Hello everyone, this will be a follow up to my 1st blog here. I know some time has passed, instead of making excuses or telling you how busy I may or may not have been, I'm going to just sort of jump right into it.
Since I am located in the USA, and since online poker really took a dump for us here, I am mostly referring to live poker games. By small stakes, I mean games with blinds of $1/$2. I've played in plenty of home games where the blinds were .25/.50 or even .25/.25. You cannot consistently beat those games for over a hundred bucks a night. You can beat them 8 nights out of 10, and you should pat yourself on the back for that, however, we are talking about 'for a living' here.
A game with the blinds of $1/$2 plays big enough where you should be able to earn more than just gas and food money for the night. A night out with friends sitting around a table playing poker , ordering pizza, having a couple beers and joking around is great. We have bills to pay though, and would love to pay them with poker winnings. Here is where game selection comes in.
If there are not a bunch of regular decent home games to keep busy with a couple times a week, your other option is a casino. The greatest thing about them, is that they always have a game going. As long as you are close enough to or in a big city, there is always a game you can jump into. I've popped into a small casino in the middle of no where Wisconsin only once to see 2 or 3 guys waiting for more to show up to get a game going.
Best case scenario, you live somewhere with a couple casinos to choose from. Then it just becomes a matter of doing your homework. Read up on promotions they might be running. If you're going to put in hours, you might as well get something out of it. It's not uncommon to earn free buffet vouchers just for playing a couple hours of poker. You don't even have to play high stakes or be a whale. People are always knocking buffets, but I never listen to them. I try it for myself and always find a couple things I can stuff myself with that are delicious.
Don't go to one casino and make it your home base just because it's the first place you tried and you liked it well enough. You might want to go back to it over and over without checking out the other ones in your area. You should see what the competition is like on Friday nights, on Saturday nights, on regular old lame Tuesday afternoons at a couple places. You might find out one of the casinos is packed with fish on Friday nights. Typically payday for most. You want to come to the place where recreational players go with the mentality "well, I just got paid, I can go gamble and be ok with losing $300."
After running around and putting in some time at a couple different casinos, go ahead and pick a home base. By now you should know which days/nights are filled with the players you're looking for. Now comes one of the biggest choices to make during a game. Table selection. When you come into a poker room you will be sat at a table with the most open seats. You might also be on a waiting list if all table with the stakes you want are full. In that case you end up waiting til a spot opens up. Either way, you are now playing.
After a couple orbits you should have a good feel for the table. Not every table you sit at will be a table you want to stay at. Sometimes I end up at a table where I know there are 3 or 4 grinders like me. These people have vert few leaks in their game. They don't often make mistakes. They are there for the same reason as you, to make money. Sometimes you find yourself at a table with 2 or 3 'friends'. These people are there to play, but not really against each other. I don't assume they are there to cheat, but they will play softly against each other. These situations are also not optimal. I will now teach you one of the most important phrases in poker, "can I get a table change?"
If you find yourself out matched, or at a table where you feel you might not have the best odds of making a good profit, don't be too stubborn. I used to tell myself, "pshh.... I can beat this game." I would stay knowing better, and end up going home after a losing session, kicking myself for not changing tables. When you request to change tables, you're not expected to give a reason. Also, you might be able to pick the table if there are open seats at a couple of them. Look around and try to spot some losing players.
Stereotyping in life is not really good, but at the poker tables will end up making you extra money in the long run. If a table has players with Beats By Dre headphones, hoodies, Gucci anything and man purses, do everything you can to sit there. These are 90% of the time bad players. They are recreational players, gamblers and tourists.
If every table is filled with grinders and pros, don't feel bad about getting outta there. You're there to work, to earn money, to fight tooth and nail to not have to get a real job, or drive for Uber next month. There are times when leaving after an hour and getting some burgers on the way home and watching a movie is better for your wallet and morale than staying when you feel the table conditions are not right. Save a buy in or two for tomorrow instead of chasing a profit at a tough table.
Now that I've written a bit about live poker, I'm starting to see how much more there is to write. I want to keep going and branch out and go off on tangents, but I will try to keep these blogs relatively short. I'll try to cover just one or two important aspects of the game in each one. The next one I think I'll talk about a couple of weird and fun hands from the last year of live play. Then Maybe another strategy blog. I also want to do a detailed one about my trip to play in my first WSOP event last month. If you've enjoyed the first two blogs, let me know. Also feel free to ask some questions. Maybe something you want me to cover in detail in regards to card games.
Stay profitable out there,
D