dont ask ozi hes a fish.

Just kidding lol, i think itd be interesting to hear ozi's answers as he a limit MMT'er. A rare breed in these here parts

you forgot 8. But how much did you lose?
other than that is both thumbs up

Why do you keep money spread across different sites and cash out so often? Doesn't this prohibit you from ever moving up? I understand that we play to make money and want to be able to spend it and that is up to you but are you saying you handicap yourself on purpose so you care more about each hand?

He plays 5/10 and 10/20 on smaller sites... there isn't much higher up he can go on those sites.

bumping thread. Info is too good to let get buried.

Auto-rebuying is necessary when I drop below max buy-in, because I want to be able to cover my opponents over whom I have an edge. To clarify this point, I will tell you that if I come across a table with a fish who has a 200bb+ stack, I will purposely play a much looser style in order to try and build a 200bb stack, so that I can have a better shot at cashing in against the fish. I won't play recklessly, but I will certainly try to get my stack in much lighter, ie. if I flop a primary draw against this fish, or even against a reg, I would rather bet/3bet shove the flop than check/call. If I lose a bit of EV with these moves, I certainly get it back in the potential money made by playing 200bb's deep with a weak player.

Table selection is all about spending an extra bit of time to place yourself in maximum +EV situations. I play MSNL on small sites where there are limited player pools, so I don't do much picking and choosing anymore, but when I played lower, I kept a buddy list of the worst players on the site, and before every session I took the time to search these guys out and insert myself on either their tables, or the waiting lists.

I think having that much backup money allows people to lose focus and not give 100% effort to their game, because they may feel like they don't *need* to win. I also don't like the concept of mass multi-tabling. It limits your edge and your potential to improve your game rapidly, because it severely dilutes your concentration on any one table. I know a few players make a lot of money playing 24 tables, but for the vast majority of us, mass multi-tabling prevents us from improving, moving up in stakes, and making big money at poker.

Nice job. I liked it.

Thanks,


Standtall

First thank you so much for replying. Your responses however caused more questions. Hope you don't mind.

I understand being able to cover weaker players. I guess I should of asked the question differently. For players that set a loss limit to quit playing, is it still advisable to do auto rebuy like i mention? I used to do that but had troubles keeping track of my losses to quit. Now I have it set up to auto rebuy when I'm out of cash on the table. Also if it is advisable to do this, how does as player keep track of their losses to know when to quit?

The part about making a buddy list of the worst players on the site is awesome. Other than this, awesome piece of advice, following what the stickies say is the best advice?

For the exact reasons you said is why I changed my BRM. I only play two tables at a time and having 20 BIs just resulted in me calling off really light (my biggest leak is calling down with top pair) and pushing pots too much. I changed my BRM to 5 BIs per table I play since what you said is very similiar and I like the reasons as to why you said it does it. Which leads me to my last question:

If you could change one train of thought in every poker players brain, what would it be and what would you change it to? i.e. BRM, multi tabling, tilt, (though I think good pokers players want the bad players to tilt)

Good idea Ice_W0lf, I like it and look forward to your future interviews. It's kind of a twist on doing a "well".

Raze, I've always enjoyed your posts and appreciate your input to the forums, hope you're enjoying your vacation.

good read

First year, I played probably 100,000 hands, from 10c/20c limit gradually up to $3/6 limit, with a couple months' worth of SnG's in there as well.


I like to play on multiple sites for table selection. When I played up to $2/4NL, I was always able to find 3-4 good tables to play simultaneously. Once I reached 3/6+, however, I found it harder to find good tables, so I started playing 2 sites at once. I like to keep the minimum amount of cash on poker rooms, so I do keep less than usual on any one site. I cash out often for the same reasons. As far as moving up: I have hit a wall on my current sites. I do play $10/20NL and even $25/50NL rarely, but only when the table is running AND is profitable to me, which is not too often on my relatively small poker sites. On the bigger sites, I probably don't have an edge in these games due to tough competition, so I don't waste my money. If I decide someday I want to move over to Stars or Full Tilt to take on the high-stakes games, I would simply not cash out, until I ran my bankroll up to the appropriate amount. Basically yes, I cut my bankroll to both keep as little as possible on the site, and to encourage better play. I don't consider this a handicap at all. I will always be able to play the games I want to play.

Very nice! Thanks Ice_wolf and Raze.

Raze, do you play any more limit at all now?

question for raze or any other pro answering questions.

Do you think its a good idea while at the micros 25nl or 50nl to avoid regs or to play with them (in the thought that playing with better people will make you better)? or do you think a balance would be great like 3 fishy tables and then 1 table with 2+ regs (6max)?

First off, Another great thread started by Ice! (Love the Graph hard one, as you know) I've been looking at forums and threads that I've never even thought of until now, and have found some really good ones. Trying to stay away from everyone's bad beat story, or stories of personal things.

Raze, how come you say "I try to keep as little on a site as possible?" Does that mean you'd rather have that money in your pocket, or you're afraid that having to much in there won't keep you motivated? I don't fully understand.

+1

These kinds of dialogues are invaluable to me and much appreciated. It really helps to "pick the brain" of successful players, especially when their own experience/thought processes run contrary to conventional wisdom.

Thank you OP and Raze!

Sorry for the delay in responses. I've had to buckle down and really focus on my game over the past week. A lack of focus, combined with a very cold run, landed me in quite a hole (within my means). I almost need to re-write my stance on bankroll size after sustaining this downer:



The sharp drop in the middle was the result of a heads-up match in which, I must admit, I played my worst poker in a very long time. After quickly dropping four buy-ins, I looked back over my hand histories and was disgusted to the point of wanting to quit poker for a while. I took a couple days off, and have since been striving to return to my A-game.

I've just come up on a couple of waiting lists, so I will get to the questions shortly.

Having a stop-loss limit is an artificial constraint on your game. If you lose AA vs. KK three times (or take a comparable bad beat) against a fish, are you so angry that your play is impaired, and you have to leave a 400bb stacked fish? If so, then you need to look deeper into your tilt issues, and find a way to let go of bad beats. If not, then why would you possibly want to leave this fantastic table? I've never used a stop-loss and I understand it can serve to limit the losses of tilt-prone players, but I think a better idea is to drill into your mind that bad beats, which are inevitable, have no business interfering with your logic circuit, and should be accepted and dismissed as a necessary part of the game.


I haven't read them in a while, but 90% of my NLHE skills came primarily from two sources: Cardrunners training videos, and the small-stakes NLHE sticky.


Never stop learning. Always look for new sources of information and strategy such as books, strategy sites, and especially training videos. Use this info + your observations to find new ways to beat up your opponents. I think a lot of players settle into a rigid playing style very early in their careers, where they stop learning new concepts, and therefore never improve upon their winrate. Most players hit this wall before even becoming winning players.

NLHE is so wide open for creative strategies. It's like playing chess on a 64x64 board. If you play chess, could you imagine how long it would take to master this board, with all the new potential moves available? Poker is the same way. Once you get the fundamentals down, pay attention to spotting your opponents mistakes, and develop the best ways to exploit them.

3. What keeps you going when things aren't going your way? Also, how do you deal with tilt?

This is such a huge leak in my game, can you elaborate on this at all? Maybe explain some steps you take to get away from emotional attachment to the game.

I find the game to be very frustrating at times. When I win I am happy but when I start losing I am crushed especially taking a few bad beats. Just looking for a few ways to combat tilt and get away from the winning/losing aspect of poker and moving on to actually focusing on playing my A game as much as possible


Great post, thank you both for taking the time to do this!

bump for epicness

Not at all dude. The thought of LHE makes me cringe I gave up on limit because I felt my learning curve was slowing to a crawl. I was trying to move up to $10/20 limit, but I was breaking even and couldn't seem to find any edge, so I gave NLHE a run and never returned to LHE.


I would not intentionally play in a tougher game forsaking a fishy table. Don't most of your tables have 2+ regs anyways? If not, what site are you playing on? Beat up on the fishy tables. If you're winning, move up and play richer fish.


Honestly, the biggest reason is that I have had numerous problems with poker rooms trying to screw with my money, and I don't trust the sites. I also have been hacked and almost robbed for big money. Aside from that, I simply don't feel I need to keep a big bankroll. I used to keep 30+ buyins on a site, but I noticed over the years that my roll would never dip below a certain amount. Why keep 30 on the site if I never drop below 20? I reduced my main bankroll to 25, then 20, 15, and recently to 10BI. I used to do it for motivation, but now I just try and focus on playing my A-game regardless of the balance in my account.

I saw an interview with Greg Raymer and he thinks exactly like this and he says having his decisions based on logic helps him a lot to have a solid poker game.

Nice thread but .... WTF? Why was Ice_W0lf banned?

self-banned for 5 days. He'll be back