Let’s face it, we all have faced our series of cold runs and bad beats.  (if you are sitting there thinking that you haven’t, then you are seriously in some trouble.  Continue reading below to find out why.. O.o).  It is part of the game.  How you respond afterward is what defines you as either a good and stable poker player or a poor short-term fish.

Dealing with bad beats is one of the most important and overlooked aspects of winning online poker.  Regardless of any “flawless” poker strategy you may think you have or however many online poker tips you have, you will in fact, undoubtedly, be faced with ridiculous calls, all-ins, raises…and ultimately lose.

Let’s take a step back and think about how to correctly handle the situation.  We all know that tilting is a bad idea, especially when we are dealing with real money.  Sometimes we just can’t help ourselves to make a few stupid plays after such coolers.  However, there are a few things we can do  beforehand to perhaps preemptively eliminate or mitigate some of the damage we will do to our bankrolls.

Before we hop onto that emotional rollercoaster of poker variance, we can set in place a couple poker factors that will really help us control our temper.  These factors include implementing and understanding the following:

• Bankroll Management – If we properly set an appropriate bankroll management system for the stake level we decide to play at, then this will help us from becoming one of those sorry fish / donks out there that lose their entire roll in one night.  Any successful long-term online poker grinder will tell you that it’s impossible for them to lose everything overnight.  It just doesn’t make any sense to do so and it is certainly not worth the risk.  If you can drop the ego for a second and label yourself as a potential tilter, then make sure you play with a conservative bankroll management.  (That means play tables where you have at least 40+ max buyins).
• Poker Statistics? Odds? +/- Expected Value? – Let’s think about what constitutes a bad-beat.  You have your opponent dominated and should end up winning the pot, but the villain lucks out at the end. It’s understandable to be mad about this, but if we run through the statistics and odds of the same exact situation 100 times…chances are we will definitely come out on top unless you are playing the luckiest poker player or cheater in the world.  Getting Bad beat is actually a sign that you are doing things correctly.  If you were playing horribly and making the worse calls then you would experience less bad beats..which is BAD.  At least when we get bad-beat we know that we are playing +Expected Value and getting our money in at the right times.  Remember: Better Players get bad-beat more often then worse players.  Take it as a mental slap in the face that you are playing correctly still.  The odds AND profits will be on your side in the future!
• Patience, Discipline, RELAX – If you are a serious online poker grinder trying to play for a living, then you already know the amount of emotional toll and stress poker can have in your life.  If you let bad poker sessions / runs control or affect your life outside of poker then you definitely need to take a few HUGE steps back.  Reconsider your lifestyle.  You are doing something wrong: try playing smaller stakes or even taking a break away from poker.  It is easier said than done, but making money with online poker is a very long, tedious process that includes nights of winning AND losing.  Understand the statistical theory behind the business and react appropriately.  If you don’t have the emotional stability to remain indifferent throughout the game then you should not be playing it.  There is way too much variability in poker for those that can be easily affected emotionally.  Most hit the learning curve hard by losing way more than they should after their decision making is clouded by their emotional attachment..don’t be one of those people !

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Playing $25NL is definitely cake compared to $50NL.  For today’s post, I’ll comment on my current success / failures of playing 50NL as well as things I hope to improve on for the future.

My Initial Losing/Stagnant Poker Strategy

I went into 50NL with the same play style that I dominated the 25NL tables with.  I multi-table about 6 tables and play a pretty rigid TAG / nitty style.  Never tried to do anything fancy or mix it up too much against regs.  After awhile, it was safe to say that I learned A LOT and that it obviously required being more than just a NIT to be a winning poker player at these stakes.

My last 30k hands have represented my learning curve and the things that I picked up on trying to exploit weaker players.  It has been a pretty stressful, emotional ride, but I am starting to finally see a steady profit of 6+ buy-ins.  Obviously that is not much at the time, but the road that I took to get there represents much more!

Consistency was a pretty big leak in my game.  It was obvious from just looking at my winnings graph from HEM.  There were huge dips and hills one after the other.  As I continued playing, I definitely added more tools and tricks to my arsenal of poker weapons.  It definitely took a lot of time to read up on forums, analyze hands, watch videos and etc. Lots of time and lots of resiliency…

My Newly Improved Winning Poker Strategy:

I definitely learned a lot through the first of many learning curves after moving up poker stakes.  The tough part is maintaining and toning up these poker skills actively while playing.  As a multi-tabler, it’s pretty easy to lose focus and attention.  Here are some of the best poker tips I have picked up on through my struggles and progress through 50NL:

• Isolating the limpers – This goes both ways.  Any decent player will not let you limp just as you should make those who are trying to get in cheap pay.  It is important to take note of table position while trying to do this though as you might end up donk betting into some trap plays.  Isolating the fish / limper definitely helps bring in a lot of dead money..even just the small pots can be racked up enough to count.
• Stealing and Defending Blinds – the difference from 25nl to 50nl in stealing blinds play is SHOCKING.  I immediately noticed how aggressive players got with the button and also how often players 3betted as SB or BB.  If you consider playing 50NL tables and up, you have to have the guts to play your blinds or they could add up and really hurt your bankroll
• Knowing when to Cbet – This probably saved the most money.  I used to continuation bet on almost every type of board as the pre-flop raiser (PFR).  It is way more profitable to do so after considering your opponent’s range and your own range in relation to the board texture.  Don’t cbet into draw heavy wet boards!

Some other poker tips I picked up along the way included when to float and double barrel flops.  The major difference between 25nl and 50nl is how much more active and engaged you have to be while playing otherwise the other poker regs will exploit your obvious leaks.

Feel free to drop a comment on any of the poker strategies I mentioned above if you want to hear more about it in the next post!

Here are JohnnyCashout’s top 5 poker tips:

1. Bankroll Management – Having a GOOD bankroll management system that you can actually FOLLOW is the absolutely most important tip for all poker players looking to succeed.  Without this you will definitely run into trouble i.e. tilt, emotions affecting judgment, gambling.  I personally started with less than $100 roll and worked my way up to $1.5k with multiple withdraws and zero redeposits.  There is way too much variability and streaks in poker to afford risking it all on poor roll management.
2. Play-to-Study Ratio – The more poker you play the better you get? Practice Makes perfect?  …Not at all.  Not when you are practicing incorrectly..which I am positive that 98% of players are not playing flawlessly.  It is important to take time out of the week away from the table and just work on your game by analyzing your own poker play.  Do this by hand analysis, participating in poker forums, hud statistics and etc.  There will always be weaknesses in your poker game regardless of whether you are winning or not.  Do not stay complacent if you are winning…and learn to practice finding leaks/exploits in both your own game and your opponents’
3. Discipline – This can arguably be #2 or #1..Without discipline you will undoubtedly fall short.  Every poker grinder has to have enough discipline to control himself.  What do we use discipline for? controlling tilt, knowing when we are off our game and stopping.  Getting up and leaving tables that we are outmatched (yes, lose the ego here and win more money.) Never forcing situations or trying to make back what we lost (i.e. gambling).  With discipline comes the patience to diligently work on improving as a poker player.
4. Poker Analytic Tools – I have had various articles on how to effectively use and manage huds.  I believe that using these statistics is an absolute must for any player looking to get serious for the long run.  The benefits of having a program like this are countless.
5. LAR – Learn, Adjust, React – Every player is different for whatever reason.  The dynamics of poker (and the never-ending profit for most people) are based on the unique type of players.  Learn what type of player you are and adjust accordingly.  If you are more suitable for small sit and go tournaments then don’t force yourself to play fast paced high stakes cash games.  Experiment with what works best and take advantage.  Full ring vs. 6-max, sngs vs mtts, heads up or rush poker?  The options are endless when you are playing online poker and nobody will judge..(even if they do, who cares..? it’s online!)  Play what you are best at.

What is A Squeeze Play?

Essentially, the squeeze play is when two players that act before or first, raise and call preflop respectively.  Then, the squeeze is coming over the top and taking down the pot.  For example, if John is first to act and he raises 3x the big blind, Joe acts after John and calls this raise.  Then you are on the button and decide to pop up 10x the bigblind and they both after. Squeezing generally implies a very strong hand.

However, for this strategy..it can also act as a semi-bluff / steal.

This squeeze strategy is very commonly used during poker tournament or sit and go play.  It is a good way to accumulate a lot of chips as a shortstack when you shove all-in to steal both the blinds and raises.  However, for today’s topic, we will address how this play can be profitable for cash games as well!

When and Who to Squeeze?

When playing cash games, you will notice that a lot of the more aggressive regs utilize this poker move when the opportunity presents.  However, it is not +EV or profitable to blindly squeeze any two raises ahead.  Knowing when to squeeze is very critical to making this play correct and profitable!  The most ideal situation for this would be to have position against the players and the best possible spot for that would be for us to be on the button.  This gives us less chance for someone who actually has a monster hand to take down the entire pot behind us.  For example:

(example of poor use of table position for play)

UTG: raises 3x blind

UTG+1: calls

Me: re-raises 10x big blind

folds to dealer

Dealer: re-raises Allin

When we utilize our table position more effectively, then we have less chance of the above scenario from happening as the only two players left to act would be the blinds.  Also, it is better to consider using this play when players other than UTG raise as it is often a very strong indicator of the strength of their hand when they raise from UTG. What that means:

Based on your table position, players have a range from when they open.  When you are under the gun or first to act, your range of hands you should play are drastically smaller / tighter than when someone is in better position i.e. dealer.  So if someone is willing to pop the blinds to 3.5x or more, that generally means their hand is a lot stronger.  If hands are folded around until say middle positions, then the poker squeeze play here would be in better shape.

Another key factor to executing this poker play would be to consider WHO we are trying to squeeze against.  This play is very profitable when we can exploit the weaker/tighter type opponents, but not the incredibly super NITs (the ones that only play AK/KK/AA) as they will probably shove against any type of re-raise.  We also want to look for players that like to see a lot of flops i.e. those that call raises in early or middle positions with small to medium pocket pairs.

To specify these players with HUDS:

TAG like players ~15/11.  Loose callers ~high vpips/low pfrs.

Now that we know what, when, and and who..it is time for everyone’s favorite question..

How Much do we Bet?!

There is no CORRECT answer as it often depends on the situation i.e. who you are playing against, their stack sizes and etc.  But mathematically speaking we want to make it worse off for them in terms of their pot odds and better off for us to make it +EV in the long run to continue this play.  What that means is you don’t want to be sacrificing your entire 100bb all-in to be stealing two 3x raises.  If we do that 5 times and get caught once, we are deep in the hole:

4/5 times success =

WON 4×6 big blinds = 24 BBs

LOSS 1x100big blinds = -100BBs

TOTAL -76BB.
We ideally want a better situation in which we can win these pots 2 out of 3 times.  So my general rule of thumb is to bet both the raises ahead and multiply that number by two + BB.  For example, I am currently playing in $50NL cash game tables and the standard raise is to $1.50.  When two people raise and call that, it is up to $3.00 in the pot + blinds.  I will generally raise to ~$6.5.  Having this play work two out of three times will be profitable in the long-run.

Lastly,

What Do We Want to Squeeze With?

Unless you have some amazing reads on your opponents, you don’t want to be making this poker play every single opportunity blindly with any two cards.  When they call and you are sitting there with 2-7 offsuit you will be kicking yourself in the face.  Instead, try to make this play when all the scenarios described above are favorable for you and also when you have Decent Drawing Hands..and of course monster pocket pairs etc.  Decent drawing hands will at least give you a chance to continue playing post flop..otherwise you generally want to give up when caught.  Cbetting into these will get you into a lot of trouble when you have absolute air.
If any of this was confusing, please don’t hesitate to ask questions or draw up a discussion with comments below!

Hey all, it has been awhile as I am enjoying my spring break.  Very little poker playing as of recently…always good to take some breaks!

Current Poker Progress:

My current progress moving up the 50NL stakes (after my most recent cashout of 2k+): $1,500/$4000.  After (hopefully) successfully grinding my way to 4k I will again contemplate moving up stakes or perhaps cashing out again and restarting the grind.  Some of my key factors to remember throughout this process includes:

• lowering my flop cbet% as PFR.
• keeping my VPIPs / PFR TAG-like (11-14/~9)
• keep an active mind on stealing and protecting blinds.  (~35% button steal, ~85% fold to steal as blind)
• Increase my 3bet% more
• increase aggression post-flop play!

Those were the major leaks I have found in my play that I hope to correct if I plan on grinding my way up to $100NL stakes!

Future Poker Content:

As for future material on this website, I plan on spicing things up and adding a brand new feature to this blog.  I will be soon including Poker Videos!.  These videos will highlight my actual poker sessions as I normally do 1hour to an hour and a half sweat sessions.  I will either do highlights of the entire session with my included commentary or multiple parts of the entire poker session…depends on the feedback!

My primary reasons for starting video recording of my poker sessions include:

• trying to create more of a community/forum type place to discuss and analyze poker strategies.  (constructive feedback or criticisms are welcome!)
• commentating on my own game during or after the poker sessions will help improve my game! (it will help me focus further on my leaks as well as my opponents.
  
• videos are way more fun and sometimes easier to learn from…(better than reading poker articles after poker articles..)

Hopefully this will be a successful feature on Johnnycashout in the future.  Looking forward to build a more community type atmosphere in which all users can contribute to analyzing poker strategies!

Winning Online Poker requires to utilize as many resources as you can…because of course..we’re playing online!  One of those resources is using poker analytic tools such as Hold Em Manger.  Heads up Displays, abbreviated as HUDS, play a major role in helping you exploit other players weaknesses.  There are plenty of ways to analyze HUDs, and even configure them in a way to match your playing style, but for the sake of this post we will just cover the topic of beating the regulars (regs) at your poker table. Today’s post will show a simple technique you can use from Hold Em Manager to provide instant analysis and leaks on your opponents at the poker table.  I personally use this strategy all the time to find out as much information as I can in the tables I’m playing at to try to exploit them later on..

As a cash game multitabler myself, I understand how much information goes by hand after hand.  It’s hard to remain active  and catch everything that goes on with all those tables open.  It starts to get overwhelming with everything you have to do including: writing notes on players, marking the fish, marking the regs, and even playing your hands for maximum value.  This is when the benefits of HUDS really start to shine.

Beyond the obvious use of these HUDS, I find that players often overlook a very STRONG and BENEFICIAL tool that hold em manager provides:

“Active Players Window”

This is EXTREMELY useful when you are playing multiple cash game tables! To reach this function from your poker tool just go to

hud options -> launch active player details window..

This will bring up a list of all the players you are playing against, combining them all in one simple, easy to read list.  Clicking on the names of the players (including yourself) will bring up a detailed report on their play and statistics.  Depending on how many hands you have recorded against them, these stats can be very critical to exploiting your opponents…especially against regs at your table since you are more likely to have a good amount of hands and thus data saved up.

In previous posts I have mentioned on extracting value by exploiting weaker opponents and fish.  Those source behind those poker articles include avoiding too many regulars when deciding table selection and isolating fish.  However, you are always bound to have some regs at your table and you as much as you try to avoid them, you will end up getting your fair share of action.  (besides, giving up every pot against a reg will just allow them to isolate you as a fish and it’s all -EV from there).  SO, let’s get to the good part..

Interpreting the Active Players Window:

After pulling up the list of players, you can quickly scroll through the list of players that you recognize.  It’s a good idea to spend any down-time or free time you have (i.e. waiting for hands to finish/ players posting blinds) to read up on the player analysis.  Get a brief idea of how the regs are playing.  If you click on any of the players, and assuming there is already a decent amount of hands recorded from these regs (1k+) then Hold Em Manager will offer a very statistical and useful “Player Analysis Report”.

This report shows any type of irregularities in their playing style..such as

• very high fold to cbet
• very high turn cbet
• very low fold to river bet
• very high squeeze
• very low 3bet
• etc…

Again, the more information or hands you have saved up against these regs, the more information that should be available.  Also, along with those statistics HEM provides the actual statistical amount compared to the average player such as “Very high turn cbet 8 for 9, average = 23%” or something like that.  (those numbers are made up).  What is important is the relation between your opponents betting patterns and betting habbits to the global poker average.  This information helps us get a good idea of how to play against these opponents, allowing us to narrow down or their typical hand range.

Analyzing your opponent’s hand range is a key winning online poker strategy

For example, if we the player statistic reads “very high squeeze %” and we notice that he squeezed maybe two or three times the past 10 hands in position, it is much more profitable to possibly 3-bet/flat his squeeze as we put him in a wider range.

Another useful tool with the active players window is by hitting the “Big Hands” tab.  By bringing up the last 20 or 100 hands, we can quickly go through the type of hands our opponent went to showdown with along with how he played them.  Analysis of this includes what type of hands is he winning with? are they draw-heavy hands or just monsters preflop?  does he get caught bluffing?  Any hands that stand out to you from this list you can just double click and HEM will bring up the hand replayer!

How incredibly useful and ridiculous is that?!  Yet, most online poker players don’t utilize these available resources!  The new era for winning online poker is here…! Learn to take the full advantage!

As a full ring multi-tabler, there are a lot of things to keep track of in order to maximize profits in the long run.  One of the best poker tips to keep in mind is how to beat the fish at these cash games.

In a previous post, I explained the important characteristics to note of a fish and how to exploit them.  To reiterate them, these important factors include:

• Patience, and play top hands with show down value as most fish are calling stations
• Mark them on all of your tables..utilize your huds to search for some peculiar looking loose/fishy stats (i.e. 40/11) (high vpips and low pfrs)
• Table selection, table selection & table selection.  Too many regs = bad.  Look for more red marks and don’t be afraid to get up and leave.
• Playing in position: make sure the fish are to your right rather than your left to maximize profits in position
  

With all that in mind, let’s go over a different poker strategy: the cash game tip of the day on exploiting fish

Isolating Limpers/Fish

The cash game tip of the day is to isolate limpers and other fish!  The goal behind here is to play them off their weaker hand post-flop or even just to steal their blinds/limps.  It is important to note that this does not mean you raise with whatever two blind cards whenever someone limps…

We have to keep in mind a few factors before deciding to isolate:

• Table position:  we really only want to isolate if we are in position of the limper and also others behind won’t 3bet/squeeze.  Playing on the button would be ideal here of course.
• Analyzing your HUDS: depending on the villain’s fold to flop cbet% / 3bet% / we can use this to analyze our isolating range pre-flop.  i.e. if their fold to flop cbet is amazingly high and they are always limping in, it is almost always profitable to blind raise with anything and fire on the flop.  (careful not to over commit though!)
• Raising Appropriately: in order to isolate you have to make a decent size raise.  Don’t let other limpers get value by calling..you don’t want a multi-way pot with a draw heavy flop!  Generally a pot-size raise would do the trick to isolate 1 or 2 limpers after the blinds.
  

Get started with your own poker winnings now at Full Tilt Poker!

Happy president’s day weekend and all star weekend all!  Today’s post will cover a very popular and profitable online poker strategy: ABC Poker.  So why do we call it that..? Because it’s very simple, easy to use (and spot out), but still remains profitable because we are essentially fish hunting multiple tables playing as standard as possible.  Let’s begin:

Strategy Basics:

ABC poker is a very standard and beginner level way of playing poker tables.  This strategy is most effective for full ring cash games.  Let’s go over the basics and the source of why this strategy works and can be profitable in the long run.  The goal of this strategy is essentially to play a very tight and aggressive (TAG) / nitty image.  Playing a standard abc poker strategy entails a lot of folding, less reading, and lots of multi-tabling.  The strategy behind this is to isolate fish at cash game tables and moving in with the best hand.

The key is to remain patient and discipline while waiting for in our hands.  The type of hand ranges we want to be playing are AQs+, and also all pairs for set-mining flops.  Once again, this strategy includes lots and lots of folding!  Furthermore, we don’t want to try anything tricky as we will be multi-tabling lots of tables (within our bankroll range & management).  So this avoids making reads and trying to make plays i.e. re-stealing pots, heavy 3-bets, double barrels and etc.  To stick to the basics we just want to always be in position either 3betting / as the pre flop raiser and firing cbets onto the flop.

To reiterate, this strategy is used to exploit loose FISH.  So table selection is key..if you find yourself multi-tabling a bunch of stagnant tables then don’t hesitate to move.  Same goes for a table full of regs as they’ll spot your strategy immediately and exploit you.  We don’t want to be getting in many pots against regs with this strategy.

One of the best tips I ever got when I first started my poker career was the notion of discipline and learning.  When things aren’t working out the way you want them to, there’s no need to rush and make mistakes.  When you suffer a few bad beats or cold streaks while playing online poker…just take a step back and assess the situation before you get yourself into deeper problems.

I recently just hit a pretty cold streak losing over $400 in the past week or so at 50NL.  (sure, not as bad as some people…but horrible in my high standards!)  It was a pretty big swing that I was accustomed to so I had to take a step back.  It was discouraging looking at my Hold Em Manager profit graph and seeing a huge dip plummetting downwards…

So what was the brilliant poker strategy to employ next?

I stopped playing.

I literally took a few days off from getting destroyed by some 50 regs and went over my hand histories.  I looked at my hud stats..including my VPIP / PFR / 3bet% / cbet% / steal% and etc.  I compared my statistics to those of winning regs (quick google or forum search will show you what those are) .  I immediately recognized my recent leaks in my game.  I was trying to defend my blinds way too often and stealing blinds in position way too often as well.  (This prompted me to correct my game and rewrite an article on how to steal appropriately).

I then proceeded to continue studying the game.  I hit up cardrunners.com where I earned a free week trial and downloaded tons of training and poker coaching videos.  These featured live play, high stakes, no limit etc. so I was NEVER bored!

Poker is a serious business and should NOT be treated as gambling…if you don’t know how to build yourself a long-term profitable poker career then don’t expect much out of it.  Pay your dues and remain discipline and patient throughout your online poker career and you will be rewarded in the end!

Sometimes the best strategy is reevaluating your current ones.

Many online poker players often find trouble at a certain stake level…this usually happens around 50NL cash games.  Today’s winning online poker strategy will cover some common mistakes and poker leaks players have trouble with: Stealing  / Defending blinds at higher level stakes cash games.  We will focus on a couple statistics from Hold Em Manager: steal% with button and fold to steal% as blinds.  (For the purpose of this post we will assume we are dealing with full ring 9max and that you already have huds up and running.  )

Stealing Blinds

First of all, let’s clear this misconception that stealing blinds are only for loose and aggressive maniacs.  This is NOT true! Not nearly enough players are stealing blinds when in position enough.  There is way too much equity and value that most online poker players are not taking advantage of for whatever reasons.  This applies to all the nits and super tight players out there that multi-table and play standard abc poker.  Stealing blinds is absolutely essential if you want to increase / maximize your profits.

I’m not going to get into the mathematical part of the poker strategy behind stealing blinds but rather I’ll give you the easy target percentage:  players should try to average around 35% blind steal in position/button.

(If you don’t believe me and are curious about the math behind all this you can run over to flopturnriver and do a quick search of blind stealing and it will be stickied)

Be careful of how you start stealing blinds however.  Stealing blinds too often will definitely lead to some trouble, so whenever you sit down at a new table, let a few of them go.  Get a feel for the table before you start making moves.  Try to pick your table position wisely and find some nice seats around some tight nits to your left.  Use your huds and checkout their fold to steal%, a lot of players tend to either over defend or rarely defend at all.  Take advantage and exploit this statistic from your poker tool accordingly.

Also make sure you are not over committing to your steals if the blinds do call.  Often times it’s a c/f (check / fold) or a b/f (bet / fold).  This then leads to stealing with at the very least “draw-worthy hands.”  Don’t steal for the sake of stealing with rags unless you have some pretty good reads and information on the villain.

Defending your Blinds

As you may have already guessed, as most poker players make the mistake of not stealing blinds often enough, they are also failing to defend their blinds properly.  This does not mean that you never let anyone raise you out of your blinds!  The percentage we’re aiming at here is around 85% fold to steal to be profitable.

(If you see players running stats below 80% then it is always +EV / profitable to be stealing with any 2 whole cards against them)

So How do we Defend our Blinds?!

This poker strategy is often known as “re-stealing”.  When facing a raise from the button as small or big blind, you want to 3bet it and pop it off to 2.5x and more at least.  ( Example: .25/.50$ blinds.  Raise to $1.50, Re-Raise to $4.00.  )

You want to be careful here just as when we’re stealing blinds to not over commit to your re-steal.  Once again, try to pick semi-solid hands to attempt to resteal.  Do your best to keep your average around 85% and not too much above or below it.

As you are learning this winning online poker strategy and adding this to your tool to your poker arsenal, be cautious to not overdo yourself which is a common mistake when poker players try to correct their mistakes or leaks.  Make a conscious effort but choose your spots wisely!