Basically, I approach this from the "what if everyone did this" point of view. If everyone waited until it was on them to look at their cards and took 2 seconds to do this, this would take 20 seconds per deal at a 10 handed table. At 30 hands an hour, that's 600 seconds = 10 minutes, or 1/6th of the table's hour deciding whether they want to play their hand or not preflop.

GI'llletyoudecidedifthisisagoodthingtoencourageG

It doesn't take two seconds if it's a fold. It's a fold 80% of the time, on average.

Inexperienced players appear nervous when bluffing the river without fail. Just cut out calling chips after tanking for a little and watch their facial expression change instantly, then call. Thanks to Chance Kornuth for the tip.

I shake and show nerves no matter if I make a royal flush or im playing a bluff with 7-deuce and, and every hand in between, I'm starting to use that to my advantage. Paying attention to the people who will call "bluffy" raises and value bet them with "Bluffy" raises instead.

Right, let's not slow down the game more than how slow it already is.

Noob perspective:

I feel this in my soul.

I'm always nervous at the table! There's money at stake! I'm nervous because I want a fold. I'm nervous because I want a call. I'm nervous because I don't want to get raised. I'm nervous because I *do* want to get raised.

It's like the Hulk - "that's my secret -- I'm always angry".

my hands shake whenever they aren't supposed to

holding phone is fine but the minute i need to take a picture it gets jittery

totally fine but when passing out a business card it looks like i'm going through alcohol withdrawal

any time i play a big pot, without fail my hands shake regardless of whether i have the nuts, top pair or total air - but it's often interpreted as me having a monster and i rarely get it in deep stacked without elite holdings so the tell is often accidentally correct

so i used to take half a vicodin before playing high stakes, if that wasn't available i'd have a drink before the session and then slowly nurse one every few hours to stay sober and sharp but keep the nerves just dull enough to not shake out on me whenever i grabbed for the big chips

RE: Shakey hands

Lol, so last night I'm in my biggest pot of the night. Button has raised and it's 5way to a AKQ flop. I've got KQsoooted in EP but not necessarily loving my hand. Button lets the flop check thru, so I'm feeling better about things, although then the EP guy pots it on a 9r turn. I call but I'm always wary of the "someone always has JT in a multiway pot" rule. Goes HU, Qr on the river and I know I haz the nuts due to preflop.

But when I see the Q river, I almost literally jump out of my seat. My head literally spazzes out and shakes and my arms / hands / fingers tremble like I've just been electrocuted. Goddammit, I'm 5K hours into 1/3 live NL and yet it's like it's my very first time at the table. It's so fricken obvious all I can do is literally laugh, and so that's what I do, I just shake my head and smile and laugh out loud.

He shoves in his last 50% PSB into the pot and announces "Ace" when I lol call.

Gitdoesn't****ingmatter,imoG

if it were 40/80 and 300bb deep and the villain was a pro from sweden you'd probably find it would matter

Ritdependsoncontext,imoR

thats y I always take at least 2 roxy's and 1/2 xanax bar and just a bump or 2 of china white before I play. If I find im starting to nod Ill do a fat rail of blow to wake me up. But then I may start getting jittery so I'l just do a couple o bong rips and maybe a 1/2 bottle of cough syrup to take the edge off. Its really a delicate balancing act so I make sure to have a really good supply/array of "supplements" so I can make minor adjustments every orbit or so.

squid, what does your daily wakeup routine have to do with the pokerz?

If villain is on bath salts and considering eating my face, how do i adjust my 3 bet range ?

thanks in advance

The logic is that players looking to their left won't get a tell from you before they act on their hand. For a speedier game LH is something to consider.

MOMMA lyk 2 git DRANK b4 playin cardz ............... n if U aint DRINKIN........... U Prob Sum Pro Fresh In All Player OR SUMTHIN......................... N I AINT FUX WIDD U!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm pretty new to live- but hiding tells should be a 1 or 0, picking up tells should be a 1 or 0 at 1-2live.

Knowing the pot size is very important- for value and bluffing. 9/10

Knowing stack sizes is important. 7/10. You can always ask obviously, but some people won't answer (they don't have to), so the dealer can count it, or you can estimate.

I definitely recommend looking at your cards before it's on you- slowing the game down is horrible.

I think the #1 tip to live poker is to GIVE ACTION. You have to. If you are sticking to premiums you will never get action and get paid when you hit it.


The only thing I struggle with is open raise sizing- 1-2NL can see opens to $6 or $20 and it's very table dynamic. I remember the first time I played live I opened to $10 from utg, and got 6 callers. After the hand the one guy next to me said everybody had been opening to $15 minimum, and typically $20 or $25 which was obviously good to know lol.

Agree with most of this... but really disagree with the statement that you must give action in order to get action. Will you get action from solid winning players? No, of course not, that's part of what makes them solid winning players (you'll have to eke out profit against them in a different manner). But thankfully, most tables are made up of 90% losing players, and they'll give plenty of action, cuz that's what losing players do.

Gdoesn'tgiveanyactionwhatsoever,andyettypicallyget smoreactionthanIcanhandleinreturnG

I guess must is strong- but generally speaking I don't want to be the knit at the table that's really what I mean. I want people calling my value bets with bluff catchers, and i want them to know I have some bluffs as well. I'm not an action junkie- i think i misused must. I mean, If they want a round of straddles, I do a round a straddles with them. You are 100% right that most players have no problem giving action. I know a guy who plays pretty expensive baccarat and comes to the 1-2 table late just to shove every hand blind until he busts or gets bored. I mean, he shoves without cards. it's sick

disclaimer, gg is the nittiest of nits

i have a ton of respect for him, he has a very proven winning track record and i think there's a ton of value of diving deep into the mind of a nit when he posts

i'm not disagreeing with what he says but it's worth noting he plays 1-3 vs recs and he's not giving action under any circumstances so this could possibly be him just saying what he wants to believe

but in his circumstances i 100% believe he's right low stakes and soft fields you can nit it up and few will notice and adjust

Rmuchlove,butyou'restillanintolerablenit,imoR

I have won 10+bigs per hr in the live casino setting for a massive sample. I can state for a fact that you do not need to "give action" in a casino to win this much

For sure you dont need to "give action" in order to win or make profit in low stakes live games. However:

1) I would guess you are doing alot of stuff that nits like GG arent doing in the same degree, like light 3 betting in the right spots, big semibluffs on the turn, smart double barrells, balanced good ranges from all positions++. Thats the reason a nit like him is gonna be stuck at at 4-5 bigs an hour in todays games, and you take home 10 bigs an hour.

2) So, as i touch on in point one, you can be a winning player still while playing as a total nit and dont give any action without the stones/effective stones- but then youre potenial winrate is simply gonna be capped at 5 bigs pr hour almost certainly unless the game is filled with clueless whales. So if youre fine with not developing your game in the direction of being able to crush the games aka getting to a 10-12 BB hour winrate, sure just nit it up and dont think about anything else.

when macau got a sudden influx of northern europeans the chinese pretty quickly adjusted and folded out hands like J7o vs them while continuing their inner desire of 6bet shoving that range vs a fellow action junkie

so it became imperative to have a beer, straddle, bet blind, show your 56s bluff in order to gain entrance to the action club, people would see me donk around for a 20bb pot and assume i was doing the same when it was for all the marbles

occasionally getting out of line with marginal holdings for <15bb was slightly -EV and sometimes paid off but more importantly, it got you into the club that could shove AA and get called down by K3s for an 800bb pot - the europeans who wouldn't adapt their game had strong win rates, but when they jammed, they'd only get called by a reasonable range because the locals were very aware of what their ranges were and could wait for a gambol spot vs a fellow gambol guy the next hand

however, the nit euros did very well vs Indians who were really motivated to "bluff the best" or something and would often blast off with middle pair or something to disaster, entire time there i don't think i ever played a single pot >100bb vs an Indian and in the later years those were the whales everyone wanted to be seated with