Just looking for some advice on improving my hourly rate. I have noticed that unless I go out of my way to a casino that is not my usual place of play, when cold deck occurs in the standard game I become frustrated at the pace of live play. Villains tanking, mostly Hollywooding, all board cards almost always dealt.
I notice that a cold string of cards can really kill my attention span, especially since many villains are not competant or thinking about the same concepts as I am or anyone who will comment in this thread most likely. It is almost like I don't necessarily want to play poker to win the money from losers, but combat the best players at my room only who will move play quickly, think, and respond to decisions on a different level. I definitely suffer from a type of tilt here where I want to play my A game, but just lose it.

I know we all win from droolers, they are the mainstay of poker regardless of your definition. I don't play and study as hard as I do to play these people regardless of the fact that we kill them and they make our bankroll. I know this is how we grind a roll, but how to I combat these negative thoughts and desire to play harder games be it the same stake or higher.

Does anyone make a game out of playing low level players? Like "if i stack this moron I can buy myself an ice cream" or something.

A good way to pass the time while card dead is to think about how exactly you can exploit that moron. What are they doing badly and what is the best way to profit from it?

Obviously this is constructive but it also keeps you focused on poker. Nothing worse than being card dead for hours, zoning out, and then finding yourself in a 300bb pot with no clue what has been happening at the table before that.

Couple other attention games:

1. Do the mental math every hand to keep track of the pot size of hands you're not in. It's a good skill to have and keeps you paying attention to bets people are making.

2. The "Put them on a hand" game where you constantly are ranging your opponents and seeing whether you're right or not when they show down.

Thanks guys. I'm also going to start playing sessions as a zero talk player. My true best game comes out when i stop talking and getting names I will soon forget of the players sitting next to me etc.

Dude that is a terrible idea. You need to be providing "customer satisfaction" to players you are making money from so they keep coming back.

Also, ignore the advice of others telling you to increase your focus. That will just waste your mental energy. You're not going to outplay opponents who never fold, so the only exploit is to nit it up and get paid.

Find ways to have fun at the table while you wait for the good hands. A quiet, miserable poker room is never going to bring new players in the game, and its going to intimidate the fun players who donk off their stacks.

If you really have a need for higher mental stimulation, move up in stakes and play against 8 other grinders all playing TAG, and I promise you will be grateful that you play against mindless "low-level thinking" players.

very bad idea. bad for you, for the game, and for everyone

Don't sit in silence, especially if your struggling with boredom..... Talk to people, listen to them, share in the table talk, you will glean tonnes of information, and are much less likely to get bored, you will also glean a more active image than you actually have....
Fwiw I'm not saying try and be the life and soul of the party, just chat to people, try and have fun

If you get bored waiting for hands, don't want to talk to people and have no patience for your inferior opponents who slow the game why are you even playing? It sounds like a bad experience for you to voluntarily subject yourself to.

Since much of playing winning live poker is spent waiting for hands, talking no to other players and tolerating / encouraging bad players who are responsible for much of our win rate, you probably should re-evaluate whether live poker is really for you.


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cAmmAndo asks the right first question. Why are you playing then? TBH, you are showing some signs of letting the gambling addiction take over. They mask needing to up the gambling aspect of their game with the purer "I'm in it for the challenge." Your comments amount to the classic explanation of poor play, "I want to move up where people respect my raises."

What you can do that almost nobody in this forum does is start putting people on ranges. The nice thing about this you can do it on every hand. When hands gets to show down, you can see if your range fits his or her cards. If not, adjust your range for them. Virtually every HH on 2+2 comes down to Hero not being able to put the villain on a range. The whole theory of poker comes down to minimizing the times you would make a different decision if you knew what the villain had.

Doing that continually gets overwhelming, so I suggest talking with table as a break. You don't have to be the life of the party, but there will be a comment made that you can respond to. Or commiserate with someone who had their AA cracked. Or say "well played" when they show their hand after everyone folds. If someone wants to talk sports or girls, talk with them. I'm continually amazed that after a few friendly comments to the person on my left how many will start showing me their hand before the fold. Besides, you can meet some interesting people that you'll never interact with in any other way.

In short, there's plenty to do at the table. If you don't want to do them, you're going to find that more of the players at the next level up are doing it. To paraphrase Leon Trotsky, "you might not be interested in the table, but the table is interested in you."

Definitely talk to other players. I guarantee you that a decent % of a guy like Daniel Negreanu's win rate is due to his ability to befriend everyone at the table.

Great post.

I'd just add that another big set of HHs come down to having an unrealistic expectation of being able to narrow opponent's range to very specific hands instead of a more correct range that includes strong and weak hands.

Here is a perfect example of why being a sport at the table is insanely profitable. Me Deathcabfortootie and a whale were in a game the other night. We were whooping it up big time. Each of us were doing our best to out quote the others from goodfellas and casino. We genuinely had a great time. So a few nights later the whale comes up to me and we start joking...he grabs the open seat - and then proceeds to yell across the room for his even more degen buddy to come join the fun.

The amt your win rate skyrockets from these situations is staggering

I promise you if you become one of those mute d-bags the action players will run away from your game faster than usain bolt...and you will be left at the table with a bunch of mopes

Poker is a sick game. The more hands you play the less you win and the other way around, the less hands you get involved with the more you win.

What you got to do is before leaving your house for the poker club make a pledge to start folding as much as possible. Look for folding as your objective of your game plan. Try to find very serious reasons to get involved in a pot and look for all the flimsy reasons to fold a hand.

Playing like that you'll be having 22+, AXs, AK, AQ and (KQs, QJs, JTs). The most money will be made by the pocket pairs when they flop a set and the AA when you get most of the chips in preflop. AK also will show profit due to the aggression factor. All the rest hands are in a supporting role.

So, now you have found a very good reason to get involved preflop with some hand. Do the same thinking at the flop. Find solid reasons to continue. What you did preflop do again on the flop.

Long term winners know how to grind through this & when it's so bad, that they can't, they leave.

Zune's dad: "If you stopped to pay attention, you just might notice that 'high horse' you're riding is actually a donkey.

I try to remind myself constantly that my big wins and losses (and I play a lot of hands) in a session always come from usually 2-5 hands so I have to be very very sharp to be on the right end of those 2-5 (exploiting and avoiding coolers).

The rest of the hands are basically eeking out small wins and minimizing small losses to keep stacks healthy or slightly growing to exploit those couple of important spots in an multi-hour session.

But I empathize. I am a rec player and have gotten to where I am bored to tears sitting down at a nitty 1/2 table anymore. While I probably have the skill to outplay in those situations I find I don't have the mental patience to play the right counter strategy and don't even sit in them any more.

I mean, listening to music/podcasts can give you something to fall back on when not thinking about strategy. I might fool around on my phone for a bit if I get deep and super card dead, which seems terrible, but it can be worth it to recharge your attention span. I'm not gonna pretend literally everything I do at the table is designed to crush my opponents and maximize my win rate.

I also like to peek at my first card and enumerate the second cards that will result in me playing the hand.

i think this is excellent advice.

+1

I agree, unless you're grinding for a living, at least some part of your equity is going to come from having some fun and enjoying other peoples company.

^especially if your grinding for a living Imo....by far the best pro's I know are very actively involved in table banter etc.... They always push a looser image than they really deserve by constantly talking, making (meaningless rake free 50/50) side bets and just generally being involved in everything that happens at the table except for the poker where they just fold until they find the nuts and everyone seems to think they are bluffing......
I really believe that I am at least equal to (probably the beat pro I know) in terms of pure poker skill, but I know his table demeanour, and general image is probably making him an extra 3-5bb/hr especially at 2-4.... Because while I try to be involved as best I can, I am a pretty reserved person most of the time

You can have the money and the hammer or you can walk out of here. But you cant have both.

for starters try to move up from 1/2

We're never really card dead, unless you only play a very narrow range. If you're sitting there waiting for hands, yes it could be very time consuming.
for someone trying to make the game more fun and less boring, this is a very dumb idea.

Internet porn

When I'm bored I make prop bets with table mates about what the players in the hand have (very very very quietly so you don't influence action) usually during an all-in.

It lets you see how your opponents think about poker and if your read is right, you make an extra blind or 2. Sometimes I'll bet someone has a hand that's very unlikely to feed into my crazy, donkey image, too. Worth it to lose $2 here n there when the players have you pegged as the "He can have anything" player. If I win the bet but my guy loses, I'll toss him a $1 chip. Keeps the game friendly, eases his loss and everyone keeps having fun.

Edit:

And occasionally making fun bets on Red/black or which card is coming on the river/turn. Your goal as a poker player is to make the table fun to be at.

Play for higher stakes or get a day job. You sound like a nasty person who I wouldn't want at my table.

You would fit right in mang!!!!