10% luck, 20% skill

Clicking buttons for a living [Part 3/n]

Link to Part 1 and Part 2

The most common question I get asked by players who are just at the beginning of their poker journey is how do they start crushing the game. Sometimes, players who are on a downswing also reach out to me to seek guidance for resources and study material on poker. In this section, I will try to consolidate some well known poker resources in one place.

Before spending any money on purchasing a poker course, my first advice to anyone who wants to do this seriously would be to first realize if they truly love the game. Poker can be a very expensive mistress, and during your worst hours, poker will not only be a mentally draining sport but also a financially bleeding venture. There are no two ways about it, everybody goes on a downswing, it’s just the nature of the game. What will sustain you through those tumultuous periods is if you can’t wait to get better, can’t wait to unlock the deepest secrets of this beautiful game.

My second advice to an upcoming poker player would be to surround yourself with positive minded players, ideally those who are playing the same stakes as you but are better than you. The importance of a positive mindset cannot be overstated, there are tons of players out there who will make it seem as if they are the unluckiest human beings on this planet, who cannot wait to tell you their latest bad beat story. Fuck them, you don’t need them or their negativity in your life. Any true student of the game understands the variance which comes with poker, and outcome oriented players usually have a very short poker career (they go broke very fast).

Finally, it is not possible for anyone to beat mid-stakes or high-stakes poker today if you are not doing it full time. The game has evolved in a manner that professionals dedicate their entire day studying, playing and talking about poker, so if you are expecting to beat the game while having a day job on the side, good luck with that. Just to be clear, I am not suggesting anyone to quit their job and start playing poker professionally, all I am saying is it’s impossible to crush the game if you are not doing it full time.

Now, coming to resources, the poker player world can be hierarchized into three strata – the low stakes, the mid stakes and the high stakes. In terms of tournament games, low stakes are those where buyin is less than $50 , mid-stakes are between $50-$500, and high stakes are above $500. There is an ultra high stakes category as well but it’s unlikely any of those are reading this.

Low stakes:

Low stakes players can definitely improve their game by just watching a lot of free content. There are a lot of streamers who stream their game on Twitch, some of the more popular ones being Lex, Spraggy and EasyWithAces. These are also very fun to watch apart from being mildly educational. You should also check out the weekly Super Millions episode by GG Poker to see how the very best play the game. Finally, there are lots of podcasts on Youtube, these offer guidance not just on the game but also on the journeys of some of the best. Some of my favorites are those of Jason Koon, Bert Stevens, Fedor Holz.

Low stakes players should generally avoid spending money on poker courses (personal opinion), they should spend a lot of time just playing the game and consuming free content, and totally crush these stakes before pursuing the sport full time, however one course which they could consider purchasing is From The Ground Up on Run It Once.

Mid stakes:

This is where things begin to get serious. You start realizing the need for some sort of structure in your game, which has resulted in the creation of several courses ranging from $500-$1200 (all tournament specific). Some of the most popular ones are the Tournament Masterclass by Raise Your Edge, Winning Poker Tournaments on Upswing Poker by Nick Petrangelo, Pads on Pads by Patrick Leonard on Run It Once and BBZ bundles.

The key thing while working with these courses is to consume these at a very slow pace, probably not more than couple of hours in a day. Instead of trying to understand everything at once, pick a concept like Pre-flop ranges in blind versus blind spots, go through the videos in these courses and apply them in your game for a week before studying the next concept. There are just too many factors in a game for you to be able to master all of them at once, so do not try to do that.

Apart from courses, I would also recommend a $100 monthly subscription of Run It Once, which has a Netflix like system in the sense that they release strategy videos periodically on their channel documenting the thought process of some of the best players in the game like Daniel Dvoress.

High stakes:

High stakes players typically rely on tools and software more than any course. The way these software work is that they simulate poker spots with Game Theory Optimality as its basis, and if you are unsure of any decision you made in a previous game, you can save it and ‘run it’ the next day to check what should have been the ideal way to play.

The most important of these tools is Pio Solver. It is not the most friendly tool in the world and takes some time to get used to, but it’s every high stakes player’s best friend. The level of depth it offers is astounding, but to appreciate this depth you have to be at a significantly high level (therefore would not recommend it to low/mid stakes players).

HRC, ICMizer and DTO Trainer are some of the other tools high stakes players work with.

As you can probably appreciate, poker is a long journey, but also a very rich one, full of success and failure but mostly studying. Gambling, I think not 🙂

Until next time.