Quote:
Originally Posted by stefant85
In the end, the best way to improve is to play a lot of tournaments and a lot of cash games. But studying the strategy sections of many poker books will help you develop your comprehension, teach you some potential pitfalls to avoid, and help you work on your thought process.
I use Flopzilla Pro for hand reading and understanding ranges. Looking at things like, how often does someone or 3 for way pots have flush draws is amazing practice. Flopzilla is essential to learn IMOP. Books videos. I have been a member of Poker Coaching dot com many times. That stuff has helped a whole lot.
I have no doubt at all that online poker is the best way to improve your game, though you got to study hands and looks at the data with Poker Tracker 4 type software. Using HUDS works in reverse, you start being able to feel what someones VPIP PFR and 3 bet are in live games.
I have been playing about 5 or 6 years, so not long. If it was not for online poker I never would have got good at this game. The advantage that a good online cash game player has over non online players is almost insurmountable.
Of course tight reg types will never be people you can profit from. Poker is not chess, your money is made by your opponents mistakes. But an online cash game player knows how to exploit and has far fewer leaks.
Update for you all. I am back playing 10 nl and 30 nl. Been crushing these games this month and making good money, but I still feel the stars cash games are NERFED despite the fact that I am doing very well with the money.
The issue I have is that that the vast majority of the money I make at 30nl is by calling BIG bluffs or just getting called down by people who almost seem to want to give their money away.
So rare that I have a nut hand beat another strong hand on there. Yes, there are enough bad players at 30 nl and obvious bluffers that you can certainly make good money on stars cash games, but it's almost always from taking money from donks or maniac bluffers.
As for 10nl, IMOP that is the toughest game on Poker Stars in the USA. Reason for this is that at 10 nl your leaks will show greatly. And most 10nl players are very tight and more straightforward than 30 nl players and higher. I have noticed the 1 2 and 2 5 games have by far the biggest donks in the USA.
I believe 10nl is a very important test for a player. If you have a lot of leaks then you will not be able to make money at 10 nl IF and I say IF you are playing regs in the USA. Reason is the rake, and those leaks will just kill you. Most of the leaks I am talking about are post flop leaks, and most people have tons of them. Even winning players at higher limits, for sure, but this does not show as much because you can take advantage of the loser players at higher than 10nl games.
If you are playing on some weak site with weak players then you may not know this, but you will find out if you ever play the tight regs on stars cash games. During the pandemic shutdown I was not good at all, yet I had close to 40 bb per 100 at 10 nl for a 60,000 hand sample size. If you got a lot of recreational players then all the games are very beatable if your opponents are playing far worse.
In any case I'm making good money and hope to be moving up to higher stakes soon. I had a lot of medical problems a year ago, and had to spend most of my bankroll. That was not good,however, there were a few good things that happened, like finding a few major, and subtle leaks that I had, and perhaps it would have taken much longer, maybe even years to have discovered these mistakes.
In any case I do feel that these online cash games are nerfed, but fact is that we get so much stronger at poker because we have to, no other way to beat these games.
My red line is much improved My green line is a bit more than twice what my redline is now.
I am pleased that for the most part people, ON THIS SITE, resist the idea that online cash games may not play right. Ironically this is a sign that you are good players, as generally only weak players think that way, and if everyone just agreed. However I have pinpointed the problem, and if you are smarter than average then you will see it too, though frankly I don't expect people to be smart enough to see it, in general, sad but true cause even top pros can be idiots sometimes. The whole Robbi Garret thing shows that.
Very simply the hands play too close to the expected probabilities on stars cash games, and ha ha that sounds like a contradiction, but that is how they fool the average twit, sorry but that is what most poker players are, though that is good over all, as weak minds are what make this game profitable for the rest of us. Now if you are still following, here it is, the genius insight, the issue is there should be large fluctuations where you have HUGE winning streaks, like you do in live games. This never seem to happen much at all online. So their math will look good, but the problem is there are not these huge variance spikes for any players on stars cash games. That is the genius of it , they will never be caught by the math alone. But the fact that the math is too accurate and too close to expectation is the problem.
Perfect example for those who are not total idiots and can understand these things. If you flip a coin it should not look like H T H T T HT H H T T H T T H T H T H T HT T H TT T H H T over a long period. It should look more like this H T H TTTT H TTTTT HHH T HHHHHHH TT H T H T T H TH TTTTTTTTTTTTTTT H H. Only over a great period of time will the math converge to even. See the difference? My guess is that most dopes would think the first type of variance is how it works, but nope, the second is generally what real variance looks like. And this is how Stars has been screwing us over with the lack of variance, and make no mistake, this ONLY favors the weaker players, because the stronger player will make more with variance spikes and lose less than weak players when the variance is negative!
Just check out the roulette tables for black and red every time you are at the casino. You will soon see what real variance should look like.
On stars cash games we are not getting proper short term variance, yet the math will look right cause it sticks to expectation that should happen with MORE variance.
Not sure how players can win with a positive redline. IF you are winning with a postive redline then your opponents are total fish. When I see a player getting way out of line, 3 betting a lot, jamming a lot etc, I wills tart calling him down very light, as low as bottom pair, and sometimes A high. Most good online players will know that you are bluffing way too much and they will call you light. On Poker Stars cash games I can almost assure you that it would be very difficult to have a positive redline, UNLESS you are brilliant at finding the real tight tight regs who will fold that often.
So maybe a postive redline is viable, I just happen to look for tables with fish, call stations and donks. I try to avoid the tight reg types.
I bluffed all in as a bluff twice yesterday for balance. I actually hate people who never bluff. If everyone played that way it would kill the game.
No doubt I still have a lot to learn about poker. I am sure there are some cash game players on here that would put me to shame with how much better they are than I am. I can only speak about where I am. Since I am a new player I will admit that.
But my point is that I do feel these damn online cash games are rigged and it sucks, cause we could make so much more money if they were not.
The contrast to what I see in live games is obvious. If live poker played like online cash games then no one would play.
But hey I am winning. I am up a very nice amount of money this month, but I am not satisfied with the online cash game situation.
For all you tournament players I would not worry. The tournaments do seem to play fine and they are NOT nerfed at all.
Last edited by Mike Haven; 02-08-2023 at 04:47 AM.
Reason: 2 posts merged
