If you have a few friends on AIM who are a similar skill level as you, you can both learn some stuff from each other and hopefully become better players.

3) You are only as good as the company you keep

If you are a nl50 regular (reg) and have nl50 reg friends, chances are you will be a nl50 reg for a while. If you are a nl1k reg and have nl5k reg friends, chances are you're on the path to improvement and will join your friends soon. It's ok having friends who play the same limit as you, I have tons of friends who play nl200. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but heck, I am… Most of these players are ok but definitely not better than me. By sharing hands with them I’m not going to learn anything new. I have maybe 10-20 players on AIM who play higher than me who I talk to often. I tend to respect the advice of these players more and some of them have the ability to think more comprehensively about all of the variables. What do I advise? Try and make friends with regulars on the forums both as good as you and better than you. The better company you keep, the better you will get.

4) Get a coach

I have never been coached per se. I had a tilt coach for a small period of time and that was, LOL stupid. I also have gone through a few mid stakes coaches but didn’t want any more lessons when I realised they weren’t much better than me. If you are starting out at say nl50, nl100, nl200 a coach may be beneficial. All I’m going to say is that it hasn’t worked for me. There are lots of good and bad coaches out there so make sure you do your research. Get references and make sure they will tell you their screen name so you can check for yourself how good they are. Also keep in mind that being good at poker does not necessarily relate to being a good poker coach. Finding a solid poker coach can be gold - but spending a ton just to find the right one is a huge waste of resources.

5) Make a video

Make a video of you playing, upload it and share it with your friends or post it on forums asking for a review of your play. Cumulatively, if you get hundreds of players viewing your video, they will likely spot some of your leaks. Take the criticism constructively. You may (or may not) be surprised at how many leaks other players will point out. Use these as fuel to improving your game.

6) Buy premium poker e-books

I have had a decent amount of success with this. I have purchased or have had a friends purchase a great deal of premium poker content. From Bobo’s Bible, The Memoirs of aejones, CTS’s book, Let There be Range, Improva’s book, BalugaWhale’s book - Easy Game, etc. Most of the ones I mentioned are fairly decent and worth the money. It's okay to invest some of the profits you have made back into education. I would go as far as saying it's mandatory for any professional player looking to get better faster than the games are getting tougher. As a professional player your mind is your biggest asset, so it remains critical to invest in it.

7) Training sites

Mentioned in my initial paragraph, training sites are probably the best value way to get better fast. I think once you get to a certain level, videos start becoming less effective. I have memberships to almost every training site out there and only wait on videos from the best players, most of the lower/mid roster of the sites players I cannot learn much from. Also, I only want to be open to listening to the concepts and theories of big winners. Not some 1 pt winning reg who thinks he can teach me how to play better.
One tip I would give you is to watch a training video on mute every now and then. I think I a lot of training instructors tend to gloss over the details, either on purpose or by mistake. If you look at a training video on mute and keep re-winding, fast forwarding over hands, you can do the analysis yourself and ask yourself, "Why?" before even hearing their reason.

8) Play Cheap Poker Tournament 

One way I have gotten better is by doing a poker tournament once a week. This is like any career, the more you do something, the better you get. Lucky me, I'm able to dedicate a few hours and put some of my poker theories to the test. I had tested several poker strategies such as, being a loose player, an aggressive player, a mixed player and a tight is right player. As you know, I went with the strategy that works and put me in control of my game. When I stick to this strategy, I'm able to control my poker game and get so deep into any tournament and make it to the money. All poker pro, doesn't matter their ranking levels or bankroll they have, they all come to the table with their hidden strategy. These players will study you, read you, bluff at you and bully you around. But when I apply my strategy to them and crack their mental state, all I get is a nasty stared at me. If looks kills, I would have been dead at that instants. When I come out of this strategy, I start losing precious chips and then I jump back to my wagon and built it up again. I would recommend playing cheap poker tournament and see which strategy works better for you. But always remember, think positive and be creative and don't let any bad beat put you down, we all learn from our mistakes, poker is a game that will put those mistakes to the test for you and this will be a learning experience for your next tournament.


                                                    


                                                     POKERMANTIS.COM

What it Takes to be a Professional Poker Player

What it Takes to be a Professional Poker Player

• Self-motivation - You will not always want to play poker. Especially if you are in a downswing or your friends are doing something that seems like more fun. Sometimes, though, when a game is really good, other things just have to be put on hold.
• Discipline - Sometimes you need to take a shot at a higher limit game when the table looks juicy. However, doing undisciplined things like chasing losses and play on tilt will make you go broke before you even realize what happened.
• Adaptability - There are a lot of things you may need to adapt to. You may need to adjust to a new schedule possibly, new stakes, new players, new styles and even new sites or new games. Change with the times or get left behind.
• Creativity - You can't always play ABC poker. Sometimes you need to mix things up, confuse your opponents and try some new strategies.

Why so Many Wannabe Pro Poker Players Fail

One major reason why many players don’t make it is because they do not practice smart bankroll management. Always leave yourself with outs! It's ok to use aggressive bankroll strategies, that is fine. But you have to be able to move down as well as up fast. If you can't do that you may go busto like hundreds of other players who have gone on a hot streak, climbed up the stakes too quickly then eventually lost it all playing in games they cannot beat.
Other players play great when they are winning and are running good. But when things start to go the other way, they compound their bad run by tilting, spewing and generally losing their mind like a donkey. Unless you have experienced a huge downswing/break-even stretch over 75k hands in your career, you can't truly know if your good enough to make it. The best players in the world don’t have “downswings.” They play well enough during these stretches so that they become “break-even stretches.” If you get a graph of any top online pro, you will notice that they will have sections of hands where they make tons of money, then sections where they break-even/lose a little for a while and then repeat the cycle.
Other players don’t succeed playing professionally because they have other issues in life which aren’t directly related to poker. Say you are trying to play professionally and are 6 tabling NL100. Over the past 6months, you have earned $3500 a month playing poker, You also have a monthly nut of $2500, i.e., how much you spend on rent, food, gas, electricity, etc. This leaves you with $1000 a month left to play poker with. Smart people will spend that money on learning to increase your income, e.g., poker training, poker coaching, adding money to your bankroll. Dumb people lose money playing blackjack, sports betting or purchasing a $30k car on finance. These people put themselves in unnecessarily tight financial spots and put themselves in situations where they start to eat into their bankroll to keep up their lifestyle and ultimately go broke.

Final Thoughts on Going Pro

Hopefully you are getting the idea by now. Becoming a poker pro isn’t as easy or as desirable as it seems. A lot of people can't deal with the stress of long break-even/losing stretches. If you go through some good times, put the money aside for the bad times that will most definitely follow. Please try and stay level headed. Take it from someone who has succeeded in playing professionally for the past 2 years. Maybe I am not as skilled as some of the best players on the planet and my income hasn’t really increased exponentially over the past 2 years. I’m not struggling by any means but I’m not a millionaire yet either. If you are young and contemplating not going to college to pursue a poker career, its most likely a bad idea. I would only do it if you are earning over $100k a year already playing poker. The games aren’t going to get any easier and you will continually have to get better as mid stakes are only going to get harder and harder as the fish lose their money, regulars get better, and there is not a constant influx of new players. I’m not going to say things look bleak since we have the possibility of regulated poker in the US (which of course may not affect players in the rest of the world anyway), but poker may never return to the days where there is an abundant supply of fish just giving away their money. Good luck at the tables. Play smart, play tight, play aggressive but controlled and don't go busto!

                                                     POKERMANTIS.COM