I've played (live) poker for the last 8 years, but I have just now admitted that I am a losing player. I have decided to study seriously, and practice accordingly- to the effect of treating it as a job. I have 6 weeks until I begin law school, and I am not working until then.

I am reading/studying Janda's Applications. I will get his new book after I finish this one. Also, I will begin watching videos on RIO soon (after I get working knowledge of GTO and strategy from Janda's Applications). I have the elite membership.

My issue is practice. I live in Alabama, and I am having a difficult time finding where I can play online. The internet has been ambiguous on this answer. My desire to play online is for the sake of practicing what I am studying, and tracking my play. Can any of you direct me to where I can play online?

Any other tips will be appreciated.

If you admit you are a losing played then you need to ignore stupid **** like gto that only applies as the very highest level and work out the really basic stuff you're doing wrong

And how do I go about finding what that is?

Where to play online in the USA

If you are starting law school soon, honestly now is not the best time to start devoting yourself to an intensive hobby like poker. Getting good at the game takes considerable time and effort. Law school takes a lot of time and effort as well (much more than poker). School - which I assume entails tuition and potentially debt - should be your number one priority. Study hard, get good grades, pass the bar, and get a good paying job. The legal market is still tough, and only the top percentage of students get lucrative positions. At least where I practice (DC), even subjectively less desirable jobs are difficult to obtain. Once you have a steady income, then consider playing poker seriously. Just my two cents. (I am a lawyer who only got serious about poker after doing all the above.)

if you are smart enough to become a lawyer, then after 8 losing years you have to be either being cheated or playing way too many hands for the thrill of it. i would think about those two things first off.

Chico Network (BetOnline et. al.), Ignition / Bovada, and The Winning Network (ACR) should service players in your region.

I recommend lots and lots of practice playing for pennies.

One other reason not to spend a lot of time on poker now is that if you excel in law school, you will make much more money as a lawyer than as a poker player over the course of your lifetime. Plus, you can get good at poker at any time. You only get one shot at law school.

Like most players, I was a losing player for a long while. As I learned the game and got better, like you, I started trying to play using strategies, that as others said, quite frankly do not work at most lower stake games (and micros). I'd be baffled why the player at 1/2 live or 5c NL online was calling down with low pair/weak kicker when I was clearly representing the turned nut flush, I mean come on!

So two things happened for me in past few months that I can now say at least I'm a winning player at some micros on some sites and, had I managed a small MTT bink and subsequent shot at 1/2 live better (not taken money out so often!), I'm probably eventually on track to be a winning 1/2 live player when I can comfortably get back to it.

The two things:

1.) I got back to absolute basics and listened to people who know more than me about poker, esp micros online. I rebuilt my game from the ground up and the two most effective in game changes I made: play much fewer hands preflop and play more tight aggressive poker IN POSITION. While I'm not balling and flying up to high stakes just yet, these two changes turned my online game around on Bovada almost overnight. As you do that you'll notice better play happening for yourself, and you'll realize that fancy plays don't work at micro/low stakes (just value bet, don't trap, don't get fancy, don't slow play).

2.) Better bankroll management and better discipline. Start at lower stakes online, prove over a decent sample size of hands that you're beating the stake (even if on just one site) , it's great for confidence and it instills good bankroll management (and makes moving up and down feel much more natural).


As for US facing sites, personally I love Bovada. The format suits me well, the play is soft, and it's where I turned my poker game around. I'd avoid sites like ACR (hard player pool).

Spot on. This simple piece of advice I got from others turned my game around real quick.