Been playing poker for 18+ years recreationally and I'm trying to make the shift to becoming a professional or full-time player.

I've been playing on Pokerstars for a bit and I can't seem to escape donkey play at the lower stakes...

I started at $2 SNG games but of course due to the low cost of entry, it's expected that you'll run into a lot of donkey players. So when I get donked out on at these levels, it doesn't bother me as much.

...So I did what I thought was the logical thing and moved up to the $5 SNG's... $10 SNG's... and even $25 SNG's thinking I'd be playing against more "serious" competition... but at all levels you just run into bad players who get rewarded for bad plays.

While I do win at all 4 of these low entry points, the bad decision making being rewarded has become quite frustrating and almost feels inescapable at these levels... Even if you play the perfect game, make the right reads, jam with the best hand before the turn/river... it doesn't seem to matter. You will get donked out on.

Essentially it feels like more often than not, I'm losing to people who are being rewarded for bad decision making preflop, on the turn, river, etc.

My cash game experience online is almost non-existent.. but if playing cash games @ $0.25/$0.50 blinds, $0.50/$1 blinds or $1/2+ blinds is what it's gonna take to avoid the fish/donkeys then that's what I'll do.

Sorry for the long-winded post... new to the online community and just looking for some help/advice. I'm looking for advice on escaping the constant fish play I'm running into. I feel like the logical answer is to keep moving up in entry cost, but I'm hoping there's other options available. I know I'm not the first or only person to feel this way in their journey to becoming a full-time player.

Thanks

I would much rather play bad players than good ones. More often than not, when they make bad plays against you, you end up making money. Unfortunately, you tend to remember the bad plays that end up beating you. But, trust me, if all anyone did was play great poker against you, you wouldn't be winning.

Yeah, if someone can answer this guy's questions, that'd be useful, doubt I'd ever come back to online but if I did, knowing sites to avoid would be very handy

I mean moving up to 200NL will do the trick. Idk what's serious anymore

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Thanks for the comments!

You know, this is a good point. In the long run, you'll benefit off playing the weaker competition... but man I'm starting to lose patience lol

Maybe work on self-discipline and/or learn about why we use large sample sizes when we look at wins and losses. We jokingly use the term "step up to where they respect your raises" for a reason

pokerstars

It sounds like you arent looking to make money in this game and instead are just looking for a challenge. In that case just continue moving up in stakes to find better opponents whom you cant beat so easily.

I would learn to be thankful at any stake you play. Even if you make a bad play you can be thankful and have a hope to make a better decision in the future. Be thankful that you put your money in when you were in front. Be thankful when you win whether you win by getting it in when ahead or behind. Plan to look to get it in when ahead.

Any of the Pokerstars regulated sites in the USA (example: PA, MI, NJ). Plenty of cash game regs that will chew you up. Tourney fields can be soft, especially < $20 buy-ins.

you play for 18 yrs and still wait to get lucky against the donks? tuff loss :/

You don't want a table full of amazing players or a table full of really bad players facing 5 and 6 way pots every hand. Both of them are -ev. The best set up is 1 or 2 bad players on the table you can isolate.

You are confusing high variance with -EV. A whole table full of bad players who go 5-6 ways to the flop is very much a great situation in terms of EV. You just need to adjust your game to the reality of the table to take advantage. You don’t play marginal spots, bluff frequently, or go for thin value. You look to smash a flop, bet big and stack one or more of the fish, who will stack off with marginal holdings.

That style will be high variance though. You’ll lose quite a lot of pots that you “should have” won. In the long run it will be quite profitable. Consider a toy example. You are playing against 8 opponents who will simply call a shove PF with ATC. You get AA. Your equity in this spot is about 30%. Bad spot right? Absolutely not! You should shove and not think twice. You are getting 8:1 odds on a shove where you only need 7:3 odds to break even. You are printing money by shoving. You will lose more often than you win - hence high variance, but the spot is tremendously +EV

Real fish won’t be that bad or that easy to play against. You better bring your mental A game too. It will be frustrating losing a lot of pots where you have a hood starting hand, flop top pair or two pair and lose to a ridiculous runner runner draw to a straight or flush. But keep your wits about you and you will make it all back plus a nice tidy profit.