For my 2,000th post I figured I'd write a little something up for the people that really want to boost their winrate (aka all of us).

This post might be obvious for some and might be completely new for others but I'd be willing to bet that even the people who find it obvious probably aren't doing it %100 of the time.

There's no doubt about it that online poker has seen more profitable days, it's difficult for fish to get their money online and even the fish that do manage to get their money online seem to be a better breed of fish then those of years past.

Even once you've found your fish you have to fight four regulars just for your shot at the fish's money and it seems like there are never enough fish to go around.

But that doesn't mean that there's no money to go around, you just have to be smarter if you want to maintain a good winrate.

You have to play better than your opponents. Not just the fish but the regulars, and you do that by saving bets.

This is something that I've understood yet struggled with my entire poker career.

I always understood that to make money at poker I'd have to get my opponent to call with worse hands, but I never cared as much as I should about every single chip I've put into the pot.

I've knowingly made bad calls, bad bets, stupid bluffs, and every time I would tell myself, “Hey it's just 10bb, its just 40bb, its just one stack. Who cares? There will be plenty of hands.”

But that's wrong. Every single decision you make has a huge impact on your winrate.

You have to treat every hand you play as a battle, every time the action is on you you have to fight to either make or save bets.

Every single time you waste a bb you effect your winrate negatively and if you're wasting a stack a session, than you're going to have a tough time turning a profit at the end of the month.

Now, I'm not a math guy so bear with me here.

If you beat the game for 2BB/100 that means ever 100 hands you are winning 2bbx2 so if we're playing $200nl then you're making $8 every hundred hands

Think about how many times you haven't given a **** about a $20 bet or a $40 bet and just called to satisfy your curiosity, or how many times you've barreled an awful card for no other reason then you were auto piloting while watching some stupid you tube video.

When a decent winrate is $8 per hundred hands how many BB/100 are you literally wasting every single session you play?

Stop it!

Think of the difference in dick waving alone between a 2BB/100 winrate and a 3BB/100 winrate.

2BB is beating the game but 3BB and up is crushing it.

You $200 grinders can't eliminate $8/100 hands in wasted bets?

Try it, stop being impulsive, stop being a robot, stop wasting bets, and you winrate will have no choice but to climb.

Good point. There's def money to be made there for me personally.

However, I also belive that every move you make that you calculate +-0$ EV is actually a good move to make. It will turn into +$EV because of the obvious reason that more aggro = easier to get paid off.

Im not saying stop being aggro. Im saying stop being bad aggressive and basically just stop wasting bets.

such really good advice

a good example is that there are very, very, very few regs nowadays that are capable of giving up on their bluffs when they should

say you are 3betting a guy with a fold-to-3bet of like 90 relentlessly. I see it time and time again that some dumb reg ends up donating all the profits back because that one time in ten that the guy calls, they just can't resist stabbing at the pot with a cbet.

Similarly, a lot of guys continue to much when they raise or check-raise the flop versus a cbet -- they barrel on cards where the pfr's probably shoving like his job, etc

the pro - this is good insight and a great way to put things into perspective

the con - this isnt going to really improve my poker game as far as playing cards

Yeah a lot of the times I just end up calling even tho I know I'm beat just so I can see what he has. I should stop doing that.

well sometimes i dont mind as much especially fish. also if you get odds where you only have to be right 1 out of 3 or 1 out of 4 (though the really good odds , your never good as far as frequency to odds), not a bad call.

alot of river calls, youd be lucky to be good half the time but its still a call considering odds/game dynamics and random higher level thinking bluffs that look liek value bets. butttt im too big of a fish and those higher level thinkers are out thinking themselves since i always call.

Great post man, definitely an epiphany I've made this year. EVERY DECISION MATTERS. My target these days is to play a perfect game. Not necessarily possible, but as the old saying goes, shoot for the moon, even if you come up a bit short you'll be among the stars.

like it, well done

Thanks for the post. I try to think about this kind of stuff but I still knowingly make stupid mistakes or call "it's so small i only have to be good like 15% of the time" when you're actually beat like 95%+ of the time.

Simple, but probably very effective. Nice post.

Great post!

yeah ive noticed this myself too...i think in jmans well he said something along the lines of ''try to make the decision that will make you the most money possible, every time its on you'' i think thats a big diff between us(ssnl) and them (hsnl), they really take every decision seriously no matter the potsize


and @ bearjew, sup with the stubborn responses?

Good post. Another obvious example is if a $25 cbet will have the same effect as a $20 cbet, only bet $20 and save yourself the $5 when you get called.

Strong post.

Point seems obvious but even those who are aware of it often don't act as if.

Act as if this decision you had a gun to your head, and you got your head blown clean off if you made the obviously wrong decision.

It's not about playing optimal poker, it's about playing the optimal poker you are capable of playing.
Hand at a time. Street at a time.

This truly is what we mean when we say "A game".

Gun to our heads we'd all bring our A-game. All the time.